The Writing Girl23: Thank you for your review! I was so excited to read it. I agree with you, for some reason Scott could fit in better than the other X-men, in a DC world like Gotham, he has a dark side even in marvel verse that could make him sort of similar in principle to Batman although with different concepts and purposes. Lol, about Harley getting away from him, I didn't mean for it to be a serious skirmish, he was just sort of confused and not sure what to make of her silly antics, like if she's even a real villain to worry about. But he does need to step his guard up haha, maybe this freedom from being away from the x-men is getting to his head, we'll see, if his lack of responsibility spreads to himself. You bring up some very good points and I'll try to address them in this next chapter! Thanks for your time and thoughts!
"A field trip to the Arkham Asylum?"
Scott Summers stared in disbelief at his peer, Emma Frost, repeating what she had said.
She chided, "It'll be fun! For internship research purposes, some other psych students and I got our professor to get us passes into the underground of Gotham's most dangerous, notorious criminals!"
Scott shivered and skeptically mumbled, "Scary, they shouldn't let people in there."
"It's heavily secured, are you coming or what? I might need a big strong handsome X-Man to protect me."
He gave in, to which she cheered happily.
Arkham Asylum turned out to be a tall fortress of a clinic on a lonely hill, with a spiraling drive way.
Inside of the large and hollow property, a spiral staircase seemed to lead endlessly down into a black abyss.
Putting his Asylum Pass around his neck, Scott followed Emma and some other students and a guard.
There were rows of cells on either side of them as they walked down a dim corridor.
Scott glanced to the side, in a barred cell a pretty and slender young woman with voluminous red hair in a white jumpsuit peered over her shoulder at him, large ivy-green eyes sparkling seductively directly at him. She reminded him of Jean a little. He watched mesmerized as she continued to watch his moving form, while pouring water over some potted plants on a shelf.
Emma nudged him sharply in the ribs, causing him to grunt. "That's Poison Ivy! The most dangerous woman in Gotham, locked up right here! Better not get too close or lost in her charms, she's poisonous." The blonde sarcastically grinned at Scott.
In the next cell, a tall man with broad shoulders and dark hair and a strangely textured face with exaggerated features, grinned out from the bars. A girl outside the bars was interviewing him. Scott called out, "Harleen! What are you doing here?"
Her goldenrod pig tails jiggled as she adjusted her glasses and looked at Scott, the same vacant and perpetually puzzled face, "What a surprise! Scott, I intern here, I'm a peer counselah, remember? Call me Harley, my mother called me Harleen. Now if you excuse me, I must get back to some research."
She resumed her conversation through the bars.
Scott walked on, not keen on the idea of walking through the cells like the inmates and patients were zoo animals.
Emma stopped to observe a man sitting on his cot hunched over. The leading doctor on staff explained to the students what was significant about his psychology.
"You may know of him as Two-Face, and also the clean-cut district attorney of Gotham, Harvey Dent. His psychological deformities are apparent with the physical."
Scott looked in at his silhouetted profile, the guy looked normal, like one of those poster boy politicians.
Emma uttered to him, "I read about this guy. The Batman brought him here, much like 50% of the inmates in the bottom level cells."
At the mention of Batman, the man turned his face to fully look through the bars. The other side of his face was mangled and scarred beyond repair, a face one would imagine on a zombie.
A boy with a goatee that came with the student group gasped audibly, "How does someone become like that?"
Scott looked back at Harvey Dent, staring into the face of humanity ravaged and marred by the dark side. This was a good man who had given into the provocations of the darkness. Evil fought harder the better a person was or the more good they had.
As they walked back up towards the sunlight, Emma requested, "Can I hide some of my valuable things in your room? My roommate is a kleptomaniac, she keeps stealing my things and I'm this close to telling her I'm telepathic and I know what she's doing. The little bitch is a natural thief, and she's just as catty as those fur balls that make my allergies act up."
Reluctantly, Scott appeased, "You might as well move in, you barely spend time in your room anyway. I didn't bring that much stuff, so I have some extra closet room for yours. Dick's gone most nights, he's definitely a night owl, so he shouldn't mind you free loading our room."
The pair grabbed food at the campus cyber cafe.
A solid young man with broad rugby shoulders joined them, smiling amiably. He had big glasses on, and curled brown hair. He was Hank McCoy, an upperclassman who had also graduated high school from Xavier's and was now in his final year at GU.
Emma told him about their day at the asylum. "It was absolutely fascinating, how the minds of these complex individuals work is above the average human's reasoning. Some of them are geniuses, I find them very relate-able "
Scott worriedly said, "Sounds like you're getting ideas...You're not researching them for your own evil purposes...are you?"
Emma narrowed her eyes and laughed aloud, "Scott, darling, you look so concerned. I gave up my villainy a long time ago. Getting ideas...? Maybe."
She wiggled her nose to the side impishly.
Scott rounded his eyes at her, genuinely worried, and Hank guffawed. "I've heard rumors about Arkham... Would certainly never want to end up there."
Emma affirmed her friend, "You could never end up there, I can't imagine you ever going crazy and losing yourself. Your heart is immune to corruption, Henry, you're the most gentle and intelligent beast."
Hank looked at Emma and told Scott, "I'm taking the train down to the X-Mansion, need me to tell Jean anything?"
"Ask her when she can visit I guess, I don't want to push it."
Emma crowed, "Finally, I can meet the Jean Scott has dreams about!"
Scott cried out, "I do not have dreams about Jean!"
He stood up and threw a biodegradable napkin down, leaving his friends, "Don't tell her that!"
Emma confided in Hank, "Telepath-sleeps right next to him-knows, yeah, he so does dream about her."
Hank replied, "Sleeps right next to him? You two aren't-."
Emma blew out a frustrated breath, "Unfortunately, no. Just friends. I have bad allergies to cats."
It was cold in his dorm room when he got in, and as usual, his roommate was not there, and the window was wide open, when Scott remembered closing it.
He flipped a kitchen knife from the tiny sink in the dorm, into his hand, when he heard a very high-pitched giggle in his room.
"Whatcha gonna do with that, stab a goyrle like me?"
Scott uttered out a shout, at the sight of the white-faced, black masked red and black clown from his first night at GU.
She cackled girlishly, obnoxiously.
"Look I ain't gonna pull no tricks, take off my mask."
He wavered, "What?"
She grinned cheekily, "Well take it off!"
He held the knife up, and with his other hand, ripped her mask off.
Bright blue eyes shone at him, large and vacuous, docile even.
He wiped the rest of her face paint off and pulled her spiky hat off. She yelled in his face, "Suh-pwise!"
Scott speechlessly dropped the knife. Harley Quinzel exclaimed rapidly, "I followed ya that night you stopped me from havin' my fun! Now since I'ze showed ya mine...you show me YOURS!"
She leaned forward with her hand on her hips. Scott gulped, Emma had been right, this girl was a stage 5 stalker.
But her face was so youthful and sweet and vulnerable. She urged him, "I won't tell if you won't tell Scott! I know what you are, and in truth, I sort of admire you for it! Maybe we could even work together!"
He hardened, "I won't be mugging people or committing petty crimes for the sake of disorder anytime soon."
She flopped dramatically on his bed, the back of her hand raised against her forehead. "Woe is I, ya see, Harley Q. didn't have the nicest family, in fact, my brotha's a loser who used my schola-ship money on his squandering, and my dad was a cruel con man! That's one of the main reasons why I'm studying to be a psychologist, to understand what could make a man do what he did to our family. I've always been made fun of by the people around me. I have a mad love, don't you have that one mad love? That one burning love for a person that just oughta drive you crazy?" Her loopy Brooklyn Accent went up and down in volume, "That poiss-on you want so bad, who you would do anything for? And you know they ain't good for you sometimes, but you just keep going back?"
Scott tensed, "Yeah."
She suggested, "Well as your occupational therapist, why don't I suggest that I help you get over that poiss-son and you can help me with mine!"
Scott sat down next to her on the bed, "Why do you keep going back to someone when you know you shouldn't? You should know better than that."
Harley sighed, her goldenrod pigtails bobbing, "'Cause I'm the only one who understands him! Who'll love him, and everyone says he won't love me back, but I jus' knowzit he needs me! But I can't stay let down 'cause of him, I just got outta that awful loony bin, and he's what made me loony!"
Scott put his arm around her, protectively, "Well he's far away now, and he can't bother you. You'll be fine, you're alright to me, Harley."
She popped her pink bubble gum loudly, a bubble bursting in his face. It smelled like strawberry mint, a flavor from a pack of gum Scott had just bought. "Is that my gum? Harley, how long have you been here?"
She coyly touched her nose, smiling at him and grabbed his sunglasses off his face. Scott shut his eyes and lunged at her. She bent out of reach and blurted out, "Let's play a game, the first game in getting to know each otha bettah!"
She ran her hands down his chest and stomach, titillating his blind senses.
Her lips brushed against his as she muttered, "Relax and go with what you feel ya big stiffy. Listen to that thing called intuition."
He moved against her and found his sunglasses in her hands behind her, feeling with his fingers
She gave him several long smooches as they tussled for his sunglasses.
2 hours later in typical college dorm make out style, she left his room, triumphant, and pigtails bouncing unevenly.
The girl across the hall watched hawk-like at the upperclassman girl sneaking out of her neighbor's room.
Scott appeared at the door, grinning from ear to ear. Emma shot out, "She's actually psycho you know, like palpably insane. She is that crazy girl you get restraining orders against."
Scott grinned lopsidedly, "Call me crazy, but...I think she's cute! She drives me wild. I've never made out with a girl for that long!"
Emma slammed her door.
Feeling fresh, damp soft green grass rooted in mud, Scott bent down to receive a rugby ball his friend and practice partner threw at him.
As Scott hustled down the field, he ran head to head with Hank who confided in between pants, "Had tea with Jean, she's juggling subjects as always. Did mention that she went on a date with Warren once. Wants you to know she's still coming to visit. Didn't say when."
Scott halted, digging his cleats into the ground, "You mean she's dating Warren?" Hank ran ahead of him, catching the ball, "She said she went on a date with him. That's all Scott."
Scott grunted as he tackled an opposing team member, "I guess-it's official-we're not together."
Hank helpfully said, "It just means you're still kind of together, but you can see other people."
Scott slide-tackled into the mud, "We'll see."
Scott tried not to chuckle as he handed a pair of green tights to Dick that he had found on the floor. "Grayson, I think these might be yours."
It could have been his or some girl's that was with him, but either way they were green tights.
Dick laughed nervously, grabbing them, "Golly, thanks Scott, I should, uh return them." Scott complimented the Batman poster Dick had hung above his bed, "Batman's a real hero around here I assume. He sounds good, why does the public hate him?"
Dick exasperatedly sighed, "They don't exactly hate him, well some of us don't, he's just not registered so he's technically breaking laws, he's a criminal for the secret hero stuff he does. He's a vigilante, and people fear him because they don't know him-he's not like some public senator shaking hands with everyone."
Scott could relate to that, though on a different scale.
Scott questioned, "There are a lot of mobs and mafia gangs here?"
Dick nodded, "It's Batman's job to stop them, the ones that evade the crooked police."
"You care a lot about justice, did you say you were going to be a lawyer or something?"
Dick laughed, "I'm the boy genius around here, I don't need to be a lawyer to bring justice. My parents were acrobats, we had a trapeze act at the circus and some gangsters working for the Mobster Tony Zucco sabotaged their wires and killed them. I'm going to do more than just serve some mobsters in trial, I'm going to effectively wipe Gotham clean. With the degree to do it."
Scott could see why Dick was a fan of Batman, and he too emphasized with the young boy.
"I was an orphan, my parents died in a plane crash, saving me and, my brother. I know they gave me their lives, but I still feel pretty guilty about having it."
Dick patted Scott's back, "I wouldn't get too torn up, it couldn't be your fault. Word of advice, because I think you're a decent fellow. I hear you've been going around with that Harley Quinzel. For your own safety, stay away from her, she's not what she seems."
Scott grinned, "Sure, she's a bit kooky, but she's alright when you get to know her."
As if he could not understand how Scott could like a girl like Harley, Dick sighed, "Suit yourself."
Venturing down to the dark labs where Harley could often be found working late, Scott approached her poring over a document.
She smiled at him merrily, her large glasses covering her eyes and her blonde hair tied up in a bun. She wore a tight red turtleneck underneath her white lab coat and she spoke crisply and evenly, without an accent, perhaps only a hint. "Right when I was just starting to miss you! I'm finishing up some analysis's on Mr. J, but I let him know I'm over him."
Scott skeptically questioned, "You had a pretty weird and long relationship with this Mr. J are you sure about that?" She was talking normally now which was weird, but Scott wondered how Dick or Emma could call this girl with such a sensible dictation insane or foolish.
She leaned over her lab table and grabbed his shirt collars, yanking him towards her, "Since I've been seeing more of you, I've been visiting him less and less. I can't be around him, he's always saying things he knows I want to hear, and you're always saying things you don't know I do want to hear. True, super-criminals are glamorous, but you make being good look so good!"
She kissed him rewarding the young mutant.
"Dick said I should stay away from you."
Harley giggled, "Well Mr. Dick Grayson was raped by a giant tarantula. Or so I heard."
That diverted Cyclops' attention.
Running out to a sleek black car, Dick pulled a black mask on his face.
He hopped in, and was met by a low, growling voice, "The night waits for us."
Dick groveled, "I have several floors to run down!"
The car zoomed off, towards the city over which the Batman symbol lit up the sky.
Settling into his bed, Dick prompted Scott who was reading a book in his, "I need you to help me out."
Scott put his book down on his chest, and Dick babbled excitedly, "It's about a girl that lives across from us. I need you to ask out your friend Emma, on a double date, which shouldn't be too hard for you. Tell her without saying I said it, that Selina should come as the double with me."
"You want to go on a date with the cat girl? All that teasing me about Harley being crazy and you want to go out with the creepy cat girl who's got at least 8 of them hidden in her dorm? Emma counted! And she hardly goes out, she just stays in knitting and being creepy with her kitties. Fat chance she'd go out if Emma or I asked. I'm with Harley now, I can't go on dates for you. Also, Selina's an upperclassman, would she want to go out with younger kids?"
Dick pleaded, "Fine, just come along as friends, accompanying roommates on a date. I'm sure if you ask Emma to ask, it would work out. I don't know how to talk to her, Scott!"
Scott snorted, "Probably because you can't talk to her? She never leaves the dorm?"
Dick threw his pillow at Scott, who caught it and threw it back.
Dick begged, "There's something about her, so mysterious and frisky I need to get to know her."
Scott propped himself on his elbow and consented, "Okay, I'll see what I can do. I don't know how you can describe her as mysterious or frisky, but like you say Grayson, suit yourself."
Dick bounced up on his bed and yodeled eagerly.
Scott sent Emma notice of what he discussed with Dick, through their telepathic link. She surprisingly supported the idea, saying she would take care of fixing Selina up for a double date the next day.
Not much action here, but I thought I'd rip Harley's mask off fast like ripping off a band aid. They always revealed her so fast and easily in the cartoons/comics, so I went for that. Should Dick be Nightwing or Robin?