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Danny grit his teeth as he watched the mad clown seem to talk to the cameras that seemed to be man’ed by over muscled clown faced men.
He had to think of how to get out of this without risking exposing himself. But there were so many cameras.
Seriously, what was this lunatic doing? He had one for every side. WHY?!
Danny would have asked him, though after 20 minutes of trying to tick the guy off he ended up with a tied gag… seriously he never really thought these things would work in real life.
What was more irritating other then the bad jokes that Danny could only roll his eyes at, was the hyena’s laughing, and the woman who was smiling, and even blew him a kiss… Ew. She was old enough to be his mom.
“So Batsy, your choice, the lives of the many,” Joker motioned to the large cage the classmates were hanging in, “Or the life of one? Your choice. The clock is ticking.”
Danny wondered what the local broad casts allowed or if they would have cut their streaming. After all, the Clown promised a full live stream of this event.
But if no one was watching then he could probably take care of it right? Right?
The clown walked over to the cage to harass the others there.
Danny could see Sam and Tucker doing their best, Sam distracting, and Tucker doing his best to try and hack the area to either take out the power or wifi, but judging from Tuck’s face, it wasn't going well.
“Hey, leave her alone!” someone’s voice called out when Joker had apparently got fed up with Sam and grabbed her by the shirt to shove a Gun in her face.
Danny couldn't see exactly who it was, but he knew the voice didn't belong to one of the jocks right?
“Oh Really?” Joker laughed, “Trying to be a hero?”
“Don’t need to be,” there was uncertainty in the voice. Danny really couldn't see who it was.
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” Ok they seemed to find their footing.
“Why is that? You believe in the big bad bat coming to save you?”
There was a snort, “Lets say I did. It wouldn't matter you wouldn't believe me. Wouldn't believe me if I said I didn't have anything you wanted to hear. Let alone that you wouldn't want to hear it alone so no one else hears it. Cus you're obviously scared of a tiny thing like me right? And I sure as Hell don't have a good joke for you.”
What the hell was the person going on about?
Joker seemed to think then smiled, “You know what… I like you. You seem Crazy as I do.” Danny winced when he heard a pop, only to see a bang flag hanging from the gun, “Why not,” Joker laughed, “Let’s go listen to this little Joke of yours.” The clown put the gun away into his coat.
Joker snapped his fingers, the cage was opened and Danny got the briefest of looks at a jersey, and a small wisp of red hair, before the person was dragged away by Joker's men, Joker following with a smile on his face.
One of the cameras now was unmanned. Great… but that didn't remove the others. And what was worse now there was a kid alone with joker… wait… the kid was Alone?
“Oh no,” Danny muttered, maybe he could freeze the cameras from here? Would they pick up on that?
>>>>>
Bruce felt his stomach drop when he heard the news. A whole school bus had been taken by the Joker. A group of kids who were visiting, though the teacher may have inhaled too much Toxins as he had left the bus, and the students behind to ask for directions, claiming they had been headed to some place called Amity Park Zoo.
But other then the confusion the teacher was fine.
But the students. The live stream was going. Oracle was doing her best to try and find a location, but it seemed Joker got a bit more tech savvy as he was trying to shut down the location’s power, which in turn would mean the live steam would die, and with it potentially the children.
She was in a mad dash of trying to keep the lights on.
He was currently on his own, as most of his kids were either out of town for various jobs, or well seemingly unreachable and not talking to him.
“Bruce, someone manually cut the power!” Oracle came over the coms frantic and fearful.
“What?” He pressed down further on the gas pedal. This wasn't good.
“Yeah, there is nothing coming in or out power wise, someone had to have switched off the breaker," She explained. There was a moment, “B, i'm looking through one of the cameras from the intersection not too far… there is green and frost blue light flashing? I don't think Freeze was there?”
“I'm almost there,” Batman was now confused. Freeze almost never worked with Joker. He found the Clown too unstable. What was going on?
By the time Batman got there and smashed through a window… the goons were frozen from the neck down. Harley was tied up in the leashes. And the Hyenas were in the cage. While all the students were standing fine and unharmed looking confused.
“Where is the Joker?” He asked aloud, doing a head count he felt his gut flip, there was one missing.
“Only person not counted for is Wes!” a goth girl spoke up, “He talked the Joker into going off with him after the clown pulled a gun on me.”
There was a boy with black hair, at first Bruce thought it was one of his sons, not just due to the appearance, but given how the boy’s eyes were scanning the area, as if he were trying to find whatever hidden compartments or door ways. Or even signs of where the clown had gone.
“Alright stay here, the police are on their way,” Batman assured, “Where did Joker take him.
“That way, but I don't think there is a door over there,” the boy pointed.
“How would you know Fen-turd?”
“Dash! Not now!” a more fashion forward girl snipped, “But Fenton is right, Joker took Wes that way.”
Batman gave a nod, then moved. He knew how the Joker worked, and most likely there was a false wall or hidden door.
Sure enough, Bruce found it, down along the wall, there was the hidden utility door. He fallowed down the hall that was lined with janitorial equipment, and potentially what had once been the security room.
There he froze.
Before him… the braker box, with the main braker tripped. And a bloody handprint upon the door. A young Teen’s hand print.
No.
“Orical, it looks like a hostage pulled the braker,” he tripped it back after taking several pictures for the police and their records.
Batman went further in, please let the boy be ok please let the…
“Bruce… We have someone leaving the back of the building.” her voice sounded unsure.
“Joker?” He pushed through another door, only to feel his blood running cold.
Joker’s body was leaned against a wall.
“No, a red headed boy, wearing a number 2 Jursey. He is approaching a cop car, his… his hand looks bloody,” She answered, “B?”
Batman looked at the Joker, his unblinking eyes, his hand that was still gripped on a knife. And the gun wound on his chest.
The gun was gone.
“Where is the boy?”
“Uh… looks like the cops just laughed and drove off. Fuck B. the kid has a gun.”
“I'm on it.”
>>>>>
Wes didn't expect it to work. Hell when the clown had asked if he was trying to be a hero, all he could think of was how no one ever believed him.
Yeah originally it began as just, no one believed he wasn't Phantom, till the two of them were in the same room. No, not him telling people he wasn't, was not enough. Then when Wes saw Danny Transform. No one believed him when he told them who Phantom was.
To be fair, he eventually was grateful no one did. As originally he was just upset over how much crap he got when people thought He was Phantom.
But the clown seemed amused.
Why not? Why not try and use whatever it was to his advantage? No one believed him right? So why would the Clown?
He was talking out of his ass. He knew it. He figured if he gave Danny enough time maybe the other could get out of the situation. He always got out of weird situations.
Wes never expected to be led into a room where the electrical box was, or to a room that was allegedly sound proof.
Who puts a sound proof room in an old factory anyway?
Wes put his hand to the wrinkled spot on his collar. Where the clown had gripped then pulled a knife on him. Apparently not liking the fact Wes seemed to think he was funnier than him.
The situation played out in his head.
“So… You think you're funny enough to derail my show?” The clown wasn't smiling. Fuck that was scarier then the creepy smile.
Wes didn't mean to grab the knife. But he feared the other was going to cut him. He hadn't even noticed the fact he had grabbed the blade.
“You're either brave or stupid, so… what’s the joke?”
Wes’s free hand moved without realizing it, “Uh, what’s the worst way for a clown to go?”
Joker raised a brow, “What?”
“Out with a bang,” Wes was kinda proud of himself till he saw the bang flag, Fuck.
The knife moving and the pain in his hand finally hitting, the trigger finger twitched automatically with the flinch.
There was a bang.
Wes watched it, as Joker stumbled back looking down at himself with horror, “that… That’s not funny… That’s not… funny… at all…” he slid down the wall.
Wes blinked. The body before him, his hand still stinging. He turned back towards the door he came in from. Did… did he go out now?
“Danny,” he realized the other still needed a distraction. He went to the electric box and pulled the switch.
His mind was… empty? No … silent.
It was silent as he spotted the light seeping out from a back door he passed the body. A body… a body of a man he shot.
He walked down the street, there was a cop car. He killed a man. He needed to report it.
“Officers?” he greeted.
“Yeah? You ok buddy?” the officer suddenly sounded worried seeing the blood.
“I killed the clown…” he said with the same amount of emotion as mentioning he thought it was raining.
The cops laughed, “Good one kid,” the cop was about to say something else when something came over the radio and they left.
No one ever believes him.
Wes blinked. He felt nauseous but knew he wouldn't throw up. His feet moved. Where he was going he wasn't sure.
>>>>>
Batman couldn't find the kid. Which was scary in its own situation. Oracle was only able to hack the street cameras which were at the intersections though not on all roads.
There seemed there was still a few blind spots in the factory district they would need to work on later.
For now, they had a group of kids and a teacher who all claimed they were from a place called Amity Park. There were too many I.D.’s plus the bus with the license plate and school name on the side for it to be a hoax.
As Batman was inquiring about this Wes kid who was missing from the bus’s student register, he noticed there was another student missing. The one Batman had mistaken for one of his sons.
>>>>>
“Oricale? What's going on?” Jason asked over the coms.
“There You are! Geez, even Dick and Tim managed to get a hold of me already,” She snapped, “Look something happened, we think there was some space and time or alternate reality slip sort of thing going on. But that isn't the emergency.”
“What?” Jason was obviously in the middle of punching someone.
“Joker took the displaced Bus hostage, it was full of school kids. One… uh… Jason, are you sitting down?”
“Fuck no? Did the clown kill the kids?” She could feel his anger and frustration on the other side.
“Ok, well you might want to, One of the kids apparently got Joker to take him to the side alone, and the kid killed the Joker.”
“No shit?!” Jason laughed, “Holy fuck, that’s Great!”
“No, no it's not. The kid apparently was or is in shock. And we lost track of him. Plus he isn't from this world or time or… well something still working on that.”
“Fuck, ok i'm on my way. We need to find the kid.”
“That’s not the strange thing though,” she added.
“What do you mean?”
“The kid apparently might… and please take this with a grain of salt, have a cassandra situation going on. After the briefing from Bruce, plus what I overheard on the radio between the police. The kid told them outright he killed Joker, while covered in blood, and they didn't believe him.”
“Got it,” Jason replied.
“Currently the ex hostages are mostly accounted for, besides one other student and Wes. And are currently at the hospital, and will be put up in one of B’s hotels for now while we work things out.”
>>>>>
Jason couldn't believe it.
After years. Yes he hated B for some time. But after a while he came to terms with it. Still got to use it as an excuse to not show up or listen when it was convenient mind you.
Jason followed every lead on every back road he knew.
It still felt bizarre. The Joker. The Clown Crime Prince of Gotham. Was dead.
And not by a hero. Not By Batman. Not by Jason.
But by the hands of a civilian. Someone who had next to almost nothing to do with the Joker then this most recent situation.
Heck the kid and his class didn't even come from this world apparently. Something called a ghost portal, or well from their side a potential portal from evaporating Lazarus waters, seemed to allow the Bus as a whole to slip through somehow, at least B seemed to feel that was the leading theory.
But now, out there somewhere was a lost kid.
A kid who killed the Joker.
A kid who the City was practically celebrating. Cheering and deeming a Hero above Batman, a feat Jason didn't think possible.
But now, instead of the impossible job of killing the Joker, Jason had to find Joker’s killer.
>>>>>
Wes wasn't sure how long he walked, but he was tired. He was sitting on a doc… had he gone in a big circle? He didn't think so.
Looking up at the moon it seemed to shine down on him, with the stars just twinkling down upon him as well.
His feet hung over the edge of the wooden dock over the almost rainbow looking water possibly from chemical run off.
He was tired, he was finally feeling tired. But what was worse, the tears were finally falling.
No one believed him. No one would believe him.
He told people he was lost. No one listened. He told cops he killed a man, SEVERAL COPS! Some who were actively listening to radio calls describing him, No one believed him.
He looked at the gun in his hand… “No one would believe me…” He muttered.
>>>>>
Jason who stood at the end of an alley put his hands to the com button on his helmet, “I found him.”