[DC Fanfic] Gods Among Men

[Saarai]

Chapter 7: Who Are You?​

The door to the men's room burst open, lips locked as a masked man and woman engaged in what was going to be a big mistake or a night to remember. The two fell into a stall, the woman, donning a black with a blue butterfly on it, pushing the man down onto the toilet.

"You ready for this?" She asked, "Oh, yeah. I'm ready." He told her. The woman ran her hand up her leg, sensually pulling up the dress she wore. The man waited in anticipation.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't find himself satisfied by the woman. She quickly drew a blade and pressed it against the man's throat.

"Where's the new Black Mask?" She asked, "What?" The man responded, confused and uneasy about having sharp objects so close to his neck. "Phillip Roarke. Where is Roarke?" She asked him.

The man stammered as he looked for an answer, he didn't do well under pressure. "Gone. Uh... not here. This is too obvious of a spot, so he moved to a new place. Somewhere more secluded. Only a select few know so that no one can give up anything to The Batman or someone." He answered.

"Thanks. If you tell anyone about this, I'll make a few calls and make sure you have a long painful accident. The closed casket kind." The woman threatened before quickly leaving the stall.

Bruce stood outside of the bathroom, quickly joining the masked woman as she stepped out. "How did it go, Helena?" He asked, "Wasn't what I wanted, but I got something out of it." Helena answered.

"He isn't here. He got a new, secure location. Not sure where. He's being careful." She told Bruce, "Alright. Let's get going. Morgan's waiting outside, when we get home we can start looking for leads." Bruce said.

He waved to Selena, the woman still seated in their section. She wasted no time in joining the others on their way out. The club kind of sucked anyways.

"Nothing?" She asked the two as they walked out. "Just know he's hiding." Bruce answered, smiling for cameras as they made their way to the limo.

Bruce opened the limousine door for the woman, giving one more fake smile and wave to the media before getting in himself.

"Home, Morgan." He told the driver, "You got it." Morgan said, pulling out into the street. Bruce felt a vibration on his body, his phone reminding him that he had notifications.

He slipped it from a pocket, taking note of the missed call from Oliver Queen and a new voicemail. He decided to listen to the new voicemail first.

"One second." Bruce said, putting the phone to his ear.

"Something wrong?" Selina asked him, "I hope not. Oliver told me to call him, it sounded important." Bruce answered. "I really hope he found that son of a bitch Roarke." Helena chimed in.

"Let me call him and find out."

Bruce tapped his phone's screen to make the call, bringing it back to his ear once more.

"Oliver, what did you find?" Bruce asked, "Bruce, do you trust Selina Kyle?" Oliver asked, "I do." Bruce answered, watching the city go by as he spoke.

"That sucks. Because she murdered Roman Sionis." Oliver told Bruce, "I've got proof from Black Mask's own security cameras. She shot him, Bruce. She murdered him in cold blood. She brought her own gun." Oliver continued.

"Thank you, Oliver." Bruce said, ending call a second later. He closed.his for a long moment, his brain in overdrive. "What?" Helena asked.

"Selina? Did you kill Roman Sionis?" Bruce asked, "W-what?" Selina stammered, "You did. You did, didn't you?" Bruce asked, "He had it coming." Selina said.

"Selina, what the fuck? That's not what we do!" Bruce shouted, "What is worse is that you didn't trust me enough to tell me. Or come to me for help with him."

"You brought a gun to his safe house and shot him." He said to Selina, "You know what he did to my family. He deserved it." Selina retorted, "Besides, you killed The Joker." She added, "That was different." Bruce explained.

"How? How, Bruce?" She asked, "It's been years and he hasn't come back. You killed him. He's done much worse than Sionis, and you can't say the world isn't better without him."

"Morgan, stop the car." Bruce ordered, the limousine pulling over to the side if the road. Bruce climbed out immediately, Helena following suit.

"Take Selina home, Morgan. Her home." Bruce told the young driver, "Yeah, okay, Bruce." Morgan said, driving off slowly.

Bruce and Selina made lingering eye contact as distance was put between them.

"You okay?" Helena asked, "Maybe later." Bruce answered, "I just feel like I don't know who she is. I've never really known." He told Helena, "Let's walk for a bit. Get some air." Helena suggested, "Some nasty, Jersey air." She joked.

"Yeah. Okay. Ladies first." Bruce said, following close behind Helena as she walked ahead.

Everything around them seemed to move so fast. It was the first time in a long time that they stopped to smell the metaphorical roses in Gotham.

"You didn't have to come with me. You could've stayed in the limo." Bruce told Helena, "Yeah, but I wasn't gonna leave you all alone. You didn't do that to me." She responded.

"I mean, where would I be without you?" She asked, "Prison, or dead, or running my own mob." She said, "Instead I'm doing good. Good I could never do on my own."

"Having you around helped me too, honestly. You were violent, so close to killing. And, you needed a friend. You were what I thought I was becoming. You pulled me away from going down a dark path as much as I pulled you from it." Bruce told Helena.

"Did you really kill him?" She asked, "It was an accident." Bruce answered, "I'll tell you about it on the way. It's not as exciting as it sounds like it could be."

 

[Saarai]

Chapter 8: No Laughing Matter​

Four years ago...

The Adirondack Mountains.

Oliver and I tracked the Joker to the Adirondacks, this after he kidnapped several ambassadors from the United Nations in New York after taking his first few steps to full-blown terrorism. Jason, Robin, went in with Roy, Speedy at the time, to rescue the ambassadors. Oliver and I went straight for the Joker that night.

"I've got eyes on the place. It's a freakin' fortress. Where did the Joker get this?" Green Arrow said, speaking into a headset built into his hood.

"What else?" The Batman asked "High walls made of stone, a lot of armed guards. Oh! I see a tactical with a machine gun on it. That should be fun." Green Arrow said, "You know the plan?" Batman asked him, "Beat them all up before they kill us?" Green Arrow said jokingly, "Sounds good. I'll go high." Batman told him.

"I'll go low." Green Arrow said as he dropped down from the tree he was hidden in, breaking off into a sprint towards the walls of the compound. He drew an arrow from his quiver and fired at the wall.

The arrow exploded, and as that happened the Batman glided over the compound wall to land on the tactical. He punched out out the Joker goon holding onto the machine gun, tossing a batarang at another approaching with an assault rifle.

The Green Arrow sprinted through the hole in the wall towards one of Joker's gunman approaching Batman with a revolver. He slid towards the goon, his legs wrapping around his calf and forcing him to the ground.

"Guns are bad." Green Arrow said, slamming a foot into the man's nose before he could get to his feet. He quickly rose to his feet, arrow after arrow slamming into the Joker's thugs as they tried to mount a defense.

Batman jumped down from the truck, punches and kicks felling the men who attacked him. The Batman lifted one of the goons over his head, tossing him into the tactical before making his way towards the main building in the compound.

He stepped over one of the many broken and battered bodies strewn around him and the Green Arrow. It was a bad day to be one of Joker's thugs.

"Wait!" The Green Arrow shouted, jogging over to Batman as he stopped just outside the entrance. "It's rigged." He said, pointing at the wire barely exposed by the moonlight in the doorway. "Kill us all in one fell swoop, he isn't stupid." Green Arrow continued.

"We find another way in." Batman suggested, looking around the compound and the building. "I don't think he's really here." Green Arrow told Batman, "He's here." The Batman said, he had a sixth sense when it came to the Joker.

Green Arrow pointed up at a window, it was damaged and already open. Unlike the rest that had metal bars, the bars on this window were cut with a torch. That explained how the Joker got in to get rid of the old residents.

"I'll go first." Green Arrow said, jumping to grab a ledge that would allow him to begin his ascension. His movements were effortless, years of parkour paid off when you became a vigilante.

The Green Arrow peeked inside, the room was clear so he carefully climbed inside. He found himself in an office, it clearly belonging to the leader of the former residents. Right-wing propaganda and flags filled the room. It gave Oliver the chills.

"It's like being at granny's house when I was kid, except less racist." He joked, eyes falling on a picture of President Ellis, an African-American man, with a knife in it.

"Nope... just like grandma's house..."

"It's all clear, Bruce." He told Batman, sneaking towards the door out of the office. He opened it slowly and carefully, peeking out into the hallway. It was dark, no one nearby. No sound.

Green Arrow closed the door, turning back towards the window only to be startled by Batman standing right behind him. "Jesus Christ, why do you do that?" Green Arrow asked, "Honestly, it was a little funny." Batman admitted.

"Robin, Speedy, come in." Batman said, holding a hand up to his left ear. "Robin? Speedy? Are you reading me?" He asked, "Speedy?" Green Arrow asked, "Something's wrong, Bruce." He said to the vigilante. "The basement. Our intel put the hostages in the basement, we gotta get down there." Green Arrow told the other hero, beckoning him along as he rushed out into the hall.

Batman stayed behind, watching as his friend ran off. "Come on!" Green Arrow shouted, "It's a trap." Batman said loudly, stepping out into the hallway. "I know it's a damn trap!" Green Arrow yelled as he stormed back, "But, Roy and Jason are down there." He continued.

The vigilantes stood in silence for a moment, it only being broken by a frustrated groan from Oliver before he stormed off again. Batman turned and went in the opposite direction.

I had a hunch. The Joker wanted us in the basement. I assumed he had wired up explosives or a firing squad waiting. The truth was much more Joker-like. He didn't want to kill us, he wanted to break us. He broke some of us. I found a door leading down a paved road to a cabin not far from the main building.

The Joker had to be there. I went after him.

"The prisoners are here, Bruce. No sign of Roy, Jason or the Joker." Oliver said, voice vibrating through Bruce's ears as he stood in front of the dimly lit cabin. "I know. I've found them. All of them. Come to me." The Batman said, slowly approaching the cabin.

The door was slightly ajar, Batman pushed it open slowly and cautiously. His eyes came to rest on Speedy, unmasked and tied to a chair. Jason was close, handcuffed to an old stove. The two young men had been beaten, Jason seemingly taking the brunt of it all.

Standing in front of a fireplace was the man of the hour. The Joker. The flames from the fireplace was bouncing shadows ominously around the cabin.

"I'm so glad you could join us. I wanted you to get here sooner, I got a little carried away with your Boy Wonder. Fortunately, he's alive enough to see you die." The Joker said, raising a hand towards the fire. The heat didn't seem to faze him.

"You won't win." Batman told the Joker, "I will. I decided this game has gone for too long. It's always the simple solution." The Joker said, turning quickly and raising a revolver at Batman. Almost immediately he fired, the bullet slamming into Batman's gut and sending him reeling back.

He fell through the front door out into the patches of snow just outside of the cabin. He attempted to catch his breath, placing a hand on his stomach. The bullet hadn't penetrated the armor lining his costume, but it did it's damage.

"Always the simple things in life." The Joker taunted, stepping out of the cabin. He held a crowbar in the hand opposite of his gun, almost immediately slamming it down into Batman's chest. And then in his side, and then again and again.

The Joker had changed, or maybe he was the same. He was crazy, but he was smart, he had goals. For a long time it was to torment Batman, maybe that didn't change. Maybe killing Batman, letting him know in his last moments that there would be no one like him to stop The Joker was torment enough.

This was a new chapter in the saga. The Joker needed new material, a grander stage, he was going to go down in history as the man who finally killed The Batman.

He raised his revolver, aimed at Batman's head. "I'm going to miss you, Batsy." He said, beginning to squeeze the trigger. He never got a shot off before Jason charged out of the cabin and tackled him to the ground, slamming an elbow into the psychopath's face. He did what he could, but he was weak from the abuse. The Joker thrust Jason off of himself, scrambling to his feet to finish what he set out to do.

His gun had fallen, buried somewhere in the snow. It didn't matter, he still had his trusty crowbar. He approached Batman, reading to swing the weapon and deal the final blow to the vigilante hero.

He froze in place when an arrow whizzed by his head, leaving a cut across his pale cheek. Blood began to find it's way out of the cut, only serving to make the Joker smile. It had been a long time since someone made him bleed.

"Another move and the next one goes through your eyeball." The Green Arrow said, standing atop the cabin's roof. His bow aimed down at the Joker. "Not your style." The Joker said to him, remaining completely still.

"Try me."

"Sure." The Joker moved to slam the crowbar into Batman. The Green Arrow was about to fire another arrow, but stopped at the sound of a gun going off. A bullet hit the Joker's shoulder from behind and sent him reeling away.

The Joker screamed in agony, frustration, rushing off into the woods to get away. Jason sat with the revolver in hand for a moment firing a few more shots at the Clown Prince before he dropped the gun. The young man soon dropped to his knees, slumped over in the cold dirt and snow.

"Jason..." Bruce tried to pick himself up, half-crawling and half-limping towards Jason before passing out next to the teen.

Jason died on the way to a hospital. We never found The Joker, or his body. He could have only died out there in the mountains. Jason said to me before he passed that he didn't mean to disappoint me again. Oliver got really protective with Roy. Jason's death changed him, eventually he struck out on his own.

It was hard breaking the news to Tim and Richard. Tim grew fond of Jason, he helped him come out of his shell. The only friend he knew died unceremoniously.

And he still wanted to be Robin.

As far as the world was concerned, Jason Todd died in a freak accident. A skiing trip, we told the media. I sometimes wish the world knew he died stopping the Joker.