Chapter Three: On the Trail
With all the criminals who'd come to the auction safely rounded up by the police, Batman saw fit to summon the Batmobile by remote control, and climb inside. He'd been hoping to quietly swipe the weapons and bring them to the police before Sam and Zack could successfully sell them, but that plan had blown up in his face. Of course, there was no way he could've predicted a group of metahumans would interfere with the auction, seemingly after the weapons as well.
As he sat in the driver's seat, watching the tracer move on his radar, he took stock of what he knew about them so far. He'd seen seven fleeing the opera house, but that didn't mean there weren't more out there. They'd had the foresight to mask themselves, but judging by their voices and builds, they were all young women. That wasn't enough to narrow down their identities, but it was a start.
Batman pressed a button on the dashboard, activating the communication with the Batcomputer. Alfred Pennyworth's face appeared on the small screen beside the steering wheel.
"Hello, Master Bruce. I take it your infiltration of the auction went well?" he asked.
"Could've gone better, Alfred," Batman replied. "We have an unexpected third party looking for these weapons, too. Someone I've never encountered before. Metahumans."
"Oh, my! That's never a good sign," said Alfred. "Do you require any assistance on this mission?"
"Yes, Alfred. Specifically, I need you to check and see if you can find any records of unexplained events occurring in Canterlot City. Only go a maximum of ten years back."
"That city that seems to be obsessed with horse puns, sir? May I ask why?"
"Those weapons came from Canterlot. They defied the laws of science, and so did the powers I saw displayed tonight. There could easily be a connection."
"Very well, Master Bruce." Alfred began typing away. "Anything else, sir?"
Batman reached into the pocket of his utility belt, pulling out the small device he'd taken from the thug. Upon closer examination, he discovered it appeared to be a small, electronic device. It was one he was all too familiar with.
"Yes. Can you tell me if the Joker or the Mad Hatter are currently incarcerated in Arkham?"
Batman waited patiently as Alfred continued to hit the keys of the Batcomputer.
"Sir, upon investigation, it appears neither of those gentlemen are in Arkham Asylum. IThey both escaped fairly recently, but there's been no activity from either."
Batman gritted his teeth. "That means tonight just got a whole lot more complicated," he grumbled.
After escaping from the opera house, the Rainbooms had decided to hole up in a Gotham City hotel. Or, rather, that was what Twilight had insisted on once she was done freaking out. Currently, they were seated around the hotel room, debating what to do next.
"We need to hunt down those guys and take the magic from those weapons!" said Applejack. "With those things on the loose in Gotham, people could get killed!"
"And how exactly do you suggest we do that?" demanded Twilight. "In case you haven't noticed, not only do we have the police after us, Batman's probably looking, too!" She jabbed both index fingers into her temples. "This is not happening..."
"Yeah, Batman was so awesome!" Rainbow iterated to Fluttershy and Pinkie. "He came in like this, and he punched this guy in the face, then he threw his—"
"Rainbow, you're not helping!" yelled Sunset.
Rainbow's smile disappeared as her brain processed the statement, and she sank down into her seat. "Oh, yeah," she said, "we're in trouble."
"There has to be something we can still do," said Fluttershy. "Like Applejack said, we can't just leave those weapons out in the Gotham underworld. Twilight, can't you just trace them like we did before?"
"Oh, I can trace 'em, alright, but who's to say Batman won't just pounce on us the second we poke our heads out?!" snapped Twilight. Fluttershy shrank back at her tone, and Twilight's face fell. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, I'm just under a lot of stress right now."
"I believe we all are," said Rarity. "Things haven't exactly gone our way on this adventure."
Sunset swallowed, before standing up to start speaking again. As she did so, however, she felt her leg brush against something on her other leg, and it fell off. Curious, Sunset looked down at the carpet, discovering a tiny, bat-shaped electronic device. Her stomach dropped, and she reached down to pick up the object.
"Uh, girls?" she ventured.
"And you said Batman attacked you?" Pinkie chimed in, ignoring Sunset. "Wow! I thought he wouldn't be a big meanie!"
"Girls?"
"He didn't really attack, he just tried to incapacitate us," said Rainbow. "Not that that'll do us much good in court or anything."
"Girls?"
"What if we tried talking to him?" asked Applejack. "I mean, sure, the guy's crazy enough to dress like a bat and beat people up, but once he realizes the magnitude of what we're dealing with, maybe he'll—"
"GIRLS!" yelled Sunset, making everyone jump out of their chairs. She held up the bat emblem. "We may not have much choice in the matter."
"Oh, no," breathed Twilight. She came over to Sunset, who passed her the bat device. "You don't have to be a genius to know what this is."
"Do you think the cops could be on their way here now?" Sunset asked.
"I don't think that matches Batman's MO," replied Twilight. "If anyone's gonna come, it'll be Batman himself. He'll want to investigate what's going on with us personally."
"So what are we going to do?" demanded Rarity. "He can't possibly fight us all by himself now, can he?"
"I doubt he'd try," said Rainbow. "He knows what we're capable of by now. He'll know Twilight could just immobilize him. He'll be waiting for the opportune moment. A moment where he can isolate us."
"Which brings us back to what I was sayin'," said Applejack. "Like I said, he's a weirdo, but he's also the world's greatest detective. He can't be stupid. Maybe he can be reasoned with."
"If we talk to him, it means we have to tell yet another person about magic and Equestria," said Pinkie. "Do you think Batman can keep a secret?"
"Hey, he's kept the secret of who he really is for years, that's gotta count for something," replied Sunset. "The real question is, would he be willing to keep our secrets? This has nothing to do with him, and if anybody outside Canterlot ever found out..."
Twilight added, "I don't know if he could go telling the police or the government without unmasking himself. Besides, what other choice do we have? He's already tracking us."
"I don't like it," remarked Fluttershy, "but you might have a point. Plus, once he understands, he might be willing to help us get the magic from those weapons."
"Yeah! Plus, maybe I can get his autograph on all my comic books, and—" Rainbow trailed off as she realized her six friends were all glaring at her, and she quietly sat back down.
"So, we're all in agreement?" asked Rarity. "We're going to find Batman and tell him the truth?" This question was followed by six affirmations, some more enthusiastic than others. "Okay. It should be easy to find him, given that he's already after us."
"I agree," said Twilight. "I have a suggestion as to exactly how we manage to talk to him."
"Fire away," said Sunset. "We gotta hurry, anyway."
Outside the hotel, on top of a neighboring building, Batman stood watching the seven girls through a pair of high-powered binoculars. They'd left the lights on and the windows open, a rookie mistake he'd expected. They weren't all facing him or in his view, so he couldn't catch all of their conversation, even through lip-reading. Still, he saw them find the tracer, as well as mention his name several times.
"Children," he murmured. That had been unexpected. When he'd encountered them in the opera house, their voices had been shrill, but he'd miscalculated just how old they were. These girls couldn't be older than eighteen, possibly still in high school. What were they doing going up against ruthless Gotham gangsters? They shouldn't have had to worry about things like that. They should be dealing with school work and thinking about cute classmates, not dodging bullets in the middle of the night. Not to mention, where had their powers come from? Were they trying to destroy the weapons as well? If that was the case, how had they known where the weapons would be? Every answer he'd gotten so far had simply created more questions.
He sighed to himself. The task he'd taken on seemed to get harder every night. It had been so easy at the beginning, when fear had driven common criminals to their knees at a mere glimpse of him. But then came the super villains, the criminals seemed to get more daring with time, and now, people who might not even be legal adults were getting dragged into Gotham's underworld. Was it his fault? Had District Attorney Janet Van Dorn been right when she'd claimed Batman created far more problems than he solved? Sure, she'd changed her tune since then, but that didn't mean she hadn't been right before.
Batman took one last look at the girls, and saw them putting on their balaclava masks again. He felt another surge of concern run down his spine, wondering if they were going after the weapons again. Right now, he still didn't know for sure if they were enemies or allies, but they could easily get themselves killed in this city if they weren't careful.
A buzzing in the built-in earpiece of his cowl distracted him. That sound indicated an incoming call, and he reached up to press the answer button.
"Master Bruce, is this a good time?" asked Alfred.
"It's fine, Alfred. Have you found something?" Batman replied.
"It turns out your intuition was spot-on, Master Bruce," Alfred continued. "Canterlot City has been a magnet for unexplained or strange events over the past few years. Most of them center around Canterlot High School. There've been reports of massive rainbow-colored light shows appearing during both the night and day, giant, ethereal colored horses with horns and wings appearing out of nowhere, and seemingly random incidents of violence breaking out. Those last ones stopped approximately two years ago, but nobody knows why. It appears there might've been some additional incidents at the local camp as well, but I haven't found anything from there, so far."
Batman thought for a moment. If these girls had any relation to the occurrences Alfred was describing, they might've attended Canterlot High. Still, they could've graduated by this point. That didn't mean they were old enough to be in this world, of course.
"Did anybody ever investigate those events?" he asked.
"There are a few conspiracy boards on the internet centered around their discussion, sir, but nothing substantial. Local authorities never saw a reason to get involved, as nobody ever got hurt."
Batman sighed. It looked like his only chance to get any answers was going to be to talk with those girls. Whether they'd be willing to talk was another matter altogether. He didn't want to interrogate them, but he decided not to rule it out entirely, at least for now. Taking another look at the hotel room, he saw that the girls were gone, likely on their way downstairs. Were they going after the weapons again? If not, where?
"Keep looking into anything you can find, Alfred," he said into his microphone. "I'm going to try and figure out exactly what's going on here."
"Very well, sir. And Master Bruce?" Alfred's voice sounded apprehensive.
"Yes, Alfred?"
"Please be careful. There's enough danger when your opponents have no super human abilities. Whoever this other party is, don't underestimate them."
"Thank you, Alfred, but at this point, I'm more worried about their welfare than mine."
The black truck rolled down the streets of Gotham City at normal speeds. Sam and Zack were scared out of their minds, of course, but they knew if they floored it like they wanted to, they'd attract the attention of the police. Ever since fleeing from the opera house, the two men had been searching desperately for a place they could dump the truck, then hopefully get out of the city. So far, that search had proven fruitless.
"Come on, come on!" Zack hissed from the passenger seat. "There's gonna be somewhere the cops won't look for us!"
"I haven't found anywhere!" Sam shot back. "Maybe you'd like to switch seats with me, buddy!"
"Well, we gotta...we gotta—" Zack tried to argue, but found nothing inside his head that would suffice. He settled for punching the dashboard, which accomplished nothing except making his hand hurt.
Sam thought about yelling at him, but he was too on edge. Tonight had been a complete and utter disaster. It was supposed to be the night where the two would rake in enough cash to be set for life. Who cared about what those weapons would do? Unfortunately for them, not only had Batman butted in, they'd also been attacked by a group of super-powered women, and who knew what they wanted. At this point, Batman, the police, and the women were all probably after them, not to mention Rupert Thorne and every other crime lord in the city. The criminals were probably thinking they could just take out Sam and Zack, then swipe those weapons for themselves.
"I told you we shouldn't have sold those things!" Sam finally settled on. "We could've had a free ticket to any criminal organization we wanted, and if the bat showed up, he wouldn't have stood a chance against them! But no, you had to get greedy!"
"I thought it was safer!" Zack defended. "If people knew we had that stuff, we'd never be able to sleep again on account of the giant targets on the back of our heads. Better to let some big time guys go through that than us, and we might as well get paid while we're at it!"
Sam sighed. "Maybe you have a point there," he admitted, "but that doesn't do us any good now. We can't take on the bat, the whole GCPD, and those chicks, even with this stuff."
"Well, what the heck are we gonna do?" demanded Zack. "We can't stay in Gotham any longer, it's not safe here. If Batman doesn't get us, some other crook will. Even if we defend ourselves with those weapons, the two of us won't be enough."
Sam opened his mouth to answer, only to cease before speaking. The reason was that he'd seen a derelict auto junkyard on the side of the road, and some idiot had conveniently left the gate ajar.
"That might work," he said to himself, before making a sharp turn to the left, driving through the open entrance. The truck rolled a few feet forward, before coming to a stop in the middle.
"Okay," Sam continued, "we leave the truck here, score a quick ride out of town, lay low for a few weeks, then try to sell the weapons somewhere else. Sound like a plan?"
"I think that's as good as we're gonna get," replied Zack, as he unbuckled his seat belt.
After Zack took the three cases out of the back of the truck, Sam busied himself by hiding it behind several stacks of broken down cars, where it would hopefully go undiscovered for a little while. Then he climbed out, and tossed the keys into a pile of scrap metal, reasoning that it would delay the police a bit.
"So how are we gonna get out of Gotham?" asked Zack, a metal case tucked under each arm.
Sam hefted the remaining case off the ground. "I have some contacts that owe me," he replied. "We just need to—"
"Ah, there you are! I say, boys, I've been searching for you all night!"
Sam and Zack's blood turned to ice, because they knew that voice. Slowly, they both turned towards the source, discovering a black silhouette standing a short distance away from them. The figure took a few steps towards them, and the light illuminated a purple suit, green hair, and chalk-white skin, coupled with the largest smile a human being could have on their face.
"Joker..." Zack breathed, subconsciously taking a step away from the clown.
"Indeed! I'm glad to see my standing in Gotham hasn't fallen!" replied the Joker, taking a mock bow. "I'm glad to see old Batsy didn't manage to catch you two already! Otherwise, I might've had to break into prison! Who does that?!"
Sam and Zack said nothing, more out of fear than anything. They'd never met the Joker in person, but his reputation preceded him. One word, one toe out of line, and he'd make you wish you were never born. He didn't seem to have brought any backup with him, and they had the advantage of numbers, but that didn't mean much when it came to the Joker.
"I suppose you know what I'm here for, boys," Joker continued. "I'd appreciate it if you'd simply hand over those weapons. Otherwise, we'll have to make a mess of this perfectly fine scrapyard!"
Sam swallowed as he weighed their options. Giving the weapons up might ensure their safety, but then again, you couldn't trust the Joker to keep his word. Finally, he came to a decision.
"Sorry, clown, but you can't have them," he replied, as he popped open the case he held, and shoved one hand inside. "You'll just have to—" He stopped in his tracks as his fingers touched leather. He had the gloves, not the gun or the billy club. He pulled them out, slowly.
Joker threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, this is rich!" he cackled. "You thought you could threaten the Joker! It looks like even the universe is against you, kid!"
Sam, desperate, slipped both gloves on his hands, and rushed towards the clown, one fist reared back. Joker nimbly dodged to the side, and Sam's momentum carried him into a car. His gloved fist connected with the steel door, which split beneath his blow. Sam's entire hand was trapped inside the car. This didn't escape Joker's notice, and he ceased his mocking laughter.
"Hm, that's new. I may get something out of tonight, after all!" he exclaimed.
Reaching into his purple suit jacket, he pulled out a spray can with a logo of a deranged smile on it. He squeezed a small amount of green gas towards Sam, who was still trying to pry his hand out, and didn't have time to hold his breath. As his lungs took in the Joker venom, Sam began to laugh, first a light chuckle, then slowly working his way up to an insane cackle. As he continued to chortle, he accidentally pulled his hand out of the car, and fell onto his back, laughing more and more uproariously.
Satisfied, Joker simply plucked the gloves off of Sam's hands, stored them in his pockets, then turned to face Zack, who was pale with fear. Joker aimed the spray can towards him.
"Now, do you want to do this the easy way, or the funny way?" he asked.
Zack dropped both remaining metal cases to the ground, and fell to his knees. "They're yours, they're all yours, just please don't hurt me!" he begged.
Joker rolled his eyes. "They always pick the easy way," he complained. He walked over to Zack, kicking open both cases, and picking up their contents. "What exactly do these do, anyway?"
Zack, terrified, explained the properties of the weapons with no resistance.
"Is that right?" Joker asked. "Well, this'll certainly be fun. Here's your consolation prize, then!"
He aimed the spray can at Zack, who barely had time to scream before Joker pressed the sprayer.
