Chapter 1
To the HIVE FIVE, some facts were very clear. The Brotherhood of Evil had been soundly defeated by the Teen Titans and a bunch of other teen aged heroes. One of those 'heroes', Kid Flash, had somehow convinced the leader of the HIVE FIVE, Jinx, to side them. In other words, Kid Flash had converted Jinx from being a villain to being a heroine. Kid Flash's action had resulted in Jinx's betrayal of her team. Jinx had helped capture them and freeze them in the machine that the Brain had used. The betrayal, now that it had had time to sink in, hurt. They weren't foolish enough to believe that Jinx had left solely because of Kid Flash. If they had, her betrayal wouldn't have hurt nearly as much. Jinx was impulsive, but not that impulsive. In order for her to leave, Jinx must have never considered them as friends or good enough for her. Her actions showed that she had never cared about them. All it took was one little push from Kid Flash and she was gone. Just one little push.
″The crud-munching pit-sniffin' traitor,″ Gizmo was muttering under his breath, as he upgraded his backpack. A clone of Billy Numerous was packing away items he didn't need. The HIVE FIVE were skipping town for awhile. At least until Jinx left Jump City. Everybody else had finished packing, but Gizmo still had a few more things he needed to do. ″Hey, did you pack the data core?″
″What's it look like?″ the Billy clone asked, searching through Gizmo's suitcase, knocking delicate pieces of machinery over.
″Forget it snotface,″ Gizmo used his backpack to shove the clone out of the way and searched himself with much greater care. He finally found what he was looking for. ″Okay crudmuncher, let's go.″
The HIVE FIVE did not have a set destination when they left. What they had ended up doing was telling Kyd Wykkyd to chose a random city that spoke English and wasn't Jump, Steel, Central, or Gotham and then teleport them there. That meant that the only person who knew where they were going couldn't (or wouldn't) tell them where they were.
The city they teleported to was plain. There were not special landmarks or neat shining signs on every block to help them identify the city they were in. Even SeeMore's eye and Billy's clones couldn't find anything helpful in that regard, though SeeMore reported seeing a potential hideout. Then Mammother started complaining about hunger, and ran of to the nearest taco stand.
″Crud. Guys, Mammoth and I are getting tacos.″ Gizmo said into his communicator before tearing of after Mammoth leaving Kyd Wykkyd all alone.
Jinx stared at the two communicators in her hands. One was her old HIVE communicator, something that she'd had for years and still didn't feel comfortable getting rid of. The other was a communicator that Robin had, reluctantly, given to her that morning. Jinx couldn't help but wonder if she had done the right thing.
Everyone said she did, but what did that really mean? Anyone she could ask at the moment was a hero, so of course they would consider her actions just. They couldn't see where she, a villain, was coming from. The only person whose situation was even a little like hers (that she knew of) was Cyborg. But even then, he'd always been on the Titans side, so his betrayal of the HIVE hadn't been quite the same. He had never been who she thought he was.
Jinx stared at the Titans communicator. ″I really don't deserve this.″
″Don't deserve what?″
Jinx turned around and glared at Kid Flash, while willing her heartbeat to slow down. ″How long have you been there?″
″Long enough to hear you say you don't deserve something.″
That was Kid Flash all over, answering questions with remarks that didn't really answer anything. Jinx put away her HIVE communicator before Kid Flash could see. Jinx liked him, maybe even loved him, but Kid Flash had a frustrating inability to understand Jinx's need to have some link to her past as a member of the HIVE FIVE.
″What's the matter?″
Jinx nearly had a second heart attack within the span of one minute as she heard Kid Flash suddenly behind. He handed her a mug of hot chocolate as she turned toward him.
″It's this.″ Jinx answered, holding up the Teen Titans communicator.
″What's wrong with it?″
Jinx almost laughed. Whether she was with heroes or villains, it seemed that the boys were all clueless. ″Think about how I got it.″ she told him.
″You stopped being a villain. You became good.″
No, Kid Flash still couldn't get the point! ″Half right. I'm not a villain anymore. However, I am not good.″
″What are you-″
″I betrayed my team! Gizmo, Mammoth, SeeMore, Wykkyd... I knew all of them except Billy from when I was twelve. I knew Gizmo and Mammoth for longer. Then I just up and leave them, no note, no goodbyes, no warning, no anything! Then I help freeze them! What sort of person do you think that makes me? Contrary to what every other idiot in this tower seems to think, it does not make me a good person, or a heroine!″
″You are a heroine.″
Jinx just shook her head and tossed her communicator to a speechless Kid Flash. ″I've been thinking, Flash. Being a heroine just isn't what I'm made for.″
Kyd Wykkyd sat down on the curb, waiting for one of his teammates to get back. In the excitement of being in a new city, they seemed to have forgotten about him, and no one had bothered to set up a meeting place or time. So, Kyd Wykkyd just waited for them to get back.
Where? A voice was right next to him, but Kyd Wykkyd remained calm. He had been around metahumans all his life. Stranger things had happened.Where is Set's child? Was the person a telepathic? WHERE?
Kyd Wykkyd looked around, trying to see if there was anyone hiding nearby. Chaos and destruction, who is the bringer of it? Strangely enough the voice seemed to describing Jinx's powers. Why was that?Where is Jinx? What sort of question was that really? She was in Jump City of coarse, partying it up with those other heroes, having a grand old time.
″Hey, Wykkyd?″ This time, Kyd Wykkyd jumped. Somehow, SeeMore, who had never been one for sneaking around, had managed to to sneak in front of Kyd Wykkyd without him seeing. ″You alright?″ SeeMore's eye had taken the form of a gigantic question mark.
Unwilling to go through the trouble to make SeeMore understand what had just happened, Kyd Wykkyd just nodded.
″If you're sure,″ SeeMore said inquiringly. Kyd Wykkyd nodded again. ″We have a quesidilla waiting for you in our new hideout. I'll show you were it is.″
″Jinx what?″
″Jinx left!″ Kid Flash proclaimed frantically to the seemingly stoic Robin (though not so stoic since Robin had just expressed surprise). ″She quit the Teen Titans! You gotta help me convince her to come back.″
″Did Jinx say why she was leaving?″ Robin asked. ″She seemed happy when I gave her a communicator this morning.″
Kid Flash, hopping this meant Robin would help in, answered as rapid as he could and still have Robin understand him. ″She said she didn't deserve it and talked about betraying her team.″ Kid Flash answered, though what he really wanted to be doing was going after Jinx. But still, maybe Robin could help. Robin's next sentence quashed his hope.
″As much as I hate to say it, I don't think we can get her to come back.″
″Of course we can!″ Kid Flash argued. Before he could further his point though, the Titan alarm sounded. Robin rushed to the big computer to figure out what was going on.
″What's wrong?″ Raven asked, floating up through the floor. She looked at the computer over Robin's shoulder. The other three quickly followed.
″It's the mall. Titans move out.″
All the Titans rushed for the door except for Kid Flash.
″Hey, dude!″ Beastboy called. ″Are you coming?″
″Comeon, BB!″ Cyborg yelled at him. ″We have a mall to save!″
″But...″
″Leave him alone Beast Boy.″ Robin yelled. ″He's on Central, not Jump.″
The villain was browsing the Chinese food at the food court when the Titans reached the mall. ″Do you want to get Chinese take-out?″ she asked someone, and Robin heard an answering hiss.
″How about we take you out?″ Robin asked, yelling the first thing that came to his mind. The villain, a girl, turned revealing 2 snakes in place of the first 2 strands of her hair. One of them had a piece of tarayaki chicken still in its mouth. The snake without chicken hissed threateningly. The other quickly finished the meal and joined it, but it sounded like there was more than two hissing.
″Robin?″
″What?″ Robin asked.
Beastboy pointed the ground. ″What's that?″ , causing Robin to look at the ground.
Snakes, the same color as the floor,were rising up, hissing angrily. The sound grew steadily louder more eerie as he stared at the growing rows of snakes between him and the girl. The snakes than began to join together, creating snakes that were twice as tall as Cyborg.
When Robin looked back at her, she was wearing a smug grin and holding an egg roll in her hands. It was time to fight. ″Titans Go!″ Robin yelled, tossing an ice disc at the snakes in his way. Behind him, Beastboy transformed into some type of bird and, with Starfire and Robin, flew towards her. Cyborg and Robin ran, fighting the snakes along the way.
Robin pulled his staff and used it to leap over the snakes and aimed a side kick at her. Raven, Starfire, and Beastboy had turned to help Cyborg against the giant snakes, when they saw Robin with her.
The girl was easy to overcome. It appeared that her strength came from her snakes, rather than her physical ability. ″Who are you?″ Robin demanded, grabbing the front of her shirt, picking her up.
She smiled. ″Cobra,″ she answered, and one of her snakes bit Robin's hand. Acting on instinct, Robin let go.
Cobra seized the opportunity and ran for the nearest exit. Robin chased her as soon as he got over the pain the snake had left. They ran throughout the city, and Robin noticed they were going to the poorer section of Jump City.
″Leave me alone!″ Cobra shrieked at him after several attempts to loose him in a maze of alleyways.
″Not a chance,″ Robin retorted. There was no way he would let her go. She had to be tiring, and when she slowed down, Robin would catch her. Cobra growled and suddenly turned down another alley way. Robin would have followed, but he found that he suddenly couldn't move. Robin could do nothing but watch was his query sped away.