To Play the Fool
Chapter Ten
Batman was too late to save Jenny. Tex had gotten there first. However, it seemed that she had gotten herself into her own bit of peril.
"Ow! Ow! Ouch! Jenny, would you – ow! – would you knock that off! Ow!"
"What! Are! You! Doing! In! Gotham?" Jenny punctuated each word with a whack of her purse at Jackie's head. "And take that stupid thing off!"
"Okay! Ow!" Tex touched a spot on her collar and her red eyes faded to black glass. Then the ribbons of metal that made up her head peeled back starting with her chin, went over her face and the back of her head before disappearing into her collar. Her red eyes were replaced by bright green ones. A long red braid tumbled out of her jacket over her left shoulder now that it was free. The hair did a good job of hiding a bit of scarring on the left side of her face. "Better?"
"Much." Suddenly, Jenny lashed out and slapped her sister across the face.
Jackie barely even blinked. "Okay. I see that you're mad."
"Mad? You came to Gotham without telling me!" She would have been yelling had her trachea not been crushed several minutes ago.
"Can we talk about this later? Someone called the cops, and they're going to spook the Penguin."
"Who?"
"Oswald Cobblepot? The Moriarty of Gotham City?"
"He struck me more as a Milverton."
"Yeah, me too. Look, I've got to get you out of here. How did you get here?"
"My car. It's in the garage, if they haven't gotten rid of it yet."
"Okay, I'll take you there, but I have to go take care of things in the Iceberg." She wrapped an arm protectively around her sister and led her down to her car.
"Oh, I left my coat in there. Do you think you could grab it?"
"Sure. Jenny, did you actually have a plan when things went south back there?"
"I made sure several people knew where I was so Cobblepot would be convicted in the event of my murder. I could definitely get him on attempted murder now."
"Did you have a plan for survival?"
"Well, I was hoping that they'd be smart enough not to kill me."
"Did you tell them people had seen you?"
"No, I did not," she admitted as her plan unraveled before her ears. "Didn't quite get to that part before they shut me up."
"There's your problem. You assume people are smarter than they actually are."
"No I don't," she replied indignantly. "Most people are idiots."
"I would like to argue with you on that, but I'm short on time."
They arrived at Jenny's car, and she opened the door to get in. "Please don't get yourself killed."
"I'll be fine …" Jackie stiffened. "Did you hear something?"
"Yeah." Jenny pointedly looked past her shoulder.
Jackie slowly spun around and let out a "Bwah!" when she saw Batman hovering right above her head. "Don't do that!" she snapped. Jenny chuckled and sat down in the driver's seat. Jackie crossed her arms and attempted to out-glare the Dark Knight. She was failing miserably. "You scare people, you know that?"
"Do you prefer Tex or Jacqueline?" he growled. Not that he really wanted to know, and she knew that.
Jackie sighed and slumped her shoulders in defeat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to find out. It's just that Jenny doesn't like -" Batman brushed past her, cutting her off. He slipped through the door to the VIP rooms and left her hanging.
Inside the Arctic Circle, the Penguin was talking to what remained of his crew from the stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced, "I've decided that it's time for a vacation. Preferably somewhere out-of-state."
A murmur passed through the crowd of 10 or so mob members in the Arctic Circle. They were all seated around the tables, each with their weapons at the ready. "Does this have anything to do with the girl you just had us kill?" a man asked.
"A little bit, yes," he admitted.
"We're screwed, aren't we," said another man.
"A little bit, yes. Look, we've suffered a bit of a setback, nothing we can't handle."
"Then why don't we sit here and let our lawyers weather the storm?" a woman asked.
"Because even if the police have their hands tied," Penguin snapped, "Batman doesn't. We've been playing a dangerous game, and now he has the upper hand. We've got no choice but to clear out. What do you think of Havana?"
"Havana's not bad," said the woman with the poodle. Her voice was eerily deadpan, and her eyes never moved from her dog. Suddenly, the poodle's ears perked up, and it leaped off her lap, yapping its head off as it raced upstairs. The woman stood up and followed her dog, walking calmly to the stairs. "What's wrong, honey? Come back to Mommy."
The group chuckled as she left the room, but quieted down when they heard an angry voice from a dark corner of the room. "You should stay in Gotham. I hear the weather's better."
Someone's cell phone illuminated the Batman's face in a dark corner of the room, then his fist slammed into the owner's face. The whole room erupted into action, most of which was a retreat led by Penguin, who could move surprisingly fast. A few stayed behind to delay him while Penguin made his getaway. No matter.
The fire alarm went off, shrieking through the entire building. It was annoying, but failed to distract the five mercenaries left behind. They pulled out their handguns and took aim while Batman rushed them. Penguin's normal trained troops could be handled in under a couple minutes. His personal guards? Not so much.
Batman disarmed one of the men, but found himself thrown into a nearby table. This would take a little while. He dropped a flash grenade, and with the group stunned, he broke one man's already cracked ribs with a jab to the abdomen, twisted another man's arm until it fractured, and shot a woman with a rifle in the leg.
One of the remaining mercenaries used a stripper pole to his advantage and kicked Batman in the head. He recovered quickly, caught the next blow, and broke the man's ankle. He went down momentarily while another man, in a show of brute force pulled the pole out from the ceiling and stage floor to use as a weapon. The woman found her gun and fired at the two, grazing Batman's arm and forcing both of them behind the stage.
"You're going to get us all killed, Anne!" he shouted.
"I'm out," she announced. "Rob, give me one of yours."
'Rob' just moaned in response due to his ribs and spleen
"Oh, it's no good. All I'm seeing is stars," she said in resignation.
"And that made you think it was a good idea to start shooting in the first place?" exclaimed the man with the fractured wrist.
While the group was arguing, Batman 'borrowed' the pole, gave the owner a solid right hook, and knocked the other two off their feet. He handcuffed the three of them to a table, decided the other two probably wouldn't be going anywhere, and ran up to the main floor.
The dance floor was completely empty of patrons. The fire alarm had done its job. The only people on the floor were Tex and a woman with absurdly poofy white hair wearing an old silk, green dress. Oh, and a poodle. The two women were locked in a vicious fight that neither seemed to be on top of. The mystery woman had a knife that she kept slashing across Tex's face with a metal-on-metal cling! Each ring enraged her more and more. Tex, on the other hand, was just trying to get it away from her. "Hi Batman."
"There was a group that came by."
"Yeah." Tex got the knife out of her grasp and threw her halfway across the room. "Ha ha! Ah!" She ducked as another knife flew over her head. "How many of those do you have?"
"Why won't you die!" she shrieked as she came in for another attack.
"Did you see where they went?" Batman asked.
Tex managed to put the woman in a brief headlock. "Upstairs. Have fun."
The woman broke free and threw Tex over her shoulder into a table. Batman silently wished her the same as he broke one of the one one-way mirrors overseeing the lounge and dance floor, and flew up via grappling rope. Batman tackled someone in the hall as he landed, and threw him down to the floor below. After making sure he was alive and writing in pain with two broken ankles, he stalked down the hall to find the remaining men and the Penguin before they could get away.
The top floor was darkened and sparsely decorated. The hall was a row of windows on one side and administrative offices on the other. One of the doors was opened an inch or two, letting light and voices spill out into the hall.
"It's two minutes away, Mr. Cobblepot," said a timid woman.
"That's not good enough. Tell them to drive faster!" he snarled back.
"We put our best men on him," said another man, defending her.
"They're not good enough. Never underestimate the Batman. That was my only mistake. We have to leave now!"
As much as he wanted to hear the end of this conversation, he needed to stop the Penguin now. At the end of the hall was a utility closet with the fuse box. Batman pulled out the main fuse and the Iceberg Lounge plunged into silence and darkness. This would be his play ground.
Several people spilled out of the office, each armed with a firearm and at least one flashlight. This was a familiar fight. He easily avoided the glance of the flashlights until he slipped into the center of the group. A second later, someone realized that he was right next to them and tried to knock him over the head with the butt of his gun. Batman avoided the blow, which landed on another man's head, and knocked him out with an uppercut.
The other sprang into action, but the Batman was quicker. In a rush of confusion and fisticuffs, he managed to either knock out or incapacitate every last one of them. Often a bit of misdirection was all he needed. Their panic did nearly all the work for him. He lashed together a few with handcuffs, and when he ran out of those, he tied up the rest with a bit of cord he kept on his utility belt.
At the end of the hall was a door with a staircase to the roof. It had been left slightly ajar, meaning this was the way the Penguin had come. He had left one man behind with a rifle just in case the others couldn't do their job. "Hey!" The man aimed at the Batman, but he just tore the gun out of his hands, japed him in the gut, and knocked him over the head. The man collapsed and fell down the stairs.
Batman threw open the door to the roof.
Penguin stood in the middle of the roof, holding a small device in his hand. A rope ladder hung behind him, which was suspended by a helicopter. Down below, the building was surrounded by police cars. The police were already swarming the Iceberg Lounge and ordering the helicopter to leave. "You're trapped, Penguin!" Batman shouted. "Give up now!"
One of his goons handed him the handset to a megaphone. "See this? This is a detonator to several reasonably sized bombs, and they're all armed to blow now."
"Why would you blow up your own building?"
"Oh, they're not here. Remember the bomb at Wayne Enterprises? I've got twenty-four more in buildings all around town. You could try looking for them, but I'll be long gone by then. That's right, Gotham P.D. I've got a bomb! Now back off! All of you!"
Batman slowly put his hands up, careful to give the Penguin what he wanted:
Surrender.
"—really doesn't like my helmet," Jackie finished lamely and sighed. "Don't get in trouble, Jenny." Since Batman already took care of the man in charge of parking, she wrapped her braid around her neck, pushed the button on her collar so her helmet would come back on, and left the lot to go through the front door.
"Back of the line," the bouncer demanded when she approached him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," she announced. "Things are going to get ugly tonight. I would advise you to leave. Now." Tex slammed the heel of her hand into the bouncer's nose, head-butted his assistant, and calmly walked inside. The entire line shrieked and fled in her wake.
The party inside pretty much ignored her. They just kept dancing and drinking. A waiter even delivered her a drink from a gentleman at the bar while she was assessing the situation. Since she couldn't figure out how to drink it, she gave it to a passing girl who was already quite drunk. Only one objection to her presence was made known, and he was about two feet tall, had sharp teeth, and fluffy brown fur. He raced up from downstairs and started barking and snarling at her.
Tex found the fire alarm and pulled it. The music stopped immediately and the crowd scattered like rats and the noise. Within a minute, the floor was clear of all humans. Most of them left out the doors, but she noticed a sizeable group run upstairs. The poodle, however, was still latched on her ankle. "That sort of hurts, puppy."
"Come here, love," said a woman with a low voice and white hair nearly as full as her dog's. The dog let go and returned to his mommy. "I'll give you one warning."
"That's very nice, but - " Tex was cut off by a knife flying just past her head. She barely dodged in time to avoid it.
"That was your one warning." Two more knives appeared in her hands. "This one's for real."
The knife flew at Tex's heart as swift and silent as a bullet, but she didn't dodge this one. Her hand flashed out and caught the knife. "I'm not scared of you."
"You should be." The woman with the white hair attacked Tex with a flurry of slashes. Tex threw her knife aside and simply blocked the blows with her arms. The blade failed to make a scratch in her jacket. Seeing this, the woman's steely façade slipped for just a second, betraying a flash of rage. "I just sharpened these."
"Bulletproof." Tex finally took a swing, and smashed her fist into her face. "Mostly."
The woman touched her face in shock. "No one touches me. No. One."
If Tex's face could be seen, it would have had an Oh, Crap sort of expression as the woman tore a slit in her skirt and charged the vigilante. Her hands were probably about as lethal as her knives as she tried to take down Tex. She got in several vital blows to Tex's face, but Tex wasn't defenseless. She managed to hold her own against the vicious fighter, at least until she managed to stab her in the side. "Oh, dear Lord!" she gasped, grabbing her ribs.
The woman paused, suddenly struck by an idea. Her knife was bent and warped, and Tex's jacket wasn't pierced or bleeding. "Bulletproof, I see." She grabbed the knife Tex had discarded and dropped hers, picked up an unopened bottle of champagne, and smashed it over her head nearly hard enough to shatter it. "But what about blunt objects?"
"Admittedly not my favorite." This time, it was Tex that began the attack, lashing out at the woman's hands in an attempt to get rid of the knife. While she wasn't bleeding, knives still hurt quite a bit, especially when they weighted her punches. But the woman was too fast. She dodged Tex's attacks with a patronizing ease, and slashed her knife across her face to distract her. However, Tex didn't seem to notice. She did, however, see Batman appear from the Arctic Circle. "Hi Batman."
"There was a group that came by," he said, never one for small talk.
"Yeah." Tex caught the woman's arm and twisted the knife out of her hand. Then she threw her in the general direction of the dog that wouldn't stop yapping. "Ha ha!" she cheered in victory. "Ah!" She just barely ducked below another knife. "How many of those do you have?"
The woman recovered too quickly. "Why won't you just die?" she shrieked as she came in for another go.
"Did you see where they went?" Batman continued, ignoring the fight.
Tex caught her and put her in a brief chokehold. "Upstairs. Have fun." At that moment, the woman threw her over her back and into a table. "What is your problem?"
The table hadn't broken when Tex landed on it, but it did yield to the woman's arm. Tex caught her hand and threw her across the room before getting up and going after her. She retaliated with a bar stool, hitting the vigilante a couple of times before she got a hold of it and broke the legs. Then she used two of the pieces as makeshift batons to beat her back to the VIP lounge. But then, she had had enough, took back the chair legs, and pushed Tex down the stairs. Unfortunately, Tex got a handful of her hair and took her down with her.
They tumbled all the way down the stairs and landed in a pile in a corner. Tex ended up with her face in a crystal sculpture. "This man has way too many penguins."
The woman's arm snaked around her neck and put Tex in a necklock before she could recover from her trip. "I'll admit, this was fun. No one I've met has put up as much of a fight as you have. Well, there was one man. He's at the bottom of the Seine now. I miss him. You, on the other hand. I'll be glad to be rid of you. Did you know it only takes four minutes of oxygen starvation to cause brain damage? Not necessarily death, but it will do."
"I did know that."
Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. "You can breathe."
"Yeah."
She tried a different approach, grabbing her head and slamming her face into the exposed concrete. "I'm not … usually … so direct."
"Oof! – my helmet – ack – is cushioned – ow – You're not going – ow! – to give me – a – concussion."
"Then how do I kill you?"
Tex turned over and kicked her off. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. In the meantime ..." She got up and tipped a table over on her. "Can we please calm down?"
"I have a better idea." She grabbed a metal pole from a mass of bodies in the middle of the floor and swung it at Tex. The second blow knocked her over and she abandoned the pole in favor of just kicking her in the ribs. Tex caught her leg between her feet, pulled her to the ground, and tried beating her senseless.
Then she noticed her victim had gone motionless. Tex froze in her attack. "Oh no. Wake up. Come on, wake up! Concussions are very bad things! I'll go get some ice." She ran to the bar, which was in sad shape, and rooted around the back. As soon as she found a champagne bucket with ice, the woman hit her over the head with a table leg.
"Amater." She dropped the club on Tex's crumpled body. Her poodle started barking bloody murder and she went upstairs. "What's wrong, Honey?" Her calm had been restored.
Down was not something Tex was used to. Neither was fighting women who talked to their poodles. Or even had poodles. Tex had the air knocked out of her, but not her senses. She pushed herself to her feet and ran upstairs. Poodle lady would not get away.
She wasn't running, though. She was standing in the middle of the dance floor with a knife in one hand and a scared girl in a cocktail dress and a coat with long brown air and white latex gloves. The knife was at the girl's jugular. "Friend of yours?"
Tex stopped fifteen feet from them. "Um, well … what's your name?"
The girl swallowed and answered, "Star," with a tremor.
"Yes. That is my friend Star. Let her go before someone gets hurt."
"That is exactly the point. It all depends on who you want to be killed."
"The police are here. I can hear the sirens. You're not going to get away."
"Do you hear that helicopter up there too? That's my ride, and I'm not missing it. Not because of you."
"Star, I am really, really sorry for this."
"Sorry about what?" Horror filled her voice. Tex pulled a small ball-shaped device from her pocket and snapped her wrist at their general direction. The next second, a small explosion threw them all down. "She cut my neck she cut my neck!" Star screamed.
The woman in question was on the ground, a thousand cuts and burns were all over her back and legs. She groaned, indicating she was still alive, but she didn't move. Tex touched her neck to check her pulse, but that was all the care she gave. She turned her attention to Star. "It's just a graze. You'll be okay."
"She slit my throat! That was a bomb! A bomb!"
Tex retrieved a gauze bandage from a pocket on her belt, and put it on Star's neck. "Don't choke yourself. And when the police ask, tell them that was Batman's grenade."
"But -"
"Star, you're going to be fine. I have to go."
"Oh, my friend's on the roof! You have to go get Jenny! She was going after Oswald."
Tex signed. "Dang it, Jenny," she grumbled.
"—really doesn't like my helmet," Jackie finished lamely. She took a deep breath and looked at me. "Don't get in trouble, Jenny." Then she wrapped her braid around her neck, pushed the button on her collar, and her helmet came over her head. Her eyes flashed red, letting her know that all systems were go, and she left the little garage.
As soon as she was gone, I sprang out of my car and opened the trunk. Inside lay 24 gleaming crystal penguins, each separated by a small foam bed. In one corner of my trunk was a box of white latex gloves, of which I put on a pair. No need to leave any evidence.
"Jenny!" Star appeared at the mouth of the garage and ran to me. "I can't find Bruce!"
"Hello Star. I'm sure he's fine." I tried to use my body to hide the contents of my trunk from her.
"He came to find you, and I went outside to call the police."
"Why?"
"I thought Cobblepot was going to kill you. What happened to your neck?"
"Cobblepot tried to have me killed."
"Oh! I thought I was being paranoid. So did Bruce find you?"
"No, but I'm sure he'll be alright. The police are coming so everything should be under control." That's when the fire alarm went off. "On second thought, I could use your help with this." I handed her two latex gloves.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she put the gloves on.
"We're … going to decorate the Lounge a bit with some penguins." I had a backpack in the trunk and put two penguins in it. Then I handed Star two to carry in her arms. "I hear he likes penguins."
"Is this legal?"
"Not entirely. Well, they're his in the first place, but I don't think he'll be overjoyed to see them again." I put on the backpack.
"Wait, what?"
I grabbed two more penguins and marched to the service door. I listened at the crack for the room to quiet down. I've never listened to a fight before, but it sounded incredibly painful. I could almost count how many bones were broken. At some point, the punches and blows stopped. Handcuffs were adjusted and locked, then there was only moaning from the injured. I pulled open the door and held it open for Star. Inside, she stopped dead in her tracks. She was looking right at a pile of about five thugs.
"They're not going to hurt you." I set down two penguins in a corner and removed the foam.
"Are you sure about that?" She set down her penguins in the corner closest to the door.
"Actually, no. Go ahead and stand by the door." I left my other two penguins on the far side of the room, then we went back out and reloaded. Star still kept eying the group warily, but since they hadn't escaped yet, she was ever-so-slightly braver. We left a total of twelve penguins in the basement. When we reloaded with another six, I decided some were needed on the first floor. Before we left, we took the rest of the penguins out of my trunk and left them scattered around the garage.
"Jenny, look!" Star stopped again as we crossed the room. "A security camera!" She pointed to a corner of the ceiling. True enough, there was something that looked like a camera with a blinking red light, but I shook my head.
"Place like this, it's most likely a dummy to keep people honest. No need to be worried."
We started up the stairs. About halfway up, I heard a table fall over and Tex's mechanical grunting, so I stopped. We would have to wait. Suddenly, two women appeared at the top of the steps. One was dressed in a black and red leather-like suit with a metal head, and the other was in an old, torn green silk dress with white permed hair. Tex and the woman that owned the poodle. One second they were fighting and completely ignoring us. The next, they were coming down the stairs, tumbling and shouting. I pushed Star over to the side so they could pass unhindered.
"What was – you know what? I don't think I want to know."
"Same here," I replied.
We put our penguins on whatever tables were still standing so they were disguised as tacky centerpieces. Considering the décor of this place, they fit right in. I kept one penguin in my backpack. As we were setting up the last one, I head the unmistakable sound of a helicopter near the roof. What kind of idiot lands on a roof this low in the city? And surrounded by cops? (Unless they were the cops. Unlikely.) Cobblepot was trying to get away.
"I'm going to the roof!" I shouted at Star. "You need to leave now!"
"What?" I guess the helicopter might have been kind of loud.
"You!" I pointed at her, then at the door. "Leave!"
Hopefully she got the message. I didn't have any more time to waste. I found the stairs that went up to the second floor. The lights had been cut, but I could still see a pile of bodies, all handcuffed and tied up. I carefully stepped over them and found a door labeled with some stairs. As I made my way up, I took out the last penguin, dropped the backpack and foam in the stairwell, and pushed open the door.
Outside, the wind whipped around my hair and blew a heavy black sheet of fabric into my face. Batman was standing still a few yards from the door and shouting at someone else, but the helicopter was practically drowning him out. The Penguin was talking back to him via a megaphone. "That's right Gotham P.D. I've got a bomb! Now back off! All of you!" That would explain the detonator in his hand.
Cobblepot hadn't noticed me yet, so I walked past Batman, keeping my skirt down with one hand and clutching the penguin tightly to me with the other. (Wind. Seriously.) He didn't stop mocking Batman until I waved in his face. He was surprised to see me alive. Even more so to see the statue in my hand. I took his handset from him. "I believe this is yours." Then I set it down by his feet.
Penguin looked from the penguin, to me, to the Batman, and back to the penguin. He snatched back his handset. "That's only one."
I took it back. "You're right. Five more are on the dance floor, twelve are in the Arctic Circle, and the last six are in the garage. Your move." I handed it back and bowed out to Batman. He had a distinct grin like he had just regained his edge.
Penguin's henchman dropped the megaphone and abandoned him for the chopper, and the pilot decided it was time to go. The helicopter flew away, finally letting us hear something. He turned to run, but Batman was too fast and tackled him. He gave him two solid punches, which didn't knock him out, but incapacitated him enough. "That's for Tex!" I thought I heard him say.
I cleared my throat. "Tried to kill me. Twice."
Batman shook his head, but hit him anyway. Right then, Tex burst through the door. "Jenny, what in the -!" she shouted.
"Oh good, you're here. What took you so long?" I replied.
"Lady with a poodle, with poodle hair, tried to kill me and was doing a very good job!"
Batman gave me a questioning look and I shrugged. Then he stood and gave Tex a pair of handcuffs. "Take the credit," he instructed before he shot his grappling cable at one of the taller buildings surrounding us.
"Wait, what? No!" But she was too late. Batman was already sailing off into the night. Jackie was probably grumbling under her helmet, but she handcuffed the Penguin regardless and pulled him to his knees. "Police will be up here any second. I can't stay. Be good, both of you." With that, she took a running jump off the roof, onto the fire escape of the neighboring building, climbed up the side, and just kept running.
The police were done with me around 3 a.m. They impounded my car since they found the explosives in the building and wanted to make sure my car didn't have any. Plus, I was a witness and it was evidence. So Jackie came to pick me up on her motorcycle. Me in a dress, minus a helmet and coat, plus a Ducati – yeah, that wasn't going to happen. "No."
"It's this or you walk." I was shivering, so she took off her jacket and gave it to me. This was something she very rarely did, so I accepted it immediately.
"Won't you be cold?" She was only wearing a half sleeved black t-shirt under a solid black corset she only wore as added protection against bullets.
"I'll be fine, but we've got to talk."
"Now?"
Jackie lifted up the police tape and we walked away from prying ears. "I met a girl named Star tonight."
"I know her. She's my boss's girlfriend."
"Jenny, you put Star in danger." There was no trace of a smile in Jackie's eyes. She looked old for a moment – older than me. "I saw her gloves. She was wearing them because she was helping you."
"I knew you were there and could save her. That's what you do."
"Star got hurt. It should have been much worse, but it wasn't. You put her in that situation when she didn't have to be. As soon as you enlisted her help, she became your responsibility. And dang it, Jenny! I told you to stay out of it!"
"You needed my help!" I snapped back.
"I had a plan!"
"I had a better one!"
"Alright! Your plan was better, but that's not the point. Star could have been killed while you were handling those bombs. And Poodle Lady had the perfect opportunity to slice open her throat."
"I told her to leave, Jackie. Why would I leave her sitting on a bomb?"
"You didn't tell her she was handling explosives, or else she would have gone to the police. Instead she got scared and hid. People don't just obey you because you want them to. You never made sure she was out of danger."
"I didn't judge any of this to be dangerous for her or me."
"Penguin sent you into a blind alley to be killed not ten minutes before. On top of that, you knew it was a bad idea to come here in the first place."
"Alright! I knew I was in over my head, and I needed her help or else none of us would have survived. I'll go visit Star in the hospital tomorrow and tell her that I was wrong. The next time, I'm not letting anyone get involved."
Jackie stopped in her tracks. "Dad was right."
"About what?"
"You get yourself into trouble deliberately. That's why I came in the first place, and that's why I'm going to stay."
"For how long?"
She shrugged. "Until the day I die if I have to."