The Migratory Birds [Robin/Ask]

Background Theme: Air Gear - Chain
Summary: When the robin met the swallow...

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Swallow, in full red and white uniform, soared through the midnight skyline of Jump City. A stomp on the air here, and another there, followed by an aerial flip and she landed, feet first, on a rundown building in the middle of Jump City's dirtiest secret: the Slums.

Standing up straight from her crouched landing position, the pinkette sauntered over to the edge of the rooftop. Placing a high-heeled sandal at the ledge of the roof and leaning on that knee, the Migratory Bird stared down at the neglected area below.

The Slums of Jump were another place that Simca had decided she would watch over herself. Partly, because it was usually ignored on most Titans Patrols, or perhaps simply not given as much attention; and partly, because it had memories associated with it. Memories that weren't quite her own, but still a part of her.

Simca glanced to her left, and out of the corners of her viridescent eyes, the Swallow spotted the remains of an abandoned rooftop shack.

Bringing her gaze back over to the slums down below, her unerring eyes quickly caught sight of subtle movement.

In a moment, Simca propelled herself over the ledge, in a dive straight towards the source of the noise.

A shadow oddly shaped like a bird fell over the already dim streets before Simca landed with unparalleled grace on the pavement below. She saw the downed old man, and quickly crouched down to check for a pulse. Letting out a sigh or relief as she felt it, Simca, thanks to her ultraviolet vision, saw the traces of the footsteps leading away from the victim, and leading down into a dark alley and into the darkness of the inner city.

Intending to trail and capture the thief who had stolen the poor old beggar's money, Simca leapt into the air, flipping onto one unseen and intangible aerial platform, then from it to another before somersaulting with such enchanting acrobatic skill that she looked like a nymph sailing through the skies.

Every city had a darker side, just as much as the people who called them home. For some, one side would make it more over the line than the other. Jump was no different, but the thought that the line was being held kept one other person in the slums driven. The Titans had as far as most were concerned, had taken a vacation OR had their hands full with other more pressing matters. In spite of what Masters would spin to his listeners, it had been the latter. Their "return" had been timely, arriving just in time to find their city in the midst of a gang war started under the guise of a manhunt from a very ambitious criminal. It had been a mess, but would no doubt have been worse if not for them and the police working together to contain the incident.

That was what brought Robin to The Slums of all place. Based on what the police were willing to share (or rather what a detective Barlowe disclosed) they didn't have any concrete leads as to who was directly responsible. They managed to track down where the server containing the mafia's details and current whereabouts and naturally went to go apprehend the suspects. But somehow they had already packed up and left before they had gotten there. The Detective that Robin had been helping with a case on one of the local gangs was sure that Three Oni had to have orchestrated this in some way; nobody just vanished into thin air, nobody but The "Shadow Ninja" that worked for Three Oni. It wa a good hunch.

So Robin was doing his own investigation into the area, using his micro computer to look for any places that had a lot of computers running that shouldn't. If Three Oni WAS behind it, and based on how cautious their boss seemed to be, there was any number of dark corners in the slums they could be hiding their operations. That's why Robin was here on his own. If all the titans were here searching high and low, they may as well had just brought red and blue flashing lights. So he kept to the rooftops, moving into the shadows as he kept his ears and eyes peeled, while checking his computer from time to time near likely places to hide out. That's when he saw some movement, a figure moving acrobatically through the air. They stood out just enough to be seen in the night sky, and they seemed to be... chasing something- or someone. Maybe they were running FROM something, but he'd never know standing around and so, Robin took out his grappling hook. He fired it at a higher vantage point and reeled himself across the street, gliding silently through the air before gracefully and acrobatically landing back on his feet with practiced silence, following after Swallow. When he first saw her, he thought he was seeing Angel, one of the former HIVE students but she wasn't flying so much as- leaping?

Simca's eyes followed the fading ultraviolet signatures of the footsteps as she sailed across the air, kicking one invisible platform beneath her followed by another before she flipped and landed, crouched, on a rooftop a street across from what appeared to be an abandoned, derelict warehouse, its perimeter wall topped all around by barbed wires.

"Figures," she muttered under her breath, before she felt her hair stand on end and snapped around to stare in the shadows behind her.

"Show yourself," she hissed, a loud whisper, hands clenched into fists as she stood in her eight trigrams opening stance, arms and legs spread wide and joints loose to evade with the subtlest movement. She was instinctively staring in Robin's direction, and, should he be merely hiding in darkness and not solid cover, her night vision would pick him up.