Don't Believe Everything You Read On the Internet

Chapter 13

       Two hours had passed since Joker and Batman had their talk. Bane and Calendar Man went back to looking over the Dark Knight while Joker prepared for the next part of his plan. He adjusted his makeup and put on his long coat to complete his look. Then, with his fellow villains, he walked out to the town center of Gotham City. Many civilians looked at them with fear, something that Joker hadn't experienced in about a month. He kind of missed the feeling, but not by much. Both sides had their perks. Joker walked to a large stadium that was used for public announcements and turned on the microphone that sat there. The rest of the villains stood at the bottom, acting as his body guards. The clown prince cleared his throat before making his grand speech.

     "Hello, people of Gotham City. You might have wondered where I've been the past few days, because I haven't exactly been very public. Just so you know, during the date between Batman and I, he betrayed me and handed me in to the police. This is a little understandable, seeing as how I lied about us dating in the first place. That's right, we were never dating, but I sure did fool all of you. Honestly, I'm surprised that you all didn't notice it sooner. In the past 77 years, Batman has had almost 20 girlfriends. Heck, half of them don't even make sense! He's dated Black Canary, his butler's daughter (who isn't talked about a lot), Lois Lane, Catwoman, and he even has a questionable history with Batgirl! Batman's been with all of these women, but never a man!" Joker explained, shouting into the microphone.

      "Maybe he's a closeted bisexual!" suggested someone in the crowd.

      "Oh, go back to Tumblr!" Joker yelled back at the person, a couple of chuckles coming from the other villains.

"If you happen to be like this fangirl here, you might think that I'm just forced to say this and that I don't actually mean it. So, to show that I mean business, I'm going to get rid of Batman once and for all!" Joker continued, gesturing to the rocket that Batman was tied to, which was being carried by Bane.

    Gasps were heard from the audience. This wasn't like the Joker that they had become accustomed to. The reason that he continued to do the things that he did was because of Batman, and taking him out of the equation was so out of character. Now, someone else would have to stand up to take Joker out, and while the police could certainly get the job done, Batman knew exactly how to take any villain down. That is, the people that were afraid that Batman couldn't get out feared it, but everyone else were just sitting in anticipation for how Batman would escape. Unfortunately, Batman didn't have an idea. He sat still, afraid to struggle because he knew that it would only tighten the rope's grip, while crossing his fingers in hope that Robin and Barbara would show up. This was most likely being broadcasted on the news, so they would find out where he was fairly soon, if they hadn't already. All that he could do was wait.

      After what seemed like forever, a sparkly cape could be seen in the distance. Batman had to hold back from joy overflowing his face. Joker continued on with his speech while Robin, Barbara, and even Alfred quietly snuck up behind the two villains guarding Batman and attacked. Calendar Man went down fairly easily, while Bane took a couple of minutes. This was long enough for Joker to notice that Batman's backup had arrived. The clown called for the villains to stop them before they could free his nemesis. Luckily, Batman had come up with a way for him to be freed. While Barbara and Alfred held off the villains the best that they could, Robin grabbed the end of the string (the bat symbol that had been prominent on the bracelet) and ran around the rocket, slowly untying Batman from where he was being held. Robin threw in a couple of kicks along the way, and after a while, Batman was finally free. Then, all they had to do was stop all of the villains from stopping them.

       "He's free? Someone wrap him again!" Joker yelled, observing the battle as many of his villain friends were being beat into the ground. This call brought Batman's attention away from the villain that he was fighting to his greatest enemy, a grimace appearing on his face.

        "Hey, coward! Why don't you come and tie me up yourself?" Batman yelled at the Joker.

       Joker was overcome with vengeance. He ran past all of the other fallen villains until he reached Batman. Barbara, Alfred, and Robin knew that they would have to fight on their own, so they fought the rest of the villains instead. When Joker reached Batman, he was greeted with Batman's fist. The bad guy narrowly avoided the punch, no surprise showing on his face. Instead, he swung his leg into Batman's side, knocking him to the ground. Batman recovered from the attack, pulling on Joker's leg, bringing him to the ground as well. The two of them shoved each other around on the ground for a couple minutes before they both got up and continued to fight off of the ground. It took a while before the two became a little sore and tired, but they weren't about to let their opponent know about it.

      "Why won't you just give up already? Even if you don't die, I still got my point across that the two of us aren't dating. The two of us could've come up with a better way to do this if you didn't have to become sucked up with the role and quit flirting with me for like two seconds," Joker told Batman, finally letting his guard down.

       "Maybe I assumed that you wanted to continue with our parts a little longer. You could've at least told me that you wanted to stop with this silly play in the first place instead of tying me to a rocket!" Batman said back, annoyance filling his tone.

       "I can't help it that I deal with things in a weird way. You should already know this about me!" Joker said, stopping his punches and kicks to talk some more.

      "Please, don't you have anyone to talk to about your problems? Isn't your best friend a psychiatrist?" Batman asked.

    "Yeah, but a lot of my problems are stuff that she might not understand."

    "Like what?"

     "Oh, so you think that I can't talk to my best friend about my issues but I can talk to my greatest enemies about my problems with total confidence?"

     "Well, we were able to the night that I broke you out of Gotham."

     "You  were able to. I was just praying that you would put me down."

     "Still, during that time that we pretended to go out, you and I would talk to each other differently. Heck, we would look at each other differently too."

     "That was just part of the act."

      "Really, because you would do it when we were completely alone."

     "Who knows, there could've been cameras watching us."

    "You did it when were texting."

    "Did not!"

    "You sent me a winky face."

    "Pft, that was just because... well..."

      Joker didn't have a response for that. He wasn't about to deny the obvious truth. Besides, he didn't have a comeback at all. He remembered how he had instantly regretted sending the text, but he had just done it because it felt right. There wasn't anything he could say at that moment that would end up with Batman and him going on with their lives as if nothing had happened. He needed to tell the truth.

     "Batsy, there's something I need to tell you," Joker said, looking at Batman straight in his eyes.

      "Yes?" Batman asked, encouraging the Joker to continue. Joker was about to pour out his feelings when he noticed something off. As expected, the rocket started to shoot into the sky. The string was still attached to it, and it trailed behind the rocket. Oddly, the string seemed to be inching closer and closer to Batman as the rocket shot farther into the clouds. Joker realized that the end of the string was still wrapped around Batman's wrist. One of the villains must've reattached it and no one noticed. Joker started to panic, pointing at the string. Batman noticed it a little too late.

     "Batsy, no!" Joker yelped as Batman shot into the sky.

Author's Note:

Spring Break is drawing to a close for me, so tomorrow will be my last day. The big finale will be happening in the next chapter, so hopefully I'll be able to write it before I have to go back to school. If not, then I'm sorry if I have to go on a brief hiatus with a cliffhanger. Please don't hate me for doing this!