Titans TODAY!

Henry's eyebrows shot up. It wasn't so much that he was surprised she recognized him, though he was a bit. Then again, all of these women were social climbers. They needed to be able to recognize the good marks, after all. It was just... most of them weren't quite this good at... restraining themselves when confronted with a good looking multi-billionaire under twenty-one.

"Right to business, eh?" Henry grinned. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage, though, Miss...?"

"Sir?" Regi's voice said, her face appearing on his HUD again.

"What do you have, Rej?" Henry said internally, carrying on his conversation with Ms. Bloom externally.

"I can find no mention of any Natalie Bloom in any known database matching her description." Regi said in the sort of tone that made Henry think she was genuinely suspicious about something. "I also checked all known databases for individuals with that alias that match her description. No matches were found. I was also unable to locate any record of Robert Stringer having had a son. He has authorized no expenditures to any medical facility for anyone except himself in the past twenty-three years. There are also no records of payments to any boarding schools Mr. Stringer might have sent his son to. Considering no one has ever heard of him, I do not see how that is possible unless the individual present at the party is a fraud..."

"Ya think?" Henry said sarcastically.

"Sir, there's one other thing you should know." Regi continued. "Ms. Bloom is currently receiving a data stream from directly above you. It appears to be a live feed from some form of communication device."

"I want to own that device, Rej." Henry said. "Hack it and find every device the information is being broadcast to. Use the StarSpear Keyhole Satellite. Take control of the entire network. I want to know what these people are up to."

"As you wish, sir." Regi said, her tiny figure nodding.

"Bloom?" Henry said, nodding as she told him her name. "That's a very beautiful name. Do you mind if I call you Natalie? I dislike the formality of surnames and the 'misters' and 'misses' and all that. So... impersonal, don't you think?"

"Hurr-aagh!"

Starfire wrenched a sleek titanium short wall upward and slid out of the compartment space. Wasting no time, she contorted her waist and hooked the back of her legs onto the nearest bar connecting one ledge to the previous wall. She hurled herself forward and latched onto the closest ledge, dragging the rest of her body through without so much as breaking a sweat.

One twist to the left and fiery phoenix-tail hair spilled down her golden bronze back-side. "Evidence is 100%." Violet steel boots trotted soundlessly as they rounded a corner into a darkened alley. "Already stored. Doing a quick once-over before I send it back to the OPs center. Meet me up top, good work lil' lady."

Smile. "As always my friend."

ooOOoo

Beastboy's ears twitched and he bristled. 'Barbra?!?' He screamed inwardly, 'BARBRA?!?!?' He pawed halfway out of her purse and stared at her indignantly, before recoiling and snapping at her. After his darling "Natalie" made a nerd of herself and the pride of sparkled felines dispersed, Beastboy popped his head out and narrowed his eyes.

"I am going to make you pay for this." Which really sounded sort of like, "Arrrrrrrk yip ark!" He bounced up and down and wagged his bushy sickled tail in pure annoyance, opting to bite her if she even attempted to pet him again.

Squeak!

"Hello there."

The chihuahua's ears straightened. Instinctively, he slithered inside the darkness of Raven's purse and suppressed a snarl. Though it wouldn't have mattered, seeing as small dogs carried attitudes bigger than themselves anyway. 'Guy's got clean cut jerk written all over him. By the looks of that cheesy grin of his he's already imagining Raven tangled up in his sheets with her legs around his waist. Not happening.' Beastboy poked his nose through the opening and sniffed, 'Dude! This guy literally just BATHE in his cologne or what?!' His nose twittered a bit and, after catching wind of something faint, leaned halfway out of the bag again. 'The heck is that I smell? Smells like.......like.....alright. Play it smooth Gar.'

"Arrrrrrrk yark yark yark!' Giving his equivalent of a childish smirk, DoggyGar repeatedly hopped up on his hind legs and pressed his nose randomly into Raven's side. His ears twitched wildly as he earnestly sniffed from her hand all the way up to the crook of her elbow. Pressing his nose into her side again, he stood on his hind legs and inched a few centimeters upward......

ooOOoo

Cyborg snapped his scanner shut and looked over at the bank. "Got all the data we need. Hijacked the security room and I did see the old fogey in there, and with the samples you snatched it sums up to some seriously hard evidence." His eyebrows rose considerably when he turned around. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Starfire folded her arms and nodded curtly. "While navigating the labyrinth proved to be a bit of a challenge, leaving those boxes out in such a manner? Cyborg, I do think that it was all too easy." Both titans turned their attention down at the bank in the distance and frowned.

".........Well. damn."

"Well, Miss Parker, it's been a pleasure." Dick said. Tempov was making his speech and Dick had wasted quite enough time already. He inclined his head with a dashing smile. "I'm afraid, however, that I need to excuse myself. I came to do a little business on my father's behalf and I've just spotted the man I've been looking for."

"Oh!" Cecily Parker said, surprised.

"My sincerest apologies." Dick said. He placed his drink on the banister and rebuttoned his jacket. With a few words carefully selected to excuse himself from her, he turned and walked away, his smile dissolving the moment his back was to her. He was glad of this excuse to get away from her.

He walked down the stretch and positioned himself at the top of the stairs, in a dark and quiet nook where he could keep a clear eye on Tempov's double.

"Alright, listen up Titans." he said, dropping the pretense now that it was no longer necessary. "We're moving into position to take Tempov's double now. Raven. Where are you?"

"Bloom?" Henry said, nodding as she told him her name. "That's a very beautiful name. Do you mind if I call you Natalie? I dislike the formality of surnames and the 'misters' and 'misses' and all that. So... impersonal, don't you think?"

How did he know my cover name?

Raven didn't like that.

She was just about to answer when Gar popped up from her black purse, sniffing the air before looking what looked like a...a grin? Beast Boy give a few tiny sqeaks which Raven thought were to be barks. Gar pressed his little black doggy nose to her side, Much to Rae's dipleasure he began sniffing her arm as well. Raven almost glared down at the dog.

People around Rae and Henry were beginning to stare at the little green dog, not used to seeing a toy breed even leave their master's designer purse. One woman gasped at the fact he had actually sniffed Rae. Raven gently batted the little dog down and smiled, as if to exuse the green canine's behaviour. Dispite being softly pushed back into the back, Gar went onto his hind legs and pressed his nose to her side again, moving a little bit too high up the torso if you know what I mean.

Raven shot a dark look at the changling before looking back up at Henry. "I'm so sorry Mr. Stark...I mean Henry." [/color]She said smiling softly. "My Barbra here is misbehaving, we will have to finish this conversation another time." Shooting one last sickly smile she turned and walked away in serch of Robin. "People where stareing Gar, do you NOT understand the meaning of covert?" She hissed quietly at the dog, so silent only he would hear.

"That's fine." Henry smiled. It was all just as well. Tempov was getting to the core of his speech and he had to excuse himself anyway. Perfect timing, Tempov. Right when he doesn't want the idiot to start up with his nonsense. Regardless, the moment Natalie vanished into the crowd, so did Henry. Within the space of a minute, he'd crossed the floor to the entrance into the bathrooms and entered the men's lavatory.

He pulled out a small, rectangular piece of glass with rounded corners and a small, dime-sized glowing circle in one of its corners from an inside pocket. He tapped the screen and clear yet relatively transparent text flooded across the screen, amongst other symbols made up of that bright blue holographic light. He tapped in a code and the small pane of glass instantly changed color. Now it was showing a real time heat scan of everything on behind it. He held it up and swept it around in midair in front of him. The image showed up in dark shades of blue everywhere except for the pipes running along the ceiling and the lights illuminating the counter. Satisfied that there was no one in the place, he tapped in another code and the image changed once more, this time displaying a blueprint of the building superimposed upon a detailed city planning map.

He watched as the small red dot that indicated him moved closer and closer to the marked spot. He turned into the last stall and deactivated the device, tucking it back into his jacket. He locked the stall door and moved to stand on the precise spot indicated. He pointed both hands down, balled into fists, and a moment later plates within the skin opened revealing cutting laser projectors on both hands. Activating the lasers with a thought, he turned on the spot and sliced right through the floor. The block of stone fell out from beneath him and landed in the sewer twenty feet below, Henry atop it.

Henry straightened up and peered up at the hole he'd created. He pulled another small device from another pocket and threw it. The disk landed right on the rim of the hole he mad and then, with a quick buzz, it activated. Anyone who looked into the stall would see nothing but solid floor now, the hologram projector mimicking the pattern of the tiles perfectly. In a few hours' time, the device would dissolve and flow into the sewer water and no one would have any answers as to how the block of stone had been cut out.

Stepping off the block, Henry activated his Greyscale armor. It encased his body perfectly. A moment later, the flight stabilizers in his hands and feet activated and he took off, flying down the tunnel like a rocket. He let Regi do the steering through the tunnel networks. Within minutes, he was underneath the bank four blocks away, right at the base of the ladder leading up to the back alley sewer hatch that he'd hidden his gear underneath. As he stopped, deactivating his armor and pulling off his clothing as he went, Regi's voice sounded.

"Sir." she said. "I've finished commandeering their communications network. There appears to be six main terminals on the network. Five are mobile. The sixth is at a location in the bay."

"Where, specifically?" he asked, pulling the duffle bag he'd placed he'd programmed SQUAD 1 to hide there the day before from behind a large stack of disused cinder blocks. He didn't bother switching his voice to internal mode this time. It wasn't as though someone was going to overhear him.

"I believe I can answer that question with this --." Regi answered. There was a bit of crackling, then an unfamiliar voice played into his ear, as it were.

"Alright, listen up Titans. We're moving into position to take Tempov's double now. Raven. Where are you?"

"Interesting." Henry muttered, grinning. "Titans, eh? So the Mayor got the Teen Titans to do his dirty work on this one..."

"Apparently so." Regi responded, nodding her little blue head on his HUD. "I pulled the dossiers on all known members of the Titans from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's main database. Considering what we know, there is a seventy-seven point six percent chance that the girl you were talking to earlier, Miss Natalie Bloom, was actually this individual:"

A hooded and masked face appeared on his HUD along with all known information connected to it. What was 'known', if you could call it knowing, by the Feds was her name and a rough estimate of her age. And the name was just a nickname -- Raven.

"The voice in the recording likely belongs to the team leader, a young man known only as Robin." Another dossier. "He has a reputation in Gotham City as well. He --."

"Yes. He worked with that freak Batman." Henry nodded quickly. "I do watch the news, Rej. Where are the other three?"

"I have located the positions of the other three mobile network terminals, though I cannot say which of the Titan team members is in what location. I can say with certainty that only one other member of their team is back at the gala. One is currently inside the bank. Another appears to be on the roof across the street. As little is known of their team structure and the capabilities of the individual members, I cannot postulate theories as to which one is most likely to be in which location."

The last three dossiers opened in the HUD while the other two vanished. A green kid, a half-robot oddity, and girl with odd coloring.

"The green one. He was at the party. I'm willing to bet he was that freaky weird green dog. I don't know how he pulled that off." Henry said, considering the images. Some were better than others. They had the quality of private detective's photographs from thirty years ago. This was the best the Feds could do when dealing with people who worked with them. He was safer than he thought. "The big guy. What's all that crap on his face?"

"He appears to have some form of cybernetic implants. The quality of the image makes it difficult to ascertain the exact nature of the devices. I can enhance and analyze if you wish?"

"Don't bother. Not enough time. He's not the one in the bank. He's on the roof."

"Of course." Regi said. "He would stand out inside the bank."

"Yep. And unless the mob has started hiring anti-criminal vigilantes to guard their ill-gotten wealth... we can be fairly sure that Miss Pretty here is the one inside. Not to worry."

"Would you like me to take any measures?"

Henry's lip curled mischievously.


Henry turned the corner off of the alley onto the street a moment later, his face now that of the scarred rendition of Tempov. He was wearing black paramilitary clothing and boots and had a scarf wrapped around his head, neck, and face, leaving only a slit for his eyes. He looked like quite the little terrorist, all things considered. He polished it off, of course, with a good old-fashioned AK-47. He walked in through the rotating doors into the lobby and positioned himself in front of them. He then fired a burst of rounds into the ceiling.

"Alright, everyone!" he shouted as screams filled the giant lobby, his voice a perfect reproduction of Tempov's. "Anyone still standing in three seconds... dies."

Immediately as he said this, a guard ran at him, drawing a gun. Of course, he wasn't so much a guard as he was a mob enforcer dressed up like one. He looked like he spent every waking moment at the gym. The guy shot three rounds at Henry before with a single lazy punch, Henry sent the man flying backward into a wall five feet away. The man collapsed into a heap and didn't move an inch after that. He looked around at the once again screaming patrons.

"Your three seconds starts now."

Beastboy rolled his eyes and turned away from Raven. He rested on his haunches and yawned cheekily, before disappearing into her purse and planting his ear right onto his communicator. Transforming into a small lyrebird, Beastboy clicked the volume downward on his com-vice and blinked. "Rrrrik! We have a situation! We have a situation!" He chittered softly, "Beastboy reporting! Rrrik!"


ooOOoo

"Yes, Robin we are listening....."

Dick watched Tempov continue to speak. He raised his communicator and spoke into it clearly.

"Raven and I will follow Tempov's double when he finishes speaking. At the first available moment, we'll draw him off somewhere private and teleport him to Cy's location." he said into the speaker quietly. On the opposite end, or ends in this case, it would sound like he was speaking in his regular volume because he was holding it so close. But he couldn't risk being overheard by anyone. "Gar. I want you to fly up and find Tempov's private offices up there. See if you can find a safe or something, something with a silent alarm that could draw Tempov's double upstairs. Then tamper with it till you're sure it went off.

"Star. Now that we know what Tempov is after at the bank, head back up and wait for him. I've got a feeling that he's going to use the event as cover. All the police big-wigs in Jump seem to be here and tons of important people. This area must be crawling with cops. There will probably be diminished response time from the police during the event so Tempov should be there any moment. Keep an eye out. Cy. You know what to do."

Raven sighed at the sound of gunshots, resisting the urdge to roll her eyes. You would think these upper-class events would have good security, but some how a loony with a gun gets in. Fantastic job. The people attending the party scramble in a mad panic like ants, Raven could feel every single person's fear in that room. It was pretty over whelming.

Raven took the communicator out of her purse so both her and Gar could listen for instructions. The changling was now a bird, the sudden change into a different green creature not bothering Raven at all.

"Raven and I will follow Tempov's double when he finishes speaking. At the first available moment, we'll draw him off somewhere private and teleport him to Cy's location." Robin said, his voice crystal clear. Raven inwardly grouned.

"Gar. I want you to fly up and find Tempov's private offices up there. See if you can find a safe or something, something with a silent alarm that could draw Tempov's double upstairs. Then tamper with it till you're sure it went off." Robin said to BB, who was probably still in the bloody purse.

Titans go? Raven thought sarcasticly. This should be fuuunnnn....

Both titans closed their communicators and turned toward the bank. Wordlessly Starfire and Cyborg descended from their hideout and cut through the alleyways in earnest. Hooking her hands under Cyborg's shoulders, Starfire raced them toward the Liberty Bank without any seconds to lose. "Gunshots. Cyborg I hear gunshots!'

Cyborg blinked his cybertronic eye and pierced through the opaque walls of the building. "Yea, some lunatic waving around an AK. Idiot, those bullets never fly straight, he's gunna kill somebody." He landed on the ground with a thud and stormed through the glass doors of the building, smashing them and not even caring that he just about vandalized city property.

Starfire stalked into the bank with her eyes narrowed. Broken glass crunched under her reinforced boots and shrieked when she rooted herself next to Cyborg. Every quiver and quake of shaken patrons resonated and she gave into a snarl.

None of it went unnoticed by Starfire.

Cyborg's voice was level. "I'm only gonna say this once. You hurt anybody else, and I'm gonna have to make you eat the pavement. Drop the weapon, TriggerFingers."

"Here is a better suggestion," Starfire challenged, steely, "We will take this outside."

Henry stood with his back to the door as the patrons, by now all laying prone on the cold stone floor of the bank. When the crashing of glass sounded behind him, Henry turned slowly, unflinchingly. He rested the butt of his rifle on his side so the gun was pointing toward the roof and surveyed the two challengers.

"Here is a better suggestion," said the girl. "We will take this outside."

Henry snorted.

"Um... nah." he said in Tempov's voice, his face still hidden by that long patterned white and blue scarf. "I'd rather stay in here. Air conditioning, you know?"

"I don't think you understand." said the robo-guy. "We tellin'! Outside! Now!"

"You believe these people?" Henry said, looking down at a random bank patron looking up at him in fear from the ground. "In one ear and out the other." he looked back up at the pair of titans. "Let's try this again. I've got the guns, so I'll make the rules. And I say no. Besides! My business here isn't concluded! Now why don't you wait in line? Cue's over there..."

He turned and started walking toward the teller's counter at his leisure, draping his rifle over his shoulders as he went lazily.

Five... he thought, grinning under the scarf.