Dinah wasn't really aware of what she was doing. Since Alfred's proclamation, her mind had gone strangely blank. She was unconsciously aware that she was moving, but she wasn't completely sure where she was going or what she was doing.

All she could think about was Percy, and how in the hell he'd managed to get wrapped up in the League of Shadows. Try as she might, she couldn't think of a time in recent memory in which he would have gotten their attention. She'd been keeping an eye on him for months now, and nowhere in that time had he shown the slightest inclination that he was getting wrapped up with the Shadows.

She didn't realize that she'd been walking over to the Zeta Tubes until she felt a hand on her shoulder, jumping in surprise. She was startled to see Green Arrow's concerned face looking down on her.

"Di…" he said carefully, "Where are you going?"

She blinked, confused for a moment, before she realized where she was. She hadn't made the conscious decision to begin making her way to the transporters, but now that she was here, she understood on a conscious level that she was wanted to do.

"I'm going back to Gotham," She said, "I want to look into something."

Arrow leveled her with a gaze that she knew entirely too well. Their split up might have been mutual, but the man still knew her entirely too well,

"Don't bullshit me Di," He said quietly, "You got that look in your eye, you're going to look into this Shadows thing, aren't you?"

"There's something wrong here." She said by way of confirmation, "I've been following him for months now, and I can promise you that he hasn't done anything that would warrant him being on the radar of the shadows."

"Except for killing the Witch Boy." Arrow said, though it was more of a contemplative statement than an accusation.

"But why would the Shadows care about something like that?" Dinah asked,

"Point taken," Arrow admitted, before glancing around at the other heroes, "I'll run interference for you."

Dinah smiled in relief. Their split had been painful, regardless of the circumstances that made it the right call, but she was still thankful for his understanding of her and what she needed. Squeezing his arm, she smiled at him,

"Thanks Ollie,"

Without another word, she ran into the Zeta tube, and a few moments later she found herself back in Gotham city.

She didn't necessarily have a plan in mind, more of a hunch about what she wanted to do. She wasn't typically one to make things up as she went, but the situation more or less called for it. Pulling up her League database, she ran with an idea that was tickling at the back of her mind. It didn't take her long to find the address she was looking for, and with a press of the device on her wrist, the wall beside the Zeta Tube opened up, revealing a sleek motorcycle. Swinging her leg over the bike, the engine roared to life and she took off into the night.

BREAK

David Winston relaxed comfortably in his seat, there were few perks to his chosen line of work, but nights like tonight were certainly one of them. While the rest of the department was scrambling, trying to figure out how to get the Commissioner off of that damned island, he was comfortably at home, lounging in his favorite chair and with a glass of his finest port.

And his night was made all the sweeter knowing that one of the pains in his side was going to be taken care of that night as well.

Percy Jackson made his life difficult. Ever since the smug bastard had arrived at his precinct, he'd seemed bound and determined to make his life as miserable as possible. The bastard, along with that bitch Montoya, made a habit of making him and the department look incompetent.

The One-Seven had had a good thing going for it before the pair's arrival. They got the job done, without stepping on too many toes, and maintained a good enough closure rate to avoid too much suspicion. They all got paid, and the bosses were happy, it was harmony.

And then those two came waltzing in and fucked everything up. Montoya and Jackson had a better case closure rate than the rest of the precinct combined. They had more high-profile cases and closed cases than anyone else. They were getting the attention and praise of the commissioner and the district attorney.

It was infuriating.

And then to make matters worse, was that they began stirring up trouble for the family. He should have known it was going to be trouble when their first fucking case crossed paths with the family. It was only sheer luck that those super freaks attacked that kept the heat off the family for much longer.

And then there was the obvious threat Jackson had made to Wise, and the ass-kicking that Canary bitch had given some of the boys from the family. Things were starting to deteriorate quickly, and the boss had been making not so subtle hints about what was going to happen to Winston should Jackson not be taken care of and soon.

He'd been desperate, had been looking into even hiring a private contractor to take care of the problem.

And then his guardian angel appeared, as though summoned by God almighty to answer his prayers. He still didn't know the name of the woman who'd approached him, and he was honestly better off that way, but she'd told him that everything was going to be taken care of. That Jackson was not going to be a problem, and that all he needed to do was wait for the signal.

Well, he did his part well enough he thought. He'd waited, bided his time, and then tonight when the Joker had kidnapped the mayor, he got the signal. All of the strings had already been pulled, all the right wheels already greased, at least as far as he'd been told. He hadn't been told what the real plan was, hadn't known that the Joker was going to take over the asylum, but that wasn't any skin off his nose. Whatever his benefactor's relationship to the Joker wasn't any of his business, all he cared about was that Jackson was on the island and that by the end of the night, he would have one less problem in his world.

Sighing happily, he curled up into his chair a little more deeply and took a deep pull of his port. Tonight, was a cause for celebration, and absolutely nothing could happen that would affect his bright mood.

Then the window exploded.

Glass flew across the room, and Winston shrieked as several shards tore across and cut through the skin on his face. He fell to the floor in shock, and tried to scramble to his desk where he kept a loaded pistol at all times.

But he didn't even get close.

A heeled boot slammed down on his hand and he screamed once more. He grunted in pain as a pointed toe slammed into his ribs and all of the wind was ripped out of his stomach, and he was all but certain that something inside had snapped. He let out a wheezing cough, droplets of blood spewing from his lips as he was bodily rolled over onto his back. He was vaguely aware of his arm being yanked into the air, and screamed in pain again, as it was twisted violently.

Stars filled his vision, and he could barely make out the blonde-haired, darkly clothed form, standing menacingly above him.

"You ordered Percy Jackson to go to the Asylum tonight, why?!" A modulated, but undoubtedly feminine, voice snarled at him.

"We-we got a call a-about an inmate-" He tried to say, but felt the woman increase pressure on one of his fingers, which abruptly snapped.

He screamed.

"Don't lie to me!" The woman growled, "Not tonight, now talk!" She increased the pressure on another finger.

"I don't know who she was!" Winston howled. "She came to me!" The words tumbled from him entirely too fast for him to even consider what he was saying. He wasn't thinking, all he knew was that he wanted the pain to stop, and he wanted the woman to leave him alone.

"She just told me to wait for the signal, and then to tell Jackson he needed to go to the Asylum, I swear I don't know anything else!"

"What did she look like!?" The woman snarled, applying just enough pressure to hurt, but not enough to snap the bones of the finger,

"Fuck!" He squeaked, "I-I don't-she was Asian!….And she had black hair and-and gah! And-and brown eyes! That's it I thought, I swear!"

"Why'd you agree to send him to the island?!"

"I-I c-can't! T-they'll kill-"

SNAP!

"Ahhhh!"

"You only have eight more fingers and I'm running out of patience! Now talk!"

"Falcone!" Winston howled, "Falcone wants him gone! Jackson's been getting too close to shit he shouldn't be and now Falcone wants him dead! I don't know how that woman found me, but when she offered a way to get rid of him, I didn't ask too many questions! I swear that's it!"

Tears had started running down his face as the pain was beginning to become overwhelming, and the fear of the reality of his situation was beginning to dawn on him.

The woman dropped her hold on his hand and stepped off of him. He scrambled to his feet and dove for the nightstand to retrieve his pistol. But when he turned around, the woman had already vanished.

He shakily let the weapon drop to his side, and as he looked on at the state of his destroyed living room, his arm and chest throbbing, he felt the beginnings of panic well up inside his chest.

He'd just talked, and Falcone was sure to find out.

He needed to get out of town. Right fucking now.

BREAK

Dinah landed on the roof of the opposite town home with a soft 'thud' and retracted her grappling hook, before stowing it away safely inside her utility belt.

Asian woman with dark hair and brown eyes was not anything to go on. But maybe there would be something in the League database. She didn't want to go back to the Watchtower at the moment. While she was sure the others wouldn't try and interfere, she just wanted to look into this on her own.

Which really only left one option available to her. With a sigh, she dropped to the other side of the building, and began making her way to the nearest Zeta Tube.

Hopefully the kids would already all be asleep.

"Yeah right Di," She snorted to herself.

"No chance of that happening."

BREAK

Alfred had been right, and Percy ran into no opposition on his way to the I.T. center. But that left him with another problem entirely.

He didn't understand computers.

"Really didn't think this one through, did you Jackson?" He grumbled to himself as he began rummaging his way through the various cabinets and desks in the center. The terminals were all encrypted, and required a passcode in order to gain access to them.

Percy was banking on at least one person in the facility being like him, and could never remember their own passwords and had it written down somewhere.

His hunch had been right, and after ten minutes of looking around, he found a sticky note inside one of the desk drawers with the week's passwords written in hasty script. Tearing the sticky note from the drawer, he went back to the computer and input the password.

With his newfound access to the terminal, he hastily began scrolling through the many files on the desktop. The vast majority of the files were patient and inmate catalogues, prescription receipts, and inmate reports. Percy ignored the files and ran his own search, but neither Gar al S'hul nor Ra's al Ghul appeared anywhere in the system.

Not that he was surprised.

If these people were really the best assassins in the world, then they wouldn't have left a trace of their involvement anywhere in the system. But that didn't necessarily mean that there wouldn't be something he could get from the system.

Leaning back, he thought about how he wanted to proceed. Clearly whoever wanted Percy on the island knew that the Joker was going to be breaking out the inmates. An operation of this size and scale would require immense resources, as well as very intricate and careful planning. If even one thing went wrong, then it was entirely likely that the entire operation would go south. If Percy were in their position, then he would have wanted to inspect the island, even if it was just a cursory inspection to get a first-hand look at the security systems and layout.

Pulling up a new page, he began looking through visitor records, trying to see if any names struck him as odd or out of place. There weren't many who deigned to visit one of the most dangerous prisons in the country, so the list of visitors was rather short.

He started with the visitors from a few months ago, and began working his way up to present day. He didn't find anything of note until roughly a month ago, where a security consultant had checked in. Frowning in confusion, Percy ran through a mental timeline of the last month, and found that the date of the inspection was only a day before the attack by that league of super-villains. On a hunch, he checked the records again to see if the black gate records were stored on the same server, after all both of the prisons were owned and operated by the same company.

Luckily, both sets of records were indeed stored on the same cloud, and he was able to pull up the visitor records from the same day. Sure enough, the same person had visited Blackgate the day before the attack. That confirmed to Percy that the attack on Blackgate had most certainly not been an act of random chance, but had been part of a grander plan to get the inmates at the prison transferred to Arkham for holding.

He pulled up the name of the woman who had visited the prisons, and ran a quick search on the name. But nobody by the name of Sandra Wu-San appeared in any official records or documentation. Frowning, Percy then typed in the name of the consulting firm that she supposedly represented, but there was no such thing as 'Wintergreen Defense' in any official database either.

"Who the fuck are you Sandy?" He muttered.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A disembodied voice called out from the speaker system, and Percy froze.

"A very naughty detective is snooping around where he shouldn't be," The voice giggled, a sinister and disturbing sound that left the hairs on the back of Percy's neck standing on end.

So apparently this was the Joker…well he certainly lived up to his terrifying reputation.

"What are you doing here mister detective. You weren't on the guest list!" Percy unconsciously tightened his grip on his rifle. "This…is a private party mister and you. Weren't. Invited. Oh Boyyyyyys! Why don't you head on over to the penitentiary and show this doddering detective what happens to party crashers!" The howling cackle that followed was enough to send a shiver up his spine.

Percy had seen things that would make grown men cower, had faced down gods and titans. Had seen the worst that his world had to offer, and nothing was as utterly unnerving as that gods-damned laugh.

But he didn't have the time to think, already he could feel several bodies hurrying in his direction. This was not the place he wanted to be when it came to a firefight. He was too boxed in and there were too many opportunities for someone to sneak around him. Gripping his rifle as tight to his body as possible, he raced from the room, he remembered a spot not too far from his current position that provided him with an ample opportunity to funnel whatever was coming his way into a kill-box.

Climbing a set of stairs two at a time, he vaulted over a small wall overlooking the staircase and the hall below him, and trained his rifle down the corridor. The wall was made of a sturdy marble, and he guesstimated that it would be just thick enough to provide him protection from small arms fire. He gulped down a mouthful of spit, and did his best to steady his breathing. Years of combat experience steadied his nerves and allowed him to tune out the stress of the situation as he focused his senses.

The hall was silent. Filled with the kind of stillness that always seemed to descend upon a battlefield just before all hell broke loose.

His heart hammered, and his ears roared with the sound of his blood pumping through his body as the comforting and familiar feeling of adrenaline began to pump through his system.

He felt them enter the hall before he saw them, their bodies appearing to his mind as bodies of water running quickly down the hall. He wasn't far enough away to necessitate leading the first man.

He didn't hesitate, and he calmly depressed the trigger.

The stillness of the hall was suddenly shattered as his weapon barked with the explosion of the rounds. The bullets tore through the abdomen of the first man that ran into the hall. His body jerked, and his momentum sent him sliding across the floor. The man following behind him hadn't been expecting the sudden attack and stumbled over the body, falling to the floor with a scream.

Depressing the trigger again, three more rounds ripped through the air before cutting down the second man. The others had grown wise to the sudden ambush, and hunkered down behind the large pillar at the corner of the hall. Percy ducked down as the mouth of a rifle poked around the corner and rounds soared through the air in his direction. However, he needn't have worried because the rounds sailed high over his head. Poking his head up one more time, he fired off another burst at the men around the corner in the hopes of keeping them penned down while he repositioned himself.

Hiding now behind the next wall beside the staircase, Percy peered around, his rifle raised. One of the other inmates was poking his head around the corner, investigating the sudden stop of gunfire in his direction. Not seeing or hearing anything, he poked his head just a touch more into the hall which was all that Percy needed to throw three more rounds down range. The man's head snapped back as blood and brain matter exploded out the back of his head in a violent spray of viscera.

"Well this is certainly disappointing," Joker's disembodied voice filled the hall once more, and Percy growled in agitation, he was already growing sick of the man's voice.

"Or maybe you're just interesting, detective, maybe you really do deserve to come to my little shindig," There was a minor pause where Percy dispatched the final inmate who tried to make a break for it across the hall.

"…Nah! I think I'll just kill you. Oh Haaaaarleyyyy!"

"Yes puddin'?" A new voice called out over the intercom, this one distinctly feminine and Percy figured that this must have been the Harley Quinn woman he'd heard about.

Her voice was incredibly grating, he decided.

"Be a dear and go take care of the man will you?"

"I'm on it puddin'! Don't go anywhere detective, you and I are gonna have us a little play~date." She punctuated the statement with an infuriating giggle.

"Only warning," Percy snarled up at the ceiling, "Fuck off and go play with the bat, or I'll put you in the goddamn ground."

"Oh-ho!" The Joker exclaimed happily, "Look at the spine on this one!" His voice took on a sinister edge to it, "I can't wait to watch as Harley breaks it."

"Not in the mood for this tonight." Percy growled to himself, then paused. This…this could actually work out in his favor. If the Joker was working with someone, which Percy was almost certain that he was, then surely he would know the name of the person. At least he or rather Quinn might have something for him. He just needed to make sure that he didn't kill the bitch before she told him what he needed to know.

"Have you reconsidered my offer then detective?" The familiar voice of Alfred said in his ear.

"Doesn't particularly sound like I'm going to have a choice in the matter," Percy said bitterly, "But I might have something if you're still willing to help."

"Of course, detective. What do you have?"

"A name. Sandra Wu-San. She went to both Arkham and Blackgate the day before the villain attack with those giant-ass plants, under the guise of being a security consultant for Wintergreen Defense."

"Hm," Alfred hummed and Percy could make out the sound of clicking on a keyboard in the background. In the interim, Percy occupied himself with reloading his rifle. He was searching to see if there were any more inmates heading in his direction but he couldn't feel anybody within the nearby vicinity.

"Well, that's distressing," Alfred observed,

"Never a good thing to hear," Percy commented as he vaulted back down onto the stairs. He needed to prep for whatever was coming his way.

"There doesn't appear to be anybody by that name in any government database on the planet."

"…Fucking hell? How do you-you know what, no, I don't want an answer to that question."

"Probably for the best. Nothing comes up for Wintergreen Defense either." Alfred seemed more intrigued than annoyed by the revelation.

"But…" Alfred trailed off, "Hm."

"Whatcha got for me Al?" Percy asked as he pulled a spare string off of the jumpsuit of one of the inmates. Pulling free one of the flash bangs in his vest, he tied a knot through the pin of the grenade.

"Please don't call me that," Alfred sighed, "The name Wintergreen does sound familiar, and there's something odd about it that I can't seem to place."

"Helpful," Percy grunted as he tied the string to an errant piece of brickwork and tied the string taut across the corridor.

"I'll keep looking, and just so you are aware, Harley Quinn is approaching the facility."

"Let me worry about her." Percy said as he repeated the process at the other side of the hall. "Should I assume that your buddy is aware that I'm here now?"

"He is," Alfred confirmed, "Though he is as confused as to your presence as we are."

"Well that's wonderful." Percy sighed, before perking up, there was a body approaching the facility and if Alfred was right, then it was almost certainly Quinn.

"Good talking to you Alfred, but I have a hot date."

"Indeed detective. And as a man once said, it is not wise to keep a lady waiting."

BREAK

Dinah let out a relieved breath as she stepped out into the atrium of the mountain, it was late enough that it looked like the kids were probably in bed. That was probably for the best, she didn't want to have to explain herself at the moment. Not that what she was doing was wrong in any sense, but the less involved the kids were with the Shadows the better.

Pulling up the League's database, she began putting in the information she'd received from Winston, filtering out certain categories and limiting the search to any known associates of the Shadows.

Unsurprisingly, there were no hits in the system fitting with her description. The only other possibility it could have been was Cheshire, but the woman wasn't exactly tall, and she didn't have brown eyes as far as Dinah knew. That didn't mean she couldn't have worn colored contact lenses, but Dinah rather doubted it. It wasn't in Jade's style to be so brazen; she wasn't subtle enough for something like that.

She frowned, and then reworked her search, filtering the search for anyone fitting that description that the League's database might flag as suspicious entering Gotham. That time there were a number of hits. She clicked through a few of the names, writing them off as she did so, before she came across a promising hit. TSA got a picture of a woman entering Gotham International on an international flight from China. Not suspicious in and of itself, but the background on her passport was more than suspicious. Her documentation claimed that she was entering the country to conduct business on behalf of "Wintergreen Defense," but there was no record of any such sub-contractor in the League's system.

Frowning, Dinah entered the name that came up into the League's system as well, but there was nothing there as well. Minimizing the tab, she opened a new search and begun running a search on any and all known associates with the Shadows.

"What're you looking into the Shadows for?" A voice asked, and Dinah very nearly screamed. She'd been so engrossed in her work that she hadn't heard anyone approaching her. Turning, she met the face of Artemis, who was looking quizzically up at the screen.

"Shouldn't you be with the rest of the League? Tornado said it was all hands-on deck for what was going on at the Asylum."

Dinah frowned, Artemis was dressed in her uniform and looked ready for action. Dinah didn't feel like letting the girl know that if the shit really hit the fan, then there was absolutely no way that the League would be throwing the team into the Asylum.

"They're…semi-related." Dinah deflected, as she turned her attention back to the computer,

"The League thinks the Shadows are involved with the breakout?" Artemis scoffed, "Please, that's not their style."

"No," Dinah agreed, "But there's a little more going on than just the breakout."

"Like?" Artemis prompted, and Dinah almost groaned. So this was what it was like to be on the receiving end of it.

"Like it's none of your business Artemis." Dinah said with a little more heat than she intended,

"Geez, what's got you so ruffled?" Artemis scowled,

"Ugh, sorry," Dinah groaned, "Stressful night."

"Sorry you had to stand up your date with the cop," Artemis said with an eye-roll, and Dinah flinched, and hoped that Artemis hadn't seen her slip-up.

She had.

"Wait…" Artemis said slowly, "This is about him…isn't it?"

"Of course it's not," Dinah tried to deflect. She didn't know why she didn't want anyone to know that she was looking into this for Percy, but for some reason she just wanted to keep this close to the vest for the moment.

"Bullshit,"

Dinah's patience was beginning to run just a little thin with the girl, and it wasn't helping that her anxiety was already through the roof. Between the breakout, Percy, and now this, she was about ready to snap.

So she did.

"The League of Shadows wants Percy dead and lured him to the island because they knew the breakout was happening." Dinah said sharply, stunning both herself and the young heroine.

"…Holy shit," Artemis muttered,

"Sums it up pretty well, yeah," Dinah grunted,

"What the hell did he do to piss off the Shadows?"

"Believe me," Dinah sighed, "I really wish I knew."

Minimizing the page, she brought back up the image of the woman from before. She had meant to copy the image and send it out to the League, but was stopped when Artemis let out a small, startled gasp. Turning sharply to face her, confusion burst to the forefront of Dinah's consciousness.

Artemis had gone as white as snow, and she was staring at the image on the screen with an expression of horror and nausea.

"You know her?" Dinah asked quickly, but Artemis didn't seem to hear her, wrapped up as she was in her own little world.

Reaching out, Dinah grabbed the girl around the shoulder and gave her a gentle shake,

"Artemis!" She said, and Artemis started, her head whipping around to look at Dinah, "Do you know this woman?" Dinah asked again, taking great care to make sure that there was no hint of judgement or heat in her voice.

Artemis shakily nodded her head, and Dinah was once again grateful that she had taken the time to befriend the girl. Artemis was far more open with Dinah than she was with even her other peers, and seemed to trust Dinah about as much as she could trust anyone. She'd talked to Dinah about things that she was certain the young woman hadn't talked to anyone else about. Specifically about her time with the League of Shadows. The poor girl's youth was harder than even some of the other proteges, and that wasn't exactly an easy feat to accomplish. Having been born into a home of criminals, her father had inducted her into the League of Shadows when she'd only been a child.

In hindsight, Dinah shouldn't necessarily have been surprised that she would have an even better knowledge of the Shadows than the rest of the League.

"T-that's…" Artemis had to swallow, and try again, "Nobody knows her real name, I don't think she even has one…but…when I-when I was with…them…she was called Lady Shiva."

Dinah arched a brow at the rather…unique name, but didn't say anything, allowing Artemis to continue talking.

"She was all but the Demon's right hand. The best assassin in the league…a ghost story that dad used to tell me in order to make me behave. I've-I've only seen her once before, but-but that was enough." She shuddered, and clung to herself as tightly.

"The things I've heard about her…" She trailed off and met Dinah's eyes, a look of utter helplessness on her face,

"If she's involved…then the cop's as good as dead."

BREAK

Percy kept himself tucked away in the shadows of the corridor. He'd taken care already to deal with the cameras, both to make sure that the Joker couldn't warn Quinn about where he was hiding, but also to make sure that there was no record of anything he was about to do. He didn't think, nor did he want, to have to use any of his abilities. But this wasn't some common thug he was going to be dealing with.

He'd heard horror stories about Quinn even as far away as Metropolis. She was every bit the unhinged psychopath that the Joker was, maybe even worse. the Joker always did something for a reason, even if he was simply killing people for the fun of it, it was always part of some grander plan. but Quinn? She was unpredictable. She only cared about the Joker, and that made her perhaps even more dangerous.

Hence the precautions.

He looked up, he could feel someone coming into the facility, and they were coming closer by the moment. Cracking the vertebrae in his neck, Percy tucked himself a little deeper into the shadows, and waited. He could have used his abilities to completely hide himself, but he didn't want to have to resort to them if he didn't have to.

It still left a sour taste in his mouth that he'd had to use so much power to kill Klarion.

A happy humming penetrated his ears, and he glanced up from his hiding place. He felt her before he saw her, and her humming grew louder in volume and in tempo as she approached.

"This little piggy got stabbed," She was singing to herself, it was out of tune and off-pitch, which only served to be all the more unnerving,

"This little piggy got shot. And this little piggy cried 'wee-wee-wee' all 'da way home!" He couldn't see here from where he was sitting, but he knew she was only a matter of feet from him now.

"Oh coppa! Where are youuuu?!" She had slowed to a meandering walk, seemingly content to take her time and make a show out this, "Ollie ollie oxen-free!" She stopped just short of the corridor,

"Hey!" She called out angrily, "That's where you're supposed to come out! No one likes a spoil sport!"

She began walking again, only to stop a few seconds later.

"Oh? Well what do we have here?" She let out a cackling howl of a laugh, and Percy grit his teeth in aggravation. Everything about this woman seemed to teeter on his last nerve.

"Hah! Did you really think I was going to fall for something like that? C'mon! That's like the oldest trick in the book. Now are you going to be a good boy and face me like a man, or is momma gonna have to spank you like the naughty little detective you are?"

She stepped over the trip-wire that Percy had set up, but that was all well and good. He'd been hoping for something like that. It wasn't a subtle trap, but it didn't need to be. Often, in his experience, when someone thought they'd overcome the obstacle, they got sloppy.

Which was precisely what happened.

Quinn was so proud of her accomplishment, that she completely skipped over the pile of bodies that Percy had stacked on the floor. More importantly, she missed the second trip wire that Percy had set up. A light clatter of metal on the floor was all the warning that she got before the hall exploded in a blinding flash of light and a mighty crash, like a thunderclap.

Quinn screamed in fright and pain as her eyes snapped shut and her hands clapped to her ears. Pressing his advantage, Percy charged forward. Closing the distance in only a few strides, he got his first glimpse at one of the most dangerous criminals in the entire country. She had changed her look to commemorate the invasion it seemed, as she'd ditched the red and black jumpsuit in favor of…something he was pretty sure he'd seen on co-eds on Halloween back in college. He supposed that the nurses outfit was supposed to be sexy? But the bloodstains and nightmarish clown makeup gave it more of a haunting appearance.

He wrapped one hand around the leg of the stunned woman and lifted her off of her feet. She screeched in surprise, but her surprise quickly turned to agonizing pain as Percy planted a fist right into her solar plexus, smashing her into the floor. He held back from using the true extent of his strength, he still wanted her alive, but even when he held back he was still far stronger than the average human, and he was pretty sure that he cracked at least a few of her ribs.

She gasped out a choked cry as she crashed into the floor, her head bouncing off of the marble painfully.

But Percy wasn't done.

Lifting his foot, he brought down the heel of his shoe right on the left knee of the woman. The resulting crunch as the bones were shattered was almost disconcerting enough to churn his stomach. Quinn, her eyes open and wide in horror and misery, opened her mouth and let out a silent wail of misery. Tears began to appear in the corners of her eyes and streamed slowly down her cheeks, smearing her mascara and face-paint. Percy wasn't satisfied with just that however, the woman was a menace and he'd heard enough over the comms to know that she'd been directly responsible for the deaths of more than a few members of the prison's staff. He was going to ensure that she wasn't hurting anyone else tonight, maybe even ever again if he had his way. Bringing his foot up again, he repeated the process with her other leg, crushing the other knee with a similar ease as the first.

He'd almost overdone it, and the woman's eyes were beginning to roll into the back of her head, but Percy wasn't about to let her slip into the sweet release of unconsciousness yet. He had questions and she would give him the answers he wanted.

Hopefully.

He grabbed a fistful of her corset and dragged her up to meet his eyes, channeling the mist into his mouth, he let out a slow breath and the misty magic washed over the woman's face. It would keep her awake and docile while he asked his questions.

"Someone wants me dead, and I don't mean the Joker. Who?" He pumped the woman full of compulsion magic, and her eyes glazed over,

"I don't know, you weren't part 'ah 'da plan. Mista J was just as surprised as me ta see ya here."

"Harley!" Joker screamed into the intercom, apparently, he could hear what was being said even if he couldn't see it,

"You blithering idiot, what the hell are you doing?"

Percy ignored the raging clown,

"What's the Joker's connection with the League of Shadows?" He snarled,

"I got no idea who dat is," Harley replied, her voice a soft monotone.

Percy growled in frustration, this was not what he'd been hoping for, though maybe it wasn't all that surprising. He doubted that someone like the Joker would be all that willing to tell Quinn anything relevant. He didn't trust anybody but himself.

Maybe not even that.

Percy realized as he tightened his grip on the woman that another person had just entered the building, but Percy ignored the intruder. If they got any closer, he'd deal with them.

"Harley!" The Joker screamed again, "If you don't stop this at once, I'll-"

"A woman came to the Asylum under the pretense of inspecting the security. Who was she, what did she want?"

"I don't know,"

Percy's patience was at the end of it's rope, and he had to force himself to practice the breathing exercises that Lupa had forced into his head when he was a boy. The last thing he needed was to bring down a hurricane on top of the Asylum.

"What's the Joker's plan for the Asylum?" Percy demanded, changing gears,

"Harley…" The Joker interrupted once more, his voice becoming soft, almost tender.

"If you answer that question…I'll be forced to hurt you, and you wouldn't want that now would you dear? So shut the hell up already!"

"Something about a formula with Doctor Young," She explained, "She found a way to synthesize Bane's Venom formula. Mista J wants to make an army. We're gonna rule Gotham togetha."

"Where is he?" A new voice asked, and Percy almost jumped at the sound of it, turning his neck, Percy felt his expression sour as he watched Batman stalk forward out of the shadows.

"Where's who?"

"Gordon, Quinn, where is he?" Percy's head snapped over to the Bat, his eyes wide.

"The fuck is the Commissioner doing here?" He hissed, but the Bat ignored him,

"Medical Center." Quinn replied, "Sub-Level."

"Drop her," He ordered Percy, and he considered not, simply out of spite, but he'd asked all the questions he'd wanted to ask for the time being. Not that it had been particularly helpful. He dropped her to the floor with a clatter, her eyes rolling back into her head. Batman reached into his utility belt and pulled free a pair of restraints. Slapping them onto the woman's wrists, he hauled her onto his shoulder and walked over to a nearby cell. Yanking the bars open, he tossed her into the cell unceremoniously. Slamming the door shut, he pulled a strange looking device out of his belt, and a moment later the electronic lock activated.

"I don't know what you did to Harley," The Joker snarled into the intercom,

"But it doesn't matter. She doesn't matter. You boys want to play rough and try and thwart my plans, fine, so be it. I'm an honorable man, I'll even let you go and rescue your beloved Commissioner. But who's to say that there won't be a nasty little surprise waiting for you. Hehehehehehe."

The echoing laugh reverberated around the halls for some time, before the intercom finally went silent.

"I fucking hate that man," Percy muttered,

"What are you doing here detective?" Batman demanded, turning to face him. It was the first time that Percy had gotten a good look at the man. If his night had been bad, he hated to think what the vigilante had been through. His cape was torn, and there was a large hole in combat armor, revealing the mesh-like weave of Kevlar beneath. His face was bruised and dirty, and a thin line of blood was trickling from somewhere above his cowl, and trickling down his cheek.

"Got ordered here," Percy answered, he was too tired to lie and it wasn't worth it.

"Winston called, just after the call about the Joker went out. Said there was someone here waiting for me…" He paused, before adding, "Does the name Gar al S'hul mean anything to you? I was told he was waiting here for me but there was nobody by that name anywhere in the database."

Batman's eyes narrowed, "He wouldn't exist, it's an alias. One commonly used by the head of the most influential assassin organization on the planet, the League of Shadows."

Percy had to genuinely hide his surprise at the revelation. He already knew that of course, but he'd been wanting to see how the Bat would respond to him, he certainly hadn't been expecting the man to be so up front.

"Cute name," He observed casually,

"I'm guessing you've never heard of them?"

"Not until right now," Percy snorted, "Who the fuck did I piss off badly enough that they'd be after me? Let alone go to so much trouble to bring me here?"

"A good question," Batman pondered, "The League of Shadows doesn't normally bother with simple detectives,"

"Words hurt," Percy snorted, but the bat ignored him,

"What are the chances they know what you are?" He asked,

"Normally I'd say slim to none, but I'm beginning to think otherwise. The only other explanation is that Falcone got to them, but if that was the case, then why not just shoot me? Plant a bomb under my car? I feel like there would a hell of a lot easier ways to deal with me rather than going to all this trouble."

The Batman grunted in agreement, "We'll look into it later," he said, "You heard Quinn, Gordon's been captured."

"Being held at the Medical Center, yeah I heard." He said, as he unslung the rifle from his back. Checking the magazine, he slammed it back into the rifle and chambered a round,

"Let's go get the bossman."