Part Five

In that black void he stood. Constant preparation, calling in favors, using his power at Wayne Enterprises to get the equipment, weapons, gear, all the while avoiding the suspicious eyes of the board and even Alfred had been a long and arduous process but it had been worth it. Everything he needed was before him and it was in this world of constant night he was ready to be reborn. From the package before him he tore its contents out.

He first grabbed the cowl, and stared into it's maw for a moment preparing to pass the point of no return and then without another moment of hesitation adorned his destiny.

The police vehicles rolled down the streets barreling at speeds far beyond the safety limit. The stolen armored truck careened in between lanes just ahead.

Bullock in the lead patrol car played shotgun, literally firing his weapon at the truck in an effort to shoot its tires out, "Get us closer!" He yelled to the driver, trying to line up another shot. The doors to the back of the truck were ripped open revealing the thugs inside armed with a stinger missile. "Holy sh-."

The missile was launched forward and found its target destroying one of the chasing police cars, the flames engulfing the entire vehicle in moments.

The chase moved onto a long and relatively narrow highway, any other vehicles had already pulled to the side allowing this police drama to go on uninterrupted.

Bullock opened fired again to which one of the robbers retaliated with gunfire of their own from an automatic rifle. "I can't get a good shot in!" He said retreating back into the safety of the car. "Call for backup."

Suddenly, what looked like a black sports car zipped by along the Bullock's vehicle, not in an effort to escape the battle but instead seemed directly headed for the center of it. "Who the hell is that?"

The car had no identification or license plates from what Bullock could see and he already expected the worst. He kept a gun trained on the black car even as it passed by them and headed towards the armored truck.

On the armored truck the driver saw the black car moving in beside them and immediately put the pressure on the gas, "Whoever that is kill him!" He roared to his friends watching their rear.

The thug with the stinger missile wasted no time already loading his launcher for another shot. With a wide grin he fired but immediately his face turned into an expression of shock as the black car pulled wildly to the left avoiding the missile and continuing unfettered. Dropping his stinger to the floor he stepped back in a stupor before recollecting his senses, "Just don't stand there; shoot him!"

But it was already too late; the car pulled up alongside the truck away from the weapons of the goons in the rear and accelerated until he was directly beside the driver of the armored vehicle. The truck began to ram the other automobile, forcing it to slide against the metal railing and beginning to crush the frame of the weaker vehicle.

Out of the sports car emerged a black figure that leapt and landed on the exterior of the driver side of the truck moments before the smaller vehicle had been crushed alongside the railing. The driver tried to reach for his gun but already this monster had smashed through the class and landed his elbow against the driver's chin.

Bullock watched this scene play out from the relative safety of his own patrol car, "Jesus Christ what the hell is happening up there?"

During their struggle, the driver of the truck finally managed to get a hold over his gun and aimed it for the attacker's face. The latter instantly retreated and seemed to fall away onto the street to the driver's amazement. After the initial surprise of his foe's actions, the driver laughed, "What a loon."

Meanwhile, that 'loon' had managed to grab a hold of the side of the truck with a sharp black boomerang and in short order managed to make his way to the top of the vehicle.

He gazed back at the police behind him, his cape flapping in the wind wildly. Wasting no further time, he jumped over to the driver's compartment landing on the engine directly in front of the windshield.

The driver's view had been blinded by his arrival, the cape covering his view entirely. He slammed on the brakes, while the figure smashed through the glass with his heel.

The police watched in amazement as the entire truck hit their brakes with dangerous power and stopped as violently, only able to watch as the armored vehicle tipped over slamming into the railing with deadly force.

A gas tank was cracked open and the sparks from the friction caused an almost immediate eruption. The fire blinded the officers and caused such confusion that almost half a minute passed before one of them were even able to react.

As they approached the fire cautiously, survivors began to emerge from the wreckage, burned but still alive.

Bullock helped one of the now battered robbers, the driver, to the ground, "Call for a medical team!" He ordered loudly somebody already was relaying the message over the radio. "Who did this? What happened?"

"He's gone." The driver asked almost as if his mind was somewhere far away, removed from the carnage, "A bat; a giant bat."

"Hello, New York." A familiar face said over the broadcast channels reaching almost the entire population of Gotham city within seconds, "Joker here at the headquarters of would-be senator Harvey Dent." He grinned widely, "A hammer is falling tonight, my fellow citizens and I promise you we will be all the better for it. I might be a little extreme, perhaps a tad overzealous but I think we can all agree that I am the Pope when it comes to politicians. Dent here has called me everything from a psychopath to a pedophile and I'm sick of it. So I've decided that I'll stick my two deadlines together. Yep, that's right tonight is the night I kill that poor little girl-scout." He adjusted the camera to show the young girl bound to a chair with cloth over her head, "But also I will give the audiences the pleasure of seeing Harvey Dent die." He exclaimed, "And to show I'm not kidding." He moved the camera to the assembly room of the civic center where several dozen people huddled together in fear, the Joker then returned on screen with a machinegun in his hands. They had decided that Dent would save the day only after Joker had finished the girl off, but what Harvey didn't realize was that the Joker intended to finish their arrangement for good, nobody was leaving here alive. "Stay tuned folks, because in three hours when the clock hits twelve it's going to be playtime."