"Its cold and windy out and I could be at home curled up around the nice warm glow of the TV, so someone remind me again why we're out here!" BeastBoy's voice crackled out of the communicators.

Robin sighed; they'd been over this at least half-a-dozen times already, and he was seriously thinking about getting a manual override to stop incoming transmission for the radio system. The leader of the Titans, however, had long ago accepted that this was just one of the annoyances of leadership, and explained the plan to BeastBoy again. "Volt strikes and leaves quickly, so we have a better chance of catching him if were already out and waiting. That's why we split up and spread out around the city."

Raven's voice drifted over the radio, "As much as I hate to agree with BeastBoy, it is windy and miserable out here, maybe Volt decided to take the night off."

Robin didn't answer. It was almost midnight, and he knew if he pushed his team to hard they wouldn't be in a position to fight trouble when it came along. The sky was cloudy, and it would probably rain later that evening. As much as Robin hated giving up, he was about to call it quits…when a short, sharp "bang", followed by a much deeper "BOOOM!" echoed across the city. Robin looked up from his communicator to see a huge fireball rising from the downtown business district. One of the office buildings was belching smoke, even as part of the structure started to collapse.

"Titans, get over there now!" shouted Robin.

SKG

As Robin approached the building that had exploded, he saw the city's more conventional emergency response units, such as fire trucks and an ambulance, pull up. While he hoped they weren't needed, Robin was glad to have them there. He found Starfire and BeastBoy already at the base of the structure, and moments later they were joined by Cyborg and Raven. Looking up at the tower, Robin slowly realized that it was the headquarters of the Morgen Lyn company, the building he, Cyborg, and BeastBoy had been in only days before. Looking up at the damaged edifice, Robin tired to determine what had happened. It looked as if one of the upper floors had blown out, and the four or five floors above it had collapsed in on themselves. As they Titans were about to start doing what they could to help out, a helicopter dropped out of the clouds above the building. Robin saw one of the firemen, a captain by the looks of his uniform, shouting over a radio. From the parts of the conversation he caught, the man didn't sound happy. When he dropped the radio, Robin edged in and asked, "Is that copter yours?"

The captain shook his head. "Nah, it's the companie's; they wanna land someone on the roof."

"That can't be safe; do you know if the rest of the buildings stable?"

The captain shook his head again. "Not sure, but they probably have a better idea than I do, and I really can't stop them."

Robin thanked him and turned back to the rest of the Titans. He looked at Raven and said, "Get us up there."

SKG

Raven had formed a solid platform for Robin and Cyborg to ride up on as BeastBoy and Starfire flew alongside. In moments they reached the top of the building, just in time to see the helicopter hovering about twenty feet above the rubble. It looked as if a most of the roof had dropped straight down, creating large flat areas interspersed with jagged chunks of concrete and steel. In one corner of the building, portions of several floors had not collapsed, leaving columns and offices exposed.

The helicopter apparently couldn't get any lower, because a moment later a figure jumped from the side of the craft, landing on a tall debris pile, and skidding down it in a shower of dust and rubble.

As Cyborg, BeastBoy, and Robin landed on the roof, the helicopter lifted away from the roof and then dropped down below the edge of the building, the pilot obviously struggling to control the craft in the rising wind.

When the Titans approached the lone figure, he turned towards them and Robin's morale sank as he recognized Aaron Faserro. Something in the man's expression made it look like he would be extremely difficult to deal with.

A quick glance at the Titans was apparently all Aaron needed to settle his curiosity, because by the time Robin and the others had drawn within talking-distance, he had returned to examining building.

Robin kept walking until he was nearly even with Aaron. Robin recognized the look of intense concentration in Aaron's eyes; it was one he had often worn himself. Aaron, however, appeared colder, his look more calculating and, if possible, more focused. When Aaron didn't say anything, Robin prompted, "Well?"

Aaron let silence fall again, as if weighing his options before replying. "Well what?"

Robin waved his hand to indicate the expanse before them. "Don't you have anything to say, about all of this?"

Aaron finally gave a half-sideways glance at Robin, his expression easily reading as 'Who are you? My mother?' Instead however, he replied, "Of course I have lots to say, just none of it to you."

Robin's temper was quickly rising, but trying to remain calm, he asked another question. "Any idea on how this happened?"

Aaron said nothing for a long time, as if drawing out the conversation for dramatic effect. Robin had just opened his mouth to insist on a reply when Aaron answered, "If I had to make a guess, I would say with a high-degree of certainty that the explosion started as a fire in the chem-lab. Two weeks ago I had nearly all my junior lab technicians quit at once, and the only people I was able to replace them with on such short notice were a couple of rookie idiots." He shook his head and spoke the next sentence more to himself than to Robin. "I bet they were storing the organic acids near the flammables, again."

Robin was nearly shocked into silence, but as his expression deepened into anger he growled, "It's illegally to have large amounts of dangerous chemicals in the city, for just this reason."

Aaron finally turned to face Robin fully, his face the picture of calm and composure. "Normally, yes; but if you happen to go and take a look at the law books at city hall, you'll find that under certain circumstances, which my company just happens to meet, it is actually legal to possess certain materials for business purposes."

Almost curious, Robin asked, "How did you manage that?"

Aaron grinned. "It's really quite simple. You see, every few years the duly elected officials of our city have to run for reelection, and they often need help with funds for their campaign chests. I make a 'small' donation, and when they get elected they form a committee that in five minutes can add an article or two to a couple laws that happen to be inhibiting my business. And if one official loses, well, that OK, because I just might have made another 'small' donation to his opponents campaign chest, too. Everybody wins."

BeastBoy pointedly looked out at the destruction. "If this is winning, I'd hate to see your idea of a loss."

Aaron attitude suddenly seemed a lot less friendly. "A regrettable accident, to be sure; it won't happen again. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make an estimate of how much this is going to cost me." Without waiting for an answer, Aaron turned and began to walk away."

"We're not through here, yet." Robin hurried after Aaron, grabbing one sleeve of his brown jacket. Aaron growled back at him, and tried to snatch his arm out of Robin's grip. Both, Aaron and Volt were young and strong, and the brief-tug of war quickly snapped the threads in the jacket and the dress shirt beneath it, and Aaron's sleeve suddenly tore off at the shoulder.

Robin and Aaron stumbled in opposite directions, as everyone's gaze was immediately drawn to Aaron's now bare arm, and the pale blue lines radiating along it from shoulder to wrist.

"I knew there was something weird about this guy!" Cyborg shouted. He was Volt all along!

"Thanks, Cyborg", Raven muttered. "We can see that."

"Damn", Aaron swore. "This just isn't my day."

Four of the Titans quickly readied themselves for a fight, but Robin merely stood and looked at Aaron. Robin was good at reading emotions; it was often useful when dealing with the criminal element in the city, and now he watched the range of emotions that flitted across Aaron's face. Anger, surprise, regret, and distress were the most common. Aaron's face was easily readable as someone who has just seen a carefully crafted plan come crashing down. Aaron looked back at Robin, sneered, and said, "Well?"

Robin spoke just one word, "Why?"

Aaron was surprised, as were the Titans, that Robin had not simply leapt straight into battle; he did not usually worry himself with criminal's motivations until after the fight was won.

"Why? Why do you care?" Aaron turned the question back to Robin, his voice tinged with bitterness.

"You don't seem the type. You had everything. Power, wealth, respect. There was nothing to gain from this crazy scheme."

Aaron let out a short, choked laugh; it wasn't a pleasant sound, and it set Robin's hair on end. "Sure, I had everything…except a life to enjoy it with." The confusion amongst the Titans was evident, so Aaron continued. "No matter what happens tonight, I'll be dead within three or four years at most".

"Your medical condition…?" Robin said, half comment, half question.

Aaron nodded. "I'm surprised you found out at all. I tried to have all records of it destroyed, since all it ever got me was pity, something I didn't need. But since you already found out, I guess it can't hurt to explain a little further. I have a rare medical disorder know as Melsa Syndrome, caused by a single miscoded amino acid produced in the body. It may not sound bad, but that one little amino acid happens to be vital for the proper transmission of signals through the body's neurological pathways. It disrupts the carefully timed pulses sent out by the brain controlling the body's metabolic systems."

BeastBoy scratched his head. "And all that means…what?"

Robin answered, "Its bad. A disruption of entire neurological system could have implications for any number of vital organs and metabolic processes-"

"All of which is very technical and incredibly boring," Aaron cut in. "Lets move on to the far more interesting question which I know you're just dying to ask." The former bitterness and melancholy had vanished from his voice, and a grin was slowly creeping back across his face. "In order to treat the variety of symptoms that arose from this serious illness, I had an array of miniaturized circuits and micro-wires implanted under my skin. This system absorbs the excess bio-electric energy produced by my nervous system, amplifies it, and transmits out at such a frequency so as to override my body's natural, incompatible, signals. Something I had not anticipated, however, was that increasing the strength of the electric signals also increased the concretionary power in my muscles, and boosted my reflexes beyond any natural means."

"And what about that little trick with the electricity in your hands?"

Aaron snapped his fingers and sparks danced along his arm. "Oh, this?" he said, feigning indifference. "Simple static discharge from having several hundred times the normal amount of electricity built up in my system. Now, has your curiosity been sufficiently sated?"

Robin shook his head. "Just one more question; any chance of you coming quietly?"

Aaron pulled a pair of silvered sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them on. "And what would be the fun in that?"