CHAPTER FOURTEEN: FINAL PLANS
Scarecrow sat on his throne, seething.
Harley Quinn stood in front of him, an expression on her face that told him one thing: Batgirl had escaped, and he wouldn't be getting her anytime soon.
This angered him horribly, and he wanted to push Quinn for her insolence.
"What do you mean, she escaped?" he asked her angrily. "Why didn't you stop her from doing so?"
"Because she was more cunning than I first thought!" Harley retorted. "I thought I'd be able to take her down easily, but she was smarter than you'd think! Why is it always my fault when something goes wrong? I didn't really do much wrong in this situation, did I?"
"Harley, you screwed up!" Joker roared at her. "I should punish you for this! I think I will, actually."
Scarecrow looked to Joker, and he believed that if anyone was to abuse the once-psychiatrist who'd developed an infatuation with the Clown Prince of Crime, then it would be Joker himself.
He believed himself qualified to do so, but for the moment, he decided against it. He had better things to do.
"Joker, beat her," Scarecrow ordered. "I have to go see if everything else is in order. Your mistake might go unnoticed by most, Quinn, but I won't forget it. I won't forget how you failed to get me my prize. The only thing that helps to make it all feel better is that every other founding member of the Justice League is defeated, except for Batman. So…I won't activate the chip in your head for now. But don't ruin my plans again."
He got up from his throne and walked toward the door. "I will return. All that matters now is that the rest of my plans aren't ruined by stupidity."
He exited the room.
Despite his right ear being near-ruined, only being able to hear some things out of it, his left ear was in perfect condition. He listened closely, and heard Joker's voice coming from within the room.
"You stupid girl!" Joker roared. The sound of a slap came through the door. "YOU STUPID LITTLE B—!"
Scarecrow walked away, knowing he had better things to do than listen to the beating, even though he took some delight in it due to the face he wanted Harley to face the consequences for her actions.
But for now, he'd allow Joker all that satisfaction.
He limped down the hall, the memory of his disfigurement was still fresh in his mind, and no matter what he did to forget it, it would not go away. This was mainly due to the fact Killer Croc was still around…
…the fact that Killer Croc was still alive.
He wanted so badly to kill the also-disfigured being, for it was he who had pulled him under the water back in Arkham and torn him apart until his blood ran like a river.
He'd been saved by Hugo Strange, who had found him and given him a way to walk again.
But no matter what Strange and his men did, Scarecrow could no longer think of himself as a man.
He was no man, not anymore.
He had once been Dr. Jonathan Crane.
He'd lied to the villains about killing the doctor and stealing his work.
He'd decided to see what they would think of him. He did not wish to use as many lies as some of his allies did. He'd rather use the truth.
But the truth of the matter was, lies were needed to fuel this vendetta of his.
He blamed Batgirl for his disfigurement more so than Croc, though he was not making this only a vendetta against her. He'd told himself long before to focus his mind on the matter at hand, and not at his own enmity with her…
…his hatred of her.
He did want vengeance, and he believed he would get it soon enough. But what mattered to him more was bringing Gotham to its knees.
That, and destroying the Justice League and their allies.
When he'd given word through other villains about his plan, many of them had balked at the enormity of what he had told them. But soon, they all agreed, and they searched the corners of the globe, and even above and beyond for others, such as Ares.
Soon, though, they all came together and formed a Legion. A Legion of Doom. Scarecrow's plan had been put into motion, and as time passed, he hoped he had not put himself too far out on the ledge, that he still had space between.
And it had all paid off.
Soon, this will all come to an end, he thought. The Justice League has lost most of its central members. In fact, Batman was the only one who was able to escape out of all of them. We even captured some of the lesser heroes. I will not have them do much when the time comes for the others to do so. I have plans for all of them, however. This is where it all comes to an end for the Justice League. Their heroes are scattered, and all that's left is a psychotic fool dressed a bat. He is no more than a blind leader, and that is why all who are left shall fail: because they follow a blind leader. These are words I am sure other villains have thought or said before, but none of them came quite as close as I have to succeeding in my plans…in my visions. This is an awakening. This is the Rapture. And we will not fail. That is something I am sure of.
He found the room he was looking for, and he slowly opened it, entered, and closed it. He turned his head to find Hugo Strange standing in front of a capsule that held one of the founding members of the Justice League: Superman.
"Sad, isn't it?" said Strange in his European accent. "The greatest heroes of the world have finally fallen. None of them will ever have their own minds returned to them once our plans have been followed through. Do you understand that, Crane?"
"I am not Crane," Scarecrow snapped. "He is dead. I am not the weak freak who decided to put on a mask and strike fear into the hearts of those who are even weaker. He died a long time ago, when Killer Croc pulled him under the waves of the sewers. When he was disfigured, his old host died, and the new one rose from the bloody ashes. Crane is gone. There is only Scarecrow."
"Poetic," said Strange. "But I trust that you do not lose sight of your goals. There is still much left to be done, according to what I've seen of this plan of yours. You act as if everything is finished, that it will all go according to plan. But I am here to tell you that that is not the case. There is still much left."
"Yes," Scarecrow admitted. "And it will all come to me. I am sure of that."
"Shall we awaken him?" asked Strange, pointing to Superman. Blood still dripped from the Kryptonian's mouth. It had been made sure of that he did not experience the warmth and power-giving abilities of sunlight.
"Yes," Scarecrow said. "Is the red solar energy ready in case it is needed?"
"Luthor was kind enough to supply us with it," Strange told him. "Let us see what happens now. This might be a good experience for us. Either that, or there will be consequences coming. What do you think?"
"I do not care," Scarecrow replied sharply. "I just want to see this. Wake him. Now!"
Strange pressed a button, and a little sunlight filtered into the capsule, and it allowed Superman to finally stir. He moved a little, groaned as a result of all the pain inflicted upon him by Luthor. Then he opened his blue eyes, and he stared directly in front of him, finding Scarecrow there. His eyes widened.
"Scarecrow?" he gasped. "But…you're supposed to be dead! Batman said so!"
"Is that so?" asked Scarecrow. "Well, then, it seems rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. And it seems the rumors of your indestructibility have been even more so. But then again, that's been known for quite some time, has it not? The only problem now is the fact that you will probably attempt to escape from your confinement. Is that so?"
"I might," Superman admitted. "Where is Supergirl? And where are all the others?"
"All the founding members of the Justice League have been defeated and imprisoned…with the exception of one: Batman. As for your cousin and the other sidekicks, every single one of them escaped. They will pay the price for their actions soon enough, however. Let us just hope they do not come here in the hopes of freeing you and all the others. Let us hope they stay away and wait. But then, if they wait, then you might as well go and destroy them all yourself. You say you won't. You haven't yet, but that thought is there in your mind, and you are telling yourself that you would not dare to harm any of the humans, that you would keep all those you love safe. The only issue here, Superman, is the fact that it is not in your control. It is in ours, however. You probably wondered who that was who threatened the Justice League. By now, you can probably guess that it was me the whole time. That I am the mastermind behind this plan. You can guess I will do everything in my power to end the Justice League once and for all. I do hope that is the case; I do hope that my plans will not be ruined by the actions of those who oppose me. But how will that be possible? They are all in hiding, and they all await a chance to save you all. They will not, however. When they come, which will be long from now, they will find you and the other founding members, ready to end the threats. You will be brainwashed into battling them, and then ending them. You have no control over what is to come, Man of Steel. This is your day of reckoning."
"NO!" Superman roared. He punched the glass of the capsule, causing it to crack. It would have broken completely if not for the material it was made from. It was a type of glass infused with lead, which weakened his abilities. "No! It won't happen, because I will break out of here right now. I will stop this plan of yours from ever happening!"
He punched the glass again, and the glass broke a little more.
Blood dripped from his knuckles.
Scarecrow was surprised by this, and then he looked closer, and he found little crystals of Kryptonite within the glass. They were very small, but they were enough to cause him pain.
Strange hit a button, and red solar energy filled the capsule. He hit another, and Kryptonite energy filled it, as well. Superman groaned in pain.
He could not get free, and he realized that. He wanted so badly to get free, however.
He wanted to save those he loved from whatever Scarecrow had planned.
He felt pain in his chest, and he realized there was a beam of Kryptonite hitting him.
He groaned, and despite his resolve, fell into unconsciousness.
But not before screaming very loudly.
Loud enough to hurt the ears of Strange, and hurt the good ear of Scarecrow.
His other ear, however, was not as badly affected.
He heard Strange take a sharp intake of breath.
"That was amazing," whispered Strange. "That was purely amazing! I've never seen something like that happen before! I cannot believe what I have just seen! There aren't many who could stand up to Superman in a way such as that!"
Scarecrow ignored Strange's words, and he looked around them, seeing the other capsules with the other founding members of the Justice League. He could not wait to see the coming events, where these members would crush Batman and those he had with him.
All that would remain of that would be Batgirl, whom he would personally kill himself. He would make sure of that.
He exited the room and returned to his throne room, where Joker and Harley had been when he'd left them.
But now they were gone.
He did not care.
All that mattered now was that he succeeded.
He did not know what the coming hours would bring him, but he was sure that he would not fail.
Batgirl stood on a rooftop overlooking one of the streets.
She didn't understand what she was exactly looking for. She used the high-tech binoculars to search for a specific building. While it had been described, she thought about how there were so many different buildings around there. She was unsure of the exact one.
"Batman," she said, "I don't know what exactly I'm supposed to be looking for. I understand it's a building, but I don't know how I'm going to find the exact one…" Her voice trailed off as she passed over one building. There was a large white color showing up in the lenses. "What in the name of God? What's that white blur supposed to be?"
"It's someone's life-force," explained Batman from behind her. "The exact one you're looking for should be blazing with energy."
"How did you create binoculars with this feature?" Batgirl asked. "It isn't a normal function, you know?"
"I was able to help with that," said Zatanna. "When it comes to Magic, there are bounds, but not very many. So I gave those binoculars that ability. It'll help to locate all those we're looking for. There are definitely a lot."
"There's one thing I don't understand," said Supergirl. "These villains couldn't have beaten every single hero, could they? So where are the others heroes? There should probably be more here, don't you think?"
"I made sure about that," Batman explained to her. "According to the remaining members of the Justice League, there are bombs that have been placed in their cities. Very complex bombs. They're made differently than most, and it is obvious these supervillains have been planning this for a long time."
"Do you think they could be expecting us?" Wonder Girl asked. "I mean, they know that you're not imprisoned with all the other heroes, so—"
"They might be," Batman said. That was all he said.
"Wait a minute," said Batgirl. "I'm seeing something. It looks like, as you said, a huge life-force. I have no idea who it might belong to, but it's huge."
Zatanna looked at Batgirl with a strange expression, then said, "Ecrofefil eht laever!"
Suddenly a bright light shone through a large building. The name of the building, Batgirl saw, was Cadmus Labs.
"Not a surprise that it would be there," said Supergirl. "Superman and I have had to deal with scientists from there before, and most of them don't mess around. They tried to take my blood once, after Metallo had injured me. Superman found out and stopped them from doing it. It seems like they moved into Gotham, as well. How grand."
"We have to get in there," Batman announced. "Can you see a way in?" he asked Supergirl.
She looked to the building utilized her X-ray vision, only for her to turn to Batman seconds later and say, "The building is reinforced with lead. There's likely no way for me to get in there without trouble. If they were smart enough to use lead, then they'll probably have weapons enhanced with Kryptonite to attack me."
He said nothing back, instead observing the building. He looked to the top. "There's a way," he said moments later. "There's a group of people surrounding an entrance into the building. If we work together, we can take them down and get inside. Then we can find out who's behind all this."
Inside Cadmus Labs, Scarecrow stood over Harley, who was crying as a result of her beating from Joker. He did not take pity on her. She was nothing to him, and he believed she should be nothing to anyone, not even to herself or to Joker.
"This is all your fault, Quinzell," he told her menacingly. "You have no one to blame but yourself. You allowed Batgirl to escape from you, something I did not allow. You were supposed to knock her unconscious and bring her to me. But you failed, and you wounded her, as well. You deserve a much worse fate than what I am going to give you. But be warned, if you have a fault such as this ever happen again, I will kill you. No one will save you when my wrath finally descends upon your broken body. You will scream and scream, but no one will care in the end. Fear will take you, forever! Remember that, and make sure this shall never happen again. If it does, then you know what shall happen." Before he left, he picked her up by the throat with his left hand. "And as a parting gift, before I send you out there…"
He stuck her in the abdomen with the syringes, injecting a dose of his fear toxin into her bloodstream. She began screaming as horrible visions danced through her mind. He laughed in a deadpan sort of way, dropping her, turning round, and exiting the room. The last he saw of her was her covering her head and tears streaming down her face.
When he had finally made it to the lab, he called out, "Strange! Where are you?"
"Here," came Hugo Strange's voice, appearing from behind a computer.
"Do you have news?" Scarecrow asked.
"We have found the remaining members of the Justice League," the insane former Arkham Asylum psychologist replied. "They are on their way here, we have been told. They will likely attempt to get in through the passage on top of the labs. What shall we do?"
"Nothing," Scarecrow told him. "We shall wait and see what happens. We already have our weapons. All we have to do is…activate them, and then see the aftermath of the situation. Do you understand me?"
Strange nodded. "Yes, Crane—I mean, Scarecrow."
"Watch your tongue," growled Scarecrow. "If you do not, I shall impale you upon my scythe." There was a minute of pause between them. "Are they on top yet?"
"Not that we think," Strange admitted.
"When they enter and come near the experimentation room, activate our subjects. I shall make sure Joker is there to see the whole thing. We shall be watching, as well. If all goes well, you live another day. If not…then I will kill you."
Batgirl slowly climbed up to the roof. She looked over and saw Batwoman, Catwoman, Nightwing, and Robin doing the same.
Meanwhile, Batman was on another side with Batwoman, Red Arrow and Aqualad, and Supergirl, Zatanna, and Wonder Girl were planning on flying up to the top of the building once the others had made it. Kid Flash would be using his superspeed to jump to the building from another.
God, I really hope this works, Batgirl thought. If not, then all Hell will break loose. I have no idea what we're going to find inside, but I'm sure there's going to be a lot of action soon enough. Unlike most times, I'm really not excited about it.
She heard the sound of a brick scrape across the rooftop, and she jumped. But when she whirled around, she found that it was just Robin who had kicked it. He looked apologetic, and she also saw that Batman was glaring at him a little.
Though she would have, at one time, found this to be somewhat humorous, she didn't see it as such now, due to what was happening around them. They needed to get to the other heroes soon, because if they didn't, something horrible could happen to them.
Soon enough, everyone had arrived, and Batman took over from there. "We have no choice but to enter," he said. "While I don't know what might be in there, chances are, those behind this already know we're here."
"What makes you say that?" Robin asked.
"I've done this long enough where, as you already know, I truly understand this," Batman replied, and Batgirl saw Robin step back a little, having been, as others would put it, burned.
"You don't think there's a trap waiting for us?" Black Canary inquired.
"There might be," Batman said. "I don't want to endanger any of you, but as I've already said, we don't have a choice. Be prepared, and stay close to one another. This never was a game, but even before this moment, I don't think anyone could have expected an event such as this to happen. I blame myself for not having kept a closer eye on everyone. All the same, now is not the time for that. What we need to do is find and stop those that did this."
He turned around, and Batgirl watched as he walked over to a skylight.
He looked down, and for a few moments, he did not do anything.
Then he turned back to the others and nodded at them. Batgirl took this to mean that it was time for them to go down.
Batman knelt and opened the skylight as quick, but as silently, as he possibly could.
He seemed to wait another moment or two before finally jumping through the skylight, dropping to the floor below.
Batgirl moved toward the skylight, and when she reached it, she found a great deal of apprehension within her. She did not want to drop down, as she was not sure what she would find.
Memories of the pain she had suffered over the years as Batgirl came flooding back to her, and Barbara Gordon felt a twinge in her heart.
What if things don't go as you wish? she thought. What if everything you hold most dear is destroyed?
Then the face of her father swam before her, and she smiled.
No matter what happens, I know I'm doing this for the best cause possible. So get behind me, Satan. I won't fail.
She felt a hand on her left shoulder, and slowly turning her head, she found Supergirl. Kara looked as though she was concerned for her best friend, something Barbara could understand well.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes." That was all Batgirl said before finally looking down again and jumping. When she landed, she found Batman standing there next to her. There was also an expression of concern upon his face, though he did not say anything to her, as Kara had.
Not long after she had jumped down, the other heroes appeared. Supergirl smiled at Batgirl, who returned it.
Batman watched as this happened, and found himself content. But now he had to return his attention to everything else that mattered.
"Sir?" the voice of Alfred said through his earpiece hidden beneath the cowl.
"What is it, Alfred?" Batman said.
"I was looking at the schematics of the building, and I found something peculiar," Alfred answered. "There is a draft coming from within one of the rooms."
"Why is that different from all the other rooms?"
"Because this one is much colder than all the rest," Alfred said. "There are only a handful of times that we have seen this level of cold, and there are only several individuals with whom we can associate it with."
"Freeze, Killer Frost, and Captain Cold?" Batman said.
"Yes, sir."
After Alfred's voice had faded, Batman turned to the others and said, "We're in the right place."
Scarecrow watched Strange on his computer. The plan was going even better than the villain had thought. There was no way any of this could fail!
Commotion from just behind them caused Scarecrow to turn around. He found Clayface, also known as Basil Karlo, lumbering into the room.
Karlo had once been a failed actor who was exposed to chemicals that had previously transformed Matt Hagen into the Clayface persona.
Having already been a career criminal in secret, Karlo used his abilities, which allowed him to change into anyone he wanted, to steal money to fund new projects.
Soon after, Batman learned what was happening and deduced the identity of the criminal that had not only stolen the money, but killed several people in the process.
Despite these abilities, Batman had learned Karlo possessed the same weakness as the previous Clayface: he could be frozen, which would not only stop him from changing, but also allow him to be taken to Arkham Asylum.
Due to this, Karlo developed a grudge against Batman (Who hasn't? Scarecrow thought) and now wanted nothing more than to kill him (Who doesn't? Scarecrow thought again). After the death of Hagen due to the collapse of the chemicals that had created him, Karlo was the only Clayface.
"You have come for what reason?" Scarecrow demanded.
"I needed to speak with you," Karlo said.
"Before you say anything…all I can say is that you've done well in portraying me. The first meeting between all the rogues went well. In fact, the only problem I could see…had to do with some of the words you used, such as—and I hope to never use this word again, as useless as it is—'crap.'"
"I did what I could," Karlo said. "I guess pieces of my original personality came back around."
"I just wish I could have been the one to end the Ratcatcher. Had it not been for Jones and his mauling of me, that would have been quite a perk. All the same, if I get my chance to end Batgirl, then this circle of my life will finally be complete."
"What's in it for me?" Karlo asked.
"Maybe, one day, you'll be able to take on the role of Joker," Scarecrow said.
"That would be a sight to see," Hugo Strange piped up from a few feet away.
"Get back to work. You know what will happen if you don't."
Scarecrow suddenly gasped in pain as soon as he finished speaking those words, and he looked down to see red staining the brown cloak.
"Condemn it," he grunted. "Ever since Jones mauled me, I have trouble moving without pulling my stitches every once in a while."
"Well, if you need me for anything else…"
As Karlo spoke, something on the security monitor caught Scarecrow's eye.
He looked over and found Batman, as well as many of his allies and those of the other heroes, including Supergirl and Red Arrow.
And…
Batgirl.
"Karlo," he said, interrupting the shapeshifter, "I need you to do something for me."
"What do you need?"
"Get the others together. It's time we start the next phase. This time around, the heroes will fall…and I will finally be able to kill Batgirl."
