Starfire's Point of View
Batman lay on his side clutching his ribs where Harley had hit him with her hammer. Harley stood defensively beside the Joker, who was on the ground. His left leg was bent at a disturbing angle, but he seemed oblivious to any pain it was causing him. His hideous smile was stretched in delight as he looked at Batman. I stood between them, one hand holding a starbolt poised to fire while the other pointed toward the sky from the beacon I had sent to alert the others.
"Where's your sense of humor, Batsy? Gordon stood there and did nothing while you broke my leg and there was nothing you could do when I broke his daughter's." Batman made a grunting noise, his anger a living thing in the alleyway as he fought to control it.
"She'll never walk again," he ground out. My heart stopped in my chest. It was not often that Tamaraneans experienced injuries damaging enough to leave us paralyzed, and Robin had informed me on numerous occasions just how fragile human bodies were by comparison, but I had not considered... How terrible!
"Don't worry Bats, I'm sure dear old daddy will love having his little girl depend on him for everything again. Why, she's just like a baby now. He'll have to feed her, and bathe her, and change her. And one day, she may even learn to crawl!" He laughed. Harley, for the first time did not look as amused as he was.
"But Puddin', I thought you said Gordon was gonna' die. Then who's gonna' take care of her? It ain't right leaving some poor girl all alone and defenseless in a city like this."
"Can it, Harley!" Joker snapped, and all of the laughter was gone to be replaced by menace that chilled me to the bones. Harley shrank back in genuine fear. Had she truly given her heart to this poor excuse for a human? I flexed my fingers to summon a starbolt, but Batman caught my eye and shook his head. Right, the others were coming. We needed to stall them.
"But Sweetie, what if we took her in. I always wanted a little girl I could dress up and play with." Now all eyes turned to her. Even Joker looked shocked by the suggestion, and he snatched the mallet from her to swing it at her, but froze.
"You know what, that's not a bad idea. Imagine, me, helping to shape the next generation. I like it!" He dropped the weapon, and Harley let out a sigh of relief. My stomach clenched in disgust.
There was a whistling sound, and before I could react, Batman had flung a batarang that embedded in Joker's thigh. He howled, but it ended on a gasping chuckle. He waved one finger tauntingly.
"Naughty naughty. Have a taste of your own medicine." He reached into his pocket and threw something small and bronze. It landed near me and familiar green gas hissed out. My eyes were already watering by the time I got into the air. Without me to separate them, Batman lunged for the other two. Blinking furiously so that I could aim, I threw a giant starbolt into the alley between them. Batman roared and spun away, the edges of his cape smoking.
"Stay out of this!" He threw a smoke bomb into the air that exploded near my feet, blocking my view of the scene. I dove, but he was already feet from Joker, preparing to jump. Harley swung her mallet and caught him full in the back, batting him into the wall. With a bit of fancy acrobatics she somersaulted over him and kicked him in the head. The mallet swung once, twice. He lifted his arms to protect his head, but she managed to swing in under him and hit him full in the abdominals.
"Stop this!" I shouted, swooping down to pull the weapon from her hands. Hands grabbed the ends of my hair and yanked me right out of the air. Joker rolled so that he sat astride me. He leered with deadly promise, and I bucked hard.
"Would the lady like a flower?" He touched the flower tucked into the front of his striped purple jacket, and boiling green poison splashed my face.
Screaming and flailing, I grabbed the front of his shirt and flung him away, not caring how hard or how far I threw him. There was a crash, but I didn't care. My face felt as though it was melting off my bones.
"And here I was starting to like you, toots, but nobody does that to Mista' J!" I heard Harley say above me before something hard smashed onto my stomach. I tried to fly but couldn't feel anything beyond the pain. I blocked my face with my hands but it didn't stop the fire from eating me alive. She swung again, but I heard a zipping sound before the mallet was pulled from her hands. She spun around, but saw nothing. I rolled onto all fours, struggling to assess the new threat. When the attack came, it came from above, a figure in red and green and yellow dropping out of the shadows like he was born in them. He flipped once and his feet struck Harley in the chest, propelling her backwards. Then, I heard a familiar roar as a green lion went chasing after her. Harley shrieked in terror.
"Cyborg, over here." Raven's presence was soothing in spite of the pain. She helped guide me over to where Cyborg was prying open a fire hydrant. Water gushed out and I plunged my hands into the stream to splash my face over and over. Mcyborg rubbed my shoulder, murmuring soothing words. Raven stood guard, though Beast Boy had Harley well-occupied.
Then there were gloved hands, turning and tilting my face up. The worst of the burning was gone, though my eyes still felt aflame. Robin's mask came into focus as he crashed his forehead to mine in relief.
"Don't ever do that to me again," he murmured, holding the back of my head as he nuzzled his cheek against mine.
"Apologies, but he meant to kill him. I could not allow him to break the code."
"Starfire," he groaned. It felt glorious to have him so near, to feel his heart thudding against mine and to know that it beat so frantically because he cared for me. I had not intended to do the disobeying of him, but when he left me to visit Babs in the hospital I felt restless and required something useful to do. So I went to the Batcave. I did not seek out Raven because I did not wish her to misinterpret my conflicted emotions regarding Robin and Batgirl.
"What?! Robin! You're supposed to be dead," Joker exclaimed. Robin withdrew from my side and stood slowly to face him, giving him the opportunity to see him whole and hale.
"So are you, but life's never fair, is it?"
Joker hung from Batman's fist, half-dragging on the ground. At Robin's words he grinned.
"Ain't it the truth," he agreed. Batman shook him and pulled out his grappling gun. Robin took a step forward.
"You're sure you've got this?"
Batman didn't answer. Instead, he fired the gun, and he and Joker zipped away into the night. Robin scowled and then looked over his shoulder to where Beast Boy was returning carrying Harley by the back of her absurd costume, holding her with his teeth. She was trembling and sobbing with fear.
"He's gonna' eat me! Do something!"
"See that she finds her way back to Arkham." The lion nodded and Harley wailed again. "Come on." Heavily, Robin reached out his hand to pull me to my feet.
"Where are we going?" I sensed his anger just below the surface. I had known he would be upset when he found out I had gotten involved against his wishes. He stared into my face with an intensity I had never seen before. I did not know whether to be intimidated or flattered.
"Someone has to find Gordon. Raven, we'll probably need you for this." He didn't take my hand, but he stayed so close that our arms brushed at every step. Cyborg fixed the hydrant and called the police on his arm.
"I'll stay with BB, and we'll meet you up." He sent me a questioning look and I gave him the thumbs up to tell him that I was feeling better. Robin didn't wait for me before he strode off toward the end of the alley. Raven hesitated, glanced from him to me, and followed.
"Robin, I-" I started to say, but he held up a hand and tapped a small earpiece I had not noticed.
"Any news on Gordon?"
He kept his hand raised as if that would keep me from asking questions. His expression grew grim.
"His house? You're sure? No. We're only a couple of blocks over." He tapped the earpiece again.
"Who was that?"
"Alfred. The last place Gordon's been sighted was at his house when they found his daughter. We'll start by going there." It would be hard for him to go there knowing what had taken place, knowing that his friend had been hurt there. I knew how his mind worked. He would feel the guilt and remorse until he could not see past it to the truth.
The alley reached a dead end. Robin tilted back his head to judge the rusted balconies and broken windows for footholds to let him scale the wall.
"Here." I offered my hand, but he ignored it and reached into his utility belt for his grappling gun. He did not look at me as he fired it into the darkness overhead and whooshed up from the ground. I hung back, his rejection worse than a physical blow. Raven moved closer to me.
"It's not just you, Star. He's trying not to feel anything right now when he's feeling everything at once." She glided up after him and meekly I followed suit. He was watching from the edge of the building, balancing on the balls of his feet. He looked away as soon as our eyes met and a sinking sensation nearly caused me to loose control of my flight.
Not now, I told myself. The mission came first, and right now we had to find Barbara's father.