The Wicked One

Chapter Twenty-Five | Questions, Part Two

That's why I'm here. See-More reminded himself as he continued his search. To bring them back, all of the HIVE members.

See-More then began thinking to himself about HIVE as he flipped through the nearly endless series of useless visions. Had they started recruiting again? Probably, he decided. He wondered who replaced Brother Blood. See-More couldn't remember seeing his old headmaster with the rest of them when they worked for the Brotherhood of Evil, which meant that he was probably still locked away in high security. That was probably for the best too. See-More couldn't particularly remember anything they accomplished while under his tutelage. From the moment he was headmaster until the moment he was stopped by the Titans everything was just a long red blur.

Granny is probably in charge again. The teen thought with some hope. He always liked the old woman despite her overall strict and stern attitude. He knew she cared about them, maybe so much in fact that she could be looking into the entire class's disappearance right now! See-More smiled to himself at that thought, taking comfort that all might not be lost if they failed now.

Not that we will, but still.

"S-See-More?" a soft, mechanical voice called out, breaking See-More's train of thought.

"Oh, man!" See-More quickly switched to his normal gaze to look over to Fixit, his heart losing some of its extra weight to see that he was looking back. "No way! You're alive!"

Fixit gave him a quizzical look before raising a hand, attempting to touch one of the gaping holes on the side of his head. See-More was quick to stop him.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you," See-More suggested with a helpful smile, slowly placing Fixit's arm back to his side.

"I can't hear you, or anything else," the mechanic said, his red eyes staring squarely into See-More's single eye. "What happened?"

In response, the thief merely shrugged, smiling helplessly. Fixit's eyes leered.

"Sorry, man, I don't know what to te-"

"You did this," Fixit said before laying his head back down to the ground.

See-More looked down at him with a mixture of surprise and guilt. "What? How? Did you just read my mind?"

Fixit didn't respond and it took a moment for See-More to realize that he was still deaf.

Hey, uh, can you hear me? See-More thought in his head, his eye trained on Fixit's face.

Eyes closed, the mechanic slowly nodded.

Well, if it means anything, I'm real sorry, man.

Fixit didn't say anything back for a moment and, just when See-More was about to think something further, his eyes slowly opened, fixating back on the thief. "Why did you have to attack me?"

You attacked me first! See-More thought quickly. Raven got into your head somehow and made you her puppet.

Fixit nodded, somewhat sullenly. "And where is the cave? And Red-X?"

Oh, er, the cave is... See-More looked around them, expecting it to be just over the horizon, but to his dismay it was nowhere in sight. Fixit must have chased him farther than he anticipated. That's a good question, man.

"And Red-X? Is he alright?"

See-More felt his throat tighten at that question. He was grateful now that he didn't have to actually speak to Fixit.