Chapter 50

A man needs only three things to fulfill his most basic of needs. Food to consume, water to drink, and a shelter to take refuge. However, these only speak of what a person physically needs.

So why is it then that we as humans seek out more than just these things? It’s because we not only have physical needs, but emotional ones as well. These emotions drive us to further desire other things.

Jewels, justice, and the wives of married men. None of these are things that people need, yet they desire them nonetheless. Why is that?

Well, it’s simple.

Greed.

We desire what we don’t have, yet have a sort of connection to. Like yearning for the cash your boss keeps on him at all times. Yet at the same time we do not yearn for what is unknown. How could we? We do not know about a beautiful woman across the ocean, so why would we desire her?

Thus, the connection is important.

And for Robin, the connection between him and Deathstroke was something that had already been established. Heroes were already as illogical as they came, but this new attitude of his was definitely on another level.

Robin rarely left his room. Even going so far as to start skipping his chores. The only one he actively did anymore was patrolling the city. In which he would barely talk to whoever was partnered with him, and would go off on his own.

It was rather alarming, but there wasn’t much to actively be done about it. The only thing that we could do is to talk to him, and he didn’t seem to feel like talking. Not when that time could be better spent elsewhere.

So, we’d just wait until he finally crashed and speak to him then. Deathstroke had gone pretty quiet after all. It was only a matter of time before Robin gave up. It was only logical.

At least, that’s what I had thought until Robin called us in for an emergency. Deathstroke had been spotted and he had robbed some sort of secret hush hush convoy. Inside of which was a part of something called ‘Amazo’.

Robin didn’t get into the specifics, but apparently, it’s some sort of robotic villain. A robotic villain that needs the entire Justice League to mobilize in order to put it out of commission a year ago.

Which meant it was a pretty big deal.

Kind of. Deathstroke was still only able to get a part. As the body had been safely split into pieces and on different convoys going at different times of the day. So currently Deathstroke only has his right arm.

This mission was so important that even the Justice League got involved. Leading to Robin and them to coordinate and share information. Well, more like the Justice League pretty much gave Robin the information about the convoys, and asked the Titans to deal with this.

…Which was a bit odd. It wasn’t hard to believe that some of the Justice League members had their own problems at the moment. But all of them? Especially for something as important and threatening as this?

But that was only if I trusted the situation at face value. Which I did not.

Not at all. I had a few ideas of what was happening, but they meant nothing without further proof. So, for now, I continued to play my role.

Robin was quick to assign us to our own convoys. Most of the Titans being forced to show up except Galatea. She had…called in sick. She didn’t admit it, but it was very likely she was in a great deal of pain and was currently weakened to the point of being unable to help.

An event that was becoming increasingly more prevalent. After this mission, I would need to invest more time into studying Kryptonians. The main problem so far is that despite me getting a grasp on understanding Kryptonians, I still wasn’t quite aware of what the exact problem is beyond an injured organ.

Not only that, but I only had the faintest of ideas on how to regenerate or heal such a wound. Something I hadn’t even begun to even make. It’s one thing to know what you want to make; it was another to actual figure out the process in how do achieve it.

Thankfully I was able to downplay Galatea’s current disposition to the Titans in a satisfactory manner. But it won’t be long until her problems became too big to cover up.

Robin was rather smart about his planning for the different convoys. Instead of having all of us guard the convoys with the body parts still in them, he had us guard a bunch of decoys as well as the real ones.

Of the five body parts remaining, only three of them were actually being shipped off today. Both of the legs, and the chest. Robin would protect the left leg, I would protect the right, and Aqualad protected the chest. Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Kid Flash all had decoy convoys.

If Deathstroke did show up to one of the convoys, then those who were guarding the decoys would then abandon their position in order to close in on Deathstroke. It was a pretty decent plan all things considered.

I also threw out the idea of a few convoys without Titans guarding them, and even putting one of the body parts in there, but Robin had decided against it. Thinking that while it was clever, if the trick was found out he would be able to obtain it extremely easily.

A point to which I conceded.

The convoy I was assigned to had little to no guards. Besides the driver at least. Perhaps that was just the confidence the Justice League had in us. Or perhaps there was a different reason. Regardless, I accepted my fate and waited in the back with the cargo.

It was an incredibly boring several hour-long trip.

The only break in the monotony was occasionally checking in with my communicator in order to tell someone that I was alright. Otherwise, there was nothing else to do. All I had with me was my phone, and the area we were driving through seemed to have no signal, which meant no internet in order to pass the time.

The trip wouldn’t have been so bad if the driver had been a good conversationalist. Unfortunately he was not. I learned very quickly that attempting to relieve my boredom by talking to him was the wrong move. Because he quickly responded with talking about his daughter.

No matter what was brought up, somehow he’d link it back to her. It would have been impressive if it wasn’t so annoying.

Which is part of the reason why I felt relieved when I heard the bullets ringing out. The large convoy almost tipped over as I started to call it in. The signal was bad, but I was at least able to send a message before stepping outside.

It didn’t take long to find out the reason for the disturbance.

Ravager was standing over the driver who seemed to have been dragged out of the drivers seat. He seemed scared out of his mind and was begging for mercy. His left side was also bleeding from what seemed like a gunshot wound. Judging by how much blood was coming out of him, it didn’t look too bad.

Ravager immediately turned her head and intercepted the orange capsule ball I had thrown. Cutting it in two with her sword. Causing the liquid inside to scatter around her. Unfortunate, I had been hoping to have caught her off guard with that.

As soon as the driver noticed that her attention was no longer on him, he immediately started to leave. Interestingly enough, he was allowed to. Ravager didn’t seem interested in putting a bullet in him as he ran away, instead keeping her focus on me.

Which was a smart and cautious move. Perhaps overly cautious.

“Using the guard as bait while you sneak around and attack me from behind? That’s not very heroic…”

Ravager taunted. Swinging her sword lightly in an attempt to get rid of the orange liquid that was stuck on her sword. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to get rid of that exact chemical.

“Not gunning down the driver as he runs away and likely calls in backup? Not very villainous of you.”

It wasn’t an insult that had any real bite to it. Simply a flip on what she had thrown at me. But I hadn’t really been intending to insult her in the first place.

So, I was surprised when she seemed to almost snarl at me.

“I’m not afraid to put a bullet in you if you don’t watch yourself.”

…What an odd response. An odd response that betrayed her, giving me a bit more insight into Ravager herself.

None of the other Titans had called in since the message. So, either the signal was that bad or…

“Would I be correct in believing that currently all of the Titans are being engaged?”

“Who’s to say…”

Mmm…A non-answer. That means if I wanted to get any more information out of her, I’d need to play to her.

“You’re rather powerful. If Deathstroke had several of you at his disposal, I’m quite certain that he’d have set his sights much higher than this junk. Which means there isn’t anyone quite at your level underneath Deathstroke.”

I ventured a guess, while also playing on Ravager’s vanity. It seemed to have some sort of effect, as she smiled at my words.

“Trying to get info out of me huh?”

Hmm, she had seen through it. Well, it’s not really that big of a shock. It had been a bit heavy handed. Ravager continued to speak after chuckling.

“But you’re right. I am the strongest. And none of those other robots or freaks are even close.”

That was good to know. As long as that wasn’t all just bravado. She also revealed that his forces comprised of robots, and freaks. We have seen a robot version of Deathstroke. It wasn’t a big leap of logic to assume he had more of those up his sleeve.

Freaks…perhaps she was referring to Jinx, Mammoth, and uh…that kid with the gadgets? Or maybe they were something else altogether…

Ravager started to walk forward. Brandishing her sword as she got closer in a threatening motion. In response I simply calmly observed her.

“Now…do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”

…Hmm…I had a pretty strong suspicion, but there was no way to prove it. Nothing that seemed readily obvious at least.

Unless…

“Hmm…how about this. If you answer a question correctly, I’ll let you take the part you want without a fight.”

“Ha. Is that right?”

She obviously didn’t think I was very serious. So in order to better convince her, I undid the belt around my waist. Dropping the six remaining orange capsule weapons I kept. As well as tossing my communicator to the side.

She paused at that. Her face was still mostly obscured by her mask, but her lips and cheeks were still able to be seen. And though most expressions aren’t really that easy to see with half her face covered up, going from amused to frowning was a noticeable change.

Ravager continued to observe me for a few seconds before putting up her sword behind her as well. Interesting. I was prepared to take a few more steps in order to get her to believe me.

Though obviously she still had quite a lot of doubt and suspicion. Her hands ready to just pull out her side piece and putting a few new holes in me if I made any sudden moves.

“What are you playing at?”

“Human interaction is nothing but a series of transactions. If you want the part, all I ask is that you pay the corresponding price. I think it’s a fair deal, don’t you?”

Her frown hardened, but this time she didn’t immediately respond. Seemingly thinking about the situation for several long moments before finally speaking up.

“What’s the question?”

“Do you know what is in the convoy?”

She said nothing. Crossing her arms as she continued to think silently to herself in response to my words. Tossing a gaze back to the convoy before looking back behind her.

She was deliberating about what she was going to say. Unfortunately for her, just the act of her considering whether or not to give me an answer already told me quite a lot. Still, it wasn’t hard confirmation.

I decided to speak up once again.

“Specifically, which part is in the convoy?”

“…and if I answer correctly, you’re going to let me just grab it?”

“Yes.”

I answered, only for her to shake her head.

“I’m not that stupid. You’re just buying time. Even if I answer, and start moving towards the convoy, you’ll just attack me when my back is turned. You have literally no reason not to do that.”

“Not true. I owe you for giving me instructions on how to leave the cave.”

I pointed out, which was completely true. Ravager snorted in derision, and finally spoke up again.

“Alright. I’ll play your little game. Besides, it doesn’t really matter all that much to me anyway. It’s the right leg.”

That was correct. And she had just confirmed my theory. So, someone had tipped them off with this info. That or Deathstroke had much more impressive hacking skills than I had thought. Though I think that was a bit doubtful.

I nodded at her answer before stepping aside.

Ravager wasted no time in walking towards the convoy. Her eyes were on me the whole time as she closed the distance towards me. I simply looked at her back as she started to walk past me.

Almost immediately her body coiled like a spring. Just waiting for me to make a sudden movement as she was finally side by side with me.

And in response I…didn’t move at all.

She continued to walk past with her guard up. Only starting to ease up once she arrived at the convoy before finally fading into…confusion. It didn’t take her long to retrieve the small box that supposedly contained the part and start walking out.

“…Really? That’s it? Do you really take your word that seriously?”

“Only when it benefits me.”

Ravager hummed at that. Seeming genuinely stunned that I wasn’t going to attack her.

“…You’re weird.”

She commented quite rudely.

“You’re one to talk.”

She shrugged at that before walking off to the side of the road. Following her trail, I noticed a motorcycle that had been hidden in the foliage. After she pulled it out, she paused for a moment before turning back around and throwing something towards me.

“Oh, and you can keep this.”

The tracker that had been on the inside of the box landed in front of me with a soft thud. I made no motion to pick it up or even acknowledge it. Instead, I just continued to watch Ravager. She smirked before starting her motorcycle.

“I’ll see you around, weirdo. Better luck next time.”

I nodded at that.

“See you around.”

I watched as she continued to have her guard up all the way until she drove away. What a very interesting person. And to think, I was able to obtain all this interesting information just by sacrificing something that wasn’t even mine.

Could I have fought her? Sure. Would I have won? Possibly. The odds seemed a bit favorable from what I’ve seen of her so far. However, it was better to not risk any sort of failure. Especially when it could involve death.

Besides, with this I no longer owed her anything. The books had been balanced.

And I got the feeling that she’d be owing me quite the sum by the time this was all over…