Mad Love

Chapter 19

Bruce Wayne's POV (continued):
The joker and Harley still surrounded me, what did they want?!
"All we want is for this lovely fundraiser to change direction and, well..." Harley turned toward the joker who grinned menacingly at me.
"All of this money's going somewhere right? To your local councilmen perhaps? What do you think they're going to do with all that money? Spend it all on your poor city that's so desperate for money and repairs, I think not. Were merely sparing Gotham from the tragic truth that is its poverty and disease." Joker spoke bluntly, acting sincere.
"Just give the money to us, we'll take good care of it!" Harley suggested.
"No, you belong in Arkham. Joker, I don't know how you managed to drag this poor girl into your freak show of a life but it needs to stop now. Put the guns down and leave the building before innocent people get hurt."
"Who are you callin' a poor girl, for the record I came willingly. And your right, innocent people will get hurt." Harley pointed her gun at the crowd still gathered at the center of the room.
"Look Batsy, I know your concerned for the guests at this wonderful party, but I promise that if you lend the fund to us they will sleep safe and sound in their little beds. Scouts honor!" Joker saluted me. What was I going to do now, I can't just give the money to the joker. But I'm outnumbered in every way. These civilians need protection from this madman and his girlfriend who's clearly been captured and brainwashed in one way or another. One wrong move and everyone dies.
"Fine, as long as you don't harm another soul in here." I was running out of options, this was the only way. The joker could be so unpredictable at times so I kept my guard up. The security guards had already been held captive by some of jokers men so I had no plan B in terms of stopping the joker.
"How very generous of you! I knew we were alike you and I." The joker laughed giddily.
"I don't recall you showing anyone generosity, joker."
"Hey, ease off B-man! We could've killed everyone in this room at the click of a button if we wanted to. Your just lucky that-." Joker put a finger to Harley's lips causing her to silence.
"Sh-sh-sh, we don't want to spoil the fun for the bats now do we?" Just then it hit me, the joker had rigged this place with a bomb, there was always a catch to his plan.
"You promised you weren't going to hurt anymore guests!" I yelled.
"No, I promised that they would sleep safe and sound in their little beds. You can't get hurt when your already dead. Hahaha!" The joker then grabbed onto a ladder that fell down through one of the holes in the ceiling, grabbed Harley, and got pulled up by a helicopter that the ladder was attached to. His men started climbing up their ropes. I ran after his men and managed to pull one down. I knocked him unconscious and carried him out of the building while yelling for everybody to clear the building as fast as they could. I tied up the man I caught and ran back inside. The bomb was attached to the farthest wall, I only had seconds to deactivate it. There was no way that everyone would be able to get out in time. The bomb would go off in 10... I grabbed my cryptographic sequencer 9... maybe it would stop the bomb from going off. 8... the first code it tried didn't work! 7... the second code didn't work either. 6...5...4...3...2... this was my last try. 1... it worked, thank god! Just in the nick of time. There were still at least 20 people still trying to get out of the building. Officer Gordan and his wife were one of them.
"Good thing you were here Batman, I don't think that would have been my ideal way to die."
"You and me both commissioner." I ran over to one of the closets and opened it to find the security guards had been knocked unconscious and tied up. I quickly untied them and left the door open. I knew it would be a dumb idea to host the annual Gotham fundraiser, it was just a recipe for disaster. I still had one loose end to tie up though.
I walked outside, the man I had caught who was working for the joker was still there, starting to come back to consciousness.
"You, talk! Where's the joker heading?!" I grabbed him by his shirt. He was wearing a tuxedo, his gun was dropped a few feet away. I kicked it away seeing that he was eyeing it.
"I ain't tellin' you nothin!" He spat in my face.
"Wrong answer!" I guess I'll have to do things the old fashioned way. I knocked him out again and chucked him in the trunk of a random car that was still sitting outside of the mansion. I drove it downtown and grabbed the man from the trunk. He was either going to answer to me or the police.