Big Bad Joke
Lightening fight.
All eyes turned to where he pointed his finger, at me. Never in my life have the beating of my heart sounded so loud it blocked all noise besides each thump of rushing in and out blood, one vein to another, one artery full then releasing. Never in my life have I fainted, but the feeling of knowing what it is without experiencing it before came to me as my knees gave out, my body lost all strength and began to tingle, my voice squeaked as I fell to the floor, the last thing I seen before my lids closed to darkness was the face of the Joker, smiling as he stared at me fall to the floor.
Bruce Wayne
Listening to the classic, soothing music float around in my head, my lips repeating the lyrics perfectly under my breath. I couldn't help but think freely, fifteen hundred feet in the air away from Gotham and all I could think about was Riley. She was right, Batman may be a symbol of an outlaw now but the city needed its hero or else it would go back to another Maroni, it would be gone to the dogs once again. She wasn't afraid to tell me that, I loved that about her even though I didn't like to think of it how she did, she didn't care about anything besides the truth, right and wrong were something she knew all to well, she was very informed with it, very level headed on the matter. She knew Batman was right and leaving Batman in the dark was wrong—"Master Wayne," my thoughts were put on pause as my eyes opened and took in the tall blonde flight attendant with the in-flight phone in her hand. "The phone is for you, an Alfred Pennyworth."
"Thank you," I nodded to her as I grabbed the phone and placed it to my ear, my headphones moved to my neck, as I still leaned back in the overly comfortable private plane seats. "Alfred, what's wrong?"
"Lucius just called," Alfred started off sounding distant, which was a first for Alfred. "Laurel, Montana and Rachel are all down at the hospital. The Joker has apparently broken from Arkham and blew up Gotham Bank, a short hour later—"
"Alfred, to the point please, I don't care about Joker. What's wrong with the girls? Is Riley okay?" I never liked to beat around the bush, and Alfred was never one to either. It was very suspicious that he was now, especially about the girls and the Joker involved.
"The girls are fine; they were taken to the hospital as soon as they arrived at Lucius' office. They were dropped off by the Joker, he had kidnapped them and left them two options, one was to all die together or all live but give them what he wanted," Alfred took a deep breath and blew it out steadily. "This was Miss Riley, Bruce you need to come back. Batman needs to find Riley; you need to find you're niece."
Joker has Riley,
that's all that went through my head as I held the phone an inch away from my ear, my niece that was practically my own daughter. Though I've been immature her whole life, I've made sure she has had the best, and I will still. Joker would not get her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Three hours later, I stood in front of the building Laurel, Montana and Mikey said they were in when they were taken from the park. It was the old abandoned Chrysler building, broken down and up for demolition in the near future, a perfect hideout for Joker. I was well motivated; he has my niece, the only part of my family I have left. Though, Riley never knew it but, her father wasn't really a Wayne, her step-father was. So she wasn't necessarily blood family, but she was my niece and would always be. She's all I have left, I'm all she has left. She won't be hurt by the psychopath.
I took a few steps towards the door hesitantly before I decided against taking it easy, pain would be nothing until I got her away from the freak. I opened the door quietly instead of crashing through it. It looked like it would fall even if I blew on it but the noise would be like a loud alarm blaring Intruder. I walked through the left hallway of beams, looking through the darkness before I turned on the sonar, reaching up to switch the button on. Everything once dark turned bright blue, like outlines of lightening on everything. In the right corner was Riley's small body, leaned against the wall, her head leaned on her palm. I hurried to her side, crouching beside her, making her look up weakly. "Un-," she whispered as she grabbed my arm, holding it tightly.
"I'm getting you out of here," my voice like always, deeper and rough like a smokers. "Don't worry."
"Yes, sweet love don't worry, bats will get you out of here," Joker's maniacal laughter broke the silence, causing Riley to look over my shoulder and whimper.
"Don't hurt him," she whispered as she looked back to me, her eyes pleading. "He's just here doing his job."
"Right," Joker looked at Riley with his eyes rolling out of sarcasm, he then grinned at me and held his hand out. "Come on bats, no big deal right? I'm just getting myself a toy, like you said before. I need friends."
"Not her," my voice deepened, almost too deep as he squinted his eyes and groaned loudly.
"Oh Batman, you need to pick friends or kills. You keep changing the rules, left is right, wrong is right, blue is red and white is black," Joker sighed heavily, dramatic as could be as he held his arms out as if he was pleading. "Get it straight for once batty-boy, you can't keep running me ragged, I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase, better yet. Wild Bat chase."
"You need to go back to Arkham, Joker. You're not fit to be here in Gotham, free," I helped Riley up but kept my body facing Joker in case he decided to fight his weak, cowardly fight.
Bruce Wayne
Listening to the classic, soothing music float around in my head, my lips repeating the lyrics perfectly under my breath. I couldn't help but think freely, fifteen hundred feet in the air away from Gotham and all I could think about was Riley. She was right, Batman may be a symbol of an outlaw now but the city needed its hero or else it would go back to another Maroni, it would be gone to the dogs once again. She wasn't afraid to tell me that, I loved that about her even though I didn't like to think of it how she did, she didn't care about anything besides the truth, right and wrong were something she knew all to well, she was very informed with it, very level headed on the matter. She knew Batman was right and leaving Batman in the dark was wrong—"Master Wayne," my thoughts were put on pause as my eyes opened and took in the tall blonde flight attendant with the in-flight phone in her hand. "The phone is for you, an Alfred Pennyworth."
"Thank you," I nodded to her as I grabbed the phone and placed it to my ear, my headphones moved to my neck, as I still leaned back in the overly comfortable private plane seats. "Alfred, what's wrong?"
"Lucius just called," Alfred started off sounding distant, which was a first for Alfred. "Laurel, Montana and Rachel are all down at the hospital. The Joker has apparently broken from Arkham and blew up Gotham Bank, a short hour later—"
"Alfred, to the point please, I don't care about Joker. What's wrong with the girls? Is Riley okay?" I never liked to beat around the bush, and Alfred was never one to either. It was very suspicious that he was now, especially about the girls and the Joker involved.
"The girls are fine; they were taken to the hospital as soon as they arrived at Lucius' office. They were dropped off by the Joker, he had kidnapped them and left them two options, one was to all die together or all live but give them what he wanted," Alfred took a deep breath and blew it out steadily. "This was Miss Riley, Bruce you need to come back. Batman needs to find Riley; you need to find you're niece."
Joker has Riley,
that's all that went through my head as I held the phone an inch away from my ear, my niece that was practically my own daughter. Though I've been immature her whole life, I've made sure she has had the best, and I will still. Joker would not get her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Three hours later, I stood in front of the building Laurel, Montana and Mikey said they were in when they were taken from the park. It was the old abandoned Chrysler building, broken down and up for demolition in the near future, a perfect hideout for Joker. I was well motivated; he has my niece, the only part of my family I have left. Though, Riley never knew it but, her father wasn't really a Wayne, her step-father was. So she wasn't necessarily blood family, but she was my niece and would always be. She's all I have left, I'm all she has left. She won't be hurt by the psychopath.
I took a few steps towards the door hesitantly before I decided against taking it easy, pain would be nothing until I got her away from the freak. I opened the door quietly instead of crashing through it. It looked like it would fall even if I blew on it but the noise would be like a loud alarm blaring Intruder. I walked through the left hallway of beams, looking through the darkness before I turned on the sonar, reaching up to switch the button on. Everything once dark turned bright blue, like outlines of lightening on everything. In the right corner was Riley's small body, leaned against the wall, her head leaned on her palm. I hurried to her side, crouching beside her, making her look up weakly. "Un-," she whispered as she grabbed my arm, holding it tightly.
"I'm getting you out of here," my voice like always, deeper and rough like a smokers. "Don't worry."
"Yes, sweet love don't worry, bats will get you out of here," Joker's maniacal laughter broke the silence, causing Riley to look over my shoulder and whimper.
"Don't hurt him," she whispered as she looked back to me, her eyes pleading. "He's just here doing his job."
"Right," Joker looked at Riley with his eyes rolling out of sarcasm, he then grinned at me and held his hand out. "Come on bats, no big deal right? I'm just getting myself a toy, like you said before. I need friends."
"Not her," my voice deepened, almost too deep as he squinted his eyes and groaned loudly.
"Oh Batman, you need to pick friends or kills. You keep changing the rules, left is right, wrong is right, blue is red and white is black," Joker sighed heavily, dramatic as could be as he held his arms out as if he was pleading. "Get it straight for once batty-boy, you can't keep running me ragged, I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase, better yet. Wild Bat chase."
"You need to go back to Arkham, Joker. You're not fit to be here in Gotham, free," I helped Riley up but kept my body facing Joker in case he decided to fight his weak, cowardly fight.
