Red X probably shouldn't have sent that cake to the Brotherhood of Evil. Hell, it was more likely they'd throw it away rather than even have a lackey taste test it. Nevertheless, he felt that he had to show his appreciation somehow.
It wasn't the first time the Titans left town. Of course they always left a replacement to keep an eye on things. Some British heroine or demigods from the heavens. Things is that they were never as good as the regular Titans. They knew the game, but they hardly knew a thing about the playing field. The replacements were always late to the party. X always disappeared into the shadows before they could catch up. Easy pickings whenever the kids weren't around.
Except for that Kid Flash guy. Red X had to be serious when he held down the fort. But he was off in France or something helping out more of those Honorary Titans. If X's insider was right, Flashy Junior ought to be busy for a while. Titans East bailed out of Jump City, too, to fight of the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood not only gave the Titans a gang of old coots out for world domination, but they also recruited a good majority of the local baddies into their cause. So, that left Jump all out of heroic messiahs and any villain fests, leaving the city ripe for some honest thieving.
Then those snot-nosed brats came into town. The H.I.V.E. Five, making their comeback.
They were all a bunch of idiots. Control Freak had more class than these bozos. More importantly, they were being loud. Too loud, breaking into the banks, techno warehouses, and transport vans without any discretion. X was a professional thief. The Five were tearing up everything like the city was their playground.
Jump City wasn't their sandbox. If anything, it was his.
Red X got into the history museum easy enough. The usual night guards happened to find a little extra cash to take their families out for dinner, carelessly leaving the rookie all alone. X took care of him, entered the most likely exhibits the Five would heist and laid his traps accordingly…
There they are. Gizmo, the brattiest, deactivated the security system in the Egyptian section. Little did he know that X was ready to set off the silent alarm at any time. The cops would be here eventually, but there'd be enough time for him to have a little fun before then.
He leaned against the shadows in a dark corner. No one would be looking for him. They were too busy stuffing as many artifacts and relics as possible into ceremonial jars, hollering off jokes to each other. Especially Billy Numerous, and his numerous replicates.
Their leader, Jinx, didn't bother herself with grabbing as much as she could in her arms. She kept a pendant to herself, a pretty little thing that would fetch a fine price with X's usual dealers.
"You guys done?" she called out, eyeing her toy with a smirk.
See-More, along with the rest of the boys, were all hugging three or four golden jars and gathered around their leader. "All ready, Jinx," he drawled out. She walked slowly toward the exit without a word, the rest of the Five following her whilst chatting.
Jinx waved her hand, dark pink arcs of energy flowing forward to open the doors. However, X made his move, pressing a button on the attachments on his wrist.
All of a sudden, a big red X materialized in the middle of the doorway, blocking the Five's way. Each of them let out a yell of surprise, save for Jinx, who simply narrowing her eyes.
"The heck is with the big, fat X?" Gizmo hissed distastefully. A cannon of sorts folded out of his jetpack and charged up a blast to burn away the gooey substance. The slow humming of accumulating energy helped disguise the noise of a different type of armament.
"Hey, Billy, why's that hi-ro-glyph-en thingamajig glowing?"
"Hmm? What, Billy, this X-looking thing?"
Five voices cried out simultaneously. From what Red X saw, Kyd Wykkyd never made any kind of vocal sound. X was pretty sure he didn't even groan in revulsion at the sticky goop restraining the whole team together with their loot on the floor. Everyone else sure did, some spewing out rather obscene swears. Who knew the youngest of them all knew a grand multitude of curses.
"See-More!" Jinx cried out with barely contained fury. "Eyes wide!"
The green helmeted teen fought against the red substance and quickly adjusted the settings for his namesake.
Looks like that's my cue.
Right before See-More's eye could pinpoint their assailant's location, it was covered with its very own X. His entire face was enclosed in the shape, including his mouth. He yelped and would have fallen flat on his back if not for the rest of the slop keeping him up. Gizmo, Mammoth, and Billy succumbed to similar fates. Billy tried to replicate himself, but his clones could not escape the gasp of the red goo.
"You kids should know better not to be out after curfew." X sauntered casually over toward them. Jinx and Kyd Wykkyd glared in his direction. The rest were still struggling.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Jinx hissed as the black attired thief filched the pendant off the floor.
"X," was the smug answer. "Red X." He picked up the staff Kid Wykkyd had been holding. Neither object was damaged.
"Last I checked, you weren't a do-gooder," Jinx pointed out, still with her distasteful expression. "I thought you were with the Brotherhood of Evil these days."
"Ah, the pay sucked," X said simply, "and the whole 'rule the world' vibe they've got going on, just isn't my scene."
She scoffed. Kyd Wykkyd continued his own apathetic stare and had ceased his own attempt to escape the red confinement.
"Besides," X walked up to Jinx and caressed her cheek, "if I hadn't left the Brotherhood, I wouldn't have met Ms. Fortune here for myself, wouldn't I?"
X had to wipe away the saliva that was spat on his mask.
"When we get out of this," Jinx declared lowly, "you're going to regret crossing with me."
This time, X roughly grabbed Jinx's chin and leaned closer to her face. She was startled but quickly kept her face guarded again.
"Jinx, right? You seem to have a good thing going with your little H.I.V.E. Five team, but Jump is my city. Go find another town to pillage. Maybe Keystone, or Central. I don't care where. Bottom line: you stay in my city…"
Red X released his grasp and formed a fist. He placed it under Jinx's chin. A second later, the X on the gloved hand expanded, giving two solid cuts across her cheeks. They weren't too deep, but a band aid definitely won't be able to fix it.
Jinx grunted, and she glowered at X with the greatest amount of hate and venom directed at him in a while. Everyone began to move more animatedly at her slight bellow. Kyd Wykkyd remained outwardly indifferent with his unwavering gaze.
"… I'm going to have as much fun as I want with all of you." For curiosity's sake, Red X gave the Batman wannabe the hardest punch he could into his gut. Sadly, not a sound was made from him. To add onto the unfortunate result, Kyd Wykkyd swished his arm whilst holding his cape. The restrictive goop began to cut away as he attacked. In response, Red X hopped back.
"I was wondering when you'd stop playing along," Red X said teasingly.
The escapee stood in a defensive stance momentarily before cutting at the rest of the sludge holding down his companions. He only got Jinx out until Red X connected a kick against the Kyd's face. Jinx immediately followed up with her own attacks that X swiftly dodged.
"You are dead!" Jinx cried out as she darted away from the X shuriken thrown her way.
"No need to lose your temper," Red X said calmly.
Kyd Wykkyd materialized behind him through a black portal, ready to cut off X's head. The sharpened edge of his cape pierced through air. Red X reappeared beside Jinx, successfully delivering a punch that nearly knocked her off her feet. However, she avoided the following punches. She waved her arms down and caused the floor to crack. Red X's foot got caught in one of the narrow gaps. Jinx grinned, ready to land another hit when he hit a button on his belt and fizzled out of existence.
The rest of the Five had been freed by Wykkyd during the pair's fight. Mammoth let out a growl of frustration as Gizmo readjusted his pack to form blasters and those spider-like legs. Red X appeared right between them and connected an electrified X to both of them. The currents shocked them painfully, Mammoth falling over and Gizmo falling back, his fall broken by his now defective jetpack.
"We got you now!" echoed a collective of voices. About a dozen Billys grabbed X before he could teleport again, presenting a clear target for See-More to fire a laser at.
"X marks the spot!" he crackled.
Red X opened his palms. "You don't know the half of it." He fired a blast toward See-More while his other hand activated an X-wrist blade. The Billys on X's left skipped away to avoid getting cut. As for the ones on his right, they were hurled into the line of fire of See-More's misfired laser bolt. As the clones each fell to the floor, X sprinted right for the disoriented cyclops.
A hand blocked his punch. Kyd Wykkyd threw another one, defending See-More until he got his senses back. When he did, he shot another laser that Wykkyd and Red X ducked from. It made contact with the ill-fated unintentional target: Mammoth. X gave Wykkyd a kick in his lower body. Mammoth fell over him and See-More, who had been through into the pile at the last second.
"I thought you guys went to school for this kind of stuff," X pointed out, clearly amused as he leaned against a support column. The column, however, suddenly fell apart when X's back gave a little too much pressure. The entire structure crumbled. Red X had to dive to evade the falling rubble.
He got up to see Jinx's frowning face. She probably caused the column to fall. In the corner of his eye, he could see the rest of her team, broken and beaten on the floor.
"You aren't a hero," Jinx said, catching Red X's attention. "You're a thief, just like us. Why are you fighting us?"
A little chuckled escaped X. "Like I said, this is my city, and you kids are tearing it up like you own it. I need to assert my dominance somehow."
"We're not a bunch of kids," she snarled defensively. "We're the H.I.V.E. Five, and –"
"You can't do math. There are six of you in. I'm guessing you flunked that in villain school?"
X teleported away from the pink energy arcs, reappearing right next to Jinx. He leaned forward, whispering into her ear, "How about you ditch these morons and I take you on a little date, Ms. Fortune?"
Jinx wasn't fast enough to counter. See-More already shot X's side. He flew right through a glass display and landed face first.
Damn. Tougher than I thought. X received a harsh kick, and another punch that would have gotten his eye real good if he hadn't moved. He retreated but tripped on another crack on the floor. Another teleport would drain his battery too much, so Red X settled with flipping back onto a sarcophagus.
Billy clones multiplied from behind him. Mammoth and Gizmo came from his left, Wykkyd and See-More teleporting on his right, and Jinx came waltzing before him.
Jinx was still bleeding. "I don't care who you are. We're taking over this city. You get in our way, you're a dead man."
"Ain't the first time someone wanted me dead, Miss Fortune." Red X twirled the pendant Jinx had taken earlier in his hand. "Thanks for the distraction, by the way. I'll send you a cake as a thank you gift." X fired an energy-infused projectile toward the shape blocking the door, disintegrating it. "Ciao."
Mere seconds after Red X had teleported away, the police and SWAT teams arrived. Two unfortunate souls had just entered the room.
Jinx didn't even bother to look as she waved her hand and collapsed the doorway. "Kyd Wykkyd. Take us out of here." The mute criminal nodded, raising his cape and engulfing his friends.
Red X reappeared where the H.I.V.E. Five was standing moments before. He had been watching them from the cameras. After erasing all of the footage, he returned and picked up the staff that was previously forgotten. It would take the cops some time to get pass the destroyed entrance anyway, enough time to clean up most of the evidence that X was ever even at the museum.
This was his city, no matter what anybody said. Sure, he didn't want to do a hostile takeover like Slade did a couple years back, but you can't blame a guy for being territorial.
They've improved, a lot. X had to be more careful from now on. He'd still have fun, though. Tons of fun.
Always gotta look out for Number One. Gotta remember that.