Chapter 4

Across town at the Gordon household, Barbara paced the inside of her bedroom. A thousand thoughts swirled through her head as she tried to come to terms with the events of the past few days. Ever since she had come back to Gotham, nothing had seemed to make sense. An unsolvable string of kidnappings, Harley Quinn working for the police, Dick engaged to her, all of this would feel more at home in some kind of bad dream.

Barbara thought back to what Tim had said to earlier today. How Harley had single-handedly sent the Joker back to Arkham, how she had given up crime cold turkey, how she had volunteered to pay off her debt to society by helping the police, It didn't make any sense. Why would Harley Quinn turn over a new leaf so quickly? What was in it for her? And above all else, why would she turn on the Joker so easily? After all, this was the man she had obsessed over for years. Was it really that easy to betray him and throw away everything she had been, just like that? And if so, why had she chosen Dick to get close to? There had to be some sort of ulterior motive, some grand scheme she was plotting.

All this was rampaging through Barbara's mind when another thought occurred to her.

What if all of this is legitimate? What if Harley truly had veered down a new path in life? What if she truly did love Dick?

That last thought brought back old memories of the final fight she and Dick had gone through before she had left for Metropolis. The two of them had been involved with each other for years at that point, through thick and thin. A good portion of their relationship had been spent not knowing that the other was secretly wearing a mask and cape by night and that revelation had put a huge strain on things. From that point on, there had been a distrust between them that had never been there before.

In the midst of all of this, Dick had thrown away one costume and embraced another. It hadn't been long after that when Tim came along and Barbara decided to go off to college. She had made the choice to leave Dick behind when she left and she knew it had crushed him. Maybe he had never really forgiven her for that and she didn't blame him.

Maybe that was it. Maybe this was just Dick trying to find some sort of happiness after everything that had occurred. Even still, Harley Quinn? It made absolutely no kind of sense.

Barbara's cell phone went off, drawing her out of her thoughts.

"Hello?"

"It's me." Bruce's stern voice came through the phone. "There's been another abduction."

Not far away, under the glow of Gotham's streetlights, Jason Todd marched from block to block, street to street, waiting for a sign. Waiting for sirens, waiting for the shadow of the bat to descend upon him. There was no way Bruce was going to let him walk. Not after everything he'd done. A thousand and one regrets swirled through his mind as he walked, contemplating every possible outcome of this wretched situation he had gotten himself into. He truthfully didn't know if he could really blame the Lazarus pit for all that he had done since his miraculous resurrection. After all, the seeds of hatred and violence had been there all along hadn't they?

Jason stopped and stared up into the night sky, again waiting for an answer to these maddening questions that never ceased to torment him at every turn.

The echoing sound of breaking glass drew Jason's attention from around the corner and he didn't hesitate to investigate.

Peering from within the shadows, Jason watched as a group of five men marched through the shattered fragments of what had been a storefront window, helping themselves to whatever they could find inside.

Part of Jason was perfectly content to walk away and ignore this little scene. Small time crooks, no innocent bystanders, it was probably best to maintain his low profile. But something inside him, both familiar and not entirely unwelcome, had surfaced. He found himself unable to ignore what was in front of him.

"Hey!" a female voice rang out through the darkness and Jason instinctively tucked himself tighter against the brick wall.

The five of them all turned in unison, met with the figure of a very attractive woman with long red hair and vibrant green eyes. She didn't appear too happy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded angrily. "This is my shop and I'm giving all of you until the count of three to beat it."

Without even the dignity of a response, the closest of the five turned and struck her hard across the face, knocking her to the ground. In an instant, Jason had erupted from the shadows, an overwhelming fury consuming every inch of him.

The first of the five went down easy with a simple punch to the face. Jason though he heard the guy's cheekbone break, but couldn't be certain. The next of them was still wide-eyed when Jason grabbed him and hurled him into the side of the building. The third man had enough time to get out a muffled world or two before Jason broke his arm and several of his ribs, tossing him in a heap on the ground. Number four had a baseball bat and made a wild swing at Jason's head. He easily ducked the shot and grabbed the weapon, violently bashing the handle into the guy's nose.

Jason turned his attention to the fifth man; the one who had knocked the woman to the ground. Jason's eyes burned with rage as he took steps toward his target. The unconscious forms of the man's accomplices were strewn throughout the alleyway and the thug tripped over one of them as he turned and tried to run. Jason got to him first and picked him up, pinning him against the far brick wall.

Jason clenched his teeth, his grip tightening around the man's throat. Jason felt his pulse racing as he squeezed. It would be so easy. Just a bit more and it would all be over.

But that's not who you are anymore.

Jason held onto that blinding rage for a fleeting second or two before finally letting his grip loosen. He watched the thug slump onto the concrete, coughing and sputtering for breath. It didn't take long for him to stumble to his feet and take off down another alleyway. Just another rat in the sewer that was Gotham city.

A few feet away, Ivy had gotten back to her feet in time to catch most of the spectacle. Whoever this man was, he knew what he was doing.

"Thanks." She said, drawing his attention. His green eyes met hers and instantly told her a story of a man who had been to hell and back.

Who is this guy?

"Don't mention it." He replied calmly as he turned and headed around the corner.

"Wait!" Ivy called, following after him. She rounded the corner and peered into the night, finding nothing. She was dumbstruck for a moment or two, then sighed and shook her head.

"Men." She whispered, heading back to assess the damage to her shop.

Jason, meanwhile, had quickly retreated to an adjacent rooftop and he watched Ivy disappear into the darkened storefront. Once she was out of sight he turned his attention to his still shaking hands. That was stupid. He had almost lost it again. If he was serious about working toward redemption then he couldn't afford to put himself in situations like that, least of all for someone like Poison Ivy.

Jason stopped and smirked to himself, half out of irony and half something else. Ivy was working to better herself, same as he was, and yet he still let himself think of her as the villain she had been all those years ago. Maybe it was whatever speck of Bruce's training was left in his head. He hoped so. Because if there was anything left of the man he once was inside him, then there was hope.

Jason turned to exit the rooftop and was instantly met with a searing pain in his lower abdomen, followed by a violent jolt of electricity that threw him to the ground. Instinct took over and he craned his spasming neck to get a look at his assailant.

Whoever he was, he was dressed in a high-tech, tactical style body armor. Twin .45 calibur pistols sat on either hip and Jason could make out the hilt of a sword sticking out of a sheath at his back. His face was obscured by a featureless metallic helmet that glowed from the eyes with a blueish hue. He also recognized the twin lines of a taser running from his now pierced abdominal area to his attacker's left wrist. The only discernable marking he could find on this guy was a purple insignia on his chest that vaguely resembled some sort of flower. Jason was fairly certain he had never laid eyes on this guy before.

"You shouldn't have done that." Jason's attacker stated, his voice augmented and distorted by some kind of PA system inside the helmet. "Now I'll have to do things the hard way."

The armored individual stepped forward, his intent clearly not good. Jason quickly reached to the small of his back and withdrew his knife, slicing the taser's power lines and climbing to his feet as fast as he could. Jason stood his ground, knife still in hand as his opponent stopped, clearly reassessing the situation. Jason noted a barely noticeable change in the guy's stance, indicating an advanced knowledge in hand-to-hand combat.

"Who are you?" Jason demanded, beginning to circle his assailant.

"Does it really matter?" The man in the mask replied. "Especially in this city. Anonymity is a virtual prerequisite around here, no matter which side of the law you're on. You of all people should know that."

Jason fought to keep his expression unreadable. This guy clearly knew who he was. Or at least who he had been under the Red Hood alias. Whether or not he knew about his past as Robin was debateable, but Jason had to assume that he knew everything.

Without warning, the masked man lunged forward with blinding speed and threw a back elbow to Jason's head. Jason was barely able to dodge it and was immediately met with a stiff knee to the midsection for his trouble, knocking the knife from Jason's grasp. This guy was fast. Really fast. Jason backpedaled, putting some distance between the two of them and shimmied out of his leather jacket.

The man in the armor again adjusted his stance and lunged, this time throwing a forceful roundhouse kick. Jason blocked it and landed a front kick of his own, followed by a vicious right cross. Jason felt satisfaction as his assailant was knocked off balance. His knuckled burned from the impact with the metal helmet, but he ignored it, taking advantage of the opportunity and racing forward to attempt a jumping spin kick. He was quickly swatted out of the air and landed hard on the concrete, moving out of the way just in time to narrowly avoid the heel of his attacker's heavy boot. Once back on his feet, Jason threw his weight downward to try and sweep his opponent's legs from beneath him, but the armored man hopped over the attempt and smashed Jason in the jaw with a hard left hand.

Jason tasted blood and heard nothing apart from the ringing in his ears and the deafening pounding of his own heart. His eyes flicked to the knife he had lost, lying on the concrete rooftop about ten feet away. He could make it.

"I wouldn't." The mysterious figure said, his voice accompanied by the metallic click of one of the .45's being cocked. Jason froze, slowly turning his gaze to staree down the silenced barrel of the gun. He wracked his brain , trying desperately to find a way out of the situation and came up empty. The only thing he could hope for was that this guy would eventually run into Bruce. That fight wasn't going to be so easy for him.

"Go ahead. Do it." Jason growled through clenched teeth. "Killing me is just going to piss off somebody else that you really don't want to tangle with."

"Kill you?" The man responded, his augmented voice tinged with amusement. "Why would I kill you when live bait is so much more effective?"

"Bait, huh? You think you're going to draw out Batman by dangling me in front of him? Newsflash, psycho, he already knows I'm in town. If he wants me, he doesn't need your help."

There was a moment of contemplation on the part of the assailant before he took a step toward Jason.

"Maybe you're right. And in that case, let's put a little blood in the water to speed things up."

With that, the man in the armor fired a round into Jason's right shoulder, followed by another one in his leg just above the knee. Jason screamed in pain as the bullets ripped through his flesh and his attacker tucked the gun away.

"Now you make sure he's ready for me." The man said, pulling something from a pouch on his vest and dropping it to the ground. "I expect an actual challenge next time."

Jason watched in agony as the armored man disappeared from the rooftop into the darkness. His attention turned to the object he had dropped, finding a purple flower. He couldn't tell what it was from where he was sitting and he struggled to readjust himself. Using the one good hand he had, Jason tore his T-shirt off and began utilizing his teeth to rip it into strips, fashioning makeshift tourniquets for his shoulder and leg. It took what seemed like forever, but he managed to get them tied off tight enough so he wouldn't bleed to death and he crawled toward the flower, collecting it and stuffing it into his pocket. He then managed to get to his jacket and retrieve the grapple gun he had kept for emergencies. His eyes drifted across the city skyline toward Gotham P.D. He could make it.

The Iceberg Lounge was open for business and in full swing, the garish lights from the building made it look like a circus attraction. Nightwing sat perched on the rooftop across the street, watching the parade of cars come and go from the front entrance. Plenty of criminals were among thew party guests, but none of them with any discernable connection to the kidnappings. Still, a lead was a lead. Nightwing swung down onto the roof of the building and into one of the ventilation hatches toward the back of the building. it took moments before he was inside, creeping along the shadowed walls toward Penguin's office.

The room was empty, as expected. Cobblepot was most likely downstairs mingling with the crowd. Dick didn't hesitate to start rifling through the assorted drawers, ledgers, appointment books and other paperwork, looking for anything suspicious that could tie the Penguin to these disappearances. If nothing else, Dick could say that Cobblepot kept a neat office. convenient when one was looking for dirt on him.

He was caught unaware for only a split second when the office door opened and he instantly recognized the figure of Oswald Cobblepot as he entered the room. Cobblepot stopped halfway in when he spotted Nightwing and was dead still for a mmoment, then nodded and shut the door behind him.

"About bloody time one of you lot got here." He said with his signature cockney drawl. "Take a seat."

Nightwing was a bit surprised at Penguin's apparent willingness to talk to him, but nonetheless, Dick folded his arms across his chest and stood where he was.

"Suit yourself, then." Cobblepot said, taking his chair and puring a glass of scotch. "I assume you're here about the kidnappings, right? The girls? Six of 'em wasn't there?"

"Seven, as of now." Dick replied coldly. Cobblepot looked up in surprise for a second, then went back to flipping through a file folder as he spoke.

"Right, well, I know one of 'em was snagged outside of here a few weeks back. No doubt that's why you're here."

"Perceptive of you."

"Yeah, well, I can tell you I had nothing to do with it. It's bad for business, that sort of thing. Matter of fact, I stepped up security after it happened."

"Good for you. Is there a point to this?" Dick said sternly, narrowing his eyes.

"As a matter of fact there is. Two days ago, somebody came 'round and iced my boys out back. My guess is they were looking to snatch another young lady."

"You get security footage of the attack?" Nightwing asked, pleased that Cobblepot was starting to be useful.

"Would have, but whoever it was took out the camera. They did leave me a present, though."

"A present?" Dick repeated, stepping forward to better see what it was Penguin was pulling out of a desk drawer.

"Found this out back on the ground." Cobblepot said, placing a purple flower on the desk.

"Is that what I think it is?" Dick asked, carefully picking up the slightly wilted plant.

"Nightshade." Penguin confirmed, swallowing the last of his scotch. "gotta hand the bloke creativity points for the symbolism, whoever he is."

"Thanks for the help." Nightwing said, pocketing the flower and turning to leave.

"Just get this guy off the streets. My club don't need the bad publicity." Cobblepot called after him. Dick couldn't help but roll his eyes. Bad publicity. Sure.

Harley shut off the engine of her car and got out, already taken aback by the broken front windows of Ivy's shop. She knew the criminals in this town ere stupid, but who would be dumb enough to try and knock over this place? And the better question was why? She walked through the front door and found Ivy, sweeping up shards of glass and broken flower pots, a look of annoyance on her face.

"Hiya, Red. You ok?"

Ivy looked up and managed a weak smile.

"Yeah, I suppose. A little pissed off, but nothing I can't deal with."

"How bad's the damage?" Harley asked, looking around.

"Two front windows, about half a dozen ceramic pots, glass countertop. Not much else. a few hundred bucks and it'll be good as new. Luckily the insurance will cover it."

Harley studied her friend for a couple minutes, surprised that she wasn't far angrier about this. Ordinarily Ivy went into full-on bitch mode if someone even knocked over one of her ferns.

"You seem to be taking this incredibly well." Harley said, leaning against one of the store's support columns. "Did something else happen?"

Ivy stopped sweeping and shifted her weight, leaning on the broomstick.

"I kind of caught these guys in the act." She began. "Caught a smack to the face for my troubles. Needless to say I was going to make the whole group of them wish they had never been born. Then something happened."

"What?" Harley asked curiously.

"This guy showed up out of nowhere. I mean it was like he just dropped out of the sky."

"What do you mean, who was he?" Harley asked.

"I have no idea. But he hit the whole group of them like a tank."

"So this guy just appeared and beat the shit out of these guys, just because?"

"I don't know. I have to say it was impressive, though." Ivy said with a smirk.

"Oh my God, Ivy, are you crushing on some random strange guy?"

"No!" Ivy exclaimed, returning to her sweeping. "He was pretty yummy-looking though."

"You are!" Harley giggled, giving her friend a playful shove. "So what did he look like?"

Ivy stopped sweeping again and gazed dreamily at the ceiling.

"Tall, really well-built, dark hair and these amazing green eyes."

"Sounds like a dreamboat." Harley said with a smile.

A knock at the front door drew both their attention and they were both surprised to see Robin standing in the doorway.

"Heard about the break-in, wanted to make sure everything was kosher."

"How sweet of you." Ivy said, half-sarcastically. "Everything's fine.

"Well, I guess I should have known that you could handle yourself." Robin replied with a smirk.

"Oh, Red didn't have to." Harley stated. "Apparently she's got a knight in shining armor skulking around the city."

"Somebody came to your rescue, huh?" Robin asked, obviously intrigued.

"Yeah some guy in a leather jacket. Black hair, green eyes, tall, muscular, sound like anybody you know?" Ivy asked.

Tim's smile vanished. Bruce had told him that Jason was back in town, but he didn't think he'd be running around doing vigilante work.

"Doesn't ring a bell." He lied. "Well, you guys have got everything in hand I see, so I'm gonna go do the hero thing."

"Bye!" Harley called after him as he made a quick exit. She had seen the expression on Tim's face and now she knew there was something more to this mystery guy. Maybe it was worth it to put in some overtime and get some answers.

The summer wind blew past the Batman, hot and dry as he glided toward the Gotham P.D. building, the brilliant outline of the bat-signal shining brightly like a beacon on the overcast sky above the city. Hopefully Gordon had made some headway on the kidnapping case and he could finally do some real work.

His heavy boots hit hard as he landed on the rooftop and he immediately sensed something was wrong. Gordon was nowhere to be seen. Every instinct told him that he had walked into a trap.

"Bruce." A choked voice came from the alcove directly behind him. He turned to see Jason, barely propped up against a brick wall. His jaw was bruised and swollen and blood had soaked through his jeans on his left leg. There was a makeshift bandage covering an obvious bullet wound on his right shoulder and Bruce could instantly tell he was suffering from fairly severe blood loss.

"Jason. Who did this to you?"

"Don't know. He had on a mask. Or a helmet, or something." Jason reached into his pocket and handed Batman the now-crumpled Nightshade flower. "He's gunning for you."

The Batman took the flower and examined it briefly, trying to think of any known criminals who had used nghtshade as a calling card. Nothing came to mind and he pushed the thought away, instead focusing on Jason.

"We've got to get you patched up." Batman said, taking Jason by his good arm and putting it over his own shoulder. He used his free hand to remotely call in the Batwing and waited patiently for the aerial vehicle to show up.

Moments later, Bruce had Jason securely strapped into the aircraft and pointed the vehicle toward Wayne Manor. He narrowed his eyes as he flew. On top of everything he had already been dealing with, now there was a new player in town leaving nghtshade behind at his crime scenes. The thought occurred to him that perhaps this Nightshade character was connected t the kidnappings. It was a longshot, but worth looking into.

As the night wore on, a partial escape had already taken place inside the walls of Arkham asylum. The Joker no longer sat inside the walls of his cell, but moved quietly through the darkened hallways, searching for the solution to his problem. He knew what he was looking for and smiled maniacally when he found it. his chalk-white fingers gripped the handle of the small, sliding panel that was bolted into place on the heavy steel door. He slid it open and peered into the dimly lit room.

A massive figure sat on the bed inside the cell, his face obscured by a black mask that accented his venomous green eyes. He stared into the black, expressionless eyes of a small stuffed bear, his attention turning to the door at the sound of the panel being slid open.

"Hello, Bane." The Joker said gleefully, accented by a symphony of dark, ominous laughter.