Selina felt a pit forming in her stomach as she slowly looked away from the unknown Super floating in the air and towards the TV where the Joker smiled at them.

Fuck, things could never be simple with the damn Clown. Of course, he couldn’t have been disabled or dead, no, he had to play his games. Almost in slow motion, a drop of cold sweat ran down her face as she hurriedly thought about what to do.

The problem of dealing with the Joker was just how damn unpredictable he was. With every other villain, she could generally count on them acting on self-interest, but the Joker was as likely to simply give up as he was to blow himself up with a nuke— heck, he had almost done just that that one time before the Bat stopped it.

The question was what he was up to now? The Joker was an attention whore so, if he had been ready for an attack, he could decide to just blow them all up in anger upon being interrupted… And yet, if he hadn’t been ready, letting him monologue would just give him time to prepare.

As the one most familiar with the insane bastard, Selina knew it was probably her call to make 

“Buy me time,” said Minion 3’s voice through the comms. “I’m using Forge’s drones to locate the transmission.”

She almost sighed in relief, the decision being taken out of her hands. Still, it didn’t make her any less tense, muscles ready to spring into motion the second the Joker made any sudden movement on the screen.

“You know, I am quite disappointed,” the Clown mumbled, putting a finger over his mouth as he looked at each member of their group in thought. Finally, he focused on her. “Here I was all ready to play with the Bat, had a speech and everything, and it turns out it’s just his cat and a group of second-rate’s. I almost feel… neglected.”

He spoke in a quiet, even voice, Selina might have almost mistaken him for a sane man if she didn’t know any better. That infernal smile never left his mouth and his eyes… Selina hated the way he looked at her as if she was a toy that had lost its shine.

“Still, perhaps disappointment is the theme of this whole play, no? The Injustice League was certainly disappointed when dear Ivy declined our invitation, and I think she was quite disappointed when we didn’t take no for an answer.”

Grabbing the camera, the Joker extended his arm, twisting around on his office chair while scratching his chin in thought. Briefly, Selina caught sight of at least two different silhouettes in the background.

Damn, he had some kind of backup.

“Joker is still in the building,” Minion 3 whispered in her ear. “One of Forge’s drones is almost there, just give me a minute and I can disable him.”

“I suppose you’re here to rescue your redhead friend then? It’s almost cute,” releasing the camera back on top of a table, the Clown licked his lips, waved a hand over his hair and sighed. “You know what’s funny? I was actually planning on freeing Ivy in a day or two if nobody showed up.

“Yeah, a few days ago a new friend informed me the Injustice League was just a distraction, a sideshow. As you can imagine, the discovery was quite disappointing for me, so I was going to give the Bat another day to find us and, if not, let Ivy loose on them. Giving her the chance to use the very weapon they had kidnapped her for against them seemed like a suitable punishment… And I do so love the irony.” 

Selina could see the Joker doing exactly that and, if she wasn’t sure he’d try to drive her friend insane before that, she’d actually regret this whole rescue operation. Using Joker’s distraction, she repositioned herself, subtly sliding closer to the door containing the kidnapped Supervillain and preparing her claws.

As the Clown leaned back, Selina could see a remote control with two red buttons in his other hand, his thumb hovered over the left button, causing her to twitch and hold her breath, almost dashing towards the door.

The Joker caught the movement, smile widening as he took his finger off the button and tsked, head twisting sideways teasingly, then his eyes briefly turned to the right as if hearing something from his companions.  

At her side, Detective Chimp seemed to sense something, his grip tightening on his sword. Red Bee swallowed audibly, eyes switching from the TV to the floating shapeshifter as he opened and closed his hand, arms moving in an attempt to loosen his muscles.

Kite-Man himself was ignoring the Clown, face turned towards where Ivy was, eyes moving up and down the door frame looking for traps, but Selina could see the way the Clown’s voice was getting on his nerves, the barely contained rage under his green mask.

“Almost there,” Minion 3 said.

“Disappointment…” the Joker continued, mad eyes refocusing on her face. “You know, my father used to tell me disappointment was just our way of adjusting to reality after discovering things weren’t the way we thought they were… So, in a way, it’s a good thing, enlightening even.”

“Got him!” Minion three almost yelled.

The second she heard his words, Selina exploded into motion, looking away from the TV and rushing at the door, Kite-Man following closely behind.

Behind her, she heard the telltale sound of one of Forge’s drones self-destructing and taking out everything in a few meters around itself. She really hoped her backup had killed the damn Clown, but she didn’t dare stop.

“Enough,” said a deep, refined voice from outside the camera’s view. “They’ve already found your location, finish this now.”

“Should I help?” Yet another man said with eagerness. “I am kinda bored, a good fight could be just what I need.”

“No,” the first voice answered. “We have interfered enough.”

“Amusing effect,” came a female voice. “I almost couldn’t contain it.”

“I recognize the technology,” said a mechanical voice. “It’s from the same source that attacked my father’s laboratory, I’ll have to analyze it later.”

“Fuck!” Minion three summarized. “They’ve neutralized all the drones.”

Selina reached the door, only briefly glancing at the still floating Super before starting to disable the trap there, Kite-Man kneeling behind her and doing the same.

“Fine, it’s not as fun without the Bat anyway,” the Joker mumbled, not at all affected by the assassination attempt. “Oh, I see you’re already trying to rescue your friend. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to disappoint. You can thank me later.”

Selina cursed, she hadn’t managed to open the damn lock and it opened outward, they couldn’t just kick it in!

Kite-Man cut another simple tripwire and pulled her away from the door. Activating some kind of shield, he picked a metal piece from his Kite backpack and used it as a pry bar.

Selina braced herself, but, as the door started to break, nothing happened. Taking a breath, she looked at the TV.

“Hah?” The Joker seemed as surprised as she was. Looking at the remote, he hit it twice and tried pressing the button again before looking at Detective Chimp with narrowed eyes and sighing. “Guess someone messed with the ritual points. Fine, we’re not going international yet. No matter, we’ll go with the backup plan. Kill them, will you?”

Behind her, the flying Super attacked, moving with a speed and confidence that betrayed further powers.

Red Bee reacted. In a move worthy of the Bat himself, he refused to block the incoming punch and instead managed to use the man’s own momentum to flip him, sending him flying over and through a wall, then another and another.

“Damn, I didn’t think that would work!” The hero shouted, already massaging a bruised wrist from the move.

With a loud ‘crack’, Kite-Man managed to break the door. “Hell yeah!” Wood splinters flew at his shield, followed closely behind by a cloud of green gas. On reflex, he put a hand over his nose, but a device on his mask had already covered it.

Crackling madly, the Joker pressed the second button on his remote.

Immediately, Selina felt a wave of power exploding from the room. Looking inside, she saw Ivy tied to a chair in the middle of a magical circle burning with sickly green flames, the cursed power making it glow brighter and brighter, starting to consume her from the feet up at an alarming rate.

She extended her claws, rushing at the magical circle. Selina didn’t know any magic herself, nor did she have much knowledge on how to neutralize its effects but, thankfully, she didn’t need to.

When Selina had first completed her deal with Kara, she hadn’t been entirely truthful. Yes, she had sold the majority of the Nth metal to the Kryptonian, but she couldn’t resist keeping a smaller piece for herself.

Scratching at the floor, she caused green sparks to fly from the magical circle as the small amount of the alien metal in her claws interacted with the magic, the flames started to flicker.

Kite-Man didn’t wait, ignoring the flames as he leaped into the half-destroyed circle and lifted Ivy up, chair and all. Some flames climbed to her legs, almost reaching her waist, but Selina grabbed them and her gloves snuffed out the magic.

Unfortunately, whatever trap the Joker had activated wasn’t so simply dismissed, Ivy’s legs were still burned, looking moist and red, with large blisters starting to form under her skin.

Worse, whatever magic had been activated seemed to have entered her body, her veins started pulsating in her flesh, red lines appearing on her green complexion, rapidly spreading through her body.

Ivy’s body convulsed on the chair, muscles tensing with pain as Selina desperately tried to block the magic with the only means she had. It wasn’t working.

Behind them, the flames started to overflow from where she had cut the circle and, as they rushed out of the room, the entire floor seemed to implode, a column of fire burning downwards several floors until it reached the ground.

Briefly looking down, Selina didn’t see the ground but a gaping void from where the flames constantly spilled out, inside the flame, humanoid things tried to crawl up but seemed unable to.

The fire had also damaged several containers stored on the ground floor, green fumes spilling out and interacting with the magic there before dispersing into the air.

“Activate your masks!” She yelled into the comms and rushed out of the room, only to stop dead.

The Shapeshifter broke through a wall, eyes shining with greenish light as he took in the situation, he still had a large grim still on his shapeless face, but his angry posture told a different story.

“Can you fight him?” Detective Chimp asked Red Bee, readying his sword.

“Do I look like Batman?” Red Bee shook his head. “He’s got super-strength too, I only managed to flip him because he doesn’t have any training and was careless, I won’t be able to do it again.”

That was when Ivy woke up, muscles bulging until they broke through her skin in ugly red wounds. Her restraints snapped from the strain as she struggled out of Kite-Man’s hold.

Falling to the floor, the villainess looked around with feral eyes that shone with green light and screamed.