[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

[entro_pist]

Upon returning to his remote location overlooking the city, the Joker watched as thick tendrils of shadow matter floated through the sky toward the first bank and then the second. Without question, hundreds of people below, perhaps thousands, witnessed the otherworldly, fluid-like substance reach down to engulf the buildings and then as each bank began to crumble in on itself soon after. It was positively spectacular.

"Ashes, ashes we all fall down," that weird, playful voice hits the studio and the airwaves once again. The studio has apparently broken into a pandemonium but aside from a few flickers in the visual feed, the cameras continue rolling. And there is still one contestant whom we haven't heard from yet.

The Joker's voice raises to a startling decibel, cutting through the uproar in the studio, "Contestant Three. That's you, Mr. Ashitaka! It's your turn to make a guess. Now that Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan are out of the picture, three choices remain. Play the game and there's still a chance you can spare all three. But if not..." this goes without saying, "well, you saw what happened to the first two."

He knows Ashitaka has been a very confused young man from the start, so out of the blessed goodness of his heart, he'll go over this one more time. "Your choices are: Bank of America, Bank One, or Citibank. If you can correctly guess which one is behind number four, I'll let it go unscathed." The number was chosen at random since Harley just looks too gosh darn busy over there wrestling the Batman to choose a number for this round. "So, what's it gonna be? Play the game and take a guess, or walk away and...make a mess."

[uncloudedeyes]

Ashitaka was not appeased by the handling of this situation. The man was treating it like this was all some kind of sick joke. Joke.. Joker that in and of itself was a sickness. What a name... he had thought anyone to carry this name must be insane but this whole endeavor had proved as much. He was watching the chaos unfold, ready to take action and then... he was befuddled. He had his eyes on the Kabuki-woman ready to join the man in black, and something happened. Her satchel, it suddenly disappeared. In an instant it was there and gone. He blinked, leaned in in surprised. "What?"

Then his name was called. The voice again. 'Joker' was speaking to him. His directions were mad as usual. So it was his turn to chance more lives? He really wasn't inclined to play since this man was obviously not really playing by any rules. Hidden away and calling out results as he needed.

He stopped. "...How do you know my name?" his voice was raised in strong defiance.

There was a pause in which Ashitaka devoted time to his thoughts. Then there was an explosion. An explosion of his mind and his memory. He flinched, his eyes widened, his lips parted in a silent 'oh'.

"Jack!!" it was an exclamation. He was glaring at the camera. Jack, Jack from Tarusa. Jack, the one Dick had warned him about. Jack... Jack The Joker... The villain that had haunted Dick's world, and the one apparently just like it. And now here. "Where are you!?" he growled. It was perhaps too late, but he knew who he was now...

Ashitaka was facing the cameras, looking more ready for a battle than a guessing game. But 'the show' would certainly go on without him, and he really wasn't wanting to forfeit and lose the ability to even say he tried to spare the civilians.

"...Citibank." he looked ashamed at having to give in.

[entro_pist]

"Aw, you remember me. What a small world it is." Or just a downright funny world. He gives a tiny chuckle from behind closed lips. No hints of his whereabouts are given. And on to the answer everyone's waiting for, "Now now, don't make that face. Chin up, hmm? Because your answer iiis... cor-rect! We have a winner! You investors at Citibank are lucky, lucky folks."

See? He knows how to play fair (for now). "It's almost the end of our game and you know what that means. Time for the final round! Since Mr. Ashitaka is our only winner, he gets the last guess. I have the name here in my hand. Just two choices left, can he save Bank One and Bank of America or will he lose them both?" Oh, the pressure! The tension!

"Mr. Ashitaka, your answer please." This is the part where he sets down the phone. He doesn't need it anymore (he has the TV).

Yaaaay, I won! [sorta, not really]

[uncloudedeyes]

Ashitaka flinched once again, then an angry look covered his face. This man was playing God... Ashitaka had seen it attempted before, but not with such finesse. Still, the decision for life or death was not for any one man to decide for another. His once-cursed arm was trembling in anger and phantom pain.

He growled. "What difference does it make what I choose? You're only going to destroy the others anyway!" his hand was on his sword, twitching and writhing, just begging to draw. He controlled it and inwardly cursed himself. He didn't want to play a madman's game. The innocent people of The Ring deserved better than one man's insane will.

His hand twisted, twisted hard, and then released.

This man... Joker was going to do what he had already decided. This was all a part of his plan all along wasn't it, the very plan to use the girl as a hostess... The board had been set and he was a pawn, naively and foolishly thinking itself a knight. His power as a pawn was already laid out before him. Just say the words. Any words will do, since the end result would surely be the same either way.

He hung his head. Yes, he had been prepared for failure the moment he embarked on this battle. But failure on his own part, not failure against the victims. Not death for those barely involved.

He took a breath, eyes and heart burning with hate. A hatred at the madman and at himself. A hate that had his arm tingling in memory. Somewhere inside himself, his spirit was cracking a little. He had never been met with such an inhuman and illogical force.

He looked at the camera "...Bank One."

last post pour moi in le thread!

[sugarclown]

ooc: sorry for the liberty taken with batman, it doesn't necessarily have to hit him <3

Okay, seriously, what the fuck was going on?! Her most favourite fuzzy bag was now gone along with all her pretty fireworks! Since when could the bat do magic? Harley was severely pissed off now, as well as confused. She grabbed the wrist of the hand holding her hair and held on as she walked up Batman's chest like it was nothing and flipped backwards, aiming a kick at his exposed chin to get free of his hold.

She landed gracefully and pulled a small, round object from her cleavage and slammed it to the ground. It was a smoke bomb she had stolen off one of the bat-freaks and of course she couldn't resist using it on the Ratman himself. Her crazed giggling could be heard through the smoke as she grabbed her croquet mallet and swung at Batman's head, Hiro's chest and the leg of a camera man before disappearing with the smoke, making a clean escape.

The game was pretty much over anyway. How was she supposed to find her puddin' if she was caught by a bunch of stinky good guys?

[entro_pist]

Ashitaka's instincts are right on target. One word will do just as good as any other or even none at all. From this point on, nothing that happens in the studio will matter. The Joker's mind was set before an answer could be given. There hadn't been a "correct" answer, just a flare gun in his hand, now freshly reloaded.

He doesn't respond to Ashitaka's answer. Doesn't need to, because in another moment, all of the city will know. Until then, he'll let everyone hang in a disconnected, maddening silence. He leaves in time to catch Harley's smoke burst on the screen, steps onto the transporter in the adjoining room, and within seconds, will appear on the rooftop of one of the two remaining banks, flare gun raised and ready to fire.

[brainiac5ive]

Easily enough, as far as Brainy was concerned, the game was over. He extended his arm and his force field towards Harley's hammer in defense and he once again transformed to the larger robotic form. "Batman, Go after her, we'll take the offensive." Brainy said as he lifted off from the ground and headed back the way he came to the roof, he hoped Hiro would take his implication and follow suit.

It wasn't long till Brainy reached the roof from the shortcuts he had made on his way down initially, and that's when he saw the girl. Who was she, exactly? She was watching all of this from the beginning, he recalled. "Stay where you are!" He called.

[veryusefulbook]

The Princess had managed to make it back to her feet, though she was still standing within a few feet of the edge of the bank's roof. Down below she could see a crowd forming, people running, screaming through out the streets everywhere. Car horns were honking impatiently, police sirens all over the city, ringing like a thousand Sunday morning bells, ever so sweet to her ears.

But now something was disturbing her calm.

She turned around at the shout to see a large green robot looking thing. He was bigger than the one she had seen in the room downstairs but she went ahead and figured it for the same person. He did look like a tricky one to begin with and now this.

"Hullo there. I was just getting a breath of fresh air."

She had fully turned towards him, hands swinging playfully at her sides, her lips quirked in an innocent grin. For all intensive purposes, she look oblivious. Almost stupid. Her eyes kept wandering about, even stopped at one point to check him out, up, down, and then scanned the buildings around her.

"So what's going on? There's no TV up here, but I did see something terrible happen over that a ways!" She pointed at where the ash laiden sky hung above the city.

Though the girl appeared odd and dark, almost creepy in a dangerous nymphomaniac kind of way she looked relatively clueless and dim witted.

[powered_otaku]

Hiro sort of flies in next to Brainiac to see the woman he saw earlier. However, judging from Brainy's words and his aggressive stance, he realizes that she's the cause of what happened. He shivers a bit, but bows formally to her.

"Please stop what you are doing. It is extremely distressing to the people below who cannot defend themselves."

[entro_pist]

From their position on the roof of the TV station, the heroes and their dangerous rival will see in the distance a red flare rising into the sky. The Joker has just fired a third shot from the top of Bank One.

Above the city two patrolmen in a police copter have arrived to assess the damage and search for signs of ongoing suspicious activity. Naturally, the flare captures their attention and the copter veers to investigate. Tracing the bright red line down to its base with a pair of binoculars reveals the possible culprit, a man in a black suit with greenish curls and a strange face. He's holding a flare gun and its agreed that this latest red flare is identical to the first two. They immediately radio their tower with a message that they've located the terrorist on the rooftop of Bank One and are closing in. Anyone capable of intercepting the radio transmission will likely receive the news with a breath of relief.

But as the transmission continues, something has clearly gone wrong... "Did you see that?" "Holy Hell, what's going on?" "He just vanished before our eyes! Over!"

Far from Bank One, the Joker reappears in the complex after sending his signal and performing his little "disappearing act". It would be unwise to stick around much longer after signaling the Princess, for obvious reasons. The handheld device in his jacket has allowed him once again to return to the complex. Very handy. However, it doesn't allow him to simply "hop" from place to place. It only lets him return to the complex where he can then use the transporters again to go somewhere else, which is exactly what he intends to do after loading a fourth flare.

Next stop, Bank of America.

[veryusefulbook]

The Princess was about to continue on with the dumb-blond act but when she saw the flare go up, well, she had a job to do. Though she would have enjoyed hanging around to see what the kind odd looking man bowing before her was like she decided that his friend was probably not so kind and wouldn't attempt to use diplomacy like his friend.

"Excuse me gentleman, but there is work to be done." Her demeanor was now of a serious nature, her shoulders and back straight as an arrow, her hands no longer swinging at her sides but raised into the air.

A grin spread across her face. "Must be leaving, you'll pardon me, I'm sure."

With that she spit out vines of shadow that reached out for the men in front of her twisting and breaking into a flurry of bats that swarmed towards the men. Before she had even finished spitting out the shadow she jumped ever so gracefully off the edge of the roof. Just as soon as she had lept off the building she shifted and turned into a mass of misty shadow, though still thick and liquid appearing.

With a dash she traveled through the air in the direction of the third flare. She reformed on the roof two buildings away from the third bank. Above the building was hovering a helicopter. No witnesses, if you please.

She threw her head back and as she had done before she did now. If anyone had attempted to follow her, well good luck to them. However, she wasn't really paying any attention to that if it was possible.

If they hadn't, if there were no interruptions to her person they would see the shadows come up and completely destroy the helicopter, ripping it apart and dropping its remains and the remains of its pilots onto the bank where the shadows would follow and obliterated the third bank.

Any interruptions would hinder her journey and the process, but if she were touched at all in her shadow form, well, that would be a terrible thing for that person.

[powered_otaku]

Hiro stops time before the bats can reach them, then touches Brainy and brings him into the moment between time.

"These are the things that destroyed the buildings. How do we get rid of them?"

[brainiac5ive]

Frozen in place, he was surprised, but only slightly. This time thing was something he was going to have to get used to. He glanced briefly to Hiro then to the bats that were frozen in time. So this was the force that was destroying the banks. "She appears to have complete control over shadows. Physical manifestations, capable of diffusing and being inhaled, and that explains the bodies in the hallway." The only reason he hadn't said anything was due to the Joker's little game.

"I have one idea." Brainy's arm transformed into a cannon and generated an orb of light which he moved by extending his a rm towards the swarm of shadows. "Once you resume time again, that should destroy them. As a countermeasure, I'm activating my shields." As he said that, an ball of purple energy appeared around the two of them.

"Okay, do it."

[powered_otaku]

Hiro lets go of time and waits for Brainy to do his thing. He's feeling rather helpless, but he at least understands he shouldn't let them touch him. After all, if they can destroy stone and metal so easily, a human body can only be like tissue paper to these things.

[veryusefulbook]

The Princess was sitting on the roof, next to the reduced bank two buildings away. The screaming below, the surprise and sound of fire engines attempting to get down the streets was a lullaby to her ears.

So now she would wait for the fourth flare to go up. When she finished that she decided it would be best to go walking about in a different city and keep to the shadows.

She smiled to herself and wondered what happened to the two she had been dealing with earlier. She almost hoped that the timid kind one wasn't dead. Otherwise she would never have the opportunity to play mind games with him.

Chances were they were both alive. That blast of shadows was only commanded to be a distraction, destroying only what it landed on, nothing else. If it hit anything the shadows would harden immediately and be harmless.

She smiled to herself, and waited in great anticipation for flare number four.

[entro_pist]

And here it comes, the long awaited red burst of the fourth and final flare. He'd kept his word: Bank of America would go down but Citibank will be left standing as the deadly game's lucky winner. Upon the flat rooftop of his last stop, the Joker looks to his right to see the previous building blackened and still crumbling under its own hundred tons of ash. Even from this distance, the hazardous airborne particles are beginning to reach him and create a gloomy haze around that section of the city.

He pays the destruction little attention, no more than a passing glance in its direction as he aims the gun skyward. The flare exits with a smart pop! and launches upward in tight spirals, a ribbon of bright red trailing after it upon reaching some hundred feet up. He knows the Princess is waiting for this whether or not the team of heroes has begun their pursuit of her and he knows she can be counted on to take care of herself when they do.

As he's preparing to leave, a pair of fluttering shadow minions circle down from the sky as if drawn by the smoke of the rocketing flare. The Joker greets them with outstretched arms. Time to wrap up the evening's performance.

"Every show must come to an end, Princess. Annnd exit stage left." He reaches inside his coat and punches the command key to vanish once again, fully expecting the Princess to receive his message only after she's unleashed her last round of catastrophic power.