Honeycomb Love
a cameo role. It focuses on the HIVE students, and a budding friendship/romance between Jinx and Gizmo. No flames based on the wierd setting please.
The door slid open with a hiss, and the two and a half foot tall 'supervillian' flew into the mess hall. His backpack was finally back in working order, after the Titans had basically forced him into working for them. He looked around the room; it was still a mess from when Cyborg had blasted the ceiling with that Ion Amplifier. Half the school had collapsed entirely, and the other half was a wreck of rubble and trash. Gizmo tried to ignore the snickers and half-hidden looks as he got his food and walked to his table. Apparently word had gotten out that those cludgeheads had made him work for them.

"'ey Halfpint. Siddown, before someone throws somethin' at ya." Mammoth's voice was thick with stupidity, like normal, and made thicker by the entire burger he'd shoved in there at once.

"Cram it, you big oaf! I couldn't help it, the snots ganged up on me!" Gizmo sat down on the bench, after constructing a small booster seat with his backpack. He hated being so short, but it was genetic, not his age. The few people who had made fun of it when he was new to the HIVE had learned respect fast enough, and now no one really thought much of it. A few lingering nicknames like 'halfpint' were all that remained.

"Yeah, dat's how it always goes. We'll get them next time, if Jinx ever comes out of her friggin' room." Mammoth grabbed another burger off of his very full plate, taking it slowly and eating it in two bites. Gizmo just idly played with his mashed potatoes.

"She's still depressed? Over that tinman Cyborg? It's been two weeks!" Gizmo flicked a spoonful of mashed potatoes onto the back of Bumblebee's Wing, knowing that she couldn't feel it and wouldn't realize it was there for a while. The HIVE was so boring sometimes.

Mammoth talked through the second half of his burger, carelessly spewing half-chewed food all over the table. "She's still 'dere. 'e got to 'er I guess."

He swallowed the rest of the burger and grinned. "Why d'you care, anyhow? You got plans on her, twit?"

"No, you pit-sniffin' crudhead. We just can't do any of our attack patterns when we have to borrow stupid freshmen to fill her spot. Plus she's failing all her classes, she's toast if she doesn't stop being so stupid." Gizmo pushed his food away. He wasn't hungry for this school food right now.

"Well, last time you weren't here we had to fill out the team with that loser 'The Great Divide'. How'd he ever pass... uh... 'No Men Culture of Villany' anyway?"

Gizmo raised an eyebrow. "It's 'Nomenclature' you brainless musclebag. Anyway, I'm going to go see if she's up for the combat practice after lunch. You going to hang around in here?" Gizmo turned on his jets, and hovered over the table, waiting for a reply.

Mammoth nodded, grinning at another table. "Yah. I'm going to check up on 'dat new Angel chick. I'm betting she's just waitin' for me to make the first move."

Gizmo just rolled his eyes and jetted away from the table. Mammoth's obsession with hitting on every girl in the Academy got old before it even started. It had hit an all time low when he started propositioning the old headmaster. It was amazing the guy had ever graduated it all.

Gizmo hovered down the hallways of the ruined school, dodging the fallen rubble and twisted support beams as he went. The Titans had really torn the place up. It was going to take months to clean this up. He ejected four drones from his pack and set them to work repairing this hallway. He didn't care about helping, but if his drones did the work, Brother Blood might just take a liking to him again, instead of just comparing him to "Stone" all the time.

That crud-eatin' loser. He came into the school and on his first day changed everything about how things worked. It had always been Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth as the biggest students in the school, they didn't take crap from anyone, and everyone knew they were the best. Then Stone came in and changed all that, his first day destroying their lunch table and then making them look like idiots on the combat range. Ever since then, Brother Blood had been comparing them to the ideal that he'd created, even though he was a traitor and attacked Blood himself.

Gizmo turned the corner and kept going down the hallway, careful not to hit anyone sleeping on the cots in the corridor. One of the residence caverns had collapsed, and all the underclassmen had to stay in the halls instead of in their own rooms. Graduate students like Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jinx had their own places.

Speaking of which, Gizmo now found himself hovering in front of a hexagonal door with the word "JINX" printed across it. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know that much about Jinx. They had all been assigned as a team back in sophomore year, chosen due to the way their abilities complimented the others. However, Jinx had never really spoken much of her past before coming to the HIVE. Gizmo had been a boy genius from a family that didn't care much for that, and had resorted to petty crime before a HIVE agent had found and recruited him. Mammoth was genetically enhanced, and as such, was submited for HIVE approval by his creator. The first thing that Gizmo had even heard about Jinx's previous life was her mention of "Darkway Prep" when they first met Stone.

Gizmo knocked on the door, not wanting to just yell through it, since all the people in the hallway were sleeping. He was hated enough just for working with the Titans. He heard some shuffling noises inside, then the door slid open, revealing a rather ragged-looking Jinx.

Her normally well-kept hair was in random strands that were falling out of place from their normal horn-like design. Her makeup, the pink strips and eyeshadow that made her such a popular girl her freshman year, was smeared carelessly, and it looked like she'd been crying. She wasn't even wearing the mantle embellishment on her costume, just the simple black leather part. She looked at him with reddened eyes.

"Oh, Hi Gizmo. Back from the Titans so soon?" She sounded irritated, as if she really didn't want to be bothered.

Gizmo was actually shocked to see her in such a state, she'd always been very careful about her appearance, and very meticulous about pretty much everything. Missing practice and failing classes was really out of style for her. Gizmo tried to push his way in, so that he wouldn't embarass her in front of the freshmen. She wouldn't let him pass.

"No. You know I don't let people into my room. You can say whatever you want right here."

Gizmo was getting irritated. "Look scuzz-muffin, you're sitting around here depressed all day and screwing up all our combat practice! Are you even going to go to today's?"

Jinx sighed heavily, then turned, walking a few steps into her room. "I don't know. I'm not really up to it."

Seeing the oppurtunity, Gizmo floated through the door and closed it behind him, locking it with a bracer from his pack. He looked around the darkened room. It was obviously a student dorm, not very large, made of the same weird stone that the rest of the HIVE was. There were piles of books everywhere, written in a weird langauge that he hadn't bothered to learn yet; by the looks of it, probably Aramaic. Jinx's desktop was littered with photographs of Stone and the group, and photographs of Jinx and Stone alone. Her computer was off, which was strange to Gizmo, since his was NEVER off. Her bed was covered in a pink bedcover, but was all rumpled up right now. The room was a mess, very unlike the normal Jinx.

Jinx shot a look back at him. "What are you doing in here? I told you before-"

"You're failing all your classes, cludgehead! Have you even STARTED Eroom Samoht's 'Dystopia' yet? The report is due in like three days!"

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "Who's what now? I haven't been going to class. I just can't concentrate. Stone was really a bad luck charm." Jinx sat down at her desk and picked up a photo of her and Stone at the vice-versa dance. She smiled sadly, staring at the photo.

"You're still thinking about that gravel-brain? Don't you remember that he was Cyborg? He was a Teen Titan, he was just using you for secrets!" Gizmo was tired of hearing about Stone; why couldn't people just let it go?

Jinx sighed, dropping the photo back onto the desk. "It's not really like that. I mean, it was, but it's not now. Gizmo, do you remember when he turned traitor? What he said?"

Gizmo thought back, of course he remembered. He rememebered everything that ever happened to him, perfectly. It was why he was so good at what he did. "Uh... you said 'You could have been one of us.'... and then he said... 'I could have been a lot of things'. Why? What's your point?"

Jinxpicked up a pencil, idly spinning it on her index finger as she spoke. "I could have been a lot of things too. Why'd I end up in a criminal school like the HIVE, instead of joining some group like the Titans and being a hero?"

She looked over at Gizmo, smiling slightly. "Why did you become a HIVE agent, anyway?"

Gizmo landed, letting his jetpack recharge itself. He sat cross-legged on the floor. Jinx towered over him this way, but he didn't want to sit on the desk. "Well, uh... hmm. One of the uh... 'HIVE drones' found me in the shipping quarter of the city. I was peicing together a detpack to break into a pawnshop. He was impressed by the fact that I'd scrounged up an explosive from digging through trashcans, and he offered me a place here."

Jinx rested her chin on her hand, idly scribbling notes with her other. She was always very studious, Gizmo realized. He never had to take notes, since he knew everything forever as soon as he knew it once. He stopped thinking when Jinx spoke again. "How'd you end up on the street in the first place though? Your kind of brilliance doesn't come naturally, someone has to make you learn."

Gizmo turned his head, crossing his arms. "I was on the street because of my scrum-kissin' stepfather. My smarts come from my real dad, but he kicked the bucket when I was like three years old. My mom wasn't bad, but married a real jerk. He always told me that 'smarts ain't no replacement fer hard work'. I ran away from home when I was nine. Didn't take long for me to figure out how to make a decent living just salvaging parts. It's better here though, they give me the materials in top condition, so my stuff actually WORKS half the scraggin' time."

Jinx grinned at him. "Well, I guess there wasn't really much else for you to do but come here." She sighed sadly, doodling on the margin of her paper with her pencil. "I had other choices. I guess I don't now, though."

Gizmo walked over to her chair, then hovered quickly up, sitting on her desktop, in one of the few clean spaces. "What other choices? I mean, you never really tell anyone anything. All I know is that you went to Darkway Prep, and that's only because you thought Cyborg looked familiar."

Jinx looked at him for a long time. It was unnerving, to be watched and studied so carefully. He felt like he was auditioning for something, it was creepy. A small trace of pink energy shot out over Jinx's pencil,and it snapped, falling to the ground. She looked at her hand, and then the fallen peices. "Story of my life."

She looked over at Gizmo again. "Want to hear it? I guess I need to talk to someone, and you are probably better than Mammoth. That idiot would probably be making a move on me right now."

Gizmo shrugged. "Sure, we have half an hour before combat practice, so go ahead, scuzz-face." He winced. He hadn't meant to call her that. It was hard for him to grow up and stop acting like a kid, since he hadn't been with other people from the time he ran away until his freshman year here. Jinx didn't look bothered, he guessed she was used to it.

"I guess mine is less sad than yours. I guess. I grew up in a rich family; I had basically everything I wanted. You know, nice TV, books when I wanted them, nice house, stuff like that. I basically didn't have parents though. They both worked, a lot, and I was usually taken care of by whatever maid we had at the time. I saw my parents at best every couple days, and sometimes it was a month before they took time to actually come and see me."

Gizmo listened, interested in what she had to say. Knowledge was power, and he knew that well. So far Jinx sounded like kind of a whiner, it was better to have the money than the parents. At least, Gizmo thought so. He didn't really remember what it was like to have money OR parents, so really her life didn't seem so bad.

"They always made it clear than an education was the most important thing. Mom had a doctorate in Biology and Chemistry, and Dad had one in Computer Science. I guess I worked really hard in school... uh... 'Saint Ives School for Girls' at the time, to impress them. I had hoped that if I did really well, they'd come home and see me again, and talk to me."

Jinx sighed, picking up another pencil and drawing random designs on her paper while she spoke. "They didn't though. I made straight A's my entire time in elementary and middle school, and the only time they even mentioned my schoolwork was when I made a B in Home Economics. Even then, it was only to scold me. When I turned ten, my hair just turned pink. Overnight. Really creepy stuff. Things started falling apart around me, whatever room I was in would get trashed in a matter of minutes. My skin turned this... ugly... gray color a few days later. The maids and caretakers quit. My parents hated that I had become a freak, so they sent me to Darkway Preparatory School for Rising Heroes. It's a metahuman school, for people that have super abilities. They helped me a lot, I guess. Taught me to control my powers, and taught me to build a costume."

She looked down at herself, grinning. "It's sort of a mess right now, but I really like my costume. You know, it used to be pink and green, instead of black and blue. Really bright and showy, very super-hero style. The HIVE made me change it when I joined. You know, 'Super Villiany Costume Design'. Which brings me to why I joined the HIVE. I was doing field work one day, in New Zealand. We were testing some of the new members of the school in a place where there wasn't that much for them to damage. They were doing OK, I guess. A few had gotten a little out of control, but no real problems. Then, for what I thought was no reason, my powers went off. They went off in a way that I haven't been able to duplicate since then. The earth underneath all of the cadets buckled and collapsed, and they all fell underground, and then the ground sealed up over top of them. They... they all died..."

Gizmo watched Jinx, stunned, as a few tears streaked down her face. He'd never seen her cry before. It was... strange. He didn't know what to do. He awkwardly put his hand on her shoulder, and faked a smile. "C'mon, you can't change that. A lot of people that come through here have screwed up with their powers before. I mean, I accidentally blew up a pedestrian once when I miscalculated the explosive radius of a detpack. I mean, she was a crud-eatin' old lady, probably didn't have long anyway, but still, I know what you mean."

Jinx looked at his hand, resting on her shoulder. He pulled it away quickly, embarassed. She smiled at him anyway. "Um... thanks. It's ok really. I found out later it wasn't even my powers that did it. It was one of the cadets; Tara Markov. She was really good, but she never could figure out how to get her powers under control. She might have had something to do with that forced evacuation of the city a few months back, but I'm not sure, it's been heavily covered up by the government. Seemed like her style, anyway."

Jinx spun her pencil on the tip of her finger again, smiling. "Anyway, I was in pretty bad shape after that, I blamed myself, and I couldn't go back to Darkway, I thought they'd blame me too. Turns out, someone from HIVE saw the disaster, and assuming it was me that did it, invited me to join the school. I didn't really see any other choice at the time, so I went for it."

She sighed, drawing a quick sketch of Titan's Tower on her paper. "I could have been a lot of things. I mean, my life would be so much better if I'd stayed in Darkway Prep, maybe joined the Titans, or Young Justice, or something like that. At least I could walk around downtown without seeing police trying to surrepitously follow me everywhere. You know what I mean?"

Gizmo sighed. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. "Yeah. I guess. But then again, if you'd joined the stupid Titans, you'd have to fight monsters and pit-sniffin' Slade all the time. At least here we can learn things and have fun without having to save people all the scraggin' time. Cyborg seemed like he liked it here better."

Jinx smiled wistfully. "Yeah, Stone did like it here. He was the first guy here that actually treated me respectfully, and it was nice, you know? Plus, he's a really good dancer."

Her smile faded. "Too bad he had to go and turn traitor. I thought that I'd found someone who actually liked me, but then he was just playing the whole time. It just really makes me reconsider, you know?"

Gizmo grinned. "'Someone who actually liked you'? Are you serious?"

Jinx raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

"You cludgehead! You're like the most popular girl in the academy! Everyone here has had a crush on you at some point! Heck, even I thought you were the scraggin'-- uh... the best thing... nevermind."

Jinx was grinning, with a look on her face that normally was expressed to errant children. "You had a crush on me? YOU?"

Gizmo tried to dispel the belief. "No.. uh.. I mean, everyone did, it's not like... aw, cram it." He folded his arms and sat down again, as Jinx giggled.

Jinx reached over and patted his bald head. "Aw, you liked me! Well, that's ok. I mean, you're sorta... uh... small, but I guess you're sorta cute too. Oh! We're late for combat practice! Mammoth is going to be really mad."

Gizmo shrugged. "Let him be mad. He'll just have to team up with The Great Divide again. Maybe Cyclops too. Those pinhead losers aren't good enough to have their own team yet. You need to study for class."

Gizmo popped the small book out of his backpack, and held it up. "'Dystopia'. You have to read it, and I'm going to make sure you do. You might not have graduated Darkway, but you sure as scrum need to graduate here."

Jinx took the book, and looked at it, smiling. She opened it and started to read the first few pages. "This is really awful. The writer is so latinate and impossible to understand. How did you get through this?"

Gizmo shrugged. "I didn't, snot-picker. I just downloaded it into my head. It only works for me though, my brain works differently than most people's."

Jinx smiled at him, closing the book. "Hey, this is boring anyway. Do you want to just skip class with me today? Go someplace downtown and not rob it? Maybe get pizza?"

Gizmo's eyes widened. Was she... "Are you asking me on a date?"

She was still smiling, her pink eyes wavering from fear of rejection. "Yeah... um... I was trying to anyway. I never have any luck with this kind of thing."

Gizmo grinned. "Well, I guess you're just jinxed, Jinx. Ugh, that was scraggin' stupid. Uh... sure. We can go someplace. How about that pizza place on Fourth and Main?"
Gimzo held the pizza box as level as he could as he hovered next to Jinx, heading out of the store and onto the balcony up above the street. She was smiling at him, seemingly happy to get out of the HIVE for a while. They would be in trouble when they got back, but probably nothing too bad. Suddenly she stopped walking, her smile gone, staring straight at the table on the other end of the balcony.

Gizmo looked over as well, and saw why she'd stopped. The Titans were all sitting around, eating pizza and laughing. Cyborg, Beastboy, and Robin seemed to be having an eating contest. Cyborg looked like he was winning.

"C'mon,let's go back inside. We don't need to deal with those cludgeheads today." Gizmo smiled at Jinx, trying to salvage the date, despite the appearance of her only ex-crush there. She turned towards him, and smiled.

"Nah. I want to eat outside, and there are plenty of other tables. Just because we are criminals doesn't mean we have to hide, right?" She walked over towards the back table, and sat down. He followed her, and opened up the cheese pizza they had bought. It looked good. He sat on his booster seat and grabbed a peice, and Jinx took a peice as well.

They ate in relative silence, both of them feeling a bit awkward in the strange situation. Jinx seemed to be deep in thought again, but thankfully was still smiling despite her undoubtedly depressing thoughts. Gizmo was mostly paying attention to the pizza, it was late in the day for lunch and he hadn't eaten much in the cafeteria. Also, it was really strange to be on a date at all. He was too short for girls to be attracted to, and Jinx was too pretty to like him. He kept expecting this to be some kind of mean joke, but nothing bad had really happened yet.

He was sitting with his back towards the Titans, but he could still hear them talking. Suddenly, a sentence caught his attention.

"Dude, is that who I think it is? What are THEY doing here?"

Gizmo looked at Jinx, who had obviously heard as well, and had frozen mid-bite. She was looking back at him, with a worried expression on her face.

"Leave them alone, man. They aren't doin' anything wrong."

"Cyborg, you don't know what they are planning. For one thing, Mammoth isn't with them, we need to find out--"

"Robin, it's one o'clock; Mammoth isn't with them because he's in combat practice. They're skipping class, man. They aren't cold-blooded killers, let it go."

Jinx smiled at Gizmo, putting down her slice of pizza. Gizmo grinned too. It seemed like they weren't going to be overtly bothered by the Titans for the moment. Gizmo spoke quietly, not wanting the Titans to overhear.

"Told you those cludge-heads would be no problem. At least with... uh... 'Stone' over there, we can have a date without being attacked for no reason."

Jinx smiled. "Yeah, it's lucky that we met him, I guess. At least we aren't just evil soulless villians to him anymore."

They ate for a few more minutes, watching as the Titans cleaned up and left. They were alone on the balcony, and the silence was getting pretty awkward. Gizmo wasn't sure what he should be doing, and Jinx was just smiling, staring off into space with her head in her hands. She looked really happy. Gizmo was always curious about things he didn't know, and so asked.

"What's got you so happy?"

Jinx snapped out of whatever daydream she was having, and smiled at him. "Just thinking how weird it is that some guy I've known for years actually likes me. Nice, but kind of weird."

Gizmo nodded. "It's weird that some pit-sniffin' girl asked me out on a date. I'm 30 inches tall, it's not normal for me to get dates."

Jinx giggled. "Pit-sniffin'? Thanks, Gizmo. You sure know how to flatter a girl."

"I uh... I didn't mean it! It just comes out like that!"

Jinx smiled, and leaned over the table, pressing her lips just momentarily to Gizmo's forehead. She looked happy as she sat back down. "You're cute. Don't change, Gizmo. C'mon, let's go back. I have a lot of boring books to read for class, and you said you'd make me read them."

Gizmo grinned. She'd kissed him! "Uh.. yeah... ok. I'll see if I can make some kind of downloader for you too, but I'll work in your room, so I can make sure you read."

Gizmo floated over to her, and took her hand, smiling. They continued holding hands and smiling at one another as they headed down the stairs to the street, and back to the Hive.
A/N: I know, it's a weird pairing. I just got a momentary writer's block with "Seven Years Bad Luck in One Day"; I couldn't start on Chapter Three. I figured writing another fic might help, so I wrote this one in about four hours. Hope you liked it. Review if you did, or if you didn't. This is a one-shot, but see you in other fics! (hopefully)

A/N: Also, I want to state that the histories of Jinx and Gizmo here are entirely fabricated. To the best of my knowledge, they don't even have histories in the comic book.