Author's Notes: This story takes place between seasons 3 and 4. No, this story is not supposed to have anything to do with Robin's identity, nor whether or not Jason Todd is really Red X.

………………………………………………………………………………...

There was nothing too special about Jones Roberto. He ran all the imports and exports in a little section of the docks on south Jump City. All the illegal imports and exports, anyway. Jones Roberto was involved in organized crime, and managed to make a nice living for himself by using his docks for anyone who needed contraband.

He was usually well dressed. Today he wore a tan dress shirt, unbuttoned at the top, and some nice black slacks. He didn't wear dress shoes but instead wore nice boater's shoes that didn't leave scuffmarks on a ship's deck. They were a must for anyone working on or near a boat, like the ones at his docks. Otherwise, he enjoyed the best that blood money could buy.

There was nothing too special about Jones Roberto, in Jump City's underworld.

Jones walked to his three-story tall office building on the wharf, and when he entered his plush office he was still being followed by two of his goons.

"But Mr. Roberto, what about the six o'clock shipment tomorrow?", one of his goons asked.

"Oh yeah, Aquista's shipment. Have it dock on pier 12 instead of 13. Then our shipment from Metropolis can still come in on time.", Roberto instructed as he sat in a soft leather chair behind his desk. "Now, is there anything else I should know about? I've got work to do."

"Uh, yeah. Red Hood roughed up one of our boys an hour or two ago. Another offer to join him.", one goon said.

Roberto chuckled to himself. "I told him already, we kick up to Black Mask. Not him. He's nobody."

"ChiChi and the rest of the south-side's runners have joined him, maybe we should too?", another goon offered his advice.

Robert looked at that second goon with a crooked eyebrow. "Red Hood is nobody. Showed up out of nowhere, and now he has a little territory east of us. Big deal. With Black Mask, we can either get fat, or we can get vaporized. I'd rather get fat and kick up to him, know what I'm saying?"

"But that's just what Winston over on 6th street said, and they say Hood almost blew him to kingdom come.", the first goon said.

"They say a lot of things.", Roberto said. "They say Black Mask is a zombie. They say Punk Rocket is losing his hearing. They say Johnny Rancid's had his tongue tattooed."

"But, sir-"

"Alright, that's enough. The answer to Red Hood's generous offer, is still 'No', and it will always be 'No'. Now unless you two brain donors have any other advice, I'd like to get back to my-" Roberto stopped when he noticed something across his office. An unopened package laid on the soft leather couch across from his office.

"Sir?", the other goon asked when he noticed the sudden inquisitive look on his employer's face.

"What's that over there?" Roberto pointed to the package. "When'd that get here?"

Both of the goons turned around and looked curiously at the package, and the second goon slowly approached it.

"Careful with that." The first goon instructed.

"Boss, it's addressed to you.", the second goon said when he picked up the package and inspected it. He walked over to Roberto's desk with it. "No return address."

Roberto pressed a button on the intercom unit on his desk and spoke into it, "Miss Withers, did I get a package today?"

"No, sir.", Miss Withers said from her own office elsewhere in the building.

The second goon set the package down on Roberto's desk.

Roberto took a letter opener of his and carefully cut the packing tape. Then he slowly opened the package, looking for tripwires or anything else that would indicate a trap. Once the package was opened, Roberto stared into the small sea of packing peanuts, and reached in.

The two goons watched was Roberto withdrew a red metal mask. The only features to be see on this mask were it's two menacing white eyes.

Roberto looked curiously at it for a moment, and then started laughing. His goons nervously followed suit and chuckled.

"I heard once that Red Hood wears a mask like this." He chuckled. "Is this supposed to be a joke?"

"No, not even close.", the mask said.

Roberto and his two goons jumped back slightly in surprise when they heard the mask talk.

"It- It talks?", the first goon asked.

"It's alive!", the second goon exclaimed.

"No, you moron. There's probably just a radio and speakers in this mask.", Roberto said, holding the mask.

"We have a winner, folks.", the mask said.

"I take it, you're Red Hood?", Roberto said to the mask.

"Yeah, that's right."

"Pleased to finally meet you.", Roberto said with a sort of unamused sarcasm. "Let me guess, you're here to offer me one last chance to join you, huh?"

"Yeah. That about sums it up.", the mask said.

Roberto rolled his eyes. "I work for Black Mask. You know that. And now you want me to forget him and kick up to you?"

"Yes.", Red Hood said through the mask.

"How dumb do you think I am?"

"Dumb enough not to realize this mask's heavier then it should be." Red Hood paused for a moment. "And that it's beeping."

"What?" Roberto turned the mask around in his grip, examining it from different angles. He turned it upside down to look inside the mask from the bottom opening where the wearer's head would enter it through, and his eyes widened.

Inside, the mask was filled with plastic explosives, and a simple timer was wired into the explosives. The timer read: 30

29

28

"Bomb!", Roberto yelled and dropped the mask on his desk. He immediately pushed aside his goons and ran out of his office, shouting "BOMB!"

His goons got to their feet and followed.

"BOMB! Everyone run! It's a bomb!"

Roberto, and everyone in the office began running out as fast as they could.

KABLAM!

Roberto's entire office on top floor was destroyed in a blast with the magnificent explosion, and only ashes and gently burning embers were left.

He and his two goons emerged from whatever crevice they had hidden in, and stared at what the blackened soot that was the plush office they had been standing in second before.

"M- Maybe… Maybe we should reconsider his offer.", Jones Roberto told his two goons.

-Under The Hood-

Mammoth walked into the small dingy hotel room and took off the large overcoat and hat he'd used to disguise himself on Jump City's streets.

"About time you're back, barf-brain.", Gizmo said as he worked on his jetpack on the hotel room's small desk. "Did you find any places worth eating?", he asked his large partner in crime who had complained about being hungry.

Mammoth sighed. "I did, but then something stole my sandwich. Stupid blur…" Mammoth sat on the uncomfortable bed.

Gizmo, Mammoth, and Jinx had been having a hard time making the bills meet ever since the H.I.V.E. academy officially fell under the combined efforts of the Teen Titans and Titans East. Because the Teen Titans had searched and dug around for any remaining H.I.V.E. students, they had to lay very low. And to make life somewhat more uncomfortable, Red X, who had often hired Gizmo to create various gadgets for him, was now out of town and had very little work to pay Gizmo to do.

In short, the three H.I.V.E. kids were having hard times and they were broke.

The reason these three trained criminals were staying in the uncomfortable hotel was because they were staking out an electronics store near by that they wished to rob. Hopefully some fresh cash and a few new electronic toys could make life a little more comfortable. Jinx was out scouting for an escape route after the robbery.

"Did you see Jinx out there?", Gizmo asked as he returned to working on his jetpack. Ah, the simple joy of tinkering.

"Yeah. She's scouting down 6th street.", Mammoth answered.

"Was.", Jinx said as she opened the door and startled her two partners in crime. "Man, everyone is spooked about something over there on 6th street."

"Oh yeah? Over what?", Mammoth asked.

"Who cares? Just a bunch of stinking snot-munching dorks anyway.", Gizmo offered his opinion.

Jinx ignored Gizmo's comment. "Don't know." She walked over to and vacant chair next to Gizmo's desk and across from Mammoth and sat. "But whoever it is, he's got everyone's attention."

"Anything we should worry about?", Mammoth asked.

"Probably not. If anything it'll make it easier for us to escape after this job."

"Good." Gizmo turned too his partners. "Because I don't want any crud-eating Titans showing up again."

-Under The Hood-

Robin, bathed in shadows and with his cape wrapped around him, slowly approached two thieves he'd just tied up with a bolas.

The two thieves laid on the floor of the alley as Robin's foreboding shadow loomed over them.

"I'll only ask once…", he said as grimly and with as much intimidation as he could muster. "What does Al Melee have to do with Control Freak?" Al Melee, an arms dealer in Jump City, had allegedly been seen with Control Freak. Robin knew these two thieves worked for Al Melee, he knew a shipment of blasters just like the ones they carried had arrived last week. Since he was breaking up their robbery, he thought he might as well find out what ever they knew about Al Melee. Control Freak wasn't the biggest concern he had on his plate at the moment.

The two thieves looked at each other, still tied tightly together in the bolas Robin had thrown at them, then looked back to Robin and said nothing.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear.", Robin said, his glare deepening. Making sure criminals feared you was crucial. That's why Robin was being careful not to seem nice.

Then Robin's communicator started ringing. One of Robin's eyebrows raised and he turned away from the two thieves without a word. He withdrew his communicator from his belt and held it up.

"Yes?", he answered.

"Dude!", Beast Boy called out over the communicator. "Get over here now!"

"Beast Boy! What's wrong!", Robin asked, turning all his attention to Beast Boy's call.

"You're late for dinner!"

The expression Robin's face instantly turned from concern to annoyance.

"You were supposed to be here for Pizza twenty minuets ago.", Beast Boy whined. "If I don't get my vegi-lovers pizza here in five minuets my head is gonna explode!"

Robin heard the thieves behind him laugh, and then it seemed like a blood vessel in Robin's head was about to pop open.

"Oh, and by the way, Starfire wants to know if you've seen her missing-".

Robin cut the transmission and hung up on Beast Boy. He put away his communicator and turned around to look at the two chuckling thieves. Robin had just lost all the intimidation he held over them.

He sighed. This was going to be harder now.

Ten minuets later.

Beast Boy slumped against the table like an impatient little child.

"We're not eating until Robin returns.", Raven said firmly. "Which could be a while longer now…", she referred to the call Beast Boy had just made, which she had warned him against.

Beast Boy whined.

Starfire and Cyborg sat with them at the table of their favorite pizza place. The restaurant had always had good business ever since the Titans decided it had the best Pizza in Jump City, and the restaurant gladly kept a table reserved just for the Titans on the rooftop balcony at any given time.

"But I'm hungry…", Beast Boy said.

Raven was growing frustrated with Beast Boy, a feeling she was already used to, but her nerves calmed when she sensed a familiar presence near by. A presence that had made no effort in concealing itself from her.

"When he is getting here…?", Beast Boy said.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over the table. Robin dived down at the table, landing under the umbrella and directly in front of Beast Boy, an inch away from the green changeling's face.

"AAGGHH!", Breast Boy screamed and fell over off his chair.

"Missed me, huh?", Robin said with a deep smirk.

Cyborg and Starfire laughed, and even Raven couldn't help but smirk and chuckle.

"Not funny!", Beast Boy said from on the floor. Then he climbed back onto his chair.

Robin stepped off the table and took his seat, retracting the line from his grapnel gun that he used to slow his decent towards the table. "So what're we having?" He said as he took the menu Cyborg handed him.

From there, the late night pizza party took place as usual. They lightly quarreled among themselves, laughed, and tried not to talk too much about work. They ordered their pizzas. A meat-lovers for Cyborg, a vegi-lovers from Beast Boy, and the other three Titans ate some other type of pizza and the leftovers from Beast Boy and Cyborg's. Beast Boy had forgotten his wallet in his other pants, or so he said, so Cyborg offered to pay for his part. They all tipped well, and left.

Soon they arrived in the safety and solitude, of their giant "T" shaped tower in the middle of the city's bay.

-Under The Hood-

Was he dead? No one really knew. Anyone who asked him about his face usually ended up with his own face peeled off before they ever got an answer.

Black Mask, the largest crime lord in Jump City, had a very distinct look to him to say the least. His head looked like nothing more then a black skull, his lips gone and his nose stubby now. What was left of his skin was burnt and colored coal black. His head had been so grievously disfigured in a fire, a black mask he had once worn left a permanent impression on him as it burned while he still wore it, it's substance melting and permanently making his face that way.

Personally, Black Mask preferred his face that way.

He had gained control of Jump City's underworld not too long ago. After Slade "died" at the hands of Terra, Brother Blood and his H.I.V.E acamdey. stepped in and took Slade's spot. Then when the Titans dismantled Brother Blood and the H.I.V.E. academy, Black Mask had been able to grab the power for himself. Now, he was the biggest underworld leader in Jump City.

Black Mask sat in his personal limo and sipped his glass of champagne. His hand rested on a book about 12th century German needle torture that he was considering reading on his way home.

"Did you hear me, sir?", Mr. David Li, the half Asian person assistant of Black Mask, said. He sat across from Black Mask in the limo.

"Hmm?", Mask asked as he took one last sip of his champagne.

Mr. Li had always wondered just how Mask managed to gently sip his champagne without any lips to speak of, but somehow he did. "Did you hear what I said, sir?"

"About the new guy on the South side?"

"Yes. He could become a problem."

"He's not worth my time. It's only some territory in the south side."

"Still, where's there's smoke, there's fire."

"No. Where there's fire, there's fire. And at the moment I have all the gasoline. If some idiot wants to pick up the parking meter change by running the south corners, I've no problem with that."

"And if he's good?", Mr. Li asked.

"Then I'll either bring him into the fold, or I'll gut 'em. Depends on my mood.", Mask said nonchalantly as he took another sip of his champagne.

Mr. Li was obviously more concerned about this new face then his employer was. "Aren't you worried?"

"Nope. That's what I have you for."

Mr. Li made no remark and his face showed no change. He had always been able to speak more freely to Black Mask then any of his other underlings ever dreamed, but even Mr. Li knew better then to become a problem for Black Mask. He'd seen what Black Mask loved to do to his problems.

That matter seemingly settled, Black Mask set the book on 12th century German needle torture in his lap and thumbed through it with one hand while holding his champagne in the other one. "Hmm…", he mused, his thoughts lost inside the book.

Yes, Mr. Li had seen how Black Mask liked to deal with problems.

-Under The Hood-

"Yeah! This is the kinda crud I'm talking about!", Gizmo exclaimed with glee. "No more snotty barf for us!"

"Is there such a thing as snotty barf?", Mammoth whispered to Jinx.

Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth were having a grand time looting the electronics superstore for all it was worth. Gizmo had disabled their security system with the help of a little bad luck from Jinx. Mammoth lifted and hauled away huge computer and electronics boxes, Jinx used her hexes to defeat the cash registers and the safe's locks, and Gizmo set to work at stealing expensive software and smaller components.

Gizmo picked up a box for a cutting-edge PDA and waved it in the air as he flew around on his jetpack. "Yeah! MP3 capable and with a fractional T1 Wifi connection! Cool!"

Jinx and Mammoth were in the midst of their own looting, and looked at him with strange expressions on their faces. They obviously had no clue about any of the techno-babble that Gizmo was saying, but he hadn't seemed to notice.

"What? What is this crud? Only a two gigabite memory card? Pfft, I've seen better snot in the garbage can outside of crud-eaters central.", he tossed a side a box for a memory card. "And look at this computer… BlueTooth capable, that's nothing special. But it does come with a built in webcam and a lighting keybord. Hmmm… Wonder what's the hard drive space."

He continued to ramble like that for a while as Jinx and Mammoth went on their merry way. But it was getting on their last nerves quickly.

"Hey, this one isn't supposed to have a PCI card slot! I thought they got rid of that last year. Hey! But it does have a superdrive and 2 gigahurtz Intel chip inside. Never thought I'd see an Intel in one of these." Gizmo held up the laptop that was on display for his partners to see. "Which crud-muncher had the idea of putting an Intel chip in one of these?"

Suddenly, as if to grant Jinx's and Mammoth's wish that he'd shut up, a blast hit the laptop and broke it to pieces. The pieces of the shot laptop fell to the floor next to Gizmo.

"Huh! What the-"

Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo all looked over and saw a figure standing on a top shelf of computer boxes holding the blaster rifle that had shot the laptop.

He wore a red metal mask, which's only feature to be seen were the ghostly white lenses of his eyes. He wore a grey shirt and dark pants, topped off with tough but light and flexible boots. Most notably of all, he wore a black biker's jacket, minus any frills like tassels or buckles. Just a simple black leather jacket with its collar up. Around his belt was a subtle grey utility belt. Judging from his height and build, the figure was young and perhaps not too many years older then any member of the Teen Titans.

The figure stared at the three H.I.V.E. kids, the blaster in his hand raised and ready for another shot.

"Geez… Does he always go on like that?", the figure in the jacket asked.

"Who are you?", Jinx shouted back as she dropped her sack of cash.

"Name's Red Hood.", the figure with the jacket said. "Hear of me?"

All three kids shook their heads "no".

"Guess you wouldn't have. I just came back from a long vacation. But now I'm tan and rested, and I'm going to be running things from now on. All of Jump City.", he said. "Including you three, you work for me now."

The three young criminals laughed.

Gizmo flew toward the figure and then hovered in the air. "Do you have any idea who we are?", he asked. "We're the Hive Kid's, barf-brain."

"I know exactly who you are.", Red Hood said seriously.

"Yeah? Well we don't work for just any barf munching, crud shooting, snot-"

Blast!

Red Hood fired at Gizmo's jetpack's left thruster, and the device pitched hard to the side. "AAGGHH!", partially out of control, Gizmo flew into a shelf of computer accessories.

Red Hood watched with a sort of sly satisfaction. "You talk way to much."

Suddenly his blaster systematically fell apart, arcs and sparks of pink energy coursing over it. Red Hood, surprised, dropped the weapon as its components disassembled in mid air.

Jinx smirked, her eyes glowing pink and her hand in the air pointing towards where the blaster had been in one piece. "Yeah, but he's right. We don't work for just anyone."

Mammoth walked up beside her and said, "Yeah, who do you think you are?"

Red Hood shrugged his shoulders in a light chuckle and lowered his arm and now empty hand. "Oh, I see. This is the part where we have a big fight to establish the pecking order."

"Fine by me!" Jinx opened her hand and sent waves of pink energy flowing through the air.

Hood jumped off the shelf just before the pink energy hit it, causing the shelf to fall apart and tumble apart. Hood landed on another shelf, ran down it and towards Jinx and Mammoth, and then jumped off. He threw a volley of smoke bombs in the air that exploded all over.

"Hey! What is this- Umph!", Mammoth said as the bottoms Red Hood's boots landed in his face. Mammoth fell back and Hood fell to the ground then rolled away past and behind Jinx.

Jinx frantically fired hex after hex at Hood, but he just sprung to his feet and reached into his jacket. He pulled out two blaster pistols from inside his jacket and fired at Jinx.

Hood dived for the ground and cart wheeled while firing, and one of his blasts hit Jinx in the stomach and sent her reeling back to the ground.

By this time Mammoth and Gizmo had recovered and where coming back for more. Red Hood ran across the store while firing at them, keeping their advances at bay. When Jinx got back up with a groan, Hood ran and hid behind a pillar to keep the electronics megastore's roof up.

"This guy is going down!", Gizmo yelled as he flew forward towards Hood.

"You got that right!", Jinx fired hexes wildly, trying not to hit her smaller partner.

"Hey, Barf-Brain!", Gizmo flew around the pillars one side towards Hood.

But Hood immediately reached out and grabbed him. "Speaking." Hood swung Gizmo around on his own jet-powered momentum. When they appeared from the other side of the pillar, Hood was holding Gizmo in front of him and used the boy as a shield against Jinx's hexes.

When Gizmo was hit with a pink hex, bad luck plagued his gadgets and his backpack suddenly began to spark. "Uh oh.", he said. Then the jetpack thrusters kicked into over drive while weapons and his massive spider legs began to unfold from inside the backpack.

Gizmo was ripped from Hood's grip by the out of control jetpack. He flew around out of control, spider legs flailing and weapons firing randomly. Gizmo screamed before impaling Mammoth, and sent both of them flying across the room with a trail of smoke behind them.

Jinx watched in a mixture of surprise and amusement of Hood's resourcefulness. He'd used her powers to attack both her partners. Her attention snapped back to the fight when he was already half way to her.

Hood jump kicked, and when Jinx dodged his leg destroyed a high definition TV. Jinx fired a hex, but in a burst of speed, Hood removed his foot from the TV's broken screen and darted away. The hex hit the broken screen and it burst into sparks and broken glass.

She quickly turned to Hood and fired again, but he dodged and she caused another TV to explode in a fire of sparks and broken glass. She fired a third time, Hood dodged again, and another TV exploded.

"Stay still!", she threw her head back, held both arms out, and sent hexes flying around her. The entire department of high definition TV's explode in a hailstorm of sparks and smoke.

Jinx looked desperately for Red Hood, but couldn't see him past the sea of sparks and smoke that surrounded her.

"Psst. Up here."

Jinx turned around and looked up, and saw Red Hood lunge at her with a large electrical extension cord in his hands. A short yelp was the only reaction she could muster before it was too late.

Mammoth and Gizmo finally had recovered and got Gizmo's backpack under control. They ran over just as Jinx emerged from the sea of sparks and smoke.

She was tied up in the electrical cord and flew back head first into a video game display. "Oof!", she said as it crumbled under her.

Red Hood bolted out of the ruined TV department, and saw Mammoth and Gizmo.

Mammoth yelled and ran forward. Red Hood ran off and jumped on top of the customer service departments counter top. Hood perched himself there and waited for Mammoth's advance.

Mammoth ran forward and lunged towards Hood, but Hood jumped away at the last second just as Mammoth crashed into the counter. The counter broke away into splinters beneath Mammoth's force, but then Mammoth heard beeping.

"Left you a present.", Hood said.

BOOM!

A miniature bomb Hood had left behind on the counter exploded. It utterly destroyed the customer service department and sent Mammoth flying.

"The scuz-sniffer's using high-explosives!", Gizmo yelled.

Red Hood turned his head and found the young genius was looming over him, raised on his four large mechanical spider legs. Hood reached into his jacket.

"Say goodnight!", Gizmo said as he raised one leg and sent it flying down.

"Goodnight.", Red Hood withdrew a Kris knife from his jacket and sliced. The curving blade of the exotic knife cut into the metal of Gizmo's spider leg, slashing circuits and hydraulic lines alike.

Hood jumped back and raised the knife in his hand, and twirled it between his fingers at a blurring speed as Gizmo inspected the deep gash in the mechanical leg.

Gizmo was struck dumbfounded at the knife's cutting power, but before he could make another remark…

Slash!

Suddenly the rest of the spider leg was severed and lay on the floor, twitching and sparking.

"Agh!", was all Gizmo could muster to say as Hood advanced. Gizmo backed up best he could but Hood continued to advance. Hood either sidestepped or spun to avoid every attacking spider leg, and replied with wish slashes from his knife.

"Someone get this guy off me!", Gizmo yelled as Hood waved his knife back and forth, hacking away at the spider legs until Gizmo was forced to walk on his own two feet.

Slash!

Red Hood sliced away the last of Gizmo's mechanical legs, leaving only sparking stumps that protruded form his backpack. Then Hood delivered a furious snap kick into Gizmo's tiny gut and sent the boy genius flying across the floor like a spiked football.

Jinx was using her powers to untangle the power cord, and in one final burst of power managed to break through it. Mammoth also started to recover, and ran headstrong back at Red Hood.

"AGH!", Mammoth yelled in savage fury.

Red Hood turned around, and with a glare threw his knife high up in the air. The knife spun end over end as it flew through the air. As it flew, it hit and severed two cables that held up a large sign that read "Customer Service". The sign fell on top of Mammoth and the giant collapsed under the sign. The knife flew and then stuck itself in the wall near the ceiling over the customer service desk.

"Mammoth!", Jinx yelled, and took aim for Red Hood.

"Time to end this show.", Red Hood said as he ran towards Mammoth and narrowly dodged a hex.

Just as Mammoth was gathering his senses again, Red Hood stepped on his face then proceeded to run up the sign. "Oof!", Mammoth said when he was under Hood's heel.

At the top of the sign, high above the rest of the Hive Kids, Hood jumped off and dived for his knife stuck high in the wall.

Jinx watched as the leather-jacket clad man in the metal mask flew through the air and sailed towards his Kris knife.

Hood pulled up his legs and hit the wall feet first as he grabbed the hilt of his knife in a reverse grip. The knife cut downwards into the wall for a moment as it was pulled down by Hood's weight. Then Hood turn glare at Jinx, which sent a slight shiver down her spine, and he jumped towards her, pulling the knife out of the wall and with him in his grip.

Hood reached into a compartment on the right side of his belt with his left hand as Jinx unleashed a desperate volley of hexes at him. In midair, Hood withdrew and threw several smoke bombs, which intercept Jinx's hexes and exploded into a thick cloud of smoke and gas.

Then Hood fell through the cloud feet first, stomach down and back to the ceiling, and slammed into Jinx in a devastating hammer kick.

The world was one big white flash to her for a second, but then she found herself flying backwards again. Hood landed and skidded with his back to her, and then he shifted around to face her and dived at her. Jinx's back hit the floor and she slid, still propelled by Hood's bone crushing kick which could have easily shattered every bone in her upper body if he hadn't delivered it just right.

As soon as she looked up, Hood grabbed her and tackled her back against a support pillar. He savagely slammed her against it, barring her with his left arm, and held the knife in its reverse grip in his right hand to her neck.

She stared at him, half dazed and half terrified.

"Checkmate." He said as he pulled the knife back over his left shoulder and grabbed a large section of fabric from her costume's shirt.

Jinx closed her eyes and a barely audible whimper escaped her.

Red Hood stabbed his knife into the fabric he pulled away from her costume and pinned her to the pillar. She opened her eyes in surprise.

Then, as suddenly and as brutally as he attacked her, he let go and darted away.

Mammoth yelled in savage fury as he threw the sign off him. He was battered and bruised, and just a little burnt, and ready for one last attack. Gizmo extended micro-missile launchers from his backpack and fired. The missiles exploded all around Hood's footsteps as he barely dodged them and ran towards Mammoth.

Mammoth raised his hands together and clubbed at Red Hood, who jumped back to dodge, then jumped on Mammoth's back. Then Hood jumped off and Mammoth heard a beeping noise again.

"Not again!"

BOOM!

Mammoth was sent flying into a shelf of computer books and toppled it and two other rows of shelves over.

Hood landed and dived while he withdrew a blaster pistol from his jacket.

"Fry barf-brain!", Gizmo said as he extended a blaster from his backpack.

They both took aim at each other.

Blast!

Suddenly Gizmo's blaster exploded into pieces after a direct hit from Red Hood.

Hood rolled on the ground, landed in a position of kneeling on one foot, and raised his blaster again.

Blast!

The controller in Gizmo's hands was blasted away.

Blast!

His goggles were shot off his head.

Blast!

The final control panel on his chest was blown apart.

Gizmo stood with wide eyes in total shock. He tried to talk, but couldn't move. Words choked and fell apart in his throat.

Red Hood glared.

Blast!

Gizmo was sent flying back by the force of the stun shot from Hood.

Red Hood stood up and withdrew the other blaster from his jacket and aimed at Jinx who dared not move. He checked Mammoth, who lay among rows of shelves. He glanced at Gizmo, who was moaning as he slowly got up.

He raised both blasters to his head's level and pointed to the ceiling, and waited while they recovered.

"I don't think anyone will have a problem working for me now, will they?", he asked them.

They all shook their heads "no".

"Good.", he said, holstering his blasters. Then he turned his attention to Jinx and walked back over to her.

She nervously fidgeted and tried to free herself of the knife pinning her to the pillar.

But instead of finishing her off, when the menacing Red Hood approached her, he reached out and pulled the knife out of the pillar in one swift but powerful motion. He stared deep into her eyes as he spun the knife in his hand. The knife spun at an almost blurring speed before he caught it by the hilt again, and then put it back in it's small scabbard in his jacket.

He turned to Mammoth and Gizmo, who were struggling to get up. "Fall in soldiers.", he said. "Come get your new orders."

Mammoth and Gizmo got themselves up and came, even though they told themselves they only came so they could shred him to pieces. Jinx, much more heavily affected by the armor-clad biker known as Red Hood, slowly stood up while keeping her back close to the pillar. Red Hood took a subtle step back so he could face them all instead of being surrounded.

"Listen up, like I said, you all work for me now. Lucky for you, you get a pretty cushy job.", Hood said. "I'm gonna be running this city pretty soon, and you all get to be my top enforcers. Cool, huh?"

Mammoth and Gizmo both raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"I'll have you on retainer. Which means you three are free to commit as many other crimes as you want, so long as it doesn't get in my way. I'm your top priority. I come first.", Hood said.

Jinx relaxed somewhat, inwardly ashamed at being so aw-struck and affected by Red Hood. But that was Jinx's way. When she saw a better bad guy, a bigger authority, she aspired to be like it. And perhaps Red Hood knew that.

"Of course, they'll be times when I need your… individual talents.", Hood explained. He looked at Gizmo. "Anytime I need something built." He looked at Mammoth. "Anytime I need something lifted or thrown." And then he looked at Jinx. "Or anytime I just need something to… Simply go wrong."

"And what do we get paid for this?", Jinx said, feeling the need to assert herself.

Red Hood narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Jinx, which made her almost regretted talking.

She tensed up again as he leaned in close and whispered something into her ear. Then Red Hood stepped back.

"That per month?", Jinx asked.

"Per week.", Red Hood corrected her.

"Oh.", She said with wide eyes and a closed mouth. "Okay.", she promptly agreed.

Red Hood addressed the group again. "That's the deal. The catch? Stay away from schoolyards and little kids. Otherwise, I wont play so nice next time."

"What about the Titans?", Gizmo asked.

"Capes are fair game.", he said. "I may not care what you do with your spare time, but don't play too rough with them. I got plans for them. And you don't want to mess up my plans. If you see them, have your fun and scare them off. But save any big guns for later." He explained. "Go it?", Hood asked sternly. "Leave them to me."

"Uh… Got it.", Mammoth said. "Don't squash the Titans… Yet?"

"That's right, fuzzy-wuzzi." Red Hood paused. "Do we have a deal?"

The Hive kids all looked at each other and nodded amongst themselves.

"You've got a deal.", Jinx said.

"Good." He reached into his belt and withdrew a device and he handed it to Jinx. "It's a communicator. Call me if you need me or if you get in over your head. But don't waist my time."

Jinx nodded and grasped the device tightly. "Right."

"Good. Then we're in business.", Red Hood said, trying to make himself seem a bit more cheery and optimistic. "And speaking of business, here's your first job", he said to Gizmo as he reached into his jacket and took out a disk protected in a metal case.

Gizmo took the disk and gave it a quick examining glance.

"I need a containment field built. By this time next week, if not sooner."

"You need a what by when?", Gizmo asked.

"That's right. Did I stutter?", Hood asked, narrowing his eyes into a glare.

Gizmo chuckled nervously in an attempted to lighten the mood. "Uh… Nope, that's just fine with me."

"Good. Contact me when it's done. The rest of you, make yourselves known. You're my enforcers now. Keep things running smoothly.", he instructed. "Well, later.", he said with a half-hearted ease in his voice. Then he turned around and walked away toward the store's front door as abruptly as he came.

The three kids watched dumbfounded.

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "And, hey, try not to look so bummed. This is the start of a beautiful business relationship.", he said.

Then he walked off out of sight outside.