2014-09-24 - Demands Delivered

[ Follows: http://heroesassembled.wikia.com/wiki/2014-09-24_-_Explosive_Recon ]
Floating through the air, Starfire heads in from a patrol along the western seaboard. Otherwise, Starfire heads into the recreation room, going to grab herself first a large mustard smoothie then as she enters, humming contentedly.
Nightwing is currently relaxing on the couch, controller in hand as he plays a racing game on one of the game systems. He is in civilian attire, save for the mask and gloves to hide his fingerprints, because secrecy. The smell of mustard reaches his nose and he calls out without looking, "Hey, Kory." 
With the issues that had been happening in this side of the US, it made sense to be here more often. Red Robin was here as well apparently prefering to go where Black Robin went--but then some members of the Titans already knew why. She was in costume, sans the cape, and sitting in a chair not far off with her legs pulled up close to cradle a book on her lap that she was going over. Apparently it was rather boring as she pauses to yawn and glances over when Nightwing greets Kory. "Oh, hey."
Starfire gives a half wave over at Red Robin and over at Nightwing, "Hello, Nightwing and Red Robin." Koriand'r looks tired but not exhausted - she's just getting off 'shift' as it were. "Were your own patrols productive or has there not been much of note?" Which can either be a good thing or a bad thing.
Nightwing continues 'driving', not looking up from his seat or turning around, lest he crash and lose. "Nothing too eventful, drew an easy one today, seemed to be more of 'Show up in costume, remind people you exist,' kind of day." 
You paged Red Robin with 'Damian would have left a note or something letting Carrie know he was checking into somethings in Star City.'
"Same," Red Robin agrees though she frowns only to glance over at the pair. "Black left me a note saying that he was checking something out. You know anything about it? I haven't heard from him in awhile." Of course, that made her nervous.
Starfire shakes her head, "No, I have not. And has Raven been out of her room in the last few days?" Starfire knew that her friend valued her privacy, particularly when dealing with issues.
Nightwing finishes the game, setting the controller down on the coffee table. He looks back at Starfire, "Nah, I haven't seen her, but have been keeping busy... ish." He wobbles his hand. "I haven't heard anything on Black Robin, either. Though I assume he is probably being himself." 
Beast Boy, on monitor duty, chooses this moment to bound into the room tablet in hand. "Hey guys, check it out, a warehouse in Star City just blew up," he says. "They're saying Wonder Woman's there, but man," he turns the tablet towards the team. "Does she look beat up."
Starfire looks up in quick concern, "Was Cassandra with her?" Going over to quickly check the duty roster as well in case her friend wa spresent. "And was she hurt if she was there as well?"
Nightwing gets off the couch with some urgency when the words 'blew up' occur, he looks at the screeen, "She'll be fine, knowing her. Any other news from the accident, if anyone else was involved?" 
Red Robin lifts a hand to clap over her face as she hears the news from Beastboy. A groan comes from her, and she swings her legs off the side of the chair to sit up properly and set the book aside. "That's where Black said he was heading," she informs with her hand dropping away with a frown of concern. Rising to her feet she moves over to Beast Boy trying to get a better look at the tablet.
Starfire nods over at Nightwing in a quick frown, and then nods over at Red Robin. "Yes, was Black Robin's last patrol position around there? Has he updated since?"
"Cassie? Nah," She checked in from up in Seattle, I did send her a message though to let her know what happened," he says as he scratches his head. "Anyhow, figured you'd want to know, just in case the League feels like reaching down to the kids table for help." When Red stands he hands her the tablet, rocking back and forth on his heels fingers laced behind his back. "I am sure he wasn't in there when it blew," he offers paraphrasing Star Wars. "And nooo, no updates, but Black doesn't believe in..." 
All their Titan's comms beep, it's an emergency beacon. "Well speak of the Robin," Beast Boy says looking down at his it's from Star City.
 
"Going to need communication with Wonder Woman set up, going to need all of the details," Nightwing says to Beast Boy, "Kory, Red, we are probably going to go check it out ourselves if Black Robin does not check in before we take off. Our patrols are done for the day, and best case scenario, Black Robin will probably need extracted..." then the beacon goes off, "Suit up, we head out /now/." 
Starfire goes voer to quickly dump her mustard shake over in the depository. Immediately heading over towards the window to simply fly out in an orange blaze. She can fly faster than the jet, and cna be on site over in minutes.
Red Robin takes the tablet from Beast Boy looking it over with a frown... then the emergency beacon comes on. Her lips purse tight and she hands the tablet back to turn heading for the elevators. She's already on the move by the time Nightwing declares to head out. "On it. How far is Star City? I'm still learning this region," she admits even as she starts checking over her suit for weapons.
Beast Boy snaps into business mode as soon as Nightwing starts giving orders. "On it," he say breaking into a sprint for the comms room though he pauses long enough to answer Red's question. "Take the teleporter to the STAR Labs in Star City, we keep a couple of T-Cycles there for situations like this," he explains and then he's gone to go contact Wonder Woman and put out the call for other Titans.
Nightwing nods to Beast Boy, "Sounds good," He then turns to Carrie, "B"Red Robin, I'll send word to Batman, probably better coming from me." He heads to his private quarters to don his equipment, he is intending to go armed to the teeth. After he is ready, Nightwing hustles down to the teleporter. 5r
Red Robin glances over at Nightwing with a look of relief when he offers to call Batman. "Thanks. He's not fond of me lately." Which was true enough--she was dating his son against his wishes. A quick nod is given to Beast Boy and she flashes a grin, "Let's get going then." She hurries down to the teleporter as well following close behind.
Star City 
The signal from Black Robin's beacon is coming from underground a few miles away from where the warehouse still burns and smolders, sending smoke into the night sky. < Guys, signal is definitely in that location and hasn't moved since it began > Beast Boy reports over comms as the Titans converge on the site. In this case a sewer manhole cover in the middle of a quiet street.
Flying on ahead, Starfire is a literal sonic boom as she speaks along the commlink. < En route. I will be there momentarily. Can someone be at ground level in case backup is needed? >
The call went out, delivered in Gar's usual style. And, he got responses. In particular, he got Raven on the call. Not that Raven does much talking at all. There is just a single reply...a solidary word spoken into the comlink with no emotion whatsoever. 
< Incoming >
As Titans report to the site, a black shadow coaleses within three feet of the manhole cover. Showing no sense of urgency, Raven calmly walks out of the dark portal, as the doorway dissipates, the soul-self flowing back into Raven directly. As she steps out, another transmission is sent. This time, two words.
< Raven onsite. >
The rest of the way to Star City is uneventful, and there is no time for the scenic tour. Nightwing arrives at the manhole as quickly as physically possible. Seeing Raven, the former Robin nods and says, "Raven, got any info?" The tone is not hostile, just blunt. "He wouldn't press that button unless it was absolutely necessary and that kid can handle himself." 
Arriving over the manhole, Starfire's irises flash, glowing green. She uses her telescopic vision to sweep the area for several blocks along, barking out harshly <<Aboveground perimeter is clear. No hostiles detected.>>
"He's as stubborn as the Boss when it comes to asking for help," Red Robin informs as she, too, arrives. There might be a tad of worry along with her remark as she pulls out another mask which she quickly swaps for the one she wears to give her night vision. Damn corrective lenses.
"Alright you're on site, haven't got Wonder Woman on comms yet, but judging by how she looked on the TV it might just be her com unit got fried," Beast Boy reports. "Anyhow will keep you guys updated on things top side."
There is a glance over towards Nightwing from Raven and another single word answer. "No." Then...seeing the need to expound on that explanation, Raven offers. "I have yet to perform any investigation to ascertain what the situation may be." In plainspeak? Raven hasn't had time to do her thing to figure out what's going on. She came because Gar said to.
"I see," Nightwing says, crossing his arms, and taking a cue from Red Robin, tapping a button on the side of his mask to switch to dark vision, "Best we get started then, don't have time to stand around too much. Keep your eyes and ears open, kids." With that, the 'senior' Titan picks up the manhole cover and begins climbing down. Once on the ground, he looks around in the green, darker green, and black vision to find something familiar, a utility belt. "Guys, I found something, hurry" He begins checking for blood or anything else useful. 
With a hiss, Starfire nodded over at Raven, ready to back up Nightwing and go down after him. She looked over at her best friend, before diving down after Nightwing.
Red Robin waits until the others go down the hole before dropping down herself to land lightly. Given the tight confines of the quarters she doesn't go for her bow and arrow--instead she pulls out her slingshot from her hip. It worked well enough even in close quarters and she trusted her aim more than her melee skills. She was still brushing up on those.
The dark sorceress does indeed descend down to the tunnels below. However, she doesn't bother with the manhole. Instead, her shadow elongates, flowing from her feet to form her own hole, which she just calmly drops in, emerging whole below. It certainly frees the manhole for Red to drop in quickly as well.
Once in, the darkness doesn't seem to bother Raven, even though she doesn't have the fancy tech for night vision. She does, however, resorts to a trick that she hadn't dared used for a while. There is a noticable preparation from the empath as she braces herself for her scanning, opening a sliver within her emotional firewall to reach out. She is searching for the wayward Robin's unique empathic imprint.
In his search, Nightwing recovers a cellphone, "Step back, not sure what this could be connected to," and presses play, knowing full well this may be a trap, but dangit if he was not going to try and find Black Robin. 
Raven pages: well, Raven is going to be conservative on it. So...nothing too drastic. 100 feet, maybe? It could be more, but that risks too much exposure.
The tunnels is dark but there's no sign of danger or, really anyone having come this way, but the belt is hanging from a pipe in the wall. The empathic search turns up little but the impression on the belt are fresh at least. When the button on the phone is pushed, flares to life an image appearing on the screen that looks like shaky cellphone footage but the image was clear enough, Deathstroke standing next to Shimmer along with Gizmo, hovering on his jet pack. Between them was Black Robin, unconcious, bleeding and filty laying on the floor. 
Deathstroke steps forward when he speaks arms across his chest. "Titans, as you can see I have Black Robin. If you want him back, then you will need to make a trade, one of the members of the Fearsome Five was captured in Star City tonight, we want him back, and in exchange we'll return this Robin to you," he looks down at Black Robin. "Relatively unharmed," he turns back to the camera his one good eye showing through his mask as he looks into it. "Don't make the trade and we have other things in mind for him," he says threateningly before he finishes with "We'll call this phone in forty-eight hours, be ready." The video ends.
As the phone plays, the Tamaranean's fist goes through the wall. "DEATHSTROKE." Punching through the side in rage and anger before she takes a breath and uncoils it. Closing her eyes. "How long ago was he taken? Raven? If you can gather?" She must focus now. For thier missing friend.. "And we should contact the Justice League." Starfire takes a deep, agonizing breath. Voice tinged with anguish.
It wasn't often that Red Robin was pushy. Typically she held to the back--It was her training to be backup and she fell into it easily. But in this case, she shoulders her way forward to get a good look of the video on the phone standing next to Nightwing with a difficult to read expression. When Starfire reacts in such a way it jerks her out of her thoughts, and she glances over toward the Titan with a scowl. "Who was it that was captured?"
Nightwing thinks for a moment, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small wand-like object, and presses a button and moves it around the area. He types something into the comm unit to visibly show the group around them, in text <<The area is bugged. Keep conversation away from any tactical or strategic decisions.>> "I do not know, but we had best get out of here to find out, it seems that we really have no choice but to get out of here and discuss." With that, he signals towards the ladder up. 
There is a sideward glance cast to Starfire. The emotional shield is back up...so that outburst of anger leaves Raven rather unplussed. Her reply is calm. "I cannot ascertain without ample preparation." Given Nightwing's text on the comm unit, that would be Raven-speak for 'Give me some time.' She does, however, performs her own disappearing trick, using her shadow portal to simply vanish with a single step. From the barely audible clicking of heels upon asphalt, it is apparent Raven is already at street level.
Starfire nods over at Raven then understandingly, before holding back her anger and her rage then and heading back up to the surface. Otherwise, she is contemplative and exhausted looking now. "We will get him back." Her words are quiet, and a promise as she gives a nod over at NIghtwing's comments.
Red Robin follows the rest out remaining deadly quiet the entire time. She was Not Pleased and had every reason to be that way. "Yeah, we'll get him back," she agrees before turning away to fish out her own phone to