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The zipties are tight, the stolen Fedex truck tosses around the two youngest residents of the Wayne Manor with the soundproof foam taped around the walls of the back of the vehicle. Duke wasn’t going to lie, as his first kidnapping, this was in the top ten scariest things that ever happened in Duke Thomas’ life- not the masked and armored signal.
“Damian,” He whispered, “What are we going to do?”
The younger boy quirks an eyebrow, “Tt. We wait obviously.”
“But they have guns,” Duke whispered back to him, “What if they decide to shoot us or something?”
“We’ve been shot at before, Thomas,” Damian sighed in exasperation. Wait a minute, is he annoyed with Duke of all people? God… This family is messed up.
“In armor and masks,” Duke hissed, “Not when we are tied up and-”
“Thomas, I am the most dangerous person in this van. Now shut up and fake scared for an hour or so as we wait for father and the others to locate us and save the day. Am I clear?”
Some of us don’t have to fake being scared, Damian.
When they come to a stop, Duke can’t help but to fall over abit. He hates keeping on these dumb zipties when Bruce extensively taught him how to get out of them so he shuffle back up right, watching as Damian’s face goes from genuine annoyance to fake fear. But not crying , of course. The three men are of all different builds, one being short yet built as if he only ever considers arm day at the gym, one is tall and lanky with a sleeve of skull tattoos that he clearly regrets, the fat and chunky redhead would be somewhat of a match if Damian and Duke weren’t as fast as they were.
But they also all have guns along with a bloodied baseball bat that Duke doesn’t even want to consider. Logically, Duke realizes that they are the Signal and Robin… These guys are nothing compared to what the child vigilantes usually deal with. But right now, all Duke can focus on is that he is barely fifteen in charge of some little kid and these guys took them straight from the sidewalk. It’s scary. He’s not in his element. He wants his parents. He wants to go home. He wants Bruce to come sweeping in. He wants Alfred to make him that calming tea that he originally despised.
“Are you going to be good boys?” The fat one asked them. Duke found himself nodding, unable to speak. This wasn’t normal… No one should experience this.
“Good, or else my friend here would have to force his hand,” The fat one nodded to where the skinny man played with the bat. A grin that told Duke he really hoped they misbehaved. Damian was dragged out first then Duke. Their treatment was rough enough to leave bruises and Duke felt something swell up in him when Damians short legs couldn’t keep up with the tall man’s fast strides. Of course he knew that Damian could handle himself but that didn’t mean he liked it. After all, Duke Thomas hates bullies.
The little home wasn’t amongst the overtly populated area, it was sorta out of the way but the lack of neigbors surrounding the property made there quick relocation unknown. Unlike most kidnappings, the men just shoved them on the couch allowing them to take a look at their surrounding. Bruce’s training kicked in looking for possible exits and clues to where they were.
It was the arm guy’s house.
He worked for Fed Ex.
He for sure had kids.
Another glance at the men told them all they needed to know, they were just three Fed Ex workers trying to get by. Atleast the one was, Duke isn’t sure about the other two. One looks at them like their covered in cash and the other keeps twitching towards his bat.
“Do you guys want something to drink?” Arms guy asked, “I have juice boxes.”
“Jesus Jenkins,” The fat one groaned, “This is a hostage situation, not babysitting.”
“Stop waving that fucking thing,” Jenkins (Arms) snapped, “They’re not outside anymore. No need to scare them shitless. They’re just kids.”
“They ain’t just fucking kids,” Skinny one disagreed, “They’re your fucking meal ticket, your little girl’s hospital bills, and the key to gettin’ back custody from baby bitch number one.”
Oh… Duke and Damian shared a look, but stopped as soon as the fat one noticed. Duke felt himself hauled up by the guy, not expecting his strength. The teenager fights back any trained reflexes in order to maintain his civvies, “What the fuck, you thinkin’, huh?”
“Nothing,” Duke swore, in a high pitched voice that he was nearly ashamed of, “We’re just- my little brother has low blood sugar- really bad. He needs to eat something soon or he’ll get sick.”
It was clear that Jenkins wasn’t going to cause them any harm, but the other two weren’t looking very promising. Duke needed to make sure they stayed on the man’s good side until Bruce came in.
They all shared a look at Damian, who is a very convincing little actor, “I really don’t feel good.”
“Get ‘im the fuckin’ juice before the brat starts cryin’,” The fat one shoved Duke back on the couch with a gun trained on his head, “Any smart ideas and you’re gone. Both of you.”
As the man left to get Damian his juice, the other two started up on some video equipment that Duke assumed to be used for the Ransom. If Duke didn’t have the training of Batman, then he’d be freaking out instead of straining his hearing to listen to the two dangerous kidnappers.
“I told you that he was going to fuck-”
“We needed him. His house is the only one where it can't be traced back too. The towers-”
“The police being unable to track the towers don’t mean shit if he squeals on us.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we send in the ransom, get the money, and ditch the bodies. Three bodies. He’s never going to go for it and you know it.”
“Shame that he turned into such a pussy,” the conversation ended when Jenkins walked back in with some chocolate bars.
“My daughter is a bit older than you,” Jenkins said dropping down to Damian with scissors in his hand. He’s ready to break the zipties when he is thrown back by his ‘friend’.
“What the hell are you doing?” the man screamed at the other. Both Damian and Duke tense up, ready to stop whatever is about to happen. The shared look between Damian and Duke tell eachother that they both are prepared to stop whatever is about to happen.
“He needs to eat,” The man argued. Instead the skinny one takes the open candy bar and turns to Damian. He roughly grabs the youngers face who jerks back only to have the dessert shoved into his mouth, “He’s a kid.”
“He’s 30 million dollars that we don’ need runnin’ away,” Skinny said as he shoved the bar farther into Damian’s face. Chocolate is smearing at the sides of his mouth and Duke can quickly see the younger growing irritable with the treatment. Duke really hopes those trackers in their uniforms kick in soon- Bruce had to have noticed that something was wrong when they went away from Gotham.
“People have tried before,” Damian spat back out, “People much smarter than you three idiots. Can you even count to thirty?”
The backhand to the face caused his lip to bleed and redness to form all over. Duke jumped at the sharp sound of the hit. Jenkins jumping to the scene faster than any of them, faux tears fall down Damian’s face. Despite knowing that the kid was an assassin that scared the shit out of him sometimes, Duke still didn’t like seeing any child hurt by somebody way bigger than them. And he really didn’t like seeing that gun trained on him, “Mind you we only need one of you.”
Jenkins pulled his own firearm out faster than Duke subtly undid the zip ties. The fatone trained his gun on Jenkins’ head. Still Jenkin’s didn’t seem to care about anything else.
“Come on, Frank,” Jenkins said, still eyeing the other man in the room from the side, “Killing wasn’t part of the plan. We’re too old for this shit.”
Duke could see Damian undoing his own ties from behind his back. Playtime was over, screw keeping their identities safe right now. If Bruce wanted to yell at them, that was fine but Duke wasn’t going to actively watch whatever blood bath was seconds away from taking place.
“What did you think we were going to do to them, dipshit?” Fatty sneered, “Jenkins, don’t make me pull this damn trigger.”
“Frank,” Jenkin’s ignored the one speaking, “Step away from the kid.”
Duke knew that once Damian was free then he could unarm the scrawny one- Frank- and Duke could take down the fat one with the gun pointed at Jenkins head. It was just a waiting game until Damian could slip them off.
“You’re a real fuckin’ waste,” Frank snapped at Jenkins. Damian was free and Duke saw it happening without having much time to process. Thanks for the heads up Demon Brat, Duke thought at he floored it into the big one. He heard he sick crunch of a bone from behind that would be Damian breaking a wrist. Duke had Fatty under his arm but the gun was still trained on him enough for him to be worried. The man had more strength than Duke would orginally guess. He was a fan of taking down the bad guy not barreling straight into them. Duke managed to plant the gun down using both arms while his forearm flattened against the man’s fat neck.
1.2.3.4.5.6.7
And out, the man gave into the unconscious. Duke grabbed the gun from the side and looked over to see Damian unloading Frank’s gun as well. The little brat no longer looked quite as helpless or young as he did seconds ago and Duke never felt happier about that.
Siren began to screech from outside, meaning that Bruce finally put it altogether in time. Jenkins stared at them both with shock as they threw aside the completely unloaded weapons. He didn’t make a move to stop either of them.
“What - How did you guys-” He stared at the two in bewilderment.
“We didn’t. You did,” Duke said as he brushed himself off some more, staring at the younger foster brother.
“You let us go but when the other two realized, they went to kill us off. You stopped them and fought them off,” Damian explained as if it were all so simple. The guy still looked at them like they were crazy. This is the part where Duke realized, as much as he likes to dub himself as the normal one… he’s just as deranged and crazy as the others now.
“I stepped into help you while Damian ran off to find a phone,” Duke ended, “Obviously two rich kids couldn’t do all this on their own.”
The sirens were approaching faster.
“You’ll most likely be charged with kidnapping and endangering the lives of children,” Damian reasoned as he went towards the door, “But father will see things our way… The courts will be lenient with you since you saved us and all.”
“And Wayne Enterprises will be sure to make sure your daughter and other child are cared for with the best medical expertise around,” Duke grabbed the shoulder of the guy, “Thanks for not letting that guy blow off my little brother’s head, Jenkins.”
“Tt. As if he could,” Damian rolled his eyes but readied himself to play the needy and scared kidnapped child as they heard the heavy telltale signs of police.
Kidnappings. Huh.