Three's company, six is a crowd.
"I don't like this, Jonathan."
"Luna, my dear, they have to pay for what they have done to me. Both Croc and Ivy. I will not let them have the last laugh."
Luna stared at Jonathan for a long time before she sighed and shook her head. She understood, of course she did, if anyone understood revenge it was her, but… this was insane, fair enough, having herself and even her brother help, but the other three?
Luna shuffled her feet before glancing to the side at the sound of foot steps, but they were the padding of bear feet and sure enough, her brother and Copperhead, both barefoot as per usual.
"Well," her brother smiled, showing off his white pointed teeth. "I have one part of the plan…" he glanced at Copperhead as she put her hand in her pocket. "And she has her end of the bargain with her."
Jonathan smiled. "Thank you Lucifer," he held his hand out as Copperhead placed the vile in his hand. "And Copperhead my dear, thank you."
"It should work perfectly," she spoke, her accent thick and heavy. "This will help your toxin work against any plant based toxins, Ivy will still be effected… but I had no part in this."
"Of course."
"You can go now," Lucifer growled, the grin never leaving his face.
Copperhead backed away from him slightly. "A pleasure, Nightmare."
"Don't lie, it doesn't suit you."
She didn't say anything, she turned on her heel, leaving as quickly as she could.
Luna rolled her eyes at her brother's antics. Everyone was nervous of him, scared even. They had every right to be, his powers… they were worse then her own and made him ten times more unstable. Not just in power, but sanity as well.
She continued to study him, noting how his eyes flashed purple, showing his power still trying to force itself past the control of the collar he had around his neck. He was a telepath and invader of the mind, a perfect companion for Scarecrow, much like herself with her ability to control shadows.
Unlike her power though, Lucifer couldn't switch his off, he was constantly in mental pain due to the fact her heard everyones thoughts all at the same time, including his own. Locked up here in Arkham… she could only imagine the pain he was going through, but it seemed his power was developing, mutating, becoming something more, telekinesis, he was only just touching it and it was a strain on himself to do, but he was getting there, gradually.
That was the whole reason he was here, he could break the collars that any other metahuman's had around their necks and by the sound of it, there was a lot of metahuman's needed for this little project.
"Nightmare," Jonathan spoke turning to her brother who looked up grinning. "Luna's collar, if you would. We need to get Karlo without raising any alarms."
Nightmare nodded and turned to his sister, the smile still on his face.
"Careful, if the wind changes direction, your face could stay like that."
Lucifer laughed. "Dear me, Luna. You're full of humour today, I thought I was the one with the humour, not you. Spending too much time with lover boy, yes?"
"Just… undo the collar."
"Of course, your ladyship," he bowed slightly before his eyes glowed a deep purple, he held his hand out, the concentration on his face as he grit his teeth, holding back the pain that was no doubt pounding in his head.
She felt a few sparks, but it didn't hurt, nothing really hurt her anymore, and then the collar fell to the floor, landing with a clatter at her feet.
Luna held her hands up and beckoned the shadows to her, her eyes going as black as night, the shadows crawling out of them and she grinned.
She had missed this.
"Beautiful as ever, dear sister," Lucifer complimented as he leaned against the nearby wall, rubbing at his temples.
"Are you okay, Lucifer?" Jonathan asked and the one in question waved him off.
"I'll live. It just stings. Though, the collar is uncomfortable it stops the pain of the other psychos in this place, though they don't know about my telekinetic ability…" he grinned. "So the collar won't work since it's only programmed to stop my… telepathy."
Jonathan nodded before he turned to Luna. "My dear, if you would please?"
She nodded, lifting her hand towards the wall, making the shadows form and create a hole in the wall.
Basil Karlo looked up in confusion before he walked out, taking in Scarecrow's appearance as well as the Frights.
"What do you want, Crane?"
"If you would," Scarecrow began as he messed with the vials of toxin, mixing the compound Copperhead had given him into one of the vials. "I want you to disguise yourself as a guard and put these toxins in Croc and Ivy's cells."
Clayface laughed. "Oh they got under your skin didn't they? What's in it for me?"
"A new role for you to play, but… after that, you'll be free to do as you please, you could even escape Arkham."
At the sound of footsteps they all looked over to see Anarky walking towards, Scarecrow stepping forward as he went.
"Do you have it?" he demanded.
"Yeah I have," Lonnie mumbled as he held the key card out. "I hid the guard in the shed by the grave yard, you won't have a lot of time, so I suggest you get on with whatever you're planning."
Scarecrow snatched the card out of his hands before giving it to Karlo, who stared at the picture and frowned.
"Plans nice, Scarecrow. But how are you going to get this off me?" he pointed to his own collar and Nightmare smiled as he pushed himself away from the wall.
"Why, the same way I got it off my sister," he flashed a grin before glancing at Anarky. "I thought you were dead."
Lonnie smirked. "Yeah. A lot of people thought that. Surprised you didn't hear my thoughts while i was locked up down there."
Nightmare shook his head. "This," he tapped the collar. "Stops me from hearing any thoughts and when I'm out of Arkham… well do you really think I would like to come back here with my full ability? I find the insane mutterings hard to deal with when the patients here are speaking them, I don't want to know what goes on inside their heads," he turned to Karlo. "But that doesn't stop me from doing this."
Again he held a face of concentration and sure enough, the collar fell to the floor and Karlo flexed before taking a look at the image of the guard on the card and in the next instant he changed into him.
"Alright, Crane," he held his hand out and Crane placed the viles in his hand before they were absorbed into the man of clay himself. "You got yourself a deal."
"Excellent," Crane turned on his heel and beckoned his two followers to come with him, "A pleasure gentlemen. Karlo, don't disappoint me."
He wasn't disappointed, Croc and Ivy were now residing in medical and he was in solitary, but it could be worse, he supposed. He just didn't realise that the worst was yet to come and coming very quickly.
"I'm going to kill him," Ivy growled out. "I'm going to rip the stuffing out of that straw man!"
Croc growled. "Not on your own you're not. I want a piece of him too."
"I can get one of my vines to tear him in half, one half I use as mulch, the other-."
"I get to eat."
Ivy frowned in disgust. "If you really must, Waylon."
"Now, now… no that's… that's just too crude…"
They both blinked and looked around the room, there was no sign of anyone, not a guard or anything, but then they saw them, two guards, but something was wrong.
Their eyes were wide and had death injected into them, as a green glow emmited from behind them, the voice seemed to be coming from the glow.
"Far too crude. Doctor Isley I thought you a woman of science, were is the finess?"
"Who are you?" she questioned and in reply there was a chuckle.
"A friend," the guards fell to the floor, two hand prints burned into their skin, the burns looked… they looked like radiation burns.
Ivy and Croc felt their eyes widen as a figure stepped out of the darkness, his entire body glowing a bright luminescent green but you could see his skeleton, a black outline that contrasted with his own body's green glow.
"Who the hell are- what the hell are you?" Croc cried out as he stared at the figure laughed and would be smiling, they imagined, if you could actually see his face.
"My name is Alexander Sartorious, Doctor Alexander Sartorious," he held a hand out, before thinking better of it, closing into a fist and pulling it back, chuckling in the back of his throat. "But you can call me Phosphorus."
THE END…?
Note: Uh-oh... looks like Scarecrow knows how to make enemies... but hey look he is learning how to make friends too :D
What did you guys think of Lucifer Fright aka Nightmare? I'd love to find out :D
Also I found out that Phosphorus is Arkham Knight... sorta anyway, keep a look out for the Simon Stagg audio files :D
