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A laugh filled the bank as the Joker and his newest accomplice carried the money out of the bank. Bluff and Joker ran out of the bank. The sound of police sirens made them run faster.
“J, I thought you said Harley would be nearby with the car!” You shouted over the noise.
“Well, change of plans. She bailed, kid.” Joker said. Bluff frowned and for a moment looked a bit sad, before her face hardened into a mask of anger. She heard footsteps pursuing them, and risking a glance over her shoulder, saw a green cheetah chasing after them.
“J, we got company!” V/n shouted. Joker nodded. “Split up! Meet up at the funhouse.” He said and started running in the opposite direction. You ran a little faster until the cheetah was far enough behind that it couldn’t see you. A couple twists and turns through the alleys later, and you had lost your pursuer.
Or so you thought.
Stopping to catch your breath, you were doubled over as you panted heavily. You could feel your heart pounding but a couple more deep breaths would calm it down. You almost didn’t hear the soft and almost silent footsteps approaching you. You didn’t move, didn’t tense, and didn’t change your breathing at all. As far as the attacker knew, you weren’t aware of their presence.
Until they swung at you and you blocked them with your bat.
The force of the blow made you back up a few paces and you took the advantage to study your opponent. You’d know those traffic light colors from anywhere. “Hey birdbrain. Whatcha’ doin’ chasing lil’ ol’ me around?”
Robin continued to glare at you before speaking. “Give me the money, Bluff. Surrender and maybe you’ll get a shorter prison sentence. I doubt it though. You did join forces with a psychotic maniac.” He said. You rolled your eyes.
“What’re you gonna do? Ship me off to Belle Rev? I’ll get out of there, don’t you worry. Or maybe you’ll send me to Arkham like you’ll do to my boss. There’s a breakout there at least once every two weeks. It’ll be like a minute in time out to a two year old.” You said.
The boy looked like he was about to pop a vein or completely lose his mind. You know, I would really love to see that, your inner voice said. “Either way, Bluff, you have no way out of here. You’re cornered and you don’t have any powers to save you. You’re coming with me.” Robin said.
He threw a canister on the ground and covered his mouth with a mask. You realized that the gas was most likely not a good thing, and you would prefer to avoid finding out the hard way. It was knockout gas. How’d you figure it out?
The hard way.
******************
You woke up in a cell with some padding on the walls. You looked around hazily, trying to figure out where you were. No, too soft to be Belle Rev. Where were you? You looked across the hallway and with a jolt of surprise, recognized Poison Ivy or as she preferred you to call her, Pamela.
Pamela was one of Harley’s friends who had turned into a second mother. She liked you because you had helped Harley take care of her plants and you liked her because she kept Harley safe from Joker. If only you had someone like that.
You tapped on the glass of your cell. Pamela looked up at you and smiled. “Hey, my little blossom. Nice to see you awake.”
“Great to see you too, Pam. I’ve got a couple questions for ya. One, where is J? Two, is Harley here or is she still out? Three, are they only blocking the power in your cell or the entire buildings?”
“Joker is in the room right above you. If you ask me, you should get yourself out of here and leave him to rot.”
“I can’t. I owe him, remember?” You had been a kid on the streets for years until one of Joker’s henchmen had grabbed you. On the way to his hideout, you ran into some person with superpowers. You had used your ability to escape, but Joker tracked you down and offered you a job. You couldn’t say no. Not when he had several guns pointed at you.
“Yeah, yeah I know. Harley is still running amuck and you can pull that trick of yours don’t worry.” Pamela said. You smiled and nodded. You looked out the window and reached your hand out towards a nearby tree.
Vines started to grow from it and wrap around the bars in your window. With a hard tug, the vines bent them enough for you to squeeze through. You climbed out onto a branch before making the tree rise up to the next window. You did the same thing to those bars and the green haired psycho crawled out.
“Nice job, kid. Let’s go”
***************************
You were screwed. You were in so much trouble. Joker had decided to rob another bank. Apparently, the Teen Titans hadn’t left Gotham yet and they had been on duty when you had run off with the cash. Now you were faced by a kid in blue armor, a beautiful redhead that could shoot lasers out of her eyes, a green shapeshifter, and a girl in a purple cape.
You smiled to yourself. Lots of power to copy. You couldn’t wait.
A green bolt came out of nowhere at you. You dodged it before returning the shot in the direction it had come from. You heard a gasp. A mutter or two. You looked at the heroes, and with a bit of satisfaction, realized that you had surprised them.
“That’s not possible. You don’t have any powers. I should know, you would’ve used them against me earlier.” Robin said. You rolled your eyes as you looked at the traffic light look alike.
“You weren’t worth it, kid.” You smirked as you saw the rage show on his face. You never knew that someone could turn that exact shade of red. Then the red started to clear and the kid smirked.
Oh shit.
“That’s not it… You’re mimicking our abilities, aren’t you? That’s why you didn’t use anything against me, because I don’t have any. We all thought you were powerless because you worked with Joker.” The kid smirked and laughed haughtily. You glared. “That’s a useful skill. You could’ve joined any organization you wanted probably with that power. With enough training, you could’ve been a hero.”
“Really?” You asked. “I don’t want to be doing this! Joker was forcing me to! I just wanted to chill and live my life! Could you really help me? I could be a hero?” You watched as they began to fall for your trick. They were soon believing that you wanted to actually be a hero. “Meh, no thanks.” You said as you copied the purple caped kid’s ability and made a smokescreen. You took off running for the hideout.
You didn’t know that you were being followed.
****************
“J, I’m back.” You shouted as you entered the building, oblivious to the crouched figure watching from a window. You walked up to where the green haired man was sitting. He turned and gave you a smile that made you panic a little. That smile never meant anything good.
You felt the cold steel of the crowbar hit your stomach, knocking the breath out of you. You fell to the floor, gasping. “I can see that you’re back. And without my money too.” He said as he raised the crowbar again. You curled up into a little ball and braced yourself for impact.
It never came.
Your little stalker had decided to intervene. You watched as Robin tackled Joker to the ground and started wrestling for the crowbar. Robin finally yanked the weapon out of the Joker’s grasp and used it to hit the clown in the head. It was enough force to knock the Joker out. Robin stood up and looked at you. You whimpered, worried that he was going to hurt you too.
“Are you okay, Bluff?” He asked quietly. You slowly nodded. “Are you sure? It looked like he hit you pretty bad with that crowbar.”
“I’m fine.” You said curtly. Despite your insistence, Robin came closer to you. You tried to push him away but he caught your hands and held them tightly in one of his. He used his other hand to gently push on where the crowbar had hit you. He watched your face carefully, looking for any sign of pain or injury. You winced and he knew that you were hurt worse than you were letting on.
“I need to know something. Why did you work for that maniac? Why are you still here with him?”
“I had no other place to go. Remember a few years back, when he kidnapped kids and tried to turn them into his little Jokerlings? I was one of the kids he tried to take. Luckily for me, we crossed paths with someone who had powers. I managed to escape but Joker found me again, offered me a job. I couldn’t say no. And now I can never leave. You don’t leave the Joker alive.”
Robin nodded his head thoughtfully. “I understand that. And you only committed those crimes because he made you?”
“Yes. I tried my best to hurt the least amount of people possible too.” You answered.
“Well from the sounds of it, the only reason you’re doing this is because you have no other choice. But what if I told you that there was a choice? You could join the teen titans. We’d train you, and you could help do some good in the world instead of bad.” Robin offered.
You felt something odd. Something you haven’t felt in a long time. Hope. Then your hope was swiftly shot down by pessimism. “Didn’t I just try to trick you with that? What would the others say? They’ll throw me in jail. And what if he tries to get me back or worse?”
“Bluff, the others may protest it but they’ll listen to me when I make a couple points about why we should have you on the team. And as for the Joker, he’ll never hurt you again. I’ll make sure of that. So, what do you say?”
“Don’t call me Bluff, anymore. I’m y/n. And I say yes.”
“Fine. If I have to call you y/n, then you need to start calling me Robin and not Birdbrain.” Robin said and you giggled. “Deal.”