The Universe's Mixer

Jennifer had been sent out on a call without Charlie. It wasn't the first such call, but she wasn't so sure that she should be working this one alone. After all, it was a very brutal murder, and with all the deaths of the Asylum staff going on, she thought that her partner should be kept in the loop. If they both saw things at the same time, everything worked like magic. They talked, they commiserated. They figured things out. She didn't want to break that cycle in the midst of some of the worst crimes in the City's history.

However, when she got there, she discovered that she didn't have a single thing to worry about. The M.O. was completely different. Not even just different, but startlingly put together. She was handed a file when she arrived on scene that described other deaths that looked exactly like this one.

There were small cuts all over the body. The paleness of the flesh and lack of livor mortis indicated that this person had bled out. She didn't need the medical examiner to tell her that, but he did anyway. The wallet, keys, money, credit cards, photos, jewelry, all of it was there, but spread around the corpse. The most disturbing part of it was the face. Jennifer was pretty sure that's what they called a Glasgow Smile. Ear to ear. Teeth showing through the gaping wound left by something extremely sharp.

Whoever had done this had taken this person unawares. They had also taken their time.

"It's obviously not the same killers who are wrapped up in the Arkham stuff." She mused, normally she would be talking to Charlie. "Two sets of killers running free in the City. Great. Fucking great."

Jennifer knelt by the body. "No motive here."

Dinah had spent the better part of her day tracking down building plans for the Asylum and starting to form her own plan of attack for rescuing Jake. She already knew that she could count on Harry and Murphy to show up to the planning session, which would be at the cleared out Sherwood Florist. The backroom was a large enough space for however many people were able to show up and she'd cleared the table of any flowers and now had the blueprints all laid out. Now she needed to go through the list of others that she was going to call for help.

Dinah wasn't a huge fan of calling people for help, but she knew that taking on the Joker alone or even with a group of two or three was far too dangerous. She wasn't going to risk everyone getting hurt, or worse because she was too proud to ask for help.

So, she pulled out her phone and began to go down the list of those that she would call for help. There was Fred, and Dean, who had already been helping. Alfred, who could get a message to Bruce for her, since she'd had yet to actually see or talk to Bruce outside of the suit. Even Oliver. While she wasn't entirely sure about asking him for help, they had become allies here, and if he was anything like the Oliver she knew, he'd want to help.

The only person she left out of things was Barbara. She felt guilty, and she'd done her best to avoid the Clocktower apartment that day, but she didn't want Barbara anywhere near the Joker. Or Jake, for that matter. She had a feeling that the presence of a younger version of Barbara would just be a trigger for Jake and she had no idea what the City's Joker would do if he knew that Batgirl was in town and still had the use of her legs.

After Eric left her place of employment, Beauty scoured her memory for any hint of where she could seek Mssr. de Lioncourt out. Beauty had only seen the Mssr. de Lioncourt at one place: the City Opera House. Granted, she'd seen him but once, which was during the City Masquerade, but she truly didn't know enough about him to look for him any other place. She quickly convinced herself that it was there where she should look to find him.

She closed up Bookmark Books directly after the 9th chime from the grandfather clock in the back of the store. Typically, her path took her straight to her cottage deep in the City Commons -- but tonight, she dared to move deeper into the city itself. As she navigated the dark and twisting streets, she kept her head down and her arms curved around herself protectively. She still recalled the trouble that Errol had saved her from in these city streets. The thought was still unnerving. But what was even more unnerving was going even a single day more without as much knowledge as she could find about this Eric and his strange friend Red. Mssr. de Lioncourt had some of those answers. She had to try to find him.

Warm lights within the City Opera House welcomed her just as her nerve was failing. She had only taken a few steps upwards when the golden ornate doors swung open. Quickly, she sidestepped into the marble columns lining the entry up toward the doors. And she waited. And she watched.