Batman & Robin And Me .:rewritten:.

XIII. Computer Encryption & A Nasty Surprise

"ACHOO!"

"Back to bed, Harmony."

"No, no, I'm fine--achoo!"

"You've got to stop this. You're going to drive yourself into the ground."

I ignored him, pounding the mouse against the desk in an attempt to speed up the calculations on the computer. It was one of the best in the world, but it couldn't figure out where my brothers are no matter what I did, and it infuriated me.

"Harmony..."

"I'll go to bed soon." I mumbled through a tissue, keeping my eyes fixed on the screen. There was a heavy sigh and a muttered "stubborn" and Dick's footsteps faded away.

"Okay." I refocused on the screen. "Talk to me. What do we have?"

Coordinates flew across the screen, collecting into cohesive graphs. I grimaced and pulled my reading glasses to better study the paper printout that I had strewn across the desk. It was too bad I didn't have access to the police files and intrinsically coded secrets that the Batcomputer stored, but I could understand that I wasn't skilled enough to handle the information with care--or even keep it safe. It was enough that I had the permission of Bruce to use the brilliantly designed technology to look for traces of my brothers (though I had a suspicion that he was just keeping me busy) when Batman was out on the streets of Gotham.

I had discovered what he had meant by a "victim of Chrono's experiments". My family and I seemed to be an accidental side effect of a supervillain's meddlings in space and time in an effort to commit untraceable crimes. He had been captured quite recently, but the Batcomputer estimated as many as twenty other people across the world who had been quietly ripped from their own world and deposited them in this one. I hoped that they had been luckier than me and mine.

What all I had learned basically amounted to the conclusion that I was a brotherless victim of freaky crimes in an unfamiliar world, with no hope of getting back, next to no hope of getting my only siblings back, and with both parents in the hospital, still possibly in danger of death. Oh yeah, and I had a cold that wouldn't go away, and was forcing me to leave gross tissues scattered across the Batcomputer's desk because there wasn't any trashcan.

"Achoo!"

Well, things could always be worse.

The footfalls of Dick sounded behind me, and this time there was another pair. "Miss Harmony, I really must insist you come to bed."

Kicking the deck to propel my chair and I around to face them, I frowned, grumpily, at Dick. He shrugged innocently, and gave me a sly smile that, despite my sour mood and willful attempts to stay that way, lifted up my spirits and made everything feel just a little bit better. "It's not that late, sir..."

Alfred caught my eye, and I almost shrank back into the chair. "It's three in the morning, my dear. This boy here has to get up for school in four hours, and he keeps getting out of bed to check on you. I know Master Bruce said you could use the computer; however, I severely doubt that he meant all night."

"Oh, alright," I murmured, faintly, already feeling the deep weariness in my bones. "Just give me a moment to clean up the desk. Don't want to leave these tissues here when Batman gets back."

Alfred nodded and turned to descend. Dick stepped forward to help me, but I held out a warning hand. "Nope! My colds are disgusting. You don't want to touch those tissues."

"Fine," he conceded, dropping to the floor of the platform in an easy crouch. "Let me know when you've met the Batstandard of cleanliness."

I grinned in reply and turned my attention to my task, when all of a sudden, a quiet noise like the ping of a notification drew my attention to the computer. Dick was up and at my shoulder in an instant, as I looked up to the screen to see what the computer had picked up on.

A video had been uploaded to the web 22.3 seconds ago from an anonymous source.

"I'll try tracking it's location, but it looks like it's heavily encrypted." Dick leaned over my shoulder, one hand dancing over the keyboard, the other held loosely on my arm. There was a long silence as he and the computer churned out long strings of seemingly unintelligible garbage. When he spoke again, his voice with tight with anxiety. "I can't find it, but know who it came from."

"Who?" I looked back at him. He turned to lock eyes with me for a moment, before turning away and focusing back on the screen.

"It's the Joker."

I shot my hand forward to play the video, but he pulled me back. "Whoa, I don't know if it's a good idea for you to see it, Harmony. He loves to get under people's skin. He'll say things that aren't even real. He'll taunt you and mock you. Anything to get your blood boiling. He wants you to blow your top.*

There was an all-too-familiar pain in his voice that made me think he spoke from personal experience. But I had to know.

"I can handle it." I promised, reaching over to tap the video open. The small box in the corner of the screen widened to the middle, and it played.

"Ladies and gentlemen..." A familiar voice crackled from the speakers, sounding like a bad radio transmission. "Children of all ages."

The screen came into focus, and pixelated green eyes set in a bone-white face connected with my own. I sucked in a breath, feeling like his sharp gaze was reaching through the screen for me. "Today, we come to you with a message from our sponsors..."

My own eyes grew wide and the world around me faded out of focus as the figure on the screen cackled, bringing a skeletal finger up to point directly at my face. "I've got something of yours, darling."

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