The clearing was a battlefield frozen in time. Dust hung in the air, leaves shredded and trampled, the scent of ozone and sweat thick as smoke.
Deathstroke at the center, pinned but unbroken. Aqualad's water-blades, now whips, tied Deathstrokes ulper body tight. The robo-arm clamp on his two wrists together behind his back, but it clearly struggled to hold him.
Artemis' eyes were sharp, Robin's jaw tight, Wally's fists clenched, and M'gann hovered above, her telepathic aura flickering. Speedy remained unconscious, slumped against a boulder, a casualty of the earlier chaos.
Deathstroke didn't move. His single eye glinted beneath the mask, unblinking, calm. Every muscle was taut, controlled. He was didn't look like someone at a disadvantage.
Robin leaned forward, his voice sharp: "It's over, Slade! You're pinned. No tricks left."
Deathstroke's eye followed each of them with patience,"Over? You misunderstand, boy. I'm merely… entertaining you."
"Entertaining?" Aqualad's grip didn't falter, though his knuckles whitened against the strain of holding the whils steady.
"Your timing really was impeccable, and your Plan good." Deathstroke continued, voice smooth. "But precision alone does not guarantee victory."
Feeling uneasy, Robin gave M'gann a mental command.
M'gann's glow flared as she recieved Robins order, she quickly tried to probe Deathstrokes mind.
She didn't try to read his mind during the fight, mainly because she's not quite skilled enough to fight and read minds just yet. Atleast not agianst someone as dangerous as Deathstroke jusg yet.
Her thoughts brushed against him—and slammed into a wall of reinforced mental defenses. It felt like she rammed straight inot a wall of reinforced steel!!
M'gann took a step back, feeling the mental backlash hitting her psyche!!
"Ah," Deathstroke said softly, the faintest hint of amusement in his tone. "You seem to be new to this, a piece of advice? Most professionals at my level have some way or another to block mental intrusions."
Robin cursed under his breath. He actually didn't have that much hope for it to work in the first place. This was someone Batman recognized as an equal!
M'gann's glow flickered, her confidence faltering. "I… can't—"
"Precisely, maybe if Manhunter were here, he could give me some trouble." Deathstroke said.
Aqualad's grip tightened. "In any case, you are now under our captivity, resisting is futile!"
Deathstroke's response was nothing but calm. "You kids don't know what you've gotten yourselves into, my advice is to call the adults, you need them."
---
Deathstroke wasnt just doing nothing.....no...
He had been studying them all throughout the fight. Every twitch, every overextension, every glance had been logged in his mind like data on a computer. Even pinned, he knew exactly how the team thought, how they would react, and the small weaknesses in their formation.
Aqualad's water whips cinched tight across Deathstroke's chest and shoulders, the Robo-Arm clamping his wrists together like steel manacles. The servos hummed, locking harder as he tested the bind.
For anyone else, it would have been the end of the fight.
For Deathstroke, it was another Tuesday.
A click at his belt. Barely audible. Then the hiss of a micro-grapnel firing.
The line shot upward into the treeline, embedding into a thick branch above. Before anyone could react, the wire yanked taut with a metallic zip!
"Wait—!" Aqualad snapped, bracing his stance.
But Deathstroke's whole body was pulled skyward, the sudden vertical force wrenching the water whips off balance. Aqualad struggled to redirect them, but the pull was too sharp and too sudden — the grapnel dragged Deathstroke free like a hooked arrow tearing out of flesh.
The water whips snapped back in spray as the mercenary shot upward, unbound arms tight against his chest, body twisting to absorb the recoil. In a blink, he was perched halfway up the trees, using the high ground and the dense canopy for cover.
"Not this time!"
Wally shot forward in a red blur, intent on intercepting Deathstroke.
But the mercenary had already anticipated the move. His grapnel line was taut, holding him suspended high among the trees. With a precise twist of his wrist, he released the line, dropping silently to the forest floor behind a thick tree trunk.
Before Wally could react to the sudden disappearance, Deathstroke flicked a smoke pellet from his palm. FWOOSH! The cloud erupted in his path, blinding and choking him. The speedster skidded to a halt, momentum gone, struggling to see through the swirling gray.
"Predictable," Deathstroke muttered, arriving behind Wally with feline precision. With one neck chop, Wally slumped to the ground in disbalief!
Robin was already moving, discs flashing in his hands. "Then try me—!"
Deathstroke sidestepped, not wasting a step. One disc he deflected with his bracer, the second he let sail harmlessly past. By the third, Robin was already in close — exactly as Deathstroke expected. His boot hooked behind Robin's knee, collapsing his stance, while his shoulder slammed into the boy's chest with brutal economy. Robin went sprawling, breath ripped from his lungs.
Aqualad surged next, water forming blades again. He swung with Atlantean strength, twin arcs scything through the air. Deathstroke ducked the first, pivoted inside the second, and slammed his forehead into Aqualad's jaw. The crack echoed like a breaking stone. Aqualad staggered back, dazed.
What follwed was a brutal and quick combo to the Atlanteans body, causing him to crumble to the floor.
From above, M'gann's telekinesis gripped, trees groaning as she tried to pin him. But Deathstroke had already slipped a reflective disc from his belt, hurling it at her like a flare. The device burst in a pulse of strobing light and ultrasonic screech. M'gann cried out, clutching her head as her telekinesis faltered.
Artemis loosed an arrow, sharp and fast — but Deathstroke plucked it mid-air with ease, before throwing it back at her.
The tip of the Arrow exploded before it reached her, luckily she quickly moved out of the way. Readying another Arrow.
"Your not bad under pressure, unfortunately your still too green," he remarked, voice cold and steady.
Artemis grit her teeth in frustration and anger! This guy was way out of her league!
Aqualad tried to rally, stepping forward despite the punishment his body just went through. "Do not be intimidated team! We havent been beaten just yet!—"
Although Aqualad said that, he made no move against Deathstroke. He early knew the gap between them was huge
"You fought better than I expected," Deathstroke said, voice carrying with unnerving calm. "But battles aren't won by hope, or numbers. They're won by control. And I…" he stepped backward into the shadowed treeline, "…was always in control."
Before anyone could stop him, he fired another grapnel, vanishing into the canopy. The forest swallowed him whole, his escape as methodical as his assault.
Silence dropped heavy over the clearing, only to be broken by Robin punching a tree in anger!
Robin's fists clenched at his side, anger burning hot. "The bastard had every chance to take us out! He was playing with us! And I let it happen....dammit!"
.....
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