Silent Terror Part 1

LOCATION: Natasha's Apartment

7 AM Gotham 

I knew something was wrong when I woke up.

My eyes burst open in a panic 

Light floods into my apartment through the giant glass windows causing me to squint to adjust to the change of light,

I could tell by the height of the rays of the sun it was clearly later than when I usually get out of bed.

I missed my alarm clock I've never missed my alarm clock before,

Did it not go off? had there been a power outage?

I couldn't have slept through it could I?

I groggily lift myself up from my comfortable bed and I throw my duvet and pillows to a side, I always slept with a gun under my pillow call it an occupational hazard but the ammo only consisted of electric bullets,

I grab for it as an automatic defence

I always relied on my instincts they had never let me down

I look around my apartment cautiously inspecting every square inch everything looked normal but something inside of me was screaming that there is something wrong, but what was it? 

You can usually hear the birds singing in the morning and my Hyper-sensitive hearing also meant I could hear the street traffic and the busy rush hour crowd, but the silence was quite over whelming and concerning.

<or it's finally happened and I've gone crazy>

I put the gun carefully back under my pillow and retreat from my comfy bed my apartment was really cold this morning so I put on a grey hoodie and some slippers, the hoodie was not mine it was far too big I think I picked it up at Wayne's and just never gave it back 

<oh well I'm sure he can't miss it that much.>

I slowly walk over to the kitchen to make some coffee,

<Couldn't start the day without coffee.>

I pick up the remote control from the kitchen counter top and I turn on the TV to the news channel, but all that pops up on the screen is the intermission screen something was definitely off but then again this is Gotham city the most insane place in the world.

I pick up the phone to ring Bruce he should know if anything is wrong, hm that's odd where is the dialling tone on my phone?

"Hello" I say into the phone and immediately become alarmed

I can't hear my own voice!

I put down the phone shakenly

I try to make some noise by smacking some books across the room and turning on the juice blender but I still cant hear anything, 

Ok calm down Natasha there has to be a rational explanation.

I  throw on some clothes as quickly as I can 

<black of course I live in the colour>

And head up to Wayne manor it seems everyone in Gotham was having the same problem some people had hand made signs talking about the end of the world and aliens, but I knew I had to keep my cool there was a logical explanation behind this and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

As I reach the ever intimidating gothic architecture of Wayne Manor I dismantled from my bike and I take my helmet off,

I had a spare key to the manor that Bruce gave me so I let myself in.

I find Alfred, Dick, Tim, Barbra and Bruce sitting in the living room anxiously, but they must have been expecting me as they don't seem too surprised at my sudden appearance

"So you too?" Bruce says in sign Language

"Yep" I reply in sign Language a confused Tim writes on a little white board "What are they doing"

Dick writes on his board "Natasha and Bruce both know sign Language"

Barbra signs "Hey so do I!"

Dick writes "Oh and Babs too".

We work throughout the entire day we realise that it isn't a drug or toxin as they don't always affect me the same, but just to be safe we checked there was nothing in the air or the water supply and no unusual anomalies in anyone's blood,

It felt like the air was vacuumed almost like space, but despite everyone being stone deaf we manage to find ways to work around it,

Barbra starts experimenting with technology to help restore our hearing,

Alfred made Sandwiches for everyone and they were amazing,

Robin and Nightwing patrol the city they tell us that it looks like a war zone out there we need to work fast before the city is thrown into deeper chaos.

Suddenly Bruce and I see the bat signal lighting up the darkening sky,

Despite the disadvantage of not being able to hear a gun even if it shot us in the face we gear up and jump in the Bat mobile.

As we head to the GCPD I can see what Nightwing meant by a war zone cars were abandoned on the sidewalks with their doors wide open people sat out side with signs that prophesised the end of the world or of course aliens and government conspiracies,

Batman and I look at each other thinking the same thing,

People will always find something to blame when they can't conceive a logical explanation. 

We narrowly avoid some idiots who think they should still be driving and stop some looters at a convenience store who we made wish that they'd stayed at home.

Commissioner Gordon is on the roof next to the Bat signal. Silently he hands us a police report detailing five deaths in the last 24 hours since the epidemic started two women and three men but the strange thing is according to the autopsy they all died of fright.

We silently drive to the hospital where the bodies are being kept in the morgue, but the hospital is near enough impossible to get into as people seem to be having lots of different accidents from car accidents, to some serious falls.

The doctor we meet with speaks sign language he lets us know that they are struggling to keep up with the panicked citizens but the good doctors and nurses of Gotham's hospital will not be fazed by something such as a loss of hearing

And for that they have my full respect.

He leaves us in the eerie morgue,

I have seen a lot of dead bodies in my time far too many to keep count, but I've never seen someone who was scared to death the look of terror was still on their face it made my stomach turn which never happened, it must have been awful the terror and not even being able to hear yourself scream I think to myself nobody deserves to leave this world like that.

Batman takes blood samples whilst I go over the autopsy reports for anything that might give us a clue when Batman signals for my attention

"I've found something, see anything you recognize?" I look through the microscope.

I had a feeling that he might have something to do with this when I heard the victims died of fright, I recognize the toxin immediately, fear toxin

"The Scarecrow" I sign, Batman nods,

The amount of toxin in the victims system was way over the overdose amount, this was more than just an experiment this was torture.

Johnathan Crane AKA The Scarecrow used to be a professor at Gotham University as head of the phycology department, but his speciality was fear he always had a sick obsession with it,

He began experimenting on people and with that he was kicked out of teaching forever, with vengeance on his mind it became up to Batman and Black widow to stop him ever since then he had gone on a fear rampage through Gotham City,

But last I heard he was locked up in Arkham Asylum.

We send Nightwing to check out Arkham and he confirms our suspicions,

Jonathan Crane's cell was empty.

 Honestly breakouts at Arkham had stopped surprising me the doctors at Arkham couldn't keep a pet rock without losing it and I'm getting bored of being their maid and constantly having to clean up their mess.

We speculate that by making everyone in Gotham deaf the Scarecrow can preform his sick experiments on test subjects as he pleases especially since nobody would be able to hear them scream the thought was quite horrifying.

Suddenly we get an incoming message it reads;

"Might have found a temporary fix to our hearing problem, Barbra x".

I thought this one was kind of funny just all of them siting around trying to talk to each other. This story leads to interesting places and a lot more butt kicking. Thank you very much for reading chapter 8 and I would like to know what you think and which characters you would like to see appear. Please leave a like and a comment below. ;) xxxxxxxx

#Songs for Chapter 8#

-"Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons

-"Echo" by Jason Walker

-"I'll be there for You" by The Rembrandts

-"All the things she said" by t.A.T.u

-"Oh No!" by Marina and the Diamonds

Click on the External Link below for the playlist Available on Spotify