A/N: Sorry AGAIN for the delay! Lol. Okay. So the recent review explains that I should show a wee bit of torturing . . . okay . . . now I'M confused! Alright, to set this thing straight – I'll show a LITTLE bit of torturing . . . but nothing serious. A little something that would scare Babs to the bone! Hee ha. Whaat? Dick is coming! That'll give them an excuse for Dick/Babs stuff. Compeshe (I dunno if I spelt that right!)

CHAPTER 9:

The asylum echoed with the sound of gunfire, as the laughter among the in-mates rose. Outside the prison, thunder roared like it screamed with the in-mates. The lightning shed a little light on the room where our hero now stands. Shocked as much as his opponent was. The great and fear-full Lock-up now lay dead on the floor. A bullet that could cut through walls was injected in his brain. Blood sprayed across the floor. And if you were there . . . you could've seen the murderer's reflection on the blood.

"You . . . killed him." Was all that Nightwing could say at that moment.

Dead-shot clicked his weapon as a burning shell fell from it, clinking on the floor in this silent room.

"He deserved to die . . . but," he spoke with his icy voice. Then, slowly aimed his gun towards Nightwing as the laser-pointer indicated on his head, "—Now it's you're turn."

"NO! LET GO OF ME!" Barbara struggled to get away from the two men who were grasping her hands. Joker had removed her outer-clothing to reveal her soft skin. They punched her in the stomach to quite her down a bit. "Now, now, gentlemen. We wouldn't want to HARM Babs now would we?" Joker spoke with a sinister grin. The henchmen tied Barbara to another chair that was fixed to the ground. "Bring on the speakers!" He ordered and grinned back at Barbara who was now quite because of the stomach-twitching blow. "Listen Babs," Joker bent down and put two of his hands on her shoulders. "The experience you are about to experience now is gonna be . . . heart stopping . . . any last words?"

All she could do was glare back at his disgusting face, she moaned slowly: "Go . . . to . . . hell"

"HA! Just what I thought you'd say!" And with that he sealed her mouth with his as the henchmen put two speakers on both sides. And turned it on in high volume – The Joker's maniacal laughter screamed from it and shouted in Babs' ears. The Joker's mouth prevented her from screaming.

On the other room, Tim's badly bidden body lay on the floor next to Diana's.

A series of bullets raced across the control room, hitting, breaking everything that got in its path. Except for one target. The target that Dead-shot wanted hit – Nightwing.

Dick ducked, jumped, flipped and did and all kinds of acrobatic move to avoid the bullets. He needed to get close to this freak and nail him before it was too late. Dead-shot was getting closer to the main switch.

'All right genius. NOW what?!" Without thinking the next word, Dick threw a night-a-rang towards head. It connects and hits the Terminator on the head. Causing him to drop the two guns on his hands. Nightwing jumped out from behind whatever that thing was he was hiding in. And hit Dead-shot on the face to drop him to the ground. He took him by the collars and held him up-high. "What now dead-guy?" Whispered Nightwing. "HA! You think its THAT easy? You think that I'd let you caught me and this whole operation is over?! WRONG! The bombs I planted below the asylum is set to blow up in TEN SECONDS! And you can't STOP it! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"LIER!" Nightwing screamed with frustration and threw his enemy towards the computer, of course, breaking it. "Uh . . ." Dead shot struggled to get to his feet, "Of course, there is ONE way! But then, you'll have to let go of me! The hallway that leads to the roof-top holds the ONLY remote that could stop/detonate the bombs. But . . . you got about . . . oh . . . 30 seconds. Before it blows! Think about it Hero! What will you do? Chase the villain? Or save the city of weeks and weeks of killings?"

Nightwing clenched his teeth and jumped out of the window next to him. He shot a line towards the roof while in mid-air.

"That's what I thought you'd do." Dead shot turned around and proceeded his escape. For some reason, the break-down of Arkham Asylum was no longer important.

Barbara still sat on that same – torture chair. She was weakened by the evil laughter that now ran through her brain. As the maniac in front of her laughed that same laughter. And kept on jumping with joy and pleasure. "GOT YA! HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!"

He stopped after a few moments. "Wasn't that funny Baney?" But no response came. "Bane?" Joker turned around to see all three of his henchmen, including the giant Bane, struggling on the floor. His big grin came up-side-down to see the sight of the Dark knight standing before him.

"Oh, oh."

TBC