Chapter 1 – Graveyard shift
The warm summer night air brushed passed Robin as he strolled along the empty sidewalk. Tonight he had opted out of taking his bike and decided on the more peaceful approach of walking the streets, his legs would curse him for it tomorrow. Beast Boy had meant to be accompanying him tonight but due to him deciding that watching 'Wicked Scary 7' with Raven as some vain way to impress her, was more important than protecting the city it meant that Robin was taking the graveyard shift alone tonight. He found the peace and quiet without Beast Boy to be quite enjoyable anyhow so his absence wasn't of concern to him. Flipping open his communicator he glanced at the flashing text of 1:02AM, sighing he rubbed his eyes. "Another hour and I can be in bed" he said reassuringly to himself. He smirked as he imagined the warm, inviting embrace of Starfire as she laid in his bed waiting for him to return. It really was the thing that made these shifts worthwhile.
Smiling, he closed his communicator and scanned the area around him, warehouse after warehouse covered the space on either side of the road. He had not seen any activity all week let alone tonight and the idea of being snuggled up to his girlfriend was much too tempting over aimlessly wandering these streets alone. Surely the city wouldn't mind too much if he took a night off, right? He smirked to himself as he began to turn back towards his parked bike but his face fell when he saw a silhouette scaling one of the warehouses. "For fucks sake" he growled under his breath and reluctantly he sprinted off to follow the crook. Scaling the wall with relative ease he peered through the window into the dark warehouse below him and in amongst the pitch blackness he spotted the faint glow of a torch flickering around the ground level. Being as silent as possible he climbed through the window and descended to the ground.
Peering around one of the large shelves he spotted the crook, Red X. He should have guessed by the level of agility at which the criminal had scaled the warehouse with but he was surprised to be seeing him. The last time the Titans had fought him was long before their trip to Tokyo, they presumed he had just left the city, but to see him back was confusing. He watched as the delinquent pried open some of the crates littering the floor and peering inside, what was he looking for? Xenothium? That didn't seem possible considering the city had been almost wiped clean of the substance. Something expensive? The serious confusion was evident on Robin's face as he watched the thief retrieve some large glass bottles from a crate before shining a torch on them. Squinting, Robin spotted that the fluid inside was clear, was Red X stealing Vodka? He shook his head, regardless of how odd the item was, Red X had been foolish enough to show his face in the city again and Robin wasn't letting him get away this time.
As Robin began to make his way towards the unaware thief, his foot connected with the strewn crowbar that lay beside one of the opened crates. Red X's head snapped in his direction before shifting into a full pace sprint towards another set of windows. Growling in frustration he bolted after the thief and quickly began closing the distance between them. Rooftop after rooftop the two acrobats leapt and Robin's exhaustion mixed with frustration were causing him to fall behind as the nimble thief repeatedly evaded his grasp. Having no other plan, Robin quickly reached into his pocket and hurled a birdarang in the thief's direction. His opponent twisted around almost expecting the blade and quickly tossed one of his own X projectiles that flew narrowly under the hurtling birdarang and collided with Robin sticking him to the wall behind him. Fortunately for the exhausted Boy Wonder his projectile found its destination, lodging itself into the buckle of Red X's Xenothium belt.
Red X looked down to his belt and began to frantically attempt to pull out the embedded projectile, swearing profusely as he cut his hand on the sharp blade. "Fuck you, Dick". After a few more tugs he dislodged the blade and without warning his belt activated, shimmering him away.
Robin rapidly began cutting himself free from the resin like substance that was pinning him to the wall, and with a few precision cuts he had successfully dislodged himself. He pounded his fist against the floor in aggravation at the criminal escaping yet again. His eyes widened as the thief's words reappeared in his mind. He knew his name.
End of Chapter 1