It's September 20th and we were on our first day of vacation in a nice warm town by the beach for a wedding. My parents said we were staying for a week and a half of our three week long vacation. The wedding was tomorrow on Sunday, which was weird since you usually have weddings on Saturday. It was hot here which was sort of surprising since it's September but it felt nice. What surprised me was that some boys, the troublemaker but cute kind, from my school were there too.

We were at my cousin's house celebrating her daughter's late birthday and soon to be wed cousins left; I have a lot of cousins, before the cake was cut. I was sitting in the living room with my little cousin, Miley; who was either watching TV or playing on her DS. I was watching Mikey, one of the three most known kids in school/popular guys at school, play basketball with some of his friends from school along with some of my cousins. I wanted to play basketball badly only to find out that my cousin had agreed with Mikey and not me. Every time my school mates weren't doing something, like watching the ball go in the basket or were resting, they would often look at me. Especially Mikey, this wasn't out of the normal though. He has had many girlfriends since I known him so I know he doesn't like me, but he looks at me mostly when he's with Dante. Dante is another of the three kids and basically his best friend from what I know of. Dante is also kind of cute and I would say I like him if I didn't have my rule of "I need to know him to like him". I'm 15 and I have still never had a boyfriend, which kind of sucks.

Anyway back to reality. It's about time to cut the cake and my Tia Rosa tells me to get the boys. I get up, Miley follows like always, and go to the sliding glass side door which was already open. Sticking my head out I call, "Mikey it's time to cut the cake get everyone in," He smiles a smug smile like every time I talk to him and it still confuses me to no end. I've known him for two years and he's still the same kid, except for his 16 year old body of course.

Come to think of it, he is still taller than me and only his build has changed so nothing is that actually different. I have though, my body has changed into almost every boy's dream if I didn't hid behind big t-shirts and cargo shorts. Even then boys still try to hit on me. Sadly I'm not wearing that today. Today I was wearing a blue tank top and short shorts that went mid-thigh. Even though I exercise and play some sports I still have some chubbiness so the short shorts went a little higher than mid-thigh and look good on me. I usually didn't wear this back home and Mikey and his friends were completely shocked when they saw me.

Anyways we sang happy birthday and I saw that Mikey's group was just sitting at a table conversing. There was still light from the setting sun so I decided to shoot some hoops. I stroll by their table with the same 13 year old cousin on my tail. Mikey saw me, "Yeah Dante's going to the reception tomorrow," He said it loudly and I looked when another kid was betting about Dante and me but quickly shut up when he saw Mikey and me staring each other down. I continued to glare at him until I reached the sliding doors that opened to the basketball hoops. I grabbed the ball and made a basket in a fluid motion. I looked at Miley and taught her all the possible shots you can make. I only missed the ones I dunked and made from anything farther than what would be a regular half court line. Miley was still enjoying it and was still awed when I made each shot.

The next day I went to where Miley and Erica, her mom, were staying to start getting ready for the wedding. The wedding was hours away so my mom and dad said we would just eat and talk with them first. The hotel was nice but apparently we entered on the side that was a "medical study" as the lady at the front desk put it. The place was huge with lots of desks in spread out rows, some with computers, and was filled with what felt like 150 people, almost all of them in scrubs or doctor coats. I went to the elevator as my parents were still in the car. The elevator was huge and different. The doors would slide open to their own sides, like normal, then a long keypad thing would come out of the right door.

I went to an African American man who was in a light blue scrub. "How do these elevators work?" I asked. He looked at me and smiled. "When the keypad comes out you put in what floor you are going to then how many people are going in the elevator with you to that floor." he explained. I nodded. It was finally my turn. I pressed four, since I was going to the fourth floor, and, since there was nobody with me, zero. I entered the elevator next to the black man I talked to and waited. The doors didn't close. I was too busy being mesmerized in the medical study as the others in the elevator tried to discuss and figure out why the doors were closing.

Then I saw my best friends, Dani and Natasha, and another friend, Lilly, in the corner next to some sort of food table. So they were able to make it here! Natasha saw me and hurried over to me since she was on the other side of the room. We hugged when she finally reached me. We pulled away saying each other's name in greeting. We smiled but the smile soon faded. There was a blast from where the front desk and door separated from the medical study. "Get down!" yelled the new adult friend I had made as he pushed us to the floor. There was a loud laugh and screaming coming from the room. I looked up to see there was rubble blocking the rooms and someone with green hair shaking, probably the one laughing. I got up and was almost out the elevator when gunshots were sounded and the black man pulled me to the ground again.

The fake skeletons shook and laugh scaring the people around, the TVs in the back showed scary images, and the man with the green hair came out of the smoke by the rubble. I gasped, it was the Joker and he had maybe three goons who were shooting randomly at objects and people. Some people rebelled and killed the goons but Joker just shot them in the leg or something after. People were still screaming and running around. Gun shots still sounded, probably by the exit. "We need to calm everyone down, break the skeletons and the TVs." The people looked at me like I was crazy. I crouched on the ground, determination on my face. "Either we let these people get killed or we don't go down without a fight." They glanced at each other and nodded.

I pulled Natasha with me to the nearest desk avoiding any stray gun shots. This wasn't the first time I've been in a situation like this, like with Cheshire or Icicle, so I wasn't that scared. There were long metal rulers on the desk, I grabbed one and gave one to Natasha. She was close to tears; this was her first time in something like this. "Stay close, if anything happens…hide." I stared at her as she nodded. We moved forward and I felt guilty. She probably didn't want to do this, she probably wanted to stay in that elevator and cry until Batman or somebody came to the rescue. That was all I could say though, it's what my brother told me the last time this happen. Now he's gone away and I'm the only one who can save me right now.

I looked above the table; the shots weren't close so I got up. Some other people saw what I was doing and decided to do the same. I hit the TV but the images were still going. It looked like it was trying to hypnotize you and I guessed it did because the girl next to us got a blank stare and tackled someone else. I hit the TV two more times. "You're not supposed to hit it that much they'll see and shoot us if you do!" Natasha exclaim, fear drenching her voice. A guy knocked out the girl while Natasha talked. I glance over to see green smoke. 'Laughing gas' I thought. "Go break that TV and whatever you do, don't breathe in that gas." I commanded the men on the side of where the gas was coming from. I ran to the other TV and broke it with two hits. I dropped the ruler and hurried away.

I looked forward and saw my friends huddled together on the floor behind the food table. Natasha ran forward to join them. I stood in front of the food table now hearing laughter from the other side of the room. I stared at my friends, "Are you ok?" They slowly nodded as I glanced at the food before me. I was hungry, I haven't eaten since breakfast. I shook my head as I leaned on the table to looked at my friends.

Their eyes are wide, not looking at me but something behind me. Before I could turn around to see what they were staring at, two large gloved hands covered both of my eyes. I gasped, 'Joker'. I was right since he laughed, "You think you can try and stop me," my hands searched for something, anything, on the table, "just by breaking the TVs?" My hands found a glass plate and I slowly lifted it. "Those TVs were just a bonus." He whispered in my ear. I shivered and dropped the plate. I grabbed on to his right hand with my left and grabbed a shard to stab him as fast I could. I failed as he took his hand out of my grasp, bent both of my arms behind my back, kept them in place with one hand and covered my mouth with the other. He chuckled and I grunted in protest. "You got guts girly…I feed guts to the hyenas!" I flinched as he exclaimed the last part sternly and then laughed. "Don't worry my hyenas aren't here right now," he uncover my mouth and patted my head. "You won't get away with this!"

"Do you know why I'm doing this?" I could feel him grinning. He slow held out a metal ball with his thumb on a red button on top. 'Laughing gas,' I thought again and looked at my friends. They were slowly backing up to the wall behind them. "For the laughs!"

"Run! Don't breathe in the gas!" I warned my friends as he pressed the button. I held my breath and heard a crash. Joker murmured something I couldn't make out as I heard his name being called and slammed me on the table breaking it. I opened my mouth to exhale because of the impact but quickly close it and held my breath.

I glance back to see the Joker gone and nothing more than dark shapes getting greener. I look back towards the ground, sitting up, as I place my hand over my mouth as an attempt to stop any possible inhaling but I already started feeling dizzy. Then a figure came into view. I made a noise to get their attention, hoping they weren't evil, and it work. It turned out to be a guy; he moved my hand and put a breathing mask on me. He looks at me and we both noticed that I was holding my stomach where it hit with the table. He picked me up bridal style and shot a grappling gun to the roof. I grabbed onto him the best I as could as we were pulled up out of the gas and onto a window sill. I look down to emergency exits open, people with wicked smiles were knocked out on the ground as Batman punching the Joker to the ground. The guy holding me moved to jump out the window seeing that Batman was almost done with Joker. I looked up at my savior to recognize him. It was Nightwing! He landed safely on the ground and examined me briefly. Once he got to my eyes he grinned but it faded in time with my eyes closing. I felt sick and I wanted nothing more than just to give in to the lazy darkness around…and I did.