Slade Vs Robin

It rewinds again to the same point and plays. We are looking at one of the monitors in Slade's lair, on which many clips from the battle are playing at the same time. he leans back in his chair.

"My apprentice is progressing even faster than I had hoped. All he needed was a little motivation."

Robin reaches into view and grabs a wrist, fist cocked back.

"Motivate THIS!" Robin threws the punch, but Slade catches it easily without flinching and wrenches the arm to one side Robin is flung toward a set of overhead gears, but he comes down in a crouch across the floor. He stands up, Slade leaves his chair and flexes a handful of fingers.

"Robin." Slade crosses the floor. "That was vicious, dishonorable, and ruthless. Excellent work. You're becoming more like me every second."

He turns away, then whirls to face his apprentice with a sudden string of blows, Robin dodges and tries a few counterattacks, but Slade gets him in a headlock and lifts him off his feet. Robin swings his leg straight ahead and up to kick him in the face, forcing him to break the hold. Both retreat a bit, trying to catch their breath and clear their heads.

***

Cyborg in the Tower's operations center. He straightens up.

"Think I found something." The four Titans are gathered around the couch, Beastboy wears an assortment of devices wired up to the computers. On the screen is a readout of his vital signs.

"The enhanced sensors are picking up radio interference on the naonscopic scale." He does a bit of typing, now the screen shows Slade's probes in fine detail, attached to Beastboy's red blood cells.

"Whoa." Raven and Starfire gasps.

The test subject looks toward the screen, and his eyes pop wide open for a moment.

"Those things are inside me? EWWW!!" Beastboy freaks out.

"They're inside all of us. Billions of 'em!" Cyborg states.

"With such technology at his command, Slade can destroy us whenever he wants." Starfire worries.

"Unless Robin does whatever he says." Raven widens her eyes.

"And you guys thought my zombie idea was crazy." Beastboy scoffed.

***

Slade and Robin, still trying to collect themselves after the previous skirmish. Robin strikes first, propelling himself in a high backward jump that carries him toward the metal face-but Slade grabs his legs, swings him low to scrape the floor, and ends by hurling him toward the overhead machinery. The screaming Boy Wonder hooks a crankshaft to stop himself from flying into the gears. A shot of the turning wheels, then another angle.

A section of the machine room-the blackness was just a darkened corner-as Robin advances into view and peers warily from one spot to another. He makes his way to a bank of levers near the edge of this elevated platform and stops for a good look around. Steam boils up as a stationary gear begins to turn, The platform's edge. Slade's feet are carried down onto it from the rotating wheel.

"Good., Robin." Slade approaches. "You're doing much better than last time. A few more years of training, and you might actually pose a threat."

Robin has started to back up by this point; he reaches the levers and breaks one loose to use as a club. He twirls it back and forth and gets ready to swing, but Slade merely pulls out a fighting staff just like the one Robin used to use and extends it to full length. More steam roils around the two enemies before Robin charges in. Slade parries his attacks, and the two lean in at each other with their full weight. Slowly but surely, Slade overpowers Robin and forces him back, then catches him with a high swing to drive him back against a pipe.

Robin leaps away, just barely missing Slade's jabbing strike that punctures the pipe to release a flood of steam that envelops both of them. The staff has lodged in the metal, and Robin jumps onto it for a blind swing of his makeshift club. The sound of metal crashing against metal tells that the strike hit its target-but after a moment, Slade stands up.

"Huh?" Robin stands up as well.