Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans
Teen titans season 6 fan fic episode 2: Return of Slade part 2
0 reviewsThe titans encounter an old foe and a new scheme.
0Unrated
Teen Titans season 6 episode 2: Return of Slade part 2
The group stood in front of the tv set horrified. Right there. Right there was their arch enemy. The last time they had encountered him was about a year before the Titan’s trip to tokyo. Slade had split the Titans up, having Robin, Cyborg, Raven and Starfire chase after a white robot monster while forcing Beast Boy to accept that a close friend had moved on. The Titans were so busy with other obligations, they had forgotten to go find him and bring him to justice. “What do you want, Slade?” demanded Nightwing. “ Your attendance will be more than enough for the night” replied Slade coldly. “ Your fight today was only a taste of what I have coming for you. If you want to find me, be my guest. I’m at 334, wolfman street. Just don’t expect me to be alone and unprepared.” The tv then went to static. The team stood there shocked, not knowing what to do. Eventually, Cyborg broke the silence. “Ok, let’s go”. “What?” asked Nightwing. “Lets go kick Slade’s butt and finally be free of him” said Cyborg as he is about to walk out. Nightwing grabbed his arm. “ We can’t just go after him blindly, Cyborg. We haven’t fought Slade in years. We don’t know what he might be capable of between then and now. Plus, he now has our foes working for him. We have to think this through.” Cyborg frowned at Nightwing, but reluctantly turned around to face him, silently. “ Ok, first off, let's make a strategy plan. On 334 wolfman street, there is an old bank there. From my memory, there are 3 ways in: a front door, back door, and side door. All we need to do is go into 3 groups and we can catch them off guard. Titans Go!” They started to run to the elevator before Kid Flash cleared his throat. “Yes?” asked Raven sarcastically. “Well, considering I’m the fastest gut here, how about I be your transportation?” suggested Kid Flash. The team looked hesitant. Nighwing walked up to him. “ Look, Wally. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate you it’s just that, it might be a little awkward for us to… you know.” Kid Flash nodded. Then he asked “Is it because most of you can fly?”. “Well yes” replied Nightwing, but before he could finish what he said, Kid Flash swooped up both Nightwing and Cyborg and ran them to the bank. Kid Flash released his 2 comrades as the bent over and breathed heavily. “What... the…. Heck?” asked Nightwing, angirly. “Well you said most of you could fly so I decided to transport the ones who can’t” replied Kid Flash, nonchalantly. Nighwting looked up, furious. “Just because we can’t fly doesn’t mean we don’t have our own transport! I have a bike! Cyborg has a car!”. As he was saying this Cyborg was hurling in the nearest dumpster due to the motion sickness. “Oohh… sorry.” apologized Kid Flash as Nightwing face palmed himself. The other Titans arrived quickly and were now setting the game plan of how to get in the building. Cyborg was displaying the map of it while Nightwing was laying out the plan. “Ok here’s the game: Beast Boy, you and Cyborg will take the side. Wonder Girl and Kid Flash will take the back. Me, Starfire and Raven will go in the front. Ok break!”. The 3 assumed their positions.
In a control room, Control Freak, lay in a chair, monitoring live video feed of the titans taking their positions around the building. Upon seeing them he picked up a mic and said into it “They're here!”
In the front, Nightwing walked to the door and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge.
“Ok, you ladies have any ideas?” Nightwing asked. Raven stood forward to take a shot at it. “Step back.” warned Raven. Nightwing and Starfire stood back. Raven folded her fingers and cracked them in preparation. “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!” she bellowed as black light came out and charged at the door. It did nothing to it. “Huh” said Raven confused. “That doesn’t usually happen. Almost like its protected” ''It’s ok, Raven.” assured Nightwing. He nodded towards Starfire as she sent green bolts at the door blowing it down. The trio then ran in.
Cyborg and Beast Boy headed to the side door. Beast Boy was about to open it until Cyborg pulled him back. “What are you...!?” began Beast Boy before Cyborg showed the reason. On the door, there appeared to be a wire latching from the end of the door into a little crack in the ceiling. “Oh!” said Beast Boy now understanding. He then nodded at Cyborg who turned his arm into a cannon and blasted the door down. The 2 then entered to find various turned over desks, several one dollar bills on the floor and a giant open safe. Beast Boy noticed the money. Excited he attempted to grab them for himself before getting a good “Get your head back in the game” bonk on the head by Cyborg. “Ok now where could they be?” questioned Cyborg. “Maybye..” replied a cold calm voice, “He’s closer than you think.” The 2 turned to find Slade standing in the safe motionless. Cyborg and Beast Boy nodded at each other and they charged at Slade. By the time their arms caught him-they went THROUGH him landing on the ground with a painful thud. Cyborg looked up and noticed a white light shining on Slade from above the safe door. “Uh, oh!” exclaimed Cyborg worried. Beast Boy lifted his head as Cyborg pointed towards the projector. The projector turned off, dimming the false Slade and the door closed on them.
Kid Flash and Wonder Girl had made it to the back door with no problem. “Ok”, started Kid Flash. “Lets get in this bad boy!” “Wait” warned Wonder Girl. “ From what Dick told me about this Slade dude he might have rigged this door.” she explained, but apparently Kid Flash only heard one word. “Dick?” he asked with a smug smile on his face as he folded his arms. Wonder Girl blushed slightly and shrugged her shoulders. “ What? Can’t a girl refer to her friends by name aside from codename?” Kid Flash rolled his eyes as he charged at the doors, knocking them down. Wonder Girl was blindsided. “Ok, I guess he can be wrong sometimes” she admitted. The 2 entered the building finding a box on the rotting floor. Kid Flash attempted to touch it only to have his hand slapped by Wonder Girl, giving him a don’t even think about it look. The 2 walked around the box as it opened. They turn around and see what looked like green mist coming out of the box. “ What the..?” exclaimed Kid flash, but suddenly, he felt light headed and collapsed. Wonder Girl soon followed.
Nightwing turned on his flashlight. The room was filled with bags of money on the floor, mildew and empty teller booths. Strange, thought Nightwing. Why a bank if they aren’t going to rob anything. After a while he gave up and got out his comm to update the others. “Beast Boy, Cyborg. Anything on your end?”. No answer. Nightwing looked at Starfire and Raven. “Try again I guess?” suggested Raven. Nightwing rolled his eyes as he turned the communicator on again. “Cyborg? Beast Boy? Are you there?” Still no answer. “Try Wonder Girl and Kid Flash.” said Starfire. Before Nightwing could say anything, a voice came on the mic. Not Cyborg or Beast Boy’s but that of a cold calm sober voice with nary a spec of warmth. “Hello, Robin. See you’ve accepted my invite.” said Slade. Nightwing was frustrated. Slade was not going to hurt his friends again nor was he going to ruin his future with Starfire. This time it’s war, he thought. “What do you want, Slade? Where are my teammates?” Slade let out a soft laugh that all but irritated Nightwing to the core with hatred. “You want them, all you have to do is go to the deep down under. Good Luck.” The comm went static. Angered, Nightwing grabbed a gold bar off the ground and threw it into one of the teller booth windows in anger. Before he could do any more damage, Starfire grabbed him to calm him down. “Nightwing! Stop!” she shouted and he listened and breathed heavily to calm himself down. “Sorry” he said. “It’s just that we were so close to being able to live the life we want. The normal life. Then he has to come up and ruin everything.” “Nightwing, you’re still going to have it.” assured Raven, putting her arm on his shoulder. “Look, we beat these guys before, we can do it again. It’s not the end of the world this time.” Nightwing nodded. They continued their walk through the place until they found the basement door. They walked down the stairs into the dark room. Then, suddenly, the lights turned on. The room was a big, gray walled room, with a balcony above with a single door above. In the center of the room was a metal device with 4 for prongs extended from it. Each of them had a table on them with Beast Boy, Cyborg, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash tied to them. “Ok” said Raven. “Before we do anything we should look-” but before she could finish her sentence, Nightwing was charging towards the captives, impulsively. “Nightwing, stop!” warned Cyborg. As Nightwing was a few inches away, something punched him to the ground. As he was pushing himself up, some invisible force started to slam its foot on him aggressively. “Nightwing!” shouted Starfire as she ran to save her husband from the beating. But before she could make it, 2 black bolts blasted down in front of her stopping her in her tracks. She looked up to find Blackfire flying above with an evil grin on her face. “ Hello, Kori” she greeted evilly. Starfire frowned at her evil sister. Nightwing, meanwhile, grabbed the invisible force by its leg, knocking it down. The figure then revealed itself as Dr Light. In the air, Blackfire turned towards Nightwing and Light fighting and looked back at Starfire. “Oh, is that my new brother in law?” she goaded. “ Hmm, maybe it would be more fun if I had some time alone with him.” Starfire, now having lost her temper, charged herself at her sister and the two scuffled in the air. On the ground, Raven was helping Nightwing fight Light until she got lifted off the ground by a new unseen force. Raven struggled but couldn’t get out of her invisible bonds. She turned to see Jinx and Gizmo jump down from the balcony as Jinx had her hand raised in the air, thus revealing the source of the invisible force. Then a thought came into Raven’s head. Wait a minute, she thought. Where is Mamm- just as she was close to finishing her thought, a giant force rammed into her from the behind knocking her to the ground hard. She looked up, clutching her ribs in pain to face the mighty Mammoth, breathing heavily through his nose. Before she could get up, a pair of feet slammed down on her knocking her out. On top of her, Killer Moth let out a sadistic laugh at his victory. In the air, Blackfire and Starfire were trading blows and blasts at each other in a mortal combat. Nightwing looked up at the ensuing conflict and noticed his wife seem to be losing against his vile sister in law. But before he could try to get up and help her, Light blasted him with a painful amount of light energy. The pain surged through his head and spine. He felt like he was going to explode in agony. Then, a voice was uttered. “Now, now, Arthur. I think he’s got the point.” The pain stopped. Nightwing slowly pulled himself up and examined the room. Raven was now conscious again, but was now having Killer Moth’s blaster pointed at her head, and Blackfire descended to the ground holding the restrained Starfire, whose hands were now in extraterrestrial handcuffs. In front of him, he was surrounded by Jinx, Gizmo, Light and Mammoth. His vision was somewhat blurry but on the top balcony he could vaguely see the body of a muscular man with an orange and black oval on top. His vision returned and he saw Slade upon the ledge looking down at him. “ I know I know,” he gloated. “Sometimes I amaze myself.” He leaped off the balcony onto the floor below. Nightwing, now fired up, got on his feet and charged himself toward his foe. Before he could get a blow at him, Slade faced his palm toward him and a ball of fire emerged knocking Nightwing onto his back. His mind was now buzzing. He lifted his head towards Slade in awe. “How… How did you get your power back? I thought….Trigon..s-stole it back from you… years ago” Nightwing gasped. Slade closed in on him. Bending down, he grabbed Nightwing by the hair lifting his head to Slade’s face. “Well, if you want to know, all you had to do was ask.” he then slammed his fist into Nightwing’s face and shoved him on the floor. Starfire opened her mouth in horror at her husband’s beating, while Raven grabbed Moth’s leg, and yanked it, knocking him down and aimed her hands at Slade. “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!” she bellowed, letting out black energy towards Slade. The energy hit him but it disappeared leaving nary a scratch on the terrorist. Slade lifted his hand towards her and a pair of fiery hands emerged from the ground and pinned Raven. “Now, without further interruptions, allow me to explain the story on how we got here. Four years ago, when i served under the demon Trigon, I was tasked with the capture of his daughter Raven for him to be able to open the portal to Earth. Although I was successful, Trigon didn’t take to kindly to the fact Raven nobly surrendered to me rather than having been captured beyond her own free will. My powers were stripped and I was without a skin nor mortality.
“ Desperate for information, I turned toward the library of Azarath where I discovered that my powers could be reclaimed along with my mortality in the underworld. I was intrigued, but there was still a hiccup in the plan. Trigon could simply take it back. Unless the second most powerful figure, his daughter, could defeat him. I could’ve gone down under alone, but the child would obviously not have trusted me. That’s where you came in, Robin. You’re her leader. Her friend. Obviously she would trust you.
“ So, I manipulated you into assisting me in my goals. Once I regained my abilities, I had discovered Raven had been turned into nothing but a mere child. Fearing she wouldn't be able to destroy Trigon, I attempted to do the job myself, to painful results, but, in the end, Raven emerged to her old self and defeated her father allowing me to keep my abilities without limitations. Afterwards, I went into hiding to prepare for this moment. First, I sent one of my robots to you the year later as my warm up exercise. Then I spent the rest of my time training and collecting the best of the best when it came to fighting you. I remade the fool Brain’s society of villains with those who had a chance of beating you. And that’s why we are here” he concluded. There was silence in the room, until Raven broke it. “If you have my father’s abilities, I can take it from you, you know?” said Raven, still struggling in the fire arms. Slade let out a sadistic laugh. “Child, your father gave this to me. Do you think he would be stupid enough to leave it open to the abilities of those other than himself?” Raven turned her head. He’s right she thought. Father would never have given him abilities that I could control.
“You see?” croned Slade. “Your powers can do nothing.” “But I can do this” replied Nightwing as he tossed out a little t shaped, blue and black boomerang that spun itself into Slade’s helmet nearly knocking him over. The fire hands disappeared, causing Raven to fall lightly on the floor while Starfire performed a reverse head butt on Blackfire knocking her back as Starfire snapped the cuffs off of her. Slade regaining his balance, put his hand on to his helmet. Nightwing realized he was talking into a communicator. “Turned it on.” he ordered. Suddenly, the device the other four titans were on activated and a wave of electricity went through each of the tables. The 4 grunted in pain. Slade then ran towards an opening next to the machine and ran threw it. Nightwing got on his feet looking at the opening and then the tables. He came to a decision. “Starfire free the others! I’m going after Slade!” he shouted, Nightwing charged through the opening after the mad man. “Nightwing wait!” shouted Starfire as she soared toward the opening. But at that moment, a blue laser grid appeared in front of the opening blocking her off. “No!” she shouted. Before she could do anything else, Black Fire charged and blasted Starfire to the ground. Meanwhile Raven was fighting with the H.I.V.E. trio when she remembered that her friends were still being tortured. As she was using a dark magic shield to block Mammoth, she looked at her surroundings: Nightwing having gone though the opening, Starfire and Blackfire fighting in mid air, and the device. She smiled, having came up with and idea. She twisted her body with Mammoth still trying to force himself through the shield, before deactivating it. After jumping out of the way, Mammoth ended up being forced to charge into the machine torturing the other titans destroying it and knocking him out. The 4 started to get back on their feet. “Thx, Raven” said Beast Boy. Light jumped behind him and sent an energy blast. Beast Boy, luckily, noticed in time and turned himself into a turtle to avoid it. He then turned himself into a gorilla and went to town with fighting Light. The rest joined the battle. Raven was dueling with Jinx and Gizmo, Kid Flash was in combat with Moth, and Wonder Girl was engaging the recovered Mammoth. Before Cyborg could do anything, he heard a familiar voice behind him. “ Hey, Cyborg!” it said. Cyborg turned to face Brother Blood. Blood, the former head of H.I.V.E, had gone after the Titans years ago, primarily focusing his antagonism on Cyborg. Blood, though, had been defeated by the Titans and was sent to prison for 3 years. Great Cyborg thought. There’s a face I really didn’t need to see again. “Hey, Blood” said Cyborg sarcastically. “I see jailtime treated you right.” “Don’t patronize me, Robot!” yelled Blood. “Thanks to you, I lost my H.I.V.E. membership and whatever fundings I had left! So now, I’s time to give you back the suffering you placed upon me.” Cyborg smiled. “Sorry, being ugly is something I don’t care to ge provided, Blood!” snarked Cyborg. Blood, in anger, engaged his mortal foe.
Nightwing didn’t know how far he ran. And frankly, he didn’t care. As he was running he saw Slade turn the corner into another room. Nightwing followed suit. When he came to the opening, there was a problem. From the ceiling to the walls, the room was covered in an endless maze of mirrors. Knowing to be cautious, Nightwing carefully edged into the room examining each pathway. As he came up to the end of one of the paths, he saw a figure. It was Slade. Nightwing ran to it and slammed his fist into what he thought was Slade. But it turned out to be nothing more than a reflection of him in the mirror that was now smashed. He turned around to find Slade’s reflection in various mirrors. “Great,” groaned Nightwing. He continued along the way as Slade was goading him. “You know, I thought you would’ve been smarter all those years ago. When I manipulated you.” Nightwing was now in the process of smashing any mirror containing Slade. “ All it seemed to take was to say that I wouldn’t have wanted Trigon to have done what he did to earth. Frankly, I could have cared less.” He finally stopped the smashing. Breathing heavily, Nightwing turned around at least 3 times before finally speaking. “ Where are you?!” he demanded. Behind him, one of the reflections of Slade came to life and started to approach him. Nightwing turned around in the nick of time to see Slade about to bring his fist upon him. Nightwing jumped out of the way of the fist and landed on his feet. “Still, if you remained my apprentice. We could’ve done great things. Horrible things yes. But great.”. “Why?!” yelled Nightwing. “Why are you doing this to us?” Slade snickered under his breath. “Why? Why not? This is just the way the world turns, Robin. I think we may be destined to do this for the rest of our existences. I have a family now. Just like you.” Having had enough, Nightwing charged at Slade, knocking him through the mirrors, causing them to crash into a storage room. Nightwing was the first to stand up. “You’re “family” is nothing more than a bunch of criminals and terrorists. That’s a crime gang!” he exclaimed. Slade got up and charged in return at Nightwing, plowing him through 4 wooden boxes before slamming him to the ground. Nighwting’s outfit was now covered with rips and tears from the beatings. As he slowly got back to his feet, Nightwing drew out a pair of blue bars and crossed them as a sign of threat. “Impressive,” noted Slade. “I’ve updated my arsenal as well.” He then drew out a sword. It was at least 5 inches long and the blade itself was in a jagged pattern with an orange hue to it. “I call it the Titan Slayer,” bragged Slade. He and the boy engaged their weapons. Trading blow for blow, Nightwing was slowly being strained and hammered, but Slade seemed to be on his feet and his guard. Slade eventually got the upperhand by slamming Nightwing’s bars so hard the bars snapped in 2. Slade extended his hand letting out a fire ball, knocking Nightwing towards the other side of the room. The hulking mad man towered over the young man and lifted his sword above his head. Nightwing reached for his belt and drew out his Wing Ding batarang and tossed it at Slade. The device blew up in front of Slade’s face. Slade walked backward in shock as Nightwing got up to his feet and went to town on Slade. Slamming his fists into his helmet in rage, all Nightwing wanted to do was to end this mad man once and for all. But, his punches did nothing to break the helmet. Eventually, Slade grabbed Nightwing’s fist and twisted his wrist. Nightwing screamed in agony as Slade bent his arm forcefully. Slade rose to his feet, lifted Nightwing off the ground and tossed him to the floor. Slade then pressed his finger to his helmet to activate the intercom. “Control Freak, set the explosives.” “But, Slade, the others still are in there,” “Just do it!” ordered Slade. Suddenly, explosions went off and pieces of the ceiling started to collapse. Slade ran to a nearby elevator and disappeared out of sight.
In the main room, the Titans and the Brotherhood heard the explosion as the celing started to collapse on them. The brotherhood started to run up the stairs to the door out while the titans were in pursuit. Starfire stopped abruptly. “We can’t leave without Nightwing!” she explained. Before the team could say anything, Starfire charged through the doorway, now that the laser beam gate was down to find her husband. The others ran up the stairs.
Starfire combed the ares looking for Nightwing. She narrowly doged several rocks and beams until finally seeing him, crawling to an elevator. She swooped down, grabbed Nightwing by his legs, resting them in her hands. She then carried the wounded body out of the building.
The titans got out safely as the building collapsed. Starfire landed and gently dropped Nightwing onto the ground. He tried to stand up but he buckled and collapsed. Starfire and Beast Boy propped him up. “Dude, save your strength,” suggested Beast Boy. Nightwing once again buckled. “I have...to...get..to...Slade!”. Starfire lifted him up. “Later. But not tonight” she replied sweetly. She flew away with him as the others, except for Kid-Flash and Cyborg, flew away. Kid Flash smiled at Cyborg. “Wanna have another-” “Nope!” Cyborg replied cynically and began to walk back.
“Hold still,” advised Starfire. She needed the steadiness if she was going to help sew up her spouse’s wounds. Nightwing had but a few wounds on the back, but the pain was still deep. She finally sewed the last stitch. Nightwing gritted his teeth in pain. The pain slowly went away as a certain warm hand lay on his shoulder in assurance. “There, all done.” said Starfire, smiling. Nightwing stood up and checked his wounds. “Thanks. Hey, where’d you learn to sew?” asked Nightwing. Starfire grinned and folded her arms. “Tamaranian stitch class.” she replied. “You never know when it could come in handy.” She then kissed him on the cheek. As he was about to leave their room, she grabbed him by the arm. “Nightwing, you shouldn't have recklessly chased after Slade. You could have gotten killed.”she contorted, concerned. Nightwing lowered his head. “I know. It’s just that… we were so close! So close to being able to live our lives normally… than HE had to come back with an army and ruin this!” He slammed his fist on the door in anger. She could sense his frustration. “ Listen,” she replied. “It’s ok, I’m not mad. We don’t have to do the quitting of the team yet. You didn’t fail me. We can still fight Slade and then we can finally have the life.” Nightwing smiled. He then opened the door to find Cyborg leaning against the wall, his arms folded, with a sneer on his face. “Cyborg, listen!” started Nightwing, but before he could finish, Cyborg held up his hand and smiled. “Hey, no need to say anything. I understand you just wanna have a normal life and that’s good. I guess earlier I was jealous that I was too much of a robot to be normal.” He held out his hand. Nightwing shook it.
The group stood in front of the tv set horrified. Right there. Right there was their arch enemy. The last time they had encountered him was about a year before the Titan’s trip to tokyo. Slade had split the Titans up, having Robin, Cyborg, Raven and Starfire chase after a white robot monster while forcing Beast Boy to accept that a close friend had moved on. The Titans were so busy with other obligations, they had forgotten to go find him and bring him to justice. “What do you want, Slade?” demanded Nightwing. “ Your attendance will be more than enough for the night” replied Slade coldly. “ Your fight today was only a taste of what I have coming for you. If you want to find me, be my guest. I’m at 334, wolfman street. Just don’t expect me to be alone and unprepared.” The tv then went to static. The team stood there shocked, not knowing what to do. Eventually, Cyborg broke the silence. “Ok, let’s go”. “What?” asked Nightwing. “Lets go kick Slade’s butt and finally be free of him” said Cyborg as he is about to walk out. Nightwing grabbed his arm. “ We can’t just go after him blindly, Cyborg. We haven’t fought Slade in years. We don’t know what he might be capable of between then and now. Plus, he now has our foes working for him. We have to think this through.” Cyborg frowned at Nightwing, but reluctantly turned around to face him, silently. “ Ok, first off, let's make a strategy plan. On 334 wolfman street, there is an old bank there. From my memory, there are 3 ways in: a front door, back door, and side door. All we need to do is go into 3 groups and we can catch them off guard. Titans Go!” They started to run to the elevator before Kid Flash cleared his throat. “Yes?” asked Raven sarcastically. “Well, considering I’m the fastest gut here, how about I be your transportation?” suggested Kid Flash. The team looked hesitant. Nighwing walked up to him. “ Look, Wally. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate you it’s just that, it might be a little awkward for us to… you know.” Kid Flash nodded. Then he asked “Is it because most of you can fly?”. “Well yes” replied Nightwing, but before he could finish what he said, Kid Flash swooped up both Nightwing and Cyborg and ran them to the bank. Kid Flash released his 2 comrades as the bent over and breathed heavily. “What... the…. Heck?” asked Nightwing, angirly. “Well you said most of you could fly so I decided to transport the ones who can’t” replied Kid Flash, nonchalantly. Nighwting looked up, furious. “Just because we can’t fly doesn’t mean we don’t have our own transport! I have a bike! Cyborg has a car!”. As he was saying this Cyborg was hurling in the nearest dumpster due to the motion sickness. “Oohh… sorry.” apologized Kid Flash as Nightwing face palmed himself. The other Titans arrived quickly and were now setting the game plan of how to get in the building. Cyborg was displaying the map of it while Nightwing was laying out the plan. “Ok here’s the game: Beast Boy, you and Cyborg will take the side. Wonder Girl and Kid Flash will take the back. Me, Starfire and Raven will go in the front. Ok break!”. The 3 assumed their positions.
In a control room, Control Freak, lay in a chair, monitoring live video feed of the titans taking their positions around the building. Upon seeing them he picked up a mic and said into it “They're here!”
In the front, Nightwing walked to the door and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge.
“Ok, you ladies have any ideas?” Nightwing asked. Raven stood forward to take a shot at it. “Step back.” warned Raven. Nightwing and Starfire stood back. Raven folded her fingers and cracked them in preparation. “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!” she bellowed as black light came out and charged at the door. It did nothing to it. “Huh” said Raven confused. “That doesn’t usually happen. Almost like its protected” ''It’s ok, Raven.” assured Nightwing. He nodded towards Starfire as she sent green bolts at the door blowing it down. The trio then ran in.
Cyborg and Beast Boy headed to the side door. Beast Boy was about to open it until Cyborg pulled him back. “What are you...!?” began Beast Boy before Cyborg showed the reason. On the door, there appeared to be a wire latching from the end of the door into a little crack in the ceiling. “Oh!” said Beast Boy now understanding. He then nodded at Cyborg who turned his arm into a cannon and blasted the door down. The 2 then entered to find various turned over desks, several one dollar bills on the floor and a giant open safe. Beast Boy noticed the money. Excited he attempted to grab them for himself before getting a good “Get your head back in the game” bonk on the head by Cyborg. “Ok now where could they be?” questioned Cyborg. “Maybye..” replied a cold calm voice, “He’s closer than you think.” The 2 turned to find Slade standing in the safe motionless. Cyborg and Beast Boy nodded at each other and they charged at Slade. By the time their arms caught him-they went THROUGH him landing on the ground with a painful thud. Cyborg looked up and noticed a white light shining on Slade from above the safe door. “Uh, oh!” exclaimed Cyborg worried. Beast Boy lifted his head as Cyborg pointed towards the projector. The projector turned off, dimming the false Slade and the door closed on them.
Kid Flash and Wonder Girl had made it to the back door with no problem. “Ok”, started Kid Flash. “Lets get in this bad boy!” “Wait” warned Wonder Girl. “ From what Dick told me about this Slade dude he might have rigged this door.” she explained, but apparently Kid Flash only heard one word. “Dick?” he asked with a smug smile on his face as he folded his arms. Wonder Girl blushed slightly and shrugged her shoulders. “ What? Can’t a girl refer to her friends by name aside from codename?” Kid Flash rolled his eyes as he charged at the doors, knocking them down. Wonder Girl was blindsided. “Ok, I guess he can be wrong sometimes” she admitted. The 2 entered the building finding a box on the rotting floor. Kid Flash attempted to touch it only to have his hand slapped by Wonder Girl, giving him a don’t even think about it look. The 2 walked around the box as it opened. They turn around and see what looked like green mist coming out of the box. “ What the..?” exclaimed Kid flash, but suddenly, he felt light headed and collapsed. Wonder Girl soon followed.
Nightwing turned on his flashlight. The room was filled with bags of money on the floor, mildew and empty teller booths. Strange, thought Nightwing. Why a bank if they aren’t going to rob anything. After a while he gave up and got out his comm to update the others. “Beast Boy, Cyborg. Anything on your end?”. No answer. Nightwing looked at Starfire and Raven. “Try again I guess?” suggested Raven. Nightwing rolled his eyes as he turned the communicator on again. “Cyborg? Beast Boy? Are you there?” Still no answer. “Try Wonder Girl and Kid Flash.” said Starfire. Before Nightwing could say anything, a voice came on the mic. Not Cyborg or Beast Boy’s but that of a cold calm sober voice with nary a spec of warmth. “Hello, Robin. See you’ve accepted my invite.” said Slade. Nightwing was frustrated. Slade was not going to hurt his friends again nor was he going to ruin his future with Starfire. This time it’s war, he thought. “What do you want, Slade? Where are my teammates?” Slade let out a soft laugh that all but irritated Nightwing to the core with hatred. “You want them, all you have to do is go to the deep down under. Good Luck.” The comm went static. Angered, Nightwing grabbed a gold bar off the ground and threw it into one of the teller booth windows in anger. Before he could do any more damage, Starfire grabbed him to calm him down. “Nightwing! Stop!” she shouted and he listened and breathed heavily to calm himself down. “Sorry” he said. “It’s just that we were so close to being able to live the life we want. The normal life. Then he has to come up and ruin everything.” “Nightwing, you’re still going to have it.” assured Raven, putting her arm on his shoulder. “Look, we beat these guys before, we can do it again. It’s not the end of the world this time.” Nightwing nodded. They continued their walk through the place until they found the basement door. They walked down the stairs into the dark room. Then, suddenly, the lights turned on. The room was a big, gray walled room, with a balcony above with a single door above. In the center of the room was a metal device with 4 for prongs extended from it. Each of them had a table on them with Beast Boy, Cyborg, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash tied to them. “Ok” said Raven. “Before we do anything we should look-” but before she could finish her sentence, Nightwing was charging towards the captives, impulsively. “Nightwing, stop!” warned Cyborg. As Nightwing was a few inches away, something punched him to the ground. As he was pushing himself up, some invisible force started to slam its foot on him aggressively. “Nightwing!” shouted Starfire as she ran to save her husband from the beating. But before she could make it, 2 black bolts blasted down in front of her stopping her in her tracks. She looked up to find Blackfire flying above with an evil grin on her face. “ Hello, Kori” she greeted evilly. Starfire frowned at her evil sister. Nightwing, meanwhile, grabbed the invisible force by its leg, knocking it down. The figure then revealed itself as Dr Light. In the air, Blackfire turned towards Nightwing and Light fighting and looked back at Starfire. “Oh, is that my new brother in law?” she goaded. “ Hmm, maybe it would be more fun if I had some time alone with him.” Starfire, now having lost her temper, charged herself at her sister and the two scuffled in the air. On the ground, Raven was helping Nightwing fight Light until she got lifted off the ground by a new unseen force. Raven struggled but couldn’t get out of her invisible bonds. She turned to see Jinx and Gizmo jump down from the balcony as Jinx had her hand raised in the air, thus revealing the source of the invisible force. Then a thought came into Raven’s head. Wait a minute, she thought. Where is Mamm- just as she was close to finishing her thought, a giant force rammed into her from the behind knocking her to the ground hard. She looked up, clutching her ribs in pain to face the mighty Mammoth, breathing heavily through his nose. Before she could get up, a pair of feet slammed down on her knocking her out. On top of her, Killer Moth let out a sadistic laugh at his victory. In the air, Blackfire and Starfire were trading blows and blasts at each other in a mortal combat. Nightwing looked up at the ensuing conflict and noticed his wife seem to be losing against his vile sister in law. But before he could try to get up and help her, Light blasted him with a painful amount of light energy. The pain surged through his head and spine. He felt like he was going to explode in agony. Then, a voice was uttered. “Now, now, Arthur. I think he’s got the point.” The pain stopped. Nightwing slowly pulled himself up and examined the room. Raven was now conscious again, but was now having Killer Moth’s blaster pointed at her head, and Blackfire descended to the ground holding the restrained Starfire, whose hands were now in extraterrestrial handcuffs. In front of him, he was surrounded by Jinx, Gizmo, Light and Mammoth. His vision was somewhat blurry but on the top balcony he could vaguely see the body of a muscular man with an orange and black oval on top. His vision returned and he saw Slade upon the ledge looking down at him. “ I know I know,” he gloated. “Sometimes I amaze myself.” He leaped off the balcony onto the floor below. Nightwing, now fired up, got on his feet and charged himself toward his foe. Before he could get a blow at him, Slade faced his palm toward him and a ball of fire emerged knocking Nightwing onto his back. His mind was now buzzing. He lifted his head towards Slade in awe. “How… How did you get your power back? I thought….Trigon..s-stole it back from you… years ago” Nightwing gasped. Slade closed in on him. Bending down, he grabbed Nightwing by the hair lifting his head to Slade’s face. “Well, if you want to know, all you had to do was ask.” he then slammed his fist into Nightwing’s face and shoved him on the floor. Starfire opened her mouth in horror at her husband’s beating, while Raven grabbed Moth’s leg, and yanked it, knocking him down and aimed her hands at Slade. “Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!” she bellowed, letting out black energy towards Slade. The energy hit him but it disappeared leaving nary a scratch on the terrorist. Slade lifted his hand towards her and a pair of fiery hands emerged from the ground and pinned Raven. “Now, without further interruptions, allow me to explain the story on how we got here. Four years ago, when i served under the demon Trigon, I was tasked with the capture of his daughter Raven for him to be able to open the portal to Earth. Although I was successful, Trigon didn’t take to kindly to the fact Raven nobly surrendered to me rather than having been captured beyond her own free will. My powers were stripped and I was without a skin nor mortality.
“ Desperate for information, I turned toward the library of Azarath where I discovered that my powers could be reclaimed along with my mortality in the underworld. I was intrigued, but there was still a hiccup in the plan. Trigon could simply take it back. Unless the second most powerful figure, his daughter, could defeat him. I could’ve gone down under alone, but the child would obviously not have trusted me. That’s where you came in, Robin. You’re her leader. Her friend. Obviously she would trust you.
“ So, I manipulated you into assisting me in my goals. Once I regained my abilities, I had discovered Raven had been turned into nothing but a mere child. Fearing she wouldn't be able to destroy Trigon, I attempted to do the job myself, to painful results, but, in the end, Raven emerged to her old self and defeated her father allowing me to keep my abilities without limitations. Afterwards, I went into hiding to prepare for this moment. First, I sent one of my robots to you the year later as my warm up exercise. Then I spent the rest of my time training and collecting the best of the best when it came to fighting you. I remade the fool Brain’s society of villains with those who had a chance of beating you. And that’s why we are here” he concluded. There was silence in the room, until Raven broke it. “If you have my father’s abilities, I can take it from you, you know?” said Raven, still struggling in the fire arms. Slade let out a sadistic laugh. “Child, your father gave this to me. Do you think he would be stupid enough to leave it open to the abilities of those other than himself?” Raven turned her head. He’s right she thought. Father would never have given him abilities that I could control.
“You see?” croned Slade. “Your powers can do nothing.” “But I can do this” replied Nightwing as he tossed out a little t shaped, blue and black boomerang that spun itself into Slade’s helmet nearly knocking him over. The fire hands disappeared, causing Raven to fall lightly on the floor while Starfire performed a reverse head butt on Blackfire knocking her back as Starfire snapped the cuffs off of her. Slade regaining his balance, put his hand on to his helmet. Nightwing realized he was talking into a communicator. “Turned it on.” he ordered. Suddenly, the device the other four titans were on activated and a wave of electricity went through each of the tables. The 4 grunted in pain. Slade then ran towards an opening next to the machine and ran threw it. Nightwing got on his feet looking at the opening and then the tables. He came to a decision. “Starfire free the others! I’m going after Slade!” he shouted, Nightwing charged through the opening after the mad man. “Nightwing wait!” shouted Starfire as she soared toward the opening. But at that moment, a blue laser grid appeared in front of the opening blocking her off. “No!” she shouted. Before she could do anything else, Black Fire charged and blasted Starfire to the ground. Meanwhile Raven was fighting with the H.I.V.E. trio when she remembered that her friends were still being tortured. As she was using a dark magic shield to block Mammoth, she looked at her surroundings: Nightwing having gone though the opening, Starfire and Blackfire fighting in mid air, and the device. She smiled, having came up with and idea. She twisted her body with Mammoth still trying to force himself through the shield, before deactivating it. After jumping out of the way, Mammoth ended up being forced to charge into the machine torturing the other titans destroying it and knocking him out. The 4 started to get back on their feet. “Thx, Raven” said Beast Boy. Light jumped behind him and sent an energy blast. Beast Boy, luckily, noticed in time and turned himself into a turtle to avoid it. He then turned himself into a gorilla and went to town with fighting Light. The rest joined the battle. Raven was dueling with Jinx and Gizmo, Kid Flash was in combat with Moth, and Wonder Girl was engaging the recovered Mammoth. Before Cyborg could do anything, he heard a familiar voice behind him. “ Hey, Cyborg!” it said. Cyborg turned to face Brother Blood. Blood, the former head of H.I.V.E, had gone after the Titans years ago, primarily focusing his antagonism on Cyborg. Blood, though, had been defeated by the Titans and was sent to prison for 3 years. Great Cyborg thought. There’s a face I really didn’t need to see again. “Hey, Blood” said Cyborg sarcastically. “I see jailtime treated you right.” “Don’t patronize me, Robot!” yelled Blood. “Thanks to you, I lost my H.I.V.E. membership and whatever fundings I had left! So now, I’s time to give you back the suffering you placed upon me.” Cyborg smiled. “Sorry, being ugly is something I don’t care to ge provided, Blood!” snarked Cyborg. Blood, in anger, engaged his mortal foe.
Nightwing didn’t know how far he ran. And frankly, he didn’t care. As he was running he saw Slade turn the corner into another room. Nightwing followed suit. When he came to the opening, there was a problem. From the ceiling to the walls, the room was covered in an endless maze of mirrors. Knowing to be cautious, Nightwing carefully edged into the room examining each pathway. As he came up to the end of one of the paths, he saw a figure. It was Slade. Nightwing ran to it and slammed his fist into what he thought was Slade. But it turned out to be nothing more than a reflection of him in the mirror that was now smashed. He turned around to find Slade’s reflection in various mirrors. “Great,” groaned Nightwing. He continued along the way as Slade was goading him. “You know, I thought you would’ve been smarter all those years ago. When I manipulated you.” Nightwing was now in the process of smashing any mirror containing Slade. “ All it seemed to take was to say that I wouldn’t have wanted Trigon to have done what he did to earth. Frankly, I could have cared less.” He finally stopped the smashing. Breathing heavily, Nightwing turned around at least 3 times before finally speaking. “ Where are you?!” he demanded. Behind him, one of the reflections of Slade came to life and started to approach him. Nightwing turned around in the nick of time to see Slade about to bring his fist upon him. Nightwing jumped out of the way of the fist and landed on his feet. “Still, if you remained my apprentice. We could’ve done great things. Horrible things yes. But great.”. “Why?!” yelled Nightwing. “Why are you doing this to us?” Slade snickered under his breath. “Why? Why not? This is just the way the world turns, Robin. I think we may be destined to do this for the rest of our existences. I have a family now. Just like you.” Having had enough, Nightwing charged at Slade, knocking him through the mirrors, causing them to crash into a storage room. Nightwing was the first to stand up. “You’re “family” is nothing more than a bunch of criminals and terrorists. That’s a crime gang!” he exclaimed. Slade got up and charged in return at Nightwing, plowing him through 4 wooden boxes before slamming him to the ground. Nighwting’s outfit was now covered with rips and tears from the beatings. As he slowly got back to his feet, Nightwing drew out a pair of blue bars and crossed them as a sign of threat. “Impressive,” noted Slade. “I’ve updated my arsenal as well.” He then drew out a sword. It was at least 5 inches long and the blade itself was in a jagged pattern with an orange hue to it. “I call it the Titan Slayer,” bragged Slade. He and the boy engaged their weapons. Trading blow for blow, Nightwing was slowly being strained and hammered, but Slade seemed to be on his feet and his guard. Slade eventually got the upperhand by slamming Nightwing’s bars so hard the bars snapped in 2. Slade extended his hand letting out a fire ball, knocking Nightwing towards the other side of the room. The hulking mad man towered over the young man and lifted his sword above his head. Nightwing reached for his belt and drew out his Wing Ding batarang and tossed it at Slade. The device blew up in front of Slade’s face. Slade walked backward in shock as Nightwing got up to his feet and went to town on Slade. Slamming his fists into his helmet in rage, all Nightwing wanted to do was to end this mad man once and for all. But, his punches did nothing to break the helmet. Eventually, Slade grabbed Nightwing’s fist and twisted his wrist. Nightwing screamed in agony as Slade bent his arm forcefully. Slade rose to his feet, lifted Nightwing off the ground and tossed him to the floor. Slade then pressed his finger to his helmet to activate the intercom. “Control Freak, set the explosives.” “But, Slade, the others still are in there,” “Just do it!” ordered Slade. Suddenly, explosions went off and pieces of the ceiling started to collapse. Slade ran to a nearby elevator and disappeared out of sight.
In the main room, the Titans and the Brotherhood heard the explosion as the celing started to collapse on them. The brotherhood started to run up the stairs to the door out while the titans were in pursuit. Starfire stopped abruptly. “We can’t leave without Nightwing!” she explained. Before the team could say anything, Starfire charged through the doorway, now that the laser beam gate was down to find her husband. The others ran up the stairs.
Starfire combed the ares looking for Nightwing. She narrowly doged several rocks and beams until finally seeing him, crawling to an elevator. She swooped down, grabbed Nightwing by his legs, resting them in her hands. She then carried the wounded body out of the building.
The titans got out safely as the building collapsed. Starfire landed and gently dropped Nightwing onto the ground. He tried to stand up but he buckled and collapsed. Starfire and Beast Boy propped him up. “Dude, save your strength,” suggested Beast Boy. Nightwing once again buckled. “I have...to...get..to...Slade!”. Starfire lifted him up. “Later. But not tonight” she replied sweetly. She flew away with him as the others, except for Kid-Flash and Cyborg, flew away. Kid Flash smiled at Cyborg. “Wanna have another-” “Nope!” Cyborg replied cynically and began to walk back.
“Hold still,” advised Starfire. She needed the steadiness if she was going to help sew up her spouse’s wounds. Nightwing had but a few wounds on the back, but the pain was still deep. She finally sewed the last stitch. Nightwing gritted his teeth in pain. The pain slowly went away as a certain warm hand lay on his shoulder in assurance. “There, all done.” said Starfire, smiling. Nightwing stood up and checked his wounds. “Thanks. Hey, where’d you learn to sew?” asked Nightwing. Starfire grinned and folded her arms. “Tamaranian stitch class.” she replied. “You never know when it could come in handy.” She then kissed him on the cheek. As he was about to leave their room, she grabbed him by the arm. “Nightwing, you shouldn't have recklessly chased after Slade. You could have gotten killed.”she contorted, concerned. Nightwing lowered his head. “I know. It’s just that… we were so close! So close to being able to live our lives normally… than HE had to come back with an army and ruin this!” He slammed his fist on the door in anger. She could sense his frustration. “ Listen,” she replied. “It’s ok, I’m not mad. We don’t have to do the quitting of the team yet. You didn’t fail me. We can still fight Slade and then we can finally have the life.” Nightwing smiled. He then opened the door to find Cyborg leaning against the wall, his arms folded, with a sneer on his face. “Cyborg, listen!” started Nightwing, but before he could finish, Cyborg held up his hand and smiled. “Hey, no need to say anything. I understand you just wanna have a normal life and that’s good. I guess earlier I was jealous that I was too much of a robot to be normal.” He held out his hand. Nightwing shook it.
Sign up to rate and review this story