Good Cop jolted awake suddenly, blinking at the unfamiliar room. Oh, that was right- they'd stopped at a hotel. Bad Cop had dropped off so quickly, he'd forgotten. He looked around for their phone, finding it on the floor where it had fallen from Bad Cop's limp fingers. Oddly enough, they seemed to have signal again, so he hurried to call Benny while they still had it. It rang until the voice mail picked up; he figured Benny must still be at the party and couldn't hear it ringing. A message would work just fine, then.
"Hi Benny, it's Alastar! Just wanted to let you know we had to stop for the night, Cary was pretty wore out from the long drive and is still out cold. The Old West is bigger than we remembered, but we should arrive in Rookburn tomorrow morning in time for the meeting. We hope you're having fun at the party!"
He was interrupted as the door opened, and glanced over to greet their boss. "Hey! It's about time you got back-"
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It was approaching midnight. The kids had long since returned to the orphanage, and Alfred had tried to insist it was Dick's bed time, but he was too wound up on sugar and excitement to sleep yet, so they allowed him to stay up. Benny considered it a successful party- he'd gotten to teach the kids the Thriller, definitely the highlight of his night. It had earned an eyeroll from Lucy, and Unikitty hadn't stopped giggling through the whole thing, but it was worth it.
But Dick was finally starting to get tired, and just as Barbara was moving to usher the boy to his room, there was a commotion in the hallway. The doors slammed open to reveal Joker and Harley, and several others of their posse. The music cut out abruptly. Dick froze, eyes wide. "Uhh..." He glanced up. "Miss Barbara, we're not in our superhero suits, what do we do??" he whispered urgently.
"Relax, everybody!" Joker called out before Barbara could even answer. "We're not here to start trouble, we just heard there was a sweet party at Wayne Manor and decided to come check it out!"
"Like fun you are," Batman growled. "You're always up to something."
"Not this time, Batsy," Joker said, grinning when he scowled at the atrocious nickname. "We really are just here to have a good time. I promised my peeps a killer party, and nobody in Gotham throws a better party than Bruce Wayne, right? Where is he, anyway?" Unnoticed by the villain, Lucy facepalmed, and Benny began giggling.
"He's. Being a boring host. In bed already cause he has to do boring CEO things in the morning." He turned to Dick. "Like you ought to be, young man."
"Aww, do I have to?? How often does a chance to party with the Joker come up?!"
"Once in a lifetime, kiddo," Joker answered with a wink. "Better take advantage of it while you can."
"It's after midnight, Dick."
"I don't have school tomorrow!"
"You're not partying with the Joker!"
"He's not doing anything bad!"
"Yeah, come on Batsy, let the kid live a little."
"Stop calling me that."
Wheezing at the three of them, Benny pulled out his phone to check if Bad Cop had called. He hadn't realized it had gotten so late already, and was sad he might have missed the call, but he'd fulfilled his promise- he was having fun. He drifted away from the arguing trio when he saw he had a message, wanting to be able to hear it better. Nearby, Barbara, Harley, and Ivy were having a quieter conversation. It sounded like it was about how "boys are such idiots", likely meaning Batman and Joker, and he snickered as he hit 'play' on the message.
He was a little disappointed to hear Good Cop's voice instead, but he was relieved to know they were okay. Odd that they'd had to stop for the night though, The Old West wasn't that big. He would know.
Unikitty didn't miss it when Benny jerked suddenly and dropped his phone, rubbing at his ear and staring wide-eyed down at the device. The clatter got everyone's attention. Joker gave it a distracted frown and snatched it up, hitting replay and turning up the volume. Everyone flinched to hear the scream, and Benny turned green at the sound of the laughter that followed. "I know that laugh," Joker mused.
"So do I," Benny mumbled.
"Are you gonna be sick?" Dick asked, worried.
"I might be..."
"This way," Barbara said softly, ushering Benny out of the ballroom.
"Who is it?" Batman demanded.
Joker rolled his eyes. "An old pal of mine, he went by The Ringmaster. He could have made a fantastic villain if he'd ever decided to go active. As it was, he sometimes provided inspiration for some of my schemes. I haven't spoken to him in about, oh, ten years, though."
"Why not?" Lucy asked, admittedly curious.
Joker shrugged. "It's kinda hard to keep in touch with someone who's dead."
The ballroom was utterly silent.
"Wait," Emmet said. "If he died ten years ago, then how would Benny know him when he came out of stasis only five years ago?"
"Because I knew him before I went into stasis." Emmet whirled to see Benny and Barbara standing in the doorway once more, the spaceman cupping a glass of ginger ale with both hands and still looking a little green, but better than he had just a few minutes before. Emmet bit his lip at Benny's unnervingly dark expression. Even Joker was giving him a wary look.
"Benny...?"
"I think the Cops and Busy are in trouble."
"Oh, I knew it!" Unikitty huffed. "Why didn't they listen?!"
"I just don't understand why he'd target them..."
"If I recall correctly, your pal Business is the reason why he's dead," Joker remarked. Benny's jaw dropped. "Where are your friends that they couldn't be here?"
"On their way to that new realm," Batman answered. "Some big to-do for their grand opening or whatever."
"They were driving through the Old West to get there," Benny continued.
Joker quirked one bushy green eyebrow. "Huh. Very interesting..."
"What is it?"
"Well, The Ringmaster always did like the song Hotel California, said it made him think of a ghost story."
Batman almost facepalmed when he figured it out. "So this Ringmaster guy decided to use it as inspiration and waylay them on their trip through the desert, to exact his vengeance."
"Benny...?" Emmet said, looking over to where his friend floated several inches off the ground, clenching and unclenching his fists, looking close to tears. He took one of Benny's hands, squeezing gently. "Hey. Hey, it'll be okay, we'll figure something out. They'll be okay."
"How can we defeat him?" Unikitty asked.
"That I can't help you with," Joker said with a shrug. "Ghosts are a little beyond my expertise."
"But not mine," said a familiar voice.
"Vitruvius! You're back!"
"Well of course I'm back, it's Halloween night, isn't it? We must get to work now- there's no time to lose."
