A title card with the name 'The Last Laugh' appears as the only thing that can be seen in the black background is a smiling clown that is incredibly unnerving and creepy thanks to the shading, his bulging eyes and large smile adding to the bizarre sense of fear.
"Creepy clown, how original" Dabi spoke somewhat sarcastically despite his lack of interest, this one had an worst title card than the last simply for how generic it was, maybe this could scare a few people but he found it lacking.
"That thing is terrifying!" Kaminari and Mina spoke up together, a shiver going down their spines as they got all the wrong vibes from the title, plus the notification of this being a Joker plot didn't help
"I hate this, I hate this already." Hagakure said as she curled up, she already didn't like the creep factor of Joker's last appearance and now she was feeling like it was coming back for a second round, just looking at the title card was enough for her to get uncomfortable. The two classmates sitting next to her, Sato and Jirou, tried to calm her down, but truth be told they weren't eager to see the Joker either
"Going to have nightmares with this one" Mineta exclaimed as he didn't want to see more of that murder clown, but the students reaction got a scoff from one of the villains
"If you get scared by this you can't possibly face us" Shigaraki complained as he mocked the students from being afraid of this stupid clown
'I don't want to say it, but I have to agree with them. That thing is weirdly unnerving' Twice kept this to himself, he would be ridiculed if his fellow villains even so much saw him get scared but something like this, the odd thing is that he couldn't pinpoint what gave him this feeling. Might be his other personality
It's April Fool's Day in Gotham and a barge carrying green garbage that emits green gas floats over the river captained by a clown. An armored truck driver smells the gas, complaining about how it stinks before he starts laughing and driving erratically. More people smell the gas and start laughing as well. The victims seem to have lost all sense as the truck driver drives his truck right into the river but falls into the raised bridge.
"Oh my god! What was that?" Mina asked in concern for what had entailed, it seemed the man had suddenly snapped and almost got himself killed, but then everyone else started doing the same, which is a horrifying thought the more she gave it time to develop in her head.
"Seems like the people went insane, they lost all sense and began acting like maniacs!" Kirishima exclaimed equally confused but with an uneasy feeling about it, he could just tell this was all the plot of that terrible clown.
"All because they smelled the air coming out of that trash" Jiro said as it was quite clear that once that thing passed by the bridge, it was how that all began.
"Just a bad smell wouldn't cause this, there is definitely something else causing this reaction" Momo theorized as he fellow students agreed this was too suspicious to be just a case of an awful smell
"I can already tell who would try such a thing, this is not good" All Might spoke with his arms crossed and a strict face, considering the title of the episode he knew that maniacal clown would be behind this and he wasn't very excited to see whatever plan he had to spread chaos into the city of Gotham
"Alright, this might be interesting after all" Dabi commented as the start was a bit intriguing and seemed that whatever plan the villain had was already in motion
"Entertaining" Shigaraki appreciated the bit of chaos that took place, he was thinking this might not be so bad after all, hopefully he would get to see more death and destruction later on.
Elsewhere on Wayne manor, Bruce cuts himself shaving, and Alfred notes that he's tired from his crime-fighting. To help him relax Alfred tries playing an April Fools joke on Bruce but it falls flat. While Bruce takes a shower, he hears a report on the radio about people who are having nearly fatal accidents on the bridge due to them acting like complete fools. Bruce deduces right away that it's the work of the Joker.
"I would assume the same, that maniac is a danger to the whole city" Iida commented as he fully agreed with the caped crusader, having seen the danger Joker cause back in the Christmas adventure, he wanted Bruce to handle this with extreme precision and caution.
"Joker huh? I assume he has some type of clown or jester gimmick" Dabi commented, with a name like that he could only be based out of so much stuff.
"Did you already see him from one of those earlier viewings?" Toga asked the heroes on the other side, her gaze more so focused on Izuku when making the question but the hero student was trying his best to not look at the villain side of the room, Bat-Mite had assured them that none of the villains could cause harm, but he still had doubts about that.
"Yeah, so far he only seems to do a crime just for the sake of jokes." Sero responded a bit uninterested, not just because he didn't like the villains but also because he couldn't stand the clown just like the rest of his class
"And he has a shitty sense of humor" Bakugou came out of the gate insulting the clown since he didn't find he funny a single time from what they watched, and he was sure to hate him even more by the end of this.
Meanwhile, we see that below the barge there is a submarine as Joker's henchmen dive and steal the contents of the armored truck while Joker fixes himself up to go out towards the financial district, listening to the news cast of his latest scheme. Once the ship has docked Joker and his men go out with shopping carts and gas masks (or in Joker's case, a fishbowl) and start stealing from the people and the stores in the area. The people are so busy laughing and dancing around that they do nothing to stop it.
"What an effective method of stealing, the people are practically giving it away for free" Mr Compress expressed his appreciation for the clown prince of crime method of stealing as his victims were completely powerless to stop him thanks to the laughing gas
"Never would expect a villain to use laughing gas as a weapon for crime, but how easily he is getting away with this is concerning, the people aren't even trying to stop him" Ojiro comments as the way he was so effortlessly committing his theft was alarming, it turned something like laughing into a kind of disturbing thing.
"The people seem to be unable to think properly, is affecting more than just their ability to laugh" Momo said as the way people were dancing around and being so casual to their property being stolen was not a good sign, their brains were being affected as well by this mysterious laughing gas
"Damn, he has a mind control gas, suddenly he got a lot scarier" Kaminari wasn't too happy about the idea of Joker messing with his or anyone's minds, specially after the shock he got from before the screening session.
"He is already better than that pathetic excuse from earlier" Dabi commented as he had to admit that Joker was a massive step up from Scarecrow, the blue flamed villain didn't find that villain to be anything much aside from having a bad costume and a pretty pathetic vibe. Meanwhile Joker was already putting the city into it's knees with practically no problem, that is what a real villain does instead of getting scared and sending his goons to do all the work
While Joker and his men go on their shopping spree, Batman does an analysis of the gas through a weather balloon and learns that prolonged exposure will result in permanent insanity. Batman calls up Alfred for help but Alfred blows him off. At first, Batman thinks it's just a joke but he hears crashing and runs upstairs to find that Alfred has been exposed to the gas, and is destroying most of the library in his lunacy. Quickly donning a gas mask, Batman tries to stop Alfred from hurting himself and realizes that he must stop the gas before it's too late.
"Not Alfred too!" Koda gasped in concern for the butler, so did most of the students
"But they are so far away from the river, how did he get infected?" Ochako asked since only the people close to the river seemed to be affected by the gas from all the trash, however some of the students and the teachers came to a realization
"... It's spreading through the air. The whole city might be under the effect of this gas!" Izuku exclaimed as the whole class was shocked to hear that, this situation got a lot worse than any of them initially thought
"This is extremely dangerous, if the computer's report is correct then if Batman doesn't stop that madman the entire city is going to become an insane asylum." All Might spoke as he hated to see what the clown prince of crime was doing, if the computer is right, he would be running thousands of lives simply for his own gain, Toshinori knew he couldn't help them but he felt so angry for what was transpiring, a feeling shared with his students.
"Hehe, alright I'm starting to like this Joker already" Shigaraki was so far having fun watching this clown themed villain put the city into chaos, finally something he and the league could enjoy.
'Yeah you would' Bat-Mite thought to himself, he did just the bare minimum of research on these guys, but Mr dry lips seemed to be the type of guy that would fanboy over Joker because of 'Society!'
"Uh... Would we be affected by this gas thing?" Toga asked, a bit of curiosity but also a slight hint of concern as she didn't exactly want to be in a perpetual state of involuntary laughter, felt her jaw would start hurting after a couple hours. She could care less about the city but like her fellow league members, she was curious at how this world had better villains than theirs, maybe the laughing gas was such thing that made that world more dangerous... Somehow.
"Depends, do you need oxygen to live? If so then yes you would, there are some versions that can even affect enhanced immunity systems so even with super powers you would be affected." As Bat-Mite explained this little fact, the heroes and villains took this into account, a bit scared of the gas actually affecting them and causing the audience members to go insane. It was similar to the fear toxin but in a completely different direction, Shigaraki wasn't worried since he could probably resist the effects, but that wasn't a guarantee.
Dashing through the water in a dark Speedboat, we see that the people of the city are trashing the whole place up and turning the streets into chaos, Summer Gleeson is seen with a gas mask covering the whole insanity going on. Things only get better for Joker as the stocks of Gotham have crashed and his own profits have risen.
"He... He crashed the stock market." Momo was perplexed and shocked, so were much of the students of her class. The villains meanwhile seemed happy to see this
"All the while making himself richer, I must applaud him for this achievement." Mr compress gave a few claps to the heist the Joker pulled of, making himself the richest man in Gotham while also destroying the economy. Ingenious, even if they didn't know what the long term plan of the clown was.
"The amount of lives he's endangering, it sickens me." Toshinori clinched his fist in disbelief, he wanted to arrest Joker himself by now after seeing this.
"I have to agree, this feels like going too far just for money" Spinner comments as even he thought that putting an entire city into such a state was far too much for simple monetary gain, specially when so many innocent civilians are being affected, he couldn't like a villain that didn't even hold a strong conviction and ideal, Joker seemed to only be doing this because he can.
"Look at it this way, he isn't killing civilians, he's just... Pushing them to insanity and if you ask me they don't seem to be doing so bad" Toga's explanation got the heroes to look at her confused and angry
"That doesn't sound any better!" all of them replied with different levels of voice tone, Bakugou particularly being the loudest. The villains just ignored them
"I'm starting to see what the imp meant by the greatest villains of all time, this Joker has put the whole city into chaos so easily." Shigaraki compliments the episode's villain, this was the type of thing he was hoping to see ever since the imp took them by force to watch some super hero, Joker was destroying society and turning it upside down like a true villain should 'He doesn't compare to master, but I applaud his scheme'
However, Batman drags the scow out to sea with the Batboat and boards it, which amuses the clown prince of crime. Joker's first two henchmen are dealt with easily enough but the "Captain" of the ship tears the tow cable in two with his bare hands and attacks Batman. When Batman hits him he only hurts himself as the captain is made of metal.
"Does that guy have a quirk?" Toga asked since that Captain Clown was weird, but seemed to be much better than those normal henchmen. The fact he tore a steel cable with his bare hands was also noteworthy since hardly a quirkless person could do that.
"I don't think that's a guy... It might be a robot" Ojiro spoke since that metal sound was specific, not to mention how the clown didn't seem to talk and moves rather stiffly.
"Hardly doubt they would have robots by that point in time" Dabi had some reservations on this other world because it really seemed to be old, judging by everything the league had seen there was no hint at robots or something like that to be present, it felt a little too far-fetched for a world still in the 90's. But the heroes had already seen the mechanic death machines Joker used in his Christmas plan, so they knew that was a likely possibility.
"You're in for a surprise then" Bat-Mite commented as he knew just how many robots they would see in the future, like in Heart of Steel
Captain Clown grabs Batman and spins him over his head until Batman is too dizzy to fight back. Batman is then shoved into a canister used to combat trash, holes are poked into it when Joker stabs the thing with a knife which Batman has to dodge, and he's thrown into the river. Water begins to fill the canister as it sunk into the bottom
"No!" The students said in unison upon seeing the trap
"Don't worry, I doubt he wouldn't have a plan to get away" Aizawa told his students, considering all that Bat-Mite said about the caped crusader, he wouldn't die so easily
Batman nearly drowns but he manages to call the Batboat using his utility belt and has it cut through the canister with a laser. He goes up to the water surface to breathe, seeing Joker's barge move towards the Ace waste disposal plant "So you want to play dirty, Joker."
"Yeah! Go get him!" Mina exclaimed as the students of 1-A wanted the dark knight to take-down the villain who caused so much chaos and pain to the city
"Of course he escapes" the leader of the league grumbled as he shouldn't be surprised the hero got out 'of course he had a large in his boat, rich bastard'
Joker returns to the junkyard and sprays more of his toxin on the garbage. Fortunately, Batman arrives and cuts the hoses pumping out the toxin with a Batarang. He then easily handles and removes the henchmen's masks and they fall over laughing.
"I swear these henchmen are useless, not a single one is decent at their job" Shigaraki wasn't able to stand how bad these guys were, he would kill all of them if he got the chance for how pathetic they were.
"Did you really expect more from common criminal thugs? I would be surprised if they even appeared at a later scheme" Dabi commented as he didn't care for those no name idiots, but he had to admit they barely did anything and for that he wasn't going to give them even his attention if he came across them in the real world
"Joker's gas is a liability to his own men, even he has to use protection against it. Aside from Captain Clown, it seems to affect everyone indiscriminately" All Might comments as this type of thing is a problem for both heroes and to an extent villains, since it affects not just enemies but civilians and partners as well. So is always a gamble to unleash any type of quirk or attack that does such a thing, he knew that from how his punches could destroy city blocks if he wasn't careful when using One for All.
Captain Clown attempts to stop Batman and even though Batman grabs a metal pole to stagger the robot, the machine is too strong for him. Not ready to give up, Batman manages to lure the robot into a car crusher, knocking off the clown mask to reveal the emotionless robotic face underneath and with great effort throws the robot into the machine, the clown captain tries to get out to finish Batman but the caped crusader turns the machine on as it crushes the legs of the robot, his torso falling inside for the rest of the process until it gets turned into a small cube.
"So it really was a robot, no wonder it was that strong to cut the steel cable with its bare hands" Shouji said as that made sense, this villain seemed to have a lot of technology at his disposal
"How did he build that?" Hagakure asked since they weren't really told that Joker was a genius or anything, as everything he seems to come up with involves a lot of incredible tech for the time from what they had seen, she assumed it was on par with Batman's own to a lesser extent.
"Probably the same way he did those robots in his previous scheme on Christmas" Aizawa responded her question, granted he didn't know the actual reason but could come up with a possibility
Joker is outraged for his arch enemy 'killing' Captain Clown and dumps a load of garbage onto his enemy with a crane. Batman survives as his enemy mocks him by saying how bad he smelled and follows the Joker over the conveyor belt, the villain is standing on the remains of Captain Clown with his signature grim as Batman tried to grab him, but Joker waves him goodbye as he holds onto a cable to escape, with our hero finding out the conveyor belt leads into a vat of molten metal.
"Yes, goodbye and good riddance" Shigaraki waved goodbye to Batman as he wanted that death to be slow and painful
"Shigaraki, you don't honestly think he is going to die do you?" Kurogiri knew how much the decaying villain hated heroes, but it was unlikely the super fan of said hero would show then him dying.
"One can only hope, I just want this to be done already" Shigaraki replied as he didn't want to stay any minute longer in this place, he didn't like being forced by the imp to watch a hero against his will
He manages to grab hold of a hanging bucket as the compacted Captain Clown is melted, Joker starts swinging cabled hooks at him to throw him off. Batman grabs hold of one of the hooks but Joker pulls a lever and causes the hook to drop. Fortunately, Batman manages to grab hold of some gears and catch up to the Joker but Joker escapes down a slide and swings on a cable to reach a catwalk.
"Did he have time to prepare all of this?" Kirishima asked because of how Joker was so casual on his escape from his own death, it seemed he had that cable read just for this case
"Probably was using the place as his hideout for the whole plan" Izuku theorized since the villain did come here to spray more of the laughing gas into the boat, the only likely possibility was that he was ready for a showdown in this recycling plant.
"This looks like a death trap, but is just a recycling plant." Jirou commented as the whole thing felt like it was designed to kill someone if they ever so much as slip up
"It's already a dangerous setting to be in with all the machines operating, Joker knows this and is using the deadly scenario around him to get the advantage, since Batman is physically superior to Joker in every way." Aizawa explained to his class, this was a good moment to give them a quick lesson as they were seeing a real example of such scenario, he remembered a similar fight he had in a metallurgical plant in his underground days before teaching in U.A.
"So he compensates by using underhanded tactics and setting up traps on his home base, despicable." Iida was frustrated at the Joker's dirty tactics for conflict against the hero of Gotham
"Just like any cunning villain does, otherwise you heroes would have too much of an easy time capturing us." Mr Compress said as it was a tradition and trope for the villain to prepare himself for the confrontation with the hero, oftentimes they would have the field advantage whenever a hero came crashing into a villain's lair.
"You guys are so bad in catching us, it's laughable" Toga teased the heroes giggling
Batman is not so fortunate and is almost dumped into an incinerator. Joker drops garbage down the chute and Batman almost falls into the fire but he manages to save himself with a grapnel as the fire barely claims him and the caped crusader confronts Joker. The Joker throws a couple of his razor cards at him but Batman dodges the first as he approaches and catches the second.
Frightened, Joker tries to run, but he trips on a cable and nearly falls into the fire but the cable saves him. He calls to Batman to save him and he contemplates letting him fall, but in the end, Batman saves him.
"Take that! Not so funny now" Kaminari shouted with a fist to the air a sentiment shared by his friends, exception of Bakugou who kept his arms crossed
"He was so close, but then he just had to flinch and slip, if he stood his ground..." Shigaraki was disappointed, he respected the Joker for his villainy but to fumble right at the end is truly embarrassing, if he didn't run away he could have fought Batman and won considering the hero didn't have any quirk and Joker could-
"Batman is physically superior to Joker in every way, just in a fist fight he would get demolished considering the caped crusader's peak human performance" Bat-Mite spoke as he could read the villains mind, not that he needed considering how the decaying villain talked. But while Joker could hold his own against Batman from time to time, he truly needed the element of surprise and unpredictability to win in a physical brawl, especially when unarmed.
"He should let that clown drop down into the fire" Bakugou said rather bluntly as the Joker got off easy, after all he did, the explosive student would have blown him into next week
"Batman is a hero, he shouldn't just let him go down into his death, the correct approach is to capture him and hand the Joker over to the police" Momo reprimanded such attitude, as heroes they should strive to bring criminal to justice and give them the proper sentence for their crimes. Iida was going to say something similar, but felt it would be hypocritical of him considering the time he went after Stain, but that was much more personal than with Joker's case and he strives to become better since that day
"While I agree with your reasoning, Bakugou's sentiment isn't unfounded. Joker almost purged the entire city into complete chaos and would possibly lead to thousands dead thanks to their insanity clouding any sense of self preservation, by all means Batman should arrest him but the tribunal should give him life in solitary confinement or the death sentence depending on the state" Aizawa said as the whole class thought about what he was suggesting, it sounded extreme but some of them couldn't deny that Joker just threatened to end all of the city simply for material gain. He deserved a harsh punishment after such aggression, something more strict than just throwing him into a insane asylum
the villains meanwhile didn't agree with him at all since they were on Joker's side, seeing him as a much more entertaining individual to watch than Batman. But Spinner was having a harder time than his fellow colleagues in siding with the Clown, since Joker seemed to be far too extreme with his crime, after all he almost ended the city for money and giggles, if he had a good reason then maybe the villain could sympathize more with this clown criminal.
Things have finally quieted down and Bruce returns home, complaining that after eight baths he still smells like trash, he finds Alfred cleaning up the mess he made earlier. Alfred is upset over his destruction of the property and Bruce tells him that he'll take it out of his salary. Alfred is even more upset to hear this but then Bruce tells him "April Fools".
'I can relate to that' Aizawa thought as he had the same problem a few times whenever he had to track a villain through the sewer, in extreme cases he had to ask for a new suit simply because the smell wouldn't come off.
"Pulling a prank like that feels a bit mean, but I guess it's harmless" Mina said as that was somewhat funny but given the context, also felt out of place
Overall, the feelings were mixed as the heroes were very frustrated with the Joker's plan that almost destroyed the city simply for money, it showed how reckless and twisted that man was, so they were glad that Batman stopped him. The villains were entertained by the episode's villain and how he did things, sure it was a bit extreme but they overall liked, Spinner was the only one with doubts about Joker.
[Author's notes]
Leave a review as it really helps getting feedback on the fanfic, follow and favorite to support the story.
The episode was a bit hard to write, more so because of other things happening that delayed work on the fic, this episode was a good introduction for the League to meet Joker considering the scale of his plan, but I feel that some of them will start to get conflicted on some of his later plots, Joker was never known for being consistent. Which might also be the reason his episodes take longer to write, the high and low points keep changing with each episode making him flip from intimidating to dumb depending on the scene.
The league of villains can be a bit hard to write, I certainly have my favorites when I make their segments of the reaction. Since their reactions will vary depending on the episode, I will try my best to give every character a little bit of attention, so feedback on how the cast reacted to the episode is appreciated heavily
Next up is Pretty Poison, I wonder how they will react to the reason for Ivy's revenge plan, considering she is committing murder for plants and the ecosystem, the heroes wouldn't agree with her obviously but I also wonder who in the league would agree or disagree with her reason. Like, how much would the league actually care for the environment? They might agree with her vengeance plan, but I imagine someone like Dabi or Shigaraki would find her motivation a bit weird, right?