A Madman's Apprentice

Madman

(Part 5 of The Apprentice Part 1)

The speed boat continued to fire at the Titans. Cyborg attempted to fire a sonic blast in retaliation, but missed. The lasers began to aim at Beastboy, who was in his bird form, and he managed to dodge them skillfully. Finally, Cyborg was able to blast and destroy both laser guns stationed on the back of the boat. The minion driving accelerated.

Star and Cyborg caught up with the boat and hovered above. "Thanks for the lift!" Cyborg smiled up at Star. He gave her a thumbs up to signify that he wanted to be let go. She dropped him, and he landed at the back of the rapidly moving boat. As he ran to the front, the minion typed in a quick code on a panel on the boat's dashboard to activate the autopilot. Cyborg then proceeded to hurl the minion off the boat entirely.

Cyborg grabbed the wheel and in an attempt to steer, he accidentally ripped it out, rendering it useless. Star landed and ran to him. Cyborg, panicking, tried to figure out the code to turn the autopilot off. "Invalid Code," it told him. The boat began steering left and right, seemingly to fling Star and Cyborg off. "How does one halt this vehicle?!" Star shouted through their screams. Cyborg then grabbed the panel and ripped it from it's wiring. The boat slowed to a stop.

Raven and Beastboy finally caught up to the now halted boat and landed. Beastboy shifted to his human form. They both looked at Cyborg, who was still holding the panel in his hand. "Please tell me that's not how you're planning to stop the detonator," Raven said half sarcastically. "You do know how to stop it," Beastboy nervously inquired, "don't you?" "How hard could it be?" Cyborg replied, tossing the panel off the boat and walking over to the detonator.

As Cyborg knelt down to the detonator, he lightly poked it. It abruptly activated, startling Cyborg and causing him to fall back. The machine buzzed, and parts of it's core glowed red. The Titans look down at Cyborg, who was still on the floor of the boat. "Ooh," he exclaimed in confusion. "Whatever we're gonna do, we should do it before Slade decides to trigger this thing, " Raven prompted cautiously.

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The gears turned at a steady pace and groaned, their sounds echoing through the lair. A hit from Slade set Robin tumbling backwards before making a quick recovery to his feet and pouncing for the remote, only to be kicked in the side midair by Slade. Robin again tumbled into a quick recovery on his feet, crouched. Slade landed from his kick and stood. "Come now, Robin," he started to walk over the the boy, "You'll have to do better than that. I haven't even broken a sweat." He began to charge. Robin stood to fight, but was clearly exhausted. Slade leapt into a spinning kick, sending the young Titan stumbling back.

Slade attacked offence, backing Robin away as both tried to land hits. Slade gave him a kick to the chest, and Robin stumbled backwards once more. Robin gritted his teeth. The fight continued like this, the gears still creaking and echoing around the two. Slade caught Robin's fist mid-punch. "Good technique," he complimented, then twisted the boy's arm backwards and threw him over his shoulder and across the floor. Robin hit the wall. He tried to stand yet fell to his hands and knees. Slade walked a bit closer to him and crossed his arms. "Good, but not perfect."

Robin quickly collected himself enough to stand. He balled his fists and grumbled before running to attack the man again. He leaped to try and air-strike, only to be uppercut just below the ribs. He collapsed before Slade's feet; no energy or strength left to continue the fight, trying to catch his breath. Slade looked down at the helpless kid and laughed.

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Raven used her magic to simultaneously unscrew the bolts attaching the cover of the central core box on the detonator. Cyborg carefully removed the cover to reveal an energy sphere beeping and buzzing at the four. "The chronium core. Very unstable. No sudden moves," Cyborg informed the team, voice low and cautious. Beastboy, Raven, and Starfire were all looking over his shoulders. He slowly gave the cover to Beastboy, who shifted into a octopus to have extra arms for safety reasons. Beastboy gently put the cover beside him on the floor.

Starfire started to sneeze, her allergies acting up again, to which Raven put a magic bubble around the alien's head to contain the sneeze and blast. Afterwards, she removed the bubble and Star sniffled. "Please continue," she whispered.

Cyborg shifted his left pointer to be an oxy-fule torch as everyone's attention went back to the core. "Okay," he began, lifting his finger to cut one of the wires connected to the box, "Now, all we have to do is decouple the-" he froze as the machine started beeping faster and hissing at them after he cut the wire. "Well, that doesn't sound good," Beastboy chimed.