Teen Titans – Renegade's Last Resort; Finding Pandora =Hope
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Chapter 16: Didn't Need This Sympathy; Wanted Your Empathy Yet Could not Receive It Clearly
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Batman's hands gripped the wheel, his last review of Dick's state as he rested in the bat mobile front seat was his parlor. He wasn't getting any Vitamin D. Wherever it was underground that Slade held his hostage apprentice, he wasn't remedial that. Not that the bruises by his face were concealed as well with the rain wiping it all away. He saw the blemishes and broken vessels, his knuckles turning even whiter under the noir black gauntlets.
"I have him, Alfred. Don't send word to the Titans just yet. Are they gone…?"
~ They have relocated, yet no, sir.~ Alfred shook his head with a frown in the screens of the car's excellent, state of the art feature. ~ They've made perfectly clear to us that Richard is not just a team member to their small group. He is very precious to them, as I hope you are aware.~
"It's why I had to check for any trackers….open up the hill entrance by the woods. I don't want Slade to act out around any civilians."
~ As you were, Master Bruce. I shall set up examination areas around the cave, at my haste.~
"Thank you, Alfred. It's not drugs I'm seeing…those are not the problem…" Bruce sighed and set off to break the sound barrier, just a little. Dick was here, yet did….Did she have the power to use the probes if he didn't know? Was this only for them, or did he collar Dick as Slade might have made clear before with Richard's Renegade ensemble.
The boy mumbled in his sleep as Bruce kept his thoughts to himself for now. Slade wouldn't get in. Dick knew that the fortress was just that. Meant to keep men like Deathstroke out of the way while there was work to be done.
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Slade thrummed on his dais arm with his fingers as screen after screen showed what the sky could not reach. What Wayne could only sense without super powers, as Slade growled to himself.
"Will. Is that prototype robot up and functional?"
It was a tested Slade bot that had been upgraded with the Pandora element partly. It wasn't incredible, only more reliable with its more private strong limbs and ninja reflexes had to be enhanced from toe to tip.
"Adjustments have been made to wake it. Should we send it after that hooligan of an apprentice you've got?" Will asked with a hint of disdain to the question of that child's loyalty.
"Do. Wayne might want to see his toys outside of the ass for once. He has one of mine, and I early never said that was permitted."
Slade zoned in on a scene of Roy and Dick getting high, taking about Slade force feeding Dick laxatives. That….he had similar ideas, but this was not one that he'd keep to. Vomit was easier to handle. Shit? Was he seriously having trouble doubting his own confidence?
"Any luck, sir?"
Slade thrummed again before rising from his seat. "Send the bot to the last place the boy would go. That involves tank sized tire tracks. Input…Wayne Manor."
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Dick didn't know if being hoisted when fighting a fever and bridal style even counted. Had he known his case was even a fever, would Slade be in even bigger trouble?
"Sit him up." Dick was maneuvered as a doll while so doped out and red as a tomato. Pale as a piece of loose-leaf, as Alfred checked his pulse. "Low pressure. Steady, however."
"Temperature is next." Bruce brought the meter to test and so it had. "One hundred one, exactly." Bruce sighed. "Dick…" Bruce did not know what came over him as Bruce grabbed the kid, to hug him senseless, hoping his eyes would fully open to the pain this whole experience had wrought.
"B….You…have to stop –
"No. Alfred? We're going to test the device."
Dick's eyes flashed as he pulled away, not seeing that Bruce had done his best to cuff the kid while he was in a dazed stupor. "No! I need to get back there. You don't under-
"The Titans are fine, you're fine."
"I'm sick…" Dick shook his head with a hoarse shout.
"And you're …."
The cave had the monitors flashed to the porch outside as Alfred straightened to remove himself, making Dick even more nervous to be alone with the man that could determine most of all if four teenaged heroes lost their lives tonight. "Let me go back. You aren't helping –
"The Titans are fine."
"Stop covering up the truth….they're not. Roy told me." Dick snapped. "You're going to kill m-
He stopped, seeing Bruce pulling up an injector gun. "You have to be so conceited as usual." Dick sneered at the bat.
"It's not about you or me, Dick. I've found a way." Bruce was thinking as Dick watched the man lean over the dash, his hope back while Richard was sort of safe here. He had the eyes of a man whose logic was overrun by grief. He'd seen it before, the Joe Cool incident.
"It involves the Pandora element." Bruce said, raising his head a bit. "The last pieces we would need, and this won't…" He had put down the injector gun as the item was left alone, retracted, only for the screams of Alfred to roar back through those hi definition speakers.
"Alfred!!"
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Raven sat on the hotel bed doing a mantra to cool her head. Even as she was disappointed in how Bruce clung to saving Dick or taking him in. Which was it?
"Have you not yet seen to your smoothest recovery, friend Raven?" Starfire slipped by the door in her pajamas an oversized night dress that everyone had called "atrocious," yet it was her first item she'd bought for herself with her own funds since coming to earth.
"It is much colder than in our city…Gotham is, displeasing. Yet there must be that which I am wrong…once…"
"Richard Grayson." Raven sighed , dropping her hands with an impatient exhale. "He grew up with Mr. Wayne. His parents, were killed as a child, and Batman saved his life."
"That, there is lore then!" Giggled Kori as she clasped her hands together and floated, giving Raven no more than a peep at the item beneath the dress. She cleared her throat and turned to the headboard, seeing Kori float down before she'd have to explain 'decorum' to the alien woman.
"It's not like that….In fact…aren't you supposed to be in your room?"
"It was….very lonely. Robin and I used to cope with this through the viewing of stars on the "roof" of our home." She smiled and raised her chin with a blush at the memory of waking up amid those starry California skies. "He did weep, once…" Starfire let down her eyes a minute. "He, was sad, and I could not no matter what I did…he would not smile again. He slept in his room, and then…"
"Slade, on the very next day." Raven sighed. "He ruins memories for all of us. The good, the other."
"We cannot forget, and I will not give up on him or my friends." Starfire was in trars as Raven didn't do…hugs. She had to hold out a hand as dhe took Kori's slender alien fingers with her half human essence. "Look …if, if Richard does become our friend. If Slade hasn't won yet, we can do this. You can't look at the past for that now. There is a time, when those memories maybe will be…important. But for now –
"Slade must be stopped." Starfire said with her powerful emerald eyes staring back. "Robin will never become this….Renegade. he is not our friend and you…"
"I'm here, that's all." Raven out go, knowing what she was. Her fate was not what they needed to focus on right now.
"You are, and we are strongest when we are fearless, together. That mad man is –
"Human, Starfire." Raven pulled back as she stayed on the bed, her body returning to the previous pose. "He is, ambiguity undefined. Our enemy isn't just any criminal. He knows Batman. He's one step –
"Raven?"
She stopped, gasping as a hand behind Kori…that projection was her power. Her demon's magic. She swallowed, pushing back her hood while Kori had to still her presence. "Well, then I…I must…" She flew off with her head bobbing to the empath. "We shall see in the morning what is needed to be done! Good "Sluffnask." She whispered, leaving Raven to cope with the isolation once more. It had been peaceful, if only…
She rested on her own as the funds by Oliver were only good for a few more days. He couldn't keep them in Gotham, and Bruce was useless to their pleas. "Slade will pay in the end. He's like any other villain….simply needs to see what we see." She covered herself up and shut off the lights beside her bed. It was dark, it should be. She wasn't a creature of the sun and starts as Kori. Wasn't a social advocate like Cy. Wasn't a goofball like Bb and wasn't….wasn't so cool, quiet, maybe.
"Be safe, Robin." She slept, hoping her prayers made sense. Making more sense when it had to do with what had taken its toll on the manor of Wayne and one, Grayson.
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The thunder pitched in to make the dead halls even more spooky. Foreboding, the robot dragged his unconscious prey to the exit. Bruce groaned with a cut lip as Alfred lay in a heap. He needed….security. To stop it. Dick…
He gasped as the blackness came and lightening Illuminated the mass if bolts and blue cosmic swirls…?
The…..no way.
Bruce lost consciousness as Dick was already put under. His trip was smooth, while the other's dreams were rocky.
Regretting his weakness, the target was had. The reason was clearly there that this model of the Pandora element was warming up to be quite hard to face.
This robot would be one of many soldiers on the streets if Jump, in Europe. Asia. NY. Dubai. Wherever Slade wanted them to strike.
Dick was going along, and Bruce wouldn't be far behind.
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The dim lights grew brighter as he knew he wasn't in the cave. Too many factors that made the lights….feel hot.
The cage was cool. This, was boiling his skin as he let his eyelids flutter open. On his side, he was on a medical table that was tilted up. In a metal chair across from him, Slade was wearing his full regalia with his chair turned around to seem as if he were leaning over at a peek if the kid, casual but curious with a cock if his masked face. "How was the trip home, apprentice?"
Dick's eyes bolted open as he took a new gasp, his guilt raising him higher to face the man, nearly falling off the table in surprise.
"I…! – I….t- told him –
"You were not even awake as it was, barely. Can't find how it was you faked a fever. Or was it something else?"
Dick coughed, his courage in-between a rock and a hard place. "No, I was…was that not how you wanted Roy to be? Trusting me, he threw me out!"
"He gave you an image that I caught. I'm sending my bots to scope out the dealer." Slade tapped a finger at the back if the chair, his legs spread a few feet out to seem fairly lax. "You can try to get up from there. I won't stop you. Go on."
Dick pursed his lips, seeing that he would have to try. He just got a foot to the floor, finding no problem at how damned warm this room was too. He checked around himself. Vials. Regular medicine cabinet. Was there anything…
"Thirsty? I made sure your body had some hydration, plus one more thing." Slade's eye was slightly more narrowed by the veil if deception to his tone. "W…dru –
Dick held his head as he started to feel a wave of nausea roll through his gut. "S…sir? What –
Slade got up and walked over to the waste bin as he pushed it with his foot over to the kid with a slide "You might need this."
The growl became a hard gurgles, a bubble and pop as Dick grabbed his stomach. Pain…stomach…was…what did he??...
Slade might have graced the kid with a smile had he not leabed back, pulling a dose from the cabinet to show it to Dick, making his pain even worse when he read out the title on the bottle. "It's trouser than magnesium citrate, senna. And it gives bitg ends a runaround. You said I'd force feed you something, was it? Laxatives?" He snorted, seeing Dick crumble at the pain he'd been dealt in his sleep. "Perfect timing. I thought you might last longer. Good news, though. Tell me what Wayne wanted, and I may know the cure. A hint... It's someplace in this room." Whispered the mad man.
"R….I…I…" The kid threw a hand over his lips as the vomit was too soon. He found the basket as the retching made his nostrils curdle, knowing Slade was attempting to hide it as well. Maybe some sadistic joy cane from keeping the boy on his knees.
Dock rejected the thought and coughed up bile before part two had him doing the same.
It wasn't that, as he let out the bladder lightly. Before his whole lower half he had realized was now in a loose fitted sweatpants.
"They say you'll retain some fluid. After you're done extracting that garbage , I will come back in to check on you, Dick. This was uncouth for you to do, even as much as I've taught. Then again, it kept you cover. And , are my meals really that bad?"
"Flavor….I…have bone dry meat….never have –
He stopped, feeling the stool leaking out as Dick didn't think it mattered, so he pulled the bucket close, looking up slowly as Slade chuckled. "That's what it's there for. You can just use both for the same as punishment for your disrespect." Slade nodded as Dick turned around, and dropped his drawers to defecate in the waste bin. His body groaned as he thought it was over, then again as he felt gaunt and weak. This was worse than Star's pudding of sadness.
Cream of toenail.
He held his breath, counted to ten.
The body did as if by command of some living force he held no control over. Only Slade knew the answers. He was humiliated as a child, worse. He was incapable of depending on it to stop as Slade handed him a water bottle. "If it's not done by the time I get back, you'll have bread and rice. Better?"
Dick groaned, nodding curtly as the man walked away, locking up the room while the waste bin had gotten full. One more time, and…
The nausea returned as he chose to vomit next to the bucket instead of on top of his own excrement.
Panting, sickly green, he was done in the next thirty minutes. The solution had to be double the dose, the room was spinning as he felt a needle keep him able bodied. He didn't go or feel sick after he'd began to feel at a calm by whatever had pricked him up.
"If bland "flavor" had been a constant drip of IV fluids, wouldn't you say you'd prefer my cooking from now on as even better?" Slade was talking, yet Dick only heard so much before his eyes began to stay shut. Staying awake meant nothing what was wrong. For now, his punishment was through. He could finally, sleep without interruption as a pang of pang made his eyes glue back shut while Slade fed him through the needle back to health.
~ I wonder what Alfred's cooking would have been like, had I…~
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While Slade did his best to let the bat lie flat, he also knew that getting him riled up was too much a waste to lose in. Bruce scooped up Alfred and took him ti the sofa, lying him down as Alfred held a chunky ice pack to his balding temple. "You must let me rest, Master Bruce. There is still time. He's…un…obviously threatened by that mad man…"
"I can tell now that it won't be just digging under the surface for a truth he wants us to know." Sighed Bruce as Slade watched via his dropped, moving camera. Know thine enemies, he chuckled. "I've got my eye on you, rodent. You and –
~ B!?~
Batting an eye, the skitter and slam of a door had to subline I his eye.
A boy.
Red hair, streaks of black from a dye that didn't last. Bruce didn't look too pleased about it.
A set of conflicted green eyes. A bit lean, maybe some muscles growing. ….Boy.
Slade watched as the tyke of fourteen or so ran to the men and demanded to know why they were laid up and why the hallways were torn to bit, scorched with a laser and snipped by large, sharper than life blades.
"Who attacked us?? You locked me in the game room!"
"It…was for your protection, Master Jason. Not so loud.. "
"Sorry Al, but Bruce has ta tell me what's going on here. I was gonna be his partner after all."
After all.
After….
Robin.
It clicked as Slade might have burst out laughing throughout his discovery. "You hid, this? Well…won't my apprentice be pleased to meet, his brother…Jason." Slade rose, guessing it could wait.
~ You're not going to be. I'm sorry –
~ You said you needed me, what gives?? It's that loser from Cali, isn't it? He's like an eye sore that everyone wants to get a piece out of. I know I have something ta say for him hurting one if us like that. What about the Titans.~
~ They'll be send back soon, they can't stay.~
~ Master Bruce, I'd advise against –
~ Slade has shown us that he can tap into the element without a key. If he does have a chance to steal one, that element would become another Hiroshima or worse.~
~ Takeover, is kinda vague. I wanna punch his lights out. Let me!~
~ No!~
~ Master Jason, could you very well run to the kitchen for a bit more ice, dear boy?~
~ Sure, Al. Sorry…but my brother. Dick? I know we can save em…you gotta let me do the coordination or something.~
~ You'll get your chance, once I know what comes next. To keep you both safe, no one can act just yet. Get to your homework now, Jason.~
~ Aww, B! I don't know trig!...You can teach me, right?~
Slade dimmed the sound as he left the screens on sleep. Speaking of, it was time for his military style nap. Just because he wasn't one hundred percent average man, he still needed that much.
A lack of sleep made him, a tad too ambitious as half of the lights stayed dim, while far away gears still turned.
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