Professor Fear III

Chapter 48

The three women had fallen asleep tangled together after a exhaustive but well enjoyed pillow fight following spending way too long in the drowsy-warm waters of the jacuzzi.

Daria wondered what the day ahead would bring: what she had to do as a job and what she could go have fun doing. Perhaps there was an indoor trampolining place they could all play around at. The city was theirs.
Daria had no direct desire for violence. The first day had saturated her needs as a new rogue enough. For now, Daria was just curious and using the situation for what it was. She decided to take a leaf from Jonathan's book and learn the long-term affects of fear on a collective population.

Ivy and Harley immediately snuggled up to each other when Daria rose from the bed, as if she had been blocking them for the whole night. She got herself dressed in her only clothes from the day before.
Perhaps it was the endorphins and good company of Harley and Ivy that gave her a new form of energy. Daria felt like going for a walk and exploring Gotham in its exhausted mad state.

As the elevator descended, she put on her gas mask. Jonathan had ordered it for her a week before the plan had initiated and tested it in the basement. Daria had been glad to not be invited to risk inhaling the toxin yet again. 
She'd definitely been apprehensive of the toxin being so close to her once again. However she was doing her best to put a new element of trust in Jonathan to reinforce his care of her.

The outside temperature was strangely warmer, as if the temporary atmosphere offered insulation.
Daria made sure to hide or step out of people's way rather than provoke violence. She'd done shockingly well with Batman but in general she wasn't tougher than she looked – which wasn't tough at all. Joker's contraptions populated larger streets like teasers for a circus. They stuck out like vibrant warning signs in the orange hazed city, beckoning children and the poisonously curious. Daria was one of those, but she knew to watch out for a sudden machete coming out of a clown or countdown to explosives.

As she was walking she watched some kids, leftover from Gotham's evacuation, go to investigate a jack in the box that was half their size. The face of joker cackling jumped out at them, knocking one kid over. Fake? Blood sputtered out of the mouth of the Joker face at the young audience.
The screams followed. 
Daria felt her heart shrivel in her chest. How would the toxin affect the children? 
She looked around at the mess of the streets.  

It wasn't long ago when Daria was merely a troubled college girl and Jonathan Crane was her peculiar professor.

She looked back on it now, looking at the burning trash cans, the screaming stampeding children ploughing through the streets, the man hitting his gun at the wall, another clawing at his skin, taking bits of him up with his fingernails... all deranged by the giant cloud of fear gas which had permeated the city of Gotham.

She thought she heard the man hitting his gun against the wall mutter Scarecrow shakily before he sank to the floor crying.

That's when he saw him standing further down the street, accented by the smoke behind him coming from a recently extinguished trash fire.

She ran, with her morning energy, into his arms. She wished she could take her mask off and kiss him.

"Can we go to the top of a building?" She asked.

"Yes," He seemed to have a destination in mind, so Daria let him lead the way.

A few blocks away was the building of choice. It looked like a high-rise apartment complex. 
They took the elevator after the third floor. There was fleshly spilled blood on the wall with the floor buttons.

The top floor had three apartment doors.

"Your choice," Scarecrow gestured to the doors.

Daria picked the one furthest from the elevator. Scarecrow first knocked on the door.
Why would someone answer?

The door was opened by a woman who instantly screamed and went to shut the door upon seeing Scarecrow. He pushed the door opened and sprayed a small aerosol at her face. She was then cast into the hallway.
Daria, putting on an apathetic attitude, pulled the weakening woman to the elevator and sent her to the ground floor. 

She followed the Scarecrow into the apartment. It was incredibly clean. A white L shaped sofa was near the large ceiling to floor windows on the left side of the room. The kitchen had an island.
Scarecrow had wisely picked a block of expensive modern apartments. 
She walked to see the bathroom and then bedroom which contained a double bed, a wardrobe with a sliding door and a thin tall bookshelf.

Daria took off her gas mask and took a deep breath. It was heavy and made her face feel sweaty. Scarecrow had taken his burlap mask off too and removed his needled glove. Daria had found it to be a fantastic costume addition that was simply terrifying in-itself.

Daria helped herself to the kitchen. There was apple juice in the fridge. Daria poured some into a short glass for herself.

"Would you like some apple juice?" She called out to Jonathan who had gone over to look outside the window at the lay of Gotham.
She brought her glass over and he took a large sip before handing it back.
She washed it lazily in the sink before walking back to the window to investigate the view.

The gas cloud was more noticeable up in the clear air. Faint echoes of agonised shouts and fearful screams peppered the city.
"This wouldn't have been possible without you Daria, you made my great plan into a reality, you initiated a history in this desolate city."
"I merely distracted Batman for you," She smiled over to him. He stepped closer to her, brushing her hair away from her face. She began to lean in to kiss him. He scooped her up and held her against the window and she straddled him. Her heart was beating quickly.

"Jonathan! The glass could be delicate, don't do that?"
"Scared?"
"Even in a city of fear you're still not satisfied?" She spoke teasingly while being wary of how she was still against a window.
Don't look out the window.
He pulled her away and against the wall, leaning in to kiss her.
She felt all the tension and excitement flowing into him immediately as their lips connected.
Daria slid down the wall and pulled him over to the couch, twisting them at the last moment so that he fell back onto the couch.
He laughed at her power move.
She bent over him and grazed her lips against his, moving away in tease.
"How daring," he was amused. His reaction made her lower her guard, allowing Scarecrow to sit up and grab her, twisting them so she was laying down now. He imitated the brushing of the lips so she could feel the same denied yearning. She squirmed.
He angled her head higher by pulling down on her hair. It made her smile.
He kissed her, excited by her reactions to his suggestive rough play.