Chapter 56 Becoming ruthless again
“We were fighting against mind controllers and thought we caught them all but someone was pulling the strings even further back.” I grabbed Dick and checked his brain just in case but saw no scene of the compulsions if he had been given any mental suggestions. “Alright, I got to go find Cassandra, Stephanie might be pissed when she wakes up because she’s going to have a bunch of-.”
She woke up instantly screaming. “MOTHER FUCKER I’LL KILL YOU!” Instinctively she punched out and smashed Dick right in his face. After realizing what she did she put her hands over her mouth. “It wa-.” I interrupted her. “Cass is still under control. I got to borrow your mana to find her.” I put my hand on her back without asking and linked our magics together. I began to cast a tracking spell.
It was an altered version of the druidic spell as an ethereal bird took shape and began to head towards the door. I looked around the room. “We got any other fliers who can track me?” Beast Boy stood up and changed forms becoming the same bird as the spell. Starfire and Raven were also there but the brief mention as I explained what happened and they heard I was part of the 100 made them wary.
“Steph is going to be exhausted for a while so she’s out and someone has to watch her. I don’t think the controller would have attacked Batman so we don’t have to worry about him being under control. This man is dangerous. He is a ghost who hid his hand through other mind controllers over and over again.”
I got confused looks and one of the younger kids asked. “What the what?” I explained further. “He had a mind controller he mind controlled, control another mind controller who was controlling another mind controller. Think of your big bad guys like Lex Luthor except if he could control people with mind powers. That’s what we’re dealing with and I have to go right now. The tracking bird only lasts so long.”
I don’t wait for any more help as me and Beast Boy take off after the bird. It flies extremely fast and I would have lost sight of it if it wasn’t so eye-catching and high above all the other buildings in the area. I had completely forgotten about the knife wound but my mid-superhuman regeneration took care of it.
The bird began circling a warehouse and I didn’t waste time smashing through a window. I was in a hurry because if the mind controller could refresh the compulsions he could tell Cassandra to flee from the sight of me or have her kill herself. The only thing visible in the entire empty warehouse is her.
With a creepy smile, she asked. “Was it as good for you as it was for me?” She pulled the knife across her throat and I dove for her. Even while dying she kept the creepy smile on her face and held the knife up in an attempt to stop me. I just guided it to a safer spot to be stabbed and pinned her down with my strength as I began knitting her throat back together before unraveling the mental compulsions.
The fucker put extra effort into Cassandra because she was already a low superhuman in terms of strength. If things were to go wrong when they confronted me she would have the best chance to murder me. Altogether there were fifty compulsions with most being set around listening to Stephanie until things went wrong then they were built around hurting herself and killing me.
My teeth made popping noises as I ground them together from anger. He targeted me! HE TARGETED MY FUCKING PEOPLE! Tears streamed down my face as I thought about what I was going to do to him when I caught him. He killed my kindness. He couldn’t keep finding other mind controllers to hide behind. I’ll fucking keep systematically killing them.
The second bad news I got was the person looked differently than he did in Stephanie’s memories. I was so angry I forgot to check for traps. I looked around the room scared for a moment but only saw Beast Boy who looked at me with fear in his eyes. I could only tell him what I knew already. “He targeted me. All the mental compulsions I unraveled were there to try and kill me. He could do it with other people I know.”
I felt sick leaving such an obvious enemy unmurdered but I needed to find him first. The only way I knew of would be making a contract with a demon to find his location or contracting a fae to find him but both of those would put me in a worse position than if I just found him myself. I portal us back right as Cassandra is waking up.
“MURDER HIM! I’LL FUCKING KILL HIM!” She thankfully didn’t attack me and looked sheepishly at what she shouted out. Even someone who believes everyone should have a second chance instinctively knows that people who choose mind control out of all powers aren't worth saving.
I felt it again. I was behind again. I needed to become untouchable. I needed to develop my magical technology to a new level to find this fucker. “Raven, can you check them and make sure I didn’t do any damage untangling the mental suggestions they were under? I…” I sighed as I knew this was going to suck. “I need to go talk to my boss.”
Steph stopped me before I left. “How did you know?” I didn’t need it explained any further. “It’s how slow you were responding to me. Like your brain needed to check if what you were about to say fit into the exact plan he was going for. You’re a goddamn Robin, that makes you a quip master compared to other people... I'd also like to think you wouldn't just randomly push an ultimatum onto me like that.”
I portaled outside the entrance to SHIELD. I could have teleported inside Nick’s room but decided that might be enough to piss him off and go the normal way. I’m let in by his secretary and sit across from him. I wait a few seconds before I finally ask. “Any chance we can speed up the construction of the magical department? I need people I can rely on and I need to push the magical advancement like a million years forward and I don’t have the budget to do it myself.”