Crocodile tears.
It was one of the rogues least favourite things to do at Arkham, the so called rehabilitation.
The Doctors had it in their heads that making the rogues do house hold chores would somehow rehabilitate them and stop them from doing awful things.
To the rogues it was just work, the only thing it was ever good at was team building and it actually improved the rogue's ability to work together as a group.
This week's team of unlucky individuals was Croc, Ivy, Garfield, Drury, Otis and Kirk, Arkham's newest arrival.
Garfield lynns was a pyromaniac and not a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination. A little bit controlled by his obsession maybe, but he was not stupid.
He made his own type of pyrotechnic fuel for crying out loud, but could he rake these leaves up into a successful pile, no he could not!
"I hate doing this," he growled as he harshly brushed the leaves up, glaring at them. "It would be so much quicker if we set them on fire!"
Croc rolled his eyes. "Yeah sure, Gar. You go and ask the doctors if they'll let the serial arsonist set fire to the leaves he's been requested to clear up and let me know how that works out for ya."
"It's okay for you!" Gar snarled as he glared up at the huge crocodile man. "You can just scoop them all up in a big pile you're so big!"
Croc shrugged and knelt down, scooping up another big pile before he walked over to the one they were making and dumped it onto it.
"Ya point?"
"It ain't fair!"
"Ya wanna know something else that ain't fair? Life," Croc hissed before he pointed at Gar's very small pile. "Now get sweeping them up and quit yer whining!"
Gar mumbled something under his breath before he glared at the rats at his feet that were picking up leaves from his pile and scampering off with them.
"Flanging, you better not be sitting down or I swear!"
Otis looked up from his pile he was currently sitting on. "What's up?"
"Get up!" Croc growled. "You're slacking."
"This ain't slacking!"
"You're sitting on the floor!" Gar hissed. "Ya ain't even using your broom! Ya using you're rats, that's cheating!"
"I prefer to think of it as adapting."
Croc rolled his eyes. "Otis get up or I'll let Gar set your rats on fire."
Gar grinned at Otis and the Rat Catcher frowned before he stood up and grabbed his broom, sweeping up leaves.
Ivy was, also, cheating, making the leaves fall in one place, before Kirk would sweep them together in a pile.
Her opinion of Kirk was indifferent, he was a kind and gentle individual and was always polight to her, never stepped out of line or tried to flirt or say anything degrading, he was, simply put, a generally nice and friendly individual who quite frankly didn't belong in Arkham, so she let him work with her in harmony and they never spoke to each other really.
Suddenly he stopped sweeping and surveyed the area they were standing in. "Where's Drury?"
Everyone stopped, Croc looked around and frowned in confusion.
Gar was standing still frowning before he suddenly had a blank look on his face. "Leaf pile."
"Huh?"
He turned to Croc and pointed at the pile in front of him. "Check the leaf pile."
Croc looked down at the pile and raised an eyebrow before he gently nudged the pile and nothing happened.
He peered into it as best he could and then Drury's head shot out from under the leaves.
"Boo!"
"Ah!" Croc yelped, but he was still able to hold onto the leaves and he simply stared at Drury who was staring up at him with wide blinking eyes and very big smile on his face.
Firefly shook his head and sighed. "Told you."
"What the hell are you doing in there?" Croc asked as he stared at Drury.
Drury grinned at him before he picked up some leaves and threw them up in the air around him shouting. "Leaves!"
Kirk blinked. "What's Drury doing in here?"
"Umm… I'd of thought that was obvious, Kirk?" Otis questioned with a raised eyebrow as he nodded at Drury. "Killer Moth remember?"
"No, I meant why is he in the adult ward, shouldn't he be in the children's ward?"
Gar glared slightly. "He's usually not this bad! It's just the pills they're got him on."
Croc glared slightly at Drury who had made him jump slightly. "What pills they got him on?"
Gar shrugged before he looked at Drury. "Hey Drury," the man turned and stared at him smiling. "What pills they giving ya?"
"Oh… red ones, blue ones and yellow and orange ones… oh bumblebees!"
"It's October, they're ain't no bumblebees, Drury!"
Drury blinked before he looked back up at Croc and smiled at him. Croc grinned back before he extended his arms above Drury's head. There was a brief moment where you saw Drury's face look shocked before Croc dropped all the leaves him.
Drury screamed before it was muffled by the leaves and Croc grinned. "Well, at least we've finally found a way to shut him up."
The group chuckled slightly before the leaves flew up in all their faces.
"What on earth is he doing?" Ivy questioned with a raised eyebrow as she watched the leaves go flying.
"I have no idea, hot stuff," Gar replied before glared at the leaves that went flying. "Drury get out of there now!"
"No!" Drury yelled as he shot up out of the leaves again. "My leaves, they're my leaves!"
"Oh for the love of-," Croc face palmed and glared down at Drury. "They need to get you off them pills."
"But the pills a pretty colours!"
"I'll punch you into a bunch of pretty colours in a minute, Drury," Croc growled as he hooked a thumb up behind him. "Get out!"
"No! My leaves, mine! My leaves!"
"Drury, I'll set fire to that pile in a minute!" Garfield hissed as he glared down at him.
Drury turned to him with a dead look on his face. "My. Leaves!"
"If he says that one more time, I will not be responsible for my actions," Otis muttered as he stood staring out at the sea and at Gotham. "He's irritating me."
"Try being in a cell with him," Gar muttered before he glared at Drury. "Drury, you're sending the leaves everywhere, cut it out!"
"What?"
"Some stupid little brat is sending all these leaves I've spent ages sweeping up!"
"Ya mean, we," Croc grunted.
"We," Gar corrected before he continued. "And you're spreading them!"
"But the leaves landed in certain places… which means that's where they wanted to be."
Everyone was silent for a moment and simply stared at Drury.
"Okay we really gotta get him off them pills," Croc came to the conclusion and the others laughed slightly.
"Yeah that's not a bad idea," Garfield agreed before he turned to Drury. "Alright Drury get on out."
"No!" Drury sank lower into the leaves and glared.
Gar grit his teeth as he glared at his, for lack of a better word, friend. "If you don't get out here, I'm gonna have to drag you out."
"You can try," Drury whispered before sank lower. "But you'll never catch me!"
With that he disappeared into the leaves and everyone stared with open moves, except Garfield who lost his temper finally.
"Oh for the love of god, Drury! Come here!" Gar went charging on through the leaves trying to look for him.
He dived into the leaves but still couldn't find him, before he finally turned to Otis. "A littles help?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Otis he's making us do more work then what we need!"
Otis sighed and looked down at the floor before all of a sudden his rats went charging into the leaf pile to find Drury.
Croc sighed at the mess. "Yo Kirk, ya think you can go all Man-Bat for us? Use your wings as a fan to fan the leaves together?"
Kirk frowned slightly and griped the broom in his hand. "I… don't have that much control over the bat, plus.. I don't even know if I can still change into him or not."
Croc sighed and shrugged. "Meh… worth a shot."
Suddenly a yell could be heard through the leaves and Drury was carried out by the rats as he struggled against them, to try and get them to let go, but they wouldn't budge.
Ivy smiled slightly and Kirk caught sight of it and he raised an eyebrow. "Is that a smile, Doctor Isley?"
"Maybe," she smiled at him before watching the show in front of her.
Drury was screaming in fury and anger but the others were just laughing at him.
"Gar this ain't fair!" he screamed. "It's cheating."
"I prefer to think of it as adapting."
Somehow Drury was able to get free and he sprang up pushing Gar into a pile of leaves causing Gar's pile to fly up into the air and spread, effectively ruining it.
Gar stared at his ruined pile before he glared at Drury who was slowly backing away, a nervous look to his features as Gar's held pure anger.
"Run," Firefly hissed and Drury didn't need to be told twice as he went sprinting off quickly followed by Garfield who was yelling how he was going to use him for fire wood.
The others simply stared after the two of them with a stunned look to their features and all was silent until Croc spoke up shaking his head slightly. "We really gotta get him off them pills."
THE END.
Note: YAY for Croc! I love Croc he's one of my favourites, just love that fact that if you're nice to him he's fine with you but if you're mean to him he'll rip your head off! There is also the unsavoury action of him eating people but hey ho... what would Arkham be without a crocodilian reptile cannabel man? Boring I tell ya!
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this one, I know I did, it was a lot of fun to write! :D
Next Time: Arkham's nerds: Summary: After a humiliating defeat by the new Batman, Riddler's back at Arkham and catches up with his fellow nerds. Jonathan's in a bad mood even for him and Jervis is Jervis as usual. Times are changing, young rogues are moving into the adult ward, new hero's are causing problems for new rogues and that human foe old age is creeping up on all the rogues. Riddler's latest fight with the new Batman, he's starting to realise that maybe he's getting a little too old for this line of work.
