Teen Titans – ReBel Yell – If I Had Stayed a Renegade
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(Fun magical world vibes with bat clan and Deathstroke – titans 2003 in there. Enjoy!)
Hocus Pocus!
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THIS IS A CORNY JOKE FIC BASED OFF OF A FAN IMAGE OF SLADE AS A CAT KNOCKING OVER A MUG AND DICK GRTTING ANNOYED AT HIM FOR IT. IT Was funny then, so can we make it with a spooky twist??
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High sorcerer and lord of the valley Slade Winston (changing it) did not invite just ANYONE to his castle to become his apprentice in the magical arts. One had to be determined, free of other convictions and of course willing to see past the border of make believe.
The chosen pupil to be stepped light as a grey suited man servant brought the child in as the lord of the estate waved low to say his part, yet not one time did he seem relaxed or truly responsive.
"Richard, you'll follow his lordship to the west wing's library. Try to not get lost among the corridors, your sire."
Richard thanked the man servant known as William and went along to bound off after his new teacher in preferably the dark arts he'd assumed by the place the man had lived in for generations.
"The main hall is where we shall meet every day when William or I come to fetch you." He finally conveyed with his cloaked back still turned from the boy's blue and curious orbs. "You'll frequently the library as your place to a session, I do not wish to complicate matters and have you lost among the grounds on your first week as my apprentice."
"I wish to do what I must sir." The boy stood and smiled gleefully up to the older adult, who didn't smile. Nor did he chuckle and pay the child much mind which confused the young boy. At twelve, this figure had visited his village to seek a pupil to his dwindling legacy whom was well acquainted ith the lore and study of some magic as well as the gift of foresight which too was a rare thing. Richard Grayson lived as a performer to a rather small circus troupe and many believed he had the powers of flight and had twice predicted the death of his own parents. The boy wept at such accusations until Slade had found him crying out by the elephants. His face a mess as he promised, that when the child allowed the time, he'd learn to control his gifts properly. From there, not much as a year passed and the interests never faltered. The boy's parents were paid handsomely and even gained a protector called the Bat. Richard wondered if magic could take lives as well as Grant them safe reason to continue living, yet his new teacher believed that this rite was not for him to determine. (Mercenary hinted here.)
Slade parted that evening with the boy and by the next few hours when he was up with the morning day light, they would begin his training.
Well, a creepy castle with cobwebs and the sort should have tales of horror attached to it, should it not?
The same first night of Richard's rest inside his new abode, a scrit scrit sound at the door awoke him. He rubbed his weary eyes and sat upright, craving his neck to the sound.
He was told to remain here until morning, yet a bit of investigation could be a trouble. He only wished to rise well rested, and if it were rats or bats in the belfry, he was determined to shoo them away to acquire his peace of mind.
Tip toeing to the doorframe, another strange low you'll caught the boy's ear and he softly laughed to open the door and humor himself.
There stood nothing, he puzzled. Could this creature have darted off…or…
He didn't imagine the speed was significantly possible, so he shut the door and tried to get some rest.
By the next morning, he didn't feel ready to do much but crawl back under the covers as his arm was jabbed with a large ruler, his new teacher looking woefully displeased.
"Dear child, are you at all serious in your work for today?" He frowned, the boy rubbing his eyes before cupping a yawn to tell his tale. "I…yawn…did not get much sleep, sir…there was an animal scratching upon my door. It would not leave even when I simply peeked…might I ask if this lordship has housed any other friends, familiars perhaps?"
"Nay, child." The reluctant sorcerer clutched his stick and placed it off to the side. "Your first night was tasking, I'll let you however know that this castle is cursed as well as my form, should you ever need to know. I wake in the night at times, yet whatever that was it may well have been an apparition of some lowly mongrel begging to be petted. Pay it no heed." He instructed, while Richard tried his very best to stay wide awake for the lesson until after supper.
Thank new evening, he was determined to find his rest and the time to have it. How could he become the protégé of a powerful sorcerer if all he did was nap at his desk? No, there was reason to find this ghoul and drag it out of hiding for a what for. Richard had been allowed access to the library very soon, so his skill would grow at the arrival of the one beyond that doorway. He started the spell and waited on the fifth night, needing sleep badly as the yowling grew to z sheer number. He shouted as the door and his wand both cried out, including a tortoiseshell cat with one dark side of its face, the other purely orange with a pouting jaw and blue green eyes. Well, it flashed its tail and huffed while the boy found its movements to be more…. obscured. scratching his head, the cat sauntered off with its hole showing to the kid hastily, the boy turning red at the gesture as he rolled up his mage's sleeves of an apprentice and skidded after this supposed beast of burden, all the way into the kitchen of the male of the manor's.
"You are quick the ruffian, and not a clawed mark upon my new door. Do you realize what he'll do to you if he catches you?" The young wizard crossed his arms as the cat hopped up onto the counter tops of wood and began to claw, its face smug and content with not paying the kid much mind than it had intended to. The boy stomped along over and the cat moved to a spot with flour, which its tail dusted about to paint in the air and all over the child's dignity as he sputtered and coughed. "How dare you! Get well away from his property; you're going to have me expelled!" The boy whined to the cat, who snickered and only made the kitchen more as it wished in order to tic off the lad.
It soon found a pail and the water left over from-
Flour, water.
Oh no.
Richard reared up his wand and began to shoot static at the horse playing Tortie. He had no desire to explain that a mere cat had made a wreck of the Lord's kitchen for tomorrow. He did NOT was to be the one responsible for taking a punishment that was certainly not his own.
"Cat, you are making an awful mess. Why not leave this and catch the tails of some pesky rodents instead of pestering me? I must be well enough to study for tomorrow's lessons and you'll only be in the way of my peaceful night's sleep."
The cat only leaped up higher to the shelves as he started with the pans first, racks rattling as the boy could only climb as high as a sooty countertop on his knees. He reached for the cat yet nearly relieved a red nick by the vile thing. "How rude! Now I'll certainly make you a pair of mittens; and at the way we'll be here all through the night…you won't-
He stopped.
Fine, fine plates and bowls were presently in danger as the cat adjusted its paw, a brow raised as Richard mouthed a silent no with a rapid to slowed movement of a shake of his skull.
"Don't you –
SMASH !!*
"Stop that, ri-
Clack ! *
Bang. *
Clink!*
Pots, terra cotta cooking vessels and plates fell with cups for tea as the boy's magic no longer wished to remain contained. He lashed out with a whirl of his gift and off into the air he ended it, to levitate and clutch the cat in now bleeding knuckles. The thing spat and hissed, the China rattling farther away as he tugged the cat close as they fell.
How fortunate that William was there to pluck the boy from falling while in a tailspin to the next century. "Dear, my word! The mas –
He stopped and saw the cat, letting the boy go before escorting him up to his quarters with that shock still a problem. "But – but the cat!"
"It is alright, young master. This matter will clear itself up in time, I assure you. Now, try to get some rest. I'll ask the master if you might sleep in to recollect what time was list for tonight. Does that sound like a decent plan, then…good!"
With a click of the door, the butter gripped the now pouting animal by the scruff and carried it with a huff at arm's length apart to not get scratched as the boy possibly had, to the master's main study as the door behind them was shut. The cat dropped to its feet while the butler crossed his arms and tapped one foot rather cross.
"Explain yourself, Winston. That boy was nearly about to destroy your entire kitchen and MY fine china sets, imported! Do you have anything to say for what you've put us all through? Again!?"
The poof of smoke rose as the face of the cat vanished, the form and cloak appearing on his back as the white-haired male smugly snorted and went to the fire place to stoke a few embers. "Winter is upon us and I was made to test time and again any protégé's skills and talents that were brought before these walls. If that boy is in fact as gifted as you too saw, then I believe that test in the form of my familiar guise was worth the effort."
"And yet, the boy trusts or wishes to trust his teacher already; you'll isolate us inside of this… hut! There won't BE a successor if you have to scare them to get what it is you crave – that sort of power has corrupted your kind since the beginning. Trickster magic is meant to be used against an enemy in battle, not a boy attempting to overcome his stigma of being…as you are…" The butler shook his head of white hair. "The child's parents were saved thanks to his prediction and your timing, that was enough. Why don't you settle on a proper curriculum instead of relying on cheap gimmicks to have the perfect "apprentice."
"They won't last in this war if that trust is so fragile that it could shatter, true. Yet I'm not here to hold his hand, William." Slade looked to the night time out of the tall room's windows. "The child can cast spells and carries a great art that is in need of polishing. Something his parents were afraid to apprehend."
"You believe, he was protected at birth with the gift of the Bat – God?"
"Yes, that is why he must be trained to use that gift, William." Slade nodded, his heart set on making sure the bat god did not come to claim anymore sacrifices to his empire. (Batman, duh.)
"You believe him the one to even rise to fame and to bring peace…why did you choose that boy, tell me?"
Slade looked to the high moon and raised his hood, eyes glowing sapphire as his form swapped while William walked to the window. "Not another "flap" out there until I have my clear answer, sir. In here"
Slade's owl wings emerged and his eyes changed to golden (Court of Owls there.) "He was always meant to learn what I know, Will…There was only his predetermined spirit to guide him to me. The rest, is in the present."
"As you say, yet no more tests. Allow the boy his rest, you will….be returning by sunrise?"
"Perhaps, well before, old friend…" The man morphed into the great horned one, only one eye amiss as his true form allowed him the grace of the phantom hunter. William opened up the window, his eye on the man as his bird body took to the night. Will let the latch up so that the owl could roost if it so desired in its other guise upon day's break. What a trouble it was to be indebted to warlords and monsters…
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In the next room or so down the hall, Richard heard a loud hoot and hid under the blankets. He was sure that a curse was in fact not the reason, yet why was the butler sending him to his –
The boy bolted to the window as the one-eyed owl was spied well before the moon could cast its light. The child gaped, growling and pouting off to his covers as he muttered a fowl few words in his mother tongue.
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By the next morning, Richard bounded into the library and pointed a small finger at the imposing figure drinking tea in a china cup. Had…had that not shattered??
"You DO change forms at night! AHA!" The boy grinned and would have felt confident, had the next thing he saw not been the CAT that he'd shooed off in a manner of speaking.
"Why would I leave my manor, dear boy? Oh, excuse this creature. It tends to cause mischief if it isn't let to leave the grounds after dark."
The boy stuttered, then swapping to yes! The owl! It had one eye; he could use that –
"What of an owl?"
The boy sputtered, determined to win at this game. "That cat was taken by your butler, yet the owl I saw out my window had one eye and the plumage, was the very same as your cloak, sire!"
The man lifted his cup and hummed, thinking over the details in his head as the boy only waited impatiently for the man to grade him.
"You made quite a mess of my stock. The book you have, I want it returned by this afternoon." Smiled the smug bastard, the boy grunting as the cat only snickered by the older man's chair, mocking him.
"What….by chance is that creature also called, sire?"
"Grant."
"Grant…. a person's name…" The child nodded, dumb and well aware that he'd lost. "Very well, I'm very sorry and I shall return your things as soon as we are…."
"You may." The man said, looking over the side of his cup. The boy bowed and bolted; his feet headed to the new room to collect his borrowed book of spells from the man's library. Slade chuckled as the tortie – shelled cat started to speak in a human voice.
"You stupid magi. Why did you need to borrow my face last night?" The cat spat as it stood on two feet and went to change to the shape of a young brunette for a moment – just until his father's protégé retuned with that spell book. "Tests need witnesses, or so you had to deal with as a failed project."
"The dumb todd is so… he'll have you burned at the stake, father." Grant shook his hair out as bits of cat dander made the teen sneeze. "Whatever this is for, don't give him the easy course. That child knows flight and foresight." The face of the supposed son to the Lord Winston was chiseled and arrogant, he was ages over the new pupil by far. "Next time you want to act on your delusions, call me on my day to roam."
"Did you sleep with one too many promiscuous women again, bastard – son?" The man's temper turned as the cat's face returned, body and all as the knob soon turned. "I've brought the right one, sir…" The ebony youth poked his head through as the cat growled and then gave up, tail in the air as it went to seat itself elsewhere.
"I would like to know, Richard." The sorcerer smoothed back his hair a bit, the cat having gotten his tongue nearly in knots. "There was a spell you had memorized to have the cat show itself, how exactly did it go again?"
Grant rolled his green eyes and left the room. Of course, young blood to the alter was rare, his brother and sister were not as gifted as this one as the man had his new pupil gawk at what the spell allowed him to do. The hair on the man's back now a blue and green one-eyed sassy – fur ball as Richard stumbled back and nearly choked on his own words. "IT WAS! You are a cat! But, how?"
"A story for another day, and you've passed my exam as well." The man reverted; the words Will had told the man resonating. So, what if Richard was still not perfect, he would be a splitting image with a taste for the dark arts and wild magic in no time.
"You are officially my newest student… congratulations…."
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Fun bit, but a few things here. The Bat god is for sure a familiar spirit protecting the kid, so in the future he will probably try to destroy Slade who is actually a disguised dark sorcerer yet misunderstood. He has kids and one can transform at will, another is frail yet has great magic and Rose is a warrior with precognition. That's all. So? How was it! Let me know so I can do a Sladin one as well. Find out and see you in the fall!!
