Body Count

The eight of them stood stock still, staring at the door, none of them daring to breathe too loudly. Shane, far from being fearful and aggressive as The Joker said she should be, was petrified and shaking at the knees. The sirens continued to wail in the distance.

The Joker, of course, was the one out of all of them that was completely relaxed. He was rocking back and forth on his heels, hands clasped behind his back, whistling a randomly cheery tune. The high pitched hum echoed around the warehouse eerily.

For the first time in nearly four months, Shane regretted being here with The Joker. After every moment of pain, suffering, and loss she'd endured, this was the worst. Waiting for her death to arrive in a storm of sirens and bullets. Fear penetrated every recess of her mind, turning any reassuring thought into a nightmare of agony. Under her mask, she cried silently.

Even if The Joker had said he'd get her out - his second priority, supposedly - would he really do it? Wasn't it more in his nature to kill as many cops as possible and flee before any more could show up? Casualties were his forte, and if she died, she'd just add to that number. What belief could she possibly hold that he'd rescue her?

Perhaps, though, the police would never reach them on time. Maybe Ricky would drive up in his van and save them all. Maybe it wouldn't come to a fight.

That hope died quickly as the sirens started to grow louder. The sounds of screeching tires reached their ears, reverberating around the room from the freeway outside.

They were coming.

"We'll never make it out on time," Daemyn said quietly, voicing Shane's fears. "We'll have to fight."

"Like I said," The Joker cut in, "Kill as many as you can."

As the police drew closer, the men and Shane grouped into a rough semi-circle facing the only door. The Joker, naturally, stood right at the front of the group - although the cops wouldn't know it was him. Not right away, at least. Almost every one of them was wearing a mask. The Joker, though, had chosen to abandon his jacket. Shane had witnessed it being grabbed and taken by one of the goons - it was more than likely hanging on a hook at the 'new location'. A small pocketknife was gripped loosely in his right hand.

Max stationed himself almost directly beside The Joker, but a step or so behind. He was cocky, but not stupid. He was unmasked, wearing instead a grim and determined expression. His weapon of choice was a long metal pipe hanging by his side, and a pistol tucked into his belt.

Behind The Joker and Max stood Odie and Daemyn. The brothers - a secret only Shane and Daemyn knew - were both wearing masks and holding rifles up at their shoulders, aiming for the door.

Shane's goons were, of course, choosing to stand in front of her. They had all donned masks of varying expressive grimaces, and they were all standing very stiff. They were the new kids on the block, and they knew it. This would be their first really criminal act. Shane glanced at each of them individually - each had a knife and pistol each - and she noticed Will shivering almost imperceptibly. She empathized with this feeling.

Tires were dragging rapidly across the dirt - sirens had blared to a sudden stop - The Joker had frozen in his rocking, staring at the door - voices outside.

"All right, everybody, we're aiming to kill! Don't think twice, boys, every single person in that warehouse is a murderer and they're all going to the same place! Once you're in, fan out - but stay back. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" chorused the assembled cops.

Shane's tears stopped. Now was not the time to cry.

The door was kicked open with a deafening bang. A swarm of men poured in, armed to the teeth and heavily protected by bullet proof vests and body-length shields.

'The SWAT team?' Shane thought incredulously. 'For a group of small-time criminals?'

The man who was clearly in charge stepped forward, aiming a very large and menacing-looking gun at the group of clowns. "Put your weapons down, and nobody gets hurt."

Max laughed. "And what about aiming to kill, Sergeant?"

He blanched. Apparently he thought he hadn't been overheard.

"Drop your weapons," he repeated, "And nobody will get hurt."

"Oh, people are going to get hurt," The Joker said slowly. The cops all turned in his direction, their guns pointing at his head. Their faces were confused, tentative. Shane thought she knew why - his voice was hard not to recognize. "And they always do with you people. No matter what the means, the end is always the same - death, destruction, and cruelty. So just drop your act and get on with the party, will you?"

The man shook his head. "Sir, if you continue to obstruct justice -"

"Obstruct justice?" The Joker said, all cheerful pretenses gone from his voice. "This isn't justice, sir. This is a gang of bullies trying to control their little worlds. This is you, Officer, trying to exercise some power over the little guy." He stopped, and took a deep breath. "This is you trying to put a child to death."

The cop had had enough. "Put down your weapons or we'll be forced to make you!" he spat.

None of the clowns moved.

"Officers," the cop said grimly. "Fire at will."

Max, with a blood-curdling roar, leaped straight at the oncoming line of police. Before they knew what had hit them, he'd given half a dozen of them concussions and broken noses. He laughed victoriously.

And then the fight was set in motion.

The cops were diving at clowns, or out of their way, depending on who they were up against. Every single police officer The Joker came within twenty feet of seemed to fall to the ground, bleeding and dead before they'd had time to blink. The cops trying to force Max to the ground were beating him mercilessly with the butts of their guns, but he fought back. He was still on his feet, bludgeoning everybody - friend or foe - within five feet of himself. Odie and Daemyn had plunged right into the heart of the enemy, slicing and shooting from the inside. Shane's clowns had pushed her back, shooting at any approaching cop.

"Shoot to kill!" somebody shouted. Shane shivered.

Three cops had succeeded in breaking away from the fray, and were stalking towards Shane and her bodyguards. The three clowns raised their weapons simultaneously, while Will kicked out behind him and knocked Shane into a pile of empty crates. They collapsed over her, deafening her temporarily, and she was in pitch darkness. The sounds of the fight were muffled, but still too close. Her head whipped from side to side, trying to find a ray of light.

And then she realized what she was doing. Yes, Will had put her in this protective cave of boxes, but she shouldn't stay here and cower. It was because of her these men were fighting closer and closer to their own demise. She should be out there, helping, no matter how young or vulnerable she may be.

With her teeth clenched and her blood starting to boil, she shoved the boxes aside and sprinted towards the nearest group of people - Will, Stone, and Cliff had all vanished from sight. Trying not to think about this, she tore her knife out of her belt and lunged at the nearest man in blue.

He screamed in pain as the blade dug into his exposed forearm. She ripped sideways. His blood gushed out onto her hand and spilled to the floor. She stabbed at him again, and this time she caught his neck. She watched with wide, glowering eyes as her hand twisted and pulled the knife back out of the dead man's flesh. He fell to the ground.

She heard a scream of rage and turned to her right. Odie had just punched a cop so hard on his helmet that the helmet shattered into two pieces and fell off. Odie was grabbed from behind in a full nelson, and the cop he'd hit was aiming his gun at him angrily.

Shane darted forward and hit the man over the head with the hilt of her knife. He toppled over, and was soon trampled by Daemyn's straying foot.

"Hey!" the cop holding Odie said. "You!" he cocked his gun and aimed at her, but that had freed Odie's arm. He elbowed him in the ribs and shot him in the head.

"Thanks," the two said, before running off in opposite directions.

The fight looked hopeless from Shane's side. The clowns, while putting up a good fight and managing to keep each other alive, were growing weary very quickly. The cops were still going, ignoring their pain through years of hard training, and their guns were all being pulled out. Shane saw Will and, with a pang, saw him favoring his left arm. He'd been shot.

Anger boiled through her veins like wildfire at the sight of Will's injury. Her fault, all of it - she would do what she could to right this wrong.

Without another moments hesitation, she tackled an officer and, before he could get up, had risen to her feet and stomped on his face. He gurgled agonizingly, blood dripping and oozing out of his nose. Another cop came to his aid, but he was felled when Shane simply kicked him hard in the groin. When he lurched forwards in pain, she stabbed him in the chest. He collapsed.

Panting, holding her knife aloft, she turned. Half of the cops had been either wounded or killed, but a large group of them were surrounding one person. No shots were being fired, though - the risk of hitting one of their own in that formation was too great. They all had clubs out and raised. She could distinctly hear the sound of metal ripping through flesh and bone. Cackling from the middle of the circle ...

"The idiot!" Max groaned from next to her. Looking around, she realized that the only cops left were now surrounding The Joker. By either teamwork or sheer luck, she didn't know, but there were only around fifteen of them left. "He's taking on all of them at once!"

The goons and Shane all exchanged a short glance, and then they, too, were fighting their way through the wave of police. As she sprinted towards the enemy, she noticed Daemyn wasn't anywhere in sight. Pushing that thought aside, she grunted and threw herself at an officer's back.

The cops appeared to have forgotten they were fighting more than one person, and were taken by surprise when the clowns jumped at them from behind. Soon enough, the outer ring of cops were lying dead on the ground, but they had been their comrade's warning. Some of them turned to ward off the newcomers, but the ones on the innermost circle still tried to get close to The Joker.

It was all over blindingly fast - Shane, with the help of Max, Odie, Will, Stone, and Cliff, cut and kicked through the outer ring of police. She didn't notice that The Joker had taken out the inner group of police. She lunged forward, expecting to be met by another furious cop, and tripped instead over a dead one right into The Joker's open arms. His arms were open because he had just reached out and stabbed one of the men, and he hadn't lowered his weapon yet.

Almost reflexively, he grabbed her arms and straightened her out. She stumbled awkwardly to her feet and ripped her mask off - she was too sweaty to keep it on any longer. The Joker, too, removed his mask.

The seven of them all stood in silence for a split second, Shane's mind retreating hastily back into unconsciousness. Her vision was going black. She thought fleetingly it must be stress that was rendering her speechless and immobile.

And then the door burst open, and they all whipped around, weapons raised.

Ricky stood framed in the doorway, his jaw hanging open, staring at the carnage around him.

"The car's here."