Chapter 81

Ladybird's P.O.V:

I read the letter a few times before folding it up and stuffing it back in the envelope. I had years of practice to keep my emotions in check so when I looked back up to Jim, my face read no emotion.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention." I almost sounded cold in my reply. "Let's just hope that he has no more plans to break out anytime soon."

"We are always keeping an ear out just in case." Jim looks at me for a moment. "By the way, are you a legal adult yet?"

I just stare at him in return but I don't reply.

"I think I got my answer then." Jim sighs. "The Joker is a sick, sick man." He turns around and starts heading back towards the police cruisers. "You'll show that to Batman, right?"

"Yes." I follow him to the alley. "I don't think I couldn't show it to him even if I tried."

"You're probably right." Jim chuckles as he stops in front of the alley. "I'll see you around."

"Goodbye, Commissioner." I watched him get into the car before going back into the alley to meet up with Catwoman and Robin.

"The Joker sent you a letter." Robin said it more as a statement rather than a question as he looks at the letter still in my hand.

"He did." I open up my yoyo to put the letter in and swiftly closes it before he can ask to see it. "I'll show it to everybody when we get back to the cave." I smile up at him but the smile didn't quite reach my eyes and I know Robin can tell.

Robin's anger quickly turns to worry as he sees my face. "Are you okay, Angel?" He takes my hand in his.

"I'm fine." I gently squeeze his hand in confirmation. "And code-names only, remember?" My smile brightens just a little bit at his concern.

"Right." He smiles back at me.

"I say we have another hour of patrol and then we cut this party short." Catwoman gently puts her hands on each of our shoulders.

"I agree." Batman speaks up from the comms. "I don't like not being informed on something when it comes to the Joker."

"Well we better get a move on." I throw my yoyo up towards the roof to set out on patrol again.-------The rest of patrol had two robberies and an attempted arson before they decided to go back to the cave. The ride back was silent and swift as I held on tighter than usual to Robin as he drove.

To no one's surprise, Selina, Robin and I were the last ones to arrive. Everyone else really wanted to see this letter, obviously.

"Good. You're here." Bruce took his cowl off as we all stepped off the bikes. "Let's run the letter through the bat computer."

"Okay." I pulled out my yoyo and took the letter out from inside. I handed it off to Bruce who took the letter out of the envelope and slid them both into a slot on the dashboard of the computer. I detransformed as I watched him do this.

A moment later, both the envelope and letter could be seen in three dimensions on a projected table to the left of the computer where they usually sat to their debriefs.

I didn't read the letter again but did read what the computer picked up off of the paper. I noticed all the ingredients that must come in your typical green crayon along with the type of wood fiber that the paper was made out of.

Even by the time I got done with reading all of that, the others still seemed to be engrossed with the letter. I took notice as everyone's expressions turned from anger to pure fury.

"I'm going to go kill him." Jason was the first to speak.

"I'll help you." Damian nodded.

"We're not killing anyone." Both Bruce and I spoke in unison.

"Did you even read this letter, Sunshine?" Jason crossed his arms.

"I did. And do you really think I'll be so easy to break, Jay?" I crossed my arms right back at him.

"Yes!" Jason shouted. "Because he did it once to me! I know what he does!"

"I'm stronger that you know, Jason!" I screamed in return, which caught almost everyone off guard. Even Alfred who has been silently watching looked a bit taken aback. "You have no idea what I have seen! What I have been through! I've watched my friends and my family die right in front of me multiple times! Sometimes it happened to me every day of the week! Jason, I've seen the world drown! You have no right to underestimate me like that!"

Tikki finally flew in front of my face to calm me down. "Marinette, its okay. He's just worried about you. They all are."

I take a few deep breaths and goes sit down at the table.

"Is all of that true, Angel?" Damian goes to sit beside me. His anger seems to have vanished and was replaced with genuine concern.

"Yeah..." I give a sad smile up at my soulmate. "I try not to think about it too often. It still gives me nightmares from time to time." I look back down at my lap.

"Hey, I'm sorry Marinette." Jason sits down in the other chair next to me. "I didn't mean it and I know that you are strong. It's just that the Joker really gets under my skin. I have a deep hatred for that man."

"I know, Jay." I grab his hand for a moment to give it a gentle squeeze. "And I'm sorry that I yelled at you. That wasn't very nice of me."

"Yeah, can you not do that again." Dick shakes his head. "I think that's scarier than if Bruce starts to yell at us."

"Me? Scarier than Bruce?" I giggle. "You must be joking."

"No that was pretty scary." Bruce grins at me. "Almost got my heart-rate going there for a moment."

"Fathers right. I hope you never direct your anger at me, Angel." Damian thinks about it for a moment before shaking his head.

"I wouldn't dream of it." I say genuinely.

"Jim said that he got the video of Joker writing this, right?" Tim interrupted as he stared at the letter for a bit longer.

"Way ahead of you, Timmy." Barbara pulled up a file on the computer and pressed play.

It showed the Joker in a five by five empty room sitting down on the concrete floor with a single piece of paper and a green crayon. The left side of his jaw was swollen and he had a black eye and a few stitches in his lip but otherwise he seemed to be completely happy. As he wrote, he bobbed his head up and down while he sang a little show tune. After about five minutes of this, he stands up, folds the paper and stuffs it into a blank envelope. Walking over to the door, he holds the envelope against it to write out the address of the GCPD before finally knocking.

The Joker is told to set the paper down by the door and face the farthest wall, in which he happily obliges. After the letter is taken and the door is shut, the Joker then stands in the very center of the room and looks up to the camera with a smile.

"Smile. It suits you." He then begins to laugh maniacally.

He was laughing for almost a minute before Bruce walks over to shut it off. "I think we have heard enough."

"How long do you think he will be staying in there before he tries to break out again?" I look over to Bruce.

"He's smart enough to let the doctors heal him before he tries anything else again. The quickest I would give him is probably a week."

"I won't be here. How do you think he will deal with that?"

"If he does manage to break out, all of his plans will most likely revolve around you. In order for people not to connect the dots, we will need you to teleport here every so often to be seen by the public but I believe its best that we avoid him when it comes to you for the time being. We have handled the Joker for years and we will be able to handle him without you."

"That's fine with me. I really don't like being around him anyways." I nod. "But never hesitate to call for help if he puts you in some sort of corner. I'll drop everything to help you guys."

"Thank you, Marinette. Although let's hope it never comes to that." Bruce looks around at his team for a moment. "Let's call it here for tonight."