Lucifer and Raven's flight back to Manhattan was a blur of high-speed transit and frantic emotional warning.
By the time they roared through the city limits on the scooter, their worst fears were realized: The Joker's grand spectacle was already underway, and it was aimed squarely at Stark Tower.
The situation in Midtown was pure, destructive chaos, far exceeding the scope of a typical Gotham rampage.
Joker had taken over Times Square, using the immense screens and the area's infrastructure for a terrifying show.
When Lucifer and Raven arrived, they saw the full scale of the attack.
Stark Tower was encased in a thick, noxious green gas that defied containment protocols. The building's external screens flashed with the Joker's grinning face.
Below, the chaotic engagement was underway. The Teen Titans—led by a furious Robin—were battling a highly disorganized but brutally effective Suicide Squad, now seemingly led by the Joker himself.
The Titans were struggling against the sheer cunning of the Squad, which included high-profile meta-humans like Killer Croc and Deadshot.
Iron Man had arrived, but he wasn't dominating.
Tony Stark, now back in his armor, was hovering near the gas-shrouded Tower, visibly struggling against customized, high-frequency sonic weaponry embedded in the surrounding buildings—a level of tech far beyond the Joker's usual resources.
[Danger: Immediate Combat Scenario. Suicide Squad (Led by Joker) vs. Teen Titans & Iron Man.]
[Threat Level: A (Systemic Chaos/High-Tech Interference).]
Lucifer saw the problem immediately.
The Joker hadn't just escaped; someone with deep technological resources had upgraded him.
Fury's attempt to intervene was equally compromised.
Lucifer watched a sleek quinjet—carrying Natasha Romanoff and a bulky, armored figure that looked like Batman's tactical counterpart (likely Agent Phil Coulson in advanced S.H.I.E.L.D. gear, or a similar asset)—suddenly veer violently.
They were being targeted by hidden anti-air fire, and Lucifer's Empathy sensed the distinct, cold malice of Hydra agents interfering with their operation.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. assets were grounded miles away.
The Teen Titans were taking severe hits. Killer Croc, surprisingly agile, had torn through one of Cyborg's limbs, and Deadshot was pinning down Robin.
"We need to go straight for Tony,"
Lucifer yelled over the chaos, weaving the scooter through a collapsing pile of taxi cabs.
"He is compromised,"
Raven confirmed, her voice strained by the sheer psychic noise of the Joker's madness.
"The sonic attack is targeting his suit's frequency stabilizers. He cannot maintain flight."
Indeed, Iron Man was wobbling, the armor sparking.
"I need to break the sound array!"
Tony's voice crackled desperately over the exposed comms.
"Joker! You didn't build this, you—"
The Joker's amplified laughter boomed from the Tower screens.
"I didn't! But isn't it funny, Tony? Two billionaires, one laughing all the way to the asylum, the other all the way to the grave!"
As Tony desperately tried to reconfigure his suit, a heavy sonic blast hit him dead center.
Iron Man tumbled out of the air, crashing onto a skyscraper's rooftop, his suit critically damaged.
The money bag was down.
Lucifer slammed the scooter to a halt in an alley near the Tower.
"Raven, Titans are losing. Keep the heavy hitters distracted, non-lethal,"
Lucifer commanded, activating his ultimate defense.
"Shield Up!"
The Tier 8 Neutronium Force Field encased him in a protective bubble that could withstand orbital strikes.
He leaped off the scooter, grabbing the Sleeper stunner.
"I am focusing my suppression on the large, emotional male,"
Raven stated, referring to Killer Croc. She ran out of the alley, a blur in her dark clothes, and threw a tight, focused wave of Apathy directly into Croc's mind, momentarily freezing the massive brute mid-strike.
Lucifer didn't engage the Suicide Squad.
He ran straight for the nearest rooftop with a sonic emitter and began ascending, using the rigid force field platform under his feet to launch himself up the sheer face of the building.
He reached the emitter—a specialized Hydra device—and quickly shattered it with a focused kinetic pulse from the Sleeper.
CRACK!
The sound array immediately weakened.
Lucifer then launched himself across the gap, landing beside the sparking, inert Iron Man armor. Tony was struggling to open the faceplate.
"Kid! What the hell took you so long?!"
Tony wheezed, the gas filtering into the damaged suit.
"I was finishing my Platinum-Tier delivery,"
Lucifer replied, kneeling down. He quickly slapped a piece of emergency shielding from his pack over a visible tear in the armor.
"Now, get out of that suit."
He was hit suddenly by a burst of high-frequency energy—not sonic, but a sharp, localized laser blast.
The Tier 8 Neutronium Shield absorbed it completely, not even flickering.
Lucifer turned. Standing on the adjacent rooftop, silhouetted against the toxic green gas, was The Joker.
He was holding a highly modified, sleek energy rifle, and he wasn't laughing yet—just smiling, a terrifying, knowing grin.
"Look at you, all grown up!"
The Joker shouted across the gap, his voice amplified without the screen distortion.
"I'd recognize that stiff, angry walk anywhere! Hello, there Luce!"
Lucifer froze.
The name—an old nick name, a dead name—hit him with the force of a full explosion.
"You…,"
Lucifer snarled, leveling the Sleeper at the clown.
The Joker threw his head back and let out a manic, booming laugh that echoed across the ruined square.
"Oh, the one who always followed me around the old neighborhood, trying to make sense of the chaos! You were a bright kid, Luce! You always wanted to know why things fell apart! You always thought everything had a logical solution! Gotham hated that about you!"
The Joker spread his arms wide, gesturing to the pandemonium.
"Look at you now! Still trying to stabilize your life! Still carrying a damn delivery bag! I tried to teach you, Luce! The secret isn't in fighting the chaos; it's in embracing it!"
He aimed the energy rifle right at Lucifer's chest.
"You're still just a little boy trying to deliver a message! Gotham broke you, Luce! Just like it broke me!"
Lucifer's face was stone.
"The name is Lucifer,"
He said, his voice cold.
"And I don't follow you anymore."
He fired the Sleeper.
ZZZT!
The kinetic pulse hit the Joker square in the chest.
The clown laughed as the pulse impacted, but the high-frequency kinetic energy was too much even for his madness.
He seized up, his customized rifle clattering to the floor, and he toppled backward off the rooftop, disappearing into the noxious green cloud below.
Lucifer didn't look down. He ripped the damaged Iron Man faceplate off.
"Get out, Tony,"
Lucifer commanded.
"We're leaving."
Tony Stark, stunned and covered in green slime, stared at Lucifer.
"Kid? What the hell is a Luce?"
"A mistake Gotham made,"
Lucifer stated, pulling Tony free from the armor.
"Now move. I need to get you out of here, and I need to hit my rank without any more personal history popping up."
He glanced down at the chaos below.
Raven was successfully neutralizing the Suicide Squad's biggest threats with precise, non-lethal bursts of despair.
The Titans were finally gaining the upper hand.
Lucifer had saved his money bag, but the cost was the exposure of his past.