Ready, Willing, and Able (Robin/Titans)

Titans Tower. Supposedly impenetrable, and designed to be that way. Supposedly, if the reports were to be believed, it was a former alien ship that crash landed on Earth, and it had been repurposed by its new occupants. Of course, this meant there were certain imperfections in its security. Imperfections that one versed in stealth and trespassing would find quite simple to exploit.

The first silent alarm that was tripped was in the evidence room. A few cabinets were opened and searched, but nothing of value was found, and the trespasser moved on. The second was the Main Ops room, where the main computer running Titans Tower could be found. And leaning casually against the wall was the intruder.

"Xenothium, huh?" The intruder had long red hair, wore a kevlar armor with a purple cape, and had a very familiar symbol on the chest. "Also, you guys should really work on this encryption. Once you're into the system, everything is just there. You should at least password protect some of these files."

Barbara had looked up when she heard the door open, and waved at those who entered. "Sup?" Yes. That was really it.

Robin was passed out in his room. He pulled an all-nighter trying to dig up anything and everything he could on DOMA since their arrival and came up with... very little. Other than what anyone could learn from looking it up, going to their branch in person and everything available to him had been gone through already. The number of "accomplishments" they had achieved were mostly lacking in his opinion, considering the global prison breakout was still very fresh in his mind. This told him that they were either too busy "preparing" to posture and put on airs, or had been up to who knows what elsewhere. Zero and to some extent Butcher spearheading their efforts here supported the latter assumption for the lack of public knowledge on the matter.

And he had finally had enough of banging his had against the wall to try sleeping when the alarm suddenly went off. Tired or not, Robin immediately sprang into action and tracked the disturbance, bumping into the others along the way as they burst into the main ops room readied for... not what they actually found. Robin stared stone faced at her before sighing. "They do have passwords..." Robin said simply, not directly referring to when someone they trusted betrayed them but it wasn't important. "Couldn't you have knocked?" He added.

"Robin who's that and what did she do to my security system?" Cyborg demanded, relaxing only briefly when Robin seemed to acknowledge her. Plus the symbol was kind of a dead giveaway but he was still not happy about someone breaking into his system.

Raven was staying late, reading a book.

Sure, the world around her was in chaos, and the realities of her somewhat peaceful life were about to be shattered, but ... reading time was reading time. She was on her bed, eyes focused on the pages of a story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was delightfully macabre. Not like Stephen King. She disliked that one. The gore galore did not constitute good taste, or good horror for that matter. And just as she was reaching the part where the cat shrieked through the bricked wall...

The T-communicator bleeped in alarm. An intruder was about.

Sighing, Raven got off the bed, opened the closet, and pressed the button on the sleek suit of armor Cyborg made her. She was getting used to wearing it all the time. It opened up and then snapped around the body. She was ready. Picking up something heavy along the way and letting it levitate next to her, wrapped up in dark energy, she'd hover to where the intruder was last spotted - the computer room.

Cyborg and Robin were already there. And... someone else. A girl wearing tight spandex, a purple cape, and a big yellow bat symbol on her chest. Eww, purple. Raven looked at Robin, then at the girl, and put the heavy thing down on the floor.

"Using doors is so last century, huh? There's a bell, you know." - Raven shrugged, and looked at their fearless leader again. He seemed to know the girl.

"So... should I turn her into a toad or ...?

Batgirl clicked her tongue and started walking toward the group. "No toads. That's now how you greet family." She chuckled and pulled out her phone, tapping away and pulling something up. "But I mean, I could have knocked, but keep in mind that's not really what our kind do, Robin." She walked over and put her head on his shoulder, holding up her phone so they could both see. "Not to mention, I got a distinct vibe you might not want to talk to me about this and I kinda really wanted to know." Shockingly, the screen the two were now looking at was the design and limitations Robin had put together for his old Red X suit.

"But I mean, I'm not all business. I figured I'd also ask how you were doing, look around, and see how baby brother Robin is holding up, ya know?" She stood back up straight and started walking around the tower, taking a quick picture of the view on her phone. "Which, by the way, not awful."

She flopped down on the couch and smiled. "But hey, no need to be shocked that I'm walking around or anything. Nah, no need. I get if you forgot." She looked at the rest of the group and smiled at Cyborg. "For the record, it took me 4 minutes to crack. Beats the shit out of anything the government ever did. Feel better, big guy?"

Robin gave Raven an impish grin at the offer before Babs walked over and showed him something on her phone. "That was a mistake I don't plan on making again," Robin said simply when he saw the specs for his old Red-X suit. He didn't seem to be paying that much attention right now and seemed to be staring at her strangely. And her 'reminding' him that she was up and walking was what jarred his memory, causing him to blink sleep away. She WAS walking around.

"That don't justify you breaking in and walking around like you own the place girl!" Cyborg retorted animately as Beastboy and Starfire joined them, slowing down when they saw the others just standing infront of the doorway and talking with someone.

"Dude, do you know what time it is?" Beastboy yawned, clearly he was barely aware of what was going on... less than usual anyway.

"What is going on? Who is this?" Starfire questioned Robin.

"Batgirl," Robin replied simply as he walked over to the sofa in bemusement. "How- did he do this?" Robin questioned her. It was obvious who HE was between them.

Raven could guess there was some history between Robin and Batgirl.

Or a lot of it. One did not need to be an Empath to see the shock and awe on his face, even if a good half of it was covered by a mask. For a mask, it was pretty expressive, too. It also seemed to her that whatever was it the two wanted to talk about was better be left to them. Raven respected Robin's privacy and a desire to keep secrets, if there were any. God knew, she had plenty of her own she would have rather buried forever. Her eyes briefly shifted over to Batgirl. She was incredibly chipper, almost Starfire levels of such, only with sass. Raven didn't like sass. She was the only one allowed to be sassy in this Tower.

The witch-girl covered her mouth with a hand, to hide a yawn.

"Do you still need us here, Robin?" - Raven asked, not sure if the presence of the whole team was warranted here. If the two needed privacy, she'd be glad to give it to them. And possibly pull Starfire and Cyborg away. The latter was vexed by his security system failure, and the former... well, one did not need to be a genius to figure out what was going on between her and Robin. She patted the big metal man on the back a little.

"Come on. You can figure out what she did in the morning. And Starfire..." - Raven paused a little, figuring out how to best say it. "She's treating him like a baby brother. Relax."

Hopefully that would help alleviate the tension.

Babs clicked her tongue and pocketed her phone. "Sure, you won't make that mistake again-" She leaned in and put up a hand, whispering to Robin. "-and I mean, to be fair, he would be a hypocrite to say it was so bad considering the crap he's done wrong." She cleared her throat. "But there's someone else who is making that mistake, and I just wanted to start building a file on him."

She sat up and pointed at Cyborg. "Well everything in this place is made of space metal! How else am I supposed to sneak in and steal Robin's stuff!" She shook her head and turned around on the couch to face Robin, arms folded. "Man, it's like they don't understand where we come from."

As Robin started to realize exactly what he'd been forgetting, she smiled warmly and shrugged. "Eh, it's a long story. Experimental surgery from China. Got a computer put in my head that lets me move my legs again." She looked at him pointedly as if to say 'come on, you know how much money he has.'

"Regardless, two reasons I'm here. One of which you guys might wanna stay for, the other is like...well, that's gonna be strictly Robin's problem. And I don't envy him." She chuckled to herself and mouthed the words 'Alfred is pissed' at him.

((I hope you both imagined Cyborg doing that cartoon thing where he got really big when he was yelling at her xD))

After his sleep deprived brain finally caught up with the situation, Robin had realized the question was rhetorical. Robin's face hardened alittle when she seemed to be referring to Red X, someone who directly was benefitting from his mistake in making the suit in the first place.

Cyborg was still fuming abit, despite Raven's efforts in calming him down. Starfire blinked and looked further confused by what Raven was saying rather than implying. She was not unfamiliar with jealousy, her sister's first visit prior to finding out the truth was evidence of that. Still, it was too soon for that thought to exist right now. And Beastboy meanwhile, had fallen asleep against the doorframe. That's what he gets for staying up late playing video games!

"What's the first reason?" Robin asked simply. As happy as he was to see her up and walking again, now wasn't the "best" time for this, and based on what she was implying with the other reason, he wanted to know what was going on and how it would affect them.

(Spoke with Obsu, skipping this round)

Batgirl nodded and walked back over to the main computer, pressing a button on her phone and bringing up a diagram of two cities. One was very obviously Jump, the other Robin would recognize as Gotham. "A week ago, Batman and I were working on a case involving two parties. We didn't have much to go on as far as their identities, but we knew they were working on some form of toxin that would mutate a large portion of Gotham's population. Whether these effects would be lethal or permanent was an unknown variable."

The screen flashed to the next page in the slideshow to show a grotesquely disfigured man. At least, on half of his face. The other was pristine. "Harvey Dent, Two-Face, was our first suspect and was confirmed to be the first party. Due to his overwhelming compulsion to disfigure, it seemed like a solid match. When we confronted him, he grabbed the toxin and began to flee the scene, splitting off from his partner. Presumably because he didn't trust that partner due to their history."

Robin had to know where Babs was going with this, but she tapped her phone again a bit violently and a nightmarish image flashed onto the screen. Pale skin, green hair, wide manic eyes, and a psychotic smile. The image practically radiated a psychotic laugh. "Real name unknown, alias "The Joker." After Harvey ran off, Batman had a clear target and had to focus on the weapon at hand. Which meant Joker escaped. I've tracked him down to Jump City, but I don't know where he is just yet."

She turned off her little slideshow and sighed. "I figured you guys would know a solid hiding spot or two and have some ideas as to where he could be hiding, or who he could be working with here. And if not..." She looked at Robin and sighed. "He really likes trying to kill us, so I figured you should be warned that he's in town."

Robin had a unreadable expression on his face as Barbara started to disclose why she was also here. Gotham. Lots of memories- some he'd rather forget to be honest. His expression did change from the stoic poker face to a more grim and dour when she listed off the two suspects- one of which he was all too familiar with and was not someone he'd miss if they had an "accident." "This is just great..." Robin sighed and looked like THAT was one of the few things that would make things worse, had come true. He was definitely not going to jinx it. The others knew enough about what was going on to understand how serious this was. "I have some ideas but there's another issue before we consider that. I'm not sure how much you've been keeping up with current events but the government is trying to crack down on us, arresting us for what we do," Robin added seriously.

"Yeah, they rolled up to our door and everything," Cyborg chimed in.

"Like, we had to fight a GIANT skeleton, ghosts and some horned looking dudes that were bigger than Cinderblock. Didn't see any of them when they were needed!" Beastboy also voiced his frustration.

"I've been trying to look into them and also trying to look into what to do when our two weeks notice is up. This is the time when being outside of the public eye comes in handy," Robin added, not bitter or taking a shot at Batman. He was just stating a fact, he had hoped the fact they WERE out in the open would mean something. Evidently ONLY the people who lived here seemed to care about that.

"So...we're working on borrowed time?" She raised an eyebrow at the group. It was true, most of them didn't have the luxury she or Bruce had back in Gotham. They all stuck out quite easily. Then her gaze stopped on Robin. No one would question Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson walking around with some milkshakes, would they?

"Have you tried...taking off the mask while you're out and about then?" She asked very bluntly, crossing her arms as she did. "You and I can go out and see what we can find as far as hiding out. If Batman has taught us anything, I'm sure there are some lovely caves somewhere under this city that we can use to our advantage." She smiled and laughed. "Don't worry, we know how to make them way more cozy than they have any right to be."

The expression on everyone's faces would confirm it. There weren't many things that could make the situation any worse, and she had found one of them. "I've done some of that after trying to dig up anything from the computer. It's actually very similar to Gotham now that I think about it," Robin replied sullenly, referring to the hair trigger that Arkham had. Except that was now a hair trigger on the whole city- atleast it was keeping things quiet- but it was still too soon since they arrived to say that. "And I would rather they simply leave- since the further from the city we are, the longer it takes us to get to the criminals and the more time between then for DOMA to come after us... but I've thought about that too just incase," Robin added in traditional Robin fashion of obsessing over details. The Mesa was definitely full of places to hide. But if the Hive Five could find a place to hunker down without being found, there was no reason for them not to. It'd solve the distance issue.

Babs shrugged and started walking back into the hallways. "So we have a game plan! Great! Robin and I will start looking for a place for the rest of you guys to hunker down, and uh...we...try and influence an election?" She gestured at the hallway and tried to shoo people out so she could interact with Robin mono y mono. "...No seriously. Get out. I gotta do a thing."

The lenses on her cowl activated as she pulled up her display from her phone. OK, seriously, how does one get rid of a government program? The answers may surprise you. Apparently someone of higher authority has to pull the plug, and civilians have shockingly little power to do anything about it. "Oh that bodes well." She muttered, walking back to the couch. Then the phone call came buzzing in.

"...Shit. Robin, you might wanna...ya know." She made a shooing motion behind her. Robin would probably be able to read it on her visor as the contact came up. Even if it was backward. 'Cave.' Well. Shit.

"The only election going on here is one for mayor. And that's not going to help us right now," Robin sighed before the others got shooed away. The Mayor was also already technically on their side, he'd been the one to give them the "exception" to vigilanteism. Now The Feds were breathing down his neck, and there were other interested parties who may or may not support DOMA. Robin arched an eyebrow when she got a phonecall, moving off to the side as he did catch the name of the caller. This didn't bode well.

Barbara waited until the others had left the room before she held her phone up to her ear. "Good morning Alfred!" She sounded a bit nervous to Robin at least, and held a hand over her mouth. "Yeah, I know I was supposed to call you back." There was another brief period of silence and she sighed. "Y-Yeah, I know its 6 AM back home now..."

She bit her lip and sat back on the couch. "W-Well I didn't want to wake anyone up? And-" Another sigh. "Yeah, I know how late you guys are always up..." She stood up and looked at Robin, then back at the screen in the middle of the tower main ops room. "By the way, I found Robin!" It sounded like she'd cut him off pretty abruptly as she began tapping at her phone.

After a few seconds, a very tired, balding butler appeared on the screen, staring back at them, hands clasped in front of his face. "...Very well. You didn't warn me that this would become a video call, Ms...Batgirl." He sat up in the Batcave's chair and cleared his throat. "And a good morning to you, Robin...I trust things have been going well?" He raised an eyebrow at him and spoke with a tone that very clearly screamed 'you could at least call once in a while.'