KTTTCH

It wasn't the first kick to the head that Terry had received. Almost certainly wouldn't be the last. Still hurt like hell, though. The greasepainted Jokerz twins collectively known as Dee Dee were a lithe and acrobatic pair; lifting their legs high enough to swing them into Terry's masked face was an easy task for either of them to accomplish. Unluckily for him, both of them had done just that.

After his first encounter with this particular set of Jokerz, Terry had learned not to underestimate these two. They were still tricky in ways he couldn't always counter, however, and, in this case, he had blundered right into their trap. He was chasing one of them down an alley after she had mugged a tourist from Metropolis and had cornered her in a dead end. Before he could do anything else, he heard a sound behind him and wheeled around to face what he assumed was the other clown girl. He saw her smile and wave at him at the same moment that he felt her sister's foot colliding with the back of his head, launching him forward. The next thing he saw was a boot identical the one that just hit him whirling toward his nose as its owner spun around in a roundhouse kick.

Terry hit the ground, and his twin assailants taunted him as he lay on the dirty pavement.

"Look what we caught, Dee Dee."

"Ewww! Looks like a big ugly bat, Dee Dee."

"What do you think we should do with it?"

"Let's pull its wings off!"

Dee Dee grabbed Terry by the arms as he struggled to regain his bearing, lifting his upper body knee-high off the ground. They took turns kicking him in the chest as they held him in that position, knocking the wind out of him so that he couldn't even groan as he was pummeled. "Bruuuuuce... Heeeeelp..." he wheezed into the Batsuit's audio link as he lost consciousness.

Terry woke up hours later, still in the filthy alley he passed out in. Dee Dee had covered him in newspaper to conceal his body, and had scrawled HA HA HA all over his Batsuit in clown-red lipstick.

"Ugggh." Terry groaned as he pulled himself up. "Slag me. That could've gone better."

"I'll say." came Bruce's voice from the cowl. "Care to explain what that was all about?"

"They got the drop on me. Besides, sometimes those clowns have some tricks up their sleeves. The real question is in why they left me alive."

"Maybe they did something to the suit. Come back to the Batcave, I'll check it out." At this, the Batmobile, which had been hovering in stealth mode in the sky above Terry, revved its engines.

"On my way." Terry tried to smear off some of the lipstick with his thumb as he kicked on the Batsuit's jets and shot upward.

Terry winced as he stripped out of the Batsuit after he got back to the Batcave. His whole chest was blue and purple, and his ribs were so tender that he could barely breathe. "They really did a number on me. Remind me never to let someone use me as a kickball ever again."

"I remind you of that every week." Bruce replied as the took the suit over to the examination table.

"Well, remind me to listen to you then." Terry held an ice pack to the biggest of his many bruise.

"Hmmph. So now what are you going to do?" Bruce peeled away the outermost layer of the Batsuit to expose the electronics underneath to check for any sign of sabotage.

"Tonight, I'm going to go home and heal." Terry wound a gauze bandage around his ribcage. "Tomorrow, I'm going to look into what Dee Dee is up to. I haven't seen them since The Joker..." Terry trailed off and looked downward. "Well, you know. No clue what made them pop up now. Couldn't have been just the sixty creds in a woman's purse."

"Take two days off. With your injuries and the diagnostics I want to run on the Batsuit, you're going to be too underpowered to get anything done in Gotham for a while. Maybe you could see Dana tomorrow night."

Terry sighed. "That's assuming she wants to see me. I had to bail on her to follow Dee Dee, and it's too late to call and explain by now. I don't know what I'm going to say to her tomorrow." He got dressed into his street clothes and headed for the door.

"I told you that this job doesn't leave for a social life."

"And I told you, remind me to listen to you."

Terry, still in pain from the night before, had a slow start to the morning and got to school late. Dana was waiting for him at his locker when he finally arrived. "Well, well, it's my favorite superhero, The Incredible Disappearing Boyfriend. Which do you want to explain first, why you ditched me, or why you didn't even call and apologize?"

"I'm sorry, Dana. Really, I am. Mr. Wayne needed me for an urgent errand, and it took all night. I'm still sore today."

Dana took a deep breath. "Look, Ter. I appreciate the fact that you're the one supporting your family now. I know how important this job is for both you and Mr. Wayne. But it's unfair to me to have such an unreliable boyfriend. I understand that providing for your mom and little brother is the most important thing outside of your education; all I'm asking is that you be there for me when you say you will. You quit this job to be with me not too long ago, and, up until the point where we got attacked, I was thrilled. I'm not asking you to do that again, but until Mr. Wayne is more self-reliant or you get an assistant to help out, I can't take this constant lack of priority from my boyfriend." The class bell rang before Terry could reply. Dana kissed him on the cheek. "I love you, Terry. But I'll see you later." She walked to her class and left him standing dumbstruck in the hallway.