HEY! I AM BACK AND READY TO UPDATE!
JUST SO YOU KNOW I AM A HUGE HISTORY BUFF AND I WANTED A GAS FOR THE JOKER TO USE SINCE I DON'T WANT HIM TO HAVE HIS SMILE GAS STUFF YET. HENCE, I CAME UP WITH CHLORINE GAS, SOMETHING WHICH WAS USED BY THE GERMANS IN WW1. THEY WOULD SEND IT OVER THE TRENCHES, TOWARDS THE ALLIES AND IT WOULD BLOAT THEIR LUNGS, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO BREATHE. AT FIRST, THE ALLIES URINATED ON RAGS AND PUT IT OVER THEIR MOUTHS TO KEEP THE GAS AWAY UNTIL THEY GOT MASKS. I DECIDED NOT TO USE URINE RAGS, INSTEAD I USED A DIFFERENT LIQUID, WHICH YOU WILL SEE WHEN YOU READ ON.
ALRIGHT ENOUGH WITH THE HISTORY LESSON! THIS STORY IRKED ME TO KNOW ENDS AND I WOULD LOVE SOME FEEDBACK!!!
The woman tumbled to the ground, crimson blood seeping into her hair. The instant she hit the floor, the ballroom erupted with screams, which I ignored. I simply stood behind the pillars and watched as the man stood there, his face full of utter despair. The Joker grinned.
"Love….. isn't enough is it? In the end, were all uh cowards, just looking out for ourselves." At this point I picked up the hunting knife that the man I'd knocked out had been carrying. I slipped of my heels and rushed across the stage, knife above my head, mind whirling. I had to save the man. The Joker swiveled around, slicing the man's neck as he went, so he fell gurgling to the ground. The Joker ducked my crazed jab with the knife, and grabbed at my wrist, shoving his gun into his pocket. He pressed the blade against my throat, his eyes showing mild surprise.
"Well, look who it is, Cinderella to save the day. This is…..kind of like déjà vu hmm?" He hissed, his voice coming through the speakers. The audience tittered, and I heard William yelling, but he was quickly silenced by the loud crash through the windows, as the Dark Knight came tumbling onto the stage, hitting the Joker full on. I cried out as the heavy armor hit my side and fell to the ground, rolling away from the brawling now resuming. The entire ball room erupted as the clown goons opened fire on the party guests. I crawled behind the podium, my heart thumping. I peered around and watched as the Joker, crawled away from the Batman and pulled out a switch from his pocket, flicking it. Balloons began to fall from the chandelier, purple and green.
I watched their decent, my confusion mounting, then clued in when I saw the goons putting on masks. Trying not to panic, I raced across the room, grabbing the hunting knife off the stage and jumped down, trying to get to the doors and windows. The goons were resilient, and were stopping the guests from leaving by the gun shots. I jumped onto one of the goons, them being so large and hugged on his neck, as he suffocated and the others tried to get me off him.
The balloons were beginning to pop and the gas was beginning to spread. It was oddly green and heavy, easy to see in the air. My heart pounded and I kicked one of the goons in face, hearing the pleasurable crack as his nose broke. The goon who I was clinging onto by the neck sank to his knees and collapsed. I fell with him. I grabbed his gun and faced the goons. They all starred at me frightfully and I glared at them. I had to get these people out of here, I had to help Batman. I handed the gun to a man in a black tux.
"You know how to work this?" I yelled. He nodded, face white and I turned to the goons.
"MOVE!" I shouted at them. They shook their heads and one of them cocked their gun at me. They seemed to think that we wouldn't dare shoot them. They were right. The gas was quickly filling the room, soon it would be lethal. Suddenly, the one of the men fell to the ground as a platter hit his head. William stood there, looking wild, his eyes fixed on me. I lunged at the other man, and he fell to the side, letting the doors free. I heard the people flee out, and heard the other goons across the ballroom start shooting.
I took off, William's voice fading away, back towards the stage. Batman was fighting three goons and the Joker, and I could see he was tiring. I saw other goons making their way towards me and I raced inside a pair of swinging doors, into the kitchen. The room was empty, except for the dead bodies of some cooks lying on the floor. Trying not to vomit, I crawled in between two cupboards and huddled, my heart pounding, sweat pouring down my face. The swinging doors clanged out again and I heard footsteps as they slid something into the handles to block the door. I gasped at the noise and the footsteps faltered, and then made their way towards me, I peered out from my corner, waiting till they came round the bend, but then I felt the cold blade on the back of my neck and froze.
"Don't move sweetheart." Hissed the Joker in my ear. He crawled around and sat beside me, blade against my throat. I watched him cautiously. It wasn't like the Joker to hide from the Batman, what was he doing? I heard the loud thumps and then crash as the Batman burst through the doors. I heard him breathing heavily as he crashed through the kitchen.
"Well, well sweetheart…. You sure you're not stalking me?" He shifted his weight, knife still against my throat. I glared at him, hearing the commotion as Batman moved through the kitchen, tearing the place apart.
He's stalling, I thought. But for what?
"Not very subtle today is he?" Whispered the Joker conversationally.
"What did you do to make him so mad?" I asked softly. The Joker raised his eyebrows.
"Bats really uh…. Holds a grudge. You think that if you killed a man's….. girl he'd eventually get over it but noooo." I glared at him.
"Go to hell." I hissed.
"Already there." He replied smoothly. "Those colours look good on you sweetheart." His eyes fixed on my face, tongue licking his scarred lips feverishly. "And I saw what you did to my goons….very nice, boring, but nice." I shrugged, trying not to get nicked by the knife.
"It's in my blood, not matter how hard I try to drain it out." I hissed back. The Joker couldn't help himself, he let out a hoot of laughter and I rolled to the side, as Batman came crashing down upon us. To my surprise, I felt the black gloved hand curl around my neck, and I gagged.
"W---what are…you….doing?" I gasped, trying to breathe. The Batman pinned me against the wall opposite our hiding place, with the Joker beside me. I watched as his eyes flickered back and forth, eyes wide underneath his cowl. My face fell, and the Joker laughed.
"Oh, you figured it out Bats….finally. Yep, I have an addition to the Joker brood…..well uh since I don't have a brood, she's more like uh…." Batman lifted the Joker off the ground by his neck and slammed him against the wall hard. Then he turned his cold blue eyes towards me, and I shook all over.
"Please." I whispered. "Please, let me go. I haven't done anything wrong. I was trying to help you!"
"You're his daughter." Growled Batman. "You're the last person I would trust."
"I should be the first." I replied, thankful that his grip was loosening. "Since I have a reason to hate him even more then you do." I fought to contain the giggles that were mounting inside me. I didn't know why I was laughing; it would only make things worse. Meanwhile, the Joker wasn't holding back anything; his whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I saw the blade before Batman did and made a squeak of protest as the Joker drove the knife into Batman's side. The Dark Knight groaned and loosened his grip, just enough for the Joker to shove him to the ground and put the knife, glistening with blood, to my neck.
"Hope you don't have AIDS or anything Batman." Cackled the Joker as he backed away slowly, knife still to my neck. The Batman stood, leaning on the kitchen counter, breathing heavily. I could see the red beginning to seep through. The Joker had stabbed him right between the plates of his armor, and it looked like it had opened a recent scar.
"Now Batman," continued the Joker. "Why are you chasing after……me? While you've been wasting your time, the lovely guests of the party are leaving the ballroom…. Thinking they've escaped…..but…..wrong." I gasped and the Joker began to pat my head, his foot tapping with anticipation. "The room they've just entered is filled to the brim with… chlorine gas." He laughed manically, backing slowly towards the door. "It's a lovely little substance which chokes you to death, and uh cheap to make too. Who said history doesn't teach you anything?" He laughed manically then cracked his neck, and licked his lips feverishly. "You have a choice Bats. Me… or the snobs of Gotham? They only have a few more seconds until you can't stop the gas." The Joker shoved me towards the ground then disappeared through the exit doors.
The Batman stood, and after hesitating for a millo-second he pulled some sort of needle out of his belt and stabbed it into his arm. I watched, realizing that it must be for the chlorine gas. He then ran out the main kitchen doors, back into the ballroom, ignoring me lying on the floor. I tried to fight back tears and stood up shakily, my cut on my knee re-opening.
I raced out of the kitchen after Batman and saw him breaking the doors to the hallway apart, as the clown goons had jammed them shut. The gas in the room made me cough and I held a hand over my mouth as I made my way across the room. The Batman glanced at me as he threw open the hallway doors, but continued. I ran towards the end of the ballroom, ignoring the jarring pains running up and down my leg. I grabbed a candlestick on the mantle piece and began to hit the panes of glass with it. I hit a pane of glass and stuck out my head, out avoiding the glass to breathe in the fresh air.
I continued to smash at the glass, until all the lower windows were broken and the gas was slowly ebbing out. Then, I ran back into the kitchen and took the opposite exit stairs down, heading outside. When I opened the door, I was faced with the blaring headlights of police trucks and ambulances and guns turned my way.
"Don't shoot!" I cried. "I'm one of the hostages!" Commissioner Gordon came forwards, his glasses glinting in the lights, his hair ruffled.
"What's going on Julia?" He asked as the SWAT team began to ascend the stairs. I followed him over to one of the ambulances where they bound my knee, gave me shoes and a blanket. I told him everything, trying to keep calm. Gordon started speaking to some officers when I was finished, but I didn't listen. There was a sort of chant going on inside of me.
Batman knows, Batman knows, Batman knows….. No matter how I put it, it still sounded the same, utter and complete disaster. It felt like my throat was closing up, like I wasn't able to breathe. If Batman knew, it wasn't long until someone else figured it out. I'd tried to kill the Joker in front of the richest and most successful people in Gotham, I'd put myself on the map. I saw Gordon watching me and I closed my eyes, trying to make everything disappear. If people knew about this….. I'd be taken to see a doctor, I would most likely loose my job and know matter what I said, I'd be closely monitored by the police. It wouldn't matter what I said, people are scared of things they don't understand and become irrational because of it.
I'd be a target of all the crazed criminals out there, a hope that I was the Jokers weakness….. I wasn't. I'd be killed by some psychopath eventually, and the Joker wouldn't even flinch, well he might be upset he lost his source of entertainment, but that would be fleeting. Everyone would look at me differently and what about my mother? I had tried to tell myself that I didn't care about her, but I did. She had never been completely sane, but from the disturbing messages on my machine, she was loosing her mind, which I was doing nothing about. What would happen if she found out? I felt a hand on my shoulder and I winced, eyes flying open. Gordon starred down at me, his eyes warm and kind, looking worried.
"Julia, are you alright?" He asked calmly, looking right into my eyes, unflinching. My heart melted at his stare. He hadn't flinched or looked away from my eyes, he'd starred straight on. I gave him a tiny smile.
"Yes, I'm fine; I'm just a little shocked." He nodded, but I could tell he didn't believe me.
"Julia, we still can offer protection it would help…" I starred at him, my heart hardening instantly.
"You don't get it do you?" I asked softly. "What is the point of killing more people, when inevitably, I will die anyway." Gordon's brow furrowed.
"Well, you should be more careful in the first place, people attacking criminals, especially one like the Joker are sure to shorten their lifespan." He replied in a fatherly tone. Thankfully, some officers and paramedics called him away to deal with the people coming out of the hotel. I got up off the makeshift table in the ambulance and climbed out, heading towards the commotion. At the mention of the other survivors, my heart began to pound again. What about William? The survivors who could walk were being led out by the officers and I craned my neck searching through the very small amount of people still able to walk. Then, I saw him, looking dazed with rolling eyes, scanning around. He saw me and grinned from ear to ear. When he came forward I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight, before getting a hold of myself and stepping away.
"What happened?" I asked. He pulled me over to a bench and sat down, forcing me to sit as well.
"We got the doors open, and then we filed into this hallway." He began, eyes shining with excitement. "Then, we heard the locks click and stuff moving against the doors and more balloons fell from the ceiling. They popped and this gas began to fill the room. There were a couple of vases in the room and we took off our coats and wet them and pressed it over our mouths to keep the gas away." He took a deep breath.
"But there were so many people…. And so little water. It didn't even help that much, but by that time Batman was pummeling down the door."
"What did he do?" I asked, completely involved in the story.
"Well, he opened the door, starred down at all of us, then disappeared. The cops came into the ballroom and began helping us out. There were so many bodies on the ground…." I shut off then. Batman hadn't helped them? He had the antidote in that needle, why didn't he help anyone? I kept my focus on William, trying to contain my uncontrollable fury. What the hell was wrong with me? Batman couldn't have helped those people; the cops were on his tail….
So?
So he could have been caught!
He also could have stopped them, or told everyone the truth. Instead, people died!
I didn't realize I was holding in my breath until William started to shake me, his blue eyes wide with fear.
"Hey Jules, you okay?" He asked worriedly. I shook my head fervently, trying to clear away the anger, the frustration.
"William, we should get you checked by the medics." I replied, ignoring his last comment. He grudgingly stood and walked over to the ambulances, hand clasped around my wrist. I was finally able to shake him off when he was asked to do some breathing exercises. I took off at that point, running in between officers, survivors and bodies, till the sounds of sirens and sobbing was behind me. Then, I slowed to a walk, almost sleepwalking down the street, my feet feeling awkward in the larger nurse shoes I was wearing.
Soon, I began to shiver, and I pulled the itchy blanket closer around me as I walked down the snowy streets of Gotham. After a while, the streets began to change from the upper class area to the middle class, and I saw people walking about. A group of guys outside a bar wolf whistled at me in my dress, and I sped up, shivering uncontrollably. I felt like I was sleepwalking, like I had no control of my body at all. The men at the club faded away and I walked: turning and twisting along the streets. On the inside, a battle of voices was raging.
Batman knows, he didn't save them,
He's my hero, he's my hero
He knows, he didn't save them
He's my hero, he's my hero........
It went on and on banging against my head. Suddenly, I stopped, realizing my surroundings. I stood, in the center of a long narrow alleyway, the lights from the flickering streetlights just barely casting a shadow. I started to panic, I didn't know where I was, I couldn't recognize any of the streets and….
"Hey there beautiful." Slurred a male voice from behind me. I pivoted and stared in shock at the three guys advancing towards me. From the way they walked, I could tell they were completely hammered.
"What you doin' out here walkin' by yourself for?" Asked one of the larger ones, with large sideburns. I started slowly backwards, hating that I didn't still have the hunting knife with me. A blonde haired man beside him flicked open a knife, while the other two leered menacingly, still approaching. I saw the steel and forgot how to breathe. I was going to die, here and now in this sleazy little alleyway, raped and killed. I felt the cool bricks meet my hands and I pressed myself against the wall, watching as they sauntered forward, taking their time. There was no hurry, in a place like this there would be no one to come running when my screams pierced the air.
"Well then beautiful?" Asked the man with the sideburns. "How about giving us a little kiss?" Suddenly, I snapped. My whole body tensed, and my vision went red with fury. I was so sick of being pushed around, of the Joker making me his own personal mouse to play with, the Batman my hero not trusting me, and me not being able to do squat about it. At that point, my street smarts and four years of self defense for a school elective took over. I aimed a kick right at the blonde haired mans crotch, hearing his roar as my foot hit him. I snatched the knife from him and sliced across his leg, blood splattering, as he yelled.
"Oh shit!"
I loved it, and wiped the blood off my cheek, starring at it in awe.
I felt powerful arms grab me around the waist, pinning my arms to my sides. I saw the side burned man in front of me, his lips came crashing down upon mine, hand groping at my breast, I kicked the man behind me in the shin and jumped on top of the side burned man, pummeling him and punching him in the face. I tried to clear away the haze.
I had to get away.
I leaped up and started to run, falling when a hand closed around my ankle. I shook it off and continued to run as fast as I could, fighting the will to go back and keep fighting, keep hurting. I collapsed a few minutes later, against the wall into the wet snow. I hugged my knees, hands coming away bloody from my knee, everything red. I wanted to hurt, to hit, to kill. I wanted to go back and really slice those men….how dare they attack me? My whole body shook violently, yet my eyes were dry, consumed with anger, with vengeance.
I so angry, yet scared. What was wrong with me? I remembered the joy of seeing that mans blood splatter against the ground, his cries sending pleasant shivers down my spine. It was wrong, something that Batman would never do…… I growled my fury increasing. To him, I was another threat, another criminal.
I moaned, rocking back and forth, trying to contain, trying to control my emotions. Everything was red, and my head rang with laughter. I succumbed to the madness, hoping it would leave me soon.
SO? THIS CHAPTER SHOWED HOW POWERFUL JULIA IS WHEN SHE LETS HER EMOTIONS TAKE OVER, AND HOW HARD IT IS FOR HER TO CONTAIN THEM. BATMAN KNOWS!!!! IT WASN'T VERY CLIMATIC, BUT DON'T FRET, HE DOESN'T JUST IGNORE IT!! I'D LOVE SOME FEEDBACK ON THIS CHAPTER AND THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!!!!