Inside the Amusement Park, Joker yawned in boredom, his sickly green eyes occasionally sweeping over the Ferris wheel behind him, where the hostages were tied. His gaze held nothing but naked, unadulterated malice.
"Little Bat~ Little Bat~~~ Hurry up and come play with me~~~~"
Joker idly struck everything around him with a crowbar, humming a strange, tuneless little song.
The tip of the crowbar scraped across metal objects, sending piercing sounds echoing through the deserted Amusement Park like a death curse. The Ferris wheel turned slowly. The hostages bound outside its cabins were deathly pale, but none dared make a sound for fear of drawing that madman's attention. Only tears of terror slid down their cheeks.
Meanwhile, the Batman Joker so desperately longed for had used the night gradually descending over Gotham to blend perfectly into the shadows of a nearby building. Beneath his cowl, his eyes remained fixed on everything before him.
He watched, rehearsed, and waited.
Even the slightest mistake from Batman could kill the hostages and set off devastating explosions across Gotham.
"How much longer~"
Perhaps growing impatient with the wait, Joker irritably dug out a battered clock and squinted at the timer he had set-only six minutes and thirty-odd seconds had passed. There were still more than three minutes left before the ten minutes were up.
He pursed his lips, the cheap greasepaint on his face twisting with the movement into an expression of petulant disgust. Ten minutes? Too long.
But so what?
Joker never followed any rules, including his own.
He pinched the clock's minute hand between his fingers and forcibly bent it back two small marks. The cheap metal clock face creaked under the strain as the minute hand was twisted into its new position. Instantly, the countdown showed only one minute remaining.
"Ticktock,