Fright of the Fly [Firefly]

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The doctor sat by himself amidst the heavy fog of smoke and the unmistakable smell of alcohol. He had a glass himself that night, a single glass of scotch as he’d always ordered. He doubted he would be drinking any more tonight. The booth around him was dark as the light had been removed from the lamp above. It was a request that he’d made through repetitively removing it himself anyway. He sat there lifeless in wait for the flame to arrive.

Dr. Crane had done a great deal of research on Mr. Lynn back when he was first taken into the asylum. He had never gotten the opportunity to be his therapist, by then he had already been arrested by the man would have been an interesting task to take over. There would still be time for that now, just in an unfortunate setting. Every man was controlled by fear by there were some men that felt they were empowered by it. Mr. Lynn was certainly one of these men. Yet he didn’t even understand what he was doing. It was a terrible waist but it wouldn’t go that way for long.

The argument to the man’s anger of course was ridiculous. Anger was simply a cover for fear, an emotion that didn’t exist and was only used to run from it enlightenment. He had countless lectures on it but just as before people were frightened of the truth. It would have been so much easier if they had just embraced it, it was all so explicitly clear.

He had come prepared for the situation to go awry. His mask was tucked neatly between in shirt and the back of his pants. In his light jacket were three needles strapped to one side, two containing a neon yellow colored substance and the other what seemed to be a clear liquid. Normally, he would have saved that for a situation that he needed to subdue his less than cooperative patient and take them back to the lab. With how things had been going he was half tempted to use it on himself if the time was right. Unfortunately, doing either would have been bad in front of Mr. Lynn. If he turned at an unexpected time it would give more rise to the rumors that he had been the cause to some monster at the asylum during the FBI establishment in the city. If he had injected himself in front of him with you was given him something to spread as a weakness. He wouldn’t let either of those things happen tonight.

The doctor was lost in his thoughts, the scene around him drifting away as he went over the possibilities in his mind. They were suddenly interrupted by the presence of a man that had taken the booth in front of him. His eyes came back into focus from the space that they had entered and stared at him. The man had come fully costumed and had caused quite a stir in the bar. The man must have been very attached to that suit…

“Mr. Lynn.” He greeted him and adjusted in his seat to sit up more. “I see that you received my request to meet you here.” He paused, trying to think of a careful way to word his next statement. He wasn’t here on his own terms after all. Ra’s had given him a very tight leash this time and if he didn’t follow through then he could risk everything with his research. He couldn’t let that happen, at any cost. “Mr. Lynn have you ever tampered with the build of your suit?” He asked as he scanned over several parts on it. He had seen him on the news and briefly overhead at one time. He knew the suit capable of flight and a substitute power for the gun that set the city ablaze. But he wondered did he manufacture it himself? It would be interesting indeed to find out there was another maker behind his suit.

[Deleted]

The pyromaniac didn’t normally do things like this. Meet with the Scarecrow in one of the many dive bars around Gotham? Pft. Sounded like an invitation to get fear gassed. He wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t just that. So he had come prepared. Yet nice and casual. He didn’t want to seem imposing. He had on his trusty fire retardant suit, complimented by his jet pack because, really, if you had a jet pack, you weren’t going to leave home without it.

But! Garfield had left behind most of the explosives that he kept on his person. He only toted around his flamethrower. He’d cut off the fuel to it, and it hung slung around his back. Of course, that didn’t stop him from getting fearful looks as he stepped into the bar. Firefly scowled behind his mask as a group of thugs sitting at a booth nearly ejected from their seats at the sight of him, shouting muffled curses.

He glanced around the bar for the man that he was looking for, not taking long to spot him. Crane was staring off into space thoughtfully. The only person in the bar not staring at him like he was some kind of freak. Lynns growled at some of the patrons giving him odd looks, causing them to go pale and clam up. It gave him some small bit of satisfaction, but ultimately, he wasn’t here for pleasure.

Lynns plopped down in the booth across from Crane, slinging an arm up to rest on the back of the back rest. Crane almost immediately snapped out of whatever thoughts about fear had drawn him away from reality. It was always fear with this guy. That was lesson one.
“It’s Lynns,” Garfield corrected when he heard the mispronunciation of his name. “Lynnssssss. I’d say it was good to see you Doc Crane, but let’s face it, you’re not exactly Doc Feel Good.” Garfield let out a rasping chuckle, his voice long since damaged from smoke inhalation. The mask didn’t exactly help matters either.

He was, however, taken by surprise when Crane asked about his suit. He’d made it himself certainly. He wasn’t much of an academic, but he was an expert on everything related to his true love. Fire. So that usually meant that he spent a good deal of time learning about new fire suppressants and fire retardant materials…So that his blaze could rage unhindered.

“Uh, yeah. I designed it myself. Had to tweak it a couple times thanks to the Bat…” In the corner of his mind, he wondered how this could possibly link back to fear. He hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Scarecrow before this, but he hadn’t needed to meet him to know what he was about. “Got burned just one too many times when playing with fire. I decided that I didn’t want to go out in a blaze of glory…just yet anyway.”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The doctor didn’t care to be corrected, but he cared even less about being corrected by someone beneath him. He let the offense go and decided to re pronounce the insect’s name. “Lynns, of course.” He allowed him to make the next statement. He hadn’t been in practice to make people feel good by their standards. He knew what was best for others, he was a psychiatrist after all. As for on the physical side of feeling good he knew exactly how to make that happen.

He noted the rasp in his voice with the sharp inhale. That was something far worse than years of smoking. He was aware of the injuries he sustained and the damage to his throat and lungs probably caused the rasp that he had heard now. It wasn’t something that could be fixed, but it was something that could be exploited. The doctor logged that away in his mind but then focused more on his suit.

The fact that he designed it himself made him pause. If he designed it himself there were probably more flaws than he wanted. The man was probably capable of maintaining the suit and modifying it, but he wasn’t confident in his ability to take it further after he’d gotten his hands on it. The doctor wasn’t extremely mechanically oriented, but he could put tubing in a suit and make it come out when he wanted it too. He could also do this without the suit blowing up the user.

“What would you say If I could make it better?” He asked him without actually fully explaining what he meant. He kept eyeing it before he continued. He would really need the entire lay out of the suit to find out where he could put the things he wanted in it. Firefly would be useful to him, if only for a little while and then expendable when he didn’t need him. “What if I told you that I could give the fire you use life?” His voice lowered and almost became quiet as he spoke about it. His cryptics hid his meaning behind the words but he realized that Mr. Lynns probably wouldn’t understand.

“I could instead give people a reason to fear you beyond the flame that your carry.” He stated plainly, not that he believed that there was any reason to fear the fly, now or in the future…For him at least.

[Deleted]

Lynns nodded appreciatively as Crane uttered the correct pronunciation of his name. Always good to start things off properly. Things often tended to spiral out of control with any of the given rogues rather quickly otherwise. And as fun as seeing how well the Scarecrow burned would be…Garfield was in no rush to make an enemy out of the man.

Speaking of his suit, he was rather proud of his work. It was by no means like Freeze’s tank suit. But it got the job done and was rather lightweight. Good stuff. The doctor’s next statement almost immediately had all of his attention. It was then that Lynns noticed Crane’s eyes crawling all over his suit. Ugh. That was not a good stare. Garfield could practically feel his skin crawling under it. Fortunately, the mask kept his discomfort concealed for the most part. The rest of his body language could be interpreted as interest, so he wasn’t too worried about that.

“Better…?” Lynns asked, clearly wanting some form of elaboration. Crane went on to say something about giving the fire life. Lynns’ eyes narrowed, his body stiffening. “It is alive, Dr. Crane,” he rasped with sudden uncharacteristic coldness. Finally, Crane brought everything into perspective with the mention of fear.

“You…” Lynns stopped himself, shaking his head slowly, “I’m listening. And do what? What do you want in exchange?”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Now that Dr. Crane had the man’s attention he could finally get to the point. There was certainly something to be said for the man that played with fire. Fire was an overconsuming source that would grasp for every molecule of oxygen it could. It truly was constantly gasping for breath and those like Firefly that continued to blow into it, surely would learn to give it more life than it should have ever had. Fire was a destructive force and equally as life giving. From the ash into the earth life would immerge once more. A man like Mr. Lynns would understand this relationship but he doubted that he understood why. If he did his endeavor with it would have changed drastically.

“The only reason that the flame ignites is what I am talking about. It lives it’s whole life, short or long, fearing suffocation. The basis for what I’m purposing has always been in the flame that you believe that you control. I am only offering a way to make that a more enlightening experience for those that are fortunate enough to be consumed by it. ” The doctor spoke through his cryptics and then turned to his thoughts about what he wanted.

“The blueprints of your suit.” He said plainly with nothing behind his voice. He wasn’t sure if the man had kept any blueprints or made them at all with how he spoke of tweaking it. If he didn’t it would have made things more difficult but he would take a list of parts and components as a fair trade.

It wasn’t like the doctor to make deals like this for such meaningless items but they were going to a greater cause. He had something much bigger on his mind to accomplish and he needed to do it quickly. Giving firefly the ability to enhance his weapon would just be the beginning of what he planned on starting. It should have been a giant waste of his time, working for another in an effort to keep his hold on what was rightfully his. But the more he thought about it the more he was pulled into the deeper portions of his mind. It was that space that got him in trouble. It made him wander to sections that gave him the most enlightening discoveries about just what would happen…
If the entire town was ablaze with the truth?

[Deleted]

A more enlightening experience…for those consumed by his flames? Even though Crane was being unnecessarily cryptic and verbose, Firefly still somehow managed to maintain interest in what he was saying. It wasn’t hard since the topic was one of the few things in this world that gave him any pleasure anymore. It sounded like Crane really genuinely wanted to help him spread his purifying flames throughout Gotham. But why?

Firefly’s suspicions only intensified when Crane spat out what he actually wanted. Now, Firefly was no genius like what seemed like ninety percent of the residents of Gotham, but he was no idiot either. “Blueprints,” Firefly replied plainly, “To my suit.” The bar was dead quiet, most of the patrons had long since vacated the premises. Firefly drummed his gloved fingers against the table thoughtfully.

It didn’t take a genius to see that some larger plan was rattling around in Crane’s mind. And yet…why his suit? It wasn’t as if Crane was incapable of making something like it with enough time. And maybe that was it. Time was a factor for Crane’s plan? Still…it was rare that any of the rogues offered a bargain as cheap as this one.

As it happened, Firefly had quite a few blueprints for the various versions of his suit and weapon. He also had a couple spare suits laying around for those times that Batman trashed the most current one. “It’s a deal,” Firefly said. Normally, he might offer his hand to Crane. But the good doctor had a thing for needles and fear toxin. “So…how do you plan on giving my flames new life? And what use have you for the plans to my suit, hm?”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane waited patiently for Mr. Lynns to figure out his answer. If he was smart he would accept regardless of the cost. It was an opportunity he wasn’t going to offer again. The effects may have irreversible and devastating consequences to those around him and Lynns himself but that would have to be a risk he was willing to take. He could only perform so many tests and with flame and chemical there almost wasn’t enough testing that could be done to find every possibility that could go wrong.

But as Lynns agreed it was clear that he was willing to face the consequences for the opportunity. What Dr. Crane wanted in return was nothing that Lynns needed to be concerned with at the moment. But he did give it enough pre thought to be able to explain enough to keep him satisfied without giving away what he was trying to do.

“How I do it shouldn’t matter to you as long as it’s done.” He commented tiredly to get him to move from the subject quickly. The less he knew about the how the better. He had a feeling that even if he had explained it Mr. Lynns wouldn’t understand the concept fully. It was better to just let him pull the trigger and find out for himself how it worked in itself. He could never truly understand what was behind it and what supported it and that would always be there. He was incapable….It may not have been his fault, but he wanted him to see it and that’s exactly what Dr. Crane was going to do.

“What I plan on doing is mixing my chemicals with yours and creating something that you tend to enjoy with more meaning behind it.” He elaborated in a better way than giving him the full specifics of the deal. “As for what I plan on doing with your plans…I just want to look at them.” He spoke honestly, but there was more to what he was saying. He did plan to look them over but from the study of it would come much more in time. He had collected another set of plans from Freeze already and he planned on continuing to get the rest of the blueprints he wanted. Firefly was just next on the list.

Of course to be around for the terror that was going to be spread with this device would only be a bonus to him, even if he wasn’t in full control of it. It was always interesting to see the beauty of his work move on its own. A thought came to his head but he cast it aside, that’s not exactly what he was meaning. “So, Mr. Lynns if we have a deal, how do you plan to get the blue prints into my hands?”