As promised Chapter 2 up after work. It took a little longer than I originally planned but here it is. Hope you enjoy
Tim lay perfectly still. It hurt to breathe. He was so angry with himself. It was supposed to be a simple mission in Gotham. Get in, get the evidence and get out.
He thought he was sneaking into Penguins mob club to get some evidence about a research lab doing experiments on teens; more specifically teens that have shown possible powers. He couldn't bring his team into this, he'd found some of them in a similar situation. At one point he'd considered calling Jason in to give him a hand, even Dick would have been a good idea. But they were both busy with their own lives and their own missions. He didn't want to be a bother.
How was he supposed to know that some of these teens would be holding down the fort when he got there? This kind of thing wasn't really a Gotham issue, he was surprised to find out Penguin had his mitts in this mess in the first place. It didn't sound like these tests had been going on long enough to have some useful subjects to use as guards.
Breaking in was the easy part. He disarmed all the alarms and snuck past the usual goons. It wasn't until he had made his way into the office that he sensed someone behind him. It was too late. He tried to dodge and get away but that someone turned into three people before he had time to catch his breath.
They swarmed him. Any time they'd get a shot in it felt like he was going toe to toe with Superboy. He had managed to maneuver around them for a time. Honestly they were sloppy and not nearly skilled enough to go up against him one on one. They were barely keeping up with him between the 3 of them. He could have easily escaped but in typical Tim fashion he needed to get that evidence. Unfortunately for him they were fast enough to get him if he held still for anything more than a second. It would take him longer than that to get into the file cabinet, longer still to grab the file he needed.
Tim took a deep breath and steadied himself. It was now or never. He dodged the first attack, twisted to avoid the second grabbing his arm in the process. He used the momentum he'd built up to twist the kids arm, feeling a pop, and threw him into the third kid. He flipped over the first kid who'd regained him composure and ripped the filing cabinet open.
His one downfall is that he underestimated them. He thought he'd have another few seconds before they recovered but the kid with the broken arm tackled him to the ground. He tried to push him off, the kids arm had already healed. What were they?
They jumped on him and beat the crap out of him. He wished he could think of it any other way but the truth was he was screwed once they grabbed him. He was so stupid. He'll never hear the end of it from the other former Robins if he manages to get out of this.
He felt a few ribs snap. The kid holding his wrists was clearly not used to his strength yet and crunched his wrist. They didn't stop once they started. He felt bones creaking, he could see dark circles. This was going to be it. He needed to send out a distress. At the very least he wanted his body found. He bucked his hips startling his attackers, it wouldn't help him get out of their grasp or escape but it would give him to chance to free his arm. He wiggled and kicked and worked one of his wrists free.
His hand was useless. Crap. At least he wasn't going to need to pull anything out of his utility belt. He wasn't going to waste the precious time even trying. He smashed his arm onto the buckle of his utility belt, it started glowing red. He used the last of his moments to kick them in the face a couple of times. If he was going down he was going to attempt to take them with him.
They had recovered just as quickly as he thought they would and started pummeling him again. He wasn't sure when they stopped because he lost consciousness within seconds of their fresh attacks.
When he regained consciousness he was honestly surprised. He had seen the look in their eyes. They were blind with rage. Someone must have stopped them before they smashed his face in completely. Maybe it was penguin. He didn't know. All he could think about was the pain he was in.
He shifted, very painfully, to look down at his buckle. It was still glowing red and attached to him. Penguin was losing his touch leaving his utility belt on? He tried to move more. He understood why he still had his belt on, he couldn't move his hands. He could thankfully still move his arms, barely. His belt would still be useless to him. He was glad that the belt was still glowing. He knew that leaving it a steady glow was a good idea. They would think it was just part of the costume, much better than the blinking glow that they all used to be equipped with. More than anything he was lucky the kids had been so blind with rage they hadn't noticed anything different about him.
It took longer than he ever wanted to admit it did but he managed to shuffle to a wall and push his way up into a sitting position.
How long had he been out?
Looking around he couldn't tell much of anything, except that they were dumb enough not to move him. Whoever responded to his distress signal would have an easy time getting in.
"Boss," he heard voices from outside the door.
"What?!" The penguin snapped.
"Why'd you send those kids away? They made quick work of the brat."
"They were uncontrollable and reckless. I won't have that kind of trouble in my establishment."
The good news was those kids were gone. Once he'd caught his breath maybe he could worry about escaping. He chuckled to himself and coughed in pain. Who was he kidding; it would be days of recovery before he was able to move enough to escape. Days he probably didn't have.
He lay perfectly still, well leaned. It hurt to breath. He assessed his injuries. Most of them seemed superficial. He had some cracked ribs and his wrists were pretty busted up. His jaw felt alright, raw and busted but not broken. His nose was broken though. He wanted to reset it right then but no hands. He stopped assessing the damage. Lot's to repair but nothing life threatening.
Where was that rescue? He was close enough to the cave that someone should have been there by now.
"Red Robin."
He groaned. It had to be the brat. The demon spawn.
"Where's Batman?"
"Off world."
"Nightwing?"
"Not happy with your rescue? Guess we're in the same boat." Damian whispered slinking into the room.
"You're late."
"You're lucky I'm here at all."
One look at Tim and Damian knew things were bad. Bad enough to get him out and to Alfred as soon as possible, but not bad enough that he didn't have time to gloat a little.
"Don't say it." He snapped before Damian cold say anything.
"I was just going to ask how it feels getting your ass handed to you Red Robin."
"Let's just get out of this first, we can bicker later."
Surprisingly that shut him up.
Damian knew Tim must have been in quite a bit of pain to push their bickering aside.
"Can you stand?"
"Not on my own." Tim admitted.
The door opened, 2 of penguins goons stared at them shocked.
"Boss?"
"What is it this time?!"
"We have a bird problem."
Damian quickly bent and grabbed Tim under the arms.
Penguin poked his head into the room. "Robin! Well what are you waiting for? Get them!"
Thanks for the few reviews I got right away, I really appreciate them.
