(Book One) This Joke's on You! (Chapter one)

(Andrea) I felt like I was swinging. That’s the first thing that told me to wake up. The second was the sound of boats on the water, except the sound was from below me. When I opened my eyes, I was hanging under a bridge, and over a river. The green-haired guy from before looked at me and started laughing a high pitched laugh. When I looked down, he laughed harder. The sound of boats came from the thirty below me, all sloshing around in the choppy water. I tried to get out of the rope straightjacket. The laughing stopped, and turned into a voice. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You see, we’re fifty feet over the Gotham river. If you fall, that water that looks so nice right now is going to feel like concrete. Trust me, I know.” He started laughing again. Then something big and black came by, and the laughing stopped. My captor, for lack of a better word, was twenty feet away, and getting the shit beat out of him; and the continued laughing implied that he liked it. I thought, This guy is nuts. The I heard a gunshot. I used the time to pull one of my arms free. I held on to the rope supporting me while I pulled myself out, but I didn’t have much upper body strength, so now I was holding on for my life. I lightly stood on the knot that I had been tied in, but still held the rope. Then the person that took out the freak came to the side of the bridge and offered a hand. Just then the rope knot gave out, and I was sliding toward the boats. I didn’t even notice the rope burn; I was just hoping this rope ended on a boat. Luckily, it did. I looked up in time to see another fight. I didn’t know who was who, or what was happening, so without looking away, I asked the guy next to me. “That one with the cape is Batman, and the guy with the purple coat is The Joker.” Joker took a punch, and went out of view for a second. Then Batman fell backwards. He managed to get into diving position, and with a splash, he was gone. I turned around to look at the people on the boat, but their faces were gone. In place was an army of clown masks. Joker slid down the rope, and landed in the spot I had been, and the motor started up. “I didn’t like your little escape there, girlie.” He pushed me on the deck. “Next time, this will be deeper.” He took out a knife, took my left arm, and horizontally slit the vein. Blood came dripping out. Joker ran his gloved hand along the slit, and using the blood, wrote what felt like a “J” on my face. Then he picked me up by the throat and held me up as someone put handcuffs on me. “Throw her in the cargo hold.”