Things Changed

[Barbara Gordon]

just tonight i will stay , AND WE'LL THROW IT ALL AWAY This night was bound to be interesting, and not entirely in a good way. You see, tonight was the night of the Masquerade Wayne Benefit, and while for most that would have been fine and all, for some it created an extra level of awkwardness. That some happened to be those belonging to the Bat Family. Now most of the time Barbara Gordon would not have been deemed interesting or important enough to be invited to a thing like this considering that she was only a lowly salesperson at a regular Gotham city bookstore, but tonight it was not about who she was, but who she was related to. She was the niece and the adopted daughter of the Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon. Since Bruce Wayne had announced that one of the beneficiaries of this would be the Gotham City Police Department, and since of course Commissioner Gordon had been invited, she had been told that it would be polite to attend, especially since the invite had been for the entire family. It did not matter that she was technically independent of her parents, they demanded that she attend. They had even paid for her dress. So despite her objections, she was masked and at the benefit. Barbara heaved a sigh as they entered the mansion and were escorted to the ballroom where the benefit was being held. She did not like this whole idea of being here. Because if she ran into Dick Greyson or Bruce Wayne or Tim Drake then she had to pretend that she did not know any of them, or something of that nature. It was just another masquerade. The masks did not help or make anything different. In some cases she might be able to pretend that she was simply an acquaintance of some of them, but that was only if it made sense for her to have seen that person around prior to this. Like with Dick, she had seen him around at the University, so she could pretend that she knew his name but that she did not know him well enough to call him a friend. And Bruce Wayne? Ha, that was a laugh. She was not to pretend that she had met him before, she only knew of him. Heck, her adoptive father did not even know him personally, so how in the world was she supposed to know the billionaire and Prince of Gothom? It was not that Barbara could not make it seem like she did not know these people very personally, it was that she got tired of doing it. During the daylight she was supposed to be able to live her life without most of the masks, and given that this was not in the daylight, but the point was that she was hoping that she would not have had to play all these games and put herself into the proximity of the people that she was not supposed to know. For a minute as the red head looked out at the masked crowds she suppressed a smile. The last time she had gone to something like this she had dressed up as a female version of Batman and well, she knew how well that had gone. She had ended up taking on that very persona. True that had been awhile ago, and she had gone to other costume parties since then, but none of them had been in association with her adoptive father. Of course this time the mask and outfit that she wore was a lot more befitting of the situation. She knew that more than James Gordon would have frowned on her masquerading as a version of Batman in this situation. Of course at the same time she could also put on that mask at a moment’s notice as well. Still, it was just interesting to note the way things changed. And tonight, unlike that last time she had gone to something in association with her Dad she had also been trying to attract attention. But not this time, this time she was seeking to go unnoticed. Not always a normal occurrence on her part. But as she had said before, things changed. WHEN THE LIGHT HITS YOUR EYES TAG: Anyone who wants to play (Joker) / WORDS: 702 / LYRICS: JUST TONIGHT by THE PRETTY RECKLESS / NOTES: I am currently w/o internet so progress on my part will be slow. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

{{Not my best work I'm afraid...}}


Oh how he just loved masquerade balls! He could happily wade in and out of people and crowds, completely undetected. Of course, because he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible, he did as much to cover up his body as he could manage, and he had to say, looking in the mirror before getting here, he was very impressed with himself. He had managed to procure a full-length Burqa which was owned previously by a Muslim woman who really wouldn’t be needing it anymore. It was a shame too, after stripping her of the religious robe, the only thing that the Joker wanted to do was put it right back on her ugly ass, but Muslim women of over 6-feet were a rare commodity, let alone those Muslim women of over 6-feet who wore the full-length Burqa. He had to torture himself through the torture of her by actually looking at her, having to actually see those features and in some of the most hideous clothes, too. It was a sight that he would bear the scars of until he chose to forget the entire incident, which would happen later on tonight after leaving the Wayne Benefit.

When he stepped into the room, he was comforted by the fact that not only was he completely hidden from the tips of his very green hair right down to his shoes, but a quick scan of the ballroom and he could see his men stationed about, mingling with the guests. If the proverbial shit decided to hit the fan tonight, he would certainly have some back-up to ensure that people die if they want to cause an issue. But, that was a thought that was for later, for now the Joker decided it would be prudent to surf the crowd and see if he can spot any of the political figureheads that were bound to be present tonight, as well as any relatives or connections to these people. He wasn’t entirely sure what the plan was right now, all he knew is that he wanted to be here to enjoy the evening by improvising some fireworks. He had his favourite weapon collection on his person, some Joker Venom, his homemade Joker Hand Buzzer and his modified deck of cards with their razor-sharp edges. If he wanted to kick off and spill some blood, he was more than ably equipped in that department, not to mention his henchmen packing some kind of concealed weapon that they would have managed to sneak past security in one way or another.

While he was appreciating all of the extravagant and colourful masks that were hiding people’s faces around him, there was a bit of an issue in that. You see, the masks were hiding people’s faces, making most people unrecognisable since the key features that one would use to identify a person was hidden. It was like, for a night, the entire population of the ball had become some kind of masked vigilante or super villain (and he wouldn’t be surprised if a few of those were present here), flaunting their secret identities around for fun and entertainment. It was a spanner in the works, but the Joker wasn’t put off by it. He would figure out a way around all these masks and if not, then he’d do something to attract the Bat and keep everyone else inside to use as cannon fodder against the great Dark Knight.

[Barbara Gordon]

just tonight i will stay , AND WE'LL THROW IT ALL AWAY What had been the purpose of coming here? She could have sworn that there had been no reason why she specifically had to be here. With her mask on, she doubted that most to recognize her as the Commissioner’s daughter. Well, actually there were a few here who she was sure would actually recognize her as she was actually dressed but she knew better than to approach them. Of course her “father” was much more readily recognized, and her “mother” by association. They had been called over to social soon after they had all made their entrances to the grand masquerade. And she? No one was calling her name, no one was seeking her attention, and no significant other to cling to; she was alone. And it was why she had dreaded coming. Because this was when things got awkward. The only people that she would likely be talking to would be the one who she stiffly tried to strike a conversation with, and seeing as she recognized none of the loners nearby, it meant that it would be awkward, to say the least. And she was not sure she was really in the mood to put herself out there in that sort of situation. She could only stand so much stiff awkwardness in one night. Lifting a flute of what she was assured was non-alcoholic sparkling cider (twenty still did not pass as twenty-one) from a tray from a server, she began to slowly walk down side of the grand ballroom, carefully weaving around the standing crowd. Looking out at the dancing crowd near the orchestra, she caught sight of Dick Grayson and Bette Kane dancing together. Though it was not like they were off in their own little world, they did seem to be enjoying themselves, both relaxed enough and both wearing a smile, or so Barbara thought. But her vantage point was not close, so perhaps she had been imaging things? Still, she felt a stab of jealousy, and knew that she would have loved to be out there dancing, and though she certainly would have enjoyed dancing with Dick, knowing they probably would have found ways to crack jobs and have a good time, she would have settled for a number of people as dancing partners. But she knew that she was not supposed to know either of them well enough to dance, so for now there was no way she was going to be able to make that happen. Instead she was just going to have to hope that they instead enjoyed themselves. It was the price she paid for being able to wear the cowl of Batgirl, she lacked a stable and healthy social life. Breaking her gaze away from the dancing pair, Barbara tipped the flute to her lips, spilling the fizzing liquid into her mouth. It was not her favorite drink, and she felt like she was now trying to fit in to this, pretending that the sparkling cider was a suitable substitute for champagne. It was just another way that she was being told that she did not belong. Draining half the liquid she contemplated throwing the glass against the wall like she always saw in movies, but she knew that would be frowned upon. She did not want to bring attention to herself like that. So instead she contented herself in carrying it with her and she ambled through the crowd. She gave a slight shake of her head, an outward display at her distaste in the situation. Maybe that was why she did not notice the dark cloth that was in her path. And instead of avoiding it, she stumbled over it. It was not the most graceful display, and she ended up tipping most of what was left of her drink onto the skirt of a burqa. “Oh I am so sorry,” she muttered horrified. This was NOT supposed to happen. Gordon was going to be furious at her, as well as probably the wearer of it. And she looked up at the slit in the fabric where the eyes looked out at her. “Is there anything I can do….?” She asked slowly, and more out of automated response than in apology. Something about the eyes that looked back gave her a chill. Something felt wrong here. Glancing back out at the rest of the Benefit, frowning, she saw nothing out of place. Yet something seemed wrong. Her Bat senses were tingling. WHEN THE LIGHT HITS YOUR EYES TAG: Joker / WORDS: 744 / LYRICS: JUST TONIGHT by THE PRETTY RECKLESS / NOTES: Don't worry about it, you did fine. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

This whole event was one big, long boring party filled with a lot of rich and political snobs who liked to flaunt their wealth and power to each other and over. They all played alone with each other and pretended to be fascinated with what people were telling them, what they were wearing, how expensive their masks were, spewing crap about pretending to care about the poor, needy, homeless and cracking down on crime, though none of them did anything but throw some pocket money at a few charities and refused to actually get their hands dirty themselves. All of them loathed and envied those with more power or more wealth than others and perhaps Bruce Wayne was at the epicentre of that jealously fuelling the fake smiles and false pretences. Of course there were bound to be a few capes in civvies here, a thought which thrilled the cheeky clown whilst also making him feel sick to his stomach. A lot of these masked crusaders were known to him by only their mask names and faces and he liked it like that, he could share the same with them in that respect as people only knew him as the Joker. But here, among the ordinary folk, hiding in plain sight, they flaunted the fact that they had real lives and weren’t their alter-egos every minute of every day of every year until they died. The Joker could not relate to that and the very thought of them turning their backs on their true forms to mingle in with the everyman royally pissed him off. They may as well hang up their masks and spit on them as that’s what they were doing here, the beloved heroes hiding from the ordinary folk.

In that respect, he and Barbara were not in too much of a different mindset as they wandered through the party, the faux hands poking out of the sleeves of the Joker’s Burqa and clasped in front of him as his eyes scanned the crowd. The only difference between the two mindsets right now was the fact that the Joker came here to have some fun and in a room of people who sucked the fun out of life, he was going to create some of his own.

His eyes, the eyes of a super-sane being, today being hidden by that of an attention whore with less than appropriate intentions at a party such as this, scanned around meeting with a few of his goons to make sure they were in place as he looked for his potentially target. He had decided what he was going to do tonight at this party: rather than killing everyone, which had been a potential option for him, he was instead going to announce his return to the crime scene to strike fear into the people rather than simply gassing them and being done with it. A room full of people this large... To kill them all at once wouldn’t be funny, it would be boring! The laughter may erupt among them but the Joker would be standing stock still, that grin on his face but not in his eyes as it would invalidate the medicine of laughter, invalidate the very thing he existed for. Except, of course, Batman. Not to mention that this ball probably contained a non-suited Batman somewhere and he just couldn’t kill the Bat with gas, it would have to be with his own hands. Like a crowbar or something, now that would be fun!

All of a sudden he felt someone walking into him and snapped his head in the direction of the culprit. He couldn’t see who it was under the mask but he certainly knew that he had found his victim. The girl looked to be young and the young ones were always more fun, they always inspired more fear and her sorrow at spilling the drink almost looked robotic and rehearsed, like she was on autopilot and wasn’t really regretful of spilling what was potentially alcoholic liquid on a religious robe! Well by the time the night was over, the Joker would see to it that she regretted her accident all right, he was going to ensure that she felt the fear in her heart before this was done.

He adopted a look of shock in his eyes as he first looked down at the stain and then back up to the girl in question. He repeated this action a few times, each look getting angrier. He then pointedly looked in the direction of the ladies’ bathroom, hoping that the message got through, that he wanted her to go into the bathroom with him to help him get the stain out. Now he wasn’t speaking because his voice was quite distinctive and he could force her into the bathroom by grabbing her because the hands that were out of the Burqa were fake, but he was hoping that those eyes of his were enough to drag the girl along with him into the ladies’ so that he could start his really not that nefarious, but a little bit, plan. He charged forwards towards the toilet, looking back to make sure the girl was following him. If she wasn’t, then he would have to skip the foreplay and just get stuck right in.

[Barbara Gordon]

just tonight i will stay , AND WE'LL THROW IT ALL AWAY Now sometimes when you did something like spill your drink on someone they were nice and courteous about and said that they would handle it. Especially since the general idea was that if you were clumsy enough to spill something in the first place, no one wanted you sticking around in case you caused even more damage. Most of the time they somehow shooed you away. That was in the normal situation. Seldom did they ask for your help in cleaning it up. So in this case, Barbara found herself in an unlucky situation where she had actually managed to dump her drink on one of the few people in this grand place who actually cared. Most here were so rich they did not care if one of their dresses or suits were damaged in such way, most would not touch it ever again, and if they did they could all afford to buy a new one. But no, not the random person wearing the burqa actually cared that her robes had been soiled. Then again in some ways they were probably considered religious and so the spilling of any beverage on them was probably blasphemy. Of course in some aspect she kind of wished that it had been actual champagne that she spilled on the robes, then at least she would have had the irony to laugh at. Too bad. Trying to hide her annoyance at being asked to help cleaning up the mess she had made, Barbara set down the now virtually empty flute and went to help the person (she was assuming that this person was a woman). Maybe that should have been the first sign that something was up, the fact that she was being asked to help clean up the mess. But of course she ignored this thought. Her parents would have been ashamed of her if she had decided not to help clean up the mess, the mess she had created. For that matter that in a way was going against what Batgirl stood for, taking responsibility and making the world a better place. Of course the fact that the woman did not say anything. That also was odd. Not an “oh don’t worry about it” or “oh no” or even a “fuck,” although it was possible that the last one was too strong of language. Still, the absence of language was a bit odd. And she knew that in some cultures, women were not supposed to speak to men, but she obviously did not make that cut. Instead she just gestured at the bathroom, indicating that she wanted Barbara to follow her into there. It was odd, and maybe she should have known that something was up, especially looking up at the eyes. They were clearly hiding something, but she could not tell what. Sighing, and ignoring the warning signs, she went to follow to the woman’s bathroom. There was something odd about the woman in the burqa. Maybe she should have run in the opposite direction, but her bat senses were tingling. If this was a thread then she would need to know so that she could take it out. No, she was being paranoid right? Surely she had imagined the way the look of those eyes had given her chills. Surely she had imagined it all. Still she followed the woman to the bathroom. It was a good thing that she was headed to the girl’s bathroom. If it had been to the men’s Barbara would have said no and made the person fend for himself. But into the girl’s bathroom they went. There were two people finishing their business, and they quickly hurried out. “Alright let’s see the damage,” she said with a sigh. Finally giving up on the idea of the mask she ripped hers off. It limited her sight and was annoying. They had been removed from the Benefit so she figured that she could take her mask off for a minute. She would just have to put it back on before she re-entered the party. But here in the company with only one other person, she figured it was acceptable. She walked over and grabbed a couple of white folded towels and knelt to assess the damage she had caused. WHEN THE LIGHT HITS YOUR EYES TAG: Joker / WORDS: 713 / LYRICS: JUST TONIGHT by THE PRETTY RECKLESS / NOTES: This is getting really interesting. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

This couldn’t have been more delicious.

The two ‘ladies’ entered the women’s bathroom together and past a couple of the guests as they left. Alone together, the Joker would have to make his move fast but a whole new kind of delight was thrust in his face when the woman removed her mask to reveal herself as none other than Miss Barbara Gordon, the daughter of the Commissioner himself! This was the stuff a criminal’s wet dreams were made of, not only was he taking a hostage for his return to crime, but the hostage was none other than a political figurehead too! The adopted daughter of the most adored and famous police officer in all of Gotham City! Maniacal laughter threatened to escape the blood red lips of the Clown Prince but he managed to keep his cool for the moment, allowing himself to revel in the delight before going ahead with his plan.

The Joker took a step back from where Barbara was to allow her to do her thing, things got even more delightful for the clown when she knelt in front of him. Oh if only she knew what her face was inches from, it would be a SCREAM! HA! Well, now seemed like a reasonable enough time as any to tell the punch line, so from his vantage point above the young girl, he looked down at the top of her head and formulated his plan in a matter of seconds.

“Are you this forward with all the boys, Babs?” As soon as he uttered those words he released his grip on the faux hands allowing them to drop onto the head of the Batgirl and, with his stark white real hands, grabbed a fistful of hair and roughly pulled her to her feet. “Does daddy know that you just get on your knees in front of total strangers? HA!” Using his grip, the Joker thrust Barbara away from him and towards the sink, taking a step back to pull of the headpiece of the Burqa to reveal himself as who he really was: the deranged and mental clown more commonly known as “The Joker”.

With his identity unveiled, he manoeuvred himself so that he was closer to the door of the bathroom than she was, prepared to jump in and grab her should she try to escape. “You know, you should probably work on your fake sincerity a little bit, I could see through that facade a mile away! HaHA! You weren’t really sorry about spilling that drink on this poor woman’s religious Burqa, were you?” The clown took a step towards Babs, allowing his taller frame to loom above her. “But don’t worry, I’ll teach you the manners that your daddy forgot-

“Oh wait, how cruel of me! You don’t even know your daddy do you? How sad...” In an attempt to mock pout at Babs, the face of the Joker, the smile to be exact, deformed itself so that it looked truly grotesque, even compared to how it usually looked. The evil twinkling in his eye never dimmed or diminished but only seemed to brighten as the scene unfolded.

Oh yes, this truly was a deliciously fiendish turnout.

[Barbara Gordon]

Too much at Stake THE MORE I COMMIT TO THIS NIGHT Parents always told their children not to talk to strangers. She should have listened to that advice. Too bad she was no longer a child and so of course such an excuse would never have worked. She had also told herself that she was being paranoid this night, for thinking that there was something odd and out of place with this “woman” in a burqa. She should have listened to her bat senses. Because she found that she had been right to worry the moment the voice came through. It was a voice that everyone in the bat family knew all too well. It was a voice that made the chill run down her spine once again. And she could not believe that she was now stuck in a room, alone, with a mortal enemy, and with no one from the Benefit knowing that there was indeed an intruder. When the fake hands were dropped, she froze, suddenly knowing that she had been caught, and she cursed herself for being so stupid. How could she, Batgirl and Barbara Gordon be so stupid as to miss the Joker when he was standing right in front of her. She found that she wasn’t even surprised that he had chosen a burqa. It was just like him. And it had hid his true nature well enough. But as she had shed her mask, he was shedding his disguise. Without ceremony he grabbed her head, pulling her to her feet, and she had to fight the bile that rose in her throat at the thought of The Joker’s filthy hands touching any part of her. He threw her away and she caught herself on the cold smooth porcelain of one of the sinks. When she looked up, the headpiece of the burqa had already been tossed to the floor, and the ugly face of the Joker was visible. And she realized that as she knew who he was, he had done his homework, he not only knew her name, but what those close to her called her: Babs. So she was not as nameless as she had thought, it would mean that she would have to be more careful in the future with what she did when without her mask. But he should also have known that while she might not have been the fondest of the nickname, he was not allowed to use it. Her first impulse as Barbara was to run, try to make it for the door and run out and shout to the world that the Joker was about to come running out of the bathroom. But Batgirl would not have run from the fight, which meant that even if she did not have a mask on, even if she was being seen to the world right now as the Comissioner’s adoptive daughter, she had to stand her ground and find a way to get out of this with her dignity still intact. Besides, the Joker was already in a position to make it to the door first, or catch her trying, and she shuddered at the thought of the villain touching her skin with his hands, her hair was bad enough. It might have made more sense to run, especially as a civilian, but she forced herself to stay. She wondered if he had any idea who had cornered here, but even he only knew of her being Barbara Gordon, that was bad enough because that meant he had something to use against her father, adoptive or no. God this was bad. She wished that she knew that Jim would not react to the fact that the Joker had cornered his adoptive daughter, but she knew that it was not true. Even if they fought as they did, and had as many unresolved issues as they did, it had been his idea to adopt her all of those years ago, and they were still family, she was still his daughter. The Joker advanced on her, making the idea of making a break for it impossible to even consider, he would have grabbed her before she could make five steps. Still he stepped closer until he loomed over her, making her feel smaller than she really was. Even with heels to increase her already slightly-over average height, he still was a significant amount taller and bigger than her. She had never made any claim at being strong, and whatever strength she had from being Batgirl, she was sure that it was not enough to compete with him. She tried backing up, but the corner of the sink bit into her back. That way at least was not an option. But maybe? The Joker thought that he had only claimed Barbara Gordon, but she doubted that he had connected her to the Female Knight of Night. That meant that she could use some of those skills and she might have a chance. It was a thought that she began to consider. Maybe if she use the martial arts she knew to hit him she could inflict enough damage to make him pause, and that was all she would not to run around him and make it to the bathroom door. All she needed was a couple seconds before she was out of his reach… But then the Joker hit below the belt. She had known her father, and even if she hadn’t, James Gordon had been a good stand-in, one that anyone would have been proud to have. No that was something that she would not let him get away with. He had just made the decision for her. She glared up at him, refusing to back down. “If you think you think you know me so well then you would know that you don’t get to call be Babs. It’s Barbara.” She said, her voice stiff with an icy fury. First she brought up her left knee seeking the week point that made every man male. Using that momentum she brought her left hand up for a Knife-hand to the base of the neck. Then before the blows could even finish she used her right hand in a knife-hand strike to just above the floating rib. She would have tried for pressure points but they took too long to make them work in this situation. Plus the though of touching the Joker for longer the she had too. And then before she or he could think of exchanging further blows she ran around him, and as any good woman would have, she took off for the door, struggling to make the high heels she had on work and acceptable running shoes. And of course if that didn’t work, then she could always scream, something that woman were good at. MOVING IN A GAME OF LOSE OR WIN TAG: Joker / WORDS: 1129 / LYRICS: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by XANDRIA / NOTES: See below. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

{Alright so first off knife-hand strikes are where the hand is tanse but almost flat, and uses the tensed muscle of the heel of the hand as a striking tool. And feel free to have him block some/all blows, and he can also be wearing a cup as those are effective. And feel free to grab her and do whatever before she reaches the door, it's not like high heels are good running shoes.

Oh and as you probably already saw I changed the Picture/lyrics, since the original ones did not fit the tone anymore.}

[The Joker]

There were some natural advantages to being the Joker in a city where crime had many crime fighters and had caused so many people, civilians, to get scared that they started to teach themselves basic defence mechanisms to hopefully avoid coming to an untimely end. One of those advantages was the fact that he was so wildly impulsive and unpredictable that sometimes he was even cold and calculated! He was at one moment a naughty clown out to cause mischief and fun and at other times a homicidal maniac who wanted to spill as much blood as he could before the joke stopped being funny. Another advantage was his sense of humour, often misinterpreted and unappreciated by others who weren’t Harles, he had a wicked, razor-sharp tongue of gags and one liners just waiting to explode out. But the advantage of being the Joker in Gotham City at this precise moment was the masochistic nature of the Clown. Many say that he has a heightened tolerance to pain and most blows that would floor a man wouldn’t do so much to the Joker, which was true, but what they didn’t often think about was those times when the pain did come, he welcomed it with opened arms, allowed him to gush over him, wave after wave of euphoric pain, an interesting and unique sensation as every time it was a surprise how it would turn out on the body as a whole, until it finally subsided and he was back to reality.

So when Babs’ knee found itself connecting to the crotch of the Joker, never mind what followed that, it was nothing more than a gnat poking at your skin in comparison, he was instantly on his knees, clutching his balls like any normal man, only with his unique grin on his face and allowing the sensations to flow up into his stomach as the contents wanted to release themselves onto the polished floor of the bathroom. It was a fairly typical reaction of pain to this kind of treatment which, as a result, didn’t quite reach the same euphoric heights as other inflictions of pain due to the predictability of the whole thing. The Joker liked to live in the moment, live not knowing what would happen in the next few seconds, contrive elaborate and random moments, or better yet to allow others and life itself to contrive these moments, so predictability was quite boring and annoying to the Clown and as he eventually reached the floor in a lying position, he was getting himself over the sensation at a fairly rapid pace.

She tried to escape which was just as predictable and dull as the resultant waves of pain as the knee-groin incident which means that she probably had another predictable move up her sleeve lined up for when the Joker stopped her flee and that was to scream for help. For a chick that started off so bad-ass, someone who was really getting the blood flowing through the Joker and getting his adrenaline pumped for what could have been a decent scrap, she sure was proving herself to be nothing more than chickenshit. Oh well, it would be down to the Joker to fix this and he would make sure that he did, first of all by securing the fact that she remains in the bathroom by shooting out one of his ghastly-white hands to firmly grip onto a fleeing ankle and then pull with surprising strength towards himself, the intended goal to get Babs on her front and hopefully hitting her head on the hard floor of the bathroom in the process. He would then instantly pounce, using one hand to grab the mask of the Burqa and the rest of him to mount the Commissioner’s daughter making a conscious effort to make sure his groin was firmly placed over her supple buttocks. This would give him the leverage he would need to once more grab a fistful of hair to allow him to pull back the woman’s head and stuff the Burqa mask in her mouth to muffle any sounds coming out of it. “Now now, we don’t want you alerting the guests to my presence here, not yet at least. But don’t you worry Babs, they’ll eventually become well aware of my presence here, hahahahahaaa!”

Of course, this was the plan at least.

[Barbara Gordon]

Too much at Stake THE MORE I COMMIT TO THIS NIGHT She had to admit that a part of her was surprised when the Joker actually went down. It was not that she had doubted her ability to take him down for a second or that she had thought it was a plan, it was just that she knew that most of the time, few things went completely according to plan. Such as she had never planned on getting suck in the girl’s bathroom with the Joker, and without any masks on. It was an interesting idea, fighting the Joker as Barbara Gordon, and not as the Batgirl. But if only he knew who he had in the room with him, within his grasp. And she could only be thankful that he seemed to have no idea. She certainly was not going to be the one to tell him all of what was going on. But still, being without a mask on while in the same room with him made her feel naked almost. It did not matter that her dress was just a little too puffy, without the mask of Batgirl, she felt so odd trying to fight the Joker. Like she was two totally different people, and maybe that was part of what she was doing here. Batgirl certainly would have responded differently, but Batgirl also operated differently. She was there to protect people like Barbara and her family and the rest of the people at this benefit from people like the Joker. And even if she had everything that she needed here tonight, to change into the vigilante, tonight she would be fighting only as Barbara Gordon.’ Maybe that was why she had not thrown a lot of fighting into her escape attempt. A normal civilian was more likely to try to pull something like that. It might also might have been one of the reasons why she had not expected it to work. Still that did not mean that she was not surprised or disappointed when she felt his hand wrap around her ankle. And so she too went down, and hard with her head colliding with the tile floor. She hit her head hard enough that she was stunned for a moment, and hardly noticed when the Joker puller her closer to him. Her head was suddenly a blur and the world around her seemed to be spinning. She tried to get her mind to focus in on something, anything, to stop the spinning, but it was not working well. She had no choice to but to let herself be dragged over the tiles and into the eager hands of the enemy. She did not put up much of fight, as much as she would have liked to, not then at least. The tiles of the floor provided no opportunities for her to grab onto something, to keep her from being reeled in. But maybe if the world would stop spinning she would be able to do something about it. And when he finally had her, down on the floor, she felt him get on top of her, pinning her to the ground, and again she had to stop herself from convulsing. She knew that he had positioned it like this exactly for his sick pleasure and because it would keep her down, the bastard. Before she could say anything he grabbed her hair and again pulled her head up. This time though he shoved the headpeaice of the burqa into her mouth, making the cloth function as an effective gag. As she mentally made a note to burn the hair that had been gripped by the Joker, she decided that her mind had cleared enough. Though her world hadn’t stopped spinning completely, but it had slowed enough for her to gain her sense of the world. She didn’t intend to just lie down in this, so she tried twisting herself to the side. If it worked, then she would be able to managed to throw the Joker over, if he had put too much of his weight on her. At the same time she reached up with her own hands and tore the tainted cloth from her mouth, she also had some questions to ask of the Joker. Such as how long he intended to play this game with her, he couldn’t plan on forever, especially since someone could walk in on them at any minute, because she did not think that he had managed to lock the doors. She also had to correct him, because her name to him was not Babs, it was Barbara, and even that was a stretch. MOVING IN A GAME OF LOSE OR WIN TAG: Joker / WORDS: 767 / LYRICS: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by XANDRIA / NOTES: Sorry, not my best, I was really tired. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

Sometimes, plans with the best of intentions falter because of the simplest of things. It happen to every superhero and supervillain at one point or another in their career and is something that becomes very frequent for them if their career is long and successful, such as the Joker’s or Batman’s. There will always be some small detail that was overlooked in the heat of the battle that would ruin a good, well intentioned plan such as gagging the captive to stop her from screaming. There was one key thing that he had forgotten to do... Okay, well two. The first was the cable ties. He knew exactly where they were on his person, in his left breast suit pocket. Or was it right? Well, it was in his purple clown suit anyway, somewhere close enough for him to just snatch it up and use it to fasten Bab’s hands together and behind her back, thus effectively preventing her from removing the gag. The other was the duct tape. Duct tape was, without a doubt, one of the most miraculous inventions known to man. It was such a handy tool, nice and strong yet easy to manipulate when needed and it had so many wonderful uses! Such as securing a gag in someone’s mouth. The tape was also located in his purple suit (really, there wasn’t a lot that wasn’t in his suit – it has a lot of pockets and they go quite deep) but he hadn’t grabbed them. Why? This goddamned Burqa was preventing him from doing just that.

So the Burqa had to go.

There was a moment between letting go of Babs’ hair and her turning around to flip him off and pull out the gag and it was a moment seized by the Joker. He was thinking about the security of the gag in Babs’ mouth when he came to this decision and so he started pulling on the black material that covered his body. He had had Harley design and make this Burqa for him to that it could be easily torn off rather than having to come over his head and temporarily blind him from the events around and she had done a decent job at it. As he pulled at the material he could hear the tears in the Velcro and it just started slipping off him. Of course it wasn’t all done by the time Babs decided to come back to life but he was practically there.

He had a bit of weight on the woman but he had also been in this situation many times before with Harley when they played a fun game called “Please Don’t Rape Me!” in which Harley always played the victim. She always put her whole effort into it, it was really quite sweet to see the lengths she would often go to to please her Mistah J. But this particular scenario had come up quite frequently in his game and so he was prepared for it, able to counteract it by simply lifting himself up so that the roll did nothing. He settled back down with his groin nuzzling where Babs’ vagina was, hidden beneath layers of fabric, and grinned his evil little grin down at his helpless victim.

He gave one last tug on the Burqa and the material came off him completely (with a little squirming going on on his part to get it over his knees) and he tossed it aside and out of the way. “Awh, you removed my gag! Now you’ve gone and hurt my feelings!” The Joker, after reviewing a number of options of what to do next, decided that he didn’t want to do anything too drastic because he needed the girl alive and conscious for the next part of this plan. But he did want her looking roughed up so he settled with a backhand across the face and a maniacal laugh of glee whilst he did so.

There was something that Babs was right on the mark about though, he hadn’t locked the door to the bathroom which meant it was only a matter of time before someone came in and ruined his surprise to the Benefit that was literally feet away from their current position. And that time had potentially been reached as the door to the women’s bathroom opened and three women in full length dresses entered, closed the door and stared down at the Joker and Babs.

Unfortunately for Babs, things weren’t quite as they seemed.

“Well it certainly took you three long enough! This one’s a feisty one; we’ve had a tussle and everything!” Despite the apparent anger in his voice the Joker did genuinely enjoy the fight that the girl had in her because rather than some snivelling little wimp, he had a tough girl who wasn’t going to just give up and submit to the Joker. It made for a very fun kidnapping attempt at a place like this. “Rough her up, but make sure she’s recognisable. I want everyone to know who it is I have when we go back outside.” The Joker took this as his cue to get off of Babs once and for all as the three woman, masks still on, advanced on the poor girl to do the Joker’s dirty work. The clown, in the meantime, made sure that the lock on the door to the bathroom was locked and then went over to a mirror to gussy himself up, ready for the big announcement.

[Barbara Gordon]

Too much at Stake THE MORE I COMMIT TO THIS NIGHT She had timed it wrong. When she had twisted her body the wrong way, he had been busy taking off the rest of the burqa. And he also seemed to have practice at negating the effectiveness of this move. So instead of him falling to the side, he stayed on top of her, and rather in an uncomfortable spot. He only grinned down at her, clearly enjoying this, while she inwardly cursed at how much worse things were getting. But of course where he thought her a helpless victim he was wrong. She was anything but helpless, and she did not yet consider herself a victim. What was she the victim of yet? Nothing so far. And she was far from helpless. She may not have done the best job of demonstrating this, but she was not done fighting, she never would be. And here, in the bathroom, even pinned to the ground, she was still capable of many things, and she was not going to let the Joker beat her. The problem that she was running into though was that she did not yet know what his plans were. He apparently was going to use her in some way, but she had yet to figure out how. He had also said that for now he did not want anyone to know he was here, except for her apparently. As she glanced up at the Joker he tossed the last of the burqa off to a corner of the bathroom. This was proper though, she figured that if he wanted to make a statement, the only way to do that was to be in his customary garb. He back fisted her, and while it was hard enough to make her head turn sideways, she didn’t taste blood in her mouth. She knew that it would leave a red mark, but really she could handle that. “Oh come on now.” She said as she turned her head to look up at him. “Is that all you got?” A simple backfist was not much. “And just so you know I think that the burqa fit you much better, that’s why I took it out of my mouth.” It was more of something that she thought Batgirl would have said, and she knew that she was treading on ice. She knew that the Joker did not have issues with killing, he was not a mortal enemy for minor reasons. But considering he hadn’t come close to killing her yet, she was beginning to wonder if he would kill her tonight, and she figured that if he did not respond to her goading, then he probably wouldn’t, not tonight at least. If he did respond with more force, well than she might have problems, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t already in trouble. Then the door to the bathroom opened. But without looking up too see who it was, she knew that it was not good for her. The first sign was that there was not screaming or no stunner breathes that should have come from a guest of the benefit discovering this scene. Instead, the Joker looked up with an expression of that of finally getting something he had been waiting on. Apparently he had been expecting these intruders. And her heart fell, especially when the Joker gave the intruders their command. Of course then he got up, off of her, and went to a mirror. For a psychopath, he really was pretty vain. But as soon as he was off of her, she rolled over and looked at the intruders as she rose. There were three people dressed in dresses and masks, and apparently wigs and other such disguises, as one of them pulled them off, to reveal the thug beneath. And to her surprise, she saw a glimmer of hope with these men. There might have been three of them, but she had been in worse as Batgirl. Of course she was without the tools of Batgirl and the dress and heels were not ideal, but then again she had experience in dressing in finery like this, they didn’t. So she figured that now at least she had a chance. As Barbara got to her feet, she considered taking off her heels to make it easier to run and throw kicks, but decided against it. They were not too extreme and she was used to fighting in light heels, plus if used correctly they were potent weapons, something she doubted the thugs would be able to use. Even if they had been wearing heels underneath the folds of the dresses they wore, she was guessing that they were taking them off for this. She was also wondering if they had better things to wear than what they had now, because if they walked out at tried to be imposing as cross-dressing thugs, they would probably only get a few laughs. It wasn’t even like they had machine guns on them, what was there to be scared of? Barbara certainly wasn’t. Without a second thought she ran forward to meet her opponents head-on. She ducked under two sets of arms that shot out to catch her. As she danced through them she reached up and pulled the masks on two of them down so that their sight was impeded and ran straight into the third, shoving him hard enough at her momentum carried both of them into a stall of the bathroom, making a loud collision (who needed screams to alert the crowd anyway?) as one of the partitions was knocked free to fall onto the next stall. With him stunned Barbara was able to knock his head against the porcelain of the toilet and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Oops. Well the Joker’s plans had better work with two thugs, otherwise he could consider them foiled. MOVING IN A GAME OF LOSE OR WIN TAG: Joker / WORDS: 976 / LYRICS: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by XANDRIA / NOTES: Hope it is okay that she managed to take care of one of the thugs. If not let me know and I'll be happy to change it. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

Where the Joker was looking, there was a beautiful work of art, turned into a face, which was staring back at him. The man in the mirror was charming, handsome clearly wealthy and well educated and he looked like he could have any woman in the world, he needed only to snap his fingers. To other people, however (and the Joker himself on a bad day) there was a demented clown, scruffy and psychotic looking, a grotesque grin permanently etched onto his features via forever paralysed muscles, looking completely evil and insane. His hair and eyes looked unnatural, his lips were stained a bloody colour and no one ever trusted a suit with that many pockets in it – just what was he hiding?

He was, of course, looking at his own reflection in the mirror.

There was some noise, a scrap and a fight going on in the background behind him as he continued to gussy himself up in the mirror, splashing water on his stark-white face and rubbing it to try and bring some life to the skin there, he applied more water (and some liquid hand soap) to his hair in an attempt to gel it to a side-parting to make himself seem more appropriate for the party he was about to head into. He was brushing down his suit and removing the small bits of fluff that accumulated on it by brushing fairly hard or picking off the larger bits of lint and letting them glide down to the floor by his feet. And speaking of feet, he looked down at his shoes and made sure they were indeed shiny, slipping off each shoe individually, spitting on the leather and then rubbing it with a hand towel and following it but buffing it with his sleeve. No polish came off on his sleeves, thankfully, as no polish was actually used, but in the Joker’s eyes he at least needed to make an attempt.

Of course, none of this was to actually try to fit into the ball, even if he didn’t stick out like a sore thumb within crowds of people anyway his intention certainly wasn’t that to blend in, but rather stick out like a foghorn in a library, loudly, bluntly and violently announcing his return to crime after opening the revolving doors to his second home in Arkham once again. He wanted to have every pair of eyes on him, particularly the one that got away, also known as Bruce Wayne (someone that the Joker resents a little bit for not dying in his first spectacular and theatrical stunt performed to the people of Gotham). He wanted to show the world that he was not scared of confrontation with a masked superhero, nor was he going to simply lie in the shadows and wait for the opportune moment to strike, no that was not his style, he preferred to take out strong members of the pack, rather than picking off the weak, little ones. It made for far greater sport, that was for sure.

If anything, the Joker’s attempt at slicking his hair to one side and generally improving on his appearance was just one gigantic joke, aimed at the group that were assembled just behind that locked door which indicated the only entrance and exit to this bathroom, as no windows were located here. Everyone in there tried to differentiate themselves with the general population because they were quite simply richer than the rest, and there for better than them. They thought themselves to be a better class, made of better stuff and who never shat, passed gas or belched. They thought themselves completely untouchable and that was why the Joker was doing this, to point out just how much of a joke that whole crowd were. Here he was, slicking himself to look similar to them but at the same time he was still the same, twisted, demented clown who liked to kill for the fun of it and to get a few timely laughs. He was also just as rich, if not moreso, than a lot of the assembled idiot there through various illegal means via separate “companies” that could never be traced back to him (one example of this is a heroin rig he runs with some high-end dealers, none of whom know his real identity so that if it all goes to shit, he can’t be traced back to the drugs). So there he was, as slick and as rich as these people were, the same calibre as them as he also had the power to match, yet he couldn’t be more different.

He was proving a point.

He also wasn’t as stupid as a lot of people believed him to be. Whilst retreating to the mirror to check on his appearance and improve on how he looked, he was aware that the scrappy Barbara Gordon could easily jump him from behind and snap his neck or knock him out or something. He had been keeping an apathetic eye on the fight behind him, just looking out for any signs of the girl advancing towards him. (I should hire more girl thugs; they seem to be more able than the men do...) Aside from that stray thought, however, the Joker really paid no mind to it until he was done with the mirror and turned around to face Babs, pulling out a loaded pistol in the process.

“Make one more move, Babs, and I’ll pop you in the kneecaps. I’m a pretty decent shot, you want me to show you?”

---

You are more than welcome to dispose of the other thugs however you like in your next post, or keep them both still on their feet if you fancy it.

[Barbara Gordon]

Too much at Stake THE MORE I COMMIT TO THIS NIGHT Barbara had managed to take care of one of the thugs without too much of a problem. What became an issue was what she realized when she stood up and faced her opponents. They had both taken off their masks after she had managed to blind both of them using said masks, so now there was nothing that she could use like that again. But she had managed to take of one of them when she had had to deal with three, she was sure that she could manage to deal with two at the same time. She would just have to figure out how she was supposed to do such a thing. And in that moment she decided one thing. Next time she was forced to attend a Wayne Benefit, she was going to show up either in A: her Batgirl costume (she had done it once as a joke, and she was sure that the Joker would have preferred to play with the female Caped Crusader, so who was to say that she wouldn’t be able to get away with it once again) or B: a tux with more reasonable shoes. Either of the above choices would have made this whole thing easier. Sometimes she really hated being a girl, it could be so annoying sometimes. The two remaining minions and Babs stared at each other for a minute, And she wondered how she was wondering how she was going to make this work. She knew that she could, she had managed much worse as Batgirl. Of course this was a very different situation, and that was why she was not simply rushing into things. But she only got that minute, or not quite that before the thugs rushed at her. Bad Idea. she thought, or hoped. Since she was still in the opening of the bathroom stall she was still limited on space which made this even more tricky. Still lacking an idea on how to make this work, she was forced to simply fight with the thugs to see where it went. And so they started off being simply trading blows. They all managed to land some, but Barbara was trying to keep the ones that landed on her to a minimum, and if they did land, she preferred in a place where others wouldn’t see. The Joker wanted her “roughed up.” Well she wanted it make it look like she hadn’t been. Though he might have already slapped her on the face, it did not mean that the rest of the blows had be on her face or anywhere else in plain view. Of course it was hard enough just to keep the fight going, and of course if she had as much control as she would have liked, than she would have been able to avoid all of the punches and kicks. But she wasn’t perfect like that. And while the fight ensued, the Joker went to the mirror and worked to preserve his appearance. He really was a twisted bastard, but she was sure that he was also watching them fight, and was enjoying it. And while it would be great to take out these other two thugs, she was also afraid of what the Joker would pull on her should she do it. But right now she would rather fight than let these bastards beat her up. She was not one to lie down during such a thing, she was not passive. And that was also probably why the Joker seemed to be enjoying himself so much. And while she was sure that simply not fighting and not being terrified would not have been nearly as entertaining for him, that was not how she was going to beat him. She knew that the best way to beat him was to beat him at his own game, and that meant fighting back. But she wondered how he felt when she took care of one of his minion. And as if on cue one of them got too close and deciding to make use of the annoying shoes she had on, she stomped on his foot with the heel driving through, it was going to be incredibly painful. But before he could start screaming she kicked him in the stomach with enough force to knock him against the wall. He would be able to get up from that, limping from the foot, but he could still get up. It did mean thought that she had a chance to fight the third guy one on one. But before she could do that, a voice threw the bathroom battle ring once again into silence, as the Joker issued his threat. It put a pause on the fighting. Barbara did not doubt that he was a good shot, and she had not desire to let him prove it using her knee as target practice. That was something that she would not easily recover from or for a long while. She did not answer him, but nor did she move. She pulled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms in frustration. After a moment she slowly turned to look at him. “It not Babs!” She growled, she glare icy. The gun was already out and aimed. If she had been closer she might have been able to get the gun out of his grip, it was something that she and the other members of the Bat family had worked on extensively. Criminals really liked their guns, so Batgirl and Nightwing and Robin and all of them had practiced extensively on how to get a gun away from someone without any collateral damage. But she wasn’t close enough to get it away from him before he pulled the trigger. She was stuck. “So what now?” She also thought of ways that as Batgirl she could have gotten out of the line of fire. But she wasn’t Batgirl, not now. If she was Barbara Gordon, and that was how she was going to have to fight, at least for tonight. MOVING IN A GAME OF LOSE OR WIN TAG: Joker / WORDS: 1014 / LYRICS: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by XANDRIA / NOTES: Decided to go for leaving 1.5 of the thugs instead of on or both, just to change it up a bit. Hope this is all ok. TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0

[The Joker]

And now, the Joker finally had her where he wanted her, still and frozen in place with a gun trained on her person, trigger finger ready to pump some lead into her pretty little body to prove a point. Of course he had no intentions of actually disposing of her, he had plans to which she was a crucial element of, but he couldn’t very well allow her to go around and beat up his men without his permission! She may be feisty and quite easy on the eyes, but she sure as hell was pissing him off having taken out one-and-a-half of his men! It was almost as if she had had training for this kind of thing, had been in this situation before. She was handling herself with poise and ease, granted her heels weren’t helping her but they sure made good weapons, and her legs were killers!

There was a lingering silence in the room before the Joker decided to break it. “You’re really very good at that, you know Babs? I must say, were this gun not trained on you I would have to applaud! You’ve taken out half of the hit squad that came into the bathroom to help beat you up and they weren’t small men either. I have to wonder how you became such a touch chickie, don’t I? With all these newfound masked heroes imitating the Bat, you can never be too careful, can you?” The dark gaze of the Joker remained fixed on Babs until he could contain himself no longer. The laughter slipped out, snorted at first, but soon hysteria ensued and he was doubled over with glee!

“HAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHA! That would be perfect, wouldn’t it? Pretend-daddy’s little daughter... Masquerading as... HA! It would be so precious for you to be trying to uphold the law to make things a little easier for pretend-daddy and the big, bad, scary Bat, wouldn’t it? God you’re such a little cutie that I could just SMUSH your cheeks together!

“But seriously Babs, are you a secret caped crusader? Because really those moves you pulled weren’t accidental, they were executed perfectly, with times precision. Even with pretend-daddy being the supercop that he is, I have to question just how you would know to pull off stunts like that, most people can do it in theory, but put into practice and suddenly it all goes to shit and they’re too scared to be able to do what they convinced themselves they could in their heads.

“But I must say, I’d have to worry about your... Mental wellbeing were you to admit that you admire Batman and are trying to become the next big costumed hero to help protect him. Because let’s be honest here, between us more sane individuals, Batman is a complete nutjob! I mean really, who dresses around like a Bat out of choice? Jumping the rooftops, scanning for crime in a city where police exist?! Honestly, I don’t know why he’s supported, he a blatant sign that people aren’t safe living here. As long as the Bat is around, people will die. I guess that would be my job, wouldn’t you say?

“Now, in regards to what we’re going to do next, well Babs you’re going to do me a little favour. Horace or Gumbo or whatever the name of the one still standing is is going to give you a gun filled with blanks. Don’t try anything cute because I have much more men stationed out there in the ballroom all nicely hidden through masks, strategically positioned to be near those I need to leverage. Our wonderful host. Fake-daddy...

“HA! Now, what you’re going to do for me is open this door and fire a blank towards the ceiling to get everyone’s attention. I want you to announce my entrance, however you want to do it, you can improvise that little bit, and then take one single step out of the bathroom and to the right. I will make my grand entrance and will then grab you for use as a human shield. Now I wouldn’t worry about that part, no one would be stupid enough to pull the trigger on the Commissioner’s pretend-daughter. It’s more for my own security than anything. I’ll do the rest from there.

“If you decide that you’re above cooperating, my men all have gas filters on beneath their masks and are equipped with canisters of my Joker Venom. I’m sure you know what it does, you seem like a well educated girl. Any funny business, and they’ll unleash the gas and kill everyone. Fail to cooperate and they’ll release the gas. Any costumes and they’ll release the gas... Do you understand what I’m getting at here?”

It’s true, the Joker loves the sound of his own voice.

[Barbara Gordon]

Too much at Stake THE MORE I COMMIT TO THIS NIGHT She had gone too far. They both had. It was not that she was now stuck being held at gun point and being blackmailed into doing the Joker’s bidding, it was the fact that she had shown herself to be too proficient with her use of martial arts in fighting. She had done too well. While it was not like she was the best at martial arts, it was not common for people to be that good. Few had the time and discipline and dedication to reach black belt level in whatever they were practicing. It was true that she had had an ulterior motive of sorts when she had begun her official training, so she had found ways to make the time work, and she had plenty of dedication and discipline, although she had been told she lacked something to be desired in the discipline category. It still did not change the fact that she had managed to take out half of the thugs without much trouble. She was sure that tomorrow the bruises would begin to show, but at least for now the most she would have to worry about was a reddening of her faces, and in the dimmer lights of the room outside the bathroom, she doubted that it would be visible. It meant that she had at least managed to spoil part of the Joker’s plans, but sadly not all of them. Her being beat up was apparently only to make this more effective. Yet here she was, still being forced to play into a plot that she could only loathe. Taking out those thugs, or one and a half of them rather (the second one did not count as a full KO), had felt rewarding. Though it was not the Joker that she had beaten, it was someone connected to him. It had shown the crazed villain just how helpless she really was. But she wondered if maybe it had felt just a little too good. She had gotten carried away and had gone too far with it. She had shown too much of her hand, and now the Joker was saying that she was far too good at street fighting than a woman like her should be. And it probably was true. Though he played it as a joke, she was sure that he was not comepletely laughing at that. And she knew that he would be committing that to memory, and would be watching her for any other hints that she would be dropping. She wondered which was better, to allow herself seem helpless and perhaps a little meek, or to completely own her ability to fight her way out of a situation and have him realize that there was more to her than met the eye. She did not know. She hated the idea of being helpless, but then again maybe it was better for her to die protecting the name of Batgirl, because then maybe someone else could pick up the mantel. Tim had done that with the mask of Robin. Why not someone else to become Batgirl someday down the road? Not that it mattered right now. Right now she was stuck. Perhaps not helpless, but she did not see a way out of this, not without either submitting to the Joker or causing others to get hurt. She could not let that happen, either as Batgirl or as Barbara Gordon. She could not be the reason why her adoptive father was killed at a benefit. She loved him and she would not be the reason for harm to him. She would rather suffer through what was to come next ten times over. And Bruce? That was a whole other can of worms that she was not going to dare touch. She could only hope that maybe the Joker had over looked Dick, although she knew that it was unlikely. “I have no control over what others do, know that. Including if Batman shows up.” She was guessing that was what he meant when he had mentioned costumes showing up. The problem was that when people saw her being used by the Joker, she had no doubt that Bruce and Dick and whoever else of the Bat family saw would first think to go put on their bat disguises and address the problem of the Joker as their alter-egos. And even if she was part of the Bat Family, she had no control on what they did. If they tried, then maybe at least they would be able to remove themselves as targets. Maybe. Setting her jaw in frustration, she angrily swiped the small pistol from the last standing thug. Gingerly, as if it might explode on her, she held it in her hand, looking at it. She thought of trying to make the excuse that she did not know exactly how to work it, but it was a flimsy excuse and one that the Joker probably would have seen right through it. She wanted to work with the Police one day soon, she would best know how to hold and use one before that. Actually she was pretty good with firearms, but it had still been a long while since she had used one. Batman would always frown on the use of them to help in their crime fighting. She could really find no way out of this. Not if she believed the Joker’s threats. She had had enough experience to know that while he may not be telling the complete and total truth, it was usually close enough that it was best to follow the instructions. Her movements stiff with fury and frustration she turned and took a couple steps towards the door. But as she did so there was a glimmer of gold and black out of the corner of her eye. She glanced at it and saw her masquerade mask. “Do I at least get my mask?” MOVING IN A GAME OF LOSE OR WIN TAG: Joker / WORDS: 992 / LYRICS: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by XANDRIA / NOTES: So I was wondering if just to make it more interesting if maybe one of those bullets were real and not blanks? You could decide if and when the real one is shot, but it might add another layer to everything, or maybe that is too much? TEMPLATE CREATED BY ASHOO ! OF CAUTION 2.0