Chapter 8: The Clown Prince of Crime
Bruce Wayne had not smiled for the next couple of weeks. At work and at home in Wayne Manor, he had been thinking about Jack Napier and how he had just vanished down the drain of that terrible tank of acid. When Alfred questioned him about it, he had mentioned Napier's name but gave no details of the gruesomeness of the gangster's apparent demise. Nevertheless, he stuck true to his words and continued to defend the people of Gotham City against crime and poverty and injustice. Bruce soon had reason to smile again when he invited Vicki Vale to dinner at the mansion on Saturday, September 18th. But in the criminal underworld of Gotham City, the greatest threat to the city's sanctity was soon to rise.
...
SEPTEMBER 7, 21:30 EDT
It was a cold night when the scattered members of Carmine Falcone's mob and the Red Hood gang showed up at the apartment of Bruce Wayne's three oldest rivals: Warren Lawford, Gunther Hardwicke, and Armand Lydecker. The three rich boys had successfully taken over the businesses of their fathers and had been nearly as rich as Bruce himself, but in spending their money on lavish lifestyles, they were steeped in debt and were willing to run the broken mobs as a single group to regain their fortunes.
The gangsters were having a rather rich dinner of chicken alfredo and talking about their plans to bring Gotham back to the days when crime had been rampant and practically unrestrained when the meeting was interrupted by the last person anyone expected.
"Warren, Gunther, and Armand! The three best rich boys in Gotham! Why I haven't seen you three since… Wait a moment. We've never met, have we? A pity. I always thought kids of your generation got around more often."
The man was tall and thin, his skin stark-white, his hair vibrantly green, and his lips red and drawn back in an almost permanent grin. He was dressed in a curious suit composed of an orange dress shirt with a purple vest and dress pants and black shoes, complete with a light green tie and a large yellow flower on his lapel. The stranger seemed unfamiliar, but the members of the former Red Hood gang knew his face the minute they caught his eye.
"Jack Napier?"
"Ding-ding-ding! Give the old gang a gold star!" the clown-faced man cackled. "That's right, boys! Old Jack is back! Except I should say New Jack because I'm not the same mousy runt of a leader you used to know. Thanks to that miserable, pointy-eared rodent hero Batman, I've got more to offer the world of organized crime in a way Maroni and Falcone never dreamed of, all thanks to a little acid bath."
Warren Lawford and his two friends stood up to confront their uninvited guest and Warren said, "Look, clown, I don't know who you think you are, but this mob is ours. Now beat it."
The man who used to be Jack Napier thought it over and then said, "I thank you for the pleasantries, but I just think the term clown is a little off for a whimsical, mirth-making soul like me. Especially when it comes to my style of dealing it out. I'm more on the wild side of the deck. The wild card. In fact, some would be frank to call me… Joker."
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a boxing-glove gun, then said with his clownish smile, "For my first prank… pow!"
The boxing glove shot out on a pressurized spring and hit Gunther Hardwicke square in the face, knocking him out and giving him a particularly nasty bruise. When Armand Lydecker tried to grab him, the newly-dubbed Joker leapt aside and then took something new from inside his jacket: two cream pies that were lined with electric wiring. He flung them at Lydecker, and the result was an electric shock that left him out cold and with sparse burns on his jacket and dress pants. Now for the first time since Batman had shown up in Gotham City, Warren Lawford was afraid. He turned to the gangsters in the hopes that they would rally around him as their new leader, but they sat there in stunned silence at the Joker.
"Lawford, my boy! All that fine food! That good company! One would think you'd be smiling and laughing merrily by now," he chuckled.
He pressed a petal on his lapel flower, which released a cloud of green vapor that had Warren Lawford coughing for about three seconds. Then before the eyes of the frightened mobsters, Lawford fell on the floor and began laughing uncontrollably. His eyes bugged and his mouth drew back into a very wild smile, causing him to slaver.
"What'd ya do to him, Jack… er, uh… Joker?" inquired one of the Joker's former gang members.
"I'm just seeing to it that Lawford and his frat cats get to leave us on a happy note," replied Joker with a smile that didn't bare his teeth, to the relief of his goons. As the villain took Lawford's glass of champagne in hand, another gangster asked him, "But why do this if you're bringing us back into the fold, uh… boss?"
"To prove a point to the poor chums in Gotham, and to Batman," replied Joker. "You can't keep a good criminal out of the job. Now, here's to crime."
…
Bruce Wayne left his office at Wayne Enterprises early after hearing what had happened to Warren Lawford and his fraternity brothers that day. In only ten minutes, Batman was at Gotham Medical Center, where a handful of police officers were questioning the doctors and nurses about the conditions of the three patients. He went to look in on Hardwicke and Lydecker, who had just been left to rest.
Approaching Gunther Hardwicke, he observed the bruise under his left eye. Batman had degrees in forensic science as well, and he knew the difference between a punch from an actual hand and some device. He considered the force of the punch and the angle at which it hit, and theorizing correctly that the three youths had not been roughhousing, he thought of the most logical possibilities.
"The blow was received with an amount of force that most boxers in modern times don't pack unless they work at it," said Batman to himself. "But most bruises don't form this quickly unless enough blood is released under the skin. This blow may have been administered by something other than human hands, and I'd bet on a boxing-glove extension device."
When he checked Armand Lydecker, Batman was surprised to see patches of red skin on the young hoodlum's face. Taking a pair of razor-edged tweezers from his utility belt, the Dark Knight snipped off a lock of Lydecker's hair and sniffed it, recognizing the odor.
"Ozone," he mused. "Lydecker was exposed to a high concentration of electricity produced in a short burst. That would explain his pulse continuing despite the second-degree burns."
When Batman went out into the hall, he saw Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock conversing pointedly over the victims. He heard Bullock say, "It's just weird, Jim. I mean, three new patients in one night, two of them unconscious, and one barely able to say his own name on account of the giggles."
"Especially considering that Falcone's behind bars after twenty years and Maroni's on the run," added Commissioner Gordon.
That's when Batman approached the two and questioned, "Warren Lawford is in a worse state than the other two?"
Commissioner Gordon replied, "I'm afraid so, Batman. You might want to come and see for yourself."
He and Detective Bullock led Batman to the room where Warren Lawford was lying in bed, still cackling to no one, wide-eyed and grinning like a demented Cheshire Cat. Batman's eyes widened in horror and disgust under his cowl. He knew Warren Lawford was not the most law-abiding citizen in Gotham, but even he didn't deserve a fate as gruesome as this.
"Who did this to him?" asked Batman with an edge to his voice.
"Not a clue," sighed Commissioner Gordon. "We found him like this after someone called us over to the apartment where Lawford and his frat brothers were staying."
Detective Bullock waved his hand very slowly over Lawford's face and added, "Lights are on, but nobody's home. We just can't reach him."
Batman did not know who was behind this dreadful deed, but he promised silently that he would find an antidote for this condition. Suddenly, he saw Commissioner Gordon whip out his walkie-talkie when the mayor's office called in.
"What's the situation, Mr. Mayor?" asked Commissioner Gordon.
"You won't believe this, Commissioner, but City Hall is being raided by masked clowns!"
Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock left the hospital room to rally the other officers while Batman headed out the window and began running over the rooftops and swinging on his Bat-grapple to reach Gotham City Hall. Upon reaching it, he saw that the mayor's call was no joke. Several thugs, some thin and some burly, were engaged in a standoff against the police, and Batman could see that their faces were painted like circus clowns.
"I don't know what maniac brought this on, but it's going to stop," Batman said to himself.
Using his Bat-grapple, he swung over to City Hall and then hit one of the goons in the back with a Batarang before he dropped to the ground and then attacked the other six clown goons. He disarmed them of their guns first and then threw one of the bigger goons through the door before he leapt into the air and swept one goon off his feet and then double-kicked another in the stomach, sending him down the steps. He blocked punches from the next two and then slammed them into the central pillars of City Hall. Then after striking the last two with pressure point strikes to the neck and stomach, Batman hurried inside to find the rest of the intruders.
Batman saw more clownishly dressed goons raiding the interior of City Hall, stealing what they thought would bring in the most money from the highest bidder. Thinking quickly, Batman seized one crook and dragged him into a dark corner before binding him in more Bat-ropes. He seized another and then another, and the rest took fear and ran into the waiting hands of the police.
Batman began searching the City Hall in case anymore of these clown-faced goons were lurking about with the intent to steal more. It wasn't until he reached the second floor that he caught up with the ringleader of this raid, and he was shocked when he recognized the stranger's face despite his white skin and green hair.
"Jack Napier?"
"That's right, Bats! You win the $64 question! Hoo hoo!" cackled the clownish villain. "Except you'll have to read about that ship in the history books, 'cause this gangster has moved up the deck from Jack to Joker thanks to that acid bath ya gave me! Now I'm up and laughing again!"
Batman wasn't sure why this Joker was blaming him for his accident at Ace Chemicals, but it did not matter. He had a crime to stop, and catching this criminal clown was the key step. He said, "You'd do well to stand down, Joker. Your thugs have been brought down or turned over to the police, so there's no point in facing each other in combat."
"Why would I want to do battle when I can run from you all I like?" crowed the Joker. And in moments, he began running for the maintenance shaft leading to the roof.
Growing weary of this criminal's antics, Batman chased after the Joker, practically leaping from one staircase to the next as he pursued the chortling criminal. However, he soon realized that his opponent came prepared to execute his first crime spree. At the top of the staircase, Joker took something from inside his jacket that seemed to be a jack-in-the-box and tossed it at Batman, cackling, "What say we stop and have a bite?"
The jack-in-the-box sprang open to reveal a set of chattering teeth as big as a man's head, and it seemed that the teeth were trying to bite Batman's neck. However, the Dark Knight merely clipped the springs with a batarang and then climbed out the window and leapt to the rooftop, where the Joker was trying to flee.
"Stay where you are, Joker!" growled Batman.
He whipped out a Bat-cable to bind the villain's ankles, but Joker whipped out playing cards that were sharp enough to cut cable and flung one after the other at Batman, who just managed to block them with the spikes of his gloves. Joker ran to the edge of the roof and looked down at the road for any passing traffic, and he soon had an idea. He took a yo-yo with a nylon line from the pocket of his trousers and wrapped it around the flagpole outside City Hall.
"Don't try this at home, kids!" he laughed as he swung away toward the road.
Before Batman could stop him, the Joker was riding away on the roof of a transit bus, and he waved goodbye to Batman and hooted with laughter as he said, "The wheels on the bus will get me far away, far away, far away from you, Bat-breath!"
Batman scowled icily as he watched his newfound foe escape. He hadn't counted on seeing the former boss of the Red Hood gang after his accident at Ace Chemicals, and now seeing that boss had become a supervillain who used gimmicks instead of real powers to commit crimes, it was clear that to catch this Joker, he would have to step up his game.
A/N: Hope you liked the first meeting of Batman and the Joker, my readers. He'll be back, but he won't be the only super-menace that Batman will meet. Stay tuned for Chapter 9, and have a happy Thanksgiving.