This part is the one I have the most problems with.
I'm not sure if I'm using certain DC Comics characters
right, or if I should use them at all.  

I'm so unsure of it all that I'm entirely willing
to scrap this entire part and start from scratch.

C&C appreciated.

-rpm

----------------------------


' ' = spoken in English
// // = spoken via electronic medium (phone, speaker, etc)


                       Bubblegum Crisis
                  Batman: The Animated Series

                          S M I L E

              A tale of knights, past and present.

                 ----------------------------
                 Part 3: The Play's The Thing
                 ----------------------------

      "La commedia e finita!"  ( "The comedy is over!" )

                   - Canio, "Pagliacci"

                             :)

                 [MegaTokyo Bay, 7:12 am]

Ken was a fisherman.  He was a fisherman from a long line of
fishermen.  He'd seen a great many things in his life, and
heard a great many tales.

As he stood on the deck of his fishing boat, staring at the
morning's catch, he had to admit, he'd never heard or seen
-anything- like this.

He frowned at the fish.

They smiled back at him.

                             :)

        [Captain G's Restaurant, MegaTokyo.  7:30 am]

//Fishermen this morning were greeted to a bizzare sight
this morning:  smiling fish.  MegaTokyo bay is filled today
with smiling fish, artificially altered.  It is unknown at
this time who is responsible, but several terrorist groups
have claimed responsibility.//

The screen lingered on a single grinning fish for a moment,
then switched to a commercial break.

Linna looked down at her plate.  "Ugh, there goes my
appetite."

"Hey, I'll take it," said Nene.

Priss shot Linna an annoyed look.  "Jeez, so squeamish.
S'probably just nature re-adjusting to life."

"How do you figure that?" asked Linna.

"You know how much crap Genom is dumping into the bay?  I
mean, with all those chemicals, SOMETHING was gonna happen
to the fish."

"But smiling fish?" asked Nene.

"Eh, probably some weird chemical weapon they're testing
out.  They test out combat boomers in the city all the damn
time, why not poisons?"

"She does have a point," said Nene.

"So you call Sylia yet?" asked Priss.

Linna nodded.  "Yeah, talked to her last night.  She said
she'll be back soon."

"She say what she was doing in that hellhole yet or what?"
Priss didn't like the way Sylia kept things to herself
either, but she was used to it.  That didn't mean she
wouldn't try to pry.

"You know anything about it, Nene?"

Nene hmmed for a moment.  "Well, Sylia had me check a few
money trails... scholarships she got and stuff like that.
I guess she's looking for whoever paid her college bills."

Linna and Priss thought on this a moment, then shrugged it
off.  It was probably personal matters that they wouldn't
understand.

"Hey Linna, can you give me a ride tonight?" asked Priss.

"What?  What happened to your bike?"

"Got towed," grumbled Priss. "Gotta go pick it up from the
impound." 

Linna grinned.  "Sorry, busy tonight."

"With what?" asked Priss suspiciously.

"Date!" said Linna cheerily.

Nene rolled her eyes, which didn't escape Linna's notice.

"You're just envious," said Linna.

"What're you guys talking about?" asked Priss.

"I've got a date with a cop tonight," said Linna.  "Nene's
just upset she didn't get first shot at him."

"I saw him first!" whined Nene.

Linna raised an eyebrow.  "You would've had a better chance
if you didn't hit him with the car door." 

Nene cringed and Priss grinned.  "You hit him with the car
door?"

Nene nodded meekly.

"The door on Linna's stupidly tall minivan?" asked Priss.

Nene, again, nodded meekly.

Priss broke out in laughter, resting her head on the table.
"You musta nearly taken his head off!"

"He's still got a bruise on his forehead," added Linna. 

"Oh yeah, classic Nene!"

"You meanies!" 

Their conversation was interrupted when Nene was suddenly
struck in the facce with a pie.

-SPLAT-

"WAH!"

"What the hell?!" yelled Priss.  "Hey, who's the w- YOW!"
She ducked just in time as another pie flew by.  "Hey!"

//Hahahahah-hahahaha-hahahahah...//

>From the counter, a continuous droning laugh came from a
waitress boomer while it while it flung food from the
kitchen to anyone it could see. 

The three took cover under the table while food flew
rapidly in the air above them.

"A boomer food fight. Great," grumbled Priss.  

"Got your cannon?" asked Linna.

At a speed that surprised Linna and Nene, Priss pulled out
three parts and assembled what looked like a small cannon.


//...hahaha-hahaha-hahaha-//

-BLAM-

//*zzt*haha//

-BLAM-

//*zzt*hisssss*//

"You always carry that thing around?" asked Linna, pointing
to Priss' gun.

Priss grinned.  "Member-II," she said, patting it lovingly. 
"Never leave home without it."

                             :) 

             [Genom Tower, MegaTokyo 10:00 am]

With a distinctly unhappy mood, Quincy viewed his monitors
which were all at the moment listening to the television
stations as they reported on the devastation caused by the
destruction of the Genom Development Center. By his side,
with papers in hand, was his right hand and
second-in-command of the corporation, Madigan. 

"Madigan, report."

"The Genom Development Center is totally obliterated, sir."

"Nothing left to salvage?"

"No, sir.  It'd be more economically sound to demolish the
ruins and start anew."

Quincy nodded.  "Survivors?"

"None found yet, sir."

"What caused the explosion?"

"At the moment, we think the reactors may be the source.
The GDC wasn't storing any high explosive materials at the
time of the blast."

"The reactors... then that means someone sabotoged us."

"Very likely, sir."

He took a deep breath and turned his attention to the large
display of monitors.

"The fish..."

"Sir?"

"The smiling fish found in the bay.  It's near our Genom
chemical plant."

"Did someone check with them?"

"Yes.  They did not reply to our calls.  After 30 minutes,
we sent in a security team.  We found this."

The monitors flickered in unison and presented an image of
carnage, with dead bodies strewn everywhere.  A few of the
corpses were smiling.

Madigan gasped.  "My God, who..."

"In addition to this, there seems to be a new virus
infecting labor boomers."

Another screen switched on, showing a construction boomer
swinging around a chainsaw.  A flat //hahahaha// constantly
droned from it as it chased an unfortunate bystander.

"It's... laughing?" asked Madigan.

"Fifteen injuries today, one fatality.  Should this virus
reach military boomers, it would be a disaster."

"Who..."

"That is what I want to know.  Someone is abusing us,
Madigan.  Find them." 

Quincy turned off all the monitors, leaving him and Madigan
in the dark.  A sole stream of light from the doorway was
their only light.

"I'll be in Genaros tomorrow overseeing a part of the
Romulus Project.  Take care of this while I'm away,
Madigan," said Quincy.  "And keep me informed." 

                             :)

                   [Somewhere in Gotham]

A pair of eyes looked grimly at a computer monitor, staring
at what was sure to be the renewal of a cycle believed dead
decades ago.

She sighed and brushed her red hair from her eyes.  They
hadn't thought about this for the longest time, and she sure
what to do now. 

One of them was in town.  One of his chosen heirs.  The one
with a mercenary reputation.

The one that had been hacking into flagged files.

'Hon?' she called out.

'Yeah?'

'I think you should see this.'

'See what?'

'Someone from the Curran Project.'

There was a brief, somewhat dramatic pause.

'Which one?'

The screen flickered for a moment.

'Stingray... Knight Sabers... hrm.'

'She was the first.'

'Yeah.'

'What are you going to do?'

'What Bruce wanted me to do, though I pray this doesn't blow
up in our faces.'

                             :)

                  [Somewhere in MegaTokyo]

The fish... was good.

It felt good.  Yes it did.

Left'em smiling, literally.

Aheh.

It was a nice opening line, yes, but the show was still on.
The next gag should be a sweet one, something to define the
rest of the show.

The virus was also nice.  That one would be lingering for a
long time to come, definitely.  But it still wasn't enough. 

It wasn't... _loud_ enough.

He looked for inspiration at the place where he knew it
best: the media.

In the empty warehouse where he had chosen to reside until
more luxuriant accomodations became available, the Joker
briefly inspected a wall socket.  It held a dusty and long
unused network port.

It was, however, still usable.

Goodie.

He reached forward and plugged into the world...

"Oooh.  Perfect."

... and found himself a good punchline.

                             :)

              [Genom Tower, Megakyo.  5:30 pm]

//We have a survivor, ma'am.//

Madigan raised an eyebrow and leaned towards her vidphone.
"Who and how?"

//Dr. Nikolai Vess.  He dove into a vault before the
explosion hit.//

"Condition?"

//He's got internal bleeding and lots of broken bones.  A
report should be in your e-mail.//

"Good."

//He seems to be rambling something about the S.M.I.L.E.
project... something called Momus.//

"He's still at the hospital?"

//Yes ma'am.//

Madigan nodded.  "Put him under surveilence."

She switched off the vidphone, then brought up the work file
on Dr. Vess and Momus.

The profiles on Dr. Vess were available, but there were
no documents containing the word 'Momus'.

Normally, this wouldn't give her a reason to be suspicious.

It was the odd blank spaces that appeared repeatedly in Dr. 
Vess' project log that had Madigan wondering. 

                             :)

              [MegaTokyo Grand Opera, 8:00 pm]

Linna was right.  Toshi looked nice in a suit, fit in well
in the Megatokyo Grand Opera, and was just adorable next to
her. 

The opera, Pagliacci, was minutes away from starting.  They
were killing time with idle conversation.

"You know, I didn't think police were the kind to enjoy
operas," she teased him.

"Mom was a big opera fan, I guess I caught it from her," he
replied sheepishly.

She patted him on the arm.  "Well I think it's nice.  So,
how was your day?"

"Weird."

"Weird?"

"Yeah.  You see that news story this morning about all the
smiling fish?"

Linna nodded.

"After a little research, we figured out that whatever did
that to the fish was coming from a Genom Chemicals plant by
the bay."

This surprised Linna.  Testing boomers on the urban populace
was something Genom had done before.  Sending out rough beta
versions of software that would require patches and upgrades
for years to come was also another nasty trick they did.
Poisoning the bay was a bit nastier than the usual.

"Genom did it?" she asked.

"Not sure."

"Not sure?"

"A security team blocked us from looking in.  We didn't see
inside, but we did see them hauling off a lot of body bags."

"Oh."

"Rumor is someone out there is playing hardball with Genom."

"Oh.  Wow."  Linna was impressed  "Who'd do that?"

"Well... a few think the Knight Sabers would."

"They wouldn't do that!  Er, I mean, that doesn't seem like
them."

"No, it doesn't.  I dunno.  Maybe it's one of Genom's
competitors getting serious.  Oh, hey, show's starting."

The two settled in as the overture began to play, soaking in
the atmosphere of high society.

                             :)

                      [Gotham, 6:45 am]

  From: Oracle
  To: sstingray@unet.com.jp
  Subject: The object of your pursuit...

  Wayne Park, by the fountain.
  9:00am


Sylia stared at the e-mail message suspiciously.

Discovery was not out of the question.  Wayne was a rich and
important person, and prying into his past was bound to
catch someone's attention.  What bothered her was that they
knew it was her already.

She ran a tracer program Nene designed for just such an
occasion, and was surprised when the tracer failed.
It didn't just fail, it failed quickly.  Normally, it would
dig around a little first.

Interesting.  This required additional assistance.

After a few brief keystrokes, her laptop went into vidphone
mode.  She keyed in a rather lengthy number and waited...

//MegaTokyo AD Police, Romanova spea- Sylia, hi!//

"Hello Nene."

//How's Gotham?//

"Uneventful, until today.  Are you on a secure terminal?"

Nene nodded.

"I recieved an e-mail message from a source I couldn't
trace.  I'm forwarding it to you now."

A few seconds passed...

//Oh.  Oh, no way.//

"Something wrong?"

//Well... y'see... there used to be this legendary hacker
based in Gotham.  Her name was Oracle.//

"You think this could be the same one?"

//It could be anyone.  But the fact that the tracer didn't
work is something to think about.  Not that that's extremely
hard to do, but it proves that this wasn't just some amature
joking around.//

"What was Oracle's reputation?"

//Generally helpful, especially if you were digging around
for information on criminals.//

"Hrm."

//Thinking about going?//

Sylia nodded.

//Be careful.  It is Gotham, after all.//

Sylia checked her handgun over, making sure it was loaded
and ready.  "You know me, always careful." 

                             :)

              [MegaTokyo Grand Opera, 8:55 pm]

The janitor stared in shock at the dead body stowed away in
the storage room.

It was bad enough that he was dead, but the ghoulish grin on
his face was disturbing to a fundamental degree.

"Oh... shit."

After the initial shock, he finally recognized who the dead
person was: Goro Oguchi, the lead for tonight's show.

Wait, that couldn't be right.  If this was Goro, then who
was on stage?

                             :)

              [MegaTokyo Grand Opera, 8:56 pm]

On stage, the climax of Pagliacci was underway.  The jealous
and dominating husband, Canio, in costume as a clown, was
confronting his unfaithful wife Nedda.

o/~ Il nome!  Il nome! o/~ sang Canio.

o/~ No! o/~ 

'Canio' was supposed to, at this point, sing a few more
lines, then stab 'Nedda.'

Instead, he surprised all by rushing forward and giving her
an exaggerated kiss to the lips.  The audience murmured and
gasped in surprise.

"Okaaaay," said Toshi.  "I don't think this is in the
script."  He flipped through his program guide briefly.
"Nope, definitely not in the script."

"Oh my," said Linna.

'Nedda' backed away, shocked, then turned to the audience
and began laughing hysterically, loudly, although her eyes
were wide in fear and panic.  Her lips twisted into a forced
grin and her laughter increased in its intensity.

The audience murmured in confusion, unsure and uncomfortable
with what was happening... until 'Nedda' finally stopped
laughing, gasped one last time, and collapsed on the floor.

As the audience screamed in horror, 'Canio' turned around
for a brief moment, then turned to the audience again,
ripping his clown suit off in the process.

He'd changed.  Somehow he'd changed in that small instance.
Where once there was a slightly overweight man in a 19th
century clown costume, there was now a purple suited clown,
stick thin and grinning madly.

He spread his arms wide, and bellowed:

"Permettere che me mi introduca!  Qui e la mia scheda!"

Suddenly, behind him, a gigantic card almost as tall as the
curtains slammed down with a metallic clang.  The audience
screamed more as they saw the card smash into the stage
floor, crushing several stage actors under it.

"Signore e signori!  la comedia... COMINCIA!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!" 

>From his jacket, he pulled out a small metal sphere and
dropped it casually to the floor.  It exploded with a sudden
bang and flash, filling the stage with smoke.


                             :)

"What's going on down there?!" asked Linna.

"I dunno, but I'm gonna go find out," said Toshi.  "Be right
back."

"Toshi?  Wha-"

By then, he was already gone.

                             :)

The Joker whistled merrily as he strolled out the back door
of the opera house.  The night had gone well, yes, very
well.  A good and fitting punchline to the joke of the day,
that was.

He wondered what he'd do for an encore.

"Police!  Freeze!"

The Joker stopped in mid-stride, frowning.  Cops?  So soon?
My, either the response time was better than he'd heard
or there was a policeman in the audience.

"Why officer, something I can do for you?" he asked
smoothly, turning around.  The Joker's grin increased a
notch when he noticed the policeman, aiming a gun at him,
was wearing a suit. 

Ah, so there was one in the audience.

"Put your hands above your head, clown."

"Hey, y'know what?" asked the Joker casually.

"I said put your hands on your head!"

"I think my gun's bigger than yours.  Let's find out!"  As
the Joker reached into his jacket, the policeman opened
fire.  To his shock, his two shots missed.  He didn't get a
chance to fire a third because the barrel of the gun that
was suddenly a centimeter from his eye was distracting him.

It was a big gun, but not in the conventional definition of
'big gun'.  It appeared to be a .357 Magnum, but with a five
meter long barrel.

"Mmm-hm.  Mine's definitely longer," said the Joker.

"Oh... shit."

The Joker pulled the trigger.

There was a puff of smoke... a loud bang... the policeman
flinched and stumbled back. 

And he was still alive.

"Hahahahaha!  Gets'em every time!" crowed the Joker.  The
gun he held now had a small stick poking out of the barrel
with a flag attached to it.

It said 'BANG'.

"A... fake gun?" he asked, still stunned.

"No, silly.  A harpoon gun!"

-THUD-

                             ;)

              [Gotham, Wayne Park.  9:01 am]

Aside from the occasional jogger, Wayne Park was empty.  It
was too early for the lunch crowd, just a little late for
the breakfast crowd.

Sylia's senses were scanning her surroundings, waiting for
the moment 'Oracle' would arrive.

She was expecting trouble.

She wasn't expecting trouble in the form of a dozen youths,
all weilding baseball bats and walking her way.  Sylia's
hand reached slowly for the gun under her jacket...

They walked right past her, chatting pleasantly amongst
themselves.  One of them politely tipped his hat to her as
he walked by.

They were all wearing, on their shirts, their hats, or as a
tatoo, the symbol of the batman. 

A moment later, they were gone.

Strange, she thought.

'They're vigilantes,' said a voice behind her. Sylia whirled
around, pulling her gun out.

She didn't see what happened next.  Her hand was hit hard,
she lost the grip on her gun, and suddenly she found herself
at the wrong end of her own handgun.

'That wasn't nice," said the stranger.

Sylia looked him over quickly, analyzing what was going on. 
In his 60's, with a fake moustache and padding under his
overcoat.  The bald spot was fake too.  The disguise was a
good job, but she knew how to spot fakes.

'What do you want?' she asked.

'That's just what I was about to ask you, Miss Stingray.'

'Who are you?'

He ignored her question, asking, 'Just what are you looking
for, and why?'

'Or what?  You'll shoot me?'

'Can I assumed you'll be civilized while we talk?'

Sylia nodded.  The man seemed to consider things for a
moment, then handed Sylia her gun.  A foolish move, in
Sylia's opinion.  Either he was too trusting or very
confident that he could disarm her again.

'Answer the question,' he said.

'I think you already know that,' said Sylia.

'Maybe I do, maybe I don't.'

'I don't like playing games," said Sylia sternly.

'Neither do I, Miss Stingray.'

'I want the truth.'

'Nobody's lied to you yet.'

'I've looked at my past and it seems like I'm being set up
for something nobody's told me about.  That means me and my
people may be put in danger for a reason I haven't been told
about, and that is unacceptable.' She stared at him with an
iron gaze.  'Is that good enough?'

The man stayed silent.

'Well?' asked Sylia.

The man tossed something to Sylia.  'Here.  If you do things
right, you'll need this.'

Sylia looked at the object.  'A key?  What-'   She looked up
to ask him what it was for, only to find herself alone once
more.

"Dammit."


-end part 3-

(editor's note: The Joker's italian dialogue -
"Ladies and gentlemen!  I am the Joker!  And
now, MegaTokyo, the comedy... BEGINS!" )