A young man is walking to his car which lies in a dark parking garage. It's late and all he really wants to do is get home. The reason being, Gotham wasn't exactly the place you wanted to be out alone in the dark. Sure there was the batman, but he can't always be relied on. Sometimes he comes, while other times…well lets just say the victim can't really voice their disgust. Chills runs up he's spine as he passes through a unusual dark part of the parking structure. Suddenly, with out warning, he is knocked to the ground. A gang of vicious looking people surround him, carrying an assortment of weaponry. From base ball bats to shot guns, the young man knew he was in trouble. Then they start beating him, yelling curse words and demanding his money. I join the frenzy, my short black hair with blue ends flying about almost causing my blue hat to fly off.
"GIVE US YOU DAMN MONEY!" grunts Kevin, the leader of our gang, the devastators. A feeling of fear catches me, causing me slow down and step back. Kevin notices, walking over to me while the others continue to beat on the poor guy. "What's up Dani? You normally love beating the crap outta people. What's wrong?" he asks, putting a hand around my shoulder, pulling me close.
I sigh, "Besides your arm around me?" I said, pushing Kevin's arm off of me, "This new setting is giving me paranoid."
He frowns, "Dani. The Police were getting too close, you know that. We couldn't stay in that city any longer or we'd all end up doing time, especially you. Besides, you're use to us moving around. Dani you're not thinking of leaving the club, are you?" he asks seriously. I stare at him, then look away. "WE took YOU in when you had no where you go. We even gave you a name!" he snarls.
I smile, "yeah, a name that you got from a song" I giggle, "Kevin, I'm not thinking of leaving, gosh! Don't be so serious?"
He smiles, "well that's good to hear 'cause between you and me..." he said, whispering in my ear, "your a lot better than the rest of those meat heads"
I smile, "thanks Kev, that means a lot to me." I said.
Suddenly, a couple of the guys are thrown into a wall. Kevin and I both snap our head in that direction. Standing a couple feet away, beating up our gang, was the batman. Kevin runs over, taking out his switch blade as he does, and tackles the batman. The two of them wrestle on the ground and the blade ends up in Kevin's heart. A couple more of the guys join in, but batman tosses them over the edge and down the 2 story to the ground. Danny, a boy in the gang my age crawls over to me. I help him up, as I say, "Oh, I KNEW tonight was NOT a good night!!"
We look back at batman as he stands up and looks at us. A shiver went down my spine. Batman then grabs something from his belt and throws it at me. I could easily dodge, seeing is I can dodge anything. But Danny jumps in front of me, taking the hit. He lets out a scream of pain and falls to the ground dead. I freeze, looking down slowly at Danny who is dead at my feet. His screams echo throughout my head. Batman's expression flashs from a tough guy facial expression to a look of shock and surprise. He turns away, but I run up to him. I pound my fists against him, tears running down my face. But this does little 'cause he grabs my wrists forcefully.
"What gives you the right to kill people? Aren't you suppose to be good?" I cry, as I try to get away.
"I am good!" he growls.
"Yeah right, keep telling your self that." I snarl, "I've heard a lot about you, Batman. And how you just have one rule. Well I guess you broke that rule."
"I didn't come here with intentions of killing anyone, that's just how it played out." he gruff.
"You do realize that nothing you say will erase the fact that you killed four people. No matter how hard you try to wash the blood off you hands, it'll still be there. Sooner or later, you'll start breaking your one rule more often and then you'll be just like the people you killed." I said, looking straight in to his eyes.
"I didn't kill them on purpose, it was in self defense." Batman mumbles.
"You threw two of them over the edge! They didn't even have the chance to throw a punch!" I shierk.
"You didn't see the guns they were holding. And it's only a two story drop to the ground they'll be OK except for their broken limps." Batman said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Oh yeah? Well what about Kevin and Danny, huh? How do you explain their death?" I spit.
"Like I said before, my intentions were never to kill anyone. That's just how it happened and I deeply regret that it happened." he griff.
My gaze falls to Kevin's lifeless body on the ground and more tears fall from my eyes.
I feel Batman's eyes burn through me, "What are you doing with such vicious criminals anyway?" he gruff, putting cuffs on me.
My eyes wonder through the bodies of the hurt and two dead members of the club. "They're the closest thing I have to a family…since my real one abandoned me. They sheltered me, taught me everything I know and even gave me my name. Dani California, what a stupid name from a stupid song." I mumble as the police arrive. I kept repeating the last sentence over and over again.
That was 4 years ago. The years after that were spent in Arkham Asylum until my escape of course. In my time at Arkham, I made some friends. Like Smiley the dentist and hot head. Hot head helped me find a person the same height as me and smiley hooked them up with the same teeth as me. Then, Digs showed me some of the tunnels he's made. I made a few 'additions to the tunnel'. Back to the 'new me' person. Hot head gladly set up the 'new me' in my cell and, doing what she does best, set 'new me' on fire. While this was going on, I crept through the Digs tunnels and made my escape. In the end, the body was too burnt to compare the finger prints to me. So, doing exactly what I thought they would do, they checked the teeth X-rays. Oh and what did that yield? My same exact teeth X-rays. They presumed me dead, but really I was alive, well and free.
Walking into a bar, I notice some familiar faces sitting at a table in the corner. I walk up and slam my hands onto the table in front of them. "Why if it isn't the chickens of the devastators, how have things been?" I said dryly. Sitting at the table were the only two members of the devastators to wuss out just before we entered Gotham's city limits, Al and Cal.
They look at me, "Dani, oh hi! Ah, Hahaha." Al sighs, knowing he can't deter my anger, "look, we're sorry about chickening out" said Al, the one on the right.
"Save it Al, I'm not here for vengeance against you guys..." I said, glancing at both of them.
Cal sighs of relief, "so what are you here for then?" he asks.
"I want to start the devastators back up, cal! come on, it'll be like old times!" I said, smiling.
Cal rubs the back of his head, "eh, look, Dani, we'd love to. It's just, being a gang in this economy ain't so hot anymore. And 'cause we really don't want to get our asses kicked and sent to jail" said cal.
I glare at him, "And what makes you think we'll get our asses kicked and jailed?!?!" I hiss.
Al sits forward, "The batman. He's fucking scary!" said Al.
I grab Al by the collar , bringing him across the table and close to my face. Everyone in the bar quiets down, staring at us. "I'LL SHOW YOU SCARY!! AL, HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE I KILLED?!!!? HUH!!" I shout.
He gulps, "e-eight....e-eight people" he squeaks.
"THAT'S RIGHT! EIGHT PEOPLE! SO IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO BE AFRIAD OF, IT'D BE ME! NOT OF SOME FREAK IN A BAT SUIT!" I shout, shoving him back into his seat. I glare at the people in the bar who stare back at me, "WHAT?" I shout.
Somebody starts clapping slowing. I look that way and see a guy walk from the shadows. From what I can tell from this guy is he isn't normal. He has make-up like a clown, but it's messily done. Described with white face paint, charcoal black circles his eye and a sloppy smile. His hair is a mix of green with dirty blonde and just rests a little above his shoulders. The attire he wears is a purple trench coat, purple pants, brown shoes, a green vest and a dress shirt with some kind of repeating pattern.
I narrow my eyes at him, hissing "what's so funny, clown?" as I cross my arms.
He smiles, ceasing his moderate clapping, "life's a joke, you gotta smile more, kid..." he said, still smiling.
Gripping my hands in to fists, I glare at him, "Hey I ain't no kid!" I growl.
"Quite a temper you have there." he said, laughing.
Cal taps me on the shoulder, "Dani, I wouldn't make him angry. That's the joker, the craziest guy in town!" he hisses in my ear.
Shooting Cal a look, I hiss, "I don't care if he's the fucking batman him self!" I look back at the joker and cross my arms, "What do you want" I growl.
"To see if your worthy to create chaos with me" He said, laughing as two men dressed in clown mask step out of the shadows with AK 47s. The bar crowd freaks out and runs to get out of the cross fire. The joker steps behind them as they aim their guns at me and fire. I dive behind a table, throwing it on it's side. I take out my hand guns, loading them fast. Jumping up, I start shooting at the goons. I hit one right between the eyes but the other one is still firing. I'm out of bullets so I grab my switch blade and jump over the table. Grabbing a salt shaker from the ground, I throw the contents in the eyes of the goon. He's blinded and makes the mistake of dropping his weapon. I easily slice his throat open. When he's down, I pick up his gun and unload the clip into his head. I let the gun drop from my hand as I stare emotionlessly at the dead goon. I became unplugged and forgot about the Joker. That was until he appeared behind me, stole my switch blade and held it against my throat.
"You're good, I'll give you that. But you became unattached and that may wind up with you dead." He whispers in my ear.
When I fail to answer, he looks at me. I'm holding something in my hands. It's a grenade, pin removed. The only thing in the way of it blowing up is my fingers clasping the grenade's clip. I tilt my head back and stare at him, "Saids you." I hiss.
"I stand corrected. You're mad…but I like that." He laughs, handing me back my switch blade. I shrug, tossing the grenade behind me. The explosion doesn't 'cause either of us to flinch.
"So, you were saying something before about me being worthy enough to cause chaos with you?" I said, a crooked smile crossing my face.
"I'd be honored if you'd join me in a little 'experimental chaos'" The Joker said, chuckling.
My smile grows larger, as I say, "Oh this sounds like fun!" With that, we walk through the hole in the wall made by the grenade.