Gotham Knight: Dying of Laughter

CHAPTER 15

Chapter 15: Haunted House

It didn't take long for Duela to find the amusement park Joker was hiding in. She quietly snuck in and made her way through the place completely unseen. A part of her was trembling with fear, but her rage was strong enough to keep it at bay. She could hear voices coming from the Ghost Train. Gordon's whimpering and Joker's sadistic laughter. Then she spotted the first of Joker's goons. Taking a deep breath, she raised the gun, disengaged the safety, and pulled the trigger.

The Batmobile sped towards the Amusement Mile. Batman hoped he wasn't too late. If Joker were to get to Duela... He tried to focus on catching the Joker instead of worrying, but the worries kept coming. Duela was in over her head.

Joker opened his eyes, groaning.

"W-What happened? Batman...?"

A baseball bat hit him in the face, knocking out two teeth.

"That's for Uncle Harvey."

Duela hit him again in the shoulder.

"That's for mom."

The next swing hit him in the crotch.

"And that was for Babs!"

Joker coughed up blood.

"What? Who are you?"

He saw the front end of a gun being pointed at him by a 14 year old girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes.

"Duela...?" His eyes widened. "Evelyn's kid." He started laughing hysterically. "My daughter."

She hit him hard, breaking another tooth, causing him to grin.

"Are you gonna kill me?"

She shook her head.

"No. Not yet, anyway. I'm just gonna hurt you. Really, really, bad."

Joker laughed. "That's my girl."

-

Batman fought his way through Joker's henchmen, each dressed in a random, over-the-top costume.

He threw a Batarang into the leg of a mime raising an assault rifle at him, causing the mime to miss his shot and hit his comrade in the leg. He then tossed another Batarang that knocked the mime out.

A man with a Batman plushie mask charged at him with a baseball bat but Batman caught it mid-swing and swung it back, knocking the attacker down.

A tall clown with a big hammer lumbered towards him and brought the hammer down with a big effort, Bruce dodging just in time. Bruce followed up with a punch to the man's left kidney, then a double strike on the man's ears before finishing him with a kick to the face.

Eventually, Batman found Gordon locked up in a cage with a sign saying the average man, soon to be extinct.

"Jim."

Batman broke the chain and opened the door. Gordon was curled up in a ball on the floor.

"Buh-Batman?" He slowly looked up at his friend. "Joker, he... He shot Barbara. He took pictures of her and forced me to look at them..."

His eyes were still full of tears as Batman helped him up.

"Barbara's alive," Batman told him reassuringly. "She'll be fine."

Gordon's voice stopped shaking and he pointed towards an old, run-down wooden house. "He went there, into the Haunted House. I want him brought in by the book. By the book!"

-

Dick and Jason stared at the yellow-suited ginger.

"I...," Dick began, "I heard about the Flash and Batman told me about Superman, but..."

"What the fuck?!" Jason exclaimed in astonishment, finishing Dick's sentence.

Kid Flash smirked. "Roy called me and told me you guys had a metahuman problem in Gotham. Takes a while running from Keystone to here."

A long silence followed as the two Robins just stared at Kid Flash in awe until Dick seemed to regain his composure. Following Dick's example, Jason finally broke the silence and shrugged.

"I think we should probably get back to the Cave. I need a shower. Nice meeting ya, KF."

He got onto his motorcycle and drove off. Dick sighed as he watched Jason drive away before glancing back at the two redheads.

"Well, I guess I should go after him. I'll see you later, Roy. As for you, Kid Flash. Pleasure to meet you."