Batman & Robin And Me .:rewritten:.

XXVII. Crowbars & Grappling Guns

NOW IT WAS MY TURN to be taken by surprise as the Joker lunged at me, murder obvious in the reach of his cruel, slender hands.

I cried out and backpedaled out of his reach. His grasping fingers sheared the air in front of me. I brought my arm up in a knee-jerk defense reaction as his claws came reaching for my face, but instead of scraping his fingers across my armored gloves, he wrapped them around my forearm. His grip was like iron.

I tugged in a futile effort. "Let--go!"

He twisted my wrist, and in a matter of seconds, he trapped my arm painfully behind my back and flung me across the room.

I landed in a pile of dusty crates with a scream-wrenching thud, skidding to a stop, I got unsteadily to my feet, and then dove to the side as a heavy crowbar smashed into the ground where I had been mere moments ago.

The Joker took another wild swing, grazing my calf. I crumped to my knees, holding my leg, but managed to roll away as the bar came whistling down again.

Breathing heavily, I scrambled to my feet. My leg was burning, and I knew if I looked down, I'd see a long scrape. Warm blood was seeping from it into my bright blue costume. Everything was moving too fast, and my head was whirling. I backed up hastily, and crashed into a pile of cardboard boxes. The Joker advanced steadily, and his green eyes glowed with a mad light as he raised the crowbar again.

I shoved the boxes at him and he faltered for the briefest instant before he swung. That instant was all my adrenaline-fueled limbs needed to whirl and sprint away. I look the nearby flight of stairs two at a time, heart thundering as loud as my footsteps on the rickety iron stairs.

He was behind me instantly. Like a giant, pale white grasshopper, he kept pace with me as I fell up the stairs.

He's enjoying this. I realized with sickening dread. It's like how a cat plays with his food.

I pelted up the stairs as they turned into a ramp that kept going upward. Stumbling for a panicked moment nearly cost me a leg, as I heard the crowbar hitting the ramp directly behind me with an earsplitting ring that echoed through the air. Finally, the ramp ended and turned into a platform that ran the length of the warehouse thirty feet from the ground.

I reached out my hand to grab a hold of one of the poles that held the catwalk up, and used my momentum to swing myself onto the catwalk. I landed and took off again, my legs moving before I reached the platform.

Keep moving. My overwhelmed mind managed to gasp at me. Got to...keep going or you die--

We ran across the length of the warehouse, my adrenaline slowly failing under the pressure of growing pain and fatigue. Sheer will drove me forward. However, my pursuer was faster than I was, and my legs were swept out from under me by his metal bar. I fell, tripping over my feet and crashing down hard on the catwalk. Fear kept me moving, and I tumbled to the left to avoid a heavy boot slamming down right where my skull would have been.

That moved me too close to the edge, and I slipped over the side of the catwalk.

Only a desperate grab saved me from plummeting to my death, but I was now trapped between twenty-five feet of air, and a madmad. Underneath me, on the floor that seemed so far away, jagged bits of metal crates gaped at me like a mouth that would surely impale me in ten places. The Joker leered at me as I gasped for breath.

"Feeling uppity now, little miss?" He hissed, voice full of vengeful glee. The boot came down on my right hand with a crunch. I screamed in shock and pain and let go, now dangling perilously by my other hand.

"Got any last words, baby doll?"

I don't want to die. The thought sprang to my mind and almost came out of my mouth, but the blood was rushing through my brain a little more slowly, giving me space to think. For the first time since I had ventured into this God-forsaken place, my gears were turning rationally. And I knew that I had to keep him talking just a little longer.

"You're insane." I gasped instead, mirroring our first conversation. He threw back his head and laughed again, cracked white face full of malice.

"I know, sweetheart," He mocked me, repeating what he had said. "But I can do what I want and take what I want. and what I want now is your pretty little head sitting on my shelf."

"Well--" I panted, hand finally grasping the object that it had been searching for and yanking it off my utility belt. "--sorry. But we can't always have what we want."

He brought his boot down on my other hand, but I was too quick. Immediately, I raised my right hand to the warehouse ceiling, still thirty feet about our heads, and fired my grappling gun.

Instantly, I let go of the catwalk floor and flew up into the air, cape flapping. I stopped a foot away from the ceiling, and looked down, breathing heavily and mentally wondering how Batman and Robin made it look so easy. I was safely out of the Joker's reach, but only for a moment.

The Joker was taken aback, but not for long. His eyes narrowed into slits, and he looked down to the warehouse floor. "Harls!"

"I gotcha, puddin'." The woman hurled a gun at him, and he reached out and caught it with one hand. Then, he turned to fire on me.

"You have been a thorn in my side for far too long, kiddo. Time to go bye-bye."

A/N: I updated three days early. You're welcome.

Also, I've finished writing the entire book. Now, I get to sit back and play the waiting game...posting one chapter a week. I can't believe we're getting so close to the end.

Comment and vote! Tell me what you think is gonna happen. Maybe she dies. Maybe she doesn't. One thing's for sure--things are getting intense.

❤ aethea