ATTENTION: IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON 2/22-23/2012 IT IS RECCOMMENDED THAT YOU MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER BEFORE READING THIS ONE. THE LATEST UPDATE CONTAINED 2 CHAPTERS POSTED WITHIN HOURS OF EACH OTHER. ALSO, HAVE MOLOSSUS ON CUE FOR THIS ONE.
Strange was lifted and thrown across the room by the force of Wonder Woman's tackle; he slammed into the wall, falling to the ground in a heap. The Joker leapt out of his seat, sending his popcorn flying all over the room. "Bravo!" He shouted enthusiastically, wildly clapping his hands. "Encore, encore!"
Wonder Woman crouched on the floor next to Batman and pulled his mask back on, carefully shielding him from the Joker's view. She tenderly lifted him into a sitting position, placing two fingers on his neck to make sure that he had a pulse. "Are you alright?"
"I'll make it." Batman grunted, massaging his neck. "What took you?"
"You're welcome." She said, rolling her eyes. "Some things never change."
Her banter was interrupted by a quiet chucking from the corner; even after being tackled and thrown into a solid wall by an Amazon warrior, Strange was still laughing. "Interesting... Most intriguing indeed." He said, doing his best to righten his position despite several cracked ribs. "I never would have guessed that after all you'd been through that you would have risked her safety. And of course, you had no protocols to counter her on your belt... You've been blinded by affection." He chuckled again... "But don't think that I'm above appreciating the irony... My plan was foiled because I overestimated you... But it will not happen again. Mark my words."
"No, it won't." Batman agreed, standing upright. "This isn't something to be coveted... The very fact that you want it so badly... Makes you unworthy. It's over, Strange."
"Poignant... But not... Quite... True." Strange groaned. Before either of the heroes could react, he'd pressed a button on his belt, releasing a cloud of thick grey smoke.
"DON'T BREATH IT!" Batman shouted, tossing Diana a gas mask from his belt, and pressing one onto his own face. "I can't see him. The gas is blocking all thermal signatures.
"I've got an idea." Wonder Woman said, her voice muffled by the mask. "Stand back."
There was an enormous crash, and a large chunk of the wall fell away, causing the gas to dissipate. Strange, the Joker, and Catwoman were all missing.
"This way!" Batman gestured through the open door. They barreled out into the hallway; Batman could just make out three distinct heat signatures at the end of the long passage.
It soon became evident why Strange's heat signature was showing up on Batman's scanners; he was lying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood. Batman could see that he was still alive, but just barely, and not for very long. His mask had been torn off, revealing a pair of small, squinty, beady eyes. The Joker was standing over him, a bloody serrated knife in his hand.
"Is there a doctor in the house?" He called down the hallway at the two heroes, who stopped short in shock. "No? Pity." He kicked Strange, forcing him to roll over and revealing a deep stab wound in the chest. "You see, maybe you should've gone to medical school like mummy said, but no. You just had to be a psychologist. That'll learn you won't it?" He cackled at his own demented joke.
"I did warn him." Batman said quietly to Wonder Woman. "Joker's partnerships never end well."
"What can I say?" The Joker grinned, holding his knife up against Catwoman's throat. "We Gothamites just don't play well with others. Do we, Bats? But really... He thought he could get away with killing me!" The Joker shook his head distastefully. "But I could have forgiven all of that, I've had more attempts on my life than I can count. Mind you, that's because of all of the times that I've nearly been killed, and not because I can't count. But he broke my one rule... YOU DON'T PEEK! How many times do I have to say it? You kill the Bat then you take off the mask. Otherwise it ruins the game for everyone else. If there's one thing that I can't respect, it's somebody who tries to cheat by reading the last page first. I don't know how he found out, but I guess you I've done you a favor, eh? It's alright, you can thank me later. For now, what do you say we have some fun?"
"It's over." Diana said, advancing slightly.
"Maybe so..." The joker tossed the knife directly downward, where it landed neatly in Strange's skull. "But that doesn't mean I have to go down without a fight!" He danced back and forth with his fists raised as though preparing for a boxing match. "Put 'em up, Princess!" He taunted.
"Have it your way, then."
"WAIT, DON'T-" Batman tried to stop her, but she'd already launched herself at the Joker, fist extended. The Joker responded with surprising agility, grabbing her wrist, right on her bracelet. Wonder Woman screamed as electricity jolted from the Joker's joy buzzer to her arm. The shock would have been more than enough to kill the average man; fortunately, Wonder Woman was not the average man, and was simply knocked unconscious.
"I guess I should've warned her, I'm pretty scrappy!" The Joker said, grinning at Batman. "Ah, well... See you 'round, Bats!" He grabbed Catwoman by the scruff of her neck and pulled her around the corner, into another office. Batman swore and gave chase. He kicked the door down, and charged through office after office, following the sound of Catwoman's muffled grunting. Finally, he managed to corner the Joker in a meeting room.
"Give up now, Joker. You have nothing to gain from this."
"Au contraire, Bat-Guano. You see, I had the nicest little scheme cooked up, until Professor Stiff told me to call it off. But now that he's taken care of, things are just the way they should be... Just you and me." The Joker's smile widened showing every one of his yellowed teeth. "Oh... And her, I guess." He added as an afterthought, gesturing towards Catwoman.
Batman carefully approached the Joker, keeping a sharp eye out for traps. The Joker didn't so much as move a muscle until Batman was mere feet away. Suddenly, he flung his joy buzzer out, placing his open palm against Batman's chestplate. Batman made no attempt to stop him, knowing full well that he'd be protected by his insulated armor.
"Aw, Batsy... It's not enough to kill my figurative buzz, you have to get the literal one too... Hey, have you been working out? Not a bad six-pack, Bats! Are we trying to impress somebody?" He gave Batman a knowing wink. "You know, Bats, you and Blunder Woman really should double date with me and Harls sometime, it could be fun! Speaking of which... HARLEY! Get in here and kick Batman's ass for me!"
Batman froze, waiting for the telltale sound of the Joker's acrobat sidekick cartwheeling into the room (she was anything but quiet), but it never came.
"Oh, silly me!" The Joker exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "She's still back at the asylum! Man, is she going to be ticked!" Batman remained suspicious; the Joker still wasn't showing any signs of distress. "Can you believe me, Batsy? Forgetting my girlfriend like that... Ah, No matter! I'll just have to borrow yours!" He clapped his hands twice.
Batman's eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you-" But his question was answered before he'd even finished asking it. The was a thunderous crash, and a red blur sped towards Batman, having just crashed through the wall. The Dark Knight threw the Joker aside, managing to jump out of the way just in time. Wonder Woman ground to a halt just before she smashed through the wall. As she turned around, Batman immediately took note of the blank expression on her face and the small white tag that was propped in her tiara; telltale signs of the Mad Hatter's mind control technology. "Great. Just great..."
"You know, you really should be more careful about what you leave lying around!" The Joker cackled. "But you know what they say... One man's trash is another man's treasure!" He laughed as Wonder Woman charged at Batman, coming even closer than the previous time. "You know what? I'm actually impressed! Hell, I think I might've found Harley's replacement! Once you're out of the picture, of course."
Batman ignored the Clown's raving; Diana wasn't holding back, which was a truly frightening thought. 'Alright... First things first.' He thought, calming himself and establishing target objectives. He pulled out his grapple gun and aimed at the Joker; his shot was a success, clamping onto the Clown's shoulder.
"What are you doin' Bats? You can't- Ah, fudge." Batman yanked the cord, pulling the Joker into the path of the rampaging Amazon. She plowed through him, knocking him out and giving Batman several precious milliseconds to dodge. In the seconds that he had to spare while she readjusted herself, he wrapped the cord from his gun around the table and secured the Joker, whom he hastily tossed out the window, where he remained suspended in midair.
"J'onn, can you hear me?" Batman franitically tried to make contact with the Watchtower, but his communications were being scrambled. "Dammit. Just my luck..." He grabbed Catwoman off the floor, flung her over his shoulder and sprinted from the room. "Hold on." He muttered to his ally, taking a small device that resembled a glue gun from his belt. As quickly as he could, he used the device to draw a large circle of some sort of foamy gel around himself and Catwoman. As Diana came screaming around the corner, he double-tapped the trigger of the device, causing the gel to explode, blowing a sizable hole in the floor. The Bat and the Cat fell down to the enormous production room of the factory. Using the rising dust as a smokescreen, Batman dragged Catwoman to shelter behind a large machine. He roughly pulled off the tape that covered her mouth, and pulled enough tape off of her arms that she could begin to free herself."
"Terrific." She moaned. "This is going to take forever to clean up... Do you have any idea how hard it is to get tape residue off of leather? On second thought, don't answer that. On third thought, do answer that. In detail."
"We have bigger things to worry about than a ruined catsuit." Batman growled.
"Speak for yourself, rich boy. Some of us can't afford to go out and buy a new suit whenever it strikes our fancy. Bruce Wayne, I ask you! Gotta say, I've considered trying to rob you before, but you're at the top of my list now."
"Focus, Selina." Batman grimaced. "We have about thirty seconds before we're found by a berserk Amazon. If you want out, do it fast."
"Hmm... That or stay and fight off the most powerful superheroine on the planet... Aw, hell. I've got nine lives, I can spare one or two."
"Good. Mad Hatter's controlling her. His tech is short range, so he'll be in the building." He handed her a small handheld computer. "Use this to track the signal and kill it. I'll draw her attention, but I don't know how long I can hold her off."
"You can't just take the tag off?"
"Not without scrambling her brains."
Without another word, he hurled an explosive batarang at a wall, and jumped out behind it. Catwoman was easily able to slip out the other way without being seen. 'You owe me bigtime, Bats...' She thought as she scaled up through the hole that he'd made back to the second floor. 'And this time, I'm collecting. Cash.'
As Batman had feared, the Mad Hatter's Mind control had removed all of Wonder Woman's inhibitions. She held nothing back, meaning that Batman risked broken bones with every punch. 'Focus...' he thought, gritting his teeth. 'There's no way that I can taker her like this, she's too strong... She's not in her right mind... Normally she'd be too smart to go hand-to-hand with, but I'll have to count on the mind-control nullifying her training.'
Forcing Diana into hand to hand-to-hand combat proved difficult enough in itself; he was forced to stop her in her tracks by taking a blow with his left arm. The shock plates that would have held up so well against a strike from a baseball bat did little to protect him from her fury, and he felt the bones in his arm snap. 'Stay focused...' He repeated to himself, forcing himself to fight through the pain. His left arm was useless, but in her brainwashed state, Diana's melee form was severely lacking. He was able to fend off several punches and kicks by deflecting at the right angles, but he knew that his luck was bound to run out. "I hate to do this... He said apologetically, dodging a punch and grabbing her head. "But you aren't leaving me much of a choice. He threw her head down as hard as he could slamming it into the concrete floor. There was little effect, aside from a large crater in the concrete. 'Come on, Selina...'
'Not much further... Here!' Catwoman slowly pushed open an office door, and carefully slunk in. The desk faced away from the door, so she could see the numerous computer monitors, all of which showed Batman and Wonder Woman's brawl. Sitting with his back to the door was a rather small man wearing a ludicrously large green top hat. He was issuing orders into a microphone in his tiny, squeaky voice.
"Not like that, not like that!" He said; his voice had a shaky quality that made him sound rather unstable. "Crush his lungs! Don't punch the face! You'll break the cowl! Don't break the cowl! I need the cowl! For the collection! The cowl and the tiara, all mine! Oh, happy day!"
'Sorry, Jervis...' Catwoman thought as she snuck up behind him. "But not today." She finished as she wrapped her arms around his neck to cut off bloodflow and knock him out. "Ok... To business." She took a look at the computer before her, and realized that Batman had neglected one crucial detail; she had no idea how to shut down the complex device. She looked at the screen and immediately knew that she had no time to go back and ask him; Wonder Woman had pushed him to the ground, and was currently obeying the Mad Hatter's order to crush his lungs. She had his arms pinned with her legs, and was pressing firmly on his chest with her elbows. "Oh, Hell..." The Cat murmured, praying for the best. "Here goes something..." She tore the outer shell off one of the computer terminals and ripped out a large handful of wire and circuit boards.
Bruce heard the steady cracking of his ribs cracking as Diana pressed on his chest. Suddenly, her eyes glazed over, and her left eye twitched rapidly. Without warning, she fell forward, landing on top of him with her head facing down right next to his. "Diana..." He croaked, finding it difficult to speak. "Diana?"
She stirred slightly, but didn't stand. "Argh..." She groaned. "My head... What happened?"
"A lot." Between his cracked ribs and her weight on his chest, he was in a good deal of pain, but he was too relieved to care.
"Is it over?" She asked groggily. "Did we win?"
He reached around to pat her on the back. "It's over... We won."
Author's Note: If you see anything in this chapter that doesn't add up, please contact me so I can either fix it or me it clearer; this would be a bad time for the story to fall to pieces.
Well, there you have it. I really don't have much to say about it, I just hope it's good enough. I'll be posting a short epilogue tomorrow... And that'll be it. Kind of sad, actually. It really doesn't seem like it lasted that long. Barely a month. Funny.
If you have a moment, stop to tell me what you thought of the story; I can't tell you how much I love reading people's thoughts. Not like that, on paper.