Kidnapped!
"Having fun, girls?" Dick asked. Roy had monitor duty, but Dick had taken advantage of the beautiful day to take Lian and Cissie to the zoo.
Cissie laughed at Lian's enthusiastic nodding. "Lots of fun!" Lian cried. "Can we go see the snakes now? Pleeease?"
Cissie groaned. "Snakes, really? I think there are koalas over that way!"
Dick laughed. "We can see both. But the snakes are closer."
Lian tugged on Cissie's hand, dragging her toward the reptile house. "Snakes first, pleeeease?"
Cissie rolled her eyes skyward and followed her with a dramatic sigh. "Oh, fiiiiine. But you'll have to protect me from them."
Dick grinned. "I like the snakes. They're so graceful-looking." He had an itch at the back of his neck and he felt like something was off, but he couldn't see anything and the sun was shining and he thought perhaps he was just being paranoid. Still, never hurt to be on-guard.
Lian giggled and turned, starting to run ahead of them down the sidewalk to the entrance to the dark, humid reptile house. "The snakes are in cages, silly!" she called to Cissie.
Cissie laughed, shaking her head. "Slow down, Lian! Walk with us. I need protecting, remember?"
Dick shook his head, smiling and followed them into the reptile house.
The reptile house was empty.
The large and burly zookeeper shut the door behind them. Dick immediately shifted into defensive position. "Cissie, we need to get Lian out of here, immediately."
Cissie turned on her heel to see what happened when the door shut and at Dick's warning, she scooped Lian up into her arms. "There's an exit on the other side," she said, heading that way.
Without a door, Dick knew, but with three large "zookeepers" blocking it. He didn't know how they'd figured out who he was, but they weren't going to hurt Lian and Cissie.
"This them?" one of the zookeepers said. "Red Arrow's kids and boyfriend?"
...or maybe they didn't know who he was and Dick had never considered this particular aspect of dating Roy.
Damn. Cissie balanced Lian on her hip, keeping her body between her niece and the "zookeepers." She began inching her way back toward Dick.
Dick stepped in front of her. "We don't want any trouble," he said. He could create a distraction if he needed. Get Cissie and Lian out of there. Maybe even keep his ID still secret.
Cissie started edging back toward to back of the room, hoping to draw the men away from the exits so she could have a chance to get past them.
"Uh huh, but we sure want trouble. Don't we boys? We're bein' paid good money for some trouble." The head "zookeeper" punched his hand and smirked. "Course, you bein' little girls and a homo, guess we'll be nice an' easy on ya if y'just come quietly for us. Sound good?"
If Cissie and Lian hadn't been there, Dick would have laughed outright at that. But as it was, the danger was more important than their vast underestimation of them. "Wow, nice offer. Afraid you couldn't beat two 'little girls and a homo'?"
Cissie bristled a little, more at the slur on Dick than the 'little girls' comment, but didn't say anything. Lian, bless her, also kept quiet, though she was glaring daggers at the men.
"Why, you..." the man ran at Dick, who dodged. He was acting as a distraction more than an attack, so he didn't throw punches, just kept himself just out of reach. He spared a glance at Cissie and hoped she'd take advantage of the space he'd given her.
Cissie took the opportunity and bolted for the now open doorway.
"Hey, the girlies are getting away!" one of the other guys shouted. They rounded on Cissie.
Dick cursed and dodged around the first "zookeeper" and threw himself at the other two.
Cissie stopped short when one of the men stepped into her path, and she set Lian down, stepping in front of her.
The man's craggy features slowly formed a frown. "I don' like hittin' girls. Ma always said I shouldn't hit girls."
"You shouldn't," Cissie agreed. She looked around, trying to figure out her options--there weren't many. She moved abruptly, aiming a kick at the center of his chest. "But that doesn't mean girls can't hit you."
Dick saw that move and grinned. It was a good kick, and the man buckled.
"Hey, you can't kick Boris! No one kicks Boris but me!" the smallest and most wirey of the men lunged at Cissie.
Dick cursed. They were in far from his ideal location for a fight, and he'd prefer to do this without breaking into his best fighting style, but he wasn't sure he could avoid that.
Cissie shoved Lian toward the entrance and tried to dodge, but the time she had taken to push Lian out of the way had slowed her down just enough. She twisted and he hit her side. Her ankle twisted as she went down and she grunted, but started hitting and punching at his head and shoulders, hoping to make him let go.
"She's a wild thing," the wirey man said. "Boris! Get over yerself and knock 'er out!"
"Cissie!" Dick saw Lian vanish out of the door and leapt over his opponent.
"Uhhh..." Boris brought a meaty fist down on Cissie's head.
"No!" Dick shouted as Cissie went down. Boris slung her over his shoulder and left the reptile house.
One of the men had raced after Lian when she'd left. He came back in, scowling. "Little one got away! We need to get out of here, now! She's talkin' to the police and everything!"
Dick made a flash decision. Lian was safe. Cissie wasn't. Dick let the next punch hit, and all went black.