Teen Titans- Renegade's Last Resort- Finding Pandora = Hope
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Chapter 11: Why Let Go?
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This chapter, opens up a can of worms. Beware!
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After the "drop off" in Gotham, Slade's name and presentation didn't stay dead for long. Roy's late offer to be of use was not recinded completely, as at every turn, he tried to help Bruce to reel Dick in if they ever got one whiff of a robot on the run.
"Slade is gathering his intelligence. I can only say that Richie's gonna be itching to get out there like in his city." Roy told Bruce through a gated lock on a late night run in with Killer Croc, down below the sewer pipes if Gotham's foulest.
He'd gone this far as Roy ascended above ground and got on his trench to stay unseen, his cig popping out and he relaxed to puff one dose, not seeing Starfire swaying feet away from his mind's eye.
"You are, negotiating peace?"
She had him drop his arm as the cog stayed lit. "Not part a' –
"You were going to do with…capturing our leader….you are no such person, so why?"
"Bruce wants Robin back. You aren't saved with him and if gets the job done. I can get my own place. Bruce will silently take my rehab and Dick -
"He is not your ally, or friend." Kori frowned.
They stayed quiet as across town, a rumble below the sewers jolted both into action. "The bat eared hero requires our assistance!"
"Star, wait!!" Roy couldn't stop the good hearted idiot princess as she zipped after the sounds of a fight down below their feet.
She dove in to one man hole cover as it flipped and fell hard , like Two Face's rigged coin tosses.
Roy growled and got out his remote for his own ride to show up. A damn…pain. He dropped the butt with a spit to the ground and crushing it by stomping down, angrier that He'd left her to face Croc with no drive. If she got ill on the job, her was her fault, not his.
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Slade watched as the Bat had a steady grasp on two things promptly.
He knew who to ask about the new lairs "condition."
He was coming closer to cracking the walls back to find the mad man, though he was quiet about how he'd go about it.
"Apprentice." Slade called in the boy without moving an inch from the screens. Dick was back from the built-in dojo as he wore his black gi and slippers that didn't allow his feet to touch the floor. His hand held a bottled water in one. The other, a gym towel to wipe himself down from the robots not going so easy on him, nor Livewire as she'd used the kid for target practice half of their session.
It was the only way to think without Slade getting too uptight, he had a way to try and convince Livewire before, yet her solid attitude wasn't so stony.
"Sir." Dick said, a chill in the main room as he watched the screens pour their artificial light over the men's frames rather quick.
"Take a good look…" Slade motioned to the screen with Roy on it. The kid was a darn riot, really. Going rogue from being a side kick had turned Roy into a partial criminal himself. Dick drank a slug from his water as he analyzed whatever Slade was trying to teach him.
The screen then morphed to show his friends in their rented hotel suite, provided by Wayne and Queen's generous "go – fuck – off – attitude."
Roy, he was taking in that Roy wasn't working with them. At all.
"He is alone, completely." Slade pointed out. " Taking he young archer out of your game now would be trouble, but we could make those two crash directly over the objective. Use them to gain what we have planned to take tomorrow night. Wayne will be the bat and the security vault will need a key. Luckily, Livewire and my robots have that covered." Slade tuned the screens to now show images of a few floor – planned blueprints; a scenario of Livewire gaining access as a single mind that had bypassed Wayne security a day earlier.
Dick swallowed thickly at the thought that Bruce may know about it. How could he have missed? Slade was driving at something else, then…
"And my role, sir? What is it you need me to do in there."
"Ah, you seem more upbeat in even participating at all."
Dick stiffened by that condescending tone.
"Compared to those sighs of the latest ruse, I'd say you're still not certain…?"
~ Robin is being blackmailed, and first off, you can't say he didn't ask for it.~
"It can't be helped." Dick was sure that sounded like sass as Slade rose quickly from his throne seat. Dick froze. "I mean, you and I…the Titans –
Beastboy and Roy had already sorted the morning before parting, now, Bb was also back in a foul mood. After all, he'd hurt him the most…
~ Shut up! It didn't have to get this bad…~
~Cyborg…where do you even get off…-
Getting cold feet, he put his fists up until Slade cocked his head like always and chuckled, making the boy…confused?
"That is true, my dear Renegade. You can't help what you're becoming, can you?"
~ He's still our Robin, regardless of what you two may think.~
Raven was right, sort of.
~ Agreed.~
Kori, so damned blinded by their trust…
Dick looked up with his fists quivering slightly, then he dropped them with a downtrodden glance. His arms fell to his sides defeat. "No, sir…I don't have a choice." Convinced that he was subservient could work too, Dick decided, yet Slade raised his chin with two fingers without question.
"It could be, unless you'd rather be the one to fight your own, father. Robin."
Dick froze up as he was dropped, as Slade grinned below the mask to make his body ache to attack the man. Just once, and he tried. That tension should have stayed dead, yet Slade awarded him a spar as the kid felt a lot less release in this than with the robots. Something, fulfilled him that Livewire and broken machines could not, as Slade pointed for the kid to bring his bruised arm to the med bay ward for a fixing.
"You're not to sabotage another mission, my apprentice. What's done is done, and the bat will know."
He will, he would know if Dick cried in his arms and begged this all to go away. Wouldn't he? That Slade was the enemy, that he'd never been able to get close again after what had happened back in Jump. Dick resisted no more for tonight as he set off to the medical ward to be patched up, good as new.
No broken parts left in the presence of his leering overlord.
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As the heated era of turmoil cradled the Titans to stay on track if their next target, the Bat appeared as he'd found Kori to be a problem. Right to their safe house door.
"Umm…" Raven turned to Cyborg as he had Starfire enter, allowing Bruce to chat since he'd allowed them to stay on some conditions in his city .
"She broke one of the rules here, Cyborg. You were told not to assist me on any cases, under any circumstances. And to take to your own discoveries –
"I could not leave him to that "florp- gribbler sopp." Starfire blurted out. "Mr. Batman? We are no longer enemies, nor have we ever –
"YOU'LL BE IN DANGER." Bruce snipped back. "It's the only way not to cross paths."
"Yet we may have to." Raven pulled back and got to a newspaper she'd briefly purchased on a street corner a few hours to dusk, the day they'd arrived. "You set this up, and now you'll need our help. Whether we are there or not, Robin will be." She touched the page over the enigmatic figure of shadowy enemies that someone had shot of the Slade bots. It concealed them, leaving only an eerie silhouette to paint a picture of the next evening's main event.
"He's coming, and you'll be without a reason to push back if we can't be there to help our leader."
"He's not your leader, he's coerced abd when this is through, there won't be a reason to keep this up for …"
"You can't get rid of up, B man." Bb bounded over, healed and just as upset as his friends. "We go together, with Robin. If you take him away, we won't let you forget about us that easy "
Cy gawked as he saw Bruce's demeanor change.
"If that's a threat, then so be it. You'll be as wanted as your nemesis. I expected the son of Doom Patrol elite to understand taking a direct order seriously."
"Fuck you!!" Bb growled, the man hitting a sore spot as Raven and Star held him back from morphing. "Dick never asked to be Slade's chee toy, and all you want to do is punish him?? He looked up to you, but you never respected anyone before! Not even your team, not even Queen, and he gets it. He'd do the same to Roy…like you did to our Robin…" His eyes like a wolf's and his claws so close to extending, Bruce's couldn't ignore the sight as he countered. Rather poorly.
"After this, I'm contacting the members of every team that allowed you to come to this decision. It was obvious from the start, that this idea was bound to have concerns…especially you, Garfield."
Gar growled back, as the teenagers pulled him back, though he was only snarling to this point. "Rita and Steve would be disappointed in your performance on this team. Your lack of self-control, it's too dangerous to be left unmanaged. You understand that Dick is a minor you all are, and it's the league's duty to make sure that any lifeforms or meta on this planet doesn't lose control and bring harm…Robon will be corrected, as soon as he's back in the manor safely."
"Because him being back in a cage is right, to you." Sniffed Bb as his stance shifted to something undying anguish, a pain he could feel in his past so very close to home.
"Yes, he's, my ward. My responsibility. I let him act on his own without training him better. So yes, it's my –
"Friend Robin, states that he ran away from you, from the shadows that you did once cast around him." Starfire said, nativity a scorching brand against the Batman's brown, made in the shape of a big fat L.
"He wasn't supposed to run off from his duties. Defecting that quickly, he allowed this to conspire, as a mess to clean up."
"So, is he a son, or a mess?" Cy frowned at the caped crusader. "I always respected you and Supes for God knows how many times, but this…he's your son, or is he just another passion project. Mr. Wayne?"
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So, not as dark but the Titans know some backstory or two. Bb is losing his beastly rage on Bruce and it gets worse. Recall that one shot? He had pushed away everyone, so it will be pretty messed up. Later! They still need to get the element into eleven chapters. And Lex? Wow. Can't say we are done yet. Finals this week. Easy ish? Find out!
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