Mask of the Red Hood - Chapter 2: Memories

Batman Beyond - Mask of the Red Hood
by JAM4077

Chapter 2: Memories

“With the recent death of gangster and known counterfeiter, Chuckie Sol, Neo Gotham’s own City Councilman, Arthur Wolper, held a special, late night conference on the matter, including eye witness accounts that Batman was involved in the murder of Chuckie Sol,” said Jackie Walker of GCN, Gotham City News. Maxine "Max" Gibson had turned on the TV when Terry, aka Batman, and Sarah Grayson, a young, red haired woman, daughter of Captain Barbara Grayson, and the current Batgirl, returned to the Batcave. “We take you live to the conference.”

Arthur Wolper, was a man in his mid 40s, with a salt and pepper mustache and hair to match. He was well dressed and had a pin on his breast pocket. The pin had the symbol of the Batman with a red cross going right through it. Also at the conference was Captain Barbara Grayson, Gotham’s DA Dick Grayson, Barbara’s husband and formerly known as Nightwing, and Detective Ellen Yin, a former anti-Batman supporter until a year ago. Then, there was Detective Harvey Bullock, a career man in law enforcement and an anti-Batman supporter. It wasn’t for the usual reasons that caused the anti-Batman movements, but for the mere fact that he viewed Batman as an amatar in investigations.

“What we have here is vigilantism at its worst. How many times are we, the people of Neo Gotham, going to allow Batman and his little Bat Family cross the line?” Arthur Wolper said to the crowd of people and reporters that showed up for the conference. Wolper’s opening statement earned him a lot of “boo” and very few “yeahs.”

“I’m sorry, Councilman Wolper, but you can’t blame Batman for what happened to Chuckie Sol,” Dick Grayson stepped in.

“And why not, Grayson?” Wolper asked. “He is a loose cannon. And it’s not my opinion on this matter. Some
of the people in your office and your wife’s precinct feel that Batman and his team are just as dangerous as the criminals they bring in. What kind of city are we when we depend on the assistants of individuals who are potentially mad.”

“You do what you have to do. However, don’t expect any help from my office or my wife’s precinct,” Dick said before he, Barbara, Ellen, and Bullock leave the stage. “Oh, and good luck on finding a judge to sign off on a warrant for Batman’s arrest.”

“Wow, your dad has some balls, Sarah,” Max said between giggles.

“He does have a point,” Sarah said as she undresses from her Batgirl suit. “All the judges in Gotham are either fully support us or my father.”

“In other news, former TV psychologist, Sarah Bernhardt, was admitted into Neo Gotham General Hospital after she attempted suicide at the Ace Chemical Plant a few minutes after the death Chuckie Sol. She is in stable condition at the moment and has been put on suicide watch. Miss Bernhardt was rescued by the Dark Knight himself. This act of heroism by the Dark Knight may put some dampers on Councilman Wolper’s anti-Batman campaign,” said Jackie Walker.

“Can you turn that off, Max?” Terry asked.

“You don’t have to twist my arm,” Max said, shutting the TV off. Terry worked his magic at the Batcomputer, pulling every image that had the Red Hood on it. Max slowly walks over to Terry’s side, with the help from cane.

“Is that the guy who kill Sol?” Max asked.

“Yeah. He almost killed me too, but he didn’t,” Terry said.

“He missed?” Max asked.

“Nope. He had me at point blank range with a rocket launcher, but he didn’t pull the trigger.”

2 Batpods speeded into the cave with Red Robin and Nightwing on it. The masked heros parked the pods right next to the Batmobile. They took off their masks as they dismount from the pods, revealing themselves as Thomas Wayne II and Bruce Grayson.

Thomas Wayne II was the son of Damian Wayne and Andrea Beaumont, grandson of Bruce Wayne. Thomas had black hair, like of male members of the Wayne Family. He had a fascination with the Batman ever since he was a kid and wanted to put his input into the Wayne Family’s secret legacy. He got the chance when the Joker returned from the dead and started targeting everyone involved with the Batman Legacy by donning the Red Robin costume. He has held the mantle of the Red Robin ever since, with the blessing of Tim Drake, the first Red Robin, and his grandfather.

Bruce Grayson, is the eldest child of the Grayson family, just a couple of minutes ahead of his twin sister, Sarah. Like his sister, Bruce was trained by both of his parents in the same style of fighting and acrobatics they used during their time as Nightwing and Batgirl. Bruce and his sister, Sarah, didn’t don the identities of Nightwing and Batgirl until the first appearance of Poison Ivy, who was a close friend of Sarah before her transformation.

“We just heard Wolper’s little conference on the way back,” Thomas said.

“If you think this is going to stop me, you’re mistaken,” Terry said.

“I wasn’t thinking that. It’s not your style as Shriek learned the hard way,” Thomas said recalling the time that Shriek held the city hostage to make Batman surrender himself.

“Besides, once the police get their hands on the security tape, we’ll be off the hook,” Bruce said.

“Not likely. I checked the security cameras while staying out of the eyes of the police. They were shut down during that whole mess,” Sarah said as she came out in long, backless, purple dress. She wore gold earrings with purple gem stones on it.

“Luckily, I got a good look at our killer,” Terry said, bring up the Red Hood’s image on the computer screen.

“Talk about timing,” Bruce said as he pulled a USB drive out and plugged it into the computer. Bruce opened up the file that had a video file of the Red Hood. “We got this footage from snitch not too long ago. This guy is calling himself the Red Hood and making some major plays in Gotham’s underworld.”

“He’s got 8 of Gotham’s most powerful drug lords under his belt,” Thomas said. “He’s also disrupted some of business deals of the Black Mask.”

“Those are some serious moves,” Max commented.

“He sure bares a resemble to the original Red Hood,” Sarah said.

“Several criminals have used this persona over the years,” Terry said as he brought up files on different people dressed as the Red Hood.

“But two criminals have a special interest,” Sarah said.

“Two problems, though. One is dead. And the other is locked up. Major locked up,” Max said, as her rubbed her legs, which were still healing from Max’s life altering run-in with the previous Joker.

“Plus, it’s not the same MO,” Terry added. “There is an uptake in trafficking. But crime is down.”

“I’ll say. My grandmother, Selina, commented that I’ve got a regular busman's holiday because I had 3 hours worth of sleep every night,” Thomas said.

“I’m think of paying a visit to him,” Terry said as he got up from his chair.

“You do know you’re suppose to be picking up Dana in an hour from now?” Max asked.

“This won’t take long,” Terry said. “Anyone coming?”

“I’ll go. Besides, I’m suppose to fashionly be late anyway,” Thomas said.

Terry puts on his mask, taking on the Batman persona once again. Thomas follows suit and joins him in the Batmobile.


Neo Arkham Asylum, a special prison and psychology ward for those of the criminally insane. This place also had a reputation of being spinning doorway as many criminals were let out or escape as much as criminals were coming in by the hands of the police or by Batman. But there was one inmate within the walls of this asylum that had no “Get out of Asylum free” card and wasn’t going to get any in the near future. That was the Joker.

The Joker sat down in front of the interrogation table with Batman and Red Robin standing over him. The Joker wore the Asylum’s straight jacket to prevent him from escaping or harming anyone. The Joker gave off a friendly smile when Batman and Red Robin walked into the interrogation room. The guards in charge of escorting the Joker from his cell and other places in Arkham left the room.

The Joker looked back and forth from Batman to Red Robin before saying to them, “You guys are looking good. Have you been working out?”

Batman and Red Robin said nothing. Their eyes stared at the Joker. “You know, you guys could use a little sun. But then, who am I to judge?” the Joker said before letting out a loud laugh.

Batman approaches the Joker, pulling out a photo that he had printed out while driving to the Asylum. The Joker looks at the photo, which featured the Red Hood on them, finding them quite interested as his eyes widen slightly. “He’s calling himself the Red Hood. What do you know about it?”

“That he has bad taste in costume choices. When I wore that number, it was classic 1940s gangster. Not futuristic motorcycle fetish. Kids these days. They have no respect for the classics,” Joker said.

“If you’re behind this in anyway, we will find out about it?” Red Robin said.

“Oh, lighten up, kid. You’re not funny anymore,” the Joker said. “Still, you’re better off than Bat’s former police partner. Speaking of which, how is Ethan Bennett? See him sliming around lately?” The Joker let out a loud laugh, which pushed Batman’s buttons. Batman grabs the Joker’s collar and throws the Joker into the wall. Before the Joker could get back up, Batman grabs him by the throat, lifts him up by it, and starts squeezing.

“Don’t bother. He’s not worth it,” Red Robin said. The Joker looks at Batman with a big grin on his face and says, “Are you going to do it this time? Or are you going put me in a body cast for another 8 months?”

Batman lets go of the Joker’s throat, causing the Joker to fall to the floor. He coughs for a bit before saying, “How disappointing, Bats? Oh, well, there is always next time. Anyway, back to the matter at hand with this new Hood. Do you think I would cause so much trouble to you or Gotham and not let you know it was me? You know me better than that, Bats. So, care to tell me what this Red Hood did to make you want to come to me?”

“He murdered someone right in front of me,” Batman said.

“Oooh, this kid got some balls. I like him already. Who was killed?” Joker asked. He inches closer to the caped crusaders, like Gollum did in the Hobbit movie when he teased about how much Bilbo would taste.

“Chuckie Sol,” Red Robin said. What happened next shocked the caped crusaders. The Joker’s eyes widen and his mouth dropped in shock. It became apparent that he knew Sol on a personal level at some point before becoming the man he was now.

“Is there something wrong?” Batman asked.

“No. There is...nothing wrong. Guard!” Joker said. The guards come into the room and escorted the Joker out of the room.

“What was all that about?” Red Robin said.

“I don’t know,” Batman said. “Right now, I got bigger problems to worry about.”


Fortunately, Terry was able to get back into the cave and out of the batsuit in just in enough time to pick up his longtime girlfriend, Dana. She was about the same age as Terry with long, black hair. She also happened to be the only person in Terry’s circle of close friends that didn’t know that Terry was Batman. This fact has caused their relationship to break apart from one time or another.

There were many situations where Terry could have told Dana the truth about his career as the Dark Knight. The need to tell Dana got especially worse when the previous Joker decided to target her to get to him. Now, their relationship is much more stable then it was during the those early years as Terry was able to find time for her between his normal life and his life as a crime fighter.

Terry drove himself and Dana to Wayne Manor, where the Wayne Family was hosting a fundraiser for Barbara Grayson, who was campaigning to become Neo Gotham’s police commissioner. Neo Gotham’s upper class citizens and their families were drink, talking, dancing, and dining, while shelling out some money to help fund Barbara’s campaign.

Terry and Dana took to the dance floor as the band played music fitted for a slow dance. Dana had her hair tied up in a high ponytail and had one long bang of hair that fell between her dark eyes. She had on long, white, strapless dress, which was big contrast to Terry’s black suit with a red tie. “You look beautiful tonight,” Terry said.

“I wondering when you were going to say that to me,” Dana said. “I was hoping you would say that me when picked me up.”

“Sorry. I was little frustrated from work today,” Terry said.

“That bad?”

“Almost lost it.”

“Care to talk about?”

“Maybe another time.”

“Let me guess, that time will be our honeymoon, right?”

“Thinking that far ahead, huh?”

“A girl can dream, can’t she?” Terry leans over to kiss Dana, but gets interrupted by a helicopter that was landing. Everyone at the party rushes outside as Thomas Wayne came out of the helicopter with his date, Harleen Quinzel, also known by the criminal underworld as Harley Quinn, when her alternate personality, who went by the same name, kicks in. Harleen wore a black, strapless dress with a red sash around her midsection. One look of the dress made Terry think that Harley picked out the dress again.

“Sorry, we’re late,” Thomas said as he and Harleen joined the party. Couple of minutes after Thomas’ late arrival, Bruce Wayne, now over 80, although he looked to be in his 60s thanks to dip in the Lazarus Pit, stood up to address the crowd of people. Despite the fact that he walked around with a cane and was recovering from kidney failure, Bruce was quite fit for a man his age and could draw a commanding presence.

“I would like first start off by saying that thanks to your generosity and thirst, we have raised over 200,000 dollars tonight towards Miss Grayson’s chances at becoming Gotham’s new Police Commissioner,” Bruce said, which drew an applause. “I’ve known Barbara for most of her life. I’ve known for a fact that she always wanted to be like her father, former Commissioner James Gordon. But given the work she has done for this city since her return has shown me that she has surpassed her father in so many way. And I firmly believe that with as our Commissioner, Neo Gotham will be in safer hands and give future generations a beacon of hope, the first that Gotham has since in over 20 years, to look upon. To Barbara Grayson.”

The dancing and partying continues. Barbara sits down next to Bruce and says, in a voice low enough so that no one could hear her, “That’s was nice.”

“I meant every word of it,” Bruce said.

“It’s too bad dad could be here to see this,” Barbara said.

“He would probably say to you, ‘why didn’t make Sarah join the Olympics?’ ”

“I don’t think it would matter. She’s too much like me. Stubborn as hell.” This made Bruce chuckle, remembering how Barbara begged him time after time to train her to fight crime.


Meanwhile, Dana sat with Thomas and Harleen, recalling all the troubles in her relationship with Terry during his early days as Bruce Wayne’s assistant, while Terry was getting drinks. This also included her adventures with Ratboy and his army of rats that tried to killer her and Batman twice. As Terry made his way back to their table with tray full of sparkling cider, as he and the others were still under age, a woman, about year or so younger than Terry, dark brown hair, and blue sapphire eyes, bumps into him, causing the drinks to fall to the floor.

“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry,” the young woman said, as she grabbed a rag to clean up the mess. Terry also grabs a rag goes to clean the mess, while telling the young woman not to worry about it. Dana joins the clean up party and say, “Are you alright, Terry?”

“I’m all right, Dana,” Terry said.

“Terry? Terry McGinnis?” the young woman questioned. The young woman stares at Terry. Her face looked as if she was trying to find a label to give her the answer.

“Yeah. That’s me,” Terry said, nervously.

“Oh, my god. I can’t believe its you,” the young woman said while giving Terry a big hug. Dana crossed her arms and gave Terry the most dirtiest look he had ever seen. Feeling the jealousy vibe flaming off of Dana, Terry did everything he could to get this hugging woman off of him.

“Would you mind letting me go? I’m about to be murdered here,” Terry said. The young woman looks up at Dana, who was stilling giving an evil, jealous look and tapping her right finger on her arm.

“Oh, sorry,” the young woman said, finally letting go of Terry. “I got a little over excited. I have seen you in over 10 years.”

“Do I know you?” Terry asked.

“You don’t recognize me? Hang on,” the young woman said. She pulled her hair back to make pigtails. “How about now?”

Terry stare at the young woman for minute, allowing the image to sink in. Then, it hit him. “Sasha. Sasha Todd?”

“I thought you might remember,” Sasha said.

“Old girlfriend?” Dana asked.

“More like an annoying little sister that kept follow me around,” Terry said.

“I was not that annoying,” Sasha protested.

“Yeah, right. She always kept bugging me and Jason to join in on our Batman games,” Terry said.

“Who is Jason?” Dana asked. Sasha gave Terry the “you haven’t told her” look. Terry just lowered his head and excused himself. Dana went to go after him, but Sasha stopped her.

“Leave him be,” Sasha said. “There are just some wounds that can’t help as quick. Jason was my old brother and Terry’s best friend.”

“Oh, god. I’m sorry. I--.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was 7 years ago when it happened.” Dana’s eyes widened when she heard that. Around the same time as Jason’s death, Terry’s parents were splitting up and he started hanging out with Charles “Big Time” Bigelow. “Jason and Terry were almost inseparable. The way they acted around each other, one would think they were brothers. They were always playing Batman and Robin in our family backyard. For some strange reason, Terry always end up playing Batman.”

“He was the attitude for it. Whenever, Flash Nelson was being a jerk, Terry would give him an evil look and Flash would back down in a second,” Dana recalled. “So, why did they split?”

“My dad made some dealings with the mob. Had to get out of town in order pay those debts off. All happened just after Terry fell into that well.”

“What?”

“It happened during one of their games. I played the part of the villain, which was norm from time to time. I was the Scarlet. Anyway, Jason was chasing me for a few minutes. I ran towards our family’s greenhouse. Terry was hiding in an old well that was boarded up. But the boards broke under his feet and he fell in.”

“Was he hurt?”

“A broken wrist mostly. I went to get help, while Jason kept Terry company. Then, out of nowhere, a swarm of bat flew out of the well. My parents and I could hear both Jason and Terry screaming their heads off. Didn’t Terry tell you any of this?”
“No. He doesn’t talk about his past much. I only know about his life starting from when he was in juvie.” Dana sadly looks at Terry, who was standing by himself near the pool of the Manor.


The Joker spend most of days in Arkham inside a straight jacket, except during mealtime with plastic utilizes and cups. He also wore his straight jacket while watching TV with other inmates of the asylum. One of the programs that the Joker tend to watch was Heart to Heart with Sarah, which was cancelled and bumming out the Joker. Joker had always made an effort to call the show, using the name Mr. J, and give his twisted input on subject on Sarah’s show.

However, the news provided coverage of the Joker’s favorite TV psychologist to get him interested. “Last night, former TV psychologist, Sarah Bernhardt, was admitted into Neo Gotham General Hospital after she attempted suicide at the Ace Chemical Plant,” said Casey Miller, of GCN. “Miss Bernhardt tried to take her own life after being called a fraud live on Television by her boss Jimmy Herbert. Mr. Herbert gave us a statement saying, ‘I am sorry for what happened to Miss Bernhardt. I didn’t want this to happen when I accidently called her a fraud live on TV. I was angered by her childlike manner and antics and I shouted out of line. I will do all that I can help Miss Bernhardt through these tough times.’ As of right now, Miss Bernhardt is patient at Neo Gotham General Hospital and is under suicide watch.”

A piece of news like that make people feel sorry for the young woman. But that wasn’t the case for the Joker. He kept his usual grin as a light bulb lit up in his head.

Later that night, the alarms of the Asylum went off as the Joker made his escape, leaving a trail of grinning, unconscious guards behind. Neo Gotham was put on high alert and spreading the Bat Family all over the Joker’s former hideouts. But there were no signs of the clown.


The graveyard shift of Neo Gotham General Hospital ended just as it began. All floors of the hospital filled with the Joker special knock out laughing gas. Every person in the build who was a wake was out cold with big grins on their faces. Some even laughed in their forced sleep. The effects of the gas would last for a few hours.

Sarah Bernhardt, was chained to her hospital bed. The chain was long enough to allow her to walk to the bathroom and to the door of her room. However, the chains were too loud for her to take her own life. She showed little emotion when the doctors had total about what the chemicals she jumped into had done to her appearance. A guard stood by the door, watching for any sign that Sarah might kill herself. However, when Sarah woke up, her guard was asleep with big smile on his face.

Then, there came a soft knock on her door. Sarah gets up from her bed and walks over to the door. The chains rattled with each movement she made. Once she got to the door, she looked through the door window. Taking up the window was a man, holding a yellow balloon to cover his face. “Is there a Doctor Bernhardt in the room?” the man asked.

“Yes, there is. Who is this?” Sarah asked. Her voiced made her sound like she was a typical high school cheerleader.

“Me? I’m one of your biggest fans. I heard all about your incident on the news and I thought I’d come by and pay you a visit. May I come in?”

“Ok. Hang on second.” Sarah moves the sleeping guard away from the door, allowing her to open it. She looks at the man who stood in front of the doorway. He wore suit that was colored purple over a vest that was the same color. He also wore a golden yellow button-up shirt and a green bow tie. One his hands were fingerless, purple gloves. The yellow balloon stilled cover his face, but only for a few seconds. Sarah’s red mouth dropped when she saw the man’s face.

The skin on his face was as pale as hers. His lips were the same shade of red as her lips. However, his hair was a shade of green. He had a giant grin on his face as said, “Greetings, Miss Bernhardt. I’m Mr. J.”