CHAPTER 21

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[David Lance POV]

With little to no opposition, we reached the room where the radio jammer to find no other than Harley Quinn herself, waiting for us with a sickening sweet smile on her white face, her trademark hammer resting against a wall a few feet away from her.

"Hiya!" Harley waved at us, giggling.

"Harley!" Robin exclaimed, almost growling the words out.

"Mister J says you two are comin' with me!" Harley replied in a jovial tone, grabbing her hammer from the wall.

"How many times have you tried that already?" Robin shot back, taunting her.

"HoW MaNy TiMes HaVe YoU TrIeD ThAt AlReAdY..." Harley mocked, repeating what Robin had said in a childish tone. "Cutie, you have never fought us without Bats!"

As they had their little chat, I inspected the room, noticing eight recently installed cameras recording every point of the room. The cameras in question were painted with the colors of The Joker, white, red, purple and green.

Meaning he was most likely watching right now.

Besides the camaras, there was the radio jammer. By its looks, it seemed to be military grade, bullet proof for low caliber weapons, an old but effective model for a quick jamming work.

"Hey you! Deaf guy! Or is it mute?" Harley called, waving at me, cutting her conversation with Robin short. "What's your deal? Are you mute? Deaf, talk with me!"

I frowned, she was clearly mocking me, and my inability to talk to get my undivided attention. Her body language suggested that much, that she didn't want me to continue looking around, meaning there was something in this room for us, something we were not meant to see just yet.

"No talkie? Well, let mama take care of you!" Harley giggled, cracking her neck. "Mama cooked a knuckle-buster parfait just for the two of you! With a side of hammer! On the house! Come and get it!"

I took another look around, finding nothing out of the ordinary, giving Robin a look that conveyed my plan, which was for him to take the radio jammer down, before darting towards Harley. I knew there was something else in store for us, but in all honesty, I didn't know what to expect from the clown pair of Gotham.

When it came to them.

Chances became chaotic. For all I knew, the trap was outside the room, and Harley was goading me into leaving with her behavior, or perhaps my first assumption had been right, the thing is, I had no way to confirm either.

Right now, our best chance was to destroy the radio jammer, and contact the league. Beyond our ability to stop them or not, we needed reinforcements to stop whatever The Joker was doing.

In his demented hands, this chemical facility could kill millions. Even if we managed to defeat them, we had no way to stop a chemical threat, not even Robin for all his multiple areas of expertise had enough chemical knowledge to stop threats of that kind.

The League, however, did.

It was in our best interest, and that of the citizens of Gotham to get the League involved.

And to do that, I had to take Harley down, or keep her occupied enough for Robin to take care of the radio jammer.

Harley giggled, watching me approach, swinging her hammer at me as I neared her, "Yeih! Mama's gonna paint the walls with blood!"

Jumping over her attack, I threw a hard punch at her jaw, putting some weight into it. The blow knocked her into the air head back, as I followed it up with a kick to her side, feeling a crack under feet.

However, as Harley fell to the floor, she pulled a gun out of her suit aiming at me, not at all bothered or slowed down by the fact I had broken a few of her ribs, "Now that's just rude! Hitting a lady?! It seems mama is gonna have to teach you some manners!" at this, she started shooting at me, a bit of blood coming out of her lips.

Seeing this, I started running, avoiding the shots while making sure of keeping Harley's aim on me, as Robin continued to disable the radio jammer having crept under her radar, who was otherwise too busy fighting me.

"You know, I wanted to have some fun! To punch you a little, but you had to bully poor Harley around hadn't you!?" Harley hissed between a giggle, reloading her weapon. A time I took to hurl a few smoke bombs at her, to mess with her field of view.

"I told you so! But what can I expect from a second-class clown?" Robin sassed from the shadows.

"I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and makes a six inch-diameter exit wound in you!" Harley replied, hissing her words out.

Taking this small window Robin had given me with his sass, I rushed at her, grabbing her arm tight, throwing her high into the air before pulling down, slamming her body on the ground, effectively disarming her, seconds before the smoke bombs lost its effect.

"Ugh…" Harley groaned on the ground. "You are no fun. Just like Bats…" she giggled, pain clear in her voice. It seems she's indeed capable of feeling pain, but had a great tolerance to it, which considering her partner was to be expected.

"Almost done over here!" Robin said, working on the radio jammer with a set of small tools, including a portable welding machine the size of a pen. "Annd… done!"

"Contact the league," I smiled, feeling things were looking up for us. However, we still had to keep our guard up, there was no way that was all The Joker had planned.

"On it," Robin nodded, plucking his communicator from his belt.

"HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!"

I hate being right.

"No bad kiddos! Not bad at all! Especially you, Bolt! You gave Harley quite the pounding, I might even get jealous!" The Joker chuckled, his voice booming across the room.

"No! Don't be pudding! I only like your poundings! They have love!" Harley exclaimed in her defense, struggling under my grasp.

"The League it's not answering, something it's messing with my signal!" Robin said, pulling his computer out. "I have an idea!"

"Now children! Seeing as you gave mama Harley quite a beating, it seems it's up to papa to take up the slack!" The Joker continued, his voice taking on a more sinister tone. "You see juniors, life is a theater of the absurd. Be good and honest, a paragon of justice, and you get forgotten, just like any other sheep waiting for its turn in the slaughterhouse. Let the madness take in, and become the demon of their very nightmares, and you'll live forever… But living forever in a world without anyone it's rather lonely, don't you think juniors?"

At this, a green gas started coming from the vents, the camaras and every other place.

"Surprise!" Harley giggled, a green cloud of smoke coming from within her suit, the very same color of the gas currently invading the room.

I frowned, activating the filter function of my mask to filter the air.

"The gas it's coming from every vent!" Robin exclaimed, putting on a gas mask he had plucked from his belt.

"Now kids, don't be alarmed! Madness it's nothing to be afraid of! No, madness it's a gift! is the emergency exit we all need. You can just step outside and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away... forever…" The Joker said, intoning each word carefully. "When all of this is over, we will understand each other just fine! You'll see!"

The cameras were still functional. He could still see us.

He knew we had our masks, and yet, he wasn't at all bothered by that fact. That could only mean one of two things, the gas was nothing more than a distraction, or the masks would not do a thing against it.

"I managed to contact the League via emergency channel, Red Tornado says they will be here as soon as possible," Robin informed me, closing his laptop as I knocked Harley out with my taser, starting to feel a bit dizzy. "Now all we need to do is move."

My head was hurting. Not a lot, like a mild headache at much, but it was noticeable enough to concern me as it had started the moment the gas had entered the area.

As I pondered about the implications of my sudden headache, I turned to Robin, seeing the boy hurl a batarang at me, that I barely managed to dodge in time.

"What 's wrong with you?" I signed, giving a quick look around to see if by any chance he had seen someone creeping up on me.

"Where's Black Bolt!" Robin growled, hurling more batarangs at me.

As I dodged the incoming projectiles, I came to the ugly realization that the gas was already affecting him. But how? How was it that the gas was affecting him, and not me, our equipment came from the same source, our masks were at their core the same, at least, in terms of technology.

However, he had succumbed to the gas almost immediately. While all I had was a minor headache.

Beyond that, what he was displaying didn't fit with The Joker's venom. He wasn't laughing, not, if anything he seemed… afraid of me, but determined to fight me, or whatever he saw instead of me.

Which aligns more with the Fear Toxin, than the Joker Venom.

I see.

Just my luck. Those two, teaming up. Great…

Now I had to think of the possibilities of said alliance. And what to expect from it.

Just like Batman says, think of the worst possible case scenario and you will be close. Now the question is, what's the worst possible scenario? A mix of their unique products…

A mix of the Fear Toxin, and the Joker Venom.

An unholy amalgamation of the two.

"I won't ask again ugly, where's Black Bolt!" Robin growled his demeanor breaking into a small delirious giggle, as he armed his staff for combat.

Fuck… I was right, the gas was a mix of the two. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Now what do I do? Robin it's out of the equation… How do I solve this?

No, focus David, the gas for whatever reason it's not affecting you, meaning you still can turn this around. I just hope the antidote Robin gave me works on him, or at least slows the effects of this amalgamation just enough for the League to come and cure him.