Chapter 1- The Bank Meeting
BANG!
Terrified screams.
Three men ran into the bank, wielding guns. The people hid under their desks and behind counters.
"Nobody fucking move!" Yelled one of the men, as the shorter man grabbed wads of cash from behind the counters.
A man walked in, a shotgun casually in one hand, whistling "Singing in the Rain" loudly and crudely.
The masked gunmen acknowledged him.
"Now!" He said, pushing his green dyed hair back with one gloved hand. "Who's gonna tell me the code to the vault? Hmm?"
Silence, apart from a woman sobbing in terror behind her desk.
"Will it be you?" He suddenly pointed his shotgun at a man. The man trembled. "No..."
The Joker walked on through the desks.
"How 'bout you?" He pressed the end of the gun against a woman's neck, lifting her chin up so she looked at him. "You know it?"
"No..." The woman whispered, her voice cracking.
"What was that?" The Joker bent down, flicking his tongue across his scars.
The woman repeated her reply, louder.
"Didn't think so..." He giggled and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot echoed around the high-ceilinged bank, followed by the frightened gasps and muffled screams of people.
The Joker kept walking, holding the shotgun behind his shoulders with both hands.
"Does nobody know the code to the vault in here?!" He roared.
"I do." A voice said.
The Joker spun around, looking for the source of the voice.
"Up here, clown." The voice said coolly.
His eyes shot up to the giant stained glass window at the front of the bank. On the huge windowsill stood a figure in black.
A grappling hook was fired and the figure dropped down onto the marble floor.
The Joker stood and watched the person walk forward.
Once they came to a stop in front of him, they pulled off their hat (an eye mask still remaining) and shook out a mane of long wavy hair, the colour of dark chocolate.
He raised his eyebrows and looked the woman up and down obviously.
"My, my. Aren't you pretty?"
"That isn't all I am." She said and grabbed onto the shotgun in his hands and hit him in the face with it.
He reeled back in surprise, laughing and wiping a drop of blood from his nose.
"Alright! You got fight in ya too! I like that a lot..."
He gave a short whistle, and the three men came running at the woman.
Quick as a flash, a knife was in her gloved hand. Within seconds, one of the men had his throat slit, one was bleeding out from his stomach, and the other was lying on the ground, the woman's high heeled leather boot resting on his chest.
She looked up at the Joker and flicked her hair.
He looked both impressed and furious.
Police sirens wailed close by.
"I suggest you get out of here before the cops get through my barricade." The woman said, one eyebrow raised nonchalantly.
"What are you gonna do with all that money? Buy yourself a nice new dress, huh?"
"I promised it to some people. And the rest I'll either burn or give away."
The Joker strode over to her and stood very close. "This... isn't... over." He said in a low voice.
"I'm glad it's not." She looked him up and down, raising an eyebrow.
More sirens wailed outside; Casey looked over her shoulder to check the door. When she looked back the Joker had disappeared.
"Alright, punk? Who are you?" Casey muttered as she typed in the Joker's name into her laptop. Well, it wasn't hers. She'd stolen it from the bank, along with the cash and the only one of the Joker's henchmen she'd left alive.
Casey was sitting in an old abandoned hotel on the outskirts of Gotham. It was where she stayed most of the time.
She scrolled through news articles about the Joker. Casey clicked on a video of him walking into a different bank, gun in hand, watching it over and over. She wondered what his face looked like under that makeup; would he be handsome? She shoved that thought away as fast as she could.
Her phone buzzed with a call. She answered in a fake business-like voice, "This is Casey Williams. How may I be of assistance?"
"Casey, get your ass down to the Shut Down nightclub Friday night and put out the light. If you don't, he's coming for you." A gruff voice at the other end.
"Got it." She sniggered, throwing the phone across the room.
Friday night came; Casey got dressed up in her favourite colour, red. She was relieved she didn't have to wear her mask this time. She jumped on her motorbike and drove to the club.
Bass beats of music pounded her eardrums from the minute she reached the door. There was a long queue of people. She grinned as she looked up the line of faces, each one more drunk than the last. In a hour or two, they'd all be dead.
Casey walked past them all, to the front of the queue. The bouncer looked at her, recognised her and let her in, ignoring the drunken complaints of the rest of the people.
She walked through the people to reach the bar. She'd been sitting there for ten minutes when a man sat on the high stool beside her.
He ordered a drink quietly then sat with it, turned around the face the rest of the club, as Casey was.
"So nice to see you again. You look gorgeous tonight." He said quietly.
She looked over and immediately recognised the purple coat.
"Dammit! What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
She scowled.
He grinned.
Casey downed her drink of Scotch and stormed off, leaving him staring at her back.
She walked up to the VIP section and looked up at the tall man with sunglasses standing guard at the velvet ropes.
"Hey Vinnie. Listen, Tony's expecting me so I should really-"
"No problem, doll." He said, pulling back the curtain for her.
"Thanks." She smiled and winked quickly.
The VIP section was dark and seedy looking, the walls and floor a dark purple colour. Cigarette smoke clouded the air, mixed with the smell of alcohol and sweat.
Casey took on the persona of a seductive woman, who would do anything to please.
Men sat in the corners of booths, a cigarette in one hand and a barely clothed woman in the other.
The sounds of the women's incessant giggling made Casey's jaw tense. She tried to ignore it and walked to the back, where she knew Tony Vincenzo would be.
This man had held old debts over her for too long. He punished her in the most demeaning ways he could, humiliating her in front of men she would've otherwise hoped to have worked with. But those men would never take her seriously if the only thing they saw her as was a piece of ass.
"Hi Tony."
"Ah, Casey. Great to see you, doll. Come on, sit down!"
She sat on the leather beside him and he instantly pulled her onto his lap.
"Now, now Tony, aren't we being professional tonight?" Casey said, a fixed smile on her face as she repressed the urge to strangle him.
"No way, Case. I want you..." He stroked her neck slowly.
Many years ago, Casey would've melted at hearing him say that. When she'd first arrived in Gotham with nothing except for a dwindling sanity, Tony had bought her a drink. That was how it had all started; the late nights, the booze, the endless humiliation...
She'd wanted to kill him for so long; she imagined the light leaving his eyes when he took his final breath, it sent shivers of excitement down her back.
"Let's go to my suite." He said in a tone which indicated that this was not a friendly suggestion, but an order.
"One second, sweetie. I just have to go powder my nose." She got up.
"Alright. I'll be waiting with some champagne and the camera. The boys will enjoy watching your little show."
Casey smiled, "Can't wait."
Her smile disappeared the second she left the VIP section. She looked straight across at the stool the Joker had been sitting on but he had gone.
She tried to push him out of her mind and made her way up to the roof, checking the wires as she went.
Casey pushed open the double doors to the roof and stepped out. The cold air hit her and the wind whipped her hair and dress up around her. She gasped and started laughing hysterically.
"Hello there, beautiful."
A voice made her turn.
The Joker stood there, remote control in hand.
"What the fuck are you doing here? This is my job."
"I simply wanted to assist." His tongue flicked out of his mouth again, faking innocence.
"I don't need your assistance."
"I help make it more fun though." He grinned, juggling the remote carelessly between his hands.
"Trust me, this is gonna be fun enough without you."
"Why?" He said slowly, taking a step closer, tilting his head and pouting. "You got somethin' against some people in this club, hmm?"
She nodded.
"Vincenzo, aahh. Smug little bastard... I understand perrfectly." He held the remote out to her.
She reached for it and at the last second, he pulled it back.
"Wait wait wait!"
She glared and advanced on him.
He backed off, hands up. "It'll be more fun if we do it my way!"
"I will throw you off this fucking roof if you don't give me that remote."
"Will you, though?" He raised an eyebrow, lowering his hands a little.
"Of course I will. I'm a woman of my word." She jumped up and grabbed the hand which held the remote but the Joker pulled out a pair of handcuffs and handcuffed their hands together. He tossed the remote into his other hand and held it out of her reach.
Casey stood speechless for a couple of seconds, looking from the handcuffs to him, and the remote.
"My way."
She was still incapable of speech.
The Joker rolled his eyes. "Come on, woman, let's get out of here!"
He dragged her down the stairs and eventually out of the building, avoiding the VIPs.
They stumbled out onto the street.
"You ready?" He held the remote between them.
Casey found her voice at last, "Always."
"You can do the honours."
"Both."
She placed her thumb on the green button and his placed his on top of hers. Together they pushed. It started slowly, a faint humming sound beginning from inside the building; then it all came at once. The sounds of explosions rent the still air.
The building started to crumble, its supports giving way. People's screams split through the dull explosions and cracks, but with so many people all trying to leave at once, and with all but one exit sealed, they were stuck.
Both Casey and the Joker laughed as the building collapsed in front of them, rubble and shards of glass flying everywhere. Suddenly there was another sharp explosion and Joker cards rained down upon them, flying everywhere through the air. Casey cheered and jumped up and down.
He turned to her suddenly, amidst the carnage and their amusement.
"What's your name?" He asked.
"What?!" She yelled back.
He repeated the question, closer to her ear.
"Casey!" She replied.
"Beautiful!" He exclaimed.
"What's yours? Your real name!?"
Police sirens grew louder and a helicopter flew over their heads, the searchlight focusing down on them. Walkie talkie sounds buzzed down to them.
He hesitated for a second.
"...Call me Jack."