My World
Chap 14 – Close at Hand
Writing. Writing. And more writing.
Kairi was simply – brilliant.
Of course now they had a lot of information to collect, leaf through, and summarize about. But it was all taken in good stride because now – their malicious criminal had a face. At first they had narrowed down the hunt to about a few dozen suspects found in a universe where superheroes were a pretty common phenomenon. But given a few hours, they were able to cut back to a dozen and then Riku had the suggestion to type up the bladed card gimmick – a device the murderer had used on quite a few of his victims. As soon as Kairi had entered the additional criteria into the database – a single name popped up on the screen.
Upon reading the initial profile – they quickly dismissed it to be another dead end search.
Name: Unknown
Alias: Joker
Height: 6'5" (1.95 m)
Weight: 192 lbs (87 kg)
Hair: Green
Eyes: Green
Complexion: White
Notes:
-Currently wanted by police to be taken back to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane
-Toxic immunity, a resistance to pain, heightened sense of awareness (?)
-Non – Meta human
A non-meta human. In sum – someone who is not endowed with magical abilities or any super powers. A villain who had eluded them for months couldn't possibly be just a regular psychopath. However, Sora wasn't willing to let this lead go just yet. This – Joker, as he likes to call himself, has been aided in his endeavors by Organization XIII (as he stated earlier in one of this crime sprees). With that kind of power backing you up the possibilities were endless. Sora insisted they give the psychotic weirdo a through check, and though Riku and Kairi both stated that they would possibly find nothing – they agreed to look further into it.
And what a nasty surprise they found when they had overturned the rock.
His body count wasn't even within reasonable limits and far exceeded any number they had assumed they were going to see. What made it worse was that it wasn't even fully completed, the number was just an estimation and there were assumptions that some of the bodies haven't even all been found. His preference knew no bounds as he slaughtered virtually anything that was alive – from newborns to disabled elderly. He was a monster – and it did them no good to further evaluate his persona. His brain was a scattered mess that not even the most noteworthy of psychologists could decipher. There were a shockingly disgusting amount of books written about him – and though they were all valid in their points none of them were 100% certified. The only few doctors who had the displeasure to try and crack his code had all gone insane themselves and now are amongst the medicated hundreds found in Arkham Asylum or had died through "unknown" causes. The only doctor who had seem to come out of the therapy sessions unscathed but still mentally disturbed was a Ms. Harleen Quinzel – now known as Harley Quinn.
Name: Harleen Quinzel
Alias: Harley Quinn
Height: 5'3" (1.6 m)
Weight: 115 lbs (52.16 kg)
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Notes:
-Currently wanted by police to be taken back to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane
-Stockholm Syndrome (?)
-Elite gymnast, super strength, agility and toxic immunity
-Non – Meta human
The Joker's "girlfriend" appeared to be of a bit more physical prowess than him but nothing that they haven't dealt with before. Kairi scrolled along the page and stumbled upon the image gallery. Harley looked to be a gorgeous young woman, with potential twinkling in her eyes before she had plunged head (or perhaps heart) first into the criminal life style. Images of her in costume came and Riku whistled jokingly before being jabbed in the side. Then came a frightening image of the Joker himself, Kairi gasped and nearly leapt out of her chair, Sora went to help her calm her initial terror and Riku stood staring; dumbfounded for a moment.
"Who could ever love that?" Riku remarked. When they had read that he skin was white and his hair green, they hadn't thought they were literally serious about it. The white WAS his skin and the green WAS his hair. And though he retained the image of a clown, white skin, colored hair and red lips; he was anything BUT funny.
In the numerous criminal photographs he took, he jokingly stuck his tongue out at the camera, in another he covered his eyes with his numerical sign and puffed his cheeks, and in the last he stared directly into the camera and smiled, the last was probably the most chilling image they had ever seen. His white skin was not the color of a clown but of a corpse, the blood lips proudly portrayed his less than inviting smile that housed the dozens of sharp teeth in his mouth. And those eyes, it was as if he really WERE staring at them, boring into them with those vivid green eyes. Sleep depraved and an off colored white eyes continued to glare at them till Riku immediately closed the images and looked over at Kairi who had shut her eyes tightly as Sora gently rocked her with his arms and softly patted her head cooing to her that, "It was only a picture" and "It's gone now".
When everything had calmed down, they all in silent agreement began to gather up all their findings. They didn't need any further investigative work to find out who this madman was – they knew in their gut that it had to be the Joker and he became their prime suspect. Riku decided to take Kairi's job from the computer while Sora and Kairi compiled their notes together so they could go and talk it over with Mickey about their breakthrough. And it was only a matter of minutes before Sora and Kairi were all done, they were eager to share their findings and stop this disastrous plan of his – whatever it maybe – from coming to fruition.
"Hey! Come over here," Riku called to his companions from his seat, and they immediately went over to him.
"Think we should call this guy?" An image of a dark figure swooping down from a building top and silhouetted by the full moon appeared on the screen. It was a picture chosen from a newspaper article entitled "BATMAN: URBAN MYTH?"
"Batman?" Sora inquired, "Exactly what does Batman have to do with the Joker?"
"You'd be surprised." Riku flipped over to a different page. "To sum up what this says here." He taps the screen, "Basically, Batman and Joker go – WAY back. They've been the thorn in each other's sides for decades and it appears that it's been Batman all these years whose been capturing the Joker and putting him away and saving the city from his demented antics. And, I don't know about you, but maybe we should get the Clown-Expert here to help us get rid of this pest."
Kairi went back and looked over the image of the Batman and shivered, "Why does everyone in this universe look so – creepy?" Sora pulled out a pen and paper and wrote down the vigilante's name.
"We'll see if we can contact him once we tell King Mickey." Sora shuffled the small piece of paper into his other notes.
And with that, we were off into the winding ways of the castle looking to and fro for King Mickey, and luckily they found him out in a nearby hallway just about ready to head off some place.
"Mickey!" Sora called out, and the large eared king of the universe they were in turned about and smiled graciously.
"Hello kids! What's going on?"
"We got it! We found out who's behind all of this!" Riku said as Sora handed over the compilation of their notes into Mickey's hands, Mickey's eyes widened with excitement and his smile was more grateful and relieved than they had ever seen since the beginning of this whole charade.
"This is fantastic!" He flipped through the notes his wide eyes engulfing every word and nodding his approval of their work. "Now that you know who he is, do you know where to find him?"
The trio's enthusiasm dropped, they hadn't really thought about where to look for the madman and were mostly focusing their efforts on whom he was rather than where he was. They all mentally hit themselves over the head – what did it matter who he was, when what they really needed to do was just catch him and put a stop to him. Riku thought it was a good time to bring up another character they had previously knew nothing about till today.
"Well – we're not exactly sure; though in the universe he came from they have a guy named Batman who pretty much deals with this guy on a daily basis. Batman knows him better than anyone else in the cosmos, so we were thinking of maybe trying to get him here to help us." Mickey shook his head as he heard Riku speak, he simply couldn't let another universe get involved in this jumbled tapestry. It was bad enough they had to invade the worlds of their own universe and to go into another universe all together was entirely out of the question.
"I'm afraid we can't do that. We can't interfere in an entire different universe that may or may not even know of our existence." Mickey sighed, "There must be another way for us to find out where he is."
"Wonderland." Kairi meekly spoke up, and they all diverted their eyes towards her. "I-in one of the messages he sent, it read 'Wonderland'. That's the only location he gave us, and perhaps that's probably where he is."
Mickey was surprised to hear her speak; she had been in such down spirits as of late he didn't know if she had caught up with all of this business. "Good work Kairi," Mickey said and a small flush came to her cheeks and she smiled in accomplishment. "I would go and investigate Wonderland with you; however, there are other things I need to get done." Mickey began walking away from the three, grabbing from off a nearby rack a large black coat. "I want you all to stick together, we don't know what this – Joker – has planned, be careful, good luck, and nice work." He quickly walked away from them and out through the doors of the exit of the castle.
"And where do you think he was going?" Sora inquired as he turned back to his comrades, they themselves heading off to the area where they kept their gummi ship.
"Who knows? I mean he is king after all. He has a million other things to worry about." Riku replied. It wasn't a long walk before they arrived to their gummi ship and Sora was about ready to open up the door and get inside when Kairi jumped up in sudden urgency.
"Oh dear!" She exclaimed, immediately fidgeting in her place. "I have to go…I have to go to Traverse Town!"
Riku and Sora both lifted a brow and in unison remarked, "For what?"
"I have to talk to Cid!"
"Talk to Cid about what?" Riku asked.
"About something very, very important!" She started skittering off into a different direction till Sora's voice stopped her. "Aren't you going to tell us what you're going to say to him?"
"I'll tell you later! You guys don't worry about me I know how to get around! You two can go off without me!" She turned, gave them a reassuring smiled before disappearing off into the castle.
Sora was compelled to follow her, but Riku grabbed a hold of him before he could sprint off. Though Kairi was their friend, and they were concerned with the sudden change in plans, their first priority was to check out Wonderland. Riku was able to convince Sora that Kairi was going to be fine and that she was able to take care of herself now. They had all grown older and wiser during these past couple of months and Kairi wasn't going to be getting herself into trouble any time soon. Sora, hesitantly of course, agreed, and off they both went into their gummi ship towards Wonderland.
Whoa! Has it been forever and a day or what since I updated! Sorry guys! You know, life happens! Anyways, I heard some stuff about the Sleeping Serendipity chapter and how everyone thinks that was a pretty low blow on everyone's intelligence xD. But let's get REALISTIC here. Exactly what leads did these kids have to follow? Some loonies death riddles and suspects whom 1) Live in another universe, 2) Are dead (or if interrogated will probably will die eventually), and 3)are in Organization XIII. And besides they aren't Detectives like Batman (the GREATEST Detective in the WORLD) but they do their best, this is new terrortory for them. Your lucky Joker doesn't operate like a normal serial killer or he would've skiddadled a long time ago instead of dropping them a massive hint (again he's impatient - like a child). But in any case, FEAR NOT, there was a reason for the season - and though I can't tell you what it is now - I hope you will understand and appreciate it in time xD.