The Scramble [Complete]

[Blink]

Despite what might be considered a rather grim outlook on life, the man who was called The Joker did not particularly enjoy the darkness. He had been - or at least he thought he had been - in a police car on his way to Arkham Asylum once again. But now he was just floating in the darkness, processing the information that had been forced down his ear-holes. His memory was fuzzy - he didn't remember how long ago it had been, but the last thing he could remember was a failed plot at the carnival. He had been trying to prove a point to the stubborn Batman. He wanted to show how easy it was to become like him - how one bad day could turn a normal person into a madman like the Joker. But in the end, despite crippling his daughter, The Joker was unable to turn Commissioner Gordon against his city. He could remember laughing with Batman about his failure - and thinking how they were born to be hero and villain fighting against each other for all time.

Then he was here. In this place. If you could even call it a place. It was pitch black, save for the silhouetted man in front of him, giving him a rehearsed speech. Joker's red eyes perked around as the figure spoke - talking about this place and why he was here. It was an annoyingly one-sided conversation. Omni, as he called himself, spoke about the Omniverse and how Joker had been selected to live there. That part was boring. The interesting part about the material that shaped this world, which he called Omnilium. That sounded like the good stuff. The kind of stuff that someone like Joker would find really...what was the word? Fun.

By the time a white-gloved hand spat out of the fountain, nobody had been paying attention to it. There was a commotion between two large groups with a smaller group right in the middle. Joker sucked in a deep breath when he came out of the water, using both arms to pull himself out of the fountain. He blinked his red eyes a moment as they adjusted so he could see what was going on. The fountain he was in appeared to only been a foot or so deep from the outside - he could look over the edge of it and see the ground. But his entire body was inside the fountain, defying what his eyes were telling him. "Well," he finally brought himself to speak, "This is one hell of a practical joke, if it's not real."

He used his weight to pull himself out of the fountain and roll onto the ground. His covered hands ran over his purple jacket as he sat up, looking at his long legs outstretched in front of him. He looked at his pointy black shoes and wiggled his toes - half because he wanted to ensure they work, and half because they looked really funny when he did. He got a chuckle out of his own movements.

"I'm not forcing anyone," someone said in a strong, firm voice. Joker's ears twitched as he looked up at the man who spoke. It was one of the riders in one of the big groups surrounding the smaller group. “You can go with him, or come with me, or you can go to any one of the other verses. I just don’t want the Empire to twist you against us.” The man looked exactly like the kind of guy Joker hated. He was disgustingly handsome, annoying strong and probably idiotically brave. Joker knew somebody like that, and go figure, he didn't care for him that much, either.

Joker was perceived to be a lot of things. Insane, evil, and impulsive were all traits he had heard to describe him. But he was actually a patient man. He wanted to get all the facts - learn about all the faces before he acted. Especially in this strange world that he wasn't entirely convinced was real. So his slid backwards, around the fountain he had just crawled out of, doing his best to remain unnoticed.

He licked his lips as he slunk backwards, crouching away from the groups in front of him. "This is either the best or the worst dream I've ever bad. Maybe..." he said to himself with a big smile, tilting his head forward, "Maybe it's both."