5. Being Normal

"Maggie! Come back here!"

Giggling, two year old Margaret Stone toddled away from her mother, her pink hair flying behind her. "Catch me if ya can!"

Putting on a burst of speed, Jinx caught up to her energetic daughter. "And just where did you think you were going, Maggie?"

Maggie - as everyone called her - looked up at her mom. "To Daddy's lab."

"Why?"

"To see something blow up!"

Jinx looked down at her daughter. "What makes you think something's going to blow up?"

"Cause...it's Daddy's lab?"

Jinx was thoughtful for a time. "Now come on, just because your Dad likes to tinker, doesn't mean something's going to-"

Wha-BOOM!

"...never mind."

From the source of the explosion, a voice called, "It's okay! Nothing bad happened! Everything's just fine!"

Jinx walked calmly over to the door, knocking. "WHat happened this time, tin man?"

"...wrong chemical mix in the combustion chamber..."

Jinx sighed. "Cyborg, why do you do things like this?"

The door slid open, and Cyborg stepped out, smiling down at his wife and daughter. "Because it's fun!"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Heaven save me from heroes with delusions of invincibility." She blinked. "Speaking of..." She reached out a hand and snagged little Mary Anders Grayson - also called Nightfire - out of the air right before she flew into the multicolored smoke pouring out of the lab. "Careful there, tiger."

Two year old Mary giggled. Jinx looked at the two little girls. Maggie had inherited her father's chocolate skin, and her pink eyes had blue flecks in them; when she got intensely emotional, little blue bolts of something arced between the specks, giving her eyes a very spooky appearance. All in all, she was a precious little angel, and that wasn't just motherly love speaking.

Mary's mix of genetics had resulted in her skin taking on the appearance of a continuous healthy tan, and she had her mother's green eyes. She had her father's midnight black hair, though, but was definately her mother's daughter in behavior.

Starfire flew over to Jinx, once again squealing over her 'precious little bumgorf.' "Friend Jinx, Husband Nightwing wishes you to take this deposit to the bank, and to take the girls with you."

"What? Why me?" Not that Jinx disliked spending time with the girls, but she wasn't sure she liked being ordered to.

"Husband Nightwing feels the girls will benefit from something approaching normal in their lives. After all, just because they have powers does not mean they should feel they are constrained to grow up to be super heroes."

"That makes sense," Jinx admitted. "But that doesn't explain-" She paused, going over the adult compliment of the Tower's denizens.

Nightwing, aka Richard Grayson, adopted son of Bruce Wayne, the multi-billionare. So he's either a super hero or a celebrity at all times. Hardly normal.

Kor'iander Grayson. Alien princess. Definately not Earth normal, no matter how much she tried to be.

Victor Stone, aka Cyborg. Half metal, and - while wonderful - hardly normal.

Wildebeast was only 6, despite appearances, and the oldest of the Logan kids - Melvin - was only nine.

And that left her.

"Wow," she said to herself. "So I'M the normal one. I don't know whether to be depressed or flattered." She smiled down at the kids. "Come on, we're heading to the bank, so let's get dressed in our civies. Remember, that means no powers!"

"I don't even know what mine ARE yet," Maggie mumbled, but toddled off happily to her room.

Jinx went after her, just in case she needed help.

About an hour later, Jinx was in line at the bank, wearing a brown hoodie that hid her from prying eyes pretty well. SInce kids never liked standing in one place for long, she had given permission for them to play over by the chair's near the window on two conditions: Stay in sight, and No Powers No Matter What.

She would regret that second one in a bit.

The doors suddenly burst open, and several men in ski masks with guns bisted in. "Everyone on the floor!" the one in the lead shouted.

Jinx motioned to the girls to do as they were told, getting on the ground herself. These were ordinary criminals, and there were too many civilians present for her to risk using her powers...and heaven help them if the kids tried something.

Then the police showed up, and it looked like things would be resolved with a minimum of fuss...until one of the gunmen decided to turn it into a hostage situation.

Grabbing Maggie, the man put the gun to her head. "Everyone back off or the kid gets it!"

Jinx had had enough. She stood up.

"Back on the floor!" one of the gunmen shouted, gesturing with his gun. Jinx pointed at it and the gun fell apart in a flash of pink light.

She glowered at the man holding Maggie, her eyes glowing from the shadow under her hood. "Get your filthy, money grubbing, goat buggering hands off my daughter, you-" here she began to draw from her rather large language knowledge, utilizing curse words that no one was quite sure of the meaning of, but seemed to conjure images of rather gruesome fates as she stated - in rather excessive detail - exactly what she would do to the gunman if he harmed a hair on Maggie's head. As she spoke, her voice rose in pitch, and pink light fell from her hands to pool at her sides. As she reached the climax of her rant, the pools erupted upward, and pink magic constructs in the shape of dragons arose from the ground, snarling in fury, lunging towards the gunmen and snapping insubstantial teeth with an audible click. Only part of the dragons were visible, and what you could see made you very glad you couldn't see more.

By the time the Titans arrived on the scene, Jinx was holding Maggie and Mary in her lap, and the gunmen were being carted off, gibbering in terror.

Cyborg rushed up to Jinx. "Jinx! Are you okay? Are the kids okay?"

Jinx smiled. "Everything's fine now."

Maggie spoke up. "The bad man grabbed me, and Mommy lost her temper. She made the guns come apart, used lots of bad words, and made dragons! The bad man pissed himself!" She giggled, then looked up at Cyborg. "What does goat buggering mean?"

Cyborg couldn't help but laugh. "I want a copy of the security vid! This I gotta see!"

"Cyborg!" Jinx said, embarrassed.

Nightwing shook his head. "So much for normal, huh?"

"I don't know," Jinx said happily. "It's pretty normal for us, at any rate."