Chapter 3

Batman was at the Supercomputer, researching. Scattered on the screen was articles involving a certain pink-haired sorceress.

'Hmmm.' he thought, 'where did you go Jinx?'

"Hey Bats, where's...what are you doing?" Flash asked as he appeared.

"Where's what?" Batman retorted.

"Why are you investigating her?" Flash questioned.

"This is who you thought was responsible for those pink flashes?"

Flash looked in wonder for a second then realized, it was the Batman. "Yeah. Jinx."

"And you don't know where she is?"

"No one from the Teen Titans does. We all looked for her, for a long time. But we never found her." Flash's excited energy had turned into a deflated sadness.

"Do you know why she left?" Trust Batman to not have much sympathy.

"Not a clue. Everything was normal the last time I saw her, and then a week later she was gone. Left a note saying she 'just had to go'. And that it was complicated."

"Hmm." was all Batman said.

Flash turned to leave.

"Wally." Batman called. Wally stopped and turned his head back to hear Batman. "I'm sorry. She obviously meant a lot to you."

"Thanks Bats." Wally replied, before speeding away.

Batman turned back to his computer. Typing in some new things, he found another window to pull up.

"Alright Jinx." he said to himself. "What's so interesting about Belle Reve?"

Wally teleported back to Earth, with the coordinates set for Bludhaven. When there, he changed into civvies and set to roaming the city, easing his way into the more crime-ridden parts of the city. Hobos looked up as he passed, but he was left alone. Wally was alone in a back alley when he dropped in.

"These parts of the city are dangerous you know." Nightwing said.

"Is that your way of saying hi?" Wally asked. Nightwing smiled.

"Well, at least you're not completely like your mentor. I can't get ol' Bats to ever crack a smile." Wally joked.

"He's not the smiling type. How is my old mentor?" Nightwing said, leaning nonchalantly against the wall.

"Oh you know, dark, brooding, bat-like. Not why I'm here though."

"I figured as much. So what's up?"

Wally sighed. He gave Dick a meaningful look. Dick had seen it enough to know what, or who it was about.

"Oh. What about her?"

"After she disappeared, did anyone, ever, find anything about what happened to her?" Wally asked.

Dick let out a deep breath. "No Wally. She just vanished." Seeing Wally's face, he realized something else was going on. "What?"

"She's not dead, Dick."

"Wally, none of us want to believe that,"

"No." Wally interrupted. "She's not dead. She was in Metropolis a few days ago. She saved a bunch of citizens from being crushed."

Dick looked at Wally in amazement for a moment. "You saw her?"

"Not her. But she shot her hexes at a car. I know it was Jinx." Wally replied.

Jinx returned home right before dinnertime. Entered through the front door to find the mansion mostly quiet. She walked into the kitchen to find Aria cooking.

"Smells good." she commented.

"Thanks." Aria replied. She snapped her fingers and some spice came from the cabinet. "How was work?"

"Pretty good actually. I think I made a lot of progress with Celia."

"That's good." Aria said, focusing on the food. "She's a good kid. What's her deal again?"

"As far as I can tell, she controls shadows. And unknowingly uses them to hear the thoughts of the owner."

"Sounds like our style." Aria said with a smile.

"Very much our style." Jinx laughed. "The kids in their rooms?"

"Most of them, I think. I know Jackie finished already, she's in the Rec room, but I'm not sure whom else. Dinner's in a few minutes though."

"Cool. I'm going to go change." Jinx replied before heading up to her room. The walls had once again changed, now to royal purple. Jinx took off her wig and was heading to the bathroom when she stopped. Something felt wrong. The school was protected by a good number of mystical protections, but they somehow felt breached. She did a quick spell, but realized no one who didn't belong was on the grounds.

"Huh. Weird." she commented, but then heard the bells chime signaling dinner. So she decided to forget about the weird feeling and left to eat, hearing before seeing the students excitedly run to the dining room.