With a static flicker, Jerome Valeska had himself telecasted on all channels at the same time. He grinned wide, "Well well well... hello there to you Gotham City! It's your favorite buddy o' pal, Jerome Valeska, here to save you from your mundane lives."
Getting into the station was marvelously easy - with hardly a person in sight to stop both Meryl and him from entering, and everything set up just perfectly for his specific usage. Not that he'd have a lot of trouble otherwise, but making it this easy did sorta take the fun out of things.
There'd been a card left for him beside the microphone, clearly a script to follow. Jerome picked up the card and read off it for a while, "I have hijacked every channel getting broadcasted in Gotham to bring you this very important announcement: Wherever you are right now, be it at home, in the office or in transit, you will soon bear witness to a great reckoning. Justice will soon befall the city like..." Jerome stopped reading. "Boring!" he declared and tossed the card aside. "Folks out there, you know what's really going on? Someone's trying to play us all like puppets, yours truly included. But who likes to be a puppet? Do you?"
The muffled sound of sirens began sounding from outside the building. The cavalry had arrived, but they wouldn't be getting in. Not too soon at least. Meryl had barricaded the exit with any and every piece of furniture that she could find. Every other door leading up to where he was at was locked tight too.
"The real question here is who is the puppeteer?" Jerome continued. "Who's put me in this station to keep you all occupied while you get sprayed by insanity gas?" He looked directly into the camera, and spoke quite purposefully. "Yes you've heard me, you'll all be sprayed by insanity gas in just moments. Trust me, I've seen its effects, it's not nice at all."
The sound of a loud-hailer erupted from outside the station. It called for his name, asked him to come out. Warned him not try anything foolish.
"If I were you, I'd start running." He paused, scratching his chin in thought. "Now you'd probably ask why Jerome, why are you offering a warning when you could easily see this through and claim the handiwork as your own. I'll tell you why... because I don't want to be a puppet. If I destroy Gotham, it'll be under my terms, nobody else's."
An explosion erupted at the outer doors, Jerome knew the cops were getting close.
"The people responsible for all this though..." he laughed as he spoke. "You thought the joke was on all of us, but guess what?" Pulling the Joker card out of his sleeve and showing it to the camera, Jerome grinned out the side of the card. "No good magician ever forgets the card up his sleeve."
Just then, a great rumble rolled and began shaking every wall, every unsecured furniture. Powdered plaster rained down from the ceiling.
"Uh oh..." he mumbled, looking up at the ceiling. Meryl peered at him from behind the camera she was using to film him. But as the rumbling got worse, entire slabs loosened from the ceiling, and began crashing down on the ground. One of those pieces fell on Meryl.
Jerome hurried below the desk he was seated at as more rubble fell all around him. He wondered then if the quake was part of Bobby's plan.
All over Gotham, every mall broadcasting Jerome's telecast, and every home with a television on had its viewers plastered to the screens. They'd initially hesitated when he spoke of the insanity gas. Who knew when Jerome Valeska would ever be serious about his threats? But one by one, the panic began to set in, and people ran out into the streets, tossing the bare minimum into their vehicles and rearing up their engines.
In a short time, Jerome Valeska managed to flood Gotham's streets with both vehicle and pedestrian. Fingers were pointed at the gold and red blimp in the sky, the greatest suspect for a gas attack that was threatened by Jerome himself. Screams rang out as people fled away from the blimp.
But screams were not enough to cover the great rumble that rang throughout Gotham. Buildings quivered at their core. As unprepared for such a shaking as Gotham was, the glass windows were first to go; shattering in place, razor sharp shards raining down on the public. The pieces hit random pedestrians, some causing anywhere from minor to major injuries. Cracks started to creep their way through the concrete. Buildings swayed from side to side, and escaping cars smashed into each other as potholes began to appear at various parts of the roads. Wires tore. Ceilings came down.
And still the screaming went on - peppered with cries of anguish. Gotham was in a mess, maybe more than it'd ever been before.
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