Jim Gordon hid behind his desk as he dodged more and more rounds of gunfire from Joker's thugs. They literally had Gordon's men surrounded, and the more they shot down the more seemed to come.
Jim was running out of bullets in his handgun, he had to find another weapon fast if he was going to stay alive, but with the amount of bullets flying above his head that was easier said than done. As he fired his last bullet, one that hit a thug in the chest, he crawled on his belly underneath a couple of desks and reached for the gun of one of his fallen officers.
Taking shelter behind the desk Jim peaked his head out from behind to see how many thugs blocked the exit. He had to get to Joker somehow, he had to end this madness, which is something he couldn't do if he was hiding behind a desk trying to evade gunfire.
The number of clowns blocking the exit happened to be six, Jim counted the number of bullets he had in the gun he grabbed... six. He had to make each of them count, he had to make sure each bullet hit it's mark.
"Not exactly a sniper rifle but it will do," Jim thought to himself taking the gun in both his hands and aiming it carefully at the first clown. Lining the shot up to the chest Jim fired, hitting the clown right in the chest. One down five to go.
His shot didn't go unnoticed, seeing their alley fall the other clowns turned their attention to the desk Jim was hiding fire and opened fire. Jim just waited patiently, he knew they would run out of bullets eventually and when they did he would be ready.
The second the bullets stopped firing Jim poked his head out from the desk again and fired, hitting another two clowns in the chest. Three left.
Jim ducked behind his desk again as the remaining three thugs opened fire. Jim chuckled to himself as he waited to return fire, taking out his pipe, putting in a little bit of tobacco in it and lit it. Cocking his gun he waited till the clowns had to reload then he jumped up and fired again taking out two more. Jim fired his last bullet at the final clown but to his horror the bullet missed, narrowly missing the head by a couple of inches.
The final clown reloaded and Jim had to duck for cover again as he tried to figure out a new strategy. He was only a few feet away from the clown. He could reach him within less then a second and wrestle the gun away. There was nowhere he could go however that the clown wouldn't see him. If he was going to tackle him down it would have to be when the clown was forced to reload again.
Jim prepared himself, and the second he heard gunfire cease Jim ran. He lunged at the clown. Reaching for the gun Jim found himself knocking it out of his hand within a couple of seconds. With the gun on the floor Jim delivered a serious of blows, punching the clown in the head two times before grabbing the clown by the hair and slamming his face in the wall.
Jim laughed as the clown fell, wiping the gun residue off his suit "Who says Batman and Batgirl are the only ones with moves?"
Once the last of the clowns was taking care of Jim ran to his police car and headed for the steel mill. Thanks to the TV in the break room next door Jim was able to hear everything Joker said through the TV, including Joker telling Batman where he was in order to meet him. Foolish mistake because now with the clowns defeated Jim's main focus tracking down the Joker. He also had a feeling Batgirl was on her way over there too.
His hunch was right, about fifteen miles west of him Batgirl was speeding down the streets on her bike trying to get to the still mill as quickly as possible. Harley had told Alfred where Barbara would be able to find Joker and Alfred passed the info along to Barbara. Now it was just a matter of getting to him, which wouldn't be hard, Joker wasn't the type who would leave a place without a fight. In fact there was several times Joker refused to leave the scene of the crime before having a confrontation with the Batman. He had become so obsessed with besting him that he would set crimes just for the Batman, and with Batman currently gone to fight alongside the Justice League Joker had set up a crime to try to draw him out, and the longer he waited the more dangerous he became, she had to take him down now before all of Gotham went up in flames.
"Bah, Phewy why won't you come out Batman!" Joker griped to the camera as he was becoming more and more impatient as each minute went by without the Batman showing up. "I have murdered people in front of you, targeted the G.C.P.D I even had your little heir crippled and chained to the asylum with the criminals! What is it going to take for you to show your pretty little face? Nuke Gotham? Cause I will you know, I will do it! I will do it in a heartbeat! Show yourself Batman! Or I will decide to reenact the bombing of Hiroshima!"
"Sorry you're not going to get that opportunity!" Joker turned around and saw Jim standing behind him, his gun pointed at Joker's back.
"What? How did you get passed my men? Ah hell who cares? They're expendable anyway, no matter you'll work out just fine."
"Get on your knees Joker," Jim commanded "Don't make me shoot you!"
"Yeah not going to happen," Joker laughed before turning to the camera again. "You see Batman this is what happens when you refuse to show up for the party. Now you get to watch your old friend die!"
Joker took out a bag of marbles and tossed them on the ground. Before Jim knew it the marbles exploded forcing his to go run for cover.
"You know Jim boy, I'm really glad you showed up!" Jim heard Joker cackling through the flames "I was really starting to run out of ways to motivate Bat Brain to show up. But now you have come along and given me a new breath of motivation.
Jim ducked behind a vent and looked into the flames, hoping to see a silhouette or something for him to target, his ears ringing from the loudness of the explosions he couldn't tell which way Joker's demonic laughter was coming from.
Then the whole place went quite, to quite for Jim's liking, Jim reading his gun, expecting Joker to fly out of the flames after him.
"Boo!" Jim turned around and the Joker tackled him to the ground. As the two of them wrestled on the rooftop Joker reached out of his left side pants pocket and pulled out a small knife.
"Let's put a smile on that face!"
"Not today Joker!" Jim raised his right knee and kicked Joker in the crotch, causing him to topple over in pain. Jim grabbed his gun off the ground and pointed at the Joker, who was toppled over in pain.
"Okay, no more I give!" Joker laughed, right before he reached in his shirt pocket. "But before you take me back to Arkham I would like to show you a magic trick. CATCH!" Joker tossed out a pack of razor sharp playing cards. The razor edges cut through the skin of Jim's arms, legs and sides. Joker laughed as he tackled Jim to the ground, grabbing Jim's right arm and pulling it behind his back as he pinned Jim to the ground.
"You need to retire old man. Allow me to help you with that, PERMANENTLY!"
Joker reached for a gun in his other pocket when he suddenly saw the silhouette of a standing in the shadows.
"Batman you finally arrived!"
"Hate to disappoint you Joker!" A feminine voice replied, Joker was taken aback when he suddenly saw Batgirl walk out from the shadows. "But the Batman is not showing up today."
"But how?" Joker gasped "Harley crippled you, she shot you right square in your spine!"
"Your not the only one with tricks Joker!" Batgirl started to make her way to Joker, only for him to pick Jim up and put a water pistol full of green acid to his temple.
"Not another step or I will turn the Commissioner's skull into green jello." Joker temporarily moved the pistol from Jim's head and sprayed green acid at a vent for demonstration. Despite the vent being metal the whole side sprayed with the acid completely melted within seconds.
"Looks like the jokes on me!" Joker taunted "I go through all this trouble breaking out of Arkham to throw a welcome home party for the bat and yet he doesn't even have the appreciation to show up! Instead he just sends his new sidekick in his place."
"There's one thing you need to know Joker," Batgirl responded, she had one hand behind her back as she grabbed a remote control batarange from her back belt pocket and started pushing buttons, making sure the Joker didn't see what she was up too. "I may not have been in the game as long as Batman, but I am no sidekick. You want to know why he isn't showing up? It's because he knows he can trust me with this city. He knows that as long as I am here to protect it, than Gotham couldn't be in safe hands. And not even you Joker can draw him out from where he needs to be. Because he knows that I can take even someone like you out!" Batgirl then threw the batarange and it flew right pass the Joker's head.
"Ha! You missed sidekick!" Joker laughed "Oh my god this is hilarious you can't even throw a batarange right!"
"Did I now?"
The batarang slung around and hit the Joker in the back of the head, causing the acid filled water pistol to fall out of his hands. Batgirl then lunged at the Joker, tackling him to the floor and start to punch him in the face.
"That one's for Sarah!" Batgirl growled as she punched Joker in the face again "That's one's for Harley!" She punched Joker a third time "And that ones for shooting me in the back!"
"Okay seriously, I got to know what is it between you and Harley?" Joker asked in hopes to distract Batgirl long enough for him to pull out another knife "You seriously seem to care way to much for a simple brainwashed therapist." Before Batgirl could react Joker swung his knife, slashing a major hole into the side of Batgirl's suit. Batgirl screamed in pain as she felt the knife make contact with her skin. Joker laughed as he kicked Batgirl off of him. He suddenly heard a helicopter landing behind him and turned to see several of Joker's men come jumping off the helicopter to join him in battle.
"Well isn't this a surprise!" Joker laughed as he was joined by twenty of his toughest goons. "Looks like your in a pickle now Batgirl. It's just you and the Commissioner against all of us!"
"No quite!" Joker heard a voice say behind him. He turned around and saw Harley run up the stairs holding her baseball bat in her hands, a look of pure hatred was smeared across her face.
"Harley how nice of you to join the par..." POW! Joker was suddenly knocked to the floor as Harley delivered a uppercut to Joker's jaw with her pat. Joker landed on the ground with a hard thud and stared at Harley with a look of complete shock and confusion.
"You know, for once, I don't get the joke."
"The Joke is, this is payback for brainwashing me into killing my friend!"
"Harley?" Batgirl gasped surprised to see her friend coming to her aid in battle. Harley walked up and joined Batgirl's side, a smile forming on her face as she joined her friend. "That friend of yours is quite the persuasive one, I see now why you keep him around."
"Well this is a huge joy kill. You think you find the one and then she dumps you for the redhead. She'll never love you like I did."
"I beg to differ."
"And I... no how to hold grudges. Boys, kill them all! Especially the backstabber!"
Jim, Harley, and Batgirl readied themselves, as soon as Joker's men came charging, the three of them stuck.
The final battle had now began.
You thought I was going to finish the climatic battle with the Joker in one chapter? Hell no, The Joker is worth at least a two chapter climax.