Chapter 13: A Plot Hatched
The capture of the Scarecrow boosted Batman's popularity among the people of Gotham City. Though most of its citizens had only seen video evidence of him and those who had believed that he was only a new urban legend, Gotham could not deny that he had done a great service for the city in cutting its crime rate down by astonishing margins. Criminals were afraid to attempt robbing even lone individuals for fear that they would attract Batman's attention and then be dragged off to prison after being pounded for trying to put up a fight. The children of Gotham City were excited about Batman not only because he was making their home safe, but because they wanted to meet him and see if he was real. Overall, the appearance of Batman had made Gotham a happier and safer place to live. But that happiness was to be threatened again all too soon.
In Arkham Asylum, the Joker was being hauled back to his cell after yet another round of therapy. Today, he had been giving the psychiatrists one story after the next in an effort to gain sympathy from them, and after each session, he had gone back to his cell and obsessed over Batman and how the caped hero had foiled his criminal career when it was just beginning to kick off.
"Ooh, that rotten Batman! He can't get away with this! I'll… I'll protest this! I'll sue 'im for all he's worth, though I doubt it'll be much. But either way, I'll pay him out for this! I'll clip his bat-wings through! And I will, too!" Joker stormed before breaking out in a chorus of sinister cackles.
It was at this moment that the Riddler was on his way back to his cell when he heard Joker blathering about Batman from behind his cell door. He paused and said, "Not a bad idea, my giggling ghoulish friend. In fact, I was about to say the same thing."
Joker stopped storming around his chamber and pressed his ear to the door. "Funny. You're not my echo. But if you have an idea, put it on my door."
The Riddler rolled his eyes behind his domino mask and then said very softly, "Tell me, Joker. How would you like to be out of Arkham right now and given the chance to work with fellow criminals to take revenge on Batman?"
Joker grinned wickedly and replied, "I'd have to be crazy to refuse that offer. But then again, we're all crazy here! I'll take it!"
With that, the Joker watched through the window of his cell door as the Riddler suddenly attacked the guards escorting him. He kicked the first guard in the stomach and then aimed at the guard's knees. He tripped the second guard and got the third guard in a chokehold until he passed out, and after fishing for the cell keys, Riddler loosed his handcuffs and then opened Joker's cell.
"Now the only other person we need here is the Scarecrow," said the Riddler.
With that, the two villains ran to the cell where Scarecrow was languishing. The Riddler opened the cell door and then Joker called out, "Come along, Scarecrow! We're off to see the Wizard!"
The Scarecrow grinned and sprinted from his cell, and then the three supervillains made a mad dash for the exit. As they made their escape with more guards behind them, the Joker took a trick package from within his prison uniform and tossed it, saying, "Catch, boys!"
The package exploded behind the three villains, but Joker didn't bother to look behind him. He and Riddler and Scarecrow fought their way through more guards, injuring several and leaving the others unconscious, and after navigating the corridors of Arkham Asylum, they climbed down the sewer pipe and made their way to a manhole that was not bolted down. Once free, they pulled off their prison uniforms to reveal their villain attire, then hurried toward the slums of Gotham to rally their individual gangs.
While the breakout at Arkham was hitting the news, Bruce was taking some time outside of his role as Batman to spend a night on the town with Vicki Vale. Though he had been experiencing difficulties letting people get close to him in the past, Bruce couldn't deny that spending time with Vicki was quite the ointment to the old wound that had lingered since the night his parents died.
That evening, the two were enjoying dinner at one of Gotham's best rooftop diners. At the moment, Vicki was looking at the skyline of Gotham City, admiring the lights shining from far-off windows of skyscrapers and listening to the soft rumble of the occasional el trains passing through the area. She said to Bruce in a dreamy voice, "This city really is gorgeous at night."
"Is it?" Bruce said in a half-teasing way. "You'll have to excuse me, Vicki. I wasn't looking at the city."
Vicki turned to look at Bruce, who then asked her, "Vicki, I want to know… do you think that I cling to the past because it motivates me to do what's right, or because I'm obsessed with it because of perceived failures?"
Bruce felt Vicki's hand on his own, and she gave him a look of great empathy as she spoke. "No, Bruce. The reason you cling to your past is because it's important to you to keep your parents' memory alive and serve Gotham as they once did. That should be motivation enough."
A smile grew on Bruce's face as he and Vicki leaned in close for a kiss. However, before their lips could meet, a voice beside them said, "My, my. You clearly haven't lost your mind living in the fast lane, Mr. Wayne."
Bruce and Vicki turned to the table beside and their eyes widened in surprise, for sitting atop the table with a frightening grin on his face was the Joker. The clownish criminal hopped from the table and said, "But don't you know that kind of living will just leave the world behind in your dust?"
As he spoke, several gangsters dressed in clown masks and wigs entered the restaurant armed with boxing-glove guns and Tommy guns as well. The Joker wasn't alone in that regard, for the Riddler showed up as well with his green-clad thugs in tow, and then came the Scarecrow and his thugs, and they carried razor-edged rakes and shovels. The other diners took fright and hurried down to the lower levels of the building, but Bruce and Vicki remained where they were, knowing that they were surrounded on all sides. The Joker ran straight at Vicki and grabbed hold of her wrist. As Bruce watched, an enjoyment buzzer on Joker's right forefinger released an electrical charge which made Vicki cry out in pain, and soon she had passed out and fell limp in the villain's arms.
That made Bruce mad. He started for Joker with his face fixed in a furious scowl as he snapped, "Take your hands off her, you filthy…!"
Wordlessly, the Joker's goons opened fire with their Tommy guns and the Riddler's and Scarecrow's goons did the same. Bruce knew that he couldn't let the three supervillains know that he was Batman, and so he dodged only with his feet until he had backed up against the railing overlooking the streets of Gotham. As he backed up, Bruce suddenly went over the railing and fell from the balcony.
"See that his corpse is a grease spot in the streets!" barked the Scarecrow.
The goons came to the edge of the balcony, looking for any sign of Bruce. They were about to tell the three villains that Bruce Wayne was indeed dead, but they noticed only moments later that the young billionaire had managed to cling to the window ledge on the thirtieth floor. He was a little bruised, but his quick thinking and lessons in escape artistry had saved him from a grim fate. He barely noticed the small blimp moving near the rooftop restaurant, and when he did, it was moving away with the Joker, Riddler, and Scarecrow aboard and Vicki unconscious.
"Well, aren't we the immovable object?" came the derisive voice of the Joker as he fired a set of spears from his Tommy gun at Bruce. Fortunately, his shots missed, but the Clown Prince of Crime only kept smiling as he called out, "Bon voya-gee, Brucie! HAA HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
...
Thirty minutes later, Bruce had been brought safely down to ground level by police helicopter and gave his statements to Commissioner Gordon and Inspector Bullock while other policemen got statements from witnesses of the crime. As Bruce finished his explanation, Harvey Bullock shook his head in disgust and said, "Oh, great! First these super-crooks with crazy gadgets cause trouble around Gotham, and now they kidnap the best reporter for some fruitcake scheme?! I'll have a word with the Arkham staff about this!"
"Don't get your badge in a twist there, Detective," said Commissioner Gordon sternly. Then he said to Bruce, "Don't you worry, Mr. Wayne. Gotham P.D. will be on this case twenty-four seven until Miss Vale is safe at home. And if I know Batman, he'll be after those three crooks before you can say 'liberty'."
"Thank you, Commissioner," replied Bruce. Then he returned to his car, he contacted Alfred and said, "Warm up the Batmobile, Alfred. It's urgent."
"Rain check on your date night, sir?" the butler replied with his usual air of refined humor.
"Worse than that. The Joker, Riddler, and the Scarecrow have broken out of Arkham Asylum. They have Vicki."
"You don't say! I shall have the Batmobile ready within minutes, sir!"
On the west side of Gotham City, in an old theater under renovation, the Joker, the Riddler, and the Scarecrow were alone in one of the auditoriums with Vicki Vale bound hand and foot to an armchair while their gangsters kept watch. Scarecrow removed the band of cloth around Vicki's mouth and then stood beside the Joker and the Riddler.
"Why did you bring me here?!" demanded Vicki.
"To bring Batman, of course," answered the Riddler. "If even one Gotham citizen is in danger, can Gotham City's hero be far behind?"
"You must be crazier than you look if you think Batman won't get me out of this!" Vicki snarled.
"Ah, but he won't, Miss Vale. You see, Batman's merely the fish we want in our nets, and what better way to catch a heroic fish than with the most attractive bait?" chuckled the Joker.
"And then what? You'll kill him and me too?!"
Scarecrow spoke next, and he gave a wry chuckle and said, "Get rid of Batman, certainly. But you? Not at all. What we want is for you to be the first witness to the greatest crime wave that Gotham City has witnessed in many a year."
With that, the Riddler pulled a lever on the stage podium, and the curtain drew back to reveal an unusual-looking chemistry lab, a massive cannon-like object with the end shaped like the nozzle of a hose, and a peculiar machine with a pair of antennae and a dial on the front.
Scarecrow approached the antennae-topped machine and said, "Batman has certainly made Gotham a happier place to live, Miss Vale, but what's more powerful than happiness is fear. And to prove that, I've been saving this machine for a special occasion. It's a Phobia Radio. It's designed to detect the brain waves of the subconscious mind and provide a vocalization of what people fear the very most. You see, I find out what people are afraid of and I help them visualize that fear with my patented fear toxin. Each stage of fear has its own frequency range depending on the severity of it, and here is the stage that comes in the loudest of all!"
The Scarecrow turned the dial on his Phobia Radio to "utter despair", and the big machine lit up as electricity coursed over the antennae. Then Vicki watched in horror as hundreds of ghostly faces of men and women, boys and girls, were projected from the machine, and each one spoke of something that inspired fear and hopelessness and wearing the same horrified expression. The Scarecrow laughed maniacally as his machine finished its grim display and then he said, "And this is only the first step in our plan to show the underlings of Gotham OUR superiority over their Batman!"
"What are you talking about?" Vicki inquired with an angry scowl.
The Joker walked over from the chemistry table with a large drum filled with bubbling green liquid, and he chuckled, "Think of it, Miss Vale! This patented laughter-inducing toxin of mine is worth twenty of that pathetic substance you'll get at the dentist's office! One teensy puff will have millions of mommies and daddies filling Gotham with giggles… right before Scarecrow's little air freshener gets the screams out of the kiddies."
Vicki gasped and then spat, "Why, you sick, demented, despicable bunch of …"
"Temper, temper, Miss Vale," smirked the Riddler. "Unless you would like to be the first patient."
Then the Joker grinned vilely and said, "Except she won't need to experience Scarecrow's toxin at all, 'cause the experience alone will be scary enough!" He approached Vicki and smirked, "You've got a front-row seat for the greatest crime event of the year, my sweet… the night Gotham laughed and cried at once."
And then, the Joker let out a bout of vicious, cackling laughter.
A/N: How was this chapter, my readers? Feel free to let me know in a review if it pleases you to do so.
I should inform you that this chapter was heavily based on The Batman/Superman Movie (aka Superman TAS: "World's Finest") while the Phobia Radio was inspired by the similar invention of one of animation's lesser-known villains: Professor Screweyes of "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story".
I hope this chapter was fun and thrilling for you all, and keep an eye out, 'cause Chapter 14 won't be far behind.