The Titans arrived at the gift shop. The landscape looked like a scene out of post-apocalyptia, with the small building built into the side of a hill having been left in disrepair for years. The rust-eaten front gate dangled from its fence by a single forlorn hinge. The nearby billboard was the only sign that this had once been a business, but even that had been weathered beyond recognition.
"Well, this is it," said Cyborg as he began to scan the area. However, it didn't need to be pointed out. Instead of periodic tremors, there was now a constant deep hum vibrating through the earth and air all around them that would occasionally leap violently in power, as if someone was playing with the bass dial on a sub-woofer the size of a football field.
Robin inspected the place with his keen eyes as they advanced towards the shop.
"There's a few signs of life. Looks like there was a fire being burned at one point," he said, gesturing to some recently disturbed coals on the ground. "Remains of a scavenged meal, too. Squatters. Probably took off when the tremors started." They reached the door of the shop.
"Alright. Beast Boy and Raven, do a double sweep of the grounds and make sure there's nobody tailing us. Starfire and Cy, come with me. We're gonna take a look inside." Beast Boy grinned impishly at Raven, who quickly wiped it off his face with a glare. They silently took flight as Robin led the way into the gift shop, staff at the ready.
It was a fairly standard shop design. A single counter with cash register. Five aisles for goods, their shelves now devoid of anything but dust and cobwebs. Starfire and Cyborg lit the room up. The entire shop appeared to have been ransacked for anything of value some time ago. The only identifying feature was an unrolled sleeping bag in a corner, likely belonging to whoever had made the fire outside. A few empty cans sat on the floor next to the bag, the remnants of one still dripping on to the floor.
Robin sniffed it, and scooped a bit off the floor with his finger, popping the substance into his mouth. He swished it about thoughtfully for a few seconds before declaring that this had been a can of baked beans.
"Dude, I know you're a good detective and all, but even I think that's disgusting," said Beast Boy. He and Raven had returned from their sweep of the grounds. Robin ignored his comment, ever the stoic leader.
"Anything out there?"
"No. We're alone," replied Raven, letting her hood down. "But I don't think whoever's causing this kind of damage could be on the surface anyway."
"Then let's get down there and find him."
After some deft lock-picking, they proceeded through a door labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY behind the cash counter. Sure enough, there was another door behind that one, this time labeled MINE ENTRANCE.
Passing through, the temperature noticeably raised several degrees. The door led directly to a natural cave, with numerous mining lamps dotting the path further in. Robin narrowed his eyes with suspicion.
"Working lights behind a locked door? Someone's definitely in here somewhere. We're on the right track, Titans." They followed the path further, until the cave opened up into a vertical shaft into the earth littered with excavation equipment. It was quite wide, with Cyborg's flashlight just barely illuminating a small patch of rock on the far wall. Starfire wore a picture of worry on her face as she looked at the wooden beams supporting the hollowed out ceiling stretching above them.
"I do not like it here. Why could the evil person not have made their lair on a nice beach by the ocean?" She shivered.
There was an old mineshaft elevator, but the car was missing and presumably at the bottom. The flying Titans carried their less mobile teammates down the large, deep mineshaft, which became narrower and narrower near the bottom.
When they touched down at the deepest point, there was only about thirty square feet of floor to stand on, half of which was occupied by several large chunks of jagged rock and a pile of smaller debris. Beast Boy noticed something glinting among the rocks.
"Huh, what's.. oh. Oh man. Hey, uh, guys? You should see this."
The team gathered around him at the foot of the debris. He briefly shifted to a gorilla and gently heaved one of the large rocks off the pile.
"I think I found the gift shop owner."
A skeleton grinned up at them from its stony tomb, left hand still loosely clutching a pickaxe, and a gleaming nametag clinging to the threadbare polo shirt it wore: HI, MY NAME IS BILL.
"That's him, alright," said Robin as he set about the grim task of searching the body for any evidence or something that could help them.
Cyborg glanced at the skeleton, brow furrowed.
"I was kinda bankin' on this guy being the big bad, but I guess that's out of the question. He's probably been dead for the whole five years." Robin nodded in agreement.
"There's no key on him, either. Seems like Tate here just had an unfortunate mining accident, and someone else found the place afterward and took over."
"My friends, please come this way," echoed Starfire's voice from within the passageway.
Cyborg started down the hall. Robin followed him, but stopped as Beast Boy's hand tugged on his shoulder.
"Shouldn't we do something about this guy, Robin? Like.. bury him, or..?" His eyes immediately shot wide open. "I-I mean, bury him properly! With a gravestone and stuff!"
Raven answered him. "We can do that afterwards, but stopping this crisis comes first." Robin nodded.
"Come on. Let's go see what Star found."
They followed the passage to its end, to discover Starfire standing in front of a gleaming door of brushed steel. There was a computer terminal embedded in its frame. Stencilled in paint above the terminal were the characters "SL-1".
"This is not old and broken like the rest of the things here. I do not think this is part of the mine," she stated, turning around to face her teammates. "It is here. This must be our destination." She looked at each of them with renewed vigor. Raven did her best to avoid her gaze.
It only took a minute for Cyborg to bypass the door security, and it slid open with a satisfying hiss. Expecting the worst, the Titans readied themselves for combat- but were merely presented with a small, modern-looking room. The pleasant white walls were lined with what appeared to be crash seats. There were fluorescent lights illuminating it brightly like an office, and several large unmarked crates, strapped down to thick metal loops jutting from the floor.
"All passengers aboard. Please take your seats. There is a general emergency on Sub-Level Three."
The synthetic voice took the Titans by surprise, as the elevator door slid shut behind them. Hidden machinery groaned to life behind the walls. The elevator hummed with power.
They only had a splitsecond to enjoy the confusion before an official-sounding ding rang out and the elevator instantly plummeted down into the earth at breakneck speed.