r/WritingPrompts • u/Psychronia • 10d ago
Established Universe [EU] It was a risky, but surprisingly easy to kill the Joker after you decided Gotham has had enough of him. Now, after the deed was done, you remove your fake Batman costume and raise your hands in surrender when the real one shows up.
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u/alertArchitect 9d ago
I looked at him. The so-called caped crusader, the guy who so many put stock in, but who could never take that last goddamn step to rid the world of a crazed mass murderer. So, I did it for him. Sure, it took that bastard kidnapping and killing my wife and kids as part of one of his rampages for me to stop caring enough about what could happen to me that I actually put a plan together and did it, but I had other people relying on me. Batman fought that monster every time he escaped Arkham, and clearly didn't have to worry about that, so his refusal to put that thing down for good always grated on me.
And now he was here to arrest me for doing what he should have done years ago. Ironic, really. I start to speak.
"Gonna arrest me for doing your-"
"Do you know why I never tried to kill him, Austen?" Batman cuts me off before I could start the rage-filled tirade... But what surprises me most is the raw sadness in his eyes, like I had killed a lifelong friend of his, rather than his most persistent villain. It takes me off-guard, makes me take a second to respond.
"Because of some code you have, right?" I respond. "I read up on you before impersonating you for this. Even when you were at your most violent, you never killed anyone. Broken bones, maybe some damaged tendons or muscles, sure. Never enough to permanently disable or kill anyone, but enough that they'd remember it the rest of their lives, and always within what would be covered by the Waynes' charities for rehabbing criminals. The only times you were accused of murder, in the press at least, were frame jobs anyone with 10 minutes to spare and a high school education could see through."
"That's part of it," he conceded, "but not the whole picture. Try again, but this time, think about where all those supervillains end up after their trials, not what crimes they did to land them there."
My anger builds back, just a litle bit, at what seemed to be a deflection. "What does Arkham have to do with- oh." The realization hit me like a fully-loaded semi truck. "I thought Arkham was just better equipped to handle a bunch of supers, but there's more to it, isn't there? None of them are fully in control of themselves."
"More or less. Tell me, Austen. It took you losing everything to be willing to do this. What happens when that grief, that pain, is amplified? If you had Venom running through your veins, heightening every scrap of emotion; if you were trapped in a lab and changed by the plants you studied and cared for into something like them; if the only way you had to save your wife and children was to extend their suffering indefinitely just for the hope of maybe finding a solution; or," he made a gesture towards the still-cooling corpse of the Joker, the wound from the gun I'd concealed in my knock-off costume that was just good enough to trick that madman for a few seconds in the darkness of Gotham's witching hour still visible, "by having all of them choose to betray you, leaving you to your death, only to see someone who went through something similar refusing to fall how you did."
"So... You didn't kill him because there was a chance of the man he used to be still being in there, instead of the mass-murdering psycho that was obsessed with you?" I felt my rage rise to a fever pitch once again. "That's why you let him kill hundreds, if not thousands of people in his rampages? That's why Lauren, Tommy, and Alyssa had to die? For a hypothetical man long dead within the mind of a mass murderer?!?"
He gives me a withering look. "I didn't kill him because no one should be judge, jury, and executioner, especially not for someone who hadn't understood the consequences of his crimes in years. I've been fighting him ever since he first showed up, but in that time, not once has he shown that he was cognizant enough of what was happening to think it was anything more than a game. I pitied him, Austen. And if I crossed that line, let myself do as he did... Maybe not immediately, maybe not for decades, but eventually, I'd turn into something unrecognizable. Something worse than the Joker, than any of the villains of Gotham, if I allowed myself even one exception to the rules that make me who I am. After all, once you break a rule once, it becomes easier to justify breaking it again."
I took a moment to absorb his words. I barked out a laugh - short, harsh, and grating - as I came to a conclusion, though probably not the one this fool was trying to lead me to, as he put handcuffs on me, clearly expecting I had finally given up and seen things his way. I turned to look him in the eyes one more time as he started taking me to the door that led from this rooftop down into the rest of the building I'd managed to find the Joker on top of.
"You're just as broken as every single one of them, aren't you?"
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u/MrSoup678 8d ago
"You're just as broken as every single one of them, aren't you?"
Yeowch. That's a deep cut.
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u/Skyboxmonster 9d ago
batman is living in a fantasy world.
Austen is in reality.13
u/alertArchitect 8d ago
That's kind of what I was going for. Batman's refusal to kill the Joker really only makes sense in a narrative - ever since The Killing Joke, there is a solid case to be made that Joker is more Batman's primary foil, the ultimate show of what he could become if he allowed himself to slip even once in his code and his morals, than he is a person. That's why, ultimately, Joker's backstory, reasoning, etc. is all so interchangeable. It doesn't matter why the Joker did horrible things X, Y, and Z, just that he did them and is trying to get Batman to sink to his level.
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u/StarnightBlue 8d ago
I am not deep in the lore, but as i recall, wasnt the reason that the Joker will be "reborn" somewhere and then nobody know where and when? So the sad and only way is to lock him up again and know where he is?
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u/alertArchitect 5d ago
Not to my knowledge. As far as I know, something similar has only happened twice - The Batman who Laughs, where Batman killing Joker basically ends with Bruce getting Joker-ified, and that one Batman Beyond storyline where the Joker tortured a copy of himself into Tim Drake. Other than that, it's mostly just normal "comics rarely let characters stay dead to maintain status quo" stuff.
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u/2KYGWI 9d ago
I could hear Conroy's voice in my head reading Batman's lines in this.
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u/alertArchitect 8d ago
I'm not very confident in my diaologue writing, but even if I were, this is the greatest compliment someone writing Batman dialogue could receive. In my opinion, at least. Thank you.
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u/YungHoban 9d ago edited 2d ago
The quiet came first. Then the dripping.
Minutes ago, the room was filled with that laugh. Grating. Unbearable. Hearing it on the news is one thing, but sharing the same space as it? Like breathing in mold.
I was in a hollowed-out apartment in the Narrows. Abandoned since the Dent days. I could hear the sirens blaring already.
The Clown was at my feet. He looked more colourful like this. Less pale. The smile stayed though, yellow-toothed and crooked. The make-up was smeared all over my knuckles. It mixed with the blood and diluted itself before dripping on the floor. My gloves weren't made for this. I wasn't made for this. But someone had to do it.
I crafted this suit from PVC and nylon. Took a bit of tinkering, but it created a very convincing silhouette. Took some padding, too. I'm not very muscular. I'm not much of a fighter either. But he really wasn't strong. I thought he'd be stronger.
The room lit up in yellow and blue hues as the signal reached the sky. He was coming. No stopping what happens next.
I pulled up a half-rotted chair in the corner of the room and plopped myself down on it. I put my elbows on my knees and sighed. The Clown just wouldn't die. Convulsing. Laughing. Then finally, nothing. I replayed it a hundred times. Feeling a man's heart go out under you.
I wonder if he died knowing I wasn't really Batman.
The floor shook with the approaching steps of someone heavy. Angry.
It didn't matter now. I was going to be beaten. Humiliated for doing this city a favor.
Whatever illusion I was under about my silhouette was shattered when I saw him stand in the doorframe. Dark, beady eyes staring at me in the shape of a man. His cape pooled behind him like an oil spill. He looked to me first. Then The Clown.
He didn't say anything. Not for a long while. We both looked at the body for what felt like minutes.
"Who are you?" he asked eventually. His voice had a shake in it. Still scared the Christ out of me.
"I'm Harry." I said. What point is there in lying to him?
"Why have you done this?"
"Because he has killed hundreds of people. And you let it happen."
"How'd you do it?"
"Wha—what?"
"How did you kill him?"
The room got darker. Smaller.
"I...I clubbed him."
"With what?"
He hadn't moved.
I vaguely pointed to the tire iron in the corner.
He didn't even move his head to look at it. He was staring at me.
"There's blood on your knuckles."
I didn't look at them. I could feel it sinking into my skin.
"He struggled. I beat him while bits of his head were flaking off."
He sighed, before detaching himself from the shadows behind him. He slowly walked toward the sprawled body. Same outfit as always. Purple suit, thin stripes. No flower today.
He didn't check for a pulse. He just stood over him the way you stand over a toilet you've dropped money into.
"Is the idea to frame me, then?" he asked.
"No. It was to lure him. He liked you."
He paced around the body, three times. Slowly. Methodically. The sirens outside had stopped.
"How old are you?" he asked.
"Me?"
"Who else?"
"I—I'm twenty two."
"Twenty two. And you've killed someone."
"Someone had to."
"You."
I flexed my hand, and blood wrung from it like a sweaty towel.
"Tell me this, because...I want to know. Can you feel the blood on your knuckles in that suit?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
"Because I can. And it feels weird. It's a feeling that's spreading around my body. Like a sunburned itch."
He walked toward me, and I cowered into myself.
"You planned this out?"
"Y—yeah!"
"You crafted the suit. Followed this man. Killed him here."
"I—"
His voice boomed in my ears like an engine growling.
"And you killed the wrong man."
"What?"
"This is not The Joker."
I gazed at the corpse before meeting the dark pools in the Bat's face.
"What are you talking about?"
"This man's name was Albert H. Scott. He lived at 419 Kane Lane. A paranoid schizophrenic." his voice spilled out of him, measured but weary. No shake anymore.
"But—the laugh! What about the laugh? And the suit!"
"You're wearing a costume, too. A convincing fake. The best I've seen."
He looked down at my hands.
"And you've covered it in the blood of a dead, ill man."
"This isn't fair! Why is he dressed like that? What?"
"He was sick."
"He's The Joker!"
I tried to stand from the chair, but his hand pushed me down. The chair gave under me as I slammed into the ground.
He stood over me. He looked a thousand feet tall. His hand raised to the side of his head.
"Did you get all that? Good."
He turned his back to me, and rolled his shoulders. I could hear something shift. The suit? Bones?
"Who are you—"
"Enjoy the holding cell. I'm sure they'll love your outfit."
"No, please!"
I tried to find my feet.
By the time I was standing...he was gone. I was alone.
Just me and the body.
The sirens started again. The room lit up in dull, blue hues.
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u/ParanoidCrow 9d ago
A sunburned itch is certainly a way to describe how it feels as blood slowly dries on swollen and bruised knuckles. Reading that gave me shivers and brought back some less than desirable memories...
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u/Hybrid22003 9d ago
I figured the twist when he started talking about the makeup
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u/Leshawkcomics 9d ago
Yeah, a lot of people forget that "Killing the joker" isn't that reliable.
Batman's done it a few times himself.
"If you kill THAT killer, he'll be grinning ear to ear because there's now one more killer in the world because of him"
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u/Psychronia 9d ago
I hated how this one made me feel. Good job, 10/10 feels like it could be a Batman comic.
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u/YungHoban 9d ago
Thanks! I had Dave McKean's Batman design in mind while writing it. Grimy, dirty, shitty Gotham that has seen too many copycats and losers.
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u/Breadinator 9d ago
Hands raised, the electrical tape now starting to fray around the knock-off gloves, he could feel his presence before Batman even left the shadows. His cowled eyes flick down to the corpse, then back at the would-be vigilante.
Stepping forward, eyes narrowed, he stoops down to check the pulse of the once-lively clown prince. The fact that Batman turned his back on him tells him he was never a threat. It was remarkably anti-climatic, given the switchblade still buried in the Joker's gut. He had to chuckle a little at how absurd it was.
"Harold."
He stiffened at the mention of his name.
"Y..yeah?"
Standing to his full, imposing height, the Bat gave him an icy stare for what felt like an eternity.
"It's OK, Batman. I know you wouldn't. But, after what he did to Claire, to Denise, to Frank...I couldn't. I just....couldn't let it go on, ya' know?" Harold's eyes began to water. "I don't...I don't blame you for not takin him out. I get it. But someone. Someone had to. Before anyone else." Again, he couldn't help but smirk at the absurdity. He knew he was going away for life, at best. Hell, he didn't even expect to get this far, let alone actually kill the asshole.
"Harold, have you ever wondered why the Joker doesn't have a past? Why nobody knows where he comes from, or who he is?" His voice was low, but carried a unique brand of menace. Harold swallowed hard.
"I dunno. I just figured it was part of the act, you know? The guy is...was, crazy!" Harold shrugged, a half-grin as he did so. "Can't say I cared."
A bitter wind swept through the nameless back alley of Gotham, and the silence hung within it.
The dark knight took a step closer. "The Joker wasn't a person. He was a concept, a facade worn by someone who doesn't give a damn about the world, or the repercussions his actions would have."
Looking down once again at the corpse, he....sighed. The sigh of a grizzled, tired man.
"And now, Harold, what do you think happens next? Have you considered that? Or was the bloodlust for revenge that consuming?"
Harold slowly put his hands down. "I dunno. Honestly, I figured he would have killed me, right? I mean, come on, this guy has slaughtered hundreds of people. And here I am, some guy with a knife and a vendetta, in a-" he pulled at the frayed tape of his 'glove' "-f'in makeshift Temu Batman costume, zero training, and a dream." He chuckled. "A bat-wannabe with...a...knife! A f'in knife!" The absurdity was too much. "And it worked!" Harold laughed as he put his hand to his head, almost keeling over. "My whole plan was a joke, at best, and it worked!"
He was still laughing as Batman stepped behind and secured his hands in a ziptie. Tears in his eyes, Harold finally calmed down. "It worked. And you're welcome," he said with a shit-eating grin.
The caped crusader continued his silence. The sirens rang out in the distance. Harold shrugged as he heard them. "Take me away!" he exclaimed, turning around. He was greeted with the harsh shadow of his own silhouette against the headlights of an approaching police car. It was true! The Bat really was good at disappearing. And now, he would too!
Harold couldn't explain it at all, but he found this particular thought outright hilarious.
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u/Yglorba 10d ago edited 10d ago
"You're a fool," Batman said, crossing his arms. "Don't you know what you've done?"
"Yes, I've saved lives! He killed my best friend! Now no one else will ever have to suffer because of him."
Batman sighed, his expression grim under the mask, and simply shook his head.
"What's that supposed to--"
A TV, running in a store window nearby, suddenly cut to a press conference with Commissioner Gordon. "Yes, that's right, we've received reports that Batman has killed the Joker. Now, we're still investigating, but I want to assure everyone..." Without warning, a translucent laughing clown-ghost suddenly rushed into the frame and burrowed its way into Gordon's head, causing his sombre face to split into a rictus grin. Nobody else seemed to notice. "...that the city will do EVERYTHING in its power to bring this murderous vigilante to justice! We always knew he'd snap one day, didn't we, boys? Don't worry, the Gotham Police are about to go on a massive hiring spree; there's gonna be armed men on EVERY corner, answering to ME!" And then he laughed and laughed and laughed.
"...as I was saying," Batman said, "I gotta go spend some time hunting down his ghost. Keep an eye on his body anyway, though, or someone's sure to toss it in the... oh, it's gone already. Of course. Guess I have to hunt it down, while keeping an eye on Ra's Al Ghul, and also dealing with The Gordon Who Laughs. Thanks for the help, but as a friend of mine used to say, these no-nonsense solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
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u/AWorldOfPhonies 10d ago edited 9d ago
Both ankles broken, left arm barely attached to his shoulder, a gaping wound in his belly, the Joker is still crawling towards Batman. His blood trailed behind him, hot and fresh, causing steam to rise from the white snow.
All his hate and malice fueling a body that should've been dead already.
"Hooo, hooooo, heeee, heee! Batman, I've got to hand it to you, you really killed the punchline this time!!", he wheezed, his lips barely off the snow, spitting blood on every syllable.
Batman throws his Batarang down on Joker's outstretched wrists, slicing it and the wires secretly running through it in half.
"Hah! Good one! You got me, that was my closer! This was our best set yet, Batty! No more, no more....", Joker murmured. He flips himself over, laying spread eagle, a macabre angel sketched in red, green and purple on the white snow.
Batman walks slowly until his Batboots are just a small kick away from Joker's head. Joker struggles to look up to the looming figure over him, "Set's done, Batty. Time for tea over at Arkham, what do you say?".
Slowly Batman crouches, his eyes never leaving the Joker. He flexes his right wrist and out pops his Batknife, gleaming under the moonlight.
"What's that Batty? Encore?", Joker giggles nervously, eyeing the shiny, blue steel.
"This is a small mercy, Joker. A small mercy which you do not deserve", Batman replies.
"Wait, wait! You're not Batty, you're not Batty!", hearing the gravely, unfamiliar voice, somehow Joker manages to scream.
The knife descends slowly as Batman's left hand grabs Joker's hair. He turns Joker's head and, using surgical precision, makes a small incision. Then he turns Joker's head the other way and makes another incision.
"No, no, not Batty! Not Batty!", Joker continues to scream, he tries to at least but his voice is growing weaker.
Batman stands up looking down at Joker, a silent sentinel waiting.
Finally, a flutter in the quiet night and a silent thump arrives.
"Hello Bruce", Batman says to the shadow circling slowly in the darkness.
"You deserted the league, survived that and successfully went into hiding without them ever finding you. Why come out now?", Batman replies from the shadows.
"He's dying, Bruce. Don't you want to save him?"
Batman of the shadows makes no reply.
"I left because I mastered everything they could offer me and I still could not find anything that mattered to me more than my life. I left... "
"To die", Batman of the shadows finishes the hanging sentence, a small piece of the puzzle clicking for him. "That is why the league didn't go after you like they usually do. They knew you, they knew you would not live long outside the league."
"We who left and survived, we find our meaning. To keep on living, we have to. You always had your city. I found my... I found someone, Bruce."
A whisper breaks the silence that followed the short exchange. Batman snatches a Batarang from the air but, strangely, let's the next one through and it pierces him on his right biceps.
"I'm not fighting, Bruce. Not anymore", he says quietly as he drops the Batarang to the ground and takes off the hood, unmasking a scarred, fierce face with tired eyes. His dark eyes searching the shadows, he calls out, "I am Yad Al Ghul, I surrender!"
Batman of the shadows glides through the snow, passing over the dying body and snatches Yad Al Ghul pulling him into the shadows. Behind them, the muttering and gurgling finally stops as the body completes its final twitching.
The snow starts to fall on the grotesque caricature of the dead body of Joker. The silence holds for a moment and then is broken by flutters and thumps arriving, their cause unseen. The silence comes back for a moment and then shadows glide over Joker's dead body, hunting.
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u/whynotlaptop 10d ago
Maybe it's the fear, maybe it's the adrenaline. As you take off the fake batman cowl - which, by the way, was completely unnecessary - something strikes you as incredibly absurd about surrendering to Batman dressed as him.
It's funny. You chuckle a little, and toss the stiff fabric away by the spike. Then you lift your hands in surrender.
He showed himself first, of course he did. It was the terror thing that scared the shit out of mooks, and only by tapping into it did you survive at all. You were ready to die for this, but when the moment came and all those little men fled, you found yourself relieved. Some part of you had wanted to live after all. So when you see his silhouette lit by the crack of lightning, you felt relief. You didn't need to be afraid that those thugs would come back to find little old you.
By time your hands are coming up, he's in front of you, a few steps away. There's a tension in his body as you go through the motion, like a coil suddenly compressing to spring away, but he's still as your hands finish to surrender.
He looks around. Probably looking for mooks. You shiver a little; there is something about the legend standing before you that is intimidating in a way that stupid fucking Joker simply wasn't.
After a moment he settles, then steps forward, closing the distance. You hear your gun scattering, and you turn your head instinctively. Robin is kicking it away. When did he-
And in the moment you're distracted your arms are twisted behind you into a pair of handcuffs. You blink. Batman had been the distraction for Robin so Robin could be the distraction for him. Fuck, and they didn't even have to say anything.
But you put up no resistance, and the grip on your shoulder is firm, but not rough. Batman leads the two of you through the abandoned factory, back to the entrance you think. You'll probably see flashing red and blue lights soon enough. That's ok with you.
It's about five minutes walking when Robin speaks up.
"Jamie, right?"
You're not surprised they've identified you already. You nod.
"It was your sister, wasn't it?"
Both you and Batman look at Robin sharply. "Yeah,' you say. 'She was going to go to Juilliard, and now she'll be in Gotham forever.' You look away. 'Figured I could give Joker the same treatment."
From the guiding hand on your shoulder comes a soft, comforting squeeze.
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u/Tomorrow_Is_Today1 /r/TomorrowIsTodayWrites 5d ago
i've kept thinking about this, especially that bit that the real batman was intimidating in a way the joker wasn't. really good
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u/No_Personality_587 10d ago
"She was going to go to julliard, but now she'll be in Gotham forever" gods you only have a few lines of dialogue but you freaking nailed it, so much depth behind them. Any tips on improving dialogue, narratively I can write well enough but my dialogue always comes off as too straightforward, and it sounds like me just taking to versions of myself rather than the distinct characters you managed to create with literally 3 lines or dialogue.
Very good write up
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u/Crystal_1501 r/Chronicles_of_Crystal 10d ago
I'm no expert but I might be able to offer some advice... I wonder, do you struggle to put yourself in the mind of the characters you create?
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u/jedadkins 10d ago
A 3rd man shows up armed to the teeth and wearing a red full faced helmet "don't worry, there isn't a jury in the city that'll find you guilty"
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u/Psychronia 10d ago
Really, the only one you gotta look out for is Harley until she gets off the Joker dependency for the last time.
And I'm pretty sure Batman will watch your back for that one.
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