Here is my first fic in a long while. Will eventually be Raven/Jinx pairing, among others. You have been warned. I've done my best with grammar and characterization, but if you see anything wrong, especially glaring errors, PLEASE let me know. And errors aside, reviews in general would be appreciated. Thanks for reading!

PS I hate the title, so most likely it will change in the new future. I'm open to suggestions, btw...

A New Leaf

Another day, another foiled robbery attempt. What had previously been the pride of HIVE, but had since become an embarrassment to the villain community, stumbled into their shared home.

Jinx, the de facto leader of their little group, paused in front of a weathered red leather couch before turning on her heel and falling heavily onto it. "Trounced..."

Gizmo followed right behind her, his trademark scowl firmly in place. "Scud munchin' Titans..." He rubbed his lower back gingerly. "Can't believe they took us out... again!"

Mammoth walked in next, dragging his feet. He forced a small smile. "But we aren't in jail. Good, yeah?"

"Shut it, Mammoth," Gizmo growled. "We got trashed. There isn't a bright side to this... this..." Giving up, Gizmo sat on the floor in front of the couch. "It's all just a cruddy pile of scuz... gunk... crap!"

Jinx couldn't help but grin slightly at his interesting way of expressing his dissatisfaction with the mission, but it didn't last long. She couldn't deny that this looked to be their future. Success with the small hits, the ones that didn't even make a blip on the radar, but the second they tried to do anything big... boom. Failure. Every... damn... time.

"You guys ever think we, I dunno, checked the wrong box on career day? I mean, there's gotta be something better than this out there." Jinx kicked off her boots, not bothering to care where they landed. "Nothing I wanted out of this whole gig has panned out," she furrowed her brow, then turned to her companions. "What did you guys want out of this? This whole mercenary thing... or hell, life in general?"

"Easy," answered Gizmo first. "Money." Jinx raised an eyebrow. "More money, more tech. Think of the lab I could have with enough swill suckin' resources." He then turned to glare at their 20" television. Though they had pretty much every gaming system and entertainment resource at their disposal, those being relatively easy to sneak off with, big-screen T.V.s were just a bit too large to steal on the down low. "And we might be able to enjoy a movie night for once."

Mammoth scratched his head, looking pensive. "Well, I don't do too good at school, but I'm real good at smashing things. Plus this is what my sister does, so..." he trailed off, looking like he was working way too hard at thinking. "I don't know what else I can do. I'm not good with much stuff besides school, either. Just smashing."

Jinx sat up, turning to Gizmo first. "You know, the Titans have a huge amount of tech. All bought and paid for by the city, no jail time required. And the biggest T.V. I've seen outside of a Best Buy. They even have a sweeter car than we do."

"Jinx, we don't have a car," Mammoth shrugged.

"Kinda the point I was trying to make, big guy."

"Oh..."

"I'm just saying, maybe they've got the right idea."

Gizmo glared at his friend, for the first time questioning her leadership. "If you're suggesting joining up with those snot brains, then I-"

Jinx waved dismissively at him, "Don't be ridiculous. I'm just thinking out loud here. But," she leaned forward, elbows on knees, and looked Gizmo in the eyes, "maybe we've been playing this all wrong. Who's to say we can't play on the side of the angels for once? As our own squad, not some sort of superhero daycare group. What if we could have what they have?"

"Yeah, but-"

"And Mammoth, how would you like to smash, smash to your heart's content, and not get tossed in a cell for it?"

"That would be a good change."

"Jinx, you're talking crazy. First off, there's already the Titans. The city's not gonna pay for a whole 'nother group. And second, well... who's gonna believe us, huh? If we decide to go straight, if we decide to 'denounce our wicked ways' and all that junk, if we somehow manage to find funding, who's gonna give us a second chance? It's all snot." Gizmo crossed his arms across his chest, grimace still in place, but Jinx was glad that he was at least weighing the option instead of just dismissing it out of hand. Mammoth would be easy to sway, but Gizmo would be a much harder sell.

Jinx slid off the couch to sit beside her tiny teammate. "Look, Giz... if I can figure this out, if I can find a way to make it work, are you with me?" She held his gaze, knowing he wasn't big on 'touchy-feely girl crap', as he put it, but trying make him realize that this was their best chance. "I won't do it without you guys. I can't do it without you guys."

"Jinx..." Gizmo finally broke eye contact to look at Mammoth, who was as enthralled with their conversation as he was with Wrestlemania, obviously waiting for his reply. "Is it your time of the month of something?"

"Giz!" Jinx punched him in the shoulder, just hard enough to topple him.

"Fine. If you can make this stupid idea work... I guess I'm in."

"Yes!" Jinx jumped up, throwing her arms in the air in victory. She skipped to Mammoth and grabbed him in a tight hug. "We're gonna do it! We're gonna be something. Something awesome. I just have to think of a way to get it."

She pirouetted, flipped over the couch, then nailed a perfect landing on the other side, a wide smile splitting her face. "Night, guys!" Before she could make it to her bedroom, Mammoth interrupted her celebratory dance.

"Wait, why did you become a merc?"

"Eh..." Jinx didn't bother turning around, but her shoulders slumped. "I wanted... respect."

Nothing else was spoken between them as they made their ways to their respective bedrooms, each one with a lot to think about.

The following morning:

"Ask? That's your big fancy plan? Ask?"

"Ask nicely," Jinx corrected him, grinning.

Since Gizmo seemed to be preoccupied with trying to rid himself of a migraine, judging by how he was rubbing his temples, Mammoth decided to comment.

"You think asking-"

"Asking nicely."

"-would actually work? No offense or nothin', but how hard didja get hit yesterday?"

Jinx groaned and dropped her head on table. She had spent the previous night and early morning formulating her genius plan, and they weren't even letting her explain past step one. Standing, she forced a smile, her sharp canines glinting briefly.

"Guys, give me a chance, will ya? We've got luck on our side-"

"Yeah, bad luck..."

"- and a solid plan in place. If you'd just listen, you'd see that it could work."

Sighing, Gizmo leaned back in his chair. He'd been friends with Jinx for long enough to be able to read her fairly easily, and the look of desperate earnestness on her face made it obvious how much this meant to her. For his friend, he would comply. "Fine. Get on with it."