They all sat around the table, their 'leader' droning on and on, debriefing a case that was of minimal interest to most of the people in the group, it was more to kill time before JJ brought them a new case. The door opened suddenly making more than a few of them jump "You'll want to sit down for this one Hotch" she said tossing a file down on the table, he sat down in the empty seat and watched her move to the white board. "You remember the Profiler Potential coming in from New York?" she asked looking over her shoulder at him, he nodded "We figured she just changed her mind and they forgot to call us" she said turning to face the team "Well turns out she was kidnapped the day before she was scheduled to leave"

"Wait, that was just over a year ago JJ. How did no one realize this before?" Hotch questioned the blond woman

"Well, New York police department is playing it off as a mistake on the records and her being alone in the city as well as not having many friends no one reported her missing. Either way, New York is having some problems right now, they have an UnSub claiming to be the physical incarnation of The Joker, from the Batman comics."

"What does this have to do with the missing potential?" Emily questioned having gotten lost in JJ's ramblings

"Well that's just it, what's the Joker without Harley Quinn?" she asked rhetorically "They don't think she's is doing any of this willingly as we all know from the comics the Joker was notoriously violent against Quinn, and if this man is claiming to be the Joker we can only assume he is treating her the same. New York is willing to make her the victim in all of this and not hold any of it against her as well as giving her badge back after this is all over and she's deemed mentally sound"

"So New York has asked us to come out?" Rossi asked, JJ nodded "Well, wheels up in thirty"

"Reid, brush up on everything every published with the Joker and Quinn in it. We'll need an expert to stay one step ahead of him" Hotch instructed, the youngest member of the team nodded quickly before jumping from his seat and out the door to grab everything he could from the local book store. Everyone filed out afterwards except Rossi and Hotch

"Should we disclose her name?" Rossi asked

"No, we'll leave it with calling her Quinn. They'll get too attached if she's classed as one of our own, it will cause too many problems if we don't make it to her in time" Hotch reasoned, there was a bigger reason why he was keeping her name secret but he didn't want everyone knowing just yet, it would ruin one of his team members resolve on the case and he needed everyone on their top game.

"I'll call NYPD, tell them were on our way"

She stared at her self in the mirror, it was grungy; dirty streaks distorted her reflection. She didn't know why he always picked such holes, but she assumed it had something to do with them always being abandoned and him needing to keep low, NYPD didn't make the same silly mistakes Gotham PD did. She sighed before pulling her hair into pigtails and applying the grease paint he forced her to wear everyday, she was almost glad her mother had forced her into gymnastics when she was younger, it kept the beatings to a minimum when she messed up. She knew he would beat her anyway, no matter how perfectly she did everything from the flouncy walk to the accent; the night would always end in a beating it just varied in severity. She knew he would kill her when he realized it was her that called the NYPD before some of his more violent crimes, but her death was better than thousands. She slipped the jester costume on and sat on the edge of her small bed waiting for him to come get her for what ever he would want today. "Rise and shine, cupcake!" he yelled, kicking the door open. He fit the character pretty well; he was tall, lean and lanky but he lacked the intimidation, which cause him to kill a lot more people than his namesake. With the character, Joker, it was about sending a message, about getting the joke that is life, but with the man in front of her it was about notoriety and fame and she had been unfortunate enough to have been walking down the street and catch his eye. He ripped her up by her arm and hauled her out of the room, "We've got big company, Sugar pie" he laughed, she hated when he called her the sickly sweet names and had to force herself to keep from gagging as well as stay in character.

"Who's that Mistah J?" she asked throwing on a 1930's flapper accent

"The NYPD's brought in the FBI" he smirked sickly; his face was marred from having given himself a botched facial reconstruction. They brought the BAU? They must be desperate. I hope it's not Hotchner's team; he doesn't need to see me like this she thought quickly

"What are you gonna do, Mistah J?" she questioned lightly, knowing he hated when she questioned him too much

"We're gonna put on a show" he laughed "A nice big one to welcome Agent Hotchner and his team to New York" he added before laughing sadistically again. Shit she cursed in her mind; he threw her onto the couch and tossed a newspaper at her. She half read through it mostly concentrating on what he was rambling about, two things stood out to her while he rambled Hotch's hotel and bank explosion. "You stay here, Candy cane. I'm going to round up the clowns and get a car, you go get your hat and met me outside in ten" she nodded excitedly before taking off upstairs, she had ten minutes to make herself presentable to the wannabe Joker and warn the police.

Hotch stood in a large room surrounded by his team in Police he'd only just met "We can assume by now you all know what this Joker impersonator looks like, so we are going to give you a mental profile" he explained as Reid stood up

"He's much like the Joker character in manor and appearance, but where he goes wrong is in what he wants" he explained "Where the character wants everyone to see the joke in life and get his message out, this man wants fame and notoriety. He most likely feels like life has cheated him somehow and this is his way of getting what he sees he deserves. The character is highly intelligent where our UnSub is most likely of average intelligence, which is why he has kidnapped the Agent, her intelligence is probably what he relies on, which in turn angers him and probably causes him to beat her. This man isn't afraid to do anything as he has shown, he'll do what he needs to get the legacy he wants" Reid concluded before sitting back down

"Agent Hotchner?" a cop yelled from a little ways away

"Yes"

"There's someone on the line for you"

"Quantico?" the officer shook his head; Hotch rushed to a phone and set it on speaker "Hello"

"Agent Hotchner?" a voice whispered

"Yes. Who's this?"

"We don't have time for that. Evacuate your hotel building and set up officers at every major bank in New York City, he's on the move Agent. Stop him" the whispered female voice explained before the line went dead.

"He's on the move?" Emily questioned

"Joker…" Hotch sighed "Commissioner! We need to evacuate the hotel and set up guards on every major bank!" Hotch yelled rushing towards the man

"She phones in tips like this every time he goes big, I tried to convince her not to; to save her own life but she hung up on me. It's like she knows he's going to kill her and she's saving as many people she can before she does" the man admitted

"It's what she's been trained to do but we need to hurry" Hotch urged

"With the character, he would set up explosives and such before hand so it took less time" Reid said quickly

"I'll give the order"

She sat in the back of the large van, the spandex headdress itching her as her hair pushed down into her scalp. She prayed silently that Hotch would listen to what she said and that they would catch him this time, or kill him, something that would free her from this hell. He suddenly slapped her across the face, catching her off guard "You need to talk more!" he snarled, "If you don't talk non-stop I have no reason to hit you!" he yelled in her face

"I-I'm sorry Mistah J" she whimpered causing him to slap her again

"Stop sniveling" he snapped irritated. She wasn't sure if she should start babbling about nothing or keep her mouth shut, but thankfully the van stopped behind the bank giving her a reason to stay silent as he barked orders. He ripped her out of the van and shoved her towards the rear door; she always went into the buildings first to make sure everyone was on the ground and waiting for him when he was ready to play with them. This was the part she hated the most, more than the beatings more than the scheming and plotting, scaring people was against all her training and morals. She took a deep breath before stalking into the lobby and letting off three rounds from her gun. She watched as people ran around screaming trying to find cover, she always took her time that way someone had time to call the police. She walked around looking at people who cowered at the sight of her, she suddenly kneeled beside a woman clutching her son to her chest "I'm not going to hurt you I promise, call the police tell them to hurry. I can only stall him for so long once he comes in here I have no control over what happens" she begged in a low voice, the woman nodded still obviously fearing for her and her son's life. She stood up quickly trying to make it look like she had been threatening the woman, she made sure to stand by the woman while a clown ran off to get the man of the hour. She glanced at the woman out of the corner of her eye, the woman mouthed 'thank you' making her smile slightly before dropping it and flouncing over to the bane of her life. "We're they good for you Cupcake?" he asked smirking making his self-inflicted wounds look even more grotesque

"Not a peep, Puddin'" she giggled fake-ly, draping herself over him

"Well, that's lucky for you all then" he laughed before suddenly shooting the man closest to him on his left making everyone scream "But bein' lucky doesn't mean I'm not gonna kill you" he growled, she tried desperately to hide her shock and fear as he pulled her along to walk with him through the lobby. "Now all I want is half the cash in the vaults and a few more of you dead," he laughed before turning his attention to the tellers "Now!" he barked, making them jump before rushing off to do as they were instructed. He wandered around looking at all the people "How about this one, Sugar?" he asked forcing an elderly lady to her feet and all but caressing her face with the gun

"Nah, what's the point she's gonna die soon anyway" she laughed, apologizing to the woman with her eyes

"Yeah your right" he spun around before stomping towards the woman she'd asked to call the police, he roughly grabbed her son "What about this little thing?" he snarled pulling the child's hair

"Wouldn't it be more fun to leave him scarred and tormented from seeing people die?" she asked, trying not to beg and plead him not to shoot the boy

"Good thinking, Shortcake" he smiled pushing the boy to the ground and grabbing his mother. Shit shit shit! She thought quickly, she almost sighed with relief when sirens blared in the background "Ooh company. You hold her, Sweetness," he said pushing the woman against her chest, he began fixing his hair and adjusting his suit. She reluctantly put her gun to the woman's head "I wont shot you, but you have to struggle against me ok? My safety is on so there is no worry of it going off in the struggle, but if you don't we're both as good as dead," she whispered to the woman, who nodded slightly and fought against her hold halfheartedly. The FBI and a dozen New York police officers rushed through the doors, weapons drawn and every one of them aimed at the man laughing in the middle of the room like someone had just told the world's funniest joke. "We meet at last Agent Hotchner" he smiled tilting his head slightly

"Drop your weapon" Hotch barked, he started laughing

"Now, now you could say please," he taunted while pouting, her heart sped up as Morgan's gun broke off from its aim at the madman and trained itself on her as she held the now still woman, she didn't know what to do

"Drop the weapon and let her go" Morgan ordered as Prentiss and Reid's aim were quickly trained on her as well

"She doesn't have to take orders from you, Steroid boy" the psycho growled trying to stare Morgan down

"You don't have to do this we can help you" Prentiss pleaded lowering her gun slightly, I wish I didn't she thought as she watched Prentiss' gun return to its original position.

"You see she does have to do this," he laughed moving towards her "Because without me she's nothing" he added laughing harder

"Don't move!" Rossi snapped

"Again you could say please!" he snarled, "How's the people at your hotel Agent?" he asked looking at Hotch

"Fine, we evacuated it ten minutes ago" Hotch replied calmly

"Good, wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now would we?" he taunted as he watched the tellers come back from the vaults with large bags of money "Ahhh! Good!" he exclaimed before snapping his fingers, the clowns behind him moved to gather the bags

"Don't move!" several police officers yelled

"Grab the money!" he yelled "We're leaving"

"Move and we'll shoot!"

"Shoot all you want, they're disposable" he drawled smiling, a few of the clowns looked between themselves before moving towards the tellers. "Elbow me in the ribs" she whispered to the woman, the woman tensed "It's the only way unless you want to come with us" she added, she felt the woman talk a deep breath before elbowing her in the ribs hard. She dropped her gun and folded at the waist holding her ribs, Morgan grabbed the woman as Prentiss moved to grab her. "It was lovely meeting you Agent Hotchner but its time for us to go now" the madman spouted quickly grabbing the out of breath woman's arm before grabbing the young boy, once again every gun in the room was trained on the forehead of the psycho. The boy's mother screamed "No! Please!" the man laughed as he backed away

"But then how would we get away?" he mocked, the woman looked towards her as she stood slightly behind him just wanting to leave before things went wrong

"Please, you let me go… just get him to let my son go" she pleaded, she shook her head

"I didn't let you go," she protested, trying not to sound like she was pleading with the woman to shut up

"Yes you did!" the woman yelled

"Ma'am please be quiet" Prentiss tried to stop the woman

"No!" she yelled shrugging Prentiss off "You told me to call the police before he came in and then you told me to fight against you and that you wouldn't shoot you!"

"I didn't tell you any of that," she said quickly fighting off the tears of fear rising to her eyes, she felt his grip on her arm tighten and she tried not to wince. He pulled her roughly into him

"Tell me she lying" he snarled

"S-she is, I-I swear," she whimpered

"Joker?" Reid's voice started drawing the madman's attention from the frightened woman

"Reid don't" Morgan snapped, Reid ignored the man and held up his gun

"We don't want to hurt you, just let them go and let us ask you some questions" Joker stared Reid down, his grip still tight on the woman's arm while his other arm was snuggly around the boys waist.

"No dice, they're coming with me. I've got to deal with this one," he snarled in the woman's direction "And he's my ticket out of here," he added smirking at the boy. "But it was a nice try" he laughed handing the boy off to a clown who wasn't bogged down by a duffle bag before reaching into his pocket and producing another gun, to replace the one he'd dropped to grab the boy. He took aim at Reid, who didn't flinch, as it seemed to him at least once a week an UnSub was pointing a gun at him.

"Please don't shoot him," she pleaded, fending off tears again

"And why not, Cupcake?" he asked never taking his eyes off Reid

"Just please… I'll explain later"

"Oh you'll be doing a lot later" he growled lowering his gun, "Now!" he yelled before at least a dozen smoke grenades hit the floor.