Chapter Ten – Follow Those Clowns

Walking past the debris and beating down a few Jokerz that leapt up at him as he made his way over to the twin DeeDee girls, he finally came to the spot where both of them were laying on the ground and groaning in pain.

"Ok ladies..." Batman says in a more relaxed tone. "Now that the fun is over, how bout you start telling me where you have the commissioner. Just remember I'm in no mood to hear your twisted sense of humor so...please...be honest or be prepared for another dose of my kind of justice."

"Not at all as we quite remembered him from last time, huh DeeDee?"

"He's so serious all of a sudden...poor lil' guy lost his only friend and mentor and now he's taking it out on us."

The two girls gazed up at him as they tried to stand up and use the wall they were thrown on as a means of keeping balance.

"So now you've lost your Commissioner girly now too huh?" The first DeeDee smiled.

"Geez Terry...You just can't keep anyone safe can ya?" The other one giggled.

Batman's face froze; it was odd for him to hear the twin girls talk of his true identity and of his former friend, Bruce Wayne. Though they never really spoke the man's name out loud, he knew exactly of whom they were implying. He had forgotten that the two had once tracked him down with the help of the Joker, the mutated Tim Drake version, and almost destroyed his life before in the process. So they know who he is. But for whatever reason, they never exposed his secret to the rest of Gotham.

"Enough of your crap." Batman snarled. "Just tell me where she is...NOW!"

The twins frowned at him and then both squatted down as if they were going to pounce at him. The two smiled in an evil manner and spoke together in riddles.

"If you want to find the commish..."

"And don't know where to begin..."

"Then we suggest that you find a way quick..."

"Before we kill that stupid BITCH!"

The two leaped up and launched well beyond the dark knight's head. The doll-like shoes the girls were wearing had rocket propelled springs that vaulted them out of the building and past the security forces outside. Batman tried to snare them with his bat-a-rangs, but the women managed to dodge his devices with effortless skill. The police took aim at the girls and began shooting away at them, but every laser shot missed as the twins did amazing acrobatics in the air and landed on the ground only to be flung higher and further away from the scene. As they continued to bounce out of sight, their faint giggling could be heard echoing on the wind. The police were baffled by the sight and felt they had let the commissioner down. Batman stood at the edge of the building and also watched the twins leave in the Gotham city background. As he gave a disappointed sigh, he noticed the large hole on the opposite building that seemed to go right through to a small alleyway behind it.

"What the heck? Looks too big to be the result from a rocket...or even a laser blast for that matter...."

He spread his bat wings out and glided down to the awaiting policemen who all seemed eager to talk to him.

"Where the hell did you come from?" One officer said.

"Yeah! Where's the Commissioner Batman?" The others began to scream at him.

"Ok guys! Just back off!" The lead officer said as he came to get them all under control. "We've still got some suspects up there that need to be taken care of so all of ya just get up there and arrest them."

The cops grumbled and stared at one another in frustration, but each one did as they were told, they entered the building and searched the ruins for the rest of the Jokerz clan. As the main officer turned back to talk to Batman, he noticed that the dark dressed vigilante had disappeared. He desperately looked around and couldn't see where the masked man had taken off too. Giving a disappointed sigh, the officer shook his head and joined the others in rounding up the rest of the gang.

Down in the ally, where Superman and Max had been last been, Batman soon stood at the base of the crater and studied the massive hole carefully.

"Something isn't right about all this. DeeDee is back with new improvements, Max is missing and now there's a giant hole in the ground that even I could see from the hospital."

Crouching down, Batman takes his fingers and rubs the edge of the hole with them. He soon brings them back up and looks at it with intensity. Inside his techno-suit, a chemical analysis of the residue on the fingertips gives a holographic image in front of his eyes. The suit's inner computer shows him the various compounds and graphics of the substance and finally concludes on what it is.

"Scanning residue. Chemical analysis beginning, trace elements found...high concentration of radioactive isotope known as Kryptonite." The Bruce Wayne sounding voice says to him.

"Kryptonite?" Terry says with surprise. "Why in the hell is there Kryptonite here?"

It quickly dons on him, as he clutches his fist and utters the man's name, "Superman."

Looking around, he soon discovers yet another object slightly buried in the dirt. Picking it up from the ground and wiping the dust off, he soon finds that it is Max's gun.

"Just what in the hell is going on here?" He says looking at both the gun and the Kryptonite on his fingers. "This doesn't make any sense...Superman and Max...the twins...the police station and the hospital...what's the connection?"

As he stands there mulling over the various clues, the batmobile comes hovering over him and opens the bottom floor for him. Batman streaks up to it and sits inside. As the car closes up and heads out of the ally, Terry continues to think about things as he puts the car on auto-cruise.

"Wayne Hospital was a target...but so too was a clinic not too long ago...and if I remember correctly...there was even one against the old Wayne Tech labs."

Placing his hands on the center computer controls, Batman beings tapping away on the buttons and talks to the computer as he goes.

"It's not random event...the Jokerz are trying to destroy everything that Wayne ever created or funded. But why? Computer...give me a layout of the city. Link all buildings destroyed by Joker gangs and even those that had some sort of link to Wayne Enterprises."

The holographic image displayed on the windshield in a green hue, it stood out from the red and black interior of the car and did everything that Terry requested. The map showed all the buildings and areas that had been destroyed by the gang and flashed in a yellow marker to give him the locations.

"Woah...these guys have been busy. Just look at all those...no wonder Max seems overwhelmed, but how does a low-key gang outfit turn into one of the most dangerous syndicate in just a short time? Wait a sec...that looks like...."

As he stops in mid thought, he uses the computer to trace a line to all the spots and soon discovers that it was made to look like a giant grin.

"A smile? Boy these guys are really sick...or is it someone new doing all this? Hmm...only one way to find out who's controlling this little war on Wayne. Computer...locate any trace of Kryptonite or signatures resembling the substance."

"Scanning..." The computer responds. "Trace elements found. Lower city limits, sub-section B...Gotham Royal Arms Hotel."

"Royal Arms?" He says with surprise. "I know that place...Bruce told me all about it. The night of his parents murder...they were all staying there together for a family night out. The last place Bruce would ever remember his folks being alive with him for the last time. My god...it's like they're going out of their way to end everything related to Wayne...or anyone connected with him. Which explains Superman...and possibly Max...but that's more related to Batman not Wayne. Unless...unless they know who he is or what he used to be!"

Terry throttles the controls and zooms down towards the building's location.

"Time to follow the bouncing clowns and figure out what their game is."

As the car dodges the many ruins of old bridges and buildings of the lower city, it soon comes up on the Royal Arms Hotel and hovers over the mangled remains of the roof. The bottom floor opens up again and Batman leaps down on the to decaying surface. The batmobile instantly moves away and lands on a separate building as it awaits his return. Batman quickly runs over to the only remaining stairway door, and turns the knob with his hand. The rusted metal soon dissolves from his touch and falls off the door.

"Ugh." He sighs out loud. "Cute Terry...real cute. Guess I'll have to just do this Wayne style."

The door suddenly gets ripped open from his fist punching it in, the door drops down to the base of the inside staircase and lets out a loud bang as it smacks against the granite. Slowly descending downward, Batman's eyes and bright red logo peer into the darkness as he travels inside the shadowy building.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Batman soon enters into the large room where Mr. Smiley and his gang hangout, with no one around to meet him, Terry takes careful steps inward as he looks about for any sign of trouble. Suddenly he stops as he hears a faint muffled voice trying to say his name. Looking over to his right, he notices a dusty, old velvet curtain that is twitching and giving off those faint noises. Carefully he walks over and reaches for the curtain, pulling it away sharply, he makes a shocking discovery.

"Max! Superman!"

There lay the two victims, Superman bound and gagged as he agonizes in pain from a Kryptonite rock strapped to his chest with a booby trapped restraint holding it in place. Max was lying there with a very disturbing grin on her face, her eyes looked dilated and she had a pale complexion about her. Terry had seen this sort of thing before; the old Joker files were full of these sort of victims. In fact even Bruce Wayne had been a target of the Joker's serum when the madman came back in Tim Drake's body and discovered Wayne's secret lair. Frantically, McGinnis searched his utility belt and found a small capsule in one of the containers.

"Thank God it's still here. One left...."

He took the pill and force feed it to Max, helping her to swallow it down, the anti-toxin soon brought her color back and started to undo the large grin on her face. As she stammered to speak, Terry tried to calm her.

"Shhh...easy Max. I'll get you and Clark out of here."

"N-n-n-no..."She uttered. "D-d-d-don't...it's...it's...a...Trap!"

The lights in the room quickly came up and a loud voice boomed across the room and over towards Batman.

"Well done my Boy! Well done...I almost thought you'd be too stupid to even think of this place."

Batman spun around and saw Mr. Smiley standing on the other side of the large room with both DeeDee girls appearing with him out of the shadows.

"You seemed to save you're precious Commissioner just in the nick of time, a few more wasted minutes and...well...lets just say...she'd be smiling to her grave." The man said in a very sarcastic manner.

"So, you're the man behind all this? A sicko in a stupid smiling mask?" Batman snickered.

"Look who's talking...Terry." The man said shaking his finger.

McGinnis was amazed as he heard this evil man calmly say his real name. No doubt the twins told him who he was and probably gave away his link to Maxine.

"Oh yes, I know who you really are." The man continued. "DeeDee told me of your identity long ago. But why ruin a terrific way to exploit a situation and blab it for all to hear...not very sporting. I know everything about you, Wayne and old Clark Kent over there. In fact...you could say...I know everything Batman knows and more."

Terry gives him a curious look. "Who the hell are you?"

Taking a few steps closer to Batman, Mr. Smiley walks over with a black cane in his hand and unsheathes a long sword.

"I'm Mr. Smiley...and I've been waiting to take you on, Batman!"

His un-emotional voice suddenly gave a low chuckle, one that seemed very un-natural for the likes of him and sent shivers down the spines of both DeeDees. As he stood there giggling away, Terry's eyes lowered as he watched this madman laugh at him.