"Justice League..."

"Batman!"

"Flash. You're late."

"Y-That's because I'm not even on Earth. G-"

"Where are you?"

"I'm on the Top's satellite!"

"What?"

"The Top's satellite, look-"

"The Top has a satellite?"

"It's in geosynchronous orbit opposite to ours, okay, that's why we never see it, the Earth is in the way-"

"Why are you on the Top's satellite?"

"I was just about to say, two of my Rogues decided it would be fun to play MST3K with me as Joel-"

"MST3K?"

"Mystery Science Theatre 3000, okay, look-"

"What is that?"

Flash facepalmed, silently cursing Batman's ability to keep his finger not even remotely on the pulse of popular culture. "The basic plot is, two mad scientists threw a guy up onto a satellite and spam him with bad movies to make him go insane, okay? Only I don't have any little robot friends!"

"Why would they do this?"

"To make him go insane."

"I meant your Rogues..."

"To make ME go insane," Flash sighed, "I don't know, but I have an idea-"

He broke off as the monitor suddenly scrambled to life, clearing to reveal a grinning masked face with pink and blond hair, "Helloooooooo, Flashie! Guess whaaaaaaat? I've got another moooooovie for youuuuuu!"

Flash sighed, "What is it this time, Trickster?" Someone in the background was chanting "Play 'the Crawling Hand!' Play 'the Crawling Hand!'"

"By POP-ular request, it's The Crawling Hand!"

"Yayyyyyy!" the chanter giggled, collapsing into view against Trickster's shoulder, dashing Flash's hopes.

The redhead wasn't wearing his usual floppy green stocking cap but Flash knew him. "Piper," he said, "Did they put you in the hospital again?"

The Pied Piper looked at him blearily for a second then rage suddenly slammed into his eyes, "That's not funny! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"

"You've upset Pipey!" the Trickster screamed, "Now you're gonna PAY!" The monitor screen scrambled and went blank. Flash sat back on the chair and shuddered.

"...Okay, what was that about?"

"That, Batman, is what I was afraid of: Piper was in Breedmore again."

"Breedmore... Isn't that..."

"The state's mental institution, yes. Piper's parents keep putting him in there, that's where he met Trickster. The thing is, Piper doesn't need to be there. So they keep feeding him medication and you know what psychiatric medications can do to someone who doesn't actually need them."

"I see..."

"When that happens, Trickster breaks him out and he tries to take care of Piper and cheer him up, and it's the 'cheering him up' part that causes all the trouble. They must have been watching MST3K and got ideas..."

"When he said he'd make you pay..."

"Yeah, I don't know what he meant by that, with Trickster it could be anything... oh no, the movie's starting..." Sitar sounds filled the air and the screen burst into lively colour and dancing, "Oh god, it's BOLLYWOOD! They're making me watch Bollywood movies! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"