Robin looked at Slade with his fiercest stare, but to his surprise, the villain just removed his mask.
Robin blinked at the man's face: a stern, forceful face with a white goatee and a black eye patch over his right eye socket. The kind of man you did not mess with, the kind of man who had determination and power, who acted with precision. Right now, the only man scarier would be Batman himself.
"Enjoying my cocktail?" Slade twitched a half smirk.
"The machine did something to me, made me stronger," Robin tightened his grip on the wood. He could feel the wood creak under his fingers. "I feel invincible."
"It won't last. It takes about a day to wear off. Enjoy the thrill of it, the rush of power and force. You are superhuman in these moments."
"You shouldn't have given it to me," Robin growled. "You should have …asked me. I mean, these drugs – you could have killed me."
"I tested them on myself first."
"But don't you have super healing? I don't have that. I'm not a science experiment, Slade! And you aren't a scientist, last time I checked!"
"Are you going to stand there arguing or are we going to fight?"
Robin hesitated. "I – I want to fight you. I want to beat you with this wood and see how you like it, just like you did with me."
"I didn't beat you with a thick club," Slade nodded to the wood. "I spanked you with a paddle or my hand."
"I don't have a paddle," Robin felt annoyance spread over him. "I want to hit you with these, to bruise you, to make you scream and cry like you did to me."
"Then let's go?" Slade spread out his hands.
When Robin didn't move, Slade snapped, "What is wrong? Fight me."
"I don't want to break you," Robin rushed out.
Slade gave him a look. "Did you get brain damage from yesterday? Of course, you want to break me."
"I want to fight you," Robin clarified. "I want to go hand-to-hand with you, knock you across the room, and then lock you in prison where you belong. But I don't like . . . maiming people. And I really don't want to risk killing you."
"Ah, there's the Batman in you," Slade smirked. "But Batman would have attacked me the minute he woke up and felt all the power coursing through him. Batman would have devised a way out of here yesterday and set so many traps that I don't chase after him. Batman is the reason I avoid contract work in Gotham."
"Batman's perfect," Robin rolled his eyes. "It's always Batman, Batman, wonderful Batman. He should be your apprentice."
"I want you," Slade smiled.
Robin looked out the library window again, wondering if he could jump out and just escape. It still looked really far down. "This is so unfair," he scowled at Slade. "I can take all your training and your brutality, but now you've made it so I could actually hurt someone without meaning to. What if I haven't realized my strength and hurt the nurses this morning? I don't like hurting people!"
"Would you stop whining and just fight me?"
Robin swung the piece of wood at Slade.
The man lunged back from the arc of the swinging wood with what Robin could only think of as superhuman speed and spun around the deck in the middle of the library. Slade grabbed a wooden chair, broke it against the table, and then held up a long piece of chair leg as his own weapon.
When he came at Robin, the movement was so fast that Robin had to counter with wild swings of his own improvised weapon. He heard the wood hit Slade several times, but the fighting was too erratic, too blunt for Robin to understand what was happening. Usually, he survived in fighting supervillains by graceful leaps above their head, acrobatic stunts that let him kick out with his feet as he flipped – more precision as art to keep from being hit than to engage in hand-to-hand combat on the ground.
He also couldn't account for his new strength as he kept crashing into things—chairs, tables, bookshelves—and rather than the furniture staying put so he could launch off of it into a flip, each item broke under the force of his body.
"You have strength – use it!" Slade bellowed at him. "Stop trying to outmaneuver me and just attack."
"That wasn't how I was trained," Robin said between gritted teeth. "I'm not a brute like Bane. I'm an acrobat, a flyer, the one who soars overhead and -"
He pulled back to avoid Slade's backhanded swing with the wood and hit a tall bookcase behind him. He felt the bookcase tip, and he glanced back to see it smashed into the bookcase behind it, and that bookcase hit a third one, all going over like dominoes with terrific explosions of mahogany hitting the marble floor and books flying everywhere.
Slade's wood connected with Robin's side, and the sudden pain turned Robin's world red with hot anger.
He rushed at the villain and took him down in a full-body tackle, despite Slade being much taller. Slade hit the floor with a resounding crack, but Robin's rage didn't dissipate. He grabbed Slade's right arm with both hands, and with an inhuman snarl, Robin broke the lower part of his arm.
The noise of the bone cracking was immediately followed by Slade's cry of pain. A gasping, "Ah!" that only a man in great agony could make, a man whose torture was so bad he must make noise to express his pain.
Robin scrambled back on the floor, his skidding shoes slipping over books and pieces of wood as he moved.
Slade lay on the floor, his right arm now with two angles in it: the crook of his elbow and the lower arm that dangled a useless hand.
"I'm sorry," Robin scrubbed at his face as he felt tears coming on. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry – I'm so … I couldn't stop and I never -"
Slade looked up at the ceiling, his clenched teeth straining the muscles of his jaw. He growled and then flung out his arm so it would be straight. He kept the noise of pain in the back of his throat as he lay but managed to snarl, "I have to keep the bones straight while I heal."
Robin watched in open-eyed horror/relief as Slade finally sat up and moved each finger of his right hand with a grimace.
"If you break me again and I black out," he said in a low voice, "line up my body so I heal the bones straight. If not, I have to rebreak them so they heal right."
Robin just kept staring. He had heard about Slade's fast healing, the rumors that the man was supernatural, but he had never witnessed it before. No wonder Slade snapped back from a fight so quickly.
"Your eye," Robin croaked. "Why didn't that . . ."
"I lost it before I got the serum. I thought it might heal back, but it didn't replace itself. I only heal back to the point when I got the serum. But my hair went white from the strain of becoming … superhuman."
"I broke your arm," Robin shook his head. "I broke your arm."
"We were fighting," Slade started moving the arm to its full range of motion.
"No, I took you down and I broke your arm. Batman never would have done that."
"Nonsense. Batman breaks people's arms all the time."
"Yeah, in a fight. Guys are coming at him like a mob, and he has to do whatever he can to subdue them. But I had you on the ground, subdued, and I broke your arm because -"
Robin couldn't finish the sentence. He put his hands through his sweaty hair and bent his legs so his elbows could rest on his knees.
"You were doing whatever you could to survive," Slade said in a tone that was different than anything he had used since Robin had been kidnapped. It also sounded like he was trying to calm a distraught child.
"It wasn't survival," Robin tightened his grip in his hair. "Survival would have been jumping out the window and running. Survival would have been escaping this morning when I realized how strong I was."
"You didn't realize it really until -"
"Shut up, Slade," Robin's tone had an edge. "We both know the truth. If I really wanted to get out of here, I would have done it already."
"I broke you down, humiliated you. You are powerless against me."
"No, dummy," Robin scowled. "I'm Batman's protégé. You think this is anything I haven't suffered before? You have this whole staff here in this goofy castle and you're doing your best to humiliate and infantilize me at every moment to break me down, but I've already been there."
He looked straight at Slade. "My mother and father were killed in front of me. I will never get over that. The next father I had turned me into a weapon, a force to be feared, and I love him and hate him for that. You're scary as an assassin and a supervillain who can heal, but you want to know real fear? You want to know my worse terror? It's 1 am and you have screwed up the mission and you are in the Batmobile and Batman is not saying anything and you are trying not to cry because you feel so sick at disappointing him."
Slade said nothing, just kept watching Robin.
"You want to beg forgiveness, you want him to punish you, you want him to do anything other than watch the road with that hard, determined look. That look should be reserved for the scum of Gotham, the evil in the world, those who hurt and prey on the weak. That look – the one he gets every villain he's ever captured says the same thing. 'How can you betray humanity like this? How can you act so terrible? How can you disappoint me so much?'"
Robin's words filled the library but he went on in the same resolute tone. "I dread that look, but it always has the same effect. By the time we get home, I'm a mess, all shaking and sorry. A few times, he grabs me and smacks me. Sometimes, he lectures and makes me watch security cams of where I screwed up. The worst times are when he sends me to bed, and I have to try to not cry in front of Alfred. It's the end of my world each time. The absolute end. Until I hear the words, the only words I want to hear. 'Okay, let's get to work so you don't do that again.' I want to sob in relief, but I have to be stoic and just give a nod before going to get my Robin costume. He made me Robin. He took a scared orphan and turned him into a superhero, a leader of other superheroes, maybe the future leader of the Justice League."
Slade still didn't move, and they sat on the floor amid the mess.
"You can do whatever you like to me," Robin spoke in a voice of absolute conviction. "I will groan and bawl and plead because I have to, because I'm human. But whatever you do out here," he gestured to the room, "you will never hurt me in here," he put a hand on his chest, over his heart with his fingers touching his throat. "Because there is only one person who can do that. And I just betrayed him."
"No, no, you didn't," Slade finally spoke. "The Bane serum comes with a rage toxin. That's what makes Bane such a monster. You only broke my arm because it still surges in you."
"Batman's been exposed to rage toxin. Hell, he's been exposed to Poison Ivy's toxins. He still kept himself under control."
"Yes, but that's Batman. That's what makes him the Dark Knight, vengeance in the shadows. We have all agreed that Batman is the best at everything."
"Yeah," Robin nodded. "We all know that."
He looked at the best of the library, the debris and papers hiding most of the floor. He held the back of his neck, feeling awkward. It felt surreal to sit with his arch-nemesis and have such an honest conversation.
Slade didn't seem to know what to say either.
"Will it wear off by tonight?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, you got a light dose. By this evening, you'll be back to yourself." Slade rubbed the fingers of his right hand absentmindedly before asking in what Robin considered sheer curiosity, "Batman really resisted Poison Ivy's toxins?"
"Yep," Robin nodded. "He got a face-full of her love nonsense, and he was sweating like crazy, but he locked himself in a cell in the Cave and waited it out. I wasn't allowed down there, but from a monitor, I saw Alfred turn a firehose on him. He came back a day later like nothing even happened."
"Incredible," Slade ran a hand over his goatee. "I got a dose from her once, years ago, and my healing didn't kick it because it wasn't actually harmful. I must have seduced a dozen women before it wore off."
"Ew! I don't want to hear that."
"Oh, grow up. Ivy's a nightmare, but her stuff is potent."
Robin gave a short laugh of remembrance. "The next time we tracked her down, Batman went into her lair and made me wait outside. I don't know what he did, but they came out later, and he stood there while she apologized for letting her toxins loose on unsuspecting victims. No one was around to hear it but me, and she had never poisoned me, but Batman made her say sorry all the same. She was all flustered and trying to save face by claiming humanity was killing the earth, but she apologized because he was wearing that – that look."
Robin's breath hitched at the end, and he bit his lip at the sudden prickle of pain that suggested tears were not far off.
Slade did stand then. "All right," his voice was back to being stern and villainous. "I've had enough of your foolishness. I have no time to sit here and listen to a child whine. You have three choices and I'm not giving you long to make them."
"Okay," Robin stood, careful to not rip any books under his feet.
"One, you break out of here. I will chase you down and find you eventually and bring you back. Two, I lock you in the dungeon again and leave you to rot. Three, you clean up this room and then we spend the afternoon testing your new strength and recording what you can do and discovering when the serum wears off."
Robin looked out the window. He could run and who knew if Slade could catch him or not. He could go back to the Titans and rally the troops to fight back, but it would be such a waste of energy and would take their attention off a real threat to their city. Being locked in the dungeon again was no good so …
"Three," Robin said. "But I don't want to clean up now because I'll just keep breaking things. Test me now and I'll clean up later when it will manageable but still a punishment."
"Fine, but you'll still be punished for wreaking havoc in my library."
Robin set a determined look on his face. "Bring on everything you've got, Slade. I'm not scared of you."
It felt so good and calming to hear his arch-nemesis retort, "Oh, we'll see about that."
R&R&R
Starfire sighed for what felt like the hundredth time.
"We have a marker on him," Batman reminded her. "It's only about thirty more miles and then we're into the mountains. I think there's a castle there, built by the League of Assassins decades ago. They abandoned it, but sometimes villains use it when they want a place to gather."
"Robin should not be in a castle," Starfire gazed out the window. "He belongs in the Tower, close to his friends. His room is at the end of the hall, and I like it when he is in there because I know he is safe. I need to know where he is all the time."
She leaned her head back on the headrest, purple eyes dreamy as she went on. "I check on him sometimes when he is sleeping. He would not like that, but I fly over so the steps of my feet will not wake him. He sleeps on his side with the covers tucked up to his chin and he breathes so softly I want to sigh."
"Starfire," Batman tried to sound reasonable, but she flopped even more in her seat.
"I want to hold him and hug him and make him my pet, but he doesn't like that. He has to be the leader, and I have to stand beside him, but I can wait because some day, some beautiful and wonderful day, he will put his hand out to me and I will go to him. And we will kiss."
"Some day," Batman hastened. "But it has to be far in the future."
"Why?" resentful eyes turned on him.
"There are human rules," Batman felt the lie spin off his tongue easily. "And for superheroes, it's even more strict. If you kiss a human boy too early, before they are ready, they can grow to hate you. And superheroes are even worse because it can affect their fighting abilities. They might slow down and not fight back quick enough. Robin can be seriously damaged, especially if an alien kisses him."
The car fell silent, and he wondered if his lie was a little too farfetched for the young alien to buy.
"I see," she relaxed in her seat. "Yes, that would make sense. Otherwise, he would have kissed me already. It is very relieving to know that information. It will eventually be safe though. I have seen the Woman of Wonder kiss some of the League of Justice."
Batman didn't waver although he wanted to scowl. Blast Diana and her charm, liking to kiss everyone when she celebrated a mission completed or war won! Of course, Starfire would notice that.
"We are all much older," Batman cautioned as he nudged the car near 90 miles an hour on the empty road.
"Yet, I have seen Aqualad kiss girls," Starfire said in a low, considering voice. "They have held hands and kissed …"
"I think Aqualad is older," Batman lied. "And he's not completely human. Ah, there's the castle."
Starfire looked up at the gray monstrosity looming over the mountain.
The road ended suddenly, and the Batmobile jerked to a halt as Batman looked out at the remains of what used to be a bridge that crossed the chasm between the road at the castle. Crumbling piers rose out of the chasm, obviously once holding a bridge, but Batman guessed from the scorch markers on the piers and the edge of the road that someone had bombed the bridge until it collapsed.
"There must be a secret entranceway," he started, but Starfire had unbuckled herself for the car and opened the door.
"Thank you, the Batman," she bowed her head. "Now that I know where Robin is, I will be able to rescue him."
"Wait," Batman swung out of the car. "You can't go there alone. There could be traps and a load of goons waiting. We'll come up with a plan and sneak in at night -"
"No," Starfire was adamant. "I'm going to fly across, go up to the front door, and take Robin home."
"The intel says that Deathstroke is there. I know you've run into him in the past but -"
"Robin does not belong to Deathstroke. He belongs at the Tower with his friends. I will allow him to visit you since you are his father, but I will not allow his arch-nemesis to keep him."
"This isn't a matter of allow. You aren't safe. I appreciate you have some alien powers but they seem very weak compared to -"
Starfire raised her arm and sent a barrel of red energy into a huge, dead tree about fifty feet away. The blast split the tree in half and exploded a chunk out of the mountain big enough to fit two Batmobiles in its hollow. The broken tree and rocks crashed into the abyss below, but the remaining half of the tree caught fire and blazed so hot that Batman could feel it.
"I've never seen you exert power like that," he said, staring at the devastation she had wrought with a single blast.
"Oh, I keep it manageable when I fight with the Titans. If I blasted our enemies, it would kill them, and the team does not like that. I have to fight with them so I used half my energy to keep it fair. And because Robin is the leader and I must not make him feel weak."
Batman wrenched his gaze from the burning tree to the chasm and then to the castle. He turned back to the car, made a panel slide back that revealed a secret compartment, and took out 2 metal oval bands.
"The only way I will allow you to go alone is if you wear this tracking bracelet and get Robin to wear the other."
She took the bracelets but opened her mouth to object.
"You both wear them," Batman used the sternest voice he would ever direct towards a teenage girl, "or I come get Robin and bring him to live with me."
"You can't," her purple eyes started to glow with anger.
"I'm his father. He would obey me and come home to live, never seeing his friends again."
"We will wear the bracelets," Starfire straightened. "And I will take such good care of Robin that he will not need to live with his father."
"Very good. I want a report when you get back to the Tower, whenever that is."
"Understood. I respect you, Knight of the Dark," it was in regal tones, a reminder that she had been a princess on her planet.
"Starfire," Batman gave a nod, the same nod he delivered to alien dignitaries when they came to see the Justice League, the same nod that he had as Bruce Wayne when meeting foreign nobility at Wayne Enterprises.
He got in the car, turned it around, and drove off, leaving her standing on the edge of the broken road.
He touched the monitor systems to make a selection, and a few seconds later, Alfred's voice came into his earpiece.
"Yes, sir?"
"He's in the Black Mar Castle. I think Deathstroke has him. Has any ransom come in?"
"No, sir. Nothing personal or on any of the black markets."
"Starfire wants to rescue him alone. I would object but she's far more powerful than I realized. I think she can take on a few henchmen, but I dislike the idea of not rescuing him."
"I understand, sir, but Master Dick would hate if you swooped in and saved him."
"It might be faster."
No reply came, and that meant Alfred did not agree. Ever the proper butler, Alfred refused to contradict his master outright.
"On a side note," Batman flipped the invisibility shield up over the car as he ramped up the speed, "what's the legality concerning putting camera monitors up in the bedroom of a superhero teenager?"
"It's frowned upon, sir."
"But it does happen?"
"Not to respectable men, sir."
Batman scowled and turned off the communications. He drove faster, taking solace in the fact that he could return to Gotham and address the rising drug gangs in the Narrows that night instead of skulking around a dark castle with a love-struck alien who had more power than she had ever demonstrated before. Later, he would update all his files on the Titans.
