Clockwork Redux

A reworking of Hoist The Colours' "Clockwork", because I felt I could give something new to the story.
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One night in Gotham, a guy wearing clown makeup skulks into an abandoned apartment and finds a starving four-year-old girl. Two days later, he breaks into an empty house and finds her mother handcuffed to a bed.

It's not the best joke he's ever heard, but at least it's original.

(Starts between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight; ends just before The Dark Knight Rises. Special thanks goes to HoistTheColours, who owns the original Clockwork and gave me permission to do this. You heard it here first: This is an official tie-in work. Next I'll be churnin' out Star Wars novels, baby!)