Chapter 1: Prank

George Gunham looked up from the bar disk when the bell rang from the door. The shadow of a female passed him, and by the look of the short figure, the dark wavy hair he knew exactly who the new costumar was. She was one of his most trusted costummers since two years back and had come to his shop/bar almost everyday for a week.

"Hello, Bobby" he said. "The usual?"

Bobby turned her face to Gunham and gave him a smile. Her eyes were green, her hair dark but had a touch of cocolate coulour and her skin was pale like snow itself. Yes, Bobby was a beauty even though she wernt like the most of the people around Gotham.

"Oh, no, Mr Gunham" she said. "I'll just take the newspaper for today.", her well known english accent echoed in the almost empty shop.

She continued down the hawl and gripped the daily newspaper that stood on the shelf. Gunham nodded and concentrated now on the two gentlmen that always seemed to be at the Gunham bar/shop. The first one was an old black man named Al. To Bobby he would always be Good'Ol Al, who mostly spent his time at Gunham's. Next to Al was Jeff. If Al was there Jeff would most certainly be there too, and there wernt many times were Bobby met one of them when the other was'nt there to.

"Oh look" Bobby said as she walked back with the newspaper in her hand, as she came to the disc she threw it forth and the front page revealed a blurry picture of what seemed to look like a man. "It's him again."

Gunham looked at the newspaper. "They havn't cought him yet, hugh? That Joker dude, somebody oughta put him behind bars and show him a thing or too."

Bobby smiled at the old man. "Oh but Mr Gunham you know that Batman is out there too. He'll catch him in one way or another."

The old man shook his head as he was holding a cup and drying it with a dirty rag of fabric. "I tell ya, dear, men with masks are not to be depended on. If they can't show their real faces thei've got something to hide."

"Well, of course they're hiding something. They dont want to show their faces becouse then everybody would recognize them without the masks. Them havning masks makes pretty much sense to me"

Gunham shook his head again and murmured something that sounded like "Young people today".

He looked at Bobby again. "You know, that masks thing goes for that Bat too. One day people will want to know who is protecting them. Maybe they'll even want him to stop, becouse ever since he came here there has been nothing but trouble."

The oldmen that sat by the bardisk nodded agreeing with their friend, Bobby smiled at them and Gunham gave her the change. "Have a good day Mr Gunham, see you tomorrow."

She stepped out of the door, and waved goodbye and got a goodbye back from the old man.

It was getting colder in Gotham, it was a sign that atoumn was closing in. Gotham was somehow much greyer and colder at atoumn, even colder than it was in winter. To Bobby this was very strange.

Bobby May Wellington had come to USA six years ago with her family, but now at the age of 21 she had gotten her own apartment in one of the Waine buildings. They were expencive becouse Wayne enterprise gives nothing but good things.

She opened the door wih her key and entered her apartment. It was the only place where she could get real peace. It was her true sanctuary. Ever since she had mooved in two years ago she had never let anyone in, not even one of her best friends. She had felt that it was better that way, only that way she could feel safer.

Bobby put down her bag and keys on the closest table and proceeded to the kitchen, opening the fridge door, opened a milk bottle and drank from it. Out of now where the phone rang causing Bobby to drop the bottle with milk. The white liquid spilt over the floor and some stain came on Bobbys black jeans. "Oh, flippin flip" she said and hurried to get some paper. She threw it on the pile of milk and hurried as fast as she could to the phone.

She bent over and gripped the phone pushing the green button. "Hello, Bobby here."

"Bobby, it's Jane."

She recognized the voice of her very goodfriend Jane. "Jane, this isn't the best time for me right now" she said and glansed into the kitchen at the floor.

"Oh, please Bobby" Jane pleaded.

Her voice was a bit concerned and this worried Bobby a little bit.

"Jane whats the problem."

"Can you come over tonight so I can explane. It's really urgeant."

Bobby closed her eyes. She didn't really feel like it. She had become a little tired, but her friend did seem a little shooken. She wondered what had happend.

"What has happened, Jane? Tell me.", she tried to sound as soft as possible.

"Bobbs, it's really hard to explaine. It's easier when it's face to face. Please will you come, I relly need you."

Bobby opened her eyes now and smiled. "Alright, I'll come."

Her friend gave out a big sigh of relief followd with a lot of comments of how a good friend Bobby was and how gratefull she was too her.

Bobby smiled even more. "I need to go now. I'll see you tonight, take care till then, you hear? Ok, bye."

Then there was finally silence and Bobby put the phone back into it's craddle with a sigh. She then leaned on the wall and held her hand to her chest staring into nothing.

Why did I have to choose such a bad time to leave, Bobby thought has she hurried down the stairs of the apartment. She would rather have taken the elivator at such a time, it was night after all, but she had to hurry to her friend. It had sounded real urgent on the pone and the worry had grown within Bobby every hour that had passed.

The port guard opened the door as she left the lobby, she smiled a thanks to him and proceeded down to the road.

A cab was what she needed, that was faster than walking. Jane lived very far from her after all. She gave a weak attemp of calling a cab to herself and held up her fragile arm. "A cab, please." She said and felt a little stupid.

"Ma'am? Said the portguard. Need a cab?"

She turned around and nodded to the guard, she gave him a weak smile and laughed nervously. She felt a little stupid now.

The portguard stood beside her and blew her out with one of the strongest whistles she had heard all her life. Only a couple of seconds after a cab stopped right infront of them. The portguard opened the yellow cab door for her. "Ma'am?"

Bobby nodded to the guard and stepped inside to the car. "Thank you."

The stops in the trafic made Bobby nervous. Even though it was night there were still rush hours, and when there were rush hours the traffic would mostly be completely stopped.

She banged her head a little discret on the seat and sighed nervoussly. There had already been two stops, and they had caused her to loose several minutes, minutes she felt like she didn't afford to loose.

The man in the front seat kept looking into the mirror, sometimes she meat his eyes. It gave her the creeps. She knew better than to speak to him. She knew she was safe in the cab, but it would take longer to get to her friend. To walk was more dangerous, but obviously she would arrive to her friend faster rather than sitting in this taxi. A choice had to be made. No, she couldnt wait anymore.

"Look, I'll just stop here."

"That'll be $11."

She gave him the change and stepped out of the car and ran out of the traffic into the streets trying to hurry to her friend. She didn't know why she felt like she really had to get to her friend fast. It was perhaps only about her boyfriend or something like that. But in her heart she knew that it was something more than that, something that was more breathtaking and surprising.

Bobby was too cought up in her feelings that she didn't notice the dark shadow that followed her into the street, instead she pulled up her phone and diled the number as fast as she could. "Hello, Jane."

She hurried down the stret as fast as she could. "Yes, I know. I was stuck in a cab. Im sorry..Well, jane I.."

Suddenly a figure apeared inront of her and punshed her right in the stomach. Bobby screamed and dropped the phone on the ground and fell to the ground as well. She hit the ground hard, and she had lost her breath when that guy had hit her. It was now hard to gain her full strenght again.

Four men surrounded her. One of them had a hudd. He was wearing some kind of vest with no arms. In his hand he hald a baseball bat.

"Hello, there missy. Time for playing?"

She grimased from the pain and said betwen her teeth. "Leave me alone."

"Leave her alone?" another voice said.

This was a darker voice. She looked up at the one who had just spoken. He stepped forward, and before she knew it he was crushing her fingers with his boot.

"Aah" she screamed and tried to take his foot away. "Stop it!"

They only answered her with their laughter. After a few seconds he stepped of her hand. Someone gripped her neck and forced her to stand up and her bag was torn from her grasp. "Missy's in a hurry ei?"

"Yeah, and you bloody hell should watch out. Someones coming to meat me."

The guy with the hudd circled her. He seemd to be the leader of the gang. What could the age of this gang be? They couldnt be older than her. They did look like they were about 20.

"Oh, we have a brittish girl here."

He reached forward and put a finger to her cheek. "As for the meating party", he said.

He bent forward to her and whispered. "Bullshit."

She would have punshed him in the face if she could have, but the one behind her was holding her in a locked gripp. She couldnt use her arms at all so she was satisfied with giving him a deathglare.

"Such beauty shouldnt be out here waisting her time. He he, whaddya say boys? Do we want to have some fun with her?"

She felt utterly disgusted. The nerves of people these days. "Oh, go and f.."

He slapped her. Hard.

"Don't go there. I swear I'll hurt you so bad you wont be able to sit, or walk for the rest of your life if you show any disrespect to me."

That's when all five of them heard the echo of a sixth laugh. Only this laugh was different. It sounded insane, like a mad man.

The guy with the hudd looked around. "Whos there? Show yourself!"

"Are ya hav-ing fun hmm?"

Bobby could feel that the guy holding her was getting a bit distracted due to the grip on her arms starting to loosen. But it was still to hard for her to break free from.

"You're good. No serious-ah! So brilliant!"

The voice was now closer but they could still not see who the owner of the voice was. The voice was dark, but still light, and it sounded like the person was mumbling. It just didnt sound normal. Not even like the guys who had attacked Bobby.

"Who would ever come to think-ah of gripping a girl like that. So brilliant! So brilliant!" The voice was defenetly of a male, and now He was laughing to himself again.

They could now hear the sound of fotsteps right infront of them. And after a while they saw a shadow appear from within the darkness of the street. But they still couldnt see the face of the purpatratour.

It looked like the person was a bit crouched as he walked towards them.

The guy with the hudd gripped Bobby and pulled her close to him holding his arm around her neck. He pulled forth a gun and pointed it to her head.

"Come any closer and she's dead!"

Bobbys eyes had widned. She had no idea that the guy had carried a gun all this time. He could kill her! She was staring straight at the person that was closing in on them. She could hear a clicking noise, as if there was a dog licking. Or was it him who was making the sounds?

"Oh, go ahead! She's better dead to me than aliv...ah" he said emphasizing the last tone.

Bobby's forehead frowned. Who was this person? Was he good or bad? Or better yet, why was he there? Did he have any intentions of helping her at all?

"Go on! I bet you cant do just don't have the guts...boy."

Bobby felt how the fear was bubbling up inside her. She was surprised that she hadn't felt scared a bit earlier on. Maybe she had been to concentrated on the pain in the stomach before and now that it has dissapeared, her senses can feel other things.

"Who is he..?" Bobby whispered.

The guy hit her by the head. "Shut up! And yeah...who are you, man?"

"Oh, are you that slow. So dissapointing."

The man stepped into the light, and Bobby's eyes widned even more. She couldnt believe her eyes. The man was dressed in a purple costume with matching pants. He had a green tie, a horrible match with colours. But the worst detail was his face. Oh, that horrible face of his. His hair was tainted with some kind of green colour, and it looked so dirty, but it obviously didn't seem to bother him. His face was covered with somekind of white makeup, his eyes were hidd with black colour, too much and it looked like it had been stuck on his face for a long time, like he had slept with it. The worst thing on his face was the big smile. He had some kind of red make-up on his lips, and he had drawn big stripes up his cheeks making it look like he had a big smile on his face. This face could only belong to one person.

"..the joker..." Bobby whispered under her breath.

"The Joker?" the guy with the hudd asked. "Who the hell is that?"

A sudden dissapointment was forced into The Jokers face.

"Don't you read the newspapers or watch the tv boy?"

He bent forward and pointed at his face and then put his hands around it like a frame. "Are you sure...you don't recognize thiisssah?"

The guy with the hudd kept silent and Bobby could hear him laugh a little. "You've gotta be kidding with me.."

Once again the Joker looked disappointed. "No..way.." he said. "This isn't real.."

The Joker was speaking to himself, but he was speaking out with a loud voice so that everyone could hear what he was saying. He walked a little forward and held his hand on his chin like he was thinking and mumbled something to himself. Finaly he turned to them again and said: "Oh what the hell."

Out of no where The Joker had taken out a gun and pointed the gun at the guy holding Bobby and shot him. The bullet gave out a loud roar followd by Bobbys scream. She fell to the ground as she felt the gripp of the man in the hudd losening.

"Holy shit!" said one of the other compagnions to the guy in the hudd, the one that now laid on the ground with a whole in his head.

The rest of the gang immediately turned around and ran away as fast as they could with no intentions of saving the corps of their friend.

Bobby had closed her eyes hard, somehow she couldnt move her body and she wished she hadn't been such a cowered. But she just couldnt move. She could hear the rest of the group running away, and small slow steps coming closer to her.

If I play dead maybe he will loose intrest and leave me she thought despretly and held her breath.

The steps came closer, closer and closer. Then suddenly the steps stopped, right beside her. Bobbys heart rate quickened.

Please, she thought. Please, just leave me alone.

She heard fumling with fabric and she felt the breath on her exposed throat. He wasnt going to leave her.

"Good morning sunshine!"

The Joker gripped her head and forced her to open her eyes.

"Lemme go!" Bobby screamed and gave The Joker a punch in the stomach, but since she wasn't that strong the hit didnt bite him at all.

Instead of groaning of pain, The Joker laughed and gripped her wrists. "My, my sucha spirit in this one." He pointed the gun to her head. She had forgotten he had a gun, how could she be so stupid.

Bobby swore to herself in her mind.

The Joker stood upright and cracked his head to the side before he focused his attention on her again, still the gun pointing at her. "Whats your name missy?"

"Bobby.."

"Say what?"

"It's Bobby, my name is Bobby."

He gave her that look most people gave her when she said her name. Only his look was more strange. He bent over and laughed. "Bobby...very different. You know I was very different when I was young too. I was a boy filled with new ideas hmm.."

He pointed the gun away from her now, and he started to circle her. "Whats a young girl like you doing out here at a time such as this, Jackie? Can I call you Jackie because Bobby somehow confuse-ss me since it is a boys name and all?"

Bobby looked down at the ground, not caring about what the scary psycopath just had said to her.

"They will come looking for me. Im warning you. You wont get away with killing me. "

He was still pointing the gun in her face as he cricled around her. "Who said anything about killing you, sweet-cheeks. All that talk before? Oh, I was just saying that to make this guys.."

He kicked the guy that layd on the ground. "... world go all wavy. The words meant nothing. But that obviosly means nothing to a girl like you."

He wouldnt even respect a human being even though they were dead. It was disgusting. The man had obviosly been horrible and evil to some point. But that didnt mean he deserved to be kicked while he was dead.

She didnt answere. She looked down on the ground, her eyes darkened. She didnt want to look at him, and she really didnt want him to look at her.

This didnt go unnoticed from him, and he took pleasure in seeing her bothered by his prescence.

He gripped her by the throat and held the gun right to her head. He forced her to look up into his eyes. Her beautiful green eyes shon in the moonlight. "It,s funny that everytime i try to talk to someone, see....they dont look at me."

She tried to look away, she didnt want to see his horrible face. It disgusted her.

He jolted her head to the side, and roared into her ear. "Look at me!"

"Ahh!"

She almost heard the crack in the neck and a pain started to grow across her jawline to the side of her throat.

"You know..."he licked his lips and looked up at the sky. "It's a beautifl night-ahh. It would be a shame to spill more blood, so im actully going to give you a chance. For now. But I wont tolerate anymore riots from you, swet-cheeks."

She hated his voice, she hated how he was calling her those names. She just wanted him to leave her alone. But how could he. Here she was standing with the biggest crock in Gotham city and she was mentaly telling him to leve her alone as if he was going to oblige her command and let her go.

A sobb seeked its way up her throat. A muffled sound came from her mouth, and she could feel the hot tears spreading out of her eyes.

"Oh, no.." he said with a sigh. "I hate it when they cry. It's going to be alright. The crook came, the thief died, the victim came with the crook and they lived happely ever after."

She took in a breath and gathered some courage. "Happely ever after my as." Then she took set and lonched her knee as hard as she could right up his groin.

She heard his muffled groan and then she felt how he let go, to bend over. "Right where it hurts."

Bobby roared and kicked him on the face making him fall to the ground before she ran around the corner as fast as she could to get away from this dangerous man. To get away from the Joker.

The Joker sighed and stood up when he had recovered. There was no point in running after her, he would find her in one way or another.

He cracked his neck and brushed of the dirt from his purple suit, and then he was going to walk home before he saw something on the ground. He bent down and picked up what seemed to look like the phone Bobby had dropped. He pointed the screen upwards and saw that there was a conversation still going on. He put it to his ear.

"Yes..."

"Bobby are you ok! I heard something! If you don't come over Im going to have to.."

Beep!

No point in listening to such a cow.

He looked trough the phonebook and smiled. The number was diled fastly and then pressed the green button.

"Wellingtons recidense." A womens voice answered.

"Hello, Mrs Wellington. My name is Jack Napier. I have found a phone which I believe belongs to youre daughter Bobby."

"Oh, I see."

"I find it quite hard to return since I don't know where to find her and clearly I cant call her since her phone is in my posses."

The women in the phone laughed. "Thats very nice of you. I take it you want the adress to her, well here it is..."

The Joker smiled and closed the phone as he had recieved the adress.

"Heigh- ho..Heigh- ho...to Jackies home i go...lalala..."

Chapter 2: Joke

Prank, Joke, Kidding,Laugh, Giggle, Jack, King, Queen, Ace, Joker, The trumpthcard,