Whumptober 2021- day fourteen
Under pressure
Crush injuries, beaten, force

Dick is behind the wheel when they crash, and he takes the brunt of the injuries.

Dick hadn't been in a car chase for a while, but it turned out it was kind of like riding a bike. If you were being chased by other people. And the bike was like two tonnes. And crashing the bike meant most likely killing upwards of ten people. So really it wasn't anything like riding a bike.

Dick was behind the wheel, and once he managed to take a breath and get his head on straight he was able to sink back into a calm state and focus on nothing but the road.

Slade was in the passenger seat, but its not like he could give directions. He was too busy hanging halfway out the window and firing at the people following them.

Dick's hands were white-knuckled on the wheel and gear-shift. Traffic erupted into chaos in their wake, but he made do.

"brake!" Slade hissed as Dick approached an intersection, the lights were red and the oncoming traffic was about to move. Dick scowled as Slade lurched in his seat, expecting destruction.

He dropped a gear just before he hit the lights and the car raced through. And he left it on the lower gear as they drove down the stretch of road. One car had managed to follow them through the crossing traffic but the rest must have broken away to head them off. The car was approaching fast and Slade leant towards the back seat for a gun.

Dick picked up speed again, and then as he hit the turn he let the car reach about half way before he yanked on the handbrake and turned the wheel, pulling the car into a sharp turn and barrelling down the street, wheels screeching before he could push the brake down again. Slade hissed a curse as the motion put him off balance and he thudded into Dick's seat before he could sit straight again with the gun in hand. Dick flicked his eyes up at the rear-view mirror, letting out an annoyed grunt and he noticed the tail had managed to pull off the turn as well.

"Try not to kill us," Slade said, about to aim out the window again. He ducked away at the last second and a barrage of gun fire ripped shot through the side mirror, sending mirror shards flying and shredding a fist-sized hole in the metal.

Dick caught two cars turning onto the road and recognised them as the vehicles he'd lost before. They were stuck between.

"how high is the car lifted?" Dick asked as Slade fired a few shots in retaliation.

"what?"

"never mind. Hold on."

"what-"

Dick gunned it and drove the car over the enter island, the underside scraping. Traffic squealed around them but Dick ignored it and sped down a turn before the chasing cars could pin them between them.

"Jesus Christ."

"shut up and handle the fucking tail!"

"I'm trying but you drive like a lunatic!"

Dick ignored Slade in favour of taking a sharp turn that almost sent Slade's head slamming into the door.

"mature."

Dick slammed the breaks on and Slade jerked against his seat belt.

"WHAT THE FU-"

"DOWN!"

Dick tugged Slade down as bullets rained through the windscreen.

There was a blockade of cars across the street, and Dick was sure their three tails were now behind them.

"We need to get out of here," Slade said, unbuckling his seatbelt, "can you turn down-"

"I can't drive if I can't sit up!"

"I'll cover-"

"I think they've got enough guns to point at both you and me."

"then we need to-"

the car was blown up before Slade could finish his sentence.

Slade came back to awareness pretty quickly, thanks to his enhancements.

The cars was upside down, but he'd taken off his seatbelt so he was slumped against the roof of the car. He could hear shouting, and distant sirens.

The good news was it didn't look like the car itself had exploded, just that something else had blown up and sent the car flying. He couldn't hear anyone getting close, they were likely waiting to see of he or Dick came out on their own.

He looked over to the driver's seat.

Dick was being held upside down. The seatbelt looked like it was choking him. there were cuts along his arms, which were hanging limp. The door had burst inwards and was now pressed against his side and thigh, Slade could see blood soaking through the material of his pants already.

Another quick check out of the empty and crushed windscreen revealed they were no longer on the road. The car seemed to have been blown off the higher levels and gone careening down to the ground.

That gave him some time to get Dick out and go.

He shifted his position so he could brace himself and kick the crumpled mess of his door off the hinges. He had to crawl his way out, a few sharp jagged edges scraping at his shoulder blades, but he didn't really care. He brushed broken glass off his hands, looking up through the crisscrossing lanes of traffic, then walked around to the driver's side.

He pulled off the rest of the glass clinging to the edges and then grabbed the frame of the window and pulled the door away. He held Dick by the torso as he undid his seat belt and then pulled him out.

His thigh was covered in blood and there was a nasty looking wound from the door. His aside from the cuts along his arms it looked like he also had a break somewhere in his wrist.

It was his calf that worried him. it looked like it had been crushed when the front of the car crumpled in on itself, similarly to the way the door got him, and his ankle was twisted the wrong way.

He heard sirens in the distance.

He hauled Dick into his arms and strode for the nearest car that looked old enough to hotwire. He punched a window in and unlocked it, then laid Dick out on the backseat. He got in the driver's side and set to work. By the time the car was running there were red and blue lights flashing in the distance. He drove off before they could get a good look at the car, already planning where they'd need to stop next, how to get a new vehicle, and what to do about Dick's injuries.

He was brought out of his thoughts as Dick groaned, moving on the backseat.

"Put pressure on your wounds," Slade said, forcing his voice to remain steady, "I have an old safe house somewhere around here, I'll patch you up when we get there."

Dick didn't show any sign that he'd heard Slade.

"Grayson."

Dick grunted an acknowledgement, and one of his hands shakily pressed against his thigh. Slade could hear his ragged breathing, shallow and erratic, and he gripped the steering wheel tight to focus himself.

"Stay awake for me kid," Slade said.

His only answer was a burst of coughing, and then choking, and then a panicked kind of yelp as Dick shifted on the back seat and leaned over the footwell. Slade heard him spit, and then continue coughing, gulping down air every now and then.

Slade's hands were white-knuckled and he forced himself to focus on the road as he listened to Dick. "you okay back there?"

"'m bleeding."

"Yeah I noticed."

"No," Dick groaned, slumping completely against the seat as he spat again, "inter'nly."

"shit."

Dick's answer was to launch into a coughing fit again.

"I think 't migh' be the-" Dick coughed and spat, "the- bullet... wound."

"When did you get shot?" Slade said.

"didn' get 'nthe car fast 'nough."

"That long ago? Fuck, Dick why didn't you mention it-"

"kinda... being chased, Slade," Dick managed, "was gonna... though."

"that makes me feel much better, yeah, to know that you were gonna tell me."

Dick snorted a laugh, but then broke into a coughing fit again.

"Okay, try to keep your lungs inside you," Slade said, "if you couch 'em up I'm not putting them back in."

"Don' make me laugh... hurts."

"Okay," Slade sighed, sitting just over the speed limit as he made his way to his safe house, "okay, just hold on, kid."

Dick's only answer was his labouredbreath.