Their drinks had been delivered, their orders taken, and the menus removed before Tim really woke up enough to remember his news.
"Hey! You guys know that…" he glanced around wishing he had chosen a better spot to discuss this, "…that B got a sample of the gas?"
"No way!"
"You're kidding!" Tim grinned, thrilled to be the one, for once, who got to be "in the know" before Dick and especially before the "all-seeing" Oracle. But though their reactions pleased him, Cass was the one who really got to the heart of the matter.
"How…how come he didn't tell us?" Tim took a drink to give himself time to find a good response. He nearly choked, though, as Cass gave him a look that very plainly said, "I can read body language, dummy. I know what you're doing."
"Hey, that's a good question. I haven't heard anything…how do you know, Tim?" Babs eyed him speculatively. Tim held up his hands in surrender.
"Chill, ok? I was just in the…basement last night and ran into him working on the…er, problem." He grinned a little. "I threatened to tell Alfred that he went out against the doctor's orders, so he said that he found that some was left at the funhouse." Babs nodded, but Dick seemed rather put out.
"I could have…any of us could have looked into that. He didn't need to…"
"Bored." All three pairs of eyes swiveled to Cass. She blushed a little, feeling ridiculous for interrupting. Especially since their postures all told her they thought she was saying she was bored. She sighed. "He was bored. Didn't want to stay all cooped up…and worried, too." She shrugged, then pointed a finger accusingly at Dick. "You are the same way!"
"And you're not?" She shrugged. That wasn't the issue…she hadn't been mad that Batman had gone out. It would have been detective stuff anyway, not her favorite pastime. Tim and Babs watched the exchange, amused.
"So what? I'm just saying…you got mad, so I was pointing it out. I'm not mad." Dick was saved from having to reply by the timely intervention of their meals. By the time things settled down again, Tim had decided that he needed to get the conversation back on track.
"Anyway, knowing him, he won't eat, sleep, or stop until he finds the solution, so we won't have to wait too long."
"All of which is very nice and good, except that you-know-who's still out there. He may decide it's not fun to use this method anymore if we can simply counteract it."
"I think we're all overlooking the fact that, while…I am not going to keep saying 'you-know-who'! I am not in the middle of a Harry Potter book! We'll call him Bob…so while Bob is…"
"Bob?!"
"What? You have a better idea?"
"Yeah, how about waiting until we're not in public to discuss this?"
"Well, that could work…but then what would we talk about?" Babs shook her head, having no immediate answer. Dick grinned, pleased to have won the argument. "So, as I was saying… Bob is unpredictable and dangerous, but his unpredictability is actually predictable, so we know that…"
"Now there's some circular logic for you."
"Keep it up and maybe I won't pay you back for the DAC." Tim rolled his eyes. "There are components of his actions that are nearly always consistent. We know his schemes usually involve the death of B, often after some kind of physical gauntlet or a supposedly humiliating experience. Death on a grand scale is another theme. And the police force is a popular target as well. He's already hit two of those, though he's left out the death. I think we can all agree that whatever he's building up to is going to be bad."
"Thank you, Sherlock." Babs applauded in mock appreciation for Dick's detective skills. He assumed a wounded expression.
"Well, what else do we have to go on?" The other three remained silent, and he nodded in satisfaction.
"That's not really anything to 'go on' itself, you know." Dick slumped back in his chair at Tim's pronouncement.
"I know. But, and I really hate to say it, I think that as of right now, we're kind of at an impasse. Unfortunately it's become a waiting game, for the time being. Until he makes his next move, I don't know what we're going to do."
Batman cracked the chemical code later that afternoon and the antidote was administered to the first victims before the sun set for the night. Robin was camped out on the roof of the hospital, the one that had taken all the victims and sequestered them in their own wing, waiting to see if Joker would react. Each of Batman's crew had a similar assignment…watching and searching the most likely areas of the city, hoping to head Joker off before he could strike again in a more deadly manner.
"Any action?" Oracle's voice came over the comm and Robin sighed.
"Not unless people waking up and going home is considered 'action'."
"They're releasing the patients already?" He shrugged, though he knew she couldn't see him.
"I guess. The conversations I've picked up indicated that the doctors couldn't find anything unusual in their blood chemistry and they seem to think that since the cure came from Batman it is unquestionably effective."
"They're not keeping anyone for observation?" the disbelief in her voice mirrored the annoyance Robin had been feeling for the past half-hour, and he gave a short laugh.
"According to them, the only thing wrong with these people is that they all took a really long nap. Now why would they need to observe someone for that?" He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard the grinding of teeth as Oracle pondered the stupidity inherent in the modern medical system. He allowed himself a small smile, then moved back into the shadows where he could stretch the kinks out of his back without the risk of being seen.
"Well, keep your eyes open. It may take a while for the news to get back to Joker." Robin shook his head. Why was it people kept thinking he was incompetent or something? Back when he had quit being Robin because of his dad, everyone had kept acting like he had forgotten everything he'd ever learned as Batman's protégé. Now Babs felt the need to tell him how to do his job. He sighed.
Movement below caught his attention, causing him to stiffen, preparing to launch into flight should the need arise. But it was just one of the police officers who had been hit with Joker's formula leaving with his family. Robin sat back, feeling slightly guilty that he was disappointed at the lack of action. A soft swoosh sounded behind him and he grinned. Ah…company.
"What's up?" He asked the question lightly, but kept his attention on the street below.
"The price of milk." He turned, shaking his head.
"Ri-ight. So, anything interesting going on?" Nightwing shook his head and glanced over the side of the roof to observe another patient exiting the hospital.
"Well, you know there was this weird guy with green hair going into the mall, but he just looked so happy that I decided to ignore him and come find out what was happening in your neck of the woods."
"That's not funny!" Robin winced at Oracle's somewhat loud pronouncement.
"Sorry."
"It's not! This isn't something to joke about! You…" her voice cut out suddenly as Nightwing reached over and switched the channel on Robin's comm, having already done the same to his own.
"You think that was wise? She's going to be pissed." Nightwing shrugged, ginning, so Robin added, for good measure, "And what if a real emergency comes up?"
"She'll scan for our frequencies if she needs us, and a big emergency, well, she broadcasts over all the 'bat' frequencies in such situations, and you know it!" He narrowed his eyes. "How much is she paying you?"
"Paying me!? Why, I'm shocked that you would dare to suggest such a thing! I am above…" in one fluid movement Nightwing had him in a loose choke-hold, pushing him over to the side of the building as if he would drop him off the roof.
"You're gonna be above something." The threat lost most of its effectiveness since he was still smiling and Robin was laughing.
"She's not paying me anything! Ha…haha…I swear! Lemme go!" Robin twisted out of his grasp and they spent a few minutes in a rough game of tag, interspersed with short bouts of trying to knock each other down, push one another off the roof, or catch the other one off guard long enough to pin him down. Finally they stopped to catch their breaths and Nightwing made a face at Robin.
"So. Not paying you anything?"
"Nah. Blackmail."
"Ah. Yes. She is quite good at that." They chuckled for a few more moments, glad to have been able to work off some of the tense steam that had been building as they waited for Joker to act.
"If you two are done playing, I've got a report of a disturbance over on Morrison … some kind of fight, possibly gang-related." The two young men looked at each other and burst out laughing again. Unaware of their earlier conversation about her ability to locate them, Oracle, it seemed, didn't quite find the humor in her statement, for she added, "and after that you can check yourselves in to Arkham…it's not that funny!" But apparently they disagreed.
It was cold. It was cold and boring. It was cold, boring, and it stank. Batgirl, of course, didn't notice any of these facts...she was a silent stalker in the night, above such petty concerns. Cassandra, on the other hand, decided she would feel a lot better if someone would attempt to do something illegal so she could work out the frustrations of being told to scope out the waterfront. Batman had delivered the antidote to Joker's chemical earlier. Now they were all waiting to see what Joker would do next as he realized his plan had gone awry.
The stuff Tim had told her earlier in the day kept trying to grab her attention. She had thought it would be easy to set it aside for the time being, but she was quickly learning that the brain had a way of hanging onto things that one may prefer were not hung onto. Like songs. Ever since she had realized how music could be another form of communication she had been listening to it whenever she could. Yet she had discovered that some music had a strange habit of staying in her head even after she was done listening to it. It was really quite annoying.
Now, though, it wasn't music that was stuck in her head, but something Tim had mentioned that seemed important, but she couldn't quite figure out why. It had something to do with chemicals…a movement down on a side street pulled her attention away from the problem. She had been perched on a large crane that was being used for one of the many construction jobs currently underway, but now she slid down the structure, slipping into a connecting alley.
As she reached the street where she had seen the motion, she slowed and peered around the corner. Oh. It had just been a policeman on patrol. She relaxed a little, intending to return to a better lookout spot when the man's body language caught up with her brain. Something was wrong…
"Oracle." She didn't dare speak too loudly and risk alerting the officer. A hiss of static answered her, then Babs' voice broke through.
"You have something?"
"A policeman…he…he's acting very strange."
"I need a little more info than that, Batgirl." She sighed.
"He moves all wrong. He's not…I don't know!" she studied his movements for a moment, then gasped as the answer hit her. "He's not thinking. His movements…he doesn't plan them. Like…a remote control." Though Cass couldn't know it, Babs' furiously typed commands sent out queries to check on the whereabouts of Mad Hatter…one mega-criminal on the loose in Gotham was more than enough.
"Mad Hatter's still in Arkham…are you sure about this?"
"Yes. He just broke into a warehouse. He isn't…conscious." Even as she said it the word connected in her mind and a shiver ran up her spine. "Oracle?"
"Yeah?"
"Where are the people who got knocked out by Joker?"
"They're being released from the hospital as soon as they recover…why?"
"Lots of police got hit with the gas. Now this police officer is… walking around and…" she had been following stealthily and she glanced around another corner to check on his actions. "And stealing…guns? I think this warehouse is holding a…um… there are a lot of weapons here, Oracle."
"An illegal weapons cache? I haven't heard anything, but I'll let Batman know."
"Yes, and the police officer is stealing them in his sleep."
"Uh…what?"
"He is moving. His eyes are open. But he is not aware of his actions. He is asleep, unconscious…something."
"And you think it's connected to Joker?"
"Well, he made all the police go into comas, right?"
"But that doesn't mean…hold on a second." Batgirl waited in the shadows, not confronting the thief, but tailing him as he made his way back out of the warehouse. After a few minutes he climbed into a car…not a police car, just a regular one…and Batgirl prepared to jump on top of it when Oracle's voice stopped her.
"Batgirl, you're going to have to ignore it for now. Nightwing and Robin need help over on Morrison. There's a fight going on…a bad one." Batgirl watched the car drive away, a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she turned and headed towards the fight. The huge gang war was still fresh in everyone's minds, and no one wanted to see a repeat.
To be continued…
