"The Joker Gas that Joker is using is likely a variation of Joker Venom," Bruce started with, being careful to be more explanative than usual for Laurel's benefit. "It's a type of toxin that serves as his signature weapon for his schemes."
Laurel swallowed as pictures of many of the Joker's victims were pulled up. They all had unnaturally wide grins, yellowed teeth, pale skin and bulging eyes, not unlike the Joker himself. Nor unlike the people he had just Jokerized for his latest plot. "What does it do?"
"There's two versions: a lethal and non-lethal version. The lethal version causes the victim to suffer uncontrollable spasms laughter, leaving them unable to breathe and eventually leading to a painful death. The non-lethal version has similar effects, though the laughter eventually stops and the victim is just left with an unusually large grin that remains permanently on their face. There is a cure, but prolonged exposure to the non-lethal variant can cause permanent brain damage."
She nodded. "I take you have the formula for the antidote, then?"
"Yes. Along with several vats full of antidote stored across various Wayne Enterprises locations. However, we do not know if the antidote will work with Joker Gas due to the modifications the Joker made to the formula. We'll need to make another antidote just to make sure."
"And to do that, you need a sample of the gas," Laurel surmised easily. "I think I know where we can get some. The estate the League has been staying in during our time here in Gotham — the Joker was invited to stay with us after he made his partnership with the master official. It was so we could provide him the resources he needed to make the gas and supervise its synthesis. There may be leftover samples still there at the lab he used."
The three men exchanged looks. "It's the only lead we have," Dick noted, a grim expression on his face.
His mentor stared at him, before slowly nodding in agreement. "Nightwing, you will go with… Aswad?" he gave a brief look to Laurel, who shrugged. "Right. We'll just call you Aswad for now. Anyway, you two will go to the estate and secure all the samples of Joker Gas you can find. I will call Lucius to inform him of the situation so he can prepare the labs and synthesize the antidote, before hooking up with Gordon to coordinate a response to the attack."
Dick took a quick glance at Laurel before turning back to his mentor. "Sounds like a plan, but we need something to differentiate her from the other assassins." He quickly headed to the clothing racks and took something out — a domino mask.
After observing it a little to make sure it was the right size, he went to Laurel and handed it to her. Laurel blinked as she felt the mask in her hands, her fingers a little sticky from the adhesive on the sides. Tentatively, she lifted it up and put it on, blinking at how easy it was to see through the mesh coverings. A minute later, once she was used to it more, she pulled off her mask and straightened it out before using it to tie up her hair in a familiar set of motions.
"Looks good," Dick said, giving her two thumbs up.
"Good. Then if that's it, then we need to go now. You can follow me on your motorcycle — I'll lead the way."
She was breaking the most sacred of the League's laws by bringing the Batman's protege with her to one of their safehouses, but at this point, Laurel didn't care. Anyone that had any right to raise an objection was either in Nanda Parbat, completely unaware of what was happening in Gotham, or currently one of the Joker's brainwashed lackeys. If it took revealing a few of the League's secrets to save her best friend, then that's what Laurel would do.
The entire estate was dead silent when they arrived there, not a hint of life inside. Unlike previous days, Ra's had opted to commandeer of all the League's forces to the warehouse, not bothering to leave behind a single soul to guard the mansion. He had probably believed that at this point, it wouldn't matter if Bruce had somehow managed to infiltrate his current headquarters, now that his plan was already in motion. A mistake, but one that worked in their favor — they didn't need to worry about having to sneaking their way in.
"And I thought the League couldn't get creepier," Dick— Nightwing — commented beside her as they walked inside. "How did you stand sleeping in a place like this?"
"It's a bit livelier during the daytime," Laurel replied, guiding him towards where the staircase to the basement was supposed to be. "When people are actually here."
"Right," Dick said slowly, clearly not believing her words.
They walked down the stairs to the basement level. There were a line of doors there, which would've made it confusing had the Joker not been, well, the Joker. One of the first things he'd done was spray paint his logo on the door to his lab. They located it easily, and Dick tensed as Laurel took out her lockpick device to wrench the lab open.
A click! later, there was an opening made. Laurel carefully and slowly opened the door to the lab, waiting a few tense minutes. When nothing came out, Dick took out a flashlight and quickly located the lightswitch, flicking it on. The entire room came to life, revealing a surprisingly un-ghastly scene.
The lab equipment was professionally set up, not unlike it would be in the Bat-Cave. There were vials of Joker Gas placed on racks, neatly labeled. If they both didn't know better, one would even call it a completely normal laboratory and not the den of an insane madman.
"I guess even the Joker has to comply with proper lab safety guidelines," the former Robin quipped as he and his companion looked around.
Laurel spotted the Joker Gas quickly, in one of the cabinets. "Is this what you need?" she asked, pointing up at the green vials.
Dick went to her and looked at the labels, before nodding. "Looks like it. Good thing I'm already wearing gloves," he said as he opened the cabinet up and took one of the vials with one hand. With the other, he flicked open a pouch on his utility belt took out some kind of device. He popped open one of the vials and plugged the opening into the device, watching as the liquid glowed and then filtered inside.
"There. A preliminary analysis has just been sent to the Wayne Enterprise servers, and to Lucius Fox. We'll need to give him more of this to have a clearer picture of what the Joker made, but that should be enough to let him start on the antidote."
"Good thing I brought the satchel," Laurel said, lifting a bag that had been hanging with her quiver during the ride. It had been strapped on to the motorcycle she had been using for most of the night.
They quickly and carefully put in the racks of vials into several plastic bags they found in the lab, before placing them in the satchel. Once they had enough they could reasonably carry, they closed up the cabinet and left the lab, Dick being careful to lock the door behind them. Then, they headed upstairs, intent on making a beeline for their motorcycles.
"I'll take the lead this time—" Dick started, only to feel a small change in the air.
"LOOK OUT!" Laurel shouted as she drew out her sword.
Thanks to her warning, the former sidekick managed to duck in time and dodge a knife to the skull. His companion moved forward to deflect the rest before engaging the Jokerized assassin that had tried to attack them. No doubt a guard left behind by the Joker to attack anyone looking to snoop around and find some way to counter his newest little toy.
Dick ran back in to help her, only to find himself having to fend off another Jokerized assassin. More and more Jokerized people appeared and added to the throng, and before either of them knew it, they were back-to-back trying to fight off what seemed to be an entire army. "Shit," the young vigilante swore.
"Do you have any way out of this?" the only sane assassin present asked, grunting as she kicked away a particularly persistent member of the group.
"Nothing with how little room we're getting to breathe. Maybe I can drop a smoke bomb—"
"No. Too many." She paused. "I might have something, but it's a little loud. When I tell you too, you need to cover your ears."
It was a strange request, she knew. But Dick didn't protest. At her signal, he sheathed his sticks and covered his ears. Laurel pushed him behind her, and then inhaled a deep breath, trying to reach for that power that had overwhelmed earlier tonight. Feeling a deep well inside her, she took a firm stance, breathing in one more time, and then screamed.
The windows shattered immediately, as did the glass chandelier. Pure, sonic energy emitted from her mouth in waves, blowing back all their attackers and sending them crashing into the wall and various pieces of furniture. Once they were all completely out, Laurel ceased her screaming, the soundwaves ending not long after. It was then the exhaustion hit, and she bent over, grabbing at her knees.
"So," Dick said, and she looked to her right in time to see him dropping his hands from his ears and crossing his arms. "You might have forgotten to mention something."
"The first time I used it was on the Amazo," she told him as she was riding behind him on the Wingcycle. After her little episode at the mansion, Laurel had been too exhausted to use her own. "Shado and I were fighting someone there, and he had managed to grab her and begin choking her. I had tried to free her but he managed to push me away, and the ship was already taking on water. When she started to turn blue, I just… reacted. I shouted at him to let her go, this energy came out of my mouth and hit them both. He let her go. You pretty much know everything after that."
"You guys never talked about it?" the driver asked, swerving past one of the cars on the road.
Behind him, Laurel shook her head. "We didn't. For one thing, we weren't sure what happened, including whether or not it happened at all. Everything that happened that day was traumatic, and it all happened so fast — we thought it might've been a hallucination brought about when we almost drowned. Something that was easier to believe when we wanted to so badly forget everything that occurred on that night."
"The other reason is because… well, is because we didn't know if I could use it again. If we acknowledged what happened, then that made it real, and if it was real, then the League would eventually find out."
Dick hummed in understanding. "You were scared that, if they found out, they would turn you into a weapon. Something worse than what they already made you," he concluded.
The assassin winced. "Yeah," she admitted quietly, before speaking up again. "I ended up using it again when the Joker started Jokerizing the League at the warehouse. Shado and I tried to escape through one of the windows but there were simply too many. She ended up sacrificing herself to save me, and when I saw her Jokerized, something in me snapped and I used the scream again. It saved me from them, but I wasn't able to control it completely. I got thrown back by the force and through the window we were trying to escape through, and I probably would've died from the fall if I hadn't instinctively used it again to slow my descent."
It really had been nothing but a combination of sheer dumb luck and whatever the hell that gave her this power that allowed her to escape the fate of her fellow assassins. Laurel wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it made her wonder if someone out there was watching out for her. Or maybe not — after all, if there had been someone watching out for her, then she would've never gotten on the Gambit and been in the middle of this mess in the first place.
"You do realize I'll need to tell Batman about this," Dick warned her as they made another turn, now back in the city proper. "This isn't something we can keep a secret from him, especially not in the current situation we're in right now."
"That's fine. We're allies for this and if my sonic scream or whatever can help, then I'll use it." She shrugged. "Besides, from what I've heard about Batman, he would've found out about it eventually anyway."
"Here, here," Dick concurred.
The headquarters to Wayne Enterprises was a tall, imposing tower that soared above the Gotham skyline, emblazoned with the WE logo right in the middle, stereotypically named 'Wayne Tower'. They didn't go through the front door or even the attached garage, but rather used a hidden opening built into the side of the building. Dick drove all the way down the ramp before suddenly coming to a stop, whereupon a giant gate shut behind them. Before Laurel could ask what was going on, the walls suddenly came to life with several lights, and then they were ascending upwards in an insanely fast elevator.
When the lift finally came to a stop, the front wall opened to reveal the entrance to some kind of laboratory, this one much more cleaner and more cutting edge than the one the Joker used at the mansion. There were several beakers and flasks and other lab equipment bubbling away with different colored concoctions. And in the middle of it all was a graying, middle-aged black man, frantically writing down equations in some kind of notebook.
He turned around when he heard the wall behind him open and gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Dick. And who's your friend?"
"Just call her Aswad," Dick told him as they walked into the lab. "And Aswad, this is—"
"—Lucius Fox. CEO of Wayne Enterprises and the main technological and scientific genius behind Batman," Laurel finished, going up to shake the man's hand. "It's an honor to meet you, sir."
Lucius returned the greeting, before turning to the other arrival. "Do you have it?"
"We do," Dick answered, gesturing towards Laurel. The woman took out the satchel and opened it, taking out the plastic bags filled with the vials. Some had been broken, no doubt thanks to the fight earlier, but most of them were intact.
"I see you had some trouble on the way," Lucius noted dryly, arching an eyebrow as he secured the vials.
"Some," the younger man agreed. "Where's B?"
"At the docks."
Laurel jumped at the sound of the computerized voice, watching in surprise as the computer screens were suddenly hijacked by Oracle's signature insignia. "He's already hooked up with my dad and the GCPD. Early sightings indicate the Joker intends to start his invasion from the Gotham River, so everyone is moving to intercept him before he can enter the city proper. I suggest you two join up with him as soon as possible."
"One of us will need to stay behind in order to transport the antidote when it's time, though," Dick noted. He shot Laurel an uncertain look.
Reading his thoughts, Laurel let out a sigh. "I'll go to the docks," she decided. "I don't know Gotham as nearly as well as you do so if I try to transport the antidote when it's time, then chances are it won't be as fast as you could do it."
Not to mention, she needed to see Shado and make sure she was still alive. Laurel wasn't an idiot — with hundreds of brainwashed criminals, many of whom were hardened killers, bearing down at the city, there was no way law enforcement was going to play this with kid gloves. They were going for the kill, and Shado was going to be in the line of fire. Laurel had to make sure she survived long enough to receive the cure, otherwise everything she had done so far would've been for nothing.
"Take the Wingcycle, then," Dick told her, tossing her the keys. "We've already got the Bat-Plane here — I'll use that to go to the docks once the antidote is ready."
Laurel stared at the keys for a moment before looking up and giving him a nod. With that, she turned on her heel and headed to the Wingcycle. There was no more time to waste.
It took her a bit to get used to the Wingcycle and its GPS unit, but before Laurel knew it she was cruising down Gotham's streets and towards the direction of the docks. Unlike earlier when they had been entering the city, there had been no traffic at all to impede her drive. It was like the entire city had retreated to their homes and shut their doors. Maybe they had — it's likely the GCPD would have spread the word by now after getting Batman's warning about the attack.
Either way, Laurel made it to the docks in record time. Just in time to see that the battle had already begun. Parts of the Gotham River had already been frozen over, with many of the Jokerized criminals already crossing the bay and engaging the police. She didn't see Shado, but she did spot Batman, and drew her sword as she parked the Wingcycle and went to join him.
The moment she got there, however, she nearly got shot by the man standing next to him. Her attacker was wearing police armor, and it took her a moment to recognize him as Commissioner Jim Gordon — Barbara's father. "Wait, wait!" she said, raising her hands. "I'm on your side."
"She's telling the truth, Jim," Batman quickly interceded before the man could protest. "She's the one who told us about the attack."
Gordon frowned. "Why would a member of the League betray Ra's?"
Laurel blinked in surprise. He knew about the League? But then she realized he was silently demanding an answer from her, and gave him one before he decided to shoot at her again. "It's hard to betray a man who is currently brainwashed and under the Joker's thumb," she replied.
The commissioner stared at her for a moment, before realization dawned in his eyes. "I take it your master tried to partner up with the Joker?"
"And got bitten in the process," Laurel confirmed. "The Joker managed to brainwash almost all of the League currently in Gotham, including my only friend. I'm the only one who managed to escape."
"She came to us for help to save her friend, and by extension, the League," Batman elaborated.
That didn't seem to please Gordon. "I won't tell my men not to defend themselves because of some bargain you made with her."
"And neither of us would ask you to," Laurel retorted before Bruce could. "I know what we've done to this city. We don't deserve your mercy, especially not when your lives and the lives of innocents are on the line. That's why I'm here — I'm going to find her before she can hurt anyone and restrain her until Nightwing arrives with the cure."
Almost immediately, the mood lifted. "So a cure is in the works?" Batman asked, taking charge of the situation. The League, and everything associated with it, had been quickly forgotten.
"Yes. We managed to find plenty of samples at the mansion and have already started synthesizing the cure." She paused, and then added, rather sheepishly, "We'll also have to visit there right after this. There are a bunch of Jokerized assassins currently prowling the estate. We didn't have time to restrain them, so they should still be there." If they hadn't left the grounds already, something that was a very distinct possibility.
It was something Batman was aware of as well, judging by the heavy frown on his face. But before they could discuss the situation any further, the second wave hit. Laurel prepared herself to enter the fray, but before she could, Batman held out something to her — a quarterstaff, made of some sort of lightweight steel.
"No killing," he grunted. After a moment, Laurel sheathed her sword and accepted the new weapon. It would take some adjustment, but she could manage.
That was the last exchange they had before a massive vine suddenly sprout out from the sea and separated them. Laurel jumped away in time to avoid getting caught, only to find herself in the midst of a crowd of enemies. She only managed to catch a glimpse of Batman and Gordon on the other side of the vine, fighting, before she found herself beset by one of her Jokerized comrades and forced to fight for her life.
About an hour of fighting later, Laurel had never felt more exhausted in her entire life.
The horde was seemingly endless, and unfortunately it was made of soldiers with some of the strangest weapons and abilities she had ever seen. There was one man who attacked her with condiments, literal condiments, as weapons. He had been easy enough to knock out, but then another woman tried to burn her to a crisp using a flamethrower. She had been much more difficult.
Then there was the orca woman and the large man with like a billion tubes sticking out of him that she was pretty sure was on steroids. It was only thanks to a timely knife to the armpit that Laurel had managed to avoid getting crushed to death by the former. Mr. Steroids, meanwhile, was taken out by Batman via cutting his tubes and using the resulting liquid to eletrocute him. Laurel had a feeling that wasn't the first time he had to do such a thing.
In between the plant woman and the ice guy wreaking havoc everywhere, not to mention the scores of brainwashed assassins and other minor criminals, the battle was chaotic and violent. A million times worse than the Amazo, even with Slade thrown into the calculations. After all, Slade might've been turned into a twisted version of Captain America, but he couldn't create a giant plant out of the ground and make it try to eat people.
But Laurel found she didn't really mind all that much. In fact, if it weren't for the underlying seriousness of the situation and the fact that she still hadn't located Shado, she might even say she was having fun. There was something about all this that made her feel… right, for lack of a better word. It was like this was something she was meant to do all along.
Something to ponder about later. Right now, the priority was locating her best friend. The antidote would finish synthesizing soon, and she needed to be there when the cure was used on Shado, so that way her friend wouldn't be at risk of being arrested by the GCPD or whatever when things calmed down.
A part of Laurel wondered, after several minutes of fruitless searching, if her best friend had already been taken down. But then she spotted one of the police officers going down after being shot in the shoulder by an arrow that seemingly came out of nowhere, and knew she was wrong. There were plenty of decent to outright exceptional archers in the League — but nobody was better than her best friend.
She followed the direction from where the arrow came from and spotted it — a crow's nest, atop one of the ships the Joker had commandeered for his invasion. The perfect place for a sniper, or an archer, to take shelter while still playing a part in the battle. Without a second thought, Laurel sprinted towards the direction of the nest, convinced that this was where her best friend was.
Her journey wasn't easy. She had and duck and dodge so many attacks, occasionally even having to stop to save one officer or another from a member of the army. But eventually, Laurel made it to the ship. She allowed herself a brief moment of celebration right before having to dive away to prevent her head getting smashed open by a mallet.
Laurel turned on heel and fell into a stance as she stared down her opponent. Harley Quinn. Wonderful.
The insane woman, for her part, laughed. "Well, hello there. You're the little birdie that managed to escape, aren't you? The one who warned Batman about our plans?" Despite the grin on her face, there was something dark and foreboding in her expression. "Mr. J's been meaning to have a talk with you, ya know."
She swung her quarterstaff at the other woman in retaliation, meeting the mallet head on with an audible clang!. "Forgive me if I decline the invitation!" Laurel shouted back, and just like that, it was on.
For a psycho in a sexy, punk rock mime getup, Harley was good. She didn't have that much formal training as a martial artist, but she made up for it with immense strength and a high-level acrobatics that even a trained member of the League like Laurel had difficulty keeping up with. No wonder she had managed to last so long in a town like Gotham.
But Laurel was nothing but determined, especially now that her friend was only one ladder climb away. She dodged every single one of Harley's mallet blows, trying to strike whenever there was an opening. One particularly harsh blow she had to deflect, and it left Laurel stumbling backwards, only just barely managed to catch herself with the ship's railing. The accumulation of all the fighting was finally getting to her, while Harley had been lounging around back here, as fresh as a daisy. If she didn't figure out something soon, then she'd find herself in the Joker's clutches soon enough, and if there's anything this entire situation taught her, that was the last place she wanted to be.
"What's wrong baby pop? Can't keep up?" Harley asked her mockingly. "Not gonna attack me with that freaky power of yours?"
Oh. Right.
"Thanks for reminding me." And with that, Laurel let out a scream, doing her best to make sure it was not quite as powerful as the previous ones. Batman said no killing, after all.
Harley barely had time to blink in surprise before she was struck by the waves of sonic energy and sent crashing into the ship's railing. Before she could recover, Laurel sprinted over to her and finished her off with a vicious uppercut to the face. The supervillain stumbled away on jelly legs after the blow hit, before collapsing onto her back, mostly unconscious.
Laurel hardly paid her any mind, instead heading back towards the ladder to the crow's nest. She climbed up it, punching through the wooden door trying to block her off from inside. Now with an opening, she hauled herself up inside, landing on the wooden flooring with a sigh of relief. She looked up, and saw her. She would recognize her best friend's form anywhere, after all.
"Shado?"
Shado turned around, and Laurel flinched. The visage of her friend, now a completely distorted mirror of the Joker, was something she would never get used to, and hopefully would never have to. Even now, she knew that it would be haunting her nightmares for a long time, provided she somehow managed to get out of this alive.
Then Shado drew her sword and tried to cut her down, and Laurel once again found herself having to fight for her life. Except this time, she couldn't really find it in herself to fight back. "Shado, stop!"
But Shado didn't stop. She just laughed with that insane grin of hers as she moved jerkily around, swinging at Laurel with wild abandon. The skill was still there, but the style had changed entirely, with random and abrupt movements. A consequence of the transformation her best friend had gone under, no doubt.
It didn't matter. Laurel needed to stop her. Shado would never forgive herself if she harmed Laurel like this, regardless of the fact that it wouldn't be her fault. So Laurel grit her teeth and ducked under the next swing and delivered a palm strike to Shado's abdomen, forcing her to bend over. She then used the opening to completely disarm her friend, forcing her to let go of her sword and tossing it over the side of the nest so Shado couldn't use it anymore.
But then Shado recovered and tried to kick out her knee. Laurel endured the blow with a wince and before she knew it they were exchanging several strikes. Her skills in hand-to-hand combat had grown in leaps and bounds over the years, especially after they joined the League, to the point that she could safely call herself her friend's equal. But that was when Shado was normal. Much like her swordsmanship, Shado was using a completely different style of hand-to-hand combat compared to her usual kind.
There was just no rhyme or reason to it. A lot of jumping and acrobatics, like Harley Quinn, in addition to the jerky movements from earlier. There was a distinctive flair to it that still distinctively belonged to Shado, but Laurel couldn't hold onto it enough long enough to properly counter, especially after all the fighting she had already gone through the past hour or so.
Which left one option.
"Forgive me, Shado," Laurel said, before opening her mouth and screaming.
She tried to make sure she used even less force then she used against Harley Quinn. The last thing she wanted was to send Shado flying over the railing of the crow's nest. But at the same time, she needed enough to disorient her friend and reclaim the advantage. It was the only way she was going to win.
Thankfully, it seemed Laurel had managed to find the right balance. Shado was only sent stumbling back, not flying, and she had enough wherewithal to cover her ears. Laurel immediately stopped screaming once she saw that, and darted over to deliver a single chop to the back of her friend's neck, dropping the other woman with a groan.
With that battle one, Laurel collapsed against the railing of the nest and looked about the battlefield. Things were beginning to wind down, many of the villains had been taken out, along with several of the officers. She couldn't see Batman or Gordon up where she was, she was too high for that, but something told her they were alright.
And then it appeared. A shadow in the sky, which quickly revealed itself to be a plane, in the vague shape of a bat. The bottom hatch opened, and some kind of aerosol was released from what looked like a massive smoke generator. Laurel watched as the strange gas made its way to the battlefield, before turning around to watch as it blanketed the crow's nest.
Relief turned into joy as she watched Shado's face slowly lose its grin. Her skin began to regain color, her lips were no longer red, and her hair was starting to lose the green tint. Finally, a soft moan of pain escaped her friend's mouth as she slowly sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
"What hit me…?" Shado asked, blinking her eyes repeatedly as she tried to regain her bearings. Her whole entire body stiffened when she saw Laurel. "Laurel!"
Laurel felt like crying. "Thank God, thank God!" she shouted in delight as she went to her friend and threw her arms around her. All her hard work, it had finally paid off. Her best friend was okay.
Shado briefly returned the embrace before pulling away to get a better look at her friend's condition. "You're injured," she noted, frowning. "And why are you wearing a domino mask?"
"It's a long story," Laurel replied, pulling Shado into another hug. "I'm just glad you're alright now."
Shado was fine, and that was all that mattered. Everything else could wait.
Well, I hoped that was fun. The climax of Year 3 is finally finished. Next chapter, we get a look at the aftermath, and then Year 3 will be done and we can move on to Year 4.
Next Chapter: Laurel reaches a crossroads.