Chapter 8 - DCU/MCU Fan-fiction 3 - DC Gothic - Red-X (2/2)
”Tell me young man, do you put your faith in the law to keep you safe, to prevent harm from coming to you?”
Well maybe as the cops here were decent I could tell, but no I didn't think they had much dėsɨrė to protect me. Really they just wanted me to stop being a problem for them.
”No” was my simple answer.
Her stony expression didn't change that much, but I could tell that was pleased by my response
”Young man” she said next ”I would like to make you an offer. One you can't afford to refuse”.
By that I ȧssumed she meant she'd have my killed so I agreed to her offer Once I had agreed she formally introduced herself as Adeline Kane, Headmistress of the HIVE Academy, and then went about securing my freedom from police custody.
I guessed that the cops must have thought that she was a part of some program for troubled youths or something along those lines, as they were quite happy to let her take me away.
As the paper work was sorted out the Headmistress explained that HIVE stood for the Higher Institute of Villainous Education. In other words it was a school for junior super villains
Which meant the real reason why the cops thought they would never see me again wasn't because I was going to get straightened out as they might hope, actually it was because I would hopefully become a higher class of criminal, one that didn't get caught picking pockets.
On the drive to my new home, after grabbing my stuff from the old one, I also discovered that Headmistress Adeline Kane shopped around the various precincts for the those who had seen the darker side of life and could deal with it.
Kids that took daddy's car for a joyride or who got into fights with their mates were of no interest to her, Kane wanted young people who were willing to do what it took to survive, and that I was quickly learning how to do just that.
I wasn't the only kid in the car either, by the end of the day we were packed in sardines, and that removed any impression I had about me being special.
What came next only enforced that view.
(Line Break)
H.I.V.E Academy – Jump City
While the Headmistress may have recruited me personally, that didn't mean she cared about me. She just dumped me into the basic training programs and headed off to her office without looking back.
Since I was the new kid at school I was at bottom of the pecking order. The kids with powers, were the jocks, and the rest of us were the uncool nerds.
Well there were those who acted as support for those with super powers, I mentally labelled them as 'Cheerleaders' and smartly kept my distance.
Despite my experience and skill that had let me survive this cruel world, I had no powers and therefore wasn't expected to become anything better than a foot soldier a mere minion. I was being taught to obey orders from someone with powers and maybe even get myself killed doing so.
I decided at once that I would be no ones minion, but I also didn't want to rock the boat so I didn't express those opinions out loud.
Having no one expect anything spectacular from me was actually rather freeing. I had no one to disappoint and felt no shame when I failed. I guessed that I was too pathetic to even mock for my failures. I wasn't even low enough to be stepped on. Partly this was because I'd already been through High School and college so I knew how to keep my head down and get on with things.
Still it should of shattered my spirit but instead it only fuelled my determination to prove myself. I would show the entire HIVE that even starting at the bottom wouldn't stop me from becoming a successful super villain.
My goal was to become a master thief because I already knew the basics but I would wring every bit of combat, espionage and weaponry training I could from my teachers without looking like I was doing that. From now on my only priority was myself and nothing would ever change that.
Unlike other schools the ȧduŀts here encouraged it, secret identities and false names were part of being a super villain so it made sense.
That however did not stop me from being named. The academy had no official uniform so I dressed in black and wore the few adornments I'd stolen over a period of weeks. That quickly led to me being called 'The Goth' and that was enough of a name.
I trained tirelessly, night and day to be the best in every course I was forced to take. I had a real talent for stealth, at least compared to my class mates who were used to either relying on their powers or on brute force, which was not option for me as I had no tricks like that and I was wiry little thing as a teenager.
All I had was a brain, a healthy body and the determination to improve myself unlike those the muscle-bound thugs. Granted I was no magic user or tech genius either. I would never be strong as Mammoth, or as good at electronic engineering and hacking as Gizmo, nor would I be a magic user like Jinx, but I knew that the real secret to success was to have well rounded plethora of skills.
As for Mammoth, Gizmo and Jinx they were super powered freaks by all accounts. That said there was a lively debate between some of the students going on behind Gizmo's back. Some people thought that he wasn't actually a meta-human at all, some also thought he might not even be a kid and that he was actually a member of alien race that were foul mouthed midget with great knowledge of technology and the power to defy physics.
Personally I thought he was a rude, freaky person who would be better off developing buggy software for Mircosoft than being a super villain, but no one cared what I had to say and I liked it that way.
What was clear to everyone, even from day one, was that the trio were the pride and joy of the Academy, Mammoth was by far the strongest, Gizmo was the most intelligent and Jinx was the powerful student.
As such they enjoyed a celebrity status among the HIVE students and were watched so closely that the whole school always knew what they were up to.
Their battle with the Teen Titans was talked about for weeks in the canteen The trio made a good showing of themselves initially, actually managing to force Titans into fleeing back home to regroup and then ousting the heroes from their own tower.
That was when things had gone wrong. Rather than blow the tower up, or at least ransack the place before retreating back to the H.I.V.E, the fools had moved in and lowered their guard. It was as if the idea that the Titans might try to take their home back had never entered the minds of the super powered meta-human criminals.
They'd gotten their ȧsses kicked and had come scurrying home with their tails tucked between their legs.
That they had gotten their ȧsses whooped did not surprise me the least. The trio had been too ċȯċky and careless, but the real reason they'd lost was the hero, Robin.
Like me the Boy Wonder didn't have any super powers but he was still a team leader. The other Titans didn't look down on him or belittle him; they followed his orders without argument. Once he mobilized his team. Robin fought confidently and incorporated several recognizable schools of martial arts into his highly mobile, acrobatic combat style. Which wasn't that unlike the style I was working on.
A fight between Robin and I would be intense even if there was no way I could win. I was sure that I had a height, weight and strength against the hero, but I not that flexible so I couldn't out maneuver him either or his toys.
I knew nothing about the other Titans, aside from a little about Cyborg and there was something oddly familiar about that Raven chick.
Despite my lack of knowledge my attention was on Robin, the Boy Wonder, he was the protégé of Gotham's own vigilante, Batman. Also judging by the fact that Nightwing was already active then this was not Grayson. Which meant he was either Jason Todd or Tim Drake, possibly he was even Damien Wayne. I simply had no way of knowing, however I did know that he was the reason Jinx, Mammoth and Gizmo had lost.
Still even when they fuċkėd up everyone still feared and admired them. Which for me was great because the more everyone focused on them the less they focused on the likes of me.
As weeks became months I never felt wanted, but I could call myself happy, or at the very least content. I didn't have any friends and the entire school either ignored me or underestimated me, but I was fine with that and I even encouraged this as it had become clear to me that I wasn't cut out for all the political manoeuvring and sometimes literal backstabbing that was going on around here. After all no one would bother to remove a threat that they didn't even know to exist.
It wasn't until I'd been at the academy for almost a year that I thought the professors caught on to what I had planned.
Anyone with a brain should have seen what I was up to. I was slowly improving but I was improving in every way. I had some talent in stealth and stealing, which was the name of a class here, but in every other other I'd been poor, now I was average, in every class. People didn't improve in such steady ways, not in so many areas and a few teachers noticed that.
But rather than point it out they started to encourage me. Not in ways that would get me called 'Teacher's Pet' but instead in ways that made it look as if I was being punished. I got ȧssigned essays, which always led to me researching truly fantasising subjects. Until coming here I'd never imagined that there could be book about Hostage Taking that offered advice on how take hostages and not on how to free him.
I was even asked to write up a plan to rob a bank. I had loads of fun with that as I imagined myself leading the group and decided to be the Red Hood and throw money around as a distraction. It amused my professors no end even if it was a bit silly. Over time I showed just how creative I could be when it came to making plans.
It may have even had something to do with how I got my first job. The students of this fine school were being turned into what Kane called ”Well organized, highly trained, and combat equipped” H.I.V.E. agents for hire” which was a fancy way of saying 'yeah we can supply you with expendable mooks'. It was how the school actually made money, but not all the jobs were about gathering funds. Sometimes the Headmistress wanted a job handling. Not that many students came back, but those that did moved up the ranks.
So when I got called to her office I knew that my time had come and that was going to be thrown into the deep end to see if I could sink or swim.
As I later found out. I was a good swimmer.
Chapter End