Nightmare in Arkham
Chapter 27: "Judge"
-The rubber bag containing Selina Kyle's seared corpse was zipped up, placed in a black hearse, and wheeled away as a massive crowd of reporters, shaken patients, hospital staff, police officers, crying children, and curious pedestrians gathered in front of the hospital in a frenzy of shouting, crying, pushing, shoving, and panic. The only silent people in the crowd were Commissioner Gordon and Dick Grayson. The two walked straight through the crowd of news reporters without a single word or acknowledgement as they shoved microphones and cameras in the Commissioner's face and bombarded him with questions about the safety of the hospital and whether or not this was an isolated incident or if there was a connection linking all of the recent deaths. He got into his car, waited for Dick to get in on the passenger side and drove away to bring Dick back home. As he was passing the hospital, he glanced out his window and looked up at the roof where he could see a dark figure sitting alone.
-"God, I hope he'll be okay," he murmured
-"He will be," Dick said, "It takes time, but even the death of a loved one is something you can move past. I know from experience." Jim nodded and Dick wished he felt as confident about his words as Bruce did when he first took him in.
Batman sat alone on the hospital roof gazing down at the pandemonium. He looked like a stone gargoyle sitting atop a cathedral. He felt as if a serpent were moving inside him. He could hear it rattling inside of his brain, slithering inside of his chest and constricting his heart, and hissing in his ears.
-"Lovely view," the Joker said to Batman as he looked down on the chaos like he was looking at New York from the top of the Empire State Building. Batman said nothing.
-"Oh come now Bats, lighten up. She was bound to run out of lives sooner or later. Hell, I've lost the only one I ever had and you don't see me getting all stone-faced." Still, Batman said nothing.
-The Joker gave a glum sigh. Then he smiled like he had suddenly gotten an idea.
-"Boink", the Joker playfully cooed as he poked the side of Batman's head, "Boink, Boink, Boink, Boink, Boink,"
-Every time the Joker poked Batman, it felt as if the snake inside of him was sinking its fangs into his brain. He could feel the venom coursing through his veins, shutting his mind and body off from reality. His thoughts began to blur, his vision narrowed, and his blood raced and burned with toxicity that could only be neutralized with one thing: vengeance.
-"Come on, humor me a little," Joker said in a cheerful voice, "Ya know what they say: a laugh a day keeps the gloom away." Batman still said nothing, but he did ball his hands into fists.
-Seeing that he finally got a reaction out of the Dark Knight, the Joker pressed further.
-"Okay, how's about a joke? I know you weren't a huge fan of my jokes in the past but I've recently come up with a few that will even have Selina rolling in her grave with laughter!" Now Batman's body was starting to quiver with rage.
-"Why'd the cat cross the road...to show it had guts. And boy did it ever have guts."
-Batman slowly and mechanically turned his head toward the Joker.
-"So a bat and a cat both walk into a bar-"
-Batman grabbed the Joker by the throat and slammed his fist into his gut. He then hurled the Joker on the ground, leapt on top of him and repeatedly plowed his fists into the Joker's face with such force that the ground began to crack. When Batman finally ceased, there was nothing but the battered concrete beneath him. Then Batman heard a whistle from behind him. He turned around and saw the Joker standing behind him.
-"Missed me!" the Joker said, then he ran over to the edge of the building while mimicking the Three Stooges: "WOBOOBOOBOOOBOOOBOOO!"
-Batman let out an angry, almost feral cry of rage before charging his nemesis like an enraged bull. The Joker casually stepped over the edge of the building as if he were simply falling into a swimming pool. Batman lunged over the side of the building, but not with the intent of saving the Joker. Batman didn't care whether or not he was chasing a ghost, all his boiling mind knew was that the disgusting waste of human life that had tormented him for far too long was going to die at his hands.
-The two long clashing enemies where halfway to the ground when the Joker shot Batman a wicked smile before abruptly grabbing onto the sill of an open window and flinging himself into the building. Batman fell past the window but quickly shot his grapple gun through the window and jolted himself right back toward it. The second Batman's hand grabbed a hold of the windowsill he bashed his way through it, sending glass and wood flying across the room. Barbara Gordon and Dr. Thompkins screamed in horror at the sudden break-in but Batman ignored them and bolted out the door nearly ripping it off the hinges. In the hall, Batman's blood-red vision caught sight of the Joker and he raced for him.
-He chased the killer clown down a winding stairwell and burst into the hospital lobby where a large number of the hospital patients were still standing. Everyone turned in the direction of the Caped Crusader and watched as he ran to the glass door shouting, "Don't let him get away!"
-He ran toward the automated glass door and, before it even had time to open, Batman burst through it and into the crowd sending them scattering like a flock of birds.
From the window, Barbara and Dr. Thompkins watched in horror as Batman took to the streets in a relentless chase after his own insanity.
Within the dream world Alice, Edward, Harvey, and Bane were still inside the courthouse calling out Victor's name and getting no response.
-"Christ, this is getting us nowhere," Edward said with frustration, "I say we split up."
-"No," Alice quickly responded, "That's just what he wants."
-"With all due respect, Dr. Johnson," Bane said, "Edward does have a point. And besides, even if everything you said is true, if this Freddy person is real, why has he not taken us all? Based on what you have told us, he sounds more than capable of doing so."
-"Yeah," Edward responded, "And for that matter, he's in our dream. And you are looking at the King of Minds."
-Alice shook her head, "You don't understand, none of you do. You have no idea of what we're up against."
-"I say we flip on it," Harvey said.
-"For once I agree," Edward responded.
-"No God damnit!" Alice said growing irritated, "I'm telling you that it is in your best interest to stick with me!"
-"And I'm telling you you're crazy," Edward responded.
-Alice was about to yell but Bane intervened, "Stop it! Both of you!" Then he turned his attention back to Alice, "Look, we all appreciate your concern. But, we have been making very minimal progress with maximum effort. And if this truly is a dream, then we have nothing to fear. Dreams are simply lies that one tells oneself in slumber."
- She grabbed Bane's arm and pointed to the bite mark.
-"Look at this Bane!" Alice dabbed her finger on the bite mark and held it up so Bane could see the blood, "Does this look like a lie to you? Does it feel like a lie?"
-"Ha," Bane scoffed with a smile, "I became immune to pain long ago. This is but a flesh-wound."
-Alice screamed through her teeth while grabbing and squeezing clumps of her hair, nearly shedding tears of frustration.
-"I am trying to protect you!" Alice screamed, "Why can't you understand that?"
-"Because you've been hiding this from us," Edward answered. "Let's say for a moment that everything you've told us is true. Let's say that for the past month, some new maniac has been hunting us down and killing us off one by one in our sleep. Why didn't you tell us this from the start? You knew what was going on this whole time and you kept it a secret from us. So the way I see it, we have two possibilities: one, you're more insane than the rest of us, or two, you're in on this conspiracy. Hell, maybe you're actually this, this…Teddy Cougar or whoever masquerading as Dr. Johnson."
-Edward's theory caused Bane and Harvey to slowly turn an eye to Alice, who now had her mouth open out of both shock and resentment.
-"No…No! No, how could you even think-"
-Edward turned to Harvey, "Mr. Dent, if you please…"
-Harvey took out his coin and tossed it into the air. He held out his hand, waiting for it fall back down into his palm, and was shocked when it landed right-side up. The coin stood up by itself for a few seconds before rolling out of Harvey's hand and onto the floor where it began to seemingly roll away of its own will.
-As Harvey chased after his coin, Edward let out an exasperated sigh.
-"To Hell with this," then he turned to Bane, "I'll check upstairs you, check downstairs. Holler up to me if you find Victor, and you," Edward turned to Alice, "Try not get anymore of us killed okay?" Then he walked away.
-Alice ran after him, nearly blind with rage, but Bane caught her arm and Alice watched Edward vanish up the stairs.
-"Do not mind him Dr. Johnson," Bane said trying to calm her, "That pretentious jackass is too smart for his own good. The 'King of Minds' will get crowned on the head hard one of these days."
-"Oh Jesus Christ don't you get it?" Alice said sounding defeated, "That's exactly what I'm afraid of. This is how I lost my son: no one would listen." A tear rolled down Alice's cheek.
-Bane gently placed his massive hand down on Alice's and said to her softly, "Mind over matter. That is what you have always taught us, no? That is the key here. If we can remain in control of our minds then the obstacles of this world will be no threat to us." Alice looked up at Bane. "I am sorry about your little niño, but we can handle ourselves. You need not fear our safety. Believe me, we have all dealt with nightmares far worse than this."
-And with that, Bane left Alice alone. Her final thought: God, if I ever needed a cigarette.
-Alice stepped outside leaving the door open in case something went wrong as she took her breather. She reached into her coat pocket, took out a cigarette pack, and placed her last cigarette between her lips. Alice felt a moment of relief as she exhaled the fumes in a gaseous cloud of nicotine, tar, and smoke. As she placed the cancer stick back in her mouth the door slammed shut.
Alice spun around with a startled gasp, the cigarette nearly falling from her lips. Alice banged on the door demanding her patients to open it. Then surprisingly it did open (just a crack).
-Alice grabbed the door and flung it open revealing an endless void of darkness. As Alice starred into the abyss, a pair of glowing green eyes with thin, black slits appeared.
-Alice barely had time to gasp before a large, black arm shot out from the doorway and grabbed her by the throat. Then, a silver arm slowly rose out the darkness sporting five metal claws. The claws looked like Freddy's, but were longer and curved like a pair of razor talons.
-The claw moved up toward Alice's face and plucked the still burning cigarette from her lips. The claw brought the cigarette toward the dark figure's face and placed it in its mouth. The creature blew smoke in Alice's face and she began coughing (even more so since she had something constricting her airway).
-"These things'll kill you, ya know," said a purring, female voice, "That's my job."
-Then the female creature extinguished the cigarette by pressing it against Alice's cheek, causing her grimace in pain. "Although," the creature said in a manner of consideration, "Killing you in the state you're in just wouldn't be any fun. So I tell you what: I'm going to give you two generous donations. First," the creature placed its index claw on Alice's bad arm and it gave off a faint, red glow. Then Alice's cast crumbled and, much to her surprise, her arm was fully healed. The creature dropped Alice as she coughed and gasped for breath.
-"Second, I'm going to give you a 30 second head start. It will make the chase a bit more interesting for me."
-Alice slowly began to back away. "One…two…skip a few…" Alice began running down the stone stairs of the courthouse, "twelve…skip a couple…make it double…" the creature waited until Alice had vanished from its sight before finishing with a toothy smile, "30".
MEANWHILE…
Poison Ivy ran for her life through the dark woods panting and crying as she pushed past branches and leapt over rocks and undergrowth. She dared not turn around. She didn't want to see the death that she knew was trailing close behind; she didn't want to see the moment when those claws would seize her and cut her open while her screams broke through the night.
-"Run, run, run as fast as you can! You can't escape me," A branch on one of the trees ahead of Ivy transformed into the Freddy's arm and his face appeared in the bark of the tree, "I'M THE BOOGEYMAN!"
-Ivy screamed as Freddy slashed his claw across her lumbar region, tearing four claw marks in her shirt. Ivy didn't slow down. she continued to run even as the algae-green blood oozed down her side and onto her leg. Then in the distance, she saw what appeared to be a rising stream of smoke.
-Hope started to emerge in Ivy's mind again and she dashed with everything that she still had in her toward the supposed campfire, screaming for help.
-But when she arrived at the source of the smoke, she saw that it was actually coming through a hole in the ground and the cause was the raging fire that was still burning in the Eden below the park. As Ivy started to back away from the hole a burst of flame erupted out of it like a geyser, launching Freddy high into the air where he landed gracefully on the ground as fireballs rained down like meteorites into the woods and set them ablaze. The force of the eruption knocked Ivy to the ground and she desperately tried to crawl away as the nightmare demon approached her, scraping its claws together like butcher knives ready to carve a Thanksgiving turkey.
-As Ivy was crawling away, she unwittingly pushed down on the car keys in her hand and a loud beep, beep echoed in the woods. Both Ivy and Freddy stopped at the strange noise. Then came the sound of tires speeding along the ground which grew louder and louder. Suddenly, a large, pink convertible appeared out of the darkness. It struck Freddy before he had a chance to react and ran him over.
-Ivy could not believe what she was seeing; her beloved Rose Bud had come to her rescue!
-She stared at the car, dumbstruck for a few moments before being snapped back to reality by the burning debris that was plummeting from the treetops. Ivy rushed to her car, hopped in, turned on the headlights, and started the motor. The car sprung to life as the tires tore at the earth beneath it, sending clouds of dust into the air. As Ivy was making her way onto a dirt trail that she knew would bring her to the city, she saw Freddy limping across the ground with a broken leg and arm. Out of both rage and spite, Ivy floored the gas and ran him over a second time. The car bucked off the ground as Freddy was crushed under the massive weight. As Ivy sped down the road, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw a large tree that had been fully engulfed in flames crash to the ground right on top of Freddy. The tree then broke through the ground and was completely incinerated in the fire within the cavern. A massive wall of flames erupted from the ground and Ivy began laughing hysterically both out of relief and triumph.
-"Burn in Hell you son-of-a-bitch!" She shouted into the night.
MEANWHILE…
-Edward Nygma ascended the staircase in the courthouse and when he reached the top, he noticed a green light ominously glowing in the far corner of the hallway. He approached it slowly and attentively, yet as he drew nearer he seemed to become mesmerized by whatever it was. It seemed to slowly pull him in like a moth to a flame. When he reached it, he was puzzled to find himself starring at a green question mark. Something in Edward's mind instinctually told him to touch the mark, and he did.
-Then the question mark revealed a sentence in the form of a riddle: "The more there is, the less you see. What could it be?" Edward pondered for a moment before answering, "Darkness."
-The entire room went pitch black and the only light came from the question mark. Suddenly, the question mark slithered around Edward like a snake and constricted him while the period at the bottom wrapped itself around his face. Edward screamed and grabbed at his face trying to free himself. But then he felt something else on his face…it was his mask. Edward was now in his Riddler costume. Before he had a chance to question anything, he looked up and saw that there were now dozens of green question marks glowing all around him in the dark.
*As Bane was searching downstairs, he found his way to the back of the courthouse where he came across something that he hadn't noticed before: a basement. He descended the stairs and when he reached the bottom he found himself in the midst of a couple of dilapidated holding cells. When he approached the cell that was placed on the far side of the room, he was surprised to find that the cell actually contained a long dark tunnel that seemed to go on for miles. Bane called Victor's name but the only response he got was his own echo. Then a narrow line of ceiling lamps flashed on one by one down the tunnel. As if beckoned forward, Bane slowly made his way through the tunnel.
-As Bane walked down the mysterious passageway he noticed the walls were all covered in calendar pages, all of which dated farther back in time the farther Bane wandered. After walking down the passage for about five minutes Bane stepped on something that let out a squeak. Bane looked down at his feet and was dumbfounded to see Osoito, his little teddy bear from when he was just a small child. Bane turned the stuffed animal over and saw the incision he had made just below the head where he kept a knife hidden to protect himself from the violent criminals of Peña Duro.
-"Es mi infancia," Bane said to himself in disbelief. Then without warning, all of the calendar pages violently flew from the wall as if they were being pulled into a tornado. Bane was startled as the pages encircled and engulfed him like a flock of angry birds. He tried to fight his way through the unrelenting cyclone of paper long forgotten by time but there was no way out. As Bane tried to fight his way through, his massive foot stomped down on a stone tile and the floor beneath him broke open sending him and his long lost memory from childhood plunging into a dark abyss. Looking down, Bane could see a slab of concrete that he was mere seconds away from colliding with. He shut his eyes and with a loud crash, everything went black.
*Harvey Dent's coin continued to roll away from its keeper until it entered the courtroom. There it began rolling faster directly toward a crevice in the ground. Harvey screamed and leapt for his precious coin. However, just as the coin reached the edge of the crevice, it stopped and fell onto its side. Harvey landed on the ground a few inches behind the coin and as he gazed at it, he saw that it landed with a result of tails. This caused a disturbance in the former District Attorney's mind. But before Harvey could dwell on the feeling for too long, the coin sprang up in the air with a loud ring. It fluttered in mid air for a second or two before landing in the open palm of Freddy Krueger, who sat lazily in the defendant's chair with his legs resting up on the stand.
-"Finally we meet face 2face," Freddy said with a devious grin.
-Harvey gasped in horror at the sudden appearance of the monstrosity that now sat before him clutching the very object that made him everything that he was.
-Freddy let out a reminiscent sigh, like an old man sitting in a rocking chair on his front porch remembering the good ole days.
-"Oh Harvey, Harvey, Harvey Dent…I have so many fond memories of this room," He turned to Harvey with a dark smile, "It's been years since I've sat in this chair. Back then I was facing up to twenty life sentences. But I dodged them all. And all because someone fucked up. But hey, that's the justice system for ya. Course, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you Mr. Dent?"
-Harvey was furious. He wanted nothing more than to leap onto this abomination and smash its face in.
-"But that's all in the past," Freddy said rising from the defendant chair. Freddy moved over and took a seat at the highest point on the stand: the judge's chair.
-"You disgusting freak!" Harvey barked, "Give me back-"
-"Order in the court!" Freddy shouted pointing an accusing blade at Harvey.
-"Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent, you stand accused of murder, mayhem, robbery...and false identification. How do you plead?"
-Harvey was silent. His face tensed and he was beginning to sweat.
-"Oh come now, it's a simple question: guilty or not guilty? Don't tell me you actually need this to decide," Freddy said while mockingly holding up the coin. Now Harvey's rage had broken through.
-"Give me that!" He demanded in his Two-Face voice.
-"Sure," Freddy responded, "But only if you win."
-"What are you saying?" Two-Face snarled with a shaking temper.
-"I can see you're a gambling man Harvey, well so am I. But I prefer it when the rules aren't so black and white."
-Freddy tossed something to Two-Face and he caught it in his hands as it bumped into his abdomen. When he looked in his hands to see what it was, he was holding a set of red and green dice.
-Freddy tossed the coin in the air and when it reached its highest point it transformed into a rotating saw-blade. The blade descended and embedded itself into the ceramic floor tiles. Once in the ground it began spinning, sending dust flying through the air. Then it suddenly began to cut through the floor like a shark fin knifing through the surface of the ocean. Two-Face hastily dodged out of the path of the swirling blade as it carved out weird patterns and columns in the floor. Then the blade carved out what Two-Face could only imagine to be a boundary to conceal the strange handiwork it had set up around him. When the blade was finished, the part of the floor that remained outside of the boundary shattered into a million pieces along with the entire room and Two-Face was left standing in a dark void with only the dismantled floor supporting him.
-As Two-Face starred blankly at the floor, sections of it were abruptly scorched by a small flame and branded either a number or a name. Then the entire floor transformed into a Craps table.
-Two-Face turned around and gasped when he saw Freddy towering over him on the other side of the wall that had been created from the outer boundary.
-"What is this?!" Two-Face shouted up to him.
-"Why, this is your kind of game Harvey," Freddy responded, "Let's see if you can beat me at it."
-Freddy placed a small, circular chip on the FIELD, two chips on the 6 and 8 in the Big section, and one chip on the Don't Pass Bar. Two-Face remained on the PASS LINE.
-In a beam of light there emerged from the chips, like an alien beaming from a spaceship, a human being. But not just any human beings: the ones whose lives Harvey had gambled with or whom he had gambled his own life with.
-The chips on the 6 and 8 transformed into a pair of redheaded twins whom Two-Face recognized as the first henchmen he had ever recruited. The chip on the FIELD turned into stranger with a square jaw wearing a brown and blue jacket. Two-Face suddenly realized it was the thug who kicked mud on him years ago and the same one who caused the explosion that disfigured him. The thug smiled at Two-Face and Two-Face ran at him growling with rage but he was halted when he bumped into what seemed like an invisible wall. Feeling in front of him, Two-Face realized he was confined to the section of the table on which he stood. When the last chip materialized, Two-Face leapt back in absolute shock.
-Rupert Thorne, who had died years ago from a heart tumor, was now standing over Harvey looking just as smug as ever.
-Harvey was snapped out of his surprise when he heard the sound of Freddy shouting, "Let the good times roll!"
-After starring at the repulsive smiles of the scum from his past, Two-Face hurled the dice at Rupert Thorne but they stopped in midair after striking the invisible wall. The result came up 7.
-Thorne, the twins, and the person who created Two-Face, were all consumed by a burning light and disintegrated into nothing. Then Two-Face's section gave off a white, angelic glow. The glow moved from the floor to the disfigured part of Two-Face's body and when it faded, Harvey was astonished to find that his left hand was fully and completely healed. That's when he realized what sort of "game" he was playing: if he could out last the scum of the earth on the playing field by actually passing judgment on them through a more or less fair system of odds, he would be given his entire life back. For Two-Face, this truly was a dream come true.
-"Keep em comin freak!" He shouted up to Freddy, "I'm feeling lucky tonight." Freddy smiled maliciously as he stacked more chips.
-After several rounds, Two-Face had eliminated over 200 criminals that he had prosecuted before the incident and every judgment and sentence he cast on them with a roll of his dice made him feel overjoyed. And with every round that he won, his face would return to normal, bit by bit. After several minutes, the only part of Harvey Dent's face that remained un-pure was his eye. And with a new round beginning, this problem would surely be rectified.
-Freddy placed one single chip on the FIELD and Harvey's fist shook with anticipation as he awaited the next defendant. Instead, when the chip materialized Harvey was starring into the teal-blue eyes of a young blonde woman, the one whom Harvey had lost every chance of sharing a normal life with.
-"Grace?" Harvey said in his normal voice. His grip on the dice loosened and he just starred into her sorrowful eyes as he felt tears well up in his own.
-"Com'on! While we're still young…" Freddy said impatiently.
-"No! No I won't do! You can't make me!" Harvey screamed.
-"Wanna bet?" Freddy asked with sneer.
-Harvey looked down and was horrified to see his left hand turn pale blue again. He brought a hand to his face and felt the bumps and scar tissue returning. But then he felt something worse: he felt the contamination on his body starting to spread to his right half. His deformity was threatening to completely consume him.
-In a panic, Harvey threw the dice and the deformity left his body again. This time the dice went beyond Harvey's section and they each landed on either side of Grace. The results: 1 on red and 1 on green.
-"HaHa snake-eyes!" Freddy shouted victoriously.
-Almost instantly, the damage that had killed Harvey Dent returned and Two-Face reemerged.
-"NO!" Two-Face shouted as he fell to his knees crying. When he looked back up, he saw Grace with her back turned to him bent over collecting the dice. Two-Face rose to his feet and desperately called out to her. Grace turned to Two-Face with the dice in her hands. She held each of them between her thumb and index fingers with the 1 result of each die facing Two-Face. Then much to Two-Face's horror, Grace shoved each of the dice into her eyes, covering her face as she did so. When she removed her hands from her face, the snake-eyes had become literal snake eyes as her face had transformed into that of a hideous, monstrous gorgon.
-As Two-Face started to scream, both of the gorgon's eyes gave off an eerie glow. Then two concentrated beams of yellow light shot from the eyes and struck Two-Face, instantly turning his body into stone.
-Even though Two-Face's body had been petrified, his vision was still functioning and he watched as the monster that replaced his lost fiancée disappeared in a flash of flame. Then he saw Freddy move in front of him.
-Freddy held up Two-Face's coin and flipped it in the air. As it began to descend, it turned into a metal gavel.
-When the gavel landed in Freddy's hand, the Craps table vanished and the courtroom reappeared. Freddy turned back to Two-Face, whose eyes were wide with horror.
-"Catch ya on the flip side, Mr. Dent."
-Freddy brought his hand back and with one violent swing he smashed Harvey Dent's face to pieces, sending blood and rock fragments scattering across the courtroom.
-"And they say you can't get blood from a stone," Freddy said with a smile as he walked away from Harvey's petrified and faceless corpse.
In the real world Batman pursed the Joker toward Gotham Cathedral. The clown menace skipped up the stone stairs without a care in the world and entered through the tall wooden doors. When the doors were shut, Batman slammed against them with his elbow leaving a series of fissures in the wood.
-Inside the church, the priest, an elderly man with grey hair and a false leg, gasped at the sound of a battering ram slamming against his door. He grabbed a small crucifix and began walking toward the door with the tiny symbol of goodness held up in front of him.
-Outside Batman tried to open the door but it was locked. After banging into it a few more times he looked up and saw the Joker in one of the windows giving him a mocking wave.
-He took out a batarang and hurled it at the glass.
-Inside, the priest fell onto his back as the stain-glass window above the church entrance shattered and a black figure that he initially thought to be the Devil burst into his sanctuary.
-The priest watched in horror as the demonic figure immediately started to run amok in his church. Batman's sense of morality and judgment were gone, replaced by a burning desire to seek and destroy his target and to eliminate any thing that stood in his way.
-"Where is he? Where is he?" Batman growled angrily as he tore apart the confession box, overturned a table that had prayer candles burning on top of it, and sent wooden chairs flying into the stone walls where they were smashed to splinters.
-The priest could do nothing but watch helplessly as his scared home was ripped apart by the emotionally broken Dark Knight until Batman turned to the alter and froze.
-The Joker was standing at the altar just below a giant marble cross with a statue of Jesus hanging from it.
-"Gee Bats, I never took you for a comedian but you're really bringing the house down."
-Batman hurled a shuriken at him but the Joker leapt high into the air and grabbed a hold of a massive chandelier. The shuriken struck the crucifix with such force that it caused the it to fall to the floor and crumble to pieces.
-The Joker swung from the chandelier with such unnatural force that he managed to hurl himself from one side of the cathedral all the way to the broken window at the front. Batman bashed through the doors and forced them open. As Batman disappeared into the night, the priest bowed his head and mournfully prayed.