Chapter 10: Chorh-Gom Prison

"Who are you?"

"How dare you call us by the B-word?!"

"Let me out! And I will show you who the real bitch in this place is!"

Joker twirled a Joker card in his left hand as he stood leaning against the wall. He held the right blade in his right hand. His hench-wolves had handled the guards as ordered, and they returned with weapons from the fallen rhinos.

"So boss," one wolf asked. He held a mace in his hand. "You'd blasted most guards away, we did the cleanup. What's next?"

Joker stopped spinning the card, and held it flat between his index finger and middle finger. His eyes turned to the wolf, and grinned when asked about his plans.

"Well, boy," he said as he pushed himself to stand straight and began walking towards the nearest stairs. "You say you have a weapon, no?"

"Yeah," the canine nodded. "Our old boss, Peacock Lord Shen, built it."

"What does this weapon do, hmm?"

"Well, Lord Shen built the weapon based on the power of fireworks. His peacock ancestors invented fireworks, and Lord Shen dabbled with the fireworks' powder called…" the wolf turned to his other comrades. "What's the powder called again?"

"Gunpowder." They replied. The wolf turned back to the Joker.

"Gunpowder. He messed that with weapons. Shen's parents –"

"Ah cut the crap!" Joker said while swiping the air in front of him with his left arm. "What can with weapon do? I want to know the good stuff, not some boring origin story of a fancy ungly looking arrogant peacock!"

"How do you know Lord Shen's arrogant?"

"Because all goddamn peacocks are born that way!"

"But his parents –"

"What did I say about the boring part?!" Joker yelled and raised his sword at the wolves. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath before speaking again.

"What does the weapon do?" he asked calmly, his sword still aimed at the canines.

"Umm, the weapon breathes fire and spits metal," the wolf in front of the pack answered.

"Is the weapon still available to be used?"

"Most of them were destroyed by the Dragon Warrior back in Gong –"

"Most," Joker interrupted with a low hiss. "So the weapon was mass produced. There are still some in good condition, right?"

"Yes boss," the wolf said. "In the Chorh-Gom Weapons Storage Facility. It's built specifically for the weapon."

"Then," Joker looked at him. "Why are you still here?"

"The wolf army under Lord Shen disbanded and spread across North of China after Lord Shen died at the hands of the Dragon Warrior."

"Can you contact them, and regroup them together?" Joker asked as his hissing slowly turned to a growl.

"Yeah, yeah, sure! But—"

"No buts, you useless piece of black animal!" Joker yelled at him. The wolf yelped and ran to hide behind his comrades.

"You four," Joker said as he pointed at the other four wolves. "I want you four to gather the rest of the wolf army."

"You'll be going in pairs,"he continued. The four looked at each other.

"Short Stuff will go with BigArmsto group the Army of Shen," he said as he pointed at the the shortest wolf and the wolfs with large biceps.

"Legs will go with Scars," he said pointing at the wolf with long legs and the other with a scar on his jaw. "I heard of this Lang Shadow army when I was at the Piss Valley, is it true?"

The two wolves nodded in sync.

"Good!" Joker exclaimed. "I want you to gather them! Two armies work better than one!"

"I expect you all to return here with the army within one day. Tell them that their new leader awaits them," he said. "Get the Lang Shadows to attack the Valley first the minute you gathered them."

The four wolves bowed to their alpha's command. They turned to the exit door and dashed for it on all fours. The panicked wolf still stood in his spot.

"You there, Big Mouth,"he said to the wolf. "Come here."

The wolf walked unsteadily to the clown. "Yes, Boss?"

The Joker handed the wolf the bunch of keys that he had taken from the fallen leader of the Imperial Guard. "How about you be a good boy, and open the cell doors for our lovely friends, eh?"

Before Big Mouth walked away, Joker slipped a few gag teeth into the wolf's paw.

"And do help me place these in front of the doors before you open them."

The wolf nodded obediently, and proceeded to complete his master's demands. He placed a teeth gag in front of each cell door, and then unlocked the door before he opens it. After repeating the process on eleven doors and also a silver owl shaped cage, Big Mouth quickly ran up to rejoin Joker.

Joker cleared his throat and walked closer to the side of the bridge to allow a bird's eye view onto the prison grounds.

"YOU MAY STAND AT THE MOUTH OF YOUR CELL DOORS!" he announced. "JUST DON'T GO OVER THE TEETH!"

He watched as two inmates from each cell appeared, and an owl appeared from the cage. Good, everyone's here. Now the proposal.

"So, you're the one who called us bitches, huh?!" an antelope from the bridge two flights down shouted. "By the name of the Emperor, you will realize who the bitch here truly is!"

The goat next to antelope told him something, which the antelope replied with a slap in the goat's face. The antelope proceeded to walk towards the door at the other end of the bridge, ignoring Joker's commands to not cross over the teeth.

"I won't do that –"

Joker was interrupted by an explosion and a cloud of smoke that rose above. When the smoke cleared, a broken antelope horn and a short straight horn were all that's left from where the antelope and the goat stood.

"I warned you," Joker said. "Pathetic chump, no worth laughing at."

He thought for a moment. "Nah what the hell, I'll laugh anyway," and started laughing.

His laugh was interrupted when a female voice boomed out from the small island at the bottom of the ground.

"So, clown, what brings you here?"

"Now, now," Joker said again. "I have a proposal for you all!"

"But what if we refuse?" another voice asked.

"If you refuse," Joker said, "I'll blow up the toys the way the antelope and the goat were killed. Accept, and I'll call back my toys."

After a brief silence, the voices below boomed with agreement.

"I'M UP!"

"COUNT ME IN!"

"WHATEVER YOU SAY!"

"ALRIGHT!"

"OKAY!"

Joker smiled to himself. "OKAY MY BABIES, RETURN TO PAPA!"

One by one, the gags hopped their way to the bridge, then up the stairs, and after a brief moment, appeared at the top door, hopping their way to the Joker. He picked them up and slipped them into his utility belt.

Figures appeared from the stairs afterwards, walking towards the Joker. An owl flew above and landed next to the group of criminals. Most of them were crocodiles, but there was a boar, a short fox, a yak, a vixen, a rhino without a horn, and a big eyed rat.

"So," the rat said, "You were saying?"

Joker cleared his throat again. "I hear you are the most notorious criminals of China. So I wish to enlist your help."

"In what?" the rat asked again.

"In destroying Piss Valley, of course!"

"What do we get in return?"

"Jeez, rat," Joker said, "You have a barrage of questions do you?"

"Name's Tong Fo," the rat answered. "And I'm a Loris."

"Whatever To Fu," Joker remarked. "You're still a loser."

"YOU DARE?!" Tong Fo asked with rage. "YOU DARE INSULT ME?"

Joker raised his sword at the Loris. "I DARE! AND IF IT WASN'T FOR ME, YOU ALL WOULD STILL BE HERE ROTTING YOUR FOOLISH ASSES IN THIS DOWN RATED VERSION OF CHINESE ARKHAM!"

The criminals stared at the Joker in shock. Joker quickly made a smile.

"That's if you have an ass of course," he added and started laughing again.

"So, clown," a crocodile with a hat said. "How do you want us to wipe out the Valley of Peace? We can't even take on the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior. Now that they have a new vigilante in black helping them –"

"Ah don't worry long snout," Joker said. "The Bat and your Piss Valley defenders are on – hilarious – terms. No need to worry."

"You still haven't answered my question, clown," Tong Fo said with disgust.

Joker glared at the Loris, "It's the Joker. Here's my card."

He took out a Joker Poker card and handed it to Tong Fo. Just as Tong Fo was about to grab it, Joker sliced his card onto Tong Fo's wrist, which caused the Loris to scream painfully. He pulled back his hand and wrapped his injured wrist with a piece of cloth he ripped from his pants.

"Oh, sorry," Joker said laughing. "I forgotten they were sharp, my bad."

He turned back to the other criminals, his card still in his hand. "Now, back to business. When we successfully take out Piss Valley –"

"You mean Valley of Peace," the crocodile corrected.

"You're getting on my nerve, long snout," Joker said annoyingly.

"Fung, not long snouts. Long Snout's the other guy."

"Whatever," Joker brushed off the remark. "As I was saying, with Piss Valley out of the map, you all will be allowed to do as you pleased."

The criminals had excitement clearly shown on their faces. Joker didn't need to wait for their verbal answer, but he still wanted to ask.

"So?"

The group nodded their heads in unison, and the Joker grinned widely. His plan was going out well.

"So, Joker," the rhino said. "You're the boss now? What's the plan?"

Joker smiled even wider. "Of course I am. And the plan now, is to start the Jokes-tice Gang."

••••••••••

"I can't believe this Joker did so many horrible things," Po said while washing the pots. His dads nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, especially the way he handled this Todd and Barbara," Li Shan said. He placed the bowls he wiped and placed them into the shelf above before closing its doors.

"Anyway, I feel sorry for this Batman," Mr. Ping said. "It's as though Todd and Barbara were his family."

Po nodded slightly. He thought about what Batman told them during lunch. The horrible crimes of the Joker that were consider pranks and games to the clown.

"Whatever happened," Li Shan said. "It's in the past. Now it's time we find a way to get the Joker and help Batman return home."

"Yeah, but," Po said. He stopped midway his washing. Li Shan placed a paw on his son's shoulder.

"But what?" the elder panda asked. "Doubting yourself again? You're the Dragon Warrior! You can do anything! Remember the time Kai came for our chi?"

Po smiled remembering his ultimate showdown with the Spirit Warrior. It was the fight in the Spirit Realm that he fulfilled his destiny and become the future of Kung Fu.

"I remember," Po said. "Your double dad defense against Jombie Shifu was so cool!"

All the three began laughing together, recalling the dad's attempt to hold off a jade zombie version of Master Shifu back in the Panda Village.

"So, Po," Mr. Ping said. "When are you gonna tell Ti –"

"Aw dad, come on!" Po said. "Didn't we discuss this like – what – five days ago?"

"The discussion was interrupted by your crush, genius." Li Shan corrected him. Both Mr. Ping and Li gave each other a low-five.

Po let a sigh. "Look dads, I –"

He was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing his throat. The fathers and son turned their heads to the door to see Batman standing at the door.

"Po," Batman said. "The Five are waiting at the Training Hall. Shouldn't the master be punctual?"

Po realized he was late to watch over training, and turned to his dads.

"Dads, I'm handing these over to you," he said as he passed the bucket of water and pots to Ping and Li before running towards Batman.

Po had to speed up his pace to catch up with the Bat. He was panting the moment he was walking next to Batman as they journeyed down the stairs.

"Dude, can you slow down next time?" Po asked. When Batman didn't answer, Po turned his head to see Batman staring straight ahead. "Err, Batman?"

"Your ship won't work," Batman said finally.

"What ship?" Po asked curiously. He didn't remember of any ship that belonged to him.

"You and Tigress."

"We're friends, why wouldn't it work?"

"Not friendship."

"Then what kind of ship are you saying?"

"Relationship."

Po stopped dead at his tracks. "How did you know? You overheard my conversation with my dads, didn't you?"

"It's obvious. The way you cared for the Tigress, the way you protected her. You're not very subtle."

"So you're supporting me?" Po asked confidently.

"No," Batman said. "Relationship among colleagues always ends up in disaster."

"Now wait a minute," Po said. He got into Batman's path. "What do you mean 'end up disastrous'? You know something about relationships, don't you? Were you and this Barbara –?"

Batman just stared at him. "One, Barbara and I are like family. Two, the matter of me knowing anything about relationship is my privacy. Learn something called 'boundaries'. Three, you're the Dragon Warrior. You of all people should know what I mean."

"Oh come on," Po protested. "I'm not the great Oogway. I don't know everything!"

"Oogway?" Batman asked. "You mean the turtle. Yeah, he knows everything."

Po's jaw drop. "How did you know about Oogway?"

"There's a statue erected in honor for him in front of the Hall of Heroes."

"Yeah, right," Po said while mentally using his imaginary paw to slap his head.

The both of them continued walking down the stairs quietly when they heard the sound of gong being hit.

"The Valley's under attack!" they said in unison. Tigress ran to them after thirty seconds.

"Po," she said. "Musician's Village! You won't believe the attackers."

"Lemme guess," Po replied "NOBODY!"

"Wrong. It's the Lang Shadows."

"What?" Po asked in disbelief. "I thought we drove them away."

"Apparently not. Let's go."

"Wait," Batman said. "I'm coming."

"You're staying here," Tigress commanded with a growl.

"With all due respect, Master Tigress, last I checked you all didn't hold up well against the crocs."

Tigress thought for a moment. "Okay. You better watch yourself."