A/N: Your wish is my command ;) ... I hope you like this chapter just as much as I do; I went over several scripts for this chapie and finally came up with this one as the rest were rather sucky!
So without further explanations I give you ...
Chapter 15 - The approach
Robin and Starfire were standing in the middle of the safety room that Cyborg built while the rest of the team stood out side. They were both afraid that something would go wrong but when it came to stopping Slade they knew it was a risk they had to take. After all, they were superheroes, this is what they were meant to do.
"You're going to be safe in here" said Robin "If anyone tries to brake in they'll be really disappointed".
"I hope you are right, but still, I have a feeling something bad will happen".
"There are risks we have to take in order to save innocent lives; this is just one of them. We can't back out now".
"But there is also the risk of our child growing up as an orphan" said Starfire tilting her head to a side.
"I know" replied Robin softly while caressing her sweet features and making her gaze into his eyes "And that's why I'm going to be careful".
"Please do so. I love you too much, I will surely not bare losing you" said Starfire while hugging her loved one tightly as though she was afraid she might lose him.
"I love you too, I promise nothing bad will happen to me" replied Robin as he kissed her forehead and returned the hug.
After this small goodbye Robin left the safety room and Cyborg locked the door and regulated the oxygen filters. The team assembled in the main room at 8 o'clock sharp to discus their strategy, and apart from Rage who now carried a rifle on his shoulder, his ammo around his belt and wore his mask that he had sowed after the fight with Slade's robots, nothing would have suggested that they were about to launch a bigger operation than usual. The map of the city was laid on the table and a red X marked the spot of Slade's possible location.
"Good, we know for a fact that Slade's base could be located some where around here" said Beast Boy pointing towards the X on the map "So what are we going to do now?"
"We have to inspect every aspect and quickly couse time isn't our friend in this case" replied Cyborg.
"Fine, first off, what dangers apart from Slade can we meet along the way?" asked Raven.
"Not many except from Slade's traps and robot commandos" answered Robin "In that case, we have to be extra careful for anything suspicious. If you see something that doesn't seem right stop and tell the others".
"Checked. What about if we get separated? Shouldn't we pick a rendezvous point we to group up?" asked Raven.
"I know just the place" replied Cyborg pointing to a place on the map "Here, near these hills, south-west towards the city. Some where around here there's a cave speologists recently discovered. It's safe, it's dark and it's quiet. I say we should rendezvous here if anyone of us gets separated"
"Good, what about transportation and landing point? What's the fastest way to get there?" asked Robin.
"You mean the safest" replied Rage "The fastest way would be by air but Slade's probably going to shoot us down once we are air born".
"Don't worry about that, the T-Ship can out-fly any aircraft and any bullet" said Cyborg confident that the ship he built will over come any obstacle.
"Even so if we take to the air then Slade will have enough time to prepare his defenses" said Raven.
"She is right! My suggestion is to travel under water if that is in any way possible and land near the cost line, over here on the west shore off the north side of town" replied Rage "We will not be detected, Slade will probably think we are still inside the tower preparing the attack or hiding and we will catch him by surprise".
"Then it's the T-Sub we have to take" replied BB "Any thing else?"
"Just one more thing" said Robin "Before we go I have to remind you that this has to be the day we catch Slade. We'll take him down no matter what it takes. Use any means necessary, understand? Stay close, be careful and above all, be ready. Titans Go!"
The titans left the main room and walked at a fast pace to the T-Sub, a couple of levels under the tower. After checking all the systems they headed out towards the landing point Rage suggested. Every thing was going just as they were expecting yet for no apparent reason Robin started to have a feeling something was wrong but thinking this could just be his old self acting out he shrugged off that thought and continued with what he was doing and paying attention to every aspect of their mission.
Upon arriving, the team gathered around Robin to discuss their route.
"We start from the here and head North-Est-Est towards Slade's base. There are no natural obstacles we have to cross so keep a look out for anything unusual and be quiet".
"Right, and what are we going to do when we get there?" asked Raven
"We take him down, no matter what!" replied Robin while punching his fist into his palm, signifying that "no matter what" really meant "no matter what!".
With this said they headed out towards their objective. Cyborg was in front along with Rage who armed his rifle but kept the safety on and Robin was covering their backs along with Raven and BB. The reason they did this is that Rage and Cyborg had fire power to their advantage and they would easily take down any of Slade's commandos if they attacked.
They walked for about a half an hour and weren't far from their objective when Robin noticed something unusual. It was Rage, he seemed to be mumbling something, probably in his native language, after which he did the cross sign and placed his cross necklace inside his shirt. He didn't understand what this completely meant but one thing was for sure, Rage felt that something might go wrong and he wanted to make sure divine intervention will help him.
After another five minutes they slowed their pace and started to walk silently beginning every step with their heels so as to silence their foot steps. This went on for another 4 to 6 minutes when all of the sudden Cyborg stopped.
"I think I see something moving in front of us" he whispered to the rest.
The others grouped and also noticed motion at about 100 yards in front, but because of the darkness that enveloped the forest they couldn't make out what it was.
"Stay right here, I am going to scout the place out and see if there is any danger. If you hear me shouting then that means I am in trouble" said Rage leaving afterwards.
Time passed and after a short while Rage retuned covered in leaves and dirt, a sign that he had to crawl at ground level.
"Well, did you find anything?" asked Robin.
"Yes, right in front of us there are about ten masked men that bared Slade's insignia on their uniform. What is your call?"
"I say take'em down and move forward" replied Cyborg.
"No, it's too risky; we want to catch Slade off guard not make our presence noticed. We're going to avoid them by taking another path. This way!" said Robin moving slowly through the bushes and trees as silent as possible.
They walked a good distance and thought that they passed Slade's guards, but just when they thought they were on the right track they hear the leaves moving and someone walking towards them or around them.
"Stop! Don't a make any sounds and be on the look out" whispered Robin who held three disks between his right hand fingers.
The tension was rising as they waited too see what was going to happen. True, it could have just been a woodland creature that minded its own business and just searched for food but with Slade's commandos near by they couldn't afford to take any risks so they kept their battle stance for a good couple of minutes. For a while they didn't hear any more movement and most of them thought it would have been a good idea to move on.
"I guess it was a false alarm" said Robin still whispering.
"Yeah, come on let's move out" replied Cyborg.
Cyborg started walking quietly and careful but after a few steps he hears a clicking sound of sorts and a shout:
"Cyborg hit the deck!"
He reacted immediately and dropped to the ground after which he heard four gun shots. He lifted his head up too see what was going on and saw Rage pointing his rifle in the direction he was standing. For an odd reason the smoke that came out of Rage's rifle barrel gave him chills down his spine. Trying to shoot him was out of the question as he recognized his voice but when he turned too see what he shot he was relieved but at the same time scared to see one of Slade's robot commandos down on the ground with bullet holes between its eyes and its weapon near.
When Cyborg started walking Rage saw a human like figure pointing what appeared to be a weapon towards him so he didn't hesitate. He took the safety off, told Cyborg to drop, aimed and fired.
The good thing was that Cyborg was unharmed ... the bad thing though was that Rage didn't have a silencer and the shots was really loud and more than probably attracted Slade's robots attention.
"Just great!" said Raven in a sarcastic tone after inspecting the robot.
"We have to get out of here" replied Robin who started walking, trying to move his friends out of the area "Next thing we know Slade's commandos will be breathing down our neck any ..."
A series of noises that came through the brush made Robin cut his explanation short. The sounds came from every side: behind them, in front of them, to their left, to their right ... you name it. The titans knew what this meant and took battle positions ready to strike when the attack was sounded, and in only a matter of seconds they were surrounded by Slade's robots.
"... second?" said Raven completing the sentence Robin started earlier.
They were clearly out numbered. Their attempt to catch Slade off guard had gone to waist but they decided to fight on and continue. True, they lost the element of surprise but it didn't mean they lost the battle; after all, things like these happened before.
"We are out numbered" said Rage
"They're armed" Raven noted.
"They're everywhere!" exclaimed Beast Boy who panicked.
"Are we able to take them all out?" asked Cyborg addressing this question to Robin.
"We'll try, but if doesn't work get ready to fall back to the rendezvous point" replied Robin "Titans Go!"
At the sound of this the titans charged in different directions and started fighting Slade's commandos. The robots realized what happened and started firing but because of the darkness they reacted too late. Robin launched his disks and took out a good number of robots after which he took out his Bo staff and started taking them down. Beast Boy morphed into a sparrow and when he got near his opponents changed into a bear and also started to fight them. Raven used her telekinetic powers and picked up two large boulders which she used to smash the attackers with. Cyborg jumped in fist first into battle and started throwing punches left and right throwing his enemies straight into the trees that surrounded them. Rage charged head first into the crowd of robot commandos and started slamming them to the ground and fight using street and box techniques rather than martial arts tactics and occasionally hitting his adversaries with the back end of his weapon.
They individually fought well and took their enemies down with no problems at all but the robots kept flooding in and their growing numbers threatened to overwhelm the titans. They now knew they couldn't take all of them out, it was almost impossible, so they went to plan B.
"They're too many, fall back, head to the rendezvous point" ordered Robin as he fought off three robots that tried to hit him with flying projectiles.
The titans did as they were ordered but had difficulties as they tried to make it out due to the great number of their opponents. As they all regrouped and fled towards the cave Cyborg told them about they noticed they were being followed so Robin used a smoke screen bomb to throw them off track and told the others to split up and find their way to the cave where they would devise another plan of attack. Robin did this to make sure that he threw them off in case the smoke screen tactic didn't work ... little did he know that he would regret this decision.
He ran as fast as he could and didn't even look back. He was sure his friends made it to the rendezvous point in the cave way before him as he took a longer path but to his surprise he was the first one that got there.
Thinking they were just running late he tried to contact them and called each one on their communicators. When he tried to contact Beast Boy and Raven he got no response. When he called Rage he only got static but he also thought he heard what sounded like grunts and shouts. This made him wonder if his decision to split up was a good idea. Thinking his team mates were in danger he didn't hesitate any longer. He called Cyborg and after a few seconds he could finally talk to one of his friends.
"Cyborg, I can't contact the others, where are you?" he asked.
Through the communicator Robin could hear familiar sounds. At first he thought Cyborg was running through the bushes trying to get there faster but after a short while he realized he was wrong due to shouts of pain. Cyborg wasn't running through bushes or anything like that, he was fighting.
"Robin get out of there, fast!" Cyborg yelled through the communicator "It's Slade, he's coming to ge-"
Cyborg was cut off short and their connection was terminated. Robin didn't have too be a genius to figure out what Cyborg was about to say. "It's Slade; he's coming to get you!". Realizing this he finally understood what happened to his friends and what was going to happen to him if he remained in that cave. Sensing his friends were in danger he rushed to help them. He got Cyborg's coordinates from the place he last stood thanks to the inbuilt GPS system in the communicator and decided to find and help him first as he was the only one who answered and more than probably still had chances not to be defeated.
He ran through the dark forest, branches wiped his face, stones made him trip but he wasn't going to stop until he found his friend. While running he noticed something unusual that made him stop in his tracks. For the last half mile he had been running he suddenly got the eerie feeling that he was followed and saw a shadow through the trees that ran along side him. He paused for a second and yelled out for Cyborg so as not to make the one that followed him think he observed his presence. After a couple of seconds he started running again and saw that his follower kept up with him. Up ahead he noticed a small moon lighted opening and decided to strike. He got his bo-staff out of his utility belt, prepared an exploding disk and cautiously calculated his move.
When he got to the edge of the lighted opening he threw the disk precisely where his stalker was positioned and hit him. He then extended his retracted bo-staff and launched himself towards his follower. The stalker observed the attack and jumped to a side thus Robin only hit the ground. After hitting the forest floor Robin somersaulted and tried to kick his adversary but again missed. The unknown stalker made his way to the edge of he lighted opening and stood up right where Robin could see him.
"Come out Slade, I know it's you" Robin called out.
Out of the dark forest came into the light of the moon a tall figure covered in metal and wearing a half black, half orange mask. The insignia on his chest proved Robin right, it was no one other than Slade.
"Very well Robin, I see you've actually improved your sense of observation during our time apart" said Slade who jumped directly at Robin.
He jumped foot first trying to kick him but Robin avoided this and Slade only kicked a tree peeling of some of its bark.
"... and also your time of reaction"
Slade didn't lose anytime with small talk and again attempted to take Robin down. This time, the battle was mano a mano. Slade punched and kicked Robin but his blows were repealed. Robin couldn't use his staff in close hand to hand combat yet he still defended himself using it. As Slade tried a spin kick Robin balanced on his bo-staff and kicked Slade in the stomach sending him a good couple of feet away.
"...and also your defense and fighting skills"
Slade used the light to his advantage and jumped in between Robin and the moon trying to blind his opponent, but Robin anticipated his move and threw a freeze disk hitting Slade in the torso. When he landed, Robin used his staff and hit him on the side of his head, in the chin and in the back sending Slade to the ground.
"... and also the use of weaponry" finished Slade with a tone that expressed severe pain.
Calculating the intensity of his last blow Robin thought that he inflicted much damage to his rivals back and probably dislocating his spinal cord.
"All right Slade the game is over, now tell me where my friends are!"
Just then, Robin felt a sting in the back of his neck. It was sudden and for a fraction of a second painful as hell. He reached for the back of his neck and pulled out a small dart. He realized what this meant but just when he tried to turn around he felt his legs were limping.
"But even though you have improved most of your skills you are still gullible and way to confident for your own good" said a voice that came from behind him.
Robin realized what was going on. He didn't actually fight Slade; instead he fought a replica of Slade, another one of his robots. He turned around and he saw behind him the real Slade approaching him and holding a dart gun in his hand.
"Slade, you coward ... I should have known it wasn't you" said Robin feeling dizzy and sensing he was going to pass out.
"You've fallen into my trap and didn't even remember the oldest trick in the book ... Looks like I was only teasing you when I said you've been improving your sense of observation" said Slade devilishly chuckling.
Robin fell to the ground and lost any feeling in his body, arms and legs. He couldn't believe it ... After all the dangers he had faced, after all the tight spot situations he had encountered and after all the villains he had fought, he was brought down by a tranquilizing dart.
"Man how pathetic!" Robin said to himself "What are you going to do to me?" he asked felling as though he was loosing his conscience.
Slade picked him up by the collar of his outfit and whispered in his ear his true intention with a sadistic pleasure: "I'm going to break you ... both on the outside and on the inside"
Even though I don't usually reply to your reviews I want you guys to know that I truly and honestly appreciate the fact that you read and like my fic and that I'll give it my best make it a good one. Btw, I'm posting every chapter at about 1 A.M. (GMT +2) every 4 to 5 days ... it's kind of exhausting but I do it for you guys!
Thanks again and stay tuned! The best part is only starting!