"So, who are we looking for?"

There was a short pause while the boy wonder looked around the city frantically, taking long, deep breaths to calm himself down. Adrenaline pierced through his body when they were on missions like these.

"Slade…" He muttered quietly, almost to himself. "He's stolen… something."

"Uh, what?" The little green changeling asked.

"We're going to find out, Beast Boy," the mutant robot replied. There was a patronizing tone to his voice, which the green boy instantly picked up on.

"Dude, I figured that out."

The enthusiastic alien floated a foot or so off the ground, hovering behind the boy wonder. She had no respect for his personal space and her face was inches from Robin's. "Who are we supposed to be looking for, Robin? Slade or the object that is stolen?"

A bored, monotonous voice quietly crept into the conversation. "Slade wouldn't be that stupid to use the item as soon as he'd stolen it," the young woman said. Her eyes shone through the shadow of her hood. "Maybe he's somewhere, in his hideout, for instance."

But the boy wonder shook his head slowly, still deep in his own thoughts. "He wouldn't hide in a place that would be so obvious to look in. Listen, we've already wasted too much time already. Let's just split up and look for him."

Without even waiting for the famous command, the dark woman took immediate flight, her cloak flapping noisily behind her. The red-haired alien kicked her legs against the concrete road, shooting her in the opposite direction while the Cyborg ran south towards their own tower. The beast boy turned into a small hummingbird, his tiny feathers glittering in the sun for the millisecond that he was motionless in the air until he took flight in the only direction that was left.

The boy wonder was left standing in the middle of the city, alone. His voice rang in his own ears; he hadn't expected his team to act so quickly although it satisfied him that they were so passionate about their jobs. This Slade… this evil man needed to be stopped. Despite the speed his teammates possessed, he doubted they would get in time to stop Slade. Time was ever so precious in situations like these.

A small café sat in between two tall buildings on the road that Robin was standing on. He gave a routine check behind both of his shoulders before lowering his head and walking directly towards it. With his eyes still focused on the ground before him, he swung the door open and immediately grabbed a newspaper from an old shelf that hung on the wall to the right. By the mere lack of the scrunching sound a fresh newspaper would deliver, Robin knew that it was weeks, even months out of date. But he didn't grab it to read it. He made his way to the table nearest the window and hid his masked face behind it, hunching his shoulders defensively.

His eyes were locked on the street that lay to the left of him. He knew that with four kids on patrol, searching for Slade as if their lives depended on it, there was no need for him to go running around the city, losing his energy. No – the best thing for him to do was to keep watch discreetly and keep a secure record of his teammate's findings. What if he was running towards the west of the city when he was suddenly told that Slade was found near the east? It was best to stay put until further notice.

"What can I get for you, dear?"

Robin almost jumped out of his tight suit as a wobbly voice swam over him. He looked up from his paper, the rest of his body still hidden behind it, to see an old woman staring down at him. The pale pink dress she wore was covered in grey blotches and hung limply from her large body. Robin quickly stopped himself from holding his breath and leaning back in disgust, and shook his head furiously.

"Oh – no. I'm alright thanks -."

"Either order something or leave. We're not a library."

Robin narrowed his eyes as he fumbled around in his pocket for a few crumpled up green notes. He threw them into the woman's outstretched hand and hid behind his newspaper again.

"Fine. I'll have a coffee."

"Regular or decaf?"

Robin's newspaper shook from his impatience and his loud breathing was clear throughout the room as he tried to calm himself. "Any. I don't care." He spoke quietly and slowly, keeping his eyes locked on his newspaper. He read the same sentence over five times although not one word locked itself in his brain.

The woman walked off in a sulk, finally leaving him in peace. Not long later, when Robin was concentrating so much on the road that spread outside the café, a coffee cup was slammed on his table, making him jump again. He took a glance in it to see if it was worth drinking; maybe it would rise his energy levels up before he took on Slade, although he didn't like the idea of having a toilet break in between the fight. Lying on the surface of his drink was something that resembled a web, dotted with black dots. The obvious sign of mould and Robin wouldn't be surprised if the waitress gave it to him on purpose. He decided not to drink it and came to the conclusion that he'd be able to stay inside for longer if he let it be.

He had chosen the best newspaper out of the bunch; it was so old that there were holes where people had grabbed it and accidentally torn it. He could see more of the street that way and so it prevented him from having to look up over his paper. To make his job even easier, he took three out of five pages of the newspaper and threw them, scrunched up, into the nearest bin. The paper was so thin you could almost see through it.

As he turned back to slouch into his seat, he let his eyes roam back to the window where the most unexpected sight greeted him. He gave a loud yell as he fell off his chair in a pathetic attempt to jump up and run out of the café. He slid too far to reach for the table to pull himself up and so he scrambled to his feet, his boots slipping on the tiled floor. Slade had been standing at the window, staring at him through that one eye of his. His whole body had taken up half the window and it had shocked him enormously. It looked more eerie than it sounded.

As soon as Robin jumped to his feet, he began to run out of the café and for Slade. He turned his head from left to right, right to left so quickly that the city became a blur and his neck began to ache. But Slade was not there. He was nowhere to be seen. Was Robin's mind playing with him again? Was he so desperate to put an end to Slade's cruelty that he began to imagine that he was constantly following him? What was wrong with him?

He panted heavily, slowly edging himself towards the brick wall of the café so that Slade, if he was around, couldn't attack him from behind. But he'd looked so real – he even swore he could hear him laughing quietly under that mask of his! Why did he love to torment Robin, even in his paranoid imagination? As Robin kept a frantic watch out on the road before him, he decided to get medication as soon as possible, although the thought of a crazy superhero on medication was embarrassing.

He jumped again, his back hitting against the rough brick wall as a loud beeping erupted from his pocket. He shook his head fiercely, trying to pull himself together as he whipped his communicator out and flipped it open, ready to receive the call.

"Robin." It was the low, bored voice of his teammate. Raven; he often wondered why she wore a hood over her face; she looked more like a villain than a hero. He also wondered if she ever got cold wearing the stuff she wore. But her voice was shrill as she spoke through the mobile to him. "I've seen Slade. I don't know where he's gone off to but I saw him running towards Jasdeep's Socks. I can't -." There was the crinkled sound of a signal dying, but as the unmistakable sound of her communicator falling to the ground with a loud thud, he could still hear her shrill scream.

The signal went dead.

Robin was shocked and stood almost like a statue for a moment before frantically punching buttons, trying to call her back, although he knew it was no use. "Raven!"