Laughing at pain

*Bang, bang bang!* Not only one explosion sounded, three others rapidly could be heard back to back after the first one.

Behind all of the large booming noise, they could also hear a hearty laughter in the distance. "Ahahahahahahaha!"

"Ugh, I wonder who's crazy enough to do this." Harleen mumbled to herself.

But the other three knew who it was. Saitama looked a little bit shocked whereas Laura's expression went colder than usual as she squinted her eyes slightly whilst gazing towards the direction where they heard the laughter coming from.

Yet the expression on Averill's face brightened quite a bit, he didn't bother saying anything before vanishing from his spot before reappearing outside. Averill saw caved in areas on the ground and flames everywhere, but his eyes were gazing at the person responsible for this. A man wearing red clothes, rather long green hair and clown makeup on his face with a huge red smile.

"Hey hey, have you perhaps forgotten about me already? I didn't think I was this easy to forget about. Hahaha…" The Joker, his real name; Jack Napier, was glaring at Averill who had suddenly just appeared not too far away from him. There was a huge smile on his face, yet his eyes weren't smiling at all.

Jack began walking towards Averill, his steps were firm and even. The closer he got towards Averill, the more he could sense a pressure from behind of Averill, he gave a glance and saw Saitama and a lady in black who was having a cold expression on her face. Yet Jack just gave a shrug as he continued walking towards Averill.

"Yeah, you thought I would be laying quietly after doing your bidding without getting anything in return? I don't care who or what you are, Averill, if you want to face me, let's fight!" Jack took out a knife forward as he continued walking forwards. "If you want to know, I am not a simple Pawn in your game."

The pressure that he had gotten from most likely the lady in the back vanished.

Averill also began walking forward towards Jack with a huge smile on his face.

Jack and Averill, both were smiling brightly as they walked towards each other, they were less than ten meters apart now. Jack was spinning the knife in his hand and Averill was simply not caring, yet his sharp eyes were glaring at Jack.

It didn't take all too long before they were only a meter apart, and when they came slightly closer, the hand of Jack which held the knife moved quickly towards Averill's neck. The knife came into contact with Averill's skin before shattering into tiny fragments that were flown away by a small breeze.

"… He really shouldn't have done that." Saitama commented in the background as he gazed at what was happening.

Laura didn't even bother using her aura to pressure Jack due to she knew that the moment he pulled a knife towards Averill, there would be no chances of survival for anyone.

Harleen had just managed to run outside, and she saw the moment when the Joker had aimed his knife at Averill's throat. Harleen's heart skipped a beat as she wanted to rush forward and kill Joker. But her body stopped when she saw the knife shattering into pieces… She had totally forgotten that no one would be able to defeat Averill on this planet, and at least not a normal human being like Joker.

"Stop joking around, Jack." Averill's eyes narrowed slightly as his right hand swiftly grabbed onto Jack's neck before raising him up to the air whilst squeezing harder and harder.

"AAaaah, more!" Jack couldn't help but to beg for more from Averill whilst being raised up in the air by the neck in a wheezy yet happy voice. Jack had a huge smile on his face and his eyes were firmly staring into Averill's red eyes.

Averill's eyebrows went up slightly before he squeezed Jack's neck even harder. The white make-up on Jack's face couldn't hide the redness on his skin that he was suffocating.

Jack wasn't able to breathe at all any longer, but that didn't frighten him at all. He was prepared to die the moment he became the Joker! Jack's goals were much higher prioritized than his own life.

"As I said, will you stop joking now?" Averill asked in a calm yet soothing voice before slowly releasing Jack's neck and placing him on the ground, yet Averill forced him to stand straight.

"Yee-s." Jack replied with a hoarse yet happy voice.

And the moment Averill heard Jack's reply, he moved his hand away from his throat, but Averill's hand moved towards Jack's left arm before grabbing onto it before ripping it off his shoulder.

Blood flew like a fountain out of Jack's stumped shoulder, the blood flew at least for a few meters.

Tears were gushing out of Jack's eyes, yet the sound that came out of his mouth wasn't showing his pain. "AHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Jack laughed loudly as he fell to his knees whilst gazing at Averill with passion, he didn't think that Averill would really let him live with this encounter. But now that he was alive with only a small punishment, he knew one thing, that he wasn't a simple Pawn in Averill's plans, but an important piece that couldn't be sacrificed, at least yet.

"I told you earlier, stop joking around, Jack. When I tell you something, you do it without asking any questions. You are a Pawn, nothing more and nothing less, but you still have your uses…" Averill replied in a soothing voice as he crouched down to Jack's level whilst still sharply gazing at Jack.