These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

152. Double Jinx part 9 final

152. Double Jinx part 9 Final

ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!! ZAP!!!

Guards fired laser round after laser round at Mammoth.

The red-haired giant growled and ripped off a huge piece of yellow, hexagonal paneling. He held the metal slab up like a shield and blocked the energy bursts as he charged at the gunmen.

"RRRRRGGHH!!!" Once he was ten feet away, he let go of the slab.

SWOOOOSH!!!

It went flying/scraping its way down the hallway and plowing into four guards at once.

"OOF!!"

"Nngh!"

THWOMP!!!

"HA HA HA HA!!!" Mammoth pounded his chest like a certain Kong and flexed his steroid-induced muscles. "That good enough for a hall pass?!?! I can't believe I was once afraid of you guys!!"

"Innocence dies hard."

Mammoth spun. "Huh?"

THWACK!!!

A metal staff flew across his cheek.

"Augh!!!" He stumbled backwards.

Robin spun, gritted his teeth, and slammed his metal-laced boot into the center of the hulking giant's gut.

THWOMP!!!

"SNKKKTT!!" Mammoth's lung capacity hissed out and he toppled back on the ground.

Clamp!!!

Robin stood on Mammoth's belly and shoved the tip of his rod down into the oaf's Adam's Apple.

Mammoth wheezed.

Robin's eyemask narrowed on him. "Where's….Gizmo…."

"Over here, gunkball!!"

Robin turned and looked.

Gizmo hovered fifteen feet down the smoldering hallway. As the ground and walls rumbled, he produced an armament of twenty miniature rockets from the back of his pack that aimed at the Boy Wonder.

"Why don't you make like a good bird and poop off??"

Robin frowned. "Is it true….has the Fearsome Five been established? What do they want from H.I.V.E.??"

"If you stop using my big companion as a crummin' throw rug, I might talk……mucous head!!"

"……" Robin slowly stepped off of Mammoth, his staff held in a cautious stance.

"That's a little more like it…," Gizmo's goggled eyes narrowed. He kept the rockets aimed at Robin as he hovered around in a circle to match the Boy Wonder's movement. "You know what they say, Teen Trash?? You know what they say about being in Rome?"

"Do as the Romans do…," Robin muttered.

"Mammoth and I are up to our necks in Rome," Gizmo uttered. "And Rome is currently using the name 'Psimon'. The big oaf may be loose a few screws, but even he knows just as much as I do that all we can ever hope to accomplish under the wings of a powerful telepath such as Psimon is anything and everything that telepath wants! I'm not quite in the mood of having my gorgeously genius brain turned to mush, thank you very much."

"And for that reason alone….," Robin frowned and gestured with a gloved hand, "…you're allowing him to order you into threatening an Academy full of people?"

"What do you care about this H.I.V.E. scum??"

"They're human lives!" Robin shouted back. "Noir may be our prime reason for going on this mission….but the preservation of lives is the top of our list!! Securing life to the Titans is securing justice!! We did not come to destroy!!!"

"Talk all you crammin' want to about destruction, Bird Bluff!!" Gizmo stuck his tongue out. "You have no clue what it truly is!! What's going on here in this crudhole is everyone and everything running into each other cuz of something fearfully dead looming on the horizon!! Psimon knows it…so he's dragged us here!! And now we can't get out of the net!! Shimmer and Neutron probably already tried…but Psimon lobotomized them with a friggin' thought and they're his puppets to play with!! Well that's not happening to me!! I'm no doofus!! And as long as it doesn't happen to me, it doesn't happen to Mammoth!! The two of us are all we have left!! In the meantime…." Gizmo clicked the rockets into firing mode and produced a targeting sight which he zeroed in on Robin. "….I'm more than happy to watch this barfin' school burn down! It never did me any good except for maybe a few Twinkies in the commissary!!"

Robin got into a ready stance with his staff. "Go ahead, Gizmo. Fire away. Fighting you may not get me any closer to Noir…but it'll get me a little closer to quieting this chaos…"

"Yeah…don't count on it, vomit brains!" Gizmo lowered his targeting sight and craned his tiny neck. "Now, Big Guy! Now!!!"

Robin raised an eyebrow.

GRIP!!!!

His eyemask bulged. He wheezed for breath as two heavy arms of Mammoth gripped him from behind.

"Why… aren't….. you…. the….. cutest….. little….. thing…..," the embracing villain sneered.

Robin gasped for air in his clutches.

"Pop his torso off, Mammoth!" Gizmo commanded. He smiled a sneering smile at the Boy Wonder. "You see caped craphead?? It may be small…but Mammoth and I gather in packs! It's the only way to bust heads!!"

Robin hissed. "I couldn't agree more….." With a lasting breath he uttered: "Raven! Now!!"

"Huh??" Gizmo blinked. "Raven???"

FWOOOSH!!!

A black portal opened in the ceiling above and behind Gizmo. Raven lowered down, solidified from her black soul self, and gripped Gizmo in an onyx talon from behind.

"Augh!! Let go of me you stupid jar of pickled estrogen!!!"

"Lovely….," Raven glared over the captured munchkin at Mammoth. "Let go of my bird and I let go of your turtle."

Mammoth clutched Robin in a tighter death grip. "You….You can't tell me to do nothin'!!" the giant's gray eyes thinned. "How about YOU let go of my little pal???"

Robin craned his neck to open his windpipe some. "Mammoth….your sister's Shimmer….right?"

"Shut up!!" Mammoth squeezed. "I didn't say you could speak—"

"Gizmo says she's being brainwashed….b-by Psimon….," Robin wheezed. He sweated and glared at Gizmo across the way. "Isn't that right, genius?"

Gizmo frowned. He struggled in Raven's telekinetic grip. "So what if she is? It's not my fault!"

"When in Rome….do as the Romans do….," Robin hissed. "….that involves doing what Psimon says, right? So…where in there do you bail Shimmer out of her lobotomized state?? Huh??"

"Can it!!" Gizmo squealed. "Nnnnghh!!" He grunted as Raven tightened her grip.

"……," Mammoth blinked. "Shimmer is…..being brain-controlled?"

"Only for now, lughead!!" Gizmo struggled. "It's…It's…It's temporary!!"

"Says who?" Raven spoke up. "Psimon's in control of her. Not you."

"But you didn't have any plans to save her….did you?" Robin added.

Gizmo sweated. "I…..It….Jinx….W-We…."

"We're going to….save her…..r-right?" Mammoth muttered. "We're going to save my sis??"

"Y-Yeah! Sure!!…..E-Eventually," Gizmo uttered.

"When??" Raven frowned. "Be specific!!"

"Yeah….when, Gizmo?!?!" Mammoth growled.

"I…..Uh……When….," Gizmo sweated.

"You're a coward, Gizmo….," Robin wheezed. He tilted his head up and barely managed: "He's a coward, Mammoth. He won't save your sister from Psimon. He wouldn't even save you! The only reason you're safe is that Gizmo's been safe so far from Psimon's touch!"

"Man, shut up!!!" Gizmo cackled.

Mammoth was frowning….frowning at Gizmo. "We can't let Selinda be some egghead's toy!! Why didn't you tell me befo—"

"You stupid brick!! I thought you could figure that out on your own by now!! Sweet Stephen Hawkings!! Just how dumb are you?!?!"

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!" Mammoth frowned. FWOOOSH!!! He tossed Robin to the side.

THWAP!! Robin sputtered and coughed on the floor.

Stomp!! Stomp!! Stomp!! Mammoth angrily thundered his way towards Gizmo.

Raven whispered into Gizmo's ear: "Good job, braniac….."

"Why of all the mean, low down, selfish things EVER!!" Mammoth's nostrils flared.

Raven released her telekinetic hold on Gizmo.

PLOP!!!!

Gizmo landed on his butt. He panted and scooted away from the advancing, redheaded giant. "Uhm….," he sweatdropped. "Raven…pretty-please….get me back in that TK-Talon thingy again!!"

"Uh uh," the girl crossed her arms and floated out of the way.

"Promise you'll help my sis out!!" Mammoth growled.

"Hey!! Butthead!! Don't you realize that Psimon would—"

"Did you hear me?!?!?!" Mammoth charged Gizmo. "RAAAUGH!!!"

"YAAAAK!!" Gizmo squealed and pressed every button, switch, and lever on his jetpack device.

SWIIIIISH!! SWOOOOSH!!! BLAM!!! BOOOM!!! PHOOOOM!!!

The two former H.I.V.E. students became a cloud of swinging knuckles, flying rockets, massive shoulder-butting, and explosions.

Raven drifted over to a slowly standing-up Robin.

"Well….that worked like a charm," Raven droned.

"Yeah….," Robin panted, rubbing his shoulder. "That should keep their attention off the rest of H.I.V.E."

"And make our search for Noir easier," raven added.

"Speaking of which….why don't we make haste?"

"We shall…."

The two bird Titans ran down the hallway while the boys went at it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I streaked down a long, yellow corridor, wrist by wrist. I blurred a smoking black trail on the right. She had a pink streak on the left.

"We just need to nab us a Headmistress….," Jinx uttered. "Then you'll be free!! Pulsade and I will take the old fart away and you can just go hug and kiss the Titans or whatever it is you like to do, Ghost Boy! Consider that a promise!!"

"…….," I panted as I ran along with her.

And just what would they do with the Headmistress??

WHURRR-CLING!!! WHURRR-CLING!!!

Two of the hexagonal panels in the rooftop rotated and revealed double gun turrets aimed at us.

"Ah Hecate….," Jinx sweatdropped in mid-sprint. "I hate these things."

I bit my lip.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! Bright pulses of energy flew at us.

CHIIIIING!! I whipped Myrkblade out to my right while running.

Jinx glowed her left arm with pink.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

The pulses were upon us.

I gritted my teeth and twirled Myrkblade like a fan in front of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!! My side of the wave of energy blasts were deflected into the passing walls.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

At the same time, Jinx flung a huge band of pink energy down the corridor. It caused the pulses to part ways and slam into the ground and ceiling while her hex streaked its way into the leftmost turret ahead of us.

CRUNCH!!!

The device collapsed.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! The right turret kept firing.

We ran towards it.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!! I deflected with Myrkblade.

We passed on by.

The gun turret.

I stabbed my sword to the right.

CRRRRRRKKKK!!!!

I ripped the gun turret into ribbons. It fell apart, sparking.

Jinx and I rounded a corner.

Another corridor.

Thinner…like a giant hexagonally-shaped passageway. Three guards were positioned fifty feet down the thin hallway. At sight of us, they shouted out and fired volleys of laser fire.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAAAP!!!

Jinx and I ducked in mid sprint.

"Speed it up!!" Jinx uttered through clenched teeth. She turned her left hand into a fist. FLASH!!! A blade of magic pink vapor formed off her wrist.

I held Myrkblade out.

The guards fired and fired and fired—ZAAA-AAAA-AAAAP!!!

CL-CLANG!! I deflected a few shots.

FLASH!!! Jinx deflected some of her own.

The two guards up front kept aiming. The one in the rear chucked a grenade.

"Fire in the hole!!" Jinx squealed.

FWOOOOSH!! The smoking canister flew. Cl-Clank!! It struck the floor and rolled underneath us.

"Nnngh!!" Jinx streaked right.

"!!!!" I streaked left.

In our blurred sprint, Jinx and I criss-crossed paths. She ran up the right wall of the tunnel. I ran up the left wall. Like a minute hand and an hour hand on a collision course, we converged on the ceiling by sheer momentum alone and were safely out of range of the---BOOOOOOM!!!!—grenade below.

We burst through the smoke and flame.

Gravity took over.

Jinx kicked off the ceiling.

I kicked off the ceiling.

Yank!!

Our handcuffs pulled taut in midair.

We jerked into each other. We spun. We struck our legs out.

THWAP!!!

SMACK!!!

We simultaneously kicked both front gunmen across their cheeks.

TH-THWUMP!! They fell.

PLOP!! We landed.

The third guard prepared another grenade---

FWOOOOSH!!! Jinx and I blurred forward in a crouch.

THWACK!!!

"Snkkktt!!"

We caught the man's neck with our handcuffs' chain. We dragged him between us for ten feet before he tumbled off alone and unconscious.

"Okay….," Jinx's cat eyes blinked. "'Note to self. Throw up later'."

"……," I said.

We swirled around the corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress panted. It was dark. She stumbled through the laboratories. She bumped into tables of scientific equipment that rattled and forced her to wince. She groped her way along metal walls, trying to find a door, an escape hatch, a compartment, a passageway, anything that she could use to get out of her sudden confines.

Her gray hair was tossed and hung loosely around the frame of her brow. Her skin lost some of its tightness in favor of wrinkled anxiety. She panted and groped and more desperately. Sweat running down her upper body. Her tight business suit wearing into a rumbled mess. She broke a heel of one shoe and now she limped her way across the darkness in desperation.

And….

"I seeeeee youuuuuu……."

She gasped. She pressed herself up against a random counter. Shivering.

"Don't think you can hide from me."

She took a deep breath. Her eyes were firm and gray in the darkness.

"Hello, Psimon……"

"Been a long time since we talked like this. You and I have unfinished business."

She frowned into the air.

"Somehow……I don't think 'unfinished business' is what you're truly here for………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Slade and Dagger died. Dr. Light's life was extinguished. Our former allies are gone. What ever once tied us together is no more, Psimon."

The telepath shuffled after a thunderously storming Neutron. The atomic brute was shoving and elbowing his way through throngs of guards and deflecting grenades back down the hallway from which they were launched. The hallway was a bloody echo of endless ringing and ricocheting sounds as the battle-minded behemoth marched in a straight line for the Headmistress' mental signature.

Psimon smiled as he 'spoke' to the Headmistress during his leisurely stroll through the carnage.

"The things you speak of Headmistress…….honestly, I am astonished. Such dishonesty. Such hypocrisy. You know that I already am aware of more than you'll ever be."

"Then what do you want from me? What do you want from H.I.V.E.? If you know more than I'll ever know, what do you want from me?"

"Two words, Headmistress. Two words."

"Red Aviary??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress blinked.

Silence.

"Red Aviary………."

Her darkened brow furrowed. "What could someone as powerful as you need to be told about that?"

"Not told, Headmistress. Shown."

Her lips parted.

"Sh-Shown??"

"I need to feel Red Aviary. I need to feel it….through someone. Someone whom it would most easily consume. Someone who has dished out enough evil on the world for the spirit of Death to demand a recompense."

The Headmistress clutched a hand to her neck. She gulped.

"I……I don't understand……"

"Oh, you understand allright. If you breathe, you understand. If you have a heartbeat, you understand. If you had a beginning…then you have an end….and you'll understand. For that reason alone, Red Aviary will manifest itself through your sacrifice. I must know the anguish…..the reality of what this part of the world is facing so fearfully."

She clenched her jaw.

"But wh-why me?? Why me, Psimon?!?! What did I ever deserve to be chosen by you for some bloody experiment?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Neutron shouted and burst through another wall. Academy students shrieked and ran every which way to avoid his stomping feet and glowing aura.

Psimon drifted effortlessly behind him. He mentally froze anyone who so much as fled close to his robed figure.

"You, Headmistress……you think that you know the fine art of manipulation. But you are but a fool. It was always I who had a hand of control in your most gifted of students. I brainwashed your honors department. I reached out to Damien Darhk. And Miss Jean Jenkins….I put the curse in the Jinx. Fate or no fate, it was I who made her the ace that she was. She was never your witch, Headmistress. The failsafes that I installed in her mind helped her survive H.I.V.E., Dagger, Slade, and even the Titans. She has surpassed all obstacles to return to where I began the grand experiment you, Dr. Light, and Dagger hired me to perform. And now that first experiment is a success. It is somewhat like……l-like a prophecy coming true. The first in a mighty string of impossibilities that will spell out the full enactment of Red Aviary. But the most important step next is to make the Earth bleed, for how else can the sky turn red?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress was panting.

Her eyes cold and wide as she gazed at an unseen sky.

Psimon's telepathic voice lingered.

"And I shall start with you, Headmistress. The beginning of the first experiment shall be the beginning of the second. I will make you bleed…..bleed……bleed…..oh so badly…….heheheheheheh…..it is going to be a Red sky indeed. Very much a Red Sky……."

His voice cut off.

Headmistress' lips quivered.

"Psimon?"

Silence.

"Ps-Psimon??" she stuttered out loud.

A beat.

SMASH!!!!!!

Neutron burst in through the nearby wall.

The Headmistress gasped and stood in a spotlight of red, glowing radiation. She stared—trembling—at the intruding behemoth.

Neutron—hypnotized—stood in place with arms clenched at his sides.

Psimon drifted in, his arms folded.

He smirked.

"Speaking??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven blinked.

She gazed into nothingness suddenly.

THWACK!!! CLANG!!! Robin was busy smashing the helmets in of nearby guards. "Yaaugh!! Wa-taaa!!"

Raven droned. "I know where the Headmistress of this Academy is."

Robin punched out the last of a throng of guards confronting him. Panting, he turned to look at her. "H-Huh??"

"The Headmistress….," Raven blinked at him. "The telepath has found her. I sense an intense wave of fear and dread two stories below this location."

"Well keep your head sensitive for Noir and Jinx!" Robin uttered. He twirled his staff and prepared to charge down a corridor. "They've got to be in this compound somewh—"

"Robin," Raven blinked. "I must deal with this confronation."

"What?? Why?"

"The telepath must be eliminated, remember?"

"Yes, b-but—"

"And I sense that something terrible is going to happen to the Headmistress," Raven droned. "Something which must not be allowed to happen to anybody."

"………..," Robin blinked.

Raven took a deep breath. "Let me intercede, Robin. Go and find Noir and Jinx. I will join you shortly."

He shuddered a breath. "N-No worries?"

She nodded. "No worries."

"Go," he waved.

She nodded. With a bow, she sank through a black portal in the floor.

Robin regripped his staff and ran down a long corridor of yellow metal. "I'd laugh if she decides to have a tea party instead."

He emerged from the corridor into a chamber full of chaos. A red-haired girl was spinning about and nimbly taking on over a dozen guards by herself. She picked up random pieces of debris off the floor and flung them at the H.I.V.E. defenders…. turning the objects into corrosive acid in mid-air. Guards shouted and clutched their limbs in pain as juices burned through their armor and ate at their skin. Shimmer was laughing insanely, like she was enjoying the torment.

Robin took a deep breath, cracked his neck, and prepared to rush into the battle--

SWOOOOOSH-WHAP!!!

A body in white rushed in and struck him hard across the back.

"Augh!!" Robin collapsed forward. He expertly dove, rolled, and leapt up into a spin upon which he landed and twirled his staff at ready.

THWIIISH-CL-CLANK!!!

A dark-haired girl in white armor rushed up against the Boy Wonder. She pressed against his raised staff with two shiny rapiers. She gritted her teeth, her brow furrowed under an ivory headband with a crest.

Robin's upper body shook. With an exhale he shoved her off and jabbed forward with his staff.

She dodged and jumped back, twirling the two rapiers.

Robin panted, his rod at ready. "Well….aren't you new?"

"Deuce," she said.

"Robin."

"Roasted dinner."

"Dead man's hand."

TH-TH-THWISH!! The Academy student twirled her rapiers. "Let's do this…."

Robin glanced over his shoulder at Shimmer's destruction. "Don't you even care about your own people? They're being slaughtered!"

Deuce smiled menacingly. She slithered towards Robin. "Consider this my final exam. I must get an 'A'. I don't care about ANYTHING or ANYONE else!!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Boy, aren't you a perfect study buddy…"

"RrrrrRRRGHH!!!" Deuce growled and spun at Robin with both blades spinning.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH-SLAASH!!

Robin ducked, somersaulted to the side, spun, and swung his staff down low.

Thwap!!

Deuce's legs were knocked out from under her.

She teetered forward, landed impossibly balanced on the tips of her downstretched daggers, kicked up with her feet, and flipped up into a standing swan-pose.

Robin whistled. "Fancy. It's going to be an awful shame beating your brains in."

"Try me….," Deuce smirked. "Try all of me."

Robin readied his staff.

Deuce let loose a long shout. "Rrrrrrrrrr-rrrrrrrrghhh!!!" Her yelling voice suddenly took on a plural volume.

Robin did a double take.

His eyes blinked beneath his mask.

He gasped….

There were two Deuces. Both identical. Both…..sudden.

"What in the—"

"En guarde!" "En guarde!!"

The doppelgangers flew at Robin in perfect precision.

Robin gritted his teeth and stepped back, deflecting the two Deuces' blows with their rapiers against his staff.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

One Deuce slid low and struck at Robin's legs. The second jumped high and slashed at his face.

Robin took a deep breath and dove forward through the two's advance, barely escaping the double-barrage of blades. He rolled, spun up to his feet, and spun with his staff held vertically.

CL-CLANK!! Both Deuces shoved against opposite sides of Robin's bludgeon.

The Boy Wonder teetered back against a wall.

The Deuces charged, shouting: "RAAAUGH!!!" "RAAAUGH!!!"

Robin ducked a slash. Sidestepped a second. Deflected a third and fourth, then kicked off the wall into a forward flip.

The Deuces pivoted and swung their four rapiers at his body.

Robin deflected upside down in mid air—CL-CLANK!!—landed, and swung his rod hard with the entire length of it. "Nnnngh!!!"

The two doppelgangers stepped back, flexed their muscles, and--

FWIIISH!!

One Deuce jumped and landed behind Robin.

The other remained in front.

"…….," Robin breathed heavily.

The Deuces giggled.

"Hehehe!! Keep on your toes!!" "Hehehe!! Keep on your toes!!"

Robin gritted his teeth. "Stop….doing that."

FWOOOSH!! FWOOOSH!!

The Deuces charged Robin's front and back.

Robin flung his rod forward—CLANK!—deflecting one Deuce and then jabbed it back—CL-CLANG!!—deflecting a second Deuce.

The two copies whirled their rapiers in nimble, feminine hands and jabbed forward at both sides of him as with buzz saws. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!

Robin stood on his hands, lifted his legs, spun like a break dancer, and deflected with the steel-tips of his boots. CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!

Acrobatically, he snaked his lower body down and came up with an intense ceiling-bound swing of his staff.

"YAAAUGH!!!"

CLANG!!! The front Deuce was deflected and forced back three feet.

"NNGH!!" The back Deuce pounced on Robin.

Robin stuck his rod reversely in the ground, used it as a vaulting pole, and backflipped himself up and over the pouncing villain.

Deuce stumbled forward beneath him in a blind swing.

Robin spiraled to the ground, spun his rod, and stabbed at her rear--

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Six rapiers blocked Robin's lunge.

"…….," the Boy Wonder blinked.

Six??

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

A sea of blades spun at him.

"!!!" Robin jumped back, twirled his rod, and stared forward with a widening eyemask.

There were two more Deuces. Once all doppelgangers were recovering from Robin's moves, the Boy Wonder found himself staring at four identical combatants in white. Each spun a rapier in each hand and struck a battle pose.

Robin's lips parted: "H-How….?"

The Deuces giggled.

"Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!"

"Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

And the four Deuces came charging.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!!!

Robin readied himself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASH!!!!!!

THWAP!!!

"HAAA!!!"

FLASH!!!!

WHUMP!!!

Two guards fell from our punishment as Jinx and I blurred down the hallway. We came around a corner and rushed down towards an elevator. The sounds of battle and groaning, grounded guards echoed from behind us.

"Okay…so the Headmistress isn't on this floor. Let's go down a level!" Jinx panted.

I replied with something between a nod and a shrug.

Whatever gets it over with.

We reached the elevator door. Jinx's finger jammed the button.

Nothing….

Not even a light to show if it was rising or lowering.

"Nnnnghh…..," Jinx grumbled, taking the time to cutely tap her toe in impatience. "Nnnnghhhh!!!"

I bit my lip.

A beat.

Jinx looked behind her.

Jinx blinked.

Jinx looked ahead.

Jinx sighed.

"Screw it."

FLASH!!!!

She forced the elevator doors open with pink hex. SLKKKK!!!!

A black shaft opened before us.

We both peered in.

Nothing but cable.

"……"

We both peered down.

The elevator car was two floors below us in the basement shaft. And it wasn't moving.

"Ugh!!" Jinx pouted. "It's stuck! Hecate forbid something should work in our favor today!"

I sweatdropped.

"Okay…um….," Jinx experimentally stuck her left foot inside the space of the shaft, then reached out and tried grasping the cable. "Maybe we could….I dunno….pull the elevator car up here so that it won't be in our way and—"

FW-FW-FWISH!!! Myrkblade twirled with heavy vapors of smoke power.

"????" Jinx looked.

SLASH!!!!!

CLK-K-K!!!

I ripped my sword straight through the elevator cables.

CRKKKK-NK-NK-NGGGGGGGGG!!!!

The cables snapped free.

The elevator fell loosely down the shaft, scraping against metal and creating a howling echo all the way.

"……," Jinx looked at me.

I smiled.

Jinx sighed. "Phweee…..well, whatever gets the frog out of the throat."

She knelt down and went before me…climbing down with spiked blades of hex attached to her arms and legs. I stretched my left arm down to give her clearance before climbing down with an awkward arrangement of three limbs to follow her in the descent.

"Hopefully she'll keep put long enough for us to find her," Jinx grumbled. "I mean…with all of this crap taking place on her home turf, she'd be somewhere safe….right?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" the Headmistress groaned and struggled in the heavy grip of Neutron.

The nuclear villain clamped his arms around her waist, holding her up high and facing out across the red-lit laboratory. Psimon stood below her, looking up and grinning. His eyes narrowed and an almost-supernatural hint of light emanated from the visible parts of his brain from beneath the transparent dome.

"Yes…….Yes…..keep struggling to live. Keep wishing for that which shall be ripped asunder from under your very own mind. It only further reinforces the pain of your sacrifice. It only further strengthens my understanding of just what this culmination of fate is….."

The Headmistress hissed through clenched teeth: "You…..you don't need…..m-me…to understand death….," she managed to say aloud. "You're pretty close to….understanding it all yourself…..you old fool!!"

Psimon's eyebrows raised in humor.

"Death? Is that all you think Red Aviary is? Is that all you think the true power of Red is?"

The Headmistress panted.

Psimon glanced at Neutron.

The atomic villain hypnotically responded by strengthening his iron grip.

"Nnnghhh!!" the Headmistress writhed.

Psimon's lips curved even more.

"Red represents Destruction, woman. Death is not the same as Destruction. Death is but a beginning. Destruction calls for total, utter obliteration….and all the spirits that work to put it into fruition. For Death to be equivalent….there must be a 'second Death'. I wish you could tell me what that is like. But I suppose all secrets belong to unlucky souls…..as long as they possess 'souls' capable of existing."

He Headmistress was wheezing for breath. Her eyes began to water. The room spun…

Psimon drifted forward some…looking up at her.

"I want to hear every thought that goes into your mind. I want to feel every pain of your heart and being. I want to taste blood of every physical, mental, and spiritual source as it is squeeze from your extinguished shell. And then I will know…..I will finally know….Who it is. Who it is that commands utter obliteration. Who is the Father of Red Aviary……"

"………..," the Headmistress barely moved.

"Now……"

Psimon raised his fingers towards the Headmistress' heart.

"I must temporarily shut down neurological transmissions traveling up and down your spinal cord. It is the only thing that will keep you from passing out as I reprogram every organ inside your body to reject itself……"

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

"???" Psimon turned around.

"….," the Headmistress weakly looked over.

In a black bird-shape, Raven lowered through the ceiling and stood at the far end of the laboratory besides the hole that Neutron had smashed his way through.

"Let her go….," the dark girl uttered.

Psimon smiled. He said out loud: "So the world is getting chock full of witches."

Raven's eyes glowed a bright gray. She pointed: "Do not take me command lightly. I know you are very powerful, and I sense what you are about to do to that woman. I am telling you now—in spite of your strength—let her go."

"You do well to acknowledge my strength, Titan….," Psimon shuffled slowly towards her. "But one does not truly fear Psimon until Psimon is tasted."

"Watch it," Raven glared. "I'm a minor…"

The telepath chuckled. "You are truly, truly shallow. How can I even begin to explain to you the depths of my godlike psyche??"

"Nobody likes a smartass," Raven raised two glowing fists. "Let her go or I will make you let her go…."

"Then, dear Titan….," Psimon's eyes narrowed and glowed a bright red. His lips closed. "You must command the sky to fall!!"

Raven's body tensed.

Psimon eyes flared a crimson strobe and—

FWOOOOOSH!!!

Raven sensed an invisible wave of telepathic chaos flying at her through the third and fourth dimensions.

Raven clenched her eyes shut. Her head tensed.

FLASH!!!

There was a mute clash of thunder in the center of the room where Psimon's invading essence slammed into Raven's soul self. Neutron and the dazed Headmistress were clueless. But the telepath and empath in the room reeled.

"Nnnghh!!" Psimon clutched his head.

"Ugh….," Raven stumbled back.

A beat.

Red eyes.

Gray eyes.

Psimon gritted his teeth. "Very……impressive….."

Raven panted. "I don't aim to please…."

Psimon raised two fingers, concentrated, and launched another wave of mental destruction.

"RRRRAUGH!!!"

FWOOOOOSH!!!

Raven held her fingers up in meditation as the wave flew at her.

"Azarath….Metrion….ZINTHOS!!!"

FLASH!!!!!

Psimon pressed against her.

FLAAAAASH!!!!

Raven's forehead tensed as she shoved back.

Both bodies were intently staring at each other across the room.

In their heads they were practically locking elbow to elbow.

Invisible colors of incomprehensible nature exploded and flashed around them.

A struggle of artery-pulsing nerves.

And….

FLASH!!!!

Both combatants stumbled back from each other further.

Psimon panted.

Raven sweat.

Psimon's teeth showed as he snarled and spoke barbarically aloud: "I have no time for these silly games!! I came here to learn the trends of Destruction. And if I need to, I'll make you part of the experiment!!!"

Raven's face was calm and collected as she stared back at him. "You didn't say Psimon says….," she mentally projected.

Psimon's eyes rounded. "That's it…..," he stood up straight. "THAT'S IT!!!" He concentrated.

Raven braced herself. Her soul self.

Psimon's eyes strobed. And….

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISSSSSH!!!

An astral projection of his body soared straight at Raven's physical shell like a wind-cutting missle.

"YAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

Raven stood calmly. In meditation. Her glowing eyes lowered.

And the incorporeal Psimon made contact.

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!!

Raven's soul self flew backwards out of her body. She crossed her arms and took the brunt of astral Psimon's sailing fists.

WHAM!!! WHAP!!! THWAP!!!

"RRRRGH!!!!" Psimon, a virtual demon on the astral plane, thrashed and stabbed and slashed at Raven with red-sharp fingernails.

Raven flew back, deflecting his blows with impervious black arms. The two drifted through the walls of the laboratory, out into the laboratory where guards lay silent, up through floors where Shimmer was battling dozens of defenders, through Robin's battle with Deuce, through more walls, over the scuffle between Mammoth and Gizmo, and beyond.

THWACK!!! SMASH!!! POW!!!

Psimon struck and struck and struck and struck, shoving Raven up through the ground until the two were arching over the blackened, hellish landscape of Bludhaven. They tumbled through the air like invisible Greek deities. Like anguished leaves they spiraled towards the center of the Earth and hovered at a point where Raven unleashed a pulse of black that shoved Psimon back.

FLASH!!!!

Psimon soared off two hundred feet. He spread his arms out with red vapors. His eyes flashed as he spun about, snarling, and flew a bloody streak at Raven over the slums of Bludhaven. He reached his arm out—youthful and muscular in the mental world—and produced a screaming blade of crimson.

CHIIIIING!!!

Raven chanted meditatively, struck her forearm out, and produced a black shield the size of her torso.

"NNNNGH!!!!" Psimon was upon her, swinging heavily.

CLANG!!!!

Black energy splashed from Raven's upper body as she shielded herself from the heavy blows.

CLANG!!! CLANG!! CLANG!!!

Psimon screamed and raised his sword up high. Red bolts of supernatural lightning were absorbed into the weapon. With a grunt he swung it down again.

CRASH!!!!!

Time slowed as Raven's shield exploded into scattering tendrils of onyx chaos.

The dark girl's soul self floated back. She took a mental gasp. Her eyes strobed gray. She brought her shield arm back. The tendrils snaked back through the air and recollected in her left palm. Raven gritted her teeth. The tendrils morphed her palm into a huge black bird talon. With a shout, Raven flung the arm straight forward and clasped it tightly around Psimon's face.

"!!!!!" Psimon's sword vanished and time resumed as he found himself being enveloped from the incorporeal neck down with black energy.

"YAUGH!!!" Raven shouted and flipped upside down.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

Psimon's body swung at the end of the talon like a pendulum.

Raven shoved down against his astral form, flying towards the center of the earth, soaring through buildingtops and apartment complexes until finally slamming into a garbage-strewn alleyway of Bludhaven below.

FWOMP!!!!

Raven held Psimon tightly to the earth by willing Terra Firma to solidify beneath his soul.

She raised her other hand up, produced razor sharp talons, and proceeded to slash and rip and lacerate his prone torso.

SLIIIIINK!!!! SLIIII-IIII-IIINK!!! SNKKKKK!!!!

Psimon twitched and shook and convulsed all over as black wisps of smoke flew free from his astral form. The red steam flew up into the air, magically collected, and surged back into his throat beneath Raven's first talon. A crimson glow emanated from the villain's spiritual throat before summoning red flames to erupt up Raven's transmogrified arm.

"Augh!!!" Raven stumbled back and floated through a few buildings.

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!"

Raven looked up.

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!! Psimon was up and flying through the buildings at her. His arms had turned into two giant butcher knives of red. He 'bled' all over with red stream. His eyes were replaced with flickering flame and his teeth with glistening, red-stained fangs.

SLASH!!!! SLASH!!!! The giant cleavers converged on Raven's body.

She teleported to the side.

SLASH!!!!!

She teleported again.

Psimon's astral body spun at her like a red tornado and exploded into her body with a million red, bleeding arms.

FWOOOOSH!!!

"NNNGH!!!" she fell back from the impact.

Psimon converted back into the bleeding figure with the two giant knives. He pounced upon her. "RAAAUGH!!"

Raven braced herself with two black talons.

CLAMP!!!!

She grabbed onto the sharp ends of the blades and resisted the pain as her body leaked black energy. Her soul self fluctuated and her mental face strained as she attempted to fight back the weight and lacerating presence of Psimon upon her.

"When I'm finished with you….," Psimon's astral face sneered. "I shall feed you into the Red Jaws of Destruction itself!!"

She glared at him with glowing gray eyes. "I bet I'm even hungrier than that…." That uttered, Raven's face twisted and spun about. Her blue hood dipped low over her head. She bowed her cranium towards her chest, and when she lifted it back her entire head and hood had converted into the huge, black silhouette of a demonic raven. A huge black beak with unearthly rows of sharp teeth howled open. "SRKIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!"

Psimon's flaming eyes flickered once.

"SKRIIIIIIIIII!!!" The bird's jaws opened wide and snapped tightly over Psimon's face. CLAMP!!!!

"MMMMMFFFF!!!" Psimon struggled.

YANK!!!!

The black bird's head twisted. It tossed Psimon across the urban landscape.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!!!

Psimon flew through buildings, streets, and junkyards of Bludhaven. He tumbled across the floor of the plane. He struggled to get up.

"SKRIIIIIIIIIII!!!!"

"?!?!?!" Psimon turned and looked.

Raven—now a black spectre of bird wings and a sharp beak—flew at him in a nightmarish streak.

Psimon jumped up and prepared himself with two bladed arms--

WHAP!!!!

"SKRIIIII!!!"

"RRRGH!!!"

The two tumbled, struggled, wrestled, and fought their way across the endless expanse of mountains and trees outside of Bludhaven and stretching beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At around this time, Psimon's hypnotic control over Neutron faded.

The nuclear fiend shook his head and rubbed his skull.

To rub his skull…Neutron had to let go of the Headmistress.

"Ooof!!" the old woman fell to the ground and tumbled onto her knees.

"Nnngh….where….wh-where am I?" Neutron muttered before realizing that he was suffering the most painful, telepathically induced migraine of his life. "Nnnngh!!!" he collapsed to his knees and glowed a radioactive red strobe of pain.

"……," the Headmistress stared at him. "……..," she looked the other way.

Psimon and Raven were standing on the far side of the laboratory.

Staring at each other.

Emotionless.

Staring.

"………"

"………"

The Headmistress took a deep breath. She stumbled up to her feet. She shuffled quietly…pensively….in front of Psimon.

"……….," Psimon was staring through the Headmistress and directly at Raven.

"……….," the dark girl stared back.

The Headmistress shuddered. Nervously, she left the three alone in the dark laboratory and hobbled out into the hallway through the fresh hole.

The telepath and the empathy remained staring at each other….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I just got a report that the Central Command has located the Headmistress!!" a leading H.I.V.E. guard announced to six others standing at attention in a war-torn hallway a level above. "She's heading towards the Founder's Wing on the bottom tier!! We must find her and escort her to the Central Command!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Lead the way!"

The leader turned and was about to head into a stairwell along with his six, armed followers when---

FLASH!!!!

In a white pulse of light, a blonde in an ivory-colored jumpsuit appeared before them. She had a hand stretched out. She was glaring.

"Back up. Turn around. Evacuate the Academy…..now."

"It's one of the intruders!!" a guard exclaimed.

Kl-Klak!! The leader aimed his laser rifle at her throat. "Hold it right there! You have intruded the H.I.V.E. Academy!! Give yourself up or we shall be forced to take lethal action against you!!"

"The Headmistress is no longer yours to protect," Pulsade frowned. "Either she is to be slaughtered by the Fearsome Five, arrested by the Titans, or taken into custody by my good, pink-haired friend. Seeing as I prefer the latter, I shall do everything in my power to keep them from being delayed in their accomplishments. And everything in my power includes the elimination of all whom I see as a potential blockade. You, mates, are a potential blockade. But I am giving you a warning. Turn around…evacuate….leave the area immediately, if you value your so-called lives."

"Shut up and surrender!!" the leading guard hissed through his helmet and kept aiming at her neck. "H.I.V.E. has very little patience for traitors such as yourself!!"

Puslade's eyes swept the group of armed men. "I'll tell you one more time, being that Jinx so insists that I give namby-pamby blokes like you a second chance. If you do not turn around and leave the Academy right this instant, every single one of you will be dead in under a minute."

Kl-Klak!!

Kl-Klak!! Kl-Klak!! Kl-Klak!!

Seven rifles aimed at her.

She sighed. "Very well…." Her eyes glowed a bright white. "Hope you're all bloody bachelors." Her hands went to her back's holsters--

"Shoot her!!!"

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!!

FLASH!!!

She was gone.

Laser burns appeared in the walls and floor where she stood.

The guard leader leaned forward.

A guard at the rear lowered his gun. "What the?! She's gone—"

FLASH!!!

Pulsade appeared behind him. She batted his gun-arm down, bent his spine back, and wrapped her arms around his neck. One hand with an uzzi to his chin, the other with a shotgun aimed at the rest of the guards—BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

TH-THUNK!!! One guard's back exploded in blood. He fell forward, his lungs coughing up crimson.

The other five spun and nervously fired.

Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!!

FLASH!!! Pulsade vanished from behind the rear guard.

"No--!!!"

TH-TH-THUNK!!! The energy streams exploded in his neck, shoulder, and face. He fell down in a red spray of death.

One of the guards lowered his weapon and shook: "Shit!!!"

FLASH!!! Pulsade appeared in mid-leap behind him. She grabbed his shoulders, flipped nimbly in front of him, came down, yanked forward with her upper arms, and tossed his ragdoll body into another guard.

WH-WHUMP!!

"AUGH!!!" the two collapsed into the yellow-plated wall.

The guard and the other two standing men fired at her. Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Pulsade rolled to the side, avoiding the blasts, knelt up, and dove sideways with two uzzis suddenly stretched out and firing in mid-fall.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

A steady stream of bullets flew across the feet of the two guards standing in front of the leader. P-P-P-P-PING!!! TH-THUNK!!! Their boots exploded in red splashes.

"AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" the two guards collapsed and clutched their bleeding stubs.

The leader panted, for Pulsade had disappeared again. He spun and looked all around, his gun shaking.

The two collapsed guards against the wall stood up dizzily.

FLASH!!!

Pulsade appeared in front of one. She elbowed him hard in the Adam's Apple-THWACK-making him gurgle blood. ThWUMP!! She elbowed him in the stomach. He bent over, extending his rifle. Pulsade wriggled her hand around, enclosed her fingers around the man's trigger, rested the gun against her hip, and aimed backwards at the other standing guard.

Z-ZAP!!!!

The laser flew through the man's heart. He dropped dead in an instant. THWUMP!!

Pulsade then spun an uzzi in her free hand and aimed it into the back of the neck of the man she was grappling.

BLAM!!!!

His brains gave way in Technicolor vomit.

She dropped his warm corpse. SLUMP!!

"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!" the leader fired madly. Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!

Pulsade stretched her arms to the side and backflipped over the steady stream of laser fire. She disappeared in mid-air, upsetting the leader's aim.

The man sweated under his helmet. His heart race.

FLASH!!!

From behind….

The man spun around and was met with Pulsade's palm directly in his face.

A huge STROBE of light pulsed through is visor. His eyes burned.

"NNNGHH!!!" he stumbled backwards. His hands were clutching his skull.

Pulsade casually whipped out her shotgun and aimed at his forehead. BLAM!!!!

The man's hands were suddenly clutching nothing anymore. He fell onto his knees and slumped forward. FWUMP!!!

The two last guards were still clutching their legs and screaming.

Pulsade holstered her shotgun behind her, whipped out the two uzzis, spun them as she walked between the two grounded guards, paused, and pointed the weapons straight out at her sides.

BANG!! BANG!!

Straight through each head.

Silence.

Pulsade spun the guns, holstered them, and sighed.

She hadn't even broken a sweat.

"I swear….I should start wearing red jumpsuits from now on…."

She was halfway through turning around and exiting into an adjacent corridor when she heard something.

The blonde craned her neck.

A whistling sound.

Her eyes widened.

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Pulsade jerked her head aside.

CLAMP!!!!

A silver dagger shaped like a dismembered finger stuck into her hair and pinned her thusly to the wall. The assassin grunted and cursed as she tried to tug her follicles free. She heard light footsteps and looked down the hallway with burning eyes of hatred.

Shimmer pranced down towards her, grinning psychotically. "Trying to beat my record?? Shame on you!!"

YANK!!!

Pulsade pulled the transmogrified dagger out and tossed it to the floor. "I'm sorry…have we met?"

"At Ragnorak, I'm sure," Shimmer winked. "If ya want to talk about the future in the past tense."

"What in the bloody Hell are you babbling about?"

"Ooooh! I know you!" Shimmer pointed. "You're Jinx's 'special' friend, aren't you?"

Pulsade's eyes narrowed. "It depends….," she reached a hand back to her shotgun's holster. "How special do you suppose I am?"

"Okay….I'm just going to lay it all out…," Shimmer stroke a pose with her hands glowing. The walls and floors around her throbbed in an unnatural glow. "….I've been given a second chance by Psimon to bust some heads. And if you must know…there's a certain pink head that's on the top of that list. Seeing that she isn't exactly here right now, I think I"ll have to settle on busting her head through you."

"Lovely," Pulsade readied herself. "Listen, carrot-top, Psimon has been using you from the beginning. It's just about as obvious as your bra size."

"Why all the talk?" Shimmer smiled. "Are you going to hesitate in killing me? You did such a fancy job on them."

"……," Pulsade glanced at the dead bodies on the hallway floor. Then back up at Shimmer.

"Or maybe it's that…..you know you can't so easily kill me?" Shimmer sneered.

"I tend to back away from assassination jobs that I'd enjoy," Pulsade sneered back.

"Then let's have some fun!!" Shimmer flipped forward, somersaulted, swiped a rifle off the floor, ended in a leap, and launched it at Pulsade. "Back off!!!!"

FWOOOOSH!! The gun turned into a flaming ball of plasma in mid-air. PHWOOOM!!!

"Nnngh!!" Pulsade ducked, rolled, and leapt up beyond the fireball. SWOOSH!! She whipped out her shotgun. Kl-Klak!! BLAM!!!

A hot stream of shot flew at Shimmer.

The red-head raised her glowing hands towards the wall of lead.

FLASH!!!

The lead turned into a silver liquid, congealed together, molded, branched outwards, and cooled instantly into a spinning glave.

SNAP!!! Shimmer caught the glave in one hand, spun, and tossed it back at Pulsade. "HA!!!"

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!! The razor-sharp blade sang its way towards the blonde assassin.

Pulsade flinched. She lifted the butt of her shotgun.

CLANK!!!

The projectile stuck in.

"……," Pulsade stared at the shotgun….then at Shimmer.

Shimmer blew a kiss. "That turn you on?"

"Not on your nelly."

FWOOOOSH!!! Shimmer sprinted towards Pulsade, approaching the sea of dead bodies.

Pulsade pumped her shotgun—Kl-Klak!!

Shimmer pounced on her. FWOOOSH!!! "NNGH!!!"

FLASH!!! Pulsade disappeared.

Shimmer landed in a slide.

Pulsade reappeared behind her and aimed the shotgun into the back of Shimmer's head. Plant!!

Shimmer took a breath and shot her arms behind her. CLAMP!! They closed around the barrel of the gun, and before Pulsade could shoot—FLASH!!!

"Dah!!" Pulsade jumped back, waving her hand as the entire shotgun turned into a red-hot strip of iron.

Shimmer spun, whipped the hot iron to her side, turned it instantaneously into putty, molded it in her hand, and converted it into a grenade. "Here ya go, limey!!" Snap!! She pulled the pin out with her teeth and tossed the explosion at the blonde. "Suck on this!!"

Clank! Clank! BOOM!!

"Nngh!!" Pulsade fell back from the explosion. She slid across the yellow floor on her back.

"FWOOOOSH!!!" Shimmer leapt through the flames and dove down madly at the assassin.

Pulsade whipped her two uzzis out and fired up at the descending figure while sliding. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The falling Shimmer crossed two glowing arms. The bullets streamed into her until they were but a centimeter away, upon which they converted into flower petals that fluttered down with the redhead and onto the assassin's torso.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!" Pulsade exhaled.

"Hehe!" Shimmer winked, grabbed Pulsade's shoulders, rolled forward with her, and kicked the blonde back across the hall towards the dead guards.

FWOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

"Oof!!" Pulsade slammed against a nearby wall and fell to her knees in the fresh pool of blood. She stirred and tried standing up.

Sssssssssssss!!!!

"????" Pulsade looked around her. The red pool of blood was slowly turning green. Steam rose as the yellow floor was suddenly being eaten away in ring around her by corrosive acid.

Shimmer waved from afar. "You know what they say about those who live by the sword!"

Pulsade grumbled. "You silly arse…."

Ssssssssss!!!!

CRUNCH!!!!

The floor gave way in a halo.

"Augh!!" Pulsade fell an entire tier, collapsing with the crumbling yellow metal into the wide-open mess hall below.

CRASH!!!!

She collapsed through an eating table and tumbled across the floor

"Nnngh."

FWOOSH!!

Shimmer landed from the floor above and planted her hands on her hips. "I hope you don't hate me for my fighting style. I prefer the slow and painful beating above the bullet to the brain."

Pulsade stirred and tried to stand up. "Everyone's a critic…"

Shimmer glanced down. She kicked up a splinter of wood from a smashed table, gripped it, and turned it into a scimitar of serrated silver. CHIIIING!!! She lowered it towards Pulsade's chest. "Let's cut right to it, shall we?? Hahahahaha!!"

Pulsade reached behind her utility belt. "Pardon my plasma…."

Shimmer raised an eyebrow. "Huh??"

Clank! Clank!!

Shimmer's eyes widened.

SWOOOSH-CLANG!! Pulsade's leg lifted up and kicked the scimitar out of Shimmer's hand.

The redhead jumped back.

Pulsade flung both of her hands forward, unleashing two live plasma grenades.

Shimmer stupidly caught them. "…….," she blinked. "YEEEK!!!" She fell on her back and tossed the two high into the air.

BOOOM!!! BLAM!!!!!

They fanned outward in erupting flames that cascaded down towards her prone figure.

Shimmer clenched her teeth and shot out two glowing hands.

FLASH!!!

The flames gradually morphed into a curtain of Autumn leaves. The leaves fell scattered around the mess hall, only interrupted by the sailing figure of Pulsade jumping up and piercing through the chaos with a descending jump kick aimed at Shimmer's chest.

"YAAAAAAUGH!!!"

Shimmer gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! A guard desperately shot at us.

Jinx and I leapt up above the energy dispersal, came together with our backs touching, spun in mid-air, and landed across the hallway with Myrkblade and a pink blade outstretched.

SLIIINK!!!!

The man's laser rifle was sliced apart in two places.

"Wha--?!?!" he backed up.

GRIP!!!

I grabbed him.

"HAA!!!"

Jinx punched him.

SMACK!!!

"Nnngh…," he fell hard to the ground.

I panted. I looked left at Jinx.

She pointed. "There! The stairwell!! It'll lead us to the bottom tier!!"

I groaned.

Another descent?!?!

"She wasn't on any of these levels!! She must have retreated to her office on the Founders' Wing!"

Yeah, whatever

Jinx's legs glowed pink as she tugged me towards the far end of the hallway. "Come on!! We can do this!! Just hurr—"

FLASH!!!

Jinx's pink glow faded.

She skidded to a stop. "Wh-What???"

I stood beside her. I leaned against Myrkblade, perplexed…..then suddenly realized something. Myrkblade was a wooden sword again.

"????"

I looked at my blade. There was no longer a sharp layer of murk covering it.

I tried extending smoke down my arm to reinforce the blade….but nothing happened.

My lips parted.

My……My powers……

"My powers!" Jinx simultaneously cackled. "What gives??"

A dry chuckle from the stairwell.

Jinx and I both looked.

A young man in a red suit and silver disks set in various spots across his limbs menacingly stepped up. Her smirked at us from across the way.

"End of the line, sweethearts."

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "Disruptor…."

I glanced at her. I glanced at him.

"I see you remember me…," Disruptor winked as he blocked our only passageway downstairs. "…was it because we once went out to the Academy Dance together?"

Jinx frowned. "Disruptor…we never 'went out'. I was being a wallflower along with Gizmo and Mammoth as you spent the whole night trying to grope me."

"Ah yes…fun times…," Disruptor nodded. "And speaking of fun times….it looks like this whole school is going to shit."

"And you like that, don't you?"

"It depends…," Disruptor stepped forward. His arms glowed red. "…do you like it more? Or do I like it more?"

I looked at my wooden sword. I looked at his glowing arms. A beat. CHIIIING!!! I sheathed my weapon and simply clenched my right hand into a ready fist.

"Cut to the chase," Jinx spat. "Are you going to be a model student and protect the Headmistress with your dying breath or some crud??"

"Maybe you don't remember me, Jinx," Disruptor smirked. "I was never a model student. I'm only here to keep the heat off the inventor of this suit. My dad." He flexed his red glowing muscles and pointed at us. "You're here for no solid purpose, are you? You're more confused than the rest of the dying, frightened lot in this crumbling place!"

"……."

"Allow me to give you a reason to be here," Disruptor uttered. There was an eerie vibration in the air the closer his red presence approached. "I'm going to beat your brains in. Then I'm going to beat your samurai friend to death. Then I'm going to have fun with whatever flesh is left alive….preferably yours."

Jinx made a face. "I always knew you were a psychotic pig."

"And I always knew you were dead meat….," Disruptor raised his hands over his head. "Rrrrghhhh!!! Time to remodel!!!"

He flung his glowing arms out.

VROMMMM!!!!

The yellow walls shook.

The lights flickered.

There were groaning and crackling sounds through the yellow metal.

Then—

SNKKKKKTTTT!!!! CRAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Huge lead pipes burst out of the walls in a torrent. Disruptor's chaos was bending and distorting the water pressure of the Academy's plumbing so that soon, highly pressurized streams of liquid were spewing out of the walls and pummeling Jinx and myself from both sides.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

WHUMP!!! Jinx's left shoulder was impacted.

THWAP!!! My right shoulder was impacted.

SWOOOSH-WHAM!!!

We were forced into each other.

"Nnngh!!"

"!!!!"

We slumped to the ground.

Slosh!-Slosh!-Slosh! Disruptor charged through the spewed madness. "RAAAUGH!!" he arched his leg back, swung it in, and swung it up….

….across my chin.

WHAM!!!!

I flew back.

YANK!!

Jinx flew back with me.

We tumbled over each other down the hallway.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!!!

"Ugh!!" we settled against the corner where the wall met the floor.

I sputtered.

Jinx stirred to her knees. "Nnngh…," she looked down at me. "Ghost Boy! D-Do something!!"

I glared up at her from where I lay.

"Don't give me that look!!" she squealed. "Without my powers, I'm nothing but an anorexic gymnast—"

CLAMP!! Disruptor's hand clutched her skull.

"Eeek!!"

"RRRGH!!!" he shoved her face up against the metal wall.

WHAM!!!

Jinx winced against the metal.

"Didn't you miss your home sweet home, bitch?!?!" Disruptor grinned. "Why don't you kiss it and it'll all be better!"

I pivoted my body on the floor and shoved a foot expertly I into the back of Disruptor's leg joints.

THWUMP!!!

"Ugh!!" he stumbled to his knees.

He released Jinx.

I gritted my teeth and flung my fist into Disruptor's face.

FWOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

I winced as his hand gripped fiercely over mine.

He looked at me straight in the shades and smiled. "You know, the Headmistress was lax about quite a few things. But there was one anal rule she always wanted us to keep. 'No smoking'."

I suddenly felt as if my power was being sapped from me. I gasped as I saw a layer of smoke surge out from my arm, collect in Disruptor's shoulder, and shoot back out at me in a pulse of murk.

FLASH!!!!

I flew back from his burst. Jinx tumbled with me. We collapsed in the center of the plumbing-strewn hallway. We tried to stumble up to our feet.

"Heheheheheheh," Disruptor stood up and stretched his hands to the ceiling. "Thanks as always for your toy, father!! THANKS AS ALWAYS!!!"

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!! The light fixtures burst in a line towards us. Sparks and shards exploded downward from the ceiling.

I jumped up to my feet, hoisted a reeling Jinx with me, and fled towards the stairwell.

FLASH-FLASH-FLASH-FLASH-FLASH!!!! The lights exploded in a trail behind us.

I panted.

I dragged us towards the stairwell.

Towards an escape.

We are SO not fighting him!!

Disruptor begged to differ. He was toying with us. As we reached the far end of the hallway and prepared to dive down the stairwell, he flicked a glowing wrist and caused a fire extinguisher besides us to explode.

POW!!!!!

CRUD!!!

I winced as Jinx and I were blown back down the hallway and towards Disruptor….who was presently charging at us with a kicking foot in mid-lunge. "RAAAUGH!!!"

STOMP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!"

Robin panted.

Robin sweated.

Robin was surrounded by eight Deuces.

Every one of them giggling.

Every one of them blurring.

Every one of them spinning a rapier in each hand and--

Stabbing.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

The Boy Wonder had to continuously spin his staff around him nonstop.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Robin was only barely aware of the myriad of deflections that he was miraculously performing. He spun the rod and spun it and spun it some more as he slowly attempted to pace himself across the room and enter a hallway or a utility closet or some place with closed quarters so he could square himself off against the acrobatic doppelgangers one on one.

But the Deuces were not giving him much help. The soonest he moved in a single direction, the more they would collect in that spot beside him and cloud his chance of advancing further.

"Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!"

Giggles.

And…

Stabs.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Robin deflected to the best of his ability. His arms were tiring into meaty soup and his face was red beneath his mask. "C-Come on!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!! One Deuce dove in behind him.

He could barely turn--

SLIINK!!

"Augh!!" Robin clutched a bleeding shoulder.

He stumbled forward.

The one Deuce dove back into the blurring ring of bodies around him.

Giggles.

And.

FWOOOSH!!!

Another single Deuce dove in.

"!!!" Robin spun with his staff raised--

SLIIINK!!!

The one Deuce grazed his upper thigh.

"NNNGH!!" Robin limped backwards.

The Deuce dove back into the doppelganger crowd. A pluralized giggle and…

FLASH!!!

The group doubled.

Sixteen Deuces were spinning and jumping and twirling rapiers and blurring around Robin in a huge halo of white suits and headband crests.

"There is not a vigilante in the world who could catch even ONE of us!!!" all Deuces chanted thunderously at once.

Robin backed up, panting and bleeding. He found himself and the field of Deuces nearing a wall of pipes on the far side of the yellow-plated room.

"NOW!! A FEAST!!!"

All sixteen Deuces dove in at once.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!" Robin shouted and spun his whole body and the rod too.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Amidst the three-hundred-and-sixty degree panorama of the chaotic swing, Robin saw over a dozen Deuces overjumping, dodging, ducking, or sidestepping his mighty bludgeon despite their having just dove in a second ago.

And weathered and tired and half-butchered as Robin was at that spare moment, the Titan Leader inside of him knew for a fact that that was impossible……

FWOOOSH!!!

One Deuce dove in.

WHAM!!!

Robin was shoved back as the shadow darted into the cloud again.

CLANK!!!

Robin's staff snapped off a handle to a pipe.

HISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

White steam poured out.

Robin stumbled limply. Panting.

Mist poured into the region, blending in with the white blur of the torturing Deuces spinning around him.

FWOOOSH!!!!

Another single Deuce dove in.

Robin deflected her rapiers lightning-quick. CL-CLANK!!!

She tumbled against the pipes, her rapiers sparking against them in contact.

CLANG!!

They cut a small puncture. More white steam poured out.

As the Deuces circled solidly around Robin once more, the Boy Wonder found himself staring at the erupting steam, moreso than his opponents.

"…….."

His eyemask narrowed.

FWOOOOSH!! Another Deuce dove in.

Robin grunted and rolled on the ground, avoiding the rapier strike. At the end of his roll, he jumped up onto his feet and smacked off two more handles to the pipes.

CLANG!!

SMACK!!!

FW-FW-FWISH!! Robin twirled his staff into a ready position and stared silently at the Deuces circling him.

He stared….

And stared……..

And stared…………

Giggles.

Pompous laughter.

White bodies running in and out of the mist.

Deuces charging through the suddenly translucent air of the Academy's chamber and out the other side.

Circling him.

Spinning.

"……………."

The Deuces spun.

The mist spread.

"……………"

Robin's lips parted.

"Only one of them is making trails in the mist….," he whispered to himself calmly.

Robin stared at the blurring figures. It was only every now and then—in a blink of an eye—that a single Deuce caused the leaking mist and steam from the pipes to part and twirl about fancily in the air. All fifteen of the rest were merely rushing in and out like incorporeal ghosts.

"There is more than one telepath in this facility….," Robin hoarsely said to himself. "…all of this….it's in my mind."

The Deuces spun around him.

The mist stayed solid…stayed solid…stayed solid….parted…

Robin flinched.

FWOOOSH!!! As he predicted, a single Deuce dove at him. The only real Deuce.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! The rapiers spun.

Robin knelt and deflected them.

CL-CLANK!!!

The girl flipped over his head, landed in the halo again, and blurred around him.

Robin panted. He summoned a deep breath and got into striking-stance.

He stared steadily at the mist. At the bodies ghosting through the mist. At the white halo around him for any impurities.

"Come on……."

The Deuces giggled.

The Deuces spun.

The mist stayed the on……"

Bodies blurring.

Mist settling.

Voices giggling.

Mist oozing.

Mist parting.

Robin's eyemask widened.

A trail of steam……

"HI-YAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Robin dove forward and jabbed his staff straight into a forehead set between two wide, shocked eyes.

WHAM!!!

FLASH!!!

All of the Deuces disappeared around him. All but one…the one he hit.

"Augh!!" she stumbled back, cross-eyed.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! Robin gritted his teeth, spun at her, and--

"RAAAUGH!!!" WH-WHAM!!! "WA-TAA!!!" THWACK!!! "NNNNGH!!!!" TH-TH-THWACK!!! WHAM!!!

Mist exploded into a human canal as Robin smacked, punched, kicked, and uppercutted Deuce's ragdoll body back across the golden chamber.

FWOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

She landed hard from the last impact. Her rapiers clattered beside her as she coughed and sputtered.

FW-FW-FW-FWISH!! Robin spun. His staff flew. He yelled and brought the bludgeon straight down and heavily impacted it across her chest.

WHAM!!!!!

"UGHHHH!!!" Deuce curled, exhaled, convulsed, and fell back unconscious.

"…………………….," Robin panted. He leaned back and shrunk his staff. Snkkkt!! "Pull yourself together," he muttered.

After a breath, Robin twirled and ran down the nearest hallway he could find.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"SKRIIIIIIIII!!!"

A black bird with wisping wings of magical serration flapped and clawed and slashed its way into Psimon's red body.

Psimon deflected with his blade-arms. He saw a moment to grab the astral bird by its big black beak. He did so, clenching his fangs and practically mounting the bird in his attempt to wrestle it into the astral ground. The two spiritual combatants tumbled and plummeted down mountainsides, through forests, across rivers like skipping stones, and in and out of mountains at incalculable, mortal speeds.

At some point, Psimon found himself gripping the black raven-spirit by its wing. He took the advantage by biting into it with his unnatural fangs.

"SKRIII-IIIIIII!!!" The bird-spirit shrieked in pain. It morphed back into the visage of a blue-haired girl who tried to shake Psimon's jaws off her wrist. When that didn't work, Raven's soul-self turned her free hand into a flaming black torch and shoved it into Psimon's face.

SSSSSSSsssss!!!

Psimon's face half melted.

He stumbled back, clutching his face and screaming.

The girl charged him with flickering black trail.

Psimon snarled, converted his right hand into a mace, twirled it, and struck hard into Raven's chest.

WHAM!!!

"Ooof!!!" Raven exhaled and flew off for miles.

Psimon howled, jumped after her, met her in mid-air, wrapped his flickering red legs around her torso, and proceeded to beat her torso and brain senseless with blurred hands of red steam.

WHAM!! SMACK!! THWACK!!! POW!!

Raven's face jerked and jolted and spun from each heavy impact.

WHACK!!! WHAM!!! SMACK!!!

"RRRGHH!!!" Psimon shouted as the he continued punching the girl. The two plummeted towards a huge body of water besides an even huger City. They sailed under the currents and streamed their way past fish and seaweed and submerged sand dunes. One on the surface of the underwater ground, Psimon gripped Raven by her cloak, spun, and flung her up high.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Raven flailed limply up out of the water and dryly into the air. She soared towards a huge, branching Tower and plummeted through the walls before landing on a floor inside. WHUMP!!

"Ugh…..," she moaned.

FWOOOOSH-PLANT!!!

Psimon landed immediately after her, standing above the girl's crumpled soul-self. He knelt over her on the floor and gripped her by the neck.

Raven stirred weakly in his grasp.

Psimon's flaming eyes narrowed across the disfigured face of his astral projection. "Stupid…..weak-minded female….didn't you expect me to do no less than utterly obliterate you?!? I could toss you around this pathetic dimension as much as I please before destroying you!!"

Raven's eyes opened with a flickering gray. She murmured: "I expected it……I expected everything……"

Psimon's eyes narrowed. "Huh???"

Raven limply motioned around them with her hand. "I expected you to destroy me…..so I lead you here….."

Psimon looked up.

They were projected into the Main Room of Titans' Tower.

Cyborg was busily typing away at the computer to keep a track on Robin and Raven.

Tempest and Beast Boy stood off to the side, talking about something.

Starfire was making some Tamaranian beverages to share with the group.

Psimon's lips parted. "What in the name of---?!?!"

Raven's eyes glowed with bright vigor. "I am among soulmates now."

Psimon gasped.

Raven lifted her hands up into the air. She chanted: "Give me strength!!!!!"

FLASH!!!!

Gray and black streams of energy soured out of Cyborg's body. Tempest's body. Beast Boy's body. Starfire's body. In converging streams of warm energy, they flowed into Raven's chest. The girl took a deep breath and flickering black wings like that of a bird's skeleton or a holy demon emerged from her back.

FWOOOOSH!!!

With one flap of the wings, Psimon was shoved up off of her.

"AUGH!!" his astral self tumbled across the floor of the Main Room.

FWOOOSH!! FWOOOSH! FWOOSH! Raven "flew" into the air. She glared with glowing gray eyes as her hands turned into torches of black flame.

Psimon stood up and glanced at her in hollow fear.

Raven gritted her soul teeth. "Now……where were we??"

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!

In half a mortal second, Raven had crossed the distance between them and was in the process of giving Psimon a black flaming, wing-stabbing case of supernatural bitch-slapping.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! POW!!! THWACK!!

Psimon jolted from each impact until he was struck once in the gut and--

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!"

--uppercutted heavily across the chin with a black wing.

WHAM!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," Raven stared at Psimon.

"………..," Psimon stared at Raven.

….but Psimon was sweating.

The two stood besides a near-unconscious Neutron.

Silent in the dark laboratory….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beep! Beep!

Schwissh!!

Three headmasters, two guards, and a controlwoman looked over from inside the Central Command.

The two guards raised their weapons.

Damien Darhk held up a friendly hand after entering the secured room. "At ease….," he uttered. "Sorry it took me so long to get here. There's a bloody battle taking place on every floor."

"Were you born yesterday?!?!" and elderly headmaster frowned. "This is a complete and utter calamity!! The Headmistress is missing! The Fearsome Five's numbers are spread throughout the Academy! Jinx, Noir, and Pulsade are running amok!! And on top of all that…we have two members of the Titans intruding our floors and at least two students and two dozen guards unaccounted for!!"

"Disruptor and Deuce are not unaccounted for," Damien practically yawned as he stepped up to the control panels of the hidden command vault. "They were sent to attack the intruders. If they're dead by now—along with the guards—well, that's another situation altogether." He leaned against the back of the controlwoman's chair. "What do we have here?"

"Sir, Pulsade was sighted by security cameras on the second tier," the woman pointed at various camera screens being broadcasted across the panel. "She eliminated Captain Feezon's wing of the Security Guard single-handedly. All of them are dead."

"Good God….," a headmaster in the room shuddered.

"Where's she now?" Damien asked.

"Currently battling Shimmer of the Fearsome Five in the mess hall," the woman said. She typed a string of letters and numbers on a pad and brought up another screen. "It might be interesting to know that—currently—Mammoth and Gizmo appear to be battling each other."

"Anyone know why?"

"Hard to say, sir. They confronted the two Titans—Robin and Raven—earlier. They may have caused a scuffled between the two former students."

"I see….," Damien leaned back and boredly asked: "And what of the ever-beloved Jinx?"

"Third Tier. Heading towards the Fourth and final Tier, we think."

"What's stalling them?"

"Someone's battling them. Possibly Disruptor. It's hard to say."

"Well….at least they're being kept on their toes," Damien said. A beat. He blinked and turned to face the guards and headmasters. "Well, folks….this situation leaves us with but one option."

"I agree," one headmaster nodded. "Calling in recruits from the other Academies and performing a massive counterstrike from the outside of Bludhaven and working in—"

"Nope," Damien smirked. "Evacuation."

Even the guards performed a double-take at that.

"Evacuation?!?! Are you insane, man?!?!"

"Mr. Darhk, since when were you authorized to suggest such a preposterous th—"

"Since the Headmistress' ass turned up missing in this bloody fray, that's when, dammit!!!" Darhk suddenly snapped, his frowning face and burning eyes spontaneously living up to his last name in a fashion that actually chilled the elders cowering before him. "Now you get your god-damn, leaky old butts onto those underground escape trams and regroup at the Gotham site!!! The last thing any of us friggin' needs is too many authority figures perishing from a minor insurgency!! We're going to begin the evacuation sequence!! And I swear to all that's holy, if I don't see every living, breathing soul from this facility in those trams in under half an hour, I'll blow this place to Hell and back with the self destruct sequence!!!"

"……………….," the others stared at him.

Darhk frowned. "Do I make myself clear??"

"Y-Yes, sir….," a headmaster bowed slightly. "You are the Headmistress' Number One. W-We shall trust your judgment."

Damien smiled pleasantly again. "Excellent. Now skedaddle." He looked at the guards. "Make sure they get through safely. Uhm……..try to avoid Pulsade, got it?"

Half-trembling…the guards nodded. "Aye, sir. Let's move out!!"

The two guards led the way. The headmasters followed.

The controlwoman got up from her seat.

"Not you….," Damien said, a hand on her shoulder.

"S-S-Sir?"

He pointed at the security feed monitors.

"Does that thing show Psimon's last known location?"

"A-Actually, sir," the woman swallowed. "It's showing his p-present location…."

"Oh really?" Damien raised an amused eyebrow. "Well let me see it….."

The young woman typed a string.

Three screens of the laboratory flashed into being. They showed three separate angles of Psimon and a dark girl standing in the shadows just…….staring at each other.

"What a time for a staring contest," Darhk leaned forward.

"I think they're engaged in some sort of telepathic battle, sir—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know," he pointed at the huge shadow in the corner. "Is that……N-Neutron??"

"Yes sir."

"Ha! What's he doing on his ass??"

"He appears to be suffering a seizure of sorts…..possibly related to the telepathic battle taking place. He was only animated for as long as Psimon appeared to be guiding him."

"Has the Headmistress shown up on those cameras in the laboratories at all?"

"Sir?"

"Eh….it makes no difference," Damien shrugged. "Where're the remote system controls to the laboratory?"

"I can bring them up for you, sir."

"Do it."

She started typing.

Damien folded his arms. "We're going to flood the Academy's entire coolant reserves into that one laboratory."

The woman paused in her typing. "But….but….are you cert—"

Damien smiled at her. "That's a walking nuclear bomb we have doing timeout in the corner there, ma'am!" he pointed at Neutron on the screen. "He may be an unstoppable force to everyone in the brother save for Superman himself….but that doesn't mean we can't slow him down if the opportunity presents itself!"

"What of Psimon and the girl Titan? They're enemies to the Academies! Wouldn't it be prudent to capture them and—"

"Lady….if there's one thing I've learned today," Damien leaned to the side and smiled. "….it's that the soonest you have the chance to put the most powerful telepaths in the world to sleep….you leap on it." He examined his nails and smiled some more. "If I do say….it'll make everything about this shithole week turn out just plain nice."

"………….," she blinked up at him.

Damien winked down at her. "That's your cue to start the coolant."

"Aye, sir," she submissively typed. –click- "Initiating. It will take approximately fifteen minutes for the coolant to charge up and redistribute its entire reserves into the room. Once it does so, all living things on that floor will be in immediate danger of suspended animation."

"Splendid," Damien Darhk nodded. He pulled out a gun from his pocket and cocked it. with the evacuation system in effect….leaves me with only one thing left to do."

She stared at the screens while typing. "What's that, sir?"

"Eliminate all witnesses." And he pointed the gun into the back of the control woman's head.

BANG!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WRII!! WRII!! WRII!!

"WARNING!!! ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF!!! EVACUATE TO TRAMLINES!!!"

WRII!! WRII!! WRII!!

"WARNING!!! ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF!!! EVACUATE TO TRAMLINES!!!"

Dashing backwards across the floor, Pulsade sweated. "Will you shut the BLOOMIN' HELL UP?!?!"

WRII!! WRII!! WRI!!

"YAAAUGH!!" Shimmer growled and spun towards Pulsade, swinging two sharp blades of silver that she had forged from eating trays.

The two girls charged at each other, dodged, and parried across the mess hall. The lights strobed red in tune to the alarm all around them. As if the place wasn't loud and chaotic enough, an extra ounce of adrenaline was pumped into their struggle.

"RAAUGH!!" Shimmer stabbed forward with her blades.

Pulsade sidestepped.

FWOOOSH!! Shimmer blurred beside her.

Pulsade reverse-kicked, her heel making contact with Shimmer's gut.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!" Shimmer bent forward.

Pulsade—teeth gritting—spun around and grabbed the redhead's shoulders. She growled and tossed the girl hard over an eating table.

THWUMP!!!

"Ooof!!" Shimmer tumbled onto the tile floor.

"NNGHH!!" Pulsade performed a flying jump-kick, sailing down at Shimmer heel first.

Shimmer clamped her hands down onto two pieces of tile, converted them into wet towels, and clamped them over the incoming heel of Pulsade. THWAP!!!

"?!?!?!" Pulsade found herself balancing on Shimmer's wet grip.

Shimmer morphed the two tile-towels into an iron ball, effectively closing around Pulsade's foot.

"Bugger!!" TWHOMP!! Pulsade fell over.

"HAAA ha ha ha ha ha HA!!!" Shimmer stood up and shook all over with laughter. "Try breaking a heel in that, you dumb blonde!!! Ha ha ha—"

WHANG!!! Pulsade's iron 'foot' kicked Shimmer across the cheek.

Shimmer stumbled back against a table, reeling.

Pulsade hobbled up and jumped one-legged towards the redhead. "You're really going to fancy it when I shove this thing up your arse!!!!"

Shimmer scowled. "I'm not your girlfriend…." She ripped a stool seat off of its foundation-CRACK-and tossed it at the blonde like a fireball. FWOOOOOM!!!

Pulsade rolled to the side and hobbled again.

Shimmer gritted her teeth, picked up a shattered plank of wood from the tables, and turned it into a blade. She charged with it swinging. "RGHHH!!!"

Pulsade pivoted her upper body and swung her iron-foot up.

CRACK!!!

The blade met the iron ball.

The metal cracked and crumbled away.

Pulsade, with her foot free, used her lower limb to kick off of Shimmer's shoulder, backflip, and land atop a table upon which she reached into her pocket, pulled out a grenade, and tossed it—live—at Shimmer.

Clank!!

FWOOOSH!!!

Shimmer smirked. She angled her blade and glowed a red-orange.

Snkkkt!!! The grenade—now a red apple—stuck on the tip of Shimmer's sword. She lifted the skewered red fruit to her lips and took a bite.

"Mmmmm…..sweet. Looks like you have as much sugar as the spice left, girl!"

Pulsade sweatdropped. "Bloody witch…."

"Ya knowl…," Shimmer tossed the apple away and swallowed. "For an assassin, you sure do an awful lot of talkin'."

"As long as you do an awful lot of dying," Pulsade muttered.

CHIIING!!! Shimmer split the blades in two and positioned herself to strike. "Let's dance." She charged Pulsade. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Pulsade vanished in a flash of light.

"DAMMIT!!" Shimmer ran into the table, tumbled over it, rolled across the tile, and ended up against the yellow-plated wall of the mess hall. CLUMP!!!

FLASH!!

Pulsade appeared a few feet away. "Mind if I lead?"

"AAAAUGH!!" Shimmer shrieked in frustration and tossed the two blades at Pulsade.

The blonde dodged one, vanished, and appeared far away from the second blade.

Shimmer stood up. She found a coil of fire hose on the wall beside her. She smiled.

Pulsade charged with a breath.

Shimmer pulled at the fire hose, formed a lasso, and tossed it at Pulsade. "HA!!"

Pulsade gritted her teeth as the hose rapped around her. "Nnngh…," she growled and prepared to slide out—

FLASH!!!!!

The hose hardened into a branch of pure stone.

"Augh!!" Pulsade found herself in inescapable bondage. She struggled and shook and squirmed in vain to get out of the rock-hard harness.

CHIIING!! Shimmer picked up a fire axe from the same wall. She turned the tip of the axe's blade into flickering flames as she smiled. "Stiff upper lip now…..," she droned. She charged. She swung the axe overhead.

"……..," Pulsade glanced down. One of Shimmer's discarded blades rested on the floor by her feet. Expertly, Pulsade kicked it up.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! The blade spun in the air.

Shimmer came in. Her axe came down.

GRIP!!! Pulsade grabbed the blade, gripped it in two hands, and held it lengthwise above her forehead.

CLANK!!!!!!

Pulsade held the axe away from her head by her blade's pressure against the top of the tool's stem. The unnatural flames of the axe's tip ate down at her blonde head.

Pulsade struggled and sweated.

Shimmer chuckled evilly. "I got you a memo from Hell. They wanted me to tell you they're no tea breaks in the Underworld."

Pulsade murmured. "And to think I was holding off by making a 'septic' joke…….NNNGH!!!"

She shoved against Shimmer's axe.

FWOOSH!!

Shimmer stumbled back.

Pulsade jammed the blade into the rock 'string' of the bonds holding her.

CRACK!!!!

The stone crumbled.

Shimmer swung the axe.

FWOOOSH!!

Pulsade dropped beneath the swing.

Shimmer teetered off balance from the miss.

Pulsade rolled on the ground, squirmed out of the leftover ring of rock, jumped up, and grabbed Shimmer from behind.

"Nnngh!!" the girl struggled.

Pulsade slammed her knee into Shimmer's back.

CLANK!!! She dropped the axe.

Shimmer brought her hands back, gripped Pulsade's shoulders, and flung her over head. WHAM!! "HA!!!"

But Pulsade expected that. Her feet made contact with a string of stools beneath an eating table. She kicked off against them, shoving her weight backwards into Shimmer.

WHUMP!!!

Shimmer tumbled across the floor.

Pulsade nimbly rolled up into a kneeling position, grabbed the axe, and dove at Shimmer.

Shimmer snapped out of it and looked up. Her eyes widened.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! Pulsade spun the axe and brought it down the middle of Shimmer's head. FWOOOOOSH!!!

Shimmer winced.

……

……

Shimmer was still wincing.

And she realized it.

She looked up and gasped to see the tip of the axe's blade stopped no more than a centimeter from her nose.

Pulsade held it in place, glaring down at her.

"You….you….d-didn't….kill me??" Shimmer murmured.

Pulsade stared. She smirked. "I don't fancy an opponent who is merely a brainwashed facsimile of who she once was. Believe it or not, I think people should be born before they actually die." She pulled the axe back, aimed her palm out, and let loose a fluctuating stream of light pulses.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!

Shimmer's eyes dilated…rolled in the back of her head….and the redhead was out cold.

CLANK!!!

Pulsade stood up straight, dropping the axe to the floor.

"There…..sleep well, lass," she ran a hand through her hair. "And when you wake up….Psimon's hand will be gone. The optic stimulation should relieve you of his mental barriers."

She turned and limped towards an exit of the mess hall.

"God, how I hate being a softie. Damn you, Jinx…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heh!! Some freaks you are. WIMPS!!"

WHAM!!!

Disruptor's fist slammed into my gut….again.

I wheezed. I ached all over. There were bruises on my body where the black tank top didn't cover my skin.

All the while—as I would later realize—I was purposefully engaging the all-empowering Disruptor with all I had to offer…which wasn't much. He was beating me senseless on my end of the handcuffs, and yet I kept advancing on him—dizzily even. And perhaps it was because I didn't want anything to happen to the other end of the handcuffs.

"RAAUGH!!" he kicked me in the side.

I tumbled, yanking a grunting Jinx with me. I panted and spit up blood, resting achingly against a golden wall of a hallway strewn with water, pipes, and light fixture fragments.

"I thought that it might be fun to make sport of your skulls….but now I'm having second thoughts," Disruptor grinned. Then the grin fell. "I don't like having second thoughts."

SWOOOSH!! WHAM!!!

His foot made its way into my side.

I coughed and wheezed.

GRIP!!!

He held me up with a glowing arm. Jinx dangled besides me.

"I suppose the rest of H.I.V.E. and Bludhaven and the Fearsome Five softened you up before I could get my hands on you…," Disruptor sneered. "And it's quite a shame. I read up on Wyldecarde since the Headmistress' lecture. I really….really wanted to meet him."

"……..," I stared sickly at him. My shades had a hard time resting on my face.

Disruptor took a breath. He reached his free hand down and gripped Jinx's neck.

"Nnngh!!" she struggled.

With the help of his suit, Disruptor had us both up in a double-choke hold. Our handcuffs dangled between us.

"Well now…..I wonder….," Disruptor's right hand—around Jinx's throat—sapped some of the pink hex from her and throbbed a powerful aura around his figure. "…what should I make out of you two? Carpet or wall paper? Ah Hell…maybe a little bit of both! I've so wanted to change these boring school hallways anyways!"

Jinx wheezed: "You're a real…ch-charmer…."

Disruptor's eyes narrowed. "And you're really screwed…."

His wrist beneath Jinx's throat fluctuated.

I envisioned a pink blade skewering her neck. So from where I dangled…I did the first thing that hit my mind.

WHUMP!!!!!!

"!!!!!" Disruptor's eyes bugged. "Nnnghh!!! Allah almighty!!!"

His legs crossed and he all but fell after my foot made its way to his groin.

I bit my lip.

Sweating, Disruptor glared at me. "You piece of crap…..y-you think something so underhandingly simple as that is gonna stop m---"

THWACK!!!! Jinx's foot slammed into Disruptor's groin too….only four times as hard.

"SNKKKTTT!!" Disruptor went cross-eyed and fell down. THWUMP!!

We were dropped. PL-PLOP!!!

Jinx and I stumbled back and leaned against a wall. Panting.

Disruptor lay curled up on the floor, groaning.

I felt the murk returning to my body. Next to me, Jinx regained her pink glow.

"Whew….," she exhaled.

I looked at Disruptor's hidden groin. I looked at Jinx's foot. I looked at her.

She simpered: "A-Always counts when a girl does it," she said.

I mouthed: 'oh'.

"Come on!! Your bruises aren't THAT bad!!" she ran down the stairwell, yanking me along with her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran down the hallway. The alarms had stopped for the evacuation, and the hallways were growing empty…save for a random unconscious or dead body of a guard along the way. Robin couldn't tell which bodies were 'corpses' or not.

The Boy Wonder ran past a huge, gaping hole in a wall leading into the laboratories. He headed towards a stairwell. He paused.

"……Raven…."

He turned around.

He ran back to the hole.

He peered in and gasped. "R-Raven!!"

"……," the girl stood.

"…….," Psimon stood.

The two were staring at each other. Still. Comatose almost.

Robin panted. He rushed forward to Raven and nearly gripped her shoulders—but stopped. It clicked in his head. He knew what they were doing. And he remembered the tons of times Raven specifically told him how disastrous it was to disturb anyone engaged in a battle of astral projection…..for all parties involved.

Robin may not mind losing the diabolical Psimon, but there was no way he'd let Raven get extinguished. For his sake as much as the other Titans'.

Robin glanced past Psimon.

He saw Neutron's still body.

"The Hell??" he uttered. A beat. He craned his neck.

There was a whining….whirring sound. It came from the walls of the laboratory itself. Robin felt cool air rushing in at an increasing rate from vents located all around the interior.

"……they wouldn't……," he uttered.

The cold increased. The walls began to shake.

Robin gritted his teeth. "They would……"

Breath started to come out of the occupants' mouths in vapor.

Robin spun to the dark girl. He stood as close as he could to her without touching her meditative body. "Raven!! Raven, this is Robin!! You must end the battle, Raven!! Come out of there!!!"

"………," Raven stared.

"You hear me?!?! Come out, Raven!!! This room is about to become inhospitably cold!! Your body won't survive, Raven!! And your body is just as important as your soul-self right now!!! Come back, Raven!! You must!!!"

"………."

"Come back!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come back, Raven!! You must!!!"

SMACK!!!!

Raven's black wing slammed across Psimon's face.

"AAUGH!!" Psimon's red body flew through the counter of the kitchen unit and tumbled to a stop behind Starfire.

Raven panted.

"Come back!!!"

Raven panted. Her soul-eyes twitched.

A fluctuating of her wings.

"R-Robin….," she blinked. "…..Th-The Academy!!"

"RAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!!!" Psimon flew out of the woodwork.

Raven braced herse--

WHAM!!!!!

Psimon shoved his entire body into the dark girl. The two souls went tumbling in red and black vapors across the Main Room. They flew through Tempest and Beast Boy and wrestled on the floor besides the Titan's Computer.

SLAM!!!! Psimon pressed himself on top of Raven and gripped her shoulders with razor sharp claws.

SLIIIIINK!!!

"UGGHHH!!!" Raven shrieked.

Psimon breathed out blood vapors as he lowered his inhuman astral face to hers. "You are still nothing to me. I can't believe I've wasted my soul's time on you!!! I should have just lobotomized you on the spot!!!"

Raven squirmed. She tilted her head back in an expression of pain. Her soul-eyes fluctuated and flickered black.

She saw Cyborg's body looming above her. Typing at the Main Computer. Concentrated. 'There'……

Raven clenched her teeth. She reached a black-flickering arm up above her. It merely sank through Cyborg's titanium skin. He typed forth, oblivious.

SLIIIIINK!!!

Psimon sank his soul-claws deeper.

Raven writhed.

"Your friends are useless to you!!" he hissed at her. "Do you know what you are?? You are only half a demon!! Twice as useless!!"

Raven's twitching eyes fell off of Cyborg and rested on Psimon's visage.

"I……I….I-I know…e-exactly…what I am….."

Psimon's fiery eyes narrowed.

Raven swallowed. "I'm a cutie…."

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Raven's black, skeleton wings sunk into her back. Her torch-like hands extinguished into spiraling puffs. Her black body relaxed into a petite teenager in a dark leotard and a blue cloak. Her soul self had turned into a perfect, relaxed, meditative facsimile of her physical self.

And the end-result of such a transformation—where Psimon was concerned—was a black hole phenomenon.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

"AAAAUGH!!!" Psimon 'plunged' deep and long into the black womb of Raven. The astral plane shattered behind him and he was rocketing further and further through black clouds at a million miles per second towards an infinitesimal nub of sentience that was the leftover fragments of Azarath encased in Raven's soul-self. Soon he was soaring through cosmos and pinprick stars and galaxy clusters. Then a huge halo of limbo where gray rocks and planes of stone were hung in perfect black. Psimon was soaring over craggy landscapes and dead trees till he found himself zooming into a trench that got darker and darker and ended in a frozen pit where an iron wrought cage rested with rattling chains. SWIIIISH!!! Psimon plunged into the cage, the darkest spot in the world, and it was there that he saw lights. Red lights. Four of them.

Eyes……

Eyes and teeth in the dark.

Swallowing Psimon's face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!"

Psimon suddenly came alive. His bulbous eyes exploded and he clutched his cranium as his brain tissue throbbed and visible cracks formed spider webs in his glass dome of a skull. Snnkkkktt!!

Robin jumped, startled.

Psimon stumbled backwards. Took a deep breath. And let it out again.

"AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" He fell on his knees then toppled back in a convulsing, twitching fetal position.

Robin panted.

He faced the comatose Raven. Frost was forming on his bangs. "Now, Raven!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He's down!! Psimon is down!! Come out now!!"

Raven lay panting on the floor of the Tower's Main Room. Panting.

She took a deep breath, flexed her soul-fingers meditatively, and chanted.

A beat.

She flicked her wrists to her side and strained her 'forehead'.

FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!!!

She rocketed out of the Tower in a 'lying down' position. She flew through the walls, over the Bay, over forests, the Metropolitan Highway, more forests, river rapids, Blue Pine, hills and peaks, the City of Bludhaven. Through the earth, through the asphalt, through golden hexagons, through the tiers of the Academy, into the darkness—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--and into the arms of Robin.

THWUMP!!! She hung limp in his grip with a groan.

Robin gritted his teeth, repositioned Raven in his arms, and rushed out the freezing laboratory with her.

The walls shook.

The vents exhaled.

Psimon gasped, his lips turning blue and black.

Bulbous eyes slowing down.

"N-No….."

Frost formed on his cheeks.

"N-Not stasis….," he whimpered. "Death….P-Please….Death….."

And he was under a blanket of exploding frost.

PHWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!! Everything in the laboratory instantly froze as the coolant reserves exploded inside.

Outside in the hallway, Robin was running desperately down the hallway with a literal wave of cold at his heels. He panted as he trucked Raven up a stairwell and onto the next stairwell. At one point, he was yanked back.

"Nnngh!!" He looked back.

His cape was frozen stuck to the frosting wall.

"Nnnnghhh!!!" Robin struggled. He held Raven up with one hand and growled as he swung his other down at his own cape. "HiYAAA!!"

SHATTER!!!

The frozen cape broke into a hundred shards.

Robin freed himself and dragged Raven safely up the rest of the stairs and out of the range of the rapid freezing coolant.

Once in a warm enough place, he laid Raven down and folded the corners of her blue cloak protectively around her to provide insulation. He then yanked his green gloves off and rubbed his palm up and down her thighs and shoulders and limbs to provide friction and ensure she was warm.

"Raven….speak to me…..you made it back, right? Raven?? Can you hear me??"

"Nnngh….," she stirred. Her brow scrunched up. "Advil…."

Robin blinked beneath his eyemask. "Huh?"

"C-Could use some Advil….," she murmured.

Robin bit his lip. "Uhm….I don't carry that in my utility belt."

"I know, Robin….and I know better than to ask," she groaned and tried sitting up.

Robin knelt down and held her secure. "Easy there…….That was very brave of you. Psimon was the most dangerous of our potential enemies here. Only you could have taken him down….though I wish you didn't do it so dangerously."

"I know, Robin," Raven nodded. "Remind me to thank Cyborg later…."

Robin leaned his head to the side. "Cyborg?? F-For what??"

She sighed. "N-Never mind." She kept her weary eyes shut and pointed down with her finger. "They're down there."

"Who are?" Robin asked. A beat. His lips parted. "Jinx….Noir…."

She nodded.

"How're you able to detect their spirits so easily now??"

She smirked ever so slightly. "I-I just came back from some exercise…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I walked down a lone hallway. The guards were gone. Those who were still alive fled to evacuation points along with the students and headmasters. We weren't entirely sure if we would still find the one we were looking for….or who Jinx was looking for.

The lights flickered once.

And…..

It snowed.

"……..," I stopped and glanced up.

"……..," Jinx looked up.

Down through the cracks and ventilation ducts of the Fourth Tier floorway, flakes of frost descended. A coolness filled the air as the white specks drifted down all around us. It was eerily magical.

A beat.

Jinx and I looked at each other.

"……."

We proceeded ahead….towards the one conspicuous set of doors standing in our path. A large room separated by a huge, hexagonal frame. The last place the Headmistress could be.

CHIIIIING!!! I pulled Myrkblade out.

FLASH!!! Jinx prepared a hex of pink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the stone-carved cavern…a single gray soul sat slumped in the desk chair facing away from the door. Breaths of vapor betrayed the Headmistress' location. The room was dark.

Then….

FL-FLASH!!!

CLANG!!!!

The huge hexagonal door fell down flat.

Jinx leapt in.

I was yanked along with her, holding Myrkblade at ready.

"………." I could see perfectly in the dark room. And I could see that Jinx and I were perfectly not at risk.

What's going on here??

Jinx stepped forward, leading the way.

"We found you….," she said firmly towards the back of the chair. "…..there's no where to run. You're coming with Pulsade and I. We're going to have some chats. Some educating conversations. Then everything will be cool."

"…………"

"HELLO?!?!?!"

"……..w-will everything….b-be cool, Jean??"

Jinx stopped. She looked confused. "Huh??"

The chair slowly turned around.

The Headmistress looked at us with sad eyes. She had a gun to her head. Vapors came in and out of her nostrils slowly.

I gritted my teeth. Every muscle in my body tensed….just in case.

Jinx held a pink hex up high, eyeing the gun from afar.

Silence.

The Headmistress rested the barrel of the gun to her temple as she murmured: "I was wrong….I was wrong, Jean…."

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "Wrong about what?"

"Red Aviary….," she murmured. "I-I thought I knew what it was. Psimon thought I knew what it was. But I didn't know anything. Not until now. Not until this moment."

"………."

She inhaled. "Red Aviary is when everything you hope or dream for comes collapsing down. Yes, it means 'Destruction'. But Destruction is relative to each and every one of us. Red Aviary won't just strike down this part of the globe. It won't just strike down the Titans. It will kill each and every one of us at some point in time or another. Being alive…this is inevitable for all of us. But events….strange events that are at play….they are rushing Red Aviary into fruition. Destruction is paying us a visit years earlier than expected. And today….today my beautiful, beautiful school….," she gestured with a limp, free hand. "It is falling apart. Years of betrayal and insidious plots have ripped it asunder from the inside out. Everything I have ever worked for….all of my hard work…it is all for nothing. It is all collapsing. It is all meeting its destructive ends."

A beat.

She exhaled. "Some of us can't wield Fate, Jinx." A pause. "Many of us are merely subject to its whim. W-We do not have your sort of luxury."

Jinx's eyes narrowed.

FLASH!!!!!!

SWIIIIIIISH!!! A pink hex flew.

CLANK!! It struck the gun out of the Headmistress' hand.

BANG!!!!!

The bullet streamed over her head, lopping off a few gray hairs off her scalp.

I winced.

FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!! The pistol spun the air—CLANK!!—landed on the floor, and slid across the metal to a stand-still.

The Headmistress slumped further back in her chair, shaking.

Jinx panted. Her glowing hand outstretched.

"…….," I was still.

The frost caught up with the vents. It snowed lightly in the huge chamber of the Headmistress. Tiny flakes of white drifted down.

Jinx swallowed and kept frowning at the Headmistress. "I hate you……you and people like you. I hate people….people wh-who….who complain about FATE!!!!" Jinx's teeth clenched and her voice squealed echoingly across the chamber. A beat. She shrieked on: "Fate this!! Fate that!! 'Jinx can wield the hands of fate'!! 'Jinx knows all about fate'!!! 'Oh I wish I had that model student's touch of witchery and magic'!!!" Jinx's right fist clenched next to mine. "Don't you realize that I'm subject to fate too?!?! But for me, it's not at the end of the road!! It's at the damn beginning!!!!"

The Headmistress' eyes fell to her desk. She took a deep breath.

Jinx shook all over. "You….Psimon…Dagger…you robbed me of whatever life I could have had much less had victimized to Destruction like any other normal human being!! You reprogrammed me from the get go to be something evil and wicked and vicious and full of hate so that at this point in my pathetic life I don't know what else to be!!!!" She pulled at her nonexistent, pink har….nearly hyperventilating. "Do you have any idea….any CLUE….how much I've wanted to be a good person?!?!?!"

I looked at Jinx silently.

The Headmistress avoided her cat-eyed gaze however….

Jinx panted. Heaved. And shouted: "Sometimes I wish I was dead!!!" She took a deep breath. She shouted again: "Sometimes I wish….I wish I could find out about Red Aviary not to prevent it…but to dive right into it!!!!!" She ran a hand over her face, shuddered, and groaned: "I'm not doing this for the Titans. I'm not doing this for Slade. I'm not doing this for you, or Psimon, or even Leslie!!!" She clenched her teeth and shook her fists. "I'm doing this for myself!!!! Because I want an end to myself!!! Because the only 'me' I'll ever have a chance of knowing from hereon out is some damn 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive' poster in some crummy alleyway of an abandoned street!!!"

Silence.

Frost collected slowly on the cold floor.

When I exhaled, I saw my breath. And I almost didn't realize that my metal arm was giving me the shivers.

Red Aviary……

Jinx panted. "I always thought….that it was just poetic….to say….t-to say that some of us are b-born evil. But I know it's true. I was born evil, Headmistress. I was born evil because of you…."

A beat.

The Headmistress tilted her head up. Quite calmly she uttered: "I suppose that now….now there are no more reasons for me to fear telling you the truth, Jinx…."

Jinx raised an eyebrow.

I gazed across the way through my shades.

The Headmistress took a breath and said: "You were not born evil, Jinx. You chose what you became ahead of time."

"…….."

"You were one of the Founders, Jinx."

Jinx's lips parted.

"You were one of the Founders….."

I glanced at the pink-haired witch.

The girl quivered. She muttered: "I…..I-I was one of the Founds….o-of H.I.V.E.???"

The Headmistress slowly nodded.

"But….B-But that's impossible!!" Jinx frowned. "The Founders created H.I.V.E. over sixty years ago!! I'm not in my seventies, you dumbass!!"

"I know you don't look it, Jinx. I'm not denying that."

"…….."

The Headmistress gestured towards the venting flakes of frost from above. "Do you know where this snow is coming from, Jinx?"

"……," the girl stared upwards.

"Someone has vented the coolant reserves of this Academy. Every Academy has such reserves on hand. It's enough to freeze half of this Hemisphere's crops over a summertime."

Jinx blinked. "But….why?"

The Headmistress finally leaned forward from across the way. "Frozen stasis. Suspended animation."

"…….."

"You are a relic, Jinx……a piece of our Founders….preserved through time."

My brow furrowed.

"I….I….," Jinx murmured.

The Headmistress gestured: "Sixty-Two years ago…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…your real name was the same then as it was now. Jean Jenkins. You were only twelve years old at the time. But you were a warrior……"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!

A petite girl with cascading, pink hair burst into the room in a black jumpsuit. Besides her were two older women also in black. They were armed with daggers.

An apartment room full of mafia thugs jumped up from chairs, tables, and other gathering spots. They rushed to their weapons…

The pink-haired girl shrieked and launched a wave of pink light.

FLASH!!!

The hex bolt slammed into the floor, opening a gash in the structure that sent two mobsters plunging bloodily three stories below. CRUNCH!!!

The two women flung their daggers, ripping into the hands of men trying to grab their pistols.

SWIIISH-THUNK!!! THUNK!!!

"AUGH!!!"

"AHHH!!!"

Two mobsters rushed in with Tommy Guns.

The girl ran forward, performed somersaults, flipped over a table and flew at the men with arms outstretched.

FLAAAAASH!!!

Pinx hex ripped through their torsos, coming out the other side in a splash of red.

They screamed and fell down, their fingers closing onto the triggers of their Tommy Guns in a death grip. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!! The bullets streamed across the room and ripped through the bodies of three other mobsters, falling them.

SWIIIISH!!! THUNK!!! Daggers from the black-clad women flew into the necks of a few retreating cowards.

The girl with pink hair perched herself on a back of a chair, panting in bloodlust. She glanced down a hallway.

A man with a shotgun and two with pistols thundered down towards her. BLAM!!! BANG!! BANG!!

The girl kicked off the chair, swung on a chandelier, and flipped her body towards the ground. She scampered towards the men on all fours.

The first man reloaded his shotgun, and took aim. BLAM!!!

In a pink stream, the girl jumped off the wall, bounced off the ceiling, and slammed into his chest….grounding him. THWUMP!!!

The two men in the back aimed their pistols at the girl's face at point blanc.

She shrieked and unleashed two huge slices of pink up into the men's groins.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Blood flew. The men fell down, howling in pain.

The girl brushed the blood off her brow and ran down the hallway.

The man with the shotgun sat up and aimed at her---SWIIISH-THUNK!!! A dagger embedded into the back of his neck. He fell back down, convulsing on the floor.

The girl bounded down the hallway. She approached a huge, wooden door at the end. She kicked it open with a pink charged foot.

CRACK!!!!

The frame fell loose.

The girl ducked into the bedroom.

A woman in the bed shrieked and covered herself up.

A shirtless man with slick black hair jumped out of the bed and towards a revolver on the windowsill.

The girl's cat eyes glowed a hot pink. She produced a huge charge in her hands and unleashed the bolt. "HAAAA!!!"

TWHOOOOOOSH!!! It flew into the man's chest and exploded, revealing cracked ribs and leaking lung matter. He dropped his gun. His eyes rolled back. He fell back and through the window. SMASH!!!!

Glass flew.

The woman in bed screamed.

The girl with pink hair marched slowly towards the shattered window. She peered down and saw the man's crumpled, bloody body lying limp on the sidewalk of the Bludhaven streets below. Hair blew at her cascading threads…

"You were more menacing than people twice your age. You demanded respect. And in the City of Bludhaven, you took your claim. You slaughtered the leaders of organized crime in the sister city to Gotham one at a time. McGinnis. Tinteretti. Nicolai. Even the forefathers of Rupert Thorne himself. And after the death of the last drug and embezzlement cartel in Bludhaven, the Underworld only had you and the Founders to answer two. You took advantage of that power, Jean. And with that power, you created the Hierarchy for International Vengeance and Extermination. A criminal organization……formed from the very scum of society……and yet built upon a sense of organization, commitment, and structural unity."

The woman in bed kept screaming.

The girl turned and looked at her. Pink cat eyes glaring. With a flick of her wrist, a pink hex flew and the woman stopped screaming. The sheets were bathed in red.

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flakes of frost fell around the Headmistress' face. Her eyes were strangely darker than normal as she continued speaking.

"But you did not have a promise to see much further into the growth of H.I.V.E. Your powers were remarkable…goddesslike….but at the same time, gravely misunderstood. The Founders grew to realize that their youngest and most talented member was experiencing terrible side effects to her fateful mutation. Dizzy spells. Vomiting. A failing cardiovascular system. Tendency to hallucinate. Your body was falling apart, Jean. It was if the universe knew it had goofed in making someone so in tune to the wills of Fate…that it tried to silence her. But the Founders would not have anything of it…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"They teamed up with the Obsidian League……an ancient incarnation of Intergang. The Obsidian League used the funds donated them by H.I.V.E.'s early exploits in Bludhaven to create a chryo-chamber that could encase the most valuable Founder in a sleeping, frozen stasis……"

In the dark laboratories of an underground Academy, the Founders gathered around a black metal tube connected to giant tanks of hissing, steaming chemicals. Two women in black with daggers hanging around their waist held the hands of the petite girl inside the sleeping chamber. The pink-eyed girl stared up at them…weakly. She smiled before resisting a moistness erupting in her eyes. Soon she was lying back in the chamber as a pale scientist laboriously closed it with an ear-numbing hiss.

"But before you were put away, Jean……you discussed with your partners the risky nature of your endeavors. The frozen sleep was meant to give your system a rest…a chance to……reboot or reset itself, if you may. Your powers were rocketing your psyche a hundred years into the future, but your body had to catch up. Scientists of the Obsidian League estimated that decades would be needed to fix yourself properly. But at the same time—such an elongated process would not be without its own side effects. You would lose your memory. You would lose your body's chance to develop one hundred percent properly. But……you would still retain your powers. Your talent. Your finesse for fate. And to undergo such an arduous, amnesiac process—you and the Founders decided at the time—was the lesser of two evils."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yes, Jean," the Headmistress nodded gently. "You were destroyed from the beginning. Fate had played its game with you at the beginning of the road. But it was you who decided which road that would be. And long ago—you yourself decided—that if indeed you woke up without your memory, then it would be in the hands of the chief headmasters and headmistresses of H.I.V.E. to decide what method would be used to utilize your talent upon the moment it was safe for you to awaken. Over sixty years passed. There were many executive leaders of H.I.V.E….all of them trying to follow in the footsteps of the Founders. But it was I who had the pleasure and honor of seeing to your resurrection, Jean. When Dagger's technicians determined your body was restored, I had you unfrozen. And I had Psimon provide the mental incentive that you would have approved of so long ago. You became Jinx. A pink shadow of her former self…but no less powerful and no less gifted."

The Headmistress' eyes fell some.

She continued: "But if I had any clue that Psimon would have ultimately used you as a tool to strip this very Academy down….or that Dagger and Slade also had plans for taking advantage of you. If I knew all of that, Jean, I would have gladly given you up to the next generation of executives to truly take responsibility for you. It is an atrocity what has been done to you….the greatest Founder. And that is why I know….Red Aviary has come to claim us all. For I see you collapsing, Jean."

The snow flakes fell.

The air was stingingly cold.

My arm shivered.

Red Aviary……

"I see you collapsing….and that is part of what confirms the Red Hell about to consume everything around us," the Headmistress murmured. "I would hate to see the Earth bleed now…..after this….after all this….."

Silence.

"………………………," Jinx lowered her eyes. Jinx sighed.

The Headmistress leaned her head to the side. "You……don't remember, do you?"

"…………………………"

"Or maybe it's that……you simply do not choose to believe me, Jean……"

"…………………………," Jinx's hand moved over her chest.

I craned my neck.

She pulled the pendant with the 'sisters' faces on it and clutched the heirloom gently.

A beat.

"I…….," Jinx murmured so quietly that I wondered if the Headmistress could even hear her.

But I could.

"I…..I don't know what to believe in anymore…..," Jinx uttered. Her eyes were still stuck as she gently shook her face. "I know that….th-that there are people….who I-I think I l-l-love……and then…th-there are people that….I think I hate……"

A beat.

"But I know one thing for sure. One thing for absolute clarity." She opened her eyes and they were wet. She frowned at the Headmistress. "I kn-know that I will not kill you….."

"…………..," the Headmistress stared back.

"I know….that I will n-not end your life…..," Jinx's teeth clenched and the next words were hissed out. "Like I should. Like I want to."

A beat.

A tear streamed down Jinx's right cheek. "In all my so-called life….all that I can remember….now is the only time that I've stopped wanting to kill people. Or hurt people. Or manifest my anger and frustration for things real or unreal. I ch-choose not to kill anymore….and I-I choose life…..b-b-because that is the ONLY way I can ever cheat Fate now. I can only cheat Fate by doing the most futile thing. Trying to preserve myself and preserve others. I-I choose not to kill you, Headmistress. Regardless of whether or not that's what the real 'me' would do. I'm going to track down Red Aviary….and I'm doing to do the impossible. And if Fate chooses me to die for trying…then so be it. Because that is who I am. I have the capacity….the maturity….and the gall to change." She pointed and heaved. "And you….you self-righteous bitch!! You are coming with us!! So leave your crappy tears and sighs behind with your stupid Academy!!!"

"…………..," the Headmistress' slowly nodded.

Jinx took a deep breath. She tugged at me and my handcuffs. "C'Mon, Ghost Boy….round 'er up."

I shakingly nodded and walked forward with Jinx to the desk. The Headmistress didn't protest as Jinx and I lifted her from the chair, forced her arms together, and tied her wrists with a string from Jinx's jacket pocket. As we lead her out the huge office chamber, I couldn't help but look quietly at Jinx. And as soon as I did, she muttered:

"You know why I brought you along now, don't you Ghost Boy?"

"……"

"In spite of anything I could have said earlier?"

"….."

Jinx sighed and stared at her feet as we walked the Headmistress along.

"I…..I didn't know if I was strong enough to change after all, Ghost Boy. So I needed you. I needed you along for the ride so that you could…..c-could keep me from de-evolving."

I leaned my head to the side.

She looked at me with a sick smile. "You could keep me from killing."

I slowly nodded.

I understand completely……

The double jinx.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAUGH!!! Get back here you little computer stain!!!"

FWOOOOOOSH!!! Gizmo rocketed down the yellow hallway. "Yeah….sure….NOT!! Screw this!! I'm out of here, ya stupid throw rug!! I don't care if Psimon lobotomizes me for going AWOL! As long as it means me getting away from your PMSing ASS!!!"

The boy genius kicked his thrusters into a higher intensity and sped towards the exit.

Mammoth growled and chased him on two meaty legs. "Did I say you could run off?!?!" He ran past a door to the mess hall. "How dare you not give a flip about Selinda!!!" A beat. Mammoth turned and stomped back to the door. "Selinda!!!!"

Shimmer lay still on the floor.

Mammoth rushed in and cradled her. "Sis!! Yoohoo!! What happened to you??"

"Nnnngh….," the redheaded girl stirred in his huge grasp. She fluttered her eyes open and gazed at him wearily. "B-Baran??"

Mammoth blinked…then smiled. "Jeez….Sis. You've not called me by my real name in ages."

"I…..I…….wh-what am I doing here??" Selinda murmured. She glanced across the wrecked mess hall. "I…….Psimon……..th-the prison…."

"Uhm….don't you remember?" Mammoth uttered.

"………."

Mammoth sweatdropped. "Uhh….Say! I know!"

"Know what?"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Where's here??"

"Come on!!" he carried his weary sister and ran happily out into the hallway. "I'll get us out of the Academy!!"

"Who's us???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere deep in the recesses of the Academy's fourth Tier, one last tramline had an escape car waiting in the long tunnel.

Whistling, Damien Darhk waltzed into the tramline with a briefcase. He opened the aluminum door, sat inside the capsule on wheels, and shut it behind himself. He pushed a lever, and the car started to roll along the tramline. He leaned back and casually examined the splash of blood on his shirt.

"Heh…," he breathed.

The car rolled along.

He leaned back with his arms behind his head.

"Gotta remember to hold the gun out a little further away next time….."

The grinning man was soon gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin…," Raven grunted as she leaned against the Boy Wonder's shoulder. "I think I can move on my own now…."

"Just a little further," Robin said as he hobbled the two down the golden hallway. "I'll find a nice place for you to relax—safe from straggling guards and students—while I go to track down Jinx and Noir on my own—"

"Robin, they're heading back towards the surface."

"……," he glanced at her. "They are?"

She nodded. "Yes," she droned. "And they have the Headmistress with them."

Robin blinked behind his mask. "You….sense all that?"

"Right now I do," Raven said. "We should go up to the surface to intercept them if we don't want to lose Noir once and for all."

Robin exhaled. "Man….too bad you aren't this sensitive all the time. It could help Cyborg and I find the remote back at the Tower."

"A remote doesn't have a soul, Robin—"

"I was joking, Raven."

"Blah."

"Come on….," Robin positioned their path and lead them up a nearby stairwell. "Let's go…."

The two wandered off.

A beat.

A very long beat.

Flash!!

Pulsade appeared, leaning against a wall.

"Hmmmm….."

A pause.

The assassin's lip curved ever so slightly in the corner. "Guess it was over before it even started…."

She followed the two Titans—invisibly—in their ascent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!!!!

I kicked open a metal trap door. I poked my head out.

An abandoned parking lot of urban, Bludhaven sprawl spread out before us. The sky was a dull overcast. I couldn't tell what time of the day it was….or if it even was frickin' day or not.

Don't you love this city??

I ducked back down. A few seconds passed….then the Headmistress was heaved up and onto the surface.

"Oof!!" she exclaimed.

I jumped up after her, then pulled Jinx up behind me.

"Nnngh…," she gained her footing.

The two of us stood up and hoisted the Headmistress to her feet alongside us.

"Okay….now to the rendezvous point," Jinx panted.

I glanced at her.

Rendezvous point??

"That's where Leslie will be…by the middle bridge of this City's river."

My brow furrowed.

And exactly when the Hell am I out of these handcuffs??

"JINX!! FREEZE!!!"

The Headmistress gasped.

Jinx produced a glowing hand of pink.

I instinctively whipped Myrkblade out—CHIIIING—and spun around at ready.

I gasped too.

Robin and Raven stood fifty feet to our side….where another trap door from the mostly 'concealed' laboratory resided.

Robin and Raven!!!!

Robin had a fan of birdarangs at his disposal. Raven was levitating with a bright gray glow.

"We've come to get you, Noir!!" Robin pointed with a free hand while he readied the batarangs. "Jinx! Release him this instant!!!"

Jinx panted. She leaned in to me. "Think your friends could be a little…..less 'friendly' right now?"

I bit my lip.

She sweatdropped. "We're kinda sorta at the end of all this and—"

"Look alive, gunkeaters!!!"

"?!?!?!"

"!!!!!!!"

"?????"

We all spun and looked above and behind us.

Gizmo hovered with two missile salvos ready to land on Jinx, the Headmistress, and I.

"Gizmo!! Stay out of this!!" Robin shouted.

"You're as much of a threat as they are at this point!" Raven added. She pointed her glowing wrists for emphasis. "Back off or we'll force you to!!"

"Uh uh!! Not today, scraplickers!!" he pointed a red-laser targeting system at the three of us. "I ain't forgotten what Jinx did to Mammoth and me back at Westhaven!! Before I leave…I think it's best I send you a message!! A message full of fire and frickin' shrapnel!!"

A shrill whistling sound.

"?!?!?!?!" we all glanced over.

Besides the huge, gaping hole of the Academy…a bruised Disruptor and Deuce stood. Deuce flipped a rapier in one hand and frowned. Disruptor stood cross-legged, managing barely to summon a huge glow of frightening red.

"Yo!! The pink haired bitch and the samurai dude goes with us!! That is to say…we're tossing 'em into Hell if we can help it!!!"

"Uh uh!! I found them first, losers!!" Gizmo shouted. He aimed one salvo so that it pointed at Disruptor and Deuce, then split that one even more so that missiles aimed at Raven and Robin too. "I'll blast anyone who gets in my way!!"

Deuce gritted her teeth. "Try us, squirt!!!"

"You're all under arrest!!" Robin shouted. "All of you!!!"

Raven cleared her throat. "Uhm……Robin?"

"WHAT?!?!"

"Shitheads!! Over here!!!"

Again, everyone turned to look.

Fifty beat-up Bludhaven gang members had gathered at the end of the parking lot with two pickup trucks, bats, machetes, and a handful of ballistic weaponry. They looked injured, pissed, and full of bloodlust.

"Them two!! The pink and dark one over there!!" One pointed with a snarl.

"They're coming with us."

"We're gonna finish them off reallllll slow!!!"

"Yeah!!!"

"Skin 'em alive!!!"

"You'll back off if you know what's good for you!!" Disruptor cackled.

"The whole butt-sniffing lot of you will burn for all I care!!" interjected Gizmo.

"Everyone!!" Raven shouted. "Control your emotions!!"

"Shut the Hell up, ya wyrdoes!!!"

"We're tossing their guts all over Main Street tonight!!!"

"YEAH!!! BLOODY BLUDHAVEN!!! HA!!"

"You will do nothing of the sort!! Back off….or else!!!"

"You're a fruitbasket, kid!! Hand us over those two and we'll be easy on you!!"

"Yeah right!!"

"HA!!"

"For the last time…….BACK OFF!!!"

"YOU PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!!!"

"Make us!!!"

"Say goodbye to your natural souls, booger brains!! On the count of ten!!!"

"Don't do it, Gizmo!!!"

"No! No! Let him!! I want to see him try!!"

"Nine!!!"

"Gizmo. My birdarang. Your forehead. Not a good equation."

"Robin…think of a way to get Noir out of here—"

"Y'ALL SHUT UP!!! Deuce, bend their vision or something!!"

"I-I can't! There's too many of them!!"

"Eight!!!"

"Damn straight! And there's more where we come from!!"

"I'll take the whole City down!!!"

"You just try that, asshole!!!"

"Seven!!"

Everyone and everything was shouting and bickering and threatening on four sides of us. The air stirred with their voices and became a numb soup within which I was suspended. And I found my gaze drifting away from the throng of angry gang members….past the lovely vision of Robin and Raven—my friends…..far away from Disruptor and Deuce….past Gizmo's floating form….away from the cowering Headmistress….and onto Jinx.

"……"

Everything seemed to slow down as I stared at her….but not so much her. But at what was hanging from her. From her neck.

The pendant.

Opened.

The faces.

The two girls.

Fate and Fortune.

Faye and Fiona.

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

'And I know what I exist for. I knew it the very moment Slade's bullet flew into my chest and nearly punctured my skin. I knew it the very moment you drove that sword through him. Everything….melted in my head. And there was nothing to fight for anymore….because I was already all that I would ever be. There's no conflict. No dichotomy.'

"………," I exhaled. The sound of my own breath was deafening under the chaos.

'But the difference between me and the Third Apprentice is……..I know that it's all for nothing. And I feel bad. And that feeling of b-badness seals me into this existence.'

The wheels turned in my head. It spun more than the screaming world surrounding us. Robin and Raven shouting for order. Disruptor and Deuce making threats. The gang members hooting and hollering. Gizmo counting down.

'To be honest…..I wouldn't even mind if….I dunno…..if the sky fell at the end of this trip. If Red Aviary turns out to be the final curtains. My own destruction. Whatever. I….I just want to stop feeling guilty….f-for everything.'

My eyes further narrowed on the pendant. The faded photographs. The sisters who were….who weren't….who are……

"Sometimes I wish….I wish I could find out about Red Aviary not to prevent it…but to dive right into it!!! I'm not doing this for the Titans. I'm not doing this for Slade. I'm not doing this for you, or Psimon, or even Leslie!!! I'm doing this for myself!!!! Because I want an end to myself!!! Because the only 'me' I'll ever have a chance of knowing from hereon out is some damn 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive' poster in some crummy alleyway of an abandoned street!!!"

For seconds that were hours, I stared at the pendant. And when my eyes traveled up some…I realized that Jinx was looking at me the entire time. Gazing up into my eyes without her Cheshire grin but still with her pink cat eyes. And she didn't frown and she didn't smile. She just waited…and gazed….as if she knew exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I was going to do when I found it.

And I did.

The standoff surrounding us shouted.

The clouds sighed.

I felt a shift in the weight of our handcuffs….and then the weight was no more.

Because I had turned to steam and teleported my arm out from the handcuffs.

FLASH!!!!!

People gasped.

The Headmistress recoiled.

Jinx's eyes widened.

FLASH!!!!

I solidified.

The handcuffs dangled loosely off Jinx's right hand.

The sensor on their link-chain beeped.

And blinked.

And beeped…..

And blinked……

FW-FW-FWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade with my right hand.

And…

With my left hand I grabbed Jinx's pendant and yanked--

SNAP!!!!

I grabbed it.

I tossed the two sisters up into the air.

FWOOOOSH!!!

I ended the twirl of Myrkblade and swung upwards….knocking the pendant high up…up….up like a ballistic cricket ball.

CLANK!!!!!

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Jinx stared up at the distant image of pendant. Her lips pursed and her cat eyes were wide.

So did everyone else look up.

Everyone except me.

I gazed at the floor and covered my eyes to avoid any visual contact with the airborne pendant.

Because that's where the carbonite is………

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A huge, pulsating, mushroom cloud of an explosion went off brightly above us at one hundred and fifty feet. A ceiling of fire spread out and descended in a frothing, crimson blanket of combusted carbonite.

And just about everyone but me was blinded.

I opened my eyes, panted, and leapt--

Going into action.

I pounced on Gizmo first.

FWOOOOSH-WHAP!!!

"AUGH!!" the hovering boy genius cackled.

I twirled Myrkblade while balancing on his hovering little shoulders. I then stabbed my sword into the center of his jetpack.

CRKKKK!!! ZZZZZZT!!!

The device sparked and lost its propulsion. It fell hard to the ground. And Gizmo fell twice as hard as I vaulted myself off of him into a backflip.

THWUMP!!! "OOF!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!!! I backflipped murkingly across the burning landscape. I heard two spinning birdarangs sing past my air in mid-descent and collide with the skulls and torsos of Disruptor and Deuce on the otherside of the blinded standoff.

CLANG!!! "OOF!!!"

WHANG!! "AUGH!!"

"RAVEN!!!" Robin's voice shouted. "SHIELD!!!!"

A dark dome exploded above me and combated with the descending flame.

At the same time, I descended with a curtain of surviving embers and sparks, twirled my body in the air, gritted my teeth, and slashed Myrkblade down in a smoking pulse of power towards the full line of fifty or so gang members.

SLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!

I came down with a fountain of murk shooting outward.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!!! Four solid columns of gang members fell down from the force of my downswing. The others cowered and jumped to avoid the licking flames not caught by Raven's shield.

Not a second too later, I spun around—sweating—and blurred towards the center where Jinx was.

The pink-haired, petite girl could sparsely turn and stop me as--

FWOOOOOSH!!!

--I blurred by and snatched up the Headmistress, hurrying her over to the Titans' side.

Jinx merely stared….until her figure was hidden from view by the clash of black telekinesis and flame.

FLASH!!!!

I skidded to a stop between Raven and Robin and set the exhausted Headmistress down.

"Noir!!" Robin panted as he pulled out a fresh batch of birdarangs. "Hang tight!! We gotta clear these gang members out—"

A flash of pink.

"?!?!?!" Sweating, I spun around and looked with desperate, black eyes.

Jinx was gone.

A pink streak was rushing towards the distant river-side.

FWOOOOOSH!! I blurred after her.

Robin extended a hand. "NOIR!!!"

FLASH!!! I broke through Raven's black dome and teleported through the carbonite flames beyond.

Raven's forehead tensed as she spoke in the middle of excessive meditation: "I've got ….the H.I.V.E. suspects….a-are safe from….the gang…."

"Then float them to someplace safe!!" Robin shouted as he whipped out his staff and went in pursuit of me. "B-Bring them back to where Bumblebee and Charger are!!"

"Yeah sure…whatever….," Raven strained.

The Boy Wonder ran out from under the dome and sprinted as fast as he could. In the distance, gang members ran—screaming—back towards the center of Bludhaven.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted…panted…panted…

The grimy river in the center of Bludhaven came into view.

And at the same time, so did the gliding, pink figure of Jinx.

A bridge loomed in the distance.

The rendezvous point.

I blurred my legs faster.

Murk aided my cause.

As I caught up with her, she merely came to a stop…right at the water's edge.

Giving up??

"You……Y-You got me, Ghost Boy….," she murmured.

I slowed to a steady pace and came to a stop behind her.

Staring.

"……."

She hung her head. Her gaze and spirit was as limp as the dead handcuffs on her right wrist.

"You got me……."

She slowly turned around.

Sad cat eyes.

Sad, but knowing.

"I….I sorta expected this too."

"………."

"I just…..just wanted someone to understand. Me….you….somebody….."

She hugged herself.

A beat.

She ran a hand over her short, pink head.

"I've been…..s-so selfish. This has been all about me. N-Not Red Aviary. Not the lives lost at the prison. Not—"

Cl-Clank!!

Something had fallen at Jinx's feet.

"……..??" She bent over and picked it up.

It was a keycard. A keycard with the Headmistress' face.

"This……Th-This is a security clearance card…..," her lips parted. She stared at me in shock. "Every headmaster and headmistress wears one of these. B-But….I never told you sh-she had this on her! I….I-I didn't even know how she had it on her!! Th-This could help Pulsade and I dig into H.I.V.E.'s information afterall! How….H-How did you….."

A beat.

She stared at me.

I stared back at her.

Silence.

"Why……..," she took a deep breath. "Wh-Why did you do it?"

"………….," I smiled.

Some of us are born evil.

I exhaled.

But some of us die good.

Jinx bit her lip and tried to resist the Cheshire grin….but she failed. "You're nuts, Ghost Boy. I'm going to have to beat you up for this someday."

I nodded.

God, I hate you so much……

And I smiled some more.

Jinx took a deep breath, turned around, and ran under the bridge.

A beat.

FLASH!!!

A figure appeared on the bridge. A figure in white with a sniper rifle aimed at my chest.

"………," I stared up at Pulsade.

The British blonde's hair flickered in the wind. She lowered the sight of the sniper rifle and sighed. "Bloody Hell….what do I do when I find myself someone I don't want to kill?"

I simpered.

"Leslie!!" Jinx's voice cackled from beneath the bridge. "Come on!!!" The sound of a small motor sounded.

Pulsade strapped the rifle to her back and exhaled. "Right then….," she hopped down from the bridge and ran beyond view. "Ta-Ta…."

I waved numbly.

The motor increased in its moan. A small boat skipped across the waters with two girls in it. In a spray of water, the two were gone.

I flexed my metal fingers.

Alone.

"…………………"

I slowly turned around and hand-signed: 'Hi, Robin.'

The Boy Wonder was perched on a broken fence. He stared down at me, capeless.

"So…..," he uttered. "….after all that, you just let Jinx go."

"………………..," I nodded.

His eyemask narrowed. "In twenty four hours….you disappeared on me and the Titans. You assisted in a calamitous chase on the Metropolitan Highway. You beat up two cops, Beast Boy, and dozens of H.I.V.E. students. You assisted in the robbery of clothes, parking meter money, and a squad car. And now—partially thanks to you—Jinx and a mysterious assassin have gotten loose, the H.I.V.E. Academy is in disarray, and over two dozen gang members of Bludhaven now have the Titans on their murder list!!!"

I winced…..I nodded honestly.

"…………..," Robin's eyemask rounded and he smiled. "Do you have any idea….any idea in the world….how proud I am of the job you've done today?"

I simpered.

Robin motioned with his hand. "Come on, Number Two." He hopped down off the fence and trotted back towards Raven's location. "Let's go home."

I nodded. I glanced back at the river once, shrugged the smell of strawberries off, and followed Robin.

I sheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH!!!

Raven floated towards the nearby building top where she and Robin earlier departed from. Behind her, the dark girl extended a black talon of telekinetic energy. Inside the talon were the neatly rested bodies of the Headmistress, Gizmo, Disruptor, and Deuce. Raven gently lowered the four down and walked over to check up on the two defeated students from earlier.

But in mid-stride, Raven stopped.

Charger still lay unconscious where he was left.

But where Bumblebee should have been….there was only a lonely pair of handcuffs.

"………….huh," Raven blinked. "Well that's cute."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a forested hill overlooking the grimy expanse of Bludhaven, Mammoth lowered Shimmer to her feet.

"You okay there, Sis? You think you can walk now?"

"Nnnngh….yeah….I-I guess," she dizzily nodded.

"I was really worried about you for a second," Mammoth frowned. "Gizmo started yakking off about Psimon mind-controlling you and stuff. It really got me worried."

"Nnngh….," Shimmer blinked. "Psimon….m-mind controlling me??"

"Yuh huh…," Mammoth nodded. "Ain't that the dumbest thing you've ever heard?"

"…………."

"Selinda??"

Shimmer suddenly smiled. "Baran….y-you're a real sweet brother, you know that?"

Mammoth turned red. "I-I am…."

"What say you and I blow this Town and do something…..like the old days," she hugged herself. "Ya know….Brother and S-Sister?"

Mammoth chuckled. "Sure thing!! I'd love that!!" He punched his palm. "WHAMMO!! Crushing heads together!! Flinders style!!!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

Shimmer sweatdropped. "Uh….or we could just set up a lemonade stand??"

"Yeah…uh…sure. Whatever you say, sis."

"C-Come on, Brother….," Shimmer marched down through the forest. "Let's get moving."

"Heheheheh…."

The two redheads were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep in the darkened holocaust that was the battle-worn Academy….

In the silent, frozen laboratories….

Two bodies lay encased in white ice.

A huge mound represented the red and blue suited Neutron.

The small bump was Psimon in an agonized fetal condition.

The two were perfectly still in their icy prison.

Except for one thing…

The radiation from Neutron's body was spreading. And as it spread, it ate its way through the ice…until it came into contact with the elderly body of Psimon.

Over time, the radioactive aura—hidden beneath the secretive, corrupted squalor that was Bludhaven—mingled with Psimon's body….turning his flesh a deep red hue.

And at some point—unknown to anyone—the telepath's eyes opened wide beneath the ice. Red and brimming.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day….

In Titans' Tower….

"…and you can thank Raven in the end," Robin gestured with a grin. "It was her who teleported all of us into Metropolis to deposit the criminals into the hands of the justice department. Believe you me….even the police of Metropolis were happy to have so many dangerous criminals and H.I.V.E. students under custody in one day! I've finished talking to Commissioner Decker just recently. He's on good terms with Maggie Sawyer of Metropolis. He thinks he might be able to get Gizmo back here in our prison. Maybe even the biggest catch of them all too."

"The Headmistress?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded. "Through some sort of….wyrd legalistic finangling, Decker thinks he can connect the yet-uncaught Jinx with the Headmistress and thus bring her back for questioning in her involvement with the Prison bombing."

Starfire leaned forward. "Jinx insists that it was not her who set off the bomb in her cell, correct?"

"Yes," Raven nodded. All eyes were on her. "According to Noir, at least. We'll probably know more as it may come from the Headmistress' lips."

Robin looked at Cyborg. "She's being interrogated preliminarily by Maggie Sawyer as we speak. The authorities there in Metropolis have quite a few bones to pick with H.I.V.E. before they even consider handing them over to Decker."

Cyborg pointed. "What about that police guy in Bludhaven? Tiki….Taco…"

"Torque?" Robin leaned his head to the side. "Sure enough, Dudley Soames of the 'Bludhaven police' has made a row about the incident in Bludhaven and the revelation of the H.I.V.E. Academy and the fact that Raven and I gave the suspects over to Metropolis."

"What's he gonna do about it?"

"What can he do??" Robin smirked. "He wasn't there at the scene of the explosion and Academy invasion! His 'forces' were miles away. And even if he was involved…Trying to demand the Headmistress or any of the students back would only hurt him in the long run because national inquiry will discover all over again just how corrupt and hypocritical a public figure he is!" The Titan leader smiled at the other Titans. "The suspects are in capable hands now."

"Hooray!!" Starfire cheered.

"Should we be cheerful so soon?" Tempest remarked. He stood on the sidelines with folded arms and smirked a bit. "Lest we forget….Jinx and that 'Pulse' person got away—"

"'Pulsade'."

"—whatever. And then there's still that spider person and…um…..moth-man to deal with."

"Fang and Killer Moth??" Beast Boy blinked. "Dude….I forgot all about them."

Cyborg pointed at the computer. "Reports are in that Barrymore had a robbery from a 'freakish man with many limbs'. And also rumors suggest of some strange activity in a canyon up to the north."

"Lovely," Raven muttered. "No rest for the weary."

"I'm sure there'll be many leads to Fang and Killer Moth," Robin said. "And I'm sure everyone knows here that we'll be following them to track those criminals down."

"Yup….," Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "Down to the last millimeter."

Starfire giggled.

Robin lifted a gloved finger. "Let's not forget….a lot of lives have been lost as of late. The bomb killed both prisoners and guards alike at the Prison. And there were quite a few casualties when the Fearsome Five attacked the Academy. Raven, Noir and I could not account for all of the deaths involved."

"Well, I should hope not," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Regardless….this has been a very….s-serious situation," Robin said.

"Well put," Tempest smirked.

Robin glared at the Atlantean before continuing: "As it stands….the people of our City are frightened. Nervous. Unsure. Feelings of paranoia that they haven't felt since the days when Slade was alive."

"I can only imagine their distress," Starfire murmured.

"That's why I promised Commissioner Decker that the Titans would appear at a public address tomorrow afternoon in front of the Police Department."

Half of the room groaned.

"I'm serious!!" Robin gestured. "We have to do these things to keep the public assured of their protection!! We allowed a lot of innocent people to die at the prison! That's unacceptable!!"

"Robin….," Raven droned. "We didn't allow anything bloody to happen."

"But that's what people may think if we don't convince them otherwise," Robin said. "So we have to keep in touch with the populace. Not just for our image….but for the safety of the people's psyche itself. I've made a promise to Decker, and I intend to stick to it. I suggest you all do the same by joining us tomorrow evening."

"Understood," Beast Boy cracked his knuckles and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "I can slip in a joke at the beginning! While we're on camera, ya know? Soften the mood!"

"You'd get the same result from public suicide," Raven said.

Tempest laughed.

Beast Boy seethed.

"I must inquire…," Starfire leaned her head to the side and faced Cyborg more than anyone else. "What has become of our elusive letter?"

"Letter??" a question mark formed above the android Titan's head.

Starfire smiled. "Our….'J'."

"Oh…..that guy," Cyborg scratched the back of his neck and simpered. "He's long gone. Came in and out. Left no trace of himself in the computer banks. Damnedst thing I've ever seen."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Did we ever…..find out who he was?"

Cyborg slowly shook his head.

Robin looked over at me. "But….Jinx and Pulsade know him?"

I was sitting on a stool with my back to the kitchen unit's counter the whole time, flipping cards in my hand. Tired of wearing my uniform for a twenty-four-hour stretch, I was clad in shorts and a white t-shirt.

I nodded at Robin.

"I suppose we'll catch him the same day we catch those two girls," Robin sighed. He rubbed his temples. "I don't know whether to be happy that they're gone or not."

"You think Jinx is innocent about the prison?"

"I think there's been too much confusion and darkness spreading around this whole issue that she might as well be innocent," Robin muttered. He looked tiredly at the others. "I really hate going to Bludhaven."

"Ohhhh!!" Starfire flew over and tackled Robin in a hug. WHUMP!!! "But you made it back saaaaaaaaaafe!!" She cooed with her eyes joyfully shut.

Robin's face went blue. "Safe….is….a….r-relative….term…."

Tempest cleared his throat.

"Eeep!!" Starfire gently released her death-hug and blushed. "P-Perhaps one of these days I shall remember that you are thin!"

"……..what's that supposed to mean??"

Starfire simpered with a sweatdrop: "Eh heheheheheh…."

"Anywho, enough of this!!" Beast Boy jumped up and bounded over to me. "Is it true??" he hopped. "Is it true? Is it true?"

"????" I looked at him funny. I looked at the others.

"Did you get promoted??"

"Oh….," Cyborg smirked proudly. "That."

"Yes….," Raven droned. "That."

"Indeed…I promoted him," Robin folded his arms. "And believe me, this was not an impromptu decision. I think Noir deserves respect for all he's gone through to protect the City and us Titans. But more than that….I think he's capable of accepting the responsibility to lead us beneath Cyborg and myself. So….for the rest of you…if Cyborg and I were to be missing or inoperative….you know who you can turn to."

"Yes, sir!!" Beast Boy saluted.

"Hehehe! Glorious!!"

I sweatdropped.

"Not a bad choice," Tempest nodded. He smirked at the others. "Gonna have to learn sign-language fast, huh?"

"Well, what'd you expect, dude?" Beast Boy said. He pivoted to face me again. "But before I answer to you or anything…….THIS!!"

THWACK!!!

I dropped the cards and hobbled out painfully on one leg after Beast Boy kicked me in the chins.

Starfire gasped. "Beast Boy!! What provoked you to do that?!?!"

"Simple," beast Boy shrugged with a smirk. "He slammed me real-bad in the gut back when he was kinkily attached to Jinx! Heck….if the world was a just place, I'd kick him in the other ankle!!" A beat. "Ah, to heck with it!"

THWACK!!!

I fell on my knees. I winced…then let out a silent growl as I pounced forward on the elf.

"Ackies!!"

We tumbled and wrestled on the floor.

"Ah yes….," Tempest smirked over at the rest again. "Public relations would be a healthy thing by now."

"Shut up, Flipper."

"Sure thing, Mr. ATM."

Cyborg shook his head at Tempest and gazed over at the wrestling me and giggling Beast Boy. A beat. He raised a human eyebrow. He glanced to his left at Raven.

Raven looked up at him. She was sitting up straight, and yet her nose was surprisingly close to his chin.

"What?"

Cyborg blinked. "Uhm…," he simpered. "Is it just me….or….for the last day since you and Robin got back from Bludhaven and Metropolis and all….er…..h-have you been sitting closer to me?"

"Mmmmhmmmm," she hummed with a nod.

"……………heh," Cyborg gulped. "Fancy that—"

Raven leaned against his left side.

"?????" Cyborg bit his lip. "Uh….Raven?"

"Yes?"

"You feelin' okay?"

"Is there something the matter?"

"Nah, it's all cool. You're just…..kinda cuddly all of the sudden."

Her face looked bored as she droned. "Consider it a 'thank you' reward."

"Reward???" Cyborg smirked. "For what?"

"…….."

"Raven??"

"I'll tell you someday."

"Pfft….sure….whatever," Cyborg smiled and added a mischievous: "Cutie." And he was surprised when three…four…five seconds passed and Raven didn't blast him off the couch with telekinesis. "Oh….um…..hello there."

"Hi."

"Is this where I put my arm around you or somethi—"

"Don't push it."

"Yes, ma'am."

At around that time, I finally managed to kick a wrestling-giggling Beast Boy off of me.

"Whoah!!" Crash!!!

I stood up, brushed myself off, and smoothed my black ponytail back behind my shirt.

Robin walked over and faced me directly.

"So…."

I looked down at him.

So……

"We barely got to talk on the way back from Metropolis," Robin uttered. "You were quite exhausted and all. I understood that."

I slowly nodded.

"But remind me, Noir…," his eyemask narrowed. "….what was it exactly that Jinx kept rambling about?"

"……."

"Those words she repeated. Herself and that blonde assassin friend of hers."

I took a deep breath. A late shiver ran up from my metal limb as I mouthed the two words.

"Hmmm….'Red Aviary'," Robin nodded. "That's right. Peculiar."

I leaned my head to the side.

He rubbed his chin. "What Jinx and Pulsade and 'J' are onto….it must be important. But at the moment…it's not as important as tracking down Killer Moth and Fang, I believe."

My shaded eyes narrowed. I suddenly thought of the dream. With the red sky and the brown rust and the lighthouse. Clay. Clayface. Robin.

Another shiver ran up my arm, and I wanted to spell something out for to Robin but I didn't.

He walked across the room and joined Starfire with something.

And all I could do was stare.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Phoenix, Arizona.

An airport.

The air was dryer that Autumn time of year. But the temperature barely changed.

Damien Darhk walked out of the terminal, a briefcase in his hand.

He gazed through sunglasses at the many cars lined up to pick up visitors.

And he saw a black limousine.

Smiling…handsome as ever….Damien marched over towards it. The chauffer quietly let the man walk inside. No words were interchanged. The chauffer closed the door, wandered around to the front, sat inside, and drove off.

Inside the car, Damien flipped his shades off, stuck them into his shirt's pocket, and sighed relaxingly. "How I hate airplane rides. They get the blood rushing and stuff, ya know? Oh…I-I didn't mean that as a pun, guys. Heheheheh!!"

Two gentleman sat across from him. One young in a business casual getup. The other a graying man with even grayer eyes and wearing what looked like a monk's robe.

"So…wh-which one of you is the talkative one?" Damien crossed his leg and leaned his chin on his hand.

The younger man in business casual smiled. "I'm Mr. Cain," he leaned forward and extended a hand. "On behalf of the Church of Blood, it's a pleasure to meet you at last Mister…."

"Darhk," Damien shook the man's hand. "And it's 'Headmaster' now."

"So it's true then?" Mr. Cain leaned back. "Power has been handed over?"

"H.I.V.E. has no choice," Damien shrugged. The once and future queen is now in custody. Though….to be honest, I doubt she'll be in custody for long. As a matter of fact, I doubt that she'll be alive for very long."

"Oh dear me," Mr. Cain blinked. "How do you know that?"

"Taking her place amongst the Academies….," Damien studied his fingernails. "….I've learned the extent of her true connections. And I've since learned to use them. The right acquaintances, that is. The Headmistress won't be alive for long. Let me just assure you of that."

"I don't mean to sound grotesque," Mr. Cain cleared his throat. "But I-I would surely hope the power of the Hierarchy rests in your hands. For we've always wanted to do business with you, Mr. Darhk."

"Oh…the feeling's mutual, Cain," Damien gestured with a wink. "H.I.V.E…..Church of Blood….fingers like Chinese handcuffs, ya know??"

"Heheheheheh!!" Mr. Cain slapped his knee and grinned. "I never thought of that before!!"

"Heh heh heh…."

The gray man in the robe glared. "You two are too cheerful for your own good….."

Mr. Cain gestured: "Now calm down, Juris. We're just here to do initial business."

Juris grunted. "I am calm…"

Damien cleared his throat: "So…….I hear she's in town."

"Who?"

Damien blinked. "Who else? Jezebel?"

"Oh, Jezebel. Yes…she's moving the church body here to Arizona. It's much….cl-closer to the action, if you will."

"And just what is that action called again? I'm a little rusty," Damien waved his hand. "The 'Oblique Whatsit…'?""

"The Obsidian Trinity," Juris practically spat.

"There ya go! Badda Bing, Badda Boom. You know….damn ambiguous catch phrases is all fun and stuff….but I gotta be up front with you guys."

Cain shrugged. "By all means."

Damien Darhk leaned forward and his eyes were menacingly firm. "'Red Aviary'….."

"………."

"………."

"Have you ever heard of it?"

Mr. Cain blinked. "Uh….n-no. No, I-I don't believe I have….what is that?"

"Oh….nothing," Damien leaned back and smiled. He rested his hands leisurely behind his back. "Now we can get things cookin'!"

"Well allright."

"So….when I meet Jezebel---she's someone important, right?"

"Oh, very much so."

"Is she gonna introduce me to Brother Blood? I've heard a lot about him."

Suddenly, explosively, Mr. Cain laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed.

Curiously amused, Damien raised an eyebrow.

Mr. Cain wiped the tears from his eyes and giggled a few more times.

Even Juris seemed to have an ever so slight curve to his lips.

"Did I hit someone's funny bone with a sledge hammer?" Damien asked.

"Sorry…e-excuse me…heheh…," Mr. Cain leaned forward and held his hands together. "There's not going to be a Brother Blood in our Church, Mr. Darhk." He grinned. "Not for a long time…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I had come back down to my dark cellar room to talk to Kara.

I turned the laptop on.

I lit half of the lanterns in the room.

I got a glass of tap water and put it on my bedside table.

But as I sat down and logged onto the Internet…

I had another e-mail.

I opened it up and…sure enough.

I was dumbstruck.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, I leaned forward towards the laptop screen and read.

Dear Old Friend,

Jinx and Pulsade are back safely. I cannot thank you enough for not threatening their necks with that sword of yours. In the meantime, I hope my assistance to the Titans was useful. But I still have the feeling that you don't remember me. Quite alright. I'll be there in your City soon. I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet again in the next few days.

-"J'

"………."

I leaned back against the head of my bed.

"………"

I blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What is it, Cyborg?"

That night, Cyborg was at the console of the Main Computer. He turned around and motioned to Robin who was walking up.

"What'd you want to show me?" Robin reiterated.

"I've just been going over a report sent in from Maggie Sawyer's department over at Metropolis. Their interrogation of the Headmistress hasn't turned up much for us to be concerned about….except for one thing."

Robin leaned against the back of the chair. "I'm listening…."

Cyborg scrolled down the fresh computer document.

"The Headmistress gave a brief history on the origin of the Hierarchy of International Vendetta and Extermination."

"Yeah….?"

"There isn't much to be wowed about….but she did mention something about the Founders."

"What about them?"

"There were three Founders of H.I.V.E. Sisters. Two twins and a younger one. The younger one's wasn't discussed…but we now have the names of the older sisters."

"Uh huh…."

"………," Cyborg swiveled around. "Aliases 'Fate' and 'Fortune'." A blink. "Real names….Faye and Fiona Jenkins."

"………." Robin blinked beneath his mask. The Boy Wonder stood up straight and gazed at the screen.

A beat.

"…..wh-what the Hell?"