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What about having morals was so hard for the Gotham underground to understand? It was a marvel how any crime could happen at all if they were all this stupid. He thought he had been very clear about his stance on human trafficking and anything to do with kids and then these stupid fucking low level goons try to pull this shit? Unbelievable.
It had been only a few months since his visit to the Titan Tower and the failed attempt at his replacement's life and he’d been busy. He’d obviously already made a name for himself, but there was such a large business aspect to being a crime lord that took forever to establish formally. He’d just finished a new wave of hiring, a process that genuinely took forever because of background checks, and all he wanted was something real to do.
He’d asked around and after some debating decided to make some sort of deal with someone, he honestly wasn’t even sure who to be honest, to get information on a trafficking ring he’d heard whispers of. So, now he was in a warehouse for a stupid ass meeting with some stupid ass lackeys to talk to some stupid ass crime lord who obviously wasn’t that important because he’d already forgotten their name.
And of course, of fucking course, they wanted to make his one break from paperwork even more unbearable than it already was by telling him that their boss was running behind and wouldn’t be there for another hour after their agreed upon time. “It's okay though.” One of the lackeys said, getting into his way as he tried to storm out, “Boss says we can offer you some good if you’d like to purchase anything in the meantime. We’ve got some good stuff right now if you want to check it out.”
This guy must have a death wish or something stepping in his way like that, but business was business and he needed to know more about this up and coming group anyways. They were sure to fizzle out quickly, but they were still part of the Gotham underground nonetheless and he needed information. “Get on with it then.” Annoyance clear in his voice despite the modulator distorting his words so harshly.
Still not getting the hint, seriously how stupid was this guy, he started walking and gestured for Red Hood to follow, turning his back to him as he went. As the guy showed off various weapons any drug store could sell and some drugs so low quality it almost made him mad, Jason started wondering how the hell these guys kept afloat. What did they even do? Sure the arms and drugs had been revealed, but if they were able to get valuable information on a trafficking ring they had to be doing something a little worse right? How had these guys even made half a name for themselves on this shit?
“Now, the rest of that is all just our basics. You know how it is. Keep all the decoy stuff on floor level just in case the bats try to bust the joint.” Oh my fuck they took him to their genuine base for a simple information exchange. These guys were genuinely dead meat the moment they tried to make a deal with literally anybody else. Not his monkeys, not his circus, he just needed the info and then he could let nature take its course.
He had exactly twenty stairs to ponder what the hell their main event goods were before they were upstairs and he realized that these guys really were the stupidest people in all of Gotham. Cells lined the walls, poorly made and not concealed at all, but most of them looked empty which was good. A young woman who didn’t seem half as harmed as he usually found trafficking victims, one of the working girls that had gone missing a week prior he’d been trying to find, looked at him and shrugged. She was as unimpressed at her captors as he was.
These absolute idiots thought he was trying to buy from them when he’d asked about intel on traffickers. He fought the green dulling the edges of his vision and tried to breathe his way through the disgust and rage trying to take control. He couldn’t kill them all yet, he needed at least an hour so he could get their boss there as well. How the hell was he supposed to stall them for an hour?
“You said you had ‘good stuff’ right now? I don’t see any.” He tried, forcing interest into his voice. It had been obvious all this was some sort of build up to the guy showing him some big grand thing he’d be trying to sell him. He had to swallow hard, trying to choke down the bile rising up his throat at the prospect of playing along with these stupid fucks sales pitch.
Luckily the idiot was too happy that his spiel was working to notice Hood's discomfort and charged forward, marching proudly up to a rusty steel door and opened it, wincing at the loud screech it made before straightening up. “This is our crown jewel. Feel free to have a look.”
The lights flicked on and he had to stifle an annoyed groan. In the center of the room, hands chained to the ceiling, was Robin. His mask was luckily still on and he didn’t look too worse for wear, but he definitely didn’t look great. Mouth gagged, hands tied, clearly he’d been struggling for a while before giving up. Goddamn it, there was no way he could wait this whole hour before the boss got there, but it’s not like he can just shoot up the place, there could be kids involved with this whole operation.
“How much for the bird?” He asked before he could stop himself. Jesus Christ he was seriously buying a child, he was going to be sick. It was for the greater good, he had to remind himself. The pit, the madness that had consumed him for so long, had told him he needed to kill this kid, was now completely gone. The only thing running through his mind over and over was no more dead Robins. It made him cringe a bit, slogans were never his thing, but if it worked it worked.
Robin, who had previously been entirely uninterested, was now staring at him in shock. Hood didn’t hurt kids. Hood didn’t do business with traffickers. He could see his supposedly genius little brain trying to figure out what was happening and only coming up blank, which worked in his favor really. If Tim was clueless then nobody, especially not one of these idiots, would suspect anything amiss with this transaction.
“I think the boss would like to set a price for this one, you can wait until he gets back and then we can work something out.” It was soooo hard not to shoot this guy. Really, Jason should be winning some sort of award right now. “You can play with him until the boss gets back if you want, I’m sure nobody will mind if you plan on buying ‘em anyways.”
The urge to throw up was getting harder to ignore, but he persisted. “Sounds like a plan. That door doesn’t lock from the inside does it? Wouldn’t want to get locked in here after we’re left alone.” Just focus on killing the guy, you can do this, don’t throw up in your helmet, you'll regret it, he tried to soothe himself in his head. “And there’s no cameras right? It would be a shame to have so much fun and have it get leaked.”
He made the poor decision to look over at Robin and see how he was handling this, silently wishing the boy could tell he was just pulling shit out of his ass. Instead, he saw an absolutely terrified kid who was now struggling against his chains, looking exhausted but scared enough to keep trying to get away. He could hear him attempt to talk, words muffling as they passed through the gag. He was so going to shoot everybody in this building as soon as he got the information he needed, maybe even bring back the duffle bag method and hand deliver the heads to B when he drops off Timmy as a message to keep a better eye on his kids.
“No need to worry Red Hood, this room is built for everything you’re looking for. Soundproof, no cameras or bugs, door doesn’t lock automatically.” The man assured, completely unaware of how bad the crime lord wanted to shoot him directly in the face. “I’ll leave you to play with your new toy, I’ll come knocking when the boss gives us a price.”
And with that, they were left alone in the dimly lit room. He looked back over at the boy, blood now dripping in small lines down his arm from where the cuffs were cutting into his wrists. “Shit.” He muttered, walking closer to the thrashing boy only to be kicked backwards by frantic feet. “Kid, I’m not going to hurt you okay? Jesus. Just let me get you out of those fucking chains and quit fucking kicking me. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
It took a lot longer than he hoped, but eventually he was able to get close enough to get the cuffs off the boy and let him rest on the floor for a bit. He tossed him a knife, feeling only a little bad when the boy flinched at it. “Get that gag off, we need to talk.”
They were both aware that the knife wasn’t necessary for the removal of the gag, and if it was then Hood could have done it himself. This was his form of a peace offering, showing that he genuinely did mean no hard by giving up a weapon so the kid could use it for his own self defense. The gag was off a few moments later, and now with the majority of his face in view he could see that Robin really did look like shit.
“What do you want?” His voice was hoarse from disuse and probably the screaming earlier. “I thought Red Hood didn’t hurt kids.”
“Are you not listening to me Replacement, I just said I’m not gonna fucking hurt you okay?” Hood groaned. All this repetitiveness was getting annoying and he still sort of wanted to kill the kid, so maybe he should shut the hell up. “How long have you been here?”
Now curled up in a little ball, legs tucked to his chest as he sat on the floor looking incredibly defeated, Tim looked a lot more like a kid than he’d ever seen. “Why do you care? You just freaking bought me. Why did you do that? I thought hood hated traffickers.”
“Look you little shit, I don’t want to buy you but you’re kind of fucking up my whole plan by being here so I need you gone and the most covert way I can do that is to buy you. Happy now?” He snapped, taking an aggressive step forward and making the kid scramble back. He let out a huff of air, “I just want to make sure you’re okay. It’s nothing about you, just that you’re a trafficking victim and so I’m just treating you how I would anyone else. Now, how long have you been here?”
All the fight left his body and he let himself sag against the wall behind him. “Two days maybe. Can’t see any windows, but it’s been a while.”
How the hell was this kid, one of Batman's kids, stuck in a place run by absolute fucking morons for two days? Hasn’t he learned his lesson last time? “Why hasn’t the Bat come for you yet?” The resulting facial expression told him all he needed to know. The kid definitely snuck out and Bruce had absolutely no clue he was missing. Fuck. “Goddamn it Replacement. Don’t do stupid shit okay? No more dead Robins.”
That got him a raised eyebrow, but neither acknowledged the comment. Instead he studied the boy, how he was losing what little energy he had left as the adrenaline wore off, how pale and skinny he looked. If he was keeping up the same behaviors that came up during his little rant at the tower, he’d say all of that was just the sleep deprivation, but he had been held captive for two days so who knows what other factors could be in play. “Have they fed you at all? When was the last time you ate?”
His stomach let out a comedically timed growl and he winced. “They gave me a few snacks here and there, most of their food goes to the guards and other prisoners. They said that since the demand for me would be so high they didn’t need me in pristine condition.”
“That’s disgusting.” Gagging was a very strange sound through the modulator, he realized, but that was the least of his worries for now. It was so disgusting to hear other human beings be talked about like animals, really even hearing an animal being talked about like this seemed wrong, maybe he’d join Damian in his vegetarianism eventually after all. “Okay, new plan. I’ll set up a meeting with this dude later or something, first things first I’m going to buy you and then we’re going to get some Batburger.”
“Gee, thanks.” Tim deadpanned, “I’ll take a nap while you go do whatever. Have fun.” He slumped back against the wall and was limp within seconds.
Muttering a curse, he made sure to check the kids pulse before deciding he really did need to get him out of there now. He couldn’t check his pupils while they were in there due to the domino, so he trusted that there was no concussion and all his lethargy was caused by the lack of food and sleep.
He quickly made a call, asking his right hand man to bring a shit ton of money to the warehouse as fast as possible and not ask any questions. The request was filled quicker than he thought, his men were such neat people, and he handed the whole duffle bag to the one guy who’d shown him around, claiming he couldn’t wait to get the birdie home and would pay anything the boss wanted extra at their next meeting before grabbing the kid and getting the fuck out of there.
Batburger was not an option at this point, obviously since the kid was still unconscious, but he’d heard that Dick was still in town so maybe he’d drop by a safehouse or two just to check his options. He really didn’t want to go back to the manor and was honestly debating on kidnapping the kid to avoid that.
It must have been his lucky day, (obviously it wasn’t but still), Dick was at the first apartment he checked. Obviously he couldn’t just knock on the door with an unconscious Robin, so he broke in through the window, one arm wrapped around the sleeping boy and the other pulling the two of them up and into the room.
Instantly there was movement, a petal stick placed on his neck as he made eye contact with a furious and panicked Dick Grayson, out of costume but seemingly not caring about hiding identities. “Put the kid down.” He threatened.
“Always so dramatic Dickiebird,” He let out a sigh that sort of sounded like something out of Star Wars and laid Tim down on the couch gently, just as he had been planning on doing when he arrived. “The kid's starved and probably dehydrated. Tell the Bat to keep a closer watch on his baby birds, a one out of three survival rate wouldn’t look good on him.”
And with that he left back out the window, trusting Nightwing of all people to take good enough care of an overworked recently freed vigilante kid. God, if Bruce lost track of one more kid he would personally go to the manor and shoot him in his stupid face talk some sense into him