Foul Play of the Day
"Be careful you snot-licker! You almost touched the one on your left."
"Gizmo. I'm within inches of at least five of them at a time."
"Well…you came really close to that one!"
"Shuttup. I can't concentrate while you're jabbering at me!" Jinx hissed, catty eyes glittering like rose quartz in the darkness.
Gizmo stood at the doorway with his mechanical backpack set out on the floor like a laptop, snarling and fussing while his classmate performed the gymnastic part of their break in. He'd expertly taken care of the security, over-riding all the airlocks in the doors and clearing their way to the high security vaults. In a stroke of brilliance he'd actually used a program that shut down all the security in the entire building save that protecting the vault.
They'd entered Soto labs over twenty minutes ago, but arrived at the vault only seconds ago. They already knew what awaited them, a long room full of highly sensitive motion sensor laser-beams, a complex key-coded lock that would only open the nearly indestructible safe if keyed perfectly the first time. Meanwhile DNA samples were taken from the left hand by a machine, only allowing certain highly important personal into the jealously guarded vault.
Jinx returned to the task at hand. She inhaled a slow calming breath and began to maneuver her way through the field of red lasers with a delicacy of a ballerina, her dark blue dress shifting, stretching taunt across her slender body, carefully fitted not to flutter and fall across some stray security beam. She leapt, pirouetting through a gap in the crisscross laser grid, diving and rolling narrowly under a low lying red beam and springing to her feet finally on the opposite side of the grid.
"Alright! Go Jinx!" cheered Gizmo from the entrance of the room. Several security guards lay moaning and listless under a pile of rubble that 'unluckily' fell from the ceiling and landed right on their heads. The fiendish little backpack-wearing boy danced on the spot with exuberance. "Wait until Blockbuster gets a load of this!"
Jinx smirked to herself as she slipped a glove over her delicate fingers and began keying the code, placing her other hand at the DNA collector, a small sample of blood hidden in a smooth little sack over her index finger. The devise took her blood and dinged back at her, a mechanized voice welcoming 'Terry Soto' to the vault. She smirked and reached for the door…only to have it swing open totally of its own propulsion. She gaped. Gizmo gasped…then fumed.
"Hey guys."
A distorted chucked drifted from the interior of the vault. A lean, black figure pushed itself off the back wall of the vault, stepping sinuously into the light. His hand swung lazily up in front of the slashed skull mask, gripping what looked like a transparent floppy disk, delicate circuitry visible through the plastic casing. He waggled it back and forth. Tauntingly.
"Looking for this?" Red X asked, amused.
"YOU SCUZZ-BALL! That's ours!" Gizmo bawled, positively going into seizures of fury. "How'd you get in here before us?"
Jinx reserved herself, folding her thin arms over her chest as the thief sauntered out of the vault, stepping away from him as he gestured warningly with the precious disk. Her rosy cheeks looked unusually flushed, having gotten quite a work out fighting her way through ample security personal and acrobatic mazes; her pink eyes glinted like those of a wounded predator. Cheated and furious.
He chuckled again in reply to Gizmo's outburst and Jinx held out a hand to keep the smaller HIVE agent at bay. Her lip curled at she studied him, eyes flicking down his dark uniform and back up to his masked face. Gauging. Red X kept himself a good distance out of her arms reach. Jinx had a reputation for getting wicked dangerous. Wren he feared because of her ruthless efficiency, this woman he respected because of her erratic unpredictability. He suspected she would just as soon ally with him as claw his eyes out with her sharp little nails.
"So…what do you want?" she asked, voice poisonously sweet.
He cocked his head. "What can I get?"
"You steal without a reason already in mind?" Jinx said, lip curling again. "That's hot."
"Who are you working for?" Red X cut in smoothly. "Tech like this isn't cheap in Jump City. Not cheap in Metropolis for that matter. Lex Luthor would give an eye for this stuff…or maybe someone else's eye."
Gizmo hopped up and down with rage. "Get lost you snot-barfing, butt-muncher! Jinx! Take the disk and beat him to a pulp! He's going to get us caught!"
"On the contrary, you guys are more likely to get me caught," Red X simpered. "I snuck in here when you idiots turned off all the security in the building. You've already set off the emergency router system. Only goes off when all the security goes down, a built-in default for almost every existing security system in the world." Short smug pause. "Made it a cakewalk for me and when the Titans get here they'll have a field-day with you two. Robin'll be in a foul mood, I'm sure."
Jinx silenced Gizmo's fountain of childish insults with a pink, hellish stare and smiled at X. "I'm sure we can work together on this. Our boss will pay big-bucks for that disk and its twin at Wayne Enterprises. You can help us steal it. We'll cut you in on the cash."
Red X smirked. "You work for…?"
"Brother Blood," she said promptly. "HIVE will reward you well for your-,"
X laughed loudly, stopping her half-way into her offer. She glared acidly. "Not HIVE, sister. Brother Blood rented you out tonight. Heard Gizmo say something rather loudly toward that respect." He nodded to a positively nuclear Gizmo, saluting snottily.
Jinx, meanwhile, flushed a brilliant crimson. "Well, someone has an agenda," she laughed melodically and somehow horribly. "If you must know, it's Blockbuster. Though, that information will be floating all over the streets so it won't do you any good, thief. Now give me that disk, else you want to meet him in person... trust me when I say you don't."
X backed down the steps leading up to the vault, tipping his head, as if weighing his options. "I dunno…I could…"
"Blockbuster will kill you!" Jinx burst out suddenly, almost inspired by his suicidal inclination actually. "He doesn't abide thieves stealing when he doesn't tell them to. What good is this disk to you? You just stole it because you didn't want us to have it. Is it really worth risking your life? For a laugh?"
He grinned and pocketed the disk. "Actually, I'm taking just because I don't want old BB to have it." He blew her a kiss. "Tootles."
"Rah!"
She lunged at him with lashing arms. Pink arcs of light burst from her arms, but the cat-burglar cart-wheeled away from her as nimbly as any gymnast and hurled what looked like a giant crimson X at her. She shrieked as it slammed her across the belly and hurled her up against the wall, pinning her there, winded. She growled, trying to fling her hexing pink magic at him. But X had vanished before she could so much as give him a bad hair day.
Oddly, when the Teen Titans burst through the door a second later and cuffed Gizmo… she had an incredibly happy grin plastered across her pale face.
"What are you so happy about?" Beast Boy inquired, frowning as he piled her into the police car, ripped bits of the giant, sticky 'X' still slinging to the soft black velvet of her dress.
She grinned. "Unlucky day for thieves who turn heroic," she snickered.
Robin, standing nearby, didn't miss the innuendo.
-heist-
"Generous of him," Raven remarked to Robin.
"He stole the disk," Robin said, not bothering to look at her from the front of his computer terminal. He reached absently for the Ready To Eat can of soup he'd kinda-but-not-really warmed in the microwave. His fingers missed the cup, waving around blindly as the distracted teenager remained fixated upon the screen. Raven frowned at him; pushing the can into his groping fingers and watching as he downed the lot in one go before returning to his typing.
"He's turned in three criminals in the span of a single night," Raven told him wryly. "I think he's suffering from a hero complex. A nasty turn for a thief, wouldn't you agree?" Meaningful pause.
Clickity-click-click went the keyboard.
"Robin…what did X say to you on that rooftop? What did you say and more importantly why has it prompted X to become the next rising star of vigilantes everywhere? He's like the poster boy for the Justice League of America or haven't you noticed the jailhouse filling up?" Raven continued, a sarcastic edge leaking into her dour tones. "The only criminal he hasn't caught yet is Dr. Chang and that guy seems to have vanished off the map anyhow."
Clickity-click-click.
"Robin. You ditched me, your teammate to go chase Red X by yourself, right after he's proven himself a dangerous killer. This rather concerns me," she said darkly, glaring at the back of his head.
Clickity-click-click.
She hated it – hated it – when Robin did this unhealthily obsessive work ethic thing. She hadn't seen it since Slade and she'd been more then happy to bid it a less-than-fond farewell. The last time he'd decided to lock himself in his room with only the scraps, clues and bits and pieces of his arch nemesis with the hopes of uncovering some kind of sleuthing epiphany, he'd gotten it in his head to create the Red X suit and bamboozle them all with a string of robberies meant to bait Slade. It had not ended well and she didn't appreciate their leader slipping almost effortlessly back into that old, dangerous mind-set.
And all over a single thief.
She should have seen it coming. She had only herself to blame she supposed and perhaps the newly turned murderer Red X…however she knew she should have not been surprised when Jinx had, laughing hysterically, told them that Red X had in fact gotten himself into something far bigger than anything a mere thief could handle. Upon Robin's suddenly, intensely serious stare of one possessed by a thought, she and the two remaining Titans exchanged dubious looks and sure enough.
"Robin…I know you want to get this guy," she said gently. He finally looked up from the screen, blinking at her as though seeing her for the first time. "I know…Red X gets to you, but whatever he said he'd still just a thief. He didn't get away with killing and he won't get away with this. We'll get him, but please, please don't start doing this on your own."
Robin frowned. "He's my responsibility Raven. I made him."
"No. The two poor souls who spawned him did," she replied frostily.
"You know what I mean," he said, getting somewhat testy.
Raven folded her arms over her chest, gambling on a trump card, she pulled from the sleeve of her leotard…figuratively speaking. "Starfire is getting worried. You know how she gets over you. She hates seeing you like this," she said persuasively. "She's been moping around all day."
The Boy Wonder did at least flinch. "I know…" he muttered. His hands stilled on the keyboard for a moment. The fact he didn't totally cave at the mention of the alien's name spoke volumes. "But it can't be helped can it? We've got to know what X's next move it and this is the only way. He won't move until nightfall, he's always been that way. He's nocturnal so I have until tonight to figure out what he's planning."
They stared at each other for a bit, feeling the uncomfortable tension in the air. Raven glanced at the computer, trying to distract herself from the feeling at somehow all reasoning and logic in the world wouldn't prevent Robin's pursuit of X. She could, perhaps, make whatever plans he spawned less foolhardy, but she didn't think she could stop him…little could in a state like this.
However, (Raven glanced at the dark-haired boy) Robin seemed to have every confidence that Red would make no move until night. Raven, drumming her fingers against the counter top as she read the screen, didn't think he could have placed the thief so easily in a shoebox if he'd only took part in 'a occasional night patrol' like he assured her – oh yes, assured her – every time she thought he looked to tired, too strained…like he hadn't been sleeping properly.
How deeply did this obsession go? Would Robin make X into another Slade? Or had Red X really become like that madman; murdering for his own criminal designs? Was she not taking this seriously enough? A man was dead and yet she could barely make herself look at Red X and think: murderer.
She didn't want to believe it, almost couldn't because on some level, some part of her had actually sat down and decided behind her back that she didn't really think him capable of killing. Not like that, for such trivial purposes. He was too clever to get caught up in schemes of death and murder…not while he had his exceptional thieving skills. She'd spoken with him once (though she'd never let Robin in on the details) and during that time the empath had come to the realization that he in fact radiated no dark aura. No killing qualities. Had he fooled even her impressive psychic powers?
"Robin," she said softly. She hadn't planned yet what to say as a follow-up.
"Red X is going after WAYNE Enterprises," he said suddenly.
"What?"
"WAYNE Enterprises: The partnering branch on the opposite end of the city holds the sister chip to the one he stole. Red X will want the pair; one can't work without the other." Robin's fingers flew in blurred clicking zigzags across the keyboard. "The company's careful about releasing information. Don't know what they do specifically, only that they're crucial security devises. New age kind of technology. Why would X want that though?"
Raven looked dour. "He's a thief. Those chips are probably very advanced adaptors of some kind. Makes hacking security a breeze or something. He's still a thief, no matter what I suppose."
This gave Robin pause. "Yeah…a thief."
"Robin?"
"That's what he told me…'I'm not a killer! I'm a thief!'"
Raven inspected the screen, trying to keep her face detached from her emotions, her suspicions. Could she tell him? 'Robin, I hate to tell you this, but I think that guy you've been obsessively chasing for almost half a year now isn't what you think he is. I know you've like dedicated your life to nailing this guy and you probably know more about him than me, done more research, but I'm magical and psychic and I sense he's not so bad. You need to calm down. He's not the source of all evil you know.' Sure. She'd write her own eulogy while she was at it.
"Oh, look you have mail," she observed, changing the subject.
He blinked and opened it, then snorted with a bemused kind of humor as he read it to himself. The sender, a one 'Bandit' seemed to be on friendly terms with Boy Wonder. He had some trouble sleeping apparently. Raven supposed it had something to do with that wild imagination as she read his tangent upon the counting of demonic sheep and pleas for sleep aid, obviously very amused with themselves. She rather thought it odd…Robin chatted online? Robin? Her Robin: Titan leader, Boy Wonder, vigilante extraordinaire?
Chatting?
"I met him due to insomnia," Robin told her, keying a quick, smart-ass reply to Bandit. "Back when I couldn't sleep. After that mask incident."
Raven grimaced inwardly, blinked out. "Yes." A pause. "Bandit?"
"Bandit13. He's loud, sarcastic a mostly a selfish kind of jerk," he laughed, sending it and returning his gaze to Raven. "He's smart though. Wicked smart. We have philosophical discussions at three AM."
"Hmm…sound's deep," Raven intoned.
"Shut up, Rae."
Raven inspected another window behind the search program Robin was running and frowned as a familiar list of names loomed up at her. It had shrunk since the last time she'd seen it but she knew those names and the faces attached to them. Xander O'Riley. Bannon Sasaki. Jackal Vern. The list of eight had been edited down to three, but she knew for a fact one of the listed three was dead, proven dead. There had been family members present at his cremation so why was Robin still researching him? A list of existing family members had been complied, Arkham Asylum security footage recorded, police investigation records dug up. Could he seriously think…
"Robin. Bannon Sasaki is dead," Raven said, catching the young man off guard.
He looked up at her with a mixture of guilt and mollification. He clicked the window closed and regained his composure, but Raven could feel the resentment and defiance rolling off his psyche in subtle waves, a tinge of sadness in the emotions. Regret? Regretting that she'd found out. Raven boiled.
"You've been digging around without me! You've been trying to figure out who Red X is without telling me about it! Robin, I trusted you with this!" she shouted, voice getting shrill suddenly, bitter. "I thought we were together on this? You promised! You promised me that you would tell me everything that you learned!"
His hands tensed, shoulders getting stiff. "Raven. Please leave."
"Don't you dare tell me to leave!" she shouted, several glasses in the sink exploding. "Don't tell me 'leave'! Robin, you're doing it all over again! You're making X into a Slade and if Cyborg were here he'd tell you the same thing! Just because Beast Boy and Starfire won't tell you, doesn't mean it's not happening!"
"Cyborg's not here!" the vigilante snapped suddenly, spinning around and glaring at Raven with ferocity that startled the empath. "He's not here, but you are, so now you understand everything about me and I must be off my rocker because you know me! I'm totally insane right! I'll turn into a damn criminal at the drop of a hat!"
Raven felt tears sting her eyes so swiftly she didn't have time to stop them. "That's not what I -,"
"BUT YOU WERE THINKING IT!"
Rage boiled in him, hostility, frustration, betrayal, and worst of all hatred. That dark, deep forbidden emotion resonated through her mind and touched on the hidden demon in her, the dark creature slumbering in her thoughts stirring at the nigglings of fellow odium. Raven felt herself tremble and spun away, yanking her hood up and over her head before the Boy Wonder could see the look of darkness that raced across her features like a rabid animal, looking for a kill. She'd never thought…never suspected that his emotions would trigger her own. Even after making mind contact with him she hadn't thought.
"Is that…what you believe…we think?" she whispered angrily, turning on the dark-haired Titan with controlled rage. "Honestly, Robin. Think! If we didn't trust you, if we didn't think you could handle it do you really think we'd have let it go this far? We want to help, but we can't do that if you won't talk to us! We're not the enemy here, Robin! We trust you, but you've got to trust us too!"
"I won't let you get hurt because of my mistake! This is different from Slade!"
"I do not agree," a new voice interceded.
The two froze and jerked around to stare at the door where two figures stood in the entry. Starfire blushed very slightly, but kept her gaze resolutely up. Her pale green eyes flashed with a newly kindled kind of fire, long scarlet hair making her strong, stubborn expression all the more fierce. Beast Boy looked apprehensive, but didn't falter as he grinned an enormous grin at the two bickering Titans. He had what looked like a DVD in his hands and a nervous shift in his feet.
"Yeah, dude. Don't take it the wrong way, but we care about yu' too much to let cha care about us too much. You're not going after X by yourself," he said candidly, brandishing the disk at Robin. "We went back to the station and we had a chat with Kitten and guess what she had to say?"
Robin and Raven exchanged looked.
"Red X really is in over his head with something. Didn't say anything about the murder, but it sounds like someone really is out to get X. Someone big," Beast Boy said, moving over to the computer. He jammed the disk in and hit the play command. "Look. We found this in that creepy, bug-infested warehouse. It's a recording of a conversation between Killer Moth and some majorly creepy dude. Check it out."
The screen flickered and then a short audio recording began to play through the speakers. Beast Boy cranked the volume and a low, cavernous voice began to mutter into the Titan's living room.
" - goes by another name doesn't he?" inquired the deep rating voice partway through his sentence, muted as if coming through a machine.
"Umm…yeah. I've heard a couple dealers call him X." Killer Moth this time, sounding nervous.
"Just 'X'?" He sounded annoyed.
"Red X," Moth corrected quickly. "Sorry."
"Red X," the machine voice repeated, as if trying it out. "Tell me more about him. How long has he run in Jump City? New? Veteran? Had much contact with the Titans?"
"Well, if you want to know about Red X I'm the wrong guy to ask," Killer Moth said, even more nervous than before. He kept pausing and starting again as if wetting his lips repeatedly. "But I know the guy who does. A book-keeper named Peterson, covers for the smuggling at the city docking and marina. He's always going on about some young upstart thief who constantly drops by and harasses him for information, makes fun of him, ridicules him and such."
The Titans all exchanged significant looks.
"Then he's a younger thief?"
A pause. "Peterson calls him a brat, but Peterson's no blushing schoolgirl himself."
"Thank you." The man on the machine sounded very gratified. "You've been more then helpful to me."
Click.
Beast Boy looked up from the screen with a wide-eyed look. "Dudes. Did you hear that? Peterson! Some guy was digging around for information on X so the guy offed him! This is total proof! He's so guilty!"
Raven didn't look so sure, for that matter neither did Robin. "I don't know. That could actually mean X had nothing to with it. If they wanted to frame X, Peterson would be a natural pick," Raven remarked drably.
"I suppose," Robin said.
"This Red X guy is totally some kind of big Syndicate/Mafia guy, I just know it! Here let me show you my diagrams!" Beast Boy chattered, running off to find his charts and doodles proving how Red X must be involved in a plot to take over the world with the help of mutant hamsters, tacos, and European intelligence. Raven took this opportunity to study Robin's pensive expression. Starfire too gazed at him with concern, wringing her hands and hoping they'd made the right choice in pursuing this.
"Umm…it also seems that the Dr. Chang was involved," Starfire said slowly. "Johnny Rancid was witness to an unidentified person releasing the bad doctor. Perhaps there is another…involved?"
"A third party?" Raven inquired.
Robin sighed heavily. "I'm going to check how Cyborg's doing. We need him back here for this as fast as possible," he said.
Raven sighed when he avoided her gaze.
-heist-
Dialing…dialing…passcode? Accepted passcode: alpha program.
One moment please…
Buffering…
Line open.
Then you've delivered it?
Affirmative.
And you believe it will have the desired affect?
Yes. His is mentally unstable; it will… distract him. He won't give up on proving his innocence, but he will not be so focused.
Good. Keep reminding him. I want him off balance, distracted…weak.
Yes.
My associate is very interested in the thief. This little boy has more depth to him than I imagined. For all his claims to the contrary he has quite the background story.
…Yes.
And the Titans?
The leader has received a comm. Message from the Titan Cyborg.
And?
He's staying in Steel City permanently. He will not be a problem.
Program alpha: Accessing record data…Accepted… Delete? – Affirmative.
Deleting…
End contact.
-heist-
Author's Note: Keep reading my lovely readers and I will reveal all! Buh hahaha!
