Princess' Riches {ON HOLD}

Chapter Fifteen: He Will Never Hurt You Again

The Joker was at it again, but without the company of his dear, faithful and utmost loyal partner in crime, Harley Quinn, as now he had to resort to time to ensure his plan went accordingly. It took a good two dozen murders to acquire a submarine to conduct his experiment on a kidnapped Lois Lane. It took hours before Superman was able to locate the Joker's presence - outside of Metropolis after planting a nuke somewhere in the city. 

Eventually, Superman was able to locate him and submerged himself under the water to lift the vessel out of the water onto a vacant beach. There, the Man of Steel breached the hull of the ship to approach the location where he could see his wife and his enemy at the use of his x-ray vision. But by the time Superman got there, he caught a glimpse of Lois lying asleep on the table whereas Joker wore a gas mask over his face as a strange aroma caught into his system. 

It took a minute for the effects of the hallucinogen to spike. Superman eventually came back around where he caught sight of a tall monstrosity before him. His worst enemy... Doomsday. Confused by this, Superman acted only how he could which was by tackling his hallucination of Doomsday through the ship, skyrocketing through the atmosphere and soon enough into outer space where he could hear people yelling in his ear. 

"YOU WON'T TAKE THEM FROM ME!" Superman bellowed in a blind rage. 

"Superman, stop! Whatever you're seeing, it isn't real! It's Lois! IT'S LOIS!" 

When he realised the hallucination had ended and that Doomsday's gigantic form had shrunk to that of a human, he was left mortified with his actions as three droplets of blood drifted out of Lois' nose. Removing his cape, he wrapped her body and flew back to Earth where Batman, Wonder Woman and Avatar, Cyborg and the Flash resided, surrounding the Joker who made a cruel remark that left Batman enraged. 

"Did you know she was pregnant? AH HA HA HA HA HAAA!!" Joker cackled, only to be silenced by Batman's fist colliding with his cheek. 

When Superman returned, he laid Lois' body on the ground where he revealed her from his cape and cradled her head in his arms, sobbing dramatically. 

"Please... PLEASE! WAKE UP!!" Superman screamed hysterically. 

After a minute of anticipation, the brunette awoke in a cough as relief flooded Superman when he heard Lois' heartbeat. Lois met Clark's eyes and smiled weakly as her hand cupped his cheek, a tear stopped when it touched her thumb. 

"Lois, I almost... the baby!" Superman choked out. 

"I'm okay, Clark. We're okay," whispered Lois. 

Suddenly, the Man of Steel whipped his head at the Joker with fury in his eyes. He and Lois stood on their feet as Diana was quick to come to her aid while Batman and Avatar almost had to stand in Superman's path. 

"YOU! You almost took them from me!" 

"Now, now, Superman. Let's not do something incredibly violent and messy that we might regret." The Joker taunted with his natural wide grin. 

Clenching his fist, Superman uttered, "I will not regret this..." 

"Superman," called Batman who took action and placed his hand on the S of Superman's chest. 

"Move aside, Bruce." 

The Joker's eyes widened, his sadistic smirk remained as wide as it could be as he cried in dismay of the first name reveal of his arch-nemesis. "Bruce...? No. This spoils everything! Now you're just a 'Bruce' in a bat-suit. HA! And who are you? A Mark? A Harry? A Steve? Pathetic!" 

Diana tightened her jaw as she felt compelled to punch Joker for making fun of the name of her first love but stayed her hand, knowing that she was better than to give in to her impulses. 

"Wonder Woman, Avatar, Cyborg, Flash. Somewhere in Metropolis, there's a nuclear warhead. I'll take Joker back to Gotham and I'll try to learn the location of the warhead on the way." Batman commanded. 

"I'll question the Joker." Superman uttered darkly. 

"No. Look after Lois. Let me deal with him." 

"Like you've dealt with him before?" 

"Superman. I promi--" 

KPPEEEEEOOWWWW!! 

"Sniper! Is everyone alright?!" Diana exclaimed and shielded (Y/n)'s body with her. 

Flash stared at the body lying on the floor where blood pooled from the entrance and exit wounds on the head of the Joker. 

"He's not..." Flash muttered softly, almost to the point of gagging at the blood and gore that seeped into the sand. 

"Damn," cursed Superman. "Bruce, I--" 

Bruce shot his hand up, silencing Clark as the team did as they were told and made off to search for the nuke. The Dark Knight knelt down to forensic the crime scene by scanning the wounds in the Joker's skull and the trajectory impact of the bullet. A twelve point seven millimetre rifle cartridge hit the ground, and by virtually recreating the scene, adding to where the Joker stood, things lined up to show the trajectory the bullet travelled as an orange line pinpointed the sniper's location. 

On the roof of a hotel, Bruce grimaced at the scene where he could easily spot three things that stood out to him: a scratch mark on the wall of the roof where a rifle tripod was mounted, a shell cartridge that laid on the floor, and a symbol on the wall of the rooftop door. He took a picture of the symbol with his cowl and the cartridge after scanning the scene before fleeing for the Batcave to investigate his findings further. Eventually, he'd come to make a discovery. An few words invisible to the naked eye displayed a hidden message for Bruce and Bruce only... 

"Joker Says Hello, Bruce..."