"What the hell happened to you?" Helena demanded as she saw Dinah help
Reese into the room. She dropped the handsome cop onto the couch and then
went over to Alfred who was holding the first aide kit. The butler
dutifully held it out to her as well as a stack of towels.
"It kicked my ass," Reese commented dryly. He gazed down at his chest and scowled.
"It? The creature?"
"A werewolf."
"No," Helena said shaking her head. "Those don't exist." Then she frowned. "They do, don't they?"
"You know, I don't know why this is such a shock to you. After meeting you and getting to know you, nothing is a surprise to me anymore," Reese said with a short laugh. "I'm getting pretty much used to the insanity."
"Now you're just being a pain," Helena said dryly. "Are you okay?"
"Sure," he replied.
"Take your shirt off," Dinah ordered him. She was crouched down in front of him. He looked over at Helena who just winked at him. Sighing, he reached up and pulled it off.
"Impressive," Dinah said with a grin. "But the undershirt has to go as well." Once he had removed that as well, she began to dab at the gaping wounds on his chest, carefully avoiding the bloody mess in the middle of his gut where his stitches had been.
"How did the hypnosis go?"
"I dunno. You'd have to ask Barbara. She found a hole in my back, stuck a needle in it and then disappeared. Haven't seen her since," Helena cracked. She was obviously less than amused. "Oh and since my back was hurting, she gave me more painkillers."
"That sounds nice," he said, wincing as Dinah pressed the cold cloth into one of the gashes.
"But you stopped it? The werewolf I mean."
"Yeah," Reese said thoughtfully. "We stopped it." He didn't look so happy. In fact, considering that he had just put down a rather vicious killer, he looked downright upset. Dismayed even.
"Good," she mumbled. "That's good."
She wasn't sure she meant it.
"So what do we have?" Alfred asked, moving behind Barbara. She was bent over a microscope, staring intently at the sample.
"We have some answers and a few more questions," Barbara said thoughtfully. "This drug that's in Helena is a highly experimental one. In fact, the FDA pointblank refused to allow research involving it because of the risks and the possible uses of it."
"What's it for?"
"Well originally it was created so as to help veterans of war and other traumatic events get past those experiences. At least mentally. The drug could be used to completely rewrite a person's brain. There were side effects however."
"I take it they weren't beneficial?"
"No. They ranged rather wildly. A bit of insomnia, headaches and some new medical ailments. The most severe however involved blackouts relating to extreme emotional responses. Sound familiar?"
"Indeed. Hasn't that been Miss Helena's problem until just recently?"
"Right. Research papers say that symptom was relatively temporary but always led into something far worse. Some patients died and others had severe psychotic breaks. One doctor even hypothesized that the drug could be used as a mental gateway to potentially allow a deviant telepath to hijack someone's brain."
"You believe that's the situation now?"
She nodded slowly. "He was laughed at of course. Science refuses to believe that telepathy is real. We know better and the Joker definitely hijacked her mind. I'd say all the puzzle pieces fit."
"Except one?"
"Except one. Why would her therapist inject her with this? Why would she be working for the Joker?" Barbara queried, confusion in her gaze.
"What did you say her name was again?"
"Dr. Quinzell."
"And did you do any research on her?"
Barbara shook her head and frowned. "No, I guess I didn't think I had to. She's the court appointed psychiatrist. The police use her for quite a few of their consults."
"Quinzell. That sounds familiar somehow," Alfred mused. "I can recall an associate of the Joker's named Harlequin or something like that..."
Barbara spun suddenly, eyes wide. "Alfred. Oh God..." Her hands covered her mouth. "Oh God, what have I done?"
"I'm afraid you've lost me? If you're about to blame yourself for allowing Miss Helena to see Dr. Quinzell, let's first be certain of the facts."
"Right. Of course," Barbara said quietly. She quickly wheeled herself out into the main control room and began to type on her wireless keyboard. A moment later she looked up in wild desperation. "I know every dark secret the president of the United States has but I didn't see one of our worst enemies right in front of my face." She moved the screen around so that Alfred could see it. "Dr. Harleen Quinzell." She pressed two keys. "Here's a face recognition scan to Harlequin. It matches ninety-nine percent. Point seven."
"Dr. Quinzell?" Reese asked as he entered the room. He was shirtless but his chest was covered heavily in white gauze that was already spotting. Dinah trailed a few feet behind him, looking irritated. In his hand he was holding a police folder.
"You've met her?" Barbara asked.
"Yes. I've worked with her on a few cases. Look, on the way over here, I stopped by the station and found the file for our werewolf guy. Not easily I might add. And by the way you said werewolves don't exist."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Barbara muttered. He waved her off. "How did you get an ID?"
"He was wearing a bracelet around his wrist with his name on it. A medical ID," Reese informed her. "His name is Connor McCauley. He was a patient of Dr. Quinzell's. Court-ordered."
"Why?" Barbara asked, her interest perked.
"About four weeks ago he was involved in a road rage incident. Anger management."
"Just like Helena. Anything else in his jacket?"
"Not a thing," Reese replied.
"So kid gets angry and goes to see shrink. Next thing we know, kid's out murdering people."
"All good and nice but how does he become a werewolf?" Dinah asked.
"That's where Dr. Quinzell apparently comes in," Barbara sighed.
"I'm lost. I thought she was one of the good guys," Reese insisted.
Barbara shook her head. "She's the Joker's paramour. She used to go by Harlequin. I don't know how I missed it."
"Of course she is," Reese groaned.
"Barbara, it's not your fault," Dinah said firmly.
"It is," Oracle replied. She held up her hand to stop any further argument. "But that's neither here nor there."
"Okay, so what is?"
"She injected Helena with a drug that's being used to keep the psychic wavelength open. The tox screens I ran on the night we brought her back here didn't show anything. I just reran them with the chemical sequence of the UX40..."
"That's the name of the drug?" Dinah asked.
"Codename," Barbara replied. "It showed up. It's still in her blood stream. Which is why she isn't healing as fast as we would expect for one and why she was having those blackouts for two. It's also why she has next to no drive. It's suppressing her adrenalin. She can't fight back."
"Bully that," Helena said from the doorway. "No drug tells me what I can and can not do."
Barbara smiled warmly at her young charge. "Sit down. How's your back feel?"
"Terrible. Okay I get that they injected something into me to screw with my head, why is it hurting my back? And why suddenly now?"
"I don't have an answer for why now but it hurts at all because it was injected into your spine. It's like a tap. Never a very pleasant thing." She reached out and took Helena's hand. "Sit down, there's something I need to tell you."
Helena narrowed her eyes. "I don't like that." She dropped into one of the chairs and grunted in relief as the pain slid through her body. "What's wrong?"
"When you were under hypnosis, I asked what you had done the day before you were kidnapped..."
"You didn't have to hypnotize me for that. I hung around here all day."
"You didn't go to see Dr. Quinzell?" Barbara asked, her brow furrowing.
Helena shook her head. "No. She called to cancel our appointment for the following day. I just hung around."
Barbara shook her head slowly. "That's not what happened. You did go into a meeting with her and I think she knocked you out..."
"What?" Helena said, cocking her head. "No way..."
"Helena, eight years ago when the Joker was at his height, he had quite a few followers. None were more omnipresent than his paramour." She turned the monitor so that Huntress could see a picture of a woman dressed like a court jester. "Harlequin."
Helena squinted. "That's her?"
Barbara tapped a key and another picture appeared next to the one of Harlequin. It was a staff shot of Dr. Quinzell.
"Oh God," Helena murmured. Then she looked up. "You mean I've been getting mind-fucked by the Joker this whole time?"
"I don't think so. I think the Joker just recently found out who you are and he went through her to get the results he wanted. You've been seeing her for almost eight months now. If she had known the whole time, we'd have seen signs of that long before now."
"Well that's a relief I guess," Helena muttered. Then she grinned over at Reese who had dropped himself into one of the chairs. "Welcome to my life, Detective. Only I would end up being head-shrunk by the girlfriend of our mortal enemy."
He chuckled and looked down at his chest, which was spotting even more heavily. Dinah moved over to him quickly and began to un-wrap the gauze, all the while muttering something about bulls and trains or something like that.
"Okay, so catch me up here. I've been injected with this weird drug...by my own shrink no less...and because of it, the Joker can hijack my brain? Doesn't he still have to be a telepath?"
"Yes," Barbara said slowly. "And Harley isn't one. Which means we still have a missing link somewhere. Someone inside the prison is helping him." She spun back towards her computers and began to type.
"What are you doing?" Helena asked, her eyes still on Reese. His chest was a bloody mess. She winced every single time he did. And then felt like a dope for doing so.
"Searching the database for known associates of the Joker with strong enough telepathic abilities to be able to open up a psychic wavelength and allow him to use it."
"What about Scarecrow?" Dinah asked. She wrinkled her nose. "Okay so I did some looking around in the meta database."
Barbara tossed her a look but decided to let it pass. "No. His powers were a bit different than that. He could get into your head but not in this fashion. Whoever this is, they're acting more like a hub than anything else..."
"A hub?" Helena sighed. "You mean kind of like a meeting station?"
"Right," Barbara said nodding. "They enable the connection. The router."
"We're getting techie again," Helena warned.
"Sorry," Barbara said with a smile. "I don't think this person has any actual control of the situation anymore than a hub or a router does. They're just keeping the line open."
"So find the router and close the connection and get the Joker out of her mind?" Reese put forward.
"Simple," Barbara said nodding. "Not wrong."
"Great," Helena said. "So what's our simple plan because I gotta say, this really pisses me off."
"Wait a second," Barbara said thoughtfully as she looked up. She turned towards Dinah. "I need a tissue sample from the morgue from our werewolf."
"Okay. Why?" Dinah asked, creasing her forehead. Morgue duty was the type of action that she would gladly relinquish back to Helena once the older crime fighter was up and kicking ass again.
"Not sure yet. Just...just get it for me."
"On it," she replied. Then she turned to Reese. "Don't move an inch."
He held up his hand as if to show that he was just an easy-going feller. Meaning no harm.
She tossed him one final look and then broke for the door.
"Careful Reese or I'm gonna start thinking you and Dinah have something going on," Helena teased.
"She's sixteen," he protested.
Helena just grinned. Then she winked. "Easy there cowboy, just hassling you."
He shook his head, "I'm never gonna get you, am I?"
"Depends on what you mean by 'get me'."
He broke into a broad smile then. "I meant understand you."
She shook her head. "Oh that. No, you never will."
Barbara scowled. Then she hit her fist against the table. "I was so sure."
"Sure of what?" Dinah asked, looking over her shoulder. Barbara was seated in front of LCD flat-panel in the lab.
"I thought maybe he was the router. He's not meta at all. Whatever happened to him, it was done to him."
"By drugs?"
"Being a werewolf typically isn't a chemical thing," Barbara noted. "That said, something was done to him. Four weeks ago he was a normal human being. Tonight he's lying in a morgue because he became a killer. After he went to see Harley."
"Are you testing him for drugs?"
"Mmm hmm." Barbara moved forward to look at the screen. "Interesting."
"What?"
"Connor McCauley has trace amounts of UX40 in his blood stream. He must have been a test subject." She spun around to look at a pad of a paper where she had jotted down notes. "The last time Dr. Quinzell reports that he came to a session was three days before Helena was kidnapped. The first murder happened a week later but the police classified it as a dog mauling. It wasn't until it happened again that they started calling it a homicide."
"So, how did they turn him into a werewolf?"
"I imagine that's what that is," Barbara said pointing at the screen. "That on the left is a normal human DNA strand. The one on the right is lupine. Somehow or another they've been merged. Crudely I'd say. They just injected him with a hybrid stream. It had the same effect as being bit by a werewolf only McCauley went insane far sooner than I'm sure they expected. Just the same, they got rid of their evidence."
"Is that how they linked his killings to Helena's mind?"
Barbara nodded. "They still had control of McCauley's mind so they told him what to do and then relayed the details to Helena. Talk about a true router."
"I'll take your word for it," Dinah teased. "Okay, so he's dead. How do we stop Helena from suffering the same fate? They drove him crazy. Aren't they trying to do that with her?"
"Right now they can't get in. I don't know how long that will last. I sent an email to a friend of mine who worked on the initial studies of UX40. Hopefully he can tell me if there was ever an antidote created. In the meanwhile, you get to do some detective work."
"Ooh. Sounds like fun. Who's my partner and don't tell me Reese. He can't even stand."
"Not Reese. A friend of ours who just got into town tonight. He's been away at school but he just called in."
"Another friend?"
"His name is Tim Drake."
"It's a good strong name. Doesn't have much of a superhero ring but still..."
Barbara shook her head and then pushed ahead. "After Dick gave up the mantle of Robin, Tim assumed the role. Not exactly in that order but that's not important now. After Bruce left, Tim went to New York to go to school. He just finished up his finals and he's back in town for a few days."
"So he's my partner now?"
"Yep," Barbara agreed. "I will warn you though; Tim has an interesting sense of humor. He and Helena tend to exist on the same wavelength when it comes to their jokes."
Dinah made a loud snorting noise. "Great. Because we so need more of that."
"You have no idea," Barbara chuckled.
"So, when do I get started?"
"Tomorrow morning. Tonight you sleep."
Dinah sighed impatiently. "Time's wasting."
"I know," Barbara admitted. "But you're of no use to me or anyone else if you can barely stand. You might not be there yet but give it a few more hours and you will be. I'm not about to put you in any more danger. At least not tonight."
Dinah reached across and squeezed Barbara's shoulder. "We make our own choices. Sometime things happen. You can't anticipate everything."
"That's true," Barbara said nodding. "But I should have known who was head- shrinking Helena. I can't even imagine what other damage that wacko has done to her head. Like she needs the help."
"I resent that," Helena said as she limped into the room.
"You should be in bed," Barbara said with an impatient sigh.
"You seem to be trying awfully hard to get the two of us in the sack, Babs," Helena said with a smirk. "Something you want to tell us?"
The beautiful redhead known as Oracle spun in her chair. She narrowed her eyes and tried to look stern. "If you two aren't in bed within the next five minutes..."
"You'll what?" Helena challenged, leaning against the door.
"'I'll drug you up so much that you won't know your name for the next year," Barbara threatened. Then she glanced at Dinah. "And I'll ground you."
Helena held up hand in defeat. "Okay. Okay. I was actually headed to bed anyways." She smirked over at Dinah. "Come on, lover. Join me."
Dinah swallowed hard. "Goodnight." Turning quickly, she departed the lab. All she could hear behind her was Helena laughing.
"That was mean," Barbara told the brunette crime fighter.
"Yeah, it was," Helena admitted, still leaning against the wall. She put a hand over her mouth and yawned. "Seriously though, you should turn in as well. Stop beating yourself up over Dr. Quinzell. That's my job and once I can, I'm going to kick the living shit out of that witch."
"So I'm guessing there's no chance of me convincing you to see another psychiatrist?"
"I'm thinking no here," Helena said with a short laugh. Then her face drew together and she sombered. "You think that's all she did to me? I mean drug me up?"
Barbara slid her chair over close to Helena. She reached out and took her young charge's hands in hers. "I don't know," she confessed. "But we will get to the bottom of this. One way or another, we'll find out everything she did to you."
"I believe you," Helena said softly.
"Good. Now to bed."
"Only if you promise me that you'll sack out soon yourself."
"I will," Barbara said with a laugh. "Is Reese sleeping on the couch in the living room?"
Helena grinned, her eyes shimmering. "What? You thought he was back in my bed waiting for me?"
"Uh uh. No chance that I'm touching that one with a ten foot pole," Barbara said with a snort.
Helena opened her mouth as if to reply but then wisely held her tongue. After a long moment she settled on simply winking at Barbara. "Night," she sang out.
"Night," Barbara said with a tired sigh. She had already turned back to the monitors so she didn't see Helena wobbling out of the lab, her hands flat on the walls to steady her gait. Instead her eyes had already refocused on the words on the screen. "Okay," she muttered. "Time for you to start making sense."
He looked up at her and cocked his head. "What is this?" His red lips were turned downwards as his mood continued to sink. He could feel his well- constructed plan falling apart. It had taken so much to bring it all together and now that little blonde twit had torn it all apart. And the bat brat was temporarily out of his reach.
"Easy, Mr. J," she squeaked, her hand massaging his shoulder. It felt good and he almost let his eyes close so that he could enjoy the touch. Almost. But really, there were more important things at hand. She was holding out her other hand to him and he saw a small remote control complete with red blinking lights sitting there. "This is fail-safe," she informed him. "You know, if we can't get back into her head."
"What will it do?" he asked, staring up at her. His eyes were wide. He fidgeted a bit, annoyed by the prison outfit. Because he was in federal prison and presumably so far hidden from the normal population as to be incapable of harming anyone, they had allowed him to remain unchained. The burnt orange jumpsuit however was apparently mandatory.
The blonde woman cackled and bent closer. Her tongue lightly flicked his face. She smiled at him sweetly. "Why it'll blow her head up. All to little pretty pieces. Bang."
He gazed up at her with wonder and just a little bit of hope. "It will? Bang?"
She nodded slowly. "Bang. I promise." She reached forward and kissed his forehead. "Just in case."
He smiled then. His red lips swept upwards and his green hair seemed to stand on end. He laughed. He grinned. He smiled affectionately at his paramour and told her of the rewards she would reap, as soon he was once again free of course.
After all, why the hell not?
He was going to win.
END CHAPTER THREE
"It kicked my ass," Reese commented dryly. He gazed down at his chest and scowled.
"It? The creature?"
"A werewolf."
"No," Helena said shaking her head. "Those don't exist." Then she frowned. "They do, don't they?"
"You know, I don't know why this is such a shock to you. After meeting you and getting to know you, nothing is a surprise to me anymore," Reese said with a short laugh. "I'm getting pretty much used to the insanity."
"Now you're just being a pain," Helena said dryly. "Are you okay?"
"Sure," he replied.
"Take your shirt off," Dinah ordered him. She was crouched down in front of him. He looked over at Helena who just winked at him. Sighing, he reached up and pulled it off.
"Impressive," Dinah said with a grin. "But the undershirt has to go as well." Once he had removed that as well, she began to dab at the gaping wounds on his chest, carefully avoiding the bloody mess in the middle of his gut where his stitches had been.
"How did the hypnosis go?"
"I dunno. You'd have to ask Barbara. She found a hole in my back, stuck a needle in it and then disappeared. Haven't seen her since," Helena cracked. She was obviously less than amused. "Oh and since my back was hurting, she gave me more painkillers."
"That sounds nice," he said, wincing as Dinah pressed the cold cloth into one of the gashes.
"But you stopped it? The werewolf I mean."
"Yeah," Reese said thoughtfully. "We stopped it." He didn't look so happy. In fact, considering that he had just put down a rather vicious killer, he looked downright upset. Dismayed even.
"Good," she mumbled. "That's good."
She wasn't sure she meant it.
"So what do we have?" Alfred asked, moving behind Barbara. She was bent over a microscope, staring intently at the sample.
"We have some answers and a few more questions," Barbara said thoughtfully. "This drug that's in Helena is a highly experimental one. In fact, the FDA pointblank refused to allow research involving it because of the risks and the possible uses of it."
"What's it for?"
"Well originally it was created so as to help veterans of war and other traumatic events get past those experiences. At least mentally. The drug could be used to completely rewrite a person's brain. There were side effects however."
"I take it they weren't beneficial?"
"No. They ranged rather wildly. A bit of insomnia, headaches and some new medical ailments. The most severe however involved blackouts relating to extreme emotional responses. Sound familiar?"
"Indeed. Hasn't that been Miss Helena's problem until just recently?"
"Right. Research papers say that symptom was relatively temporary but always led into something far worse. Some patients died and others had severe psychotic breaks. One doctor even hypothesized that the drug could be used as a mental gateway to potentially allow a deviant telepath to hijack someone's brain."
"You believe that's the situation now?"
She nodded slowly. "He was laughed at of course. Science refuses to believe that telepathy is real. We know better and the Joker definitely hijacked her mind. I'd say all the puzzle pieces fit."
"Except one?"
"Except one. Why would her therapist inject her with this? Why would she be working for the Joker?" Barbara queried, confusion in her gaze.
"What did you say her name was again?"
"Dr. Quinzell."
"And did you do any research on her?"
Barbara shook her head and frowned. "No, I guess I didn't think I had to. She's the court appointed psychiatrist. The police use her for quite a few of their consults."
"Quinzell. That sounds familiar somehow," Alfred mused. "I can recall an associate of the Joker's named Harlequin or something like that..."
Barbara spun suddenly, eyes wide. "Alfred. Oh God..." Her hands covered her mouth. "Oh God, what have I done?"
"I'm afraid you've lost me? If you're about to blame yourself for allowing Miss Helena to see Dr. Quinzell, let's first be certain of the facts."
"Right. Of course," Barbara said quietly. She quickly wheeled herself out into the main control room and began to type on her wireless keyboard. A moment later she looked up in wild desperation. "I know every dark secret the president of the United States has but I didn't see one of our worst enemies right in front of my face." She moved the screen around so that Alfred could see it. "Dr. Harleen Quinzell." She pressed two keys. "Here's a face recognition scan to Harlequin. It matches ninety-nine percent. Point seven."
"Dr. Quinzell?" Reese asked as he entered the room. He was shirtless but his chest was covered heavily in white gauze that was already spotting. Dinah trailed a few feet behind him, looking irritated. In his hand he was holding a police folder.
"You've met her?" Barbara asked.
"Yes. I've worked with her on a few cases. Look, on the way over here, I stopped by the station and found the file for our werewolf guy. Not easily I might add. And by the way you said werewolves don't exist."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Barbara muttered. He waved her off. "How did you get an ID?"
"He was wearing a bracelet around his wrist with his name on it. A medical ID," Reese informed her. "His name is Connor McCauley. He was a patient of Dr. Quinzell's. Court-ordered."
"Why?" Barbara asked, her interest perked.
"About four weeks ago he was involved in a road rage incident. Anger management."
"Just like Helena. Anything else in his jacket?"
"Not a thing," Reese replied.
"So kid gets angry and goes to see shrink. Next thing we know, kid's out murdering people."
"All good and nice but how does he become a werewolf?" Dinah asked.
"That's where Dr. Quinzell apparently comes in," Barbara sighed.
"I'm lost. I thought she was one of the good guys," Reese insisted.
Barbara shook her head. "She's the Joker's paramour. She used to go by Harlequin. I don't know how I missed it."
"Of course she is," Reese groaned.
"Barbara, it's not your fault," Dinah said firmly.
"It is," Oracle replied. She held up her hand to stop any further argument. "But that's neither here nor there."
"Okay, so what is?"
"She injected Helena with a drug that's being used to keep the psychic wavelength open. The tox screens I ran on the night we brought her back here didn't show anything. I just reran them with the chemical sequence of the UX40..."
"That's the name of the drug?" Dinah asked.
"Codename," Barbara replied. "It showed up. It's still in her blood stream. Which is why she isn't healing as fast as we would expect for one and why she was having those blackouts for two. It's also why she has next to no drive. It's suppressing her adrenalin. She can't fight back."
"Bully that," Helena said from the doorway. "No drug tells me what I can and can not do."
Barbara smiled warmly at her young charge. "Sit down. How's your back feel?"
"Terrible. Okay I get that they injected something into me to screw with my head, why is it hurting my back? And why suddenly now?"
"I don't have an answer for why now but it hurts at all because it was injected into your spine. It's like a tap. Never a very pleasant thing." She reached out and took Helena's hand. "Sit down, there's something I need to tell you."
Helena narrowed her eyes. "I don't like that." She dropped into one of the chairs and grunted in relief as the pain slid through her body. "What's wrong?"
"When you were under hypnosis, I asked what you had done the day before you were kidnapped..."
"You didn't have to hypnotize me for that. I hung around here all day."
"You didn't go to see Dr. Quinzell?" Barbara asked, her brow furrowing.
Helena shook her head. "No. She called to cancel our appointment for the following day. I just hung around."
Barbara shook her head slowly. "That's not what happened. You did go into a meeting with her and I think she knocked you out..."
"What?" Helena said, cocking her head. "No way..."
"Helena, eight years ago when the Joker was at his height, he had quite a few followers. None were more omnipresent than his paramour." She turned the monitor so that Huntress could see a picture of a woman dressed like a court jester. "Harlequin."
Helena squinted. "That's her?"
Barbara tapped a key and another picture appeared next to the one of Harlequin. It was a staff shot of Dr. Quinzell.
"Oh God," Helena murmured. Then she looked up. "You mean I've been getting mind-fucked by the Joker this whole time?"
"I don't think so. I think the Joker just recently found out who you are and he went through her to get the results he wanted. You've been seeing her for almost eight months now. If she had known the whole time, we'd have seen signs of that long before now."
"Well that's a relief I guess," Helena muttered. Then she grinned over at Reese who had dropped himself into one of the chairs. "Welcome to my life, Detective. Only I would end up being head-shrunk by the girlfriend of our mortal enemy."
He chuckled and looked down at his chest, which was spotting even more heavily. Dinah moved over to him quickly and began to un-wrap the gauze, all the while muttering something about bulls and trains or something like that.
"Okay, so catch me up here. I've been injected with this weird drug...by my own shrink no less...and because of it, the Joker can hijack my brain? Doesn't he still have to be a telepath?"
"Yes," Barbara said slowly. "And Harley isn't one. Which means we still have a missing link somewhere. Someone inside the prison is helping him." She spun back towards her computers and began to type.
"What are you doing?" Helena asked, her eyes still on Reese. His chest was a bloody mess. She winced every single time he did. And then felt like a dope for doing so.
"Searching the database for known associates of the Joker with strong enough telepathic abilities to be able to open up a psychic wavelength and allow him to use it."
"What about Scarecrow?" Dinah asked. She wrinkled her nose. "Okay so I did some looking around in the meta database."
Barbara tossed her a look but decided to let it pass. "No. His powers were a bit different than that. He could get into your head but not in this fashion. Whoever this is, they're acting more like a hub than anything else..."
"A hub?" Helena sighed. "You mean kind of like a meeting station?"
"Right," Barbara said nodding. "They enable the connection. The router."
"We're getting techie again," Helena warned.
"Sorry," Barbara said with a smile. "I don't think this person has any actual control of the situation anymore than a hub or a router does. They're just keeping the line open."
"So find the router and close the connection and get the Joker out of her mind?" Reese put forward.
"Simple," Barbara said nodding. "Not wrong."
"Great," Helena said. "So what's our simple plan because I gotta say, this really pisses me off."
"Wait a second," Barbara said thoughtfully as she looked up. She turned towards Dinah. "I need a tissue sample from the morgue from our werewolf."
"Okay. Why?" Dinah asked, creasing her forehead. Morgue duty was the type of action that she would gladly relinquish back to Helena once the older crime fighter was up and kicking ass again.
"Not sure yet. Just...just get it for me."
"On it," she replied. Then she turned to Reese. "Don't move an inch."
He held up his hand as if to show that he was just an easy-going feller. Meaning no harm.
She tossed him one final look and then broke for the door.
"Careful Reese or I'm gonna start thinking you and Dinah have something going on," Helena teased.
"She's sixteen," he protested.
Helena just grinned. Then she winked. "Easy there cowboy, just hassling you."
He shook his head, "I'm never gonna get you, am I?"
"Depends on what you mean by 'get me'."
He broke into a broad smile then. "I meant understand you."
She shook her head. "Oh that. No, you never will."
Barbara scowled. Then she hit her fist against the table. "I was so sure."
"Sure of what?" Dinah asked, looking over her shoulder. Barbara was seated in front of LCD flat-panel in the lab.
"I thought maybe he was the router. He's not meta at all. Whatever happened to him, it was done to him."
"By drugs?"
"Being a werewolf typically isn't a chemical thing," Barbara noted. "That said, something was done to him. Four weeks ago he was a normal human being. Tonight he's lying in a morgue because he became a killer. After he went to see Harley."
"Are you testing him for drugs?"
"Mmm hmm." Barbara moved forward to look at the screen. "Interesting."
"What?"
"Connor McCauley has trace amounts of UX40 in his blood stream. He must have been a test subject." She spun around to look at a pad of a paper where she had jotted down notes. "The last time Dr. Quinzell reports that he came to a session was three days before Helena was kidnapped. The first murder happened a week later but the police classified it as a dog mauling. It wasn't until it happened again that they started calling it a homicide."
"So, how did they turn him into a werewolf?"
"I imagine that's what that is," Barbara said pointing at the screen. "That on the left is a normal human DNA strand. The one on the right is lupine. Somehow or another they've been merged. Crudely I'd say. They just injected him with a hybrid stream. It had the same effect as being bit by a werewolf only McCauley went insane far sooner than I'm sure they expected. Just the same, they got rid of their evidence."
"Is that how they linked his killings to Helena's mind?"
Barbara nodded. "They still had control of McCauley's mind so they told him what to do and then relayed the details to Helena. Talk about a true router."
"I'll take your word for it," Dinah teased. "Okay, so he's dead. How do we stop Helena from suffering the same fate? They drove him crazy. Aren't they trying to do that with her?"
"Right now they can't get in. I don't know how long that will last. I sent an email to a friend of mine who worked on the initial studies of UX40. Hopefully he can tell me if there was ever an antidote created. In the meanwhile, you get to do some detective work."
"Ooh. Sounds like fun. Who's my partner and don't tell me Reese. He can't even stand."
"Not Reese. A friend of ours who just got into town tonight. He's been away at school but he just called in."
"Another friend?"
"His name is Tim Drake."
"It's a good strong name. Doesn't have much of a superhero ring but still..."
Barbara shook her head and then pushed ahead. "After Dick gave up the mantle of Robin, Tim assumed the role. Not exactly in that order but that's not important now. After Bruce left, Tim went to New York to go to school. He just finished up his finals and he's back in town for a few days."
"So he's my partner now?"
"Yep," Barbara agreed. "I will warn you though; Tim has an interesting sense of humor. He and Helena tend to exist on the same wavelength when it comes to their jokes."
Dinah made a loud snorting noise. "Great. Because we so need more of that."
"You have no idea," Barbara chuckled.
"So, when do I get started?"
"Tomorrow morning. Tonight you sleep."
Dinah sighed impatiently. "Time's wasting."
"I know," Barbara admitted. "But you're of no use to me or anyone else if you can barely stand. You might not be there yet but give it a few more hours and you will be. I'm not about to put you in any more danger. At least not tonight."
Dinah reached across and squeezed Barbara's shoulder. "We make our own choices. Sometime things happen. You can't anticipate everything."
"That's true," Barbara said nodding. "But I should have known who was head- shrinking Helena. I can't even imagine what other damage that wacko has done to her head. Like she needs the help."
"I resent that," Helena said as she limped into the room.
"You should be in bed," Barbara said with an impatient sigh.
"You seem to be trying awfully hard to get the two of us in the sack, Babs," Helena said with a smirk. "Something you want to tell us?"
The beautiful redhead known as Oracle spun in her chair. She narrowed her eyes and tried to look stern. "If you two aren't in bed within the next five minutes..."
"You'll what?" Helena challenged, leaning against the door.
"'I'll drug you up so much that you won't know your name for the next year," Barbara threatened. Then she glanced at Dinah. "And I'll ground you."
Helena held up hand in defeat. "Okay. Okay. I was actually headed to bed anyways." She smirked over at Dinah. "Come on, lover. Join me."
Dinah swallowed hard. "Goodnight." Turning quickly, she departed the lab. All she could hear behind her was Helena laughing.
"That was mean," Barbara told the brunette crime fighter.
"Yeah, it was," Helena admitted, still leaning against the wall. She put a hand over her mouth and yawned. "Seriously though, you should turn in as well. Stop beating yourself up over Dr. Quinzell. That's my job and once I can, I'm going to kick the living shit out of that witch."
"So I'm guessing there's no chance of me convincing you to see another psychiatrist?"
"I'm thinking no here," Helena said with a short laugh. Then her face drew together and she sombered. "You think that's all she did to me? I mean drug me up?"
Barbara slid her chair over close to Helena. She reached out and took her young charge's hands in hers. "I don't know," she confessed. "But we will get to the bottom of this. One way or another, we'll find out everything she did to you."
"I believe you," Helena said softly.
"Good. Now to bed."
"Only if you promise me that you'll sack out soon yourself."
"I will," Barbara said with a laugh. "Is Reese sleeping on the couch in the living room?"
Helena grinned, her eyes shimmering. "What? You thought he was back in my bed waiting for me?"
"Uh uh. No chance that I'm touching that one with a ten foot pole," Barbara said with a snort.
Helena opened her mouth as if to reply but then wisely held her tongue. After a long moment she settled on simply winking at Barbara. "Night," she sang out.
"Night," Barbara said with a tired sigh. She had already turned back to the monitors so she didn't see Helena wobbling out of the lab, her hands flat on the walls to steady her gait. Instead her eyes had already refocused on the words on the screen. "Okay," she muttered. "Time for you to start making sense."
He looked up at her and cocked his head. "What is this?" His red lips were turned downwards as his mood continued to sink. He could feel his well- constructed plan falling apart. It had taken so much to bring it all together and now that little blonde twit had torn it all apart. And the bat brat was temporarily out of his reach.
"Easy, Mr. J," she squeaked, her hand massaging his shoulder. It felt good and he almost let his eyes close so that he could enjoy the touch. Almost. But really, there were more important things at hand. She was holding out her other hand to him and he saw a small remote control complete with red blinking lights sitting there. "This is fail-safe," she informed him. "You know, if we can't get back into her head."
"What will it do?" he asked, staring up at her. His eyes were wide. He fidgeted a bit, annoyed by the prison outfit. Because he was in federal prison and presumably so far hidden from the normal population as to be incapable of harming anyone, they had allowed him to remain unchained. The burnt orange jumpsuit however was apparently mandatory.
The blonde woman cackled and bent closer. Her tongue lightly flicked his face. She smiled at him sweetly. "Why it'll blow her head up. All to little pretty pieces. Bang."
He gazed up at her with wonder and just a little bit of hope. "It will? Bang?"
She nodded slowly. "Bang. I promise." She reached forward and kissed his forehead. "Just in case."
He smiled then. His red lips swept upwards and his green hair seemed to stand on end. He laughed. He grinned. He smiled affectionately at his paramour and told her of the rewards she would reap, as soon he was once again free of course.
After all, why the hell not?
He was going to win.
END CHAPTER THREE