A/N: Okay, so technically this is up after midnight so I didn't get it up until Wednesday...my bad, really sorry guys. I totally blanked. I promise I will try super hard so that this doesn't happen again. Nonetheless, I have another short story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Enjoy!

TORI SHORT STORY #13 — CAUGHT

"This is entirely your fault," Damian hissed from Tori's left in Arabic. Tori let out a sigh, which blew some stray hairs from her face before side glaring him. She shifted slightly, testing the ropes that bound her to a chair before responding in the same language,

"How is this my fault?" she demanded,

"If you hadn't messed up my project, we wouldn't have been out so late and this would have never happened," he said his mini tirade so fast Tori had to wait a minute translating what he said in her head before replying with a bite in her tone,

"Oh, so it's my fault you decided to set off the miniature volcano when I specifically said not to! Which then caused us to have to redo the whole entire thing!"

"You were unclear,"

"I said wait until the day it's due to erupt it. What's unclear about that?" Damian was silent for a second,

"Shut up," he snapped. Tori rolled her eyes,

"You just wanted to see it explode didn't you?"

"Shut up,"

"And you didn't have to ask me for help, there were plenty of other people in the house…not only that, why did you even need help?" Damian gritted his teeth as he tried breaking the rope that ensnared his wrists to no avail,

"The assignment specifically said with a family member. Pennyworth was busy, father was at a meeting, Grayson was off with Gordon and I was not going to ask Drake, the person I tolerate the least for help,"

"Aww, you tolerate me!" Tori said with a smirk,

"Slightly more than Drake...oh shut up," Damian growled when Tori chuckled at what he said and at his anger before wincing as a gun fired off to her right,

"SHUT UP!" one of the thugs that had managed to snag them yelled, the tip of his gun smoking, "I don' know what the hell you saying to each other. But I don' like it, so shut the hell up!"

"That was a waste of a bullet," Tori remarked, knowing that the boss of this gang or organization or whatever she and Damian had stumbled upon would want answers and usually the snarliest person was picked for the interrogation. Not that she didn't doubt Damian's skills, but she was a bit more durable than the human Boy Wonder,

"Excuse me?" the thug said,

"What if you needed it later," Tori continued, as if oblivious to the obvious danger the guy held in his hand,

"Shut the hell up you little bitch,"

"Ohh, the b-word. Clever," Tori said smirking at the thug, who stomped over and placed the muzzle of the gun on her forehead,

"One more word. I dare you," he snarled, some spittle flying on her face. Tori bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. A gun at this close range would kill a Talon. While at a distance they do little to no damage no one, not even a Talon, can function with their brains splattered against the walls. The thug slowly smiled at her sudden silence before pulling the gun away,

"Not so mouthy now huh? Bitch," Tori rolled her eyes, but still remained silent, "Now. Are either of you going to say how you found us?"

"We don't even know what 'this' is," Damian said speaking up for the first time,

"Yeah, we seriously don't. We literally stumbled into this place. There was a crack on the glass of your skylight," Tori said, nodding her chin up to the ceiling where she and Damian had fallen through. The guy stared at Tori and Damian, both with blank faces before shaking his head,

"Nah, don't believe it,"

"Seriously. They don't believe the actually truth," Tori muttered in Arabic, much to the annoyance of their captor,

"At least they're not naive," Damian replied,

"Stop it with the other language," the guy yelled, "Or I'm going to kill one of you!"

"Been there, done that," Tori said breezily, causing Damian to let out a snort of laughter,

"That's it," the guard yelled, "Eanie. Meanie. Miney: you," he grabbed Tori by the back of the chair and started to drag her from where she had been placed next to Damian,

"Whoa, we were seriously telling the truth!" She stated as he continued to drag her to the center of the room where his friends stood waiting for orders with various weapons,

"I know," he stated, stopping his dragging and spinning Tori around on one leg of the chair at a time before letting her rock to a stop with her back to Damian, "I just figured you had useful information," he motioned for one of his cronies, who stepped forward and offered him a crowbar which he took,

"Information on what?" Tori asked, eyeing the weapon with a raised eyebrow,

"Like who Batman is. Where he lives, where he works, who's his family. Things that can be advantageous when the time arises,"

"You think I would know those things?" she asked,

"You're his partner aren't you?" the thug said, not waiting for a response he raised his 'interrogation tool' in the air, "Anything you wish to confess right now?"

"It's more of a question really: why do all villains, or thugs, whatever you are, use crowbars. Is it a preference? Does it make you feel better about yourself or is it just because it's the most accessible thing around—?" Tori didn't get to finish her sentence as the crowbar came down on her side. It connected with a loud SMACK. Tori just looked up at the guy with a bored expression,

"…ow?" she said uncertainly, causing the guy to turn red. He swung again and again, each blow hard and strong but with no cry of pain from Tori. Sure, her body was reacting. It was bruising and the bones were breaking, but she didn't feel it. They were healing just as quickly as he made them too, which caused Tori to squint her eyes and look at the ground so they wouldn't see her blue eyes, which were still covered by her silver masquerade like mask but with the eye holes cut out, change to gold—the color that indicated she was healing—they would be suspicious and ask questions…or worse, move on from her to Damian to get the answers about her that they wanted. Tori was cut off from her internal worries when the thug that was hitting her let out a ferocious roar and rammed the pointy end of the crowbar into her stomach. It wasn't a deep stab, it didn't hit the back of the chair, but he also didn't pull it out either. That meant the wound wouldn't heal unless he pulled it out.

Tori glared up at him. He was panting at the effort and because of anger. His hand was inching towards his gun shoved in the belt loop of his pants. It was clear he wanted to just shoot her, but his embarrassment at not being able to evict a simple scream from her was enough to convince him to try a different weapon. He grabbed a bat from the nearest goonie,

"Who is Batman?" He questioned, raising the bat,

"Chuck Norris," Tori snarked. The bat fell across her shins. They fractured, but healed just the same…slower due to the crowbar still in place, which was still bleeding thanks to not being taken out yet,

"Wrong answer. Let's try another—,"

"—you really suck at interrogating people. What kind of interrogator switches to a new question without an answer for the first question?" The bat fell again, this time at her head. Tori briefly saw stars and let out a whoosh of air from the unexpected blow,

"Where does he live?" He was getting agitated now, and likely to change his mind on who he would torture to get the answers he wanted. Tori needed to quit toying with these guys and end this,

"P. Sherman Forty Two Wallaby Way, Sydney," Tori replied smirking. With a roar of frustration he moved to strike her again, "Do you know what the definition of insanity is?" Tori stated, causing him to pause his swing, "Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results…which I guess is ironic considering that's all the Bat and the partners ever do, but that's besides the point—,"

"—Listen here—,"

"—No you listen. Why don't you ask a proper question, one that will help you tiny little brain understand why what you're doing isn't working. Why don't you ask what I am?"

"What you ar—what kind of stupid ass—,"

"—Ask it," Tori interrupted, eyes still trained on the ground,

"What are you, there, you happy? Are you gonna answer my questions now?"

"No. I'm going to ask you another question. Do you see a Bat anywhere on my suit? Anywhere at all?"

"…No…"

"Now put it together. If I'm not a Bat, what am I?" Tori stated, finally looking him right in the eyes as her eyes undoubtedly flashed gold as the bruise and cut from the bat healed on her cheek and forehead,

"A Talon," the guy whispered with his voice filled with terror,

"Not a Talon, The Talon," she stated, glaring at him with golden flashing eyes. Tori smirked and flexed her arms, snapping the ropes that held her and leapt at him.

The fight was over within minutes, the thugs and followers all strewn across the floor. Some bleeding more than they probably should, others on the floor unconscious next to grown men sized craters in the brick walls. Tori sheathed her heavily blunted blades, Bruce insisted that if she were going out to have them blunted at least until she had more control over herself, and reached to pull the crowbar out. Once out, with a spurt of blood, it healed leaving only a hole in her suit,

"How he got that crowbar through I'll never know," Tori muttered, "This suit was supposed to be armored,"

"It is you idiot, he just managed to strike where two plates of armor met," Damian snapped from where he sat still tied up,

"You know. I could just leave you tied up there,"

"And you know you could have taken those guards ages ago. What prevented you from doing so?" Damian snapped, as he wriggled in his bonds—as he had been for the past fifteen minutes—and finally grabbed a batarang and cut his bonds. He marched over to her and all but growled his next retort, "Why let them beat you?"

"I wanted to see if they were related to Mac," Tori said stiffly, "If they did, they would have known I was a Talon sooner if not right away…though you are right, I definitely should have ended this sooner. I'm starving now. Healing takes energy," Damian pursed his lips, as if contemplating what to say,

"That was indeed a very foolish thing to do. I hope you wouldn't do something so idiotic if you were human,"

"Please, I'm silly, not suicidal. Besides I also did what I did so they wouldn't choose you to interrogate,"

"Tt. I've been trained to handle any kind of interrogation, violent or not,"

"Of course you have," Tori muttered, rolling her eyes. Silence reigned for a moment before Damian spoke again,

"There is an ice cream shop nearby that Grayson is particularly fond of…they've always opened their doors for us in the past, perhaps since you need nourishment we could go there instead of immediately finding father," Tori looked over at the eleven year-old kid, eyebrow raised, before grinning at him,

"That sounds perfect."

A/N: Again, sorry for the delay! It won't happen again!

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Next Short Story this Tuesday.