It was a dark and stormy night, the rain falling in droplets and soaking the masked man's outfit.
He didn't want to be here; the reason for him being here was that he had to be. It would happen at this spot, here, in Crime Alley. He could hear the applause from the Monarch Theatre not fifty feet from him. He wasn't too sure what was playing- it was probably some cut-rate comedy.
From the darkness around the corner emerged the other half of this fateful meeting. The clown-man, makeup masking his face, with a smile stretching from ear to ear.
"Well hello there," the clown said, grinning like a madman with a freshly-sharpened knife. His voice was of a high, chuckling pitch, which grated on the man's eardrums.
"You're late," said the man, a chiding tone in his voice.
"I would've loved to arrive sooner, but, you know... the traffic."
"Did you make the arrangements I told you to?"
"Of course," said the clown, reassuringly. "I'm better than your average crony, after all. I'm The Joker, for Pete's sake."
"That's precisely what I'm worried about. I hear you have a tendency to slack on the follow-through. But, seeing as I don't have any time to make sure everything's done, I'll have to trust you."
"Excellent. Trust is key in a relationship. Although I don't even know what to call you."
"You can call me Vapor. Any more details of my identity are not important. Now," Vapor pulled back the slide on the handgun he had been holding in case the clown tried anything, "let's go get the Bat."
N
THE FALL OF
GOTHAM CITY