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Robin blinked at his friend and all at once his memories came back to him, Garrison Slate, ambush, Titans captured, Starfire- "Starfire!" he shouted rocketing up in his seat.
"She was captured along with the others" Wally replied sadly, "her and Cyborg bought us enough time to escape"
Robin had his head in his hands, "Why didn't you go back for them?!" he replied frantically
"Dude you saw those brace things, they were locked to the floor. There was no way we could have moved them. I went back after I dropped you off here to see if I could follow them but by the time I got back they had already moved somewhere else"
"How the hell did I not see it was going to be a trap? It was so obvious and I just lead us all right into it"
"There's no time for beating yourself up, Dick. We need to figure out where they took them and get our friends back"
Chapter 8 – The search
Robin had been pacing Wally's small apartment for the last hour, they needed a plan and it had to be a good one. This wasn't just going to be a rescue mission, if they were going to save their friends then they needed to take down Slate and his organisation. It still troubled Robin how little they knew about the group, he knew there was something far more at plan than just locking up some meta-humans which is why he needed to find out and fast.
The sound of his communicator ringing broke his concentration and he reached for it in confusion, flipping open the screen he saw the name and he inwardly sighed. Pressing the answer button he awaited the familiar voice.
"Dick, what's going on? Someone is masquerading as you and the other Titans" Bruce's monotone voice asked
A small smile tugged at Robin's lips, he was glad Bruce still trusted him after the years apart. "Garrison Slate had the building bombed so that there would be an arrest warrant for me and the others"
"Garrison Slate?" Bruce asked, shock and confusion evident in his tone "the S.T.A.R Labs exec?"
"Yeah. Him and others working at S.T.A.R Labs have been drugging meta-humans to make them violent and then had them arrested. They've got the other Titans now too"
"Starfire as well?" Bruce asked
"Yeah… I'm guessing you know about us?" Robin asked awkwardly
"You weren't exactly keeping it a secret" Bruce replied but luckily for Robin he switched topics quickly, "Is there a pattern with who they have been abducting?"
"Not that I could see, seemed to just be ones they could get access to easily…I think the others were just bait to capture me and the Titans though" Robin replied
Bruce made a sound of agreement "That's likely the case. Maybe by capturing the Titans he hopes to have leverage over the Justice League in some way"
"If that's the case you and the league can't get involved with this, Bruce"
There was a pause, "Why?"
"Me and Wally already have arrest warrants on our heads and terrorism isn't just gonna get us a slap on the wrist. If you or any of the others show up it would only make things look worse. They could say you instructed us to do it and so they could put out a warrant on you as well. You have to trust me and not get involved with this"
Another pause came, "Agreed. Do you have any way of tracking them?"
"My communicator can track them but it only has a short range, the computer in the tower has a bigger range so we will have to use that to try and get a location"
"That won't be possible" Bruce replied, a video appeared on the screen showing helicopters circling Titans Tower and many armed forces guarding the perimeter of the island "it's under military lockdown"
Robin screamed inwardly for a moment, "Could the Batcomputer pick up a signal from that range?"
"Maybe, but it would take days to narrow down a location on its own, and for it to be accurate I need an estimate location for the signal to triangulate from, you need to try and find out where in the city they might have been taken and then we can work with that"
"Okay, me and Wally will try and find some answers and get you a location, in the meantime do whatever you can to boost that signal range. Starfire, she…she's had a really bad history with captivity, I can't bear to think how she must be feeling"
"I'll do whatever it takes to find them, Dick" the signal ended and Robin closed the lid of his communicator. He let out a deep sigh and rubbed at his temples.
"We're gonna find Star and the others soon, dude. I promise you" Wally said comfortingly, "I'll kill Slate if he's hurt Jinx or any of the others"
Robin had contacted Bumblebee and explained the situation, her and the rest of Titans East had been eager to come help him and Wally but he made clear that he wasn't going to let any of the others get arrested. He appointed her as the new leader of the Titans until the issue could be resolved. With that Wally and Robin set out to orchestrate their search,
Robin had contacted Bumblebee and the rest of Titans East to explain the situation, they had willingly offered to help the two of them but Robin had made it clear that no one else was going to risk being associated with this. He had put Bumblebee in charge of the Titans until he could return, she had agreed to his terms but told him that if they weren't back in 48 hours then she and the rest of them "we're gonna come find your ass". Robin felt a level of comfort of handing over his leadership for the meantime, he didn't know what he was going to do to Slate when he found him but at least if anything went wrong then the Titans would be under good leadership.
With that the duo began their search, they had to change their clothes into normal attire so they wouldn't be recognised by police or the general public. The media seemed to be exploding from the confusion and panic caused by news of the Titans 'terrorist actions'. People all over the city looked up to the Titans as a beacon of hope and without their pillar of strength the city seemed to be falling apart. Robin had to ignore it, he knew that if they could beat Slate then they could provide all the evidence they needed to clear their names but he knew people wouldn't feel safe or trusting for a long time and that cut into Robin deeper than anything else.
Hours had flown by as they scoured the city for any clues and night had already fell, but nothing had come up. Wally had done an entire sweep of the S.T.A.R Labs facility to make sure there wasn't any secret tunnels or shafts leading down to an underground area but there was nothing. It was like Slate and the soldiers had just taken their friends and vanished out of thin air. Robin's thoughts for the last few hours had almost entirely been spent on the state of his girlfriend, his heart wrenched as he tried to conceive how trapped and anxious she must be feeling. A beeping noise broke Robin out of his sadness, he flipped open his communicator and looked in confusion at the number that was calling him. Cautiously he opened it and waited for an answer.
"Robin? What the fuck is going on?" a panicked female voice asked
Robin pondered for a moment, "Alicia?"
"Yeah it's me, what the hell happened? I was out of town for one day and I come back and see that video of you and the others blowing up that building" she paused for a few seconds, "were you drugged like Max and the others?"
"No, come to the park and I'll explain it to you"
No more than 30 seconds had passed when a shape rocketed through the sky and dropped into the park next to the two. She marched forwards and Robin quickly put his sunglasses on to mask his eyes before she got to them.
"Okay, explain" she instructed
"S.T.A.R Labs we're behind all of this. They've were the ones drugging metas so that they had warrant to be able to arrest them. They convinced the mayor that their task force was the best suited to hold the meta-humans so they were able to operate without question. They knew that once we found out that Jump City would listen to us so they orchestrated that bombing to destroy our reputation"
Alicia looked overwhelmed, "But why? What are they getting out of kidnapping meta-humans?"
"We still don't know that" Wally replied, "but they have the Titans now. Me and Robin are the only ones they didn't capture"
Alicia looked at Robin sympathetically, "They took Starfire too?...I'm sorry"
"We need to move fast if we're going to stop them" Robin replied, obviously trying to keep his mind off the condition of his friends
"Well with me here we can find them even faster" Alicia replied confidently
"We don't want you getting arrested as well, Alicia"
"That's not your decision, S.T.A.R Labs has Max and now they have Starfire and the other Titans. I'm not gonna sit back when I know that I can help"
Robin let out a sigh and nodded, "Okay, got any ideas on where they could have been taken?"
"Not myself no, but I'm sure we can find someone who does" Alicia replied as a devious smirk formed on her face
For the past few days S.T.A.R Labs soldiers had been trailing Alicia, they stayed out of sight for most of the time but she had spotted them numerous times. In hindsight it was obvious that they were waiting for an opportunity to capture her, however they had never got close enough to do so. The trio had formed a plan to try and lure out one of these pursuing soldiers so they could capture them. Robin was worried that the soldiers wouldn't come out looking for more meta-humans since the Titans had been captured but luckily for them another teenager had been reportedly arrested somewhere else in the city so all the three needed to do lay a trap.
The trap was rather simple, Alicia would patrol the streets near her home and wait for any soldiers to take interest. She had donned her outfit that she wore when working with Max and made sure to spend the majority of the time in the air. She knew that the soldiers wouldn't be able to resist catching a meta-human with flight. A few hours had passed and night had fell as she aimlessly hovered around her neighbourhood, Robin and Wally had hidden on a rooftop close enough so they could watch Alicia at all times as she moved around. Bored beyond belief she dropped to the ground and lazily walked up and down the street she was on, she didn't want to picture what was happening to Max or any of the others whilst she was wasting time. Her eyes fell to the pavement beneath her and she didn't see where she was going as she bumped into a man, he made a sound of annoyance and told her to watch where she was going. She turned to apologise to the man but as she did she clutched her neck in pain, she let out a small cry as she pulled a small dart like object from her neck and then looked at it in horror.
"What happened?" Robin asked, concern evident in his voice
"Dart, I think its drugged" she replied panicking
"Wally will come get you and then we can-" Robin spoke quickly
"No, if they take me then you can follow them to where your friends are" Alicia interrupted
After a few moments Alicia began to shake violently, on cue a large truck arrived next to her two S.T.A.R Labs soldiers quickly sedated her and stuffed her into the back of the truck. Robin hated himself for allowing her to essentially risk her own life just to give them a lead but he knew he wouldn't have been able to talk her out of doing it, they weren't going to waste this opportunity that she had given them. Robin hopped onto Wally's back and the duo zipped after the truck, they periodically stopped so that they were always out of sight range from the truck, if the driver knew they were being followed then their chance to follow it would be gone. The truck barrelled through the quiet streets of the city as it approached the centre of the city it began weaving between the buildings until it disappeared into a construction zone. Wally and Robin arrived just after it entered and they scanned the area to try and see which way the truck could have gone.
"How did we lose it?" Wally asked in confusion
"The driver must have noticed us following so it cut through here as a diversion" Robin replied in annoyance. Pulling out his communicator he awaited the connection to be established to Bruce. "Bruce, we followed a truck taking a meta-human but we lost it in this construction zone, I'm sending you the coordinates. You will have to use that as an estimate location.
Bruce paused for a few moments, "There is a very faint signal coming from about 200m North East of where you are"
Robin nodded and the two rushed over to the pinged location, they were confused for a while as to how a signal could be coming from a construction site but then it suddenly hit them, this was the demolished S.T.A.R Labs facility. "Bruce we think this is the right place, we're going to find the entrance and head inside"
"Understood, good luck Dick" Bruce replied simply closing out the connection once again
A feature of Robin's communicator allowed Robin to send out a series of soundwaves at objects, it was useful for finding traps behind doors but it could also be used to measure the thickness of a wall or floor by the strength of the sound waves that bounced back. Scouring the building they managed to find a part of the floor at the south side of the building was a lot thinner than the rest of the floor around it and they knew this had to be the way in. It was likely opened via a remote device to avoid anyone else stumbling upon it, but because of this it meant there was no ordinary way to get in.
"I can phase us through the floor here" Wally suggested
"You're able to phase other people?" Robin replied
"Eh, well I've never actually properly tried before but I don't see how else we're both getting in there"
Robin gave his friend a nervous expression but he stepped forwards and held onto Wally, "Don't kill me in the process"
Wally smirked and began to vibrate rapidly, soon enough he and Robin had become intangible and were able to phase through the matter of the floor. As they eventually passed through the metal wall and into the dark underground facility they readied themselves for the fight ahead.
End of chapter 8
Author's Notes:
We have almost reached the end now, the next few parts will all be released at once so you have a complete ending to the story rather than having to wait weeks between each chapter.
Follow me on Tumblr "unknowntitans"
Next chapter – End Game: Part 1
