Humans. Monsters. Heroes. Villains.

Chapter 20: Mob Money & Memories

The Joker's POV
The new house wasn't half bad.

Actually, scratch that. The new house was great. It had furniture, for one thing, which meant no more sleeping on a ratty couch. It also meant a lot of his henchmen got their own rooms, although some of them ended up having to share.

Not only that, but it was a lot cleaner, and there was less clutter. This meant more space, which meant more room for things like weapons and explosives. Just what the Joker needed.

It also had a kitchen with a working refrigerator, which was nice.

Today, two days after the Blackgate escape incident, the Joker stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom reapplying his face paint.

It was early in the day - just after 9:00. He had a bank robbery at noon, and then a was planning on contacting the Chimera to tell her the location of his new hideout and arrange another meeting.

He straightened his suit, then turned away from the mirror, eyeing his new room. It was too plain. It needed some decoration or something...maybe red splatter paint on the walls. As in blood.

The Joker considered this for several moments, then shook his head. No, that would smell too weird. He would have to settle for maybe just repainting it from the boring shade of white it was. Maybe green and purple.

He could make one of his henchmen do it. See, there was another good reason to have henchmen. You could make them do all the lame stuff, like painting and cleaning, while you got to go do the fun stuff like rob banks and blow stuff up.

The Joker made a mental note to point this out to the Chimera the next time he saw her.

"Yo, scarface. You should really lock your windows at night. Someone might break in."

He twisted his head around too see the Chimera. Making sure not to let his surprise show, the Joker raised his eyebrows at her.

"Speak of the devil."

"Nice to know you were thinking of me." she leaped through the open window and landed catlike on the ground, then stood up casually and glanced around. "You need to get some sneakier henchmen. It was waaay too easy to find this place. Pity, because I was looking for a challenge today."

"Bored?" he grinned, leaning against the wall. "Well I've got good news for you, sweetheart. We've got a date."

"Ooh, flattered, but I only think of you as an ally. Try not to be too disappointed."

"Mm, I'll get over it." he snickered. "Today, we're gonna do something a little different."

"Let's go skydiving."

"Maybe next week. Today we're robbing a bank!" he spread his arms out excitedly.

The Chimera yawned. "Fun fun. Except I robbed a bank last week."

"Was it a mob bank? How much did you take?"

She crossed the room and sat down on his bed, propping her chin in her hand. "Yes, and five hundred thousand."

The Joker made a dismissive noise. "That's not even a tenth of all the money they've got. We're clearing it out."

"The whole thing?"

"The whole shebang." he smirked. "Why, sweetheart, you not up to it?"

The Chimera crossed her arms. "Oh, trust me, I'm up for it. But don't your bank robberies usually consist of your henchmen doing all the work while you hang around and shoot people? Including the people who work for you?"