Whumptober 2021

23) It's a Little Broken, but Still Good- DCU

A/n- Prompt #23- You break it you buy it. DCU: Robin Tim a few months after Red Hood showed up at Titan's Tower

Tim huffed as he darted down an alleyway. Shouts and pounding feet echoed close behind. His ribs and shoulder throbbed in harmony with his heart, pulsing reminders that his disaster of an encounter with Ja- Red Hood- had only been a few months ago. The casts had only come off a couple weeks ago.

Maybe Bruce did have a valid point when he'd put his foot down to Tim patrolling alone (not that Tim actually listened- see current predicament).

Raucous laughter assaulted his ears. Small comfort it differed from the maniacal giggle of the Joker's crew, but Black Mask lackies didn't rank much lower.

Something slammed into Tim's upper back, sending him sprawling. Air vacated his lungs. Pain shot through his still tender ribs. 'Come on, come on, come on!' But Tim's limbs suddenly weighed two tons. His vision swam. 'Batman is gonna kill-'

Blackness swallowed him before he could finish the thought.

Awareness came with piercing agony running through Tim's shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. His breathing involuntarily hitched in a futile effort to mitigate the pain. Sudden silence wrapped around Tim. He mentally cursed himself, but whatever drugs still flowing through his system kept him from realizing he was surrounded by definitely hostile persons.

The blindfold might have also had something to do with it.

Something, presumably someone's foot, struck Tim's gut. He huffed out a gasp, realizing on top of being hogtied and blindfolded, a strip of cloth had been shoved in his mouth while another wrapped around his head to keep it there. 'Great.'

Tim felt like screaming into the void, but his ribs didn't think they'd take to breathing deeply at the moment.

"Boss said it's time to bring him up."

Idly Tim noted that there'd been no sound of anyone coming or going, indicating a comms system of some sort. That would make escaping that much more difficult if they (which he was still fuzzy on exactly who "they" were) could give updates to people across the building.

Rough hands yanked Tim upward. The motion increased the tension on the chain keeping Tim's arms bound to his ankles. He let out a muffled yelp, before biting it down when he heard laughter from the goons around him.

The men holding Tim half carried/half dragged him along. His shoulders protested violently at the strain but Tim couldn't do anything about it at the moment. Noises of a lot of people grew closer.

"-something special for the final bid tonight." Tim shuddered at the oily pleasure oozing in Black Mask's voice. "The most recent Bat Brat!"

Without warning the men holding Tim dropped him. His knees thudded on the hard ground, followed by a painful faceplant when he couldn't catch his balance. Coarse laughter rang through the room. Rather than flop around like a fish, Tim opted to conserve strength and stay where he'd landed... for now.

"Many of you have a bone to pick with the Bat and his nuisance, I myself included. Yet, if you'll make it worth my while, I will gladly give the honor to someone else."

More like even Black Mask didn't want to face the wrath of Batman when he came looking for his lost bird. Though most would deny it, the Batman that roamed the streets after the second Robin's... disappearance still elicited shivers of fear in the villains of Gotham. That didn't mean they always cared about self preservation. A sudden kick to the ribs seemed to accent the point.