There is always something to learn, there won't ever be a moment in life where someone becomes omnipotent. While someone may be a professional or expert, there is always room for error or misjudgment. Such is the case with business parties. Business parties were usually boring as people usually talked to Dick about school or Bruce. Japan's business party's were a little more lively, especially the later it got. He wasn't sure if it really was a "business party" at this point anymore. Some of the people here talked to him about places he's been or the languages he knows. It was refreshing to talk about those instead of how well he does in math. Some people here know English or even a third language because it benefits their field. Though a lot just had the basic knowledge of English they learned in school. There're quite a few guys here who are wasted and Dick enjoyed listening to them try and make some comprehensible sentences in English.
Learning new languages was probably one of Dick's favorite hobbies outside acrobats, it was like the times in the circus when he was surrounded by people who used to tell him random words or phrases in their native tongue. The party was fun because people were trying to practice their English with him, and Dick was trying to practice Japanese with them - this resulted in losing the topic many times. Dick noticed they did this to him a lot more than to Bruce, since Bruce was actually fluent in Japanese, but that didn't stop all of them. Dick figured some of them were being modest and wanted Dick to feel better that he messes up their language with the fact that they are bad at his.
Or they really like foreigners and their languages.
He didn't know.
Just two hours after dinner Dick was getting physically and mentally exhausted by this back and forth. Bruce must've noticed how lethargic Dick was starting to look. He leaned down to the ten year old and in English whispered, "Hey kiddo, why don't I call Alfred and he'll bring you back to the condo?"
Not wanting to look like the child that he is, Dick stumbled a little before fixing his demeanor and tried to say in Japanese, "I'm fine, thanks."
Bruce wasn't buying it, Dick may be able to have simple conversations in several languages, but the kid wasn't thinking straight when he mixes up 'thanks' and 'please'. Dick noticed his mistake and tried to correct it in vain before Bruce interjects, "I'll have him pick you up in 15 minutes."
There's no arguing with Bruce when he makes a decision. Dick was slightly grateful to finally be leaving soon, but he wished he was leaving with Bruce. Dick slumped his shoulders and replied, "I'll go wait down in the lobby then."
Bruce nodded once and watched Dick make his way to the elevator in the hallway just outside the room. If he can't stay late, he can wait downstairs by himself. It didn't take long for the elevator to make it to their floor. When Dick stepped in, there were only a few other people in there. He glanced at the buttons and saw that the first floor was already pushed and stood waiting for the door to close. He looked to Bruce in the seconds before the door closed and the elevator made it's descent. The elevator was one of those fancy ones with windows on three sides so he looked out at the brightly lit Tokyo. It reminded him of Vegas when Bruce and him went there earlier that year. The biggest difference was Tokyo was the largest city in the world. In one direction, he could see the pacific go all the way to the horizon, to every one of his other directions, all he saw were city lights.
He began to imagine that he was now in a world where the entire Earth's surface was covered in cities and water. There were forests still - but they were highly protected national parks in domes and they were always targets of terrorists because they were also the main source of fresh oxygen for cities. There was a guard who just so happened to have the night shift, when suddenly a piece of the dome's ceiling fell right next to the guard - that was a close one! The guard looked up and saw some bad guys throw flares into the dome. A fire quickly starts, but then, suddenly a shadowy figure emerges and somehow stops the fire saving the forest. He faces off against the five bad guys, one of them charges at the hero with a machete, but the hero side steps and grabs the thug's arm which causes him to drop the oversized knife. The hero knees the bad guy's gut-
Dick stopped. The elevator had reached the first floor and he exited with the other occupants. He probably wouldn't want to live in a world like that anyways. He said a quick 'goodnight' to the desk lady before heading for the main door. Another thing like Vegas was Tokyo never went to bed. There were still plenty of people outside and a bunch of stores open, most of them were bars and restaurants. He stayed inside looking at the illuminated characters of store names outside. This side of Tokyo was actually foreigner-friendly with a lot of English text and translations. He saw some older girls walking by who must've thought he looked cute, being a kid in a business suit, judging by their expressions. He humored them by striking a pose he's seen Bruce do for magazines a bunch of times.
He was successful as they continued on their way. He then noticed a car parked about thirty feet from the building in a parking lot that was… shifting weirdly. Only someone with a good eye would've noticed it. He couldn't see anyone in the front or back seat through the windshield which is what confused him. It looked like some invisible person was hitting it. Dick stepped out of the building and looked around the street to see if anyone was watching the car.
When he saw that the coast was clear he went up to the car, it was a small car, a muscle car - which was out of place being an American car, maybe that's why no one batted an eye to the foreign boy going up to a foreign car. Closer inspection confirmed no one was in the front or back seats. But… he went toward the trunk where he could now hear a repeated banging - very hard to notice with all the city noise in the background. He took another look around before going to the trunk to check out the lock. Luckily it was an older model so it had a simple key lock like a regular car door which would make it easier to-
Dick noticed right away when he had people simultaneously on both sides of him, but couldn't account for his back since he didn't have a hidden eye on the back of his head like Bruce and Alfred did. Before he could react, a hand covered his mouth and an arm wrapped around his torso and lifted him off the ground. Dick immediately tried to kick upward above his head to hit the man behind him, but the guy shoved him into the side of the car as they brought him to the driver's side and shoved him into the back seat. The car was quickly filled up with three other thugs and Dick found himself alone in between two men in the back and two in the front.
"Go! Go!" The man in the passenger side yelled at the driver after slamming his door closed. From the tone of his voice, Dick was not part of the equation. Dick continued to struggle in the thug's arms until the man in the other seat pulled out a handgun and pointed it at him. The two men on either side of Dick yelled at one another as they took off his shoes, suit jacket, socks, and tie. The guy holding Dick had a goatee and pulled out thin rope from one of the poaches of the front seats and tied Dick's arms together behind his back. Dick also learned what he assumed were swear words from the guy in the passenger seat. He also took a second to see these guys were all wearing matching black suits with red ties. A gang maybe?
"Why did we grab him? Why not just scare him away?" The one with the gun asked. He was chubby for Japan standards.
"Shut up and check his pockets," The guy in the passenger seat ordered. The two guys next to Dick rummaged through his pockets and pulled out his wallet, spare key, cell phone, and passport.
The guy who took his passport passed it to the guy in the passenger seat, who Dick identified to be the leader, "He's a foreigner."
The leader gave the lackey a look Dick sees often, the sarcastic, 'No. Really?' look that he swears every crime boss has. The leader pulled out his phone, it was a flip phone - those still exist? - and began typing something on it. Throughout the whole time, Dick hadn't said a word, he should've, but he didn't. The goatee guy finally let go of him since it wasn't like Dick could run away or something in a car with two doors located only in the front. The chubby guy kept the handgun out as he lit a cigar. He didn't know who these guys were and what they did, and Dick could only figure that out and stop them alive. He resorted to looking at people outside hoping they would notice the out of place boy with a distressed expression. The chubby guy broke the silence to talk to Dick, "What were you doing snooping around our car, brat?"
Dick didn't reply and only gave him a slight glare. The chubby guy glared back, surprising him with his next question, "What? Do I have to spell it out in English?"
"Leave him alone, we're not looking for information." The goatee guy said instead, "He must've recognize something weird and went to investigate like the idiot kid he is."
"I had to leave my drink half finished because of him!"
The leader replied this time with a deep growl, "You're drink is not worth more than our operations, I'll buy you a new one if you two shut up."
"Who would believed him? 'Crime doesn't happen in Japan'," The chubby guy chuckled with the quote taking a quick puff from his cigar, "Do people actually believe that?"
"They don't, but that doesn't matter, without much competition we can easily be picked out and if we're not careful, we'll end up on the top of Japan's most wanted," The leader said continuing to fiddle with his phone.
"Bribe some officials then."
"I've been trying to avoid doing that since Taka."
"You're as cautious as Taka, you know that?"
"Yeah? Well. We certainly got the last laugh on him."
Taka. Dick isn't sure but he thinks he may have just met a Taka just a few hours ago. So he's taken bribes before? He'll have to talk to Bruce about that once he gets out of this mess.
Eventually they pulled to a stop at a harbor that was deprived of anybody. Right away the two in front got out followed by the two in back, one dragged Dick out by his collar and threw him against a wall. The leader ordered the others to proceed as scheduled before turning to Dick with a gun of his own, "Look. Brat. I know you can understand me."
Dick didn't acknowledge his true remark hoping to try and play the 'innocent clueless foreigner that gets away with things because he doesn't understand their language' card. This guy seemed like he's seen it before however. The crime boss just spun the gun around in his hand as he continued, "I'll keep it simple. I'd like to ransom you off, but I don't slam the chips down every turn I make. Which is why you're now stuck with us."
Dick decided to finally speak up since being quiet hasn't benefit him at all so far. He figured he could try and get some info, "But you'll cause an uproar anyways. Bruce would get the entire media to know I'm missing."
"That's why I'm going to make you disappear. Do you know what's the most important thing in an investigation?"
Of course Dick does. He's the protège of the world's greatest detective after all, well… Robin is. The question is a simple one with a simple answer, but would a normal ten year old know that answer? While Dick was wondering that question of hiding his secret life of crime fighting, the leader answered for him, "A body."
There are thousand of unsolved cases out there that could easily be answered if only the police had the body. They would be able to know how they died and be able to make a more accurate idea of what happened on that poor person's last day. Then all they had to do was figure out who would, could, and or didn't kill the victim with any DNA or other evidence that would most likely be found on the body. It was possible to find someone guilty of murder without a body, but it would be difficult when you have to prove the victim was for sure dead. Dick thought about all those crime documentaries Bruce and him watched every week. Thinking back to all the cold cases he looked through where the body was lost forever, Dick was admittedly a bit nervous.
The other guys had opened the trunk and dragged out three women who were also tied and dragged them onto a ship docked not too far. Dick should've put two and two together earlier and told Bruce before getting into trouble. Batman didn't take him on trafficking ring busts, but he knew what they were, and now he was face to face with someone who specializes in the act of kidnapping someone and making them disappear with little to no traces to slavery. The driver got back into the car and drove off leaving Dick with the leader. Leader Guy continued his rigmarole, "I looked you up - even if I had to rely on translation tools, I got enough information. Anyways, now you know too much and you're probably worth more to me alive than dead."
Leader Guy leaned down closer to Dick's face to intimidate him. Dick kept a calm glare plaster on his as Leader Guy finished, "Don't worry, you'll find where you're going to be familiar."
Goatee Guy came back and muttered something to Leader Guy who in turn just made an acknowledged noise before saying, "Ok. Yeah, his guardian will probably report him missing the minute he doesn't know exactly where he is. Just grab the kid and we'll go."
Dick attempted to crawl what few feet he could while the two were busy, more so to turn on the tracker on his undershirt than to get away. After the two gang members finished their talk, Goatee Guy starting walking toward Dick. When Goatee Guy got close, Dick shot his foot at the side of the thug's kneecap making him fall onto his other knee. Without shoes though, most of the damage is almost null and void, but it still hurt he bet. He's practiced a thousand times on dummies, both living and fake. The thug cursed at him and grabbed Dick by the ankle and dragged him closer before wrapping his other arm around Dick's torso. Dick struggled some more while the guy stood up and held him in the air.
"Help! Help! Somebody!" Dick yelled swapping between two languages to hopefully make someone curious about the noise or stall for time till Batman arrived. The thug slammed him against the concrete storage building head first. While Dick was dazed from the impact and blood dripped down his cheek, the guy gagged him with his own tie.
"You want to help?" Goatee Guy growled to Leader Guy who's been standing aside watching the struggle.
"Getting your butt kicked by a kid?" Leader Guy mocked. Goatee Guy wrapped his arms under and around Dick's shoulders and lifted him off the ground again. All Dick could do at that point was kick at Goatee Guy behind him with muffled yelling. Leader Guy finally came over and smacked the butt of his handgun into the side of his temple where he was already bleeding. It didn't completely knock the young boy out because the guy was holding back trying not to kill him on accident.
Unfortunately for Dick, his earlier move was in short vain as the goatee guy stripped him down to his underwear and threw a thin, coarse blanket over him. Dick was actually slightly impressed how these guys seem to think of everything when the guy put his clothes in a bag, tied the end shut with a big rock attached and threw it into the ocean. Next time the tracker's going on his boxers. He supposed the only good thing about this situation was the lack of interest the thug had of him as he just carried him over his shoulder onto the ship.
"Who the hell goes and gets drinks when kidnapping people?" Dick weakly jabs at the guy with a thought that he's been wondering about this whole time.
Dick's feeling of awe for how arranged these guys were at their job didn't stop after entering the ship, but it did give him a sinking awful feeling that these guys are professionals because they've probably been doing this for years, maybe decades, and have been getting away every time. The ship looked like any other cargo ship if you didn't have any knowledge of the illegal cargo. In the lower deck, they weaved through the maze like set up, and came upon a false door belonging to what, on the outside, looked like an area of containers with a large tarp over them. Past the false door were three feet by three foot cages lined against the wall in a miniature room with other unfortunate souls who were snatched from the streets. There had to be a dozen young adult ladies and men in here. Dick recognized the other ladies who were riding in the back of the car were here as well. The other kidnapped victims were also stripped of personal belongings at some point after being brought aboard. There were two guards holding rifles chilling around and chatting like guards at Arkham.
While he couldn't see Leader Guy, he could definitely hear him yelling at the other side of the ship. The words were muffled by the distance but he seemed pretty mad. Goatee Guy opened one of the empty cages and tossed Dick in like sac and locked the door before Dick could recover. It was cold. He was only wearing his boxers and wrapped in a thin blanket that practically did nothing and he had a headache. Instead of going to sleep he tended his bleeding scalp from the injury earlier, using his tie-gag he tried his best to clean and wrap it.
You should tend to your injuries as soon as you can, Batman's voice echoed in his head as he tied a knot behind his head. It could get infected, and a small problem that could be fixed easily becomes a big problem later. It became pretty obvious that this was where he was going to be staying for a while, so he should start thinking long term.
