Intoxicated - Bruce Wayne

Chapter Fourty One

Nightwing and Robin watched as the Joker paced the room, waiting on Gotham's decision while he pestered Tigress. Joker's dark eyes were set on Tigress, his tongue darting out to caress his scars.

The same way that Nightwing noticed how it was probably a habit of the Joker to trail his tongue on his scars, Nightwing noticed that the Joker was building some interest in Tigress.

Joker dragged a wooden chair across the floor and set it in front of Tigress, sitting down and crossing his legs as he fiddled with his knife.

"So, that's your plan? See who Gotham sacrifices first?" Nightwing finally blurted out as Tigress and Joker had their staring battle in play.

Nightwing scoffed as the Joker positioned his whole body towards the tied man, "that's pathetic!"

"That's no-t all!" Joker said as his eyes traveled to Tigress and Robin, "it's to show...ba-tman... tha-t no-t everyone is good as he thinks! Madness...is a lot like gravity, all it takes is a lil' push." The Joker emphasised the push with his hands moving forward, his palm outwards, "And when madness is called for, it's no-t so far away."

Tigress couldn't help but be indulged on how theatrical the Joker was, the way he moved his hands, the way his tones were constantly changing, the way he spoke, it definitely built his character.

"And not everyone is as nuts as you are!" Robin finally spat out, his words dripped with poison, "you're a freak!"

Immediately the chair smacked flat on the floor and with one fast stride the Joker had his knife against Robin's neck, "I'm...not a frreaakk."

"Hey! Hey! C'mon!" Tigress tried calling the Joker off but the clown was latching onto Robin. Tigress had to find a way to distract the clown and pull him out of his trance.

"C'mon mr J, I have a joke to tell. I know you'll like it." Joker's brow raised and his neck slowly turned to face Tigress who was smirking sweetly at the clown, her eyes slightly closed at the exhaustion.

Joker pushed Robin away by his neck harshly, making the little bird swing back and forth as he walked towards Tigress, a skip in his step, "oh please...enlighten me."

"Alright. Two guys are hunting, one of them has a heart attack and collapses, and the other calls 911 for help. The man explains the situation and the operator says "Well lets see if he is dead yet." There is a pause, a few gunshots, and the man says to the operator "Now what?""

Tigress thought she failed when the Joker's face stayed emotionless while his eyes blinked in disbelief several times. Of course Nightwing and Robin did not find it funny but they were hoping that maybe it would help amuse the Joker.

But suddenly, the Joker's lips were tugged tightly by his teeths as he tried to suppress his upcoming giggles, "Shoot the kids and drown the neighbors! We've got a winneeeer! Wha-t do ya know, toooo-ts? Ya go-t humor!" The Joker roared in laughter but it ended abruptly, his dark orbs locked with Tigress' as his gloved thumb caressed her lower chapped lip.

The Joker's orbs suddenly lit up, as if million of stars were trapped in his dark, soulless eyes, "ya know toots, you've intrigued me." The Joker spoke his words slowly and hoarsely as his eyes never left Tigress' orbs.

The eyes were the window to the soul, and Joker could just confirm that with using Tigress' honey orbs. He knew that there was a little madness inside the woman, a little spark that needed to be lit up to grow bigger. Something to feed that little spark. Throughout his whole life, he could say, he never saw such pair of eyes and he knew that he would never forget them. He was sure that the woman behind the mask was like fire, so intriguing and hypnotic, yet, untouchable.

"Well, shall I enlighten you with another lil' tiny joke?" Tigress said as the Joker's eyes sent goosebumps flying all over her skin. She didn't allow the clown to utter a word as she hurriedly continued, "knock knock?"

As if planned, and just right on time, the lights shut off immediately after her words. In the darkness, Nightwing and Robin furrowed their eyebrows in confusion.

Tigress' breath hitched in her throat and waited for her night vision to activate. Bruce took the time to upgrade Eva's cowl, creating a better cowl instead of a mask for her as he added enough tech things that will be useful for her.

She watched as the Joker twirl in his spot in confusion, in the end he shrugged his shoulders with a little chuckle, "who's there?"

Suddenly a dark figure came out of the vent soundlessly and snuck behind the Joker, by her sides, someone else untied Robin, then Nightwing.

"It's me." Veronica whispered in her ear as Veronica untied her hands swiftly.

The lights abruptly turned back on, and when Joker turned around to look behind him as he felt a presence, the Batman stood over him with a scowl on his face, "it's Batman."

when Tigress' feet finally hit the floor it synced with Batman's fist slamming the Joker's jaw. "Batsy! I've been waiting!"

Tigress saw the chair laying down on the floor and immediately she picked it up and with the sound, Joker turned around only to have the chair slam into him. It sent the clown to the floor, dribbling several times, "two against one? We all know that's not fair!"

Batman's long and furious strides came to a halt when gunshots fired outside the room, and as if in confusion and curiosity, everyone watched the door, waiting.

But the flying door only revealed Red Hood.

The Joker's goons swarmed behind him and as if by instinct to protect their brother, Robin and Nightwing dashed behind their somewhat mad brother to strike Joker's goons. And because there were too many, Veronica put in the effort to fight alongside the good guys for once.

"Oh, I've been waiting for this." Red Hood said with a little chuckle, revealing his excitement as he pointed his gun to the Joker.

"Red Hood! No!" The Batman said, standing in front of the clown who watched the scene with amusement. But just in time, Tigress kicked the gun out of Red Hood's hand.

"Mind your own business, Tigress!" The Red Hood growled, "You're protecting a fucking maniac!"

While the Joker had his own battle with the Batman as he planned, Tigress and Red Hood were not expecting to fight one another.

"C'mon kid, you're one of my favorite, don't do this!" Tigress said as Red Hood shoved her away harshly, but it only ended up with Red Hood pinned to the floor by Tigress' leg.

"Really?" Red Hood said with a cheerful tone but suddenly remembered that his aim was to kill the Joker tonight, "Tigress- enough."

Slamming, cracking, bumping and smacking was the only thing that could be heard between the Joker and the Batman until Joker laid himself against the wall and raised his hand in surrender.

"You know all the kicking, punching, slamming- it gets me riled up." The Joker snuck one of his gloved hand in his pocket as he cackled.

"This is where it ends, Joker." Batman's growl erupted from within his chest as he spoke with mighty anger, "this is where your little joke ends."

"This is where you're wrong, batsy." The Joker winced with a fake pout, the green haired clown pulled out a small device and pressed a button and suddenly, red flashes erupted everywhere in the building and a piercing loud siren erupted along with it.

"What did you do?!" The Batman shook in his wrath as he growled, grabbing the Joker by the collar and raised a fist, threatening to strike him.

"Me? What did I do? Why, Batsy, I thought you'd never ask!" Joker spoke thru his giggles, "I unleashed the mad from the mad house, it's time to give a lil' wedgie to this city!"