Riddler did go to the asylum, but he didn't tell us where Joker was hiding his bomb. Supposedly, he didn't know where it was.
"Do you believe him?" I asked Batman as we drove back to the Batcave.
"Yes," Batman said, to my surprise. "But I believe he thinks he knows where it is. Joker would have given Riddler some kind of information, but probably not accurate information. Whatever plan Joker shared with him, I'm sure wasn't the full and correct plan."
"But they're both in Arkham now. Behind bars. There's no way they'll have access to the bomb now, right?" I asked.
"Catwoman said that Joker didn't need Riddler for his plans, but he did need Harley," Batman recalled. "Our next move is to ensure she stays out of the picture."
"You said you'd leave Harley alone," I reminded him, wondering if he would so easily break his promise to Catwoman.
"As long as Harley stays put at the halfway house. But I have a feeling her stay there will be short lived," Batman said.
We returned to the Batcave and regrouped with Nightwing, who hadn't gotten much new information out of Penguin's men about Zsasz's whereabouts. "But his killings are starting to develop a new pattern," he said, putting some images up on the Batcomputer from BPD's investigations. "He's targeting young women."
"Not surprising," I said sadly, despite the shocking nature of the photographs. "94% of serial killers are male and over half of them are white, and the most standard victims are members of their race from the opposite sex. Victor is a white male serial killer, not surprising he's found a particular delight in killing young white women."
"Well, there are a lot of young white women in Gotham and Bludhaven," Nightwing said with a shake of his head. "We need to catch him."
"Good news is that he's slowed his body count in the last 24 hours," Batman said as he examined the numbers. "He knows we're onto him."
"But he's still killing. He's not just going into hiding," Nightwing said, repeated the urgency of the case. "I'm heading back out tonight to watch the streets. He hunts at night, so will I." I gave him a nod, knowing that meant I should head home tonight and not wait up for him.
"Wahler was about to execute Riddler. Not arrest. Execute," Batman told us, which piqued Nightwing's attention. "I want to know why."
"I have a feeling it won't take us long to figure it out," I said, an ominous feeling in my stomach. The men around me seemed to share similar glances; we all had a feeling something was coming.
Sometimes it sucks to be right.
Tuesday afternoon, I checked on the Roosevelt Halfway Home to find that Harley had disappeared. She'd bitten a nurse's ear off for trying to take away her Netflix privileges, and disappeared before anyone could discipline her for it.
"I can't find surveillance footage of her escaping or anything. She just vanished," I explained to Bruce over the phone as Alfred drove him between meetings.
"Quinn is anything but subtle," he responded, almost lecturing me. "It's not her style to quietly slip away."
"I'm telling you, Bruce, she is there one minute and gone the next."
"Then we need to hunt her down. She's the key to Joker's plot," Bruce said, his Batman voice cutting through.
"I think following up with Catwoman is our best lead," I suggested.
"I'll do it tonight."
"Want backup?"
"Not this time," he said in a low, serious voice, but I couldn't help raising my eyebrows and wondering what banter would ensue when I wasn't around. "Work on pinning down Zsasz. There has to be a pattern to his killings. We just need to find it."
Another day passed without progress. I was still unable to find a pattern in Zsasz's killings, and Batman had been unable to get any useful information out of Catwoman.
"She says Harley didn't come to her," Batman told me at the end of our long, fruitless nights out. "That if Harley disappeared, she did it without saying a word to her."
"Do you think this is all a part of Joker's plan?" I asked nervously.
"Maybe."
Anxieties were running high, especially as we struggled to zero in on Zsasz's location. His murder spree had slowed immensely this week, but we knew he wouldn't wait long before killing again.
It wasn't until Friday that something surfaced.
"Batman," Jason pinged our communicators as we were out patrolling, looking for something to pick up either Zsasz's trail or a clue on Joker's plan. "GCPD just got a call from a toy store on Miagani about a robbery. I pulled up the footage- it looks like Quinn."
"A toy store?" I questioned, but followed Batman as he pivoted and ran towards where he'd parked the Batmobile.
"Stay back, keep searching for Zsasz," he insisted. I hung back as he'd insisted, though I couldn't help feeling left out. Our first lead all week, and I was told to hang back.
I pinged Nightwing on a private line. "You getting anything?" I asked, exasperated at asking the same question I'd asked so many nights in a row.
"No," he responded. "Pretty dead on my side of town."
After about ten minutes, Batman checked in. "Quinn's been detained and is on her way to the asylum."
"Did she know anything about Riddler or the bomb?" I asked.
"No. She's just unhinged."
"Well, that's not news," I said. "Tough arrest?"
"No… shockingly compliant, actually," he replied.
"That doesn't sound like her." He just grunted back in reply.
"Batgirl," Jason called into the communication unit.
"Here."
"I just overheard a 911 call from a grocery store on Gotham mainland. Sounds like a woman was grabbed in the parking lot."
"Grabbed? And taken where?"
"Still figuring it out. I'm not as good at tracking these security cameras as you are. The caller said the woman was pushed into her own trunk and the man- the kidnapper was a man, by the way- got in and drove the car off."
"Did the caller give a description of the kidnapper?"
"Tall, muscular, bald. Wasn't wearing a shirt. And, get this: covered in scars."
"Scars?"
"Yeah. Weird, right?"
"Not sure if it's Zsasz, but I'm on it either way."
"No need," Batman growled through the comms. "He's taking her to Old Gotham, Amusement Mile. Give GCPD an anonymous tip, now."
Jason cut off the line and I halted in my steps, starting to feel frustrated at never being in the right place at the right time.
"Do you have eyes on the situation?" I asked Batman.
"Eyes on the car. I'm tracking it now. He's not a very discreet driver."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Make sure Gordon gets down here, fast," he advised. It wasn't much, but that I could do. I travelled the rooftops to the GCPD building and watched as a stream of cars with sirens emerged from the lower levels of the parking deck. I recognized my dad's squad car and followed it as he left Bleake, drove south across Miagani, and into Old Gotham.
As the police cars formed a barricade at the end of an alley, my attention was drawn to the man they all pointed their guns at.
The Victor Zsasz I'd seen in photographs from last year had died. This Victor Zsasz was something entirely different.
His hair had been shaven clean off, and even his eyebrows had thinned. And now, all over his body and across his forehead, tally marks had been carved into his own flesh. The wounds couldn't even be called scars yet, they were still so fresh. And I knew, judging by the number of scars I could see, that each tally mark was a kill. And he was close to adding one more, as he bared his teeth at the police officers surrounding him, holding a pocket knife to the throat of young woman with dark brown hair.
A whooshing of capes marked Batman's arrival at my side.
"Zsasz," Batman growled in a low rumble.
"Hostage situation," I said. "He's got nothing to lose. I don't think he's going to let the police stop him from killing that woman."
"He won't have a choice," Batman growled and dove off the roof. I blinked tiredly.
Guess he's taking point on this one.
"The zombie's mine to liberate," Zsasz growled at the police officers as Batman scurried closer to Zsasz's location on the rooftop above. "I have righteous work to do."
Batman dropped down between the police barricade and Victor Zsasz. The police, the hostage, and Victor all seemed equally terrified as he approached. "I'm not in the mood tonight, Zsasz," he threatened, but Victor only held the knife closer to the woman's throat.
Batman pointed his grapple gun at Zsasz and fired. Zsasz pulled the woman closer to him, smiling proudly as he dodged it, but I knew Batman had never intended to hit Zsasz with the hook. The hook had embedded itself in the brick behind him. Batman pulled hard and the brick came loose, knocking Victor in the back of the head. Victor's grip loosened on the woman and she ran from Victor, past Batman, and through the police blockade. Police didn't hesitate to rush forward, cuffing Victor while he was still on the ground. I smiled down at the crowd, seeing the top of my father's head as he watched Victor be detained.
I pinged Nightwing on a private comm line. "We've got him," I said, watching as Batman summoned the Batmobile and climbed in. "Zsasz is on his way to GCPD."
"Finally," Nightwing groaned. "Wanna call it an early night, head back to my place? I'll bring Chinese." A soft pinging alerted me that others were talking on the open channel.
"Gotta check that," I said, switching off our private line and onto the open channel.
"You seem troubled tonight, sir," Alfred said to Batman. I was glad I wasn't the only one to feel like he was a bit more aloof than normal.
"It's Harley, Alfred," Batman confessed. "She was acting… odd."
"Odder than usual, sir?"
"Like she was happy to get caught."
"Maybe she missed her… puddin," Alfred said, referring to the Joker.
"Maybe. More likely, it's linked to the Joker's bomb," Batman said. "Arkham had a yellow alert this evening…"
"Everything looks to be in place," Alfred said.
"That's Marshel, he doesn't work Fridays. Neither does Faran," Batman said, slowly piecing together the evidence he could pull up in the Batmobile. "That's the Thursday crew! This isn't live, they're broadcasting old footage! Something's wrong at Arkham." The Batmobile took off from the road below before he could finish his sentence.
"Want an assist?" I asked, beginning to swing across the rooftops after him.
"No," Batman barked at me. "I'll assess the situation. Make sure Zsasz is transported to GCPD and stays there."
I didn't like it, but I obeyed. I pinged Jason on a private line. "Keep me updated. Batman's got tunnel vision tonight."
"You got it," Jason said as I watched Zsasz's body get loaded into a squad car. I followed as the car returned to Bleake Island, followed by three other squad cars in case things got bad. The victim was also transported in a separate car back to GCPD to provide a statement and ensure her safety. I couldn't help but smile as I watched the cars coast down into the garage of GCPD's headquarters, down to the lowest level where I knew Zsasz would go into processing.
Got him.
I pinged Nightwing on my communicator, opening the private line. "Sorry for the abrupt hang-up."
"It's okay," he answered. "You headed with Batman to the asylum?"
"He asked me to hang back. Ensure Zsasz safely got to GCPD," I answered with a shake of my head. "Which, he did."
"And?"
"And what?"
"What are you doing now?" Nightwing asked. I could hear all the subtext in the question: was I going to wait for new orders, throw in the towel, or follow Batman into battle whether he liked it or not? I turned to the east, where Arkham Island sat dimly lit in the distance. Batman had told me to stay back, to wait for a report. But if I weren't on the island when shit hit the fan, I wouldn't be able to get there quickly enough to support him.
"I'm heading to the asylum," I told Nightwing definitively. "Gonna have to raincheck on that Chinese food."
"That's my girl," Nightwing said through the communicator, and I could hear the smile on his face. "Call me if you need me."
"Don't wait up," I said as I began swinging across rooftops and streetlamps towards my motorcycle.
It took me about thirty minutes to reach my motorcycle and to drive to the mainland north of the city. As I turned my bike to head towards Arkham Island, I got a ping over my communicator.
"Batgirl," Jason's voice was elevated, rushed, "Batman's got trouble!"
"Where is he?" I demanded as I revved the bike fast enough that the front wheel lifted briefly before thudding back to the ground and launching me to the bridge connecting the mainland to Arkham Island.
"Evidence lockup," Jason said. "From what I can tell over his cowl feed, there's a whole group of them. So far, I've seen King Shark, Killer Frost, and Deadshot. And now he's fighting Black Spider."
"The Suicide Squad," I said, more to myself than to Jason, as I launched myself over the bridge towards the asylum. I slowed my bike as I felt a quaking in the earth below me. "What was that?" I demanded an answer of Jason.
"Explosions… I think that's… it's Captain Boomerang," Jason said, almost sounding excited. "Shit, he's throwing exploding boomerangs at Batman. Wait, no… he's got it… oh shit, that's Harley Quinn."
"Ja… Hood," I stopped myself, remembering I needed to call him by a code name. "I need directions to the evidence lockup, now!"
"Right, directions, directions… okay, there's roof access on the penitentiary on Arkham West. He's fighting King Shark now, he could use the assist for sure," Jason explained.
I spun my motorcycle in the correct direction and started making for the penitentiary, when a larger explosion rocked the island. Over the walls separating the segments of the island, I watched part of the roof cave in on a building in Arkham West.
"Was that Batman?"
"Deadshot," Jason answered. "But yeah… shit's… I…"
"Hood, is he okay?" I demanded as my bike skidded to a stop in front of the visitor's center. I jumped off it, enabling the security on my bike, and shot myself up onto the rooftops. "Is Batman okay?"
"I'm… not sure. There's too much dirt and… hold on…"
Jason's feed clicked over and the open communicator line clicked on, looping me into the communication he would have with Batman.
"Batman? Do you read me? Batman, are you there?" Jason asked in a stern tone that only barely masked the anxiety he was feeling.
"Radio silence," Batman growled through his communicator. I furrowed my brow from my spot on the roof, pausing to understand. But Jason and I abided and stayed silent, listening.
"The spoils of war," Batman said, but his voice had been masked, disguised. To sound like Black Spider.
"Black Spider just kicked the bat's ass?" I heard Harley's surprised voice as I realized the plan.
Batman had managed to swap suits with Black Spyder; he was going undercover.