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.'
"Agh! What a brat! Get that damn roach!" The man cried as he put a hand weakly over the area that had just been hit. The other men obeyed and managed to get a hold of Dick's foot. He tripped and was dragged over the hard floor. This scraped his right cheek.
Dick grunted as he kicked his foot backwards, planting his shoe harshly onto the gangster's eye. He let go of Dick's foot and pressed a hand against his eye with a grimace.
Dick took out a baton from his belt and struck the other man behind the head. He dropped to the floor, unconscious. Dick deeply inhaled and exhaled to catch his breath, but got back to work. He cut the last rope desperately.
He gave a faint smile for his mini victory, but it wasn't over yet.
"Selina, they're untied!" Dick called out. Selina smirked tiredly upon hearing this and kicked someone in the face. A moment later, even more goons entered the room, and this time they had guns.
"Run." Selina ordered, her voice deadly serious. Dick flinched but obeyed. He ran as fast as his little legs would allow and threw the doors open.
"Shoot them!" Someone shouted angrily. Selina tried her best to disarm the men without getting Dick or herself shot. "Hurry! Go!" Selina yelled.
Dick froze. He felt beads of sweat running down his forehead. Was he supposed to leave selina and the animals? He could never do that.
His moment of hesitation was interrupted when he heard the whistle of a bullet flying towards him. He swerved to the side, narrowly missing the bullet, earning a slight graze on the shoulder.
He bit his lip to hold in a cry of pain.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! He scolded himself. Dick made up his mind and ran towards the cages. This was quite possibly the most risky idea he's had yet.
"D-Robin! What are you doing!?" Selina excalimed as he whipped the gun out of four men's hands.
Dick ignored her and ran to a tiger's cage. He opened the cage door and jumped out of the way.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and bewilderedly stared at them. "What the heck?!" Somebody shrilled.
The tiger hesistantly walked out of the cage. Once it was out, it gained it's confidence and growled at the men with guns. Some of them drops their weapons in fear while others kept their stance.
Meanwhile, Selina was slowly scooting away towards Dick while they were distracted. Her eyes were opened wide but she didn't look scared. She mouth whispered, "push."
He knitted his eyebrows. He turned to where she was looking at. Oh! He understood now. Selina wanted to push the cages through the hallway and to the exit which looked like... An elevator..?!
Dick wanted to pause everything like he was in a movie and re-evaluate his life choices. Unfortunately, he couldn't actually do that, so he decided to just listen to Selina and hope for the best.
"They're getting away!" A buff man bellowed. The men clearly didn't want to kill the animal, mainly because that'd be a loss of profit, but the tiger wouldn't move, so they aimed their pistols at it. Dick widened his eyes. "Hey! Over here! Na na nana na!" He taunted randomly. His distraction worked, and the men focused on him again. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, but Dick thought it was better that they focused on him rather than the animals.
The tiger bit someone on the leg while they weren't paying attention. The man gave a bloodcurdling scream, causing the other goons to jump back in fear.
"Here, kitty!" Selina called out, a bit of childishness in her voice despite the situation. The tiger looked back at her and let the man's leg out of its grasp. Selina had a ziplock bag with cat treats in her hands. The tiger sniffed into the air and came running towards them.
"Ah! C-Catwoman!" Dick stammered. Selina winked at him. "Follow my lead." She guided. She pushed a cage against another one, the force causing both of them to roll out of the room and out into the hallway. A few yells could be heard from outside the room afterwards. Dick understood what she was doing and also thrusted the cages down the hall.
The tiger was approaching quickly so Selina threw the bag of treats outside. The animal zoomed past her. Now that it was out of harm's way, Selina and Dick were ready to get the rest of the wild cats and themselves out of there.
The goons, once again, raised their guns to shoot. Selina didn't give them much thought, though, their aim wasn't the best. She and Dick continued to push the cages while avoiding the guns. A man ran up to them, his hand reached out to grab anybody, really. Dick pushed the cage and jumped on it, hurdling himself and the panther beneath him into the outside area, where it was utter chaos.
The free tiger was throwing tables and cabinets around while people were running away. Some of the cages were in the elevator, one was between the doors, preventing it from closing and moving to the next level. Others were scattered, but not too far from another one another. Dick looked back to the room and saw Selina holding a briefcase in her hands while fighting off the men. She grabbed onto the bars of the last cage in the room and propelled herself towards Dick and the rest of the animals.
The goons were right behind her tail; they needed to move fast. Dick jumped off the cage and gathered all the cages into the elevator. He was so grateful that this was a big elevator. He found the cat treats on the ground and shouted, "kitty, kitty!"
The tiger didn't listen. Oh, so he listens to Selina but not me? Rude.
Dick shouted again. This time he shook the bag into the air. Of course he couldn't hear through all the sound. Dick put two fingers into his mouth a blew. The loud whistle got his attention. The tiger came running towards him.
Dick crawled back onto the top of the cage from earlier to keep some distance from the tiger. The tiger snatched the bag from Dick's hands and ravenously chewed through it. Dick gulped and nervously waited for Selina to crash in. He watched as the cage she was riding hit them directly. The animals howled in displeasure.
"Close the door! Now!" Selina demanded anxiously. The elevator doors slowly closed as the men raced towards them.
Dick desperately clicked on the buttons, trying to rush the process.
.
.
.
They were really close now.
.
.
.
The doors were almost there!
.
.
Right as the doors closed, a thin man squeezed in. The doors shut completely.
Selina, Dick, and the man stared at each other wordlessly as the elevator music played. The man had his mouth agape. He appeared to suddenly regret his decision of entering the cramped area. He slowly reached for his gun.
Selina snorted and knocked him out. He dropped to the ground with a thud.
Dick and Selina stayed in silence as the elevator went up.
"Well, that was eventful, wasn't it?" Selina asked, although it sounded more like a statement than a question.
Dick simply nodded. He was able to finally catch him breath. Even Selina's chest was rising rapidly and sweat was dripping off her face.
The tiger seemed strangely content and sat in the corner quietly as he watched the unconscious man lying on the floor.
"Now what?" Dick wondered.
Selina let go of the cage bar she was holding onto when she noticed the leopard in the cage snarling at her. "Now we go to an animal center and turn them in. The people there will return them to where they belong."
The elevator doors opened at last. It seemed that they were in a rusty, old bar of some sort. Selina pushed a few of the cages while holding the briefcase in between her armpit and shamelessly walked passed the people drinking. The tiger calmly walked behind Dick.
The drinkers seemed incredulous at the sight but not scared. They must have been used to such odd occurrences.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Dick waved goodbye to the tiger and followed Selina out of the animal center. "Long day." She sighed. "But we did good. I'm especially impressed with you, bud. You did better than I expected."
Dick smiled. "Thanks. I was pretty scared, but I felt brave when I remembered that you were there."
Selina's smile faded. "Oh. You're hurt." She remembered as she observed the injury on Dick's shoulder. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad. She noticed the scrap on his cheek along with a few bruises, too. "We gotta patch you up."
Dick frowned. "No, it's okay! This is nothing. Don't worry about it." His wounds didn't hurt very much, but they definitely didn't not hurt. Still, didn't want to seem weak after everything that had just happened.
Selina didn't say anything until they got to the car. As she put the car on reverse she said, "You know, I'd prefer not to leave those animals in the care of the Narrows. It's dangerous there. Even if they are in a facility."
Dick glanced at her. "Selina, what exactly is the Narrows?"
Selina scrunched her eyebrows. "The Narrows... where do I even begin? Well.. it's possibly the poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhood in Gotham City."
"The police and government have basically given up on this place. Crime is normal here. Too normal. That's why we found a whole underground facility dedicated to illegal trade and activity. They've literally created a physical black market. Normally, people would be more secretive and careful, but there's no one here to stop them. People with money come here since it's the best place to get a hold of drugs or arms, as well as many other things."
She sighed. "It's pretty sad, actually. The people of the Narrows resort to this because it's all they can really can do, the whole area struggles with poverty. That's why those guys took the animals. They needed the money."
She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "Too bad I don't approve of their methods. The animals: they don't deserve to get hurt because of that. If they need money, they could resort to something else." Selina shook her head. "Yeah, I know that I was sympathizing just a second ago- after all, I can relate to an extent- but I get so angry when people treat animals like dirt."
She pursed her lips. "Maybe that's why I like cats so much. They know how to survive. They'll scratch you if they don't trust you, they'll act innocent for food, though, and they're sneaky. I especially that that sneaky aspect."
She smiled a bit and glanced at Dick. Her expression shifted to embarrassment. "Oh wow, I totally just started rambling. Sorry 'bout that.."
Dick waved his arms wildly. "No, no! It's fine! I like it when you talk about yourself. Actually, I like it when you talk about anything!" He assured.
Selina chuckled. "Um, okay. And...thanks."
Dick calmed down. He looked at the briefcase lying on the backseat. "So, did you use the key for the drawer? To get that?"
Selina nodded. "Yep. As I mentioned before, I don't like their methods of attaining cash. I don't really care how badly they need it. If they hurt animals, I don't approve. Before this mission, I wasn't able to save all of the wild cats; some were sold. I don't know what they'll be used for. Maybe they were skinned for their fur, maybe they'll be kept as pets. Either way, they suffer. So, of course, there's no way I'm letting those assholes keep the money."
Selina's eyes widened and her mouth made an 'o' shape. She brought a hand to her mouth in realization. "Yikes, I said a potty word."
Dick burst out laughing. "Selina, adults are aloud to say bad words!"
Selina took her eyes off the road for a second to smile at him. "Sure, but not in front of the children. The children must stay pure." She joked.
She brought her attention back to what they were talking about earlier. "Hey, remember when I said that I'd take you to whoever you'd like if I was right about the use of the key?" Selina asked.
Dick recalled the moment and grinned. "Yes!"
Selina raised her eyebrows. "Well, where do you wanna go? We've got plenty of money here to waste."
Dick hummed as he thought. What would be a place where we could both have fun? We should play games... and eat- oh gosh I'm hungry. Hmm... ooh!
"Let's go to a..." he snapped his fingers, trying to remember how to pronounce the word in English. "An arcade!"