Part Twenty

Joy Ride

Metropolis,

            

A bus speeds hurriedly down a debris littered street; the Jokers laugh is wild, cheering as Batman grits his teeth and grasps the steering wheel, easily smashing smaller abandoned vehicles aside as the bus’s bumper became a piece of tangled metal.

 

“Weeee! Ha, ha, ha.” Joker clapped his hands together in excitement. “This is exactly how imagined riding with you, smash and dash, bang-bang, ka-pow! Ha ha! Straight out of a comic book I’d say, life imitating art. Oh how this reminds me of the good old days, minus the boy wonder of course. Don’t get me wrong Batman, long before the lad; it was you and me rocking Gotham night after night.” Joker sneered. “Before the boy wonder, you were much more, hmm, you know… dark. Those were the days old boy, those were the days. But tonight! Tonight, it’s the caped crusader and the Joker together again. Just like old times, only now it’s in Metropolis. And b--oy it will be booming.” he laughed. “Booming indeed,” he murmured as he now stood grasping the rails, his long arms hung onto the bars as he slung toward the back. There he withdrew the cover, a long tubular casing sat on the seat. It was metallic with a glass cover along with liquid swooshing side to side inside as the bus rolled down the street. “Can you take it easy on the bumps?” Joker craned his head around as he caught Batman looking in the rear view mirror. “You’re making my boys nervous.” Joker grinned.

 

“I know I’m going to regret this but, what’s inside the box?” Batman shifted up a gear.

 

“Why I’m glad you asked,” Joker giggled. “What we got here is, a bomb like no other, once this chemical is mixed with this special ingredient,” Joker held out a needle. “A little dab of this matter and all hell will break loose.”

 

“What matter?” Batman stares with unease.

 

“Nothings the matter, I’m fine really. Why, I feel I can light up the world.” Joker laughed.

 

“The needle?” Batman groaned. “What does it contain?”

 

“Oh you mean this. Ha-ha! How silly of me, it’s Kryptonite of course.”

 

“Kryptonite?!” Batman beheld in the rear view mirror as he eased his foot off the pedal. “Where on earth did you obtain it from?”

 

“Hey,” Joker beamed and began picking lint from his shoulder and continued, “What can I say, I’m a villain. It’s what I do.” Joker giggled.

 

“Lex-Corp… you stole it from Lex-Corp didn’t you?” Batman’s gloves squeaked as he gripped the steering wheel harder trying not to imagine what the Joker had in store, he gnashed his teeth and his mind had trailed off, ‘he had to have, and it’s the only place I can think of.’ Jokers laugh brought Batman’s eyes back to him. “I can’t let you use that device, Joker. What about Superman, what affects will it have on him? He will be useless to us to us if he comes in contact. It’s obvious you haven’t thought this through!”

 

“Thought this through,” Joker laughed. “Oh but I did Batsy, he is useless to us now I’m afraid and where is our man of steel? See…” Joker tapped the side of head and gave an evil grin, “I always think things through.”

 

Batman scowled, “While you ride with me, you will do things my way, the right way. I won’t be responsible for your senseless acts.”

 

Joker smirked and sniggered, “Oh Batman. You’re always the Boy Scout. Always need to be good. Always have to do right. You’re so predictable. Now you’re just a person behind the suit full of conscience and stuff. I liked you better when it was you and me in darker times. Back then, you just did it without thinking. Back then, you were dark and devious. Back then, you were a menace.” he leered.  “Back then, you were so much fun. As a matter of fact, I always wondered why you were such a smash with the crowd. Now I know why. For old time sake, why don’t you let the bat be the bat? I miss the good old days. I miss who you once were. I guess I’m asking… is for you to bring him back; the dark knight.”

 

Batman looked at him in the rear-view mirror for a moment and then gave a grin of his own. He didn’t know what it was what Joker had said but it sparked a fire within his heart. The drive he needed fueled him. It was from an unlikely source, his nemesis. One who now stood beside him in a time of need, the bat that once was, now raged inside. The bus’s engine roars as it sped down the road and plumes of black smoke expanded from the tail pipe.

In the distance not too far from where the bus was heading, clouds of black smoke loomed in the air and the ground shook as the beast pounded the ground with its fist. Choppers above encircled the area where the beast stood. It roared loudly with its head tilted back, and then it began to throw cars and any other objects it grasped towards the Helicopters. Catching one on the tail end, it began to gyrate downward, the pilot steered away from the other choppers, holding steady as he could before it crashed down onto a high-rise roof top.

Other news crews capture the passengers exiting the wreckage, battered but alive. They announce on the news that the crew of NSB13 are okay and they also give the pilot much recognition for his efforts in keeping calm to crash land where he did. The monsters roars cut into the news broadcasting; some even offer a prayer live as others whisper for Superman’s return.

 

            “Get your tinker toy ready Joker!” Batman had said. The bus roared as it went and the creature came into sight as they bounded over the bridge. “…Doomsday approaches!” The monster tossed more objects toward the helicopters.

 

            Joker sneered, “Yes indeed Batman. Yes indeed. Okay boys,” he turned to his thugs. “You heard the Bat, turn on the thingamajig and prepare to unleash hell.” Joker then turned to face Batman with a foreboding grin, “You know what I fear most right now? Is for my opening act to ‘bomb’ at tonight’s performance.” and then he let out a gruesome laugh.

#

Author's Note

More to come soon.