Teen Titans Presents; The X – Files – Keep Guessing, Kids!
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Chapter 9: Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
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~ Remember how easy it was to be a bully or a hero? Ya know? In those good ole days with sparkle shorts and that "maniacal" evil laughter. It was SOO easy to tell good and evil apart, that I would have stayed by…The bat…. if he'd been so cut an' dry. Do I have to spell it out to "my daddy long legs?" Is Willie Nelson coming for my head if I don't attend his latest concert?? Well? As I just said, my eighteen is around the corner, but those kids in tights have been after the one and only X – maybe it's time to spice things up…. just to throw them off my scent. What say you, fans of the mysterious and, herm.. dashing thief? Guess away! I'm nobody's chew toy. Lights…. camera…. ~
~And bozo wannabe assassins? ~
~This m…. ~h just keeps getting weirder a d weirder….~
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"I want you to help me to locate….my son."
That was a fact, jack. The big, bad powerful merc was….
Asking for my advice? To find a runnaway, like….
Waait….
"Who is he or she and they?" Jay stirred his black coffee, then took a swig. If you could drink that crappola, you had guts enough to get blown through by a sniper.
" He, is approximately eighteen years old. Blonde. Caucasian. Five foot five and rather aggressive for his, role. He used to be my protégé, until I told him to leave –
"Did he go off like a loose cannon? Guns blazing?" Jay took another sip, cat tongue out as the temp dipped. Where was their waiter?
"I know you have resources of your own." The man across from him stayed settled in his seat, one eye showing from the darkest part of the bistro restaurant. "It would be a shame, if your friends the Titans caught wind of what we were up to."
"Blackmailing only works if there is something for me to lose." Jay say back and crossed his legs, his stirrer spoon in hand as he twirled it in one, between thumb and forefinger. The grave of a dexterous athlete.
"You want my intel, but sorry. Nothing to give. Been bone dry on my runs since…"
"You'll bounce back." The older male stirred his own coffee with a small spoon before letting his hand settle to the tabletop.
"You're young, intelligent, bold as all hell from the shots in the news. I can't say you'd outshine the Titans any day, but…your skill matches his. And that's when it dawned on me."
"So did I." Jay then began to cockily recite from memory His, latest findings.
"Slade J. Wilson. Former Lt. Col in the Korean War and not to pry, Team 7 operative and a damn good soldier. In other words….a mercenary. But that's not all –
"The bat already knows my story." Slade shrugged and sipped his brew. "You'll have to try again. I called you here and you, no one else, because I know…you'd rather stay at home and sulk."
"What?" Jay quirked a lip at the merc. " Are you –
"If you want to redeem yourself, find your purpose, get that drive back you so crave…wouldn't it be best if you did things over?"
"I was thinking about it. Yeah."
"Then think, harder. I could help you, Todd." The man extended his hand, expecting X to fall for him all over again.
"Money can't buy me, again. Sorry for the big fat –
"How about, a new sense of security…so your last owner won't coming looking."
"She's not my!"
"Sit. Down." Slade snipped at the younger male with a hiss under his breath. "I would only keep all eye diverted from you; the rest, X's identity…" Slade shook his head. "You may have to look for a new face –
"No way!"
"Sit. DOWN." Slade snapped again, a bit louder this time.
"Right now, I have a job to personally keep Talia and her father in one place. Call it a thanks for the entertaining look on your half – brother's face."
"You know way too much about us."
"Them, Jason." Corrected the mad man. "You're no longer that, hero."
]
"So, I go on a mission, fully funded, room and board…and I just have to look for your son…"
"In Paris." Slade nodded. "Seems he caught a whiff of a master plan like any villain –
"Whoa, wait. These Brotherhood guys…" Jay scratched his chin. "Is it a cult like the Hive?"
"Nothing of that sort." Slade snorted. "Hardly far from a secret society, yet the Doom Patrol; a hero team of misfits from my day, were in hot pursuit of the group's leader. The Brain."
"Uh huh….so, what had you thinking that your kid joined up with em?"
"I know their kind." Slade finished his drink in one chug. Guess he wasn't crazy about the java, either.
"The Brotherhood needs new blood from time to time; sending others to do what they could only accomplish as a unit."
"They, are easy to fight or find? Which one? And how long until, you know…I get my life back."
Slade sat up, a smile as sly as a "fox's" across those lips of his, still hidden partly by the shadow light.
"That all depends on your mission, Todd."
"Heck, call me Jay." Jason sarcastically snickered.
"As if I have to ask, but do you trust me?" Slade again held out that palm. A promise, and a ways' to go until Ra's was off his arse for good…
One immortal mastermind for the next, as Jay gulped.
"After I find your kid, I want what you promised. Every last one on my X – mas list. No more Talia, no more expecting me to run into you…. unless it pays and I don't have to die." Todd added hopefully, wishful for such opportunities.
The two understood as X's walls came down to allow Slade a shot.
As he had with Terra.
And Rose.
And even the first Boy Wonder, for a time…
"Even an excellent criminal in the making as you are, Todd, you do lack the initiative to push ahead…And yes. Those things will happen…" Slade chuckled, Jay reaching to grip his employer's strong hand in a firm shake. "Even when this deal tonight…" Slade smirked a bit wider, bringing his lips to Jay's ear to finish. "Is one to die for."
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(Listening to the godfather soundtrack as I type this. It is very cool…) Also! This will tie into later fueds that were not in the comic 2003, but as far as Jericho and Grant or Rose? Wait on it!
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~ So, what was I gonna do? Tell the mook that I only operate as a solo act? Sorry! Just watched a crazy Italian American mafia story from some novel. The actors really got into their roles. Blackmail, God knows how many whackings….is this still age appropriate to talk about, because I'm gonna be a secret spy! Whoop! Espionage, baby! Watch me work that tux and get all the fan gals chasing me...which I already have...but I want more character development. ~
~ Heck, maybe that punk Slade is right...Maybe X isn't my fav to hang with, anymore...Stay tuned and like she - demon author here keeps parroting to you good fictionites " read on and stay curious?" Why not "Stick around" or catch you on the flip? Do we have to be so artsy fartsy here?~
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~ Crap! ~
A text document app in need of a fecent spring cleaning.
A fierce cold the recluse of a wroter had miraculously just caught from her spiteful mother...
And in the same week. she got framed by the cat...
And now?? X is onto her...gotta hide -
KNOCK KNOCK!*
The door! Why a cliche bit like that?? The "writer" still was busy mopping up her tears from the last draft of Nightwing; Hunter and the Hunted!!
" Yo! Writer lady! Got a sec?? I'm gonna be a dang spy!?? Serious?? Who flipped the script??"
With a wipe of her brow, the writer returned to her fan based fanatacisms, head lowered at her desk as her lips uttered out a rushed reply...that's a good one! Yeah.
" Ah...it's still not finished. You even get to meet a famous movie star, though!"
X grpaned, sounding like a brat being reprimanded for running in the hall.
"C'mon...Slade and espionage are practically a married couple. You can't cut yourself out of the -
" I'll call the shots this time, missy."
X sent his x - shaped blades to take apart the only door that stood between them.
Mask in place, he didn't look the least bit intrigued over the new scenario he was -
" Are you already writing it?? First off, make me taller. In Bat's scope, I'm a beast! No more monkey arms or confusing me with Dick. Got that, snoot...oh crap..."
He backed away, seeing a stain of mucus that had trailed down onto the writer's lower lip.
" I have a cold." Shugged the author with a sniff. " You get " loopy" as all Lady Hel when you're as congested as I am...Now, can I please go back to writing you as an anti - hero? I promise. You will get your happy ending."
X scratched the back of his neck, feet shuffling back towards the entrance from whence he'd come.
" Sure...just make me taller or do a time lapse and I'll call us even...Feel better.."
X; being satisfied with his deal, the writer groaned and put her head down, her numerous tissue boxes almost down to the last kleenex sheet.
" Gotta write Tim's arc instead, next time -
" I HEARD THAT!"
" Boy, he's good..." The author sighed, rolling her tired muscles with a loud sniff. " Back to my fan - tastic scenario building!"
" JUST SAY, WORK...!..."
" D'oh!"
And we'd have to give Jay less delicate ears in the next story.
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I do have a cold and my mother refused to stick to procedure for false poss even when it came on like a wave and I've got gi issues from a surgery up the wazoo! Gastritis? Any time I get a fever, I suffer and think like a chimp. My focus is all over the place UNLESS i have congestion. And i was Diagnosed with asd and adhd as a wee one...ugh. if i did my college work right now, I'd probably get an A for better focus. Gut to brain, thos is no trial so watch X stumble amd rise again! He's so fun to -
" HEY! COOL IT, DWEEB!"
BACK TO WORK...Sigh.*