Terry stormed into the Batcave holding the card in his hand. He went right up to Bruce who was apparently busy with something of his own. It looked like he was dusting the floor, but when Terry got closer he saw what Bruce was really up to. Bruce had chipped out a piece of rock and put it into the spectral analyzer. Terry momentarily forgot why he was so angry and asked Bruce what he was doing.

"I found Ace against a wall upstairs. He was bruised, nothing serious, but I also saw the doorway to the Batcave was open."

"Why the rock?"

"I had scanned this entire area under a phosphorus light to see if I could pick up any footprints."

"Spectral analysis complete," said the computer.

"Well?" asked Terry.

"It seems that Phantasm was here last night. This is the same kind of polymer used in Phantasm's smoke clouds. The Phantasm wasn't alone, however. I found two sets of footprints around this area."

"It seems that you're not the only one who's privacy was invaded."

"What do you mean?"

Terry, with tears welling up in his eyes said, "My mom and my bro were kidnapped by the Jokerz. All that was left behind was this card..."

Terry handed the card to Bruce. Bruce looked at it for a moment and sadly bowed his head.

"This isn't from the Jokerz. They usually just stick to stealing things...creds, jewelry, etc. This is more along the lines of the Joker himself."

"You can't be serious....Tim is still alive?"

"Not really, he didn't survive the fall after all."

"What do you think Tim, I mean, the Joker will do?"

"We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I want you to make your rounds tonight and be on the lookout for Phantasm. We cannot have both of them loose in this city."

************************************************** **

Meanwhile, at the Funnibone Shipping warehouse, the Jokerz were beginning to get a little restless from waiting so long. One Jokerz member in particular, Punchline, had just gotten out of prison and hadn't met the real Joker yet.

"Hey J-man! What's going on?" Punchline asked.

"Nothing," J-man glumly replied.

"Well then, let's go out and slag something. It'll be great!"

"Who's this?" Joker said as he passed by the two young men.

"This is Punchline. He usually hangs with my crowd. He just got out of jail," said J-man.

"What's so special about you?"

"Funny, I was going to ask the same thing about you, old man."

The Joker grinned.

"Punchline, this is the Joker. The ORIGINAL Joker."

"Really? Shway!" Punchline said as he extended his hand towards the Joker.

"Sorry, I don't shake hands. Cooties and all."

Punchline frowned, and then grinned. He was going to have some fun after all. "Alright then...Circle circle, dot dot, now I've got my cootie shot! Circle circle, square square, now I've got them everywhere!"

Punchline again extended his hand to the Joker. The Joker, unimpressed said, "Interesting that you still sing nursery rhymes. You do realize that there's more to the song though, don't you?"

"There is?"

"Sure," grinned the Joker. "It goes like this...Circle circle, knife knife, now it's time to take your life."

Once the Joker finished, a knife shot out of his sleeve and into his hand. He thrust the blade to just inches from Punchline's stomach and stopped.

"B-b-bb-bad j-j-joke?" Punchline stammered.

"Yes."

Then the Joker put away the knife.

"No hard feelings, ok?" said Punchline.

"Sure, accidents happen sometimes."

Just then, the knife that the Joker had put away had reappeared. He thrust the knife again, this time not stopping.

"Whoops....it slipped," said the Joker.

J-man just looked at Punchline.

"Unless there's anyone else you want me to kill, let's try to keep the interruptions to a minimum, kay?"

J-man could barely nod his head.

"Get him out of here."

J-man quickly had a few Jokerz that were in the next room to help him get the body out of the warehouse.

"J-man, what happened to him?" asked Happy.

"He pissed off the Joker. Get him to a hospital, quick. Make sure that he's still alive when you get there."

J-man walked back inside to a waiting Joker.

"You know what kid? I like you. But if you ever undermine my authority like that again, I'll kill you too. Trust me; there'll be no one to take your carcass to the hospital either. Now, let's get down to business, shall we?"

They walked into a small room that held Mary and Matt McGinnis. They were placed at the far end of the room. A table was placed next to the door. On it were various instruments of torture. The Joker took one in his hand and walked up to Mary McGinnis.

"You know what, J-man? Even when I'm busy with trying to destroy the entire city, I always take time to enjoy the little pleasures in life. Ha Ha!"

The Joker just slapped her with the instrument.

"Today though, I have bigger fish to fry." Then he leaned towards Mary's ear. "Sorry to disappoint you. You can
look forward to tomorrow though. I know I will."

"My plan is almost complete. Which reminds me, I have to check with Ghoul."

The two then left the room and headed to where the computers had been set up.

"How's it coming, Ghoul?"

"Everything's perfect Joker. I should have this ready for you in a few minutes."

"Well then, I guess it's time to make my speech! J-man, round everyone up!"

J-man called everyone together. They all stood in front of the Joker.

"Boys and girls, its time you all found out why I brought you here. It's time that you all started to make yourselves feared in this city. With my help, we will make the Jokerz a force to be reckoned with. As we speak, Ghoul here is updating my patented Joker Virus. I created this virus decades ago in hopes of destroying Gotham's computer systems. I never got the chance to use it, however. It's been lying dormant all of these years. Ghoul, turn on the vidscreen."

As the vidscreen was brought to life, a digital face of the Joker appeared. It's eyes were closed, a sign that it hadn't been used yet.

"I realized that I could do more damage if I put this virus into the city's power supply. When the virus gets downloaded into the power company's computers, it will affect the entire city, bringing Gotham back into the dark ages! Once that happens, Gotham will be ours. We will rule the city! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"