A Walk In A Parking Garage

His Beginnings

Jonathon Crane was a patient man. Or at least started out that way. He refrained from crazed outbursts as much as possible and tried his best not to seem overly threatening when needed. He wasn't overbearing except when he felt necessary. He was a man of few words to people he didn't like or trust. Unfortunately he didn't trust many people so most figured he was just another queit loner. He was attractive but not enough to catch people's attention, which was a way he preferred things. Most who looked at him long enough to deem him highly attractive had by then discovered the kind of person he was and soon lost interest or became bored. Anyone else that did stick around was a bully or worked with him. These bullies were soon scared off. He enjoyed being able to spend time alone while still being able to relate and interact with people. But he had no time to do so usually. The only thing he ever felt he had time for was his work. And he liked it that way.

He was highly intelligent and wished to become a psychologist which he was well on his way to becoming. He worked hard and hardly did anything else. He was a man of books and reasoning as well as kind and sympathetic forthe most part. Although he often refrained from people that seemed too loud and unbecoming he was a pleasant and gentle man. He was not necessarily a sweet angel but he never harmed anyone. No one was extroadinary close to him but he did have friends. He lived alone and often was found alone. He wasn't a large hit with the ladies despite his good looks. Most likely because they were intimidated by his smart and quiet demeanour, or because he never actually approached them.

When he was a boy he had few friends. But he had many bullies. Everyday they would torment him. Often beating and bruising him. And despite his best efforts they never left him alone. And no one seemed to care either. He would cry to himself and cower but as he got older he realized it would get him nowhere. Fear and misery soon gaveway to rage and hatred. He hated his bullies, he hated how they made him afraid, he hated himself for being afraid. He hated being afraid. But he was done being afraid. He would make them afraid. Now they would fear him. Up and attempted to scare off the bullies. Several months of digging around he uncovered the fears of his offenders. He used them to his advantage and used them to keep them at bay. Over the course of a few weeks his bullies learned to stay away from him. He eventually used his tactics on his own friends just to see their reactions. As young children they became scared and left him alone. Soon he was all alone with no friends, not even any bullies. But he didn't mind. With no one bothering him he was free to expand on his education. But he kept his fascination of fear with him and learned more about it. He graduated without incident and went into university with honours.

A few years later working as a teacher at a pronounced university on psychology courses was his career, planning on becoming a psychologist at the infamous Arkham Asylum was his life's goal. He also deeply enjoyed learning about fear. His obsession. He deeply loved fear and how it worked. He was a psychologist so he could work closely to people most adept to fear and see hoe and why they were afraid. He loved his work deeply and most likely enjoyed helping people, but whether he ever actually helped people mentally or scarred them was up for debate. It was actually highly debated by his board of directors and he possibly would lose his job. You see, with his love of fear he had quite often tested things on himself to further his understanding of fear, so much so that he learned everything he could from himself. Eventually he had learned everything that his self experiments on his own mind could learn. So he turned to other people.

He concocted special mixtures to create what he called fear gas. This gas was able to send messages to the brain once introduced to a human mind and bring images and sensations to the victim, erm, volunteer. They would see awful things and believe that their own worst fears were brought to life. Whether monsters, memories or horrific nightmares they would see it, and depending on the dose they would be fine or would suffer mental problems.

After which he was soon given a job at Arkham Asylum as one of the head psychologists that attempted to work with some of the more dangerous patients. He gratefully accepted and worked there for several months. As he did he still kept his hobby of working on new formula's for his fear toxins. He quietly worked on these and smuggled many of the chemicals from the Asylum. Eventually he made secret deals to sell these drugs to buyers from within the Asylum who still had connections to the rest of underground Gotham. As for the unfortunate souls who actually took these drugs, they nearly died from its effects for those stupid enough to overdose. Eventually they were used as weapons to stop people in their tracks. Nothing stops people faster than their worst fears come to life.

What people didn't know was the real him. Over the years he changed and soon was no longer able the shy and innocent man people assumed he was. Although he was good at hiding it he was deceitful and slightly sadistic man. He deeply enjoyed bringing horror and terror to others in order to further his research. He often feigned innocence whenever questioned and constantly had an air about him that said he knew something that you didn't which he probably did. He lied often to cover up what he was doing and keep it secret using his simple and quiet look and demeanour to trick people into thinking he was harmless. Which he was far from. He was a sarcastic and arrogant man thinking as others as merely test subjects as long as it furthered his research not caring who he hurt or what he did.

It turned out that in his field at Arkham he would meet with men who had testified as insane in court to attempt to avoid sentencing. It was his job to determine whether or not they were actually insane. Little did people know that with a few of his patients he would gas them during private questioning while wearing his mask. The sight of him along with the effects of his fear gas drove them into hysterics. He would then leave claiming them as crazy and sending them to Arkham Asylum where they would only continue testing on them with new formula's and its effects.

This time, desperate for to keep his research going he took deeper into underground Gotham. He knew he had to act and stopped being shy and quiet. He became much more boisterous in a calm sense and cockier depending on the circumstances. Not saying he was never like this because he was but he just tended to keep himself usually. He soon created a ring of buyers and cronies willing to work for him and do whatever he said so long as they were paid and he didn't use the god awful serums against them. He quickly rose to power and planned to control all of Gotham with his gas. Fear spread through the city by either gas or by others, he watched with a still and blank expression of fascination. At certain points when he became overly stressed or over come by his own genius he lost quite a bit of self control and went into a morbid and quiet state/become extremely cocky/or become very high strung and dangerous.

Some time after his rise to dictorial power over underground Gotham and likewise he created a special persona which often took the characteristics as stated before. He donned a large burlap mask that was stitched and had an in-built gas mask to prevent his own serums and gases from affecting him. Anyone who saw it was immediately uncomfortable or terrified as his reputation grew and he became, as he referred himself as, the Lord of Fear. And anyone who was under the effects of his gas that looked upon him only became more terrified. He called himself the Scarecrow and soon became the pinnacle of fear across Gotham. And he loved every second of it.

But unfortunately with his power came his fame and with fame came unwanted attention. More so attention from The Batman. Crane was a coward. Not in the fact that he wouldn't try, he would, but it depended on many things. It he deemed it necessary or unimportant then he wouldn't do anything and if it involved physical pain he avoided it as much as possible. Batman knew this and striked. And just as quickly as he had risen. He fell. Batman had quickly destroyed his connections and singled him out. Taking him down and sending him to be judged, he was sent to the very place he had worked, Arkham Asylum.

But he was not deemed insane. In fact he was quite mentally stable which he knew. So he waited patiently and eventually was released. Now fresh back on the streets of Gotham he sought to reconnect himself to the drug rings of the city. But unfortunately by that time the streets had been cleared up considerably. Criminals were afraid to be seen and caught by the Batman and life had started creeping back into its streets. Jonathon started from scratch and soon was able to sell his drugs to one of the few buyers that was willing and able to buy since he wasn't locked up by the Batman.

The Russian crime lord soon realized that his drugs weren't what he wanted and they scheduled a meeting in a parking garage out of view from the public.