Damage Control

The Mustang was burned, literally, someone had tossed a Molotov cocktail in it. “Linda” had managed to run out a side fire door and dived in the harbor. Kara ditched the disguise swam like a Kryptonian back to the water side entrance to the Batcave. Batgirl was needed on the streets to stop the riot…

*

Oracle was using her back doors to the power grid and “Smart Building” systems to try and scare off and deter potential rioters from joining the mayhem, but she had to concede, Robin was very sadistic, effective but sadistic in how he handled it. She had to concede, Helen had a point about him being a nasty little monsters…

*

They were intent on showing that they could hack it as members of the “Killer Chihuahuas” and they were going to torch a bar that was used by members of the Falcone family to prove it…

“Hay, Look!” one of the kids said pointing at a dumpster.

There was a dumpster next to the bar with “Free Tacos” spray painted on the side.

“I got an idea,” another said, “Come on, we will show them!”

They went over to the dumpster. As they grabbed it, all of the kids were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke as the dumpster started spewing black fog all over them. The kids coughed and struggled to breath as the tear gas grenades released their noxious fumes.

*

The teenagers ran in fear and panic before the green Kodiak Bear stomped down the street herding them away from retail street. As they ran off a pair of girls floated down from the roof tops.

“What are you doing Garfield?” Raven asked.

“I am scaring off the would be looters,” the green bear said.

“You are supposed to be back in your room,” Miss Martian snapped, “We were called up to help.”

“I am just as effective as your tricks,” the green bear snapped, “I can handle this!”

“He gave us our Junior Hero Permits,” Miss Martian said, “And we have our Titan uniforms, go back to school. You know you are already have multiple detentions!”

“What,” the bear responded.

“Go back to school,” Raven put her dark blue Opera Gloved fists on her hips, “We are dealing with this.”

The pair floated up and away to take the high ground and try to break up the rioters and gang fights. A smell floated to the bear’s nose and started luring him like a siren’s enchanting song. The green bear waddled down the alley following his nose. As he got to the middle of the alley he looked down and changed back to the shape of a green boy.

“A rotting fish?” the boy thought aloud, “Why is it right here in the middle of the alley?”

The boy kneeled and looked at the fish. The mouth of the fish started spewing CS gas and it blasted Garfield aka Beast Boy in the face. The cloaked figure walked forward and folded his arms over his chest.

“You might think you are awesome,” Robin said, “But your powers are wasted on a selfish loser like you.”

Garfield tried to give a snappy retort but could only cough and choke on the gas.

*

Batgirl parked the car in the alley and started hitting switches. She opened the roof and flew up into the Gotham night. The vehicle stayed where it was and the roof closed.

*

Bruce, Kate and Andrea locked in the building, that meant that Batman and Batwoman wouldn’t be able to make an appearance… How ever the message from Dear Miss Kara was quite heartening… Alfred reached under the dash board and hit the hidden switch. The controls to the limo he was sitting in disconnected from the limo and became a remote-control terminal… as the screen popping up in front of him came to life, he felt a slight giggle at the sight the camera feed was giving him…

*

“Come on, the report said Dragula was down one of these allies,” Vicki Vale shouted to her cameraman Steve.

“Holy shit!” Steve dropped the camera.

Vicki turned around and looked down the alley. A flicker of lights dashed and danced about inside the cab of the sports car. At this distance Vicki could see there was no one in the car.

“Get the camera!” Vicki shouted, “The driver has to be coming!”

An almost demonic chuckle emitted from the vehicle as the headlight shattered the darkness with mini-suns.

“Silly Miss Vale, what makes you think I need a driver?” the demonic voice purred from Dragula, “Now please do step to the side, I have work to do…”

“What the hell,” Vicki was forced to step back and up against the wall as the sports vehicle from seemingly another world started driving forward. As it was only a foot from her, it stated playing “Gangster Paradise” by Collio.

“Really Miss Vale, I had hoped you had better taste in music than this,” Dragula muttered as it moved past Steve who was fumbling to get the camera running, “Good evening sir.”

“That car was driving itself!” Vicki shouted, “Tell me you got that!”

“Upside down,” Steven said, “I don’t know if we could see inside, but I got it talking to us…”

An electrical pulse ran down the lights of the street and the camera hissed as it turned off.

“Shit!” Steve shouted.

“What?” Vicki said.

“IT’s fried!” Steve said looking inside the camera at the memory card, “The fucker EMPed my camera!”

“FUCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!” Vicki shouted into the night!

*

Elsewhere a rather English driver smiled as he had the radio bring up “Ride of the Valkyries” and upped the speakers. There was no way anyone would not hear Dragula coming tonight…

*

It was hard to hear at first, but the even as Detective Bullock shouted at the kid with a broom stick to try his luck, the screeching voice of a woman singing got everyone’s attention. Bullock thought it was almost biblical, the sea of humanity that was in the road parting as the black chariot of judgement came speeding down the road blasting Wagner as it drove. A rather ballsy kid screamed for the car to go “F” itself. And the brake lights lit the whole square with a demonic glow. The vehicle seemed to turn around in place like it was a tank or something and the car turned to face the one kid that had swore at it. It started driving toward the crowd of kid and screams of panic almost over took the car’s loud speaker as it changed to reciting lines from “For whom the bell tolls.” Even as the kid fled across the grass of the park in the center of the square, Dragula chased after him.

“Bullock there is a report of the Sports Hurst in your area,” Gordon’s voice came over the radio, “What have you got?”

“That’s confirmed Commish,” Bullock said calmly.

“Shouldn’t we tell the boss what it’s doing?” a patrol officer in half a riot kit asked.

“Yeah, ‘Hay Jim, the thing was cruising down the street rocking to some tunes, a kid swore at it so now it is chasing the kid around the park,’ no thanks, I want to keep my badge and not get a two week at Arkham,” Bullock said.

*

“A particularly sadistic individual,” Harlene noted as she sipped the wine.

Harlene Quinzelle and Jonathan Crane had come to the apartment of Professor Hugo Strange, their boss’s boss’s boss to report on the treatments of Patient “J” as he was known. But the out brake of the riot was enough to get them to gather at the fourth floor window overlooking the park in the center of the square where Detective Bullock’s team’s attempt to break up the riot.

“Patient J or…” Hugo pointed with his glass of diet soda at the vehicle chasing a youth around the park below.

“Pardon the expression,” Harlene said, “But I think we beat Patient J hoarse to death already.”

“Indeed,” Hugo intoned, “Jonathan, what is your thoughts?”

“Well Professor Strange…” John started.

“Please,” Hugo cut Crane off, “Given this is a social event… Please call me Hugo.”

“Well Pro… Hugo,” John said taking a sip of the bottle of beer, “this is more tactics than anything else.”

“How so?” Hugo asked.

“This is calculated and deliberate,” John noted, “It is targeted. What we are watching is the targeted application of behavioral modification by fear. To quote the fictional Tarken Doctrine; ‘Rule throw fear of force rather than force itself.’ The driver is targeting one particular offender and is chasing him to drive a point to all observers.”

“And if the driver runs the kid over?” Harlene asked.

“A calculated risk,” Hugo thought.

“Not as much and assumed I should think,” John said.

“How so?” Hugo asked looking at Harlene instead.

“Well how many cars do you know can do a zero-point U-turn?” John asked.

“Do you think he will ever try to cause trouble again?” Harlene asked.

Hugo was watching the pair and their interactions as much as the vehicle running wild over the grass. It was clear that Johnathan Crane was apathetic towards Harlene, but Harlene resented having to work with Johnathan in her treatment of Patient J.

“Tell me Jonathan,” Hugo asked, “Do you ever use Fear to illicit Behavioral Modification?”

“That would be unethical Hugo,” Johnathan noted a little too calmly and calculatedly.

*

“No take this boy home to his mother, his diaper needs to be changed,” the demonic voice of Dragula ordered the three next to the teen that it had been chasing.

The teen turned and was about to say something, but the others covered his mouth and picked him up and started leading him home.

The black vehicle silently turned onto the road and drove off. As it drove the loud speaker started playing the 1812 Overture.

*

Patrol officer Renee Montoya and her partner looked up at the display in front of the them. Each one had the sign “Looter” on their chest, each was squirming and struggling. On the ground was a bunch of polaroid photos of the three breaking into an electronics store down the street. But here they were hanging upside down like sharks on the dock with a bag over their heads.

“I think the pope did it,” the man next to Renee said.

“What?” Renee turned to her partner.

“The Pope is supposed to be the ‘Fisher of men’ right? Looks like he caught these three sinning,” the partner said as he pulled on a rubber glove to pick up the polaroid photos.

Renee rolled her eyes, this was clearly the work of the Gargoyles…

*

“Shit! It’s a Gargoyle!” one of the would-be looters screamed.

The four men ran off into the night. The gray marble stone gargoyle fluttered down to the sidewalk. As it landed, the gargoyle turned back into a green teenage girl.

“This is actually a lot of fun!” Miss Martian beamed, “Don’t you love it Raven?”

“The Big guy is so going to chew us out for this,” Raven moaned as she stepped from the Shadow Raven that landed next to the Martian girl.

“Well the people in this city thinks that they have Gargoyles running around,” Miss Martian smiled.

“They call us that because they aren’t sure what else to call us,” Robin said as he appeared around a corner, “Looking good there Raven, like the bird.”

“Thanks,” Raven blushed.

“Megan,” Robins said, “Almost no one thinks we are actually gargoyles, but they aren’t sure what else to call us since we keep in the shadows. Try to think more ambush predator, you would do better taking the form of the wall there and then hitting them with brick fists.”

“Duhh Megan,” Miss Martian slapped herself on the forehead.

“Excuse me,” Robin kissed Raven on the cheek, “I have more bombs to plant.”

Raven blushed even harder.

“Sure you don’t want to go with him?” Miss Martian asked.

“Too much work to do tonight,” Raven said, “But on a quite night with no criminals around to interrupt us…”

“Come on, I need to be the wall…” Miss Martian said taking the form of Robin.

*

“Let them have some alone time,” Kate put up and hand cutting another bimbo off from going to try and take Bruce’s attention away, “They have some catching up to do.”

“What,” the bimbo snorted, “You want her to get the spot as the next Mrs Wayne?”

“Bruce offered her that job a while ago,” Kate said, “That’s part of why she isn’t in Gotham all that much.”

“Shit,” the Bimbo turned and walked away.

Bruce was seated next to Andrea and they talked in a whisper.

“You were right Bruce,” Andrea said, “It is Valley.”

“And the reports?”

“Greatly exaggerated as you can see,” Andrea said, “He survived too. The thing is I tried to seduce Valley in a nice little black dress. He didn’t get what I was doing and was completely out of it compared to the other angel.”

“Dissociative personality disorder?” Bruce asked.

“Maybe,” Andrea said, “Honestly it is like he was raised in a cult where anything outside of Puritan anti-sexuality was banned.”

“Even the Puritans had kids,” Bruce noted.

“Yeah well no one explained that to the man. I think he adopted a kid,” Andrea noted, “He was calling some guy here in the states.”

“Jean Paul,” Bruce said, “I have been looking into that. Do you think it was artificial insemination?”

“If it was than that means there is an organization behind this,” Andrea said.

“There always ends up being some sort of organization,” Bruce said, “Lone maniacs don’t last on their own.”

“What is Alfred doing while the streets are burning?” Andrea asked looking out the window.

*

“I am the very model of a modern major general…” Alfred sang as he drove the car known as ‘Dragula’ from the drivers seat of the limo parked outside, “Oh hello, I don’t think you should be doing that now boy…”

*

A group of guys were trying to use an extending ladder to cross from one apartment building across a narrow street to the roof of a bank… Below them they started to panic at the sight of the black vehicle. One of them tried to calm his buddies saying that the car couldn’t get them up here. But as he said that a panel opened and a cannon aimed up at them. With a bang something flew at them. It passed between an opening and continued up, but as it fell they realized it was on a line and was wrapping around the ladder.

“It’s a grappling hook!” one of them shouted.

The guys tried to make their way off the ladder as the vehicle below started reversing and pulling the ladder out from under them. They has just barely made it to the top of the apartment building before the vehicle hit the gas and yanked the ladder down.

*

“It is now two twelve,” Alexander Knox said into his phone, “Police are confirming that the rioters have either all gone home or have but locked up. Yeah, they are taking all the credit. I heard a meth head swear that a green bear chased him around Robinson park. Question, does meth make you see things? I know LSD does… So Gordon is calling on everyone to relax and let the police investigations happen. I heard from Vale earlier, she was all set for a scoop report… and she had camera malfunctions. Of course, I don’t think KITT or Knight Rider will replace Dragula. Unless you watched the show with the Hoff, it doesn’t make sense. Look, I think it was amateur hour. The bear? A few kids saying they were attacked by an actual gargoyle? Sounds to me like some kids trying their chops at being heroes… but my guess is the head Gargoyle is going to read them the riot act for being seen. I got plenty of Gargoyle Attacks, real ones where no one knows what hit them. Look, Waller, I know you don’t actually work for the UKBC, but please tell me that the checks I get for filing these ‘overseas reports’ are coming from US tax payers. I can live with that Amanda. Right, Lex-Corps’ security detail helped protect the Gotham Academy across the street, standard stuff, mace spray, riot shields. All good press for the slimey baldy. Fox put all of Wayne’s Security under the command of the police. Daggent had Goth-corps circle the wagons. Queen International had their security people work hand in hand with the cops. Anything else? Ahh. Oh, yeah. Owl Court had nothing happen. Yeah, nothing. Well I would have put money that the jewelry store nest to The Athenian Building would have gotten some attention from looters, but nothing. Yeah, Owl Court. It is one of the mini-parks here, one block of green in the middle of some important buildings, Athenian Building is on the north side of it, Parliament Hall to the south, Blakiston building to the east and Stygian Hall to the west. Yes, that’s why it’s called Owls court, Blakiston Fish Owl, a Stygian Owl, a parliament of owls and Athena’s pet owl. They even put a statue of Bubo the mechanical one put up in the 80’s to match the one in ‘Clash of the Titans.’ Alright, night Amanda.”

Alexander hit end call on his phone and looked around.

“Why didn’t they have anyone try to raid that jewelry store?” He asked himself.