At the Gotham Novelty Factory, the Joker grinned as he watched the television. Of course, since his acid
bath, he always grinned. He was not exactly happy to see the The GCTV news copter tracking the Batmobile as
it raced on a course straight toward the Joker's new secret lair.
"How does he do it?" the Joker demanded.
"It's uncanny!" exclaimed Harley Quinn.
"Boss, I mean, you always hide out in an abandoned card factory or novelty factory? And last time you fought
the caped crusaders, the card factory burned down, so that only left-" he paused as he noticed Harley
frantically jumping up and down behind the Joker making the cut sign with her hand across her neck, but he
still finished, "that only left this factory. So of course, he's coming here."
The Joker was positively seething with anger as he stalked over to the henchman he had named Happy.
"So you think, I'm predictable, eh, Happy?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Happy swallowed hard, and asked, "You're going to gas me with your flower, or zap me with your joy buzzer?"
The Joker had been aiming the flower, but his hand dropped from his lapel as he approached. He extended his
hand and yanked it away, the moment he heard the words "joy buzzer."
He harumphed, slouched in thought, and then stood triumphant.
"Okay, Happy, you have a talent of predicting right. Let's see what you would predict for my run in with
Batman."
"Uh, well, they won't use the front door. They'll use batarangs and drop through the skylight."
"Through the skylight, so they bypass all my neat booby traps on the staircase! Right, Batman always was a
party pooper. So, instead, I'll prepare a nice soft place for him and Robin to drop in - right under that
skylight." He rubbed his hands together, and ordered the henchmen to carefully cover the floor with a shiny
green liquid that he had stored in steel drums marked with a biohazard logo. He did caution them, "Don't get
any on you, and if you do go downstairs and die quietly." Needless to say the clown crew was extremely
cautious as they approached.
"I've always wanted to use a batarang to scale a building," Robin chortled.
Batman (er Michael) glanced over at Robin. It was unnerving on several counts. Robin's costume and Batman's
too for that matter looked as though they were painted right on their bodies. Michael had said as much in the
Bat Cave, and Robin had laughed, and said, "Of course, they're painted on, we're in a comic!" Alfred just
looked peeved and confused. As they drove off, Batman thought he heard Alfred say, "Send a joker to catch a
joker."
Batman heard a warning beep from the console and looked up in time to swerve to avoid the cat crossing the
street. He had been staring at the Boy Wonder a bit too much. He bit his lip and tried to keep his eyes on the
road.
"There, there, kitty, did that big old Batmobile scare you?" Selena Kyle asked as she petted the frightened
cat. "Good thing, Batman saw you, and swerved, or he'd be kitty litter." She set the cat down, and disappeared
into the darkness, "So Batman likes cats, hmmmmmmm?" she purred thoughtfully. Titania liked cats, so when she
saw Puck vanish with a human into a comic book, she quickly decided the role she would play to get back at
that prankster. At first, she thought he might be the Joker, but when she saw the occupants of the Batmobile
race under her tree branch perch, she knew the conceited imp had kept the name Robin. The Batman guy was
hunky, and she had read enough to know that there was something between Catwoman and Batman. She figured that
alone would piss off Robin.
In Michael's bed, the comic book pages turned as new blank pages added to the book and new frames of action
and dialogue were penciled, inked and painted in. A new frame for each new bit of dialogue, a new page or two
for each scene....