Chapter 5
Meanwhile on the north side of Gotham, Harvey Bullock sat in his car across the street from the rundown strip of buildings that housed The Laff Riot comedy club. He checked his watch just before opening a bottle of liquor and taking a quick swig.
From out of nowhere a dark profile came out of the air and briefly caressed the moonlight before swooping down to the street below. With haste, Harvey exited his car, almost as if afraid, greeting the shadow of the Dark Knight.
"Bullock," Batman acknowledged with a nod.
"Hey, it's Dracula. Good to see ya," the detective teased, throwing his cigar bud on the ground. Stomping on it, he continued, "Alright Bats, you ready for this?"
"As always," affirmed Batman as the pair raced to the entrance of the club across the street.
"So how do you usually do this Bats?" Bullock wondered aloud, looking all around him for the missing cloaked figure. "Bats, where the hell are you?"
The Dark Knight had disappeared. Deciding to go ahead anyway and without any regard to stealth, Bullock kicked in the freshly boarded-up entrance. As he booted his way inside, his eyes quickly adjusted to the complete darkness. Pulling out a bulky flashlight from his trench coat pocket, he switched it on. Fumbling for a light switch, he soon realized that every light in the place was out, probably by the fuse box.
"Nobody's home," he muttered, remaining cautious. Quickly moving through each room, he finally came to the main auditorium where the stage was located. Complete darkness… until he flashed a beam of light to center stage. Then to Bullock's horror, a row of children were bound and gagged to a series of chairs. The children sat next to each other forming a straight line and appeared to either be asleep or unconscious. Bullock raced to the stage and began untying the injured kids.
Without warning, the overhead lights above the stage illuminated the whole vicinity. Bullock knew he was in trouble. He quickly drew a submachine pistol from inside his bulky coat.
From behind the stage, a maniacal drone could be heard. Bullock knew that laugh. He knew it stemmed from none other than the Joker.
Without notice, the Clown Prince jumped out from behind the stage. Running across the room the clown began firing his signature silver Smith Wesson revolver at the fat detective's head.
Bullock dove to the floor, barely missing the projectile. But to no avail, the shot hit one of the orphans in the chest. The victim, a young boy lay lifeless as Bullock began firing. The shots were loud over the Joker's crazy laughter.
"Where's the Bat when I need him?" Bullock muttered under his breath.
At that moment as if hearing Bullock's question, Batman crashed through a half boarded up skylight, slightly injuring himself in the process.
"You," the Joker squawked at Batman. "You weren't supposed to find me! This ends now," the madman declared, firing his Wesson at Batman's chest and stomach. As the bullets bounced off the Kevlar of the Bat-suit, the Joker skipped away with finesse, strategically avoiding Bullock's gunfire behind him.
"Bats, go and find him! I'll take care of these kids," Bullock demanded in the heat of the moment.
Racing towards the entrance, he stormed into the grubby sidewalk outside the club. Looking around quickly, he found no sign of him.
Where could he have gone so fast, the Dark Knight wondered. Standing in the middle of the dark, dead street, Batman was quickly surprised as a bright red convertible coupe came from behind the building. It raced from around the corner and headed towards Batman. The headlights nearly blinded him as he jolted to the other side of the street. As the red car passed him, Batman realized that the driver was his maniac.
He's getting away!
The Dark Knight quickly threw a signal tracer, hitting and sticking to the bumper of the speeding red car.
"Not this time," Batman uttered to himself as his hands crossed his utility belt and pressed a button. Moments later, the Batmobile sped to his present location. Leaping inside, he was off in search of his foe. As the Batmobile raced through the streets, he noticed on the radio emitter that was fixed on the dash, that the dot that represented the Joker wasn't moving.
He stopped, Batman thought as he continued racing to its location.
As he came upon an intersection close to downtown Gotham, Batman noticed an old lady in a tattered robe crossing the street. Instantly, the old lady turned towards the Batmobile, holding a rocket launcher. With great intensity, the impressive firearm blasted a rocket towards the Batmobile.
The Batmobile swerved with remarkable force and barely missed crashing into a nearby building but was suddenly stalled as the rocket collided with the car's engine. Batman swiftly pressed the ejector mechanism under his seat. Almost immediately the car was engulfed in flame as Batman shot through the air, still secured in his seat.
It was done; the Batmobile was no more.
Parachuting down on his ejected seat, Batman stared at his creation. He couldn't believe that the Batmobile was destroyed. And at the hands of my arch nemesis,he thought.
Watching as the Joker ran as fast as possible, he landed securely on a building and unfastened himself from his seat belt. Hurdling off the building, he pitched a batarang as hard as he could in the Joker's direction. With great success, the batarang took out the Joker's legs.
Quickly, he charged to the dilapidated villain, cuffing him in a pair of winged-shaped cuffs from his utility belt.
"You fool, you know you haven't seen the last of me. It drives you crazy doesn't it Batsy? You can't stand that no matter how many times you capture me, I'll always come back. Ha ha ha! Your apprehension is in vein. I always come back; you'll never win! HaHa!"
"Shut up," Batman said to his constant laughing and banter, delivering a right hook to the Joker's face, knocking him out.
Batman carried Joker to a nearby street corner and radioed for police assistance through his utility belt. He still had to check on the welfare of the orphans that were captured. He knew that the Riddler was still out there as well. At least for now, this nightmare seemed to be over.
Noticing two squad cars pulling up the side of the street, he shot a grapple and disappeared over the ledge of a building.