Recently, the greatest lesson Bruce had learned was that there were only bad news and worse news in this world, and all misfortunes always came together.
Batman still chose to find Joker first. Obviously, that madman's big surprises usually had plenty of surprise and no pleasure, and they were always shocking.
Sure enough, when Batman arrived, he found that Joker had set fire to the commercial street in central Gotham. The crowd was screaming and fleeing in all directions. More than a dozen cars doused in gasoline had been piled together, and debris from the explosion had shattered nearly every storefront window. Thick smoke billowed everywhere.
Standing on a rooftop, Batman narrowed his eyes as he searched for his target. Then another plume of black smoke rose in the distance. Batman turned and saw that it seemed to be the Slums in the East End.
Just then, the fire engines' sirens sounded, and the firefighters arrived. They carried hoses to fight the blaze, cleared away the wreckage of the explosives, and searched the gaps in the burned buildings for trapped people.
Gotham's Fire Department was not very efficient, but this was the busiest commercial street in the city center. Most of the shops here belonged to the Twelve Families, so they still had to come put out the fire.
In Batman's assessment, the central commercial street was still a relatively open area, and the fire had started before the explosions. When the smoke first appeared, most people had already escaped, so the rescue effort would not be too difficult.
But the Slums were different. The buildings there were densely packed, with clutter everywhere. Once a fire started, the casualties could be severe. So after seeing the firefighters arrive at the commercial street, Batman headed for the East End.
The aftereffects