Joker broke up with Spider-Man.
On a night of a torrential downpour, Joker disappeared at the end of a dark alley, like a silent carrier of countless tragic tales.
Mostly because Joker really had no clue what he should say for his award winning speech that Gotham's friendly neighbor talked about, so he decided to begrudgingly leave this award to Spider-Man alone.
Well, actually it's because Spider-Man is just so annoying, his style is nothing like the quiet city, not only does he want to chat with Joker every second, but if Joker doesn't respond, he tells his own stories aloud to himself.
Joker is someone with great patience, just think of him as a crazy version of Batman, he shares all the traits that Batman has, including a strong will, he could endure anything to achieve his objectives.
He planned to wait until Spider-Man runs out of stories to tell and naturally go silent, but who could anticipate that Spider-Man's short life of a decade and some years could have thousands of endless stories to tell.
When Spider-Man ran through every minute detail of his life as well as the life of Aunt May and Uncle Ben, Joker realized that enduring without results was meaningless.
And Spider-Man also tells stories not just for Joker to hear.
When a bike falls at the roadside, he lectures about how disorderly parking violates public order and might trip someone or even kill a pet.
When someone carries heavy stuff up the stairs, he instructs them how to use their waist strength to avoid injury and how to balance their gravity on which leg for an easier climb.
When the roof drainpipe drips, he rattles on about the effect of gravitational potential on raindrops and the history of metal drainpipe production, the life of its inventor and the economic background of its mass usage in America.
For the first time, Joker abandoned his target without any external interference or complete exploitation, simply because he was unbearably annoying.
But after dumping Spider-Man, Joker couldn't possibly roam Gotham's streets to find Robin like Spider-Man did.
Joker's superior intellect told him that Robin's behavior pattern had completely altered. If he used the old pattern, he might make a mistake. It was tough to lure them out following the old method.
Joker headed back to the Joker Gang base and found Harley Quinn wasn't there. He immediately sent messages to his entire gang, asking them to look for Robin in Gotham.
But before anyone could report back, Batman's second Robin, Jason Todd, blasted open the doors of the Joker Gang base with a grenade launcher.
"Everyone inside, listen! From today on, we take over everything on Nottingham Street, join the family or die!"
When Red Hood and Joker locked eyes, they both froze.
"Joker?!!"
Joker had assumed Red Hood would run at him as he always did, grab him by the collar, throw him against the wall and punch him a few times, so he did not flee or move.
But Red Hood stared at Joker in surprise, and asked, "Joker? What are you doing here? I heard this was mob territory."
Then Red Hood took a look at his surroundings, noticed the numerous graffitis of Joker's face on the walls, and his expression changed, as if he had an epiphany. He looked back at Joker with a strange glint in his eye.
"You're running a gang too?!"
"...It's not a gang!"
"But you're their boss, and they commit crimes on your command. If it's not a gang, then what is it?"
"They're just the cannon fodder I recruited!"
"Gang mobs are cannon fodder too!"
With those words, Red Hood put away the rocket launcher he was carrying on his shoulder, and with a somewhat rakish air, shifted his weight onto the leg not supporting the rocket launcher. He touched his nose and said,
"The Godfather says, to run a gang, you need a broad mind. So even if the things you have been guilty of before, but I won't blame you for it. How about you and your underlings join us?"
"You... Batman..."
"Why do you keep beating around the bush? Is it because you just can't live without Batman? Now give me an answer, are you in or out?"
Right now, Joker's feelings could be summarized as - "He's using my own words against me!"
After an initial shock, Joker took a deep breath and composed himself. He crossed his arms and stared at Red Hood. "What the heck are you up to? Has Batman finally driven you all insane with his stern face?!"
"As you see, we just set up a mob family in Gotham," shrugged Red Hood, as if merely relaying what he ate for breakfast that morning. He planted the rocket launcher into the ground and glared at Joker. "Don't change the subject. You're the last gang on this street. After we deal with you, this street is ours."
"For the sake of our past acquaintance, I'll ask for the last time, are you in or out?"
Just before Joker could answer, his underlings, who were a tad mentally off, couldn't wait any longer. One of them came running out from behind a pile of discarded cans, babbling a weird language while firing randomly with his gun.
The sound of blasts and gunshots filled the air as chaos took over the Joker Gang hideout. Ten minutes later, Jason and Harley arrived with reinforcements to clean up the scene, where they ran into Harley Quinn, who just happened to be passing by.
Harley Quinn stood on the street in front of a pile of oddly-shaped, charred wreckage, the only thought in her head was--where is my home???
Harley looked at the Joker's girl who had the same face as herself but was dressed like a punk parrot, and the only thought in her head was—Who is this???
Meanwhile, the unharmed Joker who had just gotten away cursed himself for agreeing to join Red Hood. He considered the mob to be vulgar! Absolutely no aesthetic feel!
Next, Joker arrived at the Gotham Police Department, but this time, he wasn't turning himself in. He was pretty certain that he could convince the incarcerated Penguin Man to work with him and figure out what was going on.
But while eavesdropping on a phone conversation between Gordon and a government official on the second-floor balcony, he heard that Penguin Man had just been sprung. The culprit behind the rescue was Gotham's new gangster family, the "Neway" family.
Upon hearing the term Neway, what was there that Joker didn't understand?
At that moment, it occurred to Joker that this could be the greatest unprecedented spectacle in the history of Gotham City.
Because only now did Joker realize, these teenagers weren't just acting crazy, they had truly grasped something.
They were even willing to abandon their once serious moral values for this ludicrous gangster business, not minding bribing and corrupting the police to get criminals out of jail.
And now, he had wasted time trying to prevent Robin from doing something, rather than immediately rushing to Batman's side, fully focusing on observing his every move, every expression, and watching this potential Gotham-altering spectacle together with Batman?
Joker almost fell off the balcony of the Gotham Police Department in his rush to leave. He then hurried to the Batcave as fast as he could, standing outside like Spider Man knocking hard on the door.
"Open up! Open up! Anybody home? Is Batman home? Open the door now!"
Batman was not surprised at all to see Joker standing outside the door when he opened it, because he had seen Joker's traces on the surveillance system earlier.
Joker greeted Batman with a radiant smile, clapping his hands together and blinking at Batman, saying: "The Robins have been quite busy recently, haven't they?"
"What are you up to?" Batman squinted suspiciously.
It seemed like Batman thought Joker was interested in the Robins' whereabouts in order to make a move on them, until he heard Joker say.
"Well it seems, the new Robin doesn't like working alongside you much, I do have someone else in mind that I'd like to recommend to you."
"...Who?"
"Me, what do you think?"
Joker didn't miss the split-second shock in Batman's eyes, but he was genuinely offering himself up for consideration.
Not just because it would allow him to have a front-row seat to Batman's spectacle, but rather, Batman was the only one who matched Joker's intelligence, could interfere with his mind waves, understood him well, didn't talk much, and therefore wasn't annoying. Moreover, Batman was the perfect combination of both audience and protagonist.
What Joker honestly thought was that only Batman was worthy of watching this tremendous spectacle with him.
Ridiculing Robin, questioning Robin, understanding Robin, becoming Robin.
Batman took a deep breath but still stepped aside to let Joker enter the Batcave with a serious expression.
He didn't have mind-reading skills and couldn't guess what the Joker was thinking. He just hoped that if he could keep this cunning rogue around, maybe his plots against Robins' would lessen a bit, his children could be safer. Batman always made choices like this.
Joker returned to the Batcave as if it were his own home, full of a renewed motivation. As soon as Batman turned around, he saw Joker sprawled out on the only couch in the Batcave, hugging a pillow just as Jason did, and cramming Jason's leftover snacks into his mouth. He was even more comfortable than Robin.
But there was a reason. Each time Robin visited the Batcave, it was either for training or an argument with Batman. All the leftover snacks existed because the environment was initially relaxed but would soon turn into a quarrel followed by a storm-out, leaving behind a bunch of snacks.
Joker was leaning on the couch crunching on potato chips. With his mouth full of chip crumbs he said to Batman: "Where's that huge screen of yours? Bring it here. I just moved the camera you set up in Joker gang's base onto the kid with the Red hood, you can fix the connection, right?"
Batman stood silently for a while. Soon after, the massive projection screen appeared in the middle of the great hall, Joker lazing on the couch munching on snacks, and Batman stood fully armed in the shadows behind him.
Much to Joker's surprise, the first image on the screen was not of a bloody gang war, but a table, captured from Red Hood's first-person perspective.
The table was somewhat messy, with unassembled firearm parts scattered all around. In the center of the table was a letter, just being opened.
The surveillance view zoomed out a bit, showing Red Hood standing behind a chair, and sitting in the chair was Red Robin, dipping his pen into an ink bottle.
Red Robin picked up his pen and started writing a letter as if to reply someone. The letter was half-written, so it was impossible to see who it was addressed to and the camera kept shaking as if Red Hood couldn't keep still, making it nearly impossible to make out the contents.
But Batman was able to decipher the last line of the letter as well as the recipient's name with his keen dynamic eyesight.
"…In accordance with the plan, taking over Nottingham Street has been successful. The next target will be Baladi Street. I am much obliged for your thoughtful answers and guidance. Hoping for the echo from Sicily, may God forever bless you.
Respectfully, to His Excellency Carmine Falcone the Godfather."