Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy

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Chapter 17: Man on the Run

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Song title to my title, I thought it suited in this case. On with the saga!

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The little princess couldn't hide for much longer, he realized. She couldn't stop what was about to be marked as a day in the life –

Slade lifted his finger from his ear. "What??" He spoke with ice in his spit. How irritating…

~We have…. a situation…~

Slade smirked to the absent-minded caller. "Ah, old friend?" Didn't this come as a surprise? "I certainly hope you mean things are on the right track…I really do…" Slade swerved in his control panel chair, a new lair almost up and running under the push of his thumb.

~ Well……Things do seem bleak to a point, for now – Yet, I'll have our plan in action just as we negotiated –

"Theodore…" Slade shook his head. Dr. Light had abused his time here. He was just plain past good chatter with the latter villains of this city. "Did you do as I'd asked, or not?"

The words came and the man on the other line gulped back his words carefully. Little rat. Right, as Slade sat and did all of the tough jobs to keep the heroes of Jump out of his hair. Or else Batman would come a - knocking.

~It, is done as you requested, Wilson. Your part was addressed, I still… ~

Light sighed and Slade nodded as he kept the call into its entirety . ~ Yes, Deathstroke. ~ Light simply concluded.

Slade's grin remained an enigma to all who ended up seeking him in his domain, a dragon with teeth for example couldn't have incited enough fear.

" Excellent. Then we may proceed. You are dismissed. Your pay will be wired to your extra account as soon as I've hung up from this frequency." Slade clicked the piece in his ear; his face unmasked, to not avoid the view of a child running from her fate on the screen right in front of him.

She was in Star city. There, he'd go to meet her as he stood. Face to face.

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Tara's first thought was to find a place and then rest, keep moving. She didn't know if it was her heightened sense of danger, but the scare it gave her that someone could be watching….

She shook her head and tugged a cap from a rack off on one of the many side streets' kiosks. She kept walking, kept feeling super unsteady about that thought that she wasn't kidding herself.

The streets grew busier here in Star city by midday, the city of a hero, one she was hoping to stay clear of for quite a while.

The teenager put her hands deep into her pockets as she kept her long blonde hair tucked underneath her stolen hat, not even passing to smile at the people that noticed her all by herself and out of classes for the day early. A city where she could blend in and then get out. Back to the desert and put this whole…

She ducked a corner and did it again. Someone was following her!

"Hey!" They kept it up, now calling over to her as her face hid her emotions, not well enough. A male. A bit of a desperation, but no. He seemed to just be calling out. " Hey!"

She kept walking, finally having had it.

"Ok, creep! Who are? –

Tara Markov turned around to find that there was only the wind. He'd finally gone, all too quickly…She tried to look behind her but there was only a dead end. A brick wall. Mud. She shivered and stepped back. Remembering the mudslides in Markovia. And then, the next attack left her shouting.

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Robots; with claws and bodies almost as zombies on end. She had seen nothing like them before – or had she? In Dakota City, she had noticed a strange face hidden at the café she'd rested in. Washing dishes to earn some dough for her trip to Star. Darn! Tara looked at how many eyes were in her corner; how many had her cornered.

She was outnumbered, and now she couldn't hold back.

BOOM !

Wide eyed, she fled and shattered the remains of that brick wall to rubble. The bots swept across rooftops so as to be unseen, ninja reflexes surprising the youth- the crowds not seeing a girl gliding by with fear in her eyes, panting atop a boulder as her make - shift skateboard hovering high, through the air did one too many ollies. One person did, once he was just coming out of a comic shop. He drooped his spoils and gasped at the scene.

Red - headed Roy Harper had played hooky today, but here he was – in the middle of donning a new set of jeans so to speak. "Yeah, I saw it… Can we take a closer look??" Roy spoke through his earpiece to his mentor, who was in the middle of watching the news on his workplace's flat screen at lunchtime. "Be careful, Roy." The billionaire tech CEO frowned at the appearing bots and wondered where he'd seen them before. Nothing came to mind. "She could be trouble." The man added through their link.

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Roy Harper, Speedy took to the chase. He sent an arrow; a tracker to cling to the closest bot, and then the teen, who evaded the attempt in her ongoing panic. Clicking his tongue, Speedy didn't waiver.

"Stay away! What do you want from me??" She begged the bots, her eyes glowing as if –

She couldn't stop the craft. She was out of control, or would be. Roy readied to duck and cover.

"Watch out!!" Speedy shot back to the girl as a cluster of bots were right there, ready to ambush her in plain sight. Out of the child's instinct to protect herself, the girl's fists began to glow a bright yellow. She had the same glow in her eyes as well. The buildings around her shifted as their outer layers and chunks were flung at the bots, tearing them to pieces with the homes and offices of so many of the city's citizens placed into the maelstrom of the hero's fight. Guil swelled in his chest as it already had Tara's. Roy grunted. This was getting out of hand. "Ollie. We have an issue! She's a meta and her powers are going out –

" STOP !!!" A bot had gripped her arm, the teen was already on edge. Literally.

"OF CONTROL!!" Roy shouted over a new mess of blasts. The girl sped off, leaving the bots destroyed, but inviting in a new player to join in their game of tag.

He went still; Ollie's voice shouting through his head, a rhythm unrelenting as Roy froze where he stood.

~ Speedy!! Speedy! Damnit! What's going on out there??? Speedy?!!~

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It wasn't right. She'd figured out how to lose whatever stalker's trail that had tracked her cross country for weeks. Tara kept running, she had only the desert and a giant robotic scorpion now on her tail to put aside…Aside from where she's spotted a spot to crush the beastly gadget; then to go on her merry way, through dust. She groaned, and sand.

Lots of rock formations beckoned her here to play some hard ball with the creature. Yes. She had a way to do just that. Tara rocked over to a pass in the plateau's strip of cut out sand and silt. She had to try. She wanted to get home one day, but not by leaving her trail out for something else to hunt her down. Brion….She wondered if he'd escaped. She'd tried to help before but…

The bug was coming. Right there, Tara raised her arms up, eyes glowing and –

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It was a short battle as Slade watched from an opposite cliff; the Titans had come to her, the heroes seeing that only feet away someone was in danger. He huffed beneath his mask, waiting for the next step to drag them all, a step closer. Just a steo off the ege, child...and Tara of yesterday would be through. Her true potential would shine as a diamond. Glowing and closer, closer...

Closer to him.