The Inheritance

                         By Talespinner

Jo zipped up her bag with all her meagre possessions inside and looked at Hayley, tears
welled in her eyes. As they had been doing all morning they hugged and sobbed. It
would be obvious to any observer that they were friends of great affinity. A quality made
ever more valuable in an orphanage of little spirit.

Jo had just turned 18 and by the rules of the establishment she was to leave immediately.
Hayley was a year younger and had to remain under the strict guardianship of the
orphanage. 

Both had stuck together as friends albeit they were only friends since they could
remember. They had both came to the orphanage as infants and had no memory of the
outside world of their own. Now upon Jo’s departure she would not be allowed back
even to visit due to the strict rules of the orphanage.

"I’m so scared of what will happen to me", Jo said after calming down.

"You’ll make it outside Jo, you’re intelligent, responsible, you can do what ever you
want. Any way you can still find your dad!" Hayley responded.

" Yes, But who knows where he is, he’s been missing for 20 years!" protested Jo.

"Well wherever he is it’s a better life with him than it is here. Hayley asserted.

Jo could not argue with that. Gotham Orphanage was an institution devoid of care. The
superiors only meted out strict discipline and were seen to be devoid of any emotion. As
a result the orphans already without the love of their parents had their tender hearts
broken at an early age. But not Jo and Hayley both had clung to each other for support
by instinct, as they were the only emotional bearings each other could find. As a result
both had a little hope in their hearts that something better would come around the corner.

For the time being the only thing that would come around the corner was the head
mistress of the orphanage.

"Josephine it is time for your departure!", she ordered.

With that Jo picked up her bag and gave one final hug to Hayley as they gave each other
their final good byes and with tears in their eyes as Jo left with the head mistress to enter
the world at large

    

 

    As soon as Jo was out of sight and sound of the orphanage she let out a loud yippee,
despite her apprehensions of the outside world she was glad to be free of the orphanage.
The place of which she grew up left her with bitter memories. The orphanage, which was
sterile of love and care, was more disgusting to her than the physical state of the
orphanage itself. Everything was dirty and in disrepair largely to the inaction of the
owner, Gotham’s wealthiest industrialist and "philanthropist" Kenneth Stoneham. It was
apparent to her that he only owned the orphanage for corporate P.R. and had no desire
to care for orphans. But she kept these views to her self for Jo was a shy person.
Brought about by the intimidating demeanour of the superiors from the orphanage of
which deviation from their view of the world meant harsh discipline as punishment.

But through all this she had hope, hope of finding her father. Even though she had never
met him she believed that upon uniting with him, he would deliver her from the harsh
world in which she existed to a world in which she would be wanted and cared for. 

With this hope now finally to be realised she took from the pocket of her jeans, the
details of her father of which she hoped to be reunited with. It only included a name and
address: Jack Napier Apt 47 No 2156 61st St. She quickly realised that she would
need a taxi to take her across town. Her shyness soon became apparent when trying to
hail one. With half blown gestures and a soft voice she would not get a taxi any time
soon.

    

 

    At the main hall in the orphanage girls and boys segregated from each other were
standing in straight lines to attention. At the back of the hall stood Hayley at the end of
the last line. Hayley was a teenage girl of average height, slim build and short blond hair.
She may have been for her age considered quite an attractive girl in the outside world.
But Gotham orphanage was a vortex where the care of the outside world was sucked
out and replaced by rigid authority and discipline. Hayley’s blue eyes and peach lips
steeled with the discipline that was instilled within the orphans whether by fear or favour.

The head superior walked up onto a platform in the front of the hall and addressed the
congregation

" Good morning all, Today we shall be preparing ourselves for the visit of our gracious
patron Mr Stoneham. As I have stressed to you all before you must all be on your best
behaviour and manners for his visit tomorrow night. As for today we will be cleaning this
morning, you have your regular duties as per normal so lets GO!"

With a clap of his hands all the orphans from 4 yrs and over started to file out. As the
orphans all filed out and dispersed to different parts of the orphanage. They all started to
mop, sweep, wash and do other menial chores under the glaring eyes of their superiors.

Hayley had been assigned to the hall. All the orphans were working to clean stains and
smells from the floors and walls. Next to Hayley was a young boy, no older than 7 years
of age. He was scrubbing away at a small red stain on the floor. The young boy tried to
scrub as hard as he could but could not get the stain out. The young boy began to tire
and a superior came to inspect.

"Young William, have you got that stain out?", he inquired

The young boy replied, "I tried sir, but it won’t …", before he could finish sentence. The
superior dragged the young boy up and away by the ear and away around the corridor
leading to the hall. Any mystery about what happened to the boy was lost when several
loud screams were heard resonating through the hall. With each scream Hayley
shuddered. She had been there before.

 

 

    Jo had arrived at the address on the card. Unfortunately she was disappointed to find
it belong to an abandoned apartment block. Hoping to find some clues about her father
she ventured in. Jo entered the lobby and was about to go up the stairs when she noticed
a reflecting pane of glass in the lobby. She stopped to have a look, not out of vanity,
rather to have a look at how she was when she would meet her father. She felt it would
be soon. What she saw was woman of medium height and a full figure. She had short
black hair and a rosy skin with a few freckles interspersed. She noticed her thin red lips
were trembling in anticipation of what she would find out about her dad today. It was
then she felt she had to go find the apartment. 

She paced up the stairs powered by her hope, a hope sustained for many years inside
the depressing walls of the orphanage. She reached the apartment,

"No 47, this is it!", Jo said to herself. 

She knocked on the door once, then twice. Suddenly on the third time the door fell open
off its hinges to reveal a room of a disturbing sight. Caught by surprise Jo screamed but
soon regained her composure. She stepped into the apartment and surveyed its
disturbing contents. All over the walls were spray painted HA! HA! HA! and BATMAN
MUST DIE! There were several closets and numerous cans of industrial chemicals and
gases. 

"This is freaky stuff.", Jo muttered to herself.

She started to wonder what sort of person her father was or if this was her father’s doing
at all. She moved towards one of the closets and opened it. Inside there were various
purple suits, orange shirts, plastic flowers, hats and costumes of harlequins. On the top
shelf of the closet, there were two books. One was entitled cookbook and the other was
entitled diary. She opened the cookbook to find directions to make several concoctions
out of the chemicals and gases in the apartment. The concoctions had names such as
Joker Juice, Laughing gas and Smilex. Puzzled to what this all meant she closed the
cookbook and opened the diary. On the first page was a newspaper clipping of a police
stand off with Batman at Axis Chemicals. Jo read the clipping further on to find that Jack
Napier had an arrest warrant out for him but was missing. She read the entry in the diary
after the clipping about Jack’s self explanation about his transformation to the Joker

"Batman made my dad a freak!", Jo exclaimed.

But even if Jack Napier was a freak, Jo still wanted to find him and know him. She read
on in anticipation, to find some clues about her father’s life and where he might be. She
read about his crimes and his life. Then in the middle of the book there was an abrupt
end. Still wanting to know more Jo looked around for more clues. She looked in tables
and drawers in all of the room of the apartment. She found a make-up table full of sets of
flesh toned make-up. She looked around even more, finding more tins of chemicals,
electric buzzers. Her hope for her father had become an obsession.

 

 

    It was soon after dark and Jo was still scouring the apartment. Suprisingly electricity
was still running through the building, so Jo could use the lights. She then found a pile of
newspapers, which were sitting outside. 

"I must have ignored these in my rush to get in." Jo muttered to herself.

She had spent all afternoon in the apartment, looking at anything she had found. Her
obsession about her dad had intensified with each new discovery. By now she knew
everything about Jack Napier’s life as the Joker. 

She deconstructed the pile of papers. It was obvious that Jack Napier had a subscription
judging by the daily frequency of the papers. Jo soon reached the bottom of the pile. Jo
read the paper’s headline,

JOKER DEAD

Fall from cathedral kills crime figure

Jo was silent at first, but then let her emotions out as her hopes were shattered in that
single moment.

" I have nothing, I HAVE NOTHING!", Jo broke down sobbing. 

Jo felt at first great sadness, but then felt an anger that built up inside of her

"I have nothing! My life is a joke, A JOKE!" With that outburst, anger built up within Jo
to a stage that she picked up the diary she had left on the table and threw into the wall,
the book rebounded and hit a can of chemicals and came to rest on the floor. Jo’s anger
subsided with that, but she was unaware in her hysteria that the book had in fact
punctured the can of chemicals entitled smilex gas and had cause it to conspicuously hiss.

Jo continued to sob in the room as the gas filled the air.

"I have nothing." Jo repeated as she continued to sob. Her sobs then started to subside,

"Wait, I do have something", Jo said as her sobs were gradually replaced with giggles.

"I have a score to settle." Jo said, as her giggles became more frequent.

"With the world for the wretched live that I have." Jo’s giggles became laughs.

" For the jokes that were my life and my dad’s life." Jo said, as her laughter became
more hysterical.

" Gotham better watch out because there are two jokers in every pack". At that point
Jo’s mind had snapped. With her hopes crushed and her obsession unfulfilled, she was a
broken spirit. But the smilex gas had affected her, twisted her mind to the insane axis of
which the long lost Joker’s mind had revolved around. Her obsession to be with her
father had gained an insane streak. If she wasn’t going to be with him, she was going to
be as close to him as she could possibly be.

Jo then proceeded to grab the cookbook and took some chemicals into the bathroom.
She started to read the book again and periodically filled the bath with certain chemicals.
She then put down the book and stopped laughing. An eerie silence filled the room. Jo
dipped her left index finger into the bath. A small fizz followed, then she took her finger
out. Jo’s eyes and grin as she looked at the finger both showed that an obsessive insanity
had taken over her

" Excellent!" Jo exclaimed as she started laughing insanely again. She had noticed that her
finger had turned bone white.

 

 

    A figure fled through the night towards Gotham Orphanage. >From alley to alley it
moved ever closer to the orphanage until it reached the fire escape. The occasional
reflected light of passing cars revealed that the figure was in a purple tracksuit. The
person looked at their watch. It was 1 a.m. The figure started to climb the fire escape.
The escape route was very old and it would creak upon use. The person had reached
the second floor when the stairs began to creak very loudly and started to give way. The
person used their quick reflexes to jump onto a metal water pipe next to the collapsing
stairs. As the collapsing stairs gave a mighty crash below the person quickly climbed up
the pole to a third floor window. It normally would be a miracle that nobody woke up,
but there were plenty of strange noises at night in Gotham Orphanage that people just
got used to. The purple clad figure climbed into the room through the unlocked window.
Slowly and quietly the figure walked through the bedroom of sleeping orphans and
reached Hayley’s bed. The figure put their glove clad hand around her mouth and woke
her up. Hayley woke up startled to see an intruder over her bed and was about to
scream until the intruder revealed her identity.

" Shh, Hayley it’s me, Jo. I’m here to bust you out." Jo said to Hayley as she took down
her hood to reveal her black hair. Hayley calmed down and started to pick up few
clothes. Their silence was broken when a young girl no older than 4 started to wail when
noticing the intruder. A flashlight has seen to reflect from the hall. 

"Lets go!" Jo exclaimed as her and Hayley with a pair of clothes rushed to the window.

Jo pointed to the pipe " Only way down." and took one of Hayley’s clothes and hung it
around the pole to slide herself down, she giggled all the way. Hayley did the same just
as the night superior saw her climb out the window. They both hit the ground running
despite the cries of the night superior. Hayley followed Jo as fast as she could, she was
glad to leave the orphanage but uncertain of what was to come. But more uncertain to
her was Jo’s constant giggling during the getaway. To Hayley it just didn’t seem like Jo. 

 

 

    Jo and Hayley entered the abandoned apartment block after fleeing from the
orphanage. They were both running on adrenalin from the getaway and were happy to
find a place to rest. 

"You already have a place after one day?" Hayley enquired 

" For now it is." Jo replied

" What about your…" Hayley trailed off when she came to the apartment itself. The light
was still on revealing the chilling graffiti, which shocked her at first.

"…dad."

" You could say that this is my inheritance." Jo said as they came in, she gave Hayley her
dad’s diary. They both sat down at the table. Hayley read all about Jack Napier and the
Joker and learnt about his life of crime.

"Sorry, about your dad Jo." Hayley said as she looked up from the book to see Jo still
wearing a smile from ear to ear. This again struck Hayley as unlike Jo. Also in the full
light Hayley noticed that Jo was missing her fair freckles and her skin was missing its hue,
it was still pink but not with its rosy hue. Small differences they were, but Hayley knew
Jo well.

" Hayley, Jack Napier died a long time ago but the Joker is still here with us." Jo replied
still with the large grin on her face. This confirmed within Hayley that something was
wrong with Jo.

" Jo is there something wrong?" Hayley asked. Jo got up from the table and grabbed a
large bowl and headed to the faucet.

" Hayley, Before we were living miserable little lives being dominated by the world that
was against us." Jo filled the bowl up with water and continued,

" Now with my inheritance we are going to get our revenge." Jo had returned to the
table.

" What is your inheritance?" Hayley asked wanting to cut through the rhetoric.

Jo then dipped her head in the bowl of water. Immediately the water in the bowl became
cloudy in colours of pink and black with a dull fizzing became audible. Jo then lifted her
head out of the bowl

"This is my inheritance! To live life with a smile." Jo said and started to burst out laughing.
Hayley was stunned. Jo’s hair was now a luminous dark green, her skin was bleached
bone white and her lips were stretched across her face from cheek to cheek creating a
wide red smile. She was closer to her father than she would ever be.

" This can be your inheritance as well, Hayley." Jo said after her laughter subsided.

"Oh I don’t know.." Hayley was unsure and still trying to take all the events in.

" Come with me, before my life was made miserable and pointless in the orphanage just
like yours, now I’m running the show. Together we’ll make the world pay for our
wretched little lives." Jo testified.

Hayley shed a small tear, Jo was right, her life at this moment was depressing.

" Try this it will give you a lift." Jo picked up a tub of cream and passed it to Hayley.

" Are you sure?" Hayley asked.

"Let’s just say it’s a taste of what you could be a part of." Jo replied with a little giggle.
Hayley read the label: CRÈME DE HARLEQUIN (apply to face). While Hayley had
some apprehension her bond with Jo had the strength to overcome it.

She opened the lid and took a fingerful and applied it to her cheek. Immediately it had an
effect on Hayley. Feelings overcame her that life was a cruel joke and she would prove
that to those who had proved it to her. The feeling was obsessive and addictive. She
reached for more cream and more cream for her face. As she applied the cream she
started to laugh hysterically, Jo joined in on the laughter, she had now brought into
Hayley into her orbit of insanity. As Hayley applied the cream her face lost its pigment
and became bone white like Jo’s also a wide grin became fixed on her face. But Hayley
did not care as the feeling of obsessive insanity was intoxicating and it was taking over
her, as her miserable life seemed to be floating away. When she had stopped taking the
cream. Jo came over and said, "Welcome to the land of the laughing.", upon which both
indulged in their insanity with hysterical laughing.

    

 

    Jo was looking at herself in the mirror and thinking. She had transformed herself into a
different woman. Not only physically, yesterday she was a shy girl who was too afraid to
even speak out for herself. Now she was ready to take on the world as…It just
occurred to her that she had not thought of her new identity. Hayley already had taken to
that task. She entered into the room dressed in black and red garb of a Harlequin with a
small black mask over her eyes and her lips painted black.

"Ta-Daa!!!!!, Introducing the Harley Quinn" Hayley exclaimed while presenting her new
out fit to the room

" Excellent." Approved Jo. She herself had dressed up too. She wore a purple suit with
an orange blouse underneath and a skirt that cut mid-thigh revealing her chalk white legs.

"How about you what’s your new persona?’ asked Harley Quinn

Jo made up her mind, "I’ll continue the legacy of my dad as the Jokeress."

"Were going to make the life of Gotham one big JOKE!" Harley said 

"Wait till Gotham gets a load of us!", the Jokeress replied. They both started to immerse
themselves in insane laughter again. But for Jokeress who chimed in,

"Tonight we are going to make our mark on Gotham."

"But how?" Hayley queried

The Jokeress replied, "We are going to take it back where it all began." 

 

 

    The back alleys around Gotham Orphanage reverberated with the tones of Kenneth
Stoneham. While the benefactor extolled the benefits of a firm upbringing its most recent
recipients were practicing their newfound skills. The Jokeress in her purple suit and
Harley Quinn in her red and black garb were each laying out brightly coloured sticks
bound with jester faced bows around the orphanage.

"We’re dynamite!" exclaimed Harley Quinn as they both met at the entrance.

"It’s time to make a grand entrance!", The Jokeress added as they both let off a giggle.
As the new clown princesses of Gotham went up the stairs they attracted the ire of
security at the door.

"Hey screwballs!" One guard bellowed, before he could proceed any further the
Jokeress and Harley Quinn tossed each guard a green pellet that exploded into gas
underneath the them and sent both to the ground laughing hysterically.

"Remember boys, live life with a smile!", the Jokeress offered as a tip to the two guards
who were now lying stunned dead from the gas with large smiles on their faces. With
their first victims lying in their wake the jesterette duo proceeded in to their former home.
The Jokeress and Harley Quinn proceeded through the maze of corridors towards the
main hall, as they got closer they could hear Stoneham’s paternalistic lecture. 

Stoneham was a portly gentleman who dressed in the most conservative of suits to
reflect his wealth. He lectured to the orphans whose attention was fixed on him out of
fear of punishment for inattentiveness

" To conclude, I have not got to where I am today without rigid self-discipline and…"

"Knock Knock.." The intruders who had just knocked down the door loudly interjected
Stoneham.

"Harley, I think we’ve just crashed a party.", Jokeress told her

"It’s a bit dull." Harley replied in their sarcastic conversation.

"We’ll we better liven things up!", Jokeress proclaimed. They then both pranced around
dropping the same green pellets around the groups of superiors in the hall, which
reduced them to uncontrollable laughing mobs. Stoneham’s bodyguard got up from the
floor and started to take out his gun until Jokeress and Harley Quinn both completing
their circuits of the floor out flanked the body guard with their own weapons. Forcing the
bodyguard to drop his weapon.

"Remember a pair of Joker’s wild beats a dunce every time." Jokeress told the
out-gunned bodyguard who suffered the same fate as the security and the superiors.
Stoneham who was stunned at the incursion had realised that his number and fled
through the back entrance.

"Where’s the glorified golden boy?", Harley Quinn posed rhetorically

" Little piggy went back to market." Jokeress retorted. 

They now had the orphans to themselves, all of them from the youngest who was about
4 to the oldest. Amazingly they had not been affected by the gas and were staring at the
jesterette duo that had slayed their tyrannical masters.

" Now that your elders have learnt to smile and laugh, pass on the lesson to the world
which has given you nothing. The world is yours!", Jokeress told the orphans 

"Now you guys better scram ‘cause we’re gonna leave this party with a BANG!",
Harley Quinn screamed. Upon that the mass of orphans young and not so young got up
and ran for the exits. Not out of fear but out of hope for world in which they would not
be repressed. The older orphans helped the younger ones as they left for the night, which
was brighter to them than any of the dark days they spent in the orphanage. When the
orphans had cleared out and with only the jesterette duo and the groups of stunned dead
smiling bodies lying on the floor. Jokeress produced a consol with a big red button.

" Now you know you never push the big red button." Harley Quinn smirkingly remarked.

"Never say never." Jokeress replied and with loud laugh she pressed the button which
soon started to beep.

"Let’s get outta here.", Harley Quinn remarked as they started running for the door.

As they ran away from the orphanage police sirens could be heard in the background.
The police siren's sound was then massively eclipsed by the explosion of the orphanage.
The clown princesses of Gotham turned around and saw what was the orphanage now a
bright orange inferno lighting the night sky. On the achievement of their first
accomplishment of revenge on Gotham they turned around and screamed at each other
and started to hysterically laugh with each other. Gotham had just experienced the return
of the homicidal clowns.

 

    "Tonight we saw a tragedy that was senseless and a crime against humanity. I swear
that I will do everything in my power to bring these clowns to justice." Kenneth
Stoneham was on the morning TV news condemning the jesterette duo as they were
being condemned on all other news shows. The media were dubbing it Joker’s Return.
The casualty count was 24 dead, all adults and 500 orphans missing. 

"To him justice is a joke, but all jokes aren’t laughing matters." Jokeress responded to
the TV. She switched it off and walked over to the dresser where Harley was. She was
out her Harlequin garb and in jeans and a top, she was applying flesh-toned make-up to
cover her white skin.

"Ready to move?" Jokeress asked dropping a card of directions to her dad’s old lair.

"Yep, ready to go today." Harley Quinn replied. The old Joker’s lair had plenty of more
room and supplies for the jesterette duo and was much more secure for their purposes.
They would be well served there.

As for the orphans that fled the orphanage last night they would never be seen in the light
of day again. But as soon as darkness fell over Gotham they would appear to scavenge
for food or anything else to sustain their lives. They may have been impoverished with
possessions but they were rich with freedom from domination.

It was for this they would always remember and revere their two laughing liberators, and
insane heroines; Jokeress and Harley Quinn.