My Dad, the Joker (A Batman fanfic)

Chapter 19 (Joker's POV)

Being in Ace Chemicals brought back both amazing and hellish visions of my past. The main being when I first became who I am today: The Joker. It started with a meeting in my ass of a boss's office; the reporter, Knox, had made a link between Grissom's business and Ace Chemicals, which was what he wanted to avoid as it was bad for his business. I suggested we break in to the place, trash it, and make it look as if some important documents had gone missing. I was playing around with my lucky deck of cards, when I did, and what Grissom said next made me suddenly drop them in to my hat. He said that I should be the one to take control of the task, as I was his 'number one guy'. Pfft, yeah right.

I only found out it was a set up when one of my men opened the safe that the documents were supposed to be in, only to find fuck all. "We've been ratted out here, boys."

I hear Lt. Eckhardt bark orders at some cops, "shoot to kill" on me; can't trust no one in this god-dammed city. The cops split up in order to search for me and my men, who did well in keeping them occupied as I made a run for the fire exit on the top floor. I didn't know it at the time, but Batman was in the building and took down more of my men than the cops did. He wasn't far behind me, as I tried hard to put a few obstacles in the way of cops behind me, like hitting the side of a chemical VAT with an axe, to slow them down.

Commissioner Gordon has entered the building accompanied by some more cops (great) and he orders that I be taken alive. I reached the top floor and in sight I could see the fire exit; I see an opportunity to shoot the commissioner, when the 2 officers he was with went to go search the different catwalks by the good commissioner's command. Before I could even pull the trigger, the Bat flew in and kicked the gun out of my hand. He then picked me up off my feet (I guess you could say he swept me off my feet) by the collar of my coat.

"Jesus," was all I could say; I may have encountered him before, but never this close. Bobby threatens to shoot Commissioner Gordon, if the Batman didn't put me down, which he did.

"Nice outfit," I smirked, before turning to pick up my gun; I swiftly turned around to face Batman again, but he was gone. I was kind of confused to where he went to.

I hear Bobby encouraging for me to go as he himself tried, while Lt. Eckhardt approached behind the commissioner. I took the opportunity to shoot the betraying bastard, "Eckhardt, think about the future!"

Batman appeared again, and this time I was ready for him as I shoot at him too. He proved himself too quick, using his armoured covered arms to shield his face from the bullet. The bullet bounced off him, on to a control panel; electric sparks jumped off and caught my face, distorting it slightly. The pain caused me to cover my face, which led to me backing up too far over the barrier. I could barely hold on to the ledge as I wore leather gloves that day, which I kind of regret.

Okay, so Batman tried to save me too. He also wore leather gloves though and for that I give him part of the blame. I thought at first that he couldn't get a grip on me, but then I thought maybe he just wanted a play mate just as crazy looking as he was. I fell in to the VAT of boiling acid. The pain was unbearable, and that's all I can say.

Most thought me dead, but my lucky deck of cards emerged from the lake connected to the factory's sewer pipes, just before I did. I collapsed on to the concrete floor, after dragging myself out. I couldn't stop laughing, and at the time I put it down to the fumes of the factory waste. Bobby and a couple of my other men had been searching for me, thinking that they could give me a proper burial (since they too thought me dead). They found me barely conscious at the edge of the lake, so they bandaged me up and took me to see my private doctor, hoping he could help heal at least part of the damage done.

The surgery took over 5 hours to complete; once it was done, I ordered for a mirror, so the doctor passed the handheld one from table. I looked at my transformed face, not liking it at first, making me smash the mirror against the table beside me. I got a sudden weird feeling that made the situation... Hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing, and this time I knew it wasn't the fumes, more like my mind.

The doctor tried his best to explain that with the few tools he had and the fact that my nerves were completely severed, it was a hard job to complete successfully. He looked absolutely terrified of me, and some reason I liked to make him feel that way. I left, laughing hysterically as I did. I shoved the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling out of the way, smashing it against the brick wall.

The first place I go? I go to Carl Grissom's office to give the bastard a piece of my mind for setting me up; I looked like a right idiot in front of my boys. When I arrived at the place, he thought I was Alicia - do you guys think I have the figure for that? No okay, never mind then. He said a really cringy line too, "That you, sugar bumps?" That's when he turned around and said, "Who the hell are you?"

"It's me, Sugar bumps." I sarcastically smirked; the shadows covered my face, so he couldn't see my new look.

Grissom generally sounded shocked, "Jack? Oh, oh, thank God you're alive! I heard you'd been..."

"Fried? Is that what you heard? You set me up over a woman. A *woman*! You must be insane." I hinted at the fact he must have heard Alicia was cheating on him with me; makes sense right, I'm younger and much better for her. Grissom goes for his gun, "Don't bother."

"Your life won't be worth spit!"

"I've been dead once already. It's very liberating. You should think of it as, uh... therapy."

"Jack, listen. Maybe we can cut a deal."

"Jack? Jack is dead, my friend." I said as I stepped into the light, "You can call me... Joker. And as you can see, I'm a lot happier."

His reaction was rather shocked and like he was speechless at my new look. I laughed before proceeding to shoot Grissom multiple times until he was beyond dead; I found it rather fun, so I got too into it, shooting the gun from underneath my leg or from over my shoulder (my back to Grissom). I sit at the desk, seeing a newspaper and picking it up to read it. There's a headline saying 'winged freak terrorises,' and I said to myself, "Wait till they get a load of me,"

The next thing I had in mind was Alicia, because well, if she hadn't cheated I wouldn't have been set up. She wasn't in, so I sat on the couch and waited for her, which was only a 10 minute wait. She walked in to the apartment and I said, "honey, you'll never guess what happened to me today."

She fainted, and I wasn't the bit surprised since she can't even look at a tiny bit of blood; I chuckled after saying, "Huh,"

My men weren't as shocked as Grissom or Alicia because they had seen what I was like when I crawled out of the factory lake: my nerves all severed, and a distorted looking face (it was worse than it sounds).

I left the best till last, my daughter; her reaction shocked me rather than my new look shocking her. She was a tiny bit shocked at the change (she wasn't big on change), but she looked me over and with a smile said, "love your new look dad; mind if I make a couple of adjustments though?"

I agreed to her adjusting my new look; she would more than likely choose to add purple to the outfits, which I didn't mind at all since it was my favourite colour. I was over the moon about her reaction, because I had expected her to have the same reaction as the others: disapproval and horrified. But, she was the total opposite. She accepted and loved the new me, the REAL me in all honesty.