The National Guard's operations command room.
Mayor Carlo sat in his seat in horror.
"scarecrow-"
The clown looked at the scarecrow in surprise and joy: "What a strange surprise!"
The scarecrow floated down from the windowsill silently. He was tall and thin, like a walking bamboo pole, but he was surprisingly agile.
"I am offended, Joker, that you, with a Master available..."
"But go looking for amateurs in the kingdom of fear."
"Ah, yes, Master, it's you, of course." The clown answered him, he spread out his palms, the expression on his face like a excited little boy, flashing with innocent viciousness.
"But I think maybe I can control Cornelius Stirk, huh?"
(Note: The super villain Ogre, first appeared in Detective Comics No. 592)
"How wrong you are. Poor choice, clown."
Scarecrow's voice sounded a little sharp under the respirator:
"This makes me really angry. In fact, I'd like to give you a dose of my fear..."
"Then give it a try, Scarecrow. I'm sure you'll find it entertaining—ahahahahahahaha~"
The Scarecrow stared at the Clown in silence. This heart-stopping (only Mayor Carlo next to him felt that way) confrontation lasted for about 10 seconds.
Mayor Carlo slumped in his seat, unable to utter a word.
Scarecrow said:
"I want to replace Scott — but this time it has to be an equal partnership... no one controls the other."
With a creak, the door was pushed open.
Cornelius "Ogre" Steck pushed open the door and walked in.
"Damn it! Scarecrow!" he said in surprise, "Why are you here?"
"Steck!" The Joker greeted him like a middle school girl and said, "Where's Captain Steve, the one I asked you to kidnap?"
"Here." The ogre took out a large piece of red stuff from his back, along with a bunch of other red, messy things, and ate them in front of the clown without a care in the world.
While eating his snacks and desserts, he said vaguely:
"Captain, adrenaline is great... well, a delicious bubbling stress hormone that's all the natural ingredients you need for an organic fear stew..."
"No, you idiot!" The clown grabbed his scalp in despair: "You illiterate, you should kidnap him, not kill him!"
He lowered his head and slapped his ears left and right. "Fuck you, you shouldn't have used Scott. He's too unstable. After all, you're a lunatic! Ahahahaha! Okay, me too! Lunatics should be with lunatics—after all, I chose him as my collaborator."
The clown asked again:
"No one else saw you kill Steve?"
"Ahhh... Of course not!" The ogre swallowed a mouthful of food and said vaguely, "I hypnotized the soldiers at the door when I went in. Now no one knows that Smith is dead. Even if he is dead, our plan will not be affected."
"Okay, okay." The clown held his forehead helplessly, "Let's do it this way, you've done it."
He scratched his head like he was mad, and then said, "I'm so thirsty! Steck, hand me the glass of water on the table behind you."
So the clown took the water from the ogre, took a big sip, and made a hissing sound.
After being ignored for a while, the scarecrow finally couldn't help but speak:
"So, clown, your cooperation with me..."
With a snap, the clown smashed the glass in his hand on the table. Half a second later, he inserted all the fragments into the ogre's throat.
"Hey! Hey...you...you..."
The ogre didn't react at all. He struggled to take the blade out of his arms, but as soon as he stood up, he fell to the ground with his back facing up.
The clown stepped forward quickly, took out the dagger that belonged to him from his arms, and then rode on the ogre's twitching body, swinging it again and again: "Fuck—you, you useless thing, waste! Waste!"
The blood soaked the food that the ogre had just chewed in his mouth, making it look as tender and delicious as a medium-rare steak.
Only when all the red juice in the ogre's body was squeezed out did the clown drop the dagger and elegantly wipe the red spots on his face with his sleeve.
"Well," he did a disgusting knight's chest-touching salute, "Scarecrow, my dearest friend, it's time to show your true skills."
The scarecrow was silent for a moment, then stretched out his long legs like thin bamboo poles, stepped over the ogre's dead body on the ground, walked in front of the mayor, and without saying a word, used his skull-shaped spray to spray a large cloud of mist at Mayor Carlo's cheek.
"No! Impossible! This can't be true!"
Mayor Carlo's eyes widened, and his eyeballs were stretched red by the stimulation of the chemicals.
"One...it must be a nightmare...no it's not real!"
"Ah, but we are real, Mr. Mayor. Very real."
The clown laughed shrilly, "If the guards at your door can still speak for you, they can testify for us!"
"No, no, it's poisonous!"
"What's poisonous, Mr. Mayor? What did you see? What's your greatest fear?"
"Spider? Viper?"
“Spoiling sushi?”
"No, no!" Under the influence of the fear toxin, Mayor Carlo was trembling all over like a baby who could not take care of himself.
"Snakes...snakes are...poisonous!"
The scarecrow came close to Mayor Carlo. Mayor Carlo was horrified to see two poisonous snakes crawling out of his eye sockets, but the scarecrow acted as if nothing had happened, as if he had not seen the two poisonous snakes at all.
In his ears the Scarecrow's whispers rang:
"Snakes, Mr. Mayor. Pythons. Vipers. Their forked tongues darting rapidly, piercing the pulsating soft flesh of your throat, licking it, only to pierce it quickly... with their hooked... hollow... "
"Fangs!"
"Please... I beg you, what on earth do you want to do?"
"Well, Mayor Carlo—" the Joker said, "it's time to use your influence! Dance lightly under the fiber optic lights and bring this dark city to its knees!"
He laughed wildly, just like a mischievous child who revealed the answer to the riddle. The despair, anger, fear and finally helplessness on other people's faces were the greatest reward for him!
"In addition to sending all those 20,000 people to the battlefield, I also have a special gift of laughing gas for Bane - as a small revenge for him stealing the favor of our Batman!"
…
…
…
He was bruised and battered, with bruises all over his body and maybe even a broken rib.
I was almost out of energy. I had never felt so exhausted and so bad.
But I'm not dead yet.
Bane lowered his head and looked at the increasing number of enemies spreading towards him.
"Venom input... maximum power."
"start up."