[Thread: Open] No hard feelings

[sugarclown]

Characters: Harley Quinn, anyone else that wants to jump in. Let's try to keep it one big thread for continuity's sake.
Where: Around the re-phased area of the complex (manhattan?!)  TV station
When: One bright, June morning. TGIF
Summary:  Harley doesn't hold a grudge, the Joker is forgiven for leaving her in that crazy place and to prove it shes

Comments

[uncloudedeyes]

Ashitaka picked the dark man on this floor out as either another neutral fighter, or their leader. Once he started addressing them he assumed the former.

"Right." he didn't take time to get into the man's tone or motives. He was already off, taking down people as he went. Asitaka was both fast and efficient though had his curse still been with him... he may have been even better. The men were getting voracious and heavier in numbers as they approached the central floor containing their 'hostess' as she called herself outside. His eyebrows furrowed and he grit his teeth. One man down,, then another... and another. He would soon have to implement his sword... no, nevermind just get it out now.

Ashitaka was less concerned about the lives of the 'clowns' and more concerned about getting to those screaming hostages on time. He could hear more yelling and drillwork and giggling coming from outside, the speakers and large screen nearby. He made it to the next stairwell easily enough, just in time to meet the next batch of re-enforcements. About five men waiting for them to come down. They met him with masks, he met them with the sword.

[entro_pist]

On the main floor below, the broadcasting crew (still at gunpoint) continue the filming of Harley's Adventures in Wonderland. They and their armed captors are, for the moment, oblivious to the team of mismatched heroes making their way down to the first floor. However, some of the thugs are catching wind. When you have enough men littering a place, word can travel.

In the behind-the-scenes hub of the studio, the phones light up. Caller on line three! A masked minion the size of a wild rhino nudges his hostage with the end of his micro uzi and growls an order to air this call. It's done and a new voice drips from the speakers, filling the airways. The frightened staff might breathe in relieve knowing that someone from the outside world is making contact and addressing the crazed woman with the drill, until they hear what their caller has to say...

"Well, well, Harley. Don't you just look scrumptious." The voice is weird and much too calm. Much too playful. "I happened to catch your little after-school-special and thought it'd be fun if we played a little game. What do you say?"

[sugarclown]

Harley almost dropped her drill when she heard the voice over the studio speakers. "Mistah J? Is that you?!" Of course it was him, who else could it be? She bounced excitedly and pulled the goo-covered drill from the hollow head of the now-dead hostage and rushed to the camera as if she could see him if she looked close enough through the lens. The viewers at home (and outside) would get a nice view of her eyeball and then her red lips kissing the camera.

"I'm all for it, Puddin'! How do we play?" She stepped back a bit but still took up the entire frame. Her cleavage was very prominent in the shot... that's how she liked it.

"Your boys are whispering about some studio guests. Are they going to play too?" She had no idea who the guests were but she was aware of them and knew that they were coming to crash her party. If she had known how adorable they'd be and that one of them was the famous Batman, she would have made snacks!

[entro_pist]

"Oh, I hope so. Your old contestants aren't looking so good..." In other words: dead. He can tell because he's watching the live broadcast on a portable TV from a remote location. A location likely to exist somewhere within a piece of the original base not overrun with other world segments. Somewhere that offers a good view overlooking the city.

For the record, he and Harley aren't in cahoots. It just happens that his plans for the afternoon coincide so well with her shenanigans, he couldn't resist sending out his goons and calling in. When the other "contestants" arrive, he'll lay down the game rules.

[brainiac5ive]

"Your presumptions are correct. The broadcast feed is coming from directly below." Instead of running, Brainiac began walking forward, away from bats as he analyzed the floor. A few more steps until his right for arm clicked apart into sections and regrouped, reformed, and grew into a menacing looking projectile weapon which he turned onto the ground.

"Suggestion: Free the hostages while I provide a distraction."

Not giving him much of a choice, he fired upon the floor, creating a small shortcut to the studio below. He jumped through it towards the studio, aiming another blast for one of the cameras, this time a small burst, as not to harm the operating civilian. From there, his firearm transformed back into an...arm and extended to duke out one of the armed guards, then his other arm to the one on his opposite.

It was then that he started his approach to Harley. "It is highly advisable that you cease your transgression and put the drill down."

[gonnaloveme]

Batman hesitated running after the other as he watched the green one, curious at first. Interest faded into practicality soon after he figured out the boy's intent, turning away briefly as the blast created a hole in the floor large enough for a body to fit through. He eyed it warily, but that was not to say he wasn't ready to plunge straight in. He would have preferred, however, that he could gauge the amount of villains from a better angle.

He axe kicked a criminal attempting to get up as one last measure on this floor, and then leapt into the rabbit hole after the green guy. He quickly took in his new surroundings with a devious swirl that made his cape fly out menacingly; a tactic based sheerly on deception as the fluttering movement caught the eye and either distracted aim or actually frightened with the black, dark appearance of a demon. Either way it kept others at bay while he preformed the "useless" act.

The dark figure was instantly running towards what few hostages left alive were remaining to free them, downing criminals as he went. It wasn't so much as he was following the suggestion, as the suggestion coincided perfectly with his own preferred tactic. Free the innocents, then go after the bad guy. It worked for him.

[uncloudedeyes]

Ashitaka was fighting off offenders and making his way down to the room where the victims were being held when he heard the very floor crack and fracture some ways away from him. Whether it was from 'his side' or the others was unknown but he started moving with even more verocity and speed.

His arms went through many bones and sets of tissue. Screams and words of disgust and defeat were heard all around. Some were quicker than he was and he spent some time facing off with three or so in the hallway past the stairs, not far from the hole Brainiac 'built' in the ceiling. There was nothing to reason against them with so he simply took them out, peacefully as he could, no unnecessary death if he could spare it.

He was romping along, making way to the commotion of the screaming and the mechanical noise. The the booming voice of... what was that?

"It is highly advisable that you cease your transgression and put the drill down."

He ran in the room. The black man and the green man were there already. Ashitaka was huffing, catching his breath. The small woman with the...'drill', was it? was standing away from her victims, all of which looked horribly spliced and mutilated. He shuddered and his eyes glinted in anger and slight fear. What kind of person could... He looked to the others and waited for their confirmation with him for them all to move in.

[sugarclown]

"Party crashers." She said with a pout. The two remaining hostages seemed grateful for the intrusion but Harley was a little bit miffed. Oh well, at least her plan had worked. The Joker had noticed her and even Batman was here! When Batman considered you a bad guy, you know you've made it. Harley was totally in the villain club. Score and a half.

"What do we have here? A kid made of snot, a confused asian, and a rodent of unusual size. I'm completely outnumbered, if I put the drill down, how am I supposed to defend myself?" she asked as she threw the drill to the ground and picked up the croquet mallet that had been resting against the back of the first hostage's chair.

"There, drill is down." She smiled as she swung the mallet in a circle beside her and did a back flip away from the hostages, but still in the camera's view, "Mistah j has a proposition for you party crashers anyway. We're going to play a little game. Hear that, Batsy? You love the Joker's games, don't you?"

And so the spotlight was taken off of Harley, thank goodness, and placed on the disembody voice of the Joker booming throughout the studio.

[entro_pist]

[ooc] RODENT OF UNUSUAL SIZE

There's a brief lapse in visual feed as the first camera is destroyed but the picture soon flickers back to life, this time with a new angle, obviously a different camera. And what. a. picture. There has never been and never will be such a perfect group of contestants. It warrants a short outburst of giggles from the other side of the line.

"Ladies and gentlemen, entertainment at it's finest!" The goons in the studio react with a brief round of clamorous excitement while the captive staff members look on in horrified confusion, desperately waiting for this nightmare to end. Beyond the studio walls, growing throngs of people have stopped in the streets to watch, unable to decide whether any of this is real or if it's just an edgy, new form of entertainment. One thing's for sure, the network's ratings have never been so high!

The Joker continues, each word carefully enunciated as if they're being taken straight from a cue card (which they probably are); "Now that our -special guests- are here, we can start the game. You fellas will want to pay attention to this part if you don't want any more people to die." He allows a split second for that to resonate with everyone.

"So," moving on, "let's get down to brass tacks: I have five banks in Manhattan rigged to blow. But don't worry, I'm gonna tell you which ones in a moment. Oh, and before you decide you don't want to play, you'll want to know about the penalty for stepping out of the game. For each contestant who drops, I -remove- a category. We wouldn't want something blown up un-necessarily, would we? Let's have some participation, folks!"

[veryusefulbook]

Now this was interesting...

The Princess had been wandering around, getting used to the new surroundings. Apparently Helena had a problem staying in one place and now they were somewhere else entirely. It was as much as she could guess from the lack of decaying buildings and the over abundance of mindless people, some coming and going, some as if they were not really there at all.

It was on one of her walks that she stopped in front of a trashy tv store and watched as some twit shoved a drill in a man's skull. She kept talking to the camera as if she was trying to get someone's attention. And just as conveniently to her as it was to the mystery clown The Joker came on the air. Though it was his voice and though she called the voice "Mistah J" The Princess knew that voice almost better than her own. It was just the man she was hoping to find.

So she walked around asking where she could find the building. So many screaming idiots... oh well. She did manage to find her way, however, and coming upon the building she saw a shattered window. She was getting ready to climb in when another thought occurred to her. She instead continued to walk past the building and walked on a ways to the end of the street where yet another trashy tv store awaited her. She watched and listened in anticipation.

The Joker was not in the building, she knew this, otherwise he would be on camera. He was never really one to hide his face from the limelight. So she listened with her back against the wall and kept an eye on the surrounding buildings from one end of the street to the other waiting to see if he would show up or not. Or if the female clown would come outside. Something about her squeaky voice made The Princess want to drown her.

And, as an afterthought, the Princess also scanned the street to make sure she wasn't near any banks... it would be a damn tragedy if she up and died out of a curiousity that had her standing too close to one... It was then that the camera flickered for a second and there was his voice. The Joker loud and clear, more hostages on camera.

"Now, that is more like it."

The Princess began to walk back to the building, though not slowly. She was walking quickly and with a purpose. She pushed people out of her way as the crowds in the street were growing larger. She shoved her way to the broken window and climbed in. She followed a trail of broken glass, random desks toppled over, papers strewn across the floor, etc until she reached a small room. She opened the door. There before her was a glass pane separating her from a large group of people. There was a man with headphones around his neck huddled in a corner under the counter tucked into a tight ball. She ignored him. She sat in the chair, just a window away from all that chaos and watched in anticipation.

A giggle did escape her lips. And no, she wasn't being inconspicuous at all. She wanted to be seen. Even though she did not know a single person in the room.

[brainiac5ive]

The only emotional response they would see on the strange, green skinned teen was his response to the fact that he needed to make a decision. The expression quickly faded to his cold calculating gaze.

"A game of chance. Interesting." he said flatly, no way to tell if he was being sarcastic or serious or ironic. "I'll play."

A quick flash of his eyes, indicating his circuits working on over drive. He was logging on to the grid network remotely. For this? They would need assistance.

[gonnaloveme]

((Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.))

Batman wasn't too concerned with hiding his emotions in a 'game' like this. He scowled something fierce and threw one of the lesser goons into a support column; a soft crunch was heard and plaster rained down as the body fell back to the ground. "Get on with it then, Joker." He growled out loud enough so that the audio could pick it up for their new host.

He took a moment to survey the room. It seemed all the goons here had been taken care of for the time being. The only one left was the female clown, the initial ringleader and 'party' starter. He turned his attention towards her, fully intending to take care of her first before getting wrapped up in the Joker's games.

As he glared at her from across the room waiting for the Joker to speak again, his head suddenly tilted to the side as if questioning the female clown. In fact he was simply listening to something buzzing in his ear. The audio components there were currently patched into the police radio frequencies, cycling through them until the appropriate one for this particular event was found and then stuck there. He listened in on what the cops were planning. Even now SWAT was closing in. It was only a matter of seconds before the faint sounds of gunfire would be heard going off throughout the building. Batman was silently pleased. He trusted the cops could handle the mop-up of this place very well. The goons were nothing but run of the mill criminals and SWAT was good at their job. He'd be perfectly content to allow them to finish here while he and the rest of the vigilantes took out the Joker and his plans.

The only thing Batman still wanted from this building were the 'game rules' and the psycho girl in front of him. Then everything would be peachy keen.

[uncloudedeyes]

Ashitaka was a tad lost here, as he probably should have become accustomed to by now. He was unsure what a 'bank' was but by the reactions he got, especially the loud snarl from the man in black... it must be very important place here. Blowing up, now that was something he had seen in war before... Lord Akoto's Boars flashed through his mind, all meeting their ends at the fire of Eboshi's grenades and land mines. Things were rigged to blow up here? Here in the midst of all these other buildings? The potential for destruction was not lost on the primitive technology in Ashitaka's brain.

He was most definitely at a disadvantage for not understanding the environment here but he certainly wasn't able to compromise the 'Bank' by stepping out. He had the responsibility to the innocent victims, as well as to his own integrity, to stand up and fight with what wherewithal he had.

The two next to him seemed to be knuckling down and preparing for the battle, and he did the same. This voice was a slight familiar... 'Joker' was not but that voice... he was sure he had heard it somewhere before.

Then there was a pounding and the rumbles of feet. Some shouts and the blasts of guns. Ashitaka tensed and looked around, seeing little reaction other than the slightest of smirks on one face. He guessed that was local law enforcement.

He looked to the others, then at the mad Kabuki-woman. "...Very well." he was agreeing to a battle.

[powered_otaku]

Hiro had been eating in a restaurant when his phone, silent for so long, suddenly began to chirp. He fumbled with it, dropping his chopsticks. He found a text message telling him that Harley Quinn had taken hostages and that the Joker had rigged 5 banks to blow up. He was requested to join someone named Brainiac 5 at the TV studio indicated on the GPS. Hiro ran outside, the rest of his meal untouched and ducked into the nearest alley he could find. He vanished from the alley, teleporting to the station. However, when he arrived, he was faced with a wall of black.

It moved.

Hiro nearly squeaked, but then realized that the wall was not a wall, but a very tall man in a black cape and bat...ears.

"Sugoi..." he said, awe in his voice. "Batman..."

[cranescarecrow]

During all the early stages of the hullabullo, Crane hadn't remained outside for long. While everyone else had been milling avbout, screaming, panicking, watching the screen numbly, mouths agape- the Scarecrow had wanted to stay and do the work there- Crane had quietly slipped away from the crowd, into the building, putting on his mask as he went.

And now, he was in the same room with the rest of the gang, watching silently from the fringes of the room, sticking to the shadows for the moment. He didn't want to be seen just yet- not quite yet. After all, the Batman was here, and one could never afford to be too hasty when he was involved in things.

(ooc: I apologize for the use of hullabullo. I love that word. xD
Also, just an FYI- Crane's got his mask on, but it's Crane at the moment, not the Scarecrow. When the Scarecrow comes out, it'll be in bold.)

[entro_pist]

Even with the SWAT teams cracking down on the station, they would be useless in catching the Joker or putting an end to his game. Hooray for a live studio audience. This is, after all, a very special occasion-it isn't every day the Bat comes out before nightfall.

"My, what team players! For those of you watching at home, we're going to play a guessing game. I have five detonators in front of me, each labeled with a number and the name of a bank. If our contestants can guess which name is behind which number, I'll let that bank go. So who will be the lucky winner? Will it be Bank of America, JPMorgan, Bank One, Citibank, or the Chase Manhattan? Will it be the one with your savings? There's only one way to find out."

It can be assumed, thanks to the process of elimination, that there will be at least one bank left standing in the end.

"Now let's play! My lovely assistant-" that's you, Harley "-will choose a number one through five and our First Contestant-" ...Green Teen Robot? "-will take a guess. Harley, a number one through five, please?"

[ooc] Banks are listed out of order, btw. -has a list, yay-