abettercriminal (abettercriminal) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-08-09 18:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, joker, riddler, scarecrow |
Who: Joker, Riddler, and Scarecrow
What: Just a regular Villains Anonymous meeting.
Where: Riddler's warehouse.
When: Early this week.
Warnings/Rating: Considering those involved, it's fairly tame.
Of course, coming in the front door had never exactly been Joker’s style. Immediately upon receiving Riddler’s invitation, he’d sent his own goons off to case the warehouse and report back with any information that might prove useful in giving him his own upper hand. No sense going into a summit of villains without a backup plan, right? Right. In the end they’d discovered an old maintenance access door on the building’s roof that seemed to have been abandoned some time ago, and so this was the way that Joker chose to make his entrance. Always gotta make an impression. He was accompanied by two of his minions, although he’d skipped the clown masks this time, opting to dress them in a couple of plastic Princess Di masks from the dollar store, in honour of the night’s festivities. They followed behind, albeit a bit reluctantly. Oh, they’d been all too happy at first, proud to be chosen by their boss for such an important task. Then he’d handed them a couple of dynamite vests to wear under their jackets, and the grins had vanished from their stupid faces quicker than cockroaches would scamper away from a kitchen light. Idiots. The explosives weren’t real: designed to test their commitment, they were loaded up with a whole lot of plastic and some scary-looking wires. However, after a few pointed minutes of Joker glaring at them with a raised eyebrow, they’d reluctantly donned the things and zipped their jackets up over top. The door on the maintenance hatch had proved far too susceptible to the Joker’s lockpicks, and he headed down a rickety metal staircase with his goons in tow. A couple of wrong turns later, he’d found the room where Riddler was waiting and stepped out of the shadows with his hands tucked into the pockets of his purple suit jacket. “Not a bad setup you’ve got going on here,” he called out, his harsh voice echoing off the ceiling and walls and bouncing back to his own ears. “A little cliché, maybe. But not bad.” The Scarecrow wasn’t one for theatrical entrances, and unlike the Joker, he came in the front door like a respectable man. The burlap mask was new but basically unchanged from its original form, giving little clue to his true identity though even that was not as closely guarded of a secret as it used to be. The Riddler knew him, knew his face, but an effort at masking himself never went unappreciated. There were two men in tow with him, tall things dressed in black, their faces unobscured because honestly, he didn’t really care if anyone saw his companions. Their identities were not something he valued very highly. A knock on the front door of the building came, and as the Scarecrow stepped back, he made a gesture with one hand for it to be opened. It never paid to be a little careful, especially when meeting some of the greatest minds Gotham held. Mind, he corrected himself a moment later. The Joker was impressive, but too chaotic for his tastes, though that didn’t mean the Scarecrow didn’t have a healthy appreciation for the madness the man brought with him. “I hope I’m not too late for the party,” he said as he stepped over the threshold once the doors had been opened for him, his voice rough and garbled by the voice changer installed in the mask. He made no further moves, simply observing, blue eyes narrowed behind the holes in the mask. The Riddler leaned his head back to look at The Joker, sucking air through his teeth as he sized up the new arrival. And, he meant that in the broadest sense. Riddler considered himself an old soul, a fairytale that had been around since Gorshin could cackle. This Joker was different, a new vision of something old. A wild card. For someone that liked to know everything, the Riddler found this both fascinating and bothersome. “Flattered. Cliche goes a long way in a city like this.” He swung his long legs down off the table, slamming his chair to the ground, syncing it to Scarecrow’s arrival. Riddler raised his brow to see the man in his full get up, but who was the guy wearing a question marks suit to judge? “We were just getting started, tell your boys to play nice with mine and take a seat.” The man in green hunched over the table, purple gloved hands smoothing over a large map of this new Gotham. Nearby, there were thick pens of different colors for them to circle and color like children playing with chalk. “People said it couldn’t be done. A chaotic evil, lawful evil and neutral evil working together.” He pointed to Joker, himself and then Scarecrow. “However, I believe for one night we can turn this Gotham on its head without having to stick to any of each other’s rules.” ”Oh, stop. You’re going to make me blush.” It was more of a cackle than a true laugh, and the obvious joke was that no one could tell if the Joker was turning red or blue or plaid underneath all that makeup. He grabbed a chair and swung it around so that he was straddling it and resting his folded arms on the back, leaning out over the table with only two chair legs on the floor as if it was the edge of a rooftop and he was contemplating a jump. Of course, the map was deliciously familiar. This was, for the most part, his Gotham. The public buildings, the criminals, the nonexistent law enforcement that was just begging to be corrupted and taken over - he found it all very comforting. He came from a dark, seedy underbelly sort of Gotham and therefore he welcomed this one with open arms. It was like the city was begging him to come out and play. “The question is, of course, where do we strike? This town is an overripe peach full of maggots and decay, and if we squeeze too hard it just might splatter.” The Joker licked over his bottom lip, as if he could already taste the spoiled juice on his painted lips, and clenched a fist in the air out over the map for a moment before his fingers fell and he began to trace over the lines that represented streets and buildings and secrets. “So, boys - are you ready to squeeze?” Crane made a gesture with one hand to the guys who had come with them, and they left without another word before he stepped over to join the pair at the table with the map. There was no hiding the fact that he was all too eager for some action in this city, especially after the disaster that Alexander Pierce had been for him. Pulling out his own chair, Crane took a seat, the mask pulled off moments later, his hair a mussed mess beneath the burlap. “I think your question is more than a little rhetorical,” Crane said in response to the Joker, giving him a look with raised eyebrows before he considered the map, a tilt to his head. “Perhaps we should go after the young. Nothing rattles a city much like having their progeny threatened. Riddler twirled a green pen between his fingers, head resting on a closed fist as he looked over the map. “If we harass poor children, no one will care.” It was no secret that the poor in Gotham were treated like roaches. Batman would probably even take his time to save them. “But, if I hacked into the more illustrious hospitals in Gotham so they lose power for a couple hours we could do some damage.” Riddler was happy no one had figured out how to stop his hacking program. It was such a bother having to modify it. He reached to circle Gotham General, but then remembered Joker had blown it up just a couple years ago. With a smile to the clown, he moved towards the next target. “Saint Sebastian’s. It’s high class. It’s religious and there might be nuns. I’ve always wanted a nun hostage.” Riddler said, dreamily. “Dealing with some repressed schoolboy fantasies, Eddie?” Joker raised his eyebrows with a knowing expression on his face, grabbing onto the chair with both hands and leaning back as far as he could while staying up on the chair’s two legs. “Me, I figured you for a naughty librarian type.” With no small amount of glee he grabbed a fat purple marker and drew a letter X over Gotham General, colouring it in nice and dark until the ink started to bleed and spread into the surrounding paper, like a cancer. Saint Sebastian’s was a decent target to hit next, and it just might be big enough for the three of them to each have their own share of the fun. “Can they be neonatal nurses?” He asked after a moment, tilting his head and staring transfixed at the map like a magpie drawn to something shiny. “I hear Saint Sebastian’s has got the fanciest maternity ward in Gotham. Takes a five-digit donation just for the ‘privilege’ of being able to pop out a kid in there. I bet the rich mommies and daddies would pay attention if we took away their nurses, don’t you?” They were a motley bunch gathered there that evening, but Crane couldn’t help but admire their particular flairs that made both of the Gotham City villains unique. “Hospitals? Honestly,” he tsked quietly, and as they made their plans for nurses and the infants, Crane took up the orange marker that was laying on the map, uncapped it, and made a nice, neat, precise circle at a location just outside of Gotham. “Gotham City summer camp. A chance for the high and mighty to let their kids experience a bit of the outdoors. Perfect for a bit of chaos, if I say so myself.” Crane tapped the pen against his lips as he took a seat. “So we’ve each got our eyes on a particular slice of the city. The next question we ought to be thinking of is when.” Riddler colored big, messy question marks around different locations of Gotham, signifying possible hideouts and riddle traps. While they were all trying to get Batman’s attention, Riddler couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander towards Batgirl. Batgirl. Not even the smart redhead. Just the dumb, clumsy blonde one that took the cowl because no one else wanted it. Still, she managed to get under his skin and it was time for her to understand what she was dealing with. “Scarecrow telling ghost stories around a campfire.” Riddler said with a smile, eyes still down at the map as he colored. “This Friday. Joker, if you can spare some men to buddy up with mine, I think having a couple brutes cause a diversion- maybe even start another riot would be ideal.” Riddler let the marker drop from his fingers and he stood up, gracefully reaching for his hat and cane. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have some delicious bat traps I must construct.” With a click of a button on top of his cane, the question mark on his hat lit up and he gave a slight bow. Riddler was enjoyed a little theatrics, as most villains in Gotham did. He gave a wave behind his back, more than content with the level of security and surveillance he set up in case the two wanted to try something funny while he was gone. Joker jumped up from the chair without ceremony, reaching over to grab the lapel of one of his minions and slapping him upside the head in what was, by the clown’s own definition, a ‘good-natured’ fashion. Joker grabbed hold of the back of the man’s collar and then shoved him face-first onto the table that held the map, watching as the wet purple ink spread over the plastic skin of the Princess Di mask and then lowering his bright red lips to the place where the mask covered up the man’s ear. “You heard the little green man, huh? Run along home to your compadres and tell them to get the hustle on. Friday. Bring your riot gear, got it?” He let the whimpering man up from the table and shoved him in the direction of the doorway, gesturing swiftly for the other guy to follow him. Just as they had stumbled to the exit, he called after them again. “I better hear back in twenty minutes, or the vests go off. Boom.” With a snicker and a hiccup, he waved farewell to their cowardly backs as they raced each other to leave the building first. Then he backed away from the table in the direction from whence he’d come, slipping off into the shadows with a soft, hair-raising laugh. Ha. Ha. Ha. Crane didn’t mind being the last to leave the party, watching the antics of the pair that had made their departure. He tapped the pen against his lips once more before he leaned back in his chair, glancing back to where his associates lingered in the shadows. “Come on,” he stated in a fashion that was more bored than anything. “We’ve got plans to make.” And then Crane left only moments after the other two, the door slamming shut in his wake. |