Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Lifestyles of the Infamous ❯ Making Friends and Time Bombs ( Chapter 2 )

Lifestyles of the Infamous

Second Class: Making Friends and Time Bombs

 

Jinx flipped through her textbook, eyes drooping dangerously. What did she care of the world's greatest conquerors? What was she supposed to learn from them? Invading Russia in the winter is a bad idea? Napoleon hadn't taught her much else.

 

The dorm room slid open as her roommate stepped in. Jinx looked up for a second before returning to her book. Of course she was stuck with the creepiest girl in the whole place. Cheshire and her goddamned mask. The only time she took it off was to go to sleep or shower, since their exercises and classes were required in full costume. And Jinx got to spend every evening with her. Joy.

 

Not to mention the girl never spoke. Not a single word. In class, during battle, she remained silent.

 

Jinx sighed and slammed her textbook shut, standing. Without an explanation to her roommate she got up and left, hoping to clear her head before the test tomorrow.

 

What was so great about Alexander the Great anyway?

 

She walked the halls without really noticing where she was going. The place was like a maze built of honeycombs, classrooms everywhere, workout rooms on every corner, and the giant cafeteria the only place they were actually allowed to be teenagers. She'd spent two weeks there, and she'd learned a sign of adolescence was a sign of weakness, which was stupid, considering half the students there were barely above sixteen. There were some “recreational activities” planned at times to keep the school from seeming to dismal. But so far they were expected to learn at an incredible rate and take tests a week after reading the textbook.

 

Jinx stopped at the cafeteria. Three other kids had gathered there outside the door, peering in with a sense of mischief.

 

“What's going on?” she asked as she approached. There was no threat in her question but the three jumped up quickly and scurried aside. The tallest, a boy dressed with a silly-looking eye in the middle of his forehead answered her.

 

“There's something going on inside. We think a fight's gonna start.”

 

The other two stifled giggles and she stared at them a moment before shrugging and walking through to see what they didn't tell her. As she passed through the door, there was an electronic laugh above her. She looked up just in time for a bucket of yesterday's mashed potatoes to land right on top of her head. Laughter erupted around her, and Jinx froze.

 

“Ha!” a squeaky voice, most prominent in the teenage sorceress's ear, shouted. “That was too easy. I thought she might be suspicious but she came right through!”

 

Through the mess of potatoes on vibrant pink eye opened. An aura of pink grew around her, and the food sizzled off, landing as barely solid good at her feet. She turned her head mechanically to the annoying voice, eyes still glowing the devilish color. The whole cafeteria quieted, suddenly very afraid what the girl might do.

 

Jinx pointed a finger at the bucket held by the mechanical device. A stream of pink energy emitted from it, and it broke, raining down gears and parts. She stepped towards the midget that she was so sure rigged the trap and clasped a hand around his neck, raising him above the ground.

 

“H-Hey! What the-”

 

“I don't suppose,” she said coldly, “this is your work.”

 

He laughed. “Maybe it was. What're you gonna do about it?”

 

She threw him down. His back instantly released for spider legs and he raised himself up, matching her height easily, even rising above it to stare down at her.

 

“I think,” she answered, a smile now stretching across her features, “You're in for a bout of bad luck.”

 

---

 

It wasn't until midway through the test that Jinx realized the idiot midget from yesterday was sitting two rows in front of her. She stared at the back of his head for two minutes until she thought of something. The goggles strapped over his eyes were so obviously feeding him information. Well, she couldn't allow someone to cheat. It was her duty to stop him. So, with a quiet snap of her fingers, a wisp of pink energy sliced the strap for the goggles cleanly. They fell forward, breaking as they hit the table. The mechanical midget let out a cry of surprise and anger.

 

“That will be enough, Gizmo,” the professor said, not turning away from his book. “Return to your test.”

 

Gizmo turned to see who would've sabotaged his perfect test record, and his eyes widened when he noticed her. Jinx waved, giving the widest, fakest smile she could conjure, and pointed back to her test.

 

This, of course, meant war.

 

---

 

For the next month, both Jinx and Gizmo experience odd “accidents.” Jinx's pencils would run away from her on mechanical frog's legs, while Gizmo's would jus explode when he touched them. Hitting her alarm clock meant waking up to an explosion, but his just seemed to have been chopped in half in the middle of the night. Together they'd “lost” ten textbooks and counting, and lunch was a war zone. The rest of the school learned to keep away.

 

It was an all out brawl that made the teachers finally step in.

 

During lunch, both of their meals exploded as they bit into it. Jinx had jumped on top of the table and started shouting that he wouldn't live for another week. He'd responded with a stream of profanities, though half of them seemed made up. He'd sent two rockets her way, two she easily dodged with a fine display of acrobatics. She had returned with a continuous stream of magic that made his mechanical legs buckle beneath him. The entire cafeteria had cleared in fear of being collateral to these two and their war.

 

Finally the headmistress entered, and all battling stop as she cleared her throat.

 

“The headmaster would like to meet with you,” she said loudly as the two tried to strike innocent poses.

 

Jinx blinked quickly. Wasn't this woman the headmistress? Did they need a headmaster too?

 

But they followed, muttering threats to each other as they headed to a deserted hallway. The headmistress presented her handprint to the machine and the door slid aside. They entered.

 

The headmistress did not.

 

The door slammed behind them, and they stopped their bickering for a moment to realize they had been abandoned in a room that blended together in hexagons and yellow. A man stood in the middle of the room, a white and gold robe stretched over his body. He seemed to be aging, and his hair was the same silvery white, this time gelled back into forks. He stared at them with a hint of amusement, and they straightened up. This was a man to be respected; they could tell that much.

 

“You two,” he began, “have caused quite a bit of damage in my school.”

 

Despite their animosity towards each other, they exchanged glances, uncertain if they were being scolded or awarded.

 

“I am Brother Blood, the headmaster of this school. I do enjoy finding new talent, and you two have completely mastered any obstacle thrown at you. But, I find you might be able to do more with this talent.

 

“I have been watching you. All of this school is monitored, so that I can check up on my students, to make sure they are getting all they require. I have seen both of you little pranks. But that's all they are. Pranks. There is so much more you could do with your powers, your abilities, besides tearing up my cafeteria.

 

“And there's even more you could do as teammates.”

 

Both teenagers let out cries of protest.

 

“Are you crazy?! I'd never work with that half-brained half-sized moron!”

 

“Why would I team up with this slum-brudger?!”

 

“That's not even a word!”

 

“Why don't I just rip out the micron you call a brain?”

 

“I'd like to see you try! You can't even reach my knees!”

 

“So what if I'm short! At least my abilities don't rely on my capacity to dance!”

 

“Take that back!”

 

“Bite me!”

 

“That's original!”

 

“I-”

 

“ENOUGH!”

 

Both teenagers stopped. Their headmaster seemed to have grown ten feet and was staring them down with fire in his eyes. They quieted instantly.

 

Brother Blood let out a breath to calm himself. “Obviously, there is nothing that will allow you to move beyond your differences. But I, as I see it, there's reason to try…”

 

For a moment, Brother Blood's eyes glowed a devil red. The two villains-in-training froze as their world turned to a fog. The moment was over quickly, and the two responded simultaneously.

 

“Yes, Brother Blood.”

 

---

 

Jinx glared at the boy beside her. He matched it with one of his own before turning back to the situation.

 

They had been locked in a room, a grid of honeycombs. Before them was a giant machine, a network of tentacles and flying discs and blades readying to chop off any strand of precious hair.

 

“What are we supposed to do?” she hissed.

 

Gizmo pulled his goggles down, evaluating the situation. He stayed quiet for two whole minutes, taking up the rest of the three they'd already used. That left them with five to beat it.

 

“Alright,” he finally answered. “You distract it. I'm going to hack it.”

 

“Distract it? What does that-”

 

“Just go!”

 

Jinx took in a deep breath and ran forward. How she was supposed to distract a machine was beyond her, but if it got them out of there faster, it would be okay.

 

The first tentacle came flying at her, its end buzzing with electricity. She cartwheeled beside it, landing to throw a wave of bad luck at it. The tentacle fell sideways, crashing into the one beside it, which in turn landed on the next three. In one simple move she'd taken out all five. She grinned.

 

There was a rush of air beside her as a disc flew straight past her. She gasped and wheeled around, facing the cannons now. There were ten of them, and not so easily beat. She dodged the first three dangerous discs and landed on top of the first cannon. Two others turned to follow her movements, and took out their brother instead. She jumped from cannon to cannon, letting them take each other out. This was far too easy. And what was Gizmo doing?

 

She turned for a spilt second to spy on the mechanized midget. He was crouched beside the machine, muttering things under his breath as he worked to hack it. She wished he'd hurry up. They had two minutes left…

 

A blade whirled by her head. She watched in horror as a few bright pink strands of hair fell beside her.

 

This thing was going down.

 

With a burst of magical energy, the ground around her began to shake and fall apart. The machines fell and shattered, and the entire room began to fall apart. Gizmo gave a shout as his goggles short-circuited and groaned. She was ruining this…

 

The buzzer sounded.

 

Jinx instantly stopped, blinking away the leftover energy. That had been far too easy, and she'd been by herself. What kind of joke was this?

 

“Very nice,” they heard the headmaster's voice on the speakers. “But a distinct lack of responsibility for one's teammate. Return to class.”

 

A floating honeycomb flew over to them, to take them to the door hidden up on the wall.

 

“What the hell?!” Gizmo hissed. “Why'd you do that?”

 

She shrugged, petting a giant ponytail. “It messed with my hair. I had to do something to it in return.”

 

Gizmo growled, muttering something about “stupid girls.”

 

Notes:

Whee! I like this story. I'll have to bring Mammoth into the next chapter though.

Next Chapter: Final factors.