Teen Titans - Renegade's Last Resort - Finding Pandora: Hope

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Chapter 3: Static Cling

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Livewire will be a bit more meddlesome in this as a teen. Later, there may be a similar way Lightening from Tt03 acted that can compare them. So far, Slade is looking fir a simple way to get all the part of the Pandora Project operational before Green Arrow comes knocking at his door.

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Robin. There was a boy she'd adored only a few months ago. Before her cursed disaster and his final step out of the spotlight. Some gigs off the books were uncalled fir as Batman's scope had been miles wide. He'd even approved a treatment idea or two for the heroes when they'd been investigated fir the loss of his ward to….

Just as Two Face had nearly put the boy wonder out of commission, Dick wasn't allowed to speak of the real him. He was sworn to it through a lengthy unraveling of his past.

Starfire sought her favorite stuffed animal from a carnival together. The two of them, the boardwalk looking like a memory.

She was in hushed sound about the tower. Even though her team was on a special watch of one serious event that had all of them wondering the same; would their Renegade show?

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Batman mobilized up as he reached back out to his long standing once – rival in Starling City California. Oliver Queen of Queen Industries was on par with Bruce in what they'd done for the people. All but the playboy masks, Oliver had a problem that Bruce had dealt with only months ago to a year now of his ward, taking off after an argument on respect.

~ This kid ain't on it, he's willing to prove a point and drag the first shot out until someone calls me up. Roy needs help, and I couldn't tell him to –

"He'll have his intervention, Arrow I know the feeling all too soon." Bruce knit his brows below the cowl as he had one hour left to pull up and swap for an expo at Queen's building. They had swapped the idea of bringing it to Wayne's since the attack by what the press claimed as Robin going Rogue. After that, word got out that he wasn't working alone. That someone was barking orders, and Bruce picked up on it via that image of Dick pulling back when he saw his team in a heap. How he'd only left before Bruce caught a shot of the boy wiping back tears and a copter carrying him off not far from the wreckage.

As if he'd do the worst thing abd defect from his role now, as Renegade.

That. And the colors and logo were synonymous with a criminal that was called Slade by the Titans for weeks. Bruce had gotten reports of burning fire monsters across the mountain homes in California. Electrocuting terrors and a jailbreak that was used to gather someone of lesser importance.

There was a madman below those streets in Jump, and Bruce didn't have enough time again to console the Titans. He was already getting S.T.A.R labs on the ball in making a serum to keep them alive and a way to destroy the probes when sweeper tech failed them too.

Slade. It was as if they knew who that really was, but it all had to be another sign that there was more to come. Of Robin's falling out, and of his attack on Wayne's building in the dead of night.

He sped up along the highway before pulling into a space kept throughout many that the bat had addressed when needing to switch identities or locations. The car was left out of the public eye as Bruce Wayne walked out and wore a jacket and hat to be sure he'd not be spotted. He was supposed to be present to meet with Ollie. There was supposed to be a reason to use his wits; something was going to be swiped up tonight, only this time it was a public affair.

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Livewire played out the role of a young waiter and stayed behind the bar in time to set off a few hacked devices. The expo w as in a lavish hotel with wide, tall ceilings that could crush a tank. One bunch of nerds at the exhibit hall had A.I that could move their limbs and hug a person. It would come in handy as she had the commands Slade had wanted on Overload the " computer chip from hell," to take what he was after. A key that was stored in a box. Or the box itself, and to test that to see if it was legit.

If not, they were gone.

If it was?

Cause a scene and get out, pin it on the Bat if possible or any other heroes at this shindig.

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The music was a techno style that really, Roy would have hated. Either way, the next glass of alcohol that got to Ollie's lips was pulled slightly back by his plus one.

Her golden flax mane was a whisper about his shoulders as Dinah took her time and placed a set of strong willed fingers over his eyes and his wrist from behind. In heels, she could top his own height and his strength with one cry out.

"You're not a very reliable judge to them if you're wasted, babe"

She smiled at his cheek as he put the glass into her hands and she slowly downed it for him. Her dress held a shade of violet and black with a sparkle to it. More for the disco than any gala, yet she had the boots to match. She was here with a celebrity, yet as a partner. Her voice could rock whoever was after this "key" as Bruce had told them. Roy wasn't responding so of course, bouts of duress bounded off of the blonde man's shoulders in tidal waves.

"He wants to cut it close to being on his own. Ah, he won't come back, not unless someone-

"You think he'd go rogue and try to find Renegade, get some of that extra credit?" Frowned Dinah with a hand placed at her hip. He was up to his weight in the classy stuff. She'd swiped his third at most. Fourth…

"Olls, Bruce will show up. You know? That Renegade-

"He's no better, Dinah. At least I wanted to make things right. Bruce still greatly regrets less of why the kid ran from the cave in the first place. And I know, Slade. I've seen his kind of conniving before.. ."

He did, sadly. He knew because Slade had posted up his hello before heading to Jump City. At that time, Ollie actually believed that bastard to be the same as Wilson, an old pal in his days training on an island to be who he was now. …. Yet, he decided against it, Wilson being AWOL since that event had ended. That Slade?

Hell, they were nothing alike.

( I'm keeping the history from arrow partly in this, only Slade did something that Ollie wasn't aware of. I'm changing it, flashback later for suspense, conflict.)

"It's in the past. Most of those men are long gone –

"That's just it. The General never said what happened to any of those soldiers I was stranded with. If Wilson did survive a culling, my god…I got away, and I…"

"Drink up some of those sorrows, some more, why don't you."

Dinah turned to see a sighing Bruce Wayne beside the hotel staff of the building. "Mr. Wayne has arrived, should I have anything brought to your tables?"

They'd be seated later. Vulnerable, yet able to see much more than in this scatter – house.

"Not needed. We got things covered. Go see if Mrs. Benedict is in need of another glass?"

The staff hand nodded and walked away, leaving three friends to collect their thoughts amid drones above their heads and walking talking dog – bots.

"Some …Technical assistance required?"

"For my eyes, maybe." Grinned the archer. "Can you get over how bright it is in here?" Ollie chuckled as he and Bruce finally shook hands. "Great to have you out in broad daylight."

"It's still shy of day's end, Queen. Dinah? Has this event been the same since the start of the hotel gathering?"

That was their cue to walk off, and Livewire's to report to her boss, as a grin graced her lips right behind the table of champagne glasses that Oliver had taken five from. Give or take, four.

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~ Bat, bird and archer in the building. I repeat.~

" See that they stay away from the display. The key then, will go to the runner up."

Slade clicked the screen down as his apprentice was behind him, his eyes not focused on the screens as Dick launched himself out to strike.

The fight was an "intended" mock battle and Dick was thrust into the intensity of his own arrogance, despair. All if those things that Slade could pick at.

All while Bruce's muted voice and Ollie's earrings coaxed him to end their session. "Too much force." Slade chastised, evenly. "Concentrate that energy into a potent attack."

"Rrah!"

Richard slammed a boot into the man's chest as Slade pushed it off.

"Ruthless, yet uncoordinated. We're finally getting below the surface."

He let the kid's leg go as Dick never gave in. He strikes then on for whatever the reason, didn't want to miss.

Didn't want to flop, as he had when trying to stop the detonator.

When trying to save the ding dong day!!

The Titans were going to survive –

Slade got him, the blood on his cheek rippling as he spit out a glob and didn't check by exactly how much was on his glove.

"Can you do it, little Robin? Can you truly save your city any longer?"

That made him attack again, only to have his arm twisted as Slade put enough pressure diwn on every grip of his limb, while getting the kid to look at his adoptive father on the giant plasmas right above his head, twisted his body ti see it with every precision intended in order to break his will.

"Get a good look in, apprentice. There, is something only we are capable of. You; leading Bruce to lose that sharp edge, that it might get his partners hurt, and then… Arrow. An old war friend from the past that needs to be taught a lesson. Courtesy of a former boy wonder –

"I didn't want it to-

Dick's face was smashed into the rough floor. "You did, you hated being cast aside. But I found you, decided to give you another chance, a lost little son of someone that never cared long enough?"

Slade huffed and kept his voice lowered this time. "When Pandora's box is completely within my grasp, you'll see everything as it should be."

"Eye….of…the beholder…"

Slade turned his eye to squint a bit as Richard growled out those words.

"That's in a way, is exactly how it should be. You are my canvas to paint, and to reprogram all that you know, that is my work of art. " Slade yanked the poor child by the bicep as he gripped onto only air.

"Up." Slade let the boy go, so tired. On his knees, practically, Duck felt as gelatinous as Plasmus with depression.

Sweaty, resisting the burn in his spine as he stretched it out painfully raw, he didn't look back up at the screens again. Slade still expected him to be focused. In the present moment, not on the past or future.

"You'll condition your form with Wintergreen's assistance, then it's training for the mind. Can't be too rusty, can we now, Dick?"

"Never, sir." Snorted the kid, trying to comply as the words drove like ash through his clenched teeth.

"A better attitude, next time." Slade tutted, pointing his chin to the door, as Richard went and did his best not to agonizing over Will playing nurse on his weary frame.

The man knew his stuff. Balms, salves, stitches and of course, a massage or two never hurt. He'd never let Slade do that much, not even if they were the last two people on earth.

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