Chapter 5 Attempt

When Jinx opened her eyes she felt like someone had been kicking her head while she was asleep. "Ow."

"Well I take it that she is ok then." Raven said over her back. Mammoth and Cyborg pulled her up to a sitting position. Raven turned back after drinking water from the faucet. "That was pretty bad there for a bit Jinx."

"How long have I been out?" Jinx moved her limbs seeing that nothing was different.

"You have been out for three hours." Said Cyborg. He had his arm panel open and finally closed it when he was satisfied that Jinx was fine.

"What happened? I remember trying to protect my mind then I passed out." Jinx walked to the sink and washed her face.

Cyborg spoke first. "From what we can tell, you had been resisting Brother Bloods control since he got to the HIVE. After Raven started to burn through your mind, you automatically started to resist. When your conscious and unconscious mind started to control for dominance you passed out."

Rave sat down heavily on the bed nest to Jinx and sighed. "It was damn close. I needed to have Cyborg to a constant scan on your brain wave activity since I couldn't do both jobs."

"Now that your safe Jinx, I have another concern we have to face." Jinx stood and walked around and finally sat on the floor against the wall where she had slept the previous night. When Cyborg saw everyone was listening he started again. "The effort we had to take making the four of us free of Brother Bloods mind control is going to be impossible on a large scale. There is no way we can free so many minds at once. Which means we are going to change our objectives." Cyborg leaned against the wall next to where Jinx sat and continued. "None of us have any information about Brother blood, his fighting ability, his true goals... Nothing. Even when I had the ion amplifier attached to my arm he easily deflected it when I fired it at him. When I did reconnaissance the first day me and Jinx got here, I noticed that he had hundreds of contracts for the new regiment of HIVE agents he was training. Mammoth, Gizmo, did either of you notice a change in how classes where done? Those contracts started in a few weeks. And no classes where ready for graduation."

"No, we didn't notice anything different. I wonder how he is going to pull that off." replied Gizmo, now finished adjusting his backpack.

Mammoth grunted then started. "I remember Brother Blood saying something about special training but with Stone and Jinx leaving then us, he never had time to say anything about his plans to the school." Mammoth raised his head suddenly, "Do you guys feel that?" Mammoth turned to the door leading to the subway.

Raven stood up too, "I sense it too, something is coming."

Cyborg gave a soft whistle. Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth moved to flank him. Raven saw them move and she moved next to the group.

A sudden crash shattered the door. When the dust cleared several students from the academy stood at the entrance. A red haired girl stepped forward saying, "You guys leave without even telling me? What kind of friends are you?"

Gizmo spat out, "Shimmer what do you want? And what the heck happened to him?" He pointed to another person who came ahead of the other students. He had a glassed domed head that any person looking at it could see his brain. Jinx covered her mouth feeling nauseous.

Shimmer ignored the question and said, "Brother Blood decided that your little friends need to come back. Your play time is over." Gizmo pressed a few buttons and his back pack began to hover. Shimmer looked to his partner. "Psimon, I know your supposed to be the group leader, but can I deal with Gizmo and Mammoth?" Shimmers Eyes began to glow red. Her feet flared yellow light. Shimmer inclined his head slightly. The ground at Shimmers feet turned to water then sudden steam. The floor cracked and parted in a line towards Mammoth.

"Attack pattern alpha!" Shouted Cyborg. Raven let them move ahead of her and turned to face Psimon. She sensed something off with him. She said quietly, "You have a stink I don't like."

Psimon looked at her then smiled. "You must be Raven. Your father sends his warmest regards." Psimons eyes glowed and the ceiling over Raven collapsed.

The pile for rubble glowed before accelerating to Psimon. Raven's whole body was enveloped in black aura. Psimon numbly dodged the debris and charged towards Rave saying, "Did I touch a nerve there?" Psimon gripped his hand and Raven was suddenly thrown into a wall creating an impact creator in the concrete. She laid there unmoving and clearly unconscious. "How disappointing." Psimon sneered. He lifted his hand and Raven began to float a few feet above the ground. Psimon looked over to Shimmer who was fighting the other four with several of her class mates. "I got what I came here for Shimmer, I am leaving. Make sure you do your job." Psimons' eyes glowed crimson, matching Shimmers and her allies who were still fighting's the rouge H.I.V.E. agents.

Cyborg heard Psimons voice and looked around in panic. He had not noticed that Raven had gone off alone. Psimon left with Ravens floating body behind him. "Jinx! He's got Raven!" Jinx saw the retreating body and threw several waves of dark energy over the entrance to the tunnels. "Your going no where." Jinx somersaulted over several agents and rebounded off a third to land in front of Psimon.

"So another witch to play with." he said lightly. Then his face grew serious. "How tedious." Psimon's eyes glowed dark red before pointing at Jinx and said, "Die!" Jinx lost her breath and felt her body go cold. Her eyes were slowly seeing nothing but black as she went to her knees.

Jinx fought back.

Her whole body enveloped itself with violet energy. "No!" she finally cried. Psimon stood there for a moment in shock while he saw Jinx on the ground taking in deep breaths.

The whole basement began to shake. "Shimmer I have change my mind. I think I will kill them all now." He turned back to the entrance that Jinx closed off and the debris moved to the side. "Get out of here unless you want to go with them." Psimon began to walk towards the tunnel with the ceiling collapsing as he left.

Shimmer got the message. "Everyone out now!" Shimmer warped the air between her and the enemy and a wall of fire split the room in two.

"I don't think so you walking science exhibit!" Gizmo launched his backpack. It flew through the fire and spread legs that grabbed Shimmer and Raven and returned back to Gizmo who was crushed by the sudden heap. Psimon turned back from inside the tunnel, screaming only to see the entrance to the tunnel collapsed before he could get back inside the room.

The teens coughed hard. Jinx panted heavily in the dark before saying. "Stone can you give us some light?" Cyborg's shoulder opened and a flash light turned on. "Ow my eyes please don't point that at me I am trying to concentrate." Jinx's forehead was drenched with sweat. Cyborg looked up and saw why. Violet aura domed them. He could see the debris of a lot more than just a ceiling on them. "I think the whole building collapsed when that guy tore apart the room. This is really heavy. Gizmo got anything you can do to help?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Gizmo dropped a small flat piece of metal. A sudden energy field began to extend until it matched the surface of the room. "I think its ok to let go now Jinx."

Jinx slowly weakened her shield until the whole weight was on the machine and not her. She dropped to the floor. "Damn that was close."

"Thanks to you, Jinx." Mammoth said while moving an unconscious Raven and Shimmer towards the center. "They are both alright just knocked out. Gizmo how long will this last? Should we start digging now?"

"Naw we don't have to, my shield can hold a lot more than this, but if we want to interrogate her." He pointed to their one time friend Shimmer. "We should do it some where else. Its going to be trouble to move her around when she is going to fight back."

"Before that I need to do something first." Jinx slowly walked to Shimmer and closed her eyes. After a few minutes Jinx began to slow her breathing unaware that it had sped up while she was cleansing Shimmers mind. "O.K. she is cleared of it all. I am pretty sure I didn't damage her. But she might have a headache when she wakes up."

Cyborg nodded and his hand retracted. "I think I can manage a tunnel" He suddenly looked at Jinx. She was exhausted. "You going to be able to make it Jinx?" Cyborg began to worry, he had never seen her so weak.

She struggled to walk. Before she could form an answer Mammoth picked her up in his arms. "She's not now, but she will be." Mammoth nodded to Cyborg and he nodded back. "Gizmo can you carry Raven and Shimmer."

"Your joking right?" Cyborg gave him a glare. "O.k. fine don't crack a smile you walking Duracell battery." Gizmo pulled two disks and placed one and each girls chest. They expanded to 4 legged machines that wrapped metal supports around each girl. The twin machines lifted the girls and began to move in line behind Gizmo. Gizmo stuck his tongue out at Cyborg. He smiled then before turning to a wall. Cyborg pressed several buttons before firing a solid beam of energy that passed the shield and began to melt the wall. After ten minutes they were far away from the destroyed building and in a new one at the highest level instead of the lowest.

"They are both awake now." Mammoth tapped Jinx awake. "Cyborg finished checking you but says you should rest for a few more hours. Do you still want to sit in on the interrogation?" Mammoth asked. Jinx nodded. Mammoth looked at her before saying, "O.K." He reached out and took her hand and helped her walk to the other room where Shimmer was bound to the wall by seven bent bars.

Cyborg Gizmo and Raven silently waited for Jinx to sit at a chair they brought for her. Shimmer sneered. "Hello Mammoth, see you had to bring the whole gang with you and even a few new friends. You are so popular aren't you?" She spat at Mammoth but it didn't even reach his feet.

"I missed you too Shimmer." Mammoth said sarcastically. "There was a reason why I graduated before you. You really thought I could not refuse the chance to move ahead? You knew me better than that."

Raven moved to stand in front of Shimmer where she was face to face with the prisoner. "I am going to ask you a few questions."

"You really think I am going to answer them?" Shimmer was barely able to incline her neck.

"For your sake you better." Said Raven coldly. "We'll start with the teams questions first." She eyed Cyborg who nodded. "How is Brother Blood training the H.I.V.E. agents to be able to meet his schedule?"

Shimmer laughed. Raven's eyes glowed and the bars holding Shimmer began to contract. "I can't breathe!"

Raven looked at her, the black glow in her eyes dimmed. "I know."

"I thought you were a Teen Titan. You can't do this!"

"Watch me." Said Raven. The bars began to constrict. The four ex-H.I.V.E. agents looked on mostly passive. Gizmo, Mammoth and Jinx kept looking to see if Cyborg would stop it but he only crossed his arms and looked on passively. "What is Brother Blood Planning? How did he know how to find us?"

Shimmer said between raspy breaths, "He is using some kind of mind control to directly teach us how to do certain things. He helped me completely control my powers. It takes a lot of effort for him to do it." Raven loosed the bars slightly so Shimmer could speak longer. "He can only do three or four agents a week... wheeze... I was in the first group. He started doing this today... and told us his plan to gain a network of operatives in as many criminal organization he could find. He wants to control the world I guess." Shimmer stopped then and continued to just breathe.

Raven looked steadily at the other four behind her. "How did he find us?" Raven said quietly.

"I don't know. But he seemed to already know where you were. He didn't care about you. It wasn't until a few hours ago that he seemed angry. He told me and this new student to gather the other three that were in our first group to go find you and bring you all in."

Jinx said out loud. "He must have felt it as soon as we were all free from his mind control. But I don't like the sound of what he is doing to the students. If he is planting the knowledge of what they need to learn, he can graduate the entire school in a few months."

"I have done what you asked Cyborg. Now its my turn to ask Shimmer a few of my own questions." Raven turned back to Shimmer who shook a little.

"Stone?" Gizmo asked.

"Come on guys lets go. Raven has a few personal questions to ask Shimmer." Cyborg picked up Jinx before she could protest and lead the way for the Gizmo and Mammoth to follow.

When the four left, Raven sat down on the floor. The whole room was enveloped in black energy. Shimmer simply stared scared. Raven closed her eyes, when she opened them again there were not two but four dark red eyes staring back at the girl. "Now you will tell me everything you know about Psimon. How he ended up working for Brother Blood, and how he knows my father."