two chapters in one day this is a record!
"Mr. Wayne!" cried the secretary as she ran into the room.
Bruce and Lucius looked up startled from a report they were discussing. The billionaire just raised an eyebrow at the girl and she flushed from embarrassment.
"Um… Commissioner Gordon his here" she announced.
"Thank you Jennifer. Please send him in" he said as he put the papers away.
Once the girl left Lucius sent Bruce and amused look, "I think that your secretary believes you are a criminal."
Bruce just sighed, "She is new. She is not aware that Gordon comes here at least once a week just to check in"
Within a few seconds the man in question entered with an amused look, "New secretary?" he asked.
Bruce just groaned, "Yes. How are you Jim" he asked as he shook the man's hand.
Jim just smiled at the man, amazed at how well he grew up sense the night of his parent's murder, "Things are well. How is Richard handling the new spotlight?"
Bruce thought back to the day of the press conference, Dick had done well with all of the flashing cameras but Bruce knew he had been uncomfortable with the non-stop questions directed at him.
"He is doing alright. It will take some getting used to" said Bruce as the three men sat down.
Jim nodded in understanding, "I could imagine. He seems like a good kid though so you do not need to worry about him hurting your reputation"
Lucius spoke up about this, "If anything the young lad seems to help it. He is doing great in school and is not a delinquent"
The billionaire smiled at the two men, glad that Dick had made a good impression on them. Before they could continue talking Gordon got a phone call and excused himself for a minute.
Lucius gathered up the reports they had been talking about and made his way back to his office to make the changes. Bruce was about get ready to go to a meeting when Gordon came back in and worry was clear on his face.
"There was an attack at the school"
"Hello Kiddies" came a hysterical laugh.
Dick groaned a little, he had a huge headache from the sleeping gas and the laughing maniac was helping at all. His arms were tied behind his back and his ankles were bound to prevent running. But surprisingly there was also other kids from his school right next to him. He recognized them as the mayor's kid, senator's daughter and other kids of elites.
"What do you want?" asked one of the crying girls.
Joker just started to laugh, "I want money. Your daddies can give that to me"
The girls continued to cry. "Go rob a bank like a normal criminal" said one of the boys, who was a few years older than Dick.
The clown laughed again before answering, "But there is no fun in that. This way Batsy will have to get involved and I have insurance."
When there came no more remarks from the children Joker turned to one of his men that brought out a camera.
"Now we should send a message to your daddies. Now who are we going to use as the star in our movie?" asked the Joker as he looked over the children. Then his eyes fell on Dick.
He grinned his yellow toothed grin and pulled the boy up by his collar, "I know you. You're that new kid to that Wayne brat. Never messed with him before." He laughed again as he dragged the boy to the middle of the room, "This should be fun"
He threw Dick into the middle of the room and turned back to the kids and gave them another crazed smile while his henchman came up with a camera ready to roll, "Let's make a movie"
After Gordon had told him what happened Bruce had got home as quick as possible and down to the bat cave to start looking into where the clown would be.
He was looking through the footage of the school when the clown men had broken in and took the children for the fifth time when he heard a familiar beep in his ear. He pushed the communicator on.
"What?" he asked gruffly.
"Hey Bats. Supey told me to call you. Need any help?" came the familiar voice of Flash.
Batman groaned, the last person he needed was the happy voice of the scarlet racer. "No."
Flash gave a sigh, "Your man Joker teamed up with Gorilla Grodd. Grodd has a way to help Joker's laughing gas to make it more deadly if they can get enough money to get ahold of a certain chemical" said the speedster.
"What is the chemical?" asked the dark knight as he tried to narrow down his search.
"Don't know" came the scientists annoyed voice.
Before Bruce could reply one of his monitors alerted him to something. He looked at it and narrowed his eyes in rage. Quickly he ordered Flash to get to Gotham as quick as possible.
He clenched his fists at the sight of Joker standing over the top of Dick. He almost felt a drop of pride in him when he saw that the boy was not scared but mostly annoyed.
"Hello Gotham. I have decided to make a movie for you all. It is called….." he seemed confused for a moment, "Well I don't really have a name for it yet. But here is our star actor, little Dickie Grayson, and his supporting rolls are his classmates" the camera turned to show all of the other students and Bruce knew who they all were from their parents.
Then the camera came back to Joker, "Now that we have introduced the cast let's get onto the story. These little kiddies are waiting for their parents to come and rescue them. But the only way they can get rescued is if Joker is payed one million dollars each. Otherwise" at this point Joker gave an evil smile as he pulled out a crowbar and turned to Dick, "they might not make it back" laughed the Joker as he swung down.
The boys could be heard yelling in the background while the girls cried. But all Bruce had attention for was his adopted son who was now bleeding from a large cut on his arm. The boy squeezed his blue eyes shut as he tried not to cry out.
The Joker hit him several more times on the chest and sides as the boy tried to move out of the way of the blows. He finally stopped when Dick cried out after getting hit across the face hard. "Now remember Gotham. I want one million for each child" he said and then the signal cut out.
Alfred came running down the stairs to alert Bruce to the news feed but by the look on the bats face it was clear he already knew.
"Alfred have the money put together and go meet Gordon at the police station." He said as he pulled his cowl down and walked over to the batmobile.
Alfred nodded and left back up to the manor to get it put together.
Once on the snow covered road Batman called into Flash, "I just got into town. Where do you want to meet?" came Flash's voice.
To his right Batman saw the bat symbol in the sky, "Um… want to meet at the bat?" asked Flash chuckling a little at the symbol.
"Yes" was all the dark knight said and he made his way to Commissioner Gordon.
On top of the building the commissioner looked stressed as he waited for the bat as his breath could be seen from the cold.
"What do you have?" asked the Batman as he landed next to him.
Gordon jumped and turned around, "How can you do that in broad daylight?" he exclaimed.
Batman just raised an eyebrow, "Right. Well I am going to assume that you saw the news feed." As the dark knights nod he continued, "Good. One of my men spotted Joker by the warehouse district last week. We think that he has a new partner but we don't know who"
Batman nodded, "I think that he has teamed up with Gorilla Grodd. He is trying to make a change to his laughing gas. They probably have something big planned for the holidays."
Gordon looked surprised but not extremely surprised, this is Gotham, and "We also received a message from Joker. Payment is to be made by midnight tonight or he will start to kill the children." Now Gordon fully turned to the vigilante that he has come to trust, "My friend's kid is in there. He has lost enough in his life he can't lose his son now too. Please get them out" pleaded Gordon.
Bruce was surprised at his friend's words. Dick had definitely made a very good impression on the cop. Batman nodded, "I will get them." Then he jumped off the roof.
He was not surprised to see a man dressed in all red waiting next to the batmobile in an alley.
"So what's up?" asked the scarlet racer.
Batman walked over to the car and pulled up a computer screen and played the video for Flash to watch. Once it was over Batman pulled up a list of warehouses that Joker could potentially be in.
"Bats, who are these kids?" asked Flash not really up to date of the elite of Gotham.
The dark knight looked up from his computers and seemed to hesitate a minute, "They are the sons and daughters of Gotham's elite"
Flash seemed to think for a moment, "I don't remember anyone by the name of Grayson being an elite" observed the speedster.
Batman just ignored the statement and jumped into his car and started to drive towards the warehouses. Flash just shrugged and ran along side the black car until they stop at their destination.
"Do we know that he is here?" asked the Flash as he looked towards the sunset.
It always seemed like nighttime came faster in the dark city. In answer to Flash's question a maniacal laugh filled the air and the two heroes jumped to the shadows so they would not be spotted.
Creeping up to the furthest warehouse in the lot they looked through the windows and saw the purple clad clown and the children that were tied up. But to Bruce's dismay he could not see Richard anywere.
"Flash go in and rescue the children. I will take Joker. Watch out for his laughing gas" said the dark knight as he moved to the other side of the building to attack.
The scarlet speedster decided for Batman to make his move first, after all it was his city. After a few more minutes he heard the clown start to speak again.
"Hello Batsie! So glad you could make it!" laughed the clown as he stared at the shadow that had descened from the ceiling.
"What do you want Joker?" came the gravel voiced reply.
Joker seemed to think about this for a moment, "Well obviously a good laugh" he cackled and pulled out a gun and started to shoot.
Batman ducked behind some machinery and looked around the room. It was strange Joker had no henchmen around. It was just the clown and the hostages and no sign of Gorilla Grodd. Looking to the children he saw Flash making his way towards them while keeping an eye on the clown across the room.
Then Bruce seemed to figure something out, "Flash get away from them" yelled the Dark Knight.
But it was too late the children had already started to attack the scarlet speedster. Flash tried to get away from them without hurting them but was losing when they started to pull out Tasers and darts full of sedatives.
"Do you like it Batsie? My gas can now make them my hostages thanks to that ape" laughed the clown as he watched Flash run around the warehouse.
Bruce just growled and attacked the clown again throwing batarangs. He managed to surprise the clown with one that exploded in his face. Just as Batman was about to finish the clown off with chop to the neck to knock him out he was hit from behind by a very large mallet.
"Mista J are you alright?" asked the squeaky voice of Harley Quinn as she swung her mallet around with ease.
Joker stood back up and his normal smile was turned upside down as he glared at Batman. He pulled out his guns again and started to rapidly fire off rounds. The caped crusader jumped around to avoid getting hit but managed to get grazed on the shoulder. He managed to use a batarang to slice through the handle of Harley's mallet causing to fall on her head and knock her out.
The Joker just continued to laugh like a crazed person unaware that Flash had managed to knock out all of the children by confusing them into giving each other the sedatives when he ran in-between them. While the clown was distracted the speedster zoomed over and took the gun from his gloved hand.
Joker looked at his hand confused at were the gun hand went then he looked up just in time to see an enraged Batman punch him into unconsciousness. Quickly the two heroes tied up the clown couple.
"Call the police. I will look for the last child" said Bruce as he went to the look around the warehouse.
He went to opposite side of the giant building from where the fight took place. He noticed that one corner was strangely dark and turned on his flashlight. His heart stopped for a moment. Laying in a pool of blood was Dick. He was hunched over something and it looked like he had managed to break out of his bonds before passing out.
"Dick?" whispered Batman as he crouched next to the injured boy and rolled him onto his back.
Slowly one blue eye opened, the other was swollen shut, "B-batman?" came the shaky and scared voice.
Bruce let out a breath of relief that the boy was still alive, "Yes. Let's take you home"
The dark knight looked around and was surprised at what his ward was lying next to, a giant bomb that had the Joker's signature all over it.
Dick followed his gaze and gave a small weak laugh, "Don't worry. I already turned it off"
Surprised Batman looked down at the injured child. When he saw that the blue eyes were shut in unconsciousness he turned his attention back to the bomb. Quickly he checked the device and was already safely disengaged. Dick really did turn it off.
"Hey Batman, the police are almost here" said Flash as he zipped into the room.
The Dark Knight gave his colleague and sharp nod and stood up with the boy in his arms. Flash was instantly concerned about the amount of blood that was leaving the tiny body.
"Is this Grayson?" asked Flash as he pulled out some gauze from somewhere and tried to stop the bleeding from the cut on the boy's head.
Again Batman only nodded. Knowing he would not get anything more the grumpy man Flash said his good byes after checking that the kidnappers were securely bound and headed back to his own city in hopes of finding Gorilla Grodd.
"Batman!" came the cry from the commissioner as he ran into the warehouse with his men close behind.
The vigilante put his unconscious ward in the commissioner's arms, "He needs medical care quick. The other children are uninjured just sedated. They had a gas in them that had them under mind control, but it should be worn off by the time they wake up" he reported and quickly left so that he could go to the hospital Dick would be in.