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The Joker is on the loose; this is always a cause for concern at the onset, although generally once his motives are found out — or in the process — he has been captured. Traditionally, by the Gray Falcon himself; yet his somewhat grim death only days ago has put a spin on the clown's antics. Although Lois' interview gave some clue to what he's after, it might become somewhat more highlighted when the police respond to a distress call.
A three-story office building has apparently been laid siege by the Joker and his minions. There was a firefight from the windows, although things died down upon both statement and confirmation of at least one female hostage by a clown-painted minion. The only demand they have is fairly simple.
"We want Captain America! You got thirty minutes!" What happens /after/ that is a question that most likely do not want answered. The building proper has been otherwise shut down, spotlights blaring on it, a few windows broken but showing only the interior. There's no special safeguards on the roof, beyond a mighty store-bought padlock upon the door leading to the stairs. The glass front leading to the first floor lounge area is shattered, although all the lights in the building appear to still be on.
Police report six to eight hostiles inside. Joker is presumed there as well, but there's been no actual sighting…
*
It doesn't take long for Steve to hit the streets in full costume. His motorcycle roars loudly as he increases his speed, even despite the traffic. At one point he even goes up onto the sidewalk when the traffic is at a red light. As he finally arrives at the building in question, he pulls into a wide skid and kicks the stand just as he turns off the engine in one fell, practiced swoop.
Steve goes right into stride with one of the police offers as he walks towards the building, getting the latest intelligence report. They don't know much, and that's a problem.
All sorts of different ways to get in, but this is the Joker. Though Steve doesn't know him personally and has no explicit experience with the Clown Prince of Crime, he knows enough to assume that whatever challenge he's given will be straight up. And likely designed to embarrass him.
He goes in through the front door.
*
There's the crackle of broken glass beneath Steve's booted feet as he strides into the interior. Police do not offer to follow him. Perhaps the special forces or even anti-powered units would be brought in, if they felt it would help. Yet hostages always change the game, especially when the value of a human life isn't fully known to the Clown Prince just yet.
Not far out of sight, a fairly well-built man in a trenchcoat holding a small automatic weapon is seen. No hostile motion is done, however. "Oye. Third floor." is all he indicates, brandishing his weapon in the general direction of the elevator. Wary, to say the least, but little indication that something as basic as a surprise attack is in the immediate cards.
*
Captain America gives a quick nod, but given that the enemy is there and armed, he takes no chances. His curling body unleashes his shield with laser quick efficacy. Before the goon knows it, the shield is airborne, heading right for his head. Like any good sports player, Steve follows his shot, reaching up as he stays low, looking to catch the shield on the rebound. Off his face.
*
Betraying all expectations, the goon is struck squarely in the face. A meaty ricochet sends the shield bouncing precisely where Captain America intended, and the figure thumps on the ground with his limbs sprawled out. That he did not lose any teeth is a likely intentional mercy. No other armed men are immediately visible clear to the elevator; a basic affair with three buttons and little else, although there is a door indicating the stairwell to the left. A speaker is settled above the elevators, although it is not clear whether such has always been there, or is a recent install.
*
Naturally, Steve takes the stairs because it's far more difficult to modify into a trap. That being said, he's fairly certain there could be a trap anywhere. He bursts through the door and begins to head up the stairs to the third floor, using his serum-given speed to aid him. He doubts he'll take the Joker by surprise, and knows he's probably being watched, but things that happen at speed are often disconcerting for those he goes up against and time has a way of running out before you expect it to.
*
The moment Steve bursts through the door, there's a small stairwell winding upwards. There is a central square of light, and on the third alcove beside the roof access are two more goons, one wearing a cheap and shoddy mask, the other with obviously halfhearted makeup. "OYE!" one calls out. "HE SAID TAKE THE STAIRS!!" They open fire, but by the time such begins, Captain America is likely already to the second story, and he exposes himself little on the ascent just the same. But they both have automatic weaponry, somewhat shifting apart in at least the basic cognance of positioning.
*
Captain America's legs pump faster and faster and he finds himself thankful that the serum that still courses through his veins allows him extra stamina. Grace is thrown out the window. With his shield in front of him, Steve goes full on Green Bay Packer style linebacker as he goes into the pair like a battering ram attempting to stop this before it starts.
*
There's the tell-tale ricochet of bullets on that shield. The first tries to back up vainly, before the shield slams him in his chest and he's lifted clean off his feet to impact the wall, creating a sizeable dent. The other stopped firing when it might have hit his ally, but brings the weapon back up immediately after, although with the proverbially fatal mistake of allowing Captain America to orient himself beforehand. His follow-up spray of bullets is doomed to hit shield again, before he's dispatched in whatever Pro-America manner the opposing hero elects to do. An unlocked door leads to a hallway, the sirens muffled outside still. The location of the hostages, and the rest of the men, remaining unknown. From what little Captain America knows, it can't possibly be this easy.
*
Captain America grabs the second man by the lapels and simply flings him down the stairs. The flailing goon clears most of the stairs, except for the bottom ones, before he lands roughly up the corners of the cement, skids against the landing, and then crashes into the wall. The Star Spangled Avenger doesn't even bother to watch him come to a stop. He's inside the hallway and his mind is racing. Every doorway, on either side, holds a potential catastrophe. Perhaps intended to sow doubt. Captain America refuses to allow the Joker to get the upperhand so easily, instead and again, using his speed to begin to run down the hallway, shield at the ready, as he's eager to press and try and get the Joker to make a mistake.
*
What happens next is somewhat more anticlimatic. Abruptly, Captain America is in a small waiting area. There is a secretary's desk, behind which an attractive blond in pigtails is settled. She's chewing a piece of gum, scratching into a notebook of some sort; dressed in the classic garb of her trade. Behind is a large and more ornate door, the like that a CEO or someone else of importance would have. There is no other people present, and absolutely no indication of a threat from the female, who blinks and looks up in the time it would take Steve to grasp her and fling her from a nearby window if he had a mind.
*
While the Joker is known for his unpredictability, Steve believes that the only way to effectively combat it is with some of his own. He stops and puts on a smile. "Hi," he says cheerfully, with a nod. "I'm here to see the boss. I have an appointment."
*
Immediately the girl beams, nodding her head. "Mistah J's waiting for you!" She beckons back at the door behind her. Leaning forward, she presses down on the intercom button. "Pudding! He's heeeeere!"
"Ooo, GOODIE!" comes the somewhat staticed but assuredly genuine voice of the Joker. "Does he know if he throws his shield at my face I'll kill all the hostages?"
"Umm… yep?"
"Hoohoo!" The girl then lets go of the intercom, before wriggling her torso back and forth while nibbling her lower lip. "Boy GOLLY, you're handsome, mister!"
*
"Thanks," Steve says absently towards the blonde with pigtails. "I moisturize." He opens the door slowly, holding the shield up to protect him as he steps into the office. "You wanted me," he calls out to the Joker. "So I came. Hostages get let go and then the real fun can begin, right?"
*
Within the large office is a grandiose wooden desk. A window shows the city's nightscape, flashing red and blue in tune with the police down below. A trail of smoke raises up, before the back of the large cushioned seat twists. Settled in an ill-fitting business suit is indeed, the Joker. Pastey white, gaunt and sharp featured, grin already present. A small pair of reading spectacles are balanced on the bridge of his nose.
"Don't worry about the hostages!" The Joker touts, holding what seems to be a large manilla folder in his hands. He's thumbing through it. "Come now, I'm not going to BOTHER testing the merits of your athletic performance. You get full marks in that! Sit, sit!"
He beckons for the comfortable-looking chair opposite the desk. Apparently he's put all kinds of clown paraphernalia around, from wind-up teeth to tiny dolls, and the engraved nameplate reads 'T.J. Laffs'.
*
"The heart wants what the heart wants, right? I want the hostages to be let go. I know you well enough to know that you'll kill them without a moment's notice. I'll play your game, but the hostages go free. Now. And I'll play it till its end," Steve replies. He approaches the seat, but does not sit, as he bargains.
*
"…" The Joker's frowning now, adjusting his spectacles. "Well, just like I thought. You're pretty straight and narrow, aren't you? Should I just KILL the hostages now, and get that distraction over with?" Just the faintest hint of exasperation on his face. He digs inside his desk and pulls out a comically oversized green button, attached to a gaggle of wires. It's set at the end of the desk. "If you want them released, just hit that at anytime!"
Coughing lightly, the Joker then looks back into the folder. "This is an interview! An INTERVIEW! And you are NOT doing well, no sir!" He reaches to pluck up a giant red marker, uncapping it and making the grandiose motion of a checkbox. "There's a reason I never played with you… but, well. One has to work with the market, don't they say? Maybe you'll SURPRISE me! Haaaaahahaahaha!"
*
Steve has partially disconnected.
*
"Well, I've been the victim of typecasting. It's my agent's fault, really." Steve eyes the green button warily, and then looks back to the Joker. "I think it was pretty clear that I was implying I wanted them let go in one piece."
Steve tilts his head, "For your job you want someone who thinks for themselves, takes a stand, and holds their ground. You want me precisely because I will tell it to you like it is. Honesty doesn't come easy anymore. Or cheap."
*
There's almost a snort from the Joker at that. "So you CAN crack a joke?!" Setting down the red marker, this time a green one is plucked out, and a positive checkmark is put down. "I know, I know. There'll be time for GAMES in the future. This isn't one! I just wanted to have a CHAT!"
Another gesture is done towards the button. "Don't you TRUST me? Press it, if it's such a load on your mind! Although…" Lips curl into a forced frown, muscles twitching in the effort of desire to resume that paralyzed grin. "We both know what you're going to do already. That's the problem with us. You're Mr. American Way, aren't you? You won't show a single crack, until the whole things goes shattering apart!"
*
Steve's head lolls back and forth as he slowly says no. "I'm not interested in pretending to be tough. I just want the people to be alright." He doesn't touch the question about trust with a 10 foot pole. Of course he doesn't trust the Joker. But he's not going to try and make him mad. Instead, he tries to appeal to Joker's lust for laughs. "Did you hear the one about Hitler's dog? I heard all sorts of jokes in foxholes."
*
The Joker continues thumbing through the manilla folder. "Is that the one where it lifts a paw at 'Heil Hitler', or the one where it heels instead, or…?" he asks, mumbling in a distracted fashion. "That's why this isn't a game, though. Like some super-rat, you'll take the shortest and most efficient route in the maze, and you're SO focused on the greater good, that you can't even SEE me sitting right before you!" He glares through his glasses, demeanor seeming to grow worse as the seconds pass. To Captain America's keen senses, someone who has been in a true battlefield… danger. When he first entered, the man opposite felt almost harmless. Yet there's a sharpness in the air, rasping like a blade more and more. "Are you going to take a seat, or not?"
*
Steve goes conversational as he moves to take a seat. He pressed, and it didn't work. The Joker has the cards. "So, Hitler comes into a room and says, "My dog has no nose." His advisor shakes his head incredulously. "Mein fuhrer…how does it smell?" Hitler sighs and shakes his head. "Awful." Steve sits down."
*
Those eyes remain unblinking upon Captain America. There's almost no movement within the Joker, then. No mild twitches, no shifts, seeming not even to breathe. Yet after the joke and the taken seat, it is like a proverbial shroud is lifted. The grin resumes, and a small laugh follows. "That one's my favorite!" he agrees, wiping away a faux tear from his eye.
"Where were we…?" He rummages through the papers a bit, before holding up an article of the reservoir incident. Thousands dead. "What did you think of this…? Were you there? It was a bit of a protracted engagement! But I was pretty insistent on the playground only being filled with my chosen comrades, or I was prone to throwing an even WORSE temper-tantrum and burning the whole city to the ground!"
The headline is dropped, to drift to the top of the desk. "What do you think my message was, there? Hmm?"
*
Steve shakes his head, "I wasn't there. Afraid I was frozen in an ice cube up in the arctic." He sighs a bit as he considers, "I read about it a bit, though. If I had to guess the message might have been that the thing keeping them alive was what killed them in the end. Either that, or you just wanted the Gray Falcon to come out and meet with you."
*
"Were you?" The Joker wonders. A look of genuine curiosity crosses his face. "I suppose you weren't there. It'd have been RUDE not to be, had you not been chilling out!" Although the analysis causes something of a sigh, two fingers coming up to rub at either temple. "No, no, no! Wrong! All wrong!" A fist thumps into the desk, and the Joker leans slightly forward. "You don't CARE about my messages, do you? You just think I'm some kind of monster that needs put back in it's /pen./ Is THAT what we are?"
*
"I didn't say that. We're all monsters, right? I mean, that's your point. That the world is a terrible place and you just have to laugh because if you didn't, you'd cry?" Steve says. He's losing and he knows it, so he's shooting from the hip.
*
Again the Joker's obvious aggravation begins to boil forth. He twirls the green pen around in his fingers, twisting his chair to the side. "Sigh…" he exhales, beginning to thump the back of his head against the chair. "Knew it…" Fingers clench on the marker, trembling before there's a *SNAP* of plastic and green ink gushes out. "Knew it…!" He grasps his face, warping his skin, lips twitching in an attempt to grin even more as his gaze seems to lose focus. "Knewitknewitknewitknewit!! There's no new Gray Falcon out there, is there?!"
*
"You got me in a box here, Joker. What do you want me to say? You do these things, I try and fix these things. That's how this goes until one of us gives up, can't continue, or dies," Steve replies as the man with the rictus grin starts to have a hissy fit. "what do /you/ think we are?"
*
"We're nothing." Joker states, matter of factly, massaging at his temples roughly. "We got no spark. No chemistry." He slaps his hands heavily down on the desk and shoves up to his feet, removing his glasses fully and flicking them away. "Because you're too rational. Haaaaahahahaha! That's not a BAD thing, I guess! But." He makes to walk around the desk, hands crossed behind his lower back. Legs lifting and marching almost rigidly like some kind of a soldier. "You will do whatever it takes to protect innocent life. Won't you? Break me. Kill me. That's the SENSIBLE thing to do. But no, no, no! I need someone who's CO-DEPENDANT! Someone to be my muse…" His gaze drops to the red button on the desk, tangle of wires still leading to the floor and somewhere unknown.
*
Steve sighs and shrugs his shoulders, "Sorry to disappoint." And then he tilts his head. "Grey Falcon wouldn't have killed you? Doesn't seem to make much sense. What serves the greater good? Letting you continue or just ending the threat? That's probably why we wouldn't work out."
*
"He pitied me." Joker states, tone somewhat different then. "He thought he understood what I was going through. His goal was to reach me. Ohhhh, he TRIED! He really did! But… well. He gave up on me, in the end…! I tried to spur him back into it, I REALLY did, but…" A genuinely unhappy sigh. "I suppose it couldn't have gone on forever. …well, sorry to waste your time! I'll be leaving, now!" He turns towards the door.
*
"Just a second. We still have a deal we can make. The people for letting you go…That's how this works, right?" Steve says as he turns in his chair. "I'm sure you'll find the nemesis you're looking for. There's no shortage of them out there."
*
"What…? I already told you. Hit the button!! …but it might be too late, now." The Joker gives a sort of lazy shrug as he twists the doorknob to push out into the main secretary area. "Deception is the most base and crass form of comedy, you see. You REALLY should have trusted me!"
*
"Aw hell," Steve says as he reaches for the button. He does not trust the Joker, but it doesn't make much fun if he just out and out lies to the Captain. He presses the button.
*
Somewhere a floor below there's a dull thump, as if something just opened. Although nothing more. "I'd get down there, if I were you! They were waiting with baited breath!! Haaaaaahahaha!!"
*
Steve leaps out of the chair and tears out of the room, heading back for the the hallway. He gives the Joker no more words and no goodbye. He knows the madman needs to be caught, but true to form, he has priorities. A boot kicks open the door and he leaps downward in the space between the stair well to get to the next floor in one leap and then reaches for the door.
*
On the second floor, there is a door being guarded by the remaining three thugs. They seem to be surprised by the sound of whatever happened past it. "Oye!! Light him up!!" One fires with a pistol, the other holding ready with a pipe, as the last unloads a spray of shotgun pellets. The hall is narrow; it's a somewhat risky direct engagement. Yet if time is truly of the essence, there may be no path but forward for the Captain!
*
Steve does his best to protect himself holding the shield in front of him, but rather than go for some tactically superior strategy, he just straight up battering rams it. Last night, when he was doing his reading, he came across a line from US Grant that still rolls through his head: In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins. So, to hell with these goons.
*
There's likely going to be a few unhappy clips from the buckshot, but Captain America impacts the man with the shotgun dead center and manages to fling him aside. The pistol thrusts out, range awkwardly close, blindly discharging. Most dangerous is the threat that might need ignored at the moment, which is a two-handed swing of a heavy metal pipe towards the side of a knee. "FUCK'M UP! FUCK'M UP!"
*
The pistol blast buries itself in Cap's armor, knocking him backwards. He's surprised, clearly, and a momentary fear of being shot pulses through him, yet his armor holds. Steve reaches his hand up to grab the gunhand, and unfortunately loses track of the metal pipe that thwacks him viciously in the knee, causing him to buckle and fall to the ground!
*
The wrestle with the man holding the pistol is successful, and although the Captain thumps downwards, the other thug is hauled along with, pistol flying away as he crashes adjacent. Yet the one with the pipe brings it back up, swinging it blindly down again and again as hard as he can while Captain America is vulnerable, which might not last long enough for even a single hit. The second is diving for the shotgun now, apparently desiring a more substantial weapon in close quarters…!
*
Grimacing and cursing at himself at being allowed to get hit by a pipe, Steve is clearly frustrated. He blocks the blows from the pipe with the shield and attempts to use his other hand to reach out. He's aiming for the boot of the man reaching for the shotgun as he tries to trip and drag the would be gunman.
*
Snagged, Steve manages to haul the figure back just as he grasps the shotgun. It delays him a few moments as he crashes to the ground, but he still twists around and unloads the last shell in a point-blank spray of pellets, as the second thug tries to ignore the throbbing numbness in his fingers to keep up the assault. They are sloppy in their desperation, sensing opportunity and clumsily going for the throat like newborn cubs!! "GET HIIIIIIM!"
*
Steve has to think quickly, especially given that he's still flat on his back. His blue eyes go wide as the shotgun is turned in his direction. He lifts his foot, hard, and kicks upward, sending the blast away from his face and putting a big ass set of shot-holes through the wall right above his head. He pulls hard on the leg he used to trip the man and drives his foot equally hard towards the shotgunners face.
*
Joker arrives from RP Nexus.
*
Joker has arrived.
*
The shotgun is deflected, brought far too close towards Steve. While struggling with the recoil and disorientation, a foot strikes him in the nose, and with a spurt of blood he collapses sideways. The last thug drops down to his knees abruptly, attempting to drop the pipe beneath Captain America's chin and draw it up, into a furious choke!!
*
The pipe does get across Cap's throat and almost immediately he can feel it choking him out, despite his strong muscles and padding. He must work quickly, of course, so taking his shield he swings it maniacally back over himself, trying to smash it into the face or wherever on the man, at full force. Whatever happened to those poor people has almost certainly happened now as Cap desperately tries to get to them and if he maims someone in trying to save at least one of them, then so be it.
*
The last thug is struck in the face, a few teeth knocked free as he spasms against the wall and slides down. The door is unlocked; when burst through, there is what seems to be a giant safe, the door slightly open. A series of wires draw up to the ceiling. Apparently, hitting the button unlocked it…
*
Steve throws caution to the wind and looks into the safe. Out of breath, and afraid of what he might find, he knows he needs to get to it right away. He opens the door wider and swallows with difficulty…
*
Within the gigantic safe is about five people, tied up and crammed together like sardines; all of them are unconscious and very blue. When the door is open, a couple people tumble out. A few suddenly gasp in breathes, but the other two seem to not be recovering on their own…! How long have they been like this? Was the safe shut the moment Steve entered the building?
*
Immediately, Steve rips their bonds and begins performing CPR. Dammit. Damn the Joker, he thinks as he begins compressions. "Are you alright?" he calls out to the ones who seem to be gasping for air.
*
The other three are still unconscious. CPR causes one of the two remaining ones to spasm and begin coughing. That leaves the fifth, an old man who does not look particularly healthy in the first place. He has bruises, appearing to have been in the back of the safe…
*
Steve begins to yell out, "Someone call 911!" He's not sure if anyone can hear him, but hopes against hope that they can. Even though the old man doesn't come too, Steve continues to work on him. That's what the First Aid class said. Keep going until a professional takes over. His instructor told him that sometimes, even when there doesn't seem to be a way, there can be a way. It's like Grant said..sometimes when you think you've lost you still gotta go after it.
*
It takes some time before people are heard thrumming in. The man remains blue throughout it, unreactive, when paramedics burst in. The other four have come to, supporting each other and obviously badly rattled by the event. Captain America is coerced away, before they do a brief triage. And… "He's still alive!!" He's rushed out to be carted off to the hospital — the prognosis is that had Steve given up, stopped performing it for even five seconds, he would certainly have been dead. It will be a long road to recovery… but tenacity, it seems, pays off.
*
Steve leans against the wall having a lot of trouble with taking any joy in the man living. Relief is more like it. He unfurls his gloves in anger with only one thing on his mind. Perhaps he was not a fitting rival as far as the Joker was concerned, and perhaps Steve would never gain the obsession of the Clown Prince of Crime the way the Grey Falcon did. In truth, he didn't give two cans of beans. From here on out, the Joker was one of his obsessions.
Steve gets to his feet, eager to talk to the people who made it before they're carted away in the ambulance.
*
Nothing useful is said by those present. The safe had been delivered earlier in the day, to the confusion of everyone present. Then the men with the guns came and herded them up, tying them. They only kept enough hostages to fill the safe — the remainder were herded into a room downstairs and hid there until the event was over, uninjured. Steve would pinpoint that around when he entered, they were shoved into the safe by the three men outside, and it was slammed shut, only unlocked by hitting the button… nearly suffocating. Yet the man he struck with his shield is in a coma with brain swelling… the ruthless force required, it seems, still has consequences.