He stands on the corner, briefcase in hand. In the other, something strange, childish even. He is a mixture of it all - of the chaos and the order. His face hides behind a curtain of greasy green hair and he hunches over to avoid wandering eyes, though there are so few. The people passing pay him no attention and go about their business. He is waiting, waiting. A dark SUV pulls up to the curb and he hides his face again, this time with a mask. It is a bright, colorful mask, with a face like that of a clown. Jumping in the backseat, the driver and passenger took almost no notice of him. So codename Bozo opened his briefcase and got to work. One of the others also wearing a clown mask, codenamed Grumpy, spoke up.

"Three of a kind. Let's do this."

Chuckles, the passenger, glanced up from loading his gun. "That's it? Three guys"

"Two guys on the roof. Every man gets his share, five shares is plenty."

"Six shares," Chuckles corrected him. "Don't forget the guy that planned the job."

Grumpy scoffed. "He thinks he can sit it out and still take a slice...I know why they call him the Joker."

In the backseat, Bozo smiled behind his mask.

Far above them, on the rooftop of a building, Happy and Dopey were opening an access panel when Happy asked "So why do they call him the Joker?"

Dopey, who was working on the alarm system, shrugged. "I heard it's cause he wears makeup."

"Makeup?" Were they really working for a guy who wears makeup?

"To scare people. You know, war paint."

Serena walked into the bank in a haze. God, Mondays sucked. But it was fun to watch the bussiness men and women hurry on their way, thinking all that mattered was their money and their fat cells. She laughed internally at the odd looks people gave her as she walked in, as if she were out of place in her striped skinny jeans and black shirt. Okay, she thought, withdrawl then I'm outta here.

The SUV pulled up in front of the same building with the two clowns on the roof, and the men inside filed out, carrying empty duffel bags and assault rifles. They entered the building, and Grumpy fired off shots to the sky while Chuckles knocked out the guard.

"Everybody down on the ground!" he bellowed.

Unbeknownst to him, at that exact moment, a frightened teller pressed the button on the wall.

Dopey chuckled. "Here comes the silent alarm...and there it goes."

He paused. "That's funny. It didn't dial to 911, it was trying to reach a private number."

Happy, ready to get to the next step of his mission, asked him "Is it a problem?"

"Nah, I'm done here." The exact words he needed to hear. Happy quickly pointed his gun the the back of Dopey's head and fired.

Meanwhile, Bozo and Grumpy took to handling the hostages. Grumpy points the gun while Bozo hands out grenades to each trembling person, pulling the pins.

"Obviously we don't want you doing anything with your hands other than holding on for dear life," Grumpy announced.

Bozo watched the fear in each prisoner's eyes as he pulled pin after pin. He was almost to the end when he noticed the eyes before him held no fear at all. In fact, they were almost amused. The sapphire blue sparkled up at him, holding him in a nearly unbreakable gaze. Finally, he decided to look around them. They belonged to a woman in her mid-twenties with long, straight black hair. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You gonna pull that pin or just stare at me?"

He huffed slightly and janked the pin from the grenade. The woman rolled her eyes.

"You know I could just throw it at you and run," she smirked. Bozo tilted his head.

Behind him, a shot was fired and Chuckles fell to the ground. Bozo ducked behind the desk, followed quickly by Grumpy. Chuckles had been killed by the bank manager, who was now firing at them as well. They shot blindly back from under the desk.

"Do you have any idea who you're stealin from?" he screamed. "You and your friends are DEAD!"

"He's out, right?" Grumpy asked his partner, who was still staring at the blue-eyed girl under the next desk. Bozo looked up at him and gave him a quick nod. Grumpy stood, aiming his gun at the manager but ended up with a shoulder full of lead.

Now he's out, Bozo thought as he stood and shot the manager in the chest.

Grumpy clutched his shoulder and hurried to the vault room, throwing back "Where did you learn to count?"

Bozo ignored him and glanced over at the woman, who still had that bemused look in her eyes.

He strolled over to her, loading the manager's gun. He pumped a fresh shell in, and pointed it at her. She looked down the barrel, then up into his eyes. Nothing.

"Are you gonna kill me?" she asked.

He ignored her question. "Name," he demanded.

She sighed. "Okay...my name is Serena. Serena Turner."

Happy had been working on the drill for the vault, and glanced up when Grumpy entered. "They wired this thing with five-thousand volts. What kind of bank does that?"

"A mob bank," he replied. "I guess the Joker's as crazy as they say. Where's the alarm guy?"

Happy stopped the drill and turned the wheel, opening the vault. "Boss told me when I was done I should take him out. One less share right?"

"Funny, he told me something similar..."

"What?" Happy tried to turn and stop Grumpy, but was too late as Grumpy fired at his head.

The remaining robbers piled the now full duffel bags into the bank proper. Grumpy looked at the bags.

"That's a lotta money. If this Joker guy was so smart, he'd-a had us bring a bigger car."

Joker, Serena thought, oh yeah that's a great name for a criminal.

He turned and held up his weapon at Bozo. "I'm bettin the Joker told you to kill me as soon as we loaded the cash.

Bozo smiled behind the mask, slowly stepping to the right. "Oh, no, no, no. I kill the bus driver."

"Bus driver?" Grumpy asked."What bus dri-"

A yellow school bus crashed through the front of the bank, crushing Grumpy underneath. The final clown jumped out the back.

School's out...she thought.

"What happened to the rest of the guys?" he asked as they loaded the bags into the bus. His answer consisted of bullets straight to the chest.

"You think you're smart huh?" said a voice behind Bozo. He turned to see the bank manager, still on the floor. "The guy that hired youse...he'll just do the same to you"

Bozo approached him, reaching into his pocket.

"Criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect," he spat at the clown. "Look at you. What do you believe in, huh? What do you believe in?"

Bozo pulled a grenade from his pocket and stuck it in the man's mouth. "I believe whatever doesn't kill you," he said, pulling off the clown mask. "Simply makes you stranger."

His face was not much different from the rubber mask that had once been above it. He wore messy white makeup with a poorly-drawn smile of red over his scars, which curled up into an eerie smile. It was probably she creepiest clown she had ever seen, yet she was somehow intrigued. Suddenly she realized - this was the Joker. It had to be. He stood, unrolling a string behind him as he walked to the bus. He stopped for a moment, and looked at her.

"See ya, toots."

Yet still, there was nothing nervous or scared in those crystal eyes, just curiosity. He jumped into the bus, closing the door on the string behind him. As he pulled the bus out into the morning traffic of other school buses, the pin yanked out of the grenade, and the manager held his breath. Instead of an explosion, a dark gas filled the room. The last thing she remembered was hearing a siren.