F looking for M - DC Gotham (FILLED)

[GrinOfTheCat]

So...I wrote this and I thought I had a partner for it, but I do not. I'm looking for someone to maybe go for Nightwing/Grayson or maybe an older Damien Wayne?

Give it a read if you wish and let me know if you have some time to be my adversary.

Thank you  for your consideration.


Descent Into Madness

Madeline Cooper graduated at the top of her class at the age of sixteen from Star City Senior High School. She was young, talented academically and athletically, acquiring several trophies in gymnastics and track as well as finding herself boosted by National Honors Society accolades since Freshman year. The youngest student to be recognized by the elite organization. However, being brilliant did not garner popularity.

Madeline, Maddie to her parents and very few friends, spent a great deal of her time alone. Her closest friends being books, documentaries, and case studies. Namely, criminal case studies. She’d grown up watching new stories of Green Arrow, the city’s, somewhat, vigilante savior. She’d seen him, and the rest of the Justice League, institutionalize some of the most heinous yet fascinating criminals. It was near the end of her senior year when she finally decided that she was going to put all of her efforts into criminal psychology with a major in deviant behavior.

As her high school days came to a premature close, Madeline was surrounded by scholarship offers from all over the country. Her parents couldn’t have been prouder, nor more thankful, as they were a blue- collar family doing their best to make ends meet. The opportunities forwarded to Maddie were stars beyond their reach. The Cooper’s grateful hearts swelled when Madeline told them she’d accepted the offer from Gotham University. Though they feared for their little girl being so far from home, in what was considered, a very unforgiving city, they knew if this was the path she wanted to follow, there would be no stopping the determined young woman.

Throughout college, life wasn’t much different that high school, accept these “kids” were older, but they were just as good at ignoring her as her peers back home. It was difficult being sixteen, alone, dropped in the middle of an enormous campus, and just trying to survive. She’d picked up a job at a little café on the grounds to have at least a little human interaction.

The next four years whizzed by and young Madeline kept herself, consistently, at the top of the Dean’s List. As Freshman filtered into the campus, she’d even managed to make a few friends around her age, though she never told them who she was and often when by the pseudonym Colby. (Because who didn’t love cheese? She may have been smarter than some of the professors on campus, but she was still young and had an odd sense of humor.)

Once graduation day came, Madeline, once again, was at the top of her class. As she gave her Valedictorian Speech she could see her parents beaming faces in the first row just behind the graduating class. It was probably the most accomplished she’d ever felt. When the speech came to an end and Dean Sanders approached to take the podium, there was a jarring explosion. Then another. Maddie fell to her hands and knees, scrambling for the edge of the stage. Pandemonium struck, screams ringing out between cannon like booms. People frantic, running, more so stampeding. Maddie struggled against the flow of terror to get to her parents, she climbed up on chairs, hoping from one to another. Three rows from her father’s arms the ground erupted blowing them part from each other.

When Madeline woke she was on a stretcher in the parking lot of the university stadium. Her long chestnut hair had been singed, the smell filling her nose. The backs of her forearms suffered burns from her shielding her face. She ached all over, then panic struck. Maddie ripped the oxygen mask from her face and forced herself up, her graduation gown in tatters, shoes missing, her legs swung over the side of the gurney. She yanked the IV out of her arm and was halfway back to the field before an EMT noticed her. The emergency responder tried to usher her back to the ambulance, but there was no calming her. “No! My parents! I must get back to them! If I’m fine, they’re fine.” She bullied her way out of the woman’s grip and stumbled into the stadium.

Utter horror painted her face as her eyes scanned over, what seemed like, endless rows of black body bags. Madeline sunk to her knees, the shock too much for her to even begin to cry. Police, firemen, EMT’s…zipping and filling black bag after black bag. The woman who had tried to restrain Madeline, lifted the girl to her feet by gripping her shoulders. “C’mon honey. Let’s get you back to a first aid station and have you looked at.

She’d lost her parents in Bane’s mindless attack.

This madness only spurred her want to understand, to learn what made bad people bad. Madeline pursued her PhD at Gotham University. Another scholarship afforded her not only because of her academic achievements, but also as one of the few surviving students from the Graduation Day Massacre. The Wayne Foundation had stepped in to care for the student’s and families and faculty. It was yet another generous gesture by the city’s most benevolent family. Madeline had written a letter to the foundation expressing her gratitude. She’d never gotten a response, she knew it probably ended up in the “round file” {trash}, but it was necessary for her to do.

Maddie worked hard, criminology had become her whole life. She was more recluse now more than ever.   She missed people, but at the same time the paralyzing fear of having them stolen from her controlled her need to be alone.

Moving into her sixth and final year of her studies, Madeline found herself consistently studying the same person. Day in and day out. His pale face smiling at her from every angle of her study. Her quest to dive into the mind of The Joker started out as mere curiosity, which quickly bloomed into a deep seeded fascination. Some of her professors would have described it as “obsession” as the academic year drug on. Every paper, every thesis, every project revolved around him. Madeline felt a desperate need to know him. But how did one explain, scientifically…psychologically…a man so bent on carnage in its most raw and random form? He’d been dead for a number of years at this point, bludgeoned to death with a crowbar by some maniac vigilante in a helmet.

It wasn’t that Madeline sympathized with his execution, but she’d have loved to find a way to interview him. For now, she’d just have to rely on old interview footage and recordings of his ramblings when left alone. Maddie would fall asleep at her desk to the sound of his ungodly cackle.

Since Madeline had isolated herself from the other students on campus, she rarely found reasons to go out other than for groceries, the occasional take away, or to go to the gym to keep up with her one other passion of gymnastics. Every so often she’d also go for a run. This was one of those nights.

It was late autumn; the days were still sweltering but the evenings were cool. Twilight was the perfect time to go for a run. Maddie always stuck to the same path around the park, it was well lit and near her apartment. Halfway out the lights in the park powered down. It was odd, it made the usual peaceful ambiance of the park a little menacing. Maddie jogged out to the sidewalk where a few of the emergency lights were flicking dimly. “Huh, part of the grid must have gone out.” She said to herself. She took her ear buds out and jogged along the sidewalk, some lights were better than none.

The streets were quiet downtown once the businesses closed and everyone went back home to the suburbs. Bright headlights cast Maddie’s shadow out in front of her. She could hear a vehicle slowing. She kept running. “Hey, Cooper! Didn’t think you ever left your hovel.” A truck pulled up next to her. It was Dillon Blake, a guy she used to work with at the coffee shop on campus.

Madeline jogged in place for a moment, “Hey, Dillon. How did you even know it was me?” she asked, ponytail swaying back and forth as she bounced from one foot to the other.

“Are you kidding? Four years of watching you work, I’d know that ass anywhere.” He chuckled, “C’mon, I’m headed to an alumni frat party. It will be fun.” He smiled.

Terribly put off by his behavior, Maddie started jogging again. “You know, I’m all sweaty and gross. Plus, I think we’re a little old for frat parties. Nice seeing you Dillon. Drive safely.” She nodded then started running. His truck picked up speed, tailing her.
“Too old?!” he called out, “Aren’t you like, twelve?” he mocked with a laugh keeping pace with her. Maddie ignored him and continued to run. She could hear the faint slapping of feet hitting the pavement behind her. Glancing back over her shoulder she saw two shadowed figures chasing behind her. One of them lunged at her knees, knocking her down from behind. Maddie grunted hitting the cement hard, she could feel the hard, rough ground scrape her thighs and knees.

“Get OFF!” she thrashed and kicked until the other guy restrained her arms.

“This is a good catch, boys.” Dillon smirked as they drug the struggling woman into the bed of the truck.

Madeline writhed and screamed until they taped her mouth shut. While the truck sped down the city road, the other faceless assailants bound Maddie’s wrists. They tied her ankles, one to each side of the tailgate. The smooth city streets gave way to the rough roadway out of the city. She could see trees and mountainside as she lay there paralyzed watching scenery whip by. Her mind was a hive of activity trying to surmise a way to get free.

The truck turned off onto a dirt road, she bounced harshly in the bed of the truck. One of the men sitting on the wheel well fell forward onto her. He smiled at her, ran his fingertips down the side of her face. Maddie clamped her bound hands together and slammed them down on his back. She squirmed down, bringing up a knee into his stomach. The other man kicked her in the ribs, her cries muffled behind the tape. He kicked her again as the truck slowed and he helped his friend up.

They stood over her in the dark leering down. She heard the door slam, “How’s our girl?!” Dillon called out.  He opened the tailgate and climbed up, the other two jumped out.

“Feisty.” The one answered rubbing his stomach. Maddie sat up trying to pull her feet free.

“I see.” Dillon smiled down watching her struggle, “Good, I like a little fight.” He squatted down between her legs and held her chin in one hand and her bound wrists in the other. “So, we’re gonna play a little game, Maddie. First, I’m gonna fuck you.” He eyes widened, she tried to jerk back out of his gasp. “Then!” he said reaching around her head holding her ponytail, “I’m gonna let you go. You’ll have three minutes. Then we’ll come after you…no tellin’ what might happen then. I’m sure you’re read  ‘The Most Dangerous Game’? This is kinda like that.” He sneered pulling a switchblade from his pocket.

He cut through her clothes, removing every stitch as violently as possible, nicking her skin causing small weeping cuts. Maddie sobbed, squeezing her eyes shut while he held her down. He pulled her hair, cut her, drove his fingers deep inside of her. He opened a tool box over her head and rammed into her over and over with the handle of screwdriver until he forced her to orgasm. He freed her ankles, flipped her over, then forced himself inside of her.

Madeline reached up over the side of the tool box, as he thrust and grunted, forgetting she was a person. Her fingers fumbled over the handle of a hammer. Somehow she pulled it out of the toolbox and used the claw to pry the ropes on her hand, freeing one. With a wild, back hand swing, she lodged the hammer claw in his thigh then pulled ripping a sizeable chunk of flesh from his leg.

Dillon wailed, “YOU BITCH!”

Maddie crawled out from under him and kicked him in the groin knocking him backwards. His friends jumped up onto the tail gate to come to his aid. She held fast to the hammer that was now slick with ickier. Climbing desperately over the side of the truck she fell with a sick thump.

“GET HER!”

“Don’t you think we should get you to the hospital, man?” the one guy asked while watching blood ooze through Dillon’s hands.

“Idiot, she knows who we are!” Dillon growled.

The other men hesitated, then one piped up. “I’ll get the girl. You take Dillon to the Hospital before he bleeds out. They all agreed. He jumped out of the bed and headed off into the trees following the matted down grass. The truck sped off kicking up dirt in its wake.

Maddie hadn’t gotten too far when she came to a dilapidated chain-link fence. Vandals had probably cut the links near the rusted pole, but she couldn’t be more grateful for them right now. She scraped through the metal, hobbling onto the grounds. A series of small buildings stood weather beaten and dark. As she came around the side of one her jaw dropped. “No way.” She gasped as her eyes rolled around the abandon amusement park. “This is it…this is The Joker’s hide-a-way. I thought they said it had been torn down?” she limped along the midway, naked, freezing, bleeding. Madeline’s eyes glimmered like it was Christmas morning, she’d arrived at her mecca.

An echo of the fence rattling caught her attention. She moved as quickly as she could through the darkness, finding a side door to the Fun House. You’d have thought she’d just walked into a movie star’s mansion. Waiting a few heartbeats before feeling around for any kind of switch she held her breath. Maddie couldn’t hear anything outside. She navigated by touch until she came to a set of stairs, she followed them up. There was a door, it was unlocked, the rusty handle squeaked, and the hinges whined as it swung slowly open. Feeling around she found a switch on the wall, it flipped on, one dim bulb hummed to life.

It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust. I looked like a makeshift bedroom. There was a green and purple trunk in the corner layered in years of dust and webs. Maddie opened it stifling a cough. She pawed through the tattered material until she found something that looked like a female ringleader unitard for a circus. She pulled on the musty purple garment, it was a little big.

The stairs creaked, “Found you now.” The man called out. The room was a dead end. Maddie looked down at the hammer in her hand; then up to the door.

The door burst open and before she could make sense of what was happening Maddie launched herself at the man, she swung the hammer into his temple, over and over, sitting on his chest, bashing away, blood misting over her. Madeline laughed manically as the crunching sounds continued. “HAPPY YOU FOUND ME?!” she screamed at the destroyed pulpy face. She continued to laugh…using the blood of her victim she drew that familiar smile on her own face.

This was the start of a new era.

[GrinOfTheCat]

Filled.
Thank you everyone for your interest. :)