Jake and Kazuma are Introduced to Duela and Her Parents.

[wind_contractor]

Who: Duela, Jokester, Harlequin, Jake Berenson, Mari Broderick, and Kazuma Yagami

What: As it reads on the tin. Mari arrives with the new allies as they'll come up with a plan on what to do about the Copycat Joker.

When: Just after this scene!

Where: Kazuma's old home in the world he originally grew up in.


Kazuma pocketed his phone after staring at it a moment. A part of him wanted to contact his family; his cousin Ayano and younger brother Ren--but then he had second thoughts.

Since Kazuma's lived a life with Jake and his other friends in another world for over a few years, he figured it would be very awkward, with a lot of drama involved. Also, he sure as hell didn't want Ren near Vertigo. The vile and cruel lizard sorceress had a very different way of using magic. In a fight against Mari's boyfriend, from what he heard, she had dodged and blocked his fire attacks. Ayano was more than capable of taking care of herself, while Ren wasn't close to being powerful as their cousin.

He frowned, pondering about that sadistic, murderous clown. Ayano and her friends from school went to the city often, for their school was over there. And there were places in which they'd hang out at on the weekends or after school. Kazuma squeezed his jaws together. He could picture a crazy fight scene in his mind of Ayano and the Joker... Maybe she is somewhere far away from him.

Oh, who was he trying to kid? He then shook his head, before he could let himself get worked up over that.

As he stood in the foyer, he noticed the knob of the front door being turned. He noticed a red haired lady with pale make up on coming in. In remembering what Mari's texts had described, he figured this had to be one of their new allies who decided to help them track the murdering criminal down. In seeing this woman, that had to mean Mari and the other two were close behind. Wearing a relaxed smile, he said, "Well, that was quick.”

Comments

[no_sanity_clause]

"Hi!" Duela says, cheerily, as if they're meeting here to have a party instead of deal with a murderous alt or copycat of her father.

Jokester sidles in with his hands up as if fully expecting there's going to have to be a whole lot of 'not the clown you want to kill' explanations. It's one reason he stuck with the color reversal.

"Given the problem," Harlequin says, stepping inside, "it's better to be quick than dead."

[beyondthenorms]

"You could say that again--but don't." Mari smiled a little as she saw Kazuma gape in surprise for a split second, before sighing and calming himself down.

Her wind mage friend looked to her, and gave a look that may as well have said, Our lives are so weird sometimes.

"It's easiest to think of Jokester as the very opposite of our crazy stalker." She started to look around a bit. "Will Jake be down soon?"

"Yeah. A minute, give or take," Kazuma said. "He's just come back from a little recon mission."

[no_sanity_clause]

"Well, maybe not completely opposite," Jokester admits, thinking that would be Batsy. "But I'm definitely trying not to be like... him. I might be crazy, but when the bodies start piling up... it's just not funny any more."

"It's more like Chaotic Good verses Chaotic Evil," Duela says, looking around the room with all the curiosity of a child half her age or less.

"I thought I was the crazy stalker in the family," Harlequin jokes, snuggling next to Jokester. "This guy's not even getting it right."

[wind_contractor]

"Hey, as long as you're here to help us out, then I won't need to worry about the three of you." Kazuma looked between the three clown people as he was fairly serious in speaking to them. "I believe Mari would have already mentioned about someone else who's after us."

"She wouldn't be able to read their minds much at all, not without getting confused." Mari assured. "What they've been through--it's a real doozy. Multiple parallel universes, and different versions of Batman and the rest..."

Kazuma looked at them, in a loss for words. "Well, damn."

[no_sanity_clause]

"And don't forget different versions of us," Jokester says, "who were, since the whole mess collapsed in on itself, also us. Simple version, I remember being... well, not the guy you're having trouble with, but someone very very like him. Several times over, in fact. There are memories in my head that make me sick... and the idea that there's a version of that monster still running around doing those things? Well, I really don't like that."

Harlequin just gives his hand a squeeze and leans close with her head on his shoulder.

Duela, meanwhile, seems to have had some kind of idea, because she's found a spot to sit down in the floor and pull some little bottles and other supplies out of her utility belt. And start mixing things together, like a kid playing Mad Chemist.

[beyondthenorms]

"It was a really good idea, to go to that much safer world," Mari said. "If we're in a pickle again, we know what to do." She felt a bit of happiness that wasn't her own.

"So what do you suggest we do about our perp?" Kazuma asked Jokester.

When Duela began to start on a science project, Mari walked over out of curiosity. What is she...?

Coming up with a way to weaken the Copy Cat? Let's hope so, "spoke" the presence of Home Nexus.

[laughing_girl]

"Well, with the Joker... you've really only got three options. Cure him, catch him, or kill him," Jokester says. "The first almost never got seriously attempted, and never really stuck until our reality collapsed... I still owe ol' Martian Manhunter a 'thanks for trying' card. And if you've ever cracked open a comic book, you probably know how well option number two usually worked out... so unless you've got someplace really inescapable in mind... the question is how far are you willing to go?" He doesn't like the idea of killing, but he also knows he'd rather be dead than be that monster again.

Duela looks up at Mari, then down at what she's doing, and then back up. "It's the antidote for Joker Toxin, mixed with DMSO so it'll absorb through skin." She fidgets, and looks at her dad for a second. "Most of the timelines where Daddy's the bad kind of crazy... half of it is because of getting dunked in chemicals that were like the stuff he'd use later. I just thought, maybe..." Maybe they could at least try to get through to this other lunatic, if he had that much in common. And even if not, a spray would be more convenient cure for anyone who got gassed.

Jokester goes over and crouches down to pat Duela's hair. "You never give up on anyone, do you, baby girl? ... You'd have to get that from your mom." If he had to admit it, he's still not sure about his own relative stability... as he'd said, it never stuck before, and he's not sure that someday the Joker won't be back.

Harlequin giggles. "Where would we be if I wasn't more stubborn than Reality itself."

"Absolutely nowhere!" Jokester says with a laugh.

[wind_contractor]

"I hope a cure would work. Having to kill would be a last resort," Mari suggested. "Even though being targeted by two extremely dangerous crazies is stressing, I can't just assume the worst outcome."

"He might be scheming something nasty, whenever he decides to show up again," Kazuma warned. "Duela, if you believe your cure would work, then we will do what can to cover for you. Either way, we're willing to do what's necessary to stand up to the Joker." He sighed. "Now that he's lurking around my old neighborhood, I can't turn away from this."

[reality_warper]

"If you haven't seen him, I'm sure he is," Jokester says. "And the longer he's out of the spotlight, the worse it's going to be. All you can really do is hope it doesn't involve a room full of babies and explosives... You might guess I'm not too comfortable with Duela too close to the guy."

"That's why it'll have to be me," Harlequin says, before Jokester can suggest otherwise. "If this version's got powers like the ones I got from Ivy, anyone getting too close is tricky."

"I was thinking of putting it in gas grenades," Duela says.

"If the toxin exposure's the same," Harlequin says, "gassing the guy might not be enough to counter the amounts he was exposed to. But, if it can just take the edge off the omnicidal mania enough to try to reason with him..."

"He still might kill you," Jokester points out. "If it's me... well, the sheer weirdness of coming face to face with an alt of oneself... Trust me, things won't get lethal until he's done trying to figure out what's going on." It was how a lot of people he'd worked with back in the day had managed to survive - by simply being too interesting to kill.

Harlequin sighs and hugs Jokester. "I've dodged most of the times you've tried to shoot me, remember? And grenades are a ranged weapon... I won't have to get that close."

Duela tries not to roll her eyes at this. They could argue forever to try to keep each other out of danger, but they didn't have forever. "Mom? Did you bring more antidote? We can make gas grenades for everyone, and that way however things go someone'll get him. And they'd be good in case he gets anyone else, too. And, hmmm... Anybody know where we could get a trank gun?" Gas him and then shoot him? Urgh, she doesn't like having to be the planner. That used to be Daddy's thing, or Uncle Eddie's. Though, she guesses she can't blame her parents for being overprotective of each other lately.

[beyondthenorms]

...She didn’t really want to imagine that killer lunatic involved with threatening babies. It was unthinkable.

A familiar to her spoke up. “So, this would be the family from an alternate universe, right?” Mari looked to Jake as he was coming down the stairs, looking curiously and cautiously at Harlequin and Jokester as they debated and fussed over who would face the violent copy-cat Joker.

“Yeah, that would be them,” Mari replied to him. She sent him a calm, assuring expression that read, It’s all right. Chill. They’re our new buddies. “If everything works out, then we’ll have one less giant problem to deal with.” She predicted that Jake had been in morph. “So, did you go on a recon mission?”

“I did,” her Animorph friend said. “But all I found were weapons... and the bodies of the family that lived in the house he went to.” His own expression was a grim one.

[laughing_girl]

Unfortunately for Jokester, he doesn't have to imagine it. All he has to do is remember... and be relieved the kids hadn't been harmed in the end, though he couldn't say the same for Commissioner Gordon's wife.

There's an awkward moment when the trio can't find anything funny about this.

"Well, that's one way not to have to worry about another mortgage payment," Harlequin manages, though she knows it's a bit flat.

"Y'know, if they'd been in Gotham, insurance companies might cover break-ins by homicidal clowns," Duela says.

"Nah, it'd get filed under 'Act of God'," Harley adds, settling next to her daughter to make some gas grenades.

Jokester snerks at that one. "Not even close." Joker was more like an act of the devil.

"So, any other suggestions on antidote delivery methods?" Duela asks, hoping their new acquaintances aren't too offended... humor's a big defense mechanism for her family. "I don't even know if this will work, but..."

[ohfearlessleader]

A friend of Jake’s had also used humor as a defensive mechanism. Marco didn’t only crack jokes whenever there was opportunity. Man oh man, could he complain...

In spite of the fact that it had been too close a call, getting shot at with a laughing gas bullet, he managed a partial smile towards the trio who looked like they escaped from a circus.

Kazuma and Mari just didn’t seem to be bothered by their wisecracking at all.

“If I use my enhanced speed, I could inject the antidote,” Mari offered. “I zip by, stick it in, and get back before he could do anything to me.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kazuma said.

“All I can do is help look for him,” Jake said. “This time, I’ll be much higher in the air.” He looked to Mari. “I’ll have an easier time dodging bullets.” You won’t need to worry.

“Is there a way to lead him someplace where there are less people around?” Kazuma asked Duela, Jokester, and Harlequin. “My cousin, a fire magic user, can handle her own against such a menace, but she lacks in self control. And we prefer for most people to remain unaware about our powers.”

[no_sanity_clause]

Harlequin nods. "And if we manage to gas him first, maybe he'd even let you..." She'll fix up a couple syringes while her daughter finishes assembling the gas grenades.

As much as Jokester doesn't like the idea of Joker around people in general, he knows that question is a pretty tall order. "If he's tricked into it, maybe. Look, when you're putting on a show, you don't intentionally go where there's less of an audience, am I right? Captive or otherwise. Now Batsy... Batsy was an exception. He was an audience all on his own. But that's a whole other complicated can of worms, and we don't know enough about this guy to know if there's anyone like that around." He paces a bit as he speaks. "If he's anything at all like me... I mean, besides the obvious... he's going to want attention. You can't get that with no one around. The only way to get him away from live, injurable people is to make him at least think he's going somewhere where even more people will notice. And I doubt we have time to co-opt some on-location film shooting or something."

[wind_contractor]

Kazuma breathed out a sigh. “It was worth asking anyway... So, he likes being the center of attention.” He’d never been to a circus show his entire life, yet he understood Jokester’s explanation well enough.

“If we start seeing flames or a bunch of stuff on fire, then it would be easy to find him and Ayano,” Mari pointed out. “We could all team up against him then.” That was how she was, often looking towards the bright side of things.

His spoke his reply calmly, but in a fairly serious tone of voice. “True, but would you be ready for the drama that would happen afterwards? Do you think there’s time for that?” Reasonably, not only had he accepted his new life, along with the large group who cared about him—he was thinking of their enemies. He honestly wasn’t so sure that being on his world to avoid Vertigo was working out so well.

In knowing how irrational and brash his cousin tended to be at times, and how stressed out Mari has been lately—in addition to how much of an ass his old man would be once they’d see each other...

“There will be time. And, if Vertigo finds us, I don’t believe she’ll be able to strike at us altogether,” Mari reasoned, confident and determined. “What about you though? You haven’t seen your family in four years. Wouldn’t it be fair for them to know you haven’t died?”

[laughing_girl]

Jokester's still pacing as he tries to think of a way to lure Joker away from potential victims. Granted, there'd been a few times he'd been sneakier... but that had usually involved some game with the Bat that was meant to at least end in something huge and attention-getting. With his attention on this, he fails to notice the new topic.

Duela, however, doesn't. She barely gets the last gas grenade screwed shut, hands shaking slightly, before she bolts up from her spot on the floor to hug Jokester tightly.

He just looks confused. "Did I miss something?"

Harlequin offers the prepped syringes to Mari, a worried expression on her face. "'Ella... went missing once. It didn't turn out well," she says softly. Gathering up the grenades, she gives the other two clowns a stern look, and adds, "And we don't have time now to go through another round of both of you trying to claim all the blame for that mess, so don't start."

Oh yeah, that. Jokester gets it now, hugging Duela back and ruffling her hair. "Yeah... well... That whole thing could have gone better."

[beyondthenorms]

Mari took the syringes from Harlequin and looked to her and her family, a little confused. Ella? Who’s that? Someone else in their...?

She mentally filed away this concern, and chose not to bring up what had to be a sore subject. She awaited Kazuma to answer her question, about Ayano and Ren in particular. In the past, he had mentioned them on good terms. He had been close with them. His father? Not so much. Genma Kannagi was a horrible parent to have disowned his older son, when he was unable to get a handle on fire magic as a kid.

“I appreciate your concern, but this isn’t the time,” Kazuma said, his expression a calm and stern one. “Now that we know you’re capable of taking us from world to world, we could catch up when no one’s in real danger... We’ll save Ayano and confront her if we have to, and only that.”

Mari wasn’t so sure he understood the full sentiment behind her concerns, that he should let them know he’s okay sooner, instead of later. “But we can’t predict if she and Ren, and the rest of the Kannagis will stay safe-“

“You’re right. We can’t,” Kazuma interjected. “But every member of them together won’t lose against our new foe. The current head of the family, and my old man are both very strong on their own.” There was the slightest resentment Mari heard when Kaz mentioned his dad. She knew and understood that he always refused to call him Dad, or Father.

Mari didn’t back off completely as her voice softened. She didn’t want to argue, nor did she want Kazuma to lose his real family like she had. “I hope to help end all our current troubles soon then, so you’ll be reunited with your loved ones.” She said no further, and zipped open her purse. The syringes could be stored in there until it was time to use them.

[laughing_girl]

If she thinks about it, she might realize that 'Ella' is just short for Duela, when it's not one of her several interdimensional aliases.

Jokester's attention is completely on his daughter, while Harlequin takes a moment to pass out some of the golf-ball-sized grenades, saying "Just don't press the little red button until you want them to go off." She bites her lip as she glances worriedly back to the other two.

Duela pulls away after a bit. She's managed to keep from actually crying, because she doesn't want to go into action with messy greasepaint... but it was a close thing and she's still holding back tears. Still she'll step closer to Kazuma and give him a glare. "In the interests of full disclosure, I just want you to know I am putting a lot of effort into not knocking you upside the head right now. Because... because one of the worst things is watching someone else do something that, unless I really really screw up sometime in the future, is probably going to stay the biggest mistake of my life ever. Wait 'till this one thing is over if you've gotta... I know, people are getting hurt and priorities and everything... but... Right after this. Because... you keep making excuses, and one day home won't be there to go back to."

[wind_contractor]

“I’ll go grab something to put those grenades in, for now. Be right back,” Kazuma heard Mari say to Harlequin before going upstairs.

He frowned as he somewhat understood what Duela meant. That was as much emotion he could allow himself to express at this point. The very idea of that damned lunatic clown and his cousin, the future head of the Kannagi family—the two of them in an encounter continued to stare at him in the face.

“Given everything that you, Mari, and I have been through,” Jake began, his tone a somber one. “You’re lucky to be back in your world right now. The fact that the Nexus we know most brought us here, is a chance to see Ren and Ayano again. I don’t know if that was really her intention or not, but Duela and Mari are right. ”

I really don’t want to get into this right now, but it seems I don’t have much of a choice at this point. This was starting to become stressful, yet he remained calm as he voiced his reasoning. “I’m only looking at everything as a whole here, for both my original family, and this one Mari and everyone else had accepted us to be a part of. When this Joker problem is resolved, the rest can be straightened out. One crisis at a time would be best.”

He sighed, and looked to Duela and her parents. “As I said before, Ayano sometimes has a temper. Not that I’m overly worried for anyone. Mari and Jake could dodge whatever fire magic my cousin unleashes, and Mari can restrain her easily if necessary if my cousin starts thinking and assuming the wrong thing...” He shook his head a bit. “The Kannagis, some of them in particular, are hot-headed. And stubborn.” He couldn’t help but sound a tad resentful as he thought a bit about his old man, Gemna. “I’ve already been accepted back in, more or less, four years before I found myself in a nexus and met Jake, Mari, and everyone else. But not everyone of the Kannagi family are nearly as accepting.

“They're the reason why I’m the only wind magic user, and why I changed my last name to Yagami.”

[laughing_girl]

Duela's expression gets oddly distant, too serious to be normal for her, as she speaks. "My possibly-ex-boyfriend... I thought I could trust him, even though he... he'd been an enemy. He said he wanted out of that. After a while, I believed him. I took him to our home. And maybe some things got said that nobody really meant..."

Jokester fidgets at that, remembering exactly what was said... and not much liking the look on Duela's face either. It reminds him of the time he told Eddie and Ozzy about certain things... His baby girl had had her own Bad Day, and he'd helped cause it. It didn't matter that it hadn't been a good day for anyone, it still wasn't something he'd forgive himself for any time soon.

"And we left... and less than a minute after we were gone, the place was raided. I don't know if he set us up, or if he got set up too. He's not around to ask. I thought everyone died. I ended up in a different universe's Gotham, then I got shot by some creep who didn't like me jumping timelines. And then Daddy... he'd made it out and came looking for me, only to get shot maybe a week or so later by the same creep. The whole reason my whole family isn't plant food is because our reality broke and that meant Mom could change things and bring us back..."

"And I get that we have to deal with the Joker first. I know what he can do. But... family is important. And they won't be there forever. Any time you get, that's the most precious thing there is. Don't screw it up."

Jokester steps forward to pull her into a hug. "Baby girl... if anyone ever tries to say you're not mine, ever again, even if it's me, you smack them silly... got that?"

[ohfearlessleader]

Jake frowned and had been silent this entire time as he listened to Duela and Kazuma share information about their pasts. Only, Duela had been more open about hers.

Everyone in this house seemed to have been through hell and back, himself included. Although, Jake wasn't going to start speaking of the ongoing war against a parasitic alien species in his universe, or the time someone who had threatened and attempted to kill Jake and his Animorph friends had met Vertigo...

Barely a minute had passed before Kazuma broke the silence. "I don't intend to screw it up. And that's beyond awful, what you've been through."

Jake heard Mari coming down the stairs. "I found this tote bag. It looks sturdy enough to hold a load of grenades. That all right with you, Kaz?"

Kazuma didn't hesitate to respond, and seemed to snap out of whatever it was he was thinking about. "It's fine. I don't think I'll have any use for it. So it's yours."

"Cool."

[laughing_girl]

Duela stays snuggled where she is for just a moment longer before looking up again. One can almost imagine a door slamming hard somewhere in her head, locking the memories away again, as her smile reappears as if that whole section of conversation had never happened. "They're not really big grenades," she says. "Actually, grenades isn't even the right word because they don't have explosives or you'd get shrapnel everywhere, but something like 'gas dispersal unit' just sounds awkward. I think they look like those toy Pokeballs I saw in a gumball machine once, but without animals in the middle."

Harlequin just hopes that the sudden mood swings she's so familiar with in her family won't make anyone else uneasy.

Jokester is back to pacing, but ideas for how to keep a Joker away from an audience - or innocent bystanders, as the case may be - just aren't popping up. What was it Eddie would say about clowns... 'I live for the laughter, I live for the crowd, without them I am nothing, what am I?' If this were Gotham, if he had the contacts here to set up some kind of bait...

[beyondthenorms]

Mari hadn’t heard the conversation, but she did pick up on the tension in Duela’s and Kazuma’s voices moments ago. In coming down the stairs, she noticed how quiet Jake was.

She could read people well enough to tell that there was something they’d rather not openly say much about – even with how calm and focused Kaz was – yet she decided not to say anything about that for now. Staying on task and forming a good, solid plan to put that endurable killer clown for good was important.

Mari still didn’t like being targeted by two Big Bads. All those she was close with in her assorted family and their Nexus herself wouldn’t want that either.

“I think it’d be a good idea to keep them separate anyways. I’ve noticed how light these things are, so it’s no wonder...” She put the tote bag down on the floor, and looked to Jokester pacing, thinking very hard. He's really determined to take down that chaotic counterpart. In knowing this, she wasn't nervous or uncomfortable at all around him at this point.

“I may not like the current circumstances, but I’ll do what it takes to keep my home turf safe,” Kazuma said. She noticed him looking thoughtful. “Sort of like old times. It’s been mostly other magic users, using their powers to harm.”

“Still don’t get is why he never stayed down, after I dealt him the serious heavy hitters.” Mari shrugged, and moved to stand next to Jake. “If it’s nothing magic related, then what?”

[no_sanity_clause]

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Jokester says, "but I wish we had a Bat to throw at him. That's about the only thing that could distract him from trying to make as big of a disaster as possible."

"It'll be ok, Daddy," Duela says. "If we can't keep him from picking where things go down, we'll just have to make sure everyone gets away safe."

Harlequin shrugs. "I've got no idea why the guy's so hard to knock down... not that any of us are easy. It reminds me a little of a present Ivy gave me, but... I dunno. It could be anything."

[wind_contractor]

"What present?" Mari was a second faster than Kazuma when it came to asking that question. "A little bit of anything's better than nothing, such as no running into Batman anytime soon." She frowned in thought, probably wondering if there was a Batman in Kazuma's world to begin with.

But we're not screwed. We're far from it, Mari. You and Nexus could find him if we really needed him. Right?

"We know he seems to be out on his own. The number of us should favor against him."

"Overpowering him may be a challenge though," Mari said.

[reality_warper]

"I think I said something about this back in the Nexus," Harlequin says, "But when I first met Red... Ivy," she makes the correction in case they don't know her usual nickname for Pamela Isley, "she dosed me with something she was working on... half to help, and half 'cause I was a convenient guinea pig. One of the bigger effects was it made me mostly immune to most toxins, including hers. I'm also stronger and faster than most people, and I heal fast... Though not as fast as the guy we're going up against, from what you've said."

"Mom beat Waylon in a fight once," Duela says with a proud smile.

"Killer Croc," Harlequin says, in case they don't recognize Waylon Jones by his other name. Though, they might not know that one either. "And it was more of a draw..."

"I inherited the poison immunity, but no such luck on the other stuff that I've noticed," Duela says.

[wind_contractor]

He looked to Mari, since she clearly knew more about this Batman, Joker, and the others when he knew next to nothing about it. Jake seemed to as well, and he was glad for that. Kazuma never had the time to get into comic books as a boy. There were a lot of normal things he didn’t experience as a kid—but he’d never complain, or look back on the past.

His childhood throughout adolescence; it had been too painful.

“It’d suck if this Joker was immune to all poison. It’s bad enough that he’s immune to all the heavy physical damage I can do to him.”

“We’ll figure out his weakness,” Jake said, “There has to be one.” With determination, he added, “At least there’s only one of him to deal with. And now Harlequin may be one more who can move faster than he can.”

“He won’t get far,” Kazuma added. “A little heavy wind might slow him down. I’ve got to try.”