Author's Note: ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. If I did Robin would be my own apprentice.

Chapter 4: The training room- part 2

Robin panted drenched in sweat. It has been three hours. Three straight painful hours of lifting weights, running laps, and receiving his punishment, which consists of two hundred push-ups, fifty jumping jacks, and seventy crunches. He was now on number eight of those crunches.

"Faster", scolded Slade.

And that's exactly what Robin did, as he went faster collapsing on the floor. This was too much. Never in his whole entire life had he been punished this way. Even when he was with Batman he was merely sent to his room.

Robin layed on his back, his chest quickly moving up and down, lungs burning fighting for air. He tried to move his legs, but they were sore and immensely stiff. He scrunched his eyes as he stared at the fluorescent lighting. His head was pounding and he could already tell that a forever lasting headache was coming very soon.

"Pathetic", Slade commented towering over Robin once again.

Robin snorted. "If I'm so pathetic, why do you still want me as your apprentice? If I'm really that useless, there's no need to keep me imprisoned here."

Slade chuckled. "If I thought you were useless, I would have killed you by now."

"Then why don't you?"

"Enough apprentice", Slade warned. "You should have learned your place by now."

Robin muttered darkly under his breath, and went back to doing his crunches. His whole body screamed for him to stop as he began. Everything hurt. All his muscles were sore and tight, especially in his back. Robin hissed as a sharp pain shot through him.

"It hurts doesn't it", said Slade?

Unable to say anything, due to his agonizing pain Robin nodded.

"Good."

Robin rolled his eyes at the remark.

"You're going to have to learn how to cope with pain", continued Slade. "How to push yourself way over your limits, how to hide your pain, and ways to ease the pain physically and emotionally."

"I already know now to do that", replied Robin on crunch number thirty-four. "I was trained by the best after all."

Slade snorted. "I promise you Robin, the Bat is no where near the best. I'll admit he is skilled, but even he too needs training. Yes, in your eyes he is powerful and strong, and you haven't been able to beat him in hand to hand combat, but that's because Batman is weak and has also held you back."

"No he hasn't", Robin defended. Bruce has always trained him to be the best he could be. "He has taught me everything he knows."

"No he didn't."

"Yes he has."

"Oh really", challenged Slade? "Then stand up."

Robin smirked. He was willing to humor the man. Robin pushed himself up with his hands, and suddenly felt something hard on his chest forcing him back down.

"Didn't I tell you to stand up", reiterated Slade?

Giving the mercenary a glare, Robin cautiously lifted himself up just in case that sudden force came back.

He was almost standing when this time he saw Slade rush at him. Without any time to move or think, Slade raised up the palm of his hand and slammed it on Robin's chest. He felt the wind being knocked out of him, and stumbled back to the floor. At first he couldn't breathe for a few moments, but a new rush of air filled his lungs a couple seconds later. He immediately went into a coughing fit.

Slade carefully watched his apprentice. The boy had so much to learn. Even the basics. Almost everyone knows how to do the 'beginners stunner.' It was one of the first defense moves that was invented throughout history! He sighed inwardly. The Bat must really not have trusted him if he didn't teach the boy the simple yet effective move.

"What... was... that", Robin asked in between gasps?

"That was the 'beginners stunner', also known as a temporary lung paralyzer", explained Slade. "All fighters in the hero, and in your so called 'bad guy world' either knows how to perform it or has prior knowledge about it. As you have experienced it had stopped your lungs from functioning for a few moments. It's not enough to kill a person, but it will slow them down as a newly supply of air flows into their body. The trick to this is your speed and how much force you apply to their chest by the palm of your hand. This is a move I shouldn't have needed to teach you, but since Batman has failed to do that himself, I'll just add that on my to do list."

Robin looked away from him. He had heard about the 'beginners stunner', but only short stories, and those stories weren't from Batman. Maybe Slade was right and-

- hold on! Robin mentally chided himself. What was he doing comparing Slade to Batman? Slade didn't deserve to be compared by his mentor.

"You have a lot to learn", replied Slade. "It could take some time. Maybe a few months, years even, but you'll get the hang of it."

Months? Years? There is no way Robin was going to stay that long.

"Sorry to burst your bubble", started Robin. "But I'm not staying here. I will escape, and if I don't then my friends will come for me. They always do."

Slade shook his head. "I doubt that. We are in a very remote location and they won't be able to track us. To them it will be extremely hard to find, but who knows? Right now at this very minute we could be directly in-front of them and they won't even notice."

"I have faith in my team", Robin said slowly getting up silently pleading for his 'master' not to knock him down again. "I trust them with my life."

"Hmph." 'We'll see about that', thought Slade. He walked up to his apprentice and noticed how the boy tensed up as he approached. The mercenary chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm not going to hit you."

Robin silently cursed realizing his mistake. He tried to relax his muscles, but only seceded a little bit.

"You did alright for this being our first warm up together", said Slade. "It will get tougher everyday, but I believe you can handle it."

'Warm up? More like the basic training they have in the military', Robin thought bitterly.

"Go clean up", ordered Slade. "Lunch will be ready shortly. After that I will show you where your robotics, language, and regular school classes are. Once that is over we will have a sparing session. Understood?"

"Yes Slade."

"Good. You are dismissed."

Relieved, Robin sprinted past Slade and went for the door that led to the door-less hallway."

"And Robin", Slade said catching the boy's attention.

"Yes?"

"Don't you think even for a second that I haven't noticed you evading my title. I won't punish you this time for it since you still have to finish your current punishment, but I expect you to call me master when you address me. Is that clear?"

'Umm. . . NO!'

Robin wanted to scream just that at the moment. Yes, he had kind-of evaded calling Slade master, but for a lot of good, reasonable reasons. The first reason was the most sensible of all. He didn't want to. Second, it's because it's a sign of submission. Third, this is Slade we're talking about. The evil mastermind only wanted to see Robin, the boy wonder, succumb to him.

"Yes." Robin inwardly groaned. He so did not want to do this. "Master."

"Good boy", Slade purred. "Now go."

Robin turned around and walked out of the room into the hall. The wall behind him slid close, and he went to his room getting lost only once.

Author's Note: Yeah, I know this is a short chapter, but it's a necessary one. The next one will hopefully be a bit longer, but I can't guarantee anything.

But enough of the bad news, and onto the good. The plot of this story will soon start to reveal, and the action will be awesome! Please leave a review so that updates will be posted faster.

Please review a.s.a.p!

~Debra101