Working on a Case, chapter 15: Titans Together?
Characters: Titans as of the end of the Family Lost paperback, starting with Bart Allen (Kid Flash) and Tim Drake (Robin). This installment also includes Cassie Sandsmark (Wonder Girl), Koriand’r (Starfire), Conner “Kon” Kent (Superboy), Gar Logan (Beast Boy), and Victor Stone (Cyborg).
Rating: PG.
Content: Mystery with comic relief, or perhaps comedy with mystery relief.
Word Count: about 1,200 words per chapter. Unknown number of chapters.
Summary: Bart Allen as Kid Flash wants to help Robin on a Titans case involving a convict with a super-power and a strange police record. He knows honing his investigatory skills will require insight, concentration, and...what was the third thing? The Titans assemble on a ridge in the Sierra Nevadas as they prepare to chase down an escaped criminal.
Continuity: DC Comics standard.
Disclaimer: The Titans and its members are owned by DC Comics under copyright and trademark laws. This pastiche is offered freely with no hope of commercial reward.
Notes: It all started here.
Chapter 15
Titans Together?
When all of us Titans are going to meet someplace, my job is to run there right away and activate the homing signal on my communicator so everyone else will know exactly where to go.
Which is easy, and makes me happy to have an important job, but then I’m waiting waiting waiting for everyone else to come. I try thinking about our Cross Cut case, but I don’t see anything to deduce, and I can’t find any more stuff to stick into the CHASE system, and my stomach is noticing how long it’s been since I ate breakfast, and-
Kory and Cassie come in for a landing beside me.
“Finally!”
“Bart, you set off your signal six minutes ago,” says Cassie.
“I know!”
Kon flies in from a slightly different direction, with Tim hanging from his arms, and they land on another part of the ridge. “What are those papers?” Tim asks the girls.
“Ooh! Those are maps from Air Traffic Control!” I say.
Cassie’s busy saying, “Hi,” to Kon while Kon is saying, “Hey,” to Cassie, and it looks like they want to say a lot more, so I run over and take the pages from her arms and hold them up one at a time for Tim.
“See, this is where the Haumann model S-140-it says that somewhere, in code-where it took off from Alcatraz, and then it flew onto this map, but by then the transponder thingie was turned off, but Cassie figured out that it came back from the ocean and flew over here-no, wait, this one’s upside-down-”
“Can I look at them all?” says Tim gently, so I let him take the maps and lay them out on the flat ground. I run off to fetch rocks to weigh down the papers so the wind doesn’t blow them away, but my running makes them blow away, so I run back to slap them back down on the ground.
“See, here’s where the paths end,” I say, pointing to a spot just west of Saddle Mountain.
“Mmm,” says Tim, and his finger traces the line past us into Nevada. He taps his communicator and makes his voice even lower than when he talks to bad guys and says: “Yes, sheriff. My name is Draper, and I’m working with the U.S. Marshals. This morning, have you received any calls about a low-flying helicopter? . . . About 7:20? That’s very helpful, thank you. Our office will be in touch if we need anything more.”
Tim reaches into his utility belt and pulls out what looks like a regular pencil, but I deduce that it’s a bat-pencil that turns into a laser or dartgun or something. Tim uses it to mark a spot on the map, then moves his finger to a big gray patch with square edges marked USAF RESTRICTED SPACE - LEVEL D.
“Ooh, what’s that?”
Tim taps his radio again. “Oracle?”
“Hi, Oracle!” I call.
Tim waves at me to shush. “We’re tracking a low-flying helicopter close to AFB 51. You got any useful intercepts this morning?”
I don’t hear Oracle’s voice, so I bend down close to Tim’s head while I’m shaking and poking my communicator to make it work again, but all I hear is Tim saying, “Nothing? So it didn’t go that far. Oh?” His fingers goes back along the flight paths all the way to California and a little starry shape labeled CARSON RESERVOIR. “Thanks, we’ll check that. Robin out.”
“What? What?” I ask Tim, jumping back to my feet. “What’s Carson Reservoir? Did the helicopter turn back?”
“Incoming! Clear the deck!” A green hawk swoops past us and lands on a boulder. “Vic’s about twenty seconds out.” So Kory and Kon and Cassie step back.
Vic comes down-WHOMP!-and the ground shakes. The patch of grass where he lands gets kind of torn up even though he bends his knees.
“So what have we got?” Vic asks, and everyone looks at Tim.
“The helicopter carrying Cross Cut, Dr. Ignatieff, and the Marshals crossed into west-central Nevada,” Tim says, gathering and folding the maps. “It doesn’t look like it went as far as Air Force Base 51-I’m thinking it landed in the desert. Also, twenty-five minutes ago some fishermen reported a helicopter dumping something in Carson Reservoir.”
“Ooh, a Suspicious Event!” I say. “Maybe Cross Cut dropped the machine gun in the lake so no one could find it!”
“Maybe he dropped one of the marshals,” says Tim, and suddenly working on this case is less fun.
“All right then,” says Vic, clanging his hands together. “Two squads: one chases the chopper, the other flies back to the reservoir.”
“Cassie and I can head back,” says Kon. Which is kind of weird, since he usually wants to be in front
“No, you’re on different squads,” says Vic. “And hands to yourself.”
Kon says, “Yes, sir,” which he never would have said back before we were Titans, and I squint to see if he’s really Kon or if he’s Match again, and I notice Cassie isn’t letting his hand go.
“It’s all right,” she tells Vic.
“No, it’s not,” says Vic. “We’re working now, and I want everyone’s mind on this case.”
“What is the problem?” Cassie snaps. “You’ve been grumbling at Superboy all morning.”
Vic frowns. “I should grumble at you, too. You two were out last night until almost three-thirty.”
“I didn’t know we had a curfew,” Cassie says, and I gulp ’cause I didn’t know either, and Tim and I were out working on this case, but then I get that she’s being sarcastic. “We just flew out to a beach.”
“What if your mother had called and asked me where you were?”
“She knew where I was-I called her! I even gave Kon my cell to talk to her!”
Kon nods, looking a little embarrassed. “She did.”
Vic shakes his head. “I don’t want love affairs on this team.”
“But, Vic-” says Kory.
“You and Dick were different,” Vic tells her. “Older. Mature.”
“And all over each other,” says Gar. “Come on, metalhead! Conner and Cassie are, what, sixteen? Of course they’re gonna fall in love!”
“Yeah?” says Vic. “And how’d that work out for you, greenie?”
Suddenly Gar’s smile turns flat, and his nostrils flare. He’s actually quiet for eight seconds before he says, “Fuck you, Stone.” Then he turns into a green cheetah and races down into the trees.
I jump up to catch him, but Tim grabs my wrist and shakes his head.
“Aw, shit. Gar! I didn’t mean it like that!” Vic takes a couple of steps toward the trees and then looks back up at Kory. “We need him for searching the reservoir.”
“Go find him,” says Kory. “Meet us there. I’ll handle things.”
Vic nods and takes one of his big jumps, and we see him soar over the stand of trees and out of sight, and I deduce he’s going to meet Gar at the bottom.
Kory turns and looks at the rest of us.
“Someone should call the Marshals,” Tim says quietly.
“I know. Kid Flash, Superboy, and Robin, you track the helicopter. Cassie, you come with me.”
“Really, Cassie and I can work together,” Kon says. “I swear, it’s not a problem-”
“Not now,” says Kory, with a glance down to where Vic has disappeared into the trees.
And I don’t know what’s going on, and I look at Kon and Cassie, and they don’t know what’s going on, either, and I look at Tim, and even he doesn’t know. He just walks over and lifts his arms for Kon to grab him and says, “Let’s go.”
Continued here.
Rating: PG.
Content: Mystery with comic relief, or perhaps comedy with mystery relief.
Word Count: about 1,200 words per chapter. Unknown number of chapters.
Summary: Bart Allen as Kid Flash wants to help Robin on a Titans case involving a convict with a super-power and a strange police record. He knows honing his investigatory skills will require insight, concentration, and...what was the third thing? The Titans assemble on a ridge in the Sierra Nevadas as they prepare to chase down an escaped criminal.
Continuity: DC Comics standard.
Disclaimer: The Titans and its members are owned by DC Comics under copyright and trademark laws. This pastiche is offered freely with no hope of commercial reward.
Notes: It all started here.
Chapter 15
Titans Together?
When all of us Titans are going to meet someplace, my job is to run there right away and activate the homing signal on my communicator so everyone else will know exactly where to go.
Which is easy, and makes me happy to have an important job, but then I’m waiting waiting waiting for everyone else to come. I try thinking about our Cross Cut case, but I don’t see anything to deduce, and I can’t find any more stuff to stick into the CHASE system, and my stomach is noticing how long it’s been since I ate breakfast, and-
Kory and Cassie come in for a landing beside me.
“Finally!”
“Bart, you set off your signal six minutes ago,” says Cassie.
“I know!”
Kon flies in from a slightly different direction, with Tim hanging from his arms, and they land on another part of the ridge. “What are those papers?” Tim asks the girls.
“Ooh! Those are maps from Air Traffic Control!” I say.
Cassie’s busy saying, “Hi,” to Kon while Kon is saying, “Hey,” to Cassie, and it looks like they want to say a lot more, so I run over and take the pages from her arms and hold them up one at a time for Tim.
“See, this is where the Haumann model S-140-it says that somewhere, in code-where it took off from Alcatraz, and then it flew onto this map, but by then the transponder thingie was turned off, but Cassie figured out that it came back from the ocean and flew over here-no, wait, this one’s upside-down-”
“Can I look at them all?” says Tim gently, so I let him take the maps and lay them out on the flat ground. I run off to fetch rocks to weigh down the papers so the wind doesn’t blow them away, but my running makes them blow away, so I run back to slap them back down on the ground.
“See, here’s where the paths end,” I say, pointing to a spot just west of Saddle Mountain.
“Mmm,” says Tim, and his finger traces the line past us into Nevada. He taps his communicator and makes his voice even lower than when he talks to bad guys and says: “Yes, sheriff. My name is Draper, and I’m working with the U.S. Marshals. This morning, have you received any calls about a low-flying helicopter? . . . About 7:20? That’s very helpful, thank you. Our office will be in touch if we need anything more.”
Tim reaches into his utility belt and pulls out what looks like a regular pencil, but I deduce that it’s a bat-pencil that turns into a laser or dartgun or something. Tim uses it to mark a spot on the map, then moves his finger to a big gray patch with square edges marked USAF RESTRICTED SPACE - LEVEL D.
“Ooh, what’s that?”
Tim taps his radio again. “Oracle?”
“Hi, Oracle!” I call.
Tim waves at me to shush. “We’re tracking a low-flying helicopter close to AFB 51. You got any useful intercepts this morning?”
I don’t hear Oracle’s voice, so I bend down close to Tim’s head while I’m shaking and poking my communicator to make it work again, but all I hear is Tim saying, “Nothing? So it didn’t go that far. Oh?” His fingers goes back along the flight paths all the way to California and a little starry shape labeled CARSON RESERVOIR. “Thanks, we’ll check that. Robin out.”
“What? What?” I ask Tim, jumping back to my feet. “What’s Carson Reservoir? Did the helicopter turn back?”
“Incoming! Clear the deck!” A green hawk swoops past us and lands on a boulder. “Vic’s about twenty seconds out.” So Kory and Kon and Cassie step back.
Vic comes down-WHOMP!-and the ground shakes. The patch of grass where he lands gets kind of torn up even though he bends his knees.
“So what have we got?” Vic asks, and everyone looks at Tim.
“The helicopter carrying Cross Cut, Dr. Ignatieff, and the Marshals crossed into west-central Nevada,” Tim says, gathering and folding the maps. “It doesn’t look like it went as far as Air Force Base 51-I’m thinking it landed in the desert. Also, twenty-five minutes ago some fishermen reported a helicopter dumping something in Carson Reservoir.”
“Ooh, a Suspicious Event!” I say. “Maybe Cross Cut dropped the machine gun in the lake so no one could find it!”
“Maybe he dropped one of the marshals,” says Tim, and suddenly working on this case is less fun.
“All right then,” says Vic, clanging his hands together. “Two squads: one chases the chopper, the other flies back to the reservoir.”
“Cassie and I can head back,” says Kon. Which is kind of weird, since he usually wants to be in front
“No, you’re on different squads,” says Vic. “And hands to yourself.”
Kon says, “Yes, sir,” which he never would have said back before we were Titans, and I squint to see if he’s really Kon or if he’s Match again, and I notice Cassie isn’t letting his hand go.
“It’s all right,” she tells Vic.
“No, it’s not,” says Vic. “We’re working now, and I want everyone’s mind on this case.”
“What is the problem?” Cassie snaps. “You’ve been grumbling at Superboy all morning.”
Vic frowns. “I should grumble at you, too. You two were out last night until almost three-thirty.”
“I didn’t know we had a curfew,” Cassie says, and I gulp ’cause I didn’t know either, and Tim and I were out working on this case, but then I get that she’s being sarcastic. “We just flew out to a beach.”
“What if your mother had called and asked me where you were?”
“She knew where I was-I called her! I even gave Kon my cell to talk to her!”
Kon nods, looking a little embarrassed. “She did.”
Vic shakes his head. “I don’t want love affairs on this team.”
“But, Vic-” says Kory.
“You and Dick were different,” Vic tells her. “Older. Mature.”
“And all over each other,” says Gar. “Come on, metalhead! Conner and Cassie are, what, sixteen? Of course they’re gonna fall in love!”
“Yeah?” says Vic. “And how’d that work out for you, greenie?”
Suddenly Gar’s smile turns flat, and his nostrils flare. He’s actually quiet for eight seconds before he says, “Fuck you, Stone.” Then he turns into a green cheetah and races down into the trees.
I jump up to catch him, but Tim grabs my wrist and shakes his head.
“Aw, shit. Gar! I didn’t mean it like that!” Vic takes a couple of steps toward the trees and then looks back up at Kory. “We need him for searching the reservoir.”
“Go find him,” says Kory. “Meet us there. I’ll handle things.”
Vic nods and takes one of his big jumps, and we see him soar over the stand of trees and out of sight, and I deduce he’s going to meet Gar at the bottom.
Kory turns and looks at the rest of us.
“Someone should call the Marshals,” Tim says quietly.
“I know. Kid Flash, Superboy, and Robin, you track the helicopter. Cassie, you come with me.”
“Really, Cassie and I can work together,” Kon says. “I swear, it’s not a problem-”
“Not now,” says Kory, with a glance down to where Vic has disappeared into the trees.
And I don’t know what’s going on, and I look at Kon and Cassie, and they don’t know what’s going on, either, and I look at Tim, and even he doesn’t know. He just walks over and lifts his arms for Kon to grab him and says, “Let’s go.”
Continued here.