Chapter 7: Victory
There were now nine Titans and nine villains on the scene, which included four Slade-bots.
"Titans, go!"
Robin, Speedy, Starfire, and Wildebeest ended up each taking on one of the Slade-bots, while the other Titans fought the team of Gizmo, Cinderblock, Overload, Plasmus, and Blackfire. Robin punched at one Slade, which ducked to avoid the punch, crouched, and kicked out at Robin's feet. Robin jumped over the kick, but Slade unexpectedly kept spinning. His foot came around a second time and tripped Robin. He fell to the floor and rolled out of the wayof another kick and jumped back up. Meanwhile, Speedy fired volley after volley of exploding arrows at his Slade, but that Slade blocked all the arrows with a bowstaff. The third Slade did the same with Starfire's lasers and starbolts. Wildebeest was the first to go down; he charged the last Slade, who simply somersaulted over him and then threw an electric disk on Wildebeest's unarmored back, knocking him unconscious.
At that moment Robin's Slade suddenly jumped away and ran towards the fallen Wildebeest, whipping out his bowstaff as he did so. Sharp S-shaped blades extended from the ends of the bowstaff. Robin threw a freeze disk to stop Slade, but the other one (who had just beaten Wildebeest) blocked the disk, allowing his fellow Sladebot to stab his bowstaff into Wildebeest's neck, sending the superhero on to his reward.
More bad news came for the Titans as yet another Slade arrived, unnoticed. What the Titans never knew was that this was the real Slade, far more skilled than the robot decoys. He quietly stayed some distance away, watching the Titans and villains struggle. He was here for one purpose: to ensure the final defeat of the Titans.
His first opportunity came when he sawOverload hit Beast Boy (in pterodactyl form) with an electric arm just as Aqualad brought another spout of water to bear upon him. Both Overload and Beast Boy were out cold. Hidden in the branches of a nearby tree Slade took out one of his S-a-rangs with sharp points and hurled it at Beast Boy from a distance. The point of the S-a-rang pierced Beast Boy's skull in a spurt of red blood. Slade would not have to worry about the shapeshifter again.
Cyborg was the next to fall as he failed to dodge an eye-laser from Blackfire, although she had also failed to dodge his sonic cannon and was also knocked down. Slade dashed to Cyborg's body and with another S-a-rang stabbed into the biological part of Cyborg's face. This time Aqualad noticed Slade and quickly directed a spout of water. Slade evaded the water stream and the distraction gave Plasmus a chance to slime Aqualad with a big glob of purple sludge. Aqualad fell, trapped in the sticky sludge, and momentarily let go of the water. He quickly summoned it up again as he realized that he could wash away the sludge, but before the water arrived, Slade did and stabbed down at Aqualad with a sharp-bladed bowstaff. A black shield appeared to save Aqualad as Raven realized what was happening, but Cinderblock, no longer suffering from Raven's attacks, charged over and stomped down with his foot on Aqualad. The water, uncontrolled, fell down onto the ground and turned red. When it had flowed away and Cinderblock removed his foot, there was only a red-and-purple sticky patch where Aqualad had once been. He had been crushed to a pancake.
Raven shielded herself against an S-a-rang from Slade and a tree thrown by Cinderblock, but the Slade that had been fighting Speedy saw its chance and hurled an S-a-rang behind her. Starfire intercepted the S-a-rang with her eye-lasers, but the two Slades that she had been fighting now had their opening. One kicked her in the stomach while the other somersaulted over her and when she turned to face that one, the Slade that kicked her bounded towards Raven and skewered her on a bowstaff.
With the multiple Slades, each Titan was thus finished in a similar manner and the HIVE came to control Jump City. This control, however, would prove to be short-lived as the murder of the Teen Titans made headlines on newspapers across the nation the next day. The Justice League took over the handling of Jump City and soon captured most of the villains, restoring order to the city...
But one escaped their grasp. Slade Wilson abandoned Jump City and was subsequently sighted all across the nation over the next few years. Legally, he was the real murderer of the Teen Titans, as he or his robots had been the ones to strike the finishing blows to each of the nine young heroes and he had been the only premeditator. His HIVE subordinates had been convicted of accesory to murder and, for the most part, served their sentences.
Wantedfor nine counts of first-degree murder, Slade Wilson has still not been brought to justice. Hemay be alive, hiding in some distant corner of the galaxy; he may be hiding somewhere in the vast expanses of America or another country; he may already be dead. Those whoknew much about him, though, agree that he will never be in custody.