A/N: Thank you to everyone who has read, replied, etc.

Cheekymonkey97: Thank you so much! I've been thinking about writing this for a long time and it's awesome to know that people are enjoying it! I'll try to update as often as possible, and please keep reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Batman related…the only thing I own is the camp people and the camp. Too bad I don't own Batman though. That would give me ultimate bragging rights…for forever.

Chapter 2:

Silently, Sofia, Delanie, Lilly, and the other staff members and campers filed into the room, where Sofia's bosses and the camp nurse were already being held captive. Goons in clown masks were pointing guns at the crowd, daring them to move. Lilly was hanging onto Sofia's arm so tightly she could barely walk. When she thought about it though, she could barely walk anyway; and then she saw him.

He was even more horrid than he appeared on the news. The Clown Prince of Crime was very tall; he had to be at least six feet. Straggling pieces of dyed-green hair fell in front of his eyes. His eyes were giant black orbs, extenuated by the black grease- paint surrounding them, in deep contrast to the white greasepaint covering most of the rest of his face; but the worst, the part that instilled fear into the subconscious of every Gothamite, was turned up into a mad grin aimed at Sofia.

Stupidly, she had been staring at him and she had caught his eye. Sofia dropped her gaze as the most feared man in Gotham strutted over to her. That had been her first mistake. The second was stepping protectively in front of Lilly and pushing the young girl behind her back. Suddenly, his eyes flickered over to the child and his grin, if possible, became even wider. The Joker strode over to the pair and Sofia completely eclipsed Lilly from the Joker's view. He grabbed Sofia's wrist, so hard she thought it would bruise. Obviously, the woman was in complete discomfort with their closeness.

A click was heard and he started tracing her jaw with the cool edge of a blade. Although she tried to control her emotions for the children's sake, she could not help but tremble with fear. He brought a gloved hand to her face and grasped her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. Replacing the fear in her eyes with anger and irritation, she glared at him in silence.

"Aren't you gonna ask me what I want? Or why I'm doing this?" he inquired mockingly.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction though. Trying to force more authority and power in her voice, Sofia answered "I figured that'd be too cliché." Her voice had managed to hold without breaking, she was quite proud.

Something flickered across his gaze, and then the Joker sneered. "Yes, I guess so; but aren't you even a bit curious why of all places, I choose a summer camp?"

She did not answer, but instead glared back at him in stony silence, and he knew it would take something else to break her down. She was not weak.

"Hi-ya there, sweetheart." He said, leaning over towards Lilly who, in turn, buried her face into Sofia's back.

Sofia side-stepped in between her favorite camper and the man she feared more than anything.

"Don't even think, about it." She hissed at him, fury visible in her eyes that even shocked him for a moment; but only a moment because surely enough the infamous grin returned to his face moments later.

In a sudden flash of anger, he pinned Sofia up against the wall by her throat, constricting her wind-pipe. "Careful, Sofia." He registered her look of surprise, and then continued. "You name is Sofia Roselle, isn't it?"

She remained silent, and he tightened his grasp, screaming. "ISN'T IT?!"

She whimpered, nodding frantically.

He cocked his head to the side with a look of mock curiosity and started circling her and twirling his knife.

"Did you know I knew your uncle Gerard?" he asked pointlessly, already knowing the answer.

"You murdered my uncle." She deadpanned. Sofia may not have noticed the small twitch of her eye, but the Joker noticed the tick and decided to twist the knife he had drove into her soul.

"Detective Stephens had, ah, quite an important role in the explosion of the MCU."

"Please," she practically spat at him. "My uncle would never become involved with scum like you."

A furious look returned to his face as he advanced towards her a step. "Be careful what you say to the man with the knife, tiger." He warned as his eyes turned completely black sending a chill down her spine.

"Don't call me that." She demanded defiantly.

"What are you going to do about it, tiger?" he mocked. She said nothing, but silently fumed as he rolled his eyes. "Anyway, about your uncle's involvement," he must have noticed the flash across her eyes and said "Cool it, crazy. I doubt he would purposely help me. Apparently people don't appreciate you killing their friends…I believe the exact number was six?"

That was it. His words had stirred something deep inside of her. She didn't want to think, she only wanted to act. Sofia wanted this man's blood on her hands, even if it gave the possibility of being locked away in Arkham. But that would be completely foolish. If she so much as raised a finger towards him, there was not a doubt in her mind that she would be dead before she could blink.

She hadn't realized it, but her hands were shaking with anger. She tried to steady herself and control her breathing, but she was blinded with fury. Impossibly, it seemed, she was actually seeing red.

The Joker, of course, enjoyed watching the internal conflict inside of her. He decided it was time to push the envelope even further.

"Do you know how he died?" the Joker asked, not needing to clarify who. "He died like a coward. Dear old Gerard was sobbing, begging me not to kill him. 'Please, mister, just let us go.'" He imitated.

That was it for Sofia. She lunged at him, but he grabbed her wrist, squeezing so hard she thought it would break as she saw dark bruises form on her translucent looking skin. She moaned in pain and the Joker snapped her close against him and held the knife so close to her nose she became cross-eyed. Slowly, he moved it down to her mouth and pressed it flat against her face, drawing a little blood from her lips.

"Ooh, kitty has claws," He licked his lips menacingly. "Do you wanna know how I got these scars?" he questioned, his eyes glinting dangerously. She shook her head hurriedly.

"Believe me, it's quite the story." He promised. Her eyes were trained on the blade and he realized she wasn't paying much attention. He again took hold of her chin and aimed her face towards his. They say that eyes are windows to the soul, which in her case was most certainly true. He could see her every emotion swirling around in her large, moss-green eyes. There was anger and curiosity, but mainly fear.

The Joker thrived off of fear. It fueled him and gave him strength to perform inhuman acts. Fear made the world go 'round and it showed people's true colors. Would they run away, forgetting all previous loyalty? Or would they stay and face their fears, standing up against evil? It was only a simple question of fight or flight.

"When I was a young boy, I had a very mean father. My mother died while giving birth, and my father never could forgive me for causing her death. In fact, he wasn't just mad at me; he loathed me. See, my daddy replaced my mother with booze. He tried to drown his sorrows, you see. Well the alcohol made my father even worse, because it made him angry. And when daddy was angry, he got very physical with me." He paused, watching her reactions to the story so far, then continued.

"Some days after he got very punchy, they'd send me home from school because of the bruises, and he would hurt me again for letting them see. Well one day, daddy-dearest came home very late at night. He'd been drinking again. And that day I'd been very pleased with myself for using some old make- up of my mother's to cover the bruises on my arms and legs. In fact, I had even smiled. Well daddy didn't like that one bit. 'What are you so happy about, huh?' he said. 'You don't have the right to smile.' And I showed him my arms where the make- up was, thinking he might even be proud. And he said 'Well isn't that special. You do that all by yourself?' and I said 'Yes'. I smiled wider and he leaned in real close and whispered 'You should smile more, do you know that?' I thought he was gonna hug me, but instead, he pinned me down, broke open and whiskey bottle and did this." He motioned towards his Glasgow grin.

"Getting cut by glass is extremely painful, but glass drenched in alcohol?" he chuckled darkly. "Of course, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Sofia?" He said with a sneer, and she paled. "Do you want to know what my father said when he was done?" the Joker leaned in towards Sofia and stage- whispered "Why so serious?"


Bruce Wayne nearly choked on his coffee as he heard Lucius Fox.

"What do you mean he broke out? It's frickin' Arkham Asylum!" he roared.

Lucius was not shaken in the slightest at Wayne's outburst. He had learned that Bruce would be better off if he had a chance to fume.

"We just sent him in there 2 months ago! This is unbelievable!" The Prince of Gotham continued with a stream of profanities and vulgarity until he ran out of breath, as Fox stood by silently.

"You do realize that Gotham is depending on you to find him?" Fox inquired sarcastically, which Bruce acknowledged by rolling his eyes.

"What am I supposed to do? The Batman is an outlaw, and even if I did go out, I'd still have to wait until nighttime so I don't get spotted." Bruce placed his head into his hands and groaned softly.

Lucius looked out the window at the sun which was beginning to set. He stayed there silently for a while, and then said "I know where he is."

Wayne lifted his head questioningly and Fox said "Gotham Summer Camps."

Bruce was shell-shocked. "There are only children there! What could he possibly want with them?"

Fox answered slowly, not wishing to upset his friend even more than he already had. "A great many of important people's children attend the camps. You know parents; they'll do anything for their children."

Bruce stood up abruptly, startling Fox. "What is it, Bruce?"

"Sofia Roselle works there. One of my employees, and a close friend. I'd bet the Joker would do anything to mess with one of the most powerful men in Gotham."

He grabbed his coat and rushed out the door.


Sofia could not move. Needless to say, the story had done its part to scare her. How had he known what her father had done? How had he known the reason she always wore long-sleeved shirts, even on a blistering hot day like today? All eyes were trained on the two, waiting to see what he would do to the frightened woman. Paralyzed by fear, Sofia tried to find her voice and answered. "Well you were right; that, uh, was quite the story." He searched her eyes for a second then burst out laughing so hard it seemed like he was having a seizure.

He theatrically wiped a tear away from his eye then stated "Tiger, you are too funny! I think I'll keep you around for a while," The Clown Prince of Crime watched as she relaxed slightly in his grip, thinking he would keep her alive and let her go. He chuckled as he crushed her dream "After all, having Bruce Wayne's personal assistant around might give me some leverage. Maybe I can even visit Brucie-boy himself."

She paled at his words. "How do you know I work for Bruce?" Her mouth was dry; he couldn't hurt Bruce, he just couldn't!

The Joker chuckled, noticing her sudden change reaction. "Does somebody have a little crush on their boss?" he asked innocently.

"How do you know where I work, Joker?" she repeated with more power. If he was shocked that she used his name, he didn't show.

He walked forward quickly and gripped her arm so hard she could see the contusions form. "There's a lot I know about you, Rosie-girl." He whispered almost seductively in her ear. She looked up at him with confused eyes. How had he known the nickname her best friend had bestowed upon her? He merely put on a real grin under the Glasgow one.

"Let me go." She pleaded, the black and blues painfully rising

The madman, in turn, cocked an eyebrow. "Who's going to make me, Rosie- girl? You? One of these…civilians? Come on tiger, I thought you were smarter than that. Not one of you can stop me!"

"Except me." A low, gravelly voice said as a wave of black pulled the Joker off of Sofia with ease.

As he flew off of her, the Joker's knife nicked Sofia in the neck, and she clamped her hand over it in pain, feeling the warm, sticky crimson soak onto her hand slowly. The cut wasn't very big, but even the sight of blood made her feel woozy. She could barely recognize the giant black mass as the Batman.

"Batsy!" the Joker exclaimed, almost giddily. "How nice of you to join us!"

The Batman did not respond, but instead started throwing carefully angled punches, knocking the wind out of his opponent. Then, the two started beating each other, vandalizing the room as they did so.

Amidst all of the pandemonium, she locked eyes with Delanie, then pointed at Lilly and jerked her head towards the door, which was wide open. Delanie lifted the startled child up and ran out the door with her. Sofia checked to see if the Joker realized they were gone, and sighed with relief when she realized he was still preoccupied with fighting off Batman.

Personally, Sofia had never believed the Batman was a criminal in the first place; she knew there was something off about what went down between him and Harvey Dent. He had seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth after being declared a murderer, yet here he was, fighting off the Clown Prince of Crime.

So sure, she was, that the man in the bat suit would win; but then, seemingly out of nowhere, more goons popped out and surrounding the Bat, each with the same outfit and greasepaint as the Joker. They started closing in on him, and he had no choice but to fight them off, not really sure which was the real one. Sofia could only stand there helplessly as her savior was being overthrown by a sea of her nightmares.

She could only stand there mesmerized, and did not realize until he had a tight grasp around her waist that the real Joker had been silently sneaking up on her.

"If you want these people to stay alive, you're gonna come with me, tiger." He whispered tauntingly, his breath tickling her ear. Without turning around to look at the man behind her, she nodded numbly. She knew she wouldn't make it out of there safely as soon as the other henchmen popped out. He clicked a button on his lapel, and a wall exploded. The Joker-posers kept on fighting, but the Batman paused and looked up in time to see Sofia dragged through a gaping hole in the gym. She only had time to look up quickly at the Batman before being shoved into a giant black van, and thought she saw familiar brown eyes before the door slammed shut, blocking out her freedom.