The Mirrorverse: The Fear Family

[lepouvantail]

It had been strange, getting used to his new life. If being Fright Knight hadn't already done a number on his time and sleep schedule, then having Karen and Angie in his life was even more of a testament to how well Jonathan Crane could juggle his responsibilities.

He had never thought the day would come when he had any respect for his family, let alone sought them out, made a connection. It had taken time, but they had warmed up to him, as he had in return.

Charlie was still out and about, but Jonathan knew if that bastard tried to hunt down his wife and daughter, he'd have Fright Knight to get through first. And next the next time he crossed paths with his step-father, Jonathan wasn't certain he'd let him live.

It had been enough to have the hideout. Karen and Angie made the perfect front: a supposedly normal family moving into a supposedly normal house. And coming to see them made it easier to pop into the hidden lair in the basement, check in with Belle. That by itself made his other duties easier to handle.

Such as getting his students' papers graded. Saving the world was grand, but so was educating today's youth, as well as having a stable job. And final tests wouldn't grade themselves.

He was calmly working at the university, after hours as he often did as it was the most peaceful---and because he knew he was always on call, and the university was a good point in the city for him to easily get to other parts quickly if needed.

The day had been peaceful for Gotham. That he hadn't been called, and that the radio he was playing softly int he background hadn't had anything worse than dense traffic and one convenience store robbery downtown spoke enough of it. Jonathan focused more on his papers, alert enough if the news changed, or if someone came to his office.

Like now.

"Afternoon, professor," said a gruff voice.

Jonathan didn't look up, simply crossed off an incorrect answer to add to his tally. He watched him out of the corner of his eye, already feeling that trouble had started, mostly because the man had a ski mask on.

"It's after hours," he said, pretending to not have noticed, "and as you can see, I'm busy."

"I'm sure it can wait."

The man moved to grab him. The glass cup of pens on his desk was hurled at his face. Jonathan knew he wasn't alone, as two partners were already coming in to help. The first man had a hand over his nose, and Jonathan was already grabbing for one of the raven bookends he had only recently got back. The other men were quicker, one grabbing his wrist before he could throw it, the other getting behind him.

Jonathan knew well enough what the other man had, held his breath to avoid breathing in the most common knock-out drug in the movies. It would give him a moment to fight back, to kick at one of his attackers and try to move the rag from his face. He was already starting to feel faint, reached for the desk, trying to get to the canister of what most people presumed was breath spray.

He could feel one of the men reaching into his pocket to get his phone, toss it aside. Jonathan tried to fight back, but whatever these men wanted, they had been prepared to get it. And he had a feeling it had something to do with Fright Knight. He couldn't conceive any other reason. Not that it mattered as the world faded to black.

The cameras would show he had been taken.

And elsewhere in Gotham, a few others would be missing as well.

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using all-purpose bat account

[specialguestvillains]

Karen's job was long hours and hard work, even if it meant that she was finally able to provide for herself. The house was hers, paid in cash up front and sold into her name. There were people who'd given her privacy but also take care of her and Angie if an emergency popped up. Compared to her cramped life with her husband the freedom was nearly overwhelming.

So it couldn't hurt to give a little something back. This time of night Jonathan would probably be at the university; he hadn't answered his house phone for certain. And Karen...just needed to do the motherly thing today. It was more playacting than genuine sentiment but she enjoyed it. It made her feel like she was starting to make up for her years of ignorance and neglect.

So here she was with cookies.

"Jonathan?"

[lepouvantail]

His car was still in the parking lot, though there were not many people at the university this time of the afternoon. The receptionist was a little familiar with Karen, having remembered she had come here once with a little blonde girl to speak with Professor Crane, and once or twice after. Whoever this woman was to him, they were on relatively friendly terms, and she mentioned he should still be here.

Should being the key word.

The office would show some signs of a disturbance.

The cup of pens he normally had on his desk was now shattered on the floor, the pens scattered all over. One of the raven bookends he kept on his desk had fallen into his chair, the books it once held up having fallen over like dominoes, one of which had tumbled down and was open, its pages bent where it had fallen.

Jonathan would never have left a book in that state.

His briefcase was still here, tucked under the desk, holding secrets better kept away from prying eyes. On the desk, his cell phone had been undisturbed, where he could grab it easily should he have to go on call.

[specialguestvillains]

"Oh my god..."

They'd taken him. Even if he was leaving in a hurry he wouldn't wreck the place like this. Karen had only an inkling of what the people the Rogues dealt with were like, but she'd seen the scars on Edward's mouth. They were not kind to their prisoners.

Don't panic. Think. Karen grabbed up the cell phone and stuffed it into her pocket, and after a moment's thought took the briefcase as well. The police would come to investigate when they found out and if they found evidence of Fright Knight it could very easily tie him back to the rest of the Rogues. And her. She touched as little as possible before shoving the briefcase's contents into her duffel bag and sucking in a few deep breaths to give the illusion of calm.

When she walked out past the receptionist there was a smile on her face. "Guess he went home for the night. There wasn't any answer when I knocked."

She was already frantically dialing Harleen before she made it to the car.

[lepouvantail]

Normally, Jonathan kept his briefcase locked in the car, as the lining hid his costume---when he'd revealed the secret to Angie, that was where it had been at the time. Today, he had needed some of the papers inside and hadn't had time to rummage through it before going in. It would be to his and the group's fortune that Karen had gotten to it first.

The receptionist gave her a warm smile and bid her good night, before going back to her work.

The office would be found in that state the next morning, and doubled with Professor Crane's car in the parking lot, the police would be involved.

Not that the Rogues wouldn't know first.

Harley heard the phone ring, picked up. There were a few dogs barks and zany sounds from the cartoon she was watching.

The volume on the TV was muted almost immediately, and "shh"-ing to Arlo and Zani was heard, along with the door shutting so Harley could get somewhere quieter to talk.

"Hey," she said, knowing well enough that while Karen kept up with the Rogues and was a much better people person than her son, she didn't know any of the Rogues well enough for social calls, which probably meant something was wrong at the hideout, or worse.

"What's going on?"

[specialguestvillains]

Karen's voice was unsteady, but she managed to speak clearly rather than babbling. Fear had its claws in her heart...but she was used to operating around fear.

"Jonathan's gone. His office is a wreck, there's books on the floor. I have his phone and his things but he's gone. Did he...do you know?" Please say this was all part of the plan. One of those crazy things Jack would come up with, or Eddie's wheels-within-wheels schemes. Please say her son isn't in the hands of torturers.

[lepouvantail]

Harley listened calmly, but concern washed over her features as she thought about if this was some part of some twisted, complicated scheme.

"...Professor Crane didn't mention anything about this," she said delicately, "and Jack would've known by now."

There was little in this town anyone could hide from Jack.

Harley wanted to sound reassuring, even if she knew there as little she could say that actually would be. She knew as well as Karen that if this wasn't intentional, there was every chance that Jonathan Crane could end up on the seven o'clock news as a corpse.

[specialguestvillains]

Or worse, not appear at all.

Karen chewed on her lip as she drove away, phone clutched to her ear. "I'm going to his apartment, I'll see if he's left anything there. And try and clean out anything we don't want the police finding." She had a copy of his key, as did Angie. "What do we do?"

(Later Jack would be at Harley's window, to tell her Fright Knight was gone. He'd feel it in the city's bones but far too late to do anything about it. Wasn't the Bird, either Bird, was someone else but they needed to find him but quick. If it wasn't the Birds Jack would have a harder time of it.)

[lepouvantail]

"Take anything in his office desk," she said. "It's locked, but there's a key hidden in the glass raven in his living room."

One of the things that the Rogues had discussed was where sensitive information was hidden, and how to get to it in case they were compromised.

Harley was pacing nervously. It was bad enough when Billy was taken, but at least they knew who did it that time, and could narrow down how to find him. For someone to get the drop on Crane, leave almost no trace...

It unnerved her, admittedly scared her. He wasn't a physical threat, but he was more than intimidating, and could usually scrape by with a bit of manipulation and a little fear serum.

"...I'll call Eddie," she said. "If anyone can find any rhyme or reason to this, it'd be him."

She already knew that whenever Jack showed up, he'd have something more to go on. No doubt he'd already heard in that weird way of his.

"We also need to make sure Fright Knight keeps up a public appearance. That way, he can't be tied to Professor Crane."

[specialguestvillains]

"Do we know who might have done it? Anything, where they might have taken him? Where did they keep Billy when they took him?"

It made sense to keep Fright Knight in business, and she did still have the costume. But who could take over for him? Eddie was too short, Harvey too broad, Harley had all the wrong proportions and Jack was just out of the question. Who did they have whose frame matched Jonathan and who could match his fearful motions well enough to fool a crowd?

...oh.

[lepouvantail]

Jonathan had once donned the costume for Cypher, but it had been easier. Edward's blog and updates said enough, and Jonathan just once or twice needed to be spotted hunched on a rooftop in a trench coat, mask, and a question-marked bowler hat to make people think Cypher was still physically around while he and Ellie Mae had gone down South for two weeks.

This was different. Fright Knight didn't leave such a constant trace of his existence, there was no time frame for when he would be back, and it wasn't as simple as making a quick appearance for publicity's sake, then disappearing back into the shadows before one could properly determine things like height and proportion.

Whoever had Jonathan likely suspected he was Fright Knight, or at least had ties to him. It was vital to keep up the masquerade.

Harley was already racking her mind. She hadn't even considered Karen as a substitute, was just a bit more focused on considering what little clues they had.

"He was in an abandoned warehouse near the river," she said, "but Gotham has hundreds of abandoned buildings. We'd need a bit more to go on to narrow it down."

She pondered a moment.

"Immediate suspect goes to the Birds," Harley said, "but there was also that thing at the university."

Her mind went to the Boogieman cases.

"Someone was tryin' ta take 'is formula and make it into a weapon, and he beat 'em to the punch...but that doesn't mean they wouldn't try again once the case wasn't such a big thing anymore. 'Specially since Fright Knight was considered a copycat for that case due to different formula residue. Could be someone tryin' ta prove it otherwise."

It was a slightly more hopeful answer. It at least lessened the threat, gave more leeway to believe that Crane had more of a chance of coming out of this alive.

[specialguestvillains]

"So you don't even know where to start?" She was hustling up the steps to his apartment. If this wasn't done fast the cops would be all over it, and wanting to know why she was removing things from his apartment.

[lepouvantail]

"...No," she admitted, biting her lip, "but I'm gonna run it by Eddie. Like I said, he's bound to find something if we don't."

Harley took a seat on her bed, racking her mind.

"...We'll find him," she said, trying to be assuring. "And he can take care of 'imself until we do."

She hoped.

[lepouvantail]

As promised, Harley got Eddie on the phone as soon as she was done with Karen, let him know what was going on. Whatever case he was on now, it had to wait. If a Rogue went missing, it meant the rest of them were in danger.

It would take several hours of detective work, going through newspapers, getting word on the street in disguise, and warning the other Rogues, but Edward found a lead.

Harley had a good hunch; other university professors and people of science went missing, though none from the Boogieman case. They were, however, all experts in chemistry. Now it was a matter of finding the last places they were seen and determining if there was a pattern to the locations, and furthermore, a way of finding them.

At the very least, he felt a little more at ease when he found that pattern. This probably didn't have anything to do with Fright Knight at all. But it did leave the question of what the kidnapper could want with chemistry geniuses. Fright Knight or not, that was not a good prospect.

Edward called a meeting with the Rogues. This was a case that they couldn't wait on.