Chapter Text
It was just one of many rainy nights in Gotham city . Bruce Wayne had just returned to his mansion, but this time without a beautiful woman or two by his side. He had kind of this deprived look on his face, that not many could catch underneath his fake-ly neutral expression . After speaking a couple words to Alfred he headed upstairs . He had to get some sleep in , since he had meeting early in the morning.
It didn’t take him too long to change , after he did the man sat down on his bed. It was naive to hope to have a normal night in this godforsaken city. He sighed deeply. Tonight he saw the parents of a young acrobat be murdered just in front of him. The police managed to catch the criminals who did it, but it was too late. The look of terror was already frozen on the kids face. Brutal really.
This was sadly something that happened a lot, and usually Bruce didn’t pay too much attention to it. But this was different, he didn’t know how but it was. He didn’t know what happened with the kid, but assumed he’d been send to an orphanage .
After resuming the occurrences of the day in his head , he laid down under his sheets and drifted off to sleep. Thinking of a way he could help the boy.
The next day Bruce found himself in another boring meeting, looking out the window as one of his employees was telling him about his oh so great idea. He’s been thinking about all sorts of things . Today he had to talk to Alfred and find the orphanage of that kid . He was planning to donate some money to it maybe, send him a gift card. What does the youth want nowadays?
Also why has the Joker been so quiet lately? He was probably planning something big again. He always was, all of his terror attacks were greater than the one before . Bruce didn’t know who he was always trying to impress so much. Because he wasn’t impressed by it. Just another psychotic criminal who thinks the whole world owes them . He’s learned in the past that Joker doesn’t exactly have a goal . He destroys for the fun of it ,the adrenaline , the-
“..Wayne? Mister Wayne? Are you listening?”
He turned his head as soon as he heard his name, getting pulled out of his thoughts.
“Yes of course.”
“So what do you think about our clients offer sir?”
How much had the topic changed since he’d zoned out that they were talking about client offers? He couldn’t let the people think that he didn’t actually care. He sat up right , folding his hands on the table in front of him.
“I think we should wait before taking up an offer like this. Get some more information out of them before reporting back to me.” He said , sipping the coffee that already cooled down.
“Alright sir.” Said the man, disappointed at the disinterested of his boss.
After all of the essentially useless meetings of the day, he sat in the batcave . At his main computer and looked for any abnormalities in the city. Tonight there were mostly just small crimes like convenience store robberies , he let those be handled by the police. They needed something that let them keep their importance .
He almost shut off the gadgets , when he heard an alarm sound off. It was about time the Joker striked. His face appeared on the monitors. It wasn’t unusual for him to somehow hack into the systems , but that’s where it ended . He could make certain things appear on all the screens of Gotham , but couldn’t exctract information from them. Well unless he had direct access to them physically. The villains acid green hair was slicked back , with only a couple strands peeking out from the rest. A shit eating grin was on his face, like normally.
“Oh batsy~ I’ve prepared a new challenge just for you!” He laughed , crossing his legs as he sat on what looked like a makeshift throne out of trash.
“I have the mayor of your favourite city here.. I think you should come and save him..” he stayed quiet for a second . Bruce got a more serious look on his face as he stared at the clown on his screen.
“And well, only you I mean.. if I smell just a hint of someone else’s presence well.” He had this malicious look on his face as he lifted what looked like a detonator .
“I’ll let acid rain fall over that police station that’s been oh soo helpful to you. I’m sure sir Gordon is working a late shift today.”
By the time he was done talking , he already had the location of the criminal. Wasn’t hard to track at all for a detective like him. Bruce didn’t hesitate putting on his batsuit . Although Alfred insisted on a better plan than just heading down there and getting Joker himself, without notifying anyone else. But Batman didn’t waste his time .
Without the blink of an eye, he was at an abandoned warehouse. It was decorated with balloons and all, spraypainted words . Clearly someone made an effort . Joker was nowhere to be seen . Water dripped down the old walls of the building . The mayor was found hanging up side down from the ceiling, surprisingly alive with nothing more than some scratches and bruises. Batman got the man down safely and continued to look for the clown.
He showed himself early enough , charging at him with a knife.
“Surprise!” The Joker yelled . Batman managed to get him rather off quickly , without Joker leaving even a scratch.
“You’re getting worse at those.” The man said annoyed.
Joker laughed “cmon don’t be so pessimistic now!”
The laughing man stepped back and almost out of nowhere four of his goons appeared, all carrying hand pistols . This is going to be a fun one.
“Look Batsy, just for you!” He giggled .
The men started firing at him . He was dodging the bullets as good as he could, his suit wasn’t that thick, so a bullet would most likely get through. He managed to get close enough to one of them to kick the gun out of his hand and threw him against two others. The two stumbled down as he used the batarang to snap the weapons out of their hands. The last one had ran away from fear. The bat figured he’d get his own punishment . He recollected the fallen batarang, stuffing it into his utility belt next to the others.
The man looked around , searching for the Joker. Who slipped away while he was busy. But he’d seen where he headed . And headed after him, down a small alley. It didn’t take long to catch up with the clown . He was very slick to be bland .
“Just give up Joker.” He said , his voice stern.
“What’s the fun in that? Batsy~” the man sounded too jolly for the fact that he was seconds away from being punched between the eyes. But who knows , maybe that’s what he wanted. Batman frowned.
“Don’t call me that, freak .” He said threatening the other .
“Why not? Don’t like that it gets you all riled up?” He grinned .
He was used to weird comments like that from the man , but that didn’t mean he hated it any less. He punched the green haired man, but he apparently wanted just that, since when he got close enough he pulled another dagger from behind his back and stabbed his side.
Batman stepped back, grunting as he pulled out the weapon from his side. His hands bloody. The maniac laughed running away as he was distracted.
But he couldn’t let him escape , so he used his grapple gun to grab him and yank him back. A yelp escaped from the Jokers chapped lips as a pair of strong hands grabbed his neck and slammed his back into a wall, it cracking in the process .
“Oh interesting~ didn’t know you were into this type of stuff.” The more he messed with him the angrier Batman got,his grip around his neck tightened , choking him.
“Shut you mouth.” He said angrily.
“Make me Bats.” What he said was followed by maniacal laughter . He trailed the tips of his fingers over his chest plate. It was hard to keep focus when he acted so weird . It disgusted him. Joked wanted Batman to lose his cool , to hit him , to kill him. But it never got past fighting.
While Batman had his guard down he didn’t notice a smoke bomb ticking. As it went off the Joker slipped out of his grip . He coughed trying to see through the thick smoke but to no avail. This time he didn’t manage to catch joker . Didn’t manage to punish him. Didn’t manage to send him to Arkham.