"HRAH!"

The metal staff sang through the air, connecting heavily with an almost identical staff and deflecting immediately.

Masked eyes gazed into a single eye as the smaller of two combatants slid back a few feet, then rushed forward with another swing.

CLANG!

"Very good, Robin," the voice of the taller combatant rasped in the near-darkness as he blocked the smaller's attack with a twirl of his own staff. "You've been practicing."

"SLADE!" The boy roared the name of his opponent as he leapt into the air and, twirling, struck out with his left foot. Slade's left hand rose and deftly caught the incoming appendage, and a twist of his shoulder launched the smaller fighter across the dark platform. Robin turned over in midair, and slid on his feet... his bare feet. He was clad in little more than a pair of black sweatpants and his mask, exposing a slender, corded frame to the chilled darkness; a haggard breath escaped his mouth, fogging in the cold and fading away quickly as he rushed forward. "GIVE HER BACK!"

"Never, Robin. She was never yours to have." CLANG! The staves clashed again between the pair, sparks illuminating the orange-and-black mask and the single eye of Slade, and Robin spun to his right, connecting the butt of his staff with the side of Slade's head. This did little to stun the larger fighter, however, who caught Robin with a roundhouse kick as he fell aside, launching the boy across the battlefield yet again.

Landing on his back, Robin tumbled to a halt, and forced himself upright with his staff... which suddenly disappeared as another staff sailed up out of the darkness from below--

WHAP!

--and he was sent flying again, this time upward. A metal-mesh gloved hand clasped around his ankle, and the masked young man was yanked abruptly through the air and slammed twice mercilessly against the ground. BAM! "Augh!" WHAM! Slade lifted the limp boy by his ankle and with a contemptuous laugh flung him aside...

"You don't deserve to have her, Robin. You betrayed her, twice. And thus you will not have her." Robin tumbled to a stop on the cold metal floor, lying on his stomach; groaning, the masked boy rolled onto his side, flinchingly gazing through his mask at his opponent. His eyes widened beneath the mask as another figure came into view instead, a floating vision of unearthly beauty in amber, red, and violet, holding something white in her hands as a metal glove reached out behind her--

"Star...fire...!" Robin stretched out a pale hand toward her as Slade's metal hand tightened its' grip on her throat, but the alien girl seemed unaffected; unhurt... a sad smile graced her face, and she dropped that which she had been holding. The mask that once belonged to Robin as Red X clattered to the ground, the red cross glowing, and weakly, she spoke as her body began to flare crimson, gold, amber and white light, pouring from her eyes and mouth...

"I am so terribly sorry... Robin..."

And the metal-mesh hand changed, morphed, into a slender black glove with a red mark on the back, and a white skull-like mask with a glowing red cross on the forehead hovered into view behind her. "She is mine, Robin... Mine forever..."

))))T((((

"NO!" Gasping, sitting up quickly, an arm outstretched into the darkness of the bedroom.

Dark, save for the faint stretch of moonlight peeking between closed curtains to fall across the bed, the pillow, over where his eyes had been.

Robin slowed his breathing considerably, pressing a pale hand to his rapidly pounding heart. Just a dream... it was all... a dream...

"R-Robin?"

Blinking pale eyes, a hand quickly darted to the mask resting on the bedside table, securing it over his face as he vaulted from the bed and covers, stepping quickly to the closed door. Tabbing the keypad on the wall, he opened the door to a vision of beauty in rumpled pink bedclothes and tousled hair, a small pink stuffed bear clutched under one arm. "Star?" He smiled slightly, sleepily. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, smiling slightly. "I heard a noise and I endeavored to investigate the phenomena... are you in a manner of distress that I may--"--a yawn-- "--assist you in?" Even to a casual observer, she was clearly tired, and for good reason; the clock on the bedside table ticked on mere hours after midnight.

"No, nothing's wrong, Starfire... b-but thanks for worrying. I'm fine. Merely a... bad dream," Robin assured her, running a hand through his own mussed jet-black hair as he glanced back at the sheets strewn about on his bed, the single beam of moonlight reaching across the pillow and almost to the other side of the bed. "Full moonlight makes for bad dreams." He chuckled somewhat as he gestured to the window.

"Very well, then..." Starfire smiled gently, and on an impulse, leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his forehead. "Good night, Robin... have the dreams of confectionary delight..." With that, she padded sleepily down the hallway toward the door leading to her room. Robin gently feathered his fingers over where she had kissed him, and dismissed the show of affection as something she might've seen on television, a motherly gesture as opposed to a friendly one. "Right... sweet dreams, Star..."

Closing the door, Robin leaned back against it, running a hand down his face and removing the mask as he did so. Pale eyes stared across the room at the patch of moonlight on his bed, and after a moment, he moved to the window, drawing the curtains open to gaze out at the moonlit bay. The full moon hung over the city of the Titans amidst few clouds, casting an eerily warm glow down upon the starlit streets as the boy beneath the mask released a gentle sigh. "...three months..." he muttered.

Three months indeed; it had been three months since Slade had last shown himself to the Titans and they discovered Raven's fate, and her connection to Slizzath--no...Trigon... Robin corrected himself-- the interdimensional demon. Yet the masked terror still invaded his dreams-- but what of them? Every time, Slade was not a tool of Trigon's, but rather the power-mongering despot he had been before Terra ended him...

"...but she didn't end him..." He sighed against the glass, which fogged up, obscuring his reflection save for a single streak between his eyes... for a moment the ghostly face of Red X stared back at him before the fog faded away, and Robin was once again brought face-to-face with the boy behind the mask. Sighing, he pulled the curtains closed completely, and in the darkness, made his way to his bed, placing the mask at his bedside and flopping on the mattress, staring up in the darkness.

WRIII! WRIII! WRIII!

"...damn."

))))T((((

Downtown.

Shortly after midnight.

A jewelry store, Chez Diamonde, closed up for the night.

A black shape moved quickly through the inside of the store. The door had been melted off of its' hinges, and the silent-alarm unit on the wall had similarly been melted.

In the halo of a streetlamp across from the store, a small mouse skittered into view, blinking black eyes owlishly at the moving shape inside the store and squeaking softly.

A green-furred mouse. With a hint of a fang poking over its' lower lip.

Nearby...

A dark figure moved from shadow to shadow, clinging tightly to the walls and moving with practiced stealth. A green-gloved hand, silhouetted in darkness, shifted to a yellow belt below a red tunic and from a pouch produced two golden-yellow discs, each with a black center. Holding them with the practiced ease of a professional betwixt gloved fingers. Surreptitious white eyes bordered in black gazed at the entrance to the store...

Above...

An azure-cloaked figure, thin yet imposing, settled atop the rooftop across from the store, a pair of violet eyes peering out of the darkness of the cloak's hood. Beside the figure, an amber princess in violet and metal clothes hovered down and crouched, a slender hand resting on the shoulder of the shadowed one for a mere moment, a gentle touch to notify the other of her presence. Emerald-on-jade eyes peered down with a faint flicker in them.

And across the way...

Atop the jewelry store's rooftop, a faintly blue-glowing mechanical being moved forward to kneel at the edge of the roof. Cha-clak... softly, the right arm transmogrified into a blue-glowing cannon, hidden by the rooftop's slight rail two stories above the entrance.

The figure in the store moved quickly, with knowing grace; the thief knew the store well, and for that reason among many, the five visitors had arrived. Apparently finishing its' task, the shape moved for the double-door in a hurry, ducking out and into the light of a streetlamp... eight hairy black legs carrying it, eight beady red eyes shining in the artificial and natural light from lamp and moon alike... a human body suspended below, clad in a white shirt, black jacket, jeans and sneakers, the pale pink-skinned neck conjoined to the underbelly of the arachnid... the red eyes centered on the green mouse on the sidewalk across from them, and an arachnid hiss sounded from the mandibles of the creature.

"TITANS! GO!"

The shout ringing from the shadows pre-empted the green mouse darting forward; the arachnid/human hybrid known as Fang reared back slightly to launch forward a gob of acidic saliva, but was thrown back by two bursts of green light from above. The mouse sprang into the air as it neared Fang, and shifted into an emerald gorilla, bringing two hairy arms upward with a guttural roar. Stumbling, Fang lashed out with his human legs, batting the gorilla back, only to be struck from above by a blue wave of sonic energy. "BOO-YAH!" The cybernetic warrior had leapt from the rooftop and now plummeted two stories, firing blue energy from his sonic cannon, to crash down on top of the arachnid. With a grunt, Fang collapsed, legs buckling under the assault, but before the Cyborg could do any more he thrust himself upward, launching the mechanical man from his back and into the light-pole above them.

From the shadows flew a pair of golden-yellow disks, which upon striking the ground beneath Fang fountained into a mist that quickly changed into ice, binding the two human legs; Fang was stuck to the ground. As Cyborg turned over from being flung into the air and landed nearby, the light post suddenly encased in black and tore free of the sidewalk, striking the spider hard across the back. A pair of legs shot up before the post could strike again and wrenched it free of the black energy, launching it up at the two atop the rooftop, only to have it blasted in half by a green pulse. Beneath them, the emerald gorilla wrenched the other street lamp from the ground and rushed forward; with a roar, it swung the metal like a baseball bat and impacted the side of the spider, breaking it free of the ice and launching it toward Cyborg a distance away.

Reaching out, Cyborg grasped the spider by the human legs and spun with the momentum, slamming it into a brick wall; a spider leg swatted him off of the human legs, and Fang clambered to his feet, still clutching the sack of jewelry by the rope-tie. This wasn't so for long, as a crimson birdarang spun past, severing the side of the sack and spraying the contents into the street. Diamonds and other gemstones glittered in the moonlight as Fang snarled a curse, dropped the sack, and took flight, skittering up on the wall in a hurry.

"Starfire, Raven, after him!" Robin shouted as he dashed to a ruby motorcycle sitting nearby with a yellow-on-black 'R' emblazoned on the side. "Cyborg, take Main Street and cut him off! Beast Boy, you're with me!" Vaulting onto the R-cycle, Robin slammed the helmet over his head as the emerald gorilla shifted into a jade falcon with a single fluid shift and took to the air. A blue and white car sporting the same mechanical scheme as Cyborg pulled up alongside of him, and he quickly got in as Robin screeched past in a wheelie, the falcon keeping close behind him; the alien and the cloaked empath had already gone off after the escaping spider. With a screeching of tires, the car shot off, leaving the jewels to glitter in the street...

...and from the shadows, a pair of cobalt eyes watched, amused... a figure moved in the moonlight, and passed over the jewelry, which was suddenly gone, leaving a single sapphire gleaming in the moonlight...

))))T((((

Fang dashed along on his eight spider-legs, windows blurring by under his dangling human-feet as he hurried to escape the two flying femmes that were chasing him, the one launching green flashes

(damn girl never runs out of starbolts)

and the other striking out with various objects encased in black energy

(friggin' blue bi--)

VRMMMM!

Fang's attention was drawn upward, to the wheels of the R-cycle... which were coming down toward his prone form from a rooftop launch. With a muffled curse, the spider-person leapt from the wall, the crimson cycle barely missing him; something small and green struck him as he fell, throwing off his descent, and a starbolt splashed against his abdomen, launching him down the street and into a broad beam of blue-and-white sonic energy. With a grunted yelp, he was forced in the opposite direction of his previous flight, and turned over twice, snarling as he used his unintended momentum to propel himself toward the cloaked empath, her violet eyes widening almost imperceptibly as he stretched out his human legs, reaching toward her as he flew, momentarily illuminated by a soft blue flicker of light...

WHAM!

His flight was suddenly interrupted by a falling flagpole, bringing him down and pinning him to the sidewalk, all eight legs splayed out and human legs poking out just barely visible under the abdomen of the spider-body, which twitched once. Raven raised a slender eyebrow at the downed arachnid, and directed her gaze upward, but the figure atop the roof was suddenly gone in a flickering blue flash... but one thing caught her eye before he was gone, a single flickering-sapphire die-earring dangling from the left ear...

"Good job, Raven," Robin announced as she and Starfire floated down to where the Boy Wonder was shackling Fang's many legs together with a complex yellow device. Beast Boy de-morphed beside her into the familiar lanky green elf-form with a laugh and made a falling, whistling sound before slapping his palms together. "Phweeeeer--SPLAT! Haha! Good one, Raven!"

The pale empath simply frowned at him. "I didn't do it." Starfire nodded emphatically, gesturing toward the rooftop. "There was a cerulean illumination, and this cylinder abruptly attacked the Fang from above. Well done, friend cylinder!" She patted the downed flagpole with a friendly smile, and the right side of Robin's eyemask raised slightly. "Then someone threw the flagpole..." His masked gaze lifted to the rooftop, where the stranger had been. "...but who...?"

"Ugh... damn luck..." Fang grumbled before passing out again in the faint rays of the rising sun.

"Who cares, dawg?" Cyborg laughed jovially, thumping Beast Boy somewhat heavily on the back with a metal palm. "We got the bad guy, and it's morning! You know what that means!" The emerald elf grinned up at his mechanical companion, practically salivating. "BREAKFAST BONANZA!" They shouted simultaneously and made a mad dash for the T-Car. Raven sighed, and palmed her forehead under the hood as Starfire leapt in place beside her. "...yay."

Starfire giggled as she tugged Raven's wrist lightly and flew toward the vehicle. "Come, friend Raven! We must indulge in the morning's excited mastication of malnutritious sustenance!" Halfway through the sentence, Beast Boy stuck his head sharply out the window of the T-Car, staring, but was yanked back in by Cyborg's metal hand. "Mastication is chewing, BB," He explained sidelong to the elf, who blinked and turned a light reddish through his green fur. "Oh." Starfire floated in through the open rear door, followed shortly after by Raven, who closed it. "Robin said he would wait for the cops," She replied to a raised eyebrow from Cyborg, who nodded. "His loss. Tower, ho!" The T-car burned rubber and shot off toward the T in the distance.

A beat.

"Ha-HA! Dude, did you just call Raven a--"

BZAP!

"YOW!"

"...yeah!"

BZAP!

"DAH!"

SCREEECH!

))))T((((

Robin frowned at the rusted end of the flagpole as the police in heavysuits loaded Fang into a truck, lightly fingering it with a green-gloved touch. The rest of the flagpole looked perfectly fine, though the flag was missing. "So you say it just... rusted and snapped off?" He didn't even look up as he acknowledged the presence of Commissioner Janet Alexis, a well-built woman in her early thirties with chestnut hair pulled back into a ponytail and a penchant for the trenchcoat-and-hat look of old film noir detectives. "Yeah. Starfire said there was also a ce-- a blue light, but that could've been anything. And the owner of the rooftop says that the flagpole was just installed a week ago. I found the flag folded up neatly on the ground by the pole." He had to consciously remind himself not to use Starfire's terminology. She's really growing on me...

The lady Commissioner sighed, and scratched the back of her head gently. "You mean to tell me that whoever helped you kids out isn't a Titan?" At the half-nod, she groaned. "What's with superheroes and damaging stuff, eh?" Robin frowned slightly, but skipped over that complaint as a policeman ran up holding something glittering blue with a pair of tongs.

"We found this in the flag, sir!" He announced, saluting and holding out the object for inspection. Robin rolled his eyes behind the mask and snatched the object from the tongs, ignoring the shocked jump of the policeman and the amused grin of the commissioner. "Hm... cobalt cubic zirconium... very precise cut, but Chez Diamonde only carries clear stones and gold, so it couldn't be from there. Were there any fingerprints?" He turned his masked gaze up at the policeman, who shook his head. "We tried dusting it but nothing would stick, sir, even after one of us touched it."

Robin sighed and pulled his T-com from his belt, clicking it open. "Cyborg, you busy?" Muffled munching noises came from the other end of the connection, followed by an almost over exaggerated gulp. "Just havin' breakfast, dawg. What's up?"

"The flag from the pole that took out Fang had a gemstone in it, Imperial cut blue cubic zirconium—"

))))T((((

"—but fingerprints don't stick on it. That sound like anyone we know?"

Cyborg scratched his dome for a moment, and shrugged. "Computer ain't bringin' up anything on it in the Hero Files."

"Dude, I fouf you gad do ufe da cofuder do goddegd do ed?" Beast Boy interjected around a mouthful of tofu-waffles. Cyborg shook his head. "Not when I'm in the tower. Added a wi-fi connection recently, I can be anywhere on the Island and still access the computer."

((In the interest of less imaginitive readers, I'll translate from the intricate language of tofuwaffle: 'Dude, I thought you had to use the computer to connect to it?'))

"See if you can find any information in Criminal Records, then, and check news articles for strange occurrences involving blue lights and strange stones," Robin crackled over the com.

"And assistance from wayward pole-of-the-fags!" Starfire announced.

"It's a 'flagpole', Starfire." Raven rolled her eyes at Beast Boy's muffled giggle. Starfire blinked in surprise. "Then what is this 'fag' that I have on occasion heard Beast Boy and Cyborg mention in conversation during the gaming of videos?"

((((FlAsH!))))

Beast Boy and Cyborg are seated beside each other on the couch, hunched over a pair of controllers and clicking wildly in the flickering light of the Big Screen. The door swishes open faintly and Starfire floats through, humming happily as she retrieves a bottle of mustard with a straw in it from the fridge. As she is floating back toward the door, she hears Beast Boy speak:

"Dude, you are so gonna lose with that fag Marth."

"Yo dawg, that 'fag' is kickin' your Bowser butt!"

"Not for long!"

Starfire blinks, sipping from the straw, shrugs, and floats through the door with a soft swish.

((((FlAsH!))))

Raven glanced at the two with a stern look, and taking Starfire's arm floated from the table. "We have some discussing to do." Starfire giggled as they floated to the door. "Joy! We get to have the 'girl time'!"

"I'm... not going to ask what that was about."

"Wise choice, dawg."

"Anyway, I'm almost done here. Think you can have the check done by the time I get back?"

"You bet your tail feathers, but I--"

"Good." ---Blip!---

Cyborg and Beast Boy glanced at each other, and grinned. "Not before we finish breakfast, though!" They shouted in tandem and started to dig in.

---Bwom---

"NOW!" Robin shouted over the Big Screen, a bellow that rattled the windows. Cyborg and Beast Boy squeaked and dove behind the counter.

))))T((((

Robin sighed as he clicked his T-com shut. "Typical kids, have to be told twice to do one thing," Alexis chuckled, and Robin smiled thinly. "We'll do what we can to look into this occurrence. I'm not sure what we're up against, but there might be some good to come out of this."

"Commissioner Alexis, sir!" A heavysuited policeman ran up holding something in a pair of tongs. "We couldn't find the jewels stolen from Diamonde, but we did find this." Alexis and Robin shared a brief glance.

It was a blue gemstone.