"FUCK!" Joker screamed, throwing his phone at the wall. Another fucking dead end.
He put his head in his hands, running them through his hair as he searched his mind for any other unexplored avenue. They'd pretty much exhausted all of their leads in the first year of looking for Madeline.
After the raid and his subsequent breakout, she'd been taken completely off the grid. The police reports concerning her only said that she had been confiscated from him, and none of the cops he'd tortured seemed to know where she was either. He'd even taken Jim Gordon himself and demanded answers, but all he would yield is that he left her in the care of Batman. And of course he was less than cooperative with Joker's demand to reveal her location. The self righteous fucker made it clear he'd sooner die than tell him anything.
Over the past ten years he'd looked high and low for her, searching through all of Gotham and surrounding cities for her in various families and orphanages. He'd had people scouring all kinds of records looking for signs of her, to no avail.
That was my last good idea, J lamented.
"Boss," Johnny Frost called as he opened the door. "Batman and his new sidekick just took out our guys in the warehouse by the docks."
"Motherfucker," he cursed, slamming his fist on the desk. "The Bat and his little bird are getting on my last nerve. Ever since that kid started working with him they've just been spoiling my fun instead of taking risks like he used to. He's probably playing it safe for the kid."
Lightbulb.
"God I'm such a fucking idiot," he muttered. "Call all the guys back. I don't care what they're doing. I know how we're getting Madeline."
"Boss?" Johnny asked in confusion.
"Isn't Bruce Wayne having a party soon?" J mumbled. Honestly, when is he not?
"Yes, sir. Why?" Johnny confirmed.
"We're gonna crash it, and when Batsy and Birdbrain show up, we're gonna take the kid. He'll never be able to let us maim or torture his little Robin if he can help it," Joker smirked. "We're finally gonna get our girl back."
<><><>
"Bruce, can I please come to this one, please? I'll stick with you and Dick the whole time, I promise!" Madeline begged. "Please? I never get to talk to anyone but you guys and Alfred."
"It's too dangerous," Bruce protested. "Joker crashes my parties sometimes to get reactions from Batman. What if he saw you there?"
"He hasn't crashed one of your parties in forever! And even if he saw me, there's no way he'd recognize me," she sighed. "It's been ten years, he's probably stopped looking by now."
"I doubt that," Bruce denied. "Dick and I just stopped some of his guys looking through records last night."
"Why does he even care? Like you said, I was just a tool to him, a toy," Maddie rolled her eyes.
"He's very possessive, and persistent," he replied. "He likely won't give up until he has you."
"Regardless, I can protect myself if he somehow recognizes me, and if I can't, you or Dick can," Maddie said.
"I don't know," Bruce murmured.
"Come on, Bruce! You never let me do anything! I'll be careful," she pleaded.
"Alright," Bruce agreed. Maddie squealed and pumped her fist. "But you have to be with Dick or I the whole time, and listen to what we say. And if we tell you to leave, you leave. No questions asked, no matter what."
"Deal," she squeaked, sticking out her hand to shake his.
"I need a dress," Maddie realized after he'd shook her hand.
"I'll get something for you," Bruce smiled.
"Thank you, Bruce," she grinned, giving him a hug.
<><><>
The party was the most fun she'd had in years, even though she wasn't allowed to leave Dick or Bruce. They introduced her as a cousin who's visiting for the weekend so no one would ask questions when she disappeared. Tonight, she was Lily Swanson, a deceit that gave her a little thrill.
She got to talk to other people and make jokes with them, but Dick, overprotective brother that he was, did not allow for very much male conversation, let alone dancing.
"Dick, you do realize I'm going to end up with a guy at some point, right?" Maddie asked in exasperation.
"Not if Bruce or I can help it," he scoffed with a smirk.
"Okay, but you're not letting me dance with anyone, which was kinda the whole reason I wanted to come," she pouted. After she was taken from Joker, she put some of the technique she'd learned into dance.
She loved to twirl and leap about, or even break it down every once in a while. Her fighting training was put to practical use once she finally got Bruce to admit that he was Batman. It honestly was not a hard deduction to make, especially since he was always tired and beat up and gone at night.
He'd recently started letting Dick fight crime with him, which Maddie secretly longed to do. However, she knew that Bruce would never allow it, if not because of the overall danger, then because of the Joker.
Bruce explained to her after she got over her initial sadness that though Joker appeared to love and care for her, most of the things he'd said were to manipulate her. He pointed to such evidence as the fair and the Riddler incident to support his claim. As she got older and started thinking about it more, she found it harder and harder to cling to her love and loyalty to the Joker.
If he cared about her, why put in her in danger by trying to make her fight? Bruce did everything he could to keep her out of danger.
All of his promises didn't line up with his actions, and Maddie was forced to face the facts. There was no way the Joker actually cared about her as more than property.
"If you really wanna dance, I'll dance with you," Dick offered, returning her to the present.
Maddie smiled and took his outstretched hand, letting him lead her onto the dance floor. They slow danced playfully, gliding across the room and filling it with their delighted laughter. Though Maddie and Dick only cared about each other as siblings or best friends, he still knew exactly how to cheer her up and make her laugh, making faces as they danced.
"Boss, I'm in position," Joker heard in his earpiece.
"Give me eyes," he demanded as he stared at the video screen in the van. The screen flickered a moment before turning on, showing J a view of the ballroom.
There were people milling about, drinking and talking. Probably gossiping. There were also some couples dancing.
One pair in particular caught his eye, as they were making quite a scene with their uproarious laughter and giggling. Joker narrowed his eyes. Something about it seems familiar.
"Frost, get closer to those two. I want to see faces," he ordered. The henchman didn't question the orders, getting as close to the couple as he could without seeming strange.
Joker zoomed and focused the camera, struggling to get a clear shot of them—or in particular her. Why do I know her?
She happened to turn and look into the camera as she smiled, and Joker was quick to take a screenshot. He paused to examine the girl. She looked young, a teenager maybe. Blonde, slightly freckled, big puppy dog eyes, cutest laughter...
Holy fuck, is that Madeline?!
No fucking way.
He looked at her from different angles, sure he was mistaken. How does she just suddenly appear at a Bruce Wayne party?
But the more Joker looked, the more certain he was that the girl was indeed his Madeline.
"Frost, the girl. I think it's Madeline," Joker stuttered in disbelief.
Frosty froze in his place, narrowing his eyes to try and determine if his boss was right.
"I think so too," Frost replied, bewildered.
"New plan: get her. Now," J ordered breathlessly.
"Affirmative," Frost confirmed.
"Hold on, something's up," Dick said, suddenly serious. "That guy has been watching us for a while. And talking to someone. Looks like an earpiece."
White hot fear shot through Madeline's veins as she realized who he probably worked for.
"The Joker," she and Dick muttered at the same time.
"We have to get you out of here. Now," Dick said, trying to make their way off the dance floor inconspicuously. They didn't want the guy to realize that they knew something was wrong.
"He's following us," Maddie whimpered.
"If I get you to the ladies room, can you lock the door and climb up into the air ducts?" Dick asked lowly.
"Yes," she said. "And then I can take that to somewhere else near a Bat Cave entrance. What are you gonna do?"
"Distract him," he answered shortly. They arrived at the girls bathroom. "Be safe."
"You too," Maddie replied, kissing him on the cheek before entering the bathroom.
She immediately stopped and locked the door behind her, trusting Dick to buy her some time. Spotting the ventilation shaft opening, Madeline darted over to the stall nearest it and entered, taking off her infuriating heels. She climbed up onto the stall wall using the toilet for leverage, cursing her pretty dress the entire time.
She managed to use her fingernails to unscrew the grate, letting it hang by the last two so she could pull herself up into the shaft. Once she was in, Maddie pulled the vent back in place, hoping it would hold long enough for her to get far away. The sound of the doorknob jiggling set her in motion, crawling down the shaft as silently as she could.
Looking through different grates as she went along gave her a good idea of where she was in the mansion. Once she figured she was far enough away and close enough to a secret exit, Maddie stopped and pushed down hard on the grate, holding onto it so it wouldn't crash to the floor. Though she was successful, the effort of her push sliced her palms.
Hissing in pain, she drew the grate into the vent with her and stuck her head out, peering left and right to make sure no one was around. Assured, she slid out of the shaft, landing on her bare feet. Maddie skittishly ran to the secret entrance and opened it, running to the safety within before someone could see her.
Meanwhile, Joker and Frost were searching frantically for where she could have gone. After Dick left, Frost returned to the bathroom, kicking open the door when it wouldn't budge on its own. He checked all of the stalls, only finding her pair of discarded heels.
"Boss?" He asked through the earpiece.
"Keep looking, I'm going in."
Joker abandoned his van in favor of invading the party, lighting up the place with machine gun fire and calling his other henchmen out of hiding as party guests. They quickly took over, forcing all the people to huddle together as hostages, many shrieking in fear.
Bruce and Dick had already made their exit, meeting Madeline in the Bat Cave to make a costume change. Leaving her with Alfred to bandage her hands, they broke back into the party to disrupt Joker's reign of terror.
"Batman!" Joker cried at seeing them. "Just the rodent I wanted to see!"
"Enough, Joker. Leave these people alone," Batman growled.
"Not until you give me back what's mine," J countered. "I saw her here tonight. You can't keep her from me forever."
"I won't let you bring further harm to her," Bruce said.
"That's too bad," Joker chuckled before attacking.
As the two duked it out, Robin started to take out the various henchmen, flipping and dodging their bullets. At that point, Frost had noticed the open air vent and figured that Madeline could have gone anywhere, and so returned to the ballroom.
Realizing that they weren't going to be able to find her and take her back, Frost initiated the original plan. He snuck up on Robin and hit him hard in the back of his head with a pistol. The young boy collapsed to the ground, and Frost dragged him out to the van, tying him up and leaving him in the back.
"Boss, I nabbed Robin and I'm gonna take him back to the hideout," Johnny reported.
"Nice seeing you, Batman, but I've gotta split! Birdbrain and I need to have a little chat!" Joker cackled as he left, making Bruce realize that his sidekick was gone. But he couldn't do anything about it, occupied as he was with fending off the numerous henchman and protecting the party guests.
Soon enough, the Joker had escaped with Robin and Batman was left to deal with unconscious henchmen and terrified rich people.