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[spoileralert]

12:34

Friday, May 4

Verizon

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[armoured]

[Wait...]

How did you see I gave him our location? I told that to him privately.

[spoileralert]

He said he got what he wanted and I put two and two together.

[armoured]

[He sighs in annoyance. Be more subtle, Alfie.]

Yeah, well, I'm not going to be able to help him at all now. I don't know which direction they've gone, and now I'm going to have to track them down all over again.

[spoileralert]

Yeah, I'm thinking that was the whole point.

[armoured]

I can't believe he would do this, why wouldn't he think I was capable of helping?

[spoileralert]

I doubt it has anything to do with your capability, Al. He helped found the Justice League and he still hates working with them.

It makes sense, from his perspective. The less chaos around the Joker the better. He's easier to restrain if he has just one guard than if he has two and an unpredictable variable forcing his way in.

I told Alfie this was a bad plan. But god forbid he get advice from someone who knows all the parties involved.

[armoured]

Then he's an idiot. He's a jerk and an idiot.

[Al doesn't get mad often, but he sounds really infuriated now.]

I don't care if he's been chasing Joker down in his world this whole time, he can't just ignore the people who have experience here. Working alone when there's support around you is the dumbest thing you can do.

[spoileralert]

[ Steph sighs and massages her temples. One goal accomplished, plenty left to go. ]

Look. Deal with the problems you can solve. Batman isn't going to magically start believing in teamwork above all else. You need to plan ahead.

If you try to go after the Joker again, Batman will just stop you. On top of that there's a good chance one or both of you will be badly hurt in the process, and a decent chance the Joker will escape both of you. If you want to help you're going to have to do it on his terms.

On the other hand, we still need to find a way out of this place before the town swallows us up and then implodes. Controlling the Joker isn't worth a whole lot if we all die anyway.

[armoured]

[She's right, and he hates that she's right, it digs right into him.

He's been trying to help with this for so long, trying to do the right thing, and it's all just been snatched away from him. He'll move on, he always does, but it galls him right now.

His voice loses some of its edge, becoming softer and slightly sadder.]

I was finally making a difference, Steph.

[spoileralert]

Al... [ She feels a little bad, but still mostly relieved. ] You've been making a difference since day one. You helped with the Joker a lot. Trust me, it could have been a lot worse. He's still in custody. It's not like this erases that.

[armoured]

Mm.

[He really does know that's true, but maybe she wouldn't understand.]

Look, I-- I have to go, I'm sorry I called just to yell about your friend.

[spoileralert]

[ Maybe, maybe not. ]

Sure. You don't have to apologize. You can always call me, any time, for any reason. I'll talk to you later.