Good Luck With Your Future Chapter 15 Part 2
“A little late to be out here don’t you think, Jim?” Batman queried. The man in front of him turned around hastily but then was calm once he saw who it was.
“I’ll take my chances. I hear there’s a guy in a funny suit who likes to look after people like me”. The Commissioner smirked as he walked across his balcony at his home. “What’s the problem? You don’t usually come to me”
“What do you know about Tony Warren?”
The man creased his eyebrows. “Well, up for mayor, he’s well known in the community, trying to get in with Gotham’s rich and powerful. Has some popular ideas. With what’s happened with Garcia he looks like a logical choice”
“How easy would it be to dig for information on him?”
“Well, I’d need to have a good idea of what we’d be searching for. He has a lot of powerful friends, if it got out what we were doing it could get ugly”
“Look at his business and social circle” the man in black growled. “See if there is anyone there of interest”.
Gordon rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. “You need to give me more that that”. Batman stood up. “I can’t make you any promises!”
“Just let me know if you find anything”. Gordon reluctantly nodded and looked towards the ground deep in thought. Just as Batman went to glide away he spoke.
“Wait! Before you go, you might want to know that The Joker and Scarecrow have been recruiting for lackeys the last few days. We thought they may have been working together again but the more we look into it the more it looks like two separate jobs. Although, I wouldn’t put anything past either of them”
“Are you onto it?” the dark knight questioned.
“We think we might know where The Joker’s next meeting is. We’ve got some guys on the ground. They offered a couple of men a lot of money to feed us the information”
“Are you onto it?” the vigilante repeated.
Gordon stood there, these days he was used to just giving the orders and not having to take questions. “Yes, we’re onto it” he answered a little stiffly.
Batman nodded. There was a crash indoors and a child’s voice say “Oppsy!”. Gordon spun around. Once he turned back around Batman had gone. He gestured to the empty spot, sighed then went back inside to see what the kids had knocked and broken this time. Hopefully it wasn't his favourite coffee mug again, he really missed his old one.
The other side of town
The Joker had just finished wording a few men up on his latest plan, it would most likely be happening in a few days time. They had just stepped outside when he had a sense that something wasn’t right. This was confirmed by a crash on a rooftop above them. He then knew he had to get on the defense.
“Run along boys…” the purple madman murmured, reaching into his pocket. The men didn’t need telling twice as he swept forward and prepared his gun. He stopped then looked around the corner and up towards the roof lines. He had a feeling to go up to there using the staircase. Just as he reached the deserted area up top he heard a quiet car pull up below. Two undercover cops got out and looked around with torches.
“We must be too late!” one barked, kicking the vehicles tire. The driver stepped forward.
“The others are searching the place, they might be in there”. The first cop paced around.
“They won’t find him. Damn it! What’s the point of paying informants if it doesn’t pay off!”. He kicked the car again then they slowly drove away.
The Joker knew he must have a rat. Would he have to change anything? Deep in thought he stood up straight and took a step backwards without looking behind him. In a second there was something cold and hard pressed into his head, just above his ear. The weapon clicked live.
“Drop the gun” he heard a cold voice instruct. He paused but let it tumble from his hand when he felt a knife jab into his back lightly. He was very still, cursing himself for being so stupid. Bring so distracted as to not be aware of his surroundings wasn’t something he usually did.
“First thing” the voice growled. “Don’t ever be so stupid as to let your guard down. You didn’t even see the cops there. Second thing” he continued “is that I’ve been up here the whole time and you didn’t see me. I’m going to let you turn around. You tell no one about this”. The gun and knife were removed. The Joker swung around but the man was gone. He heard a cough from behind him and turned to see someone sitting comfortably on an air vent. They were in all black and navy blue with a hood and balaclava. The person then spoke.
“Seriously, Junior, I’m disappointed. You didn’t hear the cops coming and you definitely didn’t see me. Bat softening you up?”
The Joker couldn’t understand it. His older self had got him out of the way by leading him up here, then placing the gun to his head and disappearing. He could have just said it was him.
“Kid” the other man called out. “I didn’t want you to see me out and about just yet, but uh, you getting arrested or shot by those there cops wouldn’t have been great either. Now listen” he waved him over. As the younger man approached he could see that the older's eyes were alight with malice. “I’m nearly ready to chat to you about what’s to be done…but not yet”.
Still the purple clad man man was silent, increasingly he was getting the impression that the one before him had a lot of secrets and many dangerous plans.
“Oh, come on, princess. Give me something!”
“Yeah, I got it” he snarled, feeling uncomfortable. “When you’re ready you’re going to let me know”
“Good, good. Glad you’re getting the message. Now, I’m sure you know what those cops mean”
“I’m not stupid old man. I’ve got a rat”. He looked almost feral in the moonlight.
“Obviously you do. I’d postpone. You would have heard henches are thin on the ground at the moment, Scary’s got a job coming up too and I think most of the guys are going with him. The life expectancy is a little higher, as long as you don’t mind the chance of getting a face full of air freshener”
“Yeah, well if he’s got a new brand of fragrance then he’s going to want people to test on. Bet they didn’t think of that”
“These people don’t think, Kid! Goddamn it, your brain just isn’t working, is it?”
He was getting a little sick of these taunts. It reminded him of something somewhere, that may or may not have happened in his past. “How come you’re out here, hrm? Isn’t the ancient flying rodant going to wonder where you are? I thought you had a curfew, pretty boy”. His best defence right now was his words, and he knew exactly what would get under this man's skin.
Under the knitted mask, the other looked murderous. When he spoke it was cold and calculated. “He’s out and about. Not being ‘Gotham’s Great Protector’ for a few weeks was making him sulky”
The standing one moved around on the spot, as usual he couldn't stay still. “Well he can’t actually do anything. People are going to notice if an older guy in a different suit is helping old ladies cross the street. They know he’s meant to be younger”
“To be honest, he’s probably just crouching down on gothic looking rooftops, looking out over the city dramatically”
The one in his early 30's looked surprised, almost sceptical. The older man waved a hand and explained “Yeah, there’s something not quite right with him, does stuff like that for kicks”
The other nodded, although frowning at the same time. Geez that Bruce was weird.
“Speaking of Bats, Junior, a little piece of advice. One of the best things you can do is suggesting to agree to disagree’”
“Agree to disagree?” he repeated, feeling a little disoriented by the changing conversation.
“Yeah. Works a charm. For example” the sitting one cleared his throat and began to put on a performance. “’Joker, I don’t think putting bleach in regular bottles of clothes detergent is funny. All over Gotham people are wearing stained clothes’
‘I’m afraid, Batsy, we’ll have to agree to disagree. Stained clothes are funny’”. He then seemed to think of something else. “Of course, distraction is always a great tool too”. He sat up for story time again.
“’Joker, stained clothes are not funny. It’s just pointless.’
‘No Batty, you’re wrong. But it’s just good that while worrying about that you didn’t find the timed fire at the fireworks factory.
‘Fire at the-?’
Then you look the window to see the fireworks go off and suddenly he’s totally forgotten about the bleach! Quite effective”
The painted man just stood there as though the one in front of him has lost his mind. “Uh-huh…”
The man from the future didn’t seem to pick up on the others strange disbelief. “As I said, very effective”.
“That happened, didn’t it?”
“Well boy, I’m not meant to say as I could destroy the future” he called out dramatically. “But, uh, do you think I would go out of my way to inconvenience people through the alluring power of laundry?”
The younger man thought and answered plainly. “Yes”. The other got up, placing his arm around his shoulders and slowly walked him over to the edge of the building to look out over the city.
“Too right you are. And also, don’t knock Brucey for his long glances out over the city. The guy is a nutcase, yes. I mean he dresses up in tight black outfits without any thoughts of the bedroom! But, maybe ya gonna find that one day, glancing out like that, well, it might even appeal to you too”
“You’re getting a little sentimental for my liking there, Senior” he stated, as the older man looked at his pocket watch.
“Hrm, well we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that”
“That doesn’t even make sense”
“Hrm, no. But uh, it meant you didn’t notice the timed fire at the fireworks factory”
“What do'ya-?”
Suddenly they turned to see that about ten blocks over, a host of fireworks springing up into the night. The older Joker placed his pocket watch away as the younger looked at the display with great respect. He knew a timing genius when he saw one and the colourful display before them was a beautiful showing of magnetism of chaos.
The man in the balaclava patted him on the shoulder and said “See what I mean about looking out kid?” The other smirked, the skin pulling taught around his scars. The graying man then leaning in and whispered darkly “Give me a week or two...and together this town won’t know what hit ‘em”
“You’re sure about this?”
“More than anything! More than I’m sure that, right now, Crow is probably walking around his apartment in a black thong and lacey bra set, full make up and a wig. Oh, and singing ABBA. Lots and lots of ABBA…”
A few hours earlier
“…hello?” a croaky voice asked.
“Wakey wakey” a voice called playfully over the phone line.
Elizabeth lay back down on her bed with a groan. She looked over to her clock radio but her eyes were too fuzzy to read the numbers yet.
“What’s the time?” she asked softly, head foggy, rubbing her eyes.
“3pm, I’m assuming you’ve slept since I left yesterday. You now have two hours to get to work”. She could hear the sound of something glass being placed down on a bench in the background. “I remembered you hadn’t set your alarm before I left so I though I’d call”.
Elly was beginning to wake up now and remembered The Joker. “O yeah. The Joker was here. Is everything ok? I don’t think I reacted properly”
“Properly?” the doctor queried, a smirk in his voice.
“Yeah, I should have been scared or something but the pills-”
“-which you won’t be taking for a while”
“Jonathan-”
“-you said you had a stressful day so I helped you out this time. I think the clown and that Bradley-”
“-Brian-”
“-whoever, I think that they believe you’re my little addict who runs around stealing things from Arkham for me”
“They just caught us at a bad time. If they knew how long we’ve known each other they wouldn’t think you’re just using me”.
The background noise, which seemed to sound like bottles clinking together and a little steam, the usual sounds of his lab, stopped and there was a pause. “I was going to mention that, actually” he said slowly, expression closed. “I think that it’s best if you don’t mention for now how we met, that’s if you see them again. I need to talk to The Joker about it to be honest. Yes?”.
Elizabeth was now sitting up, biting her lip. She was pushing through her mental fog to try to remember what she’d talked to Brian about, something about that sounded familiar.
“Ok?” Crane asked again.
“Ok” she replied.
“Anyway” he said more casually, background noise beginning again. He’d been very busy recently, Elly thought he may have some new toxins in development. “I don’t really care what they think. If they believe you’re my junkie worker with benefits, that’s fine with me”.
Elizabeth had the phone on speaker and was getting dressed. “And what if they think you’ve gone soft and have fallen in love with a girlllll?” she asked sweetly.
He paused. “I haven’t” he stated, matter-of-factly. She stopped getting dressed and let her arms fall by her side. “Don’t look like that” he said down the phone line, knowing her too well. “We’ve talked about this. If I wasn’t in my current line of work we’d be living together I believe, I still see you a few times a week as it is” he pointed out, more factually than defensively. “You know the situation”
She sighed. “Yes I do. ‘You don’t feel love and attachment like other people’”.
He clicked his tongue. “You make me sound like a monster”.
“What am I meant to do? I know you’re not about to leave but sometimes it’s like I’ve dreamt this up. Until yesterday no one knew about us and even now no one else will find out. I just wish we could be open about this, or make it legally official or something”
“You knew the risks”. In the background something glass shattered and he swore under his breath “I warned you for years what it would be like”
“No you didn’t, you just told me I wouldn’t understand. At Arkham you didn’t really notice me when I did reception for a year. Then the only reason you did take notice of me was that you found those restricted psychology journal articles in my bag-”
“-Elizabeth-” Crane interjected.
“-no let me finish!”. Her voice was shaking a little but Crane was being patient, he assumed she was feeling a little emotional after the medication.
“Then you followed my progress at uni and at the asylum and then we saw each other outside of work a few times. Then you asked me to work for you. You know I liked you so much but you wouldn’t accept my advances-”
“-you know why that was, I’m not discussing-”
“-what because you’re other personality, your phantom alter ego is meant to feel lust and arousal and not you? You didn’t understand what was happening? Why you also had ‘emotional’ feelings for someone for the first time? Properly anyway?”
“Enough!” he barked down the line.
“Then, just before you gassed that Dawes bitch and everything unraveled you said we couldn’t be together. It hurt so much but I accepted it, I moved into the criminology internship to distance myself from you if the fear night went wrong, and it did”. She started to cry as she remembered what was next to come. “And then weeks after that you were dying and I searched for you, and I found you and saved you-”
Crane hung up the phone. Elizabeth threw the mobile onto her bed and sat on the edge and sobbed. After about ten minutes she searched through the folds of the doona and after finding the phone she dialed his number. He didn’t answer the first time so she dialed again. It was about to ring out when she heard him pick up.
“I’m sorry” she whispered, drained. He made no sound but she knew he was there, he had done this before.
“I shouldn’t have said those things, it was wrong of me”. Still cracking silence but she could hear him breathing slightly. “I shouldn’t have talked about Scarecrow like that” she sniffed. “I shouldn’t have mentioned after ingesting your toxin when you were starving. I should have set my alarm so you didn’t have to wake me. I’m just sorry”. She paused, he didn’t say anything but his breathing sped up a little. “I’ll talk to you soon, Jonathan. Thanks for waking me up. Talk soon”.
There was a light pause and then he hung up again. Elly dropped her phone onto her bed, sat for a few moments then slowly got ready for her late shift as her head pounded. She had some strong painkillers in her drawer that Jonathan had given her, but after her binge yesterday she didn’t think it was safe to take them. She looked at her red and swollen eyes in the mirror. It was going to be a long shift tonight.
Next chapter
A/N: Elly and Jonathan's back history: I'm going to be including some back history about the two as I've actually written quite a lot. I probably won't include all of it, but little things instead so that it all makes sense. To be totally honest I think it's difficult to get Crane in any sort of relationship right as I don't really feel he'd be up for that sort of thing. Between Scarecrow and his experiments he is pretty tied up and mostly emotionally satisfied through both of those. Although, in this case, he and Elizabeth are together in a relationship, no matter how much Jonathan likes to pretend they're not sometimes! As was mentioned above, he was just confused at first as usually Scarecrow felt the lust and arousal, and feeling emotions that were positive about someone wasn't really his thing either. But in his own way he does care about Elizabeth. He is subconsciously scared and protective about others knowing about this. Obviously other people can't know about it for her safety, she'd also be arrested! But Crane doesn't want The Joker knowing exactly what is going on for a number of reasons. Scarecrow knows what Jonathan is feeling and understands it more that he does really, more so at the beginning. But he is still somewhat disappointed because he originally wanted to test on her! Poor Scarecrow. Jonathan and Elly have a strong history together but as can be seen above, have not been together, or even attracted to each other, the entire time. More to come on this. She is with him not because she's submissive but because she really does think it can work. I'd hate for her to be seen as this whingey little thing who can't see the forest for the trees! Hopefully she is interesting to read.
Joker: The Joker is now getting more of an idea of what he at full power would be like if set out upon the city in the form of his older self. Less seriously though, I can just image Bruce walking through the streets of Gotham in a few years time on a coffee break thinking 'Why do all these people have bleach stains on their clothes? Is this a fashion trend I've missed out on? All this people with stains...'. He then picks up a newspaper from the stand with the headline "Crime Clown Continues Clothes Crisis". Resulting in a subsequent *facepalm* from Bruce.
Cillian Murphy: A few weeks ago I heard 'So New' for the first time. That's pretty poor, because I have Disco Pigs on DVD and had never got that far on the credits. For those who don't know what I'm talking about 'So New' is a song written and performed by Cillian and was included on the Disco Pigs soundtrack. I won't go on about it for fear of sounding like a crazy fangirl, but his voice sounds adorable on the track and you can hear his underrated (or perhaps somewhat underused these days) singer/songwriting skills. The track is up on YouTube, which most of you probably know, but for those who don't it's a real treat :)