The past.
We open on the skyline of Gotham. The setting sun is distorted by smog. As we push in, we observe the city's ethereal, timeless atmosphere – sweeping gothic architecture, cars with hover capability, futuristic structures towering over the foundations of the original city. A bat-like shadow glides across the rooftops, rushing toward a Wayne Enterprises laboratory building. We nearly see the source of the shadow, but instead, we plunge into the darkness of the window.
Cut to Chloe Clay, an attractive young woman in shackles and a prison uniform. She's in her late twenties, possibly with a blend of Asian and Caucasian heritage. A small group of prison guards and Wayne Enterprises security guards are ushering her through a dimly lit corridor. She is led into a lab with a very high ceiling – mostly empty of personnel, as it's late in the evening – and then led to a cluster of scientists waiting next to a gurney equipped with restraints. Clay stops right next to this gurney.
Looking up, Clay can see Derek Powers, roughly thirty-five years old, observing her through a window.
The lead scientist holds forth a computer tablet so that Clay can read it. "The money has been transferred to your daughter's trust fund."
Clay nods tautly. The tablet is withdrawn. As her shackles are removed and she is strapped into the gurney, the scientist continues, "Once again, you understand that Wayne Enterprises has no knowledge of these experiments and no intention of manufacturing—"
"If I open my mouth, the money is gone," Clay interrupts. She's clearly nervous. "Yes, we've been over it."
They've finished strapping her in. The guards step back as lab assistants prepare EKG equipment. Another prepares an injection. A tense silence has fallen over the room. From somewhere above, there is a slight creak.
Batman plummets from the ceiling. He immediately engages the prison guards, destroying their guns. It's glorious. Flawless. Too easy. He tosses his cape to ensnare another guard, pull him forward, and then knee him in the face. There are only two guards still conscious when one of Batman's knees suddenly gives out. He's doubled over in pain. The guards hesitate for only a moment before they assail him brutally.
Batman is still conscious, but weak. The guards drag him to another gurney and strap him in, tilting it vertically. A scientist holding a special tablet stands facing Batman. The tablet is a heart monitor. "He has the pulse of a tired old man," the scientist announces, giving Batman an almost amused look. "So you're human after all."
Above, Derek Powers reaches for a button we can't see, and there's the crackle of a P.A. system. "Get the mask off."
Batman is strangely compliant as a guard reaches around the back of his head for the seam in his mask. The guard is electrocuted. As he falls to the floor, moaning, another guard picks up a chair with metal legs. He strikes Batman across the face with it. The mask remains intact. The guard tries again. Batman pulls at his restraints. There is a faint creaking as if they may eventually break.
Clay reclines in the gurney, looking a bit worried, maybe wondering why Batman is trying to stop this experiment. With each brutal blow to the vigilante's head, she cringes.
The guards continue to brutalize Batman. In the foreground, the lead scientist sends a questioning look to Derek Powers, then nods to his associates to continue prepping Clay. Speaking into a camera, he says, "This is the first human trial of mutagen 1808." He swabs her arm and lowers the needle to a vein. "Administering first injection."
Batman's point of view. Things are blurry, shaky. We see the chair swing, and then things go black momentarily. We see Powers watching from the window.
A close shot of Batman's right arm. The restraint snaps, and immediately he delivers a powerful punch to the guard with the chair. He reaches for the restraint on his left arm while leaning forward to see what's happening to Clay.
The injection has been administered. Clay lays her head down again, but her pulse is quickening. "I feel strange," she says, her voice shaking.
Batman frees himself. He lunges forward, still limping slightly, and grabs the lead scientist by the collar. "Stop the experiment!"
The man is calm. "Without the second injection," he says, "she'll die."
Chloe sends him a panicked look. Batman hesitates, unsure if it's the truth.
"Do something!" Chloe screams.
"Save her," Batman growls.
"Second injection!"
Chloe weeps softly as the second injection is administered. Before the syringe is quite empty, she chokes, spitting up a clumpy, black liquid. Her eyes roll toward the scientists.
"It's working," says the lead.
"What did you do to her?" Batman shouts.
One of Chloe's arms is somehow free from the restraint. She stares in shock as her proportions distort slightly. Then, with increasingly elongated fingers, she reaches for the nearest person, screaming in terror. She's melting. Her whole body convulses, and she seems to drip upward, against gravity, arcing in nightmarish shapes.
A guard tazes Batman in the back of the neck.