Chapter 3
I rolled over and looked at the clock, its steady glow burned the numbers deep into my brain. 4:27, three minutes before I had planned on getting up anyways. I rolled over, pulling the covers back over my head, dreading the harsh punishment that the clock was soon to deliver to my ears. I wasn't disappointed. Those fateful three minutes ticked by and the electronic buzzer promptly attacked my hearing. I hated getting up this early, but what would people think if they saw what I did every morning? I never wanted to take the chance, so I got up before the rest of the world did, and got my exercising done with. I got up, and looked around, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. I looked towards the light switch, and unconsciously flipped it with a stretch of my mind.
Light exploded into the room. I flinched away, squinting my eyes as I once again returned to daylight. Walking towards my restroom, I noted the light from the sun was just starting to cross the very edges of the horizon. I would have a beautiful sunrise to look forward to that morning.
I took in a deep breath of the fresh morning air, standing now outside of the tower. I couldn't believe that it had already been 2 weeks since I had come to live here. It seemed like just yesterday I had run from…well; I had been running from my past for a long time, and now it felt awkward to know I had somewhere to lay my head. At least for now, that is.
But now wasn't the time to worry, I needed to get my workout done with. I reached under my blood red trench coat, and pulled out my pair of knives. Well, you couldn't exactly call them knives, as they were the full length of my forearms, but the definitely weren't swords.
A breeze gently kissed my face, ruffling my hair. I began my dance of fury, spinning and dancing, slashing, stabbing and dodging an invisible foe. My limbs blurred as I slid and danced to the deadly melody of my whistling blades.
Stopping mid attack, I stood with my blades held high, hardly twitching a muscle. Slowly, I exhaled, and reached out with my mind. Stretching, stretching, stretching, until I could start to feel the people's minds back on the shore side of the bay. A playground was there, and I could feel the laughing thoughts radiating from the children. Oh, how I wished I was young again.
Recalling my mind from its stretch, I took up a standing meditative pose, focusing my inner self into a perfect balance. I felt all emotions disperse from my mind, leaving me in perfect harmony within myself, and with nature around me, and I ran. Straight away from the tower, I ran, down the hill, across the sand, and straight out on top of the water.
About 50 feet out from shore, I stopped, concentrating on keeping my balance, concentrating on the single point that my right foot rested against the water, standing precariously on the very skin of the water. It was here, that I began my true meditation, but not in a way to calm my mind and body, but to push it ever farther. I concentrated on my telepathy, using it to not only feel the people around me, but to feel the very earth that surrounded me, the fish that swam below me, the coral that covered the bottom of the bay, and even the rock surface that lead back up to the peninsula that the tower was perched on. My breath came in slow and evenly, my thoughts in perfect order, my body in perfect balance, standing tip-toed on the liquid skin of water that stretched out under me, and then it hit me. A wave of shock and surprise washed over my mind from such a close proximity that I almost lost my precarious balance. I slowly turned myself, struggling to keep my balance with this new wave of emotions washing over me, and saw an awe struck Beast Boy standing next to the boy wonder, whose gaping jaws spoke volumes in disbelief. They weren't the only ones that I noticed, though. Raven sat atop the tower, meditating in her own way. One of her eyes slowly slid open, glanced down at me, and slid back shut, as if she could care less about the whole situation. Then again, she probably could care less about the whole situation.
I realized the folly of my mistake, and quickly pulled the reigns in on my telepathic search, quickly cutting off the feelings from my mind. I slowly and carefully stepped my way back across the top of the water, making my way back towards shore. Too late to try to hide it now, they'd already seen me standing out there.
"Dude, how did, what were, you just, that's impossible!" B.B. finally stuttered out. He had recovered faster than I had expected from the injury that I had inflicted upon him. Maybe it was just who he was that took part, but whatever it was, he had incredible recovery abilities
Robin realized he was still slack jawed, and quickly pulled himself together. "Not half bad," he muttered.
"Dude, no kidding!" exclaimed the green elf, "and the work with your swords, that was AWESOME!"
I smacked my head. They had been watching me the whole time I was out here. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you actually get to know people, they do find out about you. At least they weren't running off scared like so many had before them, then again, maybe it's because I wasn't running off scared after being confronted by a group of super heroes.
A sudden noise caught my ear, and I noticed that it came from everyone…except me. Each and every titan reached down, and flipped open some kind of communicator. Cyborg's face was on the other side, and he was very adamant about the rest of the titans getting back to the tower.
Up in the main room, Cy was busy bringing up a flurry of different screens, each displaying a different face or location. I quickly took note of the different faces, a young boy with a metal backpack, a burly, square jawed male that looked like he could give Cyborg a run for his money, and a petite, pink haired girl.
"And I was just beginning to hope that things would quiet down for a while," grumbled the boy wonder.
"You know that's not the way it works around here." Cyborg quickly ran his hands over a keyboard, bringing up the front of a bank. "We've only spotted Gizmo, but the rest are sure to be nearby."
"Wait a minute, where's Star?"
Our collective look first ran to Robin, who had quoted the obvious, and then ran around the room looking for the alien girl, with the exception of Raven, who returned to staring off into nowhere.
The elevator doors 'swished' open, and a groggy Starfire stumbled into the room.
"Do you not know the time of the morning that it is?" she moaned. She was still dressed in her pajamas. Her sleeping shirt, a long pink t-shirt that reached all the way to her knees, had a cute, sleeping kitten printed on the front. She padded her way to the couch, where she literally collapsed.
"Would you like me to tell them to wait till tomorrow?"
Robin and Cyborg cracked a smile at the changelings quip. I may have, but something outside the window had seemed to catch my attention.
The briefing was, well, brief, and we were soon on our way out the door, ready to "Save the Day" once again. As we all stood up to walk out, Cyborg grabbed me by the back of my trench coat. C'mon rookie, it's time I broke you in proper." He smiled.
I followed him down to the garage, where his carefully polished T-car was sitting, waiting to explode out of the doors, and bring its reign of justice down on the unlawful. I was about to jump into the passengers seat, when a throat being cleared caught my attention.
"That's my seat, rookie."
I spun around, and ended up nose to nose with Raven. I jumped, and quickly got out of her way, letting her take her regular place next to Cyborg in his car. I groaned, and tucked my long legs back into the back seat, trying to find a comfortable way to sit in there.
SCREEEEEEEEEECCCHHHH!
Rubber burnt off from under the car as we rocketed out of the door, following Robin's path that he had laid out for us.
Two blocks early, the white and blue car came to a stop. I jumped out, and hid myself in the shadows. Slowly, silently, I made my was up towards the scene of the crime.
kaBOOM!
The front door was blown completely off of the bank, smashing into passing cars. Chaos erupted on the street as the boy genius clanked out on his 4 metal spider legs.
Starfire flew in from the sky, rocketing down at the boy, letting a flurry of starbolts fly. Gizmo quickly responded to the assault, returning fire from a pair of laser guns that rose from his pack. Mammoth charged out from under the protective fire of Gizmo's laser rifles, carrying a sack slung under his arm.
Cyborg and Beast Boy moved quickly to engage the hulking tank of a boy running out from under a tangle of metallic spider legs, as Raven and the boy wonder blind ran to assist Star in her struggles. From up on my perch, I watched the action take place below me. I had made my way up to the top of a building, overlooking the battle taking place below me. I knew that there was supposed to be one more, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what she (or was it a he?) looked like. I caught a flash of pink out of the corner of my eye, and glanced over to see a pink haired girl, with eyes of the exact same shade.
I turned to get a better look at this new resident on my roof. In my movement, I managed to drag my boot across the roof, bringing the faintest grinding sound.
"EEEeeepp!"
A squeak escaped her lips, as she stumbled back in surprise.
"You're not supposed to be here," she hissed at me. "And if you value your life, you will leave now."
I looked at her, and slapped a dumb expression on my face, "I just wanted to see the Teen Titans in action." I quipped, motioning for her to get down. "watch them, they're so awesome!
The girl looked at me with a smirk on her face. "and if you watch closely, you're about to see them fall."
Before I could move, she had grabbed me by the back of my coat, and jumped off the side of the building. Landing in between her own teammates and the Titans, she wrestled me to a point where I stood as a shield for her.
A pink hex blast started charging up on her hand, and she aimed the bolt at my head.
"One more step and you can tell your little fan boy here goodbye." the words dripped like venom from her lips, and the Titans stopped dead in their tracks.
Jinx smiled back at her friends, for once, they just may pull this one off without a hitch. In doing so, however, she missed a silent nod passed back and forth between a certain boy wonder and a trench coat wearing "helpless" victim.
phhwwiipp…phhwwiipp
The slide of steel on cloth could barely be heard over the surrounding noise. A smile slowly lit my face, drawing Jinx' attention back to me.
"What are you smiling about, whelp?" she sneered.
"Uh, Jinx…" Mammoth had noticed something
"Not now you brute," was her harsh reply.
"Uh, JINX…" Mammoth was much more urgent this time
And then it happened.
I expertly spun out of her surprised grasp, letting my twin silver blades drop the rest of the way out of my sleeves. In a flash of silver, I had spun my way back over to where I now stood between the titans and the 3 students of H.I.V.E. daring them to approach me.
Jinx cat-stepped towards me, swaying (cutely?) back and forth.
"Well, aren't you the brave one." a smirk crossed her face as she charged up a huge hex blast.
The blast exploded from her hands, rocketing towards me. I stretched out my hands to protect my face from the blast.
BOOM!
The explosion erupted in pink smoke all around me, the Titans gasped, and Jinx smirked.
"GGRRRAAAA!"
I exploded from the cloud of smoke, to everyone's surprise, rushing straight at the three surprised hive members, a pink glow radiating from right hand. I had "caught" her blast, containing it's vexing power within my own hand. Taking advantage of my running start, I hurled the blast back at the pink sorceress, who's gasp of surprise turned into a scream of fear. An almost wicked grin came across my face as the power of fate was released from my own hand.
KaBOOM !
The explosion sent all three of my opponents flying backwards, but the effort had drained me, and I collapsed to the ground from the strain of holding control of Jinx' hex blast.
"Titans, GO!" Robin's voice rang out loud and clear from behind me, and I knelt there and watched as they ran past me, taking the battle to our enemy.
"We got what we came for, let's get out of here." The small boy had had enough, and was eager to get out of there, but just why, I couldn't grasp.
In a flash of pink hex bolts, the whole group was gone, leaving the Titans and I standing there looking around dumbly.
Raven, surprisingly was the first one to comment. "Well, that was shorter than expected."
"You're telling me," muttered the boy wonder. "They never run from a fight with us."
A snarling green leopard turned into a confused little elf. "Dude, that was soo awesome!"
I looked, still panting, over at the changeling. I looked down at my smoking hand. She was more powerful than I expected. Much more powerful than she even let on, but why was she holding back?
"You're forgetting that they still had whatever was in that bag." I mumbled, straining to get back to my feet.
Starfire was at my side, helping me back to my wobbly feet. For all her bubbly emotions, she caught me by surprise with her sudden concern.
"I shall need to see your hand," she stated bluntly.
I looked over at her, not knowing what to expect.
"I know you terran body cannot hold up to the same abuse that mine can, and I saw you favoring your hand." she stated.
I hesitantly held out my hand, which she took quick look at it, and walked away, leaving me scratching my head trying to figure out what just happened.
She didn't leave for long, however. She quickly returned from where Cyborg was inspecting the wreckage we had caused with a bandage in her hand. I nodded appreciatively and let her wrap my hand, protecting the burnt skin from outside world.
"H-here," a voice stammered from behind me.
I turned around and saw Raven standing there, holding my fallen blades, offering them back to me. I nodded, accepting them back from her, and slipped them into a pocket inside of my coat.
I managed a quiet thank you, and slowly followed Cyborg back to his vehicle.
"I need to stay behind and try to figure out what it was that they took." Robin frowned.
"I shall stay with you, and assist you with your investigation!" Starfire was once again her typical cheery self.
Cyborg nodded towards the two, and turned to walk away.
"I'll let you two take care of things here, then." Cyborg spoke, "I'll get the other ones back to the tower and see if we can track where those three are headed."
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Later that night…
I looked over the table at the rest of the team gathered in the main room. Beast Boy and Cyborg were going head to head in some video game or another, Starfire was gazing out the window, Raven's nose was buried in a book, and Robin was typing furiously at a computer. We had given up on the case for the night. Whatever they had been after, it had been in a safe deposit box there at the bank, so until they could get a hold of the owner of whatever the contents of the box was, they had no idea what had been stolen. Our three antagonists had been thorough as well, not one trace of them could be followed. It was like they had literally disappeared into mid air.
Well, that is we had all given up but Robin, he never seemed to give up when he got his mind set to a case. I had to admire his dedication, it was a display of patience that I knew I could never master.
I stood, and announced that I was headed to bed. Robin nodded haphazardly, and Cyborg waved over his shoulder. I smiled, this was truly starting to become my home. My bed was calling me, and who was I to deny it? As I strolled down the hall towards the elevator, I stopped to look back towards the rest of the team. Yes, I just may be able to make my home here.