(Disclaimer: The Teen Titans are the property of DC comics and maybe Warner Brothers. There might be some other people out there with claims to them, but I'm not one of them.)
Preliminary Author's Note: This is a long one, both to make up for my extreme delay in posting it and because I wanted to put all this stuff together anyway. I hope it's not insanely long, but you might want to give yourself a bit of time to read it anyway.
-Chapter Three: Black and Blue-
"Alright, everyone! You have three choices!" Beast Boy announced, holding up four fingers in a spectacularly failed attempt at increasing the drama of his statement. "Which will it be: 'Angry Dave: Beyond the Lightning Sphere', 'Those!', or all nine episodes of the Flea live-action TV show?" He counted off the choices on his fingers and stared briefly at the fourth, extra finger with a look of complete incomprehension before quickly hiding it behind his back and grinning like a maniac.
"Tell me again why we let him pick out the movies?" Raven asked sardonically. "I mean, if I'm a subconscious masochist or something I'd really like to know about it."
"When we agreed to have a team movie night once a week, we decided to rotate who picked the movies, and it's Beast Boy's turn this week," Robin replied, his exasperation clear in his voice despite the fact that he had fully expected these kinds of comments from Raven. "Sorry, but you'll just have to live with it."
"Yeah! I had to watch your dumb old horror movie two weeks ago!" Beast Boy added. "That was so lame! And you told me it was about vampires!"
"It was! We watched 'Nosferatu'! It's a classic!" Raven protested indignantly.
"It was lame!" Beast Boy repeated.
"Guys! Shut up! Beast Boy's given us our choices, so let's just pick one already!" Robin shouted, and that seemed to work—at least, Raven's complaints subsided to a dull muttering and Beast Boy was mercifully silent, if a bit pouty. The Titans eventually rejected 'Angry Dave' ("I've seen that, like, fifteen times already, man.") and 'Those!' ("Haven't we actually fought giant radioactive termites before?"), finally settling on the Flea.
"A comedy? And a television show, no less? Can't I just go read or something?" Raven asked, but Robin shook his head.
"It's team movie night, Raven—the reason we have team movie night is to make sure we do at least something together every week," he explained. "Besides, you might like this show's sense of humour."
"Yeah, right. And didn't we already go see a movie and stuff together once this week?" Raven continued, obviously unconvinced, but that wasn't all—she had started covertly reading the new Harry Potter book, and she wanted to finish it tonight, dammit. She figured that the sooner she finished with it, the less likely it was that she would get caught reading it by one of the others. In fact, Robin already knew, having noticed the quick flashes of guilt in her expression whenever Beast Boy and Starfire were discussing the book—he wouldn't tell, of course, but it was still a source of mild amusement for him.
"That was an extra celebration—this is movie night, which we agreed would happen every week. Rules are rules. Besides, Starfire got kidnapped that night, so I don't think it should count," Robin replied, and when Raven scowled at him he smiled innocently and added: "Why? Do you have some book about wizards that you want to finish?" The question had its desired effect: Raven froze like a statue, her eyes wide with horror and fixed on Robin.
"Um…n-n-no, wh-what makes you think that?" Raven stammered, smiling nervously in a futile attempt to cover the fact that she had quite uncharacteristically broken into a cold sweat.
"Oh, nothing. I just thought you might have some magic research or something you were doing," Robin said airily, his smile widening—as much as he liked and respected Raven, it could be awfully fun to mess with her.
"Oh, yes! Research! Yeah," Raven breathed, relieved that Robin had allowed her such a convenient way out. "No, I don't have any ongoing research right now. Nope. None at all."
"Good! The Flea it is, then! Beast Boy, start it up!" Robin said, and settled back onto the couch next to Starfire. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Raven glaring at him, but he knew that she would be keeping her snide comments to herself for the rest of the night, and if getting her annoyed would keep an argument from starting he was willing to risk it. Besides, he could always talk her down later. Out of the other corner of his eye Robin could see his other teammates eyeing him and Raven inquisitively, but thankfully they said nothing, and once the show started they were all too absorbed to give it any further thought. In fact, they were all so absorbed in watching the show that they didn't even notice when Starfire did something very unusual—she casually scooted over in her seat and leaned against Robin, resting her head on his shoulder and twining the fingers of one hand through his while simultaneously hugging his arm against her chest so his bicep was nestled snugly between her breasts. At least, Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't notice—Starfire and Robin did, for obvious reasons, and Raven could not help but notice, since her empathy made nearby teenaged hormonal urges about as distracting for her as an enthusiastic gorilla that had been given a pair of cymbals. However, Raven could not take the time to savour the fact that it was now Robin who had frozen up like a statue, his masked eyes wide with uncomprehending shock, because she had a far more pressing concern.
You see, empathy is a sense of sorts, like sight, hearing, touch, and so on. Furthermore, it is not for nothing that it, along with various other esoteric senses like precognition and remote viewing, is called a 'second sight' or 'inner eye', for empathy behaves like normal sight in many respects. For instance, just as the eye is naturally drawn to a riot of movement and colour, so too is empathy drawn to its respective stimulus—that is, the empathic sense is drawn towards strong emotions. Given the normal view that the inner workings of one's mind, such as emotions, are private in the extreme and must never be interfered with or observed by others without permission, this tendency of empathy to 'stare' at sources of strong emotion often leads to inadvertent breaches of this privacy. It was this that Raven now found herself fighting a desperate inner battle to avoid.
Don't pry! It's none of my business! she thought ferociously as she struggled to rein in her powers. Don't pry, don't pry, don't pry, don't…
…desiresurpriseembarrassmentlongingfearreliefpleasure…
Gah! Stupid empathy! Quit it! Raven thought, mentally kicking herself for her slip. Azarath metrion zinthos. Azarath metrion zinthos.
…calmdesirecomfortpleasuresatisfactionpleasurepleasure…
Crap! He's settling in! Azarathmetrionzinthosazarathmetrionzinthosazarath…
Suddenly the alarm went off (…pleasuresurprisedisappointment…), causing them all to nearly jump out of their seats. Raven heaved a sigh of relief as the swirling vortex of emotions emanating from Starfire and Robin blew itself out and disappeared amidst the normal, much easier to ignore background hum of everyday feelings, although Starfire was still generating a fair amount of disappointment and frustration.
"Oh, thank heaven that's over," Raven muttered as she put her hood up.
"Hey! The Flea isn't that bad!" Beast Boy protested, mistakenly thinking that Raven's relief stemmed from the interruption of the show, but before they could work out this misunderstanding Robin seized control of the situation as usual.
"Titans! GO!" he called, and then they were off.
OOO
Half an hour ago…
"It's embarrassing!" Gizmo cried from the passenger seat of the stolen van. "I'm a big-time supervillain, and I'm being driven around by a girl? What's Control Freak gonna think when he hears about this?"
"Big-time? Since when? And it's not my fault your feet can't reach the pedals," Jinx pointed out from her place behind the wheel. "Besides, isn't Lex Luthor's chauffeur a girl?"
"Well, yeah, but that's different—she's a trophy goon. Her main job isn't to be his driver, it's to stand around and look pretty so other villains will get jealous that Luthor's nailing her," Gizmo retorted.
"I heard Luthor actually trusts and respects her," Jinx said, then added: "At least, as much as he can trust and respect anyone."
"Yeah, I hear a lot of crap, too, but I don't go around believing it," Gizmo spat. "Now move over, girlie, and let someone with some actual experience drive."
"Why, you misogynistic little…" Jinx began, but then paused to digest what Gizmo had said before starting anew on an even higher plateau of indignant rage. "Experience? What experience do you have, you little snot?"
"Are you kidding? I stole the T-Car once!" Gizmo shouted back.
"Oh, yeah, and didn't you get your scrawny butt kicked for that?" Jinx taunted. "Besides, the T-Car's all high-tech and shit—this thing doesn't have anywhere for you to plug into, genius, so unless you can reach the pedals, which you can't, you can't drive."
"Ah, fine. But can't one of the others drive?" Gizmo asked, reluctantly conceding that Jinx had a point. Jinx turned to look at the other members of the Hive Five crowded in the back of the van—there were only three of them, but Mammoth was a crowd all by himself. After a brief moment of appraisal, Jinx turned back to Gizmo with an expression of extreme distaste.
"You have got to be shitting me," Jinx sneered. "Mammoth can't even fit in the driver's seat, See-More—well, as I'm sure you remember from the last time we let him drive, people who can see through solid objects should not get behind the wheel of a car."
"Hey! That was an accident!" See-More protested, but Jinx ignored him and continued.
"And Private Hive…well, do you really want him driving?" she asked.
"Hoowah! Send me in, coach! Private Hive is ready! Oh, yeah!" Private Hive shouted, punching his fists in the air enthusiastically. Gizmo considered this for a moment.
"No, I guess that would be a bad idea," he admitted. "I still think it's embarrassing to be driven around by a girl, though."
"Yeah, and couldn't we have stolen something nicer than this shitty old van?" Mammoth piped up from where he was sprawled on the very back seat.
"Hey, yeah! Like a Porsche or something fast like that so we could get away easier! A blue one!" See-More added.
"Private Hive likes blue!" Private Hive shouted, apparently utterly convinced that this was a highly valuable contribution to the conversation.
"You morons! Do you really think we'd all fit in a Porsche?" Jinx screamed. "Look around, dumbasses! We all only barely fit in this van—a sports car is not an option!"
"Well, could we at least steal a blue van?" See-More asked. "I mean, tan is a nice colour and all, very inconspicuous, but blue—now that's a colour."
"No! No blue van! We've already stolen this one! Looking for a blue one would just waste time!"
"How about one with a bathroom in it or something?"
"Mammoth, there is no such goddamn thing as a van with a bathroom! Besides, it's a ten minute drive—just hold it, for the love of…"
"Private Hive likes blue!"
"I swear to God, you guys are idiots," Jinx sighed and put her head in her hands. "Look, this is my plan, so just do what I say and everything will work out. It's simple: we just drive to the bank, go in, rob it, and get out before anyone even realizes we were there. After that, you can buy all the blue vans you goddamn well want, okay?"
"I think your plan is kinda sucky," Mammoth whined. "I don't get to smash enough stuff." Jinx moaned and banged her head on the steering wheel, accidentally sounding the horn and drawing some funny looks from passers-by.
"Just…just stick to the damn plan," she growled, and started the van. As she drove away, Jinx noticed that thick clouds had begun to roll in, and hoped that this wasn't a bad sign.
OOO
Twenty minutes ago…
"Everyone on the ground! This is a robbery! Nobody move and we'll be out of here before you know it!" Jinx shouted as the bank doors closed behind her, and her words had immediate effect, especially once people recognized her and her 'associates'. Customers screamed and dove to the floor while the bank staff, who were much more used to this sort of thing, mostly just sighed and calmly lay face down. Jinx grinned—things were going perfectly.
"Nobody bother getting up, we can open the safe ourselves—Mammoth! You're on!" Jinx shouted. Mammoth nodded and lumbered off to the rear of the bank. Only a moment or two after he disappeared into the back there was the horrible sound of metal tearing and concrete crumbling, and then a whoop of victory.
"Hey, guys! There's a lot of stuff in here!" Mammoth called excitedly, still out of sight in the back of the bank.
"Of course there is—I planned it perfectly!" Jinx gloated with a big grin on her face. "And you guys are actually sticking to the plan. I'm amazed that you haven't done something yet…"
"Oooh! S 'n' M pens!" Private Hive exclaimed as he tugged experimentally on one of the chained bank pens.
"…to make us look stupid," Jinx finished with a resigned sigh, her face falling.
"Hey, how stupid can we be if we just pulled off a perfect bank robbery?" Gizmo pointed out. "We've thought of everything!"
"We?" Jinx spluttered. "I thought of everything!"
"Yeah, yeah," Gizmo said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Whatever. Oh, and you can stop pressing that silent alarm button, sludge head—I'm jamming it." The bank manager froze, his finger hovering over the button, then threw himself back to the ground with his hands over his head, shaking uncontrollably. Gizmo laughed and started poking him with one of the mechanical spider legs protruding from his backpack.
"Did you really think a genius like me wouldn't be able to figure out how to mess up your security system?" he goaded the prostrate bank manager.
"Hey! It's my plan! I'm the genius!" Jinx protested.
"Whatever. This bank uses the Protech 120 D security system, right?" Gizmo continued with a confident smile.
"Um…no," the manager said.
"Yeah, so the flaw in the 120 D is a vulnerability to…" Gizmo began to explain, then stopped. "Wait, what did you say?" The manager gulped nervously.
"We d-don't use the P-P-Protech s-system anymore," he stammered, acutely aware that he was talking back to a supervillain. "W-we switched over t-t-two weeks ago."
"Really? To what?"
"W-Wayne Enterprises Securotron 8000 A," the manager said, with a little more confidence now that it appeared that his death would not be immediately forthcoming. "We decided to upgrade after we were robbed by Billy Numerous a few months ago."
"Wow. The Wayne Securotron 8000 A? That's pretty high-end," Gizmo admitted, a bit of awe creeping into his voice. "There's no way I could jam that with what I've got right now—why didn't I hear about this?"
"We've been keeping it pretty hush-hush," the manager said with a shrug, which was an interesting manoeuvre when performed when lying face-down on the floor. Gizmo nodded knowingly.
"Huh. The Securotron 8000," he mused aloud. "Wasn't Gerrick Westcliffe the lead designer on that? He worked on pretty much all of Wayne's other security projects, so…"
"Look, as much as I love all this geek-talk, can I just clarify something?" Jinx interrupted. "Gizmo, am I to understand that this bank does not have the security system you thought it did? And that what you've done to jam their silent alarm does not work against the security system they do have?" Gizmo nodded and Jinx continued on to her main point. "Then, doesn't that mean that the cops will be here any second?"
"Oh, yeah," Gizmo said as realization slowly dawned on him through the mists of technical gibberish that made up most of his mind. "Yeah, I guess so."
As if on cue, an entire precinct's worth of police cars suddenly screeched to a halt outside the bank, and several dozen heavily-armed cops leapt out and brought their weapons to bear.
"Oh, crap," Jinx muttered, and with that, it began to rain.
OOO
"Alright, Captain Alvarez, what's the situation?" Robin asked as he dismounted from the R-Cycle, stowing his helmet in its compartment under the seat.
"Robin, glad you could make it," the police captain, a dark-haired woman in her late thirties, said. Despite her rank, she had foregone a uniform in favour of nondescript standard-issue police body armour—this had the double benefit of making her harder to pick out of the mass of other cops as well as keeping some of the rain out. "We've got a hostage situation inside the bank—sixteen people being held by the Hive Five. They've made no demands yet, but they've blocked off all the windows and cut all surveillance cams in the building, so unless I send in a recon team we've got no eyes on the inside."
"That's standard procedure for Hive agents taught in their academy," Cyborg said.
"You know Hive procedures?" Alvarez asked. Cyborg nodded.
"Yeah, I spent some time undercover in their academy a while back, before it we busted it up," he replied. "It's funny though—that's about all the Hive academy ever taught about hostage situations. They're much more of a hit-and-run organization. If they can't win in one decisive move they usually fall back and regroup for their next move." Robin scratched his chin, deep in contemplation while Alvarez continued.
"Anyway, like I said, they've blocked off the windows, so snipers are a no-go—and even if the windows were wide open, the rain would make accurate shooting difficult enough to not want to try it in a hostage situation," she said, her tone tight with frustration. "We've been sitting here for about twenty minutes now, and we've got nothing. Any ideas?"
"Hive operatives are trained for hit-and-run, so they would never get themselves into something like this unless they completely lost control of the situation," Robin mused aloud. "Which means they're at a disadvantage—off balance, out of their element."
"A frontal assault then?" Alvarez suggested. "If they aren't ready for us, we could just sweep them out."
"No, that would put the hostages at too much risk," Robin responded evenly. "The Five are still highly trained and very powerful, so they won't go down that easily—in even the best case scenario a few hostages will get caught in the crossfire. We need to get them out of there somehow…"
"Captain!" shouted a police officer as he ran towards them. "We've found their vehicle. It's a van parked near the back of the bank, on Nelson street—it was reported stolen not two hours ago. Should we impound it?"
"No!" Robin cried suddenly, and he grinned. "Leave it. I've got an idea." Captain Alvarez gave him an incredulous look, then realization crossed her face.
"Of course…if we leave them a single way of escaping, we can be prepared to jump them when they take it," she said, then frowned. "No, wait—that's way too obvious, they'd never fall for it."
"No, it'll work," Robin insisted adamantly. "First, their training focuses on hit-and-run, so their tactics are all wrong for this and they'll favour running—second, they're not stupid (well, not all of them), so they'll know they're at a disadvantage, and they'll want to get out of the bank any way they can—and third, well, let's just say we can provide some extra incentive for them to leave."
"I thought you said a frontal assault was out of the question?" Alvarez asked, not quite convinced yet.
"I never said anything about a frontal assault, now did I?" Robin said with a nasty grin. "There are lots of better ways to convince them to leave."
"We're going to scare them out, aren't we?" Raven asked in her usual flat tone of voice, but the faintest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"Got it in one," Robin replied, his grin widening. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, you three go with Captain Alvarez to set the trap by the Five's van—back the cops up as much as you can. I know it doesn't seem like much, but your powers can be pretty loud and obvious, so you're all best on the outside." He turned to Raven. "Raven, you're with me—we'll infiltrate the bank and do our best to put them into paroxysms of terror."
"Para…what? Is that even a word?" Beast Boy asked, but Robin just glared at him. "Right! Backing up the cops! Gotcha!" Beast Boy cried and scampered off through the rain, followed closely by Cyborg and Starfire. Captain Alvarez briefly met Robin's eyes.
"Good luck, kid," she said, then turned and shouted at the nearby police officers to start getting them organized.
"You're actually looking forward to this," Raven stated calmly as Robin turned to study the structure of the bank.
"I guess so, on some level," he admitted, pushing a lock of his wet hair out of his eyes. "I've been doing the out-in-the-open superhero thing too long, I think. I'm starting to want to get back to my roots a little. Move like a shadow, strike fear into the hearts of men, that sort of thing. Follow me, we can get in through the vents on the roof—the air ducts should lead us anywhere in the building."
Before Raven could respond, Robin had whipped out his grappling hook, fired it, and was gone. She sighed and flew after him. When she landed next to him on the roof of the bank, Robin had already managed to pry the cover off of one of the larger vents.
"Why just me? Beast Boy can be quiet, too, you know—he could just turn into a bug or something," Raven pointed out as he slipped in through the opened vent.
"Yeah, he could be quiet, but he usually isn't. It isn't in his nature," Robin replied from halfway inside the ducts. "Besides, when used right, teleportation can be the acme of creepy."
"Thanks," Raven said, with a small smile. Robin grinned back at her.
"You're quite welcome," he said, then slid himself the rest of the way into the ducts. "Are you coming?"
As Raven climbed into the open vent, she caught a flash of lightning in the corner of her eye, followed closely by a rumble of thunder, and she hoped it wasn't a bad sign.
OOO
"…idiots, idiots, idiots, idiots, IDIOTS, idiots…" Jinx growled, half to herself. Gizmo turned to Mammoth.
"Hey, any bets on when she'll stop?" he muttered. Mammoth only shrugged, but Jinx rounded on Gizmo like one of the Furies of legend.
"And YOU!" she shouted, pointing at him and visibly shaking with rage. "You're the biggest idiot of them all!"
"Hey, now, let's not play the blame game, here," Gizmo back-pedalled, desperately trying to get out of the horrible fate he knew Jinx had planned for him. "I think we're all equally at fault for…"
"Your only job was to disable their alarms, and you screwed it up!" Jinx screamed, balling up her fists in pure unadulterated anger.
"Oh, right. That. I guess that was my fault," Gizmo admitted sheepishly. "But still…"
"How goddamned incompetent to you have to be to screw up your ONLY JOB?"
"Hey, uh, did you guys hear that?" Private Hive interjected uncertainly. Jinx turned and glared daggers at him.
"What is it now?" she snarled, and Private Hive hid behind his shield.
"Um…I heard a noise…" he quavered lamely. Jinx advanced on him, her eyes glowing as threatening a shade of pink as there ever was, and seemed to tower above him despite her petite frame.
"What kind of noise?" Jinx whispered with a measured calmness that could only indicate that extreme violence was to follow. Private Hive gulped nervously.
"Um…uh…it was…uhh…kind of a…um…bangy noise," he finally managed. Jinx began to twitch as though her rage was a separate being fighting its way out of her body, but See-More came to Private Hive's rescue.
"Yeah, I heard it too!" he exclaimed. "It sounded like metal falling on the floor in one of the back rooms, like a vent grating or something." Jinx pivoted on the spot to face See-More without apparently seeming to have moved, sending chills up his spine, but to his credit he didn't immediately run and hide, although he did close his eye.
"Well, then, since the two of you heard it, you're the ones who are going to check it out," Jinx ordered, calming down a little.
"Aw, man…" See-More began to complain, but then Jinx's eyes flared up again and he bolted, grabbing Private Hive as he passed.
"Goddamn idiots," Jinx muttered once they had left, and turned back to the cowering Gizmo and Mammoth. "Now, as for you two…"
OOO
"Hey, who do you think made the noise?" Private Hive asked as he and See-More searched through the back rooms of the bank.
"I don't know, it could have just been rats knocking something loose," See-More replied. Opening the door to the next room, he finally found the cause of the sound—a vent grating from the air duct on the ceiling was lying on the floor in the middle of the room. See-More bent to examine it more closely with his magnifying eye.
"Whoa. Big rats," Private Hive muttered, but See-More shook his head.
"No, rats didn't do this—none of the screws or screw-holes on the grate are stripped, so it couldn't have just been knocked off," he explained, holding up one of the screws, which were lying loose on the ground, to check it. "Someone had to unscrew these. It might have been a police recon team, but they probably wouldn't have hung around after making so much noise."
"Ha! Chicken cops, running like babies!" Private Hive crowed. "If I had caught them, I would've—urk!"
"Would've what, Hive?" See-More retorted, holding up another screw for examination. "Can't you even finish your damn sentences now?" Receiving no reply, he looked up at where Private Hive had been standing. "Private Hive? You there?"
See-More stood and looked around—Private Hive was no longer in the room. Poking his head out of the door, See-More didn't see him in the hall either, nor were any of the doors to the other back rooms open.
"Huh. I wonder where he went," See-More wondered aloud, but then he frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, wait a minute…"
See-More wasn't given a chance to finish his thought. The unnaturally black and vaguely bird-shaped shadow that swelled up to envelope him barely even gave him a chance to scream.
OOO
"…the absolute dumbest pair of freaks that I have ever…" Jinx ranted, Gizmo and Mammoth cringing before her like a pair of frightened children, but her tirade was interrupted by a horrific scream. Their argument forgotten, all three turned to stare in shock towards the back of the bank.
"That sounded like See-More," Mammoth rumbled hesitantly.
"Man, See-More screams like a girl," Gizmo chortled, but the other two ignored him. Jinx flipped open her Hive communicator.
"See-More? You there? See-More?" The communicator's small screen showed only static. Jinx gave it the traditional whack on the casing, but there was no change. "Private Hive? Anybody? Dammit!"
"You think it's the cops?" Mammoth asked, and Jinx shook her head as she stuck the communicator back on her belt.
"No, See-More and Hive could've dealt with the cops just fine—even those two idiots could handle a S.W.A.T. team or two," she replied with a frown. "No, it's them. The Titans are here."
"What? But they haven't busted in a wall, and Robin hasn't made his sarcastic little opening comment, and…" Gizmo began, but stopped as a look of pure terror spread over his face. "Oh, God…no…Robin…"
"Yeah? So? We've dealt with Robin and the other Titans plenty of times," Jinx pointed out, eyeing the diminutive genius with disgust. "Why are you so scared?"
"Don't you get it? We can't see him this time!" Gizmo shrieked, but Jinx and Mammoth only looked at each other and shrugged at his strange behaviour.
"He's not invisible or anything, doofus," Jinx said.
"Yeah, what's the matter with you?" Mammoth asked. Gizmo cried out in frustration and clutched at his head.
"No! You still don't get it! He trained with Batman!" Gizmo yelled, throwing his arms wide. "This kind of ninja shit is child's play for him! We'll be finished before we even know he's attacking us!"
As if to prove Gizmo's point, at that very instant a handful of tiny black spheres, each no bigger than a marble, landed in their midst and exploded, releasing a thick cloud of smoke. Gizmo screamed in terror and took to his heels, not even bothering to activate his backpack's mechanical legs.
"Let's get out of here! Run for the van!" Gizmo shouted back over his shoulder, and Mammoth lumbered after him, caught up in his small friend's fear.
"No, you idiots! We have to stay here! We have hostages! We have leverage here!" Jinx called after them, and cursed when she realized they were already long gone. "Right, no way I'm holding off the cops and the Titans by myself—time for this girl to exit, stage left...you! Get up!" Jinx grabbed the nearest hostage, a pretty young teller, and hauled her to her feet. The woman shrieked with fear, tears streaming down her face.
"Quiet! You're gonna be my insurance! Now move!" Jinx snarled, and shoved the woman roughly through the side exit and into the pouring rain.
OOO
"Come in, Cyborg, this is Robin. We've got a problem. Gizmo and Mammoth are heading your way as planned, but Jinx has split off in another direction—I need the three of you to head her off."
"What? Why don't you…"
"No, Raven and I have to close the trap behind Gizmo and Mammoth, or else they'll just head right back towards the hostages. We'll be fine, take Beast Boy and Starfire and cut Jinx off."
"All three of us? Why not…"
"No! She's got a hostage! You'll have to outmanoeuvre her, pin her down, and make sure the hostage stays safe all at the same time! Now go! She's in the alley to the east of the bank."
"Got it. On our way. Good luck. Cyborg out."
OOO
Jinx ran as quickly as she could through the sodden, rainy alley, but the hostage was slowing her down, stumbling and falling every few steps.
Shit. I just HAD to pick a hostage wearing heels, she thought disgustedly, and pushed a strand of her pink hair out of her eyes. And this goddamn rain is screwing up my perm, too.
As ultimately inconsequential as it might be, it was true—her hair, normally kept up in her signature 'horns', was now soaking wet, and had proven to be too heavy for her black hair ribbons to continue to hold. Sticking to the back of her neck and falling into her face, it had become yet another irritant in the already incalculably long string of irritants that had made up her day. To make matters worse, her hostage tripped again and fell into a puddle, weeping and shivering.
"Get UP, bitch!" Jinx screamed at the poor woman. Jinx grabbed her wrist and dragged her to her feet, making sure to twist her arm just enough to make her cry out in pain as she did so. "You MOVE, or I SWEAR I'll kill you!"
"That's far enough, Jinx," a voice said from further up the alley. Jinx's head snapped up to find the source of the voice—Cyborg was standing only few dozen feet away, blocking her path. Jinx snarled with frustration and turned to head back down the alley, but Starfire floated down from the rooftops, blocking that path as well. Jinx swore and ran down a side alley, dragging her hostage behind her, but she soon found herself in a dead end. As Cyborg and Starfire closed in behind her, she screamed and pounded on the wall with her fists.
"You blast that wall, you could bring it all down on top of you," Cyborg said as he advanced towards the cornered criminal. "Just give up, Jinx."
"Go to hell!" Jinx shouted back. Cyborg sighed.
"Okay, then. Beast Boy…" he began, but Jinx's eyes widened and she moved like lightning, wrapping one arm around her terrified hostage and putting the other under the woman's chin. Her hand and eyes began to glow bright pink, and Cyborg froze.
"No! No Beast Boy!" Jinx snarled. "If any of you so much as make a move, I'll blow this bitch's head clean off, I swear!"
Beast Boy, who had been hiding as a bat on a fire escape two stories above Jinx's head dropped to the ground between Cyborg and Starfire and resumed his human form—their plan to have him attack from above to get the hostage out of Jinx's clutches was useless now. Jinx grinned wolfishly as she backed away towards the wall.
"Yeah, that's right, stay back! I mean business!" she yelled, making a threatening gesture towards her captive. Cyborg held up his hands and tried to calm Jinx down.
"Come on, Jinx, don't do this," he pleaded. "Just let her go—you're a thief, not a murderer."
"Yeah? Well maybe it's time for me to branch out!" Jinx shouted back. Cyborg edged forward a little.
"I said stay BACK!" Jinx screamed. "I am having a REALLY BAD DAY! My plan FAILED, my teammates are IDIOTS, I'm soaking WET, my hair is a MESS, and this BITCH won't stop FALLING OVER!" Rage and frustration contorted her girlish features into a hideous mask, her mascara running down in dark streams over her cheeks, all framed by a mass of limp pink hair that hung to her shoulders.
"Do NOT mess with me!" Jinx continued. "There is NO WAY I am ending up back in JAIL! Not on top of all this SHIT that's happened to me today!"
"Jinx, think this through," Cyborg said, trying to get the situation back under control. "If you kill her, we'll get you anyway, and then you'll have a murder on your record. Just give up and we'll go easy on you."
"SCREW YOU!" Jinx screamed.
"Enough of this foolishness," Starfire muttered and pushed past Cyborg. "This is getting us nowhere."
"Starfire?" Cyborg said, too startled to try to stop her.
"Hey, hey! What did I just say? Back off, Red, or I'll…" Jinx began, but she was cut off by a blast of green energy from Starfire's eyes that snapped her head back. The charge of bright pink magic in her hand fired, barely missing the hostage and demolishing a chunk of brickwork as Jinx stumbled backwards. She let go of her captive and clutched at her face—blood oozed between her fingers.
"Or you will what, bottom-feeder?" Starfire growled. "Bleed on me?"
"Byou broke mby ndose!" Jinx mumbled around her hands, her eyes wide with shock.
"I shall do more than that, scum!" Starfire shouted and charged, shouldering the terrified hostage out of the way. Jinx cried out in fear and raised her hand to defend herself, but the alien warrior was too fast. Starfire ploughed her fist into Jinx's chest, breaking several of her ribs with an audible crack and sending her flying backwards to slam into the wall at the end of the alley. Jinx gasped and coughed blood, then sagged against the wall. Starfire advanced slowly, her eyes glowing with fury.
"Star, stop! What the hell are you doing?" Cyborg asked in shock, but she did not reply. While he and Beast Boy watched in horror, she simply punched Jinx in the stomach with a power that no ordinary human could ever hope to match. Caught between a brick wall and a superstrong alien's fist, Jinx stood absolutely no chance—she vomited blood and collapsed, shaking.
"Please…stop…" Jinx moaned weakly, and reached towards Starfire, who only snorted derisively. She grabbed Jinx's arm and squeezed, crushing her wrist with ease, and before Jinx could even cry out in pain Starfire gave a savage twist, breaking the young criminal's arm in three more places. She then tossed Jinx, almost casually, against one of the other alley walls. Jinx hit her head as she fell, and between that and the pain from her injuries she finally passed out. Starfire stood over the beaten girl and smiled grimly, raising a fist and surrounding it with green energy with a thought.
"And now it is over," Starfire whispered, and drew back her hand to strike, but before she could a green-gloved hand came out of nowhere and closed over her forearm. Starfire looked over her shoulder and met a pair of masked eyes.
"Robin? What are you…?"
"Starfire, what have you done?" Robin interrupted as he stared at the badly beaten heap that was Jinx.
"Robin, I…"
"Get back to the tower to cool off. We'll talk about this later," Robin interrupted again, then turned to the other Titans and fired off a rapid sequence of orders. "Raven, do what you can to heal the worst of Jinx's injuries. Cyborg, call an ambulance. Beast Boy, see to the hostage—she's probably in shock, talk her down." They each nodded in turn and silently went about their tasks, but Starfire simply stood with a confused expression on her face.
"Robin, I do not understand, why are you…" she began, but once again Robin interrupted her.
"I said get back to the tower!" he shouted angrily. "Why are you still here?" Starfire frowned with confusion and flew off, feeling betrayed.
The ambulance soon arrived and took over where Raven had left off—Jinx was still in serious condition, but her life was no longer in danger. Beast Boy had guided the stunned former hostage to where the police were securing the area, and had gotten her a blanket and a mug of tea. Amidst all the excitement, nobody noticed that the rain had stopped.
OOO
Robin sighed and opened the door to his office. As he expected, Starfire was waiting for him—she stood up and looked at him expectantly as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.
"You wished to speak to me, Robin?" she asked innocently, almost hesitantly. Robin gritted his teeth and hardened his resolve, remembering what had just happened, before he began.
"Starfire, when you were in that robot the other day, I know you said nothing happened, but is there any way it might have done something to you?" he asked. He was speaking slowly, choosing each of his words as carefully as possible. "A hypodermic needle you didn't notice, some sort of hypnotic suggestion, a ray of some kind—anything that might have altered your behaviour in some way?"
"Well, I will admit that I was panicking perhaps more than a little, but I do not recall any such device being used upon me," Starfire said with a small frown. "Besides, I am a Tamaranean—there are few on this planet who know of the existence of my people, much less enough about Tamaranean physiology to effect such an alteration." She paused and looked thoughtfully at Robin, her frown deepening. "Why do you ask? Is there something about my behaviour that you find odd?"
"Starfire, you nearly killed Jinx tonight!" Robin cried. "The only reason she's still alive is because Raven poured most of her power into healing her—Raven nearly collapsed she was so exhausted! Have you forgotten about that already?"
"No, I have not forgotten," Starfire stated evenly. "And Raven need not have exerted herself so."
"What? Starfire, if she hadn't, Jinx would have died!"
"That is a bad thing?"
Robin stopped and stared in horror at Starfire, hoping that it was all some sick attempt at a joke, but she just stood there, looking at him with a quizzical expression on her face.
"Of—of course it's a bad thing, Starfire!" Robin almost shouted when he finally found his voice again. "You're talking about murder! We're supposed to be protecting people and upholding the law, we can't go around playing judge, jury, and executioner! We have to let the law handle her!"
"Send her back to jail, you mean?"
"Yes! That's exactly what I mean!"
"And this jail, its purpose is to contain or reform criminals, correct?"
"Yes!"
"Then this jail does not succeed. Your 'law' fails, Robin."
"What?" Robin's mouth fell open in shock.
"The law you uphold fails," Starfire repeated. "It does not do what is necessary to ensure the safety of those who live under its protection. We have put Jinx and her comrades in jail many times, yet they have never reformed, nor does it appear that they will do so at any point in the foreseeable future. Also, jail does not seem to be able to contain them, for they always escape to hurt more people. You say you wish to protect people—it seems the only way to do that is to remove the threat, not submit it over and over to some ineffectual 'law'. On Tamaran, when a violent criminal reoffends, there is only ever one punishment: immediate execution. When I first arrived here, I disagreed with that practice, believing it to lack compassion, but now, having seen the painful inadequacy of your compassionate law, I see that the only way to ensure the safety of the innocent is to eliminate those who would harm them."
She held Robin's gaze throughout the entirety of her speech, her face hard, her head held high, letting her royal heritage show in every aspect of her tone and body language. She seemed so certain, but he still just had to check one last time.
"So you don't regret what you did?" Robin asked.
"My only regret is that you stopped me," Starfire replied. Robin sighed resignedly—he had hoped that that would not be her answer, but now he knew that anything he might say as her friend would be futile. He let go of his shock, his disappointment, his sense of betrayal. He knew what he had to do. This was business.
"Starfire, are you a Titan?" he asked quietly.
"I beg your pardon?" Starfire said, the slightest hint of uncertainty intruding into her expression. Robin looked directly into her eyes, his face grim.
"I said, are you a member of this team?"
"I…Yes, Robin, I do not…"
"Then as team leader, I am giving you a direct order: never, ever repeat what you did to Jinx tonight, under any circumstances," Robin said, no louder than before but with a commanding tone that Starfire had never heard him use before. "If you use what I regard to be unnecessary force again, you will be off the team. Do you understand?"
"Robin, I…"
"Do you understand?"
He had raised his voice. Only to a normal speaking volume, but until he had, Starfire had not been aware of just how quietly he had been talking, and the effect was considerable. Her regal posture deflated slightly, and she found herself no longer able to meet his eyes.
"I understand," Starfire said, fuming inwardly. Robin nodded and turned away to look out of the window at the Jump City skyline, folding his hands behind his back. He paused for a moment to let the sight of the city, visible this late in the evening only as a darker shadow against the night sky, calm him before continuing.
"I want you to report to Cyborg in the infirmary first thing in the morning for a full physical," Robin ordered. "If there is something wrong with you, I want to know it. And if there isn't, well, I want to know that, too. Other than that, however, you will be confined to your room for a full week. I do not want to have to enforce this. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," Starfire muttered as she glowered at his back.
"Good. You are dismissed."
Starfire turned stiffly on her heel and marched out of the room, leaving Robin standing alone, staring out the window. He heard the door slide closed behind him, and then a dull thump as Starfire punched the wall a moment later.
OOO
There is blood on all the shoes you've worn
From the people you've been stepping on
There is blood in all the things you say
I won't hate you if you go away
-From "Blood on Our Hands", by Death From Above 1979.
-End Chapter Three-
Author's Note: How's this for Starfire being out of character? I say, God damn!
I've been delayed for quite a while, as some may have noticed. This is mostly because of school starting up again, as well as some unfortunate circumstances that went along with that. In other words, my computer konked out on me. Word to the wise: letting a computer sit in someone's basement all summer, unused, might be a bad idea. Also, spyware is the devil. But anyway, I've got my computer back, so here I go again. On my own. It's a song reference, people!
About Beast Boy's movie choices: "Angry Dave: Beyond the Lightning Sphere" is a reference to "Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome"; "Those!" is a reference to the classic giant radioactive ants movie "Them!"; and "The Flea" is a reference to "The Tick", which I would heartily recommend in either its cartoon or live action form. The live action show was a bit more mature, by the way, and did only run for nine episodes.
About Raven reading Harry Potter: I swear that when I wrote this part it was actually topical. That's what I get for taking so long, I guess.
About my take on Raven's powers: I'm making this shit up as I go.
About the Hive Five: I have to say, out of all of the so-called Hive Five, I think Jinx has the most potential for development as a character. Gizmo is kind of overexposed in the show, Mammoth is just the big dumb strong guy (although bringing his sister Shimmer in might be interesting…), Private Hive is the other dumb strong guy (not as strong, but he has a shield!), and See-More is just a walking, talking X-ray Specs joke. Maybe it's just by comparison, but Jinx seems a lot more interesting. Or maybe I just like evil girls. (A wise man would, of course, know that there is no other kind of girl—however, an even wiser man would know better than to say that so girls might hear. I'm going to go board up my door now.) Anyway, I kind of see the Five as an even more dysfunctional reflection of the Titans, although exactly who would correspond to whom in that scheme is kind of a mystery to me. In addition to that, my take on the Five is that they are a team of superpowered teen delinquents—not really supervillains per se, at least not in the sense of Slade or even Brother Blood, but kind of like a little club formed by a bunch of unemployed evil minions who all just happen to be too young to buy alcohol.
On Robin's use of stealth: I am most definitely of the school of thought that thinks Batman kicks ass. Ninja stealth shit is just cool in general, and I'm a bit irritated that Robin doesn't make more use of that in the show. Then again, he is wearing red, yellow, and green. Not the best choice of colours for the uniform of a sidekick to a dark, brooding, stealthy superhero, if you ask me. But, of course, Bob Kane didn't, me not having been born yet, and all. That bastard. (I'm just kidding—Mr. Kane is my good buddy. I call him B-Dog.) (I'm just kidding about that, too.)
On Robin's behaviour at the end: Let's cut right to the chase here—I see Robin as a warrior, plain and simple. And in the Sun Tzu's Art of War sense, too, not that crazy honour-obsessed crap sense. He's a dedicated guy doing a tough job that regularly puts his life in danger. This being the case, he can't afford to be slack about his work—if there's something that is a threat or a liability, he has to deal with it as efficiently as possible, or he'll probably die. This leads to a kind of 'military discipline' approach. Now, the other Titans are his friends, so they're usually spared this kind of thing since he can talk to them as friends without having to pull rank, as it were, but if that fails, like it does here, he won't hesitate to resort to using his authority as team leader. This is not the Robin who lost his temper and argued like a child with Cyborg in "Divide and Conquer" (which is one of my least favourite episodes, by the way).
To My Reviewers:
StarSoSweet: Thanks. I guess Star's not so sweet now, is she! Ha ha! God, I need to get out more.
TDG3RD: Starfire-related strangeness abounds! Psychosis, anyone? Thanks.
Blackbird: After this, now I really wouldn't want to get Starfire pissed off at me. It's true about the differences between the comic and cartoon versions of her, as well as a lot of the other characters, actually. I've started reading more DC stuff now, so I'm seeing a lot more of these characters outside of the show, and sometimes they are very different.
Stollhofen125: Thanks. Hopefully it won't take me so damn long to get my next chapter up.