Teen Titans Roster Day Off (7)

Beat

Robin

Ringmaster, surveying the scene took only a moment before confirming with a cool loud shout, "Comedy Inc, bag the main stuff and run! Minions, meat shield duty!"
The remainder of the henchmen, those not under siege from dolls or Watch officers did as instructed, two Henchment assisting to drag dirt bikes from inside the floats!  Ringmaster and Joker Junior jumped on their bikes with assistance, masked men bundling up bags and gear from the loot in an attempt to keep some of the spoils.

Up until this point, this setup had been a clear re-enactment of the original Joker's first scheme back in the 70s; float stolen goods and all, only with the addition of the ragdoll theme instead of an army of clown themed street thugs.

Now we had a chase! Pressing a remote on my costume, two partly automatic bikes roared to life a couple of streets away and auto-droe themselves to my location.

"You kids get the Villain Kids! We'll round up the adults!" Batwoman's orders were clear,

Miss A and I exchanged wicked glances, dashing up to, and starting our respective bikes. One was my old Robin cycle, the other a small Batcycle that likely once belonged to Batwoman.

There was no time to think about any of this. Bringing up my bike's computer for a map of the city, with Overwatch flagging our fleeing villains, I took charge.

"Alright Miss A! Were going to corral them together and net them down. If the quarry's bike goes over then don't drag it!  That's a sure way to cause an explosion!" We'd split up chasing our quarries, but could hear each other through the radio.

"What about the Joker, their so called father who put them up to this! Wouldn't it be smarter to chase him than the kids!" Was Miss A's smart reply.

Normally she would be right, "Batman and Nightwing are on that!" I insisted, letting the chase begin. With the bat-family's Overwatch protocol we could easily track our quarries through the streets and I moved to cut off Ringmaster. Her dirt bike was slower than my full cycle, but more maneuverable, cutting through the people on the footpath and then into a nearby mall.

"Overwatch, do you have her internally?" I asked, Bat-Woman had a girl in the chair, not that anyone had ever seen her.

"Heading towards the south side exit!" was the feedback from the headset.

"I'm over there!" Miss A passed back, "Joker 2 just jumped up to the monorail! He's riding the train out of the city!" 

I laughed, that technically made him a sitting duck, not that he couldn't drop to the ground at any point. "Alright, trade ya then!" If I headed west I could meet up at the train, maybe flush him out. While Miss A chased down Ringmaster, I went across town and into a multi-story car park. Around and around, eventually coming out near the top and somewhere ahead of the train.

"Alright Overwatch, watch this!" The train hung from the mono-rail, a carriage suspended on a long metal strip and in an improbably balancing act Kid Joker was driving along the rail. Taking an opportunity, I jumped the bike, using a jet burst to propel me towards the train. I landed on it smoothly and from there boosted up onto the rail, same as he'd done.

"You Can't get off that easily!"

A mild thought crossed my mind, this chase scene was literally on rails now. I was faster though, catching up in moments to the now panicking kid.

"You're Insane! You're gonna get us both killed at this point!" The kid reasonably argued as my front tyre clipped the back of his bike.

"Naah! This is a bat-cycle! It Flies!" I argued.

It did. As my next clip caused Kid Joker's dirt bike to pinwheel, jumping the track, Kid Joker ditched, falling into the air beside the rail. I flicked the controls, making a net spit out the front of the cycle and catch the boy before things got out of hand, then jumped my bike off the rail. 

A large hang-glider unfolded from the back of the bike, catching us in mid-air and I gently banked us around. This wasn't fast, but I'd reach the ground in time. "Overwatch, can you have a police van meet us at ground level!"

"Understood Robin. One paddy-wagon on it's way. Good catch by the way. When you land, can you check on Miss A? She's gone dark."

Gone dark?

Why?

The paddy-wagon arrived, one of those one-man tanks with a cage on the back that Little Joker could be loaded into.. Wisely, he kept his mouth shut, exercising his right to remain silent. Once the van was locked Star set it right way up, so the drivers could leave.

Alongside the tank, Bernard. He rode a bat-cycle not that dissimilar to mine, and took off his helmet as the tank drove off. He smiled and I sighed, walking over to him. He looked cool, just so cool! Not to mention he fought well, the costume suiting him.

"Where is that Miss A?" He asked, and I shrugged.

"Knowing her, she's happening to somebody. You know, maybe training alongside you and Kate might be a good idea, she is just all kinds of violent, and I think that's from bad training and a dodgy upbringing!" I leaned against his bike, against him a little.

"We should head back to where you saw her last. Will it take long to get your bike drive-able again?"

"You could just give me a lift!" I said without thinking, then saw the blood rush to Bernard's face in a full blush, Oh right, he used to feel that way about me.

Heck, he'd probably been playing it cool all last night. I stammered, "I mean, it won't take long!" and turned back around, manually working the controls to disconnect the net, retract the wings and right the bike again.

"Overwatch!" I radio's in, "what's the situation with the main scene?" I confirmed as we tracked our quarry.

"The majority of the minions are in custody, we think a couple of the dolls escaped but most of them are caught." The silence in between sentences felt forced. "Bat-Woman says, they didn't find anyone of importance. So if the kids had any parents in their group, they got away!"

Out the corner of the eye Ii watched my child-hood friend fight to compose himself. Tried to think clearly.

The Joker had evaded Batman for years, and while he'd been in and out of the asylum he'd actually retired from active villainy back in the 90's. He would have a secret identiy he could slip into.

Or... "Oh no. I think I know what happened! If hype-man was actually the Joker, and Miss A caught his daughter, she's gonna try and make a statement!" I turned back to Bernard, "Helmet on, We're heading to the commercial district!"

The Chemical manufacturing and plastic works was not the building where Joker had supposedly been created, it was  the closest and next best thing! Parking our bikes we coordinated, using the heat vision glasses I had gor from Lena to identify two hot bodies. One apparently suspended from the roof, the other standing on a gantry.

When I saw the scene inside, I couldn't help but take off my mask, rub my face in exhaustion and groan.

"When you're right, you're right!" Batboy commented dryly, "Miss A is definitely a piece of work!"

"From what I understand, it's not her fault. Not entirely!"

"Still!" Barnard shuffled in close as we checked the scene with an assortment of tech, making sure no civilians would get involved. His observation was still accurate though, "It's not every day an arrest turns into a hostage situation, and I've never seen it done like this!"