Erythrophobia[Jason, Heather]

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Being in better conditions was different for Dr. Crane. He had his own lab and funding. For the most part things were going perfectly, but he could feel things slipping from him. There were new ties that had been made that were sending situations out of his control. He would gain control back quickly enough, he had planned for this, or at least planned for things to go horribly wrong. It always had to be left open to the option. Men that planned too sharply ended up failing miserably. In the end he would get what he wanted, it didn’t matter how he got there.

Dr. Crane wore a longer jacket tonight. It had been tampered with and sown in parts to hide needles and various tools and weapons he normally used. He made the exchange with the shady individual in the darkness of the alley. Heather had been tagging along behind, but she stayed just around the corner where he had told her too. He pocketed the drugs that he needed into his coat and the man left down the alley counting his money. It was unfortunate that he had to get chemicals this way, but the original market he had was closed and he had broken a tie with another underworld control. He would always find what he needed but in this case the quality was questionable.

To Heather it might have seemed like a drug deal and that was exactly what it was, though not for use. Dr. Crane had been trying to fix a problem he’d created with the Scarebeast and some less than marketable drugs were needed. He never intended to use recreationally, he would use them to make a better chemical and enhance his creation. When he had first injected it into him, the full completed version, in the asylum in front of Agent Tiffany, he had never expected to not be able to control it. Heather was kept in the dark about most of these things. He knew that she didn’t care for it to be that way but that was the way he wanted it. She had never seen the Scarebeast, not that he expected her to never not see him. It was simply a matter that hadn’t come up yet. But to her it may seem like he was just buying drugs…He didn’t care.

He thought about Miss Glass and everything she had already endured with him. Dr. Crane found himself thinking about her often, but of course for purely research reasons. He understood the psychology behind what she was doing, her fears that led her behind his steps and they always would. He had molded her just perfectly to what he needed her to be, it was beautiful how everything fell into place. She was truly the perfect research subject. From the moment he bumped into her car he knew.

So when he turned back around and out of the alley to face her he leaned against the wall. He stared at her for a long moment as she paced a bit away, kicking her feet against the tar on the ground. He didn’t want to be out here much longer, there was work to do. He motioned for her to follow him and then turned down the dark alley once more. He kept his eyes up as they walked, remembering this alley way and many like it. It had been a long time since he’d crossed the bat family…His last encounter with Nightwing. It almost seemed like he had twisted him, made his greatest fear a reality….He was all to accepting of showing him the truth. Who was he to keep it from him. Ever since that night it seemed like the bat family wouldn’t touch him. Dr. Crane almost smiled at the thought as he walked with her. “Will walk back to the lab…” he spoke in regards to the stolen care that they had clearly abandoned.

[Heather Glass - VerMillion]

The idea of Jon buying drugs doesn't really bother Heather at all. After seeing him make drugs like fear toxin and giving that to her and to other people, the fact that he might need some sort of street drug for some reason doesn't really phase her at all.

In fact it's not his business in the alleyway that's on her mind while she waits for him around the corner, it's the fact that she was attacked while in a similar situation awhile back and has the scar on her neck to prove it. Even though this isn't the first time since that he's taken her somewhere only to make her wait somewhere while he completed the actual task at hand and her wait in those occasions passed without incident doesn't mean that she doesn't note and get uncomfortable with the similarity. But when she catches him beckoning to her out of the corner of her eye, her wait proves to be uneventful once again.

Quick to catch up with him and breathing a sigh of relief to herself that she once again has the safety of his presence while in this questionable part of the city, she falls in line behind him as he leads the way through the alleyways. She doesn't say anything, even when Jon indicates where they're going and how. Instead she just sighs at the fact that it's going to be a bit of a walk but gives no further complaint. She's gotten used to long walks, and she doesn't mind the idea as much because, again, at least Jon is with her. Well, except for the fact that he's freakishly tall and has a much longer stride than her so she has to work hard to keep up with with him.

[Deleted]

    It had been a long night. For a week Jason had been working on a kidnapping case. Jonathon Crane, the Scarecrow, who had been out of Arkham for a while, had kidnapped Heather Glass. It had been a bothersome case. There had been absolutely no leads. And absolutely no assistence form the rest of the Bat-Family, due to Dick being in Bludhaven most of the time, Bruce having been out of town for quite a while, and Tim's simply not wanting to work with Jason. The infamous  Red Hood had been reduced to simply roaming the spots that Crane usually bought his drugs. Unfortunately, this strategy, if you could call it that, had given no reward.

    Jason sped through the dark, cold, and rainy night. He was riding his motorcycle from the last stakeout point. He had one last spot to check before he turned in for the night. When Jason neared the stakeout point he turned his bike to autopilot and launched off. He landed onto the roof of the building in front of him. It wasn't a hard jump. This was the slums, so the buildings weren't too tall. Jason pulled off his red helmet and rubbed his temples. He hadn't been sleeping well lately. He was having... The nightmares. He had them alot when he was first reincarnated, but he stopped having them after he left the All Caste. But, after his recent disastrous encounter with the Joker, where the Clown Prince of Crime had kidnapped him and brutally tortured him, the nightmares had come back.

    There were three variables for the nightmares. The first one was just a reliving of his death. When he had that dream he could feel every hit of the crowbar. Every moment of the explosion. It was terrible. The second variable was more disturbing. The setting of the dream was the All Caste headquarters. He was training with them, until all their faces turned to Joker's and they began to brutally attack him, until he died. The third night mare was the most disturbing, in Jason's opinion. In the nightmare, it was right after Jason had been beaten by Joker. As soon as the bomb was about to go off, Batman burst through the door and quickly deactivated it. The Dark Knight would walk over to the young Robin, and offer his hand to help him up. Jason would take it, and stand up in front of his mentor. He would try to yank his hand out of Batman's grip, but nothing would work. Then, slowly, Batman's face would become white, and his lips red. The so called mentor would remove the mask from his face, revealing the face of the Joker. The Joker/Batman would then proceed to beat Jason again, before ultimately blowing him up.

    Due to the lack of sleep, Jason hadn't been on the top of his game recently. He had slept about 11 hours in the past 7 days. He really needed rest, but he dreaded the nightmares. Jason pulled a pair of binoculars off his hip and began to look around with them. He searched for about twenty minutes before he saw what he never thought he would. He saw them. Crane and Heather. Together.  Jason took a deep breath and could feel the adrenaline rushing through his blood stream. This was the moment. He had to stop Crane. Now.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane slowed down when he noticed Miss Glass struggling and kept step with her instead. It forced him to almost walk behind her and take longer strides. Her size was certainly a problem at times but it was nothing he hadn’t been able to handle in the past. When she wasn’t fast enough, he’d pick her up. When she wasn’t tall enough, he’d lift her up. When she couldn’t reach, he’d get it for her. There were many mechanics that he had learn to overcome with her size, not that they were ever difficult to deal with in the first place, but they did slow him down at times.

Despite what the others had said about them no one had ever really approached him with the right thought about what they were together. Dr. Crane would explain that it was strictly research but rumors flew around of all kinds about them, even in some cases the way he was treating her. He felt he was treating her as any other doctor would. To keep the integrity and control of the experiment her had to remain the soul person in control. So in an instance that would normally be every man for themselves VerMillion was the only exception. There were very few things that he wouldn’t do to protect his experiments and she was one of them.

They turned a corner together and headed down another alley, still quite far from the lab but it wouldn’t make any difference if they walked. He hadn’t seen a member of the Bat family in weeks and he didn’t expect to see one tonight, not that he wasn’t watchful of it. He lifted his eyes upward every now and then to see if they were being watched. Batman, often got in his way though he had no futile desire to chase the man like other Professionals and rogues. He would never quite understand their obsession with him. There would be only one real reason to capture him….and that only he could do.

The other members were even more of an annoyance for him, often ruining perfectly good research. It was only every now and then that one would dare to cross him and end up falling into his world. Once that happened he had them right where they belonged and escape would be hard fought after. Of course he had no desire in killing anyone from the Batfamily or anyone for that matter….It would be a waste of good research material. “Hold these.” He pulled out the package that he had bought earlier and handed it to Miss Glass.

[Heather Glass - VerMillion]

When Jon slows to keep pace with her, Heather slows just slightly herself into a more comfortable pace. Still fairly quick, at least to her, since she doesn't want to spend the entire evening walking home. Once she's settled into her chosen pace, her mind begins to wander. Not back to the idea of some crazy person showing up and threatening her - she has no need to fear that because Jon's with her now and he'd protect her from any such thing. The Bat family is even further from her thoughts - she's only ever seen one of them, that was very briefly, Jon knew he was coming, and he'd been far more interested in Jon than he'd been in her. Granted, it had the serious consequence of getting them thrown into the asylum for awhile, but it didn't do much to destroy her impression that Jon has some control over such threats and that they're not too bad.

So instead she lets her mind wander to lesser concerns, like what does she want to eat when they get home? She'll probably be getting hungry by the time that they get there, and Jon will probably be too (even though he won't admit it), so she'll want to make something. But what food do they have on hand at the moment? Unless Jon wants to drag her off to something else, she'll want to go on a grocery run tomorrow...

When Jon hands over the bag for her to carry, she takes it and puts it into the pocket of her hoodie, and returns to her musings without a second thought about it. No, it wouldn't occur to her to question why he wants her to carry it - it's not like it's heavy or anything, so why should she question it?