Gotham Girls Grand Finale

There had been a few protests, as expected. Two little girls had whimpered and begged to leave; three others had been taken out forcefully. But to Ivy’s great surprise, that was it, and twenty-three Harley Scouts remained in the troop at the start of Ferak’s second working week. This was Gotham, after all, and by now the devotion that the girls had shown toward Harley made switching day-cares seem downright cruel. Ferak’s smile may have been a little green, but it was genuine, and Harley swore on her life that she was no danger.

That didn’t stop them from pretending, though. Already, the favorite game was to build a city of blocks for their dolls and action figures, and to run screaming as the Ferak Monster crashed through. This time, a pudgy young girl named Tracy held her hands up over her ears and ran into the fray. “Look, I’m Batgirl! I’ll save you!” she declared, and tackled Ferak with a hug.

“Aw, no, Batgirl save the day!” Ferak laughed as she fell to the ground.

“Tracy, no fair, it was my turn to be Batgirl!” Esther’s straight black hair fell over her eyes in disappointment.

“But I wanted to,” Tracy whined.

Harley stepped between them. “Girls, what do we do now? Too late to change the past, right? Tracy, say sorry, and help Esther set up Gotham again so she can play.”

The two girls muttered apologies, and were soon engrossed in building. Ivy shook her head when Harley came back to her small office. “Who’d have ever thought?”

“What, you didn’t believe in me? Or you didn’t believe in your protoge?”

“Either, honestly. And she’s not my protoge,” replied Ivy. “She’s my....she’s Ferak. She’s my responsibility. So I’m glad to see she’ll be okay.”

Harley rolled her eyes. “God, Ivy, you have some kinda rule against being a little more sentimental? I mean, if you can’t be about your clone, who can you?” She meant to joke, but the laughter wasn’t coming, and Harley let her head fall to the side in frustration. “You gotta lighten up! No wonder you’re fighting with your girlfriend.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well you keep sitting around at home, and I think I’da noticed if you were sneaking her into our place. It’s pretty obvious. Come on, how can you be bad at girls? You’re a girl!” Harley shifted in her chair and bent her neck backward to keep looking at Ivy. “You know we like all that mushy stuff!”

“Oh, you’re really one to give me relationship advice, are you?” Ivy asked coldly.

“I’m just tryin’ to help! And you never ask for any and give me a better chance.”

“I’ll ask you when I want any,” Ivy snapped, but she deflated at the look on Harley’s face. “She’s not the mushy type, anyway. Whatever big display of affection you’re thinking up, it’d just make things worse.”

The fighting wasn’t as bad as Harley imagined, but Ivy and Renee had yet to resolve the problem of Barbara. They had met a couple of times to try and ignore the elephant in the room, but the nights had been cut short and awkward. From what little Renee told Ivy, her visits with Barbara weren’t much different.

“I can’t figure this out sitting alone on the couch,” Renee had said when she arrived at the cafe a few days before. But Ivy couldn’t help her. She could listen, and she could be a sounding-board for other problems. But it wasn’t her job to tell Renee how to live, and no matter how much it sucked for the both of them, she’d just have to wait until Renee decided what to do.

“What she wants is you to do something big and showy so she knows you love her!” Harley chimed back in.

Ivy couldn’t help another sharp barb. “Like drowning the city in toxic laughing gas?”

Amid the happy shouts and shrieks of the kids, Harley went quiet. “That’s not funny.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But you don’t know as much as you think you do.”

“I just want to see you staying happy, instead of ruining it.”

A shout from Ferak snapped Harley into responsibility mode, and she left Ivy in the office. Ferak was holding a three-year-old at arms’ length, her nose wrinkled. “Harley, Bonnie smell bad.”

Harley laughed and took the child. “Uh-oh, a little accident?” Harley realized when she looked back at her face why Ferak looked so worried - plants didn’t have potty problems. “No biggie. I’ll get her cleaned up, you yell again if you need me.”

From behind the office door, Ivy smiled. She had her problems, but it was a weight off her shoulders to know that Ferak, at least, was in good hands.



The park was quiet and still that evening. The night was clear, with very little wind to kick the leaves around on their branches or rattle the day’s debris across the few paved sections of road. As Ferak made her way home, she looked up at the few stars bright enough to see from the outskirts of Gotham City and smiled.

Ferak was spending some time with Harley and Ivy in their house after her working days, but although Ivy had offered it, the space didn’t feel like home to her. It was too small, too closed. The heater held off the chill of the night, and the fan swept away the warmth of the day, the windows let in the sun without the insects or the wind. Ferak was fascinated by the people on Harley’s TV set, and even more so by the ghostly-seeming voices from Ivy’s radio, and she enjoyed the time that she spent with her small family. But she grinned at the sky as she started for the third home she’d known, and the best so far.

The cabin had been Ivy’s from the time she was a student, a piece of land bought by a grant for the botanical program at Gotham University, and left abandoned for the sake of superstition since it became known that Poison Ivy spent time there. Rumors said that anyone who spent the night working there would befall the same toxic fate that Pam Isley did. Ferak never knew about them, and would never have cared. All she knew was that Ivy had given the small, disheveled cabin to her, perfect in its disrepair. Grass poked through the floorboards, the windows had been shattered by vandals; it provided the shelter and address that Ferak needed to have, without sacrificing the natural habitat that she loved.

She was still wandering in the park outside, stalling among the trees, when she heard a branch crack behind her. The man she saw held up thin white hands in a gesture that Ferak had learned meant harmlessness. “Don’t worry, it’s okay. I just want to talk. You’re Ferak, right?”

“Why?” She had learned from the Harley Scouts; any situation that she didn’t understand could benefit from their favorite question.

“Because I…heard a lot about you. I wanted to get to know you better.” He stammered some when he spoke, and his handshake shook. “My name’s Jack. I’m a…friend of Harley’s.”

“Oh, Harley Friend!” Ferak lit up instantly and wove his hand around in the air with hers, priding herself on learning the ritual well. “Harley Friends are my friends!”

“That’s right,” Jack smiled thinly. “And there’s another…Harley Friend who’d love to meet you. Why don’t you come with me?”

Ferak put a finger to her lips in hesitant thought. “Late now. Ferak was going home.”

Jack shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a nice night. And he’s really excited. Harley loves him…I bet you will, too.”

Ferak thought for another moment, then nodded her head. “Want more friends. Want to know more. Ferak will go.”

“Great,” Jack looked relieved. He turned and gestured for Ferak to follow him through the trees. “You’re gonna love him. He’s really a guy to die for…”



She’d almost forgotten how it felt for the wind to whip through her hair around the cowl. It was shorter now than it had been then, but she still felt the tug, tempered by the mask holding the strands to her head. Batwoman would never again swing through the air or leap and whirl the way she used to, but she was so grateful to just be running that she didn’t care. The rooftops were hers.

Barbara heard a shout, and all her old instincts awoke. She slowed down her sprint as she found a ladder to the ground and marveled all over again that her feet could find the rungs. It took great concentration not to fall, but she didn’t.

“Hey, hold on!” The shout came again, louder and closer now that Barbara was on the ground. She put on her old reassuring smile for the civilian she expected, and felt it slide right away when her pursuer rounded the corner into the alley. “You? What do you want me to find you for?”

Harley took a step back after that greeting. “Batgirl, what gives? I thought we were cool now, with everything.”

“I’m not Batgirl.” Harley was in her costume, bright and noticeable and it put Barbara on-edge. “And we’re not cool.”

“Batwoman?” Harley asked hesitantly. “But I thought, I mean the whole city knew you were – “

“Crippled? Do I look it?” She couldn’t feel the sturdy costume holding her up, but Barbara swelled with pride nonetheless.

“No…you look good,” Harley cracked a friendly smile and laughed nervously. It didn’t last long. “Okay. I was looking for Batgirl but you work too.”

“What do you want, Harley?” Batwoman’s voice was icy and impatient. She just wished she had the control to tap her foot. As Harley twisted her toe into the ground, Barbara re-thought her hostility; if anyone could be a third party to Ivy and Renee it would be Harley. But the clown was loyal to Barbara’s enemy. She’d have to be gentler if she wanted information. “What is it?”

Harley started and stopped, took a long breath and let it out in a steady stream of words. “I did somethin’ real bad and I’m sorry but I was scared and I’m still scared and I can’t keep it in anymore, and I don’t wanna let him just go running around but I don’t want him finding me and the girls again either and –“

She sucked in a second gulp of air, and Batwoman put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Harley, tell me what’s wrong. What did you do?”

“I knew he was back for months, I just, I had my scouts and they’re so little…”

“The Joker is loose,” said Barbara in a low voice. She knew he was out of Arkham – the escape hadn’t been reported in an attempt to stave off panic, but the news couldn’t be kept from Oracle. She’d had feelers out all over the city trying to find him, and she’d thanked god that he was one to sit and wait, and give her time to find him before his next rampage.

“He came for me,” Harley explained, and gave Batwoman the story, Jack and the magic shop, the notes, the trap she sprang. “And I didn’t hear a peep since then and I hoped maybe he skipped town but…”

Barbara bit back a scathing remark and replaced it with, “it was right for you to tell me. The magic shop, could he still be there?”

“Maybe, I avoided the place like a plague since.”

“Show me.” Batwoman started to walk again and made Harley catch up to try and lead the way.

“Where is Batgirl anyway?” Harley asked by way of making conversation.

“I thought you’d know. She’s spending so much time with your roommate.” Barbara couldn’t keep all of the bitterness out of her tone.

Harley only smiled, despite everything. “Romantic, isn’t it? They’re all star-crossed and different sides and everything. Really a shame they’re fighting… I liked it when at least one of us was lucky in love,” she finished a little more sadly.

The off-hand news caught Barbara by more surprise than she expected. “Fighting?”

“Or somethin’. I mean Ivy doesn’t talk too much, but you can tell anyway.”

A flare of anger stirred in Barbara’s chest. All of their own drama and hurt feelings, and Renee wasn’t even happy with Ivy? How could she be jeopardizing their friendship for a romance that wasn’t even working? “Do you really think anything that Poison Ivy does could be romantic?”

“Maybe I’m not the gal to ask,” Harley answered. “But if you do ask me. I know ‘bout Ivy, everyone does. She’s been in every gossip magazine I’ve ever seen with the guys all going ga-ga for her. So someone like her, tryin’ to settle down, no pheromone mojo, nothing like that? Yeah, I think it’s really something.”

Batwoman was quiet again. The surge of emotion had distracted her, and the legs of her costume stumbled until she got her mind back under control.

“Why, do you think something’s going on? Cause I haven’t seen a lick of it, they’re always goin’ out without me anyway.”

“I think we have bigger things to focus on,” Batwoman answered. The magic shop came into view, the awning bright and welcoming, and a tidy ‘closed’ sign in the window. At her side, Harley slowed her bouncy walk and breathed. They could see no movement in the dark shop within, but Batwoman stepped forward carefully all the same.

The slim lockpick from her utility belt had the door open in no time, and a blaring security alarm rose up to greet them. Harley jumped; Barbara didn’t have the patience. She found the control panel on the wall and tore it off with a satisfying crunch. The alarm whined and stopped, and Batwoman ran for the back, where Harley had described the Joker’s hide-out. “Hurry! We can still catch him if he was going to run – “

She burst through the door into an empty room. Not only was there no sign of anyone running from the alarm, there was no sign that anything had been in the room at all. Barbara searched every corner, but only came up with a few boxes of trinkets and supplies, none of the elaborate trappings that Harley had seen.

“He moved?” Harley asked softly. She wound a length of trick rope around her wrist, fingers unable to keep still. “But then…I’m too late, he’s already up to somethin’, and whatever it is he’s gonna do it soon, and all because I – “

“It’s not too late. Barbara straightened herself and left the shop from the back door with Harley close behind. “We’ll find him. We’ll stop him. Before anyone gets hurt.”

Her resolve grew as she heard herself say the words. Relationship squabbles could wait, no matter if Barbara still thought Renee could be in trouble. She had been right before. They all had bigger things to worry about.



Batgirl could hear the pounding on her front door even from the roof of the building as she landed. It was getting close to dawn, and her sweep that night had already been tiring. A car thief, a drug dealer and a home invader were all at the police headquarters because of her, and she had been looking forward to the crash of a morning’s sleep.

The pounding redoubled. Sleep wouldn’t come soon. Renee pulled off the parts of her costume she couldn’t hide under the shirt and jeans she’d left in a bag on the roof, and she rubbed her face roughly with a make-up remover pad as she hurried down the stairs. She could hear neighbors grousing and grumbling at the incessant noise. She still wasn’t quite prepared to find Ivy outside her apartment when she arrived.

“There you are.” Ivy looked a mess – her hair frizzed around her face and her brilliant green eyes were bloodshot. It was the fear clear on her face that made Renee shiver inside.

“Come on, come in. Before you get mobbed again,” Renee tried to joke as she unlocked her door and brought Ivy inside. “What’s going on?”

“Ferak’s in trouble.”

Renee opened her duffel bag again and took her costume pieces out. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Ivy paced across the front hall. “But I can’t reach her. Something’s happened, I can just feel it.” When Renee paused in re-dressing to be Batgrl, Ivy almost snapped. “I can! Don’t you believe me?”

“I do, I do.” Renee moved forward enough to block Ivy’s path and took her cold hand. “Just tell me what happened from the start.”

“So you don’t believe me.” Ivy took her hand away, then sank into the sofa with a deep sigh. “They gave her a cell phone for the cabin so she could get in touch. She’s supposed to call me or Harley when she gets home. She loves it, Ferak still thinks the telephone’s the height of technology.” Ivy would have laughed affectionately, but it buckled into a single, dry sob. “She left for home hours ago. I even called her, twice, and I can’t reach her.”

Renee sat next to her on the couch, and put her hand back around Ivy’s. “Couldn’t she just have lost it or something? Is it worth getting this worked up over one night?”

“Harley said she was going to check on her and then never came back. Maybe if it were just one of them I lost, but both?”

Renee looked into Ivy’s eyes, nodded, and stood. “Get something to drink and calm down. I’ll be ready in a minute.”

“You will?”

“Of course. I can’t let you go out alone like this, and I know you would without me,” Renee gave her a wry smile. “I’m sure she’s fine. We’ll find her. And if she’s not…you won’t have to do this alone.”

Ivy fixed herself a drink in the kitchen while Renee prepared. She hadn’t been sure it was the right thing to do, coming here – it certainly wasn’t the dignified thing. But having Renee with her calmed her nerves as much as the shot in her drink. She knew that Renee could be counted on, after all she’d already done for Ferak.

There was a frown on Batgirl’s face when Ivy returned to the hall. “Something must be up. I had to leave a message for Oracle. We’d better get out there and find out what.”

Ivy held onto Renee as she swung them out her window, into a night too quiet and pleasant for the mysteries lurking within it.



Ferak wanted to go home. She’d told them so, many times, and she said it again, but Jack and the Joker weren’t listening anymore. She fought bravely against the bonds they’d put her in, tied to an old cot by her wrists and ankles. She’d only sat on it because Jack had asked so nicely, and friends weren’t supposed to be the ones to hurt her. More than that, she didn’t know why Jack looked at his friend, at Harley’s friend, with so much fear in his eyes. “Ferak wants to go home!” She called out again, even louder.

“Don’t worry, Daisy-head, soon enough.” The Joker grinned more widely than anyone Ferak had ever seen as he turned to face her again. “You’re going to have such a busy day, you’d better save your strength.”

Jack swallowed hard in his corner, standing meekly to the side. “You still didn’t tell me what you wanted her for.”

Leaving Ferak on her table, the Joker came to the corner to clap Jack’s shoulder. “Have you learned nothing from being my apprentice all this time, Jackie? A punchline means nothing without time for it to build up!”

“Apprentice?”

“But you do have a knack for the timing,” Joker barreled over Jack’s confusion. “If you’re going to help with tomorrow’s chaos, you’re entitled to a sneak peek.”

“No kay-os!” Ferak yelled. “Ferak doesn’t like that!”

“Aw, Ferak doesn’t even know what it means.” The Joker’s tone changed abruptly, and Jack almost fell over when the firm hand on his shoulder let go.

“Shouting,” Ferak replied, shrinking back into the cot. “Running, loud, afraid – kay-os is when Papa was scared.”

The Joker’s unseemly smile widened. “That’s part of it, of course, but you don’t understand. It’s about freedom- and all the papers say you know what it’s like to want that, after all your captivity.”

“Ferak wants that right now,” she said darkly, and only made the Joker laugh.

“She does indeed! But nobody knows it better than me. I’ve been trapped my whole life by the confines of law and order. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune….no, that was the other guy, Billy, wasn’t it?” He trailed off and returned to his point as if he’d never paused. “When the chaos comes out, nobody holds back. All humanity lets go and runs wild! None of the lying and pretending they do every day, trying to be good little puppets. And when the strings are cut by some good old-fashioned panic,” he finished with a glint in his eyes, “Harley’s sure to come right back where she wants to be.”

Jack listened to the speech with his fingers wound tightly, nervously together. “You almost make it sound noble that way.”

“Really? Huh, I wasn’t going for noble, per se,” Joker mused for a moment and shrugged.

“You are not a Harley Friend!” Ferak yelled from her cot. “Harley taught Ferak friendship, hurting is not friends!”

“That’s because Harley and I aren’t just friends. We’re in love! And doesn’t the saying go, you always hurt the ones you love?”

At the Joker’s meaningful look, Jack coughed and muttered, “They do say that.”

The Joker continued to talk as he stepped to the station he’d set up and began to ready a needle. “You’ll learn all about love, you’ll see. I’ll even let her keep you and Ivy when all’s said and done. The more the merrier, I say. But the important thing is how you’re going to help me win Harley back to my side. Then I can finally stop thinking about her and get some real work done!”

As Joker busied himself muttering about the technological marvel he’d developed, a variant of the classic Joker venom that would vaporize more quickly, Jack’s attention wandered. He’d once thought It could be noble to re-unite Harley with the man she’d once loved. Then he’d thought he could protect her better by keeping track of the Joker’s plans. He had been so earnest, and so blind, that he had gone too far. He’d seen Harley’s anger and fear in the joke shop on their last attempt – he didn’t need to see all of Gotham in a panic to know it wouldn’t change her mind now.

“And the most brilliant part is having you to spread it,” Joker finished and rounded on Ferak. “I made a few teensy adjustments for a plant-person that ought to really paint the town red! Just hold still, now…”

Ferak started to kick and scream; the whole cot bounced and jerked with her struggles. The needle came down and stabbed the fabric when Ferak pulled her head to the side. An angry shout came to Jack’s ears, and he stepped forward to help, only to stop again. “Does it have to be this way?”

“What?” The Joker turned around with the needle still half-full between his fingers. “Have you been listening to the last fifteen minutes? Now get over here! She’s got to be ready by morning.”

Jack swallowed, closed his eyes, balled his fists, and said, “Let her go. It won’t work.”

Ferak’s yells continued for a good minute after the Joker rounded away from her. “Are you questioning my comedic genius?”

“She doesn’t want you…so, so leave Harley alone, and let her go!”

Jack kept his eyes screwed tightly shut and cringed just form the force of saying it. The impact he braced for never came, and when he opened his eyes, the Joker wasn’t even looking at him. He was already re-filling the needle.

“You can’t please everyone,” he shrugged. “I won’t waste my time on too tough a crowd. Go on, run, spread your story. Make yourself useful and wear a signboard while you’re at it. Tell the whole world what’s in store!”

“I mean it!” Jack said louder, and crossed the room before he realized his legs had un-frozen. “I, I’m standing up…I’m not your apprentice…and I’m not going to let you hurt –“

“Sing a new tune, this one’s gotten old already,” said the Joker, as casually as anything. He tapped the needle, turned back to Ferak, and she began to scream again.

A silence overwhelmed Jack, a dark and quiet fog that blocked out everything else. One moment he was alone on one side of the room, and the next he was bent over Ferak’s struggling body and crying out in pain himself. Ferak’s hand grabbed his; the Joker’s brought the needle down where her arm had been, and where the back of Jack’s neck was now. Now he was the one screaming.

“Well now, what is that going to do?” Joker pulled away and stood back with amusement. “I have to hand it to you, Jack, you’ve become interesting again.”

Jack heard the voice, but through a deep haze. He stood shakily, both his hands on his head and doubled over when he started to walk again. There wasn’t pain, exactly. There was a sense of heaviness and slowness, as if time had gone still around him. Outside sounds were muffled, but he could hear his heart beating and blood pumping clearer than possible. He heard the Joker starting to laugh, and on limp legs he started to run from the room.

“Jack Friend, help!” Ferak screamed after him. She braced herself once again to fight the Joker off, but once again, the needle didn’t come for her.

The Joker watched his exit and laid his instruments back on the table. “Anyone teach you about betting, Ferak? Because I’ll bet you your freedom that tonight is about to get far more entertaining than even I planned.”




Harley and Batwoman had covered as much ground as they were able. Barbara had worried about her stamina as the night wore on, but the costume kept her standing well beyond the point when her muscles would have given up. Dawn was starting to break, and the manic exhaustion of an all-nighter left Harley’s eyes sparkling.

“It might be tomorrow, then,” Harley offered with some hope. “I mean, it might not be for a while, I never really knew even when I was with him.”

Barbara slowed them to a stop at the edge of the wide park in the city’s center. “Better than last night, but not by much. I’m going to keep looking. Are you sure you don’t know where Joker is hiding?”

Harley shook her head. “ I know the places he used to be but he wouldn’t use the same place twice. I’m sorry,” she said, for the hundredth time that night. “I’ll keep at it, too! I’m gonna make it right, I swear!”

Batwoman nodded distractedly, and turned her head toward the park. “Did you hear that?”

“Huh?” Harley stepped up to the park fence and climbed onto the bottom rung to look out over the bushes. “Maybe…just somethin’ running around. Is that suspicious?”

“Everything’s suspicious.” Barbara hid her smile as she readied her new legs and leapt the fence. No matter how grave the situation was, she couldn’t suppress her joy at being out once more.Harley followed her with somewhat more grace and fluidity, and Barbara had to bite back a spark of jealousy.

They landed in the thick bushes, and made their way onto the open grass. The rustling sound of something crashing through the foliage got louder, and soon they could hear the panting breath and constant moans of pain as well. Harley and Batwoman followed the noise to a hedge barrier now filled with holes, and both ran toward the man they found kneeling and bent over on the ground next to it.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Harley picked the man up by the shoulders, and almost dropped him again when she saw who it was. “You! Are you still following me?”

Jack coughed and sputtered and shook his head, reaching out with a quivering arm to push her back. “Harley….run…I don’t know…I’m not right…”

Barbara’s hand swooped downward and dragged Jack up by the collar. “You’re Jack Napier? Where’s the Joker?”

“Tried to stop…back there,” Jack waved weakly to the overgrown and unadorned woods behind the hedges. “Everything hurts…Just leave…Harley, don’t let me…”

“Do what? What are you threatening to do?” Barbara kept her hold on him, but when Jack started to scream and thrash, she had little choice but to let him fall and step back.

Harley tore her eyes away from the empty trees he had indicated, and back to Jack. “Hey, come on…you’re just a stalker, you’re not gonna hurt me…what’s wrong with him?” she asked Batwoman, who could only shake her head in response.

Jack was doubled over on the ground again, hugging his arms around his chest. The whole world had been in a fog since his injection; his body felt too big for his skin, as if it would rip through at any minute. He started to laugh, quietly, uncontrollably as the poison worked its way through his frenzied system. The shot to the neck had spread quickly to his brain, and now the body followed.

“He’s gonna blow!” Harley took another few steps backward.

Batwoman watched in morbid fascination, and tugged a communicator out of her belt. “I’m calling 911.”

He knew he was changing, even if he couldn’t see how. The modifications that Joker had made to the serum were sparking bizarre reactions in a human body, tickling every nerve and making his laughter louder and wilder. His skin was turning yellow, the sickly color spreading from the neck down. His hair took on a dark shade of green at the roots, and his lips stretched into a painful smile.

“Hey, Creepface, come on,” Harley chuckled lightly, nervously, trying to joke and bring Jack back to coherence. “Get up, you’re freaking me out.”

“Freak…creep….nah….Ferak already has Freak,” Jack mumbled. His voice sounded higher, or it could have just been the constant giggling. “But I can be a creep…creepo…creepface…creeper!” The last word rang out, and he stood again, if still hunched and distorted. Jack’s eyes were wide, the smile plastered on and his whole body continuing to twitch and re-arrange itself. “That’s it!”

“What’s it?” Barbara readied herself, taking a solid stance and finding a weapon in her belt, just in case.

“That’s me!” Jack beamed, and suddenly leapt high into the air. He landed behind Harley, grabbed her wrist and twirled her in place before bounding back around. “I feel amazing! It’s incredible! Way too good to be stupid Jack Napier…and no, not a Joker either, not a Batman, not a Ferak.”

“What are you talking about?” The sudden disappearance of Jack’s soul-crushing pain disturbed Harley more than anything else. The telltale signs of the Joker Toxin couldn’t match up to the bizarre energy that radiated out of him now.

“I feel strong, I feel fast, I feel awesome! I’m totally awesome!” Jack proclaimed, laughing and leaping and starting off into the woods.

“Come back!” Batwoman yelled, dropping her phone call to follow him past the hedges.

“Watch out, Joker!” Jack whooped and ran. “Jack couldn’t do much, but you’ll see! You’d better watch out, for The Creeper!”