Killer Obsession

Chapter 2

First Encounter

Eight Weeks Earlier…

"Good Morning, Stix!" a young woman said to an Arkham Guard. John Stix looked at her. He was clad in black army boots, dressed in long, thick, dark blue pants, he wore a dark grey body armor that guarded his chest and back. White words that were labeled Arkham, a small one in the front of his left shoulder, while a large one was printed in between his shoulders. He also wore a long sleeved shirt under the armor, the sleeves were rolled up, it too was a dark blue. He had dark green eyes and dark brown hair that was slicked back.

"Mornin', Ms. Young," he said to Miss Shelly Young. She wore a dark red skirt the reached down just above her knees. She wore a dark red high heels and white lab coat that cutoff just below her waist. The word Young was printed on the coat. Her lips coated in red lipstick shown in the light, her black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail. Her light brown eyes seemed to shine in the dim light and giving it a awe inspiring appearance.

Stix reached out his hand and Young reached out and shook it, but added, "Ah ah, it's Doctor Young now!" she said it proudly while wagging her finger with her freehand, but wasn't really free. Due to the fact, that it had a clipboard, with several lines of paper attached to it.

"Heh, yeah, shall we?" Rick said bowing, while waving his hand towards an elevator that only stood a few feet away.

"We shall," she said with a smile and walked into the elevator. Stix followed her in and stood next her and crossed his arms. They both stood there silently, waiting. They waited until Young grew impatient and piped up, "Are we not going?" she asked.

"Just give it a minute," Stix said holding up a finger. They sat there only a moment longer, until, several guards dressed similar fashion to Stix, but they wore dark grey helmets. They couldn't look at their faces because it was covered by a black visor. Twelve extra guards clambered into the elevator.

"About time!" Stix said sternly, while punching a button that caused them to descend. They reached all the way down to the first floor. Young expected for them to stop there, but, surprisingly, they continued to descend.

"Open it up!" one of the guards yelled into his radio. Young looked in between the grates she and the guards were standing on. Her eyes widened as the floor beneath the grates began to open. She thought the floor wasn't opening fast enough and thought they would crash. She panicked and began to breathe heavily. Fortunately, they made it through wihtout a scratch. Young began to calm down. Stix stared at her questioningly.

"Got a thing with elevators... Doc?" Stix asked her. Young nodded and held her head. "Now, before we do this, I gotta ask… Are you ready for this?" he asked seriously.

Young shook her head and looked back at him, "Yes," she said. "Well not really…" she said flipping a few pages back, leading to some file papers on her clipboard. "All it says, is that he has suffered a very severe case of 'atavism'? I mean, no names, references, nothing!" Stix nodded. "Listen, I didn't just get this job because of my expertise in psychology. I'm ready." She said assuring him.

"I hope you're right," Stix said quietly. He exited the elevator with the other guards following. Young stared at his back for a moment, but then followed.

Young stepped into a place she did not expect to see. She was in some type of sewer. The walls were thickly covered in grime. Water dripped from the ceiling and landed on the damp floor. It was a long hallway that seemed to stretch on forever. It was pulled into an arch that towered at least twenty feet into the air.

Why so BIG…? She thought. "Coming?" Stix yelled back at her, quite a distance away. Young tried to run to catch up, but was slowed, due to her high heels. Did, definitely, not dress appropriately for this! She yelled in her head.

Young finally caught up with Stix and his crew. They stood waiting in front of a large steel door. It stood at least eight feet tall; it, as well as the walls, was covered in grime. A very small glass window was placed in the door, it was close to eye level. The window was impossible to see through, due to fog and grime.

Stix walked up to a small keypad and punched five different numbers. When he was done a few bricks slid back revealing another pad. "Whoa!" Young exclaimed.

"Heh, yeah," Stix said chuckling. He placed his hand on the pad and a green light appeared reading his fingerprints. When it was done even more bricks slid back revealing a combo lock. Stix quickly span it back and forth putting in five different numbers. When he was done with that he pushed the lock in and more bricks slid back, but this time on both sides of the door. Stix pulled out a key and put it into the small keyhole. Another guard did the same. Stix held three fingers and counted down. 3…2…1… They twisted their keys and a loud click echoed from the door.

"Alright you know the drill! Get ready!" one of the guards yelled. Stix walked over to a large steel cabinet and opened it. Several assault rifles were lined up in the cabinet. Stix handed each gun out one by one. Until, finally, he reached over and typed a few numbers into a keypad and small box opened revealing a small cylinder. Stix carefully handed the cylinder to a guard. The cylinder was a steel grey, with a red button atop it. A dial was placed in the center of it, numbered from one to twenty. At twenty there was a skull with lightening strikes coming from it. The Guard tuned it to eight.

"Jesus! What… What do you have locked up in there?" Young asked sternly.

"You'll see…" Stix said grabbing the last rifle and cocking it. A guard walked over to the door and twisted a small bar and pushed it into the door. White steam hissed from the sides of the door and it opened a little. Two other guards came over and helped open the door. They grunted from exertion as they finally opened it all the way.

"Move! Move! Move!" a guard yelled waving others in. Stix grabbed Young by the arm and hauled her in. She nearly tripped chasing after Stix.

When they were in, two guards slammed the door behind them and locked it. The room fell dark, but Stix flipped two very large switches and lights flickered on. Young was shown the great under belly of Arkham. Similar to the hallway, they stood in another one, but it only stretched a couple dozen feet in front of them until, it dropped off into disgustingly black water. Beyond that… was darkness.

Young was amazed, but was still curious. "What's up with the guns?" she asked.

"Oh, these?" Stix said holding it up. "These babies can blow a man's arm off with a single bullet." Stix said holding it tight to his shoulder, while aiming it at the ceiling.

"And you need those, for him?" she asked, gesturing towards the water.

"Definitely" said one of the guards piping up.

"By the way… where is he?" she asked, ignoring the guard and directing her attention towards Stix.

"Well, he usually tries to-" Stix pulled Young behind him and held up his weapon, as did the other guards. Young turned to see what they were troubled about, but was completely taken aback at what she saw.

A large hand erupted from the drop into the water. It was followed by a humongous arm the lurched up and landed on the surface of the damp floor. It was quickly followed by yet another humongous arm; it too landed on the edge. It caused cracks in the stone floor. The arms pulled up the most horrifying thing Young has ever seen. It stood up and roared at the ceiling. It was definitely over TWICE the size of the average human. Dark green scales were wrapped around its humongous, grotesque, body, but some whitish-yellowish scales lined his chest, stomach, and part of the front of its arms. It wore dark orange-red pants. Just above its disgustingly large feet, the pants' cut-off were muddied until they were almost black. A thick muddied rope helped held up the large pants. Its feet and hands were huge, dark yellow "claws" stuck out from them. Its face was the worst… thick razor sharp teeth jutted up from its jaws, refusing the lips to cover them. Its nose was thick and didn't stick out like a human's. Its nostrils were thin slits. Its eyes were a thick yellow; its pupils were pitch black slits. Dark grey, steel gauntlets were attached to its wrist and ankles. Thick chains hung from them and rattled violently. Some type of neck brace was wrapped about its huge muscular neck; it too had a chain hanging from it. But it had a strange blue light illuminating from all around it.

The beast looked down at the guards. It gave a final roar before it charged at them. Young was surprised at the guards for not starting to fire at the... thing. "Do something!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Just as she said that, the guard with the strange cylinder pressed the button.

The creature roared in agony, as blue sparks erupted from the collar. The beast tripped and fell forward. It began making strange sounds. Like… if it were crying. The beast got to its feet and looked up at the ceiling. It was then Young realized, that the beast wasn't crying… it was laughing!

"Get it detained!" a guard yelled. The guards ran towards the walls and pulled chains from the walls and floor. It took more than a few of them to get the chains over to the beast and attach them to it. They attached them to its wrist and ankle gauntlets. A guard pressed a large red button on the wall and the chains began to pull themselves into the walls and floor. The beast stood high, until, it was brought to its knees. The chain pulled, until they were tight as can be. It forced the beast to hold up its arms level with its shoulders. The guards attached a chain to its collar. Another guard pressed a different button and the chain pulled the beast head down just a foot or two.

It kneeled there completely, immobilized. Young was still very shaken up. Stix walked up to the creature and slammed it in the face with his rifle. The beast merely chuckled, "Scare you!" Stix yelled finishing his sentence, from before. He walked over to Young and touched her shoulder, causing her to "jump out of her shoes". She looked at him. "Are you okay?" he asked with much concern. She nodded and straightened her coat and picked up her clipboard.

Young looked over to the… thing… that had frightened her. The beast returned her look and its lips twitched into a sick, twisted, grin.

"It's alright," Stix said comfortably, "Those chains are of titanium steel! There completely unbreakable!" he continued to effortlessly trying to cheer her up.

"Who funds you?" she asked jokingly.

"Well," he said with a chuckle, "We get most of our funding from big-man Bruce Wayne!" he said calmly with a comforting smile.

The beast groaned and rolled its eyes. A guard got a silver chair and placed a few feet away from the creature. "Don't worry," Stix said again, "Your way out of its reach."

Young nodded and confidently walked up to the chair and sat. The beast leaned far as he could get towards Young. Young looked up, "Let's start small," she said unwavering.

The beast eyes widened a little and leaned back. Pondering on how she got over it so fast… Most of the others needed weeks of therapy.

This is what she got herself into and she needed to finish it. "What do they call you?"

It laughed for moment and then looked back at her. "Killer… Croc…" its voice was deep and gravely. Young's spine was chilled at the sound of its voice. But she did not show it. "Yours?" it asked.

"Doctor Shelly Young…" she said.

Killer Croc smiled. This one is different… he thought.

"Seeing as in your current… condition-"

"Condition?" Croc retorted, "Is that what they're callin' it?"

"At the moment," she said staring straight into his eyes, "Tell me, how did you get this way?"

"Tell me, why I should tell you?" he asked coldly.

"Hm," she said standing up and pulled the chair closer. She sat right in front of him. She looked up at him, the smell of his disgusting breath reached her delicate nostrils, screaming for to get some distance. "Tell me, how you got this way?" she asked stubbornly. No one expected to for her to do that... not even Croc...

He just smiled and laughed for a moment before returning her gaze. "For a bitch… you got balls!" he laughed some more.

Young did not share in the amusement. "So it seems," she said then asked a devastating question, to Croc at least. "I bet it was painful?"

Croc stopped his laughter and looked down at her. "What do you know about pain?" he asked angrily.

"Oh? did I strike a nerve?" she said with a smile and sarcasm. Croc brought his face to close to hers. "May you please tell me how you got this way?" she said confidently her smile growing bigger.

Croc pulled back and looked away, he looked back, "I was born with it…" he said quietly…