Teen Titans Presents – Robin; Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Here it is!!!! The excerpt to ReBeL Yell's chapter: Puddles of Mud! Time to stop pausing. Time to start it up!
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Chapter 17: Run Rabbit Run – Shockwave
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The scare was that he'd win, but how sad that nothing was as he'd perceived it.
"Mr. Luthor will see you now, Mr. Delaney."
Slade's false code name was slicked behind thick rimmed glasses and a dark suit."
He obliged Mercy as she had Slade by the rope, pulling him in with her heels against the marble floors of Lex's main floor.
So tacky, but it wasn't the right or wrong era for some business casual class.
There was the sound of a fountain as Slade walked in through the doors of the tycoon's office, briefcase at the ready.
"I'll see to our guest, Mercy. You may go."
The cue ball villain in a gentleman's skin just stared at the other male; dead fish eyes as clever as they were wary, for both held plenty of secrets beneath their impressive visages.
"You came all the way from the west coast to make a deal, when I told you I didn't need your services the last time." Droned off the tycoon as the door sealed shut from behind Mr. Delany's business shoes and suit.
"I didn't come here for that." Slade walked closer to the CEO's fancy assortment of paper piles and weights. A few different shapes caught his eye.
"Real diamond, since crap glass won't cut as deeply for my tastes."
"I see." Slade did. Whoever tried to swipe a weight, was instantly a target to be gutted and hung.
"So, what have you brought to share with the class this time, Slade?"
"I can't get pat you, but Mercy might have figured it out." Slade scoffed and lifted up the case to show his associate and old business partner. "You still want an empire built by rogues. I told –
"This, isn't for my silly dream, Lex." Slade assured the cue ball at his desk. "This, is a future for the control of a growing threat. A way from our meta – problem you may find intriguing."
Lex's eyes dimmed darkly as the case had such an allure now. "Open it, show me." He demanded quickly.
"That I shall." Slade did so as the feat within had to be the smallest microchip in the galaxy.
"The size of a grain of sand; a chip so powerful that no amount of tampering can deactivate it."
Lex's eyes budged.
"Where did you come across this technology??"
"I'll tell you, if you'll let me have a seat at the table with your lovely Legion."
Lex rubbed his chin, fixated on the device. "It's injected inside a person who's already had the meta gene...but is that all?"
"It works on non – metas as well, a means to keep prisoners from tearing down their walls. A place in society to gather the worst in office to keep them on taught strings. And, a way to nullify any meta. Alien, or magical influence that becomes a threat."
"I can't be swayed by only talk. A demonstration? How is it activated?"
Slade had another lovely surprise inside the case as he propped up a tablet onto the desk, a video of his old, ungrateful specimen.
Terra.
"That's the Markovian princess!" Lex exclaimed. "You had her?? Slade –
"Watch." Slade pressed play, and the gears began to once again turn.
The curtain opening for the very next act.
/
Terra had to keep her eyes on the prize. Her freedom was at stake, yet for days she'd felt…odd. Strange.
"Beast boy…" Terra came to him looking quite pale.
"T!" Cy looked up from his waffle duty in the kitchen as Terra fell into Bb's torso, her body burning up.
"A virus has attacked our dear friend??" Starfire gasped and flew over, her voice cracking a bit. "This, cannot be…"
"Move." That got Raven worried as she joined Cyborg. "She's burning up." The older bro shook his head as Raven brought a hand to the teen's temple.
The shock was too much and for some reason, Terra's powers whacked the goth away.
"I don't…. know what's…" She clenched her skull and screamed, yellow energy pushing them all back.
"Titans!" she gasped and recalled the scare Slade had…
"Terra…what…how…"
"I…I don't know…. stay away!"
"Terra!" Bb flew to her as a parrot, squawking encouraging words as her own hope was being overwritten.
Electrical currents and nervous responses fueled her to get away, she used a pebble to amplify the hit as it ricocheted across the room.
"You've gotta stop this!" He wasn't hearing it. "I'm…not…doing this!"
"Terra!"
"T!"
"Terra, stop! We can help you if –
"Go…. away !!"
She couldn't do it, she pulled with her arms, biting the inside of her cheek until it grew slightly swollen.
"H – h – help!!"
BB's eyes began to water, yet he tried to fly to her, the rocky tornado in the room and her pulling chunks of the wall up deterred his friends from catching up.
"TERRA!! YOU NEED TO TAKE BACK CONTROL!! DON'T GO! TRY TO BREAK IT!! TERRA !!"
She let the whirlwind bury the way back, her rocky path made as a few steps from the wharf had been where she needed to go.
She screamed, her entire body on fire as it refused to listen. Something had hotwired her as easily as a car, or a doomsday device.
Machine.
"No… no! Don't take me back! Please! Help…me! –
She looked and saw from the warehouse; a slender girl dressed in Deathstroke's older colors.
"Been waiting to see your pretty face, princess." She smirked. Quickly, a device in Rose's hand had the teen geomancer as stunned as an insect to a zapper in the midst of a blazing hot, summertime.
"Ravager number one didn't keep either of you in line, really?" Sighed the girl assassin as Terra was scooped up quickly by her dad's bots and put with an inhibitor collar into a sleek vehicle. "We got a lot of work to catch up on…" Rose shook her head as the door shut, and the whirlwind of stone and rock by Titans tower, had dispersed to let them flee, uninterrupted.
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Slade stopped the video as Lex took in the wonderfully, in-depth footage for himself.
"You single handedly injected that…into her, then let her stay with the heroes…but they still believe she's on their side?"
"I did say." Slade let a smirk pierce through that comment, sharply. "That the chip, that little fleck of sand cannot be removed. Not unless you were to painstakingly rip open the body and stop the heart from beating. And, that." Slade smiled as Lex almost was afraid to join in on this serious proposal.
"Is why this little marvel of my own design is the perfect weapon for not only keeping my apprentices in line for a very, long time. Yet any meta – teen or adult that thinks they know any better than our alpha pack."
(We did say, plural, right? Find out! And, Lex knows!?)
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Slade's trip back to Jump didn't happen. He had seen Robin in a hurry; walking the halls on his own. And it bothered him to no end.
Rose's line turned up as she stood front and center before the screens.
"Has your captive been neutralized, temporarily?"
~ She has. ~
"Then, where is Renegade."
Rose's eyes fell as her mouth fell into a frown. ~ He's, escaped into the city, sir. ~
"As I'd figured." Slade huffed, rubbing his goatee in deep thought for a moment. "I'll be making a few extra stops. I won't be back in the few days that I'd promised you originally... And, Rose?"
Rose didn't budge as she awaited her next assignment.
"Be sure to think up a proper form of punishment for your little stunt earlier."
He skin, prickled from that instant image of her belittling Slade's teenaged prodigy.
"I don't appreciate unsolicited horseplay while I'm away from my base. That was extremely unprofessional, Ravager." He growled, her head bobbing as the girl's mask stayed in place.
~ I was careless and my actions led to, his treachery…. It won't happen again, sir. ~
"See to it that it won't, and be sure to keep an eye on Terra." His tone was not subject to considering the man a threat as Rose tried not to swallow in her employer's presence. "I don't want her committing a similar act while under your care." With that, Deathstroke ended the transmission, while Rose went to check on another uninvited houseguest.
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Renegade the flightless bird could be spotted anywhere, so where could he go?
Rose opened a set of high security cell doors with the wall's hidden panel and swung her sword at her hip. It was a good call; the glint hit one injured, masked thief's eye as he looked up from his cuffed existence at her gloating face.
"You sent out an "S.O.S." X sniffed.
Rose frowned as the assassin leaned against the shut inner cell's secured doorway. A slight pause before she decided to play back.
"Daddy, has you running all over the states for that one? Cause, you know he's not your property." Rose's gaze flickered as X raised his head up to openly sneer as he pleased at this "powder puff" of a lackey.
"He's no one's. And I'm not doing it for that guy. How'd you connect the dots, lack – sack? I'm impressed you learned so much in such little time you've been on team D.S."
"Ah, you ask the most pitiful questions out of any of my tortured victims." Chuckled the young girl. "I have my ways, you however?" She eyed the glass and sealed walls helping to keep the thief out of her way.
"Took a chance and with my brother; you both lost the target, so now you should just come clean and I might show you my own mercy…even then…"
"What? Talk, girlie. I've got my own problems too." X snipped to the chiding princess.
"Even so, Deathstroke might see you as a nuisance and want you put away, or down." She didn't say it with much passion for the kill as she did like teasing X's alter face in the mirror. It made her toes curl with sheer joy.
"Oh, you'll tell me. Where was he headed; do you know, informant?"
"Scout's honor." X turned his head, stance as cocky as hers was frightening. "Figure it out, yourself –
"Or what?" Rose put her face to the glass, making X jump up in surprise. "I could come in there, show you what I mean by mercy…" She pretended to write on the glass with her index finger. "If you'd just, tell me where that bird brat flew to, I'd let you go. Maybe even pardon my stupid older half -brother you seem to get along with."
"I was an informant to get closer to the one that I needed to talk to." X seethed as his cuffs stayed glued to his wrists. This was hopeless. She was just an ugly child with a bad temper.
Worse than Grant. Even if they were both kind of control freaks…
Army brats. Right…
"I don't know what you know, so can we play a little game, instead?" Her voice was tender, sweeter as she pulled back.
"Let's gamble. There is a spot on this glass that is not like the others." She smiled back at X. "If I can't find that spot with my weapon by the time one minute is up, you can go free."
"Hum…like that, huh? Didn't you know when you stayed here how this place, you know. Worked? What kind of stone-cold killer doesn't know how to gather data?"
"Only my dad and Wintergreen know about the entire layout, thief." She sniffed. "I'm just here as a guest on a long stay away from my platoon. I don't need to go insane to get what I want."
"Don't be so melodramatic, sheesh –
" ANY way. Do you accept?"
X looked at his cuffs, smelling danger creeping through the walls with its sharp claws. Big eyes and twin swords.
He shrugged his shoulders, body slack enough to give into a bet this easy. And twisted, all the same.
"Go on. Hum, but just humor me first; If I don't get out, then what is the verdict for me then, princess?"
Rose set down her sword a minute to think. "You will…stay here and never leave, and we get to experiment on you. All the time until you've outlived your purpose."
X's jaw beneath the mask went slack.
"And…you'll become Deathstroke's personal lab rat or test dummy. Sound, ok?"
" What ??"
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Dick's first thought was to get a new look, or to mask his old one. He needed a face to hitch hike to Gotham in peace.
Which, was an impossible desire that he'd have to face.
He was a hero, and heroes were never at peace for very long.
Villains just had it too easy.
He had to steal then. No money, no way to get to the Titans. He'd have to find a train and ride…
In this time, he'd be going to the East coast from the west. He could stop in Central. Talk to Uncle Barry…
But, one thing…
Wasn't Slade in Metropolis?
Dick scratched his head, right before his gnawing gut called out.
Hunger.
He was only human.
Dick groaned and saw a taco truck, a pizza shop and…
Grocery store.
He had to be quick. The idea was to not be seen. He took off the suit's external vambraces, leg and wrist, arm guards, the neck plate and the S on his top lastly with a quick yank.
Good. He looked…
Stupid.
Throwing a hand over his face, he still had to push for an extra accessory.
A hat?
Dick looked over and up, higher.
He imagined his friend at that eatery after training nonstop or…
After a fight had been averted in the city…
Instead?
An overweight man was sweating grossly in his terrace seat at the same pizza parlor table, as he took off his trucker hat and placed it down.
Dick's stomach protested with an adverse pause, with a new set of intestinal noises to add to Richard's throaty grumbling.
He bit down on his lip, completely ashamed by that prospect, but what could be done?
He swapped sides to search; a woman with a mod coat and a purse.
Much safer, right?
No. He really did not like this, her I.D. He could wire her back her lost change. He only needed enough for a bus or…
Plane. Was it safer by rail these days?
He shook his head, body still doing what he was really…hoping it might stop doing.
" Alright…" Snorted the boy as he paced quickly through the streets and found a way to get up higher.
He'd just do a few trips and flips, unseen by the many…. many witnesses in Jump's city square.
The grumbling could be an issue, so he had to do it.
Dick waited until one woman had been ready to load groceries into her car's back trunk. He took to his stealth training and it shocked him how much, that he'd changed because of it!
Not a peep; as one banana, a box of granola bars and a tall bottle of water just magically ended up going missing from the women's list of items to bring home to her family.
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Dick bit down into both a granola bar and the with banana in his other hand. Nag! He'd almost choked by how quickly he'd devoured it all. Didn't Rose remember to eat, or feed her prisoners?? Was Slade feeding him more than she'd been?
It was an unpleasant taste in his mouth to get past as Richard waited for the gaggling mod coat wearing fashionista to leave.
He saw.
Nope. They were all staying.
Good.
He put his mask into his belt's pouch and resisted wearing the gloves which had to stay on later…
No. it would prevent fingerprints, and he wanted to be found by the right people.
He wanted them to hear his cries for help.
The gloves were off as his belly had quieted long enough to turn now towards the pizzeria.
He went up to the second floor and saw her coat on the back of the woman's lone seat. The hat wearing trucker was still onto his third slice. Good.
Three women were at the table, he noted and got a bit closer to see.
But…
Was the man eating away his feelings? Richard had scarfed down as much as which he could ration…not a good place to start as he saw the woman's vintage purse and zoned in on his real target.
The waiter.
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The waiter would have brought more drinks over, yet Dick had that balancing act down and new threads to take off in. Under was his suit, which he needed for a way to keep from going with only a single cheap outfit on the open road.
Thankfully, Slade didn't do cheap.
Richard put on a pleasant grin and came over to the women who were already on their way to cloud nine by how adorable….
Oh, he got that a lot. Good old Ro…Richard.
" Ah! You should soo be a model! I've never seen such gorgeous skin. What foundation do you use? Is it inherited, dietary? Deets, please!"
The woman to his confusion and thanks, was a transgender person. For some reason, he had the sudden urge to break down and tell them everything he'd done or was about to do.
Instead, Dick Grayson put on a show for anyone watching. "Will you be taking your meals to go or to stay?"
"We'll stay, cutie…Wow, I must know your secret to flawless skin."
"My mother took very good care of herself. She ate well and exercised a lot. And so do I, but I apologize. Will you be needed anything else?"
"We'll do some more iced teas. This place is amazing with its selection." The other woman of the group grinned back. They had to be in their early twenties. Not much money there…
"Of course, I'll tell the owner you appreciated the service we gave you today."
"You betcha, sweetie." Giggled the mod coat wearing woman.
Dick turned to take the extra plates as he knew his chance had come.
Keeping his arm longest out, he faked it.
"Whoops!" The glasses fell and splashed the table and the mod coat wearing woman, instantly.
"Oh! Oh, I am…. Very, very sorry. This was the first –
"Well, don't just stand there! "The other two women both demanded anxiously. "It's getting all over!"
"Right!" Dick turned to go after the other side of the table, and to this he succeeded with swiping the coat.
Just, the coat.
He couldn't do it. Money wasn't what he was after, after all…
In a zip, he was back with cloths and cups of complimentary Tiramisu. "For the trouble I caused, these are on the house…! Please, enjoy."
When they had finished and had left the table, the tip that remained….
Pasta, meals. This was also a bistro…Three….
"Ten…. I can make it…" Dick swallowed. "I can get to the next city, before tonight."
/
He was hired accidentally and for the entire time, the crew saw his work and later it was better. No more spills, so he worked overtime that night. No one said a thing as he took home the many congratulatory tips and said nothing about it.
By the time ten pm rolled around, he'd made seventy dollars in tips.
Here, he could do the same in other places, but he had to move quickly.
Dick packed up and got to work.
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For thirty bucks, he had a train ticket to Steel city. From there, he'd find a way from Central to Blud, and…. or Gotham was a longer distance. Dick rubbed his tired face as the gas station restroom was all his brain could hatch to wash up in.
He was homeless right now temporarily, and he only had chump change before he got out of Steel and made it on towards the next bus out of that town too.
No Slade bots, no Rose or even Slade…or…He felt a lump grow in his throat.
No more, Titans…
They were oblivious at times, he wondered. Too much, that Starfire was possibly the only one still crying; vying on his safe return. Terra was ok. Dick sniffled, noticing his own tears shining back in the stained mirror's dirtied reflection. "It'll be ok. I'm not giving up." He spent a moment calming down before leaving the dirty bathroom with a sigh and a way back to some bus stop….to sleep.
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The rumble of a load enough bus was what had become his personal, alarm clock.
Dick rolled over; the sun greeted him harshly with a beam down onto his tired soul, and for one... He was dirty, but not by far as badly feeling that way - not as he felt for taking all of that food from that woman.
The food was still in his coat, but…
Stolen also, he sighed.
The water bottle's remaining contents were tepid and lukewarm, now. He saw a vending machine and decided to wait for the next bus as it… stayed.
Wait.
The driver…. changing, a tire!
He got the water out from the machine with a trick he'd learned from his days as the boy wonder in Gotham. Second only to a master thief, he'd be sure to never go over that line once Bruce cut him loose…
Dick jumped onto the bus's steps and pulled out a few dollars. "Where is this going? How much?"
A balding, elderly bus driver turned his head and leaned a bit back to face his client.
"City bus terminal is the last stop. You still, ridin?"
"Yeah." Dick nodded, answering clearly. He'd have better options to choose from, as the man didn't even bother to charge the kid the full amount.
He must have known the boy was a runaway, so Dick just thanked his stars for there still being kind people left in this crazy world.
Even if none of this felt safe, just wrong.
All wrong, as the bus pulled out and drove up past the freeway.
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