Agents of Khaos (A Joker Story [REVISED])

9: Training

"So how are we going to start-" I was cut off by a kick to the head, which I somehow ducked. I looked at Joker in pure shock. "Are you serious?" 

He started laughing now, clutching his stomach. "You almost got knocked out."

"Excuse me? How is that funny?" I questioned, punching him in the arm. He snickered and put his hands up, ready to start the training. 

"You're really funny, Ember," he spoke. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, how long could this possibly take?" I laughed, gearing myself up to fight. It couldn't take longer than a week. I wasn't that pathetically weak, and I was sure he didn't have that much to teach me.

--

Three months.

Three, freaking exhausting months.

That's how long Joker and I took with our one on one combat. Occasionally he'd have all the henchmen attack me at once to see how great my reaction speed was, or how powerful my attacks were. Occasionally he'd have me to go martial arts classes, or he'd ask another supervillain of Gotham to help teach me a few things for an I.O.U.

In that amount of time, I had gained a significant amount of muscle, and I was definitely skinnier. I was strong enough to do a minimum of 100 pull ups now, which was terrifying to me, because I used to barely be able to do 20.

Joker was seriously committed to whipping me into shape, and he was not a nice trainer, either. He didn't give me pity, pushed me to my limits, and trained me faster than I could've ever imagined. Sometimes I'd get so frustrated with him we'd get into heated arguments until I remembered that his only intention was to train me enough to defend myself if all else failed.

Today was my last day of "training", which was so reliving.

Every day I asked Joker when we'd be finished, and he told me "When you're no longer pathetic". Basically, that went on for twelve weeks. Twelve freakin' weeks! Until this week when I asked him and he turned to me and said, "Friday". I had taken so many martial arts classes and kicked so many henchmen's butts, I felt more than ready to take someone on in a brawl.

Joker had explained to me that, since Batman has so much armor and muscle, I would have to fight with more technique than brutal strength. That's how he fought against Batman. He didn't usually have anything to fight him with besides a knife, which he couldn't usually get a swing at him with unless Bat's didn't expect it.

"Done?" Joker questioned me, ripping me out of my thoughts. I turned to him and took another sip of water through my crazy straw.

"Two more minutes." I spoke, savoring what little water I drank. Didn't want to cramp up badly. "You know, if someone woulda told me, "Hey, Joker knows how to fight, Joker will force you to not be a freakin' wimp" a few months ago, I wouldn't have believed it." Even though half of it wasn't even Joker fighting me himself, he still knew how it worked.

Joker slapped the water out of my hands and took me by the hand, pulling me towards him, our lips crashing together. He kissed me passionately, pressing me against himself. "After this one last workout, you're done with training," he growled in my ear. I smirked, blushing a little. I was head over heels for this guy.

"Hells yeah," I breathed.