Chapter 3

The alarm rang, calling all ten Titans to the common-room. A down-town jeweller's was displayed on the screen.

"Finally, things are starting to look up." said the new Beastboy, earning an approving grin from his leader.

"Wait, you can't come with us!" said the original Robin.

"And why not?" said the black-clad Starfire, stepping forward defiantly with her hands on her hips. Robin met her eyes, but had to look away, he found the whole situation too weird, and he couldn't even talk to the Starfire he knew.

"I don't see the harm in letting them tag along." said Raven.

"Yeah, imagine the look on the crooks faces when they see 'em!" said Beastboy laughing. Robin still had his doubts. Then his match stepped forward.

"Don't underestimate my team, Robin, I don't underestimate yours." Robin thought about it, he had to admit that it was only fair, and Beastboy was right, he would love to see the looks on their faces.

"Alright fine, but don't do anything I wouldn't do." he said.

"That seems a bit unlikely, doesn't it?" was the reply, and with that they left, speeding towards down-town, the girls soaring through the sky above them.

The front window was smashed in, amateurs. The original Titans went right to work, jumping through the window to the show-room. Three men dressed in black with masks were hastily emptying the display cases, but they looked up when our heroes entered. There was that second of deer-in-the-headlights stillness when they decided to fight, run, or go quietly. The man nearest the Titans dropped his sack and drew two long swords from sheaths on his back. He made a big show of twirling them impressively before settling into a battle stance facing the group. The men behind him followed suite with other martial-arts weapons. Robin sighed as he pulled out his bo-staff and Starfire, Raven and Cyborg charged up,

"Why don't they ever wanna go the easy way?" he thought.

It was then that the other Titans chose to make their appearance, filtering in casually through the same broken window. Even through the masks, the Titans could see their amazement, and the man with the swords rubbed his eyes in the classic, cliched move. He called out behind him, and a fourth man stuck his head through the door to the back room, supposedly where the vault was. He stared for a moment before slowly retreating back behind the door in a hilarious maybe-they-didn't-see-me moment.

The men in front of them decided then was the time to attack and they charged. The girls took to the air but two of the men were amazingly light on the feet and balanced skilfully on the metal edges of the display cases, bringing them almost even in the low-ceilinged room.

Robin faced the man with the swords. He knew the girls could take care of themselves. Bo-staff at the ready, he waited. You always have to give the criminals the choice to do the right thing, before you take them out. The man was of medium build, with broad shoulders, but a narrow waist. Then, without warning, he charged. He was faster than Robin had expected him to be, and he quickly found himself on the defensive. One of the swords sliced his sleeve and cut his arm. Time to stop playing around. Robin jumped back to give himself space to maneouver, then went in for the attack. He got in a few good shots, but the man refused to go down.

Questions were forming in Robin's mind. Who were these guys? Why did this robbery smack of an amateur job, when these guys were obviously anything but? Why was a ten against three fight taking so long? These thoughts abandoned him however, when the door to the backroom smashed open and the man from before stepped out.

In his hands he had two large, automatic machine guns, with bullet-belts hanging from them. The man also had two spare bullet-belts crossing his chest, hanging funny on his skeletally-thin frame. Dressed all in black, with the guns and ammo, he looked very Rambo-esque. His greasy, straw coloured hair fell in front of his eyes, which currently held a very determined look.

Robin only had a second to take in this extreme sight. It registered just as the room began being showered with bullets and plaster. The thieves threw themselves behind the display cases, using the bullet-proof glass to their advantage. Robin threw himself onto the floor, and quickly looked around for his team-mates.

Raven was holding her own in the far corner, surrounded by a dome of black energy. Robin's world ground to a halt as he saw Starfire trying to help one of the thieves who had somehow managed to get pinned to the wall by his own daggers. She was directly across from the maniac with the guns, and horribly exposed. Robin almost got up to get her himself, but at the last second, Cyborg slid in front of her, the bullets bouncing off his metallic parts. Robin felt like he could have hugged him at that particular moment. Movement to his right caught his eye, and he smiled to see a green snake slither past him, being careful to stick to the wall.

He reached down to get a magnesium flare from his belt. He waited, and was rewarded when the shooting stopped as the man cried out and grabbed his ankle. Robin threw the flare at the man's feet and it exploded it a blinding flash. The man staggered back, temporarily blinded. Robin leapt at him, and knocked him out with a single blow.

In the sudden quiet, Robin assessed the situation. The new Titans were nowhere to be seen, Starfire had almost been killed, they only had two of the four men who had broken in, and the rest had gotten away with the jewellery. This wasn't one of Robin's good days. Beastboy morphed back into himself with a woosh next to him, but wisely didn't say anything. Cyborg was holding the man who was now free from the wall with his hands behind his back.

The sound of sirens approaching was music to his ears.

"Come on, Team, the cops can take it from here. And I get the feeling we want to be back at the Tower..." With that they all left the ruined store, stepping over bits of debris as they went

The sight that greeted the Titans as they arrived at the common-room was both expected and disappointing. The other Titans were indeed there, Robin sitting in the armchair again, with Starfire sitting in his lap. She wore a huge emerald and gold necklace, and she seemed very pleased with it. The only word to describe what they were doing was "canoodling". A mixture of giggles, kisses, and teasing that made your stomach turn. Across the room, Raven was eyeing her new ruby ring, with matching earrings and bracelet, throwing in an appreciative kiss or hug for Beastboy. Cyborg was sitting on the ground, sorting through the uncut diamonds.

They looked up, however, when their irate hosts walked in.

"Where the hell were you?" accused Robin. His alter ego eyed him for a second, before tapping Starfire on the thigh, and she reluctantly slid off him. He stood and faced himself.

"We went after the two that made off with the jewellery." he stated. He wasn't looking for a fight, but he sure as hell wasn't about to back down.

"Was this before or after it started raining lead?" Robin spat.

"What?" Judging by the expression on his face, the other Robin honestly didn't know what had happened.

"While you were off chasing the jewels, some wacko with two fully automatic, army-grade machine guns opened fire on us." Robin was really getting in his face now, and you could almost see the conscious decision to fight fire with fire.

"Woah, calm down, you're making me look bad. I'm sorry if I thought you could handle a couple of common thieves, apparently I was wrong." They both narrowed their eyes. The others watched apprehensively. If it came to a fight, they could both get seriously injured, but they couldn't interfere without undermining their leaders authority. Which they knew they hated.

"Maybe you'd like to know that while you were off scoring gifts for your girlfriends, Starfire was almost killed!" said the original Robin. Starfire blushed and looked at her feet, embarrassed at suddenly being the centre of attention. The dark Robin made a big show of looking past the fuming young man in front of him to the wilting girl behind him.

"I'm sorry if you could've been hurt, Starfire," he said before looking back at his identical twin. "but I fail to see how that's my fault."

"You should have been there!" shouted Robin, poking him in the chest. Starfire held up her hand tentatively, trying to draw enough attention to herself to calm things down, but she was ignored. The other Robin slowly leant in even further, if that was possible.

"Don't you mean, you should've been there? Isn't that what this is really about, Robin?" The air around them was chilled and more than silent, like space, everyone wishing they weren't there but paying the closest attention nonetheless, and the two Robins were a volatile star right in the middle of it.

"Don't twist this around. You're the one who values some cheap trinket over Starfire's safety." The dark Starfire fingered her necklace worriedly.

"Don't you dare say that!" he said, pushing Robin, "Starfire is priceless to me, and you know it. So stop talking trash about what you don't know," he smirked, "no matter how much you wanna know about it."
"Shut up" said Robin quietly, drawing his staff. The other Robin drew his. The situation was escalating rapidly out of control, and if the Titans didn't do something soon…

The two Robins began circling each other, and were about to charge when their respective Starfires ran in front of them.

"Robin, stop this!" shouted the dark Starfire, throwing her arms out to the sides to block his view.

"Robin, don't! Fighting him won't help anything." said the other Starfire. The criminal Starfire moved forward slowly and laid her hands on her boyfriend's chest.

"Don't do this." she said quietly. He looked down at her and softened. He contracted his staff and put it away, then took her hands in his.

"Okay, Star." He said, leaning his forehead against hers, "You always did have this affect on me." he said, laughing softly.

Meanwhile, the good Robin's attention was drawn to the girl in front of him, her silent pleading cooling his anger. He looked at her reluctantly, at the worry in her eyes, then back at his counterpart, considering, then he too put away his staff.

"Thank you" said Starfire in front of him.

"I just don't want you to worry." he replied gruffly, running a nervous hand through his hair. Starfire smiled weakly at him. That had been too close.

Robin looked past her at his somewhat occupied counterpart.

"I think it's time you left." he said.

"You're probably right." replied the young man, with Starfire still in his arms. He laughed, "How stupid would it be if we killed each other?" he said. Robin did saw the humour in it, but didn't feel like laughing just then.

"Er, hate to rain on this little love fest you guys seem to have going there, but just how are we supposed to get back?" asked the black-clad Beastboy.

"Easy" replied his leader, "we'll just find Warp."

"But Warp went through the portal, he's on your side now." said Robin.

"Ah no, that was your Warp, we're looking for Detective Jonathan Warp of the JCPD. That skid-mark of a cop that came through before us."

Now Robin remembered, having totally forgotten about the man he'd seen only briefly before he met his twin.

"Okay, and where do we find him?" asked the old Beastboy.

"Birds of a feather flock together, BB. The police department." said the other Robin.

"Okay, duh." Beastboy agreed.

All the Titans headed for the door, but Robin hung back.

"Hey, Robin. You okay?" asked Cyborg.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine." he replied. Cyborg nodded and began to walk away.

"Uh, Cyborg?" Robin called. Cyborg turned,

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving Starfire." he said, avoiding eye-contact.

"Anytime." said Cyborg, and the two of them went and caught up with the others.