Standing in front of the Teen Titans there was a two story house at the edge of the block that wa choked in ivy. Cyborg looked at the notes that he was holding, then back up at the house again.
"Robin, are you sure that this is the house? It looks like it hasn't been occupied for years." Cyborg said, vexed. He had checked the notes a hundred times before they left the tower. This didn't look like a hideout of a mega super villain, but then again the least suspecting place almost always was the right one.
"This is where the evidence led to Cy. We've all read the same data. I know it looks like a bit of a shock, but according to the locals the guy's pretty damn crafty." Robin took the notes from Cyborg. "Page fifteen: said that he hid away in a dumpster for two months after a double homicide not too long ago. Cops only discovered him after the dump smelled nicer than usual."
"Fair enough." Cyborg nodded. "What I don't understand is why here? He has plenty of other very low key hideaways. This is on the end of one of the busiest streets in Jump City.
"Maybe he might be baiting us." Beast Boy stepped forward. "When I was on the D.O.O.M Patrol, sometimes villains would hide in houses like these for two reasons: they have a lot of places where they can plant traps, or that they were hiding with other villains waiting for an ambush. I say that we call Rey and Star over."
"B, we've read the data, and it said that there hasn't been any sign of more than one occupant in the building. And even if that were the case, this is just some Slade wannabe disturbing the locals. We should have this cleared out within a half hour at most." Robin folded his arms. They were the Teen Titans, the most formidable young superhero group in the world. If they weren't confident beat this scrub then why even be superhero's to begin with?
"Yea, but it wouldn't hurt to come over prepared. Even if we find out it's just one low life thug in there, we'll be in and out in ten minutes. Why not just call them over?"
"Beast Boy, what I said is final. Come on how bad can it be? The guy's a level two villain. At most he's harmed just like a fly." Robin moved in closer to the changeling. Standing a towering eight inches over his teammate, Robin puffed up. It hurt his bones to do so, but sometimes as leader he had to put his foot down. "All I'm saying is if we don't have belief in ourselves in this situation, then we won't have it if we ever fight Slade again."
"Dude calm down. All I said was bring more help. That doesn't automatically equal unconfidence. I just really want to be prepared." Beast Boy jumped back while putting his hands up.
Robin said nothing, but instead he took a sharp swing at his teammate. Beast Boy fell back in shock. Retreating into his mouse form, he hid behind Cyborg.
"Come on man you don't need to get in a fight over this. You of all people should know that this does nothing to boost moral. If you want to talk about not being confidence, this is a major cause." Cyborg said, stepping in between the two.
"Well all I wanted was for Beast Boy to know where he stands in line! Even if this just a routine mission how are we going to be if we're out of line against Slade?" Robin got in Cyborg's face and started shouting.
The half-robot sighed, and blocked Robin. "What is with up with your Slade fetish recently? Focus on the mission, not on a guy who may be long gone, or dead even!" Cyborg raised his voice, but it sounded not out of necessity, but of desperation.
"Cy, I know you won't believe me, but I have a grave suspicion that these recent string of low to mid level crimes are connected to Slade. If we can capture this thug maybe he can lead us to Slade. He's out there Cy, I know it." Robin took a couple of steps back. Fighting off Beast Boy was one thing, but Cyborg was a whole nother ball park.
"You have no actual proof! I've seen the newspaper clippings. I'll give you that it might be related to a big mob like syndicate, but not Slade. After Trigon was defeated both the Justice League, and major super villains have declared him deceased. He's not out there anymore Rob." Cyborg put a hand on Robin's shoulder. Trying to calm down the Boy Wonder was at times a very dangerous job, but Cyborg had faith in his abilities.
"We'll talk about this later. Right now we're wasting time with petty arguments." Robin took out a pair of binoculars and began to scout the area. Nothing on the outside seemed too unreasonable. The neighboring houses were all empty as well, their occupants busy with the day's activities.
Robin smiled; there were very few chances that he could capture the bad guy and not have to worry about civilians. Secretly deep within his mind he wished that the Code was invalid so that he could just focus on the mission, and not care how many civilians were killed due to the fighting.
Signaling his teammates to follow, they broke down the door, and entered the house.
"Just like we planned fellas. Once I get to the basement I'll radio Starfire and Raven to make sure that the creep gets his due justice." The two superheros nodded in response. Robin made his way effortlessly down to the basement.
The first sign something was up was his rocked senses. The room was pitch black. Robin looked down and couldn't even see his hands. Pulling out his binoculars again he determined that the room was somewhat as wide as a normal hallway. How long it was however, the binoculars failed to register. Robin shook his head, and ventured onwards.
The next thing that caught his senses were the droplets of water- or at least he thought it was water- dripping at unusually fast rates. Pulling out a flask he caught some of the droplets and sealed it back into his utility belt.
Something's not right here. While I can't give away my position and flash a light, that substance could very well be blood.
Cyborg had a relatively easy time disabling all of the traps leading into the kitchen. The front room after the door had the most of them, which wasn't really surprising. What was surprising that the door itself had no traps. He was going to berate Robin in the afterlife after his chagrin attitude blew them to bits, but discovering he still had all of his limbs attached, decided to drop it until the team meeting after the mission.
The front room of the house opened to two more rooms: the kitchen, and a first set of bathrooms. The plans of the house said that there were two more bathrooms on his floor down the ends of both hallways. The basement was directly right of the lobby. He was sure that Robin would have no trouble even if it was pitch black.
The first floor on the other hand was bright enough to where Cyborg could see everything, but dark enough to where he couldn't see the most minute detail. Most of his limbs and one of his eyes might have been robotic, the conditions weren't right enough to make this a cake walk. His experience and innate knowledge made that known.
"Bsst!" What the… Cyborg turned around. Bending down, he spotted some tracks on the floor. Using his mechanical eye, he identified that the tracks were made by some mechanical being. The tacks were parallel and led out of the kitchen and into the left hallway.
Cyborg followed the tracks, and found that they stopped right before the bathroom. Whipping his head he found the mechanical creature up above him attached to the ceiling. It wasn't much bigger than a medium sized dog, and had its four limbs holding on to each of the walls. Falling back in alarm, Cyborg started to charge his particle cannon, firing.
Cursing at his miss, he dodged the creature's attack and fired again, this time hitting it square in the head. The creature struck back with a venom that shocked the mechanical superhero. Staggering back he made one final attempt to subdue the being that missed. The robot then struck into Cyborg's heart, paralyzing him instantly. The last thing that he saw before he went unconscious was quite a large room, and a medical table.
Beast Boy had chosen to take the top floor, because of his animal abilities. If something was amiss he could easily fly out of the bedroom windows and alert Star and Rey.
Remembering the layout he checked most of the upper rooms, and found nothing of alarm. The second to last room was a regular sized bedroom. The room had the bed off to the left side, and a huge window that took up half of the wall opposite of the changeling. The window was close, with the blinds all the way down. Other than that the room was empty.
Beast Boy changed into a dog and sniffed the room. No bombs or any dangerous chemicals. Changing into a mouse, he climbed up to the window and checked the locks. No traps there too.
"Cy, upstairs looks to be clean. Just got one more room and so far no traps." Beast Boy plopped himself on the bed and waited for several minutes with no reply. During that time he swore he heard some hurried scattering downstairs, but he thought that the tin can was losing his marbles.
Right as he was taking out his com link again, Beast Boy heard a loud thud coming from directly beneath him. Cyborg must have found one hell of a trap. Hopefully he's okay.
Leaping off the bed he raced downstairs to find a trashed living space, but no Cyborg. Okay this is gettin weird. There are signs of a struggle here, but there's no sound coming from anywhere. Beast Boy turned into a dog. What he found sent his whole body into panic mode. His eyesight, and strength got stronger.
Not good; if Cy got taken out by something then it must have been pretty damn big, or fast. The guy just doesn't fall like he had a heart attack.
"Starfire, Raven I need you two to get down here right now! We're skipping step two due to unforeseen circumstances. I'll try to give you guys some time, but we don't know how much we have." Putting the com link away he frantically searched the area, turning over anything that might reveal a secret trap, or a hidden door. Finding none the changeling put his hands on his head and let out an exasperated sigh.
Beast Boy figured that Cyborg had to be somewhere on the floor. After all the guy just didn't disappear on missions like that.
Pulling out his comlink he brought up the floor plan of the house. All of the rooms were checked off except for a tiny one on the first floor. How could we have missed that? Beast Boy scratched his head. Surely Robin or Cy would have picked up on that. Beast Boy himself had often missed out on small details that those two picked up on. They even had made it a game of one upping each other as to who would find the most hidden treasures.
Beast Boy dashed straight for the room, and got knocked back as he slammed into the door. The door was a standard wooden door, but with a hard steel padlock. Beast Boy quickly turned into a gorilla and smashed the lock. He changed back as he slammed the door into the ground.
What he found as he stared into the room turned his face into a deathly white.
Blood… I didn't know that the guy had a violent streak to him. Robin stared out at the pool in front of him. Having determined it was safe enough to use his flashlight, he discovered that the basement itself had transformed into a small cavern, stalagmites and all. The boy wonder moved quickly to gather some samples to hand over to police once this mess was all sorted out.
Wading through the cavern was like walking inside the world's most disgusting sewer. The smell of the cavern was the first sense to hit Robin like an oncoming freight train. He had determined that the tunnel was there long before the villain had ever set up shop. Though there were two pretty damning pieces of evidence that connected the guy with this tunnel.
First there was the fact that the guy had taken on the name The Mole. Secondly, there were a host of large mutant cave rats aimlessly running up and down the cavern. While the didn't mind Robin's presence for the time being, he had no doubt that at any moment The Mole felt in trouble he would call upon the rats to sick him.
Robin wasn't in any hurry though taking his time through the place like he was on a Sunday stroll. If he was in any trouble he had his own strength to combat the rats. While they were of average strength, their intelligence was down to zero, and if there were too many of them he could simply outsmart the beasts into submission.
After wandering the cavern for a while he came upon a large opening. The huge space had a walkway that led to a bowl in the middle. He flashed his light over towards it, but for some reason it burnt out as it crossed the very center of the bowl.
"Well hello Boy Wonder… It's finally a pleasure to meet you…" Robin whipped his head trying to identify where the voice was coming from. Even though it was a soft, ghostly tone it was able to transverse the area because of the vast emptiness of the cavern.
"Show yourself you coward."
"With pleasure."
Suddenly, the middle of the bowl flashed so brightly that it temporarily blinded Robin. Rubbing his eyes he could barely make out the figure of whom he assumed to be The Mole.
He was a short, stout man who had a bald spot on his head. His look was the last thing Robin expected the villain to be. Though something else about him also stood out. He had a red and brown cape, and he had a plastic looking mask covering his face- a mask that looked none too different from the ones that someone would buy at a party store. But this mask was different entirely, because it greatly resembled the one that Slade wore.
"Finally, I thought that you'd be too scared to show yourself." Robin smirked. Standing a bit more upright he hoped that his body alone would intimidate the wannabe bad guy into surrender.
"Oh Robin, I'm not scared to show myself. Just the opposite in fact. I've been dying to meet you in person. I am a big fan you know." The Mole smiled back. Something about his tone didn't set right with Robin. Maybe he might not have been facing a push over after all.
"Well here I am. What do you want?"
"Robin, Robin, Robin. Always a straight shooter, Can't you at least let me have a little bit of fun in life?"
"Stop playing games with me Mole. If you don't answer the question I'll have no choice but to put you down."
"Oh alright, I'll talk." The Mole walked right up to Robin and stared him down as much as a short man could. "Look here boy, there was a very special offer that an anonymous donor has made to me: kill the Teen Titans, save for Robin and I can get my money."
"A lofty goal that is. I would respect it, but who knows what you've done in this cave. You can tell me more when I'm taking you to the police station." Robin folded his arms. The guy couldn't have been serious right. After all he was talking about the Teen Titans, the group that saved the world from Trigon. Surely they couldn't lose to some low life scrub.
"But Robin, I assure you that I will not be going down. At least not with some leverage." The Mole smiled as he pulled down a curtain that revealed the center of the bowl. Robin's skin turned white as a ghost at the sight of what he saw. His body was starting to go into shock. There they were, his friends all torn and mangled in the center right in front. Their once cheerful, life filled bodies now sit dormant in a pool of rich, fresh blood.
Robin sank down to his knees as reality set in. He beat the ground with his fist. How could he have overestimated this man? The last time he had estimated someone he had fallen into the trap of his arch enemy Slade. Taking out his bow staff he charged at the villain. Dodging effortlessly, The Mole struck back with his left foot, and sent Robin flying.
Struggling to get up, he mustered all the strength that he could to avenge his fallen friends. Taking another lunge with his staff, the boy wonder struck this time, leaving a bloody mark on The Mole's forehead.
The Mole wailed in agony and thrashed around like a young kid having a temper tantrum. Robin took this opportunity to strike once more. It was successful, nearly knocking The Mole off into the endless black sea below.
"Now that I have you pinned down, tell me that there's a way to revive my friends!" Robin growled. The sharp swing in attitude from the young superhero took The Mole by surprise, evident by the confused look that he now wore.
"My dear Robin, I don't think that you quite understand. Your friends are DEAD. Let me say that one more time: your friends ar d, DEAD! As in never coming back! No matter of my, or anyone else's scientific knowledge will do a damn thing boy!"
Robin sulked down to his knees again. "But there has to be a way to bring them back! Without the other Titans, my best friends, I'm nothing!" He began to sob. His friends, his life force all withering away in the stream of his tears.
The Mole walked closer to Robin, studying his foe looking for any more signs of weakness. Robin noticed this, and started to curl up into a little ball. At the same time, he was looking for a plan, and escape to get out of the wretched place.
The Mole mockingly stuck out his hand. "Would poor little Robbie like a truce?"
Would poor little Robbie like a truce? What's up with this guy? Does he want to die? Robin wiped the tears from his eyes. Noticing a gap in between The Mole's gut and arm, he struck there with his fist. The contact of the punch was powerful enough to nearly knock The Mole over the edge. Barely hanging on by the skin of his teeth, The Mole hung dormant.
Standing proud and tall, Robin marched over to The Mole. Bending down, he looked the monster straight in the eye. "Now see what happens when I trap you into the corner?"
"But you forgot one major thing Robin, I am an explosives expert." With a smile The Mole brought out a device that was a trigger for an explosive. Robin's eyes widened, and desperately swung his head back and forth like a pendulum looking for an exit. "Goodbye bird boy." The Mole said, letting go of the ledge, hitting the button right before he slammed into the ground.
Suddenly, the whole cave started to violently shake as if it were a cave in. Robin tried frantically to hold onto something, but in the end elected to dig his hands into the rocky floor beneath him.
As the rocky structure began to break apart, Robin closed his eyes. The last thing that he wanted to see before he died were his friends mangled bodies.