A Dragon's Hoard

TCOC - Altruism Versus Apathy

Tom started coming to consciousness, surrounded by a rumbling hum. He woke in darkness, realizing his hands were fixed behind his back. The zip ties dug into his wrists as he tugged against them. His legs kicked up against what seemed to be a box around him. It didn't take a genus to recognize he'd been tossed into a car's trunk. He was surprised he hadn't been thrown into some bigger transport crate with the other passengers on the train. He stopped at that thought. Come to think of it, they hadn't attacked any of the others, aside from the one the smoke grenade fell on. Just him and that glove dude.
With a sudden tug with all his might, pressing against his back, the ties snapped. He rubbed his slightly burned wrists. He had just started feeling his way around the trunk when there was a loud thud from above. Loud enough that he wasn't sure if it had dented the car or not. He could feel the car swerve. He shrunk back at the sound of the car's metal casing warping. He could hear the trunk pop open, much to his surprise, but, as he couldn't see the light of the outside world, he realized he had a bag over his head. He felt someone drag him out of the trunk a hoist him up onto their shoulder. The rushing wind made the entire experience even more confusing. He felt them jump with him still on their shoulder. After a considerable moment of free fall, they broke into a sprint in the opposite direction of the car.
Tom felt them round a corner. He huffed, kicking off of their shoulder. He meant to land on his feet, but was inhibited by not actually knowing where the ground was, instead tumbling into a roll. He managed to get to his feet, tugging the bag off, ready to fight or flee. He stopped as he laid eyes on the person in question. It was the glove dude, standing there with his hood up and a slightly confused look about him.
"Calm down. I'm trying to help you."
Tom blinked at him, using half of his willpower to ignore the pain in his shoulder from landing on it. He forced an indignant look on his face to, if nothing else, retain his pride. "What? Just stage an assault on a moving car on your own, are you crazy??"
"You were  literally the only one they took! I didn't want to rally all those poor people into following me to get you back."
"Did it ever occur to you to, I dunno... call the police?"
".....police..?" He had an oddly confused look on his face as if he'd never heard the word before.

They couldn't continue their back and forth before they heard the shrieking of rubber against asphalt. Gloves dude turned on his heel just as the revving car came speeding around the corner. Tom let out a prolonged frustrated groan, grabbing glove dude's sleeve and dragging him in the opposite direction of the car. He let go, breaking into a sprint. He ducked into an alleyway. There was a loud pop and a whiz as Tom let one of the grapples on his gloves fly, dragging him up towards the roof of one of the buildings. He pulled himself over the edge, running diagonally to maybe cross to the other street from the top of the building. He realized halfway across the building that there was no way for glove dude to follow him. He was about to curve back to the edge of the building, expecting him to be in the alley, but was surprised at what caught the corner of his view. He spun around, now walking backwards, to see glove dude in the air. A pair of white reptilian wings had sprouted from his back, the pale flaps between a sky blue, the same color as his hair. He had barely a moment to observe this before he was back to flying, specifically diving, towards Tom. Tom didn't know how to react, whether he should dodge, run, or just go with it. He ended up just sorta standing there, befuddled at what to do, before gloves dude grabbed him around the waist, lifting him off the ground.
Tom flailed. "WHOA whoa! I did NOT agree to this!" Tom kicked off of him. Gloves dude tried frantically to keep a hold of him. Tom activated his rocket boots, attempting to fly alongside him. He barely sustained flight for a few moments before they sputtered out. Tom fell. Gloves dude dove after him. Tom grappled one of the buildings, swinging around and back into another alley. He tumbled into a roll, unable to coordinate enough to lead it onto his feet.
Glove dude landed outside the alley, jogging in to him."What were you thinking?!"
"I had it I swear! The boots are just... still in prototype..." Tom winced, pushing himself onto his hands and knees while brushing dirt and gravel off his shoulders. "...What even are you anyways... Are you even from around here?"
Glove dude laughed slightly. "I'm Saran. I'm a dragon... And a dimension traveler." He held out his hand to help him up.
Tom took it, letting him pull him to his feet. "Thomas. Dimensional wanderer."
Saran's face seemed to light up. "You're a dimension traveler too?"
"More or less." Tom stretched. "Would've never expected you to just... reveal the wings to whoever happened to be watching."
He shrugged. "I'd call it an emergency situation. At least the car's gone." They headed for the mouth of the alleyway.

"Anyway... it was nice meeting you, Saran, but I've got somewhere I need to be, so, catch you later." Tom saluted him before walking in the other direction.
"And I don't, so I'm going with you."
"What."
Saran jogged to catch up with him. "You've got people after you. They gassed an entire train to kidnap you. They've gotta be pretty desperate."
"I've seen worse. I've survived through worse. Chill, I can handle it."
"Better safe than sorry." He slipped his hood off. "So, where're you headed?"
Tom rolled his eyes, sighing. "A dimension traveler outpost. Was hoping to get some advice as to where would be a good place to find more advanced parts for the rocket boots." Tom held up the slip of paper. Saran tilted his head to read what was on it.

Tom heard Saran's pace falter. He collapsed mid stride. Tom slowed to a stop, slipping the paper back into his pocket. He was about to crouch down to inspect what was wrong when he felt a sharp pain in his neck.
It didn't take him a moment to realize it was a dart and there was a sniper and... everything was black.