Teen Titans – Epilogue Arc – Prologue: Rewind

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Chapter 3.0 :A Bad Joke

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Dr. Ryan Choi fiddled with the tech he'd striped from Mr. Wayne's spine. He knew the emblem very well, yet his chest hammered away, while Karen Beecher; his intern and assistant, had plucked up the tiny device to replace in the scientist's hands a steaming cup of joe. "You still at the lab at this hour?" She pouted her lips and shook her head at the example he was giving off. "Cyborg said he needed to know if we got the scoop on those Probes everyone is still crazy about." She went to the computer and turned it back on to see if anything had come in since she'd left to refill both their cups.

"I don't pay you enough to lose sleep over this. Go get some rest, Karen." Dr. Choi turned in his swivel chair to the African American physics whiz. "I'll stay us as long as I have to ta help my pal Sparky and his team." She huffed, finding a file that read "unmarked" on the man –

"Please." Choi kept a hand on the mouse. "Go home. I'll have a solution for a proper sweeper whipped up in the morning."

She wanted to be sure of it, so in a split, she bumped his arm and let a stray tracker dot latch to his white lab coat. A clear one, undetectable.

"This busy bee isn't gonna call to wake your lazy butt up by tomorrow. If you miss another shift like last week –

"My doctor says I'm find to push myself." The man defended, "I'll be fine. Be sure to lock up when you leave."

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The clock ticked and the screen went white. He was here, all alone with a ghost of a chance at staying alive tonight.

He went to open the folder that had been off limits to Karen…

A click, and a video emerged.

~ Hello, doctor. ~

Ryan gulped, allowing the image to play on as he would not look away this time.

~ I know you have been made aware of my demands in the past month or so. I require a device that can alter DNA to make a permanent change. I have reason to believe that you are just the man for the job. ~

Last week? Last week he'd barricaded himself in the lab at home. Surrounded by objects he could defend himself with. Plenty of sharp shards of glass. A jungle of beakers, a mountain of paper cuts. His fortress of solitude, in ruins….

~ I will however, leave you with a warning; should you speak to any of your staff about my plans, even that intern you coddle to death, they'll be the first to go. I'll gladly test out the weapon that your sister company made possible. This is the end of the league, and you'll be glad I didn't keep you around long enough to see them perish. Goodbye, and do hurry up with the weapon. I'm a patient man….but, patience is arbitrary. Not the best choice of words, yet you have your orders. Hop to it, mini – man….~

And he knew his identity, to add that to the top of the list….

A wind gust came from the end of the wall. When was that –

"You got the message in time?"

The devilish Slade this time. Deathstroke was on leave until the fall, training his new pup to fetch.

He stared from the window ledge with a leg up to rest, seeming too cool for the pose to call it classless.

"I've waited long enough. Where is the device, Doctor?"

"I'm still working on it…" Ryan found a notch below his desk, but Slade had kept two bots handy to hold down the man while he beat the blueprints out of him. He would also change into Atom if Slade lost his target.

"None of the heroes know, honest! –

"What about her?" Slade had the bots roughly and noisily tug Karen out of the hallway, as she was dragged shouting at them into the lab room with almost no way to punch and kick the metal monsters in the face. Well, without giving her foot a mean ole' cramp.

"Funny, you're a Titan. Isn't this a day job?" Slade cocked his head curiously at the scientist's protégé. "A bit late for students such as yourself to be working overtime." He swung his gaze over to Ryan's stunned expression. " Doctor? Anything you'd like to share with the class?"

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"He….had my identity?? An' yours too??" Karen exploded at the not – so - innocent doctor. "You….you just cost my team an' his the ! –

"Last chance. You've broken our agreement, it seems." Slade came up to Choi and noticed the switch under his desk. He eyed the other man dangerously, thinking up a way to remedy his pest problem.

"Go ahead." Slade motioned to the doctor to push that shiny red button. "Push it. I'll wait."

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Karen was sure these bots were monsters. They would have to get a monster sized wallop once she'd activated her powers, though –

Out of the desk, after the button's whirring pieces were activated, a compartment reveled itself on the side of Ryan's desk to reveal the man's Atom attire. "Smart." Slade shifted his weight a bit. "Alright, doctor. Put it on, for her. NOW." The mercenary instructed, rather strict.

His bots were busy digging their nails into Karen's arm, something fierce. So, Dr. Choi did as he was told. He put the coat aside onto his chair and threw the suit over his shirt and pants, losing his work "clogs" in the process. Slade stood with his hand on another trigger. A full - proofed force that worked against flying insects.

"Very good. You'll be repaying me, in full. On your knees." Slade whipped out what looked like a gun.

And it wasn't the red lazer one, either. A 00 – style kind of deadly, dual pistol.

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"No! You can't hurt im!" Karen yelped as the two bots grappled her to her knees. "Would you like too join your partner, then? I'm sure there's plenty of room where he's going to end up..." He cocked it, and Bee's abilities emerged.

Like a magical girl sequence, none could touch her.

"Sorry, ya' one – eyed creep! We have just as strict a "no guns" policy at Star Labs as Wayne Tech." She swished over and dodged a grabby bot's arm. Slade knew that younger crime fighters were a hassle, but Bumble Bee was still only a protégé herself. However, he was here for her mentor. Bee needed to keep hitting that snooze button.

He waited until he had her close enough then….

Palms clapped together, smashing the Bee between them. Dazed, her wings were too easily snatched up.

"Please! Don't do anything to her….I'll….take me, like you said…I'm better off –

"Depressing." Slade snorted and tossed the unconscious girl onto Choi's desk. She'd not even made a small thud. The doctor swallowed. Slade then turned to Dr. Choi with his one eye thin and catlike. He dragged a device from the man's desk; a staple removal tool with sharp pronged teeth, up to the sad man's eye level.

"Change. Do it. Or she'll be the first."

"Deathstroke….stop… doing this! -

"She's at my mercy," Slade hissed as the doctor fumbled with the buttons of his suit.

" And so are you… Atom."

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~ At Star Labs at approximately 11pm late last night, scientist Dr. Ryan Choi's intern and lab assistant Karen Beecher, was found –

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Cy was crushed. The news was wrong. She wasn't the victim, but another guy was. A hero, like Bee (who'd thankfully not been involved with the mad man.) A really bad joke; he was found in his lab as a speck – turned small with his stomach pierce through and stuffed into a dented replacement staples box.

Shove in, bleeding to death. They didn't find it in time. And the one thing they'd missed had been a set of claw marks by the window ledge.

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Karen wept in the watchtower as like Wally, she had to be kept from Death's wrath.

"We know it wasn't another villain." Roy hit the wall with his fist, reminding Starfire of how Robin used to punch things….

"Choi was building him a dang DNA scramblin' whatever, an' he kept it from me! I feel like he cared….he…he was just savin' his own –

"Slade threatened him, Bee." Cy came to her side and sighed, trying to be supportive.

"I don't give a dang second to that jerk for bein' untrustworthy with me!... He was my, teacher!" She shouted in Cy's face. She flushed and let out a loud, short exhale. "Sorry….I got the job at Star an' Ryan was sort of, a guy who…made me fit in. I didn't get along with my own dad, so he was more' n just a mentor to me…Without him, Star labs won't be –

"We won't let Deathstroke have his day." Dianna reassured the heroes. "We're still tracking down your missing teammate, as you few are busiest debating over the criminal's proper punishment."

"He's gonna get what's comin…." Cy acknowledged how Karen was taking –

Bee grumbled into her hands, proving him wrong. "You bet he's gonna be wearin' my fist on his ear when I'm done with that carnival freak! I swear it!" (Boxing his ears, this is a toned down is a version of the apprentice what - if arc universe!)

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"Now a DNA altering device?" GL asked scratching his chin, as Batman tapped a few keys down, too quickly to see what he was typing. "What do you think it's for? The kid –

"Constantine and Raven are working together to re- enter Slade's mind. Without any unlikely visitors this time. John claims Slade is borrowing Trigon's magic, but not because Wilson's sold off anything important.

A last click of the keys.

"Yet."

GL frowned while Bats had pulled up a file on the type of work Dr. Choi might have been working on behind their backs.

"Ingenico Labs had constructed the probes' control device. As of…May, this year. It would have helped dozens with non – invasive surgeries to heal from post – surgical complications that modern science has failed to remedy for over a decade. It was a patented marvel with a few kinks the company still to work out of its programming… Naturally, seeing Robin as a way to continue his legacy and bring me out into the open, Deathstroke stole the device and tampered with it. Wally told me about how he and Barry ran into Slade when he'd broken into the lab to steal the device. Back then, he was getting ready to relocate his lair to Jump City and swap his career. He created a feint that night too; a way to scare Barry into saving his nephew from a massive explosion. Safe to say, he got what he'd come for and yet Barry suffered the toughest blow of all."

"Why didn't you let us know any of his side, earlier?"

"I had to be sure it matched up with Dr. Choi's dirty work in the description. The fact that he's only made what Slade's demanded since that time the device had vanished from Ingenico labs, only proves that he was forced to comply with the mercenary's demands. For a price."

"That blackmailin' kick really has em' –

" Ehen, I see." John Stewart cleared his throat. He then looked up at the schematics on the screen, all of Ryan's unfinished creations. A ton of illegal machines, too. "Still, why for DNA warping? Is he thinkin' that…-

"Don't know." Bats answered. "But Dick…if he's being forced to work as a test subject at this very minute…then if Slade thinks it'll serve any sort of purpose to further his plans in ending the Justice League and the Titans, we have no choice but to find his location quickly, before Slade beats us to the very last objective."

"And you know where he'd headed…Don't you?"

Batman nodded below the cowl. "I traced a faint signal to Bludhaven. Still, Raven's message from Slade was clear…" He turned to John S and finished. "Their last destination; and maybe final destination - is Gotham city."

John's eyes were then, glued to his team captain's frowning face.

Bruce looked up and was serious as ever, knowing this wasn't going to end peacefully.

"He's truly is, planning to make Dick take out the Batman. Permanently. "

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