Teen Titans – Haunted – An Analysis in Red and Orange; Chapter 8: The Proposal
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There are no generators! There is no Slade!
~ No…. I saw him. I fought him! ~
I know what I saw! I have to stop him!... I'm the only one who can! And I'll take down anyone who gets in my way!
~ I said that…. I was trying to warn them! They don't know, that I'm still –
Alone again, Robin?
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He searched the room as the demon from his nightmares sauntered forth, with a shocking little weapon in hand to continue with his rounds. The warden of his fears was everywhere.
But…A mini-Taser? What was Slade trying to prove?? He was sicker BECAUSE of the mad man! The frustrated hero wanted to rip the binds off, but he wasn't a meta. He was, only human.
And very vulnerable.
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Robin's eyes pieced together the face that came forth from the shadows, which carried that fearsome voice as it strode up to the hero's sick bay bedside.
No! He was –
"Slade!" Robin growled, keeping his voice slightly lowered. His heart pounded hard in his chest, nearly keeping him dizzy by the shock. His black and blue eye was masked, but Slade saw everything. He'd done that.
Ruthless, so much that Robin wanted to run rather than fight.
He knew it. He couldn't win…
" I'm sorry that your friends don't trust you. Maybe you should consider going solo in the near future, that is…If I allow you to continue."
"Will, you kill me? Is that why you're here? To enact your revenge on me? For…. Terra's –
"Terra was a pawn, dear boy. I held no true attachment to that child. I was however, considering on a bet. One last chance to save yourself from all of this."
Robin pursed his lips and paused, pensively digesting the offer as if it would be his last as a hero. As a standing human being to the mad man who'd put him in chains.
"I won't give in to your games, Slade. My friends -
~ Right now, he has the ability to trick them too. You have to get away, somehow. They can't know. ~
With his words still embedded deeply, and surrounded by a more animalistic human logic, it made sense to fall down. Robin though, was taught to never surrender unconditionally.
Robin grappled with the binds; nothing seems to be in his belt. They'd put him on lockdown, unofficially a Titan – sized time out.
Growling, Robin felt like his head was muddled, drugged when he could see Slade coming over with the ugly tazer. "I…" He was against this bet, but Slade wasn't buying the act.
He had to use any part of himself to shove the man away, to call the Titans now would be –
"Are you thinking I want to make you suffer like this? You can't even leave a mark on my face. Why would I bother ending our game before I've had my fun." Slade pulled up placed the tazer back in his belt. A single strap was kept, for his idea of fun was enjoying the hunt. Robin gasped as the man came in close to free him, and then walked away towards a stray computer screen situated by the side of the room's lone wall.
"We can make this a bit easier. I want to win, and I know you'd like to keep your life. Robin. Or…your sanity -
"You and I are both here, I'll face your tricks and stop you myself. No more games! –
Robin tore at the bed straps as the very last one popped off with little effort required. Slade had handed him a handicap. He felt disappointed as well; since Robin had once been able to take on the crime lord mano – e – mano, besting him without his companions to pick up the slack.
But…
Slade threw his hands to dance across the computer's keys as a musical instrument to his own devices. Robin watched, slightly mesmerized and taken aback in the reluctance by the male's unbridled confidence.
"Then, I suggest you take my offer and try to avoid capture. Dead or alive."
Robin's eyes got wide, realizing that this wasn't a game any longer. Dead. What?
"Run, hero. Hop to it. You have a two-minute head start. Starting, now." Slade was gone; back into the shadows as he took the hero by surprise and tossed his shaking body back onto the med bay bed with an abrupt shove.
Slade leaped in there after, as Robin rolleed off of the bed, tossing it to block the man from having his head on a platter.
It was about to get even uglier. Slade pulled out the tazer and teased the hero with it, like a dog watching the bone going, back and forth. He wanted Robin to fight. To fall and to eventually admit his defeat to the man's face...but why not tire out the kid, right now? He needed the pressure taken right off!
Slade shoved the bed away onto it's side as Robin grabbed a chair and chucked that in the way as well, not hitting the man in the shins as he'd hoped. Wide eyed and frightened as a rabbit against this wily fox of a man, Robin retaliated and tried to slip off to the side, but tripped over the med bay's bed curtain and had to crawl -
Slade dragged the disoriented loser hero up with a steely cold look in his eye, tossing the hero closest to the bed. And Robin, who was still keeping that timer Slade had cursed him with in mind...He had to flee...
Robin growled, yet realized his time limit was not going to hold out. He saw the only exit as his legs forced themselves to launch him onto the side of the tipped over bed, up into the air ducts and out of the man's iron grip. He let his feet do the work, as his heart raced loudly in his young ears.
Hunt, kill?? He was being –
A hit. A killer! He was in danger and couldn't stop….but...
What about…
The Titans...?
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So? How did the heart monitors pick up that deadly level of compromised health?
We can fill in this for a fun laugh.
Slade knew that Robin and he needed to speed things along. A lax target wasn't enough to satisfy the hunter, so he took to the liberty of taking out the tazer to mimic those events of Robin's beating heart –
Coming apart.
The trick would be enough until the "Quarantine" protocol activated to keep the other useless heroes, out. The tazer stayed off on the bed. With the shocked circuits Robin had yanked off of his body playing the message loud and clear, the assassin could rejoin the hero and finish the job.. So far, the Titans were bound to come running in with anxious faces.Also, the real mastermind had the hacking down, so Robin's desire to keep Slade in wasn't his brilliant plan as they'd belived. Or, was it?
It was too late, and besides…
The hunt was still going on inside the tower.
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X slumped into the closest seat that he could find. One that wouldn't swallow him whole as they did in Wayne's manor. Too, cushy.
Across from the anti – Robin incognito, was a woman who looked to be over fifty at least.
Or, maybe it was her appearance of a stoic doctor - type of personality that drew him to that conclusion.
"So, Mr. Jackson? Are you sure you don't want to tell me your first name? All information is kept confidential and does not leave this office." She said to the teen, who just shrugged and thought up a name quickly.
"James."
"Hmm. Alright." The doctor looked him over, then his file on her desk, then spoke again to introduce herself.
"My name is Dr. Leslie Thompkins." She smiled back. "My clients and staff are allowed to address me as either Dr. Leslie or Miss Thompkins. I've been called Les by some of my, oldest clientele.
Bruce, right?
"Dr. Leslie." James (We'll use this name for now) responded. "I'll be okay with calling you just Leslie, unless that's too –
"I won't mind it. I still do want you to let down some of your walls. First, off. You're not that underage. But in your information here, I had less of a hunch until now. I have nothing against runaways. We can do for this session if you still want to trust me." She leaned forward at her desk. She seemed to want to be engaged in this intriguing conversation. Talk about a bedside manner…
James cleared his throat. "Sure, I'll stay. I came all the way from Jump City by rail, and I'm going to be renting a room in Gotham by tonight before I can hop back to my flat in the morning. You got me."
Too descriptive, X.
"You live far from here?"
"I travel." James shrugged, trying to act casual.
"What work do you do?"
"Freelance. I'm my own boss, but lately…Something's kept me from doing more of my fair share..."
"As in…"
James blinked. She was good, "I'm not a puppet, so don't pull my strings, doc. I was…with a guy who saved my butt from living off on the streets and he even gave me a new life. Then, we had a fight…" He held a hand to his skull. Some of the pieces didn't line up. Leslie wasn't aware of his hints, was she?
"Was it hard, being away from Gotham? It said in your file that you grew up a few blocks from here. At this location."
"Who? What file?" X stiffened, feeling very exposed by those eyes she cast down onto him.
Leslie smiled again and got up from her desk seat. She walked over to a different chair that was directly across from James's reclining sofa.
"The file that said you had something, you wanted to talk about with me. The one that your adoptive father kept."
X tried to be bashful, his worst acting job as an ex - hero.
He drew a raspberry and tried to seem confused, when he knew where she was going with this. "Oh, no no…. What? Bah! I don't have –
"I know why you came, at least…A little."
Jay's eyes grew a bit. "He…He found me?" He sat up.
Wanting to keep his sanity in check for one day, Jay rose just as a hand stretched outwards caught his lower arm. He was, drawn back into his seat. X, felt extremely powerless in this room right now. Like a kid who was being told to sit down and shut up…But, Les didn't make him feel unsafe.
"I won't tell him. I just want to talk." She explained, easing the teen's confounded mind. "Confidentiality was never one of Bruce's strong points, not like it is with me." As she nodded and tried to ride out what a chance this was, he just hoped that all of the tracers had been destroyed on his body and any gear had been deactivated. Batman had taught to stay on top of a target. Hoping however now, that Death wasn't watching his every move via satellite…That was a sure shot, as they got down to his past. His amnesia, and…. what that freelance work brought to the table.
She was good, that quack. He had to give Miss Les some credit for shutting up the thief better than Robin ever could.
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