Jinx's Apartment - 7:50 PM
Jinx stepped out of her bathroom with nothing but a towel covering her slim body. Water dripped off her hair as she walked over to her bed and picked up a set of clothes before removing her towel and drying off quickly.
After drying off she got dressed in a pair of black denim jeans, a bright pink tank top, a black and pink varsity jacket and black sneakers. She stared at the mirror for a moment and asked herself "Why the hell am I doing this..? It feels like-" She was cut off when she heard her phone ring and picked it up, it was Robin.
Jinx sighed and answered "What is it Boy Wonder? I'm busy."
Robin stood on top of a skyscraper in the downtown are and asked in a serious tone "Where are you?" Jinx chuckled and scoffed "What's this? You worried about lil' me? Wow, call the Daily Planet."
Robin growled and repeated "I'm not joking, Jinx. Where are you? This is an emergency." Jinx frowned and finally replied "I'm home, jeez, what's got you so worried..?" Robin checked his Titans communicator and confirmed her location before telling her in a stern tone "Cancel any plans you had, stay at home until further notice, understood?"
Jinx growled and replied "Whatever, just don't bother me." then hung up and put her communicator on her bed, knowing they could track it.
Robin on the other hand groaned then watched as the sun set, feeling a general unease as the last rays on flight faded, and orange skies slowly turned dark blue then black. Meanwhile the other Titans were posted all over town, keeping an eye out for any criminal activity, all of them unaware of the teen sitting alone in the forest.
Jinx quickly fixed her hair, grabbed her phone then left her home via the roof access. She jumped from rooftop to rooftop, floated when the jump was too long and even managed to do some parkour while running.
However, she stopped when she reached the end of the city and looked at her phone, indicating her destination was indeed within the woods, making Jinx groan and float down to the street. She walked ever so carefully down the road and looked around, feeling uneasy again as the sounds of the city slowly faded to wind blowing through the branches and nocturnal animals calls.
She eventually made it to her destination and found herself staring at the woods, then muttered to herself "Why the hell am I here..? I don't know this punk... But... It feels like.." She found her words trailed off as she felt a sudden pulse coming from the woods, something dark and cold.
While most people would take that as a sign of evil and ran away from it, Jinx instead found herself walking into the woods towards the dark energy, feeling herself inexplicably drawn to it, like a moth to a flame.
"What's wrong with me?! Why am i going towards this energy?!" Jinx thought as she slowly walked into the woods, then accelerated to a brisk pace, then jog, and lastly a full-fledged sprint. She needed to know what this energy was, but as she was getting closer to it did her headache grow worse.
She eventually stopped and screamed "What are you doing to me?!" No response came, but something did happen, all the natural sounds of the woods stopped, no branches shifting, no animals calling, nothing, just the beating of her heart and deep breathing. Jinx sighed then kept going forward, just letting her instincts guide her.
However as she drew closer to her destination did her headache start to turn into something more, the pulsing faded, but in it's place was now what sounded like whispers. The pain was replaced by a dull sense of fear, like a humming in the back of her head causing her to feel like something was off.
A twig broke behind her and she shot a pink blast of energy at it's general direction and found a bunny scurrying away. The branches shifted and caused the shadows to look like they were moving, making her fire another blast of energy.
She eventually was shooting her eyes left and right, everything was unnerving, and she found herself running again, panting as the blurred shapes looked like people every few seconds. She eventually shut her eyes and kept running until it all stopped, the uneasiness, the fear, and the natural ambient sounds returned.
She opened her eyes and found Luke sitting in a old wooden bench in a clearing, staring at her as she panted and had cold sweat running down her forehead. However she could still feel one thing, darkness, a powerful darkness emitting from the boy in front of her that caused her to swallow the lump in her throat.
Jinx walked up to him and found him to be a bit, twitchy. He looked worse than she did, he was covered in sweat, his eyes jumped from one thing to another, and he was constantly fiddling his fingers.
"You okay? You don't look so well.." Jinx asked as he chuckled and replied in a eerie tone "Hell no. It's already gonna be Nine and I'm still in my normal form." Jinx raised a brow and watched him press his forehead on the table then run his fingers through his hair.
As she took her first step towards him did Luke look up at her with his eyes glowing turquoise, and getting up with very violent movements. Jinx stepped away and watched him throw the bench and table without effort into the woods then fall to his knees and scream.
She froze as his voice started shifting from a normal human tone to a more distorted and raspy tone. Luke's body started shifting, his skin felt like it was tightening on his muscles and even started splitting in some parts, his chest cavity jutted out and started glowing as he screamed harder, then got up.
Jinx watched, just a minute ago he was just any normal guy she would see in the street, now he looked demonic, no, he looked like a corpse. Luke kept his eyes shut as he took a few deep breaths then opened his eyes as they glowed turquoise, and pierced Jinx's pink eyes.
Luke walked up to her as his body finished transforming, causing Jinx to step back until she found herself against a tree. Luke kept walking up to her as she froze up, shut her eyes tightly and started to hyper ventilate, but instead of attacking, he put a bony hand on her shoulder, causing her to relax.
Jinx opened her eyes and stared at him, his eyes now were a dull turquoise as he asked "Are you afraid?" Jinx swallowed and gave a stiff nod, causing Luke to ask "Are you? Truthfully."
Jinx thought about it, was she scared? She got a good long took at him from up close then felt the same energy as before. Jinx took a deep breath then asked "What are you doing to me?" Luke looked at her, and found a small spark of determination in her eyes, making him smile.
"Intentionally I am doing nothing, unintentionally I am expelling my energy out into the world. It usually has small effects on normal people, but you seem to be sensitive to it..." Luke replied with honesty then asked "Do you know why i called you here?"
As Luke let go of her shoulder did Jinx feel herself tense up again and stammered out "N..No." Luke turned around and asked "I called you here to ask something of you, but before that, know you can walk away, understood?" Jinx could feel the seriousness and weight of his words and nodded.
Luke turned around and walked into the clearing while explaining "I am the Shadow Man, the walker between the worlds, lord of Deadside. And i ask if you would be my Witch..." Jinx raised a brow and asked "And what does that imply?"
Luke looked at her and explained "I am immortal, but the body i am in isn't, i may die and be reborn at a later time in the same body. But i need a witch that can aid me in my missions to stop creatures from passing to Lifeside."
Jinx stared at him and watched him reach into a duffel bag and pull out his gun and the arm he bought earlier. The ball in the hand of the skeleton arm caught fire as he stared at it, and said in a low tone "Flambeau... The torch in the darkness."
Jinx took a deep breath and asked "But what would i do? I mean, i guess you are gonna be the one doing all the fighting..." Luke pointed his gun at her, causing Jinx to freeze as he fired over her shoulder and striked down a Deadsider by blasting it's brain out.
Jinx turned to look at it and quickly hurried up to him as he stated "Seems we aren't alone... You sense them too, don't you?" Jinx nodded as she felt multiple Deadsiders all around them. Jinx's hands started glowing pink as she saw a group of them running towards them while Luke fired at a group of them coming from his side and raised Flambeau.
Jinx fired at them and found her blasts tore off their limbs with ease, but it didn't seem to slow them down, so instead she started going for the torso or head, and watched their bodies explode into a delicious gore cloud.
Luke on the other hand let them get closer so he can get clear shots in on the more vital part of their bodies, the head. One none charged shot to the head at close quarters was all it took for the Deadsiders to begin to spasm then pop, then he swung Flambeau to a group of them and watched as the embers of the torch touched the Deadsiders and caused them to catch fire.
Jinx looked over her shoulder and watched the Deadsiders try to put the fires out to no avail. Luke looked over his shoulder and saw a lanky and scrawny deadsider come at them, screaming louder than the others and charging with unyielding violence. Luke pushed Jinx out of the way as one of it's claws dropped onto Luke's head and caused him to nearly fall and get an uppercut with it's other claw.
Luke growled and muttered "Duppie.." as he quickly rolled out of the next strike then got up and shot the Duppie in it's leg, causing the leg to be severed, but the Duppie continued. Jinx on the other hand was dealing with the common Deadsiders as they started to finally thin out to more manageable numbers.
Luke kept shooting the Duppie as it kept clawing at him and yelled "Why don't you die!" Jinx turned and fired at it too, both focusing all their firepower at it, causing chunks of it to fly off until it was nothing more than a pile of grounded meat.
Jinx panted along with Luke as she muttered "Damnit... Is this a normal thing..?" Luke chuckled and replied "Every night..."
Jinx sighed then noticed Luke had gotten a cut on his face from the first strike the Duppie gave him.
She quickly raised her hand up to his head and told him in a low tone "Don't move." as she ran a glowing finger down his gash, from the base of his hairline to his cheek. The cut slowly healed as she pulled her hand away and caused him to smile and reply "That, is what the Witch does, she helps in any way she can."
Jinx blinked and looked at his smile, even though he was mottled grey and looked like he needed a sandwich, he still had enough features to tell his smile was genuine.
However she looked away and stammered "I.. I gotta think about it." Luke nodded and simply replied "Take your time, i won't make you do anything you don't want to.. Have a good evening, Jen."
Jinx turned around and noticed he vanished into thin air, causing her knees to finally give out and let herself fall onto the grass and mutter "What have i gotten myself into..?"
A/N: And chapter 4 is done, and we are slowly getting this train going, not much to say this time around, so let's see what you guys think so far. Can't really tell if you guys are enjoying or not, but it seems alot of you are giving it alot of positive reception.
As always, i hope you guys have a good day, review if you like.