Author's note: I don't own any of the characters or anything
Three months ago...
Location: T-Car, en route to crime scene
"I can't believe I created such a monster."
"Robin, you musn't blame yourself."
"Yeah man. What's done is done. We all make mistakes. All we can do now is try and stop him."
Cyborg and Starfire tried to cheer Robin up, but their leader was still feeling guilty. He had created the Red-X suit so as to get closer to Slade. Now someone has stolen it. While there were limits to what the new Red-X would do with it, stealing wasn't off limits to him. Robin had felt a sense of pride in stopping crime, and it made him sick to think that every crime the anti-hero was able to commit was because of him.
The car pulled to a stop and the five young heroes exited. They had arrived, but couldn't find any sign of the thief. Well, they had, but he darted away before they could catch him. They gave chase but he seemed to have lost them easily. "Split up and search for him!"
Beast Boy was preoccupied with something else. "Maybe you can take some of the stress off your hands by letting me borrow your mask?"
Yeah, it sounded stupid, but it was worth a shot, and Beast Boy was out of ideas.
"For the last time Beast Boy, no! I can't let you borrow my mask!"
'He just said "for the last time" so that means next time I ask, he'll break and let me borrow it!' Beast Boy muttered to himself, though apparently not quite to himself.
"You're an idiot." Raven commented, having heard what he said.
"Aw man, Robin, why can't I borrow the mask?" he pleaded more than asked.
"Beast Boy, that mask was given to me by Batman, my mentor. It has incredible sentimental value. And with the expensive gold material it's frame is made from, it's worth over 100 million dollars. Every villain in Jump City will attack you for a chance to take it. I'm afraid that item cannot leave the evidence room."
The green changeling nodded in understanding. He wouldn't have even let Starfire borrow the mask. He was still disappointed about it, but his thoughts were cut short when an X-shaped projectile landed right at his feet. He jumped back, startled, and then he saw the criminal they had been looking for standing a few feet from them.
"Well, if it isn't the Teen Titans" Red X sneered. He threw an X-shaped smoke bomb at them, taking off as soon as it hit the ground and began to release smoke. He was hoping to get away quickly but a giant hand made of black energy grabbed him before he got too far. His mask allowed him to see through the fog, and when he spotted Raven, he threw a grenade-like X at her. Once it went off, he was dropped and took off again, this time using his teleport.
The teleport on this belt didn't work all the time, so he had to use it sparingly. He also dodged two pairs of blue and green lasers, but the third blue one hit him, knocking him down. He looked back to see the Titans gaining on him. With a shriek of frustration, he threw the bag of jewels that he had robbed on the ground and continued running. The heroes briefly ceased their chase to collect the scattering jewels.
"Just like golden apples" he muttered before taking off and getting too far away for them to catch him.
Needless to say, Robin was none too happy that by the time they managed to retrieve the jewels, Red X had escaped. But he also couldn't help but wonder why the villain gave them up so easily. Going home empty handed wasn't something X had ever wanted to do, and only did so as a last resort before he was captured. Though when Robin counted the jewels he had retrieved and compared them with the number that were stolen, he found that there were still two or three missing. They had picked up all the ones on the ground, so X must have taken a few out of the bag and kept them for himself.
Present Day
Location: Titans Tower Common Room
Robin was reading the paper on an ordinary morning. He could hear Cyborg and Beast Boy arguing over whether or not breakfast would include tofu. He heard the two voices going back and forth, but wasn't really listening to what they were saying. Eventually he heard Raven tell them to be quiet because she was reading, both boys tell her to butt out, then all three yelling at the same time.
He really thought all three of them were being ridiculous. There was no reason for Cyborg to insist on not having tofu in their meal. Beast Boy could have easily gotten some cereal or cooked some tofu himself. And if he could read the paper despite the noise with no problem, why did Raven have such a hard time with it? And couldn't she just go to her room or somewhere quieter if she needed silence that badly? It was as if the three actually liked to fight in the morning. He wasn't even going to get involved. Tracking down Slade and scouring the paper for clues was much more important.
"Friends, must we always do the loud arguing and fighting in the morning?" he heard Starfire say. Unlike Robin, she was still bothered when her teammates shouted at each other like this.
By the time breakfast was over, they were still arguing. Robin found this to be unbelievable. He had changed his mind about not getting involved, and was just about to say something when the alert sounded. A picture of the criminals causing trouble appeared on screen.
"It's the Hive. Titans Go!" Now he could take out his frustration at his team on some bad guys.
"Aw man! I was hoping to test the new security BB and I just installed in the place!" Cyborg complained.
"You made security upgrades?" Robin asked. This was news to him.
"Just a little something to do in my spare time. Grass Stain kept complaining about me not letting him help build the T-Car, so we came up with something for him to do. Plus, a little extra security couldn't hurt."
"Interesting, but testing it will have to wait. Let's go!"
Robin rode his motorcycle alongside the T-Car, and he was pretty sure this was going to be boring. The Hive were easy villains to defeat. At least he'd have something to take his anger out on. He was thinking of going after Jinx. After she pretended to be helping the Titans against the Brotherhood of Evil, she played Kid Flash and secretly freed the other Hive members (some of them at least, he doubted she'd gotten to every last one). She had just switched sides because it was more convenient for her. Robin didn't take kindly to people who did things like that.
Suddenly Cyborg set the T-Car to autopilot and poked his head out the window towards Robin.
"Robin, my security system is picking up an intruder!"
"Not now Cyborg, we've got a mission to do." Robin was pretty sure he was just making a show of his new upgrades to the Tower.
"For real man! You're gonna want to see this." Reluctantly, Robin took a look at the screen Cyborg had displayed for him.
"No, no, no!" After seeing the live feed, Robin was in a panic.
"Listen man, we got the Hive. You go deal with that situation." Robin felt bad about not helping with the mission, but he really needed to take care of this. He knew what was happening based on where the intruder was heading, and he hoped with all his heart that he'd get back before it was too late.
Beast Boy, being Beast Boy, said, "Well, at least we know the security system works. Hehehe..."
The others all glared at him.
Location: Titans Tower Evidence Room
Red-X was going to steal Robin's super expensive mask. Honestly, that day three months ago, he was just looking to score a few bucks with the jewel heist, but then he overhears the Titans talking about some mask in their evidence room that was worth over 100 million dollars? There were practically dollar signs in his eyes when he heard that. He hadn't even cared that much about the jewels anymore, which is why he didn't mind throwing most of them away to secure his escape.
He had gathered a small group of essential items to take with him and stash comfortably in his suit, just in case things didn't exactly go according to plan. He had a similar mask to swap out as a fake, and color changing film to put over the glass case that the mask was in. He couldn't find any fake framing that looked quite convincing enough for him.
"Crap!" he said, realizing he only had one sheet of it. He would have needed six for them to work, otherwise people would just be able to see that it was different by looking at it from another angle.
He wasn't able to get his hands on a quality lock pick due to a stroke of bad luck. He had a screwdriver that might work, but in all likelyhood he was going to take the thing home and open it later in his apartment, or hideout. The whole case would be hard to do acrobatics with, so hopefully he wouldn't have any trouble.
Because he had never quite corrected the flaws in his belt that were hampering his teleportation, he had been experimenting with the xenothium. He had a special batch that energized his weapons. It would make them much more powerful, and hopefully increase the chances of his teleport function working correctly. The problem was that he had exactly one vial of it, enough to last him only about twenty to thirty minutes or so. He could afford to use it only if things really got ugly, which he doubted they would.
You see, Red-X had a few connections around Jump City. That was how he had gotten the little mini-sub that he used to get to and from the Tower. Flying there in a small hovercraft would be easier, but might be conspicuous and attract some unwanted attention. He also had talked to the Hive, and he knew the Titans would be out dealing with trouble today, which was why he had this planned for a while.
He thought. 'Hmm, which way should I go?' His first thought was to simply go back to his hideout and undress, stashing the mask away there. But he was slightly paranoid about running into the Titans and them somehow catching him. This was a big heist, and with that task came anxiety. He had been standing at his mini-sub about to leave, but he decided to take a few minutes to think his escape route through. 'After all, I've got time. The Titans won't be back for a long time.'
"Red-X!"
He literally jumped when he heard Robin shout his name. He whipped around to see the Boy Wonder riding up on the island through the tunnel that the Titans normally use.
"Aw, sugar honey iced tea!" Red-X shrieked as he jumped in his mini-sub and took off in a diagonal direction going towards the city, but away from the Titan's underwater streetway.
Red-X hadn't known about the new security system.
Author's note: I was planning to write this all as one shot but it's taking a while, so I'll call the chapter there. It'll end up being two or three chapters in all. Will Robin ever get his mask back? Find out!