Characters:SladeRobin Setting: Late evening, off the coast on a fancy schmancy yacht Previous Threads: Silv edit them in I'm lazy Plot Summary: Slade's mark is a wealthy socialite whose former lover and reality co-star has paid a handsome sum to see her career come to a dramatic end. Money is money, and there's free food and drinks included.
Slade wondered, briefly, to the ethics of taking a target that was a young beautiful lass with a shining career ahead of her in reality entertainment as he sipped his margarita. Or, well, was she considered young? She might have looked twenty, but was actually in her thirties according to her file. Probably spent a lot of money to look that way; her cosmetician should be proud. Perhaps the fact he was commissioned by another woman made it better? She'd been equally as beautiful when she sat there with him, red-eyed with jealousy and anger. Ah, love, it was a terrible poison. So good for business though.
He was distracted from his thoughts when he realized the crystal sugar that rimmed his glass had deposited itself on his beard. The gentlemen brushed it off with no more than a raise of a fine, platinum brow. He was not in the guise of the old war veteran, scarred and aged badly from war. No, he was a upright, fit man of perhaps mid-forties with a pair of working eyes (as far as anyone could tell), a deep navy suit and blonde hair so light it was almost his natural white. He grinned roguishly at a pair of women who walked by and eyed him appreciatively. 'Ladies', he tacitly said as he tipped his glass to them.
It was quite the evening party. The brisk sea air was pleasant and the lights of the yacht against the dark sky and water made him remiss he had sold his own to fund some research into new robotics. Still, it was probably for the best. He didn't have so many friends to throw his own party out at sea.
With that sobering thought, he set down his glass at the bar at the bar and disappeared into the boat. Almost all the guests had been too wrapped up in their own enjoyment to take notice that a man was slipping off to places most guests didn't go. He'd stashed away his uniform and equipment in the stern of the boat. When he emerged, he was back in black and orange. He had no interest keeping a low profile. Nothing about the contract said stealth. Drama-queens of reality tv loved publicity. He relished in the looks on people's faces as they stared, open gaping, as he crossed their paths down the hallway. The panic hadn't yet spread. Word hadn't gotten out to the dancing guests out on deck, who couldn't hear the screams over the music. Still, the energy had shifted, and soon the entire boat would realize they were stuck out a sea with the world's greatest mercenary.
Some security personnel intercepted him; overpaid body-guards who were dealt with quickly. All it took was a few swipes with his sword and they were down, their useless guns and batons still in hand as they slumped like rag-dolls. Now the panic was growing. His mark was surely alerted, but there was no where to go. No where to hide that he couldn't find.
That nuisance had spent most of the journey wedged into a gaggle of older women who would not leave him alone. Dick knew the ploy: convince the adopted son that you would make an awesome adoptive mother and get him to introduce you to America's most eligible bachelor. When he was nine he hadn't understood it, he'd thought that he was adorable and sad and they just wanted to cheer him up. Now he knew better. Now he just wanted them to leave him alone.
He couldn't, though. Part of his agreement with Bruce, in exchange for being left alone out here, was that he continue his education and he continue to keep a steady public presence. Bruce had arranged this. He knew the woman hosting it, and had originally pretended it was going to be an excuse to spend some time with his son. About the only thing the last of the flying Graysons had to be thankful for was the man ducking out last minute because of some business venture. Real, Batman, or imagined.
The woman besides him had bony knees and a pointed smile. Dick feigned a brittle one in response as the rest tittered from a joke about cucumbers that he really didn't want to think to hard about. Maybe he could come up with a really good excuse to go hang out with the other teenagers. Maybe they would actually let him.
A short, sharp scream pierced through the electronic base of the dance music. The hidden Boy Wonder stiffened in his chair, blue eyes wide, and turned to glance at the gaggle of women. None of them seemed particularly perturbed until a security detail went racing past.
Dick's heartbeat increased and sweet, sweet adrenaline pulsed through his veins. Maybe this stupid party wasn't going to be a total waste of time after all. The teenager excused himself and followed after the security detail at a trot. Nobody thought twice about it. He was just some stupid, curious kid. It wasn't like the guards couldn't handle whatever it was.
He didn't watch them die. Some small guardian angel allowed him to turn the corner just as a terrifyingly familiar black and orange figure was pulling his sword out of the last unfortunate guard. Dick stopped in his tracks, upper lip curled in dislike, and growled out a name. "Slade," he said with more venom, and less fear, than any uppercrust elite child in a tux had any reason to spit.
The boy seemed to come to his senses before he could actually engage the mercenary. Blue eyes widened as he realized he wasn't in costume, that fighting the man as Dick Grayson would give Bruce's secrets (and his own) away, and as though he'd come to his senses the teenager in the hallway barreled through the door to his left and locked it behind him.
Designer suits didn't tend to last long in the Batfamily. Dick pulled off the suit to reveal the costume he was wearing underneath, because of course he was, and tried his best not to hyperventilate. Slade was here. Slade was here and he was killing people. Robin couldn't know what the man wanted, he'd already spent so many sleepless nights trying to understand why the man had suddenly changed his MO.
Shaky hands pulled a mask from his belt, removed the backing, and smoothed the spirit gum around his eyes. He pulled his cape from a similar compartment, unfolding and hooking it on, before he pulled his gloves on. It didn't matter what the masked mastermind was doing here. Robin was going to stop him!
Birds tended to prefer a higher vantage point, and this one had no trouble spotting the black and orange menace on the deck below. It seemed that Slade was searching for something, or perhaps someone, and the Titan leader wasn't about to let him get it. With a click and a whir of his extendable bostaff Robin flung himself off the upper deck and aimed for that bi-colored head.
His head inclined slightly in the direction of his name, with that familiar intonation that could only belong to one boy. Robin. So the young lad was here too. Here he thought this job would be too easily. He'd only just caught the scurry of a darting figure slipping away into one of the free rooms. Slade sauntered down the hallway silently before coming to a stop just outside the door. In quiet consideration he stood there for a few moments. It would be so easy to knock down the door. How would he handle that? Yet, the moment passed, and he moved on.
He couldn't let his mark make a grand escape. He checked the deck first. There were some rudimentary life boats that in a fit of desperation could be used to try and get away. Not that it would work, but he preferred to stay aboard for now. "Now, now, there's no need to panic," he told the cowering crowd as he withdrew his swords again, a grin beneath his mask. "Just point me in the direction of your hostess."
There was a noise behind him and Slade whirled on his feet to face it, swords coming up to block the metal staff aimed for his head. That was quicker than he expected. "You're wasting your time," he warned the boy. What he hoped to achieve here--he wouldn't. Not according to Slade. Parrying the bostaff away, he aimed a kick at his torso. Then, he pointed the sword in his direction, the other by his side. "While I enjoy our little games, I have a job to do. Now run along back to your little friends before you get hurt."
Staff met swords in a ring of metal and the Boy Wonder bounced backwards, flipping to dodge the kick at his middle, before landing agilely on his feet in a crouch a few feet away from the masked mastermind. Masked eyes narrowed at Slade as the man declared that this was a waste of time, that Robin was just going to get himself hurt.
"Aw," the Boy Wonder said mockingly as he moved to his feet with a twirl of his staff behind him. He'd always been a fan of showy moves that didn't do much but intimidate his opponent and look good for the onlookers. It was the performer in him. There was a sardonic sort of smile on his face. "I didn't know you cared~" Robin said jokingly. The smile dropped. "Good thing I don't."
"Get everyone off the ship," the order was to the nearest civilian, and it was direct enough to pull them out of their stupor. "Now." As the people attempted to organize Robin ran at Slade with a noise of wordless rage.
The swords were a new thing, but Robin knew how to handle a fight against them. He jumped, at the last second, with acrobatic skill out of the way of those blades and shot at the man's legs with a swipe of his staff. "I don't care if I waste my time, Slade, as long as I'm wasting yours too," the Titan leader said with a grin. He bounced out of the way like a cheeky little monkey. "Whatever you think you're going to get from the hostess, I'm going to stop you."
It was a promise. But Robin didn't quite understand that Slade wasn't here to steal anything. Well, not anything physical.
Slade didn't seem terribly concerned as people were making a mad-scatter for the life-boats. "You might want to rethink your orders," Slade said cryptically. He moved forward, stalking, toward the jumpy little monkey who was so eager to dance for him. He readied his swords at his sides, blades glinting, and leaned forward into a charge. He quickly closed the gap between them, swiping once--swiping twice with his swords, putting the pressure on.
In the background sparks shot up with the smell of smoke and burning material, the loud almost deafening noise followed by the screams above the high-pitched ringing in his ears. Slade took the opportunity to get in closer to his young rival, a sinister grin beneath the mask to match his tone as he said, "No one is leaving alive until I get my mark."
The smug little grin on the Boy Wonder's face deflated into suspicion at the masked madman's comment. His masked eyes narrowed, and his gaze slipped to the retreating civilians, but he wasn't able to focus on them for too long. Slade's blades lunged forward. The little acrobat ducked out of the way of a sword swipe, then flipped into a backflip to put space between them again. He was in the air when the blast hit.
Robin was smashed off-course by the explosion. A wall of hot air spun him sideways and he careened into the wall of the cabin. The boy slid to the ground. Stunned. His ears were still ringing as he struggled to roll back to his feet. His lungs clawed for air as his unfocused masked eyes tried to focus. A smudge of orange and black loomed up over him and there were fleeing forms of people racing back and forth across the deck in a panic.
This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Life boats weren't supposed to become fiery passages of death. Slade wasn't supposed to be murdering people on yachts when he could be plotting the take-over of the entire city. It was too small potatoes. Everything Robin thought he knew about Slade, and the man's motives, suddenly seemed wrong.
He could hear Slade's words over the ringing in his own years about as well as he could see that smile. The boy's expression was wide-eyed as he stared up at the man above him. His stomach lurched with the movement of the boat, but it wasn't sea sickness. Robin reached, blindly, for his bostaff. It was gone.
Years of training kicked in. The boy located his staff, across the deck, and reached into his belt to grab a pellet. As soon as his gloved hands closed around it he held his breath and smashed it down on the ground in front of him. Smoke suddenly replaced where the Boy Wonder had been crouched as he charged forward to throw a punch at the man's gut and skitter past him to go for his bostaff.
It was the perfect opportunity to disengage from the fight. He dodged the punch and vanished into the smoke. Time to go on the hunt. He scanned the various faces in the crowd. The smoke detonators should have gone off into the interior. There was no way but out. No way but in his way.
The frazzled woman was making a mad-dash in broken heels, bent over and coughing her lungs out. She stopped dead in her tracks at a pair of armored boots, looking up slowly with those wide eyes. Slade had seen that look too many times--utter panic and fear. In the eyes of the young and beautiful or the old and withered it made no difference. His mask reflected back at him all the same.
It was swift. She dropped to her knees and then face planted the floor. He sheathed his stained swords.
"You tried, Robin," he said, not turning around. It was all Boy Wonder could do.
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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