Chapter Text
Seth‘s day was not going great.
He was lying on the ground, his hands tied behind his back, pain radiating from his abdomen and he could barely move a muscle.
He didn’t regret offering himself as a hostage to save the others, but since Jane had slammed her knee into his stomach, things weren’t looking so rosy for him anymore.
What a pathetic excuse of a PubSec officer he was, letting himself be treated like this by a bunch of criminals.
But there was nothing he could do, the muscle relaxant they had forced into his system made him feel as if he had no strength in his body at all. The effects had faded a bit, but in the first hour or so, he hadn’t even been able to lift a finger.
Jane had left the base and despite her violent behavior towards Seth, he much preferred her company over that of a group of men whose arms were twice the size of his legs.
Seth was just about to try and relax as much as he could in this situation when he heard panicked voices close behind him. The two civilian hostages.
He was wide awake again immediately, snapping his head up to find out what caused them such distress.
Four of the Mountain Lion Gang‘s lower-ranking members, who were in charge of their prisoners, approached the hostages and seemed to threaten or intimidate them.
Not on Seth‘s watch, nuh uh.
“Hey!“, he called out, trying to divert the attention from the civilians to him.
To his surprise it actually worked and the ‘leader’ of the small group turned to look at him.
“What do you want, PubSec scum?”, he growled.
Okay, he could do this, maybe there was some way to convince them to let the other hostages go.
“I have a proposal for you”, he continued.
The group laughed at him, but Seth didn’t care, an idea was starting to form in his head.
“Let the other hostages go.”
“And why would we do that, huh?”, the ‘leader’ asked as he stepped closer.
“Because if you do, I’ll send a message to my colleagues with a false location and tell them that’s where you’re hiding. You’ll be able to stay here for much longer that way”, Seth explained. He didn’t want to lie and send out false information, but it seemed like the only thing he could offer right now.
“And how do we make sure you won’t just write something else?”
“I don’t necessarily have to write it myself, I can give you my phone code and you can write the message yourself”, Seth proposed. This was gonna work, it had to work. He couldn’t stand seeing innocent people scared for their lives, and since his options were limited at the moment, he had to do whatever he could to help them.
“You know what? Fine, I accept your proposal. We don’t need these people anyway, a pretty PubSec officer is enough of a hostage”, the leader grinned down at him.
Seth glanced over to the two civilian hostages. They hadn’t been tied up or anything, apparently not deemed threatening enough to warrant restraints.
He gave them a reassuring smile and although they seemed too scared to say anything, they still looked at him with gratitude and relief in their eyes.
“All right, boys. You bring the hostages away, make sure they don’t see the way. And then”, the ‘leader’ said, suddenly slamming a foot onto Seth’s chest, “we’re gonna have a nice little chat with this kitty here.”