Teen Titans Present; Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 5: A Whole New World
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A brand-new agreement.
A different curriculum, and no sign of his former friends.
Slade had the papers piling up, while Dick had to learn new techniques, and taking more tests?
Was this really his life now? Heck, he'd been laxer as a prisoner than this. At least back then he HAD time to plan an escape!
And the meals would make him fatter at this rate. Wintergreen was a five-star chef and he could bring that to the grave just tasting a pilaf drenched in shaved asparagus and lemon basil sauce slathered trout….
Dear god. Was he…he wasn't, no.
Dick punched a piece of the gym equipment he'd gotten to clobber as thanks for picking up the pace on his "studies."
"I know where to slice someone's trachea!" He growled as the boy hit the punching bag, bare fisted.
"I have the exact pressure point map memorized in my head from all of those damn lessons on my master!"
Slade had offered, and of course that wouldn't kill him, but it was fun to watch Dick's reaction as Slade's reanimated face was something right out of a horror flick.
That was why Slade didn't pry, but he did come to throw Dick a bone once he was changed into something less covered in the kid's own denial.
"Renegade, good. I was hoping you'd take part in some of my, work…Come."
Dick had made a vow, so without a snort or groan, he followed the male to the lower space of their haunt underground.
There was a room that was guarded by two standing Slade – bots, a high-end security panel with hand and retina scanner. Slade's eye could widen under the mask, so it was just fine…but, this hall.
Dick wondered if it was off limits before. Slade had never brought him this far into the haunt. It had more rooms than a manor, if not as many as one underground.
"In here."
Slade was just telling him? What happened to the mystery? The threats?
Dick looked at the door as it slid back; a dark room, a great concern masking his eyes as Dick saw one bot walk towards a light switch –
And on it went, to reveal Slade's work.
Tied up to a chair, blindfolded, previously beaten with a bloody lip…
Dick gasped and nearly thought his head had started to spin, but no.
This, was all a part of his new training.
"Could you…. Sir –
"You're shocked; don't be. He's staying here and alive, apprentice. Meet Bill Marsden. He tried to reveal a cover up of one of my many, secretive operations." Slade leaned over with eye cornering the boy and his little extra credit project.
"Slade… what is he doing here? Why did you – Deathstroke." Dick gulped and faced the monster in the mask. Lights flickering for some added effect as the little pig squealed in his seat.
"You, it's too soon. I still can't –
"A little beat down is too much? After all of that glib talk? About doing as I expect of you?"
"Well, this is a little forward. I could make a mis –
"I won't let your hand slip." Slade chuckled to the kid. "Pardon my apprentice. He's rather new to the life of an underling. Would you like to try and change his mind, maybe?"
Slade; before anyone could react, he tugged off the blindfold keeping Bill's eyes from revealing much else.
" Rnnn - hmm!"
"No…. Slade, he knows –
"Then tell him to stop, Renegade." Slade crossed his arms, a bot grabbing the boy's hand to hand him a tool used to have these CIA idiots a good hit in their egos.
"See what makes him, tick."
Dick breathed out as the baton in his hand was weighted a bit. Too hard, too…
~ I made a vow, and he won't die. ~ Dick let his masked yes fall on the agent in his binds.
"I'll make it quick, don't…don't watch this…" He was shaking but this was no better than the pier. Robin had attacked a man to find THIS mad figure in the dark. Batman had taught him how to interrogate thugs, but not…
Not, defenseless…not like this !
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Slade saw how the hits were more reserved at first, until Slade swung around to bring in his own bot to keep the camera in its chest going.
"Sending…"
It started to record, every hit. As Dick paid little mind to Slade's trick.
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A set of loud beeping from the room woke poor Cy as he yawned and got up. "What the –
The main computer was receiving a file, so he opened it.
~ This is what they're not expecting; Robin, now a brand-new breed of anti – hero. How's it feel? …~
Cy tried to stop the link, but it kept rolling. He got out hiss arm, a groggy Raven and BB split on two screens.
"Get Star over here! It's Slade..."
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Robin was beating someone up as the clip showed his anger, his fear, and Raven knew to keep her eyes opened for it.
While Starfire bit back her tears from sight.
"This…is torture…is he?"
"Yeah." Cy answered Bb. "He's doin' Slade's dirty work. Probably for extra –
"Credit." Raven finished his sentence and looked at her leader's aura. "Conflict. He doesn't want to do this; but Slade didn't give him a choice –
"Then was this, not very recently sent to our home?" Starfire gasped as the CIA man was bludgeoned over and over in the gut, shoulder…where it hurt the very most as Slade had wished to see.
To see Robin, the boy wonder, falling apart once he was fully done venting out his frustrations on this poor innocent bystander.
"Nine tonight, the file got here in only a couple a' seconds but…Slade wants to have us up ta' the task, aw man…" Cy shook his head. Dick's face was beaded with sweat, not tears this time.
"Why is he not resisting as before? Why?"
"He can kill us, Starfire." Raven reminded the alien girl. "Slade has the probes under his control, he has the power to do away with the Titans..."
"Robin has to be his lap dog until he croaks, then…?" Shuddered BB. His eyes widened at the shouting boy in black and orange. His yells now came with a grip and a set of teeth at his target.
~ Answer me! Who gave you the intel?? Was it one of us?? Talk! ~
The gag was ripped away lastly as Dick pulled the man up to face him. Slade just shrugged, deciding to play along right before the big shocker.
~ Tell him, not me. WHO gave you the intel, he wanted to know…~
The blathering man sputtered in a whispering voice, the shock on his heart too much, as Dick dropped the man with a gasp.
His own lip quaking as a name was thusly, spoken from that beaten composure of their captive's.
~ R …e... d……e…X...~
/
"Red X??" Bb shouted to the team. "I thought Robin WAS Red X?? When did his suit gain a conscience!"
"Or a set of legs to walk outta…here."
They flew to the only place that dastardly suit could be.
"Slade set it all up! This has to be –
"Wrong?" Gar was cut off Cy as the vault was there, but already there was no door left to show how so…
Someone had been busy, while they'd not even bothered to check days ago…while only Robin had unlimited access.
"I'm gonna see the footage; Rae, Bb? Sniff around for anything suspicious."
"Aye aye…" Gar gulped and turned into a German Shepard.
"Friend, Cyborg!" Starfire floated over cautiously twisting around the warped metal and melted vault doorway.
"Is there nothing I may do to assist?"
"You, have gotta watch the rest a' that video." Star's eyes got wider as she put a set of hands to her lips…
"Save the file in case Slade left something like before with the pier. We'll find whoever's behind all a' this. Have a little faith, Star."
"I, also wish…to save what we can of the old Robin back..." She sniffed and nodded tearfully to her good friend.
"Me too, Star. We'll get em back. Just don't lose sight a' Slade. You got this." He gave her a grin and a thumb's up, but it still felt too weak to make much of a difference.
Not for that agent's case, not anytime soon…
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I kicked him.
SLAM !
I BROKE HIS NOSE.
CRACK! *
I GAVE HIM A BROKEN KNEECAP….NO, THAT'S NOT ME!
/
DICK!
Red X.
He was not lying. A man that terrified never told a… fib, no matter how farfetched the reality of it.
Slade seemed to grow quiet from just knowing something that Richard only wished he could know.
"You had the answers." Dick's knees buckled to stand. "I didn't have to beat him within an INCH."
"You needed the practice, and I was excited to see your response. Call it pride in my new protégé's progress." Smirked the prideful guardian.
"Sir, this was a waste of –
"It was what I wanted to happen, or would you rather I reverted to my old threats…. Your friends didn't find you yet. I don't believe that they even should."
"SIR, I meant…" Dick seethed in between his clenched teeth. "I could have done some more talking…you told me to interrogate him, but it went too far."
"Did it, Apprentice?" Slade wondered and paced, the Slade bots surrounding the two fighters. Hand to his masked chin, Slade was ever resourceful, yet was this not a message? Was this just a way to drag Robin's name further into the mud?
Robin balled up his fists and fought with every known fibre to let it go. He was….once, and always a hero, meant to stand up not down to a plea as he'd witnessed and been a full part of.
"That was just a taste of what's to be expected of your new role; you changed the game, of course it wouldn't be easy…"
"It never was going to be." Shrugged the hero as his eyes fell behind the mask. Slade came up to the boy and gripped his chin. In a commanding voice, Slade took the boy's chin and made Robin's disappointed gaze face his own unreadable image.
"You did alright for a first lesson; the plan was to have you adjust, and day by day. As long as it takes to mold you into the perfect heir, I'm willing to keep at my side."
"Am I?"
"You will be." Slade answered back to the nervous boy with a prideful glance.
"You will be, when I say it's time."
/
Running up a wall, one dark shadow found its way to the computer in its living room and sat down on a comfy sofa, a bottle of cola in its grip as the figure typed away, until a screen appeared on the laptop's monitor.
~ You gave the information I asked to the right men? ~
"It was a piece of cake." The shadow chugged its drink and then left it to the coffee table, its gloved fingers dancing across the keys on another laptop miraculously set up beside it to show the dealer on the screen what it expected to ramp up.
"The feed was secure, but of course…we had a bug that got into his network. I made sure one of my people contacted a client and bam! Done; the CEO of this enterprise is in our palm. What do you need me to sell out, next?"
Leaning in eagerly, the character could have been a common hacker, intel dealer or thief in the other's eyes.
He was much more of that, and the deal was to spread the word to that CEO the man on the screen had his eye on from day one.
~ Make sure he knows. That will be the second step. I have to ask you again however; did you get the file on the new target? The child from Markovia came up –
"She's the one, sir." The thief scratched his cheek as he leaned over to the second laptop and pulled up an image of the royal family in a civil war.
From within their own home. A coup was going to rock the nation, but it wasn't why the man on the screen had begged the question to know about the youngest daughter. A shy blonde with trust issues.
Very, useful to his cause.
~I need to track her location; I was told she'd run from her home and was on her way to find the Justice League. Can you intercept? Find her before the Bat and his little family get wise? ~
"I can do more with the Shadow's network to back my own prowess, sir." Grinned the thief as he pulled up a brand-new screen. "The tracer can detect geo – magnetic pulses, but is she really all the rage? Will it even blow by, because I heard she's –
~Her power is impressive, though as deadly as any meta child's. ~ The dealer told the thief. ~ I want her to come work for me, even if it's not of her own free will. She could create an opportunity to call the JLA to action…or, the Titans first…~
The thief looked at the blonde pre teen on the screen and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Isn't that…more like…. coercion? Or something –
~ She'd destroy cities without someone there to guide her. ~ The dealer explained. ~ If she's allowed to become a hero, we'd have to leave this city and stay out of her sights. I won't have another threat to deal with. I already made that clear to the heroes in Jump, and I don't have to repeat myself to a common thief. ~
"Former assassin turned rogue thief!" The anti – hero clarified with a hand to his hip. "Am I really just another intel informant to you? I even got your new tool to –
~It was bound to happen, regardless of the operative's role in his lashing out at the target. ~
"What, next?" The thief rested his elbows on his knees, head in his palms as he awaited his new orders.
And a fat wad of cash to be deposited to his secure bank account.
~I'll think of a way to snag the girl's attention. You, just have to send me her coordinates once she's close by. Keep an open eye also, for any bats. ~
The screen went blank as the thief threw off his mask, his headache much more so than it had been a month ago since…
"I'm helping a crazy paranoid crime lord…. sorry, kid." The thief shut down the pages of that girl's as he got ready to head in for the night. "Wonder what's on the evening news…"
He thought aloud, before reaching for his television's remote and flicking it on.
~ In other stories this week, Bruce Wayne; head CEO and Gotham's shining exemplar will be visiting his company's Jump City location to showcase –
"Oh no…" The thief dropped the device and went over another, to send a late message to his pal, underground.
"You'd better wire the rest; cause I'm going to have my hands full evading two bullets to the head – and a boomerang."
He pressed send, but not all of it. That was how he felt, until the response massage popped up only seconds after he'd sent his new note.
~ Understood. ~
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Bats.
His precognition had been spot on. Dick was showering before a late supper, so it was nothing more than a slow rest of the day until Slade broke the news to the dark knight.
But not tonight, as Slade looked at the time on his screens. "I'd best be rested for our meeting tomorrow." The man did what he had to, what he needed more than ever before. Dick was ruthless, but could he show anger towards the man that had raised him, only to disregard his feelings when the boy needed him most.
The question was, did the Bat care enough to come looking for his little lost Robin, or was he just a passing fad…
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Bruce Wayne. CEO and business legend…But now?
Two kids gone, one taken. The other was in the grave after the first had departed to start off on his own in the city of Jump a year ago. Had it all been the worst plan ever, well…he was definitely going to put Richard on house arrest once he was aware if the kid acted of his own will –
"Sir?" The door to the man's study opened. A white gloved butler came carrying a parcel in had as he walked up to the master of the house's large desk. Papers in matching locations to their uses, and pens aligned a bit awkwardly to help the barer find a balance amid his daily routine. Especially when things did not go about as planned, h had to then think outside the box.
"What is it, Alfred?" The ebony haired CEO; Mr. Wayne, took to raising his eyes to meet the old-time fiend and associate of his parent's gaze. The dry wit was customary with the man's role as well as for his personality. "Master Timothy spoke of a letter than arrived for you today, and I fear it may be more than urgent enough to see to, right away."
Bruce rose and took the note from the butler, while nodding his thanks before observing how a small rectangular item shifted from inside…
He immediately got to work. No toxic residue, and not a single bit of a bomb threat to spare –
He took out his letter opener and out fell the flash drive. A case in point that Alfred was on the money as usual. He'd been an agent in his post war days. This was nothing new to the brit as the older gent waited for the younger CEO to pop the drip into the side of his state-of-the-art lap top computer.
It was a sound file, and a rather ominous tone came from the voice of a face he could not place right away…
~Greetings, Mr. Wayne. As you are aware, there was some new circulating over a missing, prized pupil of yours; well, I have on this drive a second file to watch, while this one is to instruct before you do. I've not waited long enough to thank you for helping this young actor along into his role. And, if you'd like to see him one last time, my new asset and I will be at the unveiling party of Wayne's breakthrough device. The one that, if you weren't aware of it before…My dear apprentice had tried to take and had failed due to your security measures…~
"Who is that?" Alfred whispered over the younger's shoulder, yet Bruce just hovered his mouse over the video file.
~You'll know by my tone that nothing good can come from this reunion. And it never should…My apprentice is dying to see your smiling face, and in fact…I can't wait to show off what he knows…~
"Dear…What the devil was that lunatic on about, sir?"
"I'm playing the file, Al; I'll save it in case we have any clues imbedded in either message."
The screen was then split into two. One on the Titans' reaction to the same video that Bruce was seeing in the same second screen. When the one of the Titans had finished, a third replaced it.
"Was that young Master Richard?? I'd recognize the mask, yet…what was he doing to that gentleman??"
The change had both men look at one another, then back to the video on the screen.
A girl; Tara Markov and an experiment done to give her powers beside another, the second in line, Bryon Markov.
"Is…this a clue?"
"I don't know, Alfred." The screen shut down as Bruce went to grab the drive –
But Slade must have been quick about how to act. The drive fizzled and disintegrated in the dark knight's palm. A few bits in decay had no business….
"Oh, my…" Alfred held a hand to his lip as Bruce just dusted off the residue. Now, completely useless.
"I downloaded the sound file just as it was starting to swap places." Smirked the CEO billionaire. "Alfred? Get Tim ready for a night's patrol. I have to check the JLA databases in the morning before my big event happens, tomorrow."
/
The trip over to the building of course, was a ruse. Dick wasn't ready, but the bots could pose as great paparazzi with the right touch.
Or, he could pay off the camera – person that was closest to Slade's new find.
A neural interface suit controlled by a super AI system and linked to the person's nervous system by a series of brain wave receptors. (All a part of season two here!)
He wanted to see if Tara was all for being trained by the best, as long as she didn't bite the hand that fed her as his true heir did. She'd be up the ladder from Cinderblock, or even Overload. Ah, this was just getting better and better.
And today?
Slade looked at the time. Renegade was going to learn to hold the harshest of all modern weapons
A pistol.
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Dick's homework was piling up.
He was starting to drown in the vital parts of the human heart, to how certain points in the body could lose…
"The Master requests that you accompany him on a mission this afternoon."
Dick sat up. "I…Is he up?" As stupid as he looked asking it, Wintergreen did not bother to worry as the boy had about his proper timing. "You'll find him in the back, where he keeps his arsenal." The male left as Dick was beckoned to follow. He jumped into his boots and kept walking until they'd reached a doorway far taller than Dick might have liked.
"This is the place, and the master is glad you've finally accepted your task without complaint." Wintergreen bid the boy a good luck as the door slid back automatically as many did here in the haunt.
The room was dark…No light breached until the lights flickered on, the room full of empty cases and cradles for what seemed to be…a collection.
In the back was a sort of emblem that almost looked… -
"Interesting, isn't it."
The boy gasped as the lights spilled over to a spot by the emblem where Slade sat about a step just before, hands clasped as his face was dipped lower, his feet placed a width apart rather, casually. Yet, he seemed to be looking Richard over, telling all of his fears off from the get go as he leaned forwards, and another scare as the mechansms INSIDE the shatter proof and shock proof cases revealed what was hidden within them.
Guns, bayonets, rifles, bazookas, grenades, swords a plenty and?
The emblem finally made sense as Slade held the trigger in his one gloved grip. Too bold a move as Dick shuffled back a bit. Completely now aware of what he'd bargained for.
"You…Deathstroke –
"You caught on before, must be your previous information from the cave." Slade huffed. "No matter. Renegade; You'll be stepping up as my apprentice. You won't get the same treatment as before, the probes will still remain my number one motivation tool, yet you'll move on –
"What is all this? Are you a crime lord, or…"
"There is still your loyalty..." Slade put up a palm, sighing and showing it off to the right.
An eagle…
A gun.
Dick's mouth felt dry. Ravager's words had started to make some sense.
"You'll become heir to the crime lord as you call him, of this city…but in my spare time…I hunt. For an equal, opportunity for growth elsewhere. "
"You kill."
"And I've succeeded where none may, should they try to best my record." Chuckled the man as he rose up, boots tapping right over to the Eagle. With palm recognition, the case opened up. Only for him, as he slowly and carefully recovered his treasure with one gloved wrist into the box.
Turning it, the piece shown back. A fraction of its worth, for a life was worth much more.
"I didn't simply steal to cement myself into Jump's criminal hierarchy. It took aliases, time and all of my devotion to gather the necessary tools to build a proper foundation for my new legacy.
" Legacy?? You have family, a son. Why –
"He'd slit my throat first chance…and our abilities are far too similar. He's self centered, and his sibling isn't one for fighting dirty." Slade seemed to growl to himself those words; Dick had brought up a memory, and from the Bat's files on the merc, he had quite a temper when THAT was ever discussed.
"Sorry." Dick cleared his throat. "I've lost family, too."
Was…he trying to console his kidnapper??
"I can't except any pity, yet my sympathies do go out to you. However, there will be time to chat once I've decided to trust you more, Renegade."
"I gave you my wo –
" Words…" Slade shook his head, gun risen up to see the boy 's hands coming up to cover his face.
"WON'T always keep you alive, my apprentice. Fine reflexes, but maybe next time don't try to upset me, hold your tongue if you can."
Cocking his head, Dick's words of protest failed him due to his sworn oath. "Yes." Dick nodded with a bob of his shaggy black hair.
Slade agreed. His eye glanced down at the weapon in his hand as he raised it up again.
"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience. "From a quote by, Julius Caesar.
Click, went the mechanism.
Richard flinched to the sound; the noise reminding him of so many thugs back in Gotham…
"This gun will be for your benefit. I want you to try and take it from me, then shoot it back." He had his eye on the boy's widened eye holes on his smaller mask.
His master spoke in a whisper, a hint of hidden glee in the thought of turning a hero against the world that had made him soft.
"Don't miss." Was what he'd uttered, and Dick ABSOLUTELY knew that his luck had turned for the far worse…
Slade, wanted the boy to be a willful assassin.
"Command an army, and they will follow."
Dick's eyes narrowed.
Now, how could he get out of this predicament without resorting to violence…
Slade's eye popped as Dick gasped back into his throat, forgetting that he could choke. Just as Slade had realized, before anyone else.
The man held the unthinkable tool in his hands, and yet he taunted. He knew how to fire, as the first warning came too quickly to counter.
"Then…think fast!"
/
Next is chapter 6: cowardly lion! Dick gets a crash course in guns and flops, and his head gets butchered by the wrong barber. Who said Slade isn't trying to replace Grant?? Read on!