Joker's Hideout(s)

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Because the plot has kinda gotten lost in the Surrounding Areas of Gotham... and because it'll probably be used again as things progress.

Gonna dig out the scene up to where it was left off. Easier to catch up on what had happened, and pick back up on. Figure any other hide outs can be posted here too.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

TAKEN FROM SURROUNDING AREAS OF GOTHAM
Rosie ... Joker ... Death Raider ... Tinkerer ... Batgirl ... Jason Todd ... Spoiler


ENTER all from unknown.

Inside an old, darkened building, a man groaned and leaned back in his chair. Edgar pulled his dark glasses off his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he rolled his seat back away from his large computer system. "Well that was totally not a complete waste of time and energy." he grumbled to himself.

At about that time, the door opened, and a man in a long surgeon's outfit walked in. Edgar turned to look at him and sat up in his seat. "So how is sh-"

"Twenty-five percent." the man said, adjusting his star-shaped glasses.

Edgar blinked. "What?"

"Twenty-five percent of your next payment. For today's house call."

"Is...is she alright?" Edgar asked, suddenly worried.

"She's perfectly fine. Nothing a bandage and alcohol couldn't cure." the Crime Doctor replied.

"...okay. Then...I thought we agreed on 10% when we called you to make a house call."

"Yes, we did." Thorne replied.

"Then...why are you asking for more money?" Edgar asked.

"Simple. I'm a surgeon." the Crime Doctor replied before his tone took a deadpan edge. "Not a pediatrician."

The new Tinkerer gave the man an equally deadpan look. "Oh, come on. You know we can't take her to the hospital. The boss wouldn't-"

"Thought you said I get a lollypop..." a little voice called in from the doorway. Rosie stood in the doorway, hugging her doll in one hand, and letting the other hand hang over the bandage peeking out from the bottom of her red dress.

Behind her was a rather....interesting looking henchmen. Interesting as in an overweight grown man in yellow and red spandex, a blue cape held together with a pin, Death Raider was written on a piece of paper pinned onto the front of the costume, and a black felt mask behind glasses.

Thorne glanced over at the pudgy man in yellow spandex, and down at the small girl in red and white. "You do." he replied. "But I'm afraid your friends will have to be the ones to get you one. I have a few other patients to see before the day's through." he said, then glanced back at Tinkerer. "Just be sure to send me the bill."

"Yeah, sure. Just...go ahead on out. Not sure the boss will like it seeing you here." he replied.

"Not like it? Weren't you going on and on that the boss was going to kill you after Rosie hurt herself?" Death Raider asked.

"No. I mean, not after I realized that she wasn't hurt that bad."

Rosie giggled. "It was pretty funny. You looked like you were more upset than I was. And I almost had something go through my leg."

"Yeah, well..." the Tinkerer replied, then stopped abruptly. Something on his computer screen began flashing. He turned his attention away from the girl and over to his computer. Muttering something under his breath. He pecked a few buttons, then just....stared blankly at the computer screen.
"....what the hell....is that a...." he said quietly, then shook his head and began frantically pecking at the keyboard. "That....that can't be right."

"Is there a problem?" a new voice asked from the corner of the room.

Rosie immediately perked up and spun around on her heels, hurrying towards the voice. Tinkerer flinched and glanced over his shoulder at the newcomer. "N-not at all sir. Just a little road block. I can get around it."

"Good." the Joker replied with a smile, taking a step out of the doorway and into the room. "After all, you've done such an excellent job so far. It would be a real shame for you to make a mistake now." he said as Rosie wrapped herself around his leg. "And I can't afford mistakes." he said, his tone taking a grim tone. He patted the little girl on the head and turned his attention towards the others in the room. His eyes immediately fell on the man with the star-shaped glasses. "Well, well. Crime Doctor, isn't it? What on earth are you doing here?" he asked, then his eyes flickered back towards the Tinkerer. "Come to do a little repo on a fresh corpse?" he said, his tone grave again. No guest was one of the big rules for his new employees after all.

Tinkerer began to sweat and shrank back into his chair. "I, uh, I had him make a house call. You see, I...uh....I had this...."

"Rosie was playing and tripped, landing on something that punctured her leg." Death Raider replied, since his co-worker seemed to be having trouble explaining.

Joker frowned and looked between the two of them. "So you decided to call in the Crime Doctor to fix her up while I was out? And just who was watching her when she fell?"

"Well yeah. We figured taking her to the hospital was NOT something you wanted. So we found someone who could fix her up and keep things quiet. And, well....we were playing. Edgar was doing his work and Rosie was playing gun tag with me." Death Raider replied, rubbing the back of his neck. There were large red welts running along the side of his arm.

Rosie grinned and looked up at Joker. "Thought I'd try out the silencer and those little plastic bullets on a moving target."

Joker paused a moment and looked down at her. Then he laughed out loud and patted the girl on the head. "Did you now?"

The Joker picked her up and sat her on his bony shoulders. "That's my girl," he said in a very approving manner. He looked at the Crime Doctor and smirked. "Judging by your somewhat perturbed demeanor, I'm thinking that it wasn't serious. So, what's the damage for the visit?"

Rosie beamed and rested her chin on the top of his head in a little hug.

"It wasn't that serious at all. Scared them more than anything I'd say. I've asked for 25% of the next profits made." Crime Doctor replied.

"And a lolly-" Rosie began.

"And a lolly pop, as promised. I believe one of your friends will have to fetch one for you. Candy's really not something I carry in my medical kit." the doctor replied.

"Hm... Next profits made... About that..." The clown mused out loud, "I'm not sure if we're going to be doing anything profitablr for a while. I'm personally funding this whole operation as it is. So, keeping this in mind, how would you take to $10,000 wired, and two dead bodies?"


Crime Doctor took a moment's pause, probably blinking back at the clown from behind his dark star-shaped glasses. Not making a profit? None of his business though. He wasn't about to ask.
"That...seems acceptable. Though I'll have to ask what condition the bodies are in. Can't do much with parts and pieces." he replied.

The clown smiled at the docter's seeming acceptance. "Oh, no, they're still intact. Maybe a little lacerated, a little electrically burned, both are smiling... Now, no using their blood to determine my Joker Venom compound. I'd hate to have to kill you after you helped my Rosie. Plus, they're HEROES." As he said that, Joker's tone grew dark.

The Crime Doctor's eyes visibly widened behind his glasses as his brows shot above them. "Really? And here I thought your leave from the public eye was utterly quiet. Well then...if they're all intact, I can certainly use them for practice. I'll just assume that the organs are bad to use as transplant." he replied. He had no idea how the Joker Venom worked, but he didn't want to risk infecting a paying patient either way.

"I'm glad. And you make the right assumption about the organs. But may I make one request? Plaster mouldings of their faces? I DO have a bat to frazzle once my current plans are finished. Oh, and one other thing," The clown perked up a bit. "I'll probably be having a third body pretty soon. If you'd like, I can contact you when neccesary. We can call it a down payment for a future visit. I'll even refrain from using Joker Venom for you. I will need another face moulding from it, though."

The Crime Doctor grinned. "Of course. A molding should be easy to come by. I can also remove the head if you'd like to keep as a trophy, or send to someone. That's all one of my clients ever wanted when I visited. And the third body I should definitely be able to use." he replied.

"You know, I would like thair heads VERY much, thank you, Doc," the Joker said thoughtfully. "But worry about that only when you get a chance. I'm in no rush. I'll still need the moldings, though. Or, more specifically, moldings from which I can, at a later date, make models of their faces from." the Clown Prince of Crime put Rosie back down and looked at her caringly. "Now Rosie, I'll be back. I'm going to show the good doctor here where the bodies in question are. You go play with your aerosoft gun. And you..." the Joker looked and pointed at Death Raider, "Go get Rosie a bag of lollipops. And a Wonka bar. Follow me, Doc." The Joker walked to what looked like a wall, then pressed a hidden switch. The wall slid away, revealing a long hallway. "This way." Joker started down the hall."Hurry, though, the closing mechanism's timed."


The Crime Doctor did as he was told, and hurried into the hallway with Joker. Once inside, the man followed closely behind the Clown. With as meticulous and careful as the Joker seemed to be at the moment, he wouldn't be at all surprised if the hallway was rigged for uninvited guests. He was fairly curious as to what the Joker was working on. But...that was probably information that could get him killed down the road. Better to just do what he was being paid for. Especially if he'd be taking home the bodies of dead heroes.


Rosie watched the Joker and Crime Doctor disappear behind the door, then turned and looked at the two men left in the room with her. Tinkerer was busy pecking away at his computer and flipping switches. And Death Raider was over in the corner slipping a trench coat and hat over top of his costume.
Rosie frowned a bit and hugged her doll close to her. "Can you get the ones with the bubblegum inside?" she asked.

"Sure thing Rosie." Death Raider replied as he walked over to her on his way to the door. "You just be careful while you play. I'll be back in a bit."

Rosie smiled as he walked past and out the door. "Don't get caught." she called back. Once the door shut, she frowned again and looked back towards Tinkerer. Still preoccupied. She wouldn't be able to even try to play with him. Not while he was concentrating that hard.

With a little sigh, she turned and walked out of the room to go into one of the other rooms where she had some of her stuff sitting. Might as well play by herself for a bit.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

While the Joker had no idea of the Crime Doctor's assumption about the traps, the Doctor's fears were completely well-founded: there were all kinds of hidden projectiles, as well as Joker Venom emitters. Once they were about halfway through the hall, the panel behind them audibly shut itself. "Joker, with guest," the clown said, loudly and clearly, obviously so that the defense system wouldn't attack either of them. Upon reaching the other end, the Harlequin of Hate pressed another disguised panel, and the whole wall opened up in front of them. Within, there were two slabs bolted to the ground via stands, set up at an angle, each one with a body on it. Both of them were clothed, and their clothing, if little else, gave away who they were, at least to those who knew them.

One of them was a male, who had something protruding from its chest. Something that looked suspiciously like a wooden stake. There were several cuts and burns on his clothes and skin, except on his head, which had been kept incredibly intact. On his head was a mask, a hood, that was all red. Anyone who was familiar with him might have recognized the build as Jason Todd, who upon his initial resurrection, adopted the guise of the Red Hood. Joker killed him now for two reasons: NO ONE steals anything, especially identities, from the Joker and got away with it, and anyone that the Joker killed, STAYED killed. Or else they got killed, again. And who wants to get killed twice?

The woman was the one that the clown KNEW the Crime Doctor was going to recognize. She was cut up and burned in several places, too, with one such costume cut somewhere the Doctor probably didn't really want to hear about. Like the man, her head was completely preserved. The cowl over her head gave her away: it was Cassandra Cain, the Batgirl.
"So, Doc," the Joker said evilly, "What do you think?"  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

The Crime Doctor followed Joker down the hallway and into the hidden room. Once inside, he stood and stared at the two bodies lying in front of him. He didn't recognize the man, but the woman.....oh. So that's why he wanted...my, my. He was going to have to be extra careful transporting the bodies. If the Bat got wind of this, then he did NOT want to be the last one in possession of the bodies. Especially with rumors of that Batman that was going around killing people.

"I think you've been busy." he replied, his focus still on Cassandra. "Normally I refrain from asking questions but....what exactly is this project you're so quietly working on?"


"Well, Doc, to be frank," the clown said with a genuine smile, "I'm glad you asked. You see..." the clown gestured at the victims as he spoke, also turning toward the Doctor, "While this isn't the MAIN project, this does have the great upside of having a one-way express ticket right under the Bat-freak's skin. You're actually not getting exposed to anything at all from the BIG project, because it's a SECRET. This one is, too, but I'm sure I'd have contacted you about the bodies sooner or later. The big one's far too personal to involve anyone unneccisarily. But this is to break the Bat. Pure and simple. I want to make him snap. Granted, he's already a little batty... Heh heh heh..." Joker enjoyed his little chuckle, then continued. "Anyway, I'm glad you asked for a reason. I understand that you also torture people, more as a hobby than anything. Am I correct?"

The doctor nodded. "Oh yes. Most of my work is bandaging up the injured. But...I do take a fair amount of enjoyment out of a live body to play with. There was one incident when I worked for Luthor and was able to torture a small group for quite some time." he replied, then his tone took a rather unpleasant turn. "Unfortunately....the restraints snapped on one of the victims. I was in a coma for some time."

He was....very curious now as to what the BIG project was. I was assumed that NOTHING was greater than the Batman, as far as Joker's priorities went. Whatever this was about...was defiantly personal. And he had his suspicions with the child. Well....most he could hope for was some public finalie. He wasn't stupid enough to question things after the man had specifically said it couldn't involve anyone unnecessarily. That translated meant 'If I told you, I'd have to kill you.'

"How long have you had them?" he asked, turning his focus back on the subject of torturing.

"Oh, for a few weeks, but they've only been deceased for about a day," the clown explained, "However, I bring up the subject of torture due to the one still living. I didn't want to do much until the others had expired; with her being so much younger, she stood a better chance of increased suffering from hearing these two in pain. Granted, Fem-Bats here barely made so much as a peep until towards the end, but then again, her old man DID play 'Two for Flinching' with her using a 9mm when she was a kid." As he continued to speak, he walked to the right wall, which had a curtain, presumably hiding a window. "But I digress. Anyways, I have her strapped into MY little torture device. I just wanted your personal, more experienced, opinion on it." With that, Joker opened the curtain, to reveal a window that showed a room that had obviously started out whitewashed, but now had lots of red splatters everywhere to break it up. In the middle, there was something that looked like a dentist's chair with all the padding removed, leaving just the metal frame. Strapped in was a young woman, no older than twenty, wearing the costume of the Spoiler. She was already cut and burned in several places. The source of the burns was the acelylene torch sitting off in the back corner of the room, while the cuts were from the circular saw that had been gerry-rigged the light fixture arm of the chair instead of the normal light. Her eyes were pried open with a set of spring-loaded clamps, so that she couldn't blink. A faucet was dripping in the other back corner, apparently audibly, as one of her fingers twitched every time a drop fell out of view into the basin. The window was apparently one-way, as she showed no sign of seeing movement, even though they could see her face straight-on. "Any suggestions? I was going mostly for an extended version of the old Chinese 'Death of 1000 Cuts' but added in the torch, eye clamps, and sink for the Hell of it."

The Crime Doctor paused a moment and stared silently at the girl behind the glass. Then, slowly, he walked up to the window to better inspect the room. "Well..." he began, glancing from the torch, to the saw, to the girl staring past him in the steel seat. "I'd say you have a rather decent little torture room. Adjustable metal chair that gives minimal to no comfort. Strong restraints. Eyes pried open. Torch easily capable of creating third degree burns within seconds. Saw is a little messy compared to other cutting instruments...but it tears the skin and muscle rather than leave a clean cut..." he mused, then paused a moment in thought. "Are you drugging her at all? Anything to keep her awake, multiply the pain?"

"Only when I'm preparing to work. It could just be cause it's me, but letting her rest in between sessions has typically resulted in her having dreams that are just as bad as reality, if her screams are anything to go by." The Joker thought a moment, and said, "I know you can't stay much longer, with other clients waiting on you and all. But how about I hold on to the bodies until a more convenient time for you? I know what it's like being swamped with work. I'll even let you have a turn or two with this subject, if you'd like." The clown held up a gloved hand, and smirked. "Look, no buzzer." Then Joker held out the hand he'd held up for inspection to shake. "I know, normally I'm nowhere near so forthcoming, but for some reason I've taken a liking to little Rosie, and this is my way of saying 'thank you' for coming to help her. Even if it was beneath your level of skill."

"Well...I can say it wasn't what I expected when I received a call of an 'impaled' leg. But...this was still well worth the visit. And a rather pleasant surprise." the Doctor replied as he took the Joker's hand. "Picking up the bodies at a different time would be best. I tried to be as discreet as possible coming here, so taking bodies with me would be a little conspicuous. And..." he said, his voice taking a rather sinister tone. "I think I'll take you up on a turn torturing the girl. I haven't gotten to play with anyone in quite some time."

"I'll be more than happy to oblige," the Joker said, his tone just as sinister. Taking his hand back, he closed the curtain and walked back to where the hidden dorway was. "By the by, did you know that the Luthor who built that old Secret Society was an imposter?"

"Really?" the Doctor replied as he followed behind him. "To be honest I didn't follow up on much of the group after Catm-...I was put into a coma."

Joker smirked to himself, as his back was turned to the Crime Doctor, at the unintentional slip. Mentally filing the information away for another possible time, he continued as he walked. "It's true. The real McCoy found me, led me to him, and let me kill him in a rather nasty manner. I'd wanted to do that anyway; served him right for not inviting me. After all, who doesn't love clowns? HA HA HA!" There was no need to call anything to the defense system; it was only activated when the door on the other side was the first to open.

"I had wondered about that." the Doctor said as they continued to walk down the hall. "He'd gotten practically everyone and anyone...and those who didn't join were made to regret it. I never did hear about you being in the group."

"I know, something about me being too unstable, or some nonsense like that..." Joker mused out loud, moving his hand as if to wave off such a preposterous idea. Of course, the clown knew that the preposterous idea in question was completely true, as did anyone with half a brain from his Universe, but that was irrelevant. They were almost to the other end of the hall.

"Ah." the Doctor replied, still following Joker at a much more relaxed pace than he had when they first walked down the hall. He thought for a moment, and wanted to ask a little more about Rosie, but...he wasn't sure he'd actually get any information on that just yet. Something told him that she may have something to do with the Joker's latest project.

The clown activated the hidden door, and as it opened, the clown stepped through back into the main protion of the hideout. "Again, thank you for coming, Doc. You can keep in touch for the bodies, and the... other appointment," Joker said, glancing at Rosie. He didn't want her to know about the torture chamber. Not yet, at least. Maybe once he was sure of how comfotable she was with human suffering.

Rosie had been busy in the corner of the room shooting plastic cups off one of the desks away from the computer system. When the door opened again, she whirled around and smiled as Joker walked back into the room. She stood and took a few steps towards them, but politely waited until he was done talking to the doctor before even trying to run up to him again.


"Of course." the Doctor replied with a nod. "I have the number, and you should have mine. If...there is another incident..." he said, glancing towards Rosie. "Give me a call." he said, then turned and started for the door he had entered through earlier to leave.

"Take care, Doc!" the Joker said, and then turned to Rosie, dropped to one knee, spread his arms wide open and said "Now come here, my dear! How's your leg doing?"  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Read more!

Sorry, but there is just way too much for me to cut and paste over to here. sweatdrop

Surrounding Areas of Gotham, page 10 to page 27

 

[Elmira of Elkwood]

If it hadn't been for the make-up, Joker probably would've figured out that SOMETHING happened last night to Harley. However, it was there, covering her blush very well, so he remained clueless. "And by 'completing tasks', what you really mean is 'killing people for profit', don't you?" Gotham City, and his universe in general, had enough assassins, mercenaries, and guns-for-hire, many of whom Joker was at least acquainted with, to pick up on merc-speak when he heard it. Looking just a little past Quinn, not focusing on anything while he thought about everything Harls had told him, he said, "Well, I can't have this going on around Rosie; it'll make her a target, too. So..." A trace of the old Joker reemerged again: his half-smile turned into a full-blown toothy grin that radiated the pure essence of evil, his eyes almost glowing with insanity that was also somehow tempered with the calculating artistic flair for the dramatic macabre that was the Clown Prince of Crime's trademark. The Joker was back. "...I guess I'll just have to go looking for them myself." His head snapping over to lock eyes with Harley, he said, "Harley! Did any of them tell you how to reach them? An address? Phone number? Pictogram? Ostentatious seachlight in the sky?"

Harley hesitated. "I-...yeah, they did." she replied. Who did she give away though? She could tell him about Casper she supposed. She was supposed to meet with him tomorrow to see about finding Joker. He did want to find Joker after all. And he might have a chance against the Joker. She...did kind of relate to Casper's predicament though. Felt kind of bad for him.
The girl though...well, as easily as she'd snuck into her room, she wasn't sure making her angry was such a good thing. If Joker didn't kill her, then she could well come straight for her.

At the same time...if she didn't tell Joker everything...well, she already knew how that would end.


"The...woman that snuck into my room last night. She left me her number before she left this morning. She was the one wanting to find you for a job. The guy that droped in on one of my shopping sprees....I'm supposed to meet with him tomorrow."


{Enter F. Batman from Gotham City}

In a particularly dense patch of shadow, something stirred very slightly. It was far enough away that neither of the two speakers had much of a chance of noticing the slight movement, especially as the camo feature on the batsuit was active. Using the zoom feature in the lenses of his cowl and stretching his nearly-invisible hand out so that the tiny, super-sensitive microphones in the fingertips were pointed towards the rogues, Terry settled in to listen. This was the Joker, after all; the more he knew, the fewer the surprises. Even so, he got his beeper ready, prepared to press it and call in Gossamer at a moment's notice.

"And which one's trying to kill me?" Joker asked, "That's rather important."

"Well... Harley began. "I know the woman was looking for you because of a job. And the guy was just looking for you. I'm not sure what he was planing on doing if he found you." she replied.

"Alright, the woman gets priority," Joker surmised. "You said that she left a number, Harley?"

Harley's smile became a little nervous. "Yeah. She did, Mistah Jay." she replied. "Why, you wantin' to call her personally?"

"Absolutely!" The Joker said enthusiastically, "I need to control the situation as much as possible, to make sure Rosie's in no danger. Calling her is just part of what's needed to be done towards that end." He held out his hand. "Your phone, please?"


Harley's smile wavered a bit more. "Uh....yeah. Sure." she replied, then slipped on of her hands into her pocket. She really couldn't get out of this even if she wanted to. Even if she lied about not having the number with her, Joker would still make sure that he got it. Half of her crew would be more interested in working for Joker too, so...if he went over to her place...

She sighed a bit, then handed him her cell phone.

Joker took the phone, and smirked. "I STILL have no idea how you find somewhere to put things like this AND show off your body in that tight suit..." He started looking through the numbers, and asked, "Which one?" He had no interest in messages, so for the moment, what happened between the two women was still secret.


Harley couldn't help but smile at his compliment. She just couldn't help it.

"It's the number under Yuriko." she replied. Then frowned when she realized that she was the last person to call. And how she might react if Joker was the one to call her back.

"Is that her merc name?" Joker asked, his thumb over the dial button.

Harley paused a moment, and frowned further. "Um...no. That's actually her...real name...." she replied. "Her code name is............Lady Deathstrike? I think she said? Mentioned?"

"Lady Deathstrike... intruiging..." Joker mused out loud as he pressed the dial button. Although he seemed a little irritated when the message machine came on, he didn't let it affect his tone. "Hello, Lady Deathstrike. I'm the Joker. I hear you're interested in finding me. I'm interested in WHO wants you you to find me. No doubt the 'why' is to kill me. I think we should meet up. Have a sit-down. Just you and me, with Harley present to make sure that no one does anything... TOO crazy before discussions are done. If you want to try and kill me after we're done talking..." Joker paused, and then finished with, "...You can try... Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh..." Then, he hung up. handing the phone back to Harley, he said to her, "She'll probably call you back. Do you remember the old Laff Time comedy club that we used to use as a hideout?"

Harley took the phone and carefully put it back into her pocket. "Of course. I remember quite a few of our old hideouts." she replied, looking back up at him.

Joker nodded. "When she calls back, tell her that THAT'S where the sit-down will take place. She can decide when. Since I want you there, and you know where I can be found, you can tell me what her reply is." Joker's eyes narrowed into evil little slits, no humor on his face whatsoever. "You will NOT tell her where my hideout is. If you do, and I find out, I swear on everything we once had together, I WILL kill you. Feelings be damned. I will NOT have you endanger Rosie. Am I clear?"


Harley stared back at him quietly for a moment. Her expression....intrigued. She had never seen him act like this before. Not for a child. Not for her. Not for anyone. He honestly was emotionally attached to the child.

...something the psychiatrist part of her mind wanted to look into farther.

And something that the love sick part of her mind was jumping up and down about. Though it couldn't decide if it was over him being a different, more caring Joker now.....or being jealous of a five year old.

"Of course, Mistah Jay..." she replied calmly. Her expression still intrigued.

The Joker's expression lightened quickly, without warning. "Excellent!" he exclaimed at Harley's acknowledgment. "Well, I'd better get going. Plans to lay, people to kill... You get the idea." He turned around and started walking back to his hideout. "Ta-ta for now!"

"Uh...sure thing Mistah Jay." she called as he turned and left her. She stood there for a moment, watching him, then turned and began walking down the street herself. She hefted her mallet over her shoulder and continued walking down the street. Her mind in a million different places at once. Ninety percent of it was on the Joker. Only about three percent of it was on Harley's immediate surroundings.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Terry was no longer in the shadows. As interesting as Harley's new love life might have been, he had bigger fish to fry. The instant the Joker had left, and while the two women were distracted with eachother, he slipped inside after the clown, making sure to keep his camo feature up and to stay downwind of the two women; no sense in taking chances, since he had no idea what this 'Lady Deathstrike' could do.


Meanwhile, Rosie was fast asleep in her oversized and overly fluffy pink bed. Tinkerer was busy gathering up some tools to try and work on some of his little projects that were away from his large computer system. While he was to be busy at the other end of the room, Death Raider was going to keep his seat warm. Watch the monitors, security, and do a little surfing on one of Tinkerer's unused screens to find some.........weight loss advice on the web. Might as well start on that now. He did NOT want to give the Joker a reason to be upset with him again.



Bruce Wayne's voice sounded on all hero communicators. "All available heroes that know the location of the Batcave, please report to said location or keep your communicators on."

The voice buzzed out of three different speakers in the large, heavily secured base.

One came from a communicator lying on the floor across from the chair Spoiler was strapped down too. With the dripping of the foscet being the only sound she had heard for hours, the sudden voice startled Stephanie.
She gasped and gripped the armrests tightly. Her eyes would have widened if they hadn't already been clamped open. Her heartbeat sped up, and she strained to look over at the communicator lying on the floor.

The other speaker came from Cassandra's communicator that was wired up to a computer system Tinkerer was working on. With the system he had set up, NOTHING could track the communicator's whereabouts. They would be innactive to the rest of the world. But for him...for the Tinkerer...he could do whatever he wanted with it.
Or...at least try to. He had been trying to use the communicator to keep tabs on anyone else, and to pinpoint the location of the Batcave. Which...thanks to the Batcave's system mixed with his own secure line....he couldn't pinpoint the location any better than they would be able to pinpoint them.

So...it had just been lying there, waiting for any open line of communication to pass through.
Tink jumped at the sound as well and looked over at the device. That was the first bit of communication he'd gotten from the thing since they ripped it off of Batgirl. He looked at it, then over at Death Raider.


The third speaker was only heard by one person. It had been set up so years into the future, and was luckily able to pick up the old system.
Terry had snuck into the hideout behind the Joker. The stealth function in his suit allowing him to do so unnoticed. And thanks to some of his technology, he wasn't detected by Tinkerer's technology.

Tinkerer blinked at the device as Batman's message continued. Death Raider looked over from his computer screen and over at the communicator. ”Is....that good or bad?” he asked.

Tink hushed him as he rolled his chair over to the computer the small device was hooked up to and began pounding away at the keyboard. Death Raider watched him, but knew better than to distract the man. When he hushed you and focused on a computer, then he was really, really focused on something. If you made him mess up, then he'd be kicking his chair around for the next three days.

The Joker suddenly burst from his personal room. Unless Tinkerer had been paying attention, God only knows what happened in there. And if Tinkerer DID know, he probably had no clue WHY the clown had done it. And there was an incredibly huge smile on his face. "Tink-tink! How goes things?" Then he noticed the Tinkerer working; since he was the only guy here that had a purpose beyond babysitter/cannon fodder, the Joker didn't pull his attention too far away from his job. "Single-syllable words are acceptable."

And Tink had't been paying any bit of attention to what Joker had been doing. After the first few days of having security in Joker's rooms....Tink rather tried to avoid watching what he did.
Though....he had to admit....he did enjoy watching some of the things Joker had done to Batgirl. He was kind of hoping for another show, but it seemed like Joker was having more fun making this girl scream.

But....both he and Raider had been doing other things on the computer to worry about Joker. Raider had several weight loss sights up, and Tink had been working as usual. Right now, he was doing something with numbers and a map on the screen.

"Batman." Tink replied. Since, one line words were acceptable. And truthfully....that word would probably be all the explanation Joker needed. "Communicator....he sent a message...heard on this....and probably blondie's Comm....." he continued between buttons and keyboard clacking. "Lotta people......using Batcave......Bat wants.....use someplace else......trying......to track it....."

"So, basically, Batsy is being Batsy." Joker smiled. "And here I had just been told that Guano-For-Brains might be running around killing mobsters." Joker shrugged, then continued. "Not that I'd blame him, he's had more than enough bad days to make him snap. Hell, he's had enough bad days to make the entirety of Gotham snap. Still, I guess it would be a moral victory for me..." Then, the clown chuckled. "Heh, listen to me, talking about morals. That's a laugh!"

There was no responce from Tink, save for the clacking of his keyboard. Death Raider gave Joker a small smile, but he didn't quite seem to get the Joke. Or he was still just shook up about earlier. That was more possible at the moment. If it hadn't been for Rosie taking a likeness to him, he'd be dead right now.


Joker chuckled a little more to himself, then continued talking, almost thoughtfully, to himself. "You know, it COULD be that chibi-Bat that came at me some time ago..." His smile widened, not quite menacingly, but more like he was legitimately thinking about what was coming out of his mouth. "He's younger, definitely more reliant on gadgets, not able to cope with the reality of not being up at the level of Batman, version 1..." Joker nodded, once again more to himself, "Yes, it could definitely be him..."

"There's more than one Batman?" Death Raider asked, glancing over at Tink. Who....paid no attention.

"Oh, yes," Joker said, turning to Death Raider, surprisingly still smiling. The fact that the subject was Batman was probably going a long way in keeping Joker happy. "Kinda like how there's more than one Robin, except there's only one Robin at a time..."

Raider looked a little nervous, and gave a glance back towards Tink. Not because he was expecting him to look back...but just because he felt a little better looking at someone. "More than one Batman....aren't you worried one of them is going to find this place?" he asked, looking back at Joker.

"Do you have ANY IDEA how many old bases of mine have been found by the Bat?" Joker said to Raider, "ANY idea? I could open a corporation with all that space!"


Raider paused for a moment, then looked down the hall towards Rosies room, then back towards Joker. "Is everything alright here? I mean...you don't think he'll-" Raider began.

"Not a chance." Tink said, still clacking away at his computer.

At that exact moment, there was a faint 'pop'. Suddenly, the room was full of thick, choking gas that made the eyes water and the throat burn. Within moments, it was next to impossible to see one's hand waving in front of one's own face. Even more disturbingly, anyone who bothered to think about it would figure out that some of the smoke bombs--quite a few, in fact--would have needed to be placed in the room with them to get so much smoke cover so quickly.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Death Raider was caught off guard, and on the floor coughing and sputtering within a matter of seconds. Poor Tinkerer was JUST getting ready to hack the JLA communication system when the smoke hit him. He lurched forward, smacked a couple keys, and messed up his entire process.


Rosie was still in her sleep in her room, completely clueless of all that was going on in Tink's work room

Joker, much more used to Bat-scare tactics, didn't fall over, and barely jumped enough for it to be perceptible. His smile, which hadn't been quite menacing before, now completely skipped menacing and went to full-blown evil. "See what I was saying, Tink-tink? We've got rodent problems," the clown said, not really caring if he'd been heard. His breathing turned somewhat shallow, keeping him from breathing in too much of the smoke. Not much could be done about visibility, though. Only thing to do was to try to bring the Bat to him. "Oh, Batsy! You got some 'splaining to do!" We slowly walked towards a wall, drawing a revolver from within the depths of his jacket. "After all this time, as long as we've known each other, why've you finally started killing people? I'm not disappointed, mind you. I quite like the notion. I just want to know the why."

Absolutely no response, aside from the Tinkerer's stunned wheezing and Raider's profanity-laced coughing. IF it was the Bat, then what he wanted clearly wasn't the Joker. Not right then at any rate.

What he wanted was in the room that the Joker had just vacated. Slipping soundlessly down the hallway in that direction, Terry carefully touched the side of his cowl, turning his heat-vision on. That was a little weird... It looked like there was only one person in this particular room. His intel had suggested that the Joker had two captives in here.

... Ominous...

Maybe it would be best to call Gossamer now, while he still had things well in hand.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to consider it further, because at that moment an overly cheerful, distinctly female voice spoke in his ear, making him flinch. "Why hello, there! So you're that younger bat I've been hearing about!"

Terry gritted his teeth and brought his hand up to the side of his cowl again, allowing for a response. "Let me guess... Batwoman? " he practically growled, taking great pains to keep his voice all but inaudible despite his annoyance. This had to be another member of the Bat family, a concept which was getting old fast. "Fantastic. Let's be sure get acquainted some time that isn't now. If you aren't in immediate danger, clear the channel."


"The channel's secure, nobody can hear me. And you make astute assumptions. I thought you'd be a delinquent or something, but I'd assume that you'll make a good Bat after all with such quick thinking. So... I'll call you 'Bat-boy' for now." Bat-boy? Oh, no. No way in hell. "Care to fill me in on what you're doing?"

Angry (It didn't matter if the channel was secure on her end; he was in the middle of an operation, and she was a distraction! If she really wanted to be in his business, couldn't she go after the Mad Hatter?) and frustrated on multiple levels (How had she guessed about the delinquent thing?) Terry replied with a little more heat than was absolutely necessary, though he still managed to keep his voice low. "Working. Batman out," he added, putting a not-so-subtle emphasis on the 'man'. Batboy was just a tiny step away from Robin, and he'd already been close enough to that for one lifetime when he'd been de-aged.

Without waiting for her to respond, he tapped the side of his cowl twice, disconnecting the audio linkup from the main computer. After a moment of hesitation, he left all of the other links up, including the location beacon and the vital statistics monitor. He was irritated, not crazy, and he had not forgotten whose house he was currently in.

Realising that no one was going for him OR his henchmen, Joker suddenly went into a slightly more lucid mindset. "Tinkerer! Get you head back in gear and activate the damned security! Death Raider, activate the short-term water system! And YES, Tink, I know it'll short your systems, but I'd rather be OUT of jail, where we can rebuild! The water will dispell the smoke AND ruin any stealth tech!" The Joker had apparently remembered his run-in with the futuristic Batman. Suddenly, he began running to Rosie's room.

Terry heard the clown loud and clear; he wasn't exactly trying to keep his voice low. Damn, he thought savagely, Why does he have to be so competent? He could do without the smoke and the camo, but the risk of the mission would be greatly increased. Since there were civilians in the mix, he wanted to avoid such things for as long as humanly possibly. Silently, jumped up onto the ceiling, digging into it with the hard, knife sharp ends of his suit's fingertips, and watched with narrowed eyes as the Clown Prince of crime passed right underneath him. It would be so easy to just jump down on him and...

But that wasn't why he was there. He would call Gossamer, get the hostages, and get out. Carefully, he reached down to his belt, pressing the little button that would activate his location beacon. Now the witch would be able to see exactly where he was, and knowing her, she would be there in a matter of minutes. That done, he started back down towards the Tinkerer's operation room, intent upon stopping him from activating the security system.


As Tinkerer coughed and hacked, he pulled out a long plate of scrap metal from the floor and used it to cover some of the security panels. "Turn the -cough- water on!" he growled, moving to the side to try and feel for the right switches.

Raider coughed back, and felt his way around the computer panels, then along the wall. Luckily, the water switch was easy enough to get to. Tink needed it to be close enough to roll over to from his chair, so it should be....right about....

Clunk.

The ceiling hissed to life. Nearly a moment after that, there was a very disapproving squeal from one of the back rooms. Understandable...little girls typically hated being dumped with water as a means of waking up.

Neither of the men in the room cared though. It was just enough for them that they were beginning to regain their vision. Which was all Tink needed to find the right button under the large sheet of metal he was using to try and protect some of his circuitry. First one....lock down the building. He slammed his hand down on the button. Intent on hitting all the right buttons before the entire system fizzled out on him. Next, every single aggressive security trap he had set up inside the house.

Which was right......ah, there. Now to hit it before -

"GAH!" Joker yelled out reflexively as the water system activated, barely noticing Rosie's squeal as they occured at roughly the same time. After that brief moment, he was actually glad that he hadn't killed Death Raider, after all; he'd been able to do his task under severe duress. All that passed through his head just before remembering to be on the lookout for ANYTHING irregular about the falling water; the future-Bat's stealth tech, if the clown calculated correctly, wouldn't work as well with watter hitting him and rolling down his future-Batsuit. If the Harlequin of Hate was particularly lucky, it might even short the suit out, but he wasn't counting on that. The Joker burst into Rosie's room, saying in a raised tone, "Get up! Someone's broken in!"

A baterang sliced through the air, destroying the button before Tinkerer could press it and sending a shower of sparks through the air. A moment later, the much-abused control panel whined... and died. The electric lights in the building flickered valiantly for a moment, and then followed suit. It seemed that turning on the water hadn't been the best idea, after all.

The Joker grabbed Rosie's gun and held it out to her, not realising that the power was out; the lights in her room were already off, as she had been alseep. "Come ON, Rosie! Before the Bat gets here, or worse, finds the hidden room. I'll get you some new dresses!"


Rosie was already sitting up in her bed by the time Joker busted through her bedroom door. Her arm wrapped around her old doll, and the other holding her pillow above her head to try and keep herself as dry as she could. Not that it helped. The covers were starting to soak through, and her hair was already damp and clinging to her cheeks and purple pajama top.

Her eyes widened as Joker announced that they had Bat company, and she quickly slid herself out of her now dark-pink bed. With her doll still her arm, she tossed her pillow to the side and quickly pulled down a zipper at the back of the doll as she ran towards him. She took the gun from him and slipped it into the back of her doll.
This should hide her gun from most people, and it would (hopefully) keep the gun dry for a while. After all, who was suspicious of a little girl having a loaded gun inside of her stuffed doll? Except for anyone else who seen those bits on TV about Babydoll. Granted the gun probably wouldn't work the same way as that but...at least she had it if she needed it.

Rosie carefully zipped the back of her doll back up half way so that she could slide her hand back in and grab the gun if and when she needed it. She held the doll tightly against her with one arm, while the other waited to grab onto Joker.


= = = = = =


Tinkerer swore up and down as the sparks suddenly flew up in his face. He didn't need the stars to die down from his vision to know that the rest of his system had just crashed. Just the sound of the computer, then the flickering lights told it all. Everything was utterly offline now. If it was still up, then it would be malfunctioning severely.

Which means all he had accomplished was putting the entire building into lockdown mode. There was only one escape rout open now, and they were going to have to manually override the door to it. Everything else...well it was going to be extremely difficult to get in or out of the building.

So they were all stuck inside of here with...Batman, was it? Is that who this was? He STILL didn't see anyone. Then again, it was pitch black in the room now. That didn't help. The back up generator should be kicking on soon for the lights at least. IF the generator could communicate with the rest of the building anyway.

...either way they were screwed. All screwed.

Growling, Tink rolled his chair over to the side of the large computer system and grabbed for something under the table. A few somethings rather. If he couldn't use the computer systems, then hopefully he could activate some of the stand-by and test models by remote. If the remote was still working anyway. Had to try something.

Death Raider, on the other hand, was now at a loss for what to do. It was dark, his glasses were soaked. Safe to say he was pretty much blind right now. He could feel water sloshing around in his boots, and it felt like his homemade suit was shrinking on him. He didn't know where Tink hid all his weapons at in the room, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to use them anyway. Maybe he could find that broken vase and use a piece of that? Yeah? Or did he clean that up already?  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Unfortunately, someone chose that exact moment to deal the Tinkerer a stunning blow to the solar plexus, followed by a swift palm-heel to the bridge of the nose. If it didn't break on contact, it would be some kind of miracle. Either way, the Tinkerer's attacker used the momentum from the blow to the face to force the villain back into the control panel, connecting the back of his head crashing back into the delicate electronics with a 'thud'. "Tinkerer, right?" a cold voice intoned from the darkness, "Let's talk."

Tinkerer was just about to grab his remote, then in the next moment he found himself crumpled over his computer his head just...on fire. He had no idea what happened, and he barely heard the dismembered voice talking to him.

"Aaugh...mother *****...what the **** was....agh.." he groaned, trying to sit himself back up.

Death Raider's eyes widened and he took a few large steps back from....whatever just happened to Tink.

Terry yanked the man forward and up by his lapels, so that the little man's toes barely brushed the soaking floor. "I'm asking once nicely," the voice informed him, "Only once. Where is Joker keeping the prisoners?"

Tinkerer grunted out as he was yanked from his chair and barely onto his feet. Raider took quite a few more steps back at the sight of Tink getting bullied by a ghost.

"Agh...w-what? What do you mean where is he keeping...ngh...what is that? Blood? Y-you broke my nose!"

"And now I'm breaking your finger," the voice told him, and his right index finger was breaking with a funny, disarmingly innocent little 'crack'. "Where. Are. The Prisoners?"

”GAAAAAHH!!” the man screamed, followed by a generous round of fowl language to try and deal with the pain. His toes just barely sliding across the wet floor as he kicked them back and forth wildly. With his one hand around what he could only assume was the Bat's arm that had him grabbed by the collar, he couldn't do much to help his other hand. He needed that hand though. If he said anything....Joker would kill him. But if he was covered in casts, he wasn't going to be much use to Joker.

”D-d-does it MATTER?! You just fried my entire system! No one's getting in or out of any closed door in this place now!” he growled, trying to move his hand back enough to ease the tension on his unfortunate finger.

Raider was growing increasingly uneasy with the entire situation. He honestly didn't know what to do now. He could try to run and just leave Tink to fend for himself. But...this was the Bat, right? He wasn't exactly in the ideal shape to try and sprint out of the room with the Batman only a few feet away from him. He could try to find something to use as a weapon to try and help Tink fend off his attacker. But...again, the whole Batman logic applied. So....what did he do?

Very uneasily, Raider sent a glance out of the room and at the doorway. Not straight out or towards the long hallway that Joker had looked down. But....more at the wall on the left outside of the room. Whatever his glance had been on was quickly shot off as Raiders attention moved back to Tink. He didn't want Joker to kill him for telling either. Heck, he KNEW Joker would kill him for that. Joker had made it very clear that Rosie was the only reason he wasn't dead right now. If he screwed up one more time...he was dead.

= = = == = = = = = ======= = = = = =========== = == == =


Meanwhile, outside of the now very much locked down building, Gossamer's form solidified on the edge of the rooftop across from it. One leg up on the ledge of the roof as she leaned over it to look down at the building across the street. One hand was holding the tracker Batman had given her, while the other was pointed at her own head. Strands of white energy curled off her hand and wrapped itself around in her hair, pulling the mass of it up and into a quick but messy bun. It was easier for her to work if it was all up and out of her face. Well...most of it anyway. Her bangs tended to just hang around the sides of her face or behind her ear.

She looked down at the scanner, then back at the building. This had to be the place. The little Bat had to be inside. Were they in there? There was definitely quite a few someones in there. But there was so much metal and tech around the building, it was making it hard for her to just “look” in.

...and she was pumped up on adrenaline and fear. That never, never helped her focus on her magic. She just couldn't work perfectly when she was this excited. She'd have to get closer to know if Rosie was inside. Or Joker. Or anyone else she'd normally be able to locate easily. So....she might as well just go inside the building. Then she should be able to see everything and anything.

….and yet she just couldn't bring herself to move off of the rooftop yet.

It...it wasn't a trap, right? The Bat wouldn't do that to her. Or at least he wouldn't have waited this long to do something like that. He'd have every right to pull something like that on her. She did beat the hell out of him and nearly killed him....she wouldn't blame him for wanting to get back at her. But...after weeks? No, it had been longer than that. Okay. So....yeah. This wasn't a trap. Calm down.

Just....just stay calm. He probably DID actually find them, and she was so worked up right now that she just couldn't stay focused long enough to see any of it for herself. So she owed him one after this. She really, really owed him one if she could get her Rosie back and....and....this was a far cry from a toy factory or anything the Bat told her to look for. What the hell? No wonder she couldn't find anything!

No. Stop it. Focus. Calm down. She needed to keep calm. Especially if Joker was in there. What was she going to do if Joker was in there? He was probably beyond angry at her. It LOOKED like she had just left him at Lex Corp after all. She'd be mad at her. All she knew was that he took Rosie off of a bus.

And then that lovely little image that the martian had shoved into her head of Rosie lying dead on the floor reared its ugly head again. Gossamer froze, and nearly dropped the tracker out of her hand and off the building.

Rosie...she had no idea what he had done to Rosie while he had her. What if...what if he'd already done something to her? What if she was dead? No...no it would be worse. If he was as mad at her as she was afraid he was....it was going to be worse. She wouldn't be dead yet. He'd be saving something special just for her.

No. Come on, stop it. Calm down. Focus. The boy said that if he hadn't hurt her physically, then he'd have done something mentally to her. Just go in there, find her, put her to sleep, then get out of there. Simple as that. Sort everything else out later. Get this done, then go scream, cry, and toss some furniture out the window for no reason other than to just throw something later.

Right? Yeah. Good. Okay. Calm down. Focus. And get off the roof. We'll just start with getting off the roof.

…..

….any minute now...


==== = = == = ======= = = = = ========= = == ============

Vice, unfortunately, wasn't quite as fast as Gossamer when it came to covering blocks and blocks of city streets. She had teleportation. He had.....roof top hopping and swinging from building to building with a hooked chain. Like some gothed-out Spider-Man or something. They didn't have one of those, right? Really, how stupid would that look? He was so....cheerful all the time. Sarcastically cheerful anyway.

While Gossamer was already at the building in question, Vice was....a few blocks back. Walking down the street, his eyes focused on the buildings around him, and his little tracker. A large frown on his face. You'd think with how hard he'd been combing this city before....he'd be more familiar with a little green electronic map of the city. But...he had no clue where Goss had finally stopped. Where he was. Or where h- ggkt!

Before Vice could dwell on anything else, his leg collided with something small, but large enough to trip him. His gaze quickly moved from the tall buildings to the concrete in one swift motion. And his face became familiar with that little patch of concrete in the same motion. After slamming face first into the concrete, Vice groaned and rolled over to sit himself back up. A small, and rather cute little snort of suppressed laughter belted out beside him.

Vice looked over, and found a little girl in a black and red dress dragging a large shopping bag standing beside him. Both of her hands were covering her mouth, trying to hide a giggle fit that was threatening to bubble up. Her little black wig, that looked as though she didn't put much effort into it other than shoving it onto her head, had a few strands of bright red hair peeking through it. And her dark red eyes, ones rather similar to the little image of Rosie Gossamer had showed him, were large and filled with an amused little sparkle.

Vice just sat there for a moment and blinked back at her, holding his hand over his nose to try and ease the pain. ”.....R-....Rosie?” he asked.

The little girl didn't reply, and didn't move her hands from her mouth. She did however quickly nod her head yes as another puff of air slipped through her fingers in a quick little snort.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Batman noticed the head twitch from the stranger--that was one of the nice things about having a night-vision setting in the suit--and turned to stare, first at him, and then at the wall. Hmm... His attention shifted back to the Tinkerer "Let's pretend like I'm pretty resourceful, and will probably figure something out. Is it behind the blank wall just into the hallway?" he asked coolly. "Oh, and you--" he added, pointing at the stranger without turning, "Don't make me come over there. Stay." Pause. "Put."

Raider froze and stared back at the hero. Again, he really, really didn't know what to do. Not do anything and risk Joker getting angry with him for the last time, or risk getting a stay in the hospital from Batman.

Tink had tensed up when Batman had mentioned the wall. That should have been all the answer Terry needed. And that was all the answer he was actually going to get out of the man. He wasn't about to get on Joker's bad side by telling.

The corner of Terry's mouth quirked upward--not that anyone could tell. "Thanks for that," he said calmly, and then he brought the elbow of his free arm smashing into the side of the Tinkerer's head, knocking the man out cold. He was probably concussed... Oh, well. Maybe next time he wouldn't work with the Joker.

Terry dropped the man, moved past Raider almost casually, and stalked out into the hallway to examine the wall. There was nothing quite as insulting as being completely ignored by a given superhero.

Tinkerer grunted, and fell to the wet floor. He did not move afterwards. Raider stared down at Tink, and backed up a bit as Batman moved past him to look at the wall. Raider stared at Batman for a long moment, then took an experimental step backwards. If he wasn't paying attention, he was making a run for it.

Again without turning around, Batman spoke to Raider. "What did I just say?" He didn't want to waste even a minute or two beating this man up, especially when the Joker could be back any moment, but he would make time for it if he had to.


Again, Raider froze and stared back at the hero. Sweat began rolling down his already dripping wet face, and he tried to glance around at the space around him. Hard to do with the water rolling off of his glasses, but he tried. He...he had to do something, but he still had no idea what to do. He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to end up like Tink either. That looked like it really hurt.

...he should have went with that human experimentation thing first. This would be a lot easier if he had super powers.

The Joker took Rosie's outstretched hand, and pulled her up onto his shoulders; he'd move a little faster than he would if he was nearly pulling her arm out. "Hold on!" the clown yelled as he began to head back down the hallway; he had an escape route in his room, but knew that he'd probably have to deal with a Bat-dork first. "Be ready to shoot anything that looks like a Bat!"

Rosie held onto him as tightly as she could, keeping one hand ready and wrapped around the gun inside her doll. "Okay..." she replied, the tone of her voice quite clear that she was not enjoying herself right now.
She hadn't gotten that much sleep. She'd been woken up to meet Harley, and now she'd been woken up with the sprinkler system drenching her. She was soaking wet, and she had a feeling this was all she was going to be wearing for a while.

Terry, meanwhile, was carefully examining the blank wall that had so interested Raider, running his fingers along the seams and cross-checking the paint and metal against the adjacent wall. It was a door. He was absolutely positive. The metal was of much higher quality, and did not give when he tested his weight against it. Now... Tinkerer had locked most everything down. Had he gotten to this door? Either way, the power for the building was uniformly off. How to get it open...

A moment later, a very small smile flickered across his face. He didn't know it, but it would be the last bit of legitimate enjoyment he would get out of this particular escapade. "Ooookay..." he murmured to himself, "Let's do this." Calmly, he placed two slim, red and black disks on the wall, where they began to glow with a sullen, almost hellish light. Counting down. Terry took a mere three steps backward, and waited.

Surprisingly, when the disks finally went off it was with a slow, steady hum rather than with a 'boom'. For a moment nothing seemed to happen. Then a funny, high, very quiet squeak began to pervade the air. Cracks began to run through the tough metal of the wall... and then, abruptly, it shattered, looking like nothing so much as very thick, opaque glass. As this happened, Terry finally reacted, turning his head very slightly to the side to avoid having bits of metal fly into his face. Finally the door was...

Terry stopped, standing stock still. For a moment, what he was looking at didn't register. Rather, his mind wouldn't let it register. He had only ever seen so much blood in one place when he'd found his dad after... His mind jerked violently away from that particular line of thought, and began taking in the details with a mechanical efficiency. One of the girls was dead, and had been for a while. An hour at least. It was sickeningly obvious, even from many feet away. Her skin was far too white, though spotted liberally with what could only be her own blood, and her formerly dark eyes were open and glassy. She also wasn't... wasn't wearing much, which probably meant... Taking in her face, her short, dark hair, he came to a conclusion: he didn't know her.

The other girl was a different story.

For one thing, she was alive. Her breathing was audibly ragged, though she, too was bleeding from multiple serious lacerations. Knife wounds, maybe. He also did know her. The blonde girl. What had Joker called her? Spoiler? The one who had gotten him out of the clown's hideout after Rosie had knocked him out. The one who had virtually forced him to pass out on her couch, and then tried to make him eggs.

He had, on occasion, seen Wayne go beyond anger. Being Batman necessitated a certain cold, fundamentally intimidating detachment. You had to be able to stare death in the face and make it back down. To be honest, Terry was still working out the specifics of that particular skill. This... going beyond anger, thing, though, was something else. It wasn't detachment. Nor was it unthinking rage. Thought was still there. Ruthlessly calculated un-detachment, maybe. Terry had seen it in the old man, had been indefinably disturbed by it, but had never felt it.

Now he did.

Without his conscious input, his hands clenched into fists shaking with a kind of electrical buzz that seemed to dance over his skin. In that moment, everything seemed beautifully clear.

He was going to kill a clown.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

With the way the room was set up, Stephanie could be seen, but she had no idea that rescue was standing just beyond the glass that separated her from the other half of the room. She was still strapped down to the metal chair, her eyes clamped open and staring at the now dark ceiling above her, and her breathing ragged as her chest moved shakily....fear very evident.
And she had reason to be. She had been sitting alone in the brightly lit, blood drenched room for hours. With only the saw hovering over her head, the torch in the corner, and the dripping sink to keep her company. Usually when the lights went out like this, it was because the Joker wanted her to try and get some sleep. Not that she ever got very much. The nightmares were always just as bad as what happened when she was awake. And there were a few times when the lights went out that Joker would sneak in. Just so he could add a little bit of surprise to a round of playing cards, a squirt of acid, or just to make sure his voice was the only thing she had to focus on.

Right now she couldn't see the saw hanging above her...the door on the end of the room...anything beyond the reflective glass....just darkness.


= = = = = = = == = = = = = = = = == =

Raider, meanwhile, was trying to take advantage of Batman's momentary distraction. His glasses were still preventing him from seeing any farther than Batman, so he had no idea what was in the room in front of Batsy. He turned around and ran towards Tink's work station. He knew there should be something small in there that he could use.


= = = = = = = = = = = = = =


”Are you sure you know what you're doing?” Vice asked as he walked down the surprisingly quiet streets of Gotham. A tiny little figure that was walking a few steps ahead of him turned and beamed up at him. Her eyes bright and sparkling with child-like pride.

”Of course. The bad place had cameras EVERYWHERE! At least they did before that Cat lady blew everything up. And I paid close attention to the cameras.” she said proudly. ”You want the Joker, I can show you where he was seen at the most. At least back when the cameras were still working. He had a tunnel in the subway too you know.”

”Great...” Vice sighed. ”I'm going to be taking a sewer ride before it's all done. I just know it.”

The girl giggled. A rather high-pitched and....almost unnerving little laugh. ”I don't think so. Too easy for something to find him if he used the sewers. But wouldn't that be funny if he did use the sewers? If the other little Rosie had to go down in there? Ewwwwww....” she said, then giggled again. Vice just looked at her as she grew silent. Not looking up at him, and not saying another word as she led him around the corner and down another street. The look on her face.....contemplative. ”So....what do you think? Rosette? Ruby? Scarlet?” she asked, her tone rather conversational now.

”What do you mean?” he asked.

”Well...Rosie's Rosie, right? I'm not Rosie though, am I? I was...but I don't think I am anymore. Only the original Rosie should be Rosie. Or her duplicates. I can't be one girl like her anymore. So, I can't be Rosie. So.......I need a new name. There are a lot I like, but I don't really think they'll fit. Rena...Shion...Maria might work though. Yeah...add Maria to the list. Beatrice just sounds so...old. Yicky. Oh, I'll need a new code name too. Rail Tracer? He was wicked cool, but I don't think anyone would get the reference, and it just wouldn't make sense for me if they didn't get the reference. Dr Horrible? Nah...I should probably just try and come up with something original. Don't want to seem like I'm just copying stuff that I find cool. But all the good stuff's already taken. And I don't-”

At this point Vice just half-tuned the little girl out. As hard as it was to believe, and as crazy as she kind of sounded......she was reminding him a LOT of Gossamer when she was coming up with the Gossamer identity as a permanent one.


==========================================


The Joker hadn't reached the end of the hallway before he noticed the Bat. The Bat, looking down the hall to his torture room. The clown stopped and placed a hand in his pocket. Before the Tinkerer came in, he'd done some things to the hideout that seemed like a decent idea at the time, but until now, hadn't really had any merit, except being able to mess with Batgirl and Spoiler without being there. But right now, he thanked whatever powers that be that he'd done one of those things. His hand touched a remote trigger, and pressed one of the buttons.

In the darkness of the torture room, the circular saw that was suspended over Stephanie started up. The momentum of the saw's spinning slowly drew the blade closer to the Spoiler.

Before the Tinkerer came to the Joker's employ, the Clown Prince of Crime had wired the torture room's implements to a different power source. He never got to the lights, as life had generally gotten in the way, but oh, well.

Considering the Bat sufficiantly distracted for a brief moment, he moved quietly, stealthily, behind the little Bat. Determined to make a clean getaway, he managed to keep his mouth shut.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Terry's eyes widened as the saw above Spoiler's head randomly started up. Then they narrowed, and the next moment a baterang had sliced through the power cord, bringing the thing to a fairly immediate stop. This gave Terry enough time to feel the funny sort of prickle on the back of his neck. He'd learned a long time ago to give his instincts credit in situations like this, and turned his head enough to catch a flash of purple. He gritted his teeth tightly enough to make his jaw ache and turned around the rest of the way, intent on starting towards the Joker. He was so, SO tired of fake flowers, and joy buzzers, and CLOWNS. Enough was enough. After a certain point, you just couldn't let things continue. He would be doing Wayne a favor, because God knew he would never work up the nerve to do it himself.

They'd been spotted. The Mini-Bat was looking right at the Joker and Rosie. Deciding that stealth was now pretty much out the window, the Joker quipped, "Now, where was the fun in THAT?" As he spoke, the clown pulled out two smoke grenades in one hand, then pulled both pins as soon as he finished speaking, and lobbed them at the floor in front of the Bat. As he continued to head for his personal room, he spat out the pins and added, "Rosie and I are immune to Joker Toxin, Bat-Boy, but Tinkerer and Death Raider aren't! Might want to save them, and yourself while you're at it! HAH!" The clown backed up towards his room, keeping his eyes on the Batman of the future. It's still never really been confirmed to him that it WAS a future Bat, but he was pretty certain in his head.

Stephanie heard the saw, and immediately began to struggle in her restraints. She knew what was a bout to happen next. It had happened enough times for her to know what happened. But fortunately...the saw never made contact with her skin. In fact...it stopped.
She laid there, her chest heaving and her hands shaking as she waited in the darkness for what happened next.

Rosie kept her arms wrapped around Joker, and kept her eyes on Batman. She kept her doll facing him, just in case she needed to pull a "Babydoll" on Batman.

.... the look on his face, she wasn't sure she wanted to though. And she didn't know how much she liked the thought of Tink getting left to the gas.


=== === === ===

"Are you sure this is it?" Vice asked, looking down at the little girl in red and black beside him.

"I think so. The lab place had all kinds of tunnels and cameras. I'm pretty sure this is one of Joker's escape routs from his little super base. Can you believe he actually has one of those? What happened to the amusement parks and toy factories?" the little Rosie replied. Her tone almost disappointed.

".....um. Right. Well now what should I do with you." Vice said to himself.

The girl blinked and looked up at him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well...I can't just leave you out here. Especially not if you were in some laboratory before hand." Vice replied.

Rosie just blinked up at him. Then, very slowly, a smile crept along her face. A rather creepy little expression. "Oh. Don't worry about me..." she replied in a low purr. "You're the one who has to worry about not getting hurt."

==== ========= ====

Gossamer was no longer standing on the rooftop. After finally working her nerve up to go inside, Gossamer had drifted into her mist form. The barely visible mist made its way from the rooftop, and down to the building to try and find a crack to try and slip through. She found an area around the door that wasn't air tight, and made her way into the soon to be war zone.

 

[Comic_Book_Joker]

Joker then pulled out one more grenade, pulled the pin, and dropped it, letting its extra gas block the way to himself and Rosie as he began to make a run for his personal bedroom; three grenades was the most that he was willing to expose Rosie to.

Bursting through the door of it, several odd little things were revealed. There were a few pictures that Rosie had drawn, several death-trap designs that were in various stages of completion, and some furniture in various states of disrepair; he'd clearly taken much more time to get nice things for the little girl. The really odd thing, though, was that he set Rosie down and began to lift the bed. It folded upwards, like one of those beds that can be disguised as a cabinet or part of a wall. Lifting it revealed a stairwell, dimly lit by emergency lights.

"Go on, dear," Joker said, moving to the side of the entry as he continued to raise it upwards, "Down you get."  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Rosie glanced up at him once, then quickly hurried into the stairwell. She wanted to ask about Raider and the others... but things were hectic enough without her distracting Joker. She hurried past Joker, and carefully bounced down the stairs as quickly as she could. Her doll clutched tightly against her.

=====================

Gossamer floated through the room in her mist form, completely hidden thanks to all of the smoke that Joker had caused. In her current form... she was spared from the deadly gas. Unfortunately... she would still have to deal with some after effects. She usually did when she floated through gas.

Tear gas? Headache, nausea, and irritated eyes. Poison gas? Headache and serious stomach ache.

This though... she wasn't sure what it was or how she would react. She did know that she wouldn't be hurt too much if she kept to this form. She just needed to stay in this form long enough to find where Joker and Rosie were.

=======================

"You're sure this is one of the ways in?" Vice asked, standing in the entrance to an alley way.

"Pfft. Of course." the small girl replied, her red eyes twinkling. "Don't you believe me?"  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

As soon as Rosie was safely down, the clown twisted around, so that he was now standing in the stairwell, holding up the bed. He carefully backed down the stairwell, and when his head was just below the floor of the bedroom, he let it drop the rest of the way.

The light dimmed considerably, but there was still light, thanks to service lamps being strung on wires for a considerable distance. They were in a disused sewer.

"Now, let's just pray we don't run into Croc..." Joker muttered to himself.