Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 16

Damian and Marinette were sitting back to back in metal seats, Marinette's far smaller hand grasped one of Damian's fingers firmly- like a child. She needed to be sure that Damian was there behind her, it was one of the few things keeping her calm as she worked out an escape plan. The girl did her best to focus, but was terrified. Once Marinette could get her and Damian out of the new plastic cuffs secured together, she knew she could get them out. It had to have been at most ten hours since the two were kidnapped and the room was dead silent when three men walked into the room, Marinette tensed at the new men, Damian turned to see Penguin and two well armed goons walk in. Damian pulled his finger from Marinette's grasp; any sign of attachment or familiarity would be very, very bad.

"Hello, Junior, how is it that you and your pops always know where to get the best help? Jeeves was always so polite, does he need any extra work because I might have some... extra cash soon and he'd be a great help.'' Damian remained impassive, neither knew of the other's experience so they were stuck waiting for the right moment to fight without risking the other.

"Now what's with the look? Just trying to make some conversation." He glanced at the person Damian was back to back with.

"Who's the girl?" Penguin asks one of the goons that took them.

"Had the same class as him. The only way we got him to leave without trying anything." The short man nodded.

"How long do we have left?"

"Bats should be here in a few hours, we did as you said: got rid of the watch." Damian made a note that the watch was compromised.

"Perfect, now what should we do to entertain our guests?" Cobblepot laughed, Damian knew he was an idiot but he couldn't think of anything better. "Shorty, why don't ya-"

"What? Need your goons to do all the dirty work?" That quieted the room.

"Watch your mouth, boy," The man warned, Marinette turned her head.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Marinette hissed.

"Why? Scared someone might realize you're really just a weak, disfigured bird brain?" Penguin's face scrunched in anger immediately punching Damian across the face. He chuckled as he slowly brought his head back up.

"Your punches are weak, and almost as pathetic as you!" The look in the man's eye promised pain but it's better all the attention stay focused on him than Marinette.

Nightwing was following a river as he raced down the path towards where the tracker said Damian's watch was. Finally, the man stopped and got off his motorcycle, he was in the middle of nowhere. Dick approached the riverbed and saw a bag, everything else was pristine. Inside were two phones and a watch. Damian's watch.

"Shit." Nightwing turned back to his bike and used his communicator to give everyone the bad news. At least they knew Damian and Marinette were likely together; Damian would keep them alive until Dick could find them.

"The chatter's been nonexistent, whatever this was, it was totally under the radar."

"They have to be out of town, the police have checked everywhere and so have we. We don't have too long until the first 24 are up." Red Robin said, everyone knew they were racing against the clock.

"Let's look at Gotham criminals with property outside of the city. Then narrow it down to people with the proper resources." Signal recommended, returning to the batcave after helping the police search for the missing teens.

"We can narrow that further by looking for those with purely monetary goals. Only a few would have the resources to pull this off." Tim added, typing as he did so. Nightwing made his way back to Gotham.