The Dark Knight: Origins

Chapter II: Three More Jokers

"Hey..." said Bruce, speaking to his father's and mother's graves. "I just wanted to say... that I'm sorry for... wanting this... Wanting to be happy. I wasn't... counting on it. For wanting to leave the cape. I feel like I'm betraying everything that happened and everything you are... I feel like I betrayed everything we once were... And I'm so... so sorry..." His voice broke. "I'm... sorry..."

Bruce, Bruce-89, and Barry all enter the Batcave.

"So..." said Bruce. "You're saying that a couple of allies of yours squeaked through?"

"Probably a few old enemies," said Bruce-89.

Barry looks at the two Bruces, seeing that they basically have the exact same mannerisms. He observes that they both squint their eyes when angry, they both don't move their hands very much unless necessary, they both cover their whole body with their capes, and their heartbeats are always slow, which he could tell by secretly touching them a few times now at high speed.

"Would you stop doing that!?" angrily asked both Batmen, turning to Barry and squinting their eyes.

"Sorry..." said Barry, bowing his head.

"So... who are these people you think will be quite... problematic, exactly?" asked Bruce.

"Edward Nygma. Victor Fries. Oswald Cobblepot. Harvey Dent. Jack Napier."

Bruce turns to Bruce-89. "I have never heard of Jack Napier. What does he call himself?"

"Joker," said Bruce-89.

Bruce squints his eyes. 

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing... Just annoyed. It seems that there is an activity in the far north of Gotham where a man in a purple suit wearing clown makeup poisoned an entire group of bystanders made them start laughing to the point where they turned pale and permanently smile with red swollen lips."

"Well...? Get to work."

"You're not seriously making me hunt this person down by myself, are you?" asked Bruce.

Later...

"Fucking asshole..." whispered Bruce, as he looked up in Clark's apartment.

Clark eats chips alone in his apartment.

*knock knock...*

"Clark," said Bruce.

"Oh, hey, Bruce," said Clark. "Watching some sports. Well, I could fly all the way over there, but Lois told me to keep the oven running for the cupcakes in the Daily Planet."

Bruce closes his eyes and shakes his head. "I need your help."

"Yeah? Why?" asked Clark. "Did Lex build another giant Hulk creature to destroy Metropolis again? Or Gotham... was it?"

"No. It's a Multiverse situation."

"Like in Spider-Verse?" asked Clark.

Bruce sighs. "Yes. Like in Spider-Verse."

"Why? You don't like Spider-Verse?"

"I don't relate."

"Really? Kid's lost his Uncle in an alleyway and has to use his abilities with responsibility in order to grow for the better and be a more mature version of himself? That doesn't sound familiar?"

"I wasn't a kid until I was 9."

Clark gulps and stares at Bruce. 

Bruce stares back.