The Joker is in this chapter near the end, I hope I do him justice I mean obviously Heath's performance was amazing, I've already read The Killing Joke a few times again to help me get into the mindset. Now without further adew the next chapter.
It had been about an hour since Bruce had left and naturally Emma was extremely restless. She even changed into a pair of jeans and a t shirt in case she had to leave the house for some reason. In order to keep herself busy and keep her mind off what was happening she began to wander around the house trying to picture what it would look like once the ideas she had told all the other workers would be put into place. She was carrying a flashlight using it to light her way since the power was still out in the house. She had a feeling Alfred was probably up worrying just as much as she was.
She was in one of the hallways when she though she heard someone behind her so she turned and looked expecting it to be Alfred, it wasn't in fact she had never seen this man before in her life.
"How did you get in here?" She asked taking a step away from the man as he approached her.
"Just wanted to get a better look at the dame who broke my brother's heart. Not that I can blame you too much I mean look at this place." Said the man gesturing to the grandeur of the hall.
Emma was about to say something when she heard the sound of someone loading a rifle. "I think it would be best if you called the police, Ms. Emma." Said Alfred from the other side of the hall holding a rather old looking rifle.
The man Emma assumed to be Mario let out a laugh. "Hey pal I'm the least of your worries."
"He's right Alfred, let not cause trouble and just let him leave. He's not the brains of the operation anyway."
"I'll give you to the count of ten to make yourself scarce."
"Alright old man, I gone." Said Mario walking down the hall. Emma heard the door slam when he left. "You know I had to do that because that rifle is really old and it would have probably miss fired if you used it."
"I was hoping it wouldn't have come to that but yes it probably would have." Said Alfred with a small smile.
"I'd better call Charlie." Said Emma no longer feeling safe at Wayne Manor.
"Em, I'm kind of busy." Said Charlie hastily when he picked up the phone.
"Mario was here at Wayne Manor, he's the one that cut the power and he got in the house, Alfred scared him off do you want me to go down to MCU or you apartment where we might be safer."
"MCU is closer from Wayne Manor, get yourselves there and don't stay out on the streets for too long okay?"
"Yeah, hey what's going on over there?" Asked Emma even though she had an idea.
"Something bad, Em. Just get yourself safe as soon as you can." Said Charlie before hanging up the phone.
"We're going down to MCU, get the car ready, I'll go wake Misty." Said Emma heading down the hall to where Misty was sleeping. She hit her with a pillow.
"What the fuck was that for it's like two in the morning." Mumbled Misty.
"We have to go down the MCU."
"Why the hell do we have to do there?"
"I'll tell you when you're more awake right now just get dressed and get moving." Said Emma leaving the room. Moving around and just taking it one step at a time was helping to calm her nerves. Everything was moving so quickly soon she found herself in the car Misty asleep next to her as Alfred sped down the road to MCU. It didn't help her nerves at all however when she noticed the thick cloud of smoke that was coming from the direction of Arkham. She hoped Bruce was alright. Once at MCU they went to Charlie's office to camp there until he got back and could fill them in on what was going on. Emma continued to pace around the office wondering what was going on. Judging by the smoke The Joker must have escaped she just hoped it wasn't true.
An hour passed and then Emma saw Charlie and Gordon walk past the office in a hurry taking the stairs up to the roof. She couldn't wait any longer so she followed them up there. They were both heading over to a dark figure that was standing over by a floodlight with the bat symbol on it. She approached the group quietly hoping to pick up on some of their conversation.
"He's long gone by now, we're not going to be able to find him until he wants to be found." Said Gordon with a sigh rubbing his tired eyes.
"I'll deal with The Joker, you worried about how Mario and Alberto Viti play into this. Someone hacked the power and they knew what they were doing, they're trying to distract us." Said Batman who Emma was glad to see looked relatively unharmed. However Emma also noticed him looking at her and he didn't look very happy. Gordon and Charlie followed his gaze.
"Charlie get her out of here." Said Gordon sounding anry he was worried Batman would leave because of Emma's arrival.
"Em, I bet you're tired why don't you go back downstairs." Said Charlie quickly heading over to her.
"Mario Viti was at Wayne Manor, he must have been the one to cut the power there. I came here cause I didn't think it was safe there at the moment." She said ignoring Charlie's attempt to lead her downstairs and heading towards Gordon and Batman. She noticed he clenched his jaw when he heard her say this. He hadn't thought about the fact that the intruder might still be on the premises he cursed his careless, he had out Emma in danger.
"I've already told Barbara to take the kids and go up to their grandmother's house, Charlie's already told Sarah to go back to her parent's house as well. I think it might be best if you tired to convince that new boyfriend of yours to take you on a long trip to Tahiti of something." Said Gordon looking at her with concern.
"Look, I might be able to help you guys. I've been living with Todd for months and all his stuff is still back at the apartment, plus I think it's better if we both stay in Gotham. Bruce has work."
"It would be safer for you to leave the city, with The Joker on the loose." Said Batman with a hard glare.
"It probably would, but I can't." Said Emma glaring back at him.
"Do you two know each other?" said Charlie regarding the exchange with interest.
"Yeah, he's saved my life a few times." Said Emma quickly covering for them.
"Emma's right though she might actually be able to help with the Viti Family issue." Said Gordon. Batman was still glaring at her and she knew they would be having their first fight as a couple about all of this later. She looked back at Gordon for what seemed a mere moment and then she looked back and her was gone. Gordon followed her gaze as did Charlie.
"I really fucking hate that when he does that." Grumbled Charlie.
"Is Mr. Wayne here with you now?" Asked Gordon.
"No, he uh had some business call to make. I left a message on his phone he knows we're here." Said Emma her mind reeling from what had just happened. The Joker was out of Arkham making life so much more difficult and she found herself wishing it were yesterday when she didn't have a care in the world.
Emma, Alfred, Misty, Charlie and Gordon were sitting in Gordon's office when Bruce arrived sometime later.
"Hey did anyone see all that smoke, it made traffic a bitch." Said Bruce entering the room looking tired.
"The Joker just broke out of Arkham Mr. Wayne sorry in inconvenienced you." Said Gordon in a irate tone.
"Okay, do you what to fill me in about what's going on?" He said ignoring Gordon's comment and kissing Emma on the forehead. She couldn't help but wonder how he didn't get tired of all this pretending he didn't have a clue what was going on business.
"I think Gordon about summed it up. The Joker broke out of Arkham and he's now on the loose out there somewhere planning to do god knows what."
"I see, should I be worried about my safety?"
"God are you bipolar or something? Since when did you act like such an asshole I though Gordon was crazy for saying some of the things he says about you." Said Charlie regarding Bruce with a strange look.
"Hey I'm tired. You try and talk to people who speak broken English and yammer on to each other in Japanese for a few hours and then see how you feel." Said Bruce with a glare. He turned his attention to Emma. "Can I talk to you in private for a second?"
"Sure." Said Emma with a sigh knowing what this was about. He took her hand to help her out of her seat and the couple walked into an empty office to have what Emma thought would be an argument.
"I can't believe I just left you there when Mario was in the house." He said with a sigh.
"It wasn't you're fault you had more important things to deal with." Said Emma knowing he was beating himself up over it.
"You could have died, he could have killed you." He said pulling her closer to him.
"I could say the same for you. Look we're both alive so let's not worry about the past. What are we going to do, Bruce?"
"We can stay at the penthouse. It overlooks the whole city I can take the tunnel under Wayne Tower to get to the cave every night, it will take longer but at least I'll know you're safe." He said caressing her cheek she leaned into his touch.
"I thought you were going to try and send me away."
"I don't want to have a fight over it so I'll let you stay, plus you would probably have a panic attack or something."
"I just hate not knowing if you're going to come home." Said Emma resting her head against his chest. Bruce was about to respond when Misty popped her head in the door and said "Oye lovebirds, Gordon wants you back in his office."
Once back at the office Gordon address Emma. "Emma we have a safe house set up for you in MCU to stay in just as a precaution in case Mr. Gellerman or rather Viti attempts any form of revenge on you."
"Did the Joker break out of MCU? If Mr. Gellerman wanted him too don't you think the Joker could find him a way in?" Said Bruce gripping Emma's hand tighter.
"They where to you suggest she says Mr. Wayne because she's not staying back that the Manor where people already broke in."
"Bruce said I could stay at his penthouse." Said Emma. "I would like to be able to have Bruce saying with me, I don't get to see him much."
"Alright fine. Now Misty you're thinking of heading back to London right?"
"Yeah, I'm beginning to remember why I left this hell hole in the first place."
"Aw Misty you're leaving." Said Emma sad her best friend wouldn't be around anymore.
"Yeah, you know it probably won't be for long though, I'll come back to be you're maid of honor at your next wedding." Said Misty with a wink.
"Next wedding? I've technically never had one yet thank you very much." Said Emma with a smirk. The nice think about her friends was that even when the going got tough they were always able to still find something to joke about.
"Yeah but then again that might not happen either." Said Charlie.
"Why?" said Misty with interest.
"Cause Emma's been Batman's damsel in distress." Said Charlie with a laugh.
Emma just rolled her eyes. Bruce laughed as well and said "Should I be worried then?" to Emma.
"Oh you should be very worried. I'm thinking of leaving you for him next I have a big weakness for Kevlar." She said with a laugh giving him a kiss on the cheek. Bruce shared in her laugh no one else got the irony of the joke like the couple did.
"Gordon since you don't like Bruce very much how would you feel about Emma dating Batman." Said Charlie with a laugh.
"I don't think that would ever happen. Charlie I think we have some more serious issues to be dealing with right now. Why don't you go home get some rest and say goodbye to your girlfriend. I'm going to do the same. I suggest the rest of you get some sleep." Said Gordon to everyone else in the office.
"Shall we go to the penthouse then Master Wayne and then tomorrow we may retived whatever we might need from the Manor?" Said Alfred.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea Alfred."
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"Ni-ce h-ideout, seeing as it ah us-ed to be my h-ideout." Said slurring voice Alberto had only ever heard on TV.
"My brother and I helped you escape…" Said Alberto turning to face the clown. Much to his surprise the Joker's face was already covered in the smeared greasepaint and eerie red smile on his face.
"Rea-lly you kil-lled those two guards? Dislocated my shoulder so I could slip out of the straight jacket? Then blew the place up?" The Joker said cocking his head to the side at the question. "My mis-take they must have me on more meds then I thought, could have sworn it was me." Said the Joker with a laugh that made Alberto's hair stand on end. Alberto noticed he was not in his classic purple suit but an orange Arkham issued jumpsuit.
"I disabled the automatic doors figured you could do the rest yourself." Said Alberto not really sure what to do now that the Joker was just standing there in the warehouse.
"We-ll, aren't you us-eful." Said The Joker heading towards where Alberto was standing but only so he could reach for a letter opener that was sitting on the desk.
"Look we're not going to get in your way you just do whatever you want and we will do whatever we want."
The Joker began to examine the letter opener. "Doesn't qu-ite work that way, what's your name again?"
"T-Alberto." Said Alberto almost saying Todd instead.
"Talberto?" Said The Joker questioningly but before Alberto could answer he said with a shrug "Eh, I've heard stranger, anyway Talberto, it doesn't qu-ite work that way, you see this city, it's my city, I don't like to share so…" Said The Joker pausing for a moment before saying "So Talberto do you want to know how I got these scars."
"No…not really." Said Alberto feeling fear run through his veins.
"You seem like a pre-tty smart guy Talberto and smart guys, they like to live as long as possible right? So, I think you should, ah t-ell your brother that the two of you, work for me now." Said The Joker pocketing the letter opener.
"But…"
"Ah ta ta ta, no buts." Said The Joker in a tone one might use to scold a small child. "Do you want to live a little longer or what Talberto?"
"Fine, what do I have to do?" He said not liking this idea much at all however it did seem a better idea then death by letter opener.
"Right!" Said the Joker in an excited tone. "First order of business, orange isn't really my color so let's fix that shall we? Then you'll need to get some masks, rope, fuses, gasoline, you uh might want to write this down Talberto." Said the Joker pausing in his list and waiting until Alberto got a pen a paper to write it all down before resuming. "sawdust, lye, knifes lots of them, guns lots of those, loud ones too, dynamite…actually better idea I'll just come with you." Said the Joker with a leering grin.
Alberto crumpled up the list. "You've got to be kidding me…" mumbled Alberto under his breath. How could this guy just think he could just barge in and take control of the entire operation?
"Oh course I am." Said The Joker with a whooping laugh hearing what Alberto mumbled. "You didn't really need to write it all down, I have a good memory. I told you if you joined my team I'd let you live longer, I'm a man of my word Talberto."
There you have it another chapter. Hope you enjoyed don't forget to review please.