Nightwing wasn't sure when his decision to disregard Batman's prohibition had solidified in his mind. He wasn't technically one of Batman's agents…working in his own city with its own problems had given him a lot more autonomy. But old habits die hard, and when Batman had told him "no" he had backed down…for awhile, at least. Thank goodness for Babs. He would have come to his senses on his own…eventually…but she had a way of setting him straight without putting him on the defensive.
The gang wrecking up the warehouses down by the waterfront seemed like a good way to burn off steam and get back onto the case. Plus Babs had promised not to tell Batman about the altercation…excusing herself by stating that she was not Batman's keeper. He had told them time and again it was his city and if he didn't know what was going on in his city, then that was his own fault.
He really did love that woman.
So here he was, perched on a ledge, preparing to propel himself into what looked to be a massive, violent, and quite possibly bloody, brawl…telling himself that Batman was wrong, and that it was ok for him to be here. Then again…he gave a grim smile as he launched himself into the fray. At least physical exertion wasn't so controversial a subject.
"Oracle to Nightwing."
"Go ahead." He stepped back, admiring his handiwork. The 'thugs'… a gang consisting of three policemen and two random people, possibly vagrants…were all unconscious and/or restrained. They had given him a tough time…though more because he was trying not to do them serious harm than because of their skills. The officers were talented enough to be a challenge, but he was better.
"Have you heard from Robin or Batgirl lately?"
"Ummmm, no...I would think you would be in a better position to…"
"They haven't been online since…um…at least since your altercation in the cave. I was hoping you'd seen them out on the town." Nightwing had thrown a line out as Babs was speaking, pulling himself to a higher vantage point. He didn't figure he would 'just happen' to be able to see them, but he could hope.
"You said they went offline…when, exactly?"
"While you were playing the role of misunderstood teenage hero in an angst-filled movie."
"Thanks a lot." He scanned the skyline, hoping to find some hint of their whereabouts.
"Well, you two are…"
"All right, all right! I think the subject has been visited enough for the night."
"I was just…"
"I get it, ok?" He sighed. "What makes you think this is a problem, anyway. Maybe they just went home."
"Like you did?" He ignored her. His question had been largely rhetorical anyway. He knew that, like himself, Tim wouldn't agree with Batman, and he had proven himself capable of openly opposing him before. A smile tugged at his mouth at the memory of the time he had had to break up a fight between the Titans and the Justice League. Robin had been against Batman, even though Nightwing knew Tim respected and believed in Batman…most of the time.
"So what do you want me to do about it?" he finally asked, growing serious once more. He thought that the two younger heroes, especially Batgirl, could take care of themselves. But he also knew Babs' relationship with Cass tended to be a bit motherly at times. And he knew that Joker shouldn't ever be underestimated…after all, wasn't that the whole reason he had fought with Batman earlier in the evening?
"I'm not sure there's anything that can be done… Tim's good enough to keep himself, and Cass, too, out of sight when he doesn't want to be found."
It wasn't hard to locate Joker's hideout this time. In fact, he had put up great big signs declaring that this, indeed, was where he was. In other words…a trap. But if they could outwit the trap they could gain new information on his true whereabouts. Or…if he had chosen to remain to see if his most recent deathtrap worked, they could even catch him.
The homeless man they were following had surprised Robin when he had busted through the door, but Batgirl had noticed some subtle hints that indicated possible meta-human strength long before. The man had probably not even known about the powers…he wasn't a known criminal or super-villain, and with that strength he should have been able to find at least some kind of physical work to keep him off the streets. She had watched him, seeing that the mind inside the man…the original mind, not the controller…was just as surprised as Robin had been. The man had stolen weapons…Joker wasn't being very creative with this plan, it seemed…no smiley faces or anything. Then they had followed him quite easily to an abandoned toy factory…which Robin declared made a lot more sense than a mattress factory… with lots of signs…painted signs, neon signs, even some signs made out of old toys. Someone had had a lot of time on his...or her…hands.
"Ok. I think we had better call for backup on this one." Batgirl made a face behind her mask at Robin's statement. Part of her wanted to insist that she didn't need backup…if Robin could take on Joker alone, she would certainly be able to. But another voice…one that sounded annoyingly like Tim in a "logical" frame of mind…reminded her of her own doubts. Doubts about her reliability and the chance that she may fall under Joker's control. Doubts born of knowing that Batman would be quite put out…as Alfred might put it…to find that she and Robin had gone on investigating without permission. And weaker, older doubts about her own worth in the grand scheme of things…doubts born of too many instances of failing to function in "normal" situations…not being able to read, and so on.
"Hmmm." She made the non-committal reply, keeping a close eye on the surrounding areas for movement.
"What 'hmmm'? We aren't about to…"
"Ok." She winced as she heard the terseness in her own voice. She pointedly avoided looking over at him…knowing even without reading his stance that he would be confused.
"Hey, are you ok?" She found herself smiling at that…remembering his joke about a "line working" when they had been at the mattress factory.
"I…yes. Of course. Why?" He shifted position so that she couldn't avoid looking at him. He was still worried, it seemed, but now the worry was tainted with suspicion.
"Why? Well….let's see. You were suffering a migraine, which is almost reason enough to ask if you're ok, but then you snap at me and don't want to call for backup and…"
"Ok, ok!" Batgirl pushed back from the edge of the roof, swinging around to peer into a nearby alley so that she didn't have to meet Robin's knowing glance. When he didn't say anything more, she shrugged her shoulders. "So? Call him already."
Robin eyed her warily. She had been feeling bad all night, and maybe he shouldn't have pushed her…but she had seemed more taciturn than usual. More…something. He had a vague feeling that his prying may have…unfortunate consequences…but he had to put any personal thoughts aside for now. He could worry about rifts in their friendship later. This was Joker. And Robin didn't dare deceive himself into thinking that having defeated him alone before would make this fight any easier. Even Batman didn't underestimate Joker. He sighed and switched on his comm.
"Robin to Batman…"
The investigation wasn't going quite as well as he'd planned.He had set up an analysis of the original chemical and the antidote, trying to find the connection that would allow him to break Joker's control on the victims. The computer had given him a list of qualities that could be connected, and he kept them in the back of his mind as he hunted.
At the moment he was standing over an unconscious member of the group of mind-controlled victims. He hadn't wanted to do them serious harm…after all, they were victims…but they were crucial clues in the puzzle. He had found a pair of them vandalizing the State Supreme Courthouse... painting grotesque smiles on the walls with neon colored spray paints.
One of the pair had been allowed to escape, but not before she had been caught and cuffed….roughed up just a bit, as well. He "hadn't tightened the flexicuffs enough", though, and when he had turned to deal with the second individual he "hadn't noticed" the woman running off. The micro-transmitter on the collar of her shirt should lead him to the Joker. That is, with any luck…and luck was not something he happened to be a big believer in.
He left the man tied up for the police and checked the computer in the Batmobile for any progress on the chemical analysis. It hadn't yet been completed. He supposed the next step would be to track the woman under Joker's control, though he didn't want to get too close to her and tip off his quarry. Instead he pulled out a small, portable tracking unit and homed in on the signal coming from the transmitter. The woman appeared to be heading towards the warehouse district, though that could change.
Time to go. He fired up the Batmobile's engines and roared off. The streets were unnaturally quiet…it seemed that the number of people, even vagrants or criminals, out and about after dark decreased proportionately to the number of days Joker had been out of Arkham. It didn't take him long to track the woman to an old toy factory. That figured. As Bruce Wayne he had tried time and again to buy and renovate such unused buildings in the hope that it would decrease the number of possible hideouts for the villains of Gotham City to hide out in. Unfortunately it seemed that abandoned buildings kept popping up like flowers in the spring.
This particular factory had once been the birthplace of some popular fashion dolls…owned by LaBelle Toy Company. Batman checked the tracking device. Yes. She was here. A toy factory seemed a rather clichéd hideout for Joker…but there were enough of them in the city to make simply staking out all of them a somewhat impractical task…though not impossible.
Batman frowned. He had set up a net of sensors in this and most of the other factories in the city as a precaution against just such an occasion. Yet none had been triggered. He tapped a few buttons, bringing up readouts. They seemed to be in working order. Could it be that this factory was a decoy? Yet the woman had certainly gone inside…and failed to set off any of the alarms.
He exited the Batmobile and secured it, melting into the shadows. His movements were quick…confident. He intended to check out the sensors, to make sure they were still functioning, before following his target into the heart of the building.
Joker was clever, he would give him that much credit. He routinely checked the devices to make sure they hadn't been tampered with. With Joker on the loose he had been checking on those placed in the most likely hideouts nightly, so there shouldn't have been enough time to set up anything too elaborate.
The line had been tapped into, he saw. A feedback loop…standard practice for getting around video surveillance. The infrared and motion sensors had been tampered with as well…and in much subtler ways. Joker was getting better. He made a mental note of the tampering, vowing to improve his devices as soon as possible, and moved on.
The whole facility was dark. There were some noises, probably rats and the settling of the building, but nothing that would indicate human life. He anticipated a trap. What he found, was…nothing. Forty-five minutes of investigation throughout the entire facility and he found nothing to indicate Joker had ever been here…other than the altered security devices, of course.
A sound behind him made him turn, catching a glimpse of movement. He followed…it was the same woman he had tagged earlier. She was a police-officer, or had been before Joker had gotten hold of her. It was entirely likely that her coming here had been a set-up… a wild goose chase. But he had to follow any leads.
This particular lead to a back room, one that had once been a storage unit, but that was now empty. Or rather, it should have been empty. Instead it looked like all the weapons smugglers in Gotham had decided to store their caches together. Batgirl had mentioned that the man she had found had been taking weapons out of a previously unknown stockpile. It seemed that Joker was not only getting better at eluding capture…but at detective-style work, as well. Which didn't quite fit. Unless…it was possible that the knockout/mind-control gas wasn't the only thing he'd been working on lately. Perhaps he had developed some formula to increase intelligence or cognitive abilities.
It wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities, certainly. But it was going to make his job a whole lot more difficult. He checked the woman's location again, noting that she had moved deeper into the weapon room. He tagged the room with an automated signal device to alert the police, and followed.
He wasn't disappointed. This time, once he caught up with the woman, he found himself in a room that had obviously been lived in. Not by the Joker, perhaps, but there were plenty of signs to indicate recent habitation. Not the least of which were the three men sleeping in one corner under their coats. Batman slid a batarang out of his utility belt, just in case, as he silently approached the slumbering trio. He was within a foot of them when his communicator sprung to life.
"stttsk..bin to Batman." Damn. If he answered he would alert his targets, but he had no illusions that Robin and Batgirl had obeyed and stayed away from the case. If Robin was calling for backup, it was serious. He withdrew a new netting device, a silent mesh capable of restraining a couple of elephants, let alone a couple of mind-controlled police officers and a rather weak-looking homeless man. As the net restrained them they awoke and set up a racket, but without much effect.
"Go ahead, Robin."
To be continued…
