Eleven

"Shit! Why can't I think of anything?" Joker snarled at his desk, slamming his fists down onto the solid wood. He found himself still at a loss as to how he was going to go about sending Madeline out for the first time.

How was he supposed to exhibit his pet project if there was no occasion worthy enough to be her first attack? After spending so much time on her development, it would be a waste if her debut wasn't magnificent (ly disastrous, that is).

Green hairs were strewn across the desk top from where he'd yanked his hair out in frustration. Joker picked a strand up and examined it closely, perhaps hoping for inspiration where he had none. All he could note was that the root of the strand was brown. He'd need to re-dye his hair soon or it would be as ridiculously mundane as his current set of ideas.

He heard a sudden outburst of shouts and giggles from the rest of the mansion, followed by a loud thud. J sighed in exasperation.

"I live with idiots," he muttered.

Hey! I take offense to that!

You shouldn't.

That's a relief.

Because it's true.

Hey!

With that conversation finished, Joker rose from his desk like a regal lion would from its sunny rock, off to check on the rest of his pride, so to speak. Though in his case it would be more accurate to compare him and his mob to rabid hyenas rather than noble lions.

"Maddie, no! Stop! What are you doing? Get down!" Andy's frantic shouts reached J's ears just as he opened his office door.

All he could do was raise his invisible eyebrows at the scene before him. Madeline, in a sparkly pink dress, had climbed up on top of the massive couch and was running away from Andy back and forth and up and down and around it. Tommy was nowhere in sight.

"Maddie! Don't play these games with me! I said to stop and I meant it, missy! What the hell did he give you?" Andy shouted.

Who gave her what? It better not have been drugs. If someone gave my little girl drugs I would murder them so brutally that they'd forget what it feels like to not be in pain.

You do drugs.

I'm also a grown ass man that can do whatever the hell he damn well pleases. Do I really need to have the same conversation with you that I had with the four year old?

J cautiously approached the couch, wary of startling Maddie in the midst of her acrobatics. She was now flipping on and off the couch to further terrify her caregiver. However, she quickly noticed Joker and shrieked gleefully.

"Daddy!" She shouted, leaping off of the couch and towards him. Luckily J managed to catch her and stop her flight towards the floor.

"What is going on here? Where's Tom?" Joker asked immediately, still holding Maddie awkwardly.

"Tommy's sick in bed," Andy explained. "And one of the guys gave Madeline a bunch of candy in exchange for leaving you alone without my knowledge, so now she is literally bouncing off the walls."

Maddie kept wriggling around in J's arms, so he growled and flipped her over his shoulder, holding her to him by her lower back. This action did not deter the sugar-crazed munchkin, so she continued to squirm and try to escape Joker's grasp.

"Are you sure it was candy and not something else?" J asked.

"I saw the wrappers in the trash. Plus, is anyone really stupid enough to give a four year old drugs? Wait, don't answer that question. I want to be able to have at least a little faith in the human race," Andy replied.

"How about we watch some TV, Mad?" Joker asked of his ward, attempting to distract her from her sugar rush and the conversation about drugs.

"Yay!" She yelled directly in his ear.

J winced and sat her down in the middle of the couch, taking a seat on one side of her. Andy was about to take the other when J halted him.

"I got her for now. You go tend to your boyfriend," J told him, smirking at the implications of his statement.

Andy didn't argue with his boss, but was still both shocked and concerned. J hadn't been taking much interest in Maddie to his knowledge. Is he capable of taking care of a child? I thought he hated children, even Madeline. Especially Madeline.

But despite all of his misgivings, Andy still high-tailed it out of the room and back up to his and Tommy's own room, leaving the daddy-daughter duo alone on the couch and the couple upstairs free to do whatever they pleased.

J flipped through the channels, trying to find something entertaining for Madeline to watch, but that wouldn't increase her energy. He finally gave up and handed the remote to her. How am I supposed to know what little girls like to watch?

Don't try and act like you don't know. How many Disney movies did you watch with her again?

She happily flipped through the children's channels, humming happily to herself. Even though she kept twitching every thirty seconds, she was a lot more calm than she had been previously. She settled on the Disney Junior channel, allowing Sofia the First to fill the television.

After an episode of Sofia the First, Joker wanted to put his head through a wall. He quickly snatched the remote back from Madeline and turned on the news before another episode could start up.

"No! Please give it back, Daddy! I just want to watch one more episode of Sofia the First," she pleaded.

"No! If I have to listen to one more of those kinds of songs I am going to out my head through my office door," J fired back.

A story about a fair coming to town entertained Maddie briefly as she began begging fervently and repeatedly for them to go. Her pleas faded into the background as inspiration struck like lightning through the field of Joker's head. He began to smile, a large, dangerous smile.

"Yes, Madeline. We can go to the fair."

<><><><><><><><><><><>

The cape fluttered softly in the winds of the night, a contrast to the being that it was attached to. The rest of the armor was hard and unyielding, like the will of its owner.

On a lone rooftop overlooking the old toy factory was where the Gotham Bat made his roost. The all black ensemble of his armor blended perfectly into the night, almost as though he were a part of it. Though, in a way he was. There could be no Batman if there was no night, just like there was no night without Batman.

The toy factory looked even worse than it had previously. All the structures had been obliterated to lonely groups of rubble dotting the grounds. The rusted gates were the only parts of the facility that were still standing.

Luckily no one was harmed by the explosions. Bruce couldn't figure out exactly why the factory had been destroyed. His intel told him that the section of land was under Joker's control, but why would Joker randomly blow up his own stuff? As crazy as the clown is, he's not crazy enough to destroy his own assets. The toy factory was a quality space for any villain to work with. Before it was blown up, that is.

"Anything yet, sir?" Alfred asked over his earpiece.

"Nothing but a bunch of debris," he grated. "I'm about to take a closer look."

With that, he silently leapt off the building and glided gently to the ground. His footsteps made no sound as he walked, and no footprints were left behind. It was almost as if he was never there at all.

His eyes inspected everything as he stalked through the destruction, scanning for any kind of clue or evidence. Suddenly, the Dark Knight stopped in his tracks and crouched low to the ground, picking up the toy he'd found, so far away from where it's twin had been when the explosions started.

He cautiously nudged the crank, not unlike Riddler had, and like Edward, he almost immediately realized that he'd made a mistake.

"Nice try, Batsy! You'll have to try a little harder next time if you want to know what I'm up to. Quit being so impatient! You'll see for yourself soon enough! Hahahahahahaha!"

Batman was progressively stepping back as the recording played from the little jack-in-the-box. As soon as the laughing started, he bolted, and almost missed the last minute jab Joker hit him with.

"I'm warning you now Batsy, so don't try and tell me that it's not fair. Bye bye Batman!"

As soon as Joker finished speaking, the toy exploded, not nearly as chaotic as the first, but still enough that it could have blown off Batman's hands or killed him had he still been holding it.

"Master Bruce?! Are you alright?" Alfred's frantic voice asked in his ear.

"I'm fine, Alfred. I'm not sure why the toy factory was destroyed in the first place, but clearly Joker knew that I'd look into it and set a trap," Bruce growled as he painfully rose to his feet. "Any activity from Riddler?"

"No crime if that's what you mean. I can run a scan through the city cameras for him or his signs if you'd like."

"Good idea Alfred. If you could, check for any Joker sightings as well," Batman agreed.

"Very well, Master Bruce."

The only sound that could be heard as Batman flew up onto a roof was the initial click of his grappling hook as it shot out and latched onto the rooftop. As his feet landed silently on the roof, Alfred spoke up again.

"Here's something. A camera right by the factory caught footage of Riddler entering a few minutes before the explosions began. Since it was a live feed, the film was sent to the database but cuts off when the blasts hit. Riddler hasn't been seen since, and there have been no reported sightings of Joker or his car anywhere in Gotham. The city cameras haven't caught sight of him anywhere, either. But I thought that the two of them were in alliance?"

Bruce rapidly processed the new information, filling the blanks in his theory.

"They probably were, but they're not anymore. It looks like Joker got revenge on Riddler for some earlier betrayal, or Joker was betraying Riddler. Anything could set them off enough to kill, so it's no surprise there. I just wonder what they were up to, and if they'll continue it still," Bruce explained.

"The two could also have guessed that we'd be suspicious, and so faked a falling out to throw us off track. We should be wary, Master Bruce."

"That's a good point, Alfred. If Joker was prepared for me to show up here, he may have predicted our thoughts and set things up to throw us off," he agreed.

"So what now, Master Bruce?"

"Now we see who pops up here soon. What Joker said at the end, about the fair—we need to check that out," Bruce decided.

"There's a fair coming to Gotham next week."

"Then that's his target, which makes it also our target. Keep eyes on that fair Alfred."