J. Daniel Atlas looked up from the phone screen, and immediately knew what he was in for. If a whole career acting as a modern-day Robin Hood had taught him anything, it was how to spot Trouble. And Trouble was certainly here, walking towards him wearing all black and carrying a pistol, trained straight at his forehead.
"You should know how this works by now," said the aggressor in a gruff voice, "You do any of that magic rubbish, and this bullet goes straight through your skull."
Daniel bit back the perfect retort he had planned as he spotted four more people approaching him with similar weapons. He went to tuck his cell phone safely away in the inside of his jacket, but one of the kidnappers proclaimed "I'll take that, thanks!" and wrestled it out of Daniel's grip. Against his will but already devising a plan, he lifted his hands above his head and let himself be guided at gunpoint to an unmarked white van (well, at lease Daniel thought it was white, it was hard to tell with the hasty black layer of paint covering the whole thing) and steered into the back, where he was handcuffed to the floor. He took in his surroundings. Darkness, a bit of darkness over there, some more darkness just to make sure, and darkness concealing the captors faces. It was only when this thought crossed his mind that he realized that one of them was speaking.
"- otherwise the Boss won't like it." He could sense the capital letter in the word.
Arguments broke out, but Daniel spoke over them.
"Who is this 'Boss' character that you mentioned?"
The captor that told him not to do any magic stopped talking, along with all the others, though it was he who answered.
"Well then," he answered, and Daniel could imagine the smirk on his face, even if he couldn't see it. "You know how to listen and butt your head in. Just like your little friend here."
Daniel heard a dull thud and a less dull "Ow!" coming from the darkness. But that exclamation had sounded oddly familiar – no… surely…?
"Jack?"
"Hey man," Yep, it was definitely him. A little shaken, but still the same Hey man that he knew all too well from their heists together.
Daniel was now utterly confused, though he tried to hide it. "Okay, I want answers."
Laughter broke out between the captors. "Good luck with that!" One of them even added a little extra cackle that made it sound like he would be more at home in a mental asylum, but that wasn't what worried him.
What worried him was the deep voice announcing "Do it. Now,".
What worried him was the laughter ceasing to exist effective immediately.
What worried him was the captor that now stood over him, in plain sight, pulling some deadly-looking brass knuckles over his hands.
"Say goodnight…" came the voice.
One punch… two, and all the stars that Daniel had seen warped, danced, but then quickly spiraled into black to match the rest of his surroundings, and his body fell to the floor.