Thanks all of you who have been reading and reviewing! I had a request to reveal more about this woman who's been hiring people to kill Batman- I promise, more will be revealed soon…
"Back for more?" Claire smiled, dropping her cigarette on the ground, and rubbing it out with her toe.
"Those things are bad for you, y'know." Terry smirked at her.
"Most fun things in life are bad for you, by the way, I was thinking maybe tonight we should even the score."
"Meaning?"
"I was thinking it might be time for the Tees."
"I'm assuming that isn't a golf metaphor."
"Golf?" Terry realized he had been spending too much time around the old man.
"Never mind,"
"Look, I was thinking, even though none of those Jokerz talked… maybe you and I should wear masks."
"I thought you said hunters don't hide." Beating up a few Jokerz was one thing- but masks? That would make them seem like vigilantes- not hunters. And having one masked identity was enough for Terry.
"They don't but… This isn't the jungle, there are different rules here."
Terry felt a strange tingling on the back of his neck- as if he'd heard those words before, or maybe even said them. He was suddenly getting the strangest sense of deja vu. Hunters. Prey. It all seemed a little too familiar…
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Terry launched a final Tee over his head and the big guy came crashing down in the middle of the a pool table, snapping it in half.
"Wow, I didn't think we could take this many at once," Claire said, kicking at the body of one prone figure. They had successfully taken out about thirty Tee's in their own territory, in their own lair- also known as an abandoned pool hall. Claire looked slightly pale.
"You alright?" Terry asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, let's get out of here, unless you wanna stick around till these guys wake up, go for round two." She grinned at Terry, but he noticed her eyes looked slightly lifeless, like the fire wasn't burning as brightly.
"Nah, that's alright." Terry laced his fingers and cracked his knuckles. They felt a little sore- but it felt good. Subtle pain like that he could handle. It wasn't getting blasted into a shelves with a rocket. This pain felt more real. He liked it, he flexed his knuckles again, just to feel the slight ache and the pain there took his mind off his shoulder, the wound from the shrapnel was still there. He rotated it to loosen it slightly. "Let's go, hungry?"
"Starved."
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Terry watched in astonishment as Claire wolfed down four orders of cheese fries, five burgers, two milkshakes, and a hot fudge sundae.
"Wow…" Terry just stared.
"Sorry, I was kind of hungry,"
"Yeah I noticed," he looked at her closely, she looked better, her eyes had regained their spark and she seemed less pale.
"Big fight didn't make you hungry?" She said nodding to the two bites Terry had taken out of his burger.
"Not really…" It was strange, food seemed very unappealing right now. He wanted to be able to move quickly, in case something happened, didn't want the feeling of anything slowing him down. He wanted to fight, if Claire hadn't looked so tired…
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"Is she still mad at me?" Terry asked Max, when Dana was no more than perfunctory when he saw her in school.
"What do you think?" Max was cold.
"I think I didn't do anything wrong!" Terry protested, following Max even as she starting walking to class.
"Yeah right,"
"I didn't! Max, look at me. I swear I didn't cheat on Dana with Claire. Claire… it's not like that." He put his hand on Max's shoulder but she shrugged it off.
"Please Ter, I saw the way you were looking at her, they way you've been looking at her." For a moment Terry debated telling her about what him and Claire had really been up, but thought better of it.
"When you see Dana, tell her I'll call her after I get off work."
"Whatever McGuiness," Max walked away, and Terry sighed as he watched her go.
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"Vigilantes struck again?" Terry asked, as he went down into the cave the next night.
"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" Terry gave him a funny look.
"What's a kettle?"
"Never mind, they went after Tee's this time. When you go out tonight, keep an eye out for them."
"Will do. So… you've forgiven me?" Terry asked hesitantly.
"I didn't say that." Bruce said, "Don't ever again make any more mistakes like last night."
"I got it, I got it." Terry pulled on the cowl.
"Batman there's an alert- a northbound JW train has been hijacked by Jokerz!" Bruce sounded very alarmed.
"What? That's not their usual style… where's the train now?"
"It's on the monorail tracks near 72nd street and picking up speed," Bruce's voice was tense, and Batman knew why, a crash could kill hundreds of people.
"Right," Batman turned his plane and rushed toward the monorail. He landed on the roof of the leading car and jumped in through the emergency exit hatch. "Sorry, I'm crashing your party!" He told the three Jokerz he found there. He tried to block out the screams of the terrified passengers.
"That's alright, this is our stop!" The Jokerz rushed towards the exits, and leapt out, all except one who Batman caught.
"Why the hurry?" He pushed him up against the walls and then noticed the controls. The autopilot had been tampered with and the Jokerz had disabled the automatic breaking. This train was not going to stop. "Not a very funny joke," Batman said, tying up the remaining Joker.
"Who said anything 'bout a joke? Lady just told him to do it."
"What?" Batman whirled on the Joker but he didn't have time to play 20 questions, he needed to stop this train.