*Here we are... the second DARK KNIGHT adventure, OF MONSTERS AND MEN. Obviously, this is the story of how Batman and the Joker first meet. As you might have noticed, this story has been labeled as a horror story. That's for a reason. The Joker in this universe is more violent and disturbing than ever before. This story is violent, the action is better, and more will be seen of the Batman we know Bruce will eventually become. Please enjoy this small sneak peek. I'll stop in the middle of December to anticipate the conclusion. Expect the last ten or so last chapters on Christmas Day. I've made the decision to release the third part of the saga in around the middle of March 2014. I kind of rushed myself with the first two and I can't do that again. But anyhow, expect things to really heat up in Spring 2014 (no pun intended) as the adventure will really take hold and the beginnings of the Justice League will be seen. Just stick with me and by the end of summer, the fifth DARK KNIGHT story will lead into the first Justice League adventure. Hope to see you there!

: )

Yeah, I know. I was going to have the entire story in one day but I just couldn't wait! I bet all of you aren't complaining though...

MS777

"Everyone down! You, get down or I'll blow your legs off, I swear to God!" yelled one of the colorful robbers as he smacked a bank teller in the jaw with the butt of his automatic shotgun.

The man's head slammed against the end of the bank desk he worked at and he quickly scooted over to the east wall with the other sixteen hostages.

There were five robbers in total, the leader was called Ace, his two second-in-commands were King and Queen, and he had three regular "cards", Jack, Spade and Clover. They were all armed with high-powered weaponry and wore motorcycle helmets with their designated card symbol on the side of their helmets and dark red leather jackets over a layer of Kevlar.

"Queen! Let's go! The silent alarm's been tripped!" Clover said to her partner, holster her automatic pistol and running to the main vault where over 2 million dollars had been delivered.

The robbers had it all planned out. All the bank's money was trackable and unusable in its first form. Luckily, while Ace was in prison, he found a connection who could give the crew fresh bills, not leaving a trail. All they needed to do was not have a body count, escape before the police arrived and blow a hole in the back of the bank where a getaway vehicle was set up where their driver, codenamed Deck was waiting disguised as a garbage man.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen," Jack yelled to the hostages as the crew spread out to do their jobs.

"We do not want to cause any of you harm. We want what we came for and then we'll leave… not as peacefully but you'll live. Cooperate with us, act cool, and this'll all be over before you can piss your pants if you haven't done so already." Jack continued, smiling through his helmet and pointing his assault rifle at the crowd.

As he continued his speech, Spade and Clover ran to the banks that contained the safety deposit boxes. The crew's main objective was the vault but Clover had suggested the idea of robbing the deposit boxes for a little extra score to add. Spade tossed one of the locking devices to Clover as she pushed the key into the wall panel Queen had taken from the bank manager and watched the heavy metal door open. Usually, the owner of a box and the bank manager had a key that needed to pressed at the same time in order to unlock the box but now, a black market dealer named Nygma had developed a gadget that imitated the key shape of both keys and opened the box door within seconds.

"You have all been victims of the Royal Flush! We all appreciate your patience and ask that you chill out right there and wait for us to be finished."

Jack finished, seeing the moon peeking through the clouds.

"Die!" a hidden bank teller yelled, firing his hunting shotgun at Jack, the round hitting him in the back and making him fall to the floor in pain, the Kevlar saving his life.

Queen drew her SMG and fired at the man, him firing one more shell of shrapnel before sliding across the counter, tuffs of paper and marble flying in the air. He screamed as a bullet shot completely through his right kneecap and he slammed into the floor. Queen fired her SMG at the area of the long teller desk and cracked a teller window with bullets. Small shards showered the teller's head and he ignored the pain in his crippling wound. He fired the shotgun over the desk, the round missing the crew but breaking a flower pot with a small tree inside, potting soil and clay shooting everywhere. A brave man jumped up from the hostage line and tackled Jack as he got back up, punching him in the visor, cracking the plastic as Jack kicked him off, firing two bullets into his chest, mists of blood flying up as his body flew into the marble floor.

"Dammit!" he yelled, watching as Ace poked his head outside of the main vault door and aimed his auto-shotgun at the scene.

"What's going on?" Ace asked before the teller shot another round, damaging the brick wall across the other side of the bank.

Queen growled in anger and fired her entire magazine at the desk, making the teller duck as he realized he was out of shotgun shells. He took a deep breath and heard Queen and Jack run near the desk as the hostages cried and screamed in fear. Sweat beaded across his forehead as he stood up, tossing the shotgun and Queen's head and making her stumble back. He jumped off the teller desk and landed on Queen, slamming her head into the ground and repeatedly punching her while cussing furiously.

"You motherfu-!" he yelled before Ace fired his auto-shotgun three times, the rounds literally blowing off his left arm and leaving a bloody, CD-sized hole in the side of his head.

"Anyone else? Hm? Who else wants to play hero? Huh?" Ace screamed at the top of his lungs, firing one more explosive round into the ceiling to scare the people.

The hostages all stared at the bank robbers with fear in their eyes and shaking bodies. Spade eyed a small young boy and his mother was holding his head as she cried, watching Clover unlocking the safety deposit boxes.

"Please stop! My husband promised his dog tag necklace to my son! He died two months ago in the Middle East!" the mother cried.

"I don't care lady!" Clover yelled from the room, about to unlock another, clicking the button as she positioned the unlocking machine.

Spade ran over to the woman and held her assault rifle away from the people as she backed up and gasped.

"Listen to me," Spade whispered through her helmet as Clover returned to her work.

"We don't want to hurt you. What's your box number? I'll make sure it's left." she continued, trying to comfort the small boy and the mother.

"What?" the woman said through makeup-smeared eyes.

"Give me the box number quickly and I'll make sure he has his father's things. Please, hurry and man up!" Spade whispered sharply as Jack and Queen dragged the teller's dead body across the side of the wall, his bloody wound spreading across the shiny floor.

"It's 4321. Thank... thank you." the woman replied through short breaths as Spade stood up, seeing red and blue lights through the windows.

Spade quickly ran into the vault room and saw that Clover was six boxes from the woman's. She grabbed the locking device as her partner placed it on another, shoving it one of the giant bags. Clover looked up at her and gave her a surprised look.

"What are you-?" she began before Spade moved her body outside the room.

"Cops. Time to pack up. I'll check on Ace and King. Hurry up!" Spade replied, beginning to yell as Queen and Jack fired their weapons outside an open door, overturning a heavy metal bench for cover as the police squad cars began to pile in.

Jack grabbed a grenade from his military-style backpack and pulled the pin, hearing the heavy metal explosive dent one of the car's hoods before rolling onto the sidewalk, screaming civilians running away. He and Queen continued to fire as they saw the grenade blow up, completely blowing up the car's engine and catching the gas line on fire, instantly killing the driver inside.

"Got some fresh bacon, whoo-hoo!" Jack yelled as he popped a squad car's tires.

"Where's your partner?" Officer Montoya asked as she swerved past an abandoned vehicle and followed the sounds of gunshots.

"He's on vacation. Lucky bastard." Detective Bullock replied as he saw the fiery wreck left by the grenade.

"Oh my God! You think he was in there?" Officer Renee Montoya yelled as she pulled the emergency break on the car, tires screeching to a halt meters from the shootout.

There were over fifteen GCPD cars parked all around, the officers firing rounds into the entrance of the bank as two robbers shot back, already injuring two and causing lots of property damage. Detective Harvey Bullock was riding shotgun with rookie Montoya since every officer was called in to stop the robbery at the Gotham Maze Bank.

"He's not anywhere else! Oh, God. Open your door and get behind it. Don't shoot back even if they fire at the car. These guys are good. You'll get your head blown off." Harvey replied, opening his door and placing two extra magazines in his passenger seat as he hunched over the road, fastening his fedora to his head and brushing the thick brown hair from his eyes. As he waited for more troops to arrive, he could have sworn he saw a dark figure on top of the bank, lightened by the moon behind the wispy clouds. Then, he knew what it was.

"Shit."

Montoya looked at him, flinching as another rain of gunshots erupted.

"You're in for a show, kid."

As Ace prepared the last stack of 110, 000 dollars, he heard a strange noise that echoed throughout the whole building. The robbers all froze and Jack backed up as he saw a large metal door slid from above the main entrance. The hostages watched as the windows followed the same action as the door, a large heavy piece of metal sliding over, making the entire bank pitch black. Jack and Queen cut on their flashlight on the sides of their helmets, the stream of white light stabbing the darkness. The robbers all looked around in panic and King ran up to one of the tellers, jerking him up by his collar and slamming him against the wall.

"What's going on? What did you pull?" he asked with anger.

"I didn't do it! It's the alarm system! It's brand-new, designed by LexCorp and made to protect against any kind of outside threat. The control panel's in the custodian's room. There's no one else in here!" the teller said before King slammed him into the floor.

As King ran to go check on the alarm system, the skylight section opened, moonlight pouring into the darkness. In fear, Clover fired her pistol at the skylight, hoping to hit anything. All of the Royal Flush looked up, followed by the swift sound of something flying through the air.

"Ow!" Ace yelled as he dropped a sack of the money.

He was helped up by Spade and Clover, Spade pulling a small bat-shaped knife from his back, a small dab of blood on the end of the blade. After shining a light on it, the robbers heard the small boy gasp in excitement.

"The Batman!" he said quietly.

"Shut up!" Ace yelled, pointing the gun at the boy before three more knives were tossed hard into his glove, piercing his hand and making him nearly drop the auto-shotgun.

As the robbers looked around, they heard the sound of a line continually zipping around the entire ceiling. Their breathing increased and they all reloaded their weapons.

"C'mon! What is this? Queen, prepare the charges. We're getting out of here!" Ace said, shaking the pain away and running into the vault room, shining the light as he ran in the room.

As he found the two heavy bags and his second, he saw something move in the darkness and his heart skipped. He gulped loudly and shined the light aggressively at the darkness, sighing in relief as nothing was there. As he moved to his bags, he saw a dark figure, shrouded with a cape and the face and ears of a bat sitting on the table like a demonic gargoyle.

"Ah!" he screamed, firing his gun four times, seeing the figure disappear with every flash of gunfire.

He screamed again and grabbed the bags, tripping out of the vault room and hearing Jack scream. King ran out and saw their partner unconscious on the ground, his gun kicked away and visor completely busted out, blood running from his nose.

"Guys! The alarm system's fried! Someone here and I thi-." King began before seeing the darkness and unconscious Jack in the light of Clover's helmet.

"Oh, crap." he said, seeing a bat-like figure fly to the ground and begin punching him without mercy.

The other robbers began firing their guns sub-consciously and ran at the man.

"It is the Batman!" the boy yelled over the grunts of the robbers.

Queen was on the other side setting up the controlled C-4 charges across the wall, holding the detonator tight and about to press the button. She called over Spade and threw her the detonator. Queen grabbed the bags of money on the ground and nodded at Spade. Spade backed behind the teller's desk and blew the charge. The orange blast lit up the fight scene for a quick moment and all the hostages could see the Batman in all his glory, in a fighting pose as he kicked Ace's helmet off and deliver a tiger throat punch to King as he tried to shoot the Batman.

"Go! C'mon!" Queen yelled, gaining Ace and King's attention.

The Batman saw the giant hole as natural and street light lit up the bank halfway. As the robber's ran away, leaving their unconscious man behind, the Batman tossed a glue pellet at their feet, the sticky strands exploding and reaching Ace's weapon, pulling it to the marble floor. The Batman growled and ran at them with Olympic runner speed, reaching King before he shot at him with his SMG, two shots hitting the armor in his chest area. The Batman grunted with pain as he stumbled back and allowed the robbers to escape through the giant, smoking hole in the stone wall. He jumped over the Dumpster they had crawled over and saw their white van, with a driver already inside, the tires screeching as Clover jumped in the back, her feet skidding across the asphalt. The Batman used his arm gauntlets that were sharp as knives to leap onto the roof of the van, barely hanging on as the van hit fifty MPH in a residential zone. The van passed right by the bank and the dozens of police officers waiting to breach. Only a few spotted the fleeing suspects and the Batman was relieved. He swung around the side and kicked open a window, glass shattering all over Spade's helmet as she screamed in fear, hitting his feet.

"Get him out of here!" Ace yelled, pulling out the auto-shotgun and firing a shot.

The blast nearly nicked the Batman but he swung onto the roof again, denting the roof as his boots slammed into it. He grunted gravelly and flung a batarang inside, the knife missing the Royal Flush crew but causing enough shock to make Ace and Clover fire their weapons into the ceiling of the van, another shot grazing the suit, making Batman slip off and into the road. As he tumbled around violently and the van drove off into the inter-city section of Gotham, he slammed into a street mailbox and grunted in pain as he finally laid still.

Ah, crap. That hurt. The Batman said to himself as he ran off into a nearby alley and fired his grapnel-gun, heading back to his special combat vehicle.

Nearly been a year and I'm still not used to the pain...