Uncle J's Traveling Oddities and Peculiarities Emporium

Participants: Joker and whomever else is around
Open/Closed: Open
Location(s): Smack dab in the heart of Metropolis
Time of Day: Late evening
Weather: Windy
Summary: Joker brings smiles and laughs to the hearts of man.

"Hurry! Hurry! Step right up! Get a load of Uncle J's Oddities, Peculiarities, Happenstances, and Whimsies ^TM!"

The Clown Prince was dressed in a barely there disguise, wearing an exaggerated white tophat with a purple band across it, his legs were hugged by long purple slacks with white pinstripe, and on his torso he sported a black tee that read Uncle J's above an image of his world famous red lipped smile. The tee was jammed on top of the suit jacket he wore which was just barely visible thanks largely to the tail extended out the back of his black t-shirt, that too was purple.

There was a large crowd gathered, carnival music played loudly over mounted speakers. Joker stood up on a wooden stage in the center of the city, his voice amplified by the megaphone he held to his red lips. It was that time of year where the circus freaks came out to have people laugh at their maladies and useless talents, the time of year elephant and horse crap lined the streets, the time of year children ODed on popcorn and cotton candy. Joker hated this time of year! But he was a clown, was he not? He couldn't let the good people of Metropolis down! Not while they were being serviced by a lackluster troupe of wouldbes.

It was usually Gotham that Joker graced his presence with, only traveling for those rare and meaningful occasions. And what was more meaningful than spreading laugher and cheer? Joker wasn't a man confined to one city and this was a traveling oddities and peculiarities emporium after all.

"We've got two-headed bats, one-headed bats, no-headed bats! Money burning a hole in your pocket? Spend it on cheap crap right here! Fellas, thinkin' about that one special someone? Impress her with her very own chunk of Kryptonite! Ladies, trying to do....lady stuff, I guess?" Joker shrugged, blinking on anything specific but also not losing any of the enthusiasm he'd been carrying. "Yeah, that too! Bwhahaheehee!"

Joker then threw his purple and red megaphone into the gathered crowd. His long legs leaped elegantly onto the top of one of the cages where he stored his mutilated bats. 

"Ladies and gentleman! Children of all ages! But absolutely no children, let's have some fun!" The clown did an impromptu twirl atop the cage of deformed mammals, stretching out both arms wide as he unleashed a rumbling chuckle from deep within his diaphragm.

Of course the one day he visited Metropolis had to be the day Gotham came to town. Even not being a regular of Gotham, that voice was far too recognizable for any comfort. The second he'd heard it, Connor had dipped to change into his costume, his reasons for coming to Metropolis put aside for the time. He was tempted to call the League, alert them so they could alert Superman but that would take time. Besides, he'd handled plenty of Oliver's villains, he could handle Batman's. His own training, experience, and the uh - "gifts" from Dr. Sivana left him without many doubts on what he could and couldn't handle.

He could hear the laughter, the voice, his words already causing growing concern. It was windy which meant he'd have to take that into account with his arrows. Luckily archery wasn't the only skill he possessed. He got to the back of the crowd in time for the cages to be revealed, containing... Oh. That was gross. The megaphone was thrown into the crowd and Connor walked cautiously, carefully through that very crowd. Most of the people seemed to be focused on the bats - They were hard to look away from, after all. Connor scooped up the megaphone as he passed it before reaching the front of the crowd.

"Shouldn't you be in Arkham?" he said, pulling the megaphone up and using it to amplify his voice. He needed the Joker's attention, after all. He needed him to focus on him and not the crowd. "Do you even have a permit for this show?" Quips weren't really his thing - They were more up Ollie's alley - but "playful" banter was likely to get the other man's attention and keep it. If he managed to be entertaining enough, he could keep the clown's attention and the crowd would be able to get away.

He set the megaphone gently down - It could've been an explosive after all, knowing the Joker. - and got his bow out, in one fluid moment, having an arrow knocked into place and pointed right at the other man. The tip was sharp, meant to pierce skin. He held it at just the right angle that, even considering the wind, it'd have a good chance of hitting the Joker in his shoulder should he let it fly. "Do yourself a favor and surrender," he said, voice stern despite knowing fully well that wasn't going to happen. But he hoped his words and the weapon drawn would give the crowd the hint that he was serious, this situation was serious, and that they needed to evacuate now.

Hopefully Metropolis' citizens had some sense of self preservation - They were used to relying on an indestructible hero, after all.

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456 words
The Joker

The people of Metropolis weren't as afraid of the clown menace as those in Gotham had learned to become, but they also weren't exactly enthralled by what the Joker was pitching either. He threw his legs out wide and plopped down in a wide-legged sit atop the cage and tapped the sides of the metal bars. Sitting made him a little closer to the on-lookers, his colorful clown face catching the eye of fascinated kids. Didn't he say something about no children? J was almost completely positive that he had - but oh well! Unwanted attention was better than no attention.

"Don't be shy, Uncle J won't bite!"

Joker reached out toward the approaching child with an ever growing smile, however a distant voice calling from somewhere in the crowd gave the child pause. The carnival music playing suddenly stopped, the needle scratching off of the record. Joker's henchman who was supposed to be in charge of the music was so startled by the call from the crowd that he'd bumped the record player and ruined J's mood music. Joker's eyes narrowed into dangerous emerald daggers as the child he'd almost had disappeared back into the mass of the stirring crowd. The clown stood, his face a tightly wound frown, and peered over his audience.

"Whozzat?"

Joker, now standing on the small wooden stage again, cupped hands around his eyes like binoculars as he searched for the owner of the voice that dared to interrupt his presentation. Surrender? that was what the nameless voice ordered of him. Joker finally caught sight of the megaphone he had discarded and quickly followed it to a face. A masked face. Superman didn't wear a mask, in fact none of the S-means-Hope people did. And this mystery person wasn't sporting any Batears. Then who the hell did they think they were.

J shot a look at his masked henchmen, quickly the carnival music started back up.

"Put your hands together, folks," The jester returned his attention to his crowd, trying to keep them engaged as some were starting to splinter off from the rest of the group. "Give it up for Robin Hood!" Joker turned and threw his right hand over the crowd, his fingers together and gesturing toward Connor and his nocked arrow.

"For your viewing delight, Baby Green Arrow here will shoot an arrow through my skull!" Blah, of course he wouldn't really, none of these heroes had the nerve to kill. But maybe Joker could up the odds of Connor actually going through with it. He stepped to the left of the stage and flipped over a trap door. Reaching into the rectangular hole Joker quickly yanked out a crank. "Hehehehahahaha!" He giggled loudly as he began cranking the lever. From the hole in the stage slowly rose a spherical object. Joker heaved and hoed until finally a shaft protruded from the hole, topped by large black orb with a foot length of twine coming from its top. There was a timer on display across the cartoonish bomb that counted down from 59 seconds.

"Or everything goes BOOM! Aahhahahahaaha!"

Connor Hawke