Welp, the people have spoken, two small chapters coming your way!
Renegade exhaled as he lowered himself closer to the ground. His feet were high in the air and beginning to bend over closer to his face, his body in an arch one might call 'unnatural'. He straightened his arms and legs slowly as he drew a breath, his own form of a acrobatic push up.
His forehead was slick with a thin sheen of sweat, but he hadn't been doing nearly enough taxing exercises to be counted as a workout, this was more of a warm up. He had wanted to start jogging, in his training room back home he had a full track, but the closest thing the mountain had was a pathetic tredmill. He could see the metallic abomination from his upside down position, he glared at it, it was mocking him by existing. No one ever got to his level of training by running on fake terrain, going nowhere fast.
Treadmills were stupid, they were great for shaving off a stomach, but not as efficient in building muscles in places a real run can give. Treadmills lacked reality, there was rarely a time the ground would be that smooth and straight. Nothing would change on a treadmill, terrain always changes, a treadmill was no challenge.
The young acrobat deduced he had warmed up enough, he put his foot on the ground in front of his face and stood up, heaving the rest of his body with him into an upright position. The ebony haired boy went over to the punching bag, it was still up from another use. He could tell it had been used by the dents and worn fabric where the fists would hit, the fact the bag was still up infuriated the young mercenary. Didn't they know how to take care of their training equipment?
He decided to put the bag out of its misery. He found some tape and wrapped it around his gloved hands before he started pounding on the bag. He danced around it, adding kicks and dodging indivisible backlashes, at one point he rolled under it and gave it a nice thwack to where a head would be on a person. Renegade was increasing speed, chest beginning to heave with the need to take in more air to accommodate his increased activity.
He paused for a moment, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He glanced up through his matted hair, his mind fuzzy with the work out, blank until reality crashed down again. The red punching bag inoccently swayed in place, mocking him.
The fight wasn't over.
"Never turn your back on an enemy that could stab your now exposed backside." Renegade mumbled breathlessly, Slades voice echoing in his mind.
With a growl, Renegade kicked it twice in a flipping cartwheel and gave one last jarring punch. The bag exploded and the sand rained down onto the floor, emptying out onto the training mat and across the ground over his steel-toed boots.
He sighed and checked his hologlove, it was nearly 7 in the morning, the other kids in the mountain would probably be waking up around now. He honestly really did not want to see any of them again, he wasn't used to this much constant companionship and it was starting to get on his nerves. As well as the fact he barely got any sleep that night. It was a miracle he got any sleep at all, having the knife helped but every time he closed his eyes a frightful scene replayed in his mind, jolting him awake. After having a few hours of on and off sleep he decided to do something productive without the interference of a hero. Solitude was his friend in his situation, one very rarely seen. He found himself in the training room to clear his mind, trying to pretend it was his own and Slade was just around the corner doing something Slade-y.
It sort of worked, he was more calm now, routine always helps. But everything about his situation seemed to laugh in his face, taunting him, saying how much he shouldn't be here. It all felt so wrong, like fur brushed the wrong way, nails on chalkboard, floral and stripes.
He clenched his fists at his sides, masked eyes hardening into a sneer at the limp broken bag. Along with only a few hours of sleep his emotions were getting a little out of hand. But for the sake of himself, he would bottle them up when the heroes came, they didn't need to know how angry and uncomfortable he was.
He took a deep breath to calm himself and looked down at his feet, sand was beginning to rest around his boots. He sighed and stepped back, freeing himself of the sand and wondering where he could find a dustpan. He also wondered who even used this punching bag, must have been either Kid Flash or Artemis, because Superboy would have destroyed it on the first punch and Miss Martian was probably too sweet to hurt an innocent bag of sand.
He walked around, checking the corners of the room for any thing that could help him clean the sand up. He found a trashcan he could put the sand in, but not a way to get the sand inside. Didn't they have a closet for these things? He huffed through his nose, placing his hands on his hips as he realized he would probably have to go search elsewhere to find what he was looking for. The kitchen. He wasn't scared of the kitchen, just the possibilities that could happen there. Like social interaction.
He dragged a hand over his face, his mask hiding the dark circles under his electric blue eyes.
He walked out of the training equipment room, clearly they must have another room for team training, because nothing in there was team-buildingish. He walked into the brightly lit kitchen, he had turned on all the lights when he went to go train, before his paranoia of empty spaces ran away with him.
The kitchen was empty, for that Renegade was thankful for, but not for long. It took him a second but he saw a figure in the living room, he stalled upon seeing it, he didn't recognize them at first. The figure was sitting quietly with their back to the kitchen, looking down at something in their lap. Whoever it was, was reading, as a page turning signaled the person's intentions.
Aqualad, he finally recognized, why was he up this early reading? This made Renegade suspicious, perhaps they (the authorities (aka Batman)) knew he was awake and decided to send out their waterboy to keep an eye on him. He'd have to be careful with what he says and does now, it made a frown crawl onto his face. He had hoped for a bit more alone time to collect his thoughts before presented with the taxing job of keeping himself presentable and somewhat mentally stable.
He decided to ignore Aqualad for the time being, Aqualad wasn't hindering his process so he was going to continue with what he was doing until he did.
The young mercenary started looking around trying to find a broom or something. He even went up to the high cupboards, he knew the broom wasn't going to be up there but he figured he might as well know where everything is in the kitchen. He was laying on top of the cupboards, half his body bent over so he could see into the storage area, upside down. His hair fell with gravity, reminding him of the times he could hang on the poles in the training room for fun. Then a voice broke the silence and the resurfacing bittersweet memories.
"Hey! There you are!"
Renegade flinched at the sudden noise, thinking Aqualad has finally decided to intervene his odd activities, but then he released the breath he didn't know he was holding in recognition. Kid Flash... again.
"Hey Ren- what are you looking for? And how did you even get up there?!" Kid Flash asked, he could hear the curiosity in his voice, but also something like fear. The young acrobat would be lying if he said it didn't make him smile.
Renegade twisted over onto his back, looking down at the speedster from his upside down position, a grin stretched across his face. "I told you, if I ever needed anything from the top shelf I wouldn't come find you."
"But what are you even looking for? Did you even sleep last night?" Kid Flash rebutted, eyeing the mercenary with both suspicion and curiosity, the presumably younger kids position reminding the speedster of a cat.
"Of course I slept. I was training in your equipment room and the punching bag exploded. I'm looking for a broom or something to clean it up, you guys have terrible equipment maintenance." Renegade lifted himself into a sitting position and turned around, letting his feet dangle from the cupboards. In his new position he glanced over at Aqualad, the atlantean was still reading in the living room, seemingly not paying attention. Renegade knew better though. With Kid Flash present and someone to interact with, Renegade would probably be more closely monitored.
Kid Flash blinked in confusion. "Then why are you looking up there?"
"'Cuz I was bored, and I like high places." Renegade chirped with a smile. He was already tired with this conversation, he wanted to be alone again. His smile faltered as a sudden pang of reminiscing loss tore through him. But he covered it up just as quickly as it came, forcing the thoughts and memories out before he got even more depressed.
"The closet is over there." Kid Flash pointed to a hallway, dumbly looking on as the mercenary promptly flipped down and ran to where he had pointed. Renegade glad to fill his mind with things other than his current situation.
"Here?" The young acrobat scoured the hallway but found no doorway or closet-looking space. Was that a trick?
"Have you had breakfast yet?" Kid Flash asked instead, ignoring the young mercenary's quarry.
Renegade turned back and scrunched his nose at the speedster, not amused by the trick. "Why do you care?"
Kid Flash shrugged. "Just a question." Then the speedster started getting things out, the purpose soon apparent. From the fridge he acquired some eggs, from one of the lower cupboards he found a pan, and from a drawer a found a spatula.
Renegade huffed through his nose, Kid Flash had no intention on telling him where the closet was, he just wanted to get him down. The young mercenary folded his arms and scowled, he did not appreciate being tricked. He walked over to the kitchen, leaning his back against the fridge as he watched the speedster begin to cook.
Kid Flash leaned over once the eggs started sizzling, Renegade rose an eyebrow as the redhead whispered to him. "You don't have it on you do you?"
It took Renegade a moment to realize what the boy was talking about: the knife. Renegade scrunched his nose, and replied in the same fashion. "Of course not." He'd be an idiot to keep the knife on his person in a mountain full of heroes making sure he didn't have a weapon. He left it in his room, specifically the bathroom vent. It might not be big enough for Renegade to fit in, but the knife was easy enough to slide in.
Kid Flash seemed pleased with this knowledge and refocused on the eggs, then spoke louder as if they hadn't been conversing moments before. "So... not even eggs?" The speedster didn't even look up from the food but raised both eyebrows in question.
"The closest I've come to a decent meal was spaghetti." Renegade said stiffly, completely ignoring the speedsters question about the eggs. Eggs reminded him of Slade, and so did this conversation whilst the redhead cooked. Dick usually bothered Slade while he was cooking, watching blankly as he would ramble about something the older mercenary probably thought useless, but would listen nonetheless. At this point, basically everything reminded him of his missing father figure and that same everything proved Slade wasn't with him. It tugged at his heart.
"Spaghetti? Well, I guess some meals can't really be messed up." Kid Flash mumbled to himself.
Renegade snorted, oh how wrong he was. He didn't know he had boiled the water too much and half of it sloshed out onto the stove, or that half the spaghetti seemed to burn and break when he put it in the pot. Or that while draining, quite a few noodles landed on the floor and cemented themselves there. Ever since, Slade had forbade him to be anywhere close to the tomato sauce, the kitchen looked like a bad crime scene by the time Dick was done. And Slade knew a few things about crime scenes.
Renegade must have been day dreaming longer than he thought because when he came back Kid Flash was placing two plates of scrambled eggs on the counter, shoving one in the direction of Renegade.
The young mercenary glared down at his food, he still didn't trust them. This food could be tainted with some evil drug that would make him be a hero and make him hate Slade, maybe that's what happened to Artemis. He, of course, knew that's not what happened to Artemis, but he decided to let his imagination run with it, because he was simply tired of raining it in. Besides, what would the heroes do if he decided not to eat?
The eggs innocently stared back, fluffy yellow and white cooked underdeveloped chicks.
Renegade stayed still, making no move to eat the food.
Kid Flash went on his merry way, grabbing forks and salt and pepper and shaking them above his plate. When he saw Renegade doing nothing but scowling at his food, he sighed.
"Alright I don't care what you say this time, you are hungry, so eat the food!" Kid Flash folded his own arms and leveled his own glare at the young mercenary.
The boys masked eyes flicked up dangerously and Kid Flash remembered what exactly his hungry companion was capable of. But he was adamant, he would not back down this time. "You even watched me make it, I couldn't have put anything in it if you were there." Kid Flash pointed out.
Renegade tilted his head to the side in a half shrug. "Be that as it may, I was thinking of something else and wasn't paying attention." His insides curdled at this conversation. It used to be fun, but when he suddenly remembered he had an audience, his senses heightened as his anxiety rose. Aqualad was hearing all of this, he would get curious, worse, he'd tell Batman. He silently swallowed his fear as he still had to continue this awful conversation, which, if Aqualad wasn't present, he'd be totally fine in having.
Kid Flash's face twisted in confusion, getting lost in thought didn't seem like something the mercenary would allow himself to do. The redhead sighed and shook his head, he couldn't really do anything about that, but he was determined to get the kid to eat.
"Look, I'll prove it to you, I'll eat it and then you have to admit it's not poisoned." Kid Flash grabbed a fork and started shoveling the food into his mouth.
Renegade watched for a moment, amused, evident by the small smirk gracing his lips, hiding his rising internal panic. "Of course you won't be affected, your metabolism would get rid of any poison before it affected you."
Kid Flash put his fork down and glared at him. "You're gunna keep doing this aren't you."
Renegade let his smirk grow. "Now you're catching on."
The speedster huffed and silenced in thought, Renegade was beginning to get comfortable in it when a loud computerized voice interrupted the sweet sound of silence.
"Recognized: Artemis B-07"
Kid Flash pipped up immediately, shouting the archers name in excitement as he sped out of the room.
Renegade blinked as the wind from the speedster made him sway, his hair blowing in the speedsters direction before coming back to its fluffy unruly self. He shot a glance to Aqualad, who had not changed positions nor looked to be coming after him. It was almost worse than if he had come after him, because then he'd have something certain to fight. But just sitting there, letting the fear fester and bubble inside, was the opposite of what he needed right now.
The young assassin sighed, letting his fear go for the moment, letting himself regain some pride before the speedster and archer came back. Aqualad wasn't doing anything at the moment, he really shouldn't worry so much. His thoughts turned to the more real and current fear.
He honestly didn't know what to say to Artemis. They had quite a few things in common, but he was still on the other side, whereas Artemis seemed fully committed to this hero gig. She probably didn't want to say anything about her past anyway, and Renegade didn't want to share either.
He scowled as Kid Flash's voice reached his ears, saying something along the lines of 'comeoncomeoncomeon'. The yellow speedster came into view, dragging an annoyed (and in-costume) Artemis with him.
Kid Flash pulled Artemis in front of Renegade, their eyes met and both seemed to ignore the sudden tension underneath. Kid Flash was completely oblivious. "Alright, she's like you right? If she eats it, you have to eat it, ok?"
Kid Flash looked a little desperate, it made Renegade want to laugh but everything about his situation made the desire twist into more like a throw up.
Artemis gave the speedster a questionable side glance. "What are you talking about Baywatch?"
Renegade snorted and put a hand to his mouth to stop from laughing out loud, his tense thoughts fleeing his mind as the sudden nick name caught him off guard. "How did Baywatch become his nickname?" He said through his hand, smiling widely as he watched the red head sigh and shuffle his feet in embarrassment.
Artemis let her own smile rise and explained. "The first time I met him was when the entire team was here with their mentors, and he comes running in all his beach gear glory only to fall flat on his face."
Renegade let his laugher ring out, putting his hands to his gut as he doubled over.
"We're getting off topic." Kid Flash said, his face slightly red at the recount of his embarrassing entrance.
"No this is great. Baywatch. I'm so gunna use that." Renegade said, rising to let air fully into his lungs and grinning like a mad man.
"Wait so what do you need me for?" Artemis asked, seeing the untouched plate of eggs next to Renegade and the carnage of Kid Flash's cooking around the stove.
"Renegade thinks we're trying to poison him, he even watched me make the food and he still thinks it's been tampered with." Kid Flash said, gesturing to the young mercenary who adopted a scowl and folded his arms.
Artemis blinked, then looked from the mercenary to the food and then to her speedy companion. "Seriously?"
"Seriously. I even ate it to show him it wasn't but then he said my metabolism would have prevented any poison from hurting me."
"Ugh, for crying out loud." Artemis rolled her eyes and promptly stepped forward, grabbed a fork, and took a bite of the eggs. Once she swallowed she took a step back and folded her arms, glaring at the resident mercenary. "See? Nothing, now just eat already." Artemis stomped off, grumbling to herself and heading for what could possibly be her room.
Renegade watched her leave, outside, he wasn't impressed, inside, he still wasn't impressed. The odd thing that did impress him was the look of understanding in her grey eyes. It made Renegade pause for a moment, for two reasons: 1, her grey eyes startled him, for a moment he felt as if he was looking at Slade, causing a reminiscent twinge in his gut. 2, he realized she was nearly in the same boat as he was, the only difference was that she wanted to be here.
Kid Flash looked to him expectantly, Renegade suddenly felt weird that the hero wanted to watch him eat. "Fine I'll eat, but not while you're staring like it's the first alien sighting."
Kid Flash blinked, surprised that the mercenary finally had nothing to say against the action of eating. He sighed in exasperation and turned around, grabbing his own plate and fork before sitting at the bar stool.
Renegade watched and shook his head in distaste, he wouldn't be caught dead eating with his back so vulnerable like that. Especially with Aqualad so close, who knew what he could be injected with when he let his guard down. So he ate where he stood.
The eggs weren't quite on par with Slades (he was probably just biased), but he was sure Kid Flash didn't add a dash of milk like Slade did. It made them fluffier, retained juice more, and was much taster in the young mercenaries opinion.
But he really was hungry, and he wolfed down the eggs like no tomorrow. He was sure Kid Flash was giving him an odd look but he was used to it, Slade often did the same thing. He really was missing him wasn't he?
Renegade refocused his mind, he would acknowledge the fact he missed Slade, but he wouldn't let it hinder his ability to function. That would be bad.
Soon enough Renegade finished his plate and felt generally full, he probably could have had more but he wasn't about to ask. Sometime while he'd been eating, Superboy came in and plopped down in the living room, not giving the young mercenary a second glance.
It seemed like a normal enough silence, but Renegade could see they were clearly doing something, their faces kept changing, as if they were speaking to eachother in their minds. Miss Martian was absent, so he didn't know how they were doing it, but he just continued to eat in silence. If they wanted to speculate, he would let them speculate, at this point he didn't care as long as they didn't get the truth, and they couldn't without him telling them.
He wanted to return to his room now, yearning for the sweet embrace of solitude. But as one more person walked in his desire to flee (for an entirely different reason) skyrocketed.
Black Canary strode in, her black uniform covered by a brown jacket and her golden hair let down around her face. Her blue eyes were set on him, a hand on her hip as she casually stopped in the kitchen. Kid Flash looked up at her entrance, almost done with his food as he internally questioned her arrival. The speedster wasn't annoyed by her sudden appearance, but hoped for a mission.
"You must be Renegade." She held out a hand to the young mercenary who twisted around to face her.
Renegade gave her a cold glare as he folded his arms, making no move to shake the presented hand. "If you know who I am you know I don't exactly trust the heroic type."
Black Canary retracted her hand, rising both eyebrows diplomatically. "I'm aware of who you are and what you do." Renegade outwardly didn't react, but his insides swirled with uncertainty. Sure he told Kid Flash he didn't care if he told any authorities about the knife, but really he was scared of them finding out, and knowing heroes, they practically shared everything. No doubt she was here to crack down on him, Kid Flash having sold him out. And they wonder why he had trust issues.
His thoughts were interrupted as she continued. "As well as a few finer points."
His stomach dropped, she must know, she had to.
Black Canary gave Kid Flash a glance and settled her gaze back on the stiff acrobat. "Kid Flash said you were up out of your room last night."
Crap.
Renegade remained silent, keeping his glare steady and not making any movements to reveal his feelings. But he could feel his face drain of blood, his heart beginning to thump loudly in his ears.
Canary continued, seeing he didn't deny the fact. "He told me you were rather unstable, and gave a few threats."
Renegades decided he should cut to the chase, so far she never mentioned a knife, so he would act as if she didn't know. Besides, Superboy and Aqualad were within earshot, they didn't need to know. "Don't play therapist with me, I don't open easy." Renegade snarled.
"You seemed to open up rather quickly to Kid Flash." Canary pointed out slyly.
"That's different." Renegade huffed.
"Because you were having a panic attack." Canary bluntly stated.
It shouldn't have caught the boy off guard but it did.
Renegade froze for a moment, attempting to not relive that night. He focused back on the heroine in front of him, listening more intently because he was afraid of his mind at the moment. "Good thing you calmed down without hurting anyone." She paused, but when it was clear the boy was staying silent she continued. "I won't play therapist if you don't want me to, but I'll keep in mind what calms you down. I'm actually here to collect you."
Renegade released a breath in relief, wonder gracing across his features. Kid Flash hadn't told them it was a knife, if he had then they'd be all over him. His gaze softened and slipped to the red-headed speedster for a brief moment before returning to glaring at the woman. He hadn't told them. He was in the clear for now.
"What for?" Renegade asked, his thoughts still lingering on the oddity that was Kid Flash.
"Batman didn't say." Canary said, noticing the quick glance shared between the teens but made no hint that she did.
Renegades eyes narrowed. Of course Batman was part of this, he was actually wondering when the vigilante would muscle up and actually use him. He clearly didn't understand what a valuable asset he had. It was not a prideful thought, but a true one. Renegade was dangerous, but the person who ordered him around was even more so. He knew of his worth, he wasn't blind or stupid.
"How do I know Batman is involved?" Renegade asked, skeptical. He would always second guessed orders that didn't come straight from his master, especially if his master wasn't present to confirm. Right now his master was Batman, and Batman was doing what Batman did best, hiding.
One of Canary's eyebrows went up while the other furrowed slightly, but she was quick to return to neutrality. She was surprised and a bit concerned, that seriously was a lot of distrust. "I'll leave that up to you, if you believe me then you'll come to the library. If not, then Batman will come and he can take you to the library." Canary said simply, if not smugly.
"I didn't say I wasn't coming." Renegade pointed out. Yeesh, he just wanted to make sure this was what Batman wanted, staying in the Dark Knights good graces was part of his self appointed mission. A lot of good it would do him if he was shut up tight in prison, especially if Deathstroke had some sort of task for him here.
The young mercenary turned and disposed his plate in the sink, usually he'd put it right in the dishwasher but now he was on a time crunch. He hated how the heroine had manipulated him, but she was right, he didn't want to compromise his position by being stubborn, he knew first hand that there were a lot worse places than a mountain full of heroes.
Renegade followed Canary out, feeling Kid Flash's gaze on his back.
Here ya go! 4742 words! Also the next chapter might be a weeeee bit behind considering I think I'm gunna change it quite a bit, so the 3000 words I have rn are mostly going to be scraped. So yeah, but still, expect it soon.