He Who Laughs Last

CH 13: Joint Operation (ARC ONE FINALE)

Bruce Wayne sat in a downpour, watching about a dozen and a half of the Joker's men wander around through their main base of operations. Over the last few days he had scouted out several of the locations he had acquired, and this one was the one. A warehouse, or what once was one, converted and modified to serve as a heavily fortified stronghold in the city. Walls heavily reinforced with concrete and steel beams, the scarce windows heavily barred over, and doors so thick you would think you were breaking into a bank vault. This would not be easy, and with only a vague layout of the interior structure indicating multiple choke points and blind corners, nor would it be safe. Bruce needed some backup. As he had expected he would. A burner phone bought with cash came out, and the police were called.

.....

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" The police dispatcher who answered the call had had a very long day, and wasn't sure whether she wanted to go home or stay at work less. This call, though, would make up for it. All the sleepless nights spent away from her family, working the phones and relaying information and waiting to go home and be kept awake by that same family had led up to this point and the promotion that would stem from it. For on the other end of the line was a gravelly and obviously disguised voice that told her that it was making a move on the Joker. That it had the address for the gang's main base and that they needed to send as many men as they could spare. It relayed the information it had, and she immediately called the office of the commissioner once the voice had hung up abruptly. He picked up the phone almost before his secretary was done talking to her.

.....

Commissioner James Gordon had been waiting for this break. Months upon months of the Joker's deranged grip on the city had run the entire police force ragged, Jim most of all. He wished they hadn't, he wished he could be there for them, but his family suffered for it all the same. He spent long hours in his office, or at any of the precincts across the city, trying to get somewhere on this. Inch by inch they had pried information from the gang members left by the vigilante character that had been putting the entire force to shame for weeks. Jim was glad the guy hadn't killed anyone yet, it meant he only had to put up a token effort towards catching him. He had gotten close, though. Several of the Joker's gang ended up needing medical assistance. Not to say that the thugs didn't deserve it, an opinion he kept himself from sharing with anyone but his wife, but what their mystery man was doing was still very illegal. Even if it got results. Jim just wished he would have shared those results with the police earlier. The gang had thus far been very uncooperative. Even to the point of supplying false information to lead his men on wild goose chases all across the city. Jim would wonder how the vigilante knew the answers he got were genuine, but he knew there was a certain level of honesty one suddenly acquires after an extensive beating. Heaven knows Jim had to stop his men who knows how many times from using those same methods. Results or not, he wanted to run an honest police department. One above repute. He had his work cut out for him, to say the least.
But finally they had a break. From the vigilante no less, which was a matter of no small amount of shame on Jim's part. Slipping on his coat and hat, he rushed out of his office. They had a madman to catch, and he would be there when they did.

.....

Bruce watched, trying to pump as much info out of the scene as he could while he waited for the police to show up. He had gone over dozens of scenarios before calling them, and the one he figured would give any chance of success was when they were distracted, fighting the police. He watched, re-memorizing the layout, trying to predict how the men inside would react to SWAT teams busting in, squad cars showing up and barricading the block, how they would defend their place. It didn't look good for the cops. Joker had had the place gutted and redone, and it looked like the walls were heavily reinforced. He could see steel beams and mesh hiding inside every exterior wall, and suspected there was a solid foot of concrete beneath the unassuming steel paneling visible from the outside. The interior had similarly reinforced walls, though to a lesser degree, and every doorway and corner seemed designed to serve as a choke point. The exterior doors looked like they would fit better on a bank vault than a warehouse. The gang would have plenty of warning on where the police were going to enter. There was a very discrete side entrance, though, that seemed to lead directly to what appeared to be a safe room. The room Joker was currently in, and had seemed to have set up as his primary headquarters. The image was difficult to make out, the equipment designed to find heat, metal, and electrical currents more than interior design details, but Bruce thought he could make out a throne. That certainly tracked with the Joker's ego. And then Bruce heard sirens in the distance, a lot of sirens. The cavalry were here. It was time to get to work.