The Wild Card

Nobody noticed the young girl who entered the Gotham City Bank that sunny Monday morning. Nobody paid any mind to the girl who pushed past everybody else and appeared to be entranced by something, and just continued walking forward like a zombie who was being controlled by someone else's authority. Everybody was too busy to notice her, but she kept pushing past everybody and pushed open the doors and stepped into the middle of the bank's large front room where everybody was standing around trying to see somebody about their accounts. She stopped in the middle of the room and her head swayed from one side to the other without her stopping to really see much of anything, and then she just started laughing.

First it was a small chuckle that was hardly audible, and then the noise grew louder and louder until she was shrieking hysterically, and that was when everybody noticed her. Every head turned to look at her and wonder just what was the matter with her. Among everybody staring in confusion and wonder was Dick Grayson, who like everybody else, wasn't sure what had happened, but he had a sickening suspicion that an old enemy was somehow connected to the sight before him.

She looked to be about 15, her hair was messed up as though she had just come from a fight, she was dressed in what could have been a respectable manner in blue jeans and a blue plaid button up shirt, but she was barefoot and there were tears on her sleeves and her breast pocket was about ripped off. She stood in front of everybody looking like she had just escaped from a disaster area and she was laughing her head off. Some people mumbled amongst themselves about what to do with her but when her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell to the floor, screams erupted from the panicked citizens and everybody rushed to help her.

Dick pushed past everybody to try and get to her first to see what was the matter. When he finally got up front his eyes grew wide with shock as he saw a huge all too familiar grin formed on the girl's face. It appeared that his underlying suspicion was right, it appeared that whatever was going on, the Joker was involved.

Some time later the commotion at the bank had died down because when the police and paramedics arrived, they transferred the girl to the hospital. That was where the real crowd was building up, outside there were spectators and passersby and camera men, inside there were the police and the doctors, and Batman was the last to arrive. Commissioner Gordon and the doctor who was treating the girl led him up to her room as they went over the details of what they had so far.

"We gave her oxygen which seemed to counteract the effects of the gas," he explained.

"What gas?" Batman asked.

"Had a few patients come in with it this week, it seems the Joker has come up with a new weapon to thrust onto the public. Some sort of laughing gas, it makes people do crazy things but it doesn't seem to be powerful enough to kill anybody who inhales it…of course, we haven't had anybody yet who's inhaled that much so it may be premature to suggest that."

"The Joker escaped from Arkham Asylum several months ago, for the longest time nobody had heard anything out of him," Batman said, "It was as though he'd dropped off the face of the planet."

"Well it seems he's resurfaced," Commissioner Gordon told him, "Apparently this girl has been spotted in the midst of several of his more recent appearances. Every time he disappears before we can catch him, and we can't turn up a trace of him…but whatever he's doing now, nobody knows what to make of it. Last week several witnesses said that this girl was jumped by a mugger in some alley, and the Joker just seemed to come out of nowhere and attack the guy. Apparently he'd stored several dosages of this toxin into an inhaler and forced it into the guy's mouth. They had him sent here, he recovered and now he's in jail but he didn't have anything to say about what happened, as though he had no memory of it."

"Our patient this time doesn't seem to have taken in nearly the amounts of his laughing gas the others have," the doctor added.

"Is she conscious?" Batman wanted to know.

"She is conscious and she is aware, somewhat. She knows where she is but she doesn't appear to be able to say who she is," he answered, "We weren't really sure Jane Doe fit her so for the time being we're addressing her as Miss X, she seems to be going along with it. We ran some tests to see if there was any brain damage. Most of those we're waiting on the results but so far most of it looks good."

"Most of it?"

"I didn't find anything she might've been born with but a scan did show some slight head trauma…I'm guessing she hit her head hard against something, probably a couple years ago, not enough to mentally disable her in anyway, she just seems a bit…handicapped by it."

"And nobody noticed anything unusual before she went into the bank?"

"Not a thing," Commissioner Gordon replied, "Though she has had a visitor stay with her. Bruce Wayne's ward, Dick Grayson, he was at the bank when it happened and the first at her side when she collapsed. He rode over in the ambulance and hasn't left the room since. He doesn't seem to know her either but he's been genuinely shaken up by the whole thing."

"I'm sure he has been," Batman said.

"Here we are," the doctor said, "Room 302. Don't be surprised if she doesn't have any useful information for us," he shook his head, "She may not be retarded but it's a needle in a haystack getting straight answers from her."

The doctor opened the door and the three men stepped into the room. The girl was in bed dressed in one of the hospital's white gowns and her head was bandaged up from when she fell. Dick Grayson sat in a chair next to the bed listening to her as she tried to explain something.

"Oh look at that," she said, "We have company." She looked up at Batman and asked, "Is it Halloween already?"

The look on her face after she said that suggested that she was trying very hard not to laugh about something.

"Miss X," the doctor said, "These men would like to see you, this is Commissioner Gordon from the Gotham City Police Department, and this is Batman, he assists the police."

She nodded tiredly as though she were just humoring them, "Yes, I see…what…what did you want to talk to me about?"

Despite everything he'd done in his career of fighting crime and protecting the innocent, nothing seemed odder to Batman than having to address somebody who didn't have a name. "Do you know why you were in the bank today?"

"Uh…" she shook her head, "Sorry."

"Do you remember anything before the bank?"

She nodded, "Yes sir, I do…"

"What?"

"A lot."

"Today, do you remember anything about today?" Commissioner Gordon asked.

"Uh…" she shook her head again, "Can't say I do. Should I?" She looked to the doctor and said, "I don't like it here…can't I go home?"

"Do you know where home is?" Dick asked her.

She turned to look at him and smiled, "You're cute, didn't we meet before?"

"Do you have any family we can get in touch with?" Commissioner Gordon asked.

"Nope," she answered, "I'm alone…always have been…I'd like to go home now."

The three men left the room to talk in private.

"She doesn't know who she is, or where she lives and she says she has no family," the doctor said, "I hate to do it but I think given the circumstances the only thing we can do is report her to Child Services."

Batman turned to Commissioner Gordon and asked, "Do you know if there have been any missing girls in the area lately who might match her description?"

"Nothing recent," Commissioner Gordon answered.

"I wonder," Batman replied, "That hit she took to the head," he turned to the doctor, "Do you know if she was treated for it?"

"She might have been but I can't really say for certain."

"She might have been missing for quite a while," Batman said, "Commissioner, check all missing reports for anybody who might fit her age and description, go as far back as you have to, she may have been gone from her home for several years. In the meantime, I suggest we get her picture out and see if anybody can identify her. I wouldn't recommend calling the services just yet…you said you were still waiting on test results to make sure she's alright, make sure it takes a while and she has to stay here for observation."

"Right," the doctor said.

"That might be a good idea," Commissioner Gordon said, "Based on what we've gathered so far, she might somehow be connected to what the Joker's been up to lately…" and then another thought occurred to him, "But if we put her picture out, he could have any one of his flunkies come in pretending to be some long lost relative who's been searching for her. That in mind the hospital may not be the best place to keep her, if we put round-the-clock cops on guard outside her room, people are going to get suspicious."

"Perhaps," Batman said, "Once she checks out with the doctors you could see about putting her in temporary custody of somebody you can trust."

"Like who?" Commissioner Gordon asked, "If word gets out about what's going on, not too many people are going to be anxious to let her move in with them. And as many people saw her breakdown today…"

"What about Bruce Wayne?" Batman suggested, "Do you think he'd be up for it?"

Commissioner Gordon looked shocked, "Oh no, I couldn't put that responsibility on him…he's a busy man, he's already got one kid to look after."

"As I said," Batman told him, "It would only be temporary until we can find out who she is…I'm sure if you were to call him later and ask him about it, he'd be very understanding about the whole ordeal."

"I hate to put it off on Bruce," Gordon said, "But I really don't think there's any other way to go about it…I don't think I could put up with her and even if I could, I'm not home enough for it…at least…if Bruce says yes, he wouldn't have to do it single handedly. I…I'll ask him tonight and see what he says. One thing's for certain, until we can find out if she knows anything about the Joker, she's not safe where just anybody can get access to her."

"You're going to what?" Dick asked Bruce that evening.

"Until we can get any answers about what's going on," Bruce said, "We have to make sure she's somewhere that the Joker can't get her. He's smart enough to figure a way past any policeman they could put outside her room at the hospital. Here, it would be a different story altogether."

"I don't know, Bruce," Dick replied, "Something about it doesn't seem quite right."

"Where the Joker's involved, nothing's quite right," he replied, "Gordon's right, the last few times that there seems to have been any sign of the Joker, this girl is somehow involved."

"You think she's an accomplice?" Dick asked.

"May be, or she may simply be an innocent bystander who's in the wrong pace at the wrong time, continuously…since we couldn't find out anything from her, we have to assume anything and everything right now…and if she is connected in any way, we have to find out."

"Sir," Alfred said as he drew into the conversation, "If I might ask, how exactly has this young woman been getting caught up in his latest…strategies?"

"Last week, he forced his laughing gas on a man who tried to mug her…before that, she was spotted in the middle of a riot that his thugs had orchestrated down by the jeweler's…before that, one of his customized bombs went off near the courthouse and several eyewitnesses put her with the package just moments before it went off. Every time she managed to slip away before police could find her to question her; this time she couldn't get away and we can't get any answers. This time she came up herself with his laughing gas in her lungs."

A thought occurred to Dick, "Could the gas have effected her brain to the point she's at?"

"It doesn't seem likely as other patients have come in after inhaling far larger doses and after a few hours they were fine," Bruce answered.

"Maybe he's improved it," Dick suggested.

"Might be, but the doctor suggests she's been this way since she injured her head a couple years ago," Bruce said.

"If that's true," Dick said, "And he is using her for something, I can't see how much good she could be doing him."

"All the same, it's better if we don't take any chances," Bruce responded.

The phone rang. "That'll probably be Gordon," he said.

After about ten minutes, the phone conversation had ended between the two men. Bruce hung up the phone and saw Dick and Alfred looking at him in suspense.

"Well?" Dick asked.

"Well," Bruce replied, "Get some cigars, it's a girl."

"I'll get a room ready, sir," Alfred said.

"The doctors are going to keep her overnight for observation but they figure we should be able to come in at 8 in the morning and bring her home with us," Bruce explained, "No offense to the doctors at the hospital but I think we could keep a better eye on her here than they can there."

They arrived at the hospital ten minutes early the next day to make sure the doctors were going to release the girl into their custody. But what they found instead when they got there was what seemed to be every police car on the spot while the officers were going left and right about this and that and the other.

"What's going on?" Dick asked.

They got past the other officers and over to Commissioner Gordon, who was talking with the doctors.

"Commissioner," Bruce said, "What's going on?"

"It's that girl, she's gone!"

"What?" Dick couldn't believe what he'd heard.

"What do you mean gone?" Bruce asked.

"The windows were open in her room and there were tracks leading over to the window and stopping there…there are no signs of forced entry and a guard had been posted outside her room last night before I called you…but it looks like somebody managed to get in and kidnap her all the same!"