Dark Titans – Arc 4 – Titan Rising!
Chapter 8
Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't
Terra sat on her bed, legs tucked tightly to her chest, ankles crossed and chin pressed firmly on her knees. The pale, desert motif of her room offered small comfort as she rocked slowly back and forth, Beast Boy's words continuing to ring through her ears.
'Pfft! Ryo isn't that great . . . The only thing he's really got goin' for him is his mad 'foo skills.'
Why would he say something like that? She'd thought Beast Boy liked Ryouga . . . but now she was confused. If Beast Boy could act so friendly around Ryouga, just to talk like that behind the guy's back . . . well, what could he be saying about Terra behind her back?
She had been simply amazed by Ryouga. So strong, so fast, so - so everything , but if the person that had saved her life didn't measure up, what did that say about her?
Sighing loudly, she flopped back to lay on her bed. Maybe she'd be lucky and her dreams wouldn't be filled with fire for a change.
The sudden braying of an alarm, quickly followed by the beeping of the communicator on her nightstand shattered her hopes for pleasant dreams. She stared uncertainly at the device. Whatever the emergency was, she could only make it worse anyway, so there was no point in even picking it up . . .
Still, curiosity was a powerful force.
With a flick of her wrist, she flipped open the lid just in time to catch the tail end of Robin's call for aid. Just as she'd expected, there was no call for her to join the battle; another night of warming the bench awaited her, again. Honestly, she wondered if Robin and the others would ever trust her enough to put her back on duty.
Heck, she still hadn't decided if going back on duty was what she even wanted.
"And that means you, Terra! It's time for your first test!"
Lost in thought as she'd been, she could only stare at the tiny face of her 'master', shock evident on her features. Her first test? Ryouga thought she was ready for her first test already?
A myriad of emotions washed over her at once: dread, trepidation, fear, a rumbling in her tummy - she wasn't enough of an emotion expert to know what that last one was, but she didn't like it. Still, all of those feelings paled as she sat up, hugging herself. All she could think as she stared at her narrow knees was:
He actually trusts me!
Getting into uniform and making her way to the garage all seemed to happen in a blur, punctuated by loud shouts of congratulations from Cyborg and supportive smiles from Beast Boy as she found herself swept into the T-Car.
The drive was equally hazy. Any attempts at conversation were met with monosyllabic responses. Every inch of the drive saw her mind consumed with thoughts of what could possibly be coming next. Who would they be fighting? Would it be dangerous? Would she lose control?
Would she end up hurting her friends again?
She didn't even register the looks of concern on her companion's faces as she stared vacantly out the window, biting down on the thumb of her heavy leather glove the entire trip. The only reason she noticed their arrival at the chemical plant was from Raven gently pulling her out of the car.
The first sight she saw, aside from the massive, sprawling structure of the chemical plant in the distance, was not something she'd wanted to see.
Robin and Ryouga arguing.
Even from a distance, the heated expressions and waving arms made it more than obvious they were fighting about something. All that closing that distance did was confirm her fears of just what it was they were fighting about.
"-far too dangerous, I can't allow it!" Robin barked loudly.
"Too dangerous? It's just one guy, Robin. This is the perfect chance to test Terra's training. I can't have everyone interfering and getting in her way!" Ryouga fired back.
Even as Terra wondered what they could be arguing about beyond her involvement, Raven glided up beside her. The darker Titan was wearing a tight lipped frown as she muttered to herself. "Surely he can't be suggesting that."
"There is no way that I'm letting Terra fight an unknown threat alone. I wouldn't allow it even if she wasn't in such an unpredictable state. Putting her in that kind of situation is just reckless." Robin leaned forward, eye mask narrowed, and practically daring Ryouga to argue against his logic.
Of course, not being the greatest advocate of logic, Ryouga did just that, baring his fangs. "Throwing her into a seven on one dog pile is reckless! We can't keep hiding her from danger forever; she needs real fights if she's ever going to improve."
"You're willing to risk Terra's life on this?" There was a dangerous amount of ice in the smaller teen's voice as Robin leaned forward aggressively into Ryouga's personal space.
Ryouga just looked at him like he was insane. "Of course! Life and death battles are the only way to overcome your limits. . . Damnit, if you're not going to let Terra do this, then why the hell am I even training her?"
A frown creased Robin's face and the Boy Wonder shot Terra a glance out of the corner of his eye mask. He seemed to be struggling with something, for some reason. Frankly, Terra wasn't sure who to root for. Robin still seemed unable to trust her, but at the same time, there was such a thing as too much trust.
Then, in a baffling move, Robin actually nodded. "Fair enough."
Ryouga bulled on hotly. "Robin, she needs to learn- wait - what?"
His sentiment was echoed by a surprised Raven, an incredulous Cyborg, a furious Beast Boy and a terrified Terra. However, Robin ignored them all, donning a smirk as he regarded the Lost Boy. "You're right, Ryouga. We've been progressing carefully with Terra's training so far. Perhaps it's time to take off the kid gloves."
Instantly, Ryouga began to swell up, an incredibly smug look spreading over his face-
"However," Robin cut in sharply, "Not even my mentor was reckless enough to send me into a situation like this on my own."
It seemed as if Robin was draining the smugness directly from Ryouga, the smirk on the Boy Wonder's face growing at the same rate which the Lost Boy's shrunk. At the same time, Terra felt her own lips curling up into a smile as well.
"I think it's only fitting that you, as Terra's mentor, should go into the fight with her, to make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Robin explained quite matter-of-factly.
Terra didn't even wait to hear the wryly sarcastic comment that Raven was doubtlessly mere seconds away from making. The geokinetic girl ran forward eagerly and latched onto the bandanna clad boy's arm like a lifeline. "Yeah, come on, Ryouga! It'll be great: A student and her master fighting against all odds . . ."
Terra paused for a moment.
"Umm, what exactly are the odds again? What the heck is this big lunk signing me up for?"
Robin smiled knowingly, then gestured to the chemical plant several dozen yards away from their current position. "We've only spotted one intruder so far, though Starfire is scouting ahead to see if that is actually the case. From the rough look we got, it seems to be a robot . . . Either that or someone in a really big suit. Surely nothing that a master martial artist can't handle."
Responding to the obvious barb, Ryouga crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Robin haughtily. "Feh. Obviously I could handle a weakling like that on my own. However, I won't need to, since Terra here doesn't need any help."
The fanged fighter then spared Terra a brief glance before harrumphing. "Still, for purely observational purposes, it would only make sense for me to go with my prized pupil for . . . um, observational reasons . . ."
Proudly ignoring the amused grins forming on the faces of everyone present, Ryouga then spun tersely, absently dragging Terra around with him. Even as she stumbled to a stop, quickly letting go of his arm and trying to burn a hole through his head with her glare, the master martial artist began to march forward purposefully.
"Come, Pupil. We have a criminal to capture."
Only to come up short, as Cyborg was standing right in front of him, holding up a hand to stop them. "Yo, Ryo - um - two things. First, you might wanna wait for Star to get back in case she spots any more people. Second- "Cyborg pointed to something over their shoulders. "The, uh, the ginormous chemical plant is that way."
It was with a meaty smack that Ryouga slapped his forehead.
The bulky figure moved with surprising grace as he approached the warehouse. The desire, the instinct to just surge forward and tear his way through the fragile wall of the structure pulsed painfully with each step he took, but he suppressed the bestial urges by pure will. He needed to think clearly, or all would be lost.
Stopping before his first target, he studied the large transformer which supplied power to all of the warehouses for several hundred meters in every direction. If he disabled it carefully enough, it would look like little more than a random power outage, likely getting security a bit on edge, but of no real concern to the police.
Reaching out carefully, the shadowy figure . . .
Proceeded to growl furiously and tear the entire damn thing out of the ground before hurling the wildly sparking mass of steel and wire into the distant waters of the Gotham shipping port.
Immediately, he cursed himself for his foolishness. The Plan! Stick to the plan! It would still take time to investigate, now that the lights had died, plunging the entire district into darkness, but the police would surely be called in when this rather glaring clue was found.
Time, he didn't have as much time anymore; he needed to hurry - needed to rush. Moving quickly, the figure loped towards the warehouse that housed his goal. With the power to all of the security systems cut, all he had to do was subdue any guards that might be present before they could radio for help.
A simple enough task, and a snack was always welcome - He shook his head to rid it of the distracting thought. Using his razor claws, he climbed the warehouse adjacent to his target as quietly as he could. Once up, he studied his target from his new perch for a moment.
The sprawling, two story warehouse was solidly built; thin steel walls running between larger support beams with a broad bay of windows running down the entire length of the wall roughly a dozen feet above the ground. With only the light of the moon and the faint glow from the distant heart of Gotham city, the various patches of corrosion which stained the aging structure were difficult to make out, as was the oh-so-inviting skylight adorning the roof.
Not bothering with a running start, the figure tensed the powerful muscles in his legs and launched himself across the twenty foot gap between the buildings easily. Landing with a dull thump, he stalked forward to steal a glance through the skylight . . .
Nothing but darkness greeted him, the pale moonlight failing to illuminate the cavernous interior. His first instinct was to smash through the fragile glass and loot the place . . . But something was wrong.
Where were the flashlights? The guards would have had ample time to get them out, and yet, not a single narrow lance of light cut through the darkness below.
Cautious now, he carefully opened the skylight, the meager lock snapping off with a metallic 'ping'. Landing easily from the two story drop, the intruder began to scan the interior of the warehouse intently. His eyes adjusted quickly to the murky darkness, revealing towering stacks of crates sprawled outward as far as the eye could see.
The only sound he could hear was the rattling 'Hssk' of his own breathing. No footsteps, no calls for help, not even a disgruntled string of curses concerning the power outage. Fortunately for him, sight and sound were not the only tools in his repertoire.
Taking a deep breath, olfactory information from every corner of the structure flowed into him. Slowly, his malformed, discolored lips spread out into an eager smile, revealing a row of raggedly sharp teeth.
"Hsssk - I know you're in here, girlie," he growled ominously, "Why don't you come out where I can see you?"
Sure, it wasn't likely to work, but if he could just get the mysterious female to give even a sign-
A slim figure dropped from the rafters, landing so lightly that he wasn't even sure he would have heard it had his back been turned. That alone confirmed his suspicions on who the strange young woman could be. Stalking forward hungrily, the massive criminal chuckled grimly. "So, the Bat's got himself a new girl scout, does . . . he ?"
His words died in his throat as he got close enough to actually see the girl's bright pink hair, cat like eyes and wicked Cheshire grin. ". . . The hell are you, girlie? Don't tell me Catwoman is recruitin' now, too."
Instantly, the girl's slitted eyes narrowed and she leaned forward to irately bark, "I do not have a cat motif!" A second later, she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him heatedly. "And damnit, look what you did! You made me ruin my awesome, badass entrance."
He could only stare at her, not sure at all what to make of the pretty little thing. The poor girl was rail thin, be lucky if she weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. Sure, she was a bit odd looking, but compared to him, she could be the cover girl for 'Normal Person' magazine. Whatever mental instability that had caused her to confront him like this, he couldn't be bothered to care.
"Go away, kid, ya bother me." He shooed her away dismissively as he began to walk past her down the long aisle formed by the towering piles of cargo. He smirked inwardly at the outraged expression on her delicious looking face as he stalked past her, but several seconds later, the sharp sound of someone snapping their fingers rang throughout the warehouse -
Twin flashes of pink from above were his only warning as suddenly several towers of crates on either side of the aisle suddenly toppled over in his direction. Only heightened reflexes saved him from embarrassment as he leapt backwards mere seconds before hundreds of pounds of engine parts and ladies hats could bury him alive.
Spinning around, he hissed loudly at the strange girl, now perched daintily on the edge of a crate several feet off the ground, her legs crossed demurely before her.
His eyes narrowed as he regarded her; her unusual scent - an odd mix of strawberry shampoo . . . old person and - and week old laundry? - burning itself into his memory. Slowly his lips peeled back to reveal his file sharpened teeth, a low growl rumbling in his throat.
Rather than tremble in fear at his attempt at intimidation, the pink haired girl simply shook her head sadly from side to side. ". . . Looks like your luck just changed for the worse . . . Killer Croc."
Ryouga frowned as Terra led them through the labyrinthine structure that was the chemical plant. As far as the eye could see, corroded pipes filled his vision. Horizontal pipes stretching off into the twilight darkness, vertical pipes rising into the sky. On and on it went, forming an endless jungle of ironmongery; cat walks served as footpaths and open vats of unidentifiable liquids swirled around and around ominously, promising that any fall could be your last.
They were still on the ground floor, having already passed through the outskirts, thankfully, but - "I should be leading us into the fight, not my student," he grumbled to himself.
Terra quickly turned and shushed him. "Starfire said the guy was near the center of the plant. We should be getting close, so would you stop moping already?" she whispered hotly.
Trying to vainly cover his moping, Ryouga scoffed, "And how can you be so sure of that?"
Just as Terra opened her mouth to reply, the horrible squeal of tearing metal filled the air. The horrendous sound was so loud, so grating on the ears, that it couldn't have come from more than fifty feet away.
His protégé's lips curled up into the smuggest smile that Ryouga had seen this side of the Orient.
"Oh, shut up," he muttered flatly.
Rather than press her victory, Terra just turned - a bit more spring in her step than was strictly necessary - and began to move towards the blaring sounds of blatant destruction. After climbing a staircase and traversing a narrow catwalk, they found themselves before one of the proper structures housed within the confines of the steel jungle.
There was very little of the front door left to open, as it looked as if an elephant had just charged through; crumbled concrete and shattered glass scattered everywhere. Taking a few steps beyond the destroyed entrance, though, they found themselves standing in a decidedly generic, sterile looking area which just screamed 'science labs'. Not far down the hall on the left was yet another destroyed doorway, this one a heavy sheet of metal that was quite likely the origin of the earlier ear splitting sound.
Terra turned back to glance Ryouga's way again, a mixed look of fear and excitement on her face. "Two bucks says our buddy is in there now," she whispered.
Ryouga just rolled his eyes. As if he had that kind of money on him . . . Well, actually now that he thought about it, he did have that money card, though he hadn't had much chance to use it lately. It was still odd getting used to not being dirt poor.
"Hey, wait up!" he whispered as he finally noticed that Terra was already moving ahead without him. He caught up to her just as she peeked her head around the shattered doorframe to steal a glance.
A second later, she pulled back and glared at him furiously. "Are you trying to get us killed?" she spat in a hushed tone. "That guy looks like two Cyborgs jammed together and on steroids!"
Scoffing quietly, Ryouga gently pushed his student out of the way and took a peek for himself. A second later, he pulled back as well to stare at Terra. "It's like a Mecha-Lime!"
Terra offered him a completely clueless expression
Shaking his head, he quickly waved off her unspoken inquiry. "Never mind. You're right, though, that guy is huge."
Taking another look into the room, Ryouga appraised the situation. The room itself was quite large; several ceiling tall cylinders of some green liquid took up the far end of the room, while the rest of the walls were lined with research equipment and - disturbingly - cages upon cages of various lab animals, all crying out wildly in fear.
"It's a good thing that Beast Boy isn't here," Terra commented quietly, "He would have completely freaked out."
Standing at the center of the room was their adversary, a large piece of machinery hefted over his head. The . . . person? stood well over eight feet tall and nearly half that wide of gleaming red steel. Large vents on the chest made it look strangely like the grill of a car, making the large A at the center into an unlikely hood ornament. Were it not for the obviously human face sticking out of the massive mechanical behemoth's head, framed by stubby little antenna looking things, Ryouga would have assumed it was a robot.
With a grunt, the oversized criminal spiked the machine into the floor hard enough to embed it over a foot into the solid concrete, shattered steel and masonry flying everywhere.
"Woohoo! This is awesome!"
To his side, Terra rolled her eyes before whispering. "'Woohoo'? What, is this guy trying to destroy the Eighties?"
Before he could reply, the robotic terror lifted his leg, servos whining loudly. A second later, the battle suit wearing villain slammed his foot down onto the remains of the machine, burying the twisted metal all the way up to the knee.
Pulling back again, Ryouga glanced at Terra, who was sporting a perturbed expression. "Well, we can't fight him in there without hurting those animals, and I'd rather fight in an open area," she offered quietly.
Ryouga nodded; he preferred open areas as well, especially when fighting someone that was almost certainly stronger and slower than him. He considered the situation a moment before nodding to himself. He then gestured back towards the way they had just come in.
"Alright, you head outside and find a good vantage point. I'll get his attention and draw him outside."
Terra looked at him dubiously. "How are you gonna do that?"
Ryouga grinned as he pulled off one of his bandannas. "Don't worry, I have a plan."
The young geokinetic stared at the yellow and black bandanna dangling from his hand, then up at him. "What are you gonna do? Offer him accessorizing tips?"
"Just shut up and go already!"
With a soft click and near silent hiss of highly compressed gas, the grappling hook was fired into the darkness above. Several long seconds later, the metallic clatter of steel on concrete signaled that the tool had found purchase. Giving a firm tug to check its hold, he then pressed the retract button. Instantly, the impossibly strong motor in his hand held launcher whined to life, pulling him up the side of the building at break neck speed.
The trail of clues and rumors which he had been following this week had been a bizarre mixture of blatant and subtle. Starting with the explosion at the Iceberg Lounge, which had been impossible to miss, and tapering off to vague rumors of a catty young woman prowling the night.
He climbed up onto the ledge and began sprinting across the roof, easily clearing the chasm between buildings with a single, expert bound before continuing his run.
Gaining any further information had been like pulling teeth. Cobblepot had proven more stubborn than usual, insisting that the explosion had been a minor accident with his 'collection'; the whole time smiling like the cat after a delicious meal of canary.
Another leap landed him on the last tall building before entering the harbor area. A broad street, built to accommodate the cargo laden transports which poured into and out of the harbor, separated him from the huddled masses of warehouses encircling the bay.
Of course, the Penguin was far from his only source of information. The word on the street, as hushed as it was, was that a fight was brewing. It had taken time, but after determining the identity of one of the would be brawlers, Oracle had been able to piece together the time and place soon after.
Apparently an unknown vigilante was gunning for Killer Croc, and every bookie in town was jockeying for a piece of the action.
The caped figure frowned as he scanned the horizon for a good vantage point. A free standing crane, well over two hundred feet tall, was an obvious perch, but would require him to get closer before he could scale it.
Unfortunately, beyond the fact that the challenger was female, any further attempts he might have made to investigate her identity had been frustrated by a baffling string of . . . clothing thefts . . .
He might - 'might' have drawn a connection between the mysterious girl and the string of thefts, but considering the unique nature of the thefts, it seemed unlikely the culprit would be female. And the startling lack of evidence and improbable difficulty of some of the thefts would normally discount a younger perpetrator.
Now running across the roof of one of the warehouses, he pulled his grapnel gun again and fired a line up into the intersecting beams of the towering crane above him. Seconds later, he was being lifted - soaring up into the darkness.
Frankly, the famed detective wasn't sure which alternative was stranger: An improbably skilled girl with a fetish for other women's undergarments, gunning for Killer Croc, or the fact that there could be a completely unknown factor running around his city, who coincidentally arrived right around the time the girl had . . .
With a flip, he lifted himself up and onto the crane's long arm and pulled out a set of binoculars to scan the warehouses below. Everything was unusually dark, and it didn't take him long to find the cause, not with all the sparks the shredded base of the transformer station was giving off.
A sudden thought struck the dark knight with freight train force. It actually baffled him that he hadn't considered it earlier; quite likely a side effect of the frustrating nature of the panty thefts.
A young vigilante arrives in town and immediately begins looking for a brawl with one of Gotham's more dangerous residents. At the same time, a string of crimes begin, some of which would require unbelievable skill to accomplish and leaving not a single trace . . . All of which point to a master of their trade.
It was rare to see in the world of villainy, possibly why he hadn't considered it before, but he, of all people was intimately familiar with the concept of the mentor and the apprentice.
Of course, taking that one extra leap of logic lead him to a vaguely worrisome conclusion: If the apprentice was here for her fight, then her master would likely be -
"So, you must be the infamous Batman I've heard so much about lately."
It was rare for Batman to be surprised, especially by someone whose proximity he had just anticipated, but even he was amazed at how easily he had been approached. He did his best to school his features before turning around - only for his eyes to widen a fraction of an inch at what he saw.
The shrunken, withered, abjectly ancient . . . man? . . . that stared back at him was bordering on the strange, even for his most incredible definition of the word. Still, he lived up to his reputation, retaining his calm perfectly.
"The girl's master, I presume?"
The ancient warrior's eyes widened comically for a moment in response. "What? How did you figure it out so quickly? I made certain to keep as far away from Jinx as possible all week!"
'Actually, you just confirmed my suspicion,' Batman did not say. Rather, he replied in a completely serious tone. "Your . . . crime spree began the very same night that your apprentice interrogated the Penguin. Considering her aggressive approach to finding a dangerous opponent, and the impressive level of skill demonstrated in some of your heists, it wasn't difficult to theorize a master and student relationship."
The master nodded sagely. "Well, you certainly live up to your reputation, Detective. I honestly hadn't expected to be impressed by the man responsible for the training of that wastrel, Robin."
At that, Batman's eyes widened again. How did this person know Robin? And wait, wasn't Jinx one of the young villains whom had crossed his old apprentice's path before? For what possible reason would an ancient master be training a nearly unknown villainess? And why did this person seem to know so much about him as well?
Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Batman regarded his shrunken companion. "I'm afraid that you seem to have me at a bit of a disadvantage."
Only for the ancient master to burst into laughter. A twinkle of mirth in his eyes, the old man replied:
"Oh, you have no idea."
The crate exploded into a shower of wooden splinters and geometry sets mere seconds after Jinx dove to the side. Completing a quick handstand - backflip combination - sticking the landing perfectly - the acrobatic villainess turned to smirk at the snarling freak of nature. With a sharp tug, Killer Crop tore his claws out of the shattered box and turned to glare at her.
"Hssk . . . I get the feelin' that you're gonna cause me no end of trouble if I toy around with you, ain't ya?"
Jinx smiled cutely and nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, you have no idea."
At her admission, Killer Croc nodded to himself. "Hmm, thought so . . ." Tapping his chin, Croc's eyes narrowed dangerously as he studied her. "Unfortunately for you, Girly, I ain't in the mood to play around!"
Suddenly, in an unexpected burst of speed, the enormous crocodile man surged forward, his pallid, grey scales almost dissolving into the near pitch blackness surrounding them. Jinx side stepped quickly, only to spin pivot on her left foot and lash out with a devastating spinning back kick to Killer Croc's ribs as he passed.
A second later, she was stumbling and fighting to regain her balance. She might as well have kicked a scaly brick wall, considering the sting running up her ankle. At the very least, though, her kick did land with enough force to knock Killer Croc off his course to careen into a literal wall of crates.
Again, wooden crates burst into a wild assortment of random items as Croc spun around, furiously demolishing everything around him as he regained his own footing.
"Yer getting' on my nerves, Girl!" growled the reptilian criminal. Croc then thrust his arm out to the side, impaling his claws into the side of a metal container. Then, with a mighty swing, launched the improvised missile straight at the juvenile sorceress' face.
Surprised at her own level of calm, considering the situation, Jinx fell into a backward roll, letting the projectile fly over her harmlessly. Not even waiting until she was on her feet, she landed on her belly and thrust out her arms, snapping her fingers and launching a pair of fiery pink hexes at her prey.
The first projectile flew shamefully wide, reducing a foot round hole in the distant wall to rust. The second nimbus of power drilled right into Croc's scaly shoulder, bursting into a small flash of pink which spun the much larger villain around and left a nasty scorch mark on what passed for his skin.
Any celebration the nimble sorceress might have made as she pushed herself up to her feet was drowned out by Killer Croc's bestial cry of rage. Jinx actually shuddered at the palpable hatred in her opponent's howl as he charged forward again.
Her mind kicked into overdrive as she bent her knees, the now familiar tingle of her power flowing through her legs giving her some comfort. A second later, she straightened her legs and launched herself straight up; higher than she ever could have hoped to leap before training under Happosai. Her jump carried her easily twenty feet straight up -practically two stories in a single jump! - nearly high enough to grab the lowest of the roof rafters. Below her, tell tale swirls of pink energy danced around the spot she'd just vacated.
Twisting her body in ways that few beyond a certain pigtailed martial artist could, she managed to change the angle of her flight as she began to fall. Rather than landing right where she'd started, Jinx managed to land gracefully on one of the towering stacks of crates.
By the time she finally steadied herself, she saw that Killer Croc had already turned around. Even in the darkness she could see the puzzled look on his face as he wondered why she hadn't come back down yet.
The pink eyed sorceress studied Killer Croc intently for a moment. There were only two other times in recent memory she had felt like this, felt like a tiny mouse toying with a big, hungry cat. The most recent, and infuriating, had been her run in with Shampoo. It had been more than luck that she'd needed to survive that encounter. If Mousse hadn't . . .
She shook her head, scowling as the dark memory sparked her desire to hurt someone all over again. As if this whole situation wasn't annoying enough, she didn't need croc/cat parallels to remind her of less proud moments.
Moving silently, she skipped across the stacks of crates until she reached the far wall, then jumped down. This time, she landed with an audible thump of her thick platform heels hitting the floor. She very much wanted the reptile man to hear her this time. Then, just to put the final nail in the coffin, she lifted her hand and set it ablaze with pink flames.
She didn't have to wait even a second for the vindictive villain to home in on her. A second after that, Killer Croc was barreling down the warehouse, jaws snapping hungrily with each stride.
Jinx just smirked, equally vindictive and villainous in her own mind, as she watched him charge. Even as Killer Croc devoured the distance between them like a pound of mackerel, the young sorceress ever so subtly reached behind her back with her free hand. Her fingers gently wrapped around the smooth wood of the object tucked into her belt, bringing an even wider smile to her lips.
And then the beast was upon her.
Batman studied the tiny old man, not exactly certain how to proceed. It wasn't that uncommon for him to have no information on a new criminal, and as far as the evidence indicated, he was nothing more than a very skilled, very eccentric cat burglar . . .
And yet, every instinct of the famed Dark Knight, every fiber of his being told him that this decrepit figure was dangerous. How dangerous? Who could say? Everything about the old man, from the way he moved, the way he breathed, and something beyond that that he couldn't quite put his finger on, all reminded the bat of the many masters he had met in his own training.
It was somewhat unsettling, not knowing, but at the same time, he'd faced up to so much worse in his life that it wasn't about to stop him from doing what needed to be done.
"Who are you?" he finally asked, "What's your game here, in Gotham?"
The old man eyed him for a moment, and Batman could feel himself being weighed, before shrugging absently and pulling a pipe from behind his back. The ancient warrior then made himself comfortable on the crane and casually lit his pipe before replying.
"The name's Happosai, Detective. Grand Master of the Anything Goes School of Indiscriminate Grappling." Happosai's eyes lit up with mischief. "Actually, I'm a bit surprised you don't already know that. Considering that an . . . associate of mine has gotten onto that Robin boy's team, one wonders how you could be surprised."
It was a very close thing, but Batman didn't sigh in regret at the thought of his old apprentice. "We . . . don't have much communication any longer. We both believe it's better for him to develop on his own now."
The grand master nodded sagely, a tinge of sympathy in his expression. "It is always bittersweet when a disciple feels they've outgrown you. Luckily for me, it will be many, many years before my newest disciple reaches that point! Of course, I guess that does answer your second question, doesn't it? My disciple needed to be tested on her training and since our last training trip . . . didn't go quite as planned, well, here we are, lost in this well known hive of scum and villainy."
Batman was quite certain he had just been insulted twice by the shrunken little man, but decided to let it slide. "And the reason you've targeted Killer Croc?"
A simple shrug. "Convenience. I was a little disappointed myself. I've heard this city offers a generous selection of beautiful ladies in need of . . . moral guidance."
The leer with which that was said almost made the detective want to give Catwoman a heads up.
"And what exactly is the end goal of this 'test'? What happens to Killer Croc?"
"Ahh, and we finally get to the crux of the matter," Happosai responded with a smirk. "Are we vindictive villains, or valiant vigilantes? Well, you'll have to wait on the answer for that one for now, but if it makes you feel any better, Jinx isn't planning on killing him, so you can have him once she's done with him."
And the old man had been right, that was the heart of the situation. It had been the difference between Batman intervening and doing his best to bring this pair to justice . . . Or not. Turning to look at the warehouse so far below them, Batman could see unusual flashes of pink lighting up the darkened windows.
"We should move closer;" he finally offered matter-of-factly.
Happosai shook his head slowly. "That won't be necessary, Detective. Jinx won't be defeated by the likes of him, she has quite a few tricks up her sleeves yet-"
The piercing squeal of steel shredding instantly drew the pair's attention down to where, quite unexpectedly, the wall of the warehouse suddenly bulged obscenely, only to explode outward - ejecting a large grey mass into the street.
Batman watched, suddenly intrigued, as the diminutive form of a young woman stepped out through the gaping hole in the wall a few moments later, twirling what looked to be a long antique . . . Tobacco pipe? He actually had to double check with his binoculars just to be sure.
An amused chuckle came from his side. "I taught her that one. One of my favorites, ya see?"
One of the detective's eyebrows rose up, though the expression was lost on Happosai, before he turned his attention back to Jinx. The girl seemed quite happy with herself, now holding the pipe proudly . . . for a moment anyway. Her joy disintegrated just as quickly as the pipe did, as sparks of pink energy ran along its surface, reducing it to dust in her hands.
Happosai grunted in annoyance before shrugging. "Okay, fine, she hasn't perfected it yet. Her power is just naturally entropic, which kinda makes it hard for her to use it to reinforce things . . . But I'm sure we'll figure out that tiny little problem with a bit more training, you'll see! No need to worry!"
Oddly, Batman found that assurance to be most worrisome indeed.
Moving quickly, Terra climbed up onto the pipe and knelt down to steady herself. Her new perch gave her a good vantage of the lab building that Ryouga was in, and she was only a stone's throw away . . .
The geokinetic stuck her tongue out at the cheesiness of her own pun.
Of course, now that she was perfectly situated and the adrenaline of rushing around was wearing off, a very important question suddenly reared its head.
How in the world was Ryouga going to lead anyone, anywhere?
Uncertainty gripped her as she stared at the building. Should she leave her perch? Should she go back in? Could Ryouga have already made it back to the Tower in the time he'd been out of her sight?
. . . It seemed unlikely . . .
What if-
A muffled shout caught her attention mere seconds before an explosion rocked the area. Apparently the front doors weren't convenient enough, as Ryouga surged out of the large hole he'd just blasted and . . . was holding something?
She didn't get a chance to find out as, a second after exiting the hole, the Lost Boy immediately lived up to his name and began running in the exact opposite direction from where she was waiting.
"Ryouga! Get back here!"
Thankfully, the bandanna wearing boy skidded to a stop, but her view of him was suddenly blocked by the massive red wall of steel that barged out of the building, doubling the size of the hole in a shower of powdered concrete and flying debris. The metal giant skidded to a stop and turned on Ryouga with an infuriated grunt.
It took Terra a second to recover from the shock of the unexpected entrances before she realized the opportunity which had been presented her: Her opponent currently had his back to her and was totally unaware of her presence.
Grinning wildly, the slight girl leapt down from her perch, landing lightly on the floor, and lifted her hands to her sides. The earth heard her plea and answered in force. In a shower of shattered concrete, the floor on either side of the mechanical jerk exploded upwards violently, twin pillars of earth and stone surging up to freedom.
Terra then swung her arms forward and clapped her hands together; the columns followed suit eagerly and came crashing together to engulf the criminal. Not even sure why she did it, the geokinetic then continued to squeeze her hands together, only to watch in amazement as the dirt and rock collapsed in on itself as it compacted down around her quarry.
"Alright!" she cheered enthusiastically. "I did it, Ryouga! I caught him!" The slight blonde pumped her fist into the air as she marveled over the stony tomb she'd erected so perfectly-
"Terra, get back!"
The warning came a second too late; as abruptly as she'd made it, the column exploded, blasting dense slabs of stone in every direction. On instinct, Terra let out a tiny yelp, squeezed her eyes shut, and threw her arms out in front of her . . .
A few seconds later, realizing that she wasn't in crippling pain, Terra mustered the courage to open her eyes, only to groan in disgust at the predictable sight of several sharp looking rocks floating harmlessly before her.
Why had she freaked out again?
The stones dropped to the floor with a clatter as the geokinetic hero turned her attention back to the tin plated villain - who appeared to be flexing as if the suit was actually composed of muscles or something. She flinched, though, when he suddenly spun around to leer at her, his fleshy face twisted mockingly.
"Did you think you could hold Adonis?" The giant man looked down at her appraisingly, only to snort derisively. "Who the heck are you, anyway? Anorexia girl? I came out here to play with Titans, not kittens."
In an instant, Terra's cheeks flushed red as she glared white hot daggers at Adonis. "Anorexia Girl? Anorexia Girl?"
Terra's whole world shifted several wavelengths down the spectrum towards gold as her eyes began to glow ominously with her power.
Had she been in a better state of mind, she might have admired this guy's level of confidence. As it was, though, she wasn't in such a forgiving mood when Adonis, completely oblivious to Ryouga's frantic hand gestures signaling him to shut up, as well as the low grade tremors beginning to rattle the entire facility to its foundations, began to laugh mockingly before saying-
"Hey, Twig Girl, why don't you come back when you actually grow a pai-
The tremor passed under their feet just a second before the massive dust plume rose up from the heart of the plant several hundred yards away. The massive column of dust twisted and swelled upwards before finally losing its hopeless battle with gravity, and began collapsing inexorably back in upon itself . . .
Raven turned to stare at Robin.
"That's . . . not a good sign."
Robin nodded slowly as he lifted his communicator and flipped it open. "Starfire, report. What's going on in there?"
Several long seconds passed before the Tamaranian responded -
With a series of hacking coughs.
"Ackies! Please stop with the flying of the particulates into my eyes!"
The screen, which was completely filled with the brown and grays of dust and powdered concrete, finally began to clear as Starfire frantically swiped away at the cloud with her hand.
Robin did his best to hide a smile at the endearing display. "Starfire, are you alright?"
"Cough-hack I am unharmed, Robin. Apparently my altitude was not sufficient while watching our friends."
The masked hero bit back a chuckle. "Understood. Can you tell me what just happened?"
Starfire's gaze turned away from the communicator and her eyes squinted cutely as she tried vainly to look down through the tower of dust. ". . . Unfortunately visibility from my vantage point has been reduced to zero. Perhaps friend Beast Boy can see more from his position?"
Robin nodded sharply in agreement. "Alright. Keep me posted if it looks like Terra might lose control, though."
A saddened look flashed across the Tamaranian's face before she nodded. "Agreed."
The communicator flickered to black for a moment before the image was quickly replaced with Beast Boy's smiling face.
"Report, Beast Boy. What happened in there?"
The emerald teen's first response was to laugh out loud. "Only the best thing ever! That lame-o they're fighting just totally dissed Terra about her looks - which is just crazy, by the way, since she's the best looking girl there is-"
It was only thanks to years of emotional repression that Robin was able to hold in his mirth as Raven's eyebrow quirked up in that 'oh really?' way of hers.
"So Terra smacked him down - hard! Dude totally had it coming, man."
"Is there any sign she's losing control?" Robin asked pointedly.
Instantly, Beast Boy's gleeful expression was devoured by a pack of wild scowls. "Dude, that's so not cool. Terra's doin perfect. Heck, if she hadn't clobbered him, I would have. Beast Boy out, Dude!"
Robin stared at the blank screen uncertainly for a moment before finally pocketing the communicator. To his side, Raven just shook her head. "It was a mistake to send those two in. You know how loyal Beast Boy and Starfire are to their friends, and yet here you are, asking them to spy on Terra for you."
"That's not what I'm doing," Robin retorted sharply, "They're there as backup in case anything should go wrong. It's just that . . . well . . . Terra might be one of those things that goes wrong . . ."
It felt terrible to say, but it didn't make it any less true. Of course, judging by the expression on the violet eyed Titan's face, she likely wasn't about to let it drop that easily. So, it was time to borrow a secret technique he'd recently learned. "I need to help Cyborg set up the Sonic Impactor. You stay here and call us if anything comes up."
Raven's eyebrow quirked up again as she impassively regarded his retreat, but, like a good team player, she stood her ground and turned her attention back to the distant facility.
Once Robin was gone, an uncharacteristic line of worry crossed Raven's face.
"Be safe . . . Ryouga."
Terra blushed sheepishly as Ryouga glared down at her. It wouldn't have been too bad, but the tiny pink piglet held protectively in his arms seemed to be matching his scowl perfectly-
Wait a minute!
"Ryouga, why the heck do you have a piglet?"
Instantly, Ryouga's glare faltered and he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, it's just that she looked like an old friend is all . . . I couldn't just leave her in there . . ."
Before she even had a chance to ask how Ryouga could possibly know it was a girl pig, the fanged fighter quickly put the animal down and shooed it away from the fight. The oddly bittersweet look on his face as he watched the pig run away was bizarre, even by her standards . . .
Though even that was nothing compared to the fact that the piglet actually looked back at him before finally running off.
Then, like a switch, Ryouga turned back on her. "Let us never speak of this again. Now, what the heck was that all about, little miss rock bottom?"
Terra had no idea how to respond to that particular barb as Ryouga gestured to the fifteen foot tall pillar of stone which had erupted so fiercely out of the shattered concrete, suspiciously close to the exact position where Adonis had been standing moments ago.
The blonde Titan stared at her handiwork, then far up into the pipe works above, just barely able to make out where the cherry red villain had landed after his impromptu flight. Terra offered her mentor a mighty pout before responding.
"You heard what that jerk said. He's lucky that's all I did."
For some reason, Ryouga stared at her oddly and muttered something that sounded strangely like 'fit right in at home'. The bandanna clad warrior then shook his head. "Never mind that. Now we gotta go up there and get him. Do you know how you're gonna do that?"
Terra waved off his concern with a nonchalant roll of her wrist. "Don't be such a pessimist. That moron will be back down any second and we'll pound-"
"Hey! Rocks for Brains! Let's s see how many of your fancy dirt tricks you can pull way up here!"
". . . crap . . ."
Ryouga's snigger was extremely grating, so Terra drove a narrow elbow into his gut.
"Oof! Hey, what was that for?"
Terra glared daggers at her master. "As if you didn't know. Now come on, let's go get him already."
With that, the geokinetic willed a section of infrastructure to break free from its earthen bonds and carry her aloft . . . for all of five feet. Terra frowned before bending her knees and willing the rock to fly again - the end result being a sad little 'hop'.
Panic began to bloom in her chest as she spun to her mentor. "Ryouga! Something's wrong with my powers!"
A frown creased the fanged boy's face and he let out a sharp curse. "Damnit. I'd kinda been hoping that Raven would be wrong about that." Ryouga then raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Look, there isn't time to explain, but don't panic. That's just a side effect of your training. You just have to work around it for now, okay?"
"Okay? This is the opposite of okay!" She gestured wildly to the metal monstrosity several stories above them. "How am I supposed to fight him way up there if I can't fly? And for that matter, how else has your training messed up my powers?"
A serious expression settled on Ryouga's face and he suddenly moved towards her. Terra was immediately reminded of how much larger he was than her when he stopped a single step before her and dropped a pair of comforting hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Terra. I should have told you this was a possible side effect. But as far as I know, it's just a psyc- a psychonema . . . Um, just a mental block, and I promise it's only temporary."
Ryouga took a step back then, and smiled weakly. "I know it might be difficult, but you're going to need to think of other ways to do what you need now. Look, I'll go make sure he doesn't get away. If you can't think of a way to follow, I'll bring him back down here, okay?"
And with that, Ryouga bent his knees and proceeded to launch himself over three stories straight up to land nimbly on one of the wide pipelines that ran throughout the facility.
"Showoff," Terra muttered to herself enviously. She was still mad at him, too, for not telling her about her powers getting messed up . . . but at least he had apologized. Still, it wasn't like she could just launch herself into the air like a cannon ball-
A sly grin slithered onto Terra's tanned lips.
Of course, if she was gonna fight that far from the ground, she might need to take some ammo with her. Drawing inspiration from a certain girl in a certain 'inspirational video', Terra leaned down and touched a gloved finger tip to the shattered ground at her feet.
Moving as if alive, a sinuous tendril of earth and stone flowed up her arm, across her shoulder and down her other arm, making it look like she was wearing the world's heaviest feather boa. Or, perhaps an actual boa, as the serpent of earth twitched and undulated along its length.
Quite happy with her little improvisation, Terra then stamped her foot onto the hard ground. The instant her foot hit down, a stone pillar shot up right beneath her. The sudden acceleration was jarring, but the stone boa running down the back of her arms responded on instinct, stretching down to the platform to stabilize her.
And then the platform's breakneck rise stopped as quickly as it began, and Terra found herself airborne. The sensation of weightlessness was new and unexpected as she floated through the air, so very different from her normal means of flight. A yellow and green blur zipped past her, or rather her past it, as she soared past Ryouga on her way up.
Eventually, though, the familiar tug of gravity made itself known once more as she reached the apogee of her leap. The blonde felt her stomach leap up into her throat as she realized that she was beginning to fall now - and that she totally hadn't thought of a landing solution when she'd jumped.
Luckily, she had lots of friends to learn from, so her panic lasted only a few seconds before inspiration struck again. Terra swung her arm out and like a faithful companion, the earth wrapped around her arm stretched out and latched onto a nearby catwalk and quickly reeled her to safety.
Breathing heavily and shaking more than a bit, Terra pulled herself up on the catwalk. The relief of having solid ground under her again, relatively speaking, was a palpable thing . . .
Still, overall, the only problem she could find with her new rapid transit system, asides from the bone numbing terror, was that she had actually overshot not only Ryouga, but Adonis as well. While Ryouga was some ways down and the ground was little more than a black abyss now, she was sure she'd seen the red goon pass her by just a second before she'd started to descend.
She quickly leaned over the railing, just in time to see Adonis recklessly tear a massive circular safety hatch off of a large, cylindrical structure, and wind up to throw it at the rapidly approaching martial artist below.
"Ryouga, lo-"
"-ok out, you moron!"
Moving as fast as her legs would carry her, Jinx dove at the idiot security guard and tackled him to the ground just a second before the manhole cover would have taken his head right off. Why this jackass - Ray, if his nametag was to be believed - had decided to run to her aid, as opposed to away, like the rest of the small group of guards had, she would never understand.
Making sure that there wasn't even a trace of a smile on Ray's face at having her straddling him like she was, the irate sorceress quickly rose to her feet. She then pulled the inept guard to his feet with a sharp tug and blasted him with a withering glare. "Idiot, what are you doing? It wasn't even your warehouse we trashed!"
Looking pale, but trying to hide it, the twenty something guy brushed off his uniform. "Maybe so, but what kind of guy would I be if I ran from every crazed, man-eating crocodile monster I ran into?"
Jinx couldn't help it as a tiny laugh bubbled to the surface. "Jeez, I dunno . . . alive?" she shot back. She then turned to watch Killer Croc, the massive criminal already stalking towards them, vile, pink tongue rolling over his lips as he eyed the pair of them. Apparently just for added effect, Croc spread out his hands, letting his long, wicked claws glint in the moonlight.
Taking a step back, the sorceress reached back and tried to push the guard away. "Okay, Mr. Hero, time to stop being an idiot and get out of here."
She felt her hand contact his chest, but he didn't budge. "I can't do that, Miss. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left you at the mercy of that scaly bastard."
Jinx rolled her eyes in disgust. "You won't live at all if you stay. I'm not gonna get myself killed just to keep you outta trouble."
Apparently trying to prove a point, Ray pulled out both his nightstick and a nasty looking taser, grinning nervously as he brandished them. "Well, unfortunately for you, I'm not going anywhere. So instead of complaining, you should be figuring out how we can beat this guy."
The sorceress' brow furrowed as she turned back to glare at Killer Croc, now just a dozen feet away. She could already see his muscles tensing in anticipation of another charge. What the heck was she gonna do? Sure, she could dodge easily enough, but if she did, Ray would be reduced to paste . . .
If she didn't, they'd both be paste.
How on earth did Raven and her moronic friends deal with brain dead idiots like this? Was it bad form to blast civilians?
A strange 'zipping' kind of sound from behind distracted the sorceress. Shaking her head, she turned to yell at Ray one last time. "Okay, that's it. Get the hell out . . . of . . . here?"
Only to find the space behind her vacant.
"Why that two faced, cowardly - Urk!"
The big, meaty fist slamming into her back brought her back into the moment with ruthless efficiency. It also had the added bonus of launching her through the air. Twisting wildly, she managed a halfway controlled bounce off of her hip before a nearby lamp post was kind enough to stop her flight with a metallic 'clong'.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, she'd trained for just that kind of thing, so Jinx was able to scramble to her feet quickly, managing to suppress the sharp ache that ran up her entire back.
Sadly, she'd been forced to give up any pretence of caring for her 'flawless skin' long ago.
Of course, even with her quick reaction, there was no way she'd been fast enough. Killer Croc was likely right over . . . There? Still standing where he'd been when he'd clobbered her, the scaled criminal was staring warily up to the rooftops, rather than charging to eviscerate her.
Slowly, Croc turned to regard her. "Hssk Looks like I wasn't too far off, eh girlie? It's not like your boss to hide up there and leave everything to his sidekick . . . But I ain't the kinda guy to look a gift horse in the mouth. Once I've turned you inside out, I'll deal with him."
Jinx felt her jaw drop open in utter confusion. What was this guy talking about? Was he talking about Happi? But how would this walking pile of potential Prada purses know anything about her perverted practitioner of peerless pummeling?
She doubted she'd get a straight answer, though, not when she took into consideration the small car that Croc was currently lifting over his head to toss at her.
"Oh, frak m-"
"-e go, you crazy freaks!" cried the inverted security guard from where they'd so carefully hung him up. "That girl's gonna get herself killed. I gotta help her!"
Happosai scoffed at that notion - loudly. "Fool boy, you'd do nothing but get in Jinx's way. Now quiet down so we can watch the fight." He then turned and nodded to his pointy eared companion. "Good job getting this punk out of there, Detective."
Batman nodded seriously as he gazed over the ledge of the warehouse that now served as their perch. "I've dealt with overzealous novices before . . . I am somewhat impressed, though. Your apprentice realized he would endanger them both, and yet she didn't abandon him."
Happi frowned at that. "Indeed. She's not usually that foolish. I'll have to redouble my efforts to make sure those kinds of ridiculous notions don't take root in her impressionable young mind."
"Hey! I'm right here, you know? And seriously, are you guys actually accusing me of being overzealous? Talk about the crazy bat-dressing pot calling the kettle bla-"
Abruptly, the Ray's voice cut off as Happi's arm shot out, tapping several points in the guard's neck, rendering him instantly insensate. The ancient master noted the Batman's tiny nod of thanks, only to smile in return.
"Well, now that that annoyance is dealt with, all we need to do-"
The withered pervert stopped mid sentence when Batman held up a hand to silence him. Looking up curiously for a moment, the Dark Knight frowned in consternation. ". . . Helicopters - coming this way."
With a wry chuckle, Happi smiled wider. "Ah, those are probably just news choppers."
"News helicopters?" Batman echoed, "But as far as anyone could know, this is just a black out. And even so, there's no way they could have responded this quickly if that is what they were coming to report on."
Happosai shrugged helplessly. "Well, it's possible that someone might have phoned in an anonymous tip on a potential meta human brawl earlier this morning. Nothing much to worry about, really."
"You do realize-" stated the masked man leadingly, "That if the news stations were alerted to this, then the police would have been alerted as well?"
The master stared at the detective, wide eyed. "B-but what about reporter-reportee confidentiality?"
As if on cue, the distant sound of sirens began to filter in from the distance.
Batman's lip quirked up into a rare smirk. "Does that answer your question?"
Letting out a string of curses in a string of dialects, Happosai leapt up onto the ledge.
"Don't go anywhere, I'll be right ba-"
"-ck is killing me, you scaly jerk!" Jinx cried out irately as she flipped to her feet.
The smoldering remains of the car, now firmly lodged in the wall of the building behind her had annoyingly refused to explode dramatically when she'd tried to blast it out of the air with her hexes. Rather, all she'd managed to do was cause the gas tank to ignite, which resulted in her not just having to jump out of the way of a flying car, but a flaming, flying car.
Gingerly rubbing her back, Jinx glared heatedly at her opponent before dropping into a combat stance. Her right leg leading, knee slightly bent and her arms held straight out to her sides, fingers pointed straight down, she brought her focus down to a narrow point as she concentrated on just how much she wanted to maim the oversized toilet lizard in front of her.
Killer Croc let out a bellow of challenge, brandishing his claws as he took a step forward; his footfall heavy enough that she could feel the vibration from a dozen feet away.
Narrowing her eyes, Jinx's world took on a pinkish hue as she felt her eyes begin to glow with power.
"Kitty's got claws too, big boy. Let's see whose are sharper."
With twin flashes of light, arcs of power coursed down her arms, threatening to shred the sleeves of her dress, before coalescing along the backs of her hands. Jinx then flipped her hands back and splayed out her fingers, and the pooled power poured down her fingers to form the familiar jets of deadly pink flame to dance from her fingertips.
Killer Croc eyed her for a moment, before letting out an amused snort. "Heh, I'm sure you of all people know what curiosity did to the cat. Now let's you and me dance, little girl."
Jinx cursed internally at the cat based allusion, before grunting in annoyance. When she was done, he'd never make another feline pun again.
Crouching down, the sorceress then launched herself forward. The ground behind her collapsed in on itself as residual swirls of pink energy ate away at it, but Jinx didn't have time to notice as she sprinted forward to meet Killer Croc's charge.
The pair of them ate up the space between them like gourmet cuisine and in seconds they collided. Croc struck first, bringing his taloned hand forward in a deadly swipe, even as he ran.
Moving with inhuman speed and grace, Jinx crouched down several feet away from him, her momentum actually causing her to slide directly under his swing. Even as her cute purple pumps skidded across the pavement, Jinx smiled up at the surprised reptile as she slid literally under his guard. Then, just before she would have slammed into his immense bulk, the vindictive sorceress straightened her legs and launched herself into a vicious pounce, all ten claws arrowing in towards Killer Croc's vile yellow eyes.
Not quite as slow as she'd hoped, the scaly criminal leaned backwards frantically. Jinx cursed as her claws slid harmlessly through the air where his face had been, but instantly began to bring her arms down to guard against his lethal claws even as she floated upwards in the air-
So she was caught completely off guard when Croc simply leaned forward again and slammed his painfully dense cranium into her chest with crushing force.
Jinx angled into the ground with bone jarring force, but quickly bounced back to her feet. Luckily she fought the urge to rub her aching chest as she'd managed to keep enough focus to keep her claws burning.
Coughing a bit, Jinx hawked a very unladylike loogie onto the ground beside her, noticing a few streaks of red laced through her saliva. "Heh, I guess that head of yours is good for something after all," she muttered mockingly.
Croc nodded, a wicked smile forming on his lips. "Oh, it gets better than that. Ye'see this?" he asked sarcastically, pointing to his gaping maw, "Food goes in here . . . Nice to meet ya, Food."
Rolling her eyes, the cat eyed sorceress moaned internally. 'I did not just get out quipped by a guy with the brain of a walnut, did I?' Shaking her head in disgust, she lifted her hands up again. "Alright, how about round two then?"
The second the words dropped from her lips, Jinx threw herself at Killer Croc again. This time the big guy lifted his leg and kicked out at her, obviously trying to throw her off, considering how sloppy the kick was and how he was telegraphing that left hand hidden behind his back.
Planting her right foot, she swung herself around the kick, swinging her arms out in a wide arc as she did. She felt the tips of her fingers graze the leg of his pants, but wasn't able to put any force behind the strike as she was already bending backwards to avoid the haymaker that was already on its way.
A hiss of pain was quickly drowned out by the cracking of the air as Croc's fist flew over her with less than an inch to spare. The second the grey blur passed over her, she landed on her hands and backflipped to a safe distance before jumping right back in.
Pirouetting through the air, she left trailing streamers of neon pink tracing through the air as she closed in. And then she was on him, lashing out wildly with hissing slashes. Croc obviously hadn't expected such a direct attack, as the much larger criminal began to quickly back peddle, holding his hands up to protect his face.
She felt her claws hit home again and again, scratching his arms, grazing his torso, deflecting off his chin on a particularly nasty uppercut, until, finally, she was forced to back off, chest heaving from the exertion.
A second later, the tables turned completely. Killer Croc surged forward like a wave, arms wide and jaws slavering. The scaled behemoth swung his arms forward, intent to sweep her up in an excruciatingly undesired bear hug.
Jinx quickly dove to the side, wincing as she rolled across the pavement before springing back up to her feet - just in time to fall flat to her face as Killer Croc skidded to a stop and swung at her with a vicious backhand. His superior reach wasn't something she'd really had a chance to train against, and it was getting annoying . . .
Even as Jinx scrambled back to her feet, her scaly nemesis spun around with more grace than he really had any right to. Not sure what else to do, she just broke into a dead run straight forward.
The light 'clip clop' of her pumps was an interesting counterpoint to the loud stomping noise that followed closely behind her as she sprinted blindly across the street.
What to do . . . what to do?
Inspiration slammed into her like a concrete wall, though slightly less painful and slightly more practical. As she finished crossing the street, the side sidewalk signaled her that her frantic run was mere yards away from ending painfully splattered against a wall -
So Jinx just ran straight up the wall instead. Feet moving as fast as her muscles would allow, she milked every iota of friction out of the soles of her shoes and with each step, left the ground that much further behind. Then, just as she felt Killer Croc slam heavily into the wall beneath her, she kicked off as hard as she could, performing a graceful midair spin.
Landing several yards behind the bewildered beast, Jinx quickly gathered brilliant pink energy into her hands. "Ha! You'll have to do better than that if you want to catch me!"
Croc turned to regard her, fury in his eyes and body nearly trembling with rage barely contained . . .
And then the massive criminal suddenly took a long, deep breath . . . and calmed down? A large smile slithered across his lips as he sneered down at her.
"Is that so, girlie? Looks to me like you're already winded, but me? I'm not even breakin' a sweat yet," he declared confidently. Taking a moment to study her more carefully, Croc then followed with a mocking laugh. "Face it, kid, you might be quick, but you just don't got what it takes to put me down."
Jinx scoffed loudly. "Really? Then why don't you try these on for size?"
Moving her hands quickly, Jinx then proceeded to fire off a number of sizzling pink hexes, each one flying unerringly towards the scaly monster -
Who proceeded to just stand there and take it as the small nimbus' of light slammed into him. Jinx could only stare incredulously as Killer Croc scarcely even winced as the six shots hit across his torso. Each hex didn't seem to do much more than nudge him back a bit, and leave a small scorch mark and an acrid puff of smoke.
Killer Croc just laughed again. "Ha! See that, kid? You're all flash, no bang. You could blast me with those firecrackers all night and one bottle of suntan lotion later, I'd be fine. Hssk . . . Me, on the other hand . . . All I need is one clean shot on you and it's over. Now tell me, girlie, you thinking twice about runnin' away yet?"
Dark emotions, long absent, but intimately familiar, began to bubble up in the sorceress' mind as she glared at the scaled monstrosity. She felt power begin to build up in her belly - she wouldn't let herself be insulted by this - this circus freak - she'd . . .
Almost against her will, a tiny smile suddenly crawled its way on to her lips.
Yeah . . . that could work, this guy wasn't that strong . . .
"Is that so?" she asked in a teasing tone. "Just one good hit is all you need, is it?"
Croc eyed her strangely at the sudden change in her disposition.
Jinx's smile only grew wider as she dropped out of her fighting stance completely. She even thumped a fist to her chest in a taunting gesture. "Alright then, give me your best shot. Right here, ya big scaly bastard, show me what you got."
Croc could only stare at her. ". . . huh?"
"Heh, you heard me, big guy. Just walk yer ugly mug over here and start swinging." To emphasize her point, Jinx held her arms out wide to her sides.
Oh, he was gonna love this . . .
Still not looking too sure about what was going on, Killer Croc took an uncertain step forward, then another. With each step, she could see his confidence grow and his pace quicken in anticipation. Then he drew back one of his large, scaled fists as he took another lumbering step.
Jinx slid her left leg back slightly as Croc closed in, taking a deep breath . . .
Killer Croc's fist tore through the air with cruel abandon, aimed directly at her pretty face, mere seconds away from crushing her skull to powder . . .
Jinx smirked.
In a flash of movement, the sorceress's arm swung forward, her dainty fist set perfectly to intercept the devastating punch in what could only end very messily -
And then Jinx stuck out her finger.
Despite every law of nature demanding that the slim sorceress be crushed to a pulp . . . Killer Croc's fist stopped dead in its tracks, resting against the single outstretched digit, as still as death.
Even as Croc stared, absolutely flabbergasted, a ripple of pink energy ran over her hand, across her wrist, before flowing down her arm, crackled down her torso, then finally raced down her legs before spreading out into the ground in several concentric waves of pink and fading away.
Noting that her scaled opponent had been struck utterly speechless, Jinx couldn't help herself.
"So . . . What was that about 'only needing one hit'? I'm just getting started, Croc, and you are so going . . ."
'Crick'
". . . down?"
As one, both Jinx and Killer Croc looked down as another sharp 'crack' echoed through the air. A quick glance revealed a number of deep cracks spreading through the pavement beneath their feet, spreading outwards at a disturbing speed.
"Oh crap . . ."
A second later, the street below them collapsed completely -
And then the darkness consumed them.