Sorry for the extremely late update. I had finals, but as we speak I working on the next one, so it should come much sooner than this one. :D Enjoy!

Chapter 10

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The Joker ducked away from me after his declaration, leaving me just standing there staring at retreating figure, not quite sure what response would be appropriate in my situation.

Should I egg him on? Encourage him to go through with the mass destruction of an entire city? Should I try and stop him?

I chuckled weakly. As If I could actually stop the Joker from doing ANYTHING.

The Joker spun on his heel gaily, twirling him gun around in the air while walking by the party guests. Every few moments he would stop to pretend to shoot the gun to particularly terrified hostages, resulting in them flinching violently, or crying out in fear.

I gasped instinctively when the Joker ACTUALLY released a shot, and the resulting blast was great enough to shock the entire room into silence.

The person who had been the Joker's target was now sporting a huge gaping hole on the side of his left leg. Apparently, the man was quick enough to get out of the line of fire before his body joined the collective debris scattered around the room, but he still couldn't manage to escape the full blast.

No one said anything for a couple heartbeats, and it seemed as though the entire room had their eyes glued to the man's incinerated leg, the Joker included.

The man's mouth was hanging open in a silent scream as his hands slowly extended to his leg. Strangely enough, the leg wasn't bleeding. In fact, when I looked carefully enough, I could see what looked to be frost on the edge of his battered skin.

"Alright! Now this here's uh, MY kinda gun . . .," The Joker suddenly exclaimed, snapping everyone out of the trance that they were under. As the Joker regarded his weapon with renewed interest, realization set into everyone's minds, and a steady hum of horror grew until it rose to a cacophony of screaming and yelling, pleading and negotiating, groveling and crying.

The Joker regarded the hysterics with an impatient sigh and his signature eye roll. He licked his before grabbing the nearest gun from a goon to his right, pulling back the safety, raising the gun over his head, and setting off about twenty shots in the ceiling. When the room was reduced to nothing but tense silence once more, tossed the gun over his shoulder onto the floor.

"I think . . ." The Joker began, walking slowly towards the party guests, "That you all have, uh, forgotten. Your. Place."

The Joker paused in front a violently trembling woman, clutching herself tightly, and desperately trying to avoid his gaze.

The Joker loomed over the poor woman, and peered down at her with a sick smirk painted across his features.

He then lowered himself down on one knee, so that his face was level with hers. The woman began to cry silently, and she squeezed her eyes shut, shudders wracking her body.

The Joker tilted his head.

"Why, exactly, do you uh, think. That. Is. . . hmm?"

The woman didn't respond.

"WELL!"

The woman began to whine.

The Joker huffed in annoyance and stood up abruptly. He went over to pick up a stray gun on the floor, turned, and shot the woman in her left arm in one swift motion.

The woman screamed, and clutched her arm to her body, now openly weeping.

The Joker now had the gun pointed her head.

"Shut. Up." He growled. The girl cut herself off and looked strait into the barrel of the gun. It looked as if a little light went out within her and her body sagged under its weight, as she regarded the weapon with an expressionless face.

The Joker put the gun away though, and turned away without looking back at her. The woman sat there, unmoving.

"You ALL. Have forgotten. Your place," The Joker ground out, recommencing his prowl around the group.

"All you fucking pansies just sit there wailing on about how you're all about to die, and you know? I didn't see one fucking human being stand up and try to stop me."

The Joker's hands clenched and unclenched as his face corrugated into a painful-looking smile, his eyes just as crazed as he was.

"I just. Don't. Un-der-stand," He continued, sounding angrier with every word, "It's almost like you all uh, prefer to be humiliated and broken as you're killed begging me to spare your lives instead of dying in an attempt to kill me, or, God forbid, defy me!"

The Joker's breathing became ragged as the intensity of his voice increased.

"You know why I hate this city so much?"

The Joker whirled around and faced the guests who regarded him as they would a venomous snake.

"Because the people of this city feel safe by letting some hero who calls himself 'The Batman'," The Joker took a moment to roll his eyes, "Do your dirty work!"

"Everyone in this room would sooner throw their first-born children into a bed of hot coals then step across 'em themselves," The Joker whispered to himself. Everyone heard him.

Suddenly, the Joker burst out into loud peals of laughter, shocking all the guests in the room. Even the goons seemed a bit weary of the Joker now. It truly appeared as if the Joker had seriously lost it this time.

"You . . . see this?" The Joker asked between breaths. He held up a small black device that resembled a USB drive presented it to the room.

"THIS, is what's going to allow me to uh, have my fun with Gotham," The Joker licked his lips, "The information on this will be enough to bring this city to its knees. And it's all thanks to my very obedient little Kitty Kat over there,"

The Joker gestured to me, as I stood there silently, taking in everything without a word. I stood there blinking stupidly, trying to get my mind to work. There was a word for this.

Concussion. Right. I think I have a concussion. My mind felt as if someone had been clanging a pair of symbols against my head. My ears were ringing and I felt like I was going to throw up. Not only that, but I felt like shit, because throughout the entire time the Joker had been tormenting these poor people, I was disconnected from everything. I couldn't summon even the smallest semblance of any emotion for these poor people.

I wasn't quite sure when I started feeling the results of one having their head smashed against solid surfaces repeatedly within the span of ten minutes by a surprisingly strong entrepreneur, but all I could currently focus on, was keeping myself from collapsing to the floor, and the unbelievable pain I was feeling.

So I said nothing when the Joker acknowledged me, which, unfortunately, wasn't exactly the greatest plan of action.

The Joker stuck out his lower lip in a mock pout.

"Aw, what's wrong Kitty? Kat got your tongue? Ha!"

Still no response.

The Joker grew visibly angrier.

In a second his face became tranquil. The Joker licked his lips as if tasting them for the first time, as he made his way to my unresponsive person.

I was so out of it by then, I never saw him coming until I felt the unmistakable feeling of his hot breath on the back of my neck.

"You," The Joker began in a whisper, "You, uh, my dear, are playing games with me—oh no," The Joker interrupted himself as if he expected me to protest in any way, "You are. Yes, yes you are Kit-ty."

The Joker swung his free arm around my neck and held me in an almost-impossible-to-breathe chokehold. It was only then that my mind was capable of a response, but the lack of oxygen to my already battered head escalated my pain exponentially.

"Joker," I gasped roughly, "Please. I—"

"See, I'm sure you know that I uh, love myself a good game, but it makes me so s-a-d to be left out of such a good time . . ."

I began to wheeze. My lungs were burning and my air supply was depleting.

"Joker . . . Can't . . . let me go . . . please,"

"Oh, looooook who's decided to squeal!"

The Joker released his grip on my neck and let me fall down to the floor with a thump. My lungs sucked up the air greedily, and I felt the blood rushing back to my brain. The pain was agonizing. Now, not only did I have a concussion, but a massive headache as well.

From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the Joker pause for a second to look at me, before continuing to make his way to the center of the dance floor, where most of the debris from all the gunfire and explosions collected.

The Joker went over and stepped on a fallen support beam that fell from the ceiling. I looked up absentmindedly, and noticed for the first time since I stepped into the room that there was a huge, gaping hole in the ceiling directly above the dance floor.

The Joker cleared his throat to collect the attention of the room. It was unnecessary though, because the last little stunt of almost choking me to death encouraged everyone to make sure they looked alert and attentive.

"I think this game's gotten just a uh, little old. I'm booored, so let's add some spice into the mix shall we? Remember this?" The joker held up the same little device that he introduced previously, only this time; there was a blinking red light on the top of it.

"Once I press this little red light, every one of you dirty snot-nosed pansies of Gotham city are going to enter a new age! A new age brought on by yours truly." The Joker wore such a sick smirk that I knew that nothing good would ever come out of his control. He was going to run this whole city to the ground.

The Joker held up his little device and made a show of it.

The Joker began to cackle.

"Now, is there anything thing any one of you feel like sharing in your last moments?" The Joker asked mockingly.

There was silence.

The Joker smirked triumphantly and began to laugh even louder.

Without warning, a shadow flew across the room, and knocked the device out of the Joker's hands and into the very far corner of the room away from the door.

"Actually," A gravelly voice said from somewhere in the room, "I'd rather let my fists do the talking,"

The shadow landed behind the Joker, but by that time the entire room already knew who it was.

Batman.

His suit looked as if it had been upgraded to the 2.0 edition. It was darker than the other, and the suit itself almost appeared to have been carved out of steel. The Utility belt had been painted to look coppery and was fastened to his hips. His mask was shaped to mold against his head and the material either bended perfectly for his eyes, or he just wore the correct eye make-up.

He looked better than I ever imagined.

"Wow," The Joker said, sounding completely unimpressed, "Good one Batsy. You've been gone for uh, was it two years now? Yeah, two years, and ha, that's the line you open with?" The Joker tutted disapprovingly.

Batman didn't respond.

The Joker rolled his eyes at him and sighed, "Well, so much for some playful banter," The joker licked his lips. I guess this one's just business,"

There was a silent 'slink', and then within the span of about five seconds, the Joker dropped his burly-looking gun, spun on his heel, and plunged the knife downwards.

Batman was too quick though; He grabbed the Joker's right hand mid-strike with his left, and punched the Joker right in the jaw.

The Joker stumbled a bit, and began to laugh when the blood started seeping out of his mouth. He collected himself, and then ran up and tackled Batman, grabbed his shoulders and slammed batman's head down.

Batman grabbed the Joker's neck with both his legs, flipped him over, and held the Joker in a vise-like chokehold on the floor with batman on top and the Joker on his stomach. The Joker just laughed harder though.

The Joker pushed his head so that it touched the floor, and threw it back up, getting Batman in the nose, and causing his grip to loosen. The Joker freed the arm with the knife, stabbed Batman's arm, pulled out the knife, and rolled over so that Batman was below him.

That didn't last very long though, because Batman used both legs to kick the Joker in the stomach, effectively freeing himself, and in a moment, Batman was back on his feet.

The Joker got up too, much slower, and began chuckling.

"Oh Batsy, let me be the first to say that it's good to have you back," He said, laughing.

Batman lifted his fists and cracked his knuckles tauntingly. There was blood coming out the arm that had been stabbed, but Batman didn't seem to acknowledge it.

Suddenly Batman turned to look at me. I recoiled a bit, shocked. I, like everyone else in the room, had been completely captivated by the battle between the two most infamous people of Gotham city.

The last thing I had expected was to have Batman notice me in any way. But the euphoria was brief, because Batman immediately focused his attention back on the Joker, who didn't seem to appreciate having been ignored.

In seconds, Batman and the Joker were fighting once more, trading blows as much as they dodged them.

That's when it hit me. I was a complete imbecile. Batman wasn't admiring my physique or anything stupid like that; he was trying to tell me something.

I gasped. The device!

I spun on my heel and looked in the direction where I saw it fall. Unfortunately, I turned too quickly, and my head throbbed in protest.

I held my head in my hands and began to massage my temples in an attempt to rid myself of the almost unbearable pain.

Almost.

The wave of nausea cleared, so I began to slowly make my way over to the area in which the device feel, hoping to God that I wouldn't attract too much attention.

I flinched when I heard Batman growl in fury, but then the cacophony of fists smashing against things and what I believed to also be bones cracking, and I kept moving.

Finally I got there, and it didn't seem like anyone noticed; not like I'd know anyway seeing as how my back was turned towards the whole climatic scene.

I threw a look over my shoulder and confirmed my suspicions; the guests remained stupefied by the battle and no one noticed me one bit.

Not wasting one more second, I felt around the floor, my eyes scanning quickly for the little black device. The floor, unfortunately, was coated with dark-colored debris, and so for a moment, I thought I was going to have a panic attack when I realized how difficult the task at hand was, but before I could fully engage in hyperventilation mode, something shiny caught the corner of my eye, and when I turned I spotted the device!

I snatched it from the ground and held it up in the light to get a better look at it. It was extremely tiny, and it consisted of only three buttons. One was obviously the detonator button, seeing as how it was currently flashing red. The others were neon blue and green, and their purpose could not be identified.

Suddenly, the was a loud 'SLAM' and Batman's silhouette flew across the room until his body smashed against the wall, and he landed a few feet away from where I was . . .

Unbelievably though, Batman began to brush himself off and looked as if he were about to stand up, but the flashing red light on the tiny device I held in my hand attracted his eye, and that's when he saw it.

"Katherine," Batman growled, surprising me.

Wait. Batman KNOWS my name? When did this happen?

"Katherine, GIVE it to me,"

"I—"

"Well, that was rather uh, forward of you Batsy . . . but I'm afraid your shoddy pick up lines aren't gonna help you here. That Kat over there's MY property." The Joker stood a yard or so away, and held out his hand expectantly.

I looked back and forth between the two, and without warning, the headache reared its ugly head again, and I almost passed out from the collected pain.

I clutched my head with my hands, and groaned in pain.

"Oh God, Kitty, don't be such a uh, dra-ma queen. Come here and give me back my toy." The Joker sounded impatient.

"Katherine, if you give him that device, good people will loose their lives. You do not want to be responsible for that." Batman's voice sounded so rough, it made my throat hurt slightly just hearing it.

I couldn't focus on anything they said though, the pain was so great, I thought I saw my vision blurring slightly.

All I knew was that I couldn't give either one of them the device. I'd heard many controversial things about Batman, most of which didn't inspire very much confidence in me, and Joker was, of course, Joker, so that's out.

I wanted to throw thing to the other side of the room so that I wouldn't have to deal with this right now, but even I could tell that I was only several seconds away from barfing, fainting, or dying. All of which I didn't want to do in front of either of them.

The Joker huffed in annoyance, "Tsk, how troublesome."

The Joker snapped at the goons still in the room, and they flanked him on either side. The Joker began to approach where I was, and so I did the only thing I knew I could do.

I lifted up my arm, and smashed the device on the ground, breaking it. My body finally gave out, and I succumbed to the darkness before my head hit the floor. The last thing I remembered before unconsciousness was the sound of loud, happy, unmistakable laughter.

To make up for the late chapter, I'll make the next one considerably longer than this one. :) Read And review please! Next Chapter coming to you on July 23.

Reviews inspire me to write faster!

-SongsThatSerenade7