Chapter Text
Robin held back a sigh, furrowing his brow as he looked at the screen containing information on the most recent crimes. The HIVE were the most common perpetrators, with a few other miscellaneous villains. The pattern between the robberies, mainly tech and valuables, linked the villains together. Robin had a hunch they were connected, perhaps working towards a bigger goal, a project of some sort.
Robin caught the attention of his team in the main room, telling them about his suspicions.
Cyborg spoke up, “Yeah, the tech stolen so far doesn’t obviously give away what it’s gonna be but, this is some advanced stu-“
The room flooded red as the crime alarm sounded and Robin whipped around quickly to bring up the map of Jump City. “It’s a tech warehouse, a huge supply of advanced parts. This could be the next link! Titans Go!”
Robin was speeding down the dim lit streets on his motorcycle, the others taking separate routes, having split up to approach the warehouse from all sides.
“The video feeds are all shut down, the building’s alarm didn’t sound either – the sign was only given by an employee,” the leader informed through the comm, “It could be anyone, so we need to be on our guard.”
“Already on it.”
“Noted.”
“Of course!”
“This’ll be a piece of cake!”
Robin cut the comm, hopping off his motorcycle and leaving it behind a delivery crate. He approached the warehouse, keeping to shadows cast by the moon. The security lights weren’t working, leaving the place darker than he would have preferred. Crouching, he made his way over to one of the worker entrance doors, where it was busted open. He could smell the sharp smell of smoke. He flicked on a small flashlight he kept in his utility belt and just inside the doorway was an open fuse box that was completely fried. Black charring covered most of the inside, it was dead.
Robin continued further in, hunching behind a stack of deliveries ready to be sent out. He checked on his communicator again. “Anyone find anything yet?”
Raven’s voice came through the small speaker, “Nothing yet, nothing’s been touched where I am.”
“The same for me as well,” chimed Starfire.
“A few burned out fuse boxes over here,” Cyborg added, “but it’s quiet here.”
Robin frowned, “Yeah, I have one here too, nothing else yet. What about you, Beast Boy?”
“Beast Boy?”
Cold fear shot itself through Robin’s chest, what could- “Does anyone have Beast Boy’s location?”
“I’m on-“ “GUYS? I- uh, might need a hand here! I’ve found our person- Ah!” Beast Boy’s voice came shrill across the communicator, crackling with interference.
Robin didn’t need to be told any more before he was up and running, glancing at his device to check the location. His soles were pounding across the concrete, echoing against the shelves stocked high with packaged tech. The size of the warehouse was unnervingly large in this moment.
Rounding a corner, he could hear the scuffling of a fight alongside eerie blue flickers. He skidded to a stop, pulling out his bo staff with practiced ease, taking in the situation. He could see Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire all making their way to the impromptu battleground. Containers had been knocked over and away with dents thanks to the hulking green form of a gorilla Beast Boy. The crook was someone Robin didn’t recognise, standing with bad posture, almost casually, if Robin hadn’t been trained to notice the offensive stance. There was a crackle of electricity as a blue spark made its way along the person’s shoulder. At least, it seemed that they hadn’t noticed Robin or the rest of the team yet.
There was a stalemate as Beast Boy heaved large breaths, tired but unmoving as the other didn’t make a move either.
With a growl, the gorilla’s form shifted into a tiger, taking one leap to close the distance between the two. They moved a foot back and leaned to the side, catching Beast Boy’s striped ribs with an open palm, the spark of electricity so bright that the onlookers had to look away. A yowl escaped Beast Boy’s jaws and Starfire took the distraction to shoot a starbolt into the villain’s back, sending them sprawling to the ground. “How dare you hurt my friend! You shall not harm him again with me to fight!”
“Yeah, you won’t be doing any more of that with me around either.” Cyborg agreed, the sound of his cannon being charged up filling the empty air.
Robin moved forward; staff pointed towards the person. He was aware of the silent descent of Raven behind him. “Who do you work for?”
He caught the way the villain’s eyes widened for a moment at the sudden development, before returning to their annoyed glare, if not angrier than before. “You’re not going anywhere with us surrounding you, so play nice. Who do you work for? What’s the purpose of this technology you’re stealing?” Robin took note of the rough scar across the left side of the face without grimacing, but at least it would make them easily identifiable.
They breathed out of their nose before slumping defeatedly into the cool concrete. It looks as if they’d have to take them in for questioning then.
Robin only just caught the flash of their arm before they grabbed a hold of his ankle, delivering a numbing shock to his body. “Agh-“ he stumbled, just catching himself on his forearm, head dropping to the ground before his vision went black.
He was vaguely aware of the muffled sounds of fighting, before he propped himself up on an arm, shaking his head. When had he laid down on the floor? Cyborg’s body was across the way from him, blue circuits gone dark, and the sight was enough to shake him out of his stupor. He clambered up, spinning around just in time to see the thief knocking their head into a wolf Beast Boy, sending him away with a whine before his legs dropped from under him.
Robin pawed clumsily for his staff on the ground, keeping watch on their opponent. Raven and Starfire were both floating a safe distance away, but they looked exhausted. Robin wanted this over with. Now. He pulled his staff up and charged at them. He could hear the protests of Starfire and Raven as they noticed him drawing nearer, but he didn’t have time to think. He flipped his staff with a flourish of hands to bring it to the side of the villain’s head, but they caught it stiffly in one hand. Robin felt the now familiar jolt of electricity conduct through the metal, and he dropped his hold. A foot met his chest that felt like he had been eating raw wires and he collapsed on the floor wheezing.
“Don’t. Make. One. Move, if you want him alive.”
Through bleary eyes he could see the villain standing above him, he felt a warm trickle on the back of his head but guessed that what was more worrying was his own staff pointed at him.
It was dead silent as he could feel Raven and Starfire hovering nearby, making a silent decision, and he couldn’t bring his throat to croak out a protest to not let the bad guy get away.
“Fine. Just leave him alone.” Raven’s tone was icy, but calm.
It was another moment before they stepped away, then without another word, left.
“Robin! Are you alright?” Starfire came to Robin’s side, checking his head, then chest. “I am sorry that we let them get away, but I would not forgive myself if we let that happen to you.”
Robin groaned, sitting up, watching Raven pick up Cyborg and Beast Boy with her magic. “It’s alright Star, we underestimated our opponent. I don’t blame you for letting them get away.” He took a deep breath testing his ribs. “Thanks for the save.”
Starfire’s face looked guilty as she helped him stand. “But I did not, it was just lucky we were given the choice.”
Before Robin could say anything else, Raven motioned with her head for them to gather closer as she teleported them back to the tower. He’ll have to talk about it with her another time when they’re all rested. And pick up his bike.
It was the middle of the night, a few days after their loss, that Robin was checking his computer, researching for anything, any accounts of the villain. Searches on physical appearance brought up nothing; that would make sense considering they shorted out the security cameras in the heist.
Their powers were a different story, however. There were reports from cities outside Jump of a couple different break-ins with shorted circuits, fried systems, and most importantly, a person that seemed to give off electricity. However, there was no record of them in the police system, they hadn’t been caught yet. Now they were in Jump, and somehow connected to the HIVE. It meant it was one more person that they had to watch out for, and Robin wasn’t going to let them slip away next time.