The Lonely Bird

Chapter 6

I woke up drenched in sweat with a scream on my lips. I was panting and disoriented. It took me a second to notice that the crime alert was going off and somebody was banging at my door.

"Raven!! Cmon, hurry up! We gotta go!!"

I wiped off my sweat and quickly swiped on some deodorant before sprinting out the door. Damian was there waiting for me, and we ran off towards the garage.

"Are you alright? You look a little ill."

"I'm fine," I retorted curtly, "any idea what the crime alert is for?"

Damian looked taken aback by my tone, but he responded, "We've got three reported robberies. Starfire and Beast Boy are taking the one in the north sector while Miss Martian and Kid Flash take the one in the south. You and I are headed to the one on the east side."

"I don't like the sound of this. I think somebody is trying to draw our attention, probably away from something going down in the west sector."

"I agree. Let's not waste any time so we can get over there and investigate."

Arriving in the garage, Robin hopped on his motorcycle, and he led the way to our destination. As I flew beside him, I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of a trap or an ambush. Luckily, I saw nothing suspicious.

Robin slowed to a stop in front of a jewelry store. "Ice" was spelled out in cursive above the door in gold lettering, and there were windows that spanned from the sidewalk to the top of the door frame. The glass door, however,  was shattered and the pieces lay scattered in its wake.

Robin and I carefully stepped through the door, on high alert in case the thief was still here (and we hoped he was). None of the display cases were damaged, which was to be expected. Most jewelers put everything into a safe at night when they close up the shop. As silently as we could, we crept over to the door marked "Employee's Only."

Robin pushed open the door, and we were shocked to see a man donning a highly conspicuous white body suit while casually leaning against the wall next to the open safe while he twirled a gold watch around his fingers.

"So you've finally arrived," the man smiled, and I could feel his arrogance pouring out of him in waves. "My name is Andre Leblanc, and this is far below my usual standards. So don't let this taint your opinion of me. Unfortunately, I'm following someone else's orders tonight. They paid me generously to draw your attention here."

Back to worrying about what could be going down in the west side of the city, I lost all patience for this conversation. Evidently, Robin seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. I used my telekinesis to pull all the jewelry off Andre and seal it back away in the safe while Robin dashed forward to engage him in combat. Within seconds, Robin had him thrust against the wall with his katana sword against his neck.

"Raven, would you mind getting the rope off my utility belt?"

I nodded, lifted my hand, and proceeded to remove the rope off his waist and wrap it around Andre. Robin glanced over at me with disappointment clear in his face. "Y'know, you don't tie knots very well when you're using your mind instead of your hands."

I simply shrugged in response. Robin put his sword away and tightened the ropes around Andre. Andre seemed surprised to have been bested so quickly, but I'm not sure why. He wasted time talking, and he drew the short straw when he got matched up against Robin and I. Defeat should've been clear to him the moment he opened his mouth. Had he ambushed us when we opened the door, he might've stood a chance.

"He might know something. Should we question him?" I asked Damian.

"Questioning him could end up just wasting time. It's likely that whoever hired him wouldn't trust him with any information that would help us anyway."