Chapter twenty one- beginning of the end

Chapter twenty one- beginning of the end


I turned Gordon over on his back, to see him half conscious and holding his left shoulder where a spout of blood was coming from a gunshot wound. Without thinking I took off a scarf I was wearing and tied it around his wound.


"Your shot, you need help," I informed him.


"We need to get out of here," he protested, cringing as he positioned his body to stand up.


I helped him up by swinging his good shoulder over mine and helping him try and get back to his parked car. When I got him off the ground, he stopped me and walked a few feet without my assistance toward the terror scene in front of him. The GCPD headquarters in shambles.


All I could see was smoke and blood.


"You see blue I see red," Gordon quoted.


I walked up to his side "maybe you should get the national guard down here?"


Gordon didn't protest my suggestion this time, and again used me as support to escape the scene. We both got back to the car after a time of bobbing and weaving. The gunfire was dying down but was still clearly evident.


The car wasn't the safest place in the world but I hadn't a clue where to go, the hospital? Gordon needed help. I should call Bruce and tell him he needs to stay as far away from this place as possible.


"We should head to the hospital," I told Gordon, who despite being injured was still in the drivers seat.


Gordon looked straight forward, no emotion on his face "those are my men dying out there, I can't abandon them."


"You won't do them any good dead!" I argued not in the mood for some I'll go down with my ship bullshit.


"What good would I do them alive if all I've lead them to is this, how could I have let something like this happen under my watch and then just leave like I never cared, not even trying to help a single one of them."


"The best way you can help them is by getting the hell out of here and saving yourself so you can call the national guard and take down the joker once and for all. You have to live, what good would it do you to go out there guns blazing, take down what? Maybe two or three guys before you die! Now drive your ass to the hospital before I do it myself!"


"The joker once blew a hole through a hospital, I'm not so sure that's my idea of a safe place, but I think I know somewhere a bit safer," Gordon reluctantly agreed.


"Where would that be?"


"Wayne enterprises, Bruce and I are close, as you should know, he can help us."


I let a sigh of relief out, for a minute I thought he might take me to wherever batman hangs out "I think I should call him."


Gordon opened his mouth to say something but the sudden cracking of the windshield stopped him before he could. Someone saw us and was unloading an entire case of bullets on us. Gordon quickly started the car and pushed it into reverse, the car slightly squeezing as he slammed down on the gas.


I watched his eyes water in pain as he turned the steering wheel around with his injured shoulder. As for me, I held on for dear life, and crouched beneath the dashboard so I wouldn't be hit by any penetrating bullets.


I grabbed my phone from my pocket and tried as hard as I could to type in Bruce's name so I could call him. With the car shaking and spinning due to Gordon' erratic driving I held dearly onto my phone and to the car for life as the dial tone sounded.


"Harmony are you okay I'm almost there," Bruce waited no time saying.


"Bruce don't come down here, me and Gordon are on our way down to your building."


"What are you talking about?"


"There's people with guns chasing us and Gordon's been shot, if you go down there they'll kill you!" I told him frantically.


"Shot! What the hell is going on?! Are you alright!" He asked again.


"You have to promise me you won't come down here!"


"are you alright!"


"Promise me!" I yelled back.


"I promise God dammit now tell me if your alright!"


"I'm fine," I hung up the phone right away after answering. I enjoyed a little bit of the protectiveness but I can't handle that kind of thing all the time. Bruce wasn't possessive though, not like Harold, there's a big difference. I just want to be my own person for once, I want to be brave.


Gordon turned a corner and the bullets went from hail storm to nothing. I slowly pulled my head back over the edge of the dashboard and looked at the windshield that was so smashed up it wasn't possible to look through. I could just barely make out a figure standing in the middle of the street, directly in our path.


"There's someone in the road," I notified Gordon.


"I know," he stated stepping down harder on the gas pedal.


I held on tighter than I had before "what are you doing!"


"It's him."


"Who?"


"It's the Joker."


My veins ran cold and my whole body felt numb as we gained to an irresponsible level of speed heading straight for the standing still man. I didn't know how Gordon was so sure it was him, but I trusted him never the less.


"Kill him," I uttered coldly. I don't think I wanted much more in life than to see him die. For all he's done, all he's gotten away with. It was worth murder. I wouldn't hesitate to kill him myself.


Gordon took no hesitation in slamming even harder on the gas petal and speeding onward straight into his path. I could make out through the hard rain and fire that the figure we were closing in on was indeed the joker, the strange thing was that he stood completely still and he was looking right at us.


I sensed something was wrong right away, he wouldn't do this, not after everything he's done, he wouldn't just kill himself. Gordon sensed my suspicions as well and almost seemed like feet away that he was going to stop. That's when the Joker pulled a grenade out from his back, pulled the pin, we were so close, I closed my eyes.


BRUCE'S POV:


A few moments earlier


-----------


I sat alone looking across from me at a two seat table. What was the point of wasting a perfectly good afternoon at the Bungalow just because Harmony wasn't here. I set gordon and harmony up together, if I didn't know Gordon was strict family man I wouldn't go to far to think she might be cheating on me. Maybe that job in the police department wasn't a good idea, the police station I thought would be a safer place, but I can't help feeling that Harmony might be better off not being at the police station.


My phone buzzed in my pocket and I fiddled around quite a bit trying to get it out of my tightly sewn pants. So much for being a hero, I can't even get my phone out of my pocket. Just as the phone was on its final ring I answered it without checking the caller ID.


"Hello," I said somewhat cheerfully, trying to sound like I wasn't in a deep mood.


"Bruce, it's me I-" Harmony's voice spoke. At the sound of her sweet tone my entire demeanor lit up, maybe she could make it to lunch after all.


"Harmony? What's up?"


"The police station-" she spoke ominously, and I suddenly felt that bad feeling rise again. While no one spoke on the line I could hear gunshots, lots of them, and screaming. My heart rate jumped ten beats, and I stood abruptly from my chair.


"What's about the police station, are you there? Is that gunshots I hear!"


"I'm at the station, it's under attack, Gordon- he went in," she sounded terrified and I felt shaky, how could this be happening, who was doing this, the joker?"


"I'm coming to get you, stay put!" I ordered, and hung up the phone just as she was about to protest.


My next call was to Alfred. There was no chance Bruce could be seen down there, it had to be the other guy, and even if it meant Harmony would hate me or find out who I was, it would be a better outcome than her dying.


"The bat mobile is on its way sir, ETA 30 seconds."


"Thanks Alfred."


Sure enough in twenty five seconds I was faced with the bat mobile, and got in as conspicuously as I could, seeing as I was wearing a pair of loafers, tight dress pants, a light blue sweater, and a dress shirt underneath that. There was no time to change, only to act. I guess I'd just have to stay inside the vehicle.


Just as I was closing in on the scene, and listening simultaneously to the police radio detailing what I was about to go in to, a call, which was routed through the bat mobile, came from Harmony.


"Harmony are you okay I'm almost there," I half lied seeing as it wouldn't be Bruce coming to the scene.


"Bruce don't come down here, me and Gordon are on our way to your building."


"What are you talking about?" I asked half genuine, and half just for the sake of sounding like I wasn't Batman.


"There are people with guns chasing us, and Gordon's been shot, if you come down there they'll kill you!" She said all at once. It was too much for me to process, guns, Gordon, shot, kill. I had to get there, soon.


"Shot?! What the hell are you alright?!" I spoke feverishly.


"You have to promise me you won't go down there," Harmony replied sternly.


"Are you alright," I asked again scared she was trying to tell me that there was no hope in saving her.


"Promise me."


"I promise God damnit now tell me if your alright!"


"I'm fine," she responded simply, not making me feel any better.


I pressed down hard on the gas of the bat mobile, reaching dangerous speeds, 120 mph on a very crowded street, but I had enough will power to push through the traffic and get to where I needed to go.


The smoke was now in view, I could only be a block away at the very most, and that's when I spotted him. I knew it had to be the Joker behind this whole mess. He stood looking straight forward down a street I couldn't see, ready to throw a grenade.


I boosted my speed up to 160 mph, and then slammed on the brakes at full speed, screeching to a stop directly in the way of the grenade, and from what I could tell, James Gordon's police car.


The tank took the grenade like it would a basket ball bouncing off the side of it, in other words it hardly even budged. I could imagine it being very different if the grenade were to collide with Gordon's car.


"You can chase me batsy! Or you can go help all the people getting slaughtered in front of the police station, your choice, I know you like making these kind of decisions, I guess it's just like flipping a coin," he started to laugh hysterically. He was mocking me for what I chose, to save Harvey, only to have him turn out to be a villain himself.


I knew what choice I had to make, no more people had to die. Gordon's car left the scene already, no one in pursuit of them, they'd be safe with Fox at Wayne Enterprises.


I turned away from the joker and raced down the street. Into the firestorm.

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