CRIMINAL LEGACIES
PROLOGUE
"Mr Dent, do you know why you're here?" Dr Leland asked the angry teenage boy sitting in front of her. He wore a scowl on his half burned face and brushed a hand through his white blonde hair, his deep black eyes glaring back at her.
She checked her watch. "Mr Dent?" she repeated.
The walls were bone white and tiled, like in Arkham Asylum, he thought. They made every sound he made, the crinkle of his jumpsuit as he moved, the clink of his chains, every booming heatbeat, echo off the room louder. This burgandy wine red jumpsuit he had to wear was uncomfortable, and the way it fitted was unflattering for anyone. His feet were uncovered too, so the bitter cold of the tile floor was making him shiver now and then.
He grunted. "Drop the formalities, Doc. Just call me Dan." he murmured.
"Well, Daniel." she sighed, reajusting her glasses on her nose. "I had to deal with your father a couple decades ago, and you're turning out to be stubborn, just like him. I've had to go through this very process thousands of times since Ivy had Roselynn, then all the others started getting ideas..." she trailed off. "Dr Arkham built this section of Arkham Island to take care of all you teenage lunatics and reinstated me as the 'headmistress', because God knows how Mayor Hill has been pressuring us about the importance of education, even for the mentally insane. And so, after that shootout at Gotham Bank you assisted your father with, you're being locked up here at a little place we liked to call Arkham High."
He grinned and rattled his handcuffs. "Great." he muttered. "So this place is a school for the insane. I'm telling you now, don't expect me to act nice with anyone."
She smirked, putting her well manicured nails onto the desk. "Mr Daniel Dent, if I were you, I'd take my advice. Try to make friends with the friendlier ones, like Crane, Tetch or Nygma, because having some friends in here is vital. Watch out for Diego or Jones, they'll pick a fight for about any reason whatsoever." she warned. "Oh and stay away from Isley or any of the Rogues gang, they are the top of the ranks around here. They won't hesitate to get rid of new scum like you in the blink of an eye. Though your father and her mother were dating at one point, so she may find a use for you instead."
"Whatever." he replied in his rough, gruff voice, turning his head to look up at the celing. White, like the walls. There was a mark on it that looked just like a bat in what looked like black nail polish. Was that supposed to be there?
Dr Leland sighed, checking her watch again. "The guards will take you to you cell and give you your schedule for the morning. Take note we do leave the cell doors unlocked in the daytime, so feel free to visit another inmate, or walk down to the Rec Room. Just remember there are guards on every block, so don't try anything funny." she said, nodding to the door, where two burly guards seized Dan by the arms and dragged him out of the office.
He was pulled along the long white corridors to a grim white cell with an old white bed. What was it about this place and the colour white?
They unlocked his handcuffs and handed him a sheet of tough paper, covered in dates and times.
"Better keep that safe." One guard barked. "If we find you out of class then the doctors give us permission to beat your ass to a pulp."
With that, the guards left him on his own in his little white cell, locking the door behind them, and leaving Dan no choice but to go to sleep for the night.
CHAPTER 1
He must have fallen asleep easily, because when he opened his eyes the light was streaming through the small window in his cell, and the bulletproof glass that had been there last night was now opened to let him out. As he sat up, rubbing his head, he noticed a new person sitting forward on a chair in the corner. He seemed to be deep in thought until he spoke.
"Good. You're awake." he said, standing up and holding out his hand. "I am Elliot Nygma, the most intellectiual student in this school, if you can even call it that," he muttered. "And known as the offspring of Edward Nygma, the Riddler, the smartest in Gotham. And the one person Headmistress Leland chose to welcome you." He kept his hand up and Dan stood up, just looking at him, blankly. His hair was a mess of wild ginger curls that seemed to defy gravity, and contrasted with his red worn jumpsuit. His skin was almost a grey colour from the lack of sunlight, which formed expecially grey rings around his piercing green eyes.
After a minute or so, Elliot dropped his hand and sighed. "Yeah yeah, I'll get over the introductions and cut to the chase." he snapped, insulted by Dan's imcompetance to shake a hand. Dan was simply groggy at this early in the morning.
Elliot lead his out of the cell to look down to corridor. "This is your cell, as you know, and on your right is my cell. Don't worry about remembering where the other numbskulls are, it's pointless." he told him and Dan grunted in response.
He followed Elliot to the Rec Room, which turned out to be a dim lit place where the students (or inmates) of Arkham High went to hang out and watch TV. There was quite a lot of chatting, but whenever it got too loud, the guards would yell for them to shut up and it would quiten down a bit.
"This is the Recreation Room." Elliot explained, then heading over to a group of friends. "Hey fellows." he said, smiling. He pulled Dan closer to them. "This is the newbie, Daniel Dent."
The three teens smiled back. One had long dark brown hair around his shoulders and wore a single piercing on his lip. The other two looked extremely similar, the boy with big blue eyes and cropped blonde hair, and the girl with bigger blue eyes and long ash blonde hair. "Hi." they all replied back.
"Harvey's kid?" The piercing boy asked. "Who with?"
Dan rubbed his head. It was always difficult keeping his temper down in a place where everyone knew him for his parents, not for the crimes the boy had commited. That ticked him off. "Grace Lamont. His girlfriend from when he was a DA, they erm, got back together." he finished lamely.
"Greetings, Daniel! My name is March, as of the March Hare, and this is my twin sister Alice..." the blonde boy introduced.
"Nice to meet you, Dan." the blonde girl murmured.
"...And my friend Jonathan Crane Jr here." he added.
The boy with the piercing waved back with a smile. "March and Alice and the Mad Hatter's kids, if you couldn't tell. And I'm from the Scarecrow." he replied, hastily.
Dan nodded once in understanding. Elliot carried on. "These are the best people in here." he said, patting Dan on the back. "These are the people that aren't going to slit your throat when you're not looking. Unlike them." He pointed a thumb behind his back at group of teens that were laughing together.
"Yeah. The Gotham Rogues." Jonathan murmured, turning his head to look at them. "Made up of Kaden Riley, and his notorious Scarface puppet, King Jones, Diego, weird he has no surname, and Roselynn Isley. I personally think Roselynn is a bitch."
"We all do, Johnny. One time she gave me a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day and they were filled with some plant chromosomes type stuff. Couldn't get rid of the rashes for a month." Elliot agreed, ruffling his hair. "And don't forget the worst of the scum - Minnie Quinn."
Jonathan smiled at the floor. "Ah, yeah, Miriam. The Joker's little joke."
Dan turned to look at a little girl who was sitting with the other Rogues, but was scowling and had her head in her hands. Her long ivy green hair was tied into two braids that reached her hips and skin that was permanantly dyed a bone white. "She's the youngest in this looney bin, only just turned 15. And is completely psycho." Nygma warned, turning back.
"I think she's cute." Jonathan chorkled, grinning. "And I would still date her, even if her dad would need to throw me into a tub of chemicals before he thought I was fit to have a relationship with Minnie. The whole 'keeping the clown bloodline going' melarki."
Nygma looked at him in disgust. "I know she's identical to her mother apart from the skin and hair but really? How would you be able to love someone who reminds you of the Joker? He's a monster!" he hissed.
"I heard when she was only 9, she stabbed the other kids at her day center when they asked about her skin condition." Alice added, biting her lip.
"She has the smile of the Chesire Cat, looking down at a lost Alice." March sighed. "And I would stop looking now, before she catches you."
Dan looked over at her closely, studying the way her hair fell around her butt, emphasising her small waist and gliding over her prominent chest. Her eyes were bright and blue, he could spot that from where he was standing. Her lips were dyed blood red, matching her jumpsuit, and her hand and feet were small and delicate. Of course they would be stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people, so they were far from delicate in a fight.
In that moment, Miriam flicked her eyes over to him and grinned, a deadly grin that almost split her face and brought out her cute little dimples. She had went from looking depressed to looking like a murderous psychopathic girl in a matter of seconds.
He quickly turned away, but he could still feel Miriam's eyes, burning into the back of his mind.