Nanananana BATCLOWN

[he_is_wild]

WHO: Joker + OPEN
WHERE: Out and About
WHEN: Evening of the 27th/28th
WARNINGS: Violence and language, perhaps?
SUMMARY: Joker has been influenced by Hope and is now rushing across the rooftops. The silhouette of the cloak he's made might strike certain people as familiar...
FORMAT: Tagger's choice!

Comments

what am I doing

[more_surreal]

Calvin was really, really not supposed to sneak out of the house and fly around the City unsupervised, especially after dark, especially when the town was having another disaster. But he'd heard that there was a flaming lava fire hydrant somewhere out there, and he would never have forgiven himself if he passed up this chance to see something like that. It could be gone by morning! Really, all he was doing was keeping his priorities straight. It was a life skill.

A small boy in a red cape and cowl softly whooshed across the darkened City, looking for something amazing to be in awe of. He was alone, vulnerable, none too aware of his surroundings, and near the operating area of the City's newest (and temporary) hero.

[he_is_wild]

Joker dropped the cutpurse he had been stalking to the sidewalk. The man was out cold but not dead.

"Think twice next time," he muttered and pulled a padded grapnel from under his cloak. Not as elegant as his erstwhile enemy's "Batclaw" but it did its job.

Just as he muscled his way to the roof he saw a streak of something approaching and his brain said the word "Superman" before he realized the figure was far too small.

Never a dull moment in this job.

He went into a crouch and hissed to the boy from the shadows as he passed.

"You! Stop!"

His voice had a sharp, steel edge to it.

[more_surreal]

If Calvin hadn't been airborne there would have been a screech as he came to an immediate and complete stop. There was no hesitation- that voice had to be obeyed. Common sense suddenly flooded him along with adrenaline, and he began to feel fear as he realized that he was a kid by himself in the dark.

"Who's there?" He called out.

[he_is_wild]

Joker stepped from his shadows, eyes narrowing as he locked gazes with the boy.

"It is not safe out here."

[meowminx]

[ Just a normal night, patrolling across the rooftops and looking for trouble. ]

[he_is_wild]

[Joker watches her, slinking along behind her in the shadows. The Cat and the Bat. They went together, right? That was part of the show.]

[After some time, he drops to the street level and grapples back up ahead of her, simply so that he can emerge from the shadows and into her path with a dramatic flair of the cloak. Hey, going legit didn't mean he had to abandon his showmanship. Besides, he was confident the genuine article was a ham.]

Selina.

[meowminx]

[ She stops in her tracks. The costume is familiar, but the voice isn't Bruce or Dick. ]

Who wants to know?

[he_is_wild]

[He doesn't move, instead he looms ominously.]

It doesn't look like you're helping strays tonight.

[owwmyspine]

The City might've needed a Batman, but it already had a Beetle. Two, actually, but one in particular took to doing more than the typical commute to and from work and school. He tried to vary his patrols every other day, mixing things up, keeping from getting too predictable with the not-so-nice who might have learned to keep track.

He caught glimpse of the bat-shape on his second turn around a series of blocks, doing a double-take with a pretty graceless tilt out of his flying posture.

It really was impossible to keep tabs on the number of bat-people floating around; as to which one that one was, well...Scarab wasn't picking up anything familiar...

[he_is_wild]

Joker was not as good at disappearing and reappearing as his Bat was, but he was still trying to make it work. Usually, his approach was the antithesis of stealth.

He saw the blue shape gliding through the air and recognized it as Blue Beetle. Which Beetle, he wasn't sure. Why was there more than one, anyway? Wasn't one supposed to be dead?

Oh, well.

He dipped out of sight and slung himself up to the top of a high rise ahead of the Beetle's flight path.

"Anything to report?"

Another attempt at the gravelly voice. He felt confident that he was starting to get the hang of it.

[owwmyspine]

The typical holy crap it's Batman jolt Jaime typically felt when he was addressed by Batman was noticeably absent, but then again, not all the bat-people were that intimidating. But still...

He swung his legs forward to stop and hover, just a few feet under the height, looking up and squinting. With the Scarab's help, he noticed...quite a chin on that guy.

"Uh," he replied, starting to squint. "Not really? Which one are you?"

[he_is_wild]

"I'm the closest thing to the genuine article that you're going to find," he said, slowly.

"I'm here to help."

[girlyboywonder]

[ There's a red-and-black crouched shape at the corner of two dark streets, huddled like a not particularly threatening gargoyle and typing away on her comm. She usually pays closer attention to her surroundings, but tonight there's some quick hacking-and-tracking to be done, in terms of catching up with the weapon-dealing group she's been tracking for a while. Almost got it... ]

[he_is_wild]

[The voice comes from behind her. Low, gravelly, full of shadows....He's been practicing.]

You're dead.

[girlyboywonder]

[ --whoa what?! She swears she didn't just nearly drop her comm, and in an instant she's bolting upright and twisting around, already poised to leap into empty space behind her if necessary to get some space between herself and-- whoever. (It can't be him, not again.) ]

Well, not yet.

[he_is_wild]

[He remains in the shadows. This is a Robin, right? Or was once. They were always cycling through, like stale air.]

Your guard was down. Never let your guard down.