The Universe's Mixer

The day was crystal clear. Warm, even, considering what time of year it was. Kids were happily running around the park wearing their shorts and maybe a light sweater. Flowers had bloomed unseasonably. Bees and butterflies busied themselves while birds sang.

To top it all off, in a nice grassy area some picnic tables popped up. They were all covered in food and drink. A big banner unfurled across a nice space that could be seen from the road. It touted "Annual City Picnic" in bold black lettering.

Selina has been bad about keeping in touch with Dexter. She hadn't seen him since before the scar, which was still visibly, although not as angry looking.

So, trusting in The City and its weird ways, Selina Kyle went for a walk in the park. She figured that if she didn't run into Dexter, then she'd run into someone else... which was always interesting. Perhaps that optimism wasn't such a good thing in The City.

The assignments had stopped coming. Handler left her alone. But the dying and coming back thing... that kept happening.

She wasn't a recluse, but Aeon had learned to stay off the radar. She learned to stay out of the paths of people like River Tam and Hannibal Lecter. People like Dexter, too... she had a good idea what kind of guy he was.

She did wonder if Dean was alright, but self-preservation came first, for now.

This was why when a note appeared in her mailbox saying there was a new assignment, Aeon was both shocked and confused. This was not Handler's doing... but it could be The City's. Or, for that matter, anyone who really had a bone to pick with someone else here.

That didn't narrow it down.

The assassin went to the place specified in the note to meet with whoever it was that wanted her services. She sat now in a cold room with one-way glass, watching the door.

Ready.

She'd kind of missed this.

When the door swung inward, Aeon smiled.

All verbal communication has to be in the form of questions. If a statement or exclamation is made, everybody in the room forgets everything after the point they were placed in the room. There is a sign in the room that says "Do you know the question?" and the door will open if the right question is asked.

After all that had happened in The City in the past month or so, it was any wonder that her mind lingered on the visit that she was about to make. The scar on her face had healed, leaving an angry red scar. He still didn't know what had happened as far as she knew, although there were probably pictures involved. She needed to talk to Bruce. More than anything, she needed a friend.

She arrived at the manor and walked up to the door. Ringing the doorbell she could only hope that he was at home.

Alfred opened the door, and as always, showed no surprise that she was there. Alfred let her know that Bruce was in and showed her to the library. And there she sat, waiting for Mr. Wayne to arrive.

This sitting around stuff was crap. Just… crap. Harley was not very good at sitting on her hands and waiting things out. So long before it was truly safe, she had ventured back out. She had been cleaner, but not in a much better frame of mind, and that had sunk even lower when she was forced back into her hiding place by the hordes of zombies still roaming the street. There was impatient, and then there was stupid. Harley wasn’t stupid.

But she was irritated and restless. There was nothing to do here, and no one to talk to and she was going out of her mind wondering what was happening. It had been a while; was it safe yet? ( Only one way to find out. )

So Lee and Catwoman had been holed up in the bar for about a week now.

With the people they had saved, they'd been able to keep the zombies at bay.

But now, they were running out of food. (Salty snacks weren't all that wonderful for anyone.) So Catwoman was going to look for food across the rooftops. Lee had been worried about the plan at first, but Catwoman knew her way across the rooftops... she just hoped she could find some food for the rest of them. Or at least a close safe-haven.

Catwoman was now about 3 rooftops away from the bar building - and there were zombies on the streets as far as the eye could see. Not a whole lot else. She was trying to get her bearings.

The first thing they needed was food. About four blocks away she saw a corner grocery store. Selina made it to the store and saw that there were a few zombies milling around outside, but it didn't look like there was anything or anyone inside.

She gathered all of the groceries she could and after her third trip up the stairs she was tired, but she figured she was good. It was then that a zombie came for her. She was much quicker than the creature, but it was able to make a grab for her mask. She screamed and ran up the stairs, throwing cans of food at the monster. She slammed the door to the rooftop shut, found a wrench and was able to make sure the door would never open again.

Carrying a large amount of canned food from rooftop to rooftop was rather difficult. But she was determined and hungry. It wasn’t until she reached the rooftop of the bar building that she realized that her mask was off. She swore and called down the stairs for Lee.

“Lee, I need you up here. I was attacked.”

As soon as Catwoman left, Lee jumped down from her rooftop perch and landed solidly on the ground several floors below. She figured that her quick exit left her enough spare time to go buy those cigarettes that she had been craving. The man working the counter at the corner store was either too polite to say anything about her choice of wardrobe or used to seeing costumed people walking around buying M&Ms and Marlboros. She didn't ask which.

She paused outside the store to light up, almost smiled at the familiar sensation of it all, and headed for the bar for some beer and girl talk. Weird. She was actually looking forward to it.

Halloween.  Tony Stark's favorite time of the year.  The weather was perfect, not too hot or cold, trees around the city were changing colors.  And he had no reason in the world to complain here.  He and Pepper were together, and it'd been a blissful few weeks since their initial union.  For the first time in years, Tony could say he was happy and satisfied.

He'd sent out invitations city wide in hopes of drawing in the citizens to his home for him to have a chance to meet them.  He hadn't ventured out much since he'd been here, mostly because even if he was ever the social butterfly, Tony was too focused on fixing the once damaged relationship between him and Pepper.  Now that was all taken care of and here he stood in his bedroom putting on his costume.  He'd laid his choice of cstume out on Pepper's bed for her to put on, chosen since she'd lost to him in a little game they'd played to determine what they'd spend this night as.  It was custom tailored to fit her form perfectly, having taken the dress she'd worn for their first night together and used its measurements.

He stared at himself in the mirror, thinking that his goatee would make wearing the mask a little awkward at best, but he didn't care.  He thought since he should play the mysterious host of the night, that he should don the look of someone just as mysterious.  Taking a step back from the mirror, he attempted to twirl the cape, almost tangling himself up in it the first few times until he got the hang of it and smiled.  Affixing his mask to his face, he smirked as he gave his appearance one last once over.

The Phantom of the Opera was ready for his grand entrance.

[ooc: If you're character is showing up, feel free to start your own thread under this.  Tony will attempt to greet everyone but might not for getting sidetracked by others.  If you plan to crash the party, I will start a separate thread after a day or two to give people a chance to do regular party stuff.  Have fun, and don't be shy with your characters!  This is a very social log!]

Selina stared into the mirror, looking at the butterfly stips that closed the bloody gash across her cheek. Tears filled her eyes and she sank down onto the floor in the bathroom of her apartment.

Jack had been right. He’d enjoyed every moment of their fight. And she’d given him quite a few scratches with her nails. But the pain that she inflicted hadn’t stopped the madman.

She knew she was lucky to be alive at that very moment. Lucky that all he’d done was to tie her up and take pictures of her with her mask off. She had been in the asylum for what seemed like years, but in fact, it had only been a few hours.

And he laughed the entire time she pleaded with him to let her go.

Finally he cut her cheek open with a jagged knife, leaving a wound that would not heal well. He’d told her that it was something to remember him by.

Jack had thrown her into a car and from there; he unceremoniously dumped her in a back alley.

Fortunately for her, it had been close to her apartment.

Selina wasn’t sure why he’d left her alive, but she could take a guess. It was all to hurt Batman.

One of the cats interrupted her dark thoughts, rubbing her body up against Selina. Selina smiled through her tears, petting the demanding cat. She was glad to have the company right now.

She knew that she would be all right. There would be a scar, but she still had her life.

Catwoman went from rooftop to rooftop for as long as she possibly could.

She knew that she could get into trouble confronting The Joker.

She knew that he was dangerous, loved chaos and that she was a fool to go alone.

But dying made her realize that she wanted to talk to the man that had killed her daughter from another life.

She headed to the asylum, silently stalking her prey.

And then, far too soon, she was there. At the doors of the asylum. She took a deep breath. She had this planned. It was simple really, she was going to go through the front door.

That plan made her cringe. But she wasn't sure what else she could do. She had tired to watch the place, but not a lot seemed to happen. And to be honest, she'd gotten impatient.

So, she took her first step into a world that she wasn't comfortable with. But she wanted to know.

Catwoman sat on the rooftop, enjoying the cool night air of The City and watching the clouds roll across the full moon.

That was one thing about this place, the air wasn't polluted like it could be in Gotham.

Stars twinkled high above, but she didn't recognize any of the constellations. The constellations of The City were something new and different. She idly wondered if the library would contain the names of the new constellations.

She sat relaxing. She had always been an insomniac, but tonight she'd gotten to sleep fairly early. The night had called her from her sleep though, and she had responded by donning her costume and heading up to the rooftop of her apartment building. From there, it had been easy to glide from rooftop to rooftop until she found one that looked comfortable to watch the sky from.

Selina had done her investigating.

Between the file that Dexter had given her, and the information she’d been able to steal (it was handy being a thief), she’d been able to piece together a lot of information.

And it scared her.

And then there was the guilt. The guilt was eating away at her. She’d promised herself that she would try to find the killer of Helena. And it had been months. She’d put it off, and now that she knew, she didn’t think she wanted to know.


The Joker.

And this wasn’t the one that she knew from Gotham. This one was probably insane, but also incredibly intelligent. This Joker liked to do more than play games, this one did damage along the way, and he reveled in chaos. Selina agonized on what to do. From what she could tell, he’d killed before. He had been the one to torture Barbra Gordon here in The City.

But she wanted to confront him. Find out if it had been him. (Not that there was much of a question of that.) And then maybe, she could put this guilt to rest. There was no intention to kill him, she just wanted to know.

Unfortunately, she knew that he’d enjoy telling her.

But first, she made a phone call.

It went straight to voicemail.

“Ummm, hi Bruce, it’s Selina Kyle. I found Helena’s killer. *long pause*

I know that he’s at Arkham, and yes, I know it’s stupid to do, but I want to go Him.

I can’t believe that I’m doing this. And I’m imagining the look on your face right now and I think that if looks could kill that I’d be dead. Too bad I’m leaving this on your voice mail and you can’t kill me here and now.

So I’m going. I’m letting you know because I’m not sure what’s going to happen, and you know, you should always let someone know where you’re going when you’re a single girl.

*another long pause* Not sure what else to say, except, Goodbye.”

Selina knew she was being dumb.

Her last thought as she left was that she wished she had called Dexter too, that maybe he would feed the cats for her. But she wasn’t sure what to say to him either. She sighed heavily and ran across the rooftop of her building, out to see a madman about a murder.

OOC: Mila - So, let me know when you're ready to have Selina and Joker meet... this should make you gleeful. :)

Selina rose from the rooftop confused.

The knife, slicing into her body, killing her.

She'd been gone... dead from what she could tell.

And she didn't like it.

And then she was struck with guilt. That she'd died and hadn't kept her promise to herself.

But now was her chance... To find Helena's killer.

She headed to her apartment. She had some thinking and a lot of research to do.

Here Kitty, Kitty...


Oh she was good but I was better.
Moving through the streets, the alleys, quiet and stealthy.

Was I hunting her?
Or she hunting me?

I admire the skill but thought upon the irony. The City it seemed, did not like felines. Whether real or alien or euphemism, the City did. not. want.

Or perhaps just luck of the draw.

And draw I did, the knife from its place, watching her and watching her and watching her some more. It moved through the air, the shiny blade of silver. Faster and faster it moved until it was directly upon her. Right there, straight at her chest.


Here Kitty, Kitty.
C'mon let's play.

Jesse wasn't exactly sure what he should be doing at the moment. The last time he'd interfered in something big, really bad things had started to happen to the people around him. And this time, he had the ability to just stop it all.

He had learned a long time ago, that you didn't mess with The City or it's choices.

Of course, that left him feeling rather shitty about everything. Why have abilities at all when you weren't allowed to use them?

There weren't many people that he was close to anymore. Max was gone, Buffy missing. That left Fray. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, because she damn well could, but he really didn't want to risk it.

Which left drinking.

Drinking a lot.

Once again, Jesse Custer found himself in a bar, drinking himself into a stupor.

The Doctor sat on a bench within sight of the TARDIS watching a pigeon eat a cigarette butt. 4 attempts to fold out of this reality had been spectacular failures so far.

No luck in figuring out the praeternatural intelligence that pulled the strings in this “city” so far. The TARDIS just needed more power. Yes! that would do it. More energy would be child’s play for someone like a time traveling scientist..

He carefully opened the ice cream maker, and began soldering parts of a cellular phone to it. He needed some chemicals that could be found in the reproductive organs of a frog, but those would be tomorrow’s project. “Cold fusion here I come.” The Doctor muttered to himself while manipulating the Sonic Screwdriver.

Selina had a tendency to wander the streets of The City. Hell, she’d run into enough people just wandering, but she was fascinated with the way the place changed. The changes weren’t fast or slow, just totally random, and most of the time, the natives didn’t even notice. She’d never been in a place that was so weird. Gotham was weird, but the streets and buildings didn’t move – so her vote was that The City was probably the weirdest place she’d ever been.

She didn’t pay attention to where she was going, so she was a little surprised to find herself in a part of town she didn’t know. That seemed strange to her, so she turned around to go back the way she came, but the street seemed to have changed. Selina stood on the sidewalk totally confused. The City liked to throw new things her way, but getting her lost was totally new.

So things had settled down and it was time for Catwoman to go prowling. She had the perfect target too; a priceless magenta pink diamond bracelet had just arrived in The City. There had been a small blurb in the paper about it, and its rarity, and after the description of the bracelet, she had decided that she wanted it all for herself.

She skillfully went over the fence and slid past the alarm system. The owners of the mansion and of the coveted bracelet were out of down, and their security system has been easy to figure out. After picking the lock to the back door, she clicked on her night-vision goggles and avoiding all of the trips to the alarms, she headed up the stairs. And she was feeling greedy too, for she knew that there would be other jewelry to check out in the safe.

She had studied this job for a time, and she knew the security system and blueprints of the house well. Catwoman didn’t do a job without knowing all of the ins and outs of a home such as this.

She knew exactly where the study was, and she knew that the safe was stashed being a really hideous painting of toilets. (This she knew by staking the house out. Fortunately, the people were idiots and their study was in plain site.) Who on earth would buy a picture of toilets and put it up on their wall. These people didn’t deserve to have such a gorgeous work of art as the bracelet if they had such horrible taste in other art.

She skillfully and easily got into the safe and was riffling through the rest of the jewelry when she thought she heard a noise.

Selina sat at the coffee shop staring into space. Things has been quiet since the initial turmoil in The City. People had disappeared again, not that this was new, but the mass disappearance was rather queer. She put her hands around her mug, the warmth of the coffee was transfered into her hands and relaxed her.

Everyone seemed to have disappeared. She hadn't found Dexter, although to be honest, she hadn't tired that hard. There had also been no sign of Bruce for a while. And to top it off, buildings were still moving and adjusting, so her nocturnal roaming had been cut off, at least until things settled down a bit more.

She sighed deeply. Selina needed something to do.

She continued her musings and slowly sipped her coffee.