TheWritingGirl23: Unfortunately not much action on Mr. F here, my bad, i wrote the chapter and realized i forgot him but do not fear! and imagine him as whoever you want, that's the wonderful thing about ff you can imagine the characters anyway your head wants. arkham city characters are pretty cool and scarily bad ass. here's my personal line up in mind when writing: Scott as a hybrid Evo Scott/ultimate x-men comic scott/bendis & bachalo uncanny x-men(2013 run), Emma as a younger generic comic version (when she's drawn right), bruce as The Batman, Robin as TAS, Mr. F as the arnold schwarznegger movie one (but only because that's the only 1 i can vividly remember, catwoman in the CURRENT comics but younger, harley from TAS, and jean from evo. phew i exhausted that list.

I'm glad you got the selina/batman thing. hahaha it is pretty crazy how many students at gotham college have secret identities.

When I began this, I didn't know that there actually was a Gotham University often featured in the story, I just kind of thought it out but I revisited old episodes of the cartoons and saw that it is canon already, which is awesome. I took one of the beginning parts from the last episode of batman the animated series, but with my own lazier twists of course. and yes, nothing too special with jean right now, i always want to do something with her in the fics but always get sidetracked by different ships so i don't know what to do with her and i don't hate her at the moment but i'm not focused on her so she's just kind of in the background for now. once marvel killed her off i just stamped her as dead and gone in my head, but i do give props to those jean shippers who uphold her legacy and believe she never dies. lol selina and dick are so interesting together, they make a weird couple, he's so sensitive and normal and she's so catty and sneaky. omg she would have a field day if she knew she got both of them. Thanks for your humbling and really sharp review! Hope you find this chapter alright.

Putting the last pieces of a physics model together, Scott muttered, "With the formula solved, we'll win the science fair for sure! Thanks for your help, Harley."

She handed him a wrench and touched his bottom lip with her finger, pushing it down and exposing a corner of his stark white teeth.

"The pleasure's mine Summers. Our synergy is magnetic, who knew science fair projects could be so stimulating."

"Smart and beautiful, what'd I do to deserve you." He drew her towards himself and she pushed herself against him, abandoning the plans for their scientific model.

She poked her round glasses up on her head and he grinned lopsidedly, breath taken, "Wow."

As they proceeded to passionately make out on top of their lab table, a lanky, bookish man stepped in, scolding, "The lab is open for academic use, not sex education 101!"

Blushing, Scott helped Harley up who crammed her glasses back on.

Harley spoke up, "Professor Crane! We're just completing our model for the science fair, Scott solved a very complicated rare formula, and we really think we have a shot at winning this year. I'm doing it for extra credit in my psych class."

The man had brown hair and clear eyes, he was long and skinny like a scare crow with his tweed sports jacket on.

He was a professor in the psychology department at Gotham University, he taught a special subject on phobias and had also worked at Arkham Asylum as a doctor.

"That'd be a grand prize to win. I hope you stay off the table long enough to get it done."

The Professor grabbed a folder from the room and left them, with one long paranoid glare.

Harley giggled and kissed Scott some more as the teacher disappeared.

An auburn haired girl slept with her head bent over a book in her dorm room.

"Barbara! Hey Babs! Yo book worm! Ya up there?!" A male's voice broke her out of her slumber, she glanced out her open window, then at her wristwatch, a cup of cold coffee next to her.

"What is it Dick!" Her friend and peer, Dick Grayson jumped up and down trying to catch her attention, "Come out for a pizza run!"

She groaned, "I can't! Dad says I have to ace midterms or else he'll throw me in jail, and with my dad, that's no idle threat."

Dick waved his hand, "Okay! Catch you later!"

She wallowed over her books, "Math! Why'd it have to be math?" She heard a scuffing noise by her door, a school newspaper pushed through.

Barbara picked it up and read the cover, it was about some rare statuettes that had been stolen from Gotham State University's historical museum. She got an idea, "Maybe it's time for a study break."

Leaving his last class of the day, Scott was stopped by Professor Crane who pulled him aside as students walked past.

Looking intently into the young boy's sunglasses, the professor whispered in an anal tone, "You're the boy dating Harley Quinnzel aren't you?"

Scott sternly asked, "What does that have to do with you, sir?"

The professor looked around before leaning in closer and saying, "She's one of our interns at Arkham Asylum, she was recently an inmate there as you've probably heard... I don't like her method, she quite a nuisance and mad girl. Listen close young man, be very afraid of yourself and what you're capable of being pushed to do. A pretty girl is very persuasive. Especially with a joker as the puppet master pulling the puppet strings. Stay on top of your school work." He patted Scott on the arm and walked away.

Scott eyed him in puzzlement, his eyebrows over his sunglasses, "What...?"

A toned woman's figure in a skin-tight black leather cat suit and a beaded gold belt, and mask with spiky ears swung down from a roof top ceiling where an acid-eroded lock uselessly hung at the hatch.

She landed nimbly on all fours.

"Look what the cat dragged in", a girl on a rope dropped down, in a charcoal gray costume with a bat symbol on her chest, and a similar custom mask to that of Batman's, her auburn hair flowing out. She threw her cape back, confronting Catwoman.

"Bat Girl. I'm here for the same reason as you."

"You stole the statuettes, you're back to the scene of your crime." Bat Girl stepped forward menacingly.

Catwoman walked around to the taped off glass case that had held some rare items of historic value. The front of the glass box was shattered and melted by acid.

Cat Woman touched the corroded glass, "The break in was by acid, and this mess was by acid, that's just not my style. I'm a little more graceful when it comes to break ins I want to find out who stole those statuettes." She traced a perfect circle in the back of the glass case with her gloved claw, pushing a sliced circle through.

A third swung down from a cable, in a black cape, short-sleeved red shirt with green sleeves, green tights, red underwear, and a black mask.

He smart alecked, "I came to inspect a crime scene, not a convention."

Cat Woman laughed and remarked, "What happened to the big and bold Night Wing?"

Robin could not tell them that he had run out of laundry tokens the other day when he had tried to wash his Night Wing costume in his dorm's laundry room and this costume was the only clean one he had left.

"Helping Batman tonight. Hand over what you took Cat Woman, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."
Catwoman put a claw to her chin pensively and then fiddled with her claws like she was flicking a speck of dust off of them, "Mmm...I pick...the hard way."

She swung up and kicked Bat Girl in the face, then crawled up the walls, escaping to the roof top.

Robin groaned and went after her followed by Bat Girl.

Cat Woman struck her whip down on them, catching Robin off his feet. As he staggered back up she was instantly in the air, knocking him out.

Bat Girl tossed a boomerang at her, getting her away from Robin. She edged Cat Woman against the ledge.

Robin ran forward and tossed his lasso at her, to bring her in.

"No stop!" Bat Girl pushed him so his lasso wobbled in the air and Cat Woman nimbly ran away.

He threw his hands up in the air, "You let her get away! Some help you are!"

Bat Girl bit back, "Another time, but it wasn't her this time."

"How do you know that?" Robin asked violently, the unfurled black hair spiking over his forehead shaking.

Bat Girl replied defensively, "She told me."

He cried out, "If you trusted what Cat Woman said, and you're using that as solid evidence, you're possibly the worst detective ever."

She retorted, "Oh...OH YEAH!?" Then she roundabout kicked him in the stomach and shot a zip line to another building, flying across the night sky.

Robin returned to the Bat Cave, and logged into the large computer system he had, video calling Bruce Wayne.

Bruce's face appeared, he wore a trench coat over his broad shoulders, Dick asked, "Are you coming home tonight?"

"Can't yet, Wayne Industries is still wrapping up a big deal in Tokyo, but I bought you some nice key chains with your name on them. Try to rest up until I get back, we have a Mr. Freeze to catch."

The younger boy confided, "Cat Woman's up to something, some statuettes at school were stolen, from the museum. I'm sure she was involved, she was back at the crime of her scene and I was just about to land her when that annoying Bat Girl messed everything up! She's useless, she shouldn't even bother being around."

Bruce smiled, "Give her a chance, she's been of help before and she means well, we both know sometimes even heroes need the help they can get."

"Scott."

"What?"

"Scott."

"Yes'm."

"Scott."

"..."

"Ooh, Scott!"

Scott Summers put his pencil down in his note book, and stared at Harley Quinn, her back against her bag on the grass and her feet up in the air, legs against his shoulder. She popped a piece of Cracker Jack from a box she was eating from so that it hit his ear.

She munched on a popcorn and recited playfully, "Did you know that fear is used as a control factor in systems like the government, prisons, institutes, the army, war, and the like? Even in playgrounds where kids use basic instinct and form hierarchies and gang up or tease. You don't seem like you're afraid of anything. I can tell just by staring at you all day. Nobody could intimidate my big strong Freshman."

Dick and Emma came by, sitting down with them.

Dick greeted Scott, "Hiya Scotty, what you working on?"
"Reviewing a new theorem, and working on this logarithm."

Tugging at one of Harley's pigtails, he teased her, "You're right, I'm not afraid of anything. Except maybe distracting and crazy pretty girls like yourself."

She rolled over on her stomach and poked him, "Well aren't you the charmer mister. Speaking of government...take a load of that guy."

A scrawny guy in a long sleeved shirt under an unbuttoned plaid shirt, and a small sandy colored afro waved a sign around, shouting through his megaphone around an assembly of other students, "Students of Gotham U! What is Batman doing about Health Care? Hm? Health Care is a huge issue, it's important and needs to be dealt with right away and Batman hasn't done anything to fix this flaw in the government! Nothing effective has been done about it yet and our own Batman can change it. We, as the future leading generation, need to start making our voices heard! Down with the Batman! What has he done except hide his face in the shadows and arrest a few mobsters, probably with some crooked bribe involved? Nothing! Our streets still aren't clean and Gotham's still the worst crime rate and our taxes still aren't being paid."

Scott furrowed his brow, he said out loud tonelessly, "Why should Batman have to do anything about it?"

The guy with the afro echoed back through his megaphone, "Why shouldn't he have to do anything about it?"

Scott explained, "He doesn't have to clean up anyone's mess, he's just one man, he knows he doesn't have to do anything, but he does it anyway and that's what makes him a hero the public should be grateful for. He's far more effective than any legal system."

A few people in the crowd applauded and cheered. Emma murmured, "Don't bother debating with this liberal arts stereo type, he's just saying nonsense, a bunch of hot air."

Some students riled up as the guy shouted something profane about the economy through his megaphone and how Batman was responsible.

Harley piped up, "Batman's a hero alright, but if he were really all about justice he'd be in jail too! Instead, he's just a big bully who puts other misunderstood people in jail! He's wanted by law as much as the next outlaw, but the police turn their heads the other way anytime he comes around with a gaggle of mobstas."

Scott asked more in surprise rather than shock, for he was new and did not know much about Batman yet other than that the city adorned or spited him as a controversial figure. "Harley, I didn't know you felt that way about Batman. You want him in jail?"

It seemed that most of the students supported Batman. She spitefully reproached, "I'm just sayin', if ya says ya on the side of justice, then ya live and breathe it, which means abiding by them so-called laws we gots heah. He represents an iconic hero to us, but he ain't puttin' up the best show, bending all these rules to do his crime-fightin'. It just goes to show that it's impossible to stick to all the rules, not break any, and good ole normal people shouldn't have to be punished for breakin' em when it's just natural to do so! Even someone's good as Bat Boy has to break them rules he arrests people for breakin'!"

Emma's face was gleeful, this girl just dug herself a one way ticket down to breakupville from Scott Summers.

Dick gaped, his eyebrows shot towards the sky, in astonishment and plain puzzlement over Harley's seemingly odd and childish point of view.

He stuttered out almost hysterically, "Well that's what cops are! A defender of justice that represents working under all the rules! That's what the police does, but look where it's gotten them, I tell you not one cop follows the rules, they're probably the worst perps of all."

"No, she's right. She's reflecting the general consensus and public opinion. When society's not thinking as their individual selves, and applying that to an icon like Batman, then they're gonna expect a certain public image and perfection from him, as a super hero. One slip or error, something that wouldn't even be noticeable if an individual of the general public did it everyday, from Batman, is a fissure to that public identity. We want to believe there is someone out there better than all of us combined, that will take care of us and do things we would never dare, and if he's not perfect, we isolate and hate him, because if he can't carry humanity on his shoulders without cracking under the pressure, then he can stand as society's punching bag to take the blame and make us feel a little better about ourselves and the state of our crime rates or whatever else is failing us. If he is better than what we see in ourselves, then we hate him just the more and look for reasons to humanize and degrade him. What Harley's saying is just the initial collective opinion and reaction. This is the truth about how things work. So he should be in prison according to the justice system, but the fact that he brings more justice than any harmless law abiding citizen justifies his actions. The people pointing fingers, and the cops representing the justice system can all be hypocrites while someone who publicly breaks the rules for the greater good but doesn't try to pretend otherwise is not a hypocrite."

Emma arched an eyebrow at him, smiling slightly, bemused and subtly impressed.

She commented, "I'd say that almost sounds like you're coming from personal experience...you relate."

Scott glared at Emma through his sunglasses, knowing where she was going with that, "I don't personally relate all that much, I don't see how one person can with another without being them, I'm just considering perspectives. I don't agree with her all the way but Harley's opinion is accurate in depicting what the public thinks like without knowing it. I've never worn a cape before though, Emma."

Exasperated and relieved, Harley hugged Scott's face, she fondly remarked, "Finally someone who understands! I'm just thinkin' bout all them lonely prisoners he brought to Gordon, the pub-lick sympathizes a lot more for 'em than for heroes like Batman than we thinks, has to do with cattle herdin' or somethin' like that, Prof. Crane says. In principle, we say we don'ts thinks like that, but just look at pub-lick opin-yun."

Wrinkling her nose, Emma said, "Professor Crane's a creep. There's a man who doesn't think like the crowd, or the dark knight."

Harley chuckled, "We can share that dthwuh-aughd [thought] in common."

Scott said, "I had that guy for a week before I switched out, he totally gets off on fear."

Emma nodded, nose still wrinkled.

An auburn haired girl waved across the quad at Dick and came towards them, book bag on her shoulder.

Dick got up and declared, "Hey Barbara! Everyone, this is Barbara Gordon, daughter of the famous Commissioner Gordan, Gotham's best police chief. He works with Batman, isn't that neat?"

Harley asked her eyes rounded, "What year are you? Your daddy doesn't worry that you're attending heah out in the open? He's sho-ah to have made a lotta enemies in Gotham!"

Dick rubbed the back of his head and laughed, "You're surrounded by friends, Babs, I'd defend you."

Harley rolled her eyes and input exaggeratedly, "That's shore to make Commissioner Gordan sleep easy." Scott laughed out startled, and furrowed his brows at her chastising quickly, "Harley!"

"It's nice to meet you Barbara! I'm Scott, Dick's roommate." Scott grinned at her, putting a hand on Harley's back. Without too much concern, Emma made some audible greeting noises.

Barbara smiled helplessly and good-naturedly, "Nice to meet you all, I'm a first year like Dick. My dad feels safer being close to me so he can watch over me I guess. I ought to tell you a police commissioner father is not so supportive of liberating through the university years. I'm on a tighter leash than you can imagine, I'm just stopping now but I'm on my way to the library to study more in a few to keep him less worried."

Emma snickered, "On a Friday afternoon? Oh no. Don't. How shocking."

Scott stared in bewilderment at her, what was wrong with all the girls at Gotham U today?

Harley played with Scott's fingers and idly asked, "Any luck on getting Mr. Freeze back at Arkham Asylum?

Typical of Friday nights, the dorms were filled with weekend starting activities. Scott sat back in his chair at his desk, drawing out a map of Gotham City, he had a hobby of cartography, the course only he had volunteered to take at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters.

He could hear the thumping music outside of his room, and kids walking by and playing loud games in the rooms.

Dick was out somewhere, again, Scott guessed he was with Selina just across the hall.

Hearing a noise outside his door, Scott stood up carefully and opened it.

Emma was draped across the door frame, wearing nothing but lacy lavender underwear with a matching bra. She had a bottle of tequila in one hand, open and a curtain of hair over an eye.

Shouting, Scott pulled her in his room shutting the door, "What are you doing! Get out of the open!"

She felt his hard pecs through his sweater and said, "Harley Quin is crazy and you know it, you're in denial. You heard how ignorant she sounded today."

Scott pushed her from himself and said, "I didn't agree with her, but I don't have to, I can form my own opinions for myself, thank you Emma. She's not crazy, just misunderstood like a lot of us, and she's really smart, she's not as ditzy or girly as she can sound. I try to be open about everyone's opinions. I like her."

She coaxed, "If you think the ideal is that true heroes should even live their private lives with such discretion, you're just as mislead as that poor girl. You said it yourself, it's not possible to live every little thing up to standard."

He retorted, "That's not what I meant, I said that's just a commonly expressed view."

"I quit drinking, thanks to you." She drawled abruptly. Scott frowned, "Aren't you drunk now? What did I have to do with anything?"

Emma set her bottle down and cornered him against the wall, she announced, "I mean the bad kind of drinking, like I stopped drinking every day with breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's 9 PM now on a weekend night, I can be slightly tipsy, which is what I am. You-you and your satanically puritan ways and little goody boy scout thing...-I quit cocaine also! I noticed when I was on things I said abhorrent things to you, and hated myself after. You are the devil, sir. Don't you try to hide it under that angelic face."

She pushed his nose with a finger. "Dick's not so innocent either, Selina told me he has never spent the night or been in our dorm, and wasn't in there that night of their first date. He's got skeletons in his closet, maybe even homosexual skeletons."

Scott chuckled and smacked his forehead, "Dick's not gay, I don't think he is. Emma, can I get you some clothes? Good job on quitting, I'm actually glad."

Shoving light blonde hair out of her face, she blew, "Might as well, this is going nowhere near my parts-."

"Jeeze, Emma!" He thundered before throwing his over sized sweater and flannel pants on her.