The Emperor's New Stooge

[Omni]

“Are we going to the circus?” asked the Joker. “I want to go to the -”

“Shut UP!” barked Dredd. He marched the man along indelicately, one hand continually pressed on the Joker’s back. They came to a tall tower. Not as tall as the Emperor’s, but evidently still suitable for someone of importance. Several jokes came to mind, but the clown found it difficult to jest while being manhandled through a doorway. Difficult, but not impossible.

A minute later, he was being thrown into a containment cell and left to talk to himself. But it wasn’t long before the Judge came back, looking even more pissed off than he usually did. He brought with him a small circular device, which floated into the air and projected a hologram. An elder gentleman with greying hair, clad in a robe. He didn’t look anything special.

The Joker looked from the hologram, to Dredd, and made an assessment. “Is this your grandpa?” he asked.

Dredd said nothing. But the hologram spoke.

“Welcome to Coruscant.”

“Some welcome,” responded the Joker, shaking his head. “I like the bouncy castle,” he hopped up and down on the padded floor, toothily grinning. “But your doorman is a serious buzzkill. You ever consider hiring someone who knows how to smile?”

Palpatine did as much, but ignored the statement. “I understand there was some violence at the Nexus, which ended in the death of one of my soldiers.”

“And for that,” said the Joker, pressing his hands together and puckering his lips towards the hologram, eyes as big as he could make them. “I am so, so sorry.”

“Yes.” said the Emperor. “In fact, I’m willing to forgive you.”

“Eh? I mean, uh, goodie!”

“On one condition.” The Emperor’s image flickered as he bent forward. “You see, there’s an errand I need run.”

“And you want me to do it?” The Joker pulled a quizzical duckface.

“I’ll make it simple, since you’re new. My soldiers will escort you to a particular verse – a particular world. You will go and spy on them.”

“Oo, what world? Is it a circus world?”

The hologram’s mouth twitched into a grin. “Not yet. They call it the Tangled Green.”

[Blink]

"Hey, will you just shut up in there?!" One of the guards said, raising his voice for the fifth time in ten minutes. His eyes moved to the heavy door blocking the annoying inmate he had been charged to look after. But the noise just continued...that insistent, irritating cackling just kept on, over and over. "What the hell is he laughing at in there, anyway? It's been going on for ages!"

"Just relax," said his partner, with his feet up on the table. He was obviously not bothered by the constant giggling going on in the padded prison cell.

The man known as The Joker was still locked up, giving him 'time' to make a decision. The guards had been watching him for about a day now, having been told that he would be given another opportunity to 'decide' sometime soon. The two watchman didn't know exactly what the clown had to decide, but they knew he was offered a e'gg job - so why he was still in the tower was a confusion among them.

"I just wish he'd take whatever damn job they gave him so he could get out of our hair," said the irritated soldier. He let out a sigh as he run his fingers through short, black mane. "Really, who the hell tells the Emperor they'll think about it?"

His partner was less bothered by the chuckling coming from the cell. He had his feet up on the table and a book in his hand, idly turning the page as he listened to his annoyed friend. "Maybe he got offered to be the court jester."

The annoyed storm trooper shook his head, annoyed both at the laughing and at the uninterested attitude his friend had. Finally, he stood up, forcing his metal chair to slide backwards. "That's it, I can't take it anymore." His eyes turned to the electronic door that was holding in the Joker. The laughing was low - more like a chuckling then an actual laugh. He moved forward to the door, grabbing hold of his baton as he moved closer to the cell. "I'm gonna shut this guy up."

"Don't hurt him too bad," said the reading soldier, still uninterested at the table. When the door opened, the laughing only got louder. The first trooper stepped into the room and the door shut behind him. The lazy one looked up over his book as the laughing suddenly came to an abrupt halt, without any other noise accompanying it. No shouting, no screaming, and no laughing. His squinted a bit, mainly to see if he could see anything through the little window from where he was sitting, but he couldn't.

That was when he saw it. A little bit of green smoke. There was some kind of powder or smoke fogging up the window, causing it to turn a light shade of emerald. The trooper stood up, curious and a bit spooked as he reached for his plasma pistol. "What's going on in there?" He asked. The lack of laughing actually made him a little nervous. He moved closer to the door, putting both hands on his pistol. He wasn't sure why he was so scared of a clown - but something made him really nervous.

When he opened the door to the cell, the sound of laughing immediately returned. Past the thick smog of green gas was the clear sound of chuckling - much louder and more pronounced then before. "What the...?" he asked no one in particular. That was when he saw it. The figure of his partner appeared, on his knees in the midst of the green gas, laughing manically. He was holding his stomach as he went from chuckling to coughing in one fell swoop. The guard standing at the door kept his eyes on him, open wide as he watched his friend and co-worker suddenly go limp - having gone from an uproar laughter to a dead silence.

The Joker suddenly appeared from the side of the doorway, sidestepping comically. It scared the guard enough to cause him to stumble backwards, keeping upright. Joker had one hand on his chin, holding a small face-piece to his mouth so he could breath. The other hand had a small, purple-handed pistol. Before the guard could react, his arm raised and the gun fired, blasting through his skull.

Joker looked over his shoulder to admire his handy-work: the gas canister, the summoned pistol and even the constant laughing that spilled the guard over the edge. Getting out of the cell had proved easy. Now the challenge was in front of him. He hopped over the body of the once-lazy guard and made his way towards the entrance-way to the guard room.

Being in the cell had given him the opportunity to think. He could finally take a moment to consider where he had been and where he was now. He was never one for planning too far in advance, but he had at least known where he was going. He knew what he wanted for Gotham City and what he had planned for the Batman. But here - it was a whole new world. A whole new adventure full of people he didn't know and places he had never seen. This Emperor had given him the chance to reform and help out. But The Joker was smart enough to know when he was being used. He was intelligent enough to be aware of what others perceived him as.

A crazy, dangerous clown.

And he was. He would admit to it. But he was his dangerous clown and nobody else's. As he found the ladderwell leading down the tower, his eyes found a window. Through it as a perfect view of the largest tower he had ever seen - sprawling higher then the one he was currently in.

"Hm," he said to himself, "So if I was a creepy, old Emperor...where would I be hiding?"