The Wicked One

Chapter Thirty-Three | Vexing, Part One

The cafeteria was so packed, so filled with unfamiliar faces. People dressed in costumes. People that she always used to warn us about. But these weren't heroes. Not the kind of costumed freaks that we were told to avoid, not the kind that killed my friend. They were a new thing-- criminals, thieves, like I was trained to be, only dressed up. Only gifted.

 My cape draped over me, like some kind of cold blanket. I wasn't gifted. Not like all these other people. What I had was a choice, and I chose wrong.

....

"That kid. He hasn't spoken at all yet, has he?" Jinx spoke up, her eyes trained on someone across the cafeteria.

"What kid?" Mammoth asked, his focus still on the food he was buried face deep in.

"The new kid. The one with the cape and bat ears. Gizmo, you see who I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, he's a nobody," Gizmo replied, his back to where the boy in question was sitting. "The scarf for brains won't even talk and he's got nothing special about him. I don't even know why the headmistress let him in. It's not like he's going last long."

Jinx looked from Gizmo and then back to the new kid. Her eyes seemed intent on something until she finally shrugged before taking a bite out of her own food.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

....

I could hear them talking about me. It sounded as though they were sitting right next to me, talking as though I wasn't there. I hated the new ears. I always had uncommonly good hearing, but what I had now...it was maddening.

But it didn't help that I was focused on them. The headmistress told me about them when I first arrived. How they were the first of her students to take on the Titans, how they had the Titans beaten until Robin ultimately defeated them. She said they were the most promising of her students, that with the right tutelage and training, they could be hired by worldwide criminal organizations. But I was only half listening at that point. All I needed to hear were two words. Titans and Robin.

"Hey there, man! How's it going?" A cheery voice suddenly asked.

Number 72?

And there I was, back in that dimly lit warehouse. Alone in a sea of pale faces and dark leather. And there he was, the only one with a smile on his face. Walking up to me and introducing himself. Holding out his hand like we were some regular children in some regular school.

I looked down at the hand extended towards me. It's glove white, not black. I looked up into the face of the one with the white glove, his skin was dark, not the pale white I was expecting. Nor was I expecting the reflection of myself that I could clearly see in his large, green, and singular eye.

"The name's See-More, what's yours?" He asked me, hand still outstretched. I could only look from his giant eye to his hand and back again. It was uncanny, how could he have the exact same smile?

"See-More, don't waste your time with him," Jinx spoke up. Immediately afterwards, all the idle chatter in the cafeteria quieted down.

"But...why?" See-More asked, his hand lowering as his eye looked from Jinx to me.

"Cause the guy is a nobody!" Gizmo blurted out, looking at me with squinted eyes. "He's got crud for brains."

"He does?" See-More asked, before bringing his attention back to me. "You do?"

I only looked back at him.

"Yeah! What are you even supposed to be anyways?" Mammoth chimed in, his mouth full of food. "Some kind of creepy little bat boy? I bet he can't even fight!"