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Description
CHAPTER I

10:00PM PST, Saturday, 5 December
Jump City – Wayne Enterprises Building

The lights of the skyscrapers resembled stars, their glow bright against the inky sky.  They reached upward like spires that stretched on for miles in each direction.  Off in the distance, the lights of the Bay Bridge could be seen blinking, the two towers of the suspended structure like monolithic sentries standing guard to the entrance of the Bay.  Tiny pinpoints of light moved across the span, some white, some red.  Those same motes of light could be seen on the streets in the distance, growing larger and splitting in two as they grew closer.  Below, vehicles turned from street to street, merging or leaving traffic as they went.  Here and there a traffic signal would change color, allowing the masses to pass or stop at its whim.  At one of these intersections a car continued through despite the light having been a solid red, and it paid the penance for ignoring the warning.  The facades of the surrounding concrete canyons became awash in red and blue; the source, a lightbar atop a Jump City Police Department (JCPD) cruiser which pulled out into the intersection to give chase like a wolf on the hunt.  The siren echoed down the canyons until it faded into the distance.

Red X observed all this with patient calculation.  He stood with his right foot on the escarpment of the building, his left on the roof.  He turned his head slowly from left to right, taking in the world through his mask.  The Heads Up Display (HUD) usually tinted everything red at night, but for the moment, he had switched that feature off to take in the cityscape that he viewed as his home and playground; Jump City.

Tonight, specifically, the Museum of Natural History.  Always on the prowl for new items to steal, Red X often kept track of what was being showcased at various museums and galleries in Jump City.  As a high class thief, nothing was beyond his grasp.  In his short career, he had managed to illegally obtain a number of high-value, often considered priceless, artifacts which he sold on the black market for a handsome profit.  The item on his list tonight was the Crimson Sapphire of Burma, an extremely rare and exotic red sapphire that just happened to also be the largest in the world.  Another artifact deemed priceless, X had no doubt the gem would easily fetch over $500,000 if he marketed it correctly.

Without another moment of hesitation, X leapt into the air as he had done countless times previous.  On impulse, he tapped a button on his power core belt that teleported him from being 15 stories atop the Wayne Enterprises building to the roof of the Museum of Natural History, about a block and half and nine stories down from his previous location.  He landed with subtlety and casually walked over to a skylight overlooking the exhibits from ancient Egypt.  Kneeling next to the latch, X held up his left palm and gently pressed his index finger to it.  A small cutting laser shot out from the red 'x' on his hand, melting the latch off the skylight.  He reached down with his right hand and lifted the framed metal and glass window, locking it in place.  Strangely, no alarm was triggered when he did so.  Apparently there was no circuit on the skylight; else it would have gone off.  Unimpeded, Red X placed both hands on the sill of the skylight and leapt down to the museum floor, flipping in mid-air as he fell.  He landed on his feet, going into a kneeling position to help absorb the impact.  He rose, slowly, careful to watch his left and right and ensure his covert entry remained that way.  His HUD had automatically switched on to accommodate for the increased darkness, the room and all the artifacts in it plainly visible, albeit in a red tinge.  The red images also revealed faint beams of light crossing each of the doorways, no doubt detection lasers for the security system.

Those won't be a problem, he thought as he casually stepped over them.  Once in the main hall, it became a simple matter of following the signs to the area where the Crimson Sapphire was on display.  That particular doorway was crisscrossed with no less than 24 different beams, each one pointing a separate direction from the other.  Pausing briefly, X calculated his options.  He could see more lasers crossing the floor and surrounding the display case housing the gem beyond the door.  Turning to his left, X followed the wall a ways until he came to an all-to-conveniently placed wall display.  Using his fingers to feel around it, he pulled it away to discover it hid a breaker panel.  Popping the latch on the access panel open, he scanned down the various breaker circuits until he found the one he wanted.  Flipping the desired switch, he stepped back from the panel and looked to see if his actions bore fruit.

Indeed, they had.  The lasers were off and his path to the Crimson Sapphire clear and unobstructed.  "Easy enough," he said to himself as he walked back the length of the hallway.  He entered the room with caution, but confident in knowing that killing the laser detection system would be the most difficult part of this errand.  He could not be sure if the museum had installed pressure-sensitive tiles that were often used at places like the Smithsonian.  With an ever-decreasing budget, however, a system with such abhorrent expense was too far out of reach for an institution like the one in Jump City.  Red X approached the pedestal upon which sat a glass case housing the Crimson Sapphire.  Without the lights on, to the naked eye it would have appeared dark and unappealing, the brilliant red closer to the color of blood.  The night vision in X's mask accommodated for this, however, and the gem appeared as bright and shimmering as it would in normal light.

X removed a small, cylindrical laser cutting tool from his belt with his right hand and a suction cup with his left.  Securing the cup on the glass, he attached the tool to it, and then activated it by pressing a button on one end.  A red diode came to life and slowly the cylinder began to rotate in a circle around the suction cup.  Eventually it completely circumnavigated around the suction cup, leaving a perfect circular line on the glass.  X pulled on the tool which, still attached to the cup and glass cut-out, came off without any resistance, leaving a perfectly circular hole in the case.  Disassembling the tool and setting the glass circle down at the base of the pedestal, he put the glass-cutter back on his belt, then reached for the Crimson Sapphire, his gloved hand barely able to accommodate the width.  It was heavy, but X knew that would translate to a heavy price tag when it came time to sell it.  "Looks like it's just you and me," he said to himself.

"You can count me in as well," said another voice.  Before X could determine the source, he felt a sharp pain shoot into his right thigh.  Whipping his head around to see what it was, a burning sensation surged through his leg, almost as if it had been set afire, the pain excruciating and debilitating.  He dropped to the floor, the Crimson Sapphire slipping from his grip as he clutched his thigh with both hands, gritting his teeth.  He looked to see two small darts sticking out of his leg, obviously the source of the burning pain.  The gem slid across the floor – into a boot.  A black gloved hand reached down to retrieve the stone, using care and finesse as it placed the gem in one of the cases on a utility belt.  X, still reeling in pain, tried to get his bearings despite the feeling of tingling in his lips and a slight dizziness.  His vision began to blur and he started to get scared.

"The feelings you are experiencing are the result of envenomation, Red X.  You have been injected with venom from the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, approximately 90 milligrams worth, the properties of which are hemotoxic. The amount is just below the estimated lethal dosage for a human, though I'd still get to the hospital - quickly."  Who was this voice and what were they talking about?

"En-venom-ated?"  Asked Red X, still down, but now on his knees.

"Yes, just like if you were to provoke a snake in the woods and it opted to strike you," said the voice, now sounding closer to Red X than it did before.  Its pitch sounded digital, not-all-that dissimilar to Red X's voice masking software.  X now reached up to his head with his right hand to manually switch from the HUD to normal optics, though once he did so, the difference was not much better.  His vision was becoming more impaired and he could feel a moist substance begin to permeate his hands as he tried to cover the puncture wounds, the two metal barbs still embedded in his thigh.  He could make out the silhouette of a figure in some type of suit, the majority of it black.

"Who...are...you?"  Asked X as he struggled and attempted to get his bearings.  The venom began to course through him like nitrous oxide in a fuel system, his breathing becoming more labored with each exhalation.

"Someone who just put you out of business," said the figure, which now reached down and removed the power core belt from Xs' waist, turned on a heel and began to walk towards the doorway at the entrance to the room.  Now with no way to teleport out of the building, X staggered to get to his feet.  He watched as the figure strode past the wall mounted alarm panel, which he pulled without hesitation.  Instantly, the security lights came on and the constant tone of an alarm bell rang throughout the building.  X, trying to adjust to the overabundance of light, began haphazardly meandering towards the entrance, stumbling in the process.  He tried to run for the entrance, but his present condition prevented him from even moving slightly faster than a crawl.  He knew that it would only take the cops a few minutes to arrive and establish a perimeter.  He had to get out, fast.

---

Robin landed gracefully on the concrete of a small alley in the South End of Jump City.  He had spent the preceding hours scanning the rooftops, jumping from one to the next, attempting to locate any miscreants up to no good.  Normally, he would have some luck, but as his luck would have it, it seemed most of the criminals had taken the night off.  For once, the city was quiet, a feeling he enjoyed yet loathed simultaneously.  He casually walked over to the R-Cycle, flipping out his communicator as he did so.  He stopped just short of the bike, waiting for his fellow Titans to respond.  Cyborg, who was back at the Tower, was first.

"'Sup Robin?"  He asked.

"Nothing, South End is clean.  What about the others?"  Replied Robin with his own question.  The other three windows of static flashed over to facial images of Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy.

"I have no activity to report," said Star.

"It's dead over here, too," said BB.

"Ditto," added Raven.

"Police scanners are pretty quiet, Robin.  Just routine radio traffic," Cyborg chimed in after hearing the subsequent reports.  Robin paused for a moment before answering.

"I think we should do one last sweep of the city, just to be sure."

"Dude, there is a possibility that nothing is happening tonight," said BB.  Raven and Starfire seemed to concur.

"We could, but I don't think it would make a difference," Raven said.

"Oh friends, can we not simply return home for a night of movies and the popped corn?"  Asked Star, her exuberance for the activity bubbling over.  Robin decided that it would probably be better for morale if they headed in.  Tonight, it seemed, Jump City would sleep soundly without the blanket of the Titans to cover her.  That thought, however, was dashed just as Robin was about to give them the welcome news.

"Uh, I hate to break up the party before it even starts, but we got trouble," said Cyborg, his expression somewhat surprised.

"What've you got?"  Asked Robin eagerly.

"Somebody's tripped the alarm at the Museum of Natural History.  Police are on the way," he replied.

"So are we," Robin said as he threw a leg over the R-Cycle.

"I'll meet you guys there," said Cyborg, the transmission cutting out after that.  Raven and Starfires' faces also vanished from the screen, leaving just Beast Boy on the communicator.

"How come this always happens whenever we need a night off?"  He asked rhetorically.

"Beast Boy," Robin said as he donned his helmet.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm on my way," he said and with that the screen went completely black.  Robin clipped the device back on his utility belt and then hit the ignition, revving the R-Cycle up before clicking it into gear and pulling out of the alley.  He leaned the bike to the right, hard, then leveled out and rolled on the throttle, kicking it into second gear as he accelerated down the road.

---

This building is too damn big, thought X as he continued at a half walk, half stagger through the museum.  The alarm bell was still ringing like mad in the background, exacerbating the throbbing pain in his head even more.  His breathing had become even more arduous and the blood was now flowing from his thigh in a steady trickle.  The proteins within the hemotoxic venom were destroying blood cells, vessels and tissue.  Normally it was a slow process, but for whatever reason the effects of this venom were far more potent than X had assumed they would be.  After dragging himself through the hallways for what seemed like hours, he saw a large set of doors.

Instinctively he moved towards them, the sole thought of escape his only desire.  That thought was shattered by the appearance of flashing red and blue lights outside, the sounds of sirens dying as they approached.  Damn, thought X as he collapsed in front of the door.  He tried to backpedal, but was too weak.  He knew that if he did not get medical attention soon, he very well could die from the venom now coursing through his circulatory system.  Removing a small knife from his boot, he cut the portion of his suit on his thigh, finding two puncture wounds, barbs still in them, surrounded by a deep red.  He cut off another piece from his other leg and tied it around the wounds, hoping to keep pressure applied to them and slow the flow of blood.  His breathing had now become arduous and he felt the urge to vomit growing in him with each second that passed.

Slowly, he moved closer to the door.

---

Robin set the R-Cycle on the side stand and removed his helmet, setting it on the seat.  He had parked the bike on one of the side streets leading to the main road where the museum was situated.  As he walked toward the building, he took note of the five JCPD Crown Victorias parked in no particular order near the front entrance.  The cars were blue with white tops and two white stripes leading down the sides of the cruiser, the word 'POLICE' emblazoned on the back doors while the department shield and 'JCPD' were on the front.  The low-profile LED lightbars flashed rapidly, their output power nearly blinding up close.  Robin looked to his right and could see red and blue flashes from more lightbars against the glass and edifices of the adjacent buildings, no doubt from units on the other side, establishing a perimeter.  Looking back toward the museum, he could see that some of the lights were on, while on the right hand side, it was dark.  He approached the quintet of cruisers slowly, not wanting to startle the officers.  The lieutenant in charge, who Robin recognized, saw him coming and greeted him appropriately.

"Man, you must be getting slow if I beat you here," he said.  He wore a normal patrol uniform with his badge over his heart and his nametag just above his left breast pocket.  His lieutenant bars were on his collar, parallel to the ground.  He had a crew cut, the sides tapered as it got closer to his ears.  Lieutenant Faraday was a former-FBI agent who had come to the force just a few months after what had been dubbed 'the SOLAR Eclipse.'  Faraday had not been directly involved in the project but knew others who were; most of whom were no longer among the living.  The failure of the FBI to detect a terrorist like Adrian Bose infiltrating its ranks was unforgivable in Faraday's eyes and the repercussions of that failure were beyond description.  He, with several other agents, had resigned their positions with the Bureau and gone back to normal police work or began working private security after the whole fiasco, leaving the Bureau still trying to recover from the exodus.

"I got caught in traffic," replied Robin to Faraday's jab.  Robin respected Faraday; from the way he approached his job to how he carried himself as a person.  In a lot of ways, the man reminded him of Jim Gordon back in Gotham.  He was one of the few street cops that he actually enjoyed seeing while working the city at night.

"I bet," said Faraday in response.

"What've you got?"  Asked Robin, getting down to business.

"Someone tripped the alarm, but by hand.  Not sure who.  I have three patrol teams working to check the inside," said Faraday, pointing with his right hand to the area of the building he was indicating, the first and second story windows on the east side of the structure.

"Would you like some help?"  Asked Robin, trying not to sound to overeager.

"You know I'd say yes any other time, Robin, but most of these officers are fairly new.  I'd like to see how they do without having to worry about how they're going to impress the famous Teen Titans," replied Faraday.  Robin nodded in agreement.  Just then, a rush of air came from above and behind him.  He turned to see Starfire and Raven land softly on the pavement, while Beast Boy morphed from a green falcon back to his human form.

"Glad you could make it," said Robin nonchalantly.

"Likewise," said Raven in her normal deadpan tone.  The trio approached their leader, taking flanking positions next to him.  The unmistakable sound of the T-Car could be heard coming down the road as they turned to watch it approach.

---

Red X was fading in and out of consciousness.  He hoped that the police weren't calling for a SWAT team, as that could take longer that he might have left.  He hated the fact that it had come to this, that he would have to give himself up.  His underlying sense of survival, however, trumped any notion of pride that he might have been contemplating at the moment.  Slowly, he pushed forward on the door only to discover that it was locked.  Nevertheless, he knew he had to keep trying.  Knowing that he was getting closer to going into shock with each minute seemed to keep his motivation up for finding a way out.  He tried to slow his breathing down, taking larger breaths, attempting to remain calm, but his heart rate began to increase as he knew his time was growing shorter with each passing second.

Not like this, he thought, not like this.

---

Outside, Lieutenant Faraday's radio crackled to life.  "5-Romeo-0-3, 9-Romeo-8-5, we shut off the audible alarm.  Also, appears as though the Crimson Sapphire is gone."

"10-4, 9-Romeo-8-5," replied Faraday as he keyed the shoulder mic for the radio.  The Titans had walked back to greet Cyborg as he exited the T-Car behind the marked JCPD cruisers.

---

Red X took one last, deep breath as he felt the vomit coming up his esophagus.  He could taste the bitterness in the back of his throat and he tore off his mask and hurled onto the polished linoleum floor.  He had lost all feeling in his right thigh, the hemotoxic venom beginning to destroy the various blood vessels and tissues surrounding the puncture wound.  The cops must have been waiting on a SWAT team; else they would not be standing by their cars, watching.  X cursed them under his shallow breath, his grip on the door handle and his thigh loosening.   Slowly he sank to the floor, lay flat on his back and fought to keep his eyes open as long as possible.

The two police officers were not expecting to run into anyone, let alone the infamous Red X.  Their surprise was short-lived, however, when they realized he was in bad shape.  Both of his legs were exposed, one bloody and wrapped in a dressing that was obviously from another portion of his suit.  One officer rushed to him while the other reached for his radio.  The officer now overtop of X slapped his face slightly, trying to wake him up.  He pulled out a set of latex gloves from a pouch on his duty belt and began to try and locate the source of the bleeding.  X could tell the man was doing his best to try and help him, but he wasn't moving fast enough.  The officer looked back up when he saw X's eyes blink.  "What happened?"

"Ve-n-nom-m," was all that the thief could muster.

---

The Titans and Lt Faraday waited as the patrol teams searched the interior of the building with little or nothing to report.  They began to think it was just a malfunction with the alarm system instead of a real prowler.  That changed, however, when an officer came over the radio.

"9-Romeo-9-8, need fire rescue here, we found the suspect, he's in bad shape.  Possibly a snake bite.  Pulse is weak and fading, tell them we need a rush on the bus," came the disparaged voice of the officer over the airways.  Faraday wasted no time.

"10-4, 9-Romeo-9-8.  5-Romeo-0-3, Dispatch, I want urgent radio traffic for this burglary, roll fire rescue.  I need SWAT en route to my location…" Faraday started to say it, then looked over at Robin and the Titans.  There might be more intruders, but, if the Titans were here already, better to have them search out the stragglers in the time it would take a SWAT team to mobilize.  "Dispatch, cancel on SWAT, keep fire rescue rolling, copy?"  The radio crackled as the female dispatcher replied.

"10-4 5-Romeo-0-3.  All units, be advised, this station currently urgent traffic reference burglary at Museum of Natural History.  5-Romeo-0-3, fire rescue en route."  Faraday looked back over at where the Titans had been only to find they had disappeared.  Gazing upward, he saw them going over the roof line of the museum.

"5-Romeo-0-3, all units on scene at the museum, our friends our now inside the building, copy?"  As the perimeter units piped off acknowledgements, Faraday's cell phone began ringing.  It identified the caller as 'Emily Standtbridge,' none other than the Commissioner of JCPD.  Of course, she was probably calling to get a situation report.

---

X was out cold.  His body had begun convulsing and his pulse rate had dropped dramatically.  The second officer had run back to the cruiser to grab an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) while the other monitored X's status as it continued to decline.

"There they are!"  Yelled the second police officer as he ran towards his partner with the AED in hand.  The other attending officer turned to see the Titans running over to him, the looks on their faces somewhat lost and confused.  Ignoring them, he looked back down at X.  Whatever type of snake had bit him, it had probably injected every last drop of venom it had.  He grabbed his radio while his partner prepped the AED in the event the thief went into cardiac arrest.

"9-Romeo-9-8, requesting a ETA on fire rescue?  Suspect does not look like he's going to last much longer," barked the officer into his radio.

"9-Romeo-9-8, be advised, ambulance is on scene.  They want you to bring him outside," said the voice of the dispatcher.

Red X could feel himself being lifted up off the floor by a set of large, cold, metallic arms and carried down a set of stairs before finally coming to rest on a pseudo-soft gurney.  He almost didn't feel the needle of the IV as it went into his arm before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

Description
CHAPTER I

10:00PM PST, Saturday, 5 December
Jump City – Wayne Enterprises Building

The lights of the skyscrapers resembled stars, their glow bright against the inky sky.  They reached upward like spires that stretched on for miles in each direction.  Off in the distance, the lights of the Bay Bridge could be seen blinking, the two towers of the suspended structure like monolithic sentries standing guard to the entrance of the Bay.  Tiny pinpoints of light moved across the span, some white, some red.  Those same motes of light could be seen on the streets in the distance, growing larger and splitting in two as they grew closer.  Below, vehicles turned from street to street, merging or leaving traffic as they went.  Here and there a traffic signal would change color, allowing the masses to pass or stop at its whim.  At one of these intersections a car continued through despite the light having been a solid red, and it paid the penance for ignoring the warning.  The facades of the surrounding concrete canyons became awash in red and blue; the source, a lightbar atop a Jump City Police Department (JCPD) cruiser which pulled out into the intersection to give chase like a wolf on the hunt.  The siren echoed down the canyons until it faded into the distance.

Red X observed all this with patient calculation.  He stood with his right foot on the escarpment of the building, his left on the roof.  He turned his head slowly from left to right, taking in the world through his mask.  The Heads Up Display (HUD) usually tinted everything red at night, but for the moment, he had switched that feature off to take in the cityscape that he viewed as his home and playground; Jump City.

Tonight, specifically, the Museum of Natural History.  Always on the prowl for new items to steal, Red X often kept track of what was being showcased at various museums and galleries in Jump City.  As a high class thief, nothing was beyond his grasp.  In his short career, he had managed to illegally obtain a number of high-value, often considered priceless, artifacts which he sold on the black market for a handsome profit.  The item on his list tonight was the Crimson Sapphire of Burma, an extremely rare and exotic red sapphire that just happened to also be the largest in the world.  Another artifact deemed priceless, X had no doubt the gem would easily fetch over $500,000 if he marketed it correctly.

Without another moment of hesitation, X leapt into the air as he had done countless times previous.  On impulse, he tapped a button on his power core belt that teleported him from being 15 stories atop the Wayne Enterprises building to the roof of the Museum of Natural History, about a block and half and nine stories down from his previous location.  He landed with subtlety and casually walked over to a skylight overlooking the exhibits from ancient Egypt.  Kneeling next to the latch, X held up his left palm and gently pressed his index finger to it.  A small cutting laser shot out from the red 'x' on his hand, melting the latch off the skylight.  He reached down with his right hand and lifted the framed metal and glass window, locking it in place.  Strangely, no alarm was triggered when he did so.  Apparently there was no circuit on the skylight; else it would have gone off.  Unimpeded, Red X placed both hands on the sill of the skylight and leapt down to the museum floor, flipping in mid-air as he fell.  He landed on his feet, going into a kneeling position to help absorb the impact.  He rose, slowly, careful to watch his left and right and ensure his covert entry remained that way.  His HUD had automatically switched on to accommodate for the increased darkness, the room and all the artifacts in it plainly visible, albeit in a red tinge.  The red images also revealed faint beams of light crossing each of the doorways, no doubt detection lasers for the security system.

Those won't be a problem, he thought as he casually stepped over them.  Once in the main hall, it became a simple matter of following the signs to the area where the Crimson Sapphire was on display.  That particular doorway was crisscrossed with no less than 24 different beams, each one pointing a separate direction from the other.  Pausing briefly, X calculated his options.  He could see more lasers crossing the floor and surrounding the display case housing the gem beyond the door.  Turning to his left, X followed the wall a ways until he came to an all-to-conveniently placed wall display.  Using his fingers to feel around it, he pulled it away to discover it hid a breaker panel.  Popping the latch on the access panel open, he scanned down the various breaker circuits until he found the one he wanted.  Flipping the desired switch, he stepped back from the panel and looked to see if his actions bore fruit.

Indeed, they had.  The lasers were off and his path to the Crimson Sapphire clear and unobstructed.  "Easy enough," he said to himself as he walked back the length of the hallway.  He entered the room with caution, but confident in knowing that killing the laser detection system would be the most difficult part of this errand.  He could not be sure if the museum had installed pressure-sensitive tiles that were often used at places like the Smithsonian.  With an ever-decreasing budget, however, a system with such abhorrent expense was too far out of reach for an institution like the one in Jump City.  Red X approached the pedestal upon which sat a glass case housing the Crimson Sapphire.  Without the lights on, to the naked eye it would have appeared dark and unappealing, the brilliant red closer to the color of blood.  The night vision in X's mask accommodated for this, however, and the gem appeared as bright and shimmering as it would in normal light.

X removed a small, cylindrical laser cutting tool from his belt with his right hand and a suction cup with his left.  Securing the cup on the glass, he attached the tool to it, and then activated it by pressing a button on one end.  A red diode came to life and slowly the cylinder began to rotate in a circle around the suction cup.  Eventually it completely circumnavigated around the suction cup, leaving a perfect circular line on the glass.  X pulled on the tool which, still attached to the cup and glass cut-out, came off without any resistance, leaving a perfectly circular hole in the case.  Disassembling the tool and setting the glass circle down at the base of the pedestal, he put the glass-cutter back on his belt, then reached for the Crimson Sapphire, his gloved hand barely able to accommodate the width.  It was heavy, but X knew that would translate to a heavy price tag when it came time to sell it.  "Looks like it's just you and me," he said to himself.

"You can count me in as well," said another voice.  Before X could determine the source, he felt a sharp pain shoot into his right thigh.  Whipping his head around to see what it was, a burning sensation surged through his leg, almost as if it had been set afire, the pain excruciating and debilitating.  He dropped to the floor, the Crimson Sapphire slipping from his grip as he clutched his thigh with both hands, gritting his teeth.  He looked to see two small darts sticking out of his leg, obviously the source of the burning pain.  The gem slid across the floor – into a boot.  A black gloved hand reached down to retrieve the stone, using care and finesse as it placed the gem in one of the cases on a utility belt.  X, still reeling in pain, tried to get his bearings despite the feeling of tingling in his lips and a slight dizziness.  His vision began to blur and he started to get scared.

"The feelings you are experiencing are the result of envenomation, Red X.  You have been injected with venom from the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, approximately 90 milligrams worth, the properties of which are hemotoxic. The amount is just below the estimated lethal dosage for a human, though I'd still get to the hospital - quickly."  Who was this voice and what were they talking about?

"En-venom-ated?"  Asked Red X, still down, but now on his knees.

"Yes, just like if you were to provoke a snake in the woods and it opted to strike you," said the voice, now sounding closer to Red X than it did before.  Its pitch sounded digital, not-all-that dissimilar to Red X's voice masking software.  X now reached up to his head with his right hand to manually switch from the HUD to normal optics, though once he did so, the difference was not much better.  His vision was becoming more impaired and he could feel a moist substance begin to permeate his hands as he tried to cover the puncture wounds, the two metal barbs still embedded in his thigh.  He could make out the silhouette of a figure in some type of suit, the majority of it black.

"Who...are...you?"  Asked X as he struggled and attempted to get his bearings.  The venom began to course through him like nitrous oxide in a fuel system, his breathing becoming more labored with each exhalation.

"Someone who just put you out of business," said the figure, which now reached down and removed the power core belt from Xs' waist, turned on a heel and began to walk towards the doorway at the entrance to the room.  Now with no way to teleport out of the building, X staggered to get to his feet.  He watched as the figure strode past the wall mounted alarm panel, which he pulled without hesitation.  Instantly, the security lights came on and the constant tone of an alarm bell rang throughout the building.  X, trying to adjust to the overabundance of light, began haphazardly meandering towards the entrance, stumbling in the process.  He tried to run for the entrance, but his present condition prevented him from even moving slightly faster than a crawl.  He knew that it would only take the cops a few minutes to arrive and establish a perimeter.  He had to get out, fast.

---

Robin landed gracefully on the concrete of a small alley in the South End of Jump City.  He had spent the preceding hours scanning the rooftops, jumping from one to the next, attempting to locate any miscreants up to no good.  Normally, he would have some luck, but as his luck would have it, it seemed most of the criminals had taken the night off.  For once, the city was quiet, a feeling he enjoyed yet loathed simultaneously.  He casually walked over to the R-Cycle, flipping out his communicator as he did so.  He stopped just short of the bike, waiting for his fellow Titans to respond.  Cyborg, who was back at the Tower, was first.

"'Sup Robin?"  He asked.

"Nothing, South End is clean.  What about the others?"  Replied Robin with his own question.  The other three windows of static flashed over to facial images of Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy.

"I have no activity to report," said Star.

"It's dead over here, too," said BB.

"Ditto," added Raven.

"Police scanners are pretty quiet, Robin.  Just routine radio traffic," Cyborg chimed in after hearing the subsequent reports.  Robin paused for a moment before answering.

"I think we should do one last sweep of the city, just to be sure."

"Dude, there is a possibility that nothing is happening tonight," said BB.  Raven and Starfire seemed to concur.

"We could, but I don't think it would make a difference," Raven said.

"Oh friends, can we not simply return home for a night of movies and the popped corn?"  Asked Star, her exuberance for the activity bubbling over.  Robin decided that it would probably be better for morale if they headed in.  Tonight, it seemed, Jump City would sleep soundly without the blanket of the Titans to cover her.  That thought, however, was dashed just as Robin was about to give them the welcome news.

"Uh, I hate to break up the party before it even starts, but we got trouble," said Cyborg, his expression somewhat surprised.

"What've you got?"  Asked Robin eagerly.

"Somebody's tripped the alarm at the Museum of Natural History.  Police are on the way," he replied.

"So are we," Robin said as he threw a leg over the R-Cycle.

"I'll meet you guys there," said Cyborg, the transmission cutting out after that.  Raven and Starfires' faces also vanished from the screen, leaving just Beast Boy on the communicator.

"How come this always happens whenever we need a night off?"  He asked rhetorically.

"Beast Boy," Robin said as he donned his helmet.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm on my way," he said and with that the screen went completely black.  Robin clipped the device back on his utility belt and then hit the ignition, revving the R-Cycle up before clicking it into gear and pulling out of the alley.  He leaned the bike to the right, hard, then leveled out and rolled on the throttle, kicking it into second gear as he accelerated down the road.

---

This building is too damn big, thought X as he continued at a half walk, half stagger through the museum.  The alarm bell was still ringing like mad in the background, exacerbating the throbbing pain in his head even more.  His breathing had become even more arduous and the blood was now flowing from his thigh in a steady trickle.  The proteins within the hemotoxic venom were destroying blood cells, vessels and tissue.  Normally it was a slow process, but for whatever reason the effects of this venom were far more potent than X had assumed they would be.  After dragging himself through the hallways for what seemed like hours, he saw a large set of doors.

Instinctively he moved towards them, the sole thought of escape his only desire.  That thought was shattered by the appearance of flashing red and blue lights outside, the sounds of sirens dying as they approached.  Damn, thought X as he collapsed in front of the door.  He tried to backpedal, but was too weak.  He knew that if he did not get medical attention soon, he very well could die from the venom now coursing through his circulatory system.  Removing a small knife from his boot, he cut the portion of his suit on his thigh, finding two puncture wounds, barbs still in them, surrounded by a deep red.  He cut off another piece from his other leg and tied it around the wounds, hoping to keep pressure applied to them and slow the flow of blood.  His breathing had now become arduous and he felt the urge to vomit growing in him with each second that passed.

Slowly, he moved closer to the door.

---

Robin set the R-Cycle on the side stand and removed his helmet, setting it on the seat.  He had parked the bike on one of the side streets leading to the main road where the museum was situated.  As he walked toward the building, he took note of the five JCPD Crown Victorias parked in no particular order near the front entrance.  The cars were blue with white tops and two white stripes leading down the sides of the cruiser, the word 'POLICE' emblazoned on the back doors while the department shield and 'JCPD' were on the front.  The low-profile LED lightbars flashed rapidly, their output power nearly blinding up close.  Robin looked to his right and could see red and blue flashes from more lightbars against the glass and edifices of the adjacent buildings, no doubt from units on the other side, establishing a perimeter.  Looking back toward the museum, he could see that some of the lights were on, while on the right hand side, it was dark.  He approached the quintet of cruisers slowly, not wanting to startle the officers.  The lieutenant in charge, who Robin recognized, saw him coming and greeted him appropriately.

"Man, you must be getting slow if I beat you here," he said.  He wore a normal patrol uniform with his badge over his heart and his nametag just above his left breast pocket.  His lieutenant bars were on his collar, parallel to the ground.  He had a crew cut, the sides tapered as it got closer to his ears.  Lieutenant Faraday was a former-FBI agent who had come to the force just a few months after what had been dubbed 'the SOLAR Eclipse.'  Faraday had not been directly involved in the project but knew others who were; most of whom were no longer among the living.  The failure of the FBI to detect a terrorist like Adrian Bose infiltrating its ranks was unforgivable in Faraday's eyes and the repercussions of that failure were beyond description.  He, with several other agents, had resigned their positions with the Bureau and gone back to normal police work or began working private security after the whole fiasco, leaving the Bureau still trying to recover from the exodus.

"I got caught in traffic," replied Robin to Faraday's jab.  Robin respected Faraday; from the way he approached his job to how he carried himself as a person.  In a lot of ways, the man reminded him of Jim Gordon back in Gotham.  He was one of the few street cops that he actually enjoyed seeing while working the city at night.

"I bet," said Faraday in response.

"What've you got?"  Asked Robin, getting down to business.

"Someone tripped the alarm, but by hand.  Not sure who.  I have three patrol teams working to check the inside," said Faraday, pointing with his right hand to the area of the building he was indicating, the first and second story windows on the east side of the structure.

"Would you like some help?"  Asked Robin, trying not to sound to overeager.

"You know I'd say yes any other time, Robin, but most of these officers are fairly new.  I'd like to see how they do without having to worry about how they're going to impress the famous Teen Titans," replied Faraday.  Robin nodded in agreement.  Just then, a rush of air came from above and behind him.  He turned to see Starfire and Raven land softly on the pavement, while Beast Boy morphed from a green falcon back to his human form.

"Glad you could make it," said Robin nonchalantly.

"Likewise," said Raven in her normal deadpan tone.  The trio approached their leader, taking flanking positions next to him.  The unmistakable sound of the T-Car could be heard coming down the road as they turned to watch it approach.

---

Red X was fading in and out of consciousness.  He hoped that the police weren't calling for a SWAT team, as that could take longer that he might have left.  He hated the fact that it had come to this, that he would have to give himself up.  His underlying sense of survival, however, trumped any notion of pride that he might have been contemplating at the moment.  Slowly, he pushed forward on the door only to discover that it was locked.  Nevertheless, he knew he had to keep trying.  Knowing that he was getting closer to going into shock with each minute seemed to keep his motivation up for finding a way out.  He tried to slow his breathing down, taking larger breaths, attempting to remain calm, but his heart rate began to increase as he knew his time was growing shorter with each passing second.

Not like this, he thought, not like this.

---

Outside, Lieutenant Faraday's radio crackled to life.  "5-Romeo-0-3, 9-Romeo-8-5, we shut off the audible alarm.  Also, appears as though the Crimson Sapphire is gone."

"10-4, 9-Romeo-8-5," replied Faraday as he keyed the shoulder mic for the radio.  The Titans had walked back to greet Cyborg as he exited the T-Car behind the marked JCPD cruisers.

---

Red X took one last, deep breath as he felt the vomit coming up his esophagus.  He could taste the bitterness in the back of his throat and he tore off his mask and hurled onto the polished linoleum floor.  He had lost all feeling in his right thigh, the hemotoxic venom beginning to destroy the various blood vessels and tissues surrounding the puncture wound.  The cops must have been waiting on a SWAT team; else they would not be standing by their cars, watching.  X cursed them under his shallow breath, his grip on the door handle and his thigh loosening.   Slowly he sank to the floor, lay flat on his back and fought to keep his eyes open as long as possible.

The two police officers were not expecting to run into anyone, let alone the infamous Red X.  Their surprise was short-lived, however, when they realized he was in bad shape.  Both of his legs were exposed, one bloody and wrapped in a dressing that was obviously from another portion of his suit.  One officer rushed to him while the other reached for his radio.  The officer now overtop of X slapped his face slightly, trying to wake him up.  He pulled out a set of latex gloves from a pouch on his duty belt and began to try and locate the source of the bleeding.  X could tell the man was doing his best to try and help him, but he wasn't moving fast enough.  The officer looked back up when he saw X's eyes blink.  "What happened?"

"Ve-n-nom-m," was all that the thief could muster.

---

The Titans and Lt Faraday waited as the patrol teams searched the interior of the building with little or nothing to report.  They began to think it was just a malfunction with the alarm system instead of a real prowler.  That changed, however, when an officer came over the radio.

"9-Romeo-9-8, need fire rescue here, we found the suspect, he's in bad shape.  Possibly a snake bite.  Pulse is weak and fading, tell them we need a rush on the bus," came the disparaged voice of the officer over the airways.  Faraday wasted no time.

"10-4, 9-Romeo-9-8.  5-Romeo-0-3, Dispatch, I want urgent radio traffic for this burglary, roll fire rescue.  I need SWAT en route to my location…" Faraday started to say it, then looked over at Robin and the Titans.  There might be more intruders, but, if the Titans were here already, better to have them search out the stragglers in the time it would take a SWAT team to mobilize.  "Dispatch, cancel on SWAT, keep fire rescue rolling, copy?"  The radio crackled as the female dispatcher replied.

"10-4 5-Romeo-0-3.  All units, be advised, this station currently urgent traffic reference burglary at Museum of Natural History.  5-Romeo-0-3, fire rescue en route."  Faraday looked back over at where the Titans had been only to find they had disappeared.  Gazing upward, he saw them going over the roof line of the museum.

"5-Romeo-0-3, all units on scene at the museum, our friends our now inside the building, copy?"  As the perimeter units piped off acknowledgements, Faraday's cell phone began ringing.  It identified the caller as 'Emily Standtbridge,' none other than the Commissioner of JCPD.  Of course, she was probably calling to get a situation report.

---

X was out cold.  His body had begun convulsing and his pulse rate had dropped dramatically.  The second officer had run back to the cruiser to grab an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) while the other monitored X's status as it continued to decline.

"There they are!"  Yelled the second police officer as he ran towards his partner with the AED in hand.  The other attending officer turned to see the Titans running over to him, the looks on their faces somewhat lost and confused.  Ignoring them, he looked back down at X.  Whatever type of snake had bit him, it had probably injected every last drop of venom it had.  He grabbed his radio while his partner prepped the AED in the event the thief went into cardiac arrest.

"9-Romeo-9-8, requesting a ETA on fire rescue?  Suspect does not look like he's going to last much longer," barked the officer into his radio.

"9-Romeo-9-8, be advised, ambulance is on scene.  They want you to bring him outside," said the voice of the dispatcher.

Red X could feel himself being lifted up off the floor by a set of large, cold, metallic arms and carried down a set of stairs before finally coming to rest on a pseudo-soft gurney.  He almost didn't feel the needle of the IV as it went into his arm before he slipped back into unconsciousness.