I apologize to those two or three of you who were following my Harry Potter story. It wasn't doing well at all, truthfully. Oh, well. Life goes on. And so does the story. So on we go.
/|\
"Well, pardon me for interrupting your rape session," Scarecrow rattled. "You called, I graciously came over with what you wanted, and you shove me up the stairs and yell at me!"
"You did interrupt, you know," the Joker mumbled at his soup.
Scarecrow sighed again and fiddled with the frayed edge of his burlap sap mask, which he had taken off to eat the soup Nancy had brought them.
"You better pray to God that Nancy never tells her uncle what's-" Scarecrow started.
"She won't," the Joker stopped him. "She wouldn't dare put Rob through something like that."
Scarecrow shrugged and pulled his mask back on, pulling the drawstring around his neck and getting up.
"Thanks for the soup and all," he said. "Chuck's got the truck parked in an open alley down the street. He'll get you where you need to go- what you do after that is up to you."
"Money's next door," the Joker told him as he pushed through the door.
"Thanks," Scarecrow said.
In the spare room, he grabbed one heavy sack of money and made his way downstairs. In the living room, he bade farewell to Chuck the truck driver and the others in the kitchen. He strolled out to his car, threw the sack in the trunk, hopped in the back and told the driver to head back to the lab. The driver obliged and the car's tires crunched against the old gravel in front of the Home. The car turned a bit, then tore off towards the old apartment building where Scarecrow had been making his living for about a year now. He took this time to take off his mask and rub his sweaty face. Working with the Joker was a risky business; he could like you one day and hate you the next; you'd live, or he'd kill you; the deal would be set and made, and all would be well, or the Joker would arrange to have your head sent to the news station in a styrofoam box. Jonathan Crane let out one long, human sigh and slid his mask back over his face, donning his Scarecrow persona.
Being Scarecrow made him feel safe, secure. It made him feel empowered. It was he who the people feared, not the other way around. Though with the arrival of the Joker came competition and another phantom for the people of Gotham to fear. The Joker had been an enemy at first, an adversary whom Scarecrow held nothing but loathing and distaste for. Now, the tables had turned and Scarecrow suddenly very outdone by the madman hidden behind face paint. Though, now that he thought about it, the paint didn't hide the madness, it displayed it; put it out for the world to see. The paint did what Scarecrow's mask did not: it screamed "I'M CRAZY!" Scarecrow's mask gave off the same sort of vibe, but in moderation in comparison to his purple-suited counterpart.
The car came to a hushed halt in front of Scarecrow's Factory. The driver opened the back door, closed it behind Scarecrow, pulled the money bag out of the trunk, and followed his employer up the stairs to the lab.
"Where you wan' it?" the driver asked in a thick Jersey accent.
"Just over there is fine, thanks," Scarecrow said, waving his arm in an indistinct sort of way.
The driver shrugged, dropped the bag, and headed downstairs. Scarecrow, meanwhile, took a seat in a lounge chair in the corner of the room and kicked his shoes off. He suddenly pitied Chuck, the truck driver, and wondered what was to become of him. In the back of his mind, Scarecrow knew that Chuck was disposable and would probably end up dead or arrested like so many of the freaks and fans he had sent off to Wal-Mart a few days previous.
"Poor saps," he sighed.
/|\
Nancy slept fitfully, waking every hour or so in a flurry. She'd sit up, breathing hard and in a cold sweat, stare around the room, and fall back on her pillow. Because every hour, every time she woke, it was for the same reason: the dream. The same dream she had woken from the night before. The dream in which she wished, for once, she was Victoria. At one point, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, Nancy gave up on sleeping and decided to go downstairs. In the process of putting on her pants as she walked out the door, she heard giggling. She stopped and buttoned her pants, turned around, grabbed the jacket from the desk, and slid it on. Quietly, carefully, Nancy made her way down the stairs, stopping at the foot of them and peering around the doorway. She saw her computer screen, but only a blurry image of what might be on it. She also saw Mike, who was holding the computer in his lap. Mike looked towards the kitchen.
"J. J, c'mere," he whispered loudly.
Nancy gasped a little and moved up one step so the Joker wouldn't see her as he swept out of the kitchen. Mike giggled and clicked on something. Nancy suddenly regretted telling him the password to everything she owned.
"Which one you wanna see?" Mike whispered, quieter this time now that the Joker was close enough to hear.
The Joker must have taken his time in choosing because when Nancy leaned forward to watch the two of them, Mike was bobbing his head from side to side like he always did when he was impatient. The Joker finally leaned forward a little and prodded at the screen.
"Don't poke it, dammit," Nancy mouthed at him. He couldn't see her, obviously.
Mike giggled and click on whatever video the Joker had pointed out, then said, "I've gone through and renamed a few of them for... convenience's sake."
Nancy gaped at him and frowned. How dare he rename my videos? They're mine dammit. She stopped thinking when the audio for the video hissed through the speakers. She knew what video it was.
"Hey, Nancy," Mike's voice said from the speakers. "Whatcha up to?"
"Nothin'," Nancy's voice said. "Just doin' some web surfin'."
"Fun," Mike said.
"Mm hm," Nancy said.
"Whatcha surfin' for?" Mike asked. Nancy could hear the real Mike whisper the words to himself, then giggle.
"A website Carol told me about," Nancy said. "She said that some of the fangirls had whipped it up."
"Scary," Mike said.
"Just a little," Nancy sighed.
"You think it's real?" Mike asked.
"I know it is," Nancy groaned. "I found it."
"Oh hell yes!" Mike shouted. The real Mike turned the volume down a little. "What's on it? Is it a bunch of fangirl fueled bullshit? Or what?"
"It's actually put together really well," Nancy sounded impressed. "I'm surprised at how many pictures they have of him. I mean, I'm on the net all the time and I've never seen more than one or two on the GNN website. It's impressive."
"What else they got?" Mike said, sounding giddy. "Any of our music videos on there? How about Anthony's birthday? That one was funny as hell. They got a fan-section?"
The video was quiet for a few seconds, then Nancy sighed, "Yes."
"Oh, hell yes!" Mike shouted again. "Gimme, gimme! What's it say?"
"I don't wanna," Nancy whined. "It's just a bunch of 'fics and pics."
"Pics? Ooooooh," Mike giggled. "Lemme see! What's the 'fiction like?"
"I'm not gonna read it!" Nancy protested. "You'll just record it and post it on Youtube!"
"Hey, I deserve a little payback for you making me watch 2 Girls 1 Cup," Mike argued.
"Hey, you started it with Anthony's party," Nancy prodded back.
"Anthony didn't have to do anything!"
"Yeah, that's because I gave him a mild concussion."
Mike sighed grumpily.
"I'll give you fifty buck to read a one-shot," he said.
"What?" Nancy said.
"Fifty bucks. One one-shot," Mike started to giggle.
"No!" Nancy said.
"Ah, c'mon Nancy. Fifty dollars," Mike sang.
The video went quiet again and Nancy peaked around the doorway in time to see the Joker's shoulders shake with a giggle.
"It gets better, it gets better," Mike assured him. "Just watch."
After a full minute, Nancy spoke again: "Deal."
"Yes!" Mike shouted.
The real Nancy, the one hiding at the foot of the stairs, groaned, then slapped her hands over her mouth.
"Didja hear that?" she hear the Joker ask.
Mike must have shaken his head, because no one came around to investigate. Nancy let out a very quiet sigh of relief and looked around the doorway again.
"Why are we doing this at 3 in the morning, again?" the Joker asked.
"Because if Nancy were around she'd kill me," Mike answered.
"Fair enough," the Joker shrugged.
In the video, Nancy sighed and her chair squeaked when she leaned back in it. The rest of the video consisted of Nancy's musings and groans of disgust or terror.
"Ugh," she said. "Don't follow... no you dumb bimbo... shi-... NO! Fuck! NO! Stop it!" She started groaning and her chair squeaked again when she leaned forward. The real Nancy leaned forward too and glared at the back of the Joker's head as he giggled frantically into his elbow.
Finally, as the video reached it's end, Nancy shouted, "Okay, I'm done."
The real Nancy sighed and crept out to stand a few feet behind the Joker, who gave her a double take and turned around completely to see her.
"-keep your money, Mike. Fuck that shit. Never again. Ever-"
"Hey, doll," the Joker grinned at her.
Mike gave a very dramatic gasp and shut Nancy's laptop, which immediately went quiet.
"We weren't watching the video of you reading Joker fanfiction, Nancy," he said.
"I was," the Joker leered.
Taking advantage of the fact that Mike wasn't looking, Nancy leered back, then ran her hand bashfully through her hair, staring at the floor.
"She doesn't seem to be in to much of an "killing" mood, Mike," the Joker said.
"Can't sleep," Nancy shrugged, any frustration drained away with the Joker's stare. "Bad dreams."
Mike turned and looked in concern, but the Joker knew better and grinned.
"I'm fine, Mike," Nancy said, not looking at him. "You guys want coffee?"
"Just whipped some up, babe," the Joker grinned.
"'Kay," Nancy mumbled.
She tripped into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of black coffee.
"So," the Joker asked, turning back to Mike. "What happens at the end?"
"Of the video?" Mike asked. "Oh, um, Nancy quits in the middle of reading and I give her twenty-five bucks for trying."
He shrugged in an anti-climactic kind of way and opened Nancy's laptop back up to shut it down properly.
"So, where's John Deere?" Nancy asked.
"In his truck," Mike said. "Said he didn't want to sleep in a house full of loonies."
Nancy huffed a laugh and sipped her coffee.
"So," she said, swirling her coffee around thoughtfully. "What're we doing today? I figured you had something in mind when Scarecrow showed up. Besides blowing up Wayne Industries anyway."
"Wayne Industries isn't going to blow up on its own, is it?" the Joker giggled, sitting down on the couch and turing on the news.
"Where're we getting the stuff, then?" Mike asked.
"Oh, just a place I know," the Joker hummed as he started flipping through the channels.
"Should I be worried?" Nancy asked from behind her cup.
"Nah," the Joker shrugged. "Security and maintenance are all our people- Scarecrow's and mine. There won't be any hitches."
Nancy nodded in quiet relief and finished off her coffee. Mike stared at the TV and yawned. The Joker stared back at Nancy, making her stomach turn. She licked her lips and walked back into the kitchen.
"You want some coffee, Mike?" she heard from the living room.
"Nah. Nah I'm good," Mike said.
Nancy waited and noted that the volume on the TV went up ever so slightly just before the Joker stepped into the kitchen. She didn't look at him.
"The boogey man trying to get in your head, babe?"
Nancy grabbed at the arms that slipped around her waist and relaxed when kisses started running up her neck.
"More like the boogey bitch," she sighed.
The Joker chuckled against the back of her neck and pulled her closer.
"Poor, poor, baby," he purred.
Please, please do bad things to me.
"Too bad the paint'd smear. If not we could..." the Joker let the sentence drop and Nancy frowned.
"Hey, Nancy!" Mike whispered loudly across the room. "They have something on you're dad going. It's a rerun or something, I think."
"Wanna go watch?" the Joker asked. He ran his hands across her stomach and laced his fingers through her belt loops.
"I'll tell you what I wanna do," Nancy hissed.
The Joker giggled again and let her go. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. Mike beckoned for her and patted the seat next to him on the couch. On the TV, a pudgy looking little man in his mid-30s was pictured in one corner of the screen. A newscaster was yammering on about the "ongoing search for Nancy Webber."
"Where's Mike Engle?" Nancy asked.
"He moved I guess," Mike said. "After the whole thing with being kidnapped and held hostage and stuff."
"God, that was fun," the Joker sighed. "Then Batman came in and ruined everything."
"I was on one of those ferries, you know," Nancy grinned. "Me and my mom and Mike. I think Carol and Anthony were there, too. I kept telling my mom to let me go- she had a good grip on me and kept telling me not to do anything that would get her in trouble. You came on over the speakers and scared the hell out of everyone. Mike looked like he was about to piss himself-" Mike huffed and crossed his arms "-and Carol called me up and started telling me how much she treasured our friendship and how she was sorry for hating me in 8th grade and all this other junk. I just kept telling my mom to let me go so I could pull the god damn switch-" the Joker laughed at her "-I wasn't gonna just sit there and die!"
"Didn't expect you to," the Joker giggled.
"I remember that," Mike sighed. "You were so pissed and your mom just kept saying, "Sit down Nancy, just sit down dammit. You're going to get us in trouble-" she was being kind of selfish."
"She was always selfish," Nancy sighed. "Always worried about herself and her life and her job and her reputation. It's kind of funny how I turned out to be the exact opposite."
A sad smile made of sick irony slid across Nancy's face and promptly dropped as she looked back up at the TV, back up at her father.
"Thinking about it now," she said. "If he had stuck with my mom she probably wouldn't be dead."
She started at the floor for a second then back up at the TV.
"I hate him."
/|\
Nancy had been kidnapped, lost in wherever for nearly a month now. Her father had come forward after almost 18 years hoping for some publicity. And yet, life went on. Carol still went to school, Anthony still attended psychology classes, Rob still went on patrol. Though only so. Students, friends of Nancy, held back questions; affection was showed more often towards one another. As one student, Morgan Price, put it, "It's like a second 9/11. The plane crashed when Nancy vanished, and the rest of America became the students- sort of a patriotism thing, only... Nancyism, I guess." Carol and Anthony agreed: losing Nancy was like losing the twin towers to them.
"Only, she's just one tower," Anthony said one day at lunch after a chat with Morgan. "But it's still gone."
"She's not gone yet," Carol reassured him. "If she was gone, we'd know. The Joker makes a show of everything, remember?"
Anthony had only nodded and chugged his milk a bit harder than was necessary.
Things changed at school. For the first few days (and for some, weeks) after Nancy's kidnapping, teachers were more subdued, less apt to write children up for petty things like hats or facial piercings. The same went for the students; the Joker's fangirls wore less makeup, and some wore none at all. They cast their club away and sold their website to someone over the internet. For a day or two, the school gangs fought more often, and then suddenly, not at all. The entire student body was silenced, set in a state of group depression.
Sessions continued in the library for those who had been victims or witnesses of the school shootings, though it had been almost two months since then. They were more tearful now, and attendees blamed the Joker more than ever.
"It's all his fault-"
"He's the one behind the whole thing-"
"The murders, the ferries, the shootings, now Nancy- what next? No- forget that. Who next, would be a better question."
Once, at lunch, Carol and Anthony were joined by Heath, the Australian foreign exchange student.
"It's not fair, eh?" he asked in his thick accent. "She's the one tha' led me 'round, ya' know? Nice g'rl. Tha's his point, I think. You know? Take the one we need the most. Eh?"
Carol nodded and swallowed.
"It's like taking out the stud in a wall," Anthony said. "Like busting out a corner of a room. He knows that everything's gonna cave in eventually."
"Bastard," Heath said.
"Wanna know who's even more of a bastard?" Carol choked. "Nancy's "father". He's just now comin' out of the closet. Son of a bitch is just doing it for the publicity."
Carol rubbed her eyes and coughed. Anthony reached for her, but she stood and said something about the bathroom.
"Thing's haven' been strained, righ', between you two?" Heath asked.
"No," Anthony snapped. "Everything's fine. Carol's just upset, alright?"
"Alright, alrigh'," Heath backed off. "You both just look so... angry lately. I'm not after 'er, mate. Promise."
Anthony sighed and nodded. He was frustrated with himself now.
"Sorry," he said.
"S'alrigh'," Heath shrugged. "Everyone's tense- angry, righ'?"
"Right," Anthony breathed.
Carol joined them a short while later, her makeup a bit more new looking than before. Anthony knew she had been crying. Heath just looked at them and fanned off a few of the Joker's ex-fangirls. Anthony chuckled at him and held Carol's hand. After lunch, they all headed off to their separate classes: Carol to choir, Anthony to math, Heath to art. Carol and Anthony kissed, Heath sighed and sidestepped a knot of giggling girls.
After school, Carol made what had become her daily visit to the police station. The secretary greeted her and told her that Rob was in. Carol knocked on the office door and sat in the chair across from Rob when it opened. She figured something then: Rob's office hadn't fallen to pieces since Nancy had been kidnapped. It was a sick kind of irony that made her smile a little.
"They moved Eric," Rob told her.
"Did they?" Carol asked.
"To Arkham."
Carol allowed herself an audible gasp.
"Arkham?" she said. "That's where they put Scarecrow, Rob! Well, before he got out anyway. God knows where he is now."
"Scarecrow doesn't matter," Rob said, waving his hand. "It's Nancy I care about."
"It's what we care about, too Rob," Carol protested. Did he think she didn't care? "It's all we care about."
Rob ran a hand through his hair and blinked hard.
"Why'd they move Eric to Arkham?" Carol said, desperate for a change in subject.
"He tried to kill himself, then he started talking to himself, shanked another inmate, then his roommate," Rob listed. "Truthfully, I think it's a hoax, but if it gets him in tighter security then I'm all for it. Eric's parents weren't so happy about it though-"
"I doubt they were happy with him trying to kill Nancy, either," Carol scoffed, though the anger wasn't directed at Rob.
Rob huffed a laugh and relaxed a little. The rest of their time together was spent discussing the news and Nancy's father, whom neither of them liked at all. Carol left at around 4:30 and waved goodbye to Rob and the secretary on her way out. The drive home seemed to go by a lot quicker than usual, and Carol was home before five. She had dinner, did her homework, and decided to call Mike tomorrow to tell him about Eric. Carol slept well that night.
/|\
Nancy sighed and took the gun Bruce handed her. It was almost 11:30 at night and she had been up since 3 o'clock in the morning. She was a little drowsy. Bruce patted her on the back and smiled at her before slipping his mask over his face. Though the place they were going to was empty and all the cameras were most likely disabled, the Joker still insisted they go in like it was Wal-Mart. Nancy yawned and poked her gloved fingers through the eye-holes of her mask, which frowned up at her. Mike leaned against the far wall, gun in hand and seemingly alert, though Nancy expected he was dozing. Victoria sat in the recliner and ran her hand along the length of her gun. Nancy expected her to start trying to have sex with it soon. Amy and Jason sat on the couch and packed their bag with their laptops, assorted wires and controls and what appeared to be several bomb detonators. Chuck, the truck driver, stood close to the window nearest the door and smoked a cigarette. He stared around at everyone through beady, fogged eyes and kept moving his jaw around. He made Nancy uncomfortable. The Joker came scurrying down the stairs at 11:35.
"Everyone gets in the truck," he said. "Chuck drives. We wait. He knows where we're going."
Chuck gave another "murf," and flicked his cigarette out the window. Everyone moved. Nancy pulled one of Bruce's hoodies over herself and let the hood flop over her head once she had pulled her mask on. Everyone did the same with their own jackets and hoodies. They left one at a time, to be inconspicuous, and followed Chuck down the street a few blocks and into an open-ended alley. He pulled the door to the bed of the truck open and everyone slipped inside the yawning chasm inside. Nancy suddenly felt very small and pressed herself against a wall as everyone else piled in. Mike nudged her and pulled back his mask to smile at her. She could barely see the light glint off of his teeth before the door rattled closed and they were swallowed in darkness.
"Can we really trust this guy, J?" Mike asked through the dark.
"Yeah," Bruce said. "If this bitch ends up driving us to the Po-Po station, I'm gonna have a real problem."
"You?" Mike said. "If Rob ever saw me working for J he'd rip my ball off."
"He'd just be disappointed in me," Nancy sighed
"Oh, boo-hoo," Victoria murmured.
"Shut the whole in your face, Victoria," Mike spat.
"J?" Amy asked.
"He'll take us there," the Joker giggled from across the bed of the truck.
The truck rumbled around them and everyone was thrown to one side as the truck lurked forward. Nancy slid across the floor and hit the door. Mike fell over and ended up getting kicked in the face by Bruce. Amy and Jason fell on top of each other and started grumbling about their equipment. Victoria, who had apparently been sitting down, made a disgusted noise at all of them and sneered beneath her mask. Nancy felt around the floor and made an "umph" sound when she bumped into someone's leg. Whoever it was pulled her to her feet and wrapped their arm around her waist.
"Hey, doll," the Joker giggled in Nancy's ear.
Nancy sighed and grinned.
Oh, the irony.
"What? Not happy to see me?" he whispered.
"I can't see anything," Nancy laughed.
They both tittered a little in the corner and Nancy ended up clinging to him when the truck gave a sharp turn and accelerated. The Joker gripped her side a bit to hard and Nancy yelped. He held back a cackle.
"I forgot you were ticklish," he hummed.
"Don't," Nancy shook her head. "Don't you dare."
"Heh-heh-heh. Just you wait."
The rest of the trip was spent reeling and clinging and overhearing laughter from everyone else as they were thrown from side to side. Mike, at one point, landed on Bruce and started fawning over him, giggling like a girl and calling him his hero. Bruce called him a faggot and shoved him off. Mike just laughed and yelped when the truck turned another corner and he was sent sliding across the floor.
"Boss, we need to travel by semi-truck more often," Mike said. "This is fun as hell!"
"I wasn't under the impression that hell was fun," the Joker quipped.
Nancy laughed and Mike said, "Oh, ha ha ha."
Amy and Jason kept arguing with each other about who should hold their bag of equipment, and Victoria didn't do so much as groan and huff at all of them.
"She's just about to piss me off," the Joker whispered.
"Just now?" Nancy asked.
After what seemed to be an hour, everyone was tossed to one side again as the truck came to a complete stop and the engine cut out. They all waited a few seconds and squinted at the light that filtered through the door when Chuck threw it up and open.
"How long you think you'll be?" he asked in a gravelly voice.
"Not much more than half an hour, Chuck," the Joker said before leveling his gun and shooting Chuck in the chest. "Everyone out."
/|\
Wherever they were, it was bright. Nancy kept blinking as they filed in through the unlocked door of... wherever they were. The Joker still hadn't told them where they were, only where to go once they were inside. They split into two teams (Amy, Nancy, and Victoria, and Mike, Bruce, and Jason) and each took a hall.
"I'll be waiting down here, if you need me," the Joker told them as they trotted off. "Don't get lost."
Nancy made a face at him and trotted down the hall next to Amy, gun in hand. Finding nothing but a few offices and an empty security room on the first floor, they headed upstairs hoping for a better selection of rooms. Once upstairs, the boys shooed them away, claiming that they had been there first. Nancy stuck her tongue out at Mike and tripped up to the top floor behind Victoria. Amy let out a hissing "yes" of victory and pulled off her mask. Victoria followed suit and stared down the hall. Nancy leaned against the wall closest to the stairs and looked at the opposite wall. The wall was lined with four heavy, steel doors, each with its own very heavy looking bar-lock. At the end of the hall was a door that led to the other staircase. Nancy could hear the boys downstairs. Amy walked a few feet and threw the door of the first room open.
"Holy hell," she breathed.
"What?" Nancy asked, moving forward to see. Then, she gasped ,too.
The room was rimmed with crates and sacks. The crates were labeled DYNAMITE, the sacs, C4. Victoria nearly dropped her gun.
"Is all this stuff in all the vaults?" Nancy coughed.
"I dunno," Amy said, bringing her gloved hand up to her lips in shock.
"I saw some dollies on the last floor," Victoria started.
"I'll go get one," Amy said. "You guys check the rest of the vaults."
Nancy nodded and moved out of Amy's way. On the floor below, Nancy heard the boys (Mike and Bruce, at least) going nuts over the explosive material they had found in the vaults. She watched Amy dash down the stairs and moved over to the next vault, which held the same contents as the fist. The third one, however, was different from the first two and the one that followed it. The little glass window on the door was frosted over and a little panel next to the handle gave off readings of temperature, pressure, and moisture. Nancy couldn't make heads or tails of any of it, but figured that 12℉ was pretty cold.
"Hey, Vic," she called. "This one's a freezer. Come have a look."
Nancy heard Victoria walk down the hall as she opened the door and stepped inside. She instantly felt the cold sink into her bones and she shivered.
"It's really cold in here," she said, stating the obvious as she stared around the room of unlabeled boxes. "Hey, Vic, is there a light switch or... Vic?"
Victoria was standing in the doorway of the freezer, the only thing holding the door open being Victoria's foot. Nancy swallowed.
"Vic," she repeated. "Is there a... what are you doing?"
Victoria looked at the floor and moved her foot.
"I was here first," Victoria said. "I saw him first. He's mine. He was mine until you showed up. If I get rid of you... he'll love me."
Nancy panicked and dove for the door. Victoria moved her foot and pulled the door closed. Nancy screamed and grabbed for the handle of the door- there wasn't one. Nancy watched in horror as Victoria locked the door and pressed a few buttons on the control panel. The vents that lined the wall rattled and the room slowly became colder.
"NO!" Nancy screamed. "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"
Victoria watched her scream and pulled her mask back on.
"He's mine, now," she said.
/|\
"Have you guys seen the crazy shit that's in these vaults?" Amy asked as she galloped down the stairs and passed the boys.
"Oh my God, I know!" Mike squealed. He looked like a kid in a candy shop.
Bruce was giggling and balling his hands up into fists. He looked a bit like Mike.
"Don't have to much fun now," Amy warned them with a laugh. "You blow us up and I swear I'll kick your ass in hell."
"You're not goin' to hell, Amy," Mike said, waving the idea away with both arms. "You're too good of a person."
Jason laughed. Amy pointed at him in a threatening way and laughed, too. She spotted the dollies and rolled one over to Mike when he asked.
"Where's Nancy?" he asked as Bruce started piling crates of dynamite onto the dolly.
"She's upstairs with..." Amy's voice faded out and Mike looked at her.
"What?" he asked.
Amy didn't answer, but let go of her dolly and tore up the stairs, turning to look down the hall when she hit the linoleum. No one was there. She cocked her head to one side and breathed hard, winded from her sprint.
"Is everything okay?" Mike called from downstairs.
"Yeah," Amy called back. "I guess s-"
Amy turned and attempted to gasp, but was cut off when Victoria, wielding her gun by the barrel, whacked her over the head with a sickening crack. Amy didn't have time to fall, because Victoria let her gun drop and caught her by the shoulders. Kicking her gun aside, VIctoria drug an unconscious Amy into the first vault and locked the door. She took off her gloves and rubbed her sweaty hands against her pants before pulling the gloves back on and walking lightly down the stairs to retrieve a dolly from the floor below.
/|\
Nancy was breathing too hard and wasting oxygen. She knew this, and it made her breathe harder.
"I'm gonna die," she said. "I'm gonna die. They're gonna forget me and leave me here to die."
She started sobbing and pulled off her mask to wipe at her face. She controlled her breathing quickly and stared around the room, examining her options. A sudden crack from outside grabbed her attention and she rose shakily to her feet. She wiped the frost away from the little window and craned her neck to see down the hall. She watched Amy's shoulder as Victoria drug her into the first vault at the end of the hall. Her only hope, she thought, was gone. She pulled away from the door and watched as the window frosted over again.
Nancy wiped at her face again and sighed when she found that the few tears she had shed were frozen to her face. She took one more deep breath and let it out slowly as she looked around the room again. None of the boxes were labeled and frozen over. She ran her fingers along the metal of her handgun and frowned.
No shooting. You'll blow the whole place up.
She huffed.
How interesting that everything works out. There just so happens to be a freezer; there just so happens to be a temperature control outside; and it just so happens that none of the boxes in here are labeled, so I don't have a clue what's in them. Ugh. Fuck my life. FUCK IT.
Nancy let another sigh and took another breath, hoping to conserve as much oxygen as she could by breathing less. Then she started to shiver. Down the hall, she could hear Victoria loading up boxes of dynamite and sacs of C4. She would leave and the hall would be quite for about five minutes. Nancy shivered harder and wrapped her arms around herself. She kicked the door and pounded at the place where the handle should have been. Not that it would have mattered; the door was locked from the outside. Nancy's breath was coming out in plumes of vapor now. It hung in the air and hovered up to the ceiling where it dispersed.
I could try the ventilation. No, with my luck I'll get stuck and freeze to death.
Nancy felt panic bloom in her stomach again. Her teeth chattered and she started pounding on the door again. She heard talking from outside, and she banged harder, hoping to catch someone's attention. No attention was paid, and Nancy craned her neck again and saw Victoria climb out of the vault at the end of the hall, holding her gun by the barrel. Nancy looked the other way, hoping she caught had some attention from someone else downstairs. No one stood at the top of the other set of stairs. She stopped pounding and watched Victoria set a final box of dynamite on the dolly.
"That's it," Victoria called to no one. Nancy knew who she was talking to.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH! LET ME OUT OF HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" Nancy screamed. "OPEN THIS GOD DAMNED DOOR AND LET ME OUT! FUCK!"
Nancy let out a roar of fury and pounded at the door with everything she had. She pulled out he gun and beat it against the little window- it was made of plexiglass, so it wouldn't break. Nancy screamed again and watched Victoria wheel the last of the explosives down the stairs. Nancy shuddered and shrank. She shivered and let out a little sob. She waited a full 10 minutes, and no one came for her or Amy. Nancy cried out and started pounding on the door again, her heart attempting to beat its way out of her chest. Her lungs burst and contracted, the muscles in her arms screamed with her. Nancy started sobbing again. Big, fat tears of fear leaked out of her eyes and snaked half-way down her face before freezing there on her cheeks. When another five minutes ticked by Nancy gave one final howl and threw herself against the door, her hand trailing down across the plexiglass window.
I'm going to die in a freezer. I'm going to die in a mother fucking freezer because of some overly obsessed bitch. I'm going to die in a mother fucking freezer and Rob is going to find me here and figure out that I've been working with the Joker since that first bank robbery. He's going to cry and yell, and Mike and Amy and Bruce and Jason and J are all going to go to prison. And it's all because of that fucking bitch. Fuck my life.
Nancy sank to the floor and leaned against the door, her panting breaths coming in gasps and freezing in her lungs.
This is it. This is the end, and I'm crying like a bitch. What the fuck is wrong with me? What's my major malfunction? I can't die. Not like this. This is bullshit.
"Fuck," Nancy sighed.
/|\
Victoria, having just beaten down Amy for a second time, hung the strap of her gun around her shoulder and finished loading the last crate of dynamite onto her dolly.
"That's it," she called to Nancy.
The door of the freezer rattled and Nancy started screaming at her. Victoria just grinned and pulled her mask back on. On her way downstairs, Mike stopped her and asked where Nancy was.
"Just closing a few of the vaults up," Victoria lied easily. "She'll be down in a few. Amy's up there, too. They'll both be down in a second. Let's load the rest of this stuff onto the truck, huh?"
Mike nodded and wheeled his dolly slowly down the stairs. On the ground floor, the Joker was waiting.
"Where's Nancy?" he asked.
"Don't worry," VIctoria chirped.
She kept walking and stiffened when someone grabbed her arm.
"Jason," she heard her employer hiss. "Take Vicky's cart out to the truck, would ya'? And Bruce, c'mere."
Victoria shivered and turned around when the Joker yanked her arm.
"Where's Nancy?" he asked again.
"And Amy," Bruce put in darkly, getting the idea. Scare tactic.
"They-" Victoria choked.
The Joker sighed in impatience and pulled Victoria's mask off, exposing her pale lips and wide, yellow eyes. She whimpered and he wrapped his fingers around her neck, pressed his thumb to her throat. Victoria gave a little sob and grabbed for his wrist. Her arms were pulled down to her sides by Bruce. Victoria's lips just trembled and she tried to speak.
"I just thought you'd be better off wi-w-without-" Victoria tried.
Bruce let go of her arms and she screamed when she was thrown against the wall. Her neck gave an uncomfortable pop, but she recovered quickly and looked up with her arms over her face. The Joker shooed Bruce away and told him to block the door.
"Vicky, Vicky, Vicky," the Joker sighed. "You just love getting yourself into shitty situations don't you? You get jealous, you try and ruin my new toy- and now you go and hide her from me? Now, Vicky, that's not smart at all."
"Pl-p-ple-please!" Victoria cried. "I'm begging-"
The Joker pulled her arms away and kicked her in the chest. Victoria doubled over and coughed before jerking up again when another kick caught her in the jaw. She slumped over and gagged on her own blood as it pooled in her mouth and trickled down her throat. She had bitten her tongue. She looked up and sputtered again, but the Joker didn't seem to care. He simply grabbed one of her wrists and hoisted her to her feet before pinning her to the wall by the throat. Victoria choked and sputtered and grabbed his arm, beat at his wrist.
"Yo-o-o-ou don't even know how long I've wanted to do this," the Joker said in a strangled voice.
His tongue whipped out to feel at the scars on his face and he bashed Victoria against the wall as he reached in his pocket.
Mike came bursting in then, followed by Jason.
"NANCY!" Mike screamed up the stairs.
"AMY!" Jason called after Mike, streaming up the stairs. "AMY! SIS! AMY!"
The Joker stopped what he was doing and motioned for Bruce, who was sporting a black eye and a bloody lip.
"They wanted in," he said.
Victoria groaned and sniffed.
"That's fine, Brucey, that's fine," the Joker grated, tongue snaking out to wipe his lips and cheeks. "Just take Vicky out to the truck and don't do anything to her yet."
Bruce nodded and sneered at Victoria as she dropped to the floor. The Joker took off up the stairs and down the hall where Jason and Mike were prying the first vault open. Jason screamed and dove inside, stumbling out a few seconds later carrying what seemed to be Amy. Mike looked horrified. Then, a noise...
The Joker moved around the door of the first vault and followed the faint slapping sound from the other end of the hall. The second vault was empty, he found. The third was not. The slapping stopped and he took about half a second to look over the little panel next to the door. -10℉, it read.
"Shit," he breathed.
The door fell open as soon as he pulled the lock open. The thing that fell out made him choke on the air in his throat: Nancy. A shivering, chattering, blue-lipped, and dead looking Nancy.
"Fuck," the Joker choked.
"NANCY!" Mike howled.
The Joker didn't pay him any attention and picked Nancy up from off the floor. Mike was next to him in an instant, making noises that sounded like a crying dog. Jason was at the other end of the hall, cradling Amy's beaten, bloody face in his hands and moaning in grief. Mike looked at his boss in despair and terror.
"Is she-?" he mewled.
The Joker shook his head and pulled off his jacket to wrap it around Nancy, who still wasn't moving much. Mike squeaked and helped keep Nancy steady.
"Get Amy out to the truck," the Joker told Mike. "I got Nancy."
Mike obeyed and rushed over to help a sobbing Jason to his feet. They both tripped down the stairs and the Joker kicked the freezer door closed. He did the same to the first vault and followed the sobbing boys out the door. Nancy stirred a little, but only curled up when the cold November air hit her.
"Fuck," the Joker hissed again. "Mike! Put the heat on! In the front dammit!"
Mike, who was just about to kick the shit out of Victoria, turned and shot around the truck, pulled the passenger door open and turned all the dials to maximum heat and force. The Joker opened the driver's side door and handed Nancy over to Mike. He pulled himself into the driver's seat and started the engine. The truck lurched and Mike turned around when there were a few thumps from behind him. He pulled Nancy closer and rubbed her arm.
"Get warm, Nancy," he begged. "Get warm. Don't die."
The Joker glanced at him and forced the boiling envy back down where it belonged. He took a sharp turn and pulled onto the freeway. He sighed and drove the rest of the way home with a list of things he was going to Victoria piling up in the back of his mind. Mike kept feeling for Nancy's pulse and fluttering for the next half hour. When the little glowing numbers on the clock read 1:50AM, Nancy coughed and looked around.
"Whahappnd?" she slurred.
Mike and the Joker sighed. Mike laughed a little in relief and hugged her, while the Joker just smiled out the windshield and laughed a little, too.
"Fuck, Nancy," he chuckled. "You almost made Mike piss himself."
Mike didn't talk back, he just laughed a real belly laugh and pulled Nancy closer.
"Aww, fuck it," Mike said, looking out the window. "What are we gonna do with Victoria?"
"You aren't gonna do anything," the Joker said. "She's mine to kick the shit out of."
"I can punch 'er or something, right? Something?" Mike asked. "Jason'll want to put a little something in, too."
"You can loosen her up for me," the Joker grinned. Nancy looked at him and shivered. He was scary. "I get to finish her off."
Mike stared out the window and didn't say anything for the rest of the trip.
/|\
I tell you what, someone's 'bout to get FUCKED UP! Bravo. Hell yes. Lots of violence in the next chapter, more sick twists and such. Hope you enjoyed. I did.
Ta ta until next time,
-Jess