Chapter Fifty: Maximum Carnage Part One.

Chapter Fifty: Maximum Carnage Part One.

"I feel like….I feel like a brand new man, I feel hungry, and it's now time to feed me!" The Joker said as he cackled. He stepped over the slain body of the former wearer of the suit like he was an afterthought and to the Joker, he most certainly was. The clown prince of crime took another couple of steps forward and prepared for his next move.

The guards dropped down, their bodies were cut up, falling in such a way where it was an Artistic beauty. The Joker walked over to the mirror, admiring his old suit. There was just something about it, well for lack of a better term, it just made him smile. The Joker shook his head. There was so much to do, in so little time and now he wondered what exactly he was going to do.

"Ah, decisions, decisions…..I'm repeating myself but why wouldn't I, I'm so excited that I've got this brand new suit and I'm a brand new man!" The Joker cheered for himself as he popped his knuckles, preparing for his next movement. His eyes flashed with menace and his teeth gritted with even more as he saw two particular individuals show up. He wondered when they were going to show up. "Well….well…well….Batwoman and Nightwing…..I have to say, I was wondering when you two were going to show up."

Helena tried not to show any fear that she had but the fact that the Joker had the suit…..well that was the perfect cause to freak out. Barbara stood next to the woman and she let in a breath and let out another breath. She whistled, that was all that she could do, she whistled.

"You might be a new man but….."

"Spare it, kid," Joker said as he shook his head at Nightwing. "The two of you….don't have anything on the originals. I have to say, I thought that the old man would have put up a bit more of a fight. The victory…..it wasn't as sweet when I beat him in his prime. And now…"

Helena threw a capsule at the Joker but he dodged out of the way. The sonic blasts went off but the Joker was not there.

"You see, I rule this symbiote, it doesn't rule me, we've come to an understanding, we've bonded, we are one, all that shit, yay, yay, yay, rah, rah, rah," The Joker said as he lifted up his fist, swung for the fences and punched Batwoman down on the top of the head, causing her to clatter down onto the ground.

She bounced back up, avoiding the knives stabbing into her. Barbara pulled out a staff but Joker blocked it with his hand.

"I've been hit with that staff far too many times for my comfort," The Joker said seriously as he kneed Nightwing in the gut and picked her up, hurling her down to the ground. "I could kill you but why disrupt my fun, just yet. We've got many more fun games to do."

Batwoman nailed her adversary in the back of the head, backing him off just a tiny bit. She unleashed a couple of punches but he shrugged off her attacks, swung back and sent the slimy red tentatcles at him.

"Oh….that won't do, and that's kind of creepy, even by my standards," The Joker said as he created a giant mallet with his suit. "Oh, this is fun. TIME TO SMASH THE BATS!"

Helena dodged the attacks, the mallet being impacted into the ground. She bit down on her lip so hard that it left a permanent mark in it. She kept running, her heart beating across her chest as she tried to scramble away from where she stood. There was no question about it, she was screwed, but she did not know how screwed she might be. The dark haired woman shook her head as she tried to rear it back and focus.'

Grapelling up to the rafters allowed her to get a better vantage point as Barbara ducked and rolled. If the Joker got out onto the streets, they were going to have a mess.

She refused to allow that to happen. She threw a handful of pellets down and they exploded, encasing the criminal in ice. For the briefest moment, she thought that it worked.

The ice cracked and shattered, and the Joker burst out into hideous laughter. "Oh, that's what we like to call an ice breaker, ladies!"

The Joker shot bullets from the symbiote, nearly making an outline of Helena's body. Even with the bullet proof armor she had on, she still felt the burn.

Barbara tried to use her sonic shot gauntlets but Joker shot out a symbiote tail and latched onto a cart, hurling it up into the air. The cart smashed into Barbara and caused her to thump down to the ground just like that. She fell like a ton of a bricks and rolled over, clutching the side of her head.

The wind had been knocked out of her and the Joker prepared to slice and dice her.

Helena jumped down but the Joker blocked her attacks. The sonic weapon in her hand was shown, but the Joker was adept enough to disarm it.

"Man, the other people wearing this suit, it must have been easy to….."

Barbara sent flares in the air and the heat from them caused the suit to retract a little bit. The Joker shook his head and he decided to jump through the nearest window.

"YEAH!" The Joker said striking a pose and the population of Gotham City just went on with their normal activity despite the fact that the motherfucking Joker just jumped into the middle of the street. "Kids these, days, desensitized with everything, I blame the Internet."

He threw his head back and laughed loudly as he prepared to stab some little girl right through her neck. That would get everyone's attention.

Nightwing and Batwoman returned to the fight, and things would kick up a few notches before it was too late.

They were back out on the city streets, and Barbara thought that they were in for an extremely long night and that might have been pushing things just a bit. She shook her head, clearing some cobwebs that had been growing in it. There was an intense buzzing in her ears that nearly caused her to stop and stare, her heart beating against her chest.

'Okay, where did the Joker go now?' Barbara thought as she saw the chaos. 'Of course, just follow the blood trail.'

Helena was this close to losing all sense of herself, because she was resigned that the Joker was down and out for the count. Now he was back with a vengeance. She was going to hit herself, she let her guard down for live minutes.

A loud round of screams could be heard and now Helena quickened the pace. She had to reach the potential victims before the Joker could sink his ugly claws into them. It was a race against the clock and a race against time to reach them. Seconds grinded by on the clock as Helena jumped into the air, sonic gauntlets at the ready.

She managed to sink the gauntlets into the chest of the Joker, forcing the crazed clown back several inches. His eyes widened with a feral groan as he snapped them up. He looked around from one side to the next and saw that his prey was up there.

"Hey, Bat Brat, you're trying….got to give you an E for effort, but you know what else E stands for?" The Joker asked as he shifted the tentacles into large mallets. "ERADICATION!"

The Joker laughed up a storm as he swung the mallets like a wild person and could see Helena's frantic attempts to dodge them. The symbiote feasted off of blood almost as much as he did, so naturally it was a match made in the fiery depths of hell. He swung the mallets wildly and tried to smash into the woman but she blocked them as they almost came down on her head.

"Hang on!" Barbara yelled as she rushed over but she had to put the brakes on not to ram head on into a spiked gate. It was a narrow miss and she had to find another way around.

"You see, I miss going around with the old man, and you're not him, he even had a better ass than you did," The Joker cackled as he tried to take off the woman's head but she dodged the attacks. "Of course, he never used to talk to me never…."

Two throwing discs cut the Joker off and it released flames that caused the symbiote pain.

"Now, now, calm down, everything's going to be okay," Joker said as he saw the GCPD walk forward, heavily armed and heavily armored. The Joker's grin got even wider as they approached before he made some comments to himself. "Either they think that I'm the world's largest donut, or they're trying to off me well….YOU WON'T TAKE ME ALIVE COPPERS!"

The Joker gutted two of the unfortunate police officers that had been near enough.

"You see, your blood….I normally don't indulge in this much, but I can see why the other guy was called Carnage, but you see, I'm going to cause….MAXIMUM CARNAGE!" The Joker howled as his teeth gritted and he looked forward and continued to move forward. The cops backed off as a sonic blast echoed through the loud speakers. "HEY TURN DOWN YOUR PUNK ROCK AND ROLL KIDS! DON'T MAKE ME PLAY THE COP!"

The Joker latched onto the platform which the speaker was on and gave it one violent yank and caused it to topple over with a crunch. Sparks flew right after the speaker connected with the ground and his laughter became even more dangerous.

Helena shook her head, she felt her costume dinged up a little bit and that was even with the armor. Her father had told her tales about the Joker and she encountered him maybe once or twice when she was Robin, he had kept her out of the mission on those times. There were rumors that Joker beat a young boy to death with a crowbar and blew up the building that he was in although Helena was damned if she could get that out of him.

"Son of a….."

Helena snapped her fingers as she saw Gordon leading in a squad. While she suspected that the man was the best at what he did, the fact of the matter was that in Gotham City, it was the Joker who ran the show, right now, always and forever, and that got Helena in a bit of a tizzy to say the least. She could hear the sinister laughter that threatened to drive her mad, about as mad as that man, the Joker. At least that's what she figured.

"We've got to trap him here, we might have a chance," Batwoman said to Nightwing and the redhead turned around towards her mentor.

"Yes, easier said than done," Nightwing said but never the less, she planted explosives.

James Gordon looked over his shoulder and saw what the two heroes were trying to do. He could see the blood staining the streets. Not that he was afraid of a little blood, this was Gotham City after all.

"Well what are you waiting for, barricade the streets, make sure no civilians get in!" Gordon yelled as the members of his force nodded. There were times where he was sure that the GCPD was a bit slow on the uptake.

Helena was knocked down once again but that allowed her to contact someone, sending a special pulse that could only be heard by those with super powered hearing. She was pretty sure that he might have known by now but she had to be sure.

"BATSY, BATSY, COME OUT AND PLAY!"

Harry had certainly got the transmission at the RAO Corporation when he returned back to work. Kitty, Rogue, and Kara watched the events with widened eyes, as did Lana, Karen, and Faora. It was Lana who managed to speak for all of them.

"The Joker….The Joker….THE JOKER!" Lana managed as she shook her head and Harry grabbed her by the arm to steady her.

"Well, Helena was worried about him but I never thought….oh Cletus what the hell did you do?" Harry asked as he put his hands down on the side of his head and sighed. There was no question about it, hell he knew that the serial killer had a poster of the even more famous serial killer above his bed. Gwen and Chloe hacked into the Ravencroft records to get detailed transcripts of patient interviews and it appeared that half of Cletus's crimes were because the Joker told him to do it.

So naturally, he worshipped the man and it was almost twisted….no scratch the almost part of it, it was very twisted, how much he looked up to that individual. Harry shook his head, to say that this might be a problem might be grossly understating things just a little bit. He let one breath in and let another breath out.

"Well, it's a good thing that we've been….trying to figure out a way to take down the symbiote for good, although that's been slow going," Karen said as she shook her head.

"Yeah, after the symbiote spawned and latched onto Cletus last year…..well you can figure out why we needed to fast track that project," Harry said as he shook his head. "There is…..something that's missing from the thing that is needed to kill the symbiote once and for all. And hopefully the virus can spread to any other pieces of the symbiote that is out there."

Harry racked his brain to think of a few potential solutions, but right now he needed to check into Gotham City. And he could not leave that project alone. He walked over to the computer system and dialed up someone that he trusted to go over there and help with damage control.

"Tony, are you there?" Harry asked and the form of Tony Stark showed up.

"Yeah, Harry, what do you need?" Tony asked and Harry was going to cut to the chase.

"There's something that's going on in Gotham City…."

"The Joker, I know, he got the symbiote, is that thing on your end working yet?" Tony asked.

"Nearly but….."

"I know you can't leave it alone, so the Avengers….we're on our way there, even though I'm sure the Dynamic Duo are already playing tag," Tony said, as Harry could see Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, She Hulk, and Ms. Marvel traveling around in the background. "And I'm sure you're about to get a message from SHIELD telling you….."

"In fact, yes," Harry said as he saw the blinking light on the screen. He tapped the button and he brought Maria Hill up on another holographic image.

"I should have figured that you had three way calling," Tony said. "Then again you would know all about….."

"So would you if half of the rumors are true," Harry said as he cut him off. "Yes, Maria, what do you need?"

"It's…."

"The Joker is rampaging all over Gotham City, and causing a mess because Cletus the Psychotic Slack Jawed Symbiote Killer decided to pay him a little visit on his death bed and somehow, the Carnage symbiote bonded with the Joker," Harry said without taking even one single breath, which was a feat amongst itself.

"Exactly what I was going to say more or less," Maria said as she paused.

"I'm currently working on a fix but I trust SHIELD and the Avengers are more than capable of keeping this Maximum Carnage at bay," Harry said to Maria and she nodded.

"I'll do that," Maria said as she was going to have to bring out the big guns. Of course RAO was not the only organization on the planet working on ways to contain the symbiote. They had been working on ways to do it ever since Harry Osborn was brought in after his ill-advised run in with the symbiote a couple of years ago. The symbiote had caused severe neurological damage on him, and given that he already had a bad enough time given that he was an Osborn but that was beside the point, that was really beside the point.

"Okay, it's in your hands," Harry said as he shook his head. "We're….we're going to need to step up the production on this."

"Right, I'll give the word, I think that we're busy at work with the final component," Lana said as she looked over her shoulder.

"Sadly, almost might not be close enough," Faora said as she crossed her arms and she threw her head back, as she sighed.

"Yes, but it's going to have to be close enough," Harry said as he tapped his fingers on the desk. He was pretty sure…..he should be out there, but he needed to be there with the delivery system to work. He was pretty sure that the Avengers and SHIELD…..well he was certain that they were trained enough.

"You're worried that this is…."

"No, I'm not," Harry said to Lily who had just popped up. "Nothing's in the Fortress that could potentially be used against him."

Lily shook her head as she sighed. "No, there's nothing, if there was something, we would tell you, you know that, don't you?"

Harry nodded in agreement, he knew that and he sat down, trying to monitoring the situation in Gotham City. Kitty and Kara sat down one either side of him and he could see the GCPD and SHIELD now working together.

"Punch on the television, I want to see what's happening from the civilian side," Harry said.

"I'll get it," Karen said as she slid over, mostly because she was curious about it as well.

"This is Vicki Vale reporting at you where the Joker….."

"Please, Miss Vale, I want you to get my good side!" The Joker said as he grabbed Vicki around the throat with one of his tentacles as the men were dealing with all of the carnage that he created in the meantime. "So tell me, how does my hair look?"

Vicki trembled, not knowing what to say.

"You should have stayed in bed today, did you ever have one of those days where you wished that you didn't get out of bed?" The Joker asked her. "You see, I had a day like that once. All it takes is one really bad day to drive someone around the bend and they snap just like that. CRACK! Bam, all there at one second and then no longer there the next, because around and around they go and where they stop….well no one really knows."

Loud bangs resounded and the Joker knew that he would stop.

"You see, my old man, well he didn't have a sense of humor, so he didn't put up with my laughs, in fact he beat me up one day when I brought home a report from school saying that I put a cockroach down a little girl's dress," The Joker said as he held Vicki in place on the television.

Back at RAO, the group was watching and Harry stared a hole through the television. Kara grabbed his hand with a warning as did Kitty.

"We're missing….one vital component, as you know, Harry," Lana whispered to him as she showed up. "It's a plant toxin….it's a one in a million shot but it should….kill the symbiote."

"Rogue, Karen, Faora, bring me Pamela Isley," Harry said as he barely kept his eyes off of the television. He added as an afterthought. "She's the only one who might be able to create the plant toxin that we need given her unique gifts."

"So….you're bargaining that she'll be willing to help?" Rogue asked, as she was questioning if Harry was the sanest person in the world. Although judging by the look in his eyes, there was a sense that he questioned his own sanity as well.

"She claimed that after…the incident happened, she's willing to reform," Harry said, as he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was a victim of circumstance but naturally he was not going to be an idiot about it. In case she tried something, he did take steps to contain her and make sure she did not harm anyone. Harry did not want things to go that far. "Plus….Gotham City is being torn up and that includes the Nature Preserve that's in the area where the Joker is standing…"

"Say no more," Rogue said as they went to retrieve young Miss Isley.

"So are you sure that this plan will work?" Kitty asked to Harry and there was a few seconds where he pondered.

"One in a million shot, that's some long odds," Harry said as he cupped his hand to his chin and threw his head back, looking thoughtful.

"And then, I thought I got my big gig, bringing smiles, but you know with the wife and a baby on the way, I needed to step up. So I got this job, a bunch of hoodlums, we thought that we'd have some laughs. I wore this outfit, it was a hood, a red bucket over my head for lack of a better term. We wanted to break into the Ace Chemical plant….or maybe it was the Ajax Chemical plant, I can never tell. It spices things up to give my origin multiple choices at any rate. Right before I went in….I found that my wife and my unborn child…well they were dead."

"Oh god," Vicki whispered.

"Yes…and no, because I think we can all safely assume that he's not plotting against me, this was the work of a far more malevolent and powerful force at hand, greed and corruption, because if I had been there, three innocent lives would have been saved," Joker said as he grew suddenly silent and he saw the Avengers out of the corner of his eye. His monstrous symbiote creations were keeping them at bay but he focused on all of the ears that would be listening to the story, his story. "Damn Avengers, they ruin everything, DAMN THEM!"

The Joker shook his head.

"No, actually the Avengers…..they didn't avenge yet, rather I ran into him, you know who I'm talking about, don't you Miss Vale?" Joker asked. "I was just an honest man, trying to scrap together some cash, that the government could not get their filthy mits on. But he had to show up and ruin it, ruin it, RUIN IT!"

The Joker turned around and once again, he was knocked underneath the platform by Thor.

"Finally, it shuts up!" Thor said but the zombified citizens of Gotham City stepped forward.

"Ah, well this is….I kill them and I can raise them as my minions, my unholy army of the undead, well isn't that….isn't that a kick in the teeth!" The Joker howled in amusement.

"Avengers, remember, these are civilians….."

Captain America tossed his shield causing it to bounce off two sets of walls and unleash a tarp which buried them alive.

"Get the cable down," She Hulk said as she tried to find something to bind them with.

"No, you're not interrupting my fun!" The Joker said but Iron Man shot him in the chest, causing him to fly backwards. "Stark….you drunken SOB!"

Batwoman was now up into the air and prepared to slam down onto the back of his head, hoping that the containment field would work because SHIELD and the GCPD, despite their best efforts, could not combat an army of the slain Gotham City citizens.

Harry watched and he heard a voice behind him.

"You wanted to see me."

"Yes, Pamela, you wanted a second chance, well I've got a big one for you."

The Joker had Gotham City in the palm of his hand and it was just like getting back on the bike. Once you got the hang of it once again, it was hard to really forget. He saw the GCPD, killed and resurrected, and sent after the Avengers.

"Cletus, I say, you tried to use this symbiote….for what….I tell you what, you used it for shit, there was nothing and I do mean nothing better than what I'm using it for right now," The Joker cackled at the top of his lungs, amusement dancing through his eyes. He cracked his knuckles as he saw SHIELD and the Avengers going in. "Anyway, where was I, Miss Vale….oh yes, he came into my life. He always ruined my life…..well until I ended his. It was an accident that I killed him, I'll be the first to admit that. He's not….he's never someone that I had any great deal of malice for, not really, but you see, when someone knocks you into a vat of acid and….."

She Hulk knocked the Joker down onto the ground. She felt a bit dizzy but she, Ms. Marvel, and Iron Man rushed in an attempt to box the Joker in.

"You realize that it's really rude to interrupt someone when they're telling a story," Joker grumbled. He lead his minions forward, giving the Avengers something to distract and he saw Vicki try to scramble away but he blocked her with a wall. "I'm not sure how many goodies this little beauty holds but I'm getting a kick out of trying to find out."

Vicki let in one breath and let out another breath, she felt like she was completely and utterly helpless, mostly because she was completely and utterly helpless. The redhead closed her eyes as the Joker stepped in to face her.

"So, anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted yet again….OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!"

Batwoman was now back with a miniature sonic cannon that she had delivered to her from Wayne Industries. The Joker was blasted with a cannon that sent him backwards. It may have also loosened the grip over the minions.

"We got to get you out of here," Barbara whispered to Vicki and the other redhead nodded. She was not going to complain about that, especially given that she was used to getting up close and personal with the action but nothing like this.

Although even Nightwing felt a bit…..winded because of what was happening. She wondered…..the symbiote of course. She saw a glimpse of her father down there, trying to direct traffic, although the murderous hold of the Joker continued to go over Gotham City. SHIELD was trained for this but at the same time, fighting the Joker by the book was only going to get them all killed.

"THOR, BLAST HIM!" Iron Man yelled in desperation but Captain America shook his head.

"You blast the Joker now, you kill hundreds of innocent people," Captain America argued and Thor nodded. He could tell that emotions were running high but there was no need to lose one's head.

"Be strong, we will find a way without causing….."

"Oh give it a rest, goldilocks, the fun's just begun," The Joker chuckled as he turned around. "I've got this army of the living dead, what do you got?"

"We've got a Hulk," Iron Man stand and sure enough, the Hulk jumped up and knocked the Joker into the building.

The Joker flew through several sets of windows, flying with a sonic force. There were screams as the Joker landed.

Batwoman was in front of him and turned up the sonic cannon to its fullest amount. She hoped that this worked because if it didn't work, well she was kind of screwed. Never the less, she prepared to blast the creature as hard as she could.

"You….no….NO!" The Joker yelled as he felt his ears bleed and the symbiote retracted from him but he held onto it. He had stronger will power than anyone else who had the symbiote, either of them, ever. "That….was…..UNCALLED FOR!"

The Joker's legions went to attack Batwoman and the Hulk ran through them like a freight train.

"Remember Hulk, civilians!" Captain America shouted.

"Actually, they're dead," Iron Man said to him as he completed the scans. "I know….but….."

The Hulk was bowled down by a large wrecking ball that was hurled through the air. He angrily slammed through it and kept fighting through them with determination. The blood red material was slowly covering every building in Gotham City.

"If I had to make one guess, it would be not to let any of that stuff directly touch us," She Hulk said as she dodged out of the way.

"Yes," Iron Man said as he sent a miniature sonic pulse from his armor and backed it off. It would be returning with a vengeance but he was able to keep it from spreading.

Maria Hill showed up, throwing three large discs and causing them to stick into the edge of the symbiote that was wrapping around the building. It twisted into a large smiley face but she caused it to explode.

"This is only a temporary fix, Coulson's trying to heard everyone out of the city," Maria said as the SHIELD agents passed around weapons.

"Okay, Thor, now's the time, most of everyone's cleared out," Captain America said as he saw zombies mindlessly attack SHIELD agents. This was not the first time Captain America went up against a zombie plague, given some of the schemes of HYDRA during the war. And much to his dismay, it had been too late to save a group of those people.

Thor smashed the hammer down onto the ground and a pulse of lightning struck the symbiote.

"The standard weaknesses have little effect…." Stark said as he was reaching for an explanation.

"Likely the toxins in the Joker's system have mixed with the symbiote, and…..have turned it into something even more twisted than it was," Batwoman said, recalling also that he had a chemical called Titan in his blood stream, that had led to his degrading state that he had before he got the symbiote, which might have caused the thing to act really weirdly. Tony Stark's sigh became even more prominent.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Tony said but there was a whoosh in the air as a blur showed up, flying in the sky.

The calvary was here and the Joker looked up, seeing the mysterious and infamous Star Child knocking on his door step.

"Well isn't this going to be fun, I get to take out the big one, well that will be quite a corking ending to my little tale!" The Joker yelled.