Chapter 7: ESCAPE
"Well, go on. What is it?" asked Robin, sounding interested for the first time in days.
"I can't believe I didn't think of it before! It's simple, I'll morph into the figure of Harley, so that when the guards come to check on us, they think it's her and -"
"And then they'll let you out, and then we'll beat them up right?" said Artemis with a dark smile, cracking her knuckles.
"Right! Superboy, you'll have to carry Kid Flash, because his legs are still broken. Robin, it'll be up to you to locate the nearest escape exit, just do that fade-into-the-darkness thing that you do! The rest of us, let's just focus on getting spotted by the least amount of people. The less attention we attract the better,"
"But we will be able to pound on some right?" asked Superboy hopefully.
Megan rolled her eyes, "Yes, you will be able to pound on some, but remember, our goal is to escape, not to beat up all the guards, got it?"
Everyone nodded.
"Now to just transform into the wicked witch herself,"
Megan closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She thought of the figure of Harley in her mind's eye, allowing her own body to begin to change. The team watched in amazement as Megan's figure began to twist and contort before their eyes. Her flaming red hair faded to blond, and her skin changed from its normal green, to Harley's sickly white. She grew taller, and her Miss Martian costume transformed into Harley's low-cut, red and black body suit. Megan opened her eyes, and everyone gasped when they saw the now electric blue irises.
"Well, how to I look?" demanded Megan.
It was creepy to see Harley before them, but speaking with Megan's voice.
"Li—Like the totally evil girlfriend of the Joker," responded Artemis, and Megan broke into a huge grin.
"YES! That means it works!" she punched her fist in the air, "I didn't end up with four arms and two heads like I did last time!"
"But you'll have to talk more like Harley, and less like yourself if anybody is going to believe you. Try making your voice a little bit higher, like that annoying tone that she speaks in," suggested Robin.
He fell silent, when they heard the heavy door being opened at the top of the stairs.
Two clown masked guards sauntered into view, both holding suspicious bottles, and laughing much too boisterously. They stopped dead when they saw supposedly their female boss, sitting in the jail cell.
"Uh sir, I mean, ma'am, what are you doing in there?" one of them asked looking confused, and scratching his head.
"Oh, I was just giving these brats the talk they deserve," said Megan in a now perfect imitation of Harley's voice.
She gave Aqualad's cheek a hard slap, just for the effect.
The two guards laughed evilly, and Megan muttered, "Sorry," under her breath to Aqualad.
"Now then, let me out of this god-forsaken cell before I have the Joker rip both of your faces off," she said sweetly, and the two guards rushed over looking frightened, tripping over each other to unlock the cell door.
Instantly Megan nailed a hard round-house kick hard in the top of the first guard's throat. His eyes bugged out of his head, and he fell to the ground clutching his neck. Superboy, his strength now returned, picked both of the surprised guards up by their shirts, and then threw them hard against the wall. After that, neither of them moved from their slumped position on the floor.
"Nice job," Robin told Megan as he charged past her, "If the whole hero thing hadn't worked out, you could have been an actress,"
Megan smiled, and then with confusion she asked, "Wait, what's an actress?"
Superboy bent down and gently picked up the still sleeping Kid Flash, trying his best no to jostle him.
"Everybody ready?" asked Aqualad, and the team nodded looking determined, "Then as Kid Flash would say, let's blow this hotdog stand!"
They rushed up the stairs, and found themselves is a dark room with a single lamp hanging from the ceiling. A disregarded pile of chains lay across a tough metal table, which was stained with sick splotches of red.
"Wally," Robin breathed, and the rest of the team stopped for a second to look around in horror at the place where the Joker had tortured their friend.
They continued into the narrow hallway, and began to run, frantically searching for any method of escape or communication. They ran into a couple of guards, and Artemis and Aqualad quickly disposed of them.
"Look!" Robin shouted pointing to sign that said "ROOF" in large black letters.
They hurried to the top of the long flight of stairs, throwing open the door to the outside world, to find….
Almost a whole army of clown masked men waiting for them.
Bullets began to fly, and Superboy gently set Kid Flash behind a large dumpster , shielding him from further injury.
The team began to fight the incoming fleet of guards, defeating them with ease despite their lack of weapons.
Artemis kicked a man in the head, hearing the satisfying thud as he dropped to the ground. She looked around and saw Superboy and Miss M. fighting back to back, Miss M. lifting people with her mind, while Superboy wailed on them for her.
"Those two really need to start dating," she thought absent mindedly to herself.
On her other side, she saw Robin emerge from the shadows, doing a backflip off of the shoulders of an unsuspecting guard and then nailing him with and uppercut punch as he landed flawlessly on his feet. Aqualad however, was beginning to look overwhelmed and Artemis rushed over to give him a hand.
As his next victim fell to the floor, Robin's eyes narrowed as he saw the Joker emerge from the stairwell and begin to creep towards the dumpster where Wally was hidden.
"NOT MY BEST FRIEND YOU CREEP!" he shouted and ran at the Joker full speed, feeling fury pumping through his veins.
He punched the Joker across the jaw, sending the villain spiraling onto the cement. The Joker smiled and laughed, a trickle of blood now trailing from his mouth.
"Awwwwww. How cute! Little Robie came to save his best friend Kiddy!" the Joker made a tsk, tsk noise and shook his head, "But won't this make the Big Bats angry? I mean, does he even let you have friends?"
This comment pushed Robin to the edge. Everything Batman had taught him about control and patience vanished like smoke from his mind, and he sprang at the twisted man with an outraged cry, planning to throttle him.
The Joker smiled with pleasure, this was exactly what he had wanted to happen.
As Robin sprang into the air, the Joker thrust a long object at him, and Robin felt an electric shock pass like fire through his body. He fell to the ground, his mouth open in a silent scream.
"ROBIN!" Megan screamed, and rushed to her friend who lay crumpled in obvious agony on the floor.
The rest of the team rushed foreword, responding to the Martian girl's panicked cry.
"Oh, don't worry Greenie, his pain will fade, eventually that it is!" the Joker chuckled, but then his expression turned serious, "But if any of you try to fight, I may just have to give him another dose, and maybe one that's not as brief,"
Superboy knelt on one knee next to Megan to tenderly pick up the whimpering member of the Dynamic Duo.
"Gentlemen, escort them back downstairs please. Oh, and clean this garbage up," said the Joker, giving Kid Flash a good kick to the side.
The team hung their heads in utter defeat as they were led back below into the darkness.
So yeah, I know it took me awhile to update, but my computer died and I lost all of the work I did on this chapter before! Thanks for your patience while I had to rewrite the whole thing,
-Under the Willow Tree