AN: Here is the chapter you guys. After my writers block was gone (well y had to push the thing out of my system) I could do it! I'm afraid the scheme part it's a bit short. I had to dedicate a lot of the chapter to the relationship so I could build the plot to where I want it to go from now on. This chapter is dedicated to my wonderful cousin. He helped a lot, and even if he's not going to read this, it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. I watched a lot of movies and did a bunch of research for this so I would like to point out the fact that this is not my sole invention. Also thank you for the continued support. Soo this is for Maddy: the phrases inside parenthesis are my personal commentaries to the chapter or the title, it's silly but I like to do it anyways. Sam: yes I did noticed that I changed the tense while writing. I promise is not involuntary, just got totally blank every time I tried doing it with present tense.

These are important questions that some of you PMed me so I thought I would put it here so it's all clear and in the open.

Disclaimer: the little problem of disclaimer is that you ran out of ideas eventually to say the exact same thing over and over, so yeah. Please insert Don't-own-the-characters regular speech and lets be done with it kay?

Chapter 2: STAND-UP (And breaking the piggy-bank)

Harley loved her Daddy, she did. But he handled stress badly. She was (once upon a time) a shrink so she knew about this stuff. The worst part? He didn't know.

Joker was oblivious to any sort of text book behavior he displayed. Take today as an example. Today was the move-in. the older henchmen had been moving weapons, ammo, joker toxin gallons, and other important stuff. He had the "day team" move his various cars, vans and SUVs already on "tactic operations" which meant: he had the least scary henchmen move his cars one at a time to not raise suspicion. But the other fun illegal property? He had some of his men pull an identity-thief-shit and steal some armored trucks, take them to the warehouses and to the place on sandy hooks that he had dubbed "the FunHouse". She had to admit that it was brilliant plan and so ironic too. Puddin' was transporting his valuables how they transported theirs, what a riot! but with his own unique twist. She had yet to see the FunHouse but was sure it was big and colorful and perfect just like her Mistah J.

"It's logical" Harley rationalized "this is a big job, not a bat dedicated job. The bat can't spoil his plans like usually planed. This is work and no games, so naturally he has to pull this off without a hitch" it was times like this when PhD Harleen came back to her head. She was used to the voices by now, although some were scary, PhD Harleen was her favorite by far. And the most useful too.

The Joker had been functioning on pops, candied cereals and cocaine for a while now. He had no time for pesky things like food or nutrition. He knew Harley was worried about this so he tried not to be around her too much. He could count that, on the rare times he had a little time to sleep, he would find her on their bedroom and he would relish in her embrace. But all the hard work was paying, and his new and centralized headquarters were fully-functioning and almost ready. After the stunt with the recruit Harley had been busy with an interior decorator he had gotten. They had worked on the HaHacienda, and so far he liked it. The hench's part of the building had been considerately diminished, as most of the payroll would be housed on the FunHouse. Just the oldest and loyal-est of them would stay. And that leaved a lot of space for their little love nest. The new facilities included a new in-house laboratory and an expansion of his office. A shooting range added to the training room. Three guest rooms? He should have put his foot down on this one but he was really busy, so now they were the proud owners of a home with guest rooms. They had of course taken a few walls down to create an open concept and fit a large living area and a gourmet kitchen. And the décor was all tastefully done. Crème walls, deep purple leather couches, with green silk pillows, and of course rugs, coffee tables, lamps, vases, mirrors and other useless crap but it created a nice effect and made Harley happy, busy and happy, so he couldn't complain. What he liked the most was the dark wood theme the decorator, had convinced Harley was best. Floor, tables, countertops, and all kinds of furniture. He didn't feel like Ken on Malibu Bitch House so that was good. Thinking about that, is how Harley found him in the new orange kitchen, drinking coffee and sitting on a bench on the ebony kitchen island staring at his reflection on the shiny stainless steel fridge.

"Mornin' Pud! You sure don't want me ta make ya some toast? Tomorrow is da big day isn't it?" he loved Harley but she was annoyingly chirpy on mornings

"Yes, it is baby" his voice was raspy; he had been up all night working on some final things with the nerds. Harley hugged him from behind, she had missed him, he knew that "have I told you what a good job you and your little accomplice have done with the HaHacienda pet?" she squished him and went on an exited rant of "oh thank ya puddin'" "ya really like it?" and "oh im so happy ya think that" and he let he drone and tuned her out.

"Oh pud, ya haven't realy told me ma part in all this' ya know?" oh his naïve clown girl, how she amused him.

"You are staying on the bench for this game sugar pop" there he said it; he braced himself for the storm that was a pissed of Harley and… wait, why is she so quiet? She should be screaming his ear of by now!

"Oh… well, I'm s-sure I'll find something' ta do while yer out. I guess…" she sounded… dejected? What the hell? He turned around and finally looked at her, she was crestfallen and had an I-just-lost-my-puppy look, wearing a naughty lingerie set under a bright pink silk robe.

"Now, now, baby girl. What's with the frown? I can't have a sad clown girl. I know how much my Harley likes her fun. But this plan it's a tight stand-up okay? Now give me a smile" he said and she recovered a little spark. He didn't need this right now. He got up and kissed her. Dipping her low and taking her by surprise. There it is. That million dollar smile I love.

"Pud! Ya scared me!" she blushed prettily and looked absolutely cute. He did have a soft spot for her. Sorta "But ya know… you have me playin' housewife since we broke out!" so that was what had her all weird? HA. He let a dark chuckle out as she continued "if ya keep doin' it Imma start thinkin' ya want me barefoot, pregnant and in da kitchen!" she joked. He wasn't amused but kept a façade.

"OH silly harls, you know I woud never marry you, you dumb blond" he spat, fakely sweet and holding her tightly whatching how her face fell and enjoying every second of it.

"whaddaya mean?" she choked "you'll nevah marry me… but I thought-"

"You thought wrong little girl!" he pushed her and she almost fell "I don't do 'wifes' pet. I'm the joker for fucks sake!" he continued on, crashing all her hopes and yelling those cruel things to her. But she needed to hear them "that would beat the whole purpose of people not knowing I care for you, you useless waste of space. Or did you imagine that we would marry? Huh? Live on the suburbs with four kids and a gold-fucking-retriever?" he was hurting her. He saw her face rimmed with silent tears, her bottom lip trembling and blond strands in her angel face. She looked the most beautiful then, broken, shaken, hopeless. And he knew that very moment he loved her, he was certain of it yet he would not marry her, the concept was just a giant no-no for him. That broke him in a maniac laughing fit.

Harley had always loved his laugh. Others crawled in their skins when they heard that blood chilling sound. But to her he was the most handsome when he laughs. But this time, her hart broke into million little pieces as she stand there in the middle of the kitchen, weak kneaded, staring at him double with laughter. Laugh at her dreams, her hopes. She just wanted a future with the man she loved. She had desires of being a mother and she thought that it would all happen one day. He had been stirring her all along. That fucking bastard! She then started to get angry but he didn't let him know. She wasn't suicidal. She just dried her cheeks and left the room. His laugh echoing thru the living area and the stairs.

She locked herself in one of the guestrooms. She needed to think, she needed PhD Harleen. She needed to make a decision and most importantly, she needed to calm the rage inside of her if she had any hope in getting through this, because she just wanted to murder the son-of-a-bitch of a boyfriend she had. And he had a job to pull tomorrow.

Paul Stevens had worked as in the Transactions Overviewing Committee for Economic Safety in the Gotham City Stock Market for almost three years now. He was a slim man, who wore simple suits, had a simple life and was completely average. The only thing Paul was good at was economics. His had his own division now, and after much hard work he was given certain autonomy. In was 7:30 when he got to the office inside the GCSM, he greeted Higgins the security guard on his way, who as usual was playing SugarSmash in his phone and eating cronnuts. And sat himself in front of a computer screen for the rest of the morning, viewing data from Gotham's principal Banks. His division was the one that protected bank investments to make sure the population of Gotham had their money save. It was a boring and tedious job as nothing really happened. Every bank's profits and loss's accounts followed every regulation out of fear of federal laws but they still reviewed them, just to make sure. At exactly 11:30 however thing started to get ugly, suddenly every stock of every mayor bank in the city started to fall at light speed rate. So fast the billboard couldn't keep up.

He went bat-shit crazy and almost lost his mind when, in a frenzy, he started opening profit accounts and financial records of every bank, that were just fine a moment ago, but abruptly all mayor profits had just disappeared, he followed the tracks quickly and all lead to a recently published company. . But the company's records showed that all those profits were cashed out in more than a thousand different tradings. How the hell someone could do such a thing? And so fast? He tried to access the gost company's financial history but couldn't. He was starting to lose his shit. It was pandemonium outside. Every time he followed a transaction he would meet a dead end. The one doing this was using a proxy and the money was probably traveling so fast between different foreign accounts it would not be found. At the 12th try his computer went black. He looked at the other monitors in his office, they were too, black. He got up and exited and as far as he could see every monitor of every computer in his division was black. A high pitched beep started to sound and he looked at everyone in panic. Phones ringing but not being picked up. He ran to the balcony overviewing the main area of the crumbling Market. There too were black monitors and a beep sound theme going on. Good lord have mercy. Slowly a laugh was heard, a wildly recognized, totally maniac and dark laugh. Echoing in the walls.

The Clown Prince of Crime. The infamous Joker. The screens came to life then but not a soul moved.

"Hello good working people of GCSM. It's me! your good ol' uncle Joker, with the economic forecast for the day" the madman said grinning from ear to ear in front of a camera. Just his face and collar showing. Letting the shine of his silver-toothed smile show "It appears the stocks of some companies have crashed and burned to ground. Jigity jig! HA HA. But dontcha worry wage slaves. There is a real wrought opportunity there! HA HA HA HE HE HAHA And where is your Bat in a Cape you ask? Well he certainly isn't there. That's what happens when you get yourself a hero who only works the night shift! Right fellas? I've tried to show that to you people, but you refuse to see the enlightment I offer you. Tsk tsk… Anyways folks it's getting late and I'll just live you to fix this lil' economic meltdown on your own, I have faith in ya!" he stoped talking and his face darkened "oh that reminds me, I always like a big finale. So things might get a little bit… explosive. HA HA HA HA HA. Or maybe I'm just joking, you'll have to find out yourselfs" his face disappeared and the panic resumed. Everyone trying to get out of the building and screaming fucking murder.

Gotham City Banks Federation investigated the following week; how the fuck did he pulled the biggest heist of all times. They didn't know of course.

He and his army of nerds did the entire jig from the new tech lab at the FunHouse. It was surprisingly easy once he found a way to infect both; the multiple Bank's servers and the GCSM's. In the form of a bonus on 3 lives at SugarSmash he infected the entrance guard's phone, who gave him access to the building's web. The Worm Virus got them to the bank's web and soon he had control over everything.

With one team of hackers writing codes for draining the profits from the banks and wiring the money to one account (the fake company's) linking the robbery with him. Another using a proxy and an algorithm to create untraceable transactions to his overseas accounts. And the last one hacking into the Stock's network putting the trail for a member of the regulation committee or whatever, to trigger the monitor blackout. He looked like an orchestra's director, barking others and getting ready for his monologue.

The secret to do it all undetected? The ace under his sleeve: a lanky 12 year old Asian little guy. A true prodigy. He singlehandedly froze not only the stock's view of the entire operation, but the bank's as well.

Joker was robbing them under their own noses and they couldn't know! He had their records frozen. HA HA HA HA HA. What a fit. Laughing possessed, he got out of the lens length. He pushed the door open and a dozen or so henchmen barged in. shooting teams one, two and three of hackers, effectively killing them off. The prodigy stared at him scared shitless.

"Not the little guy there boys" he said and saw the boy relax visibly "He is hired. You now work for me kiddo. See it like a show of gratitude for the freezing thing m'kay?" the boy nodded as he walked to him- cupping his cheek and slapping him playfully "you just made me a lot richer. Besides you look like you know a thing or two about all this mumbo-jumbo so why not keep you around?" he suddenly squeezed his face hard, making the almost-teen jump and stare wide-eyed "but keep in mind, everyone is replaceable. I will not hesitate to kill you. Got it?" the boy nodded as he could and joker let his face go. Straightening merrily and heading for the door were Rocco was standing. "Show the kid his room. And get him a decent one Rocco" were his last words.

Batman was beyond pissed off. The nerve of that-that low life criminal! Not only had he ripped off the banks of the whole city out of their money. But he didn't bankrupt them! He leaved just enough money so they could build their capital. Slowly and with much work, but not completely impossible. The whole city was in panic, trying to get their money out of the bank. And the stocks worth nothing. That was going to be the dammnation of those banks. Not the robbery, but the people of Gotham. Joker knew it, and he knew batman and everyone with an ounce of common sense knew it. He was trying to prove that in a twisted way, the citizens were just as selfish as him. It was too late for batman to do anything, he had investigated on his own and didn't have much more luck than de GPD.

"It's a fucking circus out there in the city Bruce" Dick told him "Don't kick yourself down, you did everything you could, there were no leads for batman to follow" he knew him too well. He was surely blaming himself. Especially after the taunts the joker had made about his "shifts"

"You are right Richard. There's nothing Batman could and can do" Bruce said grimly in the shady entrance to the bat-cave "but there is something Bruce Wayne can and will do".

AN: Joker got away! Woowhoo. I'm excited about this. I love batman guys I really do. He is the perfect hero for Gotham and there wouldn't be joker without batman so another reason to like him. Harley is beyond pissed, and joker is in for a not-so-fun ride. We'll have Pam in the other chapter and batman is getting some action. Not with pam necessarily. But it's all I'm saying for now.

My lips are shut

MadFoy.