In the Hands of the Enemy

Pick who dies, collars, kidnapped 

Robin sighed, smiling at their captor.

"you know, this is a very boring kidnapping situation, like," Robin shrugged as best he could when he was tied shoulder-down to a chair, "congratulations, I didn't think it was possible."

Wally snorted, smiling back at him, tied identically. He couldn't vibrate his molecules out, he was just as stuck as Robin. They were about six metres apart, facing each other.

"I'm glad you can find some enjoyment from this, Robin," Queen Bee said, leaning on the back of Wally's chair, "but, I have no interest in monologuing and torturing."

Robin didn't let his face fall, he kept up the smirk, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in his chair, "well, then, you may as well just let us go, we'll be out of your hair in no time."

Queen Bee laughed, a small quiet sound that screamed royalty, "oh, no, I don't have to be off for a while more, so I may as well enjoy myself will I have to leave."

Wally looked at her over his shoulder, not as good as Robin at masking the worry.

"So," Bee strutted off to the side of the room, "Robin, you're the level-headed one who can make decisions."

"aww, I'm flattered," he snickered.

She hummed and looked to one of her guards, "go get our civilian, and our collars," she ordered, then turned back to them, a dark metallic object in her hands.

Robin eyed the gun with a glare, Wally's eyes turned wide as a saucer once they landed on it.

"So," Bee smiled, strutting tot eh space between Robin and Wally, "let's play a game, shall we?"

The guard stormed in, carrying a man with a sack over his head, on his belt hung three inhibitor collars.

Bee smiled, charming, "fingers on buzzers, boys?"

"what the hell is this?" Wally hissed, glaring. Robin tried to give him a look that communicated how much he wanted him to shut up and let Robin take the lead here.

"this," Bee said, "is your escape plan."

She held a hand out to the guard and he placed the three collars in it, then turned and stood next to the door once again.

"so, you've managed to free your hands of the restraints, Robin, I'm not surprised," she smiled, drifting over to him and unlocking the handcuffs. She let them clatter to the ground, "but, alas, your feet are still tied, no matter you'll get to it."

Robin frowned, absentmindedly rubbing at his wrists.

"now, you and the incompetent mustard bottle over there will surely be able to remove the rest of your restraints and leave, but," she held up the collars, "oh, no, what a shame," she clicked one around Robin's neck, "you can't get the collars off."

As Bee made her way over to Wally Robin started at the restraints around his legs. he wasn't fast enough, as he stood, Bee managed to click the other collar on him. she then removed the bag from the final person's head and put a collar on him.

"Robin, you intelligent little mastermind, figure out that the collars will automatically kill all of you if you step outside this room," Robin stared, starting to make the connections, "however, the collars will automatically come off if one of them recognises the death of a person."

Robin swallowed, eyeing the gun still in her hand. She held it out to him by the barrel, "so I'll leave the decision to you."

Robin stared at it, "what's stopping me from just shooting you in the leg and using you as a hostage?"

"well, first off all, you would never kill me," she said, smiling, "second, if you fire that gun before the technology of the room recognises my absence the collars will automatically kill you all."

Robin stared at the gun. Batman's number one rule was that he didn't use guns.

"take the gun or my guard will manually set off your collars."

Robin swallowed and accepted the firearm, cold in his hand.

"it has one bullet, the safety is on, when you click off the safety a timer will activate and if the collar doesn't recognise the death of one of the three of you-"

"all of them explode, I got it."

"look at that, little mastermind, like I said," Bee smiled, patted him on the head, "Adieu."

She walked away, sauntered more like, with all the confidence in the world.

Robin turned back to Wally, who was staring at him. Robin didn't like the clear fear in his eyes so he instead checked who the civilian was.

"whoa re you?" Robin asked, kneeling in front of the man. He winced and shuffled away once he spotted the gun, Robin held his hands up placatingly then placed it on the ground away from him, "I'm not going to shoot you."

"so you will shoot your yellow friend?" he asked.

Robin glanced between the two, fear in his eyes, but he covered it quickly.

"we're going to find a way out of here that includes neither of you dying."

Robin tried to place his face, maybe Bee had grabbed some famous person or someone he should know?

No, he did not recognise this man. He was on the chubbier side, dark hair, blue eyes, wearing a rumpled slightly torn suit. The accent suggested British, the bland type not the cool funny northern accents.

"but she said-"

"I know what she said," Robin cut in, smiling in a forced way, "I don't care."

"My name is, uh..." he swallowed, "Dent. Brad Dent"

"cool. I'm Robin. Just Robin."

Dent nodded, "yeah, I know."

"cool, so you know I'm gonna get us out of here."

"well, I-"

"okay, KF," Robin stood, "what do you think?"

"uh," he said, "I think I'd like to get out of this chair."

"right, cool," Robin walked over and started undoing the ropes and unlocking the cuffs.

"so," Wally said, :the collar has to recognise one of us dying to unlock, maybe we can get them off?"

"that's a no," Robin said, "If Bee's smart, and she is, she'll have tripped them with something that makes them blow if I start messing about with them." He finished with the ropes, moving on to the lock picking, "plus, my computer is confiscated."

"okay, cool," Wally said, "uh, maybe we can..." Wally pursed his lips, "yeah, no, I got nothing, what about you Rob?"

There was silence, Robin was no longer moving.

"Rob?"

"what?" Robin asked, staring at the back of Wally's chair.

"thoughts?"

"yeah, still thinking," Robin said.

On the back of Wally's chair, hidden by the ropes and cuffs, was a computer screen. It was tripped by him undoing the knots. Robin stared as writing appeared on the screen.

'Hello, Robin,' the writing said, silent, Wally and Dent hadn't even noticed, 'Did you really think it would be that easy?'

'You have now tripped a timer, you have ten minutes to kill either Dent or Kid Flash, or all the collars will blow,' it said, 'I'll let you decide to tell them or not. However, the timer will accelerate exponentially once you click the safety, so quickly that you will only have approximately fifteen seconds before the gun's own timer overrides, depending on when you hit the safety, so make sure you've definitively made up your mind.'

And then the screen's writing turned into a wink-y face, before fritzing and turning off. Robin numbly finished releasing Wally from the restraints, standing with him and staring at the gun on the floor.

Ten minutes.

Well, less than ten minutes now.

"Robin?" Wally asked, "you okay?"

Robin shook it off, smiled at him, "fine, just trying to come up with a plan."

Robin swallowed and looked around the room, it was empty aside form their chairs and the guards on the doors. He didn't even have his utility belt, his gloves were gone, he considered himself lucky that they hadn't confiscated his mask.

"okay," Robin said, "okay, let's tech-student-talking-to-a-duck-toy this situation, okay."

"what?" Dent stared.

"okay," Wally said, "so we've got a gun."

"not helpful," Robin said, "the collars are rigged to explode if we leave the room, they will only come off if one of them recognises the death of one of us. Lucky guess, they probably keep track of pulse, body temperature and movement, so if we could remove those without killing one of us that'd be great."

"good luck with that," Dent said.

Wally forged on, "of we click the safety off the timer starts."

Robin winced. The timer was already on, how did he tell Wally that? "there's one bullet, guards on the door, if we can get out it'll be easy, Bee will already be out of here, Batman's information says she has to be back in Bialya by morning, she'll need to have left by now."

"okay," Wally said, "so realistically, it's easy once we're out of here, the guards are probably gone anyway, Bee doesn't want us dead, that's too much trouble form the league, and she doesn't have time to grill us for information."

"right," Robin said, "so you just need to get out."

Wally nodded, "we, dude, not you."

"right, yeah, we," Robin said, "okay, uh..."

"the league will be on their way," Wally said, "why don't we just wait?"

"that sounds good," Dent said, "Superman can come save us all."

Robin sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "yep," Wally said, sitting back in his chair, "we'll wait for superman."

Robin sat in his chair, his leg bouncing. The collar around his neck was no longer cold but it still felt horrible. He wanted it to shiver. The metal against his throat was like a hand slowly closing around it, he was quite sure if he sat here too long he'd choke.

"okay," Robin said, standing, "there's a ring around the room, if I can find a vent or something and sneak over."

"there's probably a range, Rob," Wally said frowning, "I don't think there's any over-under situation."

"right, okay," he started pacing, "uh..."

"don't worry, we will be saved by superman," Dent said, sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest.

"right, yeah, within ten minutes?"

Wally blinked, "probably not?"

"cool, cause that's all the time we have."

"what?" Wally asked, standing and stopping Robin from his pacing with hands on his shoulders.

"look," Robin grabbed his hand and lead him around to the back of the chair, where the computer sat with a dark screen, "it had a message from bee, in writing. By letting you out I tripped something that gave us ten minutes."

Wally blinked, "so we have ten minutes."

"less than" Robin said, "ten minutes since I let you out."

"okay," he nodded, "alright, uh..."

Dent started panicking, "so no superman? What do we do?"

Robin forced a smile, "it's gonna be okay, we'll get out of here."

"but- but, we-" he was breathing heavily, starting to rock back and forth, "oh my god, I'm gonna die in here."

"you're not gonna die," Wally said, "we just have to figure this out, okay, Rob?"

"yep."

"so what's the plan?"

Robin blinked, "what?" he frowned, "why do I have to think of the plan?"

"cause you're the planning guy, so what's the plan?" Wally said, doing finger guns, "come on, ma dude, I know you've got a plan."

"right," Robin said, starting to pace again, "okay, neither of you are dying."

"yep, see Dent, he's got a plan," Wally grinned.

"yep, okay, plan," Robin said, staring at the gun, turning to keep pacing and staring at Dent, turning, staring at the gun.

"so lay it on me," Wally said, "what are we doing?"

Robin gave him a dark look, "this," he grabbed the gun.

Wally's eyes went wide, he ran and grabbed the gun from him, "dude, what, we can't shoot him!"

"I'm not gonna shoot him!" Robin said, staring at Wally with complete shock, "are you kidding that's Batman's thing, no killing especially not with guns."

"oh," Wally blinked, "well, uh..."

Robin launched forward and grabbed the gun.

"okay, here's the plan," Robin said, "as soon as the safety's off we'll only have about fifteen seconds because according to the message the timer will accelerate."

"what?" Wally stared, "you didn't say that before!"

"I'm saying it now," Robin said, "so, here's the plan. You grab Dent and speed run him out of here in case there's any guards left here."

"right," Wally frowned, "I don't know the schematics of the building."

"you'll figure it out," Robin said, "I believe in you."

"aww," Wally smiled, "you wanna start flirting now?"

Robin snorted, "okay, wow, attention span much."

"hey you started it," he said.

"priorities, dude," Robin said, "so, grab Dent and go, don't stop till you're out of here."

"Okay," Wally frowned, "but what do we do first? To trick the collars?"

"we don't trick the collars," Robin shrugged, "we do this."

He clicked the safety off and held the gun to his head.

Wally lurched forward, "no, Rob wait!"

Robin let the gun drift from his head so he could punch Wally in the gut, just to get him to stop trying to confiscate the firearm.

Robin took a deep breath, closing his eyes, "Dent, you better do something with your life."

Dent had already passed out form fear.

Robin cracked an eye open, Wally was starting to stand, breathing heavy as he got past the ache.

"I'm sorry," he said, well aware he was running out of time.

"Rob, don't-"

"I love you," Robin said, taking a deep breath, "I'm sorry I had to tell you in a situation like this."

"Rob!"

And he pulled the trigger.

He fell, right into Wally's hands. The gun clattered.

There was blood everywhere, Wally didn't care. He could feel sobs coming, his eyes were starting to water. He rocked back and forth, Robin in his arms as the collars clicked off and fell from their necks.

"Robin," Wally whispered, "Robin, no, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

He sobbed, holding his friends close.

"Dick, please," he held back a scream, "please, no, I- please."

He didn't even get to say, 'I love you, too.'

A/N

so, no one's commented any preferences for which prompts I do, as per the last few notes, so I'm just going to do the ones I read and have inspiration for.