Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Children of all ages I welcome you to: The Cirque De La Mort!
This Circus it just to die for...

~Harley~

Mr. J walked with his head slightly hung behind the large man who had taken us the back way to our seats. All around us Julius Fucik's Entrance of the Gladiators blasted from hidden speakers. Every once in a while cheers would erupt from the crowd on the other side of the tent walls then die down, only to be riled up again. The man led us up a flight of stairs, never looking back to make sure we were still behind him. He stopped in front of a door and produced a skeleton key from his pockets. I didn't know that they made locks to go with those anymore…The lock clicked and he let us in. We were on the balcony perfectly aligned with the middle of the action. Some men were walking out of the tent, their bodies completely contorted. The crown roared crazily as the ringleader walked the same way Mr. J did with their head bowed till they were center stage. "A big hand to the Contort Brothers!" She yelled raising her hands high above her head and clapping them together. She looked up and made eye contact with me. I had to do a double take. It was her. "Is that," I began. Mr. J silenced me with his hand and leaned forward in his chair as she held his gaze. A large tv suspended from heavy duty cables was lowered from the ceiling. "And now that our guests of honor are here, we can continue on to the main event!" She yelled as the people started clapping. She picked up her stick and pointed at us "For Mr. Jack Napier and Dr. Harleen Quinzel!" The spotlight found us and I had to shield my eyes. Mr. J on the other hand stood up and took a gracious bow. Everyone gasped and some tried to leave. One brave soul pulled out a gun and tried to shoot him, but apparently there was glass protecting us. The guy who led us in cut him down with the butt of his machine gun. On the screen appeared three buildings: the police department, city hall, and Bruce Wayne's mansion. "Each of you belong to one of these places!" She explained. "Each of these places get a certain number of strikes! Get all the strikes on the places and they all get blown away!" She said. Mr. J laughed loudly, catching Ringleader's attention. "Well that got his attention! Wake up Doctor Quinn! You'll miss the show!" She yelled to me making Mr. J laugh even harder. I crossed my arms and looked at him until he stopped laughing. "Aww, come on, Harls!" He said nudging me. "It's justa joke!" He pinched my chin. "So that's stee-rike one for the police department! Everyone say thanks to the guy knocked out on the ground!" She laughed. A "J" appeared at the bottom of the police department's picture. "And now I formally welcome you all to the Cirque de la Mort!" And at that moment places in the tent that were just walls before became the deadliest places to be. On a balcony across from us was a girl with a large machine gun facing the crowd below us. Entering the ring were tigers and large dogs on chains who were growling at the person bringing them in. There was one dog that stuck out to me. A large grey Great Dane with a small white cat sitting on it's back. Clowns with different types of guns walked down the aisles and turned their backs to the ring. "Batman will save us!" A woman in a long black dress yelled before being shot by the girl on the balcony. "It's cute that you really think so!" Ringleader laughed at the broad being dragged out of the room. The man she came with tried to fight off one of the guys who were trying to remove her. She clicked her tongue as a y and an o showed up under city hall. "What did you do to Batman!?" Police commissioner Gordon yelled. I was surprised that he wasn't shot down too. An o showed up under the police department and people started to get rowdy. Everyone started yelling about B-man. Even Mr. J wanted to know what se did with his dear Batsy! "He's in as much danger as you all are! He's. Here." And another letter showed up under each building ad displayed on the screen was Jok O You
"What the hell kind of game are you playing!?" Commissioner Gordon asked her. "Can someone bring him down here? We need to talk." She asked as a couple of armed clowns took him out of the crowd and into the ring. First thing I heard her say was "Can you believe your dear Batman is here and he's not protecting you? He doesn't deserve to be called a hero." She yelled at the crowd who was getting angrier by the second. When Gordon got close enough to talk to her they talked quietly for a while before she held out her hand to the guy who brought him out. He handed her a microphone. She clicked it on and said "Testing, testing. Joker can you hear me?" She looked up at us and he gave her a thumbs up. I scowled a little. "State your name." She said putting the mic in front of his face. "Police Commissioner Jim Gordon." He replied. "And what was the first thing you said to me?"
"Your insane if you think Batman will sit back and let this happen."
"Yeah-hmm. Okay. And could you define insane for us please?"
"Crazy."
She imitated a buzzer "Wrong answer! The dictionary definition of insane is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different outcome." She smiled at him. "By this definition me, you, the Joker, and Batman are insane."
"You're crazy."
"What make the Joker different from your Caped Crusader?"
"The Joker kills. Batman protects."
"He's not doing a good job tonight..."
"He'll save us. And lock you up in the Asylum where you belong!" He shouted not at all starling her.
"And the insanity continues!" She chirped bubbly
"Get him outta here." She waved her hand at the guys who brought him into the ring. She walked over to the tall guy who was holding the animals back from the crowd. She whispered something to him and suddenly he let the Great Dane with the cat on its back go. It took off toward the crowd and started stiffing around in the stands. Most people swatted at him trying to get him to go away. He sniffed at everyone and just searched the crowd. He stopped at Bruce Wayne. The dog started barking at him. "Ohh we have a match!" Ringleader squealed into her still on mic. "Citizens of Gotham! I'd like to introduce to you... Batman."