Nightwing; Son of the Demon's Head – Wanted; Dead or Alive – Part Two –
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Chapter 8: Dinner Conversations With My Enemies
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REMEMBER! Slade was a safari guy in the comics, so this part is just to get the heroes divided. Will Dami really be injected like Tim, or is he going to fight back? What about dick? Looks like Stockholm to be…but won't know, except we do! He said in a previous chapter before "don't leave" which is a sort of clingy fear of past PTSD and will be fixed by one…a kiss from a Rose? No spoilers!
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Slade held the knife; the one thing that even with a muted son, he would never have regretted having done twice.
Batman's eye holes widened in this enormous spill - over of emotions and tension; the waterfall doing nothing to hide the growling and gasping of the still semi - conscious and woozy Damian Wayne.
"Slade. Put him down –
"You don't give the orders, not in my house." Slade hissed at the detective and his helpers.
Jason was captured with Gar as the drug he'd been given was re – administered by a stealthy assassin cronies, while Gar was put into a contained field that even Raven found tough to disable.
"We have to –
"Falling back, and before dinner?" Slade chuckled to his foes as Timothy only ushered the masked assassins to take their prisoners someplace, less remote.
More, closely knit, inside their humble fortress.
"You have them; what then more can you be "the asking" for?" Starfire begged the man, to just see into his mind as she'd never be able to. Not as easily as Dick or Raven, even Mr. Wayne.
"The boy won't be harmed." Slade ignored the question. He didn't have to listen to the alien that had ruined his former apprentice. Not again. Or, not ever.
"I will be having you at my table, Batman. Titans….to, talk." The way he said it, sounded unpleasant to him. As if this were a board meeting without end, or a sentence for his foes that he still had thoughts about. And that bothered the heroes very much, as they were corralled and knocked out before reaching the exit to the caverns. The light of day no longer sudden as their futures seemed to come to a temporary stop.
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After everyone was settled, the god of war himself went to find his two favorite people in a safer place, well below the actual base.
"I didn't expect anyone to come after visiting hours."
She was definitely not happy about being locked in a cell of glass and with enough air to keep her. A caged bird should not sing.
Slade didn't say a word as he approached Talia's cell and beside it, the new addition. Their child, where no one else was aware.
"My father let you be my first, yet he reconsidered the offer once you'd come unglued, Wilson." She pursed her lips and watched his hands reach out for the glass carrying his very legacy; a replica of the original.
"What do you expect him to be? Will you have him kill the Batman's offspring? He isn't –
"Bruce is, one of the few that will die." Slade told the woman, curtly. "He is also the one who allowed Damian to be…so carefree. I don't hate that kid. Maybe because of his potential already, thanks to mommy dearest." He mocked her with the title, staining her reputation with a slice through the chest, metaphorically.
"We, have the power to bring him back into the Shadows. You can still rule, with the condition that my word remains law here."
"You took my son, made him believe in something that was a lie, even if he knew not to believe in it." She sneered. "He is still loyal to them –
"But I want only four of them, if Tim is still willing to keep my pet in line, then yes. The ones that can go would be everyone but those lives. Dick is, a trophy, and I take care of my things. "He purred to those closed eyes right in front of him.
"He is human, just as you still may be if you walk away from this plan, forever..." She forced out her voice, though muffled somewhat by her cage.
"Timothy may end up keeping them both in line; he's so close to forgetting and those injections soon won't be needed." Slade smiled and couldn't listen to the squabbling mother goose as she cooked away in this chamber of secrets (WB Junk! Haa!)
"Todd, Bruce, the Titans…You'll kill them all…what about her? If she comes to kill you?"
Slade froze, his eye on the glass one last time before sauntering over to hers.
"That…if she does betray me, I'll unveil it." Said the man, cruelly. "That creation of ours? It is built to last…"
With a turn away, he left her in the dark. Surrounded by glowing machinery and sounds that could drive one to lose their hearing for good, yet Talia knew a trick or two. Not to fight, but to find a way out with help from one of her enemies' allies.
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Dick was escorted right at Slade's arm, the two linked as lovers. Even his master's armor was left in place in case there was a dispute, while the wafting scent of fishes from a river so wide, or a dozen pheasants made his young nose twitch. Slade would like this; he would like the chance very much to put Batman in his place.
All while Dick was lost in his thoughts, pretending to be just as together with the man's plans to torture his teammates.
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The doors opened to reveal a banquet still not set for as many as this long table might hold. All in only a few hours, Slade had spared no expense, even on the collars that nullified the heroes' powers, or the cuffs that would shock the Bat and his remaining child, should the two get wise.
"Welcome; or, as the late Ra's Al – Ghul would say….But he isn't here right now. I wouldn't want to quote the dead this early on." Slade chuckled at the sight. He'd won! There was to be no dispute when it came to a matter of tastes.
"Are you done playing "crazy count?" Jay snorted. "I want you to release everyone and send your ass back to rehab, Willie!"
"Pet?" Dick was handed the keys, but not the full control as a buzzer in his palm was pressed, a squeeze and Jay let out a yell from the shockwave set against his skin.
" Dude!!" Gar shot at the infamous Nightwing. "Whose side are you –
" Quiet." Raven hissed. She knew Slade wouldn't have any mistakes tonight.
"Where are Timothy and Damian, Wilson?" Bruce was unmasked from the top up, outside of his cowl, but in his suit with no weapons. This, he demanded aloud.
"They…." Slade tapped one band of fingers to the table, watching the faces eye him from a short distance apart.
"Being re – evaluated for their treatments."
"No way! That's a dirty trick!" Cy stomped his foot, not enough pressure for Dick to electrocute him by. Richard had resisted the urge to glare at Slade. How he so wanted to know that he could defy the man who'd raped him countless times.
"Damian knows how to overcome dozens of lethal poisonous varieties of venom and various forms of mind control. Military, supernatural." Batman told the merc, who'd just given Dick's waist a tug closer. He sat them both in a larger seat at the head of the long table. Dick's ass planted in his lap in some harem wear that was slightly less provocative than during the court's meeting with Deathstroke and his new protégé. Richard's golden bangles jingled on his arms and legs.
"What if it weren't that, Wane, yet something more secure than a failsafe." Slade slipped the thought their way with a smirk, as Dick tried not to let his breathing hitch; Slade had a hand at the back of the male's neck, keeping him close above all else. The trigger for their collars back in Slade's grasp, as Dick swallowed with his head fully down. Afraid to rise and face his reality. (Almost Stockholm.)
Seated across his master's broad legs, as nothing more than a common trophy to flaunt.
Everyone stayed silent, even Starfire, who's eyes looked full to spitting flames.
"When is dinner…" Gulped Gar to Raven, who just kept trying to read Slade. Yeah, like he'd allow her a peek inside.
Not after she'd freed Dick two times already.
"This, cook of yours is rather, late. Isn't he?" Wayne sat back and tried to keep his cool. Green eyes laser – focused on keeping an eye on Slade's gloved hands.
"What can we do to free Dick."
"You can't."
Gar gritted his jaw as Slade's grip at the back of Dick's neck, tightened, eliciting a small hiss from the male on top of his clothed lap.
"He owes me, and one more should be joining us. As long as I have them, you won't be leaving –
"Ah, we are gonna get tortured, right? Are you seriously giving us a choice??!"
Jay got the bolts right through him as Slade let the heroes watch their ally, slowly fizzle. Still fuming below charred flesh, Jay coughed and sagged into his seat, breathing out in smoggy puffs.
"I said, that we can wait, or I can keep you scrambling in your seats until you're nothing at all. I have "hunters" all over this island, Bruce. You can't get away, and I want you to see what happens to those that take from 'me…what Dick did, I can't even begin to think if I've punished him enough –
"You must let him go!" Starfire's lip trembled as she forced her body to calm, for Dick. To not get "the shock" from that mad man.
The doors opened as chefs and cooks came out with more food than could be digested by the biggest men at the table. Bruce grimaced at the biggest hog; a cooked one that still had its head and hooves attached.
"This island in abundant with many natural resources." Slade prided in his catch of the evening, as Cy and Raven both refused to touch a single bite.
"It's been Ra's private paradise; even the wild boars here are protected, and very delectable as the centerpiece to this meal."
"You, are a coward, Slade." Raven felt her guts churn at that dead face staring back at them. Eyes and organs gouged out in time to serve a hoard. Dick had his eyes away from the heroes as Slade petted the boy's scalp, running a cool glove down his somewhat revealed spine as the heroes would have choked.
Had they touched a bite.
"Richa –
Kori felt her body go stiffer as her head jerked back. Slade's finger, was on the button.
Dick's body twisted with a yell to leave and save her life.
" A- AA!!! ~
" KORI!! !"
" Bad pet." Slade gripped Dick's arm and twisted it sharply, and he just kept his prize. The young man's eyes were all but dashed at what the older man was capable of, because of his weakness…
Bruce sat up. He was urged not to b the cooks, all with taser - weapons in their pockets, revealed to Slade's key players.
"Slade. Stop this at on-
" You'll be next, Wayne. Unless you'd rather NOT except my generous hospitality, your freedom won't mean much…"
"Freedom?" Cy looked at Gar and Bruce. "What's that gonna –
"He wants us all dead, but not until he has had his fucking fill…" Todd gritted his fists and heaved out, knowing a hunter's glint in that one eye. Hoping it was dead right now…but never, not Deathstroke.
He liked the challenge, their struggle. His one pleasure….
Seeing others beneath him, even the Bat.
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"You are smarter than you appear, Todd." Slade snorted and had Dick with a pressure point pressed at his neck. Knocked out and still hungry, the last twitch and sigh, didn't leave them in better spirits at all as their leader slumped back into the mad man's armored chest.
"I admit, there was a time when Batman's shadow might have dragged me to the other end of the spectrum, but no more." He propped up the kid and caught his chin, tugging the unconscious hero to look up at him. "I've thought it over, and this island's landscape is perfect for one thing and one thing alone…As the location, of a survival game. Win or die trying."
"A fight to the death, dude??" Gar gawked and shivered at the thought of fighting beasts much larger, created by Ra's mad scientific mind. "Why?? Why is this all a game to you??"
"It's not, really." Slade huffed as Dick was moved by his staff to be cast aside for a moment from the head's plans. "At this very minute, I have granted the Owls the right of taking Gotham back –
" No." Bruce was far from livid as Slade pushed the button, protecting himself as the Titans and Red Hood watched alongside, helplessly. Their senior was cooked, but he still had a ways to go.
"Gotham…is that why you wanted?…" Batman grunted out, having figured out the male's true goal.
Far from it, as Todd looked up. "Rose is done! She doesn't want you in her face ever again!"
"Rose….you must think you're hitting all of those keys just right tonight, brat…..Well…. don't !" Slade pressed the device and Jason wasn't waking up.
Bruce groaned again, not wanting to pass out from a single hit, while Jason had already hit his max.
"Anyone else have some input to share? Raven? Cyborg?…you two always have had something logical to counter during our quaint, little arguments. Why not try, now?"
Starfire and Gar looked to the two eldest, instead, they'd hung their heads just like Batman. In defeat, until someone came up with a better plan than goading the baddie.
Right now, was a bad time to start a fight indoors. Starfire gasped, tears falling now that Dick was out of the room. She didn't want to weigh him down with her pity. Not right now.
"You will all be escorted to your cells, and by tomorrow, the games will start and Gotham will burn if I can't have what was promised back to me. She'll come, or that filthy city will choke on its own smog."
The villain watched as Bruce started to word something; something that made absolutely zero sense to empathy out of all he was.
" Go to hell, Slade… " He growled, making sure the words were concise and tough as titanium.
Slade cocked his head, making Raven turn hers, and then she let it fall. She knew that comments about being dead had little power over a monster…
"I've already been there." Slade shrugged, the trigger with his finger moments down on the button.
Bruce did not try to look away. "Sorry, Bats." Slade teasingly said, his finger now too close as Kori looked ready to snap her wrists to go free. Raven and the others had mouths gaping and heads shaking like it was a question to answer, not a privilege to earn.
"I'm afraid, that you've lost this time…"
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