Chapter 2 direction
Cyborg let Jinx stay the remainder of the night. He had not thought of how Jinx meeting him affected her status in the Hive, and she simply told him that she left and could not go back. What she didn't tell him is of the time she had to escape from other lower classmen who were being controlled adn the fact she nearly drained her powers in doing so. Gizmo and Mammoth were to track her down as well but they were able to fight off the control enough to loose her. Though they had no idea they did so. Cyborg rolled off the couch at six a.m. and stood up. He looked at his bed and saw the lumps under the covers that showed Jinx was still there and couldn't help but smile.
Cyborg unplugged himself from the battery well that he was currently recharging from and stood over the sleeping witch. "Hey." He said quietly nudging her shoulder gently. "Wake up. We should get going now before the others wake up."
Jinx opened her eyes long enough to see him and dreamily closed them again . Cyborg just stood there and before he was about to try again, Jinx's eye flew open. "Aaahh!" she screamed to his face.
Cyborg smiled and said to her surprise, "Yes, ah. Wake up. We should get going."
Jinx blushed pushing herself up to stretch. "Sorry not used to someone hovering over me when I wake up." She giggled and smiled her most radiant smile at him. "Um, is there a place I can use the bathroom and shower?" She noticed that his room didn't have a bathroom.
Cyborg paled. "The only bathroom in the tower is the public one on a floor below us." Cyborg thought a second then said. "It should be ok no one is up for another hour, but go hurry." Jinx nodded and smiled before she ran out the room and down the stairs.
Cyborg swore at himself that he didn't just scan the tower to see if anyone was walking around. His arm panel obediently opened and showed that all of the titans were still in their rooms and Jinx had found the bathroom and shower. He sighed and quickly moved over to the power well. This particular device took place for the main chair power systems that usually charged him. He quickly opened the door to his lab and placed it next to an identical one which was fully charged. Cyborg looked sadly at the equipment that is used to charge him. Another draw back to being a Cyborg.. He thought grimly. I can never go far with out a power supply to keep me going. Cyborg plugged in the empty battery well and pulled out the fresh one. "I have to sleep and charge, its a wonder that I am not half insane from it all." He said frustrated. Cyborg carried the well to the bedroom and made it ready for travel. He didn't know the details of where the Hive Institute is, but knew he could not have the luxury of coming back to Titans tower to charge.
Cyborg was checking his weapon systems when Jinx returned. Cyborg smiled then suddenly ogled as he gave her a really good look. With her hair down and lack of make up, she looked beautiful in a way he had not seen before. "You o.k. Cyborg?" she asked innocently. When he nodded and turned beat red she smiled and said, "I am glad, are we ready?"
Cyborg still just ogled at her and nodded. When she turned to the desk blushing, Cyborg shook his head smiling. The Teen Titan turned off the battery and looked at Jinx feeling relieved that no one saw her, and forcing him to answer tough questions we wasn't sure he had answers to. "I am ready to go, just need to take this with us and place it some where safe."
Jinx turned around and held something in her hands. Half afraid, she looked up at Cyborg and pushed forward the holo-ring she held in her hand. "I think you should take this with us." Cyborg was surprised. And Jinx just continued. "No offense Cyborg, but you do stick out with silver metal for most of your body."
Cyborg simply nodded. "O.k. if you say so." he said dumbly. He looked up at her and saw the concern in her face. "You o.k.?"
Jinx nodded slowly. "Yeah. I just wasn't sure if you would be made at me for... you know making you wear something that might bother you." Cyborg nodded suddenly understanding.
"You were worried that I might think you just wanted me to go back to how I looked like before?" She nodded mutely. She looked very fragile at that moment. and Cyborg promptly went to her, "I would never think that of you Jinx." said Cyborg quietly. Jinx looked into Cyborgs' eyes and before she new what she was doing she kissed him. She pulled back uncertainly before he leaned down and kissed her back. Both of them smiled nervously before they both kissed each other for a moment. When they pulled back, both of them looked dazed while Cyborg said, "We should get going before the other titans wake up, Beast boy will be awake by now and will come running in here when breakfast is ready."
Jinx nodded still dazed. "Did you not want to tell them anything about you leaving?"
Cyborg placed a letter on his desk and said, "Done." He smiled and picked up his power well. "So where do we go?"
Jinx smiled and said "I can take us close to the new Hive but it will be heavily guarded, we will need to do some reconnaissance first. But its really far. And I don't know when we will be back."
Cyborg nodded and said, "O.k. then lets go."
Jinx tilted her head and gave her most winning smile. "Here we go." with a flash of purple light they were both gone.
Jinx was a powerful witch but she had forgotten there was an equally powerful witch living in Titans tower who had been aware of her presence since she got there the previous night. Raven opened her eyes and finally relaxed, dispelling the concealment spell she placed over her waking mind. Raven looked around her room and finally got out of bed to open the curtains. Raven looked at the rising sun. "You would think Jinx would notice me hitting her head forward to kiss Cyborg. But I guess she was a little distracted." Raven smiled thinking of the conversation Cyborg and Jinx had last night. "Well that is one more Titan down. Now all there is left is to find how to turn Terra back." Raven was half smiling when she left her room and immediately bumped into beast boy.
"Raven! You want some breakfast? Its almost ready."
Raven said no and turned way then stopped and called back, "Beast boy!"
"What?" He asked half way down the hall before turning back to Raven.
"Have you woken up Cyborg yet?" she asked already knowing the answer.
"No, I was on my way there now."
"Why don't u let him sleep in and give him the day off he has had a long mission and I think he needs some lone time." Beast Boy nodded and turned back towards the kitchen.
Raven headed to the showers whispering to herself "Good luck you two."
It was agreed by all the titans to give Cyborg room today and left him alone till the next morning where they found a note that said,
I have some problems that I need to handle... and some friends I need to save. I'll be back as soon as I can. Bye.
Cyborg
Robin was surprised that Cyborg had left a note and not just tell them. but told the other Titans that Cyborg would be alright and not to worry. It was Ravens turn to be surprised when she found that Starfire was the one pacing and worrying about Cyborg and wondered if she was alright by not telling what Cyborg was really doing.
Cyborg and Jinx landed on their feet on a roof of an old apartment building. "I planned on camping out inside. The Hive academy site 3 is one mile east and two miles underground." Cyborg went to the edge of the roof and looked down. There were many buildings with detailed decorations. Cyborg eyed two buildings in particular then asked, "What town is this?"
"Gotham City."
Cyborg ripped his eyes from the scenery and said, "What? your kidding right? the Hive put their institute right in Batmans' back yard? Isn't that asking for trouble?"
"After so many times of the Hive loosing contracts and respectability among other organizations its been proven that we need to redeem our -er themselves by taking down the leader of the Teen Titans. What better way to study an enemy than to look after his master?" Cyborg nodded understanding the means but not the rationale. If they had wanted to just study someone why not Robin himself? Cyborg just shook his head and followed Jinx down the stairs to a room in the basement. The basement was in disrepair. Cyborg smiled at the leaking pipes, at least they would have water. "The Hive base here in Gotham is one of the oldest, and is kinda out dated now. Before they have a chance to update any of their surveillance we should move as fast as possible." Jinx waved her hands around the room the room suddenly began to change its appearance to look a semblance of a hive dorm room. Jinx wiped the sudden sweat from her brow, "That took more than I thought it would. Well not much but its something we can live in." Cyborg looked at the now single bed in the room and blush. From his understanding of her powers she can only exchange not create so the bed was made out of what was around in the room. Guess there wasn't enough for a second bed. Thought Cyborg distractedly.
With an intake of air, Jinx pointed at a wall and it turned into a door. "We can take this to the subway tunnels and then to the Hive." Cyborg nodded. When he looked at her she already looked tired. Gotham was a long way from Titans tower and with the other things she had been doing she must have exhausted herself.
"Jinx rest."
"What? why? We just started," She saw Cyborg give her a warm smile and felt her self go all soft and said, "O.k. your right I am a little tired now."
Cyborg set down his battery and put on his ring. "I can check out the Hive for now. And we can infiltrate it tonight." Jinx gratefully nodded. Cyborg turned on his ring and looked human. with a few twitches to his arm panel he suddenly turned invisible. Jinx suddenly inhaled, "You can do that? I thought it only did that human thing."
"I can make it do a couple of things. This seems easiest if I am only going to dodge cameras." suddenly Jinx felt lips touch her forehead. She blushed crimson then said, "Hee Hee, that is different." She felt another one on her lips before the door opened. "Be careful Cyborg." as she saw the door close.
Jinx laid down on the bed she made and fell asleep at once.
Cyborg had followed the tunnel Jinx made and realized that she really must have exerted herself to make a tunnel this long. "Jinx you know better than to expend that much power, our training was all about conserving power even in battle." After a mile in the tunnel he came across the subway tunnel. Cybrog scanned the tunnel and began is trek east towards where the hive entrance would most likely be. Hours passed as he checked the third spot he thought an entrance to the Hive might be with no luck. It was not till he banged his head and looked at the tunnel ceiling that he noticed a marker of the Hive. "Idiot." He muttered to himself.
The Titan followed two more markers until he found a tunnel that was tiled and made to look like a very small subway terminal. No guards where there but two cameras where there. Cyborg scanned them and noted that one detected heat the other was just a normal camera. Cyborg entered a few commands into his panel and small cold air started to vent form his body. Still invisible Cyborg waltz right into the entrance with out being detected.
"I still think we should just screw the two traitors and have two of us graduates take their place." Cyborg turned around and moved aside as two Hive students walked by then decided to follow them.
"Are you kidding? Who do you know who can keep up with either Gizmo or Mammoth? They are the best. I doubt you could keep up with them in a training exercise."
"Yes I could." said the first one lamely. "Like its going to matter anyway. I heard that they had cornered Jinx then just let her go when she ran. I don't think Brother Blood will let that go so easily."
"You may be right but none of the other agents are ready for graduation. You know each class is only a three to four person cell. We lost a few agents in the collapse of the first Hive academy, thanks to Slade. And those were the closest to graduating. I think this will be the first time the Hive will not have two consecutive graduating classes. You know we have at least three years before we graduate." Both students were quiet a moment before talking about some other student that Cyborg only vaguely remembers and finally stopped following and listening to their conversation.
The Hive was surprisingly easy to navigate as it was built the same way as the Hive he had attended. With two more turns Cyborg came near the Headmasters office. Cyborg scanned the floor he was on and noticed no one was in the office. He took the chance and entered the office. After looking through several papers on the desk some of them on Batman and a contract with Rupert Thorne he moved to the computer and plugged himself in to find if there was anything of plans Brother Blood was making. "This doesn't look good." Cyborg looked at several 'enhancing training regimens' that Brother Blood was working on. "With this he would be able to make an army of Hive agents in months not years." He began to disconnect when he remember Mammoth and Gizmo might have been punished and began to look for anything on them. When he found nothing he disconnected and began for the door. Suddenly the door opened on its own and Cyborg moved to the side Brother Blood entered the room. Before the door closed Cyborg left. As tempting as it would have been to take him out now, it would cause a whole school of agents to come down on him. Best not to stir the hive while I am in it. He thought sarcastically to himself.
After Cyborg cleared the room Brother Blood sat down and smiled saying aloud. "I hope you had found what you were looking for... Cyborg."
