No Land for Men

Death of the Family {EP-5}

On the brink of war.

Music playing in the background, his vision blurry, he had been conscious a few hours, cuts and bruises on his body. The crazed blonde climbed off of his lap, slithering away and admiring her handiwork, a lash on his collarbone from her teeth. "There was this one film.." his voice was hoarse as he stood in the shadows and watched the two in the light. "Haven't seen it in a while, but I loved it, never failed to cheer me up. Group of guys, a heist gone wrong, one of them is a snitch..." He said, his speech was slow, making sure that Grayson heard every word. "This... masterful scene... where Michael Madsen cuts a man's ear off with a straight razor." He spoke, referring to 'Reservoir Dogs', and turning on the signature song. He slid into the light, putting on a show for Gray who was currently attempting to focus his eyesight on the male in front of him.

Standing at almost six feet tall, his large body was muscular and the opposite to how his younger self looked, his long yellowish fingernails, dried blood on his fingertips, scars and markings all over his body, he was shirtless, some arkham sweatpants on, the same ones that he had worn back then when he vanished.
The Crooked Man is what they had called him while he lurked in the underground shadows, but now, now he was back, he was the new and improved... Joker.
The standout of the male's appearance was his face and neck, his neck crooked and twisted, clearly broken and not fully healed properly, or maybe something else, but at a rough guess it had been broken by The Bat during their last confrontation, giving him the name 'The Crooked Man'. His head was in a severe state of disfiguration, his face he been removed and replaced, stapled on with clamps in his skin, the skin stretched out, rotted and infection beneath the layer, it was amazing he was still alive. His green slicked back hair was almost perfectly styled, clearly he and his pet had a lot of one on one time, enough for him to let her near his head.
"What- what happened to you?" Grayson asked weakly as he watched Joker dance in front of him to the music, getting closer and closer.
"A new look, the cool kids call it chic" He giggled to himself and stopped suddenly. "Wait... I forgot something!" He spun on the spot and held his hands out to the blonde who was now lurking around in the shadows. Her arm reached out and placed a straight razor into his hand, which proceeded to twirl around his fingers and point the blade at Grayson. "My arm is complete." A grin on his horrific face, Gray's heart rate was quick, he couldn't get loose, and he was there without aid.
"Now, I need to show you a little something" He said and slashed at Grayson's ear, a yelp of pain released from Dick's mouth, his ear was hanging off and clung to the side of his head by lumps and threads of flesh, his breathing fast and uncontrollable. "I know I know, it's dreadful," J said as he watched and flicked the hanging ear with his finger before placing his hand on his thigh and leaning close. "Don't worry, I'll fix yah" His voice was slithery and a slight gravel sound to the back of his throat. He backed away, the blonde was licking her lips as she watched the blood pour from Gray's ear, he found it confusing how neither cared about his identity, so many Rogues that he had encountered had in the past. He turned and presented a vile of turquoise liquid in a vile. "Now, you might recognize this, you might not. I'm gonna show you my new lovely formula that's gonna heal that pretty ear of yours." He said, waving the vile around with jazz hands. He pressed Grayson's ear back where it should be, causing the boy to hiss and scrunch his face up, he then poured the liquid over the severe wound and almost a burning or sizzling effect took place, it was incredibly hot, the boy's eyes widened and he let out yells and screams of pain, Joker soon backed off however and clapped his hands, Grayson's ear intact and looking brand new. "Now, I wanted to show you this lovely magic mojo juice, because I wanted to warn you. I don't wanna kill you, not yet, I haven't had any fun, but you're gonna help me find more of this, and then I'll kill you." He said with a large grin, his face stretching out almost like an animation. "Fuck yourself" Grayson said weakly and looked up at him.
"I do, daily. Go on Harl." He said as if he was commanding a dog, she pounced onto Grayson, the chair falling back, both letting out grunts as she began to bite and claw at his skin ferociously.

"His suit's been offline for a few hours, I've searched the streets where they were off, I found one of these" Jason said, he had been out searching for Grayson, trying his best to lay low whilst out. He held up one of Grayson's Escrima sticks, the whereabouts of the other was unknown.
She sat with her head in her hands, "Everything that's happened, I let him down Jase... I should have seen the water, warned him sooner, predicted it." She said, rubbing her eyes and sniffling some.
"Hey, it isn't your fault. He insists on traveling and doing things on his own as often as possible, no-one's to blame, it was a freak thing." He attempted to reassure Babs, sitting by her and lacing his arm around her shoulders, tugging her close to comfort her. Babs' head rested against his chest, her arms wrapping around his waist and she closed her eyes. "C'mon, it'll make you feel a little better, and then tomorrow I'll go search again." Jason offered her a beer and of course, she took it, downing the majority of it and panting a little, her eyes a dark red from the tears.

"Everyone okay?" Gordon called out to Bullock, adjusting his glasses and brushing his hand through his hair.
"Yeah Jim, just a few bruises, we were hit lightly, we need to sort the Protocol situation" He insisted, Jim was moving through the Asylum, heading towards the bridge to check the damage.
"We're stable, stable enough to keep moving, any word from Nightwing?" He asked and Bullock simply shook his head before sighing.
"A few of our guys saw him at the Sionis Rig, that was where it first hit. No eyes on Black Mask, I think it's safe to assume he's 6ft under water by now. We've got everyone spare searching for 'Wing"
"Good, don't worry I have a plan for the protocol, if those bastards think they can leave us, we'll show them we're strong enough to survive!"

The entire night had been dreadful, it had been a few long endless hours of torture from his pet, the one they called Harlequin, her hands were all over his body, touching him, groping him, squeezing, tugging, pinching, clawing, tearing, he would be covered in scars by the time she was done, but he hadn't let up. In fact, he didn't even know if it mattered or whether it just pleased the sick perverted bastard sat in the corner watching it. "Alright, pretty boy" Joker stood, holding Gray's Escrima stick, the one that matched the other Jason had found back on the surface. He twirled it around his fingers, dropping it and cursing before heading over, smashing it across his face. "Time to go a little more extreme, let's stretch." He said, of course that was instant alarm bells in Grayson's head, he couldn't take any more torture, especially anything else sexual.
*Yes, I'm sort of vaguely suggesting Escrima stick up Grayson's behind, but don't worry about that, we won't go that far*
He watched the pale figure lurk towards him, his back on the floor, wrists roughly bound around the back of the chair still, laying down as he watched Joker approach his now fragile body. He had been working on the back of the chair for roughly the past hour, Harley wasn't gentle, and her dumbness didn't catch on to the fact that part of the chair back was cracked, a shard stabbing out into Grayson's arm, in an area that meant he had been able to carve away subtly at the thick rope around his wrists. "Hmm, I wonder how many inches Batgirl can take, think you can take more?" He asked teasingly and leaned down, Grayson pushed Joker away with his feet, giving himself enough momentum to roll back, his binds cutting lose and he stumbled back into the shadows. "Fucking fetch me that bird!" He barked and she grabbed a knife, heading into the shadows with him.
His bare feet on the floor, almost feeling like slime. They were in the Gotham sewers, not the best place to be with exposed wounds, but he needed to find a way out, he could hear her somewhere in the dark behind him. He had no idea where his armor was, where an exit was, he was following the service lights and running water, hoping to just find something.
The sun was starting to rise, it was difficult to tell, it would be the start to a beautiful looking day if there still wasn't a huge grey cloud towering over Gotham's skyline, spewing out rain onto the contents beneath. A few light rays broke through the cracks in the clouds and landed on the bed, his body had a quilt draped over the lower half, he stretched out and yawned as he woke, saw from looking for Gray the previous night. He stood, grabbing his leftover beer from the floor, tugging up his boxers and standing at the clock face, looking out over the drowning city before looking back at the girl's ginger locks on the pillow beside where he had slept.