Broken Innocence
Darkness filled his mind. Languid like sirup it held his thoughts in its grip and his conciousness was able to free itself only slowly from its grip.
The first thing he noticed, was that he was cold. It seemed somebody had taken the top of his costume and he lay, arms and legs tied, on a cold metaltable, which was slightly tilted forward.
He forced himself to stay calm and to keep his eyes closed. He was wide awake now and listened. It was silent around him. He could hear nothing and it seemed that it was pitch black in the room. He felt that the room was quite huge.
Because of the darkness he dared to open his eyes a slit. Nothing, only blackness. He still didn't move and made an internal check first. Of his costume he only had his pants and his mask left. His utility belt, his boots and his gloves were gone. Physically everything seemed fine, if you ignored the bump on the back of his head, where he had been knocked down. He scolded himself to have been so stupid as to ignore Batmans orders.
"Don't get involved with super-villains and always take a partner with you, when you go on patrol.", he had told him, before he went onto a mission in another solar system with Superman and the rest of the Justice League.
He had thought he could manage this alone, that he needed no partner. Batman did this all the time.
Well, Batman would've never been so stupid as to fall into this ambush. He had hunted after the kidnappers of a young girl. She had been a rich heiress, thirteen, as old as he was and had been kidnapped the day before during her walk home from school.
He had faced the kidnappers, but it had been an ambush. At least thirty battle hardened men had thrown themselves on him. Half a dozen of them shouldn't get up so soon, he was sure. But somewhere along the fight he had taken a hit to the head and the next thing he knew was waking up in this, wherever it was.
The question was now, who had kidnapped him and how could he get out of here.
Tentatively he pulled a bit on the shackles binding him to the table, arms over his head and his feet slightly parted. The leather was drawn very thight. He tried it with more power, when suddenly laughter cut through the silence.
He froze. Desperatly he tried to keep down his horror, which flooded through him because of this laughter. He knew who owned it. There was only one person who was able of a laughter like this.
Harsh neon tubes came flickering to live and bathed the bare hall in their cold light.
His worst fears were acknowledged, when he saw the person sitting on a big throne ten meters ahead of him.
Green hair was tuned up to a wild mane and his long narrow face with the chalk white skin, was split by a huge grin, which reminded him of the teeth filled maw of a shark.
He was the absolute worst case scenario. Batman had never and under no circumstances allowed him to go alone against the Joker. All the other super criminals of Gotham paled in comparison to him.
The Joker got up from his throne and slowly walked towards him, still laughing.
Like always he wear his purple green suit. He looked ridicoulos, but at the same time he was more frightening than a roaring Killer Croc.
The Joker stopped in front of him and hunkered over him until his whole vision was filled by teeth.
"Well has the little birdey finally awoken?", he asked Robin and pinched his cheek, like a grandma would do to her little grandson, "the poor Uncle Joker was really worried sick. You like to see me you little rascal? Finally without your overprotective foster father. Now we have some time to really get to know each other."
He pinched his cheek again and Robin spat into his face. He steeled himself for the hit, but it didn't come. The Joker only moved a bit back, drew a tissue with flowers on it out of his pocket and wiped the spittle from his face, looking at him like a parent would look at his or her disobedient child.
"Well, well, well, that is really not a nice kind of welcome. Such bad manners, ts ts ts."
"What do you want Joker?", he asked and he managed it to sound nonchalantly.
The Joker stopped, then he threw himself into a dramatic pose, the back of his hand pressed to his forehead.
"Oh dear", he shighed, "I want so much. A bit of love, affection, world domination, billion in fear and horror, but oh all these things won't come to me. You and Batsy, you destroy all my plans to rubble. Oh I poor fool, now I stand here and am not wiser than before."
His head sank onto his chest and his face was full of sorrow.
"But I'm sure you want to know what I want from you.", he said suddenly and was again directly in front of Dick, his shark-grin back on his face.
"Well I was informed that the good ol'Bats, together with his whole club, left the earth and there I thought, Joker I thought, you could beat the time with a bit birdcatching. Well now the bird is catched, but what shall I do with it. And then I had a glorious idea. Why not a little riddle. And the riddle is simple."
He lowered his voice and came really close to Robins ear.
"The riddle is: Who is the Batman?"
"And how do you get the impression that I'm going to tell you this?", Dick asked with a disdainful laughter.
The Joker started to walk up and down in front of him now.
"Well my little redbreast, that is a good question." he said in the tone of a teacher, "of course it would be much easier to just rip this mask off your face and put your face on facebook, but that wouldn't be any fun, don't you think? No, it would be much more fun, if you told me the answer yourself."
With a gesture and a little bow he pointed at a small man with a goatbeard and a half balding.
"This is Doctor Petruchow. He is an expert in making people talk. I give you to his skillfull hands and you will see I didn't avoid any costs."
Doctor Petruchow pushed a small table beside Robin and pulled the blanket of its top.
Robin froze in fear, when he saw all the neatly lined up instruments. Knifes of all form and size, as well as pliers, pairs of scissors and saws.
"My team will find me and you will pay for this Joker.", he screamed at the clown, while the doctor checked his instruments.
The smile of the Joker became only broader.
"Oh I count on that little birdy, but until then we have so many days before us. Enough time to solve the riddle."
"You will pay for this Joker." he screamed, the fear in his voice now abundantly clear.
The Joker only laughed and settled back in his chair.
"We will begin lightly.", Doctor Petruchow said, like he would explain the order of the menu in a restaurant, "I think the concept of the water torture is known to you?"
The table was laid flat, a man came behind Robin and grapped his head.
After that Petruchow laid a shawl over his face. Robin steeled himself when the water started running over it. He hold the air as long as he could.
Several minutes went by and still the water kept running. The need for oxygen became greater and greater, his lungs burned and then the breathing reflex kicked in. His slender body twitched and squirmed in the struggle for survival. The man holding his head was a mountain of muscles but he had to put in all his strength to hold the head of the small boy still. Water streamed into Dicks lungs and his resistance became weaker and weaker.
Then the drapery was pulled of his face and his head released. Gasping he snapped after air, again and again choaking up mouthfuls of water. He could harldy breath again, when the drapery was pressed onto his face and the man gripped his head anew. Dick lost every sense of time. He only counted the opportunities to breath.
Finally the shawl was pulled from his face again and he stared into the face of the Joker.
"Do you know that you look like a drowned puppy?", he smiled evilly.
"Fuck...you.", Dick gasped, and retched up another mouthful of water.
"So you don't want to tell me anything?"
"Never."
"Hach the youth these days. There you are, asking nicely and what do you get. Insults, nothing but insults."
The Joker turned around and went back to his throne, but he froze in mid-step. His face shone with sadistic glee, when he turned around again.
"You know, I need a new wallet. During our last encounter the old one was destroyed by Batsy. I think it is my good right that you provide the material for a new one."
Doctor Petruchow smiled knowingly and took a slighlty curved knife.
The scream of the boy when the knife cut into his breast drowned even the hysterical shrieking of the Joker.
Several times he lost conciousness, but everytime Petruchow injected a small dose of adrenaline into his arm to keep him awake.
The doctor worked with the precision of a surgeon and drew a long slice of skin off his breast. The pain was indescribable. Eventually he could only whimper anymore.
Petruchow had cut a curved stripe out off his breast, where his bloodsmeared shivering muscles could be seen. Together with his nipples you could win the impression of a smiling mouth, which the Joker appreciated with loud applause.
"Who is the Batman?", asked Petruchow.
The only sound he coud articulate was a whimper.
"It seems the candidat isn't persuaded yet doctor. Let's see if you can worm some sound out of his breast."
"With pleasure.", the doctor answered and took a big pair of tweezers. "I am quite skilled in this art."
He grabbed the first exposed muscle.
The world drowned in a red wave of pain.
"All team members come immediatly to the lounge. That's an order!", Caldurs voice sounded out off the speakers of Mount Justice. There was something in his voice, which brought every member of Young Justice to leave everything behind in an instant. Wally was the last one to enter the room and he saw his teammates standing around the sitting Caldur. The face of the Atlantian was a mask of pure horror.
"What happened?", Megan asked, when Wally rushed up to them.
"Robin!", Caldur gasped.
"What about him?", the redehead demanded to know. Fear began to grip his heart.
Caldur put himself together and looked at his teammates.
"We...I mean I, got an anonymous package today and..."
"What is with Robin.", Kid Flash yelled and gripped him at the front of his shirt.
"Calm down Wally.", Artemis said and motioned to Superboy to pull the upset boy away from Caldur.
"...in this package was a DVD. I just watched it.", he continued, then he hesistated.
"I'm not sure if you should see this.", he said to Wally.
Wally struggled in Superboys iron grip.
"That's my boyfriend you're talking about! What happened to him?", he yelled at Caldur.
Caldur starred at Wally as if to judge him, then he pressed a button on the remote. At first they only saw white noise, then the face of the Joker appeared.
"Hello you Superdumbheads. 'Cause the big ones aren't here, I'm forced to talk to you little imps. Well to keep it short. I catched myself a little bird and he's talking all the time about you rescuing him, beating the crap out of me and all that. Well I had not planned to get in contact with you this early, but his faith in his little friends is just to sweet, so I sent you this little message. Oh and to give you a slight impression of the urgency, here a short impression."
The camera rotated. Megan and Artemis cried out, the remote in Caldurs hand shattered, Superboy gripped the table so hard it splittered and Wally fell to his knees and vomited.
"You have three days.", then the screen went blank.
Wally gave out a bloodcurdling scream full of pain and collapsed on the floor. Artemis ran to him and took him into her arms, his whole body shivering with sobs.
"How can somebody to this?", Megan whispered and tears streamed down her face.
Superboy embraced her, but his whole body shivered whith supressed anger. Caldur only stared into nothingness.
For a while everything was silent, only broken by Wallys sobs.
Suddenly Caldur got up and went to Wally. Artemis let him go and Caldur lay his arms on the gingers shoulders.
"Wally look at me. I cannot imagine what you're feeling right now, but we need you now in order to find him. So please, pull yourself together."
With a visible effort of will Wally managed it to calm down.
"I'm sorry.", he said with a strangled voice, "I will do my best."
Caldur gave him one of his rare smiles and pulled him up.
"So we need a plan. Chances are good that they are still in Gotham. Superboy, Megan, I want you to watch the video again and look for clues. Background noices or any hints where this place is located. Artemis, Wally and I will examine all data we have about the Joker as well as the package the DVD came in. Any questions?"
All remained silent. "Well then let's go."
"We should take a break for today, otherwise I cannot guarantee for the subject to live on.", Petruchow said and pulled off his bloodsmeared gloves.
"Ooooh at the moment where it became interesting.", the Joker pouted, "well let's see it as a commercial break in the show 'Teach a bird to sing'".
He walked to the boy, whose body hang limp on the upright table and grabbed his chin.
"Hey, are you still with us?", he asked and lifted up the tearstreaked face . Under half closed eyelids the eyes of the boy were blank.
"It seems he lost conciousness after I pulled out his last fingernail.", Petruchow said and desinfected his hands with a small spray, "I have to admit that I'm fascinated. I've seen grown up men begging for mercy after half of this."
The Joker didn't answer, instead he moved his ear to the chapped lips of the boy.
"Is he still breathing?"
In that moment Robins head snapped forward and bit deep into the Jokers ear. The Joker screamed and tried to free himself from the boy, but he held tight like a terrier. Blood ran over the two, the Joker hammering his fists at him, but he only let loose when Petruchow rammed a needle into the curve of his neck. Dick screamed in pain and the Joker stumbled back, one hand pressed to his ear.
"The little bastard bit off my ear!", he screeched.
Petruchow hasted to him to take a look at the wound.
A stertorously cackle came from the boy and he spat the bitten off piece of ear on the ground.
"Feeling whelmed yet?", he asked trough bloodied teeth, his voice only a harsh whisper after hours of screaming.
Slowly the Joker walked up to him, his face distorted in rage.
"You will pay for this, I swear."
He grabbed Dicks hair and janked his head up to look him in the eyes. Suddenly the evil smile was back on his face.
"Oh I just thought of something.", his smile became even broader, if that was possible, "tell me Boywonder are you still a virgin?"
Dick said nothing, but the Joker could feel his fear.
"Oh that is a real shame, I think we have to put things right in this matter. Your good uncle Joker can't allow you to be so inexperienced. You know, some of my men are really sick bastards. And I have to say they have owned themselves a little recreation time."
He turned to Petruchow.
"Make him ready to become a man doc. I have to take a little nap."
With this words he left the room.
Dick tried to resist, when Petruchow untied him and ripped his pants off his body, but he hadn't any strenght left. The doctor tied him, naked as he was, prostrate over the arms of a chair, legs and hands to the legs of the chair. Several times he fell unconcious due to the pain in his breast, but finally it was finished.
Then came the men. At least a dozen unwashed, tatooed packages of muscles.
Petruchow sat down in a chair and took out a book.
"Just make sure he doesn't die.", he said and began reading.
The first man stood behind Dick and ran his hands and his tounge all over his body, then he opened his pants.
Dick bit his lips until he tasted his own blood to not give away any noise, when the first men ripped into him with all his force, but he felt a part of himself die at this moment.
"We've found something!", Megan yelled, when she bursted into the laboratory, where Caldur was currently examining the package the DVD was delivered in.
"What is it?", he asked excited, when Megan led him into the lounge. He saw that the video was stopped at the moment where the camera had showed Robin.
"Look at his hands.", she said.
"These are numbers.", Caldur gasped and looked closer. "Three and two. But what is the meaning of them?"
"I can tell you that.", Wally said, who entered the room at this moment, trying hardly not to look at the screen.
He sat down on the couch and spread some pieces of paper and a plan of Gotham on the remains of the table.
"Of course the first thing that came to our minds were that this has to be connected with a location, so Artemis and I have searched everything concerning this numbers in Gotham.
I contacted an...intimate of Batman as well, who affirmed our theory. These numbers mark the location where Robins signal was seen the last time.
All this covers with the kidnapping of a young girl, whose body has been found there too.
It seems Robin hunted the kidnappers and was let into an ambush there, because the kidnappers of the girl were also from the Joker. After that they may have drugged him and this is why Robin can't make an exact statement of place. Artemis is talking with the police man in charge at this moment, a Comissioner Gordon to give us plenty of rope in the search for clues."
All this, he had stated in a, for Wally, cold and emotionless tone. Megan and Caldur looked concerned at each other.
"Wally", Caldur said cautious, "maybe it would be better if you stay here."
"Stay here?", Wally yelled and sprang to his feet. "I shall stay here while my boyfriend is tortured out there?" He looked like he would throw himself on Caldur at any moment.
He looked at the others. "Would one of you stay here, if to the person you love the most is done something like this?", he hissed.
Megan and Caldur traded another look and it was clear they were talking telepatically, but before one of them could say something, Superboy stood up.
"I understand Wally. Me would hold nothing to catch the one responsible for doing something like this to a friend."
He looked at Megan and it was clear who he meant with 'friend'. Ashamed, she looked down on the ground.
"Well.", Caldur said and to Wally, "but don't do anything rush."
They hadn't bothered to put his pants back on. After the men were trough with him, Petruchow had simply untied him and thrown him into a little cellar next to the mainroom like a piece of garbage. There he lay now, naked, broken, pressed into a corner.
His whole body smelled of the men who had raped him. His insides convulsed in pain with every move, dried blood and the essences of the men stuck to his upper legs.
But he wasn't allowed to rest. It began with the strong headlights starting to flicker in fast succession. Then the laughter kicked in. It was the insane, shrill cackle of the Joker, only in deafening volume and infinite loop.
Dick curled into a ball and pressed his broken hands onto his ears. His whole body was a sea of pain, the laughter of the Joker boomed on his ears and when he closed his eyes, he saw the men again. His tormented scream, born out of pain and humiliation went unheard.
The team entered the building where the last signal from Robin had come from. All were tense and ready to spring into action at any moment.
It was a small disrepaired house in one of the nastier parts of Gotham.
In a huge room, which may have been the dining room, they found what they searched for.
Here a hard fight had taken place. The furniture was smashed and they saw several dried up splatters of blood. Behind a broken sideboard they found Robins utility belt. Evidently somebody had taken several heavy blows with a sledgehammer to it, in order to destroy the build in locator.
"This doesn't help us.", Caldur said when he saw the broken belt, "We have to..."
He fell silent and the team froze. At the floor above them somebody moved. The old timber pillings groaned under cautious footsteps. Caldur gave the team a few hand signals.
Artemis and Wally ran to the staircase, while Megan flew outside trough a broken window to survey the surroundings.
Superboy and Caldur however broke right through the floor.
In a cloud of dust and finery they broke into the room above them.
They heard an oath and saw a figure running for the door, which came right back at it, when Artemis kicked it in. In the light of Caldurs weapons they saw a ragged man in dirty clothes who trembled in fear.
"Please don't hurt me.", he screamed and shrank into a corner.
"Damn it, it's just a hobo.", Wally said disappointed.
"Wait, maybe he knows something.", Caldur said and kneeled down in front of the homeless.
"We don't want you anything bad. We are from the Justice League and are here with the consent of the GCPD.", he tried to calm down the man and it seemed he suceeded, because the man stopped trembling.
"What do you want from me?"
Caldur saw now that the homeless most likely lived here. At any rate he concluded this from all the plastic-bags and old blankets which lay everywhere.
"Here in this area, more specifically in this house, the partner of Batman was ambushed. We are searching for him and hoped you could tell us something about it."
"What are ye gonna pay?", the homeless asked, now more self-confident and smiled at the Atlantian with a mouth full of dirty teeth.
As an answer Superboy took an old shopping cart, which stood in a corner and pressed it to a small ball. The man lost all color.
"Okay, okay, I tell you everything. Two days ago, I lay here sleeping, when suddenly a huge row started downstairs. I sneeked to a hole in the floor and there I saw this Robin surrounded by a bunch of thugs. A girl was with them too, all tied up. The boy fought like a maniac. He beat at least half a dozen of them to a bloody pulp, but then one of them hit him whith a steel pipe on the back of his head. Then came...", the man stocked and they saw the fear in his eyes, "...then came the Joker. I'm sure it was him. Never felt this much fear in my life. He told them to bring the boy to the docks. He wanted to talk with him. Then they stripped the boy of his belt and smashed it. That's all I know."
"Thank you, you were a big help.", Caldur said and gave the men a handfull of money. The eyes of the men lighted up when he saw all the money.
"Make sure you pay that sick clown back.", he said, then they left the building.
Outside they entered Megans ship where they sat together to outline their further plan of action.
"We have a trail.", Wally said and it seemed like he had won back a bit of his old cheery nature.
"Yes, but the docks are huge. If we search them, it will take us more than a week. We need another plan.", Caldur said.
We could disguise ourselves and try to join the Jokers crew.", Artemis said suddenly.
"No bad idea.", Caldur thought and looked at his team, "but nobody of us looks like an inmate of Blackgate."
"That shouldn't be a problem.", said a deep voice behind them and they all jerked round. An over and over with tattoos plastered men in ripped jeans and a dirty wifebeater came out of the cockpit. They all sprang to their feet.
"Hey stay calm.", the man said and transformed back into Megan.
"It seems, I'm quite convincing.", she smiled at her teammates.
"Now we only need a false identity in the police files and we have our criminal.", Artemis smiled.
"Well then, what are we waiting for.", Caldur said, "get to work."
He wondered why his forehead hurt. Only now he realized, that he had beaten his head several times against the steel floor in a senseless try to escape the noise.
The laughter had risen steady in volume and was now well beyond the human pain limit.
He had tried to scream against the noise, but he couldn't even hear his own voice.
Was it getting colder or was that just his failing body? He opened his eyes a slit and saw that there was a puddle of blood around his abdomen. The injuries of the rape were more serious than he had thought. But it wasn't enough to die yet. Actually it was getting colder. Already his teeth started to chatter. Suddenly a shock flashed trough him. Instinctivly his hand released his ears and the laughter grew even louder. Another shock jerked trough his body. They were electroluting the floor! The shocks came in different intervals, sometimes in quick sucession, sometimes it took several minutes for the next.
"Stop it! Please stop it!", he screamed.
Abruptly the laughter and the shocks stopped. He sobbed in joy about the sudden silence, even though his ears still rang.
"What am I hearing? Stop? Oh it's my pleasure dear boy. Well then tell me, who is Batman?", the Joker asked trough the speakers.
Robin stopped. No, no he couldn't say it. If he told the Joker all the criminals of Gotham would throw themselves onto his mentor at once, not even Batman could withstand that. The fear of him held Gotham from falling into absolut chaos. If his identity as Bruce Wayne became known, they would loose their fear of him because he would have a human face. Everything would be lost.
"I think you misunderstood me.", he whispered, because his worn out vocal cords weren't capable of more, "I just laughed along."
"Well if it is like that, I don't want you to miss the fun.", the joker said, but he heard a hint of anger in his voice and that gave him a bit strength. They would find him, he just had to give them more time.
"Well what now? I don't have all day."
The noise started anew. The shocks came now faster and with more force. He didn't even have the strenght left to cover his ears. He just lay there, jerking convulsively again and again.
"And this is it?", Megan asked telepatically. Her team was, in disguise, scattered all over the square. She passed a begging boy and only at second glance did she recognize Wally.
She managed to hide her surprise and continued approaching the derelict building.
"Yes this is it.", Caldur acknowlegded, "even in Gotham you will hardly find a nastier den of thieves."
Megan entered, in her disguise as Dexter Corvain, a recently released inhabitant of Blackgate and she had to stop for a moment to get accustomed to the dimly lit taverne. Through the thick fog of cigar smoke she recognized the bar.
"What do ye want?", asked the innkeeper, a cloddish men with little piggy eyes when she approached.
"Gimme a beer.", Megan mumbled and tried to move like the muscled men she imitated.
She fell heavily onto one of the chairs at the bar and looked around with a dark mien.
The inn was well-staffed, with all the dark figures you could imagine for such a gin palace.
The innkeeper plunked her beer down in front of her and she had to hold back a disgusted grimace, because the glas wasn't really clean.
"Hey I have a few questions.", Megan said and the man turned around again, "I'm looking for some work and I heard that the Joker is in this area and searching for men."
"You want to work for the crazy clown? Why that?"
"Worked for him before I got sent to prison. Been a few years, but if you come around with his crazyness he's OK. And the paying's quite good."
The innkeeper looked her up and down, then he said: "Go through that door. If you're good, they'll take you, if you're not..."
He finished the sentence with a dirty smile, which said everything.
Megan got up and walked to the door. The room beyond was small and the only illumination was a lone light bulb, which swung back and forth over a table.
A brutal looking man sat behind that table.
"So you want to join the Joker.", the man stated, "And why do you think you've got what it takes?"
Megan thought feverishly, what a guy like Dexter Corvain would say in a situation like this.
She decided for the straightfoward way.
"I could cave your fucking face in for a start.", she snarled.
"Oh quite the man I see. Well get him boys."
Thereupon two other thugs sprang out of the shadows and threw themselves on Megan. At this moment she was really grateful for all the hated close-combat lessons of Black Canary. This was the first time she had to fight any other people beside her teammates.
In contrast these guys moved slow and clumsy.
In reflex she dived under the swing of the first man and drove her fist from below against his chin. But the hit had been to light. She knew the moves, but she was lacking actual combat experience.
She looked at the smiling clown masks of her opponents and she remembered the cruel pictures of Robin and the laughing face of the Joker.
A never known feeling cursed trough her body. Hate.
The next thing she knew were the two thugs lying crushed and broken at her feet.
The man behind the table applauded: "Excellent. Even I have rarely seen something like this. I think we have a job for somebody like you. Here wear this and we go to the boss."
The man gave her another clown mask and they prepared to exit the inn through another door.
"What's with them?", Megan asked and motioned to the two men lying there on the floor, groaning and holding their broken limbs. She was surprised that she didn't feel any remorse. Artemis had often blamed her for being to soft and she had never thought of herself being able to something like that, but the only thing she felt now was satisfaction.
"What should be with them? This was their test and they obviously failed. Now let's go to the boss."
"If we keep the shocks at this level, I can't guarantee for the further living of the subject.", Petruchow said to the Joker, who had sat for hours in front of the screen showing the jerking, mutilated, naked body of the boy. The sound was turned off and so it had something of a grotesque silent movie. The Joker pulled a face.
"Oooooh and it was just getting exciting.", he whined.
"We could procede with direct physical torture. He showed a moment of weakness before. Not long and I'm confident that I will be able to break him."
"Oh yes, oh yes, that's wonderful. Let's bring him to the table."
For several minutes Dick didn't even realize, that the laughter and the shocks had stopped. He felt that the door was opened, but he didn't even have the strength left to lift his head. He saw the feet of two men, who pulled him up and dragged him out of the room. He moaned in pain when he was tied to the table again and pulled upright with it.
A hand grabbed his chin and lifted it up. Again he stared into the grimace of the Joker and again he heard this laughter, which was more a hysterical scream and of which he knew he would never be able to forget it.
Then the Joker moved to the side and he saw a glowing brazier, from which potruded several pieces of iron. Faintly he heard Petruchows voice.
"Now this may seem a bit primitive to you, but I must say that the old-fashioned methods are quite efficient and often even more productive than the modern ones."
He lifted one of the red-hot irons in the form of a glowing smiley out of the brazier and pressed it into Robins stomach.
The store house looked like every other in the labyrinthal docks of Gotham and Megan had to admit that you could hardly find a better hideout with more room. She had lost her orientation after the first two streets, but she knew that her team was right behind her.
"So where is the boss?", she asked impatiently, when they entered the first part of the store house and there was no Joker to be seen.
"The boss is in the back and talking with his little bird. He said he didn't want to be disturbed."
"And the other guys?"
"Are right in the next house. Here's only the boss and this creepy doctor. You can wait here until he's finished."
"Thank you, but I prefer to see him now.", sounded the voice of a girl behind him.
Surprised he span around. Where just a moment ago had stood Dexter Corvain, now stood a young girl with green skin.
"What the...", he managed to say, before an arrow with rounded tip hit his temple.
"That's taken care of.", Artemis said and landed next to Megan. The rest of the team jumped down from the walking rail, too, where they had cowered on.
"So. We're going in there now.", Caldur said and looked everybody in the eyes.
"Our first objective is to find and secure Robin, then deal with Joker. Understood?"
All nodded grimly.
They formed up in front of the door. Caldur looked at Conner and nodded. He rammed the door and knocked it straight from its hinges. The team streamed into the room beyond, but nothing could have prepared them for what was awaiting them.
The room was dark, only lit by a few candles and the shine of a glowing brazier. In the back of the room somebody sat on something like a big chair, but there eyes were drawn relentlessly to the middle of the room, where, diagonal to them, stood a big metal table, in front of it handling a small man with a plastic apron, like it was worn by butchers, who jerked round due to them entering and gave the sight free onto the figure which was straped to the top of the table.
The smell off burned flesh filled the whole room and they were paralyzed.
Wouldn't there have been the black domino mask on his face, they wouldn't have recognized him. Except for his head, every square centimetre of his body, was cut, burned or skinless.
A loud laugh broke their trance and suddenly a floodlight flashed up, which illuminated the throne, for a throne it was and on him sat, convulsing with laughter, the Joker.
He pushed a button and a sirene blared, whereupon dozens of men streamed into the hall trough side entrances.
Kid Flash was the first to spring into action. The first men didn't even know what had hit them, but it felt like they had been rammed by a car. Inflamed with rage the others attacked too, but Wally only had eyes for the Joker. He couldn't think of anything else than laying his hands around that scrawny neck and throttle the life out of it. He was only two metres away from the Joker, when he ran head on into a bullet-proof pane and staggered back dazed. Immediatly three men were on top of him and buried him under their weight. He felt hot pain as a knife cut deep into his shoulder.
Superboy however didn't have any of that problems. Like a wild bull he raged between the men and some he threw up to the ceiling of the hall, where they rebounded and fell back to the floor.
Miss Marsian floated above the events and used her telecinetic powers to break bones, throw men at each other or to fire objects at them.
Caldur had transformed his weapons into a mace and a whip, with which he span around between his opponents and everbody who was unfortunate enough to make contact with his weapons was either knocked down or hit by an electric shock.
Right at the beginning of the melee Artemis had swung herself onto one of the walking rails where she fired her arrows there, where her teammates needed her assisstance.
Just now she had fitted an arrow to help Wally, when she saw the little man taking a red-hot piece of iron and swinging it at Robins head.
Immediatly she adjusted her aim and fired her arrow against the master of torture.
Satisfied she saw how the arrow hit him straight between the eyes and knocked him over so that he fell against the brazier, which he pulled with him to the ground and therefore was showered with blazing coals. She laughed satisfied when she heard his screaming, which could even be heard above the noise of the battle.
The men had Wally nailed down. If you discounted his super speed he was just a fifteen year old youth, even though a well trained one, which didn't help him much against three men weighing more than two of him. But he fought them with tooth and nail. He managed it to get one of his arms free and gave one of the men three fast hits against the throat. Gasping he staggered back. But the other two had him tight and one of them pulled up his knife again, this time aiming for his heart. Then the men was hit by an arrow to the temple and the other was pounded into the ground by Superboy. Literally.
Then Conner stroke out and threw a mighty punch against the glas. Cracks flew over its surface, but it didn't break. The Joker pushed another button and he started to sink, together with his chair, into the floor.
"Hurry!", Kid Flash yelled and pounded his fists against the glas, too. The Joker was already halfway in the floor, when the whole building trembled and Megans bioship broke through the roof. Covers slid back and they saw a canon. The eyes of the Joker widened in realization and he hammered onto the button to speed up his escape but to no avail.
A dazzling beam broke out of the canon and burned a large hole into the bullet-proof glas.
Kid Flash jumped through it and jerked the Joker from his throne. The hand of the Joker flew to the flower on his jacket to give Wally a load of acid in the face, but his hand wasn't even half there, when a hail of punches hit his body.
Wally was out of his senses. He stroke the Joker again and again, the picture of Robins mutilated body clear in his mind. The face of the Joker was only a smashed up mess and his breath whistled through fractured lungs and still Wally hit him.
He would kill this clown. Regardless of what he had sworn to Uncle Barry the day he got his powers. Regardless of what the rest of the world would think. He would kill this clown.
Then strong hands pulled him back and he fidget in Superboys relentless grip. Two hard slaps hit his face and slowly he came back to his senses. In front of him stood Artemis, who looked at him with horror in her eyes. Dazed Wally looked around and saw the rest of the team standing around him. All of them looked at him in horror. Next to Megan floated the motionless form of Robin, wrapped in a blanket.
"Robin, Rob! Let me go!", he yelled at Conner and he let him go after a nod of Caldur.
Wally sprang to his friends side and took his head in both hands. The eyes of the boy were closed.
"Rob, Rob, wake up!", he yelled, tears welling up in his eyes. He felt a strong hand on his shoulder.
"He's alive.", Caldur said, "barely. Megan put him into a coma. The police and the ambulance will be here any moment."
Just now Wally became aware of his fingers leaving bloody patches at Robins faceand he saw, that they were splattered with blood like the rest of his costume and even his face. He looked at the wheezing wreck which was the Joker. Artemis knelt beside him.
"His lungs are collapsing.", she said, "Megan can you do something?"
Megan didn't answer, but looked up at her ship. Another stream of light flashed from its underside and encompassed the Joker who seemed to freeze.
"He's now in stasis. I can't do more for him."
Wally looked at his hands and then back to the Joker.
"I nearly killed him.", he whispered horrified, "I wanted to kill him!"
In this moment the police under the control of Comissioner Gordon stormed the hall and everything dissappeared in a hectic rush.