Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I of course stayed at home doing homework. But after that my time was spent sitting on the couch watching TV and enjoying libations. And yes, I did dress up, for the kiddies who I gave out candy to. This year I was Indiana Jones and I have to admit to you my friends……wearing that hat felt so nice. Anyway! I thank you all very much for reviewing. It doesn't take more than two seconds and you all know that; Somewhere In Time, wawaboy2, Sizzlin-Starry-Night-Sky, KF Fan, Skyler-A-Teloiv, Angelfly06, xStarfirexRobinxo, Realfanficts, Featherpen13, Adeya, Tennisgal456. As always, you guys are the greatest. Enjoy!
Chapter Three
That was then, This is now
Raven paced around, her image would flicker somewhat as she moved. "For weeks we thought you were dead, it wasn't until clues started coming up that we finally realized what happened to you. Based on what happened with Starfire some time ago, we came up with a plan."
"Wait-Wait, Starfire? This happened to her too?"
Raven chuckled. "Like I said, you're one of us now. She tried to stop a thief from the future and wound up being hurtled twenty years forward."
"You're saying that this-" Jinx gestured to the world outside a nearby window. "This is what twenty years in the future looks like?"
"You….haven't traveled twenty years, Jinx. The tower has a record of the last time you entered the premises."
"And…?"
"It's more like twenty…two?" Jinx was not only not convinced but now also irritated. "….thousand." The pink haired girl quite nearly suffered a heart attack. Her knees gave out and she fell onto a bed. "Jinx…"
"Twenty-two thousand years?!"
"Give or take a millennia."
"This can't be happening-this CANNOT be happening!" shouted Jinx.
"I really wish I had better news for you," said Raven apologetically. Jinx wiped her eyes dry and stood up, taking in a deep breath as she went.
"Okay….okay, you said something about a plan right?"
Raven smiled again. "Yes, you and I are about to change thirty years of sad history." Jinx furrowed her brow. "I'm going to send you home, Jinx." The purple haired young one could hardly keep her excitement contained.
"Home…y-y-you mean….through time right?" The holographic Raven rolled her eyes.
"Well of course, how do you think we're going to get you home? The 9am bus?" Jinx folded her arms, now looking miffed. "Oh forgive me; I've just been on ice for so long. Come on, this way." Raven walked out of sickbay, her image flickering as she did. Jinx soon joined her in the hall and they began walking.
"Where are we going?"
"Sub-Basement 2," replied Raven. "Like I said, we can send you on your way but it's a risky business. For it to work properly there have to be precise atmospheric and polar anomalies occurring."
Jinx continued to find herself amazed. "So you're telling me that you all built a time machine…..you actually built a time machine?"
"And let me tell you it's not an easy thing to manage, took about thirty years to put the finishing touches on it."
"How did you do this, all of this?" asked Jinx wondrously. Raven slowly stopped walking, presumably to catch her breath and again her likeness flickered. She then continued on after a moment of heavy breathing. Jinx followed at her side.
"Well we didn't start off on it right away. I'm really sorry to say that Kid Flash was the only one who didn't immediately think you were a goner." This did dispirit Jinx somewhat, but it was still uplifting to hear that…..he didn't give up on her. "He really didn't talk much for a while either."
"Ow! Ohhh…..e-everyone? Is anyone okay?" Following Starfire, everyone was soon either sitting or back on their feet. Gnarrk used himself as a shield by completely wrapping himself around Kole, thus she was unharmed. Raven helped Robin upright, a gesture he promptly thanked her for. Robin dusted his gloves off and noticed Kid Flash standing before a smoking crater. The boy wonder approached him from behind and hung his head.
"I'm sorry." Kid Flash barely heard him. He blocked out everyone and everything except for the blackened hole before him, and the new yellow communicator in his hand……the one he had planned on giving Jinx just hours ago. Robin glanced back at the now silenced speedster.
"What now Rob?" he heard Cyborg ask. Robin turned to Cyborg with a hard look.
"Find him, find Dr. Light now!" He nodded but they were too slow to act. A rush of wind blew past all of them so quickly it nearly forced them back to the ground. Robin recovered off a wall and stared down the empty tunnel. "Check that, we better find Kid Flash first."
The aforementioned hapless criminal stumbled along the sewer tunnels. The technology of suit was utterly ruined thus he was without a means to defend himself. A sound far behind him charged into his ears and he stopped dead and looked back fearfully. He saw no one, not even the Titan that normally would have easily scared him into submission. He felt a light gust of wind and shivered; perhaps this meant he was nearing an opening. Upon turning around however, he came face to furiously enraged face with Kid Flash.
"Wait! I-OPF!" Kid Flash seized him and the two were gone in a vermillion streak. Dr. Light felt the skin on his face moving against the g-force of Kid Flash's movements. The feeling of being lifted off the ground and raucously taken over thousands of miles quickly ended and when it did he saw that he and Kid Flash were in a hot and almost desert-like area.
"Just you and me now," snarled Kid Flash. Still holding on to the villain he dragged him forward then nearly threw him down an enormous ravine. Dr. Light's feet balanced on the edge of the cliff while Kid Flash's hands kept him aloft. "You're gonna talk, now."
"OKAY-OKAY! W-W-What do you want to know?!" Dr. Light's cooperation was still not nearly enough to cool Kid Flash's temper.
"Jinx.."
"W-Who?"
"SHUT UP!" Screamed the speedster. "JUST…..just shut up!" He forced himself to regain a meager amount of composure. "The girl, who tried to stop you…" The villain's eyes darted about in an effort to recall the mental image. Finally, Jinx's face resurfaced in his mind and he went back to staring up at his captor.
"Her…"
"What happened to her?"
"I-I don't know-NAA I DON'T KNOW!" he shouted as his initial response roused Kid Flash's anger again. "I swear I do not know! If she interfered with the device then she's probably dead."
"NO!" He wrenched Dr. Light forward then poised him even further off the edge. He roamed his eyes up and down Dr. Light's suit, looking for anything that resembled a clue. "Alright, you're a blockhead but you're not dumb enough to get stuck in your own trap, are you?" He shook his head madly. "No you're not, so let's have it. What was the plan?"
"My suit was…was equipped with a temporal displacement field. At the right time it would activate, temporarily remove me from the timeline, then reinsert me and I would be safe from the detonator!" He rattled off his preparations at record speed. Kind Flash thought long and hard. He was able to generate a vague assumption from what Dr. Light said, but it was still a little over his head. He was going to need help figuring out the rest.
"Okay, six million dollar question; who gave you this tech?" Dr. Light bobbed his head about, uttering incoherent gasps between long breaths.
"But….h-he won't do business ever again." Kid Flash's eye twitched.
"Look man! If I do what I'm seriously thinking of doing, that's going to be the least of your problems!" At this point in time the hapless criminal needed very little convincing. He swallowed the golf ball sized lump in his throat.
"Chang………...it was Chang." And that was it. Kid Flash had everything he could get out of Dr. Light, now came the decision as to what to do with him. His racing thoughts were in maximum overdrive, never slowing down for anything but thoughts on how to make the man in his hands pay. However, Robin's voice through his comm. link broke the tense silence.
"Kid Flash? Kid Flash, respond." The red and yellow hero said nothing. He and Dr. Light simply continued to engage in a most one sided staring contest. They then heard Robin utter a sigh. "Kid Flash, your locator has you, and oddly enough, someone else on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I really hope you're not doing what I think you're doing." Dr. Light's eyes briefly darted down to Kid Flash's comm. link. His silence was the same as yelling back that he most certainly was doing just what Robin feared.
"Let him go, Wally." Robin's voice was firm and unwavering. "There's nowhere for him to go, we'll send someone to pick him up. Now let him go." Kid Flash engaged in a mighty struggle within himself; to let go or not to let go? That was the question indeed. Very unceremoniously, he yanked Dr. Light forward and threw him to solid ground. There followed a strong gust of wind and the villain saw that Kid Flash had promptly taken his leave.
A set of double doors opened, allowing passage to Jinx While Raven merely materialized within the new corridor.
"After that he disappeared," said Raven. "He ditched his locator and comm. link somewhere in the Amazon and we didn't seem or hear from him again for eight months." Jinx had been holding her arms behind her back as she listened. "We took shifts, covering Star City as well as our own. I guess it goes without saying Titans Tower got pretty cranky some days."
"I'm sorry," whispered Jinx. Raven stopped and turned back to her. "This was not supposed to happen."
"Of course not," replied Raven with a grin. "That's why we're fixing it. And it's not your fault, these things happen." Jinx tore her gaze from the floor and gaped at Raven oddly.
"They do?" The aged Azarathian shrugged apologetically.
"Welllllll……they do to us." They finally reached a large set of double metal doors, obviously well above two feet thick, and a code key pad on the wall beside it. Raven stopped before it and Jinx saw several random numbers light up and enter on their own. It perplexed her for a moment but she readily assumed it was Raven wielding her mental influence. Slowly and with a low hum, the doors parted and the two Titans entered Sub-Basement 2. Much of the room was shrouded in darkness, though Jinx knew well that it sheltered a great deal of space. The only well lit point within was an array of slightly raised metal platforms. Jinx's eyes tried to focus enough to be able to cut through the darkness.
"Jinx?"
Her attention snapped back to Raven. "Yes?" Raven delicately pointed to one of the platforms.
"I'm not actually here with you, as you know. So you need to stand here to activate it."
"You mean the time machine?"
Raven shook her head. "This will initiate a system that will allow us to calculate the specific conditions and time on which we'll act." Jinx bore a look similar to Beast Boy when he was told how to repair the T-Ship. Raven sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Just stand here." Jinx tip toed over to the platform and the moment her feet touched the metal lights everywhere came to life. They switched on in a graceful succession, thus she was not blinded by them. Jinx's mouth slacked open as she soon saw before her an apparatus which closely resembled a large gyroscope. The surrounding tech and wiring gave off a light blue hue; no doubt Cyborg was never able resist adding a piece of himself to everything he built. Raven couldn't help but smile as she watched Jinx become increasingly overwhelmed by the Titan's crowning achievement. "All of this…." Jinx's eyes wandered to the long haired Raven. "This represents everything we learned over the years, all our knowledge is personified with this machine."
"I thought it was impossible…"
"So it was believed," agreed Raven. "But as a famous Titan leader once said; 'We've done the impossible before'. So why not do it again?" Jinx went back to ogling at the technology and nodded with a giggle. "We've been able to keep the power going for so long by tapping into geothermal energy." Now that she had a more complete access, Raven brought up a holographic image of the earth slowly circling the sun. Jinx restrained herself from uttering an awed "Oooohhh." The image produced was clearer and more vibrant than any other hologram she'd previously seen, with the exception of Raven who looked positively life-like. Raven studied the projection for a moment, then waved Jinx over to her. "Here, look at this." Jinx hesitantly stepped off the platform but everything remained running when she did. She now stood beside Raven.
"What am I looking for?" asked the sorceress.
"There's a polar resonance that peaks every time the Earth's axis reaches a certain position as it moves around the sun. The machine is tuned to that frequency." Jinx nodded. "With this, we should be able to predict when the next resonance will occur." They waited in silence while their live view of Earth's position continued to move. Then, with a series of beeps, the image froze and a red crosshair zeroed in on their quarry.
"Is that it?"
"Yes," said Raven. "Day after tomorrow, at 12:42 pm, a five minute window will exist." She deactivated the hologram. "And I can't stress the importance of making that date." Jinx shrugged.
"Why? If we miss it or try too late couldn't we just try again the next time it happens?"
"Well, you have to understand that we're still a bit primitive in this area." Jinx folded her arms. "We were afraid that if we try and fail even once the machine could just blow up."
"Uh huh."
"The machine will force open a tear into the space time continuum, your body will be dematerialized and sent over as a matter-stream and then rematerialized on the other side." Jinx merely ran a hand through her hair.
"Raven……what makes you think I wanted to know any of that?"
"Well I just thought I should tell you so that the shock won't-" Raven hadn't meant to bring it up, but it slipped out nonetheless. It quickly became clear to Jinx and she chuckled as irony wound an arm around her shoulder. She began pacing around the machine. "Even if it does work you should know…." Raven's voice dropped. She hated burdening Jinx with a constant flow of worries, but to be untruthful was to make things worse. "It's not going to be a pleasant trip, Jinx." She looked quite calm at the news, and why not? Her day had been nothing but a constant bombardment of one bit of bad news after another. "Well what do you want me to do? Lie to you?"
"YES!" shouted Jinx. "Please Raven, please lie to me just a little bit. I don't care if it's not true I just want a little more hope to lighten up my hopeless situation." Her mouth motioned to speak on but her voice failed her. Jinx held back tears and instead fast walked out of the large room. Raven watched the doors slowly slide shut, she disappeared, and the machine as well as the lights darkened.
Jinx slowly walked up and down the deserted halls of Titans Tower. With each section that she reached a low level light would illuminate her path then shut off as soon as she passed. She felt as though she was a foreigner touring the halls of an age old museum. Jinx's eyes locked on to a door while she still walked; eyeing the faded and scratched name, St..fi.e. Only when she was forced to crane her neck did she look away. She instantly reminded of several conversations she shared with Kid Flash. She was shocked by his sudden appearance and even more so by his offer to join them against the Brotherhood.
"You want me to do what?!"
"Well you looked bored, trust me it's worth it."
Then after their victory he showed her something that left her taken aback. Kid Flash brandished plans for a much smaller version of Titan's Tower; they're 'new pad' as he called it. Jinx remembered that she was mere seconds away from declining. She was not the fulltime hero-type and it would just be weird. How she wished she had told him how much she loved the idea; the idea of finally hearing name being spoken by the public in a positive tone. It seemed sappy and quite namby pamby but the thought of protecting a city of her own like her former enemies ignited a previously unknown fire in her belly. She just had to get home, if not for her own sanity then for everyone else's sake. From the looks of things, it didn't turn out well after she left.
Jinx stepped into sickbay, just as she predicted it was quiet and empty. "Raven?" It took a good minute but Raven did appear beside her. It happened so quickly that Jinx nearly jumped out of her skin. "Could you not do that right next to me?"
"Sorry, it's a bit random. Do you need something?" Jinx took a seat on a nearby bed.
"Tell me everything."
"Everything?" Jinx nodded confidently.
"Yes. You guys didn't build that thing all in one night. I have a day and half here still so I want the whole story."
"I guess that's fair," agreed the old and tired Raven.
"Good, now what happened to Wally?"
"Well like I said, we didn't know where he was for months. Then one day, out of nowhere, he just showed up."
I know. I know. We wanted to know what happened to Wally and I'm a jerk for stopping here. Well I told you this was a short story in all forms, means shorter chapters. But! That also means faster updates. See, ya gotta look for the silver lining here. More of this to come at later but SOON date. Until then my friends I bid you Adios!