Here, look, I wrote you a poem:

Woo hoo, chapter two!
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A week later, Jessica received a package in the mail. It was a dingy little thing in a big yellow manila envelope, and her name and address were typed crookedly across the top in faded red ink.

It sort of jarred her, looking at the print and grime on the packaging. Already, the whole thing had an air of criminality about it.

Upon opening the envelope, out fell a disposable camera, a can of red spray-paint, and a joker card.

Her hand shook as she picked up the last item and examined it for a moment, before reaching back into the parcel and withdrawing the folded note within. It was written on waterlogged, wrinkled card paper. The handwriting was sloppy and jagged, a chicken scratch that obviously came from a hand that was too hastily employed in things besides writing and easily distracted.

It began with no greeting or formalities. It simply stated the following:

For your first assignment you'll be needing the supplies I packed you. Go to your local mall or shopping center and find a big brick wall. Big. Very, very big. On that wall, I want you to use the paint I sent you to write in letters as big as the big brick wall the following message:

THE JOKER IS COMING

Decorate it any way you'd like. Be creative! I like creativity. Creativity is the first step towards change and let's face the music; we all need change. Then take a picture. A good one. And send it to me within the next week. If you don't, you're out of the game and believe me, the fun's just beginning.

Oh and one more thing. Do it at night. Don't want to get caught now, do we?

-- J

There was an email address at the bottom of the page, simply joker (at) improviseddissonance . com

She laughed when she saw the website name and typed it almost immediately into her browser. The appearing page was blank white. The only words were the caption "Improvised Dissonance: An Age Appearing."

She highlighted all, went to the source code, did everything she could to find another clue to the truth behind the Luck Twenty. But there were absolutely no clues to be found. This didn't lead her anywhere. There was nothing left to do but what he had asked.

She chose a Wednesday night to complete her mission.

Even during the summer months, fewer people were out late on Wednesday than on the weekends and even if it was publicity for the upcoming movie, she couldn't see many people being very happy about her spray-painting an enormous message on public property.

She tucked her light blond hair under a hood, covered herself in black clothes and, feeling completely criminal but very excited about it, drove downtown to pick the right wall.

In the end she chose one of the tunnels in the city park. The location was really rather poetic. It was on a frequently used bike path in the commons, overlooking the river, and as you left the tunnel the first thing you saw to your right was the movie theater across the square. Perfect.

Jessica painted the message as well as she could, but in the darkness it was not easy, especially as she had to hide whenever she heard people walking up the trail, interrupting her work and creating a rather lopsided effect overall. But finally, after a solid half hour, the message was finished in huge, dramatic letters that, in the daytime, were sure to attract attention. She completed it by painting a grotesque grin and huge circular eyes—like the faces she had seen on the internet—next to the letters.

Happy with her creation, Jess stepped back to admire her work and raised the camera to take a picture of the wall.

The flash from the device blinded her momentarily, but when her eyes started to grow accustomed once more to the darkness she noticed two flashlights off down the path and the low authoritative voices of grown men. Her first thought was police and she immediately turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, throwing her paint can into a dumpster as she passed and holding on tightly to the little camera. In the morning, she promised herself, first thing, she'd get the picture developed and scanned onto a computer.

Her little mission done, a triumphant Jessica drove home and collapsed into bed, a little thrilled at the beginnings of her life of crime.

The next night she received a message from Billy, asking if she had completed her assignment. Indeed she had, and the picture was already scanned and sent to the Joker's email address. She related as much to him and he responded by telling her that he, too, had accomplished the task.

Not only that, but he had managed to track down another person who claimed to be a member of the Lucky Twenty. Jessica smiled when she read his words. Over the past week she had come to know and like Billy through their internet correspondence and she was glad she had another person working with her on this. It made her feel less alienated.

As for Billy's new find, he went by the name of Austin and apparently lived in Florida. He was young, too, like Billy and Jess; only twenty one. Billy was a little older at twenty three and Jessica, of course, was still the eighteen year old baby and the only girl so far.

She wondered who else she would meet in the next month. She was connected to these people, after all. They were part of the same private and, she was beginning to believe, very exclusive little club. The Lucky Twenty.

The Joker's Lucky Twenty.

Funny, how things can start out so innocent.

Events happened in fairly rapid succession from then on.

A day or two later, Jess received a confirmation e-mail from the Joker, saying that she had passed the first test. From there, he sent her on various missions almost constantly. She was ordered to cause her own bit of public mayhem (she got a group of friends together, put on the Joker's signature face paint and drove from rich, private neighborhood to rich, private neighborhood, climbing over fences and egging the biggest, fanciest house), then to steal something, anything, and sending it to him. She took a button with his cartoon face on it from a store.

In the letter that confirmed her task was complete and assigned her next mission, he expressed outrage that they had gotten his features so absurdly skewed.

This went on for a month, the missions getting bigger and more illegal as time went by, but she completed them all and found herself so sucked up in the movement that she would sometimes forget that it was only a game.

Often she found herself wondering what her "boss" was like, if he really looked like he did on the leaked pictures from the internet, and she had to remind herself that of course he looked that way. He couldn't look any other way because he wasn't real.

This fact became harder and harder to grasp as the days went by and she shared her mental state with Billy, wondering if it was the same for him. He conceded that yes, it was, and together they made a pact to remind each other of the fictitious nature of the Joker.

They had found five more members in that time, all men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven, but had not yet had much luck in finding the other twelve. With eight cyber eyes out there, however, they knew it probably would only be a matter of time.

The discovered members of the Twenty put up a message board that could be found by anyone interested enough in the group to search, which would only be more of its members. Here they discussed missions, introduced themselves, and speculated upon the final task and what would become of them when the movie came out.

Jessica continued as the only girl, as well as the youngest of them, but even though she only knew them over the internet, she and the seven men began to form friendships. She was the first one they thought of when a new task was received and the first they cautioned if the task was illegal or dangerous. A protective streak ran through most of them for her, one which was obvious and touching. She and Billy, however, remained closest.

Some of the men, like Billy, had not played the ARG before it contacted them. In fact, three of them had had no prior interest in the Batman movies at all, but had still been called. It was quite the enigma, one which was often the main source of topic on their message board.

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