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TWO TO ONE: REVISED
By: E.R.M. Griffin
Author's Note: Yes, this is a revisal of the original Scarecrow story "Two To One". I wrote that when I was a good deal younger, and looking back saw the utter Mary Sue Elena was, and felt the whole bloody thing was painfully out of character. Here is the newer version, with many edits, the way it should have been. The story takes place while Crane is still a teacher at Gotham University, and goes on from there. Enjoy.
CHAPTER 1
Nobody moved.
Half the class seemed simply stunned into total silence. The other regarded the spectacle with a mixture of fear and disgust. Mostly fear.
Fear of the rather large arachnid, making its path slowly over the bare desk. It wasn't a tarantula, but to the untrained eye, it was whatever kind of spider the imagination wanted it to be.
If the students believed it to be a venomous killer, it made things all the more interesting.
"Psychologically speaking, fear is the most powerful of human emotions."
The Professor's voice proved distracting to only a choice few students, who tore their eyes away from the spider to look at their teacher. Those who did, didn't dare disagree with him. Faulty thinking or not.
"Even if the mind were to conceive the most terrifying of images, you could not turn away. That is fear, you know. It intensifies concentration. It draws and demands your full attention, and you cannot run away, no matter how much you try!" The man paused, only to remove his spectacles. For a moment, he remained silent as he cleaned them, then replaced them over his tired blue eyes. "It is the adrenaline rush fear gives up…it can be almost addictive to some, like a drug."
"Kind of like what a daredevil would be driven by?" A voice piped up from the back of the class, and the Professor turned to look up at the young man.
"Yes, in a way…"
"But Professor Crane, if fear is such a horrible thing, how can it inspire all it does?" The man continued, pausing only to brush a stray strand of blonde hair out of his eyes.
Pathetic… Crane growled inwardly, annoyed by the interruption. Idiot jock.
"This is a lesson in fear Mr. Bradley, not a question of morals!" Crane waved any following questions away with a brush of his thin hand.
Pointless.
She wasn't beautiful. Not even pretty, she had long ago accepted. Her face was too plain, her eyes too darkened by lack of sleep. Her bland black hair, which she wished could shine with the same lovely gloss she saw in every other girl, had a tendency to frizz. Her eyes, weak and strained; a side-effect of hours behind a computer or a book, were hidden behind thin-rimmed glasses. Her skin was too pale, and her body too average. Not exactly large, but then not slim or willowy. Simply painfully average.
Which was probably why at that moment, she wished more than anything that she could be somewhere else. She wanted to be back home, up in her room. Lost in a book, or still asleep under warm covers. Not standing in front of a closed door in Gotham University.
Psychology 1AIt wasn't enough she felt so damned insecure, but she had woken up late on her first day of class. Now she stood there, twenty minutes into whatever was going on inside.
I want to go home… Her inner mind whined incessantly. She was badly tempted to listen, before reminding herself that she was almost twenty-one, and not an immature teenager anymore.
Your with the big boys and girls now Elena, grow up…She reminded herself, her hand touching the doorknob. Christ, I can't even come in at the beginning of the year, has to be half-way through, and I'm late!
Her hand moved away from the doorknob, forming a weak fist. Without another thought, Elena knocked gently on the door. Inside, she heard the voice of who she had assumed to be the Professor fall slightly, drawn by the knock. A moment later, the door opened.
"Yes?"
Elena blinked, actually having to turn her eyes a good deal upward to look the man in the face. He was rather tall and skinny, an almost caricature-like figure in the doorway. His hand remained on the doorknob, his fingers long and delicate.
"Can I help you?" He spoke again, this time with some irritation mixed into his cynical voice.
"Oh…yeah, sorry. I'm…" She handed him the small slip of yellow paper without another word, which he took with a raised eyebrow. After a moment of perusing it, he sighed and looked back at her. "Your twenty minutes late Ms…." He trailed off, not having bothered to look at the name of his new student on the slip.
"Elena Sutherland!" She quickly replied.
"Sutherland," he repeated after her, the look on his face so unimpressed that Elena looked away, clearing her throat uncomfortably.
"Normally, I would not admit you into my class when it has already begun, but seeing as it is your first day here…" he trailed off with a bit of distaste.
"Yeah, I got lost…" she replied lamely, wishing she could have thought of a better excuse then that. In truth, not only had she woken up late, but she had gotten lost looking for the classroom as well. The University was rather large.
What a perfect first impression. I'm such a loser…She winced inwardly.
After tucking the yellow slip into a pocket of his light brown suit, the Professor extended his hand, shaking hers with a cold politeness.
"I'm Professor Crane, I'll be your Psychology professor for the duration of the semester. I suggest you come to my class early tomorrow!"
Elena felt her face flush with embarrassment. "I will…sorry."
He moved aside then, letting her enter the classroom. The second she walked in, she felt an old feeling crawl down her throat, settling slowly in her stomach. The forty-so pairs of eyes stared down at her, strangers examining her with critical expressions.
Forget them, they are unimportant…Her eyes sank down to the ground shyly. She only dimly heard Professor Crane shut the classroom door, acknowledging him only when he walked past her to stand at one side of his desk. When she glanced over to him, something caught her attention. A brief, slow movement near his hand. An inky blackness moving over the desk.
She couldn't stop the slow intake of breath.
It is only a mere arachnid.
She felt the fear that may have been building up inside her ebb away almost instantly, filling her instead with a sort of apathy for the ugly little creature. When her eyes swept up back to the Professor, she saw he was regarding her with mild interest. A smirk twitched at one corner of his lip.
"Now Ms. Sutherland, since you are only joining us now, I shall explain what we have been doing. This month we are studying the effects of fears and phobias…"
How very fitting…"…which brings us to this little thing here!" his voice drew her back, and she blinked, rather confused.
"The…spider?" She coughed uncomfortably, trying not to look as though she hadn't heard half of what he had just said. She had a tendency to get easily distracted.
"Yes Ms. Sutherland…the spider. Arachnids tend to be spiders!" Crane replied, slightly annoyed at the blank expression on her face. "Can you name the phobia associated with them?"
Elena blinked, glancing between the professor and the spider.
A young female student sitting nearest to them raised her hand eagerly, waving a bit to get Crane's attention. The professor glanced at her with a bored expression.
"Is your name Ms. Sutherland?" He asked the red-headed girl, who flushed and lowered her hand. He turned back to Elena. "Well?"
Arachnophobia, you simpleton.
"Arachnophobia!" Elena replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. She offered a weak smile when Crane nodded his approval, and motioned for her to take a seat amongst her new peers.
Author's Note: Alright,
I'll point out now that I've only ever seen the Scarecrow in the
animated series, and only read two or three Scarecrow comics. So
if I make any mistakes history-wise on the Scarecrow/Crane, forgive
me. I don't have all the facts, but I'll try my best.