Harley Quinn And The Joker

The New Guy

This city was always difficult. Always keeping me busy. But ever since the Joker was murdered, everything was getting out of hand. More criminals with nothing to fear and the increasing brutality - nobody's robbed a store, everything seems to be someone trying to kill another one.

"Master Bruce, you haven't been home for two days, you really need to rest." Nice as it was of him, I had no time for that.

I shook my head. "And let this get more and more out of hand? No, I can't do that, Alfred." The amount of exhaustion I felt wasn't able to be put in words but what should I do?

"I'm sure Nightwing and Commissioner Gordon got this, you gave so much for the city, it will survive a night without you." Maybe he was right. Maybe, just this one time, I should be selfish.

Giving it a second thought, I turned the Batmobile around, driving back at the Batcave. "Alright. Tell Gordon he needs to take care of Scarecrow himself, I'm gonna come home now."

"Of course." Alfred hung out and I suppressed a yawn. The thought of my bed at home let me almost get good mood. But there was this feeling that told me it was a mistake. That something would change if I quit for only tonight.

Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. Fact is that I needed some sleep once in a while. And, god help me, I really did much for the city. One night wouldn't make a difference.

At least...that's what I thought.

♦♦

Harley put the plastic bag with all informations King Shark could get back into her bedside table, rubbing her eyes as she was reading until two o'clock in the morning.

"I don't buy it. Somethin's wrong." No matter how often she looked at the photos of Joker's bones, she didn't believe it was really him. He wouldn't leave her like that.

After turning off the lights to sleep at least a view short hours, Harley let herself fall back onto her pillow, closing her eyes and falling asleep.

Hahahahaaa!

Her eyes opened and she immediately sat up. 'What was that?' A shadow moved outside of her window but the curtains prevented her from seeing anything except for a second shadow running after the first one.

Harley quickly tried to move over to the window, caught up in the awful moment of being half way sleeping. Yet somehow, she managed to walk out of her bed and opened the window.

She gasped and her heart was beating faster as she lost her sleepy mood and replayed the sound of this laughter in her mind. 'Could it be?' Harley's eyes widened after she closed the window. 'Or did I just dream that?'

♦♦

"Stop running away, I'm faster than you, anyways!" Nightwing shouted as he ran after the guy in a black coat through the streets of Gotham.

Suddenly, the man started laughing and Nightwing, usually very self-composed, froze, the feeling of fire burning his skin and the sound of this man's voice shattering his bones while trying to banish the face of the sick, demented human from his mind.

"Oh, I see. But that'd be more fun if you don't just stand there, birdy! Ha!" The man disappeared behind a toy store and Nightwing followed, slower than before, still not able to comprehend what just happened.

As he reached the building, there was no sign of the man anywhere. "Where the hell are you?" Dick asked, not as confident as usual and winced when he heard the man's voice from somewhere above.

"Right up here, bluejay!" Nightwing looked up and stared at this guy who he could barely see but noticed that he was waving. "Care to join me?"

"Why did you kill the lady?" Nightwing asked him as he arrived at the roof of the shop, still not recognizing this face as he stared at the man in the darkness.