Jump City Symphony
A Teen Titans Fan Fiction by Jacob McDonald
Opening Notes: Chapter the next. Bet you can't guess what this one's about by the name of the chapter! No really, it's going to shock. you. I know this is rated M, but if you have an exceptionally weak stomach, you may wish to avoid this chapter. Lots of blood and cruelty. Fair warning.
Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Teen Titans.
Lilith
Jinx stepped out of the elevator and into the living room of Titans Tower, checking in her purse for her ID. As she looked up, she stopped and arched an eyebrow. "What?"
Changeling, Cyborg, Sarah and Blackfire were all seated around the living room eating their dinner, and they were all staring at her with their mouths hanging open.
Changeling was the first to find his voice, "Your... your hair..." he choked out.
"By X'hal's great name and grace, what are you wearing?" Blackfire's mouth started to turn up into a grin.
Jinx blinked at them, then shrugged. Her hair was falling down straight, done in numerous tight braids that looked like dreadlocks, and it had been dyed a dirty blonde color with several pink streaks. She wore knee high fuck-me boots with fishnet stockings, and an extremely short black leather miniskirt. Her stomach was bare, and her loose black tank top showed off about half of her lacy red bra underneath. A spiked collar adorned her neck, an a matching bracelet was strapped around her right wrist. She wore dark shades of red and black makeup around her eyes, and ruby red lipstick shined on her mouth.
"I'm going undercover as a stripper. Thought I might as well look the part."
"Why do you even own clothes like that?" Sarah asked.
"I don't." Jinx pointed, "The underwear and the top are mine, but I had to shred the shirt to make it look right. The boots are actually Raven's, and the skirt, believe it or not, is Kylee's."
"Kylee owns a leather skirt?" Cyborg asked.
"She and Raven went shopping a month or so ago and bought all kinds of strange clothes. I think it was just because they had Dick's credit card."
Arsenal walked into the room from the garage elevator and spotted the crowd on the couches, "Hey guys. Has Jinx come down yet?" They all pointed and he looked over.
The red haired sharp shooter laughed a little, "Dick wanted you to look like a stripper, Jen. Not a hooker."
"There's a difference in the way they dress?" Jinx arched an eyebrow.
"Point." Arsenal shrugged, "I've got the car running. Let's go."
"Man!" Cyborg cackled, "Are you takin' that old beater again?"
The red haired man shook his head, "The Achiva doesn't have the power the T-Car does, Vic, but it's a little less conspicuous than a big blue and silver monster with anti-proton cannons sticking out the top of it."
Sarah chuckled, but stopped when Cyborg shot her a look. Blackfire snorted, "Ah ah, Sarah... don't laugh at Vic's 'baby'."
"Don't make fun of my car, Blackfire."
"It's a freakin' car, Cy." Blackfire rolled her eyes, "Get over it."
"It's not just a car! It's-"
What it was, Arsenal and Jinx were spared from having to find out. They had made it to the elevator and the doors shut just as Cyborg started to rant.
"So you think you'll really dance tonight?" Arsenal drove through the light traffic on the west end of the city with ease.
"Don't sound so excited. Raven would hack off your balls if she knew you were panting like a dog to see me taking my clothes off." Jinx rolled her eyes.
"Oh, she already knows. It's not like she has much room to talk. She's had sex with you."
"Before you two got together, I'll point out." Jinx shook her head with a grin, "Sorry, Jason, but there's no good reason for you to be in that club when I'm up on stage."
"Sure there is! What if something goes down and you need my help?"
"I can kick around a few drunk idiots who try to touch me while I'm dancing."
"Still..." Arsenal lapsed into silence, and after a moment or two, spoke again in a softer voice, "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"I can be a stripper for one night, Jay."
"Not that... the being bait part. I mean, I'll cap any fuck that puts a hand on you, but it's gonna be dangerous-"
"Like dodging bullets and fighting super villains and armies of zombies isn't dangerous."
"This is different, Jenny." Arsenal shook his head, "This guy... or guys... how ever many there are, they're good. They know just how to hurt people, and they know just where to do it so that no one will see or hear."
As they rolled up to a red light and stopped, Jinx turned to the man in the driver's seat, "I appreciate that you're worried for me, Jason. I really do." Leaning in, she kissed his right cheek and placed a hand on the left side of his face, turning his eyes to meet hers, "I'll be fine."
"Just don't take any chances." Arsenal leaned in a little and kissed her cheek as well. Blue eyes met pink, and they stared at each other, their faces only inches apart. After a moment, Jinx blinked.
"Light's green."
Arsenal turned his face away and continued driving. Jinx turned and looked out her window.
The rest of the trip to the club was made in silence.
Jinx stepped through the doors at the back of the High Times Gentlemen's Club and looked around for a manager of some sort. Spotting a portly man in his mid-forties, she walked over and grinned at him, "Hey."
"Hey there. You the new girl?"
"Yep." she tossed her braids over one shoulder.
"Alright. Now I'm not interviewing you or watching you dance first because Frank spoke so highly of you. Don't let me down." he glared for a second, then pointed down a hallway off to the side, "Dressing room is down there. You're on at 10:15."
"Alright. You wont be disappointed, Mr. Hathorn."
He nodded curtly and rushed off to do something or another. Jinx watched him go, then started for the dressing room. The plan was fairly simple; Nightwing had called and pretended to be one of Mr. Hathorn's associates from a strip club down in L.A., saying that he'd heard that High Times was down a few girls because of the recent attacks. Telling him that he had a good girl in town and that he'd give her a call, Nightwing set up for Jinx to start work immediately.
All she had to do now was catch the eye of the attacker or attackers and draw them out so Arsenal could put the hurt on them. They'd carefully done her up to match the common description of the other four girls, so she would stand out more, and she was suppose to act as wild as she could, trying to draw as much attention as possible.
"Jason's going to be sorry he missed this one..." Jinx grinned as she stepped into the dressing room and looked about. Only one other girl was there at the moment, and she was leaning into a mirror, checking her makeup. "Hey." the girl called.
"Hi." Jinx walked in and dropped a duffle on one of the chairs in front of a mirror, "I'm Jenny."
The other young woman stood up and turned to the Titan. She was slightly tall, maybe five foot nine inches, and she had long red hair that spilled all the way down her back. She was wearing a see-through teddy and a barely there black bra along with her skimpy looking thong. Her feet were bare, but she had four inch heels sitting next to her chair. Smiling down at the three inches shorter Jinx, she stuck out a hand, "Lilith."
"Stage name?" Jinx arched an eyebrow as she shook the girls hand.
"Nope. That's my real name." Lilith looked into Jinx's pink eyes and her smile faltered, "You have some wild eyes."
Jinx blinked her catlike eyes and grinned, "Yeah. It's only a minor metahuman trait. Guys dig it though, so tips galore, huh?"
"I guess. Mostly I just have to get by on my dancing." Lilith's smile came back in full force and she nodded to the door, "I'm on in five if you want to watch."
Jinx smiled and nodded, thinking that the routine she'd worked up could use some modification by watching a real stripper do her thing. "Sure. I'm a little rusty."
"Haven't danced in a while?"
"Not for a while, no."
"Well, you picked a good night then. I'm going to throw down some great moves."
"Awesome." Jinx bobbed her head and followed the tall red head out into the club.
Arsenal yawned as he stared down at the men walking in and out of High Times, and scratched at the light stubble on his chin. He was positioned on top of the building across the street, a hardware store that sold high end power tools. Checking his equipment once more, he found it all to be in perfect working order.
Not that he had expected anything to change about it in the past five minutes, but that was beside the point.
Just as he was about to give up and start prank calling Nightwing on his T-Comp, the communication device buzzed at him. Flipping it open, he saw a text message from Jinx.
I'm on at 10:15 and 11:30. Will be leaving at 12:00. Be ready.
Arsenal glanced at the time on his T-Comp. It was only 9:50.
He groaned and settled in for a long wait.
Jinx spun about the pole with just her legs wrapped around it, then leaned upside down towards the herd of men crowding around the stage. She winked as her hands flashed behind her back and her skimpy bra fell to the floor.
The crowd howled with appreciation.
The best thing about working a strip club in Jump was that there was a strict six foot policy, and no establishment that served alcohol (as this one did) could be fully nude. She was required to leave her panties on at all times, even though they were practically transparent anyway, and so skimpy you could see her entire, well formed ass.
As she dropped from the pole and began to crawl forward on the stage to the give the men in the front row a better view of her breasts, she grinned and scanned the crowd in the club as a whole. Towards the back there was a booth with four men in it that struck her as suspicious right away. Maybe it was the way they were sitting and talking while shooting occasional glances at the stage, or maybe it was the way they were all dressed in dark suits, but Jinx didn't trust a single one of them.
Making a mental note to keep an eye on them, the blonde and pink haired girl rolled on to her back and thrust her hips into the air, moaning as she did.
More cheers met her ears and she grinned wider.
"That was great!" Lilith gushed at her as Jinx stepped back into the dressing room, "Even with the smaller rack you have, you still had those guys hard and begging for more! Where'd you learn to dance like that?"
"Here and there... a lot of it is actually a form of Karate if you can believe that."
"Really? Get out!" Lilith laughed nervously and looked away suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Jinx stepped forward and arched an eyebrow, "Lilith? You okay?"
"It's just... it's nothing." The redhead smiled and looked back at her, "Don't worry. Oh, and steer clear of the taller bouncer who sticks close to the stage."
"Hank?" Jinx grinned, "He was sure to show me his name tag while he stared at my boobs."
"Yeah, he's a real charmer." Lilith giggled, "I took him home and fucked his brains out all night last week. He's got stamina, but that's about it."
"Heh." Jinx shook her head, "Under seven inches and I just laugh and put it away."
"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Lilith and Jinx both burst out laughing.
Arsenal sat with his back propped against the AC unit on top of the building he was posted on. He punched a number into his T-Comp and waited for only a few seconds before it picked up.
"Nightwing here. What's up Arsenal?"
"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to swim in a giant vat of pudding?"
"What do you think fighting Plasmus is like?" Arsenal grinned as he heard Kylee giggling in the background, "Now stop prank calling me or I'll have the Operator cut off your network access."
The red haired archer rolled his eyes, "Fine. Have her load Tetris on to my T-Comp then."
Nightwing frowned at him through the video connection, "Just keep an eye out for any suspects, Roy. Nightwing out."
Arsenal rolled his eyes and flipped his communicator shut.
The four suits continued to keep an eye on Jinx the rest of the night, and paid extra close attention while she danced the second time. Their observation didn't go un-noticed however, and Jinx flirted with some of the men around them, letting them get a good look at her as she walked past their booth several times.
The first rule of being bait was to make yourself as appealing as possible. She was just giving them incentive.
As midnight crept closer, Jinx dressed in her skirt and torn top again, and pulled her boots back on, rather than the six inch platform heals she'd been wearing. She was sipping on a gin and tonic the bartender had given her without carding her, and humming a tuneless song as she dressed, and so failed to notice when Lilith appeared in the mirror in front of her.
"Whoa!" Jinx jumped a little, "Don't freak a girl out like that, Lilith!"
The red haired young woman had changed into jeans and a pale green tunic top with a plunging neck line. She wore cross trainers and carried a purse over her shoulder, "Hey... Jenny?"
"Yeah?" Jinx turned and smiled at her, "What is it?"
"Don't... let them follow you. They'll... you're going to get hurt."
"Lilith?" Jinx narrowed her eyes, "What do you know that I need to?"
"I'm not with them, if that's what you're asking... but I know you're Jinx... I know you're a Titan."
"Fine." Jinx stood up straight, "What the hell are you talking about then?"
"I..." Lilith looked away, "I have powers... I can see the future sometimes, and I can read minds others... it comes and goes."
"So... you've had a vision?"
"Yes." Lilith looked back at her, "I've had several with you in them, actually."
"What about?"
"I..." Lilith looked back at her, "Jenny... those men are going to hurt you... so badly... don't put yourself in that position, please..." she was almost begging, "I saw the other girls go too, but I couldn't tell them... they would have hated me for being a meta... but you understand, don't you?"
"Of course I do." Jinx smiled kindly and put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm a meta too, Lilith. But you have to know that visions aren't always a hundred percent accurate. Time is fluid, and the future can be changed." Lilith still looked unsure, so Jinx continued, "You've warned me about them, so I can be extra careful now. I know an attack is coming, so I'll be able to fight it off more effectively, you see?"
"You're not listening, Jenny-"
"Lilith." Jinx cut her off, "I'll be fine. I have backup and everything."
"But-"
"I'll stop by and see you again soon, okay? Be safe on the way home."
Jinx grabbed her bag and walked out of the changing room with a smile and a wave.
Lilith looked up into the mirror and frowned at her own reflection, "But... in my vision... I've already talked to you..."
Arsenal saw Jinx come out of the club at exactly 12:12 and start walking east towards the low rent section of the city. He grabbed the sniper rifle he had with him, and took off along the roof tops, stalking her progress down the street.
After almost a half hour of running and jumping, he found a good vantage that covered almost four city blocks within the sight of his scope. Setting up on the top of an eight story building, he sighted his pink and blonde haired partner and started following her progress from a more narrow view.
As he watched her scratch at her nose, then adjust her lacy bra, he wondered at what had passed between them in the car. The cheek kissing was nothing new. Jinx was an affectionate person by nature, and kissed everyone's cheek every now and then. What had really thrown him was the quite soft way she did it, and his return of the gesture.
He loved Raven with all his heart, and their foster child meant the world to him. Still though, he couldn't deny that Jenny was more the kind of girl he usually went for. Free wheeling, fun, cheerful and light hearted. Someone looking for a few good romps in the bed and then nothing but friendship and the occasional lonely-at-home-on-a-Friday-night fuck.
Arsenal sighed in a frustrated manner. This was the first time he'd been challenged with a temptation of this nature since he'd started dating Raven and they'd become exclusive. His resolve to over come it strengthened, and he vowed to not let any more incidents like the one during the car ride happen again.
As he reached his decision, a flash blocked his sight for just a half second, and then Jinx was gone.
"What the hell?" he breathed, and pulled the scope back out a little. He scanned up and down the street for a few seconds, then back to where he'd lost her. A lamp post partially obstructed a dark ally there, and he growled low in his throat.
"No... Jinx..."
Arsenal pulled out a grappler and fired it into the roof at his feet. Leaving the gun set up where it was, he jumped off the building.
The attack came so fast and hard, Jinx didn't even know what was going on until she was laying on the ground, moaning and trying to regain her strength.
There had been a blinding flash of light, most likely from a flash grenade, and then she'd been pulled bodily from her feet and slammed into the wall of the ally she was walking past. Her head had taken most of the blow, and now she was dizzy, weak and seeing stars.
Voices pierced her veil of confusion, "Hit her again, then get her in the trunk." said a first man.
"Careful with her, though. She looked like she might know some kind of kung-fu or something the way she was dancing." advised a second.
"I've got the zip ties right here." a third claimed.
Regaining some of her spatial sense at that moment, Jinx lashed out with a heavy boot at the first body she could find. A solid connection later, a man with a suit was grunting and staggering away from her. With a grin, she jumped to her feet.
Something slammed across the back of her skull, and the Titan crumpled to the ground. Behind her stood a suit wearing man with a steel pipe, grinning like a kid in a candy store. "Ha! Got this bitch."
"Well why don't you try this then, 'bitch'." Lilith dashed into the ally and jabbed a tazer into the man's back, sending him into convulsions. Pulling it away from him, she brandished it at the two standing men, and the one clutching his middle. The largest of them stomped forward and she attempted to jab him with the tazer as well.
The thug grabbed her arm and thrust the small device away from himself. A single punch to the face was all it took, and then he had her slung over his shoulder, out cold.
"We'll take this one too."
"The boss doesn't like red-heads." replied his other standing companion.
"If he doesn't want her, we can always kill her." the larger man shook his head, "Get John and let's go."
A chunk of brick exploded out of the wall next to the man carrying Lilith and he ducked out of the way, "That was a bullet!" he shouted, "Leave John and get to the car!"
One of the other two men scooped up Jinx and they all ran to a sedan in the back of the ally. Jumping in, they peeled out and took off out the other side of the block.
As Arsenal came pelting into the ally, he took two more shots at the fleeing car, but it was veering so hard they did little more than put dents in the back of it.
Watching the unmarked, unlicensed car take off, he growled and spun around.
A man in a suit going by the name of John lay on the ground before him, stuttering and trying to re-gain his senses.
Arsenal pulled a tazer arrow out of the small quiver he had slung across his lower back, and started advancing on the rather unfortunate John.
Sitting on top of a warehouse across town sipping a warm mug of soup, Raven blinked and looked up to the south-east. Squinting, she wondered why her connection to Jinx had just failed.
"Must have gotten knocked out or something." she muttered. The other girl's consciousness was still there, but there was no empathic link. Arsenal was with her though, so Raven wasn't too concerned.
Looking back out over the docks of Pier 14, Raven sighed and took another sip of her soup.
John woke up slowly. Shaking his head, he tried to place exactly what had happened that had given him such a headache.
Peeling open his eyes, it only took him a moment to realize his hands were bound behind his back, and he was dangling upside down from a flagpole fifty stories off the ground on the top of a sky scraper.
John screamed.
"Shut up." a rough voice ordered, and he was struck across the face. Stopping his screaming, he whimpered and looked to see who had hit him.
A line extended from the pole just behind him, and ended in a loop, that a young man wearing an all red combat suit with a golden arrow design on the chest had a foot stuck through. The ruby lenses of his sunglasses glinted in a sinister manner as he held on to the line with one hand, and balled his other into a fist, ready to strike again, "My name is Arsenal," the young man said, "and you have five seconds to tell me where your friends took those girls."
"I... get me down from here!"
"If you want." Arsenal pulled out a sharp pocket knife and placed it against the rope that was tied around John's feet.
"No! Don't!"
"You want down or not?" Arsenal arched an eyebrow over his ruby red shades and pulled the knife back.
"Please! What do you want to know?"
"Who you work for, where the two girls were taken, and what they were taken for."
"I can't tell you that!" John was crying, "He'll kill me."
"I'll kill you if you don't start talking." Arsenal put the knife back to the rope and sliced it a little, severing a few threads. John screamed again as the rope gave a little.
"Alright! We work for Patrick Gronds! He... he likes his girls young and blonde! We just kidnap 'em and take 'em to his estate! What he does with 'em after that is all him!"
"And what does he do with them?"
"He's sick, man!" John looked slightly white, "He beats the girls up, rapes 'em... and kills 'em." He looked away, "He just... we get paid good, and they're just scummy strippers and hookers... right?"
Arsenal glared for a second, then climbed his rope back up to the pole. He walked along it with perfect balance, then out onto the building top.
"Hey!" John called, "Get me down, man! I told you what you wanted to know!"
He listened for a second, but didn't hear any sound of footfalls, and Arsenal wasn't saying anything.
"Oh..." John looked down at the city street below, "Oh God..."
Jinx was jostled awake as she was dropped to a cold concrete floor. Moaning, she slowly opened her eyes and waited for her fuzzy vision to clear.
She was laying in a ten foot by ten foot room with no windows and only one door. The walls were cinderblock, and one of them was covered with a variety of sharp instruments, torture devices, and several large, painful looking sex toys.
"Fuck." she muttered, and swung her gaze over to the wall across from her. Lilith was there, still unconscious, but chained up and hanging limply from her manacles. "Double fuck."
The door opened suddenly without a sound, and a man walked in wearing a closed robe with a white shirt underneath and house slippers. He looked to be in his mid to late forties, and swaggered with an air of being in total control. His face was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't place it right away.
When he saw Jinx, he grinned, "Oh my... pink streaks in the hair. Sexy." He turned and regarded Lilith with a thoughtful gaze, "Red hair, but still a good body. I'll play with her too."
"You're not playing with anyone, you sick fuck." Jinx stood up and tried to step forward.
It was only then that she noticed that she was manacled as well, behind her back.
The man quickly pulled a remote from his pocket and pushed a button on it. A chain attached to Jinx's cuffs retracted up into the ceiling, pulling her arms up behind her head, and suspending her off the ground. She winced in pain as her shoulders were wrenched.
"Now, now..." the man stepped forward and smiled a friendly smile that made Jinx want to punch his teeth out, "We must not interrupt Pat's play time."
Jinx spit at him.
Dodging most of the spittle, Pat grinned even wider. "I see you have a lot of spirit. We'll just have to break that, wont we?" Walking to the wall, he pulled down a wicked looking cat-o-nine tails. "Ready?"
As Arsenal rappelled down the side of a building to get to his car, he opened a com link on his hands free device, "Hey, Blackfire. You busy?"
"No, I'm open at the moment. Operator is handling the dock raid just fine."
"Good. I need you to run down some info for me."
"Alright. Go ahead."
"I need to know every piece of real-estate owned by a man named Patrick Gronds."
"The industrialist?"
"Yeah, the one that Raven's former lawyer employer got off of a murder charge last October."
"Yowch. This guy owns some property, Arsenal. I'm showing seventy-six hits."
"Damn. Narrow those down to the best places to take kidnap victims."
"Excuse me?" Blackfire sounded slightly angry, "Roy, what's this all about?"
As he landed on the ground next to his car and tugged his line down, Arsenal sighed. He spoke quietly as her replied, "Jinx was abducted."
"WHAT?" he winced as Blackfire's voice raged through his ear bud, "Jenny was taken? And you're just calmly tracking down leads?"
"Would you rather I freak out and run all over the city looking in random places?"
"Fuck you, Roy! I'm calling Nightwing in, and we're going to find this fucker and-"
"We don't need Nightwing." Arsenal sounded firm, "I can handle this."
"This isn't just another kidnap victim, Roy, it's Jenny for crying out loud!"
"And she can take a lot more abuse than most normal girls." he shouted back, "Just give me the damn locations, Blackfire, or get off the com and put Sarah on!"
Blackfire grumbled over the com link for a moment, then spoke again, "Alright, as a former bad guy I can tell you the two most likely locations for a torture/rape/murder are going to be his penthouse up north of downtown, or the basement of an old apartment building he owns over in the east end projects."
"Just one building?" Arsenal asked as he climbed into the car and started it.
"Yeah. It kind of red flagged to me too."
"I'll head to that one first. Keep on this guy though, Komi. I want to know every thing about him I can."
As he peeled out of the ally his car was parked in, Blackfire responded with a grim tone, "Oh, I'll dig up every bit of dirt on him that exists. This bastard is going down tonight."
Jinx winced as the nine headed whip cracked across her back again. Her shirt was in tatters, hanging off her shoulders but otherwise just a scrap of cloth that didn't even cover her any more. Every time the whip hit, she could hear the wet smacking sound, and see her blood splatter the ground a little.
"You're just not a screamer, are you?" Pat walked around in front of her and scratched his chin as she gave him a defiant look. "Are you a submissive hooker in your spare time? You have quite a few scars."
"Zombie attack." Jinx growled at him, "Some of us fought in that bloodbath."
"Oh yeah!" Pat's eyes lit up, "I killed my wife and sawed up her body during that little shindig."
"You're a real monster, you know that?" Lilith spoke weakly from across the room. Jinx's eyes snapped over to her, and saw that the red head was on her feet, if not still chained to the wall.
Pat stepped away from Jinx, walked over to Lilith and backhanded her so hard she fell back down. "Please don't speak again until I'm ready for you." She moaned and spit a little blood on the ground.
Jinx pulled at her chains as she tried to get her toes on the floor, but it was no use. Pat walked back over, and tossed the cat-o-nine whip aside. "I guess I'll have to try something else if I want to get a good scream out of you."
"Bring it on." Jinx grinned at him and winked.
Pat smiled wide and walked over to his wall of death. Picking through the selection, he finally settled on a pair of heavy pliers. Walking back over to Jinx, he smiled kindly. "Open wide!" His hand shot out and grabbed her face, squeezing her jaw until her mouth opened a little. He stuck the pliers in and grabbed on to the bar bell through her tongue. "Scream for me?"
"Huc hou." Jinx replied, her tongue pulled halfway out of her mouth.
Pat yanked the pliers back.
Arsenal crept along the side of the dingy apartment building with one of his 9mm guns drawn. He'd loaded it with special bullets that cauterized as soon as they entered the body so the victim wouldn't bleed out. They were potentially lethal, but he was pretty confident in his aim.
As he reached a door that led down into the sublevel of the apartment, he crouched and listened. There were voices from inside, so he placed a listening device on the door and stuck the ear piece for it in the ear that didn't have his link to Blackfire in it.
"... and she's ready." said the first voice.
"Sweet. Gronds is gonna be happy with this one."
"Yeah, just to his tastes."
Arsenal had heard enough. Pocketing the listening device, he didn't waste any time standing up and kicking the door in. Diving inside, he ducked, rolled, and came up with his gun aimed at the first person he saw.
The sight that met his eyes was two men standing in front of a table laid out with two huge bags of weed. Several grow lamps and almost a hundred plants were all around the basement level, and the two men were wide eyed with shock.
Quickly tucking away his gun, Arsenal pulled out a hand crossbow and fired off two bolts in quick succession. Both were tazer charges, and both knocked out their targets in a matter of seconds.
Scowling, he stalked back up to the street level, "Blackfire! The apartment building was a dud. Filled to bursting with Pot though, so call in the narcotics division of the force and have them clean it out."
"Message sent. Hey, I've got something else for you."
"Yeah?"
"Seems Gronds bought a large piece of land out in the desert, and put it in his son's name."
"Yeah?"
"Well, there's also work orders for building a dirt bike racing track on that property, which was declared to be it's only purpose. "
"Is this going somewhere?" he started for his car, parked across the street.
"Gronds' son is only nine, and he lives with his mother's mother in Seattle. He's never even touched a dirt bike, let alone driven one on a professional level course."
"Was there any work orders through a contractor for any buildings to be erected?"
"Just one. And it goes down three levels under ground and is made entirely of stone."
"Where is it?" Arsenal sounded grim.
"Due east off of I-56. I'm uploading to your car's GPS right now."
Arsenal yanked open the door of his car as he reached it and climbed in. Sure enough, there was a map on his GPS unit's screen, and a blinking red dot at the end of it.
Once again, he put the hammer down and was off in a roaring burst of speed.
Jinx found herself looking down at the ground and staring at a puddle of her own blood dripping from her mouth for the second time in twelve hours. New to this puddle though was her tongue barbell, and two of her back molars. She spit some more blood and looked back up at Pat with blazing pink eyes, "I'm gonna kill you when I get down from here."
"Uh huh." Pat frowned, "Still not screaming. You are one tough little cookie."
"Get..." Lilith stumbled to her feet, "Get away from her..."
"Are you still talking?" Pat walked back over and whipped her over the head with the pliers. She cried out and fell back down, a cut forming on her head and oozing blood. Jinx winced and struggled against her bonds.
Pat tossed aside the pliers and walked back to his wall. He came back to Jinx with a small pocket knife and studied her for a moment. Flicking it out, he frowned deeper as Jinx's head jerked to the side and blood splattered off her cheek, but she still didn't scream.
"What is going to make you... arg!" Pat walked over to Lilith and kicked her in frustration. The red head slammed back against the wall and gasped.
Jinx couldn't help it, "Get the fuck away from her!" she shouted.
Pat froze, then smiled slowly, "Oh. Oh I know." Jinx paled as he knelt down and lifted Lilith's chin up off the ground, "Honey... she can take a beating, she can take pain, and she can take mutilation... but she can't take seeing you get hurt."
Lilith whimpered and Pat dropped her back to the ground. Turning so that he sat on her, he jerked one of her arms up at an odd angle and spread out her fingers.
"Stop it!" Jinx shouted.
Pat placed his small knife at the tip of one of Lilith's fingers and started to slowly dig it in. Lilith started to scream immediately, "No! Please! Stop!" she screamed as he dug in and pried up a little. Grinning at her cries of pain, Pat dug deeper, watching the blood begin to drip. As Lilith continued to scream, Jinx struggled even harder.
"Stop it!" she yelled, but Pat just looked up at her and laughed. He laughed and laughed, and continued to laugh as he gave the knife a twist and a flick, sending Lilith's index finger nail flying across the room. The red head jerked around under him and cried tears of pain.
Pat continued to look at Jinx as he stuck the knife under the middle finger nail of the same hand.
The blonde and pink haired Titan couldn't take it. She had been trying to keep his attention on her, and away from Lilith. She had been trying to last until Arsenal arived and saved them, but now... now she was going to have to let this thing advance to the next level. She squinted her eyes shut and screamed, "Stop it, please!" Screaming like a frightened little girl, she continued to do so until she felt him gripping her face. Opening her eyes and looking at him, she saw his contented expression.
"Good." he said, then pulled his hand back and slammed his fist into her cheek. Jinx was dazed by the blow, and jerked back. Hanging limply from the cuffs, she cried a few tears of pain and frustration.
"And tears too!" Pat seemed quite happy. He pushed a button on his remote and Jinx felt herself lower down enough so that she was sitting on her knees. Pat stepped in front of her, and she looked up at him.
He reached into the pocket of his robe, pulled out a snub nosed .38, and pointed it down at her head. "I'd threaten you with this, but I don't think it would matter." He pointed it over at Lilith and grinned. Opening his robe, he revealed that he was wearing just boxers and the t-shirt under it. Reaching down, he opened the flap on the front of his boxers and took another step towards Jinx.
As her gaze lowered down to eye level, Jinx heard him say, "No teeth. I even feel a light scrape and I put one in the red head."
Closing her eyes, Jinx swallowed hard. "Oh Gar... forgive me..." She leaned forward and opened her mouth. As she went to work, she dug her own thumb nails into her wrists, cutting herself and letting the blood drip down into the space between her manacles and her hands.
Arsenal crept along the dirt track of a fully built motocross track. Coming to a rise, he peeked over it and saw two guards stationed on either side of a small brick building off to one side. Frowning, he pulled out his crossbow and took aim.
The first guard jerked as a bolt tipped with a heavy steel head slammed into his temple. He fell to the ground out cold, and his SMG wielding counterpart glanced over, "What the hell is th-"
A tazer bolt hit him in the chest and her jerked around for a few seconds before dropping to join his companion.
Arsenal was opening the door before he had fully hit the ground.
Peeking inside, he saw a single hallway leading to a staircase. Not very subtle, but it only allowed for one escape route. Creeping down the stairs, he peered out into the room he came to.
It was a lavishly decorated bedroom, complete with a full sized Jacuzzi off to one side. No guards, but it made Arsenal think that Gronds took more than just his rape victims to this little ranch. He might bring high priced call girls, or even legitimist dates with him.
Walking across the room to another staircase, he pushed open the door and started down. Even as he was though, the door at the bottom opened up and a man walked up, calling back over his shoulder, "You guys start the next hand without me and I'm gonna' be pissed!"
"Just go use the damn bathroom!" a voice from inside called and several men laughed. Arsenal picked out four distinct voices, bringing the thug count to a total of five.
As the man turned to continue walking up the stairs, the red clad archer leapt down at him and tackled him into the room. As he crouched on the unconscious body of their friend, Arsenal glared around at the other four men as they stood up from the card table they were at, "Hiya, fellas." he winked, "Bad time?"
They all went for guns at once, and he jumped forward, "A basic rule of combat," he lectured as he took the man in front off his feet with a solid punch to the face, "is that you never draw a gun in a close quarters combat situation. Especially when you outnumber your opponent." Arsenal ducked as one of the men fired at him and shot one of the other thugs, who jerked back, clutching at his shoulder.
The red haired Titan continued, "Guns only benefit the side that has fewer of them in situations like this..." he lashed out with a high kick and smashed another of the gunmen's noses, putting him down as well. Turning on the other two, he grinned, "However," he jumped forward, ducked and rolled past their shots as they opened up at him, "sometimes, there's an exception." He ended his roll standing right in front of them with two hand guns pointed at their foreheads. "Drop 'em." He ordered, and the two men complied.
Arsenal pulled his guns back and pistol whipped both of them, putting them down for the count as well. With a frown, he advanced on the door that would lead him down to the third level.
As soon as the gun shots started, and Pat looked away from her and towards the door, Jinx made her move. She pulled her head back from him and yanked down on her left hand, breaking her own thumb as she pulled it through the cuff. The blood from her wrist lubricated the passage through though, so she kept most of the skin on her hand.
Sitting up, she gripped the slack of her write chain with her right hand and swung her legs around, sweeping Pat off his feet. As he hit the ground hard and the gun flew out of his grip, she lowered a hard axe kick into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. Reaching out a shaking left hand, she used her index finger and her middle finger to pull the remote from his pocket and start pushing buttons.
Her chains moved up, then down, then back up before she found the button that opened them. Pulling her right hand down, she took the remote with it and pointed it at Lilith. One button click later and the red head was free as well. She curled up into a ball and sobbed, clutching at her right hand.
Jinx tossed aside the remote and turned her attention back to the recovering Pat. As he sat up on all fours, Jinx lashed out, kicking him in the face. He flipped back over to his back and hit the ground hard, slamming his head into it as he did. Jinx didn't let up for a second.
"You sick mother fucker!" she screamed as she straddled his body. Hauling back her good hand, she started to repeatedly punch him in the face, "You'll never do this to another girl again! NEVER!" His face was just a mess of blood by the time the door was kicked in and Arsenal came in with guns aimed around.
Jinx got up and pulled Pat up with her. Tossing him across the room into the wall of torture devices, she walked over and picked up his gun. Turning, she pointed it at his head.
Arsenal had moved over to check on Lilith when he saw Jinx was up, but he froze when he saw her with the gun. Taking in her appearance, he noted that her back was a mess of lash marks and blood, her face was dripping with more blood and saliva, and her left hand was broken.
"Jenny..." he said in a slow, calm voice, "He didn't... did he rape you?"
"I had to suck his dick for about ten minutes, but that's it." Jinx spit back at him. Her eyes narrowed, "Leave, Jason."
Arsenal looked over at the terrified Gronds, then back at Jinx. His eyes grew cold, "I'm not going to stop you from doing anything, Jenny... just remember that you're one of the good guys." Scooping up Lilith, he stepped over to the door and walked out of the room.
Jinx glared fiercely at Gronds, "Alone at last, eh?" she took a few steps forward and grinned, "It's time to make sure you never take any more girls and do to them what you did to me, you sick bastard."
"Please! If you're a Titan... you can't kill me! I don't want to die!" he was crying like a seven year old girl with a skinned knee, "Please!"
"Did any of your other victims beg, Patty?" she sneered at him, "Did they beg you to stop hurting them, raping them, or beating them to death?" He paled even more and began to sweat, shrinking back from her suddenly glowing pink gaze, "I don't really think you deserve any mercy. And after what you just put me though... there's not a jury on Earth that would convict me."
Grond's eyes went wide as she pulled back the hammer of the gun, "Never again." she said. Pointing the gun down, she fired one shot between his legs. The man screamed as the bullet blew apart a rather sensitive part of his body, and he fell to one side, howling and clutching at himself.
Jinx turned around and walked away, never looking back.
When she got to the surface, Jinx saw Arsenal putting Lilith in the back seat of his Achiva. She walked over, shivering in pain and at the cold of the desert night. When he looked up at her with questions in his eyes, she looked away, "He's still alive, but I blew his balls off."
"Blackfire," Arsenal said as he raised a hand to his ear, "call in the cops and EMTs. I wont have to dispose of any evidence after all." He nodded at whatever her response was, then stood up. He started over to her, then dashed when he saw her legs giving out.
Careful not to touch her back, Arsenal lowered her to the ground as she started sobbing and crying into his shoulder. He held her to him, stroking her hair, "Shh... it's over now Jenny... I've got you..."
Looking up at the clear night sky, Arsenal blanked his mind and sighed. There were so many stars.
So very many stars...
Closing Notes: I continue my theme from Re-Educating Miss Roth of abusing the crap out of the characters. If you think I'm picking on Jinx too much, don't worry. She'll have her day, and it'll be a great one. As for the rage and backlash I'm expecting from the hints of Jinx/Roy in this chapter... well, we'll just leave that one alone for now.
As a more personal note, as I stated in my forum (go browse it if you haven't yet!) I'll be moving this weekend, and dealing with all the troubles that come with it. New ISP will be needed, so don't expect another update, or any communication from me at all after Friday. I'll be back on as soon as I get things sorted out. Shouldn't be more than a 5-10 days. Thanks for your understanding, and thanks for hitting the review button like you're about to now.