Alright! First off, I'm SOOO INCREDIBLY SORRY for not updating! but due to a long string of events that spanned over the last week and a half, which included a science fair project, finals week, birthdays, and my being sick (curses colds to hell), I really had a lot of trouble finding the time to update. So my apologies, everyone.
Secondly, I know this isn't the best of chapters, but I've tried to make up for 1) my lack of writing talent in this chappie, and 2) my time off by updating w/ another chapter in addition to this one (promise it's much better!) And I'll update tomorrow and hopefully the next day (i'm on vacation, yay!) So there, you can stop strangling me now...lol
So! Here's chapter 3, and then read chapter 4, and the disclaimer stands as usual. The world is cruel and I own nothing. So r and r!
To some, waking up at 2 in the morning to do a little bit of research is what you would call obsessive. If you said that to Robin the Boy Wonder, especially when he was working on an 'important case,' you would find yourself with a broken arm much faster than you could apologize.
'Besides,' he reasoned with himself as he typed furiously, trying to hack his way through Starfire's password, 'this guy could mean trouble for the Titans.'
More specifically, trouble concerning Starfire, which he would never allow, although Robin wouldn't admit it. She had a special place in his heart. They knew each other so well, they were best friends, and it was obvious to most (even if not to her) that he cared about her in a way his other friends didn't merit. 'Insomnia' seemed like a threat, and Robin wasn't going to let that threat haunt him any longer.
"About time," he whispered triumphantly as he finally cracked the password. As soon as he was on he did an auto-check of the hard drive, first searching for viruses and Trojans and then for any saved files.He had programmed their computers (with the Titans' consent, even if they were less than happy to concede…they knew Robin would find a way to persuade them anyway) so that they would record certain online activities.It recorded any websites that had a virus threat.The same held for chats.
So yes, Robin had crept into Starfire's room while she was asleep (a feat only he could pull off without getting fried by a hail of starbolts), disconnected her computer, replaced it with a default, and snuck it back to his room, where he was now, desperately checking the hardrive for recorded conversations.
"Yes!" he whispered to himself. Excitedly hitting the 'Enter' button, a window popped up, containing every automatically recorded AIM conversations Starfire had ever had. His face soon fell.
"Damn."
There were about 200 of them. This was going to take a while.
Meanwhile, Starfire was beginning to stir. Yawning and rubbing her eyes as she woke up, her first thought was of talking to Insomnia...then she checked her clock and her face fell. 6 a.m. was way too early to chat. "Well," she thought, crawling out from under her pink sheets, "maybe Robin's up, and I can talk to him." And with that she hovered out her door.
Robin was having success at speed-reading these conversations. In fact, in his conversation-reading and note-taking frenzy, he had gotten through about 114 of them. His eyes were moving so fast back and forth across the screen they seemed blurred and glassy (well, if he had pupils, they would anyway). He failed to notice that Starfire was innocently flying past his room, inadvertently making a small jingling noise that she always made when she would fly (kinda like Tinkerbell-she just rang like a bell when she flew.) Not even looking up, he had also ignored that the noise had stopped for a moment.
Outside his room, Starfire heard muttering. Muttering and typing and that incredibly annoying scratch of pen on paper. Confused and wondering whether Robin wanted to come out and talk, she knocked politely on his door.
"Who is it?" Robin called over his shoulder, still intently reading Starfire's and Insomniac's 116th conversation.
"It is your friend, Starfire," she called back.
Ok, so Robin was in a bit of a bad spot. He stole her computer, was reading her conversations, researching her internet activities, and was on the verge of putting her on child block. She was the last person he wanted to see right now. So he shouted back,
"Sorry, Star, I think I've picked up a lead on something."
Silence, for a few moments, until...
"Oh, alright, I was just wondering if you wanted to join me for breakfast, I'm hungry and with luck Beast Boy is still asleep so we won't have to eat tofu…"
"Sorry, but I really have a lot of work to do."
"Are you sure-"
But too late. He was once again absorbed in his work. Looking slightly put out, Starfire decided to take a walk to get some clean air circulating in her head, and half-heartedly changed direction and walked towards the roof.
After another half hour of carefully examining and taking notes on each and every one of Starfire's conversations with Insomniac, and Robin was finished. Walking to his door and peering suspiciously out and around to check the coast, he crept silently back into her room, replaced her computer, and made like hell out of the lethal pink furry death chamber that was her walls, carpet, bed and just about everything else. (Girls, take note-there are lots of things that creep guys out, and one of them is too much pink.)
From what he could tell, Insomniac seemed to know exactly how to talk to girls. Robin noted that he called her 'sweetie' a lot, that he always asked about her friends, and that she was quite constantly the subject of their discussions. The more he read, the more suspicious he grew. But it was nothing-nothing-compared to how Starfire talked to him. More than once, Robin noted that she was constantly changing the subject, turning it back to Insomniac, and trying to maintain a fake personality who went to school and hung out with friends and did all of the things that a normal teenager did. It was, admittedly, frightening to see how well she could lie (or at least was learning to…a majority of people wouldn't be able to deduce that she was not just a normal person), although she had been rather uncreative when it came to renaming her friends.
Robin sighed exasperatedly. As he checked and double-checked his notes, he became more and more sure that Insomniac could see right through Starfire, as he seemed to leave certain subjects that Starfire inquired without end about alone, and Robin was almost positive Insomniac could tell by her grammar (it was still rather proper and delicate, she had not yet been exposed to MTV) that no one talked that way.
That was enough evidence for him. Logging on to his own screenname, he began the search for information on Insomniac. Starting with AOL profiles.
Meanwhile Starfire had joined Raven (who nearly lived on that roof, meditating) in meditation as the cool morning breeze swept over their faces. Raven, although determined not to let Starfire's presence distract her, couldn't help but notice (okay, not notice, go into Star's soul and watch what was going on) that she didn't look nearly as cheerful as she normally did.
"Uhh, Starfire?"
Looking slightly surprised, Starfire looked back at Raven.
"Yes?"
"You okay?"
"Oh! Yes, I'm fine," she replied half-heartedly, and Raven looked unconvinced.
"Don't lie to me, I can always tell. Seriously, what's up?"
"Well..." Starfire looked back at Raven, pondering whether to tell her what was on her mind. Finally deciding it was no use to avoid it (Raven probably already knew anyway), she took the dive and told her.
"I've been a little worried about Robin lately, he's been acting so strangely..."
"Strangely, how?"
"Well, he's always busy, and everytime I go online he seems to be-"
That brought Raven to the light.
"Online? What do you do online?" she interrupted.
"Nothing, really, I just chat with a friend of mine."
"This friend being?"
"A friend."
Raven looked at Starfire darkly.
"Well, if that's the answer you've been giving Robin, I'm hardly surprised he's been acting strangely. He's probably worried about your judgement..."
Starfire looked shocked. "Are you saying he doesn't trust me?"
"I'm saying that you're giving him a reason to be worried about it."
Starfire pondered for a moment, still a half-shocked, half-angered expression on her face. Raven turned back to her meditation.
And without another word, Star got up and flew off back into the Tower.
"God bless AOL's organization system," Robin though to himself, biting his lip as he performed numerous searches to come up with a list of anyone named Insomniac. Yet again, this was going to take a while, because Robin's computer smarts had pulled up a list of over 3,000 'Insomniacs.'
And after a long and tiresome search, the details of which the reader couldn't care less about, he had found it. Pulling up a profile, he read,
Name: Wouldn't you like to know?
Gender: male
Age: 16
"Well, at least I know one thing," Robin sighed, "he couldn't possibly be that hard to track down." Which, if you were the Batman's kid, was absolutely true. Even if Insomniac tried to hide his steps, there were always innumerable ways to track him.
Reading on, Robin found nothing out of the ordinary, except perhaps one link to a website he had never cared much for.
http: that's completely normal and not suspicious at all," he said to himself sarcastically, double-clicking on the link.
The website was so much more than a fanlisting, as Robin soon found out.
Oh, no. That website had everything known to man about the Titans…including pictures, biographies on each of the Titans, links to public police files about crimes they've stopped, personal accounts of rescues, and of course…fanart. And on Starfire's biography, Robin noted, there was a credit to an Insomniac 'for providing large amounts of information on Starfire to the site.'Needless to say, that immediately set offalarmsfor Robin,and clicking the back button to profile, he began to hack his way through Insomniac's password.
Robin was surprised how well-protected that password was, as Insomnia had put up 4 hacker defense programs as well as firewall and spamblocker. But he got through it, and finally found the AOL account information. Go Robin.
AOL licensed to: Malaise, Andrew
Gender: male
Age: 16
Account type: Master
Screenname: Insomniac234
Password: ...
That was all he needed. Clicking out of the AOL information window at light speed, he immediately looked up any criminal records (there were none, the guy was clean) and address of Andrew Malaise, and quickly found it at a place called Manning Apartments, and without even logging off, he flew out of his room and through the Tower, carefully avoiding the other Titans, and was tearing through the city on his motorcycle, driving furiously to Manning Apartments.
Ok! Please review, tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, how I can improve, etc. So REVIEW!
And! I can't believe this, I am actually writing thank-yous and reviews to the readers! (I never got enough reviews to write thank-you's to! This is so exciting!)
Jeanniestorm-psycho stalker, and I guess we'll find out, huh?
solodancer-I updated twice today, hope that's enough...tomorrow as well, don't worry
Lady Socraties-there you go, hope you enjoyed..next chapter's better, promise.
Cooperstar and Blink-OMG! I Love you! (throws out a cookie) thanks for the encouragement!
knightfire-I'll do my best
Ldy-Flor-read the next chappie, that's where you really get to see him
li' LIK Star-thanks, lol...yes, internet friends really can be very weird, that's what I was going for
ocdsugar-thanks, I appreciate the 'A.' lol...anyways, can ya tell me what I can do? I'd like to know, I'm always trying to find out how I can improve my writing
Lady-Mikki-aww, thanks...i'll try to keep it interesting lol
Ravyn-Spirit-Yet again, my apologies...you must have been really bored by now!
toots-like I said, I guess we'll find out
Beastboyluver-will do (or at least I'll try, I'm not the best at fluff)
Alphagirl-lol, thanks (throws out more cookies)
THANKS AGAIN EVRY1 FOR THE REVIEWS! (Throws out cookies for everyone)