Professor Fear III

Chapter 55

Jervis and Edward had been up for 23 hours perfectly their little temporary castle of

"Mad Enigmas!" Jervis clicked his fingers. 

"That is an appalling title, I say we call it nothing at all and especially not that."

"You're only half the vote, dear friend," Jervis grinned. "We can get a second opinion nevertheless." He turned to the girl who had once again fallen into a clump on the floor, exhausted from standing up. "Alice, what do you think, my sweet?"
"I find that, I am not quite here at all," she muttered "In fact, I don't find myself at all."
It was nonsense.
She was nonsense.
Edward did not care for this obsession of Jervis's - abducting girl's that fit his profile of interest before hypnotising them and degrading them into his personalised zombies. Scarecrow found it highly fascinating, Jonathan did too. It probably related to his true love for the mind's power. 

"Her opinion was and is worthless," Edward stated flatly. "Let's just finish up this room, I want to see what it looks like finished."
He went to grab a screwdriver from a box of tools and made sure to look at Jervis directly in the ey- well, round tinted gas mask goggles.
"I hate unfinished projects." Jervis, for a moment, seemed to absorb the threat, before shaking it off and bouncing back to work excitedly.

Perhaps two hours later - who was counting? Definitely not the new 'Alice' who did as far as imitating a clock by repeating "tick-tock" in a very ambiguous rhythm - Jervis was skipping to the basement floor. Edward could hear his humming, punctuated by his breath changing every skip, as he went down the large spiral staircase that was in the centre of the first three floors of the building.

All the lights in the building flickered and buzzed. Jervis had found the power generator and activated it. Edward couldn't help but grin widely. This Gotham Rogue Saturnalia was becoming a fun experiment for him once again. 

"Now, where could Batman and his jolly foot-soldiers be now?" he mused, mainly to himself, but Alice did turn her head to lend her attention. "Where is Detective Gordon and his oh-so-great police force now?"

"Behind you, Nygma,"

Edward did his up-most to appear calm and expecting. However, he had not expected Batman at all at that time. Did he choose to arrive at perfect timing or watch the two rogues put the building together? 

"Batman! what fantastic timing, how very unusual for you." Edward hoped his voice would carry down the stairwell to Jervis, so he could form a plan or flick a switch on any of the floors that he and Edward had spent countless hours working on.

"Where's Scarecrow?"

"Easy communication so last non-toxic atmosphere, Batman, how should I know where the Scarecrow is. We are all doing our own thing in this Nouveau Gotham."
Not at all a lie. Edward raised his voice upon referring to Batman in an act, once again, of getting Jervis to act.

A pathetic fizzle of electricity sounded in the distance. The building thankfully offered good acoustics. Edward made sure to back out of the door and run left - away from the direction of sound.

"Alice dear, are you armed? This demon in black desires you harmed." Edward heard Jervis's voice near him. He must have used the service elevator to come back up rather than the stairs. 

"Hatter!" Batman growled before being tacked by the frail girl who sounded armed, judging by the thumps and groans that followed immediately after. Whatever Jervis had done to these girls time and time again had made them exhibit unusual bouts of strength.

Edward effectively swapped floors with Jervis, who was more prepared to distract and disorient the Batman. Edward found one of the switches he had wired and waited until he could hear Jervis shout that Batman was in the appropriate room.

"Riddler!"

Excitedly, Edward flicked up his wrist and listened out for slams or shouts that would suggest victory.

Nothing more than another electric crackle was heard.
Mad Hatter was walking down the stairs with a skip and a heavy-breathing Alice.

"His gas mask is cracked, he breathed in the toxin but I don't think it'll hold for long,"

"You're leaving him there?" Edward frowned, hidden by his mask, "If he's weak we can have more fun,"
"He's afraid and aggressive, he'll be weakened by it in a few minutes probably. I say we wait."

"Ugh waiting, how crude," Edward had no clock to look to, he began to count in his head to seven minutes - what Jonathan had told him was the average time an individual became weak and weedy from the toxin.