Th-Th-Thwoosh!

I leap back and land atop the moving train cars in a slide.

I grit my teeth and flex my fingers forward just in time to summon a wall of black soul charge and--

FL-FLASH!

"HAAAA!" Jinx launches hex bolt after hex bolt at me.

My soul-self absorbs the blows...but the intensity forces me to scrunch back further atop the fast-moving train through the center of the City.

My eyes are a flickering mess of gray as my teeth grit and my blue rope and hood flap madly in the wind.

"You know, you're really blasted lucky you're closer to the caboose of the train!" Jinx hisses at me above the noise. "If you were in my position, you would be happily suffocated by your own pathetic fashion statement!"

"I'm enjoying your cat hair very much, Jinx..."

"Hehehe...That's just a rumor you pathetic witch!"

I crouch low. "In the end...we're all hunched over the same cauldron!" I slam a palm down into the top of the train. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!"

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASSSH! A layer of exploding bird talons surges through the train cars' rooftops towards Jinx's position.

"Nnnngh!" She leaps up, soars over the shattering metal, and flips over me.

I swivel about and face the back of the train.

Th-Thap! Jinx lands on two nimble feet, facing me.

I suddenly gasp and flail about as--according to prediction--my body is overcome by the wind-whipped fury of my blue coat.

"HA!" she grins a crescent moon. "NOW do you know how terrible it is to be closer towards the front of the train wearing that ugly excuse of a--"

Fw-FWAAAP! My cloak and hood goes flying into her face.

THAP!

"Mmmmmfff!" Jinx flails about with the tarp-like article covering her torso.

Clad only in my leotard, I snarl and run towards her with a fist charged with a bulbous splash of my soul self.

FLASH!

"MMMF!" Jinx tumbles back from the blow and collapses across the top of the train car. My robe goes sailing off of her and into the oblivion of the blurring urbanscape beneath us.

"You're going to have to pay for that...," I growl.

"Oh shut your fanny-face!" She sticks her pink tongue out. "Nobody asked you to be a royal pain in the rectum today!"

"Not my fault you chose to hijack a train...," I point. "Struggle all you like. You're under arrest. Even if I'm not the one to do it, the rest of the Titans will be here any minute to put to rest whatever plans H.I.V.E. may have."

"Stop speaking like you're giving me an ultimatum," she frowns at me. Pink cat eyes ablaze with hate. "You're not the wielder of fate! You're just a pathetic little conjurer like I am!"

"I conjure nothing...," I hiss. "It is merely an extension of myself that I wield."

"You're arrogant, that's what you are!" Jinx growls. "All of you Titans! You with your...Grandiose ideas of heroic self-importance! Nnnngh! I swear! You're no more righteous than Oedipus Rex on a summer's day walk!"

"Oh please...," I drone. "Oedipus was hardly the hero."

"And you are--?"

"He was a murderer and a tragic result of twisted fate."

"He was an idiot! Just like you are, poopy-head!"

"He was an arrogant fool with self-absorbed royal blood and the inability to calm down and talk to old men in the middle of the road without resorting to KILLING THEM!"

"That's because he persisted in his banal existence despite all the warning signs given to him to turn back or stick to a vow of poverty and humility or KILL HIMSELF!"

"Arrogant though he may have been, one cannot deny even an ounce of benevolence in his motives when he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and freed the poor, enslaved citizens of Thebes!"

"His motives in solving the Sphinx's riddles weren't benevolent! He was intent on winning the kingdom and making passionate love to the queen! Who turned out to be his mother! And on top of that, Oedipus was die-hard to kill his old man in the middle of the road!"

"He wasn't aware that the impoverished traveler was actually his father, the King of Thebes. Besides, one cannot deny that the King of Thebes was responsible for his own undoing. For--with Oedipus--he was guilty of infanticide...or at least the intent of infanticide and childhood abandonment! How does a father like that deserve to live..."

"Ah HA! So--as a Titan--you agree with the necessary elimination of lives in order to protect the greater interests of the masses!"

"Negative! I merely believe that the King of Thebes was far more a demonic and dastardly entity than his--yes--murderous son Oedipus!"

"But Oedipus stole his father's wife and made abominable children with his mother!"

"Which he was hopelessly sorry for after his learning of his errors and took it upon himself to lose all sight of the beautiful colors of the world!"

"A small price to pay when you introduce Antigone and Ismene into a world of shame and harassment for their incestuous origins!"

"Certainly better than living the life of a father who would murder his own children out of personal fear or guilt or shame!"

"You sound like you're defending Oedipus! Pffft! Girl, have you got something in common with Electra or what?"

I snarl, my violet eyes burning white. "I assure you... ... ...I am the last... .. ...daughter in this universe... ... ...to hold something in common... ... ...with Electra..."

A rumbling. A dark energy fills the air. The runaway train beneath us buckles and groans. Then a chill...

And Jinx has goosebumps all over her skin. "...eep... ... ...okay..."

"... .. ... ...," I look at her...breathing long and hard.

"... ... ...what were we doing again?"

I blink at that.

"Uhhh..."

"HAAAAAA!" She runs at me, pink hex flinging from her wrist.

I grit my teeth and summon a black 'shield' of soul self at the last second.

We collide with a splash of pink against black.

FLASH!.!.!.!

"Aren't you cold?"

"Aren't you starving...?"