"I hope you have a good reason why your apprentice killed Hugo Strange, Deathstroke."
The meeting had just begun and already Vandal Savage was pissed at him. Despite the blinding white light hiding the figures of the other Light members, Slade knew that everyone else was mad at him too.
Slade began to think that their anger at him was a second victory for his son, that little shit.
He swallowed the heavy sigh that threatened to come out of him and stared at them. "Renegade has not been my apprentice for months now."
"That doesn't count for anything. We all know that boy is your son." Black Manta huffed.
"That's not true." the mercenary denied abruptly, voluntarily raising his voice a bit. He imagined some surprise in their postures but could not be completely sure. "Renegade has never been my son and never will be. The only relationship between Renegade and me is that of former master and former apprentice."
"Why train him to be a mercenary like you, then?" Queen Bee asked, perplexity coloring her tone of voice.
"I cannot go into too much detail but the only thing I can tell you was that I saw potential in him for a hypothetical successor of mine."
That was a half-truth: it was true that Slade had seen a great potential in Dick since the acrobat had already been molded for a full three years by the Court of Owls to become the world's most dangerous and deadly weapon -weapon that was then refined and perfected for seven very long years by Deathstroke himself, Lady Shiva, Katana, Talia Al Ghul and even Richard Dragon, one of the world's best fighters, and Wildcat, the world's best boxer- but it was not entirely the truth.
Dick had practically given him an ultimatum: either Slade would train him to become a mercenary or Dick would go out alone without him. And although his Talon abilities that made him a practically immortal meta-human, Slade could not afford to let him go out alone to complete contracts.
Not after what had happened to Grant. He would be damned if he had allowed another one of his child to die on his watch.
So Slade had not trained Dick to make him his successor as Deathstroke The Terminator -total bullshit since Renegade was currently close to ousting him as the world's deadliest and most dangerous mercenary, better and more efficient than himself- but because Dick had blackmailed him, the damned son of Satan that he was.
"If so, then why is Renegade your former apprentice?"
The world's deadliest mercenary tightened his lips, mentally preparing himself for what he would say in response to Ultra-Humanite. "Renegade was my property. He belonged to me and no one else. The pact between us was that in exchange for training him he would become my exclusive property and do whatever I told him.
"All this until he would manage to beat me in one of our usual training sessions. My mistake was to sin in pride, underestimating my own apprentice and thinking that he would not be able to surpass his master. Or at least not so soon. But in the end he beat me and reluctantly I had to let him go." he stated in an impassive and cold voice.
A surprised silence filled the meeting at the mercenary's words. "Am I mistaken or did you implicitly state that you physically, emotionally and psychologically abused a child for years, practically manipulating him to your liking?" asked Lex Luthor shocked.
Slade made a mental grimace at the mere thought of hurting a child, let alone his own son, but the billionaire's question was the assist he needed to highlight the core of his lie. "It's none of your business, Luthor." he bit fiercely. "Surely of all people you cannot give me a lecture."
His words served as an indirect but positive answer to the question posed by Superman's nemesis and there was a murmur among the other super-villains, probably surprised by the such ruthlessness and impassivity shown by the world's most dangerous mercenary. "I'm pretty sure there are all kinds of other rumors circulating in the criminal world about your relationship."
The super soldier gave a mental sigh at Light's insistence and stubbornness. "That's because I could not allow the circulating news about Renegade's existence, much less his abuse, to reach the Justice League. We all know how protective heroes are of children and if rumors of Renegade's abuse had reached their ears, they would have started investigating anyway and would have discovered my apprentice's existence immediately, which I could not and did not want to happen." he answered to Zviad Baazovi's question.
"That makes sense." said Queen Bee. "But how come Renegade never accepted a contract on an innocent, even when he was under your control?"
Slade made another mental grimace at Bialya's dictator's choice of words. "It was part of our agreement and despite everything I always keep my word. It's part of my honor as a mercenary."
"Honor that did not stop you from abusing a child." Klarion reflected aloud. "How inconsistent you human beings are. I like that." he chuckled wickedly.
"So you have not been in touch with Renegade for a long time, I presume?" asked Ocean-Master.
"That's right." confirmed the mercenary. "For many months now. Ergo I cannot be held responsible for his actions as he is no longer under my control."
"Apparently we were unlucky again." growled Vandal Savage. "It was just pure coincidence that someone hired Renegade to eliminate our ally. A very unfortunate pure coincidence." he added with an irritated sigh.
For a brief moment there was a rather awkward silence in the meeting that was soon broken by the Light leader. "In any case if any of you have a chance to capture or kill Renegade, please do so. I don't care what happens to him, the only thing that matters is that he stays out of the way. I don't want him to interfere with our plans as he did today."
A murmur of agreement resounded and Slade mentally sighed.
Now my son is on the radar of the Light and most likely the Justice League as well. Simply amazing.
"That's enough for today. Let us not be discouraged by circumstances. In spite of everything, we are at a good point. I will contact you again when I have other plans. We will soon make everyone see the Light."
The meeting ended, leaving the former military man alone with his own thoughts. Eventually he let out a heavy sigh and stood up, walking out of his shelter where he attended every meeting with the Light.
I am getting really tired of hearing the same idiotic sentence at the end of every meeting.
oOo
Wonder Woman resisted the urge to drum on the League meeting table and forced herself to follow Superman's speech.
All she wanted at that moment was to return to her apartment in Washington and get some rest. She had already had to deal with a long and exhausting meeting with the secretaries of other nations and now she was forced to endure the weekly Justice League meeting as well, which, although they were undoubtedly more interesting than those of her civilian job, were still meetings.
"...And that's why we should-"
Wonder Woman frowned when Superman abruptly interrupted and she turned her head to stare at him and she found him casting a confused and slightly irritated look in Batman's direction. A silence fell for a few seconds in the assembly, during which several members looked at each other in confusion, and eventually Diana saw Batman clench his jaw minutely.
She thought that someone -surely Alfred- was informing Batman of something and the news did not sound very good. Her theory proved correct when Batman got up and walked to the computer tied to the big screen in the League meeting room.
"I have just been informed that a murder has occurred in Belle Reve." the Caped Crusader announced, starting to type on the keyboard.
"What happened? A prisoner revolt gone bad?" Green Arrow asked.
"No." Batman shook his head and several camera clips appeared on the big screen. "Renegade killed Hugo Strange, the prison psychiatrist."
At Renegade's mention the demigoddess' back straightened immediately and unconsciously at attention, any sign of fatigue disappearing almost magically. She had no time to think about it when a recording was played on the screen.
The heroes heard every word that came out of Renegade's mouth and saw his every action, including the moments when he killed Strange -with impeccable manner of execution, admitted Diana reluctantly to herself- and when he with a double backflip landed on the lower floor, then mingling among the inmates.
Smart move to stand between the inmates, knowing that the guards could not shoot him because of the risk of injuring them and not him.
Wonder Woman blinked in surprise when there was no trace of Renegade after he threw a smoke bomb. Not even the cameras could catch him.
"Damn, that guy is really a ninja, a ghost. You could learn some tricks from him, Spooky." Hal Jordan chuckled.
Batman gave him his notorious look that made Green Lantern stop. "As you were able to hear and see, someone hired Renegade to kill Strange, an important element in the rehabilitation of super-villains."
Aquaman frowned. "I thought Renegade only killed criminals, not innocents." he said, fiddling with the tips of his trident.
"He may perhaps have changed his modus operandi. If so, the threat posed by Renegade rises even more as does the need to capture him and bring him before true justice."
"Are we sure Hugo Strange was completely clean?" Wonder Woman belatedly realized that it was herself who had uttered the words that came out of her mouth without her permission. She cleared her throat at the many glances directed at her and continued. "I mean, I doubt that a professional mercenary like Renegade who has a definite world-class reputation would change his modus operandi so suddenly from one moment to the next."
"It actually seems very strange to me." Flash nodded in agreement with her. "Renegade could have started many years ago to kill innocents but he didn't. Instead he has built a reputation as a world-famous anti-hero mercenary of killing criminals who commit the worst crimes. While his methods are certainly questionable, it seems to me a very sudden change of ideology."
Barry could not better express the exact thoughts of the princess of Themyscira who nodded at the speedster's words. A murmur of general assent spread through the room.
"Agent A informed me that he found nothing incriminating in Strange's profile. I will personally conduct more research on his profile later but in any case it does not change the fact of things. Even if Strange was involved in some criminal organization, that does not take away from the fact that Renegade killed a man in cold blood. No matter if criminal or innocent, it is still a human life and Renegade has no right to take any person's life." before anyone could say anything, he continued. "And no less important, Killer Frost escaped. The guards found her inhibitor collar and inmate clothes in her cell while her super-villain uniform disappeared."
"Do you think Renegade helped Killer Frost escape from Belle Reve?" Black Canary asked, crossing her hands on the table.
"Maybe. There is not enough information to determine that or whether the two have known each other previously. An arrest warrant has already been issued for Killer Frost but in any case she poses a minor threat. We need to focus on capturing Renegade, whatever it takes."
"You seem to be obsessed with Renegade, Batman." Green Arrow pointed out.
"It's probably because he kicked his ass so easily." chuckled Flash.
Batman narrowed his eyes but decided to ignore them. "The meeting can end now." he stated abruptly, turning off the screen and silently walking away. "Renegade poses an extreme threat and should not be underestimated. He must be captured as soon as possible." he declared without ever looking back and then exiting the meeting room.
The departure of the Dark Knight of Gotham was like a signal and soon all the heroes rose from their seats. Wonder Woman let out a sigh as she headed for the zeta tubes.
The idea of a nap was much more appealing than it had been minutes ago.