Chapter Seven

For some abnormal reason, the next night, Tony decided to take the whole flock down to MCU (it was going to take a miracle to make Total shut up, he was rambling in the car).

Going inside was not a fun thing. It smelled strongly of cigarettes and it made me want to gag. Fang didn't like it either, but the little kids were interested. I was holding Angel's hand so she wouldn't run off. Oh, and Nudge was having a parade.

'We're going to see a cute guy, we're gonna see a cute guy,' she sang and I arched an eyebrow at Fang.

'Nudge, the guy through Max out a window,' said Iggy but Nudge was too busy in her little world of cute deranged guys who wear make-up.

'Oh, yeah, we should go to Arkham Asylum,' I said sarcastically. 'Sooo many cute guys.'

'Yeah, there's this guy called Jonathan Crane,' Nudge rambled on and I frowned. 'I saw him in the paper – my God, his eyes are sooo big and pretty, total cute gene.'

'I think I'm gonna throw up,' said Iggy, retching. Tony looked back at Nudge like she was crazier than all the guys in Arkham put together.

I second that, sir.

'This Joker guy reminds me of someone,' babbled Nudge.

'Really?' Tony asked sarcastically.

'Yeah, but I can't – ooh! Heath Ledger!'

We all stared at Nudge.

'That's crazy,' said Fang, shaking his head.

'No way,' said Iggy as Angel giggled.

'Heath Ledger is cute,' I said, shaking my head. 'The Joker is not cute. Are you mental, Nudge?'

Fang glanced sideways at me. 'You think he's cute?'

I flushed and said, 'No.' Gazzy grinned and said, 'I could imitate him –'

'No imitating!' I said loudly as Nudge opened her mouth to say, 'YES!'

We opened a door to all these cells. The Joker was sitting down in one of them, the closest one. He had his eyes closed but opened one at the sound of the door.

I glared at him as he smirked.

'Tony Stark?' said a weary-looking man wearing glasses and a long trench coat. 'Lieutenant Gordon, at –'

'No, no,' said Mayor Garcia and I tried not to laugh at his eyeliner. 'Commissioner Gordon.'

'What happened to the old Commissioner?' asked Angel innocently.

'He died the night before,' said Gordon, looking down at her. 'Acid in his drink. More of the Joker's work.'

Ouch.

'How old are you?' Gordon asked Angel.

'When's the funeral?' replied Angel, ignoring his question.

Gordon raised his eyebrows and said, 'Tomorrow.'

'She's seven,' said Tony.

'Do you really think she should be in here?' Gordon muttered to him and he looked back at the Joker, who had his elbows on his knees, letting his hands dangle. He waved and Gordon rolled his eyes, looking back at us. He held out his hand to me. 'You must be Max. You're a brave young lady.'

I smiled and shook his hand. This place was giving me the creeps.

'And who are you?' asked Garcia, looking at the flock.

'I'm Nudge,' said Nudge quickly, 'and that's Angel, Gazzy, Iggy – he's blind – and Fang. Oh, and that's Total. Why are you wearing eye–?'

Iggy clamped a hand over her mouth and smiled in the Mayor's direction.

'Interesting names,' said Garcia.

'Interesting people,' Fang replied. I saw he was watching the Joker with a sour expression on his face.

'You look familiar,' said Garcia. 'Do I know –'

'He was at the fundraiser, with us,' I said quickly and smiled. Garcia didn't look convinced but said, 'Of course.'

'I want to talk to him,' Fang said suddenly, looking over at Gordon.

'I'm afraid –'

'We all do,' I said firmly. Gordon shrugged at me and said heavily, 'If it's that important.'

'We'll be a minute,' I told Tony and the flock walked up to the bars. Three other men were in the cell with the Joker and they stared at us in confusion.

'Stay away from the bars,' a guard warned but we didn't take orders from adults.

'Wow, you came to see me,' the Joker said, standing up and walking over to us. He was about the same height as Iggy. 'I'm touched.'

Iggy still had his hand clamped over Nudge's mouth but it didn't look like she was going to say anything highly obnoxious.

I looked over at Fang, expecting him to talk. He just stared angrily.

So much for talking.

'So, to whom to I owe this excellent meeting?' the Joker asked, his hands falling through the bars.

'Why is your hair green?' asked Gazzy suddenly. I didn't know why he had to ask it, but someone needed to say something.

The Joker stared down at the Gasman and raised both his eyebrows.

'Why did you do all that?' Fang spat. The Joker looked at him, chewed on his scars and said, 'What did I do?'

'Killed the old Commissioner. Those two cops. Tried to kill Max's dad' (it was weird when he put it like that) 'and chucked Max out a window.'

'Yeah, but someone came and saved her, didn't they?' asked the Joker, tilting his head slightly to the side. I heard Nudge sigh behind me and flared up at once.

'What is wrong with you?' I snapped at the Joker, holding Angel's hand tight. 'Actually, never mind, I know what's wrong with you: you're crazy.'

'I'm not,' he growled.

Angel was staring at him hard. 'That's horrible,' she said suddenly, her eyes widening.

'What is it, sweetie?' I asked with all the patience I could muster.

'Don't ever say that again,' the Joker said, staring at me. 'Doesn't work at all with your character.'

'What would you know about my character?' I asked through gritted teeth.

The Joker shrugged and said, 'Not much. I only met you last night, jeez – give me a break.'

'God, you're worse than Ari!' I snarled and glanced over at Iggy when I saw a guilty expression. 'What?'

'What's what?' Iggy said, trying to be innocent. I grabbed his wrist and said, 'Why did you look so guilty?'

'Max, Ari's dead,' Fang said quickly.

My entire world slowed down for a second. Then went amazingly fast for another second, then thankfully back to normal.

'What?! I told you –'

'We didn't kill him,' Fang said angrily, stepping in front of me. 'He expired!'

I shook my head. This was too strange. This was insane. I had to get out of here.

'Max, are you okay?' asked Nudge.

I couldn't speak. Ari was dead. Ari was dead. Ari was dead.

'Expired, huh?' asked the Joker and I realised that he'd heard everything. 'Hm. Is this some fancy new slogan young people use?'

'You're not that old yourself,' Iggy snapped.

'Of course I'm not,' said the Joker, pulling his arms back through the bars. 'What are you, blind?'

Iggy flushed. For a second he did nothing. Then, with perfect accuracy, his fist flew through the bars and hit the Joker's face.

Blood spurted out of his nose and he stumbled back, laughing. 'Okay – that wasn't fair –'

'What the hell did you do?' the guard barked at Iggy and I ushered the flock away.

'Oh, and by the way beautiful,' the Joker called out after me, 'I killed a lot more people than those two cops.'

--

Wordlessly, I walked away from the flock, away from Tony, away from everything. I punched in an elevator number and waited for my floor. I needed to leave. Or die. Or beat up an Eraser so badly he couldn't walk anymore.

The doors opened and I ran up some stairs to the roof.

Opening the door, I felt the cool, night air around me. I breathed in, ran to the ledge and snapped out my wings, feeling the breeze rustle my feathers.

You call the Joker a freak. You have wings!

I told the Voice to shut up, then realised it wasn't the Voice talking – it was just me.

I was going crazy.

I jumped off the roof, falling about twenty feet before I managed to head upwards. I flew high up, where the oxygen is light, sort of like champagne.

And then I screamed my frustration to the world.

Short, I know. Sorry.

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