I wrote/ am writing this for a friend. It's kind of based on the Joker's story (from Batman) initially created as an aide to turn my friend onto the idea of Batman, it ended up splaying off into a whole different story (though you won't see that for several chapters.)

This is my first independent story, so I'd appreciate feedback from you.

Someone once told me.

There can never be peace in the world.

War. It's natural.

Between nations, or families.

Even in schools, in the classrooms.

Sure, they call it 'bullying'…

I know what it really is.

It's funny really.

People say they want world peace?

They stop themselves from having it.

It's their own fault that they're not happy.

It's just in their nature to fight.

…

So I figure there's only one way.

Give them something to fight.

A common enemy.

It may sound stupid to you…

But it makes perfect sense to me.

Detective William Devon sat on his new leather sofa twirling the phone cord between his fingers. He was going on a steak-out that night and had decided to spend the last few hours of his day consoling his brother over the phone. "Gregory I am sorry about Belinda, really I am, but she wasn't the best person for you, I'm sure you'll find someone better suited."

His brother let out a loud sigh that sounded like static through the phone, "I know, but Belinda and I were together for over 6 years. How can I not be a little upset? She was my wife for god's sake."

"I know you've been a little lonely since, anyone would be, so I was thinking, well, it's your birthday coming up soon. Maybe I could get you a dog? A little terrier perhaps?"

William rolled his eyes as he heard his brother's response "A dog? I don't know, I'm not very good at looking after things, you remember that fish I had. No, the good thing about a human is that they can look after themselves, one of the things I liked about Belinda…"

William laughed, "Don't let the public hear you saying things like that, you'll lose half of your women voters. Anyway I must be off now, got a lot of things to do."

Gregory bid him farewell and hung up, William took a second before he put down the phone to wonder what his brother would be spending the evening doing, alone in their parent's old manor house. It couldn't be good for him to be on his own, with only Warren, the family butler, for company, especially while he was so depressed.

He got to his feet and walked towards the dining room where his wife was setting the table for dinner, "Karen, do you think you could pop in and say hi to Gregory later? He seemed a little depressed; I don't want him doing anything stupid."

Karen put the plate she was holding onto the table, she faced William, leaning to one side, "William you worry too much, Greg'll be fine, he's got Warren with him all the time, and I can't go anyway the kids have got to go to bed early tonight." William smiled down at his wife, she was a sweet thing; blond hair blue eyes, a nice girl, but she had always had a dislike of Gregory, she acted as if she didn't but it was obvious really. William supposed that this dislike had come from the first time Gregory and Karen had met, and he had mistaken her for one of his new kitchen staff.

William sat down at the table to eat the pork roast that his wife had made, she called their three boys down from their rooms, and they tore down the stairs at the mention of the word 'food'. As the family sat down to eat their meal the doorbell rang, William threw down his knife and fork and mumbled how rude it was to interrupt someone's dinner, before getting up and opening the door with a large fake smile on his face. The smile soon dropped when he saw his partner leaning against the doors frame, "Oh, Ricky, well it would be you wouldn't it…" There was the familiar chorus of 'Ricky' from the children in the other room.

He chuckled as his partner invited himself in, "Will, we've had a bit of a change of plan, apparently there's a bit more activity than normal at the place, so we think the Carlsons might be starting it early."

William nodded and turned his head in the general direction of the dining room, "Karen I'm going to have to leave early, put my food in the microwave and I'll eat it later." Karen tottered from the dining room in her favourite red high heels and kissed William good-bye, "Alright, I'll see you later."

William and Ricky sat in the squad car, Ricky had insisted on driving as always 'his car, his rules', and they made the 5 mile drive towards the printers. There had been a commotion there a few months ago and a lot of hardware was stolen, there had been mumblings in the criminal world that another raid had been planned for some time this week by the criminal gang known as the Carlsons. William and his partner had been following the Carlsons for several months and if they could arrest their leader tonight it would mean the end of their crime spree, and a much needed break for William.

They pulled up next to some well-placed bushes a short way from the side entrance of the printers, William knew two other unmarked squad cars would be hidden at the other entrances, so he focused all his attention on this one. "A bit more activity my arse, the place is dead. I should have brought my dinner with me." William leaned back in his chair and Ricky put his feet up on the steering wheel. Ricky was a smart man and had the foresight to buy and bring a kettle that plugged into the cigarette lighter, as well as some powdered milk and tea bags. There was a river only a few steps from the car, it looked clean so Ricky slid out to fill the kettle up, as he got back into the car he flipped open the lid to show to William "Looks fine doesn't it?" William nodded, and then coughed as he was overcome by a horrible smell, like burning hair, "Oh my god! What is that?" he covered his mouth with his police hat.

Ricky laughed, "I know its rank isn't it!" He poured the water back into the stream and got into the car, rolling up his window as he did.

"We'll have to file an inquiry against this place, I think their dumping all their liquid waste into the river, no wonder this place never has any ducks. Yeah, look, there's the pipe." He pointed over to a stream of water that was coming from the building, that whole side of the building was covered in dead shrubbery; in fact all the foliage around the river was dead or dying.

William nodded, "They must have just started doing it, it's those new laws they've brought in; it's so expensive to get rid of waste products now… Don't let any of that 'water' get on you; it'll give you a rash or something."

Ricky flipped the lid of the kettle open again, "Well just look what it's done to the inside of this." William looked in, it had been ravaged; it looked as if it had been melted. "My god. Definitely don't get any of it on you. We'll report it first thing back at the station."

Ricky leant back in his seat, casually throwing the now useless kettle out of the car; stuck in a cramped car next to a stinking river for god knows how long with no tea or coffee? It'd be murder. The two might even end up fighting, the amount of cops who started hating their partners because of a steak-out in a horrible environment was higher than one might expect, and Ricky liked William and intended to keep it that way.

Ricky sighed "How 'bout this; I'll pop over to that shop across the road and buy us some coffee… and maybe a Madera cake if I can find one."

William smiled, walnut Madera cake was one of his favourite foods, no one else he knew liked it apart from Ricky; they seemed to think it was too heavy, but William loved the stuff. "Alright, but keep your radio on you."

Ricky smirked, "Of course, I'm not that stupid." He hopped out of the car and stretched before walking off towards the small shop. William watched through the driver side window as Ricky strode into the shop and looked over the shelves.

He jolted slightly as he remembered that he was supposed to be keeping an eye on the entrance to the printers; he jerked his head back to the iron door, his eyes narrowed when he noticed that the door, previously closed, was now open a few inches. There was no way that the wind could have opened a big heavy door like that, maybe William had missed someone going in. He clicked the button on his radio, "Ricky can you get back here, I've got a bit of a situation." He slid out of the car and slowly made his way to the open door. He peered in and pushed the door open a little wider.

He frowned as he glanced around the room; there were massive printing presses and metal walkways above and around him and an open pipe of stinking, near toxic waste running through the room. The lengths these companies would go to save money, and increase their profit was as horrendous as the smell which was filling his nostrils, William wouldn't be surprised if the people who worked in this room got cancer, or some other serious ailment just from being in this room. He'd have to get this place shut down.

He surveyed the room for any sign that people had come in, he didn't see anything, and turned back to leave, but he stopped in his tracks. He was sure he had just heard someone laughing. Yes, there it was again, he was sure of it. He turned on the spot and listened closely for it, a small, drunken giggle. He headed up some of the cold metal stairs and across a catwalk.

He flinched as there was a loud bang, and shouting, his eyes snapped down, and he saw a man fall through the door on the floor below him. William clasped his hand to his radio "Ricky! Ricky! We have gunfire. Someone's been shot."

Ricky's voice blared through the radio, "William where the hell are you? Get to the northwest room now!"

William looked around "I'm in the next room, I'm on my way."

He sped his way across the catwalk and through a small door, he found himself hovering over a standoff between two police officers and a two of Carlson's members, a third stood a few paces away. "Stop! Police!" William yelled, pulling his Taser and pointing it at one of the members, the three men stupidly turned and looked up, towards the source of the noise. Two of them were immediately Tasered by the two police officers they had turned their back on, and the third started running, staggering slightly, up the stairs and along the catwalk.

William set off after him, leaving the two police officers to deal with the Carlsons members. He ran across the suspended walkway and followed the gang member back through to the room he had entered from, he flinched slightly as he was hit by that horrible smell of burned hair. The man stopped at the corner of the stairs and held onto the railings, panting. William held his Taser up at him "Now sir, come along quietly and we won't have any trouble."
William was hesitating, this man looked different to the other two, he wasn't wearing a balaclava or dark clothing like them; he was wearing a garish pink tie and a Halloween mask, he looked like a member of a stag night party, and he was shaking terribly.

The man held out his hand "No, please! Don't kill me." He was swaying slightly; William would swear he was drunk.
"I won't, just come here and you'll be fine." William took a step towards the man, who suddenly lost his footing, he grabbed onto the railings, they groaned and bent, not that the drunken man noticed. William certainly did, he jumped forward to grab the man. The man, scared, tried to get to his feet, pushing against the railing, trying to get way from William, "No, get away from me, don't hurt me." He shouted, not noticing as the railings bent further back, and snapped. The man fell, along with the railings, and landed with a splash in the open pipe below, he started screaming as he was swept down a pipe of what felt like boiling water, he yelled for help, his skin searing in pain. The air around his head was burning his face, he heard a deafening hissing as the liquid flooded his mask, bursting his eardrums and attacking his eyes. He coughed and spluttered as the toxic liquid leapt down this throat and into his lungs.

William ran down the stairs and out of the building, he saw the screaming coughing man fall out of the pipe and into the river, he ran alongside it. If he let this man die, he would never forgive himself; he had sounded so scared, William didn't think he was actually involved with the heist, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He ran to the edge of the river and grabbed the man's arm as he was washed down the river. He pulled the man, who was roaring in pain and terror, onto the bank of the river and pulled off his mask. The man started to laugh as he realised that even though his party mask had been pulled off he still couldn't see. William recoiled in horror as he saw the man's face; his skin was bubbling with the toxic liquid. William pulled off his jacket and tried to dab the liquid off, but his skin was acting like melted cheese. He pushed the material onto the man's face to soak up the liquid, but as he pulled his jacket away the man's skin stretched and tore, William almost vomited as the man's lower lip tore off, along with half of the skin on the man's left cheek. The man screamed from the unbearable pain as he felt his skin and flesh leave his face, his ears were ringing and he couldn't see, he had never felt this level of pain before, he wished he would die.