Teen Titans -Renegade's Last Resort; Finding Pandora = Hope
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Chapter 34: Lost Execution
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You are going to hate my lazy style, but I can make magic out of cut scenes. Just, watch!
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The court date was resubmitted, the day coming far closer as Bruce fought to have it later. Slade had a plan as Raven meditated while also tense, Starfire herself knowing that trouble was afoot.
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The days before, Bruce had told Jason to stay in the house for a deat scare that had Alfred lock him in himself. Joker. He'd seen the kid and they, chatted. It was very bad. A new fixation that Bruce had refused Dick to succumb to, being shot and having to leave for this exact reason. Whether Joker, Two Face no longer, this place Harley had allowed Jason to wander into was the biggest blow.
" Mini bat part two? I gotta say, B – man. You have to have the worst parenting skills I have EVER witnessed, and Gordo was my number one before you stomped into this city's limelight. Been eating away at me, how Willy got the upper hand…like wishing it all away…I felt so….so free. Like a college frat activist. You ever get that feeling, that the system could shove it but then you turn and see it's not your face spewing garbage to a live audience?"
Crazy was as crazy does. Bruce subtly told Joker that they including Dock, were being manipulated by a being that even Bruce couldn't explain in enough detail to the dominant male alpha gorilla in the room. The chimp.
" So? Aliens hacked the court room?? Are we really on the level, Batsy?? Does my ex….wait…she was in on it!"
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Jason threw a ball against the opposite side of his wall as he tried to formulate a way out. Yet Kori had provided herself as the perfect sitter, so no. He'd be waiting until they were passed out as the kid stayed in his time out and gruffly turned over to get some shut eye. He was in his day clothes from school. Someone had challenged him to a fight when he was defending a kid that got pushed in the parking lot they were talking about Mr. DENT.
He defended the same asshole that Dick fought to stop. He was not ok with it, so Jason landed a heavy punch. He was getting taller and it showed. It would not be long before he surpassed Bruce…one day.
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"Master Jason has acted most precarious in situations where he's not ever stepped out of line. Sir, I would advise you not to isolate the boy more than he need be left to his own devices."
"Jason isn't the one to worry about only, Alfred. Dick is being brainwashed and blackmailed by Deathstroke. He knows I'm there for him –
"He isn't looking to be your enemy." Raven got out of her seated lotus and lowered her hood softly to her ears. "He wants to fight alongside you. You are afraid to let him try. That behavior will only grow stronger until he cannot contain his actions in the manner he's doing. He'll eventually get outside and try to find his missing family "
~Robin…~ Starfire was on the comm from upstairs outside of Jason's room. ~ I fear more so for the case of the court. They will try any trick in which Slade will be seen as a victory and certainly not a victim of the circumstances.~
" Slade will use the orb. I imagine he might be crafty enough, so we can't work against it. We have to be wiser."
" What will you do, it's not as if the book will combust-
Bruce snapped his fingers. " Raven. I have an idea. It's possible it may fail, yet can you project counter magic at the right time around a duplicate of that binder?"
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Dick had homework; this time as he sparred, Slade commanded him to list ways to beat the tricks Bruce would inact before they'd lose their chance at a victory in the courthouse.
" Burning it us a last resort. What do you do if magic is involved?"
" I….Have to stop the caster, or …ah! Attack them-
" With what? What if they are not in the same room?"
" You…use robots. Find the tar – hah!"
" Focus your stance." Slade put out a hand as Dick took it bitterly. Slade yanked him up and again, he had to block the man on s stomach of grain since it wasn't a good day to be on the man's good side.
"Dick?"
"Vanish….could we…get rid of it, hide it before the trial?"
" If they have a plan for that." Slade tapped his skull as Dock understand. "Right, too simple and…vague... "
"Come at me. No holds this time. You are getting too sloppy again, apprentice."
"Y…" Dick bit his lip. " Yes, sir."
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Selina waited as her leg seemed rested. Bruce came in with a cup of tea Alfred had made. He was quite the timely fellow for the occasion, her healing and all on the same week as the trial that could help or harm Wayne's reputation.
"Will the kid be alright? I'm sorry –
" You were unable to chase him in your condition. He tricked us both."
"He would make a better sneak than a vigilante. But…" She rolled her eyes. " I promise I won't call him my "protege" anytime soon."
" With this case riding on Slade acting on the orb, I have to find a way to neutralize it when it reacts to a "wish."
" Easy." Selina suddenly blinked up at the man. "You stall, if he tries, you catch him. I can come in and read men very well even the quiet ones."
BBruce lowered the cup to her as she took a sip. "Cat's tongue…!" She laughed. " I thought hotter was best for those old and too British?"
" Maybe in the movies, can't say that there isn't a heat index standard in the U.K."
"A perfect blend." She smiled into her cup. Ruby red more pink without the extra make up on. " I feel like your mistress again, like the first time we crashed into one another on the rooftop." A hand out had hers as the cup was aced to the side, while he took her lips in his instead. She shut her eyes and remembered when they'd met. She was young, bright eyed and not yet part feline. He was….attracted in a way she saw as shallow. How wrong they both had been about one another.
" Stay, one more night. The court isn't what I can only protect. I wouldn't want Jason there, neither fir you to get hurt. After what Slade-
" His threat was clean - kept and I fell for it, Bruce…" She pushed away his cheek as he frowned with his brows lowered in concern for her state, ever the more.
" I let my fear drive me over that edge. Had it only been the probes and not the alien you are facing…"
" Who could have stopped a wish, Selina. Besides…" Bruce stood up, looking out at the night air from the side of them. Her body was reclined on the love seat ottoman as he just pretended nothing. He was guilty of the first draw to their unlucky streak.
" I asked Cadmus, Amanda ...I wanted a part of what that energy could mean for us without knowing that an intelligent species was the core that provided that vast energy reserve to the country. If anyone else ….knew, I used the formula for " Hope" to save them. I'm just as terrible as Slade."
" Hope…" Selina worded it softly. " You…a formula, how?"
" Out of their lives. Out of the first fraction that ever fell with us back to earth." Was all the dark-haired playboy responded. " I took the first bite, and now …they want to have revenge on my family for this existential sin."
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It was just a few thoughts of falling asleep and never waking. He was roused too early in the morning as through the way over, no one followed them to the courthouse. All the live long hour, Harvey had to tug at his cell from his pocket to make a call.
" This is it, Margaret." He swallowed as her face on the video chat had for as he feared, made him once doubt Batman's words. Until she said something brand new, her own blue eyes staring back from across the city line.
~I can't be there, but our son…said he's never seen a braver man in his life. You saved Batman, he told me. Harvey…I might not be the one person you'll spend that same time we had with, but…I want to be close. Your son appreciated that you've seen us as not just shadows from an old time when…when you had…~ She withheld a sob. ~ I was happy, and I knew you could not be happy with that. It was hard for me too-
" I know, and I'm sorry. I want to do all I can. Even if I can't always get to see lil James grow up twenty four seven. Mr. Wayne has a great plan, a cure even if things go south. We won't lose though." Gripped Harvey under his still healing new face. " I'm gonna make sure Dent realized it then like now. He's not the only one saving face or his family from livin' a life of solitude here."
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Dick was woken, no. Roused.
It was to the shuffle of feet, the pots and pans not as rabid as he was tossed his clothes for the day and told to sternly, "get up."
He did, wishing he'd never done it but not protesting. Today was an important day actually. The day he further betrayed Batman, making Slade mark him as his "Renegade" ever farther along their path to total conquest of Gotham. Why did Slade want it that badly? Was Batman's dump that resource rich or was he going to destroy it like a worldly icon of damnation? Throw out the parts he hated then move to Haven and do it all over again. Was Slade secretly good at this, Dick wondered as he faced the mirror with a robot holding his things in its steel clawed grip.
Was he actually insane but masking his possessively, sociopathic tendencies? Who was Duarte after this was over? Who was he?
Dick lowered the tooth brush as the crackle of a camera in the boy's chest had the kid put it back into his mouth. ~ Finish. We have a long day to span out our next attack. And in the car, you are to not speak out if turn, apprentice. Meet me in the foyer right after you are washed and dressed. I have something to show you.~
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Dick gingerly made his way down the stairwell as the robots flagged him from behind to continue his walk; down the hall, take a right. Go to the next hall and open the first door in sight.
The directions made very little sense of the day as morning had Dick stifling back a yawn when he'd shut the door.
"Have a decent rest, did you?"
As he snapped his jaw shut, Slade sat in an arm chair of a library while he seemed relaxed. Calm. Despite being torn from his goal and having to fall back, this was…disturbing, to the apprentice's two eyes.
"Sir, when is the main trial?"
"After breakfast. Ten. You woke around five to make your mind sharper. I can adjust that time. Forty- five minutes in here will do as much as reading at the table. The outcomes we have planned –
"I, think I know what should be done to stop it."
"You don't." Slade corrected as Dick moved into the center of the room, perplexed.
"Come closer." Slade put out his palm, curling it in a come-hither gesture. Dick was conflicted to listen as he did so, not backing down with the answers Slade had in mind. As well…
"Kneel, by here."
Dick fidgeted to his knees as both seemed to shake. Slade landed a palm, the one and same un- gloved to the boy's dark scalp. "The idea was yours, yet the orb picked up on one you hadn't spoken about yesterday. Or this entire week. You want Wayne's old friend to suffer for the case to be dropped again. And I want the evidence changed in the nick before Wayne can present his findings."
Dick tried to turn his head with the shame there in his eyes Slade tugged his hair to look not away, yet directly up. " You're not fond of our Mr. Dent. A history of your former self, I'd assume. That bullet wound on your right, back shoulder blade."
Seeping in a breath, Slade's smile was a lick of fire to his rattled features. " It's why you left, why Bruce kicked you out.
" He didn't-
" Speak up." Slade said in a stronger tone. " I'll allow it."
" I…I quit. He…tried to take away , Robin from me. It was my identity. My idea…my parents-
" Flying Grayson, you mean? I know of the incident fairly well, Dick. What did your mother have, a cute nick name?"
Was he a mind reader? Dick started to sweat under the man's grip. " How….-
" It's easy. Your face is "bleeding" the truth right to me. Robin much have been a precious title, and that bat, out of fear tried to cage him. You retaliated and shook off his shadow, or…almost."
" I…-
" You won't do that alone. I'm here, and the only shadow you'll be forced to stand within will me Renegade's."
As he let the kid's hair go, Dick caught himself. He wasn't allowed to stand yet. God, forbid he tried to be so goddamned tall …
" You wanted Dent to pay, maybe not personally. But…what if he didn't win? What if his future remained a bleak obstacle; trapping him in the labyrinth the orb might craft to prevent that "former" criminal from rising to the occasion? We can't only do that, but…"
Slade tapped his chin. " We can get quite creative. With the orb, outcome can be as vast as that little daydream was…and I saw it. You want him to pay as much as Bruce –
" No!-
" You do." Squinted the boy's cruel captor. " I can make that happen. I can get you your just reward easily. If." Slade paused. " If, you can come up with a way to see the binder out of Bruce's possession. I'll do the rest of the heavy lifting. Up." Immediately, Dick rose shakily back to standing. He wasn't sure how to do this. " You said…they'd counter it. If the book ever survived an "outcome" wish, what? How do I stop it?"
" You'll think a bit harder. In front of us are books on war tactics that I've held onto for a very long time. I want you to read as many until your eyes fall onto the very one that will save our skins, and ruin Harvey Dent's "face" in that courtroom today. You have one hour. I'll call you to eat, but if you cannot locate just one outcome, one tactic?"
Swallowing, Dick didn't retort.
" Food will be withheld until you do. I hope you enjoy your time making another suffer." He smirked while rising from his armchair, shifting towards the door with hands behind his back. " If you cannot, ask yourself this question; should the person I'm looking to take my acts out on, what would hurt them the most?"
Dick frowned and went over to the first book. Medieval torture. Fuck him.
" Have fun."
Dick turned his head as Slade simply vanished and the click of a lock kept him in this dreadful " torture" librarium.
Dick shoved the book back and looked for the least gruesome subjects he could, organizing piles of ways to either kill, blackmail or dethrone a single or singular groups.
He swiped through pages, skimming as a clock on the wall existed. It looked to say the time he was looking for, until he checked the other hand. It was out of order??
Dick groaned and moved onto the next book and another. For that thirty-minute run through, he had fourth books strewn about his legs as he crawled to gather, collect and sort.
Double cross by –
That went in the psychological torture pile.
Poisoned in –
That was assassination attempts, in this one pile here.
Dick was finding too many ways until he came across an arcane book trapped over in sigils. He picked it up, inspecting the cover. Turning a page, a part of him imagined an image of the binder having the most ridiculous information. His information. ..
For the parks project.
Dick froze. No. No, he'd …
He moved onto Dent's fate. Could he let Slade do tht? The man who was the one that nearly had Robin ripped from him though…that was Batman. The bullet barely itched, as Dick clutched his shoulder with a shudder. " I….think it's wrong. What do I do?" He whispered as the clock stayed the same. Fourth five. From. The thirty, it had to be sort of fair. He kept sorting, looking.
In the magical looking tome, he saw a way to transfer a device from the hand of one person to another. As if a blade next to a king's aid, and then.
Thrusting them to the orb's will, they could be framed.
Dick had to be sure that Harvey wasn't in control. Like Joker as the Orb listened to his two wishes.
" The binder….I wish it was a detailed…."
And the outcome for Dent was the icing on the cake.
After all, the key did favor him over that madman. If this all went as planned, Slade would not get his last say.
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Should we keep going? Ummmm….okay!
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Spinning as a top, under the collar Silas moved quickly in the day time sun. It was sure, he was sure it knew what it would be up against. Getting Ananda to cover on his escape plan, Silas had found a way to finally break from the Key's link. Long enough, as long as it found another pawn, he'd go to an old friend for some advice.
Cadmus had a lab set up in Star City. He'd shoved his butt onto a plane provided by his old benefactors that had started this entire mess. Wayne was possibly aware of the same trick. The trick was…to think of a loved one, dying.
That was the only way. He thought about Cyborg, that he was still alive and that Silas could find a way to get them to back off on recovering what they'd taken from a space station no equipped to travel light-years for these, these. ..silent conquerors.
It was a big mistake. The only way to reduce energy output was just as it was. Humans had to die, yet they needed to live to see that. This fragile being was one mind. One mind, losing no energy in extending itself as far as one state at a time. It was very conservative, strategic and sly by making children the firms it wished to take over with.
Children with the power to obliterate reason and the human race.
Silas found the doorway in that was secretly a zeta tube crafted with similar tech as the JLA's expertise. He felt foolish, as bad as Wayne was for trying to cover his sins up. God forgive, he had to save his son and the boy's friends.
No more wishing.
No more new outcomes.
No more desires, as a slender male with a set of goggles ushered Silas to follow him down a flickering hallway. " This is just a decoy. You'll see the lab, get started on a way to erase and capture these creatures."
" My son…can it cure any illness? What if –
" The repercussions would mean the loss of your mind, Mr. Stone."
" My mind was lost a long time ago to this craft, this science that plays God."
" Not all the time." Corrected the other scientist.
" Mr. Desmond-
( Borrowing YJ.)
" Call me Ray." The adult, presumably Ray, tipped his head with a small grin. " You'll be saving the planet, Stone. I expect great things. And , don't worry about Wayne." He reassured. " He will be expected of the same outcome if he ever wishes to remain at his post with such high esteem."
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The court issued the retreat or continuation with the a different judge. The other was taking a long vacation to cool his head. Having faced Gotham at its best and worse, Bruce could partly relate. When he saw Dick and Slade enter the courtroom, Harvey knitted Bruce to stay on point with his opponent in another way. " It's our arena through the evidence. I got the counter method. Is she in the stands?" He whispered, barely audible.
" Yeah, as planned."
"Good." Harvey waved to his wife as she smiled back while getting seated beside the man she was going to be replacing him with in a few months. It hurt, but his son gave the old mobster turned DA again a thumbs up. A double thumbs as Harvey gave an " A- Okay " sign to say he'd gotten the meno. His son grinned and went to take out a pad of paper.
" We're rooting fir you, Dad. Save the day… "
A lump formed as that triggered something for Harvey to fake a grin as he sat down to gather his notes. His hand was shaking a little as he picked up the first sheet.
" We're ready to begin, your honor."
The ( this is actually important) judge was a middle-aged blonde woman with glasses perched on the rim of her nose.
" All rise."
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As if the last case….
" The witness, " Joker" testified with harsh words fkr the person he was defending. Explain your reasoning."
" He was going through a case of psychosis that returned, your honor. His doctors said there was an error in his medication dosage."
" The case of him being here was problematic from the start then-
" Your honor, we didn't know thos hotel we had spoken to th e staff that medicated that man. It was neglect, and the board is looking to find the one responsible for this level of malpractice within the facility. Yet regardless, your honor, we now have verified proof of Mr. Duarte's cover as an elected criminal mastermind keeping the son of Bruce Wayne under lock and key for political reasons. The evidence."
" Show the court your findings –
" Objection!"
" OVERRULED." That was good, this judge called Hackett as Bruce knew was a fan of crime novels to an extreme that made her quite good at not wanting to miss diving into a scandal and tearing it apart.
The had to step carefully as Raven raised the power in her from the stands. Dick had already made his wish, Slade was about to.
" Plans…"
Harvey blinked, skimming through the binder as if unclear on what he was searching for.
" Mr. Dent?"
" We have the wrong binder here. I think it's with Mr. Wayne."
" I apologize." Bruce had everyone laughing at his goofy playboy nature as he handed the real binder over.
Dick squinted to see over the side, yet Raven put a hand to her mouth as Dick saw Slade focusing on facing her off telepathically through his outcome's wish.
Starfire was there as well as her starboard needed to look like a stone being tossed. Raven was quite find of thos plan as they let her bolt fly like a shot, only it wasn't hers.
It was a bullet.
" What the-
The looked but saw only air.
The bots, Raven ducked and crawled to the end of the aisle.
This was bad. Slade had –
" The real binder!-
" Was stolen from my home, and I wish to place a case on Dent for conspiracy. That binder is full of the Restoration Project's notes." Slade stood up to tell the judge. Dick looked behind him to see Raven near the far wall, facing out to do some investigating.
That robot was in the hall, her guess was as good as any.
" Let me see the evidence, Mr. Dent."
Bruce took a breath, not before Dick's thoughts drew up a a final wish. He'd lie-
But Bruce, he was also pretty good as his wish came first.
Make it the real binder of something that will give Dick back to us.
The binder didn't show that it had swapped, yet it wasn't that but a very bad scrapbook of a scandal far worse as Hatchet dropped the binder.
To reveal a pedophilia album of Dock is clothing that didn't belong in any image.
Dick gasped and shook his head. " What the –
He turned to Bruce, who with a last resort, made a face bordering on disgust. And a victory. Dick had to let his heart stop a second as Slade growled, standing again to point at the other accused. " That is a fraudulent exploit! That binder was replaced! The plans –
" We'll be further investigating the contents as we make a decision. How did you acquire…."
" A housekeeper in Duarte's home. She had bumped into me outside the courthouse. Described a lot I've been trying to help the guy into a orange suit for. It's a disgrace, and a son? I have even more evidence that the boy's parent's murder was planned from the start."
"Raven!" Starfire went outside to whisper into her comm.
"Raven??" She searched the hallways past the court room door as the first scream came from the next hall. Her cloaked form was flung not with her regular leotard, but her disguise of an onlookers without her hood to mask her pain " Starfire, get back inside. I'm fi-
" You…no, you are, not!"
She flung her punch at the cloaked robot as the cameras only just had guards coming to face off too.
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" Who?? What housekeeper?? I don't hire –
" Then, show us your spending. Your perfect plan, the fact you burned the manor down for a couple of slick reasons, even to get a good discount on the taxes you've paid since moving here ….DEATHSTROKE."
The crowd gasped and chatter ascended. " It's a smear, I'm not anyone else but who I've been this entire-
" The boy then." Harvey stopped him. " We can get a sample, see if this isn't some con to attack our city. Your honor, I propose a thorough investigation of this man's estates, assets and his medical screening may come up foggy. The boy, if he is a missing Wayne-
" See to what you want, yet I'm innocent." Slade was taken in cuffs as Dick had to finally let a breath out. He could have, had a scream not had the door shatter with the weight of Kori crashing through it. She slid painfully into the tiles as the Judge was up on her desk. The crashing glass and the reverting murder bot had the scene seem that much more dangerous. " Court adjourned! Mr. Duarte is to be kept until further can prove his case! Dismissed!" She hit the gavel as Slade glared at Wayne. " Are you happy now? Thus is going to be harder on your eyes with more people suffering for your ego, Mr-
Bruce shoved a punch right into Slade's face as the eye popped out by enough force. The people didn't stay to all see it, yet the judge up and fainted. The security at her seat were hauling her out and opening up two other exist for the people. Harvey went to his family and helped them get out as well.
" They gotta duke this one out. It's over, super soon."
" YOU were insane in there, dad! Like a real SVU cop!" His son James jumped up to drag his dad's hand out the crushed doorway. Starfire recovered long enough to face the robot, while Raven was om her way to assist, had a second bot not pulled her to the ground.
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It got ugly. Glad we kept going! Dick never gets a break, but who made the wish to change the binder to lewd shit of him?
Find out, next chapter!!