Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy

Chapter Two: Striking the Iron

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Will's line was busy, so Slade did the second-best thing he could do on his evening alone inside a secluded safe - house.

He relaxed with a drink and the Gotham Daily Times in hand. For some time, his business after leaving his family…or being forced to, was to build a life with his face. His new one. On a mission he'd undertaken during his time as Deathstroke, the idea was that he shouldn't be seen as some ordinary hit man. He wore a mask, a freaking two-sided coin that hid the scar his wife had left behind.

A goodbye kiss. How unreal…

Sighing and taking up his liquid poison, Slade chose to drink tonight, and he couldn't be drunk. Not the way he was now. Drinking was…one way to die.

He couldn't imagine living as a drone. No…he had to plan for the future.

Wait…

He gripped at the column in his other hand and set it down onto his kitchen table…. Aha, Wayne. He had something happening back in that dreary utopia. It was only that much to a killer if he got paid. And, Gotham was only one next to Star and Metropolis with big town bidders on his guns…

Slade grimaced and skimmed across the piece carefully. He'd acquired what was known as an eidetic memory. Sort of a "photographic" memory but with only a small number of words, he could solve any riddle, equation. Or crack open any safe…

Slade had wondered if killing was all he had in him to accomplish. Grant was still finishing up middle school. Joey was…elsewhere, and he seemed to have a touch of Slade's gift.

Slade took a swig of his wine and settled on that to keep him company for the night. After all, it was their anniversary...

/

He still felt as if this wasn't what he'd set out to do. Tossing and turning on his king-sized mattress that night, Slade awoke to the chill of an opened window. His body shuddered off the annoying feeling as he snapped off his covers with a scowl. "When did I ever open that up…" He yawned and felt that his sleep would stay interrupted. Even as he required very little to function, he still needed a few hours to heal up any old battle wounds from that day. Had he fought a burglar in awhile?

A clatter and he was up. It wasn't the wind. Someone or something had broken into his safe haven.

As a tiger in the reeds of its country home, Slade was the hunter against some measly rat that had decided to poke its head somewhere where it was not wanted.

He stayed low to the ground and let the shadows remain his cover, save for a stray light from a dimmed billboard shining through the open window. Tracking through in a ski mask was not one, but three thieves from the rougher parts of this city. Did they just decide to crash on in here, unannounced? Didn't they know when to watch out for even more dangerous characters?

The darkly clad ski masked three, were too busy keeping a look out about the kitchen and bathroom hall. Slade stayed silent and did not so much as blink in their direction…it wasn't until he saw it.

They were kids, not grown but maybe a bit older than his oldest son…

One had big goggles on and sniffled as if he had a cold. Or an asthmatic health condition. The other was a girl with similar goggles and pink streaked short hair under her cap. The third was the leader and the sniffling boy was becoming a pain to boss around, apparently.

The girl pointed to the taller, slightly older leader. "See anything worth takin?" She whispered as quietly as a mouse's squeak. Her accent was from the streets, so they must have had no one to steer them from their path of self destruction…

Not that there was much to grab in this mercenary's secluded hidey hole, but the older of the three didn't wait for an alarm to shoo them from this space. "We could try the next room over, wait…the be –

Slade grabbed the startled boy as he screamed and wrestled away from the killer's harsh grip. Slade let the shouting brat go, but he wasn't through here yet.

The pink haired princess stuttered to her comrades. "They were sleepin' right??? An –

"Too blind to see me…Even when I've been in your line of sight…." Slade cocked his head at the teens and had one weapon stored to the side under his mattress if this ever came to pass. Being robbed here would make him look like a push over to some seedy brats.

"Was I your target?" Slade pulled out the pistol. Time for a rain check.

"Either you tell me how you broke past my security, or you don't get to leave my home tonight."

/

The two; pink hair and tall leader, bolted for the window. The third, sniffle - boy was falling behind as Slade caught his wrist before his lips could utter a croak. Slade gagged the kid from screaming to his companions, who had left him there for dead. The boy was hysterical and began to weep, snot dripping onto Slade's rough hand. Yet he held it there, grunting as the boy failed to fight him off.

"Mnmm – nnhhnm- mm!"

"Quiet. You'll wake the neighbors." Yes, he joked in a hissed whisper, but the boy was being a pain…no wonder he'd been left behind. Slade took in a breath and decided to get the kid to calm down since more force…would be unwise at this point.

"I'll ask you once more; who deactivated my security, was it you?"

The boy started with a hiccup as his body grew tired, so he nodded to the white haired meta – ex soldier.

Slade nodded back, debating on whether to let the kid go or send him to the police station with a note around his neck.

"I'm going to release my hand." Slade told the boy in his one covered ear. The kid shook badly, but the words gave him something to cling to. The snot - trail the kid had left had done enough as it crusted over Slade's blistered flesh. For now. "If you so much as scream, you'll be sent out with a warning from me to the cops downtown. You're from this city? Do you know what happens to thieves your age under the United States' own penalty for petty theft from a minor?"

The boy shook his head.

Slade snorted back, his hand a bit too warmed up by the kid's dirty mucus. "Good. You shouldn't have to." Slade let his hand go slowly as the child gulped in a wasted breath. Asthmatic. Was he in trouble for that?

"Why did you come here? And, you took out my cameras, kid?" Slade saw the kid's face change as his sniffling had gone to dry up. Thank God for not losing his temper…He was just a sad little face in the crowd. But his brain power…

"I…know how to hack, mister –

"And you just stumbled into my haunt; your friends seem to not want to come back here…you really lost this fight, kid."

The boy sighed and wiped his nose with the back his outfit's pitch-black sleeve. "We saw how much security and thought "this guy's gotta be loaded." The boy was let go of a bit as Slade composed himself as well. He firmly planted his arms to cross over his chest. "So, who taught you to hack like that?" Slade wondered if the kid was unaware of this latent ability to take him apart – the great Deathstroke's own programming…it was no easy feat for an adult, but this kid was just there. Staring at the floor as if he should be punished.

"You have a gift, a knack that I greatly admire. What's your name, kid?"

The boy pulled his goggles up to stare into that one eye above him.

"They call me "squirrel." The boy replied. "I get into trouble, so they gave me that name…I always mess up –

"You weren't the one, your leader got cocky." The older male noticed it, he was nothing but a bully to a real criminal mind like this kid…Why waste his talents?

"Squirrel; I want to recruit you to come work for me." Slade had decided against taking that leap without Will's sage advice, but that boy made him think of his grand scheme.

"What for, mister?" The kid was a doofus, he didn't look spy or killer material, but he could hack. He'd need a proper place to set up his…

"We're thinking of starting up a side project. A network for those like me, hired to exterminate threats around the globe for a decent wage. You'd be a part of that, if you'll join me. I can point you away from those streets and to a brighter place…"

He sounded so cool, so efficient in his forthcoming solution that the kid gazed up now with wide eyes and a smile that Slade believed was all his doing.

"Cool! Where do I sign up??"

Ah, yes. It was the first of many. Slade smiled at his minor accomplishment. An empire and a name….

Deathstroke Inc. Why would Wayne Enterprises always be there, but no competition? Well, he had a plan to change all of that.

All he needed was someone, that motivating factor to set the ball rolling into his court.

/

Money.

No way Will would approve this kind of talk. Squirrel had been carted off to an old boarding home for safe keeping and a hacker's 1-0-1 course designed by the best of the best.

He had to find a few people. Tell them? Sway them to his side? Could he?

An incorporated logo…. walking taller than he had in a decade, but it wasn't that. No. Something else bugged him as he picked up his cell and started to dial.

A smidge of sarcasm laced the other male's tone. A British accent, this old comrade from Slade's war days had stuck around due to a solemn promise. Being saved by Slade? All good, but his new mercenary work??

The phone rang before the gent picked up, in what looked to be a rather bitter mood tonight. ~ Well! Fancy hearing from you, Mr. Wilson –

"Cut the crap, old friend. I need another favor. This time it's bigger…. better, I have a few benefactors from my days in Team Seven. I n –

William Wintergreen snappishly pressed on the matter as his voice grated the merc on his other line's left ear.

~ SLADE WILSON! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I REPEAT TO YOU; I WILL HAVE NO PART IN COOPERATING IN THIS…. VENTURE…OF YOURS! ~

"And that is why you won't trust what I have to say…" Slade frowned and sat down on his bed. "I'm ready to do something for my future before I ever leave you behind…Face it. Addie is gone. The kids won't need their father, so this is what I know. What I'm good at –

~ Which is exactly my point, Slade…~ The British male rubbed his sore temples with a sigh. ~ You'd be selling death all over again on a more than simply "global scale." No more with our hometown hijinks, you'd be wanted far more than they've already had you since your time slaughtering all of those soldiers. ~

"I'm not getting any younger –

~ Speak for yourself, indeed! I'm going to whittle away wondering, why my dear comrade buried himself in his work for so long that every blasted event –

"Will."

~ I'm not through, yet! And every time you blink, a bomb goes off! Are you bleeding, happy with yourself

"Will!"

~ Damn it all! What? If you won –

"I won't do it; your advice is clear to me." Slade knew this would prove that Will might be wrong. He could take a nice long vacation from the man but…It wouldn't be the same.

~ I…I know you, Slade. You'll attempt to anyway, no matte what I say to you. Even Adeline –

"She's not here. But I have a vision and I want you to be a part of what I have to offer…Just, think it over."

Will's voice was stifled by the merc's own words. Brooding, confident. What was he? Bruce Wayne?

"I won't go over this again. I've made up my mind. And my decision is for…. Deathstroke Incorporated to be that solution."

/

It's a new take with a side Teen Titans twist? Find out! How will Slade get off the ground with his new venture? Read on and find out more!