InsaneJournal

Current mood:	worried
Entry tags:	chicago-illinois, lois lane, metropolis-kansas, plot: macabre musical, xander harris

A Zeppo can never have a day off...
The Players : Xander
Where : Chicago, IL
When : February 3rd, 2009.
Rating : PG-13, but could go higher. Depends on what goes down.
Notes : Forget notes, just give me some cowbell.

The day started out fine.

Xander had a good breakfast, worked out for a bit. He was starting his new job at The Tool Box, a local hardware store and home decour place, in a few days.

After the death of his boss from the bar, it was closed by his family who had no interest in owning a bar. So he and his friends were out of a job. It was just as well, Xander mostly worked there for a lack of anything else available at the time.

But when he got home from the grocery store, that’s when things took a turn.

He placed the bags on the counter and turned the police scanner on, he often listened to it, just in case anything sounded supernatural.

Wished it were this time. But it wasn’t.

The scanner went off with a loud siren sound. And it only took one sentence to give him pause.

“Attention all units, attention all units. We have a 187 at Hailey’s Comics. Suspect is a male, green hair. Believed to be the Joker and his accomplice Harley Quinn. All units be advised…suspect is armed and very dangerous. Proceed with caution”

187…Xander raced through some of the police codes he had written down so he’d recogonize them. He stopped cold when he realized 187 was a murder.

“Alli…” Xander whispered to no one but with fear in his voice.

He dropped the eggs he had been holding to the ground as he raced out of the apartment and headed to the comic book shop. It was about a mile away from his place. No way would he get near that place fast with all the commotion that would be surrounding the place.

It took about ten minutes, but he got there. Crowds were gathered around the barricades trying to see what was going on. Whispering to each other what they heard.


Xander made his way to the front of the crowd. Luckily he saw someone he knew in front of the barricade working the crime scene.

Detective Kramer.

He had met the detective a few weeks after arriving in Chicago. Xander appeared at a few crime scenes and was once brought in as a person of interest, but with no evidence Kramer was forced to let him go. He wasn’t too pleased about that, so he followed Xander one night and while the two talked a vampire attacked. Xander staked it, and the two had a long talk about vampires, monsters, etc. It was something Xander never enjoyed being part of, telling people about the supernatural.

It takes away a semi-rose colored view of the world. Xander still felt bad for bringing Lois into it. But what was done was done.

Though, it was kind of comforting to have an in at the police just in case something goes really sour.

“Detective Kramer,” Xander yelled and waved him over. He made his way over to the young man.

“Xander. Good to see you, but this isn’t your kind of thing. Guy who did this was the Joker and his partner. Killed a customer before escaping.”

Xander breathed a sigh of relief in his mind. Alli wasn’t dead.

“A friend of mine works here. Heard it on the scanner. Part of the reason I raced here…is she okay? Allison Warren. About yay-tall,” Xander said measuring her height. “Blue hair. Cute. Very spunky.”

“Yeah, I know which one you’re talking about. Take my son here on weekends. He’s a big Warrior Angel fan. Never misses a comic. But as for your friend…she was in on it. And we have the tape to prove it. She was his partner.”

Xander blinked. He was confused.

“I’m sorry what? There has to be some mistake. Alli might be a little crazy, but she’s not insane enough to work with the Joker. She’s…she’s just not.”

Especially considering their recent run-in with him.

“Look, all we have is what we see on tape and witness testimony. And all signs point to her leaving with him after killing the customer.”

“Let me see the tape,” Xander said. It was more of a demand than a question.

“Look, Harris. How well do you really know this girl? How do you know she didn’t decide to work with the Joker? It is possible you know.”

“I may have only known Alli for a couple weeks now…but I trust her. I know her enough to know she would NOT do this. Something…it just doesn’t fit. She wouldn’t do this. Now please, show me the tape.”

The detective thought for a moment, and let him past the barricade. He lead Xander to the tech guy.

“Thanks,” Xander said as the two entered the store.

“Tory. This is Xander Harris. He’s a Private Investigator of sorts. I’m having him consult on this. Show him the tape of the murder.”

The guy nodded and rewound the tape to a few moments before the murder. Xander watched carefully trying to see something sane in the madness. The man walked up to Alli, they talked, Joker was saying something, then in a matter of moments it was over.

“There any sound,” Xander asked.

“Sorry. Just video. No audio on the cameras,” Tory said. “It’s fairly obvious what happened though.”

Detective Kramer nodded in agreement. “See, they worked together then waltzed around the room.”

Xander didn’t want to accept this. He wouldn’t.

“Go back farther…few minutes before the Joker arrived on the scene.”

Tory looked to Kramer. He nodded. Tory rewound the tape even further.

Xander watched the scene, doing play by play.

“Alli’s playing a game…There’s the Joker…B line to Alli…”

Xander watched carefully. Neither he nor the detectives there noticed anything.

“Sorry. Looks like we need an APB out on the Joker and his new partner.”

Detective Kramer left to return to the crime scene.

“Can I get a copy of that please?”

Tory went to work on a dub. “I don’t see what good it’ll do. You saw it. He saw it. I saw it.”

“There’s more to it. Has to be. Because Alli, she wouldn’t work with the Joker. She’s one of the good guys.”

“What more? Look, face facts. Your girlfriend is working with the bad guy.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Xander corrected. “But she’s my friend. And I don’t care what you say or that tape says. She’s not one of the bad guys. Something happened while he was in that store and I’m gonna find out what it is, then I’m gonna find her so we can clear her name.”

What scared him the most out of all this was knowing that if when he found Alli, the Joker would be there. Xander knew he wasn’t a superhero. Or any kind of hero. He wouldn’t last five minutes against the Joker.

But in the end he would do everything in his power to help make a difference. And right now that was finding Alli, and getting her away from the Joker before he killed her or did something worse.

“Wish I had your optimism,” Tory said handing him a DVD.

“Thanks.”

Xander left and went home watching that video over and over hoping to find something. He watched it several times but really didn’t see anything. It looked like she was making jokes…and given the Joker’s expression, he liked that.

He rubbed his eye in frustration. None of it fit.

“Alli, what did you get yourself into,” Xander thought aloud. “And why were you taunting the Joker?”

He kind of took this as his fault in a roundabout way. If he hadn’t bonded with her while heading to Curious Goods, she’d have been somewhere else and they never would have run into the Joker.

But what was done was done.

Xander took a break from the video, he wasn’t getting anywhere fast, and did an internet search of every place in town or surrounding area that could lead to the Joker’s hideout.

After a few hours he had printouts of joke shops, amusement parks, and other assorted places that would fit the Joker’s twisted mind. Over 20 places fit the bill and he would have to narrow it down because time was a luxury he didn’t have.

The Joker was dangerous and for all he knew he was bringing Alli back to his hideout to torture her for a bit before killing her.

He was in over his head and he knew it. For years now Xander had just been the sidekick. The guy that makes joke. Not take the lead guy. Last time he was that guy, he still had army training in his brain. But alas, all of that was gone.

He shook those thoughts from his head. Now wasn’t time for the pity party. His friend was in trouble and he had to find a way to help her.

Maybe he knew someone who could help him.

Someone that faced the Joker a couple times in her short time in Chicago and was a brilliant, and lets face it, attractive reporter.

He picked up his phone and called The Daily Planet.

“Lois Lane’s desk please.”

“One moment sir.”

Xander hoped Lois was there. She faced the Joker, she had resources. So he could only hope she could make her way back here to help him save Alli. Because one thing was certain…

There was no way he could do this alone.