Chapter 3: Abnormal Behavior

Jinx sat on the shore of Jump City, squeezing out her hair and looking rather disgruntled (actually, that was an understatement). Her eyes, narrow and fiery, never left sight of her partner.

Kid Flash sat a few feet away, soaking wet and smiling nervously. "Eh-heh… sorry…" He feared blinking, afraid that some bad luck would befall him if he closed his eyes for a moment.

She scrunched her face up, hardening her glare. "Stupid."

"Yeah, I know…" He sighed, rubbing his neck and looking away at Titans Tower somberly. "I know… I think I get it by now."

She shook her head, and her cotton-candy pink locks of hair flew up again into its original devil-horn position. She ran her fingers through it a few times just to make sure every strand was in place.

Kid Flash pulled his mask off and shook his head, strands of damp, red-orange hair falling upon his forehead. She looked up in half interest. "So, that's what you look like without your mask, huh?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I guess you don't really care if your enemies see your face, huh? So much for secret identities."

He smiled sheepishly, his cheeks and the edges of his ears flushing pink. "Yeah… It feels really weird when it's wet. I can't help it." He squeezed out a large amount of water, almost an unnatural amount from the yellow piece of cloth and then shook it out. "It was annoying me."

"You don't seem to be the type that's annoyed by anything," Jinx replied dully, staring out at the water. The sun made it glitter like diamonds sat atop it. "You're always so… I don't know… peppy."

"It annoys me that you can open up to me and then shut the doors," He told her, lying down in the sand.

She frowned at him. "Why should I open up to you?"

"Aren't we, I dunno, friends?" He asked.

"What gave you that idea? We're only partners until I get my friends back. You have the location. Shouldn't we go there?" She responded bitterly.

"You know, I might be fast, but I'm not going to go rushing into things. We need to have a plan," He told her simply, hiding his sadness about her cruel response. He wondered if she was this mean to her other friends too. Probably not.

"-but our plan will mean nothing if we don't know what we're up against. We need to do some researching first, I think," Jinx replied, crossing her arms.

"We do know what we're up against though. We know we're against Madame Rouge, a shape-shifting rubber lady with black hair, blue eyes, and a real attitude problem along with a thick accent. She's also fond of the color red, note the word rouge in her name, and is currently staying in a large abandoned church that was built in the gothic style back in I believe the 1800's. It's got great stained glass windows in it."

"Why do you know this?" Jinx asked him after a moment of silence.

"I… pass that church sometimes when I go get pizza from New York," He said after a moment, paling ever so slightly.

Jinx rolled her eyes. The boy could so unwillingly brag about his speed. "Well, either way, we'd better get out of here before the titans come to get us."

Kid Flash stood, pulling his mask on again. As he brushed the sand off of his back he said, "I agree. Lets go back to your place and do some researching and then build up a plan."

"-but you said-" She began.

"We're partners… I respect your decisions as much as my own. You want to have more information before we make a plan, which I think is a very smart idea, so we will." He smiled brightly, his eyes glimmering like the sea.

Jinx sputtered incoherent words, then pouted, blushing. He knew how to push her buttons, and she hated that severely. Her rage quickly died away with nowhere else to go.

"Fine," She finally said. "Let's go."

"OKAY!" He sang, nabbing her and zooming off into the city, leaving a dusty cloud of sand behind him.

-

Kid Flash and Jinx spent the next several long hours researching the castle, Madame Rouge, and ways to stop her. Despite the occasional joke from the boy or snide remark from the frustrated girl, they were completely and seriously engulfed in their work. Soon enough the sun was setting in the horizon, leaving the sky a hazy pink and orange and the once clean table was now covered in notebook paper filled with information that they had found, architectural drawings of the building, and maps of all the ways to get there without being spotted..

Kid Flash leaned back his head so that his neck was rested on the couch and his eyes were toward the ceiling. "Phew…"He exhaled. "Man."

"We're more prepared now than we would have been," Jinx said tiredly, rubbing her eye with her fist. She was exhausted but felt accomplished. "Now we aren't walking in and handing our lives to her. All we have to do now is plan our attack which should be simple enough I guess. We have to find out where we're entering from, what we're going to bring…" She yawned, then glanced at him.

He had leaned over with his hand on his forehead. "Man… my head hurts…" He mumbled. "I've been thinking too hard, I think-"

"Stop thinking so hard then, and actually get some sleep… tonight…" She yawned again.

"I haven't been sleeping well for the past couple of days, I guess… well, the whole week…" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"How come?" She queried, cocking her head to the side. He was acting a bit peculiar suddenly.

He looked up, his eyes tired. "Uh… no reason…" He let out a weak laugh that seemed more forced than anything. In fact, he almost looked guilty for something.

It was obvious that he was lying, but she was too sleepy to push the matter any further at this moment in time. The speed-demon could most likely argue with her until the sun came up, went down, and came up again, and since he had the tendency to talk quickly, she would probably lose track of what they were doing in the first place.

He's acting really weird, She thought, raising an eyebrow while watching him from the corner of her eye. Weirder than usual even… if that's possible…I wonder what's up with him? He won't tell me if I ask, so maybe I can word my way around to it.

She sat there for a moment, trying to decide on what to say. "It's kinda weird, you know…" She said, deciding that this would be the best way to start the conversation and to get his attention. If she got anything out of this, at least she'd learn something about the boy who just happened to be staying in her lair.

"Huh?" He asked curiously. "What do you mean? What's kinda weird, Jinx?"

"How you just happened to show up when I needed help," Jinx commented, raising an eyebrow. "At that time of night, wouldn't a boy like you be at home?" Most likely not, she knew, but it made her statement sound a bit less suspicious.

His ocean-water eyes widened a bit before a hurt expression touched his features. "H-home?… I… I don't really have a permanent one… right now…" He turned away, fiddling with his fingers. The guilt on his face now seemed apparent.

"Do your parents hate you too? Can't say I don't know how you feel…" Jinx replied somberly, staring at the computer screen. Why would his parents hate him? He could run fast, which was a really cool power. She brought bad luck to everyone she knew. There was no reason for him to not be liked… well, except that he was annoying, but that was only to her.

"No… my mother doesn't hate me…" He mumbled, as if he didn't want her to hear anything about his mother.

"Then where-" Jinx began, feeling as if she was on to something.

"I think I'll make sure the security system's in check! See you in the morning!" He zoomed away before she could say anything, almost frantically. She was left staring at the spot where he once was, hair frazzled and out of place, a puff of dirt still hovering in the air.

"What with the panic?" She wondered aloud. "Whatever… I'll ask him in the morning. Maybe then he'll tell me what's bugging him. Idiot." With that, she turned on her heel and headed off to bed. Nuisances like this were the last thing she needed to worry about. Her teammates were her main priority right now, and besides… whether she wanted to or not, she knew that she could trust Kid Flash…

-

Kid Flash leaned against the wall outside the door, waiting for her to go to bed. As soon as he saw the light from her window flicker off, he heaved a sigh of exasperation. "What have I gotten myself into?" He whispered sadly, lifting the wire of the security in his hands. He removed a pair of scissors from seemingly nowhere and cut the wire in half. He closed his eyes and frowned at his handy work. "More importantly… what am I going to do?"

His communicator on his belt began blinking, and he grabbed it impatiently. "Yes?" He asked flipping it open.

"It's about time I can get a signal from you, boy. It took you long enough. Have you captured her yet?" A woman's voice holding a thick accent asked, rather irritably.

"I'm bringing her right to you tomorrow," He stated seriously. "Count on it."

"Good. Don't delay any longer or it's the end, understood?"

"Yes, I understand completely," He said quickly, anxiously. "D-don't you worry about a thing. I won't l-let you down."

"Good, and stop stuttering you blithering imbecile."

"Yes, ma'am."

The line cut off.

He closed it and sighed once more, staring up at the heavens as the sun slivered away and the gemstone stars danced their way into the darkness.

He shouted, throwing down his communicator and stomping on it. It was too strongly made to break. He sighed and fell back against the wall again, feeling as if the very stars were scolding him. "I hope you can forgive me for this…"

Jinx obliviously snoozed away in her bed, a small smile placed upon her lips.