Chapter One: Jokerz
It was a cloudy night in Gotham that night in mid-November. A few pigeons strutted around on the asphault in a nearby alley, pecking occasionally at some of the spillage from a dumpster. A stray cat jumped down from a fire escape, meowing pitifully as it searched the dumpster for any tasty tidbits. Thunder rumbled from a distance away as a faint flash of lightning streaked through the sky. A few late shoppers walked down the sidewalk, their shoes thumping dully as they made their way to home.
A door opened up with a slightly rusty squeak as the bell jingled. Tamara Thomas sighed and dragged her fingers through her hair as she exited a local shop, the door clanging shut behind her. The shopkeeper had wanted nothing to do with an emaciated young woman who'd never even graduated high school. She'd been looking for work and secure lodgings so she could support herself, but it just never happened for her.
Stepping out onto the sidewalk, she let a tear course down her face, splashing into a puddle in a gutter. Above her, the clouds decided to let loose with a barrage of rain and thunder crashed in the distance. Tamara turned up her frayed coat collar and glanced up at the dark night. It was almost midnight as she stood there, waiting for the bus to come and take her to some other part of Gotham.
It was a hard life, she had decided, pushing her royal blue hair back behind her ears. Tamara was a pretty girl with shoulder length hair she had dyed deep blue, her favorite color. She wore a midriff-baring top with two buttons on the left side of the top. The top had a sweetheart neckline with black edging around it. Tamara smoothed out her black pants with a quick brushing of her hands, scattering a little dust from the edge. Her black sneakers were already starting to get wet as more thunder sounded. Her black jacket was insufficient to give her any protection from the cold. The young woman pulled out an elastic from her pocket and tied her hair back in a ponytail, brushing her side bangs behind her ears.
"What the?" Tamara stepped back as she heard the buzzing of several motorcycles pull up nearby. "Jokerz." the one that looked the most like the original Joker dismounted his motorcycle and pulled out a knife as the others followed suit.
"All aboard with for the FUN TIME!" the leader cackled, leaning his bike up against a nearby dumpster.
"How wonderful." Tamara forgot about the bus as she became interested in watching the street gang. A Joker with red hair and an odd funky hat with a flower on it rammed his shoulder against the door with a hollow thud, trying to ram it down completely.
"Aw, look at that!" one Joker chirped loudly, spying Tamara out of the corner of his eye. "Cheer up, sweetums!"
"Ugh," she growled. "no thanks, buddy."
"That's right, I'm your new buddy!" the Joker went over to her, ignoring her glare, then hooked his arm around her waist, drawing her to him.
"If you want a laugh, you'd best talk to the wall," Tamara advised wryly. "it'd be a better listener than me."
"Now you're making me laugh!" he smirked. "Come on, wanna buy a joke? Or go sit under a tree in the park and make out?"
"Sorry, honey," Tamara gently pulled away, not wanting to antagonize him or his pals. "I'm already taken." she tried to leave the alley, but backed into the dumpster instead. The stray cat, having found a few bits to munch on, hissed in surprised and jumped away, glaring at Tamara rudely.
"Can't you have some fun on the side?" he whined, a playful sneer etching itself across his face as the others giggled rudely.
"I'm not a two-timer, sorry." a fake apologetic smile and she began to walk away, only to find the Joker's hand on her arm, pulling her back.
"It could be fun!" the gang was closing in on her and she did not like the pathetic leering that was looming on every face in the low light.
"Just not into it. Think you guys will let me go or do I have to use force?" not that she would be much of a fighter; a solid week without nourishment of any kind had left her severely weakened. Tamara knew she was pale faced and shaky; doubtless that the Jokerz would find her an easy victory.
"You don't look like you're ready for that kind of force, toots." one of the hoodlums made a kissyface noise.
"You're probably right. I'm too ill right now to care about what you do to me." Tamara conceded.
At the same time, Terry McGinnis aka Batman was patrolling the alleys of Gotham and happened upon the cluster of Jokerz and a young woman. She didn't look like she was in distress, but he knew that was liable to change at any time. Terry saw the looks on the gang's faces and knew instinctively that she was in for a rough time.
"What do you see?" Bruce's voice sounded in his cowl.
"Jokerz with a young girl. I'm betting they aren't asking her to be their date in a nice way." the girl didn't look perturbed and Terry was a bit startled to see her politely decline the advances and try to back away, but it was to their advantage, as she nudged into a dumpster.
"You know what to do."
"I do." Terry jumped from the apartment building roof that he had been perched on, deployed his retractable wings, and coasted down to the cluster of people.
"Break it up, boys! I think your mommies want to have you back home in bed by midnight." Terry growled low as Tamara shook her arm free of the Joker's grasp. She began edging away, but the tallest gang member grabbed her, wrapping her in a headlock and held a knife up to her throat. Her eyes opened up wide and she tried to jerk away from the thug, but he tightened his grip on her.
In the streetlight, Terry saw the teen girl more clearly and he was stunned. Her face was pale, she had lines under her eyes, she looked like she needed to be fed properly. The girl was lean, leaner than she should have been for her height.
"Let her go and nobody has to get hurt."
"Listen to him," Tamara backed up Batman. "I'd do what he says."
"Terry!" Bruce spoke. "End this and bring her back here!" the old man could see that Tamara was emaciated and close to passing out completely with malnourishment. He was already worried about her heart and whether it could take the kind of stress she would be under.
Terry sprang into action without any further ado. He managed to knock all the Jokerz out, but saw that Tamara had suffered in the middle of the fight. She stood now, trying to stem the bleeding of a wound on the right side of her belly, black and blue bruises were already springing up all over her appendages. The teenage girl glanced over at Batman without a qualm as her precious lifeblood dripped onto the asphalt.
"Thanks."
"What's your name?"
"Tamara T Thomas," she wavered and Terry caught her just before she fell. "anything else before I pass out?"
"Have I seen you somewhere before? Do you go to Hamilton High?"
"I used to... " Bruce and Terry saw her eyes close.
"Bring her here," Bruce instructed his protege. "she needs medical help and there would be too many questions that regular doctors would ask."
"You think she's got a secret, boss?" Terry picked her up and returned to the Batmobile. He put her in the back of the car and linked up his suit to the car's computer system.
In the batcave, Bruce steepled his fingers together under his chin and watched the progress of the Batmobile winding its way home. Ace looked up at his master through half closed eyelids as he also awaited Terry.
Happily, there were no ill effects from Bruce's attack from the Joker a few months ago. The original Batman had been astrounded that the Joker had managed to encode his DNA in a microchip and implanted it into Tim Drake's body. Drake himself had not undergone any ill side effects as well, but he chose to have some psychiatric help. The former Robin had been repressing a lot of anxiety and guilt from accidentally killing the Joker and then going to being his patsy. Barbara had told Bruce about Tim's decision to get mental help and counseling sessions, though fortunately without divulging their secret.
Terry, Bruce noticed, had suffered some nightmares and some anxiety about the whole debacle. On the occasions when Terry would crash at the manor, he would inevitably have a dream or two about the Joker and wake up in a cold sweat. He wouldn't talk about it, as Bruce sensed that he didn't want to be seen as weak. It was understandable to have some residual nightmares after the event was over, even though Terry never talked about it.
Ace raised himself up nudge Bruce's hand, asking for a pat. With a rare grin, Bruce rubbed his faithful dog's head, making the animal sigh in contentment.
"You're easy to please." Ace thumped his tail a few times at hearing his master's voice. A few moments later, the Batmobile came in. Terry opened up the door and brought out Tamara.
"Over there," Bruce gestured to the medical area, picking his cane up and going over there himself. Terry put Tamara on the exam table while Bruce flicked on the lights. "she's in a pretty bad state." bruises ran rampant over her limbs and there was a cut near her left eye.
"I think so too," Terry agreed. "she looked sick out there and she just looks worse now."
Bruce picked up a syringe and tube from the tray behind them and turned to Tamara. "I want to draw some blood so I can see how badly off she is. If it is what I think, she'll need to be here for awhile to recover."
"Why the sudden interest?" it wasn't like Bruce to voluntarily take a person in without knowing anything about them.
Bruce quelled Terry with a look that meant he wasn't going to divulge anything. "Go to the computer and look up her personal records while I mend her injuries."
"Right." Terry went into the main section of the cave and said "Computer, access personal files on Tamara T Thomas."
"Searching.." it replied. "Found."
"Good." Terry sat in the chair as he patted Ace on the head.
"Tamara Trinity Thomas, born February 20th," the date flashed up and Terry noted she was only a year younger than himself, making her 16. "to Broderick and Linda Thomas. No juvenile record. Parents died in a plane crash 8 years ago, a state assigned guardian was utilized to take care of Ms. Thomas. Three months ago, Ms. Thomas was reported missing and has not been seen since."
"Computer, last known whereabouts of Tamara Thomas."
"Last known whereabouts approximately 3 months ago on September 20th at 2123 hours." a picture flashed up on the screen of Tamara using a pass card on the city monorail. "No known appearances since."
"Interesting. Computer, access Tamara's guardian."
"Searching... Found. Ms Thomas's guardian, one Lawrence A. Cooper."
"Computer, check to see if Lawrence A Cooper has a criminal record."
"Found."
"Print it."
"Printing..." a sheet of paper churned out of the printer and Terry pulled it off to look at. He walked over to where Bruce was mending Tamara's cut on her belly.
"This guy's got a rap sheet a mile long," Terry noted, seeing out of the corner of his eye the three inch long mark on the right side of her belly. "OUIs, DWIs, hookers, drugs, you name it, he's done it."
"Domestic violence?"
"No," Terry scanned for any mention of domestic violence or abuse, but did not see a thing. "nothing here on it."
"Just because there's no mention of it doesn't mean it didn't happen." Bruce turned back to the table laden with supplies and put a vial with Tamara's blood in a machine. It turned on with a lurch and began to process the blood sample. "Why else would she leave home if she was being well cared for?"
"She misses her parents?" Terry suggested as he put the printout down. "People do crazy things when they're still grieving."
"True," the original Batman pulled out a medical laser to seal off the bleeding and then he put Steri-Strips over her wound to act as stitches until it healed. Terry assisted him with putting a bandage over her wound, then Bruce picked up the printout. "petty theft, OUIs, you're right. I'd be willing to bet that he abused her and she didn't report it for fear that she might get a different guardian who was much worse."
"Makes sense." Terry held back a yawn. "So what are you going to do with her?"
"Bring her back to health for one thing." the blood analyzer beeped and churned a printout. Bruce pulled it out as the machine turned itself off. His blue eyes read down the page, scanning the numbers.
"She's severely anemic first of all. Could do with a blood transfusion."
"What else?"
"Electrolytes are down, her white cell count is up, meaning she's ill or has an infection at the very least. All of her numbers are low. I don't want her waking up down here where it will stress her heart and agitate her. She will need to stay in bed for a day or two until I can get her counts back up to where they need to be."
"Will she be down here the entire time?"
"No. I want her upstairs in a comfortable bed where I can keep an eye on her." Bruce gathered up the supplies he would need and Terry picked up the girl. Along with Ace, they went upstairs to the second floor, Bruce steering them to the bedroom next to the one Terry used on and off. Terry put Tamara down on the bed and left to get ready for bed himself as Bruce stripped Tamara down, leaving only her underwear on. He picked up her clothes to put in the wash, put her in a hospital johnny and hung up an old bathrobe nearby.
Going into a hall closet, he brought out an IV stand and put it beside the bed, hanging up a bag of electrolyte solution, lactated Ringers, and IV saline. A smaller bag of potassium was also hung up, fondly called the 'banana bag' by medical professionals. Bruce intubated her through a vein in the crook of her arm, connected the lines and taped the tubing down securely.
"That should do it." turning off the light, he checked in on Terry in the next room. The teenager had fallen asleep in his clothes again, but at least this time his jacket and shoes were off. With a small grin on his face, Bruce spread a woolen blanket over his protege as he slept on, oblivious.
The senior Batman got ready for bed as well, welcoming Ace on the bed to sleep beside him.
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