Robin was patrolling Jump City, scanning the streets from the roofs of the buildings. The other Titans were spread out around him in a rough square, two to three blocks away. His communicator was set to continuous transmit but otherwise strict radio silence was in place. They did not want Slade to know that they were hunting him. This mission had to be a stealthy one.
He was at it for almost an hour, when out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a human figure disappearing. He immediately changed his course to check who or what it was. Even though it was the third time it happened thus far, he still felt his adrenaline starting to pump.
"Calm down, Robin" he said to himself. "It's probably another homeless guy, or maybe a thief lucky enough that I have bigger fish on my mind tonight."
He dropped down to the roof he wanted to inspect and reeled in the grapple. The roof had several ventilation outlets, the shack where the machinery for the elevators was housed and the stairway entrance.
"No lack of hiding places here" he mused to himself.
He approached the elevator maintenance shack, intending to check if there was someone hiding inside. As he reached for the door, he heard a familiar voice behind his back.
"This is not altogether an unpleasant surprise, Robin."
Robin spun, launching a birdarang at the voice and preparing his staff with the other hand.
"Slade!"
Slade avoided the projectile almost effortlessly.
"Were you looking for me?" Slade said, as Robin immediately sprung at him. Slade retreated slowly from the onslaught, evading Robin's attacks and barely launching any attack of his own.
"My, you are certainly determined to get your hands on me, Robin" he said in a mocking voice. "But you will have to try harder than that!" he hissed, as he jumped on the next roof, taunting Robin to follow.
Starfire was slowly flitting and adjusting her course to stay at the corner of the square they formed, using her communicator to confirm her position relative to the other three titans in the other corners of the square and Robin in its center. As she lifted her gaze from the communicator, she just then noticed several flying figures swooping down on her. She stopped to a hover and her hands and eyes lit with green flame, ready to receive what were obviously attackers.
Suddenly she felt a strong blow on her back and felt her arms and legs being immobilized. She had been caught into a net. She flexed her muscles mightily and the net ripped, but at the same time she was hit two, three, five times more, every hit wrapping her further into yet another net. She realized that her strength, huge as it was, was insufficient to tear all of the fibers coiled around her.
The net covered her eyes, too, and almost made it impossible to see. She released a starbeam, to burn through the net and give her awareness of what was going on, not expecting the result that it was going to have.
As the starbeam struck the net, the superconducting outer layer absorbed and transferred the energy onto converters placed in the knots of the netting, which in turn transformed the energy of her starbeam into electricity. The current discharged through her body, stunning her. She fell to the pavement, cracking it where she impacted, and lay still.
Beast Boy hopped on his route switching between goat and monkey forms. As he jumped to the next roof in his path, he saw several dark humanoid figures arranged in a row, as if waiting for him. Recognizing immediately the danger, he turned into a rhino and charged. The figures melted before him, though, and before he realized that there was a concrete wall in front, he had already smashed head-first into it. He shook the great rhino head to clear the stars in front of his eyes, but he was immediately impacted in the ear by something very hard and very heavy. Dazed, he tried to turn towards this new threat. New strikes pummeled him, causing bright explosions of light in his head and forcing the air from his body. Disoriented and breathless, he tried changing form and escaping, but finally succumbed under the avalanche of blows that continued even after his body slumped to the ground.
Cyborg was running down the street in his assigned position. Before coming to an intersection, he quickly scanned the screen on his arm and decided on his path. As he entered the intersection and turned, he was struck from the side and flew several feet, crashing into a parked van.
Unfazed, he got up and faced at least a dozen humanoid robots of the type he knew well. The only thing different about them was that they were carrying whips, whose entire length danced with sparks.
"Booyah! I was hoping you tin cans would show up tonight!" he shouted, preparing his Shock Cannon. As he prepared to blast the robots, a whip sneaked in from behind and wrapped itself around his legs, zapping him with current. He started to lose his balance. Another whip coiled itself around his torso, immobilizing his left arm and also discharging current into his body. A third one struck his right arm, and as he fell to the ground he could see several robots running at him, holding short wands with electrified, forked tips. The wands came down, the electricity surged through his body, frying his circuits and his already unconscious mind.
Floating not more than a foot above the roof, Raven was suddenly struck with a premonition.
Robin! He found Slade! But why isn't there any alert on the communicator?
She immediately realized the reason why.
A trap! Slade figured us out and drew us into a trap!
At the moment the thought passed through her head, Slade's Commando robots appeared as if by magic all around her. She created a long blade of black energy in each hand and swung. On both sides, several robots fell apart, cut in half by the dark blade. The others started throwing small, round objects at her. Grenades! she thought, quickly taking cover from the expected explosion.
The explosions came, but they were not destructive. A thick cloud of green gas formed and Raven started coughing. Realizing her danger, she quickly expanded an impervious sphere of black energy around herself, but the gas was already burning in her lungs. She dropped to the roof, forcing herself to resist the soporific effect, trying to keep the protective sphere up and not let any more gas come in.
I… must… resist…
The pursuit went on, with Robin attacking tirelessly and Slade mostly defending and retreating. Their fight took them closer to the docks. Finally Slade hopped down to the street and ran into an abandoned warehouse. Robin ran in after him.
The warehouse was dark, the windows boarded up. Robin moved quietly along it, senses alert, weapons ready. He was worried that the others didn't respond yet, but he couldn't leave Slade's trail. An almost imperceptible sound, a breath of air, or some sixth sense made him execute a blocking manoeuver to his left, just as Slade emerged from the gloom, attacking.
"You have been practicing, apprentice" whispered Slade. "Your techniques have improved."
"I am NOT your apprentice!" Robin snarled. He broke Slade's attack with a lightning counter of his staff and immediately followed with an attack of his own.
Slade blocked the attack, jumped over Robin's head in a somersault and launched a kick at him as soon as his feet touched the ground. Robin blocked with the staff, following the move to try to sweep Slade off his feet.
"What is it with you and your fixation with apprentices?" Robin asked, while pressing on the attack. "Me!" the staff rushed like a spear towards Slade's head. "Terra!" Slade dodged, but Robin's foot was already arcing through the air at his midsection. Slade blocked and retreated further. "Why are you so keen on it?"
"A master needs an apprentice for the continuation of his work." responded Slade. "And it appears that my first choice was the best one!"
Suddenly, the entire warehouse was bathed in light. Robin was blinded for a second, ample time for Slade to connect a punishing blow, throwing Robin's body back several feet. Robin quickly got up and readied for defense, his eyes finally accustoming themselves to the glare.
He froze. Behind Slade there were at least twenty robots, all ready to attack him at Slade's command. But it was not the numerical superiority of the enemy that concerned him.
On the floor around Slade there were several bundles that Robin quickly recognized as the bodies of his friends.
"What did you do to them?" Robin shouted as he sprang up to attack Slade. "If you harmed them, so help me…"
"No, apprentice. They are alive. Not that it will last very long." With those words, Slade's robots started moving towards Robin. He was surrounded.
"Give it up, apprentice. You may as well admit that you lost!"
"Not yet!" came the words from above them. Slade looked up, surprised, only to see a disembodied black claw descend, grab him and throw him on his robots, tumbling most of them down. Raven glided down besides Robin and said "We must leave. Now! Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
A black dome formed around Raven, Robin and the still forms of their friends, while Raven's soul-self emerged from her and closed its wings around them all, enveloping them and taking them home.
