October 31st 2000
Gotham City, East River Docks
10 Miles from the City Aqueduct System
4AM
It opened It's eyes for the first time. 'Dark…Cold…Pain' It thought as It found consciousness. 'Pain…' It thought again. It's skin hurt. The world hurt. It hurt to exist. The urge to walk occurred and It took It's first steps. Then It staggered but pushed forward.
As It continued It grew fatigued and took a deep breath then fell. The air in this world burned. The air shot back out of him and with the air came a stream of red, red from inside It.
It made sound. The pain of existing and now breathing made a sound. The sound was fearsome, deep and yet high in pitch. It had emotion, awareness. It realized it was male and that It, no, He was nude. He took note of His hands, arms, chest, feet, maleness. The surface of His skin burned and yet was freezing. The atmosphere was ice cold and whatever time it was, there was no sun, Just dark coldness. He tasted metal and what felt like broken glass shards in His mouth. In His head memories of another life played through a gritty haze. Images of a woman with a swollen belly.
'Wife… Baby…Dead'
The image caused a different pain, one that bloomed on the inside. "Joe?" The woman called to him, "Where were you?" His eyes were on fire as tears emerged. Joe? Was that His name? 'Joe… Joseph… Kerr' The pain on the inside was almost as blinding as the sensation on the outside.
The next image It saw was a statue, a monster, a demon, a devil. "The Devil is real" a voice yelled from inside. The voice was form a man dressed in black with a white spot at his neck.
'Father…'
"He comes in the darkness of the human soul with his wings and horns!" The man called Father shouted as he stood above Joe. Father shouted words of horror that inspired a new emotion, fear. The statue walked, getting closer. This Fear grew stronger as Joe took in the statues wings at the statues sides as well and the horns atop the statue's head. The statue was the devil.
Joe felt the pull of gravity as It fell. Joe's body fell to the rough ground but Joe's mind was falling forever then more pain, 'Burns' Joe thought. The kind of pain Joe felt was 'Burning.'
'Skin…Burns… Lungs…Burns…Doctor…Help…'
The words were in his head but he didn't know how to get them out. All that he could do is continue making the pain sound, scream. Joe was screaming. He screamed till he saw a being, a man, staring. The man said nothing, but the man's face was of horror and brought on a new emotion but He couldn't name the emotion. This emotion also made a sound and the more He made this sound the deeper into horror the man looked. It felt 'Enjoyment, Fulfillment, Power, Need.' He also notices that the more Joe made this new sound, the less he felt the pain, all of it.
Joe picked up a rock, walked toward the man and began hitting the man in the head over and over again. More of the red that had come out of Him now came from the man. The red was warm and wet and wonderful. Joe wanted more so he kept hitting the man; over and over and over.
More memories flooded Joe's mind with every blow.
The fall, the burning, a slight relief as the burn hit cold water. He was spinning, in a maelstrom of water, chemicals and darkness. Then the movement stopped at a blunt yet sharp pain penetrated his mouth. That was when the memories stopped and the man Joe had been hitting had no head left to smash.
Whoever Joe had been before all this pain and darkness died in the water and was never coming back. As the memories came together and made sense Joe realized the humor of his predicament. He was sure he's never been in more pain or more afraid in his life and in his moment of pure terror he found another man who was horrified by Joe's moment of terror. To finish it all off Joe used his moment of fear to end the other man's life all the while wearing his birthday suite. 'Funny…' he thought.
"GCPD Freeze!"
October 31st 2000
Gotham City, East River Docks
10 Miles from the City Aqueduct System
10 Minutes Earlier
Detective Harvey Bullock sat back in his unmarked car with his coffee and toasted cinnamon/raisin bagel with butter; feeling proud he was going against the stereotype of a donut-eating cop. Eyeing his large black Colombian roast with 4 sugars he recalled last Halloween's caffeine tally ending with 6 hot coffees, 4 sodas, 3 red bulls and 1 5hour energy drink cause why the hell not. This was the worst night of the year when it came to violent crime in the city. His partner Jim Gordon joined him carrying his own food truck breakfast. Bullock inspected Gordon's items critically.
"Decaf tea and egg whites on whole wheat? Who are you and what have you done with my partner?"
Gordon sighed, "Barbra's bugging me to eat healthier. I promised her I'd give it a try."
"And you choose today to start this kick? You're gonna keel over before noon like this. Police work on Halloween requires a sturdy diet not this calorie counting rabbit junk."
"I'll be fine, you should consider it. That butter's gonna kill you one day."
"Nice try teachers pet but you are not gonna convince me to give up half my bagel cause you chose to order breakfast like Miss America."
Gordon sneered at his partner for catching him in the act. Taking a bight of the god-awful sandwich, he dragged what looked like a wad of greenish hay from out of the bread (If you could call that cardboard bread).
Bullock jumped at the opportunity to ream his friend again, "Sprouts? Are you kidding me you freaking hippie?"
Bullock's jibe was cut off by what sounded like an animal screaming. They both froze for a moment before dropping their food and drinks to seek out what was making that terrible noise. The screaming was coming from under the docks. Gordon ran ahead as Bullock stumbled a bit trying to navigate the jagged rocks that littered the stinking earth by the filthy water that always smelled like eggs. The animalistic screaming morphed under the moist wooden planks of the boardwalk over their heads it changed from screaming to a kind of laughter. The kind that had Bullock grabbing for the cross he always wore under his blue button-down. The wicked laughter was joined by a bloodcurdling scream and the voice of a man begging for his life.
Bullock and Gordon came upon the source of the madness they'd heard guns drawn.
Gordon screamed "GCPD Freeze!"
Two men stood before them, one was clearly dead and the other was… naked; naked and covered in blood. He was Caucasian, approximately 5'7" with light green hair. The color green that happens when someone with jet-black hair tries to bleach it. Bullock remembered in the 70's his older cousin going through that hell when she decided to bleach her black hair blond to look like Farrah Fawcett only to end up looking like one of those freaky punk kids. The freak held a rock in his left hand, the murder weapon.
"Sir, I'm going to ask you to drop the rock and put your hands over your head." Gordon continued. Bullock couldn't help notice the guy's skin was massage stone smooth and translucently pale where it wasn't covered in blood. The guy dropped the rock and went on his knees still laughing as he lifted his hands. His mouth made Bullock cringe; they were all sorts of broken and also bleeding. The green haired naked guy's big blue eyes were wide as saucers as he laughed with unrestraint.
The detective's approached the freak slowly. When they were close enough Bullock kept his gun up as Gordon cuffed and starting asking questions.
"What's your name sir?"
The laughter came to a holt. It was like Gordon had changed channels on the guy with the question. He looked at Gordon fascinated tilting his head to one side. Bullock had come across some really creeps during his time on the force but this fruit cake was a totally different breed of nightmare. He tried to speak but with his broken teeth and the freezing cold air on his uncovered skin the Detectives could hardly make out anything.
"Jjjj…ooooo…"
"Ok Mr. Joe, Joe what?" Bullock asked masking his fear with sarcasm.
"Jjjjj…Oooo. K…Rrrrrr. Jj…Ooo..K…Rrr" The freak kept repeating the name and each time it became clearer to the two detectives. 'Joker' they looked at each other acknowledging the oddness of the scene.
"Ok Mr Joker, where are your clothes sir?"
The Joker said nothing, only looked back at the river and said his next word as the backup Bollock called in could be heard coming towards them. Unlike with his name the Joker annunciated this word perfectly,
"Born..."