Gotham City
Crippled and destroyed seventy men who stood in his way, Batman has just now defeated the muscular, gigantic Two-Face who is also infected like everyone else. "I won't ask again, Two-Face, where is the Joker?", Batman demanded in an angry way. His hands soaked in blood. He rubbed off the blood on his lips. He steps across a pond of blood from unconscious bodies, though not dead as Batman had no intention of killing them.
"Dunno, probably waiting to to piss on you, Batman", Two-Face said before laughing loudly.
Batman uses Mana to slam Two-Face over to the glass. The glass cracks as Two-Face's weight caused it in addition to the way Batman slammed him that hard. "I won't ask again, you smeared devil of half-side", Batman said. "where is the Joker?!".
Two-Face sniggered instead of disclosing.
Infuriated, Batman roared as he warps the gravity; he drags Two-Face over to him. Energised to a dangerous capacity, Batman readily pounds Two-Face, causing the latter to drop beneath the wooden floor; the floor broke. He quickly raised Two-Face back to him. Two-Face's body again comes near to Bruce. Only aspect he sees in Two-Face is his mucky smile still displayed.
"That was fun, can we do it again?", Two-Face said laughingly.
Bruce pierces into Two-Face's head; starting with having his eyes glow blue; he checks Two-Face's memories, thinking Two-Face might have it. Nothing of indication related to the Joker's whereabouts. Giving another heavy pound by powering his fist, Batman knocks out Two-Face.
Stepping away from Two-Face's body, Batman concludes they don't know where the Joker is. It won't stop him from giving up. He will find the Joker regardless of Joker concealing his scent in all places.
He wished he could move on, forget everything, come into a new life. Unfortunately for him, it was always like this. War goes on. People live. People die. Seems this means Batman would have do to what he wanted to do for a very long time. Everyone held him back; Alfred, the Justice League, countless others perhaps.
Standing above, he reflects on the view of Gotham, from his fantasy point, he'd sketch it as a city very identical to Metropolis. He remembered having many times of having this conversation with his wife. His wife would bring up what if Gotham was a better city, without all the pain and horror, a city that didn't need Batman; what if he didn't put that suit on tonight. Part of Bruce had that lingering temptation. The view of the decayed city kept on summoning his presence.
Bruce broke off from contemplation; an explosion. Bruce knows where that is. It's in GCPD building. An instance Joker might appear there or not is worth checking out.
Leaping off the building, gliding a downward slope, Bruce comes into the summoned Batmobile, which he subsequently uses to take off, making his way to Burnley.
Driving, Bruce has been aware of this city happening to be a ghost city; nobody is here. Either the Joker infected all the Gotham citizens with a Joker toxin, or Joker killed them. He couldn't have killed them. All of them. Maybe. Right now, Bruce would rather hunt for the demon than think about missing people.
Elsewhere in Gotham...
"Bat...sy... Batsy... Batsy", Joker repeatedly saying his nemesis's name. "Does the Bat want to play?". He leaned his head forward, looking at Gotham. He senses Batman's anger from a long distance away. "Dork Knight's out there mopping the streets clean".
"He's hunting you down", one of Joker's disciples said.
"You think I hadn't noticed!", Joker yelled at his disciple, making him back away. "I wasn't born yesterday". He turns his eyes on another disciple. "And you". Joker is looking at him. He loves the new look on his face. "Scarecrow, huh? I prefer calling you Happycrow, ha ha". Scarecrow actually isn't physically present. He's in another city, following the Joker's command. He hears from that hologram he projected: Scarecrow cackling. He's confused on whether he's disturbed by it or supposed to enjoy it.
Scarecrow explains to the Joker about what the Joker wanted him to do: shipping Joker serums into every machine that will be set in the highest building in each city.
"Happycrow, I've decided to give you a promotion, you shall be the director that will call forth the distribution of dispersing a cloud of the serum from the top of every building in every city. I don't care what buildings they are: Kord Industries, LexCorp, Queen Industries. Get the job done", Joker said.
The jokerised Scarecrow nodded before dematerialising as Joker closed the connection. Afterwards, he's a little shaken by an explosion, prompting Joker to look across the city. Somewhere in Burnley there is hellfire. He shaped a grin, submitting to his enjoyment.
GCPD Building
In Burnley, Batman came to GCPD Building, handling a hundred cops. It's revealed when he arrived the GCPD officers are infected by the Joker. Not telling how many good people are in Gotham left, Batman feels like he may be the only good man standing with two feet.
Batman slowly knocked each cop down before flying over, laying his body above the officers. He threw dozens of batarangs, disarming many guns from many officers.
Touched down behind hundreds of infected individuals, Batman leapt backward, tossing three smoke grenades at the officers. There will be guns blazing. One of them are bound to end up on his torso, even though Batman believes even now he can bear the pain and continue.
The GCPD officers are engulfed in a massive smoke, blinded, preventing them from sighting Batman.
Unknown to them, Batman begins taking down each and every cop with one strike. His cape overshadows them, blackening them to the point they can no more be active to fight him.
As soon as he knocks the last officer with its own gun used that struck his face, Batman acknowledges the GCPD's defeat. He turns away from a pile of unconscious officers, searching the Joker in this building.
Bruce comes out of the big area. To his right, Bruce glimpsed a person from his right. Batman turns, looking at the girl only at her backside. Quickly, he saw the lady is pink-skinned similar to her. It would be impossible. "Claire?", Batman exclaimed. Bruce quickly snapped back to reality; coming to acknowledge he was actually just seeing things. The lady he thought he saw isn't real.
He resumed on leaving the GCPD building, seeing that the Joker isn't in here, and Jim Gordon isn't here too.
Outside of GCPD Building...
Batman returns to the Batmobile. Before entering, he sensed a presence nearby. He quickly spun to his left direction. A van rushing along the road with jokerised people carrying rocket launcher.
They launched rocket-propelled projectiles.
The Batmobile is needed. Batman creates a force-shield around himself and the Batcomputer.
The projectiles explode at the force-shield.
Despite explosion, Batman's force-field's strength demonstrated it can withstand a projectile.
Lowering the shields down, Batman gazes the jokerised people in that ice cream van. He must follow them. They might know the Joker's whereabouts.
He hops into the Batmobile, starting to drive as Bruce decides pursuing them.
Both vehicles scream their engines as they awaken the outburst resonating across the roads.
Launchers crawl out of a van's door, aiming at the Batmobile.
Batman's perceptive lenses sharply clasped on the weapon newly discharging a missile. He steers the steering wheel, swerving the Batmobile, hence evading the projectiles as they screamed, and explode.
Not a little bit worried about the explosion back there. Batman continues advancing forward, speeding up the Batmobile's pace, catching up with the ice cream van.
As the Batmobile slowly comes nearer to it, while the two vehicles take a turn to the right in intersection, Bruce thoughtfully lays out two can play that game; he readies the projectiles from his Batmobile. He launches those projectiles, directing it over to the van's backside.
The projectiles burst into the van, causing the vehicle to rupture; the van suddenly flies over before crashing down.
Taking note of the van subdued, Batman stops the Batmobile. As soon as it stopped, he quickly comes out, prepared to confront those jokers. Moving slowly toward that van, Batman saw a figure coming out with a gun.
The gunner shot a bullet.
Batman quickly dodged it. He tossed a batarang directly to the man's gun, rendering the man defenseless. He afterwards pinned the man against the van.
The man grunted, though his lungs chortled.
"Did the Joker send you?", Batman demanded.
"His orders, Bats. Anything he says, we follow", the guy said.
"Where is he?", Batman growls at him.
"You ain't going anywhere near him", the jokerised man said.
"Would you like to test me?", Batman said politely, leaning his face over to the man's as he proceeds to bestow man brutality he has never witnessed in his life, perhaps if in his life he never fought Batman. This moment would add the top list of things that traumatise him.
The joker-infected figure is trembling despite the carrying of laughter dwelling. He doesn't like a single thing about the grim look on his face. It is deathly glaring at him, much to the man's great fear.
What resonates from this area is the man's intense cries as Batman tortures him.
Elsewhere in Gotham...
Warm the clown tendered in the incessant flams surrounding him with his guest, alongside the clowns. He has this great feeling his legacy will leave be great nobody shall ever forget his name.
While watching the view of Gotham's dark city shredding by that Bat, Joker is presently talking with somebody. "Darling, I have the perfect view. It's like he ripped the city down to its skeleton. Waiting for me to slab some meat on it", Joker said. "You ready to finish the job?".
"Yes. Everything's in place, Mister J"
"Good. Good... I want to bring the house down with this one. Right down on his head", Joker said. "And I've already started with where Bat's going, and he's going there right now". He ends the call before taking a sip of his drink; Joker looks at the man who is gagged, and tied to a chair.
The man could only look at Joker in terror.
"You should be proud of your boy", Joker said. "He's tenacious, he's stubborn, and he's resilient". Joker removes piece of cloth from this man's mouth, allowing him to speak.
"Master Bruce will subjugate his temptations; he will not kill you"
"Ha ha ha, Pennyworth, you hold so much faith in that bull-headed boy yet you forget the horrendous tortures I've given him. I made him suffer, I will make him lose control", Joker said, sinisterly looking at the man his captured: Alfred Pennyworth. "I could see it in your face: you're afraid too. You can't admit it: you know he'll do it".
Alfred turns his face away from Joker.
Aware, Joker firmly pressed both hands on Alfred's head, coercing him to stare directly his face; his bleeding smile. "Once dear 'Master Bruce' finds out his loyal Eagle has been keeping a dark secret, well, what would you predict the Bat's reaction then?".
The butler had become silent, frowned.
"Exactly", Joker said.
Torturing someone was never pleasant for Batman. But it always worked fine. He grew accustomed to doing tortures from a very young age. He never backed away from dawning his claws on shredding people's spirits. It's like riding a bike.
He had brutally smashed the jokerised League of Assassins; he wrapped an arm around one assassin's neck, he launched his leg kicking an assassin's face so hard it made him bleed, and he brutally slashed an assassin's eye with the batarang before firing it at he fourth assassin. These four assassins were in his way.
He crosses over the four senseless jokers, almost reaching the building metres away from him. The last man he tortured finally spat out the Joker's location. Infected by the toxin may not be his intention to be part of Joker's big army, Bruce sensed he is just like the thugs in the street of Gotham.
Scrutinizing the building coerced Bruce to remember it. Where it all began; before Batman was born; where Bruce wished he could take it all back. It's brand new, almost as if it was never abandoned. Lights illuminating this place's homecoming. It shouldn't be here, not on Earth. This was abandoned after his parents died. It's the old Senate building.
Reaching the Senate building, Bruce comes inside; embracing his past once again.
It's fairly quiet. He hears just his faint footsteps. Aside from footsteps, nothing is being heard at the moment. Joker might've expected his arrival; he wanted him here. Batman's going to have to get under his skin to survive all of this, and defeat him if he is to save the world from the spread of Joker virus that could eventually lead to the Justice League being infected by it, and that's far more bad news.
As he starts opening the door guiding to the deafening silence of the night-shrouded battle arena, Bruce unsteadily freezes. "Bloody hell, the smell", Bruce exclaimed. An awful stench hits Bruce's nose; soon he visually perceives the people gathered in countless seats. That's what reached his nose: foul smell of rotten corpses.
Bruce strolls the area. He senses in Mana no life force in any of these people; they're dead. Why bring these corpses here?, Batman wondered. Some dead bodies look like they've been decaying for years. Suddenly, a hologram appeared before Batman. Green hair, chalk-white skin, the blood of his lips narrowly the opposite of Bruce's end; Joker.
"Is it not so perfect to have the Bat around the corner, appreciating the family I built. Our family", Joker said, arms wide open, drawing a bead over everyone.
Batman growls silently; clenching his teeth.
"They're the people I've helped see to the other side of the veil. Every man, woman, and child I've ever killed", the Joker addressed.
Sight of everybody sitting soulless, just empty shells blindly staring. The sight of them angers Batman, causing him to clench his fists.
"While my army of supervillains under my control have been keeping busy with your Superfriends, and you and Superman slumbering like babies, I've spent days digging. And I gave them a warm welcome back to the real world. They'll be my army. An army of jokers ready to kill the world after they see the big picture, and see the twist, right at the end", Joker said.
Holograms shined next to Bruce's both sides; two women, two important people Bruce let down. One of them was what Bruce gazed at: a female to her left having white long, fleshy appendages with montrals with blue stripes. Her face has white markings, has blue eyes, has a slender build, and wears leggings and a tube top up.
Joker laughed as he observes Batman staring at one woman.
"Ashoka", Batman breathlessly said as though his lungs are completely voided of oxygen.
"Your Padawan", Joker said. He lays a gesture over to the other holographic lady. "And your wife".
Claire, or known in alias Chronoa, the wife of Bruce, the latter who subsequently stared at her.
"You should've been there to save them, but you weren't. You've never been one to look failure in the face, have you, Bats?", Joker said.
Batman heard snickers nearby, coming from the surrounding seats. Were they laughing? He realised they are: they're not just dead bodies, they're full of motion as they jerk themselves up from the seat, emerging from the pitch-blackness.
"Well, here it is, Bats, ready to tear you to pieces", Joker said prior to laughing loudly.
Backing away, Batman tried to gain enough space. There are a lot of tattered animated corpses drawing closer to him.
The jokerised zombies flew over to Batman's direction.
"The people you failed to save...", Joker said.
Batman leaps over the enraged soulless clowns. He slams one foot hard on one zombie's face. He pounded his fist, striking a zombie down. He quickly wrapped an arm around that struck-down zombie's neck as he swings around with his leg striking another clown.
"...are the people who all want you dead", Joker said.
After kicking forward multiple zombie clowns away, Batman alighted. He pulled out his grappling gun, blasting a hook over to the top. Dragged upwards, Batman swings his fist, pushing three zombies backwards.
As he elevates up, Batman felt arms tightly enfold his back, causing him to plummet, hitting the chairs, which is where many Senators once sat.
Bruce quickly turned around, facing the zombie who grabbed him. Getting a quick lighten to who the figure is, Batman becomes horrified. "Echo?!", he exclaimed in extreme shock. It is him, except his mind isn't in there.
"You don't get what I say, do you, Bats?", the holographic Joker said. "'the people you failed to save'; all your allies I killed, dug out and revived".
Disturbed, and angered, Batman deathly glared at Joker.
"Might I define this moment a touching reunion", Joker said, subsequent to explosively cackle.
Batman shook his head. The Echo Bruce knew was once a loyal Clone Trooper serving for the Galactic Republic along with his fellow brothers, the Clone Troopers. This clown, Echo's shell, a corpse, is a deceptive form of that Clone Trooper. Bruce ought not to let that put the weight on him.
The zombie-jokerised Echo awkwardly jolts toward Batman.
"I'm sorry, Echo", Batman said sadly, and mildly, showing sorrow for the fallen ally. When it closed on him, Batman lifted his leg, kicking Echo away from him, making him hit the other zombie clowns.
Bruce hurdles to the air. He readily fires six explosive batarangs.
The batarangs, once jabbed on each shell, immediately exploded, causing so many clowns to disintegrate into fleshy atoms with splattering blood.
Batman phased into the flames, landing on the ground. He hears Joker clapping, prompting the Dark Knight to turn to the Joker.
"If only mommy and daddy saw you right now, they would be so proud", Joker said derisively.
"Where are you, you sleazy slime?!", Batman demanded.
"Hahah, careful, Bruce. You're being quite intimidating"
Hearing it caused Batman to widen his eyes as he appears shocked. "It can't be", Bruce exclaimed. Joker's voice doesn't illuminate the small arena. He's gone, Bruce witnessed it. Joker's tricks are challenging Bruce's perception. He can't succumb to this. It's not real.
"I wonder where he got that intimidating posture from"
Bruce heard another voice; a feminine voice. It shouldn't be her. He's hallucinating. The lady and the man died a very long time ago. "No", Bruce murmured as he saw two adults and a child walking into the smoggy haze. They're going there. This is how they die. "NO! TURN BACK!". Bruce jerks forward, following those three people.
As he goes inside the haze, he searches for them, the people he made an oath for the sake of their legacy; his parents.
As Bruce reaches the area, Bruce was too late; both his parents' corpses laid on ground, and the boy knelt down, helpless and blindly looking down. His heart pounded rapidly. The fixed point that created his Batman persona, the point in time Bruce wished he could change, the only point in time in which he believes is one of his greatest failures.
Batman tries to absorb his acknowledgment this is all his hallucination. Even if he used his best efforts, he'd be hitting on an illusion that will not make any contact with Batman's interference.
As he tries hard to move away, only to stagger away, Bruce experienced a slapped feeling rushed on his torso as though a blade impaled his torso. Bruce slowly looked down. He was trembling, and when his head tilted down, he was stunned, a green-shine sizzling blade speared his torso. It flew out of his torso, causing Bruce to slightly shake.
"Didn't want to miss this reunion, Master"
Why is everyone from the dead rising into the brilliance? Bruce yanks his turning direction, making him turn half-circle rotation. A deep twisted-smile of evil marked in a stretched curled smile on her face. "Ashoka?", Bruce exclaimed. She is just like his Padawan. But she's similar to all the other jokerised beings in the world.
"You failed me!", Ashoka snarls.
Batman reels away from Ashoka. It's not her. Though he failed her, Ashoka wouldn't be looking like this.
"You let him take my life!"
Ashoka's loud cries caused Bruce to unsteadily move further away. Bruce was backing away very far he ended up landing with his back on two dead bodies. "No", Bruce said in low voice before slowly losing conscious.
A figure cloaked in red robe watched Batman losing consciousness, lying the ground.
Elsewhere in Gotham...
Joker leans on Alfred's chair as that's where the butler is still tied to. "Bats had quite an experience reliving his past; his parents are dead; his Padawan dead. It was too much for him to the point he fell the moment he got stabbed", he said.
Alfred became horrified to hear it.
"Oh don't spill that reaction that early. It's not like I want him dead, hahaha. On the contrary, he's going to do the thing he refuses to do for the rest of his life, which I explicitly mentioned already", Joker said.
Twisting his head to Gotham, Joker senses every civilian infected by him to become like him are rising from the darkness, already causing chaos and destruction. "From up here the people look like little flees swarming over the rotting carcass of Gotham, and I brought their darkness out. And the only person with a shimmering chance of restoring Gotham's rotten state back is Bats", Joker said.
"Why do this, Napier?", Alfred said. "You were once his friend".
The clown moved away from leaning as he wanders in circles around Alfred. "I still do; I adore our friendship. Before, I was just too weak to realise what our friendship was really defined. As years passed, I began to comprehend that I was supposed to idolize him as my opposite", Joker said before stopping in front of Alfred, leaning his face close to his. "a necessary opposite".
"The surname belonging to your blood 'Valeska' was what corrupted, and twisted you evil!", Alfred said. "You are not a 'Valeska'. It's not too late to seek redemption, and give everything up on your fixation with Master Bruce".
"We are way past that point, honey", Joker said. "Not long after this crisis, I will die from a condition. And once it happens, I'll make sure everyone remembers my legacy!".
At least Alfred tried. Seems his only hope is Bruce. Wherever he is, he hopes Batman hasn't gazed into the abyss.
Somewhere far from the city...
All his pain, the agony of memories recently cycled; racing his heart to extreme levels, they slowly faded, just as Batman slowly wakes up. He silently groaned, raising his upper body. "Where am I?", Bruce said. There was a different feeling compared to before he passed out. The trigger bolted Bruce's hand over to his face; he realises he's not wearing his mask but his costume is still on. He looks around, coming to perceptively sight the all-shrouded background of rainbow eden emanating the brighter colours. Bruce felt his wellbeing has been restored. He checked his wound. There was no wound as though he was never fatally stabbed.
A red hooded figure emerges from the illumination of spectral-lights.
Bruce turns back into being readily focused. It can be one of Joker's many illusions casted to let his guard down. He won't repeat the same mistake twice. He pulls a Batarang out.
Coming as close as she needed, the hooded figure unveiled her face.
Recognising the lady's face surprised Bruce. "Wanda?", he exclaimed, seeing his own daughter. Despite awareness of his daughter's presence, he moves away from his daughter. What's real, what's not?, he thought.
"Search your feelings, dad", Wanda said, moving closer to Bruce, prior to leaning with one knee down. "It's me, your daughter. It's not your fantasy world. It's real".
Bruce follows what Wanda tells her. As he recuperates the connection to Mana, along the family bloodline, the Dark Knight came to acknowledge this is real; Wanda is here. His heart pounded very hard as he starts hugging Wanda.
At first by the sudden thrust of leaping toward hugging her, Wanda was very surprised. It's been a long time since Bruce showed the balmy world hidden under the borderline of his usual cold composure. Nevertheless, Wanda accepted her father's hug; hugging him back.
It was a long hug until Bruce suddenly jerked away from Wanda, shaken by remembering what he needed to do. "Joker", he said abruptly. He turns away from Wanda. "I have to find him". It was the important thing. World's on fire, and he's far from the point of defeating Joker.
Wanda looked down. She wasn't annoyed about Bruce's unsteady motion to break off their hug, she was frustrated about Batman and Joker's long-lasting stretch in time. Neither died. Circumstances have changed for the better since the Joker's revealed case. "Let it go, dad", Wanda said. She saw Batman stopped. "You don't have to go through this. Joker is dying. World will eventually reform".
Words won't compel Bruce to have second thoughts on his war with the Joker. He shook his head. "I can't", he said sadly. Their bind of history could never break.
"Why?", Wanda demanded.
Bruce took a heavy breath before turning around. "It's complicated, Wanda", he said.
Wanda scoffed. "Complicated", Wanda said, finding it annoying. "There's always complications. You and the Joker fought for who knows how long. You fought monsters as worse as the Joker, but the clown himself always turns out to resurface, causing more terror to men, women and children in fear".
No response brought about by Bruce. He only gazes Wanda.
"Have you ever wondered what made me come out of the shadows, and save your ass?", Wanda rhetorically said. She lays a finger toward her father. "You".
Breastbone burns in flames; Bruce feeling sorry Wanda had to drag herself to save him.
"Losing mom, my sister. Not losing you too", Wanda said.
Bruce rotates his face away, looking blindly at the surface.
"Go ahead, take him down today. What's next? Save him, let him take another person close to you away from you... like mom and Aelita? How many more punchlines do you want him to make out there? He exists as long as you exists. He'll die to his last breath to watch as he fulfils his legacy; the last laugh", Wanda said.
"I'll find a way", Batman said, expressionless. He decides to move away, preparing to teleport himself back to the festering city.
"You go to that", Wanda said. "But when you do, make sure the story isn't the same".
Hearing it, Batman straight away stopped.
"This can't just be like all the other times. This story needs to change. It needs an ending", Wanda said.
A/N: Characters such as 'Ashoka' and 'Echo' are characters originally from Star Wars.
Martha Wayne and Thomas Wayne's characters are intentionally made to be different from comics.
So in the chapter, it mentions Joker and Bruce once being friends. Yeah, there is a story I'm thinking about making. It's a fanfiction prequel story to the Batman. Perhaps one point I will make it.