"Oh my God," Robin murmured when he stepped into the Batcave.
Everything was destroyed. The ruins of the Batman's most fortified and most secret sanctuary stretched out before the Teen Titans like an open wound. "What could have caused this level of damage?" Starfire wondered aloud. "Not even my people's longtime enemies had this kind of firepower."
"Hey," Cyborg called, his eyepiece glowing, "I'm picking up traces of some kind of chemical compound all over the walls and floor. It looks like C4, but C4 doesn't anywhere near this kind of payload."
Robin's jaw tightened at the news. Raven noticed. "What is it?" she asked.
"Batman was working on a new kind of derivative of C4 a few months ago," the young detective said. "The same power as C4 but using only a quarter of the material. Cyborg, calibrate your scanners for nitrogen gas deposits at twenty parts per million."
Cyborg took a moment to do so. "I'm seeing little pockets of them all over this place."
Robin nodded, his fears confirmed. He explained, "The derivative Batman was developing was supposed to make more effective blasting caps, in case we needed to destroy a wall or a vehicle in a hurry. The mechanics behind it is simple. The explosive comes in two parts, a plastique and a trinitrotoluene capsule. Put the two together and detonate. The TNT would explode first, which would set off the plastique. The combined payload would beten times greater than C4 or TNT alone. Chemical analysis of the affected area should turn up a distinct combination of C4 traces and nitrogen gas—the end products of the explosive reaction."
"So then that means the culprit somehow found out about Batman's explosives and used it against him," Raven surmised. Robin nodded. "Our enemy knows a great deal about Batman," the magus murmured.
"A very great deal," Robin agreed. "He knew where the Batcave was—under Wayne manor. That means he knows everything about Batman…and probably me, as well."
The young detective started sifting through the wreckage, turning over every shrapnel, every charred support beam. Hours passed as the Titans looked for more clues…only to come up empty once sunset came. They were sitting around in a cleared area of the Cave, when Robin, still pondering the mystery, noticed something attached to Beast Boy's boot.
"What's that?" he asked.
Beast Boy looked down. He had stepped in what appeared to be a tattered piece of cloth. The green-furred Titan plucked it off. "Looks like silk," he said upon inspection.
"It looks like it's high-grade," Raven added.
Robin took the scrap of silk and drew forth a handheld microscope/analysis device from his belt. "There's traces of dust on it…but not the same kind of dust you'd find in a cave," he announced. "This is more of the sedimentary kind. This has to be from the culprit's clothes."
"So there's a well-dressed villain out there capable of taking out the Justice League," Cyborg summarized without enthusiasm. "That isn't much to go on, Rob."
Robin was inclined to agree. If he had Batman's skill and experience, maybe he could have drawn more information from the silk. But it was useless to him as it was. The young detective walked a circuit around the Cave again, keeping his eyes peeled for any other telltale clue concerning the culprit's identity. They had gone over the place with a fine-toothed comb the first time, but Robin still held out hope that they might have missed something important.
And then it hit him, and he felt like a total fool. "The obvious place," he groaned. He rushed over to the most obvious place to leave a clue. On the Batcomputer. Though ruined beyond repair, Robin relentlessly sifted through its broken shell for any sign…and found it under the keyboard.
"A Kryptonite ring," Robin said grimly. At the other's questioning looks, he explained, "Superman knew that the only one who could possibly beat him was Batman, so he entrusted my mentor with a Kryptonite ring, just in case there was any need for Superman to be taken out for the greater good. It was the ultimate failsafe against the ultimate superhero."
"But what does this tell us, Robin?" asked Starfire in confusion.
Raven understood and, looking at her leader, she said, "It's a message, just like the note. It tells usthat Superman's been beaten and probably the rest of the Justice League, too."
"But since there haven't been any reports or newscasts about the defeat of the League," Cyborg ventured, starting to get the hang of detective work, "then that means they have to be hidden somewhere where know one knows about them being beaten."
"And the one place they could be beaten without anyone knowing," said Beast Boy excitedly, "is in outer space—the League's fortress!"
"Saddle up, team," ordered Robin. "We know where we're going next."