"…so good 'ol doctor Joker has come up with a cure! And, what's more, it's free! That's right ladies and germs, direct to you via my own patented delivery system, the cure-all for Gotham City. I'll be putting Gotham to sleep…for her own good!" The evil leer that filled the screen nearly made Barbara gag, and she turned away, looking, instead, at Cass, to gauge her reaction. The younger girl seemed entranced, fascinated by the wild antics of the Joker.

"You tell 'em Mis…er, Doctah J!" Harley now piped up again, earning her a nice shiny I.V. pole… chucked right at her head.

"Quiet! This is my show!" He regained his composure and continued. "Just to prove how good-natured I am, I've already given a dose of my treatment to a few hundred people! Of course, if the rest of Gotham doesn't want to take her medicine, all she has to do is deliver one…hundred…million dollars to my very own charity…a very worthy cause I like to call Joker's fun money….by midnight tomorrow night! Harley! Tell 'em what to do."

"You got it! Listen up peoples! My puddin' here is low on cash, so you gotta bring all the money to the funhouse at the old carnival on South Street! OW!" Harley grabbed her head, Joker having smacked it with a metal bedpan.

"You forgot the most important part! I want a full complement of police officers on the scene to guard my money… it would do for some maniac to steal it! HEE-heeheeheehee!" The tape came to the end and Babs switched it off.

"It's a trap." Babs gave Cass a rather disgusted look.

"No kidding, Sherlock. What was your first clue?" Cass shook her head, ignoring Babs' derogatory tone.

"No, not for the police. That's too obvious. Batman was right… it's… hard to read Joker, but it isn't impossible." She thought for a moment. "He wants the money, so he makes it look like he doesn't want it but wants to kill a bunch of policemen…no, that's not right." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Very hard to read. He… he…" she looked helplessly at Barbara.

"He just wants to hurt people, Cass. Hurt them, maim them, kill them, anything." She didn't even bother to hide the bitterness in her voice. Cassandra considered this, but something was tickling the back of her mind, something important. If only she could figure it out…

"Yes. He wants to hurt and kill…so why make people sleep? An antidote could be found…" Babs shrugged. Neither of them could know that Batman hadn't been able to isolate the chemical from Cass's blood, and therefore finding an antidote could be well night impossible.

"I don't know, maybe he really does want money this time, but I find that hard to believe. Besides, he got the money from the bank, why risk getting captured again with a big production scheme like this?"

"To trap Batman?"

"That's the other thing that's bothering me. Usually he does insist Batman come to wherever he's making a pickup…of course it's always a setup, but Batman knows that going in. This time Joker didn't mention Batman once. And I can't reach him on the…" she trailed off, exchanging a worried look with Cass. The younger vigilante stood suddenly, pulling on her gloves and reaching back for her cowl.

"What do you think you're doing?" Babs wheeled herself over to Cass, snaring her cape in one hand.

"I have to go. Find Batman. Or Joker. Or…"

"No. No no no no no! Do you hear me? No way, no how!" Cass simply looked at her with what seemed like a great deal of patience.

"Who else will? You said yourself…"

"I'll call in Nightwing, or Huntress…" she grimaced at the thought, "or Dinah, she'll be back in a few hours. I'm not letting you go out and…" Cass sighed.

"You won't be 'letting' me do anything. I will take responsibility. You can call in the others, but until they get here I am all you have."

"You're not a detective, Cass." Ouch. That stung. But it was the truth, and she was willing to admit it.

"I know. But…" a sudden beeping indicated that the computer had found something important over the emergency channels. Babs flipped some switches to turn on audio, and a professional-sounding voice filled the room.

"…repeat, we have a fire at 125th and Oak. The Comfort-Select mattress factory… the fire is spreading to neighboring warehouses. All units…" Cass reached over and switched it off again, eliciting a squawk of protest from Babs.

"Cass! What…"

"That's where Batman is." Babs gave her a dubious look.

"No offense, but I don't think…"

"He is. Look, Joker is playing doctor, and putting people to sleep. A bed factory…"

"Mattress."

"Whatever…is on fire, and Batman is missing?" Babs really didn't think that there was a connection, Joker usually staked out funhouses and toy factories, not mattress companies, but maybe sending Cass over there could keep her out of trouble until backup arrived.

"All right. Go. But be careful and keep your comm open." Cass nodded shortly and pulled on her mask. Then she was out the window and had disappeared into the night.


It wasn't until she was a few blocks away that Cass realized her mistake. Though she had learned her way around the city years before, the address given was farther out on the edge of Gotham, where she didn't have a lot of experience. She was going to have to read the street signs, or call Babs, neither of which seemed like an appealing option. She stood on the roof of St. Thomas' Cathedral, high on a spire overlooking the city, and strained to see or hear any sign that would lead her to the factory. Luckily she didn't have to strain too hard… a fiery blaze lit up the sky over near the industrial sector.

Relieved to have figured out where to go, Batgirl slid down the steeple to the edge, intending to leap off into the night. But halfway down she slammed into something and tumbled towards the precipice in an uncontrolled fall. As she flailed about for purchase, something latched on to her hand and stopped her downward plunge.

"You ok?" She looked up in surprise. Robin hauled her to her feet and flashed her a wry grin. "I seem to be asking you that a lot lately." She nodded, but cocked her head to the side, pondering his sudden appearance.

"I thought you were…how did Oracle put it?…'in' for the night." He shrugged.

"Is that how you managed to get back in costume a night early?" She started to answer, to tell him about the tape and Batman's disappearance, but he continued, "Batman sent me home, wanted me to work things out, I guess. I was going to stay in, but I saw the signal and curiosity got the better of me. I, um, forgot to attach my comm to the suit earlier…" he blushed faintly, feeling silly for his earlier panic about his home life and avoidance of Batman. "…so I was heading over to see Oracle to get a new one and find out what's going on when I saw you up here. Didn't mean to get in your way, though."

"S'ok." She hesitated wondering if Robin's appearance would send her back into civilian-land. Maybe, if she didn't tell Babs he was here, she could…

"Batgirl?" Whoops. She had forgotten that Babs had insisted she leave the comm line open. "Is Robin with you?" Cass sighed. So much for Batgirl going out again tonight.

"Yes." A silence met her response and she frowned.

"What?" she indicated her ear, letting Robin know she wasn't talking to him.

"Oracle." He nodded, looking instinctively towards the clock tower.

"Ok, Batgirl? Send Robin over here to get a new comm, then the two of you go check out the mattress factory."

"But you said…"

"I know, I know. I still don't quite follow your logic, but that could be the exact reason to go with it. Joker doesn't seem to have any kind of logic himself, except to cause as much mayhem as possible. Maybe you picked up on something from Joker's movements that is so subtle you didn't recognize it. Maybe you just have the fresh perspective that could break the case. I don't know, but we haven't had any other leads. I'm also starting to get reports from the local emergency rooms of comatose patients. The clock is ticking, so you two check it out, and I'll keep trying to get some backup, ok?" Cass grinned behind her mask. She was still allowed out…all right!

"Come on." She motioned to Robin.

"Where…?"

"Oracle's, for a comm, then there…" she pointed to the burning horizon, "…to find Batman."


Smoke poured out of the windows as firefighters sprayed gushing water on the blaze. Some maneuvered the massive hoses to areas of maximum danger. Others shouted orders and tried to cut away connections from the burning building to the structures next to it, to slow its progress. So far they hadn't been able to contain the fire, and it was starting to spread towards occupied areas of the city. So far it had only jumped to one other building, but that edifice was an explosion waiting to happen… a warehouse for an airline construction company…one filled with industrial solvents and other chemicals used in fabrication of aircraft of all shapes and sizes.

It was near this building that the activity suddenly became more frenzied as, reacting to some signal unheard by those who had stopped to watch the blaze, firefighters began moving away from the fire with all possible speed. There were shouts to get the civilians away from the area and then a deafening roars drowned out all other sound. The warehouse appeared to shrink as flames erupted violently from the doors and windows and, when those openings weren't enough to relieve the pressure, the explosion ripped the building apart at the seams, breaking the walls into splinters of concrete and molten metals.

"Look out!" A gloved hand shoved at a caped figure, shoving it out of the path of a flying cross-beam. The scorching metal soared past, barely missing the two beings huddled in the shadows. "Are you…"

"Ok?" Batgirl finished wryly. Robin grinned.

"Hey, if the line works…" She shook her head, marveling at his ability to joke even under pressure. Though he was tense, both of them worried about Batman, his posture indicated that he wasn't simply joking to ease the tension. That was a part of it, but mostly he was just in a lighthearted mood, even with the danger. Perhaps he had made up with his dad. She scanned the area, looking for a place to start the search for clues to Batman's whereabouts…or those of the Joker.

"Maybe we should split up." Robin looked dubiously at the inferno before them.

"I dunno…we might need each other as backup…especially if you are right about this being a Joker trap."

"But we cover more ground…get done faster if we split up." He still hesitated, so she pulled out her secret weapon. "If Batman's hurt, unconscious in there…" she let him imagine all kinds of gruesome fates awaiting their mentor should they not find him in time.

"All right. But keep…"

"I know. I know! Keep the comm lines open, et-cetera, et-cetera, et-cetera." He blinked, puzzled by her strange pronunciation and by the choking sound coming over the line from Babs.

"Batgirl, you watch entirely too much TV." Oracle cut in, though her voice was still strained with repressed laughter. Batgirl shrugged.

"Was late at night and I couldn't go out…what else is there to do? It was…interesting."

"I'll bet." Babs sighed, wishing she knew who had gotten Cass addicted to musicals all of the sudden… it seemed the young vigilante had seen about fifteen of them in the last week. Considering the fact that Cassandra usually seemed more serious, the sudden interest in singing, dancing characters was, to put it mildly, odd.

"O-kay…I'm not even going to ask." Robin announced, wisely deciding to avoid being pummeled for stating that the two of them were nuts.

"What… you've never seen 'The King and I'?" Babs inquired with a false sweetness.

"No… and judging from your voice, I don't want to." Babs went off on another laughing fit and Batgirl looked at him curiously. "What?"

"But it was singing and dancing…like in Cinderella, you liked that." He felt his face heat and mentally resigned himself to a painful death. Once Nightwing heard that he had been watching a romantic musical with Batgirl…and he would hear about it, make no mistake…Babs could protect the secret identities of all the world's superheroes, but give her good gossip, especially gossip about someone in the "family" and everyone would know about it within an hour, starting with Dick….he would never hear the end of it.

"Oh-ho!" Babs crowed, "Now I know who to blame! You know, I had the argument song about who was going to write the Declaration of Independence from '1776' stuck in my head for five hours, thank you very much!"

"Huh?"

"It was history. Good to know." Batgirl sounded so proud of herself that Robin had to shake his head, vaguely recalling a movie shown for extra credit in his American History class.

"Uh…you know they didn't really sing and dance at the Continental Congre…oh what the heck are we talking about musicals for?! Batman could be burning up in there for all we know!" Batgirl had the decency to look abashed, and he could hear Babs over the comm, typing away furiously to cover her sudden lapse.

"Right. You go there, I'll go that way." Batgirl pointed and he nodded, turning away to find a path through the flames. As she watched him disappear into the smoke, Cass allowed herself a slight smile. Poor Tim. He hadn't been too thrilled with her for revealing that he had watched Cinderella with her… probably concerned about Dick's reaction when he found out.

But, though Babs thought the musicals were an odd choice of entertainment for her, she was fascinated by the way the characters managed to make breaking into song and dance a normal part of everyday life. The movements of the dancers were often so intricate, so…so…so something that spoke to her…it was like a whole new language opening up right before her eyes. Here was evidence that people understood the importance of body movements, even if they couldn't understand them like she could. The music, too, was a lot more complex than she would have thought. Perhaps not having a spoken language for so long had made her more attuned to the subtleties of other forms of communications. Whatever the case, she was thrilled with this new form of entertainment. Plus watching the movies let her avoid confronting those blasted books. She hummed a few bars off-key and then got down to business.

The flames had died down in the mattress factory; the firefighters had mostly moved on, trying to contain the many smaller fires that had been started by the warehouse explosion. The smoke obscured her vision as she made her way carefully towards the still smoldering building and she was grateful that her mask included lenses to protect her eyes from the sting. She slid down a collapsed metal walkway and found herself in what seemed to be a production area. She didn't recognize the twisted and warped machines as industrial sewing machines, but she could tell that, with this much equipment, the room had to have been important.

She knelt down, running her fingers along the ground. They came up covered with a wet mush, a combination of soot and water combined with just a touch of still-intact fibers. She stood, glancing around. Babs had been right when she had told Cass she wasn't a detective, but she had forgotten that what Batgirl lacked in detecting skills she more than made up for with enthusiasm and downright stubbornness. She wasn't going to give up until Batman was found, even if she had to simply walk through every single room in the building.

Maybe she shouldn't have insisted that she and Robin search separately; after all, he had the detective skills needed to find Batman, but she hadn't wanted him to see her incompetence. He already knew about her struggles to read and, bless him, he didn't seem to think any more poorly of her for it. But she knew that only so many defects could be overlooked. Sooner or later someone would stop and ask, "Why is she a bat, again? What does she offer, other than a good pair of fists?" A shiver coursed through her. Batgirl was all she had. Without the mask, without her nightly profession, she was nothing.

A noise off to the left startled her and she drew herself instinctively further into the shadows. When no threat manifested itself, she allowed herself to relax a bit. She moved forwards to investigate the sound, though most likely it was simply shifting debris from the fire. After only a few steps she encountered a warped doorframe leading to another pitch-black room. She entered cautiously, alert for any hidden dangers. Taking a small flashlight out of her utility belt she slowly scanned the room. It looked as if the fire had been more intense here; perhaps it was where the blaze had started. The walls were completely charred, many of them with gaping holes where the flames had eaten their way through. Another door at the far end of the room was opened to the night, but fallen beams and still-smoking rubble blocked any path to that door. Gingerly, trying not to risk shifting the wreckage enough to cause a total collapse, she kicked aside some of the looser boards.

Nothing. There was nothing here that looked any different from the rest of the building. All just a black, sooty, mess. If there were clues here, she had no idea how to go about distinguishing them from the rest of the trash. Frustrated, she turned to retrace her steps and tripped. She managed to recover her balance so she didn't fall, and shone her light on the spot, making sure she had simply stumbled on a board or something. She had. But something caught her eye as she once again turned. She moved the flashlight more slowly, trying to figure out what had reflected the light in this dingy heap.

It was a ribbon. A shiny green ribbon that had somehow escaped the blaze. Perhaps it had been protected by the metal beam it was lying under before her stumble had dislodged it. She bent down and retrieved it. Now this was a clue. She looked around again, but still didn't see any other things that could help. She sighed. It was time to call in Robin. He could probably spot twenty clues that she couldn't. But she had found one, so she didn't feel quite so useless.

"Robin?"

"Yeah?" She was surprised to feel the old frustration well up in her. She had grown up comprehending body language instead of words. Before she had learned to understand English she had never worn a commlink. There had been no point. After she understood the words she had lost the ability to read body language, and it had surprised her how much she had relied on that information. Now that she could relate to both forms of communication she occasionally still felt uneasy with communication over the phone or comm. She couldn't see the speaker, so she couldn't interpret any hidden meanings in what they were saying. She was learning vocal patterns, but the body language never lied to her.

Still, why should the resentment rear up now? She realized with a start that she wanted to see Robin's reaction to her detective work. She knew it wasn't an amazing discovery, but she felt the need to know how another team member would look at it. Would he be impressed? Annoyed that it was all she had come up with? Would it even be important? Ignoring the knotted feeling in her stomach that betrayed her nervousness, she told herself firmly that it didn't matter what he thought. She was just worried because of her recent grounding.

"Have you found anything?" There. That ought to help, find out what he knows, then decided whether or not to share her evidence.

"Not really. The fire has pretty much destroyed what clues we might have found." Yes! Oops, she shouldn't be happy that there was a lack of clues. She just felt vindicated that at least if Robin couldn't find any then maybe her shortage was not all her fault after all.

"Well, I think I might have."

"Where are you?" She gave a little smile at the controlled excitement in his voice. For her the rush came when she took out the bad-guys. She knew the others in the Bat-clan felt that rush too, but for some of them, like Robin, the thrill was in the hunt, the investigation.

"Um…" how to describe her location? "In the back, past all the machines, another door…um…"

"Wait…ok, I think I found your entrance. Just a sec." She cocked her head, listening, and within moments Robin appeared in the door she had come through earlier.

"How…?"

"Your footprints in the soot." Oh. Duh. She was glad he couldn't see her embarrassment.

"Here, I found this." She held out the ribbon and he took it. He frowned down at it, then shone his own light around the room.

"Where was it?" She pointed, and he knelt to investigate the surrounding debris.

"I'd say this is where the fire started. Probably some kind of bomb…see how the fallen beams all kind of sag in the middle?" She looked. Sure enough, the pile seemed to be settled in some kind of hole. "That's probably where the blast went off, making a crater. This ribbon most likely came off the bomb…Joker likes to wrap his traps up in paper, or decorate them as a toy, or weird things like that." She nodded, trying to seem like she already knew most of what he was saying.

"So… what now?" He didn't seem to hear her, as he had suddenly moved towards the opposite wall, trying to find a way past the blockage. He was upset, and he hadn't been a minute ago. What had he seen? She peered towards the opposite wall and finally caught a glimpse when a breeze from outside blew through the open door. There, on the edge of a pile of metal beams that obscured any view of what lay beneath them, fluttered a piece of black cloth, crushed between two girders.


To be continued…