Brucie Boy part 52

Brucie Boy part 52
Bruce rushed to the alleyway, breathing hard and quickly changed into his street clothes, removing his suit and placing it in a nearby dumpster, not bothering to fix his tie as he cradled Adrian in his arms. She was losing quite a bit of blood and she was beginning to look pale. He ran from the alleyway, making his way to the intersection of Elm and Jackson Street and dialed 911.
"Hello? 911? Yes, I'm here at the intersection of Elm and Jackson and my friend Adrian has been shot, she's losing a lot of blood! I'm putting pressure on the wound but she needs to get to a hospital quick! No, no I'm fine, just get down her now!" He yelled, hanging up the phone to cradle Adrian's head in the crook of his arm.
He looked into her pale face and ran a hand through her hair, brushing it around her ear. She really was beautiful; she would look almost peaceful were it not for the gaping wound in her chest. She seemed to be having difficulty breathing, it was a good thing she was unconscious otherwise the increased amount of adrenaline in her system would make her breathing even more ragged and labored, she was in enough pain already…
After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, had passed an ambulance arrived, its lights brilliant in the darkness, casting dark shadows all around them in a colorful display.
Two paramedics quickly rushed over to them and took Adrian's pulse. It was weak…
"What happened to her?" The first paramedic asked, his eyes shining brightly in the dancing light.
"Joker." Bruce said shortly.
The paramedic nodded solemnly as if this answered everything.
"Come on! Help me get her on the stretcher! She has a deflated lung and possible internal bleeding!" The man called to the other paramedic who was now prepping the stretcher.
"I know! We have another call coming from Wayne manor as well! A man was found outside laughing hysterically, his face is burned really badly." Bruce's eyes widened.
"Crane…" Bruce said worriedly.
"Excuse me? Do you know anything about this Mr. Wayne?"
"He's her… boyfriend." He said in shock. "He was trying to hold Joker off while I got Adrian to a hospital."
"GREAT!" the second paramedic practically screamed. "Just GREAT!" he said grabbing his radio.
"Hello?! Yeah, we're going to need back up. There's been a shooting at Wayne manor! Joker is thought to be involved and a man was just found who is laughing hysterically with half his face burned off!"
He slammed the radio back into place and helped the other paramedic load Adrian onto the stretcher, dressing her wounds quickly when she was secure.
"Ok now Mr. Wayne we're going to need… Mr. Wayne?"
Bruce took off down the alleyway he had hidden his suit in and quickly changed back into it and headed back to Wayne manor, running from rooftop to rooftop as quickly as his legs would carry him.
When he reached the mansion he swung down and quickly scanned the area for any sign of Joker, Curiosity, Zai, or Alfred. His eyes immediately fell to Alfred who stood with his back to him facing the moonlit sky.
Bruce put a hand on his shoulder and Alfred glanced at him before turning to look back at the skyline.
"Joker got away." He said numbly as if he were in disbelief or lost in thought. "Penguin is out cold in the dining room. I gave him the antidote you gave me and he's breathing fine now. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the man I found out here… someone set him on fire and when I found him he was laughing hysterically." Alfred said solemnly, staring straight ahead at the dimly lit streets, the first rays of dawn peeking just over the horizon, bright stars still hanging in the dark velvet sky.
"People are dying Bruce." Alfred said, turning to face Bruce, staring into his blue eyes. "And I couldn't help but imagine you in his place… That psychotic clown has something worse in store for you however. He wants to destroy Gotham, send it to its knees and have it tear itself apart in front of you. He thinks he's the god in this city that he has the final say over who lives and who dies here and he wants to prove that to you. He wants to show you just how powerless this city is against him and how helpless you are to stop him. He thinks he's won. I say we prove him wrong. We can still win this. We can still save Gotham from this mad man Bruce… we have to…"
Bruce nodded and the two headed for the Batcave. Joker had smashed several cases of things, destroyed equipment, and scattered everything around the cave in disarray.  Lucky for Bruce the computer seemed relatively unscathed. Joker had taken several things as well. Nearly the entire archive of Joker's weaponry and chemicals had been cleared out of destroyed.
Alfred ran a gloved hand along the cases on the wall, the smashed remains of the Joker venom and antidote sticking to his glove. One vile lay all the way at the back and Alfred held it carefully in his hands.
Bruce took it from him and headed back to his computer, placing a small sample of the antidote on a slide and sending it through the molecular scanner. When the scanner finished reading the ingredients, Bruce printed them out and red them carefully. He then pressed a few more keys and a new screen came up. There were only two places in Gotham that those chemicals had ever been used… Wayne Industries and Ace Chemical Factory…