Teen Titans – Renegade's Last Resort: Finding Pandora – Hope
/
Chapter 6: Fortuitous Union of an Obsolete Number
/
In sci – fi, numbers define characters in an inhumane way. Slade sees Dick as his second trial, thus, he sees him as far less – not only compared to what he'll do with Livewire for losing his priceless target.
Now?
/
"I thought it was too early to send anyone in." Slade paced as Richard sat on the ground by the man's throne, crosslegged as he was on this "learning curve" to get back onto the man's good side. Two days later, and Belle Reve was supposed to be expecting Livewire. Slade didn't like that outcome, so as any crime lord, he…did his research on the meta of electrical currents.
"She can find her way back. The chip was uploaded by my protocol set into Overload's program to retreat. He can get her out of those cuffs so we can do things correctly this time."
"Why not send your bots, or…me?"
Someone had to say it. Slade cold drag the Hive off their asses with the money he made on the side. Money, that from what Dick had learned over that month, was inherited as a means of thanks to one of Deathstroke's old clients. He was nearly on par with Bruce, though he let that be his secret for any outsiders to note down for later, including the JLA.
"She won't survive at that prison. It would be wrong not to give the girl a second chance out of her predicament." He didn't let Richard stop him as Slade moved to the console and stared at the large screen with a mixed expression. "Renegade."
Dick's eyes pulled up from the ground to see the screen and security footage of an armored vehicle. "Would you like to do the honors?"
/
He was just hacking, pretty symbolic to the dark side Richard pretended to keep "under" lock and key.
Slade let the boy stay as he monitored and even righted a few rough edges in the kid's method. "Don't forget. The lens only…"
They did as master and apprentice as Richard stuffed that down, knowing Slade's hand wasn't guiding his own to overlap. That the body lurching over him was not his lord or savior, and that hope…Livewire's, would come soon.
She was still in Star City when Cy had a rooftop chat with Speedy. They stared at each other a moment before Roy started for them both. "I, needed to talk to your team again."
"Well, you didn't stop the last time you crashed." Cy saw that the day was at late noon. That wherever Slade was, time never mattered to his prisoners.
"I know, and Arrow told me to stay longer, but…I think he's in your city. I want to help to flush them both out –
"Dick's a victim, Slade is the one who –
"I'm not so sure. Heck, he may be letting it go to get out, but the longer this goes on…"
"Look." Cy ran a hand over his skull, not liking what he had to say. Roy was not a very optimistic person, just like how Queen had a dark side he didn't push on the kid now, but had when he'd been too close to his ward. "You and the JLA, I don't know how you handle things like these kinda cases….But Robin is not a villain, not yet. We saw the probes and of course he had to do nothin', cause Slade would kill us and he'd have nobody left –
"Bruce cared. Why single him out?"
"He said, Rob said they broke it off. He lost his chance to make things right, so I trust that only he can do the right thing, cause you all know Batman? He broods, and so does Rob."
"He, we do it too, it's a thing." Roy bit the inside of his cheek, his next want of a fix coming on. "Look. I came to offer in hunting Slade down because he sent Livewire and his goliath friend Overload from your city to steal something that could really cause a lot of suffering. You up to date on S.T.A.R labs and what they found less than five months ago? A space odessey ended with them taking back a sample of some mineral ore and turns out, it's a priceless and unclaimed specimen that HE just happens to want."
"Wait…" Cy thought back to the talks and reports from hiss dad before they'd taken a break. "The…no way –
"Way, the fucking instrument of "power" could cause a world wide bunch of chaos to formn and your own villain isn't so special. He's a JLA problem, so I suggest –
"Friend Cyborg?" Starfire poked her head out from the stairway door to the roof. "Friend, and, oh!" Star blinked at the boy wonder's red headed copycat. "Mr…Archer?"
"Harper. But…Speedy is fine."
"Ah, Star. Did Rae do all the tests?" He checked her over, her color had returned as he sighed, thanking the fact that Slade was a strategist and not a real monster. "She has completed the many, yet I am again told not to participate with our outings….Ah! And the man on the news has spoken! You must both come and see!"
/
The security guards in the video had Bruce shooting over to help Ollie with their escapee. She had help, was not even corporeal except as a string of lightening going out the door. "She's dematerialized herself to escape capture. I didn't even know that was one of her abilities often."
~It was with an extra bit of juice. The chip that had Overload was empty, she must have gotten high jacked so he could carry her to reform her body someplace else. He has to have a duplicate chip –
"Slade." The bat huffed and sped up down the throughway. "It's a good thing, too. I was not even halfway back to Gotham when I'd seen the footage."
~That butler you have is quick as Catwoman's only whip, and Roy is headed here to see to the investigation. Lord knows he won't let that down after meeting up again and throwing shade at my fiancé. ~
"He'll come around once we stop Slade, and maybe…then, you can help him clean up and come clean about what he's really feeling."
~Since when can you read kids' minds? ~ Queen wondered aloud while Batman had to smirk to his deduction skills. "Analytical perception is the easy part. Getting him to talk to you and stay in one place is what I'm not so great at either." Admitted the bat, thinking to his own son, still at home and waiting to go back out on patrol through the heart of Gotham city.
While his ward, his very first…refused to be found right away.
/
"So, will we get to know what's going on in time, Cyborg?" Bb scratched his ear as a dog while Raven refused to sit in the T- ship with him. "We took a plane to arrive, so we have ten minutes to land, talk to the authorities and witnesses as much as we can before getting over to the big leaguers." Cy explained. "Robin isn't behind this, and Slade could be doinbg all of it remotely from the comfort of his lair. Star? You might wanna just tag along but not try to push yourself."
"I am well, well knowing enough to not be threatened by an illness that will not reveal itself clearly to others." Starfire leaned into her hand and looked out the window at the streets of Star city. Jump was smaller and more suburban to this larger metropolis. Only second to the place where Cy had grown up, it was nearly four as they arrived to a sea of cop cars and people being shot at by ten to thirty camera lenses. "This place….security it ultra tight…"
"It's for their protection. Because Star's own heroes need to be ready all of the time." Raven told the green teen. "They have a similar network of villains - compared to Gotham, being the most dangerous."
"Oh! There is our friend, Mr. Speedy!"
Starfire opened the window to wave as he tried not to pull a "steal" on the Tamaranean girl. He knew that she and Richard were close, and they had words to exchange later.
Setting themselves amid the flow of the investigation, Batman was there with Black Canary and Green Arrow. Roy didn't look his way as he took to his own crime scene investigation tips. "So, do you know about us?" Bb blew them all out of the way as he came up to Green Arrow, the even bigger boaster of the pack, besides the Flash.
"Oy, hi kid…..Um, Beastboy, right? Doom Patrol?"
BB's ears drooped, yet his awkward grin only wilted mildly. "In the past, but yeah…this, is my team! The Teen –
"He knows, and the time isn't now for formal introductions." Batman chided the teens. "We have reason to think that Overload is merged right now with Livewire, and they could be traveling out side of the city."
"I can try to find her consciousness." Raven raised a palm. "I need to concentrate, but it can be done."
"Empath?" Queen asked.
She nodded, knowing as herself, Raven knew that she was not going to try to impress a soul.
She wouldn't have to as they gave her some room.
/
/
The sky had forever grown dark as she saw it. A man in steel on an armored ship, but he wasn't in Star any longer. The setting showed fog, seeing as her hunch was wrong.
/
Raven came to, her eyes blinking in the light as they all waited. "I….Slade, was involved. I saw his body, she…the electricity was headed for a pier. Docks, but not close by." She took a breath. "And not here, but by a place with too much fog."
"North or up north west. He's not by the –
Ollie was interrupted by Bruce.
"Possibly in the mountains, or off near a major group of lakes."
Canary nodded, adding her own thoughts aside.
"It is after all, almost the end of January. Robin was taken in –
They all thought about it. "October was when Slade was first onto us, then in December, you don't think…" Cy took in a breath, the air growing damp around them at the thought.
"Two, not one month." Roy frowned. "We lost him for two. Fuc…" He bit his tongue. "Dick is gone."
"He is not!" Starfire protested. "He is, simpy not here for longer than any of up may have calculated –
"When a victim of any abduction is in the care of their abductor for this long, Starfire, there are cases of psychological damage that –
"Robin is much stronger than we realize. And Slade…" She gritted her teeth. "He, will not harm us if Robin is to cooperate."
Which means torture, in Wilson's book." Bruce's cape flapped off as his newest nerve was pinched. "We've all been, I was carelsss. If he ever is recovered, the Titans will have to find a new leader –
"Wahat??"
BB's jaw fell at the words. "You….he left ta' get away, from you…"
"He walked out, at fourteen. He was a minor and I should never have let him do this…I'm, nothing can be done until he's safe."
Bruce took off as they all had witnessed a greiving man hiding his true piece of humanity beneath that mask. That cowl, none to question as the bat had expected of his off and on teammates.
"I'm with Bruce. This will take us to a new territory, so I'm going to ask the League to step in to speed along the process."
"Robin is not a process, Mr. Arrow." Starfire stood to state, "He is a teammate, and most importantly, the one that brought our friendship to strengthen by aiding all of us, in some way."
Green Arrow sighed and adjusted his hood. "The best thing you can do to repay him, princess, is to let him go once he's home. Where he should be, scars an all if he has any ta heal." He could not tell the kids about Deathstroke the way he'd witnessed of the man. Not that he was a backstabber. Or that he'd done the same to live, escaping a no man's land like filthy criminals on an abandoned isle.
Roy looked to Kori sympathetically as Queen once again, had to pull a loser batman on everyone. All while Dinah didn't say shit to his face.
/
Even as they all stayed quiet on the way back, Roy had offered to come too. His cycle had enough gas while Raven rubbed her temples and tried to open her third eye a bit wider than in Star city.
"Raven?" BB's young, drooping features spoke about his past and how the League viewed him. As unimportant, which was crushing to the boy that wanted only to be appreciated. Like they all did, once.
"He doesn't know the real you. Or me." Bb frowned while determined to have Arrow see that he wasn't just a fan boy. Through the Comms in the T- Ship, Raven sighed and recalled a similar introduction as she nudged him to keep an ear open. "You know…you had the same look on your face when you met Robin for the first time. I'm shocked you didn't say hello to the dark knight –
"He's fine, but it would hurt Robin's feelings…and did you hear what he's gonna do if we rescue –
"If." Cy intercepted them both. "If Batman doesn't beat us to em. Rave? You think he's in the mountains? Rockies, maybe?"
"I can't be too sure. From what I saw, there was a military grade armored ship, and Slade was the one overseeing the meeting of what looked to be Livewire. The ship…." She held her skull. "It nullified something, energy."
/
Pure energy, and Slade was soo close.
"Renegade."
Dick was in the main room as Slade had the boy come to from a ckouded set of dreams. "The release was a success. Livewire will be by the docks in less than ten hours from now."
Well, they were in the equivalent of the California Rockies just outside of Jump, while Star would be primarily San Diego in its appearance, yet not exactly the same to its founding.
Star city or Starling City had a reputation for being close to a bunch of tech giants. S.T.A.R being one, hence the name (go with it!)
There were branches of Wayne Enterprises in plenty of places, yet Queen Industries was not a fan of being wide spread. It had factories, but the main headquarters as in Star with Arrow and his little pack.
"I think….you can do this one thibg, because you haven't misbehaved in quite a while."
Wintergreen was by the door with a coat and gloves, his size. The teen knew that he had no way of getting on that ship. No way, unless the Titans were to drop dead upon his exit if the lair.
"I'm, you sure –
"If I said so, then you are." Slade wanted Dick to do one thing. Secure his win when it came, and then he'd be up the ladder on his own. Livewore though…
Dick knew that Slade was going to abuse her powers. He didn't want to be a part of the carnage if he had to abandon his old idea of being the laptop a while longer. Livewire was a person, coerced by greed who was too young to realize who she'd just made a deal with. Let was worse. Yet , Slade…
Right now, Dick couldn't read that eye to tell if he was in a bitter mood of deciding on his next attack plan on the city.
"Do this for me. And , I may allow you to go with her to retrieve the Pandora element."
What??
Dick turned to Will as he pretended to hear absolutely nothing. Drivel, while Slade didn't seem to make his intentions known this time.
"I said, if you procure the recovery of our operative, I will permit you to co - head the retrieval of the very thing that was missed. You won't be the one-
"That…that's not what I mean. How can you even trust me? What good am I –
Slade put up a palm and turned to Will.
"Escort him out."
"Slade?? Wait! I'm not ready, they haven't even –
Will and two Slade bots tugged the kid away kicking, his yells filled the new haunt while screens flickered on and sky drones picked up what they could through the dense, drifting fog.
Slade tapped his arm as he crossed them, one gloved finger knowing he could test the boy this way any time. Dick knew it too. If he panicked, had any second doubts, his friends would be blood on the boy's hands.
He'd never go back, not again.
Slade waited to shut two of the screens off, had he not.
One was of a certain archer.
That brat.
Slade huffed and turned up the audio in the tower. ~ Yeah, I don't trust Ollie to do what needs to be done. Yeah, I know it.~
Slade eased in to the discussion as they seemed to be in separate locations.
Meaning…
Roy wasn't working with the teens, but someone OUTSIDE of this pack.
Little traitor?
His eye looked again to the scowl as Roy stomped across the room and went to the computer. Wait.
Was he…
/
What is Roy up to? Find out!
Also, this is a Rated M thing and right now Slade is moving slowly. In the One shot Sladin I did for this , until I got it made, Dick was sexually abused by Slade once he'd decided to claim his apprentice to prevent the Bat from coming back. This will only occur later once they gave the element, and then the case with Kori will get worse. The probes cause a caner to form in the bodies of those infected so Bruce has to do some playing dirty of his own to get in close to the action while seeing what he can do incognito away from the Titans. He wants Slade to pay because he also wants the Titans and Robin safe, but from what Queen said" he was not a decent person, and could only cause more harm" so crossing that line to have Richard used as a weapon with a type of element inside of his body to keep them all knowing to stay their distance? Well…the rest is Roy, trying to break Slade and find out if like he said, they waited too long to save Robin. While Starfire might even be someone who will cling to Roy, and this cinches later. Find out!