Here is chapter 10 of the story, the second last chapter.

Again sorry for the delay but I've had exams and work experience.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice

The Dark Knight sat on the rooftop across from a bomb shelter situated on the outskirts of Metropolis. He looked through his binoculars and as he had suspected there were no heat signatures in the building. He radioed Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter that the area was clear and that they were to proceed into the building with caution. They began to enter the building with Batman watching them from afar. This was the third bomb shelter they had checked in the city.

Based on the information gotten by the members of the clan staying in Gotham, the Joker was attacked approximately one week before the kidnappings. So he couldn't have built a shelter that would be able to shield both the hostages from Superman's x-ray vision so the only logical explanation as to where the Joker may be would be the abandoned underground bomb shelters built during the Cold War for fear of a nuclear attack.

Once Batman had gotten access to the Leagues mainframe he had immediately pulled up all the information on the underground bomb shelters throughout the city. There were five in the area that the Joker drove to. Each shelter was lead lined and there was no telling what kind of modifications that the Joker has made to each of them.

Progress was slow as Batman had insisted that each of the shelters be thoroughly examined by him personally. This was met with a bit of doubt by the League but once the Dark Knight explained his reasons they all stayed quiet. Red Hood got a great laugh out of their reaction. The Dark Knight reasoning was simple; the Joker would never come into D.C without having the weaknesses of every single League member ready in the wings.

This was met by disbelief from the League until Batman pointed out that they do not know the Joker like he is but the one thing they should know is that he is of equal intelligence of the Batman and the Batman was able to deduce their weaknesses. As soon as that little nugget was revealed there was aura of fear now whenever one of the League members were around the Dark Knight. This suited the Dark Knight just fine.

The detective was soon roused from his thoughts by the voice of Green Lantern in his ear, he refused to allow the Martian into his head to establish a mind link as it involved letting him into his mind.

'Yo, Bats there's nothing it seems the area is clear so if you want to conduct your detective business you might want to do it now'.

Batman sighed, 'this was going to be a long night' he thought.

He was about to grapple over to the other side when Martian Manhunter's voice suddenly filled his ear.

'Batman I'm picking some strange thoughts. They keep repeating the numbers 6743005. Do those numbers mean anything to you?'

Batman stopped in his tracks, those were Nightwing's identification numbers. He had drilled them into his mind as soon as became Robin. 'He must have figured out what I would do. That kid was becoming more like me every day let's hope he is ok' he thought.

'Manhunter, Lantern. Do not proceed any further until I get there, there is a strong possibility that the Joker is in that building, do not move'.

'Are you sure Bats, there seems to be no one here-'. The transmission cut short right there.

'Crap'

Red Hood was sitting in front of the monitor impatiently waiting for an update from Batman. He wished he could do more but with his hatred towards the Joker for what he did to him it would lead him to make a mistake and against the Clown Prince of crime a mistake can be fatal.

He was sitting in a monitor room of the Hall of Justice. It was an underground room the League used for meetings while the Watchtower was still being constructed it was only a temporary room but was re-opened because the League didn't want to reveal their real headquarters to the Clan. 'As if we already didn't know' he thought.

He was being watched by Black Canary and the Flash. He supposed they were a good choice in case he decided to hack their database and make a run for it. He smirked inside his helmet at that thought. 'As if they could stop me' he thought. Suddenly a familiar voice came into his ear.

'Hood come in, I need you to meet me at warehouse number three, we've found the Joker but he has booby trapped the place and has already taken out Manhunter and Lantern. Tell the League to wait outside while we take on the Joker'.

'Rodger that Batman, I'm on my way'

Hood relayed the instructions to the other Leaguers and before they had a chance to react he was on his bike riding towards the warehouse. 'Hang on Dick, we're coming for you'.

Nightwing was bleeding profusely; the Joker had been cutting his left leg when an alarm came on. This obviously shocked the Joke so much that he accidently cut deeper then he wanted too causing blood to come rushing out. The Joker simply laughed when he realised his mistake and he just left the vigilante while he went to see what was wrong.

When he came back he was really angry and began punching Nightwing across the face repeatedly, this continued on for a few minutes leaving Nightwing with severe swelling on either side of his face. There was blood on the Joker's gloves as a result. As this was going on Stanley just sat there watching this madman mercilessly pound this vigilante and he barely made a sound in response, never giving the Joker the pleasure of hearing him scream.

This horrible beating continued on for what seemed like forever until a muffled sound came from under the floor. Time seemed to stop as the floor at the left end of the room began to crack and give way. There was a loud crash as a huge hole opened up in the ground creating a cloud of smoke. Two figures suddenly rose up out of the smoke, landing just outside the hole. The dust cleared and there standing was Batman and Red Hood.

'You two, how did you get here?' the Joker demanded 'I would have seen you on the cameras I posted at every entrance'.

It was at that moment that the smell of human waste began to make itself known to the occupants of the room. The captives and their tormentor all cringed as the putrid stench wormed its way up their noses.

'Darn, all that planning only to be beaten by a sewage pipe'.

That was the sentence that shattered the tension that was building in the room. Immediately Harley Quinn burst into the room wielding a bloodied machete. She was followed by a dozen similarly armed thugs. Guns were useless here as the bullet would most likely ricochet in the small space and hit anyone.

The thugs immediately went straight to the two clan members, completely ignoring the two beings bound to the chairs. Batman and Red Hood got into a stance and prepared to fight however one look at Nightwing told them that this needed to be a quick fight. Batman leaped over the oncoming horde of thugs and ran towards the Joker and Quinn who was tending to her deranged lover.

Before either of them knew what was happening Batman had slammed his elbow into Quinn's jaw instantly making her crumble. He then turned to the Joker who shot a cloud of as at him from his wrist. Batman stepped back dodging the cloud of gas and barely dodging the knife the Joker tried to slash across his chest. The Joker then tried again but the Dark Knight grabbed his arm and twisted it causing the Clown Prince of crime to drop his knife.

Batman then delivered a straight to the Joker's face and then a punch to his stomach but the Joker only laughed in response to this. Batman continued to punch the clown in the face until he had collapsed onto the floor. Even then he continued to laugh as blood poured down his face until one last kick to the head from Batman had silenced him.

Batman stood over the unconscious body of his greatest foe wondering how he was going to keep him locked up for good. He was determined to keep the Joker behind bars for good this time before he retired the mask and gave it to Dick. 'Dick'. His thoughts immediately turned to his protégé.

He ran over to the chair where Nightwing was bound only to find him unconscious with his head down and blood still pouring from his wounds. Hood had just finished the last of the thugs and ran over to help. However there was little they could do, the chair and its captive where firmly secured with no means available to release them in time and they couldn't even properly bandage his wounds from this position.

'This is bad' said the Dark Knight.

I will try and get this story finished within the week but do not hold your breath.

As always please read and review.