"Watch out!"
This from Cyborg, as Cinderblock hurled a sedan at Starfire. With the warning, she had enough time to rip it to shreds with Starbolts. She followed up her energy barrage with a blast of green energy from her eyes, knocking the concrete giant back several feet before it recovered.
It didn't have long to recover before it was pelted by several cars wreathed in black magic in addition to waves of pure blue energy. Several explosive disks slammed into Cinderblock as he roared in anger. Then the final blow came as Beast Boy, in the form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex landed an enormous strike with his hefty tail, throwing the behemoth into the donut shop across the street from the prison.
Robin turned to assess the damage to the prison, but surprisingly, aside from a large hole near the top of the building, the prison was intact. He puzzled for a moment. Why would Slade send only one of his minions to rescue him from prison? Unless… He rushed for the door, ran to the security guard at the desk, who had just recovered from his recent encounter with the stone goliath. "Where is Slade?" shouted Robin.
"Er… uh… twentieth floor…" mumbled the guard, clearly frightened by Robin's outburst. He paid no attention, however, as he sprinted to the stairs and took them four at a time to the twentieth floor. When he arrived, he was barely out of breath, but the destruction and death that met his eyes made him gasp. And the red burning "S" in the middle of the floor left no doubt that Slade was no longer there.
It was a feint, a distraction for something else. But what?Slade could have been going after the jar, but nobody knew where it was. And unless Slade had wasted Cinderblock's distraction to go joyriding through the city, something very bad was about to happen.
Slade was, in fact up to no good. He was also miles away from the Titans, looking up at their magnificent T-shaped tower. "Bring me the boy. Alive," he growled to his robot slaves. They swiftly climbed the tower, penetrating the defenses through the roof.
At that very moment, Tylan was adding the finishing touches to his jet-bike while simultaneously filling it with fuel. He hummed to himself as he worked, which is why he never heard the steps behind him.
Suddenly two strong arms grabbed him from behind. Tylan quickly threw his elbow backwards into his adversary's chest, only to grab it in pain when it struck metal. Damn, they're metal, he thought. He twisted and squirmed about in his foe's grasp until he finally broke free and spin-kicked the robot in the head. It did nothing more than knock the robot down and delay it, but that moment's delay was all Tylan needed to shut off the fuel pump, fire up the jet-bike, and ride it out the open door of the garage, smashing three of Slade's minions on the way out.
Slade watched the fleeing figure on the flying motorcycle, and chuckled to himself. You can run, but you can't hide. Not from me. Not from Slade. No matter where the kid went, Slade and his army would be close behind, and eventually, the bike or the kid would run out of gas, and at that point, Slade would execute his perfect plan to finally destroy the Teen Titans once and for all.
Tylan flew the jet-bike with ease, even doing a couple of rolls before nearly falling off. Gotta remember not to do that if Raven's on the back, he thought. Those robots were tough, and he was going to need some help if he was going to beat them. I've gotta get back.
He continued to fly until he could see his house. But the other thing he could see was a crowd of black figures outside it. Undoubtedly more of Slade's cronies. Against so many, he couldn't do anything, so he did the only thing he could: called the police, and turned his jet-bike around and rode away from his home.
Slade arrived at the mansion, expecting to find the boy there. Instead, his minions were searching the house, but couldn't find anything. He went in to search for himself. As he started down the steps to the basement workshop, he heard movement. Drawing his staff, his forehead glowed red with the Mark of Skath. "Ready or not, here I come…" noting a shadow zipping from one pile of junk to another, Slade aimed a lethal fireball at it. The explosion rocked the house, sending metal parts flying everywhere.
Slade walked through the debris to get a look at what he had destroyed, but to his surprise, he found nothing.
A fist materialized in front of his face, glowing blue with energy and snapping his head back before a foot sweep took Slade's feet out from under him. As Slade looked on in amazement, the Perfect Thief materialized right in front of him, his armor now an obsidian black rather than dark gray.
"Like the changes? They make life so much easier," cackled the intruder. He stood over Slade, a palm pointed down at the supervillain. "I'd love to chat some more, but I've decided that you're too dangerous to me to be left alive, and so I'm going to kill you." The pulsing blue sphere in the thief's hand grew in size and intensity.
"Wait. One last question. How did you turn my slaves against me? I know you have psionic powers, but they can't be used on machines. How did you do it?" Slade was merely biding time, as he mentally called the very slaves the marauder had turned against him before.
The Thief considered a moment, then replied. "Well, since you're going to die anyway, I might as well tell you. You're right, psionic powers can't be used on machines, but I wanted to make it seem as if they could, just to keep you mystified. In truth, I'm an excellent computer programmer, and the neural interface between my armor and my brain allows me to think of code and have the processor write it. So I simply wrote a program that would allow me control over what your minions did, and transmitted it to them. It worked like a charm." At this point, footsteps on the stairs drew the Thief's attention, as Slade's robotic slaves stormed into the workshop. The intruder laughed. "Do you really think that's going to help? Didn't I just tell you how I did it? I can't believe the notorious Slade would be that stupid." As he rambled, Slade transmitted an order neurally to his minions. They all pointed their weapons at the Perfect Thief.
The Thief calmly folded his arms. One by one, the robots turned to face Slade, their weapons pointing at him. "Looks like I win again," said the Perfect Thief.
A blinding flash of laser light filled the room, and the Thief crumpled to the floor. Slade stood over his downed opponent, a smirk hiding behind his featureless mask. "I guess not. And I guess I'll be having the last laugh." With that, he ordered his minions to carry the nuisance, and set off for his secret lair.
Oh no! Slade has escaped! How did he defeat the Perfect Thief? With his foremost opponent gone, who will stop Slade from achieving his ultimate objective? Find out next time!
A/N: I told you this chapter would be better. But trust me, the end is near, and it gets far better than this!