Blue and his remaining team had made it inside the Joker's chemical plant hideout unharmed, but not without some doubt in their minds. Blue especially had been thinking about the two heroes that had gone to distract their adversaries, two people he feared were now injured or dead because of that fact. What he didn't know was that above the teams head on the rooftops the heroes had come to aid their companions in a battle against three of the villains, the mighty Gaia, the mischievous Icicle Jr. and their enigmatic leader, Tigress. He continued to lead the remaining forces through the twist and turns of the plant, hoping to find his friend Jinx, and not run into the opposing side once again. These hopes were cut short when they came to a dark empty room, and could see the silhouette of the others from the other side.
"Damn, if they see us things could get messy, and alerting the Joker is not something I want to do right now. Everyone stay to the sides and try to stay hidden." In the back of his mind he could hear the slightly condescending voice of his scarab.
"That is a weak strategy Jaime Reyes, and chances of being found are high at 68%. We should attack and destroy our enemies, giving them no chance to take us by surprise." Jaime ducked down to hid before whispering to the scarab. "And if Joker thinks that something is up he'll kill Jinx, I may turn on my friends in the future but for now you are listening to me, understand." For the first time in a long time the scarab seemed to stay silent, before finally answering. "Affirmative Jaime Reyes. For best results I would advise spreading out and heading for the door while the opposing team is distracted." Blue instructed the rest of the team over the psychic link that Psylum had set up for them, before making his way across the room. The team moved silently until the building shook. Something had happened above, and the lights quickly flickered on. "Damn.. Everyone stay hidden until they leave, don't let them find you."
"Right, I'll keep the link up so we can warn each other if they seem to be getting close, Ricochet what powers do you have? Think you could help me a little?"
I.. I don't know. My powers aren't like yours, I can make them see things, but I can't hide us." Blue Beetle interrupted the two girls wanting them to be quiet, even if it was just a mental link.
"You may have to use that, I don't think that these guys are going anywhere soon.
Gaia slammed his fist down onto the roof, trying to hit a much more nimble Fang. The hero had channeled the speed and grace of a Panther, and landed another flurry on the large villain. Gaia shook of the punches before sending a large rock at his opponent. "You won't get far doing that, you need a little power behind those punches to hurt me." After taunting Fang he finally managed to send the hero to the ground. "Is that all it takes to knock you down? I didn't even break a sweat."
"You want power, I'll show you power!" Fang glowed bright before the light around him took the shape of a large elephant. He charged at Gaia, shaking the building before slamming him into a nearby power generator. The box began to hum and the lights around them powered up, casting shadows of the two teams. Ivy and Spore were working together and had seemingly cornered Icicle Jr. using their shared power over plant life. The Ice themed villain smiled as he froze the ground below them, causing the younger to fall and giving himself time to escape them.
"These guys are better than they look, are you sure you're up to something like this newbie? I could always get Tigress to help you out, I mean I'm sure she is done with her fight already."
"I don't need any help, and from where I'm standing you're the one not doing so hot. How could you get yourself cornered like that? Everyone knows that Ice is twice as effective against Grass, It's basic knowledge!" The two prepared themselves as the heroes began to advance on them. "If you can't handle this just go, you're more of a liability than help anyhow."
"I'll show you what I can handle... rookie."
Tigress and Slash had moved away from the building entirely, neither side wanting the Joker to know they were there. The stared at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move.
"So, are all of the Light's agents afraid to actually attack, or just you? Or is it that you know what you are doing is wrong? We have no interest in you, and as much as I want to send a message to them for what they did to Artemis, I know you didn't do it yourself.. so just go. I won't follow you, so take your team and get out of here."
"I can't do that, Joker has crossed the light, and he must be punished for what he did. Unfortunately you are standing in the way of that goal, and my team is itching for a fight. You may want to take your own advice, maybe if you get far enough fast enough, they won't chase you down."
"That demented clown took something from us, and I won't leave until I get it back. Knowing that I can't let you take him, god knows what the Light would do and I wouldn't wish that on my greatest enemy... hehe, ironic that I have to protect one of my greatest enemies now, but what are you going to do. Seems we are at an impasse."
"Yeah, it seems we are."
The two leaders readied their weapons before taking one final glance. They charged at each other, ready to prove themselves and their cause the superior one.
The Joker noticed the lights had started working. He began searching around and listening intensely to the plant. "Well.. looks like the electrician got here early. Odd considering that I haven't even called him yet. I do believe that we have an unwanted visitor in our lovely little abode." Jinx shot up as she thought of her friends, who may be trying to save her at this very moment before letting her head fall to the ground again. With the lights on there were no shadows coming from the windows, and she was sure that there was nothing there Anyways. "Honey, you watch our little pet while I investigate. If I'm not back in 5 minutes... Wait longer!" The Joker left with a laugh, leaving Harley Quinn and the other girl behind with Jinx.
"Looks like we may get to play with our new toy early, and it's not even Christmas! Demona, would you like to take the first slice?" The other girl just smiled wickedly at the question, and Jinx watched the two of them. If she was going to escape, now would be the perfect time to go. "Well, no fun without Mr. J. but he shouldn't be long. After all, it can't be that hard to squish a beetle."
Blue and his team were close to the door leading out of the room. The only problem was that there was someone guarding it while the other villains searched around. Their way was blocked by Tommy Terror, someone beetle knew was bad news. The three of them tossed around different ideas about how to get past him, but anything they could think of would alert his sister and the other boy with them.
"If I hit him with a psychic blast he could go down easily"
"Yeah, but then we would have to move him without being seen, and even then they would notice he's gone. Dude's pretty big esse."
"Right, and he doesn't look to light for that matter." They didn't have to wait much longer as someone came and tapped Tommy on the shoulder. As he turned to look, a hand was placed over his mouth and let out a large amount of electricity, shocking the boy and causing him to yelp in pain. The others in the room, hero and villain turned to see that it was Joker standing there over his now limp body.
"Did I do that, I really should mind my manners around house guest. Let's see, there are three heroes hiding here, you really should let the Bat teach you some things about hiding, you stick out like a sore thumb! And two other villains, did the big bad Light send you? I don't think you have enough numbers to take me down." Ousted, the heroes emerged from their hiding spots, with Joker on one side and the Light on the other. Without warning Tommy's sister Tuppence Terror charged at the clown standing over her brother. "Now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. You can join him in a little bit, but I want to have some fun with this."
"You Bastard, I don't care what the light said, I'm going to kill you for this!" She swung her fist wildly at the clown who dodged by simple sidestepping her each time. "Stay still and die like a man you coward, or are you really that scared of me?" She swung her fist down again, but this time the Joker just laughed as he shot a liquid out of his flower, burning her hand and jumping away from her. He was now behind her ally Duplicate.
"If that's all you've got you're not going to get far. In fact I'm ashamed that the light thought something as easy to deal with as you would be able to take down Joker, hell I deal with the Justice league on a weekly basis and most of the time I dupe all of them." He grabbed the young boy and lifted him into the air. "So what's your power, do you breath fire, or shoot lasers? Oh I know! You're power is to completely rewrite time and space! No, yeah you're right, that's kinda farfetched."
"You.. You don't know what I can do, and it will cost you Joker!" Duplicate split himself into two people, sending a fist into the Joker's stomach and releasing himself from the clown's grip. Joker was able to regain his composure in time to block another punch and send the boy to the ground instead. Blue Beetle was next to him, and instinctively helped him up, before realizing who he was and jumping away so as to not get attacked. The Joker mocked them as he motioned for the Heroes to try.
"Come on now, don't let the bad guys show you up, think you could land a hit?" Jaime wanted to charge at him, to let the scarab take control and blast the clown to oblivion, but he couldn't. He didn't have to either as it was Psylum who stepped up towards the clown. He cackled at the girl and mocked her, getting into a generic fighting pose. "So what do you do? Ah who cares! Put up yah dukes, Partner!" Psylum mimicked him before smiling herself.
"You know, you should fight a girl, they can really get to you." She sent out a psychic blast which seemed to stun the clown. "We have a way of getting inside your head!" Her victory was cut short when the Joker stood up and smile.
"Sweetie, do you think that someone pegged as the most insane man in the world would fall for any mind tricks. Go on, take a gander you may decide to never leave, at least that's what happened to my last therapist!" He laughed at his joke as the heroes and villains stared him down. "So, Any more surprises dropping in." There was a sudden Crash, as Fang and Gaia fell down, landing near the others before joining their teams and watching the clown. Icicle and Spore followed behind them, but unlike the others they never took their eyes off each other. Blue, glad to see his teammates unharmed walked over to the two.
"Fang, Spore, I'm glad to see you two made it alright. Wait, what happened to Slash, and Ivy they were both out there with you guys." Spore looked down at the ground for a moment before staring angrily at the Ice themed man. He grated his teeth as he answered Blue.
"I don't know about Slash, he went with their leader to fight her one on one. As for my aunt... Poison Ivy is Dead."
Next time we will have the last part of this little story arc, and I'm sure you can tell it's another long one. We'll get to see the fate of characters not seen, and a taste of what's to come after the Joker is caught (By either side). One of the reasons it takes me so long to write anything, is I decide I don't like it plain and simple. Some chapters I decided to take out a chapter and tweak the endings, some I've decided to scrap the whole thing and start over. This was the latter, and it was even more challenging because it's part of a set, and I wanted to stay close to the first part but still change what I didn't like. The third part will be up when I decide to write more than just little notes on it (Curse you Higher Education!) And It will definitely be the last we hear from a few characters for a while. One last thing before I go was something brought up about YJ: A New War 2(Tentatively) by reader Strike OOO. While I would love to have the characters from this story in the next one, because of some things that are about to happen I will probably ask you to redo a character sheet for them. The fact of the matter is that by the end of the story the entire YJ:ANW Universe will have changed, and them not being my characters I would have to get their reactions (Through the creators) before using them. Please read, and if you have the time send me a review. That's all for now, have a good night and I'll see you next time.