Chapter 1: Peace Where None Shall Be

"We strive to destroy the evil around us. Yet, we often forget that there is no light without darkness, nor darkness without light. Perhaps a plant is the best analogy. A plant realizes that too little light is deadly, but it also knows that too much light is equally deadly. It is the balance of the two that makes the world."

~Lycorne

Commercial…Ad…Reality show… Beastboy was seriously beginning to think that he would die from boredom. Robin was training in the gym, by himself (he'd made that pretty clear to everyone), Raven was meditating (and he'd used up all his get-out-of-death-free cards that week already), Starfire was busy making some, strange food, and Cyborg was working on his car.

Sighing, he turned off the television and cradled his head in his hand, glancing over to the window and peering out. He was so bored he almost wished some criminal would get loose and cause trouble for the city so that he could just get up! Almost. He wasn't that desperate.

Frowning, he felt goosebumps crawl up his arms all at once. He whipped around to stare behind him but saw no one immediately back there. Shrugging off the sensation, he stood and stretched just in time for the phone to go off, informing him that there was someone on the video screen calling.

Sighing, he walked over and pulled up the screen. "Hey," He answered, looking into the masked face of the redheaded Kid Flash. But as soon as the word left his mouth, the green boy felt that something was amiss. "What's wrong?"

"Beastboy, get down here. I know Robin is going to want to see this." Was the response the other Titan gave before cutting off communication.

Frowning, Beastboy pushed away from the desk and got up. Quickly, he raced off to go find Robin in the training room.

It hadn't taken the five very long to get ready and get down to where Kid Flash was. When Cyborg's car came to a rest against the curb and Robin got off his motorbike, Starfire, Raven, and Beastboy all landed on the ground near their comrades before heading to the rarely somber redhead and his equally silent pink haired friend.

"Why did you call us down, Kid Flash?" Robin was immediately down to business when the other two Titans turned to face the new arrivals.

In answer to his question, both Kid Flash and Jinx glanced at each other and then stepped back to let the other five get a good look.

Immediately they all saw the answer for themselves. A man in his fifties lay crumpled on the ground, pale and cold from death. There almost seemed to be no blood, but his jugular said otherwise.

They had seen a similar death around quite a few times now. Many high up people had been killed in this same fashion, a single cut to the throat. And everyone seemed to have been made from the same weapon, by the same hand.

It had been two weeks since the last death.

Robin scowled in frustration before spinning and asking the police all sorts of questions about what they knew.

Meanwhile Cyborg was speaking to the two teammates. "Anybody know anything?" He asked, staring silently at the dead body of the man in the suit.

"Not that we could find." Kid Flash answered, shrugging.

Cy nodded his head and looked to Robin who was already returning to his friends. "Police haven't gotten anything. No one seems to have seen anything, again." It wasn't hard to figure out that he was pretty pissed, but was trying to calm down so that his mind would be clear. "Searched for any clues as to who did this, but they haven't found anything. They're going to perform an autopsy just in case, but we all know what they'll find." He muttered, thinking over the information of all the cases through his head, trying to figure out who was doing all these murders.

The rest of the team started to think over it to. They all knew what Robin had meant when he said "we all know what they'll find". Though it sounded mysterious it held no secret meaning just that they would find nothing. They never did.

"Shall we search friend Robin?" Starfire asked after a moment of silence.

Sighing, Robin ran a hand over his face before nodding. "We'd better. Spread out, we'll search the immediate area and look for clues. If you find anything, call the rest of us straight away." He answered, though it wasn't necessary. We were all expertly trained with these situations and what he wanted from us.

Quickly, we all took off, though none of us were expecting to find anything.

Pumping his legs, Beastboy raced off in the form of a green furred wolf. He sniffed down an alley, trying to find the trail the man had left before he had died. If he could find which way the man had come from, perhaps he could find where the other person had come from.

Down an alley, the green Titan sniffed along the walkway, trying to decipher millions of scents from each other, but not succeeding. Sighing, he plopped down, shifting back into his normal form. "This is no use." He grumbled under his breath, kicking a can away from him. "All this running around and searching for something we won't find. We haven't found this person yet, what makes us think we'll find him by doing the same thing over and over again." Groaning, he ran a hand through his hair.

Chasing away these thoughts, he sucked in a breath and was about to return to searching when he heard a cackle that caught his attention.

Turning around, he spotted an older man, somewhere in his forties, sitting on the porch of an alley doorway. The old man was cackling wildly, a gnawed-on bone clutched in his grasp. He was wearing rags for clothes and his hair was wild as was the scraggly bear that he had grown in his time on the streets.

"You ain't gonna get nowhere in the world with that sort of attitude." The man said, grinning at Beastboy, pointing at him with the bone. Against his wish, he noticed that the man had very few teeth left.

"I know, but it's true." The Titan muttered, wondering why he was explaining himself to this strange homeless man.

"Hm, that's true then isn't it?" The homeless man was nodding his head as though he completely understood Beastboy. "All the same, to say it and believe it is what makes it true."

"Huh?" Beastboy was seriously contemplating ditching the man and getting out of the alley, back on to the fruitless search, but the guild would gnaw at him for the rest of the day. Much like how the man was chewing on the little meat left on the bone.

The old man cackled for another moment at Beastboy before suddenly sobering up, staring at him intently. He was actually freaking the green boy out, a lot. "Fire'll swallow you up, no one can escape it. But there may be a bit of nature amongst the flames that could save ya." Then he started to cackle again.

Utterly spooked, the youngest Titan could only gawk at the man before being shaken out of his stupor from a call.

"Guys I think I've found something." It was Raven who was calling the rest of the team.

"Locking in on your coordinates." Was Cy's reply followed by words from Star and Robin.

"I'm on my way." Beastboy said, tucking his communicator back into his pocket. Glancing at the hobo for one more second, he took off, shifting into a peregrine falcon and took off, as quickly as he could.

What Raven found was actually a discarded manhole. Seemed someone had made a quick getaway using the sewers below and hadn't had the time to cover the escape back up.

"Think it could be relevant?" Cy asked as we all huddled around it.

"It's possible and we can't throw anything out." Robin stated, looking to Raven. "Were you able to sense anything?"

Raven shook her head. "Nothing unusual for a place like this at any rate." She said. "But a lady across the way said that she had seen someone sneak into this tunnel last night pretty quickly, like they were running away from someone."

"That's worth looking into." Cy muttered before shuddering. "Ugh, I hate the sewers."

"Put it out of your mind. Let's go." Robin ordered before leaping to the bottom.

Cy followed shortly after with Starfire and Raven trailing behind.

Frowning, Beastboy looked up and around before he finally made his way down into the tunnels after his friends. He felt like he was being watched.

I'd like to point out that things are pretty boring right now and…a little rushed? I dunno, I can't make up my mind if I'm going too quickly or too slowly.

On a random note, I'll be making random references. Why? Just to see if anyone will get them. Don't know if I'll do anything to reward you though because, honestly, I can't think of anything that would be a good enough treat for you people XD I mean, I guess you could appear in the story for a short time. What do you people think?

Review and tell me what I can do to make this better!

Snort….Rothelisberger?