Teen Titans; The Fighting Life; Epilogue Story – Chapter 16: Catatonic Reemergence
/
The air was a hazard to breathe in as Clark struggled to find the one; the only one who could have enjoyed building and breaking apart any opportunity he was granted of this crumbling oasis.
The famous Ikon suit flashed as a movie monster with its lightening tail lashing forth. A string of shock waves dragged citizens to duck into safe houses, as their patron ally Superman did his very best to secure the area from this ageless threat.
He didn't do well enough, however. The shock went and stuck at his spine as Slade's staff hit the Kryptonian with a strange ray of energy.
"Krrrrypt…o…nite?" He gasped out, thinking he'd been willing to pummel the man holding his head already in hand.
"You aren't so willing to take a hit – but the city thinks you'd die in a blaze for them…so, go ahead! This is your contribution – Son of Krypton! Metropolis welcomes your demise!"
With a sold THWACK, Slade watched the hero fly, but not by his own powers.
The rest came with swords laced with the same signature as the staff he'd now collapsed for a later use. Slade had the big guns ready and loaded, but he was only after one hero. Others would show up – so, why was he ready and willing to take himself to court? He had a good plan, a plan B was always necessity to any top tier assassin.
Slade pounded the dirt and lifted himself up to strike the air with his special "God Killer "Rebooted." The sword headed right for the man of steel, as they danced as dragons bound in a courtship ritual. He, felt he was a living legend. The lore he'd made possible was due to the league, so he had to be grateful to them, always.
He'd show his simple – sighted foes some decent etiquette on the battle field. He snuck behind a bus as a slightly dazed Superman came after his enemy. Lois was there, as she saw the gun come into view; with its lava red intent, hotly closing in against her pupils. She shouted to her lover and friend to stand by. This was what Slade was after.
To cull the competition.
To even the odds.
And to make the league pay dearly for disturbing this man's big plans to send his message.
"LOOK OUT! HE'S GOT A –
"NO!" The gun didn't hit Lois to make her a test subject. It was a light effect to quiet her, as it had Black Canary earlier.
Superman had no choice but to lose himself to a heated grief as his eyes beamed over Slade, who's suit still had him safe and sound. A shield of his own. He smirked below the mask and laughed darkly to the disturbed hero's way of combatting his own shame.
"I know you Kryptonians bleed, but I've never seen one cry before. Call this a little experiment of my own – in the making..." Slade detonated a bomb from under the parade's main float as it lifted off the ground to scare a dozen families who were about to get crushed into dirt and grime with the ret of the blacktop streets.
Superman called out; it was not a right way to go, Lois knew what he was asking for and…
He went after the bus, but Slade sent his strange gun's beam to hit Clark in the chest on a much lower frequency.
He thought it was a plasma gun, let him guess….
"Save a city, or your mate for life? Your choice, Man of Steel." Slade pointed another gun; a real one at Lois's head as he held the poor ebony maiden hostage AND had infected both lovers without breaking a sweat. She weakly croaked out; her head had a gash in it from his treatment. Tugging at her, making her pay for…
"Save…. them…not…-
Superman choked back his tears. Slade wouldn't have the right. He was playing with the wrong alien son. "I'm sorry…" Lois started to sob by the shock. The gun, was not her biggest fear...
It was the man holding the gun at Superman's heart, daring him to become just like the vile assassin.
Clark was red hot as his body thundered; with rage fueling every infected cell to heal him.
"No…I won't let everyone down –
"You won't have to!" GL and the Titans got there to see the city – not the underbelly, but a wasteland utopia turned topside in only a few short hours.
"This, ends… We'll get the float, already on top of it, anyhow. Go, save Lois –
"Hurry!" Starfire and Wonder Woman had already intercepted the vehicle, which meant that –
Slade was a sitting duck. Lois however –
Slade shoved the dead eyed reporter to the side as Clark rushed out to break her fall. Such an old-fashioned idiot.
"Take her. You'll be lucky to hear another story from behind those pretty lips." He took cover and Lois fell into Clark's arms as Deathstroke had done enough damage to city property here, for one day. Explosives and commando bots popped up from the side streets as the Titans were re – introduced to another known enemy. Artificial intelligence.
"Alright! Show em' the way, everyone! Justice League, altogether!"
The blasts were away, faraway ….
Slade snuck away, with the gunfire there to give him enough time to change into one more person. He had another life to take back from the waking world. Robin was worth more than the blood of a dead race of intelligent life forms from Mars or Jupiter, anyhow.
Slade took to his last disguise, of a certain billionaire's helping hand.
Lucius Fox of Wayne Enterprises.
Housed in the place where the dead could never find solace, Slade took to the front door with a grim expression; one at the loss of a partner of sorts. The guards at the front were there since the city had been under attack. Let his acting then, be worth the fight….
He went up to the desk with his heart racing, spoke in a meek voice to the two officers.
"Hi? Hello? I'm looking for Mr. Wayne…is it true he was –
"Ah, that's hard to answer. What are you going on about, guy? No visiting hours are allowed –
"I beg your pardon, sorry." The male tried to clear his throat and seem, trustworthy.
"Bruce Wayne is the sole founder's son, Thomas Wayne of Gotham City? We can't be too hard to catch on the MNN news, can we?"
"Oh! Oh! You're that partner of his, Mr. Fox? Danny! It's for Wayne –
A second security guard for the night shift turned his head around from a second desk. He looked, staring back and very confused.
"I though they said that Mr. Wayne was dea-
"He's sleeping." Frowned the other guard. Hell…he didn't want to call it out yet on the poor fossil. Fox was in charge of the company, so he could bring down the gavel if Wayne didn't make it back to the land of the living. Was the rumor he'd heard of, anyway.
"You wanna see him, but we have to contact the staff in the ER first, hold on sir." The phone rang and he would be home free.
"Was it that bad of an attack? I was with him at the hotel, that morning. We were supposed to be at the event, and I warned him to bring an escort…" The man shied away as he covered his face. "I knew that kid since he first started his company from the ground up! We were like brothers…I refuse to hear that you sent him to –
"Hurrying on that call, Bill." Danny sighed. "Half the city is in need of a separate medic team. No one is here, maybe we should –
"That would –
Slade realized that he had the gun for the bots on him, still. This was tedious. Had the ER been accessible before? It all depended. He was there towards the evening, a very late hour to have someone take your pulse.
"Change of plans." The gun came out and shot both the men in their temples. "You'll let me see Bruce Wayne, that is an order."
"He…...will…. go….to….be…...foren-
"Take me there, now."
The bots ate away at every fiber of the men's cell structures, as Slade stayed in this form until he'd believed it safe to change back.
Down the halls of Metropolis General Hospital, they went. Robin was not coming out of his false body until Slade gave the correct code word.
And if he stepped out of his role any sooner.
"Question, gentlemen." The fake Lucius looked down towards the next doorway and frowned. "Has anyone else been here, after hours. Tell me the truth."
Danny tried to sputter out a message as the probes reached inside to stun him as a burrowing mound of maggots in his sad little brain.
"Ba…..ba…b. ssssssl…..a…..mmaaaaaaa-
Danny twitched and spit down his chin as he proved to be …His body finally, had collapsed from an early heart attack. Lovely. Slade rubbed his chin. B was for, what…
"Hmmm, I don't think I know that one -
"Here!"
The face of Wayne was half here, as his competition couldn't compare to the original Slade Wilson. It had been a very good day, as Slade felt his blood rushing as before.
"You found your way back. The robots didn't rough you up too much, I hope –
Slade watched the real Wayne try to pull off his disguise. The Robots had helped in his favor. He tugged at his skin, but it stayed foreign to him. A forced hologram, similar to Robin's. Only it was set under his skin, right where the rest connected with a very enlarged vein.
What he did, would go down as the lowest one could –
"AAH!" Bruce swept forwards with his fists and without his false batarangs to save him.
"You did too much this time! I'm going to take you down…no more mercy, Deathstroke!"
Lucius's face changed to that of a chameleon face that had the real Bruce going back onto his feet and flying at the other male.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY WARD!" The two came at one another and pushed, their grips entangled as Bruce left a kick to mimic his own. The men were mirror images, and it made the real Bruce wonder if he'd been infected like Aqualad. The same surreal feeling led the detective to question his enemy's motives.
"Says, your son. Or…is he, my boy now?" Slade's new face made the Batman want to vomit. IT was, his face. Bruce's face. His voice too… The face of the fake Slade, now snarled. His voice was changed as well.
"Your tricks…. I don't know why you think this will work forever." The men let go to recover before starting again.
Bruce (real Wayne) wiped his upper lip, where a bit of white stubble nearly had him crying on the inside. The fight had been to rip him to shreds in another way.
False Wayne crossed his arms and frowned at his deliberate rival's fixated stare. "Robin knows the difference between us. You don't think I didn't realize it? Your boy is not a part of that world of heroes and villains, only as master and apprentice can I have him to realize HIS fullest potential. You wanted to save him, but does he really want to be saved….by you?"
This was worse than being injected with Crane's fear toxin…. It was…
Slade's face, on him was a wake up call. How they were fighting over a child's future. They'd brought a boy into their war game and now –
"Robin doesn't want to play the hero anymore. Get over yourself –
"Liar…. Deathstroke!"
Slade (real Slade's) body moved into the shadows of the dark hospital hallway. He slithered by as a shadow only could. "You can't try to play my game; but I am the only one who knows how it all ends UP in the end..."
"RAgh!" Real Bruce felt the prick of a sharp cut go through his…
"I…. can still –
Real Slade wiped off the man's dirtied blood from his hidden knife.
"You may share my face, but my powers belong to only one other; my equal in might and determined spirit. Your "ward" has both of these endearing qualities and I intend to make good use of his loyalty for as long as he desires it. Right now, I'll say a magic word and wake the sleeping prince from his catatonic slumber. He'll come to my side and refuse to part with his beloved savior. The one that has shown him what was always missing…" Slade or fake Bruce went on, while the room was spinning for fake Slade. A.K.A, Real Bruce.
"What…. did he…. say…to you..." Real Bruce took his unit out, his hands in ridge tremors. Poison? Bruce groaned. The rest had gone quiet.
"Can't have you blowing my cover, again. You're too late by the way; Superman is going to willingly do as so many I command will soon be forced to commit to - within a treason of heroes – made by their own shameful pride. How very, tragic indeed."
"You…. Are, out of you!... –
"I'm more in my element than ever before, Bats. And since you are going to be put away with the joker in…... a few minutes." He looked at his watch, not caring if real Bruce saw the trigger for the Titans' probes on his same wrist. "They've called the police... Humm…...I wasn't expecting anything this timely–
"Wh…. heat…ar…"
"The delirium is finally taking hold. I've had enough. You'll see; that as easy as Arkham is from the outside to scale as the Bat, you've never once been a part of the spectacle that is the criminal line up, inside those filthy walls." Fake Bruce's eyes grew widest at the word he'd hinted. "Well, with that perfect mug shot, I think you might just end up in the best suite of all…" Slade stood over Bruce's nearly failing form as the blade had been laced with a drug to have him out of the way in the worst way he could concoct. As someone other than himself - his own worst enemy was, himself….
Slade's one eye was his, but the man he saw through that eye looking down on him, was an envious and selfish scoundrel. That…that wasn't him! He -
He'd not been any better at this than…Slade…why was he going this far?
"Sleep, a while. I'll have your son to confront in a few moments. See you in another time, Batman."
The darkness hid that enigmatic face that was…. his face…. That was…
"That's…. oh my god! Call the MPPD! That's –
~They think…. I'm…. Deathstroke….Slade….Robin will….~
The lights went out, and then…He was forever lost to this new vison; of a poisonous future, without his family there to comfort the grieving vigilante in his time of need.
/
Through the underground, bodies could be found. Littering table to table and section to section where they were objectified as, deceased.
This was the place, as Slade got to work with his new face and body put away. The guise the Titans had known him as remained to greet the sleeping beauty. Getting ready, the drawer was ripped from the wall to showcase the hidden bachelor in sheep's clothing.
Or, the sheep playing the sheep. The valued sacrifice to his every achievement. He pused back a stray lock from the teen's ear. "I'd hate to ruin the effect…. RISE."
The teen's eyes, not Bruce's, slowly fluttered open, and he saw that his light was…being blocked –
Before he was able to recall, what light that had been…
The event…and, his –
"Agh! –
"Shh…. It's alright, Richard…. shh…"
The boy was pulled to him, and instinctively, out of a deep fear that he'd have no one left, Dick hugged back with all his strength in soft sobs, he begged to know. "W-w-why….? I…I…w-was….no g-good…t-t-to…. y- y – you? Why?"
"Wrong." Slade had the boy's hair grasped as if he'd rather fall away into its trembling streaks of black.
"You were perfect, but now, we must be going. The league doesn't understand this. Batman will never understand what it is you truly need…." Slade brushed the child's cold cheek with his gloved thumb as Robin's trance state was impossible to escape from. A little Stockholm did the master a solid, the rest would be addressed in Bluudhaven for the remainder of Richard's training.
"Yes." The boy nodded as Slade's hypnotic stare left him lacking of ever being in control again. "I, understand. Master…It was…too much…. Right… now, need….to sleep…" He let Slade take him to the jet he had ready to soar out to their next hide - away. A city where crime not only thrived, yet one could be lost in their sins for an eternity or more. In a next life...
And best of all? No bats or titans were allowed within fifteen feet of the city. It was an exclusive club for the worst "masters" of the criminal underworld in history to gather.
Or, it could be very soon.
/
The city was quiet, as a cover. It was much more than that…
Lois and Clark both lay side by side, their bodies crying out as the toxicity took them from one another's arms.
He couldn't touch her…he couldn't be near Anyone! She only screamed out in pain, so he didn't try to coax her again.
And yet, she wasn't infected with the same type of probe specimen as him. Her type was a modest supply that made her feel faint. Less willing to strike up a discussion. Slade had made it seem that way, but…Superman still didn't know what to think.
GL made sure to sweep the area for any traces, but…He didn't think there was much left to do for the sake of this case at all.
Cyborg's own face lay emotionless, distant.
Gar couldn't crack a joke, he refused to leave his puppy dog self behind as he whimpered on the ground and let out a sad howl.
Starfire cried beside Wonder woman, who did her best to help the alien girl to see reason in this, farce.
"Deathstroke needed Robin, and we knew nothing about this twist of events. He won't have gotten far. Right now, that dog of Hades is probably licking his wounds in shame. He has yet to show his face to anyone…"
Well, Diana tried to seem reassuring, but her role wasn't to be warm and fuzzy. She had trouble in that department, compared to Hawk woman or Dinah.
Speedy looked around to find the residue of the blast from Slade's probe gun. He had Cyborg look into it, and then –
"I think we can pull this off, Superman! Yo! I need a sample of your blood back at the Watchtower." His face conveyed what spirit and hope the adults on the JLA lacked.
"We found a clue, and it's big. Big enough to get Slade to look our way." He didn't know if that was true entirely, himself, but the part about a cure was there. It was enough to keep them all where they needed to be. Robin was going to thank him for this later. Unless, something had gone horribly wrong…
/
It was about to get far worse than Cyborg could picture. Only one person had accidentally entered the mind of an unlikely duo and barely had resisted the urge to wake up, themselves.
Raven tossed and turned inside her unit, as a union was about to take place. One she dreaded more than being forgotten up in space.
It was warm, hard, soft….so many feelings and emotions drawn to her, that her cheeks flushed red by what she saw starting in front of her narrowed eyes.
/
"I could have told you, but this might be the best time to rest elsewhere." Slade set Richard down onto his own four poster bed, dead set on closing this deal for years to come. The boy looked up through the haze of his lovely desire.
His damnable confusion. Catatonic unrest ached from within as his paranoia became muddled, like his other senses. All but touch.
"Why…Slade..." He hoarsely asked the man as his face was then kissed passionately, making his body turn itself inside out with a delicate set of strokes, elsewhere.
Lower, even.
"This is your initiation." His master pulled back from the many planted kisses to reply. "If you pass our little test, you'll not have to worry about those heroes and their struggles, again." Slade purred this, but it was a rewarding enough feeling.
"I don't…r…re…mem…ne-aaahh!..." Robin moaned early as the thrust of the man's hand to his member ached through the cloth.
He tried to gather himself, but the man wanted a willing pact between them, by any means.
"W- what are…. you…. -
Before Robin could come to awaken from this vivid wet dream, Slade reacted swiftly.
Robin's shirt was tugged off, as the nanos and serum revved up his dormant sex drive, his desire to discover this delicious feeling even further…was there and wanting as Slade never bothered asking for permission to claim his -
"This…this isn't…gAH!"
His buds were both nipped painfully, leaving two swollen, small and tender mounds where the boy had been thrice bitten. He mewled as Slade playfully rolled his large tongue around the boy's areolas. Robin arched at the sensation as he clawed at the man's wrist to catch himself.
Moments continued to climb, with the ex – hero's budding climax peaking a slight higher than he'd ever know it to go. He'd lost his only protection from the man's larger grip. His cock was being teased without the need to hide that rosy hue. Robin fought poorly to contain his ongoing pleasure.
"Nnnngh…. n…. mmmm- mnnn-nmm!" Richard bit into the discarded shirt Slade had tugged over his head and couldn't seem to turn off this metaphorical "sixth sense" he'd soon not have forgotten.
~ Why was he doing this? Was the bots' control that powerful? He, actually was…He clung to the man, the sheets…His left-over dignity was as his grip. ~
~ Powerful enough to break skin, but never to mend a shattered heart. ~
Moaning; trying to evenly buck at the hand as it pumped him silly, his body wasn't standing or sitting, it was arched up in the man's lap and enjoying the mad man's touches immensely. His body, his mind…. it felt like poison to the REAL Boy Wonder…then who was this fake Dick Grayson taking his over his life?
No…He wanted –
"You'll have to hold steady for this, I want to stretch you, deeply...yet you'll continue to loosen up for me when I take you…. THIS, Robin….is the ULTIMATE betrayal of all you've been to your mentor…" Richard braced himself as his body jolted by this even newer sensation.
"Right now…. Bruce is getting cozy with a few of some old friends of his…." Slade massaged the boy's puckered hole as his words kept the teen preoccupied from within his own thoughts. "Just like you should be, with this!"
Fingers, as Dick yelped and got onto his knees. Slade stuck in two to start and watched as his yipping puppy of an apprentice fell in love with the position that he'd been left in.
"Are you sure I shouldn't take you this way, first? "The man chuckled and generously groped the boy's ass as his fingers were too happy to lend a hand in deepening their tender moment.
Robin unwillingly shook his head in one instance, then started bobbing it YES by his true desires and the serum's overwhelming thrill – seeker initiative in the other. Slade decided to submit to the latter.
"Try, me…. Master…. Please…!" Richard's body had betrayed him, and Slade's own was willing to go all the way if the boy met all of his expectations by tonight.
Slade saw how the boy wanted to feel the impact as he shook his rear while his master sent in a third finger to sweeten his hot spot (I kid, but yes, A Titan joke.)
"What am I to do with you, Dick? I can't refuse a plea so honest for what it yearns for…How your body trusts this…. Hmm…. Very well, you've earned this next reward I think…" The fingers were taken up a notch to four as Robin's face went bright red.
"Not…your!"
A vibrator wand, up his ass, partly keeping him dripping for the rest of it…With the fingers only at two.
"When…. we…...can't…Aggnnh-hnnn!"
"Are you saying that I can't try to keep you ready for my own wants and intentions, apprentice?" The man leaned over as if HE were the one inside the boy's back side. The boy jolted up by the depth as the wand was wedged in at an uncomfortable angle.
"Haah – auhh…! N…n….?" Robin had his head by the foot of the bed, with his ass bend towards the front and on his knees, as Slade made his little bird sing for his release to come.
"Then, should I stop?" Slade did as with the fingers, but slower and more deliberate from side to side up and down in motion. Until the rod was just….
"NO!" Robin caved and whimpered out to have back the pleasure he'd not been fully satisfied with.
"Use your words, apprentice." Slade coxed the child to sing, before his eventually fall into total and absolute bliss.
It was coming, he could feel how the pre-cum was touching against his legs. Dribbling like a spring willing to spill forth all of its –
Slade reached and slowly began to tug out the device. Only its tip had been left, leaving Dick feeling so …. whorish…
"Good boy, now…" The man purred in his ear with a velvet touch to his sensitive lobes. "Come for your master…. Robin…come for me..."
Slade thrust the device back in, hard.
Finally, his cock couldn't take it.
He didn't have a chance to remember their faces as Richard moaned out only one name that he could recall. The one that wanted him to remember how alone he really was.
"Master…. Slaade! AA- uuuAh!" His body's orgasm happened one last time as the sheets gleamed clear and fluid, with the boy's very first seed as a christening to the red-blooded cloth. It coated his stomach, his swollen belly, but Slade still hadn't decided that they were through. Even his apprentice's euphoric panting was just a warm up. Robin, was immortal. He could go even longer if he liked, so Slade decided to open up the boy's eyes to that one possibility.
"This time, you're going to return the favor." The, boy was swung over onto his back. Robin's world spun as he realized what the man had decided to do.
What he had wanted to take.
Richard panicked.
And poor Raven, woke up screaming for silence to take her away, and back to her real world of misery and woe she fled.
A world where Robin's virginity had not been stolen by a sociopathic monster, hiding in his closet.
~ Quoth, the Raven…~
A world where the Titans could eat pizza, go on patrol in peace, and….and…be themselves for once!
Nevermore. ~
~ Robin…I'm sorry…...I can't save us…. I can't be free of him…he's in control... He always was…. you can't know yet…. You should never know… ~ She shivered and looked out into the blankest space in the known universe. Raven hid away from the world while the sordid vision played on. She couldn't even remember his face with the mask. Only those crying eyes broke her as Raven rocked herself inside that lone nightmare, like a mantra…she recited it, what she only had to say to make things right.
"I'm sorry…. I'm sorry…I'm…so..." As if he'd somehow hear her and come home to them, soon…but that time never came. It never would.
At least, not in this time.
/
It didn't take days; or even months or week sat all.
The Batman was trained to fight, and he couldn't forget that fight he'd been stolen away from.
He took out guards one by one; not even close to being anywhere near Arkham as the driver was left unconscious with his crew in the street. The rain pelted Bruce…. even if his face believed itself to be by another's design.
He walked with his stupor having worn off. Yet, that toxic substance was similar to Crane's, which meant the man really had become a full time –
"FREEZE! Hands in the air where we can see em!"
He didn't speak, how could he? The man's voice was the greatest toxic substance of all.
"That's him! "Beast Boy's voice…Oh dear…
"Deathstroke, you are hereby –
"It's Bruce actually, and I need your help." The man proceeded to drop his coat off; his face was the man behind the mask's. White hair and matching goatee. A dark patch and one grey – blue eye to put his life on pause. "I need to remove this, quickly. Before it's too late…"
The big reveal was by the base of the male's spin as his back was presented to the league. A humming chip; an engraved metal square was implanted there as Bruce's few moments had allowed him to see what the Slade bots had imprinted just onto that one point of exposed flesh.
As if the transformation was just Slade playing another of his games with his favorite people…
"Wo…. ah…."
Speedy fortunately was brave enough to poke at it, as the hologram chip shorted every time it was addressed with a minor prick.
Martian Manhunter had come, but Cy and his good crew had left to look into that cure for removing the probes. He looked into this person's mind, and what he saw had confirmed the rest of their suspicions.
~This man is not Deathstroke's alter ego. He is in fact, the true and genuine, Bruce Wayne. ~
The teams gasped at the chip as it was a terrific find. "Let's get you to S.T.A.R labs to remove that piece of tech, alright Bruce?" The hand was from Superman; who'd been given the same gloves produced by Cyborg to those infected by the nanobots' hold on their safety. And around others.
"Thank you…." He fell to his knees. The poison was still affecting his joints a bit. In a day or so it would be cleared from his system with minimal to no side effects.
"Please tell Alfred, that I'll be coming home. Empty handed…" He hung his head and said nothing soon after as Superman got the man to a good doctor to analyze the damage right away. What Slade had done had continued to haunt them, as to how it had all gone wrong so fast in only the time their eyes could have viewed such a tragic ending.
"Slade…. He's gotten too strong. Was he always this hard to beat, GL?" Beastboy looked up as the clean up had, not been taking them a few seconds to help with. Superman was gone until he returned from admitting Bruce into the lab's care program.
He, looked like the enemy, and even spoke like him too…
As long as Starfire and Vic were up in the Watchtower, Bb could let the moment be forgotten a bit sooner. Starfire, would have taken this act of treachery as an ode to war – that Slade's act was the straw that would break her camel's back.
Still, the take over was televised, so the only footage was kept at the time just at the moment –
"Wait! Set that back a bit, two second…. there! See? It looks like Bruce just ate –
"It's a hard candy." Kid Flash turned his head to see what Speedy had seen that he couldn't quite locate…
"There! Stop! It's not a coincidence. Manhunter! I want you to try something. Here." He pointed at the image of Wayne right before the bomb had gone off at the mayor's expense.
~ I cannot reach into his mind, but I can see the memories attached to such a tragedy. It may not be soon that I return from my dive into that moment. ~ He explained, as the Martian agreed to "take one" for thee team.
~Haaa…...Ah!...I seee…..that figure in the background is also, false. ~ He came back up much sooner than he needed to. It was right there, he saw what had it was, why this case was so similar to the real, Bruce's.
Yet, the memories matched one figure.
~ That is the body of Richard Grayson. ~ J'onn announced, which Speedy grew serious and Kid and B? Gawked, naturally.
"Did he get chipped, too? GL asked the Martian.
~ I am, not sure…Yet that pill induced a "fake death" and this person was to be brought in, to be later found by –
"Slade." Wonder woman growled; her fists full of might at this criminal's cunning. "Robin was under our noses the entire time... We were not even close…Slade acted as the decoy –
"He sacrificed himself. Practically suicide going up against half the league…."
"And, Titans? Dude! We were so a part of this! Slade's lucky I can't crank call his butt….Even my hound was useless – Robin was plain' 009 as Red X…!" Bb reminded them that Slade was Robin's nemesis before this had gone coast to coast.
"We can't change what's already happened." GL sighed and went to fix a bench that had ben turned into a real surrealist piece of art. "What we can do, is help the city rebuild itself and try to stay positive that Batman's side kick isn't going rogue like his brainwashing enforcer."
"Brainwashed, but…is he?" Bb's ears drooped as he explained a bit. Those eyes were, unapologetic.
"I mean; he didn't go looking for us. He told you, Speedy that it was too –
"No!" Kid Flash stopped the hero, when he'd remembered Robin's last message clearly in the back of his young mind.
"He, said…in Gotham! The last showdown is going to be, between him and Batman! We can't stop here, team. We'll give it one last chance. Just one. He's hiding, having Slade reprogram him, but we have the tools and know how - and Cy is putting together a way to counter the bots that took over my mentor's body, and the serum that Slade shoved into his perfect lil' soldier." He took a breath by how many ANDs had been involved within his "point taken."
"Don't remind us of that man's attack on our sanctity." Diana frowned and lifted up a dozen trees that had taken out the city's square. Sucked to be a tree. Always rooted in one place, without a way to escape its fate.
"His head will be prize enough; Immortal men cannot live without one. It is the root center to the body –
"He's a super soldier, not a god, Diana."
"I do not mind calling him a fallen warrior." She huffed and left the tree to dust with her powers. A not so noble send off that broke the princess's heart. Like losing an old friend.
"He once fought to protect, and now he is no better than the Batman's greatest defeat…He is lucky I am unable to kill as I did in Themescaria." She boasted a bit, hoping to put that man's jaw in a safe so he could never speak of his evil plans for a known lifetime.
"I will not stop to see a man painted as a mortal – God, destroyed from this earth for what he has cost us all…And for what he has stolen from our lives in this time…"
Bb's ears perked up. "Time…did you say…. time? I got it!" In this "time" he seemed to be much wiser than any other way around.
"What is he sayin, again?" Speedy scratched his head. Kid shrugged and tried to follow the story on;
"What do you mean by, time? Titan?"
"I mean…ohhh…. Cy could do this way better…Let me try! Ok! So, Robin is in this crappy time where he's stuck working for Slade – cause' Slade here, is one bad dude but knows all your secrets…Soo, if we had this place as….another time, like going back or to another time where Rob was able to escape or fight Slade with the Titans –
~None of this might have ever happened…. ~
Any scientist or warrior understood, save for Diana and Speedy.
"So, if we got this time to change like it was BEFORE Slade took away your leader…" GL's eyes popped as he thought about the result in his head.
"Then. Rob wouldn't end up doing anything! He'd be a Titan, again!"
Diana threw her hands up and felt a if this noise was unnecessary, almost too suddenly.
"By, Hera! Why is this so monumental a discovery that you all must –
"Because time travel is possible." Ki Flash shot a grin her way and made Diana flinch from the impact.
"We can set up the events. Cause to catch a thief –
"Ya' have to think like a thief!" Bb finished Speedy's sentence as the two of them finally saw eye to eye.
"We have to be smarter than Slade ever was; we have to turn back time and reverse the damage that caused this whole epidemic he's brought into our reality to happen, in the first place." GL Got it, and Bb grinned from ear to ear at the plan. There was a way. A way to save the Titans, the league authority over Earth, Batman's identity, and most importantly…Robin, the boy wonder from falling to the dark side, completely.
The question was, when was the right moment to put their brilliant plan into action?
/
It was M and Slade…. wanted Robin to get into his head and learn all the secrets he could. How else but torture and that desperate R word…. Oh, and yes. Raven was a peeping tom because of her link to Robin, we still have up to a few full chapters left. Will the heroes find an opening and will take their challenge seriously enough? Robin will be bound to him, now that he's slept – if not partly unaware, with the enemy, which makes their LINK stronger that Raven's. Slade wanted power, but he found it in this universe through Trigon's support (if anyone noticed how Raven's been awol since the chapter where she and Aqualad shared nightmares.)
Her mind is coming undone, yet could she be the one to ask when it comes to saving their time?
Find out! Robin won't be the same in the next chapter is my only warning to you….be prepared to face the music! Read on for more on this epilogue arc.
