7/12/20
...….
Cursed
Chapter Thirty-Six: Deception
…
I take a deep breath, fiddling with my necklace as I wait for Gizmo to finish checking his equipment. In the past few months, he's spent every spare moment upgrading his inventions in order to make up for out past failure. Mammoth and I have responded similarly, expanding our training regimes and creating new attack patterns until we're physically and mentally exhausted. Everything has to be perfect. Everything will be perfect. And tonight, we finally get to prove ourselves.
Tonight's mission is still only grunt work. After our failure in defeating the Titans last fall we have yet to be trusted with a bigger mission, instead being ordered to contribute towards the ever present command to rob banks in order to secure funding for the HIVE's latest project. Our class project this year has yet to be revealed to us, but Headmaster Blood promises that it will be the HIVE's greatest achievement yet.
I trust Headmaster Blood with every fiber of my being. After all, who else would've taken me in when I had nowhere else to go? Certainly not my parents. They would've written me off as a freak the moment I came home with my powers. Headmaster Blood is different. When he saw me running away from the Witch's house, he rescued me. I still remember that day, even though it was so long ago. I remember how he assigned me to room with Jade, how he helped me hone my still-developing powers, the disappointment on his face when I failed that mission last fall…
I shake my head, bringing myself out of my reverie. I cannot dwell on the past. I may have disappointed Headmaster Blood then, but tonight I can make up for it. Tonight, we cannot fail. Our job may be small, but it could make all the difference in regaining Headmaster Blood's trust. After all, without funds our class project cannot be finished. Maybe, just maybe…
"Hey Jinx, you ready?"
Nodding my head, I turn to follow Gizmo and Mammoth out the door. My head throbs, as it so often has over the past few months, but I choose to ignore it. A side effect of my time spent at the Witch's house on graduation day, most likely, since the headaches started at around that time. It could be magic or stress. Who knows? I asked Headmaster Blood about it, in case he thought it could be a sign of something worse, like a brain tumor or some other disease. Of course, I left out the part about visiting the Witch's house, as that would be seen as disobediently clinging to my past life. Instead, I blammed the possibility of a magical side effect on my battle with Raven. Headmaster Blood appeared to listen carefully to my concerns, but brushed them off as soon as I was done speaking. He told me not to worry about it, or mention it to any of the other students. The request seemed odd, but for some reason I can't explain I felt instinctively obligated to comply. So I did. Not even my team knows about the headaches.
"Jinx!" Leo hisses the moment I exit the building.
Speaking of headaches…
"What do you want?" I growl, crossing my arms defensively.
Leo doesn't take the obvious hint to go away and never show his stupid face again. "Something weird is going on here."
I narrow my eyes. "No, there isn't, and even if there was it wouldn't be your business. I don't know why you're even bothering with me anymore."
"Look, I made a mistake letting you dump me-"
I cut him off before he has the chance to demonstrate how much of a moron he is. "Stop acting like you had a choice in the matter. I dumped you. We're through. You had your chance, now get lost!"
I turn my back to him and follow my teammates to one of the cars owned by the Academy. Mammoth is silently fuming, while Gizmo mutters pseudo-swears under his breath. Much like the headaches, which have gone on for roughly as long as this crap has, I try not to let it affect me. It would be nice if I could go a day without Leo bothering me, but I'm not counting on it. It should be easy enough to kick him off campus, since he doesn't even go here, but that would involve telling Headmaster Blood that I was dating someone from another school- yet another rule I broke behind his back. I guess it probably makes sense that he's disappointed in me.
As we're about to make it to the car, I feel a firm hand clench onto my shoulder. I flinch in surprise, instinctively whirling around on my heels to punch Leo in the jaw. He winces, stumbling backwards while clutching his wounded jaw in one hand.
"Hey! Leave her alone you creep!" Mammoth roars, holding him up by the front of his parka.
Gizmo uses his jet pack to levitate upwards until he's eye level with Leo. "If you don't get your sorry loser butt away from us right now, we'll show you a whole new type of pain. Got it?"
Leo's eyes dart back and forth between the three of us, confusion and terror clear in his expression. But not regret. Never regret.
"I think we've made ourselves clear. Come on nimrods, lets go."
I whirl around and gracefully strut away to our car. The whir of Gizmo's jet pack and a soft thud as Leo hits the ground both sound off behind me as Gizmo and Mammoth follow my lead. As we drive away, I don't bother to look at Leo. He had his chance, and he threw it away. Now I just have to focus on not failing mine.
…
Hi again! As the chapter title suggests, we've hit the start of the episode Deception (this chapter being set before the robbery at the beginning of the episode). I'm going to try to only cover the necessary parts of the episode itself, instead focusing more on filling in the gaps between scenes (the initiation scene, the reasoning for Jinx's crushing on Cyborg, the aftermath of the Hive Academy's destruction, etc.).
This chapter took a bit longer than anticipated, and I'm honestly not 100% certain when I'll next have time to update. That being said, I'm going to make an effort to better manage my time from now on (mainly because I've come to the conclusion that mindlessly scrolling through social media because I'm too anxious to do anything else is, in fact, making my anxiety worse).
Thank you everyone who followed, added to favorites, and reviewed. KF fan, thanks for the critique! Fight scenes have always been tricky for me to write, so I'll definitely keep your advice in mind for next time :)
Quote of the day:
"Why are you using antimatter reactors at a cafe?"
"That's… uh… what we call the coffee machines."
-Phi and Clover, Zero Escape
May the odds be ever in your favor,
Spectrobes Princess