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To Seraphim 0 – Hey! Thanks for your review! I sent you a PM answering your question but just wanted to thank you again for asking and for reading!
AN – And I'm back with another chapter. Hope you all like it!
Enjoy!
Late Sunday evening, Dick stood on the roof in Washington, DC. The wind was blowing but he didn't shiver. His Robin suit wasn't as insulated as Bruce's Batman suit, but Gotham nights were colder than this, even in summer. And during his many fights against Dr. Freeze, he'd often come home with mild cases of frostbite. He was used to cold weather.
Any sign of… anything? Wally asked through the mind-link.
Nope. Are we sure that this guy is the Light's next target? Artemis questioned, to which Dick quickly responded, Pretty sure.
After hours of research and a really strong hunch, Dick found Senator Roberts. He was very popular with the people and approved of the Justice League. He had also, somewhat, become an enemy of Lex Luthor's. Though they didn't have proof Luthor was a part of the Light, all the heroes believed he was. What made Dick so sure Senator Roberts was a target though was the fact that in a few days, all the senators would be meeting to discuss, again, whether or not they should support the Justice League. Since the Light was against the League, they would want the senators to vote against them and one way to do that would be to kill those who did support them.
What if the assassin doesn't show up tonight? Are we going to have to follow this guy around for days? Conner wondered.
Dick didn't really have an answer to that. Since they didn't know who the killer was or who exactly was doing the hiring and paying, there wasn't a way to figure out when the hit would be carried out. It was mostly just conjecture. Then, Dick noticed a person coming down a small alley on the other side of the building. He would've just brushed it off, but then he realized that he was actually looking at Senator Roberts at every tiny opening he could.
Nope. Robin told the others, walking to the edge of the building so he could get a better look at the person.
How do you know? Wally asked.
Because I can see someone coming up from the alley. Dick filled him in, silently moving along with the man, not wanting to let him out of his sight.
I can hear him too. Conner chimed in. Dick briefly glanced around, wondering if any of his teammates were coming towards him to see the strange man, but no. They were either staying in their posts or shadowing the senator which was good. There could be other threats around the protecting the senator was their first priority.
How do you know it's a him and not a her? Artemis asked with a snarky tone.
From the person's build, it's a man. Dick told her, then did his best to mentally show the others an image of the man he was seeing. Images were harder to send in the mind-link than words but it was still doable.
Black and orange armour. That's a terrible colour combo. Wally commented.
Artemis then mentally scoffed, Coming from the teen in a bright yellow suit.
Hey! The speedster immediately protested, even though it was clear he wasn't all that upset. Now that Artemis and Wally were dating, their insults and snips at each other were more joking and teasing than actual rude remarks.
Focus. Kaldur ordered, which Robin was grateful for. As entertaining as watching Artemis and Wally interact was, they needed to keep their attention on the task at hand. Someone's life was at stake. How close is this man to the politician?
Not that close, yet. Robin answered the leader. The strange man didn't even seem to be trying to move closer to the senator. Maybe he was blowing things out of proportion. Maybe the guy was just a random person in a weird suit. Then, Robin saw him speed up to the next alley and pull out a sniper's rifle.
Gun! The acrobat shouted at the others.
Move! Kaldur shouted back, but Dick was already moving.
Jumping off the roof, he threw one of his birdarangs right at the man. Or more accurately, right at the man's gun. It landed right in the barrel, keeping him from being able to use it. And before he could react, Dick landed on the ground in the alley, right between him and his target.
Now that he was right in front of him, Dick was able to see the man clearly. He was tall, probably about the same height as Bruce. And along with his orange and black armour, he was wearing a helmet of the same colours. One side completely black and the other completely orange. He also wasn't moving at the moment. He seemed to be surprised, maybe in shock, to see him there. Or maybe he was more stunned to see a metal, bird-shaped, shuriken sticking out of his gun. Dick doubted that ever happened to him before.
Kid Flash, get the target out of here! Dick then heard Kaldur order, slightly distracting him from the assassin that was still standing there staring at him.
On it. The speedster replied, also somewhat distracting the acrobat. Though he had been trained and had experience fighting people with other people around, it was different and more difficult with voices actually right in his head. But he forced it out of his head, especially when he saw the man throw his rifle off to the side and pulled out a sword from its sheath strapped across his back.
Dick immediately pulled out his bo staff and got into position. He didn't know this enemy and he wasn't going to make the first move. The assassin however, was more than willing to strike first. He charged straight at him, swinging his sword right at his chest. Either he was extremely confident, or didn't really know who Robin was. Rare but not unheard of. No matter. He just had to hold off the assassin until the others came to help and if he could actually defeat the man before then, even better.
Instinctively, Dick blocked the sword, twisted out of the way and swung his bo right at the man's feet. The assassin jumped over the staff and swung at Dick's head, causing him to lean back, letting the sword pass harmlessly over him. As soon as it was, he stood straight up and aimed a hit at that older man's side, one that he easily twisted out of the way of. Before he could do anything else, Kaldur appeared on the other side of the alley with Conner. Above them, floated M'gann.
Though he was positive that he didn't give their presence away, the man shifted to look behind him, as if he somehow heard or sensed the newcomers behind him. For a few seconds, he didn't move and neither did the others. It was clear that no one was sure how to proceed, until of course, the man pulled out a small, circular, gray device. One the Dick easily recognized.
Grenade! Dick yelled and dove for cover, just as the sound of an explosion filled his ears. Luckily, he got behind a dumpster in time and the grenade wasn't one for creating a large blast. It seemed like the size of the ones Roy had on some of his arrows. It just filled alleyway with smoke.
Once he was sure the smoke had cleared, Dick came out of his spot. He stood in complete shock when he saw that the man he had just been fighting was gone. There was no sign of him anywhere. Looking over at Conner and Kaldur, who had ducked out of the alley when the explosion happened, also seemed confused. So they had no idea where he went either.
Where is he? M'gann asked, floating down to land beside her boyfriend.
I don't know. Dick answered, looking around the alley again. However, there was absolutely no sign of the assassin.
We should check on the senator, and alert the authorities. Kaldur decided. Though it would've have been nice to actually catch the would-be killer, their priority was to the safety of the politician.
And Batman. Dick added with a frown. Batman had ordered them to investigate the deaths of the Justice League supporters and see if there was any foul play, but he didn't know about this part. As it was just an extremely strong hunch, Dick and the others decided not to tell him what they were up to. Batman was not going to be happy when he heard about this.
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An hour later, Dick sat in front of the computer at the Mountain, looking for any information about the assassin he could find. He had gone through all the nearby security cameras but the assassin had avoided all of them. He was clearly very skilled. And since he had been wearing gloves, there was no point in going back to the crime scene to look for fingerprints. So, Dick drew a quick picture of the man and scanned it into the computer. Then, he finally got somewhere, only to hit another wall.
The sketch matched a picture belonging to a man named Slade Wilson, aka, Deathstroke the Terminator. A former military soldier turned mercenary. According to his file, he underwent several experiments which basically made him a metahuman. But that was all he could find. Parts of the file were blacked out or locked. Dick tried to unlock it, but it wouldn't let him in. From the looks of it, it seemed only someone with a top clearance level could unlock it.
Dick was trying to decide what he should do next when he heard the voices of his teammates coming closer. When the assassin, Slade, disappeared, Kaldur, Conner, Wally and M'gann went to check on the senator and talk to the police. Since there was still a chance that Slade might try to finish the job, they decided to have the ones with powers stay to protect the senator while Dick and Artemis headed back to the Mountain. And as Dick went to find out who the assassin was, Artemis went to get some food. Now, apparently, the rest of the Team were back.
"What did the police say?" Dick asked when all of his teammates came into the room, all but Kaldur holding cookies in their hands.
"They are putting Senator Roberts in protective custody, but since all the other deaths have been ruled an accident and is outside their jurisdiction, we have to take the evidence to the FBI." Kaldur informed him, coming over to the computer while Wally, Artemis and Conner sat down. M'gann however came over to Dick and offered him a chocolate chip cookie, which he took with a smile.
"Which you know, is great." Artemis muttered. Growing up in Gotham and with Sportsmaster as a parent, she knew how corrupt and lazy the police were. Despite joining a team of heroes, it seemed that hadn't changed at all.
Coming to stand behind Dick, Kaldur inquired, "Have you found out who the killer is?"
"Yup. His name is Slade Wilson, AKA, Deathstroke." Dick said. Immediately everyone else stood up to take a look at what Robin had found. Dick leaned back in his seat so they could get a better look and continued, "Used to be in the military where he was experimented on to become, basically, a super soldier. After that, he became a mercenary. There's something strange though."
"What's that?" Conner asked.
"I was able to find this out, but I also found that there are more files on him, that are locked up. Given the level of security, I think Batman did it." Dick revealed, still staring at the screen.
"Can you hack it?" Wally wondered. He was fully aware that his best friend could hack anything. For fun, sometimes they'd even hack the Watchtower and spy on the Justice League.
To his surprise, Dick shook his head. "Not without alerting Batman. Figured it would be easier to ask."
"Why would Batman have it locked up?" Kaldur then questioned.
"No idea. But there must be a good reason." Dick responded, tapping his fingers on the desk. Bruce was extremely secretive and a bit paranoid, but there were usually very good reasons for it. However, when it came to stuff like this, Dick was already positive that Bruce and the League would take over which would be extremely annoying. But, they couldn't move on without knowing all the information and if Dick did hack the computers, Bruce would know about it immediately. He was going to have to take to the billionaire and ask outright.
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Slade looked through the security footage he had hacked of the streets where he had, unfortunately, failed at his job. His casing of the place earlier in the day had given him everything he needed. There had been no sign of any kind of trouble. No threats of interference. His checks on his previous jobs showed that no one had looked into their deaths or seemed to be putting the pieces together either. And yet tonight, a bunch of kids had gotten in his way.
The footage he got access to showed small clips of the team of young heroes arrive, but not much. They needed more work at avoiding cameras, but all in all, not a bad job. Especially the boy he had fought. Batman's partner. Robin.
He had fought Batman and other members of the Justice League before, and knew that they had their proteges but it seemed clear that Robin was the most skilled of them. He would have to be. Batman had shown to be a human fighting alongside that you had to be the best. He wouldn't choose a weakling for a partner, especially considering his age. And though Slade had fought him for less than five minutes, he could tell that he was skilled. It made him curious.
The curiousity was so strong that he started looking for any and all footage of Robin, specifically his fighting styles. He was rather impressed with what he found. The boy was an amazing fighter. How old was he exactly? He seemed so young but he fought better than the majority of people Slade had gone up against. The boy knew what he was doing. With more time and training, he could be even better. He could be a formidable enemy. Or, an extremely useful ally.
But he couldn't do that. It wouldn't work. Would it?
AN – I hope you guys liked this chapter. Let me know what you think! See you all on Thursday!