Fan Fiction ❯ The Beer Hutt ❯ The Fight Sequence ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

First off, I am seriously blockin' here. The first three chapters just flowed like beer from a tap, but then I got stuck. But alas, I will try to force it. You have been warned. Also, this is going to be, as the title declares, “The Fight Sequence!”

(Continuing where we left off)

Jinx had her hand raised, ready to knock on the door. Beads of sweat were beginning to form on her brow, and she was still trying to figure out what to say. `Ah, hell, it'll come to me. Just gotta bite the bullet, or however that goes. Where did that saying come from, anyways… doesn't make a whole lotta sense…'

`Ach! Quit stallin'!'

She took a deep breath, when suddenly the door opened.

“Gimme the remote, or we'll just see how well your waffle iron flies, tin can!” Beast Boy yelled into the living room, waving around said waffle iron menacingly. Laughing evilly, he turned to throw it, then suddenly froze in place. His jaw dropped as he saw Jinx, standing right on their doorstep, her eyes round and fist upraised, looking just as surprised as he did.

They both stood there for several seconds, neither quite sure how to respond.

“Um… hi?” Jinx finally squeaked. Beast Boy shook himself out of his shock, and called back through the open door.

“We're under attack!” He cried out, then transformed into a large wolf, preparing to launch himself at her. Reacting purely on instinct, immediately flying into defense mode, Jinx did a backflip off the porch, releasing a barrage of hex bolts as she did so. The bolts hit the door frame, which began to crack, right above where Beast Boy was currently positioned. He looked up, just in time to see a large chunk of metal from the doorway falling straight for his face.

“Aw, man,” he whined, right before he was knocked out by the fallen debris.

`Oh, damn. Shouldn't have done that… crap crap crap!' But it was too late to take it back now. She stood still, trying to determine her next course of action. If she ran, it would look bad. If she stayed, it she could get her ass whooped. She was still debating when Cyborg came running out of the door, followed by Starfire and finally Robin, who began assessing the damage.

“Um, whoops?” she said lamely.

Robin walked closer to her, a scowl on his face. “Not a smart move, Jinx. We already defeated you once on our home turf; it won't be any problem to do it again.”

“If you remember, we defeated you at home first,” she began before she could stop herself. She threw her hand over her mouth, too late. `Oh, why do I have to be such a smart-ass!' Robin's scowl deepened, and she saw the other Titans get into their `ready' stance, all looking equally pissed at being disturbed on an otherwise peaceful Saturday morning.

“I'm not here to fight!” She tried to explain, as she watched them look from her, to the unconscious Beast Boy, and back to her.

“Riiiiight. Teen Titans, go!” Robin and Cyborg took the frontal attack, as Starfire took to the sky.

“I'm seriously not-” she jumped back as Robin landed a side kick right where she had just been. “-here to fight!” She fired a hex bolt at Cyborg as she saw him readying his laser cannon. She did a handspring to avoid a barrage of Starfire's plasma bolts, then immediately went into a cartwheel and back handspring to avoid Robin again.

“Aw, man, that is so wrong!” said Cyborg, noticing the energy build-up in his gun arm, realizing what was going to happen right before it blew up. The explosion sent small shards of metal flying off, as well as a blast of light which temporarily blinded all of the combatants present. Cyborg winced, and fell to his knees, shredded metal where his arm once was. “Take… her… down…”, he managed, trying to shut down the sensory receptor program for that arm.

“That was so an accident!” Jinx pleaded, but knew she was fighting a losing battle. `Just keep digging myself in deeper and deeper, don't I? Dammit! I shoulda stayed at home, watched some `toons…' She noticed Robin jumping towards her again, his bo in mid-swing. `I can't keep this up all day! I gotta make a run for it', she thought, as she dodged Robin only to get her right arm singed by one of Starfire's bolts.

She winced at the burn, pausing just long enough to give Robin a chance to land a roundhouse kick to her back. She flew about five feet before landing on her side, scraping across the cement another few feet before coming to a complete stop. Moaning, she looked up just in time to see Starfire taking aim, ready to bombard her with another torrent of bolts. `Bummer.'

(Titan Tower, 12 seconds ago)

Raven was slowly making her way towards the living room, trying to figure out a way to apologize without really admitting she was wrong. The only thing she hated worse than asking for help was admitting she was wrong about something, and now she had to do both in one day. `I guess it could be worse', she thought, as she rounded the corner and heard what sounded like a battle right in the front yard. `Okay, when I say that, you don't have to prove me right', she sighed, looking up, imagining God laughing down at her right now.

She took flight, and was out of the door in a matter of seconds. `What idiot decided to attack us at home', she wondered, as she surveyed the situation outside. Robin was standing, readying one of his birdarangs, and Starfire was currently hurling starbolts at Jinx, who was barely managing to block the bolts with her own hex bolts.

She glanced over at Beast Boy, who was beginning to stir, and Cyborg who was still grimacing. She could figure out the gist of what had happened, and cursed both Jinx and her teammates. She was going to have a hard time explaining this later, but right now she realized she had to help the outnumbered, and obviously on the losing side, Jinx. She threw up her shield, just as a number of Starfire's bolts made contact.

Jinx was swallowed up in blackness, not able to see or hear anything. She tried to move, but found it impossible. `Oh, shit! I'm dead! I know I'm dead, I can't believe it. I was hoping to go out in some fantastic, awe inspiring way, full of explosions and guns and car chases, not while trying to plead for forgiveness. This is great, just great-`

And suddenly she was free. She looked towards her savior, who was currently trying to field questions from a group of angry teammates. Raven maintained a neutral, disinterested face, but it was obvious that she was desperate. She was being verbally attacked by Cyborg and interrogated by Robin, while Starfire just kept looking at her with a blank expression, trying to understand why she blocked Jinx, instead of aiding her friends.

“You didn't want us to hurt her! Look at what she did to my arm! I don't think she had any kind of problem with damaging me. It's going to take me all of today, and probably most of tomorrow to get a refit done, not counting my having to reprogram it. Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost!” Cyborg was fuming, and carried on ranting even as Robin had pulled her aside.

“Raven, she came here; we didn't seek her out to assault her. She did it herself. You've never had a problem with fighting her before. We've fought the Hive on several occasions, but this is the first time you've ever reacted like this. Is something wrong?” His sympathetic expression made her feel guilty, and she dropped her head.

Raven started to say something, but was cut off by Starfire's voice. “Friends, Jinx has escaped!”

(Somewhere down the road)

Jinx was currently sprinting down the street, taking every turn she could in case they had seen her leave and were planning on chasing. She had used their distraction as her opportunity to escape. They were too absorbed in Raven to notice her quietly scuttling away. She felt like Robin had knocked her spine out of alignment with that kick, and she was bleeding pretty badly from the spots where the cement had ripped out chunks of skin.

`Sorry to bolt, Rave. I just didn't want to end up in jail again. This time I don't have the Hive to bail me out… and I wasn't even doing anything wrong, anyway!' She paused to catch her breath, leaning back against the brick exterior of a building. She smirked to herself. `I did pretty good holdin' my own against them, though. Took two of `em out right off, without even really trying. Jinx, you are so good.'

Her smile faded as she remembered her reason for going to the Tower in the first place. `Oh, yeah. That didn't work out too well.' But maybe it had. Raven had protected her; that means she couldn't be too very pissed. Although, fighting with her team in her front yard probably didn't help her case any. She sighed. Nothing to be done about that now, though.

`I'm just going to go home, relax, and deal with this crap tomorrow. Too much stress in too little time.' She looked around to make sure she was not being chased, hoping that one of the Titans was chasing her. Realizing she was safe for now, she walked back to her apartment, shaking her head at the craziness of the last 24 hours.

(End Chapter 4)