Slade's Tale
Alexnandru Van Gordon
I'm warning you again—any minors will have to turn back now. I can only think of one really gory part at the moment, but I don't want to get in trouble, so let's give this chapter an M rating and call it a night. If you don't want to see why the cartoon animators called Slade, Deathstroke the Terminator—here's why. If you don't want to, just skip to the next chapter which will be back to its mildly violent, but still insane, self.
And for those of you who do skip this chapter: Just zip down to the very end of this web-page and I'll give you a quick summary of what happened in this chapter. That way you'll know who is who and what Slade discovered.
Anyone missing…no, you're all accounted for—so…shall we?...
DISCALIMER: I hold no claim
CHAPTER SEVEN: Ten is the number of the day
Failure…failure…failure…failure…How he hated that word. And to add insult to injury, his failure was due to a group of children he didn't take as seriously as he should have. Robin…one day he would return and make him pay for disobeying his master, but that could wait. Slade needed to get away for a while and think things through before he tried anything.
That's why he left in the night to Gotham City.
Sure, Batman was there, but as long as he kept quiet and didn't make himself stand out, he could avoid running into the caped crusader. But there was one thing that made him smile.
Wayne was going to get the recorded tape of Robin breaking into his business building in Jump City. That wasn't going to look too good on Boy Wonder's part and that meant he'd be busy trying to explain things without getting demoted back to sidekick in Gotham. Wouldn't that be a nice little piece of revenge for Slade to savor.
After setting himself up in an abandoned factory just on the outskirts of the city, Slade went out for some fresh air…getting to know his surroundings just in case Batman ever did find out he was back in town. He stood on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Gotham and stared at the glowing city. It was peaceful for once and that meant all the big baddies of Gotham were locked up momentarily. Wonder how long that would last…
About…five seconds.
The gunshot broke through the quiet hum of the busy city as the bullet embedded itself in the concrete of the roof just next to Slade's left foot. He looked up and stared straight ahead at the nearby building, taking a step back as another bullet just missed his other foot.
Someone was either trying to get his attention, or they needed to work just a tad bit harder before they could call themselves a sniper shooter. Not bad aim…but that all depended on how close he was too his target—which, Slade just remembered, was him.
An assault of gunfire rained down on him as he ran toward the edge of the roof—and jumped. It was just like when Robin chased after his decoy, but he really could do such a jump and landed in a crouch on the opposite roof. Then he saw him, a man lying down further down on the roof, hidden in the shadows of the fire escape. Gun propped up, the man didn't have time to turn and aim at Slade, all he could do was scramble to his feet, shout a curse, and start running as Slade came after him.
As fast as the man was, Slade was—by far—faster and caught up to the man in no time at all as he neared the end of the roof, reaching back for the string of the parachute strapped to his back.
One—who the hell was this guy?
Two—did he have a death wish or was he just stupid to shoot at Slade?
Slade caught him by the arm he reached for the string with and pulled him back painfully so that he landed on his back at Slade's feet. The guy grunted and rolled aside as Slade' foot came down for his chest, slipping off the parachute pack and chucking it at his pursuer.
It was heavier than it should have been and that obviously meant it wasn't really a parachute. It was just a little something to get Slade to chase after him.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
It just kept getting better and better.
"You fool!" Slade roared at the man as he just stood and watched Slade chuck the bomb off roof. It just made it halfway down toward the street below before it erupted into a minor explosion, causing no real damage at all.
Wasn't this just great. If someone didn't call to report the gunshots, the Dark Knight was sure to be attracted by the explosion downtown in the middle of the night. This was one of those days that Slade could just scream and strangle someone…speaking of which…
He turned on the man sharply and grabbed him around the throat. Squeezing painfully, he held the man over the edge of the building with one arm and watched as he struggled to breath—and keep from falling at the exact same time. This kid had some nerve coming around and playing such a stunt on him…
A kid?
Slade reached with his other hand and tore the black mask from the man's head—and sure enough, it was a kid no older than the meddling Teen Titans back in Jump City. What was it with children and going haywire on the city? Was it the latest fad or was it just some sort of mutation in the next generation? If it wasn't drugs and skateboarding off the roof of your house, it was running around town every day and night in search of a good fight—did they want to die, or was it just in their nature…
"You've got some nerve, punk." Slade said as he watched the blond haired kid choke for air. "Now, you've got ten seconds to decide whether you want me to break your neck or just drop you now—you're choice."
The kid said nothing and continued to struggle for air. He wasn't even looking Slade in the eye or trying to hit him in anyway. Perhaps he was accepting the fact that he wasn't going to live to see tomorrow…or…
Slade tossed the kid back onto the roof and watched as he came crashing down to the concrete, sliding to a halt on his right side as he coughed louder. This was the usual way someone caught his attention when they wanted to hire him. It had been a while so it was no wonder why he forgot he was still labeled as a contract-killer in everyone's book, but a kid? Must have gone to HIVE, or else he wouldn't have known that Slade was still alive and kicking despite his tendency to go unnoticed to the world for months on end.
Slade walked up to the boy as he sat up and knelt beside him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and giving him a good shake before speaking.
"Who sent you? Or do you have a death wish?"
The boy rubbed the back of his head and frowned. "If I wanted to be dead I could have jumped off this building years ago."
Slade gave him another shake. "You didn't answer my question of who sent you."
"Why should I tell you?"
Slade released the front of his shirt and back slapped him so hard his shoulders turned with his head as the neck threatened to break. The kid swore under his breath and didn't do anything as Slade grabbed him by the front of his black shirt again. If this kid wasn't going to tell him soon, he was just going to chuck him off the side of the building like he had the bomb. He had to get going before the Dark Knight showed up.
"You know the Lovells?" The kid said, rubbing the back of his neck now as it cracked. "I'm one of them, and my older sister wants to hire you. You heard of us?"
Slade pushed the kid back and stood, kicking him hard in the side before allowing the boy to stand. If he would have just said that in the first place, it would have spared him all the pain.
"I heard you guys steal technology and sell it to the highest bidder." Slade said and turned his back to the boy. He stared out across the city at the lights of the buildings…such a lovely sight… "What—is there something not even you're men can steal?"
"Not quite." He replied and cracked his sore neck again. "I'd tell you more, but that all depends on whether you're not you're interested in making ten million dollars."
Slade thought about it for a while. It had been quite some time since he went out and had a little good old assassin fun. Also, ten million could buy him more supplies to rebuild his army of robots that were destroyed by the Teen Titans. This could be something of a vacation from his usual major villain job.
"Where is she?"
-break-
It was the usual room, but the girl wasn't. He was led to one of the buildings nearby the one stupid decided to bring the bomb. He had to give the kid credit though—that was one hell of a stunt back there. The bomb was timed, not set off by controller or remote. He had that thing ticking on his back for how long and he still mustered the guts to tee Slade off.
What a mess that would have been if he had taken too long with his aim.
It was a long dark room that was occupied with a long table and high backed chairs aligning it. At the end was the woman, no older than sixteen or seventeen, standing next to her chair. Slade didn't sit, but, instead, stood comfortably with his hands behind his back as the young lady made her way down toward his end the moment he entered the room. One thing he noticed right away was the limp in her right leg. She walked with a cane that she was forced to rely on heavily as she halted near his end and sat in one of the chairs to his left.
She was tall with long black hair and dull grey eyes. She was pretty, but she didn't look like she had had any sleep for a while. The area around her eyes was dark and shadowed while the rest of his skin was pale, and then there was the limp. She appeared to be in a great deal of pain but passed it aside as she got down to business.
"Took me a while to find you, but I'm glad you came." She said, her voice still holding the secret strength that kept her going. "I take it you're interested in my offer."
"Maybe." He said. "It depends on the job. I heard the Lovells do well enough on their own."
"In thieving." She said with a smile. "But this is different."
She wore a man's suit tailored to fit her thin figure, and reached to one of her pockets, taking out a picture that she leaned forward and handed to Slade. It was of a man with hair as black as the girl's and eyes as blue as the boy's, standing there with two partners in a business like style.
"That's my father, Mr. Lovell." She said and he looked to her once before returning his gaze to the picture. "Two weeks ago he was kidnapped."
Slade tossed the picture back to her and she caught it. "I'm sorry, Miss Lovell, but I'm not in the mood for a search and rescue mission."
She laughed and he humored her by waiting for an explanation before he left. "I don't see how you can save someone who's dead."
Okay…that made things interesting.
"Then what exactly do you want?"
"What everybody in this damn world wants—revenge." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "He was kidnapped by an old enemy who goes by the name of Eric Goring. He was tortured, killed, and I have no idea what Goring did with the body. All I know is that I got my father's fingers in the mail one day and a bullet in the knee the next."
"You want me to kill him."
She smiled again and Slade could tell he had it down. "You will get ten million dollars if you kill him, but I have a special request."
He grinned behind his mask. With someone with resources like the Lovell family, he could get quite a few things done…
"It'll cost you a favor." He said and she continued to smile.
She reached back into her pocket and pulled out a cigar cutter. It was a rectangular piece of metal with a hole the size of a finger on it that you placed the cigar end in. Press down on one end and a blade cut the cigar.
"Cut off his fingers with this before or after he dies as proof." She stated simply, tossing it over to him. "Bring them back to me and that is when you will get the second half of your ten million."
She reached under the table then and pulled a briefcase onto the table, spinning it around to face Slade as she opened it. Sure enough, inside was about five million dollars.
"Feel up for the job?" She asked.
"When do you want it done?"
She hummed to herself in thought, obviously worried. "Tomorrow night at nine fifteen."
An eyebrow rose at the timing as he crossed his arms slowly. "Isn't revenge best served cold? Won't he be expecting something."
"Are you kidding me?" She laughed weakly and rubbed her temples again. "That jerk stole some disk a while back and he's dropping into the city just tonight to sell it—but there's bound to be a couple of good thieves there. After he gets it off his hands he's taking a private jet all the way to Jump City." She paused and frowned. "And I don't know about you, but I really don't want to run into those teen heroes. Batman is enough of a pain on his own, even with his sidekick fighting in another city."
She had no idea how right she was. Though he would one day get his revenge, he didn't plan on bumping into them any time soon. This was more of a vacation from his mastermind ways, to just go and do a job for someone and prosper from it. He was getting paid ten million by this woman and that would help a lot…
"Give me the details." He ordered and she continued to smile.
"Nine fifteen at the dock—Pier thirty nine. He'll be taking a helicopter to the airport, and you can find the copter on the roof of the warehouse at the Pier. That's also where's he's holding the auction, which will give you an hour or so to get ready before he decides to run."
"Anything else I should know about him?" Slade asked, taking a mental note of everything she just said.
"He's not stupid—so he's hired men of his own to watch the disk. He's not bad himself when it comes to a fight, but he's an aging man and his back isn't doing too good. He won't be expecting an attack on himself unless he ticked someone else off I don't know about yet."
That disk…He could bet she was going to send someone to steal it too, but not before he copied the information on it. He didn't know what was on the disk, but whatever it was it had to be something good to be heavily guarded. It might be useless, or it could be worth something—he wouldn't know until tomorrow night.
"And by the way…" Miss Lovell said just as Slade turned to leave. He waited and listened, interested in hearing what someone with her unique requests had to say. "Could I ask you to do one last thing?"
He hesitated, but it was worth it. Glancing over his shoulder slightly to show her he was listening, he nodded. "But you would owe me another favor."
"You know my brother—the one who came after you tonight?"
Another nod.
"He graduated from HIVE last year and isn't bad at his job, but I have feeling something's going to happen to him tomorrow night when he goes to steal the disk…"
So the plot thickens. Not only was he on a murder job, but he was baby-sitting too.
"I'm not fond of children, Miss Lovell." He growled, but then he paused. "But I'll keep an eye out for him. Just tell him not to do any more kamikaze tricks like the ones last night because I'm not going to waste my time collecting his body parts."
Hence, the bomb stunt.
-break-
The timing had never been better. There he was—a tall aging man with a straight back and stiff shoulders. Looked like he could have been a General with that horrid look on his face like he'd bit your nose off if you weren't obedient, but Slade had seen much worse. His short black hair was turning white at the back of his neck and his blue eyes were looking a little pale. Failing sight? Maybe.
It was as dark as hell outside, the only light coming from the lampposts scattered along the docks. Slade stood in the abandoned warehouse right next to the one belonging to Pier thirty-nine, staring out the windows with some binoculars at the man as he and his gunmen stepped off the small boat they took to get here. Goring adjusted his suit coat and walked along the pier with a suitcase in hand, staring around for any signs of watchers. Looked like a real mean guy…
Maybe this would be fun.
Slade lowered his binoculars and shook his head as he leaned against the wall. There were about twenty men with Goring, three of them Slade recognized. They were assassins like himself, but only one of them was a toughie like Slade—a real nose-biter like the looks of Goring. He had a nasty attitude and wasn't very clean with his work, not caring much if the cops came anywhere near catching him or not, and he went by the nickname of GL Skull.
Someone should have done the world a favor and put a bullet in his back already. Perhaps Slade could do that for a little extra fun…
Nothing left to do now, but wait. Slade couldn't touch the guy until he had his hands off the disk so that the kid (who he earlier learned was Matthew) could steal it. Besides, he already saw someone else prowling around on the roof of the other warehouse. The way she walked, it looked a heck of a lot like Catwoman.
The Bat was going to have a hay day with this gang once he found out what was going down at Pier thirty nine. No doubt he'd bash the party—and that was why time was of the essence. Slade wanted to get in and out as soon as possible, because he was sure Batman would give Robin word about Slade's whereabouts if he was spotted. He wasn't afraid of the kid—
He just wanted him to lose a couple nights of sleep over nightmares. He knew how nuts it drove the kid when he was left in the dark, so why not make him stir for not accepting the offer of a lifetime.
Enough of the Teen Titans…
The man made it inside the warehouse, followed closely by a number of men. Three of them stayed outside, two of them starting to circle the outside the building as one stood guard by the main entrance. It was the brute mercenary—GL Skull.
Heh—this would be fun.
-break-
No one saw him—it was actually pretty comical. The moment one of the men passed around the building, Slade ran up to the fire escape ladder and scrambled up onto the roof, where he paused to listen. Walking over to a skylight, he looked down through the glass at Goring and his men. He was sitting in a chair beside a set up table, four other chairs lining the other side for those clients who got his invitation and were coming to buy it rather than to steal it. His boys were equipped with guns, most of them hidden, but one guy had a machine gun beside him, not a smart thing to have around unless you wanted to scare the customers off. Oh well, Goring knew there was going to be a couple people around to steal the disk. He knew blood was going to be shed that night.
But did he know his own life was going to end…Not likely.
"Hey!"
Slade turned his head to the left and saw another one of Goring's men standing near the edge of the roof. The idiot didn't have a gun, but seemed to think the small dagger he had in his hands would do the trick.
Goring didn't hire the right men.
"Here to steal it, aren't you?" The man said as they began to circle one another, slowly getting closer. "Not anybody is gonna lay on it."
"I'm not here for the disk." Slade said plainly.
"Yeah right. You—"
Slade silenced the man with one quick movement and caught him by the front of his suit coat. Pulling him forward, Slade thrust his fist into the guy's face and released him then to watch him stumbled back toward the ledge of the roof. Waving his arms to regain his balance, the man almost stopped himself from falling, but he couldn't even see from the blood splattered over his face. With a broken nose and a final swear, the man fell backward over the edge of the roof near the entrance Goring took.
"The hell?" Slade heard GL shout after the loud thud, and he sighed.
There goes the element of surprise.
Crossing his arms, Slade walked over to the ledge and stared down at the mess below. The man's body lay sprawled at an odd angle on the ground only a foot in front of GL who probably had the heck spooked out of him. Taking one of his grenades into his hand, Slade waited until GL looked up at him until he pulled off the pin and tossed it down.
GL swore and raced forward as Slade backed far away from the edge. A loud explosion erupted from the small grenade and the front of the warehouse was caught on fire, blown apart by the impact. Not much of it stayed on fire, mind you, but it sure as heck caught Goring's attention and that of his men.
Slade chuckled to himself as half the men raced to the burning wood, one of them carrying a fire extinguisher as three escorted Goring toward the other side of the building. Slade just waited, still watching through the glass as one of the looked up at the skylight and saw Slade. He, however remained quiet, a blond haired kid with a hat on. No one bothered to look him in the eyes and that is why when he suddenly came up behind the other two men, neither of them noticed he was attacking until one was flat on his back on the ground and the other was pulling out a gun.
Slade took out his own gun, took aim, and shot just as the man was about to blow Matthew's head off. Slade's bullet went straight through his hand and caused him to drop the gun as Matthew planted a powerful sidekick to his head.
By this time, others had noticed the fight and turned to help—but two more seemed to be on Matthew's team. It was obvious Miss Lovell wasn't going to send her brother in alone and she was lucky she beat the crowd to steal the disk. There was a gun war going on downstairs and the briefcase was dropped. One of Goring's men picked it up and urged his boss on who left for the stairs to the roof., while another boy—one who had just been hit by Matthew, tried to take the briefcase from him. Evidently, more than one thief team was present now, and Slade couldn't pass up the fact that the new boy looked a lot like Robin…
Now for Slade's part.
In the center of the roof was a landing pad where the helicopter should be when it came. It was just nine fifteen so it was no wonder it wasn't ready yet, and that made it all the more easier for Slade.
He casually walked over to the stairwell door leading down into the building and waited in the shadows beside it for the man to come. He came alright, muttering in dome foreign language as he adjusted his coat suit.
Slade came out with an axe kick and nearly succeeded. True to his previous thoughts, Goring was a tough man and obviously knew how to fight without a gun.
"Another thief?" Goring asked as he slipped off his coat and threw it aside. "As you can see I don't have the disk."
"I'm not here for the disk." Slade said and attacked again with three punches. The first two were blocked very nicely by Goring, but the third made it past his guard and connected with his nose. This sent him reeling back with a hand over his face, blood seeping out between the fingers.
"Bastard…" Goring muttered and lowered his hand to reveal a broken nose. He was stronger than what most people took him for. "If not the disk, then what?"
"You'll find out soon enough." Slade murmured and came again, this time with a couple of kicks. Again they were professionally blocked until the last, which caught Goring in the ribs. He stumbled aside in pain, apparently getting too old for this
Goring then attacked with a few of his own punches and Slade was mildly surprised at how good he was at it. There was another thing he had to admit though—and that was that Robin fought better. Despite working with the big league, Slade had to admit that Robin was an ace fighter and that left a bitter taste in his mouth when he remembered hw he lost something so…unique.
He took his fury out on the man and ducked under a punch, coming up with an upper-cut of his own. This sent the man back far, and Slade decided to finish their small meeting with a quick hit to the head.
It knocked the man unconscious.
Slade stared down at the man, but his thoughts were elsewhere. That was the problem with defeat—it lingered like an awful flavor in your mouth, staying with you until you corrected your mistake. Quite frankly, he didn't know how to fix this mistake. Take Robin again? Defeat him? Find someone else?...He was confused and furious. Made him want to make someone scream.
Then he noticed Goring again and he smiled behind his mask.
-break-
Goring's men were idiots. None of them followed Goring and none of them knew where the heck he was. Slade knew. He carried the man into a storage room at the far back of the warehouse he hid in. It was just about soundproof where he couldn't heat a man screaming if he was yelling in a microphone. It was small and dark, save for the small light hanging above, and there was no furniture in the room besides the chair that Slade tied him to. There were armrests on the chair and that was to hold Goring's hands out for when he woke.
And woke he did.
"Damn that hurt…" Goring muttered as he shook his head and regained his vision. Slade was leaning against the wall in front of him, flipping the cigar cutter in his hand over and over again. His one eye remained on Goring as the man finally realized he was tied down, a frown crossing his face as he stared at Slade.
Then his eyes fell on the item in Slade's hand.
"You still didn't tell me what you want." Goring said with distaste, somewhat curious as to what Slade was going to do. "And who the hell are you?"
Slade smiled behind his mask and straightened, bowing briefly to mock the man. "Deathstroke the Terminator, at your service."
Goring's frown grew. "I know about you—some damn assassin you are. So, who did I upset?"
"I think you know that." Slade watched as the man began to worry. "No? Does the name Lovell ring a bell?"
Goring froze and stiffened. "I killed him a couple of weeks ago."
"That's not who I'm talking about." Slade answered, kneeling before him as he stopped flipping the cigar cutter in his hand. "I'm talking about his daughter."
"The one who I shot in the knee?" He laughed. "That little miss? What a joke. That woman doesn't have the guts to have someone murdered—just a scared little girl who misses her father."
"Really?" Slade hissed, and somehow he felt this upset him. He knew that Miss Lovell was a respectable woman, even though she was pretty young, and that she wasn't just some scared little girl who missed her father. She missed her father—but far less than she wanted revenge, and anyone who was willing to draw blood for a reason they believed in dearly was all right in Slade's eyes. The hate and vengeance in her eyes was incredible, and Slade could hardly wait to see the look on her face when his job was finished.
"I'm going to give you a piece of advice." Slade said as he grabbed Goring's left hand and forced him to straighten his second last finger. He slid the finger into the hole on the cigar cutter until it rested right up to where the digit connected to the hand. "Don't ever get a woman angry because woman are very emotional, and they hate the longest…"
Cut.
Goring bit back a scream and Slade let the digit drop to the floor as blood soaked onto his gloves and through to his hands. Goring tried to keep the rest of his hand in a fist, but Slade straightened the middle finger and fit the cigar cutter around it the same as the last.
Slade smiled. "…they hate the hardest…"
Cut.
Goring bit back another scream, but this time his groan was louder and he shut his eyes tight as more blood came and the second finger fell to the ground. He would be going into shock soon and that meant the pain would slowly numb out. That was why Slade had to do this part quickly.
Forcing Goring to straighten his little finger, Slade had to hold his hand tighter to keep it in place. But then he laughed as Goring's breaths were short and panicky.
"Relax." Slade said softly, mocking the man as he laughed. "I still have eight more points…"
-break-
Slade sat at the end of the table, tapping the cigar on the table each second as he waited near the door. It was the same room he met Miss Lovell in and he had been there for an hour. She was late…
He hated it when people were late.
The door banged opened on Q and Miss Lovell came in with crutches instead of her cane, shooing away two men who tried to pull her out of the room. "I'll leave when I'm finished." She snapped at them and one man rolled his eyes with a sigh as they both left, closing the door behind them. But not before one handed her a briefcase. Apparently, she wasn't supposed to be home.
"Where were you?" Slade asked calmly, not as upset as he had been when he was waiting. "You look…troubled."
"Troubled?" She sighed, taking a seat across from him with much difficultly, cringing once in pain. "My aunt has to be the nosiest person alive and didn't tell me she booked an operation for my knee until I was dragged out of here to the hospital yesterday. Apparently you're not supposed to let bullet wounds heal on their own."
He laughed. "So I take it they did something to your knee."
"They want to replace it!" She exclaimed, frowning at the door. "Or, at least they keep trying to. I had to stay there overnight and they took away my cane when I whacked someone with it. Damn Goring shattered my knee cap…Speaking of which." Her eyes brightened and she stared at Slade. "Do you have anything for me?"
Slade reached under the table and pulled up a small black box, sliding it down the table to her. She lifted the lid and she smiled as stared inside. She looked at the closer and her smile grew. "How lovely—you cut them off while he was still alive, too, How wonderful of you. And…" She put the briefcase on the table and he took it, opening the lid and looking inside. Sure enough, there was the rest of his money and…
Slade picked up the CD case and stared at her through his mask. "What's this?"
Her smile lightened into a smirk. "A copy of the disk Matthew eventually stole last night. It's some sort of recipe for a hallucigenic…dust, what have you. It could come in handy if you ever figure out how to use it, but it's going to take me a while."
"A gift?" He asked. "Or is there something else you want me to do?"
She laughed. "Unless I need you in the future—no. I just gave that to you because I somehow knew it might strike your interest. After all, I wouldn't want you stealing from me."
"Which reminds me…" HE threw the CD back into the briefcase and closed it. "About that favor."
"I'm all ears."
:"Good." He crossed his arms. "I need you to find me someone with powers."
Miss Lovell paused. "As in—superhero powers?"
"Yes." He continued, watching the curious look grow on her face. "Someone I can manipulate—preferably someone young."
"Why, exactly?" She asked, still curious.
"I need someone young to get to know the Teen Titans so I can spy on them and get rid of them once and for all."
She smiled and it clicked in her head. "Because the Teen Titans only accept Teens—I see…" She paused and looked down at the table in thought. "I think I can herd someone in your direction, but you need to do the talking. She's a girl…goes by the name of Terra, I think."
Terra?...he hadn't heard of her before.
"She had rock powers of the sort." Lovell explained vaguely. "She's been chased from a number of cities and towns due to little accidents, but word of her hasn't spread down here yet. She's a wanderer and that'll make it hard to track her, but she's a lonely soul with a bad past—the type of kid who needs someone to lead her by the hand, so to speak."
Slade grinned. She sounded exactly like the type of person he was looking for.
"Can you find her?"
Lovell raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Give me a week and I'll have her on her way to wherever you want to meet her. She won't know, of course, but that'll make all the more interesting."
"Indeed." Slade agreed and took the suitcase, standing and moving toward the door. He could hear shouting on the other side of the door which sounded like an angry older woman—Lovell's aunt no less. "Until we meet again, Miss Lovell, which I'm sure we will."
"It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Wilson."
He paused for just a moment and stared back at her with a little curiosity. "Usually when I'm hired, my clients only know me by my other name. How do you know my real name?"
She laughed slightly in amusement, but left him with a straight answer. "You don't think I could have found you on my own. Wintergreen told me to tick you off and that would get your attention instantly—hence my brother's suicide attempt."
That was the word he was looking for. Suicide…that damn kid wanted to commit bloody suicide.
But Wintergreen…wherever he was, Slade just might need him again. Who know? It all depended on how hard the Titans were going to continue to be….
-A-
SUMMARY: Slade returned to Gotham for some low time and was found (and hired) by the Lovell family to kill a man named Eric Goring who had been a life long enemy to the family and killed the father. While watching Goring, Slade saw a boy who looked somewhat like Robin, fought well, and just happened to be a thief after a new disk Goring acquire who-knows-how (Red-X for those of you who don't know who I'm talking about). In completely his job and killing Goring, Slade received ten million dollars and a favor from the new head of the Lovell family—the sixteen-year-old daughter Miss Lovell (with a shattered right leg; walked with a cane). The task: find a new apprentice. Miss Lovell came up with a name, and the person she spoke of was a girl called Terra…
I know it sounds weird, but I had trouble thinking of how to introduce Terra while letting Slade still have some fun. I left death to the minimal…I think, and I hope you guys weren't too upset about the finger part. Victor suggested that and since he helped with getting this story started, I promised I would add it. Anyhow—give me a rating on the gory part of the story. That way I know if I should keep up with it for other stories or abandon it altogether.
Anyways…have a nice day and don't ever get a woman angry because woman…
Hold on—I still have ten more points!
Waving goodbye,
Alexnandru Van Gordon
PS: I know my cousin is weird, so just don't insult him about the finger part. I think he got the idea from a movie or something…
