Will You Be My Daddy? ~Joker Fanfiction~

Squad Up (Pt 3)

It's not long after Rick makes his threat that the group starts moving again, Harley guiding Madeline by the arm.

"I'm gonna kill him," Deadshot mutters.

"Yeah, well you better make it quick because he's gonna kill all of us one by one," Harley retorts, wincing when it makes Maddie shake.

The pair continue to plot quieter after that, discussing how many each could take out and who to start with. Once Maddie's calmed down some she tunes back in to the conversation.

"What about the chips in our necks?" Harley points out.

"Your friend's gonna help us out with that, right?" Floyd replies. Harley smiles playfully at that.

"You know, you're my friend, too," she says.

"And mine," Madeline pipes in.

"Stay evil, doll face, princess," he smirks at each of them. "Spread the word."

Harley strolls off to speak with Captain Boomerang, but Madeline decides that she doesn't want to follow Harley around like a duckling anymore so she walks on her own, contemplating everything. If she knows her daddy, he's probably on a murderous rampage trying to figure out where she and Harley are. Frost has hopefully found the creator of the neck bombs and sent Joker there, but she and Harley will just have to be patient until J has control over them.

Flag sees Madeline walking by herself, head down and shook up and can't help but feel bad. As a homegrown country boy, it goes against his principles to treat a lady the way he did, even if she isn't some southern belle. And besides, at 16, she's still just a kid. With a sigh, he gives in to his guilt and approaches the girl.

"Madeline," he greets. She flinches, hard, sure that she's about to meet her end, and it just makes Rick feel all the worse. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said, okay? I forgot for a second that you're a kid, and it's not entirely your fault that you're in this situation. It wasn't right of me to threaten you like that when you're young and vulnerable."

"Just because Joker raised me doesn't mean that I don't know that what we do is wrong," Maddie says softly. "I've had about a thousand chances to leave him and this life over the years and I've always turned them away."

"Why?" Flag can't help but ask. "If you know what you're doing is wrong, why not take the way out?"

"It's like you said. In the eyes of the law, I'm still a kid. So if I decide to get help, or whatever, they'll put me in therapy and some nasty ass orphanage. Who's gonna adopt some girl that was raised by the Joker and is still in therapy for it? I'd wind up either on the streets again or in the foster care system, where the homes are worse than the streets," she explains. "At least with Joker and Harley I'm getting a semblance of love and security. Either of them would do the impossible to protect me. I'm theirs, so at least I know I have somewhere I can belong. And besides, even if I got out, don't you think they'd come after me? There's nowhere I could go where they wouldn't find me if I wanted out. But I don't. With them, I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not."

Flag is stunned by the girl's explanation, but it's right about then that Boomerang gets thrown into a garbage can by Croc, halting their conversation. Then Flag is put back in his command position as he gets word that there are hostiles ahead.

The men get set up in a combat formation to ambush whatever lies ahead and the rest of the procession is forced to a halt, the criminals having zero idea of what is happening.

"I like these odds, mate," Boom says to Deadshot. "Just say the word."

"Yeah," Harley agrees.

"Yeah, hold that thought," Deadshot replies before going to speak with Flag.

"So what were you and your little crush talkin about, huh?" Harley teases Maddie.

"Nothing," she blushes. "And I don't have a crush on him. I just think he's not terribly unfortunate looking."

"As if!" Harley counters. "You don't blush that red over some cutie if you don't like him."

Thankfully—or perhaps not—that discussion is cut off when a horde of terrifying anthropomorphic blobs come rushing at them, shrieking horribly. The men in the front lines, including Rick and Floyd, start lighting up the bastards, but some break through, and the rest of the squad rushes in to clean things up.

Katana is slicing some serious ass as Harley enters with her pistol. Between she and Deadshot, creatures are getting their heads blown off left and right. Maddie pulls out her bow and notches an arrow to the string, pulling back and firing into a horde of the beasts, smiling grimly when it lands in one's head and explodes, taking out a few around it. After that, she doesn't have time to admire her kills as she keeps loading and firing in order to protect her position behind a police car.

Harley soon runs out of bullets and has to use her baseball bat to beat the things to death. Boom is taking out the suckers with deadly sharp boomerangs, and Croc is flat out diving into throngs of them to tear them open with his teeth and claws. Meanwhile, Diablo sits uncertainly on the sidelines, not lifting a finger to help anyone.

Suddenly, Deadshot hears shouting as Rick is being dragged off by a crowd of the creatures, struggling uselessly and cursing at the beasts. Both he and Harley turn and see the situation, one of the men trying to save Flag, but it's of little help.

"Good riddance," Harley scoffs.

"Harley, if he dies, we die!" Deadshot yells.

Harley groans and runs to help. Maddie, who'd also seen the tussle, turns and starts firing at the things around Flag, making it easier for Harley to run in and bash their heads. However, she reaches for another arrow midway and discovers she's out just as two monsters rush towards her. Sighing, Maddie puts the bow back over her shoulder and whips out her thigh blades, slicing the heads off of the beasts with practiced ease.

Thankfully, Harley and Deadshot manage to save Flag without further assistance from her, so Maddie is able to continue to defend herself. Eventually she and Harley fight their way to each other and stand fighting back to back, hacking away at their attackers like wheat in a harvest.

It gets to the point where there aren't any more to fight around them, forcing them to notice the stand Deadshot's taken on a car. He's got two guns, rapid firing at the bastards and scoring head shots on each one. He's mowing them down like blades of grass, making it look easy when Madeline knows it must have taken years of training to perfect. Thanks to Deadshot's skill, the rest of the horde is easily taken out, leaving everyone else in awe.

He hops off of the car and brushes past Flag. "That's how I cut and run," he murmurs, finally shutting the douche up for once by proving him truly and totally wrong.

Harley is beating at the head of a dead thing while Maddie watches, leaning against a car that's seen better days.

"I think you missed a spot," she says sarcastically, just as Floyd walks up.

"Hey, come on now. That's enough," he tells Harley.

"What? I saw it move!" Harley protests, swinging again. "See! It flinched."

Boom starts up an argument with Diablo about why he didn't help, and Maddie tunes in eagerly, curious as to why the mysterious Hispanic refused to fight.

"It's better this way," he says calmly, despite Boom's prodding and degrading comments.

Flag enters the scene at that point, having a heated exchange with one of his men about the creatures they just fought.

"What are they?" Harley asks.

"I don't know," Rick replies.

"That's some bullshit," Deadshot growls. "That thing's wearing a $3000 watch. Is that a person?"

"It was. Now it's not, " Flag says. He sees Boomerang picking at the thing's stuff and shouts. "Don't! We got a job to do."

I'm beginning to wonder just what that job is, Madeline thinks worriedly, as things start to look darker and grimmer all around—and not just the sky.