I don't own Halo or Justice League; they are the property of 343 Industries and DC Comics/Warner Brothers respectively.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Sergeant Montoya watched as the last squad car pulled out of the asylum gates and drove away towards the city. She couldn't help but feel both relieved and frustrated at how quickly the interrogation of the asylum's Warden and staff – if it could even be called that – had been carried out. A few sweet words by the Warden, and they just lapped it all up like starving puppies.

She glanced down at her data pad, which was closely monitoring the Spartan's movements throughout the asylum. The fact that he made it all the way to the security room without being detected could be described as resembling a double-edged sword. It demonstrated just how well trained he was, but it also highlighted the ever-growing number of faults and incompetence of the asylum's staff.

She was starting to understand the stress Commissioner Gordon had to deal with over the years. With so many cops working for the crime lords and drug traffickers on the side, it was hardly a surprise that most of the crooks were able to walk away with hardly a slap on the wrist. And, of course, there was the fact that most of the city's elite were only focused on filling their own back pockets, including the mayor and his personal group of supporters.

And, of course, there was having to deal with Batman and his little group of darkly dressed vigilantes. She appreciated all the good they did for the city and its citizens, especially when dealing with all the supervillains mucking about. Personally, however, she felt that they were too lenient in preventing these villains from escaping custody, much less from hurting or killing even more people.

She had heard rumors about Batman putting down the worst scumbags in his early days of crime-fighting…until an incident involving a thirteen-year-old kid. After that, he was strictly against any use of lethal force, sometimes going so far as to stop some police officers from putting these scumbags down for good…even when it would've been in self-defense. Sadly, his interference did result in a number of good officers being injured or killed by those same villains not even moments later.

Fighting for a corrupted system, supported by scumbags like Jeffery Loeb, was demoralizing enough. Actively supporting a group of rag-tag vigilantes who would rather fight a constant battle of good vs evil, without even trying to find a solution for said corrupted system, was even more disheartening.

'At least the Spartan's got the right idea,' Montoya thought to herself. 'Taking out the elites' resources and manpower will definitely keep them on their toes, and force them to pull more of their thugs of the streets. Then, we can focus on taking out the head honchos one by one.'

So engrossed in her thoughts, she didn't notice the feminine figure driving up towards her car on a personalized motorcycle. Coming to a stop, the woman parked the bike and removed her helmet, revealing the face of Rochelle Wayne – the younger sister to Gotham's philanthropist rich-boy, Bruce Wayne. She was also a brilliant chemist and bioengineer, and a Combat Engineer in the United States Armed Forces.

She made her way towards the car and rapped her knuckled on the driver side door window. The rapping on her car window startled Montoya out of her thoughts. She turned her head around and saw a smirking Rochelle looking in at her. The Sergeant let out an exasperated sigh as she exited the vehicle.

"Do all you soldiers have to go for the theatrics? I swear, you're just as bad as Batman," she asked, slamming her door shut.

"Only when we need to," Rochelle responded. "Do all police officers spend their time off duty spying on one of Gotham's most infamous buildings? Or is this just a new hobby you've picked up while I was overseas?"

"That depends on whether or not I can still be considered a police officer," Montoya snapped. She paused and took a breath to calm herself. "Sorry about that. I guess I almost expected you to be either Batgirl or Nightwing, checking up on me to make sure I don't act 'overly aggressive' during my suspension."

"Well, fortunately for us both, I'm much prettier than blue boy wonder could hope to be. Although," Rochelle took on a faux thoughtful pose, "Batgirl could certainly pass for a close contender."

This made the Sergeant snort; she had grown accustomed to Rochelle's teasing. With that, she pulled Rochelle into a tight hug, which the youngest Wayne gladly returned.

"It's good to see you, Rene."

"You too, Roche," Montoya whispered, using her old schoolmate's nickname. "You should've told me you were back; I would've had you over for coffee."

"Two shots of whiskey, skip the creamer."

"With two extra dry cinnamon-raison buns of the side."

"Of course."

Both women burst into laughter as they relinquished their hug. "Seriously though, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you're going to take your brother's offer of joining his company's science club."

The youngest Wayne sibling couldn't help but snort at the Sergeant's comment. It was no state secret that Bruce was displeased with her decision to join the army straight out of high school. Even after completing her BEng and BSc overseas, her brother was stubbornly set on having her return to work for him at his company. This only pushed Rochelle to continue her career and education in the armed forces. At the age of twenty-eight, and having earned the rank of Elite Combat Engineer ("Sapper"), she had served several tours in Africa and the Middle East. And, more recently, her unit had taken part in NATO training exercises throughout Eastern Europe.

Despite her different career path, she remained in touch with Alfred and her Uncle Jacob, both of whom supported her choices as best they could. She had met Richard and Barbara during a previous visit, and they were relatively friendly to her – though mostly the latter, giver her father's line of work. Her brother, on the other hand, was stubbornly set against her staying in the military.

Suffice to say, their relationship had been strained for quite some time…especially after she discovered his alternate lifestyle as the Dark Knight of Gotham.

"Actually, I was visiting a colleague's family just a few miles from here. Alfred sent me a message about Arkham having some sort of 'disturbance' with some of its patients. Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to come check things out for myself. I'm guessing you're here for the same reason."

"Yeah, talk about pure coincidence." The Sergeant let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, since you're here, I might as well tell you it wasn't just some disturbance," she reached into her car and grabbed the data-pad. "The Joker broke out of Arkham last night."

Rochelle eyes widened in shock. "What!? Last night!?"

"I only got word of it a few hours ago myself," Montoya explained. "He managed to bribe the Warden into shutting down the security system for 'necessary maintenance'. Allowed the Joker to hack into the system from a remote location – a Mr. Jolly's Candy Factory on the outskirts of the city."

She pulled up the images on the data-pad for Rochelle to see. "I had a friend send some of his guys to check it out. All they found was a smoldering heap, not even an hour old. My new… associate said it was the Joker's way of covering his tracks. Standard asset/intel denial."

Rochelle took hold of the data-pad and began looking through the images and notes. As she did so, she couldn't help but marvel at the device's advanced features. The images were crisp and clear, and the accessibility to the files was seamless. From what she could see at first glance, the device's GB capacity was substantially better than the tech developed and produced by Wayne Enterprises.

And given who her older sibling was, that was saying something indeed.

"How old are these files? They look like they were downloaded just yesterday." She looked up to see Montoya smirking at her.

"Some of those files date back months, but the images are from earlier this evening. And no, I didn't break some punk's arm to get these; my associate has some pretty good connections with the military himself."

"What kind of connections? Where is he now?"

"He wouldn't say, save for it being classified and all that bullshit. And right now? He's checking out a hunch that he thought might help us learn more about the Joker's plans."

Then, they both heard the sound of gunfire coming from the asylum's botanical garden. This was followed by horrific shrieks of pain that rang out from the asylum and echoed across the open fields and hills. Even at this distance, they could see flashes of gunfire highlighted against the darkness.

"I take it that's your associate?"

"Yep."

"Checking out this so-called hunch of his?"

"Uh huh."

"Should we check on him?"

"Given what I've seen him do, I'm pretty damn sure he can handle it."

Just then, a burst of static came from the civilian radio inside Montoya's car. As they listened, the two women could hear a panicked voice over the static. "This is Arkham…under atta…need imme…GAACK-"

"…"

The radio's static was soon drowned out by the sound of aircraft engines flying overhead. The two women looked up and saw a metal pod drop from the sky and land close to the botanical. Then, came the sound of more shots being fired, followed by several explosions and more shrieks of pain.

"Yeah, they need help in there."

"Damn right, they do."

And with that, both women turned and got on/into their respective vehicles. Whilst Batgirl raced on towards the asylum, Montoya made sure to grab both her pistol and the SMG the Spartan had provided her for additional firepower.

If she was going in, she wanted to make sure she was ready for anything.

Meanwhile, Rosette was bracing herself for whatever threat had now been unleashed within Arkham Asylum. From what she had seen from a distance, Montoya's associate was already fully engaged with whoever else was in there. Hopefully, they could get there to back him up before it was too late.

Of course, that didn't mean she wouldn't inform the others about what was happening.

"Alfred, it's Rochelle. We have a situation at Arkham Asylum."

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Right, that's another chapter down. Again, not one of my best chapters – be it for this or any of my other stories. Hopefully, my next chapter will be a lot easier on the eyes and brain. Especially since it will have a lot more action than this one did.

Also, I've introduced a new character into the fold – one I'm sure all those who've read the elseworld Reign of Terror comics are familiar with: Rochelle Wayne, the younger sister of Bruce Wayne. Brief recap, she takes up the mantel of Robin during the French Revolution in the 1700's. She's a brilliant scientist and chemist, more than capable of handling Bruce's formulas and research…and she's well trained in the use of firearms, albeit flintlock-based weapons.

So, I figured for my story, I would make her a military veteran…much to the frustration of her older brother, who would undoubtably fret for her getting hurt or killed out in the field of combat.

With that out of the way, I'll try to have the next chapter up within the next day or so. Until then, please read and review.