Do You Know Where Your Children Are? [Jake C./ Jack N.]
School was plain and boring. Jake was exhausted. The last several nights, his sleep had been disturbed by vague, unsettling dreams. Dreams that held no form of clarity, nothing apart from terror and twisted images. They brought bitter memories of the time Babs had been abducted and tortured, memories and feelings Jake had tried hard to forget. He hadn't told Dinah about them, not wanting to relive those events any more than he already was.
He'd tried not sleeping, only pretending to rest. It had only worked for the first two days. Now, sleep was prodding at his brain. To his own chagrin, and to the exacerbation of his teachers, Jake was able to counter any attempt they made at calling him out on nodding off in class by simply giving them the response they asked for by pulling it straight from their own minds. He was too tired to prevent it.
Finally, the day was over. Jake shuffled out of his classroom where he was immediately joined by Oy. The billy-bumbler was worried about Ake, but Jake waved it off. At least Oy was sleeping well. Jake tried to remember if Dinah was supposed to pick him up today or not, while his feet started to walk home, making the decision for him.
Jack and the hyenas, Bud and Lou, were not too far behind the boy. He'd been right about waiting outside the school, but hadn't been right about the timing. Jack had arrived about lunch time, thinking the kid might go off campus in order to get something that wasn't crap. But he'd been nowhere around. Not even any of the other kids went off campus. It was confounding to the point that Jack almost went inside to get himself something to eat, just to see if they put crack in it or something.
In the end, Jack had been left, watching the hyenas sleep, for several hours. Bored out of his mind. He couldn't risk having any fun, lest he draw attention to himself. Somebody might wonder why there was a guy sitting with two essentially wild animals in the bushes at the edge of campus. Then he might have to answer questions, get taken to jail. His idea would have to be put on hold for hours. Even maybe days.
But at the sound of the last bell, Jack looked through the hole in the leaves he'd carefully plucked for himself, and caught sight of Jake almost right away. The kid looked lost, like he wasn't all there. He waited until Jake was about fifty feet ahead and then climbed out of the hiding spot.
As soon as the hyenas spied the little creature romping along with the kid, they got excited, and it got a little more difficult for Jack to hang onto them. They wanted it. And they could have it, for all he cared. Just not right now, not right in full view of any asshole who wanted to look. It was bad enough that a woman gave a second glance at what she had clearly thought were dogs. He smiled at her and she made a face. Oh, if Harley were here, she would have wiped that look off with a single swing of a very large mallet.
Jack gave a yank to their leashes, trying to get them to slow down. They needed a quiet spot to get the boy.
Jake felt the hair rise on the back of his neck, and looked immediately to Oy. The billy-bumbler was standing still, hair along his back raised in a ridge. There was a soft growl coming from his throat. Jake glanced in the direction Oy was facing, but saw nothing. Just more of the campus. People. His French teacher, who raised her hand in a wave. Jake waved back, neglecting to smile. He turned his attention back to Oy.
"Come on," he said. "I want to get home."
"Home," Oy echoed. "Ake, home." But he was still staring at that one spot.
Jake sighed. "Fine. We'll go around it." Not like there was only one way to walk. With the City streets changing as much as they did, it was more a matter of focus than navigation. Jake started walking towards a less crowded corner. Oy continued to growl for a moment, then started to follow. But the bumbler's hackles didn't settle, and Jake found his hand sneaking into his satchel to touch one of the plates in there.
He didn't get very close until things got more low key. Until they were on a street with no witnesses, nobody to come running to help the little boy. Nobody to interfere. Jack wanted the kid, and he wanted to take him back to the Asylum. Already, he'd been planning what to do with the boy, the boy so connected to the Batshits who were the bane of his existence.
Any smart person wouldn't have kept putting him in Arkham. Any smart person would have fucking killed him a long time ago. But nooooo. They didn't do that kind of thing, did they? No. They liked to beat you up a little, but that was it. The end of it. The only Batsyfatsy that Jack had ever known to do any real killing had been Azrael. And that kid had died. Probably. Well, maybe. Who knew with the Bats? You thought they were dead, and then they weren't dead, but then they were really dead, and then they were eating lunch in the city with some flashy blonde.
Sensing that there was work to be done now, the hyenas had quieted down, they were tracking the scent of the boy and his little weird whateveritwas. Their eyes were determined and fierce.
When Jack and Lou and Bud got within twenty feet of Jake, Jack snapped off the leashes from the collars on the boys. He leaned down and whispered to them to hold the boy, not kill the boy. Just hold the boy. Then he smacked them on their rumps and watched them take off.
Jake was gripping the edge of one plate, hand still inside the satchel. Oy had gone quiet, but his hackles were standing straight up, and Jake felt his own nerves on edge. e was trying to push away his weariness, but the bubbling sense of the Touch kept getting in the way. He could feel danger, joy, hunger, a sense of giddy desire, and the knife-edged tension coming from Oy. Jake didn't know how far off those feelings were, or how close. But they kept him from noticing anything around him up until the snarl of canines.
Oy darted in first, determined to protect his Ake. The hyenas were easily five times his size, but he rushed in with sharp teeth and a powerful jaw designed for breaking bones.
"Oy!" Jake shouted, turning. The plate was in his hand, and he slashed wildly at the first of the animals. "Get away from him!"
Jack was watching, pretty excitedly. The kid was a real wiz with those plate... things. And it was more than a little bit hilarious to see the little weird creature trying to attack the hyenas.
"Go on, Bud! Use it as a chew toy, whatever the fuck it is!" He cheered from the sidelines.
He had no idea if the hyenas would even listen to him now that they had their goal of getting the boy for him. He didn't count them as the most intelligent beings on the planet. But they listened pretty good to the first thing you told them to do. They went after their tasks with enthusiasm.
He was clapping at the chaos happening. Wincing a little when he saw blood come from Lou. Harley wouldn't like that. Oh well. At least he hadn't promised to return them unscathed.
Jake heard the shout and froze. The shock cost him as one of the creatures knocked him to his feet. He snapped the plate in a backhand slap, slashing it across the face. Then he sent the plate flying, whistling through the air towards the source of that nightmare voice, though it went high in his rush.
"Oy!" he shouted. "Run! Hide!"
The bumbler didn't want to leave. He let out some growls, still trying to close his jaws around the hyenas jugular.
"Now, Oy! RUN!!"
Oy bit once more, drawing blood, then dropped away and began to run. Jake drew the second plate from his bag, slashing at the monsters that tried to give chase.
Jack moved closer to the boy. He watched the fuzzy thing scamper off. Bud turned toward it and Jack shook his head, then pointed at the boy. Both hyenas retook their positions around Jake. They snarled and drooled and made themselves look scary. Which wasn't hard. They were monstrous even when they were happy and playing fetch with Harley.
"Oh, Jakey. Jakey Jakey. What fun that you're here. But you've got a new mommy now, do you? Prettier than your old one. I like her soft blonde hair."
He kept his eye on that other plate. He knew the kind of damage it would do, and he didn't really feel like being hurt right now. He was in a good mood, after all. No reason to bring that high down. No reason at all.
"Did you know your new mommy looks really hot in leather? And fishnet."
Jack stood a few feet away from Jake, studying him. "I think. Yes." He didn't tell the boy what he was thinking. Not yet.
Jake heard the voice, trying not to listen. He didn't want to look. It was enough to feel that nightmare voice. He was concentrating, focused on the monster dogs. The devil was drawing closer, and his ears and mind marked the Joker.
Keeping one hyena at bay with his plate, Jake had his hand buried in the satchel, searching for another weapon while he used the bag to shield himself from the other.
"You'll never touch her, Jack," Jake snarled. "I'm not like the others. I won't show you mercy."
Jack would know that. It was probably that very reason why Jack had brought the hyenas to keep him from getting any opportunity.
Jack squatted down, close, but not close enough to be in arm's reach. The hyenas were moving a lot, and he hoped that meant there would be little to no opportunity for the kid to throw that thing at him.
"But you see, Jakeywakey. I've already been near her. So close I could smell her. Lick her, even. And she didn't even know who I was. Do you know what fun that is? Oh, lots. I had to tell her. Had to give her clues."
Bud lunged for the kid's bag with an annoyed snarl. Lou was making noises that gave Jack glee.
"I like that in you, kid. That no mercy thing. Not really a Batfart way to look at the world, but they could learn a thing or two from you. They're dumb to treat you as if you're just a kid."
A mistake Jack would never make.
"You know. I think you should come home with me."
When the hyena lunged at the bag, locking his jaws on it, Jake kicked out at the beast. His hand found another plate, sewn into the lining of the satchel and he tore it out now. One dish slashed at a muzzle, the other went for a paw. Both drew blood, but not enough.
"I'm not one of them," Jake said. "I am a gunslinger, of the Line of Eld. I deal in lead." Even as he spoke, he was moving, the dishes gliding in his hands, flashing in the light.
Instinct. Innate. The cold clarity that came from Roland's way.
But his own rage was burning through it. Dinah. He'd been with Dinah. When? Where? Jake's focus slipped, and one of the hyenas managed to tear the back of his hand with a fang.
"Oooh. It almost rhymes." Jack smiled very big at the boy.
He was extra wary of the goings on now, because he saw two plates out. Two. Where had the other come from? Did the kid have more hidden? Were they magic somehow? You couldn't really put that past people in this place. Being magic. It was kind of cheating.
Jack looked at the blood. "There's blood now. They're going to be more vicious."
And they were. Both hyenas redoubled their efforts. Lunging forward, no longer paying attention to the weapons the kid was holding. They were only interested in the scent of blood now. The need to draw more. If Jack hadn't been standing by, they might have torn the kid apart. As it was, he kept having to make noises at them to make sure they wouldn't.
"I think we can play this game all day. Can't we, boys?"
The blood drove them mad. Jake was redoubling his efforts, but he would tire of it soon. Let him tire. It would be better than whatever Jack had planned. He didn't want to go anywhere with Jack.
The one who had already bitten him went in again. In that instant, Jake heard a shriek of pain. He felt the tear along his own back, and screamed. The hyena's jaws clamped on his wrist, and Jake whipped around the free plate to snap it against the hyena. He heard a bone crack, but it was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
"OY!"
Jake screamed, flinging the plate with all his rage and pain at Jack. But the connection to Oy, that sharp pain, the lack of anything following it...
It missed. And Jake felt teeth close over his other elbow.
Jack watched the plate woosh by a little too close to him for comfort. Luck. That was all, blind luck, had saved him. He was guessing that had he been hit, he wouldn't have liked it. One of the hyenas had been, and he seemed really upset about it. He didn't see where it landed, if it did. He didn't particularly care right now, either.
The hyenas were going to rip the kid to bits, it looked like. Jack stepped over closer. He looked down at Jake.
"That's really gotta hurt."
He patted both of the beats on their backsides, and they didn't release what they held, but they stopped digging in. While they were calm, he took a moment to go over to the little thingymabob that Jake had following him all the time. The thing he called Oy. It wasn't moving. He couldn't tell if it was dead. He nudged it with a toe, then bent and picked it up.
Jack walked back to a spot where Jake could see him.
"This thing is really freakish, you know that? Generally I like freakish. But this is ... Jake. This is just plain weird."
He cradled it in his arms, mostly because he thought that would drive Jake mad.
"I think you're gonna come with me, aren't you. Don't worry. I have candy."
At the taunt
(of COURSE this hurts, motherfucker, what do you THINK?)
Jake lifted his lip and snarled at the man. "Fuck you," he spat.
But he froze when he saw Oy in Jack's arms. There was a long cut down the bumbler's back. Jake couldn't tell how deep it was, but it wasn't good. He could feel it, through the connection he had with Oy. Too close to the spine. Furious tears sprang to his eyes. "You leave him alone," the boy warned. "Just... just put him down and leave him alone." He tried to move, but gasped a bit when one of those massive jaws shifted just enough to make his wrist burn with agony. "Don't you hurt him."
Even as he spoke, Jake knew it was the wrong thing to say. Jack was a monster. He would use Oy. Hurt him. Do anything to him just to make Jake watch. And feel. And hurt. But what little innocence remained in him couldn't bear the sight of his friend like that. "Let him go!"
He took the whole scene in. Looking at the boy and then at the creature in his arms. So, little Jake didn't want Jack to touch the thing. Well, now he had a one up, didn't he? One that would probably get the boy to do a lot of things he wouldn't have normally done.
Jack smiled.
"We'll take it home with us, don't worry." Jack thought for a moment. "I think it's best if the boys keep a hold of you while we walk. It'll be safer for everyone that way. So come along Jakey. Come along, Bud, Lou. Let's go home."
The hyenas grips moved so that they were holding onto the boy's hands and wrists. They dug in every once in a while, because they smelled the blood and it excited them.
Jack played Pied Piper and led the group back to Arkham.