The clinking and the jingling of chains and the clicking of shackles being locked, they echo throughout a prison in New York. Several criminals mind their own business, some struggle and plan to break out of jail, while others have resigned their fates and accepted the end.
The three recently returned criminals, the trio of terror... these circus runaways, were just normal people. They sat in the waiting room, trying to discuss a plan for trying to break out, yet again... with this time, being different.
"Well, that job was a bust. I feel likes we got scammed. The cops were supposed to be all over that subway, but they suddenly turn their attention on us? What kinda nonsense is that!? All for a bunch of stupid video games." The mafia man sneered as he swallowed down his prison food.
"Me no like bugs... circus had man with 4 extra arms, others called him Man-Spider... me call him bug man." the strongman groaned, shuddering at the mention of bugs.
"Who gives a damn about your insect phobia, Kringoff, and more importantly, how the hell are we getting out of here this time?" The woman said, amongst her comrades. She looked at the mafia man with a chided smile. "C'mon, Dicksby. You ran with the russian mafia before, then you crossed the canadian mafia like it was no sweat, leavin' them as a distant memory. Usually by now, you'd have a plan at the ready."
"I gets what you're puttin' down, Agnes, but let's face the facts, what exactly are wes gonna do once we gets back out there, huh? The fuzz will be lookins for us, and we stand out like sore thumbs in a slapstick comedy show," The man groaned and sighed. "Top that with the talk of aliens being among us, and then that talk turns out to have some weights to it, judgin' by the swamp thing that busted a supposed train heist like it was nothin', we're kinda screwed if we trys anything else... We might as well just throw ourselves in, hang ourselves out to drys. We're old news, and we don' haves the firepower to beat back aliens, and Kringoff's ungodly strength can only dos so much." Dicksby stated in defeat.
Agnes sighed, sitting in her seat, looking at her cuffed ankles and her cuffed wrists. "There has to be something we can do, I don't want to go back to jail!" She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Before another word could be uttered, the power to the prison was cut off, leaving everyone in the dark. Before the trio could ask what just happened, the sounds of a demented form of laughter echoed outside the room, and the shrieks of guards and prisoners were now audible, but the laughter just drowned the suffering out, almost like the entire place had become the residential suite for the looniest and psychotic individuals to have ever set foot on god's green Earth.
"Me no like this, something scary out there, something worse than bug man or big moth." Kringoff remarked worriedly.
"For once, the big lug is talkin' some sense, toots. We gotta get outta here, otherwise this could means the end of all of us, see?" Dicksby agreed.
Anges agreed, and as the three stood up, the door to their room was burst into pieces by the unconscious body of one of the guards... and what looked like a twisted, permanent grin on his face, despite how his eyes showed no signs of life at all.
"Yeah, time to make like my stupid cousin and run, run like hell is rising behind us!" Anges stated.
Kringoff tried hard, and managed to snap his cuffs off, carrying Dicksby and Anges on his shoulders as he made a break for the exit. Soon thereafter, the laughing grew louder behind the three, and the doors to the outside were then slammed shut, reinforced and locked. Kringoff could usually bust through the doors, but the doors were upgraded, and he couldn't get through them.
"Good thing the Fuzz is just as stupid as they are good at putting us back in this rotten place." Dicksby said with a grin, pulling out a magnum revolver as he pointed it down where they just came from.
The laughter seemed to just keep going on, and the door still wouldn't budge. Then, the three turned to look down where they came from together, seeing an individual in the shadows, who chuckled in a low tone, but it reverberated off of the walls. The man stepped forward, revealing a man with slick back green hair, red lips with healing scars on his cheeks, pale white skin, and a dark purple business suit with a bright green dress shirt underneath, with a yellow flower attached to it.
The three were terrified. They saw a lot of freaks before they came together, but this guy was on a whole other scale of freaky. Just the way he smiled was... unsettling. "Hello there, you three wouldn't happen to be looking for a new business opportunity, would you?" The man asked, his smile never fading.
"M-Maybe we are, maybe we aren't. Who are you, and w-what do you want?" Agnes asked, hesitating on her words as she stared in horror at the man.
"What I want, are some well-respected individuals, who aren't afraid to put on a smile when they do what they do best. Can I count on you three, to be the best at your job?" the man asked, chuckling a bit.
"... As long as you don't plan to leave us for the cops, you got yourself a deals, mister..." Dicksby gestured.
"John Ophilus Kleinhyden Emastoli Reymin," The man joked as be burst into another spine-chilling laugh, only to calm down, but keep the wide smile on his face. "But, you can call me by what everyone else calls me. After all, it's my calling card in a deck." The man handed Dicksby a playing card, and the three go a look at it, then concerningly looked back at the man in the dark violet suit.
"So, boss, w-what's the first job gonna be?" Dicksby asked cautiously.
"It'll be about you three getting properly prepared to do any job that I instruct you to do. Come on, now, we have an HQ to remodel, and an industry to create! AHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" The man cackled.
"Me still confused, new boss... what do call you again?" Kringoff asked.
The man looked back, and it seemed physically impossible for the man's smile to get even wider, only for it to do the impossible. "Call me Mr. J... or, if you're feeling casual about our work," The man walked down the dark corridor, only to face the three within the shadows.
"Joker will do just fine."
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
For those who aren't aware, these three, are the circus freaks, before they became the circus freaks. Thumbskull, Frightwig, Acid Breath, these three are no longer on Zombozo's payroll. Instead, their boss is a vastly different beast.
And yeah, I did just introduce the Joker. Try not to act so serious about this, the Joker and his new crew will show up when the story gets there.
Kringoff, is Pre-Thumbskull. He was apart of a traveling Russian circus for the freakishly abnormal. He got kicked out when a fella named Man-Spider joined the ranks and put him out of an honest job.
Agnes, is Pre-Frightwig. She used to be a small-time drug-runner, robbing pharmacies and stores for medicine, all so she can make an easy buck selling the stuff for triple the price. Once she got caught, her own crew sold her out to the feds, and time after time, she's been in and out of prison, and still raising hell.
Dicksby, is Pre-Acid Breath. He's a natural-born trickster. A con man out for himself, and only himself. On rare occasions, he has shown to play well with others, and share in the wealth. For a time, he was a lowly grunt in the Russian mafia, but would soon backstab them and hide out in Canada, where he'd join the Canadian mafia, and back stab them, too. Once he fled to America, he officially had himself trapped, so he was going to make the most of it.
Now, why am I putting names to these three? I couldn't begin to tell you why, because I don't know, it just felt easier to give them names.
I hope that I can do more shorts like this, I always wanted to do some world-building stuff like this.
The next episode, is on its way, and what do you know? It's a tourist attraction! How electrifying!
