Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy
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Chapter 7: Break in; Straight Out of Jump City – Dealings in Gotham Come to Be
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Slade was concerned; not with the fact that heroes had shown up to his happy home of three years, but that they weren't to him the hero types – but side kicks at that.
He was, confused at first until he'd phoned Wintergreen – lapping up his down time before his return to the haunt, somewhere at a ski resort. The man wasn't a big fan of high heat and humidity, but Germany Slade had a place to crash, so Will had gone on vacation…while Slade chiseled out his new digs in Jump City.
Underground.
In a sewer.
Anyway....Slade needed to find out more. On the Boy Wonder's proclaimed breakup with the Bat and his city, and these new faces which made him want to shut off the tele right away.
While he was out and doing some damage control in Gotham, Slade left a few capable tasks to his robots. Their faces were still a prototype, to compliment his new two – toned metal mask…but for some reason, they were like puppies or kids. Trying to match his own steps. Their programming would need a face lift as well when he got back.
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Swapping disguises, Slade went for the classic Deathstroke appeal to pull the Bat out from hiding. He'd not gotten into his cloth and close combat look since a few years ago, when he'd turned Jump city into his own criminal playground. He knew where the best intel, haunts, and criminals lurked. Mostly new and old, but pretty useless until he had a plan formed on how to get rid of those pesky…They called themselves Teen Titans so far. As of the day the Gordanians had attacked earth, no one dubbed it as gossip any longer. As if there never was an alien threat, Slade made sure to bury that tabloid news deep.
He wanted the Titans to look his way, but first came the hard part.
Getting to the Bat's ear for "some" scoop of the century.
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Wayne's towers were lit up like a Christmas tree only a few rooftops off. Slade used his enhanced mask's eye to see just what the Bat was planning, should he show.
The giant fluorescently lit W on the tower's roof somehow made the man think. Wayne wasn't one to play games, but Slade was a bit more flexible in that area than most psychos in this city. And here, even the Wayne Enterprises building in Jump wasn't immune to his advances. His want for all of its hidden secrets and treasures; kept from him inside of numerous rooms and vaults. He had to have the Bat. He wanted this to proceed…. And yet, he lacked not the patience but the vision still that escaped his line of sight. Deathstroke Inc. was a few years off, if not closer. He had to push, and so he did. Waiting. Until seconds became minutes.
Minutes turned to hours and half hours…Bats didn't show.
He'd try again tomorrow. With a sigh, Slade readied to hop down –
It wasn't until a shadow eagerly blocked his view of the towers.
He grinned.
"Better late than even, Batman." He grinned below the mask.
"I got a tip off that you were in my city."
"And I got the hint that a small bird had wandered into my territory."
That certainly had gotten the rodent's attention, he looked like someone had tried to shoot a bullet but had missed.
"Why are you here, Wilson." So cold, yet Slade counted on opening up, well. Deathstroke's motto was not to keep too much hidden in plain sight.
"I'm here to get some answers, Wayne."
Bruce didn't flinch. They were already well acquainted at this point, but the little bird was far from.
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"Robin left to pursue his own career within the hero community." That was the gossip so far…" Slade stopped and observed Bruce with a sideways glance. The bat landed and his cowl billowed about the night air, making him look tremendous as a display of pride in protecting HIS territorial city.
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"Robin left, that's correct but Id advise that you not torment my ward under my watch –
"So, you do keep tabs on the boy." Slade snorted. "You didn't trust your last partner; Batgirl, was it?"
"She's a solo act. I won't be held here long." He paused. "You should go, right now." Bruce warned. "If you don't have anything else to share…Then get out of Gotham and don't come crawling back – not unless the world's safety is at stake."
Slade huffed and shrugged his shoulders. Time to land the finishing blow. "I want you to know, Bruce, that I respect you and your work very much. You train to fight, I do so to kill. But…. Things change. If you ever go out to Jump and see why I'm so uptight, well…You have a handle on things for now, I take it –
"Wilson!" Batman's glowering eyes met the man as he'd not jumped yet into the night air.
"I want you to stay away from my ward and his affairs. Otherwise, I will bring you BACK into League custody."
"A threat like that?" Slade scoffed. "Just so long as the boy and his little "teammates" don't interrupt my work."
The ending of this talk was nothing but a mutter and a scornful gaze over the cowled hero's left shoulder.
Bruce was annoyed, and that meant one thing.
Robin was doing this to prove his worth, and Batman wasn't at all happy about it.
As far as a nemesis? Maybe these days he could try on a new appeal to the public, to the heroes of Jump City even.
Batman would just have to wait and see from high up in his watchtower what the villain had in store for the Titans and Bruce's untrusting ward.
His attention was up for grabs, so Slade got back to work on a few new tactics to have himself with even more of an edge over the city.
He'd test them, find out enough and keep Bruce out of his business with a bet.
So, over that shoulder Slade called back out;
"Your ward isn't the only exception to my new plans, Batman. If he decides to push, I'll only prove to you that I'm not someone to be ignored. Remember it. They'll be saying my name in every corner of the criminal underworld if you won't."
The grown men parted ways and did not think to bicker. Fir Slade had wagered that Robin would be looking up to another anti – hero by the fall. Batman would quietly strategize, not say a word until this egomaniacal narcissistic mercenary pulled out his pistol to shoot at someone more important.
Dick wasn't exactly in danger. Yet, Slade hated being told how to do his job. As did the Bat.
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A few hours towards the end of his flight, Slade got his first pay in weeks since the event well after that alien girl's meltdown. Slade called in a few show of hands; one was a recruit who would do anything as long as he didn't have to sleep on the streets or in a jail cell.
Cinderblock. He had no name other than this, and Slade's first guess; was when he sat in his nearly completed throne to interview the mass of stone and concrete for a body, his little minion candidate did not speak. Well, he garbled words or roared yes and no, yet no. He was a full fledged mutant from the looks of things to Slade Wilson. His eye missed none of it.
"Can you effectively aid me in my plan; to dismantle and analyze the heroes known as the Teen Titans, Cinderblock." His own voice bounced around the haunt to be heard, understood clear as day. The roaring oaf nodded and down to one stony knee, he pledged his oath to the crime lord that he would stay and do as he was ordered to without fail.
~ We'll see how you manage, Cinderblock ~ Slade tested his own words as the first test was ready to be initiated.
Tonight at Jump City's highest security penitentiary, he'd treat the Titans to a little fun with his new toy soldier.
And then…the real fun could begin.
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Days of planning later, Slade was ready to flip the switch. The dates were all set up, while the crew was meant to face only one location.
The Jump City prison was a maze of cells and grumpy old men. Mostly, the men's block was separate to avoid any unneeded lawsuits, but this was still a decade away when diversity would ring true.
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And Slade knew, men could be vile and kind. Just as women could be ruthless and dissatisfied as ever over any outcome.
Cinderblock came through the walls as armored guards by the dozen failed to nail and pin down this colossal soldier of stony bones. He went after a site that was on his own list of to – dos, but not before getting a decent sized pun ambush.
The green hero was there, his voice was just a nasally as the first year.
"You know, Cinderblock. Usually, the bad guys usually break out of jail."
Robin entered the picture as the heroes all looked up at the palooka with his iron clad tempered fists.
"And I can think of five good reasons why you don't want to break in." (Quoted from Episode one season one teen titans 2003.)
The count down started as Slade leaned back to view the spectacle from his seat.
"One!" The boy wonder landed in a crouch as he voiced his number to the other villains and spectators. Including Slade.
Starfire, the red headed princess of the teen swooped in to strike her pose.
"Two!"
Beast boy, the green and youngest hero came in to morph back from being a tiger.
"Three!
Raven came through a wall like magic, making her presence more ominous than Slade would hope to manage later.
"Four!" She said in a crone's raspy voice.
The last of the heroes looked pumped and bounded over, making himself as cocky as could be in Slade's also prideful eyes.
"Five!" The tin man shouted with a heart full to the brim with more quips, more than the boy wonder?
Nope. Called it, he had plenty to swap with their leader. Cute.
"No matter how you do the math, it all leads to you going down." The boy raised a quirky brow at the next question, "So, are you going to come quietly…"
Cy picked up the rest, "Or is this gonna get loud?"
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Cinderblock roared out his battle cry, while the Titans now stood battle ready. Slade smiled and beckoned to Will (who'd returned from his alpine adventure,) to fix him a cup of some tea. This was such a movie night mood for the mastermind that he was getting antsy just waiting for the fight to be over. Though, it hadn't even started.
"Are you intending to test those children in future, episodes?" Will raised an eyebrow to his ally as he placed the cup a few inches from the man's throne. "I'm still deciding on if their involvement in my plans later will create any concerns, so seeing how they do in combat as one unit will be interesting." Slade leaned into his hands and intertwined fingers alone, he was curious to see how Robin would handle his drone under such tight circumstances. They had a room full of crooked bastards (unlike him,) a few guards who were out cold on the next floor, and a big bad who wanted to play hardball with heavier weights than any child could hope to handle.
What were they going to do next, he wondered.
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Robin had gotten a grip around the drone's thick neck while the tea was slowing to cool a bit.
"Thrashing only makes me hold tighter!" He warned the brute, his grip and gloved hands not leaving Cinderblock alone.
An iron girder; Cinderblock has his bat to swat at one annoying tick. Robin flips off just in time, making Slade nod to the move. He could have been injured, had the boy been incapable. Good.
Cyborg joins in and ends up getting a second girder to swing back.
"Now there's an idea." He deviously grins and pulls the thing free with Herculean might, going into a sword fight of girder against girder, with the stone giant fighting back hard.
An interesting trick. Starfire hops to it and uses an interesting power to bend the metal bar in Cinderblock's hands. Slade had to say it, but that was a close call for the alien child to be so proud of her mini victory, letting herself be left wide open…Careful…
Cy is chucked, but Robin comes to the teen's aid.
"Want to give this guy the Sonic Boom?" Robin's question resonated as Cyborg looked up, thrilled at the idea as they both rose to stand. "I got the sonic if you got the boom." Robin's impish impulse to show how excited he was, was not held well behind the mask. Yet, he looked like a scary little deviant with that grin. Teeth and all. Amusing. Cy complimented their duo, as the boys got into a stance to use this "Sonic Boom" move he assumed. What would come next, you might wonder?
Slade was about to have a front row seat to this little performance.
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