"Honey, I'm home!" the Joker announced with a cackle as she kicked the creaking double doors, knocking one of them off their hinges.
Their "home" had seen better days. The Joker and her collective of clown-themed goons stepped down the cracked stone stairs to the long corridor, between the rows of broken columns and rusted fragments of a fallen catwalk. At the end of the hall were two curved staircases leading to another section. The legs of what might have been a grand statue stood between the stairs on a raised platform.
The Joker giggled nonsensically as she climbed the stairs two steps at a time, coming to a little area the Jokerz had made for themselves. It was mostly just a few moth-eaten couches, a stolen vid screen, and a few miscellaneous items they stole. What stood out was the three tables of filled with various chemicals and lab equipment on the opposite side.
The Joker plopped herself on the couch, facing her minions, lazily reclining with her legs crossed.
"Ah, so nice to be back our sweet ha-ha-hacienda," she said with a grin.
"Some place," said Delia, shivering. "Place gives me the creeps.
"Me, too," Deirdre, unsurprisingly, agreed.
"Aw, be like that," said the Joker. "What it lacks in style, it makes up for in character."
"Well, whatever," said Chucko, dumping one of their bags of stolen loot on the loot. "With the creds we got, we can spruce the place up however we want."
"That's the spirit, Chucko!" said the Joker brightly, jumping to her feet and walking over to the chunky clown to give him a gentle pat on the head. "I always said you were my favorite."
"Hey, Joker," said Ghoul, bringing up the rear with Bonk and Woof. "What's in the safety deposit box you wanted so badly."
"Yeah, what's in there?" questioned Bonk, dumping his share of the goods. "Gold bars? Jewels? Secret military stuff we can sell for a bunch of creds?"
"No, no, no, it's worth so much more than that, my dear Bonk," said the Joker, waving her finger. She snapped her fingers at Delia; the ragdoll clown bound forward and handed over the metal box. "Thank you, Dee Dee. What I have in my hands is priceless piece of history. Something so valuable, it was locked away for forty years, just waiting for someone to collect. Ladies and gentle-clowns, feast your eyes on…this!"
The Jokerz leaned in close, growing more excited the longer their boss hyped it up. Everyone buzzed with anticipation as the Joker dramatically undid the latch, pulling the lid open slowly…. Their faces immediately fell when they realized it wasn't valuable jewelry or military secrets. It was –
"A piece of paper?" Bonk yelled heatedly. "We went through all that crap for a piece of paper?"
A yellowing, slightly torn piece of paper with what looked like coffee stains on the corner and was written in an eccentric scrawl. The Joker gently lifted the paper out by the corner, looking like she had acquired a long lost treasure.
"Bonk, Bonk, Bonk, you dimwitted lug," said the Joker, shaking her head disappointedly. She purposely ignored the throbbing vein in his temple and continued nonchalantly. "It's not the paper that's valuable. It's what's written on it."
"What is it?" asked Chucko curiously.
"Call it a 'family recipe,'" said the Joker cryptically with a playful wink. She tossed the safety box, spun around on her heel, and walked toward the makeshift chem lab. "Now if you gentlemen would excuse me, I've got some cooking to do."
"See, this is the kind of bullshit I was talking about," Bonk whispered to Ghoul and Chucko. "Wasting our time with stupid papers. I say we jump her now and be done with it."
"You're still on that?" said Chucko.
"Let's be rational, Bonk," said Ghoul. "The Joker's cooking up something right now. Who knows? Maybe it could be worth something – "
"That bitch is not the Joker," Bonk snarled.
"What're you whispering about?" the Dee Dee Twins asked together.
"Bonk wants to off the Joker and take the creds," Ghoul informed them.
"Are you crazy?" Delia gasped.
"That's suicide!" Deirdre agreed.
"C'mon, there's six of us and only one of her," said Bonk, punching his fist into his hand. "We can take her."
"You can leave us out of it, right, Dee Dee?" said Delia.
"Yeah, we like the new boss, Dee Dee," said Deirdre.
"We're way better off than we were with Terminal," Chucko added.
"And you know she always has a plan," said Ghoul.
"You guys are bunch of traitors," Bonk huffed. "I'm telling you: first chance I get, I'm popping off the bitch's head."
Once again, Bonk failed to realize that he wasn't as subtle as he fooled himself into believing. The Joker heard his every word as she looked between the chemicals, a toothy grin on her red lips.
Down below the Malone Detective Agency, Terry on the examination table, trying his best to stop himself from wincing as Juila slapped the ice pack on his ribcage, hissing inwardly.
While the first basement floor was the Bat Bunker's command center, the second floor acted as both a training facility and a medical center. The majority of the room floor was a large open area made up of white projection panels that fabricated hard-light simulations for a controlled training environment. The med station was tucked onto the left side of the room and possessed virtually every type of medical equipment available, including some that didn't exist in hospitals. The old man spared no expense when it came to safety.
Speaking of, Bruce Wayne sat more quietly than usual as he watched Julia patch up Terry from his latest bout.
"You're lucky the suit absorbed most of the damage," said Julia as she put her equipment away. "You should've come back as soon as you were hurt instead of running off back to school."
"I have to keep up appearances, right?" said Terry, grimacing as he readjusted the ice pack. "Can give people a reason to think I'm Batman. I especially if my mom starts asking why I keep skipping classes."
"You made the right call," Bruce agreed.
"Now I know why grandpa Alfie was always complaining about your thick-headedness," said Julia, shaking her head disapprovingly.
"So what was up with that Joker?" Terry brought up. "She wasn't wearing any makeup and she was seriously out of her mind. It was almost like – "
"The real Joker?" said Bruce gravely. Terry went silent, giving the old man his undivided attention. "For all intents and purposes, she may as well be."
"You're gonna have to run that by me," said Terry.
"Years ago, the Joker shipped out gallons of his diseased blood to every hospital in Gotham," said Bruce, his hand tightening on his cane. "Thousands of people had been infected, myself included. My allies and I were able to develop a cure, but some were…overlooked. Those people started showing signs of being altered both physically and mentally, slowly becoming a near-perfect copy of the Joker himself. I thought I had found all traces of Joker's contaminated blood, but it seems like one slipped through and finally infected someone. Likely intentional, since it took forty years for another infection to crop up."
"So how did you cure them?" asked Terry. "Maybe we can do the same for – "
"I didn't," said Bruce gravely. "Even after all these years, I never found a cure, no matter what I tried. Whoever that girl was, she's gone now. Only the Joker remains."
"Great," Terry complained. "The worst criminal in Gotham history is back, and he is a she."
"Don't underestimate her, McGinnis," said Bruce seriously. "The Joker was a madman, and I expect this new Joker will be just as bad, if not worse."
"Trust me, I'm not dropping my guard again," said Terry. "So where do you think she – "
A sharp sound of a ringtone cut him off. Bruce pulled out his phone and checked the name before answering.
"Commissioner Bard," Bruce greeted civilly. "What can I do you for?"
"You can cut the nice act, old man," said Commissioner Bard (For the sake of plot convenience, Terry and Julia could hear him.) "It's creepy."
"He knows the Commissioner?" Terry whispered to Julia curiously.
"They have a…complicated history," Julia murmured back.
"I assume this isn't a social call," said Bruce indifferently.
"Just finishing up here at the Merchant's Bank," said Commissioner Bard. "That new kid of yours left a huge mess behind. You need to work with him on a little thing called collateral damage."
"He knows?" gasped Terry, but was shushed by Bruce.
"We finished interrogating the hostages and are investigating all the stolen goods," Commissioner Bard continued. "Besides the obvious thousands of cards in creds, it looks like those clowns stole one other item: a single safety deposit box from the vault."
"Just one?" asked Bruce curiously.
"Yeah, everything else is untouched," explained Commissioner Bard. "Jewels, watches, property deeds – all of it was left behind. It seems like the clowns were only interested in the one box."
"Dou you know who it belongs to?" asked Bruce.
"That's where it gets interesting," said Commissioner Bard. "According to the records, the account was opened over forty years ago to the name of one J. Napier."
"J. Napier?" Bruce repeated, eyes wide with shock. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," said Commissioner Bard, sounding grave.
"Who's J. Napier?" asked Terry.
"One of Joker's oldest aliases," answered Bruce, frowning. "Thank you, Commissioner Bard. We'll look into it right away."
"I'm not gonna tell you how to do your job, old man," said Commissioner Bard, "but make sure that the new kid does it by the book. I want the Jokerz brought in, not taken out."
"Ironic, coming from you," said Bruce humorously. The phone click and a long ringtone played; the commissioner had hanged up. "Some things change, others don't."
"So the new Joker took something that belonged to the old Joker," said Terry, brow furrowed in thought. "How did she even know about the deposit box if it was made over forty years ago. That would've been before she was even born."
"Based on personal experience, the Joker's blood can give you glimpses into his memories," said Bruce seriously, leaning back in his seat, hands folded under his chin. "Even events that you were not there to witness yourself. I can only assume that this new Joker must have found out about it thanks to the original Joker's memories mixing with her own."
"Well, whatever it is, it can't be good," said Julia. "That pasty-faced bastards was a psychopath, and there no telling what he might've left behind."
"We need to find this new Joker before any more people die," said Bruce.
"But how do we do that?" asked Terry. "I didn't have enough time to put a tracker on any of them."
Bruce closed his eyes, his brow furrowed, and hummed quietly to himself. He tried to recall anything this new Joker might have said or done that would give them a hint about her whereabouts:
"The price for fixing up my new hideout alone would make anyone lose their mind."
"It's a complete mess – a real madhouse."
"That's it!" Bruce suddenly shouted, surprising Terry and Julia. He quickly stood up and hobbled to the elevator. "McGinnis, get suited up. I know where she is."
"Where?" asked Terry.
"Where it all began," Bruce answered cryptically.
Yin leaned against her partner's car, scrolling through her phone while waiting for Ethan to come out of the Bat Burger. Yin can't wrap mind around the fact that they made an entire fast-food chain around the Dark Knight. Then again, Metropolis had places like Superburger and Planet Krypton, so she had no right to talk.
Commissioner Bard had chewed her and Ethan out at the Gotham Merchant's Bank. Not only had they completely missed the real culprits by mere seconds, but the commissioner had a few choice words for Yin about her botched arrest attempt of the Batman. The commissioner made it clear that their priority was catching the clown killer, which they now assumed was this new Joker ringleader, and that the Batman should be left to "the professionals." Yin wanted to say that she'd like to meet these so-called professionals, but she was smart enough to keep her mouth shut. She didn't want to lose her badge on her first week.
Ethan finally came out after a twenty-minute wait carrying a paper bag with the gaudy bat logo.
"Sorry for the wait, partner," said Ethan, reaching into the bag and offering her a burger. "Here ya go: one Bat Burger Deluxe – no pickles. And I got Jokerized fries to share."
"Really, Bennet?" said Yin, giving him a look.
"What? They're good fries!" said Ethan defensively.
"Read the mood, partner," said Yin. She unwrapped the burger and took a bite. "Not bad. Not as good as a Superburger, but all right."
"Okay, Metropolis," Ethan snorted, leaning against the car next to her and pulling out his own burger. He took a bite and checked his partner, who went back to her phone. "Any leads on our clown queen."
"You mean the new Joker?" said Yin. "I've been going through the street cameras trying to following them back to their hideout, but they disappear after crossing the Westward Bridge in Burnley. Then nothing."
"Westward Bridge?" Ethan repeated thoughtfully, taking another bite. "That leads to the furthest outskirts of Gotham. There's nothing out there except..."
"Except what?" asked Yin curiously, noticing her partner's pause.
"Get in the car, Yin," said Ethan, suddenly turning serious.
Ethan threw his half-eaten burger in the nearest bin and ducked into the driver's seat. Taken about by the sudden change, Yin ran around the car and hopped into the passenger's seat. She barely had time to buckle her seatbelt before Ethan took off down the street, turning on the police sirens.
"Bennet's what's going on?" asked Yin, bracing herself as they took a sharp turn. "Where're we going?"
"There's only one place past the Westward Bridge where that clown would hide," said Ethan seriously. "And that's - "
Arkham Asylum – back where everything began.
In the forty years since the Titan Riot and the subsequent Arkham City incident, Arkham Island had been left to rot away like an old scab. Nature had taken the island back; thick walls of moss, vines, and ivy crawled over the dilapidated walls, entire buildings were crumbling away into nothing. The only thing that looked alive was the forty-foot plant that wrapped around the distant lighthouse (Terry hoped to God it didn't suddenly wake up and start craving a bat-snack.)
Batman glided through the night air, landing on a conspicuously out-of-place ledge above the front doors of the Arkham Manor. Bruce had told him that there was a vent he was used to sneak inside...but the wall was completely blown open, so no point in that.
He made his way into the main hall through the equally out-of-place hiding spot in the ceiling, walking past one of those weird spider stone things. He silently landed on what little remained of the catwalk and crouched down, peering below. He could see the Jokerz on the upper level; most of them handing around the TV while the Joker herself was concocting something with a chemical lab. Terry extended his arm, shooting a line to the only gargoyle that hadn't broken, and allowed it to pull him. Now hanging above the Jokerz, Batman narrowed his eyes and positioned himself to pounce.
"I found the Jokerz," said Batman. "Going in - "
" Terry, wait! " Bruce warned before he could move. " What's the Joker doing? "
Batman rounded to the Joker again. It looked like she had just finished her mixture – a noxious-green liquid in a beaker. She poured the concoction into and sealed it with a cap with a hose attached. She stowed the bottle underneath her dress and attached the hose to the flower on her bosom. Looking quite proud of herself, the Joker picked up her cane and walked back to her goons with a happy hum.
"Gather 'round, gather 'round, boys and girls!" the Joker shouted jubilantly. The clown-themed goons quickly dropped what they were doing and joined her; Bonk was noticeably slower than the others. The Joker theatrically gestured to her flower like she was presenting the opening act. "Feast your eyes on this beauty. Think it looks good on me?"
"Lookin' great, Boss," said Chucko.
"You look like a million creds," said Ghoul. Woof barked in affirmation.
"It's cute, right, Dee Dee?" said Delia
"You said it, Dee Dee," Deirdre responded.
"It's a stupid flower," Bonk huffed, arms crossed.
A moment of tense pause passed. The Jokerz looked at Bonk like he had lost his mind and slowly backed away. The Joker, however, was all smiles as she walked up to the muscle-headed goon, her cane clacking on the floor.
"Bonk, Bonk, Bonk," the Joker tutted. "You only say that because you can't appreciate the joke. Trust me, you'll die laughing."
The Joker gave her flower a light squeeze, making it expel a cloud of green gas. Bonk coughed, waving the gas out of his face. Then, out of nowhere, he started giggling. His giggling quickly ascending into a chortle, then morphed into uncontrollable laughter, her mouth stretched unnaturally wide. Even though he was laughing, his eyes showed complete fear. In moments, fits of hacked coughing mixed in with the laughter, and his hands went to his throat as he started taking longer gasps of breath. Bonk collapsed on his back, his laughter slowing down until it stopped completely.
The Joker walked around the fallen minion, his face stretched into a painfully wide smile, his eyes glazed over and unblinking. She gave him a few nudges with her cane. He didn't move. Batman didn't need Detective Vision to know he was dead.
"Now there's a face not even a mother would love," the Joker guffawed.
"Wayne, what the hell did I just watch?" said Batman, fighting back a shudder as he looked at Bonk's eternal grin.
" Joker gas, " said Bruce, sounding just as uncomfortable as Batman felt. " That must have been in the deposit box. It was a recipe for Joker's toxin. Terry, you need to get that stuff away from her now! "
"Don't need to tell me twice," said Batman as he whipped out a batarang from his wrist. He started to aim for the Joker -
"FREEZE!"
"Slag it!" Batman cursed.
It a really unfortunate timing on their part. Ethan and his new partner climbed the steps with their guns trained on the Jokerz. The henchmen threw up their hands in surrender, but the Clown Queen herself was very nonchalant about it. Ethan and Yin stepped forward cautiously, not taking their eyes off the Jokerz except to look at Bonk's grinning corpse.
"Oh damn…," Ethan murmured.
"It's over, Joker," said Yin seriously, prioritizing the clown over the body. "We're taking you in."
"Really, detective, you should be more careful when entering a super criminal's lair," said the Joker, twirling her cane whimsically. "You never know when someone might get the drop on you."
The Joker stopped twirling her cane and pointed it to a pillar on Yin's left. She activated the hidden mechanism and shot a bullet from the tip of her cane. The bullet mashed the already crumbling support, causing it to fall on top of Yin. The detective from Metropolis froze in a brief moment of panic until Ethan tackled her to the ground, shouting, "Look out!"
The two of them hit the floor while the pillar crashed behind them. Neither one had the chance to recover before the Jokerz were on them. Ghoul relieved them of their guns while Chucko picked up Ethan, bending his arm behind his back, and the Dee Dee Twins grabbed Yin. Woof shuffled in front of them, babbling incoherently, just itching to take a swipe at them. The Joker bonked him on the head with her cane, ordering him back, and strutted up to the detective.
"It's a wonder nobody trusts the police if you two are the best they can manage," said the Joker mockingly. Yin gritted her teeth and tried fighting her way out, but it a fruitless. "Now, now, why so serious, detective? You should smile more. Here, let me help you with that…."
The Clown Queen leaned closer to Yin and reached for her flower. She gave it a gentle squeeze –
Until a batarang flew down from the ceiling, accurately sweeping around the room and cutting the tube connecting to the toxin. So when the Joker squeezed the flower, nothing came out.
"Hey, I'm out of gas!" said the Joker, surprised.
"And you're about to be out cold!"
The Joker looked up as a bat-winged shadow flew over, moments before the Batman stomped on her chest and knocked her across the room into the entertainment stand.
The Jokerz gasped. Except for Woof, who immediately charged at the new Dark Knight with his claws swinging. Batman easily ducked underneath his swing, threw a gut punch at the Splicer's midsection, knocking the wind out of him. He then grabbed Woof and shoulder tossed him, throwing the Splicer over the railing. A painful yip followed a loud thud.
Meanwhile, the Joker pushed off the ruined vid screen, standing up and brushing herself off casually.
"Batman!" the Joker shouted gleefully. "Stop me if you've heard this one before. There were these to freaks in a lunatic asylum – "
"I'm in no mood for bad jokes," said Batman, leering. "Hand over the gas and I might go easy on you."
"But where's the fun in that," the Joker giggled.
The Clown Queen of Crime lunged at the Dark Knight, sweeping her cane around. Batman raised his arms to deflect it. The Joker twisted on her heel and swung her cane from the other side. Batman blocked that as well. The Joker then jumped up, catching her opponent by surprise, and kicked off his chest, knocking Batman on the ground while she flipped in the air and landed on her feet.
Batman raised himself up by his elbows, then quickly rolled to the right as the Joker slammed her cane where his head had been. The new Dark Knight swept the Joker's feet out from under her, knocking her to the ground with him. The pair rolled away from each other, jumped to their feet, and dashed straight back into it, both of them seemingly on equal footing.
The Jokerz watched the fight play out from the sideline, so distracted that they didn't pay attention to Ethan or Yin, who nodded together in a silent agreement.
Ethan stomped on Chucko's foot, making the chunky clown cry out, then threw his head back to headbutt Chucko's face. Chucko stumbled back, holding his face with a pained groan, unwittingly letting go of Ethan's arm. Ethan immediately spun around and swung a haymaker across Chucko's face, making the chubby goon spin around once before collapsing out cold.
Ethan quickly rounded to Ghoul, who yelped frantically and reached into his bucket, pulling Ethan's own gun on him. Ghoul took a couple of shots on Ethan, but it was obvious he had no experience with firearms. His shots were wild and uncoordinated. Ethan dodged the bullets and ran up to Ghoul, pounding his knuckles into the Halloween reject's face for a one-hit KO.
At the same time, Yin pulled her arms together and made the Dee Dees slam into each other, smacking their face together. While they were disoriented, Yin punched one in the face and tried to knee the other, but Delia blocked the blow with her hand. Delia took a wild swing at Yin, but the detective ducked down and flipped the ragdoll overhead and slamming Delia on her back. Deirdre came to her sister's aid, but Yin – almost casually – flipped Deirdre on top of Delia and leg dropped them both.
"Not bad, partner," Ethan complimented Yin, handing back her gun.
"Did I mention if practice MMA on weekends," said Yin, smirking.
"No, you did not," said Ethan. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."
"Now that the thug are out of the way," said Yin, turning serious, "we just have one clown left. And the bat. Where are they?"
The detectives paused and listened for a moment. They heard the sounds of fighting coming from don the stair. Ethan and Yin looked over the railing and potted Batman and the Joker dancing across the main hall.
The Joker slammed her cane down, but Batman moved out of the way, jumping up to use the all as a springboard, and kicked the clown across the face. The Joker spun around once, then lunged back at the Dark Knight, stabbing her cane ahead. Batman moved out of the way as the cane punched a hole through the weakened wall. He raised his fist for an overhead attack, but the Joker ripped her cane out of the wall sideways, tossing chunks of concrete in the Batman's face.
The Dark Knight flinched and raised his fist to defend his head, leaving his midsection wide open for the Joker to kick. Batman landed on his back with a pained grunt. The Joker straddled his chest, pressing her knees on his arms to pin him down, and raised her cane like a sword over Batman's head. The Joker stabbed down; Batman moved his head to the right. She stabbed again; moved his head to the left.
She was about to stab for a third time when Batman forced his right arm free and slammed his knuckles into her face. The Clown Queen stumbled away from him, dropping her cane in a daze. Batman bounced back up before she could recover and threw his hardest haymaker across her cheek, sending her flying and spinning around through the air before landing on her front. The Joker groaned weakly as he whole body went limp.
She was knocked out.
Batman exhaled a sigh of relief, rolling his shoulder with a grimace. For a psychotic clown girl, she a surprisingly tough.
He kneeled next to her unconscious form, ruffling through her suit until he found the bottle of Joker toxin. Terry unconscious glared at the mixture, understanding how evil such a chemical was –
"Hands where I can see them, Batman," Yin ordered, coming down the stairs with his pistol aimed at Batman. The Dark Knight scowled at her over his shoulder. "Don't try anything funny or I'll shoot."
"Yin, you can't be serious," said Ethan, walking up to his partner in disbelief. "The bat just saved our asses."
"That may be so," said Yin, looking at her partner, "but he's still a vigilante. That's why we're bringing him in – "
But when she looked back, her jaw dropped in surprise. The Batman had completely vanished. Yin searched the hall wildly, but there was no trace of him.
"Yeah, classic bats," said Ethan amusingly.
Yin was going to put in a request for a new partner.
Terry (unmasked) stood behind Bruce with Julia while all three stared at the Batcomputer's monitor apprehensively. The screen displayed a single, toxic green cell that was being introduced to a new chemical. The cell seemed to shrink and turn red for just a moment, but then it quickly rubber banded back to its previous form. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose with a defeated sigh.
"It's no use," he said, turning around to face Terry and Julia. "Even after forty years and the most advanced technology on the planet, there's no viable way to reverse the mutation. If anything, that girl – whoever she was – was so unnaturally compatible to the Joker's DNA, that it accelerated the transformation process, making it stronger and more permanent."
"So there's no way to turn her back?" asked Terry apprehensively.
"I'm afraid not," said Bruce, shaking his head.
"Whelp, looks like you got your first super villain, kid," Julia said jokingly.
"Great," Terry groaned. "I don't get paid enough for this…."
In the wake of the Great Occupation, a new Arkham Asylum had been erected in the middle of the Gotham Bay – one that a constantly being updated with the latest technology to prevent the insane inmates from escaping. (For all the good that did.)
The newest addition of Arkham sat in the darkened corner of her rubber room, arms bound by the straightjacket that forced on her, giggling quietly. She smiled wide at the orderly that came to check up on her through the slot in the door, laughing as he backed away quickly, looking like he saw a ghost (or a devil.)
"Heh-he, that was the most fun I've ever had," the Joker chortled to herself. "The thrills, the suspense, the action, the drama – hat a great opening act. Oh, I can wait for the next performance. And there will be another. Let's do this again real soon…McGinnis."
The prisoners and orderlies shivered in fear as the Joker's insane cackled echoed off the walls.