Gotham City, 2039 A.D.

"Wait up, Terry!" a small teenage girl—who was wearing a turquoise shirt, black pants, and a red jacket—called out, running after her half-brother as fast as her lamed leg would allow her to go, which was rather fast for someone with a bad leg, although her leg was hurting her more this day than it ever had before, to where her half-brother was standing by the nearest elevator type shaft in the middle of the city. I think it's time that I got a new brace, she thought. This one's killing my foot!

"The A-Trac won't wait for you, Coba!" Terry called back irritably. Every single day he had lived with his father for the past two years, he had to make sure that Coba was with him, even if it meant having her tag along on one of his dates with his girlfriend Dana. She usually stayed away from Terry's bad side, but it always depended on what sort of day he was having. It was early in the day, but he was already in a bad mood. "Run faster!"

"This is as fast as I can go!"

"I've seen you go faster!"

"That was when my brace fit!"

"Why can't you get a new one?"

"Dad can't afford it! It costs quite a bit to get a new one!"

Terry shook his head despairingly. She thinks she's so smart just because she's thirteen and already a junior in high school, he thought. Then again, I'm older than her, and I'm in the same grade as her!

The A-Trac took off just as Coba was a few feet away from it. The sight of Terry's impatient glare made her feel worse than she already did. "I'm sorry, Terry," she choked as tears began to form in her eyes. "I tried hard to get here on time."

The young man softened his gaze when he noticed that Coba was not only crying tears of guilt but tears of pain as well. "No, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I should've helped you over here. But they keep coming within a minute of each other. See? Here comes another one now."

The second shaft came to a stop at the bottom of the building. Terry promptly aided Coba into the vehicle. "Just sit down right here," he said, gesturing to an empty seat.

Coba willingly sat down. The only thing that made her uncomfortable about what was going on in the elevator was the subject of the news broadcast on the screen. Curse Derek Powers! she thought for the thousandth time in her life. He shouldn't be running Wayne-Powers, Bruce Wayne should be! A strange thought suddenly came to her. Commissioner Gordon said that I was about as smart as Bruce Wayne three years ago and that my blood matched that of someone who never had children. Could it be... that I'm related to Bruce Wayne? Then again, how is that even possible if he had no children, siblings, or cousins?

From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a big, muscular teenager dressed in red clothing and white face paint shove his way past Terry and move towards the flat television screen. Slightly amused yet mostly peeved all at once, Coba watched as the Joker pulled out a can of green spray paint and sprayed some of it on the face of the woman newscaster speaking that moment. He should've done that to Powers's face a moment ago, she thought.

The Joker turned around, comically saying in his eerily baritone voice, "Ah thank you, thank you!" He smiled and squinted his eyes as he looked around the shaft expectantly. His eyes settled on a dark-skinned woman, who shyly smiled at him. He hip-hopped over to where the woman was sitting, immediately making her uncomfortable. "Oh, I saw you smile! Yes, I did, yes I did!" He cleared his throat and held out his hand expectantly.

"What do you want?" the woman asked tensely.

"Payment for the joke you bought," he explained. "I give you funny, you give me money."

"But I didn't buy anything!" the woman cried, looking to her fellow passengers to help her but watching as they all looked away.

All except Terry and Coba.

The young girl immediately jumped up from her seat and pushed the clown away from the troubled woman. "Leave her alone, punk!" Coba said as menacingly as she could (which, as the Commissioner had once said herself two years ago, was enough to give the legendary Batman the chills).

The Joker was fearful at first, then chided himself for being afraid of a small, physically lame girl. He angrily grabbed Coba by her shirt collar and pulled her up to his face with ease. "And what makes you think that I will, sweetheart?"

Brooklyn grinned malignantly. "My brace in your stomach." She forcefully kicked the Joker in the stomach with her supported crippled leg, causing him to double over in pain and release her. "And don't call me sweetheart again!"

He suddenly threw out a leg and swept it around Coba's legs, making her fall back onto the vehicle's hard floor. The Joker put one of his large feet on top of her chest, pinning her down. "I'll call you whatever I want to, sweetheart!"

Terry came up from behind the Joker, even though the Joker dwarfed him in size, and forcefully twisted the Joker's arms behind his back. "Get lost, clown!" Terry snarled as he threw the Joker across the shaft and into the television, breaking the screen. He lifted his half-sister back up to the bench. "Are you alright?" he asked concernedly.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," Coba replied. "I don't think he is, though."

"Stay right here, alright? I'll handle this from here."

"Alright, good luck."

The Joker picked himself up from the floor angrily, still smiling. "Ooh, big man," he sneered. He charged at Terry, throwing a punch at his head. Terry dodged the blow and returned it. The clown stumbled backward upon the impact of Terry's fist to his face. "Alright," he snarled, "now you asked for it!"

All of the other passengers watched in awe as Terry stood his ground. The Joker came at him angrily but stopped when he heard the shaft door beginning to open. He faked a karate pose, trying to intimidate Terry. As soon as he realized that his pose failed its purpose, he rasp-berried at the sixteen-year-old boy and ran out of the shaft, cackling maniacally.

Two of Gotham's police officers stepped into the shaft. They looked around at the destruction in the small vehicle before looking at Terry accusingly. Both Terry and Coba knew why they looked at him in this particular way: Terry had been in juvenile hall for three months for robbery two years before. "What all happened here?" one of the officers said gruffly.

"Jokerz," Terry and Coba simply said in unison.

The officers looked at each other and shrugged. They believed the two siblings to be truthful. After all, all of the different Jokerz gangs in Gotham were troublesome.

~!~

"Hey, Coba, who's Nelson's victim this time?" Chelsea Cunningham called from behind.

Coba did not need to turn to see who was entering the Hamilton Hills High School auditorium. "You and Dana need to come and see for yourselves," she replied.

How Coba could always tell when she was with Dana Tan, Chelsea never knew. Nevertheless, she and Dana stood next to the thirteen-year-old genius-of-a-girl and peered down over the glass. Dana was awestruck.

"Terry?" she gasped in surprise. "What is he thinking?"

"He's thinking about a Joker we ran into this morning on a shaft," Coba answered.

"How do you know that?" Chelsea asked.

"It's written all over his face. Besides, I know him well enough to tell from here."

Chelsea turned her attention to Dana. "My bid is on Nelson," she challenged.

Dana looked at Chelsea doubtfully. "I wouldn't be too sure, Chelsea."

The blonde-haired girl grinned mischievously. "You never wrestled with him."

Coba looked at Chelsea with a look of pure disgust. "Gee, thanks for getting that visual in my head."

A dramatic change in the fight happened before the teenage girls' eyes. Nelson Nash, the biggest of the fighters, spat in Terry's face, causing the smaller teen to react by pushing him off of himself and punching him in the face. Oh, great, Coba thought. Dad's not going to like this at all when he hears about it.

"Oh no," Dana said despairingly. "Not again!"

~!~

"Powers can't be serious!" Warren McGinnis said to himself, looking at the computer screen in pure shock. His friend and co-worker, Harry Tully, had handed him a disk with information about one of Derek Powers's secret plans. "He must be crazy to think that—"

"Knock-knock."

Warren looked over to see Terry and Coba standing in the hallway. "Kids, I'm busy," he said sharply to the teen who spoke.

"I have to go out," Terry said. "Some of us are gathering at a club."

"You're grounded, remember?"

"I didn't start the fight!" Terry said defensively.

"He really didn't, Dad!" Coba said, trying to convince Warren that Terry was telling the truth. "Nelson spat in his face first!"

"Be quiet, Coba!" Warren snapped. "I'll hear all about it when we meet with the school counselor—again."

"Mom would hear me out!" Terry pointed out.

"You're not living with your mom!"

Terry turned away from his father. "Don't remind me!" he shouted as he punched the nearest wall.

Here it goes again, Coba thought despairingly.

Warren stood up from his chair angrily. "That's your problem right there!" he yelled. "You can't control your temper and you'd better if you expect to get anywhere in life!"

"Yeah, I'll be a big success, just like you," Terry snarled.

Coba and Warren both looked at Terry in shock. "I'm bailing," Terry said as he stormed out of the house.

"Terry," Warren started, realizing only then that he had said the wrong things to his son- again. He turned back to the computer room, his head hung low.

"I'll try to reason with him," Coba volunteered. "I'll be back as soon as I can." She pursued her brother without waiting for her father to respond.

Stepping out of the house, Coba looked left and right to see if she could see Terry, but he was already long gone. He had not told her exactly where this club was, but she was determined to find him soon and bring him back home to reconcile with Warren. I'll just turn left and run that way, she thought. Something tells me that he'll be heading in that direction within the next half-hour. If he's in trouble, I want to be able to help him. She ran down the left path without any further hesitation, not once noticing a black car stop in front of her and Warren's house.

~!~

Coba had no idea of how long she had been running or where exactly she was, but she did not let those things slow her down. She knew that if she did, Terry would not be able to fend off the Jokerz (she deduced that they would be) following him. She came to a stop in front of a gate that was located in a very sinister-looking land with a large mansion at the top of a tall hill. Her right leg began to hurt her to the point where she fell to the barren ground, doubled over in agony and exhaustion. A black great Dane jumped at the gate menacingly and barked at Coba, scaring her even more. "Help!" she screamed as loud as she could.

As if to answer her cry, the gate swung open. A large old man (who Coba noted to look very much like a coffin) walking with a cane stepped out and looked down at the girl through menacing light blue and yellowed eyes. The dog stood behind the man, snarling at the young Brooklyn. "What are you doing here?" the old man asked in a gruff voice.

If it was one thing Coba knew for sure, this old man was not only peeved about her trespassing on his property: she detected a hint of concern for her in his voice. "I'm sorry to intrude, sir," she gasped, "but my brother is in trouble. He'll be here in about ten minutes with a bunch of Jokerz chasing him, I just know it!"

"Jokerz..." the old man pondered for a moment. He turned his attention back to the girl and softened his gaze. "Alright, I'll be on the lookout," he said as calmly as he could. "You can either wait right here with me or head up to my house to rest."

"I don't have a choice, sir. I have to wait right here."

He eyed her. "What do you mean?"

"My leg is in a lot of pain."

"Can you stand at all on it?"

"Not for another five minutes, but they won't be here until a couple of minutes after that."

"How do you know about the foot of yours? And what about the time the Jokerz will arrive?"

"I've been wearing a brace on this leg for twelve years now, sir, and I know how long it takes for my leg to feel fine once more. I don't exactly know how I know about the minutes afterward, though. I just get these feelings, and they're always correct. I'm guessing that you're billionaire Bruce Wayne."

The old man grinned lightly. "Another correct feeling, kid. Who are you?"

"Coba Brooklyn."

A brief silence. "Is this brother you speak of Terence McGinnis?" he asked suspiciously.

Coba tensed up. She knew that Wayne would immediately jump to conclusions. "Yes," she replied. "I know that a lot of people know him as a troublemaker, but after being with him for two years, I know that trouble finds its way to him. He usually acts out to it only if another person's life is at stake, just like he did today before school."

"Oh? Tell me what happened."

The young girl explained all of the events that happened on the shaft earlier that day. Bruce was somewhat surprised at what he heard, but at the same time, he seemed to have expected it. "Sounds like something I would do when I was younger," he said in admiration. "It seems to me that you think highly of your brother and that he thinks highly of you as well."

"I know I think highly of him, but I don't know about the other way around," Coba said glumly. "He sometimes acts like he only thinks of me as a ball and chain to carry around with him. I mean, I can't walk or run as fast as he can!"

Bruce looked even more curiously at the crippled girl. "He would have let you get beaten up by that hooligan if he didn't like you at all."

"Even if he didn't know me at all he would've done what he did," Coba pointed out. "I don't know what he thinks of me!"

"Instead of wondering what someone else thinks of you, ask yourself this question: what do you think of yourself?"

"A useless piece of junk."

"You're joking, right?" Wayne cried. "You ran for who-knows-how-long with a hurting leg to save your brother. How is that called being a useless piece of junk?"

Coba did not know how to respond. She knew that the old man was right. The revving of a motor vehicle caused her to jump to her feet. "Here they come!" she warned her companion.

"Ace, get back inside!" Bruce ordered his dog. "We'll take care of this." Once Ace had reluctantly gone back behind the concrete wall, the large elderly man closed the gate. He motioned for Coba to follow him until they were twenty feet away from the gate. "Stay behind me!" he said urgently as a single headlight approached them at top speed. "Don't charge at them unless they charge at you."

Terry had little time to react. He was too focused on the Jokerz chasing him to notice Bruce Wayne (not knowing that Coba was standing directly behind him, for she was already so small) until the last second. He quickly yanked the steering part handlebars to the left, causing the motorcycle to skid and throw him off screaming in surprise. Coba was about to run towards him when Bruce held her back, shooting her a quick warning glance. The Jokerz came to a stop in front of the gate, where Terry had wrecked, laughing joyously. Terry removed the helmet he was wearing from his head and tossed it to the side, glaring defiantly at the Jokerz in the process.

The Joker who was wearing a mask that resembled that of Batman's old nemesis, the Joker, looked at Terry in mock pity. "Aw, the no-fun-boy had an accident!" he said in an intimidating, sarcastic voice.

One of his followers, a big dark-skinned man with green hair and white face paint, pulled out a switchblade and revealed the sharp knife. "Let's put a smile on his face!" he snarled.

The Jokerz laughed in agreement and advanced on Terry. The young man put up his fists and stood in a fighting stance, ready to fight the clowns until they killed him.

"Leave him alone!" a deep voice growled.

Terry and his opponents looked towards Bruce and Coba in surprise. The small young girl walked alongside the much larger—and much older—man silently. "And get off my property!" Bruce continued. "You're trespassing!"

"Is that so?" snarled a female Joker.

"It's alright," Terry told Wayne and Coba, holding up a hand, "I can handle this." He said the last sentence with a hint of uncertainty, for he and the two interfering people knew very well that he could not hope to hold off the entire gang. He had said it because he did not want his little sister and an old man to get hurt in his place.

The leader of the group walked up to Bruce. "Who do you think you're talking to, old man?" he snickered. He grabbed Bruce's shirt collar cruelly and roughly shoved Coba aside to keep her from interfering. "We're the Jokerz!"

Bruce grinned malignantly. "Sure you are," he mocked.

The Joker held back a fist, ready to slam it into Wayne's face. Bruce pulled away from the Joker, dodging the punch in the process. The gangster turned around to attack again, only to be forcefully smacked in the face twice, poked hard in the stomach, and smacked under the chin by Bruce's wooden cane. The Joker flew backward and past his followers, landing on the ground painfully.

"Whoa," Coba breathed as she stood up. He's pretty strong for a guy his age. He probably works out a lot! She noticed him wince in pain and lightly touch his chest. Okay, maybe he doesn't work out anymore, but he still fights well!

The Jokerz looked at their fallen leader in shock, giving Terry the chance to run to where Bruce and Coba stood and prepare for another attack. The leader of the gang sat up, wiping away some blood that was on his lips from Wayne's attacks. The rest of the Jokerz charged at their three opponents angrily. The dark-skinned Joker swiped his knife at Bruce, who immediately blocked it with his cane. As the knife-wielder struck at him again, the old man disarmed him and swung his walking stick, catching the Joker in the chest. Coba head-butted a green trench coat wearing Joker that was sneaking up from behind Wayne and tossed him aside. A gang member advanced on Terry and swung a baseball bat at his legs. Terry jumped up to avoid the strike before punching the Joker in the face. The dark-skinned Joker charged at Bruce once more, only to be greeted once again by the wooden cane. Terry punched another Joker in the face just as Brooklyn kicked a different one (that is, one that was advancing on Terry) away from her half-brother defensively. Wayne smacked his cane on the head of the Joker wearing the green trench coat before swinging it under the hooligan's feet. A female Joker wielding a mace was riding a motorcycle directly at Bruce. Thinking quickly, Coba grabbed a thick tree branch and stuck it between the spokes of the cycle's front wheel. The Joker went flying into the air, but the vehicle stayed on the ground and surprisingly did not explode. The leader of the Jokerz sneaked up behind Bruce, but the old man was aware of his presence. Without turning to face his foe, he smacked his cane into the Joker's face. The clown fell to the ground and crawled towards the nearest motorcycle. With the strength he still had, he pulled himself onto the cycle. "Come on!" he yelled to his fellow gang members. Without waiting a moment longer, he turned on the vehicle and sped away.

Bruce watched, through a bitter glare, as the rest of the gang got onto the remaining motorcycles and fled the scene. Terry and Coba- -especially Coba—were shaken up by what happened during the fight. The elderly man walked stiffly towards the gate. They both looked at Bruce in amazement. "Man, you're something," Terry gasped to Bruce. "I've never seen anyone—"

Wayne weakly dropped his cane and struggled to hold himself up with the cement wall, breathing deeply. "What's going on?" Coba asked concernedly.

"M-my medicine," Bruce gasped, rubbing his chest in a feeble attempt to stop the ache. "At the house." He pulled a little remote out from his shirt pocket and pressed a button, opening the gate.

"You didn't see that his heart was bothering him?" Terry quietly asked his half-sister.

"It was better than asking if he was alright, wasn't it?" Coba countered.

Terry rolled his eyes. I hate it when she knows what I'm thinking, however the heck she does it! Without saying another word, he handed Bruce his cane and put the man's shoulder over his own to support him as they walked towards the mansion, which was quite a ways away.

Ace jumped out of the nearby bushes and barked at Terry and Coba. Coba gently snarled at him, letting him know that she and her brother were neither a threat nor ones to be messed with. Ace stopped in surprise and let them aid Wayne up to the mansion. "Nice dog," Terry said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Bruce, however, was never familiar with sarcasm. "Not really," he gasped. "How did you do that, Coba?"

"I once made an animal communicator," the teen girl explained. "I learned how to speak to rats, dogs, cats, and even goldfish."

"What happened to the communicator?"

Coba frowned. "It was destroyed two years ago when some Jokerz killed my mother," she said solemnly. The leader of that gang was never found, but I remember what he looks like—and that the others called him Fixx. If the police don't find him before I do, I'll make him pay for what he did to Mom!