My meeting with The Joker was, I have to admit, awesome. I ended up leaving with The Joker. Apparently, I impressed him. You have no idea how that cool that feels. You're probably wondering what's got me so hyped up. Well, here's how it went:
I sighed as I walked away from the banker. He had given me a few hundred dollar notes and I stuffed them into my wallet. I checked the time and smirked. I had heard from a little bird (an eavesdropping hobo. They're my eyes and ears) that there was a planned robbery at the bank. 10 more minutes before BOOM. I thought gleefully. Suddenly, gun fire ran out. Damn. Bit early but oh well. None of these guys should be him. Three guys ran in wearing suits and clown masks. I grinned as I realized The Joker's ploy. Darn. Wrong again. Ah well. He was one of the men. He was counting on the fact that the men were selfish and would eventually start killing each other as well. He'd eliminate the men to get everything. I liked his style. One man came up to me, he had purple and grey tufts of hair on his mask, and put a gun to my head. "I said, hands up, heads down!" He shouted in my face. I raised an eyebrow. I know I said that I never took my mask off afterwards but I had decided to test out a new brand of makeup. It covered my scars very well and I felt like giving it a shot here but just in case, I had my mask in my pocket. I'd put that on soon as I was confident that I wasn't going to be harmed. "I said, HANDS UP AND HEADS DOWN!" I sighed and quickly disarmed him. He fell to the floor and then tried to scramble to his feet once more. I put the gun to his temple and whistled loudly. The bank fell silent.
"Alright, I understand that you guys really do not care what happens to this bastard here but you might want to hear my little proposition." The robbers scoffed and aimed at me. I began inspecting my nails on my free hand. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I have some very interesting information. It'd be a shame to just shoot that one chance of hearing it, wouldn't it?" I said airily. Of course, I was lying. Suddenly, a shotgun blast rang out and one of the clowns dropped to the ground, dead. The apparent boss walked out of his office, looking pretty bad ass. The clown who wasn't my hostage fell quickly behind the desk to protect himself. I let the clown beside me go and I knelt quickly, beginning my role as a scared hostage. They didn't call me The Actor for nothing.
He shot again, at the clown behind the desk, and reloaded. The boss looked very pissed off but very calm as well. He shot at the robber again and the clown bolted to another hiding spot. The boss knelt beside me to check if I was alright. He obviously hadn't seen me disarming one of my 'apprehenders'. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" He asked. I shook my head shakily, maintaining my character. "D-d-don't provoke them! They're dangerous!" I whispered hoarsely. He put a hand on my shoulder and then stood again. Once more, he aimed and shot, shouting "Yeah!" As he did so. The clown who was not my hostage continued to crawl along the floor to get away from the man. "Do you have any idea who you're stealing from?" He hollered angrily. Now my previous hostage and the other robber were crouched behind a table, waiting in silence since the boss did not fire again. "You and your friends are dead!"
"He's out, right?" I heard purple-and-green ask, a little unsure. The other nodded and purple-and-green stood up to shoot. The boss was not out and promptly shot the guy in the shoulder.
The remaining clown, the one who was not my hostage, stood quickly and shot the man a few times. The boss shuddered and fell to the ground. My hostage stood suddenly and clutched his shoulder. "Where did you learn to count?" He exclaimed. He walked out of the room to some stairs and disappeared out of view. I quickly fumbled in my pocket for my mask and put it on. The final guy, whom I had not heard speak as of yet, was looking around silently. There was no doubt in my mind that this was The Joker. I stood up and grabbed the gun I had disarmed earlier. "Very clever. Very clever." I said loudly, walking casually but slowly on the other side of the room. The Joker span and looked at me, head cocked to the side. He didn't raise his gun and neither did I. "I see what you're doing. Yes, I know precisely who you are." I said with a smirk. He still remained silent. "That was very good, you had me fooled me for a little while. But it became apparent as soon as the other guy took the hit in the shoulder." I explained a little further.
"You're a good actor, huh? You fooled the boss-man." He said suddenly. His voice was a little amusing but was very smooth. I could listen to him talk all day. I smiled.
"It is, after all, my reputation to be a good actor. That's what I'm known as." The Joker seemed to realize who I was finally.
"Oh, I see… Should have got that from the mask really. You're known by another name though… Solace, isn't it?" He asked curiously.
"Correct again. I won't reveal precisely who you are as of yet. You have to keep up your own ploy, don't you? I won't interfere. Continue." And I leaned against the wall right near beside the windows. Purple-and-green entered the room and I shrank back, willing myself to become unnoticed.
He pulled along around seven duffel bags and dumped on the floor in front of the Joker. "That's a lot of money." He said. The Joker helped for a moment, also pulling a few bags in. "If this Joker guy was so smart, he'd had had us bring a bigger car." Purple-and-green cocked his gun and pointed it at the Joker. He froze for a moment, as if wondering what the man was going to do. He looked back at him and I felt his eyes flicker to myself for a moment. "I'm betting the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash." Purple-and-green said smugly, still holding his gun up. I heard The Joker chuckle softly. He checked his watch and said: "No, no, no, I kill the bus driver." And looked back at the man before him. I could sense his frown as his hand wavered for a moment. He shifted uncomfortably. "Bus driver?" He asked quietly. The Joker followed his move and the clown began to get irritated. "What bus driver?" He asked angrily. As if on cue, a bus crashed through the wall beside me, just missing me.
He got pushed over by the impact and died instantly. The Joker didn't even flinch as he watched the bus crash in. Another clown opened the back door of the bus and his voice sounded old and gruff when he spoke. "School's out. Time to go." He said shortly and hopped out of the bus, "That guys not getting up, is he?" He said, taking the bags that The Joker passed to him and placing them in the school bus. He grunted a few times after throwing them in and said: "That's a lot of money." Well, obviously. The Joker handed the final bag to the driver and looked around, searching for any more threats. "What happened to the rest of the guys?" The driver asked, as if just noticing. Instead of answering with words, The Joker shot him too. I laughed loudly and moved from my place.
The Joker went to get the last bag that he had just noticed on the other side of the room as I peered at the boss. He had been unconscious for a while and was just starting to wake. He moved and watched the villain chuck the last bag in and move to get in. "You think you're smart, huh?" The Joker turned to look at the man dying on the floor. "The guy that hired youse… he'll just do the same to you." He said, obviously in pain. The Joker didn't seem to appreciate conversation at that moment and walked over, a little irritated. The boss continued, "Oh, the criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor… respect!" He raised his head a little and then it back down. He was lying in what appeared to be an uncomfortable position. "Look at you, what do you believe in, huh? What do you believe in?" He shouted angrily. The Joker crouched in front of him and I sat myself in the doorway to the bus, watching curiously. The Joker stuffed something in his mouth, it looked like a bomb, and spoke once. "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you…" And he removed his mask, making the boss's eyes widen in terror, "Stranger." He smiled at the man and then moved away and it was then that I noticed the line connected from the bomb to the bus. The Joker walked over to me and cocked his head again and I got a good first look at his features. He had slightly greenish-brown hair and his makeup looked to be smudging. He had dark circles around his eyes and the red makeup on his mouth stretched up his cheeks, making the scars on them stand out. He looked terrifying but, dare I say it, handsome at the same time.
"You coming with me?" He asked. I shrugged.
"Couldn't hurt." And I got up from my seat and walked into the bus without a glance back to the still shell-shocked man in the floor. I climbed over the multiple bags and went to stand at the front, beside the driver's seat. I hadn't yet found the time to get a driving lesson unfortunately. The Joker followed me and sat in the seat. He put his foot on the pedal and we drove out into a bunch of oncoming buses, leaving the boss moaning as smoke was emitted from the bomb in his mouth. A few police cars drove past us and I chuckled at their ignorance. Life seemed pretty good at the moment.
"Nice place." I remarked as I walked around the warehouse. It was better than my 'house', that's for sure. I lived in a factory. Talk about style, huh? There were piles of boxes everywhere, no doubt stashed with guns, money and more guns. "Through there is the bathroom and over there is the kitchen. Make yourself at home." The Joker said as followed me in. I nodded and went to go and grab the money bags. I managed to hold three at a time and I walked back to the doorway. "Where do you want the bags?" I called.
"Just put them to the side. We'll sort those out later." I heard from another room. I did as he said and got all of the bags at the side of the room. I stretched my now aching arms and walked to the kitchen. He told me to make myself at home so I figured I'd do just that. I found The Joker was throwing something nasty away and I shrugged it off. He didn't seem to have much company; just like me. I looked in the cupboards to see if there were any ingredients that I could use for a dinner of some kind. "Are you gonna come with me to meet with the Mob?" I heard from behind me. I peered back at him to find Joker leaning against the door jamb with his arms crossed, watching me with his head tilted forwards. His signature purple jacket was off now and I could see muscles inside of his shirt sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows. "Sure, sounds like fun." I replied and continued my search for something edible. I opened another cupboard and a bat flew out, nearly getting caught in my hair. I watched it fly away and then raised an eyebrow at Joker. He just looked at me sheepishly and I smirked. "Fancy something spaghetti?" I asked upon finding some. He shrugged.
"Sure." He said shortly and then left the room. I nodded and busied myself cleaning up the surfaces and putting some hot water to boil.
I walked into the main room and expecting to find Joker in there. He wasn't. Hearing a noise in another room, I glanced in and found Joker grabbing a small playing card. He heard me behind him and looked up at me in the doorway. "I didn't really know what to call so I came looking instead. I take it I just call you Joker?" I said with an eyebrow raised. He smirked and stood up, following me to the kitchen. "Call me whatever you want." He replied. I nodded and decided Joker would have to do. I couldn't go around calling him 'Clown' or 'Chuckles' now could I? I handed him the plate with the food on it and sat on the counter, bringing one knee up to rest my hands on. "You're not having any?" He asked after noticing my own lack of meal. I shook my head.
"I'm not that hungry. I've got a weird stomach. Haven't eaten for three days. Freaky, huh?" I said with a small smirk. He nodded and tried the spaghetti, sitting at the small circular table as he did so. He seemed to like it since he continued to eat it. As he did so, I stared into space in front of me. I really wanted to get to the Batman. Joker seemed to hate him as well though he enjoyed playing games with him as well. That's my kind of crime. And then… The Mayor would die too. "Ahem." I looked up at the sound and found the Joker peering at me like he did before dinner, his plate in the sink. He was looking at me rather intensely. I shrugged. "What?" He began scrubbing his plate, glancing up at me every now and then.
"You spaced out there. I said we're leaving for the Mob meeting now." I nodded and got off of the counter.
"You'll find that I space out a lot." I said as I left the room.
"Aaaalrighty then."
"Rest assured; your money is safe." Joker winked at me inside of the cafeteria. He then began laughing eerily and I had the urge to do so as well. Instead of ruining his awesome entrance, I followed while cricking my knuckles threateningly. We came to a stop just before the table. "And I thought my jokes were bad." He said quietly, giving the television a funny look. One of the Mob with a purple suit of his own gritted his teeth.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't have my boy pull your head off." He said threateningly, gesturing to a very big guy. Joker didn't reply, instead he asked a question. "How about a magic trick?" He plunged a pencil into the table and I smirked, remaining silent. "I'm gonna make this pencil disappear." He made circling motions with his hand as he gestured to the pencil. The menacing man's 'boy' stood up and tried to apprehend Joker. It was simply not to be. Joker grabbed his head and smashed it onto the table. He slumped off of it and the pencil was still inside of the man's head. "Ta da! It's – It's gone." Joker finished with a small flourish, sitting down in an empty seat. I walked forwards a little, standing to the right of the chair. The Mob finally noticed me for the first time. I got some distasteful looks, some respectful looks (they must have heard who I was) and some plain gross looks. Joker cleared his throat and leaned forwards a little. "Now, if you would stop gawping at my partner here, we could do some business? Hmm?" The Mob's eyes immediately averted from my own smirking face and returned to Joker. Yes, things were going quite well.
So, chapter 2! Woo! This'll be a short story by the way. It's centred around the movie plot, obviously, and I'm finally getting back to being motivated! Woo! Celebrations! Anywho, thank you to everyone who has favourited/added this story to their alerts! I'm very grateful! Please look at my other stories, unless they don't interest you. I tend not to read a story if it's not one I've heard of. Anywho, so you guys already know what I want you to do ;D Cheers folks.
Luna