Teen Titans Renegade's Last Resort- Finding Pandora = Hope
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Chapter 36: Mind Readers
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Beastboy ; A.K.A, Ex – Doom Patrol Member and current " mutant" member of the Teen Titans. It's said his parents were brilliant scientists that left him up and with no one, while Rita and Steve found him, raised him after he was taken away from a man going after the boy's inheritance and new found abilities.
Sakutia, a rare disease by the bite of an African species of rarest, green monkey. Due to that bite, his parents saved the boy, this leaving the scars as his ability to shift into many different animals. It was a case that high height and age also were slowed, and his metabolism as well was very much that for a teen at thirteen going on fourteen. He was the comic of the group, dedicated as a puppy wagging his tail. Unpredictable, and also loyal to his teammates and those under marginalized as meta children often were taken by people like Miss Waller.
Garfield Logan was the boy's real name. He was in the JLA database for a few years since the Doom Patrol's last real attempt on stopping a crime syndicate known as The Brotherhood of Evil in Paris France and Germany. ( changed it.)
She just hoped upon meeting him that Victor Stone, the stand in leader of the Titans, would not call her up next to rant about how her actions had endangered his teammate.
She'd not let that happen as his big green eyes were determined in what looked to be his uniform. He'd not bothered switching outfits?
" You shouldn't be seen in public like that. Word of advise to the wise, kid." She frowned. " Gotham isn't as kind as he paints it to be on the news briefings you saw."
" I have questions, so I won't stay long. I only wanna meet with Slade. See if I can get him to talk with my –
" I gave him no permission to that, to see anyone. He won't get a potty break without my say, so what makes you think I'd let a vigilante in to say hello to that monster?"
" I know he'shot a plan for us, and I wanna find out before anyone else does." Bb said to the big head honcho if the base. "Cadmus, Cy's pop is there and you let him go. I know, cause the key told me. We, bonded."
" You –
She gritted her fists. " Have you any idea what that could do to the fabric of your kind, child?? It's as bad as he is!"
"It said it won't hurt me, but I need to talk to him. Get him to understand that we aren't playing games. Not his games, cause I know how to beat the probes."
She let her mouth tighten up as Amanda pulled out her cell in front of the boy. " Who are you calling?? I'm not leaving until I can see that creep and talk –
" He won't listen to you or me. I'm gonna have him burned at the stake after he reveals exactly what we both want to know. That man's caused grief that you have no clue about, so I'd advise you to go back to your teammate's side."
" Robin woke up, and he won't talk to anyone. He got hurt and if he does, we could all be next. How are you gonna get us the trigger back? Why is Slade being protected while we're on the edge?? Dick got hurt….I smelled, something….it was worse. Like an animal from a lab that got experimented on…only, he won't talk to us. You start-
" I'm done here, Beastboy. Go home, or you'll have no answers if he does scream a word to me. Do I make myself clear?"
Bb gripped his arm and squeezed. " Clear enough that you can't do anything." He muttered, seeing her expression sour before turning stoic and back to the elevator door.
" By the way, how come you know Mr. Wayne?"
She had her finger over the up button. " He helped with the projects I've done in the past through Cadmus. I'm not a fan of meta or mam, don't get me wrong. But I intend to make this all right once those keys are long gone."
" They aren't our enemy."
The door opened as she didn't pay him mind.
" We just have to put them back! Give up our wishes and….stop being so damn selfish!!"
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~ I told you she knew that much about the real target.~
" What do we do now, Ed?" Bb finished a taco on the street corner that was plantain filled with cacti and jicama. They had few vegetarian versions compared to California.
~ I can talk to my brother. He has bonded with Crystal and together…~
" Rob can maybe….help us out? Stop Slade. Can't I just wish for the probes to be like, gone?"
~ It….was modified that we hold no power to do so while he holds power over a great mass of the core.~
" He blocked you out."
~ As has the other mam, Mr. Wayne. He is a bit guilty, calling up Cadmus and letting us suffer while keeping this all under the table…could it be that he also hates us unless we serve them some purpose that is useful?~ Ed wondered from within the shard Bb had collected. " He's looking to use energy from it, but it's not worth hurting a whole civilization. You told me how to fix this, by getting you all back together. Then –
~ The carrier we have chosen, Robin, must make a wished outcome to reverse the damage that has been done. It will create a great upset in the rift of time, yet you will all be spared. Time will amass to as it was before or after if you would like…~
" After?" Bb's ears flicked curiously. " After….Slade let's go and we kick his butt?"
~ Yes! And when you do, it will bring your bond that much closer which is very genuine to our species. We only want to return wkth this feeling in mind when we are to leave your planet as a full core source. Our remaining bits are as she said, all across the countries of your planet.~
" Can you like, call them with your mind like Raven does? You did that with me through a wall…"
~ Barry is an adult that has very few desires past what Silas had. Recovering the dead is…well, it can be promised but we refuse to grant it to those we have not bonded with. This Slade has weapons zed us, made us bound to his laws. It is unethical and wrong.~
" I guess you are more diplomatic than I gave you credit for, bit what about what your brother did to –
~ My brother….~
The child corrected. ~ He us a duplicate that is unstable. Crystal us like me. All if us before humans cloned our bodies, we were not as evil. We are in fact playful as spirits to your stories.~
" So, you could have been good all along?" Bb swallowed his food as he looked at the time.
~ The longer we stay here, the weaker our minds become. This is why we require humans to siphon to maintain our own –
" Sanity. So, going home fixes all of this. Right? But she's not like that. I know she'd use you and Bruce –
~ Tell him what I told you. Test him and see if he is worthy to bond as well with another of our many faces.~
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Kori was in the hospital room as Richard clutched her hand back. " Star…I….-
" Hush, now. You must not try to speak." She quieted him as Raven floated in with Cy, Bb not being with them yet.
Yet one other person was back.
" Mr. Wayne." Raven motioned to Dick's bedside. " We did some tests and he's infected, but less. Like us."
Bruce brought a chair over as he smothered the kid with a hand to his other hand, his brow creasing as if he would cry. No. The Batman did not weep.
" It's almost done. The device is powerful enough to erase this for good. Slade won't control you again. And the cancer serum from the core-
" You used it. Even when it could drive you crazy?"
" I had no choice with the time we had. The outcome was " hope" so it's nearly there. If the serum works through our trials, there will be no more cancer in the country and you won't have to suffer…"
" You're taking from an angered species." Raven turned to the billionaire. " This will have too many repercussions –
" Tp save my son, your leader and friend…no consequence has ever been. Staked this high. I failed him a long time ago, Raven. This is giving back, even if something living has to not be spared to do that."
" A life…of another enslaved species, she is…correct! The Gordanians so too might have used me for some nefarious weapon or toy to tinker with. If you use this serum, it will be an act of a trust broken, a call to action by those oppressed under the League of Justice's watch!" Koro agreed with her loyalty to the federation as strong as her embodiment of a Justice Wayne could never commit to.
" One serum, one miracle. After that, I'll swear to never allow any invasion of oppress-
~ You can't do that.~
Bb came from Cy's arm as they watched him through the screen. ~ I know something crazy, but you have to keep it on the low for now. Cadmus is up and running and Mr. Wayne did help them, so now Waller is taking over where he left off to suppress the Key's rights. I was there, she would not let me in to interrogate Deathstroke. A.k.a Slade, right?~
Bruce grumbled and straightened his tie. " He's in her custody because she knows better than anyone that he's not going to take this sentence lightly. Should the press find out that he isn't Duarte. That the real Duarte died through some machinations that he ever existed-
" Wade didn't, but another had a long time ago. Slade simply used the man to become a hero of the people and to blind them from what he was really planning." Raven frowned below her hood. " I can go into the mind of Slade or Robin. Robin would be a ticking bomb if Slade –
" Slade won't find out, because there is no way of knowing-
" Wrong." Dick grumbled as he tried to sit up.
" Robin!" Kori squeezed his hand harder. " You are…not laying up!"
" I'm…keeping myself calm, Starfire." Dick seeped in a break. His hair was in his face and he looked paler. " I want, to tell you but can't…if I do –
~ Slade is locked up. He can't touch you.~
" Wrong, I said….he can. He has a trick he used to activate the probes before in my blood. If you try to go inside my head, what do you think that would spell out?"
" Tripped alarms. Bells would go off." Cy shook his head. " So, how do we make it so they won't?"
~ THAT'S why I wanted to go.in there and get him pissed. In his files he hates unpredictable things so much it makes Slade super mad and sloppy. His bio in the cave –
" How did you gather that file??" Bruce gritted his jaw to the response. ~ Jay and Babs are really great hackers. You got teenagers living with you, Mr. Wayne. We check security footage and get into all sorts of messes. Dick did too, right?~
" He was shot by one of my enemies." Bruce said without much emotion to his tone. " He didn't follow the protocol and risked his life, his scar-
" I told you not to bring that…you…you always never hear me out!" Dick shouted.
" You ran away and got kidnapped and blackmailed…and we know that there was more."
" DON'T." Dick warned. " I'm not taking their lives like –
" You were assaulted, Dick. Raven sensed a pattern and it makes sense. You've been protecting him and deflecting any chance at finding help. It's a victim mentality-
" It was more than that…I…I fucking can't listen to this-
" Do not try to leave this room." Bruce warned as Dick threatened a foot to his the tile. " You took over my case load, you put my friends in the line of your work and nearly used them as shields while you went behind our backs to start a war with am alien species that you….should I be mad right now??"
" I did it to protect us!"
" No, Bruce." Dick sniffed and pulled the covers over his head. " I'll put in that I need a new family. Go through the courts and make sure you can't have me back."
" Damn…he didn't-
" You don'tknow what he's capable of. That's why Slade called us alike. Because, I'm too much like you. Ruthless to get what he wants." Dick tossed himself into the sheets and before they could protest, slept even deeper than the first drigged up impression.
" Leave him for now."
" Mr. Wayne."
" Take him back as soon as you can. I'll be left to clean up the rest. You're done with this case." Bruce sighed. " I have to prevent him from disowning himself or he won't have anyone to protect him…Dick wasn't a problem child. I was, just not a very great parent. Like he said."
" You care, but he's afraid." Raven told the man as Kori stayed. She had her doubts as she layer her head down and decided to stay kneeling until he woke up.
" Is he gone."
She blinked.
" R…Robin?"
" Tantrums do work on that man." Dick sighed as he faced Kori. Her bright eyes were dimmed by the dying evening light.
" You, are not fond of who is he to you?"
"What he did…" Dick pursed his lip as Koro partly shook her head and picked up her skull. " That is untrue. We forced him, demanded to stay and be seen as equals. Raven has no grown weaker. I however must conserve my strength the most of us…"
" I'm sorry…" Dick's eyes shut to blink back tears. No mask could hide those dear blue orbs from her again. " I put you all through this because Slade…he was supposed to be my nemesis. My responsibility. I was…"
" Wrong? You would mean to tell …I know...enough that you did not trust our dear friends. We were fragile. Rutha…"
Dick knew that word as he cringed up for her being so accurate with it to his face. " Maybe, but…you're on par with Batman. And Babs got to know Bb…I misjudged you too. You're still here. I'm-
" Not the evil man we knew you could never be?" Kori asked knowingly. " Mr. Wayne is not an evil person. He was afraid to lose you, to never see you again. He was so careful and anxious inside of the cave of the bat. We stayed within his home and decided on a plan to stop the-
" That was you? Who…then, the binder…?"
" Mr. Wayne was told by Miss Quinn a trick in there- apy, where to distract the eyes and cause alarm, something had to be shocking and wrong in order to be…"
" The reverse." Dick chuckled..." Bruce used a cheap trick like that to cuff Slade? I'm, well…it was still gross to see that tge core is not very PG."
" P…AND The
…"
Koro frowned. " Is that not the rating system of the tv and film industry on your home world?"
" Yeah." He clutched her hands as she blushed. " It sure is, but…"
Reaching out, he put a hand to her cheeks, lips brushing as she didn't have to blink twice as hard. " Dick…" She touched foreheads as they were close. He even let her climb onto the bed to try and get cozy which was a hard fit. But, love conquered all.
Slade would be on the chopping block, as long as the man was charged by the right people. And the heroes…
They had to live, all thanks to the person that had promoted this little revolution in the first place.
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Not done!! More coming.
