18520/Smash and Lab

Smash and Lab
Date of Scene:	06 July 2024
Location:	S.T.A.R. Labs
Synopsis:	The heroes find evidence of a targeted theft. Cliffhanger. Cut to credits.
Cast of Characters:	Kid Devil, Damian Wayne, Allen-James

---

Kid Devil has posed:
    While this building is in Metropolis, the situation is one Kid Devil would not necessarily want to give to the local cops, or supers. Upon arrival it's clear why: It's a crime scene, and Kid Devil needed a detective. So he sent a message to Robin to see if someone over there was available to assist.
    One of the labs has been sealed off, plastered over with signs and tape to keep everyone out for now. Kid Devil stands outside it, sipping coffee from his metal cup while he reads over a tablet held in his other hand.
    Through the lab's windows it's obviously been tossed-- and aggressively so. Machines, cabinets, equipment, everything smashed to bits and scattered everywhere.
    Kid Devil scowls at his screen, then the mess, and just shakes his head.

Damian Wayne has posed:
The sound of an approaching motorcycle is heard attenuating in the distance well before the Redbird is seen. Robin is operating the vehicle at much more sane speeds than normal. He does not enjoy the total immunity that he does in Gotham here in Metropolis, though as a longtime member of the Titans he has some cache in this town as well. Behind him on the vehicle is a more diminutive figure, one that has been getting more and more press in Gotham City: Rebound.

The bike pulls up to where Kid Devil is standing. Robin powers down the vehicle as he dismounts. "Security activate." Some sounds chirp forth from the bike, and one is left to one's imagination as to what would happen to them if they attempted to steal it. (Spoiler alert: It won't be good.)

"Kid," Robin says with an upnod. His cape flows slightly to one side in the light afternoon breeze. "You remember Rebound," Robin comments as he gestures briefly with one gauntleted hand toward AJ. "What's going on here?"

Allen-James has posed:
    Fun facts about Rebound: While not a backpack, he does fit nicely on the back of a motorcycle, even one designed primarily for one person. His robe/cape/thing flows behind him as he leans close to Robin, holding on as the bike pulls up to the labs, and he hops off, bouncing on his toes a little, as he looks around, and follows Robin quietly.

    "You know, I should really get a motorcycle or something. Running everywhere gets tiring." he says with a chuckle. He looks around at the chaos inside the windows, "Someone didn't like the experiments you're working on?"

Kid Devil has posed:
    Kid Devil looks up and waves cheerily to the others arriving. "Oh, you made it! Great. Hi." He smiles and nods to each. "Thanks for coming. I know that was short notice, but... this kind of thing, the local cops just aren't equipped, you know?" He points to one of the upper floors, then waves the guys into the building. "Twelfth floor, a lab I was using to run some tests got ransacked last night. All kinds of samples ruined or missing. Here:"
    Kid Devil hands his tablet over for the guys to review: it's playing security camera footage from the lab in question and the surrounding halls. There's nothing noteworthy shown happening in the corridor outside the lab; the cameras inside it all suddenly go black at the same instant, at 02:44am. Not even ten minutes later they come back on, a couple of them skewed sideways, out of focus, or riddled with static from where the cameras were presumably clobbered.
    The devil boy shrugs at Rebound. "Maybe? This wasn't even my main research lab; and it's not as if I'm working on anything controversial like a doomsday weapon, or some absurd orbiting laser platform. This was just a material analysis lab, handling some things from crime scenes, or stuff like what you brought a few weeks back," he adds, toward Robin. "Some of these samples could be very dangerous-- maybe-- that's what the testing was supposed to tell us. If you guys could help me get them back I would really appreciate it. Or at least point me to who took them. I know you're all super busy..."

Damian Wayne has posed:
Robin accepts the tablet. He taps something on his left gauntlet and there is a chirp as he instantly downloads the tablet's contents. He holds it in such a way that Rebound can easily access it. "If something is so sensitive that someone would risk breaking into S.T.A.R. Labs, of all places, it must be very important. That means they would not risk leaving it sitting around for very long. What have you brought in that's new in the past 24 hours?" Robin hands the tablet to Rebound as he looks up to Kid Devil for a response.

In uniform, on the job, he is All Business. He practically ripples with Batman's aura and the League of Assassins' potency, even standing out on the sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon.

Allen-James has posed:
    Rebound takes the tablet, scrubbing forward and back through the footage, selecting various cameras. "Cameras all go out, but they still break them. So they've got some kind of hack or tech, but they don't trust it to last." he murmurs softly. "Do you have traffic cam access here? 2:44 they go out, so, probably look just before that for someone pulling up to the lab?"

    He ponders things. "So they took samples?" he muses, and nods to Robin's question.

Kid Devil has posed:
    Through the lobby and upstairs-- "They're with me," Kid Devil tells the receptionist, who can only stare. He's seen Kid Devil around, obviously, but the other two are definitely noteworthy, and he's already texting some friends about the two infamous Gotham heroes walking past his desk.
    Eddie leads the way through the halls to the scene of the crime while he skims over his files on the tablet. "Busy day yesterday," he answers, "two things from different robberies, one from a meta-related murder, an anomalous sample from that burger place in Happy Harbor ('something weird' going on in the parking lot), and a collection of interplanetary rocks. *All* missing, though some of them were fragmented already and some bits spilled out. So those aren't a total loss."
    Rebound's questions provoke Kid Devil to lift a finger and wag at him. "Exactly! See, I knew I called the right people. Security says there was no traffic out front, or down in the garage, at any time for a whole hour before or after. And no anomalous traffic at all; only known staff vehicles. As you can see on the feed, there was no trace of anyone in the corridor, either. I have measures in place to disrupt the formation of entangled spacetime foams, like what I use to move around, but I guess can't account for everything..."
    Arriving at the lab suite itself, it's obviously a wreck.
    Too obviously.
    A trained eye will discern several indicators of calculated chaos meant to pull attention all around the space and off of the true objective.

Damian Wayne has posed:
It borders on eerie the fact that Robin enters the room without so much as a moment's pause and immediately moves through the chaos, ignoring almost everything, beelining toward and coming to a stop in front of a metal storage locker. He peers down at it silently, motionlessly for some unknown number of beats.

"What was in here?" he asks, folding his arms over his chest. "All the other broken containers were torn apart with no regard for what might have been inside. They're decoys. /This/ is what they wanted."

Robin squats down as his HUD begins to tick and click and record data. "The lock was carefully broken and the box itself is undamaged. Whoever was in here /cared/ about the contents of this locker."