Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from
Teen Titans
Disclaimer:
I don't own any of the characters from Teen Titans. I'm just playing in DC's
sandbox.
Thanks go to Le Bibliothecaire and Red Lasbelin
for beta-reading.
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Fool Me Once...
Chapter 1
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"You vill not feed him, you vill not speak to him, and I trust you are holding him in a Level 4
containment field?"
The memory floated out of the dim
recesses of his mind; Madame Rouge's words to Jinx the day the Hive Five
thought they'd gotten him. A smile almost crossed his face. He loved getting
under her skin, loved the look on her face when she realized she'd revealed
much more than she had intended—
A sudden jolt of electricity, more
powerful than the rest, traveled through him and his body shook violently.
Wally West, usually known as Kid Flash, was in a bit of a jam. Quite a bit of a
jam, actually, since the Level 4 containment field surrounding him prevented
the use of his powers.
"Not so cocky now, are you?" a heavily-accented
voice mocked. "There is no escape for you this time, Kid Flash."
He could barely make out the tall, imposing form through the
bright haze of the containment field. He didn't know how long he'd been here—it
felt like hours—but he wasn't sure how much more he could take. A spasm of pain
lanced through him and he fought another wracking shudder. On top of everything
else, his stomach was rumbling loudly—he'd need to eat something soon.
Unfortunately, Madame Rouge was not as naïve as the Hive
Five had been. She knew all too well how to render him helpless and she was
fully capable of doing so. Her approach had been a great deal more subtle this
time around—so subtle, in fact, that he hadn't realized he was in a trap until
it was too late. Much too late.
The woman's arrogant,
he thought numbly, and he has a
diabolical streak in her. Vengeful one, too. She didn't much like getting
one-upped by me…or Jinx.
The containment field continued to pour jolts of energy into
his body to keep him from moving and his muscle spasms grew worse. Though he
refused to admit it, in the back of his mind he knew he wasn't going to be
conscious much longer. And when he woke up—if he ever woke up—who knew where he
would find himself?
"Foolish boy."
Kid Flash tried to raise his head but lacked the energy to
do so. He contented himself with directing a scowl towards the floor, trying
desperately to fight off the wave of black hovering at the edges of his vision.
She's still there. His head was
beginning to pound.
"I vas not sure you vould fall for my leetle trick
again, but you did." She chuckled, a throaty sound that frightened him
more than the guttural way she pronounced her words. "I made a few
changes, of course; othervise you might haff become suspicious and all my time
and planning vould have been for nothing."
She paused, as if waiting for him to say something. When he
did not reply, she continued, "You heroes are so gullible—so ready to
trust." She huffed scornfully. "You haff brought this on yourself,
you know. Haff fun." With a derisive laugh, she
swept from the room. The lights went out and he heard a heavy metal door clang
shut.
The worst of it was that she was right. He had brought this on himself. He knew
that—oh, yes, he knew. Madame Rouge was obviously an adaptable villainess and
he fell for her new ploy hook, line, and sinker.
Sweat trickled down off the end of his nose as his head
dropped another fraction of an inch, the droplets sizzling
the instant they touched the field. Most serious villains knew his
weaknesses—in particular the fact that he had to eat regularly to maintain his
hyper energy. Madame Rouge, however, had found the one weakness she could best
exploit: his heart.
Even he wasn't quite sure how it had happened. He didn't
make it a habit to fall for villainesses, but there was something about Jinx
that drew him from the moment he met her. Maybe it was the fact that the
self-proclaimed mistress of bad luck was trying to find something good, maybe
it was the fact that she didn't think things could be any different…or maybe it
was just the fact that she was awfully cute when indignant. He didn't know.
Unfortunately, his infatuation was very obvious—so obvious
in fact, that Madame Rouge used it to her advantage in their last meeting. He
didn't realize his subsequent attempts to keep an eye on Jinx had been noticed
by anyone…but Rouge must have been watching her too. Or maybe, his tired brain
faltered, maybe Jinx had truly disappeared and Madame Rouge's game of pretend
had been going on much longer than he had thought.
One thing's for sure,
he thought, his shoulder muscles burning from keeping himself on his knees, I'll never look at coffee the same way.
He blinked, trying to focus his vision. Ok, maybe that wasn't true. It probably
wouldn't stop him from drinking it, but he'd definitely take a second or two to
contemplate the matter.
The entire fiasco started with Jinx. No, I take that back. His lips curled in a mirthless smile. The
entire fiasco actually started with his inability to stop dashing over to Jump City
to see how she was doing. From there, everything had spiraled into a cascading
disaster of epic proportions.
His conscience gave a little twinge. Ok, fine. Maybe it wasn't a 'disaster of epic proportions', but
nobody knew he'd been kidnapped. At least, nobody knew unless he was being
ransomed, which he doubted because it was far more likely that the Flash—or any
of his friends—would break him out before they'd fork over money. Besides, if
Madame Rouge was as smart as he thought she was, she wouldn't even consider
handing a superhero his freedom just because she'd been given a lot of money,
or the next Weapon of Doom, or makeup, or whatever it was that villains always
wanted.
So, in essence, he was good and stuck.
Pink hair floated through his mind's eye and the darkness
threatened to close in on him. In an effort to keep himself awake, he recalled
the circumstances that had landed him in his containment field in the first
place. Things were a little fuzzy at first, but they snapped back into crystal
clear clarity.
He'd taken a detour and dashed through Jump City
on his way home for lunch to make sure the Teen Titans didn't need any help.
That was the excuse, anyway. The truth of the matter was that he was looking
for Jinx. He hadn't been able to find her anywhere for the past couple weeks
and he wanted to take another look. At this point, her disappearance—if she had
in fact willingly disappeared—could mean one of several things.
A small corner of him…well, ok, a large part of him…hoped
she'd decided to chuck the whole villainess thing. The thought filled him with
a warm glow that only served to increase the speed with which he was zipping up
and down the streets. And then he'd found her.
Alert for any trace of pink, he'd spotted her hair at once,
though it wasn't done up in its usual gravity-defying horns. He didn't know
what it looked like exactly, because he overshot the coffee shop where she was
sitting and had to zip back. She was tucked away in a back corner up against a
window, engrossed in the newspaper, and, more importantly, she hadn't noticed
his entrance.
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Unable to help the cocky grin that insisted on making his
face its permanent home, Kid Flash slid into the seat across from Jinx. He
ignored the surprised stares of the other patrons and leaned forward.
"Whatchya reading?"
The newspaper she held lowered just far enough for her to
get a look at him. "Oh, it's you." Her voice was completely flat.
"Aww, I'm flattered you
remember me." A slight breeze ruffled the pages of the paper and then he
was back, dangling a crimson rose in front of her face, one gloved hand splayed
on the table. Situated as they were in the corner, no one could see what he was
offering her. "Your enthusiasm is killing me," he deadpanned.
Jinx looked at the rose for a few seconds before taking it
with the tips of two fingers and dropping it on the table. "What do you
want?"
Kid Flash sprawled in the chair, perfectly at ease.
"What, I can't talk to you now?" He was happy her eyes didn't flash
when she narrowed them at him; he didn't want the chair broken even if he'd
never actually hit the floor.
Carelessly, Jinx tossed the paper to the table. "I've
gotta go." She rose in one swift, smooth movement and began to walk away.
"Wait!" Kid Flash's hand latched onto her wrist.
She stared at him and he smiled easily, blue eyes warm. "I'll walk you
home."
"I don't need—"
"Oh, come on. It's not like I don't know where you live
anyway."
Jinx stared into his eyes for a few seconds—what felt like
an eternity to Kid Flash—and then huffed. "Fine." She shook his hand
off and stalked out the door.
Kid Flash had no trouble keeping up with her and maintained
a running conversation for several blocks. Finally, as Jinx turned in to an
alley with a mumbled, "I can take it from here," he held out the
rose.
"You forgot this."
She stared at it and then at him before raising an eyebrow.
"What is with you and the roses?"
"They're special. Just—"
"—like me," she finished. "Corny."
He had a mildly taken-aback look on his face.
"Actually, I wasn't—"
"Yes, you were." She snatched the rose and
proceeded to fumble with her messenger bag.
"I was going to say—"
He never got the chance to finish.
A wave of crackling white energy smashed into him and he
buckled to his knees. Blue eyes wide with shock and betrayal, he stared up at
Jinx.
She looked down at him with cold satisfaction, a sneer
slipping over her features. One pale hand crushed the rose in its grasp and he
watched in horrified shock as the bruised crimson petals drifted to the dirty
street. "Stupid flower." Her other hand
clutched a mechanical device.
Kid Flash couldn't speak. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't
form the words his mind was screaming. Jinx!
No! What happened?! He'd thought—he'd thought she'd had it with trying to
impress Madame Rouge. Heck, he'd even thought she was considering leaving the
Hive Five. "Why?" he choked out, finally regaining control of his
vocal cords.
Jinx laughed loudly. "Poor Kid Flash. You weren't
expecting this, were you?"
His shock was quickly fading, replaced by jolt after jolt of
unadulterated pain. He belatedly recognized the device she held in her as a
much newer, more compact, handset for the containment field in which he was now
trapped. "Why?" he forced out through gritted teeth.
"Jinx…"
Jinx's familiar form altered, morphing into another, equally
familiar shape, and his heart dropped all the way to his toes. Or at least it
would have, if he hadn't already been on his hands and knees. "Madame
Rouge…"
"Ah, I am pleased you recognized me." Her sneer
developed into a full-blown evil smirk. "You vill not get away this time,
Kid Flash."
A jumble of thoughts
was racing through his pain-addled mind. Mingled with the frustration of being
trapped by Madame Rouge again was a sudden, heartfelt gladness that it hadn't
really been Jinx selling him out. That emotion was quickly drowned by a wave of
anger that he had been tricked once again….and there was no one to save him
this time.
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During the trip to Madame Rouge's lair—a ride that had
seemed to last forever—Kid Flash had alternated between berating himself for being
such an idiot and trying to find a way out of the containment field. He didn't
know where they were going, but that wouldn't matter much when he got free.
Now, hours later, he wasn't any closer to finding a way out
than he had been before. It was ironic really, that
the same technology used to control super powered criminals was being used to
imprison him. Maybe someday he'd even find it funny.
His arms were shaking so badly now he doubted they would
hold his weight much longer. The darkness was narrowing his vision; things were
getting father and farther away. Kid Flash struggled to stay awake, but the
darkness called him, offering a release from the pain. He lost conscious then;
his arms gave out and pitched him forward face first towards the floor. With a
painful thud, his body impacted the energy-covered stone surface, still
twitching from the containment field around him.
There is no escape for
you this time, Kid Flash.
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