At the Gator's 7 (Patreon)

At the Gator’s 7 - or ‘I am Croc or Waylon, but no Killer’ (DC Comics/DCAU, Killer Croc!SI)

Harvey Dent didn’t appear nervous as I accepted his request of a visit to his home.

His wife did look a bit awkward around me, but I have a feeling the man had to deal with enough psychos already that he couldn’t really muster much surprise while handling a ‘talking crocodile’.

His office was the kind of ‘intellectual fancy’ that one would expect from a proper lawyer- this was the very place where the mind that would birth Two-Face made its nest. I sat down after declining an offer for some water, mentioning that I had already drank and that-

“I want to jump straight to business. It’s not an easy task that I am looking to see done after all.”

“I have a feeling it is not,” Harvey hummed, leaning back on his chair. “The Joker… what is your goal here, Mr. Jones?”

“I want him to be put in jail- out of Gotham.”

“He has been recognized as insane already by previous trials,” The lawyer remarked curtly, offering a degree of sympathy to the thought. “It can’t be overturned with ease.”

Within Gotham’s legal system? No. But the US judicial body was one of the most unusual things ever as it relied on precedents to a degree. And there is one valid case which may be used to justify a harsher sentence this time around.

I retrieved some documents from the work bag that I had brought with me, handing those to Dent as the Prosecutor calmly browsed those as he read the lines there as swiftly as possible.

A few quiet minutes passed, and Harvey appeared to be interested in the idea I was bringing up to his attention.

“You want to use the Unabomber as a correlation, but that may be debunked. The Joker doesn’t have a political manifesto.”

Far-fetched? Not truly.

I had been thinking about this for a while, and there is something truly valid about what I knew of the Joker’s Gang which turned this idea into a feasible legal offensive against him- how he recruited his thugs.

“That’s what one may think if they don’t have access to his minions. I can’t truly lead you to specific individuals, but I am sure there are people already inducted into jail who may provide assistance in this regard.”

“Any preview?” Harvey asked and I smiled.

“He has given them a plan. A big long-reaching one. And it’s not exactly one without some political connotation in the Anarchist sense.”

“And he uses bombs too,” The lawyer added quietly. “I guess I could try to see what can be done with this. It’s going to be tough.”

“But the end result will be glorious,” I remarked, glancing around and… sighing. “Also, if I may sound a bit blunt, have you considered adding more security to your house?”

“...What?”

“Sir, I don’t mean any disrespect, but I had gone through a process to render my activity and home safe in case of retaliation,” I explained flatly. “Still, I am a bartender and you are a high-profile lawyer… crazy people exist in Gotham.”

He merely frowned at this and Harvey stared at his table. “Hm.”

I would have wanted to add more to this, but I didn’t want to push the topic in a way he could have misunderstood my reasoning.

After all, if his fate was to follow the way things went in the comics, then Harvey may need to have a genuine security upgrade in his house to prevent surprises by crazy criminals wanting to make him and his family pay.

And with this topic dealt with, it was time for me to go back to work and… face a bit of a situation which I found as the shift had ended with a… ‘curious surprise’ at the end of it.

—-----d-d-d-d—-------

Petty crimes are meant to be easy.

Or that’s what Leo told her so many times now to shake off the feeling things could go wrong. This time around, ‘Lucky’ was sure that her boyfriend jinxed it as her gut-feeling proved to be true this time around.

Then again, the feeling had been quite strong- she could tell that these ‘odd women’ that worked At The Gator’s were far from the normal bunch. One of them was even green-skinned and was reported to be able to use plant-based powers.

Yet Leo had pushed for it. It wasn’t just a matter of money, but of pride- he wanted to one-up someone that snubbed Batman and countered The Joker. That was a big shot, and one of the reasons why she already felt so many red flags about.

Still… Jinx refrained from telling ‘I told you so’ to her dumb boyfriend, her arms and legs restrained by vines as she was kneeling with Leo before the red-haired plant-woman.

“You two have some guts to try and rob us,” ‘Pam’ pointed out flatly while the other woman, the girl that was now sitting by the counter, gave them a sharp look. “And not in the ‘good guts’ kind of thing, but the one that can easily land you in real trouble.”

“Heh, then why didn’t you call the cops?”

Before she could have answered, the bell at the door rang, notifying them that someone entered the pub. They both turned and saw the owner come along.

“That’s because I told them to not send two dumb kids to face juvie for being stupid.”

The harshness of the tone got to them this time around and she saw Leo flinch right as she did. But Jinx actually paused for a moment as that face was familiar. She did feel it was oddly familiar the pub was owned by a ‘crocodile man’, but she never thought it actually was-

“You are ‘The Croc’! You were a wrestler a while ago!”

That exclamation warranted a few surprised looks and a groan from Leo. It had been ages since she brought ‘The Croc’ as her favorite ‘hero’ as a little kid.

It was one of those spectacles she could afford to see and it was so fun to hear his post-match speeches. About respect beyond appearance, about the need to be just in what fights to pick and to not let others judge you.

It was what had made her quite prideful about her powers rather than fear them, but…

God, I just tried to rob the pub owned by ‘The Croc’!

“That’s a name I didn’t hear in a while. A Fan?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Pam appeared surprised in an amused way, while the other girl looked confused and had that look that said ‘I am going to ask more about it later’. While The Croc just shrugged.

“Glad to hear that, still, you two made a bit of a mistake in trying to rob this place- we hardly keep money in the cash register, so you have played yourselves,” The tall croc-man pointed out. “It would be ‘tempting’ to just go the legal way and send you to juvie to face repercussions, but I am willing to make a deal. A week of being waiters here with a small wage.”

“YES!” “No!”

Jinx’s wide-eyed glare was aimed at Leo. Her positive response wasn’t just because she wanted to work under that kind of man as she knew he was going to be super-cool, but because this was a slap on the wrist. A week of paid work? And without getting anything signed down about this kind of criminal activity? That was a win-win situation.

But her boyfriend was, of course, an idiot. An arrogant one at that.

“Why ‘no’?” Croc asked calmly.

“Because, dumbass, I am a villain! I will become a super one at that and I will beat the likes of the Joker and the Riddler at that kind of game to become the greatest!”

…

“So, you are saying that, even if I were to punish you with a week of work, you would still keep on being a criminal, correct?”

“Yes-”

“Two weeks.”

…

Jinx looked perplexed, but her boyfriend didn’t give up at this.

“What? You think you can just push me into-”

“Three weeks.”

Jinx’s perplexity turned into… hope.

“Go on, Leo. You can do it!” She quietly supported, confusing the boy but still coaxing him to mess things up until it eventually stopped to-

“Two months then.”

“T-This is not fair!”

“And I will keep this,” Croc hummed as he reached for the watch that Leo was wearing.

Jinx knew that it was important to him, Croc didn’t… until he saw how Leo would give glances down to it in an effort to keep his calm.

“Y-You can’t do this! This is-”

“A theft?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Like the one you were planning to get through?”

“I… Yes, but-”

“This is a lesson on patience, boy,” Croc interrupted flatly, eyes narrowing on the boy. “You got the nerve to go around, strut like a thug but in truth you are a small fry. From my understanding, you are the brain and your friend here is your muscle with her powers- at least have the common sense to be the diplomat too in these messes.”

“I-”

“I am not done. If you keep this attitude of being the ‘toughest’ kid in the block, I will make sure these recordings end up in the hands of people that don’t like this kind of talk. If you want to keep being a villain, sure, but don’t expect to have an easy life if you decide to ignore this wake-up call, you little runt.”

Leo was… ‘stunned’. Jinx had never seen that sort of expression of pure terror before and… she gulped nervously.

“S-Sir?”

“Yes, kid?” The man hummed as he turned to calmly address her.

“I can promise you we will… do the two months without causing any trouble.”

“I don’t need promises, missy, I need proof of deed. I shall judge your truthfulness in the next few days and I expect a top attitude in handling this job with maturity. You will start tomorrow after lunch. I am sure you will find the time to make it on time for the shift.”

She nodded, that was a fair request and… the vines released them. Leo stood up and stomped away, forcing Jinx to stand up and follow, but not before bowing in embarrassment at the trio as she rushed to keep up with that idiot.

“You could have backed me up!” Leo snapped and Jinx scoffed. “What?”

“You are stupid.”

“You are my-”

“I am your girlfriend, not your ‘yes-woman’ in those situations. If it’s a bad spot, then you have to bow your head about it,” She shot back with some irritation. “I swear, if you mess this one up and we get half of Gotham on our asses-”

“What?” Leo stopped, giving her a harsh look as he stepped very close to her in an effort to ‘intimidate’ her. “What will you-”

A slap hit him across the face, making him back away for a moment.

“I will do worse than that. Because one thing is to love someone, another is to give them help when they are trying to kill themselves in such a silly way.”

She huffed and left from there, leaving Leo alone to recoil to the slap and the ruthless rebuttal. She didn’t like being this vitriolic, but Leo was so stupid when it came to tough elements and, fan or not, she would not want to pick a fight with The Croc of all people.

The fact he had two hot girls as helpers meant that he would be even more dangerous. Also… who was even his girlfriend in there? Both looked to like him a lot so…

Man, this is complicated. And the precipice of pure… chaos~!

—--------d-d-d-d—---

AN

Jinx from Teen Titans cartoon- Canonically, she had a boyfriend that would end up becoming ‘Kid Kold’ before joining HIVE. So, the girl hasn’t joined the group yet and is ‘in most part’ clean.