Teen Titans Presents – Renegade – Prison Break; Break Out!
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Chapter Seven: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
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Long awaited – back Apples are a Girl's Best Friend series in a jiff. Now, though? More Robin versus Slade! Yay! Time jump to pace it a bit, but short as these chapters are, a lot of suspense this way cometh!
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A wolf was among the flock, Deadshot's alter could sense it wafting off of the boy wonder, the indispensable deposit of dust every time his faced showed in the cafeteria at separate hours, the weeks ending up to the date of a trial that never came.
"There was a delay." Waller told her crew, minus Dick who was in treatment for his serious affliction with a doctor of the facility. One that had Harley busy enough to miss the meeting and go flag down a guard for the way back into this new face's office.
Waller would know, yet Harley got the cameras kept busy and didn't even kill a guy! Her record was golden – now, for the boy wonder…
He was…
She blinked in the hall.
Talking, to whom?
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"I know you put someone up to this…the real you." Dick grimaced at the news of Bruce going amiss in his own hotel room.
~ I have no idea what you're talking about –
"Confess, then." Dick stomped off over to the wall where he was seeing the spook in all his glory, when he was just seeing a figment created by the reagent that was Crane's own concoction.
"Holy bat fink…he's talking to nobody…Slade?... as in the –
She felt a cold hand over her mouth and, yup.
Chloroform, as she was dragged off the scene for a few hours, tops.
Crane moved in as his alter; the doctor meant to heal the sickly and delusional.
"How is the process right now, the rest kicked from your system?"
"Not at all." Dick felt his body heat up as he clutched his forehead, the fake Slade crossing his arms off to the side.
"No go, then…oh dear…" Sighed Crane. "If we can't have you ready for the trial – and by the way, due to the lack of witnesses up for tesifying to your case, the trial date was moved up a few weeks."
Dick groaned and understood. "Waller knows about my family; how important this testimony is…can I go lay back down now?" He asked with a pained expression on his face. The doctor answered a yes and left him to that, while the fake Slade hovered overhead as the boy brought his covered face to stay that way.
"Don't tell me; you're imitating a corpse."
"Shut up, right now." Dick groaned and rolled over, the fever coming back as the fake vanished as it was expected to. The seeds of doubt taking their sweet time, while Crane got on the line with his generous benefactor and partner.
~ He's resting, I take it. ~
"As we stand here, yes." And Crane knew it; Slade was there in that room through the ability to exist outside of himself, through the interaction of words as if he were still on the child's case.
~ The dates were changed; no doubt Waller is on to the one responsible. ~
"She could be a bit more uptight." Chuckled Crane as he filled back up a syringe.
~ How strong is the new dose. ~
"A few milligrams extra, nothing major. To be sure…that the message…" He moved over to the boy's bedside as Richard dozed from this mysterious fever. A side effect of the drug inside him. "Sticks." Slade was already off the call. The passerby was recovered and they'd be sure to keep her quiet. "I still have a hefty sample left." Grinned the Scarecrow. "Why not use it up before it all goes to waste?"
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Harley woke up in her own bed in the facility, walls of steel even if she was technically out. A major blacked – out moment with a shot….
Wait…
"I'm trapped in here??? Hey!!" She called out, Waller's face beside Captain Boomerang as they went over the information from before – she'd gone ballistic. That was what they were saying.
"I'm fine, see?? It's that creepy doctor." She told them through the walls of her rather high security vessel. "Somethin' is serious wrong with that dude, he's like totally fixated on Rob –
"Not in here." Waller hissed. "Your blood showed signs of the same infection from the "dust" entering it. We are in a tough spot because YOU left the meeting and threw us back WEEKS. If that kid isn't transferred to Gotham by this month, you'll wish you'd played it safe…"
"No…that…that jerk was the one who knocked me out; it has to be a mistake, Mandy…Call the CIA! The JLA!?...my, Ivy – bear..." Her puppy dog eyes and pouting did nothing to sway a brick wall that was Waller's iron will.
"You can't go out there, Sheila." Captain B shook his head sympathetically. "We are all under attack otherwise."
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Dick had visitor, despite the warnings to stay put. He was shuffled off by Wyatt and two other guards in that time while the rest of the pen had talked about Harley losing her license. No big surprise there, she was after all still a bit –
Dick's eyes widened and he tried to bolt, the fear crafted inside his skull as Slade…yes, Slade. He was RIGHT. AT THE WINDOW.
Was it another illusion?
He rammed his fists at the glass, not knowing that this was a vision from the dust, his rioting a scare as later on, Waller scratched her head.
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"He went after a bystander? An old dude…. you think I'm not lyin' now ??"
"We never said that wasn't the case." Amanda rubbed her neck as Harley waited for her apology to come.
"Yeah, well that doctor is the first dick you should take down – check his credentials. He's the only one that close to Lil' Richie now! Your call, did you plan –
"We used the idea to get to him."
"What??"
"The others covering for Slade Wilson were infected as well. Mr. Wilson, who described that he saw a figure of the "thing he feared the most."
"Crane." Dead shot showed up from the door, out of uniform. "And we let em' in."
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"We let a lunatic into our facility?? MY JAIL!? GET ME THE GUN WHO PUSHED FOR THIS CRAP!"
While the office of the one hiring staff was left a crack opened, there was a bigger scare to come as Waller gasped out.
Dead, which meant a killer was on the loose.
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Dick was cuffed, switched to a high security cube right beside Harley. He'd gotten zero sleep with Slade trying to brainwash him. He'd defied the man and had ended up with a bruise on his upper arm and cheek. Harley saw and ran to the wall where he was afraid to even glare up in her direction.
"No more treatments –
"But, Mrs. Waller! That boy might expire if –
"IF." She pointed a finger at the scrawny doctor. "IF this solution you keep treating his case with isn't making matters worse! He'll be fine for basic psychotherapy –
"I can do that, free a' charge! I'm lic –
"You're not going to handle that, Miss. Quinn." Waller was giving Harles a look…
Ahh, she was going to spy…. good call.
"Whatever….as long as he takes the kid's insurance, I don't care either way." Pouting, she saw that Dick looked ready to say something, before he shuddered and shook his head.
~ She can't help you now. Here, you're officially caged, Robin. Learn to like it, or don't come out until you do…~
Dick's heart raced as he laid on a cot in the corner and didn't move.
It was easy to be a corpse, he imagined.
You just closed your eyes, and…didn't try to get up.
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Dick is slowly going to lose his shit, bit by bit but guess what?? He has a guardian angel right next door! Find out, what became of Bruce and how is Slade projecting himself through a single reagent designed by Scarecrow?? And is Wyatt still being a prick? Find out!