A/N: Nothing much to say, as there aren't any comments. So enjoy.
Chapter 3: Finding Honesty in the Abyss
Gordon was sitting at his desk, reading endless piles of files. The darkness of the clouds had evaded his office, and only his table lamp lighted him and the files. He was searching for any little thing that could show him where the Joker was. He knew the post of Commissioner would be difficult, and he preferred to be on the field instead of being behind a desk. But Barbara and his children were so proud of him when he announced them the news that he could endured anything just to make them happy.
When he entered into the police forces, Jim was a simple officer. He had done this for his family at first, Barbara was having their first child and they needed some money. But the feeling of justice had grown in him like obviousness. At this time, most of the MCU was corrupted, and he was one of the rare that enjoyed his job because of his feeling of duty towards justice. He was only a policeman but just the fact that he hoped for better days was something rare and unthinkable for his colleagues. He did all his best to act for equity; Gotham's weakness was just too big for one man whom field of action was restricted. At this time, nobody would stand against the mob: it was them who pulled all the strings. If they wanted to kill somebody, they just had to say it and this person was already dead. They could even ask someone to wipe their mouth, and a second-hand man would come up with a handkerchief. Nothing was impossible for them, until…
A masked vigilante appeared. At first everybody thought it was just a recklessness man who wanted to take revenge. He had helped them once, and that would end up here. But after several days, it turned out that the man was decided to clean up the city of its dealers and killers. After about ten years of supremacy, the mob was having great difficulties with keeping on their business. And the big coming out of this mysterious man wasn't the only thing that Gotham had to expect. When everybody had lost their faith in this city, Batman just stood against the ones that wanted its destruction. Not only he saved it, but he also made people hope again for a better future. Their previous D.A was the perfect example of what Gotham owed to him. It made people face the truth and require security by men they could trust. The city went back to life after the night when Ra's Al Ghul tried to torn Gotham. But Harvey Dent's death had made some harm on the city, even if Batman had taken on him all the faults that the White Knight had done, the first man that had bring serenity had just lost credibility to the eyes of the world.
Gordon knew that now, it would be more difficult for them to catch the Joker, as communication with the caped crusader would be almost impossible. And there were every chance that what the Clown had begun he would want to finish it.
Suddenly the door of his office flew open, taking him out of his reverie. A young officer entered in the room, but at the desperate look on the Commissioner's face he guessed he just made a mistake. "Oh sorry Commissioner, but I thought you would want to see this as soon as possible." He mumbled clumsily, trying to keep his composure.
Jim didn't want to seem rude at first, but his tired body didn't follow his wish. "No it's okay, don't worry." But the officer stood there, still impressed and afraid. He had completely forgotten what he wanted to do, and stared at the man. "You wanted to show me something, weren't you?"
The policeman slightly started and focused on what he was supposed to do. He searched for the remote control and pushed a button. "And now here's the video the Joker sent to us." The journalist said as a video of the Joker appeared on the screen.
As Gordon watched it, his face faded from tiredness to concern. He hadn't slept well for the two past day, and it wasn't going to finish. With the Joker out, the world was about to burn, or in this case to explode.
The Commissioner jumped out of his sit and ran outside, taking out his radio. "I want every available man in this area, and call the bomb disposal experts. We got to move fast." And here it went, everything was back like before. The Joker was ready to terrified once more Gotham, and even with all his willpower Gordon knew it would be a dangerous game to try to stop him before he blew up half the city.
As he stepped out of the car, all the police forces that he managed to bring were on the move, checking with accuracy every spot in the area. He looked around and saw scared people screaming and running everywhere trying to leave. "It's impossible to evacuate everybody…" He said to himself as he watched in horror how the Joker managed to make a quarter of the city going apocalyptic. "I want half of the men to help evacuate." He ordered in his radio, even if he couldn't save everybody, he had to do something. He had to make the choice between searching the bombs and evacuate: and lives were more precious. "Requisition some buses and make people leave!" He almost shouted in panic, but it wasn't right. He was at the head of the troops, he was the one every men were counting on, so he had to be in condition to take the right decisions. He calmed himself down and looked at his men as they went on their searching.
Finally after minutes of research which felt like hours, Gordon's radio crackled as one of his men started to talk. "We found one of the bombs, behind a truck near Sampthstone Street." As soon as he got the information, the Commissioner sent a unit of the bomb disposal experts. "Gosh he really was serious…"
The fact that they found a bomb meant that the Joker wasn't joking, or taking them for a ride. And it implied that there were probably other bombs, scattered in this area. But how many bombs were there? How much time did they have ahead of them? Many questions and only one man knew the answers. They all thought that Gotham would finally be at peace, with the Joker behind bars. Soon enough they found out how easily the insane man could take over the city. By the time people realised he escaped from the prison, he already found a new plan to establish anarchy.
After only two hours of research they had already found ten bombs, meaning that there would probably more to come. Indeed, they had only controlled half of the area. The already cloudy sky was darkening, the night was about to fall. As tiredness was starting to get on the policemen, Gordon was still anxious. Two hours had already passed and the bombs hadn't blow up yet. Every minute that passed by he felt more and more unstrung. The Joker had surely succeeded in making everybody nervous. Lives were in danger, the lives of his men.
Taking a deep breath, the Commissioner knew exactly what he wanted to do, and what he had to do. "Hand me one of those body armor." He sighed; Barbara would kill him if she had been told about it. Finally he placed his radio in a pocket as he put on the jacket that one of the officers gave him. He joined his men, ready to share the same fate. He took out his flashlight and started to scan around to find any clues of a deadly device.
