Sorry I haven't updated in awhile folks! Summer vacation and all that. But anyway I will just get to the point and you all know what to do, read and review. HEY I RHYMED :D lol okay on with the show now

….

Chapter 17

Nicole looked at Mara with horror filled eyes. Her body was leant forward on her chair, and you could smell the burns from her electrified body. She was still alive, but that shock wasn't exactly good for her. The Joker was still giggling madly at the unconscious girl and her agape friend. "Well," he said while his giggles started to slow down. "That was very shocking wasn't it?" The Clown Prince of Crime then started to cackle at his pun. Nicole felt her face get hot.

"HOW DARE YOU? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? SHE COULD HAVE DIED! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I WILL…." Nicole savagely struggled against her bonds not even finishing her own sentence. She wanted to get free just to strangle the mad clown for nearly killing her best friend. The Joker chuckled darkly at her efforts.

"My, aren't we in a mood. Struggle all you want, kiddo, you aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

Nicole struggled against her bonds until she ran out of energy; she was still weak from her shocks so she didn't struggle that long. She glared at the Joker with fury.

"Batman will stop you, just as he always has. He will bring your sorry, demented ass back to Arkham. You never win, don't you see that? What makes this time any different than any of your other lame, destined to fail schemes?" Nicole spat.

The Joker slapped her across the face and held her chin to force the teen to look up at him, leaning down to her with an insane smile and look in his eyes. "Because this isn't some little heist or scheme. This is for the sanity of two little brats and even the sanity of Batman. And I WILL win this, I assure you. Now I would suggest you pipe down and be a good little girl, or I will finish off your friend. GOT IT?"

Nicole looked away from him, not wanting this mad man to hurt her friend anymore. The Joker smiled sickly sweet. "Good girl." He patted her head much to Nicole's dismay. "Now I will be back in a bit, so don't go anywhere." The Joker laughed and walked out of the room, slamming the door as he left. Nicole looked at Mara; she was still unconscious, but breathing.

"Mara?" Nicole whispered over to her friend, seeing if she could respond. "Mara?"

Nicole could see Mara's body moving a bit, and Nicole tried again. "Mara, are you okay?" She knew this was a dumb question since she was electrified with around 7 or so thousand volts.

"N-no. Dude…..my whole body hurts…it hurts to move."

"I know. It will be okay, we'll get out of here, don't worry."

Mara was breathing heavily as she struggled to stay conscious. The zap she got from the Joker did a number on her you could say. It was a miracle she was even alive. "What if we don't?"

This made Nicole's heart skip. "Of course we are, Bruce will save us; he always saves the day."

"But what if Joker actually wins this time? What if we don't get out of this alive?"

Mara then fell back into unconsciousness, the pain consuming her. Nicole was left alone to ponder Mara's questions. What if Bruce didn't save them this time, what if she and Mara were doomed to be in the mad clowns clutches until they are driven to insanity…..or worse?

Nicole looked down to the floor with misty eyes. She hadn't cried in years, considering she was usually pretty happy and didn't show those kind of emotions usually. But this was different, she was near her breaking point, and she barely felt hope at all.

"Bruce where are you?"

….

Bruce had taken the day off from Wayne Industries for "personal business" to everyone else. But to him, it was so he can have more time finding the girls. It was around 5pm the next day, and even though he had been answering some calls for business he was in the Batcave, searching as diligently as ever for the teenagers. But it was hard to Bruce when he had to lie to Mr. Travis about Nicole and Mara.

"How are they?" he had asked him earlier in the day. "Are the behaving okay?"

"Yes they are just fine." After that the disguised Dark Knight went back to his work and said he was busy. He didn't want to tell Mr. Travis that the 14 year olds had been taken by the Joker, just so he wouldn't worry himself to death. Like Bruce was.

He searched in the cave for all possible hideouts, but all inconclusive. He sat in his chair and put his chin in his hand, trying to locate the exact spot of the hideout and the girls were. He had been doing this a lot since they disappeared and he was getting sick of it. Sick of wondering if they were okay. He needed to KNOW they were safe, he had to get them away from that monster before he hurt them….or killed them.

Alfred brought tea down. "Tea, sir?"

"No thanks, Alfred. I need to concentrate on this."

The butler sighed. "No luck, I take it?"

The Caped Crusader sighed deeply. "No. There are too many places where they could be. None of them are the Joker's usual places. Warehouses might be the next place, but most of them are owned or rented by people.

"Perhaps maybe he rented one of them to confuse you sir, so you couldn't find them?"

That made Batman's senses ring loudly. "Of course! Why didn't I see it before?" Batman typed in the computer's data bases.

"See what before?" Alfred inquired.

"The Joker doesn't want to be caught this time, so to make sure I don't find him, he probably rented one of these warehouses for his use." He continued typing on the computer. "These warehouses were rented between the time the Joker escaped and when the girls disappeared." 9 ware house names appeared on the screen, warehouses for auto parts, old trading companies and things like that.

"Now 5 of these warehouses renters and owners are legit, well known people, so doubtfully he is any of those. So the Joker and the girls must be in one of these warehouse."These places were owned by some names he hadn't heard of before. They were names that probably hadn't existed until the person had rented the place.

"Great scot. Well perhaps this narrows down your search smaller sir." Alfred said.

"It narrows it down, but not good enough. The Joker might've rented all four of these ware houses, maybe none of them and is hiding the girls somewhere else. I need more to go on than this." He put his face in his hands. He hadn't gotten much sleep, and he was frustrated with himself that he had not a lot of clues to go on.

Alfred put his hand on Batman's shoulder. "I am positive you will find Ms. Nicole and Ms. Mara, sir. You are the world's greatest detective after all." He gave him a reassuring smile. It helped Bruce a bit, but it still didn't give him the facts he needed to find the teenagers. And he needed them; fast.

….

It had been a couple hours since the Joker left. Or maybe many hours, or even a day. Nicole didn't really have a good comprehension on time for the moment, but she knew she was hurting, and she had been there, tied to a wooden chair (which made a person sore after awhile by the way) for a long time. He probably left them there for so long just to mess with their heads, and no doubt he was going to come back. The question was when and what was he going to do when he does come back?

Mara hadn't woken up since the Joker left, but Nicole knew she was still alive since she could both hear and see her breathing. She needed medical attention, that was for sure, and probably Nicole too. They needed to figure out how to escape first or at least contact Bruce. She was groggy and tired, and her muscles ached from her shocks, but without a doubt Mara was worse off than her.

Nicole looked around the floor, looking for anything to cut her ropes. She searched until she saw a piece of sharp metal, a few feet away from her. What luck!

Nicole grinned, and looked at Mara then at the door, to see if the Joker might come in. She didn't hear any footsteps, so she decided now was a good time as ever to try and get that piece of metal. She rocked her chair with her body, no matter how much her muscles screamed in agony, until her chair finally fell to the side. It hurt when she landed but the teen didn't care. It took awhile for her to maneuver her way so her tied up hand could reach the piece of metal, but before long she got a hold of it and started cutting her way through the rope that held that hand. In a short time, the rope was cut, and she worked her free hand to cut her other hand, then the one against her chest, then her right leg then left leg, until she was free of all the ropes.

She inwardly screamed in joy that she freed herself and went over to Mara's chair. Right as she was about to start cutting, she realized that she was too hurt to drag along and she doubted she would wake up soon. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't escape with Mara being in the shape she was in. She had to leave her there, just until she could contact Bruce. Then she remembered something. Her cell phone! She had brought with her and forgot about it. She pulled it from her pocket, and was about to call, but decided she should do it in a more secluded spot so no one will hear her in case someone was watching. She limped to the door (she was limping because the Joker joy buzzed her on her leg which hurt her A LOT) and slowly opened it. She looked both ways and started down a hallway.

She finally found a spot secluded enough from distant voices she heard so she could make her saving call. She slid down on the floor and dialed Wayne Manor's number.

…...

Bruce paced across the Batcave floor for awhile, trying to piece together the clues he had to pinpoint the location of the jackanapes' location. He had pretty good clues, but he needed more. He would not fail the girls, he absolutely refused to.

A phone call came through the Batcave, which was connected to the Wayne Manor phone in case someone needed to contact Bruce Wayne while he was in the cave. He wasn't going to answer it but if people didn't hear from him they might get suspicious. He clicked a button on the Batcomputer. "Bruce Wayne here."

"Bruce?" Bruce's eyes widened. He knew that voice.

"Nicole, is that you?" Bruce asked with disbelief.

"Oh thank God you answered. I was afraid you wouldn't pick up and we might've…." He could hear tears welling up from the sound of her voice.

"Nicole, where are you? Are you and Mara alright?"

"The Joker tied us to chairs and shocked us with some sort of joy buzzer. I am okay, in pain a bit, bit better than Mara, she hasn't wakened up yet! I managed to escape and I'm hiding but I had to leave her tied up because she couldn't move."

"Where are you?" he said in his Batman voice, anger fueling it. How dare that psychopath electrocute them, and possibly seriously injuring Mara!

"We are at this abandoned ware house by the docks, some sort of old fish processing plant or something."

Batman looked at his list of ware house names, and one fish processing plant was on them. It was by the docks and rented out the day after the Joker escaped by a Joseph Kerr. It had to be the place!

"I'm on my way, Nicole. Don't move from your hiding spot."

"Okay just hur…." The phone died.

"Nicole? NICOLE!" Batman knew he had no more time to lose. He headed towards his Batboat to get to the docks.

….

And my evilness strikes again XD don't worry, I am already working on the next chapter so hopefully you guys won't have to wait as long for the next update. See ya soon!

~Luna