Raven almost leaped out of her boots before turning towards the younger Boy Wonder and glaring at him, he merely grinned sheepishly in reply, giving her the universal expression that said "oops!" The backdoor was clearly a booby trap and he fell for it like a chump.
Raven turned back to Slade, who barked more orders into a microphone before turning to face the intruders.
"Well, well, if it isn't my favorite Titan and demoness, and I see you brought Robin 2.0 with you. Might I interest you in becoming my apprentice young man?"Slade taunted the two heroes.
Raven froze as her mind raced. Precious time was slipping away and she had no idea what would happen next. She knew that their objective remained unchanged: Robin was to hack into Slade's central control processor and send a global cease fire command to all of the Martian shape shifters around the country. She raised her left hand and a black bubble appeared, shielding the stunned Boy Wonder from any possible attacks.
"What happened Robin?" She howled at him.
"I screwed up and tripped an alarm. Sorry!"
"Never mind, you just keep trying to break in. I'll deal with Slade!" She replied.
Raven turned and threw her arm in Slade's direction while belting a martial arts yell that would have made TT-Robin proud. A powerful surge of dark energy leaped from her hand, with a dark talon formed on its end. It was headed for Slade and it was clear that Raven wanted to get this over with quickly. SLade jumped and flipped out of the way while the black claw crashed into the wall behind him. Raven grunted her displeasure while Slade somersaulted in her direction, landing in front of her while shouting his own martial arts kiap. Raven had to duck to dodge what would have been a game ending roundhouse kick. With Slade in close quarters she stood back up and in the same fluid motion she hit him with a well placed thrust side kick which unfortunately hit him in a protected armor covered part of his torso. Still it sent the one eyed villain flying. He rolled on the ground and quickly jumped back onto his feet, landing in a perfect fighting stance.
"Well done Raven!" He congratulated her in his signature monotone. "I see Robin has furthered your training in unarmed combat. You're more than just a pretty gray face. So tell me, how is your trial marriage to Beast Boy coming along? No trouble in the bedroom I hope?" He switched to taunting her, hoping to trigger her anger.
Raven wasn't a 14 year old anymore and Slade's jeers fell on deaf ears. Still it unnerved her that Slade knew she and Beast Boy were in the Courtship Rite.
"I'm full of surprises Slade." She growled at him.
"Good!" He replied in his own monotone. "So am I."
-( scene break )-
The battle scene in the park had intensified. The twelve heroes had made a supreme effort to turn the skirmish around to their favor and it was beginning to pay off. While Slade was anticipating the Titans trying to crash his party he wasn't expect either the Young Justice League or Terra's brigade of shape shifters to join the fight against him.
The war in front of the observatory didn't come without a price. YJ-Kid Flash accidentally ran into a Slade-bot's laser beam. He was only exposed to it for a mere millisecond, which was fortunate as only 10 milliseconds would have sufficed to prove fatal to the young speedster. The others noticed that Artemis was soon at his side and after examining him in a surprising display of strength she picked him up bridal style and carried his unconscious form away to safety.
Tula was also injured in the battle. She teamed up with Beast Boy and the two were soon surrounded by Slade-bots. The fight was going their way when one of the droids pulled a dagger and it found its target on her upper left arm, cutting a puncture wound that was two inches deep. Tula howled in pain as Beast Boy vanquished the offending robot with a swish of his dinosaur tail. He reverted to human form and administered some battle field first aid to the shapely Atlantean. He quickly got the bleeding to stop.
"Fall back Tula!" He barked at her. "I can handle these jerks."
The female aquatic stood up and brandished her weapon with her other arm.
"I still have one good arm Beast Boy. I will continue fighting!" She replied with a tenacity that marveled the green changeling.
It was then that the remaining Slade-bots turned tail and retreated back into the observatory. The shape shifters gave chase while the heroes were perplexed.
"They have been discovered!" Starfire shouted. "Slade's robots have always been the expendable! He is recalling them to fight Raven and the little Robin"
Beast Boy's eyes widened with worry.
"Dude! Raven can't fight off that many Slade-bots, not without blowing up the entire building."
"M'Gann, make telepathic contact with Raven! Warn her about the Slade-bots!" Kaldur shouted.
The young Martian placed her hand on her forehead and reached out to the gray sorceress. She was able to locate her immediately but had trouble making contact.
"Raven! Can you hear me?" She called out repeatedly. After several tries Raven responded.
"I'm kind of busy now M'gann. Slade knows we're here. Robin's still hacking and Slade's throwing everything he has at me."
"He's going to have more to throw at you soon. His remaining droids are retreating back into the observatory."
"Great, just what I needed."Raven replied.
"Hurry up Robin! We're going to have company! The bad kind of company!" Raven howled.
"I trying! This computer is sealed up tighter than Fort Knox."
-( scene break )-
Robin caught three of his bird-a-rangs as they faithfully returned to him; snapping them back into his belt. The grounds around the observatory were unrecognizable. Gone were the grassy knolls that on a normal day would be covered with picnic blankets, badminton and volleyball nets, people tossing a baseball back and forth, etc. Instead his eyes were greeted with the vision of a smoldering ruin as over 1000 Slade-bots and Martian shape shifters littered the once pristine field which was now pock marked with craters and wide areas of burnt turf. His nostrils were assaulted by the stench of burnt flesh from the dead shape shifters as well as the tell tale aroma of spilled hydraulic fluid from the devastated Slade-bots. The only sound he heard was the staccato of the metallic droids feet making clickety clack sounds while they ran over concrete walkways as they stormed the mothballed observatory building, followed by the stealthier shape shifters who made no sound as they ran.
"Raven and Robin need our help! Titans Go!" The senior Boy Wonder bellowed as he rallied his combined troops.
Superboy, M'Gann and Starfire charged ahead, flying as fast as they could while TT-Kid Flash ran beneath them and Beast Boy flew close behind in the form of a Peregrine falcon. Jinx watched them disappear into the dilapidated building as she ran behind, along with Robin, Kaldur, Tula and Cyborg trying to catch up with the speedier superheroes.
Superboy was the first to reach Raven and the sight that greeted him wasn't pretty. While Raven was able to fend off the swarms of droids while keeping a shield around the static and still hacking YJ-Robin she looked worse for the wear. Her face was bloodied and there was a long gash on her left thigh which also oozed blood. Connor could see that she was panting and was close to succumbing to exhaustion.
"Raven, fall back! We got you covered!" Superboy shouted above the battlefield din as Starfire began to fire starbolts and M'Gann used her telekinesis to crush some of the droids.
Raven nodded gratefully and ran off to join Robin inside his protective obsidian cocoon. As soon as she was inside she fell to her knees, then onto all fours. Robin stopped hacking and said something unintelligible to her. She waved him away as she continued to pant, pointing at the console. Starfire was able to read the sorceress's lips: 'Never mind me, get back to that computer'.
By this point everyone had arrived. Beast Boy, upon seeing that his beloved was safe with young Robin got down to business, morphing into a heavily armored ankylosaurus, smiting the droids with his powerful and boney tail. The robots fired upon him and his exoskeletal armor absorbed most of the power of the blasts.
Conner charged into the fracas head first, decimating droids with a single punch and using his newly acquired laser vision to incinerate the ones that were out of reach of his fists. They fired upon him with their lasers and while he flinched more than once his pattern of attack continued unabated.
Tula joined forces with Jinx and the used their magical powers together. Tula summoned water out of a nearby restroom and used it as a weapon as she converted the stream of liquid into arrows of ice, impaling droid after droid with them, sending them into fits of convulsion as they feel to the ground. Jinx used her hexes to make the Slade-bots malfunction and also collapse into quivering piles of gears, relays and hydraulic valves.
The remaining shape shifters remained loyal to the combined platoon of heroes, much to Slade's chagrin. But what had his undivided attention at the moment were the two superheroes who were trying to corner him: Kaldur and TT-Robin.
"Interesting, my former apprentice and his aquatic friend wish to challenge me. Do you think you're up to it Robin? Or will you be sloppy and careless like you always are?"
"Your taunts will not affect us Deathstroke, surrender to us now, you cannot win!" Kaldur challenged him.
Slade adopted a kung fu style fighting stance, his palms extended and his knees bent as he adopted a perfect balance.
"Please, just call me Slade … Deathstroke … sounds so negative." Slade replied in his monotone be launching his attack with a loud yell.
The two young men were prepared and able. Robin was no longer a young boy that Slade could slap around and he gave the one eyed madman no excuse to criticize him as his technique was impeccable. Kaldur lashed at Slade with his electric bladed swords.
Slade was still Slade of course. There were few villains who could go mano a mano with Batman and hold their own. Deathstroke was a member of that very elite group and he was able to parry Kaldur's and Robin' attacks. He had the advantage of being less fatigued than his opponents who had just been fighting outside the observatory.
Slade drew his collapsible bo staff and with a click he extended it to its full size. With fluid circular motions, which contrasted sharply with Robin's own Taekwondo style, which relied more on kicks than punches he parried Kaldur's blade strikes while twirling out of the way of one of Robin's spinning heel kicks. Both young men continued attacking and Slade not only was able to fend them off, he was able to connect a good solid strike on each one of them. The two young men paused as they considered their next move.
Robin decided to switch completely to the kung fu techniques he learned from the True Master while Kaldur analyzed Slade's moves, searching for a weakness.
"You've come a long way Robin, your technique is much better than before and you're much stronger as well, but you're still a boy doing a man's job, or has the princess made a man out of you yet?" Slade taunted him.
Robin snarled at his nemesis as he wiped the blood away from his nose. Slade had connected at powerful kick there, and only now was Robin realizing that his nose was broken. The boy wonder seethed, realizing that Slade always managed to stay a step ahead of him. Here he was, teaming up with Kaldur and they couldn't take the bastard down. How did Slade do it?
Robin heard Kaldur clear his throat.
"The monkey and the octopus Robin." Kaldur shouted. Robin nodded in reply.
Robin instantly changed his fighting style to one of unpredictable and random movements. Slade immediately recognized the kung fu style the Boy Wonder adopted and countered it with his own similar style. Slade was at first taken aback as Robin wielded the style with great mastery.
"So it's true, you trained with the True Master. I must complement you Robin; you have improved more than I thought. But it will take more than that to defeat your old master."
It was then that Kaldur summoned the water himself. The water behaved as if it were alive, spouting tentacles that reached out to trap Slade who was barely able to avoid them as he cart wheeled out of the way. At first Kaldur felt disappointed that he didn't catch Deathstroke but was consoled when he realized that they now had him on the defensive.
"Give it up Slade, this time you won't escape!" Robin growled as he pointed his finger at his onetime master.
"Escape? Now why would I do that, apprentice? The tide in this battle is on my side. It's you who cannot win." Slade replied smugly.
Robin clenched his teeth and noticed that while many Slade-bots had been destroyed that they now outnumbered the surviving shape shifters, which were now dropping like flies as they were being overwhelmed by the droids superior numbers. He noticed that Connor was down as a droid holding a sliver of kryptonite had cornered him. Starfire was a bloody and burnt mess as she continued to strike back with her star bolts, but he could tell that she was approaching complete exhaustion. The others were also being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Slade-bots, who were now firing on Raven's bubble shield. He could see her grimace as she kept the shield up, summoning ever fiber in her body and soul to keep the protective shield in place to protect YJ-Robin and herself from the barrage of laser fire.
"So Kaldur'ahm and Robin, what will it be? Do you wish to see your friends destroyed or will you surrender to me?"
"Surrendering to you is out of the question Deathstroke. We know you will show us no mercy if we surrender. We will fight you to our final breath." Kaldur calmly replied.
Slade shook his head.
"Atlanteans, so idealistic, so noble, so … foolish. You leave me no choice but to destroy all of you. A real pity, as you would have all made fine apprentices." Slade smirked behind his mask.
Slade's gloating came to a sudden halt as all of the droids present hunched down bending their knees, wrapped their arms under their legs … and powered down. Raven dropped her shield and Beast Boy ran to her. They embraced and shared a kiss after which he wrapped her arm around his neck as helped her get back on her feet, fussing over her as he tried to wipe the blood from her face with his sleeve.
YJ-Robin pumped his fist into the air.
"Slade, consider yourself hacked" he gloated. "You are so totally pwned!"
TT-Robin grinned at his one eyed nemesis.
"You were saying Slade?"
Slade snarled behind his mask. This wasn't supposed to happen. How did the boy hack into his system? It was supposed to be foolproof. He had now lost control over all his warriors across the country. It was over, and he came so close.
"Perhaps another time Robin."
In a lightning rapid motion Slade reached into his belt and retrieved a small sphere which he slammed into the ground. It exploded and released a noxious gas which sent TT-Robin and Kaldur into coughing fits. Between the billowing smoke Miss Martian, who was also beginning to cough, saw Slade run out of the room.
"Slade's hack getting cough away." She choked.
"Not if we can help it!" Raven shouted before turning to her almost fiancé. "Gar, can you summon the Beast?"
"You bet, let's do it Rae! Let's kick his butt!"
Raven swept her cape around herself and Beast Boy and they phased into the floor.
-( scene break )-
I hope this wasn't too predictable.
I'm running late, so I'm skipping the mail bag today.