Part Six

The trek from the highway had been a long and arduous one, all along the way Bruce scolded himself for losing his vehicle during the skirmish. He climbed the fire-escape and ascended the roof of the building dressed in his new outfit.

The material was black, sturdy as rubber but flexible as spandex, it had been expensive but money meant little to Wayne. The outline of a bat hung proudly on his chest serving as to help support the motif of the small but visible bat-like ears on the top of his head and jagged cape.

He pulled the mask over his head and took a fresh breath of air; his lungs were still struggling to retain their steady patterns. He moved over to a brick chimney and lay against it softly. He was deep in the city, already somewhat lost with only a general direction of where to proceed.

As the adrenaline began to thin out in his blood, Bruce slowly began to feel a stinging sensation along his hands and quickly removed the gloves. A deep cut ran along the length of his palm and he gently rubbed it.

"How could I have been so careless?" Bruce complained, "I'm better than that, I know I am." He grimaced staring at the night sky full of beautiful stars, "The police, they only slowed me down." Bruce rolled over to his side closing eyes for only a moment to gain some energy back, "They were in my way!"

Suddenly, sirens echoed out forcing him immediately back to his feet. Without hesitation he had pulled his glove and mask back on and followed the flashing lights in the distance to the source of the trouble.

Bruce scoffed at their pretenses of trying to help, they were too incompetent in his eyes to stop a mugging, no; he'd have to take this into his hands. Vigilante justice; that was the way it had to be done.

The Joker cackled wildly holding his weapon tightly in his hands and gazed into the camera he had set up knowing full well that the eyes of Gotham were on him. "I'm sure that some of you poor saps out there are thinking that I won't do it, that no man can be so evil as to extinguish another life. Hah, life, what a gag that is."

He grinned proudly spewing forth whatever was on his mind at the moment, "What kind of life is it to be subservient to another? You live by your jobs, wives and children and in the end you're nothing more than slaves. I do what I want." The Joker seemed rather proud with himself as if he were some kind of visionary, "Because in the end we're all dead anyway, so why follow the rules for the sixty or seventy years we're here? Really, if I'm going to die I might as well take as many people with me as possible. If I was in charge of things trust me, they'd have to redefine crimes against humanities by the time I was finished." He looked at his watch for a moment, "Just another hour and a half to go until everybody's favorite sociopath gives you a nice look at the dynamic world of mass murder!" He screamed before breaking down in a fit of hysteria. The Joker checked his watch to see it was time for the drama to take a new turn and moved away from the camera to the hostages cowering in fear and then tapped his foot four times, a signal to Harvey to act and be the hero.

The man who hoped to be senator wasted no time and rushed out from the crowd, the Joker acted surprised for a moment only to take on an air of confidence, and just a foot away from Dent as he prepared to make contact, knocked him back on his rear with the butt of his weapon.

"Get back to where you were, Mr. Dent." He exclaimed to the stunned politician, "Go on, nobody's going to get a pardon here, and I have no intention of letting my little spree stop here." Dent, realizing the Joker had tricked him, slowly and quietly returned to the other hostages who quickly patted Harvey on the back for his failed attempt. The Joker cackled wildly, "I do love a good prank."

Without warning, the glass of the skylight seemed to shatter and soon a figure, almost straight out of hell, emerged landing on a piano. The intruder landed on the edge of the podium just a dozen or so feet from the Joker. "This is a private party!" He exclaimed, "And who the hell are you?"

Bruce peered out of his mask at this twisted image of a clown, "I'm vengeance."

"Vengeance?" The Joker rocked his head back, "Ah, who am I to talk." He reached into a pocket of his jacket and showed forth a small brown bag, "Just when you think you've made enough time, somebody always shows up to mess things." He opened the bag and threw the contents at the hostages: marbles.

Bruce could see the power inside the marbles moving as they rolled across the hall. "Get back!" He screamed to the hostages. Some followed his command and dived while others took one second to long as the marbles exploded covering the hall in smoke.

Chaos seemed to invade every one of his senses, forcing Bruce to shield his face with his cape. This madman seemed to have no concern for even his own safety and was reminded of how dangerous he could prove to be by the laughter still echoing through the hall.

Bruce leapt through the smoke and saw the Joker grabbing the girl-scout's motionless body, a cloth still over his face and heading for the rear doors leading out into an alley. He looked back to see Harvey Dent leading the other former hostages out through a fire exit. Assured of the safety of the hostages, Bruce went after the Joker.

The criminal fiend spotted the vigilante on his tails, "You're persistent aren't you?" He dropped the girl and aimed with his machinegun, "Let's see what you look like with a dozen or so holes in you." He exclaimed opening fire.

Bruce threw his entire body to the left and flung one of his boomerangs. The small but effective weapon slammed into Joker's hand forcing him to drop the weapon unwillingly.

"Damn it!" The Joker exclaimed even as Bruce rushed forward closing the distance between them. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small blood-stained hand-held knife, "Be careful, you never know what diseases these things are carrying." He said wildly swinging away.

Bruce dodged the first and knocked the weapon from the Joker's hands to which the clown immediately stumbled back. The fire was creeping on them bringing a sense of urgency to their battle.

The Joker landed a right to Bruce's face as he approached and got another chip blow with a left that found its mark on his chin. Stumbling back from the damage, Bruce wiped away the blood dripping from his lips. He caught the Joker's arm in the middle of a clumsy attack and used it to put him into an arm-lock. "It's over." Bruce exclaimed strengthening his hold.

"Not by a long-shot." Revealing a buzzer on his left hand he pressed it against Bruce's chest sending a powerful electric charge through the vigilante's body.

Stumbling back in anguish, Bruce landed on his knees clasping his heart gently, failing to notice the Joker's approach. The latter kicked him in the face, "What's wrong, you were doing well with all that kung fu a second ago."

Bruce forced himself back into action and knocked the Joker down with a low sweep kick. The fire had spread all around them, there was no more time. He spotted the girl-scout and grabbed her leaving the Joker to his fate as he struggled to even stand.

He spotted a window and smashed straight through it with everything he had. Bruce landed onto the street moments before the fire burst out at his heels trying to envelop him in death.

Landing on the street, he could see the police barricades, and the officers inside treating to the hostages that had already escaped. His entire body felt as if it were ash, while the side of his face ached in pain from the Joker's blows.

He reached over and removed the cloth to look at the girl's face. Bruce reeled back in disgrace, "Jesus." She was dead; there was no doubt about that.

One of the citizens spotted Bruce over the dead girl and called to the police drawing nearly every eye to the source of the trouble. But in almost the blink of an eye, Bruce had vanished into the night leaving only the lifeless body of a girl in his wake.

"So, Mr. Dent, you lead these people to safety?" Gordon asked the young man covered in smoke from the raging inferno that was now being dealt with by the fire department.

"Yes, I did." Harvey exclaimed loudly enough for the reporters huddled around him to hear very clearly, "It wasn't easy but anyone would have done it."

Gordon nodded, "Good job, Mr. Dent, you saved a lot of people today."

In an alley not too far away from the war zone, a bruised and battered but intact figure stumbled in the shadows. The Joker wasn't dead, far from it, that intruder had a made a fool out of him and that to this deranged individual was unforgivable.

Bruce placed his costume into a box and hid it into a crevice of the cave. His body was exhausted, his mind begging for rest but past all of the pain and bruises he finally understood his place in the scheme of things. The girl lying there dead in the street had been a call to him, a focus for his crusade.

"Dad, mom, this is for you." He swore in the depths of the cave with only the bats as witnesses. What happened to Bruce would never happen again, he'd strike fear into the hearts of criminals; he'd save this city no matter the cost. The path before him was no doubt difficult but he was prepared for it. "I am the Night reborn, I am Batman!"