Hello everyone, and welcome back to Secret No More. I hope the wait was worth it and that you all still enjoy the story.
To everyone who's curious, Bumblebee won with 3 to 2 votes. Don't worry Ravager fans, that story is next on my list.
Eris – I am absolutely blown away by how accurate your comment was. You near perfectly predicted my original plan for the story, its almost like you read my mind. I will definitely keep that in mind and while I won't be using all the ideas you suggested since it feels similar-ish to the plot of another BB/Jinx story "Outcasts", I will keep it in mind and I really appreciate it. I am also curious about who you are. I've seen you in the reviews a few times on mine and other stories and you always leave good, detailed reviews.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, simple as that.
Let's get back to the story…
Chapter 5: The Incident
Jinx POV:
As my eyes scanned the various fights taking place between my team of morons and the Titans, and to even a blind man it would be obvious that the Titans were winning. But despite the fact that my team had basically already lost, it was something – or rather someone – else that had drawn my focus.
None other than the green shapeshifter himself, Beast Boy. He had just finished checking on Private HIVE, probably making sure he didn't kick him too hard, and now he was looking in my direction. Scratch that, he was looking right at me with those deep green eyes akin to the most exquisite emeralds.
As our eyes locked, I shifted slightly under his gaze. One thing that couldn't be denied about the shapeshifting boy was that he had a captivating stare. All thanks to those bright green iris's and child-like quality to them. As a result, I found it slightly difficult to fight off a faint blush that tried to work its way onto my face, though not undoable. What I couldn't prevent however was my eyes becoming drawn to his, whether it be due to the aforementioned qualities of them or something else I'm not quite sure.
My train of thought came to a halt when he ever so slightly smiled. The only thing more entrancing about him then his eyes, was his smile. Ask almost any villainess in the business that knew of it and they would tell you that the boy had one of the most adorable smiles. Maybe was because of that single fang that peaked out, or another side effect of his childish demeanour, who could tell. This particular smile he held was small, likely unintentional, but no less present. I almost felt compelled to return it kind, and may very well have done so if not for what happened next.
Time itself seemed to slow down as I saw the red glow behind him. The powerful blast went straight for the green boy's arm, its aim true and precise. I knew it wouldn't kill him, but that did almost nothing to alleviate the shock as I watched the scene unfold. My eyes snapped open wider than ever before as I watched the blast tear its way through his arm just bellow the shoulder. Its heat scorched the now severed arm, down to the bone in some areas, and the smoldering remains plummeted towards the ground. The sound of the boy's scream filled the air and reached my ears before the blast went through the wall next to me or the charred remains of his limb hit the ground.
No POV:
Everyone around, from civilians to the police to the heroes and villains themselves, stopped what they were doing and stared at the horrific scene before them. Even the unconscious villains were brought awake by the scream. Gizmo, once he looked up and saw what had happened, grew a large sadistic grin as he relished in the pain and suffering of the young hero. He was even more pleased at the fact that it was See-More who had done so. 'Looks like cyclops's wasn't just all talk after all. I'll have to have a word with him later, see what use he can be.' The tiny teen thought.
For whatever reason, everyone seemed to be frozen in place since no one moved a muscle as See-More began walking up to the downed and injured hero, who had stopped screaming and was now grunting and hissing in pain as he held his stump. See-More stalked towards the downed hero unopposed, a sadistic, smile adorned his face. After a few steps he shot a brief laser blast into Beast Boy's left torso, causing him to scream and fall to his hand and knees hunched over in pain with his head down. Even Jinx winced when she saw the cruelty from the one-eyed villain.
Now at this point the other Titans would probably have intervened, jumping in, and stopping the situation from going any further. That would be the case, if not for the fact that the other members of the H.I.V.E upon regaining consciousness and recognising the situation at hand, took their chance. Gizmo quickly launched an EMP grenade at Cyborg which did its intended job and shut down the titanium plated teen, before moving to Kid Flash and shooting him with a fast-acting tranquiliser dart. Mammoth went straight for Starfire and body slammed her into the ground before following up with an ankle grab and repeatedly slamming her into the pavement, needless to say she was down for the count. Private HIVE went for Herald starting with a few flashbangs and tear gas canister. The combined effects of both ordnances blinded him, but the tear gas had the added effect of burning his lungs and preventing him from using his musical teleportation. Having been made completely vulnerable and unprepared, all it took was a swift hit to the head from the villain's shielded forearm to knock him out. Raven faired the best out of all the heroes considering her powerset, but the unfortunate thing for her was that her powers worked best at ranged attacks and while she was trained somewhat in hand-to-hand combat, she was still the weakest when it came to that area. Kid Wykkyd was well aware of this fact and wasted no time in closing the gap to his foe. The fight was brief and like her teammates Raven fell rather quickly. Robin seemed to be just as unlucky, if not more so, than his teammates during the surprise attack as he not only had to watch as they were all defeated from the confines of his bubble prison, but right as he was released, he was immediately set upon by a horde of Billy Numerous clones who made quick work of him. Skilled though he may be, even the greatest of fighters fall to overwhelming numbers.
A/N: These types of scenarios happen a lot in media, especially in shows like Teen Titans, Young Justice, etc. Situations where the lives of the whole teams or even the world are at risk and all seems to be lost. And while I get that it is to add tension and drama, I can't be the only one who watched these scenes when I was younger and was practically screaming at my screen "Where is the Justice League?" Surely, they would know that these things are happening and should be coming to help, right?
With the rest of the Titans all taken care of, See-More continued towards his prey. Beast Boy hadn't moved besides his laboured breathing and frequent shudders of pain.
Jinx wasn't sure how to feel right now. While she was pleased at the fact that her team had apparently won, there was also a small part of her that worried for the green teen and silently wished for him to get up. She just stood there stunned with eyes wide and watching the scene before her with intensity.
"This is all just too perfect," See-More said as he approached the severally injured hero. "We beat the Titans, escape with the loot, and I get to put one snot coloured looser in the dirt." As he got close to Beast Boy and kneeled down in front of him, he lowered his voice to a mumble, where only he and Beast Boy could hear it.
"Let's see that pink bitch refuse me after this." He muttered as his visor glowed red.
Suddenly Beast Boy's left arm shoots up and grabs him by the throat. A low growl emanates from the green teen as he stands back up and looks See-More straight in the eyes, lifting him off the ground while doing so. His pupils turned into predatory vertical slits and his right stump quickly regrew back into an arm, though bare thanks to his sleeve and glove being burned away. See-More's eyes, bloodshot from the lack of oxygen, along with everyone else's became wide as saucers at the sight before the changeling let out a loud, booming primal roar and punched him far down the road where he smashed through the pavement. He left a broken trail as he went before finally landing face down into the ground.
Everything once again fell silent, not even a chirping of birds could be heard. The other members of the hive were frozen in shock and simply watched, with Billy and one of his clones holding each other in fear.
Upon seeing this reaction from the boy, Jinx was just as shocked as everyone else, but she also felt a strange sense of relief that he was alright. Frankly, everything that was happening was beginning to become a bit too much for her liking. She needed to get everyone back to the base so that she could process all this and decide the next course of action.
See-More slowly picked himself back up and raised his head to reveal his now heavily cracked visor. His face bore a look of shock and fear as he saw Beast Boy marching towards him. As the changeling walked his wound began rapidly healing, his teeth and claws lengthened and his eyes were ablaze with a savage, primal fury.
See-More scrambled back as the shapeshifter approached him. He reached for the side of his helmet and tried to fire another blast only for his opponents clawed hand to grab his wrist. He sent another powerful punch into See-More's stomach followed by a kick to his face. He then grabbed the cyclops by his shirt and slammed him into the ground before throwing him hard into the nearest wall.
The boy's ears snapped to the side and he ducked under one of Gizmo's robot legs that tried to slice his head off, followed by a roll to avoid Mammoth landing on him. He continued to dodge and evade attacks from Gizmo, Mammoth and Private Hive. Billy Numerous had decided to bravely hide in a nearby dumpster with his clone and Kyd Wykkyd had went to talk to Jinx when she called his earpiece.
Unfortunately for them, the tables soon turned on the three villains who were attacking Beast Boy. As Gizmo tried to swing a claw down on him, the green teen ducked and sliced it with his claws, the momentum sending it straight into Private HIVE. He then leaped forward and sliced off all the remaining claws before grabbing the tyke; roaring in his face (which caused him to piss himself; and sending him into the dumpster with the Billy's. Mammoth tried to bring his massive fist down on the green boy, but he rolled away from the blow and turned to face his giant foe with a snarl. The brutish villain threw another punch at him only for him to sidestep it at the last second and dig his claws into Mammoth's hand. Moving like a snake he brought the villains arm to the side of his body and fully extended it before driving his fist into the man's elbow where he was rewarded with a painful crack. The shapeshifter followed up by leaping onto the brute's shoulders where he sent a hard blow straight down onto the top of his head. This was hard enough to daze the villain and send him stumbling before Beast Boy ended the fight by somersaulting down the front of the giant while grabbing the front of his shirt, using the roll to throw the hairy brute through the wall of a building, right next to where See-More had earlier.
Once everything fell still again, Kyd Wykkyd took the chance retrieved his teammates with his portals. Beast Boy decided not to pursue them since he was beginning to feel the fatigue from the day of fighting. Then his nose caught a familiar scent. He turned to see what it was, and his gaze landed on none other than Jinx. She was still there in that alley, right where he saw her before. His features returned to normal and the two of them shared a look before Kyd Wykkyd appeared next to Jinx and she left through one of his portals.
With all that done, the young hero let out a heavy sigh and walked over to his teammates. He managed to wake up Robin, Raven and Kid Flash and they took everyone else home via one of Ravens portals.
Hive Tower
The mostly beaten and broken team stumbled through the door to their main room and slumped onto either the couch or a nearby chair. Jinx paced back and fourth as she went over the previous events in her mind.
She was broken from her stupor by the annoying squeal of the team's resident midget genius.
"OK, time to address the elephant in the room. Where the hell were you? We bust our asses following the plan; fought off those shit-eating Titans; and made it to the rendezvous point just like we planned. But lo and behold, you were the only one who wasn't there. Thanks to you we got the shit beat out of us and lost all out score. I even broke my teleporter." Griped Gizmo.
"Actually I didn't come out empty handed." See-More stated as he pulled the alexandrite from his belt.
"Me neither." Billy said as he split into 6 clones each of whom pulled a bag of cash out from their torso. The rest of the team froze and stared at the 6 southerners with various shocked looks on their faces. "What… the hell… was that?" Jinx said, breaking the moment of silence.
"Oh, right, I didn't mention that did I? Well, I was doin some readin online and found one of those sites where people talk bout us, and on it some physics student was talkn bout how since I can clone myself into hundreds of copies and never have my bi-o-mass change, then I should be able to store small things inside myself temporarily." He explained.
"And it worked?" Jinx asked. This was an interesting development that she would be sure to make a note of.
"I guess so." Billy said.
"Well then, good work." Jinx said. "And to answer you question short stack, this mission wasn't meant to be a success. The purpose of the whole mission was actually to test each of you on how your skills, abilities, and willingness to follow orders have progressed. Gizmo and Mammoth, you both failed miserably thanks to your constant bickering with each other, your lack of respect for my authority, and your general hot-headed stupidity causing you to function horribly in the team and even got your arm broken Mammoth." She gestured to the larger man who was running his thumb over his new cast and sling. "Also, while it wasn't required, neither of you brought back any loot so we can just add that to the pile." The two in question had angry and annoyed looks on their faces, obviously not pleased with being reprimanded.
Continuing on Jinx turned to the cycloptic member of the team. "See-More, on the whole you were questionable at best. While you did help separate those two morons when they were bickering and you landed a good hit on Beast Boy, that obviously didn't end well and you along with several other members of the team ended up getting you ass kicked hard. Plus the fact that you almost killed greenie could have had disastrous consequences from the Titans wanting to get revenge. Also that blast came inches from my head when it hit the wall next to me, and this may come as a shock, but I like living. Overall you were very disappointing." See-More's only response was to lower his head and turn away in shame.
Next, she moved to the group of Billy's on the couch. "Billy, the fact that you managed to keep his loot via that weird… body storage thing A/N: That idea is borrowed from the story "Apex Predator" by bubbajack. Really fun story, I recommend it. and not loosing focus too much when it really mattered lands you at an acceptable standing, with exception to when you hid in a dumpster but considering what happened we'll just chalk that up to needed improvement." The Billy's were rather pleased with their evaluation and proceeded to high five and compliment each other.
Lastly Jinx shifted to Private HIVE. "Private, while you didn't bring any loot you showed exceptional loyalty and skill in both fighting prowess and in leadership for which I am very proud. As such I am promoting you to second in command. You will be given access to more knowledge as to the Hive's missions later on as well as greater responsibility on the team. Congratulations." She extended her hand to the surprised teen who quickly regained his composure and shook her hand. "Thank you, ma'am. I promise you wont regret it."
With that post mission meeting finished, Jinx began heading towards the elevator to her room so that she could deal with her strange feelings from the day. That is, until that annoying runt decided to open his equally annoying mouth yet again.
"Hey, wait a minute, what about Kyd? He just up and left several times today, but you never gave him any of this spiel." He said.
She turned back around and stared the tyke down. "That's because Wykkyd has already proven himself to be satisfactory in my eyes, and thus why he knew about the hidden side of the mission from the beginning. He will also be given a larger cut of pay so quit your yapping or its coming out of your cut. Also, the two of us actually brought our score home so why don't you get to finding someone to sell everything to." She said before continuing towards the elevator and heading towards her room.
What Jinx neglected to mention was that another reason was because Wykkyd was also her most trusted teammate and best friend. But that story was for another time. Right now she has more important things to consider.
Titans Tower
Back at the more familiar T tower, the Titans had recently regained consciousness and were in the med bay taking care of the more heavily injured. The team had asked Beast Boy about what happened after they were all incapacitated, but for whatever reason his only response to what happened was that "It was rough". In the end they decided to review the news footage after everyone recovered and had dinner. While everyone else was busy Beast Boy excused himself and said that he was going to go try and catch a quick catnap, both literally and figuratively.
Beast Boy made his way to his room and had a quick shower, changed into some civies, and snuck out his window.
He flew as an eagle through the now night sky towards the city, the warm night air flowing gently under his wings. Eventually he landed on top of one of the more secluded rooftops on the quieter side of the city.
It was an older yet decently sized 12 story apartment building with a rooftop patio containing various chairs, tables, plants, and a covered area attached to the roof access door. The space was not used much so it was relatively unattended to by the building staff. Despite this though it was still a nice spot with a gorgeous view of the city.
Once he landed, he shifted back into himself and made his way over to a table with several chairs under the covered area.
He sat there for a good five minutes before he heard someone come out of the door to the roof access.
"That you?" He called out. "Nicole."
"Yeah, its me Gar." Came a response from the figure who started walking towards him.
The green teen looked over to see Jinx as she made her way over to him with two drinks in hand. She was wearing a dark purple hoodie with the hood up, a pair of shades, black skinny jeans, and black converse shoes. He himself was wearing a white t-shirt with black sleaves and collar, gray jeans, and purple sneakers.
She sat down across from him at the table and passed him one of the drinks as she took a sip from her own. She pulled down her hood and released her hair, somehow still in its iconic horned appearance, and took off her glasses to look the boy in the eyes.
For a moment neither one said anything, simply enjoying the silence.
But they came here for a reason, so Beast Boy decided to get things started. "I had a feeling you'd want to meet up again, it was a heck of a day huh?"
"You can say that again." Jinx responded.
Once more silence filled the air, and just as before, neither seemed to want to break it.
Beast Boy sighed before turning his attention back to the one sitting across from him. "I know that we've got a bit to talk about, but…" He was cut off by Jinx asking the big question that had been lingering in the back of her mind all afternoon. "What happened today?"
Beast Boy shied away from the question, not really wanting to tackle that whole issue right off the bat. Jinx noticed his reluctance and was about to retract her question before Beast Boy answered her.
"I… See-More had already pissed me off, and I was having trouble keeping my primal side from lashing out. But then, he said… something that… finally pushed me over the edge." Jinx nodded in understanding and waited for him to continue. "You already knew what I could do if I lost control, as well as what would happen as a result. This was just an example of those consequences."
"I see." She said. "Bird Boy is probably going to chew you out for it when he finds out you know."
Beast Boy sighed and rubbed his face in frustration. "Yeah, I know. But don't worry too much about it, I'm already thinking of a way to deal with it. Lets not talk about me anymore. How have you been? Why were you watching the whole fight from that alley?"
"I was using today's missions as a test to see how my team had progressed. Some of them, as expected, failed miserably while others did as good as I had hoped. But overall I'd have to say I'm doing fine. What about you?"
The green boy shrugged his shoulders. "Can't complain, everything's going fine right now. Raven doesn't pick on me much anymore, Starfire is actually becoming more mature as the weeks go by, Robin's a little less stuck up and Cyborg is… well Cyborg. It probably won't be quite as smooth sailing once the team finds out about what happened today."
The two then sat in a comfortable silence for about a minute before Beast Boy spoke up again.
"Its good to see you again, well, outside of the fighting. It feels like its been ages since we've just… talked."
"…Yeah, time can do that to you." Jinx said as she glanced out across the glow of the city.
"We've probably got a while before our teams will start to wonder where we are… you wanna just talk like old times?" The green teen asked.
Jinx turned back to him and looked him in the eyes, those deep green, ever so gentle eyes. Once again, she felt the flutter of emotions that just didn't seem to cease no matter how much she pushed them down.
Steeling herself off once again before it became too noticeable, the girl allowed a small smile to grace her face. "Yeah, that sounds nice."
The two talked together for almost two hours reminiscing about old times, past fights and pretty much whatever came up. They weren't enemies. They weren't a hero and a villain. They weren't Beast Boy and Jinx. They were just Garfield and Nicole, two old friends talking like nothing had changed and all was right in the world.
To Be Continued…
Chapter 4 done. Why did Beast Boy and Jinx meet up afterwards? Why are they so cordial with each other? All in due time dear readers, all in due time.
Sorry about the wait for the chapter, it had a good few rewrite's but I'm happy with how it turned out. The next chapter WILL be out in a week, I promise you that.
Any and all comments or criticism is greatly appreciated. As a beginning writer I think that response of any kind is very important and can be the driving force for all who are new to the writing scene, same goes for more established creators as well. I recommend everyone to try to show your support to those people when you can.
It's the reviews from readers that have kept me going and so I want to thank everyone who takes the time out of their day to do so.
Also a thanks to everyone who favorited and is following this story, I had an influx of a few people here and there since last chapter and they helped to remind me to keep working on the story. Every bit of response I get to this story means the world to me and that's all thanks to you readers.
Thank you all and I will see you next time Titans…
