Teen Titans- Renegade's Last Stand ; Finding Pandora = Hope
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Chapter 18; The Grass is Always Greener – Big City Dreamers
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None of these are anything but a portrayal of Gotham V.S Metropolis overview ( grass is greener) and big city, dreaming before the whole " Clark is the man of steel FYI: Jim Gordon knows who Batman is but Bullock doesn't. It's a secret between them, as is the fact that everyone knows Deathstroke including Selina and Bruce and Lex. So? Find out!
Also, I have trouble writing action and martial arts at times. Better with weapons. The series 03 had him "kick" Slade in a bear hug but he couldn't do that without his boots. Slade made Dick feel hopeless to control him this time, winning over his word but Dick….is sick of feeling so let down. Let's see what happens. As well as a flashback of the bear hug, after the mask shattered in this story, the Titans didn't show up and Dick was beaten as punishment on his back for trying to escape or attack his master. Dick in the prior first chapter was pretty abused past that so it's why his fight level to face Slade has dropped. Due to the trauma. Possibly Stockholm forming.
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His map from the station depot was old, but it did the job getting to a quiet place to eat and make an email out to Lois Lane, Roy hated that he'd be getting on Bruce's toes. The man had tried to double him down as a "Titan."
"I was on this case way before any of em." Roy sent part of the file to Lane as he shut his tablet down and his stand. He had to get to a quieter spot. Who knew if some "Braniac" cue ball was up his rear like Slade currently was over the Gotham City air waves?
What a pain, as he ordered to go and made his way to the one place he'd be least welcome to see.
/
Beastboy yawned with a stretch as hos comm unit went off, the signal from Speedy was there as his ears perked up. He ran to the next room to see Cy going for the kitchen while his dad had invited the boys, the girls stayed in their own hotel since it was limited space. Raven said she needed less of a headache from Beast boy's elephant snores in his sleep.
"Morning, Bb."
"Uh, oh! Look, it just showed up." Bb bounced over to show the text to Cy. "In Metropolis. Can we meet this afternoon at…."
"Is, is it –
"Roy definitely sent it."
"Another teammate of yours, son?" Silas took over with the juicer. An impressive feat since Bb couldn't eat egg or sausage links. The tomatoes and small bit of veggies cut up were fine though. He just popped through into his mouth while Silas enjoyed the company again. "I can grab my attention to Barry in Central, tell em' to go over this lab's data. You kids had better eat and run if you wanna catch the next bus to –
"Were next door, I can run halfway!" Bb boasted, having Cy worry that it might be a bit soon to act well enough for his friend to run a full marathon from state to state.
"We'll take the T car, be there in double time. Thanks dad. I really owe you, well…"
"We'll get the stability underway with the sweeper soon enough. I think Cadmus in Metropolis is looking at a brand-new way to utilize a similar technology. Though mostly it involves biological components of an unknown source. Might be more up their alley." Shrugged the adult. "If you see Supes, tell him to keep in mind that no one is off the radar. He needs to be careful. With word about the element's ability to harvest or collect power from any device or outside provider and source, he's gotta be on edge since Lex Corp is right in his neck a' the woods."
"We're all over meeting the best hero in all of the states. I mean, he wears his undies outside of his clothes. And nobody cares!" Grinned the green teen.
"Appearances aside, don't go blowing any covers. Vic? I'm hoping you've got their backs. I told Superman about Bruce and his decision and he's not at all ok with what you guys went through."
"He…vouched? That's…wow." Cy was stunned. "We could get into a lotta messes later with Batman, ya know? You too."
"He's a big kid. I've known that since we first met through his parent company. Star labs takes care of anything Wayne Tech cannot support in its own city. You know, Joker and Two face? Besides, you said his partner was literally abducted by a criminal mastermind to use against the heroes. I think that counts that we aren't the ones who need ta grow up.a little. I know it took me tome after your mother passed away. You're here now, and we gotta keep things alright? Right, son?"
( Noted, I may be mean to his dad later . It's a suspense thing. )
"Yeah, dad. We'll find Supes and get our team back. You got it, right."
He wanted to tell his dad that having living killing machines in their bloodstream meant that the Titans were not allowed to go on the offensive. Only the defense, until Slade got bored and ended them despite what he himself had declared.
What was Robin even going through right now? It was still just afternoon in that city. How could he be, underground. Alone.
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Alone, was maybe never.
Dick blocked an attack as Slade made him parry a hit with his fists. "Better. You don't go down as easily from a direct attack. Let's try a lower end approach." Slade slipped into the shadows of the simulator's dojo while Dick listened to every heartbeat, his feet in a stance that allowed him to duck or flee should he end up in a choke hold. Or –
There!
He turned, his neck gripped as Slade held a metal sliver plate of copper to his cheek to direct the kid to his voice. The stance was; knees partly parted and bent, he had to flip him.
But his instinct said to pull or twist out of the hold. He was too short to fight the man like Bruce or even Cyborg.
"What will you do?"
That million-dollar decision. Dick growled as he found his stance to pull, yet Slade was planted firmly, not even stealing his breath yet.
He thought about in the chair of the dais; how he'd slipped out like a snake, or an eel. He wasn't that coy to using the tactic again, so he dropped down to his knees as they were almost on the ground. He was on the tips of his toes as he pressed a bit lower to the floor. His neck back and throat long, he slipped out as he twisted his limbs on instinct before Slade's chance came to drag him back up, this time the arms found a way to swap and snake around his torso. "Making it easier on yourself won't help if it's to preserve your life. Now, bear hug. What do you do?"
Slade easily squeezed like before on the dias. Even with Slade doing this to gradually see that Dick got a feel of his own failure, he could do one of two things. Had he not been in a gi with slippers; Slade was in his uniform yet his armor and plates were removed. His boots and gloves had stayed with the mask, making him look inhuman as his robotic companions.
"Hm, you do know this. It happened to be the first move you maybe ever used to defy my in your old city. So, try to remember."
The kick, thought Dick as he remembered plenty. The mask then had snapped with a crack, yet Dick wasn't wearing his boots and Slade had on the mask. It was a victory lap that had ended with a whip to his spine that night. No, a bo staff.
"Fine."
The man huffed by his ear at the sour retort, as the metal plate of his helmeted face came off. Only leaving a second face covering in black goth with one patch and a striking gray blue that he couldn't even see, he knew that Slade Wilson was his captor. Now, he had to escape him or die trying.
Dick swung up his legs, yet only then Slade did the unthinkable as he pulled the kid up higher, swinging his legs to find purchase in the air. "I thought you were a limber little acrobat? Not too sharp as I recall. That was weeks ago. Try to remember…"
Dick moved his leg back at an odd angle for an average person and hit, the side of Slade's face was not really hard to hit once the second one located it, but the second one had missed. Slade had ducked before dumping the kid back to the mat. "There is another way to do this." The merc explained, getting interested in seeing what Robin was willing to do this time. "You're so puny, for now. It would take a few more years to have the upper hand. If you ever end up in this state, try to advance. You use your tools and don't show mercy. Any child your age –
"I…could do it." Dick ruggedly got back to his feet as he got back into stance. He faced Slade, who did one better and swapped the dojo image backdrop with one surrounded by images of the old haunt in Jump. Dick was in his old attire, the uniform he'd told Slade he had beaten him in before. Not Robin. As an angry apprentice for having hurt his own friends to save them. The creaking room and the winding gears made him shiver under the heat of a false steam bath.
"Show me, then." Slade proposed calmly. "I'll give you a handicap, this once. If you fail, you're going to scrub the main room until you're much better used bowing, for a very long time."
Long live the king, Dick grunted as he recalled the events enough to relive a part of them. Do it again. Do the exact same…
No.
He realized as Slade's fist swung at him.
The cartwheel was how he'd gotten ruined. The flip was his mistake. He avoided those completely and stayed out of the air.
Dick was poised, yet unprepared as he ducked the next hit. Slade yelled his war cry, seeing the same vision, but better.
/
Around the room, he tried to take in this lesson. The screens showed his friends, at the man's mercy. Their knee guards clashed. Almost time.
No, he was….
It was a mash up. This was improving!
"Got that quickly enough, did you? I'm not following the past."
Slade crouched to knock him off his feet as Dick rolled to get a few feet back. He was hiding. Running? Slade was going to tire him out. He had to fight back. Why? How??
The heart beat monitor levels pounder hotter, as his panic came back. Dick roared out, the hit to his gut avoided as he went into a flying kick.
It landed.
No mask this time, as Slade spat away blood with a fool's grin. He was praised. Fina…
Dick tasted bile in that moment. That's not what he wanted at all.
"Good, apprentice…no, holding back. Try again, try to attack."
He did. He didn't hold back this time. Slade finally set him up for the bear hug and then he was angry enough to kick. His ability was his swift agility. He didn't want to waste it, but Slade ducked. "Not like before, apprentice. You need a new strategy. So, I win this round." With a chuckle in his ear, there was no do over for this game over moment. Dick was mortified. He'd lost.
It…wasn't fair, as the simulator reverted with Dick on his knees, pounding the ground at his loss.
Loser….
Jerk…
"If at any time the "old" me had noticed your movements in time, maybe you would not have that set of marks for your punishment on your back… in the same day after our departure. Those floors had better be spotless."
Dick cowered as his eyes stayed awake to the fact that Slade could read his movements. That was something….something inhuman about him. ( precognition.)
Slade put a hand to the kid's shoulder yet he flinched.
Slade frowned, and grasped at his apprentice's shoulder length hair as his head was tipped back painfully instead. "Look at me. You knew this was not a beginner's course, boy. Suck it up and know your place. You got off lucky due to my mental state at another time. That's over and done with. It's time to move on, and grow up."
Dick let his eyes shut as he nodded with a hiccup, a sniffle before Slade dropped his scalp and went to retrieve his supplies. "Wash up. Get redressed and meet me for a briefing in twenty minutes. Straighten up, or you know what happens to that loyalty you promised…"
"Ye…yes, Sir." Dick replied hoarsely, finding his legs as they still felt like rubber.
"Water is in the mini cooler. Take a couple."
He left the kid all by himself as the door shut behind, keeping things quiet again. This room was a training room. He'd hated being humiliated after all of that, day after day….Slade had….had…
They'd not come through to save him. Even if he'd just gotten a few kicks in, they were a child's tantrum. So, he sobbed before looking into through at the standing cooler's glass kept contents. The glass reflected a yogurt protein bar and a bottle of water. He wanted it, the hunger and the shame made him cave in, maybe as an act of rebellion. Slade needed him fed. Fuck it. That was what he needed.
One time to escape with a low sugar content.
He ripped open the wrapper and plunged into his cravings, even if he wasn't a big fan of Greek yogurt to begin with.
/
Dick cries a lot because he wasn't before the time Slade literally threw him into a beat down over breaking his mask and not mentioning, he tried to take the controller which we will get into that too.
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Also, anatomically, Dick xan only lift if he's sort if comic bookish. If it's a grown ass man at his height? No . He is an anime style mass and I refuse to make him any less adorable. Slade is telling him that his suit, tools, all of those make up fir what he lacks but Slade is going to train the muscle into him to grow up faster. He's fourteen and you'd think his base range of gain would be better with his working out etc. Slade saw him as weak because as a Titan, he was eating less and not caring about his health as much. Slade would force feed him but recall he made the kid purge his guts a day or two ago. He's still recovering muscle then too. I have BAM and slow bowel so when I lose my gains, it's gi related from flare ups. Not fun. One week I have four pounds and abs, next week it drops because I had my gut slow or speed up too quickly. Thus, Slade is slowly having Dick reconsider how weak he really is and how he can change to not need a handicap in the future. Because Slade uses them as a show of power and to conserve energy only. Dick uses tools because he's adorable and puny. Thus, Slade is training the lean out of him gradually.
Gross!!!
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Lois was at her desk by late that two pm as she dozed over emails that had nothing too interesting to be called "the scoop of the century."
"Louis? Miss Lane?"
The dark haired African American intern ( keeping!) Had a camera around his neck and a goofy look on his face as he peered over at Lois's emails. ( using the Lois from the animated series 90s.)
"You're up to how many?" He wished at the unread piles as she shushed him and dragged his shirt collar down to talk face to face. "Toubare nosy today, you know? Listen, I need to contact Clark."
"Kent in on break. I think he went to the café to grab coffee for everyone. Like…" Jimmy looked at impossible watch as Lois squinted at his nervous chuckle back at her. "About fourth five ago…"
"He's out. Cover my seat." She had Jimmy sit in her chair as she sneaked out the back to find the stairs to the next floor up there was a room where he'd be changing as she she slipped past her bosses, right about…
"There you are." She hissed, her worry evidently oozing as Clark was back struggling to fix his tie. "Sorry, fire on south and main. Just a gas leak. Nothing serious-
"I've been…." She looked behind him and recalled lunch.
"Were you…in charge of the lattes today?"
"Oh! Shoot, Lois…I can-
"YOU went to run that investigation by Lex Corp. Didn't you? Bruce told us that it's serious. You need the whole league involved. If word gets out that Luthor has a piece –
He put a finger to her lips as she shoved it off. "Nope. No. Uh – uh. You and I both need to get back down to our office cubbies, so ground yourself a bit in paperwork and stop trying…so hard." She huffed.
"Clark, Lex has had it out for you ever since he went, well…"
"The cancer was his own fault and we offered to find a cure."
"KRYPT- ON- ITE." She held up air quotes. "Can we cure that sort of cancer, yet? No one's even tried and I doubt it will…advance." She tossed her long dark hair to the side as he went after she'd gone, trying not to make this look like a tryst between coworkers. Let alone employees and their seniors.
A hand to his ear, yet another voice or voices were talking. It was below, on the reception floor.
~ I need to talk to Lois Lane. It's urgent.~
~ Do you have an appointment with Miss. Lane?~
~ I do, or should. Please. Tell her "Harper" has a lot of details about the current scoop.~
Harper.
As in, Roy? The son and ward of Oliver in Starling?
~ I'll be sure to pass that along. Would you like me to set up a meeting say…next Tuesday at two?~
~ How about…with Clark Kent.~
His ears picked up.
~ I have something by this time….oh, he's free! You can go on up since I don't-
~ THANKS!~
Roy raced upstairs, knowing now that being a geek in Kansas and the Daily Planet's underdog had him as the most barren for interviews. Good thing, Roy would be his very first fan.
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The back offices were stacked on top of one another as Roy also realized who interviews must have been impossible. He saw Lois and wanted to wave, yet Perry caught her before he could flick a pinkie. The tallest, nice guy in the galaxy, abs Roy was going to have to keep his words down.
"May I help you, Harper? Right?"
"You…" He nodded briskly, Clark smiling before having his grin on in a soft way that only he could. "Lois said I can borrow her spot. It's not as open. Come on."
/
Lois had a desk, and a damned view of the city. Cat Grant was a few floors up, but heaven be held it!
"Why you don't live like Mr. Wayne is insane, if I do say so myself." Snorted Roy as Clark took off his glasses to reveal the truth they'd figured out months ago. "Lois keeps my secret safe, but we both thought getting too comfortable in this job would put others in danger, as well as my team. I know about the element. Bruce wasn't quiet about it, and he wanted you to stick around. The Titans are over in Central. They'll be watching the very last element piece. The one we're after, Lex is hoarding. With a key that is cloned by some special ability to open the case and "advance" the structure Slade is looking to steal it."
"You overhead it or something?"
"Not that far, but it travels. Or Bruce told me about "Crystalizer." Turns out she has meta-abilities to transmutation items into fine, hard crystal. Similar in structure to the "key" that opens the Pandora box."
"We can't say he doesn't have her under contract like Livewire, can we?" Roy asked. "Bruce won't be up in our case, or –
" I was here a day in advance to talk to an old friend. You reached out to Lois, so this really wasn't necessary." Bruce appeared behind the wall. Hiding in plain sight. "Wow. This is….how the hell did I miss you two?" Snorted the red-haired teen. "And I'm in this because he's not gonna infect me. I literally am your eye in the sky."
"That girl you spoke to in the club, the one where Criss or Crystal is also located, Rat Catcher was identified and we think killed by robots Slade's been secretly adapting through his knowledge of the Pandora element."
"Super weapons. Why does this sound pretty sketchy? How'd you know about the places I go? Did you know Richard was there on orders to follow me?"
"He saw through the mask, or a camera." Bruce frowned. "You also exposed their next target. Crystal McKenzie is a teenager who was experimented on through an illegal program that Cadmus shut down months ago. She's been on the run until she was found in that footage. We saw the cameras of that night. Selina gave away details and now, she's also in danger of Slade finding her."
"He really hates losing at hide and seek. Fuck." Roy scratched his head, the pressure not as great. Never as heavy as it was becoming now.
"There are stakes in trying to get there and take the element before Slade uses his robots for a test run." Clark wondered. "If the element is capable of facing off against a Kryptonian and winning what then?"
"I fought that robot in my manor. It broke in and Alfred nearly had the worst of our injuries. Thankfully, Jason…he didn't need to see it. He was in another part of the house."
He pulled out his cell as the image of a red laser drawn "S" above the window where it had exited, was on the glass, not even a crack as if it were melted as any laser. Though it was, perfect.
"A design expert. Slade is no "Property Brothers." Roy hummed while Clark scanned the image. "A warning?"
"He's in my city." Bruce told the two. "And more of these Selina thinks are being built. Even one fragment is used and many fragments make up an entire orb. The vast quantity of power doesn't need to be recharged often if ever and if Lex has the same plan –
"His suit this time will crush, Superman." Clark recited, as serious as Bruce was about stopping the robot attackers.
"If he does anything, you'll have my word on it that Lex won't react as planned. We'll steal the shard, get Crystal on our side if we can or even if we have to have her contained-
"WAIT, A SEC." Roy's foot dropped at the show of brutal force "You're gonna hog tie and seize custody of a kid?? Is that un-American or did I hear that wrong?"
"Lex has weaned this kid on crime and if this is anything close to how Live Wire, she won't drop the mission until her time is up to serve anyone. She's also going to have the power to replicate more keys and if there is a way to replicate the element –
"That would…" Roy looked at Clark who put back on his glasses with a dignified glance at the door. "You'll be sure to see yourself out , gentlemen. My four o'clock phone call is with Perry…" He groaned, changing up until he'd spoken to Lois, who was too busy dragging his butt to the boss's room. She didn't look too great, maybe getting an earful about investigative journalism not always being "present" at a crime scene.
Bruce checked his cell over as the call was to get a pick up from the office. "You coming too, Roy?"
The kid had nothing doing until tonight, so…
He shrugged as they set off past the screaming halls and flying papers to the elevator. In, then out. Just like it would take to steal a high-powered energy source from Lex Corp.
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Bruce is not an ass when he's out on the town as himself. The batman is a hard ass. Mainly the point.
So Crystal is a meta who was illegally subjected to become the next weapon. But who thinks that Lex had something to do with her creation? After all, he has a hand in Cadmus. If so, then she's there for the exact same reason Live Wire was even fake, on Slade's team. Before he killed her. So, Slade has killed Rat Catcher ( numero dos) and Livewire. I'm going to make another stop in Central city since that to me would be mostly out west between Keystone and Missouri. More of the case, eight hours by ride.
Look it up!