Chapter 76: Let the Flames Begin
A/
"BUT. Robin is mine."
Raven fumed. "No! I knew we couldn't trust you, Slade —
Trust what?" Raven was close to attacking again in violent thrashes. But she was calm once and for all when she saw a lengthy boy come in with a light shirt and pair of pants in black on himself. Slade motioned to the boy as he let down his long hair. Raven locks fell to the floor. "Roku, say 'hello." Slade told the character standing before himself and Raven. "R-Robin!" She had never been so happy to see him all this time. She wanted to hug the boy till he burst through his weakened skin. But the binds knew her moves as snakes on the floor. Alerted mainly by how she reached out, they attacked without consent. Only a desire to bind.
Robin or Roku closed his eyes as Slade only watched her struggle. "Do you know this girl?" he asked the young boy. Robin stared at Raven as she saw from the corner of her eye her friends coming to meet them with ties as well to their fate. "Raae!" Beastboy cried out to her but was hit with a mind-blowing snap of the wrist. THIS was punishment? "Terrible! How very rude of you to be harming my friends!" Starfire flared. Glaring at the man her eyes grew to lighten themselves before her attack would eliminate the guard. She stopped as she looked over to the newcomer and old friend by Slade. She gasped with joyous conclusion and stomped on the guard's foot to find way to meet her best friend again.
"Robin! I have been waiting for the moment to tell you that this is a terrible mistake of I ever having thought trouble would come of us!" she blabbered out. He was in surprised shock for he had been wiped out clean as a sheet and was no longer in any way friends with this new person he'd met. He was Rokuro's son, the prince and heir to a thrown of immense, glorified rights of passage. He did not know her, yet in the back of his mind, both girls and boy seemed too real.
"Who are they?" Robin's eyes shown in Slade's direction as the Titans' grins insisted to wilt. And fade out. Malchior just at the moment was brought towards them all in encased magics. He was bound in arm length to hand and hand like a common yet special criminal. It was like crystal on a platform in the form of a glass ball. Raven frowned at this in vain to herself. Cyborg was greatly angered and upset as he was brought before the king's pawn and prince.
"Robin, man I don't know how you got into this but you've got to get us out! He's using you, Verra told us everything. You're not going to be king after he goes. You're not even a royal to him!"
"Shut your trap blimy ol fool!" the guard was knocked down as Cyborg tried to coax Robin away from his so-called master. Robin walked back towards Slade and was grasped around the wrist by him. The cold gloves made Robin shiver in shock and as he tried to figure out what lay behind the mask just by looking, he became weak, almost fainting. Turning white as a sheet he looked at the Titans wishing to leave the room.
"He's just a kid, let him go!" Verra was brought in, in a cage made of pure metal bars and locks. "He can't be pressured like that." Slade stood up higher than before. He'd let go of Robin who ran to a corner of the stony room and began to shake and cry. "Shame on you! Don't you have —
Oh… crap…" Verra moved to the back of his cage and knew Slade didn't want to hear his jabber. Not about Robin, or the kids or anyone else. "What makes you so sure he'll care?" Slade asked the cat. Robin looked up, tears dried onto his face. "Um…he can feel you know –
Eep!" Slade was lifting Verra's cage with physical energies of the mind. Robin's eyes grew wide, as he saw this not knowing what to do. "W- -wait!" he said to the man before Verra's newfound end. Slade and the others looked at Robin. He stood up and sniffled away tears. "I…I wanna see what they can do." He pointed at Beastboy. "You —
Wait a moment at least for them to weaken my apprentice, at least." Slade stood over his apprentice too closely for words to describe evil cometh. "Why not? They might as well rot as my servants, si —
NO." Robin frowned up at his master and teacher. Looking at the group's faces Slade sighed. Then smiled. "Not yet Richard, not yet. First, you each must pass a test. Which one of your…'friends' would you like to play with first?"
Here was a challenge, a challenge of friendship…
B/
"Whoa, No way am I getting a beating from you!" Beastboy protested as he tried to transform and morph into something useful. Cyborg looked around. "We've gotta fight him? That's what you mean by play?" Slade nodded, as did Robin.
"But..." Starfire began. We are no match for Roku's power, we have seen what he can do. Right Raven? —
Actually, um…we've got something else to worry about…us." Beastboy saw as Mal began to talk through to glass. "So they have less of a fighter's chance than Roku has as a dragon king…so you mean they are going to lose…"Verra's mouth dropped open. "Ahh! So now we have no way of getting him back —
Not that you will. Robin signed a contract on one of his last experiences here. He's here for quite a long while, as are you…Unless —
Unless Slade decides to trigger the demon he carries…"
"'Wizzy'! You are well!" Starfire floated over to him but was blocked off by guards. Gregory smiled weakly as his binds were loosened. "How come he gets a different tormentor's treatment than us?" Asked Mal. "And where is Kayumon?" Slade shook his head with Robin looking at the group until his lips began to move. "Back with us." Was all he uttered.
C/
"Let the flames begin…!" Robin's look at the judge and jury or the criticizing buffoon was legendary. Slade looked down onto him like he was the prince he pretended to seem like. Starfire and the others waited so far from the moment to go to battle with the creep that had stolen away Richard Grayson. Robin, the Boy Wonder. Flames and dusty particles swept up around them in forms like never before seen. Robin jumped into the air and Beastboy; the first contender followed suite. Waves of piercing energy attacked the form of a firebird that was Beastboy. The others gasped. "He…Whoa." Raven stood with her arms stuck in bindings that made her itch uncomfortably. Cyborg was awestruck and also impressed. "Yeah! Go B! Kick his butt!" Robin growled under his breath and looked up at Slade for support. Slade only stared back with arms crossed. His eyes were calm but something more…
Beastboy attacked from the sky as he dove down and swerved. "Sorry Robin…" He said to himself. Slade saw this and looked up. Something struck as Robin almost fell back from the blow and evaded it. His eyes glew and his body lifted up into midair. Beastboy flew backwards, hovering. "Dude, stop! You're gonna —
Ugh!" Robin blew up! He was a live wire as Slade saw his 'stuff' spill out and ram into Beastboy, all in the time he had use of. His power glew in red and orange gold with rocks flying, breaking pieces of stone flying, everywhere. Colored rocks blew at them all as the glass from the stadium platform holding the Titans and Slade came to pieces. The white wolf decided he'd seen all he could accept, so running at lightning speed into the whirlwind he rushed at the apprentice till he hit the floor, Beastboy had also fallen. "That's enough!" he shouted.
Robin was sniffling again in his small boy form and Beastboy was trying to find him through the dust and debris. The wolf leapt at the two figures and backed them into a wall with his might and ferocity. Snarling the wolf watched as Slade slid off of rock and off of the platform. He didn't look happy. The wolf walked back to the wall where the boys were, funny how Slade thought he could save them…
"Quite a show you put on. Quite." The wolf made even louder sounds at the two. "But I'll make sure they never do it again!"
Slade shot out at the wolf as a dragon made way from his chest, and formless as it was got in their way. The dragon made its way toward Robin and got to his chest. Not being able to fight back, the former hero was sent flying into a wall of brick and stone. Beastboy ran to him. When the smoke and dust had cleared they could all see the change and transformation. He was where he should have been, on the ground. But as Slade came over his eyes grew so very wide and expanded as his locks grew again down to his feet. Robin was now Rokuro again. "Why?" Wizardmon moaned.
"Why is this happening?!" Rokuro demanded answers, but his teachers refused to give him any. Getting up slowly he reached for Beastboy. 'Friend…NO…Enemy!"
"Wah!" Beastboy fell back against the wall as Roku inched closer still. Something was wrong with this picture…What had Slade done to the Titans' leader? "Star! Get out here!" he cried to her. Roku was almost in tears in a madness least counted for. "She…rah…She betrayed me!" he sounded like a deranged monster from a storybook of horror. Robin or Roku pointed at Starfire.
"Gulp Me?" She asked him. He nodded with eyes shut from pain. "You! Of all people Arianna, should know a god when you see one!" his voice rose above inside the room where battles had been lost for a moment's time. The wolf cackled. "Heh, heh…your sweetheart no longer pines for your companionship Richard." He was given warning from Slade who remained still for seconds at a time. "If your first choice did not please, then try another." His idea that there was a flaw in Beastboy's pattern soon made the price angry. "No, no! I won't! Not till I defeat you all!" he pointed at Beastboy. "C'mere" he needed to win this one battle to prove worth to his father and lord…
Beastboy scratched the back of his neck. "Um…can we talk about this —?"
"Never have I been denied a request by a fool, now come freak!" The anger building up inside Beastboy was just what Roku wanted out of him. "Hey! You can't say that to me! What about you, you crazy headed —
Me?!" Roku stepped back lifting rock. Firepower flowed through his veins and Starfire watched as the man she loved took all his anger out on a friend. She saw that the guards were half tempted to watch the battle; she could escape! With a small bolt from her wrist she was able to break a binding and lock with ease. "Ha!" Slade could not stop her as she flew to her friends from out of the chambers keeping her away. He seemed to be waiting to see what would do or go…
"Robi —
Uh!" she fell into silence…
