Two dusty gray buses drove into Cloverton, Ohio, in the afternoon sunlight.
Harleen Quinzel sat behind the wheel of the first bus in an oversized, garishly colorful shirt, chattering excitedly to the person beside her as she drove. The moment she heard they were going to pick up a bunch of freaks, she had agreed without hesitation.
"I knew you wouldn't leave me out of something this fun. Mwah!"
She planted a big kiss on Li Jie's cheek, declared that she could lead the team just fine, and promised him she would never open fire on the local police first.
"So," she asked, glancing at the back seat in the rearview mirror, "is our little Robin nervous?"
Dick Grayson had been watching the farmland race past outside. He turned at her words. He wasn't wearing his Robin costume, just a T-shirt and shorts.
"Of course I'm not nervous," Dick said, though he didn't sound entirely confident. "But... we're not in Gotham. Have you thought about how the local police will react if this gets out of hand?"
"Smart little bird. Have a candy."
She fished two brightly wrapped hard candies out of her pocket, tossed one to Dick, and unwrapped the other before popping it into her mouth.
Getting Dick Grayson involved hadn't been difficult. She had passed the news to Raven, who openly relayed it to all the school's teachers as an internal notice, asking them to take care of school security while the police were deployed elsewhere. Barbara then quietly told Dick, who had been gathering all sorts of intelligence-even if he didn't know what he could actually do with any of it. But that was what Batman did, right?
So when Harleen visited Wayne Manor to see Alfred, explaining that these misfits had tragic backgrounds