Now

Gotham City, Maryland

"I did." Said the Joker tonelessly, gazing upon the charred body of the Batman.

"I killed Batman. I killed the dark knight himself, I shot Mister Dark Justice and then set his ass on fire, and I did it in front of a bunch of innocent little children! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The Joker's laugh grew terribly louder and louder, sending torrents of horror through all present, including his own men and his lover.

"Somebody get me Santa Claus!"

Earlier

"You told this man who I am?" asked Bruce Wayne as he stepped into the elevator.

"The man's name is Sayid Jarrah, and yes." Said Priest, "It was a long drive and I didn't think you'd mind."

Pries and Sayid followed Wayne into the elevator that had opened into Wayne's office at the top floor of the Wayne Enterprises building. The elevator door was shut on both and the elevator started to descend.

"Mister Wayne, if you're worried about your identity, I assure you that you shouldn't. I can hold my share of secrets…" said Sayid.

"I'm sure you do, Mister…."

"Jarrah."

"Mister Jarrah. However I have not been doing this by trusting people I've just met."

"Come on, Wayne. I have a body count in six figures and a criminal records as long as our combined heights, and I haven't betrayed your secret. Anyway, the damage is done, so why don't you show us the hardware and we can merrily fuck off."

"Later. I have a job to do."

"Yeah, we heard about it on the radio. Do you really think you can walk out of that one with all lives accounted for?"

"I'll find a way."

"Do you want us to tag along or something?"

"Definitely not." Said Wayne as the elevator came to a stop and the door slid open.

"This isn't the lobby." Said Sayid as he saw that the floor the elevator had opened to, a spacious hall illuminated by fluorescent ceiling panes with nothing in the way of people or furniture, just a few display cases where a few pitch black armored rubber suits hung, a large, complex computer console to one side and a massive tank-like, jet-black armored vehicle on a runway leading to an exit ramp on the far side.

"Why?" asked Priest as he followed Wayne out.

"You're the wrong man for this kind of job."

"Oh, don't give me that shit. I was a mercenary taking on men three times my size four at a time when I was your age. I was a soldier and a spook for twenty five years and I'm a bonafide creature of the night, and I don't need a goddamn Halloween costume to be one."

Wayne stopped in his tracks.

"What? I hurt your feelings, silver spoon?"

"Perhaps you do need a costume."

Now

"My, oh my…" said the Joker, "Here's silly ol' me without me ol' camera."

"Boss, what now?" asked one of the Joker's henchmen, nervously removing his hands from his gun's trigger.

"Now?" asked the Joker, "I don't know, I don't know. I suppose we could grab extra crispy and head on home."

"What about the hostages, Mister J?"

"Oh. Them. Well…"

Suddenly the lights went out, the rotunda was swarmed with absolute darkness save for a few rays of moonlight that came from the skylight above.

"Hey, what's the idea?" said the Joker.

One Hour Later

New York City

Lucy walked into the office to see O'Brien and Shaun glued to the television set, watching a news bulletin with great interest.

"What are you all watching?"

"Gotham City News Network." Said O'Brien, "The Joker took most of the city government hostage and tried to trap the Batman and kill him."

"Who's the Joker?"

"SHHHHH!"

Lucy sat down on the couch between the two as they leaned forward to listen more clearly, she adjust her position a couple of times to be a little closer toward Shaun, and smiled awkwardly when Shaun took notice of that and moved away to allow her more room.

On the television, a reporter was interviewing one of the hostages.

"And what happened after the lights went out?"

"All hell broke loose! Within two seconds I could hear people getting clobbered and someone telling us to run for the door. We were running blind for a while, tripping over each other buy when the lights came out we made it out."

"Did you look behind?"

"Uh-huh. The guards that had us at gunpoint were knocked out and there was another bunch fighting with the Batmans."

"So you're saying that Batman who was shot earlier and set on fire got up and continued fighting?"

"I wish that was it. There was another Batman too, he was taller."

"You were saying there were in this case more than one Batman working together?"

"Yeah. Taller Batman was beating on the Joker's men and taking their guns away, but the other one? He was a psycho, he's a psycho even by Batman standards, he was literally throwing people against walls, punch that one woman too in the stomach. Oh good, it was horrible! It made me sick just to watch it.

"When taller Batman was done beating the others he turned his attention to the Joker, the shorter Batman broke both his arms and was about to kill him. The taller Batman pulled him off and the two got into a little yelling match, taller Batman punched shorter Batman to the ground and that was when the SWAT team pulled me out."

The image on the television changed to that of the anchorman.

"Thank you, Victoria. A representative of the Gotham City Police Department has informed us that all twenty perpetrators have been apprehended, including former Arkham Asylum psychologist Dr. Harleen Quinzel as well as the Joker, who has indeed sustained dehabilitaing injuries. All hostages were freed, the only casualty is of course Police Comissioner Jack Grogan, who was killed under as yet unclear circumstances. Comissioner Grogan has been recently brought up on charges of corruption and cooperation with organized crime. Police Captain James Gordon is expected to be appointed as his replacement. However, the biggest question of the night is who is this second Batman? And could this be an indicative to the validity of long-standing theories that the Batman may be a movement rather than one man..."

Gotham City

"I can't believe you!" barked Wayne, pacing about the sub-level deep beneath the Wayne Enterprise building with his cowl and cape removed, as Priest sat rubbing Alcohol into the charred part of his lower-face.

"Hey, everybody made it out alive, haven't they?" asked Priest.

"Everybody except Grogan."

"Grogan is bent. I once dropped him a bribe back when he was a measly Captain. And all the scumbags are behind bars."

"You shattered a woman's ribs."

"What? The chick with the Uzi? I shattered ALL her ribs."

"You shattered five."

"Oh, that's a relief."

"You broke the Joker's arms."

"Don't worry about him, he'll be back on the street killing people before you know it."

"Is this some kind of joke to you?"

"If I was going to joke I'd make a crack about clowns and Volx Wagons…"

A distance away, Sayid with a tall black man in a tweed suit by a worktable with a dozen or so complex yet miniature devices spread on black sheet.

"…Are they alright over there?"

"Don't worry about them, Mister Fox. Priest has a certain effect on people," said Sayid, "He once pushed a superior of ours to shooting him in the neck."

"If you say so." Said Lucious Fox as he pointed at one of the devices with his pen and procedded to explain the devices capacities.

"Look, man. I'm sorry." Said Priest as he got up with the lower half his face bandaged and put on his coat, "I'm sorry I went too far with the clown, you'll forgive me if I took my attempted living cremation a little too seriously."

"Why didn't you stop them?"

"I'm weird that way, and Sayid was taking his time cutting the power."

Wayne sighed as he started removing his armor.

"Alright… I suppose I should thank you for not backing out."

"So go ahead."

"I'm not going to thank you. Are you going to be…?"

"Okay? Is that actual concern?"

"Are you?"

"Yes. I've been hurt much worse; this'll take a day to heal." Said Priest as he walked away, "Sayid, we done?"

"Yes we are." Said Sayid as he picked up a thin metal briefcase and shook hands with Fox.

"Good, let'sget back to New York."

R&R.

Next Chapter: Mina visits her old fiend and comrade Lord Orlando and makes her a proposition.