Disclaimer: Batman is owned by DC Comics and whoever else owns it. I in no way claim it as my own; I'm just borrowing. Any OCs are mine and the plot is also mine, except for anything from TDK.
A/N: And now for the Wayne party scene. Wee!
Also, to Cybernetic Mango, who reviewed with "...Disturbingly cute.": Thanks. That was kinda what I was going for. xD
Queen Takes Pawn
by Syrenia
Chapter Eleven - Payback's a Bitch
The next day, Crow and Chelsie were pleasantly surprised when the Clown decided she was to attend the crashing of Wayne's party for Harvey Dent.
The Joker had reasoned jokingly that he should bring a date.
Whatever the reason, Crow was thrilled; she would have a chance at possibly meeting up with the Batboy to see him in action. Maybe then, if she was lucky, she might be able to escape the Clown, but that would remain to be seen. She could only pull off her solo flight at the opportune moment and no sooner than that.
Before they left, Crow in her usual outfit and wearing her beak, an odd occurrence happened.
The Clown gave the bird girl a little weapon of which he said might come in handy.
It was a taser, and as to how it would come in handy, when she had asked, he'd only winked and kept his thoughts a secret.
Regardless, she had kept the object; obviously, the Clown Prince knew something she didn't.
And, eventually, they - the Joker, Crow and various henchmen of his - were in a lift headed up to Wayne's no doubt snazzy pad.
The lift opened, Detective Weurtz - some guy Crow knew nothing of - holding up his badge.
Behind him, of course, was Gotham's Prince of Psychos, the Joker smashing the man over the head once they were beckoned in by Wayne's butler.
The Clown then stepped over him, officially commencing the crashing of Wayne's little party.
"Good evenin-g, ladies and gentlemen!" the Joker greeted Wayne's party-goers as he stepped out of the lift.
Crow strutted out from behind where the Clown had once stood, his henchmen filing out around her, a particular pair staying close by. Of course, Crow could only assume the Joker had ordered one or two clown-masked men to stay on her feathery tail like bodyguards.
Her eyes shifting all about at the well-to-do Gothamites that surrounded herself, the Joker and his henchmen, Crow's head cocked in a bird-like manner as she observed the obvious fear on their faces.
'Imagine, sweetheart,' began the bird girl inwardly,'if I could someday instill such magnificent fear in the hearts of Gothamites.'
"We are... tonigh-t's entertainment," Crow heard the Clown Prince announce, but she wasn't watching him now.
Crow stayed still, looking about herself boredly. Why she had been invited on this little run was beyond her, but she was grateful enough to have been released from her bedroom prison for however long her captor would allow. Not to mention how she might catch sight of the Batman. And the Clown's little taser offering obviously meant she'd find some use for it tonight.
With a bored countenance, her stormy gaze trailed the patrons at the back near the lift, the bird girl knowing to keep away from the Joker when he was talking "business." And talking he was, but she drowned it out. Instead, she picked out a handsome face and skipped over to the owner.
"Hello there," she purred in her scratchy tone, her victim shivering.
Maybe he recognized her from her old videos, she assumed.
Walking around him, her hand lifted, nails trailing at his neck.
"My, you're a pretty one," crooned the bird girl.
He was handsome, having short, brown hair and bright blue eyes.
However, he reminded her just a little too much of Jonny boy and his Scarecrow, such causing her to scowl up at him.
"You know, sugarcube," the brunette said to him, nails digging into his throat and cutting the flesh to leave trickles of crimson blood, "you remind me of someone - someone who owes me a great deal for keepin' his li'l business afloat - someone who's bein' a li'l stubborn bastard and waitin' for me to save him from his prison - someone I'm real pissed at."
In the background, the blackbird heard a new voice, decidedly female.
"Okay, stop," demanded that female voice.
Crow turned her sights farther down the room and away from the trembling man, her nails retracting their pressure from his throat to his great relief, the bird girl distracted.
She looked the woman who had spoken to the Clown up and down, wondering who she was.
Even that woman reminded her of someone she'd only heard about.
The Joker released an old gentlemen he had a grip on, one hand brandishing a knife as usual.
He faced the brunette woman, "Well, hello, beautiful."
If Crow had really cared for the Clown, she might have been jealous at his greeting toward the pretty brunette interloper. In reality, she didn't give a damn.
Walking toward her, the Joker brushed back strings of his greasy hair with the hand that held tight his knife.
"You must be Harvey's squeez-e," the Clown concluded as he walked up to her.
'Crow,' Chelsie began softly within, 'isn't Harvey Dent's lover... Rachel Dawes?'
The bird girl growled, now recognizing the pretty little miss.
Forgetting the henchmen - forgetting the Joker - she began a very slow stalk over to where they stood.
"And you are beautiful," Crow vaguely heard the psychotic Clown say as he moved around Miss Dawes, the woman flinching away. "Oh, you look nervousss."
"Is it the scars?" he questioned her, not noticing of the bird girl's slow approach. "You wanna know how I got 'em?"
Crow paused in mid step, foot slowly hitting the ground. She would let the Clown have his fun telling his little story, but then she would confront the little bitch herself.
The Joker gripped Dawes' face, forcing her to look as him as he began his story, the blackbird barely listening. It was, she recognized vaguely, what had to be another fictional story about a beautiful wife who worried too much or some such nonsense as that.
The blackbird cared not for his multiple choice past and theatrical story-telling flair. Her blood boiled and ached to finally reach the woman and exact some much deserved revenge.
Eventually, the little woman punched the Joker in the gut, to which he replied in favor of the act.
Crow rolled her stormy eyes, stalking forth once more. Like punching that guy did anything effective; she should know.
The Batman was nearby, but before he could pounce on the Clown, another party crasher skipped over to Dawes, stepping in the Joker's path.
"You," snarled the blackbird, one long nail flicking at the woman accusingly. "You're Rachel Dawes, hm?"
The Clown watched the bird, interested. He knew exactly what would follow.
"Do I know you?" Rachel questioned, taking a step back from Crow.
"Oh, no. No, you don't," answered Crow, her head tilting yet again like her namesake. "But you knew my Jonny..."
"Jonny?" asked the other woman, unknowing of whom the bird girl was speaking.
"Oh, yes. Yes, you did," Crow assured her. "You see, you tasered him in the face..."
The bird stepped closer to Dawes, "Does that... ring a bell, angelcakes?"
The Bat held back, watching the brunette dressed in black who wore a black beak on her face. Vaguely, her recognized her from news videos of bombings as the same woman who had wanted to meet him face-to-face.
Dawes blinked, inquiring, "Jonathan Crane?"
"Ding! Ding! We have a winner!" retorted Crow loudly, her hand discreetly slipping to a toy she'd most curiously been given by the Clown.
Said Clown noticed, having heard the story of Rachel Dawes and the Scarecrow from the bird girl herself. He had thought something like this might happen. She wanted a little revenge. And as long as the blackbird was satisfied, so was he.
"And now," began the bird with a grin, her hand yanking the device from her pocket, "for something completely different!"
In one swift move, she lifted the taser and shot the electricity in Dawe's face, the woman screaming hellishly and clattering to the floor, the blackbird shutting off the device.
The hiding Bat growled low to himself, but paused from interfering. He was too late to intervene against that sudden attack.
Bending at the waist and stalking over to Dawes with her arms outstretched behind her like a bird, Crow muttered, head cocked to the side as she inquired, "Payback's a bitch, isn't it?"
Laughing maniacally, she then lifted at the waist and took off, arms still out like wings, Crow making her way back to the other side of the room with a satisfied expression, then spinning around to watch the Clown, arms slowly falling to her sides.
The Clown watched her "fly" off happily, but was suddenly attacked from behind, the Bat taking his chance.
Crow stood stock-still, watching the Bat fight the Clown in a mesmerized state.
'Finally we see the Batboy, sweetheart,' Crow muttered in their mind, now ever more delighted. 'And it makes me wonder how he made it into the buildin'... It would be convenient if, as you suggested, he was actually... Bruce Wayne.'
Of course, henchmen intervened, her own two standing ever closer to her protectively.
She simply watched, fascinated. The Bat's fighting was a lot like she'd heard from henchmen who had unfortunately faced off against him, but fortunately lived to tell the tale.
Crow grinned once the Joker had Dawes in his grip, a gun to her head moments before he busted a window and held her dangerously out of it.
"Let her go," ordered the Bat in his customary rasp, Crow stalking closer.
"Very poor choice of words," returned the Clown who dropped her.
Crow jumped and clapped excitedly, then watched as the Bat leapt out after her heroically.
'Suspect number two is now on our list, sweetheart,' announced the bird within.
'Who?' asked Crow's host, excited despite herself.
'Did you see the way that Bat flew after her? Harvey Dent is suspect number two,' Crow pointed out for her slower half with a grin.
"I should come on these outtin's more often," the blackbird announced happily to the silent room.
And before she knew it, she, the Joker and the rest of the posse were making their getaway.
No, she hadn't escaped her captor, but Crow had watched the Bat fight and exacted revenge on Miss Dawes on behalf of her Jonny and his Scarecrow. Needless to say, she was satisfied.
And, needless to say, this pleased the Clown.
He hadn't found Dent, true enough, but he'd found a loved one.
At the same time, his bird girl had been allowed to exact her revenge thanks to his thoughtful suppliance of his taser gift and she would no doubt be pleased with him.
Whenever it was that night in which they returned to the Joker's hideout, Crow was led back to her room and locked in alone until later when the Joker had cleaned himself up a smidge. After all, his face had been bloodied.
He walked in to find her sitting on the bed, flipping the taser in her hand with a wide grin on her pink lips.
"Now I know why you gave me the taser," she commented happily, impressed by the gesture, then thanked him appropriately. "Muchas gracias."
"De nada," he replied, apparently familiar with not only Japanese but Spanish as well, the Clown grinning as he took off his purple jacket and tossed it over a chair.
"But you didn't find Dent. That's a shame," mused the bird girl, a smile then creeping up upon her lips as he jumped onto the mattress, sitting beside her. "But, with the way he threw himself after her, you'd think the Bat... had some attachment to her. As if... he might be Mr. Dent."
Her gaze trailed to the Clown whose countenance was suddenly thoughtful.
'Why are you giving him a hint, Crow?' asked Chelsie, the host confused by her motives.
'Call it a mutual scratchin' of backs, sweetheart; he gave me the means to take my revenge, so I gave him my second suspect,' explained the blackbird, gaze leaving the contemplative countenance of the Clown. 'It's only fair and this means I don't owe the Clown for his act of obvious of affection. God forbid we owe the guy somethin'.'