Teen Titans; The Fighting Life
Chapter Zero: The Fight doesn't stop because of us.
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Zeroing in on the past; we are returned to a day that should never have come to be.
My name is Raven of the Teen Titans. It took a few years to fix what had happened to us, but this was recorded to prevent the one responsible from ever stepping foot in Jump City.
We lost our hope, our will to go on and fight.
That night, we lost a best friend.
We almost never recovered, and that person was once one of us…
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A clanking sound of gears up above had the scene to feel, hollow. The whirring motion of a sizzling, red - bodied machine shown through the darkness. It was a mechanical god, an eerie beacon and the only available light left in this dank, dark place. The one holding all the cards, the last skeleton key, was a true monster.
A total of five groaning bodies littered the ground. Only three were just barely hanging on to consciousness. A crime lord named for his cunning and underhanded trickery – all but one step behind in this game, was a man the five on the ground had dubbed as "Slade." He went by more than a few titles, but the rest could be said and done later. As victims groveled, this masked man contemplated one of their fates.
Right now, the crime lord had a choice to make. One body closest to him than the other four; their nearly scorched corpses scoured before the exit, was a boy close to the age of fifteen. He had a black domino mask and wore a uniform littered with black, orange and metallic tones. The technology the teenager had earlier used on his own body made the boy's features hardest to decipher. The red – bodied machine had welcomed the boy's heroic sacrifice, even when this deed would ultimately turn him as the others.
Deceased, should the mad man not intervene.
The boy growled and was to his knees, the last to sacrifice his own life to save the other four. A Teen Titan. They all had that special title as heroes of the City of Jump, California. All had been thorns meant to prick at any and all evil – doers, while Slade was a simple business man seeking greater fish to fry in this, up and coming metropolis.
Slade crumpled his hands around a device by his wrist that could switch off the device. A device which had plagued the five individuals now, with a set of destructive antibody-based monstrosities that now resided within his only leverage to this city's future. He'd used a very experimental dose that could be set to kill anything that became infected by the nanoscopic probes, as they were called.
In an act of rebellion, the boy had come seeking out the mad man. The teenager had found out about the man's true intentions. Slade, had wanted an apprentice. And, that had been before this mess came to be... A bit rich of a title for this day and age, but the boy known as Robin the Boy Wonder was an ex- protégé to the famous Batman of Gotham City.
Slade wanted a way to put the Titans out to pasture. Permanently. Of course, now the boy was on his knees, his friends far from powerful enough to fight the mad man while the nanobots took away their strength. Nanoscopic bit by bit, the boy had joined them to defy the mad man's orders. Now, Slade had to choose.
Stay and expect the worst, or drag his plan out a bit longer. Instead of letting the tides turn, Slade knew that he had the upper hand.
The whirring, death – defying machine was not the Titans' savior.
He smiled.
HE was.
Slade lifted the growling boy up by his arm roughly, and…
WHACK!
The kid was out like a light, his head dropped towards the ground. No will left to keep him standing, Slade caught the boy with his free arm. The crime lord then called in his Slade – bots to keep the other Titans busy.
Now was not the time for games.
These animated devils were created to do his bidding. Ninja reflexes in every one of their movements, the bots proceeded with their orders pre – programed in. Slae took to dragging the boy away into the shadows, while the Titans cried out in shock and could do nothing in their saddened state to address the kidnapping…Not even to save their friend.
A door was rammed open. The man had proven that he was above being anyone average as a fighter. It was a pity he'd not put a bell around the boy's neck. The kid was determined to put the man in jail. He looked down another passage and opened a second hatch that led into the sewers. The sound of gears was now far behind them.
The deal would last, just as soon as the man had a way off an away from the pier side…He had to make a break before the rest came back, ten fold. The boy's crush, Starfire…She had eyes so enraged before. He shrugged off the feeling of that glare and waded on towards his main destination.
A speedboat was stationed for the escape to commence. Slade set his watch. He did what needed to be done, shoved the boy to the bots stationed at the wheel and with a click, turned off the functioning nanoscopic probes – long enough to make his escape with his unwilling protégé.
He'd cheated a bit. The boy would not be found, or else if he tried to back out of their agreement…
The thought had not crossed Slade as he slipped into the speedboat, and of towards the group's main exit through the elaborate set of tunnels that this "pleasant" ride had to offer. For an extra precaution, Slade made sure to have a sedative gun handy in his pouch. Robin was not in a safe place. He knew that. The stakes had changed. Robin's body was no longer showing that it was still within the probes' control. With the push of a button, Slade had spared the boy and his miserable, little friends as the boat sped off towards the city's main harbor.
Miserable, they'd be sure to come soon, but not until the bots had thrown the Titans onto a wild goose chase. Slade had invested a lot more than he'd bargained for into this project.
Once more, he decided to have every penny count before he was through with his newly made apprentice. Going forward, this was only the beginning of what was yet to arrive by his protégé's noble sacrifice…