Jester

Fight or Flight?

Something tripped the sensor at Joker's old harbor haunt. Tim stared at the notification for maybe a bit longer than he should have. He was running patrol with Batman and Spoiler when the notification popped up. With Nightwing out of the question he was the closest option to investigate.

He had thought it odd when Dick had him lay out the sensors over a year ago. The goons and Joker knew the place was a known hideout so the likely hood of them going back was slim to none. This was something completely different.

He headed off, letting Batman know where he was going, he'd call for backup if needed. Most of the times it's just a homeless person looking for a place to crash for the night. Hopefully that was the case, he wanted an easy night with no complications.

He got to the funhouse maybe 15 minutes after getting the notification. The door was still open. He decided to investigate anyways he had a hunch they hadn't left.

Turns out his hunch was right, of course. He watched as they didn't move from their crouched position. Not for long mind you, they snapped their attention to him almost instantly. A quick assessment of her attire, now that he knew their gender, he couldn't figure out what group she belonged to. If anything she'd fit right in with Dick and his covert ops team with the lack of distinguishing features, but she didn't seem to recognize the Robin costume.

Her eye color changed from electric blue to a deep red.

Maybe she did recognize the costume. He barely had time to pull out his bo-staff to deflect a kick aimed at his chest. He was on defense, and pulled the fight into the hall.

They moved around the hall, using some of the left behind decor to their own advantage. The fight ended up in a more open area of the funhouse, he ended up landing a hit to the side of her head. He blocked another kick and stepped back. His heel triggered a pressure plate and he barely heard the click.

Before he could even register the movement just barely in his peripheral, he was shoved out of the way. Hitting the floor hard he heard the wet sound of a knife piercing skin. Quickly he looked back at his opponent and saw the handle of a blade sticking out of her upper arm.

He turned his attention to her eyes. One was still red, but the other was glitching. Switching back and forth between blue and red before ultimately shutting off to show a very natural shade of green.

He moved without thinking. He was wanting to help her since he knew she wasn't in control of her actions.

A frightened look painted it's way across her face as he reached a hand out for her. She grabbed the handle of the knife and pulled it out of her arm. She swung the blade in a diagonal arch in front of her, cutting open what looked like a portal.

The next moment and she was gone.

'That can't be good.' Tim looked around for anything he could use to further investigate this little teleporter. She's probably another victim of the trafficking.

'If they had that power on their side how come they keep using boom tubes?' He couldn't help but wonder. In searching he found a couple drops of blood, most likely from when she pulled the blade out. He quickly got the sample and stowed it away properly so he could run a diagnostic on it when he got back to the cave.

'I'll have to let the team know somehow. But she looked a bit older than the kids that have been getting taken.' He glanced back into the room he originally found her in. He went in and looked around. 'Maybe she's one of the older ones? Someone who's been there for a while. That might fit the profile.' There were so many papers in this room, and none of them helpful.

He opened a closet door and found an old costume for Jester. 'Was this her room?' He wondered as he looked over the clothes. 'Jesters been gone for two years, who'd be looking for her now?' He looked around the room again in hopes that the answer would spell itself out in the papers. 'Unless-' he cut off his train of thought. Wally was still a sore subject for most of the heroes, especially since most of them didn't know the exact reason behind his comatose state. Whatever the real reason it caused a major power outage and landed Wally in a coma. That was about a year ago and he still showed no signs of waking.

'I have to run the sample.' He thought as he rushed out of the fun house. He'd wait for the results to tell anyone, and he had to figure out where they went as well. Even if he wasn't a part of the team anymore someone should be updated.

'Yeah, definitely waiting. And after a cup of coffee at least.' He headed back to the cave. 'Bruce might not like it, but I have to know.'

He made it to the cave, taking a few short cuts along the way. He went to the computer and carefully placed the blood sample into the designated compartment.

Leaning back in the chair he went over everything he learned while the computer ran the diagnostic.

-There was a girl with meta abilities that was scouting out the fun house at the harbor.

-She had computerized contacts, so someone was watching her moves.

-She didn't make any sounds. Not that he recalls anyways. The clearest moment he can recall was when she got stabbed, not even Batman could take a knife without a small noise of discomfort.

-She pushed him out of the way when he set off the trap. Was it by her own choice or was she being controlled into trying to manipulate him? That may be diving a little too deep for the short encounter.

-A hit to the side of her head shut off one of the contacts before she saved him, was there a connection issue with the blunt force? Or is it faulty tech?

The computer beeped and Tim glanced over it. He was grateful he hadn't taken a sip of the still hot coffee yet, otherwise it would be all over the screen and Batman would kill him if he ruined the computer.

There in plain English, was an error code. The dna matched to a death certificate for one Jessica Terley, and brought up a hospital file for Wallace West.

A twice dead woman had saved his life, but how did Wally's dna end up getting pulled?

Now he had to call the team.

Maybe after finding a way to track her, or find out where she went. So much for an easy night.