Renegade

Speech

|Song: Onward&Upward by Tommee Profitt|

Renegade kept sitting in the bed and staring at the dark room. All he could feel was anger. He needed something to distract himself.

"I need to punch something." Renegade murmured to himself and got out of the room the League gave him to stay.

He walked to the direction where he remembered the training room was and smiled when he saw the room.

He took a small look at the trapeze but decided to leave it for another day. Right now, he needed to punch something.

He walked to the punching bag and stopped in front of it.

Before Renegade even noticed, he was punching the bag. He started thinking about the dream and the more he thought, the more he punched.

Renegade didn't even notice the stray of blood coming down from his hands. His knuckles were screaming in pain but who cared?

"You might wanna use these."

Renegade turned back and got in a deffensive position in less than a second. He was greeted with a tall figure holding white bandages.

"Trouble sleeping?"

"Just wanted to punch things." Renegade answered as he walked to the figure and took the bandages, started to wrap the bandages around his bleeding hands.

"Why are you here?" Renegade asked as he finished wrapping his hands.

"The Young Justice team and Red Tornado are on a mission."

"Oh, I got it... You're my babysitter." Renegade said with a smirk and turned to the punching bag.

"Well, as you can see, I'm- being- a -good -boy." Renegade said, punching the bag after every word.

"Yeah I can see that..."

There was silence for a bit except for the sounds coming from the bag after Renegade's every punch.

"You're bending your left wrist."

"What?" Renegade asked, turning to the figure.

"As you get tired, you start bending your left wrist. It will decrease the effect of your punch. Try punching without bending your wrist."

Renegade looked at the figure and then slowly turned to the bag. He straightened his wrist and punched.

"Again."

Renegade glanced at the figure but did what he was told.

"Is that all you got?"

Renegade gritted his teeth and punched the bag.

"Harder."

Another punch from Renegade.

"Harder!"

Renegade punched the bag with all his strength and the chain holding the bag broke off, the bag fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Happy now?" Renegade asked and turned back, only to see Bruce smiling at him.

"You know Renegade, being a hero, or even being a normal person, that's not about containing your hate and anger. That's about channeling it. You wanna be angry, be my guest. But don't take your anger out of innocent people, use it to help them, channel your anger on the ones who deserve it." Bruce said walling towards Renegade.

"Ugh... this speech again?"

"You wanna take revenge on the ones who tried to control you, the Court, Slade? You can't do it by killing them or killing yourself, and you can definitely not do it by running away from them. You can only do it by proving them wrong. You ran away from them for a reason. You didn't want them to have control over your life, prove that to them. Prove that you are not what they tried to make you."

Renegade looked at the man in front of him, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. the Batsy himself.

Renegade was pretty sure that he would be a lame hero, he was just not the goodie goodie material, but then again, neither was Batman, and he was a hero.

There was also this revenge thing. Renegade would love to see William Cobb with a bullet in his head. He liked killing, it was a certain end for a problem. But being a hero meant no killing. And now that, was lame.

But Renegade did really wonder how would the faces of his grandfather and his former master look if they saw him in a hero costume. All the training he took to be a Talon and an apprentice would be used to be a hero.

Becoming a hero, becoming the thing that his grandfather tried to make him destroy, now that just seemed poetic. Then something came to his mind.

"How can I be a hero when I will be turned into a Talon in less than a month?" Renegade asked.

"I said I'll find a cure and I meant it. Everything at a time. What do you say?"

Renegade wanted to believe Batman, and believe the cure existed. But he couldn't. Which meant, he had less than a month to live.

He remembered the thing he thought in the med-bay four days ago, the time when he learned the liquid inside his veins was no poison but in fact the Talon serum. The first thing he thought, as much as he hated it, was the fact that he didn't want to die as a villian. And now he had a chance to be a hero, probably a lame one, but a hero.

There was silence for a couple seconds before Renegade sighed and accepted defeat.

"I won't wear any tights."