The Carnivals Back in Town (Joker Sequel)

It didin't take us long, thankfully Bats bike was incredibly fast. However, every second we took getting there, was another second we may grow far too late. I hugged tighter to Bats, scared that at any moment I would see a rising mushroom cloud with a sinister orange-red glow appear in the distance ahead of us. In my mind, I kept praying, saying over and over inside my head, "Please Jack, don't. Please don't let me be too late"

I noticed where we were. I had come here with the other police forces what was some days ago now, it was where we had busted the smugglers in order to cut off the supplies going to the clowns. It was supposed to be abandoned now, since we had swept through it.

Batman drove us up the back, where there would be less chance of being seen. The bike cut through the darkened alleyways easily, like a nimble metal ghost.Batman yelled back, "Hold on Sasha" and I tightened my grip, grabbing onto some of the metal juts in his armour and holding on. Bats then swevrved the bike a hard left as the alley came to an abrupt end in this direction, and the wheels of the bike spun over, bumping us hard and almst throwing us off. I clung on tightly, as there came a small jump, and the bike went soaring into the air with one huge jolt, sailing overtop a few rough patchs and junk in the ground, and crashing back down a few metres away. I had to cling a lot tighter, because that crash jarred my wound and made me weaken for a moment. Batman sharply turned the bike again, placing us almost horizontal to the ground, as we zoomed around the corner and skidded to a sudden halt.

I practically fell off the bike, "Nice driving" I sarcastically muttered. My wound was starting to burn again, and I gasped as I clutched it. It was starting to bleed a little again, but not enough to worry me, so I sood up straight to take in a calm breath and focused on everything else but the pain.

Batman had been watching me, but just before he was going to say something, I said, "Before you yell at me Bruce, I'm fine"

He sighed, "Yeah, fine, when there's a great big bleeding hole in your chest" I heard him mutter. But we both knew I needed to be here.

We both turned sharply as there came the sound of yelling, some shouts inside. Batman made a gesture, and I ran over to him, and he wrapped an arm around my waist, before shooting a cable up hooking to the rook of the building and zipping us both upwards. We didn't quite go all the way to the roof though, swooping in on one of the upper levels of the building, landing quietly with only a few light clanks on the fire escape. It wobbled a little, the hinges were weak, so Bats was quick to slice the few remaining pieces of sharp jagged glass sticking out of an already smashed window, so we could slip inside before the fire escape collapsed on us.

It was dark inside, incredibly dark that Bats with his night vision through the mask had to lead me down the hall ways or whereever we were until my eyes adjusted. Then almost just as suddenly, there came a faint glow up ahead, and everywhere suddenly seemed to be light. There were voices growing louder, and me and Batman crept out into an area of unlit offices, that stretched around with wide windows over looking levels of what had to be a warehouse, with clowns running around with a whole lot of different things below. There were some other rooms, visible from these offices. Up here it was too dark for anyone below to see us though.

I looked down, to the many levels and activity below, and caught a glimpse of someone. A flash of a purple trench coat, before it went around a corner just out of my view. My breath caught for a second, because even if it was brief, it was a sight I had never ever wanted to see again. Bats saw him too.

"Come on, we'll get around there, then I'm going to create a distraction, to draw the clowns away, and you get Jack," Batman said to me.

I nodded, and we slipped through the darkness, watching the activity below. About that point I almost blew our cover, by kicking my foot on something hard and metal on the ground. "Ow," I hissed. Then I saw what I really had kicked. "Bats!"

He looked down, and saw it. A huge metal box, which just happened to have convinient ticking numbers. "The bomb!" he hissed, bending down. 11:29, 11:28.....oh no, this thing was going to go off soon! It was obvious though, that it couldn't be deactivated in that time. "We have to hurry" he growled, and we kept going, with a heightened sense of urgency.

The offices became a darkened corridor, into another office over the floors below. We ran in, faster now that we couldn't possibly be seen. The entire time, I had this drive, I needed to find Jack. After seeing htat bomb, I knew he really was going to go through with this, and I wasn't going to let him. I bolted into the next room first.

And straight into the path of a couple of guns, "Hands up, police!"

I stopped, then found myself looking over the gun that had been lying in wait, and seeing someone's surprised face. "Donna?" I asked in disbelief, wondering what the heck she was doing here!

"Sasha? Ohmigod, Sasha!" she let the gun down and practically slammed me in a bone crunching hug. "Girl, your alive, how the heck? Ohmigod, ohmigod I can't believe it! What happened to you?!"

I was still half crushed, and I couldn't get in a decent breath, as well as the fact I was now in serious pain. All I managed to get out was an, "Owwwwwww"

She immediatly let me go, and saw the bandages coming down from the short shirt across my stomach, and gasped, "I'm sorry, ohmigod! Your hurt!"

"Yeah, I got that" I groaned.

"Sasha?" and I spun, to see the face of my father, then Trump and Stevey. My father came running, engulfing me in a tight fatherly embrace, though a lot more careful than Donna had been. His shoulders was shaking a little, "Oh Sasha, I thought I'd lost you"

I pulled away, "No, no I'm here"

"You sure fooled us" Trump said, relievedly pulling me into a brief hug, before Stevey did the same, and said, "You have no idea how hard this has been, we all thought you'd decided to take a trip upwards!"

I shook my head, then my father yelped, "He's moved! Positions!" and I saw them all suddenly move towards the darkness of the window, guns loaded and ready. I looked down, just in time to see someone who made my heart leap. A man, but when he turned, he looked less a man and more just a freak in makeup.

"Take aim, and on my signal, aim for Joker" my father said, then, "Ready..."

"What?!" I screeched, and was just about to jump forward when suddenly Batman came through, knocking all of them down so their weapons clattered away.

"Batman!" Trump angrily yelled, getting to his feet.

Donna growled, "What are you doing here?! I knew you were working with the clowns!"

She looked ready to literally tackle down Bats, but I put my hand on her shoulder, "Donna hold up, wait! No he's the one who bought me here!"

"HEY!" We all spun, to see a man in a clown mask, who acted real surprised to see us. He held a gun, "What are you doing here?!" he shouted, and raised the gun. Bats raised his arm and shot some metal bat shaped pieces out of his arm, knocking the gun out of the man's hand and in the side of the head, sending him sprawling uconscious. But the gun had already been on ready to fire, and when it hit the gound it set off a loud shot, which immediatly set men off below. Gunfire began to break out to our windows, and men below began to move.

Batman said, in his deep husky voice, "You all need to leave now. This place has been set to blow in ten minutes, you have to get out of here. And the fact that the gunshot has alerted everyone down below, and they'll be up here in a minute"

"Why should we believe you Batman?" Stevey demanded. Donna and Trump both echoed an angry, "Yeah, why should we?"

"We should just take you into custody right now!" Trump growled.

Gordon then stepped in, putting his hands between them, "No, no don't. Batman is not who you think he is"

The others stopped to look at him, and my father said, "He's not what any of Gotham thinks. He's the one who saved my family from Harvey Dent, he's a good man"

"Harvey? But he killed Harvey!" Stevey said.

"Before Harvey killed us" I said. I saw Bruce watching us all, in his Batman costume I was unable to read his expression well. But I could tell, though we needed to make sure the rest of Gotham did not know what he had done, it was a relief for at least his best friends to know, even if they had no clue who he really was.

Trump said, "Right, I'm officially confused, so what happens now?"

Gordon said, "We leave. this place is going to blow, we have to get moving." He looked at Bats, "Can you get us out of here then?"

Batman nodded, and Donna looked at my father, "You would seriously trust this man?"

"I trust him with my life" Gordon replied.

Batman said to them, "I'll create the distraction to draw the clowns away from you so you can get out," he then looked at me, "And you find Joker"

The others then stopped, mouths hanging open, and my father then said, "But then again I have had bad judgement calls"

There suddenly came a spray of bullets over top our heads which made us need to duck, and there came shouts of, "Shit the police are here, get them!" "Go around, we'll cut them off"

I shouted to Bats, "Get them out of here!" and I turned to look carefully below, to see if I could find Jack, but he was gone from view. Damnit. I needed to go find him, we had less than ten minutes now.

I turned to run, about to go and find him, when I felt a hand grip my arm hard, and saw my father, "Sasha, you are not seriously going looking for the Joker!?"

There came more yells and I looked over my shoulder, "Dad, I have to go!"

"You are...." he looked lost for a moment, "Sasha, that man is a maniac, you have to get out of here!"

I yanked out his grip, "I'm sorry, but you don't understand" I spun and shouted over my shoulder to him, "I know what I'm doing, just get out of here!"

And with that, I ran, through the darkened offices, trying to remain as inconspicous as possible. There was a lot of yelling, movement and even a few gunshots echoing thorughout. I kept on running, trying to avoid all the sounds of men approaching I could. I kept my eyes sharp below, alert for any sign of Jack I could have.

Then out of nowhere, I hit something, and I hit it hard. It wasn't a stiff unmoving wall though, it was a person, and both of us crashed to the floor. Groaning in pain, I looked to see a clown goon on the floor, trying to sit up, dazed by impact. But there was another two clown men, looking down at me, each with a loaded gun conviniently pointed at me. "What do we have here?"

"Didn't Carny kill her a few days ago?" said one.

"Guess not, but we can certainly change that now" the other said. He cocked his gun right at me.

I immediatly reacted, launching my foot upwards and kicking the gun away, and rolled over to sweep out both standing men's legs, sending them crashing to the floor. I then jumped up, striking one to the temples and knocking him out cold. The first man I had run into though grabbed me around the ankles, pulling hard and I crashed down forward, as he piled on top of me. I heard a flick of a knife, and tried to flip over and get away, but the guy was heavy and his weight kept me pinned down. My ribs were hurting like hell, and I felt the knife point press right into between my shoulder blades. I gave a shout, and flipped over, kicking the man and his knife away from me, and was on my feet like lightning, just in time to dodge a sneak attack from my flank from the third guy. He was obviously some sort of boxer, because he was fast, throwing punch after punch at me, his arms swinging like huge heavy tree branches at me. I ducked the first few, and jumped up, slamming the bottom of my foot into his jaw, and then connecting my palm right down into his chest. He went down, whacking his head on something, and laying there groaning, too dazed to move.

The last one moving growled, "Come here girly!" and lept at me. A punch of his connected to my shoulder, which spun me, but I used that momentum to keep turning, lifting up my leg and catching the back of his head, and it sent the last of the three clown goons flying to the ground.

I didn't waste time, I turned and kept running the way I had been going. I descended stairs, kept through corridors, every so often needing to duck out of the way and hide when more clown goons kept running past.

Soon it was very obvious, I was beyond lost. And there couldn't have been more than 7 minutes counting down on the clock. Time was really against me right now, and I really was starting to stress.

The floor started to change into a clanking metal walkway, and it clanged beneath my feet, stretching out far below onto an abandoned floor of the warehouses, before it broke out into more branching corridors. I saw a room up ahead, to the right of a set of stairs, one of those rooms which would lead out into one of the larger warehouse store rooms. I just about went into it.

It was a bullet richocheting off the side of the door that stopped me running inside. I threw myself back, as the first bullet was suddenly joined by a whole lot more, as someone from inside released a whole lot of entire round at the door. After that, I could hear footsteps, and someone grunted. I hid behind the doorframe, waiting for the person to come through.

A clown goon suddenly appeared, first by the tip of a giant gun, then all of him. I shrank further back into the shadows, waiting for my opportunity, and it came soon. The clown goon spun, and just before he could release a second round right into my stomach, I punched him right in the face, and he fell back.

I was cautious enough to check around the corner in case some one else was waiting for me, but I saw no-one, so I ran straight inside.

Obviously I didn't look hard enough, because I heard the click of a gun, and froze instantly, turning to look to my left. My heart suddenly leapt, because I saw the flicker of a purple trench coat, and the painted white face of a clown that was more familiar than my own hand. I stood up straight, looking right down the barrel of the gun aimed for my heart, suddenly feeling choked up and numb. I was so grateful to see him, yet at the same time, like this, it hurt me so much.

"Jack" I whispered.

His face was utter disbelief, and he looked like he could barely take it in. The gun slowly lowered, and he stared at me almost like he was staring at a ghost. Maybe thats what I was to him right now.

"Sasha...it can't be..." he breathed.

"It's me Jack," I said, and suddenly I felt a tear start to track down my face, as I looked at him, "Or Joker"

He started to walk towards me, "Sasha, this was the only way......" he looked like he was struggling to even talk, "I thought I'd lost you. I saw you fall, and I thought...."

I ran over to him, and put my arms around him, and he did the same. He wrapped me tightly in an embrace, trying to pull me as close to him as possible, like he was never going to let me go again. I pressed my face into his shoulder, wrapping my arms as tightly around him as I could, and he buried his face into my hair. I could feel him shaking against me.

"I'm so sorry Sasha" he said. I moved my head from buried in his shoulder, pressing the side of my face to his, whispering, "I forgive you Jack. But please, please don't do this. I don't want to lose you again Jack, I love you"

He sighed, "I won't, now your here. I don't want to ever let you go again"

"Sasha?" We both turned at the sound of my name. I saw my father, standing in the doorway, wide eyed and staring in disbelief, surrounded by Donna, Trump and Stevey. Oh this was awesome.

Donna took a step forward, brandishing her gun, "Get away from her!" she screamed at Joker.

I put my hand up, taking a step away from Jack, "Donna, no, wait don't hurt him!"

"Girl do you not realise who the hell that is!?" she shouted, "That's the Joker!"

"I know" I said simply.

She just stared at me for a moment, unsure of what to do. My father then yelled, "Sasha, that man is a murderer, get away from him before he hurts you!"

"No dad," I said, shuting him up, "He won't"

They all stared at me, like they couldn't believe what was happening. I felt Jack come up behind me, and looked over my shoulder to see his solemn face.

He quietly said, "None of you should be here. This place is rigged to blow soon, you have to get out of here"

"So everyone keeps saying" Trump growled at him, eyes dark.

Donna put her gun up, "I'm sorry Sash" she said to me, then snapped her eyes on Jack, "But give me one good reason clown boy why we shouldn't just blow your head off here?" she hissed at him.

Jack took a deep breath in, and put his head down, and said, "I can't Donna--"

She took a quick step back in shock, "How the hell do you know my-----wait," her face suddenly blazed understanding and recognition, "Jack?!"

The others suddenly snapped to face him, "It can't be" "No, your not Jack" Their eyes were all wide, and they jsut get desbelievingly staring.

I nodded, "Yes, it is" as I moved closer to Jack, "And you need to trust him right now, alright"

"Sasha," my father said, almost kind of lost and giving up, "How can we?"

"Because he's been trying to help, and he's been trying to change, dad" I pleaded quietly, "Trust him, please"

There was silence, before a quiet, "Alright. Jack?" the name was asked as if Jack wasn't actually in the room, but it was a start.

Jack said, "We need to leave before this place blows...." as he said that final word, there came the small rumbling of the start of an explosion, which caused us to look around. Jack added, a lot more urgently, "Now"

Leaving it off here! yay! secret is exposed, woopee! now wats goin to happen, will they make it out in time? dunno yet, wait and see !!!! XD