7: What if they focused on getting the "important" kids in the basement out instead of killing them?
Dick was forcing his sluggish body to do the allotted jumping jacks under the watchful eye of a blueman when the alarm went off, startling Dick and causing him to topple. Damian, who was sitting on the bed kicking his feet back and forth, jumped as well, and started searching the room for the source of the noise. Dick's head spun, but he forced himself to get to his feet because it wasn't worth getting punished for. To his surprise, the blueman completely ignored him, instead focusing on her earpiece.
About thirty seconds later, the blueman barked, "Stop!"
Dick did so, studying her warily.
"Stand. Wrists out in front of you. Don't speak." There was an implied 'or you'll regret it' in those words. The woman went to a cupboard hidden in the wall to the side of the back end of the bed and pulled out two small sets of adjustable manacles, two collars, and four pieces of cloth, as well as a long rope, putting each item on the bed as she tugged it out.
She secured Dick first, manacles around his wrists, collar around his neck, gagged and blindfolded, before going to Damian and doing the same. Damian's whimper was quickly silence when she tied him up. Then she dumped the small boy into his brother's arms. Dick quickly adjusted the best he could to securely hold Damian. The long rope was tied around them to secure the two together and then tied off as a lead. She led the two stumbling out into the hallway. Dick gave up trying to keep track of where they were going as he focused on not dropping the kid. After a few minutes of walking, the alarm shut off, but they kept going through the maze.
Finally, they seemed to reach at least near the destination, as they slowed, Dick bumping gently into the blueman. The lead was tucked into the part tying the two together. "Who you got there?" A new voice asked.
"169 and 214. Project PUM and related."
"Hmmmmm. Ah. There they are. Send 'em through."
Dick gave a silent yelp as strong arms, not ones that could belong to the blueman who had been leading them, yanked him and Damian off the ground and stuffed them into a chute of sorts. Damian tried to disappear into Dick's chest trembling as they shot down the slide, anklets buzzing madly and painfully. Within seconds they were plummeting into a hamper, which closed upon receiving their weight. The hamper dropped into a box with a painful thud. He felt hands give him a hard shove downwards and then a lid was slammed on top of the box. There was a soft beep and Dick felt as the box moved.
"Clear!" A voice said as the box came to a halt. Every few minutes or so, the last few steps were repeated and soon Dick felt the box lift from whatever it was on and get placed on a solid platform of sorts and shoved backwards. He shifted so that the two boys were minutely more comfortable, even as Damian continued to tremble on his chest. Dick tried to calm his beating heart as he squirmed around, but all he could remember was the ship. Damian was the only thing keeping him from a full blown panic attack. Several minutes later, he heard something shift into place on top of their box.
Before he knew it, there was the sound of doors slamming shut and then silence for precisely thirty seconds. Then, footsteps moved past and there was a rumbling as whatever they were in, a truck, Dick thought logically, started up. Then, they were moving, and Dick found himself focusing on his breathing.
At least a half hour passed before Dick heard the sound of metal sliding open and shut. A few minutes later. Something right by his ear opened, and he felt as the hamper was loosened and then yanked down from around his and Damian's head.
"Hey! We got two in this one!"
"That'll be 169 and 214. They're a… package deal."
"Eh… If you say so." The gag was pulled out. "Don't bother trying to speak kiddie. Collar's got that covered." The metal slammed shut. Dick blew gently into Damian's hair, and the toddler responded by loosening his grip a bit.
Another half an hour passed with the bluemen talking to each other, and then he heard the doors open and the sound of heavy boxes being moved. The ones on top moved first, loudly, violently, and then his and Damian's was moved, to another truck he assumed as they didn't drop in height, in fact rising to slid on top of another row of boxes if his guess was correct.
They were in this truck for longer this time, but were eventually transferred again, bruises galore. Dick had taken to playing with Damian after carefully untangling the child. The two played chopsticks and the poking game. Dick hoped he was making the kid smile at least. He held him as close as he could to prevent injuries as they were jarred in transfer.
"You get one bottle each, with no lid." A blueman stated an hour into the third truck ride, waking Dick from a fitful nap. He wondered what the blueman meant until he felt some liquid slosh onto him as a bottle was shoved through the opening into Dick's manacled hands.
"You two get one only. One per package." He heard a voice sneer. He ignored it, and carefully maneuvered the bottle to Damian's mouth to sip. They took turns drinking until the liquid ran low. Just as Dick was attempting to tip the bottle enough to get the last drops, the driver slammed on the breaks. He barely managed to get his arms around Damian for protection before the boxes all shifted and tumbled.
"Dude! What the hell?" A voice yelled, sliding a metal sheet that most likely separated the driver from the back.
"It's the Batman! It's the ruddy Batman!" The driver cried. Dick felt a smirk creep onto his face as that sunk in. Damian perked up.
"Well, don't just sit there! We've got a shipment to deliver! Shoot him!" Dick felt the smirk disappear immediately as gunfire sounded. Damian buried his face into Dick.
"Oh shit! He brought Superman! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shiiiiittttt!" Both boys breathed a sigh of relief. "Listen, man, we're just the delivery crew. Can we maybe not go about a fight? Just take it. Take it all!"
"Don't give up! Dude!" The bluemen all moved. "Prepare to fire!" There was a creak as the doors were manipulated. "Fire!" Gunfire ran out, ricocheting off Superman. Dick crouched into a ball around Damian cringing. He heard as Superman disarmed the men and several of them ran screaming for their mommies. And blocked out the rest of what was going on. The gunfire died down and the dust settled.
"There are kids in all the boxes." Superman said. Batman probably nodded. He raised his voice. "Don't worry! We're going to get you all out!" There was a beep as the collars deactivated.
It felt like ages passed before they got to his and Damian's box. Dick whispered words of comfort to Damian and, between the two of them, they managed to get both blindfolds off. Dick twisted his up and tried to use it as a lockpick on Damian's wrists, but it didn't really work. Dick heard more heroes helping than just Superman and Batman and was proven in this when their box was opened and Rocket was looking down at them. She showed no immediate recognition as she helped the two boys out, although there was a flicker of surprise at seeing two instead of one. She passed them to Superboy, who wasn't really paying attention as he broke the manacles and collar off, bending down to get the anklets as well. Dick put Damian down, and wrapped his arms around the teenager as they stood back up.
"Ro-Richard?" Conner asked. Dick pulled back and smiled at him.
"Hey," he coughed to clear his throat. "Hey, Conner." He said softly. Superboy smiled and jerked his thumb to Batman.
"You have the choice of your dad or Agent A. Agent A is on the plane."
"Thanks." Dick picked up Damian, dallied for a second, and then limped his way towards the plane. He wanted his reunion with Bruce to be private so that he didn't have to worry about identities, but Alfred was probably already partially hidden, so he could do that.
He climbed aboard and wove into the cockpit, careful to be sure no one was watching as he slipped in. He jerked back a bit when he realized Jason was there as well in a ridiculous outfit. Somehow, neither Jason nor Alfred had noticed them. He and Damian exchanged looks with a hidden plan. Then Dick dropped Damian on top of Jason and glomped Alfred as Damian squirmed to hug Jason.
"Wha-?" Jason spluttered, staring down at the little blob of toddler.
"Hi!" Dick said, releasing Alfred long enough to loop around for a proper hug.
"Dick!" Jason stood up, Damian hanging on around his neck. "Oh, kid? Uh… Dick! Hug me you as-jerk!"
"As-jerk?" Damian asked. Dick released Alfred and pulled Jason into a hug, Damian squashed in the middle.
"I missed you." Dick muttered to Jason.
"I missed you, too, Dickhead." Jason pulled back, but kept a hand on his brother's arm to keep track of his realness. Damian had snuck back over to his eldest brother. "Sit down. You look like you're about to fall over. Who's the kid?"
"This is Damian. Damian Wayne. Bruce and Talia's son and our little brother."
"Sounds like quite the story." Jason said eagerly.
"A story that will need to wait until Master Batman comes back, I'm afraid. No need to tell it twice. Why don't you fill Master Richard and Master Damian in on what he's missed while you're waiting?" Alfred interjected with a smile. "I do believe these belong to you." He said with a straight face, handing over a small tin of chocolate chip cookies. Dick's face lit up as he opened it.
"Cookie!" Damian said, reaching for one. Dick gave him one and handed another to Jason as they settled in to wait.
"And that's when they called us, to pick everyone up and take you guys to the embassy. You'll have to get a medical check, of course, but then Bruce will be able to pick you up officially and take you home. We've been saying he's been working closely with us, so he'll come as soon as B can slip away and get him. We'll figure something out for Damian's passport, I assume. They're most likely going to forewarn the airports about kids coming through with missing passports to go home, so we shouldn't run into trouble. Just lots of questions."
Dick nodded, sipping at a water bottle. Alfred had slipped out to hand water bottles to the rest of the kids, helping them open them if needed. Damian was curled up on his lap like a puppy, fast asleep. They looked up as the door to the cockpit opened. Alfred reentered.
"Everyone is aboard," he informed the two awake boys. Dick perked up, looking for Batman. "Master Batman will be here in a moment. He is double checking that everyone is secure, with their seatbelts on." They took the hint. Dick carefully maneuvered Damian into a sitting position so that he wouldn't slip before clicking the four part seatbelt around them. The child gave a soft murmur before falling back to sleep.
When Batman shuffled in, downcast with a firm scowl on his face from not finding his son, Dick couldn't help himself in commenting.
"Well, I thought you'd be happy to see me, but I can-" Bruce cut him off with a firm hug. "That's better." Dick muttered, tears starting anew as he hugged back just as firmly.
Damian woke from getting squished. He pushed against Batman's chest, and then blinked when he realized what he was pushing. He peeked up at his father, the crying bat who was busy hugging his previously missing eldest. "Hi." He said. Batman pulled back and looked down, his cowl masking a blink of surprise. "I'm Damian. Mother told me you were my father and Dick said that you're definitely not a vampire even though you kinda dress up as one."
Jason broke into laughter, quickly followed by Dick as Damian blushed.
"What?"
Even Bruce gave a small chuckle as he welcomed the newest addition to the family.
Story Behind This Chapter: The Bluemen should have been working on a plan to get the kids out ever since the Escape over a month before the climax. This chapter takes into account if they had a better plan and focused on getting the kids who were most successful in their experiments or who they felt could be extremely successful out and away before the League could catch them. It's a bit weird, really. But you get the reunion everyone wanted. I might write a follow-up chapter to this one, but for now I hope you liked it.
For background, the Bluemen managed to get a good three hours away, possibly more before the League even realized they had left. It was only by the anklet signal that Jason isolated that they were able to find them again. In other words, the League almost had to go back to the drawing board. Only one oversight saved the truck of kids. If you want, think if there was another truck that didn't have a kid with an anklet in it...
