Time is a Thief 4 - #420/1 - Flail/Passport
Title: Time is a Thief 4
Fandom: BtVS/Teen Titans
Prompt: 420 - Flail, 421 - Passport
Words: 2016
Warnings: Posted 900 disconnected words of notes from this chapter as prompt 420, fully written and edited chapter is posted for prompt 421
“As you have seen, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth have been apprehended by the Teen Titans and handed over to the Jump City Police Department.” For the very first time, Xander saw legitimate emotion on the Headmistress’ face. She was incandescent beyond all belief and he was glad she was too furious to care about his minor-in-comparison transgressions against her property. “They have shamed this institution in front of the entire city and worse, they have damaged my reputation in the eyes of my client.”
“Slade.” Xander commented, there was no point in pretending he hadn’t analyzed every word and action between the trio and the Titans.
“Yess.” The Headmistress hissed, her rage cracking through her emotionless mask and revealing the miasma of insanity he had never realized lay underneath. Adeline Kane wasn’t some cold hearted ice-queen of a mercenary, she was well and truly criminally insane. She wasn't the type of person whose temper broke in a whirlwind of thrown things and flailing arms, instead it seemed that her anger wound tighter and tighter like a spring. Building pressure until she released it all at once with deadly force behind it. Xander was very glad that she hadn’t cared to be a part of his life and education. He may not have survived the experience. "I will not be made a fool of in the eyes of THAT MAN!"
The Headmistress visibly restrained herself, clutching white knuckled at her ever present clipboard as she regulated her breathing and tucked a loose lock of white hair behind her ear. “Your instructors tell me that you are the best possible candidate for an extraction. I have checked your records and find that I agree with that assessment. You will be assigned to see to their removal from police custody and return to the school for disciplinary correction."
"What will I get in return?" Xander was pushing his luck, but he wasn't going to let her set a precedent where she said 'jump' and he asked 'how high'. He was not HIVE's to command and he had no loyalty to her. His only allegiance was to himself, everyone else had to pay if they wanted his cooperation.
"You have received a HIVE education, I would think that is compensation enough."
"You would think so, but I have a HIVE education because I stole it. You have given me nothing and I owe you nothing. One thing this place has taught me is- if you are good at something, never do it for free. So, I ask again. What's in it for me? What will you give me to retrieve your students for you and help you save face?"
"How about your worthless life?" The black rage was creeping in around her edges again, but she kept her mask up.
"It's not so worthless when you need me to get your favorites out of jail, now is it? Never threaten anyone who values their own life less than you do."
She recoiled thoughtfully at that, reconsidering him. She had been dealing with him as if he were some fawning minion, one of the students who were actually happy to be in the henchmen track and be told what to do. It had never even occurred to her that he might have more backbone than that, because he wasn't a supe and thus wasn't worth that much consideration. They both knew that he had something the Headmistress wanted and that put him in a rare position of power over her, so long as her temper held. He could stand up to her briefly and prove himself worthy of her attention, but the second he asked too much she would end him. She changed tactics, starting a dialogue and feeling him out. “Is there a reason you believe yourself to be exempt from the standard compulsory education?”
He snorted, "I'm not interested in standard or compulsory education. If I was I would still be in public school. I didn’t come here to become a minion, I came because of your pretty speech about a school that taught advanced skills. You may have brought me here to become an expendable thug, but I had different goals and I refuse to lower myself to your expectations.”
“What you want makes no difference to me.”
“And yet here you are, in need of my particular set of skills. The set of skills I provided myself when you would have left me with nothing but the basics.”
She considered him for a moment and flipped open his file, eyes skimming over the sparse information. He knew for a fact that aside from grades and instructor comments and assessments there was no personal information for her to use. "Your choice of classes is unusually unbalanced. You have neglected large chunks of vital educational material."
"Look, I'm not interested in the whole villainy thing and I'm a thief not a mercenary. I won't ask for anything unreasonable that you can't give."
Her eagle eyed gaze focused on him again as if he was a pet that had done something interesting. "Continue."
"I want complete educational autonomy, access to the supe exclusive classes and exemption from disciplinary actions based on my status as a henchman norm."
"You want to be enrolled in the honors track." She eyed him with amusement. "You couldn't keep up with such a lacking background, not to mention the fact that you have no power to speak of. The curriculum will eat you alive."
"Let me worry about that. Do we have a deal?"
"We do."
She quickly shuffled through her papers and filled out the necessary change of status forms. "You will need a name."
"No, I don't."
"Every two-bit villain has a name, even those just starting out."
"I'm not a villain. A thief whose name is known is a thief who has been caught. I don't have a name, alias or otherwise. I hack without signature and steal without a calling card. My legal identity was declared dead years ago. I don't intend to ever travel in a way that needs a passport, license or ID. No one is looking for me. I don't need a name or a gimmicky costume. I am whoever I want to be, and I want to be anonymous."
She tsked, giving up on him and inking in 'Anonymous' next to Alias and dashing a line through the Name space where the invisible ghost of 'Alexander Harris' sat. She handed him the half incomplete form and he read through it quickly before grabbing a red correction pen off of her desk and filled out the date before dashing off a big scrawled X through the Name and Signature lines. Her lips tightened at his use of a non-standard blue or black ink.
"Welcome to HIVE Academy, 'Anonymous X'." When he grasped her outstretched hand she yanked him forward with tremendous strength. Shit, she was a supe. He hadn't even considered that. He had underestimated her the same way she had underestimated him. She casually crushed his hand in hers and hissed in his face, "I will be watching you and if you cause me ANY trouble, I will sell you to a super-villain in need of human test subjects. Even if they find your body it will never be identified."
He hid his pain and grinned at her, riding high on his success at getting what he wanted and not ending up dead. "Well, thank you. I've made it a life's goal never to be identified."
Her returning grin was vindictive, "Head down to requisitions for a uniform."
"I just said that I'm not wearing a costume."
"Were you planning on breaking into JCPD in your civvies then?" She gestured dismissively at his wrinkled t-shirt and the sweatpants riding low on his hips. He liked to be comfortable while he was hacking. "You must truly be a wondrous thief if you believe you will make it one step inside the door without any equipment whatsoever."
"I… Fine. But just for this mission."
---------------------------------
“EW!” Xander looked down at himself in horror, the body hugging black under armor wasn’t so bad, if you ignored the iridescent yellow hexagonal pattern shining wherever the light caught it. The buttercup yellow armor on the other hand was hideous and bulky. He glared into the large multi-faceted eyes of his helmet and flicked one of the useless decorative antennae in disgust. “I am not the Power Ranger monster of the week, this is ridiculous.”
He stomped down the hall to the costume department in his bright sunshiny boots. What company would even manufacture mass amounts of armored boots in yellow? Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth could wait, they weren’t going anywhere until he got there and this atrocity needed to be dealt with right now. He was not going out in public in this monstrosity.
Xander dug around the costume supplies looking for inspiration. Henchmen weren’t important enough to need individualized costumes, so he’d never been in the workshop before. The first thing he found was some spray on dye and he immediately doused his body suit in red to get rid of the lemon holographic effect. He sprayed himself hard and long and at every possible angle, emptying two bottles of red dye all over himself as if he were some Axe wearing bro getting ready for a hot date. He didn’t even care that he was still wearing the suit and it might soak through. He would gladly sacrifice a layer of skin to scrubbing if it meant he wouldn’t be trying to infiltrate a police station while shining brighter than the sun. The dye brought the hue down about a hundred tones and the uneven coverage created a really cool fiery gleam he was a little proud of. It was still in a dumb hex pattern, but there was nothing he could do about that.
He kicked the pile of armor pieces to the side. It wasn't exactly conducive to flexibility, stealth and moving quickly, so basically it clashed horribly with his combat style. The armor was a hindrance that wasn't worth the protection it offered. If he was lame enough to get caught he deserved to get shot. His martial arts Masters would never let him live it down. He shivered at the thought of their revenge if he shamed their training in that way.
Xander shamelessly dug through the project lockers for costumes to cannibalize. If they wanted to keep them safe, the students should have used better locks. He hit pay dirt when he grabbed a pair of Kyd Wykkyd’s soft flexible boots and Billy Numerous’ shaped cowl and goggles. Graciously, he left the HIVE standard helmet and boots in their place. What was good enough for one HIVE student was good enough for another. Stupid supe supremacy.
After liberally dousing Billy’s fire engine red cowl in enough black dye to dull it to a bare ember of its former color he gave it up as good enough and slid it on. The smaller goggles fit tightly to his face and didn’t hinder his field of view the way the multi-faceted helmet did. HIVE soldiers weren’t actual bugs, how anyone expected them to be able to see through a kaleidoscope effect was beyond his comprehension.
Xander hopped a bit on the boots, flexing his feet to get a feel for them and then took a running start across the room, diving forward between the legs of some chairs without even brushing them, tumbling under one of the work benches. He used his momentum to flip up and jump-kick off a row of lockers, changing directions smoothly and propelling himself backwards in a leap over the next row. Mid-leap he grabbed a pipe on the ceiling and swung up to slide his body through the small gap between the air ducts and the ceiling. He landed in a crouch on the top of one of the tall work stools without a wobble. He grinned to himself at how seamlessly the costume flowed with his movements. Yeah, this could work.
Fandom: BtVS/Teen Titans
Prompt: 420 - Flail, 421 - Passport
Words: 2016
Warnings: Posted 900 disconnected words of notes from this chapter as prompt 420, fully written and edited chapter is posted for prompt 421
“As you have seen, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth have been apprehended by the Teen Titans and handed over to the Jump City Police Department.” For the very first time, Xander saw legitimate emotion on the Headmistress’ face. She was incandescent beyond all belief and he was glad she was too furious to care about his minor-in-comparison transgressions against her property. “They have shamed this institution in front of the entire city and worse, they have damaged my reputation in the eyes of my client.”
“Slade.” Xander commented, there was no point in pretending he hadn’t analyzed every word and action between the trio and the Titans.
“Yess.” The Headmistress hissed, her rage cracking through her emotionless mask and revealing the miasma of insanity he had never realized lay underneath. Adeline Kane wasn’t some cold hearted ice-queen of a mercenary, she was well and truly criminally insane. She wasn't the type of person whose temper broke in a whirlwind of thrown things and flailing arms, instead it seemed that her anger wound tighter and tighter like a spring. Building pressure until she released it all at once with deadly force behind it. Xander was very glad that she hadn’t cared to be a part of his life and education. He may not have survived the experience. "I will not be made a fool of in the eyes of THAT MAN!"
The Headmistress visibly restrained herself, clutching white knuckled at her ever present clipboard as she regulated her breathing and tucked a loose lock of white hair behind her ear. “Your instructors tell me that you are the best possible candidate for an extraction. I have checked your records and find that I agree with that assessment. You will be assigned to see to their removal from police custody and return to the school for disciplinary correction."
"What will I get in return?" Xander was pushing his luck, but he wasn't going to let her set a precedent where she said 'jump' and he asked 'how high'. He was not HIVE's to command and he had no loyalty to her. His only allegiance was to himself, everyone else had to pay if they wanted his cooperation.
"You have received a HIVE education, I would think that is compensation enough."
"You would think so, but I have a HIVE education because I stole it. You have given me nothing and I owe you nothing. One thing this place has taught me is- if you are good at something, never do it for free. So, I ask again. What's in it for me? What will you give me to retrieve your students for you and help you save face?"
"How about your worthless life?" The black rage was creeping in around her edges again, but she kept her mask up.
"It's not so worthless when you need me to get your favorites out of jail, now is it? Never threaten anyone who values their own life less than you do."
She recoiled thoughtfully at that, reconsidering him. She had been dealing with him as if he were some fawning minion, one of the students who were actually happy to be in the henchmen track and be told what to do. It had never even occurred to her that he might have more backbone than that, because he wasn't a supe and thus wasn't worth that much consideration. They both knew that he had something the Headmistress wanted and that put him in a rare position of power over her, so long as her temper held. He could stand up to her briefly and prove himself worthy of her attention, but the second he asked too much she would end him. She changed tactics, starting a dialogue and feeling him out. “Is there a reason you believe yourself to be exempt from the standard compulsory education?”
He snorted, "I'm not interested in standard or compulsory education. If I was I would still be in public school. I didn’t come here to become a minion, I came because of your pretty speech about a school that taught advanced skills. You may have brought me here to become an expendable thug, but I had different goals and I refuse to lower myself to your expectations.”
“What you want makes no difference to me.”
“And yet here you are, in need of my particular set of skills. The set of skills I provided myself when you would have left me with nothing but the basics.”
She considered him for a moment and flipped open his file, eyes skimming over the sparse information. He knew for a fact that aside from grades and instructor comments and assessments there was no personal information for her to use. "Your choice of classes is unusually unbalanced. You have neglected large chunks of vital educational material."
"Look, I'm not interested in the whole villainy thing and I'm a thief not a mercenary. I won't ask for anything unreasonable that you can't give."
Her eagle eyed gaze focused on him again as if he was a pet that had done something interesting. "Continue."
"I want complete educational autonomy, access to the supe exclusive classes and exemption from disciplinary actions based on my status as a henchman norm."
"You want to be enrolled in the honors track." She eyed him with amusement. "You couldn't keep up with such a lacking background, not to mention the fact that you have no power to speak of. The curriculum will eat you alive."
"Let me worry about that. Do we have a deal?"
"We do."
She quickly shuffled through her papers and filled out the necessary change of status forms. "You will need a name."
"No, I don't."
"Every two-bit villain has a name, even those just starting out."
"I'm not a villain. A thief whose name is known is a thief who has been caught. I don't have a name, alias or otherwise. I hack without signature and steal without a calling card. My legal identity was declared dead years ago. I don't intend to ever travel in a way that needs a passport, license or ID. No one is looking for me. I don't need a name or a gimmicky costume. I am whoever I want to be, and I want to be anonymous."
She tsked, giving up on him and inking in 'Anonymous' next to Alias and dashing a line through the Name space where the invisible ghost of 'Alexander Harris' sat. She handed him the half incomplete form and he read through it quickly before grabbing a red correction pen off of her desk and filled out the date before dashing off a big scrawled X through the Name and Signature lines. Her lips tightened at his use of a non-standard blue or black ink.
"Welcome to HIVE Academy, 'Anonymous X'." When he grasped her outstretched hand she yanked him forward with tremendous strength. Shit, she was a supe. He hadn't even considered that. He had underestimated her the same way she had underestimated him. She casually crushed his hand in hers and hissed in his face, "I will be watching you and if you cause me ANY trouble, I will sell you to a super-villain in need of human test subjects. Even if they find your body it will never be identified."
He hid his pain and grinned at her, riding high on his success at getting what he wanted and not ending up dead. "Well, thank you. I've made it a life's goal never to be identified."
Her returning grin was vindictive, "Head down to requisitions for a uniform."
"I just said that I'm not wearing a costume."
"Were you planning on breaking into JCPD in your civvies then?" She gestured dismissively at his wrinkled t-shirt and the sweatpants riding low on his hips. He liked to be comfortable while he was hacking. "You must truly be a wondrous thief if you believe you will make it one step inside the door without any equipment whatsoever."
"I… Fine. But just for this mission."
---------------------------------
“EW!” Xander looked down at himself in horror, the body hugging black under armor wasn’t so bad, if you ignored the iridescent yellow hexagonal pattern shining wherever the light caught it. The buttercup yellow armor on the other hand was hideous and bulky. He glared into the large multi-faceted eyes of his helmet and flicked one of the useless decorative antennae in disgust. “I am not the Power Ranger monster of the week, this is ridiculous.”
He stomped down the hall to the costume department in his bright sunshiny boots. What company would even manufacture mass amounts of armored boots in yellow? Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth could wait, they weren’t going anywhere until he got there and this atrocity needed to be dealt with right now. He was not going out in public in this monstrosity.
Xander dug around the costume supplies looking for inspiration. Henchmen weren’t important enough to need individualized costumes, so he’d never been in the workshop before. The first thing he found was some spray on dye and he immediately doused his body suit in red to get rid of the lemon holographic effect. He sprayed himself hard and long and at every possible angle, emptying two bottles of red dye all over himself as if he were some Axe wearing bro getting ready for a hot date. He didn’t even care that he was still wearing the suit and it might soak through. He would gladly sacrifice a layer of skin to scrubbing if it meant he wouldn’t be trying to infiltrate a police station while shining brighter than the sun. The dye brought the hue down about a hundred tones and the uneven coverage created a really cool fiery gleam he was a little proud of. It was still in a dumb hex pattern, but there was nothing he could do about that.
He kicked the pile of armor pieces to the side. It wasn't exactly conducive to flexibility, stealth and moving quickly, so basically it clashed horribly with his combat style. The armor was a hindrance that wasn't worth the protection it offered. If he was lame enough to get caught he deserved to get shot. His martial arts Masters would never let him live it down. He shivered at the thought of their revenge if he shamed their training in that way.
Xander shamelessly dug through the project lockers for costumes to cannibalize. If they wanted to keep them safe, the students should have used better locks. He hit pay dirt when he grabbed a pair of Kyd Wykkyd’s soft flexible boots and Billy Numerous’ shaped cowl and goggles. Graciously, he left the HIVE standard helmet and boots in their place. What was good enough for one HIVE student was good enough for another. Stupid supe supremacy.
After liberally dousing Billy’s fire engine red cowl in enough black dye to dull it to a bare ember of its former color he gave it up as good enough and slid it on. The smaller goggles fit tightly to his face and didn’t hinder his field of view the way the multi-faceted helmet did. HIVE soldiers weren’t actual bugs, how anyone expected them to be able to see through a kaleidoscope effect was beyond his comprehension.
Xander hopped a bit on the boots, flexing his feet to get a feel for them and then took a running start across the room, diving forward between the legs of some chairs without even brushing them, tumbling under one of the work benches. He used his momentum to flip up and jump-kick off a row of lockers, changing directions smoothly and propelling himself backwards in a leap over the next row. Mid-leap he grabbed a pipe on the ceiling and swung up to slide his body through the small gap between the air ducts and the ceiling. He landed in a crouch on the top of one of the tall work stools without a wobble. He grinned to himself at how seamlessly the costume flowed with his movements. Yeah, this could work.