Across || Tim Drake + Avengers Crossover

Chapter 27

"Well, there's good news and there's bad news."

Damien grumbled as his brother's voice rang in his ear. "What is it?" He snapped, making the kid beside him jump. Damien discretely rolled his eyes, but motioned to his ear, signifying that he wasn't talking to him. The boy nodded and hurried up, trying to keep up with Damien's fast pace.

"Well, the good news is that I know exactly where the keys are. The bad news is, that they're in the main room. There's about fifteen or so guys in there and without your weapons, I'm not sure you'll be able to get through."

Damien snickered. "What about Grayson and Todd?"

"Well, they're currently at the meeting point, but it looks like it's going to get busy so I wouldn't count on them."

"Fine."

Damien pressed the button at his ear, ending the transmission on his side of the comms. He debated on just putting the child following him back into the cage where he'd be safe and just going to his brothers as he'd planned to do originally. It wasn't that bad of an idea, save for the fact that it would be cruel for the boy and it would hurt his pride as Robin.

Damien hadn't planned on bringing the child with him, but had somehow done exactly that. Before picking the lock of the cage he'd been trapped in, he'd told what he was about to do to some of the older boys there so they could keep everyone calm so he wouldn't get caught. They'd been fine with that, but weren't fine with just Damien leaving by himself despite promises of return and helping them get their freedom back.

Upon agreeing that it would be too dangerous for all of them to go, they'd nominated the second oldest there to go with him, a small, dark haired boy by the name of Samuel Winters. The idea was for the two of them to steal the keys keeping everyone captive and then go their separate ways; Damien to his brothers to retrieve his weapons and gear whilst Winters took the keys back to the cage so that if worse came to worst, their captors wouldn't be able to get into the cages or harm anyone.

Having nothing else to win their trust, Damien had promised them on his honor as Robin. Not that it meant anything to the boys, but he had, and it was in his conscience to uphold his end of the deal.

"Shhh," Damien pushed Winters back as they crouched next to the corner. So far they hadn't come across anyone in the halls which was strange in all honesty. They'd had a couple of people around the cages, but other than that, no one was around in the long hallways.

Damien peeked around the wall, spotting a door at the end of the corridor. It was in there that the two had to go to get the keys and if Drake had been correct, resided a large group of their captors.

The thought of going straight for the door just barely crossed Damien's mind, but immediately flitted out. He was sure these people weren't properly trained nor had particular experience in fighting from what he'd felt as he was being kidnapped. The brutes were somewhat clumsy and uncoordinated, but what they did have, was strength in numbers. And then again, there might be stronger dudes in there and Damien wasn't going to take any risks, particularly with a civilian at hand.

No, this wouldn't do. He had to find another way. Damien scanned around, spotting a vent shaft relatively high up. He grinned. "Winters, come here."

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Damien grunted, shoving Winters up higher on his shoulders as he struggled to enter the vent. Unfortunately, they'd both been too short to easily reach it and although it wasn't a problem for Damien to get into the vents, it clearly was for the other boy. They'd been trying unsuccessfully for a while now.

"O-okay I got it." Winters clambered up with great difficulty, but made it nonetheless. He huffed, trying to catch his breath. Damien grumbled and shook his head. That took way too long.

"Move further inside; I'm going to enter." Damien instructed, shaking out his arms.

Winters complied. "Wait, don't you need-"

Damien took a step back, bending down and running at the wall adjacent to the vent before jumping and rebounding off it to hang onto the vent's mouth easily. He slid in gracefully and replaced the vent lid.

"... a hand up?"

Damien smiled smugly at the boy's dumbfound expression. As he should be. "Move over and stay here. I'll be back."

"What? You're just gonna leave me here?"

Damien ignored him and just continued crawling in the space, moving further away from the other boy. If he had any sense, he'd stay put until Damien came back.

"W-wait, I can help!"

Damien rolled his eyes. "Don't be delusional, Winters. Stay here." The boy shut up, frowning slightly in the darkness of the vent.

If he was being honest, Damien had been eager to get Winters into the vent so that he'd be hidden if anyone decided to roam the hallways while he got the keys. Of course, entering the room via vent wasn't really that different from kicking down the door; seeing as it wasn't going to reduce the number of enemies nor remove the element of surprise. But at least he'd be getting a tiny advantage of having a visual of the room layout before entering.

He peeked down into the room they were in through the vent tiles. Sure enough there were a good fifteen guys in the room, talking loudly with each other while eating various foods. It appeared to be a break room of some sort. If Damien had to take a guess, most of the guys on hallway guard duty were probably slacking off in here.

He spotted a variety of keys hanging on a numbered key hanger and assumed that those were the ones he was looking for. It was a little annoying that they were all kept on separate hooks rather than on one loop, but Damien didn't see this as a big issue. As long as he didn't lose any while taking them.

He debated on what to do. As Tim had said, it was going to be significantly harder without his weapons and protective gear to take on everyone. However, seeing as it was a normal rectangular room and the vent was placed over the center, it was near impossible to go stealth.

Damien cursed inwardly. He shouldn't have left his utility belt for the sake of it not being found and taken away when he was captured. He hadn't wanted to risk losing his one convenient source of weapons in this dimension, being confident enough in his ability, but seeing as they hadn't even checked his clothes or items when kidnapping him, Damien regretted not bringing it along.

...Nevermind.

He thought for another moment, staring down at the traffickers and analyzing the contents of the room. His eyes honed in on a plastic cutlery set by a coffee machine in the corner of the room. It wasn't the best... but it may have to do. He counted two plastic forks roaming on the tables and spotted the paper cups filled with coffee scattered around the room.

Okay.

He reached a hand up to his ear. "Drake, cut the lights."