"YOU ARE WHAT?"
Slade Wilson froze on the spot and his head snapped in the direction of Dick who was standing on the phone, although he did not know who the acrobat was talking to.
The former soldier never heard his son scream so surprised and shocked with an undercurrent of anger and disbelief. Slade seriously began to worry when he saw Dick clenching his jaw furiously and his eyes glowing menacingly golden.
"Are you pregnant?!" hissed the acrobat furiously.
Fuck.
Slade began to think seriously. The only people Dick talked to frequently, excluding Slade and Wintergreen, were three and all women: Sandra, Talia and Jade. The mercenary thought that for the first two it was almost unlikely for one of them to be pregnant for obvious reasons, and consequently Jade was the most likely one.
He could not blame Dick's overprotective anger toward his older sister in anything but blood. Slade himself also began to grow slightly attached to Jade after all her visits, and the thought that this girl who was like sixteen or seventeen years old was facing a pregnancy was a bit worrying.
Not to mention the reaction of fucking Sportmaster.
Today's young people. They have sex without taking precautions. Slade shook his head sadly but did not express his thoughts aloud.
He doubted that he would survive Dick's wrath.
He then groaned silently when he realized that sooner or later he had to have The Talk with his son.
It will be so embarrassing that I won't be surprised if Dick decapitates himself.
"Who the fuck is the father?"
Dick's anger roused him from his thoughts and Slade sent a silent prayer to whoever had the courage to impregnate Cheshire.
Whoever he was he would have little time left to live. That was for sure.
The answer was not long in coming.
"BRUCE WAYNE?"
Slade choked on his own saliva and coughed a few times to keep himself from choking to death.
What the fuck?
Now Slade knew the Bat was many things but damn he did not think a grown man and one of the heroes like Wayne was capable of impregnating an underage girl.
What, murder for Wayne was illegal even when it came to the scum of Gotham but impregnating an underage girl murderer like Cheshire was okay?
What, Catwoman no longer interested him?
If Bat was a pain in the ass before, this move of his put him on his blacklist.
Let's just say that the next time they would face each other Deathstroke would not hold back against Batman.
Slade watched Dick pacing back and forth with phone in hand and it occurred to him that his son still did not know that Wayne was Batman.
Maybe he should tell him because Renegade would have to be prepared for anything if he wanted to succeed in killing Batman.
Dick ran a hand over his head in an attempt to calm himself. "Does your father know?" he asked, the gold in his eyes giving way again to the original blue.
Slade frowned. That was not a question he would ask since he doubted that Jade would tell her father of all people but hey, maybe Dick had some good reason to ask the question.
Over the next two minutes Dick remained silent, listening to the woman on the other end of the phone line, and Slade shuddered as he saw the seriously pissed-off gold return to his eyes. "That bastard son of a bitch asshole!" roared Dick angrily.
His outburst startled Slade who unconsciously took a step back.
He had only seen his son this pissed off once and it was enough to give nightmares to the most dangerous mercenary in the world.
At this rate Renegade is really going to have a massacre full of blood and death. I'm beginning to fear that Deathstroke is becoming a joke compared to his own apprentice.
"You know what? We're going to have a coup-"
Fucking heaven. My son wants to overthrow the fucking American government.
"-we're going to kill that bastard and all his men-"
And in doing so he will end thousands, if not millions, of lives, including that of the president.
"-and we will put you in charge!"
Jade as president of the United States? And then what? Joker as peace ambassador?
"I'll call you back one of these days to explain all the details. You just act normal."
...Should I start searching the Internet for how to prevent my own son from preventing a coup because I am afraid that he would succeed without any problems?
Slade saw Dick end the call and the Talon abruptly turned in his direction. "You heard the conversation." came out more as a statement than a question but the former military man nodded anyway.
Slade took a deep breath and began to think very carefully mentally about the words to say and list the hundreds of reasons why he could not pull off a coup. "Listen Dick-"
"You're not going to stop me from doing what I have to do!" growled Dick dangerously and Slade shut his mouth tightly. "I'm going to kill Ra's! Whatever it takes!"
The super soldier's brain threatened to short-circuit.
For heaven's sake, now what the fuck did Ra's have to do with it?
"Ra's?"
Dick nodded abruptly and continued his outburst. "Do you realize how fucking sick that bastard is? He wants to have an heir from Bruce Wayne -don't ask me why because I don't know either- to train him to be the next Demon Head!"
Slade blinked slowly as his son continued to rail.
"Ra's wants to raise his own grandson in the League of Assassins as if he were a fucking weapon and train him! He wants his grandson to grow up learning only death, violence, how to kill and prevent him from having a real childhood that every child should have! That poor creature will have a series of scars even before he reaches double digits in age, and with every disobedience he will be punished in who knows what way!" Dick spat venomously. "Ra's is a fucking monster son of a bitch who must die as soon as possible and Talia must take over the League of Assassins!"
His outburst was interrupted when Slade made a loud facepalm.
Jade was not the pregnant one but Talia!
And the father was fucking Batman and yes, it made a lot more sense now since Slade knew that Ra's wanted Wayne as his heir. So for now Wayne was off Deathstroke's blacklist, thank goodness.
And Dick-
"You want to do a coup at the fucking League of Assassins, kill all the followers loyal to Ra's and Ra's himself and put Talia in charge of it." Slade realized.
Slade had never felt so stupid as he did at that moment.
And angry too.
Because, what the fuck? Slade knew that Ra's was a fucking crazy selfish mentally ill bastard who thought only of himself and his empire but this was a different story altogether!
Although Slade should not have been surprised, knowing how Ra's treated his own daughters.
There was a reason Nyssa wanted nothing more to do with him, after all. And Slade couldn't blame her at all.
"Are you going to help me or not?" asked Dick, proudly raising his chin in the air in defiance without ever breaking eye contact with his father.
Slade stared at him with a cold, calculating gaze, weighing the pros and cons.
The choice was easier and more obvious than he expected.
"I've always wanted to see that bastard die."
"What are you doing?" asked Slade curiously, staring at his son typing at the most technologically advanced computer he possessed.
"Wait a minute, I'm almost done." murmured Dick absentmindedly without ever taking his eyes off the bright screen.
Slade had trained his son to be a hacker and technology expert but to his surprise and amusement it turned out that in that field Dick was literally a genius. Despite his young age the acrobat had already become a much better hacker than Deathstroke and capable of hacking any electronic device.
Slade had literally caught his son having fun hacking the servers of the CIA, FBI, NCIS, other federal agencies and even the White House servers without anyone finding out!
The kiddo continued to impress him frequently and each time Slade felt the spark of pure pride ignite in his chest.
"Finished!"
Slade watched interestedly as Dick detached a flash drive from the computer and raised it as if it were a trophy. The Talon then turned to his father with a huge grin on his face.
"This flash drive contains a computer virus created by myself. As soon as I insert it into my holographic glove of Renegade's suit, every server in the League of Assassins will temporarily go down and Ra's will not be able to access it. He will also not be able to contact any person with any electronic device and consequently he will not be able to ask for help from his other loyal assassins such as Sportsmaster, David Cain, Deadshot, etc.
"It would also be easy for me to steal every single piece of information in all the files of the League of Assassins: all their bases, floor plans, accesses, secret passages, their plans, etc. Do you know how much money we could make if we sold such information? Millions and millions." Slade stared at him impressed and amazed. "But we can't do that because Talia has to take control of the League and direct it to other goals. Just in case, though, I copied such information onto another flash drive." he casually stated, mentioning another flash drive resting on the desk.
"Is all the League of Shadows' information from all their servers contained there?" asked the super soldier in surprise.
Dick snorted a little at the second name of Ra's organization and nodded. "I did it in case someone manages to oust Talia from the League. Or if Talia herself goes mad from the side effects of the Lazarus Pit." he said with a deep frown, hating the last possibility.
Slade let out a long, impressed whistle that made the kiddo chuckle. "Excellent work to say the least, Dick." he praised him, proudly resting a hand on his son's shoulder.
Dick did this completely on his own.
And he was only eleven years old.
Not even Slade himself would have been able to complete such a task. Or at least not as quickly and efficiently as Dick had done.
Slade had long since realized that, when his son became a real adult, Dick would be able to literally rule the world if only he really wanted to but this did not surprise him all that much and did not bother him at all.
Dick's face lit up at Slade's demonstration of pride. "Thank you!"
His father emitted a small chuckle and patted him on the back. "Have you also come up with a plan to follow?"
Dick stared at him surprised. "Won't you take care of the plan?"
The more experienced mercenary waved a hand dismissively. "It was your idea to overthrow the League of Shadows. And you also made a computer virus capable of momentarily disabling all the League's servers. You are doing great so far, so I see no reason why you can't come up with a plan of action. Of course, eventually we'll go over your plan together to improve it and see the mistakes."
Dick's blue eyes brightened considerably. "Are you really allowing me to take down the League of Assassins practically single-handedly?" he asked excitedly. His father nodded and the last Flying Grayson swept him into a bone-crushing hug. "Thanks, Dad."
Slade gave him a few pats on the back, a fond smile making its way onto his face. "You deserve it, kiddo. Now how about we train a bit and hang out afterwards?"
In response Dick's arms tightened further.