Come on, come on…
The door to Wally's room finally closed and Jinx sat up, breathing a sigh of relief. Okay. It would be okay. He probably didn't know about the car, or else he would have woken her up to question her, right?
Then why did he stare at me for ten minutes? She looked down at her apparel - a bra and short shorts.
Oh. Oh.
It seemed her poor wardrobe decisions had come back to bite her in the ass.
Again.
Surprise, surprise.
"Whatever." She muttered, feeling around the floor for a shirt. Boys stared at her in sparse clothing all the time. Hell, she used to be the only girl in a large group of teenage males for years.
You get kind of accustomed to having guys ogle you around the fifth time someone 'accidentally' walks in on you changing.
Pulling up her jeans, she dug through the pockets. She didn't care that Wally had stared at her when he thought she was sleeping. She didn't care at all. Hero or villain, guys were guys and idiots, and she would treat his advances just as she would treat Billy's or SeeMore's.
With brutality and misplaced aggression, being her main motivations.
No matter if she maybe, just a little, liked Wally staring at her. Maybe more than a little. Not that she cared though. Because she didn't. At all.
Maybe.
Grasping at the cool metal she felt through the fabric on her thigh, Jinx carefully opened the window and slipped out onto the fire escape. Quick as a cat, she climbed over the railing and jumped down, taking hold of the bars of the next railing a floor below. She did this until she hit the ground, landing lithely on the balls of her feet to mute the thud. Taking down the side alley, she ran down the back streets in crisscrossing patterns. Jinx still hadn't seen sword or swishy kimono of the mystery samurai lady since the last time but, assuming that if one person had a hit out on you others probably did to, she wasn't about to take the chance of being followed.
She rounded another corner, glancing back over her shoulder into the early dawn. There was also Kid Flash to think about. He took pleasure in showing up at moments when her stupidity was at its height, and be all you're totally better than this Jinx. Totally better. And she always would be like Nah, I'm evil bro. And an idiot. Who gets off on self-destruction. And I really like it when you watch me sleep at four in the morning. So yeah. I'll steal and you'll creep and we can totally make this relationship work for us.
…Okay, so maybe conversations between them didn't go exactly like that, but Kid Flash talks a lot and there's a lot of sighing and awkward pauses and Jinx is only really abridging things and shut up.
Ducking into a dimly lit back alley, Jinx skid to a stop, digging her heels into the dirt. She twirled the car keys around her finger once, and then hit the unlock button, lips quirking up in satisfaction as the headlights of an old black van illuminated her figure.
Good. So the car was still here then; the police hadn't found it yet.
She walked up to it and stroked the dented hood, nails scraping against the paint. Now the only concern I have left is what to do with you…
It's not like Jinx woke up that night with the intention of stealing a car in her mind. It's not like she said "Tonight I will screw myself over harder than ever conceived by mortals before," and proceed to run around town, committing crimes. It was like…well…
You know how things just kind of happen, right?
Like how one minute you're enjoying your stroll up the sidewalk in the dead of night, as a normal law abiding citizen would. Then, next thing you know, your old villainous teammate almost kills you, and you're embroiled in a high speed car chase and things are blowing up and this a completely normal part of life, nothing wrong with this picture here.
Seems legit, you think, nodding your head in affirmation as you blow out the tires of a cop car.
It had started innocently enough. Jinx really had been taking a walk through the city. For once, all was well. There were no midgets screaming at power tools in the vicinity. Or boys in red and yellow spandex flirting with her. Or even crazy ladies with knives stalking her. Life was good.
Then large van came hurtling towards her and life was good no more.
She leapt out of the way, dodging and rolling as the car's tires squealed in their attempt to find purchase against the pavement. The van ground to a stop centimeters away from being wrapped around a telephone pole.
Staggering to her feet, Jinx angrily dusted herself off and stormed over to the driver's window. "Hey!" She shouted. " Guy! It's people like you that make Jump City gridlock central! I was nearly-"
"Jinx?" The tinted window rolled down to reveal SeeMore's frightened face.
"SeeMore?" Her shock melted back into anger. "Why the fuck are you driving?"
Inexplicably, the windshield began to crack and splinter . "Well-"
"You only have one eye SeeMore. One eye!" She pointed directly in his face for emphasis. "You don't have the depth perception necessary to drive a vehicle!"
A side mirror shattered into glittering fragments. SeeMore shank back. Jinx pretended not to notice. "Yeah but-"
She squinted in suspicion, giving the car a once over. "And where did you even get this thing? This rust bucket isn't one of Gizmo's toys."
Puffing out his chest, SeeMore looked at her proudly for the first time that night. "I stole it."
She was at a loss for words. "You. Stole. It?"
"Yup." He grinned at her breezily.
"Why would you do something so idiotic?" Jinx growled.
"Uh…" His smile faltered. "Well, I-I thought that maybe…maybe if I did something bad…you would uh, come back. Maybe? " He stuttered.
Far off in the distance, Jinx could hear the shriek of sirens. I've been hearing sirens she thought dully. How did the one sound she had been trained her whole life to immediately pick up on suddenly had become no more than white noise?
"Move." She whispered furiously to SeeMore.
"An- Huh?" SeeMore questioned in confusion.
"Move over!" Jinx hissed, tugging the door open. Violently shoving SeeMore into the passenger seat, she took hold of the steering wheel and put her foot on the gas pedal.
The tires screeched in protest as she took off down the street. She didn't know exactly where she was going, or even what she was going to do with the car when she got there. Most important of all, she had no clue why the hell she had even decided to help pathetic SeeMore with his pathetic plan to impress her, the pathetic girl who pathetically slept all day and pigged out on pathetic Chinese food all night, all while blowing shit up with her pathetic powers that she pathetically could not control, and watching Kid Flash pathetically take it upon himself to save her pathetic soul and figure out her pathetic name.
( In summary, Jinx was doing pretty good. Thanks for asking.)
"You're a moron." The police sirens grew louder, and Jinx swung the car into a hard right, speeding up a side alley.
SeeMore slumped down in his seat. He could see the incoming onslaught of verbal abuse coming from a mile away, and abruptly remembered why it was Jinx who always came up with the plans. "I know."
"I hate you. You're screwing everything up." The plastic covering of the steering wheel began to peel off like old wallpaper, and he watched her knuckles turn bone white.
Sighing heavily, SeeMore leaned against the thick glass window. "Tell me about it."
"What is possessing you to act with zero impulse control? What could you possibly have to gain from this?" Red and blue lights flashed through the back window. Jinx ground her teeth and stepped harder on the gas.
"I," His voice had grown stilted. "I thought you would like this! You're always tellin' us guys to 'take initiative' and 'do stuff for ourselves for once' and I just thought-" He broke off, glancing in his lap. "I just thought that if I showed you I could be just as good as that Kid Flash dude, you would come back and be our leader again."
The police were closing in on them, and her face hardened as she spun into another alley. SeeMore lurched forward, head slamming into the dashboard. "Now, I don't think I deserved that." He muttered, shutting his eye tightly. His hands felt for his forehead, in the process coming across the glove compartment handle. "Hey, wait a sec," Trying to sit up, he winced and had one hand rub at his temples while the other opened the glove compartment door. Fishing around for something, his grin slowly started to return to his face. "You know, I wanted to show you something else, too. Gizmo did some serious digging, even managed to get back into the BOE database, and found out a few things you might not like about that Kid Flash guy-"
"Why can't you just get a job and stop depending on an idiot with no fashion sense to do everything for you? You sleep on a couch; I hope you're proud of yourself."
"Wha?" SeeMore stared at her strangely, smile fading fast. He closed up the glove compartment door.
"It's not even a real couch. It's a pull-out, which is like some kind of mutant hybrid of a bed and a couch. You're sleeping on a mutant; glad you've finally realized that."
Frowning, a realization dawned on SeeMore. "…Are you talking to yourself, Jinx?"
"What?" She shook her head and glared sharply at him. "Were you saying something SeeMore?"
"Well actually - no, no I wasn't."
"Well, could you be quiet? In the middle of evading law enforcement here, need to concentrate."
He sighed again, lying back. She hadn't even been talking to him. She hadn't even been talking to him! It was like his power was being invisible only to Jinx.
Perhaps he shouldn't even bother with trying to get her back anymore. Jinx would go one way and he and the H.I.V.E. Five would go another, and maybe they would see each other on the weekends or something and go out for pie, but a team they would be no longer! If she wanted to shack up with Kid Flash - who was apparently the womanizing scum of the earth- that also helped old ladies cross the street- that was fine with him.
Have Kid Flash break her heart like he's done with all those other hero girls, see what I care. SeeMore clenched his fist and felt his own heart break.
The cops were frighteningly close now, only feet away. Snarling in frustration, Jinx rolled down her window enough to allow her hand to be able to pass through. If she was going down, might as well do it kicking and screaming, not-villain status be damned. Her glowing eyes reflected back at her through the windshield as Jinx hexed the police cars' tires, smiling in spite of herself when she heard the satisfying pop.
The two cop cars that had been following Jinx and SeeMore shuddered, spinning and skittering across the asphalt before coming to an uneasy halt in the middle of the road.
Jinx closed up her window and let out a whoop. "Did you see that?" Nudging See-More playfully, she ducked into a series of side alleys, letting the police cars disappear from view.
Wow. She had done it. Jinx, the pathetic not-villain who dwelled on Kid Flash's couch, had successfully become an accomplice to grand larceny, obstructed justice, resisted arrest, and harassed law enforcement, all in one go.
Throw in public drunkenness and defacing private property, and you would have her rap sheet, circa spring break sophomore year.
This is nothing to be proud of Jinx, a small voice echoed in the back of her mind. You are better than a thief.
She ignored it.
"Mmmm, and I forgot how good it felt to use my powers like that." She tried to remember the last time she intentionally wanted to make something erupt in fire, or melt into an ooze. It had been … about a month, probably? Three weeks?
Which was completely too long if you asked her.
You don't need to hurt people to feel good about yourself.
Fuck off Wally of her conscience; you ruin Jinx's crime high with all of your morals.
"Uh-huh, you beat the cops, go Jinx." SeeMore muttered stiffly, tracing the cracks in the window's glass.
"I feel like this weird pressure's been lifted, you know?" She was babbling now but couldn't help herself. She hadn't felt this good and yet this terrible all at once since she had destroyed Madame Rouge's Remote Control Of Evildoing.
"Yup that's cool Jinx. Real cool."
The car came to a stop by the outskirts of town, and Jinx opened the door and hopped out, ripping the car keys from the ignition. " So now, what should we do with this thing?" She asked, eyeing up the license plate.
"I dunno. Didn't think … that far ahead."
"You lie terribly SeeMore," Jinx chirped, hexing off the metal plate. It fell to the ground with a sharp thunk.
"I don't-"
"Yes you do," Picking up the license plate and throwing it in the back seat, she marveled at her change in mood.
Ah, the wonders of power wielding paired with crime spree adrenaline/guilt. How two of you had been dearly missed.
"Well … my plan was to kinda show this car to you…" SeeMore bit his lip. "And I thought that you'd come up with the big plan from there."
"Hmmm," Jinx furrowed her brow, glancing around. She walked over to an SUV parked on the street and waved her hand, darting over and picking up its license plate after pink had energy engulfed it. "Here, let me think." Her hands lit up like neon as she got back to the stolen van, and bending over she melted the edges of the new license plate and placed it where the old one had been, effectively welding it to the black car.
Admiring her handiwork, Jinx leaned against the van's hood. "There. That should through the cops off our trail, at least for a little. Now," Finally she met SeeMore's gaze. "I hope you realize that you're not driving this thing back home, especially at this hour." She didn't know what time 'this hour' was exactly, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to say.
You just want to keep the car…
No one asked for your opinion, Phantom Wally.
"It's only four in the morning," SeeMore crossed his arms irritability. " 'Snot like I'm not smart enough to know that driving a stolen car around at noontime is a bad idea."
"Well considering- holy shit, it's four a.m.?"
"Yeah, almost. Why?"
Internally, Jinx blanched. If it was four that would mean that Kid Flash would be coming home from Where Ever The Hell He Went City, only to find her gone, and predictably he would give into his stalker tendencies and come looking for her, and oh shit, she really just did steal a car while living under a hero's roof, didn't she?
I could give it back, was her first sane thought. The option seemed more and more plausible by the second. I could give it back. Wally doesn't even need to know.
"No reason." She grew shifty eyed, and tightened her grasp on the car keys. "Hey SeeMore? I think it would actually be best if I took the car- since it was meant for me and all anyway." Shrugging, Jinx started to inch to the driver's side door. "I'll figure out what to do with it, don't worry."
"So I guess Flash gave you a curfew or somethin' now, huh? Have to be back home before the sun comes up?" SeeMore said quietly. She froze.
"No." Jinx whispered slowly.
" Tell me then. What are you doin' with the van? Are you gonna turn it back in to the cops now, to please him? What happened to Jinx, Miss Independent Leader Lady?"
She felt for the metal handle and got in the car, biting her lip. Rolling down the window, she dared to look SeeMore in the eye. His gaze was at once stony and desperate.
"Well?"
She turned the key in the ignition. The vehicle roared to life, humming beneath her.
"I would tell you if I knew myself."
Leaning back, Jinx sank into the leather driver's seat of the van. What should she do then? Wally would probably want to her to give the car over to the police or something, to do "the right thing."
Through the windshield she could see the sun winking at her over the rooftops, and knew Wally would be waking up soon - he didn't need a ton of sleep - and that she should probably get back to the apartment.
…Like a little girl with a some kind of curfew to uphold.
Simply pathetic, like everything else.
She scowled and set her jaw, climbing out of the car. You know what? She didn't have to give the van back just yet. It was old and kind of worn; she was sure no one would miss it anyway.
But Wally's going to be so disappointed in you…
Jinx hesitated for a second, and then pushed the thought from her mind. She didn't need to get him bothered with something as inconsequential as her having taken part in a major theft. He wasn't her parole officer; Jinx didn't have to answer to him.
She, after all, was independent.
And besides, she was going to give the car back.
Eventually.
On her own terms.
Furthermore, it wasn't as if she was going to start stealing stuff all over the place again. She just needed a little excitement before she gave the whole "crime is bad" thing a true go. To prove, if nothing else, that she could still be a rebel. When she felt like it.
The idea was sounding more and more doable. This is going to be the last time I steal something. Well, intentionally at least. Yeah. Nodding once, she locked the car resolutely.
Like smokers with their last cigarette, this was to be Jinx's last robbery.
Everyone take note and reconfigure their plans accordingly.
A/N: Tsk, tsk, Jinx- haven't you learned already that doing things on impulse is a bad idea?
Sorry this is a serious Jinx/SeeMore chapter. (I know we all want to see KF and Jinx interact at some point in this story.) There were about ten different ways this scene could have played out, with many different people filling SeeMore's shoes, but I ended up going with him because- well, you'll find out later.
Don't know when I'll be updating again. Probably soon. I've been busy posting a story about the Young Justice crew for the past month, but I think I'm going to drop that one and just focus on this. (I can't quit this fandom, no matter what I do. It's an obsession.)