Joker yawned obnoxiously.
"Boring! NEXT!"
Andrea hesitated. Joker looked disinterested.
"You're less fun than Bat-brains," Joker grumbled. "Don't get me wrong, it's a good shtick, but you've got a lot to learn about revenge kiddo."
"What are you babbling about?" Andrea demanded, furiously.
"Dramatic irony. Heard of it? You see, you don't just avenge a death. You don't see ol' Pengy and Scarecrow just offing their enemies. They have style, charisma, stage presence. Star quality. Even Miss Flower Power herself has the showmanship to put a thorn in their sides first. Or their eyes."
Joker sniggered. Andrea must have missed the joke.
"You want me to torture you, is that it?"
"I wouldn't say I want it," Joker replied, shrugging. "But the audience demands it!"
Her every instinct told her to shut him up, to end it there and then. Minds were open books to the Clown Prince, and he had a penchant for writing in little cliff notes that drove people over the edge. She knew she couldn't let him play his games and yet… this did seem too easy, too quick. He didn't deserve such a kind fate.
Thoughts raced through her mind. Was she right where Joker wanted her, falling into his trap? It probably was a distraction. Nevertheless, against her better judgement, she decided to hear him out. What difference would it make? There was no escape, nobody looking for him. Not even the Batman would save this S.O.B.
And she wanted to make him suffer.
"Talk, clown."
"Oooh, that's a good one. Nobody's ever called me that before. Oh wait, I did! The Clown Prince of Crime… I've got my work cut out for me." Joker chuckled.
"Just know that I'm watching you. Don't try any-"
"Funny business? Hehe, wouldn't dream of it." He licked his lips dramatically and smiled. "Now, where to start? Hmm… not the beginning that's for sure. That's far too conventional! Somewhere in the middle, like: why are you trying to kill me? No, really, I wasn't paying attention to the plotline."
Andrea scowled. "You killed my father for Valestra."
Joker's face scrunched up and his eyes drifted up to the ceiling as if he was thinking hard. He made a small humming noise and pouted, then made an exaggerated clueless face.
"Nope, doesn't ring a bell."
Andrea's eyes widened in disbelief. Anger overtook her and she threw her full force into a right hook that rattled the Joker's teeth. The clown's head lurched left, then sprang back again like a ball on a string. Andrea couldn't believe it. After everything that monster had done he was pretending he didn't remember.
How could anyone forget?
Her father's body had been so badly disfigured they had been forced to use dental records to identify him. Fire had erased any evidence of the cause of death, and the morticians had been paid not to look too close.
"Now we're getting somewhere," Joker said, blinking away the stars in his vision. "I can hear ringing, hehe. You've taken your first step, grasshopper. Or leap. Or hop, skip and a jump."
"Get on with it. Or should I just start carving you up?"
"See, this is what I mean. No finesse. No patience. Like I said, dramatic irony. Or serendipity. Let's say you were shot in the spine and never walked again. You don't just put a bullet in the guy's head, that's no fun at all. You blow out his kneecap, haha." Joker beamed, but mirth soon morphed to malevolence. "So, what you've got to ask yourself is, what did I do to dear old Dad?"