Chapter 10
When the Titans made it back to the Tower, Robin's shower wasn't anywhere near as relaxing as he wanted it to be. He rushed to get the grime and sweat out of his hair, dressed in a new uniform and made it back to ops, with wet hair and a towel in his hand, just as Raven collected Starfire and Batman. Rubbing the towel over the back of his neck, he moved over to the table where Cyborg was sat looking at the hologram device that had hit Beast Boy.
"Anything?" He draped the towel over the back of a chair and leant on the table to get a better look.
"Naw, this thing is solid. I can't even figure out how to get into it." Cyborg slumped back in his chair, turning the ball over in his hand. Behind them, Raven's power shrieked and Starfire and Batman appeared. Without a word, Robin took the device from Cyborg and tossed it to Batman.
"Maybe you'll have better luck. It shows a pre recorded hologram but we can't get into it to see how it was created or if there's any clues in it." Robin moved round to Starfire who smiled meekly at him. "Are you okay?"
"I am fine, Robin, I have much to tell you." She pulled him back to the table and sat down, Robin stood behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. Batman sat opposite, and Raven and Beast Boy occupies the two spare chairs.
"This is seamless." Batman sounded genuinely surprised. "How does it show a hologram if there's nowhere for it to project from?"
"We're not sure. I haven't been able to get it to play again, and I don't think any of us were payin' that much attention when it played the first time." Cyborg pushed his tools across the table towards Batman who tried each one against the device. After a few minutes, he gave up, placing the tools and the device back onto the table.
"We'll come back to that. First I have a lot to tell you." Batman brought a tablet out from his cape and set it on the table as Starfire picked up the metal ball and started looking at it. Robin squeezed her shoulder, knowing she was just curious, and set his gaze back on his former Mentor. Batman's tablet showed blueprints of the facility and the details they managed to get her on the hacks. "Tonight at just before 5PM Gotham time, someone hacked into the security mainframe of the facility where Slade was being held, shutting down not just the security measures, but the entire power grid as well. No cameras, no alarms, nothing. It was down for 7 minutes, and in that time Slade managed to escape. He didn't use any force. No guards were hurt, no damage was made. It's like he just disappeared. Superman couldn't find any trace of him outside of his cell, and we have no way of knowing how he made it out. Unfortunately, two hacks were identified, but both were untraceable."
"Two hacks?" Robin's grip on Starfire's shoulders tightened slightly, and she fought not to react. Not because he was hurting her because he couldn't, but because she wasn't a brilliant liar and hoped she wouldn't have to. "On that recording, Slade said something... what was it..."
"Oh!" Everyone turned at Beast Boy's outburst. "I remember, cause it confused me! He thanked us. He said 'thanks to your little hacking trick my acquaintance was able to shut down all the security'" He imitated Slade, squaring his shoulders and putting on a serious face.
"Thanks Beast Boy..." Robin shook his head with a small smile on his face. "He either said it to confuse us, or he doesn't know where the other hack came from. Do we know anything about either of the hacks?"
"Yes. One was used to get through to the mainframe and access the security, it was then blocked from going any further and another hack was used to shut it down. But we could only trace back as far as the entry into the system which was through the WiFi, of all things. We've identified the breach and rectified it for them so they can't be hacked that way again."
Starfire pulled out of Robin's grip to lean across the table and pick up a few of Cyborg's tools. Robin didn't even notice as he concentrated on Batman and just replaced his hands when he felt her lean back. Raven raised an eyebrow at her and leaned over to see what she was doing. Holding the device close to her face, Starfire started turning it ever so slowly in her hands
"So there's nothing more we can do to identify where these hacks might have come from?"
"The League are looking into it but it looks like it's a dead end."
Robin sighed and ran a hand through his damp hair. "Right, so what now? We still don't have anything to go off."
"Well, Starfire managed to find an encrypted file that was hidden in Slade's data. It has correspondence between Slade and someone else. We think it's probably the same person that's helping him. No names are given but the messages span over a period of about nine months before and during the time Slade had Starfire. So we'll go through them, see what we can pick out."
Robin frowned and looked down at Starfire who wasn't paying any attention. "I thought I told you to leave those files for now?" He pulled on her gently to get her attention.
"I am aware, but you had gone and I felt restless. I apologise." She didn't really sound like she meant it, but then she hadn't even looked at him so was quite clearly not paying that much attention. Still, Robin let it go. He knew how she was feeling when he'd left the Manor, he should have known she would probably look. He looked down at her to see what had gripped her attention so thoroughly and found she was still fiddling with the device. Focusing back on Batman, he shrugged.
"So, we know that Slade has someone working for him, but we don't know who. And we know Slade is free but we have no way of tracking him or finding out where he is." Robin ran a hand over his face.
"Dude," Beast Boy leaned forward. "Slade took a pretty good beating from Star. Even though it's been like half a year, Slade won't be back to full strength, he's been lounging about in a cell. Not being able to train himself. He'll come to us when he's ready."
"I don't want to have to wait that long. If we can get him while he's weakened it would be better. I don't want to give him the time to figure out how to get to her."
"BB is right though Rob. You know as well as I do that until Slade shows himself, we won't be able to find him." Cyborg shot him a sympathetic look. And Robin looked between the two, then sighed in defeat. He glanced at Raven for support but she was busy watching Starfire. Risking a glance at Batman, he raised his hands and surrendered.
"Fine. But I want all avenues exhausted before we settle on letting him come to us."
"Perhaps it will not come to that." Everyone turned at the sound of Starfire's jolly tone. Robin peered over her shoulder and almost dropped his mouth open in shock. She had completely dismantled the device, parts strewn across the table in front of her. Poking a screwdriver into one of the components, she pulled something out, and handed it to Robin. "It is a microchip. Perhaps there will be some of the information on there to help us locate Slade." She beamed at him but he narrowed his eyes back at her.
"How did you-" He was cut off as Cyborg raised from his chair and took the chip from him, taking it over to the console. The rest of the Titans and Batman followed him. As Starfire stood, Robin turned to her. "Starfire, how did you find that?"
"There is a small button here." She picked up one half of the outer casing and showed him. He could just faintly make out a small hexagonal shape, no bigger than a pinhead. "It is designed to be concealed, but not if you know what you are looking for. Pressing that in properly will disconnect the two halves." She placed it back on the table and turned to go join the rest but Robin stood in her way.
"So how did you know what to look for?" Really he was being overly concerned by this. She'd possibly given them a lead on Slade, and he was acting suspicious. "Sorry, I've just never seen you work with technology like this."
"Nothing is seamless Robin. Not even on my world and our technology is slightly more advanced than Earth. Besides, I have seen them before."
"You have?"
"Yes. When I was being held captive by Slade, he used them to send messages to Red X."
"You never mentioned anything before about it."
She shrugged. "It seemed unimportant given the circumstances. Please, we should join them." She gestured to the others who were stood watching Slade's message on the big screen. Robin watched her walk over, and trudged behind her. He had that itch. That itch that told him something was off. But then he had so much going through his head, that Starfire being able to dismantle an electronic ball was probably not something he should be focusing on.
Starfire stared up at the screen as the recording stopped. "Please, may I see this?" Cyborg shot her an uneasy glance, but replayed it anyway. After it was done playing, she tried to keep herself from shuddering at his words. Robin laced his fingers through hers and held tight. Cyborg removed the recording from the screen and set the computer to scan the microchip.
"This will take an hour or so to run, it's encrypted quite heavily." He turned back to the rest and shrugged. "It's just a matter of waiting."
"I'll head back to Gotham, see if I can't find anything in those files Starfire found." He moved over to the table to collect his tablet and turned to Starfire. "I'll be in touch when Leslie gives me a date. Keep the League informed of anything you find. Raven?"
Raven moved over to him and in a flash of black, he was gone. Raven turned back to Starfire. "So... what did the doctor say?"
"Oh! They are hopeful they can remove the scarring. Not fully but they believe they can at least get rid of the shape of it. It is just because I am not human they need to do some research on my skin cells before they can operate."
"Good. I'm glad for you Starfire." Really her voice showed no gladness at all, but Starfire knew her friend was happy for her.
Beast Boy bounded into her arms as a kitten and nuzzled her face. He mewed at her lightly and she giggled at him. Bouncing back to the floor as himself, he cheekily placed his arm around Raven. "Star, you shoulda seen me and Rae today. Mammoth was no match for us."
Raven glared at him. "Take it off..."
"Or you'll break it off, yeah yeah." Beast Boy dragged his arm away with a sneer and a small dejected sigh, but recovered fairly quickly. "But anyway, mammoth picked up a minibus, and he was holding it in the air..."
As Beast Boy regaled Starfire with their fight against the H.I.V.E, Cyborg moved over to Robin who was looking over the pieces of the device on the table. "Come on Rob, we should eat while the computer runs, before it gets too late." Robin dropped the pieces he was holding and yawned lightly.
"Yeah you're probably right, what dya fancy?"
"I'll just order some pizzas in. I don't think anyone has the energy to cook."
TTTTTTTTTTTT
An hour and a half, and six pizza boxes later, Robin sat with Cyborg at the computer and slumped back in his chair, thoroughly annoyed.
"Sorry Rob, it's too heavily encrypted. Even if there was any information on this, I can't get it."
"Alright, thanks for trying anyway. Guess we'll have to send it to Bats."
Cyborg swivelled in his chair to look at him. "Doesn't that annoy you, just a little?"
"What?"
"Having to ask him for help. I know it's not my place, but when the League got involved last time, you hated that he wangled his way in to help."
"I know. It's just... well he and I have been working on having a more amicable relationship anyway, and this time, it's different. Call me selfish, but when I was being controlled by Slade, I didn't need Batman's help. I showed him how worthy my team were and we managed to get out of it ourselves without any one getting hurt. But I'm only human Cy. I can't do that much damage to you guys really. I can outfight people but I can't overpower them. Starfire though... she rivals Superman. If he and Batman hadn't been there when she attacked Slade, I wouldn't have been able to get her off of him. We need their help in controlling her if she goes rogue again." Sadness crosses his face, not unnoticed by Cyborg.
"But she didn't attack Slade when she was rogue, she did it after Raven had snapped her out of it." Cyborg turned grim as he spoke, finally realising what Robin was getting at.
"Exactly. Okay so she'd been through a lot that day and the weeks leading up to it. But if Slade taunts her again, after she's had six, nearly seven, months of no fighting, anger, frustration, and being unable to fly, I don't know if she could handle it."
Cyborg could see that Robin hated himself for even thinking it, but as much as he hated to admit it... Robin was right. And the Titans weren't equipped to deal with her, she was too powerful. "Hopefully, it wont come to that. Anyway, I'll run this to scan once more, and if we have nothing in the morning, I'll send it to the League." He turned back to the computer and Robin glanced at the clock. It was only 10pm, but he was tired.
"I'm gonna head off Cy, I'll see you in the morning." He got a small response from Cyborg. "Night Beast Boy." Beast Boy had been quietly sat on the sofa playing a video game.
"Night Rob!"
Robin instantly undressed and got into bed, he knew Starfire would join him when she got tired enough. She was currently watching a film with Raven. Laying in the darkness, his mind wandered through the events of his day. At least Starfire had good news concerning her scar, and then she'd be able to fly again, and join them in t then, Slade had said he wanted her to be able to fly... which asks the question, if Starfire can't feel unbridled joy enough to fly now, what could Slade do to make her fly? And more to the point, if Starfire can't fly without unbridled joy, how did Slade manage to make her fly when she was under his control? Surly with Starfire having no real conscious thought, she shouldn't be able to fly at all?
Anyway, that was a thought he filed away to talk to her about in the morning. For now, he let himself slide into the comfort of sleep.