Seriatim (A Sminx One-Shot)
The hallway before her was dark.
It was late; past midnight. It was only natural for the stillness to befall the corridor in such a state. The living room and kitchen were deserted, her teammates fast asleep in their designated dorms. A thin silence deafened the tower, a haunting quietness that sent unexplainable chills dancing up and down her spine, and for probably the millionth time that night, Jinx wondered what she was really doing.
It wasn't like her, this sense of indignation, this righteous and bubbly feeling she felt in her gut whenever he was around. She was a born villain, a member of the H.I.V.E 5. It was impossible for her to be feeling what she was. Especially to someone like him. Going weak in the knees, spending every minute of her waking time thinking of him instead of plotting her gang's next heist, it was a miracle the others hadn't caught on.
No, actually, she corrected herself with a quiet scoff, it wasn't really a miracle at all. Her teammates weren't exactly the epitome of knowledgeable when it came to such things as teenage hormones. Billy was far too interested in goofing off, playing video games and eating too much pizza with his going-on-a-hundred clones in his extremely immature way. Mammoth was too busy learning how to bake and beat the living daylights out of a pound cake. Gizmo was too young to understand anything of what she was going through and even if he did, she really did not have an interest in being addressed as a "lousy, mushy snot-brain" so early in the morning. Kyd Wykkyd was…well…Kyd Wykkyd. Of course, he was probably the closest thing Jinx was going to ever find, however, having found a girlfriend in another HIVE student named Angel. But there was still the problem with the communication barrier between them, the one that only Seemore so far had managed to decipher. So, in the end, he would be no help to her either, even if he did know the answers to all of her questions.
Jinx sighed crestfallenly, wrapping her arms around herself and continuing her trudge down the tower to the lower deck. She let her feet carry her aimlessly as her mind wandered to the events of the previous day. Visible wreckage still remained, dangling from the walls and littering the floor from Kid Flash's grand escape, and Jinx cautiously stepped across a pile of tangled wires Gizmo had been fretting and groaning over earlier.
A large hole in the far wall allowed a gust of cold air to ventilate through the corridor and she shivered again, pulling the collar of her shirt closer and bowing her head as she rounded another corner and unlocked the automatic doors leading to the kitchen. Perhaps there she would find some peace and quiet away from the thin walls separating her from Mammoth's ghastly snores where she would finally be able to sort through the absolute chaos and misfortune that had befallen her team.
She yawned shamelessly, not bothering to cover her exhaustion as she stumbled inside and half-heartedly reached for the light-switch belonging to the dim stovetop bulb, only for her fingers to brush the latch in an upward position.
The light was already on.
And someone was already there.
Wiping away the blurred tiredness from her eyes, Jinx was just able to make out the mash of a green and white uniform and the half-embarrassed grin of her second-in-command as he prepared to take a bite out of a sandwich nearly as large as his head. It did not fully surprise her to find him here at this hour (he was often a restless sleeper, especially after one of Kyd's horror movie marathons such as one they had had earlier the night before, because honestly the boy had no stomach for blood whatsoever) but that did not stop her from skidding to a screeching halt and glaring at him with enough intensity to melt all of Titan's Tower from its foundation and send it careening into a watery grave where it belonged.
"What are you doing up?" she barked, sending the teen cowing back behind his sandwich and guiltily kicking the refrigerator door closed behind him, wincing noticeably as the cabinets above, dangling haphazardly by a few measly screws, shook dangerously.
"Uh…sandwich?" Seemore answered dumbly, holding up the deli turkey and tomato sub, dripping with mayonnaise for her to see as though that would explain everything.
Jinx wrinkled her nose at the sight and pinched the bridge of her nose impatiently. "I don't have time for this tonight," she muttered. "I just wanted some peace and quiet," she went on under her breath, crossing her arms and moving to flick the light back off and leave her teammate groping in the dark.
The meta-human seemed to sense something was up. Immediately, he set his snack down and scooted over on the island to make room for her to sit down. "Jinx?" he inquired, suddenly sounding very concerned, "is everything all right?"
"Everything's fine," she huffed, not bothering to make it sound like everything was okay. "I'm just…" She didn't know how to put into words how she was feeling. Excited? Exasperated? Angry? A little bit of both? All three? It was impossible to tell with all of these emotions boiling around inside of her.
"You're thinking about the speedster again, aren't you?" Seemore guessed as Jinx reluctantly nodded and slowly began moving to stand near the freezer, forcing her teammate to complete a one-eighty in his seat to face her. "You know he was just trying to get into your head, right? That's all those superheroes do. They ain't good for nothing other than getting in our way. You taught us that, remember?"
"Yes, I remember," Jinx grunted, ignoring the shelves behind her. "It was back during the time when we were at the academy and St—Cyborg—tricked us into believing we could trust him. And that's all heroes are good for. Lies and trickery. And they call us the villains. But that's not the point! Kid Flash isn't like the Titans! He's…almost…" Again, the words she was looking for would not come to her.
"Almost the same as us?" Seemore guessed. "And you do hear yourself right now, don't you? He stopped us from robbing that museum! Twice! He almost got us arrested and because of him, Madam Rouge almost took us all out of existence!"
"No, Madam Rouge was my fault," Jinx snapped back. "A stupid mistake that he tried to warn me about and I didn't listen."
"So he tried to warn you," Seemore sighed. "That still doesn't mean he can be trusted! He could turn on you at any moment. Are you really willing to risk our safety—your safety—on someone like that? What if he turns us all in to the cops? Are you willing to go to jail for him?"
"Yes," Jinx decided conclusively.
"Oh…" At this, her teammate seemed to deflate. He went back to eyeing his sandwich and picking at a loose shred of tomato halfheartedly. "Well, if you're sure, then I guess there's nothing left to talk about. I'll…just take this back to my room and let you have your space to simmer. See you later, I guess." He stood up and picked up his plate, beating a hasty retreat past her and disappearing into the black void of the tower.
Jinx blinked, caught off guard by his briskness. "Hang on," she called, spinning on the heels of her boots to glower at the dark hallway. "Seemore, wait a minute."
His one radiant lime eye peered from the shadows. "Yes?"
Jinx pretended not to hear the hopeful desperation in his tone as she struggled to find the best way to phrase what was on her mind. "You know that I'll never abandon you guys, right? You, Kyd, Mammoth, even Billy and Gizmo, you all are my family. Kid Flash is just a momentary distraction, an insignificant fling that means nothing to me."
She spotted his rueful smile and recognized its falsity instantly. "If only that were true." He went on before she could demand an explanation. "You like him, Jinx, and it's doing something to you. You're different now. I don't know, kinder than you were before."
"I'm not." Was she? The thought sent another set of shivers through her body.
"But you are," he argued. "For example, when you walked in tonight, you didn't immediately throw something at my face for leaving the refrigerator door open again."
The pink-haired girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. "That's because you're so pathetic that I felt bad for threatening to break you in half."
"You felt bad?" Even with the helmet, she could see his expression grow even more grim, though she didn't understand why. Would he have preferred she pound him senseless? He was a meta-teen, not indestructible, and she was exceptionally good at breaking things. Ribs and wrists, especially.
"Yes," she growled, "but now I am beginning to feel increasingly less so."
He backed off immediately, well accustomed to her warning signs. "Just be careful," he admonished. "Be sure that this is really what you want, because if this is the life you choose to pursue, there will be no going back."
Fear and determination filled her as she nodded. Satisfied (or, perhaps just sensing the conversation was over), Seemore mimicked her gesture before turning once more to the shadows.
"Hey, Seemore?"
He paused a second time. "Jinx?"
"Can you…not tell the others about this? Not yet. I…think I need a little more time to figure this out."
"You know they'll figure it out sooner or later."
"I know. But I want to be the one to tell them."
"I won't say anything. I promise."
"Thank you. And don't worry, this is only a temporary thing. I'll never leave you guys for those lame heroes."
"Let's hope not. I don't think I could run fast enough to escape you if you ever turned good." Or would want to, came the unsaid confession neither of them were brave enough to voice.
"You won't have to. Good night, Seemore. And thanks. You're a really good listener, you know that?"
"Good night, Jinx. And anytime."
The armed explosive landing smack-dab into the middle of the fight provided him with just enough time to make his grand escape.
In hindsight, he felt absolutely terrible for leaving his friends behind to be cryofrozen by the Teen Titans and co. but he'd spotted his chance and he'd taken it, determined not to meet the same fate. It was the Academy's oldest lesson; Survival 101, in the end, every man for himself. And with Jinx's betrayal and aid in capturing the rest of the H.I.V.E, he was certainly not going to let her catch him. Especially not now.
So, it definitely didn't bode well for him that both his former teammate and her new inhuman-ly fast boyfriend were in hot pursuit and, he realized with a panicked glance over his shoulder, gaining more and more ground every second. Of course they would have noticed his attempts to escape. They had probably pegged him the moment they'd cryofreeze four superhumans instead of five. At least one of the Titans must have been smart enough to count.
Blast those Titans.
And blast Jinx for putting him in this position in the first place; forcing him to run for his life through the dark and long-deserted streets of Jump City.
Ca-clink.
His foot collided with an empty tin can and he visibly recoiled at the reverberating sound, twisting away from the main street toward a series of maze-like allies where he could easily lose his pursuers and retreat back into the shadows until all of this insanity with the Brotherhood of Evil was over.
He hoped.
"KF! He went this way! Down the alley!"
Seemore hissed under his breath and willed his legs to move faster. Desperately, he reached for his helmet to try once again to summon an eye-balloon to pull him away from the madness unfurling throughout the city. Just as before, nothing came. His powers were malfunctioning and he had half a glimmer of suspicion that it might have been the result of Jinx's special ability. Bad luck. It had almost been enough to laugh at once. Now he was seriously beginning to wonder why he had ever brushed it off as such a trifle power.
One way or another, it seemed as though the bubble-gum-haired girl was going to be the death of him.
Oh, why him? Why couldn't they have just let him go, let him run back to what was left of HIVE's tower with his tail between his legs? Or why couldn't Jinx have just confronted him in a calm, "I told you so," manner that didn't involve him being frozen like that old Demolition Man movie? He wasn't the real threat. He hadn't even wanted to join the Brotherhood after she'd left, but Gizmo had wanted to carry on and he had been elected leader by the others. He was just a dude from Manhattan who liked to rob computer stores for thrill.
Then again, there hadn't really been any thrill to the hunt since Jinx had left.
And he certainly found no enjoyment being the hunt.
Come on, come on, he growled as he ran into yet another door, tugging frantically at the knob, praying that it would somehow miraculously be unlocked (though it was after two in the morning and most of the citizens in this city weren't that stupid) or he'd find a way to summon enough willpower to yank it from its hinges.
Neither of these options happened and the footsteps echoing down the alley pattered against the cobblestone.
They were upon him now and he was out of time.
Adrenaline exploding through his being, he spun headlong to face his attacker, raising his fists; his last line of defense, a futile attempt, but at least he would go out swinging. He was the last member of the H.I.V.E. He wasn't going to go down without a—
The streak of red and yellow suddenly shot past, slamming against his side hard enough to unbalance him. He twirled to follow the speedster, only for the blur to rocket past him again, only on his opposite side this time, sending him crashing into the solid cement-brick wall. Two triumphant eyes glistened up at him as he was pinned against the alley and the smug grin was one he recognized far too well.
"Well, well!" Kid Flash exclaimed, chuckling as Seemore squirmed uncomfortably against his grasp. "Jinx! I spy with my little eye…someone who really needs to spend some time with his buddies in jail!"
"Let me go!" Seemore snapped back fiercely. He tried to fire his lasers but his powers were still offline. That could only mean one thing…
He twisted his head at the sound of a super slow, super dramatic clapping and his heart dropped as the familiar girl stepped forward from the darkness, the world's most bored expression on her face. "Yeah, yeah," Jinx sighed. "Good work. You caught him. Now enough with the dumb one-liners! And set him down. He's not going to run anywhere." She gave the villain a firm glare that either petrified every muscle in his body to obey or mentally forced him to submit. Either way, he gulped and nodded quickly. He was defeated. There was no point in trying to fight it.
Not like this.
Not powerless.
"Jinx? What are you doing?" he tried, his words hitching frantically at the ends as Flash released him and he fell weakly to the pavement. "Did you not see what happened to the others? You can't take me back there! Please!"
"And why shouldn't I?" Jinx demanded. "You betrayed the H.I.V.E. You joined the Brotherhood and tried to destroy the Titans, destroy me! You're no better than the rest of them! No, actually, you're worse. You ran from both sides and I don't know if that makes you the greatest villain to ever come out of the academy or the most stupid."
"You're the one who wanted us to get into that dumb organization in the first place!" Seemore cried despairingly. "We only did it because we thought you'd might consider coming back and being our leader again!"
"Well, I didn't!" Jinx roared, the purpose of the chase seemingly forgotten in the moment as the two former friends sized each other up and Kid Flash took a cautious step back toward his girlfriend. "And you were a fool to think that I would! I told you that I was happy becoming a hero and you said you saw a change in me. I don't understand why you—any of you—thought that joining the literal most evil organization in the word was at all a good idea!"
"Well, because—" he began to protest.
"No, that's okay. Save it. I'm not interested in hearing what you have to say. You're going back to prison like everyone else and the other Titans will decide whether or not to freeze you until you come to your senses."
"But I already have!" he exclaimed, shooting Kid Flash desperate looks. Surely she wasn't serious! She was supposed to be a good guy now! Good guys did not send bad guys like him to their deaths! That would make them just as bad as him and that in turn would make him the good guy.
And all of this backwards logic was beginning to give him a migraine.
"I didn't attack you back at the base!" he rushed on when Jinx gave him a disbelieving stare. "When the others all decided to try and wipe your team out, I only fought back when provoked! Jinx, you know me! I'm not a bad guy! Misunderstood and easily hurt, yeah, sure! But I never wanted this, to see the world in ruins! I just wanted to rob convenience stores and maybe occasionally steal a lollypop from a baby!"
"Dude," Kid Flash groaned. "That's just gross. Don't you know where those things have been?"
"KF," Jinx groaned. "Not helping."
"Oops," the hero rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, right. Sorry."
"I don't want to send you back to be frozen," the pink-haired girl confessed, shooting her new teammate a look to which he responded with a shrug. "But I don't think it's a good idea for you to be allowed to remain on the streets. You've already proven yourself to be a thief. A petty one, but still a thief and the Titans would have my head for letting you roam free."
"So, what do you propose then?" Seemore asked, the tightness in his chest beginning to loosen slightly as her words began to sink in. She was…she was letting him go? No, that couldn't be right. This had to be a trap. It was a Titan's specialty. That's all it could be.
"I'm going to give you one chance, Seemore," Jinx decided and Kid Flash beamed proudly. "One chance to straighten up and get your life back on track. Go to school. Find some new friends. Be a normal kid for once. But most importantly, run. Run from this, all of this. Get as far away from this life as fast as you can and don't look back, whatever you do."
"I told you before, I can't run from you."
"I know. But you have to. There's no other choice. You helped me once. You showed me that I could be a hero, even if it meant giving up everything I had ever known. My debt is now paid. We are even. Don't waste it, Seemore."
"Thank you," the boy replied, echoing the familiar words. "Thank you, Jinx. You're…you're a good listener."
"Anytime, Seemore. Now go."
The cyclops stared at her for another moment or two before he took her advice and turned tail and ran, fleeing so quickly that Barry Allen would have been jealous. The two superheroes watched until he was long out of sight before Wally turned to face his girlfriend to point at a shadowy figure hovering on a nearby rooftop. The shadow gave a powerful flick of its long tail and then disappeared into an adjoining alleyway where the teens could no longer view it.
"Was that—" Jinx began.
"Hey, you know what they say about black cats, don't you?" KF laughed, slinging an arm around her shoulders and beginning to lead her back up the alley toward where the other Titans were regrouping to take on Doctor Light.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, that they're bad luck."
"Yes, but also that they grant us the luckiest gift of all. They may be bad luck, but what would we all be without a little jinx?"
A/N: Okay, yeah, I'll admit it, I think Sminx is a very cute ship that might have gone further if the series hadn't been abruptly canceled. I also don't think Seemore is an actual bad guy. I think it was mostly to make Jinx happy. Also, did anyone else notice that in the final fight against the Brotherhood, Gizmo, Kyd, Mammoth, and Billy were all cryofrozen together but Seemore was never there? I rewatched that scene multiple times out of confusion and I wondered if that was intentional planning for something that was going to happen later, since Doctor Light also managed to get away.
Anyway, this is what I think happened after that scene and now I shall continue to wonder for all eternity what would have happened next. The world shall never know.
