As soon as Robin heard the noise that indicated that somebody was about to enter the room, he immediately closed the laptop shut. Then, the former sidekick swiftly grabbed Raven's arm and led her inside the room of the closest door. It was the laundry room. Quietly, he closed the door and clamped his hand over Raven's mouth while managing to hold onto the portable computer.

They heard scuffling in the main part of the apartment 2D. Robin assumed that whoever was in the apartment was searching through a series of papers. This didn't seem very suspicious to Robin. However, an alarm started sounding in the back of his head when he heard rushing water and a masculine voice that swore.

Raven's eyes widened when she realized how close she was in proximity to Robin. Their chests were pressed against each other, creating some friction between the two teenagers. One of Robin's hands was firmly covering her mouth, while the one that was tightly holding onto the laptop was wrapped loosely around her waist. This was probably to prevent her from stumbling in the dark room, which would draw the person's attention to the diminutive room. After all, Raven wasn't the most graceful of people, even if she obstinately denied it.

Unfortunately, Raven's realization activated her powers, making the sole light bulb in the room explode. The only good thing about it was that it wasn't lit, offering a situation that was a little less drastic.

With an astonishing speed for a mortal without any special powers, Robin pushed aside a rack of clothing, revealing a small laundry chute. Lacking with gentleness, he pushed Raven into the tunnel designed for sending clothes down to be washed on the ground level. He waited for a second before sending his own body down the chute. However, before he did that, he placed the clothing rack in its previous position. It would be better to make it look like some freak accident than having suspicion aroused.

The ride in the chute lasted for about ten seconds. Normally, the trip wouldn't have lasted so long, but the size of their bodies made traveling in the cramped tunnel arduous. When Robin's body flew out of the chute, he almost landed on Raven. Some slight maneuvering enabled him to land beside her. It also allowed him not to crush her body with his weight. His moving also put the precious laptop in a safe position where it wouldn't be pulverized.

"Was that really necessary?" Raven huffed, staring at the peeling paint on the ceiling.

"I'm afraid so," Robin said. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine, but I'm glad that I didn't break your fall. Otherwise, my answer might have been different."

"As much as I want to say that I'm glad you're okay, it would probably be best if we get the hell out of here before things get worse."

"Good idea."

-Meanwhile In A Nearby Restaurant-

"So, what did you find out about the woman named Roxanne Lenore?"

Xavier sighed before replying to the masked person sitting across from him. "She doesn't part with information easily. I feel as if she has trust issues, possibly from childhood trauma. That, or she's unbelievably irrational and infuriating."

The two people were currently dining in a restaurant in Jump City. They had booked a private room in the place, not wanting their conversation to be overheard by nosy civilians. Xavier noticed that his companion's food remained untouched. Rather, their attention was focused solely on him.

"Are you setting your sights fully on this particular task? I certainly wouldn't want this mission to be put into jeopardy because of your incompetence."

"In case you have forgotten," Xavier growled, "I have other clients, too."

"Are those clients paying you nearly as much as my organization?"

"Well, no. Be as it may, this task isn't my only priority," he told the person facing him.

"Don't tell me that you developed… feelings for this woman."

"Who said anything about having feelings for that cow?"

"Well, seeing as how you're so opposed to fulfilling your mission, there must be some obstacle to why you won't do what you're told. As disgusting as it may be, having feelings for Ms. Lenore seems most logical."

Xavier sighed. "Excuse me, but that conclusion isn't logical whatsoever. However, I'll have this task completed within two days' time."

"I would certainly hope so. After all, a man of your caliber should certainly understand the importance of things relating to time, such as deadlines."

With that, Xavier's companion gracefully stood up and exited the room. Xavier cursed under his breath when he realized that he would have to pay for the expensive meal and the private room.

-Meanwhile At H.I.V.E. Academy-

Jinx was currently enjoying her free period. Even though she had been at this school for a week, she loved it. Nobody underestimated her here, nor did they judge her. She could be herself and not worry about a single thing. Jinx sighed, staring up at the stars that littered the ceiling in her dark, ominous room. It was as if they were glittering, almost like the real night sky. Suddenly, the sorceress bolted upright, scrambling around for a notebook and a pen. Oddly enough, staring up at the stickers of stars made a stroke of brilliance hit her like a ton of bricks, working to her advantage. The sorceress frantically wrote down her thoughts, while managing to scribble tiny side notes on the edge of the yellow sheets of paper.

"Jinx! Hurry up! The Headmistress won't be pleased if you're late to another class!" Gizmo shouted through the door, trying his best to not make a snide remark. After all, he didn't want Jinx to snap at him again for his personality.

"I'll be there in a minute," she called. Quickly, she finished up the complicated diagram before shutting the notebook shut.

"What is that?" Gizmo asked his pink-haired companion when she exited her room. He was, of course, referring to the notebook that Jinx was tightly clenching in her hands.

She blinked and her grip on the notebook loosened. "Let's just say that a meeting with the Headmistress is in order."

The two teenagers quickly found the person that completed their villainous trio: Mammoth. They quickly made their way towards the Headmistress's office, planning on telling her about Jinx's plan, even though the two boys had no idea what that was. Rather, they were just going to go along with it and nod their heads at seemingly appropriate moments.

"Shouldn't the three of you be in class?" the Headmistress said when they entered her office. She was surprised to see them in her office.

"I came up with an idea, Headmistress. I wanted to run it by you," Jinx told her politely.

The Headmistress was intrigued. "What kind of idea?"

With a coy smile tugging at her thin lips, Jinx opened up her notebook to the page with the diagram. "It's a battle tactic, ma'am. I like to call it Attack Pattern Alpha."

Jinx watched as the Headmistress intently scrutinized the diagram. Over a minute passed before she looked up. "This is an excellent battle strategy. When do you plan on testing it out?"

"I was hoping that we could cause a bunch of mayhem tonight, if that's okay."

The Headmistress exclaimed, "Of course it is! I just want the three of you to take the rest of the day off and practice this strategy. Failure will no longer be tolerated…"

Before the woman could finish her rant (Zen lessons, as Jinx referred to them as), the door burst open, revealing a blonde girl. The girl was dressed in a slutty costume that revealed a lot of her skin. The costume had the barest traces of armor covering it, not offering a bunch of protection. The blonde girl had long hair and was wearing pink pumps. Jinx thought she looked like a two dollar store tramp.

"I couldn't help to overhear your conversation," the blonde girl snidely said, making Jinx snort. "I honestly think I can help them with their little damage inducing mission."

The Headmistress asked, "How so, Kitten?"

"I have some contacts," Kitten informed the Headmistress. "My boyfriend that I started dating two days ago, Fang, he's rather talented. He's pretty strong, too! Let's not forget about handsome! Then, there's my daddy: Killer Moth. He recently created an army of mutant moths. Perfect, huh?"

"If this boy, Fang, is as talented as you say, why doesn't he attend this school?"

"He's twenty-four," was Kitten's response.

"That's not called dating. That's called babysitting," Jinx rudely said. She just couldn't resist.

"Hold your tongue," snapped the Headmistress. Her attention returned to Kitten. "Well, I can certainly understand why he doesn't attend this prestigious academy. However, I must admit that I don't see the wisdom out of that particular situation."

"He's handsome," was Kitten's response. "Anyway, I can get my daddy and boyfriend to help out these guys out and do whatever on one condition."

"What condition?" asked the Headmistress with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I must accompany them."

Jinx's jaw dropped. "No! If she goes, she'll ruin everything! Just look at her costume!"

The Headmistress sighed, her inner thoughts battling in turmoil. A large part of her wanted to ensure that this mission would work out perfectly. Another part of her kept reminding herself that Kitten wasn't even on par with these outstanding pupils in front of her. In the end, however, she agreed to Kitten's participation with their little expedition.

As soon as Jinx was far away from the office, she swore at the top of her lungs and punched the wall.

-Meanwhile With Class Titan-

"I swear, if I chop my arm off, I will kill her," Astoria muttered to Bumblebee once Hawkgirl had informed them that they would be doing something different today in Weaponry. According to the Thanagarian, Green Arrow was off on a mission in Japan with a few other Leaguers.

"I don't really have anything against what we're doing in this class," Bumblebee said as they tested out the proffered swords to find the one with the perfect balance for them. "I just have a bad feeling about today. That could just be the creepy effect of Question, though. I don't think I have ever met somebody with so many conspiracy theories."

"What do you reckon happened that made Batman skip teaching?" asked Astoria.

Bumblebee shrugged. "I really don't know. Maybe he's with Green Arrow on that one mission?"

"Maybe…."

The two girls found the right swords for them and moved over to a station in the room. Astoria stood, poised and ready. Bumblebee stood about fifteen feet away next to a giant bucket. After setting her sword down, Bumblebee reached inside the huge container and removed a decently sized watermelon. Without hesitation, she chucked it at Astoria. Astoria intently watched it soar across the room, holding the sword out in the area she thought it would wind up. You see, this activity was one where they tested out their reflexes using a weapon. They had to slice the melons with their sword. If they weren't able to hit at least three out of five melons, they had to do fifty pushups. Unfortunately for Astoria, the abnormally shaped watermelon rotated to the left slightly and hit her in the face with the sweet juice squirting into her eyes.

Once the pain had subsided, Astoria looked around the room and was pleased to see that she wasn't the only one having some difficulty. Beast Boy had a watermelon on his head like it was a hat and Aqualad was clutching his groin in apparent pain.

At the end of the class period, Speedy was the only one that had managed to slice all his melons in half. Before the end of the period, Hawkgirl had made him wear a blindfold before backing away to the other side of the room. Then, the Thanagarian began throwing the melons herself, much faster than the kids in Class Titan. Amazingly, Speedy was able to break apart every single watermelon that was thrown his way.

When the bell rang, Hawkgirl made Speedy stay back for a minute. She placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling. "I just wanted to let you know that your mentor would be so proud of you. You did an excellent job, Speedy. You truly have an extraordinary gift. Don't ever forget that."

-Meanwhile With Raven And Robin-

"Did you find out anything?" asked Raven for what seemed like the fifteenth time.

"Not yet," Robin responded.

Currently, the two teenagers were in their hotel room with Kylie DePriest's laptop. Raven was pacing back and forth, constantly peering over Robin's shoulders. Robin was hunched over the portable computer, trying to recover any possible information to see if they could uncover any leads.

Five more minutes passed before Robin leaned back in the chair. "I got it," he said, looking pleased with himself.

Raven quickly made her way to stand beside him and stared at the screen. Robin clicked open a file in the documents section of the computer. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a college essay, which wasn't what they were looking for. Another file was a typed résumé for a job. The two teenagers actually spent time reading the document because there was actually a chance that it could possess important information.

"She was our waitress on Saturday," Raven said with slight disbelief.

"That means there could be a chance she was spying on us," Robin said grimly, thinking about all the possibilities. You could practically see the cogs of his mind quickly turning like a clock going haywire.

"How could she possibly know who we are, though? What could she possibly gain from spying on the two of us, anyway?"

"She was murdered. There's a possibility that she disappointed whoever she was working for," Robin replied, opening up another document.

This document contained several photos of a tremendous array of topics. This gave the young superheroes the idea that Kylie DePriest strived to become a professional photographer. It seemed like an ordinary file, but there was something out of place when Robin scrolled to the very bottom of the document. Instead of a picture relating to something such as nature, the last file in the picture folder was a video.

The video started playing immediately after Robin double clicked on it. Kylie DePriest was sitting on a wooden bench in what seemed like the middle of the woods. She was clad in revealing undergarments that left little to the imagination, as well as a robe made of really light fabric. Kylie was talking about how once she saved up enough money, she and the person this video was made for would be able to be together. The video ended with the waitress blowing a kiss towards the camera and a series of giggles.

"Do you think that's why she was doing whatever she was? That she just wanted more money?" Raven asked her companion.

"There could have been several factors in why she did what she did, including blackmail," Robin said. "I just have the feeling that we're missing the big picture…"

"How likely would you say it is that the guy this video for was the killer?"

"It's likely, but there could be other culprits."

The two of them continued looking through the documents that they managed to retrieve. The very last one gave them a better insight on what they were facing. A slightly complicated program popped up, with several movable slides and symbolic buttons. After some messing around with the program, Robin managed to play a file. Raven and Robin simultaneously looked at each other, shocked.

They were listening to their conversation….

-Meanwhile With Batman-

Batman was drained, emotionally and physically. Sighing, he ripped off his cowl and plopped his body on the chair in front of the Batcomputer. For a few minutes, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and ignored the urge to sleep that his drooping eyelids provided. He could already tell that he was going to need at least three more cups of coffee before the day ended. After all, this was his fourth night without any sleep.

Blinking rapidly for a few seconds to try to clear away a small amount fatigue, Batman sat up straighter and produced the bag containing to note intended for the serial killer named Victor Zsasz. Using forceps, Batman lifted the slip of paper out of the bag and placed it on a scanner that would detect any traces of DNA, such as fingerprints. He pressed a few buttons on the machine before turning his attention onto a screen. The scanner was extracting information from the letter while the screen unraveled the information before his very own eyes.

Batman studied the computer screen, waiting for the process to be completed. Five minutes had passed before this particular test was finished. He ran a couple more tests using different machinery. The end result stunned him beyond belief, for lack of a better term.

The only trace of DNA on the piece of paper belonged to him...


A/N – Favorite part? Least favorite part? Hate? Like? Anything you want to see in the upcoming chapters? Let me know in the reviews.

So, I think it's safe to say that I left this chapter off at a cliffhanger. Anyway, I'm not sure about what equipment Batman owns, but I hope that the equipment I used in this chapter was believable.

The next chapter will be much longer and will include loads of action. I can promise you that. Also, the next chapter will include Kole, Solstice, and Argent. It will also contain a surprise guest that I'm sure you guys like. Can you guess who it is?

Questions To Think About:
Who was in the apartment?
What was that person's purpose in the apartment?
Will Xavier find out any useful information about Roxanne Lenore?
What is Xavier's part in this mysterious figure's plan?
Who are some of Xavier's clients?
Will Jinx's battle strategy work?
Will Kitten ruin Jinx's, Mammoth's, and Gizmo's mission?
Is Green Arrow really proud of Speedy?
Who was the video Kylie DePriest made directed to?
Did Kylie do what she did for money?
Will Batman's fatigue be his downfall?
How does the note have Batman's DNA?

Thanks for reading!