Like I've said before I'm British, so I sometimes use spellings which are different in the USA and because I use open office and it doesn't like British spellings quite often I Americanize them. But sometimes, because I'm such a rebel (!), I don't. Hopefully this doesn't bother anyone, because at the end of the day I am British and without knowing it American characters can find themselves saying British things (say, pavement inside of sidewalk), despite me desperately trying not.
I do try to make American characters sound American.
KF fan- Wasp coloured simply means that's the communicator was black and yellow, because they are the classic colours of a wasp. Bees are too stereotypically black and yellow, but I always see bees as too cuddly to use when describing an object during a sad/angst moment. Were as wasps are seemingly more sharp and cruel in my mind. (Not that I make a habit of cuddling bees). Thanks KF fan for you're many reviews.
Thank you reviewers, you're reviews mean lots to me.
Jinx had been completely alone before, it is horrific, it's impossible to imagine what it feels like living in the constant knowledge that if you were to die there wouldn't be a single soul to shed a tear or feel a fragment of grief. To be fated to have your ashes scattered in some field among fellow unknowns or even worse to lie in an unmarked grave which would never be graced by a single flower.
She contemplated this on the train from Central City towards Fawcett City. What exactly happened to the possessions of the dead and the dispossessed? She wasn't sure anyone would want her Gothic, purple t-shirts, maybe the black skinny jeans though. Maybe some good might come of her death, someone somewhere might get a decent pair of jeans.
Jinx was abruptly shaken from her dismal chain of thoughts by a young mother holding her sons hand and heading for the part of empty part of the train where Jinx was sat as far away from the rest of the passengers as she could manage. And with her zipper hoodie's hood pulled up and her eyes accented with lashings of eyeliner she had managed to frighten away any other passengers. Jinx was good at that.
But this mother either wasn't as bigoted towards the way people chose to dress as her fellow passengers or she just hadn't noticed the freak on in the last carriage of the train.
Scowling Jinx came to her feet, slinging her bag pack over her shoulder and heading straight for the carriage door. Even being not too close to people made her skin crawl in fear. What if she lost control and hurt the child? She could never live with a child's blood her hands.
She must have looked crazy stood in the section between carriages when the carriage right next to her was almost empty. But she had more important things on her mind than what people thought of her. Her body was still sore from sleeping rough, she couldn't wait to get to her motel room. Despite knowing she was going to have to stay in a dingy motel where people came and went with their coat collars pulled up and the mattress would be bumpy and uncomfortable, she considered it heaven compared to sleeping rough.
Scrunched up in the corner of the compartment was a copy of yesterdays Central City news, Jinx straightened it out, below the bold headline was a smaller headline, she read the first line;
Half of Titans East arrive in Central City to temporally protect the city while KF and Jinx take a sabbatical.
Her abdominal muscles tensed as breathed sharply. Not that she had expected him to give up without a fight.
She had been stupid and selfish when she had written that note, she should have written a lie, something so vile and painful he wouldn't have wanted her to stay; Said that she had met someone else or something equally horrible and untruthful. Now she was going to have to do the impossible; outrun the fastest boy alive.
But selfishly she had not wanted him to hate her or cause him pain. Which was pointless because she was certainly causing him pain now, at least with a bigger lie he might have moved on faster.
Sinking to the grimy floor, Jinx held her head in her hands. What was she doing? For an hour she sat there, ignored by her fellow passengers and not caring about it.
The train ground to a halt with an ear-splitting screech, Jinx looked up, surprised, they couldn't be there yet, could they?
Over the tannoy the voice of a middle aged chain smoker croaked "We have been instructed to make a brief stop so that officers may search for a missing person that they belief is on board. We expect to resume in a couple of minutes. Apologies for any inconvenience caused."
There were groans of annoyance through the train, one man in the next carriage muttered something about the stupid homeless rat who was delaying them, after all who cared about the homeless? The fear that had suddenly gripped her didn't allow her to feel even the slightest bit of anger at the bigoted man.
Somewhere at the other end of the train Jinx heard the police getting onto the train. Pulling her hood up further she stood and casually made her way along the train to the the last carriage where the toilets were. She slipped into a vacant one and locked the door behind her.
The compartment was tiny, only allowing for a toilet, sink and small window.
Standing on the toilet lid Jinx sent pink sparks from her fingertips to patterned window pane, watching as the wooden frame rotted away and the window cracked. The dilapidated wood fell away as she eased the glass shards away. Once the window was completely free from glass she stuffed her rucksack through so that it fell onto the platform below, she quickly followed it, making use of her gymnasts muscles. Thankfully the platform was empty, save a scraggy cat sprawled out in the sun.
The cat gave her a look which said "What'ch think you're doing on my patch?" with it's sleepy, lidded eyes. Before rolling over.
Picking up her rucksack Jinx hurriedly jumped a fence from the platform to a green street side below.
This was just fucking fantastic, Jinx thought angrily, she didn't even know where the hell she was.
After 10 minutes of walking in a direction that might have been the way she had just come from for all she knew she came across a dingy motel. Jinx didn't bother to hesitate, it was the best she was going to get in a place like this and nothing was as bad as the ground. At the very least it gave her a place to find out where the hell she was and to get her head together.
Yanking back the grubby shower curtain Jinx heaved herself under the calcimined shower head. Then shivered as the cold drops of water rained down on her. The frog shower radio was playing a crackly Johnny Cash classic. For a couple of minutes she just stood there letting the droplets wash over her, then she took a sponge and scrubbed herself until her skin hurt. But no matter how hard she scrubbed she couldn't wash away the memories or the loneliness. Finally before she stepped out of the shower she turned the temperature knob to it's coldest setting, the freezing water shocking her nerves.
In her room she curled up, foetal, like a baby on the bed. But she got less sleep than in the shrubs beside Wal-Mart and her short lapses into sleep were claimed by nightmares.
In the dark of the ops room, lit only by a desk light, Kid Flash stared intently down at maps and diagrams, the only noise was the sound of the fingers on his left hand drumming on the table. If he had stepped back and looked at the scene he might have laughed at how he mirrored Robin, on the other hand he might not.
The city map had been replaced by a map of the country, it was scattered with post-its and areas were shaded in.
Someone flicked the light switch and the room was bathed in light, blinked as his eyes adjusted to it.
"Don't you think you should get some rest?" The classic Raven monotone echoed around the room, in a way it really shouldn't have done in such an enclosed space.
"No, I'd rather be here."
"Do you want to get ill?"
"I thought It would have been obvious what I wanted." He covered his bloodshot eyes from the light. "Turn the light off before you go."
She flicked the switch, but stayed to take in the sight. The only light was from a desk lamp and it cast a long shadow from the hunched figure at the table, his shoulders rigid from stress and there was dark marks under each eye.
"Maybe you should let her go."
From the pits of his grief and exhaustion a growl erupted "No."
She gave a nod and slipped out onto the corridor.
Even in the bland colour scheme of her motel room she couldn't escape his siren red hair or his brilliant blue eyes.
Sliding off the holographic rings Jinx, took a wire from her rucksack to recharge them, because of their complex technology and small batteries they could only be recharged 6 times, this was their 5th.
Then she looking up she saw herself in the motel room's mirror. Her pink irises shimmered in the flickering fluorescent bed side lamp, they were freakishly bright compared to the black of her cat like pupils. The poker straight waves of her shocking pink hair draped down to her lower back, it was damp from her morning shower. She didn't need to look in a mirror to see her skin, she looked down her hands, even the vibrant pink nail varnish she had applied before this madness had began failed to detract from the concrete gray of her skin. Jinx had found that you could dye your hair, wear contacts but no matter how much fake tan you caked on she couldn't get rid of that tinge of gray.
When she was little she lain in bed at night thinking about the parallels between her appearance and her personality, and eventually she had come to the conclusion that the concrete gray was an analogy of her hard, cold personality.
The concrete had cracked and the weeds were seeping through.
Feeling slightly repulsed she slipped the recharged rings back on and the pink hair turned black, the pink eyes became grey and her grey skin turned a caramel shade.
She looked into the mirror at the Indian features of her face, the face, which might truly have been hers if she hadn't become a 'freak'. The ring only changed colours and her peculiar pupils, not features, but she felt so different with the rings on.
If she had never run into Wally she would have done a bunk before daylight, thus avoiding the bill, she might have even emptied the cash register if she'd gotten the time as well. But times had changed and even the idea went against everything she had embraced over the past two years.
So instead she left the necessary amount taped to the cash machine with an extra $5 for the map she'd 'borrowed' from the magazine rack.
It was a short trek to the interstate and a good few km to Fawcett City from there.
Every muscle aching and his mind swimming from exhaustion Kid Flash collapsed onto the bed, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. The room was dark, this was helped by the deep purple walls and rugs which adorned the wooden floor. It wasn't his room, it was Rosa's, actually he supposed it wasn't anyone's anymore. From his position he could see the screwed up sheet in the wastepaper basket. Was it really only two days ago he had thrown it there? It felt like a lifetime.
His communicator beeped urgently, reluctantly he opened it. The masked face of Robin looked back at him. "We've got a lead." And with those few words his heart leaped and all his misery was forgotten.
He was at the tower in seconds.
"When the holographic rings are recharged they send of a brief pulse of radio wave which was picked up a satellite, rather like a satellite phone or GPS." Cyborg explained
"Do know where she is?"
"The rings were recharged this morning and it's only accurate within 10 miles, but yes we have an idea."
"Where?"
"Edgeton, Illinois." Cy had barely finished but KF was already gone in blur of red and yellow.
I'm no scientist so I'm sure that last part was drastically wrong but I'm allowed to use a bit of creative licence aren't I?
As you may haven seen from my monologue at the start I'm in a mood for writing today, I had promised to write more over the holidays, unfortunately certain unforeseen events beyond my control occurred. Sorry.