The Darkest of Knights

Alice tried not to cry, the pain was too much, she grabbed the Joker's tie, wrapped her hand around it and brought it down while she headbutt The Joker's face thoroughly breaking his nose. She slipped out of his grip and kicked his crotch. Hard. Really hard.

Evil, psychotic villain or not, the Joker was still a man, and a kick to the stones like that would obviously send him to the floor writhing around in pain. "Oohhohoho.. You got me right in the family jewels!" he seethed, still managing stay smiling even though he was crying like a little baby inside. "You've got some cajones on ya, kid!" using the shovel, he pulled himself up, crimson splattered all down his face. Up in the viewers point, muffled chuckles could be heard from the muzzled heroes, including Karmy who was watching the battle through half-lidded vision due to being very sick. I mean, it's not every day that you see a man of Jokers standards kicked hard in the nards!

"Yeah well, always gotta remember rule number one," Alice said up and active, taking the free moment of Joker's pain to shoot her foot back into his crotch for the second time; "don't be scared to fight dirty." Alice smiled. First smile she wore all day. Just then the low humming of the electric panels began to grow louder. The floors began to light up, things were about to get more dangerous than it already had to be.
Alice strutted quickly to the next level, attempting to hoist herself up...

Slade was doubtful, but he was still Slade, he still wasn't about to just walk away from taking a shot at the man who blew his daughter apart. "Run off? My tail between my legs as I just waltz away from the man that attacked my family? I thought you were crazy, but I underestimated you." Slade reeled his fist back. "You're a complete f@#$ing idiot!" Although Batman expected a fist no doubt, it was actually Slade's knee in his gut that the mercenary used to back Batman off. "Don't tell me you wouldn't go in there and rip him apart if it was YOUR daughter." Slade taunted, oddly not following the attack up, although he easily could.....

The Joker gave a wet cough of pain and staggered off after Alice. He saw her trying to pull herself up and ran up behind her. Grabbing her hair, he bashed her face into the structure and pulled her down, dropping her to the floor. "Oh I intend to." and, using her body as a step ladder, he climbed up.

11/20/31
04:00 am
30 degrees. Snow.

(Sorry guys.. Really sick.)

Batman retracted back from the knee, but nearly seemed unphased, despite spitting blood at Slade's feet. The police were on their way, their sirens could be heard, they must have dispatched a lot of units. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Batman told Slade. He decided he was going to fight Slade until the police picked him up or until he would run away.

Inside the warehouse, the sirens could be heard. Barbara closed her eyes, looking away from what was happening to Alice; the sirens made her think. Daddy's always got your back. Even in death. She prayed Alice would be alright.

Damian tapped on the window trying to get the heroes' attention.

Alice's lungs were being crushed, she couldn't even scream. Eyes shut tightly, tears streaming, mouth open in a silent scream. Pain, excruciating. She lay on the panels, mouth dripping with blood, knowing her suit will absorb most of the shock, but still. No way she's not going to feel it. Her back arched upward when the floors lit up, brightly, the humming sound turned into a static sound, she was being electricuted, she could feel her heart beating faster. Finally it was over, she lay on the panels. Almost lifeless. Alice could barely move.

The Joker sat down on the edge of the upper level and peered down at Alice, kicking his legs like a playful child. "Awww, done already?" he tilted his head. "That was only like..." flipping his wrist up, he looked at his watch. "3 minutes? That's sad.." he shook his head and signaled up to one of the goons and the power to the levels flickered and died. The Joker jumped down and kicked Alice over. "Hm... Somethings not right here." he pondered "Oh yeah!" reaching down to Alices waist, he unclapsed the belt with the Batsymbol on the front and ripped it away. "Even the Riddler is more like a Bat that you." he smirked and crushed the symbol with the shovel. "You're next."

Karmy glanced up wearily and saw Damien peering in. Still shivering uncontrolably. She tried to get his attention but she was still very weak.

[Red, we've gotta end the Slade thing quicky.]

Defeated, this Joker look-alike seemed to be trying too hard. "Heheheh... hahahha." Alice laughed, "hahhhaa..." She couldn't remember the last time she laughed at a villain,just because she thought their get-up was stupid. "Really... the Joker? C'mon.. you're wearing make-up. Mind as well be a a male version of Harley Quinn." Alice giggled through blood bubbling at her lips.

Barbara looked up at Nicole, she was pointing up, was that Damian? Why was he wearing a Bat symbol? Hadn't it been for the loser with the shotgun, they would have already been out of this rat hole, with Alice, not beaten to death. Where's Dick?

The Joker didn’t really hear what Alice had said, due to the fact that he was signaling up to his men. The structures creaked as they shifted, until they were lowered and now everyone was on level ground. The goons began to clear out, only Moe stayed to activate the bomb that was connected to the captive hero’s restraints. “Set it for 5, Moe. We’ll be long gone by then.” The joker said as he rolled up his sleeves and turned his attention back to Alice. “Ya know.” He started. “My whole goal of this whole game was to simply show you that no matter what do, no matter how many people you save, you will never be like them.” He nodded to the others.

“You see, you and I are alike.” He kicked her on her stomach and held her down with one knee. His hand started to play with the zipper on her costume, “We’re both trying to be someone else. My eyes were set on the title of Joker. But.. I’ve accomplished that. You however…” he started to pull on the tab, slapping her in the face when she tried to resist. “A self-righteous hero? Ha! A hero cannot be born from the ashes of those that they have pilfered and murdered. The people that you have killed, the lives destroyed by command of your master, they are the ones that shout your true place in this world from their graves.”

The Joker stood tall and looked down upon the now exposed Alice, spinning handle of the shovel like a top. The many scars of her past stood dark against her skin, pale from the amount of blood loss. “You will die tonight, along with your so called ‘friends’.” Scarping the shovel from the ground, he held it high above his head. “The very last thing they will see before the sweet release of death takes them is you, mangled, unnatural, filthy and broken. Hehe.. Ahaha… Ahahahah!!!” his laughter would forever echo in the depths of the warehouse but, it would never be as loud as the retched sound of metal tearing flesh and splintering bone as Alice’s blood splattered the rusted shovel and Joker’s own suit.

Naked. Cold. Blood spilling from an open wound the size of a shovel in her lower back, blood filling the cracks in her body, the pool of tears mixing with her copious amount of bloodloss. Alice scratched the air hoping to break free from the pain. She couldn't feel anything now. Numb. Dead. They seemed synonymous. "No!! Alice!" Barbara screamed in terror. The events unfolding before her way too quickly. Alice didn't seem like she acknowledged Barbara's screams. She seemed dazed. Lost in her world. Then her head went limp, was she dead? No one could tell, though they wouldn't be surprised if she was.

Damian looked out, he heard something. Screeching. A high pitched sound. What was that? Bats? Bats. Alice's device she used right before the fight was taking into effect. "Batman, whatever you're doing drop it we gotta go!" Robin said through the opp-sat. "On my way Robin, are those bats I hear?" Batman asked, kicking Slade in the chest hard enough to toss a stun pellet to freeze him in his tracks long enough to make his getaway. "I thought. You were the one who sent them." Damian said kicking in the glass window and jumping in the building. "Not me. Alice." Batman deduced. Damian kicked the first guard in the head and jumped into the action.

Barbara snapped to Damian, she quickly undid the rope bonds around her wrist she had been working on from the start and used a batarang to cut her feet free. "Damian?" Barbara asked astonished. "Call me Robin. No names on the battlefield, right?" Damian asked. "Focus on setting everyone free, I'll diffuse the bomb!" Barbara ordered. "Who's got Alice?" Damian asked looked out to her naked discarded body not too far from them. "I do." Batman said crashing through the glass and spreading his cape over her crumpled frame. "That leaves the Joker." Damian said cutting loose Nicole's bonds first. "We've got some friends covering that..." Batman replied looking up. Bats swarmed the windows and entered any place that was left an opening.

Not only did bats have the place surrounded, but Gotham's Finest, The GCPD had he entire place scoped out and ready for anything. "This is Jason Bard from Echo 5, Overlord do you have a visual on target, actual?" An officer with a Chey Tech sniper rifle asked on the top of the building. "Ten/four Echo 5, targets coming in hot on ground level, engage of necessary." The radio garbbled back. "Bard to Bay do you read me? You've got a customer coming in hot. He's all yours."

"Ahahaha that's just obvious!!" The Joker couldn't help but laugh as he ran out into the police view. The police were here, meaning that Batman was here and, seeing how the Joker wasn't being beaten to a pulp by the caped crusader at the moment, meant that the dark knight was inside, releasing the heroes. That meant that the Joker's plan had failed. Right? Not in his minds eye did it.

Karmy was screaming and thrashing in her chair wildly, though the hypothermia still ravaged her body, it was completely ignored. She twisted and pulled at her bonds, ripping the skin underneath the harsh ropes. "Let me out!" she screamed when she managed to maneuver the gag off her mouth.

Robert clenched his gun tight as he stood next to Bard. "Lets take this bastard down." he snarled. After all, it was very apparent what was going on. He knew that the Joker had been responsible for the heroes disappearances and well, seeing as he cared very deeply for one of them, he was rather pissed off.

Damian smirked at Karmy, "I don't think so, hippie. You're going to get yourself killed.. or someone killed." He said working on Zero's straps. "Babsy how's the bomb coming along?" Damian asked. "Don't call me Babsy, and it's nearly off. Just another switch and-... ah, presto." Barbara's face lit up as the bomb had been properly disabled. "I'm taking Alice back to the Batcave," Batman said pressing a button on the batsuit firing a beacon out into the night's sky. "I'll be back, maybe." Batman was unassured, still holding on to Alice, "Is she alive?" Barbara asked with concern. "She'll live. But I'm not sure how well she's going to take it." Batman said covering her with his cape. "What do you mean?" Barbara asked. "You of all people know what I mean." Batman answered as the Batwing picked up the beacon and thus carrying Batman and Alice away, behind leather wings and screeching lungs.

"Hold up there cowboy, we're not going to kill him, only if necessary. Overlord said so. If he starts shootin' rockets from his butt we got the go to see the pink mist, otherwise we're trying to get him to a court room for a trial an' sh*t." Bard explained, "You can take em down, not with bullets though man." He scoffed at the system they had to follow. If it was up to Jason—which it never was—they would have pummeled the Joker with bullets until his body mass doubled from all the rounds pumped into him. Again, most people are glad Jason isn't the one making these decisions.

Karmy completely ignored Damian's snide comment, not caring if it was the truth. She was getting out of the restraints with or without his help after all, she had escaped much worse situations than simply being bound to a chair with rope. And with blind rage and determination on her side, she would escape and go after the Joker, whether anybody liked it or not. Pulling her feet up to the seat of the chair, she tilted to one side and began to push upwards with her legs, her left arm strained heavily until...

Pop

Karmy let out a blood curdling scream as she successfully dislocated her arm, allowing her to slip her arms from behind the chair and stagger to the floor. There, she slid her arms to the front of her body and reached into her bag, pulling out a knife and cutting away her bonds. The unbearable pain in her arm was nothing compared to the pure agony in her heart. Like many years ago, she popped her arm back into place and snapped her fingers. A portal opened up in front of her and she prepared to jump through...

"He's just... Standing there.." Robert said, confused. The Joker was, in fact, just standing in place. Not moving, not anything. But.. he was laughing.

A Black gloved arm put itself on Karmy's shoulder. "I don't need to be able to read your emotions to know what you're about to try and do." Zero said, his voice still slightly slurred due to the drugs not being 100% out of his system. "But don't, you don't need the blood on your hands." Zero reasoned. "Besides, you aren't in any shape to go after him." Zero said, obverving the electrocution marks on Karmy's body, his hand begining to glow that familiar red as he started to heal her. "Beleive me, saying this isn't easy- I've seen what he's done tonight. But it's not up to us to make him attone for that."

Slade considered going after Batman again, but he was a bit more...... distracted when he noticed he no longer had Batman barring his path to the Joker. With expertise would no doubt even make Batman raise an eyebrow, Slade slunk about the shadows and emerged beside the Joker. He knew the police were there, but he frankly didn't give a damn. If they wanted to shoot him, they were more then welcome to. After he had a little 'talk' with the Joker.

And by talk I mean that Slade was holding his assault gun to Joker's head. "I must've missed the Joke." Slade said seriously to the Joker's laughter.

[Oy, I tried to worm my way back in. If I stepped on any toes, as I'm sure I did, just let me know and I'll edit]

There was a fire in Karmys eyes, the colors changing rapidly in rage. "No!" she screamed in Zeros face. A deep, searing hate dripped from her words. The last time Karmy had been this .. furious was 6 years ago. When Smith had revealed that he had killed her brother. "That fucking psychopath is going to die for what he did!" she screamed, pure fury blinding her to her actions. She pushed Zero away and ran for the portal.

(Batman and Alice are gone.)

"Someone get a thermal on the Joker! C'mon we need him now what's taking you?" The Commissioner of Police yelled through his radio. "Geez Louise, what the hell takes so long to catch this guy? I thought he's only wearing make-up. If he were the real Joker I'd understand." Commisioner Flass muttered more to himself than to the officer next to him, "I dunno Commish, they all seem awefully desperate these days. They might do anything." The officer replied.

"Looks like someone's got the Joker stuck up!" Bard replied, "Its another mask! One of those bad guys I saw in the papers the other day I'm sure of it! Permission to open fire already!" Commisioner listened to Bard's report, "Not on The Joker," he said, "The Mayor will have my head if we pop his head open without any reason." Slade looked like he wanted to see what the inside of the Joker's head felt like...

Damian quickly threw his bola at Karmy wrapping her legs and pulling her in like some sort of animal. "Geez, she's not really bright, is she?" Damian asked basically to himself. Barbara finished Cyrah and Cassius' bonds and stood up, "Okay, well I don't know who's going to be in charge around here, but we have to so something." Barbara told all the heroes in a louder voice. "The police are out there and this place isn't really safe to at, what do we do?" Barbara asked for opinons, if they could do this methodically then Karmy might have her chance of getting at Slade.

"She's not a criminal, you don't have to use these on her." Zero said, undoing the bolo from Karmy's legs. He had been there when Karmy confronted Smith all those years ago, he knew she definiteley would kill the joker if she got her hands on him, mad as she was. He freed her, but still kept a cutious eye on her in case she decided to make another break for it.

"She might not be a criminal, but she's still a murderer." Damian said still skeptical of Zero's choice he made. He knew she would go after him. Knew it.

[Also some research says Damian never murdered, he made a promise to Bruce he wouldn't to clear up any continuity errors.]

Zero raised an eyebrow. "And that is a reason to tie her up?" Zero asked, tossing the bola off to the side. She was confused and angry, just tying her up like an animal wasn't going to benefit anyone, Karmy least of all...

"Yes you retard! If I just let her go she's gonna murder another person. I honestly don't see how any of you see her as a hero. You must be really blind not to see that she's not." Damian snorted. "Enough Damian, we need to work together right now." Barbara explained thinking the situation through. "No reason to tie her up, really, you're an idiot."
"I said enough Damian!"

A snap echoed around the room and Karmy was gone, but only for a second. "You selfish sonovabith!!!" a portal appeare above Damian and Karmy tackled him hard to the ground. Holding him down with her knees, she had slipped on a pair of brassknuckles and started to hit him. "How DARE you say that! Didn't you see what he just did?! What he did to he rest of us?!? THE GODDAMN BASTARD NEEDS TO DIE!!" she screamed in his face.

"Karmy!" Barbara quickly threw a batarang at Karmy's head knocking her off of Damian, who was bleeding from his mouth and cuts in his head. Bruised ribs and aching back. "You guys, we're supposed to fighting the villains, not each other." She said as all was silent now, "Look, we might not like everyone here, but we're all on the same side. We're all supposed to be fighting for truth, honor, and justice. We can't be doing that if we're so divided. I mean look at you!" Barbara demanded. Damian hated to admit it, hated to, but she was right. He looked away from Karmy and restrained from breaking her legs.

Karmy lay limp on her side, dazed from the bludgeoned blow to her head. The adrenaline rush that had fueled her to pull the previous stunt and beat the living hell out of Damian, had now run out. "You... douche bag.." he glared wearily at Damian as the shakes began to grip her again. "Just wanted to.. I couldn't save her.." she whimpered as she curled up to try and raise her body temperature. "You fucking asshole.."

"Oh c'mon, you think you're the only one trying to save everyone?" Damian snapped. "Damian.. or Robin.. or whatever the hell you want to call yourself now, this isn't a time to fight, we have to think out our stratagy, what are we going to do next? The police are out there with The Joker now. Our safest route is to go back to the Batcave, where Batman probably is treating Alice with Wintergreen now. That or we can pursue the Joker, but I don't think any of us are in shape if we get cornered." Barbara thought out.

Zero gave a frustrated sigh at Damian's comment, but decided to just let it go. Not for nothing, pretty much everyone in that room except Damian had just gotten through a hell of an ordeal, he didn't expect him to understand. He pulled off his cape- like jacket and slung it over Karmy as she shiffered, hoping the gesture would warm her ever so slightly. "It's all over now, don't worry. Alice is tough, she'll be fine, I'm sure." He said to her, trying to be comforting as best he could.