DC Gothic – Red-X
Part 14
Smallvillie
"X'hal, this place is dull" Blackfire complained as we wandered around the farms outside the town.
I had to agree this place should be called Dullsvillie or Snoresvillie I felt like taking a nap from just wandering around while looking for kryptonite.
Not that I had actually planned to come here as I had been trying to get to Gotham, but I'd needed a pit stop and this place was as good as any.
"Who is Xhal?" I asked Blackfire.
I assumed it was her word for God but I wanted to know for sure.
"On my world she's a goddess" my sort of girlfriend answered.
To pass the time Blackfire started to tell me more about her world and how it had been almost completely destroyed by the Gordanians. Who were the same race the Thanagarains were at war with.
Apparently the Gordanians were not a nice group of people and they had a habit of enslaving people and destroying the ecosystems of other worlds while gathering the resources needed to fuel their armies.
"So why do we need this Kryptonite?" the alien princesses asked me once she was done telling me about her world.
I'd actually explained this once already, clearly she hadn't been paying attention to what I'd told her. She wasn't making for a very good partner in crime.
"We need the Kryptonite in case Superman turns up when we hit S.T.A.R labs" I explained "You're powerful but he's even stronger than you and he's faster too so we can't outrun him. Krypotonite is our only chance, even a little can be enough if we use it right".
Thankfully the Justice League was still rebuilding their space station so they weren't very organised right now. Plus I wasn't actually going to try and kill Superman so hopefully they wouldn't feel the need to start a nation wide manhunt for me, not with all the other threats out there.
"So we are going to break into S.T.A.R Labs" Blackfire said.
That was part of the plan.
"Yes" I agreed "We need some technology they have and some information".
I was hoping to snag some holorings. They were cool little devices that allowed a person to disguise themselves with a hologram. Since Blackfire was orange we couldn't go anywhere populated without drawing attention, and I could with a disguise too as too many people knew what I looked like behind the mask of Red-X.
"And this helps us with the Teen Titans how?" was her next question.
It was reasonable for her to want to know so I explained.
"Cyborg is Victor Stone, the son of Professor Silas Stone. He was a football player in Hight School and he had a car accident. Victor and his mother both sustained serious injuries, but his mother was worse and she died from blood loss. His father, who is a scientist in one of the S.T.A.R Labs, operated on Victor Stone and gave him cybernetic limbs to save his life, making him Cyborg".
That had been easy to find out, however finding Silas Stone was more of a challenge, but I was sure that the S.T.A.R Labs in Metropolis would have records I could access that would tell where Silas Stone lived these days.
"Then we murder his father!" Blackfire said happily
I had to resist the urge to face palm.
"No we use him to find out if Cyborg has any weaknesses" I corrected "We need something to hold over the Titans to stop them from coming after us. We get the information we need and then threaten to release it to the public if they keep coming after us. Which would make Cyborg's Dad a target for everyone who hates the Titans".
That was when something vibrated in my pocket and I fished out the Teen Titans communicator
*Rae has started a group chat with Cy, Rob, BB, Star.
I still had Raven's old communicator and it seemed that it was still connected as I was being invited to a group chat. I decided to read what they had to say before joining in.
Rae: Cyborg, something is wrong with the air conditioning system.
Cy: Really? What's the problem?
Rae: It's too hot in the Tower.
BB: No. It's too cold!
Rob: I think the air conditioning is fine.
Star: I am fine with it too. However, I think an increase in temperature would be more preferable.
Rae: What's wrong with all of you?. It's too hot!
BB: Not it's too cold!
Rae: I'm sweating in my room!
BB: I'm breeding in my room!
Star: Weren't we talking about the temperature? I am confused.
Rae: We were. Now BB is on about breeding.
BB: When did I say that?!
Rob: You said you were 'breeding in your room'.
BB: No, I said I was breeding in my room.
Predictive texting was a pain in butt. I knew this very well. He had of course meant to say Freezing.
BB: Hey! Why did this thing change my words?! I typed breeding!
Cy: You're breeding? Breeding what. With who?
BB: I mean *Breeding Not Breeding
Rob: Cy?
BB: :-( *Cy
Cy: I'm not sure. Maybe he just misspelled something.
BB: You need to fix this thong, Cyborg.
Star: What is a thong?
BB: I mean *thing! I typed thing!
*Red has joined the chat.
Red: You guys are morons.
With that I closed the communicator and turned it off so they couldn't track me using it. They'd most likely cut me off, meaning I couldn't use this device to spy on them, but it was so funny I didn't care.
Really if these guys were Jump City's only defenders then no wonder I was walking around free. If it weren't for Slade I'd go back and take over the city's entire criminal underworld over the weekend.
"What is that creature!" I heard Blackfire call out.
I raced over to where she was and found the alien princess slowly backing away from a cow.
"Relax it's just an animal" I explained "It can't hurt you".
Well it could, it just wouldn't because it was more interested in a nearby bush than it was in either of us, and cows were pretty docile as a rule.
"What does it want?" the ebony haired alien asked me.
"Nothing it's just livestock" I informed her.
I even went as far as to pet the harmless cow in order to show the murderous princess that there was nothing what so ever to fear.
"You eat these things!" Blackfire exclaimed.
I had to wonder if I was totally surrounded by idiots.
"Let's forget about the Kryptonite and just get some coffee" I decided.
I'd have to rob a different Star Lab and hope they had what we needed. It was for the best we'd been out for hours and we'd not found even a silver of green space rock. It was a total waste of time.
(Line Break)
Jump City - Slade's Hideout
Deathstroke had recently returned Jump City after his mostly successful mission. Slade had killed Ra's al Ghul as planned, and he had very nearly brought the League of Shadows under his control.
It hadn't worked out, but that hardly mattered. Slade had survived that nasty business on the oil rig and now he was back in Jump City. He had plenty of plans and there would be other opportunities to further his legacy.
Once of those plans involved training an apprentice. Wilson had no desire to live forever but he did wish to be remembered. Red-X was just one way to ensure that Deathstroke would never be forgotten.
As for Red-X, well the boy was talented, smarter than he should be and driven to carve himself out a place in the world, even if he didn't understand what part he was meant to play. He was also young enough to still be moulded into a proper successor and while it would be more satisfying to turn Robin, at least Red-X wasn't so bound by useless morals. With time and training the thief could become an excellent assassin Slade was sure.
However Slade was also sure that the boy was not coming home, at least not anytime soon.
"He does not understand" Slade muttered to himself as he looked over the information he had gather about Red-X for the hundredth time. There wasn't much to read, but Slade had enough to work with.
Slade had made a simple mistake, he'd assumed that the boy would seek the protection of his master after nearly being killed. However Red-X was as stubborn as Robin. (which was a good thing) and Talia al Ghul had tried to murder him so it was understandable that the boy was on this way to Gotham even if he seemed to taking his sweet time getting there.
Rather than hide Red-X was hunting his attacker and he had gone to Gotham because Talia al Ghul was know for attending many high society events in that city. It wasn't much of a lead but in Gotham you could buy anything if you were willing to pay the price. Information most of all. However Slade could not allow his apprentice to go off on his own. Deathstroke would just have to get Red X to come back to Jump City
Of course he could beat the tar out of the young man and demand that he come back to working for him, or he could break this boy down both mentally and physically just like he was planning to do with Robin. But violence wasn't always the best way to bend someone to your will. All Slade had to do was find the boy's weak spot. And Red-Xs weak spot was so very obvious.
Slade took out a cell phone out his desk and smiled under his mask while dialling up a number.
He was going to call his daughter.
(Line Break)
Smallvillie – Coffee Shop
"The girl serving coffee is hot" Blackfire commented as we took a table.
She was sexy I couldn't help but think she was important somehow. But the only thing that made her stand out was her massive breasts. She had nice eyes behind the silly glasses she wore and she had pretty blond hair, but she lived in Smallvillie so she couldn't be anyone special.
"I think she was checking you out" Blackfire informed me "Want me go over there and see if she'd like a threesome?"
That I did not want her to do as if nothing else we needed to keep a low profile. That meant not shagging the locals.
"People don't do that here" I explained to the sexy alien "You can't just go up to people whose name you don't even known and ask them for sex".
The coffee shop was as dreary as the rest of Snoozeville, but even boredom wasn't going to motivate a teenage girl into getting into a threesome with Blackfire and myself.
"But it works in those documentaries" the alien princess argued "All you need is a pizza with sausage or for to have a broken pipe".
At some point I was going to have to explain that porn was not real and now seemed a good a time as any.
"Besides I do know her name" Blackfire told me before I could change the subject "She's Kara Kent".
That took a moment to process, and when my brain finally figured out how screwed I was right now.
"When you talked to her did you take your hood down" I asked Blackfire.
I'd needed to use the rest rooms so I'd had to leave the princess alone for a few moments. That may have been a fatal mistake.
"Yeah" Blackfire answered as if it was big deal "but don't worry she didn't freak out".
Given that Supergirl was an alien living on Earth seeing another alien wouldn't freak her out, but it would make her suspicious and her cousin was Superman so she'd call him.
"We need to leave" I told Blackfire "As in now".
"Why?" she asked "The hot girls coming to us you can...".
Rather than argue pointlessly, I grabbed the alien princess by the arm and dragged her away. My bike was parked just outside and we both jumped onto it just Kara Kent stepped out onto the street.
"Don't be stupid" said the disguised Supergirl "I'm not gonna hurt you and you can't out run me so just wait for..."
Blackfire blasted a building which started a fire and got people screaming. This greatly upset Supergirl and I took the chance to distract her.
"Glitterdust" I said as magical fireworks went off between those of us on the bike and the woman on the pavement. "Glitterdust, Glitterdust!".
I got the bike moving before the light show ended and thankfully Supergirl did not try to follow us.
(Line Break)
Gotham City – Jewellery Store.
"Time for the best part," I said while walking up to the safe.
For once things were going great. Blackfire was resisting the urge to blow things up and while I hadn't found any Kryptonite when visiting Smallville I had at least gotten away from Supergirl.
Sure that had ruined my plan to rob S.T.A.R labs, but there were other ways to get information and rare tech. Besides I didn't really need to blackmail the Teen Titans if I stayed on the other side of the country.
That might upset Blackfire but at this point I didn't really care if she left or not. I found her lack of control rather annoying and she was way to obsessed with hurting her sister to realise that we were in real danger.
"Maybe I can win her over with some jewels" I muttered to myself "If not then its back to being single".
I took bag from my belt and just stared at the many boxes of jewels that filled the safe, then without warning the alarm suddenly went off.
"Crapbaskets," I muttered to myself while looking around to see what mistake I had made.
But it wasn't me who had trigged the alarm. It was someone else. That person was standing next to the door of the store with his hands behind his back.
"Damn" I said as I spotted Slade
The boss was back in my life.
"Is that all you have to say to me?" Slade asked me calmly
I thought fast but I simply could not come up with something cool sounding.
"What were you expecting me to say?" I asked back.
He might want me to beg for mercy to ask to re-enter his service. Neither was going to happen, at least not without some major pain. I'd just gotten away Jump City I had no desire to go back.
"Something a little more cocky" Slade said causally.
He always appeared calm and relaxed, at least around me. Well nearly always he did express anger at some rare times, but that was about it.
"I'm not going down without a fight, old man," I said while getting into a fighting stance. "And when Batman gets here he's going to after you not me. I'm just a thief".
If Robin wasn't on the other side of this colony with delusions then I might have worried but by himself Batman would focus on Deathstroke as he was the real threat.
"You're smart, X," Slade said while walking towards me.
I stood my ground to show that I was not afraid of the man. But deep down I was scared. He was terrifying.
"What do you want?" I questioned.
I already knew but for some reason I'd asked anyway.
"Oh X," Slade said smoothly while leaning down so we were face to face "You know what I want from you".
I swallowed and tried to suppress my fear so I could fight, but then the masked man back away.
"The rewards I offer you are worth a thousand times more than what you could fit into that safe, and you are still my apprentice".
Deathstroke let the words sink in before saying.
"Come home and met my daughter".
With that said, Slade took out three black balls from his belt and threw them down between us. A giant dust cloud sprung into the air and quickly swarmed around me. When the cloud was gone I was alone, but not for long. Batman hadn't shown up the police had and they were all pointing guns at me.
"Crapbaskets" I said again.