Unexpected: IV
"Nice night, huh?"
Before Starfire had a chance to reply, Jinx aimed a wave of pink at the lantern that hung suspended on a cable above the alien's head. As the glass cracked and the gas within the lantern erupted into flame, Starfire quickly flew to the side, shielding her face as the tiny eruption fell down past her. The wreckage thankfully hit the ground beside the crate, leaving the treasures within untouched.
…or so she thought.
Starfire gasped in surprise as she saw that most of the gems that had been stored inside the crate had been removed within a matter of seconds. The larger pieces remained: a jeweled headdress and a handful of gaudy broaches. The rest of the storage unit was bare, and Starfire immediately began searching the warehouse for pink hair.
When she saw it ducking behind a tower of crates, her eyes came alight again with green and she growled as she set off in pursuit. Flying past Mammoth (who was having trouble wrestling with a green octopus) and then ducking under Gizmo (who was desperately trying to evade Robin's new heat-seeking birdarangs), Starfire rounded the structure and orientated herself with the floor. Eyes focused straight ahead, Starfire's eyebrows drew together as Jinx headed towards her.
Clearly the young sorceress was expecting the titan to come from behind, as her head was turned to the side and her gaze was cast over her shoulder. The girl's satisfied grin was a hint that Jinx clearly thought she had the upper hand.
How wrong she is.
As green eyes began to wander over the other girl's figure (still waiting for Jinx to realize her escape route had been blocked), Starfire crossed her arms over her chest; Jinx was wearing everything she'd stolen. Several necklaces, including the emerald one she'd pretended to return to its proper place, were wrapped around her neck and there were rings on each finger. A beautiful belt that looked to be made up of thousands of separate silver links flashed in the low-light, its buckle wrought in the shape of a bird during flight. A scepter that was made of gold and decorated with deep purple gems was clutched in her left hand.
Starfire lowered her chin to her chest, focused in on the scepter, and shot it right out of Jinx's hand with her eye beams. As Jinx yelped in surprise and slid to a stop; the look of utter disbelief on her face made Starfire smile slightly as she cocked her head. It may be true that her fighting style was typically more direct, but was Jinx really so surprised that she'd been intercepted? She wasn't exactly hard to find; pink hair in a dark warehouse stood out like a Glourcar'nt beast in the Centari Moons!
Typically, both superheroes and super villains could only stay surprised for twenty seconds or less; nerves of steel were almost a necessity in this business. Jinx apparently had a limit of less than half that time, for the mischevious light returned to her eyes almost immediately and she smirked up at the young titan while gently flexing the hand that had held the scepter.
"What, not my style?"
"Stolen property is never anyone's 'style,' Jinx."
"Mm, I'd have to disagree with you there. I happen to think this belt looks fabulous on me!" The young villainess hooked her thumbs around the belt, struck a pose, and Starfire found herself silently agreeing with her. The silver did bring a certain light to Jinx's otherwise dark outfit and hugged her curves in a way that the young alien found most attracti-
Inappropriate. Restrain yourself.
Jinx would have been content to just stand there and watch Starfire's face turn several different shades of red (because it was incredibly adorable and made Jinx want to smile and blush like a love struck schoolgirl somewhere deep within her subconscious), but they were in the middle of heist. From here she couldn't see how her boys were doing, but she cynically assumed they'd be needing her help right about now so it was time for the finishing blow.
She took the emerald necklace in her hand and grinned at her reflection in the gem's surface, before glancing up at Starfire and sighing dramatically.
"This, on the other hand…" The titan's eyes snapped back into focus and narrowed down at her; one brow went up when Jinx removed the necklace and cradled it in her hands. "This doesn't suit me at all. Green totally isn't my color. Maybe we should give this one to the little walking circus you call a teammate. Or, now that I think about it, this would look so much better around your neck. It compliments your eyes beautifully…" Finish that off with a flirtatious little wink, and Starfire was done.
It was clear the titan didn't know how to handle the situation; "flustered" would be putting it mildly. Her face was beet red and she wouldn't look Jinx in the eye, shoulders scrunched up to her ears. God I love this plan, she thought to herself.
Time to end this.
Gathering the necklace in her hands, Jinx searched the ceiling and saw that there was one sprinkler unit poised perfectly above the Tamaranean's head. A quick glance to the left showed that one of the cables that relayed power to the mechanism controlling the doors to the warehouse ran right alongside it. Hope this doesn't hurt her too bad…
"Here, catch!" Flinging the necklace at Starfire and sending a wave of pink energy immediately after it, Jinx watched as the titan scrambled to catch the necklace, then her face grew solemn as the sprinkler rained water down on the beautiful girl. "Sorry, babe…" Jinx whispered as she snapped her fingers. The cable snapped, sparks flying everywhere, and suddenly the cascade of water became a light show as the electricity was conducted through every drop. Starfire screamed in pain, dropping to the floor as she fell into unconsciousness almost immediately. The second Starfire hit the floor Jinx destroyed the sprinkler with another wave of pink energy and immediately went to the titan's side.
She stared at Starfire's still form, expression unreadable, as she waited for the sparks to dissipate. But the electricity continued to spark around her and when Jinx couldn't stand it anymore, she rolled Starfire onto her side, wincing as she herself was shocked. Checking to make sure the girl's breathing was even, she gently took the necklace from Starfire's hands, whispering "I'll be keeping this," as she pulled away. She moved to leave, but stopped, staring down at the titan for a moment, before gently stroking Starfire's cheek with her thumb. Before she could stop herself (not that she wanted to, really) she darted forward and laid a quick kiss on the redhead's forehead, lips tingling as the remnants of the electrocution hit them.
Standing back up, she draped the necklace around her neck once more and strode out from behind the wall of crates. Her eyes widened in surprise. Her team had already dispatched the titans and was moving the stock of jewels and antiques from the warehouse.
Robin lay in some kid of crater; she guessed Mammoth had settled the score with him. Cyborg was running in circles, surely hacked by Gizmo and left in some kind of temporary auto-pilot. Raven was wrapped up in the tentacles of an out-cold octopus, head lolled to the side as though unconscious.
"Wow, I'm impressed! Thought you'd have found some way to screw this up."
Gizmo turned away from his line of transport drones to smirk up at his leader. "What'd I tell ya? Alien girl's the real muscle; without her the titans are completely out of sync and completely out of luck."
"Gotta admit, I didn't think it would work! Props to you, Gizmo." The bald genius was glowing under the praise; little kids were like that, it was doubly so in megalomaniac kids with extreme intellect and sinister imaginations. He grinned proudly as his drones continued to work, but then his face fell and he glanced over at Jinx.
"You did take care of her, right? She's not gonna come flying out of nowhere and kick our butts, is she?"
Jinx smirked and patted his head, as was her habit whenever she was dealing with the hot-headed tech wizard. "Don't worry, I took care of her."
"What'd you do to Starfire!"
Six heads whipped towards the source of the enraged inquiry. Jinx scowled. Raven was (unfortunately) not unconscious; she was in fact very awake and very angry.
"Where is she? Answer me!" Jinx could feel the fear begin to come off the boys in waves, but she just scowled and approached the telepath confidently. Her eyes were narrowed down at the girl wrapped up in her teammate's tentacles in worry. Something in the darkest titan's voice bothered Jinx… she wasn't quite sure what.
"Worried about your poor little teammate, loser? Well that's too bad. Looks like you're not gonna be able to check up on her till Handsy there wakes up." She knelt down in front of Raven, meeting her gaze coolly and evenly. The telepath was seething with anger, practically baring her teeth at Jinx. There was pure, unbridled rage in her glare, but there was something else there too, underneath the fury. There was worry, which was understandable, but something else… some kind of desperation, and fear. Not for herself, but for Starfire.
Suddenly Jinx understood what it was in Raven's tone that set her teeth on edge. She began to seethe as well, her eyes filling with jealousy and anger. She stood up suddenly, and walked back towards the rest of the Five… one hand clutching the emerald necklace.
"Let's go, boys."
She didn't look back.
Once Beast Boy had woken up, Raven immediately went in search of Starfire. The moment the green tentacles had loosened their grip she was in the air, eyes searching this way and that. When she caught sight of sparks coming off of a broken power cord, she couldn't fly fast enough.
She passed over a wall of storage units and gasped. Starfire lay on her side, clearly unconscious, in a puddle of water. Glancing upward, she saw the proximity of the snapped power relay to a sprinkler unit that was still smoking. She quickly put two and two together and growled.
Jinx… she'll pay for this.
Her feet had barely touched the ground before she was reaching to check Starfire's pulse; the telepath breathed a sigh of relief when she sensed a perfectly normal heart rate. Thankful for the Tamaranean's strong constitution and thick skin, Raven guessed the shock had merely knocked her out. She should wake up soon, in fact…
"Nn… Raven?"
"I'm here, Star. You're fine." A great weight disappeared from Raven's shoulders as those beautiful green eyes began to open and the girl shifted in her arms. Breathing out a sigh of relief, she helped her friend sit up, leaving a cautious and caring hand on her shoulder. She brushed the skin there lightly with the pad of her thumb as Starfire scrunched up her face and shook her head from side to side, shaking away any remnants of unconsciousness.
"Are… uhn… a-are the others unharmed?"
Raven felt bad for a moment that she hadn't checked on the others first, but only a moment. This was Starfire; she came before any of the others.
That particular thought, coupled with embarrassment at not having an answer, brought heat to the dark girl's cheeks and she quickly donned her hood. She stood and offered Starfire a hand; the other girl took it gratefully and when she stumbled slightly in her attempt to rise Raven reflexively wrapped her free arm around the other's waist. Once Starfire was steady, Raven withdrew her arm and stepped away, the fire in her cheeks burning hotter.
"They should be fine, but I think this is the worst beating we've ever gotten from the Hive, maybe even worse than the first time we fought them." Ascending into the air, she checked to make sure Starfire was following before flying back over the wall.
She sensed the relief radiating off of Starfire as the pair saw that the boys were already recovering from their ordeal. Beast Boy had elected to stay an octopus in order to restrain Cyborg, who was still trying to run in circles and was quite upset that Beast Boy was preventing him from doing so. Robin was sporting a few bruises, but seeing how focused he was on repairing Cyborg's systems he should be fine.
The two girls touched down to the ground and Starfire immediately moved to help Beast Boy; Raven watched her go.
…a few minutes went by before Cyborg regained control of himself. "Man I am so sick of that little punk hacking my systems!"
Robin rubbed his shoulder and frowned. "And now I know what stepping in front of speeding bus feels like."
Beast Boy was huddled on the floor, shivering, with a disgusted expression on his face. "I am never turning into an octopus again; I was stuck like that for so long I can still feel the tentacles!"
Raven hadn't taken her eyes off of Starfire; the young alien was silent and unsmiling… two things she never was. The electricity must have really taken a lot out of her, and Raven resolved to bring her some tea later after they'd gone home. For now, they'd have to report that they'd failed to protect the collection and notify the museum.
What a great night this has turned out to be.
Okay, I'm relatively pleased with the way this one came out. At first, I had no idea what I was gonna write, but then I took a break, came back to it, and boom. It practically wrote itself.
Now, I'm asking nicely. Please review after you read this, even if you literally write one word. It really sucks when I log on and see that no one has reviewed, but a hundred something people have read it.
I'm not gonna stop writing, because I'm really happy with this and I figure there are a few of you out there that have reviewed, so I owe it to the both of us. Reviews will certainly make the chapters come faster, though...
Hint, hint.