Love that bit where a character is beaten and on the ground, scrambling on hands and knees, still a bit dazed from the blow(s) and trying to get back up, with the bad guy just slowly advancing on them.
Seeing him sauntering up, fully in control, zaps a new flash of adrenaline and fear through them.
Because that next hit is coming. Whether they are ready, or not.
And it leaves them just a split second to make an impossible choice. Do they brace themself? Or do they use that last bit of strength to try and avoid/soften the next hit?
characters stepping forward to take a blow for the loved one
- the quick dart to intercept Whumper’s hand as they try to backhand Whumpee. “mmmff—” a crack.
- “what are you doing?” Blood dripping to the floor, falling to one knee
- that dark glint in their eyes that either says “don’t fucking touch them” or “no one hurts them except me”
- catching Whumper’s hand as it falls and twisting with a white knuckled grip. Think twice.
- a grunt of pain, a gasp of real fear that’s swallowed down before anyone can hear it
- turning to check on whumpee after they’ve been hurt. “Are you okay?” And whumpee only stares, their eyes wide.
- “stop.” / “no”. Guards yanking them away so Whumper can get to who they want to punish.
- whumper turning on the character who dared to stand up to them, whumpee completely forgotten. Through the blinding pain, all they can think is I can take it. They can’t.
HAPPY LUCA DAYYY!!! Let’s just freaking dive right into it.
-
Luca lets out a sigh of content as the cabin finally comes into view. His legs ached, crying out for mercy with every step he took. Only when he sees the dishes in the sink does he remember the cleanup. He goes and begins to run the sink, shocked when his finger hits hot water. This was a parrellell universe to the Cadetes.
“Hey, after I do the dishes could I grab a shower? I fucking wreak.”
“Yes, of course,” Flint replies. “I’ll take one after you and we can go.”
Luca nods. It didn’t take long to wash the dishes. The shower was nice against his skin, the warm water soothing his muscles. He walks out, changed in a new pair of bottoms and a hoodie. His hair was damp, making it that bit straighter before it curled at the ends.
Flint tells him to relax while he uses the shower after him, and tells him he won’t be long. Luca walks around the cabin with a sigh, before eventually sitting on the couch , his leg bouncing as he looks around. The hum of the shower fills the cabin and Luca cracks his knuckles, he never sat still like this much, it was odd. He was never one for sitting still, something about it always made Luca feel uneasy.
Flint’s pile of folders and work papers sit on the coffee table in front of the ash filled fireplace. His eyes catch sight of them and he quirks his head to the side. Maybe he didn't exactly have to sit still afterall.
He gets to his feet, eyeing the hallways before slowly getting to his feet and he opens the first folder. Inside is a brief for a mission, and stamped on top is a giant red CONFIDENTIAL sign.
Luca flicks through it, and sees battle tactics and diagrams with things scribbled in over maps. Flint’s handwriting- Luca presumed. A report for the mission sits at the end, which means the mission was already carried out and Flint was just reviewing the report most likely.
He flicks through another page, at each of the team’s statistics. Each reports of positives and negatives. He reads the page quickly, trying to remember as much as he could, not recognizing a single one. He knew Flint’s team was supposed to be the top few elite soldiers that can resolve issues quietly and without any hesitation. But they were also the most well looked after. He frowns at how little the team is too. It’s not even enough people for a full unit.
His brows furrow but the sound of footsteps going down the hall made Luca jump up to his feet, rushing to the sofa and sitting down, fidgeting with his hoodie as he tries to look busy.
Flint walks in and glances at Luca sitting down on the sofa unable to sit still. He tips his chin. “Are you okay..?”
Luca nods, heart pounding in his chest, “Yeah, you..?”
“Ahuh…” Flint says, glancing down at the scattered files on the table.
His eyes go to Luca’s again, knowing in his gaze.
“Were you reading anything good?”
Lucas jaw sets as he realizes he was caught. He just shrugs, “Bit hard to read when the hand writing was attrocious.”
Flint blinks at Luca. “You do realise you just confessed to reading a classified file without permission, yes?”
“Didn’t confess to jack shit,” Luca shrugs casually, “just maybe work on the handwriting,” he says with a wink.
“You…” Flint folds his arms across his chest, rubbing his brow with a thumb. “How do you know there is handwriting in the files if you did not open them?”
Luca jerks his thumb to the kitchen, a lazy smirk on his lips, “The note you left your cook friend? Thanking him? Didn’t know you were that secretive, little relationship on the hush hush?”
Flint shoots Luca a blank stare. Saying I know you read the file just admit it. While Luca smirks back at him like I know you know I read the file but you can’t prove I did so I’m not confessing to shit.
Theres a long pause.
“Right,” Flint says. “Thankfully you don’t need excellent handwriting to be a general.“ Flint grabs the messy stack of folders, that have obviously been rifled through, and tucks them under his arm, gesturing at the door. “Are you ready to go?”
Luca gets to his feet and nods, opening the door and holding it open for Flint, trying to not make his shit stirring grin not so obvious as he looks to the ground.
The day has warmed since the morning and Luca finds he’s getting hungry again now as they walk down the evil slope towards his old camp again. At least this time when he climbs it he won’t have all of his belongings strapped to his back. He keeps his back straight, but he picks at the skin around his fingers, even the sight of the old base made him nervous.
“We might be here for the rest of the day,” Flint says, as they walk towards the administration building. “So I suggest we get lunch here and I will have dinner brought to the cabin for later on.”
Luca nods, happy at the sound of food, the run had made him feel as though the eggs where now dust in his stomach, he was hungry.
“What are we doing down here?” He asks, eyes wondering as he takes in the view of the base from this new perspective.
“I have some final matters to discuss with Captain Daniels’ about your transfer, and I thought it would be a good excuse for you to see your friend.”
Unfortunately you can’t sit in with Captain Daniels and I, so will you be alright on your own for a few hours?”
Luca wants to get sick but he nods, “Yeah, it’ll be good to see everyone, try and settle things,” he lies, kicking a stick beneath his foot absentmindedly. He swallows hard, trying to dismisss the sour taste in his mouth as they approach the flattening ground of the base.
“Good. Alright, I’m glad I brought you along then,” Flint says with a smile. “If you need me I’ll be here. Just knock on the Captain’s door. You know where it is.”
Luca nods and watches Flint knock and enter. When the door closes, Luca instantly fills with anxiety but he pushes it down, beginning to walk to the second lieutenants barracks, hoping- praying he’d find Jet before someone found him.
The base seemed different now, somehow smaller and yet bigger all at once.
Nobody here had ever given a shit about him.
Nobody but Jet, and the chances of running into the people that hated him were far higher than finding Jet first.
“Well look who we have here, Fletcher, I thought you were discharged.”
Luca grits his teeth, cursing inwardly as he hears Lance. He forces his same cocky smirk and turns around, “Yeah, guess I got promoted. Think your ugly nose is my shiny trophy too,” he smirks.
Rowan and Seth were beside Lance, always on his flank- always ready to back him up. Bastards. “You three just come from a circle-jerk or—?”
Lance laughed but it didnt quite reach his eyes, “You think you’re so fucking funny.”
“I try.”
It was then Seth advanced on Luca. Luca had enough sense to back up, he didn’t really feel like a fight and he wasn’t here to fight, and if Flint found out he got into a fight—Seth quirked his head, “yeah, funny doesn’t get you onto the military, does it?” Luca clenches his jaw hard as Seth pushes Luca backwards by the shoulders, he stumbles back with the force, holding his breath, counting to ten. don’t mess this up , luca.
“I think you forgot who got promoted,” Luca spat, it’s not my fault that you guys aren’t good enough t-“ He’s cut off as a right hook sends him flying to the ground and Luca hates that the first worry that comes to mind was how pissed flint would be about the dirt on his clothes.
“I’m stronger than you Seth,” Luca almost growls as he pushes himself to his feet. He wipes his mouth of spit as he looks at the three of them. “I can take any of you fuckers, any day.”
“But you can’t take all three of us at once,” Lance says with a smile. “Y’know what lads? I think his nose is offending me.” Lance says, echoing Luca’s words about Lance’s.
Ah fuck. He should just run. That way he won’t be starting anything. But it would give Lance the satisfaction that Luca ran away from him the last time they met and he couldn’t have that happen.
Before he can think on it he sends a punch to Seth’s gut and says, “alright. Come at me then.”
The two men grab an arm each and Luca is hauled backwards, Lance snarls, smirking as he sees Luca struggling against his men.
“You should’ve stayed away from here, fletcher,” his voice is venom, “you don’t belong here.”
Luca yanks his arm free of Rowan’s hold and throws an elbow back at his torso that misses. Lance takes the opportunity to punch Luca in the face again, right over where Seth hit him and he holds back a groan. His breathing heavy.
His arms ache from having to hold up the water buckets yesterday and the places where Flint’s stick corrected him and the more he struggled the more pronounced the aches became.
“I don’t belong here,” Luca sneers as Rowan grabs his arm again and yanks it back painfully. “You’re right.”
Even though he’s restrained Luca leans forward and spits at Lance’s feet. “I’m not a fucking coward like you lot.”
Lances eyes burn with fury and he’s on the cadette in instant, tackling him out of the other cadettes grip and they roll on the dirt, growling and yelling at each other.
Luca snarls and rolls on top, pinning Lance hard to the ground with all his might as his hands clamp over his throat, cutting off the cadette’s airway.
A heavy boot catches Luca in the chest and then the side of his ribs and kicks him off Lance. Luca gasps as he rolls to his feet, grimacing at the pain while Rowan helps Lance to his feet.
Seth advances on Luca again but stops as a heavy hand clamps down on Luca’s shoulder. Luca freezes. He was dead. This was it. Flint and the general were going to kill him and he was going to die.
“I knew it would be you causing trouble,” a warm voice says behind Luca.
Jet.
———
ROLL CALL MAGGOTS! (aka the tag-list): @imgoingtobiteyounow @whumplicity @creatureofstories @afternoonfairy @castell-da-near @funnymemedude @hiddencowboybarbarian @hueningplushie @fallenwaltz
Reminder for the soldiers before they head back into battle that this is a co-written story by me and the amazing smelly RUDE kindest and (uhmmm uhmm uhh) -insert REALLY bad adjective here- yeah.. ha… @chaotic-orphan … idk she calls me smelly and thatsNOT TRUE.
WHUMPTOBER DAY 20. Prompt: “You will regret touching them.” Fandom: Batfam
Summary: After falling into a trap, you are captured by Scarecrow and exposed to his fear toxin. When your older brothers arrive to help you, your fear gets the better of you.
Warnings: Fear, disappointment, beating, hurt.
Word count: 2K
MASTERLIST ⛤ WHUMPTOBER WORKS
🕸 ⋆ ⁶𖤐⁶ ࣪⋆🕸
You hadn’t been living with Bruce that long. A few years. If that. You were the baby of the family, younger than Damian and in some ways you supposed he resented you for it; always narrowing his eyes at you when passing him the hallway. You often felt estranged from the rest of the boys, never fully understanding their inside jokes or nightly routines. You never felt as though you belonged despite the fact that the older boys had tried to make you feel welcome.
The one person you had managed to connect with was Alfred. When your time wasn’t occupied by training or patrol it was often spent curled up in the study with a book and excitedly explaining it to him. Reading was one of your passions; it allowed you to escape the harsh realities of the cruel world and alfred was glad to hear you rant, it often resulted in him mirroring the smile on your face.
It was a late autumn night when the call came in. You were lounging on the window seat watching the rain batter against the glass. Your brothers were out on patrol and you were the only one left home, so you floated over to the phone, answering it and bringing it to your ear.
“Hello?”
There was static on the other end of the line, followed by a shuffling. And then came the voice of a child. “Please… please help me.”
You began to pull on your suit, listening closely to the girl speaking over the phone.
“My friend she-”
“Calm down.” you told her. “I’m on my way. Where are you?”
She rattled off her location through sobs. “Please hurry.”
“It’s gonna be okay.” You reassured her.
Once you had calmed the girl, you slipped out of the exit of the batcave and began to race through town. It was a quiet night. The rain had pushed many people inside, so the lack of people on the streets really threw you off, but you decided to warn your brothers where you were going, just in case.
“Nightwing?” You asked over the comms, hoping that he wasn’t too occupied to answer.
“Raven?” He wrinkled his nose. “What are you doing out?”
“A call came in. A young girl said her friend was cornered by a group of armed criminals. I’ve got it handled, but I thought I'd give you a heads up.”
“Copy that Raven.”
The line went silent again as you continued to push your way into the city until you reached the location that the scared girl gave you over the line. Only, there was no one in sight. You called out into the darkness but there was no reply. And then, there was a sharp prick to the side of your neck.
~
When you awoke, your hands and hands were bound together by old rope that scratched at your skin. The floor was dank and dusty and your mask had been torn from your face. You could feel a small nic along your eyebrow, and your entire body ached.
Without full use of your hands, you struggled to sit up when you noticed the figure leaning against the wall across the room. Tall and masked with a straw hat, he loomed over you, observing you from afar. You used your legs to inch yourself away from the humanoid figure, but he outpaced you, squatting down in front of you and trailing a gloved hand along your jaw.
“Hiya little birdie.”
“Get off of me.” You spat.
Scarecrow tutted, but removed his hand. “I’m glad to see you. You see, I've been watching you for some time. I’ve seen how miserable you’ve been. And I've been waiting for a chance to get you alone. I have to say though, it was much easier than I anticipated.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
The villain chided. “Mm, I have something more fun in mind. You see, I've been experimenting with something new. Well, new and improved. You see, my old fear toxin, it was good but you couldn’t really feel. If you know what I mean? So I did some experimenting and I've finally created something I've just been dying to test out. So I figured, why not have some fun while I'm at it?”
“They’re coming for me.” You told him with narrowed eyes. “And you’re gonna be a dead man?”
He tilted his head, resting his hand on the door before he stepped out and shut it completely. “Are they?”
He bolted the door shut, leaving you in the dimly lit room where a thick, green smog began to billow through the vents. You tried to back away from the smoke, but it surrounded you, cascading down all four walls. You took a deep breath, taking in all of the air you could, but it didn’t last long, eventually you couldn’t stand the burning in your lungs and you were forced to inhale the substance, choking as it filled your lungs.
When the green began to fade away, vanishing into the air, you were left alone in the silence. Though it wasn’t long before the door was broken down by heavy pounding, and the masked face of your brother burst through the door.
“Y/N”
You breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Jason. Oh thank god, I thought you weren’t going to come. He told me that you none of you would and I-”
“Shut up.”
You stilled. “What?”
“I said shut up!” He kicked you hard to the ribs eliciting a yelp from you.
“Jason…?”
“God, are you as stupid as you look? Shut it.” Jason kicked you harder, each one growing in intensity and followed by a snarky remark. You tucked your head to your chest, pressing your hands tightly to your ears until eventually, Jason vanished into a cloud of green and you were plunged back into emptiness.
“Oh god… Y/N.”
It was Tim’s voice, shaky as he raced towards you. His hands gripped your arms as he forced them away from your ears. You half glanced up at him, doing a double take when you saw the look set upon his face. It was tender, but laced with worry. You wanted to reach out into his arms, but you were hesitant.
“Come on. Let’s get you out of here.” He bent down and removed the frayed rope from your wrists, you rubbed them. Tim then swung his arm around your shoulder to help you up, but you only made it a few steps towards the door when he flung you over his shoulder, sending you plummeting to the floor with a sickening crack as your skull collided with the ground. Your head throbbed as blood dripped from the crack that had opened in the back of your head.
“Silly girl.” Tim laughed. “You really think we care enough to come and help you? After you were foolish enough to fall for his trap? You always mess things up Y/N. You’re a burden. Nothing more. Bruce’ll be glad to finally be rid of you.”
“Tim, Please-"
He reeled his fist back to land the final blow. You scrambled backwards, raising your arm above your face to protect yourself, but no pain came. And Time was gone.
Fat, hot tears were rolling down your cheeks by the time that Damian entered the room. He narrowed his eyes at you like he normally did. They were so full of hate. You closed your eyes, biting down on your trembling lip and sinking against the wall.
“Get up.” He demanded, voice thick with venom.
You squeezed your eyes shut even tighter.
“Damian… please don’t. I don’t need to hear how-”
“I hate you.”
It was only three words, but they cut right through you like a bullet.
“I hate you.” He gritted out. “You ruined everything. We were fine without you. We were happy. And then you came along and you- you took all of that away. You’re a disappointment. And I hate you.”
Damian didn’t move to hurt you, but you supposed in some ways that's what hurt the most. Not the pain and the beating, no. That’s not what you were scared of. It was disappointing your family. You grimaced as Damian left, waiting for the cycle to start again.
~~~
Damian didn’t think he had ever ran faster in his life. His boots slapped against the concrete as he raced alongside his older brothers. He had never been more scared than at the lack of your voice over the comms. The four of them had been trying you for hours but had had no such luck. That was until Alfred managed to snag your location on the computer. And so the four of them ran.
Dick’s heart thundered against his ribs. He feared what Scarecrow had done to you. He had heard the stories; witnessed the horrors. But he couldn’t bear to fathom what your mind would conjure up. You had seen too much.
When he pushed his way into the warehouse, it was dark. And silent. The four of them kept their eyes peeled for a sign of anything, but there was no sign of you or Scarecrow. That was until Damian spotted the frame of the door poking out from behind a metal cabinet. It took two of them to haul the heavy piece of furniture away. It squealed awfully as it scraped across the floor. When they pushed the door open they had to squint to see you hidden in the corner of the room. Your eyes were wide and you were hyperventilating at the sight of them.
“Y/N?”
“No, no…” You shook your head, trying to back further into the wall when he took a step towards you.
Jason tried too, but it only worked you up more.
“Not all of you…please. Please…”
Jason knelt down beside you, reaching to touch you gently, but you flinched away.
“It’s not going to work.” A voice laughed out from the doorway.
The brother’s whipped round to face the scarecrow.
“What have you done to her?” Tim spat.
He chuckled deeply. “She’s been exposed to my new fear toxin. See, I don’t know what she’s been seeing but whatever it is, you guys are clearly an important part of it.”
Tim gritted his teeth. “You are going to regret touching her.”
They surged forwards, pinning him towards the wall. He fought back, but was no match for the anger-fueled vigilantes. When he slumped to the ground, they were tasked with the even more challenging job of getting you out. But when they moved towards you, tears rolled fatly down your face as you sobbed.
“Please…” You shook. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t hurt me please.”
Damian froze. “What?
“You’ve done enough…please.”
You flinched as the youngest of your brothers laid a hand on your shoulder.
“Y/N? It’s us. We’re real, I promise.”
You shook your head. “...no”
“We’re not gonna hurt you, kid.”
“You already have…”
Their hearts stopped simultaneously and Dick swallowed thickly.
“I’m sorry Y/N.”
Everything went black as his fist collided with your head.
~~~
You sat up abruptly. You were back in the safety of your own room, tucked away in your bed. Although you were more aware of what had happened, you couldn’t shake the fear that rolled over you. But you weren’t alone when you woke up. You were surrounded by a sea of familiar faces.
“Y/N?” Dick asked when he noticed your eyes were open.
“Yeah.” You murmured groggily, rubbing the sleep from your eyes.
“Are you okay?”
You just shrugged meekly.
“Oh y/n/n we were so worried.” Damian said. His tenderness was foreign.
“What did you see?” Dick asked hesitantly.
“All of you. Disappointed in me.”
“Oh kid.” Tim looked at you with sad eyes. “We would never be disappointed in you. We love you so, so much. And we couldn’t be prouder of you.”
“But I fell for his trap. I-”
“Uh Uh. You did what you thought was right. How were you supposed to know?”
