" Mom, Dad, and I..." Harri said. "We are all worried about you."
"Please don't be," Adriana said on the phone.
"You sound so angry," Harri told her.
"Well," Adriana responded. "Maybe I am."
"What happened," Harri asked with concern.
"It's Bruce. He's been ignoring me for a few days. I mean it's all so childish..."
" Why would he be ignoring you?"
" Because he asked me to do something and I refused."
"Hmmm," Harri said thoughtfully. "He wanted anal."
"What?!" Adriana burst into laughter. "Hell no, what the fuck? SHeesh... Thank you though I needed that laugh. I swear... your mind, Harri."
"Well, then tell me what happened. What did he want?"
"He wanted me to find some information out about someone and then share it with him. Some personal information."
"Damn.." Harri said. "They're all users...maybe you should refrain from telling guys about your gift from now on. I mean this is how it always ends for you..."
"Yeah."
" But either way I'm still angry at Bruce for you," Harri said defensively. " I mean he cannot force you into helping him with whatever he wants. It's up to you. "
"I was thinking I would go and talk to him."
"Why?"
" I guess because it's sort of my fault. The only in reason that he wants the information about the person is based off of something that I did... He doesn't even know that it was my fault...I mean some of the blame is mine.. Sorry it's hard to explain but.. Bottom line is I have been keeping something from him, and maybe it's time for me to come clean.."
"Okay...whatever that means," Harri said. "I still think he's a loser."
"No...he's great. I just have to talk to him."
.
.
.
Adriana stepped off in the elevator at Bruce's penthouse. After she took her first step out of the elevator she heard them. Bruce's laughter and the seductive giggle of a woman.
They didn't see her but she could see them.
"It was so amazing running into you again," she heard the woman the enormous black fur coat say. " We really have to do this more often."
Bruce held a woman in his arms and kissed her.
"We certainly do," he said.
Immediately Adriana backed into the elevator before they could see her just as the doors were closing.
22 Whittier Street. 2 Hours.
She realized that there was no time to even get angry or upset as she looked down at the text message from the Joker in her phone.
..
.
.
Adriana felt the Batman's grip on her ankle as climbed the ladder in the elevator shaft of the lab. The Joker's team had used the blueprints she had gotten to break in.
Somehow, the Batman had received the word of the break-in. The entire team that the Joker had hired was wearing black ski masks. She was sure that a few of them didn't even realize they were working for the Joker. The mask covered up everything but her brown eyes from the contact lenses and her red sprayed hair. For this she was glad. The Batman would not recognize her. Unless he caught her and tore off the ski mask.
She fight would fight like hell.
He didn't know who she was. All he knew was that she was a member of the Joker's team, and she was escaping with a case filled with what the Joker had stolen. He had got into an altercation with the Joker, and had knocked the case out of the Joker's hands. This flame-haired woman was quick enough to snatch it and run off.
The Joker ran off that he had assumed that the mission was a failure. His entire team had been knocked off by the Batman. He did not know that she was still in the game and that she had the case.
She wasn't even sure why she was doing this. But her blood was boiling. She should have given up. That would be the decent thing to do. Turn over the substance in the case to the Batman. Stop fighting. Let him subdue her and then tell him the truth. The Joker had forced her to do this. But she was too angry with him. For trying to use her, for moving on to the next woman so quickly.
The Batman was closing in on her as he climbed behind her on the ladder in the elevator shaft. She felt herself intentionally climbing a bit slower as he caught up to her, and once he was right behind her she used all of her might to kick him hard in the face repeatedly enough to knock him off of the ladder. Her anger gave her greater strength. She kicked with fury. She watched him fall down several floors in the elevator shaft..disappearing in the dark
He would survive the fall and she knew that.
She turned back so that she was facing the ladder again and looked up. Only a few steps away from the open elevator door, and she go see the light shining into the dark shaft. The ladder lined up the open doorway. She looked down while she grabbed the rim of the elevator doorway, knowing that if she fell she would likely not survive. She was not wearing armor.
Suddenly she felt arms pulling her roughly out of the elevator shaft and through a door onto the carpeted floor. It was the Joker.
He grabbed the case from her. He had seen her kicking the Batman furiously until he fell. The Batman would not be down for long so they needed to run. And they did.