DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Titans or anything directly related. OC's and plot belong to me, and me alone.
Slade broke into the mansion with relative ease, bringing with him a battalion of his robotic minions. The old man who owned the house wasn't there, but his rich collection of antique items remained. As Slade searched through the house, he stared at the millions of dollars worth of pottery and other ancient artifacts; shields, plates, and other things that held no interest for him. He was here for one thing and one thing alone: the pottery that would show him the location of the item he truly sought.
But as he entered the final room, he noticed the case in which the item should have been was both open and empty, and that the window to the outside was also open.
"Damnit!" He shouted, then rushed to the window. A shadowy figure, clad in some sort of armor, was fleeing the scene at full speed, which, even to Slade's superhuman vision, was almost a blur.
He burst through the remnants of the window, and ran after the interloper. He knew he could not catch the thief, but he refused to quit, refused to be denied the key to his ultimate victory. But to his surprise, he didn't have to chase the thief for long, because as he turned the corner in a dark alley, he saw his enemy walking slowly into an abandoned warehouse. He must have thought he would lose me, Slade thought. Either that, or he wants to face off against me. Either way, not smart. He smiled to himself. This will be fun. He entered the warehouse silently, but was surprised to find the intruder was nowhere in sight.
"Well hello there…Slade." An electronically distorted voice from behind him caused him to whirl around. The interloper stood there, holding the alabaster jar in his hand, his head obscured by an insectoid-looking helmet, and his dark gray armor glinting dully in the low light of the warehouse. "Looking for this?"
"How did you know?" Slade was not terribly curious, as the details would not matter once the interloper paid for his interference. But still, an insatiable desire for knowledge drove him to ask.
"Slade, Slade, Slade. You're so predictable. You love to give people clues as to what your plans are, and you enjoy watching them squirm, vainly trying to figure it out, and when they do, realizing they can't stop you. The only problem is you don't count on anyone actually being both smart enough to figure it out and strong enough to defeat you." The man chuckled. "Guess you hadn't counted on me."
"You think you can stop me?"It was less a question than a challenge. "I'll give you a choice. You can hand me that jar, and not only will I not kill you , I'll make you my apprentice. Between the two of us, we can take over the world. Together, we'd be unstoppable. Or, you can continue to defy me, and there can be only one logical conclusion to that."
"You mean I kick the crap out of you and send you to prison." The intruder crossed his arms in defiance and perhaps an element of cockiness. "If the Teen Titans couldn't beat me, Slade, what makes you think you could?"
"The simple fact that the Teen Titans have never defeated me, either." Slade's one eye narrowed. "I've had enough of your insolence. It's time for you to die." Slade extracted his bo staff from his utility belt, then, staff extended, charged the intruder.
Only he was no longer there. In the twinkling of an eye, the thief was gone from Slade's field of view, and a powerful blow caught him from behind, pitching him forward. "Too slow, Slade. I guess you're losing your touch in your old age."
Slade whirled around. "Not likely." His forehead began to glow red with the mark of Skath, and red flame burst forth from his hands toward the annoyance. But where Slade had failed to touch the intruder, flames did also. The figure dashed between the streams of fire, then, his fist glowing with blue energy, hit Slade so hard he flew through the back wall of the warehouse.
Tiny servos whirred and clicked on the back of the intruder's suit as canisters of the blue fluid were slowly injected directly into his blood. The substance fueled his power, kept him going, when ordinarily such a display of power would have left him unconscious with strain.
Slade strode through the enormous hole in the wall, cracking his neck before speaking. "Quite an impressive hit, my young friend. Seeing this power only makes me want you all the more. See reason. Join me and fight by my side, and I will give you more power than you could ever achieve on your own."
"If I cared about having power, I might accept your offer. However, I'm not interested. My only aim is to give justice to those who need it. Like you." The intruder's words rang in Slade's ears, sounding so strange for someone who had just stolen over a million dollars' worth of antique pottery. The intruder then gestured with his hand, and Slade flew into the opposite wall with bone-cracking force. "Besides, I don't need your help. As you can see, I'm already far more powerful than you are."
"You may have psionic powers, my young adversary, but that doesn't mean I couldn't beat you, or that you couldn't learn from me." Slade recovered quickly from his foe's last strike, then projected fire over his staff, holding it like a sword. "But let's see if you can handle the heat."
The two clashed, Slade's flaming staff crashing into the intruder's blue force field. They separated, then went at it again, only to have Slade trip mid-step. When he looked at his feet, they were wrapped in what appeared to be a metallic rope. The rope wasn't attached to anything else, but all of a sudden, Slade felt himself being lifted up by his feet.
He could still see his opponent, who wasn't physically lifting Slade up. In fact, the intruder was forty feet below, the only sign of his involvement the gesturing of his hand, pointing up at Slade. Slade melted the metal restraint on his feet with fire, only to have it immediately reform around his hands, causing him to drop his staff.
The intruder stared up at the helpless Slade. "I told you that I didn't need your help. I'm smarter than you, and apparently better than you, too. It's kind of pathetic, really, to think that the Teen Titans' greatest enemy is this pathetically weak." He shook his head in disappointment. "I'd have expected more of the legendarily villainous Slade."
Slade shook with fury, both from being taunted, and from being, for once in his life, utterly helpless. Then he remembered his ace in the hole. "I wouldn't gloat just yet. You haven't counted on them."
Slade's army of minions had just arrived, and quickly surrounded Slade's enemy, all pointing their weapons at him. Slade chuckled. "I guess you haven't won after all."
The intruder dropped Slade, and leapt high into the air. Slade's robotic slaves fired at the thief, laser beams converging on his position, only to hit empty air. H e landed lightly, as did Slade, and the two ran at each other. This time, the intruder sprayed a glob of the same metallic liquid that had bound Slade into the palm of his hand, where it quickly morphed into a blade as long as his arm. It cut through Slade's burning bo staff with ease, continuing until it clove Slade's mask in two. The mask didn't fall off, however, and Slade aimed a blazing punch back at his foe, knocking him off his feet. He stood over his downed opponent, and sneered.
"I guess you're not as tough as you thought you were." Slade's robots encircled them, weapons pointed down at the intruder. "Now, hand over the jar."
The thief snorted. "Do I look like I have it with me? It's a good thing I planned on winning, because otherwise I'd have hidden it really well. But, as it is, I don't need to." Slade's robots aimed their weapons at their former master and fired, catching him unawares in a deadly crossfire. Slade's last conscious thought was HowHow…
How did the intruder get Slade's robots to turn against him? How did he know what Slade was looking for? What is so special about that jar? Find out next time.
A/N: I like asking questions at the end of the chapter, because that way you get those questions implanted in your mind, and you start wondering. Then you're dying to know, and you will keep coming back to read more!
Sorry the long chapter, but there really wasn't a way to break it up into two.
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