Halloween Night

[terrorofgotham]

The Scarecrow doesn't have the Joker's knack for rallying a mob. He operates best by himself, anyway. He will gladly observe whatever chaos the Joker manages to stir up, but his real work for the evening is his alone

Comments

[knight_so_dark]

The alibi he set into motion a few days before -- just in case -- ended up paying off when he woke, just after noon, to find that while he'd been sleeping Crane had broken the Joker out of Arkham.

The day becomes a rush of research and preparation. Stocking up on antidotes, getting in touch with Lucius and Gordon. Trying to gather information on what either Crane or the Joker might have planned.

There turns out to be distressingly little of it. The Joker put out some kind of call to arms, but he isn't able to discern what he intends to do with the manpower once it's collected. And almost as bad, he can find nothing on Crane

[terrorofgotham]

Scarecrow's plans are simple and single-minded. If he works alone, he can go where he pleases and flee the scene alone. He can improvise. However, he has larger quantities of the toxin than the Joker and his thugs. He leaves larger groups of terrified citizens in his wake, and that's a trail he makes no attempt to cover.
He's counting on being able to lose himself in those crowds, and in the dark streets and alleys. He has a long black coat, and his mask, and a wide-brimmed hat hiding his eyes. He also has the dispenser strapped to his back, and he is so fascinated by all this that he might not be as quick to get away as he should be, were he taking other factors into consideration as a higher priority.

[knight_so_dark]

It takes longer than he would have preferred, to finally comes across Crane's trail. A disproportionate number of people exhibiting symptoms of toxin exposure, and far less showing signs of common assault or robbery. Once he does find it, though, he follows it with dogged determination, only pausing once, to alert Gordon to the indiscrepancy, and to fit himself with a compact rebreather. It restricts his breathing, slows him down in a fight, which is why he hadn't opted for it with any of the other confrontations. But if he's getting close to a larger course of the gas, he'll need it.

[terrorofgotham]

He might know he's being pursued, after a time, or simply know it to be inevitable. This may or may not be why he is currently herding a small group of interesting subjects into a van, and getting ready to move elsewhere.

[knight_so_dark]

Oh, no. That's not going to happen.

He catches up with Crane, finally, when he's in the middle of this process. (It has to be Crane. The individual approach, the exclusive use of fear toxin, and the tank of it strapped on his back, remove all but the slimmest possibility of it being someone else.)

He lands hard, crumpling the roof of the van beneath his bulk, and vaults immediately off of it, toward the mad doctor.

[terrorofgotham]

Oh, Batman. Not another van.

Best order of business at this point is to keep his squalling prisoners between himself and the Bat, and to make an attempt to flee into the crowd. He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want to take a hostage and play through that whole routine. No. Run.

[knight_so_dark]

Well, he's certainly pleased that Crane didn't opt for the hostage approach. It makes it so much easier. Strips it all down to the bare bones. Flight. Pursuit. The doctor takes flight, and he pursues. He would like to deal with the captives, but the doctor is higher priority.

[terrorofgotham]

While he runs, since he knows he can't keep this up forever, he lets the rest of the gas escape the dispenser, which is bound to be a great time for anyone else in the area. Heh.

[knight_so_dark]

That's really not going to do Crane any favours. Oh, sure. It might slow the Batman down a little more, navigating through and over and around panicking civilians, but even slowed down, he's faster, and smarter on his feet, than Jonathan ever will be.

They run into a thin part of the crowd, at least thin enough enough that he can fire off his grappling gun at a wall without catching anyone in its path. (Just yet.) The line imbeds into the brick and mortar a few yards ahead of Crane, about waist height. And he heads the other way, closing him in.

[terrorofgotham]

Scarecrow skids to a halt. Sure, he's more book smart than he's good at evading (other) masked lunatics, but he can see that this is going to hurt, and drops to the ground. It might be surrender, or trickery. Only one way to find out, right?

[knight_so_dark]

He'll gladly accept surrender, but be prepared, even so, for the trickery. He's on Crane almost before he's finished dropping, moving to grab him roughly and restrain him.

[terrorofgotham]

The man does have a syringe he's trying to hide, and he makes one last attempt to jab him in the face, before he's restrained, because he's not ever winning any strength contests.

[knight_so_dark]

The attempt to jab him in the face is greeted by a jerk back, far enough that the needle skates across the surface of his rebreather before its path is halted by a large, gauntlet-clad hand around Crane's bony wrist. He growls as he tightens his grip. "Drop it."

[terrorofgotham]

Crane won't drop it until pressure on his wrist weakens his grip. Worth the attempt, hm? His arm goes slack.

[knight_so_dark]

He's entirely able -- and more than willing -- to exert that much pressure, too. When Crane finally gives up, he collects the needle with his other hand, and sets it an arm's length away, then proceeds to disarm, de-canister, and soundly restrain Crane. With the good cuffs. Not just zip ties.

[terrorofgotham]

With the threat he's proven himself to be, zip ties would be a little insulting, really. He has a lot of canisters, and needles, and a gun, and a knife, and... more canisters. And the mask.

"Well," he says, out of breath from the running. "I suppose that will do for sufficient data."