Glow-In-The-Dark Smile [Raven]

[The Joker]

Players: Raven and joker
Location(s): The home of one Horatio Batton, and then...the WORLD! (of Gotham)
Plot Summary: Joker and Raven cross paths and things don't end so well for one of them.

11:40 pm - Tuesday
The sound of glass shattering woke him. The groggy reporter known as Horatio Batton lifted from his bed, wiping sleep from his dark eyes, and slowly stalked through the dark apartment. Upon reaching his livingroom he turned on a lamp and spotted the broken glass that was once his window. Down on the floor amidst shards of window was a brick with a note wrapped around it. "Hey."[/b][/i]

3:16 pm - Thursday
Horation pulled his meal from the microwave and carried it with just his fingertips as he quickly paced back to his livingroom. The hot plate was laid out on the table before the couch and Horatio Batton plopped down. As he surfed through the channels with one hand and fed himself wit the other he was soon interrupted by a knock at the door. When he opened it Horatio was greeted by a delivery man with his hat pulled low and a bundle of flowers in his hand. "Uhh, thanks?" Attached to the flowers was a note, "I see yoouuu."[/b][/i]

4:00 am - Friday
His home was dark and Horatio was intoxicated, yet the man still managed to navigate his way into and through the place without the slightest trip or stumble. Before he would venture to his bed he first needed to check his messages, it was a ritual of his. The first and only message he had for the night played and Horatio listened intently. "Are you ignoring me now? I know you got my note, and my flowers...I'm no one's one night stand!" The voice Horatio did not at first recognize soon shifted into the Joker's and Horatio felt a chill run through his body. "I'll see you tomorrow...ha ha HAHAHA!"[/b]

Saturday.
Horatio was locked in his office, the lights were out and everyone had been told he was out of town. The Joker wasn't going to get him, he repeated the mantra to himself over and over. Maybe if he believed it hard enough it would become reality.

[rae]

Raven never let herself succumb to base emotions, nor did she even admit she had emotions. But there was one indisputable fact about her she could not hide or mask: She hated Gotham City. There were very few places on the planet that sent her powers into such a frenzy as this city. The people here were leaving in poverty, filth, and crime, and they were both suffering from it and benefiting off it. The dichotomy was unbelievable really. Why anyone stayed in this city was a mystery she never wanted to understand. People sometimes ask why Batman is the way he is; Gotham City is why. She hoped Dick and Tim never fell to its influence.

After joining the Birds of Prey, she feared Oracle might have her visiting Gotham City to provide backup to the active members of the team and that very fear came true tonight. Raven said her goodbyes as soon as they finished their mission. She attempted to open a portal to transport herself back to the West Coast but to her surprise, she couldn't keep it open. The apartment building nearby was radiating hatred, horror, and depression. Her empathy was blocking her concentration terribly. Raven flew away from the building, and the next, and the next. She tried to find an area in the city that was emotionally quiet enough for her to focus. It was alarming to sense such turmoil in such a small radius.

When at last she found a spot, she shut her eyes and pressed her palms together. She breathed in and as she began to open the portal, a jolt of fear ran in her. Raven's eyes shot open. Someone nearby had a different kind of fear, one joined with adrenaline. It was the feeling someone experienced when they felt they were about to be attacked or killed. The other emotions Raven could ignore, but this one she couldn't. Someone was in danger. She glanced around until she found the window where the fear was pouring out of. She flew up to it and looked inside to see an office. In there, she saw the source of the terror, and he was shaking all over. She knocked gently on the window.

[The Joker]

Courtney Spriggins had two kids, one a boy and one a girl. The girl had been on the honor roll for the last three years, she was only in middle school and already she knew which college she was going to and what field she would enter upon embarking on the world of jobs and careers. The boy was the quiet type, he was younger than his sister and hits grades perhaps weren't as well as hers but he had a kind soul and he would never do anyone wrong. Courtney was a proud single mother, she loved both of her children dearly just as they loved her, and to keep them fed and living as best a life as possible she worked many jobs; secretary for reporter Horatio Batton was one of them.

Courtney Spriggins now lay in a pool of her own blood, her eyes wide open as they grew dimmer and dimmer by the moment. She would never see her son's smiling face again, she would never put another one of her daughter's report cards up on the fridge. Two small children would grow up without their mother or any other form of family. The Joker didn't know any of this when he repeatedly struck Courtney with her paper weight but if he had...his laughter would probably be loud enough for both of the orphaned kids to hear way on the other side of Gotham.

Joker glanced down at the bloody paper weight in his hand and with a smirk on his chalk white face sat it back neatly onto Courtney's desk. The woman had told him that Horatio wasn't in, as he had instructed her to tell everyone, and for it she paid with her life. The Joker meticulously fixed the ruffled sleeves of his suit before stepping toward Horatio Batton's office. By now the report was tucked underneath his desk, his eyes were bloodshot but out of fear they were unable to produce any tears. He had heard the entire horrible ordeal; Courtney's scream, the paperweight cracking her skull, and the bone chilling chuckles that could only belong to the Joker. Horatio was positive he was next, and then there was a knock on the glass of his window.

As Horatio glanced toward the window Joker kicked his office door open. "Ratio ol pal! You've been a very naughty little snitch!" Joker's voice dripped with sinister venom while simultaneously weighing down the atmosphere of the room under the weight of his deathly intent. "Hmm?" He stared at the scene of Horatio huddled near the window now with a particularly demonic appearing visage on the other side. "Hee hee, interesting."

[/b][/blockquote]

[rae]

Empathy worked in a way Raven could never honestly explain. The few people that asked to learn more about the ability she lied to. Some people just couldn't handle the fact that she could read everything about them by their feeling fluctuations, every intimate detail and desire. They'd be surprised to hear most of them were always thinking about sex, or maybe they wouldn't be surprised at all. People were suspicious of her. It made them uncomfortable. In fact, the only person that had no problem with it was Kory, but Kory was unlike anyone else. She's unabashed and essentially an open book with nothing to hide. Most people aren't like that. Even the best of heroes, knowing she had empathy, were wary of her. Her meeting with Superman years ago was short for that reason; they were both grateful of that. That poor guy carries such a weight.

When her eyes met with the man cowering in the office, Raven knew coming to Gotham City was a mistake. No longer was she picking up his fear, but it was more. She eyes shifted to the door, along with the frighten man's gaze, to see the Joker standing there with an inhuman smile on his face. The energy emanating off him was...chaotic. In fact, Raven rarely saw so much chaos coming from any being except for a few interdimensional demons, but even the majority of them had some linear roots in their auras. Joker had nothing. He had absolutely nothing.

She wanted to fly away, she wants to teleport somewhere anywhere else, but if she did, she'd be leaving this man alone to the Joker's delight. If she stayed, she could already feel her control of her powers shaken from the chaos that is Joker's mind. The choice was not easy. Raven's eyes glowed black as the window blew open. "Leave," she bellowed. Her shadow enveloped the frightened man and pulled him out of the office. They both flew up to the roof (just a few floors up) and she set him down. "Why is the Joker after you?" she demanded from underneath her hood. "He'll be here any second because he doesn't know when to stop. Tell me what he wants from you!" she growled. Already Joker's presence was affecting her.

[The Joker]

Joker picked his head up, after looking away as the glass exploded, and stared at the broken window unblinkingly. "How rude." Joker recognized the girl, she was that weird goth chick from the Teen Titans, but what was she doing in Gotham? The Joker then thought about it and laughed, the twisted macabre darkness of the city probably made Gotham City a gothic paradise. Doing a quick about-face Joker gently closed the door of Horatio's office behind him and walked off whistling a jolly tune.

Horatio's fear shot through the roof when the girl in black 'rescued' him. The reporter wasn't sure who or what she was and he was edge that everyone was out to get him now; but he couldn't deny that he'd rather be grabbed by this strange girl with glowing eyes than the Joker. When she dropped him onto the roof Horatio fell on his ass cowered, even before she growled. He'd had a full day to let Joker's threat marinate in his mind and it had taken barely that long to break him down. "I...he..." He knew that this girl wanted answers but for now he was having trouble getting the answer she wanted. Horatio took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Not too long ago I was doing a story on Gotham's criminals and I had the bright idea to get the most in depth interview with the Joker. Ever. It was actually...a lot easier than expected. In fact the Joker almost seemed thrilled to give me this interview. He...he told me things. Horrible, horrible things. Things I wish I could forget. I couldn't even put his words down on paper, instead I told the police everything. It didn't get the Joker caught or convicted on anything, but it did help Batman prevent a lot of would be crimes."

When the man's eyes finally opened he could only stare at the ground, unable to look at another person because of the mistake he'd made. "From there I stopped communication with Joker and even stopped writing for a while. I'm not sure if Joker wants to kill me because I handed his information over to the police or just because I won't be his personal exclusive reporter." The man clutched his chest and glanced up at Raven, he was pretty sure he was going to die and doubted there was anything the girl in black could do.

Just then the door to the roof burst open and out stepped the Joker. "Neither!" With his hands behind his back Joker made slow strides toward the cloaked girl and his reporter friend. "You think I didn't know a spineless weasel like you would run straight to the coppers with everything I told you? Ha ha ha ha! That's why. That right there."

[/b] Joker took one hand from behind his back and pointed at Horatio. "The look on your face."[/b] The other hand to come from behind Joker's back held a black revolver which he aimed in Horatio's direction. "HAHAHA, priceless."[/blockquote]

[rae]

There was no sound around them except the usual creaky calmness of Gotham this time of day. And yet she could hear a ticking in her head. Was it something Joker planted somewhere in the building? Or was it her fear rising? Dealing with Joker sort of felt like handling a bomb with no timer on it. All you hear is the ticking and you know what happens when the ticking stops; something horrible. She could just take this man and fly away to another part of the city. Or out of state. or out of the country. And yet the dread was if she did, Joker would follow them. Raven had heard so many stories about Joker's relentless pursuits for some of the most mundane reasons. What lengths was he ready to go to for this man? Raven should have never come here.

Listening to his history with the Joker, her brow fell and she frowned. A story on Gotham's criminals? That's what this was all about? "...It didn't get the Joker caught or convicted on anything, but it did help Batman prevent a lot of would be crimes." Raven seemed to suddenly appear before him in a blink of an eye when she reached down and grabbed him by the dollar of his shirt. She pulled him in and stared at him underneath her dark hood, only her piercing eyes visible. "A tell-all story about the most insane criminals in the world, all of which were at large when you wrote it? Are you stupid? Have you not heard of the hundreds of other people that have tried that same thing, only to end up dead within the day? Are you not familiar with what happened to Harley Quinn? To Clayface? To Harvey Dent? Do you want to die?!" she barked at him with a low demonic rumble in the back of her throat. "And after you told the police, then what happened?" "From there I stopped communication with Joker..."

After he was done, the door on the roof shot open with Joker looming large in the small space before stepping forward. Raven let go of the man's collar, realizing that Joker's energy was affecting her. Even if he wasn't present, that bout of anger she just expressed was from the chaotic vibes she was picking up from the demented clown. She had to end this. When Joker revealed the gun, her shadow surrounded her and the man. "You got what you wanted then. His fear. Leave him alone now to die from cardiac arrest," she said, hoping the thought of the man's death inspired by the Joker's actions was enough to satisfy the clown into leaving. "You can get nothing more from him."

[The Joker]

Horatio's life was over, of that much he was sure. If somehow the Joker couldn't get to him and kill him in whatever horrible ways only the Joker's mind could come up with then this girl would. Horatio was utterly confused. Was she there to help him or not? He couldn't form any replies to what she had said to him because he knew she was right. He had been overly ambitious, caution was thrown to the wind. The man knew he had been a fool, everything the girl in black had to say to him it was all things he'd said to himself at one point. Trying to get close to the Joker, turning him over, and then trying to keep away from him? It was all idiotic and useless.

Joker watched with wide eyes as Raven's dark powers fanned out and surrounded both herself and poor old Horatio. He wondered if the shadowy aura was bulletproof. He cracked a narrow grin as the girl spoke, apparently thinking she could sway the clown with some sort of half-assed logic. "I dunno...those shoes are pretty nice. Then again I never can find a size that fits me, and what're you Ratio...about a size 10?"

[/b] Joker waved his gun about as he mulled over the chances of his feet being able to squeeze into the other man's shoes. "No no, that'd be way too small. *sigh* The troubles of having clown feet amirite? Ha ha ha ha."[/b] Joker's switch from murderous intent to comedian flipped in an instant and in the next instant it was flipped once again.

His gun was pointed at the two secluded in shadow all over again, but now the Joker frowned. "I like my goths with pointy ears. You just stand right there and be silent though,"[/b] Joker's eyes drifted back toward Horatio. "Now where was I? Oh right, any last words?"[/b] Horatio really was useless and the girl trying to protect him was actually right about something; there was no more Joker could get from the guy, but he had a feeling there was something he could get from her.[/blockquote]