Dynasty: A Batman Tale Part 23

NOW

The gateway into Gotham Harbor, surrounded by mosaic walls of sharp edged rocks and death defying cliffs allows room for only one freighter to enter or exit the bay at a time. On the southern side of the perilous oceanic entrance, high above the waterline stands Kraken’s Lighthouse. The monolithic lantern is the oldest, tallest and longest continually running beacon in the country, its massive twelve foot bulb radiates light around the channel from Gotham Harbor to the Atlantic every sixty-seconds.

The thirty square miles of harbor shoreline circled around the bay, pitting the Port of Gotham at the base of Kraken’s Lighthouse.

Tim was surrounded by darkness; he was still in the same chair in the middle of a sizable hollow warehouse. Then for a brief second there was light, then darkness again. A moment later he saw the light again and began counting. ...57, 58, and 59, there it is! Tim looked up towards the roof and waited again. ...57, 58, and 59. Tim again saw the light pass over a small window at the roof of the warehouse. Kraken’s Lighthouse!

The former headquarters of McGaven Industries had been sitting empty ever since the demise of Gregory McGaven and his board of directors. Tim had investigated the missing yacht and with the aid of Bruce’s highly modified sonar array was the one responsible for finding it. Upon further investigation by the Gotham police, no foul play was discovered. Tim knew now that wasn’t true. Joker must have killed them and taken McGaven’s warehouse for himself.

Tim was calculating in his head, he was trying to figure out how much time had gone by since his abduction and trying not to focus on the pain he was in. He had been beaten. He had been electrocuted, and he was sure more than one rib was broken. Suddenly a single lamp above Tim turned on, casting a twenty-four inch radius around him. Temporarily blinded for a moment, as his eyes adjusted, he could see the office door at the top of the stairs open. The light emitting from the office showcased Joker’s silhouette until the door closed behind him, making Joker one with the darkness.

“Well, I think I have some bad news for you birdy boy.” Joker sang as he danced his way down the stairs. “Oh how I knew this would happen, you see Batman loves me more than he could ever love you.” Joker stopped at the bottom step, Tim could see Joker’s figure leaning against the rail, his cane twirling around his finger. “I gave him a choice. He could find us, which for him wouldn’t be terribly difficult, with all his toys and what not and he can save your life, or he can save the lives of hundreds if not thousands of…,” Joker mimicked finger quotes in the air, “…innocent people!”

The clown inched closer to Tim, “Batman loves me more than he loves you. Because as we speak, he’s on the opposite side of Gotham preventing this cesspool of a city from becoming the paradise it ought to be. He loves me because this game of ours is going to continue. He saves the city. I kill you, wash rinse and repeat. I’m sure there’s another little birdy out there waiting to fill your tights and one day, I’ll kill him… or her too. I have a knack for taking away Batsy’s little friends...,” Tim could see Joker just fine now, he could see Joker’s evil red eyes, his blood smeared smile. Probably mine, he thought. “...his little sidekick,” Joker continued, “though I hear you prefer to be called the ‘Red Robin’. You know you won’t be the first bird that Bats let die, right?”

Tim remained silent.

“I’ve played this game with the caped crusader before, I know how it ends. Yet again I was right! He’s sacrificing you in favor of playing with me.”

Tim was confused, Batman’s on the other side of town! Is this really about to happen? Is Joker right? He can’t be. Joker pulled out his massive .357 and flipped open the cylinder, he dumped the bullets into his hand and placed them in his pocket, save one. He held up the remaining bullet for Tim to see.

“Do you know what this is?” Joker sarcastically asked.

“It’s a bullet.” Tim answered the obvious.

“Of course it’s a bullet genius, but do you know what it signifies? What it represents? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the end. It’s your end! The end of everything you know, everything you are, and the end of everything you’ll ever be. It’s the last thing you’ll ever see just before it enters your skull, scrambles your brains and blows the back of your head off.” Joker laughed and placed the single bullet back in the cylinder, spun it and snapped it back into place.

“Any last words, anything you want to get off your chest? How about you Harley, anything?” Joker spun around and noticed she hadn’t followed him downstairs. “Oh well, looks like we’re alone, just you and I, soon, just I.” Joker took a deep breath and let out an exaggerated gasp. “OK time to say goodbye.” He raised the gun, pointing it at Tim’s face.

Tim’s heart was racing. The barrel was close enough that he could smell the gunpowder. He began to squint his eyes in fear and preparation. Suddenly a wire appeared wrapping itself around Joker’s gun and yanking it out of his hands.

From behind Tim, a voice he immediately recognized spoke, “You’re not alone!”

Tim felt his bound hands cut free and heard something hiss past his ear and smack into the clown’s chest knocking him onto the ground. Tim turned towards his savior, “How are you here? Joker said Batman chose to save the city.”

“He is!” Batman took a step back, removing his cape and cowl revealing a silver haired Bruce Wayne, “Batman is saving the city, he can’t do what has to be done. Only I can do that.”

Tim looked at Bruce, he looked as if he’d aged a decade in the last twenty-four hours, for the first time, Tim realized just how much defending Gotham had cost Bruce. “How did you find me?” Tim asked.

“Never mind that now, we don’t have time. You need to get out of here.”

“No, we can…” Tim began to argue, but was cut off by the gunshot that barely missed him.

Joker had pulled a secondary firearm from his boot and opened fire on Bruce and Tim. He was screaming, “No, No, No! Where’s the Batman? Why did you take off the mask? Why? Why? WHY?” Joker kept firing blindly as he got up and ran back upstairs.

Bruce turned to Tim, “Get in that office and secure Quinn, she’ll be regaining consciousness any moment. I’m going after the clown and I’m putting an end to this once and for all.” Bruce then embraced Tim and disappeared after the Joker.

Never one to show affection, Bruce caught Tim momentarily off guard with his hug. The boy wiped a tear from his eye, then scaled the stairs and entered the office Joker was using as his nerve center. There was another door on the opposite end of the office leading to the roof, the same door Bruce followed the Joker through. Tim, too focused on following Bruce, didn’t take a moment to realize when he entered the office there was no sign of Harley. Reaching for the doorknob, he felt a force throw him forward smashing his nose into the door. Harley! She must have been hiding behind the other door! Shit, she got the jump on me. Tim swung blindly only hitting air. She was quick. She ducked his punch and landed one of her own right in his solar plexus. Tim was keeled over grasping for breath as Harley brought her foot up kicking him in the face and spinning him through the air onto his back. Tim knew he had to finish this quickly. He needed to follow Bruce. What was he thinking? What is he going to do? Why did he unmask? What did he mean that only he could end this?

Harley jumped on top and straddled Tim. “Ooh Lala! This is how it should be uh? With me on top! Yeah, you like this don’t ya, you dirty bird.” She said while landing two lightning quick punches to his face. Tim had enough, he was starting to get mad, and he channeled his anger. He focused on the moment. Harley threw another punch. This time, Tim caught Harley’s wrist and kicked her in the back of the head, throwing her off balance. Tim tossed her to the floor, but she managed to get up quicker than he expected.

Both of them stood their ground and raised their fists. Tim traded blows with Harley punch for punch, his last one put Harley on her ass. “God Damn it, stay down you bitch!” He yelled. Harley was staring up at Tim; he could tell she was preparing to lunge at him. Tim centered himself, she jumped, and he swung with all his power. He felt her jaw break when his fist connected. His hand was busted and Harley was unconscious. He quickly searched for something to secure her with. He found a roll of duct tape. That should do!

With Quinn secured, Tim raced out of the office and up to the roof. The roof had a railed walkway leading across the warehouse rooftops onto the base platform of Kraken’s Lighthouse. The scaffolding narrowed into a spiral staircase that wound its way up the top of the tower.

The rain begun to fall, Tim peered through the darkness and made his way for the lighthouse. Any second. There it is. The light from the lantern lit the area and Tim could see Bruce and Joker fighting their way to the top of the three hundred fifty foot tall lighthouse. He ran through the rainfall as the drops pinged off the metal sheet roofing. Up ahead Tim could see Joker and Bruce trading blows, then Joker swung his cane wildly and connected with Bruce’s face knocking him over the railing. “NO!” Tim shouted.

Bruce managed to grab a handful of railing and pull himself back up as Joker continued toward the top of Kraken. Tim raced to catch up with them, every few seconds he lost sight of them as he followed the spiral stairs up. They fought their way up to the circular platform at the very top of the tower. When Tim finally reached them, Bruce and Joker were locked in a violent embrace.

The three hundred sixty degree view of Gotham and the ocean was breathtaking, but Tim had no time to take it in. The wind had picked up and started blowing the rain horizontally. Tim felt like hundreds of little pinpricks were slamming into his face.

Bruce doubled Joker over onto his knees with a punch to his abdomen, then told Tim, “Stay where you are, this is between the clown and myself.” Joker started to rise, but Bruce threw his fist down into Joker’s face opening a gash under the clown’s left eye.

Tim could hear Joker’s laughter over the rain droplets ricocheting off the lighthouse. “You took off the mask, but it’s still you. I can feel it when you hit me. I know it’s you. No one punches quite like you Bats.”

“Shut your mouth!” Bruce yelled while delivering another blow.

Tim took a step forward, “Bruce, Stop! What are you doing?”

Joker yelled out, “He’s playing our game! I told you, he loves me.”

“Shut up!” Bruce brought his boot up into Joker’s stomach.

“Bruce!” Tim shouted.

“It’s the only way Tim.”

“Bruce,” Tim barely recognized his father figure, his mentor and partner. He had never seen Bruce loose control like this. Joker was a bloody mess. Tim noticed Bruce had one of the clown’s teeth embedded in his fist. Tim also saw blood dripping from Bruce’s abdomen. He would have seen it sooner if not for the rain. “Bruce,” Tim started again, “you’re wounded.” He concluded pointing at the hole in Bruce’s stomach. Tim imagined Bruce’s adrenaline must be astronomically high to not have felt being shot in the gut.

Joker still on his knees laughed hysterically, “Oh I see it now, it’s so close.”

Again Bruce’s boot found its mark in the center of Joker’s stomach.

“What the hell is he talking about, what’s close?” Asked Tim.

The clown smiled at Tim, “Oh you dumb bird. The END! Can’t you see how this plays out?” Joker pointed at Bruce, “He can, why can’t you?”

“What’s he talking about Bruce?”

Bruce landed another punch to Joker’s face, before answering. “I’m sorry kid, but this is how it has to be. Joker’s reign of terror, his hold on this city needs to end. He won’t stop, he won’t ever stop. He’s not capable of stopping! Too many people have died, if I don’t stop him now, more people will suffer. Twenty! Twenty souls are laying in the morgue because of this psychopath, and that’s only since the night you were taken.” Tim could see that Bruce’s strength was abandoning him. His shoulders slouched as if all the weight from his career as Batman suddenly crashed onto him. “I’ve left instructions with Alfred, everything’s taken care of.”

“What are you talking about Bruce?” Tim began to approach, but Joker leapt up off his knees, Bruce tried to subdue him, but this time Joker was too quick and slid around Bruce’s attack. He produced a straight razor from inside his purple coat pocket and sliced at Tim’s chest, causing the boy to lose his balance. Tim hit the metal grating floor on top of the lighthouse and turned in time to see Joker slashing at his throat. Bruce swiftly caught Joker’s blade wielding hand by the wrist and held it up away from Tim. Joker’s other hand dug into Bruce’s wound causing the aging crimefighter to howl in pain.

Tim had never heard such a sound come from his friend, “Bruce!”

Continuing to fight through the pain, with his other hand, Bruce grabbed Joker’s throat and pushed the clown up against the rail. Bruce tightened his grasp, but Joker kept smiling, he tried to laugh, but Bruce started to crush his windpipe.

Tim began to rise, but it was too late. He saw Joker tangle his leg around Bruce. Bruce brought down his arm clasping Joker’s wrist and smashed it against the rail multiple times until finally Joker released the razor. It flew out of his hand, falling three hundred fifty feet to the macabre of rocks at the base of Kraken’s Lighthouse.

Bruce refused to let go of Joker’s wrist and throat while the clown’s free hand continued to punch at Bruce’s wound. He was spitting up blood and coughing it all over Joker’s face and in return the clown threw a head-butt at Bruce’s septum. Tim heard Bruce scream more from anger than from pain as he reached back and threw all of his weight and power into his next punch. It connected square on Joker’s temple, but the force pushed both of their momentum over the rail.

The world slowed down for Tim, he saw Joker’s leg still tangled with Bruce’s, the clown then latched his arms around his nemesis shifting his weight and launching both men over the railing. Tim jumped with all his power to reach and catch Bruce, his fingers just missing to grab a hold of his friend. Together, the adversaries fell to the earth below. Tim peered over the edge crying out for his partner. He struggled to see through the rain, but down below where the ocean swell was constantly pounding the nest of jagged rocks, Tim saw two motionless figures.

Minutes later the rain ceased and Tim could hear the approaching army of squad cars racing through the Gotham Port. He saw Police boats arriving and watched as they docked up near the rocks in hopes to recover the bodies. Tim wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. I can’t believe he’s gone. What now?

Tim, shaken and heart broken was about to make his way back down to where the police would be arriving, but as he took his first step, a rope swung by just missing his face. Tim looked up and couldn’t believe his eyes. Well, I’ll be damned! Hovering above him was the Batwing, a military grade stealth propulsion jet designed to look like a giant bat. Tim saw the familiar cowl looking down signaling him to hold on. He grabbed the rope with both hands as Batman began to hoist up the Red Robin.