The Adventure of the Speckled Band [invite]

[Silv]

The faint green glow of technology illuminated the curving walls of the sewers directly above them while the yellow beams of their flashlights chased ahead. The sound of dripping water was amplified by the concrete and the water the Boy Wonder was currently standing in. Something raced past his feet, probably a rat, but he was far too busy analyzing something to be bothered by it. “Not too much farther,” he assured Ink, who had come with him down into the sewers both as backup and because she also wanted to know whether the rumors about the monsters in the sewers were true. If they were Naga.

Rumors spread in the Jump City underground like wildfire, but after a very bizarre encounter with a jewel thief and the information given to him by the JCPD Robin now had a location to check for signs of something. They were headed towards the lower east side. Not too far from where the jewelry store was robbed. If Robin found the missing goods than that was icing on the cake. What he really needed to know about were the monsters. Naga wasn't the only possible that could be lurking around down here. They had never managed to capture the morphing monster the day Beast Boy found Terra (or thought he did) and Slade reared his ugly head once more.

There were lots of unpleasant things that could be down here. The Titan's leader held his breath as they passed a valve that shot out warm, foul smelling steam. He made a face as he turned a corner, beckoning Ink to follow. He was glad his shoes were pretty much water proof as they moved through a lower lying area of the sewer. It seemed they were going uphill, however, as the water level receded with each step. Then his shoe hit something. It rolled like a pebble making a scratching sound along the concrete. Closer inspection told Robin it wasn't a pebble. It was a bullet.

“Stay back,” he held out an arm to bar Ink from following him too closely as he moved forward. Bullets could bounce off of things. He stooped to pick it up and twirled it in his fingers as he studied the surrounding area. It was rare for the Titans to see Robin work. Sometimes it could even easily be forgotten that he was the prodigy of the world's greatest detective. He moved forward like a man entering a dance. He moved forward silently, stopping to stoop and follow something barely perceptible along the dirty ground- drag marks, similar to the kind a snake would make – he followed the trail at a crouch for a little while before moving instead to the walls. The chemical components of weapons discharge was there. The bullets told him that, four of them in total. One of them barely even looked like a bullet anymore. It looked like it had hit a-

Something caught the light of Robin's flashlight and he turned in the midst of the struggle marks to pick it up and hold it aloft for Ink to see. “Do you recognize this?” he was moving towards the girl, holding out the broken scale in his green gloved hand. “Does it belong to him?” the Titan's leader left her to ponder the scale as he went back to the signs of the struggle that played out on the floor. Some of them had been scuffed out by travel- probably the snake man moving past. There were other footsteps. Some that seemed human. Some that might have been smudges of human footprints. Or something entirely alien.

He paused besides a series of scratch marks in the dirt that were so precise they had to have come from something sharp. There was a barely discernible imprint of a chain in the dirt. A few flecks of rusty brown spattering the floor and the wall. “He's a killer,” Robin said slowly as his masked eyes narrowed and he got to his feet. There was no doubt in the Boy Wonder's mind that whoever had been dumb enough to attack the monster with a gun was dead. Otherwise he'd have shown up by now. Otherwise Robin would have found more traces of blood and signs of a wounded man. The boy didn't want to think about what had happened to the body. He turned towards Ink to see what she thought.

[Deleted]

It felt strange to be down below the city rather then above it. She had looked high and low for the giant snake man and his daughter, but she hadn't been able to search the tunnels and sewers yet since she didn't have a partner. Though it turned out that Robin hadn't had a partner to go looking with either.

So here she was, lurking in the sewers with only their flashlights and the lights on the wall to guide them, well that and Robin's intuition. She nodded her head but kept quiet when he assured her it wouldn't be long now, he was to focused on the task at hand, and Ink was to nervous about how they would find Naga to really make good conversation.

Ink tried to look for any signs that Naga had been through this way, it was wide enough to fit him if he slouched. As the rounded another corner, and Robin issued another command. She stayed where she was, trying to see what the young detective saw, and lending her light when he looked at something. He stooped and picked what ever it was that had caught his eye.

It was a scale, and she knew who it belonged to. "Aye, et's wan o his." she answered though she was sure he already knew that. She held out her hand and accepted the token as Robin went back to surveying the crime scene. She had eyes only for the scale though. It meant Naga had been through here, and he had been healthy enough to leave here as well. She couldn't tell how long ago the scale had fallen, but she knew Naga was ok. there was nothing in these tunnels that could hurt him if even the JCPD's giant guns hadn't. or at least she hoped so.

Robins words and hard tone broke her out of her contemplation. She narrowed her eyes as well. Yea dan't know that. Nay yet, and nay fer sure." She replied protectively." Hes nay some monster tae fight Robin, he es a friend tae help." she added trying to soften her defensive tone.

All they knew was that Naga had come this way, that blood could have come before or after that. Ink knew that if Naga was a murderer Robin would never allow him any where close to the tower, or anywhere. He would turn him over to the justice system, and they would take Rose away.

She wouldn't let him do that. "We need tae find him Robin, we can ask him what happened." she suggested.

[Empathy]

Bido was having a good day. Wearing one of the shiny rings Naga had generously given him as a parting present, he strolled through the underground. "Bido, Biiido." This was his milieu, and after the initial wave of policemen a dew days ago, it had calmed down again and the lizard man felt at ease enough to just casually walk around the sewers. His scales were rainbow colored. He was humming. "Biiido." All the happy thoughts in his mind arose, and subconciously guided him to where he had found his precious loot. Where he had met his 'brother' dragon.

Eventually though, some noise interrupted Bido's chanting. "Bido heard voices?" But as soon as he tried to focus on what he perceived, the tunnels were dead silent again. "Bido?" An uncomfortable shiver ran past the chameleon's spine. Unhappy memories replaced his previous, cheery thoughts. Gunshots. A man running away. He promptly turned invisible, the ring on his finger the only visible point in the darkness of the tunnel. "Bido... should go home. Bido doesn't want to meet men with guns again." And with those worried words, Bido turned around and started jogging away.

[Silv]

Robin frowned at Ink's defensiveness over the creature. “You don't know him,” the boy pointed out. Five minutes might have been enough for someone like Raven to make a decision, but he and Ink were essentially human. And even detectives could be fooled. “We don't know his intentions or his abilities. He didn't attack you or Sun that day, and I'm grateful for that, but it doesn't mean he's one of the good guys.” the Boy Wonder had been saved by villains before. He could remember almost falling to his death once before Slade's hand gripped his wrist and kept him from falling. Robin didn't know if Naga had any ulterior motives, just like at that time he hadn't known Slade's. He was going to find out though.

“We're going to find him. Don-” he stopped abruptly and held up a hand to command her silence as well. Some odd noise was coming down the tunnel towards them. Someone was singing? He cocked his head to the side like a beagle but then the sound stopped. Robin's masked face swiveled to Ink as though he were silently asking if she heard it as well. There was a quick noise, it could have been the voice. Someone asking if anyone else was there? Robin stayed completely silent as he waited.

Then the voice said something, he was certain of it this time, and then there was movement in the tunnel. It was getting away! He shared a glance with Ink, mouthing the same phrase, before bolting the way he'd heard the noise coming from. When the quarry was close Robin sometimes forgot he had to wait for his team to catch up. He was more used to metahumans that he had to chase after then people like Ink who couldn't physically keep up with him.

The beam of the boy's flashlight bounced as he raced down the sewer. He had enough momentum that he was able to run along the curve of the wall to avoid being slowed down by puddles. The sound of the running, that wasn't his own shoes, was getting louder even if he couldn't see anyone. Man, what he wouldn't give for Superman's vision right about now. “Stop!” he shouted at the phantom he was chasing, hoping it wasn't just a ghost.

[Deleted]

"Yea dant know him either." she reminded him stubbornly, as she looked at the ground to avoid his disapproving eyes. Even hidden by his mask she could tell well enough. One of the good thing about domino masks, you could still tell the emotion behind them.

She heard his voice, and another. Someone humming? Ink looked up at Robin, confusion written on her face. Robin heard it to, if his cocked head was anything to go by. She nodded that she had heard it to, and pulled out her sketch book. Robin bolted as she summoned Hunter.

She wasn't a fool, she knew she would be no help on a chase, but her ferret hound could run faster then herself and Robin. The beast jumped from the page and took off down the tunnel like a furry bullet.

Ink's beast was after one smell and one smell only, that of the 'ghost' in front of Robin. She chased the scent through puddles and around corners, managing to pass the boy wonder as he gave chase to. Only she was faster. The ferret hound could see the disturbance in front of her and closed quickly, pouncing with a hissing snarl onto the invisible shape in front of her, guided by her nose and a hunters instinct.

[Empathy]

The silence was quickly broken by the sound of pursuing feet. "Bido is being followed. The men with guns want to shoot Bido!" He yelled before launching into a sprint. "Biiido." The lizard-man panted as he kpet running. He didn't dare look back. The pursuing sound doubled and grew louder and louder. Tears started forming in the Chameleon's eyes. "Biiidddo... doesn't...want...to...die." The words came out blurred and choked as the lizard struggled to breath and run simultaneously.

And then a strong weight knocked Bido to the ground. The helpless prey barely had time to turn around before he came face-to-face with the predator: a fearsome creature he had never seen before. "Aaaaaah. Biiido is going to get eaaaaaten aliiiiiiiiiiiive!" He yelled with the remaining air in his lungs. After that, he didn't even have enough stamina left to attempt a struggle with the beast.

A dozen seconds later, Bido did recover enough energy to fight. He swung his arms largely and, using his elongated tongue, swat and spat at the monster's face. "Biiidscho willssch nooooott beesch eatcheen by somsch monsccccchter!" Unbeknownst to him, the golden ring on his index fell off, rolling a few yards behind.

[Silv]

Robin was pretty sure he was on the right track when the...whatever it was he was chasing kept carrying on. It vaguely reminded him of that weird creature from that Lord of the Rings or something movie they'd watched one lazy day. Maybe this was that creature and Control Freak had managed to get out of jail somehow without Robin knowing about it.

Something furry whipped past him and the Boy Wonder managed to catch a glimpse of one of Ink's beasts before it was eaten by the dank lighting of the sewer system. He was moments behind, but by the time he had caught up to them both Hunter and the thing they'd been pursuing were on the ground. There was a bizarre sound, like metal rolling along the ground, but Robin ignored it as he went over to stop Ink's beast and the invisible monster from killing each other.

The Boy Wonder pulled his bostaff out of his belt and extended it with a click as he came over to the rolling forms of the beasts. He moved around Hunter, stopping so that the cold, blunt edge of his bostaff was pointed at where he assumed the face of the invisible creature was based on Hunter's positioning “Stop,” it was an order to both creatures even if neither were his to command. Robin was in full I-am-commander-Batman mode. “Show yourself,” he turned his gaze to whatever Hunter had pinned under it. Robin was curious, but also wary. “Who are you and what are you doing down here?”

[Deleted]

Hunter sunk her teeth and claws firmer into her invisible quarry. Her needle sharp teeth would be uncomfortable but wouldn't be deadly, despite all the trashing and beating the frightened thing below her did. She growled deep in her throat, trying to subdue the thing she had latched on to, to make the flailing stop.

Ink caught up not long after Robin, abet a bit more out of breath. She wasn't feared for her physical prowess like Robin. Actually she was pretty sure she wasn't very feared at all. "Off." she commanded her beast once she had moved to the other side of the tunnel. Escape was not an option. Hunter obeyed but continued to snarl, sure it wasn't as fierce as a lion bear, but she would do.

[Empathy]

Bido continued his struggle for life and death against the monstrous beast on top of him, even after Robin's command. "Bido is too young to die!" The skinny chameleon man kept slapping until teeth started their work on the terrorized mutant. "Bido's hoar..." A chilling scream echoed through the tunnels. "Aaaaaaaah. Bido knew it. Biiiiiido is being eaten aliiiiiiive." He stopped struggling, pain shooting through his limbs. "The wild beast is already chewing on poor Biiido's bones." The reptile man theatrically started trashing around, his muscles spasming around.

And then, the iron jaw grip loosened. The animal weight above Bido retreated and a new figure came to vision. An even more fearsome one, "The boy of the baaaaat!" Bido screeched and frantically tried to push himself away, but his bloody arm just collapsed after the second try. "Bido is being pursued by the whole bat-family! Biiiiiido." Not even able to stand up properly with his wound, Bido just collapsed to the floor and started weeping. He resolutely avoided eye-contact with his captors, and did not immediately answer Robin's question.

"First the girl of the bat. Now the boy hunts down poor Biiiido." More sobs. A few tentative licks on his shoulder wound. "Why? Whhhhyyy?" Bido dramatically asked them, his pupils finally crossing paths with the titans'. That's when he realized a question was asked of him. "Oh. Bido is called Bido. Bido lives down here." He seemed to calm down a bit after realizing Robin did not know of him. Had the girl of the bat not talked about him?

[Silv]

Robin kept his bostaff out but backed off when he realized he had no control over the current situation. It bothered him, of course, mostly because Ink was taking her sweet time catching up. He rolled his eyes at the creature's dramatic shouting that it was being eaten alive, which it wasn't, and paused when something glinting on the floor of the sewer tunnel caught his eye. It was a ring. By the looks of it, and expensive ring. The boy stopped to pick up the ring, standing up just as he heard Ink's nearing footsteps. She moved to the opposite side of the tunnel and called off her beast. He nodded to her. Good move.

The Boy Wonder moved closer to the creature that had been wailing and carrying on then. He kept his bostaff out, not afraid to attack it if it attacked him or Ink first. Though, he supposed, Hunter was ready to do the same. Then the creature noticed him and Robin couldn't help but screech at the ensuing decibels of one of his titles. He frowned when the creature said the whole bat family was after him. Batman was nowhere near Jump City. That just left him and...Batgirl. Babs must have met this creature. She better have put files in the computer. Robin was looking them up the moment he got home.

Finally, the creature seemed to notice he'd asked some questions and was starting to answer them. Okay, so, this wasn't Control Freak's doing. He was pretty sure that creature had been named Gollum. Robin shifted restlessly, feeling a little bad about scaring him. He didn't seem too much of a threat. He'd only attacked Hunter when the critter had jumped on him, and even then, there was more damage to Bido than Hunter. Robin collapsed his bostaff and shoved it back into his belt before kneeling on the ground so that he could be at more eye level to the monster.

“I'm not here to hurt you. Neither is Ink. We're looking for someone.” Robin told the strange creature in his most sincere voice. But, he wasn't about to give the thing more information than was needed. “Where did you get this?” he asked, holding the ring up so that Bido could clearly see it.

[Deleted]

Ink felt a sweeping wave of guilt as the creature wailed. This was no hard core villain, poor thing. as Robin stood down, Ink and her beast did as well, though the girl didn't leave her spot that cut off an escape route.

Hunter put her ears down and wiggled forward on her belly, trying to show she was sorry. The ferret hound sniffed at the reptile man's arms and gently licked the wound, trying to get it to heal faster. "She wont hurt yea lad, she's trying tae help." Ink explained after Robin told the creature before them what they wanted. Despite the guilt, she felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe he knew, and would tell them out of fear if nothing else, as sad as that was.

ooc: short, sorry

[Empathy]

The little reptile-man seemed to calm down as both titans struck a more reassuring tone. "Bido. Bido was very scared." His arm shuddered when the monster came to lick his wound. Bido flinched at the pain. Despite the friendlier tone, Bido was wary of the two costumed people surrounding him. "Bido doesn't want to go back to the Zoo." Now that getting eaten alive was off the table, Bido remembered where the girl of the bat had sent him.

Robin's questions was side-tracked by the golden ring flashing in front of Bido. His eyes shone with a greedy gleam. "Shiny!" He made an unsuccessful grab for it. Disappointment washed through his face before answering the Titan's query. "Bido found the ring in Bido's hoard. It belongs to Bido." His eyes watered again as he realized Robin would not give him back his prized possession. "Bido is a poor dragon. His hoard is very small." Teary eyes looked up onto the masked face. The pathetic little face was silently pleaded for the ring.

Then he remembered that humans were very greedy. They were willing to let go of a smaller fish if that could net them more gold. "If you are looking for more gold. Bido is a small dragon. But there is a bigger dragon." He bent forward, his voice dropping to a whisper. "His hoard is so big that he gave Bido some of it." Realizing that he broke his promise to Naga, he then quickly added, "But don't tell the big dragon Bido told you that." He looked around nervously. "Or else he might eat Bido."

[Silv]

The zoo? Batgirl had put this thing in the zoo? Either this creature didn't know what it was talking about or Batgirl had been out of her mind one day. Robin was beginning to assume that it was probably the former. The creature made a grab for the ring as Robin held it up to show him but the boy was swifter and kept it out of the thing's reach. “It doesn't belong to you if it is stolen property,” he told the reptile-man. “I'm going to check with the police to see if this is part of the stolen jewelry that went missing down here. If it is, I'm going to tell them where they can find and confiscate the rest. If it's not I will give it back.”

Technically this wasn't his job. Technically this was the police's job. But, true to his vigilante origins Robin just couldn't let a crime go unpunished. Though, he would tell the police not to hurt Bido if it was in fact stolen. The Boy Wonder put the ring into one of the pouches on his utility belt and slowly got to his feet. “We'd like to meet this 'bigger dragon',” the boy informed Bido. “I promise not to mention anything about hoards to him.” the expression on his face was amused, if sincere.

Robin glanced then at Ink, wondering if she thought the same thing about this supposed bigger dragon. It could easily be who they were looking for. Though, Bido's mentioning of Naga eating him made the boy wonder exactly what they were getting themselves into. The kid's masked gaze turned back to Bido. “Will you take us to him?”

[Deleted]

Ink felt sorry for the creature before her. He just wanted to be free with his shiny things. Unlike Robin she saw no harm in letting him keep a single found ring, she highly doubted the fearful Bido would do the stealing in the first place, more likely it had just washed down the drain.

The girl looked at Robin with excitement in her eyes. A great dragon could only be Naga. She nodded when Robin promised not to mention hoards. "We won't say a word, Enfact ah can give yea a few shiny things that yea mae like ef yea can take us tae the dragon." she said, holding out her hands to show the few bits and bobbles she had in her pockets. A few cheap rhinestones that shined well enough, a dollar of shiny change and a pretty ring she didn't know she had.

She crouched next to the creature "Ah know ets nay worth much but ets all we have." she added to Robin's request, hoping it would make up for his lost ring, and he would take them to Naga.

[Empathy]

Bido repeated, "It belongs to Bido." The mutant flinched when the boy of the bat mentioned the police. His last encounter with the men in uniform had led him to the white-cloaks and their experiments. "The police doesn't like Bido." Telescopic eyes followed the ring until it disappeared in Robin's belt.

As the titan got up and asked to meet Naga, Bido started to panic. "The big dragon cannot see Bido bring you to him." The frightened reptile shook his head vigorously. "Nono. The dragon's little girl would never forgive Bido." And she had given him chocolate.

That's when Ink revealed her presents. The greedy gleam returned. "Shiny!" Bido scooped up the precious possessions, not caring in the least about their monetary value. "Bido's hoard has increased!" He paused for a moment. The titans had just given him something. And they had promised to not rat on him. "Bido. Bido can tell you where the big dragon is." After a lengthy grimace, the lizard-man rolled out his tongue, a plastic pouch revealing itself at the end of it.

Taking out his treasured map of Jump's underground tunnels, Bido started pointing at locations. "Bido knows the dragon's territory goes from here to there. And Bido knows his lair is there. That's where his little girl and his hoard is." Bido looked up from the map, wanting to make sure he was understood.