Disclaimers: I do not own Teen Titans.
A/N: I'd like to express my gratitude for those who sent me reviews, encouraging me to update. So here the update. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. And, of course, all kind of reviews are enthusiastically welcome.
Chapter 2
Titans Tower – Next Day
The Titans Tower was in its usual late morning state: Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire watching TV on the couch; Raven reading one of her books nearby while their leader was absent from the room, claiming he had to review some criminal files.
Today was Cyborg's day to choose the program, so he was now flipping through channels to find the best thing to watch, ignoring Beast Boy's who was begging him to watch cartoons and Starfire who tried to convince him to watch weird documentaries.
Not knowing what he should watch, the half-human decided on the news channel.
"…will align in the same line. Astronomers said the phenomenon only happened once every five thousand years…"
Cyborg sighed softly, but before he could switch to another channel, the alarm went off, disrupting the peaceful moment of the day.
"Man…just when it's my day to choose what to watch," he complained.
The door of the common room slid opened before the masked hero dashed in and announced the obvious, "Trouble!"
Robin then keyed something in the computer so now the city map could be seen on the huge screen. It didn't take long for any of them to realize which part of the city was under attack.
"The museum's hit," said Robin. "Titans, go!"
No other words were needed when they all headed out of the room to the scene of the crime.
Jump City Museum
The T-Car was parked right in front of the museum. All the heroes scattered out of the car and went inside. As they spotted a shadow of a man, they followed the silhouette until they were all out at the back of the museum.
It was then that thief could be seen clearly.
"Red X," said all the Titans.
"It's nice to see you, too, kids," Red X replied. "But I've really gotta get going."
With that, the black-clad thief threw some projectiles at the local superheroes. The five heroes scattered away to dodge those projectiles. Robin then appeared behind Red X.
"You're getting sloppy, X," Robin remarked when he jumped in, trying to hit the man with his fighting staff.
Red X caught the hit with his own staff and countered, "I only thought it would be rude if I didn't let you know that I dropped by."
With that, the thief pushed the creator of his suit off and made a somersault backwards. He then threw something at the masked hero who didn't see it coming. The device hit him, and a few seconds later Robin was frozen in midair while he was leaping. It caused him to fall to the ground with a nice thud.
"Drat!" Robin cried.
"Well, that will stop you for a while," Red X commented.
Seeing his leader was down, Cyborg charged his sonic cannon and aimed it at the criminal. Beast Boy was standing right behind him, transforming into a tiger.
"Stop right there, X," Cyborg shouted. "You're not getting away with anything."
"I highly doubt that."
Red X then threw a red mark at Cyborg who jumped away for he had already known what the thing could do. However, the mark landed right into the green tiger who didn't expect it, sending the said changeling flying back to attach to the nearest wall.
"Man, I hate it when this happens!" Beast Boy complained.
The thief didn't even bother to look at Beast Boy when he pushed a button on his belt to perform a disappearing act. He then reappeared at the back of the half-machine and stuck a beeping device onto his target.
A second later, the device sent out some electric beam, jamming Cyborg's system. As a result, the poor half-robot was shutdown.
"Have a good sleep," said the thief.
Before Red X moved away from the spot, he was hit with a starbolt. He then looked at the alien who flew directly towards him.
"I see you've missed me, cutie."
A confused look appeared on the sweet alien's face. "Huh? But I have hit you."
Red X scratched the back of his head in a little frustration. "Boy…does this girl ever get anything?"
Not saying anything back, Starfire threw more starbolts at the criminal who dodged them all with ease. Red X looked at her with his head tilted to one side, waving his finger at the Tamaranean princess.
"Now, sweetie, you could just tell me you like it rough…"
With that, he fired another X mark right at Starfire's face. She turned away only to be hit with another X mark right in her body. Shocked, the Tamaranean fell to the ground.
The skull-masked man then looked around. "Where's the other one? Aren't there five of you?"
Instead of an answer, some flying objects hit him by surprised. So Red X fell to the ground, face first, but he recovered fast and jumped up to face the sorceress. She once again threw objects at him, but X used his staff to block them all before they hit.
The black-clad thief threw another bombing projectile at Raven who brought a shield up to prevent it from hitting her.
"I really want to stick around and play with you, kids," Red X announced. "But someone is expecting me, so I really must get going. I'll see you around. Adios."
With that, Red X pressed the button on his belt and made yet another disappearing act, so when Raven brought her shield down, he had already vanished from the scene.
Unknown Location
Red X put the object he had recently stolen down on the table of the dimly lit room.
"Here," said the thief. "The last merchandise will be delivered soon."
The same group of men took a look at the stolen goods. One of them then picked it up before he asked:
"Does this mean you know where the last item is located?"
"Yes," X replied. "It's in the place with the best security system in town."
"And are you sure you can break in?" the other man asked.
The thief nodded solemnly before he replied, "If everything goes as planned, there'll be no need to break in at all."
Titans Tower
The Teen Titans returned to their home, looking somewhat bothered. Robin was the one who was most frustrated as it wasn't the first time Red X had proved that he was one step ahead of them. Yet, he said nothing to show that state of mind and simply listened as other members complained.
"Man, I hate it when that dude stuck me with a duck tape," Beast Boy said.
"Agree," said Starfire. "It really hurts when the thing is pulled off."
"And he messed up with my circuit," Cyborg added. "Nobody messed up with my circuit."
Raven rolled her eyes in annoyance. She then turned her attention to her uncharacteristically quiet leader just to catch his thoughtful look.
"Anything you want to share with us, Robin?" she asked.
"It's just that I'm wondering why he's robbing a museum," Robin stated. "Shouldn't he be better off robbing a bank or something?"
"Well, many a thing in a museum is invaluable," Raven observed. "And he's a thief, so he probably knows where to fence the stuff."
"He's only taken one thing, and it wasn't the most valuable thing in the place," Robin countered. "This doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe he wants to prove himself or maybe he just wants to add it to his personal collection," Raven remarked. "Let's face it, Robin, we don't know him well enough to say what makes senses to him and what doesn't."
Robin had no choice but to agree with Raven's logic. So he sighed softly as he could picture hours of research ahead of him. Yet he knew it was unavoidable if he wanted to bring the thief to justice. He then opened his mouth to say something in response to the comment, but whatever he had planned to say was interrupted by Beast Boy.
"Dudes! I think Star got herself another gift from a secret admirer," announced the green-skinned hero, pointing at an unidentified object in front of their doormat.
Starfire was obviously beaming when she heard the changeling. Quickly, she flew to the door to see a pot of some blue flowers she couldn't put a name to while Beast Boy followed her with his eyes and wondered to himself, "How come I never got one of those?"
"You mean you actually want flowers from a guy?" Raven asked dryly.
Beast Boy took a moment to think before he quickly shook his head, "Ah…no?"
When Starfire brought the flower pot back, all Titans looked at it in somewhat curiosity.
"Strange," Cyborg noted. "Star's admirers usually sent her pink roses. Everybody knows they're her favorite."
"Maybe this one just has more style?" the dark girl suggested.
"It's still strange," Robin said casually, joining the conversation. "Normally, you wouldn't send someone you never personally met some forget-me-nots."
This earned Robin weird looks from most of the Titans except for Starfire whose interest was still in the blue flowers she now learned the name.
"What?" the Boy Wonder cried.
"The weirdest thing is that you know a flower type," Raven noted. "Now, Star, let just see if there's any card."
The alien princess carefully examined the pot to see if there were any card attached to it, and she found one.
"Oh, there is," she acclaimed. "I shall read it out loud then."
Starfire frowned cutely as she saw the message, but then she read it out anyway.
"For yesterday – Nick," she read. "I don't know any Nicks, do you?"
Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged a glance before they both quickly shook their heads.
Meanwhile, Raven blushed slightly as she quickly clutched the pot from Starfire's hand. She then mumbled, "That's for me."
With that, the sorceress used her power to get inside, leaving obviously confused friends behind. Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg then glanced to their leader as though he would have an explanation for every odd thing that happened around the tower.
"I guess I wasn't the only one with secret admirers after all," Starfire noted lightly.
"A secret admirer with a name?" Beast Boy remarked, frowning."That doesn't sound so secret to me."
"Do you know anything about this, Rob?" Cyborg inquired.
Since Robin's face was perfectly expressionless, the three Titans couldn't be sure if they were hearing things or Robin really did mutter through gritted teeth when he said, "Let's just get inside."
