Midnight…
"I spy with my big ol' eye: a truck full of gold. Ha!"
See-More, elevated up in the night sky of Jump city, readjusted his helmet's settings to guide his bloated eye down toward the armored van. As he descended, he observed Kyd dash out of an alley and into the middle of the street. The van swerved out of control, the driver obviously startled, and probably even more shocked as Kyd disappeared altogether with his teleporting powers.
The vehicle fell over, sliding on its topside before coming to a stop. Its driver, clad in a typical security guard collared shirt and cap, crawled out slowly. When See-More landed and resized his eye back to its default form, Kyd opened the van's back doors. Bags of valuables rolled out. Kyd had a few in his arms already, a small smile gracing his face.
The H.I.V.E. Fives' most recent member let out another crackling holler as he quickly looked over the loot.
"Payday!" he screeched, his best friend nodding in agreement.
Jump City's latest band of super-powered teens had split up into separate teams and were heisting in different areas of the city, per Jinx's orders. Red X had really riled her up, and her endgame today was to see how the solo thief would react to three simultaneous raids in "his" city.
Billy and Mammoth were mugging a series of stores in a popular plaza, Jinx and Gizmo chose to target a local high-end electronics shop, and See-More and Kyd Wykkyd decided to take on an unsuspecting transport van.
See-More opened up one sack, just to take a quick peek before Kyd started shoving their loot through the portal in his cape. Jinx was being more of a hardass than usual with her obsession with X, and a little glimpse at some nice, shiny diamonds would no doubt uplift his spirits.
However, the contents of the bag appeared to be only pieces of plain, worthless rocks. Kyd Wykkyd looked to what his friend was peering at and swiped his cape to cut holes in a series of sacks laying in a row. No jewelry or gold fell out. The brown bags spewed out dozens of stones.
Spotting the driver limping away, Kyd shoved him against the side of the van.
"Hey, friend," See-More waved with a smirk, turning his green eye into a red, hot one. "Where's all the gold?" He sent a laser to pierce the van's armored coating right next to the driver's head. He whimpered as the heat felt close enough to burn his face if the villain moved his aim an inch more.
"I don't know!" the security guard responded, glancing at the rocks piled on the street. "It wasn't my job to pack the merchandise. I just drive the damn thing."
"Yeah?" See-More sneered, singing the older man's hat. "How 'bout you tell us where you to find some rocks that are a little shinier than these useless pebbles?"
Before See-More could make any more demands, his head was bashed against the partially melted hole forming on the van. Kyd tried to elbow the offender. The pinned security guard punched the mute teen, knocking him back. The adrenalized van driver drew his gun as the new arrival rushed him.
Red X turned his back to the guard and jammed him against the truck again. He grabbed the gun and unloaded it before hitting the guard in the throat. X stomped the back of See-More's neck when he tried to get up. When Kyd Wykkyd sliced from the side with his sharp cape, X deflected with a wrist blade. The guard was thrown over Red X's shoulder and rammed Kyd to the mound of sacks and stones.
X fell forward, See-More swinging his arm against the thief's legs. Red X's face hit the asphalt. See-More tried to get to his feet again, but a hand grabbed his ankle, an electrical shock immobilizing the eye specialist. He returned to his previous prone position. X rose to find himself evading and trading punches with Kyd.
"Smart little aleks, aren't you?" Red X said, kneeing his opponent in the chin before rolling away from a potential cut to his leg. "Divide and conquer, classic move, and real original, too."
See-More and the security guard got back up. See-More lined up his eye to fire a laser, only to have the guard tackle him back to the ground.
"Gotta give you kids a pat on the back." Kyd's next jab missed, and he suffered a rough kick to his back. "But don't think that this is your city or anything."
Kyd sidestepped left and right, taking a more defensive approach with X. The red-eyed criminal grabbed an undamaged parcel of rocks and tried to use it like a club. Kyd threw another rock toward X's face, attempting to distract him to allow Kyd a free hit. Red X caught the rock and grabbed Kyd's outstretched leg. The pain in Kyd's knee spiked as X smashed the rock against the limb.
Red X tossed the surprisingly hard piece of stone up into the air and caught it, repeating the action a few times as he backed away from the temporarily disabled Batman lookalike. He and the still struggling security guard and See-More were now all in plain view for X to observe. The guard eventually retrieved his gun, but the task allowed See-More to fire a shot and knock him out. The cyclops then trained his eye at Red X.
"Don't tell me it was you who swiped all the goodies?" See-More questioned, ready to fire if he saw X do something funny.
"Don't tell me you didn't have an x-ray function with your eye to look inside the bags?" X shot back. "You could've seen these rocks and not wasted a good Saturday night getting into street fights."
Red X flung the rock he was tossing forward to be destroyed by See-More's laser. X sent an adhesive X to blind See-More. The laser unfortunately burnt the projectile clean through. See-More would have adjusted his aim back to Red X if the thief hadn't teleported behind him and gotten him into a chokehold.
"Ah, ah, ah," X waved a finger when Kyd sharply got to his feet despite his knee being wobbly. "You know the shtick: sudden moves, your buddy gets hurt."
An X-wrist blade threatened to penetrate the side of See-More's helmet. See-More himself had to stop resisting lest he risk the cuts the blades already made go deeper. Kyd grimaced as his body tensed to the point where he was visibly shaking.
"You be a good boy," X continued, "we all get to go home."
Red X pressed a button on his utility belt. He and See-More disappeared. Kyd stumbled backward, surprised at the move. He swerved his head around, failing to spot the two. He teleported up to the highest building on the street and gazed all across the block intently. This went on longer than he would have liked.
Kyd didn't hear any footsteps, nor the faint sound effect sometimes accompanying Red X's teleportation technology, but the skull-masked adversary's voice whispered from behind, "Here's one of your mistakes: you think you're better than me."
X ducked from another attack. He failed to avoid the second bone-cracking punch that hit his shoulder, though. Nevertheless, Red X continued his fairly calm scolding as Kyd tried to knock his teeth out.
"I can't really tell from you with your, y'know, speech impediment."
Kyd head butt Red X, but X performed a suplex and chucked Kyd off of him.
"But some of your pals; Jinx, Billy, See-More; word on the grapevine is that you guys like to flaunt the fact you went to a villain school."
Two wrist blades and the edge of a cape interlocked for a few seconds.
"I'm all for a good education so that there are less ignorant dumbasses out there, but don't think corrupt indoctrination makes up for experience."
Red X lost the short battle of wills and received cuts on his triceps and chest. He jumped back to get some breathing room.
"Some of the decent hotshot convicts out in the world didn't need a private academy's curriculum to make the papers. Deadshot, Captain Cold, , Firefly, last year's Royal Flush Gang, and the Joker, just to name a few."
Two simultaneous kicks knocked the wind out of both combatants. X still had enough breath to spare to carry on speaking.
"Nice hit," he coughed, "but seriously –"
X spawned behind Kyd and attempted to slice off those bat-like ears on Kyd's headgear. Kyd Wykkyd spawned behind Red X and tried to do the same with X's neck.
"– the H.I.V.E. Five wants to make a name for themselves? You have a long way to go."
During another close quarters scuffle, X managed to push Kyd through a skylight on the roof.
When Kyd reoriented himself, he saw See-More, lying on the wooden floorboards. The side of See-More's head seemed to be broken off, some of his auburn hair showing. A less than comfortable amount of blood was stained on him and the floor.
"You see him?" Red X called from above, casually leaning over the broken window. Kyd shook himself out of his frozen stupor and fell to the floor, the pain of his knee catching up with him. He glared at X. "That's what happens when you piss off the wrong people without the right crap to back you up."
One final shuriken was thrown to the side of the empty apartment. The X glowed brightly, enticing nearby X's placed on the wall to glow as well.
"I warned you," X said lowly as he caressed his hurt shoulder, wincing as he stirred it around. "If you're smart, you'll skip town with Mr. Monster Incorporated there. If not, I'll be seeing you. Tell Miss Fortune I said hey."
With that, Red X teleported away, leaving his victims to handle the ensuing explosion.
Next Early Morning…
Jinx, her arms crossed, watched through the glass window as Billy and his duplicates bandaged and treated See-More. Kyd, back hunched, observed with a sullen expression afflicting his face.
She underestimated how badly Red X was willing to hurt her teammates. They all thought he was some punk who was on a joy ride, despite the competent fighting skills he displayed during their initial encounter. Now, though, it was clear that this "punk" was more of a threat than they thought.
Than I thought, Jinx remind herself. It was her plan, after all, and the only one with enough smarts to get these boys organized. The Five trusted one another to watch each other's back, and Jinx's plan to test the waters got See-More and Kyd seriously hurt.
"You sure your knee is fine now, right Kyd?" she asked her companion.
Kyd nodded slowly. Movement underneath his cape suggested that he might have grabbed the aforementioned injury. The last time anyone saw Kyd this dejected was when he and Angel broke up.
One of the Billy clones gave a thumbs-up from behind the window. Another opened the door to the infirmary and stretched his head out.
"See-More's gonna be a-okay," he reassured with a genuine smile. "Has a concussion, a few cuts, some 'round his cranium, but nothing we can't handle. Should be awake in a few hours."
Kyd gave a mock salute in Billy's direction, still preoccupied with staring at See-More's steadily breathing body. Jinx thanked Billy for his help. She squeezed her hand on Kyd's shoulder before heading off to the living room.
She needed another plan, a better one. She couldn't let that damn thief get away with nearly killing two of her friends. They might have gotten some decent loot, but they had to get rid of X if they wanted to really be the top criminals in Jump City. Then self-proclaimed high-fliers like Red X wouldn't dare to cross the H.I.V.E. Five and professionals like the Brotherhood of Evil would finally see the potential in them.
Red X wasn't an amateur, that much was obvious now. He thought the Five were amateurs. Maybe they were still rusty, as a team, at least. All the same, Red X was just one person. He'd definitely be overwhelmed if a proper plan of attack was made.
After going over her ideas with Gizmo, Jinx planned on spending the rest of the morning with See-More and Kyd in the infirmary.
A Few Hours Later…
Red X, unmasked, was examining his figure in the mirror.
"You going to stare at yourself all day, kid, or are ya going to get your cut?"
X sighed, brushing his hair out of the way of his vision. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." He exited the room, walking downstairs to the bar. Spike was counting dollar bills and stacking them at a booth. It would be another hour until Walker's Corner opened.
"Nice catch," Spike commented, smiling at all the money he set before him. "Should be secure for another three months with my share. Oh, and here's yours."
Red X swiped the cash and counted, just in case. "Thank you, Spike, for all these one dollar bills."
Spike gave a hearty laugh. "Fine, here. You only get three-quarters of your share, though. That explosion wasn't part of the plan. Someone has to cover your tracks." The mechanic handed the money, his smile thinning out into a straight line. "What was with that, anyhow? What did the H.I.V.E. Five do to piss you off?"
"They didn't really do anything," X admitted, counting the bills. "I'm just making sure they know the deal. As much as I joke around, I know it isn't all fun and games."
"Still, X. The news caught some footage of that Kyd Wykkyd kid dragging the eye kid out of the neighborhood. They left a trail of blood; pretty brutal, considering your M.O."
"Was trying to make a point." Red X shoved his share into his wallet. "Moving on, how do I look?" X moved back to allow Spike a better view of his casual attired form. "I got a date today."
"You're dating again?" Spike raised an eyebrow.
"Fang – y'know, Kitten's boyfriend – he knew a guy that set me up with someone. Apparently, Kitten wants to have a 'double date' thing, so…"
"Ah, I see." Spike cupped his chin and eyed his younger associate. "Hell, I don't know the first thing about style or fashion. You look like another teenager, what else can I say?"
The dashing rogue shrugged. "Good enough for me. I'll see you Thursday. Later, Spike."
"Don't come crying to me if you fall in love and get your heart broken!" Spike called to the civilian mask of Red X exiting the building.
"Screw you, old man!" X called back, the sound of a motorcycle running off into the distance resounding.
Spike snickered at their inside joke. Honestly, however, he did wonder why Red X was being more vicious to the Five than he ever was with the Titans.