The thud of a door closing echoed through the dark room followed by an ominous creak of footsteps on a wooden floor. A flip of a switch brought a small buzz as the solitary light bulb in a shade less lamp flickered to life and sending several cockroaches scurrying for the shadows.

The room was little more than a hole, peeling wall paper and boarded up windows were the only wall decorations to be had. To one side of the room half of a door hung haphazardly from the remaining hing, beyond it lay broken titles and toilet that was now nothing more than the grave of an unfortunate rat. There was no kitchen. Only a dusty rectangular table with a two small black boxes were there, one on each end.

This would not have been his first choice in locations. The feeling deepened when every step towards the table left a footprint in the grime on the floor. Never before had Red X been this thankful for the gas mask built into his skull-like hood than right now. He could just imagine how... unique this place must smell.

"Thanking you for meeting me." Red X looked back towards the door but it was still closed. Not a person in sight. Surveying the room, he found no trace of the origin of the voice. Until it spoke again. "I have some business I want to discuss with you." Now X's eyes settled on the closer of the two black boxes. It was a radio, or a transmitter, he wasn't sure which but the voice was definitely coming from that.

"I usually prefer to meet in more... sanitary locations." X responded not trying to hide the disgust in his voice.

"I have a job for you." The voice continued as if he hadn't heard the thief's remark. Though for all X knew at the moment it could be nothing more than a recording. "The last person I hired for this failed miserably. As did the ones before him. I hope you will be able to change that."

Red X crossed his arms, waiting for the box to continue while at the same time debating whether or not to just leave.

"If you succeed, you will receive three times the amount of money that is in the box on the table. If you fail, you can use the advance to pay for a lawyer. Think of it as a consolation prize." X made his way towards the other box, this one was larger and had a small flip on it. He picked it up and opened it, behind the mask his eyes widened. Inside were two untraceable bearer bonds, totaling one million.

"That's right. Complete this successfully and you will receive another six of those." X smirked, he could do a lot of damage with four million dollars.

"And just what is this job?" X asked the box, he was pretty sure at this point it was only a recording.

"I want you to deliver a message." Well that proved that assumption wrong...

Cyborg was almost down for the count. Beast Boy swung a powered up punch his way, narrowly missing the robot as he launched into the air. In retaliation Cyborg made a quick move to land a flying kick on his partner but Beast Boy countered, catching him in the air. Everything was set for him to perform a coup de grace, ending it once and for all. Unfortunately, the green titan's victory was interrupted at the last moment as the screen flashed red and an alarm blared.

"I totally had you!" Beast Boy exclaimed, throwing the controller on the ground. Cyborg sighed, his friend was right. But he certainly wasn't going to admit it.

"What's the trouble?" Their team leader asked exiting the elevator, wiping sweat from his brow with a towel.

"Cyborg was just about to get his butt kicked!" The changeling whined.

The mechanical titan threw his controller at Beast Boy hitting him square in the head. "Not sure Robin." He loaded up the report sent over by Jump City's police department.

"Nightwing" the leader coughed. He had abandoned his Robin persona years ago. Swapping the brightly colored suit from a more somber blue and black one. His once round mask now gave a small resemblance to the bat symbol, while his hair had been cut into shorter spikes. Less hair gel.

"Sorry." Cyborg explained, "Old habits die hard."

Nightwing nodded in understanding, Robin had been his moniker for many years but now it belonged to another.

"What is the emergency?" Starfire flew in from the hallway as Nightwing watched the surveillance footage being live streamed to the tower. The alien girl had changed little since they had all met. Except she easily broke six feet. The only titan taller than her was Cyborg and not by much.

"Someone tripped the silent alarm at the museum they are building."

"They are building a new museum? I didn't know that!" Beast Boy had grown, but not by much, he was still shorter than everyone but not as scrawny as he once was.

"No surprise there." Raven deadpanned from behind the green changeling causing him to jump and morph into a ferret.

"Geez Rae!" Beast Boy said as he morphed back. "You can't sneak up on a man like that."

"Enough." Nightwing interrupted as the two titans began to bicker. "We have to go now. It's been four years since we've seen him and we are not letting him get away.

"Who is it?" Cyborg asked as they made their way towards the garage.

"Red X." As the titans left they could see the footage of the thief on the screen, lounging on a priceless medieval bench, casually tossing a ruby the size of a golf ball.

"This is sooo a trap." Beast Boy sighed as the titans amassed one room away from the intruder.

"For once I have to agree with Beast Boy." Raven watched the thief as he continued to lay on the bench. He was now trying to balance the ruby on his foot.

Nightwing pulled out a bat-a-rang while nodding. "We will have to be careful. Who knows what his plan is this time. Starfire, Raven you two go from above, the rest of us will surround him."

With a nod the two girls flew towards the ceiling, keeping to the shadows. Below them the boys spread out, taking their places around the room. The thief continued to play with the ruby in the center of the room, either unaware or uncaring of their presence.

Raven looked around, spying a rope tied around several large crates. "Azerath Metrion Zinthos." She whispered and the rope became engulfed in a black energy. As Nightwing gave her a nod she sent the rope flying as fast as she could at X.

Instead of wrapping tightly around the thief's body as intended the rope went straight through him. The image of Red X faltering slightly as the rope hit the back of the bench landing in a small pile where the thief should have been.

"It's a hologram!" Nightwing shouted as they looked around. "Cyborg find his heat signature!"

Cyborg didn't move. He stared off into the distance, eyes unfocused. "Cyborg?" Nightwing approached him as the blue light illuminating from his electronic parts flickered. The large man leaned forward before smashing into the freshly laid tile with a loud crash. On his back a large red X sat, he had been effectively shut down for the moment.

"Cyborg!" Starfire shouted as she flew to him.

"He'll be fine Star. He is just powered down." Nightwing reassured her as his eyes darted around the room. X was nowhere to be seen.

Above their heads Raven opened her mind, her eyes turned white as she tried to locate the thief.

"Anything Rae?" The sorceress didn't answer; she was still looking. The room they were in was empty and she was now stretching out further. There. She found it. Calm among her anxious teammates. Cold, calculating and a hint of enjoyment, and it was coming closer.

"To the right!" She shouted as Red X stepped into the room.

"Very good Sunshine." X clapped slowly and sarcastically as Nightwing lunged at him. In a moment the thief shot a grappling hook to the ceiling and in his ascent sent a large X toward's the titan. Nightwing's own momentum was against him now as he was slammed hard into the ground. Unable to move he was out. Two down, three to go.

As X neared the ceiling a green bird of prey flew towards him, sharp claws out and ready to rip him into shreds. Three small x's left the criminal's glove causing the green titan to swerve, right into the path of a fourth x. This one was large and gooey. Unable to fly Beast Boy plummeted towards the ground as he struggled against the goop.

Starfire flew after the falling titan as Raven summoned her energy around the rope bringing X up, snapping it. As the thief fell he quickly hit the middle button on his belt, disappearing before he could crash into the ground.

Below her Starfire had caught Beast Boy, who with the help of the goo, was now firmly stuck to her arms, chest and left side of her face. As the two titans struggled, their situation only became worse. Raven needed to help them but she couldn't let her guard down. There was no way X would have just left.

As Starfire finally freed herself from the sticky lump that was Beast Boy. She left the tangled titan to his own mess and flew towards Raven. Picking the remaining goo from her body. The three male titan's lay on the floor defeated below them. Cyborg unconscious, Nightwing pinned but still trying to strain his neck and shout orders, and Beast Boy... Well Beast Boy was desperately shifting into any animal he could think of but was just too covered in goo to escape.

Raven and Starfire placed their backs to each other, the alien's hands glowed green while the sorceress's hands glowed black. Except for their team mates' commotion below the room was still, once more Raven opened her mind and sent herself out in search of the criminal. Finding nothing she turned to Starfire and motioned for them to land.

"Where could he have gone?" Starfire asked as while approaching the pinned Nightwing.

"He is still here somewhere." The hero grumbled as Starfire leaned down to help get the X off of their leader.

"I can't sense him anymore." Raven shook her head as she stood over Beast Boy who had finally calmed down, resorting to whimpering in his human form. The girl really didn't want to touch him and that goo.

Starfire grabbed one corner of the X and pulled. When it didn't budge she took a breath and prepared to give it one huge yank. As the X slowly started peeling off the floor she was sent flying backwards as an X collided with her chest, the edges wrapping around her like a strait jacket. Her arms stuck stretched down in the same pulling motion. Her eyes glowed green with power as another X collided with the back of her legs knocking her to the floor with a thud. Dazed from her skull smashing into the tile she could only gasp as a glob of goo covered her eyes. Four down.

Raven threw bolts of magic in the directions the X's came from. Three very different directions in less than 20 seconds, and nothing landed home.

"Free me Raven!" Nightwing barked as Raven frantically searched for the thief. With a flick of her wrist and chant of her mantra the constraints holding him to the floor were shredded. "Where is he?!"

"I don't know." Raven shook her head trying to focus her magic. "I still can't sense him."

Nightwing pulled out his communicator as he ran towards Starfire. "Robin! Blue Beetle! We need yo-." He was cut off midsentence as a red X knocked the device from his hand before it exploded into tiny shrapnel. "Raven call…" he trailed off as turned to look at his teammate.

Raven was still standing where she had been but now she was bound and gagged in several giant red Xs with her eyes wide in shock. Behind her Red X leaned over her, wrapping his arms around her, whispering in her ear. The thief looked at Nightwing running full speed towards them and with a smirk disappeared, leaving a stunned Raven to fall to her knees. Unable, or unwilling, to comprehend what had just happened.

A/N: I do not own Teen Titans or any of their characters.

The title image is from Teen Titans (2003) Issue 13 Pg. 8