Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.
The week went by. Bonnie had longer periods of going dormant, but she had to change it up every time. If she waited every two weeks to go out, then the police would catch onto her pattern. It was better to be completely random and chaotic, and this night was perfect for that.
Bonnie was in her room, next to her locked wooden chest. She knew that it probably hadn't been opened by someone else; if it had been, then she would have been found out. Luckily, no one ever visited her room, and she had her door locked at all times.
Bonnie looked down. She put her hand in her pocket, which hid a red key with a string attached to the pocket's cloth. She took the key out and inserted it into the chest's lock. The lock made a low clicking sound when the key turned, and the girl pushed up the lid.
She inspected inside, and a domino mask gleamed at her.
Ten minutes passed, and Bonnie pushed the window to a close. She jumped out of it and landed onto the ledge with a crouch. The whip tightly wrapped around her arm and in her hand loosened at the jump, and she held her top hat. Bonnie looked like the ringleaders many people have seen in the circus, as she wore black pants, an unbuttoned red suit jacket, and a white collar shirt—all of which she stole. The girl fixed her bow-tie, whip still in hand.
Taking a breath, Bonnie stepped off the ledge. Her heart went up her throat while she dropped.
Her feet hit the ground, and the street lantern lights flickered. She warily looked left and right and put the top hat on her head. No one was there, but for a second, she thought she saw a man in a cowl.
Bonnie did a double-take, and she realized that her mind had played a trick on her. If the Batman had been watching this whole time, she would've been sent straight to juvenile detention or even Arkham, and she wasn't covered enough by the press to be on his radar. Wasn't she?
The girl sighed. Her eyes darted across the shadows, to see if anyone was truly in the shadows. There was no one.
With a final gaze, she tucked into the night by herself. Getting the gasoline would be easy enough, but she still needed to figure out which building to target. She didn't want it to be too close to the orphanage, but she didn't want it to be too far away, either...
"Oh, Mistah J! You made my day!"
Harley had hearts in her eyes as she stood by a dark intersection, silent of cars and passersby. Alone with the Joker, she jumped on him and wrapped her legs around him. He forced a smile, and the Joker patted Harley's head.
"Don't mention it, sugar," he said. The hearts in Harley's eyes got bigger, but the Joker ignored her, his eyes shifting around the area. Unlit buildings stood opposite of the pair, but there was no sign of the henchmen coming around them or from any side. The Joker huffed.
"Wonder what's taking the goons so long," he said, mainly to himself. Just on cue, a group of six silhouettes came into view. The Joker gritted his teeth as one goon waved at him.
"We're here, boss!" said the goon. "Sorry about the delay. We were lagging behind!"
The slightest fear trembled in his voice. The Joker said nothing, except he pulled out something on his side. He pointed it at the goon, who froze when he realized it was a pistol.
"Always the same excuses," said the Joker. He did a little twirl with his weapon, chuckling darkly. The goon gulped, and the others edged back.
The Joker pulled the trigger, but nothing fired. Only a red and yellow flag on a black stick with a written "BANG!" extended outward, and the goon slumped back in relief. The other five henchmen, however, turned away. They knew what was coming next out of the flag gun. But nothing else came out.
The Joker laughed. "Gotcha!"
Suddenly, a hard gust of wind and debris slammed into the group. Harley fell off the Joker as newspaper shreds blew into their faces, and everything shrieked and blurred around his men. The goons scattered and took cover when fireballs hit the sidewalk, but the Joker remained standing. Holding himself up against a wall, he looked at the blast. His eyes narrowed, and his mouth split upward.
Fire engulfed three buildings across the street, and charred debris fell from their edges. They collided with the ground like volcanic rock, drowning out the distant fire horns.
A tiny silhouette around the corner got closer, seeming to acknowledge the group, but the Joker dismissed it. Harley and the others recovered and turned.
"Well, that's quite the show!" the Joker said, with Harley and the goons staring to the side. "Well, everyone, let's get a move–"
The Joker stopped when he saw what everyone was looking at. It was the same silhouette from before, and she had stayed still when they caught her sneaking away. Many meters away, she held a breath at the sight of the gang. Everyone else was silent, and the Joker's eyes landed on her.
By what he saw from her appearance, he didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the figure was a kid. Only when he looked at her further, an unsettling smile graced his face. His eyes flashed a startling red, instantly capturing the girl's bewildered eyes.
Bonnie's eyes fixated on the two red lights in the tall man's pupils, until her eyes bulged to see the man was now a few feet away from her. It was only when that man's grin grew was when Bonnie realized who she was looking at, and she paled until her skin matched the color of the Joker's.
Her adrenaline spiking, Bonnie grabbed the grappling hook on her side and pointed it upward.
Before the goons could react, Bonnie projected it at the roof, and the hook grappled onto a roof. She pulled upward, but two hands lunged at her ankles. Bonnie yelped at being yanked downward, until her yelp morphed into a scream. She couldn't see the person that held onto her, but all of her body was beginning to convulse as something plastic and metallic pressed into her leg. Her mind paralyzed as her captor gave out a murderous laugh. The Joker's laughter was so intense that he quickly retracted his hand-buzzer from the girl's leg, and Bonnie's uncontrollable legs kicked him away.
The grappling line wrenched Bonnie upwards, but she still heard the Joker shout, "GET HER!"
About four of the goons proceeded to climb up the walls next to them. The other two threw exploding marbles at the girl, who was struggling to push herself up the rooftop. A few deactivated marbles flew over her head.
Police sirens closed in, and the Joker grinned as blue and red illuminated his face.
"Come on, Harley," he said. "We're going to take a short cut."
Beaming, Harley hugged him as he took out a small black stick out of his pocket. He pushed the button, and the stick lengthened itself. Almost like an umbrella, a spinning, helicopter-like top popped itself out, and the couple was lifted into the air.
The duo flew windows above the ground, easily passing the henchmen at their fast speed. Only moments later, the Joker and Harley saw a girl racing across the roof, about to jump down to the closest ledge. She froze when she heard their giggles.
Bonnie turned around. Two of the most dangerous criminals in Gotham were a few yards away from her, smiling as if it was a miracle that she was there. The Joker, particularly, leered at her once he hopped from the flying umbrella. Harley followed suit, the umbrella dropping with her.
The Joker chuckled, "You wouldn't really jump off this roof, would you, kid?"
Bonnie shook violently, speechless at the sight of the man. The man that had fascinated and terrified her for years was just opposite from her, and she realized that she made the worst decision of her life by trying to sneak past them.
Bonnie's feet edged the roof and thought fast. She had almost forgotten that the marbles that they threw at her didn't all explode.
Her fist clenched, and she hurled the marbles at them.
Just when they struck the ground, Harley and Joker tripped backward. Smoke blocked their vision, and the Joker coughed up the ash.
"Well, she needs to learn some manners!" said the Joker. The smoke finally vanished, revealing the girl's disappearance from the top of the building. Growling, the Joker walked up towards the end of the flat roof and bent down.
The girl sprinted through a narrow alley ahead, and the Joker evaluated the setting before him to see where she was heading. It was not long before the Joker spotted where she was escaping to.
"She's heading toward Gotham City Orphanage," said the Joker, glaring at the red spot darting ahead.
The duo smirked at each other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Puddin'?"
"Oh, yeah. I found the kid." The Joker stared at the running girl. "But we can't get her today. She's much too hyped at the moment. She should have time to think about what she's done."
The Joker eyed Harley, and she smiled at the vanishing red speck. They didn't notice the large figure looming over them.
"I don't think so."