Just Paint Your Face

The Joker whistled as he put on his make up hurriedly. I willed the ivy out, spreading it over my body, covering the dress I was wearing. It climbed around my neck and settled gracefully up my cheekbone.

"Why are you so excited about Harvey, if you know he's not The Batman?" I asked, curious. His planning was always a little strange, always screwy. As if he took puzzle peices and shook them in a box, dumped all the contents on the floor, and in the end, it made a picture.

He clapped his hands, "Because, Ivy, Batty won't be able to resist saving him."

"Do you really want to kill him?" I suddenly remembered Rachel.

I love him so much.

I knew how that felt. For once.

"Uh... hm. Ho hum. I'm still playing with the idea..."

I breathed inwardly and tensed.

"...But maybe we could have some fun with him huh?"

I smiled. I had a chance. I had a chance to keep the one bond I had with my friend unbroken. The Joker stared at me strangely. Like I was up to something. He licked his lip and I stared back at him.

"You ready?" He smiled slyly.

I nodded, "Ready for anything. I was a receptionist, you know."

"Secretary." He corrected lazily.

"Receptionist." I retorted, frowning.

He rushed over and grabbed my hair, pulling my face close to his. Our noses touched. He smirked, bringing his mouth to my ear.

"Sexretary." He hissed. The way his green hair swung in his face and his red upper lip pulled back reminded me of a mad dog. And I liked it.

I laughed, and he laughed with me, our mad and shrill giggles filling the room.

Daisy

I finished dressing up after The Joker told me to. I'd been sitting with him when the press conference played, and when that Harvey Dent guy had said,

"I am Batman."

He'd jumped off the couch, going from content to delightfully insane. He'd patted my head playfully and smiled at me. His grin was creepy. But I'd learned not to be afraid of him.

He'd saved my life.

I eyed the peice of bloody cloth, now draped over the stereo he'd hand picked for me in the shop. I smiled and took it in my fingers. It was a deep brown color now. Like his eyes. Like my eyes. I stuck it in my back pocket, sticking it out slightly.

"Hi, Daisy." Happy waved at me as I exited my room. He called me Daisy when the other 'boys' weren't around. I guess it was out of habit that they'd started calling me Mime. Goofy had a thing for nicknaming people. I found myself wondering if he'd named my Dad.

My Dad.

I smiled, pulling out my green sharpie and pad of paper.

How are you?

I handed him the paper.

"Good. Excited. This is a big job. You're lucky he's letting you go."

I nodded, knowing why I was tagging along. He didn't want me in danger like last time. He wanted someone he trusted with me at all times. Happy had begun sleeping outside my door, and whenever Ivy and The Joker were off getting dressed or fighting or doing that gross adult stuff, Goofy would teach me card games and Grumpy would teach me how to needlepoint and sew.

Grumpy was just a big old softie. He didn't like showing it though.

Goofy was great storyteller. He'd relive all these jobs with me in his southern drawl. After several minutes of persisting, I'd even gotten him to tell me how he came to be with The Joker.

"Well, actually, me an Grumpy found him. Me and Grumpy was always together. Even as bums. We saw him twitchin' and laughin' like a clown in the circus one night behind a dumpster. His jaw was all red and swollen. I got Grumpy to get me some of his thread and he held him down. I sewed him up best as I could. He didn't complain or nuffin. He just kept right along laughin. Sometimes he'd tell us jokes. They wasn't too funny. One night he just got up and wandered off like a cow who lost his bell. He came back later, laughin and tellin us he wanted us on his 'team'. We was like that for a long time. Happy came along. He was just a kid, 17. He was addicted to heroin and had found us while he was high. Joker got him off. And he stayed. Then he found the Lady, then she brought us you! And ...that's about it."

He found the Lady? I'd scribbled, confused. Ivy always told me he'd dragged her off one night on a whim.

"He saw her one night while me and him were getting back from a job. We stopped cause we heard some noise. He thought it was The Bat Feller and got all excited, jumping around. We were suprised when we saw her, roughing up some guy that was twice as tall and wide as she was. Then we left, but he wouldn't leave it alone. We don't know what came over him. He got Happy to follow her around, find out where she lived, take pictures. Kept saying he needed her to get to Dent. But we knew that wasn't true. No sir.You could sweep the crackers under the rug, but they'd still be there."

How romantic.

"You bet. She was a lucky lady. He was gonna kill her because she'd gone too close to the warehouse. And now look what happened." Goofy smiled his crooked grin.

I smiled in response. He found a seed. He planted a garden. And when she bloomed, he fell.

Ivy

My hair swung about wildly in the wind as we sped through Gotham in a semi. I leaned against the wall with Daisy. The Joker held haphazardly onto the rope used to pull the door, which was open. He would randomly swing over the edge, letting a leg dangling out. He almost lost his balance a few times, but it didn't phase him.

He feared nothing.

"There it is!" He cackled and his head swung over in our direction.

He shot at an armored swat vehicle we were now directly across from, using a progressively bigger weapon each time.

Those things held up against anything, right?

"Mime, you ever fire an RPG?"

As if this was something some teenagers experienced. I rolled my eyes.

I tried to push away my nervousness for Dent.

Daisy shrugged. The Joker smiled and snapped his fingers. Goofy loped over, handing him a huge launcher. He motioned for Daisy. She held her arms outstretched to keep her balance in the shaking truck, like some silly tightrope walker. He knelt down and she followed the movement. He positioned the launcher on her shoulder and he helped her hold it correctly. He looked so happy, as if he was teaching her to ride a bicycle.

"Okay..." He yelled over the wind that roared around us, motioning to a police car speeding beside us. I suddenly feared for Dent's safety. But I kept my cool and stayed back as he instructed her, "aim it. Aim it. Yeah, that's good. Okay... fire it."

A loud boom and Daisy fell back from the force. He faltered, helped her up. I watched the bazooka. It missed the truck by a hair. I sighed in relief. I knew he was trying to get Batman's attention, but did he have to do it so dangerously?

I cringed when he looked up at me expectantly.

"Ah, come on. I'm not asking you to kill him. Just... shake things up." He shook his hands. I bit my lip. I didn't mind that. I just didn't know how far I would go once the darkness in me took over.

I settled, making my decision. I walked over to the edge of the truck's opening, staring at the car. We were losing them in this bulky peice of shit. I'd have to act fast.

My eyes narrowed and I shot my arm out, thinking angry thoughts. A vine shot out quickly, wrapping stubbornly around the car. I struggled, the speeding weight counteracting even the iron strength of it. I felt my legs give and cursed. There was a moment where I literally flew between the space, barely over the road whirling beneath. But my vine dragged me with it. I felt sharp pain as my body met metal roughly and the truck swerved. I held fast to the top, waiting for it to calm down before I crawled over the windshield. I heard a crack as one of my vines broke the glass barrier on the driver's side.

I was amazed at how strong they were. How strong I was. I grinned and bent so my head hung into view, the darkness taking over.

The cops driving screamed.

"Hello boys! Little bit drafty out tonight, don't you think?"

I smiled when the front seater whipped out his gun.

"Guns. So primitive." I saw a vine grasp him by the neck and hardly looked up as I flung him out into the road. I stared at the driver. His knuckles were white and grasped tightly around the wheel.

"Now, I'm not here to kill you. Just to shake things up. You must understand." I took the wheel and swerved, hard. He fumbled and jostled with the vehicle as I laughed, staying put.

"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies..."

The man hurled. The wind roared in my ears. I felt alive.

"Ashes, ashes..."

His face was the color of them.

"We all fall down!" I jerked the car a final time and let it swerve to the side of the road, careful not to wreck it to a dangerous point, keeping in mind that Harvey probably sat, unknowing and afraid, in the rear. I stood tall atop the roof, amazed at how well the vines kept my graceful body balanced and upright.

Take me back to him, girls.

The vines grappled to the moving truck and soon I was standing on the rickety floor of the truck again. His men stared at me. Daisy clapped. The Joker laughed hysterically.

"What?" I stared back, ruffling my hair.

"Holy shit...." I heard Grumpy say.

The Joker smirked, suddenly perking up and shouting, "STOP THIS THING."

Why was he stopping? Daisy shrugged. He jumped down giggling. We followed. When he got to the driver's seat, he shot the goon point blank and pushed his body out of the door.

"Harvey, Harvey, Harvey, Dent. 'Scuse me, I wanna drive. Come on ladies," He took the truck's radio in his hand, "Rack them up rack them up. Come on." He giggled. I heard a helicopter rushing overhead. He was driving wildly, no longer chasing but only antagonizing.

Daisy looked up. We heard the whirring sound of the helicopter's blade swinging dangerously close and a loud explosion.

"I like this job. I like it!" He growled.

I saw a dark speeding little vehicle ahead. It looked like a motorcycle.

"Now there's a batman. Come on, you wanna play?"

He sped forward as The Bat dove around the side of us. Daisy's eyes were wild and wide. The Joker sounded semi-sane all of a sudden.

"Get out."

"What?"

"Get out, get out now. Take the girl."

The urgent sound in his tone alarmed me, so I listened. The truck was speeding wildly and I knew there was no time to stop. I wrapped Daisy up carefully. She didn't struggle. I jumped, rolling out onto the street. I only thought about her, about keeping her safe.

Seconds later, I screamed.

There was a loud groan and a screech as the truck flipped and crashed down upon the road.

"Oh god. Oh god."

Daisy clung to me frantically. We watched in horror as that stupid Bat freak sped away.

"Please let him be okay."

Daisy shuddered.

A purple figure toppled and rose, slouching, out of the smoking carnage. I saw Happy and Goofy and Grumpy crawl out from the back, also virtually unharmed. Daisy sped towards them but I grabbed the back of her suspenders. I could hear the sound of that stupid black motorcycle thing again.

The Joker stood with a machine gun in his hand, cracking his neck, firing randomly. He was so close I could hear him muttering.

"Come on I want you to do it I want you to do it. Come on. Hit me."

The engine sped and I could tell Daisy wanted desperately to cry out. I stayed rigid.

"Hit me. Hit me." Bullets flew. Daisy wriggled and struggled against me.

Batman was so close. So close now.

"HIT ME!" He roared.

He barely missed him, crashing into the truck and falling to the ground. The Joker laughed madly, skipping over, tossing his knife back and forth between two hands. A goon tried to take the mask off, and was met with an electric shock. The Joker laughed, kicking and spitting on him as he mocked his pain.

Daisy and I rushed over to him.

He just giggled, kneeling down on his prey.

"This is going to be fun..."

I heard the sound of a gun loading close to my head as hands grabbed at my arms. I saw them grab at Daisy and the Joker.

"Ughhh..." he groaned, "Just one second. Can't you just give me one little second?"

The swat member over him shed off his darkened mask. It was Gordon.

"We got you, you son of a bitch. And your little friends, too."

"Language." The Joker gestured over to Daisy as they dragged us up.

Daisy and I looked solemn and as grey as the night that enveloped us as we were crammed into a swat car.

The Joker just laughed.