Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.
A/N: Thank you to those that have reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! And a special thank you to Shaddic for helping out!
"HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA…!"
Bonnie's heart plunged, and shrieks of terror and whistling noises of gas went through Bonnie's ears like chalk.
She immediately jumped up from her relaxed posture. She didn't even want to think about what could have been going on downstairs, but if the Jok–
The Joker.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
They found her. Bonnie shoved her pale green book under her pillow almost desperately, and she ran to the tightly locked window on the left of her. When she finally saw the Joker's goons below, tears–no, her allergies–rose up to her eyes. They climbed up the walls of the building at a surprising speed, angrily.
She hoped they weren't on the roof.
Or worse, the most dangerous hench-woman in the nation could be on it.
Or just maybe...
She rushed to the door, holding her tears back. They could have been in any room; they could have been right on the other side of the door, for all she knew!
Please, please, please...
Bonnie hesitated. Then, she opened the door.
The girl pondered as she unconsciously strode in the direction her feet led her to. Everything was silent, which meant that anybody that was hiding in a room was doing a good job of being quiet. They wouldn't be quiet for long, especially if the goons were to decide to break into every single room in the orphanage.
Bonnie shivered. For all she knew, these people were as good as dead.
For a short moment, she thought that she was going to be subjected to the same measly fate.
She couldn't do that.
"Surprise."
Bonnie swiftly turned around. With her flying red hair in her face, she didn't hesitate to kick him where it hurt. The goon stumbled back, his face contorting with many emotions.
As much as she felt bad for what she did, she really couldn't help it. After all, what else was she going to do? Hand-to-hand combat? She would have lost in seconds!
Bonnie saw everything next to her as a colorful blur. There was only one area that was not in her hazy line of vision: the stairway. She sprinted away, escaping from harm's way.
Bonnie felt a tiny strain of her hair poking her irritatingly as she ran up the stairs; she frustratingly flipped it, blinking hard. She had to get to the attic, fast.
Bonnie heard bouts of whimpering and anguished hysteria that she couldn't decipher on the next floor, so she plugged them out. She couldn't get distracted when the attic ladder was just out of reach.
The attic ladder is right there...the attic ladder is right there.
Finally! She began to climb it. She would have been alarmed that the ladder was perfectly set up, but she was so happy that she actually had the chance to escape the Joker's wrath!
She escalated upward, but the creak of the last step suddenly stopped when Bonnie was thrust to the floor in front of her.
On the third floor, the henchmen did the same approach as before: break into every single room. While the goons were just doing their jobs, Harley seemed to be having...too much fun with it. She practically skipped into every room with glee.
It wasn't for malicious reasons, however. She just wanted to play a small game of cards with them.
Attempting to persuade one of the boys, Harley Quinn blinked her blue eyes at him.
"But are you sure?" Harley's eyes were filled with exaggerated self-pity. The boy cringed, only looking at her over-sized mallet that lay on the red couch.
"Y-yes, I'm sure! C-can you just let me go to sleep?"
"No! We are going to play, and that is final!"
Meanwhile, the Joker was having some fun on his own. He already went into two rooms before, and oh, did they look joyful to see him! Just like that girl from downstairs, but at least the children didn't kick and thrash at him while they laughed at his joke...
He twisted the knob of another door. This kid seemed to be the only one who didn't lock it.
Beaming, the Joker entered inside the room.
No one was inside. No screaming, no desperate sounds from the closet. For once, it was completely quiet.
He could've left the room because of that, but he didn't. Something caught his eye.
There was a familiar top hat on the drab-looking bed. Raising an eyebrow, the Joker grabbed the hat.
He looked to the side of the bed, noticing the clean chest-box. It looked like it had been dusted recently, possibly right before the raid.
That would have meant that whoever cleaned it was still in the building.
And the Joker knew exactly who that person was.
She didn't want to fight.
Her aching body lightly thumped against the dusty wooden floor, eyes ajar at two henchmen. When her vision came into focus, the blonde henchman pounced right at her, dagger in hand.
Bonnie barely rolled out-of-the-way, tangling her hair with the grime on the floor.
Looking at where the man almost stabbed her, she quickly noticed that a strain of her hair had been cut off, and the dagger was stuck between the wood. Squeaking, she pathetically crawled away, and her eyes were fixated on the window many yards away from her.
Meanwhile, the blonde henchman was pushed down onto the same place Bonnie was before.
"You idiot!" the one with a woolen hat shouted. "The boss wants the kid alive, dumb—"
"Who says that's the kid?" the blonde retorted.
"You weren't there that night! She was small and had reddish hair!"
"Like you would see her face! Three of the others got arrested trying to get a good look at her!"
"Well, she—SHE'S GOING TO GET AWAY!"
From the shadows, a henchman with sunglasses and a leather jacket came out with a cloth. He swiped his knife out, which flew out of his hand as promptly as it came out.
The child dodged it, yet another minion with long brown hair and a smiley face shirt lunged towards her as she did. Bonnie, not as quickly as the last time, tried to kick him between his legs. She missed, barely getting his shin. When she did, a pair of gruff hands came down on her shoulders, and—just like before—she was on the floor again.
The man with the sunglasses made a brisk gesture with his hands to someone, calling out, "Give me that sedative before she does something!"
Bonnie seized up, but she suddenly relaxed in defeat.
I should just give up, she thought. I can't even get to the window. There are probably more henchmen outside that will catch me, anyway.
She almost wanted to drift into a sleep. Her matches would have helped her doze off...
Wait.
Her matches.
Bonnie's heart thumped once.
Her hand slid into her pocket. A tiny pack of matches carefully came out her pocket, and the slide of the box made a short hiss when one of the matches were swiped out.
She still looked blankly at the henchman as she clutched a single match, examining where to aim at.
The man bent down as he got ready to puncture the needle in her skin. Bonnie threw the match: right where she wanted it. His screeches were hair-raising, enough to deafen a person next to him.
It finished quickly.
"Ah, stop being so pathetic, man!" the blonde henchman yelled. He didn't respond.
Bonnie slowly stood up, and she threw the second one.
A glowing match landed in his hair. The blonde screamed like a little girl, making everyone else scream with laughter.
The mirth ended suddenly when Bonnie lighted five matches across the pack. Chaos erupted around Bonnie as about six people sprung at her, fire somewhere among them.
Two shadows, one bouncing and one menacing, entered the attic. They waited.
"So agile…"
Bonnie fearfully avoided a rigid slap as she slid away baseball-style, near the man with the woolen hat.
"So skilled…"
She kicked that henchman's chin when he got out a gas sprayer, cursing as he stumbled backward.
"So…"
Bonnie didn't recall the familiar voice that was only feet away from her, yet her stomach twisted. The henchmen backed up instantaneously.
Why would they back up…?
A giant figure grabbed Bonnie, pinning the girl against the brick wall only a couple of seconds later. Her forearms prevented her from having her face squished against it, and a pinching pain jabbed into her upper arm.
Bonnie only looked down for a moment. A needle with a greenish liquid was inside her skin.
The Joker smirked. "Unlucky."
Bonnie groaned at the fluid pervaded her veins, and her arms started to slip off the wall. Everything around her was rapidly leaving her vision.
He let go. Bonnie collapsed, eyes almost shut, but she didn't fall to the floor. Her body fell into someone's arms. She couldn't think when new noises waved down from outside, sounding like a smoking helicopter engine.
An unfamiliar voice chirped up.
"Boss, the Bat-mobile is outside!"
"Well, hurry it up then, Wist!"
Bonnie gawked upward. She wanted to shiver, but she couldn't. As her ears buzzed and locked out, the Joker's face directly gazed at her, and he had a gleam in his eyes that reflected coldness, curiosity, and glee. It was all complete with that grin on his face.
"I'll take good care of you, kid."
Bonnie lost her grasp on awareness. She never got the chance to see the Joker twirling her hat after he said his own choice of seven words to her.