Teen Titans presents Robin- torn Legacy of a prodigal son
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Chapter 45: First Robin of Springtime – Scare Tactics
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"What are your demands." Was how he'd addressed his new enemy team; thinking not in great depths along the lines that he'd be working with them in the near future, yet how they would benefit each other in the symbiotic relationship of give and take.
"We want what's owed, but not as your forgotten squad of kid soldiers you threw away." Came the leader's reply, getting to the point as he'd practiced all 9n his own for this very speech. "You're going to hand half of your empire, assets and clients over to us for safe keeping."
"You were invaluable to me because of your betrayal to my legacy; why should I hand over an –
"BECAUSE." Rose and Terra raised their weaponized hands and didn't steal the show, not before Red directed the merc's attention back over to Grant's face. "Because, if you won't comply with the terms; ever binding that if your "protégé" either ends up unable to perform his duties or we find you in conclusion unfaithful to the contract you have with Dick Grayson, we'll terminate you. Take him out and you with the rest of your blood money, gramps. I warned you I had every ounce of what you gave, all of that power went to waste because you can't handle it. Can't handle something unpredictable as, teenage minds coming together."
"I can't stand actually, the fact that you believe that I care if you are adults or not. A threat on my head is a threat, so go through with the contract. You can't kill me the way Terra can bury a mountain of bodies."
Terra turned to let her stones graze the mastermind's right shoulder, the man avoiding a few other pebbles as he rolled to send a disc flying, yet Red shot the man's wrist before he could hurt Tara once more. "We know what happened to B. We don't work for him, but for ourselves." Jason expressed with narrowed eyes below the helmet. "We're not innocent victims, patchy." Todd snorted. "I'm certain all that talk about killing me won't work since Dick's still got a hold on your conscience. It's about time someone other than Mrs. Kane got you to sit down and shut up."
"How DARE! –
"Mom is aware that you effed – up the fam, so give it up." Grant wagged his finger, the mind of a serial killer and mob boss as he just waited on until Slade was cornered like they'd need. "You didn't bring your lap dog with you?" Rose asked, the merc shrugging off the question with a dignified huff. "He's still coming out of shock."
"You can't win, dad." Droned the eldest anti – hero. "Dick is gonna slit your throat one day so you know he's a threat. You know Batman is gonna spiral if you keep the kid fostered like some baby animal. Are you going to indoctrinate him like you did to Terra? Coddle him and grant false praise like you had Rose, or will you belittle and berate your own eldest and neglect your meta – boy for being the weakest link…all because you birthed him?? Joey, by the way is a hero now. He's our problem later so you can just back off. Red; would you kindly do us the honor?"
"On it." The teen in the red helmet shot off a bang to hit the switch for the doors across from Slade's bewildered face. "Rose?" Grant turned to his sibling as she fished out a scrap of folded paper. "Let's make this official; if you don't get the heir you want, we cut your selfish self out of the picture and remain on opposite sides of the law…But if you get your just deserts with that Robin you talk about until my ears bleed…" Grant gripped the ink pen in hand as he took both the sheet and the pen to slide it over to Slade's foot. "Read it, but hurry it along. I ain't got as much time as –
"I'll read it and let you know in a second." Slade snipped and went to retrieve the form into his hand, skimming over the item rather quickly thanks to his ability. "It says that the "binding of this contract is null only when the authorized conclusion is established as final." Clicking his tongue, Slade had to chuckle at how sloppy the wording was. "If you wanted to beat the Riddler this badly at his own game, I'd have gone back to law school or hired a licensed attorney. You're not qualified to keep my millions safe, boy."
"Don't you know? I got a few years of training with another ass in the family, maybe you know em?"
Slade's eye shot up as Terra nodded to Red, the kid crooking his finger to have the form back. Slade knew it was as to their terms so he did his best to simple skim one more second before sliding the pack sent back over to his ungrateful rat of a son. "Got all of that, Stroke?" Terra sniffed and went to look over Grant's shoulder. "Signed and dotted. Good man you are, Slade." Grant lazily saluted the war hero, now made into a monster in the blind eye of a few decades lost to time's web.
More a whip, as Grant rolled up the pretty check in his hands and handed it to his trusted advisor. "Careful, Grant. Not only can you not trust your closest allies –
"Yeah, maybe if I'd treated them like family, none of this would have happened. You think?"
Slade stood back, his future in a vice as the parasite in his face was just busy dragging him into the swamp, the rest happy to suck him dry of the blood still keeping him alive. "We'll talk again, maybe if you break the rules. I've got eyes in high places. Ears all over, and your bots needed a new upgrade. That software is so "02." He smirked and took his crew elsewhere as Jay shot the door again, the wall coming up for their escape. The smoke pellets that Rose tossed were also of some use as Slade's mask filtered out enough while that gang of delinquents made their way like bandits out into the city of Metropolis.
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Tim was in the corner monitoring the city by the computer monitor of the Bat – screens, Raven and Zatanna with a dozen others stood a few feet away with Bruce's life in their hands. A bubbling dispair welled up within the boy's belly as he palmed a small comm unit from before that Grant had given the kid, in case he wanted to talk. Instead, Tim was too smart to be caught up in a takeover like this. He had contacted and connected to the only other face and name that would hear him out and give some decent advice that did not involve someone dying tonight.
"Miss Selina Kyle –
"Not now, Alfred. I have to see Bruce." She demanded with her cat like stare hypnotic, open and aware that she might not see what she'd wanted to in their time apart. "Follow me, this way if you please."
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Down in the cave, she was stunned by this master of the art of war and combat, the strategist personified. Had failed to defeat someone finally worthy of his time.
"Deathstroke was the culprit all along, I imagine word got out –
"Like rapid fire. I brought her here." Tim stood up and Selina cocked her head to the boy curiously. "I wasn't here to babysit, but you needed me to see to finding a weakness in that suit of Slade's."
"We'll change our agenda. Go into covert mode just to make him pay for all of this –
"Timothy! Vengeance is not the answer." Alfred raised his tone, yet the boy wasn't done explaining. "No, Slade is a mastermind of manipulation, torture. Right now, Red hood and Grant got a team ready to go and attack Slade wherever he's made his new lair….I know, because I might just join them."
"Absolute suicide, kid." Selina huffed. "You need a guide on how to stay OUT of trouble, not become a part of it."
"Slade is making this worse for all of us, look what he did to Bruce!"
"Actually…"
"No!" Tim shot at Miss M as she shrunk back, amazed that he wasn't as soft spoken as he'd been a year ago today. "This has to end, the league might be next and if Slade makes Dick into his perfect "heir?" He emphatically brought to his teammates' ears. "Then if he decides to do something to go against us all because Dick finally cracks –
"He…he won't." Miss M refused to believe that a boy like that could turn into a monster. "He's too strong to give up."
"In wars that start behind closed doors, kitten…there is no telling what is being done to his mind right now." Shivers ran up the martian's spine while Raven groaned and almost fell while meditating a few feet up. "Whoa! Raven! Are…"
"I…I don't know what this is, my powers are fragmented somehow."
"Has to be the probes."
"No, Zatanna." Raven shook her head and sat up. "It feels like a shock collar for the strongest of my spells. Even the ones I need, they won't heed me…it had to be back then."
"Then?" Tim bounded over and demanded to know what the empath was saying. "When was that? Inn India?? Nanda Par –
"We met, I tracked him to a hostel in the city." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "He attacked and I was knocked unconscious but he wasn't there after that. I though he was making his escape but he DID something…" She gritted her teeth and couldn't remember a thing other than the sensation of a shock to her skull. Something…
"We have to take a look at her." Tim demanded to Alfred, the only adult left besides Selina – unless she'd volunteer the title of keeper of the manor for a bit longer, there was not a soul to really make that choice as to whether Raven's body could have been tampered with in some way.
"I…need to go lie down." Raven forced herself to tell them, to go away from them as she was led to a guest room. Eyes shutting down softly, a cackle had her bolt right awake in the massive bed with a frightened gasp.
~ YOU DESIRE YOUR ABILITIES AS YOUR OWN, DAUGHTER. I CAN GRANT YOU ENOUGH POWER TO HAVE THEM BACK…IF YOU'LL ALLOW ME TO ASSIST IN RUINING THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR US. FOR THE PRICE OF ENTERING YOUR WORLD –
"NO!"
"Miss Rachel??" Alfred tugged the door open with a snap as he did for the manor's many inhabitants that still dealt with their nightmares. "You…. are you well, my dear being here? Is everything alright?"
She tugged the blankets back over her frame and bit her lip, a lie meaning he'd be safe from her father's wrath as well as the others. "I, wasn't myself before…it's nothing. I'll be fine…thank you Alfred…."
"Sleep well, my dear." The butler slowly shut the door with a click as Raven forced her mantra from her lips in an effort to quiet HIM.
"Azarath…. Metrion…. Zinthos…...Azarath……Metrion…."
Sleep took her, even if her pale face was gaunt later in worry and eyes sagging from the dreams she could potentially craft into their reality.
She begged it wouldn't be tomorrow, not with spring in a few more months. Not until she'd seen her very first red breasted Robin…only once, she begged to her inner demons to let her rest.
"Just this once…"
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Slade stomped back into the safe house while Dick rested on his day off. The phone was right in the kitchen as Slade wrenched the damned thing off the line while he punched in a furious set of numbers; as if this were a spy thriller and they only had thirty minutes until their residence went sky high.
"WILL." He breathed through the speaker as agent left his cup of tea for another time.
~I imagine things did not go as planned, sir? ~
"Better, William. Things have gotten more twisted than I'd anticipated of this entire bargain."
~It was never not a steal, sir. ~ Wintergreen deadpanned; the other soldier knowing that his intentions were nothing to gawk at. ~ How is the boy. ~
"Resting, until he heals." Slade rubbed his neck and grumbled. "How is…. Jump, right about now?"
~Quiet, mostly. ~ Will flipped the TV on as he saw the news of the Titans becoming more distant, less in trusting their betters but one ANOTHER.
~ Turn to the national news. There should be a reporter keeping up on the topic about this hour. ~
Slade went to the next room an did just that, the plasma coming to life like in his now terminated haunt.
~ THE LATEST IN JUMP CITY THIS MONTH; A RECENT BUZZ OF ACTIVITY SURROUNDING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AND THE GORDANIAN ALIEN ARMY HAS REFUGEES FROM THE PLANETS LISTED UP IN ARMS. THE PRESIDENT HAS THIS TO SAY TO ALL ALIENS INVOLVED IN THE DECISION TO HAVE WAR WHERE THEY ARE NOT PERMITTED TO EXHIBIT THIS RADICALIST LIFESTYLE. THE NEWEST CANDIDATE TO DATE, LEX LUTHOR –
"What??"
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~Though you too had been fairly close before, I would never have guessed him to have run for office. ~
"He's a fraud, we both should be locked up but here I am…." Slade ran a hand through his white blonde hair and groaned in a low sound. "He's out for Superman to be sent off, or executed. That's the only reason that he'd start this war against the aliens already made citizens on our planet."
~Indeed, his fixation with that man of steel is as appalling as the Joker seeking out the Dark Knight for a play date. ~
"Unbelievable…."
~ I agree, which is why I'll ask; should this go on. ~
Slade put the line down and turned on the speaker, Dick being fast asleep even if he had a gist of their discussion. "I'm not changing my mind, Wintergreen. You agreed to stay away from us both while he had to re – learn everything from what time we had to make –
~ Yet, is an heir all that matters? ~ Will questioned with his head in his palm. ~ Can that boy really replace anyone else, or is he an object to be won in a lucky call? You did a number on the Bat, I'm sure. ~ The man picked up his tepid cup and swished it around in its fine china thoughtfully. ~Yet what might happen if you're only left with enemies and not allies? You told that boy that he'd think of you as a parent one day, did you not? ~
"He's an investment, a challenge." Slade huffed into the speaker. "It would never work, not after what he's had to witness…not yet, anyway."
~ He'll eventually have to admit that there is no one else, yet is his loyalty still not to his parent above all else? ~
"I said it doesn't matter anymore." Slade dragged himself from the room as a face from the television and the newest headline had both adults to hold their tongues.
~Tamaran will not yield to these atrocities by my sister Blackfire's intervention and arrangement with the Citadel. ~
"She's up on that podium…"
~I, Starfire of Tamaran; second to the throne of the planet of my birth, shall leave you to return to my home and to do justice as it should be. That you will know nothing of the invasion years ago when I first learned of the Titans and the coming of the together…I, princess Starfire shall lead the army of my people and with the Justice league we shall overthrow my sister and bring peace to the universe before it may reach here as well to end our peaceful resolutions with the people of planet Earth and with the Planet Tamaran. ~
The press ate it all up as cameras flashed, while the upheld red headed royal gathered her words and left the stage. The United Nations being the place where her words could ring true. Right as Dick entered the room with his eyes lost somewhere in outer space before finally breaking down in tears upon the hard floor.
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