While both men occupied the front seats of the vehicle, Fang laid at the back seat unconscious. He had lost consciousness the moment he felt a bit at ease, relived from the pain of having his ribs continuously broken and almost puking out his guts a couple of times.

It’s been about half an hour drive and the van finally came to a stop. “We are here.” One of the men informed Fang, tapping him in an attempt on waking him up.

“I’m up.” Fang replied as they supported him in getting out of the van and leading him into a building. His vision was a bit blurry and he felt lightheaded due to shortage of blood, this was a result from the internal bleeding and punctured organs.

He tried looking around to see if he was taken to one of their hideouts in Gotham City but he had a banging headache and could barely make sense of the dark surroundings.

They led him into a building and stopped in front of a door, then told him that the boss was right behind that door.

The moment he walked right through door, he realized he has been taken right back into the hell he thought he had escaped from. “Oh, welcome back friend.” Tom greeted with a shrewd smile on his face, comfortably seated as he waved at Fang.

“On your knees.” One of the men behind him commanded, while the other kicked the back of his knee and he dropped on one knee.. He had no strength to support himself anymore, even as he tried getting back on his feet.

“So tell me, what is it like to have a brief moment of solace and then getting kicked right back into your place of anguish?” Tom taunted but didn’t get a response from Fang who tried maintaining his composure rather than breakdown.

Tom knew there was a possibility of Fang bitting off his own tongue to end it all since he’s been captured and also lost his lover. But Fang seemed to be a soldier who would rather be killed than commit suicide.

“Tie him back up against the post and ensure to wear him the meta dampening neck brace.” Tom instructed the men who first appeared to be Fang’s saviours while they worked for his captor.

They tied him up against the post while food was brought to him, they tried feeding Fang but he refused to eat or drink anything offered.

“I thought this might happen, come in nurse. It seems your up.” A nurse who appeared like she was working late hours walked in with a med box, already paid to ensure Fang doesn’t bite the dust anytime soon.

She placed the box on the table, opened it and pulled out a syringe. The nurse injected Fang with it and he passed out within a couple of seconds, a couple of necessary medical equipment were also made available for her.

“Get him down from there, she would need to examine him as much as she can.” Tom instructed before getting up to take he’s leave. “Remember you just need to treat him enough to keep him alive for a couple of days, that’s all.” He added before walking out.

...

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Heard anything from those two?” Arthur asked Jamie who immediately switched off the TV and tossed aside the remote.

Arthur found it odd that three days had gone by and neither Charlotte nor Fang had given a report regarding their hunt for the target, or even responded to their summons.

“I’m sorry Arthur, but Charlotte has been confirmed dead.” Jamie handed him a file. “What is this?” Arthur asked as he unsealed the enveloped file.

“I got this from an informant at the Gotham PD, Charlotte was the woman found dead by the shore three days ago. Although she hardly looks recognizable but her hair, height and dress all match the deceased.” As Arthur looked through the pictured, he could hardly believe his strong and temperamental colleague was dead, just like that.

“Anything regarding Fang?” He asked Jamie who leaned against the kitchen counter, sparking himself a cigarette. “Nothing on him yet.” He replied, taking a long drag as he continued. “Fang’s car was found at the top of a cliff and in a ravaged state, dismantled of it’s metal parts.”

“Clear signs of a fight having taken place that night. But the autopsy file from the police station showed she suffered fourth degree burns before drowning in the water.” Arthur read from the file handed to him.

“I’ve never heard of a Pyro type meta getting burnt by their own flames....Unless they some how lost control of their powers and the flames exceeded their resistance level.” Arthur tried piecing together how Charlotte ended up in that pitifully state of getting badly hurt by her own flames.

“Which doesn’t make sense to us and to the police who tagged it as a murder case.” Jamie replied while he opened the door to the fridge, grabbing himself a bottle of beer to go with his cigarette.

“At this point, what’s our next move?” Arthur asked Jamie. “Everyone on our team that’s been assigned this particular target is either dead or missing.” He added.

“Relax Arthur, there’s only one way to get answers. And that is for me to squeeze it right out of him myself.” Jamie made it clear he had no intention of giving Tom a quick death.

“No, let me go instead. That way I could get revenge for our fallen comrades. He’s not worth having you go after him yourself.” Arthur put out his request to uptake the mission instead.

“Okay, but you shouldn’t be emotional about this. They were professionals at their jobs, their deaths only shows they were weaker and incompetent against their target. Which is this humanitarian kid with the white hair, Tom fucking Hendricks.” Jamie chugged down the remaining beer as he finished speaking, then placed the remaining cigarette on the ash tray next to him.

“It’s awkward hearing you call him a kid when you’re not much older than he is. It’s no secret that you’re incredibly strong and taken quite a remarkable number of lives, but I think you should act your age every now and then, you seem to forget you’re just in your mid twenties.” Arthur advised as he spread out the files to study what the police had concerning the case of their deceased colleague.

...

Tom had Fang moved to another store house located at the outskirts of town. “Rise and shine sleepy head, you’ve had quite a nap.” Tom called out as he gave Fang small slaps on his face.

Opening his eyes, he noticed he was connected to an IV drip, and was at a different location. That instant he tried using his powers the moment he noticed the metals around him but he could move the slightest bit of metal or even feel a connection with his powers.

“Chill out cowboy, you only just regained consciousness after competing for worlds longest nap. I had the nurse give you a little something to help wake you up and still took you two more days to regain consciousness.” Tom tapped his glove hand on the meta dampening neck brace.

“If you try removing this elegant piece of art without the specified key, a needle will puncture your spine and you’ll be paralyzed for life. Imagine being paralyzed in jail.” He mocked.

Seeing that there was nothing he could possibly do since he had each of his limbs cuffed to the edge of the bed he woke up in, he decided to at least try getting some answers from Tom, hoping to use his presumed narcissistic personality to get information out of him.

“You sick bastard.” He responded to Tom. “Considering what you did to my girlfriend and what you’ve done to me so far, I can’t possibly imagine what you might have done to Stella.” He baited, bring up the topic in hopes of Tom wanting to ravel in his past exploits and at least reveal what had happened with Stella.

“Stella? Oh, you must mean the ginger head with electrical powers.” Unfortunately for him, it didn’t go as he had hoped for.

“You think I’m some kind of egocentric dude who enjoys reliving his past escapades? Well you thought wrong and I’ll leave you to give her story whatever sort of ending you wish to.” The door opened and Jason stepped through, approaching the small bed that was positioned at the centre of storehouse.

“Is everything in place?” Tom asked as he watched Jase tap onto his watch while the nanotechnology had him fully changed into his Red Hood gear. “Of course, this is all that’s left, then it’s a wrap.” Jase replied.

“The story about the dead woman being identified as a terrorist have been passed on to Vicki Vale, including the picture of the deceased Pyro bitch along with this dreaded weirdo over here.” Jase briefly reported to Tom.

“How about the police?” Tom asked as he glanced around to see if anything was amiss.

“They should be arriving in twenty minutes tops.” The building they used was a storehouse belonging to an offshore company so it was alright to lead the police to there, leaving behind a present for them.