The bright light of the Batsignal caught Cass's attention as she was making her way home from Bab's. She glared at it, imagining that Batman and Robin and everyone else was out there fighting and she was the only one who wasn't. A faint buzzing in her pocket made her look down. She reached in and pulled out a... cell phone? Where did this come from? She opened it up and almost cautiously put it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Cass?"

"Babs?" her voice betrayed her surprise. She had just left Barbara, why was she calling...and perhaps more puzzling, how had she gotten this phone number?

"Good. I was afraid you wouldn't pick up..." Cass's brain started to catch up with her, and with it, the feeling of being stupid once again. At least this time she hadn't revealed herself to Babs. Of course, Babs had probably put the phone in her pocket when Cass wasn't looking. Why she had to be so sneaky, she didn't know, but...

"...so I think I'm going to need your help." Huh? Whoops, she hadn't been listening. She sighed.

"Can you, um, tell me again?"

"Cass! Weren't you listening to me?!" Cass rolled her eyes.

"No. I was trying to figure out why there was a phone in my pocket. And why you were calling it." There was a moment of silence, presumably as Babs either figured out what to say next or counted to ten to avoid blasting the younger woman with a scathing retort.

"Sorry. I put the phone in your jacket so you wouldn't leave without it, but I forgot to tell you. I thought it would be a good way to get in touch with you outside of the costume." Cass nodded, forgetting for a moment that Babs couldn't see her. She often forgot to use verbal responses in the cowl, too. It was still easier for her to nod or use body signals.

"Ok...?" She still didn't know why Babs was calling now. She had said something about...help?

"Sigh. Ok. One more time. I can't get in touch with Batman and even Alfred hasn't heard from him, Robin's in for the night, Nightwing's back in Blüdhaven, and the signal's going off. As the most senior member of the Bat-clan at present, I guess that means I'm going to make the decision to reinstate you a day early. I need you to suit up and get over to the GCPD building ASAP to find out what's going on. I'll keep truing to locate Batman, but he has never been to willing to be 'bugged' with a GPS locator." Cass felt a familiar warmth flow through her at the prospect of going back out as Batgirl.

"Ok." She hung up, not waiting to give Babs a chance to change her mind. She ran the rest of the way back to her apartment, climbed up the outside instead of going in through the front, and suited up faster than she ever had before. The costume felt like a second skin and she relished in the feel of it. Within minutes she was back outside and "flying" towards the police station.

She stopped on the roof of the building next door, checking to make sure it wasn't a trap. The lone figure on the roof of the station wasn't a foe, but he wasn't the person she was expecting either. She knew that after the recent fiasco with the gang war the police hadn't really been amenable to working with costumed vigilantes. Yet there, standing next to the batsignal, was Commissioner Akins. Batgirl double-checked to see if it were a trap, but, seeing no other people hiding nearby, she decided to chance it. Besides, the commissioner's body language didn't imply anything about a trap; some extreme tension, worry, and anger, but no deception.

She shifted around so that her leap from one building to the next would put her behind Akins, moving silently so as not to draw his attention. A grin tugged at the corner of her mouth at the thought of startling this officer. She knew Batman had had a kind of friendly competition with Commissioner Gordon on being able to sneak up on him unawares. Since this commissioner was anything but friendly towards the Bat-clan she didn't mind scaring him silly.

"Yes?" she knew she couldn't hope to compete with Batman's low growl, but her sudden appearance at Akin' side and her short, curt query was apparently frightening enough for him.

"What the-!?" he jumped, reaching for his gun, and stopping just short of drawing it. She simply stood their, waiting. He glared at her, started to wipe his brow and stopped, apparently unwilling to give even that sign of unease; instead he dropped his hand back to his side. He gave her a quick once-over, every part of him declaring that he was not pleased with what he saw. "You're not Batman." He sounded sullen, like a child who was denied a treat. Cass decided to fall back on her old method of speaking in single or double word answers, hoping to unnerve him some more. She pointed above them at the light shining in the sky.

"Bat-signal," she pointed to herself, "Bat-girl." Then, because television had drilled phrases into her that she couldn't resist, she added insolently, "any questions?" The commissioner stared blankly at her for a minute, trying to decide if she was joking. He easily understood her point; any "bat" could answer a "bat" signal, but he didn't have to like it. He wouldn't have lit the signal at all except...

"We received this an hour ago." He held out a small package, about the size of a video tape. Batgirl reached out unhesitatingly and took the package from him. The paper covering it had been tampered with, probably the bomb-squad making sure it was safe before the police station blew up or something, but it was otherwise unopened. A big, gruesome looking bat had been painted on the outside...a bat with a twisted-looking smile smeared across its face. She resisted the impulse to drop it; she had heard enough about the Joker recently to make her wary. But though Akin's didn't like the vigilantes, she didn't think he'd give her a dangerous item, and the police had obviously already checked it out...

She pulled her arm holding the package under her cape, hiding it from view. Akin's was watching her closely, but when she put her chin up challengingly, he broke eye contact. She took the opportunity to disappear back into the shadows.

"We made ourselves a copy but I figured since it's addressed to..." he had only turned for a second, but when he faced the spot she had been she was gone. A scowl darkened his face for a moment, but he shrugged it off. The less information he gave the "bats" the less likely they would be to succeed; and while he in no way wanted Joker or other crazies on the loose, he felt that the GCPD should be the only law and order in town. Batman and his crew were just another side of the crazy coin.

Batgirl made her way to Oracle's clock tower with all possible speed. She wanted to continue to roam as Batgirl, she was thrilled to be back in costume, with the wind in her cape, but she knew Babs had let her back for a reason, and that reason was now nestled between her utility belt and her back. As Cass entered Barbara's apartment the redhead looked up, a hopeful expression in her eyes that died a little upon seeing that the intruder was Cass.

"Any luck?" Cass held out the package. She had taken the time to discover for herself what it contained (only to make sure it wasn't dangerous, really!) and had been a little disappointed to find a simple black videotape. Babs wasn't so inclined to disappointment, it seemed. Her face got a grim look on it, and she took the tape from Cass.

"What?" Babs sighed.

"I still haven't been able to contact Batman. It's unusual for him to maintain radio silence this long, especially with the Joker on the loose. And this..." she held up the tape, "can't be good."

"Why?"

"Because...Joker likes to make a big production of things." She grimaced, glancing down at her chair, and Cass wondered what she was thinking. She knew Babs had been shot by the Joker, and that's why she was in a wheelchair, but that's all she knew of the story. Barbara shook herself out of her self-pity and continued briskly, "He's often commandeered a TV station, or sent a tape like this to the police station to get everyone's attention shortly before attempting to commit some kind of mass attack. It's usually a ransom note, or a lure for Batman into one of his death-traps, though sometimes, I think, it's just for the thrill of scaring everyone in Gotham.." Cass looked down at the tape, still clutched in Babs' hand.

"We should..." she indicated the tape, but Babs hesitated.

"Yeah, we should, but... Batman will want to see this, and we need to locate him." Cass shook her head.

"No! We..." she tried to choose her words carefully. Her protest wasn't entirely selfish...though she wanted to stay Batgirl, and help catch the Joker, she also had an altruistic motive: the Joker could be setting off a trap right that minute and they may not have time to find Batman. On the other hand, what if Batman was right and she couldn't fight the Joker? "We need to see the tape, then, if there is time, we find Batman and get help."

"..." Babs looked surprised. Cass wasn't sure if it was because she had contradicted her or because she seemed to be taking charge. For her part, Barbara wasn't sure herself. She knew she tended to overreact where the Joker was concerned... such feelings leading her to cringe from the idea of watching the monster on his tape... but that was understandable considering everything he had done to her. Most of her current concern stemmed from knowing that if immediate action was required, Cass would take it, regardless of the danger. Joker had already destroyed Batgirl once... she didn't want to see him do it again. Still...

"All right, pop it in the machine over there," she waved her hand at a small VCR slot set back into a wall of digital equipment. Cass took the tape from her and slid it into the machine. Babs braced herself, not looking forward to seeing the madman's face in her home, and brought it up on the screen. There was a moment of blackness, then the camera panned back, showing the black screen to actually be a close-up shot of a batarang. Even as the image came into focus, a white hand reached out and painted a big, grotesque smiley face on the back. The hand then picked up the batarang and threw it off-screen. The camera panned out again and the picture widened to show the Joker standing in what looked like a hospital room, wearing a lab coat and stethoscope, with Harley standing behind him in the classic nurse's garb. The painted batarang was lodged in the x-ray viewer on one sidewall, and Joker fiddled idly with a scalpel. He let out a creepy cackle, put down the scalpel, and advanced towards the camera.

"Greetings, Gotham. Joker here..."


"... I have an important announcement to make: you see, I've discovered that Gotham City is ill, possibly even, 'gasp', dying!". It's suffering from a fatal infection, which, if not fixed, could spell catastrophe for our beloved Gotham. But never fear! Doctor Joker is here to save the day! Nurse!"

"You hollered Mistah J?"

"Doctor! DOCTOR!"

"Ow ow ow! Uh, right. You hollered Doctah J?"
"Give me that! Ah. Here. See this chart? It clearly shows how the infection has spread, moving

from here... to here...to here. Why, Gotham's become a veritable breeding ground for these organisms."

"Pause tape." The Joker froze in mid-gesture, the room falling silent. Commissioner Akins

frowned over at the figure standing beside him. He had proven himself time and time again in the past as a true advocate for cleaning up Gotham. The only mark against him, as far as Akins was concerned, was his allowing Batman to ever become a real force in Gotham in the first place. Though their treatment of vigilantes differed greatly, Akins knew that the insight Jim Gordon could provide in the hunt for the Joker would be invaluable.

They had been watching the tape for half an hour, this was the third time they had seen it...Akin's fifth, since he had viewed it before calling Gordon... and it was making less and less sense to him on each repetition. Gordon, on the other hand, held a hand to his chin, tapping a finger thoughtfully against his mustache.

The tape itself had been...disturbing to say the least. Joker had dressed up like a doctor, abused Harley Quinn...why she was in love with the creep was beyond anyone's comprehension... proceeded to use "charts" and "graphs" that were little more than crayon drawings, with random scribbles thrown in. The chart Joker was holding up at the point where they had paused the tape had been a map of Gotham with red scribbles in areas of largest population. Each time he had said "here" he had scribbled some more, until most of Gotham was covered with his demented handiwork.

"Do you see that?" Akins peered closer at the screen where Gordon was pointing. There was a tiny reflection on the silvery leg of the operating table behind the Joker. The reflection was too small and warped to be identified...or so he thought. Apparently Gordon believed otherwise. He studied the image, then sat back. "Hostages." Akin's raised an eyebrow. Of course, if the Joker were at a real hospital, there would likely be casualties and hostages, but, as they had heard nothing from any facilities, he had assumed that it was a mock-up, a set. He turned his head to the side, trying to see what Gordon had seen, to identify the smudge as a reflection of people.

"I don't..."

"It is. This was probably filmed at the set of 'Dark Passage'" he named a new medical drama being filmed in Gotham that twisted the pattern of everyday life in a hospital, showing a supposed "darker side" such as doctors conspiring to do away with patients, nurses who took advantage of the helpless, and directors who blackmailed employees. Its ratings were poor, and the show was sure to be cancelled before the end of the first season...but it was the perfect place for Joker to stage his publicity stunt.

"That would explain why we haven't heard from any of the local hospitals." Akins conceded. Gordon threw him a glance.

"You haven't confirmed Joker's claim?"

"Of course we have!" Akins glared at the ex-commissioner. What, did Gordon think he was a complete simpleton? "We sent out officers to all the local medical facilities. There haven't been any strange cases in the last 48 hours... well, no more strange than usual," he amended. They had been looking for specific discrepancies...an increased number of coma patients or deaths, or any admittees displaying signs of classic Joker toxins.

"Hmmm." Gordon seemed lost in thought. The Joker had claimed that he was "putting Gotham to sleep" referring to the city as a diseased animal that needed to be put out of its misery. Batman had indicated in a meeting earlier that week, one which Akin's wished hadn't have been necessary, that Joker may be developing a new formula designed to induce comas in its victims. This would fit with the idea of a "sleeping" Gotham, but, knowing the Joker, it could simply be a colorful way of threatening the city.

"I'll send a squad out to the set of 'Dark Passages'... Joker's probably gone by now, but there may be clues left." Gordon nodded, absently.

"Perhaps..."

"We're going to have to find him before he can unleash this chemical...Gotham doesn't have that kind of money." Akins knew Gordon was aware of that, but he needed to fill the silence left by his predecessor. Over the years there had been so many ransom demand from various criminals, that the police were well aware that money was most often not really the goal. Usually the object was the destruction of the police, Batman, or both.

"Has..." Gordon hesitated, not sure he wanted to bring up such a delicate subject. "Has he seen this?" Akins tensed, knowing who Gordon referred to. His eyes narrowed.

"The Gotham City Police Department does not require the assis..."

"Oh, cut the crap, Akins. Has he seen it or not?" The current commissioner stared at the former in shock. He knew Gordon had worked with Batman, he, himself, had been forced into aiding the vigilante as well, but he hadn't expected this vehemence.

"I don't know. One of the other ones, Batgirl, answered the signal. I gave her a copy of the tape, but I don't know what she did with it after that. I haven't heard from him." Gordon frowned, and what may have been a worried look flashed across his face before he quickly concealed it. He nodded at Akins, and took his leave. Akins watched him until he disappeared down the corridor, wishing he had more to go on than a videotape and information from a vigilante he would prefer be locked up with the rest of the loonies in Arkham.


To be continued...