Accepting the Apprenticeship

Chapter 4: The first mission

I free-fall into the structure, entering in the vent I drop down onto the floor. I see the thermal blaster protected by a glass case. I use one of Slade's spheres given to me to break down the glass. I hit the vessel that holds the glass together as the sphere blows up. I take the thermal blaster and run out of the building with it. I then hear guards running towards me. "Stop him!" One the guards say. "Where'd he go?" I jump up the roof hanging up there for second so the guards would leave. The guards leave the area and jump down, making a run for it but escaping the area. I suddenly hear Cyborg yell to me. "Freeze!" He says, but I refuse, so I keep running away. When running away, I make my way to an end and turn around to see my "friends." I should call them. "That's not Slade, that's..." Beastboy gets cut off by Starfire. "Robin," she says, complete shocked her face looks. "Whoa!" "No way!" Cyborg and Beastboy exclaims. "Robin, why are you?-" I ignore her, throwing a flyer that explodes in her face. "Yo!" "What is your deal?" I ignore them, hearing Slade in the radio receiver. "Not a word, Robin. They're not your friends anymore." I raise the blaster and fire it between them all, which resulted in a loud yell from Beastboy. Smoke forms around the team as Cyborg speaks. "What are you doing?" The smoke begins as I leave them alone and go to Slades hideout.

I hold the thermal blaster in my hands as I step forward in the light. "Excellent, Robin. I'm pleased. You're already proving to be the perfect apprentice," I hear Slade behind me. "This deal can't last forever," I say, frustration in my voice. "It can. And it will" monitors come on behind me, showing the decoy detonator. "The Titans still have no idea that my Chronoton Detonator was more than a decoy. Now that my probes are inside their bodies. They could remain undetected for years, decades." Well, he talks he shows clips of the Titans getting shot from the detonator on the boat and the probes entering their bodies. The screen turns white as Slade speaks again. "Unless, of course, you disobey me. And I decide to destroy your former friends with a push of the button," saying that he holds up his hand with the button nestled in it. "Sooner or later, you'll let your guard down. I will get that controller, and the instant they're out of danger, you will pay." I shout to Slade across the room as he walks over to me. "That sounds like a threat, young man." he takes the blaster away from me. "Quite a good threat, actually. Betrayal, destruction, revenge. We really do really think alike," as he instantly said that I grit my teeth and make a quiet snarl. I was not about to have myself compared to Slade. So I threw my fist to Slade, but he grabs it, twisting my arm back sharply. I feel it crack as I grunt in pain from it. "I monitored your vital signs during the mission. Evaluated heart rate, adrenaline, endorphins." My face strained. "You won't admit it, but at some level, you enjoyed stealing for me. It was thrill, was it?" He releases my arm as I stumble a bit, rubbing my painful arm. When Slade said that he was kind of right, it was a thrill, but it didn't feel right, though. "You're going to keep stealing, Robin," Slade removes my blaster muzzle from my wrist. "And you're going to keep getting that thrill. And sooner or later, you will see things my way." Slade puts the blaster back together as I hold my arm again. He then walks up to me. "Who knows? I might even become like a father to you." he grabs my wrist again and clamps the blaster into the muzzle. So that it points along my along my arm. "I already have a father," I say softly. Slade should've known that Bruce was like my father to me. But I guess he just doesn't care like usual. "Bruce, right, but I don't really care." Of course, he didn't since he fought him multiple times before. "Speaking about Bruce, you're going to Wanye Enterprises tonight. Your mission is to grab this device," he shows me the device on the screen. That looks like it's heavily guarded. And once I look closer, I know exactly where the place he's talking about.