Dark Laughter

Chapter 1: Just the Beginning

Summary: Batman was fighting with the Joker when he was caught off guard with a sneak attack that involved some new form of Joker Gas. He's trying to convince everyone he's fine, but that's kind of hard to do when you're laughing uncontrollably.

Earlier that night, Batman was chasing the Joker all over the city while diffusing bombs that were set to go off. It was then the bomb hunt went across the city and into an abandoned warehouse.

"HAAA, HA, HA, HAA" maniacal laughter echoed through the abandoned warehouse. Batman was trying to diffuse the last one of the bombs that the Joker had planted throughout the city. For some reason though, when he cut the wires the same way he did to the others, it didn't work.

"Come now Batsy, did you really think I would make it that easy?" laughed the Joker as he knew Batman efforts to disarm the bomb were futile.

"What is your game Joker" Batman growled.

"Now, Now Bats, be patient and besides…" the Joker said as he took out a remote. Batman's eyes widened in realization as he stepped away from the bomb.

"The game has just begun!" the Joker laughed as he pushed the button.

The bomb suddenly exploded filling the whole warehouse with smoke. "A smoke bomb" Batman thought as he got into a defensive stance. The smoke was all around him leaving him with no room to see as he waited for something to emerge from the smoke. Soon enough, when the smoke started to clear, Batman found he was now surrounded by a bunch of goons, each with a clown mask. Some of them had guns, chains, crowbars, or nothing at all except their fists. "Fifteen against one, the Bat doesn't stand a chance" yelled one of the thugs to the rest of the snickering pack as they started to close in on him.

Meanwhile, one of the thugs was trying to sneak up behind Batman. As he was bringing down his crowbar the thug found himself grabbed by Batman, and thrown over his shoulder right into an unsuspecting goon. It was then the fight started. Batman leaped out of the way of a few gunshots and threw a couple of batarangs successfully disarming all of the gun wielders. As he landed he ducked out of the way as a crowbar swung at him and managed to land an uppercut while spinning around to face the rest of them. While the fight continued, a short while later most of the thugs were now unconscious. But, two of them managed to slip away and get up to Batman from behind. While he was distracted, they used chains to wrap up each of his arms making it to where he can't move them. One of the other goons that were still standing was now in front of him. Taking advantage of him being tied up he started to punch and taunt Batman. Batman saw a pattern to it. When he saw the time when he stopped the beating and started to mock him, he used his strength to lift up both his legs, push off the goons chest, effectively knocking him back into a bunch of crates, and did a back flip while yanking the chains out of the other two goons hands that were restraining him. Now that he was free, he quickly took out the remaining thugs, and started to look for the Joker. It didn't take long.

"So Bats, looks like you defeated the goons, no matter, easy to get more" the Joker cackled from where he stood in the doorway as he bounced a ball up and down in the palm of his hand. "But I'm sad to say I have to be going now, here's a farewell present" The Joker laughed as he threw it at Batman. The ball exploded letting out a whole bunch of confetti. Batman relaxed his stance. "Wait for it..." the Joker said as he continued to look at the falling confetti. Batman, thinking that was the end of it, looked confused and was completely unprepared for what looked like a hidden miniature version of the ball that went unnoticed in the explosion. It made a loud bang as it released what looked like a type of gas.

"So long Batman!" laughed the Joker as he ran off leaving Batman, who was now on the ground coughing. The gas dispersed from the air quickly, and he quickly injected himself with the cure to the Jokers usual toxin. He pressed a button on his utility belt to call the Batmobile around. He didn't have much time to think about the incident as he suddenly remembered he had a meeting to get to as Bruce Wayne the following morning.

"Make that this morning" he thought as he saw the sun just start to come over the horizon.

("THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM")

--

"As you can see, our recent projects will be able to benefit Wayne Industries Exponentially and insure that we always look toward a…" droned the spokes person. Bruce Wayne tried to look like he was paying attention, but the entire truth was, he was bored. He used this extra time to rethink what happened at the warehouse with the Joker. What was his motive this time, and what did he expect to gain with using his normal laughing gas on him. Besides the fact he's always trying to finish him off, that wasn't the case this time. He remembered the Joker saying ("the game has just begun…") that probably meant he had different reason for going through all that trouble just to poison him, and it didn't look like he wanted to end things there. He had the antidote and there were seemingly no side effects so it looked like it worked. But he felt like he was overlooking something. "What is his plan…?" Bruce was snapped out of his thoughts by the spokesperson who was trying to grab his attention so he could answer his question. "Um, I'm sorry, yes?" Bruce asked the spokesperson. "Well you see Mr. Wayne, GothCorp would like to make a business offer that would be sure to… Mr. Wayne?" The spokesperson stopped when Bruce started chuckling. "GothCorp wants to make a business offer, to do what?" Bruce asked his chuckling risen to laughter as if he thought it was some kind of joke. "They've already gotten partnership with LexCorp, I don't think they need Wayne Industries to build more tin soldiers, it's like there trying to start a war or something with all those weapons they seem to be building, in fact I think they…" suddenly he stopped laughing. A look of realization crossed his face while he seemed to have regained control of himself. He suddenly sat up and started to leave. "I'm sorry gentlemen, but I suddenly remembered some last minute business I have to attend to, but I will consider what we've discussed today, Good Day" Bruce said abruptly and left out of the meeting room quickly.

"Alfred, I need to get back to the mansion, something's wrong." Bruce said on his cell as he hurried down to the elevator to get to the first floor. "Right away sir" Alfred responded before they both hung up. "Okay, I know this involves my earlier encounter with the Joker and that toxin, I'm going to have to analyze it back at the batcave" Bruce thought as he made it to the elevator. As the elevator was starting to go down he realized he should have known something was wrong since the whole time he unreasonably felt somewhat… in an overly good mood. The building he was in had about forty floors and as the elevator was going down around the twenties he suddenly felt like smiling. He was thinking about how incompetent that spokesperson was. He really liked to hear himself talk. And what's up with GothCorp. Doesn't anybody realize what all those weapons and super powered suits would be used for? "Most likely more chaos and destruction" he chuckled. For some reason he found it funny even though it shouldn't seem like a good thing at all. "Now I know something is wrong" he struggled to say as he started to convulse with his growing laughter. By the tenth floor he was laughing uncontrollably, but luckily he managed to lower it back to an almost inaudible chuckle before he made it to the first floor, though he couldn't completely wipe the smile off his face. He quickly made his way to the front of a building and seeing Alfred already there, he made his way in the limo with Alfred looking worried. The only word he was able to make coherent through his re escalating laughter was "Drive" and they were soon on their way back to the mansion.

By the time he got there he regained control of himself and headed straight to the batcave. When he made it down, he immediately took a blood sample and started analyze it. "Master Bruce, dare I may ask what you found so funny earlier, and I hope it doesn't involve your earlier encounter with your clownish acquaintance" Alfred asked as he came back down to where Bruce was with a tray of food. "I've run the data from my blood sample through the computer; we should get the results soon" said Bruce as he made a final look over the analyzing process. "So far it seems I'm having random fits of laughter, but I think I'm able to some extent keep that under control, for now anyway" Bruce said as he changed into his Batman suit.

"In the meantime it's time for my shift at the watchtower" Bruce (now Batman) said as he walked to the Batwing. He froze on his way there and started to shake. Alfred of course was worried that something was wrong, but before he could make his way over he managed to hear some suppressed laughter emitting from Batman as he tried desperately to hold it in. "You know sir, I think it would be best if you stayed here to make sure that the analysis turns out alright, and to keep an eye on your condition, after all …" Alfred said. Batman still had a smile on his face as he managed to regain control of himself from his laughing fit and continued on his way. "Alfred, I can handle it" Batman said as he made it to the Batwing and flew off.

Alfred sighed worriedly and shivered involuntarily. He had to admit; even the Batman's laughter seemed dark and had a sense of foreboding, especially when it echoed off the dark caves walls like it just did. He wondered how the Justice League members would react to it if they heard him laugh, which they most undoubtedly would. Batman was thinking about almost the exact same thing. "On the off chance this toxin forces me to laugh in front of them; I wonder how would they react?" Batman chuckled. Then he started to reprimand himself for it.

He was not going to let the toxin win.

To Be Continued, Chapter Two: Is It The End Of The World? , Please Review