Training an Incompetent

The cold water startled Barb drom her sleep. SHe was confused, and for a moment, she wondered where she was at. She was getting used to that sensation,t hough, and she let her mind begin to wake up before she thought to hard. She began to move from teh cold water but cried out when every muscle in her body protested, and a few of the wonds in her back split open. She whimpered and crawled slwoly from teh frigind water that rained down on her.
Slowly, she began to understand that she was in a shower, that she was stills tripped naked, and that it would be very difficult to move wuickly for quite some time. Blinking, she pushed her wet hair over her shoulder, and she whimpered again. She grimaced as she pulled herself onto her knees, then slowly to her feet. The rooom was bright and she reached forward to shut the shower off. She hesitated for a moment when she began to register other things. Like the fact that the serum had compeltely worn off, and the fact that she had more energy than she had felt in days.
Just outside the shower a droid sat, and she had the eerie feeling that it was staring at her. SHuddering, she turned the water off and, with her body still dripping, she stepped from the shower. She was suprised that, evenwithout the serum, she felt an emptiness at teh absense of the mans he had recently accepted as her Master. She was even more suprised that she stillt hought of him as her Master without the drug to sway her.
Stepping toward the droid she grimaced again. Each and every time she moved, she felt tears well in her eyes. The pain was horrible. Not only did her back scream every time her flesh tightened, but each and every one of her muscles ached dully. She hoped her Master would not want her to train before the wounds healed up some . . . the pain would be excruciating.
The android stood before her, silent and emotionless. It's gleaming white eyes the only animate feature of the gray and black machine. Within it's processes, data was considered, and action plans were devised. Targeting arrays locked onto her, and powerful scanners determined her combat effectiveness. thirty different methods were determined that would lead to a probably kill, and defenses against any conceivable form of attack were vectored.
After the briefest of pauses, during which the machine calibrated this, it extended a manipulator, holding out a thick white towel for her. Composed of the finest white cotton, it was freshly warmed, and in ready condition for her. After waiting for her to take it, the mechanoid turned without comment, and stepped lightly out of the room, pausing only a moment to indicate the classical Asian style writing desk that sat near the bathroom, and upon which were arrayed a number of items for her use.
The first, and least interesting of these was a plain, simply marked first aid box. Still a gleaming white, and apparently never used. Next to it sat a a cup of lukewarm water, and a small orange. Her breakfast. The final two items were by far the most valuable. The first was an aerosol injection gun, loaded with a single green cartridge of her pheromone dose. The second was an envelope, upon which was written in a neat script 'read first'. It was signed with Slade's distinct signature.
Contained within the letter was the following.
'Slave,
You are to feed, and administer medical aid to yourself via the supplies I have placed at your disposal. When this is done, and not before, you may take your dosage for the day. After this is complete you will meet me outside of Interrogation room 5, dressed in a tattered form of your Batgirl garb, which your nanotech suit will supply if you request it. I have another test for you.
Slade'
Barbara set the paper down silently and looked at the food, then at the serum. It almost hurt, ina strange kind of way, to wait for teh serum. SHe knew she was becoming dependant on it, and it both angered her, and made her sad. Still, she pushed it aside some and set to peeling ehr orange.
It was a meager breakfast, but she had lived on less once or tiwce, and certainly hadn't had much to eat the last few days. By the time she had it peeled, she had realized just how hungry she was. In moments the fruit was gone, and teh water with it. Taking her time, she cleaned and bandaged every wound she could reach, and stood. Picking up the serum she pressed teh guna gainst her neck and released teh trigger.
She closed her eyes and relaxed as teh serum suddenly coursed through her body. She let a breath free and opened her eyes. Returning the gun to its place on teh sdesk she looked in a mirror and frowned. Her body was black and blue, and her hair hung still wet on her shoulders.
"PLease provide a tattered batgirl suit." SHe didnt really know how she was supposed to control the nanotech, but she wasn't suprised when it worked quickly. She felt soemthing in her break as she watched the costume covere her body.
This wasn't who she was anymore.
She pushed back tears and turned for teh door. Turning out the lights, she left the room silently, and madeher way to interrogation room 5 to await ehr Master.
When she arrived at the cellblock, he was waiting for her. Dark armor gleaming under the cool fluorescent lighting. His single exposed eye watching her impassively. He evaluated her movements with the cold analysis of a born tactician. That he had imposed all of this pain upon her was viewed, at best as irrelevant, and at worst as far from adequate to her level of betrayal. The wall against he leaned was a cool concrete, the same gunmetal gray as every inch of the complex. Across from him was the door, labeled simply as the room she sought, the locking mechanisms firmly in place, the door fully secure.
He didn't waste time on pleasantries.
"Are you physically capable of ensuring my will slave?"
His voice was a hash, cold rasp, lacking even the slightest trace of empathy. It was command to an underling only. He might have spoken the same to any of the androids he possessed.
Barbara looked down at the harsh words. For a moment she wondered if she could hold up to much more, but instead of showing weakness she lifted her head. Her eyes met his almost defiantly, and she nodded.
"Yes, Master."
She didn't need more than those two words, filled with strength, to answer his question. Her hands hung loosely at her sides adn she both mentally, and physically, prepared herself for whatever he might choose to make her face.
She felt strange in her former costume, as if she had betrayed the symbol of its dark but pure purpose. She knew that if he had wanted her to wear it he had a purpose she would not be happy to undertake.
"What is your will?"
"Excellent. You are to be given a great honor slave. I have a task for you."
He gestured to the door before them.
"Through this door waits the Teen Titan Beast boy, who I was successful in capturing last night, through some small means on my part. He has been drugged in such a way as to neutralize his shape shifting powers, and render him amenable to information extraction. He has been placed in here to await interrogation. You are to take from him every trace of information he has, and to utterly seduce him. I will have you under video surveillance the entire time. When you have taken everything from him, you will execute him in such a way that he knows without doubt that you betrayed him. Do you understand?"
Barbara looked up at Slade and ehr eyes widened. Turning ehr head to teh door for a moment,s he stood frozen and tense. Her eyes returned ot her Master within a moment, and she started to speak then stopped. SHe looked like she wanted to bolt, like she wanted to turn against her Master.
"But, Master . . . I . . . "
She felt her heart race and some part of her tell her that this was beyond wrong, that this was unacceptable . . that she couldn't do this.
"Please . . . " She fought not to anger Slade, she didnt' want to fail him, but she couldn't force herself to take the steps towards the door,a s few as they were, and set herself toward the task he had given her.
"He was my . . . friend."
"Yes, sometimes life does have it's little bonuses. You don't really think you have a choice, do you? If you refuse to do it, I'll simply slave your nanotech suit to one of my control systems, and then let you torture him to death against your will. Far less effective as a means for obtaining information, but I think I can contain my disappointment."
As if considering the option, Slade extracted a slim control from one of his belt pocket, and began to flick through listed options carefully.
"I imagine ripping his limbs off one at a time would be a good start. My sources indicate that he's resilient enough to survive such a procedure..."
His eye gazed into hers coolly.

"You know what you have to do."
Barbara felt herself choke on the idea of the nanotech taking over, or of being forced to ip Beastboy limb from limb. Finally her head dropped and she felt herself tremble. Turning she took a simgle step toward the door and stopped.
"Master . . . someday . . . Someday I will kill you. Someday when I'm stronger than you are . . "
Putting her hand against the door,s eh hesitate again,a nd this time she couldn't make herself move forward any more. She stared at the white door, the words spoken only a moment ago already forgotten as she saw beastboy's face in her mind. She shuddered.
"I hate you . . . "
She let teh door open silently, with no regard for the effect her words would have on her Master.
A cold chuckle was all that she would hear from she, as the door swung slowly closed behind her. Her punishment would come in it's proper time...right now she had a job to do.

***
Behind her, the locks clicked back into place, enclosing her back into the darkened world by which she had first become Slade's. The room was small (only a hair over 8' by 12') and painted in a dull gray that seemed to purge every possible vestige of hope or joy from the air. The air was hot, and muggy with a heat and humidity that was apparently artificially generated. The only sound was the dull rasp of breathing from pained ribs, coming from a chair that sat in the exact center of the room. Bound in chains to this was the green skinned form of Gar Logan, AKA Beastboy. Though too dark to be easily seen, it is readily apparent that he has been severely beaten. He starts to rouse out of his unconscious state upon hearing her footsteps, groaning weakly.
Barb felt her heart sink into her stomach as the door shut behind her. Her feet, though quiet, were deafening in teh silence, adn the sound of Gar's heavy breaths rocked her mind painfully. She didn't stop walking untils he stood in front of him. The pain she felt as she bent low to run her fingers over his chin was from far more than just the wounds that ravaged her body. SHe lifted his face a bit and felt her muscles tighten at teh urge to pull away.
"Beasty," her voice was soft, her breath mingled with his. She was tryng hard not to tremble, she was trying not to pull away. She knew she couldn't escape anyway, not until Slade unlocked the door and let her loose. "Wake up, Beasty,"
Her hair tumbled over her shoulders and she welcomed the mask that hugged her face and hid the pain she felt.
"I need your help . . . I need your help to get out of here." It was a ploy . . she hoped. Her hatred for her Master grew every moment and she tried not to think about the end of her mission. She tried not to think of killing him.
The shape shifter groaned weakly, bleary green eyes, now bruised almost shut stared at her weakly, blankly. After a few seconds he grinned weakly, exposing an uneven row of teeth, several of them missing, and dark green blood running from his jaw.

"Heya Batgirl.......I'm afraid I can't be much help to you on that front babe. Slade's got me toxed up on some kinda weird shit that has my shape shifting kaput...or else I'd look a hell of a lot better now. Got me feeling strange too...like I can't think for myself. Weird shit."
He chuckled weakly at the unfunny joke, and pulled weakly against the plastic binders that held him to the chair. They didn't budge even slightly.
"Dick's pretty worried bout you babe. Sent me and Cyborg out to find you......I hope Vic made it back, I sure as hell didn't. Last I saw him..."
The voice faded out, sadness crossing his features.
"Slade shot him with some kinda megavirus. Made his cybernetic components attack him...."
Barbara felt herself tense even further, and she turned her eyes away for a moment.
"Beasty, I'll do my best to help you but . . . I need to know whatever you can tell me about what's been going on lately . . . and how I could get ahold of Dick and the others through . . unusual means . . . . " SHe looked at him again snd stood strait, moving behind him to remove teh bindings that held him to his chair.
"I have to come up with a plan . . . and I need any information that you can give me." She tried not to think about Cyborg and the others, what would happen when Slade had all of his information.

She reached up and wiped some of the blood from Gar's chin as she knelt in front of him, "I'll do everything I can to get us out of here in one piece . . . "
She felt tears well in her eyes at the lie and she forced them back, but the lump stayed in her throat and she knew she wouldn't be able to force it back.
"I have to keep up my guise though . . . I can't let Slade know that I'm trying to get away or . . . . " She hesitated.
"Or he'll kill us both."
"Okay Barb..."
He began to stretch slightly, wincing in pain as circulation as blood began to flow back into his tired muscles. Though he seemed to be doing better, he still seemed in a great deal of pain. It was a fair bet that the serum they'd injected him with wasn't helping matters either. He started to his feet, and then stumbled, obviously still dazed. Looking more green than usual, he sat back in his chair, groaning as he rubbed his temples.
"Ugh.....I don't feel so hot Batgirl. Whatever Slade dosed me with is making me feel......weird. Its like I'm not in control of myself. I feel like I've got something....."
He groaned again, leaning forward as pain wracked him, putting his head between his legs as he struggled to breath. To speak. To do anything. It wasn't working. Something in what Slade had given him, was unlocking his mind. Taking away his control. Making him..he didn't even understand it.
Within his mind he heard a voice roar.
In a sudden moment of pain, he began to spasm, falling from the chair, and crashing onto the hardened steel floor. Writhing in agony as he began to change. His eyes started to turn white, as a low growl emerged from his throat. Bestial fury beginning to overcome his human nature
Barb tried to support Gar as he leaned forward, but she felt uneasy. Between being locked in teh room, and knowing what she was supposed to do- she couldn't quite get her feet in the situation. She reached forward as he sat back and burried his head between his knees. Laying her hand on his shoulder she tried to speak softly, tom comfort him.
"Gar . . . Beasty? It's okay, just stay calm and I'll help you clear your head. Hold on to my voi-"
She stopped mid-word and Gar fell from the chair and when she saw his eyes turn white she jumped to her feet. She started backing up and pressed her back agianst the only door.
"Oh god . . . Slade- Master, please let me out! I'm not going to be able to control him if-" She pleaded with the man she knew was watching, but she never took her eyes off of the shiftying form of her friend.
"Oh god . . . Gar- Gar please," She knew that pleading with her friend was useless, Slade would have been sure of that- and she was sure this was his doing. She felt fear rise in her chest. SHe might be abkle to push him back, keep him at bay . . . but would she be able to do what she needed to to keep him from hurting her ?
He began to move slowly, rising to his feet with a feral ease, quite apart from the earlier pain he had experienced. His form bulged, his clothing tearing, and ripping as his body increased in master, a long, leonine mane, of the same dark green as his skin. Fur spread across his body like wildfire, and his teeth lengthened into a wolfish sneer. His nails also extended, becoming precise, and lethal talons. When it was over, he stood almost 10 ft tall, bulging with muscle, and feral mien. He moved slowly towards her, drool slathering hungrily from his jaw, a long and powerful tongue flicking over the fangs. A low growl dominating an predatory rose from his throat.
"Grrrrr."
***
In his private control room, deep within the labyrinthine corridors of his home base, Slade watched coolly the efforts of the were beast, well pleased by the success of his serum. He had unleashed Beast Boy's bestial nature fully, and now he was his to control. His slave would make an excellent test subject for it.

Barb pressed her back ahrder against the door and her voice rose in pitch and volume, "Gar please! I- I know you're in there . . . " Even as futile as she knew her situation was, she couldnt stop herself from pleading with the beast that slowly stalked towards her. SHe moved against teh wall, trying to sidle to the side and manage to get around him.
"I don't want to hurt you . . . " Her voice dropped in volume almost to a whisper, but her heart still thumped n a panicked kind of way, her blood raced and her mind followed closely.
"Please Master, let me out!" She cried out again, but she knew deep within her bones that Slade had meant for this to happen. She moved quickly and jumped to the side then forward, throwing herself as far past Beastboy as she could in a single movement. She silently cursed herself for being unable to keep her composure. Once, she had been able to keep a grasp on any situation. Now, she found herself panicked more often, terrified. She had to get a hold on her mind agian.
But first, she had to out manuever Beastboy
If the creature paid her words any mind, it was not evident from his manner. When she tried to dash past him however, his speed proved to be far greater than hers. His taloned paw moving with impossible speed to bat her back towards the corner from whence she came, his movements almost playful. He growled again at her, and inhaled, sniffing her with evident approval. As it backed her into the corner, it continued to loom over her, though the rage in it's eyes was now replaced with something distinctly more..predatory. Between it's legs, the large mass of it's bestial cock began to jerk softly, primal emotions coming forth as it prepared to take it's mate. It leaned close to her, it's long tongue running slowly up her cheek. Tasting the sweat and tears on her face, and grunting with satisfaction. She would do.