A Botched Job [Character Switch]

[The Joker]

The harsh fluorescent light flashed off of a coin that was rolling across strong fingers. One side threw off more light than the other, but that was how Harvey Dent worked. Light vs. dark, good vs. bad, right vs. wrong.

~You know this is all your fault, right?~

A faint snarl on the good side of his face was the only indication that an internal struggle was occurring. ~Nobody asked you.~

~I asked me. When I'm in charge of heists things don't go wrong. You're too soft. I should be the dominant one...~

Harvey rubbed his temple and sighed. ~Please just shut up.~

Two-Face retreated to the back, still grumbling about the botched job. Harvey forced a smile and turned to his companions in the holding cell.

"Not too bad for our first job as a group. I could have done without being arrested, but sometimes you just have to accept what chance throws at you."

~You're a complete pansy, Harvey.~

[Dr Jonathan Crane]

Olivia sat across the cell from Harvey in the holding cell, her head buried in her hands. How had she even gotten into this? She knew she should have gone to see Bruce instead of trying to track down Harvey. When he spoke she looked up making no attempt to conceal her agitation.

"Well I could have done without getting involved with a criminal. I shouldn't even been in that stupid building! I was just trying to find you because you had dropped of the face of the planet for three days. I thought you had run of to the circus or gotten killed or something!"

[Katarina Williams]

Lavinia sat calmly in the cell. She was quietly contemplating as to how she got into this mess in the first place. It seemed Logan had a rat in his midst and that was the only conclusion she could come up with really on how they came to this point. She was Logan's consigliere.

Hearing Olivia speak before coming to a stand going over to the bars, "Someone will get us out of here, maybe Logan has an idea?" Smoothing out her navy blue dress. What good could she possibly do now being stuck in here?

[Lavinia Howards]

Suzume curled up in the corner of her cell, her slender arms clinging around her knees. Her posture looked apathetic but she was, in fact, furious. How could she be so reckless? Especially in front of Harvey, she'd taken to ignoring him in hopes that he would somehow forget she was here.

Alas, there was one thing she could be pleased about, she wasn't in a cell with Olivia. It was a relief to hear the woman yabber on but not actually having to respond in anyway. She pretended that she didn't hear the girl's remark.

When she heard a voice that was vaguely familiar, it couldn't help but peak her interest.

"You mean Grey-san?"

[Harvey Dent/Two-Face]

Joker was practically skipping as he was led to the holding cell. There was a bruise rising on his cheekbone and his shoulder burned from where it had been twisted behind his back. He enjoyed every throb.

As he was pushed inside the cell he beamed at the assembled company. He beamed twice at Harvey and then plopped down on his lap.

"I saw my Batman."

[The Joker]

Harvey closed his eyes for a moment as he struggled not to get irritated with Olivia. With great effort he turned and smiled down at her. "Now, sweetheart, don't be silly. You know I wouldn't run off to the circus. And I told you that I'd be gone a few days. I wish you wouldn't worry so much."

~Should have let her take that bullet. Might have knocked some sense into her.~

~Shut. Up.~

He reached out to rub her back soothingly as Lavinia and Suzume spoke up. He cast a sad look at his daughter. "I'm sorry you're in here, Suzume. It isn't fair to keep you in with adults. We'll get out though, don't you worry."

Harvey allowed an indulgent smile for Joker when the clown plopped into his lap. "Good for you, Joker. Unfortunately all of us saw him. Next time you may keep him to yourself."

[Tally Man]

Joker pointed to the darkening spot on his cheekbone, the bruise plain even under his smeared makeup. "He was playing rough tonight. Look what he did! I love it when he gets all dominant and growly. Well, he's always growly. My dulcet Dark Knight..." he sighed happily and laid his head on Harvey's shoulder before a faintly malicious gleam sparked behind his eyes and a deceptively sweet smile spread across his scarred mouth. "You know, Two-Face could have taken some lessons from him."

Joker twisted his head around to see who else was in the holding cells. There was Tartlette looking all folorn, and Harvey's weird crazy daughter. Actually that was ok. Apparently she was good with knives. It would be someone else to talk to when he got bored of sitting on Harvey. He decided to start now.

Joker scrambled off Harvey's lap and laid claim to a bench on the other side of the cell, stretching out at full length on the hard surface. "Hi Suzume. I think Daddy has been very irresponsible to let you out so late. And on a school night too. Tartlette, shouldn't you be setting a better example for her than this?"

(edited to add: Sorry, I forgot to sign in as Tally Man when making my first Joker post! Harvey should of course be posting as Crane. If I delete Harvey's post and re-do it as Tally Man it will throw the order of the thread out so I'll leave it as is for now.)

[Suzume]

Kat was huddled in a corner of the holding cell, arms wrapped tightly around herself. It had been almost 12 hours since her last hit of anything and she was definitely feeling it. Her thin body shivered noticeably as she scratched at her back. Everything hurt and itched and she was miserable.

She cast a dark look at the clown who was cheerfully terrorizing everyone else in the cell. If she wasn't so tired she probably would have said something. Instead she leaned against the wall and rested her head against the cool stone. It helped to alleviate the pounding in her head but did little to help anything else. She needed a fix badly.

"Harvey." She said, voice cracking. "You gotta get us out of here. I'm...I'm not doing well. Please, I don't want to go back to Arkham..."

[Harvey Dent/Two-Face]

Jonathan Crane sat on the floor, his back propped aginst the cold bars. The last traces of his fear toxin were leaving him and he felt the familiar longing for more - for just a few more minutes of the beauty and terror of his visions. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to block out the whining and jabbering that assailed him from all sides. He glanced at Kat, whose withdrawal symptoms he knew far too well for his own comfort.

"Be quiet, woman. Have some dignity in your suffering."

When he next opened his eyes, he heard the far away rustling of feathery wings. He sighed in rapture. Dark feathers were floating from the ceiling like snowflakes, drifting down gently in a slow ballet. He watched them, his eyes opening wide to drink in their beauty. They were settling on the broad shoulders of Harvey Dent, falling to the floor around him. He sighed against, gazing almost worshipfully at the black cloud around the scarred man. If only he could drift off to sleep forever like this, and re-enter the world of beauty and horror that his drug gave him...

[Dr Jonathan Crane]

Olivia shrugged away Harvey's hand as she stood and moved away from him. Crossing her arms she tried to close herself off as much as possible from the rest of the people in the cell.

"Oh yes, It's sooo sad that the bad guys lost."

She didn't try to hide her disgust with the Joker and his Batman obsession.

"He should've twisted your neck."

As Kat started to complain she scoffed.

"Oh, just what we need. The meth heads going to spaz out on us. For Once I think I can actually agree with Crane."

[Harvey Dent/Two-Face]

Crane barely heard Olivia. She was a distant chirping as of songbirds before sunrise. He tilted his head back watching the black feathers swirling above Dent's head through half-lowered lids. Such beauty.

He opened his eyes fully when he felt wetness against his face. Something warm had spattered onto his upurned eyelids and cheeks. Curious, he lifted his hand to his face and stared at his fingertips. They were stained scarlet. "No..." he murmured. Helplessly he turned his gaze back to the snowfall of black feathers, but they were dissolving into a spatter of red rain. Slowly, he licked his fingertips and tasted salt.

Ther was a war in heaven, and the skies were raining blood.

He staggered to his feet and reached upwards, vainly trying to catch the black feathers before they dissolved into gobbets and clots of blood. "Come back... dark angels, I plead with you. Come back."

[Bruce Wayne]

Nightwing was feeling pumped. It had been an fruitful night. Not only had he gotten the chance to go toe to toe with some of Gotham's biggest criminals but he had gotten to show Batman that he wasn't the only one fighting the good fight.

Leaping across the small alley he found himself on top of the Gotham Police station. The cabal they had captured tonight would be here in the secure holding cells until they could have hearings tomorrow. He figured he would pay them a visit.

The rooftop access door was easy enough to get open. Once inside he quickly descended the stairs. He was surprised that there wasn't more security around. He was able to make it to the lower levels where the holding cells were with ease. Now he would have some fun. Nimbly scaling the wall he popped the grate off one of the large air conditioning vents. Hopefully the whole thing wouldn't fall under his weight.

Silently crawling along on his stomach he looked through each vent until he found the one he wanted. It came out right in front of the holding cells. He could see the lot of them sitting and standing around in various states of agitation or in some cases joy. Just as Crane began to stand and talk he popped the vent off and poke his head through and laughed.

"Now Dr., you should know better. There aren't any angels here. Just a pack of run down demons. How's it going guys and gals? Enjoying your stay at Hotel Gotham?"

[The Joker]

Two-Face was beginning to struggle against the back of Harvey's mind.

~C'mon, Harvey, let me go prove I don't need lessons. The Bat can't teach me anything I don't know.~

~You just want an excuse to shag him which is something you absolutely will not do in the middle of a holding cell.~

Two-Face snarled and continued to struggle. Harvey massaged his temples.

"Joker, leave them alone." Harvey snapped as he glared at the clown. "Why don't you put your hyperactivity to good use and start finding a way to get us out of here. God knows you have the most experience escaping."

Kat and Crane forced his headache to worsen but he finally lost control when Olivia pulled away from him. Two-Face surged forwards. "Well look at you, Miss High Horse. What ever happened to your compassion and irritating urge to help people? You automatically lose that when the odds turn against you? Hopefully they give you the chair."

Two-Face rose to his feet and walked slowly over to Crane, a nasty gleam in his eyes. "No need to get so worked up, we're right here." He was reaching for the doctor when a disgustingly familiar voice came down from the ceiling

Two-Face sneered up at the vigilante sticking his head out of the ceiling. "Why don't you come down here and see just how much we're enjoying it? I'm sure we'd all love some quality time with you."

He walked back to where Joker lay and slid in next to him, running his fingers through the tangled and greasy green hair. "Come on down, Nightwing. Don't you want a nice evening of depravity?"

[Tally Man]

Joker watched Crane in some amusement for a while, then lost interest when he heard a screech of metal as the vent above came loose. He looked up with wide, hopeful eyes, then scowled when he saw who it was. He settled back against Two-Face's shoulder and enjoyed having his hair petted.

"Actually Nighty-Night, the turn-down service here is terrible. Mr Face and I specifically asked for the penthouse suite. I shall be speaking to my travel agent about you."

He craned his neck, trying to see into the air vent. "You don't have Batsy in there, do you?" he asked hopefully.

He looked round at Two-Face. "I don't want to be depraved with him," he insisted.

[Katarina Williams]

Lavinia looked over at the young girl as she spoke about Logan. "Yes, I mean Grey-san." She really felt bad for her to be in an environment like this especially at her age. "Are you okay, Takenaka-san?"

Logan had been strangely quiet this entire time but that didn't stop her mind on thinking of ways to get them out of here. A thought had crossed her mind though before looking over at the Joker. Didn't he typically have corrupted individuals in power as far as connections?

Just as she was about to ask him if there was some way to possibly bribe a guard to open the holding cell and look the other way, Nightwing decided to make an appearance.