She stood, unmoving, staring speechlessly at the one person she'd tried so hard to avoid. Her arm was still wrenched cruelly behind her back, but the pain seemed distant, as if she were completely disconnected from it. He gazed levelly back at her, eyes narrowed through his mask into slits. Neither made a sound as the ocean breeze passed between them. Vendetta could not tear her eyes away from the taller man's and he seemed intent on her own features. The features that she now realized were clearly visible.
With a panicked grunt, she twisted in his grasp, feeling and hearing her shoulder crack as she dislocated her shoulder. Facing the villain, Vendetta wrenched her ruined arm from his viselike grip. It hung uselessly at her side, throbbing as sharp pangs of pain traveled throughout her arm. Slade simply watched her desperate antics to evade him, smirking just slightly when she stumbled backwards to add some distance between the two. He took a step towards her. She responded with another of her own. "Vendetta, so nice to see you again," Slade remarked, as if they had merely run into each other at the supermarket. "I had begun to wonder where you had run off to. You see, I'm not finished with you yet and you left so abruptly." His voice was smooth and reassuring, despite the clear threat that underlied it.
Vendetta scrabbled with her fingers to tug her visor back over her eyes, but Slade lashed out with his own hand, wrenching her hand away and preventing her from masking herself once again. Her only good arm held hostage and her other hanging uselessly, Vendetta could do little but struggle in his grip. His strength far was superior to the much smaller thief's and with his free arm he wrapped his hand around her throat, lifting her effortlessly in the air. By now he had released her good arm and it clawed furiously at his, frantically attempting to find purchase against the metal armor. Her body thrashed in the air as she struggled to breathe, gagging as the cloth mask that covered the lower half of her face suffocated her further. When it was clear that Vendetta was not going to answer, Slade leaned closer, his face just inches from her own. "You will work for me, boy. Must I remind you that I have hired you? You're under contract," he hissed.
"You hired me for one job and I took care of it already. Sorry, I'm not accepting clients at this time. Please try again later," the girl retorted though gritted teeth, voice deepened through the distorter. At hearing her voice, Slade fell silent, staring at the girl with an intensity that made her shudder. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. "You got a problem, bud? If you got somethin' to say, then just say it!" she tried to put on a tone of bravado, but she knew how incredibly forced and fake it sounded; she could hear the tremble in her voice.
"I believe you have been hiding more secrets from me than I had originally anticipated, Vendetta," the villain remarked casually. "There is something very odd about you indeed." The girl stiffened, but before she could ask what he meant, he tore off the lower half of her mask, revealing her entire face.
Immediately, her good arm flew up to guard her features from his scrutiny, but he was having none of that. He latched onto her wrist and dragged it away, finally fully revealing her face. He stared wide-eyed, almost shocked at his thief's true identity. "A girl…" he murmured to himself. "How very interesting…" he dropped her to the ground suddenly. She was not prepared for the impact and her legs crumpled under her. Air rushed to deprived lungs and she gulped it in greedily, her fingers gingerly touching her neck where Slade had held her moments ago. She forced herself to her knees, her one arm moving to hold herself up, the other still lifeless.
Movement above her alerted Vendetta to Slade once more, who was now crouching in front of her. She glared at him, but there was little else she could do until she recovered her breath. "I'm rather impressed, Vendetta. Few have ever been able to deceive me, yet here you are. I think you can be of some use to me," he told her.
"Never," she spat out immediately. "You think that because you know I'm a girl that I'll just follow you willingly? Not a chance,"
Slade's visible eye flashed maliciously. "I'm afraid you don't have a choice, dear. You belong to me," he grabbed her chin, wrenching her forward, forcing her off balance. "And don't think that you'll be able to escape me. I'll be watching over you so if you ever try a stunt like this," Vendetta cried out as he twisted her dislocated arm. "There shall be a much greater punishment." He stood, dragging the girl with him before releasing his hold on her face. He stepped back to the shadows of the roof, disappearing completely.
Vendetta choked back a sob from both the pain in her arm and the fear of being trapped by Slade. She reached down to grab her mask off the ground, fixing it to her face before replacing her goggles over her eyes. As she was heading for her hover board, the door leading down from the roof burst open. The entire team of the Titans stood, illuminated by the light that filtered through the opening behind them. She stood immobile, her arm still useless, stooped halfway to retrieving her board. "Crud…" she muttered to herself.
The Titans launched immediately into action, Robin the first to reach the injured thief. And of course the first thing he went for was her dislocated arm. She spun out of the way just in time, allowing him to stumble past her as she lashed out with her foot, catching him square in the back. "I have no time for this. I'm really not in the mood," she snapped as the next Titan charged her. She ducked around a sonic blast from Cyborg's arm, leaping up into the air and attacking with a spinning kick that connected with the robot hybrid's head. Starfire swooped in to deliver a punch, but Vendetta grabbed the alien with her good arm, launching the other girl back into the air, hitting Raven before she could even attack. Beast Boy Vendetta ignored completely and instead retrieved her hover board, kicking it into gear before running off the side of the building, curling up and positioning the board beneath her feet.
She turned to look back at the tower as she made her escape and frowned when she saw the Boy Wonder giving chase. She slowed, allowing him to catch up rather than wasting time on a chase. She spun her board in the air, waiting expectantly at the side of another building far enough from Titans Tower that the others would not be able to see her. Robin gained on her swiftly and in moments was standing on the ledge of the building, his bo staff out and ready for use. Vendetta propped her arm ion her hip, hoping that the position would hide the fact that the other arm was injured. "Okay Champ, what do you want? I don't feel like playing today," Vendetta informed him, exasperated.
"Last I checked, you were the one causing the ruckus on our tower, so I would start explaining if I were you," Robin shot back. "There were two dots on our monitor; two people up there. Who was with you?"
"I don't think I'll tell you," she replied. The last thing she needed was for Robin to know that she was with Slade. "I wasn't expecting the company myself, but if it makes you feel any better. I wasn't up there to attack you."
"I asked the thieves we apprehended about you," the hero said suddenly, completely altering the subject. "Only a few of them even knew of you, but none of them could give me any information,"
"Of course they don't" Vendetta responded irritably. "In my field of work, the less your competition knows of you, the better. And when you're the best, very few people know of you at all." Robin looked thoughtful. "But how do you become the best if no one knows you?"
"All they need to know is how to contact me. They don't need to know who I am to steal something," the girl answered dismissively. "No more questions. I'm not in the mood to play with you tonight." She spun her board around, about to take off when she felt a sudden weight drop onto her board. She whirled on Robin, who now stood just behind her, mere inches from the edge and a two hundred foot drop. He looked rather pleased with himself.
"You're a criminal, Vendetta. You might not have committed a crime right now, but you have plenty under your belt. I'm taking you in," He really shouldn't have looked so surprised when she kicked him off.
Boom. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter and I still don't really like it. Anywho. Let me know whatcha think! Slade's so incredibly evil and cool. Definitely the hands down best villain that the Titans face. Besides Red X, but he never really bothers anyone outside of taking Robin's suit, so I have a hard time counting him as a villain anyway