Teen Titans – Renegade's Last Resort; Finding Pandora = Hope

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Chapter 35: Cracking Jaws

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Cyborg lost the trail on his dad and had the steps in to find Mr. Wayne the next day in his office, surrounded by the press at his door. As a civilian both cloaked in a hoodie and with a note from Alfred to get inside, he was wearing it up not to be spotted.

A tall , African American male about in his twenties was pushing by with the authority of a kid from the military. There was a man with a clipboard and security guards in the lobby as the press reporters all crowded the doors and elevator to get a scoop.

" Excuse me! You don't all have clearance, Mr. Wayne is not –

" Let me help ya out, dude." Cy clapped a hand to the other man's back as he yelled out, making everyone stop in their tracks.

" LISTEN UP!! There is no scoop. We still got tests to run and you can all run along until we release any more details of last night's case. If you'll are super patient, you'll get her story. Now, shut those down and calmly make your way to the exit. Mr. Wayne is a busy hey who supports this city more than anyone-

" Then why is Duarte's real binder posted online! What was that episode in the courtroom with robots?? The people have to know!-

The elevator dinged as Bruce stepped out and room fell to a deathly silence all at once. Cy had to gape as the man with the clipboard whispered in Bruce's ear. The twenty-year-old adult sighed and shuffled over, arms behind his back. Military brat indeed.

" I know you all have questions, and there will be answers when the real truth is found and released to the public. But, for now…I'm waiting to possibly reunite with my family you should think to do the same and leave thus for another time. If you please."

" Mr. Wayne? –

" Wayne, sir-

" Billionaire –

Some nick names made Cy bite down at the fact that all they saw was money, but that was common. Gotham had a small one percent and it was a scary thing.

In the crowd, he didn't see Miss. Vale or Ivy, they were not as dumb as these no name propaganda slips, so that was that. Cy went up with the two men and one other security guard. Cy saw the twenty-year-old and his badge, realizing this was a job of his. The other man wore a brown suit and tie. Simple, but perhaps in the advising or detective category of work?

Cy was no detective, yet Robin had taught him that keen observation was just as useful as any piece of tech when you had to lay low.

Robin.

Where the heck was he?

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Dick knew these walls to a degree. It was a center for kids like him to stay, test and wait until they were let back ti whoever was going to care for them. He sat on his bedding and looked out a window at the sky, hoping to not put Kori and the others at risk. Slade didn't have the trigger. Why? He…always did…

And was Will really not working for them anymore?

Dick's eyes slipped shut, only until a door opened to reveal a familiar face.

" Dr…" He was stunned.

" I'm the same person, Dick. We're glad to say that th e bloodworm came out as anticipated. You are the one and only, Richard Grayson."

As he thought it, his heart ached. Burned, as he held his skull…oh, right…

Dick fell from the bed as they caught him.

Fevers weren't what Slade had used to make him this way. A reduced number of the probes was.

He was still caged up….

Still…

" Dick?? Call a medic, now!"

Was….she real?

" Hang in there, my dear…you're ok…" She was hugging him like a mother would, his Tata….why?

Was he not the one who had started all of this?

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Bruce got off the phone, turning to Cyborg. " Richard collapsed. He's being taken to Gotham medical by a doctor I had visit him with the results.

" I'm going -

" If you do, just…" Bruce clutched his cell as the older gentleman pressed the button to the basement level. " Just stay in disguise there. No one knows you'll be present and Slade can't try his tricks to distract us."

" That man gave us trouble less in the past woth his series of scams. Bruce, will you be alright? Should I send for someone to –

" Lucius, you've done a great deal while I was out with this case. I can't thank you enough. One time, we'll find out today if Slade is responsible. And…I'm afraid it might be a fact at this point…"

/

Cy and Bruce were in his town car Bruce told Cy to stay low and not try to walk away too far. Dick was their priority, yet there was other work here to be….

In front of the hospital, the crowd of press reporters did swarm. " I gotta do this." Cy popped his head out of the vehicle as Bruce pulled up to the curb. " Thanks, parking it around the corner out back. I have another in plain sight." He pointed to Alfred's old British style as the man didn't have Jason with him. He was in classes today and rather upset for not being a part of the action like before.

" Master Bruce."

They went through the doors as the security there looked nervous without Cy to step in, and…

There was a motorcycle that pulled up as the twenty something year old security officer parked and got off his seat, helmet in hand. " I'm Mr. Wayne's personal bodyguard. This has gotta end, people. No pictures, so wait until we have some results."

" What he said." Cy backed the kid. " Anything you gotta say to him, say ta me."

" Are you both aware that-

" That comes later. A kid up there needs us to keep em safe and all you can think about is your next big scoop? I'd say it's more criminal that anything any of us or Wayne has done so far. So, get that checked out."

Cy grinned at the man as he still to him looked more alive in conquering the crowd. And, he liked it.

After the crowd had gotten an earful , miraculously the departed into their vehicles. The staff and security guards got water bottles while one ordered lunch to celebrate a job well done. " It's on the big boss upstairs, what do you wanna order?"

Cy stuck by them as the beeping monitors were farther off. Nothing but checking bags and putting masks on faces as they entered the hall; he felt a bit of comfort in knowing that not all of Gotham was as lawless as the papers printed.

" Vic, right? How'd you get in tight with Mr. Wayne?"

" I know his kid, we…um, met when he was just finishing up his classes. We played ball on the street and sometimes I wasn't always around. Found out though that he was either kidnapped and told Mr. Wayne-

" You then, stayed out of the public eye." The twenty something year old pointed at Cyborg's appearance. " Maybe, but we ain't the same. Give us a sec?"

The man had the others guards leave as the male put down his food to talk. " I know you're a titan and I know about Robin being captured by this guy Wayne is trying to put away. He has a circle of us, and Lucius is my pop."

Cy gawked. " You're that one? Man…I had a feeling you weren't really just playing a cop –

" Was a seal. Young for my age but Pops did what he could to keep me from that life, you ended up with it too. Silas Stone. I remember hearing about his work-

" My dad is …." Cy rubbed his neck anxiously. " We still got a lot to unpack. Ever since I became a hero, I just let him do what he did while I did me. What about your dad? Who is he to Mr. Wayne?"

" He advised his daddy, and I'm not doing the damn same. It's why I needed my own path. I'm a fan of aerodynamics and rocket science if it helps?"

" You are, huh? Something tells me we can trust each other then." Cy grinned as they did a secret handshake. As if they'd been friends for a long ass time!

" You're not twenty, are you."

" I wear a lot of gear, and no. Everyone says that. I'm seventeen

" No kidding? For real?"

" Yup. Ah, name's Luke. Luke Fox, after my pops."

" Victor Stone, but you can call me Vic when I'm not wearing my battle suit." They chuckled as Cy took a bagel and didn't care if brunch was over. " First thing you got for stopping an angry mob…ya'll got, no meat from a deli?"

" We'll have something then do the gym later. You should come too. This place is good to us because we put our lives on the line….ah, and. .I hope your friend is, you know….ok."

" My leader, but he…"

" It's cool, man. I mean, the fact everyone thinks he's that special right now including a well-known assassin, I'm glad I've got an ace if we get to that part." Luke pointed to his wrist as a watch that had a bat logo on it wasn't just to comical fan boy's novelty item. It was real, high tech.

" Call me, Batwing."

/

Dick's I.V didn't have to work. The spell was s temporary way to keep him out of that facility, closer to the public eye.

Bruce had to stop and call up Amanda as she lifted a pinky to let the call through. " I'm in the middle of a meeting, Bruce –

~ Amanda. I never gave you clearance to take Slade Wilson into your custody. He was supposed-

" I had that man in a cell of my own since he started out with team 7. The people still are not gonna know but the bloodworm won't matter. His DNA gets erased every time you try to test him out. Brain matter, tissue. It's the only way and we got it. Soon, Duarte is gonna be a shadow ln the board. Like he never even existed, and you and your kid –

~ The probes, Mandy. You don't know what he could do!~

" We're looking into that shit with STAR labs. I kept my part. If the kid is…" She stopped herself. " Whatever is going on, let me know in fifteen."

She out him go, a hand to her jaw as it….made her sick to think Slade needed a good swift kick in the face.

" Excuse me." She moved to see by the door, an escaped conviction that had a bone to pick.

" Mandy." Slade twirled a key from his magnetic cuffs in his ongoing pointer. Standing in the doorway, she saw down the hall that bodies littered the walls. " What, you want a cookie? I'll have my team down here to scrape your brain from the panels in seconds." She pulled out a gun as he looked her in the eye. " No, you said Duarte is dead but …I need him very much alive. How else would you have Wayne's piece of the crystal that makes up another part of MY orb?"

" You can't handle getting your hands on more power-

" And you just love to flaunt your own. Not so different as you were back then, Mandy. How is the team?"

" Pure suicide." She snorted. " I advise you not to move another step. You know what's around your n…"

She saw him pull as it snapped In two. The back of his neck was barely pierced as he seemed in a breath. " Who did your work?" She growled. " You recover faster, from the orb?? What do you want??"

" The key I have isn't whole. And you know where the pieces are scattered. Mumbai, Rio, Kyoto, Sydney, and Dubai."

" Many names, but what is their actual link if, at all?" Smirked the warden.

" Easy. There is barely one core. It's all the same core, but the false replica was with STAR labs. Queen Industrial was a ruse and Lex had dibs while it wasn't common knowledge at the time. Wayne then…." Slade turned to her sharply. " He has another piece. Thus, my hunt isn't through."

" Duarte has to die. You took innocents into this and I won't stand –

"Don't forget yourself, Mandy." Slade glared back. " You can't deny that a touch of curiosity had you going to Cadmus to investigate why Wayne suddenly seemed so assured in his little lie. It was that same greet, little lie that led me to step in and jump at the chance that you could not. That he and I know how to deflect the Keys' little guilt trip trick. If I were you, I'd not try to reach back out to them. For I think…"

Slade raised his hand and pretended to make a hand motion of a gun with it. One smirk had her knowing his mania wasn't just for show.

" That someone already grew desperate enough to try. We will see who the third player is, very soon. In the meantime, you're going to bring Wayne in to talk. I'll go back to my pet, if you down your little controls. We all know it as a waste on resources. I can always just jump the fence now, but my secret still isn't out. Is it?"

" Duarte, would be useful. Those robots are Cadmus property. Wayne is using the same technology to build a cure for –

" Nothing cures what magnets can't." Shrugged the merc. " Unless, Wayne is keeping them sick to prove something. Won't my apprentice be upset about his father figure playing a political role, with the Titans as a bargaining chip fir me to stop this whole thing…"

" You're always going to someone who can't let go. Bruce beat your ass out of Gotham and you had the audacity to come after his son-

" Sons, and I have a reason to. He needed a push into the world Wayne never bothered to teach. Kid was begging for a word of approval from that man since his dismissal date. You don't care about him, the Batman, Mandy." Slade egged on.." In fact, that kid is better off with anyone else in your book. Not even as Robin. But what if not Robin, not Dick Grayson? I intend to help him reclaim what Wayne took, by keeping the new boy quiet. By keeping my little protégé waiting for my return."

" What are you planning by asking me anything, Slade." Amanda barely lowered her gun as more guards came to her aid, Slade allowing the rush as he was cuffed but not given a similar collar- but a shock by a strange taser.

" Amanda…." He growled. " I'm here to remind you that I will get even if Wayne has to pay. You'll be on my list once I'm released from –

" Wait until the hearing, before I give the public your basic profile." She snorted, urging the guards to take her prisoner away.

"See that you shock him or immobilize the prisoners as needed. He can't land a hit then."

She let the door to her office click back into place. Her heart went on as she rushed to make the call to Wayne. " Wayne if you find the time, come back to Blackgate. No delays. Your entire plan is under water and I won't take the bullet for this fall. Not this time."

He had suggested Slade stay in this prison so that the bat was in the same city fir the last hearing, the very last. Right now, could she tell him that the tissue only had a short life before the data failed? That Slade had healed faster than ever so he must have gotten an upgrade from some underground sociopathic doctor from the experiment that hadn't been axed.

She was there, in the same building as her eyes shut and her brows stayed taught. " I let him go, we're all fucked. I let him walk….Batman has to go after him. Duarte won't die, but he will…"

~ Mrs. Waller?~

She listened in on the intercom. " What?" She snapped at the front staff.

~ A young boy is here, and he's demanding visiting hours with Deathstroke ~

She blinked. " Did you tell him?"

~ I told him we don't have anyone with that name in our custody –

~ Tell her I'm in, I'm a Titan and I know Miss. Waller. I'm not a stranger…I also know how to get him to talk.~

She knew that scratchy voice of prepubescent sincerity and loyalty. Beast boy, she inwardly groaned.

" I'll be down in one moment. Keep him occupied until I get to you."

Turning off the call, she forgot about Wayne and instead pulled out her cell from her pocket. "Texting now a days is quick but ineffective in my opinion." She pushed the door open and walked to where her visitor was brooding and moldings as any grumpy teenager. Heck, her own daughter wanted to go across the country to a university that didn't rise to meet her standards all for some girl she'd been smitten with. ( changing this. My twin Mollie did the same thing in city college John Jay. The person went straight and broke their heart but they are happily in a good government city job with their significant other Sara.)

Hopefully, she'd stay a valedictorian and not shirk her responsibilities. Mandy had been through the front lines to this, now a head of two jails that dealt with meta humans and Cadmus – on the board for life. For a bit. If ever this mess were sorted, she'd never travel to space on an energy shipping spree unless the earth was really dying.

" Humans never seem to learn that God doesn't care what they know. Seriously, Wayne…" She locked up while thinking about when she'd get to head home.

One could wish upon a damned star for that miracle to happen, she snorted, shutting the elevator and heading to her next plan - unplanned.

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