Chen Mo closed his eyes for a moment.
His teacher was still there.
Tears ran from the corners of Helen Morris's eyes, washing a thin trail through her face paint.
She saw him too. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. The corners of her mouth turned upward, but her eyes pleaded for help.
Or perhaps all of this was an illusion conjured by Chen Mo, who had already gone mad.
After all, how could a corpse express emotion?
Joker continued:
"I invited you to watch a show. I had them perform their lives for you. How entertaining, how delightful!"
He pointed at the corpses as though introducing the VIP section.
"They laughed."
Then he pointed at the captives.
"They laughed too."
Finally, he pointed at the platform.
"Why aren't you laughing?!"
Chen Mo slowly stood up.
Batman didn't stop him this time.
Because in that same second, Batman had already thrown his first Batarang.
The black blade sliced through the night and drove straight into the teddy bear's blinking red eye. Sparks burst out. The timer inside the bear's belly instantly shorted out, releasing a wisp of bluish smoke.
Joker blinked.
"Oops."
Chen Mo's web shot out right behind it, smacking onto the carousel's central pole. He swung down from the platform, his red-and-blue figure sweeping past the strings of lights above the plaza.
He twisted in midair, shooting another web at the cotton candy stall's frame and yanking three captives, chairs and all, out of danger.
"Sorry to interrupt the show!"
Chen Mo finally roared, his voice carrying anger he couldn't suppress. "But your program's ratings are so low I want to report it to the Universal Broadcasting Authority!"
Joker looked up, a genuinely happy smile spreading across his face.
"Oh! My little bug finally knows how to make