Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy
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Getting smooshed together so will elaborate for those unfamiliar with the leap – frogging time line we've gotten.
OK! So, Slade first went into getting his feet on the ground in Jump by working his butt off as Deathstroke and as a sub teacher of the Hive Academy to pay back and to get paid by their organization. He's relatively familiar due to an old contract we just made up! So……To put this lightly….?
He's waiting to get his dues in the meanwhile, and sees that Jump is attacked through the ep GO because he's already made the city his stomping ground BEFORE the heroes showed up. Hah. Makes as much sense as this…
So next, he does a few chores, gets his green and organizes a way to pull apart the team like a plate of monkey – bread. Yum, sans gluten hopefully.
He stops and fast – forwards (the writer is so sure) to the episode with the elemental brothers BEFORE because he plans ahead, so the Hive comes out to say "can you do a job for us and you can call the shots, blah blah…. huh. A bit forced but this is in the title.
Now! He leaves message, flashes back to when he'd monitored the weather and the brothers' flight to Jump, and he actually reeled them in! How? You ask me, I dunno. Oh! And Bruce again. So, Bats and he are like the anti team; know em, hate, em, aware. Slade states that Robin is in the way, and he'll do anything to keep the kid down, even if Bats doesn't like it. He is a villain in some aspect, but not yet recognized as a true one yet. He was a Merc – he had ammo, but now brain power and sneaking around in the shadows is in his M.O. A regular anti – Batman.
Well? The rest goes on as ; did he plan for Robin to join him to undo the Titans' hot streak of being the only heroes in Jump? Did he do that just to prove a point to his long time enemy, or…Was he actually fixated on his prize. That Robin would change his tune being so let down by his former mentor? Did he just manipulate the kid even before a plan had formed?? Wow. Such a stalker….And this is rated M to not go past them sensors for a good reason – I don't like to break the rules. Ever.
Now. Why is Slade setting up his new office in Ingenico (Epilogue arc) to gather data on one weapon? In that chapter, he thought ahead well before Masks was ready to rock 2003 on the WB. And in the episode, we had Ron Perlman voicing a guard when X came to swipe it. Look it up, that should have you thinking – how did Slade find out? Ah, we played with it. We'll go now into –
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Chapter 9: A Knaves' Bribe is Most Unfulfilling
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Suit up. Head out there. Be sane, don't fuck up.
As far as Deathstroke's route, he was ok with sky diving on his "off days."
Not though, while being shot at. It was a pain. Bullets hit his back, and he fell hard. Will came with the boat, and with a glance knew Slade was going to live.
"How much do you need to be paid to put aside these covert jobs for a while?" He had the white haired and goateed villain sit up so he could examine the wounds and pluck out any stray bullets.
" You blew up their command ship." Slade, raised a weak brow up at the butler.
Will sighed and dug through his belongings for some antiseptic and a set of tweezers. Heavy duty.
"They won't follow…." Slade grunted as William Wintergreen didn't bother to act; nice and swift, it was like being scraped for leaches as first. Almost tickled, he'd forgotten.
"Did you get to find out more about that shady organization in the meantime?" Another pluck and a silent injection of an air gun later, Slade finally spoke.
"They have what I need. Something about the ultimate master…. A cult, but they have the resources of a militaristic nation in their back pocket."
"You want to blow up Mars, next? Honestly…." Will shook his head with a frown.
"It could happen." Slade chuckled to his pal, and knowing full well why it should be destroyed in one blow. A greener reason, of course…
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With the next step ready to fall into place with steps one through…. three?
Four.
In East Asian culture, the number four's character sometimes wrote out as "Death" or the underworld he'd read long before. No hotels, hospitals or even elevators and apartments had this number for the longest time. Maybe this unmarked "unknown" was just the sort of fuel he needed; to light a match under the Titans' asses until they croaked.
Ah, the irony. They were kids, but adults to him by how they could defend themselves.
Starting his job at the lab that carried out security of a "chip," a computer chip that held very…. special information on it…He'd use that to pull the Titans to his beck and call.
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"You owe me big time! ~ You owe me big time! –
"Wah!"
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Slade watched in the shadows and paced. Beastboy was being a dunce, Cyborg was still too slow to catch on, Robin had just split up with Starfire into the tunnels. Almost…
One of the "Slade bots" that the team had named his droids, funny too, was on the run with the stolen computer chip the Jump City tech company had left unguarded.
Robin dove after Starfire; in the end she'd thought the metal menace had a heart or a brain to empathize, children in mind and body it looked…. But Robin was tireless in trying to catch him. HIM, the mastermind. The enigma. That just made Slade warm and toasty all over, even with a steely cold heart like his.
" Who's Slade? Why does he want this chip? And why are you working...for...him?"
Slade inhaled, in the dark all he had was a colorless silhouette. Time to set up his next performance, like clockwork.
Robin stared back at the screen behind the bot's metal mask. Caught, but for how long could they continue to play this game…
"Slade!" A growl, touching. He was well respected now, as a threat.
~ Excellent work, Robin. ~ He praised in a mocking tone, cheery but dripping with a bit of sarcasm.
~ Really, I think your skills are improving. ~
With that amount of pushing and pulling, the boy would set off on his own, maybe even bring his friends to meet their maker. But Slade wasn't in this game to see anyone dead, yet.
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Tag, you're it.
Slade found his time to work into the system. New computer chips popped up on his radar and he was heading it up with another security guard to keep the second chip from any villainous foes. The interview if you wanted to know, was a cinch.
With a helmet and a proper face piece to avoid detection, he would blend right in.
"I don't like this…" The lights flashed red; intruder alert. Right on time.
Ok, play the fool.
And in stepped someone from the shadows.
A blur; as Slade's alter self aimed his gun and pointed, "He's got the chip!" Guns firing, his staff and co - worker was a lame arm. Slade went off of his aim purposely, getting curious from under the mask now.
A skull – Halloween costumed anti – face, with a tattered black cape, gloves and belt in a cat suit – with a red X over his chest. Was that a metaphor for something? He was their thief, then and now…vanished into that blur!
The security guard turned to the true imposter in his unit. Slade panted, faking his awe in plain sight.
"Where'd he go??" Still, Slade was no fool. He'd already seen its face, clear as day.
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Getting in; taking that swing and winning. Oh, all of this covert crap made being him all the more intoxicating.
Joker couldn't compare, but Slade was counting on one thing as his voice echoed across the area from deep within his base of operations, to the heart of a deadly robot replica's own playful tone.
Robin was having trouble; he hated to be lectured. Hit a nerve there, did he?
Slade moved and spoke as he got back into character.
This "machine" he had constructed to Wilson's likeness was like him in fight and spunk, but it lacked only one thing the boy would soon discover, as he pulled back the metal face plate.
"...Patience, Robin. We'll meet face to face some other time. Oh, and speaking of time..."
A count down started on the screen that was a false Slade's face.
A blast on the rooftop, and all went still. The tide had turned, no one was victorious tonight for certain.
The chips were down, but the heroes had still lost his game.
All but Robin, who continued to brood up in his tower hours later, still at his remotely depressing work station.
Her words buzzed in his head, probably. The girl could be perceptive at the worst of times.
" Slade did not trust you, and you did not trust us..."
"Well put, alien." Slade, agreed as she left the boy in his room, all alone to dwell on what more was at stake besides a few useless friends losing their trust in their disparaged leader. Speaking of…He needed to go pester a nosy rodent that had found its way onto his main computer's biggest screen. Slade wet his lips as the heat and steam wasn't even fazing him here, in the darkness. Batman squinted back, while Slade's one eye met the billionaire's equally overwhelming stare.
"Good evening, Wayne."
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