Friends with the Enemy

20) Cat-and-Mouse

Happy Mother's Day!

Selina and Dick snapped their heads to the voice and widened their eyes. The gang had entered through the back door and were ferociously glaring at them.

The man with the tattoo pushed through his crew. He smirked. "Hah, I knew you bastards would be here. Once I noticed one of my keys was gone, we came running back here. Oh yeah, nice costumes." He taunted. The gang began to... well, gang up on them.

Selina tightened her grip on the knife and whispered quickly to Dick. "Change of plans. I'll fight them off while you free the cages. I'll try to prevent them from getting to you, but it's unlikely that I'll be able to fend all of them at a time. Remember everything you've learned." She gave the knife to Dick and took out her whip.

Dick yelped and ducked as a short man came leaped at them. Selina easily dodged and kicked him in the face. She threw her whip at three other men's feet, causing them to roughly fall over. Unfortunately, another four men were already behind her, preparing to attack.

Dick wanted to help but one: he couldn't fight, and two: he had a job to do. He scurried to the cages and began to cut the thick rope with the knife. He heard the lion in the cage roar weakly. "It'll be okay." Dick murmured with hope.

He sawed as quickly as he could while he heard the grunting and yelling of the fighters. As soon as he finished cutting the rope to one cage, he immediately moved to the other. He felt a tap of his shoulder.

He turned around to find a fist flying towards his face. Dick instictively ducked. The man widened his eyes, stunned that the boy was able to react so quickly. Dick hesitated for a split second, also surprised at himself, but quickly recovered.

Dick let go of the fist and ran around the cage in circles as he was chased by the gangster. Another man joined the race to catch Dick. They went in opposite directions, trapping him in the middle. As they both ran towards him, Dick panicked and chose to use his acrobatic skills and backflipped into the air, causing the two men to run head first into each other. They stumbled on the floor and clutched onto their heads in pain.

Dick smoothly landed onto the dusty ground and smiled. I'm not as bad at this as I thought!

He redirected his attention back to the animals and headed back to the rope that he was halfway done cutting. After a few more ropes and less interruptions he had about three left. There were about eight animals in the room, which wasn't a lot, but it took quite a few seconds to hack through the thick restraints.

Dick looked back at Selina. She had taken down most of the men, but he could tell that she was beginning to get tired. Her punches were slower and she didn't dodge as quickly. With all the noise they were making, someone had gone in to see what was the cause. They quickly understood the situation and called for more goons.

Dick suddenly yelped in pain. He looked down to his hand and realized that he had cut himself. He stuck his finger in his mouth and sucked the blood. There was no time to waste on a treatable injury, so he moved onto the last ropes remaining.

When he was at the final rope he heard a few footsteps approach him. "Robin, watch out!" Selina warned huskily from a distance.

Dick looked up to see three men hovering over him. One of them, the man with the tattoo, reached out their arms to grab him but he crawled underneath his legs. He was feeling rebellious and even kicked him 'where the sun don't shine.'