Hello again. Sorry for the short chapter, will post the next one within a day.

(/)

As the sun set on the city, it cast a magnificent glow on the tall skyscrapers that filled the downtown business district. The red sunset lit the steel and glass so that the city shone like a jewel. Atop one of the tallest buildings stood a figure dressed all in black. The fading sunlight sparkled off his glittering blue hair. With the sun at his back he stared out at the city below him. "What a marvelous place. And all of it can be my playground."

(/)

The next morning Robin was up early, but there was already a "message waiting" signal on the main screen. Robin pressed the play button, and the police chief's voice blared out into the room. As Robin scrambled for the volume, he inwardly cursed Beast Boy for leaving it up after last nights video games. Since he had missed the first part, Robin replayed the message in its entirety. "Robin, we found the cause of last nights problem at HAL electronics. No leads yet on suspects, but give me a call as soon as we get this."

Robin dialed in the number and a moment later the Police chief's haggard face came into view. He looked he hadn't slept at all, or if he had, he'd done it in his clothes. "Robin, glad to see you got my message...we had another break-in last night."

"Already? Where? And what was taken this time?"

"At Cyberdine Systems, across town. And we're still not sure what, if anything, was stolen because in addition to totally trashing several offices, our mysterious crook stole the security tapes as well...oh yeah, this was after slipping past eighteen security guards, four guard dogs, a laser grid, and a hallway filled with pressure sensitive flooring."

"Damn...should we come over?"

"Nah, the crime scene looks pretty clean."

"OK, so what's up at HAL electronics?"

"They found the cause of the black-out in the security tapes." Capt. Samuel pulled a crumpled piece of paper from a jacket pocket. "If you want the specifics you gotta talk to the engineers, but I managed to get this, which a normal person can almost understand." He read off the sheet of paper, "The failure of the general system was initiated by double alert from the warning circuits. A short (cause as of yet unknown) in the secondary circuit set off the maintenance signal. The problem was not corrected immediately, however, and a short in the primary system (cause also as of yet unknown) then caused the alarm to crash and freeze before rerouting to the third redundant backup." Capt. Samuel yawned.

"You look tired", said Robin. "Busy night?"

"Yeah, the usual drug busts and minor thefts, but they all got a ton of paperwork to fill out for. That and now I'm doing crowd control here at HAL."

"What for?"

"The armies of lawyers that are down here threatening suit and counter-suit." He moved to one side to let Robin see the scene behind him. Dozens of men in suits were rushing around waving sheaves of papers and shouting at each other. All of a sudden several started pushing and swinging briefcases. As several officers moved in to stop it, Capt. Samuel turned to help. His last words were "What a pain in the -" before the transmission cut off.

(/)

The next two days were quite, but on the third morning Robin woke up to find another message from Capt. Samuel. When Robin called him up, he got interesting news.

"The mysterious thief hit not one but two places last night. But at one place it looks like all he did was trash the assembly line, and at the other the only things missing are some financial records, which may have nothing to do with our guy anyway."

"So, what're they up to? Could he be looking for something?"

"I doubt it, all the companies deal in different branches of electronics, and the last one only works with massed produced merchandise, like TVs. Our criminal psychologist things this have all been for fun."

"Just for fun?"

"Sure, most of the damage is vandalism. We see normal people do it all the time, and I bet you know at least a couple psychos like that."

Robin nodded "If that's what this person is up to, it looks our they're getting bolder."

"Yup, now it's the old waiting game."

"Agreed, as soon as they make one mistake we'll be there to pick them up."