"You want to hear a joke? Fine, let me tell you a joke,- wait change that, I'll tell you the biggest joke of all time. The biggest joke somebody ever told. It's that moment you realize that from the day you were born, you start to die. You start to fade out of existence. That's the fate of man. At least that's what my father always used to tell me, so I started to make memories. Memories never fade, you always keep them in your head. Well Gotham, let's make some memories."
It was rainy that night, but that didn't stop two silhouettes from meeting up in the dark. One was slim, some would describe him as creepy. The other wasn't creepy anymore. This one defied normal words. This wasn't the face you'd see in your nightmares, this was the face you'd see when you closed your eyes and felt someone breathe on you. This was the face you'd see when you finally opened them only to discover a bloody knife lodged in your chest. This was the face of the devil himself.
"Are you sure you want to do this? I've known you were in some creepy stuff, but this excels a lot of what you did in the past." One said to the other. The other one nodded. "Can't you see that's the fun part about it? The whole idea? Let's face it Johnny, you, me, heck, Arkham, we're getting tired of this game. We're always losing, always. Today, my friend, today I suggest we don't anymore, I suggest we fight back. We'll take this city for ourselves." The other one replied gleefully. "And you,-" there was a pause. "Want to cut off your face to take over this city?" The other one shook his head and replied, sounding more irritated then before. "Don't you get it? All revolutions start at a turning point, my dear friend. This one is ours." "I'll warn you though, I wasn't trained for stuff like this, I don't think I should be,-" Jonathan slowly backed off, dropping his knife in the process "Afraid Johnny? That's weak, you out of all people. Fine then, I'll do it myself." The figure grabbed the knife and stuck it in his cheek, maintaining eye contact with Jonathan. The man known as The Joker didn't show a single sign of pain, just a big smile on his face."We'll start at the cheek, then slowly move over to the mouth. The other cheek…" He was mumbling to himself, slowly moving the knife according to his directions. "forehead, and we'll end at this cheek. Now we'll just make some holes for the mouth and eyes aaanndd taadaaa!" The figure grabbed his face and tore it off. "Look at it Johnny, look at it! Isn't it just gorgeous?" Jonathan just ran, was this fear? Was this panic? He didn't know, he just didn't want to know.
Daytime, Jezebel Plaza – Midtown Gotham, Bruce Wayne
"You see anything you like, Dick?" Bruce asked. The street was cheerful and crowded, Christmas was almost upon Gotham and Bruce and Dick decided to shop for some gifts. "Oh, I see a lot! Money isn't an issue, right?" "Don't get cocky." Bruce replied, a smirk on his face. Dick ran off into 'Stacy's', one of Gotham's leading gift shops. "Wayne? Bruce Wayne? Can I get a picture? Please?" A girl ran towards him and hugged him firmly. "S-S-sure, I guess." The girl motioned towards someone. "Daddy, he said yes! Come, quickly!" A guy that looked like one of those stereotypical tourists came running towards them. "Tom Jones, Mister Wayne." He shook his hand. "And that's my daughter, Lily." Bruce smiled and nodded. Tom pulled out his camera and rested his hand on the picture button. "Well, you know what they say," Tom said.
"Smile!"
Tom's face began turning white, his eyebrows were turning green, and Tom was smiling, Tom was smiling way too hard. "Come on, Bruce, Smile! Smile for the camera! Smile for this stinking city you're trying to protect! Smile while you still can!"
Tom waved. "Hello? Excuse me, is everything ok? I wanted to thank you for the photo. I'm sure my daughter appreciated it." Bruce nodded and smiled and Tom and Lily walked off. Dick ran towards Bruce. He was holding several packages wrapped with gift paper. "Looks good, what did you get?" Bruce asked. "Nah-uh! No telling! You'll have to wait and see!" Bruce shrugged and they ran off towards the mansion.
Evening, Wayne Manor – Outskirts of Gotham City, Bruce Wayne
The mansion had a nice, pleasant smell. "What did you cook, Alfred?"Bruce asked, hanging his coat. "Turkey for Tim, bacon for Dick, fish for Jason, vegan beef for Barbara and regular beef for you, Master Wayne." Bruce nodded. "Thank you Alfred, you should eat yourself, I'd recommend you'd join us." Alfred smiled. "While I do appreciate the offer, I'll eat with the other staff. Thank you, Master Wayne.
The food was exceptionally good. Aside from a few arguments between Jason and Tim, Tim and Dick, Barbara and Tim and Bruce and Tim there was a nice atmosphere. The Bat-Family hasn't seen a threat in a while and things were finally calming down. After dinner they decided to accompany each other to the living room where they would hand out presents.
"I want mine first!" Tim shouted, running towards the presents. "Easy there, big guy." Jason replied. They sat on a couch and rolled a dice as to decide who would get their presents first. It was an odd tradition, opening presents on Christmas Eve instead of the day after, Tim had suggested it once and the family hadn't thought of changing it. Jason rolled a six and was first to grab his present for someone. "I'll grab the one for Barbara." He said. Jason had bought Barbara a beautiful new laptop. "For all your Oracle operations." He winked. Barbara smiled and thanked him. The dice rolled on and the pile of presents grew smaller and smaller. Jason had gotten a sai for Tim, nun chunks for Dick and a Batman fan t-shirt for Bruce. Barbara had bought a shuriken for Tim, nun chunks for Dick, who albeit a bit akward, smiled and thanked her. Barbara grumpily looked at Jason, who winked at her once again. Bruce had gotten a new cellphone, filled with special software which allowed for Barbara to track the team easily.
The rest of the presents were nothing special, Tim had gotten a lot of new toys, Bruce had lost count of how many times Jason winked at people and Barbara just sat there smiling and thanking everyone. Finally it was Dick's turn. He handed his presents to the other members first, before handing the last one to Brue.
Bruce held a big box in his hand, roughly the size of a basketball. "What is it?" He asked, shaking it. "Open up! You have to see." Bruce roughly tore the paper away and discovered Dick had, indeed, given him a basketball. "It's tough to give presents to the guy who can just buy everything."
"You up for a game?" Bruce asked. Dick nodded and grabbed his coat. "You betcha!" It were times like this that Bruce was glad he had installed a basketball courtyard in the yard of the mansion. He grabbed the ball and bounced it on the concrete. The ball quickly fell apart. A silence doomed over the yard. "I strongly suggest checking the brand before buying other gifts." Bruce said. Dick awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Just as they were about to walk away, Bruce noticed a small photo that was in the middle of what was once the basketball Dick had gotten him. "You put a photo inside?" He asked. Dick shook his head. "Not that I know of." Bruce grabbed the picture off the ground.
The picture was of a small girl. She had been strapped in a chair and was in a room with blood on the walls. It appeared as if there was a face cut off and strapped onto that of the girl. The face was bloody, but paying close attention, Bruce could conclude that it was a face with a white skin tone. In the upper right corner of the picture had text written on it in lipstick.
"Lily's nOthing without daddy, it makes her VEry sad. YOU eXcited yet? cOme Join us!"
Barbara joined Bruce and gasped. "Who could've done this?" Bruce noticed the different lettering on a few letters and read the real message it was trying to tell.
LOVE YOU XO J
Hope you enjoyed so far. I know some characters might be off and/or missing, but I'm also thinking of reintroducing some characters with different origins, and yeah, this is young/Teen Titans Tim. He never grew up for me haha.
