I'm all ready for the next chapter if you guys are!
Chapter 14
Gordon's partner left and Ann Ramirez came and took his place. She decided that to pass the time she would do paper work. She wasn't all that interested who the punks where in the cells. It was a bit strange to see a girl in here but it must have been some sort of emergency or she wouldn't be here. Well, whatever the reason, Ann was stuck as baby sitter. Unfortunately for her the three teenagers were growing really bored really fast.
Artemis wanted to put her plan in action but that required patience. Patience is a virtue and a constant reminder of how slow time can really go by. She needed to entertain herself so knocked her foot on the wall. Joey looked over and knocked the floor after her. Damian smiled and knocked his heel on the bar.
Artemis: knock
Joey: knock
Damian: knock
-
Knock knock
Knock knock knock
Knock knock knock knock
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Knock knock knock
Knock knock knock knock
Knock knock knock knock
Ann felt her patience running very thin, that was getting irritating, really irritating. Finally after a minute of this she slammed her hand on the desk. The three froze and looked at her. "Stop," she said firmly with a stern look. Damian opened his mouth to retort but couldn't think of a thing to say. It a direct order you simply could not ignore. Artemis found herself frozen to silence and Joey immediately quit the knocking.
A streak of anarchy hit Artemis and she knocked the floor again. Ann got up and walked over to her cell. "If you do not stop it I'll do the best I can to make sure you regret stepping foot in here. I'm not Gordon and I'm not his partner. And I do NOT make threats ma'am. Don't push my buttons." Artemis gave her a defiant look. If there was anything she hated it was orders. It drove her nuts the Joker ordered her around, she certainly didn't want that woman who she didn't even know bark orders at her. Artemis rolled off her back and stood up and looked the woman strait in the face just two inches apart from her face.
Ann stared her down then, figuring she made her point, walked over to her desk and continued her report. Artemis smiled and walked back to her little spot and sat waiting. Joey and Damian had a game of rock paper scissors while Artemis kept her eye on the clock. Midnight, magic hour, she slowly stood up signaling the others that it was time.
"Don't insult me you're the one who did it," said Damian loudly. Ann looked up at the commotion.
"Ha! If it wasn't for you 'oh we need to blow off steam' we wouldn't be here right now," shouted Joey.
"You're the one who decided we should put a giant joker on his wall!"
"Hey, that wasn't me that was Artemis," snapped Joey.
"Don't drag me into this," shouted Artemis.
"Nobody's talking to you miss 'I have to be in everyone's business'," said Damian.
"Fuck you! I didn't say shit! Besides you are the one who opened his big mouth to Gordon in the first place. If it wasn't for you we wouldn't be here!"
"Hey, you stole my ending," roared Joey.
"I'm trying to agree with you," retorted Artemis.
"You two are really fucking stupid, you know that," shouted Damian. Artemis ran forward and plunged her fist into Damian's gut. Damian doubled over in pain, geez, for a girl she hit hard. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked it back. He shoved her over and she fell to the floor. She jumped up and went for Damian's throat with her hands.
Ann jumped up and charged over to Artemis's cell to break up the fight. She opened the door and Artemis spun around and punched Ann right in the jaw. Ann fell to the ground and Artemis kicked her mercilessly laughing while she did so. She grabbed Ann's cell keys and walked out shutting the cell door behind her. Ann slowly got up and walked over to the door.
"Open this door right now," she ordered. Artemis was half tempted to actually open the door but fought it to let out Joey and Damian. Artemis took her long purple coat, her cowboy hat, her small verity of blades she kept on her, and her shot gun. Joey grabbed his butterfly knife and two hand guns. Damian snatched his pistol and switch blade. As they left the room Ann kept yelling after them to come back. They walked out of the room and crept down the stare well to the first floor. They quietly opened the door and looked around them. The whole lobby was filled with police and citizens and criminals.
"Okay," said Artemis, "it's all or nothing."
"We just gonna run out there," asked Damian.
"That's the plan," she said with a smile licking her lips. Joey cracked his neck and started doing stretches to get ready. "Alright, boys, now or never." They jumped out of the stairwell and ran across the lobby. When police noticed them they took after them. Citizens backed out of the way in fear. One man tried to stand in Artemis's way but she jumped and slid between his legs and kept on running. Joey and Damian together knocked him down and took off out the door.
They hid behind the dumpster and watched as police cars went out on the hunt for them. It was dark out now, they had night to clock them, which meant they would be lurking the shadows for a place to sleep. They couldn't go back home, that was for sure, it was the first place they would look for them.
"Let's go out to the warehouses," suggested Joey.
"No," said Artemis, "too far."
"Then let's go hind out in our home town," suggested Damian.
"Again, too far."
"Not if we take someone's car," said Joey smiling.
"And how do you purpose we do that? Have you, uh, ever high jacked a car before," she asked crossing her arms.
"We don't need to," said Damian pointing at a black van with someone sitting in it. Across the street was a man looking for a kid to two to kidnap and use for ransom.
He saw a thin pale girl with black eyes, a long elegant purple coat, a purple cowboy hat with a black cross, a neckless with a green gem, black knee high boots, long dirty blond hair, a black skirt down to her knees slit up the thigh, and a dark blue shirt his jaw dropped. She was coming his way with a two boys behind her.
One was the tallest with torn dark blue jeans, a black led zeppelin shirt, and a black hoodie. The boy about the girls size had long brown hair, a loose green shirt with black pajama bottoms and a loose brown unbuttoned shirt that seemed to drowned him and a pair of flip flops. It was the stranges group he had ever seen but obviously their parents had money.
He opened the door and walked toward the three. He wore a blue jean shirt and off white slax and had a pair of glasses on. "Hey," he said, "you kids need a ride?"
"As a matter of fact, uh, we do," said the girl.
"And your ride will do just nicely," said the taller boy.
"Yea, man, so you're going to give us the keys and get the fuck outa here or we will probably kill you," said the stoner. The man looked at them like they were nuts. Then the girl pulled out a shot gun from her coat and shot him in the foot. The man cried out in pain but the teens laughed hysterically. The taller of the bunch ran up and kicked the man in the face causing him to fall over.
"What should we do to him," asked the girl.
"Let's hang him by a hook," said the taller boy.
"Let's take his teeth," said the stoner.
"Hey, I resent that," said the girl. The two boys laughed at her.
"Hey, lets throw him out the car going down the high way," said the stoner.
"A most brilliant idea," said the girl.
"I agree, let's do it," said the taller boy. The man tried to get away but he could not go very fast on one foot. One of the boys grabbed him and threw him in the back of his own van. The girl jumped in the driver's seat and the stoner sat down next to her. She started up the van and drove off onto the high way. She was hitting 70, 80, 90, 100 mph. The taller boy kicked the doors open and drug the man over. The man screamed as he came closer to the door.
"Now," yelled the boy, "cover your face and roll." He shoved the man into busy traffic and shut the door after watching the kidnapper hit a couple cars then get run over several times. He was splattered all over the asphalt.
"What next," asked Joey.
"We show the world what it's like without the Joker, then we break him out of Arkham," said Artemis.
"You have really thought this out haven't you," said Joey.
"Not a lot, I have bits of it planned out but for the most part we are doing this blindly….erm….uh…just some parts are planned the rest is going to be on the spot," said Artemis feeling really weird by what she just said. Joey chuckled at her a bit.
"It's okay to say 'blindly' I promise. I'm not going to restrict your talking ability." Artemis just laughed at him. He gave her a smile, she had a pretty smile, even with those fucked up teeth, and he loved to hear that insane laugh. Artemis gave him a small smile when she calmed down. She loved to watch him have a good time. Even when he wasn't laughing his ass off she knew he was having fun.
Damian smiled to himself. He wondered if he would be just as oblivious when he fell in love with someone. He sure as hell hoped not, it would suck, finding your perfect match and not even realizing it. He looked up at the sign to their small town half an hour out of Gotham. He got an idea, and awful idea, Damian got a terribly awful idea. "I know," said Damian, "Joey pull out that pot and blunt I know you have on you and let's smoke this bitch out! We got a half an hour drive ahead of us lets at least make it a good ride."
Damian turned the radio on, yuck, classical music station. He changed it to the rock station. Artemis climbed up front and Damian took a seat on the floor leaning against Artemis's seat. He rolled it up and put it to his lips with lighter in hand. "You guys," he said, "we name our new van."
"That sounds like a good fucking idea to me," said Artemis, "time to say fuck the day." He passed it up to her and she to Damian.
……………15 minutes later………….
"The worlds going to end," said Damian, "it's going to end one day."
"The sun is going to destroy it," said Joey, "it's going to go out and the world is going to freeze over and we are all going to die or some shit like that."
"I thought it was going to explode," said Damian, "isn't that why it's getting hot and all that."
"Fuck that global warming," said Artemis, "that's what the fucking government told you. They told you the sun goes counter clock wise. How do we know that it's not really going clock wise."
"Because we have been to space," said Joey.
"So what, they might be lying about that, they lie about everything, I'm not about to believe them telling me what direction the sun is going. I don't think we have even been in space," argued Artemis.
"But they have video," said Damian.
"How do you know that moon landing wasn't just filmed in a Hollywood basement," asked Artemis. "Outer space is weightless but in the video they aren't jumping really high in the air."
"That's some serious mind fuck right there," said Joey, "but it makes sense."
"And that's all that's important," said Artemis smiling. Joey and Damian nodded in agreement. "God how much longer?"
"12 more minutes, man, 12 more minutes," said Joey, shaking his head.
"How do you know," she asked.
"Cause the van clock said so," said Joey, "look see, we left at midnight, it's a 30 minute drive, we left 17 minutes ago. We smoked a blunt on the way and now we are here riding the high."
"You're so smart, Joey," said Damian, "why the hell are you sitting in this van with us?"
"Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high," sang Joey. Artemis and Damian laughed.
"I'm telling Afroman," said Damian, "you so got a lawsuit comin your way man!"
"You're an asshole," said Joey shoving Damian's leg.
"Yea, you and you're big mouth," mocked Artemis.
"What about you miss 'I have to be in everyone's business'," said Damian while shoving her and remembering what happened less than an hour ago. Damian's face suddenly fell. Artemis and Joey stopped laughing and gave him a serious look. "You guys, I just realized something. We fed Jesse James to pigs. How the hell did the Joker get his head?"
"That must have been the noise you heard," said Joey, "he must have been out there watching."
"No, we waited till all of him was eaten," said Artemis. Joey had a sudden look of disgust on his face.
"Oh my god man," he said panicking, "he was in the pen! He had to be. He was hiding in the shadows where the pigs were dragging some of his body parts! Remember, you saw something of his make it's way about two feet from the body?"
"Oh man, his liver," said Artemis, "wait, when did he get in the pig pen without us knowing?"
"He's the Joker, he just appears places," said Damian, "but did he seriously go after the head in that pen? I mean, it almost sounds like he set us up for murder charges."
"He was the one who sent Gordon the pictures of us tagging his wall," said Artemis, "he must have set the whole arrest up."
"How would he know that we were going to kill Jesse James, that was a spur of the moment thing," said Damian.
"Because all it takes is a simple push make people go completely crazy," said Artemis dully. It was starting to make sense now. He knew they were going to do something drastic to get him the money, he probably had a look at their records and seen that they weren't really the type of kids to have a future off the streets.
"You guys, what the fuck are we talking about," asked Joey.
"I don't remember," said Artemis, "sorry the conversation is gone." Damian was lost in his own thoughts; he didn't forget the conversation he just didn't want to bring it up again. Chances are Artemis was going to bring it up to the Joker; she had a knack for remembering those things at the right moment. They drove the rest of the way not talking about anything in particular until they came to Artemis's old house. They crept in and climbed over the police tape. Even after all this time the house remained abandoned. People probably didn't want to live somewhere that the Joker had paid a visit to.
Almost all of Jessica's belongings had been taken. Artemis saw this and ran up to her mother's closet. The bastards emptied everything she held dear to herself. Artemis had to find out who had been in her home, she had to find out who took her moms stuff. Fury over took her. None of them had any right to anything in this house.
Her family never bothered with her or her mother. Jessica had Artemis when she was only 17 and she married Jack Napier. Her family knew that Jack worked for the mob and was a little unstable, they shunned Jessica for it.
Jessica took it really hard and didn't want to deal with the reality of it. She slipped into a series of drugs and prostituted herself and as Grandma's story went she treated Jack so poorly and he had so much patience for her. He was crazy to begin with but that day he came home with his face cut open and sown back shut because he and his father got in a fight she hated him.
Jack's father was put in prison, of course, but Jack was never told where his father was. Artemis's grandmother told him that his father died in order to protect him. She was the only one who ever cared what happened to Jack or Jessica. Jack was her son but Jessica had been around so long she might as well have been family.
When Grandma died Jessica fell into depression and became an angry alcoholic. After the fight with his father no one heard a word about Jack so they couldn't tell him of his mothers death. It was almost as if he just disappeared at the face of the earth. But Artemis knew where Jack was, she did the impossible and found him, who's to say she couldn't find which family member vultures took her moms stuff and failed to tell her what was going on.
She slowly walked down the stairs and found the other two sitting on the living room couch with several rips in it waiting for her. She sat at the seat silently. She just wanted to cry, but she couldn't, she was completely dead inside. She hugged her knees and rocked back and forth thinking and mumbling to herself.
"I have it," she finally said. Damian and Joey both jumped at the sound of her voice, "I know how we are going to make Gotham pay for taking the Joker."
"How," asked Joey leaning in.
"We are going after my family," she said with a wicked smile, "I'll find out who was at the funeral and who attended the reading of her will if she even had one. I'll get every single one of them." Joey smiled as she continued to talk and Damian took it all in with excitement. "We'll put it on tape and send one to Gordon and one to Dr. Arkham, and one to Marcus Napier."
"Who is Marcus Napier," asked Damian with a grin to match Joey's. The Joker would be so proud right now.
"Marcus Napier is my father's father," she said, "supposedly he and the Joker got into a fight and he cut that big grin on his face."
"I thought he did it because his wife got cut up," said Damian.
"Have you ever seen my mom with cuts on her face that look like a big smile," said Artemis lifting and eyebrow.
"Well I heard his dad did that to him when he was a little kid and killed his mom."
"His mother was the one who told me about it," said Artemis rolling her eyes. "We just need to find out where Marcus Napier is locked up is all. He is still alive and kicking. Well, as far as the Joker knows he is dead, but I know differently. We just need to pull up private police records."
"Don't you think the Joker would have come across his dads name surfing police records," said Damian.
"Unless he can't find it," she said, "if he thinks he is dead he wont be looking for his name."
They had a plan, now they just needed to wait for day time. They couldn't operate at night except the surf the net so they jumped up to Artemis's room to look for her computer. They took that to.
"Shit," she said, "that wasn't even moms; that was mine!"
"Relax," said Joey, "let's just go steal one. Look, they left the internet cord, we just need to get the rest of the computer."
They walked downstairs and out the door ready to go rob a place. They walked to the nearest store that was closed and Joey kicked the back door in. They walked into the store and looked around, just cause they were stealing the computer doesn't mean they can't be picky about their choice. They got a Wayne computer with a wireless key board and wireless mouse and wireless speakers. What can I say; the small town had some awesome computer stuff for sale.
They drove back home and hooked up the computer. Artemis put up the internet and looked up Marcus Napier. She clicked on it and found his police records. "Gotham City Jail House, he is almost 56 years old, and our old Joker looks just like him. Let's go pay a visit tomorrow morning," said Joey.
"Sounds good," said Artemis. The three all lay out on the floor with blankets and drifted off the dreamland a little excited about tomorrow. It was time for a trip down the family tree starting with the one responsible for it all.
They started off the day at 8am and jumped into the van. They drove back to Gotham City to visit dear old grandpa. When they arrived they saw it was a max security. Seems that Marcus Napier was up to more than a violent fight. They walked up to the guy in the waiting room.
"Excuse me," said Artemis, "could I please speak to Mr. Marcus Napier."
"What would you want with that sick son of a bitch," asked the police man foully.
"I'm a relative," she said. The police officer laughed at her.
"You're joking! Only one known family member and he disappeared before you where even born kid!"
"Look, I'm a distant relative doing some family history for class. I just want to do this report and go the hell back home. I have no real fascination with talking to him but whatever."
"No can-do kid," said the officer, "we got orders not to let him see anyone. Sorry, to dangerous, this guy was a terrorist to the outside world." Artemis gave a sigh of frustration but turned around to look at the others. The other two just shrugged. Artemis thought for a long moment then got another idea. She left the building with the other two following and walked around to the fence. She watched the tower guard sleep not really paying any attention.
It didn't matter, the inmates were so bored they were just sort of hanging around. Artemis looked around and saw her target. Marcus Napier, 56 year old man, he had a tear drop on his right eye, JACK written on a tomb stone on his upper left arm, MANDY on a tomb stone on his upper left arm, he had some muscles but wasn't a big guy, he was regular height, and had dark dirty blond hair. The Joker was a mirror image of this man and it was really spooky. Artemis looked up at the tower guard again and climbed over the large fence and threw her old purple pea coat over the barb wire. Damian and Joey followed behind and she ran up to him.
Inmates watched as she walked right past them without a second thought with Damian and Joey at her heels. They were so shocked they stood staring stupidly. "Excuse me Marcus Napier," she said. Marcus looked up at her with dark eyes. His jaw dropped, she looked just like his son, how in good Gods name was that even possible, Jack was dead, disappeared.
"Who are you," he asked standing up to tower over her threateningly. She kept her confidence up, this guy wasn't the Joker, he was nothing compared to the evil she was actually beginning to miss. As much as she hated the Joker, the guy kind of grew on you after a while, no one else would know this because he was not quite so personal with them, or they just didn't live long enough to find out. This man was obviously evil, but he was child's play compared to the monster he created.
Artemis pulled her shot gun off her waist and pointed it at him. "You're coming with us," she said. He put his hands up defensively. Joey pulled out both of his pistols and Damian took out his hand gun. They walked him to the fence with the yard watching. Except the sleeping guard who was about to lose his job and do some jail time himself. Joey was the first one up thefence, followed by Marcus, then Damian, then Artemis, then the rest of the inmates decided to take off there jump suits and use them to get over the wire. Why had they not thought of this before!
The four lead the entire prison through the woods to the street. They climbed in and a couple other inmates jumped in after. Finally after the van was stuffed with 4 serial killers in jump suits, Artemis, Damian, and Joey they left. The rest of the inmates watched them drive down the road and looked around.
"Now what," asked one of them. They all looked around, they had freedom, but where the hell were they suppose to go now?
"Follow the van," suggested one man. The others just shrugged and the large group of social terrorists were all walking up the road to Gotham City. They dropped the rest of the inmates off some random place in the city.
……………………………..
Marcus saw that he was shoved into a house with a camera set up and a chair. They had kept him at gun point sense they broke him out of prison. Damian pointed at the chair and told him to sit. Marcus watched them very carefully but sat down for fear that they just might shoot him. Especially the girl, she had some freaky vibes coming off of her, she wasn't scared to take a life.
Joey tied him up and Artemis started the camera up and jumped on. "Hi there," she said with her face in the camera. "I want you all to meet Marcus." She moved out of the way and toward him. "I never did thank you guys for taking the Joker off the streets. Now I can go to bed at night knowing that he won't be breaking into my home anymore. But I'm afraid that now that he isn't around, I don't have any rules to play by, I just wanted to share with you my appreciation for Gotham's finest and the good Dr. Arkham for my official freedom. Now I don't have anyone around telling me what I can and can't do.
Where was I? Oh, yea, Marcus. You see, Marcus has been hiding from his family for a long, long time. Now we can welcome him home back to his family! Marcus, why not say 'hi' to all your new fans? Oh, I'm Artemis Napier, this is Joey DeRogue, and Damian Haggard. Now let the show begin."
The first thing she did was kick him in the face. His chair fell backwards and she used her foot to lift him back up. Damian ran up with the crow bar and pounded it right into his shoulder. Joey then stuck a knife in his side. The man groaned in pain blow after blow. He wasn't sure what to expect but this was not it. They beat him mercilessly until he was a bloody pulp. Finally Joey took out one of his pistols and took all the bullets out save for one. He spun the barrel around and pointed it at his head.
"We're going to play a game of Chance," he said, "if there is no bullet you won't get shot. If there is, well, it was nice getting to know you." Artemis cut the camera of. Joey put the gun down. Artemis drug him down to the basement a bleeding mess and left him there. She then climbed back up and looked at those in the room. "Tomorrow we are going after my mothers family, the video is going to be longer but they aren't going to live to see the end of it." A grin grew on her face. "As for Marcus, he is the Jokers. But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun with him." First thing was first.
She turned on the camera and decided to add an ending. "Sorry this video was so short. I promise the next will have more to it. You will just have to be patient." Then she made two copies and sent one to Gordon and one to Dr. Arkham. And so the fun begins.
…………………………………….
Next time:
Harleen meats the Joker
Artemis, Damian, and Joey kidnap the family members in the will
A new tape is made and sent in the mail
Batman has a laundry room epidemic!
