2013-04-03 - Jokerbots Wild

Take me out to the ball-game! Take me out to the crowd! It was opening day of the baseball season, and the Gotham team was taking out to the field after the playing of the Anthem. As the home team, they were jogging out first, and the pitcher was readying for a quick warmup ball around the bases.

When the scoreboard flickered, faded, and then was replaced over by the face of the Joker! "We interrupt this broadcast for a special pay per view event! Hey everybody, welcome to the start of the season! I know we don't have any Bat-Boys over in attendance here, so I thought I might bring some of my own! I know this sort of thing generally requires cheerleaders, but I'll have to make do with this set of Bat-Bots." Coming out of the bleachers on each section of the field were six large, hulking robots mounting huge machine guns on their arms.. "Say Hello Gotham to my Battling Battle Bot Bats! And lets have you all hit out of the stands! Or machine gunned!"

Take me out to the ball-game! Take me out to the crowd! It was opening day of the baseball season, and the Gotham team was taking out to the field after the playing of the Anthem. As the home team, they were jogging out first, and the pitcher was readying for a quick warm-up ball around the bases..

When the scoreboard flickered, faded, and then was replaced over by the face of the Joker! "We interrupt this broadcast for a special pay per view event! Hey everybody, welcome to the start of the season! I know we don't have any Bat-Boys over in attendance here, so I thought I might bring some of my own! I know this sort of thing generally requires cheerleaders, but I'll have to make do with this set of Bat-Bots." Coming out of the bleachers on each section of the field were six large, hulking robots mounting huge machine guns on their arms.. "Say Hello Gotham to my Battling Battle Bot Bats! And lets have you all hit out of the stands! Or machine gunned!""

 Cassandra Cain says, "Ahem. Six of the robot on the left (http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa64/DARKTALBAIN/Batman_beyond_robot.png) with a big 'J' in the center instead of bat symbol.

Redtail's not on the scene. She isn't even in costume right now. However, she /has/ been spending a few days in Gotham City, the backyard of a few specific people of note. Just this moment she's got the TV in her hotel room on in the background as she reads up on a bit of news from the day before. A large bag is off to one side of the bed. Setting the paper down, she begins to flip through channels.

Oracle is in the Clocktower. What's in her list for today? Recruitment. A quick internet search (and a quick hack of Mastercard) and she sees that Kendra is at a certain hotel - and it's even in Gotham!


 * typetypetype* "Tying into cable.... annnd..*


 * typetypetype* "Bringing up the avatar....."

As Redtail is flipping through channels, the Oracle avatar appears on her TV. Even when she flips channels. "Hey Kendra. I noticed you were in town, thought maybe we could talk about something?"

So, where is Lady Blackhawk? In the Clocktower...sort of watching over Barbara's shoulder. Until something happens and she knows she needs to be somewhere else, that is. The Birds of Prey pilot is dressed for the job, mind, because...she probably will need to be somewhere else soon enough.

Cassandra Cain is doing exercises over in the Clocktower now then, watching over her shoulder curiously at Barbara's typing, not quite sure what she's up to.. It's not quite dark, so not time for patrol. At this point, she turns her attention over to one of the television monitors that dot the area.. Which then brings up the baseball game.

"..the hell?" Kendra starts off as the channel, having just stopped on the baseball game, is replaced with a strange avatar. And, she seems to say those two words a lot. Squinting, she shakes her head. "I was wondering how long it'd take you to reach out to me. Not sending what's-her-face this time? And I was about to watch the game."

Catwoman normally doesn't go out, too much, in costume during the day. But, today was a special occasion; today, she had someone to find out about. And, so the Cat lands on the not-so-hot, not-so-tin roof, and slides into the Clocktower, paying Oracle a visit to try and get a scoop on someone she'd recently met.

She strolls in as if she owned the place, and smirks towards Oracle, letting her 'work' a moment, before tilting her head at Lady Blackhawk. The blonde is given a warm, wide sort of smile, "Hello, darling." And, fingers are waggled at Cassandra's direction, and she heads over to say hi to the mostly mute girl, pausing, as she stares at the baseball game. "Oracle." She points, at the game. And, the Joker robots, thereon.

It is a beautiful day in Gotham and Helena Bertinelli was perfectly wasting it with her obsessions, until now. After a morning filled with push-ups and weight lifting the brunette is now at the baseball game in question, frowning as she looks around, trying to understand what exactly is going on as people start gasping and yelling. Setting down the anger management book she read during the whole game, the Huntress briefly looks at the male beside her, a great body with little brains, and suddenly smiles, thanking God for allowing her to stop pretending she gives a damn about his game or his hobbies, and giving her the Joker on a silver platter.

At the Ball Game, the six robots are firing warning bursts over at the panicking civilians, and Joker's voice comes over the loudspeaker again, "Now, all of you hush! Or you'll miss my crowning rendition of Casey at the Bat!"

And given we don't have a Bat here, I suppose I'll just have to blast you all with balls until one shows up to be swung at!"

Oracle says on the screen, "Huntress isnt always that bad you know. She's just... er... high strung." She pulls up a second monitor of where Huntress is at the baseball game with some cute dumb guy. Way to go Helena.

When Catwoman comes in, Barbara covers the microphone, even without looking back at her. "You know, you're very lucky I have you as allowed on the security system. What's up Selina? I'm sort of recruiting someone here..." She turns around to look over at Selina.

Cassandra Cain waves over at Oracle frantically, then gyrates up to the television, "Bots." Big bots. Exploding! Somewhat greater than her maturing vocabulary can elocute.

Kendra doesn't quite laugh, but she clears her throat at what she's told of Huntress. "That's one way of putting it. You can't see me in here, can you? Because that'd be kind of fucked, especially if I was naked." No, she isn't shy about her opinion or choice of words. So far, she's unaware of the trouble at the stadium.

"Joker's up," says Catwoman, casually. Then, eyes narrowed, fixated on the screen, suggests, "And, yes. I'm very lucky. But we can chat about what I wanted to talk to you about later." She tilts her head, looks back at Oracle; glances to Cassandra, and Lady Blackhawk. "So, shall we make it a girls night out?"

"Sounds like we have a date who's just begging to meet us." Cracking her knuckles. Zinda heads for the roof exit. The fastest way there being to use the plane, at this point. They can't hang around. The Joker has new and particularly dangerous toys.

Cassandra Cain takes a breath, going to yank her mask on, following after Lady Blackhawk towards the jet and grabbing her belt. Then jerks her thumb at Selina, "Come." There's going to be hell to pay.

"Okay, Pablo,", she told Diego, "I'm... I am going to run because I am terrible afraid of- Oh, why do I even bother, I'm leaving.", Helena says, actually mad at herself for trying to communicate with the gorgeous looking, empty-headed man. On her way down the stairs, trying to get a closer look to the field, the brunette manages to elbow a few people who are not being cooperative.

"I-I a-am t-TRYING TO SAVE YOU IDIOTS!", she groans, fighting against the swarming crowd's flux, gritting her teeth and looking, of course, angry. The blue-eyed vigilante curses her choice in clothing and quickly realizes she is without any weapons. Still moving forward, though, she eyes the baseball bats on the field.

One of the Bat-Bots turned over towards Helena as she raced through the field, "My, my. We're not playing bowling, but for a thing like you I might take a swing at a gutter spare! Her'es the seven eleven split!" The machine gun over on the robot began firing over at the weaving Helena, bullets chattering through the grass as she raced for the literal bat as the players scattered!

Oracle looks over at Cassandra, then at Selina, then back at Cassandra. "What?" She then looks at the TV. Then at the monitor that's spying on Helena. "Oh crap. Um... okay... guess you're going to the ballgame!" She pauses, remembering that Cassandra has had problems with reading the Joker's moves. She doesn't SAY that though. "Selina, can you go with her too?"

Catwoman all but smiles, "I wasn't busy today, anyways," she jests, wryly, but with a bit of humor, and clear fondness, for Cassandra. She tells Oracle, "We'll talk later, this kitty has to go play." A gloved hand, and red-painted lips blow Oracle a kiss, even as she moves to follow Cassandra, into Zinda's jet. She doesn't ask where they're going to park, or even, how they're going to get down if the plane doesn't land. But, there's no hesitation in her movements, whatsoever.

By now Kendra's laid the paper down and she's going over to knock on the TV screen whether it accomplishes anything or not. "Hey, Oracle? You awake over there? What's going on? You got others eavesdropping on this little peep show?"

Oracle sighs a bit, then says onto the microphone, "Got a situation..." *typetypetype* Redtail's TV goes into split screen, one image showing the baseball game and the giant bots attacking. "Was just sending some people there.... maybe you can go too?"

Cassandra Cain is following the others to Zinda's jet, and makes a face. She hates robots. Thinking how to take them down. And prevent mass casualties. She hates this. She closes her eyes. "Get there fast."

Meanwhile, in the real world, Helena is dodging the flirty robot's attacks, running and stumbling across the field after having thrown her anger management book on it's face, hoping to mess with his aim. Still, the brunette has to dive for the baseball bat she sees at the distance, trying to slide into one of the team's bench areas, underneath the stands, to breathe a bit, her abs killing her from the exertion and the morning exercises, a pained expression in Huntress' face as she calls Barbara.

"IF YOU ARE HUGGING ANY OF YOUR ANIMALS STOP AND GET TO WORK!", she politely screams at her friend through the phone, before kneeling for cover, fully expecting to make a run for it in case they have, well, bazookas or explosive devices with them.

Firing Gatling Guns over at Helena is turning into a game of sorts as the big, hulking robot goes after her, firing quick bursts from the heavy machine gun as it misses her cleanly. "Why, what's this? It looks like we've got a brat out playing with the balls. I guess we're going to have to switch to another game! How about Marbles?" And the robot fires a series of small grenades over at her, hitting the ground and beeping rapidly, signalling their imminent explosion in a few seconds!

Hey, the jet is VTOL. "Let's go." Lady Blackhawk will have Aerie One airborne the second the team is on board, and stay in communication with Oracle...always best to stay in communication.

Oracle shuts down the computer tie-in to Redtail's TV and room audio. Then winces as Helena yells at her on the phone. "I'm sending backup right now actually Helena. Three or maybe four people, including Cassandra." She pauses, "Nice eye candy by the way. Whoops gotta go bye, I'll be monitoring!"

Selina drops into a seat, attaches her seatbelt. "They serve wine, on this flight?" She teases, unwilling to loose her good mood; even if she has gotten a bit serious. She knows, firsthand, just how dangerous the Joker can be. And, she's pondering how to use her identity to her advantage. She looks towards Cassandra, "You got those nifty little batarangs with you, I hope?" After all, fists and feet don't do much against steel, no matter how good you are. And, subtly, she hopes she's giving Cass an idea on how to fight them, too, without being obvious about it.

Kendra pauses long enough to stare at the half of the screen that shows the scene at the ballpark and she swears again. "This calls for the mace. Oracle, we really need to find a better time to talk about this stuff. Give me a couple minutes. Just need to get to the roof and change." The TV's turned off just as the connection's being severed - she's getting good at that kind of thing with Oracle - and the large bag is grabbed a moment later. First things first with the leggings, then she snags the key card to the room (can't forget that) and rushes up top to finish changing. Boots, top, wings, helmet, the wraps...and Redtail's airborne, putting full speed into getting to her destination. Along the way she draws up alongside the plane, giving those inside a look before diving toward the field.

Helena could be called a tad crazy, maniacal or psychotic, but bombs are some of her greatest weaknesses. She just can't take them, and knowing that the brunette's eyes widen as all those grenades are thrown at her. Always ready to make her move the Huntress runs out of the team's bunker, but not before at least one of those grenades are hit with her baseball bat, returning it to the robot that threw them.

"Bite me!", Helena yells out loud, knowing that Barbara can hear her as she runs into the field, her focus on keeping herself alive, but also sparing a thought or two at her bratty friend.

There's chaos on the field, with a half dozen Joker-built Bat-Bots firing blasts and bullets over the pinned down crowd of civilians. One of them is maintaining a chase of Helena, having not managed to tag her yet then. The players have scrambled over into the dugout as Aerie One arrives, along with Redtail!

And it's Bat at you! The swung bat by Helena sends a trio fo grenades flung back at the Joker-Bot, hitting it along the torso as they exploded, sending it tumbling backwards! Score one for the visiting team!

And one jet, slowing to hover and descend as rapidly as is safe. It might attract some fire, but better at them than at the civilians. Pretty soon it'll be low enough for those not flying to be able to jump out safely...given they're all used to jumping off and over things.

Oracle pulls up some of the satellites and cameras around the area to get an idea of what's going on. Plus she has the TV camera feed still so she can monitor the action from several angles. She says into Helena's headset, which she hopefully has on by now, "I heard that Helena, and I hope that's a catch phrase instead of directed at me?" ETA for Aerie One is about a minute or two. Stay alive."

Helena is grumpy, which seems logical, since she is awake, but as those grenades explode on the robot's chest the brunette giggles maniacally, not just a smile, but she actually laughs out loud, a gleam in her eye telling anyone who is watching that Huntress probably enjoys this a bit too much.

"That was for you! Barbara, you should know, catchphrases are for heroes!", Helena growls, and runs to the robot, trying to draw his attention to another side of the conflict, maybe even to his counterparts. Or in the very least, just use his clunky movements against it, and stay behind and under him to buy some time.

This is easy, easy in the sense that there's no trouble picking out a target or knowing what to do with it. They're robots, so there's no concern about holding back on Redtail's end. By now the majority of the fans have either got down or scattered, leaving the Jokerbots easier to pick out. Of course, there's the matter of the firepower they pack. Wings might help. So will speed. Better than that, a mace to bust it up. Not shy about hiding her approach as well as she can, the winged heroine takes a side angle as she leads with a swing at the thing's head. "Kyaaa!"

Cassandra Cain is leaping from Aerie One as soon as they're in range. She hates robots. She can't read them, she can't anticipate them, and the vast repetoire of her abilities are useless on them. As she launches in, first she tosses a handful of her batarangs over up to Selina to use, and then is slinging through the air, going in a high kick towards one of the bots, more to get it focused on her rather than the civilians. She hisses, "No one dies tonight."

Catwoman jumps down, landing squarely on one of the Jokerbots; her bullwhip coming out, and ensnaring the gun-arm. She then drops down the robot's side, and yanks it to one side, so the hail fire of bullets rains upon one of it's steel-clad companions, before she drops off it's head, pulling still, hard, so that the gun-barrel ends up blowing it's own head off in what normally would be a horrific forced kind of suicide. As always, she lands on her feet, and and she's sliding, smoothly, across the field, towards Helena; Huntress can make more use of the given batarangs then she; baseball bats only go so far. The weapons are passed, as Catwoman, recognizing the temper-driven agent of Oracle's muses, silken, "Looks like you might need these." Her claws unsheathe, and she grins, wide.

The Joker's voice once again comes out of the loudspeakers, "Oh phooey. I was hoping for a bevvy of Bats! Not a bevvy of Broads! Oh well, I suppose that I'll just have to take to this like a Fox in the Henhouse! Such a shame Sylvester isn't here to enjoy this!" His voice grew to another mocking baritone, "Come out Tweety! Be the bad ole putty tat!"

Aerie One was a quick target, three of the robots turning up to shoot at it as a fourth went to take a quick potshot up at Redtail. Meanwhile, Huntress was able to pull the old 'get one into the line of fire of the other' trick as the Joker-Bot quickly held fire as it blasted one of it's comrades, leaving her a window of time to strike! And over towards that one that had just been hit by it's comrade, Selina struck! Bullwhip blasting down, a swing from Batgirl hitting the other end as the melee was in earnest! Better that than frank. And towards one that was blasting at Helena came smashing down Redtail, cleaving half it's head in!

Fortunately, although it's a target, it's a target flown by the best in the business. One wing is clipped, but the damage isn't enough to keep the plane from landing...and landing in a position that covers the Birds of Prey as they disembark. The plane is a lot easier to repair, after all.

Oracle says into everyone's headsets (except Redtail, who doesn't HAVE a headset) "Okay looks like six... really big robots, one with a hole in its chest thank you Helena... no sign of where the Joker is and no clue how Joker managed to build six big honkin' robots. Doesn't even seem like his M.O. Maybe he has a partner or came into a big heist but nothing I can see online about any big heists recently since he most recently escaped from Arkham." She punches in some stuff into the keyboard. "I'm going to see if there are any signals on how he's controlling those things or if they have people in them or something. Can someone let Redtail know. She'd be the one flying with the wings."

"What are -you- doing here!?", Huntress raises her bat at the approaching Catwoman, only to be handed some batarangs by the mysterious and uncannily untrustworthy burglar. "Oracle, can you *($(* explain to me what the hell is going on right now?! Why is Catwo- Forget it, but you and I have some discussing to do!", Helena speaks to her friend as she looks around, and always keeps an eye for the villainess.

Holding one batarang as if were a knife the English teacher just takes advantage of the stunned robot's huge chest hole to cut deep into it's circuits, hopefully tearing through enough stuff to make it inoperable, completely ignoring the possibility of it exploding or something.

On her way in close, Redtail goes through a few evasive maneuvers prior to reaching the Jokerbot, swinging like she's going for a grand slam of her own. On the follow-through she spins back toward it, brandishing the mace in her right hand as her wings twist and turn, a certain deadly grace to it as her eyes, made sharper thanks to the helmet, pick out the others that are joining the fray. Then, she brings the mace around to crash down at the robot's gun arm like a hammerblow. Whatever the others are talking about, she's busy hitting stuff with a purpose.

Cassandra Cain leaps over to the side then and draws fire away from Catwoman and Huntress, and after a moment tosses a duo of electricrangs over at the robot as Selina tears and slashes over into it, ducking to the side then to hopefully add her own chaos to disabling the big bot!

"I'm here to watch you, of course," Selina purrs behind her mask and goggles, to Helena, before she tosses a bola around on of the Jokerbots, then doing a few quick back-flips to angle out of it's path of gunfire. She's almost having fun, too. "Hey, birdy! Oracle want to know if you see anything up there, how Joker's controlling these oversized wind-up toys of his."

There's a loud PFFT coming up from the large, still active loudspeaker as Aerie One performs it's job and goes down for a landing, giving cover as the Birds swarmed out and played cats to those flying evil mice. "Looks like you broads need a bit more banging up. Suppose we'll just have to go and do this the old fashioned way. Now, on with my rendition of Casey and the Bat! The Bat was such a brat! Imagine that! So Casey took his bat, and smashed the Bat like he was a cat! And that enough kicking your puppy for today you unappreciative twerps?" Joker was sounding annoyed (by his standards). Not only had Batman not shown, but his big spectacle was crashing on down to the ground!

The sudden carving and slashing over through the chest of the big bot over by Huntress would take a big chunk out of it, and it would be sparking, open and vulnerable to a coup de grace as it tried to twist and fire it's malfunctioning Gatling gun over at her! Towards Selina, the robot that had just been hit over in the face by her bola went to fire a rocket over at her, it arcing through the air as the electric-rangs thrown by Cassandra impacted and sparked on it! Redtail was able to smash through the gun of the robot shooting at her handily, right as the request from Selina was heard towards her! And, of course, that left one big one stalking over towards Aerie One, and Zinda, firing off a large flamethrower at the plane as it landed!

Nice try. Aerie One's force field flickers into existence as soon as the other Birds are out of it. Unfortunately, the jet isn't actually armed itself. Which is why as soon as everyone is clear, Zinda lifts off again...drawing fire and getting their equipment out of there. She'll be back.

Oracle murmurs to herself, "And that's why I had Ted install those field generators on Aerie One..." She says into the headset, "Look Helena, she was at the Clocktower already and I figured there are a lot of giant killer joker controlled robots so maybe more is better than less? Unless you've developed an anti-giant robot superpower?" She then keys something into just Helena's headset, "Plus Cass has had trouble fighting the Joker in the past, and Selina has had experience against him."

She pauses and types in some stuff, adjusting the satellites. "I think I just triangulated where the Joker is controlling them from. There's a signal coming from the broadcast booth."

"HA-HA! What a good joke!", Helena says dryly while groaning, exerting herself trying to force the malfunctioning, shooting arm into the robot's open torso "N-nnext time I'm around the Clocktower remind me of having nice ggggaaame of poker with Clayface and Harvey Dent, since we are adopting criminals now!", her voice barely understandable. Once she manages to do what she had planned the Huntress just falls on the ground, on her back, breathing a bit, murmuring to herself "Best date ever.", her eyes now focusing on other problems while she stands, not with a jump, but the old Die Hard-esque way of crawling back to your feet.

"I'm on it, keep the kids away from me, Joker is mine.", Helena growls and starts running towards the booth, and knowing Barbara is probably going to bitch and moan something about strategy or team work, Huntress turns down her com. This bastard shot her and Oracle now, and if Helena can help, this will be his last appearance.

"Dunno, maybe he snuck on over the local wifi," Redtail shouts back at the catsuited kitty before she admires her handiwork with the gun. "You want me to open up one of these tin cans and see if there's a prize inside?" Without waiting for the answer, she lashes out with a sweeping kick at the 'chest' of the robot, three marks left by the talons that curl off the toe of her boot. "I think these are all remote-controlled, so don't hold back!" She's pointedly ignored any and all of Joker's taunts, her focus very much singular right now especially as she lacks a comm.

Seeing Helena running off, Cass quickly motions over at Selina, "Go with her." And stop her from killing anyone in her way. Cass throws another duo of batarangs over at the robot that Helena had been tearing into as the woman is rushing towards the stairs, hissing then as she went to dodge another blast of flame shooting from it as she leapt through the iar to give the two cover!

"And I thought I was trouble," muses Selina back to Oracle, after Helena's rant, smirking, and certainly not having her feelings hurt. She seems torn, a moment, perhaps not wanting to leave Cassandra just yet; but seeing what Redtail can do, she presumes the young woman will be safe enough.

Catwoman is fast, and damn fast at that. She catches up to Helena, "Did you miss me?" She calls to the other woman.

There are roughly three functional robots left as Redtail essentially decapitates one, sending the head scattering over the ground. One of them is taking potshots at the force field of Aerie One and failing to do anything as the jet draws fire and evades through the sky, distracted. One is firing blasts up and over at Redtail, while the third that otherwise woudl be shooting at Huntress and Catwoman is intercepted with a flurry of Batarangs by Batgirl.

The Joker, perhaps seeing the gig is up, on the screen hmmphs, "I suppose that's all folks. Enough clowning around then. I suppose Ta Ta for now.." Not seeming quite so disappointed then in things, even without the Bat showing.

Catwoman and Huntress are both rushing up towards the broadcast room, right in time to see that clown in tights skipping out through the door.

And...this isn't good. Those robots are probably going to do something really stupid and, while they can't damage Aerie One, Zinda's not happy with the idea of letting her friends fight...and she can't really just abandon the plane. It's not armed, but what she can do is buzz the robots...as in, buzz them so low the force field should knock them flying and do quite some damage.

Oracle says into the headsets, "Guys, whatever the Joker just did, the signal's no longer coming from the broadcast tower, but the robots are still attacking. I think he put them on some sort of autopilot..." She punches in some stuff. "Tried to hack into their systems via the satellites but they're closed off to that somehow..." She pauses, saying to herself, "Seriously, this is NOT the usual type of tech Joker uses. Pretty sure he stole those robots from somewhere..." She says again, "If one of you can get a radio transmitter on each of them, I can probably shut down their autonomous functions remotely through that."

"Oh, yes, I've missed you so much it hurts!", and to make her point crystal clear Helena tries to drive an elbow into Selina's gut, to keep the former (?) villainess from following her and ruining her plans. Of course that, being without her comm, she just is not hearing that the Joker has escaped, and as such Huntress keeps running towards the booth, yelling out loud as she goes in the only way she knows how when without her bike: driving -herself- through the door with a kick!

Coordinated as the others are, Redtail's still fighting somewhat in the dark in terms of knowing what's being figured out so far. Out of the corner of an eye she spots Helena and Catwoman on their way toward the seats and further up, but with one of those larger robots still up and running and her own spitting sparks, she grits her teeth and - first, she spins away from bullets! Wings instinctively surround her and deflect some of the shots, and whatever she had in mind ends up handled a little differently. Grabbing her robot, the advantages of Nth Metal are seen as she lifts it and spins again, but this time to fling it in the direction of the one that shot at her. "Take that!"

FLY! *CRASH* Zinda makes Aerie One maneuver over like a helicopter. With the force field up, few things on Earth can even scratch the paint. And even the jarring of impacts is neutralized by her expert piloting as she flies through them. Between that and Redtail laying a hammer-down on them, the robots are all down. Right as Cassandra just blinks up at her.. "Want one." Then, going to quickly take out her radio, and putting it on the head of the robot that had just been smashed in half near her. Shrugging her shoulders at no one in particular. Then breaking into an inhuman sprint after Selina and Helena.

Selina manages to block the elbow to her gut, but it does cause her to lose a step or two. She runs after Helena, "You idiot," she snarls, displeased, now, with just how stubborn Helena is. Into the comm, she complains to Oracle, "I didn't think it'd be possible for someone to be harder headed than Batman. Congrats on finding her."

She pulls out her bull whip, even as she moves through the door behind Helena, trying to be ready for a 'surprise' from the Joker that's likely very, very unpleasant.

At this point, Helena and Catwoman would come face to face with Joker as he casually put his hands behind his hassock, "Oh, wonderful, the Cat and the Canary. Toodle on Toots. I've got bigger fish to fry. But, I suppose if the Bat's going to be a brat, imagine that, I might as well go ahead and take the head of the cat. I'm sure he wouldn't like that." The Joker's hands flew up in front of him, over towards Selina and Helena, "So then toots, sleepy time." Spraying a large cloud of hallucinogenic knockout gas towards the duo that filled the area, probably knocking both girls flat out into lala land!

Oracle hits her head against the desk once as she hears Helena and Selina fighting. "Yes, good teamwork, girls." Then says into the headsets, "Redtail seems to be doing a good job against the robots...."

Although Helena sees the Joker at first and almost has her hands on him the brunette woman suddenly staggers back, the gas hitting dead-on making it impossible for her to run or avoid. It is exactly the reaction someone would expect, what follows, as Helena growls and fights off some invisible shadows while screaming for them to stay away. The more it goes on, the more whiny her voice becomes, her frustration turning into helplesness once she realizes there is no fighting this ammount of things that are visible and real only to her. Eventually Huntress hits a wall, falling on her butt, and just shields her face, groaning and hissing as she is being mobbed.

Selina tries to dodge, and does a decent job of it - or would have, if it weren't -- gas. If she'd not been trying to catch Helena, which she is going to -completely- blame her for, later, she might not have rushed in so fast. But, ... she, too, stumbles back, trying to cover her mouth, her nose, but to no avail. She's already breathed the stuff in. She slashes once, twice, with the claws, before falling and tripping over Helena - yet again, Huntress' fault, probably, and she's out, cold, after a few more wheezing, whining breaths of her own.

There's a pause from Cassandra, conflicted. She waves frantically up at Redtail, "Put thing on robots." She waves the radio transmitter, and tosses it in the direction of the flying hammerbird, jerking her thumb at the robots emphatically. THen running over inside after HElena and Selina.

Batgirl finds the two wedged up against one another in a position that would clearly go over in someone's blackmail file if ti were recorded! Joker turning to face her, "Shouldn't you be a redhead? Or is that a blonde? And what's with that S&M getup? No one has a taste for the classics anymore." Batgirl twitching as she yanked her gas mask down, body staggering from reading Joker's body language.

Stumbling towards Joker, Cassandra's training fights with he rinstincts. In any case, she closes her eyes. And follows where she remembesr he was. And strikes him across the face with a flailing, wild punch that sends the clown flipping away..

"Well, I hate to run and gun, so I'll just fly on by!" There, goin gthrough the air, with a.. Jet pack, he zooms off and away, vanishing as Cassandra is left too disoriented to do much, dragging Catwoman and Huntress out of the gas cloud.