Chapter 96: Chapter 96 Joker...... Meet Joker
"Original?" Joker's face scrunched up with obvious displeasure emerging.
What the hell did this new guy mean by his "original"?
Was he…. Joker... The clown prince of crime a fake?
Apparently, Gotham's clown prince was unaware of the circumstances of his resurrection, nor did he bother to care.
After all, he was The Joker. Why would he care to analyze such, insignificant matters?
There were many circumstances where he supposedly, "Died" under public eye.
His tenacious life was another reason he was so feared despite being nothing but a mere mortal.
Just when he was about to start yelling out his doubts, his expression changed from displeasure to doubts, and eventually surprise.
"It's you".
Pointing his finger forward, The Joker's eyes lit up like lightbulbs, and some sort of excitement appeared on his features.
"You're the one who killed me on live TV".
"…"
Truly a madman. Amari had no doubt. Even the clone was this neurotic.
The Joker showed suddenly smiled brightly, let out a few eerie chuckles and took out the knife from his pocket.
"So you do know me. Hahahahaha..... That's good to know. I thought you were some hobo who mistook me for someone else. In that case, I would have to properly introduce myself to monsieur here and let you know who I am and just what I do because I...".
He brought his tongue close and licked the blade. Then he walks forwards without an ounce of fear whatsoever.
".... Am one of a kind".
"I'm sure you are". Amari replied nonchalantly.
"Your original said something similar to the first few lines".
Hearing the word "original" again, Joker's happy face crumbled instantly. His eyes narrowed to form a threatening glare, and his smiley face turned into a sinister smirking face.
"I guess you're not getting it yet". And so, the Joker raised his right hand into the air and began moving his fingers as if tapping on imaginary keyboards.
The still vines all around the monastery began to move from their state of rest.
"I.... I am the original..... Ahahaha Hahahaha".
.....
Bang!
The tall trees were shredded to pieces as numerous vines tore through them in chase of their prey.
The sprouted out of the ground and rushed towards The Boy Wonder under Poison Ivy's control.
Robin ran as fast as his acrobatic legs could carry him. Showcasing outstanding dexterity and finesse, he swung from tree branch to tree branch, barely managing to escape to the next one before the former was smashed to smithereens.
Performing a backflip, he once again evaded a fatal blow. Nevertheless, his landing wasn't the slightest bit pretty.
The once exquisite costume was now wet and muddy all over as he rolled in the swamp in a pathetic display to protect his life.
He got up from the ground, crouched in a posture of resting on one knee while taking deep breaths.
The site of dozens of plant vines appearing before him made his scalp go numb.
At that moment, however, they were all torn apart due to the influence of telekinetic force.
Light green liquids spilled everywhere as a result.
Miss Martian appeared in her cloaked state.
"Robin, she's made contact".
Hearing Megan's voice through the mind link, Robin was surprised.
"Who? Artemis or Supergirl?"
"Neither". Robin raised his head up to see the rest of the team being held captive in a magical cage by Wotan and the other Injustice League members.
Thy were headed towards the monastery. Just then, the Bioship that was dragged down to the bottom of the swamp earlier on suddenly appeared, knocking the Sorcerer Wotan out of balance.
The cage created by magic instantly came undone, and the hostages fell down from the air as did Count Vertigo who was standing on top of it.
Luckily, he didn't fall to his death, as he was rescued by the flying Black Adam.
However, Werner didn't seem to appreciate it.
"Not me..... Stop those delinquents".
Wotan landed into the part of the swamp with deeper water depths.
Superboy, Aqualad and the Wolf Conner had taken in as a pet on their mission to the Amazon had relatively strong physiques and landed in the shallower depths unscathed.
Wally and Artemis didn't.
Luckily, apart from Megan, they now had another member who could fly.
Seeing her teammates falling, Kara who unlike Superboy, could actually levitate in the air took hold of her falling teammates, preventing them from breaking something upon landing.
"Is everyone ok?" Kara asked with concern through the mind link.
Superboy didn't answer.
As soon as he raised his head, the armed Ultra Humanite stood before him and his pet wolf, armed with a blaster.
It instantly reminded him of his unpleasant encounter in the Amazon with those telepathic gorillas.
"I hate monkeys".
And so, the kryptonian clone charged towards his opponent to begin battle.
Artemis and Aqualad who were unarmed faced Poison Ivy, while Supergirl and Kidflash turned towards Count Vertigo and Black Adam.
A bitter battle was about to begin.
However, the fight hadn't even started yet when the next course of events caused everyone to freeze in place.
Shatter!
The sound of glass shattering wasn't conspicuous amidst the chaos, but the black shadow streaking towards them from the monastery quickly fell into their vision.
Wotan had just emerged from the water with an ugly expression. The next moment, his face changed drastically as he had to duck back inside to avoid what was speeding towards him.
Bam!
The black object smashed against the water and bounced forward like a skipping stone.
Bounce again it did, twice more before it made contact steadily with the shallow swamp floor and rolled several times over.
"Arghhhhh".
The painful shriek was enough to cause everyone to cease all actions.
Be it Aqualad or Poison Ivy, hero sidekick or supervillain....
Robin's eyes widened especially as he recognized what that black shadow was.
With half his body submerged in swamp water, the joker laid unmoving on the floor in the midst of the two sides.
His throat screeched loudly like a pig about to be slaughtered, as never before experienced pain assaulted his nervous system.
His whole body looked mangled to the extreme as apart from his neck area upward, everything else looked terribly wrong.
His arms and legs were twisted in positions that no man could ever imagine their bones could go.
Looking at the limp body, it looked like a human spaghetti.
"I .... I think I'm gonna be sick".
The horrified mood was instantly ruined by Kidflash who used his hand to cover his mouth, desperately trying to restrain the urge to puke.
In the end, he still couldn't keep it in and threw up in the swamp.
The girls weren't looking any better as Artemis's stomach churned at the sight of what she saw.
"What the hell...". Robin exclaimed in fright while backing away several steps.
"Who! Who did this?" Count Vertigo was equally frightened and yelled out loud in outrage, his eyes darting in all directions.
"I did". A crack was torn in the space, a distance away.
A shoe stepped through the void, followed by a thigh, then body....
Dark long hair, glowing blue eyes, the space crack closed behind him as he replied out, revealing his full figure.
"I hope you don't mind. Oh, by the way, poor Albert won't be able to make it to this gathering".
His words fell and then... BOOM!
The plant facility instantly exploded alongside everything in it.
"Skull!" Looking at the monastery that was destroyed, Count Vertigo cried out. The Joker was here, but Atomic Skull was still inside the building.
He instantly understood what Amari meant by saying 'Albert won't be able to make it'.
"My Baby!" Poison Ivy shrieked as she saw her plant creature go up in flames. She fixed her gaze at Amari with eyes overflowing with resentment, hatred and murderous intentions.
"Gahhh!"
She squatted slightly, raised her hands and pushed them forward. Giant plant vines extended from the swamp beneath her, rushing towards their new target with incredible force.
"Watch out". Robin exclaimed loudly.
Watching the attack heading towards him, Amari didn't move a muscle.
'Stop!'
Sure enough, the attacking plants charging forward with great momentum paused half a meter away from his figure.
It didn't look like it encountered any form of resistance, nor did it struggle to continue breaking forward. It just.... Stopped.
"You.....". Poison Ivy's eyes widened in shock.
"What have you done?" She yelled in confusion. Her plants weren't answering to her.
'Tie her up'.
He willed inwardly without uttering a word.
It happened then. The whole swamp shook slightly as if encountering a slight earthquake.
Following which, dozens of giant plants emerged from all directions, each one of them heading towards the same direction.
"No.....!" Pamela was caught off guard. Before she could react, she was wrapped up tightly by the very plants she commanded without any wiggle room.
"Stop.... Now.... I order you….".
Feeling the vines wrapping around her body tightly, poison ivy felt suffocated.
She couldn't understand what was happening. Why were her babies betraying her?
"... It's him". Aqualad took a step back and uttered in the mind link.
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock". Wally uttered through gritted teeth.
"What the hell is he doing here?"
"Beats me….".
"You….". Seeing Poison Ivy get wrapped up by her own plants, Count Vertigo looked unprecedentedly solemn.
"I've heard of you. The Deviant Of Gotham".
Hearing the title given to him, Amari was slightly speechless.
He raised an eyebrow while examining the Count with a bit of scrutiny.
"Right. Sorry though, but I can't say the same"
His words made Vertigo's expression turn ugly.
This.... Was simply a disguised insult.
Werner Vertigo felt like exploding. As a member of the Royal family of Vlatava and an infamous Supervillain, he had never been so looked down on.
Still, Werner Vertigo, for the first time in God knows how long, had to swallow his temper.
Unlike before, this situation wasn't right. And the man before he wasn't a hero.
He was an alien who had killed the Joker on live TV. With extreme power and none of the inhibitions of other Superheroes, the chances of him dying tonight for uttering the wrong sentence were quite high.
As for thinking that Black Adam would be a match for him.... Those thoughts died the moment they appeared.
Even if Black Adam was a match, it didn't matter. If this Deviant was standing on the side of the young heroes, then they were completely outnumbered in this regard.
The Count restrained his arrogance, or so he thought. He raised a question, hoping to find out on whose side exactly did this troublesome fellow stand.
"Why do you attack us? Our fight with the Justice League and their Proteges does not concern you...".
"Shut Up!" Amari's blue eyes glowed.
"Ugh!" Werner's body suddenly froze. To his horror, the royalty of Vlatava found himself unable to move an inch, no matter how hard he tried.
He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, and his facial expressions were frozen.
"Now be a good lad and don't annoy me". Amari uttered indifferently and turned his gaze to his primary target.
The mangled Joker.
"Arghhhhh... You…. Ahhhh…. Hahaha..... Arghhhhh".
Hearing the mixture of pained laughter and occasional cries of agony, Amari smiled slightly.
It was well known that the Joker had a very high pain tolerance.
The clown during the early years was Batman's punching bag, as Bruce would constantly beat the Joker up in an attempt to pry useful information out of his lips.
Unfortunately, the Joker was as stubborn as a psychotic mule. Even if he was punched to the point he broke his jaw, he still didn't utter a cry of pain.
The constant laughter was even more unbearable.
Batman had tried his best. So since that didn't work, Amari decided to go to much.... Greater lengths. By amplifying his pain receptors and shattering every non-fatal bone in his body.
Even if he was mad, it still wouldn't be able to let him laugh through it.
"Get Up". Seeing that he was unable to speak under so much pain, Amari altered reality on the clown himself, restoring his physical condition back to the way it was half a minute ago.
The mangled clown that looked he was about to fall apart a few seconds ago suddenly raised his body that looked perfectly intact and pushed himself up from the muddy swamp.
"Oh my God".
Artemis uttered with wide eyes.
"Did he just...".
"I think he did".
"What do we do?"
Kaldur was silent.
In this situation, he really didn't know what action to take as the most suitable response.
"Why.... You..... You're a real tough nut aren't ya?"
Pulling himself back to his feet, the clown looked at Amari with unprecedented solemnity. An expression that, in his many years of clown service, he had never portrayed even once.
Seeing this, Amari smiled.
"That's just the beginning".
And then he stretched out his hand for dramatic effect and snapped his fingers.
Following which, a portal appeared directly in front of him on the swampy earth.
The yellow portal shone with an intense light, giving off a dark and sinister vibe to the atmosphere. The temperature seemed to drop by several degrees.
"Oh no". Kaldur's eyes widened in horror. This deathly sinister aura..... This force.....
Amari paid him no heed.
Portraying his will, the portal suddenly lit up brightly, followed by a resplendent yellow glow, a figure rose from the bottom slowly, rising from the portal.
Chalk white skin, Green Hair, blood-red lips, that identical crazy grin on his lips.....
"Joker... Meet your original. The Joker".
...
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