Ok, I've never written for Batman or anything like that, I usually do Jane Austen, but I've always loved his comics and movies. So, when I found this place, I immediately began forming a plot in my head. So, review with what you think, and I don't care what you say because I'll probably keep typing even if you hate it.
That's just me
This is after Dark Knight (LOVE IT!!) and The Joker has escaped. I haven't incorporated Harley into this like I've seen it done because I don't have much information on her. But, I will bring in other people I do know about. Gotham is in need of their dark hero, but you might just find him tied up with a little personal problem! Read to find out. Sorry if it starts out dark, I just kind of typed…
thanks!!
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Fear rules people. It's the drug that seeps into your veins, hindering action and stopping all thoughts of hope. There is very little that can be done about such a drug, except maybe the comforting hand of reassurance. Though, in the situations that the horrors of Gotham City can put you through, there is rarely reassurance that everything will be alright. But, fear can spring from the simplest of things, such as a strange noise when you're alone at night, or it can rise like a black tide from a knife to your mouth.
Yes, I did say a knife to your mouth.
The knife in question was to the mouth of a guard by the name of Peter Brooks. He was a middle aged man with two sons, a daughter, and a wife. His wife was a rising jazz singer who was probably by now dead in a gutter, as she was supposed to be. His two sons, Peter JR. and Jack were most likely gassed to death in their rooms by carbon monoxide, as they were supposed to be. The daughter, Alyss, was to be knifed on the way back from her job (her job would be burned to the ground). And Peter… well… he was soon to follow.
"Do you know how I got these scars, Pete?" The grisly voice seemed dry, tired and out of use, but Peter knew better. This man had raved and talked and rambled for weeks, day in and day out until they would drug him to sleep. His laughter would cause even the hardened cops in the Asylum to shiver and quicken their steps when they heard it. The Joker was far from tired, and it showed in his sardonic grin.
"N-no… Mr. Joker… sir." Sweat dotted Peter's brow, and The Joker noted this with satisfaction. He licked his painted lips, relishing in the feel of the coating on his skin, and in excitement, he applied pressure to the man's lips.
"Well- I'll tell you, Pete. You see, my father was a guard. And- and not just any guard." He smacked his lips and pressed a little harder on the blade, sneering in pleasure as a small bead of blood formed. "He was a guard to the… the, ah, governor of Georgia. He hated this… job you could say. He also hated, well, me." With a chuckle, he pulled the knife away and let it slip between his own lips, loving the feel of steel in his mouth. Pulling it out, he continued. "He would drink and drink and drink and drink until he couldn't stand up. If he could stand, he'd drink some more while he –look at me son, I'm not done talking- while he would beat my dear old mother and me." He slid the knife down the man's cheek, twittering at the shiver the guard gave. "Sh-sh-sh, my story isn't done yet, sonny. So, ah haha, one day he comes home already drunK. He began beating my mother until she… well, she couldn't move very well.
"So he turns to me, swinging his bottle of –LOOK AT ME!!- His bottle of… ah, it was alcohol! He takes a biiig gulp of it, asking me why I wasn't happy with myself. Why couldn't I appreciate what he had done for me? So, Pete, he breaks the bottle of his drinK," He clicked his tongue on the word, as if appreciating the memory, "and slips a chunk of it in my mouth." With a twisted grin, he slid the knife back into Peter's mouth, and began pressing back on the side of the lips, making another cut, slightly deeper. "He, well, he didn't like me fighting back very much… noT aT all, actually. So, he begins sawing at my mouth, singing with gusto the whole way, smiling." He began making a sawing motion with his hand, letting the blade lightly nick the skin before continuing. "So now, I appreciate what he's done for me. I appreciate what you've done too! Can't you see me smiling?"
With a few flicks of his wrist, he slit Peter's mouth and then his throat, his bellowing laughter echoing the halls of the insane asylum.
--
Across the city, a light flashed in the sky. It was in the shape of a bat, but the sign was a fleeting one before it would abruptly shut off. Then, it would be back again.
"Commissioner Gordan, what are you doing?" A young officer stared in slight shock as he saw his boss leaning into a spot light, messing with a few wires. The man gave a slight "oof!" before leaning back and falling onto the ground again.
"Haven't you heard, sir!? You can't be up here-"
"The Joker's escaped. We need him." With a grunt, Gordan motioned with his thumb back to the spotlight that had a crudely designed bat on it. Jamming his hands into his pockets, he braced himself for an argument.
"Sir, you said we don't need him now. We're to arrest him on the spot, sir." The young officer, Drake Bently, motioned as he talked, stepping closer with a nervous air.
"You know he's the only one who can catch that man. If you could call him a man…" Gordan frowned as Drake suddenly gave a gasp and reached for his gun, his eyes wide. Turning around, Jim wasn't surprised to see a man in a dark cloak, not two feet from them.
"Why are you trying to signal for me?" He asked in a throaty growl. His eyes gleamed in contrast to the black material surrounding his whole person, and he pointedly ignored the gun now pointed at him.
"Drake, put it down." Jim Gordan turned to face his young, eager colleague, his eyes gentle but firm. "If we're to stop this before it starts, we can save lives." He reached forward and grasped the gun firmly, but wasn't surprised when Drake relinquished it, not without reluctance.
"What will happen if someone sees us?" Drake asked in a low whisper, turning a glare towards Batman once again before looking back at his boss. "You made the rule to chase him, sir."
"That rule is still in progress. And I made a task force to chase him, someone else at the head of it. I'm not going to be responsible for attempting to bring him down. I believe he's helping our city, and if you don't agree you can leave." Jim took a deep breath and turned back to the patiently waiting man behind him. If you could call him a man, that is. Gordan repressed a shudder as he recalled seeing him fight dozens of men at once, coming out of the group unharmed.
"The Joker has escaped the Asylum he was contained in. He had people on the outside that helped him too. The main guards' families were killed, as well as the guards." His voice broke slightly as he spoke the last part, remembering the gruesome ways that the families had been killed. Every death had varied, but there was always one similarity; a long scar stretching from cheek to cheek, across the mouth. The sign that it was The Joker's doing.
"Any leads?" His growl lowered in shock, but he gave no other sign of surprise. Batman hardly showed emotion.
"He's heading to the heart of the city, that's all we know."
"Towards the wealthier." It wasn't a question.
"He would start big now?" Drake seemed too shocked to move, let alone ask something intelligent.
"Oh, with the likes of The Joker, it's never small." Gordan gave a disapproving glance in his colleague's direction before turning back to the shadows. He wasn't surprised to see no one there.
"Where'd he go?" Drake asked in awe.
"To see what he can do to stop this before it gets out of hand."
"You'd trust Gotham City to the likes of a masked man?" Gordan smiled.
"I trust him with my life."
--
"Excellent resume, you're hired." Alyss was shocked. She hadn't expected to be hired to be the secretary for the multi-billionaire, Bruce Wayne, but here she was, shaking hands with the number one bachelor in the city, living it up like there was no tomorrow.
"I'll begin right away, sir, you won't regret this!" Alyss gushed, a large smile breaking over her face. Bruce smirked (he hardly really smiled, she noticed) and nodded slowly.
"I don't expect to." He said smoothly before turning around with an, "excuse me, please," and vanishing into his private office. Alyss fell back into her new chair with a dazed look. She couldn't figure out how she had been hired with a resume like that, but somehow, it worked. She didn't have credentials, she didn't have previous bosses remarks exclaiming how good she was, she hardly had much to say except, "I'm a hard worker and I like to accomplish the tasks set before me".
Hardly an "excellent resume".
With a sigh, she signed into the network and began setting up her new account as the secretary. If it was one thing she was good at, it was computers.
"Good morning, Ms. Brooks, I understand you've just gotten this position?" Mr. Wayne's personal friend and board member, Mr. Fox, smiled down warmly at her. "That's quite an accomplishment. Mr. Wayne's rather picky about his employees."
"I'm just flattered I was chosen, sir." Smiling brightly, she gestured to the papers in front of her. "Anything I can do for you?" Mr. Fox didn't answer though; he just stared at the girl in front of him, as if trying to figure her out.
"Have I seen you in the papers, Ms. Brooks?" He asked slowly, hesitantly. Alyss subtly shifted the papers on her new desk, hiding the paper underneath a few documents. She flashed a bright smile.
"No… I don't believe so, sir. Unless I wasn't aware of it, that is!" She straightened herself up higher in her chair, her eyes glass-like, like a doll's. "Is there anything else, sir?" She laughed lightly.
"No, I just need to see Mr. Wayne." Mr. Fox gave an engaging smile before turning towards the door.
"Mr. Wayne, Mr. Fox is here to see you." She paged him through the speaker set on her desk.
"Send him in, thank you." Came the simple reply. With a smile, Alyss waved Mr. Fox in and it was only then that she caved in. Slumping into her chair, she let silent sobs wrack her body, momentarily letting grief consume her mind. She wiped tears away before they could smear her makeup so no one would suspect her of crying. Grabbing the newspaper, she quickly threw it, quite literally, into the trashcan. After a few moments though, she felt ridiculous for her sudden outburst, and she calmed herself down, thinking how lucky she was to work at Wayne Enterprises.
And how lucky she was to be alive, of course.
--
"What can I do for you, Lucius?" Bruce smiled up at his friend, a question in his eyes. He clicked out of the program he was in, and stood up, shaking hands.
"You hired Alyss Brooks?" Lucius asked, skipping right to the point. "You know she was the girl who-"
"Yes, the only one who survived The Joker attacks a few days ago." Bruce nodded slowly, guilt settling in on his conscious. He hadn't meant to let her have the job, but he knew how hard it could be to find a new job that paid enough to support yourself, especially in Gotham. The cloud of death would follow her everywhere she went, and people would deny her, simply because of the things that had happened. Feeling pity, he had sought her out after the paparazzi, his offer to good to resist.
"You know what will happen if he gets word she's here?" Lucius grabbed his friend lightly by the shoulder. Bruce nodded absentmindedly, his gaze towards the door.
"He will begin to target Wayne Enterprises, I know. But what was I supposed to do?" He looked back at his friend, his eyes earnest. "The least I could have done was just forgotten about her."
"I know… just be careful."
"I always am."
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That's all for now, read and review!
-Death-Cab-4-Cutie