Teen Titans Presents; Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 7: Kakurenbo - I Will Find You at the Crossroads
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My name is Tara Markov, or it was once…
I lived in a big castle with a lot of staff with my older brothers and my parents. When they'd passed away under mysterious circumstances, my dad had left me and my two brothers under the care of my uncle. My father's brother, who we all knew had shady dealings with the military in Biyalia. My second eldest sibling Bryon said I needed to run away from there, but why?
Why would he tell me to get away?
As of the year before, he got us both – my uncle was a war crazed monster. Bryon and I tested positive for a meta gene or something and we both under- went an experimental process to make super - soldiers. For a war my parents had opposed, and the fact that when I was so young, I was made into the army's test subject for the very first time.
They took my oldest brother and made him into their puppet, while Bryon and I hurried to find any way that we could to leave the country behind.
To leave, while being hunted…by them.
And that wasn't until he took me by the hand. Until HE made me forget everything. Every awful thing that the new me had done…
One grey eye looking back as I sat in the mud, I remember only that I wanted to run as far as I could away from that eye.
I hurt people, lost control…and now?
I'm about to find out what happens to frightened runaway teenagers with super powers when they cross the most powerful hunter on the globe.
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She was covered in mud up to her boots. She wanted to have a place to stop, yet the earth had become her home for life. Tara yawned and awoke to the eagles in the desert flying into the trees farther uphill. The mesa she'd made her spot to scope out the day, was her table to both meditate by and to practice.
Practice in a way that none other might consider ordinary.
She dodged rocks as they fell onto her. The power she had wasn't all sunshine and butterflies as Tara got angry, kicking the dirt and shouting atop her platform frustratingly so.
"I can't do it! Argh!" Head in her hands, Tara slumped onto the rock crossed legged and groaned.
"I hate this…at least in the castle I never got too bored…"
A sound rumbled by as her ears raised to the air.
Something was moving…
She heard it grow louder as her proud, standing mesa would topple, so she got her gloved hands to work. She let a firelight of gold encase her body and for that time, she felt like a god of the earth.
A true monumental and elemental force –
Yet the heart grating rumble of whatever THAT had been, roared even closer to her cave in the rocks.
Right now, all she could do was gather her pack and run.
Run, like she was used to doing.
Stay away from causing others to lose their minds and lives. Their own way out was….
She never looked back, panting wildly.
She just ran, sweat dripping past her scalp as her lithe form had no defining features at fifteen to call
The red ad scaly false scorpion was large; it cut through her home as knife to butter on the kitchen table. She just thought for a moment…
Aha! A breach –
"Ah…!"
Yelping, Tara was stopped by a masked foe. The robotic scorpion was gone, a single clack as the device in the man's hand made Tara gasp for her breath. Skidding to a stop in the dirt path she'd carved long before, this blonde squinted to see that face of her pursuer.
"Who…. who are you?"
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And only moments to an hour ago, Slade had kept his schedule open. As promised to a certain target on his watch list.
"I'm going out for an errand, Dick."
Richard raised his black eye up to the mad man as his armor was back on, the appearance less than appealing to the rather laid - up apprentice of the crime lord in question.
"Dick."
"Di- …." Richard bit his lip. "Yes, sir."
"Better." Slade bobbed his head, knowing that one reprimand had not ironed the kid out in only months.
Hard work.
A few odd jobs.
More beat downs to get the idea into his student's rebellious head.
A shot fired by pulling the trigger.
It was routine enough as Slade walked over to the boy; his masked eyes staring back as if forced to.
Forced. Now, was that not the case at all?
"Wintergreen will see that you are in good shape by the time I return. And, I might have a surprise for you both once I do get back to the haunt."
Dick's head cocked a bit side ways, tilted to understand what Slade was up to.
Yet, he'd taken an oath. An oath that kept him loyal to his own cause.
"Grant will be your opponent this week. Not now, but in a bit. He's already been reprimanded to not work you over as much as the last time that you two had fought."
Dick wasn't Slade's son, yet Grant was.
Richard nodded, though gingerly he planted one foot to the ground.
Leaving his mattress was tough, yet Slade was passing hints along. Maybe he could definitely find out where the man intended to take this…
"Ravager only wanted to be here to see if he could become your apprentice again, right?"
"Not really." Slade replied with his back to the boy wonder. "Grant as you know, also knows how to kill. He also can do what I do, but his anger is not in check. And, I fear he'll never try to fix it. He's too dangerous –
"And I'm not?"
"I can train you, boy." Slade told his apprentice with a turn back around slowly. "He, refuses to learn."
"And, you specifically wanted me…" Dick's gulp had him sit his butt back down, afraid to imagine WHAT Slade had actually wanted.
Batman's side kick.
The orphaned acrobat and prodigy of the dark knight's little world.
It made him feel sick just thinking of that comparison.
Because it was, downright!
"Correct; yet, you don't have to pop the question." Slade was about to head out. His ears all but covered to the sound of the boy's cracking fists, Slade last farewell off could have been smoother a Dick's fists had failed him before.
"You already have the answers you need. Now, use those to take what's owed. I'll be back once my mission is a success." He left, the world just a bit quieter as Slade's presence had somewhat left Richard restless. It always was a kind of hint. Some warped question or puzzle that had an answer. He'd clamber for a reason and…then. Only then, did the boy wonder topple to the ground. He had no answers.
That was it, Slade knew it.
There was only, the inevitable right in front, as Dick watched the door swing back with a small sound.
"Aren't you going to see your master off?"
Dick wasn't so sure, yet Slade just waited, cocking his head until Richard moved swiftly to walk on through those doors.
Slade let them shut behind, his perfect apprentice finally taking the hint as he had hoped.
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As the hour drove him on to wonder, Slade watched from a secret room as his time had come.
~ Name's Terra. ~
Clever, yet…. she'd not said it before.
He watched as the blonde rushed after her new best companions.
He'd just rock her world once the time came. Dick was aware of none of it as Slade made it to the clearing where a diamond mine had been abandoned.
Bots were set up to appear auto – piloted to act as he got to the entrance in record time before the Titans.
The tunnel could use a makeover, so down it came with him inside.
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Spinning in a spiral of rock a silt, she'd lost it.
Slade was below the blonde; his eye only on she – the prize to his arsenal, his collective trophy and perhaps an obstacle to help hone Richard's promising abilities.
Even so, Immortus had lost out as Slade slunk away. The girl had his name and number, so he was sure she and he…would have their little chat again soon.
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"You told them, hum." Slade drank from a tall glass as Terra in her most rugged get up and a cap atop her blonde skull only sipped her iced tea and mulled over the Titans' reaction from right beside the merc on her bar stool seat.
"I can't get control of this, thing…. inside me…." She frowned and refused to cry in front of the man who'd chased her from here to Markovia. "I think I can be of some valuable assistance," Slade held out a hand. "If, you'll have me as your teacher."
Sometimes, the best way was the most complex. It was nothing more than a hand shake to her, yet to him, it was a soul bought and sold for personal gain as her words ushered the possibility of a further celebration on a job well done.
"So, what can you do for me? Are you like a villain or –
"Anti – hero. I did some work for the government before, and even helped out Batman a few times in my career."
Her eyes grew wide, just enough to trust in asking another question.
"So, did you meet his sidekick? Robin? The boy wonder? That's awesome! When do we get started?"
"This is no ordinary training camp, my dear." Slade advised, not wanting to seem untrustworthy at first bite of that pie on her plate.
Kid loved to eat. Just as a dragon loved to pillage.
"I think you know my powers are nothin' to brag." The kid had ego. He'd have to get her in line it seemed, as she'd now finished off –
"Another slice, please!"
He guessed it as she sat and put a dent in his wallet, even though he was in civilian wear on the outskirts of Jump at some old school, roadside diner.
"Enjoy it." Slade sat and waited for her gastric fire to settle before they'd gone out to the jeep that he'd driven in to get to her location. His shoes crunched over the gravel and dirt as she coyly looked about as a doe sniffing for greener pastures.
"Um, so is –
Tara yipped as her neck was pounded into - into the pressure point of Slade's choice. She collapsed with a faint sigh, Slade not wasting time as Tara was dumped into the back seat to sleep off her later, rude wake up.
No need to reveal his plans or his base, so the merc drove off with his ticket to defeating that one extra large thorn. And a rather heartbroken Titan was what she'd be dealt in due time.
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Dick just sat and did what he could on his own, while Slade had yet to return.
Wintergreen was fixing dinner for one more. An extra plate…
While, Grant didn't pop up once to scare the kid.
How fortuitous.
Dick breathed in, meditating as he was re – taught to sit by the master of this haunt.
~ I can get through today. ~
Another breath out.
~ He won't do anything to them. ~
And in.
~ I made sure to learn from him. ~
And out.
~ Slade is just my associate until I can outsmart him. ~
And in.
~ He has that temper…that's his only flaw to the serum the army used. I know almost who he is, but…~
Scrunching his eyes, Dick's concentration wasn't centered properly.
And out, lastly with a huff.
"Can't concentrate…" He rubbed his arms and looked up to then hear a creaking of walls move aside.
Dick got to his feet.
"Master…" Dick stayed tall and steady, his slight in his posture less than noticeable as Slade walked in from the catwalk doorway above his head.
Wait…
Who, was that?
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