Joker flew across the interrogation room and felt his back slam into the wall before he bounced off of it and faceplanted onto the floor. He groaned in pain for a moment before it transitioned into mad cackles and he raised himself up enough to spit blood onto the floor. "Little rough don't you think, Bats? What's the problem anyway? It's not like I blew up Gotham, right? Not yet anyway." He laughed as Batman stomped over to him, picked up The Joker by his jacket, dragged him over to the table and slammed his face down onto the table hard enough to create a resounding *BANG!* that echoed around the room! "GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! What did I tell you about the head? The Victim gets all...fuzzy! He can't feel the next-" *BANG!* Joker slumped to the floor, blood starting to ooze down his face from the head wound Batman had just given him from slamming his head down on the metal table. Batman stomped on his hand and ground his boot onto it.
"Talk you dumb animal! No more games, Joker, why did you do it?! Tell Me!"
"Dumb...animal....that's a new one." Joker admitted. "You sure you don't have me mistaken for Croc?" He joked.
Batman picked him right back up and slammed his back on the table. "This has always been about us! Why did you go after him?! Talk!"
"Ohhh...Bats....you still don't get it do you?" He laughed. "Every time you and I play our little games, I lose. Every single time. Naturally I got tired of losing so I decided to switch things up and...you know something? It was easy! It was as easy as beating a puppy to death with a kitten last week! When the howling and meowing stops, and all you’re left with is a mess of fur and blood and brains—-well, you can’t beat that warm glowing feeling inside." Joker grinned and leaned up to Batman with his deranged twisted bloody smile. "Someone took everything from you, didn’t they? And look at what you became. The punching, kicking embodiment of wrath. What do you think he’ll become, hmm? A god who deluded himself into believing he was just a man? What will Superman turn into?"
Batman threw the clown back down to the floor. "Like I said: A dumb animal. There are some things even you can't corrupt Joker."
"HA! Oh, Batsy, you're so cuuuuute when you're mad! You honestly think your friend will still be fun to play with?"
"He’ll grieve, but he will continue to be the best man I know. We'll help him through this. We'll help each other through this loss. He'll recover. He'll heal. They all will."
"Oh, no. I think it's going to be a whole lot funnier than that. This time, the joke’s on you. And the world will burn!" Joker wiped the blood from his mouth. "Be-sides! What are you even gonna do about it? THROW ME BACK IN ARKHAM?! Heh, heh, heh. Hah, hah hah, hah hah! HA HA HA HA HA!! HOW'S THAT BEEN WORKING OUT ANYWAY?! We break out, we kill our way across Gotham, we have a few laughs, you put us back in Arkham, and then we can start the fun all over again! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
"Quiet!"
"Or WHAT?!" Joker challenged.
They were interrupted by Superman breaking through the outside wall into the interrogation room, flying across, shoving Batman out of his way and grabbing the homicidal clown by his throat and slamming him against the wall.
Kal-El… Clark.
Diana. I killed them.
No! That madman orchestrated this. He’s responsible. Only him.
Will you keep her safe?
Of course.
"MADMAN!" Superman shouted in the diseased maniac's face. "You drugged me! Made me... Lois... my son...."
"Hmmmm....First Krypton, now Metropolis, People you love tend to blow up, don't they?"
"RRRAAAAAHHH!" Superman shouted and punched the wall next to Joker's head and punched straight through it! Joker burst out laughing.
"That's why I like you, Super-Stoop! You're so much funnier than Old Batsy." Superman flung him into the opposite wall and put a serious dent in it and Joker collapsed to the floor. Hacking and coughing now in between his deranged laughs. He was even wheezing in pain now as he struggled to drag himself up. Even when he got to his feet he could only stagger forward until he bumped into the wall and turned around to face Superman. "You think you can have a family. That locking me up will magically reform me...and they'll be safe. So big, so dumb. (chuckles) Now run along so I can break out of here. I've got lots of planning to do to top this." He replied smugly. Superman zipped in front of him, grabbed the clown, and picked him up off of his feet by his throat.
"That's enough!" Batman insisted and tried to get in between them but Superman sent him careening backwards with a simple finger flick. Batman hit the interrogation table and knocked it over but he was fine thanks to his Batsuit's Armor. He shook his head and sat back up. "Clark...don't..."
"Hhhheeeeyyyy....Clarky.... I know it's soon, but...think you'll ever love again? Maybe you won't kill your next family..." Joker wheezed.
Superman began tightening his grip as he thought about EVERYTHING this diseased madman, this plague on humanity, this walking death worshipping sack of garbage had done. All of the murder, the death, the executions, the slaughter, the deaths of the JSA*, now all of Metropolis, Wally, Garfield....his family....Lois...all of them, all of them, dead, dead and gone forever, at the hands of this ANIMAL! This diseased, rabid, psychotic, animal! If they continued to do things Bruce's way, if they just put him and Harley, Joker's partner in this act of mass murder, back in Arkham, they would just break out and kill ever more people! No, no, he had to die! She had to die! They both had to die! They had to die! They had to DIE! THEY HAD TO! THEY HAD TO!
But...Lois wouldn't want that. Perry wouldn't want that. Jimmy wouldn't want that. None of his friends would want that. Wally wouldn't want that. Garfield wouldn't want that. So no. Despite how much this inhuman monster deserved to die...Superman would not give in. But he wouldn't let him walk either.
So he would take a third option.
Superman lowered Joker down and moved his hands to Joker's shoulders and bowed his head. "Joker...I won't do it. I won't sully their memories with your unclean filthy putrid blood."
Batman sat up and smiled. "I knew it. Clark....thank you."
"Oh COME! ON! What does it take to crack you eggheads?" Joker questioned.
Superman took a deep breath and blew it out and looked up at Joker. "I'm not done. I won't kill you Joker. But I won't let you walk away either. I'm going to put a stop to your madness Joker. Permanently. Then I'm going to lock you away in the darkness so that you'll never escape."
"Uhhh....'fraid I don't follow. You still on the gas?"
Superman suddenly moved his hands back up and grabbed Joker's head. His eyes glowed bright red. "Goodbye Joker. Forever."
Then Superman lobotomized Joker with a quick bright red blast of heat vision. Two burn scars. Two dots on Joker's head and everything that made Joker who he was died inside right then and there. All that was left was a frowning, crumbled, bloody, lobotomized shell of a man drooling on himself on the floor. Superman sighed.
"It's over." After a lengthy pause he picked the clown back up and walked over to the hole he'd made in the wall.
"Clark...wait...where are you?"
"The Fortress. I'm going to send him to The Phantom Zone."
"The Phantom Zone? Are you sure that's necessary? You've already melted his brain."
"Lazarus Pits." Clark reminded him.
"Even Ra's isn't crazy enough to throw Joker into a Lazarus Pit, Clark."
"He wouldn't but someone else might and there are plenty of other methods that could be potentially used to bring him back, even if it wouldn't be his old self, it's too big of a security risk. Especially after everything he's done. I'm going to send him to The Phantom Zone to lock him away from our universe forever so that he'll never be able to come back."
"And then what?" Batman questioned.
"I'll find Harley, do the same to her and then...I'll turn myself in."
"Clark..."
"It's necessary, Batman, regardless of whether or not I was influenced by Crane's Fear Gas I still played right into The Clowns' hands and I set off the detonator....Metropolis was destroyed...Lois, our baby....and now I'm going far outside of the law. I'm going to turn myself in, we'll let it go to court, and I'll tell the truth about my actions to the court and to the world. We'll let the laws of man, of our people, of our nation, judge me and make the decision and pass their judgment. Whatever it may be I'll accept it."
Batman couldn't help but let a kind, sad smile cross his face, you didn't need super hearing to tell Bruce was fighting back tears with his ever present self-control. "You're still you. I knew it."
"I won't change, Batman, but I am going to punish them. Justice will be served. I'm going now. We'll catch up later." Clark floated out of the building and turned back to Batman. "Sorry about the wall by the way....and, you know, shoving you and flicking you like that. That was wrong. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I'll pay for all of it. We'll talk later."
Clark smiled and nodded and zipped away to the Fortress Of Solitude. Batman watched him fly away and placed two fingers to his cowl. "Batman to Flash, Wonder Woman and Shazam. Did you get all of that?"
"We did Bruce." Diana replied.
"Good. I need the three of you to meet with Clark at The Fortress. He needs people that he can talk to right now and you three are the best of us." Batman assured them.
"Diana and I can go but Barry...Barry needs time." Billy told him.
Of course. Wally's death. Superboy said he and Garfield were caught in the explosion. "Of course. Alright. I understand. Thank you."
"Of course. We'll talk later."
Batman's next call was a more personal one. "Batman to Batcave. Are you there?"
"Of course, Master Bruce, always."
"Send the Batwing and put it on Auto-Pilot. Please."
"Right away sir. But are you alright?"
"....I need to come home." Batman replied to Alfred as he slumped against the wall and held his head in his hand.
-
Billy Batson finished wiping the tears from his eyes as he walked out of their foster house. He walked out to the back patio and looked up at the sky still sniffling and trying to hold in his tears. "BILLY!"
He turned around to see Mary running up to him. "Where....where are you going?"
"I-I...it's...Superman...he needs....he needs us right now. Things have...gotten bad and....and Wonder Woman and I-I...we need...stop it from getting worse." He started crying again and immediately began wiping his tears. "I have to go, Mary, I have to go but you stay here, alright? Freddy, Eugene, Pedro, and Darla need you."
"We need you and you need us! You're in no shape to go anywhere or fight anyone right now!"
"I know! I know! I'm not in any shape to fight but I can fly. After I transform I'll be good to go. I'll be right as rain. You stay here with the others and mom and dad, alright? I'll be back. We're just going to talk. It'll be alright."
"Billy....are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I can help him. That's what superheroes do, remember? We save everyone we can and right now? I'm going to help Wonder Woman save Superman. So don't worry about me. I'll be okay. I love you guys." He backed up a bit further and looked back up at the sky.
"
SHAZAM!"
