Emerald City Knights

By Brendan Storm

Part 3: Quick Discoveries

(Disclaimer and title block in pt one)



"My name is... Nnnnyaaagggghh!!!!"

"Lovely, the speedster is afraid of losing his identity. Even clowns didn't garner this deep of a reaction." Dr Jonathan Crane rubbed his bony hands together and smiled under the burlap sack he used for a mask.

"That's great, boss. What do we do with these two?"

"The blue one gets the new gas. The red one, I want to crack him myself." The laughter filled the warehouse. Only two hours had passed since our incredibly failed attack and I admit it, Scarecrow defeated us all. The area had been saturated with a new kind of fear toxin that Scarecrow had been working on out here in Wichita. We should have expected the unexpected, but this new stuff had a euphoric effect before it hit. Combined with no scent or color, we had no clue when it had happened. We just walked right into an empty building and it wasn't until the KBI guys had come in that the gas had taken hold.

"BARBARA!!!!!" Dick sounded like he was having a great time. I almost felt bad for dragging him along, except that I already had my plate full with my very own hallucinations. Hadn't heard anything from Arsenal yet. The majority of the whimpering on my part was obscuring my hearing. Did I mention how much I hated Batman's enemies? A wave of nausea took hold suddenly.

"Wally, I'm leaving you."

"Linda?" I looked around. My wife, the love of my life, whom I've cheated death for at least three times was standing in front of me in the little snowflake panty set I'd given her last Christmas. "What's going on?"

"You jerk. I'm leaving you. Don't you ever listen to me? You're just not stable enough for me."

"Wait, Linda, I'm not what?"

"You just never listen. You never have enough time for me. Good bye, Wally."

"No. Linda I'll change. I'll give it all up. Anything you want. I need you."

"I know. It's pathetic really. I need someone with strength of mind, character, both feet on the ground."

"Coming dear?" What the hell? Piper? She left me for a gay man? NO. This is another hallucination, it has to be a ... a... I opened my eyes and saw the cage the sick master of fear had me in through my tears as I collapsed. "You're no Barry, are you?" Piper's voice said as I passed out.

*** *** Roy *** ***

"Can't do it."

"What? What is he saying?" The freak in the sack asked.

"Can't do it." I repeated.

"Hand me his profile, Willy."

"Can't do it." The best way to piss em off is to make em work for their jollies. "You can't scare me. I've lived my fears." I was stuck in a separate room from Flash and Nightwing, my two best friends in the entire, what did Vic call it, a hyperverse?

Man I missed Joe sometimes, he coulda took over a guard by now and unlocked me. I coulda had the ring slinger or Gar whip us up some green diversions. Man I shoulda brought Donna.

Here I was hanging by my wrists as the Scarecrow attempted to select the perfect toxin to inject in me. To tell you the truth, I was feeling a lot like the first time I took a hit. That was a scary thought, but I wasn't going to let this freak know that.

"Nope, abandonment won't work, That was my Father and my dead and brought back to life mentor. Nope, losing loved ones won't work, My kid's been kidnapped so many times it just pisses me off and my one true love tried to kill me so often I'm losing my patience with the emotion. Nope, losing control won't work." But pissing you off seems to be. "I was an addict. I've already lost that and battled back. So now you're gonna have to be all generic. I've seen em all."

"Yes. I see that. You are a special one Arsenal. Or should I call you Mr. Harper?"

"You can call me a toaster for all I give a shit, freaky. You got acne under that bag?"

"Well, the thiopental sodium seems to be working."

"You're a scientist. You should know that all truth serum does is relax a subject and make him chatty. What a dummy." Checkmate training is so useful. "What, you gonna feed me more garlic water? Come on. I always wanted to be analyzed by an honest to god criminal psychologist." I laughed in the guy's face at my pun. Scarecrow was about to pop. I could see his fists balling up. "Nope, not afraid of being beaten up either. Keep thinkin there Johnny."

"Don't," shrieked the villain as he punched me in the gut, "ever call me Johnny."

"Sure thing, straw for brains." My head snapped back. "Son of a... the face?"

*** *** Dick*** ***

Every time it's a new variation on the same theme, Crane. Every time I work through it. I see her in my mind. The doorbell rings. The door opens and two shots ring out, she falls. Again I see her walking to the door, I cry out a warning, and again two shots she falls. Again The doorbell rings and I throw a glass at the gun. She falls. Again the doorbell, the shots, and the scream. She looks right at me.

"You were with her, on another world, weren't you? That's why I won't give my heart to you. That's why I ended up like this. Because you were with her."

I find the kernel of hate and focus it on Crane.

*** *** Wally *** ***

There's a lot to be said for super speed metabolism. About twenty minutes after I passed out, the nasty fear toxin had run its course. The fun part now would be getting Dick and Roy out of here without screwing up and getting gassed again. Not fun, so seriously not fun; no wonder Dick never explained what that felt like. I did not get up. Playing possum is one of those things you learn from the best. Lone Ranger episodes on TV. I strained my ears for sounds of Roy or that creep, the Scarecrow.

"... Manipulating ME!!!" Oh there was Dr Crane now.

"Analyze me, you shit! Analyze me!" And there was the amazing Roy Harper with the diversion. One thing about Arsenal you could always count on him to come through. I vibrated through the side of the cage with explosive results and out the door where I caught a sweet whiff of fresh air. I ran straight back in and rescued Dick, Roy could handle himself. When I got him out of the cage I wasn't totally expecting the look he had in his eyes.

"Where is he." He said through gritted teeth. He looked ready to kill.

"Calm down, Wingnut, just take it easy. I got this one." Fast acting Flash, that's the ticket. I sped myself up to the point where even the very air molecules were standing still. The perfect calm, the stillness of vibrating so fast that a vacuum is created, there's nothing like it. Not only for meditating, which Max has been bugging me to do, but also for letting any gasses fill the void. Before my eyes, I saw the air populate with the gas, which I funneled into a coke bottle and corked. I stole the speed from the darts being shot at Dick as I concentrated on the goal of removing all the Scarecrow's playthings.

Dick had made it to the room where Roy was being held as I took out the chemicals to the local hazardous materiel site in Hutchinson.

"You ok, Roy?" I asked.

"Sure, sure. Wing! Look..." Roy ducked instinctively in the chains. Dick, oblivious to the danger around him, was picking the locks on Roy's shackles when he'd shouted. In an amazing movie like move he backhanded a thug without even looking. "Out." Roy finished, smirking, and then golf clapped as best he could in the chains.

The snikt of a lock opening just barely masked the click of a gun. I hit the speed and caught the bullets on their way to perforate my buddies. On impulse, I stepped back as Roy flung a bed pan at the shooter, knocking the burlapped baddie across the head and dropping him like a stone.

"I think I need to lie down now," said Roy wearily. The color drained out of his face and he collapsed.

To Be concluded in pt 4. Quick Explanation.