Binns clinic was in ruins when Batman arrived. The police were swarming around it, trying to put out the last of the fires that were still burning so fiercely that the sky was black with ash and breathing had become difficult for those without oxygen masks. Binns' walls had crumbled, some of them scorched and some of them reduced to nothing more than piles of rubble.
This wasn't just from an everyday run-of-the-mill explosion, the force behind whatever sort of bomb that had been planted was so great that half of the hospital was just gone. The ambulances that were roaring amidst the racket had EMTs hanging out of them, frantically tending to burned patients and wounded nurses. The devastation was unbelievable. At least fifty people were injured seriously, and Batman spotted half a dozen body bags--all of them smoking.
It was total carnage, the likes of which hadn't been seen in a great long while. The damage was so immense in breadth and scope that if he hadn't known better, Batman would have thought that the Joker had come back from the dead to commit this atrocity.
But it wasn't that simple…this was far worse than just the Joker--Batman knew how to deal with that--this was someone working in memory of the Joker and it was a positively ghastly concept to wrap his mind around. Everywhere he looked, pieces of purple, orange and aqua confetti were strewn amidst the debris, fake plastic grenades with sunshine yellow smiley-faces painted on them scattered the area, like Easter eggs waiting for eager children to come and find them and a piñata in the shape of Batman's head had been cracked open, spilling purple and red gumballs all over the pavement.
Commissioner Gordon was the first to approach Batman when he came on the scene, knowing full well that he would want as complete a report as he could manage. Gordon had been roused from his bed with news that this had happened at the crack of dawn, and though the reports he'd gotten weren't promising, there was nothing quite so overwhelming as seeing it first hand. There was nothing anyone could have done to prevent it, that much was crystal clear, but that didn't stop him from feeling ill at the sight that greeted him when he arrived.
He could only imagine how Batman felt about the whole thing…after all, it had been reported that he'd been coming to the hospital as of late. Jim assumed that somewhere inside the clinic, the boy known only to him as Robin was kept away from prying eyes.
Working under this assumption, Gordon was apprehensive about telling Batman that the children's ward had been the one hit the worst, but Batman just breezed forward with his questions.
"What happened here, Jim?"
Jim cleared his throat, slipping into commanding officer mode.
"It's those lunatics." Gordon nodded in the direction of a teenage boy with his face covered in greasepaint who was in cuffs in the back of a police car. "We caught one of them and we're taking him in for questioning, but..."
"Why here?" Batman's voice was strained with anger, sounding much the way a tire crunching over a gravel driveway does. Gordon had to fight the instinct to step away from the furious man in front of him. He'd seen Batman angry before, but this was Batman on the border between heroic and downright dangerous.
He tried to sound as soothing as possible without coming off as condescending. "We don't know for certain, Batman. As best we can tell, these 'Jokers'---as they've taken to calling themselves--they seem to have a ring leader now. There've been reports around town that they're becoming more organized in their crimes." Gordon glanced at the teenager in the police car once more, uncomfortably realizing that he wasn't that much younger than his own daughter.
"They're like the mafia, but more--" he tried to find a word that would fit and discovered that he couldn't. "They're just more. "
"More violent, more sadistic, more dangerous. Whoever is leading them is fostering their development. What should have been a fad has turned into an organization." The anger melted away, leaving the Batman looking pensive. "Someone is trying to take the Joker's place."
Jim's eyes went wide with barely contained horror. "Good God, no! Gotham is finally rid of him and now someone wants to take his place?"
"Every dictator who's ever fallen has had someone waiting in the wings to pick up where he left off...we shouldn't have assumed Joker would be any different."
Gordon looked troubled. "But why a hospital? That's not something the Joker would have done. Not without a solid reason...twisted though it might have been. If they're trying to replicate the Joker's crimes, this wouldn't be the way I'd have imagined."
"I suspect there's another reason they hit here, Jim. Though I can't be certain until the follower has been questioned."
"Such as?" Gordon stood in silence for a few minutes, waiting for the large costumed man at his side to speak.
He didn't.
"Batman...why did they hit here?" He prodded. "Why did they attack a hospital?"
Batman watched the flames dying under the attentions of the Gotham fire department before turning back to stare at Gordon with his eyes narrowed. "There's something I should have told you."
Though Jim had his suspicions, the truth was far more sinister than he could have imagined, but he pressed on anyway, presenting his theory.
"Was it Robin?" Gordon asked quietly, trying to soften the blow by lowering his voice.
Batman snapped around to look at Gordon with his eyes hard. "No. Robin wasn't here…but someone else was."
Jim was confused. "Who? Batgirl?"
The man in cape and cowl shook his head. "No. It was Harley Quinn."
"She fell off a building!" The commissioner blinked repeatedly. "She's dead…you said she was."
Batman turned once more to regard the smoldering building. "I lied."
Neither Batman nor James Gordon noticed the decidedly feminine shadow that lurked in the background, listening to their conversation...
Nor did they notice when that shadow slunk away into a darkened alley, lush green vines that were completely out of place with their surroundings trailing behind like eager pets.