>>43129356

The case file had told her everything- her real name ("Deula Dent"- funny coincidence with the last name, she thought), her history, and a number of psychoevaluations that she found thoroughly entertaining. She'd been a bit embarrassed about some of the details- her "Scarecrone" and "Penguin's Daughter" phases were two she was quite glad she didn't remember, but every girl has to have a chance to find herself.

It's just that few ever get a chance to do it so literally. It was a shame she didn't remember any of it, but then everyone knows the kinds of things that go on at Arkham House. Some kind of hypnotherapy had been used on her. False memories implanted. That's why she could remember every awkward moment of high school, but not the times she'd been involved with a group called the "Teen Titans." There was something about some kind of face surgery in the files that she had to admit she wasn't quite sure about, but she just wrote the whole thing off as more of Arkham's nonsense. It was all a terrible thing to do to a young girl. But now Deula is her own woman, and she knows everything they'd tried to keep from her.

She smiles. Every girl dreams of finding out she's a princess. And Deula actually is.

But now there's work to be done. If her father isn't actually dead- and let's face it, she thinks, they NEVER are- then she's got a lot of work to do to prepare for his return. He's bound to be surprised to see his long-lost daughter has come back. She wonders for a moment if he'd ever thought about her. Probably not, she thinks. A big celebrity like him probably doesn't think much about the little people. He might not even know she was even born. She doesn't blame him, though. It'll just be that much of a bigger surprise. She's been spending most of her time trying to make his return perfect; she'd already secured his old, special hideout with the Ace Chemical Plant.

>>43129387

She'd also sent some men to put some muscle on the Axis Chemical Plant in the newer industrial district across town; she wasn't quite sure which plant was the special one, so she decided to take both.

One thing her father won't be happy about, though, is his usurper. That unfunny brat had been parading around wearing his face, and making a mess of the whole city in the process. "Cousin Olliver," she likes to call him. Deula still wasn't sure why the one-eyed girl had come for her, then gone running back to him, though- perhaps it was some last-ditch emergency protocol from her father. Still, she thinks, by undoing the messes he's made, perhaps I can show these people who is REALLY in power, and perhaps Father won't be quite so embarrassed when he returns. He might even be proud...

Deula marks out a few notes on the paper. She'd had to skip the parade; resources have been tight recently. She was quite proud of the Beauty Pageant, though, especially all the dead actresses and newscasters. She'd gone to a great deal of trouble to get all the same actresses her "Cousin" had left alive- a shame that Batman didn't bother to show up. Deula grits her teeth for a moment, her hand baring down on the pencil and breaking it. "The REAL Batman," she mutters to herself. She moves on. There's the Arkham breakout- that one will be tough, since there's nothing left of Arkham but a crater-, and the bowties... There's the mayoral campaign, too, and elections ARE coming up, she thinks. "I've already made myself Queen of Gotham. Maybe a coronation...?" She jots down a note.

Deula taps her pencil for a moment, then stands and walks to the window. She can keep trying to undo his work, she thinks, but the most pressing matter is to undo HIM. "What do I know about him?" she asks herself. "What makes him do what he does? What do I have, that he wants?" Deula leans on the window, biting her knuckle in thought.

Then, she smiles...

(cont)

>>43129410
Your small group crowds around the tiny outdated television. It took some work, but after a couple calls to Spike and a great deal of swearing, the old wood-paneled box is finally patched into the local stations and working. It's still early morning, and after last night's debacle, you're all curious to see what Irons and his men have in store. Sure enough, the newscasters- two understudies, clearly shaken by the untimely deaths of their predecessors- introduce Agent Irons for another address to the people. What you see, however, was not what you expected.

"Gotham," says Agent Irons, "since we arrived, I've told you that we would root out corruption in your city wherever we find it. So far, a number of the supercriminals that have terrorized this city have been apprehended and permanently relocated. Names you've feared, like Mister Freeze, The Penguin, and The Riddler, you need never fear again. And today, we have uncovered another thread in the web that ties this city down." The fat man steps aside, and a small blonde woman steps forward to the podium.

Priscilla Cris, the woman who for years served as Gotham's conscience and gave voice to its Id. Holly, the woman who for the last few days you've watched break down into an incoherent wreck. Her makeup and hair are perfect, as always- a far cry from the woman you saw chopping her hair off in knots a night ago. But then, she's always been an expert with her makeup.

A woman you thought you knew stands before the crowd, solemnly. The room around you falls silent.

"...For years now, Gotham, I have lied to you." She looks as if she might be about to cry. "For the last several years, everything I've done has been in the service of one man- The Joker. My job was to make you fear him, Gotham. To make you feel weak and powerless, and to make you turn against those that could help you." She raises her head, resolutely.

>>43129436
"...But Gotham, I am free now. I am free to help these men- and all of you- to take back this city.

What you've seen on the news is true, Gotham. The Joker is dead. The man whose tortured you for the last three months is an imposter. He's nothing but a child, Gotham. An arrogant child who believes he can poison the spirit of this city. He believed he could turn you on your leaders by playing off your fears and promising you hope. He offered you a cure for his poisons, while all the while he was giving orders to the woman providing it. While he played out a petty game with a rival all through October, the two of them tore this city apart.

This man is on the run, and without allies or soldiers. He may attempt to frighten you, Gotham. Don't let yourselves be fooled. The only true skill this man has is lying. People of Gotham, over the last several days, you've seen that two people amongst you claim they are the Joker. This morning, I am telling you they are not.

The Joker is dead, Gotham. Like me, you are free now, too."

The crowd murmurs amongst themselves. There are no cheers for this villain, but no jeers, either. For the first time in ages, Gotham is being told the truth, and it's a lot to digest.

>wat do

>>43129450
Enact our plan for vengeance

>>43129450

So is Holly actually a traitor now? She's always been pretty loyal

last thread we all agreed she was trying to play the other team for info

>>43129450
Well shit. Now we either need to kill her, or do a big old reveal and prove her wrong.

Its been a while since we appeared on the TV screens. Might have to do that once again.

I promose we set up a trap for both the FBI and duela. We make out some big event is going to do down someplace e.g. the football stadium. We then rig the place with actual hostages and for it to go boom. Record ourselves for the jumbotron to make it belivable, but be watching from far away with a telescope and a transmitter so we can talk to them and make them think we are actually there.

Try to play duela off vs the FBI and maybe resolve one of those two problems.

>>43129713
Oh and have a dedicated escape plan set up, transmitters via the same pirate signal spike has been using so we cant be traced. Air the event live on TV.

Maybe steal the new anchors to comentate for us?

>>43129713

but what if she's doing this on purpose to make them spill info to her?

>>43129713
No wait...
Since the say we are imposter, we can lay low for a bit. Lets make it so The CIA and Duela fight each other.
Spread the word that Duela is the threat

>>43129450

"That BITCH," says Dottie, stabbing the coffee table with her knife. The musty old apartment has already taken on a smoky smell from her constant smoking. "THAT'S where she ran off to. She ran off to fuckin' snitch on us. I always knew she was just lookin' for a way to fake us out. Everythin' I fuckin' went through, an' that bitch turns right around an' stabs me in the fuckin' back. That's why she was waitin'- she was waitin' 'till I came back before she sprung this on alla' us. Probably gonna lead 'em right back here..."

Dottie stands, and heads to the bedroom. You can hear her packing.

"Wait, Dottie," you tell her. "This isn't right. Holly's never betrayed us before. She's always been weird, sure, but never a traitor. And she's always gone off on her own with her own plans, even when I've told her not to. No, this has to be some kind of angle... There's something here we don't know."

"That was before, Boss. You KNOW what you did night she left," says Dwayne, somberly. "An' you know how she's been. You probably set her off. Probably too much for her to handle."

"Well it don't matter whether this is another psycho game or if she's actually a turncoat, does it?" asks Dottie. "She just outed you on TV, Boss. That's a step too far, even if she is just playin'."

"But did she?" you say, thinking for a moment. "She said I was alone, with no soldiers. But that's not true, is it? I've got Harvey, Mitchell, and the others- all of them have said they'd sign on. I've not got many men, true, but I'm not without allies. If she was being truthful, she wouldn't have left out the fact that there was an alliance of supervillains forming, would she?"

"Woulda scared 'em," suggests Dwayne. "Might not have wanted a panic."

(cont)

>>43129760
Then we work off of that premise and not kill her?

>>43129782
Maybe. We could send the info about the trap in a personal manner instead, don't broadcast it and make it look like duela is doing it.
We know she has been copying us for a while now, arkham is impossible but we could fake one of those electoral campaign speaches that footy stadiums use instead, it would fit the pattern.

>>43129790

"I'm sure the people would have cowered in fear over the mighty Condiment King's alliance with a fake Joker, D. No, there's something more to all this," you tell him. "Let's stay put for now. It's not like we have anywhere else to go.

I have a plan, though. Maybe this is what Holly wanted all along. Now that they know I'm an impostor, and they know that we're low on resources, we can lie low for a bit. Deula is the most pressing threat to them. Perhaps we can play the two of them off each other. Hopefully one of our two problems can stop themselves. Perhaps we can set up an event at the Gotham Stadium, and sell it as one of Deula's event. She's been copying us recently, so some kind of political rally would fit the theme- perhaps with hostages. The FBI will try to stop her, and she'll be pissed off that we're pinning something on her. Hopefully we can get the two of them in the same place.

For now, we leave Holly alone. I want to be absolutely sure she's a traitor before..." You trail off.

You turn to D. "On the subject of men, D- how many DO we still have? Surely not all of them stayed with Deula. Surely not Knock?"

"Knock stays with his boys," says Dottie. "He ain't turned on you, but he's gotta watch out for 'em. Told me he'd send any he could our way the night I left."

Dwayne chimes in. "The boys that took the trucks to Spike never went back, either- I got in touch with 'em and told 'em what was goin' down. They're stayin' on- at least, for now. With the ones Knock's sent out, I'm countin' about.... fifteen or twenty boys, not countin' Harv's boys, us, or any of the masks."

"That's... better than I'd expected," you say. It seems things weren't as dire as you once thought.

As if perfectly planned to ruin your mood, Dwayne's cellphone gives off an annoying chime. He pulls it back out, looks at the screen, and taps it. His eyes bulge, and he immediately hands it to you.

>>43129912

On the screen, you see the painted face of Deula smiling at you over a video feed. "Heyyyyy there, Cousin!" says Deula cheerfully. "I'm sure you've seen the news by now, right? Hell hath no fury, am I right? Just what did you do to that one? Is she the one that got away?" Deula laughs her sickening, tittering laugh. "I didn't call to rub it in though. I know what it's like to have trouble at home. I just thought we'd got off on the wrong Foot, you know? So I thought I'd throw you a little going away party tonight- after all, as much as I hate to admit it, you've helped me keep A Head of the game by keeping the Joker's Seat warm for me. And since I've had a Leg up on you for a while now... Well, it simply wouldn't be sporting of me to keep pushing you, now would it?
You can bring a date, if you like- I'd suggest the pretty blond, but it looks like things have soured between the two of you, hmmm?" She laughs again. "Perhaps the little pirate girl? Just remind the two-faced little bitch it's not a costume party, would you? Strictly black-tie. Of course, I'll need one too..." She looks thoughtful for a moment. Then she looks like she has an idea.
"Say.... Cousin, I've got a little joke for you." She smiles. "Knock, Knock!"

Your stomach lurches. "...Who's there?"

Deula looks at you mischievously. "You'll have to find out when you get there. As for the venue, I simply couldn't choose- so I decided to have it at all of them! There's the Novelty Factory, a warehouse at the docks, a night club - you're starting to recognize these, I hope- a filthy old bar.... and the trainyard. Of course, my date and I can only attend one of them together, and we won't be able to delay the festivities for you to put in appearances at all of them. You'll have to choose."

Man we really should have shot her when we saw her last time.

>>43129947

"Remember Cousin- the party starts at Eight." She holds up a knife. All the false cheerfulness leaves her face, replaced only with a a hateful grin. "Sharp. Don't be late..." Her mood shifts once again, and she puts a finger to her lips, as if remembering something. "Ooh, and don't be early, either- it's very rude. And I can't abide rudeness, Cousin."

She hangs up.

"...Well, what now?" asks Dwayne.

"What now? There's nothing we can do, D," you say. "It's obvious what she's doing. If she thinks we're breaking her rules, she'll kill Knock. But she doesn't know we've got a plan of our own. For now, let's keep to the original plan. We'll have the men handle it, and set it up for 8PM. If the schedule conflicts with her own, we may be able to bait her out of whatever she actually has planned. In the meantime, I'll try to decide what we'll do this evening."

"You're fighting your shadow," says Coal, picking at a few scraps of convenience store food that had made up your crew's breakfast. "She's just like you, you know. All... puzzles and tricks. You're both playing the same game, and both of you are cheating. I think it would be in our best interests to keep an eye on what's going on off the table..."

Deula's threat still weighs heavy on your mind as you call in the orders to your small army of men. Hostages are taken to a safehouse not far from the stadium, to be delivered closer to the intended time of the rally. An order is sent to Spike to set up a mirror of your own political websites for her, waiting to flood social media with invites to a ralley this evening at 8.

"I Believe in Deula Dent," "Deula Dent- All The Right Women For The Job!" - every ad is a subtle jab at her psychosis, all of them attempts to lure her out to the stadium.

Streamers in Deula's colors are purchased and used by your men to decorate the interior of the stadium. You leave the outside untouched, however- you don't want the FBI striking before you're ready.

This shit again.

>>43130275

As it nears the late afternoon, the pieces of your are put in order.

"Looks like things are almost ready on our side, Boss," says Dwayne. "You just give the word, an' Spike'll send out the invitations. Deula an' the fat man should both come runnin'-"

"...Unless she's anticipating a counter like this," says Coal. "It's not a direct retaliation, so it should catch her at least somewhat unaware, but we have no idea how far ahead she's planning. The problem is that you've always reacted to your problems- ever since I've met you, you've always been trying to parry attacks from outside sources. She know that. I think that's why she's acting the way she is- Deula makes sure she's always on the attack with you. Eventually she'll break down your defenses."

"That girl ain't some kinda mastermind, Doc," says Dottie. "She's just some dumb kid. What she's doin' ain't got any reason behind it."

"But it works the same either way, though. Her strategies counter ours."

You think about this for a moment.

"We better make any final preparations, Boss," says Dwayne. "Make sure we ain't left anything out. An' then... well, we gotta decide what you're gonna do about whatever Deula's got planned."

>wat do

>>43130685
"Guess I oughta use myself as bait again, Dot, she's insisting on the form probably and she's going to want a shot at you. So, looks like you're bait too
Everyone else, get in position to extract Knock and possibly us if things go weird alright? I mean if we're baiting Irons with her and her with us, we gotta focus on extraction."

>>43130685
if we go try to save knock, it's obvious she's going to spring a trap on us like we're doing to her, but if we don't but he'll probably die.

She gave us like 5 places he could be though
>There's the Novelty Factory, a warehouse at the docks, a night club - you're starting to recognize these, I hope- a filthy old bar.... and the trainyard.
I don't get what she's saying

>>43130685
Well there were things in her comments that stood out, it's some sorta clue. Might've been there to false flag though.

>>43129356

>>>/aco/109619

>>43131031
You mean
>>43131010 ?

Thats's the problem. We don't know where she'll actually be

>>43130685
>Wrong Foot, you know? So I thought I'd throw you a little going away party tonight- after all, as much as I hate to admit it, you've helped me keep A Head of the game by keeping the Joker's Seat warm for me. And since I've had a Leg up on you for a while now
So that's probably on purpose but does it mean anything?

>>43130685
If we can't figure out her stuff I mean obviously each location corresponds to a piece from her wanna-be riddler's act.
Of course she also killed most of the Miss Gotham contestants last night before I called...
Of course how each piece corresponds exactly to the locations are the most important.

>>43130685

"Deula's insisting I go myself, and she seems to want a crack at you, too. If we're baiting Irons with Deula, and she's baiting us with Knock, we need to bait her with the two of us. I'd like the rest of you to focus on extracting Knock, Dwayne. Call in some of the others if you have to."


"But WHERE, Boss?" asks Dwayne. "She didn't tell you where she was."

You think for a few minutes. "She gave us five location. And she kept making "body parts" jokes... Each of those locations has to have some kind of significance..."

Dot looks thoughtful. "Wait a second, boss. The warehouse. Remember when we stole that junk for Penguin? An' killed those bookies? That was back during the gang war, when we tried to set everybody against each other."

"...Except the trainyard," you realize. "That was when we were chasing Grundy. It's the only one that doesn't fit. That's where she is."

"And the others?" asks Coal.

"Fakes," you tell her. "We can send a man to check them out, but I'd bet she isn't even watching those places. And with the rally tonight, she's unlikely to be at the trainyard either.

We should be able to go pick up Knock from whatever deathtrap she's got going on, and be back before midnight.

I'm just not sure about why she was being so... evasive. I'm not sure what the joke is yet..."

As it approaches seven, you give the word. Spike sends out invites for Deula's rally, making sure it's visible enough for both Deula and Irons to recognize.

You, Dottie, and Dwayne drive out to the trainyard. You pull up the location at Five 'till Eight...

As you step amongst the trains, you approach the trainyard, you are immediately struck by a deep metallic smell. Dottie nudges you in the ribs, but you already recognize the scent.

Blood.

There's a web of strange cloth ropes knotted between the traincars; you assume they are tripcords of some kind, so carefully avoid them. It takes you a few minutes to realize what they are- black neckties.

"Black ties," you realize, shaking your head. "What the hell was she thinking?" You duck between another pair of the ropes.

You finally get through her little obstacle course, and once again enter the clearing you fought Black Mask in. There you find... Nothing.

She isn't here.

>>43131551
"If it comes down to it, get Knock out, get yourself out. Dwayne, get ready to back Dot up. If she's using smilex I'll be fine. If she isn't, well you'd be surprised what I can live through. Understood?"

>>43131813
...
Did she just fake us out with our own tactics?

>>43131813

You search the bloodstained courtyard in vain.

"I'll call the other guys... Maybe they found something," says Dwayne. He makes a quick call.

Using a flashlight, you trace the bloodstains on the gravel beneath you, following them further into the yard.

"...Boss," says Dwayne gravely, hanging up his phone. "I think I found out what she meant by all that 'foot' an' 'hand' stuff..."

>>43132000
If this is at all like the Miss Gotham parody she killed him before we got here and scattered the parts.

>>43132094
>>43132000
"Something like that Dwayne? Locations being where the parts are?"

>>43131551
>>43131813
>>43132000

You hurry your pace, ducking between the traincars following the trail of blood. Soon you even stop avoiding the Black Tie tripwires- they were fakes all along. You charge through the ties, and reach the traintracks at edge of the trainyard. There, laying across the tracks under a bright light, you see a white cloth sack, with red stains spread across it. Just beneath the light, you see a small envelope sitting atop a piece of fabric.

You feel sick.

Slowly and quietly, you approach the envelope. The cloth is a sweet-smelling lady's handkerchief, with the letters "J.D." sewn onto the corners. It smells like coconuts. The envelope is sealed with a smear of purple lipstick. You open it.

"Cousin,

Something came up. Sorry I wasn't able to attend your party- I'm just one woman, you know. I can't be in two places at once. A shame I can't say the same as your friend...

With Love, The Joker's Daughter."

Suddenly, you hear something from nearby- a moan, and a thump. The bag- he's still alive. There are still words on the page...

"P.S., Guess what happens at 8:05?"

You hear a train whistle in the distance. The tracks start vibrating.

>wat do

>>43132204
i officially hate this bitch

im not sure which is worst: top hat, day, or fake-deula

>>43132204
Grab the fucker, move away from train

>>43132204
>Get Dwayne and Dot OUT, check the sack and bail.

>>43132284
Day was just screwing around, Top Hat was basically in a life or death situation if we were like the old guy, but we were new and he intended to take advantage of it.
This bitch steals our material, hurts the family and has no sense of pacing >>43132204
Get our guys out, Dot and Dwayne especially, corpse if we have time.

>>43132204

As quickly as you can, you drop the envelope and grab the bag, trying your best to drag it off the tracks. As it slides you can hear Knock moaning in pain. Quickly, Dwayne and Dottie realize what is going on, and help you move him.

You open the bag. Just as you'd thought, inside is Knock, badly beaten and bloodied. You don't peel back much of the bag to assess the damage, but you could already tell something is wrong. His body is much lighter than it should be. Bloody black silk ties tie off his sholders- tourniquets stemming the flow of blood.

"...He's dead, Boss," says Dottie. "We gotta leave 'im."

"No, Dot. She stabilized him. We can move 'im if we're careful. We gotta drop him off at the hospital."

"An' just what's he gonna-"

"Both of you SHUT UP and help me move him," you tell them. The three of you carry the bleeding man back to Dwayne's car, and he drives towards the hospital. The three of you leave the man on the sidewalk in front of the hospital, staying only long enough to see a panicked nurse rush out to him. You drive off, a stain of his hot blood rapidly cooling on the front of your suit. Your hands are sticky.

As you drive back to the apartment, you hear sirens and gunfire in the distance. Clearly Deula is playing with the friends you sent to her.

You pull up to he small apartment, and go inside. That was you, once- life-or-death shootouts with the police, elaborate deathtraps planned from your secret lair. Now you're sitting in an apartment that looks like someone's grandmother lives there, washing blood off your hands, and living in fear of what the Joker will do to you.

It's domestic. It's safe. And it's a nightmare. You realize the state that all of Gotham lives in every day of their lives.

You walk into the living room. Coal has already been informed of the situation. She has the look of a medical professional about her.

"I know what you're thinking," she tells you. "If Dwayne was right, his chances are... fair."

>>43132543
"Alright, new plan Coal. Immunizations, for the folks we've got left.
Yourself included. I didn't want to do this. I know what's coming if I do. There's a good chance we're going to need to just gas the whole damn plant."

>>43132543

She continues. "He's already told the other men to take what... parts they found to the hospital, but I wouldn't count on reattachment. We can't be sure how long the girl took with him, and the procedure is costly- much too costly to be performed on uninsured patients.

Shock will be an issue. And blood loss. But if he survives those..." She looks to you, seriously. "There's a chance. That's all I can give you. You might have saved his life,"

Dottie says nothing. She is looking out the window.

Dwayne has the television on, watching the news. You can hear the quiet muttering of the newscasters overs screens of explosions and green smokeat the stadium.

"Big shootout at the stadium," he tells you. "Feds came to take down Deula, an' Deula came in behind them. Looks like neither of 'em was prepared for the other. Both of 'em lost a lot of people."

"That smoke..." you ask. "Smilex?"

"Don't look like it," he says. "You used up the last batch of the old stuff with that firetruck bit. She's just throwin' out smoke bombs for the theatrics, I guess. Or maybe as a diversion."

"Then we have one advantage she doesn't. Coal, we have your chemistry equipment, right? I'd like you to provide the three of you with immunizations to the gas. And we'll be needing some more poisons. We haven't got anything to store it in gaseous form, though. We'll need to use a pressurized liquid like we did when I was new.

There's a good chance we're going to be gassing the entire chemical plant."

No one argues. It's clear what has to be done.

"...One other thing is buggin' me, boss," says Dwayne. "Back on the ship- that guy you took down. He said somethin' about a "brain trust," remember? Somebody behind this whole thing."

"...Irons, obviously," you say. "And Holly, now, I suppose. As for anyone else... Honestly, D, I've got no idea. It seems like we've got enemies coming at us from every angle now, and we aren't even DOING anything. This isn't what I thought it would be like."

>>43132797

"If the situation is too much for you to handle, then you need to break it down into ones you can," says Coal. "You're not thinking with your head- you need to be logical. Clinical.

Your weaknesses are Deula's strengths. If there's one thing she's good at, it's analyzing past actions- and failures. She knows exactly what you've done, and she knows how you act. But she's not rational, is she? You showed us that yourself when you forced her to play your way by dressing as Batman.

There are things that woman wants, and she can't say no to a chance at them, even if she knows it's a trap. But she's smart; she'll try to turn the tables on you again, just like last time. Deula studied the Joker closely, and will always try to fill his role.

So my advice would be to think about exactly what the Joker would do, and what you would do, and react accordingly."

She stands, and walks to the window.

"As for Irons... You're right, he's not alone. Before Deula arrived he was preempting your every move. Recently you've been too busy reacting to her psychotic actions, so they must've had little to go on..." She turns.

"Doesn't it seem a bit too convenient that you have TWO enemies with similar thought patterns, though?" she suggests. "Both of them act by preempting your actions. Both of them know what you're doing. It's as if both of them are pulling from a similar knowledge pool."

"So... what?" asks Dwayne. "Deula's workin' for the Feds?"

She shakes her head. "They didn't know she wasn't behind the event at the Stadium. They wouldn't have sacrificed men to make a show. No, Deula is a free agent... But that doesn't mean they aren't being fed information from a shared source."

You start to catch on.

Slowly, you start to ask "You mean The-"

>>43132797
"Well, I guess it is, I just expected...hm. Fuck it, doesn't matter. We're taking too many hits here. That's what matters. If Holly flipped I'll take care of it after dragging what information I can out of her. She could have just told them where we are though. That'd be the end of it. We'd all probably be down by now if that were the case. She's trying to get something out of this."
"Looks like we'll need to drive up recruitment. That'll be harder now, but there may be a way yet. And we need to go on the offensive soon if we're going to turn this around. After this is over...
Wait, shit, the money Dot took from Duela.
Get it to Knock."

>>43133026
"Yeah, I figured he'd show up while we were weak after gassing the plant. That's why I held off. I'd guess that's why Holly's 'making her self useful.' I can win against -that- though. He has one victory condition. I have two. I don't have to walk away. You gotta take both out of a deck before anyone else'll play with it anyway."

>>43133026

"It don't matter," interrupts Dot. "Psychoanalyze her all damn night, it ain't gonna make a difference. The only damn reason I brought her into this was so the police would have somebody to chase while you-" she points at you "-got the hell out of town, yeah?"

You turn to her. "How DID you find her though, exactly? You never told us. You both just sort of... showed up."

She looks at you incredulously. "I didn't know she'd be THIS kinda psycho. I wasn't plannin' on the two of you playin' chessmaster against each other. I'd heard about the 'Joker's Daughter' girl an' went lookin' around any kinda place she might show up. There's always a coupla pretenders out there, you know? Wasn't hard to find her. Guess she was lookin' for somebody too."

This doesn't ease your mind.

"Maybe this it what I expected after all..." you say. "I don't know. It doesn't matter. We're taking too many hits here, like you said, Coal. That's what matters.

If Holly's changed sides- IF- I'll take care of it after I get what information I can out of her. She could have just told them where were are, thought, and that'd have been the end of it. If she wanted, we'd all be down right now. She has an angle, and she wants something out of all this.

We need to drive up recruitment somehow. With only about twenty men, we're hurting for staff and equipment. It'll all be harder now, but there may be a way yet.

The point is, we need to go on the offensive. Soon, if we're going to turn this around. And after it's all over..." You trail off. The others break off to go about their business. You're tired, and need sleep- you have plans to make tomorrow.

You walk up to Coal after a minute. "I know who you meant, Coal," you tell her. "I figured he'd show up while we were weak- that's why I held off. That might be why Holly is out with the Feds; she might be trying to 'make herself useful.' But Coal, I can win. He only has one victory condition- but I have two."

>>43133026
"Dwayne, get Spike to crack the Governor's home web-cams, the ones at his work if he can and set up some screen-share. I wasn't lying on the boat. There's no way he didn't flinch. We're dragging whatever it is into the light.
Then, I'm going to kill it."
"Everybody, if there's a 'two of a kind' thing and you don't know who's who...shoot both in the head twice. Then you cut off both of our heads with whatever is handy. Is that understood?"

>>43133230
You continue. "I don't have to walk away from this, you know. And you gotta take both out of a deck before anyone else'll play with it anyway, right?" you smile.

She gives you a withering glare. "You're very good at that, you know," she says.

"What?"

"Pretending you aren't scared."

You walk away from her, and go to Dwayne. "The money we took from Deula- I'd like you to send what you can to Knock. If they have cash, they might be able to put him back together."

Dwayne looks sad, but nods in agreement. Before all this is through, you promise yourself you'll go check on him. Somehow.

You go to bed alone. And for once, there are no interruptions as you sleep.


"He took you for a Fool, Irons," says Nygma, in a room across town. "The stadium wasn't a ploy by the girl- it was the other one, trying to play the two of you off one another. He's caught onto her theme, and he's using it to his advantage."

"Then we trace the whole plan backwards," says Irons in frustration. " We see what he did, to predict what she should do, then predict what he'll do to-"

"Listen to yourself," says Mister Brown. He tugs at his tight shirt uneasily; his old costume breathed, at least. "There's only so many moves you can try to get ahead before you're just making guesses. That's not logic. If you're going to do that, you need mercenaries, not analysts."

"Egg-sactly," says Mister Heed. "It's a chicken-and-egg situation, Mister Irons. They've given us so much information that we're at a standstill, but not enough to to actually act. Mister Fugate can't track what won't move-" the bald man nods at another man across the table- "and we can't predict what we already know is coming. There's too many variables."

"Then we remove some," growls the normally-collected Irons. "Every other criminal has gone to ground, or is in custody. Only these two are spitting in our faces. It's like they're using our investigation as a way to make the city even worse."

>>43133514

Irons looks to the group. "Cluemaster, Questioner, Puzzler, Clock King, Egghead, Riddler... We offered all of you amnesty in return for your services. So far you've not let me down. I hope that our arrangement continues to be mutually beneficial."

Nygma smiles. "There's no Question," he says. "But if there's too many Players in the game, why not use what pieces you have, my friend? You have the Actress..."

"I'm no Actress, Mister Nygma," says Holly. Nygma smiles at her.

"No, you aren't, my dear. A Model, then? Either way, Irons, you know his tricks- he's bound to make a move on our little China Doll, here- he's always reacted poorly when people take his toys."

"He's sure to think I'm a traitor now, Mister Nygma," says Holly. "He won't want me back. He'll probably try to..."

"Exactly," says Nygma, making a gun with his finger and pointing it at Holly's face. He mimes a gunshot. "I'm sure he won't do too much damage to that pretty face. You're good with makeup, aren't you?"


You wake up the next morning. Your body feels rested, but your mind is still racing.

"Dwayne, on the boat- remember when I suggested the Governor was somehow involved? See if Spike can get us a feed to his home web-cams. Whatever has happened with him, we're dragging into this fight. And whoever it is, I'm going to kill them.

And one more thing, guys- if he tries to play a 'two of a kind thing'- you know, like in the movies? Where you don't know which of us is which? Shoot us both in the head. Twice. Then cut them off. Understood?"

They look at you in confusion. "Rough night, boss?" asks Dwayne.

You sigh, and sit on the couch. "You could say that. I just want to make sure all my bases are covered. I want there to be a plan if things go south." You look over at Dot. "And my old orders still stand. All of them. Agreed?"

She turns her head and tries not to acknowledge you.

>>43133751

"Last night," says Coal, "You said you wanted to turn things around and go on the offensive. What have you got in mind?"

You think long and hard. "Alright, guys- here's the plan..."

>you want to go on the offensive, to take Deula, Irons, or both of them off guard
>what is your plan?
>what do you hope to accomplish?
>what do you need to do it?
>how long will you need?

>>43133777
We're going to fake -cough-"rescue"-cough- Holly, fail.
Make it look like we need her for some reason, and Holly and Duela both know how I get about people. But Duela not quite as well, so we'll get her to point her resources at Irons.
Might throw Holly for a loop and make her reconsider her choices. Might not, but it might open her up to telling us what she knows about the 'think-tank', meanwhile Duela apparently wants things I have. So that should point her straight at Irons.
And they'll be at it for a minute, which should give us the time needed to recruit who we can and regroup. Whichever way it goes, Duela and Irons weaken each other and we take the legs out from under one or both.
Holly tries to run back, we see what she knows, then we decide what to do with her.
She's got a near Stockholm level attachment to the idea of the Joker. It'll happen, we just might need to move.

>>43133751
more riddler puzzles. what''s he know now?

>>43133777
Coal, get started on the immunizations, make one for Holly as well if it turns out she's useful. If not we'll give it to Condiment King or somebody else.
You've got Holly's number right Dot? Tell her what we're planning, most of it, anyway. The girl'll probably be overjoyed.
If she's actually flipped though...that might require different methods.

>>43134070
We'll need to misinform her of course. No sense in letting her get us into Irons' hands.
Coal...just work on the immunizations and smilex. Meanwhile, I'm probably going to go kill Brock Carter. Fake it, anyway.

>>43133777

"We're going to rescue Holly," you tell them.

They don't seen very excited.

"An' what if she doesn't want to be rescued?" says Dottie.

"She will. If this is some kind of ploy, this will just reinforce her cover. If not, maybe she'll rethink her choices. I think Holly has a near-Stockholm syndrome level of attachment to the idea of the Joker. If she thinks we want her, she's more likely to come back. At the very least she might open up to telling us about the think tank. As for Deula- she wants what I have, that much is certain. Or at least, she wants me not to have it. If she thinks I'm after Holly, then she'll hake the same moves I do in order to get her first. We might be able to set the two against each other.

Coal, I'd like you to get started on the immunizations. Four of them. One for each of you, and one for Holly. And if she doesn't come back... then Mitchell can have it. Dottie, you've always called Holly in the past- I'd like you to tell her that we're coming for her. She'll probably be overjoyed." You pause for a moment. "And if she isn't... We may need to rethink our methods. No matter what, though, I think I need to take a page from the Old Man's book- Brock Carter dies today. That should give us some freedom to move about for a while, at least."

Coal steps out onto a balcony out back, where she's set up her workstation under an old tarp. The poor woman is probably inhaling whatever fumes she's producing as she tries to cover the table from prying eyes, but she doesn't seem too troubled by it. Dottie pulls out her cell phone and flips it open. She sets it to speaker mode so you can listen in. Everyone stays quiet.

The phone rings.

Holly answers. "Well... if it isn't my good friend Dottie," she says. "How's The Joker, Dottie? I'm sure he's there with you?"

"Cut the "good friend" shit, Holly. You an' me were never friends," Dottie spits.

Holly goes quiet for a moment. "Well, there's no need to be rude, Dottie. I've always-"

(cont)

>>43134435

"Yeah, yeah, I ain't callin' to start a fight with you. We're comin' for you, Holly," says Dot.

"To kill me, Dottie? You realize you'll have to go through the entire Bureau and their soldiers, right?" says Holly with a laugh.

"Much as I'd like to, no. Boss's convinced he's onto your game. He's comin' to get you out. Said he want you back around- didn't seem to happy about you goin' off on your own again."

Again, Holly goes quiet. "...Where are you calling from, Dottie? I'll be right over. I didn't mean to worry any of you..."

Both you and Dottie share a look.

"...How about we come to you, Holly? We don't want you gettin' tailed," she says.

"Well then, Dottie, I'll be waiting. I might be able to slip away this evening... There's a Schrek's Department store a block away from the GCPD building. It's been closed down due to damage from our bombings. Why don't we meet each other there?"

"Eight," says Dottie. "See you at Eight." She hangs up. Dottie thinks for a moment. "What was that you was sayin' about Holly an' Stockholm syndrome, Boss?" she asks you quietly.

"It's the idea of the Joker she wants. Something like Deula; the idea of someone with the level of power and celebrity the Joker has appeals to her. She's built some kind of idealized personality around the job, I think. That's why she acts the way she does.

Dottie is silent. "Yeah... Yeah, I can see that. Thing is, though- the other day, before I left Deula, I got a phone call, yeah? Holly was the one who told me Nocturna was comin' to meet you, an' was still in the basement. But now she's obviously tryin' to trick us..."

>wat do

>>43134812
"Fuck, I hate this girl. Still, I mean I did promise to look after you guys best I could. Guess we'll have to play this one by ear. If she did flip we'll take care of it, if not then we won't. Of course I suppose we could force her hand one way or the other. Just depends."

>>43134812
"Anyway, I guess now's about the time we go fake my death, burn any evidence that Brock Carter exists, and so on."

>>43134128

All the actor stuff makes me think he knows she's faking

>>43135007

but shes not faking. she's trying to fuck us over

>>43135038
>>43135007
Guys, this is Holly.
The answer is both.

>>43135075
she's either trying to kill us, or she's trying to lure us into an obvious trap. we already let deula play us enough.

I say we send deula to meet with Holly and fake our deaths with a bomb while they're all together.

>>43135132
Eh, there's a more profitable way to do this.
Her family still in town?

>>43135202

I don't think we know anything about holly's family. What have you got in mind?

>>43135235
If she values them, assuming she does we can hold them hostage, if it's daddy's money we have Spike and Orson double team the accounts.

>>43135315
So we hold holly's parents hostage to make her come back? But what if she's on our side?

>>43135315
>>43135235
Assuming we can hit her where it hurts we can force the girl's hand if she tries to play us.
If she isn't then stuff is pretty moot, but it seems pretty obvious she might well be.

>>43135368
Well if she's not playing us then everything is fine isn't it.
But her knee-jerk response was "good luck, I'm behind 7000 firewalls", that's not the response of someone we're not going to need to check for trackers and take her phone battery to make sure her GPS chip doesn't fuck us over.

>>43135436
Holly's paranoid as fuck though. She could have just figured we'd kill her outright. Or just dot. she didn't know she was on speaker, so she might have been referring to us going full waifu on dot in the park

>>43135500
i fucking knew the waifushit would get us killed

>>43135500
Guys it'll be fine, doesn't look like Brock necessarily plans on living anyway.

>>43134812

You aren't sure what to do. "I promised I'd look after you guys as best I could. I'll have to play this by ear- if she did flip, we'll take care of it. If not, she'll be fine. I think the problem is that, depending on what moves we make, we might force her hand one way or the other. I suppose it depends on her," you tell her.

"The safest thing we can do for now is fake my death. I want to make sure Irons and Deula are at each other's throats. Once Deula thinks we're out of the picture, she'll focus on Irons and leave us some breathing room.

As for Holly... let's see what we can find out. You're right, Dot. She was acting suspicious- the first thing she did was threaten you. We can't ignore that. We might need to take drastic action here... A long time ago I wanted you all to look into Holly's background. Parents, siblings, lovers... Hell, anything we can use as leverage. If she's living off her parents' money, maybe we can get Spike and Orson to reroute the accounts. I just hope it doesn't come to that..."

Dottie gives you a shrug. "Boss... Holly's always been real private, you know? Best we can figure she ain't got any parents. Only child, too. Came up as a 'ward' or somethin' from some geriatric rich creep, an' got all the money when she kicked it. I know where her place is, but nobody's ever been inside. That's really all there is to her- TV, all this, an' whatever she did at home."

You almost feel a little sorry for her. "So no siblings? What about... friends?" You think back to the night you stole her phone. Dottie shakes her head. "Not that we can tell, at least. All she ever did was rub people the wrong way. Can't imagine anybody putting up with her."

It's ironic, you think to yourself. A woman that Dottie was so jealous of for having so much has absolutely nothing you can take from her...

"We'll have to come back to this," you tell Dottie. "For now, I have to go kill myself."

(cont)

>>43135751
calling it now: Holly is either Harley or some other z-lister. who makes up lives like this?

She might be the real Deula maybe?

>>43135823
She's weird
Also given Harley's personal life it'd make as much sense for Brock to be a kid she had in highschool and left at the trailer park that got bounced between Gotham, a poor section of New York and relatives in Bludhaven.
He might not have been asking about Harley to be a creep back when. He might've just been asking out of concern for his mom.

You stand in front of Gotham city hall, cameras tuned to a pirate signal focused on you.

"Well, Gotham," you say to the camera sadly. "It looks like you've made your choice. You want a new smiling face around, right? A brand-new, reimagined Joker. I guess I can't lie to you anymore, can I?" you tell them, turning your back to the camera, sadly. "I might not have been the same person as the old Joker, but I tried to give you the same sort of laughs that he did."
You sigh.
"...I suppose that was my problem. You need a new Joker, don't you? There's no room for the old sorts of jokes anymore. It's all toilet humor and dead babies with you kids these days. I mean, not that I'm opposed to dead babies, but they need an artist's touch, you know?" You shake your head, and turn again.
"But all that's over now. I know when I've been beaten. So I'll give you what you want, Gotham. But before I go, I want to make sure that a little piece of me is always with you. Or...all over you, to be precise."

You hold a detonator to the camera, and laugh.

You press the button. The cameras shake, and go out, as the City Hall building explodes behind you. A rain of liquid SMILEX falls from the air around the explosion, canisters having been attached to the bombs.

Across town, Deula, who up until now had been watching and biting the edge of a pillow with anticipation, screams in hate. In a moment's time she has her men poking about the remains of City Hall, heedless of the chemical danger still present in the blast zone. They find what she was looking for near the ruined cameras- a charred corpse in a tattered purple suit, a singed flower still in the lapel.

She takes it, and spits on the corpse. Then she kicks it.

She thought this was what she wanted- but not like this. She didn't beat you. You just gave up.

>>43136100
>Implying "Duela" doesn't secretly love-hate us as a measuring stick she MUST surpass who shares similar interests.
>Implying we didn't just break our poor rival's heart.
>Implying she's not going to shoot the original in the face on principle at the end after she realizes it's a ploy to go back to the game.
"THERE'S ONLY TWO JOKERS IN A DECK, 'DAD'!"
>Implying we won't go on down the line with a weird side-kick/frienemy.

File: mfw.jpg (22 KB, 365x443)

22 KB JPG

>>43136100

"He... He cheated," she tells herself on the ride back. "I was supposed to win. He wasn't just supposed to... give it to me. I'M the new Joker. I was supposed to prove it..." The bitter young woman twirls the flower between her fingers, muttering to herself. Ash speckles the front of her purple jacket and bare stomach.

Irons sits in his office, playing and replaying your death. One of the boys from the crime lab brings him a report. "There were traces of DNA in the corpse we recovered that matched the DNA from the blood on the ship," says a bookish, stuttering young man. "The DNA in the corpse and the blood was so degraded by contact with some kind of toxin that we couldn't pull a DNA match, but the two share a similar chemical decay. I think we can assume that it's due to whatever chemical mutation the Joker has undergone-"

"He's not a mutant, boy," says Irons angrily. "He's a man in makeup. Always has been. The chemical plant stories are just an urban legend." Irons takes a long drink of coffee. He was irritable; he hadn't had a good night's rest or a good meal in too long.

"I grew up in this town, son," he tells the young man, softening. "I was here before you were born. And I remember the Joker from when I was young." He leans back in his chair, reminiscing. It creaks a bit under his weight.

"I think he was old then. Much older than this kid on TV. I think he even had a mustache. And he was just a thief, too- none of these explosives or poisons or murders. It was a different time, son. I watched this city get meaner and darker every year... And it's gotten to be too much, boy. Too much..."

"....Right, well..." the young man leaves the file on the desk, and shuffles out of the room. He meets the gaze of a tall man in green coming into the room as he leaves. Nygma tips his hat to the boy, and they squeeze past one another.


(cont)

>>43136478
Oh, Irons, we very well might be a mutant after having every fiber in our bodies soaked in a pint of liquid SMILEX.

>>43136478
If he thinks we're nothing like the original he's either paying very close attention or none at all.

>>43136478
"I see you've seen the news," says Nygma. "I suppose he fancied another game of Fifty-Two pickup." Nygma chuckles.

"The boys at the lab say it was real," Irons tells him, handing him the file. Nygma doesn't take it.

"They're wrong," he says. "Fugate's been watching the tape, too. There are frames missing just before the explosion. I almost missed them myself. No, Mister Irons, he's just trying to break the girl's heart. I'm sure he's hoping we'll leave him alone if he plays his cards right.

For the time being, she'll think that it's just the two of them..."

Irons looks up. "Two of them, Nygma?"

Nygma smiles. "One, I should say. She is a Dent, after all, isn't she? Though I think the poor girl's in need of a fair bit more than a body shop."

"You're getting sloppy, Nygma. You're playing word games with me, and I'm getting a little tired of your jokes," says Irons.

"Not JOKES," says Nygma, leaning over the desk to the man angrily. "I NEVER joke. Riddles, Mister Irons, have answers. Riddles have meaning. YOU, however, Mister Irons, think that you have Questions, but the only thing you have is a Big. Fat. JOKE."

Nygma leans back in his chair, calming himself. "The actress has a meeting with the boy tonight at Eight, 'Kay? Are you listening, Mister Irons? If, lo and behold, he doesn't show, then he's playing it safe, and has some other plan. But if he shows..." Nygma smiles, and stands. "...Well, I don't have to spell it out for you, I hope."

Nygma turns and leaves the room, as Irons makes a note to rescind the amnesty deal at the soonest convenience.

(cont)

>>43136621
>original he's either paying very close attention or none at all.
he said his Joker had a moustache. he's remembering the ceasar romano joker

>>43136779
I know, until he pushed us we were basically carrying on grandpappy J's spirit more or less. All heists and con games that from a twisted point of view could be called benign, helpful even.
We were cleaning up this burg our damnedest before he waddled in and torched our house then locked up our guys.

>>43136853
Wonder if he can tell -that- from the files?

>>43136754
>Nygma KNOWS about the original
>If he didn't, we just explained.
And another box is checked on Brock Carter, clown king of weirdly honest ulterior motives

File: the_joker_checks_his_dubs.jpg (54 KB, 541x640)

54 KB JPG

>>43136988
what makes you say that? I can never fucking follow nygma.

>>43136754

"That went well, I think," you tell the others, pulling on an old pair of magenta pants you'd found at the apartment. They're a little loose, you think, and much too short, but they'll have to do until you get a replacement. The Joker must have gotten a lot taller in the last few decades. Probably all the chemicals.

"No way Irons'll buy it," says Dwayne. "Too staged."

"But Deula will," you tell him. "I think she'd be more likely to buy something fake than something real at this point. She needs things tailored to her delusions- theatrics, you know? As long as we stay out of the public eye Irons can't touch us. Now we can focus on what's important: housecleaning, and making preparations for... well, you know who."

The air in the car grows uncomfortable.

"...Holly," says Dottie.

"Her, too," you say.

The small group of you return to the apartment. There you find Coal, still working in her outdoor drug lab. You hear her cough painfully once or twice. Nocturna is still inside the dark bedroom- whether she's asleep or doing something else, you don't know. To your surprise, though, you have guests- Spike, sitting on the couch, a laptop computer cabled to a cell phone on his lap, and Red, sorting thought a filthy cardboard box.

"It's been a while, both of you," you tell them.

"I TOLD you not to come out here, Spike," says Dwayne. Spike ignores him.

"Figured you guys might need my expertise, you know? Didn't realize you all were livin' in the stone age out here. How the hell do you do it? I can barely get a signal."

You ignore Spike's complaints, and turn to Red. "We haven't heard from you at all, Red. What gives?"

He takes a drag on his cigar. "Big boy over there's been fillin' up my answerin' machine. Told me where to come lookin'. I saw your girl on TV this mornin', and figured you were goin' after her." He pats the box. "Got some nice presents for ya, here."

He starts to rummage through the box, and presents you with a number of small object...

>GISing images
>find this
>http://joker.wikia.com
>this is a real wiki that exists

>>43137085
I love it, obviously we need the joybuzzer and playing cards, maybe some chattering teeth.
yfw Red has the cracked eye, Brock's response being a mix of "oh thank god something I cut myself on didn't get picked up by the cops" and "why would I keep something she thought I was trying to buy her with?"

File: url.png (601 KB, 449x640)

601 KB PNG

>>43137179
>red does not have the eye.
>the eye was not left at the park

>>43137085
A new acid flower and sundry things'd be nice. The harpoon flag gun is neat too.

>>43137211
I figured that'd be the consequence of that particular post, yes.

File: joker's+utility+belt.jpg (71 KB, 640x294)

71 KB JPG

>>43137243
>what do you mean?

>>43137253
Personally I was against leaving it, it indicates a couple things. Like a connection, and beyond that it's physical evidence with our blood on it, even if it was clean when we got it.

>>43137054

"Alright, Q," you ask him, rubbing your hands in anticipation. "What've you got for me?"

"Coupla things I figured you'd be wantin'," he says. "Knew mosta your stuff went up in the fire. Been tinkerin' with it for a while now, though," he says. He hands you a heavy metal puck with a spike on it.

"Sure you know what that is. Just don't fuckin' close your hand with it on. If you electrocute yourself it ain't my fault. Battery's only good for two uses before it'll need to be replaced. One if you hold on for too long." He draws an oversized gun, points it at you, and pulls the trigger.

"BANG"

...says the flag that comes from the barrel. Then he aims at the couch, and pulls the trigger again. The flag shoots from the end of the gun and embeds itself in the couch.

"One shot," he says. "An' it's a bitch to reload. Don't go losin' the flags, either, because I only made you three of 'em."

"Tell me you've got a new Acid Flower in there," you say. "My other one is was... misplaced."

"Misplaced all over the goddamn city," he says irritably. "Yeah I got you one. Longer hose on this one; the acid's stored in your pocket, an' the hose runs through your shirt to your glove. Wanted to put the reservoir right under the flower, but I figured you'd get shot an' melt your damn heart out. Point is, you ain't gotta reach in your pocket to set the thing off. 'S a better design all-around."

"And cards? The razor-sharp ones?" you ask.

(cont)

>>43137398
"Oh come on, that's gotta been one of the funnier fake deaths to come out of this town in a decade."
"...eh, comedy is subjective."

>>43137398
"You know how to throw cards like that, kid?" he asks you. "Doubt you'll be able to do any damage with 'em. It's harder than it looks." He rummages in the box again, and pulls out a deck wrapped in tissue paper. "Yeah, I got 'em. Didn't make 'em, though. I stole 'em from your storehouse. Was tryin' to figure out how to make the damn things useful for one."

He takes one card out, and taps it with his finger. It makes a soft metallic "plink." "You put these straight in your pocket they'll cut through. You reach in there with these sittin' in there an' you'll cut your damn fingers off. Think for half a damn second before you use these."

He reaches into the box once again, and pulls out a zippo lighter. "Flamethrower," he tells you. "Not gonna last too long, but it'll take em' by surprise. Get a good few feet out of it at least. An' don't use it in here, for god's sake."

He turns the box up to you. "Last thing is these," he says. The box is full of what look like dentures. "Toss 'em out an' they'll start up. Should start chewin' up anything that gets to close. Don't ask me how they work- they're the other guy's stuff again. I tried takin' one apart an' couldn't make heads or tails of it. Make a damn mess out of anything meat, though, I can tell you that. Grab 'em from the back when you wanna put 'em away again. They should quiet down. Damndest things I ever saw."

He puts the box down, carefully. Bite marks on the man's burly arms indicate he's had some bad experiences with the teeth in the recent past.

"An' that's all I got for ya," he says. "Can't fabricate nothin' else, 'cause the workshop's gone. You need explosives, you got 'em, but props are right out."

You admire your new arsenal. "Thanks, Red," you tell him happily. "Even when I had the old hideout, I don't think I had this much to work with. What do you think, guys?" you ask the others. "Think this stuff'll really kill when I have my next show?"

>>43136387
Oh, that's horrible, but just way too funny.

>>43137054
Hrm. Coal's starting to worry me. Not, well, her. But her health. Make sure she's alright. We don't need her dropping dead at a bad moment, and...frankly, she's important.

Oh, to the gang, but she's been one to rely on to worry about US, personally, and that's been enough to shake up our thinking once or twice when we've gotten in a rut.

>>43137564
True enough, we should bother her about getting a respirator or filter mask for herself.

>>43137475
"About that next show," says Dwayne. "You're dead now, Boss. Remember? I still don't think they'll buy it, but if you're wantin' to play dead, you can't go jumpin' right back in."

"It was all a joke, D," you tell him. "that's gotta have been one of the funnier fake deaths to come out of this town in a decade."

Silence.

"...Eh, comedy is subjective," you say with a shrug. "You're right, though. We have to think about what to do next. And the next most pressing matter..." You look at a clock on the wall, "...is Holly, at eight. After that, we should be free to do what we want for a bit."

"Unless it's a trap," says Dot. "An' it is. You don't gotta go, you know? Not showin' up makes them more likely to buy your whole fake death bit."

"...But that means we miss out on any possible info," you say.

"What's she gonna tell you, Boss?" says Dwayne. "That the Feds are after you?"

"Who they are," you tell him.

"An' what's it matter?" says Dot. "You're always thinkin' too much. Things are what they are."

Coal steps into the room, looking a bit pale. She coughs a deep, wheezing cough for a bit, then recovers. "Dorothy, I believe all of us here have have learned from experience that that's very rarely true in Gotham. You more than anyone should know that." The two share a vicious glare for a moment.

"Coal, you doing alright?" you ask her. "You're starting to worry me. I mean, I've always been worried about you, what with the whole Kevorkian thing, but you're not looking so good. We don't need you dropping dead, Collette. You're important."

You give her a worried look.

"...It's fine," she says.

"Can you just wear a respirator or something?" you tell her. "That seems like common sense."

"I need to be able to detect subtle changes in the chemicals," she says. "I haven't got any of the proper monitoring equipment, so I have to improvise." She's hiding something, of course, but you can't tell what.

You take her aside a bit later.

>>43137632

"You know, Coal, this gang needs you- but for a long time now, you've been the one to rely on to worry about US, and that's been enough to shake up our thinking once or twice when we've gotten in a rut. I'm just trying to watch out for you."

She rolls her eyes. "And how many times have you listened?"

She walks away.

As it nears the hour to meet Holly, everyone gathers in the living room.

"Well boss?" asks Dwayne. "Have you decided what you're gonna do 'bout Holly?"

Spike still sits in the corner of the couch, agitated.

>wat do

>>43137475
Eh, pretty obvious how the chattering teeth work, it's all about tension, keeping them closed keeps them wound by physical stress, the construction distributes potential energy, and the casing material has a higher basic tensil strength than the mechanism that generates the energy.
Let's you half ass sidestep the problem of the mechanism breaking itself as long as the teeth and hinge can redirect the force into the mechanism.
In theory, that means high potential energy from relatively little force. The answer isn't in any one part, the construction, materials, and bits all work together to form a superior thing.
It's a joke.

>>43137678
Well, we've not listened EXACTLY, but it's helped. We'll...bug her about it later. Maybe get the equipment she needs. We don't need our surrogate mother dropping dead on us. Like, at all.

As for what....Feds almost for sure know it was a setup. Too staged is right. So...what we need to do is collect Holly for either rescue or for disposal, while at the same time not giving said Feds any ammo to use to put Dulia back on her guard to aim back at us.

>>43137678
It's probably a trap. Send one of our mooks to get her. Can't go ourselves, we're dead.
Though we'll need someone to do it who can drop folks tailing them.

>>43137748
You monster, we only have 20 street guys left.>>43137678

>>43137718
>YFW Brock just kinda off-handedly explains this to Red after glancing the teeth over.

>>43137678
Yeah, it's a trap, but we can't duck her either. We'll need one of our street guys who hasn't been here yet to get here.
Someone who can get away from folks tailing them.
They'll drive aimlessly for a while before making their way...well either here or somewhere else, hard to think of a place we haven't picked over yet though

>>43137829
>>43137678
So we call the guy and have him pick her up, after a while we phone in and if he's not caught we tell him where to meet. Which might not be here. Maybe a secondary drop off our guys pick her up from.

"It's probably a trap," you tell the others. "Well, almost certainly. The feds know it was a setup for sure. Still, what we need to do is collect Holly somehow, for either rescue or... not, while not giving the feds ammo to use against us, or anything to get Deula back on our case...

That means I can't go myself. However, it seems likely that one of my men would want revenge for my death. All we have to do is send someone else to do it. Although, we'll need someone capable of taking out any feds that might be with her, or at least avoiding them for long enough to deliver her somewhere. "

"We only have twenty men left, Boss," says Dwayne. "This is practically a suicide mission, ain't it?"

"I'll go," says Red. Everyone looks at him.

"...Why?" you ask him. "You weren't even here until today. Why do you want in on this all of the sudden?"

He takes a drag on his cigar.

"Say it's a trap, right? An' one of you gets caught? You ain't gonna be able to live with yourself. Me, though? You don't know me, kid. For all you know we're strangers. No skin off your back if I get caught.

An' I always done what you wanted, so you know I'm trustworthy, ain't I? Besides, I can't make you no more tools, an' the doc over there can make bombs just as well as me. Basic chemistry, right?" The greasy man looks at you expectantly.

>wat do

>>43137902
Just, don't die, and don't tell em where we are.
And be careful of Holly, that girl's a snake.

>>43137949
>>43137902
You know, if I have to bust you out again. I'm going to be kind of pissed. So don't get caught alright?

>>43129356

did anyone else notice
>brock carter
>True Love: (??????? ?????)
>If the True Love: character and this character are in the same Crew and the True Love: Character is removed as a Casualty, then this character gains +1 Willpower and +1 Attack until the end of the game.


>Dorothy Valez
>eyefu is back
>also a skill that's all ??????

>>43137974
Yeah I know, she's ALSO still got Aversion: Joker (Midnight in Gotham)

>>43137994
>>43137974
And Psycho, one would imagine she's somewhat conflicted about Brock if fairly devoted.

>>43137994
RREEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>43137974
>>43137994
>>43138013

but she never lost "Loyalty," when she didn't have eyefu.

>>43138041
True. Yes.

>>43137902
"You know Red," you tell him. "If I have to get you out again, I'm gonna be pissed. Don't get yourself caught, alright?"

He smiles. "Hey, no chance of that, Cap'm. I ain't never goin' back to jail, mark my words."

"And don't die, alright? And for the love of god don't tell them where we are."

He one last drag on the stub of his cigar. "Kid, like I told your boy Knock- I go out, I'm goin' out with a bang. An' your secret's safe with me."

"One last thing, Red..." you tell him. "Be careful with Holly. That girl's a snake."

He snuffs the cigar out on his dirty jeans. "Hey, ain't they all?"

Spike waddles over. "If you're goin', you're takin' one of these," he tells the the man. It's a small lapel camera. "Lets us see what you do."

Red hesitates for a moment, then puts it on. "Sure, I'm a showbiz kinda guy." A few minutes later, Red jumps in his car, waves you all goodbye, and drives away.

In his car, Red adjust his shirt. It's felt a little too tight all day.

>>43138080
>shirt felt a little too tight

MISTER BROWN IS RED HOLY SHIT!

>>43138176
he is wearing a jihad vest anon...

>>43138176
I think the implication more is the big fat bomb-vest he's been wearing all day.

>>43138176
Not necessarily, but wouldn't that be a hell of a thing?
>Mr Brown keeping Holly in check in the think tank.
>In a round about way sticking up for us in front of Irons.
>Desperately trying not to punch Holly in the face.

>>43138176
>mister brown is Arthur Brown, the Cluemaster. He's the fat The Batman version.
>All of the think tank is here>>43133751

>>43138080

Later that evening, Holly waits at the abandoned department store. A grotesque cartoon cat's head grins down at her, it's whiskers pointing out the time. It's nearly Eight.

"Is he there yet?" says Irons over an earpiece. "He's not coming. He's playing it safe. Get back here."

"I told you," she says impatiently. "He'll be here. He HAS to come. After everything I did..." She cuts herself short. She hears footsteps.

On the upper level, a pair of gunmen duck below the rail, just out of sight. "I'm so glad you came, Joker-" she says. "I've got so much to tell you."

"Hey there, Pris," says Red, walking into the light.

Holly looks confused. "Who are you? Where's-"

"You know goddamn well who I am, Priscilla." The makeup has been wiped clean from his face.


Back at base, everyone looks at Spikes computer in confusion. "What's he doing?" you ask.


"...Right," she says. "He sent you to meet with me. Just take me back to- "

"Shuttup," he says. "I come this goddamn far, an' you do the same damn thing as always. Always playin' like you didn't do nothing wrong, 'Holly.'"

"This is ridiculous," says Holly, placing a hand to her ear. "He didn't come. It's a bust. Get rid of this man."

...But the gunmen don't respond.

"Red, what are you doing?" you cry at the screen. There's no response, though; there's no microphone.

"'This Man,' Pris? 'THIS MAN?' It's GUY, 'Holly.' Remember how you had me do alla your dirty work? Remember how you gave me the whole vamp routine, just like you do everybody? You had me makin' Joker's bombs on the sly for years. But I caught onto you, didn't I 'Holly'? An' then you turned around an' had me thrown in jail for what YOU did. I coulda' ratted you out- Hell, I TRIED to rat you out, but nobody was buyin' it."

"What the hell are you two doing?" says Holly, shouting at the men. "Shoot him!"

(cont)

>>43138278
>Laugh
"Oh man, this is horrible.
This is great.
Guys are you seeing this?
Hell, I need popc-that'll work."
>Steal some of Spike's M&Ms

>>43138278
Welp, we just lost them both. Least we get a dinner and a movie out of it, though.

>>43138278

"Maybe they're tired a' bein' played too. Maybe everybody's tired of your games. You ruined my life, you bitch. An' I promised myself I'd get back at you if I ever got out. An' then your boss comes waltzin' in, with a buncha your handiwork. 'Real Holly Wood stuff,' I told 'im. I been keepin' my eye on you, Pris. I knew you'd slip up sooner or later."

Red unbuttons his shirt, revealing a number of bombs strapped to his chest.

"An' now look- ain't nobody comin' to save you, Pris. Just you an' me."

Red triggers the bomb...

...Just as Holly's face begins to melt into a reddish wave of ooze. Though you can't see his face in the camera, you can hear his cry of anger as his last victory is stripped from him, just as the flames consume him.

As the ooze tries to flee, it's caught in the flames of Red's funeral pyre, glazing over and crumbling.

Schrek's Department Store collapses on itself. The camera feed cuts.

>>43138430
Awww sheeeeit they got Clayface in their pocket, too?
And now we're a capable man down.

>>43138430
Huh.
You know? It's a shame he's gone.

Irons shuts down the radio in front of him.
Nygma sits nearby, looking pleased with himself. "'Kay,' 'Are,' 'Lo.' I really did need to spell it out for you, didn't I?"
"You could have told me directly, Nygma," says Irons. "We almost didn't find out. Your games are making you a liability. Just what else aren't you telling us?"
Nygma makes a look of mock-offence. "I'm an open book, Agent. Not my fault you can't read the language."
"...He's out of the way, now," says Irons. "I suppose we got lucky that that man's personal business aligned with ours. I wonder, though- why did Karlo pretend to be the woman? He could have been trying to get insight into our investigation, perhaps, but he seemed focus on driving us against that Joker..."
Nygma smiles. "...That's the Question, isn't it?"

>>43138430
That explains it.
I read in Karlo's files back when there's been cases of 'pieces' going autono-
>Laugh more
Oh man! I accused her of being Clayface back at the beginning of October!

That asshole! I specifically told him not to die!

File: image_28.jpg (12 KB, 275x155)

12 KB JPG

>>43138498

Your group looks at the dead camera feed.
"....I told him not to die," you say in shock "The whole time... He was after her the whole time, and we never noticed."

"Looks that way," says Dwayne. "We never did see them in the same place. Guess he was avoidin' her. Explains where he's been all this time. She's been around a lot more."

"But there at the end..." you say. "That wasn't Holly. It was Karlo. Clayface. I accused her months ago, but..."

You think back to the way she'd shown up in your room so suddenly, and the smell of her makeup -you'd thought it was "earthy" at the time. It would explain so much about the way she'd acted. Except...

"...Except Holly couldn't have been Clayface. Not always. The last few weeks, I've seen the way Holly's acted. She's been scared. Legitimately frightened, and I've seen the way she suffered. The night she left, I saw her butcher her hair. She rambled about something... It was mostly incoherent. But the point is- the next day, she was on TV, as if nothing ever happened. He had to have replaced her that night. While she was out..."

You think for a bit.

"And Dottie... You said she called you, right? Everyone, while we were talking to Harvey, Holly wasn't in the room- she was outside, calling Dot, telling her where we'd be. Even when we all thought Dottie had... well... Holly didn't think so."

"She...HE knew my name," says Dot. "At the very least he had to have been around here..."

"Her phone," you tell her. "There was only one name in Holly's cellphone- yours." Dot is a bit taken aback. "And it would explain why he never told them where we were. He never knew. That's why he tried to bait us out."

"...Then what about Holly?" asks Dwayne. "Where was she going?"

"...Her apartment," you say. "She said she needed to get some things. She might still..."

You grab Dwayne and Dot, and hurry to the car. Dot leads the way uptown.

Oh god. Here's hoping she's still alive.

>>43138679
Honestly? I thought she threw on a really good wig.
With ya there though, bet Dottie's gonna feel like shit to a certain extent too.
She talked us out of checking on her earlier today.

>HOLY SHIT does anybody else have problems with recaptcha? Half the time it takes me to post is spent trying to get fucking recaptchas to load. Not even legacy captcha works.

>This shit is almost unusable

>>43138704
Might just be your connection, if you're on WiFi or data sometimes that'll wreck up recaptcha when the signal is low.

>>43138736
>That's probably it. What a shitload of fuck

>>43138736
I'll second this. I tend to have that trouble if I'm trying to run a download and post at the same time.

File: manhattan_115-mill-b493ca2.jpg (49 KB, 600x400)

49 KB JPG

>>43138606
>>43138606

After making sure to bring Coal along, the four of you approach Holly's expensive apartment building. The doorman does not stop you.

Dottie knows the floor and room number, having picked up deliveries there in the past. You ride the elevator to the penthouse apartment, and Dottie punches in the code on the keypad to unlock the door.

The interior is beautifully furnished with the most tasteful- and expensive- decor of the season. Beautiful, but empty. It's as if no one ever really lived here. There are books on the shelves, mostly pop politics books by authors she knew, but none of them look to have ever even been opened. The slick leather couches are completely untouched. There is a wet bar nearby, stocked completely with unopened bottles.

The entire room is like a model apartment from a magazine. Somewhere meant to be seen, but never lived in.

...The next thing you notice, though, is the smell

>>43138775
Oh god.

>>43138775

The smell is nearly overwhelming. You nearly gag at the scent as you step into the room. You wave the others around the apartment, and they look for a source. Nearly every room is the same as the living room- beautiful, expensive, and unlived in.

One door, however, is locked. Tightly. Dwayne tries the door a couple of times, before finally tackling it open. It takes the huge man three tries before the door breaks down under his weight. As it opens, the foul stench pours out the sealed room. Your stomach lurches, and you try to steady yourself, barely forcing yourself not to vomit.

The door had been locked by deadbolts- Six of them. From the inside.

You step into the dark room, and flip on the light...

>>43138831
Please just be her serial killer trophy room.

File: Little-Girls-Room-Decorat(...).jpg (59 KB, 800x630)

59 KB JPG

>>43138831

The inside... is pink.

Very pink. A stark contrast to the room outside. The bed is piled with old blankets, many of them ratted on the edges and covered in the smiling faces of cartoon characters. All of them are soft, bright colors. A shelf of glass knick-knacks sits nearby, In another corner is a table with a wooden chair. Atop it sits a dollhouse- the small plastic family sits around the table, as if for dinner. In another is a pile of stuffed animals, their black, unblinking eyes looking out over the room- they almost look sad.

It's the room of a little girl. Not the grand manipulator you thought Holly was. Just a sad, scared, sick little girl, who locked herself up every night in fear of what was outside.

On the bed sits a small bag, it's contents spilled out over the flower-patterned rug. Mostly bits of makeup, soap, hair care products, and a ragged, unidentifiable stuffed animal.

Coal, however, rushes to the last corner of the room, where a shape is huddled in the corner. She covers her face with her arm and tries to move it, but retches at the scent.

It's Holly. Or, rather, was.

>>43138916
Fuck it, just suck it up and help her out. This one is on us after all. No way are we just leaving Holly like this. We were the only one who half-assed believed in her before Karlo's act.
Also, that'd explain it, she Peter Pan syndrome'd somewhere in there.

>>43138916

Holly is curled in a fetal position, still wearing the filthy t-shirt and military pants you last saw her in. Her skin is discolored, now a foul bluish-green. A filthy stain pools beneath her. Though she has her face turned away from you, the professor moves it a bit- it's nearly unrecognizable.

Coal swabs something inside her mouth, and looks at it.

"...Clay," she says, turning. "She was suffocated. It looks like she's been here a day or two, I can't be sure. He must have slipped in through the door- it was locked, but not watertight. And..." Coal looks down at her. "...He suffocated her. Or he went in through her mouth and... damaged things. I can't be sure without an autopsy."

"...She was dead, then," says Dottie, poking in the small pile of things on Holly's bed. "You wanted to go lookin' for her, but she was already dead." She picks up the ragged animal, and looks at it.

"Karlo killed her, and took her place- just to get to me," you say sadly.

>wat do

>>43139005
Viking Funeral? Or just call the cops on an anonymous tip?

Either way, Holly's death must be... dealt with.

>>43139027
She. Wanted to be known. Be important.

Whatever we do, let's make sure it's very. Very. Memorable. Not just for us.

But for the rest of the city, too.

>>43133751
>Actress
>Model
>China Doll
>toy
>Good with makeup

nygma knew. I thought he was calling her a fake, but he was telling her he knew she was clayface

>>43139005
We can't just leave her like this. But she's not going to fit in Dwayne's car without...modification. And she's suffered enough I think...
Pick up the stuffed animal or something to remember our fallen friend by.
Burn the room? It'll look like Joker groupie vandalism.

>>43139005

Ever since you'd met Holly, you thought she was a snake. You'd read her as someone trying to manipulate you- and maybe you were right.

You look over the dollhouse- only two or three rooms. Unusual for a dollhouse, which are often modeled after multi-floor manors. She'd once told you she wanted "Everything," but now, you realize, that may have been the only time she didn't tell you the truth.

Holly never wanted "everything." She didn't even necessarily want "control." She wanted things to BE controlled- by anyone.

"Holly always wanted to be known," says Dottie. "Always wanted to be important."

"No...," you say, looking over the bloated corpse of the woman you'd shared a bed with not long ago. "She wanted to hide. All Holly wanted was somewhere safe."

You all stand silent for a few minutes.

"What do you want to do, Boss?" asks Dwayne.

"We can't leave her like this," you tell him. For a moment you think about burning the room, but decide against it. She'd felt safe here, once. The thought of destroying that feels wrong to you somehow.

"The police," you tell him. "Make sure you leave your swabs out, Coal. I want them to know this was Clayface. The police have done nothing but terrorize us for all this time. The least they can do for us is do their jobs once."

The others shuffle out of the room, quietly. You notice Dottie taking the ragged animal with her, but don't mention anything.

You are the last out of the room. As you're shutting the door, just before you flick off the light, you notice something glinting under the bed. Something that must have fallen out of her bag when it was overturned.

You go to pick it up.

It's a glass eye. Green, and cracked.

>>43139005
She'd want to go out with a smile. Someone get me a map. We'll burn it into the city.

>>43139145
Oh god, this doesn't even cover the fact that we sicc'd Karlo on the Bat to start with. We let him out. And she...she just gave a damn.
I guess Dottie was right. We're different, but we're not all together all different.

>>43138916

i kinda feel bad about thinking holly was a psycho now. i mean she was a psycho, but this wasn't what I was expecting

File: 1441439587794.jpg (52 KB, 850x656)

52 KB JPG

>>43139145
>>43139005
>>43138916
Well. I feel like utter dogshit now.

As sarcastic as this sounds, good job. You actually made me feel really, really shitty. Top quality storytelling.

Fiction very rarely gets this sort of reaction out of me.

>>43139178

that explains why she started getting weird after the bats in the theater. they just spooked her, and we blamed it all on her. and then with the whole mayor thing, she got weird because she wanted us to take over, not because she wanted control for herself.

I don't think there's anything we didn't blame on Holly, now that I think about it.

>>43139178
What? We wanted to create a safe place, but we wanted...well, not control, we wanted to protect and profit right?
A safe place that wasn't controlled because it didn't need it. Using our particular brand of crazy as a bulwark against the original and people like Karlo.

>>43139204
>>43139198


I remember red saying the "hollywood" stuff line way back when he was introduced, and he kept making us think holly was either evil or clayface. that's a hell of a long time to have something like this planned.

i kind of feel really bad for her. she had her bad end written ages ago and kept trying to get close to us, and we just kept pushing her.

fuck, apparently she even tried to set us back up with dottie

>>43139235
Which she kinda did, given everything that went on though it says something that we're still the person that believed most in her. Wasn't until Karlo we were 100% mad.
In a weird way we may well have been her only friend. Or rather, one of two.

>>43139267

dottie fucking hated holly, too, which is even sadder. I thought the whole phone thing was just her being psycho, but he said her photo was like, taken from a long way away and behind her. holly's only friend wouldn't even let her take a picture of her.

and her backstory earlier made it sound like her only parent was just some old man

>>43139284
Some old rich woman I thought from how I read it. Holly was a ward, i.e. sorta foster-kid/adopted.
The only real reason for Holly and Dottie not having similar backgrounds can be summed up as luck.

File: krtillustrationslive012337.jpg (78 KB, 450x443)

78 KB JPG

>>43139198

"I'd like to report a murder," you say over the phone. "Clayface. We discovered the body not long ago... No, I'm sorry, we won't be able to give a report. She was suffocated. The autopsy should tell you so." You give the address. "The victims name was Priscilla Cris. She died several days ago... Yes, that's right. Several days... Well, you may want to ask Mister Irons about that." You hang up, and toss the burner phone out the window.

You ride in silence for a few moments.

"I think I'd like for Holly to go out with a smile," you tell them. "Get me a map."

Dottie hands you a map from Dwayne's glove compartment, and you make a few marks. You guide the car through the town. As you reach the marks on your map, you lean out the windows and activate the flamethrower-lighter Red gave you, lighting the streets ablaze.

How he would feel about his invention being used to mark Holly's passing, you can't be sure.

From the sky, the burning buildings make a symbol- a giant smiling face, with two burning eyes. Holly's apartment building, now circled by red-and-blue emergency lights, forms a single illuminated tear under the right "eye."


Irons puts down his phone, having just received a troubling call. Nygma sits across from him, his hat tipped over his eyes.

"The woman's dead," says Nygma, before Irons can speak. "And the boy found out. And he's done... something to mark it, right?"

Irons says nothing.

"...But you can't do anything. Because if you do, they'll all know you had Karlo working for you. Lying to them, just like he did. And all the while she, lay dead somewhere."

Nygma tips his hat back, and sits forward. "They might think it was you, you know," he says with a smile. "As far as they're concerned, there's blood on your hands."

Irons still stays silent for a moment. "...Is this another riddle?" he says quietly.

"I think you've got enough of on your mind, old boy," says Nygma. He stands, gives Irons a bow, and starts to leave.

(cont)

>>43139284
Things said about/to Holly by Brock
>You're one of my best friends
>You're family
>I don't think she'd double cross us
>She's got an angle
>I said I'd look after you guys, she's part of that
>Careful, she's a snake
Conclusion? She was a snake, but she was still one of our best friends.

>>43139408
Look in the other threads though

>>43139406
THAT IRREDEEMABLE PIECE OF SHIT! HOLLY WAS OUR CONNIVING BITCH SISTER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER!
You know this means Dot and Brock in particular gotta put the screws to him.

>>43139418
Most people in the other threads thought she was either a rich girl trying to get her kicks off by pretending to be part of the Joker's gang or was double-crossing us from around the time we attempted to run for mayor.

Still, getting suffocated by Clayface in the one room you felt safe in... I don't think I'd wish that on anyone.

>>43139446
I mean both of them specifically.

>>43139406
"...Your hat," says the man. "And your tie."

Nygma turns. "Yes?"

"They've got Question Marks on them," says Irons. "You've all agreed to go straight. You shouldn't be in costume, even if it is subtle."

Nygma fixes his tie. "You can't blame me for getting into the spirit of things, old boy. Everybody's doing it."

"Well FIX IT," says Irons, thumping the table with his meaty fist. "If the public sees what we're doing here, it could jeopardize the whole operation."

Nygma throws up his hands in mock-defeat, and steps out of the room.

Irons puts his head in his hands, and leans on his desk. Before all this, he'd thought he was a good man. Not perfect, mind- nobody is. But good. He wanted to help people, and save the city he'd grown up in. He'd been offered a way, and he'd taken it- but now.

Irons felt like he was in chains.

>>43139482
You think Irons knows he's forcing us to adapt to his way of playing yet? Hell. We tried being civil and leaving us alone, until he pushed us.

>>43139516

We're making irons play like us, and Nygma and the others are laughing at him.

>mfw picturing Holly sitting on her knees in the corner playing with her dolls

Holly confirmed for saddest character arc. Why did Holly go back to her apartment exactly though?

>>43139549
She was literally just picking up some toiletries and her doll.

That's it. That's...that's it.

>>43139593
>>43139549
>you pretty much rejected her once and for all in the park, so you left her pretty much alone
>so yeah, she went to get her doll so she wouldn't be completely by herself

>also I hope you see what I meant by there being something between Dot and Holly that wasn't yuri, either. Dot was her only actual friend, and even then dot only payed attention to her when Holly tried to piss her off

>>43139593
Possibly also the eye, with everything going sideways...she went home to her safe room, because she couldn't get away with sleeping next to her big bro/surrogate father figure.
You know, to calm her paranoid nerves.

>>43139620
It's time to find the Dragon Balls; we must wish her back to life!

>>43139663
>im sorry anon it doesn't work that way
>there are no good ends

>>43139663
That would be a Lazerus Pit in this universe.

Frankly, nothing we'd be able to know about...although to be frank, I'd not hesitate to piss off the League of Shadows to do it. Fuck those guys.

Eddie used one, one time. Maybe we can get him to spill the beans by luck or summit.

Wouldn't that be a hell of an end? Finish all the shit here, then go glob-trotting and hunting for it.

>>43139530
I will admit watching Irons flip about patterns is fun.

>>43139683
I'd do it too, for Knock or her sake. Really anybody in the crew, even CK.

File: Batman-Battle_for_the_Cow(...).png (232 KB, 250x386)

232 KB PNG

Deula sits in her office in the Ace Chemical Plant, twirling the stem of a silk flower between her fingers. Hours ago she'd plucked the petals from the stem, leaving her with nothing left but the stick.

She hadn't felt like doing much of anything all day, ever since her dearly departed Cousin's untimely death. She had considered bringing the corpse back to the factory with her, but decided against it- there was nothing sporting about desecrating a corpse if she hadn't made it herself.

Deula was the Joker now- the only Joker, until her Father returned- but she didn't feel like laughing. Even though she had what she'd wanted, she didn't earn it.

"It's just not how thing are supposed to be, you know?" she tells herself. She doesn't feel much like monologueing properly, either- even though she'd been practicing for weeks. "There's supposed to be a big battle, you know? A 'Battle for the Clown' kinda thing. Maybe even some other Jokers coulda popped up. He was the Bad Joker, and I was the Good Joker... Or... whatever. We'd fight, and make some big speeches... And then I'd kill him. He would have legitimized me, you know? But... he just gave up." Deula crushes the plastic stem in her hand. "He gave UP."

From outside, in the distance, Deula hears sirens. She sighs. "I told them I didn't feel like playing tonight..."

She walks over to the window, and looks out over the town. It's burning.

Deula bites her lip. Barely able to contain herself, she starts bouncing up and down. Then, she starts laughing.

>>43139620
Just because we didn't want to settle down with her or anything doesn't mean we didn't care about her as a friend and person.

>>43139716

Once Holly's memorial flames are burning, you return to the apartment. Spike is still there; no one was around to take him home.

"I tried to get the Goth chick to do it," he tells you, "but she just laughed at me."

You explain to him the situation with Holly. He doesn't talk much more for the rest of the night; he simply sits on the couch, plugging away at his computer in the darkness.

None of you say much at all, in fact. Gradually you all drift off to bed.

You lie alone on the old dusty mattress for a while. You've lost of your friends, now. Knock still lives, but Dottie was right- he'll never be the same again. What sort of a life can he have? Red, though- he'd been dead for a long time. How long, you can't be sure. He simply wanted to take Holly with him when he went. At least he'd got to go on his own terms... But Holly. Poor, sick, lonely Holly...

How many more will you see die before this is through?

Gradually, you drift off to an uneasy sleep.


You awaken the next morning to a normal bustle in the other room. Dwayne has dumped out a sack of prepackaged food from the convenience store next door, and the others are shuffling though the contents to try to find something edible.

"Mornin', Boss," says Dwayne. You nod at him.

"Looks like nobody's botherin' to come after us for the fires last night. Think they're tryin' to keep the situation quiet. They're just callin' it an act of vandalism. News said Hol- Priscilla died in a bombing last night."

"Yeah well..." says Spike, stuffing some kind of fried breakfast wrap in his face. "They can try, but they can't keep info from flowin'. I talked to my girlfriend about it-"

Everyone in the room is in shock.

"...Your WHAT?" asks Dottie.

"...Alright," admits Spike. "She's just a girl I seen around online. Talked to her a couple times. But someday- you mark my words. See, she thinks I can't tell she's a girl, but I know-"

"Spike," you interrupt, "just get to the point."

>>43139833
>i know, but she didn't see it that way :(

>>43139902
Check her screen name. Make sure it's not some stupid anagram of a name that we'd know or anything.

Boy is Duela gonna be in all sorts of hysterics when we gas the plant.
I'm not even up for it to be rid of her.
I'm mostly mad at Knock's "boys" for letting her do what she did.
Duela just did what she does.

>>43139902

"Handle's 'Oracle,'" he says. "Think she does some white hat stuff for the cops or somethin'. Anyway, I clued her in on the thing with Holly- how Karlo killed her an' took her place for the Feds, an' how they're lyin' about the facts now. She said that shit wasn't right. Said she'd get the info to the proper authorities. Somebody who can go over the Feds' heads."

He strokes the patchy stubble on his chins. "Yeah... She's quite a lady. Bet she's hot..."

You nod to him. "If it'll help get her justice... then thank you, Spike. And you're sure we can trust this...'woman'?"

"Like I said, Boss. White hat," he says. You have no idea what that means.

"So what about us, Boss?" says Dottie. "We gotta do somethin'. Bettin' the police are just itchin' for somethin' to take us out of the picture now- more than usual. But we gotta do somethin'.

You think for a bit. "Let me come up with some ideas," you say. "I still want to gas the Chemical Plant, of course. I still need to get back at Deula, but I promised Harv I wouldn't kill her. But the men that betrayed Knock... All of them are going to pay."

You think for a bit. "But first, let's decide what the most pressing matters are..."

>wat ask
>wat plan
>wat need
>wat do

>>43139965

has the not-Deula waifu train really started leaving the station

shes almost crazier than holly

>>43140004
Deula is crazy but she's exactly as crazy as we are, and she seemed to miss us. >>43136387

she's just tsun

>>43139999
Haha, oh wow. Well. It's getting to the right places, at least. We can rest easy on THAT.

Plans: Check to make sure Coal's doing alright. She was...chemicals can be bad, 'mkay?

Other shit to do: We need resources. We can't keep working with barely anything at all. Time to go farming.

>>43140041
>>43140054

>hey knock remember the woman who cut your everything off
>well meet your new mom!

>>43140054
>define resources

>>43140004
>>43140041
I don't want her as a waifu or anything, I'll note myself.

That...said. I'd rather avoid killing her as much as possible. She's clearly broken inside. Like...Holly was, just in a different way.

I've got a soft spot for that. Maybe there's something we can do to fix her head up. Probably not. But we might be able to give her a more healthy fixation, at least. Or...something.

Either way, to be explicit: Not romance. But other stuff wouldn't bother me at all. We've hurt a lot of people. Wouldn't be bad to actually help one.

File: happy_halloween_by_artist(...).jpg (43 KB, 400x618)

43 KB JPG

>>43140063
Guns, chemicals, just flat hard cashmoney.

We're low on virtually everything. Hell, even a new place to set up wouldn't be a bad plan at all. Something more defensible.

>>43139999
"Coal? Can you make a post exposure counter to Smilex? One dose ought to do."
"If the feds employed Karlo knowingly, then they deserve to take a hit.
We can bet Duela's probably willing to go a few rounds. So we'll bait them again. The feds will stick their nose in, Duela practically has to."
"I mean if she really is like me, she hates having things just...given to her when she feels she hasn't earned them. For good or bad."
"And we'll need a diversion, that may or may not be the actual target.
Think Penguin's Daughter would get too mad if we locked her in a bank vault?
Still, it needs to be different, it needs to be agressive, the Feds changed things. Whether they meant to or not."

"Hey Spike? Did you save Red's death footage? I think it's time I go back on TV."

>>43140103
>Can you make a post exposure counter to Smilex? One dose ought to do?
>what's this for?

>>43140074
>is trying to parlay with Deula a thing people want to try, or do you still feel more comfortable trying to use her as a club to knock Irons around with for now?

>>43140074
>>43140041
>>43140004
I didn't mean it as a waifu deal, we promised Two-Face he'd get a crack at her.
I do kinda want a team-up though and frienemies deal that leaves both Jokers in the deck and occasionally collaborating while we fuss over her and her absolutely shit boyfriends in a "what makes you think you're good enough for my little sister?" way.

>>43140128
The one dose is for Duela. So we don't murder her with the traitorous fuckwits.

File: merry_christmas_2014_by_a(...).jpg (44 KB, 400x618)

44 KB JPG

>>43140128
...you know. Fuck it. Yes. See if we can't get something with Deula.

We'll bludgeon Irons to death with his own bullshit. He's sunk himself deep. Let's make him pay the piper.

Because while he might not have ordered it, if he hadn't brought this shitshow to Gotham, we'd still be building the place up to a city where it could make it's own choice: Try to be better, or just decide to wallow in it's own filth, and it would be a choice clear to everyone.

And Holly would still be alive.

Someone let Dulia out and sicced her on us. Let's not let them use someone else that's mentally broken as a weapon against us anymore.

>>43140154
>gotcha

>>43140128
Eh, maybe, might be more open to it after some fun and games though.

>>43140157
>and it would be a choice clear to everyone.
To clarify: The city's own choice would be clear to everyone. No more of that "Oh it's just how it is." crap. It would have been a point where the cops would have had proper full support for the first time, and corruption routed out...if that's what they had chosen. If not...well, the rest of the US would be aware of that choice, too.

>>43140157
That's.
Jesus Christ. Is Brock-Joker the hero this city needs?

>>43140197
That was the plan with the whole mayoral thing, along with having some fun as we went. Now? Now that's all in shambles and I...may still be a bit salty about that. (I'm one of the ones that expressed disappointment that there wasn't more of a vote against the whole random chemical spray deal in...11, I think it was. But that's how it went, so that's how it went.)

>>43140257
Yeah I know, I voted against it as well. That said, either or seems in character for Brock.

>>43140257
>>43140285

I think we keep swinging back and forth between being a psychopathic murderer and a savior of the city

part of that might be because qm runs for like 48 hours at a time and multiple timezones cycle in and out.

people tend to be bad guys at like midnight EST and heroes in the early morning EST

>>43140285
Ah, the joys of insanity.

>>43140293
Mostly I try to split the difference and use horrifying methods to achieve beneficial ends.
Art's supposed to teach right?
Pain teaches things right?

>>43140316
That's what we mostly settled on after the chemical rain incident, and it's thus far held up.

>>43140332
>>43140316

I like that we've actually learned shit during this quest. We've done some fucked up things and some stupid things and most of them have taught us something

>>43139999
"We're low on resources," you tell them. "Almost everything- cash, guns, chemicals. We have a bit to get by, but nothing like we used to. Our gang was a powerhouse once. Now we're scrambling for scraps at gas stations." You make a motion with your hand towards the table with the packaged food.

"If the feds employed Karlo, they deserve to take a hit. Spike, you have the footage from Red's camera, right?" He nods. "Then we'll be going on television later.

I'm certain Deula will be willing to go a few rounds with them, too- we just need a way to bait them both. And there's one thing, my friends, that both of them can't say no to." With both hands, you point to yourself. "If Deula is anything like me- and we know she is- she hates having things handed to her when she feels she hasn't earned them." You meet Dottie's gaze for a moment, but she turns away quickly. "Once she's back to chasing me, we can gas the plant. And we kill everyone inside. After what she did to Knock, if they stayed, they're part of all this too.

Coal, I need some kind of Antivenom for whatever we use. One dose. We promised Harvey we wouldn't kill Deula, and I intend to keep that promise.

In fact..." You think for a moment. "...After we have our fun today, I think we might have a little chat with Deula."

>>43140374

The silence is deafening.

"Someone sicced her on us. Dot, you invited her in, but it seemed like she was looking for you. Somebody's been using these people as a weapon against us. And I think that both of us would like to see Irons bludgeoned to death with his own bullshit. He's in deep, everyone. And it's time he paid the piper.

He might not have ordered this, but he brought this shitshow to Gotham. If he hadn't, we'd still be building the place up to be a city that could make its own choice: try and be better, or just decide to wallow in its own filth. No more of this "That's just how it is" shit. The cops would've had the people's support, corruption rooted out... If that's what they wanted. And if not... Well, at least they'd have been able to choose.

...And Holly would still be alive."

Dottie stands up from her chair, slowly, and slips away to her bedroom.

"No matter what, though- from now on, things are different. From now on, we're aggressive. Like Deula. The Feds changed things. And after we poison Deula.... Then, we talk."


"...Alright," says Dwayne. "If you wanna go after the girl, that's fine. But you're right about the resources- we just don't got 'em. So that should be the first order of business: gettin' resources. Now... how you plannin' on doing that?"

You smile. "I've got just the thing..."

>You are now planning a heist for Guns, Chemicals, AND Money
>what is your plan
>what gear do you need
>whose skills do you need
>where will you rob?
>what information do you need

>>43139999
"Guys, I'm going to go do something I thought was a half-way okay idea when I was O.D.'d on smilex, and bleeding out. I've seen enough blood for awhile. Except Derrick's him I want to drain."
"I'm going to go talk to my 'little sister', wish me luck."

>>43140352
Yeah. And bravo on the QM for accommodating us on our schizophrenic bullshit, too.

>>43140293
>>43140454

>that's kinda been the whole point
>you'll see
>after this one, two more threads...

>>43140418
Spike, get me shipment lists for chemical trucks, armored cars a la Fargo and Wells and the like. If it comes down to it we'll send Nocturna for some things tonight.
Maybe rob a hospital for equipment a bit later on in the day, we can flat out gank some of the trucks, strip the GPS for that and as long as we stagger everything it oughta give us cover. I've got kind of a Mad Max vibe in my head. Hell we can get the school buses and routes in on it if need be. Keep the whole thing in motion.
Weapons, well basics are easy, we can raid more complicated targets at the begining or end of it. Or you know, have Nocturna pull nightshift on the bells and whistles we miss.

>>43140511
You can let him know what we need right Coal?
Also, how's those immunization shots coming?
>>43140472
>>43140418

>>43140472
Oh, really? ...huh. Well, that'll be interesting.

>>43140511
Not like we're not taking the chemical plant at the end of the day if the immunizations work out

>>43140418
"Spike, I need shipment lists for chemical trucks. Preferably things to the universities, or local hospitals. Have Coal provide you with a laundry list of things she needs. The rest of the equipment we'll take straight from the hospitals. Coal, you can come with us- this time, I want you to show us exactly what you need.

As for cash, I'd like a list of any money shipments traveling through the city. We're not likely to be lucky enough to catch a proper armored car of cash today, but I know that there's a lot of businesses that move money to and from banks every day. We can take a few of those. We'll follow a school bus route first, then intercept the first vehicle. Then we'll do the same. The point is- we keep moving. Think Mad Max," you tell them.

"As for weapons..." you say, "smaller arms and knives should be easy. We'll have a couple men target a couple gun store. Robbing them directly would be dangerous, of course- we don't have the men to spare for a siege. But what we can do is offer them a deal. With the gangs scattered, I'm sure many of the shops have been left hanging. We can provide them with constant business again- if they give us support. The more guns we have, the more our rivals need to buy, and the more the people will need to protect themselves."

You look around the apartment. "And we need a new base," you tell them. "This place is comfortable, sure, but it's too small. And it's not defensible. And it just doesn't fit the theme, dammit. Coal, the immunizations- how are they coming? The sooner you guys are immune, the sooner we can hit the plant and go back home."

Coal heads to the kitchen, and pulls out a glass beaker. "Right here," she says. Everyone looks very uncomfortable. "Tell everyone to line up and take their medicine."

One by one, Coal gives each of the people in the room a shot to the abdomen. In a few minutes, Dottie, Dwayne, and Spike sit around the room, suffering the same pain you once felt.
(cont)

>>43140418
Oh, and throw some bombs in there. They want bombings we'll damn well give 'em bombs.

Oh! And the proper testing/protection equipment for Coal, damnit. Seriously. Knocker and Holly.

We're not losing Coal to something we could prevent.

>>43140795
Fair enough. But how else will she get her junkie fix? The old girl's a bonafide psychonaut.

>>43140694
>>43140694

"Aren't you forgetting someone, Coal?" you tell her. You were really hoping to get some payback for when she gave you your own injection.

"Of course not," she says. "I'm not taking it."

"What are you talking about?" you tell her. "Just take the damn medicine."

She pours the remnants of the beaker down the kitchen sink. "When I die, I die. Let's leave it at that." She goes back outside under the tarp, and starts working again.

Soon after, everyone else recovers from their pain, and starts work as well. Spike provides a manifest of trucks- though there are no active shipments today, you identify a number of hazardous and controlled substances being held in some warehouses on the docks- turf now mostly shared by Penguin's Birds and Two-Face. Deula has mostly withdrawn from day-to-day gang politics. All Super, no Criminal, that one.

"Easy enough," you say, asking Dwayne for his phone. You give Nightjar a call.

"Raven's been overseeing the import/export side of business," she says. "I believe that covers acquisitions. Send me your list and I'll see what I can do. We're all interested in maintaining Mister Cobblepot's interests while he's gone, and that includes honoring prior alliances. As nothing you're requesting is of much value, I'm sure there will be no trouble."

"Thanks, Nightjar," you say. "And how are the kids?"

"They're... Big," she tells you, seemingly struggling for words. "Still big."

"Glad to hear it," you tell her. You hang up, and smile to yourself. You may not have much left, but what you've done has earned loyalty and respect of your fellows. That counts for a lot, and opens a lot of doors.

(cont)

>>43140836
what do you mean?

>>43140868
...that. Kinda worries me on her. Hopefully just her being a bit of a fatalist, but...

>>43140868
Next, you pinpoint a few gunstores in key locations around town. You tell them who you are- a few of them hang up there. You tell them your plan- and more of them hang up there. But those that stay on for your whole spiel seem interested. By selling you guns at bulk prices, they fuel potential gangwars in the streets. A city under the firm hand of a militant regime has less of a desire for guns- a false sense of security is bad for business.

Once you have your money, you'll have all the guns you need.

...Which leads you to the most complex part of your plan.

"Boss, you ain't goin' on this one," says Dwayne firmly. "It's a solid plan, but an acrobat you ain't. Ain't no point in you fallin' out of a movin' car just tryin' to rip off cash. Nothin' funny about that."

You yield to him. It's a fair point.

Though Dwayne himself is much too large for the job, Dot is not. She takes a small handful of men, and sets out to intercept a school bus. Spike sits with his laptop at the kitchen table, a radio in his ear linking him to Dottie. You lean over him, watching the screen.

Dottie and her men approach the first target...

>>43140877
Actually on second thought maybe she's not a junkie, maybe she's got some sort of fatal disease and is speeding things along.
Or she's nearly the same kind of crazy Brock is.

>>43140985
Oh come on, it'd be funny in an anti-climatic way.

>>43141000

what makes you think she's a junkie though?

>>43141038
Constantly huffing the building blocks of things we've O.D.'d on and nearly saying she's had it happen in the freezer before catching herself and saying 'seen it happen'

>>43141053
good catch

>>43141070
I do what I can.

We need our accountant back.

With him we gain control of our back stock cash, old operations and the list and names of people we can fence shit off to.

It also cripples duela massively since she would have to spend time gathering cash and men, essentially reversing our positions.

>>43141140
True, we do need to check on Orson, but for now Weatherby can wait. We're making sure Dottie's getting out of this alright.

>>43141140
That's just...such a Penguin solution though.

>>43141207
Its pulling the rug out from under her. We can rub it in her face while we do it for the joker style.

>>43140985

The school bus drives down the street. It's nearing the late afternoon- the bus slows to a stop to drop off a number of children. As the bus door opens, though, a green-haired woman with a yellow smiling eyepatch and a painted leather jacket steps onto the bus carrying a small SMG. She fires a few warning shots into the ceiling of the bus. The children scream.

"Everybody else off, too" she says, waving all the other children off the bus. "Just after the bus." She makes a final pass down the aisle to make sure the bus is clear, and waves four more clowns onto the vehicle.

One of the men takes the wheel, and the bus starts driving. Most businesses make their deposits in the early morning, or late evening, after closing. Some larger businesses, however, deal in much larger sums, and need to make periodic deposits throughout the day. Spike pinpointed four of those for you.

The bus accelerates, and you enter into the delivery van's route. The van, like many of it's kind, is a simple vehicle, converted with aftermarket plating into a makeshift Armored Car. It's protected from most simple types of robberies- most, but not all.

The bus pulls up side-by-side with the armored van. Three clowns wave out the windows at the truck driver, as Dot swings open the emergency exit on the side. The van tries to swerve out of the way, but Dot takes a few steps back, then makes a running jump at the side of the van...

And catches it. One hand on the windshield, and one on the roof. She claws for a better grip, scraping her boots along the side of the vehicle.

"What's going on, Spike?" you ask him. You pull the microphone away from his head. "What's going on, Dot?"

Dot grits her teeth as she clings to the side of the van.

"...Busy," she says into her earpiece. She motions with her head for the men to open the door.

They do not comply.

>>43141261
Just breathe and trust that she knows what she's doing. We're just here to cover blindspots.

>>43140352
>I think that we've actually learned shit during this quest.

Didn't learn to put quest in the thread title though.

>>43141382
Evidently you skipped the part were this request was openly mocked.

>>43141261
"Gotta make things difficult..." she says. Dot grabs the rack on top of the van with one hand, closes her eye for a moment, and lets herself hang. She holds tightly as she hangs in mid air, the van swerving wildly to detach it's unwanted passenger. Dot draws an icepick from her belt, and swings it into the windshield of the vehicle. Thought the glass is reinforced, the small point of contact easily pierces it.

Her grip on the vehicle stabilized for the moment, she repositions herself, then swings onto the hood of the vehicle. Once there, she locks her fingers in the opening beneath the rear of the car's hood. With a few more swings of the pick in key points on the glass, the windshield collapses. Two more swings, and both occupants disabled as well. Permanently.

Dot uses the pick to drag the driver out of the way, and slides into his place. The two corpses share the passenger's seat.

"The shit I do for you," she says under her breath. "I got the first one," she says into the mic. "On to number two."

As the bus and Dot's armored van approach the next truck, things become significantly easier. Dot uses her van to catch the target in a pincer with the bus, gradually forcing it next to the bus's open emergency exit. A second clown standing in the opening easily hammers in the Driver's side window with a sledgehammer, and fires two pistol rounds into the cabin. A man climbs into the van, and all three vehicles continue to the next mark.

"Two," says Dot. "Next mark."

The next van is much the same- only this time, the second stolen van speeds in front of the mark and forces it to slow down before Dot entraps it, making the whole thing much easier.

"Three."

The last van is child's play.

"That's four, Boss. Comin' home," says Dot.

With four vans of money and a school bus all stolen, the group phones in one last time, and proceed to a drop off point.

>>43141459
....fucking wow. Great job, Dot. Like. Really good work.

>>43141459
It's almost like we are real criminals

>>43141459
Wouldn't ask her to do a thing if I didn't think she couldn't.

>>43141459
Though you wish you could keep the vans- and wish you could keep the bus even more, you haven't got anywhere to store them yet. Dot and the men leave them behind, the corpses of the drivers still cramped inside.

They come back home.

The doorbell on the apartment rings, and Dwayne goes to answer it. He steps out of the way, and Dot steps inside, tossing two overflowing bags of cash onto the couch. Her men follow behind her, each of them carrying a number of other bags.

"You went dark most of the time, Dot," you tell her. "What'd you do out there?"

"Same thing I always do," she says. "I knocked an' asked politely. Could you say no ta' this face?"

You look at the sacks of money for a minute, trying to think of something to say.

"I....guess we're back in business," you tell the others. They all seem quite happy with your haul.

"Let's not get too comfortable, though," you say. "We have one more stop to make- the hospital. And I don't think there'll be any knocking and asking politely here. D, I'd like you here with Spike running ops. Coal, you're with me, like I said earlier. Dot- you up for another one?"

"I could use an afternoon out," she says.

"Then I guess that leaves one question, then," you ask yourself. "Do I go in quiet... Or loud?"

>quiet
>loud

>>43141506
Real criminals come in various shapes and sizes, Dottie's the stabby and athletic sort who from previous threads is smarter than you'd think at first glance.

Brock's a thinker and face sort who's tougher than you'd think.

File: sample_82e85bf179e57233dc(...).jpg (635 KB, 850x850)

635 KB JPG

>>43141662
Quiet, but with the tools to go loud if needed.

No reason to call more attention to our gathering then strictly needed.

>>43141662
Eh, go in quiet, leave loud, preferably using one of their own trucks or a few ambulances.

>>43141690
we fucking fought Black Mask and won.

>>43141733
>>43141734
Or this. I'd still like to use ambulances to avoid detection or a truck if we leave quiet.

>>43141742
Hence the tougher than you'd think part. Brock isn't bad at fights necessarily, he just normally gets the shit kicked out of him, looks at the situtation. Finds a way to win, then walks it off.
At least one organ he has now can be described as "mystery chunks" and he's still at or near the top of his game.

>>43141662
>>quiet
We still want the public and the other FAKER to think we are dead

>>43141897
We're going to blow that to hell tonight, you know. If it gets in the way there's no reason to adhere to that.

>>43141941
But it would be better to still have the element of surprise

>>43141662

"This time," you tell them, "we go in quiet. We're still dead, technically. And there's no need to call more attention to ourselves than necessary. Plus, we've got Coal with us- and we don't want to risk her safety. We'll have someone drop us off, and leave in an ambulance. Even if we don't go out loud, an ambulance leaving the Hospital shouldn't turn any heads."

A short while later, the three of you are dropped off at the rear of the hospital- two people in clown paint, and one without. Both you and Dot paint your faces differently. Dot does your hair, and puts her own long green hair up beneath a hat. Both of you wear false red noses- instead of your everyday gang appearance, both of you now resemble normal party clowns.

Once again Coal's reluctance to wear proper gang colors is justified. "If we need to talk our way out of something," she says, "we need someone with actual knowledge to do it. That means you and the girl are out. I can't lie my way out of things if I'm dressed like a carnie."

"Clowns ain't carnies," says Dot, genuinely offended. "Not all of 'em."

The three of you slip in through the rear entrance of the hospital, near the children's ward. Coal lifts an unused lab coat from a nearby table as you enter.

She gives causal greetings to the people you all pass in the halls, as if the three of you had worked there all along. "I'm surprised they even let clowns in anywhere in Gotham," she says under her breath. "You're always evil."

"You got some problems with clowns you wanna talk about, Doc?" growls Dottie.

Coal reaches out a hand to stop an elevator door from closing. The three of you step on.

The young nurse inside seems to find your presence unnerving. Coal smiles at her. "We're heading to the Children's Ward," she tells the young woman. "We always try to make them smile, you know."

The woman looks you over.

"But... there was a clown yesterday?" she asks.

>>43141662
>quiet. Preferably without casualties.

>>43141970
We're a private outfit ma'am.
This little girl's dad got ahold of me, and well...I don't know the whole story, but I couldn't exactly say no. Even if it was a little out of nowhere.

Just as a reminder(Because I'm going to shove off for a nap) stick to the plan later. Take down Dulia non-lethal. She's probably got info we can use, and someone sent her against us. I'm tired of people using damaged people against us. We probably can't fix her. But we can help stabilize, and give her a decent environment.

And remember: NO. ROMANCE. That is a brand of crazy we don't need. But we owe it to Holly to help a kindrid spirit of hers. ...not exactly the same, but...well, Decently alike. Both with an obsessive need for something. Things to be controlled, or to just be wanted.

>>43142040
>Even thinking about romancing our adopted sister.
Go back to the holler you weirdo.

>>43142030
>Cue embarassed genuflecting.

File: tumblr_moo46hID8h1rz2z08o9_500.png (131 KB, 500x281)

131 KB PNG

>>43141970

"We're a private outfit ma'am," you tell her. "This little girl's dad got ahold of me, and well...I don't know the whole story, but I couldn't exactly say no. Even if it was a little out of nowhere."

"I guess it's their lucky day," she says cheerfully. Seeing her smile always makes you feel uncomfortable- it's completely joyless and artificial, and looks more like she's about to bite.

The young lady looks you over, then turns to Coal. "...Where's your badge?" asks the woman, backing into the corner. Coal rolls her eyes. "Oh, hell." She reaches into pocket, and jabs the young girl in the stomach with a syringe. She squeaks, but doesn't scream. You see her eyes roll back into her head.

The elevator stops, and Coal steps out quickly. You follow.

"I would've liked to have done this without casualties," you whisper to her. "They're going to know something is wrong when they find that girl."

"She's just knocked out," says Coal quietly. "For how long?" you ask. "Once she's up, she'll out us." "Until she stops breathing," she says between her teeth, smiling at a passing nurse.

The three of you bypass the Children's wards completely, and approach the labs. Luckily, no one stops you- yet. As you enter the lab, Coal relaxes. She starts looking around the room, trying to see what she can stack onto a gurney. Once a stack of small machinery is piled on the gurney, she opens a refrigerator, dropping multicolored vials into a cooler. She loads it, too, on top, covering the lot with a blanket. It makes for a very lumpy, unconvincing patient.

"We need to get to controlled substances now," she says. "Then we make our way out."

The three of you wheel the gurney down the hall, hoping- praying- no one stops you; to your relief, they don't. The three of you stand near the elevator doors as you wait for a lift to another floor. When it finally arrives you quickly wheel the cart on board.

It's the same elevator that you met the young nurse on earlier.

>>43142216

She's still there, hunched in the corner, her raspy breath labored. Coal straightens her up a bit, making her look a bit less like a dying woman and a bit more like she were simply sleeping, and lifts the name badge from her jacket. She pins it on herself.

"We can't get into Controlled Substances ourselves," she says. "Someone has to let us in."

The three of you push the "patient" into the hall, briefly leaving it behind as you approach your destination. You idle in the hallway for a moment, as an elderly doctor passes by.

"Excuse me, Doctor," says Coal. "I've misplaced my key, and I've got a patient in dire need of treatment. If you would-"

The man looks her over. "Who let you in here? I'm calling security!" The man turns his back to you, and starts to storm off.

She bares her teeth and stabs the man in the neck with a syringe several times in a downward motion. He falls to his knees.

"NOW. DOCTOR." she growls. "I seem to have misplaced my key, and I have a patient in dire need of treatment. You really should understand how this works by now, Doctor. We can't have been the first ones in Gotham to let ourselves in here."

The man staggers to his feet, and silently leads you down the hall. As you walk, Coal looks at the syringe in her hand- the needle is bent at almost a right angle. You look to the man's neck- it's bleeding badly. She didn't just inject the man with the needle; she tore him open with it.

The man punches some buttons on a keypad, and lets her into the chilled room. She opens a cabinet, and looks at some bottles. She tosses one into her bag, and then another. Then she scoops the entire contents of each shelf into the bag, closes it, and comes back. She shuts the door behind her. "That's everything," she says.

"I'd say," says Dot.

"Don't kill me," the doctor tells whimpers. Coal pats him on the shoulder. "I'd get to the E.R. right if I were you. You've got about ten minutes before your lungs start filling with fluid."

>>43142485

The man runs away down the hall.

She loads the bag of medicine onto the gurney, and tucks it under the blanket. The three of you ride the elevator down to the loading dock.

"Was that necessary?" you ask her.

"No," she admits, resituating some of the equipment on the cart that has shifted. "He didn't need to go to the E.R. I'd say he only had a minute or two left. He's probably starting to feel it right about now."

The door opens, and she pushes the cart out of the elevator. "Find us an ambulance and let's go," she tells you. You find a nearby ambulance, left empty by the drivers. Dottie climbs into the driver's seat and fiddles with something under the dashboard, as Coal slides the gurney onto the tracks in the rear.

The Ambulance revs as Dot starts it, and you and Coal enter the vehicle. In a few moments, you leave the hospital for a safe drop point- just as the first signs of your crime are discovered.

>>43142583
You sit across from Coal in the back of the ambulance. "Something on your mind?" she says, smiling.

"Yeah, actually," you tell her. "You just killed two people back there for no reason.

She looks over her glasses at you in surprise. A few strands of hair have come loose from her tightly-bound bun. "No reason? I killed those people because you need me make poisons for you. Because you need them to kill a lot more people. Or are we forgetting the firetrucks so soon?"

"That's different," you tell her. "My point is that there's a time for killing, and there's a time for leaving people be."

Coal stretches, and tries to make herself comfortable. "And my point is that there's a time for moralizing, and there's a time for getting things done."

You unload what you can at the drop point, taking only what needs to be refrigerated. You don't bother taking it all back to the apartment, though- with any luck, you'll be back at the Chemical Plant by midnight.

"Alright Boss," says Dwayne, after you've arrived back at home and rested. "You wanted to use yourself as bait for Deula, right? The rest of us'll gas the plant. Now, just what're you plannin' to do to get her an' Irons outta their shells when we need 'em to be tonight?"

>wat do

>>43142728
Send invitations in the manner of jack in the boxes to Irons, inviting him to the coronation to the Clown Queen of Gotham. Meanwhile, send a deck of Jokers to Deula with an 8 of hearts to symbolize what time we will be getting there.

>>43129356
for fucks sake, lable correctly so that shit like this gets stuck in the filter

>>43142728
Well obviously it needs to be something interactive, like a scavenger hunt.
Hm...sure, just some hide and seek. Maybe a bomb threat with me hidden away in one of the locations.
Since she insists on putting her spin on my material, I guess share and share alike is fairly fair....wait nah. We'll tie it together with some bomb threats and a race. Whoever crosses the finish line first gets a surprise. A very special one. Either my elaborate death trap, otherwise known as a 'wall' forces either Irons' guys or Duela off the street for a bit. Or it doesn't, either way it's to buy time while you guys gas the place. So it doesn't matter. I'll just make an appearance and duck out early to check on you guys later. I'll need a map though if I'm going to get the placement just so. Regardless of any bombs we do or don't, depends on if we know the route or not. If we can figure out Duela's most likely route, then I can just intercept her post-"victory", or post-crash. Who knows? Oughta be better than the last couple times we talked. She gets all manic and tunnel focused. Although I could just lead her off halfway through, and circle back around with her to the plant about the time you guys are done.
Keeps with today's overtones. Although I'd really rather be there to see the show. So maybe something less convoluted, I'll just walk up and ask to talk after you guys get in position. It'd be insane to gas me or her right? But I'm immune and she can just take the post exposure thing.

>>43142942
>Hearts
Can we make it not flirting with what's basically us with a vagina?

>>43142942
I'm otherwise okay with it aside from the suit. And would like to suggest using one of the razor cards to do so.

>>43143128
considering we're tall and lanky, i kinda figured not-deula was short and chubby. he talked about how awkward she was in high school and stuff

>>43143149
>>43143128

Nygma used the king, queen, and jack of Hearts to represent all three of us though

>>43142942
I feel like maybe we don't go for the clown queen deal. This is our deal and we are neither interested in, or giving up our Clowniness for her.

>>43143176
Info we do not know in character.

>>43143176
Nygma's a moron. Our face card is all of them.

>>43143128
>>43143149
Than change the suit. I'm alright with that

>>43143223
The girl gets clubs, obviously.

>>43142728
>wat do
we should do something eventually to the song putting on the ritz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3PnQ3tgzY

>>43143188
A small group of you stop by a toystore and pick up a jack-in-the-box, and twenty-seven packs of playing cards. You can't get them all in the same style, and the stockboy has to check the back, but you're able to get everything you need.

"Old Boss just ordered Jokers in bulk, you know," says Dot. "You need 'em all the damn time, an' stores always look at you funny when you're buyin' a whole buncha packs like that."

You sort through the packs, and pull out the Jokers- fifty-three of them. For the final card, you insert the Eight of Hearts. "Eight o' Clock," you tell them. "That seems to be the agreed upon time for all these meetings. She should get the point."

"Hearts?" says Coal, looking at you questioningly.

"Well, we are family, after all," you tell her.

Once you're back at the apartment, you touch up the Jack-in-the-Box with some purple and red paint, and give it a small crown. You write some things on it, and place a rolled-up piece of paper in its hands, simulating a scroll.

"The cards go to Deula," you tell the others. "The Box goes to the feds. Deula comes after me, and they go after Deula.

Once we have them, then it's a race- whoever catches me, gets me. Or not. I'll lead them both on a chase along a route we set up, with bombs at predesignated points. Once they're nearby, we set off the bombs. Deula will win, I'm sure. And then she wins the prize- I tell what you've all been doing while she's been out, and then I gas the both of us.

I'll give her the antivenom once she's squirmed for a bit, and bring her back here. And then, we can have a real heart-to-heart..."

"I'm takin' it you're plannin' on drivin' yourself?" says Dwayne.

"I have to," you tell him. "I need both you and Dot at the plant. Nobody else has the immunity that we do."
"...Then take my car," says Dwayne, handing you the keys. You try to look grateful.

"Heyyyy, thanks, D. In that baby, the race should be a cinch."

(cont)

>>43142728
"Coal, all I'm asking is that you don't kill yourself chasing a high. Is that too much to ask? I'm not saying don't do shit. But to be frank, I need you around, Dot's going to need help when...anyway, those two corpses back there don't matter.
But neither of us have your chemical expertise. I can do basic chemistry. Just not fear gas or smilex. I'd wager her abilities at it don't go too much higher.

>>43143515
"Shit, I was in, what? A pharmacology class and biochem with you?"
"Anyway, time to map things."

>>43143515
Sounds like we need to be taught how to make smilex.

>>43143472

"I can show you the ins-n'-outs of her if you want," Dwayne offers.

"...I think I got it, D."

After a few minutes, you break up into two teams- Dot and Dwayne plan the gassing of the chemical plant, and you begin plotting the racecourse with Spike on his computer.

A couple of hours later, a package arrives by courier at the bace circling the GCPD building, addressed to Agent Irons. A bomb squad secures the package, and Irons is called. Without hesitating, though, he approaches the package an opens it. Inside is a purple and gold box with a crank in the side.

Irons turns the crank, slowly at first. Then he speeds up in frustration.

POP!

Out of the box pops a grinning clown in painted-on makeup and a crown, holding a small scroll. The scroll unfurls-

"You are cordially invited to the coronation of JOKER'S DAUGHTER, THE CROWN PRINCESS OF CRIME. TONIGHT, AT 8PM." An address is listed below.

Irons marches to one of the men nearby and takes his radio. He orders every soldier in town that can be spared to be dispatched to the address listed on the scroll.

"I don't care which one it is," he says, tossing the box to the ground. "I take one if them out tonight."

>>43143877
A car drops a package off outside the Ace Chemical Plant- a small box wrapped in a purple ribbon. The men take it straight to their boss. She takes it from the man.

"Did you happen to think for a second that it might be a bomb?" she asks. The man shuffles a bit.

Deula shakes her head, and unwraps the package. Inside is a cheap deck of cards. She spreads the cards between her hands.

Joker, Joker, Joker... All Jokers. She bites her lip. There's only one person who would send something like this... Well, two, but she doubted HE was making a move so soon. She shuffles through the cards some more. Joker, Joker, Joker... Eight. She draws the card, and turns it over. An address is written on the back. She squeals, and runs out of the room.

The man in the room lets himself breath a sigh of relief. Deula leans back into the room, aims a gun at him, and fires.

You stand in the center of Gotham, leaning on Dwayne's beat up Volkswagen, wearing the old-fashioned, ill-fitting magenta suit from the apartment and a pair of old driving goggles. Your long silk scarf blows in the wind.

You hear sirens approaching. Four...Five...Six... You begin to loose count of the black Humvees that draw closer. They slow, and stop. A man steps out of the lead vehicle, and points a gun at you. "Get on the ground!" shouts the helmeted man. Others exit their vehicles and join him.

You hope your other guest arrives soon- although you have to admit, the bullet holes might make you more aerodynamic.

Soon, however, a poorly-painted green humvee rolls up behind them, decorated with purple graffiti. It seems Deula, too, has thought to steal military vehicles (though you secretly curse yourself for not having thought to properly redecorate them.) Deula stands up in the sunroof. "Cousin!" she cries happily. "And I was so worried, too! So... What's the punch line?"

>>43143877
>YFW the track viewed from above is a poorly done caricature of Irons stuffing his face ravenously with doughnuts just to fuck with him in the think tank.

>>43144317

"A race, gentlemen," you announce, lowering the goggles over your eyes. "Winner take all. You catch me, you keep me, boys and girls."

One of the soldiers talks quietly into a radio.

"And what do you win?" shouts Deula, clearly already invested in the game.

You throw back your scarf with a flourish. "Doll, I always feel like a winner."

Deula drops down into the green humvee, and the doors open. Three men are roughly shoved out into the street. The vehicle revs.

You get into your own vehicle. Even someone of your height has a card time comfortably fitting in Dwayne's tiny car.

A fat, unhappy, bearded clown stands in the street in a one-piece bathing suit, holding the starting flags. You make a mental note to enlist more female gang members.

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" shouts the unhappy clown. Deula's car roars. The noise your own makes... is really more of a moo.

The soldiers look shout into their radios, looking among themselves in confusion.

The clown drops the flags, and both you and Deula peel out along the race route. The black-clad soldiers scatter like angry ants, before swarming back into their vehicles and joining in the chase.

>>43144339
Or jokette and Irons making out

>>43144317
Well I guess that all depends doesn't it? I don't even know if I'll have time to get to the one I have planned...all depends on who crosses it first. Or catches me as the case may be.
>Start counting down from three on the fingers.
Sound out of the starting bo-
>Interrupted by explosions and a slightly schticky entry into the bug and zipping off.

>>43144317
>>43144434
Dastardly Whiplash would be proud

>friend got chopped up
>friend commits suicide
>friend dies in a horrible tragedy
>all of the sudden, wacky races

>>43144570
Yes, don't worry, we'll be back to brooding eventually.
Also it's a cover to gas the assholes that let it happen.

You know who we have not made contingencys for?
Batman. What happens if he joins the race?
I hope we packed a rpg launcher just in case.