[Thread] The Dark Knight Has Arrived || Open

[gonnaloveme]

Characters: The Batman, Open
Where: New York--->Gotham
When: a couple of days or a week after the new arrangement
Summary: The Batman has arrived in town, boys. Let's play nice while he explores his new surroundings...not.
Warnings: Not at the moment, but definitely likely?

Comments

[gonnaloveme]

((Actually solved a problem of mine, so that's great. Moving onwards, finally~~!))

The sound of an explosion was what caught the Batman's attention and he snapped around as it echoed through the city. It had come from south of him, too far away for him to actually see what damage it had caused with all the buildings between him and there from this particular position. He took wing, first heading in what appeared to be the wrong direction to catch an uplift from the thermal he knew circled around the monorail and neighboring highway in the area. He circled a few times like a bird of prey, gaining altitude enough to be well beyond the range of the more bothersome skyscrapers before moving off in the right direction.

When he thought he was in the right area he clipped his wings and few straight down to an outcropping gargoyle beneath him. He had to scrabble for purchase, but only for a second, as the perch was rather an awkward one. However, the advantage was worth it: while he had little room to make mistakes upon he had a wonderful view of the surrounding area, well high enough and at as near perfect an angle as any for what he needed. In fact, from this position he easily found what he was looking for.

That had to be it. Over on a high floor, perhaps no more than three or four floors beneath his own perch, was the eerie outline of a man in a...an elevator? The distance was trying and of course with the light shining from behind it was impossible to see any features in front of the tiny room. He clicked on a button within one of his gloves and his vision suddenly hitched forward. Through a set of binoculars that slid down out of his cowl he could see more clearly now. Even before he had the strangest of gut feelings; like he just knew who that shadow belonged to. Perhaps it was the way it moved, maybe it was just some sort of sixth sense about these things, but he had a feeling he knew. The binoculars confirmed his suspicions.

The Joker.

A sense of dread filled the Bat as he stared over at the form from his safe perch. Not fear, but that sort of wariness that comes from knowing what sort of crazy another person was capable of when in combat. Not that he didn't want to fight the Joker, but that he would rather have not had to deal with him. Why couldn't he ever just stay locked up?

Perhaps it was simply inevitable. Inevitable that they fight. Over, and over, and over again and again. He didn't like that idea. He pushed it aside as he used his powerful leg muscles to thrust forward into the night air and reach out for another glide.

This time he angled downward at an alarming angle. He went in fast and hard. His angle was to hit the Joker before the clown could register any impeding threat to his "fun." He hit the criminal hard, his head tucked into his chest, and the two of them slammed into the back of the elevator with a resounding bang. "Need a lift?" he said before he picked up the clown before the other had any chance to recover, and simply threw him out of the waiting elevator door.

[entro_pist]

The bomb exploded far from where he'd estimated it to land. And far too close. However, the sleek, black figure he'd caught in his peripheral vision sweeping up toward the top of the building answered everything. Another vigilante. Not Robin this time, nor was it the Batman, but certainly a Gothamite. Head and shoulders thrust out the elevator doors, the Joker craned his neck and squinted upward, scaling what he could of the building above with his eyes. But to no avail. He couldn't see anything but windows and hazy, black sky. Another grenade would do the trick.

The Joker was just about to reach into his inner coat pocket again when something hit him with the force of a speeding truck. He hadn't even seen it coming, still too distracted in his search for the night's first vigilante, though it was moving so fast he probably wouldn't have seen it coming anyway. But already, he knew exactly just what-who-this was that was now slamming his body so hard against the back wall that the entire elevator shuddered in place, its lights flickering on impact.

For the next two seconds he was too breathless and disoriented to do anything but slump, pinned to the wall by the full weight of his captor. And grin. He could still grin despite the crushing pressure against his body. But the pressure soon came off as he was lifted by the Bat's armored fists and could finally breathe once again.

"Not anymore," came the flippant response (take it to mean what you will) as he dangled briefly by the front of his coat. Then, like a kid on the best ride at Disney World, he broke into hysterical laughter as he was flung ten stories into free fall.

[gonnaloveme]

Batman peered out of the elevator door with one hand on the frame as he leaned out. For a few seconds he simply stood there gazing out at the falling villain without any empathy. He closed his eyes and silently cursed that laughter before leaping out into the night sky once again.

He free-fell for what seemed like forever before his eyes snapped open. He was only a few yards away from the Joker with his sleek dive form giving him a higher velocity, like a hawk closing in on its prey. He reached out with one hand to grab at an ankle and with the other he reached for something on his belt.

The zip-line flitted across the sky and twanged against an adjacent building. Then with a force liable to rip a lesser man's arm right out of its socket the line tightened and the two dark figures stopped falling and instead swung towards a near destination. The Batman released his hold of the Joker just before setting down, allowing him maneuverability to land on his feet like a cat, and sent the clown sprawling head first into the concrete.

[entro_pist]

For the longest moment, the Joker plummeted to the street below uninterrupted, disconnected from everything in the world except for the wind in his ears and gravity itself. He knew Batman wasn't going to break his rule, not now. Not ever. But even so, he was mildly disappointed when he finally felt that hand latch onto his ankle. Growing traffic lights became a neon blur as he began to fall sideways, sweeping over the busy street and into a parking garage. There, the hand released and he was sent rolling on his sides over the concrete until a parked car put an abrupt end to his journey.

The back of his head and shoulder struck the car door and he collapsed in a heap beside the sedan, face down. His sub machine gun followed immediately after, cartwheeling over the hood of the car, then spun on its side beneath another set of tires. Groaning, the Joker pressed his hands to the ground and pushed himself up to sit against the car. His hair was a tangled mess of dull browns and greens, jacket slipping off one shoulder in a state of dishevelment. The side of his forehead and cheekbone looked a bit scuffed as well. Oh, but that grin was still there, mocking Batman from between the scars. Not yet ready to attempt standing, he rolled his body against the car with a few soft grunts and stretched his legs out in front of him, getting comfy there on the ground. Keen eyes settled on the cowled face of the dark, solemn figure.

"Finally decided to show up, huh?" He breathed out a single laugh, tongue sliding over his lower lip from one corner of his mouth to the other. "A little late but at least you're never un-fashionable," he said with a quick side-to-side wobble of his head as the latter syllables rolled off his tongue. One hand reached across his chest to clutch the opposite shoulder which he gave a few experimental shrugs. It was a bit tender from the landing, but nothing was broken or popped from its socket.