Ch.13: Hate You but Save You, All the Same

The duffel bag hit the ground with a loud BANG, startling Sam from her slumber. Her bleary eyes looked at the room around her, eventually coming to rest on the smirking figure standing at the arm of the couch she was resting on. A firm glare settled on the female's face as she turned over, covering her head with her blanket as she groaned loudly. Danny called gleefully, "Who's ready for a road trip~?"

"It's too early for this shit."

The ebony-haired boy hopped over the arm of the couch, landing heavily on Sam's feet and making her squirm. Crawling up roughly behind her, Danny shook the covered female as she growled at him. Grinning cheekily, the boy said, "Come on, Sammy-kins~! You know you wanna go kick some ass. Come on, who's itching for some bloodshed? Who is it? It's you! It's Sammy-girl!"

"I'm not a dog!" Sam retorted, glaring at her friend as she finally sat up, her hair a wild mess that framed her head.

Danny's grin only broadened at the messy-haired girl. "No, but you are a bitch."

SLAP!

"OW, FUCK! IS YOUR ONLY DEFENSE SLAPPING ME?!"

"Oh, like you didn't deserve it, you sick bastard!"

"Guys, could you not?" Tucker asked irritably from the ground, where a mound of blankets hid his form from the world. Sam and Danny turned on their third friend, claiming that they were the innocent one in their dispute. Tucker only sighed bitterly under his blankets before sitting up, a tired expression etched into his face. "Shut up, both of you! Just face it; you're both bitches."

"HEY!"

"What did you come over here for, Danny? Sam and I hadn't expected to see you until morning." Tucker asked, ignoring the angered expressions of the two on the couch. Sam huffed as she sat back, arms crossed over her chest. Danny continued glaring at Tucker, and for a moment, he refused to reply. The boy on the ground was taking no sass, however, as he laid back down and said, "That's fine. I'll just go back to sleep if you won't tell Sam and I what's going on."

Danny growled at his friend, eliciting a positively evil grin from Sam, before saying, "Fine. The three of us have a job. We need to get going relatively soon if we want to get to the appointed place at the appointed time. Now come on, guys; don't you want to get paid?"

Getting back up, Tucker cooed, "Aw, now was that so hard?"

"Shut up!"

Chuckling, the cocoa-skinned boy got up, as did Sam, and the two began moving around the female's apartment. Tucker went to his own duffel bag set off to the side while Sam went to her bedroom. The two of them took turns in the bathroom as they quickly changed into adequate attire for a long journey on a motorcycle; then they met Danny by Sam's front door, their go-bags slung over their shoulders. The trio quickly left the female's home, Sam locking the door behind them.

As the trio waltzed down the brightly lit hallway outside of the fearsome girl's apartment, Sam asked her friend, "Alright, what's the plan?"

"Oh, it's nothing too hard. We're just supposed to guard a bus that's transporting a bunch of kids to some trafficker's new base." Danny commented. He had barely got the words out of his mouth, however, when the ebony-haired girl slammed him up against a wall, an infuriated expression upon her face that promised pain. Somewhere behind the two, Tucker groaned and mumbled something that sounded like, "Could you two not wake the entire building up?" Danny only grinned down at his shorter friend. "Oh, relax, Sam. You should know by now that I don't put up with that crap, either. We're totally gonna cream these bastards."

Sam pulled away, obviously flustered with her friend and the tiniest bit embarrassed she had reacted so violently. Danny only nudged her shoulder teasingly before wandering down the hall with Tucker at his side. Sam followed quickly behind, pulling up beside the ebony-haired teen as Tucker asked, "So, what's the real plan, D?"

"Tuck, you can take out the bus driver and take the wheel, since you're the best out of the three of us when it comes to driving. Sam, you and I are gonna take the rest of the scumbags and then load the kids onto the bus. We'll drop them off at the nearest PD and then go home. Sound good?" Danny asked.

The other two members of the Crime Trio voiced their agreements, and as they rode down the elevator to the first floor, the three chatted idly about their travel route to their destination. They had a long journey ahead of them- the site was in Nashville, Tennessee -and none of the trio had any overwhelming desire to be on the road more than needed.

Briskly, the three teens left the apartment complex and strode to their parked bikes. They strapped their go-bags to the backs of their vehicles before hopping on. In a few brief minutes, Sam, Tucker, and Danny were on the road, zooming through the streets faster than the law specified and leaving a mass of angry people behind them. The teens only laughed and conversed merrily through the microphones Danny and Tucker had installed in their helmets a long time ago.

The teens made good time that day. They drove all throughout the night and through the day and through part of the night again, only stopping a few times for food, gas, and bathroom breaks. Whatever time they lost with these few and far between stops was made up by speeding. Fortunately for them, there were no cops that chased them down. Yes, it had been a good day. In fact, it was almost too good to be true, Sam mentioned at one point, and as they pulled off the highway to enter the city of Nashville, Danny proved her right when they slowed at a stoplight.

"Uh, guys… I just realized something."

"And what would that be, Danny?"

"…I forgot to book us a motel."

The irritated yells from Sam and Tucker could be heard by the other drivers on the other side of the street. Fortunately, the light turned green before anyone could roll down their windows and ask what was wrong.

"You always do this!" Tucker said impatiently, pulling his coat tighter around his frame as the frigid air of winter settled into his bones. Danny didn't answer him as he leaned against a payphone, scrolling through his phone as he searched for a motel that he deemed adequate. Even if he had answered, however, he would've been abruptly cut off as Tucker continued, "How do you keep forgetting something so important?"

Humming to himself, Danny grabbed the phone from the cradle beside him, slipping a quarter into the slot. He punched in the number on his touch-screen and pressed the phone to his ear as Tucker continued to mutter complaints beside him. It took a few rings, but someone eventually picked on the other side of the line. They greeted Danny with a tired, "This is Motel 6. How can I help you?" The teen replied with a snippy, "Hi. You have any rooms open?"

The call took only a few minutes, but in those minutes, Tucker wandered into the gas station to be with Sam. She had gone in some time before the boy to supposedly grab food but more than likely to warm herself up. Danny was left outside by himself in the cold and dark of night, but he and the lady at Motel 6 made reservations very quickly, allowing him to hang up in a short amount of time. After, Danny grabbed his friends, and they were back on the road for a little while longer. The ebony-haired teen led the other two to Motel 6, where they checked in and went up to the open room the blue-eyed teen had found for them. They rapidly found their room and went inside, ready for beddy-bye.

Inside, however, the two boys found a small problem. Sam only laughed deviously as she dumped her bag on the ground and hopped on one of the two beds in the room, calling, "This one's mine! You two have fun in the other!"

Tucker and Danny grumbled as they looked upon the remaining bed, expressions of dissatisfaction on their expressions. The two of them quickly drilled into the other where the invisible line was on the bed so they could get a good night's rest.

Did that end up helping them at all? Nope. It took about half an hour of Tucker tossing and turning before Danny pushed him to the floor, claiming the cocoa-skinned boy's spot for himself. In retaliation, Tucker dragged all of the sheets to the floor with him. In the next bed over, Sam slept peacefully.

The three slept through the rest of the night and late into the next day. They finally began to rouse from their slumber early that next afternoon, with Sam being the first amongst the trio to get out of bed. The two boys eventually followed her, swearing under their breaths as they did. Danny and Tucker were too preoccupied with waking themselves up to notice Sam cackling at them as she brushed her teeth.

The gig Danny had snagged for them was not supposed to go down until late that night, so the trio hung around the motel room for the rest of the day, lazily watching horror movies to occupy themselves. Sometime as they were doing this, Danny pushed Tucker off the couch "because he could."

Eventually, though, the sunlight dwindled away to nothing, and the motel room darkened until Sam turned on some of the lights. Danny watched the time closely until it rolled around to nine o'clock. At that time, he got up and shut off the TV, telling the other two, "Alright, time to suit up." However, Sam was already disappearing into the bathroom, and Tucker was pulling his clothes out of his duffel bag, leaving Danny to be the last of the trio to grab his clothes.

It didn't take long at all for the teens to dress. When Black Thorn filed out from the bathroom, she was slipping her mask on over her face, hiding her features from view. As she gazed at both of her friends, she found two more masked faces staring back at her, Phantom's in the shape of a snarling wolf and Drone's looking as if it were a green and black circuit board. Black Thorn smiled at the two boys and asked, "Ready to leave, nimrods?"

"After you, milady." Phantom replied, gesturing widely to the room's only window. Black Thorn rolled her eyes, ruffled his black hair as she passed, and crawled out of the window first, the two boys following closely behind her as they climbed the fire-escape to the rooftop. There, Phantom told his friends in which direction they were to travel, lifted into the air, and begin to fly off. Black Thorn's and Drone's yells of frustration mingled with the other teen's laughter as they raced after their friend.

It was only a few minutes into their foot-traveling that snow began to fall from the sky. It was not light and fluffy, either. It was heavy and would have stung the teen's flesh in the growing wind, had they not been wearing such heavy clothing. Still, it was not pleasurable, and Black Thorn and Drone frequently complained about this to Phantom, claiming it was his fault, even if it clearly wasn't. Phantom retorted, "Come on, be real! It's totally Thorn's icy soul that's manipulating the weather!"

On that day, Black Thorn very nearly shot Phantom dead.

The Crime Trio made it to their destination with little time to spare. Their clients were waiting for them in heavy coats in front of a large warehouse, other large structures hiding the going-ons of the building. The obvious leader of the trafficking ring was smoking as the three climbed down from the opposite building's rooftop. The three sauntered across the way to meet them, their dark shapes menacing in the heavy snowfall. Phantom took the front of his little group, stopping some feet from the crowd of traffickers. He crossed his arms over his chest as he asked, "Has our payment been wired yet?"

The smoker rolled his eyes at the teen's impatience and replied, "Of course. I did just as we agreed. Are you and your little buddies ready to hold up your end of the deal?"

"Trust me when I say you don't want to question our abilities." Phantom replied.

The lead trafficker only nodded his head and turned around, calling out an order to his men, who began rushing into action. No one noticed Phantom as he pulled his pistol from its holster, pointed it at the back of the lead trafficker's head, and mumbled, "Our loyalties, on the other hands..."

POW!

The gunshot cracked like a thunderclap, sending the other traffickers into momentary confusion. As they whirled around to see what had happened, Phantom and Black Thorn quickly picked off the rest of the group while they were bewildered and incapacitated. Drone dropped back behind them and sprinted for the stalled bus while his two friends easily took care of the rest of the traffickers. Their gunshots had just fallen quiet when a single POW! sounded from Drone's direction. Black Thorn and Phantom both looked up, but when they saw Drone's form climb aboard the bus, they relaxed.

"Let's get the vics." Phantom said. Black Thorn nodded. The two of them jogged through the mess of bodies scattered across the yard, unfazed by the crimson quickly staining the white snow. The two mercenaries came upon the large door; fortunately, it was already unlocked in anticipation of the move that was going to happen. The darkly-clad figures swiftly threw it open, jogging inside as they staked the place out.

Cages lined the walls, but Black Thorn and Phantom expected no less. Inside them, the two rogue mercenaries found a little over a dozen scantily dressed and underfed kids, most of whom were the two teens' age or younger. Their wide eyes gazed upon the two menacing figures with fright, but it turned to confusion when Black Thorn and Phantom became breaking the locks on their cells. The mercenaries called to them hastily, "Come on, file out! We need to get you out of here quickly! Let's go!"

Despite their mistreatment, all of the kids easily did as they were told, filling up the aisle between the two lines of chain-link cages as they shivered. There were only two kids that had any trouble walking. One was a teen girl with blonde hair. Black Thorn asked if she'd like help, but the girl said her twin sister could support her. The other child incapable of walking was a preteen boy, who had undoubtedly been drugged. Phantom had no problems picking him up and carrying him out.

With Black Thorn leading their entourage and Phantom guarding their rear, the trafficked kids hurried out of the building and into the freezing, winter air. They shivered and huddled against each other, rubbing their bare arms to produce some warmth. Fortunately, Drone had backed the bus up closer to the warehouse, lessening the distance between the traumatized children and their destination. Black Thorn ushered them in, calling to some of the kids that had gone terribly still at the sight of the traffickers and saying, "Don't look at them! Look at me!"

Finally, though, all of the kids were tucked safely away in the warmth of the bus. Black Thorn began to climb in after the rest of the group, but she stopped when Phantom said, "Wait a second, Thorn."

The female mercenary looked over her shoulder. Black Thorn watched as Phantom slowly looked around the yard. She followed his example, but besides the crimson snow and still bodies, there was nothing out of the ordinary. From inside the bus, Drone curiously asked, "What's the hold up, guys? We're in a bit of a hurry here."

"Phantom, what's up?" Black Thorn asked. She did not receive an answer immediately. Instead, Phantom passed the kid in his arms off to Black Thorn, who took the boy without complaint. She situated the small child on her hip before saying, "Come on, Phantom. Let's just get out of here already."

"You and Drone go on ahead. I'll meet the both of you back at base. I'm going to stay behind and take care of a few things." Phantom replied as he took a few steps back from the bus door.

Black Thorn wanted to ask what was wrong and why he was acting so weird, but Drone made a comment about the cold quickly drowning out the warmth inside of the vehicle. So Black Thorn sighed instead and replied, "Alright then. You better not be going insane on me, though, boy."

Though it wasn't possible to see, Black Thorn could feel Phantom's smirk through his mask. "Aw, of course not, Sweetheart. Now run along. Your knight in shining armor will be right behind you."

The ebony-haired girl snorted and mumbled something that sounded like, "Someone needs to knock that boy down a peg," as she carried the boy in her arms up the stairs. Phantom saluted to Drone, who saluted back and then began shutting the folding doors. However, before they were finished shutting, Phantom heard a young girl ask, "Hey lady, is that your boyfriend?" Drone's cackling could be heard through the doors for a few moments before the bus began to pull away from Phantom's spot, slowly rolling down the snow-covered pathway. The vehicle was gone within a few minutes, leaving Phantom all alone in the yard.

Silently and thoughtfully, the masked teen looked all around the yard, searching for something amiss. However, the only thing in his sight was the heavy, graceful snowfall. Phantom hmphed under his breath and sauntered towards the mess of bodies resting amongst the snow, his steps going crinch-crunch. The figures were covered in a thin layer of snow that was rapidly growing, transforming the bodies into inconspicuous lumps. The remaining crimson stains had yet to hidden, however, and they called one's attention like a siren. At the edge of one such red pool, Phantom stopped and looked around again. Firmly, the blue-eyed teen called, "Are you there, or am I just slowly falling into a paranoid stupor?"

Phantom's voice echoed off the frigid walls of the surrounding buildings. There was no verbal reply to the boy's call, but there was no disguising the faint crinch-crunch the boy heard behind him. Phantom turned halfway, his neutral frown turning into an amused grin as he watched the Dark Knight come to a stop some yards away from him, his expression emotionless. For a moment, neither figure did anything. However, Phantom hummed amusedly before reaching up and slipping the mask off from his face. It dangled uselessly in his hand as Danny grinned at his former supervisor, his hands brushing the bangs from his eyes. As they fell right back in his line of sight, Danny remarked, "Damn. I would love to know how your fat ass stays so silent."

"Would you mind explaining the bloodbath behind you." Batman replied. Even though it was phrased as a question, the demand was obvious in the Caped Crusader's voice.

Happy to oblige, Danny smirked wider and hummed gleefully to himself. "Aw, don't worry your horned little head, Batsy. They were just a bunch kid-peddling scumbags." The boy tilted his head to the side. "I know this might be hard to process- truly, I do –but human-trafficking is where a lot of us perps draw the line, especially when it involves kids. Trust me; these dirt-bags had what was coming to them."

"That may be true, but that's why we have the justice system." Batman replied.

"Oh please!" Danny snapped, rolling his eyes as he scoffed. "Even if the justice system actually did something right for once, it's not like it would've mattered. Someone would've eventually killed them in jail! This way, I get to have fun, and I save the courts a whole shit ton of money."

The teen thought he saw the Dark Knight sigh, but he couldn't be sure. Batman asked, "What happened?"

Though his smirk stayed, a spark of confusion lit in Danny's eyes at the question. He glanced back at the red-stained snow and mess of bodies behind him before his blue eyes found the Dark Knight's white lenses again. "Seriously Bats, are you going blind or something? What does it look like I did?"

"That's not what I meant." Batman replied. He repeated, "What happened?"

Danny struggled to keep his smile on his face as he tried to decipher the meaning behind the Caped Crusader's words. It took a minute or two before the forced smile relaxed, the blue-eyed teen saying, "Oh… I get it now. What happened to us, right? What happened to me? Well, let's think about it like this: you're water, and I'm oil. You can figure it out from there."

"That's not-" Batman started but grunted when the ground suddenly rumbled underneath him. Stumbling back, the Dark Knight watched as the ground cracked and splintered, all coming from one central point between him and Danny. There, the ground opened up, slabs of concrete and mounds of gravel falling into oblivion. A glass-shattering shriek pierced the Dark Knight's ears, causing him to slam his hands down over them. Batman watched as a clawed hand grabbed the edge of the void and then another, pulling the figure of a massive, black bat into view. Batman was motionless as the strange creature seemed to look all around before coming to focus on him. As the creature's eyes locked onto the darkly-clad figure, its face twisted into a snarl before letting out another shriek.

Unafraid, a black-eyed Danny smirked behind it.

Despite what his eyes were telling him, Batman knew what he saw wasn't real. Whatever was happening had to be Danny's doing. The Dark Knight reached up, pressing a button on the side of his cowl just as Danny yelled, "Scared yet, Batsy?" Ear-plugs and blacked-out shades blocked out the physical world around him, the same way they always did whenever Count Vertigo was around. However, though Batman could no longer see or hear the rest of the world, the figure of the menacing bat remained in his sight, screeching at him angrily. Closing his eyes didn't help any, either. The bat creature remained.

What was going on?!

Suddenly, Danny's distorted voice whispered, "Your equipment can't help you if it's all in your head."

Batman hardly had any time to process this before there was a sharp pain in the back of his head and then it was truly black. No bats, no voices, no anything.

Danny stood up from his crouched position beside the Dark Knight as the inky-black in his eyes dispersed. His eyes blue once more, Danny hummed hollowly to himself before turning on his heel, sauntering in the direction the tracks of the bus disappeared. As he wandered along, he noticed how the snow had begun to rain down harder, covering the landscape much quicker than before. The puff of fog that lingered in front of his mouth seemed heavier as well.

The teen's steps slowed to a stop. Danny stared into the distance for a long while, contemplative, before looking back at the prone figure rapidly becoming buried under pristine, white snow. It would be easy to leave the Dark Knight there. He'd be highly susceptible to hypothermia; hell, maybe Batman would even stay unconscious long enough to succumb to it completely. Then Danny would be free of the Dark Knight forever. He'd never have to deal with that piece of shit again! It would be the ultimate win!

A sigh left the blue-eyed boy's mouth, the air fogging in front of his mouth. Danny knew he should be happy at getting close to something other villains only hoped to aspire, but the thought of Batman being dead made him feel...sad. He didn't really know why. For a moment, he thought it may have been the memories they shared, but he'd long convinced himself that it was all bullshit. So... Why did he find himself just as attached as he had been before?

Another sigh. Danny turned, wandering back to where Batman laid in the snow. As the teen grabbed the bigger man's arm, he mumbled, "God, I hate you." However, that didn't stop the teen from heaving the Dark Knight up until he was leaning uncertainly against Danny's smaller form. The teen trudged through the snow, in the direction of the warehouse he had been in previously. The snow stung his face as he went, but Danny continued on, nonetheless.

Finally, the two forms entered the large complex, and some feet inside, Danny dropped his cargo unceremoniously to the floor, breathing a little heavier than normal. The crisp air stung his throat, but that was just another thing the boy shoved aside to deal with later. Danny went around to the various cages, gathering up what blankets were inside before heading back to where the Dark Knight was lying on the floor. Danny dumped them all on top of Batman with little to no effort as to where he placed them. After, he merely stood by the Dark Knight's body, glaring at him irritably. "You better be thankful for this. It would've been really easy to leave you out in the snow, you know?" Yet another sigh left the teen's lips. Danny shook his head and began walking for the open door. He stepped outside and began to shut it, but not before calling back to the prone form on the floor, "I'm sure I'll see you soon, Bats. See you then."

The words echoed off the walls as Danny shut the door behind him, but they died off long before the Dark Knight ever got a chance to hear them.

Some hours after Danny had left, Batman's still form released a groan, the back of his head pounding ferociously. For a moment, the Dark Knight debated getting up, but his strange surroundings- the cool concrete beneath him, the howling wind, something beating against tin -finally pushed Batman to get up. The blankets- where did those come from? -on top of him fell away, pooling around his waist. Tiredly, the Dark Knight rubbed his face before dropping his gloved hands, looking about his surroundings. It took less than a minute for the Dark Knight to recognize the warehouse he was in, the snowstorm that had picked up outside, but confusion clouded his mind. He hadn't been in the warehouse when he had been knocked out; he had been outside. How did he get in here?

It was Danny, Batman's mind whispered. That didn't make sense, though. Danny had made it very clear that he would dance on his grave, should the opportunity ever present itself. Why bother sheltering him from the snowstorm outside?

Another question: what the hell had the teen done to him? That strange hallucination type thing was beyond anything the Dark Knight had encountered before. He'd dealt with illusions of all kinds before, but... What Danny had done had been inside his head. Once it was there, there was no expelling it until Danny said so. It was a great power for sure, but... How had Danny accessed it?

Batman sighed, very much like Danny just some hours ago, and stood up. His muscles ached and protested at the movement, but such a thing was easy to ignore. The Caped Crusader rolled his shoulders and looked around again, only to find the same surroundings as before. He half-expected Danny to suddenly pop out of nowhere and yell, "Surprise! Time to die!" Batman shook his head at the thought and mumbled, "Oh Danny, why must you complicate everything?"