NO MAN'S ISLAND
ROUND FOUR
(the SURVIVOR rip-off...erm...homage)
(by Tim "TWO-FACE" Leighton)
Brought to you by WGBS correspondent, Summer Gleason.
Considering my run-in with the ex-DA and the yellow-skinned wacky-man last
week, you're very, very lucky to be hearing from me.
...A WALTZ DOWN MEMORY LANE...
A WORD FROM THE CAST-AWAYS:
THE CREEPER: "I'm
shocked...nay...APPALLED that I've been tossed out of 'NO MAN'S ISLAND'! Honestly, who can hate ME?? I'm the wacky sidekick that everybody
loves! It's CRIMINAL to hate someone with such great fashion
sense!!!! And, honestly...how's Quinzelle gonna cope without the
yellow-skinned wacky-man always daunting around her? Stupid voters...you
go squish now."
THE DEMON: "Gone, killed by an Arabian, dies the Demon,
Etrigan." *HE DIES*
* * * * * * * * * *
AND WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE:
Wow. Two questionable "heroes" were excused from 'NO MAN'S
ISLAND' last week, and since then, the world has been thrown into
chaos...with some very, VERY queer developments.
It looks like Batman has finally made another appearance.
Alfred Pennyworth bumped into me outside the Iceburg Lounge a day ago, and
told me that he overheard a conversation between Batman and Rupert Thorne.
This is what Pennyworth repeated to me:
"Oh, it's about time this city's defender dropped by in my
neck of the woods. I was beginning to worry. What's the
occasion?"
"You killed a man, Thorne."
"Oh come now, he's not dead. We just voted him off,
remember?"
"My sources tell me no body was found on the other side.
Gleason tells me she saw you murder Daggett with her bare
eyes."
"Please, like anyone's going to miss that man. He was an
idiot, and was going to destroy this city if he lasted any
longer."
"I'm watching you, Thorne."
And then, Batman left, but Alfred tells me he heard Thorne
mention that he wanted to eliminate ME. This is the first time I've
wished the Penguin to have a lot of ammunition on site...he's going to need
it. (And still, no word on Thorne's hulking shadowy
accomplice.)
The Joker has finally been spotted again; when I had my ran-in
with the Supa-Freakz last week he was bed-ridden, for he has come down with
a case of scurvy. He and Poison Ivy apparently had a dispute, preceding
Ivy's mysterious disappearances from her gang of do-badders every night; as
a result, she's refused to provide him any fresh fruit, while the rest of the
group has been granted such priveleges. Harley Quinn is pleading with her to
give "Mistah J" something, but thus far, she's refused. Due to the Joker's
current sickness, Two-Face has proclaimed himself contemporary leader (he'll
put it to a fair vote later), and made the Scarecrow his
deputy.
I've also heard reports of a LOT of smoke in the vicinity of
City Hall, where the Supa-Freakz are focused. Is Lynns active in the area?
Could he be planning a hit?
The lightweights have been getting rather nervous lately. The
Huntress has had a rendez-vous with the Mad Hatter in private over the past
week, where she stated that if anyone dares make a move, she personally will
come down on all of them like a tonne of bricks. Tetch was noticably shaken,
for he realizes that their crew (with the possible exception of Firefly) is all
brains and no braun. Their gang-leader, Ventriloquist, says he and his
right-hand man, the Riddler, are coming up with a plan to survive: they're
watching the events at the GCPD takeover with great interest. Firefly,
their wild card, is also said to be playing a role in their strategies.
So...Ra's Al Ghul has made his move. It looks like it was HE
that emerged from that large green sinkhole near Grand Central Station, and
he's presumably the one that offed Etrigan. I've seen Batman and his pair of
Boy Wonders pay a visit, alongside some...woman that I'm POSITIVE I've seen
in the papers before, but I don't know who she is. No war seems to have
happened...this Ra's Al Ghul guy certainly does respect the Batman a whole
lot.
Something else hit me as strange today. I met a new person
enter the fray today...someone I wasn't aware was a NO MAN'S ISLAND
contender. She was this quiet, average-looking, dowdy and all...had a bit of
a dirty sense of humour - at least that's what I got when I talked to her this morning. Apparently she's been bunking with the Penguin, too, but has
been out scowering the city for useful items to aid Cobblepot in his quest
to survive. Interesting. I haven't seen her since,
though.
So that's that. I'm bundled up tight in my rather posh bed in
the penthouse of the Iceburg Lounge, and hopefully Cobbelpot will keep me safe,
should Thorne be on his way...I still wish I was with the GCPD,
though.
Let's see, whom haven't we seen yet? I still am confused on
where Bane, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, and Catwoman are, and I don't even KNOW
the Phantasm or Talia...who...? I really think we all should've met up
prior to this game...I don't even know half the people here.
* * * * * * * * * *
AND AFTER A FOURTH ROUND OF VOTING...
Harley Quinn is getting very anxious. She's been begging
Poison Ivy to provide her with some fresh greens to give to her beau to cure
his scurvy; Isley denies. She begged Two-Face and Scarecrow to ask her; they
could care less. I caught wind that she actually crept into the outskirts of
the Bat-camp and begged Dr. Thompkins to aid her in nursing her Mistah J back to health. As soon as word that the Joker was sick got around outside of
the "Supa-Freakz" camp, everyone seemed to rejoice and heave a collective
sigh of relief; I even heard that Nightwing and Robin were caught giving
eachother a high-five. Pennyworth, who I've just learned provides Thompkins assistance in her M*A*S*H* unit (is there anything he can't do?)
reported this to me, in the form of narrative.
"A-he-he-he-he-hemmm...D-d-doctah Thompkins, I need your
help..." Harley stammered.
"What is it, my child?" Leslie responded, putting on an air of
concern.
"My puddin's sick...he hasn't eaten fresh fruit in WEEKS.
Ivy's being a total bitch about this..." she responded.
"Come, bring me to him," Thompkins stated flatly, without a
hint of fear in her voice.
Robin was there and stepped in. "What? Are you nuts? This has
got to be a trap!!!"
"It's no trap, Bird Boy..." the clown-girl said, "I just can't
bear to see him like this."
Thompkins then put her hand over Harley's shoulder, patted
her, and was escorted back towards the Supa-Freakz' camp, miles in the
distance. She certainly has a heart of gold. However, Robin was
obviously quite concerned, and followed behind them, keeping out of the
way.
Meanwhile, it seems that Killer Croc and Man-Bat have evicted
from squatting on the GCPD; apparently Bane appeared out of nowhere and
scared Croc away; he and Man-Bat have since joined "the lightweights", and
the Ventriloquist couldn't be happier. This is just the muscle he was looking for to counteract their brains. Man-Bat and Firefly don't sem
to appreciate each other, though. Apparently they're trying to one-up
each other; last I heard, Man-Bat was using sign-language to comment on how
superlative his wing-span is.
As for where Bane went, we have no clue. Gordon says he saw
Bane fight the likes of Croc and Man-Bat at the same time, and within a
matter of minutes, all three of them had left their premises. I...suppose
that everything has worked itself after all, huh?
As for other rarely-seen participants, Ra's Al Ghul has gone
back underground...literally...since his Lazarus Pit/sink-hole took out five
square blocks of Gotham last week, and Batman himself has made a few albiet
brief appearances at GCPD headquarters, aiding Gordon, Bullock, and Montoya
in rebuilding the structure.
By now, Harley and Thompkins had arrived at Supa-Freakz
central. Not surprisingly, Poison Ivy was gone, but it was odd to see
Two-Face and Scarecrow not on guard or madly scheming. It was just
them and the Joker - and Robin in tow. This morning, Robin and Batgirl
paid the Penguin a visit, and during that time, Robin passed on the news to
me regarding what happened:
"Yeah, so Harley managed to persuade Thompkins to come with
her to give the Joker first aid," he said, almost smiling because he didn't
know how to react to what had happened. "I mean, I know she meant well and
all, but come on - isn't it a good thing that he was taken out of action? Even Batman didn't agree with me, though. He just said, 'Let
Leslie do as she will.' What is that supposed to mean? Geez!" Oh
Robin, what growing up will soon teach you.
"So Harley led him into city hall to where the Joker lay
asleep, and woke him up. He was still groggy and all, so Leslie took this
opportunity to inject some pure Vitamin C into his system. I could tell she
was scared - but I remember hearing of her experience with Mr. Zsasz during the REAL No Man's Land, so I figured this could be similar. Wrong. As soon
as she turned her back to leave (Harley was escorting her - I could tell she
didn't want to injure her) that the Joker groggily got out of bed, grabbing
a handgun at his bedside, and..."
Yeah, he started to cry at this moment. I did, too. I don't
like seeing all the nicer people getting picked off one by one, especially
the one who was, hands down, the kindest and most selfless of us all on this
island.
"Joker just yelled out 'I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP...ESPECIALLY A
WOMAN'S!!!' and shot at Harley point blank; she instinctively ducked out of
the way but the bullet passed right over her head and shot Leslie in the
back. She collapsed on the stairs of City Hall and died - and all I heard in the background was the Joker laughing, groggily."
Robin immediately took her back to Batman, and told me that he
was most distraught, to say the least. He claims that he'll be coming
down hard on the remainder of the outlaws left on Gotham Island; ever since
then, the clouds of mist surrounding the Supa-Freakz camp have been growing larger and more recurrant.
Thompkins has already been shipped back to the mainland for a
proper burial on the grounds of Wayne Manor.
I tried to sleep last night; after a few hours of trying, my
eyelids finally fell.
I was rudely awakened at 4:30 this morning; Cobblepot was
having an argument with another man. I couldn't recognize the voice, but it
was definately familiar...
"No, Mr. Thorne, I swear to you that I am not trying to move
in on your operation here. I am a legitimate businessman."
Thorne. Damn.
"I couldn't possibly muscle in on your operation. I wouldn't
ever dare when you have such...large hired help. And your name
is...?"
And there was no answer.
"Gleason? I don't know what you've been hearing, but why would
I put Gleason up HERE? Wouldn't that be awfully risky? Honestly, Rupe, the
more civilians I have running around my daycare here, the greater chance
they'll rat me out to Batman for some God-knows-what reason. No, she's not
here."
And at that point, I heard Rupert speak. I started to climb
out my window, only then realizing I was on the fifth floor. "Well if she's
not here, I don't suppose you'd mind if I had a look around, hm?" A
pause. "Open it."
And at that moment, the door to my makeshift bedroom
splintered in two, and the hinges were torn from the wall. I huge bulky man
entered my room; I was petrified in my position on the window sill.
"YOU????" I stammered, briefly catching a glimpse of his masked face. I
could hear Thorne gaily speaking in the background. "Ah, Ms. Gleason, at
least we meet. May you and Mr. Dagget rest in peace." The huge masked man
raised his fist, I screamed, and...
THUD!
CLUNK.
* * * * * * * * * *
ROUND FOUR
Kicked Off:
SUMMER GLEASON (17.6%)
DR. LESLIE THOMPKINS
(14.7%)
Those whom you DID vote for, but they're still hanging
around:
LOCK-UP (11.8%)
RUPERT THORNE (11.8%)
MAN-BAT (8.8%)
FIREFLY
(8.8%)
ZATANNA (5.9%)
POSION IVY (2.9%)
THE PHANTASM (2.9%)
THE
HUNTRESS (2.9%)
ROBIN (2.9%)
BATMAN (2.9%)
THE PENGUIN (2.9%)
TALIA
(2.9%)
And now, here's our up-to-date list of
contenders.
BATMAN
ROBIN
BATGIRL
NIGHTWING
ALFRED
COMMISSIONER
GORDON
DET. HARVEY BULLOCK
RENE MONTOYA
THE HUNTRESS
ZATANNA
THE
JOKER
THE PENGUIN
CATWOMAN
THE RIDDLER
TWO-FACE
POISON IVY
THE
SCARECROW
MR. FREEZE
THE MAD HATTER
BANE
KILLER CROC
THE
VENTRILOQUIST/SCARFACE
HARLEY QUINN
CLAYFACE
FIREFLY
RA'S AL
GHUL
TALIA
THE PHANTASM
LOCK-UP
MAN-BAT
RUPERT
THORNE
* * * * *
*
E-mail juno@dccnet.com with your votes of the TWO
you'd like to see cast off. Remember, we need TWO choices! (I stress that
again. TWO!)
PS - Voting for this issue closes at midnight on November 24, 2000.
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