Chapter 2-

All the Titans' arrived on the scene of the crime at about the same time, shocked at the destruction that they saw. The 5 computers in the corner of the room were lying in shambles on the floor along with shattered flasks, vials, and test tubes. Unidentified substances had melted a small part of the floor so that you could see through to the level below. Files and papers lay shredded and scattered everywhere. This was going to take a while to be cleaned up. The obscured figure they recognized from the tape was huddled over some unknown item in the corner.

"I hope you plan on giving that powder back…" Robin started. The body slowly turned around, but it had no face, or features. It was simple the shape of a man, colored in black. He could not be explained in anyway better than a 3D shadow.

"What will you do if I don't?" came a faint whisper, sending shivers up all the Titan's spines.

"We'll be forced to take it from you!" Cyborg replied, acting as though he was not creeped out in the slightest and pointing his sonic cannon at the 'man'.

"How can you take something from me if you can't touch me?" he whispered back in the same way as before. After that he leaped onto the wall, becoming 2 dimensional. Upon seeing this, Cyborg shot his sonic cannon at the wall, causing it to explode into a pile of crumbled cement and dust.

"Did I get him?" Cyborg was answered by a fist. He flew back; smashing threw a wall next to the door. The rest of the team sprang into action. Raven grabbed a heavy looking piece of machinery from near the wall and chucked it at the villain, but he jumped to a wall. Starfire then shot a barrage of green bolts at him from the air, destroying what was left of the wall. Robin threw three ice disks, hoping to freeze the mad man over. It did not work. Starfire threw Beast Boy at him as Raven threw a few shards of broken glass, resulting in a double hit. Beast Boy's tiger claws sliced what seemed only like air, but should have been the shadow man.

"I told you, you can't touch me…" he faded away slowly, with the sleeping powder.

"Ya'll… I think we just got our butts handed to us…" Cyborg stood up, rubbing the back of his head.

"On a silver platter…" Beast Boy added, morphing back into human form.

"Cyborg and Raven search the area for anything you can find…" Robin started barking orders, ignoring Cy and BB's comments completely. "Beast Boy, go see if those guards are all right. Starfire, you and I are going to look into the police's computer data base to find out if this guy has any history.

"Dude he looked like he was from a horror movie… I'm sure we would have remembered him…" Beast Boy pointed out.

"Ya… And on the computer he came up as a new intruder," Cyborg defended Beast Boy.

"What if he was here before us?" Robin asked them, raising an eyebrow and turning sharply. Starfire looked sorrowfully at the others and followed behind him.

OoOo

"Robin perhaps the others are right… I do not think that this…thing… would have been here before. Wouldn't we know about it if it had been?" Starfire floated out the door of the research building directly behind the boy wonder.

"Starfire… This thing could be extremely dangerous and back there we couldn't stop it… And if we can't stop it whose suppose to protect the city from it?" Robin turned around so there faces were only a couple inches apart. "We have the responsibility to protect this city… If this thing has any history, any at all… we can learn more about it and be that much closer to defeating it. You may not understand how important it is that we do our job fully but I do."

Starfire squinted her eyes at that comment. "I do not understand at lot of things Robin, but I do understand how important our job is, but maybe you do not understand how important it is that we use our time wisely. What if there is nothing? That is a waste of time that we can not afford for we do not know when this thing will strike again. Do you understand that? Do you understand the fact that we are a team and that you can not make every decision by yourself, leader or not? Yes Robin… There are many things I do not understand… But there are more important things you do not understand." Starfire looked at him accusingly and flew ahead of him. "Oh and there is one more thing I do not think that you understand…" Starfire turned her head half way around. "I am not stupid, and I am not here for you to fall back on just because I am the only one you know will always forgive you." With that she flew off toward the police vehicle.

Robin clenched his fist angrily. How dare she say those things to him? He was the leader and he had the right to make decisions. And of course he understood they were at a loss for time. He wasn't stupid. But then there was that one thing nagging at his mind. The fact that he had always fallen back on her because he knew she would always forgive him. She had been so right about it. There had been very few times when Starfire would give up on him. Red X was the only one that came to mind actually. He stomped forward toward the car Starfire had flown to. Heck… He had even worked for Slade and she hadn't given up on him.

OoOo

"Do you think Robin's gonna go all physco about this dude too?" Beast Boy asked the others as he checked on the guards. That was funny… They were sleeping, not unconscious.

"I don't know…" Raven answered. "I hope not because tension gets pretty high around the tower and then I'm the one that gets no sleep, along with whoevers doing the most stressing…" Cyborg stood up.

"There is nothing here ya'll. I scanned the whole place."

"Hey… Cy come check this out…" Beast Boy pointed to the guards. "Their sleeping…" Cyborg scanned them quickly.

"How do they have sleeping powder on them when that guy hadn't even gotten it when they were lying here?" Cyborg looked at his scanner as if it were lying, but he knew it couldn't be. Beast Boy shrugged, looking back down at them curiously.

OoOo

"So the last time sleeping powder was stolen was in the 70's?" Robin asked.

"Yep… And the person who stole it still hasn't been identified. All we know is that a few tons were stolen from Gothem…" The cop took another drink of coffee, looking back down at the file he had pulled out.

"Were there any witnesses?" Starfire piped up.

"Yep… One… His name was Chris Harper… He owned some big realty company or something and was in the research lab against the law. He was supposedly getting a new set of high tech cell phones from the electric department. You know… The kind you kids have today…"

"Harper?" Robin questioned.

"Is that name familiar to you?" the cop asked him.

"I… I don't know…" Robin scratched his head. "Oh well… We should get back to the others and see what they found…" he glanced over at Starfire. She nodded her head and they made their way back to the building, still trying to focus on the crime and not what had just happened between them.

Two updates in ONE day! Go me! Hope you liked it!

The Royal Princess

♥

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