A/N: Surprise! I'm not dead. So, I won't waste time explaining all that here. If you're really curious you can message me. Let's get right to it.
In lieu of individual responses this time, I'd just to say thank you all for your continued support. I know how it can be, feeling like a story has been abandoned.
XIV
The trip back to her teammates was uneventful, and Jinx had to force herself not to run the entire time. They arrived just as Raven and Mammoth were exiting the room, while Gizmo stood impatiently waiting.
"I trust you've enjoyed yourselves?" Lilith asked.
"I have the insight I was looking for," Raven said.
"Wasn't into it." Gizmo stated simply. Lilith raised a skeptical brow, but more important matters were at hand.
"Raven, might I request permission to visit this school you attend? A friend of mine who I haven't seen in some time works there, and I'd very much like to see her."
"I have no problem with that, though I am surprised you know someone from there. Who are you visiting, if you don't mind?"
"My mom, apparently," Jinx answered. She told her friends what she'd learned, letting them take it in, eyes widening.
"That is quite... unexpected, to say the least," Raven said. 'Although, there are a few things that do add up now. She may be worth keeping a closer eye on.'
'Not too close.' Logic said. 'We've never dealt with a full-fledged goddess before, we don't truly know what to expect from her.'
With a silent acknowledgment, Raven made a mental note to keep a remote watch on the school's all-purpose employee. She didn't know why the goddess of chaos was at HIVE, but she could imagine a few reasons someone might want to infiltrate a facility full of powerful young individuals. She wasn't going to jump to conclusions, that would almost certainly end badly if she was wrong. However, this information wasn't something she could simply forget about.
"Will you be coming with us, or making your way there?" Raven asked Lilith.
"I think I'll let you all take the rest of the day for yourselves, and drop by tomorrow instead. I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer, I know how stressful the meeting with your father must have been."
"Very well." Raven nodded, bidding her goodbye and leading her friends out of the house. "Anything you two would like to do before we go back?"
"I seen enough'a this place." Gizmo scowled. "It's hot and none of my stuff works here."
"Gonna have to agree there," Mammoth said through a yawn. "Not about the tech stuff, but right now the only sightseeing I'm interested in is seeing the sight of my bed."
"Fair enough. Are you ready?" She looked to Jinx.
"A little nervous now, but yeah. Do we need to gather the stuff to jump?"
"Not from this end," Raven explained. "I know your... handicapped state prevents you from feeling it at the moment, but Hell is overflowing with arcane power, it suffuses the air."
"Interesting," Jinx said. "I'll have to keep that in mind."
Given their current environs, it was a simple search for an appropriate place from which to teleport, and with but a few motions, a pillar of light emerged around them, and they were gone.
It was just after sunset when they arrived back on the school grounds, and the four of them wasted no time in getting to the administrative office.
Jinx stood at the door for several minutes, gathering the courage to knock, much the same as she had on the watchtower. Her focus on the task was disrupted by a hand on her shoulder.
"Would you prefer if I accompanied you?" Although she was reasonably certain Jinx wouldn't just suddenly see the woman as family, this was still a rather personal conversation, and she didn't want to intrude where she shouldn't rightly be.
"Yeah, I... I think that would be best."
Raven nodded, taking the liberty of knocking for her. It wasn't long before the door was swung open and they were let inside.
"Melanie" was the only employee present at the moment, (as she almost always was), and it appeared she was just wrapping up herself.
"Oh, hello girls." She smiled at them. "What can I help you with?"
"Hey, so, we just got back from the underworld," Jinx said, slightly marveling at the fact that it was a thing she had done and likely would again. "While we were there, I kind of... learned some things about myself, and I wanted to-" Before she could go any further, the sound of an explosion interrupted her.
Luckily, it was from a nearby tv, and not something in the building. Less lucky, however, was that it was the news, displaying the downtown area seemingly under attack.
The one responsible seemed to be a girl around her age. Definitely some kind of meta, based on the neon glow in her eyes and the sheer amount of force with which she was throwing herself into city infrastructure. She didn't seem to have a goal in mind other than to break as much as possible.
"Uh, Raven, do you think maybe we should..?"
"I believe that would be a good idea. I'd prefer not to have the city I live in be reduced to a smoking crater."
"Right." Jinx nodded, turning back to Melanie. "Would you mind if we continued this a little later?"
"Not at all," She said. "I can see this is something important, best to have it be safe from interruption."
"Okay, let's get the boys and go."
The scene wasn't any better up close, and Jinx decided to keep her team just observing for now, having Raven shield their presence. At this point, there were three others already there fighting her. The only one the group recognized was Robin, who, despite the frankly absurd difference in power, was holding his own against the girl.
Right up until he was sent flying into a car by a strike that, had it not been cushioned by an armoured glove, would have taken his head clean off.
Up next on the offensive was a kid who looked to be the youngest of all present, save for Gizmo, wearing a purple suit and mask, with green skin underneath. He was some kind of shapeshifter, though seemingly limited to earth fauna. He attacked with a variety of animal forms, all completely green from head to tail.
His battle experience was obvious, if a bit unrefined, and he was able to keep her attention for a time, but eventually, she got the better of him, leaving several indents in his shape on various surfaces.
She attempted to finish him off while he was stunned by launching a city bus in his direction, only for it to be held back by the newest arrival, a bulky teen wearing a hoodie and sweatpants. Other details were difficult to make out, the only other information gleaned being his obvious super strength.
After several minutes of melee between the two metas, she slammed her covered fists into the street, shaking the entire block. When she raised back up, the outer shell around her hands fell back down, impacting with more weight than they appeared to have.
Her wrists were still bound by smaller cuffs, but her hands were now free. She raised them in aim at her attackers, and they began to glow the same green as her eyes. Robin yelled for them all to scatter just before she opened fire, energy blasts tearing apart anything they hit like a wrecking ball through paper.
The blinding barrage came to a sudden halt when a manhole cover came from nowhere and slammed into her chest, bringing her attention to the newest fighter.
She was yet another teenager, (at least in appearance), with green skin a shade or two darker than the shapeshifter's own. She wore similar attire to Martian Manhunter, and it wasn't a stretch to assume she was Martian as well, if not part of the same family.
Her planetary origins were all but confirmed after displaying other well-known abilities of her species; namely density shifting, camouflage, and what could only be an attempt at a psychic attack, though it seemed the girl who began this attack had the force of will to overcome the new girl's mental assault.
Jinx waited a little longer, finally deciding it was a good time to intervene as no more players had entered their game. She sent Raven out first, who raised a wall of black flames between the two sides.
"That's enough, all of you." Raven's natural authoritative tone and obvious power quieted the battle in an instant, but it was clear that both sides were on a hair trigger to start up again. "This fight achieves nothing but destroying the city I assume we all share." She waved an arm, gesturing to the thoroughly trashed open square. After everyone relaxed further, (except Robin), she let the fire die down, just below knee level, moving to slowly approach the glowing girl but stopped as Robin spoke up.
"Let me help her." He didn't move, but he did face down her stare, eyeing her suspiciously at the same time. "She's obviously just trying to get free; I can get those cuffs off of her."
"You assume I can't?" There was a dangerous edge to her voice, and tendrils of shadow snaked their way up the Boy Wonder's legs, doing no harm so far, but he couldn't shake the sensation that he'd felt this power before.
"I assume she might attack out of fear once they're off; this is an unfamiliar environment, and she may not be so trusting, even of the one setting her free."
"I hardly think she'd be trusting of you regardless, considering you've spent the last hour assaulting her." She held up a hand to interrupt his interruption. "I'm aware it's your 'job' in as much as it can be considered one, but you're not seeing this from her perspective, so if you so much as twitch in her direction, I'll sever your tendons before your heart can pump your blood out of the wounds." She once again started in the girl's direction, this time blocked by Jinx, flanked by their other teammates.
"You're both correct," Jinx said. "She's not going to be happy with either of you approaching her, and we don't want her running off. Stand down, I'll handle this."
It wasn't often Jinx had to slip into "leader mode" with Raven, but they both recognized its necessity here. The collective fear directed at the demon turned to intrigue toward the one she took orders from. Raven nodded, merely watching instead.
The procession was stopped for the third time as Raven pointed a hand at the Martian girl, moving some of the fire from her wall to encircle her. She immediately fell to her knees, visibly weakened.
"You touch her mind again, and next time this will be hellfire instead, understand?" The girl didn't respond verbally, just rapidly nodded her head while straining not to collapse. "Good." The fire surrounding her dissipated, and all eyes turned back to Jinx and the glowing girl.
Jinx moved forward slowly, keeping her hands visible in the universal gesture for appearing non-threatening. The girl kept her hands raised, ready for an attack, but allowed Jinx to approach. She spoke multiple times in what Jinx could only assume was her native tongue, and she didn't need to be an empath to hear the fear behind the rage.
Finally, within arm's reach, she placed her hands on the cuffs, sending enough power through them to force the lock to fail, letting them hit the ground with similar force to their outer shell.
The girl rubbed her likely very sore wrists and, catching everyone present by surprise, grabbed Jinx and brought her in for a kiss. It didn't feel like it was done out of gratitude, it felt like the girl was doing something as casual as a handshake. She was so stunned by the act that she couldn't formulate the thought to push her away.
Raven, on the other hand, had no such issue. The flames reignited, this time higher than any of the buildings around them and glowing a deep, royal purple, along with her eyes. In the time it took for anyone to realize she had moved, Raven's fist had already connected with the girl's face, embedding her in a wall more than a block away.
Jinx grabbed her by the arm before she could do anything else. "Wait. I don't think this really warrants killing her." She could feel the restraint Raven was exercising in the breath she took to calm herself.
"...Very well." She fully extinguished the fire and her eyes returned to their normal red. As she walked over to where the girl had ended up, her footsteps left a trail of small, violet fires in her wake.
Jinx watched her almost immediately start walking back, and was really hoping the girl wasn't dead.
"She's gone," Raven said as she rejoined the others. "I didn't hit her hard enough to kill her, and I don't blame her for not wanting to stick around."
"Yeah, no kidding," The other hooded teen said, drawing Raven's gaze. "Hey, I get it, never said you were the only one at fault for that."
"Fine." She turned to Jinx. "I suppose you'll be wanting to go after her?"
"Come on, you saw what she did to the city, and that was just to escape those cuffs. We still don't know how or why she ended up here, to begin with. For all we know, she could be on the run from the DMA, or Waller, or someone."
Before she could give an answer, a holographic figure appeared in the sky.
"Attention people of Earth. We have come here in search of an extremely dangerous escaped prisoner. For your own safety, you are not to get involved, we do not discriminate between our target and those who interfere."
"Guess that answers that," The shapeshifter said.
"Not quite," The Martian girl corrected him. "I know his kind. Gordanians, infamous slavers, and banned from operating on any planet with a designated Green Lantern."
"Bold move coming here then," Robin said. "They're willing to risk crossing the Lanterns for one girl."
"So we need to find her all the faster, then," Jinx said, signaling their remaining team members to exit their hiding spot, who had been listening to the conversation on the comms.
With a unanimous agreement, the large and diverse skillset on display, and a shared opinion of their enemy, it was completely trivial to locate an alien powerhouse in distress.
They found her in a convenience store, raiding every ounce of food in sight, heedless of the group standing just behind her. Or at least it seemed so, until she spun around to face them, hands and eyes glowing.
"What do you want? Why fight me only to free me? And why come after me again?"
"We mean to help you," Robin said.
"To what end?"
"Freedom."
A/N: I know, I know. It's short, and it's more than a little overdue, but if I hadn't cut it here, it would have been twice as long. I'm not against that, of course, but I think waiting a year is long enough. But the good news is I actually feel motivated again, so that's nice.
