Chapter 5: Magnificent Destruction

Jinx strolled along the sidewalk of one of Central City's squares, Kid Flash at her side. He would pause every so often to point out a particular restaurant, shop, or landmark that he liked; she was familiar with most of them already, but he was clearly trying to do something to take her mind off of last night, so she let him go through with it. He also shot off every so often and returned with food, some of which he made a point of giving to her, while the rest he ate himself. Jinx couldn't really begrudge him this, as he needed to eat considerably more than a normal person to keep up the energy for his superspeed, though she did have to privately admit a certain jealousy over how he could eat so much and stay so skinny.

"So, feeling better this morning?" Kid Flash asked, suddenly reappearing at her side with two large bunches of cotton candy, one of which he handed to her.

"Well I was fine before you startled me like that," Jinx told him. "I was able to get some more sleep in my hotel room after all the excitement, and I haven't noticed anything wrong since. No headaches, and I tried a few hexes earlier without anything going wrong- or wrong-er than usual, at least. So far as I can tell, last night was just a one-time thing." I hope, she added silently.

Kid Flash shrugged. "I think everybody probably has trouble controlling their powers sometimes. If it doesn't happen again, we were probably just getting all worked up over nothing."

"Yeah," Jinx muttered under her breath, hoping he was right but having the distinctly sinking feeling that he wasn't. "Nothing."

"I see them," the HIVE soldier said into his communicator while the zoom feature in his helmet locked in on his two targets. The boy was gesturing dramatically with what looked like a half-eaten bunch of cotton candy, apparently telling some story to the girl that he found very amusing. From his angle perched on the roof of a nearby building, the soldier couldn't see the girl's response, but he quickly dismissed that as unimportant. "Shall I engage?"

"Yes," the staticky voice of the Fifth Director told him. "You may engage at will- remember, I don't care what happens to the boy, but if the girl is permanently damaged it will be on your head. Am I clear?"

"Absolutely, sir," the soldier responded. The Director nodded once and signed off; the soldier replaced the communicator on his belt and raised his beam rifle. Looking across the square, he picked out each of his companions in their hiding places and nodded to them. Then he took careful aim with the beam rifle, gritted his teeth, and pulled the trigger.

"And so I said, 'Is that really the best you can do? I mean, my grandma can come up with better pranks than you!'" Kid Flash was saying. "And so Trickster, he says-"

But whatever the Trickster had said was something that Jinx was never to find out. Kid Flash had started regaling her with ways in which he had humiliated a variety of inept criminals in an effort to cheer her up- normally his stories earned at least a smile, but today Jinx's mind was wandering and her eyes darted around the square. Catching a glimpse of something gleaming on a nearby rooftop, she squinted to try and make out what it was- and then her eyes widened as she realized it was an armored figure pulling the trigger on a beam rifle.

"Kid Flash- down!" she shouted and pushed him out of the way. The shove was unnecessary on her part- once alert to the threat, he was more than fast enough to move out of its way- but it did help Jinx take a protective diver herself. She landed on the pavement and heard the beam tear into the ground just inches from where she was now. If she hadn't noticed the sniper in time, Kid Flash would have been history.

"You all right?" his voice asked worriedly in Jinx's ear.

"Yeah- and I'll be better once I get my hands on whoever's taking potshots at me," she snarled, leaping lightly back to her feet and looking around at the rooftops. Her assailant was there, taking aim again, along with several others on different roofs. Lowering their weapons, the opened fire as one.

Kid Flash dodged the beams easily, occasionally stopping to strike taunting, casual poses before the shots forced him to dodge away again. Jinx herself simply stood calmly; now that she could tell where the beams were coming from, it was possible for her to meet them halfway with her hexes, which caused them to bend away at improbable angles, striking the pavement harmlessly. The people who had been walking through the square, minding their own business, now ducked and hurried away, looking for safety. Jinx thought that was good- she didn't need any more obstacles here than were necessary.

At a signal from the one who was presumably the leader, the shooters leaped from their rooftops and descended to street level on long cables. Jinx's eyes widened as she got her first good look at them- she recognized that golden armor and those insectoid helmets, even though it had been months since she'd seen anything like them in person. "HIVE," she muttered, thinking of the robot from the previous night. "Are you ever going to leave me alone?"

The HIVE soldiers- eight of them now, it looked like- split into teams of four that moved towards both superpowered teens. Kid Flash gave one of his cocky grins and shot forward, lightly dodging around his assailants and poking them on the back, beating on their helmets, and generally making a nuisance of himself. "Now this looks like a very dangerous weapon," he said mock-seriously, popping up next to one of the soldiers and running a finger down his beam rifle. "Whoever gave it to you ought to be very ashamed of themselves for letting you run around in public with it. But, since they're not here and I am," he blurred again, and the soldier looked down stunned at his own empty grip. "I'll take it off your hands."

Jinx smiled and turned her attention back to her own attackers. They formed a half-circle in front of her and raised their weapons- the closest seemed to be on its stun setting, though it was still too far away to tell for sure- and opened fire. A well-placed hex deflected the beams; a second struck the rifles themselves and caused them to come apart in their wielders' hands. As the soldiers backed up in shock, Jinx shot them a nasty grin and aimed a third hex at their feet. The ground buckled beneath them and she danced forward, taking a flying leap and hitting the nearest soldier in the chest, knocking him to the ground. His companions turned and fled down a nearby alleyway, but Jinx grabbed him by the throat and got down in his face, her free hand and eyes crackling with pinkish-purple light.

"Who hired you?" she asked in a low, dangerous voice. "I want to know who's trying to kidnap me, and you're my best link, so talk. I don't know exactly what this hex I'm holding would do to you, but I bet you wouldn't like it. If you talk now, you won't have to find out."

"Nobody hired me," the soldier said, his voice distorted by the helmet. "Unlike you, I stayed loyal to the HIVE, and I still am."

"The HIVE's gone," Jinx told him. "It went down with Brother Blood. Somebody's using you soldiers as mercenaries. Who sent you?"

"I did."

The voice was arrogant, cultured, and cold. Jinx looked up in the direction from which it had come, and her eyes widened at the figure that stepped out of the same alley where the other soldiers had fled. He was a tall man, dressed in a hooded, dark-purple cloak over glossy dark body armor, his face hidden by a cloth mask except for a pair of intense eyes. He carried a long, metal staff in one hand- it clicked against the ground as he walked, but he didn't seem to need it for support. That meant it was either an affectation, or, more likely, a weapon. His cloak was fastened with a pendant that resembled a small black hexagon with an oversized golden H in the center- the symbol of the HIVE.

The man walked with a casual confidence that Jinx had seen in only a few people during her life, despite her experience with the criminal underworld. He had the same sort of air about him that the HIVE headmistress had had, or Brother Blood, Slade, or Madame Rouge. Whoever this guy was, he was either incredibly overconfident or incredibly dangerous. Jinx was betting on the latter.

"I am the Fifth Director of the Inner Circle, Jinx," he said- his tone was casual and almost friendly, but the warmth didn't reach his eyes. "You are coming with me."

"Well, give me a moment to make up my mind here." Jinx pretended to give the matter serious thought. "Let me see- NO. Or how about, 'not on your life'? Or maybe this will get the point across." Raising both her hands, she launched a hex directly at him.

The Director reacted incredibly quickly- before the hex reached him, his staff was raised before him and spinning. The energy struck against it and dissipated- whatever that staff was, it was clearly equipped with the same sort of shield as the robot. "Your powers are impressive, Jinx," he said. "But they will not save you." He raised his free hand, and energy began to build along the glove. Jinx jumped back from the fallen HIVE soldier, who seized the opportunity to make a hasty retreat, as the Director fired.

A thin beam of searing white light shot from the glove and burned a trench in the street. Jinx cartwheeled away from it, barely managing to stay ahead of the beam and not having the time to pause and launch a counterattack. Whatever that light would do to living flesh, having seen what it did to concrete she had no desire to experience it for herself.

Suddenly the Director stumbled and his attack faltered. Jinx landed on her feet and turned to face him as a blur shot past him again and resolved itself into Kid Flash. A slender device on leather straps- apparently the beam projector itself, taken from the Director's glove- hung lightly from one hand.

"Do you have a permit for this thing?" he asked, holding the projector up and looking at it.

"Your insolence will not save you, boy," the Director growled. "I may need Jinx alive, but you are highly expendable." He raised his staff and ran a finger along a switch on its side.

"Really, what is it with bad guys and their toys?" Kid Flash asked to n one in particular as he darted forward to seize the staff as well. He had barely touched it, however, before bolts of lightning shot up and down its entire length, wrapping itself tightly around both their bodies. The Director's suit seemed to protect him from the surge- Kid Flash was not so lucky. He collapsed to the ground, groaning and with his costume smoking.

"Time to clean up a loose end," the Director remarked, strolling over to stand directly over Kid Flash's prone form and raising his staff, which began to crackle menacingly again. From across the square Jinx's eyes narrowed as the thoughts not my boyfriend, you creep slid across her mind. Raising both her hands and focusing her will absolutely, she let lose her power.

Waves of pinkish-purple light struck the Director, knocking him off balance and sending him stumbling backwards. The hexes didn't stop there, however- if this guy thought he could try to kidnap her and kill Kid Flash and get away with it, he was going to be in for a rude surprise. Hexes struck the walls of the alleyway, and bricks tumbled down from them, striking the Director on the head and shoulders and sending him sprawling. From across the square, windows burst from storefronts and manhole covers rose from the street before shooting towards their target. The Director's armor seemed to absorb most of the punishment, but one arm was up to shield his eyes as he stumbled backwards under the onslaught.

In spite of the chaos raging all around him, the groaning Kid Flash was unharmed.

The Director raised his staff and punched a key on its side. A blur appeared in the air above them, resolving itself into a small, slender jet as a cloaking device was deactivated. The sharp top of the staff suddenly shot upwards and embedded itself in the jet's underside- a thin metal cable connected it to the main staff and the Director who held it. The cable then began to retract, bearing the masked attacker up into the air.

"Oh no you don't," Jinx snarled, and she raised her hands. Almost everything in the square that wasn't bolted down shot upwards- she couldn't control it as precisely as Raven could, but when she was wielding this much power directed at a single target, all sorts of really unlikely bad things would happen to him, such as all the free objects in the vicintity shooting like projectiles at him. It was a pity that the staff was shielded- otherwise she could just snap the cable and bring him right back down.

Battered by flying debris, the Director reached the bottom of his jet and pulled himself into the hatch. It sealed itself behind him, and then the whole plane vanished as the cloaker reactivated. Snarling in fury, Jinx released her power and those objects that hadn't impacted their target yet fell limply to the ground.

The square was in chaos. The street was cracked and broken, the storefronts utterly destroyed. The few people who remained were staring at Jinx with terrified eyes. That she could take- she'd become used to causing destruction wherever she went from an early age, and it had been what had made life as a supercriminal appealing in the first place. When she saw the stunned look on Kid Flash's face as he pulled himself to his feet, however, something in her seemed to snap. She'd seen looks like that on the faces of people who'd just seen a teammate lose control of their powers; but in this case, Jinx had done exactly what she wanted to and only succeeded in scaring the one person she actually cared about.

"Jinx- wait!" the speedster shouted, but she had already turned away from the square and hurried down and side street and out of sight.

"If you'll pardon me saying so, Director," the jet's pilot said, "I didn't think that went too well."

"Nonsense," the Fifth told him, brushing something that might, at one point, have been a banana peel from his cloak. "It went perfectly. We forced Jinx to unleash her true potential in defense of her companion; now she is afraid of herself, drained of energy both physical and emotional, and alone."

He looked out the front window of the jet and magnified the computer image showing Jinx rushing away from the scene of her act of magnificent destruction. "Follow her."