dJinx sat up, her head pounding and her blood rushing in her ears. She looked around finding bars all around and she began to wonder if her change of becoming good was all an elaborate dream.
She stretched and yawned and then stood up walking barefoot to the bars. She put her hands around two hard metal bars and with barely a blink her hands lit up and the bars broke when she applied a little force. She smirked as she stepped forward.
"Too easy." This was the reason why she was always able to get out of jail, before they got her to her very own penitentiary level where they put energy cuffs around her hands and she had to rely on someone else to get her out.
She looked around and there was no one down the hall except other cells that were strangely numbered. She was in number twenty exactly on the very end.
She walked down the hall between the numbered cells, ten on each side. Each cell had a figure sleeping in side on a cot that was similar to the one she woke up on. Each cell was different too.
The kid who would burst into fire was in a room filled with ice. The kid with the ice powers was being suntanned like a lizard under one of those heat lamps. Another was behind bullet proof glass. the next was in shackles sleeping. it seemed each was made for the kids so they couldn't break out.
She found as she walked down between the last of the cells people that she recognized. The blond girl who had attacked her was in the fourth cell that had bars made of plastic all around so she couldn't do what Jinx was doing and break out.
Next to her in the fifth cell was the huge guy who reminded her of cyborg and had been attacking her with the girl before Jinx passed out. He was in a bulletproof cell and there was something spraying into his cell that was keeping him calm it seemed as he slept.
The third cell had a blond boy who reminded her of skater boys with their loose jeans, long shaggy hair and huge t-shirts. His cell didn't have a single hole in it and there was air being pumped in as he slept. She had to wonder what his mutation was for them to have that type of protection.
As she walked to the next she heard the person inside the normal cell before she could see them. "What are you doing here?"
Jinx walked up to the cell and from the dark of the barred cell a girl walked into the light. She was a petite girl with jet black hair cut like Ravens, short and up to her jaw. Her eyes were dark and it was hard to distinguish the pupils from the irises. She was wearing a black skirt that went to her ankles and a black tank top under a quarter cut sleeve grey v-neck shirt. The most noticeable thing about her was how sad she looked, as if she had never smiled in her life.
Jinx stood there as she tried to put things together of how she knew the girl. She was certain she knew her. But she didn't know her name or really at all anything but flickers. Like everything else from her past life she had been trying to forget.
"Aren't you going to answer me?" The girl said as she came up to the bars, her voice very soft and very sweet like a little girl even though she was about sixteen.
She looked at the girl and finally answered back. "I was caught." She said simply still standing in the middle of the hall.
"Thats sad." The girl said simply with her strangely sweet voice which was beginning to creep Jinx out like the girl was from a horror movie and was possessed. "I thought you had gotten away for good."
"I do know you!" Jinx said as her voice echoed down the hall and she winced.
"Of course you do. We grew up together, we were the first." The girl said as she put a hand around the bars lightly.
Jinx walked forward towards the girl that she wished she could remember her name. "Here." Jinx lit her hand up and was about to break the bars like she had done before the girl stopped her.
"You don't have to do that." The girl took the bars and with a little bit of force she opened them as if it was a door and she wasn't suppose to be locked up. She walked out standing next to Jinx who stared at the oddity of the bars.
"Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?" Jinx said shutting the bars and reopening them
"You really haven't been around in a while have you?" The girl said looking at Jinx with her sad eyes. "You don't remember me do you?" jinx looked at her with a sheepish smile before the girl began to walk away. "I'm Alice."
Jinx kept up with the girl walking with her. "I'm-"
"Lucky, I remember." The girl said glancing at her without a smile.
Jinx laughed as she pushed her pink hair from her face. "I haven't been called that since my last boyfriend." Jinx rolled her eyes remembering what a disaster that was and she was so much better off with Wally.
"What do you call yourself now?" The girl asked as they rounded around a corner and went through some doors.
"Jinx. Actually my whole name is Lucky Jinx." Jinx said embarrassed since she tried to tell little to nobody about it. Even Kid didn't know about it. She hated talking about her life before finding that everything she did was a mistake.
"That's funny." Alice said even though she didn't look like it was funny. She strangely reminded her of Raven a bit too much. "Isn't that contradictory?" Alice looked at her with her dark eyes as they walked on.
"Trust me, everything about me is contradictory." Jinx said as they walked into the cafeteria. Right as they did the nurses and doctors that were eating a early breakfast looked over at them but as they kept walking in, mostly Jinx trying to keep up with Alice, they would all look down as if they were afraid.
Jinx fell into herself as she walked with Alice who walked very precisely and uncaring as if she didn't notice the now silent room. Jinx looked around nervously and the nurses all leaned into each other to whisper, glancing at the two girls occasionally. It felt like HIVE Academy all over again. The only difference was instead of being hailed as the most popular girl in school she was the least popular being the new girl.
Alice went down the vacant line of the food line and grabbed an apple not even looking at the cafeteria guy as he winced away from her. Jinx felt her stomach growl and she took one of everything for breakfast and feeling awkward as hell as she followed Alice to the corner table where no one was sitting, as if this was her table alone.
Jinx sat across from her as the nurses and doctors ate their food and left quickly, never giving glances at the two girls. This was something Jinx had never had to deal with before.
"What's going on? They look as if they've seen a ghost." Jinx said as she ate a whole piece of bacon and was downing her eggs very quickly noticing that she hadn't eaten since she left Titans Tower.
Alice took a bite from her red apple. "Probably, I can't see what they see but maybe a few of them did see a ghost."
"What?" jinx was caught off guard as she stopped eating.
"You don't remember, I guess that's a good thing." Alice said as she took another bite wiping the juice from her mouth. Alice looked up with her dark eyes. "I cause insanity."
Jinx sat there looking at her unable to comprehend. "Excuse me; I'm sorry did you just say you cause insanity?"
"It's not like I like it but yes, I cause insanity to whoever looks into my eyes." Alice said looking down and setting her apple on the table with a sad sickened look as if she couldn't eat anymore. "They're scared of me. Terrified." Alice looked over at the leaving nurses. "The ones who have taken care of me have seen their worst nightmares come to life before their eyes. Most of them had to be institutionalized. The few that were sane enough to work have told the new workers and now they're all too afraid to even look me in the eyes." Alice looked up with her black eyes almost peering right into jinx's soul.
"Then why can I?" Jinx felt her throat dry and a cold creeping up her spine as she was unable to peel her pink cat eyes from Alice's.
Alice looked down and when she looked up she was smiling a still sad smile but it was better than anything. "Because I remember you were nice to me when the others were not. Because you still are and I like you, you were my only friend."
"I guess I still am, even though I hardly remember anything from here." Jinx said with a smile back. "But that's more from the trauma that I've been trying to forget…" Jinx looked away.
"What's it like?" Alice said quietly as she picked at the skin of her apple.
Jinx looked at her and asked "What's what like?"
"Being free… from here." Her eyes were so dark and every time Jinx looked into them she felt an unnerving feeling creep across her body even though this girl was not at all threatening. She had to wonder if she ever made this girl mad what would become of her. Would Wally still love a crazy girl?
Jinx thought about her time outside and as she did she began to feel like the walls were starting to slowly in close on her, the lights so fake to the sunshine that it was hurting her eyes. And then she remembered what she had been repressing for so long.
She was twelve and she was running through different halls that led off into a labyrinth of labs and torture chambers. The doctor with the burn across his face was screaming as the serum from the syringe Jinx had stabbed his leg with was starting to affect him. It was better than what it would do to her if she hadn't done it. She slipped on the wet floor as she tried to turn and as she did she saw two boys staring at her. Gizmo looked as if he always did, small and stubby. Mammoth was six feet already but bronny and you could see how young he is in his face.
"Coming?" She said breathing hard when she stood up and stared at them. Her leg was bleeding and her wrist had a burn on it from the Doctor that had been trying to do something new with her before she freaked out.
"What do you think pit sniffer?" Gizmo said with a smile as Mammoth grabbed Gizmo putting him on his back and following Jinx who was limping.
"You okay?" Mammoth said following with big strides that rattled the floor.
"I'm fine." Jinx said as she rubbed her wrist and trying not to pay attention to her wounded leg. Red lights were going off everywhere by now and the halls were confusing her even more as they ran. "I won't be caught. Not again."
She couldn't help it, she hadn't been when she was that young but her powers came flooding through her body and before she had even been able to concentrate where the power went it radiated from her in a huge wave ahead of her. Windows blew, carts fell over spilling medicine everywhere, doors blew open from the electric locks being broken, and the lights went out.
"Good going slug-face." Gizmo said.
"Shut up." Jinx said as she focused and her hand finally lit up after some frustrated force. Pink light illuminated around them and she focused even more trying to get it to become brighter. "At least I'm doing something."
They followed her and as they went around the hall they noticed she hadn't just burned all the electricity out in that hall but in the whole base. She barely knew where she was going, she was hardly let out under the sun but It was never threw the front doors. She heard voices and instantly she shoved herself into the wall letting her light disappear. Mammoth followed her example throwing him against the wall and watching as light from flashlights came around the corner and figures in white looked around quickly before rushing off down the other hall.
The nerves had gotten to Jinx but she didn't let them show. She pushed herself up and lit her hand when she heard the voices no more. "Come on, we need to go." Her voice was hard and determined. Her leg hurt, her wrist burned and her head was light headed since they had been starving her for the last time she disobeyed them. When little Alice wouldn't let them take her where they would put wires into her brain and force her to move things with her mind Jinx stood up and fought them off resulting in a hit in the head and nearly to no food for the rest of the week. But it had been worth it.
She wanted to look for Alice, for the other kids but she knew if she was caught she would be no help for them. She hurried down the halls stopping when she heard voices. Forcing Mammoth and Gizmo quickly behind doors when nurses searching for them went down the halls they were going down.
At one point she jumped behind a door and found herself in the information room. All of their secrets were in there including the ones about her and where they had found her and taken her. She reached forward where she knew her Cadmus number would be but before she did the door flew open and Mammoth grabbed her carrying her away. "We have to go."
She wanted more than anything to find her file but she couldn't so she ran. They ran around a corner and as she did she ran into a doctor, she screamed letting a hex go with her fright and scream and the man fell in a heap. They heard yelling behind them. "Keep going!" jinx yelled knowing they were coming to get them.
They ran around, Mammoth throwing things like carts when he found anyone chasing them. Jinx couldn't handle her powers, they were too hard to control with her emotions all haywire. Things were blowing up and she could feel the tears steaming as she tried to control them but couldn't. "I can't be caught again." She said through her sobs as she tried to clear her head to keep going.
She noticed what Gizmo was doing finally as he was on Mammoths shoulders hanging on. He was creating something. "Crud, I need a battery unit." Gizmo cursed as mammoth grabbed a cart and sent it flying taking out a few nurses and slowing down the other ones.
"Would this work?" Jinx said as she took the dead flashlight she had grabbed when one of the nurses had chucked it at her. She shucked the top of the flashlight and took the batteries. With a bite of her bottom lip and hard concentration she set her powers on either end of the batteries and they charged glowing pink in the end. She chucked them at Gizmo who carefully took it and put in in this weird object made of wires and lights and other things that only he could understand.
The machine beeped and vibrated and Gizmo looked at it horrified. "Too much power! Run!" He yelled as he chucked it at the nurses and guards and forced the confused Mammoth to run and grab Jinx while he was at it.
They went barreling down the hall until finally found nowhere to go but wall, but that didn't stop Mammoth as he barreled forward and with the use of his hard head and strength of a hundred men he broke there the wall smashing it open. And then there was light as the sun shined and the blast from the machine blew up.
Jinx was brought back as she realized she was still in the cafeteria sitting across from quite Alice who hadn't said anything but was just merely waiting for Jinx to respond after who knew how many minutes.
"Bright." Jinx finally said as she zoned back in. "It's bright like the sun, but not as hot. You find people you care about, who are like you." She saw the sun but it was not high above the sky but rather laying right beside her on a blanket stroking her hair as she slowly fell asleep in the warmth, his smile bright and his hair just as fiery.
"No one's like me…" Alice said her smile so gone as if it had never shown in the first place. "At least the others can pretend they're not who they are, I can never do that. Even now you can feel my powers seeping into you; the walls are probably closing in, the lights too bright… that's how it always starts. Soon you'll be seeing people you miss walking around corners that you chase after never able to catch them because really there not there and then finally you'll realize it's my fault and you'll avoid me like the plague. It happens every time." Alice looked down at her feet under the table as she held in her trembling.
Jinx could not believe what she was seeing. "Man, you and my friend Ra-"Jinx knew that she was being constantly watched so she changed Ravens name to her casual mortal name. "-Rachel would be best friends."
Alice looked up with soft eyes. She sniffed before asking "Why?"
"You both have the same outlook on everything." Jinx said as she began to eat again and her strength and power rushing threw her blood. Jinx looked Alice over and the two girls were very similar, not with just the hair style but dark personality, quite outlook, and they were both easily overlooked. "She likes black too." Jinx said noticing Alice's black nails. "Although with her line of work, and her unwillingness to not be girly, she can't paint them often."
"Bright colors give me headaches. And I get them too often enough." There was resentment in Alice's sweet voice and Jinx remembered how this girl had been cheated out of her childhood because instead of playing she was having wires pushed into her brain as the doctors forced her to move things with her mind. "Like now, just looking at you is making my head reel." Alice had the side of her mouth reach up in a sort of simple smile which for some reason made Jinx feel really good inside.
Jinx looked at her shoulder length bright pink hair and she shrugged. "It works for me. At least my boyfriend thinks it's hot."
Alice leaned forward and sighed with her chin on her hand. "I wish I could be free. All I've ever seen is these white walls."
Jinxes saw an opportunity and she knew she couldn't pass it up no matter how much Robin would hate her for this. "I'll tell you about life out there," Jinx said gesturing with her thumb to the outside world past the wall nearest them. "If you help me."
"Help you with what?" Alice's dark eyes brightened just barely as her interest was sparked.
Jinx leaned over the table to whisper in the girl's ear. "I'm on a mission to destroy Cadmus and I need to find out where they're hiding information and experimentation labs." Jinx leaned back feeling her blood pump with adrenalin and her powers serge up wanting to be used for no good reason.
Alice looked at her with wide eyes and finally with a simple smile she nodded her head a few times, her short black hair bobbing side to side. "I would do anything to get out."
"I can give that to you," Jinx said with a smile. She knew she was going soft thanks to Wally but she felt her usually cold heart warm. "Friend."
The doors burst open and all the kids that had been sleeping off the medicated rain came through. One was freezing, another looked a bit too tan, one was rubbing their wrists and the others were just stretching after a bad night of sleep. All of them looked like zombies and Jinx supposed that she did too with her tangled hair and possible circles under her eyes.
"I need to go." Alice said nervously as the other teens grabbed their food and began to sit down glancing at Jinx and Alice before going to their conversations. "I'll see you in class." Before Jinx could ask what class she was talking about Alice got up and quickly like a shadow left out the doors leaning into herself as if she was afraid of the other people around her.
Jinx sat there for a while staring at her empty plate and the eaten to the middle apple Alice had finished off in enough time while Jinx was in her mind. Jinx hadn't realized she was rubbing her wrist where she had been burned so long ago or her scar on her leg that the doctor had been trying to cut open to see how fast she regenerated before she stuck the syringe into him and ran. Then a cheery voice made her look up
"What?" Jinx said as she looked at Margaret who looked as she had before only this time she was in a white t-shirt and white shorts as if she was ready to do some running or something. She hadn't even heard what she had said only that she had said something.
"I said take your pill and let's get going. We have to test your skills on big Bertha." Margaret had a strange foggy white pill in her hand and a glass of water in the other waiting for Jinx to take.
Jinx was terrified of the pill because when she had been taking them she had been brainwashed when she was little in till she stopped taking them acting as if she still was. She took the pill knowing she couldn't get out of it since Margaret who looked like a well groomed cat with her happy smile and her brown hair nice and fluffy in a ponytail like a tail was watching her every move.
"Big Bertha? Who the hell is that and why do I strangely want to beat her ass?" Jinx said standing up smoothing down her white shirt and black shorts that she had been changed into since her last clothes were stained with spaghetti sauce.
Margaret laughed. "You're silly." She waved her well-manicured nails that Jinx guessed could retract when needed. "It's an obstacle course. We call it that because-"Margret stopped as they were walking making jinx stop to look at her. "Well I don't really know why really. I guess it's been called that forever." She shrugged still smiling brightly and walking off.
Jinx felt her patience for people strain. This was why she was bad with people. She was amazed she could stand Margaret and her oddly happy personality. It was one thing to handle someone like Alice who was very quiet and outspoken, but a total difference to handle someone as cheery as Margaret. It was physically making Jinx sick. Or maybe it was the pill…
Whatever it was she had to do good on this obstacle course, after all she was the reigning champion at HIVE Academy. How hard could this be?