Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy
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Chapter Five: Sherwood Forest Never looked so Good.
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Slade knew two things;
One: He wanted Jump City. It's resources, and its complete package.
And Two: He needed some resourceful group to hand him the keys to this fair city.
He'd not been a fan of standing out too much, and a group besides .S. T did catch his eye - that he'd recognized them all too pretty well…
The Hive. He knew they owed him; enough to give his dream a boost.
He found their secret headquarters and immediately got in line to meet the group's illustrious leader –
Only to be sorely disappointed.
"Yes, can I help you sir?"
A mid aged woman his age with a stiff high bun, a grey and black military style uniform on, and the way she spoke like a high school prep's librarian. He felt he might have a challenge getting in the door…
"I'm here to see the headmaster." Slade took no time in telling this strange woman his terms, but she ushered him into her office as business began as usual.
Closing the door, she made her way to a desk that was marked "Headmistress."
Slade looked up at the woman in his suit and never said a word.
"Deathstroke, is that correct?" Interweaving her fingers together thoughtfully behind the wooden desk, the headmistress had in fact understood just fine.
"Yes." He simply gave her the answer she sought.
"Welcome back. Sorry to say," she said. "That Headmaster Drake has since been retired from his position. I'll be happy to hear you out, however…"
"I was a long-standing associate of your previous organization's incarnation." Slade interjected carefully, trying not to make a poor impression on his first interview. "I'll gladly take you up on that; my want for more than the lifestyle I've taken to…. It's becoming dull and I wanted to offer my services, to have that matter of payment your "brother" still owes me, relayed finally, and in full." Slade made it clear that he wanted a reimbursement. Moolah, cash. The stuff dreams were damned well made of.
She nodded to him, making clear that the matter could be agreed upon.
"You turned us down once –
"As simple terrorists." Slade pointed out. 'Your division is more, organized. Unified, that I can see you've made some changes around this site."
'Not just." Smiled the headmistress, proudly. "We center our efforts currently around training young future, super villains. Having them hone their abilities…. We even wanted to see if you'd train them yourself on occasion."
"I won't have the time for taking on a full – time position beside your staff, I apologize." Slade knew that having kids around would not do the soul good. He still worried about wanting that protégé of his own one day talk from a now dead, Mirage.
"I'll cut to the chase; we do want you, but for what it's owed to you, I cannot pay you without first having –
"Fine." Slade sat up in the seat facing this headmistress of the school's heavy wooden desk.
"Really?" She blinked. "And for how –
"I'm going to need a place out in Jump City, this will be a hefty investment so you'd best know how to judge my wallet."
"Oh, we know about your love of robotics and heavy ammo." She pulled up a file on the computer. "This is the year two - thousand, Mr. Wilson. You've been at this game for quite a while. We have it all on record here and never lose touch with our very, forward clientele."
"Were you assigned right after the previous headmaster came out of office?" Slade wanted to know, but maybe not right now. Was he cut out, or did he leave of his own volition?
"You shouldn't worry about that. Last I heard, the man you knew was improving his golf swing."
Slade nodded. "Fine, and it would be a trial run." He stated to the headmistress. "I want to evaluate your students by skill level, to compensate for any faults I may, find." He meant since meta was only part of what he was, and wasn't. And just because the Hive was in existence doing as it did to kids Joey's age, he still believed them to be somewhat unpolished as soldiers. Some things never changed.
"Of course. And the check would be made out t…"
"Ah, that is enough." Slade looked at the numbers as his eye slightly widened, expecting a lower cut. Nope.
"Knowing the best in a dog fight or cat fight is on our staff even temporarily, I imagine you'll be qualified to whip those super – children into shape before long. It will also have the school with some juicy publicity; Deathstroke; former Team 7 super solider training up and coming super villains." She smirked at him. "Has an interesting ring to it, don't you agree?"
Slade chuckled back softly. "Glad my reputation still stands." He thanked her and was ready to start his second part time job at night for a few months, just to get that lump sum into his hands. He was working a day job with the Hive however, so he had to prioritize.
And what he knew about her fib? The last headmaster never liked golf. A big way of saying his old chump ally, had been terminated in Slade's absence. He knew he'd learn to respect this principal with a hint of salt or two.
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Slade now had two jobs, and needed plenty of rest before the next came up. He stayed in Jump during the night. He took to building up his robots to help with the heavy lifting of moving into his new warehouses, gathering materials; to find and finalize a proper place to build his castle. The coup de grace (misspelled) of his empire's future setting, and the advertising would come much later. Of course, he'd get to work as the notorious Deathstroke, and that traveling for said work would be required. Jump was newer. No diplomats to speak of, so he was stranded.
So, out of boredom and want, he left his robots to do his dirty work.
He stole, and he was just as good at hacking without being found out by the feds here as the Bat was at stopping criminals lower than Slade Wilson. Heck, Slade would have the title "Super villainous crime lord" long before any patron "heroes" rolled into his territory. He'd think of a way to keep them from his new gains…
Slade got a thrill out of his game, and then…out came daylight.
He had to work, so Slade let his bots back in single file, having had a dug-out tunnel or two extra and installed escape hatches to lead them down into the sewers. Very old fashioned to him, but any genuine Holmes would come swinging his cane at their Moriarty, so Slade had to play the thief for a while longer. To be safe, that was all.
His old mask was a bit stiff, almost a relic to the kids if he decided to play their stand in gym coach…So? He decided on a new look. A new location, so who could care to guess his face then?
But, wait…If…Deathstroke was too obvious, who should he be?
That was crazy talk, but Slade didn't stop. He had plans and this desire burned hotter than gun smoke in his face.
He turned on his thinking cap and got to work.
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It was a new year, a new day. Due to Slade's mark in the anti – hero community, he'd gotten in the back door of the Hive's closest facility, and was assigned to teach a weapons introductory course 1 – 0 – 1. It was a fun ride, and the pay was close to fulfilling his every whim as the first crime lord to keep Jump City under his thumb. He'd scouted out a few new allies, and lackeys for a short time period. A bull dozing, yet incomprehensible scout; Cinderblock. A mutant with the body of a brick wall and fists to match…. the Hive Headmistress was now on his side, but he'd be done after the last month of service, and the spoils of his new territory where the museum, banks, and even tech locations? He took tech, and worked with the mining, sewer systems. There was no way anyone could track him back to a single location.
At least, not until his lair was done being constructed.
He made improvements to his robots, even getting the Hive's ok to borrow some of their drones for a decent trade off of services. A few kills, a threat and a few grenades in the new diplomats' faces? He was getting paid a lot to do what he did best. It was a golden year for him now, for the new and improved Slade. He'd stuck with the fact that statistically, a name spoken more than a few times would stick if it had a grip over the population.
Slade's mask. His old records of the JLA's own deducing. He'd scrapped that for now, and soon he'd have his words spoken throughout the criminal underworld as "one you didn't want to cross lightly."
Hunters killed people like him, wild animals that were overprotective to compensate for a deep loss, maybe. But Addie was done, and Joey would not know his face.
Slade, was Jump City's new threat, and he would stay until another villain could call him out on it all…
A year, that's all it would be, and yet it didn't take that long but –
Someone did show up to this city, not one.
But five faces.
It was time to take this new face out for a test run...
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Anyone see the pattern of episode, "GO" and Slade's robots from "Masks" episode? Read on! It only gets better from hereon out.
