Chapter 11
SNAP
A horrendous thunderstorm carried over from Saturday to Sunday but still, the citizens of Gotham slept unbothered, even with the rolling thunder interrupting the previously peaceful night. It shook the buildings, yet not even that disturbed their slumber. The rain poured down harder than usual, repetitively hitting the cold pavement with strong winds blowing through the dark city.
In her jail cell, Livewire waited for the guards to end their night rounds while she pretended to sleep as one of them passed her. Once the coast was clear and the light had been turned off, she removed her bed and went through the tunnel she had been digging for the last few days. She crawled through the tight hole, occasionally getting an abandoned spider web stuck on her face until she arrived at a room that had a large window with three bars. She reached the window just as a flash of lightning flicked in the distance.
"Perfect." She held out a piece of metal that she had been keeping hidden in a book and waited for the right moment. As a bolt of lightning struck the metal, she used her powers and shot out of the building and into the nearby wires. Once again she was free and she already had a good idea of what she was going to do with it. She would find Lois and use her as bait but this time, she would make sure that Superman couldn't save her.
Lois rocked back and forth on the moldy mattress in Joker's hideout, humming "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to soothe herself. It had been a whole week of pain and misery for her and it was greatly affecting her mental health. Slowly but surely whatever sanity she had left was beginning to fade away and in its place was twisted insanity.
She looked up at the moldy ceiling. "Where are you, you mad son of a bitch?" She said as a small nervous and slightly psychopathic laugh came out with a creepy look on her face. Lois had been waiting for Joker to begin the daily torture, but he hadn't come into her room all day.
As she chuckled, she saw a cockroach scurry across the floor. When the invertebrate was close enough, she squashed it with her red heel as hard as she could.
"Bye bye buggy," Lois laughed, enjoying the squishing and crunching noise that came out as the insect life came to an untimely end.
Just then, she heard the door open violently. She jumped back and screamed in fear of what twisted idea the monster had planned for her. Joker walked into the room but stopped once he had reached her. Lois was up against the wall with terror in her eyes. He bent down and lifted her head up by her chin with one figure.
"Come Honey, it's time for your final test," he said in a calm voice as he stroked her soft black hair.
Lois whimpered in fear as Joker grabbed her tightly by the arm and dragged her down the hallway, the clicking of her heels echoing as she walked. Her heart beat loudly with every step, fearing what he had planned for the grand finale. They passed the door where the bubbling noise came from.
Lois looked at Joker in confusion.
"Is something wrong?" Joker asked rhetorically.
Lois pointed back at the door. "I thought..."
"Not yet, but you'll be in there very soon," Joker said with a wicked grin. She felt scared and intrigued by what he could possibly have planned.
They continued until they came to an old dark green door that Lois hadn't seen before. Joker opened the door to reveal a small room with nothing in it except a large goon. He had bulbous muscular arms and a deep scar over his right eye and in his hands, he held a large crowbar.
Joker shoved Lois into the dark red room where the paint had begun peeling off and she fell to the hard wooden floor. Lois pushed herself back up as Joker followed her in and locked the door behind himself.
"Ready?" Joker asked as Lois stood up.
"For what?" she asked not sure what exactly she was supposed to do. "Who's he?" she pointed to the cruel-looking goon.
"Oh, where are my manners?" Joker laughed in a rhetorical tone. "This is- well it doesn't matter who he is. You two are going to fight," he introduced with increasing excitement.
"What?! You want me to fight him?!" Lois yelled.
"Is there a problem?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Look at him, no one gets those kinds of scars from putting up with kittens. I won't last a minute against him." Lois said.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes!"
"I think you're underestimating yourself, Honey. Why, I bet you could beat him in five minutes."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Now Lois, am I really asking that much of you?"
Lois thought for a minute, she has been through much worse this week.
"So, shall we begin?" Joker asked with a cruel smirk.
"What's the fight even for?" Lois could not see how this was supposed to be a form of torture, especially after everything she had been through this week.
"Why it's simple. If you beat him, I let you go. If you fail… well, let's just say your torture schedule will be extended a few more hours."
Lois sighed, "Alright, let's get this over with." She turned to face her opponent.
"Good," he said before smiling sinisterly. "Oh, one more thing, this is a fight to the death." The psychotic man laughed manically as the goon advanced toward Lois. The woman in red and black turned and ran to the door. She tried to open the door as hard as she could to no avail. She turned to fight, her fists shaking in fear.
The goon swung the crowbar, almost hitting her in the face.
Joker watched intently as they fought, swinging his weapon violently trying to hit her. She was able to dodge the attacks but could barely get a good hit in. However, it was clear that she was close to breaking. At any moment she would snap and lose her sanity.
Lois dodged another attack before managing to land a hit to his right eye.
"You'll pay for that you bitch!" he yelled. He charged towards her with his fist held high. She dodged him at the last second and his fist got stuck in the wall.
Lois couldn't help but let out a twisted chuckle which stopped when the goon freed his hand.
Seeing this could go on for far longer than he wanted, the Clown Prince of Crime decided to intervene. He knew exactly what would be the final straw. He approached her and whispered in her ear, "I bet you wish Superman would save you! Oh, that's right, he's too busy with Ms. Lang!"
Lois didn't understand what he meant. Lana wasn't after Superman, why would she be? The only reason Lana would try to get the Man of Steel for herself would be if he was- Lois' eyes widened as the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Clark Kent was Superman. For a moment Lois' mind unfocused on her current surroundings. All she could think about were the years of lies and deceptions from the man of steel. How she, the greatest reporter of Metropolis, couldn't figure it out after all these years. She snapped out of her thoughts when the goon struck her across the face which knocked her hard to the ground.
As the goon came closer to finish her off, Lois began to see his face change. Slowly the goon turned into Clark. Then she heard the goon's laugh becomes Clark's, mocking and belittling her.
"What's the matter, Lois? Can't believe you were dating Superman the whole time?" the goon mocked in Clark's voice. "Too ashamed to admit you couldn't see what was right in front of you this whole time, you utter fool?"
"Maybe he deserves someone better." she heard Lana's voice echo. Then she hallucinated the redhead walking next to him. "He's all mine." She lustfully declared before they both cruelly laughed. He then raised his weapon high for another attack, but just as the goon was about to hit her again, Lois kicked him in the groin and made him drop the crowbar.
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the crowbar and attacked him. Hatred filled her eyes as she struck the man as hard as she could. He begged for mercy but Lois didn't stop, she kept hitting him harder even as blood splattered her face until finally, she let out a hellish scream and hit the goon right on the skull. Blood pouring out of his head as his eyes closed for a final time.
Lois looked at the body of the man she had just beaten to death. She stared with fury as she now saw the goon in his real form. With blood on her cheek, she breathed deeply, then her left eye twitched. Then she began to laugh a little before it got louder and more gleefully and twisted as a large, unnatural smile slowly appeared on her face.
The last of her sanity was destroyed and Joker looked on with a wicked smirk. He had done it, after a week of beating and torturing her, he finally made her snap. She was now just as twisted, heartless, and psychopathic as he was. There was only one final task for her to go past the point of no return. One last thing to make her... his new partner in crime.
Joker casually walked over to her. When Lois caught sight of him, she turned to attack.
"Don't worry Lois, I'm not going to hurt you," Joker calmly stated. Lois lowered her crowbar. "Tell me, did you like-"
"I loved it!" she laughed with a gleefully evil voice, smiling even wider. "The blood, the screams of mercy, seeing the life fade from him. I loved it all!"
Joker was slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted but he decided to let it slide just in case Lois used her new weapon on him. "Good, now how would you like to be my right hand?"
"What exactly do I get out of it?"
"You will become the Clown Princess of Crime. We'll terrify Gotham City like no one could even imagine. I can get my revenge on Harley and Ivy..." Joker paused for effect. "...and you can get revenge on Clark and Lana."
Lois beamed at the word and imagined standing over the deceased bodies of those who had backstabbed her. "Alright, I'm in, Pudding."
"Excellent, but first, there's just one more thing we need to do before you can be the perfect criminal," he stated on his way out.
They entered the room where the bubbling noise came from. He opened the doors to reveal a room with a large rusty vat filled to the brim with boiling acid. Joker led Lois up the metal stairs. Once they were at the top, Joker prepared to shove her.
"What do you think you're doing?" she yelled, whipping around to face him.
"I have to push you in. After all, don't-"
"Oh please, only an idiot would let you push them into acid." she interpreted, then her face turned to an evil smile. "Besides, I would prefer to jump in."
Joker blinked in shock before his face twisted into a smile. "Go right ahead, Honey."
Lois turned around and cannonballed into the vat. Acid splashed onto the dark blueish-grey tiled floor, leaving deep burn marks. Joker waited for his new partner to complete her transformation. Twenty seconds later, Lois emerged from the depths, like Ariel, and stepped out dripping with acid. Joker grinned even wider at the sight that to any ordinary man would be a sight of horror, but to the psychopathic mind was an image of pure beauty and sultry.
"Mirror," Lois commanded one of the goons, gesturing with her hand to give one to her. The goon was silent as he nervously looked at his boss' new girlfriend. "MIRROR!"
A traumatized goon shakily handed Lois a hand mirror. Lois snatched it out of his and held the mirror up to her face as she gazed at her new reflection. Her skin was bleached as white as Joker, her hair was now dark green just like his, and her teeth and corneas were a sickening yellow. The only thing that remained was her purple eyes. She began to laugh slowly but it soon grew louder. The goon backed away as Lois' laugh became more threatening as it echoed across the room.
"You better watch out Gotham, because I'm coming for ya!" Lois jeered as she threw the mirror to the floor, causing it to shatter as a bolt of lightning flashed across casting her menacing shadow onto the greyish-green walls.
The newest rogue in Gotham laughed in a tone of pure evil. Lois Lane was dead to make room for Lethal Lynx, the Clowned Princess of Crime.
Special thanks to Princesspopular6417 for helping me come up with Lois' villain name.