5

Gotham's East End was notorious for its crime rate, so much so that the Dark knight spent the vast majority of his crime-fighting career in the East End. The buildings were old, and several were infested or in disrepair. Streets covered in litter, walls coated with about three layers of graffiti, and an extreme amount of stress cracks in the pavement. The roaring motors and heavy tires of the T-Car and R-Cycle didn't help the street's condition, but that was the last thing on Robin's mind as they rode through the city, he radioed the others. "Okay team, let's split up at this next intersection. Star, Raven, you two take to the skies, Cyborg, Beast Boy, go right. I'll take left." They continued until the split was made just to Robin's instructions, and just like that, they were off.
Raven and Starfire watched as their friends split up, soaring higher until they could see the entirety of the East End.
"I hope the boys will be alright." Starfire said, floating closer to her levitating companion.
"They'll be fine... At least Robin will be."
"You are worried for Cyborg and Beast Boy?"
"Cyborg, yes, Beast Boy, no."
"Why is that?"
"He's stuck with the one I'm not worried about." Raven said, oddly sincere in the sarcastic comment.
Starfire and Raven looked around, continuing to search for anything that could possibly be suspicious, when Starfire piped up with "Raven, what is that?" She pointed across the city towards a large flare of red smoke.
"It's a distress flare, either someone needs help, or it's a trap."
"Should we look into it?"
"Do we want to take that chance?"
Raven stared at Starfire, she was silently pleading to go check it out, you could see it in her eyes.
"Fine, lets go..."

"Figures Robin would send us to the creepier part of town... " Cyborg complained as Beast Boy stuck his head out the window.
"Amusement Mile? That doesn't sound too bad..." He said after reverting to human form from his dog form.
"Dude, who are you kidding, we're in Gotham city, Gotham-freakin'-city, let's not forget who runs these streets."
"You think we might run into-?" Beast Boy's sentence was cut short by a loud gunshot and the cracking of the bulletproof back window of the T-Car. It swerved to a stop and Cyborg jumped out of the driver's seat, Sonic Cannon primed.
"Alright, who's the joker who shot my baby?" He yelled, unknowing who had caused the accident.
"Uh, Cyborg?" Beast Boy said, having gotten out of the car as well. He pointed to their assailant who was standing about ten yards behind them, with a sheer look of terror on his face. Cyborg gasped and instantly regretted his original choice of words.

Robin skidded to a halt as he rode into a closed-down section of road. He took off his helmet and had a look around, looking the area over for anythign suspicious. He then llooked back to the closed section of the road. And once again, his detective training with the Bat kicked in, and he realized that this road was over fifty years old, nobody drove down it anymore. Yet these signs looked brand new. He took a closer look, staring down the seemingly empty road ahead of him. Returning to his R-Cycle, he rode right through the signs, breaking them to splinters.
He drove for about a mile, until he realized he was very near the old Sionis Steel mill. Once again, Robin skidded to a halt. This time parking his bike in a corner and turning on the cloaking device. Walking for a moment, he could see that there was actually a massive hole in the road, and from this he could infer that it led to the City's sewers.
"Why would there be a blocked road that led to the sewers dead end?" He thought aloud. His eyes widened as he heard a click behind him.
"Nice to see you again, Bird Boy... Where's the Bat? I was hoping I wouldn't waste every bullet I had on your puny body."

Robin turned to see a tall man wearing a an inky skull-like mask all around his head, as well as a white suit and tie. Behind him stood a gang of burly men cracking their knuckles and grinning like mad, likely at the prospect of taking down the kid who had given them so much trouble in the past. He recognized the man as Roman Sionis, otherwise known by his supervillain-mob boss name, The Black Mask.

"Black Mask... Should have guessed you'd be involved in this..." Robin said, pulling his retractable Steel bar from his belt and extending it.
"Oh come on Boy Wonder, have I ever been one to plan the demise of my enemies?" Black Mask smirked as he paced slowly to the right of Robin.
"Yes." Robin said, gripping his staff.
"Rhetorical sarcasm, learn the language." Black Mask shot at Robin three times. To which Robin responded with three instant and precise blocks from his bar.
"You're good, the Bat teach you that?" Mask said, putting his gun away.
"Actually, someone else." Robin grinned and pole-vaulted off his staff onto the closest thug, landing on his shoulders and forcing him to drop, he was then punched in the back of the head by a burly man in a black wife beater. Hit with a headache and dizziness, Robin was still undeterred, swinging his staff around and hitting his attacker in the gut, returning around and hitting him three times before swinging around the bar and double-kicking him. He was then nearly tackled by two guys, but he turned and countered them both with his bar, the first in the head, the second in the neck.
"These guys the best you got Mask? If fought tougher kids!" Robin smarted off as he smashed one thug's nose against his knee.
"You think I'd really waste my best men on the sidekick?"
Robin's eyes widened, then narrowed. One of the thugs started to choke him in a headlock.
"I'm nobody's sidekick..." He choked under his breath, launching his elbow into the gut of his assailant, striking him three or four times... It was hard to tell, he moved his fists so quickly.
Robin, now running on adrenaline and anger, made short work of the remaining members of Roman's gang.
When the dust cleared, he turned to Black Mask, who was clapping slowly, "I have to say, I didn't think you'd finish them that damned quickly."
Robin just glared, retracting his staff.
"What do you know about Batman's disappearance?"
"Everything I'm not going to tell you." Mask smirked arrogantly, but he didn't expect to be attacked, and that's just what happened. Robin stunned him by stabbing the end of his bar into Black Mask's neckbone pressurepoint, then grabbing him by the shirt and slamming him against the nearby wall.
"Tell me what you know, or I'll-"
"You'll what?" Black Mask jeered, obviously unimpressed by Robin's display and anger. All this did was tick him off even further.
"Tell me what you know!" Robin repeated himself, tightening his grip.
"Alright, kid, I'll tell you..."
Robin almost smiled in triumph, that is, if he had time. No sooner had Mask yielded, that Robin was struck in the back of the head. Hard.
As Robin lay unconscious on the ground, Black Mask brushed himself off.
"I paged you fifteen minutes ago, you couldn't have shown up sooner?"
"Sorry mask, here I thought you could handle one punk kid for ten extra minutes... My mistake, won't happen again."
"He's older than you, X." Black Mask replied, snapping his fingers as two of his now-conscious thugs picked up the boy wonder.
Red X had been watching the Titans movements, naturally under his own motive.
"Somehow being lectured by a fourteen-year old chips my shoulder, call me crazy." Black Mask held his gun up to Red X's head.
"I save your ass and you thank me by holding a gun to my head, that's cold even for you, Roman. Think for a sec Mask, do you think he'd be happy if you blew my head off? Think you'd be able to hide if you betrayed him?"
Black Growled under his breath, he wouldn't let anyone talk down to him like that, not without pumping them with lead. But he couldn't touch Red X... If their plan was going to work, they needed him.
Sionis put the Gun in his holster, "You're a lucky little son of a bat, you know that?"
"Luck has nothing to do with it." X replied, Launching a grappling line up and flying away, he muttered, "You have no idea."

Starfire and Raven landed nimbly onto a grim street, one that just so happened to be very nearby the Monarch Theatre. Neither of them knew the significance of this building. Yet. The two girls walked around.
"Raven, are you sensing anything?"
"Yeah... Ow..." Raven rubbed her temples, she sensed that something very dark happened here, an event that set into motion something intensely powerful and pivotal.
"Follow me." Raven said, she rounded a corner, and came to a streetlamp.
"Why would this streetlight still be working? All others are either broken or gone." Starfire observed. The Titans had been searching all day, and the sun had barely set over the gloomy skyline of Gotham.
"Starfire... Look."
Raven pointed to the ground where the lamp's light shone most intensely.
Starfire gasped, there was chalk, fairly newly drawn, in the outline of two bodies, a man and a woman.
"I know what I'm sensing..."
"What is it?"
"Death."
Raven stared down at the outlines, she searched her memories for anything she knew that could tell her what happened here. Reasoning that she had the entirety of Dick Grayson's and her own memory and vast knowledge of crimes that took place in dark cities like Gotham.
"Raven, I must know your thoughts..."
Raven opened her eyes as a tear slid down her cheek, she was surprised at first, wiping it off. Then it hit her like a brick.
"Starfire, this is the Death site of Thomas and Martha Wayne..."
"Who are they?"
"Robin was raised by Bruce Wayne..."
"And Bruce Wayne... Is the Batman, yes?"
"Yes."
Raven once again felt the emotions about the blood that ran here. Wiping her eyes trying to keep from crying.
"This is the deathplace of Bruce Wayne as well."
"What do you mean?"
"Deathplace of Bruce Wayne... Birthplace of Batman."

Starfire frowned, she did not understand the significance of this 'Batman', all she knew was who he is, and that he raised Robin. Questions raced through her head, questions that had been burning for months.
"Raven, you must let me know... What happened to Robin? What does Batman have to do with it?"
"Honestly Starfire...It's for the best that you ask him, not me."