Chapter Eight – The Day Gotham City Stood Still

Superman stood over Max as she cowered behind the futuristic looking squad car; her eyes were fixed on the man of steel, as he looked up at the building in a defiant gaze and used his super vision to look into the aging old hospital. Through his eyes we can see the twin sisters DeeDee and a group of men and women all tied up in a circle. They were sitting on the floor and had their heads covered with a black bag. Superman relaxed his vision and gave a calm sigh as he realized this would be a simple matter of taking out the two girls and rescuing the hostages. Superman began to hover above the ground at a very slow pace and as he started to rise up beyond the patrol cars, Maxine shouted at the black dressed superhero.

"Hey! Where do you think your going?"

"To do Batman's old job...relax Commissioner, this will all be over in matter of seconds."

Max didn't like his smug answer, it almost made her want to aim her gun at him and shoot him from behind the ear. Something about superheroes and their egos just grates on her nerves; even Terry manages to tick her off now and then. But it's become more "Now" since he's returned. She stood helplessly as the man of steel continued to take his time to fly up to the building; she shook her head and gave a glib remark.

"I thought he was supposed to be Metropolis's man in tights. What...you're city not big enough?"

Superman turned his head to her and gave a scowl of disapproval. She had forgotten about his super hearing and soon gave an embarrassed smile to him while batting her eyes.

"Oh...ah...hehehe!" She uttered.

DeeDee both watched the man of steel slowly rise up to them and gave a quick gulp in unison.

"Not good DeeDee." The first one nervously said.

"Looks like we're in trouble DeeDee." The second twin shuttered.

The two girls quickly sprinted over to the hostages and stood behind the sitting group. Both took in a deep breath as they gave a comforting wink to one another and pointed their weapons at the hostages' heads. Superman made his entrance known as he pounded through the wall and came floating in with his eyes shining red as they prepared to target the women's guns.

"Not so fast fly boy!" The first twin ordered at him. "Cool them hot peepers of yours."

"Yeah!" The other sister said. "You may take out the guns...but I'll bet we could send a shot out before you had time to stop it."

Superman dims his eyes and brings himself down onto the floor. He folds his arms over like a scolding parent and gives them a stare that would make anyone shiver in their pants.

"You obviously haven't thought this thing through."

In a blurred flash, the man of steel disarms the girls as he uses his super speed to snatch the weapons and return to where he was standing previously in a matter of a few seconds. Holding the weapons in his hands, he crushes them together like silly putty and drops the mangled mess on the floor.

"Uh oh." DeeDees both say with a soft voice.

"Now then..." Superman says as he folds his arms over again. "Shall we do this the hard way...or the easy way? Barring in mind that either choice makes no difference...to me...it's all easy."

The twin sisters huddle together and begin whispering, Superman for some reason can't hear what the two are muttering about, giving him reason to believe the two aren't really talking at all.

"Fun time is over ladies...a year in jail should give you reason enough to change your ways."

Both girls turn around with a devilish look on their faces.

"Oh please..." The first twin laughs. "We've been in and out of jail so many times we've got frequent flyer miles!"

"In fact..." The other sister gestures oddly. "I'd say that the only thing that is going to change around here...is this city. Now how bout a nice big smile Supes!"

From out behind the woman's back is a rocket launcher, the rocket inside is glowing green and soon gets shot directly at the man of steel. His eyes grow wide with horror as he notices the deadly substance the rocket is made out of...Kryptonite. Without a second to leap out of the way, the small bomb manages to make a big enough explosion against the hero to send him hurling out the building and down into the other side of an alleyway. Max was surprised by the sizable blast and noticed Superman being thrown down to the streets like a bullet. The twin girls stood at the mouth of the newly made smoldering hole on the building side and giggled at their handy work.

"Hot damn DeeDee...he truly is fast as a bullet!"

"Silly Superman...giving up is for kids."

Max tore herself away from shielding her body with a squad car and ran down to the ally where Superman had fallen. The dimly lit lane was full of brick and littered with debris from the hero's fall, he had also crashed through several other buildings and even managed to warp the ground from the crater his body made upon impact.

"Superman?!" She cried out.

"Oooh..." The low moan of the man echoed. "Stupid Clark...real stupid."

He climbed his way out of the large hole in the ground and stood up in front of Max to show her he was all right. She just gave a quick sigh of relief and patted him on the chest.

"Anything broken?" She laughed.

"Just my ego...the rocket they surprised me with must have only been cased with Kryptonite. If it had been anything more...I'm sure I would be more bruised."

"Good thing they didn't lace it with the stuff...now come on...lets go offline a couple of clown bitches."

Superman gave her a quick smirk, he likes this girl, she's direct and very tough when dealing with criminals. He had never really met any of the other police commissioners of this city, Batman mainly dealed with all of them, but it was good to know that Gotham had someone that would fight tooth and nail with the worst criminal elements. Brushing the dust off of his large white emblem, the Kryptonian man cracked his knuckles and agreed with her.

"Payback time."

"That's what you think." A male voice responded out of the dark alley.

A green streak of light shot out from the darkness and struck Superman dead on. His cries of pain from the blast echoed through the night sky as the laser forced him to collapse on the ground as if his strength was lifted from him. Max drew out her gun and began firing in the direction of the source of light. She poured whatever ammo was in her small hand held weapon and stopped firing the minute the laser stopped. She was breathing heavy and could hear the beating of her heart as she kept her eyes focused at the darkness.

"Really Ms. Gibson...do you honestly think that was going to work?" The voice spoke again.

"That's it...keep talking...gives me something to target at." She growled.

Firing her weapon again, she took no chances and began shooting all around the shadowed area. Superman lay at her feet totally helpless and began drifting in and out of consciousness. Suddenly a Max saw an object being whipped out at her, watched it drop near her. It was a yellow banana with a large smiling grin on it. At first she slightly giggled at the thought of this idiot resorting to throwing fruit at her, but then it sunk in, as this was no mere banana. A quick explosion from it sent a cloud of gas to form all around her, choking and inhaling the toxic fumes the woman collapsed near Superman and fainted from the powerful smoke. Superman's eyes opened as he felt her drop, her face was grinning as he looked upon her, the effect of the deadly toxin the mysterious person launched at her.

"That's better. Smile and the whole world smiles with you." The un-emotional voice stated as it came closer to them both.

Superman looked up and could barely focus his vision, there was a man standing over them with a large green pulsating weapon and wearing a mask with a very eerie smile.

"Who...are...you?" Superman tried to speak.

"Ah, yes...how rude of me Superman...or should I say...Clark Kent." The man answered as he knelt down. "Mr. Smiley is the name...glad to meet you at long last. I hope this Kryptonite fusion cannon isn't too uncomfortable for you...because if it isn't...I'll simply up the dosage!"

Smiley stands back up and points the cannon back at the man of steel. Holding on to the massive weapon with both hands, he fires it again. Clark screams in agony as the laser rips into ever cell in his body and makes him flinch wildly. After giving the hero the long jolt of power from his cannon, Smiley takes out a small communicating device from his purple coat pocket and speaks into it.

"Kidnap Hoax is over boys and girls...now then...let's take this city. The Jokers rule Gotham City now!"

In the surrounded hospital, both twin girls squeal in joy and dance around. The hostages stand up, remove their roped hands and take off their hoods. Every one of the hostages was a joker clown in disguise, all of them were laughing and giggling at how easily Smiley's plan worked.

"Ok gang!" The first twin DeeDee spoke. "Let's give these cops the biggest show on Earth!"

"Yeah!" The gang shouted in unison.

Taking out all of their weapons from a near by duffle bag, the group ran over to every opening, window or hole they could find and began shooting at the police. The Gotham police where totally unprepared for the attack and began losing ground the thugs with their military style weapons. A group of scared policemen huddled together and shouted at one another on what to do next.

"Holy crap! Is that an army they got up there?" The first one asked.

"Where the hell is the Commissioner?" The second one screamed.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Back at the police station, the rest of the Joker gang came running out from the building and dove over a few cars across the street. Giggling and laughing in their trademark way, they all lifted their heads and looked at Big Pants as he gestured with his hand in a gun like motion.

"Boom!"

The building shattered from the blast and caused the monolithic tower to collapse down like a giant sinking. Smoke billowed upward as it disappeared from view, the city horizon looking far different, as the only thing left was a massive cloud of smoke where the police station once stood.

People everywhere stopped in their tracks and looked at the station sinking into the city. In parks outside, in the various other windowed buildings, and even in cars hovering above, the people where horrified by the sight. Over at the Smythe/Dana engagement party, one of Smythe's security men quickly ran through the reception to tell him of the devastating news.

"Everyone! There has been an attack on Gotham!" Smythe suddenly yelled over the busy yapping crowd. "The police station has just been destroyed!"

The partygoers all gasped at his news and quickly talked to one another louder, the mood was nervous and full of fear. Terry was also shocked to hear of the sudden attack, but then his mind shifted to only one thought.

"Max!" He said to himself in a loud tone.

Dana came running over to Terry and also feared for the safety of his friend.

"Oh god Terry...this is horrible! Max might have been in there!"

Terry's mind raced to think of what to do, he had so wanted to live a normal life, to be just a normal guy without having to put the worries of Gotham on his shoulders. But when he kept thinking about what might have happened to his good friend and the thought of this never-ending hell the Jokers would put everyone in...the time had come to stop thinking on 'What would I do?' but rather, 'What would Batman do?'

As he was about to leave, he noticed an oddly wrapped gift on the reception table, full of bright colors, smiling faces and a big red bow. All of the other presents sitting on the table where white and yellow, a much more sophisticated and elegant group of gifts then the one that stood out like a sore thumb. As Terry walked over to the table with curiosity, Dana followed him as he eyed the gift and looked at her while pointing at it.

"Wait...who brought that one?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh you mean that? Funny...I...I don't remember." She said with a confused look.

"What clown brought..." Terry stopped speaking in mid-sentence and his eyes grew wide with realization. "Clown?!! Run Dana!"

He grabbed her and dove out of the way as the present soon exploded as if it was on cue to Terry's discovery. The blast sent people flying everywhere as the force of it caused them all to fall. Terry rose up after wards and noticed that Dana wasn't still in his arms; she was a few feet away and looked badly hurt. Jason Smythe came running up to her and clutched her body with emotion.

"Dana! DANA! Nooo! God No!"

Jason listened to her chest and gave a nervous cry of relief as he looked at Terry, who also was looking very worried about her.

"She's...she's ok...she breathing...I need to take her to a hospital. Someone...GET HER TO A HOSPITAL!!"

As Jason picked up his young bride to be, Terry looked at the room and the total devastation the bomb did to the surrounding people. All were gasping for air, trying to treat their wounds and even giving woeful sighs.

"Damn you Bruce. You knew this would happen." He uttered to himself. "And curse me for not seeing that you were right all along. This isn't a time for change...it's a time for war."

••••••••••••••••••

A sudden click of a light switch and the whooshing sound of power snapping on soon reveals the Bat cave and all of its various levels. Walking down the staircase with the light casting behind Terry like sunshine, the boy looks at the cave with all of its gadgets, vehicles and equipment with a strange, bold glare. Stepping down to where the costumes hang in a glass closet, air sealed to preserve their fibers, he lifts his head up and stands at the only costume he's ever worn his entire life.

"I know now why you wore that costume for so long, Bruce. You can't save one life without saving all of them. If this is my fate...if I am cursed as you once were...then I'm glad it's as the one who will make a difference for the better."

He opens the case door and looks at the black costume with the deep blood red icon of a bat. With one hand he whisks the costume off of its stationary position and begins slipping it on. The entire body suit is one piece, specially designed to fit whomever wears it. Having grown and beefed up since last time, the bat suit forms to his body like a well-placed glove. With the hood of the costume still not placed on yet, he closes his eyes and reaches back. He slides the black pointy-eared cowl on with a long sigh and opens his eyes, which only show two white slits. Now fully dressed as Batman, Terry turns around and looks at the entire cave.

"I'm Back."

"And so am I..." Bruce's voice announces in his head.