Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 41

When she got to Avenue X, police had surrounded already the building. Shade was in the dark alley beside the building where the Joker was reported to have been seen. This area of Gotham was fortunately, dead. There weren't many people around. Not many minds or thoughts to sort through. The population was pretty low and many of the homes and buildings were abandoned. Many of the stores had gone out of business months ago with the recent economic downturns in Gotham. The abandoned convenience store at the base of the empty four-story building was being entered by the police but Shade could see the thoughts of two people on the fourth floor.

The Batman was nowhere to be found.  She used her gift to find him. He had received another lead and was on his way to another location. He was unaware of the crisis here.

There wasn't much time. 

She dashed up the fire escape, almost surprised that she was not at all out of breath when she got to the top. Her endurance was ever increasing. Entering the building was easy through one of the windows. The empty quiet room she stepped into smelled of dust and mold, but she fought the urge to cough or sneeze and she carefully placed her feet onto the floor as silently as possible. Scanning the minds again, she could see that the police were already searching on the second floor of the building.

The thoughts of the two people in the building were clear. She had nothing to fear. She found Mateo, the owner of Club Core strapped to a chair by the window with a knife stuck into his thigh and one of the Joker's men laying on the floor bleeding.

"You! Shade?", Mateo said. 

Shade walked over to him quietly.

"You here to steal from me again?" he asked. "Huh, bitch? Looks like you'll be going down for this, too. As it should be. You did this."

Shade looked down at the man bleeding to death on the floor. He had been shot.

"It looks like you need my help," Shade said in her disguised voice, noticing the bomb tied to Mateo's chest.

"It's too late," Mateo said. The timer on the bomb showed 43 seconds remaining. "Glad the person responsible will catch their share of this blast."

Shade walked over and yanked the knife out of his thigh and heard him let out a high pitched scream of pain.

"Fuck you!" he said finally after opening his teary eyes and noticed her observing the wires on the bomb. "What the hell are you doin-"

"Shut up!" she ordered. She needed to focus. "Stop speaking and let me concentrate," she said, and he was silenced. 22 seconds..21...20.

Mateo's breath was loud and shaky in her ear, and she could also hear the thoughts of the police who were now searching the floor below them. Mateo gasped as she sliced a white wire. The timer stopped.

"You..." he said weakly. "You did it."

Shade stood quietly and walked over to the man on the floor. He knew where the Joker was going next. He was still alive, barely, so she could still see his memories. The police would take him to the hospital, but she had a feeling he wouldn't make it. His mind was slipping away. Shade examined his thoughts. The Joker and the other three men that were with him had gone to a church on Grand Street, which would be empty at this time of night.

"Let him die!" Mateo said and sat the bomb on the floor slowly. He felt the Joker's henchman had gotten what he deserved.

"He is dying," Shade said, feeling his thoughts as he passed away. The most unpleasant thoughts she had ever experienced were those of the dying. She had only experienced it twice before. A mixture of thought and emptiness, the memories of life, of childhood, as the thoughts began to slowly fade into a void.

"The Joker was here. Took care of him," Mateo said about the man on the floor. "Suppose they had a disagreement-"

"You shot this man, not the Joker," Shade said and Mateo shot her a look, not understanding how she would know that. 

"You watched?" he asked. "You're going to tell the police-"

Before he could say anything, she disappeared out of the door seconds before the police came in.

.

.

.

Shade knew where the church was, and that the Batman was right behind them. But she also remembered her promise to Lucius, that she would stay away from the Joker. Really...she had already broken that promise by going to Avenue X in the first place, right? There was no way for her to get there as quickly as she wanted to. Maybe she needed a motorcycle like the Batman had. But right now, she didn't have one. The only sure way to get there quickly was the subway.

She dashed to the nearest station and found herself incredibly lucky making it into a train going north just as the doors were shutting. All speech in the train car silenced as she got in and everyone was staring at her.

"Shayyy," she heard a child's voice and turned around. A toddler of about three years old was pointing at her.

"Hi," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"It's really you?" a man said, sitting by where she stood.

She smiled and nodded and then everyone began talking again, beaming at their luck to see a vigilante in person.

"Are you fighting crime?" a teenaged girl asked. "Right now?"

"Yes," Shade responded. "Actually, this is my stop coming up."

"Can I hug you?" the girl asked. "You helped my mom in a bank robbery recently..I just, I'm so happy to see you-"

Shade reached forward and hugged the girl, and immediately more people came over to hug her. She hugged at least four people before the train doors opened again.

"Bye guys," she said sweetly, still disguising her voice as best she could before stepping off the train and dashing up the stairs. She could see several people waving to her as the train took off again.

The moment had been so sweet. A sweet moment in the middle of a very dark and dangerous night.