The Sixth Child EVA-04- Thanks very much for the message: it was nice to get some input that gave me an ideas of where I'm going. I am trying to keep everyone in character, but at the same time, they need to change their personalities to fit what I want to do later, and changing them slowly is proving very tricky for me. I know exactly the types of stories that make them out to be the way you described, and I'm happy to see that I'm avoiding those pitfalls so far. By the way, is it me, or did Beast Boy seem below-average intelligence for most of the show, and then with Terra and the last few episodes he shined? I really didn't like that they did him that way: the immature prankster was fine, but the poor guy always seemed totally clueless. About you not writing fanfiction yourself: that's fine. In fact, that makes you better to judge certain things because you are willing to read more than me and will subsequently have newer ideas. And I will need a couple of episode ideas to further Robin's obsession with Slade (in the show it was kind of like, Robin wonders in Episode 3 and 4, and by Episode 9, with no mention of Slade, he's obsessed). Obviously, since I have problems with that, I am trying to tie things in with Slade, like I did last chapter with Alpha, and hopefully have done here. I'll still need an original episode or two though to make it feel sufficiently fleshed-out, and if you can think of anything, I would really appreciate it.


Well, here be Episode V. Sorry to have taken so long in getting this out, but I do have schoolwork and other responsibilities. Also, this is (as far as I know) an original episode. While I may have borrowed some elements from other episodes, the basic storyline is original. It is intended to put some development in Robin's character and start his obsession with Slade, and it took me quite a while to come up with not only the gist of the story, but also the way in which it would flow. Please let me know how it turns out, as mysteries are not my thing.


Episode V: Random Robberies or Systematic Signs

Robin bolted out of bed as the alarm sounded throughout the Titan's Tower, informing them of some trouble in Jump City. He glanced at the clock as he exited his room and saw that it was 1:42 in the morning. Grumbling to himself as he sprinted down the hallway, he saw Starfire fly out of her room and meet him.

"Do you know what the disturbance is?" She asked as she slowed down to match his pace. Robin shook his head, partly to answer and partly to shake the sleepiness out of his mind. Beast emerged sleepily from his room, rubbing an eye and briefly changed into a cat to stretch his body. As the bones in his back snapped and popped, Beast Boy changed back into a human and began to run with them.

As the three entered the living room, they saw Raven rubbing her eyes as she phased in through the floor, wrapping her cloak around her in an attempt to keep warm. Cyborg was already at the computer, getting the nature and address of the disturbance.

"Looks like a break-in at a bookstore," he called over to the team as he traced the signal.

"Must all of us go?" Starfire asked groggily as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Nah, I'll take care of it," Robin said to the team. "There's no use in all of us going, and I'll call you guys for backup if I need it," he said as he left the room and went downstairs. He hopped on his R-Cycle and powered it up. As he was about to leave the garage, his communicator went off.

"Robin, you sure you don't want help?" Cyborg's voice came over the speaker.

"I'm sure," he replied. "Besides, it's only ten minutes away: even if I can't handle it, I can survive long enough for you guys to get there," he reminded the android as he tore out of the garage. As he reached the edge of the water, the wheels of the cycle flipped sideways and blade fans popped out. Combined with a quartet of thrusts and two jets on the back, Robin rode the R-Cycle over the water to get to Jump City. The water and wind sprayed into his face, waking him up completely.

As he arrived at the bookstore, Robin saw that the place had indeed been broken into. The windows had been smashed in and the door kicked out, causing a large amount of unnecessary damage. Robin walked cautiously inside, his senses on high alert for anything out of place. As he looked around the store, he saw the bookstores had not been disturbed, and the cash registers and safe had been left untouched. Robin finished walking around the store and decided that nothing had been touched; it had probably just been a gang or petty troublemakers.

As he turned to leave, Robin spotted something lying on the counter by the registers out of the corner of his eye. He walked over and picked up the object, wondering about the significance of it. Between his fingers was a dead bird. Robin wasn't sure what to make of it, but he decided to bring it with him: it had obviously been left behind for him (or whoever inspected the scene) to find.

"Maybe it's a calling card…," he muttered to himself as he mounted his R-Cycle again. As he took off for the Titans Tower again, Robin yawned and heard his communicator beep twice to signal that it was now two in the morning. Moments later, he saw an explosion come from uptown. He dropped the dead bird in a compartment and signaled the other Titans to meet him at the place. Ten minutes later, Robin sensed his teammates above him, and he looked up to see Starfire flying down to join him.

"What happened at the store of books," she asked, wondering what the disturbance had been about.

"Not sure: doesn't seem like anything more than breaking in and a dead bird. There wasn't even any vandalism," Robin replied.

Starfire looked at him confusedly. "Why would someone dally over a van," she asked.

Robin shook his head as he realized that Starfire had misinterpreted the word. "Uh, someone just smashed the windows and door, but nothing inside." Starfire nodded and blushed faintly, as she always did when she realized she had misunderstood an Earth word or custom.

"So Robin, what's up with this other alert?" Cyborg's voice came through his communicator.

"No clue," Robin confessed, "but whatever it was, it was big enough to hear from downtown."

As the Titans arrived at the disturbance ten minutes later, they saw that an office building had been blown out. Shattered glass littered the pavement, and the twisted frame of the building looked about ready to collapse. Smoke billowed into the air as flames licked the air. Robin looked around and saw that there was a gas station right next to the office.

"That gas station goes, the whole block could go," Cyborg shouted over the roar of the flames, seeing where Robin was looking.

Robin nodded and pointed to the flames, ordering the Titans to move. Starfire picked Robin up and carried him high into the air. Robin broke out in sweat as they got close to the flames and grabbed a few spheres off his utility belt. He tossed them into the fire and watched as they exploded, releasing a large amount of Halon gas and water. Cyborg, meanwhile, had smashed the top of a fire hydrant and placed his hands on it, channeling the water over to the flames. Beast Boy transformed into a large ape and began to knock the wooden beams down into the fire so they wouldn't fall on the outside, while Raven sat down and began to meditate, concentrating on keeping air away from the fire to starve it out.

As the flames died down, Robin turned away and rubbed his head, so much action so early taking it toll on him. He turned to get back on his R-Cycle and stepped back in shock. On the seat of his bike was an eyeball. He cautiously approached the body part and tentatively picked it up; sighing in relief when he realized it was only a plastic toy. He held it in his hand and wondered whether whoever had vandalized the bookstore had also set the fire. He yawned and shook his head, trying to figure everything out.

"You all right," Cyborg asked as he walked up to his friend. As an answer, Robin extended his hands, one holding the bird and the other the plastic eye. "Um, as great as these are, why are you giving them to me?"

"The bird was left for me at the bookstore. I just found the eye here on my bike. I think someone is leaving us clues," Robin said.

"Any idea what they mean?"

"Not yet, but if I can get some sleep, I'll be able to figure it out," Robin grumbled as he got back on his bike.

As the Titans made their way back to the tower, they were silent. All of them were a little testy at having been roused so early twice, and even Starfire looked a little grumpy as they arrived home.

"All right y'all, I'm turning in," Cyborg yawned as they walked inside. The other agreed, Beast Boy flopping himself down on the couch instead of going to his room. Robin smiled and shook his head as he went down the corridor that led to his room, his hands still holding the bird and eye. He put them down on the table in his room, restocked his utility belt, and collapsed into bed, his eyes shutting before his head hit the pillow. As he lay there, Robin groaned when he realized that his mind was still running with the mystery of the objects. He tried to relax, but his brain kept hypothesizing reasons for why someone would leave such unusual objects behind.

Robin shook his head after a few minutes and got up, pacing back and forth in his room. As he rubbed his temples, he wondered at the connection between the bird and the eyeball. "Is it that birds have eyes… or maybe its telling me to go look at the birds… or maybe I need to see the city from a bird's eye point of view…" he muttered to himself, bringing up one possibility after another before dismissing them each. As the possibilities became more fantastic, Robin didn't notice his communicator silently flash. A few minutes later, the alarm once again began to blare throughout the tower. Robin leapt out of his room and dashed down the hall, his gut telling him that whoever had vandalized the other two establishments had struck yet again. Robin located the area as quickly as he could, hoping to get there and catch whoever this criminal was.

As Robin powered up his R-Cycle, the time flashed at him, and he groaned when he realized it was past three a.m. He shook his head and dashed out, his motorcycle rocketing out for the city…


From his lair, Slade watched Robin's locator signal streak towards his latest attack. "Come now, Robin," he said out loud, as he watched the blips move around with an amused eye. "How much longer are you going to avoid me?"


Robin arrived at a lawyer's building to see the door ripped off its hinges but otherwise undamaged. He started to walk inside but thought better of it at the last second. "Whole place could be rigged to blow," he thought to himself as he studied the building. As he paced back and forth in front of the building, waiting for his team to get there to determine whether or not it was safe to go inside, Robin wondered whether these random attacks might have anything to do with Slade. He dismissed the thought immediately Slade liked to send henchmen to do his work, and his attacks were always set in the open.

"Got anything yet?" Cyborg asked as Beast Boy set him down.

Robin jumped: he had been so deep in thought that he had not heard his team approaching. He looked around and saw only Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"Where's Raven and Star?"

"Back at the Tower. We don't know whose pulling these pranks, but it's safe to say they'll strike again before the night is out," Cyborg said as he rubbed his human eye. The dark bags around his eye made it obvious that the constant waking was starting to affect him.

"Yeah, so we put them in charge of the alarm system to let us know where next," Beast Boy continued, as Cyborg was stopped by a huge yawn. Robin nodded and motioned with his head towards the inside of the building. Cyborg nodded and stepped forward, his mechanic eye glowing a bit brighter as he looked through the building.

"Nothin' unusual from the outside, but I'd better check it out from the inside just to be safe," he said as he turned towards the building.

As Robin walked ahead of Cyborg into the building people, the familiar scent of kerosene caught his nose. He quickly stopped walking, but he felt his foot trip a wire and leapt back as fire flared up from the floor. Robin yelled to Cyborg and Beast Boy to warn them about the fire and backpedaled. As he left the room, Robin noticed the fire spreading quickly along a path. He looked closely and saw a shape emerge from the flames. He quickly ran outside to the other two Titans and found Cyborg while Beast Boy looked around for water.

"Cyborg, before we put out the fire, take a picture of it," Robin asked as he pulled a few more spheres with the Halon-water mixture. Cyborg looked at him curiously before walking inside and photographing the fire with his mechanic eye.

"Happy?" He said grumpily as he exited the building.

"No, I mean take a ceiling picture of it," Robin said, something in his expression causing Cyborg to simply nod and not argue. He popped his right hand off and flipped the camera in the middle finger out. He sent it inside and sent it crawling up a wall. Cyborg waited until the hand was in the center of the ceiling above the fire and snapped a shot. He steered the hand back towards him and began to walk back towards Beast Boy.

"Hey, what about the fire!" Robin asked, shocked that Cyborg could walk away so calmly.

"Relax. It's going down already: it looks like that fire was just a signal for something else," the android said.

Beast Boy overheard this short conversation and simply stretched his shoulders before becoming a condor and picking Cyborg up.

"Hey, wait! What about the photo," Robin shouted as the two began to go home.

"Dude, do I look like a printer?" Cyborg shouted back. "We'll print it out back home," he said as they flew into the distance.

Robin grumbled to himself as he once again mounted his R-Cycle. As he took off, Robin decided to take a drive to think things over. As he headed northeast, he felt his communicator go off, but didn't hear any sound coming from it. He ignored it as he continued to drive, his mind focused on other matters. As it vibrated again, Robin thought it might be one of the Titans trying to call him, but he knew that they would talk to him if they had need to get in touch with him. As it vibrated a third time, Robin growled and reached for it. As his hand brushed the communicator, Robin was pitched off his bike by a laser cannon striking the ground in front of him and creating a crater. Robin rolled to his feet and gathered a corner of his cape in his hand, ready to deflect a possible follow-up attack. Nothing happened for a few seconds, causing Robin to eventually drop his guard. A flicker from behind him caused him to whirl around, readying a couple of birdarangs in case he needed to defend himself, but all that was behind him was a faded neon sign over an abandoned justice building.

Feeling foolish, Robin put his weapons away and hefted his bike upright. As he mounted it, the sign began to glow brighter, catching his attention once again. He looked towards the sign and saw the first four letters beginning to glow brighter and brighter. Robin covered his eyes and grabbed a camera from his bike. He quickly took a picture of the sign so he would be able to go back and spot anything in the distance before he began heading home again.

"Robin, where are you?" Starfire's voice asked over his communicator.

"I'm at the corner of fifty second and fourth," Robin said as he yawned and looked towards his home. "Why do you guys keep calling me?"

"What do you mean?" Starfire's voice came over in a confused tone.

"You guys called me three times before, didn't you?" Robin answered; starting to get a little confused himself.

"Robin, no one from the Tower has tried to contact you. Are you sure your communicator went off?"

"Positive: it went off three times and then…" Robin's voice trailed off as his mind considered the possibilities. Had someone tried to contact him to warn him about the attack? Dimly, he heard Starfire calling his name in the communicator and with a great effort pulled his mind back to the present.

"Robin, we just received another alarm signal. I know you've been up a while, but can you check it out? I'm sending you the coordinates and Starfire is going to be joining you," Raven's voice interrupted. Robin confirmed and set off with his bike for the next alarm: a small pizzeria four blocks east.


"Oh Robin, I wonder if you have found the method to the madness yet," Slade mused as he continued to watch Robin's blip move around the city. He walked closer to the computer and typed in a few commands on a keyboard. In an instant, he had hacked into the security files in the restaurant. He watched as Robin barged inside, his expression expectant and frustrated. Slade chuckled at the teenager's bafflement as he picked up the next clue that had been left for him.


"Robin, what have you found?" Starfire asked as she landed.

"Nothing," Robin said, telling only half the truth. He pulled out from under his cape a custom made teddy bear and showed it to her. Starfire gasped and smiled as she hugged Robin. He protested as she yanked it from his hands and swirled around in the air with it.

"'I put a lot of effort into making this, so don't damage it'," Starfire read from a card. She looked at Robin with puzzlement in her eyes. "Robin, why do you think I would damage it?"

"Um, Starfire… I didn't make that for you," Robin said, and realized he had phrased the sentence wrong when he saw her face fall.

"You… made it for someone else," she asked, her body language quickly becoming tense.

"No, no, no," Robin said quickly. "I mean I didn't make it at all. Someone had left it inside the place for me to find."

"So someone else is sending you gifts?" Starfire asked, her hair beginning to wave. Robin recognized the sign as one of rage and quickly tried to think of a way to calm her down.

"Starfire, I don't think a girl is sending me gifts. Everywhere we've gone tonight, there's been something waiting for us to find. I think someone is trying to send us a message," he said as he put a hand on her shoulder. Starfire calmed down somewhat, though she still looked very upset. Robin was surprised at Starfire's reaction, but he decided to focus on it later as he studied the bear again. "Wait a second: you said there was a card?" Starfire nodded and handed it to him. "'I put a lot of effort into MAKING this, so don't damage it'," Robin muttered to himself. "Why is 'making' capitalized?"

"I do not know, Robin," Starfire confessed as she yawned. She looked much calmer now that Robin had assured her that no one was flirting with him, and now her mind was focused back on Titan's Tower… and her warm comfy bed. "Perhaps we could try to figure it out after a night of sleep?"

"Yeah…" Robin said as he ran a hand through his hair. He turned and looked at Starfire and smiled, his brain begging for rest. "Let's go home," he said as he picked up his R-Cycle and revved it up.

As Robin and Starfire headed home, Robin felt his mind drifting. He shook his head as he drove, struggling to stay awake. He knew Starfire would not mind flying him and the R-Cycle home, but he did not want to ask her for fear of being seen as a weak leader. As they neared the coastline, the streetlights all suddenly went dark. Robin stopped his bike and held up a hand for Starfire to stop as well. Robin turned on the floodlights of his motorcycle, not knowing what to expect. He saw nothing, but could not shake off the distinctive feeling that he and Starfire were not alone. Suddenly, one streetlight came back on. Underneath it was a plain white box.

"What is that?" Starfire asked as the rest of the lights came back on.

"Not sure, but I'm gonna have Cyborg analyze it when we get back and see," Robin said as Starfire yawned and hovered down to the ground. "Come on Starfire, I'll drive you home," Robin said as he got back on the R-Cycle. Starfire simply yawned again and didn't argue. She leaned up against Robin's back and wrapped her arms around his chest. Robin gulped as he heard her sigh happily and took a deep breath to steady himself.

Starfire inhaled deeply as Robin took off for the tower. She sighed happily as she caught Robin's distinctive smell: a mixture of sweat and figs. She leaned closer to get a better smell and felt Robin's back muscles and shoulders tense up. She wriggled closer to Robin and opened her hands to feel his abdomen, reveling in the touch.

Robin gulped as he felt Starfire's body press up against his. The R-Cycle wobbled slightly as he struggled to keep his mind on the road, suddenly distracted by Starfire. He began noticing smaller things, like the way her legs brushed up against his uniform pants, and how her hands had opened up and now lay spread across his abs. He blushed as she ran a finger across his ribs, unsure what he should do in a situation such as this. Batman's warning to not become attached to a teammate sounded in his brain, but Robin had a very difficult time paying attention to it.

As they landed at Titans Tower, Robin quickly got off the bike, unsure of what he should do. Starfire got off the bike, a little unsteady due to lack of sleep, and tripped. Robin reacted instinctively, grabbed her forearm, and hoisted her up. Starfire went with the momentum and nearly bowled the uncertain teen over. Robin shifted his weight to his back legs and wound up holding Starfire very close to him. She stared up him, her upper body slumped against his chest. Robin gulped and tried to remain calm, despite his mind rapidly working overtime in conjuring images and scenarios.

"Yo, Robin: I got the picture printed for you," Cyborg called as he entered the garage, unaware how grateful Robin was that someone had come in and provided a distraction.

Robin immediately pushed Starfire upright, steadying her gently before focusing his attention on Cyborg. "Well, what did it show?"

"Man, I think you might be overanalyzing this. It was just a 'W'."

"What?" Robin said, confused that someone had gone through all that trouble just to make a letter.

Cyborg walked up to him and offered the photo to Robin. "You can see for yourself. Probably just a gang sign," Cyborg said as he offered the photo to Robin. Robin took it and saw that the flames had indeed been outlined in the shape of a 'W'. Without another word, Robin left the roof and went to his room, leaving an exhausted Cyborg and a confused Starfire behind.

As Robin entered his bedroom, his nose wrinkled: the smell from the dead bird had permeated through the small room. He opened the windows and turned on the ventilation system, which began to improve the smell somewhat. He looked down at the bird, not willing to get rid of it, since it was the first clue that had been dropped for him to find. After staring at it for a minute, Robin snapped a picture of it and dropped it outside his window, putting the picture on the table along with the others. Robin stared at the odd collection of clues that had been left for him: a dead bird, a rubber eyeball, a picture of a 'W'. He pulled out the other picture that he had taken after being knocked off his bike and saw that the first four letters of a sign saying 'Justice' had been lit up until they popped. His next two clues were the card from the teddy bear, and the small white box that he had yet to open. Robin cautiously examined the box, remembering that he had intended to ask Cyborg what it was. He thought about rousing the android, but decided that Cyborg deserved to sleep. As he set it on the table, Robin was surprised when it opened of its own accord. Inside was a small pamphlet with a cross. 'If you died today, would you like to be SURE of where you're going?'

Robin shook his head, wondering why a person or religious group would go through such trouble to get a religious message to him. He sat in a chair and rubbed his temples again before opening his laptop and plugging into the city's mainframe, seeing if there had been any religious threats recently. As he scanned the system, however, Robin saw that (apart from a debate on infant baptism between two denominations of Christianity) there had been no outbursts between the churches of the city.

As Robin stared at the screen, scrolling down articles that might shed some light on this mystery, his communicator. Robin pulled it off his hip and looked at it cautiously. As it rang again, Robin debated picking it up. On the one hand, whoever was trying to contact him might very well be the person attacking the random places on the city. On the other hand, activating his communicator could allow whoever it was to hack inside and possibly spy on the Titans, a risk that Robin would not allow. As he pushed a button to silence his communicator, he heard the alarm blare once again.

Robin growled in frustration and took one last glance at the clues that he had gathered so far before running out of the room. As he entered the living room, he saw the rest of his team, now quite irritated at being summoned yet again.

"Okay, this has got to stop," Beast Boy snapped as he entered the room, his entire body swathed in a blanket.

"For once, I agree," Raven said grumpily as she sat down in a chair. Starfire tried to say something, but it got lost in a yawn as Cyborg stared at the screen.

"We're all going to this next one," Cyborg said determinedly as he stared at blip.

"Where?" Robin said as he walked over, rubbing his eyes and trying to stimulate his mind so he could remain alert.

"Just off shore," Cyborg said as the team tried to motivate themselves to get up and move.

As Robin tore out of the room for the garage, Starfire yawned and rubbed her eyes as she opened a window and flew up to the roof. Cyborg stretched and cracked his neck and back a few times before following Starfire, albeit taking the stairs to the roof from where they would fly. Raven levitated into the air and saw Beast Boy going back into the hallway. "Coming?" She asked in a biting tone.

"Yeah, in a sec: I gotta get a shirt on," Beast Boy said as he quickly left the room. Raven rolled her eyes and phased through the window, focusing her attention on the shore. She stretched out with her emphatic abilities and tried to pick something up from around the break-in, but beyond dreams and the occasional early riser, she could detect anything out of the ordinary. Raven concentrated harder, trying to pick up anything that might be attempting to conceal its thoughts, but after a few minutes still could not discover anything.

"This is no ordinary criminal," she thought to herself as she touched down on the sidewalk a few minutes later. "No one could get that far away fast enough to avoid my powers, unless they knew that I was coming," she pondered. While it was possible for a criminal to know about her powers, Raven tried to keep them unknown, and the possibility of a normal thug figuring out her telepathic range without having been caught before was improbable to the point of preposterous. As Raven continued scanning, she picked up a flash of joy coupled with apprehension. Moments later, Beast Boy touched down, donned in his normal purple and black suit and gloves. "Don't you ever wear anything else," she asked as they waited for the others.

"You should talk," Beast Boy retorted as he looked around the scene. Raven frowned, but considered that he had a point. She turned away from him partially and wrapped her cloak around her body as she raised her hood. She took a deep breath to steady her mind before closing her eyes and concentrating again. Beast Boy watched her turn away and frowned as he saw her shoulders hunch. "Hey, I didn't mean that," he said apologetically as he reached for her shoulder.

Raven shrugged Beast Boy off, not noticing him wince as the others landed. She exhaled a large breath of air and the team focused their attention on the building that had signaled the tower. So far, no one had come out of it, and while Raven couldn't pick up any thoughts from inside, she still wasn't willing to believe that someone could enter a music store and rob it in less than seven minutes. She mentioned this fact to Robin, who agreed with her theory.

"Okay team, we need to enter from multiple points to cut off any possible escape route. Beast Boy, Starfire, you two take the roof; Cyborg, you go around back; Raven, see if there's a basement and try to get in through there. I'll go in the front to draw attention. We haven't all gone out to face whoever keeps breaking into places yet, so if he sees me he won't expect the rest of you." The rest of the team nodded and quickly followed their directions while Robin began to pick the lock on the door.

"Who breaks in and then locks the door behind them," Robin wondered as he worked for a few seconds. He heard the lock click and slowly pushed the door open. As he entered, Robin saw immediately that there was no one around- the lights were on and all the doors were open. "No one would do this trying to ambush us," Robin thought as he got on his communicator and told all the Titans to meet him in the main room. Robin looked around the room and tried to find something that would have been left behind. As he glanced into the corner, he saw a girder sticking out of the ground. Robin's attention was then diverted to a top hat lying next to the girder. As Robin reached for it, his hand stopped halfway. The other clues had proven tricky and hazardous, and Robin had no desire to try to figure out what danger might be lurking underneath that hat. He stepped back and took a photo of the hat, and the girder nest to it, which had been bent into a lowercase 't'.

"All right, this is getting annoying," Cyborg grumbled as he came in through the doorway.

"Agreed, Cyborg," Starfire said as she flew in through the door. "This game of feline and rodent is becoming quite irritating."

"Yeah," Beast Boy said as he walked in behind her. "Whose bright idea is it to just break into places and leave," he grumbled.

"There must be a purpose behind all of these," Raven insisted as she came up from through the floor.

Robin opened his mouth to tell them about the clue that had been left behind for him, but suddenly stopped. For some reason, he didn't want to tell his friends about them. Whether they would try to help or chastise him for following a string of clues left behind by a dangerous individual, Robin didn't care: this was something he felt like he wanted to do on his own.

Suddenly, all of the Titan's communicators began flashing. As each Titan looked at his or her communicator, they saw that another alert had been triggered some place east. "Titan's: move out," Robin ordered as he ran out the door. As the Titans prepared to take off, their communicator's flashed again. Robin looked and saw another alert break out, uptown and further east of the other alert. "Okay, me and Starfire will check out the first alert. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven, you guys go to the second break-in," Robin began to say before another alert triggered. Robin saw its location and noticed that the break-ins seemed to be in a straight line, as the next one was uptown and east again.

"Okay, new plan," Robin said in a frustrated tone. "Raven, you go to the third location, while Beast Boy and Cyborg go to the second. Starfire and I… will be splitting up so she can check out the original and I go to the newest one," Robin said, changing tack halfway through to accommodate another attack. This next one broke the pattern and had been triggered downtown and still further east of the last attack. Robin jumped on his R-Cycle and revved it up, preparing to take off. "Uh, guys… if you find or see anything that looks unusual, either bring it back with you or take a picture of it," he told them. "Anything that looks out of place, even if it's explainable," he added sternly as he put on a helmet. The others just looked at him blankly as he tore off on his R-Cycle, not used to Robin speaking to them in such a way.

As Robin sped down the road, his mind was miles ahead of him, wondering what the break-ins were all about. As his communicator vibrated once again, Robin glanced down at it. He wondered once again who had been calling him all night. He pulled his communicator off his belt and stared at it as he once again debated opening up the communication line. As the pros and cons went back and forth in his mind, Robin glanced at the road and panicked: he was seconds away from a telephone pole.

Robin dove off his R-Cycle and hit the ground rolling. As his body jerked around, one of his fingers brushed the communicator's button and opened up the channel.

"Well now Robin, it's nice to see that you finally have stopped trying to avoid me," came a voice over the speaker.

"Who are you?" Robin tried to ask in his usual demanding tone, but it came out mixed with tinges of curiosity and caution.

"Well, that isn't so important. But what is important is that you and I have finally gotten a chance to talk. I've been looking forward to talking with you for quite some time now."

"I don't know who you are, but you aren't going to get away with-"

"With what, exactly?" Robin opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't think of an answer to his mysterious person. "Admit it Robin," the deep voice said in a maddeningly calm tone, "you don't know what I'm planning. And even if you did, you would not be any closer to finding out why."

"Not yet, maybe," Robin confessed, gritting his teeth as he admitted his shortcoming, "but I will find out. And when I do-"

"You'll do what?" the voice interrupted again, frustrating Robin as he was confronted with his total ignorance of this mastermind. "You know nothing, and therefore you can do nothing. And you have nothing to threaten me with Robin: you don't even know who I am."

"Not yet," Robin repeated grimly.

"And not anytime soon," the voice retorted. "But if you are interested in continuing our little game, you should know that the next clue is 'have'."

"'Have'? What kind of a clue is that? Who has what, and where is it?" Robin demanded.

"You'll know… in time," the voice said before the line went dead. Robin stared at it disbelievingly as he pondered the word that the voice had insisted was the next clue. He grit his teeth again in frustration and told the other Titans to meet him back at the tower whenever they were done inspecting their areas. As Robin headed for home, his mind whirled, the stranger's words concerning Robin's lack of information having gotten to him.


"Yo, Cy, you notice anything different about Robin?" Beast Boy asked as they landed at the newest location: a candy store.

"Yeah, he's a little stressed. Big deal, he's been up since one in the morning," Cyborg shrugged as he looked around, his human eye picking up nothing out of the ordinary, but his mechanical shuffling through different view modes.

"Yeah, but Robin's not the type to let sleepiness get to him," Beast Boy said before turning into a bloodhound and sniffing the ground. Unable to pick up a scent, he ventured closer to the store, his nose picking up hundreds of scents, but none of the ones belonging to a human seemed fresh enough to follow. "You see anything 'out of the ordinary'?"

"Not unless you count that," Cyborg said as he suddenly noticed a beige trench coat nailed to the door.

"Do you think we should take it," Beast Boy asked as he watched it flutter in the breeze.

"Don't see why not," Cyborg reasoned as he ripped it off the door. Flinging it over his shoulder, Cyborg turned to Beast Boy and pointed to the tower, an inarticulate yawn skewing whatever it was he was going to say. Beast Boy nodded and turned into a pterodactyl.


Starfire and Beast Boy walked down the bedroom corridor towards Robin's room, Starfire clutching a piece of paper while Beast Boy had the cloak. Raven phased in through the ceiling, her hands holding a CD.

"Raven, you too uncovered an item waiting for us?"

"Yes Starfire," Raven said grumpily as she walked with Starfire.

"Wha'd ya rent?" Beast Boy asked with a grin.

"Don't know. Nice fashion statement," Raven quipped as she looked at the detective cloak.

"Yeah, I thought it would match my eyes," Beast Boy joked.

"It is wonderful that we all have found clues. I am sure that Robin will be most grateful to you and all of us for finding them."

"Yeah, yeah," Beast Boy grumbled as he frowned. "Unless he's still in his 'army mode'."

"What do you mean?" Starfire asked.

"Don't you guys think Robin was a little short with us before?"

"When he told us we should be on the lookout? Maybe a little," Raven conceded.

"I did not detect anything different about him," Starfire said as they closer to Robin's room.

"I'm telling ya, something is off with Robin," Beast Boy insisted.

"And I disagree. Robin is simply tired."

"When has he ever let being tired get in the way of being nice? He never just barks orders at us."

"Beast Boy, you do have a point: Robin was rather terse with us before," Raven chimed in as their footsteps got closer and her voice got quieter. "But he has also been up all night putting out fires and trying to find whoever is committing these random break-ins. He's under quite a bit of stress right now, and he's taking it out on us. Its human nature to lash out at those closest when there is no other available outlet. If he realizes it, I'm sure he'll apologize. If not, then we shall have to deal with this incident: Robin has been polite to us in the past and until this behavior develops into a pattern we should let it alone."

Beast Boy opened his mouth to continue arguing his point, but shut it quickly when he saw Robin open his bedroom door.

"You guys find anything," Robin asked, his body tense and his voice exhausted. His hair was a mess, and Beast Boy's enhanced sense of smell detected the beginnings of sickness in Robin's body. His annoyance melting away, replaced by concern, Beast Boy offered the cloak, clenching his jaw when Robin took it without a word. "Nothing else was with this?" Robin asked in a barking tone as he rifled through the pockets.

"Nothing," Beast Boy said, struggling to keep concern for Robin in his mind instead of his annoyance.

"Robin, I was only able to locate this piece of paper," Starfire said as she offered a rolled-up scroll.

Robin took it from her and rolled it open, revealing four numbers. "25, 15, 21, and 18…" he muttered as he read them off. Theories about the numbers set off a chain of ideas in Robin's brain: latitude/longitude locations, pass codes, a code of some sort.

Raven stood for a few moments watching Robin stare at the paper before becoming annoyed: she had been up all night and was looking forward to getting some sleep. "Do you even want my clue?" she said sarcastically as she offered Robin the CD. Robin looked at it and grabbed it, examining it for any fingerprints. "I already looked for those," Raven told him, deciding to save Robin the time.

"Thanks guys," Robin said as he let out a sigh of exhaustion.

He began to head back into his room when Starfire stepped forward. "Robin, are you sure you would not like some company?"

"Thanks Starfire, but I have to figure out whatever this guy is planning," Robin muttered as he walked in his room and the door slid closed behind him.

Starfire stood there for a moment before hanging her head. She turned around, but Beast Boy was already halfway down the hall and Raven had disappeared. She gloomily made her way back to her room when a usually chipper voice spoke up in an uncharacteristically somber tone. "Do you see what I was talking about?" Starfire turned around and saw Beast Boy, who had stopped walking towards his room and decided to talk with her.

"You… may have been right, Beast Boy," Starfire reluctantly conceded. "Robin does seem to be more… tense then usual."

"Told ya," Beast Boy said in a proud voice, regretting it when he saw how it made Starfire wince. "Look…" he said awkwardly, not sure of exactly where Starfire and Robin stood, "I'm sure after a good night's sleep he'll be back to normal. That and a good training session," he said, smiling at Starfire reassuringly. The Tamaranian perked up a bit at this and smiled, thanking Beast Boy before going to her room, a small smile on her face now.


Robin stood above his laptop, the disk slot exposed and the CD inside. He hesitated to close the CD cover, not knowing what could be on it. "It could be a ransom demand, or a terrorist threat," Robin thought to himself. "On the other hand, it could have spyware or some other kind of virus that will infect my laptop and possibly the Titan mainframe." Robin sighed, not knowing what the right decision was in a situation like this. He decided to insert it and scan it for any viruses or anything out of the ordinary.

As the disk loaded, Robin waited tensely for his firewalls to activate or for something else to happen. What he did not expect, however, was for a clip of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to begin playing. Robin stared at the screen with a dumbfounded look as a loop began with Hagrid in the hut where the Dursley's were hiding.

"A car crash? A car crash kill Lily and James Potter?" As the movie began Petunia's response, it suddenly skipped and went back to the beginning of the line. "A car crash? A car crash kill Lily and James Potter? -A car crash? A car crash kill- A car crash? A car crash kill- A car crash kill- car crash kill- crash kill- ash kill- sh kill…"

As the movie began repeating those two sounds, Robin rubbed his temples again, wondering if he would get a bruise from doing it so often. As the sounds rolled around the room, Robin suddenly had an epiphany.

"Not 'sh kill.' Skill!" He said loudly in a triumphant voice. Robin pumped a fist in the air and grinned widely at having figured out one of the clues before the smile melted away, realizing he had solved none of the others, nor had he discovered their significance. Robin took the DVD out and laid it on the table before shutting down his laptop. Despite his frustration and curiosity, the night's events had taken their toll on his mind, and Robin drifted off to sleep soon after.


Robin woke up the morning, if not refreshed, then energized. As he made his way into the living room, he saw a pot of coffee still half-full. He sighed happily as he filled up a cup and grabbed an orange. Peeling it, he wondered where the rest of his team had gone. Robin looked around and noticed a note taped to the refrigerator.

Yo Robin,

Headed out to the park. Hope your feeling better and decide to join us.

-Cy

Robin smiled at the thought of a day of relaxation, especially after last night, but his thoughts were disrupted by his communicator going off. "Hey guys, I'm on my way," he said as he grabbed it off his belt and began walking for the door.

"Hmm, taking a break Robin? Disappointing: I was really hoping you were taking the protection of the city a little more seriously. Its not like you to slack off," the voice from last night said.

Robin froze in his tracks as he stared at his com-link. "Who is this?" Robin hissed as her glared at the machine.

"Come now Robin, you're a smart boy. Can't you figure it out for yourself?" the voice taunted. Robin grit his teeth and began to snarl a response but was cut off again. "Although you should be more concerned with what's happening at the corner of second and fifteenth."

"Why? What's going on?" Robin asked as he hastily ran over to the Titan mainframe and looked up the location. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but Robin had a sinking suspicion that that wouldn't last long.

"Nothing… yet. But time is wasting Robin, and I would hate for the people there to be alone."

"Listen to me; you tell me what your planning or so help me God, I'll-" Robin threat was interrupted by the sound of the com-link going dead. Robin stared at it disbelievingly, shocked that whoever he had been talking with had hung up on him. Robin sent a message to the rest of the team via the mainframe, not sure if whoever was listening would be able to eavesdrop on them and unwilling to risk it, telling them to meet at the location. Robin hopped on his R-Cycle once again and took off, agitated by the taunts and nature of his mysterious adversary.


As the rest of the Titans arrived at the scene, they waited for Robin to get there. Cyborg peered inside the thread and yarn store and his jaw dropped in surprise.

"So what's the problem," Raven asked as she walked over to the window.

"I'm… it looks like something BB would do," was all Cyborg could say as he opened the door.

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Beast Boy asked indignantly as he followed them. "I wouldn't go ba…" Beast Boy stopped in the middle of a sentence as he entered and saw the mayhem. Every piece of string, thread, and yarn had been pooled together into one single mass. "Okay, this does look like something I might do," he said, cracking a grin.

Cyborg walked up to the massive pile of string and tentatively put his right hand on it. He did not activate his Sonic Cannon, but instead he sent a few sonic waves through the pile to see if it was all consistent the entire way through, or if there was something hidden. The sonar went back to him indicating nothing unusual. "Looks like this is it," he said, scratching his head in confusion. "This is just getting weird: who does something like this?"

"Robin, have you seen this?" Starfire asked as she heard someone else enter the store. As she turned around, she saw Robin scrutinizing the mass of knots intently. "Robin, are you alright?" she said as she stepped towards him, worried at his intense expression.

"String, yarn, wire… no, none of them can be the word: they're all knotted together," Robin muttered as his mind tried to figure out the word that would signal the clue that he was being left. "All knotted together… maybe the word is knot," Robin mumbled.

"Robin…" Starfire said tentatively as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Robin jumped from the contact, unaware that Starfire had been talking to him. "What, Starfire?" he asked, wincing apologetically when he realized how sharp he had sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, what is it?" he said in a gentler voice.

"Are you alright Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look… you guys, go back to the park," Robin said as he faced the rest of the team. "I'll finish things up here," he said.

"You sure man," Cyborg asked. "I mean, we don't mind hanging out here for a bit."

"No, you guys go," Robin said, trying to keep his voice friendly and not insistent. "I just need some time to think to myself," he said. Raven threw him a sharp look but Robin deliberately avoided her gaze and struggled to keep his mind focused on only the string and nothing else. His eyes instead wound up on Starfire, and his resolve weakened when he saw how lonely she looked.

"Are you positive that is what you want," Starfire asked as she took a step forward. Raven stepped forward quicker and put a hand on Starfire's shoulder, pulling her back and shaking her head. Starfire nodded and turned around.

"Catch you later dude," Beast Boy called as he transformed into a bird and picked up Cyborg. Robin nodded and waved, trying to remain calm as he waited for his communicator to activate.


"Raven, why did you tell me not to stay with Robin?" Starfire asked as the two girls flew back to the park.

Raven cast a suspicious look at Beast Boy and Cyborg and shook her head. She flew lower to the ground and motioned for Starfire to follow. As Beast Boy and Cyborg also descended, Raven shot them a look. "You listen, you'll regret it," she warned. Cyborg gulped and nodded, motioning for Beast Boy to taken him back up. "Because he wants to be alone right now," Raven explained once she was sure that the two boys were out of hearing range. "Robin is very preoccupied right now, and to crowd him would do more harm than good." Starfire nodded in understanding, and Raven wondered once again how she had become roped into explaining boys to Starfire.


Robin grit his teeth and paced back and forth impatiently as he waited for his communicator to go off again. As soon as it rang, Robin picked it up. "Who are you?" Robin snarled at the com-link, hoping he could intimidate whoever was on the other line.

Infuriatingly, the man on the communicator sounded quite amused. "Patience Robin… patience. It is a difficult trait, but one well worth the effort to learn. I'm pleased that you told your friends to leave us alone for a chat: it does make things less complicated."

Robin felt his gut churn in anger as he remembered the lies that he had told his friends, just so that he could get another chance to talk. He quelled the feeling with the hope that perhaps he would be able to lull the person into a false sense of security and get a lock on the location. "So… what are you planning?"

"You sound calmer. Good: stress is no good for the body. You need to learn how to keep calm in situations. And you also need to be less subtle about trying to keep me on the line. Blustering would have worked better. East 2 avenues, and come alone," the voice said before ending communication. Robin grit his teeth again but got on his motorcycle, wondering how he would explain this to the other Titans should they find out.


"So… Star's got the hots for Robin," Beast Boy said gleefully as he listened to a recording of Starfire and Raven's conversation. While they had moved further away, Cyborg had been able to use his mechanical ear to pick up most of what had been said and had recorded it.

"Dude, you couldn't tell?" Cyborg asked incredulously.

"No, I could, but now it's like out in the open," Beast Boy explained. "You think we should worm a confession out of Robin?"

Cyborg gave Beast Boy a deadly serious look. "Are you asking me if we should interrogate one of the best trained martial arts experts on matter of the heart concerning a girl? Definitely," he grinned.


Robin cautiously arrived at the abandoned construction site, not knowing what to expect. He had learned to be very careful when dealing with this person, and his hands stayed at his utility belt, ready to grapple away or launch an offensive if the situation called for either.

"Robin. Robin? Robin, where are you?" Starfire's voice came over the communicator.

"Uh, I'm investigating a possible break-in, why?" Robin whispered as he continued to look around for another clue.

"Robin, did you communicator give you a signal somewhere in the city?" Cyborg asked.

Robin blanched, unsure of whether Cyborg why Robin was where he was or if he was really asking. Unwilling to admit he had been contacted by someone else personally, Robin decided on a half-truth: "Yeah. Someone contacted me to show me a location," Robin confessed, expecting an angry retort. "I'm on my way there and was about to call you guys."

"Yeah, well, whoever's been doing it just sent us each a location to go to too," Beast Boy said.

"They're all separate from each other. Do we go or should we investigate each one together?" Raven asked.

"Go separate: we don't know what's there, but spread out we'll have a better chance to catch whoever is doing this."

"Roger," Cyborg said before cutting off.

As Robin got off the communicator, it rang again. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself down before he picked up. "What do you want?" He asked as he opened up the link: he knew demanding the name of his taunter would only amuse him.

"I want to know if you've found my next clue for you, Robin," the voice said.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing here," Robin snapped as he looked around.

"You shouldn't be so quick and rash, Robin. You might miss something of value," the voice admonished.

"Don't lecture me," Robin snarled as he felt himself get angry again. "What right to you have to tell me what to do?"

"Because I am better than you," the voice said quite calmly before cutting the communication again. Robin growled in aggravation as he looked around for any clues. As he walked around, he caught a whiff of a faint odor of vanilla. Intrigued, he snooped around the area, following his nose until he came upon a large pile of melted wax.

"What the…" the rest of Robin's sentence was left hanging as his mind suddenly was able to figure it out. "Wax. That must be the clue," he muttered to himself as he tried to string the others together. "Have not wax…" he mumbled, stringing the past three clues together.

"Titans, when you've finished, rendezvous at the Tower," Robin ordered into his communicator as he tried to think about what the string of clues could mean…


Several hours later, Robin stared at the series of clue that the mysterious person had left for him. After Robin had found the wax and return to the tower, Cyborg had brought him a rusty knife, just before Beast Boy had given him a slip of paper with "ISV J 8:58" written on it. Raven had given him a small scroll with a riddle: "Satan has all, Christ had none, and when you think you have none, you're full of it." Starfire had given him a snapshot of the word "what __" carved into a wall. As the day had gone on, Robin had become increasingly bewildered, as the team had also uncovered a horseshoe welded to a stand so that the points were pointing straight up, an empty tin can, a solved Rubik's Cube, and a series of dots that had been shot into a w steel wall with some sort of laser. These last four clues had been left in a near perfect square pattern and had been retrieved by the other Titans as Robin stayed at the Tower trying to coordinate them while dealing with more taunts by his secret foe. Robin had already run the locations through a series of algorithms, but was unable to find a pattern or predict where the next attack would happen.

Starfire hesitantly knocked on the door, unsure if she should disturb Robin. He had locked himself in his room all day, not responding when she had offered him dinner or the chance to potato the couch. She took a deep breath and knocked, wondering if he would finally answer. "Robin…" she called softly as she heard no response. As the silence stretched out, she became less and less confident, but decided to knock one more time. As she knocked again, the door slid open a little of its own accord and she peered inside.

Starfire looked with pity at Robin as she saw him passed out on his desk. His head was turned to the side and he was drooling slightly as he snored. Starfire gently picked up Robin, and she realized how exhausted he was when he didn't wake up: a person who had trained as hard as he had in martial arts should have awakened instantly when she had opened the door. As she put him on the bed, she turned and looked at the map of Jump City. She noticed that Robin had been terracing different lines between the various break-ins, but hadn't been able to develop a pattern. Starfire made to leave before she did a double take on the dots. Since she had just recently learned the Earth alphabet, she recognized that certain dots looked like letters. She picked up the pen and began to trace some lines, hoping Robin would not be made at her for interfering with the investigation.

When she was done, Starfire simply stared at the message that had been revealed. She wondered what this would mean for Robin, who would no doubt feel responsible for not realizing the pattern sooner, though it was only discernable after every dot was revealed.


First of all, sorry this one took so long to do, but original chapters that are mysteries are really not my strong suit. Sorry to rush it at the end, but I was running out of ideas to make the team run around, and I figured summarizing it would be better then stretching it out but sacrificing quality. I decided to try to give a shorter chapter here, sort of a reading break for you guys and a writing break for myself. By the way, the message will be revealed in a chapter or two, but anyone who cares to venture a guess is certainly welcome to do so, and I will tell you if you are right, or how close you came.

Next, before anyone says anything about plot holes, I will explain a few. One, I couldn't figure out what would happen if you mixed Halon gas with water, but again, I figured I could take artistic liberty. Also, I know that Slade killed the HIVE Headmistress, but Robin has no reason to suspect that; he thinks that Slade hired them and paid. Second, from everything I've been able to figure out, Robin is the one who was an apprentice to Batman (I actually had no idea there was more than one: my superhero knowledge is usually woefully ignorant, and I ask you all to bear with me on that).

Also, let me be clear: I am NOT advocating or referencing anything that has to do with religious violence or promotion. The word 'sure' had to be conveyed to Robin in some way, and surety of the afterlife in a pamphlet was the only way I could think of.

If you want to try to solve the puzzle, here are a couple of clues. First, there are 22 parts to the message, but 23 words. Second, the 'w' that Cyborg took a picture of should be flipped upside-down, since he took a picture of it from the ceiling. Third, when Robin is first contacted, the clues' order gets a little skewed. They are not in the order presented, but in the order of the break-ins.

All that being said, I hope that got Slade's character right, as well as Robin's response to his taunts. If anyone has a suggestion for me to modify either of them, please let me know: I would appreciate it very much. Also, if anyone has an idea for another original chapter/episode where Robin focuses on Slade again, I'd really appreciate it: I can't think of anything else at the moment. Hope you all enjoyed it.