Brothers In Arms (Batfamily) - Completed

Chapter 29 ~ Strength in Numbers

                  

Song : Come With Me by Puff Daddy. I was listening to it during the whole time I wrote this chapter so I thought maybe you'd like to do the same ^^

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At first, the thick cloud of smoke caused by the explosion unabled Jason to clearly see what was happening in the room. However, as he stepped further, he quickly noticed Damian crouched over someone who was lying on the floor. He spotted a black and blue suit standing on his left and he didn't took him long to understand that the person on the floor was no one else than his little brother. So it's with an uncontrollable rage boiling inside of him that he heard the cackling noise on his right.

A cackle he would never forget.

A cackle which was still haunting him at night. 

A cackle which was amongst the last things he had heard before his death.

A cackle which was still sending shivers down his spine.

Red Hood turned his head towards the cackle's direction and saw the clown holding his stomach. When the clown stopped laughing, he stared at the man right in the eyes. A piercing glance before he finally opened his arms widely, his handgun still in one hand, and declared "here he is! My favorite little bird!"

"You," Jason spat in a whisper while he took out one of his own handgun and pointed it towards the clown's face. The Joker raised his gun and pointed it towards Nightwing's head.

"You know what? I don't really like guns. They are too quick. You can't savor all the little emotions you see in their last moments," he pointed towards Red Robin and then brought his attention back to Red Hood, "With knives, people show you who they truly are. You know what Birdie, it's kinda the same with crowbars."

"Shut your goddamn mouth, clown, because I swear I'll take your knife and cut off your tongue."

The Joker snorted, "You birds are so predictable. Always here for one another. Oh except for you, Red. Big Blue never came for you."

Dick lowered his eyes briefly and clenched his jaw. Guilt rose from deep down his chest. He knew deep inside that the Joker was right. He hadn't paid a lot of attention towards Jason when the latter was still Robin. He had been trying to come closer to Jason since his brother had calmed down after his whole "I wanna kill Batman" rampage. In fact, they had become closer than they had ever been. They even had a good relationship with both Tim and Damian.

"Too predictable even," the Joker continued with a gruesome grin.

That's when Dick understood they had been trapped once again. Jensen stood up from where he had been left on the catwalk by Damian, his white shirt soaked with his own blood. His nose had already swollen up under the dark purplish bruise which had already started to spread all around his broken nose. As he rose on his feet and helped himself up with the guardrail, Dick and Jason noticed the phone in his hands.

Half a minute later, the echo of a numerous amount of footings resonated through the facility's corridors and an army of henchmen armed to the teeth invaded the large room they were standing in. Some of them even had black masks covering their faces.

"Four birds in one take! Batsy would be so proud of me," the Joker giggled and jumped happily while Jensen approached near him, his AK47 pointed towards Nightwing's head too. The latter gave him his best death glare. Behind them, a group of goons was trying to take Robin by the armpits and drag him next to his big brothers. "Let the unconscious one where he is. I'm not done with him and you idiots could break him even more than he already is."