The tremor came without warning. It was gradual, becoming stronger and stronger with every passing second. A dull roar, soft and distant at first, grew louder as well.
Between the roar and the violent shaking, something had to give. It finally did so right next to Clayfaces frozen skin—for lack of a better description. The floor right next to it suddenly burst apart, a column of flames launching upwards towards the ceiling. The flames reached the ceiling, bathing it and setting the old wood paneling on fire.
Crossing from one side of the room to the other, more holes were created as fire erupted up into the air. One even went off right next to Batman, the vigilante barely escaping the hungry flames as they blew up towards the ceiling.
Immediately Freeze fired off a freezing blast, sealing off that part of the floor in ice and stopping the fire. A few feet away, another column of fire erupted, meeting the same fate as Fries froze it as well.
"Batman!" came the urgent voice of Oracle in his ear. "I'm getting all kinds of seismic activity in your location. What the hell is going on?!"
Batman ignored the comm; there were more pressing matters at hand. By now, fire was crawling up the walls and eating at the ceiling. There were groaning sounds as well, signs that the supports within the theater were under tremendous strain and wouldn't last for much longer. The projector screen was rapidly disappearing as the fire consumed it from the lower left corner and crossing towards the upper right.
"We've got to get out of here!" the vigilante shouted to Fries, who only nodded his acknowledgement. He kept firing his Freeze Blasts, attempting to keep the fire at bay. However, for every one he put out, another would blast out somewhere else in the room,
There was also the problem of the others.
Spotting Poison Ivy, the redhead was on her knees, her hands buried in her hair, a terrified look on her face. Her eyes were vacant, though it was more like she had disappeared into her own head as her fears overwhelmed her. Her breathing was rapid, coming in short, quick breaths. Great, she was hyperventilating too.
"Mr. J!" the voice of Harley Quinn rang out. In spite of everything, she was still hanging up by Ivy's vines. Now though, she was frantically thrashing about, trying to get loose.
Speaking of whom, the Joker was over by Strange, both men watching the growing blaze around them. It wasn't too unusual to see the large smile on the Joker's face; however, despite his injury, Strange had a manic look on his. And though the fire erupting from the floor drowned out his words, Batman could read the shrink's lips.
"The countdown...has begun. Let this place...be your tomb…"
Goddamn it, Strange, Batman internally seethed. Of course he had to be behind this latest turn. So, as if the crumbling theater wasn't enough, the main doors were thrown open and there stood the rest of the Network, Canary and Huntress immediately shielding their faces from the heat that assaulted them as they were the first ones in.
The distance between them was too great for a simple yell. Pressing a hand to his comm link, he barked, "This whole place is going up! Get who you can and clear out!"
"I must applaud you, Hugo, I didn't think you had it in you," the Joker said as he watched the Monarch be consumed by fire. Every few seconds the room shook as there was another explosion, though each one was stronger than the last. It was a countdown of sorts that he could appreciate.
Strange just looked up at him, blood beginning to dribble down his chin. There was a growing puddle beneath him and the clown could just about make out his reflection in it. It seemed the doc just didn't have enough strength in him to gloat. A pity really.
"Well, this is my cue to exit Stage Right," the Joker said as he let go of the man, letting him plop to the floor, splattering his own blood across the floor. "I hope you don't take it the wrong way if I find the exit on my own. After all, I'm a big boy and there aren't any Arkham orderlies to escort me."
He then raised a hand up and wiggled his fingers up and down rapidly. "T.T.F.N: Ta ta for now!"
And then he spun around and quickly left the arrogant ass behind him. He passed right by Harley, who was looking like an unusual wreath ornament, but hey, who was he to judge? "Puddin! Help me out!" she pleaded as she squirmed left and then right, trying to pull her arms away from the vines holding her tightly.
The Joker didn't even slow his pace as he passed by her, but he did spin around to say, "Sorry, Boo, would love to, but you see, I have this dentist appointment that I simply can't reschedule again. I've cancelled twice already and he's starting to leave nasty messages on my answering machine! So, let me go get my sparkly whites cleaned and I'll be right back to help you out!"
Much to even his amazement, Harley bought it. Even he had to give a double take on that when she said, "Oh, alright. Just...can you get back here fast?"
"Of course, doll. Bye!" The Joker spun back around and picked up his pace. "I can't believe that actually worked," he grumbled to himself. At least he knew the blonde wasn't for show.
However, as he headed for that nifty little exit over by the projector screen, which was just burning tatters at the moment, the green-haired man discovered that when a lot of holes punctured an old, rotting floor, whatever integrity it had vanished. So when he stepped on one particular spot, the floor suddenly gave out and he found himself falling. "Whoa!" the Joker cried out as he stretched his arms out and caught himself, stopping his fall as he pressed his arms on the floor surrounding the hole he had made.
Unfortunately, physics worked against him and instead of completely stopping, he continued to slide downward. His arms ended up extended over his head and he fell through the floor—"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed—dropping, dropping, and then landing hard on the basement floor.
"Owwwwww," he moaned as he laid on the hard cement floor. While he would have loved to lay there for a while longer, he found that the heat was just too suffocating for that. Rolling onto his side, he found that while the theater above was burning, the basement looked more like what he thought Hell did. The entire place was on fire with barrels tossed all over the room. There were scorch marks all over the floor, indicating where some had blown up. There was even a large hole dead center—and incidentally enough just beneath that large hole with the ice ceiling sealing it. Shoving himself up, he stumbled over to the hole and looked down it.
Now, the Joker knew his explosives. In fact, he knew exactly what had been rigged up down here just by glancing at the barrels. And below, in what turned out to be the sewers underneath the theater, all sorts of barrels and explosives covered damn near every possible square inch. There were flames licking at the barrels, wires connecting them to each other. Strange had really outdone himself here.
"Heh, heh," he couldn't help but chuckle. "Heh, heh, heh." He couldn't stop; in fact, he got louder until, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
And then everything exploded.
With a bat-shaped shuriken, Batman cut down the vines that held Harley Quinn, the jester girl dropping to the floor in a heap of tangled limbs and vines. "Ooof!" she grunted from her landing.
Reaching down, Batman grabbed the woman by her upper arm and hauled her up onto her feet. Turning his head around, he found Batgirl damn near on top of him. "Get her out of here," he told the younger vigilante as he shoved Quinn to her. Batgirl immediately latched onto the clown girl and began dragging her away.
"Wait! I can't leave! Not without, Mr. J!" Harley cried out, struggling against Batgirl's grip. "He said he was going to the dentist and would be right back!"
Batman jerked his head to look to the last known place he had seen the clown, finding Strange surrounded by Huntress and Black Canary. Both women were picking him up, one by his shoulders, the other by his legs, and were beginning to carry him away.
Yet no sign of the green-haired man.
Head darting from side to side, he then spotted the man nearly across the room, heading for the exit next to the movie screen. The vigilante growled to himself as he realized the man was trying to escape out a side door while everything else went to hell.
But then he suddenly dropped, falling out of sight. Instinctively, Batman shot a few steps towards the clown's last location, spotting a hole in the floor. It must have given out, sending the Joker falling to the floor below.
The creaking sound of breaking wood filled his ears then. This place didn't have very long and he couldn't very well go chasing the Joker while there were others that needed to be escorted out of here.
Searching the burning room, he spotted the Network had mostly withdrawn back to the theater entrance with Strange and Harley Quinn in tow. Fries had edged his way to the doorway as well, swinging his arms back and forth as he fought back at the encroaching flames.
That left one last person: Pamela Isley. Darting his eyes back to where he had last seen her, he spotted the redhead lying on her side in the fetal position. Clearly she wasn't going to be leaving under her own power. Batman immediately took off running towards the woman, leaping over a singed hole in the process, flames licking around its edges. The floor groaned from his landing, but he didn't stop until he was within spitting distance of the distressed woman.
That's when he heard that creaking sound, louder than before, but then something snapped. Over where the ice formation that entrapped Clayface, the floor had given way, dropping the frozen shapeshifter to the level below. Fire tried to leap up into the air, but it was suffocated by the bottom of the ice figure.
That forced the flames to go elsewhere, and naturally they chose a spot right next to Ivy. Fire blasted through the floor next to the woman, causing the edge to crumble and widen. Suddenly, Ivy tilted and then began to fall in.
Batman leaped forward, arms extended out. Ivy seemed to snap out of her traumatized state as she realized what was happening and began scrambling to not fall into the hole, but it was too little too late. She cried out as she fell in.
Batman landed on the floor on his stomach next to the hole an instant later. He slid across the floor until he was looking into the newly formed hole, shooting an arm after Ivy and grabbing onto one of her arms with a hand. That promptly stopped the redhead from falling into the inferno below.
Gritting his teeth, he stared down at Ivy, who was latching onto his arm with both of her hands, a pleading look on her face as she dangled over the flames. "Help me!" she begged.
Grunting, Batman began to push himself upward, pulling the redhead up. Though she had the physique of a light-weight woman, it wasn't easy to pull her up one handed.
That's when he felt the floor beneath him jolt and he knew he was running out of time. The floor was starting to give in from their combined weight and the fire was weakening its support with every passing second. Yet, he couldn't go much faster and that was the irritating part.
Suddenly, someone was standing next to him. As Ivy began to emerge from the hole, Katana grabbed onto the redhead's other arm and began to pull, making saving the woman that much easier. Together, they pulled her out, Batman maneuvering to get back onto his feet so that they could drag Ivy onto the floor.
Thankfully, they had managed to get a little distance before more of the floor crumbled and collapsed, widening the hole right where the Dark Knight had been laying. Together, the two vigilantes hauled Ivy onto her feet and began rushing her out of the room. Batman made sure to position himself between her and Fries as they passed him by. He didn't want to risk the man taking a shot at her after all of that effort.
Fries didn't bat an eye at them as they passed by. Reaching the door, Batman allowed Katana to continue on with Ivy without him. Spinning around, he called out to Fries, "It's time to go!"
That was when the floor began to rumble, shaking violently. The ice that covered the largest hole in the room began to glow orange and red, the floor surrounding it beginning to bulge upward, raising the icy floor upward. That was when fire erupted from each and every smaller hole throughout the room. The two men couldn't help but shield their faces from the sudden heat.
"C'mon, Fries!" he cried out again.
Fries turned to face him, seemingly weighing his options before he took a step towards him—then promptly pointed an arm right at the vigilante's feet. A Freeze Blast fired and struck the floor just in front of the dark-clad man, a wall of ice rapidly growing upward until the entire doorway was sealed off.
"Fries!" Batman shouted as he pounded a fist on the wall. Damn it, not again! What the hell was that man thinking? Not even his new suit could protect him from the hell that was burning beneath the theater, not to mention whatever was brewing there now.
"Batman, get out of there!" someone yelled at him. For a moment, he didn't budge, but that changed when another tremor shook the Monarch, jolting him out of his inertia.
Spinning around, he found the lobby hadn't fared too well than the main theater. There were holes here too, along with a long crack that split the room horizontally. In addition, there was a jagged ice formation that ran from the main entrance to a place right next to the theater doors.
That was when the roof began to fall apart.
Pieces of the ceiling broke off and began falling, landing in piles on the floor. Raising his arms up in a feeble attempt to protect his head, Batman began running through the lobby, bouncing from left to right and back as he avoided burning holes and falling debris. He had to come to a quick stop as fire suddenly blasted out of a hole in front of him, then darted to one side as a burning beam from the ceiling fell and landed right where he had been standing.
This just couldn't be easy, could it?
Glancing to the main entrance, he found the wall next to the door had been blasted out. It was probably necessary as the entrance had been sealed shut by ice. There he could see the Network watching him, a couple of them beckoning him with waves of their arms, urging him towards them.
Gritting his teeth, Batman surged towards them, leaping over another hole as fire blasted out, though thankfully right behind him. Heat from the flames washed over him, but he didn't stop, not until he flung himself out of the theater.
As if that were some kind of signal, an incredible blast erupted, the Monarch blowing apart in all directions. The roof was sent flying high into the air, breaking into many smaller pieces. The face of the theater, ripped apart as flames blasted through it. The group of vigilantes and inmates were thrown through the air as fire reached out towards them. Being the closest of them all, Batman felt himself be bathed in flames. But then the cool night air surrounded him as he was thrown far away from the raging fire.
They all landed in heaps on the ground; when fleeing an explosion, there was no graceful way to land. Chunks of bricks and burning debris rained down all over the place, thankfully not landing on anyone. Lying there for several moments, Batman panted heavily, trying to catch his breath. It took several moments before he pushed himself up so that he could look at the ruined theater.
There wasn't much left of the Monarch from what he could tell. It was just a hole in the ground, a giant blaze reaching up to the night's sky. The surrounding buildings were damaged as well, brick walls collapsing into the nearby hole, exposing the innards of the structures.
Nothing could have survived that blast. Not Victor Fries; not the frozen Clayface; not even the Joker with his seemingly endless number of lives. Those three men surely perished.
At least, you would think so.
Black smoke rose high into the air. It soon mingled with white steam, the result of water evaporating as it was used to put out the fire below.
Fire trucks were positioned strategically around the burning crater that used to be the Monarch Theater. It was another landmark that joined a sad, growing list of others that had fallen over the years. It's illustrious history, as old and decrepit as it became, now included its destruction in the latest conflict to come to Gotham.
Not all was lost though. The GCPD had several of its strongest transport trucks on the scene, each one loading up the various apprehended criminals. Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, the Mad Hatter, the Riddler, they all had their own personal transport. Nearby was an ambulance currently loading up Hugo Strange, SWAT officers with shotguns standing next to the gurney. Even though Strange was no longer a threat, there weren't any chances being taken. He would be on his way to a chosen hospital with a strong police presence to prevent yet another escape.
There was another vehicle currently loading the frozen Man-Bat. Care was being taken to not shatter it, not that anyone expected the giant bat to go on a rampage. It was more to preserve the body so that it wasn't damaged. At this stage of crystallization, an arm or leg could be snapped off.
Even though it was over, it felt like a hollow victory. Not all of the escapees had been apprehended, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth. Batman was familiar with the feeling, even though he hated it. It was one thing he had learned to cope with as rarely did a given crisis end neatly.
The Network watched the firefighters and police deal with the situation below. They were tired, just like he was, but they were determined to make certain nothing else happened. Considering the men and women involved, it made sense.
Someone pulled away from the scene approaching a nearby alleyway. The trench coat and white hair gave away their identity. The man came to a stop next to the alley, his back to it as he surveyed the scene.
That alley turned out to be next to the building the Network was on. It was clear Gordon wanted to talk, receive a debriefing as to what had happened so there weren't any surprises for him. Batman had no problem with that. Grappling down into the alley, he made certain to stay in the shadows within it. There was no need for a noisy cameraman to snap another photo of them.
It seemed Gordon had sensed him at some point—or he was just guessing—as he said, "Sure was a busy night."
"You could say that," the vigilante responded.
Gordon didn't even glance over his shoulder, instead leaning his back on the corner of the building. "So what did the lunatics do this time? Aside from blowing up yet another building?"
"Strange and Joker were trying to one up each other; Strange took a bullet to the chest and then decided to blow up the entire building."
There was a slight tilt of his head, the Commissioner glancing to the ambulance. "Where is the Joker now?"
"Caught up in the blast as far as I know; the same with Victor Fries. You'll want to search for their remains once the fires are out."
There was a moment of silence. "Do you think it's possible? The Joker's dead?"
Batman was quiet as he pondered the question. While he knew what he saw with his eyes, he knew better than to hope, or assume when it came to the Joker. He had a history of making it out of impossible situations; why would this be any different? However, the power behind the bomb Strange had set up, not to mention it was all coming from below the theater and the Joker had fallen right into the heart of it, and there should have been no way he survived.
Instead he said, "Until I see a body, I can't really say."
Gordon nodded his understanding. "Then my boys better find a body then. What better news to the city than the Joker will no longer be a threat—ever." There was a sigh, deep and weary, that came from the older man. "As if we'll ever get that lucky."
Again, silence fell over them, right until Gordon's shoulder twitched. "Zorbatos is going to be disappointed with not being able to lock up Fries. He was the crown jewel of her prison and now he's gone as well. I'd say dead if he was caught up in the explosion as well, but I'm going to follow your lead until we find a body."
That was a good call too. Over and over in his head, Batman could see Fries sealing himself in the main theater. It was just like the night of the Talon Attacks, except the room Fries trapped himself in wasn't full of assassins, but fire and death. Was it Fries' way of stopping one last criminal—himself? Did he see no other way for himself other than a path of vengeance?
The whole thing upset him. The vigilante could very well be describing himself. Both he and Fries had started out with the same goal, albeit with two completely different methods. At the crux of it all, they were ultimately avengers, men hellbent on extracting vengeance on those that preyed on the weak and helpless.
If put in the same position, Batman knew he would have done the same thing as Fries had.
"By the way," he suddenly spoke up, which startled the Commissioner. He knew this as the older man seemed to jolt where he stood, clearly not expecting the Dark Knight to speak again. "You can stop trying to figure out how the Joker escaped his cell at the GCPD."
Gordon nearly whipped his head around to look at him, but stopped himself midway. "Did that maniac tell you how he did it?" he finally asked after awhile.
"Not really, but it was self-explanatory once you knew what he had been up to. When you captured him at the Waste Treatment Center, you actually captured a body double."
"Who the hell would be a body double for the Joker?" the white-haired man questioned.
"Matt Hagan."
There was a silence before, "Clayface? He was involved with this too?" He paused. "Which would explain how he escaped that cell. He could have used the damn plumbing, or even turned himself into one of my men to escape. But when did he and the Joker get together to do this?"
"Turns out Clayface was being held in a secured room at the treatment center. Somehow the Joker found that out and that was the reason he went there. Hagan was more than happy to help him out."
"So what happened to him? I don't see a giant mud man being shoved back into canisters."
"Fries froze him. He went down with the explosion as well. I doubt you'll find any remains on him though."
"Cause either the explosion blew him into so many pieces he can't pull himself back together, or it didn't hurt him at all and he's on the loose." Another sigh. Gordon's hand actually twitched to move upward before he stopped it. It was an old habit of him attempting to smoke, even though there wasn't a cigarette in his hand. "It seems like the longer we do this, the messier it gets."
"Sorry, Jim."
Gordon grunted. "You have nothing to apologize for. Despite everything, you did everything you could. It's about time everyone else lent a helping hand to you. I'll keep in touch if we find anything down in that smoldering crater."
This time Batman didn't reply, instead moving to scale up the building. Gordon would leave eventually, especially when he realized the Dark Knight was no longer there.
Reaching the roof, he saw the other vigilantes looking at him expectantly. A weariness fell over the man. For once, he felt tired, exhausted. That wasn't to say he hadn't felt this before in all of his years on patrol, but tonight he felt as if he wanted to lock himself in his bedroom and not come out for a year.
"I doubt anyone is going to be up to no good after what happened here," he said then. "I highly suggest you all head home and get some rest."
"Don't have to tell us twice," Huntress responded, "but I think if anyone is in need of a night off, it's you. You head back home and we'll see to it that Gotham is still standing in the morning. Oracle is already on surveillance duty, so she'll keep us updated."
Before he could attempt to protest, Batgirl stepped towards him, laying a hand on his arm. "Take me home," she said simply. It was an underhanded tactic by her to get him to take her to the Cave. Batman knew this; Batgirl knew this as well.
He couldn't find it in himself to refuse. "Debrief tomorrow night, the Nora Fries building."
That was all he said; that was all that needed to be said after a night like this. The Network would be here, he had no doubt. Turning away, he began to walk across the roof, Batgirl keeping at his side to ensure he did what was asked of him.
For once, he didn't feel the need to argue.
