Falling || Scarecrow

Ch.18

The Joker came forward with a mischievous smile. "Welcome beautiful."

She glared at him. Desperation made her bold. "I need your assistance with a prison break."

He chuckled, and pulled out a knife from his purple coat. "And why would I help you? Such a delicate butterfly pinned to a wall... Surrounded by hungry cats?"

She smiled. "Heard of the Reaper?"

"A few mutters here and there."

"I'm her. The same delicate butterfly who defeated Hush and fought the Batman." Maria hoped to God that Thomas never heard this lie.

The Joker smiled, his scars stretching painfully (to her) on either side of his mouth. "I like you." He stated. He pocketed the knife. "Let's discuss your proposal for an alliance."

"I thought you'd never ask." She said as she calmly walked forward to stop in front of him. "How bad do you want to make Gotham fall?"

He smiled and leaned slightly towards her. Maria could smell his musty breath and a dash of something... Sweet. "Really, really bad."

She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "And breaking something declared unbreakable?"

Joker chuckled. "You want to break your crow out of Arkham."

"Exactly."

"And what do I get out of it?" He asked smiling a little.

She didn't blink. "The one thing you always want. The little craving that you just can't satisfy... Because whenever you catch it, it always slips between your little bloody white fingers."

The Joker licked his red lips. "And what would that be?"

"The Batman."

...

Two days later...

...

Maria in full costume, entered a bar. Drunks and still sobers turned towards her. Two people though had enough sense to bolt, and she let them. The bartender stopped wiping the counter with a rag, and slowly lowered his hand to an emergency button. Instead of also stopping him, she smiled under her hood and let him press the button. God, she really loved her info red goggles.

"Hey folks." She said while unhooking a scythe from her back, also grabbing a toxin filled grenade. "Second changes are over for you all. You're all in debt with death... So let's make this as painless as possible."

She threw the grenade at the back wall, and on impact it exploded, releasing the toxin at a rapid pace. Maria remained unaffected since she wore a breathing mask for the lower half of her face, but the rest of the people weren't so lucky.

Glasses shattered, thuds came from chairs falling over. Screams and agonized cries tore from people's throats without a pause for breath. They tripped over each other running, but all collapsed sooner or later as the toxin took ultimate effect.

Maria carefully walked through the piles of traumatised people to sit on a bar stool. She sat and waited.

It didn't take long until the Batman emerged from the shadows. "Maria." He said simply.

She threw her hood back and slid her goggles down to rest on her neck. "Batman." She lazily twirled the scythe around.

"What have you done? This isn't you." He kneeled down to take someone's pulse.

She laughed lightly. "You're right, you know. This isn't me or shouldn't be me. But you are the cause for this."

Batman stood up. "Your actions-"

"My actions!?" She interrupted. "Mine are justified."

"You're a criminal."

Maria shook her head sadly and took out another toxin grenade. "Yes I am. But the Joker is worse. And I'm late."

She threw the grenade at him, which he dodged. But he couldn't escape the cloud of toxins that smothered his form.

Not risking any chances of being caught there and now, she exited through the back door and climbed into a green van run by two of the Joker's henchmen.

"Drive." She ordered. They did.

Even going over the speed limit, and with a two minute headstart, the Bat mobile was soon right behind them. The engine roaring as it sped up.

One of the henchmen shouldered a bazooka with perfect balance as the van rocked awkwardly side to side, and he fired. It hit one of the Bar mobile's tires and it slowly slid to a stop with one side of the car on fire.

But it only took a minute for the Batman to reappear on his... Bat motorcycle?

Luckily they reached the dock at that moment and she quickly hopped out and ran to a speed boat operated by more henchmen. If things were going on plan, Joker was on the other side getting ready to break into Arkham.

The boat flew across the water as the Batman climbed off his bike and quickly uprehended the two henchmen that stayed behind.

Maria turned her head away to face the approaching island. And as soon the boat stopped moving, a huge boom sounded and a huge explosion was seen from behind the foliage.

"Shit." The Joker wasn't waiting for her.

So she wasn't surprised when the three henchmen turned on her with guns aimed. But Maria didn't flinch as she unhooked the scythe from her back and swung it in an arc. The three headless men fell to the ground with a thud.

"It's the bloody Red Queen!" Someone shouted, startling her. "She's going to cut off our heads!"

She turned around just in time to see a man dressed as the mad hatter disappear into some bushes head first.

Shaking her head in confusion, she took off her gas mask and clipped it on her belt. Then gripped her scythe with one hand and ran to the heart of the explosion.

The only word she could use to describe the scene in front of her was chaos. The barbed wire was torn down and trampled by something huge. She had a feeling Croc was here and that wasn't good. The asylum still stood, but with one part of the wall blown open. Flames poured out and started to spread quickly. Guards who weren't busy fighting Joker's henchmen or escapees, were either running away or trying to douse the growing flames.

Things were soon going to go bad to worse, really really quick.