A sudden whine from Ace got his master attention.
A shrill beeping alerting Bruce Wayne, an incoming call appeared on his vid screen as urgent.
"Maxine?" The former Bat took the incoming call quickly. "Maxine, where are you?"
"Running." She panted over the line, taking deep breathes, "They're after me."
"Whose after you?" He tried to pull up her location while listening to her.
"Crazy . . . woman . . . red hair . . . two girls . . . pink lipsticks."
Wayne sunk into his chair, the pieces fitting in quite nicely.
"Angel Proctor." He quickly keyed in some figures, then started talking to the sudden track star.
"Maxine, try to hide somewhere. I can send a squad car to get you-"
A new voice with a venomous tone interrupted him.
"Sorry, sweetheart, the Nextel customer will be out of order very shortly."
A scream echoed the cave, a cracking sound, then the line fell silent.
"Maxine? Maxine!" He cried into the microphone.
Then the screen went black.
Wayne uttered a curse word as started typing furiously again.
"Terry." Static meet his ears. "Terry, come in."
Several seconds passed before the new Bat picked up.
"Yeah, I'm here." Bruce Wayne could see Terry's night vision scanning a pastel-colored bedroom with overturned furniture and a door gapping open.
"The undercover's okay, just a little dazed but she's not in the apartment."
"She just called."
"She called?" Disbelief caked the voice on the other end.
"Yeah, she was running from what it sounded like but her captor got to her."
"Could you track her?"
A blinking red dot appeared on a map on the computer screen.
"Yes, and I'm getting Old Town."
"Old Town? What she's doing there?"
"I don't think the seedy denizens of Gothman crime really like taking their victims to the suburbs."
After some seconds of silence, he heard his employee turning the jet around. "I'm on it."
"Feisty eh?" The doctor sneered as the two girls loaded a struggling Max into the truck.
"You won't get-" She tried to protest but a bright piece of pink masking tape was slapped over her mouth.
"That's the second nail I broke." Kelli griped, slamming the door shut.
"Lisa, get us to the Old Town, the Heartz Factory." Angel Proctor ordered to her driver.
"Heartz Factory?" The blonde stared, "Ang, if you wanted a candy bar, we can stop at mini mart."
"We are going to GET RID of HER there." The doctor shook her first at the girl.
"Just drive." Kelli jumped in the backseat with their victim.
"Please tell me that it's just the blonde chemical in her hair making her sound so dumb. " The pyschologist demanded, angry color on her face matching her pants suit.
"No, she's natural." Kelli answered, promptly smacking her skull. "Naturally stupid."
"Hey! The next person who slaps me won't have a hand!" Lisa cried, the SUV peeled out into the foggy night.
The Heartz Sweets Factory did not look like the happy little candy factory Max imagined every time she ate Raisinettes. It looked very menacing in the death of midnight with its dusty machinery and very sharp knives. Rats bigger than her Isis ran across the floor, roaches scattered at the sudden light.
"Couldn't we have just gone to the boondocks?" The brunette whined.
"We do you think most people knock off their marks?" Her blonde huffed. "Disneyland?"
"Take the tape off of her mouth and shut up." Their leader stepped in. "I want to taunt her."
As soon as she felt her skin peel off from the tape being pulled, Max started questioning, "What do you want from me?"
Dr. Proctor feigned mock surprise. "What do I want from you?"
Angel Proctor asked in a sarcastic tone, then laughed.
The Luv Doctor snapped her fingers to the brunette. "Lisa, go load the money in the truck, it's by the bubble gum. Kelli, get the chocolate boiler ready. I wonder how she'll taste in a pretzel."
When the doctor and the victim were alone, the doctor continued.
"See, somehow you managed to get in the way of my plans. I was happily ripping the rich and famous off with my little pink pill, one that would eventually be used in my perfume . . ."
She pulled one out of her pocket to show it to her prey.
"It's a fun mixture of mind control-mind altering drugs, steroids, and animal phenomes. This fun combo produces the false sense of love in the poor soul who takes it and happens to lay eyes on the first person they see. That and it blanks your memory."
A blunt edge of a cutting machine caught her eye. While her captor went on raving with her scheme, the girl started rubbing the ropes on the sharp end, hoping the dark was masking her movements.
"Yet somehow, you managed to get in the line of sight of my covetous targets: The owner of WTIL's son and the CEO of adverting in this city's biggest finance company."
"Carter and Jack?" The girl whispered, 'so that explained the behavior . . . .'
"And they fell for you." She turned her back to look around then faced her victim again.
"I will admit it threw a roadblock in the plan but I managed to alter some of the affects so that they'll listen to me. Oh, by the way, they're in the next room. I figure after they give me their bank accounts and trust fund info, then they can watch you go bye-bye."
"Lady, you're sick!" The girl snapped her shock to start freeing herself.
"Only sick enough to make this work. I'll be in Cancun while you get packaged into a lovely treat."
"I don't even know you!" Max protested.
"Oh yes, you do." The woman stood in front of the girl, "Next time, watch the smart little comments you make to perfect strangers at the mall. Especially me and my salesgirls."
The black girl gasped, briefly stopping her escape plan as the ropes fell loose.
"The Luv Doctor."
She stopped in front of Max's face to smiled deadly then backed away. "Guilty."
Max rushed untying the ropes behind her back.
"So what I want from you is stay out of my way."
The two minions reappeared in the large room.
"Girls!"
"Ready boss." Lisa came back, "Money loaded."
"The broiler's cooking." Kelli smiled. "All we have to do is thrown her in."
"And now, I'm going to make a way for you to be out of it . . .permanently."
A quick assessment of the situation had only one word written on it: Screwed.
She kept unknotting her wrists. The pink-haired girl looked at the three women circling her. The red hair was blocking the door, the blonde and brunette were closing in to her . . . .
A broom! Somehow the ordinary cleaning tool again became the weapon of choice.
"Why don't you come quietly . . . ." The blonde taunted.
"We won't hurt you-much." The brunette mocked, they had her concerned.
"Yeah . . ." She felt her fingers wrap around it, "but you didn't count on what I'll do to you."
With all the force in her body, Max jumped up, grabbed the broom, then slammed the broom handle into her assailants, knocking the wind out both of them.
"What the-?" The red head gapped when a box of JuJu beans smashed into her temple.
Max took off through the factory.
Batman began searching the empty candy factory for signs of life when he radioed Wayne back.
"I don't hear anything-"
The clicking of heels alerting his attention. Moments later there was Max, gym shorts and all being followed by the two girls from the other night donned in all black jumpsuits running in tennis heels.
He switched the radio off and the invisible shield back on. "Nevermind."
The Bat swooped down and knocked the ladies down. He made himself visible.
"Max!" He hissed in the dark to get her attention.
She caught sight of the Bat. "You're timing is impeccable as always." She got out between breathes when she caught up with him.
"SWM, on time and reliable." He joked then turned seriously. "We've got to get out of here-"
The Bat felt two arms lift him off the ground and throw him into a slack of boxes.
Max only could gasp.
"I suggest you remove your hands from the lady." Jack Walker growled like a wild animal.
"Hands off, Bat." Carter Wilson followed behind him, the same wild look in his eye.
"I don't think the antidote worked." Lisa looked to her friend.
"Well-good!" Kelli yelled, "They'll kick his butt instead of ours for messing with the pink hair."
The imposing figures of Jack Walker and Carter Wilson were walking toward the Bat.
A idea came to Max in a flash, she jumped into front of Bat as he laid in the boxes.
"Stop!"
To her delight, the two men stopped to look at her, staring starry-eyed.
"Get them!" Angel Proctor screamed at the men, appearing behind them. "Don't just stand there!"
The men would not obey so she yelled to the girls, the doctor roared.
"Girls! Attack them! Now!"
"You are ready making me mad, pinky." Lisa grabbed a random steel rod off the ground.
Kelli balled her fist up tight. "And my manicure is going to cost me double!"
The blonde and brunette launched after the two dark figures.
What no one counted on was the men knocking the two girls into the middle of next week.
"NOOOOOOO!" Angel Proctor pulled her hair, Kelli and Lisa landed in a stack of caramel boxes.
"Don't attack the girls! Get THEM!"
While the doctor threw a hissy fit, Max ran to the Bat's side. "Are you ok?"
"I see both of your dates decided to show." The Bat spoke between gasps, then grabbed Max by the waist. "Ok, this round of Love Connection is over."
The plan should have been simply: Grab the fair damsel by the waist and jet out into the sunset.
He didn't count on the bad guys being able to keep up with them on the long staircase.
"What the heck did she give them?" He asked when they finally reached the roof.
"A mixture of steroids, mind altering drugs, and animal phenomes." His friend add casually.
The Bat stared at her briefly as the baddies gathered on the roof them.
"Thanks for being so informative."
The roof provided no outlet. They scrambled for a plan to get out of dodge.
"Guess we'll have to jump." Batman remarked, looking over the edge.
"What!?!" She glanced over the edge to see nothing but the water below them.
"It's three storiessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!"
Her voice echoed as Terry took her with him over the side, falling into the murky waters of the bay . . . .
When the two came up for air, a police helicopter had its spotlight on the roof top.
"Freeze! Gotham City Police! You're under arrest." Soon the roof was stormed by Gotham's finest.
The Luv Doctor and her girls had no choice but to surrender as the two men fell stood there in a daze.
The scene could have been romantic movie scene, damsel and hero together in the end:
Max threw her arms around Terry's neck, hugging herself close to him for warmth. The icy waters chilled her deeply. Her hair and clothes stuck to her skin while the Bat remained relatively dry under his uniform. He in turned involuntarily had his arms around her waist, inhaling the mix of strawberry shampoo and rank sea water in her pink tresses.
They closed their eyes for whatever reason and enjoyed the feeling of relief that washed over them.
They sighed.
She suddenly broke the silence, calling his name dreamily, "Terry?"
"Yeah?"
He answered back, eyes still closed, dreaming himself.
"I never want to hear you complain that you've had a rough week again."
Terry choose to say nothing, swimming to the docks with her with a smile behind the cowl.