Chapter 8: Secrets Revealed
Ravager sighed as she slipped through the open window of her motel room, pulling off her mask as soon as she was inside. Apart from leaving a largely positive impression on Robin (from what she'd seen, the only Titan she thought worth impressing) and sending Sharpshot running with his tail between his legs, this last night had accomplished nothing. She'd hunted through the park thoroughly, and when that failed had accosted some random lowlifes in bars that catered to the less-than-legal, but hadn't found anything that might lead her to Slade's whereabouts. Of course, his name did seem to be a major conversation killer around here…
Tossing her mask aside, she pulled off her costume and collapsed to her bed in the shirt and shorts she wore under it. Hopefully she'd have better luck tomorrow night, she though, before drifting off into sleep.
She was awakened by the sound of somebody pounding on her door. Growling irritably, she pulled herself up into a seated position and stalked over to it, noting absently that, if the sunlight shining through the window was any indication, it was midday. Reaching the door, she opened it a crack and saw one of the motel clerks standing on the other side, looking deathly bored.
"What do you want?" Ravager asked him darkly. If he didn't have a really good reason for waking her up, he was about to be in a world of hurt.
"Some guy dropped this off for you a little bit ago," the clerk said, holding out an envelope. "Acted all cocky and said I'd better give it to you right away if I knew what was good for me, then he ran off."
For a moment, that description made Ravager think of Sharpshot, but that didn't make sense. If Slade knew where she was, she doubted he'd bother with playing games. "Give it here," she said, opening the door wider and holding out her hand. The clerk pressed the envelope into it and then turned and left. Ravager closed the door and hurried over to her bed, sitting down to read. The front of the envelope said simply, "For the girl in room 11." As that gave her no clue as to who had sent it or why, she ripped it open and unfolded a short note.
"I hear you've been in town for the last few days looking for a certain special someone," she read. "I might be able to help you, if you can make it worth my while. Meet me at midnight tonight to talk things over. By the way, love the look." The name of two streets, presumably an intersection, followed, and the note was signed with a simple X in red ink, though the rest of the writing was in black. Ravager was positive that was significant somehow, but couldn't for the life of her figure out how. Still, this seemed far too good an opportunity to pass up.
The note made no mention of what "worth my while" entailed, but from the tone she could guess. Ducking under her bed, she pulled out the small safe she'd stashed there (for once, it was merciful this grubby little place had apparently never heard of cleaning service) and opened it; inside were several tight rolls of bills, all in large denominations. She hadn't earned some of this money, and stolen the rest of it, just to pay off some lowlife creep who thought he knew something, but if it got her closer to her goal, she'd consider it well-spent.
Ravager stuffed a good chunk of the cash into one of her costume's pockets and restored the safe. Picking up her mask, she sat down on her bed and stared into its one empty eye, imagining exactly what she'd say and do when she finally came face to face with the man who'd inspired its design.
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The great machine growled and whirred, and from its depths rose a tall, cylindrical base topped with a claw that clutched a sort of shimmering crystal the likes of which the apprentice had never seen before. He meant to ask Slade what it was, but when he turned and saw his master staring intently at the sight before them he thought better of it. Interrupting his thoughts now would likely have only painful consequences; Slade would explain himself when he wished to, or not at all.
From beneath the balcony on which the two stood, a pair of the larger soldier-robots emerged, carrying between them the advanced transmitter for which the apprentice had provided a distraction so that it could be stolen. The planted it firmly on the base beside the crystal, and then began hooking up cables to connect the two together. The apprentice watched in fascination.
"You must be wondering what purpose all of this serves," Slade said suddenly.
"I am," the apprentice replied, desperately hoping he'd said the right thing and hadn't roused his master's rarely seen, but all the more terrible for it, anger.
Slade turned to him. "Of course you are. I would have no interest in an apprentice who only mindlessly obeyed. And yet you didn't ask about it until I asked you- you know when to show respect and restraint. That is good." He turned to leave the balcony. "Come with me, and I will show you the fruits of our labors."
He led the way through the twisting passages of the lair, until they came to a room that was dominated by a low tunnel that projected a slowly-rotating hologram of Jump City into the air above it. Slade stopped beside the table and began to twist the controls; the hologram shifted to show the strange, smooth crystal device.
"This is a piece of alien technology I was fortunate to acquire," Slade said. "From… let us say, friends from out of town. Unfortunately, when it first came into my possession it was damaged and non-functional. A foolish Tamaranean scientist repaired it for me*, and so it was able to become the centerpiece of my grand design. This device possesses the capacity to overwrite the programs of any sufficiently advanced technology and bend it completely to its user's will- in this case, mine. I briefly entertained notions of using it to subvert Titans' Tower, but I soon found a far better use for it."
Again the hologram shifted; now it showed a satellite in high orbit above the Earth. "This satellite is the nerve center of the United States orbital weapons platform system. Were I to seize control of it, every weaponized satellite in the sky would belong to me alone. Microwave cannons, nuclear weapons' emplacements, interceptor missiles- all of them mine, and all of them pointing at the world below. Unfortunately I had no means of delivering my device to the central satellite, and the security encryptions were too strong for even I to crack easily. Until today."
He raised his head to look directly at the apprentice while the display shifted again to become the stolen communications array. "This, however, has the power to transmit the alien device's signal, and punch it through even the most powerful interference. Within the next few days the link between the two will be complete, and I will send the transmission. All of America's orbital defenses will be mine, and I will have the power to destroy any target in this world that I choose. I will likely, of course, have to provide a few… demonstrations to prove my point, but in the end, all the world will bow to my will. They will have no other choice."
The apprentice realized he was gaping and quickly shut his mouth. "Whoa," he finally managed to say. "But- why? Why do you want to be dictator of the world in the first place?" He realized as soon as the words came out of his mouth that he'd said the wrong thing; unfortunately, it was too late to take them back.
Slade straightened up and without warning backhanded the apprentice across the face. He stumbled back and looked up to see the master standing directly in front of him. Somehow, it had never really hit him until now how tall Slade was…
"Why?" Slade asked, his voice even and colder than a bitter winter wind. "You think I'm mad, don't you? They all do, sooner or later, but that isn't true. I have been mad, of course, but no longer; I passed through madness and came through to the light of cold clarity and there I saw that there is one truth. All that is real is power, and power needs no reasons or justifications. It is. Once I deluded myself with other things, but now I understand that they are meaningless." He seized the apprentice by his collar and leaned in close to his face. "Don't ask such a question again. Only the weak try to justify power, and I will not have weakness in my apprentice. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir," the apprentice said. Slade nodded, satisfied, and released him.
"Now go, and prepare yourself," the master said as he turned away. "In a few days time, we change this world forever."
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Ravager paced in the dark alley that one of the streets in the note's intersection had turned out to be. It was almost midnight, and so far, her mysterious contact hadn't shown up. She was beginning to think that someone had set her up.
"Hey there," a jaunty, faintly mechanical voice said from the shadows nearby. "Nice mask." Ravager drew her sword and spun towards the sound; as she did so the air shimmered and a figure in a strange black costume and tattered cape materialized from it. His face was nothing but a stylized skull, the forehead marked with a slightly skewed red "X".
"So," Ravager said, not lowering her sword, "you must be the guy who wanted to see me."
"In the flesh," the man- boy? Even woman? It was impossible to tell- said. "Name's Red X. You might have heard of me."
Ravager nodded. That was why the note's signature had rung a bell- Red X had featured into a couple of the news clippings about Slade she'd collected. "They say you're a spy and thief," she said. "Mostly freelance, sometimes willing to work for someone else if the job's exciting and the pay is good. They also say you're the best at what you do."
He sketched a bow. "You flatter me! Of course, I am the best, but it's always nice to hear someone else admit it too. I've heard of you, too- they say you've been running around town the last couple of nights, looking for Slade. I do love the look, by the way- it takes style to steal someone else's trademark and make it your own." He gave her a mock salute, as from one professional to another, but didn't elaborate on the comment; Ravager decided to let it slide and get to the point.
"Your note said that you could help me find Slade," she told him. "How?"
"I've done some work for the old creep a few times**," X said. "But he's not my kind of boss- I don't like being micromanaged, and he's a real control freak. I do, however, still have the route I took to get to his lair last time." He held up a tightly folded piece of paper in one hand. "Right here."
Ravager made a grab for it, but X jumped back and hovered a few feet off the ground- some sort of anti-grav tech keeping him just out of reach. "Give me that!" she hissed at him.
"Uh-uh," X said, wagging a finger at her. "I think you've got something for me first."
"All right," she sighed. Digging into her pockets, she pulled out the money and handed it up to him. X counted through it and nodded.
"Good enough," he said. "But then, the money's not my real stake in this. Here's your prize!" He tossed the small square of paper over; Ravager caught it and unfurled it, revealing a map of an abandoned subway line beneath the city, leading directly to a hidden door.
"Now, I can't promise that there won't be traps, or that you can get the door open without being authorized," X said. "I've done my part- rest is up to you." He turned to go, but Ravager stopped him.
"You said that money wasn't the real reason you did this," she said. "What are you really after?"
He shrugged. "You're after Slade, the Titans are after Slade, and he's after something big. When you all run into each other, something major is going down. I'm just doing my part to ensure I get front-row seats at the fireworks display of the century. What can I say? I like living dangerously." He stepped back and blurred the air around himself again as he activated his cloaker; in an instant he was gone, leaving Ravager alone in the alley with the key to her future in her hand.
*See my fanfic "Child of the Stars" for details on Slade's temporary alliance with Blackfire's gang of Tamaranean outcasts, and what they got out of the bargain.
**For further information on when and why Red X worked for Slade, see "The Art of War".
