Jonathan Crane, a name that struck fear into people's hearts
He liked that. He liked that he was feared by the population of Gotham. Fear was his obsession, his life, his passion, and his purpose. It controlled his life in every way possible. Yes, Jonathan Crane all but breathed fear.
And there was a lot of it in his hometown of Gotham. The city was bursting with criminals, murderers, rapists, and psychopaths. The general population was almost always afraid all the time.
Crane enjoyed this, he enjoyed watching how a person lets fear rule their life. Women and even men practically run down city streets in broad daylight, in fear they'd be mugged or killed.
He liked to watch this from dark allies, it fascinated him; how people let fear rule their lives every waking moment.
If you really think about it, you do the same thing. Do you walk a little faster or avert your gaze when you see a shady-looking man? Do you purposefully take a longer route home to avoid being around sketchy parts of your town?
Those behaviors are what fascinates Jonathan Crane so, as fear rules a person's life, the study of fear rules Jonathan's.
He was even fascinated by his own fear, like the fear he was experiencing right at this moment.
He didn't exactly classify it as fear, per say, but more of an unconscious reflex to be wary of something.
Today, his 'wary reflex' was of the Batman.
Jonathan was hiding out in a small, seemingly abandoned apartment in the Narrows. He was hiding from the Batman, who was searching for him, possibly at this very moment.
He was in the basement of his temporary 'home', working on a new fear drug to test out on his captives. He turned his head to the side, glancing at his two 'patients'. They were both still unconscious; he had injected them with a sedative as they walked past him on an abandoned street. Not an easy task for a wiry, tall man like himself, but he managed.
Jonathan turned his eyes back to his work, his pen flying across several pages spread out on a desk he had found upstairs. Only a single lamp was on, its light reflected off Jonathan's glasses, giving him an eerie look.
He scratched out numbers, and checked the vials that were simmering on a burner next to him. His brow was set with concentration as he worked.
Suddenly, one of the prisoners started groaning, their head lolling to the side. Jonathan turned in his chair, and took off his glasses. It was the young woman he had abducted; she was platinum blonde, obviously dyed, with grey eyes and rather skimpy attire. The other, who was still slouched in his chair, was of similar age with raven hair. He was still completely unconscious.
"Good morning." Jonathan said quietly, with mock hidden in his friendly tone. He stood from his chair to come eye to eye with the girl, whose eyes were darting around the room nervously. He removed the duct tape on her mouth, so she could speak.
"G-Good morning…" she said uncertainly, which made Crane lift his eyebrows in amusement. "Where am I?"
"Undisclosed location." Jonathan answered shortly, never letting his icy blue gaze waver from the girl.
"Who... are you, then?" the girl asked, trying a new approach.
"You'll figure that out soon enough." Jonathan answered, and picked up a syringe from his battered worktable. He had stolen most of his tools from an old medical lab that had been destroyed a few years back. The storage still held medical supplies like syringes and test vials, which made Jonathan's task of getting ingredients and supplies much easier.
He filled the obviously used syringe with a slightly cloudy fluid, and approached the girl, who thrashed against her bonds, screaming already. Jonathan pushed her left shoulder down, so her left side was still. He injected the substance quickly, before turning and walking back to his desk to retrieve his mask.
"T-That's it?" the girl whimpered, glancing at her slightly bleeding arm.
"My dear," Jonathan started, putting his mask on over his head. "Do you even know what it is?"
The girl looked at his back, confused, until her eyes widened, and she started to scream in terror. Jonathan smirked from underneath his mask, and turned on the shrieking girl.
...
"Red, are you okay?" Harley Quinn asked, pushing her friend's arm in an attempt to get her attention. "Ya seem kinda outta it today…" They were sitting outside, on the slightly-brown grass behind the asylum, it was recreational time.
Poison Ivy opened one eyes to look at Harley. "I'm communicating with the grass right now." She snapped, before closing her eye and concentrating again. "It's difficult; the poor dears are crying for help, they're dying." Ivy cleared her throat; Harley could tell she was extremely upset.
"Oh… okay." Harley said awkwardly, though she was used to Ivy ignoring her for plants, she still found it a bit strange that she actually spoke to vegetation. "Are ya able to, uhm, help them?"
"Possibly." Ivy answered shortly, and got up from her spot on the grass. She walked over to a male guard, who stiffened at her approach.
"Hello," Ivy purred to the man, who looked at her warily. "I have a request; do you think you could help me?"
'Damn pheromones.' Harley thought bitterly, she was quite sure Ivy was using her favorite power at this point. She almost resented Ivy for her power over men.
The guard's wary gaze wavered; it took on more of an adoring look. "Uhm, yeah. Sure. Okay." He said, stumbling over his words. "What do you need?"
Ivy's smile turned less flirty, and more mocking. "Well, I was wondering if you could possibly turn on the sprinklers. The grass is dying." She said, cocking her head in question.
The guard nodded slowly. "Sure! Yeah, I'll, uhm, go do that… for you. Yeah." He said quickly, and swiped his card in the slot by the door. He ran inside, and emerged a few minutes later, he was sweating.
"They're set to go off in a few minutes…" he said, slightly out of breath.
"Thanks a lot, dear." Ivy said, and turned to walk away.
"Anytime!" the guard called after her. A few of the other guards glanced her way in warning as she sauntered back to sit next to Harley once more.
"Well, that was simple." Ivy said lazily. "Men are so easy to persuade."
Harley nodded. "Except the Batman." She pointed out. Ivy's face became contorted with anger as she whipped her head around to look at her friend.
"What?" she asked sharply. Harley shrugged.
"If ya remember, you tried to persuade him into letting us go, but he wasn't even affected." Harley said, and Ivy snorted in irritation.
"Yes, well, just a fluke. It wouldn't happen again." She said, and waved the thought of her power not working on one man.
Harley opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the hissing of water. She looked for where it was coming from, when a bit spurt of water hit her straight in the face. She cried out, and shot up onto her feet.
"Ivy!" she yelled, running for the concrete by the picnic tables. She was soaking by the time she got to one. "
Ivy laughed in happiness, and looked at the grass. She smiled as she sensed it was becoming healthier.
"All this for grass." Harley mumbled starting to shiver from the breeze hitting her soaked skin. She looked up, to see the man that had stared at her in the lunch room.
"You're wet." He said bluntly, his face was expressionless.
Harley looked down at herself. "Yeah. I am." She answered awkwardly. "Thanks for telling me, I hadn't noticed." She said, trying to break the awkwardness up.
The Joker grinned. "My, ah, pleasure, pretty lady." He answered. Harley blushed at the compliment.
"I'm Harleen. Harleen Quinzel." She said, half smiling. "But, uh, you can call me Harley Quinn."
"I'm the Joker." He said, grinning. "And, ah, you can call me the Joker."
"Nice to meet ya." Harley said pleasantly, and turned to look at Ivy. "Hope she doesn't do anythin' stupid. I'd hate to see her get hurt or put into solitary, y'know?"
The Joker giggled. "The do put girls like, ah, her into solitary for no reason nowadays." He said. "Especially pretty ones. I think they, ah, like to have 'em locked up alone so they can stare at 'em all day."
Harley laughed. "Really? That's creepy." She said, watching Ivy talk to the grass.
"Quite." The Joker said. "There's one in there right, ah, now. Put her in as soon as she, ah, got here."
Harley raised an eyebrow. "What'd she do?"
"Nothing, actually." The Joker giggled. "She was labeled 'unstable'."
Harley frowned. "Hm, that's... uh, strange." She said, her voice drifted off into silence. "When's she, uhm, out of solitary, exactly?"
Joker shrugged. "Dunno, don't, ah, care." He answered. Harley half smiled at him, before her eyes widened in alarm when she caught sight of Ivy.
"Oh no." she whispered, and took a step forward. "Red! Don't!"
Poison Ivy was telling the grass to grow. She was smiling gleefully as it began to grow as tall as she was, and beyond that. Guards were yelling, and advancing on her.
The grass tried to protect Ivy, whipping at the advancing guards, but it was still too weak to do much more than that. Guards pushed through, and roughly grabbed Ivy away from the patch of still-growing grass.
"Get your disgusting hands off of me!" Ivy shrieked angrily, and pulled against her captors, who only tightened their grip. They hauled her into the building, the doors banged behind them. You could still hear Ivy's angry protests through the heavy metal doors.
"A lady, ah, really shouldn't have such a, ah, dirty mouth, hm?" the Joker mused, smirking at Harley, who looked at him, horrified.
"What do ya think they're gonna do to poor Red?" she asked quietly, her face had the likeness of a worried child's. The Joker chuckled low in this throat.
"Don't worry, doll." He said, still chuckling. "She'll just be in, ah, solitary for a day or two, then never allowed outside, ah, again." Harley looked horrified.
"What?" she exclaimed, her face shocked. "But Red can't stand not being outside! She'll go insane!" Harley's lower lip trembled in worry.
"If she's in here, then, ah, I do believe she's already, ah, insane." The Joker said, laughing. Harley's facial expression turned more indignant at that comment, but she said nothing.
"Joker, are you harassing this poor girl?" a voice behind them demanded. Harley turned her head to see a red-headed man. "I apologize for him, dear. He hasn't taken his medication today." The man chuckled, and tried to pull the Joker away, but he resisted.
"Uh, no. He's fine." Harley said, shrugging. "He's not botherin' me."
The man gave her a strange look, but complied.
The Joker grinned at the Riddler. "Eddie, I'd, ah, like you to meet Harley Quinn." He said, waving his arm in Harley's direction.
The Riddler nodded and smiled at Harley. "Edward Nygma. Or the Riddler. Whatever suits you, darling." He said, and turned back to the Joker. "Anyway, did you see that display? She controls vegetation!"
Harley shook her head. "Don't let Red hear ya say that!" she exclaimed. "She hates it when people say she 'controls' them. She doesn't, she asks them nicely to do what she asks. Plants just love her, apparently."
Edward cocked his head. "How'd she obtain such a wonderful gift?" he asked.
"She doesn't like to talk about it." She answered. "And I don't wanna be startin' any gossip or anythin'. Plus, it's really none of your business, no offense."
Nygma nodded once. "Of course, I was merely curious." He smiled. "No offense taken."
Harley smiled back, and the alarm went off for them to go back inside for the day. She waved to the Joker and Edward, and headed back inside with the women.
...
'You little bitch! You whore! Good for nothing waste of my whole fucking life!' A voice screamed.
The last word echoed through Charlene's head as she calmly opened her eyes from her dream. Unlike many people, she didn't dramatically shoot up into a sitting position after a bad dream. She slowly raised her torso up, coming into a sitting position. She crossed her legs under her rough cover, resting her elbows on her knees.
Charlene exhaled slowly, relatively unaffected by the once-disturbing nightmare. She closed her grey eyes in a long blink, and opened her eyes again to stare at the exact same spot she had before. She rid her mind of the dream, and slowly stood up to stretch her spine. It cracked in the effort, and Charlene sighed in bliss of the release.
Charlene heard four pairs of footsteps coming down the hall, the sound could be considered maddening, the sound suggested release, but the promise was almost always broken. It didn't affect Charlene, of course, but she imagined that it drove other inmates in solitary even further into insanity.
This time, the promise was fulfilled. Charlene heard the footsteps stop in front of her door, then four beeping sounds by her door. Her metal door clicked, and slid open to reveal a male doctor.
"Hello, Miss. Clark." The doctor said, his voice was pleasant, but wary. "My name is Dr. Liam Greene, and I'm your lead psychiatrist." Charlene nodded in understanding, and waited for him to continue speaking.
There was an awkward silence, and then Greene cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm here to release you. Your period in solitary confinement is up for the time being." He explained. "So, if you would put your hands where I can see them…" Greene stepped forward cautiously, and grabbed Charlene's outstretched wrists tightly, twisting her arms behind her back painfully as he led her out of the white room.
"Okay, Crane." A gruff voice of one of the guards growled as a man was pushed into the now-empty cell. Charlene looked up to see a bruised man being shoved into the white room. He had glasses and disheveled brown hair. He turned to glance at Charlene quickly; she was intrigued at his icy blue eyes, before the door slid shut once more.
"Get moving, missy." The guard barked, pushing her into a stumbling walk. Charlene was now gripped by two, burly guards. All thoughts of the man were pushed from her mind.
...
Edward Nygma is yummy. :D
Review? Jess likes reviews. She also likes speaking in third person! :D
Jess