AN: TheWritingGirl23: Thanks for dropping me another nice review! emma is suffering a little in my fics these days. we'll leave it at that lol. As for meshing universes, i'm trying to form a way to build up to that, but i have some odd ideas in mind, might give them a try soon. scott's going to have a more central part later, but i'm not even gonna call it central, i think it's evening out a little, and well the marvel side of things just needs a little more time to adjust to gotham's edge.
Emma watched disgustedly as Harley ran up to Scott and gave him a big kiss on his cheek, cheerfully saying, "Oh Puddin' don't be mad at me but I gotta do something for Arkham Asylum."
Emma sneered, she despised cutesy girl talk, and thought Scott would have too. She flicked her eyes away as Harley continued to suck Scott's face off.
Dick sympathetically looked at her, also not a fan of his roommate's girlfriend.
"I gotta talk ta Mr. J again, I wasn't s'pposed to be allowed to ever since I got out of the asylum, and they barely let me back on the board with con-stant supavision, but it's for the end of my study and I'm so close to figuring somethin' out! Pwomise you won't be jealous, puddin'? You're my one and only Puddin', ya know." She simpered the last sentence, leaning against her tall boyfriend, tracing small circles with her finger on his chest.
He looked down at her, clutching her wrist and said seriously, "What? How can they even think of letting you near him? He's a manipulative psycho I don't want you to even look at him. Is this that important to you Harley?" She looked down sorrowfully before looking back up with large blue eyes, she nodded, "Yes, my research with Mr. J was very important, it gave me a new interest in psychology that I neva woulda found befoah."
Scott sighed and crumbled, "How could I ever stay mad at you? I can't stop you from doing what's important to you, but...would you mind if I came with you? I don't trust this guy, I don't want you to be hurt again."
She hugged him close, her cheek squished against his chest and squealed out, "Oh Puddin'! I have the bestest boy in all of Gotham, it'd be bettah if you came! I have some ideas of what I can do for ya after."
He chuckled, "We'll see about that."
Dick looked at Emma and put his trigger finger to his head and pantomimed shooting himself.
Scott stood closely behind Harley, in the shadows, his face grim and his arms folded. In the dim light, he could make out the ghastly, scarred and skull-like grin of Mr. J's face. The rumbling but upbeat voice that came out was enough to induce terror.
Harley's own blond bun faced Scott, as it bobbed up and down, eagerly taking notes as she talked to the Joker. It was dark and dank underground, Scott's heart melted a little when he thought about how much Harley had enjoyed sitting down here in the cold, creepy, and unsanitary cells, enraptured by the magic words this clown was saying.
The dark lidless eyes of the Joker lingered on Scott who stiffened. Mr. J drawled out to Harley loudly, "Harley dear, I'm bored with talking about my little life. Let's talk about someone else's, I wanna talk about fun things, like who that strapping young gentleman behind you is."
Harley's eyes, glassed over, head still spinning and in a daze of getting into all the information Mr. J was telling her. She glanced back at Scott and exclaimed, "Oh yes! I do wanna talk about Scotty's life and find out more. There's so much more I wanna know about him." Her eye gleamed temptingly at him.
She flipped to a blank page to commence interviewing him, but Scott intoned, "Harleen, remember what you came here to do."
He distrustfully eyed the Joker who watched, his face leering against the prison bars. Catching the worried look on Scott's hard face, Harley refocused and said, "Right right."
Their strange dialogue began again, Harley's voice growing higher and higher pitched and her accent thicker.
Finally, Harley stopped and said loudly, "Well I gots all I needs, thanks Mista J!"
He smiled back widely at her, unnaturally largely as if he was grimacing, "Anything for you, Harlequinn."
She ran out of the room, saying she had to sign out with the doctors.
Scott stood where he remained and ignored the maniac's soulless eyes and large beam at him. Joker reached through his bars and retrieved the notepad on the otherside, Scott made to move forward, but stopped himself, avoiding interaction with the mastermind.
Joker hunched over the notepad and flipped cartoonishly through the pages, "Boring, boring, predictable...what have we heere?" Joker looked up at Scott with widened eyes and turning the notepad page so it faced him. Joker pointed at the page, "Scott Summerrrrrrs." He rolled his tongue exaggeratedly, gleefully gesturing at the page that had Scott's name scrawled all over it, and even a small doodle of him and Harley in simple cartoon, kissing.
Scott stepped forward, squinting at the page.
That was what Harley had been scribbling down so attentively.
Giving Scott a comic once over, the whites of his eyes flashing as he looked up and down Scott's frame, he said giddily with no emotion, but with the feigned tone, "So Harlequinn got herself a new little boy toy? A boy toy for the girl toy, oh how much fun we will have! I am fuh-fuh-fuh-RIOUS! I'm mad with jealousy, greeeeeen, I could break these bars down and kill ya." He mockingly pretended to shake the bars violently though his eyes did not show his feelings.
He snarled dangerously, lips peeled back in his perpetual grin, "Let me tell you a story about a guuuuurl, and a boy. A love story. See there was a boy just like you- me! He was a bright and promising and handsome boy with good morals, a strong conscience, a good good little boy. He did everything right, and now he's going along his little life, and then one day he meets a nice sort of girl, a pretty sort of girl. The sort of girlie for him, and he buys her things and gives her money and carves their initials all over the damn city, right? He loves her, she loves him, the world is a happy place, love conquers eeeevviiilll.." He growled evil out, sneering devilishly, casting his face downwards in the shadows.
"He loves her so much he never wants to let her go, and wouldn't you know it, they have a family together. But one day he wakes up and looks in the mirror and sees himself smiling, and he gets kind of angry you see, and he asks the mirror, 'What are you smiling at.' And the mirror says backs to him, 'Why so serious?' And everyday he gets up to shave and the mirror says things to him that he can't ignore. He looks at himself and he wants to stop smiling, but the mirror won't stop, you see, even though the man is dead inside by now and has realized he wasted his life on children instead of living his dreams. So he punches the mirror and it breaks! Glass everywhere, only a few pieces remain on it and so the man takes one of the glass pieces and looks at himself in the broken part of the mirror, and he takes his hand like this, and goes like this, and cuts two lines on both sides of his lips, and he's drawn a frown on his face! A frown! An upside down smile! So now, even when he's smiling, his face will be frowning. His son Billy Boy comes in and asks pitifully, 'Daddy, daddy why the booboo on your face? Why so serious?!"
The Joker licked his chapped lips and continued, "Daddy thunders back, "WHY SO SERIOUS?!" Then he carves a smile onto Billie Boy's face because even though he hates his adult life now, he just wants to make his little boy happy! He just wants to be a father who makes his little boy smile! Unlike how his father was. So now he's put a smile on his baby's face and he's still crying and nothing makes sense anymore because why why do people smile if they are sad inside? What's like the point of human expressions and communication in this damn world anymore?! Why are there no good honest people anymore! Anyway, the man finds his wife, the girl he loved, and she's afraid of him and he doesn't know why, because all he's ever done is LOVE HER! So he wants to show the world how much he loves his girl, and he carves their initials all over her body, all over that aging sagging mom body. Now, the same man, he's in his cell one day, atoning for his crimes, and a pretty young girlie comes and talks to the poor lonely man. He wins her over, easily, when he charms her, 'Wanna hear a joke?' She helped get him free and they ran together, like Bonnie n Clyde, but with a much stupider stupider Bonnie if you can imagine it. Now they're in love, right, he loves her sooooo much." The Joker thumped a hand to his heart and looked up theatrically, as if swooning. "Get this, as they're living the life together, the Batman shows up, and he wins this time and puts me and my girl back in jail. BUT! She gets a Get Out of Jail Free card, for playing the right rules and playing sane Jane, and she vows she'll come back for her puddin'..."
Scott clenched his fist, adrenaline pumping through his young head and body.
A low cackling echoed through the cell, a hollow drip kept the rhythm somewhere in the background, "But get this...The joke's on her. Mister J never needed her, he never needed nobody before! He only needed play things to have FUN. Now, the girlie's come back and she's brought herself a cute little boytoy! A bodyguard! It made Mr. J mad and jealous, it made him curious about a new object, Scott Summers. Is he as special as me? Does he have a chance against the beloved and macho Mr. J for a place in Harlequinn's tortured heart? MOST IMPORTANTLY, why is he with her? What's he gettin' out of it? What normal boy would care for the demented, pathetic and crazy Harley Quinn?Boy, this is going to be easy and let's not forget fun. Why so shady Mr. Shades? When you see in shades of good, why must you obscure your eyes? Peel back your eyelids to see the truth forever, that's what we need to do to sniveling humanity, peel those lids back so it can't close its eyes to the sewage and havoc its regurgitated into the world. We live in end times, but there's still practical jokesters, the true heroes of this shitty world, who try to go out there and just make people laugh and laugh and laugh, I just want everyone to smile with me. Is that so bad to ask?"
The Joker tragically collapsed his shoulders and sobbed loudly, blowing into his fist. Scott still refused to say a word as he stared hard at the clown.
Growling through his throat, Scott quietly said, "Stay away from her."
The Joker snapped up, grabbing onto the bars and sticking his nose through, grinning wildly, "DON'T TEMPT THE CRAZY SANE LITTLE MAN! My school teachers said I was rebellious by nature."
His face unpredictably contorted and he shouted out, "BECAUSE I FOUGHT WHEN THEY WANTED TO GIVE LITTLE MR. J A GOOD BAREBACK PADDLIN'. Or maybe because I killed when they told me not to."
Scott coldly watched as Harley's strange ex-boyfriend eyed him like a shark, he tried to clear his head of any judgement or thoughts, as he would around a telepath, although he knew Joker wasn't a mutant.
His soul was mutated and he was undoubtedly a genius. Their relationship hadn't been physical so much as a sociopath and a cute, impressionable and affectionate young fan girl tagging along. It was strange, but Scott could begin to understand why and how a little as he witnessed the Joker's detached charisma and danger.
The blonde girl appeared and summoned Scott, who walked away without looking back.
As they sat in Scott's bed that night, Harley finishing off her thesis homework, and Scott silently sitting against the wall, the disturbing personality of Mr. J flashed through his guarded mind.
He looked carefully over at Harley, who was busy writing, and tried to imagine her as she had been before the school term.
He wondered what it was, but despite who she was, who he was, and what he had heard and found out, there was something drawing him to her, and he wondered if this was that damn hero and damsel-in-distress reflex in him that Jean was always talking about.
Jean, since he'd been with Harley, Scott had been too busy keeping up with this sometimes fast-talking blonde girl that he had not thought about her as much as he used to.
She had calmed down a little, and the hyper Harley was talking slower again, and more calmly without a noticeable accent. She sounded collected, mature, and feminine, her voice deeper. Throwing her notebook down, she climbed onto Scott as he reclined against his bed.
Playing with his shorter hair, she pouted, "What'sa matta puddin'? You're quiet tonight. Did the asylum scare you?"
He sighed, "Did you call him pudding too?"
"Mr. J? I called him lotsa things, and it took me a while but I finally saw that I musta not meant many of those things, because you're the one and only puddin' for me, puddin'."
Putting his arms behind the weight on his body, he asked, "Oh yeah? I don't know if I can compete with the famous Mr. J though. He's brilliant, batty, but brilliantly psycho."
She laughed, "Are you kiddin' me? You saw him, you know that whatever decisions I made and Mr. J being one of them, I had no idea why I wanted or liked the things I did! He found the part of my brain that goes looney and turned the switch on, but now that I know bettah I can talk to him and see what he's doing behind his confusing words. Besides, you kiss better if that's any reassurance, you actually kiss me back."
She gave him a light kiss to ease his troubled face.
Playfully, she put a finger to his lips and stretched them out and grinned at him, "Your smile's so much cuter too, AND it's naturally big."
"You're too good for him, you know, you're better than him, he's a creep."
Smiling endearingly, Harley laid her head against Scott's collarbone and sighed, "I'm glad you think so puddin', I could lay here all day and be so happy."
He said into her white-blond hair, tied into a low bun, "I lied when I said I wasn't scared of anything."
She looked up and interrogated sassily, "Spit it out, what's my big strong man afraid of?"
Scott choked out, "Clowns."
Her bright blue eyes coyly looked at him and her crimson lips curved. He protested, "Don't laugh, it's not funny."
Nibbling at his ear, she giggled breathlessly, "I ain't laughin', I gotta good poker face. Why, I wonder, is my big hero afraid of a silly thing like clowns? Clowns are harmless and funny. Did I scare you that night in my suit?"
The young man convulsed slightly as he chuckled a little at the tickling sensation at his ear. "Kind of to be honest, but once I peeled all that clown make up and stuff off you, it was like you helped me overcome my fear, and that's the first time I thought a clown was the most adorable, hot thing I'd ever seen. Except I take all that back after seeing Mr. J."
He nipped back at her and she giggled, "Did you have a scary memory as a kid? Tell me aboutchyo childhood. Ya nevah talk about it."
Scott shifted and answered, "Not much to tell, it's all in holes in my head. I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, dad was a pilot, he was flying us on vacation and the plane crashed, my parents saved me and my brother by giving us the parachutes. I survived with a blow to my head, but after that I never made eye contact with anyone again. Was in orphanages for a few years. Had a foster dad who didn't treat me so nice, grew up on the streets practically, wasn't such a good kid until I was 15 and this Professor found me and offered me a permanent home at his Institute for freaks like me."
Harley searched his sunglasses and murmured teasingly, "C'mere...Lemme see those eyes, I know they're under there somewhere. I bet you have gaw-jus eyes, everything aboutchyou is gaw-jus, even your heart."
He looked into hers through his shades and she cooed, "I can barely make them out! They're wonderful, Scott! What a real nice shape, and they crinkle up a little when you smile like that. A kind cutie patootie like you shouldn't have had to have all those scary memories."
He grinned cheekily and tickled her waist, "I'm a big boy, I can handle worse."
She squealed into a fit of giggles and writhed against him, tears watering at her eyes.
Shifting the mood, he asked, "What about you? I want to hear more about you."
She fiddled with her round glasses, "I already toldja, my dad was a scumbag, he practically sold out and bailed on our family, my brother wasn't much better, he took my hard-earned savings and squandered it! I hate 'em so much, I'm just lucky I found a good strong man who'll take care of me better. For a first year you're not so bad, kiddo."
He gave her a punishing tweak on her cheek.
The door burst open and noise of people loitering in the halls droned in, Dick held his hand up to the side of his face and peeked over, "Good, you still have your clothes on."
Scott rolled his eyes and Harley put a finger to her lips, grinning with a lightbulb over her head.
Someone threw a roll of toilet paper into the room at Dick, yelling, "Clean up the communal bathrooms after you use 'em Grayson! You have mud baths in there every night? Why do you track so much dirt and blood?! He's like a messy chick on the rag guys."
Laughter burst outside the room and Dick threw the toilet paper back out, laughing, "Shut up guys! It's from lacrosse."
A girl with dark hair walked in, slinking towards Dick in a baggy sweater with a paw print design. She looked over at Scott's bed and sneered, "Oh, hi, Harleen."
Harley wiggled her fingers pleasantly before laying back down on top of Scott.
She spoke to Dick, "You haven't called me, you egghead."
Dick's face colored and he spluttered out, "I-I meant to, gosh, I'm sorry Selina! I've been so busy, no really! I've been all over the place, and I haven't even had time to be in my room, ask Scott, Scotty you'll vouch for me won't ya?"
Scott shrugged, and held his fingers up, "Scout's honor, he's never in here, I'm pretty sure he doesn't sleep, always in the books, this guy. More than me, which I thought was impossible."
Dick, sweating now, begged, "Give me another chance to make it up to you won't you Selina? I'll do anything. Anything! I've been looking forward to finally getting you on a date and I still can't believe my luck!"
Selina curled her nails towards herself and scrunched her lips up, pondering, and then she cattily remarked, "Noooo, it's alright, just thought you might not know what you were missing, too late." He pleaded, "I'll do anything!"
She smiled deviously, "Tonight, be at my room at 10 if you want another date."
He grinned, "I'll be there or be square!"
Selina laughed sympathetically, "Dick...you're already a square."
A thin coat of ice chilled the inside of a cell in the depths of Arkham Asylum, a low voice snarled out, "What are you doin' back down here Blue Man?"
A pair of metal boots crunched on the ground of ice and a pale blue tinted man in a glass helmet and metal armor hollowly said, "What can you give me, if I were to break you out?"
The Joker revealed his twisted face and laughed like a hyena, "Not now, Freeze Pop, I'm a bit comfortable at the moment. Though it does seem that someone's turned the thermostat down." Turning his neck over his shoulder, he bellowed behind himself at an imaginary person, "TURN UP THE HEAT NANCY!"
Aiming an ice canon at the cell, Mr. Freeze stated, "I didn't say you had a choice."
Looking up at the black ceiling, Joker sighed grouchily, "Ratman, I'm glad to see you for once. Take care of this nuisance will ya? Mister J is a good citizen today, he's locked up right where he belongs, and society is safe...but not from itself! Hee hee!"
A dark object came hurtling down at top speed, kicking Mr. Freeze down. His head landed near the cell.
Joker stared at Mr. Freeze, considering him for a second before pulling a shot gun out of his pocket and cocking it at him. "You're just a second-rate Captain Cold." He pulled the trigger and shattered the glass of Mr. Freeze's helmet, so he could no longer breathe.
Looking up like a startled child who was caught with a hand in the cookie jar, Joker rounded his eyes and said docilely, "Oopsie, not supposed to have this huh?" He dropped the large gun outside of his cell and Batman picked it up, then walked around with his flashlight. Another dark shape swooped down with a black uniform and blue bird symbol.
Night Wing hurriedly told Batman, "Let's get this thing solved, I've got a date tonight."
Batman smirked, "We'll do our best."
In the science lab of Gotham U, Barbara Gordon peered through a microscope at the chemical elements and cells of an acid-corroded lock.
Removing it, she replaced it with a glass side with a label: Daggett Sample.
Adjusting the dials, she whispered, "Bingo. We found our match!"
She took her eye away from the microscope
"There's no way Catwoman was behind this! She would never work for Daggett, he gave her that Cat Scratch Fever shot... I owe her an apology, or at least on the behalf of that dick, Robin."
Selina Kyle tapped away on her laptop on her bed in her dorm, glaring occasionally at her narcissistic, city bitch roommate, Emma Frost, who was intently doing assignments at her desk.
Emma had recently called Selina a hoarder, due to the atrocious clutter on Selina's side of the room. Pizza boxes, wine glasses, bras, clothes, crumpled pieces of paper, and cats everywhere.
The air was thick betwixt the two, due to the hoarding incident and also since Selina had mentioned snidely that she had seen Harleen Quinn on Scott Summers in his room. Her senses were keen and sharp like a cat's, and she picked up on Emma's vibes and the fury she gave off around the boy across the hall who was a delicious morsel if not shy.
She snickered to her cat Iris who mewed back.
She began looking up information on a priceless jade cat statute that had been taken from the school's famous museum.
They would be valuable and pretty additions for her collection.
The brunette licked her lips.
Who had stolen them before the greatest cat burglar had?
Lazily stretching out, she got up to get ready for her date.
Shedding her baggy sweater, she pulled on a black leather skirt, a purple blouse, and gold hoop earrings.
She dabbed some kohl around her eyes and topped it off with magenta lipstick.
Panting mingled with the stomping feet on a metal pipeline clanged throughout the dark red night.
Dick sweated profusely, it got hot in superhero costumes. The material was durable and ventilated, but it was skin tight and thick.
He wondered how Bruce felt in that all consuming head mask and heavy cape.
Batman halted and turned, throwing his arm out and bringing his cape up to cover him as bullets from the thugs chasing them bounced off.
He flung the cape out and knocked the gun out of the thug's hand. Turning around, Batman bent forward and used a pipe wrench to lift the thug off the ground, so that they were back to back.
He tightened his grip on the steel pipe, feeling the consciousness leave the thug's body. After a calculated amount of seconds, he dumped the body off his back.
Shooting his zipline, he flew up, re angling himself.
Night Wing acrobatically cartwheeled forward, his swinging legs kicking two thugs off the pipeline.
Batman dropped from the sky and landed on a thug sneaking up behind Night Wing, crushing him.
He grunted, "What is Daggett up to?"
The henchmen gasped, "Daggett? I'm with Maroni! We're Maroni's men! You have no jurisdiction over us right now!"
"Why did Mr. Freeze's tracker bring me here? To Dagget Industries?"
The thug gulped, "I don't know I swear! We're just here because Daggett's people had a proposition for the big guy, we're just here to deliver some cash and see what's up. Just a business transaction."