#trafficking tw

2x04 I want You More Than Anything in the World / 3x04 The Devil’s road

Robert is guiding Sonar and another Z-Teamer through their investigation, not unlike Punch-Up and Coupe's dip into the fighting tournament. A tip came in from an concerned citizen of a suspected animal fighting ring - animals with concerning injuries and scarring, large numbers of people entering and exiting a property, etc...

The idea is simple; have two heroes dressed in civilian clothing scope out the suspected animal-fighting location, and report back with their collected bodycam footage.

Flambae elects himself to help out with translating bilingual code phrases, since the sport unfortunately spills over into immigrant communities. He can easily blend into the crowd once he detects their vibe.

Sonar makes himself look shabby and ready to bet the last two dollars in his pocket for narcotics (*long sniff!* "Ah! I'm a method actor") - the perfect mark for degenerate gambling types.

They sneak in easy enough, but they get separated amongst the heavy cigar smoke and pushing bodies. The people around them speak a variety of rushed dialects that even Chad has difficulty following along with. They get patted down, and a man (presumably a bookie) confirms that the two came in together - specifically "Did you bring him?".

Chad nods.

Rather suddenly, the manbat is grabbed and shoved into a different room.

The sound of chains clicking together is deafening.

Flambae and Robert attempt to reestablish contact - only for the manbat's mic to go startingly quiet.

Robert, low voice: "Sonar, status. It's too dark, I can't see anything on your body cam. Are you okay-" Sonar: "It's not dogs." Robert: "Clarify?" Sonar: "Not. Dogs. It's... oh fuck, Bobby... They're hybrids." Flambae, shocked: "Wait- shit! They probably thought I brought you as a bait animal! No wonder we didn't get stopped for money. Bob-Bob, we are going to need back-up pronto." Malevola, instantly: "I'm on it." Robert: "Sending you all the location. Also sending a signal out to anyone in Teams T through Y for assistance. Sonar, can you describe the room you're in?" Sonar, choking cough: "There's lots of hybrids in here Bobby. Most seem to be non-sapient or some kind of feral but... shit, they must be snatching poor bastards off the street. Smells fuckin' awful." Robert: "Can you sense any openings or weaknesses in the room?" Sonar, lips dry: "I... I'm gonna try. Its not gonna sound nice." Malevola, sounds of running: "We can handle it babes."

Sonar emits a loud bat screech to gain visual information of the room. The sound disturbs many of the unwilling "fighters" into cries and shouts.

A baby's wail cuts through the chaos.

The coms line goes silent.

The sound of snapping metal, and tearing muscle rips from Sonar's mic - all but confirming that he's gone Megabat-mode.

The patrons of the establishment have finally caught on that Flambae doesn't belong, and start loudly questioning him. The ex-villain bluffs long enough for a portal to appear in the main lobby, bringing with it Malevola and the rest of the cavalry.

Amidst the chaos, and mass arrests, Robert picks up new sounds from Sonar's line. Intermingled with the odd half-human half-canine wails of an infant.

Sonar, voice deepened in Megabat-mode: "Oh fuck! Oh shit. It's okay buddy! We're getting you out of here. Ough! Stinky!.... you haven't been held in a while, have you?" (*Sounds of a heavy metal door opening. The angry calls of men following them*) Sonar, furious: "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THEM! YOU PIECES OF-!" (*loud electric buzzing as a yelp of pain cuts through the nouse*) "Oh now you've fucking done it! Close your eyes kiddo."

Robert decides to lower Sonar's line for the moment, directing Mal towards his location in case he's gone feral with rage. He finds himself subconsciously trying to calm the crying baby through the microphone.

The demoness makes an impressed whistle at the carnage she finds in the holding area.

The hybrid captives are unharmed. Some have even perked up with glimmers of hope. Their captors are in pieces on the ground. The Megabat's claws drenched in their blood.

And in those bloodied claws, delicately cradled, is a baby. Obviously a canine hybrid, but a baby nonetheless.

Sonar refuses to put them down for even a second. Attempts to remove them causes both the bat and the pup to cry out.

As clean-up and health checks on captives continue, Mal and Flambae manage to shuffle Sonar out through a portal back to SND Torrance. The Manbat doesn't revert back to his more humanoid form for hours. He only relinquishes his hold on the infant for a pediatrician to assess.

Malnutrition is obviously present, as is evidence of extremely poor hygiene conditions. Far too thin, with ammonia-burnt skin. Rubber bands are found on the baby's swollen tail - signs of DIY tail docking to kill the tissue.

And the baby Won't. Stop. Crying.

The tag on the baby's neck translates to "Ultimate Prize".

It makes the team shudder to think what the pup's fate could have been.

The crying only stops when Victor returns from his own medical evaluation. They found traces of sedatives in his blood. The only reason he wasn't out cold when the handlers arrived likely was from a mixture of drug tolerance, and protective fervour towards the infant.

The miserable wolf pup's cries peter to sniffles as Victor leans over their incubator. The bat-hybrid looks at them with a emotion he cannot place.

He leans in closer to try and get a better sniff of the baby, hoping to find any evidence of if they had been somewhere before that cell. Victor finds nothing.

The pup awkwardly shuffles towards the sniffing sound. A pair of tiny paw-like hands reach out to explore his savior's face. A tiny lick flickers on the manbat's face. The sign of a hungry pup asking for comfort.

Victor's breath catches in his throat.

He... can't do this.

But every time he tries to leave, the baby cries, and he just Can't.

Victor is kneeling on the ground, body flushed against the side of the incubator, as his hand and face are held hostage by an infant over a tenth his size.

The Z-Team don't question why he hasn't moved. Malevola even greets the pup with a soft smile, and kiss on the forehead. Flambae looks at the tiny figure and has to remove himself to the gym to work the rage out of his mind.

Robert tells Victor; "I'm so fucking glad you found them. We're all proud of you Vic."

Beef circles Victor and the incubator, excited but puzzled by the smell of a new puppy in the air. Victor gives the fat potato-dog a gentle pet.

DNA is screened, and not matches are found in the database. No birth records, no matching reports from hospitals or maternity clinics. The baby might as well never existed.

Blonde Blazer reviews the bodycam footage, and whispers about finding custody loopholes.

Red tape is tangled for the moment.

"Baby John Doe" is quietly changed to "Alfred" aka "Alfie". Victor graces him with his own surname. Felt right.

Malevola double downs on her duties as her best friend's sponsor, promsing to skin him if she even catches a whiff of powder on him again. Victor agrees with her demands.

The ex-villain currently-hero manbat now has an adoptive son. One which cries when separated from him, and has clear signs of separation anxiety.

The Z-Team try their best ot be supportive, though some of them still need to be convinced that their recovering coke-bat is up for the task.

Victor is trying though. Even if he forgets stuff like bottles or extra diapers when he brings the pup to work with him. It's not uncommon to find Alfie with his onesies on backwards, and chewing on a pastry the size of his head.

Robert personally thinks its really admirable. And he's not just saying that because the pup has imprinted on him as another "safe" person to hold him.

Even if Victor had scammed thousands out of Silicon Valley, he's saved an untold number of lives in defending his fellow hybrids in that dungeon.

I feel sick right now. I don’t really need help because I don’t think there’s much to be done, and I don’t feel right acting while knowing this person is in a vulnerable state. I just need to get this out of my system.

I was close online friends with somebody for 5 years (from when they were 12 to 17, I’m 1 year older than them) I knew this person incredibly well at the time. I knew all about their family and school and life and all the struggles they had day to day. We were vulnerable with each other about just about everything and would vent frequently about really heavy life events.

About a year before I cut them off, they began behaving more aggressively towards me. I tried to be empathetic as I knew they were going through a lot, but the behavior escalated to being abusive, and I eventually left the friendship. I never wished any ill will towards them and made it clear that this was an unhealthy situation for me to be in, but I still cared about them. We haven’t spoken since.

They came across my TikTok page today. I know it’s them for a fact. They look just like they did then. They were talking about their experience being trafficked. My immediate reaction was to feel awful. I had a rush of panic thinking maybe that was happening towards the end of our relationship and was the reason for their behavior shift. But no. They go on to talk about how they were trafficked as a baby in a rather cheery tone. And the trafficking went through a lot of the time we were very close friends. The story is of “the first time” their trafficker had them kill a child. They go in depth about the child’s skin color (she was brown, my friend is white). They describe how they killed her in the comments. They say she didn’t struggle.

I read every comment on that video, and the things they said didn’t line up with the person I knew. When asked why they didn’t leave, they explained they had minimal outside contact and were supervised. But we’d spend whole days on video call with each other. How is that possible? It was apparently an extensive operation spanning multiple countries. When asked about any sort of news coverage, they said it’s still under investigation and will likely take decades. But surely their escape or rescue would at least generate an incident report? Even a story in the local news? When asked how they escaped, they say they have amnesia around bad memories. The same answer when asked where it took place. They couldn’t even say the country. They lived in America the entire time I knew them and never even visited elsewhere. There are so many story times up of them describing insanely traumatic events in perfect clarity with no difficulty at all, but anything that would narrow down the case was the subject of amnesia.

The interaction in the comments that made my stomach drop was somebody telling them their song choice was inappropriate. (It was a very peppy song.) They said they wanted to make it “more palatable.” Palatable?? Child abuse will never be palatable. If they’re telling the truth, this isn’t just their story. It’s the death of another child too. They shouldn’t get to make that child’s death more palatable for TikTok. When others pushed back on this, they told commenters that they didn’t know the girl and she would have liked the music choice. They only met her to kill her though. How would they know what she’d like?

A lot of this is just me rambling. But ultimately, this couldn’t have happened in the time we were friends. They couldn’t have hidden this from me and they couldn’t have hidden me from their parents or traffickers or anything of the sort. I know they had outside contact because I heard so many stories from school. They called me crying from a school bathroom over something once. I know they aren’t being truthful, and it’s such a confusing feeling. Only an asshole accuses somebody of faking their traumatic but there’s truly no way for it to be real.

Here is somebody I loved and cared about for years lying about something so damaging. I’ve never been through anything of the extent described, but I have been through extensive CSA and it’s just so sickening that somebody I was so close to would lie about it.

But on the other hand, I know that they are (or were) unwell. They’ve talked to me about psychosis and drug use before. They’ve had delusions before and some very minor false memories. But this is a whole narrative that they post about daily and answer all sorts of questions on in a peppy tone. I know it’s disgusting, but part of me hopes it is psychosis, because then they can be helped and move past all this. But if it’s not, one of the most important people of my childhood is just a monster who makes up fantasies about killing little girls for attention.

Like I said, there’s not much that can be done here, but any sort of advice on how to move past all these feelings myself or just any comment at all is appreciated. I feel crazy and alone in these feelings and I’m not sure how to even process something like this. It’s not a normal kind of pain or one that people have much advice for.