Deathstroke; War Games-
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Chapter 4: Long Road Ahead to Find the Sea
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Been away for months! So sorry! Worked on my course work then took a break. Anyway, anyone ready fir chapter two? Back on the lam!!
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"I can contact one of my own connections for a plane to wherever you last were. Rose has to be in the same base if it was no more than a month ago." Slade told Miriam and Dick as they geared up and hopped into the sporty vehicle. "There should be a military air base, due south. Four hours, tops. Did you bring water?"
" What water!?..." Dick grumbled. "Mirage didn't store –
"I know of a rest station, dead into that same direction. I had tried to find the end of this desert, yet my mind was on escaping capture. It never continued." She said with her eyes behind her. The rock being ravaged apart for any clues on the culprits' next new fork in the road. "I vote we do that. All in favor?"
"Sit down, Grayson." Slade pulled the thing out just to jostle Wing into his seat. "Ah, you're no fun. Right now, but when we get some of his thirst quenched, he'll be singing to my tune." Beamed the vigilante. Mirage gave a small breathy giggle. "I appreciate your positive attitude very much. He is only being realistic."
"If you intend to convert us right this second into your uber drivers for all eternity, I'll let the next car come to help hitchhike you both across the damned desert." Slade revved up and they took off while none of the drones came after. This was a seek and destroy mission and Mirage had thankfully masked their escape flawlessly by her powers of insight and deception.
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An hour finally went by, and the next stop would be, the rest stop that Slade claimed he would take the greatest piss in - even under "said circumstances" in this backwards location.
A man with a wrench, a beat up trucker hat and a grizzly looking beard was fixing his pick up truck along the dusty road as behind him was the neon sign of the new guest's supposed destination. "I'll go in. You two, stay and don't make a scene." Slade pulled in as the grease monkey came to investigate.
"Rodger, D." Dick saluted. "Mimi here and I are going to talk heroes and villains. Too bad there isn't a deck of cards? D'you need my wallet-
"You can keep daddy's loose change inside the vehicle at all times." Snorted the mercenary. " I'll buy. Gas, a case of water and something to shut you up for the hours I have left to remain sane."
"Somehow, that makes this road trip feel a whole lot better. Thanks." Dick sighed with a head shake in disappointment. "You do you, I'll be back when you need me."
Mirage didn't talk much as whatever was after them, really stirred up some intense emotional baggage. "Have each other safe by the time I'm through here." Slade locked them in and walked off to tip his eye to the owner. The man was dusty and tanned from working outside. The rest of the place looked as old fashioned as a Hollywood set from the fifties to the man who'd lived through that decade.
Slade did as he was; he asked the man with the wrench if he could 'take a leak ' to be kind. Dick read his lips and groaned. "That man is really good at acting like a slob. Even off the job."
"You two, are very close?" Mirage asked, as Dick tried to think of all those adventures, apprenticeships, blackmail, murder runs and end of the world specials that his brain could muster up. "HNmm …you could say that we do have a history. Mostly not the greatest dynamic. He tried to train me twice and I refused his offer."
"You said you are a vigilantein the north eastern part of the country?"
"And California too." Dick shrugged a small bit of fatigue from his shoulders. "His daughter, who we are looking to save, she was a Titan and I helped her learn to use her abilities for others to understand her as a hero. Not a threat. She…was not able to be as committed and returned to whatever she's been up to. I think it was primarily my fault."
"Do not blame yourself. How old was this girl?"
"Almost an adult. She was…was getting the hang of not having Slade to pick on her anymore. Her brother had a similar concern and came to us – Slade found out about that and we teamed up to save Rose. She was abducted by a criminal group called the H.I.V.E."
Mirage didn't look so good as she put a hand to hher temple at that acronym. "I, would like to rest my eyes a moment." She said in a feeble, small voice. "Would you watch for our pursuers in the meantime…"
"Of, of course…" Dick let her rest her head as she didn't rouse. She'd flinched pretty severely at their title. Could the H.I.V.E be why Rose had chosen her path? Maybe in the last battle when she had been the queen, someone or something, had spoken to her to keep up the role…had she only reflected on doing so then changed her mind? Was Slade…actually right back then to stop her from joining Dick's team??
He was tired too as the door in the next few minutes, the jostle of the latch had Dick pull at it as it pulled back.
Why did he feel like this was never a good thing. And…wait…
Where the heck was their driver???
Slade was tied up, but not in the store getting water. Two shots into the latrine they called a toilet and he was amused and shot with a tranquilizer. Being caught with your pants down was not a part of the game plan as Slade got knocked out with something only an enemy of his could concoct.
The horn and security alarm of that stupid car had him bolt awake as his doctor worked into overdrive. The damned agents if Kobra he thought, dragged out their worst while Slade was unable to leave as promised. And he'd been less thirsty for adventure than Grayson this time around.
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Dick kicked out at the menace in a black mask as the emblem resembled just as Mirage had said. Her old boss.
"The barrier! Shield this, and get them away. I'll go after Slade…" Dick rolled and clocked a nitwit henchperson in the jaw as he let Mirage pull up her barrier. Only a second. She was still so weak from using her power without getting properly hydrated first. He went into the jingling door frame and opened it to find the owner tied and gagged on his side, with the three ninja like Kobra commandos standing watch. Dick made sure work of them and found no one. He had a feeling Slade's idea of a bad vacation being worse than this one, was a mission where the world's mightiest mercenary fell into a toilet connected right to a desert gas station.
He'd rag on the man later about that folly. For now, Dick made his way to the stall. It wouldn't open. The door was bolted down pretty badly. He saw the commandos from the car coming as Mirage was sweating near bullets trying to bide their time. Dick used those head butting ninja to kick the door fir him, effectively pulling it off the hinge as he took this in good faith. "Slade?? I'm here, where –
The damned bullet nearly had Dick fall backwards as Slade's idea if carrying heat hopefully wasn't the way prisoners carried cigarettes. "You done gawking? Where is the car?"
"Huh??"
Dock swing around as Slade pointed to the missing vehicle. "Did she…Mimi! Are you still there!!"
The illusion vanished as the gun men got tested with waiting. All cocjed on the three, Slade knew they'd be compensated for a lifetime if they got these freaks away from the mile of pipeline.
Slade nudged Dick to go and head to Mirage, but Dick refused to then and there abandon the senior. "I have an idea, but you have to get inside the damn car. Drive a few miles off and I'll meet you."
"What…what kind of plan is –
"Go!" Slade pushed Dick as the bullets whizzed in a fight to the quick. Being insecure regarding the man's motives, Slade had to…to be risking something very big like the fall into the ocean when he was still a teenager. Again, rescuing Slade's kids. Slade reloaded his gun without Duck having to see it as he ran into the store.
What?
"MOVE!" Dick kicked the Kobra agent as Mirage was hissing now through her teeth. "I know the plan. Hang on tight!" Getting them out of park, the main front that had assaulted the vehicle never stood long enough, while Dick did as he was told and drove in the further direction away from what Slade was hoping to attempt.
His skill behind the wheel was due to Spiral, a spy needed a good reason to use a getaway vehicle. Mirage let her body sway as she fell unconscious. All while the ticking gasoline had a great big explosion to wall them out. Slade still right behind, with a case of fucking six packs of water under his arm. The rest of the blast he'd even done the owner a favor by dragging his sorry ass out. The explosion would make the desert sun even hotter as he walked with a minor limp amid mangled, burning bodies of needy Kora agents. Hw hated this sort of thing, yet it suited him fine. At least he'd pocketed some granola bars to keep them from starving themselves for the next two hours.
Dick drive slowly as the gas gage had enough fir two more hours and a half to their shock. "We never fueled it…" Dick sighed, head to the wheel. "Slade. You blew up our only way out of this hot house, again!!"
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Slade took his sweet time as Dick fanned himself to keep the gas on a steady off. He'd die here. No, he was a lizard, cooling on a manmade grill in a place known as Death Valley.
The panting bastard did catch up as he saw the shirtless wonder brat abd the weak and sickly woman before tapping the glass. "Got it."
He even got a canister jug of gas that…. well, it would do.
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Dick chugged two bottles as Mirage sipped hers and ate a granola bar wkth dark chocolate abd dried cherries. A tasteless victory, nonetheless.
A disabled one thanks to their quicker actions.
"And the owner? What about his business?"
"He won it off someone else in a poker game." Slade ripped into a highly sense calorie rich pecan and pretzel protein bar. He also had shoved an unwrapped hot dog in his trousers with the bun. In half. Dick grimaced by the man's survival skills being less than presentable. He chewed his own protein bar and actually enjoyed how much it tasted like a darn brownie. He would get hooked in no time! ( not an innuendo!)
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Mirage was feeling far better as she examined what Kobra was after. "Anyone once associated with that organization must either swear themselves and stay with the cult of Libra after their demoted position is posted, or…termination is the final outcome if a person should…not comply with the terms as followed."
"How did you get mixed up with them in the first place? And that dog headed man…is he running them? I know he came after us. But …how did he know to send –
"The dog headed man is new." Miriam brushed a lock of silver hair behind her ear and pictured her past with her father. "My father worked as a head scientist in their Brazil laboratories when I was still young. He told me that Kobra could change the world and I would also become a member…I had no idea why. Then, I realized that he was forced to comply to their indoctrination practices." She shuddered. "I underwent, tests…it was to find if my meta gene had surfaced since my mother was once a follower and had her own powers. They found very little but in time, as I took to a post as a woman as I was expected to do, the gene was triggered by a great explosion. My parents were killed, my time was interrupted and Kobra blamed me for the –
She held her skull and dropped her capped water as Dick swapped seats to go to her. "You're safe here, what happened? Was there any reason how long …"
"Another time ago. I…know you are searching for that girl. I know what she is. What she did when she allowed the lab to…"
"ROSE?" Slade swallowed his last bite whole as his head leaned back. "What time, talk. You know about Kobra, worked with them but you act….as if you aren't from here at all."
"I am from, a future where Kobra loses. Where the dig headed man's protégé takes over and kills my family. Justifying our demise as I did fir coming here. Those soldiers work for that man. Not, for the old family I once owned my camera life to."
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The sea, is out of the desert so it means they are living in madness. Poor Dick…Rose is going to be an overlord's hair and Mirage is from the future? In the comics, the Tt Mirage was, yet she's a lot different than our daily version in this. Find out!!