Under the Rose

Chapter 14

"And this will hold her, you boys say?" Elusion was smug.

"Yep," See-More answered.

Jinx stretched out her hands, flexing her fingers, all the while looking at them-- Rouge, Elusion, Hive Five-- with cold contempt. Betrayal was the bitterest thing Jinx knew, bringing to mind a disguised Cyborg and other Hive Academy dramas. Even now, the roommate that she thought of so highly was little more than a whiny classmate with a hidden agenda. And Jinx hated that.

Ellie used her illusions in volleyball too, probably, Jinx realized-- she recalled that game where the players seemed to dive away from the ball. And she used it when Rouge got away from her and Wally, simply by disappearing; the Russian hadn't vanished, Elusion made an empty street appear.

And Rouge disguised herself as Jinx to rob banks, getting the money promised to Elusion and Hive. They broke into those banks, into the science building, and then blamed it all on her.

Her Hive Boys, the goofy, bumbling oafs they used to be-- they were warped by all this madness. Rouge was only going to use them, cheaply, to get to her and Flash.

Jinx was disgusted. "You could do so much better." She said that to the whole lot of them.

See-More, Rouge, and Elusion just matched her glare. Kyd said nothing, looking away. Billy stood awkward as always, Gizmo soaked up the proceedings with beady eyes, and Mammoth...loomed.

A loud crack reverberated through the room, muffled, sounding like it came from the other side of the brick walls. Rouge turned her head slightly and grinned. "The young hero has arrived," she announced to her team.

Wally. Jinx grasped the bars.

"Go check it out." Elusion pointed Billy and Gizmo to the small door in the corner and the two exited the room.

The pair left and Jinx watched them go. They weren't cut out for this.

Jinx almost wanted to smile to herself, because she knew exactly why they weren't cut out for it.

The stupid cage they put her in? Level 4 containment it was not.

And so Jinx stretched her fingers, eyeing the lock, biding her time.

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Flash stopped in front of the drugstore so suddenly, like lightning, that the ground underneath him crackled and crumbled. He stepped forward and yanked on the door.

Locked.

Wally scratched his head, glancing around at the mostly abandoned street. And then he vibrated through the wall into the store.

The tall shelves cast shadows over the entire area, leaving Flash with an eerie tingle down his spine. He hesitated when he thought he heard a slam.

But this wasn't the time to be hesitant. Flash took another step forward, preparing to zip around the store and search.

Before that happened, Billy Numerous and Gizmo stepped out from the shadows of an aisle, standing beside a display for Hero Honey (endorsed by Beast Boy-- Wally had tried some, it was pretty good!). Flash doubled over with laughter, breaking the tense silence. Hive. Honey. Wally loved a good pun. Billy and Gizmo exchanged a bewildered look.

"H-Hey, shut up!" Billy stammered.

Wally straightened up and eyed the two of them, chuckling. "You all took her? This is gonna be cake!"

Gizmo sneered at the fastest man alive. "Don't think it's gonna be so easy, snotbrain."

Flash shook his head. "So childish in all the wrong ways!" The fight began.

Billy began multiplying rapidly, wanting to remove any space that Flash could run in. But for the fastest man alive, it was a simple matter of grabbing a hose off of a shelf and tying all of the Billys together as he dodged shots from whatever high tech gadget Gizmo brought with him. And Billy got in a few punches, sure, but that battle was done quicker than Flash could say banana muffin (the equivalent, in Flash's book, of a run to New York and back). Wally ran the hillbilly all the way to Jump City Harbor, threw him in the water (Isn't that like the second time now? he thought), and returned to face Gizmo.

"Um...I gotta say, I still think it's gonna be that easy," Flash pointed out to the preteen.

"Um...false." Gizmo, with a dexterity that Flash didn't expect, whipped out a familiar controller and shot a beam of white at the speedster.

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"Billy's down, but he was an idiot anyways," Gizmo announced, walking back into the room. "Look who I have instead."

Jinx gasped. Behind him, Flash was paralyzed in that Level 4 containment with gritted teeth, the white around him holding him down to the ground. Gizmo saw her shock and smirked, twirling the controller in his hand. "Surprise! Made a new one. Like deja vu, eh?"

The rest of them turned and Rouge offered a cold congratulations to the child (people like Giz never grew up in Jinx's eyes).

Flash looked up at her, shaking but so determined. And she decided she had waited long enough.

Using the opening given by Gizmo's entrance, Jinx shot a small spark of energy at the cage's lock, letting the door swing open.

The villains turned at the sound of the loud, rusty creak. Before they could react Jinx shot another stronger bolt straight at Gizmo's hand, and the containment field controller was destroyed in the blink of an eye.

"She got out?!" The anger in Rouge's yell was venomous.

The white around Flash dissolved and in a gust of wind that blew her straight dyed hair wavy and her glasses askew, he appeared beside Jinx. "Thanks for that," he said with a grin.

Gizmo gaped at the remnants in his hand, face growing redder and redder with anger. Jinx laughed. "Surprise!" she turned to Madame Rouge with a smirk. "Like deja vu, eh?"

Elusion turned angrily to See-More. "You said it would hold her!"

"You put level 4 containment on the wrong guy." Jinx stepped forward, eyes glowing. "How unlucky." She took her glasses and threw them aside on the ground, pink glow outlining her hand's every move. She tossed her hair behind her head and looked menacingly at Elusion.

"Unlucky's right," Flash remarked, "the odds are kind of uneven. Six versus two..." He held up fingers in comparison and grimaced.

Jinx rubbed her temples. "Wally. For them. Unlucky for them."

"Oh. I mean, that's what I meant..."

"...Sure."

"Attack!" Rouge's words rang out through the drafty room.

Flash zipped towards them and became locked in combat with Rouge, Elusion, and Gizmo.

Jinx ran forward to face her first opponent, kicking blindly. She caught Mammoth from the back (otherwise that move wouldn't have fazed his thick skull) and the giant toppled forward as Jinx turned to face the next villain.

Kyd Wykkyd simply stood there, looking at her. He nodded respectfully, as if to say he understood. And then, in a cloud of black, he disappeared.

Jinx stood there for a second after he left. "Unexpected, but I'll take it!" His heart had never really been in it. Maybe there was some hope for these boys after all.

But then again, maybe not-- Mammoth grabbed her from behind and began to squeeze, pinning her arms together, making it harder to breathe.

See-More leapt in front of her with a chilling agility, holding in his hand the particle similitude generator. "Taste of your own medicine?" he offered. He shot a bolt of energy straight into Jinx's chest.

"Ahh!" The shock ran through her, harsh and quick as a gunshot. See-More did it again and Jinx felt herself fading fast-- but at the same time she was becoming furious.

As she was growing limper, Mammoth's hold was loosening, and that gave Jinx an idea. As soon as See-More shot it again, she ducked her head down suddenly against Mammoth's grasp, letting the beam hit him and not her.

Mammoth's arms fell and Jinx did a backflip straight to See-More and the power imitating remote. It took some grappling, but she got her hand on his face, covering the single eyeball, and fed a mass of pink energy into his helmet. "No one takes my luck," she said coldly. The monocular enemy fell to the earth, unconscious. She grabbed the controller and squashed it in her hand.

Mammoth was slowly rising from the ground. Jinx looked above him quickly and shot out another blast of energy. A portion of the wall collapsed on top of her former teammate, effectively knocking him out.

"Too easy," Jinx muttered bitterly. "You guys trained less without me there." And then she ran forward to help Flash.

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Flash had just disabled another of Gizmo's spider legs when Jinx ran towards him, blocking a shot from Rouge that could have hit him in the back.

"Who's that?" Flash made to punch her but missed.

"Stop that it's me, dummy!" Jinx glared at him and shot a pink beam up towards Gizmo, destroying a bomb that he would have thrown down at the pair.

"Ellie's shooting illusions at me!" Flash retorted. "Don't get so mad."

Jinx looked at him in shock as she cartwheeled away from Rouge's punch. "How are you beating them then?" Gizmo, without the assistance of his spider legs, was looking much worse for wear.

"I was just hitting whatever I could! Is it working?"

Jinx decided to ignore his (airhead...) question for the moment. She searched and saw Elusion, eyes glowing, making to dash Wally across the head with a block of wood. "Flash, look out!" She stepped forward but Rouge caught her and threw her into a wall.

Wally felt the hit across his head and before he knew it he was shoved onto the ground, head throbbing. The vision was fading enough that he saw an outline of Rouge and Jinx in front of him. He turned around, ignoring the pounding, and rapidly threw rocks at Elusion. She was forced to retreat and his sight became fully clear once more.

Gizmo tottered forward on his two working spider legs and Flash finally zipped through, finishing his sabotage so that the Hive member fell to the ground. He stood a head shorter than Flash and reached into his pocket to find some other gadget, but Wally picked him up by his backpack and ran across the room, placing Gizmo in the cage that Jinx had been in earlier, fastening it shut with by bending a piece of his collapsed spider legs around the bars. All this happened in a solid two or three seconds.

"That takes care of that!" Flash ignored the kid's whining and ran back towards the fight.

Rouge and Elusion were still standing strong. Jinx was barely dodging some of the Russian's attacks, and having Elusion swoop in with her special talent was hardly any help.

Jinx grappled with the blonde, trying her best to avoid any illusions thrown her way; it was a difficult thing to do-- how did you avoid sight without closing your eyes? Elusion got in some hits before Jinx finally got a hold of her arm and twisted her away, making the picture dissolve and throwing the girl off balance.

Flash was face to face with Rouge, running circles around her that seemed to be less and less efficient. She was no match speed-wise for the redhead, but her hits had a strategic timing and intuition that hadn't been there last time the two battled.

Jinx managed to shove Elusion away with a well-placed kick and a beam of energy. She ran to Flash's side, shooting one of Rouge's legs away from him.

"Look out!" Flash yelled.

Rouge shot out her arms, thick and hard, into the both of them at the same time, and they tumbled through the wall into the drugstore. Dust from the crumbled brick swirled up around them as Elusion leapt forward.

Flash was the first to stand, and he shoved Jinx away from himself to let them both dodge the girl's kick. The pink-haired sorceress threw a piece of brick at the evil blonde, and as she dodged that Jinx was able to hit her square in the chest with a bolt of energy. She flew back through the debris and landed among some scattered bottles of hair product.

Flash zipped over beside Jinx and tugged her by the hand down an aisle to the front check-out of the store, where the two, clothing torn and dusty, settled in to a hiding spot.

Jinx still grasped his gloved hand as the two hid behind the counter, listening only to their own heavy breathing. She looked over at Flash, his profile, his hair droopy with fatigue. How similar this scene was to the one three years ago.

"She's even stronger than I remember," Flash observed with an edge of panic.

"Funny," Jinx replied coolly, "I could say the same of Elusion." She peered around the corner of their hiding place, seeing no one. "We're clear, for now." But Elusion wasn't down for good...at some point someone would have to reveal location.

Flash dipped his head down so that his forehead rested on her slim shoulder. "I'm sorry I was pushy."

"About what?" Jinx asked distractedly. She was too busy scanning the area to focus on his words completely; Jinx was back in fighter mode and any Academy member could tell you that she was always focused in battle. Jinx the villain had been a calculating perfectionist. Old habits died hard.

"Our argument before," Wally replied, bewildered by her tone. "I know we're in a bigger problem here but I had to say it."

It just figured that Wally would be the opposite, fighting more with heart than head. "It's okay, it's fine, I'm sorry too..." Jinx said, still listening for Rouge or Elusion.

"No, no, listen, it was dumb of me, don't you apologize. It was a serious betrayal of the trust I keep telling you to have in me. Serious lack of faith. And I was scared--" The words were pouring out and Jinx narrowed her eyes. Was Flash always so jumpy in fights? Well, dumb question. But still, it sounded like he was saying a farewell and that was scary. Did he think he wouldn't survive or something?

Not allowed.

She pushed him back up gently and placed a hand firmly on his lips, silencing the hero. "Shut up and listen to me now," she said sternly, bristled by the idea of him giving up. He nodded, wide-eyed. "We found each other," she whispered fervently. "You had more faith in me than I had in myself. So I know we can beat her bad, Wally. That means you cannot run away."

Flash nodded again, her hand still on his lips. His eyes closed for a second and Jinx felt him take a steadying breath. She removed her hand and let her eyes glow pink. "Time to go, we've had our rest," she said. She stood and scanned the area for the two enemies they had yet to face. "Let's just beat them now."

Flash stood and gave her hand one last squeeze. "Someday we'll look back on this and laugh, you know."

Jinx scoffed at him. "That's how we'll know we've gone completely bonkers."

Suddenly the wall to her left caved in, chunks of brick flying across the floor. Madame Rouge was back. Jinx felt tiny bits of stone sting her cheeks as they shot through the air. Flash, who had been between her and the wall, was thrown back with most of the bricks. She looked at the gash on his arm, worried, but her boyfriend just stood and laughed, saying "Is that all you got?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. Those dramatic hero bits..."Look out for Elusion," she warned Flash. "She's dangerous, even without the containment field."

"Gotcha."

Madame Rouge laughed. She threw a large shard of brick at Flash, who dodged it easily. At the same time, she stretched her arm and grabbed Jinx as soon as Flash was occupied. She threw Jinx through the glass door into the street, and followed after her.

Jinx stood and shot a blast at the shop sign, letting it fall onto the stretchy villain. Rouge narrowly avoided it and shot out an arm to wrap tightly around Jinx's torso. She began to squeeze.

Jinx squirmed, hands trapped. Her eyes glowed pink and the sidewalk by Madame Rouge cracked, causing her balance to slip and her grip to loosen. She fell backwards, and Jinx took the opportunity to cartwheel away, setting herself for the next attack. She shot a wave at Rouge, but the Russian woman stretched herself out of the way. She shot out an arm again, which Jinx dodged. And then another. Jinx whirled to the side. Another. Jinx dropped to the ground to avoid that one.

But that was her mistake, because Rouge had gotten her off of her light feet. And so the villain got the opportunity to grab her around the waist and hoist her into the air, letting her fall onto the very tall roof of an abandoned apartment complex next to the shop.

The wind whipped through her clothing and would have made her shiver if the adrenaline wasn't so strong. Jinx stood quickly and rushed to the edge, peering down to find a good place to jump. It was too high, and no building was close enough, even for one of her gymnastic jumps. She was stuck up here, and Rouge was joining her shortly.

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"Jinx!" Flash watched as she was hurled away from the street onto the building, and Elusion used the distraction to shoot an illusion at him. All Flash saw were stars, as though he stood in the middle of space.

Elusion went in for a kick, but the speedster's reflexes were quick. Flash snatched her ankle as soon as he felt her foot on his arm and swung her onto the ground away from him, watching as the stars dissolved once more into the streets of Jump City.

"Why did the Titans have to go to Tokyo again?!" he muttered. "Could've used some help." He zipped away towards the building, running up the side.

Flash appeared just in time to pull Jinx away from one of Rouge's wildly swinging arms. "Gotta watch those."

Jinx smiled, a fierce little thing. Wally remembered being on the wrong end of that grin and immediately felt sorry for Madame Rouge.

Elusion burst onto the roof through a door, kicking it off of its hinges and letting it crumple on the ground. "We've got you two cornered," she said, pointing to the edge behind the two heroes. Rouge stood beside Elusion with a smirk. Flash wanted to wipe it off of her face.

"You can't corner the fastest man alive," he countered, and he took off with a blur.

But Rouge just stuck out her arms to encompass the length of the roof, and before Flash even saw the great black hand coming, he had run into it.

It was a hard hit-- Wally knew it had hurt Madame Rouge probably more than it hurt him. Despite this, he was thrown back against the edge of the building, the cars below looking like children's toys. Before Elusion jumped forward all he saw was Jinx's look of horror as she ran towards him.

But she wasn't fast enough, and before Flash knew what was happening Elusion had shoved him over the edge of the building, and now he was falling.

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Jinx dashed to the edge, aware but indifferent of the dizzying height at which she was standing. "Flash!" she cried. But there was nothing there for her outreached hand to grab onto. Down below, there was no redheaded speedster at all. Where had he gone? Was it another of the brat's illusions? She balled her hands into fists.

Madame Rouge and Elusion made their way closer to her.

"Silly girl," Rouge began. Jinx gritted her teeth, eyes glowing a brilliant pink, and turned to face her enemies, taking one small step towards them.

Flash...

Elusion laughed. "You're lost without that annoying Wally West. Kid Flash? Ha! As if any other power could help when you're surrounded by one of my illusions."

In an instant all dissolved and became a maze of trees. Jinx froze in her spot. Any small movement could drop her off the side of the building, and she wouldn't even realize until too late.

"Did you really think this would work?" Rouge's thick accent rang out through the illusion, and Jinx was thrust to the ground, helpless. "Stupid child, you tried "the good side" so long ago and abandoned it. He abandoned you. What makes you think it will stick?"

"Just throw her off the side," Elusion said. "She can't see anyways." Jinx was knocked sideways into one of the trees, and it felt like jagged brick against her shoulder. She gasped, holding her ribs tightly.

"Quiet," Madame Rouge ordered. " First I want Jinx to realize the futility. She is bad luck. Good is not an option for her. She walks into a room and it is cursed. She tries to fight for good and karma stops her. Or is it kismet?" A dark chuckle. "Either way she's a failure."

Jinx gritted her teeth, glaring into the endless forest. "Well then..." Her eyes were an effervescent, boiling, blinding bright pink.

I was just hitting whatever I could! Is it working? She had to win. She would beat them.

"...since it's all just hopeless," Jinx snarled, "you can bet that I'm bringing you down with me!" She began shooting bolts of energy at the trees, the ground, all around. She pressed her palms to the 'forest floor'-- cold and hard cement-- and surged her power through the building, feeding energy to beam after beam through the floors all the way to the foundation.

It wasn't her best or most brilliant plan ever, but it got the job done.

The ground began to shake, and the forest trees dissolved to the sound of Elusion's screams. Brought into Jinx's focus was the crumbling building, the helpless Elusion tripped onto the brick, and Madame Rouge, stretching her arms out to leap over to safety. Jinx narrowed her eyes and shot three quick waves at the villain's feet. Rouge lost her balance, dashing her head on a piece of falling brick and crumpling limply to the ground.

Jinx shook her head. "Rotten luck there." She turned to the building edge, watching the ground shake beneath her. Behind her, Elusion spat. Jinx glanced over her shoulder. Her face fell. "Elisa..."

"This building is falling, and I'm glad you're going with it!" Elusion laughed, and Jinx was finally convinced that there had never been caring, trusted Elisa Black. "There's no Hive Five to skip out of the fight with you this time."

Jinx was standing at the lip of the building, staring down into the street far below. "You're right. There's someone better." And with that, she jumped.

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The explosion behind her propelled her forward, and Jinx had the faintest notion of a swoop in her stomach, wind on her face, a weightlessness that seemed like flying. If her feet were touching ground, she would have sworn that she was faster that Flash. She grappled with the air, feeling a moment's panic at the fast approaching earth. But there came only a red and yellow blur.

She groaned. "I guess a catch from heights like those can never really be gentle-- but you couldn't have tried a little bit?" She sighed, resting her head against the yellow lightning bolt. The strong arms that had jarred her body loosened and cradled her close.

"I didn't have time to run up some wind to slow you down. Forgivesies?" Flash chuckled and Jinx groaned again.

"You always have time," she replied sleepily.

Flash leaned his head down, lifting her chin so that their foreheads touched. "I don't think like that when my girlfriend jumps to her potential death after being both heroic and stupid." He looked darkly over at the building. "I doubt that was survivable for them...Let's not do this again."

Jinx buried her head into his shoulder. " I knew you were down there, I knew you would catch me--" She laughed softly.

"Good girl." He ran a hand over her hair. "Falling off a building? Ha! I run up walls for fun. That's no way to get rid of me."

Sirens rang out in the distance, and Jinx looked up to see a swarm of police cars arriving on the scene. The Chief got out of his car, gaping a little at the pair of them. She sighed. "I guess I have some explaining to do."

Flash smiled. "Nothing that can't wait a day. But first thing tomorrow we're getting your name cleared by my buddy McMillan. Let's go grab a bite in France or something-- Hold on tight. Did I tell you that I love you?" He began to run, and Jinx closed her eyes so that they wouldn't water in the wind.

Right now, if she looked behind them, policemen would be handcuffing what made up her past and shipping it off for good. How far away it all seemed now.

(And how far away it quite literally was-- Jinx, amazed, saw the Eiffel Tower blur by the couple when she opened her eyes to peek.)

Jinx giggled against Kid Flash's chest, delirious with relief and joy.

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-Silver Miracles