Allow Me to Live Like You

Alexnandru Van Gordon

Hello again (Holding a bag of ice to the back of head). It's the weekends again and that means I'll have two whole nights of absolutely no sleep. What better way to use my time than to write—yah! And yes, it's been…six hours since my little issue with Red-X who I still haven't seen for a while… I have my sister watching the door, but I doubt that'll help. Oh well, as long as I download this into the website before he comes along, there is nothing he can do about it. He he he…let's see him try that little stunt again. Oh well, he really didn't change much about the story—but that's what's worrying me. He's bound to return… (Shivers).

Okay. Enoughof my nonsense!

DISCLAIMER: Maybe if I wish hard enough…no, that won't work. I made a wish last night that no more people would jump out of my story and visit me personally. After Red X, I seriously doubt it was granted…

CHAPTER THREE (already?): Red X and Robin

-R-

It was the usual routine—the warning went off and everybody hurried to their form of transportation that would take them to the scene of the crime. A little trouble there. Robin was used to driving his motorcycle, but that was all the way back in Jump City. When he paused halfway down the hall, Batman turned around and stared at him.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't have my cycle."

"You're riding with me."

Great.

He jumped into his old seat in the Batmobile (or whatever you call it. I can't remember) and buckled up, just waiting, slightly excited, for the engines to flare on. Then they did—and they rocketed out of the cave like you wouldn't believe. Pulling up alongside them after they exited the cave were Speedy and HW riding the 'S-cycle', something that obviously belonged to Speedy. It was pretty fast for its size, but Robin doubted Speedy could ever beat him in a race if he had his cycle.

The trouble was at the bank—where else, I ask you—and the culprits were none other than the Joker and the Riddler, two villains Robin hadn't seen in a while. They both had their goons, the Joker's dressed slightly like clowns and the Riddler's dressed in green jumpsuits (can't remember what they wear either. So sorry) and Harlequin was present, hanging onto the Joker's arm like she almost always did.

Although it was nice to be fighting the old boys again, Robin would have preferred one of the lunatics back in Jump City. Here, the baddies knew him as Batman's sidekick. In Jump City, they knew him as an individual and a leader—someone not to mess with if you wanted to see tomorrow. Here he was just someone to ignore.

Only Flash and the Green Lantern accompanied them. You didn't need the whole JL to deal with the Joker and the Riddler—they just weren't worth the time and effort. They'd be in Arkham Asylum before the break of dawn.

The six heroes stood on the now deserted street just as the criminals broke out through the front door of the bank. Upon seeing the Joker, HW squeaked softly and jumped behind Robin.

"What is it?" He whispered, trying to make her little act of foolishness unnoticeable.

"I'm scared to death of clowns." She admitted meekly, but straightened and stood next to Robin, doing her best to hide her fear—which she did rather well with Robin's old mask.

"Why?"

"Long story." She replied, and then the villains began to take notice.

Eyes skimming the group of heroes, the Joker's—unexpectedly—fell on Robin. Robin didn't think the Joker would notice him—more so HW or Speedy since they were newbies in Gotham. Oh well.

"Well, if it isn't the little bird? I thought you died!" The Joker laughed like the maniac he was. "The summer bird is back and so warm weather must be somewhere around the corner. How's that bullet wound of yours?"

Robin scowled at the remark, but now he couldn't get the memory out of his mind. That was the day he and Batman grew so distant apart.

"Doing great." Robin said in a surprising calm voice—surprising to everyone but himself. "I have to thank you for it, though. Opened my eyes a little to a couple of new people."

The scary part was—he was thankful. If it hadn't been for that accident, he would have never had the courage to leave Batman and become the leader of the Teen Titans. If he hadn't been shot, he and Batman would have remained the same and he probably would have felt it duty to stay with his mentor.

"You've got to be joking us!" The Riddler exclaimed, an eyebrow rose in confusion. "And I thought we were crazy."

"We are." The Joker said plainly—and pulled out a gun. In the blink of the eye, he took aim at Robin's heart and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gun was jerked by the batarang that impaled the barrel. But no bullet took flight. Instead, a small white flag fluttered in the slight breeze, the word BANG printed on the white material in big bold letters.

It had been a joke, and it made the Joker laugh.

"A little late again, old Bats." He mocked, clearly enjoying the moment of panic he had caused his old enemy. "I'm telling you, Robin. Forget the Bat—he's gonna get you killed one of these days."

"Why don't you forget the money you stole and head to the asylum with us?" Robin inquired, pulling out a birdarang. "I'm sure you'll find your room just the way you left it. I'm guessing the bed sheets are still warm."

"Brat…" The Joker muttered, but the frown on his face was replaced with his usual cocky grin. He looked to the head of his goons. "Go get 'em boys—and bring me the kid. I've got a thing or two to teach him in the sense of respect to his elders…"

"Oh, fun time." HW muttered behind him and the cackling of electricity circled her hands. Sparks of small lightning bolts snapped wickedly at the air as the six heroes advanced.

-RX-

He had waited…quite patiently for the heroes to show up before coming any closer. As he suspected, no one had been shot. The Joker was just giving the public a warning if they decided to call the police. Didn't work though. The manager of the bank pressed that little red button under his desk and that alarmed the JL immediately. Red X had seen it all happen from the skylight.

The moment the criminals ran from the building, they were intercepted by none other than the foolish do-gooders. Oh well.

But at least it wasn't that bad. Robin was with them and that made matters all the more better for X. He desperately needed to speak with him.

When the Joker pulled the trigger, Red X actually thought Robin was a goner. He simply laid down on his back atop the building, taking deep breathes to slow his heartbeat. That was close—and that wasn't at all funny. How could a guy laugh at such a thing as that? Red X might have been a thief, but he sure wasn't a murderer.

Stupid clown.

Standing. He gazed once more at the now black sky before staring over the edge of the building at the battle down below. Speedy and the Green Arrow could have been father and son if he didn't know any better—back-to-back and shooting arrows like they were some sort of machine gun. Flash was having no trouble either, weaving between a couple of the goons and throwing an unexpected punch here and there. If he moved any faster, he would be invisible. Batman was dueling the Riddler one on one with those amazing little gadgets from his belt, something probably invented by Wayne Technologies, and the new girl was trying to electrocute Harlequin who had a grenade launcher propped up on her shoulder. Besides that, Robin was taking down the Joker's goons like flies with a swatter. He was, however, caught unexpected after delivering a gruesome kick to the head of a tall brute by another brute who grabbed him around the waist from behind and tossed him toward the Joker. Landing on his back, Joker took this to his advantages and placed all his weight on the foot he stepped on top of the Boy Wonder's chest.

"Why'd you leave town, kid?" The Joker asked with that wicked grin still plastered on his face. "Scared I was going to kill you the next time or try something worse?"

Red X took his chance now and shot one of his sticky X's at the man's face. It took him off his feet and sent him flying back into the center of the battlefield, leaving Robin to sit up and cough for air.

X jumped down gracefully from the building, the suit adding extra protection to his limbs for high falls and brutal hits. He gave the Boy Wonder no time to notice him and strode up behind him, throwing a smoke grenade at the ground once Robin noticed him.

"What—"

"Later." Red X muttered and waited as Robin jumped to his feet. The boy began to cough from the smoke, and the whites of his mask narrowed into tiny slits as the smoke stung his eyes. X's mask protected him from the gas and so he had no problem coming up behind Robin, grabbing him around the waist with one arm, and taking the grappling hook (shooter thingy…) from the Boy Wonder's belt. "Going up." He said before aiming up at the banks roof and shooting.

The moment he was about to pull them both up, Robin made a move to escape his grasp. Red X almost lost hold of him, but leaned forward and tightened his grip around his waist. Then they went up—at a speed faster than Red X expected, but at least they landed properly on the bank's roof.

Robin made another small attempt at a break, but Red X continued to hold him around the waist. No longer having to hold the "grappling hook shooter thingy" (I knew what it was called a second ago, but I suddenly drew up a blank. Ahhh!) He wrapped his free arm across Robin's throat and arched him backwards to slightly cut off his airway.

Robin began to choke.

"Promise not to bolt and I'll release you."

Robin didn't answer.

"Stubborn…" Red X muttered, but he released the young hero who stumbled a step forward before whipping around with four birdarangs in hand. Each one was well placed between the fingers, a deadly assault for such a close range.

X backed away a few steps.

"What is it?" Robin barked, certainly not in the mood for their small meeting. "Speak quickly before I throw in you in Arkham with the rest of the lunatics."

"Whoa…" He raised his hands as if to show he held no weapons. "Relax, kid. I'm a thief—not a psycho, and you'll regret sending me anyway before you hear what I've got to say."

The Boy Wonder hesitated, always edgy when it came to trusting a criminal—one in particular. But he was also reasonable—"You've got thirty seconds."

"Slade."

Just as he suspected. It was as if Robin's whole figure froze, his mouth opened a small gap. Those white eyes were slightly wider, daring Red X to continue. This was a subject X knew he was sensitive of…it was so easy to predict a hero's reaction…

"I'm guessing from your expression that I'll get more than thirty seconds to tell what I know."

Robin lowered his birdarangs—reluctantly. He sat crossed legged on the roof and nodded. "I'm all ears."

Red X leaned against the roof's fire exit door, an old thing that looked like it would be the first thing in the building to go up on flames. He could see Robin's eyes narrow at the door…perhaps due to certain memories of an abandoned warehouse…

"I presume you already know his whole name?"

"Slade Wilson—but that's all. I haven't had time to research anything up about him."

Red X laughed heartily. "Well, you ain't gonna find him on the enternet. You'd need something like the computer the JL owns, or the one Batman is supposed to have at his hideout."

"And you would know this because…?"

"There are other advanced computers in the world—but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I haven't gotten much yet, but I know a thing or two about another guy connected to him…really connected…"

He could see Robin was interested—no matter how hard he tried to hide it. X was sure the Boy Wonder would beat the living daylights out of him if just suddenly left him hanging on the edge of important news. Robin was an honourable rival.

"Go on…"

"You're so predictable."

"Look!" Robin snapped. "If I can prove this guy is still around, he won't have any time to even think of a new plan. The JL will be down his throat so quickly he wouldn't have time to say sorry. Either you can tell me what I want to know right now, or I can take you to the JL so they can escort you to jail after you inform them. Understand?"

Red X rolled his eyes behind his mask, but decided best not to get the boy too aggravated. "Sure thing, Captain. The thing I wanted to tell you was to use Batman's computer and search for the name—"

There was a loud explosion and Red X almost lost his balance. The far edge of the building was crumbling from the impact, but at least the rest of the foundation continued to stand.

"Perhaps another time." Red X said, saluting Robin with two fingers before throwing another smoke bomb to the ground. The last thing he wanted to do was to take sides in such a battle. After all…battles led to a war…

-HW-

Falling to her stomach, she covered her head with her arms as side of the building began to collapse above her. Harlequin was blown off her feet too, but at least she had gone flying into the middle of the street rather than straight into the building.

Too much electricity colliding with a grenade the size of a football (abnormally large thanks to the Joker's little toy inventions) made one heck of an explosion. HW knew she would never hear the end of it from anyone when the battle was over, especially from Speedy. What a mess she created.

Well—it was Harlequin's fault too.

The dust formed a cloud around her and she began to cough. The moment it seemed to settle, she pushed up on her hands and stared up—right at the large chunk of bricks falling toward her head. All she did in response was shut her eyes tight—

Thank god for Flash though. She would never be done thanking him.

"Watch yourself next time." Flash grinned, laying her down on the road gently.

She stood and brushed herself off, blushing in embarrassment. She really needed more training for this whole hero business.

"Way to go." Speedy mocked exactly as she had expected him to. "Why don't you bring down the whole city with you next time?"

"It wasn't entirely my fault." She murmured, shooting a furious glance in Harlequin's direction. One of her boss' goons was helping her to her feet, but she still looked dizzy. Whatever she loaded that bomb with—damn, did it ever do the trick! Her ears might never stop ringing.

"Where's Robin?" She heard Batman ask. All of them were waiting for the large cloud of dust to settle before continuing, but only five of them were present.

'Oh, please no!' She thought. She would commit suicide if she had killed the Boy Wonder. And if she lost the guts to do so, well…at least she knew Batman wouldn't hesitate in taking the honours.

Boy was she in trouble tonight.

The dust finally settled to reveal that the Joker, the Riddler, and everyone else had gotten away—except one. Robin stood atop one chunk of the building with a goon on his knees before him. He held the brute by the front of his shirt, giving the black-eyed criminal a good shake before continuing to question him quietly. But it was apparent Robin wasn't getting the answer he was looking for the force he was inflicting in shaking the man.

He was scary.

'Thank you, God…' She sighed mentally. She would pray extra hard that night.

"You okay, man?" Speedy asked, running up to his friend and rival. "How'd you escape that catastrophe?"

Robin released the goon's shirt and left him on the rock for Flash to run up to and handcuff. He leapt off the rock and stormed past Speedy, upset. "Let's just go." He muttered.

HW stepped out of his way as he passed her by. What put him in his mood?

-S-

Pause. Rewind. Play.

He squinted his one eye momentarily, staring hard at the camera. There!

Pause.

Cursing under his breath, he mentally shouted out every swear he knew under the sun in his head. He wanted to let Robin know he was there when the time was right—but now was far too early. Thank goodness for that trainee and that hot-temped Harlequin or his plans would be ruined.

Glaring at the screen, he turned it off with the push of a button. Confound Red X! Red X had been fine when he was Robin, but this new thief was a royal pain that Slade could definitely do without. He wasn't going to forget what that stubborn teenager had done not too long ago, and he swore he would get revenge before this was all over. Like Robin, this kid needed to be taught a thing or two.

Patience.

Thinking of that one word, his fury suddenly left him and he no longer cared too much about Red X. He would get rid of him when the time was ripe, but now was the time for a different stage of his plan.

A soft moan drew his attention away from the large screen toward a dark corner of the room. There, gagged and bound, sat the Tamerainian girl. She was propped up against the wall so that she sat up, head hanging forward as she unable to lift it from her sudden drain of strength. Slade had to modify one of the sedative's he stole from his other self to take down a much stronger being than that of the human race, and he was successful in keeping the girl captive. She hadn't been able to move from any spot she was placed with no way possible for her to escape. Her only chances of survival were Slade's need for her later on in his plans or a witty rescue from her companions.

Like that was ever going to happen! Robin wouldn't know where Slade was until Slade wanted him to know and that stupid tin man was still checking out the old warehouse. He would check on the cameras he had set up back there to see if the teenager had caught onto anything yet, but there was nothing he could find. Slade was wise in clearing away evidence. The habit and saved him numerous times before.

The girl muttered something around the gag as her eyes fluttered opened. They widened in terror as she recalled past information and realized she couldn't move at all at the least. Her terror was a delight for him and he waited a moment more before speaking to her.

"It won't work. You're strength is gone until the sedative fully wears off—and that will take a while. Besides, there's more of that where that came from. I assure you your stay here might even be prolonged."

He could sense her fear rising. He knew that if she could move further away from him, she would—but she was trapped in a corner like a little mouse about to be eaten by a cat.

That idea actually made him frown. She was not so much the person he wanted corned, and the cat would not eat the mouse in that case. Robin would be corned and would have to accept the heavy choice Slade would place on his shoulders. There could be no mistakes this time—no little loopholes in his plans. The world was going to be his, but first he wanted to catch Robin. Partially out of revenge, partially out of the sense that he would want and need someone to take on whatever he started when it was his time to retire. Robin was the only person he saw fit for the job.

The girl struggled uselessly in the corner for an hour or so before crying herself silently to sleep. Slade would glance at her then and again, but he was too busy sitting at the table in the center of the room writing out plans to pay much attention. As long as she didn't case him too much trouble, she would be fine. As long as she was useful, she would live…

-A-

Wondering what Red X wants to tell Robin? Me too…I'm just kidding you. I'm just uncertain of how much information I should give out and how often. I think little mysteries are sometimes fun in a story for a reader. I know. I've written stories where I was sentenced to the mountains of Mordor by some readers if I didn't continue (or something like that). It lets me know that people are actually reading my stuff. But before I let you go for the day/night/whenever you are reading this (night in my case), I've just got to clear up a few things:

1) Wintergreen will be in this story. If you don't know who is he just ask in your review and I will be more than happy to explain. And no, he's not the butler. Staff-Sergeant Wintergreen is an old military friend of Slade's—Oops! Did I just let that slip? Oh well. If you've read the comics than you'd get my drift, but if you haven't (like in my case) I'll explain. I had to do a little research before I started writing my story. I know some people say he's the butler—and I thought that at first too, but he isn't. I don't know who that guy is, but Wintergreen wouldn't be working for Slade like that for a couple of very good reasons. I will go into more detail about that later on.

2) Red X is staying in this story, even though I'm still angry about the blow to the back of my head. (Rubs spot gingerly)

3) Starfire…where to begin with Starfire…Okay, just so that you aren't confused in future, I'm inventing a Tamerainian (did I spell that right?) power of her people—very weak though, only to add a little insanity to my story. It's something along the line of telekinesis where, when in the weakest state of mind and body, a simple, short, 'no sense' message can be sent from one mind to another. It's a weak power, so don't go thinking she's the soul person who will save the day in the future, and she can't control all of who it is sent to…did you catch that? I know you M and M's and Smarties out there are probably getting my drift. He he.

4) There is a little romance in this between Starfire and Robin (evidently)—and no, I do not write lemons, so don't go wondering about why Slade is so obsessive. He's just crazy. The only reason I'm telling you this is because one of my sisters read over this chapter and pointed out what some people might think that's what it's getting to. Not that I think you bunch are that type. But no. The only reason I rated it PG-13 was because I was worried about the fighting violence and mild curses, and R in that one chapter because of a death. There are no other reasons why, and I'm so embarrassed that both her and a friend of mine pointed that out.

Thank you for your valuable time.

-Head still throbbing

-Alexnandru Van Gordon