Thread: I Started A Joke (SevenxChantho)

Glowing red digits on the side of Gotham City Bank told Batman that it was now four AM exactly. An hour since hed planned to head back to the cave. During that time he found two more dead in addition to the original suicides hed witnessed. Both deaths were self-inflicted. One, he didnt see personally, but heard about through the wire a doctor at Arkham had sat down in front of a security camera and set himself on fire. Four deaths and no one was responsible. No one was saved. The improbability of it all had driven him to investigate much longer than intended, but with no leads and no way to contact Gordon, the trail dried up before hed even started. Four o three. That made it over thirty-two hours since hed last slept. He couldnt push himself any farther tonight it was time to go. Batman ducked into the shadow and began his descent from the skyline of Gotham into its core. At last he dropped safely into the dark alleyway where his night had commenced. There was a soft splash when he landed in the middle of a dirty puddle on the pavement. I had rained a few days earlier so the streets were still wet. The water stilled around his boots, glistening faintly in some imperceptible source of light. God he was tired. Everything felt so incredibly heavy as he moved forward in the direction of his vehicle, hidden somewhere nearby. So very exhausted was the vigilante that he almost failed to notice the twitching body lying prone behind him. The sound of frantic, uneven breathing was what grabbed his attention and he spun around sharply. Someone, a man, was curled on the ground, almost hidden by an open dumpster. His legs jerked about, and drawing nearer Batman could see his entire body convulsing violently. Quickly he dropped down beside the man and turned him over, trying to steady the other as best he could. But when he saw the mans face he froze. Dirty blonde hair tainted with green and scars stretching from each corner of the mouth in a permanently garish smile. The Joker. Batmans blood ran cold with hatred as it always did when he encountered the criminal, but this time that knee jerk hostility was accompanied by something else. Alarm. Hed never seen the Joker in this state before. Whenever they met the man was always confidant, and collected. Or as collected as it was possible for the Joker to be. Even when Batman was pounding the ever loving shit out of him he still maintained this air of control, continuing to laugh and mock the Dark Night as blood stained his teeth, This was different, wrong. The Joker was vulnerable. Batman stared down at his nemesis, for the first time unsure of what to do. His initial instinct every time was to inflict as much physical damage as he possibly could, in some subconscious and futile hope it would make up for the twisted scars the Joker left on his psyche. Right now was not one of those situations where he could do that. The easiest thing to do was take the convict straight back to Arkham and let them deal with it, but what good would that do? Hed just escape again and theyd be back where they started. Besides, it grew wearisome to find new ways to escape the police that turned on him the second the Joker was in custody. Still at a loss of what course of action to take, Batman lifted his enemys upper half from the dirty blacktop and held him securely until the shaking stopped. One arm supported him while the other searched through his clothes for any concealed weapons. Experience had taught him never to underestimate the other. In the Jokers hands, anything was a weapon. After the last time the two of them had fought, Alfred had to give him a tetanus shot for the rusty screwdriver the criminal had driven into Batmans leg.