The Universe's Mixer

As Sidney slipped into the coffee shop near the paper she came to realize something, for once she was not the bait du jour of a killer. So at least for now she let down her guard and decided maybe it was finally time for another leap of faith, a leap back into dating. As she stood in line for the coffee she had slipped into her own little one, not having seen her phone pick that moment to tumble from her bag. So anyone nice was free to find that phone and meet its owner.

The streets were dark. A panic had not risen in The City from the Joker's little prank. Despite the fact that Batman had found some households with the threatened goods in them. The Smallpox was, indeed, on the toast in some of the toasters. Not all of them. The Diphtheria, it seemed only a randomized few had that. But it would spread, no doubt, if nothing was done about it. There was also a third seemingly ancient disease roaming through some of the homes, the Mumps, given by specialty wall hangings. Clearly chosen because of the absurdity of the name.

Bruce could envision Jack Napier saying it out loud over and over again to himself, giggling each time. Until his laughter rolled through the hallways of Arkham Asylum, bouncing off of the leaded mesh glass.

Perhaps that knowledge meant he was far too close to the Clown Prince of Crime. Knew too much about him and his ways. Walked too closely to the line of insanity and criminals.

It was surprisingly difficult to get people to part with their toasters. Even more so to get them to give up their loaves of bread. Not a lot of people were excited to find a giant black bat in their homes with scientific equipment, testing their air ducts, bread, toasters and home decor for disease.

Maybe he'd been out of the loop for far too long, or maybe it was just that nobody believed anybody would do something such as break into their homes for the sole purpose of putting smallpox in their toasters.

He was, admittedly, tired of The Joker's pranks.

Carefully, the almost-shadow figure of Batman lifted the window of the next house. His head was already inside, ready for the first part of the roll he would take silently into the kitchen.

The City had it's merits. It had dark little corners that most people did not care to notice. It was best for most people to ignore them because sometimes the little dark corners looked back.

It was one of these dark corners that found Walter amusing himself. A young rail thin man moved cards rapidly on a cardboard box that was set upon a garbage can. 2 marks watched him intently betting 20$ a pass. "Follow the queen, and get the green!" the jumpy man hawked to the crowd, "Find the honey and get my Money!" He moved the cards rapidly as the crowd bet, rarely winning. Walter assumed the weed eater that was running the scam had a shill working with him as well.

"Where's the red queen?" he asked and flipped over a black jack. Walter answered "in your shirt sleeve" to himself, not loud enough to hear. He had spent a life time following a Red King, so why not find a crimson queen. The man in Black spotted a fading tagline of grafitti "Bango Skank was here!" and smiled to himself. This place had possibility.