"St....stop...Bat-maniac..." Joker coughed up blood as Batman slammed his head against the concrete floor over and over again but finally stopped, only because Nightwing and Damian pulled him back, keeping him from actually killing Joker.

A deep wound between Joker's eighth and ninth rib caused his suit to soak up with blood while multiple bruises on his back from Batman throwing him against a nearby car made him shake in pain. This was not how he wanted this night to end, yet couldn't stop smiling.

Even though he was more dead than alive, Joker took a few deep breaths to suppress the pain before he rolled over to his left side, slowly trying to stand up with his whole body shaking and thick blood dropping down his chin. "Heh...Heh-hehe." His quiet chuckle at the pain caused Batman to blink in complete confusion.

"What...what just happened?" He stared at Robin, then at Joker who couldn't find the power to stand up and just layed there on his side with a giant grin all over his face and his eyes locked on Batman like lasers detecting a rabbit through the night. It was at this very moment that Batman realized what he had done.

Guilt and the awful feeling of weakness numbed his body as if it was iron locked onto a magnet. Unable to move, Bruce watched Batgirl trying to help Joker up but he didn't move a single muscle, he just wheezed and slightly shook his head, indicating he needed no help.

"Don't be stupid, Joker. Let me help you." Barbara grabbed his arms and pulled him up after a simple sigh of his but he didn't take his eyes off Batman who finally came to his senses again and put one of Joker's arms around his shoulders to help him walk.

Nightwing gasped in a sudden pain and Damian had to catch him to prevent him from falling down onto the hard ground. "Make sure you get yourselves some medical attention, I'm gonna get Joker to the nearest hospital." Batman's deep voice let Joker chuckle. "Oh, Bats." He whispered, unable to put some strength in his voice. "You already did enough, seriously." Joker smiled, his eyes slowly closing but Batman quickly slapped his face, not too hard because he just wanted the madman to stay awake.

"Close your eyes and we'll get a problem." Batman looked down to Joker's stab wound where the blood didn't stop pouring out as if it was water running down a hill. Suddenly, Batman felt awfully guilty and decided to actually apologize. "I'm sorry for beating you up like that."

A weak laughter coming from his throat, Joker pulled his arm back from Bruce's shoulders after Nightwing and the other brats left. He struggled to stand straight on his feet at first but found his balance at one point. The rings on his fingers blinked in the light of a nearby house that was set on fire and he ran his fingers through his messy hairs to fix his hairdo.

"Don't apologize, it was fun." Batman couldn't believe his ears and gulped at his attempt to pull himself together. "The beating part not as much as us working together, but anyway." He licked his lips as his mouth started to water at the burning pain his injuries have him and Bruce just nodded, both, relieved and slightly irritated at once.

"And don't bother taking me to a hospital, I can take care of myself." Joker smiled and pulled a fish hook as well as a metal thread out of his suit before he put it as well as his shirt out and looked at the three-inch-long batarang wound. "Now go and get yourself Black Seven before I can lay my hands on his throat."

Batman watched Joker stitching up his wound, unable to just walk away. "I'm not gonna leave you here, bleeding to death and maybe passing out of pain." He felt responsible for Joker so Batman didn't even think about leaving as his archenemy looked up at him with a grin of derision and a scuff before he went back to stitching himself up.

Batman wanted to pass the time by starting to ask Joker what exactly he should look for when they get to Black Seven who had this mysterious item Joker wanted back. Well, it was less his curiousness than his guilt that let him talk to Joker like that. His temporary sidekick - or whatever Joker called himself - was mad at him and that could put Batman in danger if it came to cooperation during fights.

"Pfff." Joker chuckled and bit his lip with a smile as the pain from the hook digging into his pale skin intensified. "Just make sure you don't miss half the story again, like the one time Blacky dropped you some hints." Again, his eyes looked up to Bruce without Joker moving his head. "You missed pretty much, that's why you need my help right now."

"What are you talking about?" Batman felt uncomfortable at the thought he might've missed something very important. But, as usual, Joker didn't answer, he quickly cut the thread and threw his head back with a deep sight before he put the hook back into his pocket. "Let's go now, I need to know where this bad joke of a criminal is."

♦♦

"Joker, behind you!" I yelled over to him as I saw Miller Moth jumping at him with a knife in every hand. "Got him." He chuckled as he grabbed Walker's mask and slammed his head against Killer Croc's while I focused on Deadshot and Mr. Freeze again, not happy at all about the fact that we met a group of Black Seven's army of rogues.

"Don't fight, it'll only slow your death down but won't prevent it." Deadshot laughed as he dodged one of my punches. 'If those people wouldn't be so unnaturally fast!' "I don't think so, Lawton!" One of my electrocuting batarangs in my hands, I heard Joker manically laughing behind me.

"Deadhead, better back off, those are mean little things!" I turned around to Joker who was held by Waylon upside down by his leg. "They'll give you a nice, tingly feeling, haha!" Was that maniac joking whilst about to get eaten alive by Killer Croc? 'Why am I even surprised?'

Instead of aiming at Deadshot, I threw one batarang at Waylon's arm that held Joker's leg, hitting the skin between the scales of his wrist. The electricity caused him to loosen his grip and Joker landed on his hands before he quickly made a cartwheel and grabbed a knife from his belt.

I couldn't watch him to make sure he didn't kill the croc because Mr. Freeze aimed at me with his freeze gun and I had to jump aside in order not to get hit by the ice beam. 'That was damn close!' My thoughts were interrupted by Deadshot shooting me twice in the left shoulder. 'Damn it, you are slow!'

There was no time for paying attention to the pain of the bullets in my shoulder blade, I had to prevent getting shot dead by Deadshot. 'Ha. Wonder if Joker thought about that one.' But that pun was pretty obvious, so he might have.

Suddenly, my feet became too damn cold and as I looked down, I noticed I was literally froze. 'Goddamn it!' I quickly tried to smash the ice with my fists but the second my hands touched the ice, a new ice beam caused them to freeze as well. There was no other way out than asking Joker for help...and hope he won't just run away as always.

"Joker!" I yelled but was immediately silenced by Deadshot's scream and Freeze who gasped. From the position I was in I couldn't see what was going on but still, I tried to somehow move my fingers under all the ice - without success. 'There must be a way out here!'

"I'm disappointed, Batsy." I heard Joker's voice right behind me but since my hands were down at the level of my ankles, I couldn't even stretch my legs to stand straight to look at Joker. "But your position reminds me of the one day Harley had the idea to celebrate international women's day. Bad idea, baaad idea." 'Dear lord.' I already heard enough and just wanted to get out of the damn ice.

"Now, close your eyes, relax and tell me when it hurts." Joker quietly chuckled and I bit my lower lip - though I had to admit I kind of found it funny. "Alright. Just--OW!" My hand twitched as Joker cut my wrist, hopefully not on purpose.

"Gosh, don't be such a wuss, you want me to use my flamethrower to get the ice off?" To this point, I really believed him when he said he may have had a flamethrower, I mean, he had a nail gun, who knows what else he'd pull out of these pockets?

Joker continues to cut off the ice covering my hands and feet when he suddenly looked up at me in slight shock. "Shit!" He gasped and nervously looked around. "What is it?" Still not able to move my freezing cold hands, I followed his look and noticed big footsteps in the concrete of the street - right where Killer Croc ran off.

"Goddamnit, Joker!" Now he was getting help, of course and it'd take for ever for Joker to get me out of this ice-crap! "Can't you hurry up a bit? I don't want my head going down Croc's mouth!"

Joker gave me a smirk as he kept looking around. "Been there, not a nice feeling with all those giant teeth slowly closing around you." 'Is he serious? He's been almost eaten up by Waylon?' "Not helping! Now get me out of the ice!"

It was still three inches thick but instead of keeping on cutting, Joker stared over to something flying on the sky...Firefly! 'Great...' And on the ground, King Shark, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc along with Clayface. 'I can't catch a break from this shindig today.'

"Wait!" I yelled as Joker put his knife back into his belt and started to run off. Yet he stopped and turned around to me. "Where are you going?!" The criminals came closer with every second so my nervousness wasn't without any reason.

"I have a plan, stop fooling around and trust me once. They'll get you to Black Seven and those idiots will be away to find me afterwards. Enough said." Joker laughed with a crazy look in his eyes but I didn't feel like laughing at all. "See ya later, Bats!" He gave me a wink, then disappeared inside a nearby building.

As much as I hated to admit it, Joker was my only hope in this fight, Damian, Barbara and Dick were too weak and Jim...who knows what happened to him. I just really hoped that he knew what he was doing.