Chapter 2

Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane

A man sat in his office, overlooking several files. The man in question had short black hair, a pair of glasses over his brown eyes and wore a lab coat over a light brown suit. The man was currently looking at the picture of a man with his face half burned, next to said picture was the name 'Harvey Dent'.

The man smiled as he read the former district attorney's file. Reaching into his lab coat, the man pulled out his phone before dialing a number and placing it next to his ear.

"Simon? It's me, Jonathan." The man, now identified as Jonathan spoke into the phone. "Listen, I think I found something you might be interested in. A former district attorney with a split personality disorder and half of his face burned off." There was a brief moment of silence as the person on the other end, known only as Simon, spoke "Alright, I'll make sure to talk to him about it." Suddenly the door burst open.

"Excuse me, Dr. Crane." A woman spoke frantically "Dr. Quinzel hasn't reported in and we haven't been able to contact her."

Jonathan then turned back to his phone "I'm gonna have to call you back." He said before turning back to the woman "Who was she working with?" the woman stood still before walking up to Crane's desk and whispering into his ear. Jonathan's eyes widened at the woman's response. "Take me to the cell."

The two walked down the long corridor separating the cells in the Asylum, the criminals kept shouting at him, as they hardly ever saw him. Eventually they reached a particular cell, patient Edward Nygma, A.K.A the Riddler, watched as Crane reached for the key to open the cell.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Nygma spoke but was ignored. Crane pushed the door open and inside was a lone figure, thought the room was too dark to tell who it was. Crane walked up to the figure.

"You." he spoke in a demanding manner, the figure remained still "I know Dr. Quinzel was assigned to you. Where is she?" silence was his only response. "I know you have a history of killing and torturing the doctors you are assigned to, now I'm going to ask again. Where is Dr. Quinzel?" Again, no response. Crane began to lose his patience and shook the body violently, the figure turned to face him, letting out a maniacal laughter. And, to Crane's surprise, the figure was female.

"Dr. Quinzel?" the woman behind Crane whispered in disbelief.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Nygma commented from his cell.

Gotham City Police Department

Commissioner Gordon sat in his office, to think that only two years ago he had been promoted not long after the Riddler was captured and sent to Arkham. You'd think that with a vigilante running the streets, life would be easier, but to Jim Gordon there was no such thing as easier.

Things in Gotham got stranger by the day, first this croc man appears out of nowhere and now the Mayor was running for President.

Speaking of Mayor Gal, the man was sitting in front of the commissioner at that very moment. The Mayor was resting his head on his knees while groaning in frustration.

"The polls don't seem to be in my favor, Gordon." The Mayor spoke, all while pulling at his own hair.

"Don't let this get you down, Mr. Mayor." The commissioner stated "If you could win the election here in Gotham, I'm certain you can become president."

The mayor chuckled at this "The only reason I won the election in the first place is because of Thomas Wayne's murder. If he hadn't been there that night, I would have lost. Still, he would have likely done more for this city than I ever did. Luthor on the other hand…" The Mayor was cut off as the office phone started ringing.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor" the commissioner stated as he picked up the phone to answer. "Gordon."

Undisclosed Location in Gotham City

Gordon stepped onto the scene of the crime, it was more horrific than he thought. Several people lay dead on the floor, four men and five women. The forensic report seemed to indicate some kind of deadly toxin.

Gordon turned as he felt a light gush of wind behind him, the commissioner turned to see the Dark Knight standing behind him.

"Commissioner." The vigilante spoke "What happened?"

"Nine people dead. Forensics believe it was caused by some kind of toxin, but haven't deciphered anything yet." The Commissioner responded.

Batman walked up to one of the bodies to examine it, but the minute he saw the body's face his eyes widened in horror. The face was that of a young man, but what caught the vigilante off guard was that the face was frozen in a permanent rictus grin.

"What does the report say?"

"Not much, other than the possibility that they laughed themselves to death."

"Strange. It's almost as if someone created some sort of toxic version of laughing gas. But why would someone do something like this?"

"That's not all. We also got report from Arkham Asylum that one of the inmates escaped, after torturing his psychiatrist and driving her insane."

Batman looked around the crime scene, it almost felt disorganized, chaotic, and without an evident purpose. Then, he noticed something that stood out from everything else. Reaching down, he grabbed what appeared to be some kind of playing card. A joker, to be more specific.

"I'm guessing this is his calling card."