Arkham City Story - Johnny Verghese

1 - Temporary lodgings

Johnny Verghese looked out of the window of the old abandoned strip club. It's neon lights still flashed outside saying "real nudes". Johnny had never found the light box to switch the lights off. It wasn't that he hadn't had the time, in fact he'd had too much time really, it was just he spent most of it sitting in the dark waiting to make his move.

Johnny wasn't a bad man. Of course, he'd had to do bad things in order to be placed in a maximum security prison. Well, when he thought about it, Johnny looked back and remembered that he hadn't just done a bad thing or two, he'd done terrible deeds, committed awful crimes, but it was all part of Johnny's plan.

Outside, a shadowy figure rushed across the sky in a flash of darkness. A pleasing chill ran up Johnny's spine.

Batman.

Why was he even here? How did Batman end up in Arkham City? He wouldn't do anything wrong. He would commit no crime. Not like Johnny had. There was a reason the caped crusader was here.

The infamous Joker. That was why Batman had been in Arkham Asylum. It was always Joker. His arch-nemesis. The centre of the plot, the criminal at the middle of all the evil.

Johnny didn't have a costume. Unless you counted a dirty orange jumpsuit as a villainous outfit. Nor did Johnny have a name. Well, apart from Johnny Verghese, he had no real identity. No crime he'd committed hadn't been done by someone else. Johnny was just a petty criminal. Nothing more.

But he wanted more. All he'd ever wanted was recognition. And all he'd ever been any good at was being bad.

So when he put two and two together on that fateful day nine years ago, there was no going back. He would only get what he wanted by doing what he was good at. Like everyone.

Johnny laughed as he recalled a time in a recruitment agency when the woman opposite him had asked: "so, what are you good at doing. Do you have any talents. I'm sure there's a job for whatever you can do... You must be able to do something..."

She never really got a real answer because Johnny had shot her point blank in the chest.

He'd then said, "Killing."

He left the building and escaped without even having to run.

But there was one time Johnny remembered fondly. His first kill.

Oh, it was perfect. The perfect night for the perfect crime.