A/N: Just like my previous story I've planned everything out and the whole thing should be about four chapters long. Also like my Animal Man story, I'll do my best to put up one chapter a week. The three protagonists in this story, as well as the antagonist to an extent, are somewhat obscure (Except for maybe Dr. Leland and Doctor Destiny) so to avoid any confusion I'll just give you some quick background on the main characters.
Joan Leland: Dr. Leland is a minor character from the 90's Batman cartoon where she's portrayed as the head psychiatrist of Arkham. She has also been included in the Telltale Batman video game. But other than that Dr. Leland has not appeared in any of the comics. From what I can remember, Dr. Leland is portrayed as a kind person despite her line of work.
Roger Huntoon: Dr. Huntoon is a doctor at Arkham Asylum introduced to the comics in the '80s but from what I can tell he's mostly appeared in non-Batman comics like Swamp Thing, Animal Man (Which is where I first read about him), and Hellblazer before being replaced by the more well known Dr. Jeremiah Arkham. Haven't read many comics with Dr. Huntoon in them but from what I could tell in the comics I did read and from other sources, he doesn't exactly sound like a nice guy.
Ruth Adams: Dr. Adams is a character in the non-canon one-off story "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" by Grant Morrison. I haven't read the book (Although I probably should because I hear it's great) but her character interested me. I'm not too sure if it's accurate or not, but Dr. Adams seemed like she had a cold, analytical personality. I'm probably wrong, but her being a one-off character gives me some creative licence (Same applies to the other doctors to a lesser extent I suppose).
Doctor Destiny: Doctor Destiny is a Justice League villain with powers to manipulate people's dreams. Multiple comics, including the aforementioned "Serious House on Serious Earth", have portrayed Destiny as a patient at Arkham. Admittedly, I haven't read any comics with him in it but I do remember his episode from the Justice League cartoon and I thought he had a cool gimmick.
It's often said by the people of Gotham City was that the only way Arkham Asylum could be less secure was if you installed revolving doors in the cells. For the most part, this sentiment was true. There were many ways in which this was true. Outdated security equipment, understaffing, and, corrupt guards. Although, the administration claimed that that last point was greatly exaggerated.
One of these corrupt guards strolled through the basement level of Arkham trying to keep as calm as possible. The basement was where the most dangerous of Arkham's patients were kept. The ones that seemed to be constantly violent. The serial killers. The ones the doctors had labeled absolutely incurable. The guard told himself not to worry. Most of them should've been asleep at this hour but voices of doubt were talking in the guard's head.
He stopped in front of a cell in the middle of the hallway. The man peered into the cell and saw the outline of a spindly figure in a wheelchair in the darkness. Clearing his throat first, the guard spoke.
"Hey bud, I'm back."
The wheelchair-bound figure in the darkness came closer to the guard and into the light. Although, the guard would have preferred it if the patient had stayed in the dark. The man in the wheelchair's body seemed to have withered away, resembling more of a corpse than a person. He barely had any hairs left on his head and his face had a frightening skull-like appearance.
"The ruby… Give it here…" whispered the figure in the wheelchair with a voice just as weak as his body.
It may not have looked like it, but the bundle of skin and bones before the guard was the infamous supervillain Doctor Destiny. Several times in the past he'd fought the Justice League but all of them seemed to end the same way. With him being locked away. And now, Doctor Destiny was at the lowest he'd been in a while.
"I said give it to me…" Doctor Destiny said as forcefully as he could muster.
"Don't rush me, old man. I got it right here." the guard held out a large, round ruby out in front of him.
Doctor Destiny reached through the bars in his room towards the gemstone but the guard jerked it away, almost protectively. "Funny thing, this thing almost got stolen by that klepto upstairs. Y'know, Magpie. Lady reached out of her cell and tried to grab it. Didn't think she'd be so strong."
"Very amusing anecdote." Doctor Destiny muttered. "Now hand it over."
The guard ignored the patient in front of him and inspected the ruby closer. "You sure this thing ain't worth more than what you're giving me?"
"My Materioptikon only has value to me."
"Your what now?"
"The ruby! Now stop taunting me with it!" Doctor Destiny snapped, his voice began to croak.
"Alright, alright, here." the guard held out the ruby and it was immediately snatched up by Doctor Destiny. "Er, what does that thing do anyway."
"Nothing of consequence. You won't lose your job over this." Doctor Destiny intently stared down at the gemstone.
The guard grew increasingly more nervous despite Destiny's claims. "So, uh, you said you had a secret of cash somewhere in Arkham. You're gonna tell me where that is, right?"
"Don't worry. You'll get exactly what you deserve…" Doctor Destiny smiled as the gem in his hands began to glow.
The guard screamed and collapsed to the ground. He writhed around on the floor, unable to stand up.
"Oh, stop screaming. It's only a bad dream." Doctor Destiny chuckled and the Materioptikon glowed even brighter.
Dr. Joan Leland glanced at the clock and sighed. It was far too late to be doing paperwork but she had deadlines to keep and new information to add to the patient files. She'd much prefer to be at home. Maybe cozied up in a blanket on the couch watching some late night TV. Dr. Leland pulled herself out of the fantasy and tried to focus on her work.
She stared down at the papers on her desk and the words blurred. After blinking a few times the words came back into focus. Dr. Leland groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. As much as she wanted to leave her office and just march out the door she couldn't. It was taking every ounce of her will to not lose focus.
"I need something to keep me awake..." Dr. Leland murmured to herself. "Anything... I wonder if the coffee machine in the break room is fixed yet?"
Dr. Leland got her wish when she heard the shrill sound of Arkham Asylum's warning siren blare across the building's PA system. The noise was enough to awaken her a bit more and cause her to look around in surprise. She composed herself rather quickly and realized that an alarm had been pulled.
"Oh no, not again." Leland said. "I really wish this would happen less often."
Dr. Leland began to stand up from the desk when a voice came in through the speakers to accompany the siren.
"Attention to all Arkham Asylum staff. We are reporting a breakout from the maximum security basement level. Please remain calm. There is only one known escapee so far. All security personnel is directed to neutralize the threat. Any non-security staff is advised to find a saferoom until further notice."
The announcement ended but the alarm continued to sound off. Dr. Leland didn't need to be told twice. Leaving her papers on the desk, Dr. Leland dashed out of the room and into the dark halls of Arkham Asylum.
She didn't make it very far before encountering another person. Dr. Leland rounded a corner and barrelled straight into the chest of security guard Aaron Cash. This made Dr. Leland topple over and onto the stone floor.
"Easy there, you okay?" Cash reached out his hooked hand to Leland.
"Just trying to remember where the safe room is." Leland grabbed the hook and was pulled back to her feet.
"It's nearby. C'mon, I'll take you." Cash motioned for Leland to follow him. "There aren't many other docs in here tonight so you guys should have the place to yourself."
"Thanks for keeping me safe." Leland remarked as she tried to keep up with Cash.
Cash eventually led Leland over to a metal door that looked far cleaner than the dirty stone walls around it. "Here's the saferoom. The others are already in here. We'll take care of the escaped guy. Whoever it is this time."
"We've had worse here. You'll do fine." Leland tried to encourage him.
"Thanks. Now you keep safe. We got a guard in there for extra protection." Aaron told her. "Gotta go." he hurried off down the corridor and presumably towards the basement.
Dr. Leland pushed open the metal door and entered the saferoom. The interior didn't exactly inspire confidence. In actuality was nothing more than a break room nobody ever used with a fancy door. She shut the door behind her and locked it.
Turning around, Dr. Leland saw two of her colleagues and a security guard she didn't quite recognize with her in the room. "Oh, hello there. Are we really the only three doctors working this late?
The other doctors in the room appeared to be complete opposites physically speaking. The tall, slender Dr. Ruth Adams was seated across from the short, chubby Dr. Roger Huntoon.
"Yes, it looks like it." Dr. Adams said. "Make yourself comfortable, Dr. Leland. We'll probably be here a while."
Dr. Leland made her way across the room and sat down at an unoccupied couch.
For a few moments, there was no talking between the staff. The atmosphere was beginning to grow tense and all of them knew it but none of them wanted to break the silence. Dr. Huntoon attempted to be brave and speak. "So, er, who do you think it is that escaped?"
"With any luck, it's someone easy to contain." Dr. Leland replied.
"It's prob'ly the Joker. That freak always gets involved when something goes down here." the guard joined in.
"I know who it is." Dr. Adams claimed. "I overheard one of the guards talking on their radio. It's our patient John Dee."
"You mean Doctor Destiny, the psychic?" said Leland. "Oh dear… This can't be good."
"Mr. Dee looked terrible last time I saw him. How is he able to escape?" asked Huntoon, his eyes darting around nervously.
"Yes, my sleep deprivation experiment took a toll on him." Adams said. "My guess is that he's somehow gotten that jewel he uses back."
"Sleep deprivation? I don't remember giving approval to that." Dr. Leland remarked.
"You didn't. I asked our facilities director, Dr. Arkham." explained Dr. Adams.
Dr. Leland didn't consider herself an angry type but she allowed her face to grimace a little. "I'm head of psychiatry, you have to run these things by me. Especially if it's as inhumane as sleep deprivation."
"It was for a good cause, Dr. Leland. If he can't focus his powers, than Mr. Dee isn't a threat."
"You two really gonna argue about some administrative junk?" asked the guard. "Don't seem like the best time for that."
Dr. Huntoon's body language began to tense up. "What do you think the chances of us dying in here are?"
"Only slightly higher than they are every other day." Dr. Adams replied. Her tone made it impossible for her colleagues to discern whether the remark was meant as a joke or not.
"I'm sure Cash and the other guards have things under control." Dr. Leland said.
"And what if he doesn't?" Dr. Huntoon asked.
"Than I guess we'd all best start getting to know each other before we get killed." the guard remarked. Trying to add a bit of levity he decided to go on. "You all have any hobbies?"
Dr. Adams took the joking question at face value and responded. "When I was younger a built model airplanes."
Dr. Leland stared off at the clock in the saferoom, watching the seconds slip away. She took a moment to assess the situation. A supervillain that had gone up against the Justice League was loose in the asylum and only had a bunch of underpaid security guards to stand in his way. And she was surrounded by two people she barely knew and one person she definitely didn't know. Dr. Leland liked to think of herself as a realist but at that moment she wanted optimism. In her head, she kept repeating to herself that Cash had things under control.
Aaron Cash was quite possibly the longest serving security guard at Arkham. Most died tragically at the hands of the patients or chose to transfer themselves out of there as early as possible. But no matter what, Aaron Cash stuck with it. Not even the loss of his hand to Killer Croc stopped him.
Cash hurried through the halls with two other guards half-walking half-running alongside him.
"C'mon people, we're almost there. We gotta stop this guy before he gets out of the basement." Cash said.
The three guards stopped when they found several other members of the security staff in the hall. Only they weren't exactly on their feet. All the other guards lay on the cold stone floor but didn't appear to be dead if their occasional convulsions were any indication.
"Oh my god… What the hell happened here?" asked one of the guards with Cash.
"I dunno, but it ain't good." Cash said, now looking around for any signs of Doctor Destiny. "We gotta find this creep before he finds us."
"I'm sorry Mr. Cash, I'm afraid it's too late for that."
The guards turned around them and saw Doctor Destiny approaching them slowly but purposefully. Cash and his colleagues backed away at the sight of the man. He was no longer a shriveled man without the use of his legs.
His body had become more muscular and he stood at an impressive six or seven feet. The skeletal features of Doctor Destiny no longer looked weak and malnourished. Instead, the skull had a much more sinister appearance, shadowed underneath the large cloak he now wore. The ruby Destiny had obtained still shone a bright red light and was now attached to the front of his hood.
"No way… I've seen you before and you're not supposed to be this strong looking." Cash said as he and the other guards stared up at Destiny. "This can't be real."
"You should believe your eyes, Cash. It'd do you some good." although it likely wasn't possible for a man with a skull for a head to sneer Doctor Destiny's tone of voice achieved the effect.
"Take him down! We can't let him out here!" Cash ordered the other guards.
All three guards took out their stun guns and aimed them at Doctor Destiny. This only got a chortle out of their opponent. "Easily dealt with. Let's see what your friends are dreaming about…"
Purple smoke begins to come out of the mouths of several the unconscious guards around Cash and company. The haze shifted and warped like it was trying to create something.
"Psychos I can deal with but I ain't getting paid enough to deal with magic." declared one of the guards.
"Keep it together!" Cash ordered. "Stop him now!"
Cash and the other guards fired off their tasers. However as they did this several of the smokey clouds finished forming. The first took the shape of a lion with wild unnaturally red eyes, the second cloud turned a humanoid shape that resembled the typical "Little Green Men" depiction of aliens, and the final cloud became a what would usually be called a knight in shining armour.
The knight happened to materialize in front of where Destiny stood which caused the wires from the stun gun to hit them instead of their intended target. This attack got no reaction from the knight except for it to begin advancing on the guards along with the other dream constructs.
"Uh, Cash, what do we do?" asked one of the guards.
"Keep doing what we're doing. It's all we got right now." Cash said, glaring past the dream creations at Doctor Destiny himself.
"By all means, try your best. I love a good show." Doctor Destiny scoffed.
Aaron Cash never was able to fully remember the events of the clash that followed. There were a few facts he was certain on but the rest was a haze. He knew that the knight had fought him but couldn't quite remember which of the dream constructs went after the other guards. The biggest thing Cash knew about the events that transpired was that him and his partners were smacked around by Destiny's creations with barely any effort.
The last thing he remembered about the encounter was lying on the floor with the knight standing over him and his fellow guards lying unconscious beside him. The knight pointed its sword at Cash but abruptly returned to being a cloud of red mist that promptly dispersed.
Looking around, Cash noticed two things. One, it hurt to move his neck. And two, the other dream constructs had also disappeared.
Doctor Destiny walked down the hall towards Cash at an almost tauntingly slow pace. Cash tried to get up but then felt the boot of Doctor Destiny step on his chest.
"You look tired, Cash. Rest your eyes." the gem around Destiny's neck glowed brighter.
Cash no longer felt in control of his body. All sensations in his body went away as he gradually went to sleep. The last thing he heard for a long time was the voice of Doctor Destiny.
"Sweet dreams."
Things had gotten quiet in the saferoom once more. Adams kept her emotional state under control the most. She simply sat in her recliner, occasionally drumming her fingers along the armrest.
Dr. Huntoon and Dr. Leland, however, both were beginning let the stress of the situation get to them. Leland couldn't keep her eyes focused on one thing while Huntoon kept making small fidgeting movements.
"I can't take this anymore!" Dr. Huntoon stood up from his chair and glanced over at the guard that had been stationed with the doctors. "You there, could you do me a favour?"
"Hmm, wazzat?" muttered the guard, sounding a little out of it. "Sorry, I was spacing out?"
"Radio some other guards. I want to know if we're safe." Huntoon requested.
"Relax, I got the situation under control." the guard dismissed him. "Honestly, I'm lucky it's only you three I gotta protect. If there were any other docs on duty tonight I'm not sure how well I'd do."
"You realize that doesn't boost our confidence?" Dr. Huntoon pointed out, sounding a little frustrated now.
"I think Roger is right." Dr. Leland addressed the guard. "It has been awfully quiet for a while now."
"Fine, if you really think so." the guard took a walkie-talkie off his belt and held it up to his mouth. "Hey anyone come in? I'm with the docs in the saferoom. They wanted me to check on you all. Over."
For a moment there was silence from the other end. The guard looked like he was about to say something but he never got a chance to when purple smoke began to leak from the walkie-talkie. He breathed in some of the smoke and began to stagger forward.
"Anybody else feeling tired all of a sudden?"
The guard's body gave out and he slumped over into a wall, dropping the communicator in the process.
Leland, Adams, and Huntoon all stared at the now unconscious guard, unsure on how to react. The atmosphere grew more anxious when a voice came in through the dropped walkie-talkie.
"Is anybody else out there? This is Doctor Destiny speaking. I'd like to see if there's anyone left?"
After the three doctors briefly exchanged uncertain glances, Dr. Adams went to the walkie-talkie and picked it up.
"This is Dr. Ruth Adams." she identified herself. "Me and my colleagues don't want any trouble."
"Oh, Adams… Don't think I've forgotten about you. You ruined my mind and body with your so-called therapy. I could send you into a coma right now if I wanted. But you and your fellow psychiatrists deserve a much crueler fate. I think I'll toy with you for a while."
"Ruth, I think we aren't safe anymore." Dr. Leland realized. For some reason, not even she quite understood Leland's voice sounded calmer than it ought to have.
Dr. Huntoon rushed up to Adams and pulled the walkie-talkie up to his face. "L-listen, this is Dr. Roger Huntoon speaking now. Me and Dr. Leland are in here and we didn't do anything to you, Mr. Dee."
"To be honest, I don't really care. Now, I'm going to figure out where you are and torment you in person. Have fun."
The walkie-talkie went dead and the three psychiatrists were left in silence for another time. Nobody knew quite what to do. If they stayed in the saferoom, Doctor Destiny would find them and, possibly quite literally, dissect their minds. If they left, the exact same thing would happen but only faster.
After thinking over the options, Dr. Leland decided to speak. "It can't end like this. We have to do something." she smiled as a comforting solution to their problems came to her. "We're going to need Batman."
A/N: Sorry to any fans of Aaron Cash, but I didn't have much use for him in this story. He ended up being a minor character in a cast of minor characters. But I am planning to add more well-known characters in the next chapter. I know the premise for this story is a bit odd since it features minor characters and the antagonist isn't exclusively a Batman villain but I feel like I did an okay job. Next week should have a brand new chapter of this story.