Batman Beyond: The Legacy Returns

Chapter 3 - Double Trouble

In a shabby area of Gotham City, deep below the building skylines, the lone Joker that managed to escape Max's forces runs towards a very old building that has a large word 'Condemned' painted on the front side of it's crumbling stone wall. This is part of Old Gotham City, a place that was built over after the major Earthquake that sent it into ruin, the homeless and unwanted stay in this part of town, as it is their only means of shelter left. The clown-faced thug runs up and enters the building; he then approaches an old elevator and presses the button for service. The rusty metal doors open with a grinded squelch and he steps in quickly as they soon shut behind him afterwards. The inside building looks more like an old hotel, one that many rich and well-traveled individual might have been too in the past. But now it looks dark and spooky, the once lavish main entrance is now like walking into a haunted house. As the elevator rises up, the clown man becomes nervous and starts to perspire slightly as each passing floor brings him closer to the last stop. It soon sharply stops and shows him on the indicator above that he has reached the penthouse. The doors open again in their rusted squeaks and he steps out into the very large room. The whole place is almost like the lower level he came from, what was once a very beautiful place is now a decaying, filthy scene. Walking through the room and down carpeted steps that led to the wooden floor below, he slowly walked to the end of the room where a massive antique desk sat and looked just as decayed as the rest of the place. A deep brown leather chair was placed behind it, turned with it's back facing the man. As the Joker gang member stopped in front of the desk, a male voice boomed out from behind the chair.

"What are you doing here?" The male voice asked in a serious tone. "I thought I told you to go out and light up the town!"

"S-s-sorry Sir." The gang member gulped. "We'z was just doin' what you said...and...and then the cops came! We did torch the old Wayne rehab center like you said."

"That's not the point." A woman's voice now said from the shadows. "You didn't finish your job!"

As she stepped out, the man gasped at her presence. She was a young looking woman with long flowing green hair and had a face painted like a Raggedy Ann doll. Her clothes looked like a cross between Harley Quinn's old costume with a very short purple jacket that looked lightly fashionable on her. Just as she stood there smiling at him in a rather quirky manner, another female voice came out from the other shadow filled corner on the opposite side.

"Jokers are always suppose to finish what they start and you didn't finish..."

The woman that came out this shadow almost looked the same as the other, both had nearly the same clothes and painted faces, the only difference between them was that the one spoke first had black tights with red spades on them, and the other one had red tights with black spades on them. The two women sat on either side of the desk and looked as if they were posing for a picture, the big grinning smiles seemed evil and yet stunning to the man.

"I was going to finish...but...but..." The clown faced man stuttered.

The two women looked at each other and frowned sarcastically.

"Not a very good Joker is he Dee Dee?"

"No Dee Dee, I don't know how he ever managed to get in our gang."

Suddenly the brown leather chair turned around and the man sitting in it became barely visible, the shadows seemed to keep most of his appearance in the dark as the mysterious man stared at this thug. In the pitch back shadow, the only thing that could be seen was a great big yellow smile, a toothy grin that didn't seem humanly possible to make. The eyes were white and like slits, almost like Batman's staring out and showing no pupils what so ever. His purple-gloved hands folded together as he began to talk again.