Aaron's mission tonight was nothing special; Slade had instructed him to steal a neurotoxin from a biological research facility. Aaron grabbed the toxin with ease, but yet again he was confronted by the Teen Titans. Every time he had a mission from Slade, they showed up.
"Drop the toxin, and we'll go easy on you." Robin said readying his staff.
"What are you waiting for? Attack them now." Slade hissed in to the earpiece equipped to Aaron's glasses. Aaron drew the sword from his hilt and began attacking the titans. Beast Boy pinned Aaron to the ground as a tiger. Aaron used the photon blaster to knock him back; Aaron swung at Beast Boy and knocked him to the ground while Cyborg hit Aaron in the back with a sonic cannon.
Despite all of the training that Slade had put Aaron through, he knew that he was not ready to take on the Teen Titans. Aaron threw a smoke bomb and ran. Aaron made it back to Slade only to be knocked to the ground.
"Pathetic. All of that training for nothing. This means that I will have to train you harder because clearly I'm not teaching you something." Slade said throwing Aaron across the room.
The next few weeks, Slade spent countless hours training Aaron. Aaron was definitely improving, but improving was not good enough for Slade, he wanted perfection. Aaron was constantly sparring against Slade as well as several robots and henchmen in various simulated environments. Aaron defeated the robots and henchmen rather quickly, but Slade always seemed to catch him off guard. After each failure, Slade would beat Aaron up and tell him to do it again until he got it right; Aaron came close several times, but he still lost. Slade punished Aaron for his failures by giving him minimal, poor quality, or even no food, and he downgraded Aaron's living accommodations. Slade decided that if Aaron was going to be a failure then he should live like one.
Aaron was in another training exercise where he had defeated the other henchmen and robots, and Slade was beating him again. Aaron was tired of how Slade had been treating him lately; the food, the beatings, and the living arrangements sucked. "This is over." Slade said coldly staring down at Aaron.
Aaron stood back up and picked up his sword. "It's over when I say it's over." Aaron said breathing heavily as he charged at Slade. Aaron slashed his sword rapidly in a blind fury which actually caught Slade off guard. Aaron then shot the electric hooks from his gauntlets at Slade and managed to electrocute him while he was still caught off guard. "It's over." Aaron said staring down at Slade who was lying on the ground.
Slade stood up, brushed himself off, and clapped slowly. "Very well done." Slade said extending his hand to Aaron. Aaron looked at Slade's hand and was ready to shake his hand, but instead he grabbed Slade's arm and threw him to the side. "I don't trust you." Aaron growled.
"I really am getting through to you." Slade said standing up. "I'll make sure that you are fed tonight and your living conditions are restored. After all, you have a mission tomorrow." Slade chuckled as he walked out of the room.