"Swindle" by Ed Alger (a.k.a. SecondLevelWriter)

Author's Note: Standard procedure. Disclaimers from the first chapter are the same here. I am the law, but I'm not Sylvester Stallone.

Chapter 8
Machination

The lunch bell had sounded, but Swindle was not in any mood to eat. Further attempts to contact the Titans had only produced nothing but static, and the knowledge that Jinx was getting more and more infatuated with Stone didn't help his depression.

With an uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm, the rogue plodded to the lunch hall and collected his tray of food. On his way to his second usual spot with Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo, he spotted Bumblebee waving him over. At first, he was going to politely decline the offer, but rescinded once he saw that Stone had sat down beside Jinx (which was going to be his spot).

"You look bad, Swindle," the girl commented. "Still can't sleep?"

Swindle shook his head, "The last two nights have sucked royally, Bee..."

"Anything you wanna share?"

"Before I start, uh..." He checked over his shoulder and brought his voice down, "Can you keep a secret?"

Bumblebee shrugged a little, "Sure."

"Alright. First off, my name's not really Swindle. It's Swipe."

She blinked twice, "Swipe! Not... uhm..." She also checked over her shoulders before continuing at a low whisper, "Not the Swipe who helped the Titans take down Slade a couple months ago?"

He blinked back, "How the hell'd you know that?"

Bee beckoned her friend closer, "I'm their inside contact."

"Get outta here."

"No, seriously. I've been communicating the Hive's activities to 'em these past few weeks. Are you the one that they were gonna send in to help me?"

"Uh..." Swindle stammered, caught off-guard by the info. "Uhh... I... don't think so. I came here on my own."

"What for? You don't look like the evil-type to me."

"It's kind of a long story, but I basically came here for..."

A fit of snickering caused the thief to pause and see what was going on. At the other table, Stone had just noticed a device that Gizmo planted in his mashed potatoes and quickly flicked it back onto the techie's tray when he was distracted. Jinx and Mammoth were trying their hardest not to blow the gag by covering their mouths with both hands. Gizmo shot his companions a strange look before going to take a spoonful of potatoes, thus causing the device to burst and send a mountain of food all over Gizmo's head. Naturally, the entire cafeteria exploded into laughter, except for Swindle and, to a lesser extent, Bumblebee.

The rogue sighed and finished his original sentence as he indicated the hex-caster with a vague gesture, "... for her."

"Who? Jinx?" Swindle nodded before Bumblebee pressed, "What the heck for? I'm sure you've noticed that she's not a very nice person."

Swindle gave a rather wistful smile, "Oh, she is. Once you get past all that... well, all that Jinx-iness."

The Titan gave him an "tell-me-more" smirk, but the rogue held up a hand.

"Ohh, no. I'm not gonna divulge any of Jinxie's..."

"Jinxie?"

The rogue mentally facepalmed.

"Is that what you called her?" the girl asked excitedly, making Swindle worried about drawing any attention. In fact, the thief quickly clapped a hand over Bee's mouth just to be safe.

"Leave it," he advised her. "The important thing is that I want to get her outta here an' away from Brother Blood. Whatever he did to her made her forget who she was."

This brought the Titan spy back into her business mode, "His ability to psionically dominate a large number of subjects. I'm surprised you managed to break out of it."

Swindle grinned and rested his chin on the backs of his hands, "It's amazing how fond memories can keep one's mind occupied."

Bumblebee chuckled quietly, "So, then you weren't sent by Titans at all?"

"Nope. I came on my own. They... didn't know that I came here."

Bumblebee noticed his hesitation, "I take it you ran into them during your mission the other night?"

Swindle nodded and shut his eyes, "The Teach took over my head... I was already focused on trying to get away, so I couldn't shut it out like I did before. I'm worried that I've lost their trust." He looked back up at Bumblebee, "I mean, if I wanted to backstab 'em, I would've done it already. Like Terra... did..."

As he trailed off, he looked back over at the table where Jinx and the others were sitting and felt his heart sagging in his chest. Bumblebee cleared her throat to regain his attention.

"Tell you what. I'll see if I can help you with Jinx, if you'll help me with my mission."

Swindle laughed, "I'd help Slade if it meant getting Jinx back. What's your mission?"

Before Bumblebee could answer, Brother Blood's now-familiar voice cut in over the loudspeakers, "Attention, all students. The lecture will be starting in twenty minutes in Room 219. All that can attend, must. Once again..."

"Bah, that's right. I almost forgot that the Teach wanted me to be there. Can't understand why..." the rogue grunted.

"He's spoken quite highly of you. Those daggers that you've got seem to be what caught his attention. I think he said that it would take quite a skilled thief to steal weapons like those," the undercover Titan replied. "After you kinda disrespected him, Blood probably felt like you needed a little re-education."

"He can re-educate me all he wants. I ain't gonna give in to him, not after what I've been through already. Thanks fer listening to me, Bee."

"Anytime. I'll even put in a good word for you with the Titans."

With that, they both put away their lunch trays and went their separate ways. Swindle noticed that Jinx and Stone were walking just ahead of them. He could only hear smatterings of their conversation and the occasional giggle, but each time Jinx edged closer to Stone (not regarding the fact that Stone promptly edged that same distance away each time) caused the fire in the rogue's heart to burn just a little stronger.

He made up his mind right then and there, just as he took his seat for the lecture. If he was to get Jinx out of this academy, he'd first have to get Stone out of the picture.

By any means necessary, if it came to that.

After two hours of Brother Blood's lecturing, Swindle was fighting off the urge to nod off. He was seated two rows back, not even half-listening to the headmaster while he sketched a crude dagger on his notepad. From his line of sight, the tip of the blade was pointed straight for Stone's head. After a while, he started sketching Stone's profile with the intent of making several more daggers surround it.

As he drew, he started thinking of how his subject looked so familiar to him and how he got in without being in orientation. The rogue mentally pieced together the information he had: The Titans were one short when he encountered them during the Wayne mission, and that one just happened to be Cyborg; Bumblebee's mentioning of someone being sent by the Titans to assist her but never showing up; and the fact that from the right side, Stone looks... exactly like Cyborg.

Swindle paused a moment at this revelation. Why didn't he see it sooner? He hastily filled in cybernetic areas over the profile and colored the eye in with a red ink pen. It was! Stone is really Cyborg! Then... what's he doing letting Jinx get so close to him!

Brother Blood's voice cut through the rogue's train of thought, "So, that's why any good doomsday threat needs... what?"

Despite Gizmo's Horshack impression, Stone was the one who was called on. For a moment, the transmute sat with his mouth hanging open while he thought quickly.

"Uhh, effective misdirection!"

The headmaster nodded, "Very good, Stone. Moving on..."

In that brief moment, Swindle noticed that Jinx was now staring dreamily at Stone while Gizmo stewed in his seat. After a long moment of teeth-grinding and artery-swelling, the rogue decided that enough was enough and coughed loudly to get Brother Blood's attention.

"Another way to ensure cooperation from your target is through the taking of one or more hostages, especially if they have any kind of connection to each other. I speak from experience on that one."

Blood arched an eyebrow and smirked, "That is also true, Swindle. I'm glad to see that you've been paying attention."

'Oh, I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention to those pink, heart-shaped moths that have gathered over Jinxie's head, no thanks to you...' Swindle thought sourly as he began to slowly carve a small groove into the desktop with his pencil. 'The bot an' I need to have a talk. That dude knows I'm lookin' for Jinx, and the Titans had to have told him that they've seen me fightin' against them the other night. I've gotta find out just what the deal is here.'

The bell rang shortly thereafter. Before Swindle could stop Stone to have that nice, quiet chat, the remaining swarm of students cut him off. He could only watch helplessly as Jinx nearly clung to Stone's arm as she leaned up to whisper something in his ear. Stone blanched at first, but then nodded once. They were too far out of sight for the rogue to know what happened next. However, on the bulletin board beside him, he spotted a flyer advertising the big Hive School dance that was now only two days away.

The sudden sinking feeling in his stomach was lifted just a little when he saw who would be performing...

The Rockin' High Rollers.

He always figured that they liked that spelling better.

End of Chapter 8

In Chapter 9 - Well, well, well! Look who else makes a return appearance! Even though nobody's on a mission from some divine entity, we're putting the band back together. Let's just hope Swindle doesn't add his own brand of "punch" to the dance!