His Father
By Serena Kenobi
Author's note: To celebrate my becoming a featured member on Fanlib (dot) com, I decided to update. Thanks for the reviews. to S.P. Bley: I'm sorry, but I don't PM people online. If you'd like to reply to the reply I sent you, then why don't you send it to me via another review? That'd make things easier.
Just so everyone's not confused: Alex is the Joker's son. Terry and Helena are the biological twins of Diana and Bruce. Just to clear things up.
Gotham was almost on the other side of the country compared to Las Vegas, but they got to the Nevada city within minutes, thanks to new technology in the Batwing.
Helena glanced down upon the city and questioned: "Doesn't seem like there's any problem to me."
"Brilliant theory," Alex said dryly. "Superman would bring us out here for nothing."
"Speak of the man in blue, there he is," Terry said, nodding to where Superman was standing alongside two other younger people in a parking lot that bordered the Las Vegas Archives.
Batman piloted the Batwing down to the ground, and everyone got out.
"Where's the fire?" Diana asked, floating towards Superman. She nodded to the other two standing next to the Man of Steel. "Jason, Kara. Nice to see you again."
Helena looked over at Jason, who looked like a carbon copy of his father, but had some elements of his mother, Lois Lane, and folded her arms across her chest. Jason was a few years older than she, but age had never really mattered. Jason shot her a sideways glance, and she held it evenly. He smirked.
Kara, a beautiful young woman a few months younger than Terry and Helena, glanced at Terry, who was purposefully looking the other way, and then to Helena, who was still glaring at her brother. "Hey, what's up?" She asked Helena, shooting her a smile.
Helena gave her a half-smile back. "Nothing new." She studied the daughter of Kal-El, who had gotten her mother's features but her father's dark hair and deep blue eyes and his steadfast personality. " So what's the situation?"
"Someone's stolen from the Las Vegas Archives. The curator's missing, too. Probably connected," Kara said, turning into her Supergirl all-action mode.
Helena suspected that Kara's tendency to get right down to business was one of the foremost reasons why she liked her. And she liked so few girls her age. She was thankful that Kara wasn't a preppy, bubbly laugh fest like some of the other Justice kids. Flash's twin daughters were an example of that. And she had admiration for Kara, seeing as how the eldest daughter of Superman had to play dumb blonde as well. Sufficed to say, Kara Kent, aka Supergirl, was the closest thing Helena Wayne, aka Nightmaiden, had to a "girlfriend." They shared a mutual respect, just like their brothers and fathers shared with each other.
"Why'd you call for all of us?" Shadow Knight questioned, speaking to Kara for the first time. Kara smiled at him, and he looked away.
"This isn't what it seems," Jason Kent aka Superboy commented, coming up to them. "The curator may be involved, but we're thinking something else's up. This may be the work of a criminal mastermind, probably one we've seen before."
"So?" Helena said.
"So," Alex spoke up, "The criminal mastermind has traces that lead back to the Intergang."
"Intergang's everywhere," Helena said, growing irritated at the lack of information.
"This section of Intergang is from Gotham City," Jason said.
Helena raised her eyebrows. "Oh. That explains it. But Dad and Mom can handle Intergang – heck, I'm sure even just you, the Superboy, can handle it," she said, shooting Jason a wry grin.
Jason gave her a look, and she smirked.
"Enough with the flirting, you two," Terry said, his voice the harsher, gruff tone that he took as Shadow Knight. "We have work to do." He turned away and went over to where the adults were discussing the next course of action. Kara kept her eyes on him as he strode away from their group, her expression thoughtful and a little sad. Helena glared at her brother's retreating back.
"Idiot," she muttered.
"All right, listen up, everyone," Batman said as the rest of the younger adults came up to the older superheroes. "So far all we know is that the only article stolen from the Archives is the Forgotten Treasure Chest of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut. There could be more. The curator's name was David Shay, and he's worked here for about a year. According to the eyewitness, who has just been put under protective custody, Shay disappeared about half an hour ago, right before the robbery, and hasn't been seen since. His car is still here."
"Can anyone say 'connected'?" Terry remarked dryly.
Batman glared at him. "We'll sweep the entire museum. Superman has already x-rayed the place, but there are many lead containers. We'll do it by hand."
"Gotta love hands-on detective stuff," Kara said as they entered the darkened museum.
"We should split into teams," Wonder Woman said. "It'll be easier if we split up."
"Cover more ground," Batman added.
Wonder Woman smiled. "Exactly."
"Right. Princess, Superman – you're with me," Batman said, instantly taking charge. "We'll cover the south and west wings of the museum. Shadow Knight, Supergirl: you're together. You cover the east wing. Superboy, Nightmaiden, Acrobat: you'll cover the north. Move out." He slipped into the shadows, Superman and Diana following.
"Some things never change," Acrobat remarked, shaking his head.
Nightmaiden looked over at her brother, who seemed uncomfortable with being alone with Kara and was once again looking in the opposite direction of Supergirl, his mouth formed into a tight line. Her eyes narrowed, and after murmuring to Jason to go ahead without her, she walked up to him and hissed in his ear: "Be nice or I'll kill you." She then turned on her heel and followed her elder brother and Jason through one of the other shadowed halls. It was time for Terry to stop being an idiot and act like a gentleman in front of Kara, who had been having an obvious crush on Terry for the past few years.
Terry's covered eyes had widened slightly when his sister had threatened him, and as the last of other teams disappeared, he glanced over at Kara, who had been staring at him. But this time, the roles were reversed, and she flushed and looked the other way when he turned to her. Clearing his throat, he looked at the hallway they were supposed to take. "We should go."
Kara nodded, and it seemed then as if something inside her had clicked; she lifted her head higher and straightened. "Right. Let's go." She was the all-confident Supergirl once more.
Terry flicked on his flashlight, and they went down the darkened hallway silently.
"I can't believe you said that!"
"What was I supposed to say? The girl was annoying me," Nightmaiden said, irritated. The trio was currently in the large room where the chest had been stolen.
Superboy shook his head at her story and carefully inspected the mummy sarcophagus in front of him. "Yeah, but threatening to punch her into the next dimension probably wasn't the best course of action."
Nightmaiden threw him a deadly glare, but he just rolled his eyes.
During their little discussion, Acrobat had quietly been searching on the opposite side of the room. He eventually came to a closed door that had the sign 'janitor' on it, and he opened the door and stepped inside, flashing his light into the small room. It looked nothing different from a regular janitor's closet – wait. Alex frowned and flashed his light on a couple of large boxes lying on the floor in front of the right wall. Then, he crouched downwards and pushed the boxes aside. His eyes narrowed, and he shined his light past the boxes, through an open man-sized hole in the wall, and all the way through the brick of the building and outside into a dark alley.
The thief's escape route, he mused. Rising to his feet, he ducked down low and exited the building through the hole, then stepped out into the alley. He looked both ways, but the alley was silent. He stepped back, intending to turn around and go back through the hole, but halted when he felt himself stepping on something. Glancing down at his feet, he frowned and picked up a green-colored canister that said "Laughing Gas" across its side.
Alex's eyes widened. This kind of device, painted bright green, could be of use to one man.
The Joker.
Grrr... I wish I could make this bold font, but stupid Fanfiction won't let me. Ah, the joys of the internet...
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