Chapter 10:

Casual Spying

Ring-ring.

It was a very quiet sound coming from her pocket, but Jinx hadn't been expecting it, and it had managed to startle her. She quickly picked up her communicator, pressed a button, then held it to her ear using a combination of her cheek and shoulder. She had no clue why someone would be calling while she was out on this stake-out mission, but if it was who she thought it was she knew she would know soon enough.

"Hello?" she spoke quietly.

"Hey Jinxy! What are you doing right now?" asked the cheery voice on the other end.

"On a mission." she answered dryly, keeping binoculars up in front of her eyes.

"And where would that mission happen to be taking place?" he asked, probably because he noticed that the tracker on her communicator was off. The reason why it was off was obvious at this point.

"I'm not telling you. Robin really stressed the importance of this mission, and if you just dash in here now you'll mess everything up. Not to mention get yourself in more trouble than you can handle." she explained seriously, but still kept as quiet as she could.

"Jinx, you should know by now that there's no trouble I can't handle." he said confidently.

Jinx rolled her eyes as he spoke because as soon as she had spoken she knew he'd say something along those lines. She ended up being dead right, and that just made her feel awkward for knowing him so well. She still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that this cocky, silly, wily guy was the same Wally West she'd had a crush on only a few years ago. Now she was falling in love with him all over again.

"So what are you doing? Why'd you call?" she asked shortly after returning from her thoughts, and was actually wondering these things anyway.

"Well I was just making my rounds in Tennessee, but I'm taking a lunch break at the moment." he answered with a rather bored tone, but perked up when he answered her second question, "And I just missed talking with you is all."

Jinx smiled at that, but then frowned a little as she remembered why she hadn't been able to see him in so long.

A few months ago Robin had gotten the brilliant idea of sending him off every day to run around the states to keep a sharp eye out for any trouble, and so that was how Kid Flash spent most of his time these days. Unfortunately this had kept them from being able to see each other for almost all summer long.

"I'll be glad when school is back in so I can relax at home and not have to worry about how many states I've run across. Not to mention I'd get to hang out with you again." Wally continued, and Jinx could almost see him making that big, happy smile of his.

It actually made her wish that she'd been allowed to take her actual communicator instead of the one she was given by Cyborg that looked more like a regular cell phone. She missed seeing his cheerful smiles that, despite not showing it, made her happy. After what happened with the Brotherhood though, she couldn't blame the titans for why they chose to give her the undercover titan cell. She was in enemy territory after all.

"Well, unlike you, I've actually enjoyed my Summer. I've gotten to know the other titans, and I've been getting better missions lately." Jinx said proudly, but made sure not to let her voice get even a little bit louder.

She was currently keeping an eye on Gizmo and Kyd Wykkyd as they were talking by a window that she could clearly see into. But despite her efforts she could feel her attention slowly drifting more to the person she was talking on the phone with.

"Mas and Menos really remind me of you... except they're actually cute and speak Spanish." she added snarkily.

"Ha ha." he replied sarcastically, "I'll pretend you said that I am cute, and I'll have you know that I can, in fact, speak Spanish."

"Oh can you now?"

"Yep! It's one of my many talents."

"Care to give me a sample of your talent?"

"Sure. Hmm... What would you like me to say?"

"I don't know... so long as you translate yourself I don't care what it is you say."

"Alright then, te amo."

"Nice accent, señor. What'd you say?"

"I said, te amo."

"Really funny, smart aleck. I heard you the first time."

"So who out of all the titans, besides me of course, are you closest with?" he asked, changing the subject. Jinx sighed and decided she'd just look up the translation later.

"Probably Bumblebee or Robin because we're similar in some ways." she answered, then added out of the blue, "By the way, why do so many of the titans go by animal names? I mean there's Robin, Raven, Bumblebee, Pantha, and... would Beastboy count?"

Jinx had honestly been wondering about it for a long time now, but didn't feel like asking anyone because she felt the question was stupid. She felt comfortable asking Wally though, because he'd ask her stupid questions at random times and it was about time he got one from her.

"Um... I really don't know. I mean I picked Kid Flash because I'm younger than the current Flash so I'm sure the others have their reasons as well. While we're on the subject though, why'd you pick Jinx as your name?" he asked, just as she thought he might.

"Because I bring bad luck. That's what the word means." she answered simply, trying to focus more on her mission now. Gizmo and Kyd had just been told something by another H.I.V.E. member and so they followed him out of her sight. She frowned angrily before muttering, "Dang it, why can't I lip read?"

"You do not bring bad luck, Jinx. Your powers do." he said firmly. She knew he hated when she said stuff like that, but being the cursed one she felt differently on the matter.

"Yeah, but they are a part of me. So technically it is me who's bringing bad luck." she argued, and thought she had cornered him with her statement.

"Were you born with your powers?" he asked, surprising Jinx with his question.

"Uh, no. I think if I had been born like this my parents would've thrown me into the nearest trash can." she answered as she tried to think of a way to follow her ex-teammates.

"No good parent would do that. Anyway, you weren't born with them so it's not you who brings bad luck. It's your powers and that's all there is to it." he said, confident in his statement. She hated when he made sense.

"Yeah, that's really nice and all, but that doesn't change the fact that I bring bad luck because of them." she sighed bitterly before continuing, "I seem to bring bad luck more to myself than anyone else around me, because as soon as I became this monster my life fell apart and I lost everything that was ever important to me." she said, stopping there after realizing she just said a lot that she promised herself she would never tell anyone.

Wally was silent, which made Jinx feel both anxious and relieved. Because of the silence she had found a way to follow Gizmo and his pals, but that didn't stop the anxious feeling she now had in her stomach. She hopped off her spot in a tree outside, and climbed onto the roof. Then she quickly and carefully slid in through the sky light a few feet away that someone had carelessly left open. Probably trying to get some air into the room and forgot to close it.

"How'd you get your powers anyway? Have you ever told anyone?" Wally asked, and Jinx cringed as she heard every word.

She had told the principal of H.I.V.E. who'd found her out in the rain on the worst day of her miserable life, but other than that she told no one. She could barely tell her whole story at the time because she was crying so hard.

It was then that she found herself looking through a one-sided window into a main room in the center of the building. That is, the new H.I.V.E. HQ that she was sneaking around in. In it there were hundreds of members gathered around to apparently, based on what she could hear of the conversation, meet someone that would help them take down the titans.

"Jinx? You still there?" Wally asked worriedly.

Just as she was making her guesses the person entered the room. It was an old woman, dressed in dark robes. Her face looked awfully wrinkled and aged, and her hair was thin, messy, and white with grey in some parts. To her own astonishment she recognized her.

Jinx could feel her blood begin to boil as she glared furiously at the witch that stood among the crowd. She felt her fists clenching as the woman told everyone what she had done to their ex-pinkette-teammate, and that with her evil potions she could do worse to the other titans. So long as they captured them anyway.

"Wally, listen closely because I'll only say this once." she said quietly, but couldn't help sounding uncontrollably angry.

"Okay?" he responded, sounding a bit uneasy because of her tone.

"Tell this to Robin: The H.I.V.E. has gotten a new witch on their team, and they plan to kidnap the titans so that she can curse them with her evil potions. This is a really dangerous witch, and the academy seems to have gotten several new members over a short period of time. This is serious, and that's coming from me. Got all that?" she explained as H.I.V.E. members cheered at the assurance of victory.

"Yeah, I'll tell him. But why aren't you going to?" he asked, sounding worried now for fear of what she was planning.

"I'm going to trash some things. Number one on my list is that hag." she replied, growing more angry by the second as she glared at said witch.

"Jinx, no! That's too dangerous! If they're as big a threat as you're telling me then you're going to get yourself in a bunch of trouble!" he told her, sounding ready to run around every corner of the world so he could find and stop her before she did something stupid.

"Wally, you should know by now that there's no trouble I can't handle." Jinx said, repeating his confident remark from earlier, and sounding like her normal self once again. She couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face when she heard his irritated sigh. Part of her was happy he cared though.

"I just don't want you getting hurt, Jinx..." was Wally's response.

"Don't worry, I'm going to confront her when she's alone, away from all the other members, and then I'll just threaten her a little until she decides to fix me." she explained simply, getting ready to follow the witch as the pep rally was ending.

"...Fix you? Does she have something to do with your powers?" he asked, worrying that that was the case.

"If you mean my curse, then yes. She does. And she's going to either fix me or get hexed into oblivion." she answered before hanging up and turning off her phone. Jinx knew Robin would lecture her for this, and Wally's lecture would probably be worse than that for once, but it was something she had to do. And she wasn't backing down now.

Wally is speaking Spanish what have I done?

I honestly hope someone likes that. I've always thought that Mas y Menos would hang out with him a lot and teach him their language simply because he wanted better grades on his Spanish tests. :P

Anyway, sorry for the lack of updating! The next part should be up soon so hopefully you won't have to wait long on this cliff-hanger.

Let me know what you think so far! I treasure every review because it helps me know if I'm going in the right direction or not. And thank you for all the kind reviews thus far! :)

Hugs and cake,

~Panda-chiiii