Chapter 5: Trouble in the Belfry (Fin)
Within the halls of Arkham Asylum from the south heading down the east wing, we see the inmates have been recaptured or locked back into their cells by the Dark Knight. He wasn't going to allow some of those mentally ill wondering around as it could be dangerous and might give him some light with the GCPD but long shot on that and knowing how a certain chief of police hatred for freaks these days.
Batman then pushed a button on the side of his helmet, having his red eyes change to blue and into DV mode to scan the area for any clues. He got none which caused him to hum in thought and changed his vision mode again. This time to thermal or heat signatures to see footprints on the ground in different routes it seems like some kind of dance or something.
"Hmm, it seems this theatrical person might still be here. These footprints happened a few minutes ago and mean they are still here in the asylum," Batman thought, having his lenses and vision turn back to normal.
The Bat then noicted an Arkham staff up headed, who was just standing there which was odd a bit. He then walked up to the staff, to question him on what happened here. As soon the knight touched and turn the staff to face, he kind of wished he didn't as he saw a very gruesome sighting and deep shock to him. The staff was frozen, most of his face was ghostly white, and had this large smile on his face while his teeth showed a bit, with a hit of red coming to his lips. Like a clown.
Batman grasped in surprise and had to catch the staff from falling onto the ground before placing him to lead against the wall. He checked for a pulse to see if the staff was alive, which he was but seems trapped for some reason. But who caused this gruesome thing to be done to this poor man?
"He takes after the creator, wouldn't you say?" A voice asked, echoing through the hallway and getting the Bat's attention to look to see the one who caused this but became surprised as to who did it.
A pale-skinned woman, with skin as white as snow itself, with a figure able to turn heads in a moment, her lips were painted blood red and also in a way to make it look like she was always smiling, a clown-like design to it, with black mascara around her eyes, making her look more and more like a clown and also with a pair of deep emerald colored eyes that could hypnotize anyone that looks into them. Her hair was kept short and pretty messy, with a waving style to it, as well as being bright green in color.
Her attire was formed from a dark grey and purple leather corset that covered her chest and half of her belly area, a pair of black leather pants with a pair of long high-heeled purple boots on both of her legs, a messy black tie being seen hanging around her neck, falling between her revealed cleavage, a pair of pure white gloves in both of her hands and finally a long coat made of leather, bright purple in color that had spiky metal shoulder plates on it, being placed on her shoulders, looking more like a cape for her.
Batman was deeply surprised for a number of reasons that the mad clown was a woman. This was impossible!
The clown woman then jumped and landed on the ground, showing that she had acrobatics and gymnastics skills it seems.
"You are not an inmate or one of those goodie guards. But what kind of person dresses up like you? But speaking of attires, do you think this makes me very revealing, hot, or sexy?" The clown asked while doing a spin on her right foot and was soon grabbed by her coat by the bat to look at her.
"Who are you?" Batman asked or demeaned.
"Joker," The clown simply smirked and replied.
"Not a what. A who," Batman stated before using his right clawed hand to clean up the clown-make and Joker made a groaning sound like someone was doing that.
However, to the Bat's surprise, no makeup came onto his clawed hand, and looked back at the clown who was giggling.
"Removal free! It's permanent-clown," Joker quipped, getting bat suprised rather than laughing.
"Oh tough crowd," Joker commented before getting lost and out of the bat's grip.
"Watch this; nothing up my sleeves right?" Joker asked, showing she had no sleeves, and did a spin to pull something out of her coat within a quick second, a gas gun from the looks of it.
"Nothing that won't put a smile on your face," Joker smirked and was about to use her gas gun on the bat to make him laugh like the staff she tested on earlier.
Batman was on guard and pulled out a batarang in defense, throwing it with a great aim towards the gas gun and disarming the clown princess in a quick motion. The gun was then launched out of the hand and sent falling down below the Arkham's wing which landed in an open trash can. Good timing.
"Wha? I am out of gas," Joker said with a frown.
"And I am out of patience at this moment!" Batman exclaimed, throwing an uppercut punch into the clown's chin, sending her spinning and landed on her butt while could see stars for a second.
"Ow! Talk about a gentleman treating that to a lady, not gentlemen-like! Buy me a drink first before you go throwing your blade and punches," Joker teased with a seductive smirk, hitting a different meaning on those.
Batman narrowed his eyes and didn't respond back on that.
"And how can you expect me to bring smiles to Gotham without a good hideout?" Joker asked, throwing her arms to the sides to explain more of her annoying emotion.
Batman raised an eyebrow at that, keeping a note.
"I don't think Gotham needs your version of smiles," Batman stated, starting to walk towards the clown princess to cuff her.
"Maybe~...," Joker paused as she brought out a boxing glove from her coat and had it launch outwards, punching the bat in the face and surprising him in a quick second.
Batman blinked and shook his head from the sudden boxing glove punch. He was off guard and didn't expect this kind of Joker to use funny clown items as her weapons.
"But what are you going to do? Lock me up in a crazy place? I am already here!" Joker called out with a smile on her face.
Batman then took out another batarang and launched, cutting the boxing glove into two and taking action. Joker brought out a pair of costume knives and swung them at the Bat blocking the knife attacks with his gauntlets and dodging the attacks due to being fast.
"You know...I really like this place! Just screams me, heheheh," Joker giggled like crazy and kept her knife attacks going but was soon knocked out of her hands by the bat and kicked in her gut to send her backward.
The Clown Princess of Crime recovered and chuckled as she looks back at the Dark Knight.
"Oh~...a fight in you? I like that," Joker commented, licking her lips and bringing out a baseball bat this time.
"Then you are going to love me," Batman said with his eyes narrowed as he brought his hands out, unleashing his claws with a flex of his fingers.
The Bat and Clown resume their fight, unknown to them that two police officers were making their way toward them very soon.
Outside Arkham
We see two GCPD detectives climbing up onto the stone shores of the asylum from swimming from one side of the destroyed bridge to the place where a break-in or escape had happened. The two just became partners today and tonight is already a crazy one we see them heading to the asylum now.
The first was a young African American man who was bald and had blue-green eyes. He wore a white shirt with a black tie, blue pants, and brown shoes. He had his firearm on his left hip.
This was detective Ethan Bennett who's one of the most respected members of the GCPD.
The second was a young Asian-American woman who was beautiful but also showed to have training like any cop would and on her game. She had brown eyes and long dark hair which was in a high-set ponytail. Her attire was a red jacket with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, long loose-fitting grey pants, and black shoes. Underneath her jacket, she wears a black short-sleeved t-shirt with a gun holster strapped over her shoulders.
This was detective Ellen Yin, formerly head of her department in Metropolis PD and later transferred to GCPD.
They both had a long swim to the asylum but were worth it and finally regained their breath as they enter the building. And finally a dry place.
"Whoa...(paints) I...am not doing that again," Ethan commented, pulling out his firearm.
"I thought your cops from Gotham do swim training?" Yin asked as she took out her firearm.
Both of them didn't know what was going on and best to be careful as Gotham wasn't a safe place. And Arkham, there's a lot of crazy here.
"We do, just been a while. The South Wing should be this way," Ethan said, showing his new parnter the way towards the south wing of the asylum as he transported some inmates here once or twice.
"You been here?" Yin asked as the pair heads to the southern wing.
"Once or twice, I would tell you later," Ethan replied.
Before the two detectives could speak a word, they heard something up ahead. The sound of a fight breaking out and something could happen. The two nodded their heads and walked further, staying quiet and taking cover which allows them to check their corners up ahead of them. And what they saw captured them by surprise completely.
The two detectives are actually seeing Batman and their eyes widen in pure shock. That the Bat was real? Rojas and many others believed him to be a rumor, a myth really but some can see the commissioner speaking out and defending Batman, like not having an unwanted manhunt on him a week ago. They have asked Gordon or Bullock if they ever see the bat but never got a straight answer from them and now they can see why. Seeing is believing it.
And it looks like Batman was fighting some clown woman, that's something you don't see every day.
Batman then used his claws to slice the baseball coming at him into pieces, much to Joker's surprise.
"Huh? I could have sworn I was using the metal bat. Side note; fired the maid," Joker said, making a mental note of firing one of her henchmen after this failed test run.
"Give it up, Joker," Batman said, having his guard up and making his way toward the clown.
"Fine! Take back the asylum, it was a failure anyways. Make my word, this is not the last time we dance, Batman. This city would be seeing happy days ahead!" Joker shouted, bringing out a handful of playing cards in her hands and was about to launch them but something stopped her.
"Freeze!" The two cops, around the corner, came out and brought out their pistols, aiming at both the Bat and Clown.
Batman and Joker saw the detectives, and each of them was having their own thoughts in mind.
"Not good. I need to handle Joker and escape before the full force of GCPD comes. I don't know about this new one but Ethan, I know for sure is a good cop. But I have to keep my guard up, as this clown is dangerous," Batman thought, reaching for one of his gadgets in his belt secretly.
"Awwww, it looks like my dance with Bats would have to be on hold but I did have a lot of fun. A shame it has to end so soon. Oh well, dead cops time," Joker thought with a sinister smirk and brought something else instead of her cards now, a sunflower to everyone's surprise a bit.
"Do you know, Bats & cops, that sunflower has two meanings? Adoration and loyalty, I have to enjoy the warmth and feeling it gives up. It gives me the acid feeling," Joker commented, smelling the flower.
Batman's eyes widen at the word acid the clown said and had a pretty good idea of what she was going to do.
"Drop it, clown," Yin demanded, having her aim at the clown and bat at the same time.
"Sure," Joker smirked, looking like she would drop but instead of aimed her flower and unleashed a stream of acid toward the cops to their surprise which they had little time to dodge.
They were slow to react but Batman was fast enough and pushed the pair out of the way, much too surprised and speechless by that. Joker laughed and started to make a run for it.
"Hahahahahahahaha!" Her laughter echoes the whole asylum and madness was clear as day.
Batman narrowed his eyes and chase after the clown, not going to let that mad and dangerous woman escape. He left Ethan and Yin to their own thoughts, pretty much lost and would regain themselves later.
The Dark Knight kept following Joker who was ahead of him and escaped into a hallway. He lost sight of the clown, a big mistake as he soon saw a toxin bomb being left in her place and was counting down to explode onto the bat.
Batman retreated and took cover, not wanting to look like a smiling crazy statue like the Arkham staff he found earlier. Once the clock stops and the bomb goes off, but it was toxic and soon surprised the bat. The bomb unleashed confetti outwards and the only thing that could be heard was the laughter of the mad clown as she left the scene.
Batman sighed and was annoyed by this but it can't be helped and he needs to leave the scene now.
Time Skip
Clock Tower Apartment
After escaping Arkham Asylum and heading home, we see Michael out of his batsuit and in deep thought as well, soon enough Francie and Rocky joined him.
"So the clown got away?" Francie stated as she took a seat and Rocky joined as well.
"Joker escaped Arkham after she claims, the failed test run. I can only guess that the toxic has a few hours of spam time and not what she was looking for," Michael explained, feeling this sudden dread of defeat but not letting it get to him.
"So frozen like a crazy smiling statue wasn't her game?" Rocky asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not really, I think. I was able to gain a small sample of that toxic. There are a lot of unstable chemicals and a small amount of laughing gas," Michael replied.
"So, she's aiming for more laugh than crazy it seems but why? Why use it at the asylum?" Francie questioned, not seeing the logic behind that test run or the clown's actions.
"To gain the attention...Joker is a very dangerous person I have never encountered before," Michael admitted, rubbing his chin in thought.
Rocky saw this and narrowed her eyes.
"I do hope you not planning on hanging the cape and cowl over because of some damn clown," Rocky said, not going to have her friend beat himself up and just give up, not after what they been through.
Michael chuckled in amusement at that to the pair's surprise.
"This is not funny!" Rocky nearly shouted.
"It's not Rocky and I wasn't planning on giving up. This gives me more think about and better prepared myself. I have a feeling that Joker would pop her head up again in the future and that more criminals like her would appear as well. More dangerous ones and I have to be ready for them," Michael explained, much to the pair's surprise.
"Then we best get to work," Rocky said, glad her friend wasn't giving up.
Francie smiled and was happy to see her interest wasn't giving up, making her blush a little, and had to calm herself down. Not going to let her wild side get any funny ideas.
"I beleive some combat and field test is needed," Francie offered, knowing some of her experimental chemicals could help Michael on the field. Some of them and could be worth the trial & error runs.
"Indeed, we got work to do," Michael said as the three heads to the upper part of the clock tower work needed to be down.
The Clown Princess of Chaos would return but also more of Michael - Batman's rogues would rise as well and we shall see how he deals with them very soon.