Ethereal Nonsense Issue 1 (teaser)

Ethereal Nonsense
Issue #1: “After the Fall”
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Disclaimer: Batman and all related themes and characters are the property of DC Comics. I will not claim ownership (no matter how much I would love to) of any of the characters, especially the Joker and the associated Heath Ledger (RIP).
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Bang.

Nothing.

Bang.

More nothing.

Bang.

He fell.

And then there was nothing.

"That's a whole lotta nothing..." the battered man smirked, reflecting quietly as he rubbed at the oozing gash at the back of his head and looked about at his nonexistent surroundings.

Nothing.

Vast expances of absolute nothing.

Way to much nothing for him, the Prince of Pranks.

"I'm a picker... I'm a grinner... I'm a lover, I'm a sinner..." he mumbled tunelessly to himself as he picked himself up from the nothingness beneath him and attempted to walk a bit in the nothingness before him. "I'm a joker... smoker... midnight toker... playin my music on the ruuuun..."

There was a slight echo. His empty words reverberated back to him, smothering him with his own hoarse voice. He assumed the voice was his own. After all, whose else could it be, if not his own? There was simply nothing. No one. No where. No thing.

"So... this is hell?" he shouted at the blank space, throwing his arms out in frustration and despair. "What happened to all that eternal spiritual torture? Fire? Pain? Damnation? You promised!"

He continued trudging through the nothing, his shoulders hunched forward in determination, his cold eyes fixed on the nothing beneath his feet. Quickly he grew bored with the concept of nothing and took to, instead of shouting at the nothing, striking up a conversation with the bonafide blankness that blanketed him.

"I guess this could be Limbo, right? I really wasn't all that evil, after all. Looking back, I never even really killed anyone. Well... there was that guy... but he had it coming. And the wounds weren't life threatening, anyway. Okay, and there was that thing with the kid and the crowbar, but I almost felt really bad about that afterward. I did that city way more good that I did bad. I gave them Batman... and the real Harvey Dent. And a better class of criminals, too... almost. I think I died in the end, though. Shame about this suit..." he fingered the tattered lapel and scoffed, "So much for a million dollar stitch-job..."

He stopped and looked up from his feet, hopelessly expecting more nothing.
However, what he saw instead was an unkempt street and a dark dingy alleyway. He glanced down at himself; his purple suit was again in pristine order and his shoes were no longer beated and scuffed. He ran his hands through his scraggly, greasy-green hair, but found it to be clean and thick and rather bouncy.

"Bouncy?!" he shouted at the sky with a sneer, turning from the alley and again through his hands out with a yell, "What is this, What Dreams May Come?!"

"It's the Funny Man!" a gruff voice called out from the alley. Footsteps echoed in the cramped space between the Gotham Theatre and the apartment building beside it, drawing the Joker's attention to an approaching person.

The Prince spun on his heel and cocked an eyebrow at the approaching man, licking his heavily rouged lips and smirking when he at last recognized the figure. "Ah, it's the Batman. We may not have gotten that padded cell together, but at least we've got an eternity. Like I said, Batty, you complete me."

"What are you talking about?" the masked man scoffed and clamped a hand down on the Joker's shoulder, giving him a jarring shake, "What have you been drinking, little brother?"

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BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!! THE REST OF THE STORY IS....
CONTINUED HERE-- [link]
JUST MAKE SURE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THIS PART AND KEEP READING!! THERE'S 5 CHAPTERS UP SO FAR WITH MANY MORE TO COME!!