Chapter Text
Your name is Alexandria Pompeii (otherwise known as the Painted Mage) and you're an antihero, a strong one at that.
Not wanting to toot your own horn, but you were one of the strongest around. Everyone in your old city was cautious about messing with you. Your powers included; being able to summon portals to and from anywhere. It wasn't like teleporting and having to know where you're going. All you needed to know is the address or the general area and boom! The portal is summoned. You can also relocate it if the location wasn't to your liking. You could also draw on anything (even in midair, but that required a special pen and A LOT more work) and make it come to life in any size, shape, color and texture. You are able to bring already existing pictures to life as well. You have a rather high pain tolerance and you're very flexible but you only knew some simple hand to hand combat. (But you can always summon some Samurai to fight for you. You have done so in the past actually...) You know know how to create a large number of different types of bombs as well.
You decided to move to Gotham because your previous home became too dull. The heroes needed no help and the villains were either too weak or too scared to do anything. (Even when you'd offered your services...)
But one day, you saw on the news that Gotham was getting worse and worse in criminal activity. There was even only a small amount of heroes in the area! Well, 'hero' being loosely termed for Batman. (More like a vigilante.) Now, Jim Gordon sounds like he should be a hero, but was only a cop.
There was even an antihero just like you! Well, she usually just did what she wanted, but whatever. While Catwoman had a weird jewelry fetish, you still wanted to meet her.
And the villains! Oh so many strong villains! (This Batman fellow seemed like a pretty capable guy so surely one of them needed help.) There was Bane, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, and the one that intrigued you the most, the clown prince of crime, the harlequin with the glasgow grin, the Joker. He was supposedly the most dangerous criminal mastermind of all time!
And he fascinated you.
You've never seen anyone like him! While you were slightly wary about meeting him, (it says here that he usually kills those he works with...) you still wanted to. Was it wrong that you found him attractive? Nah. Nothing can really come from it anyway. He was dating that clown girl with the dumb name, Harley Quinn was it? Eh, one can dream.
-
You groaned as you stretched your hands up toward the ceiling after setting down your last box. Even though you had carried everything through a portal from your old manor to your new one, it was still tiring.
You huff out a breath and close the shimmering blue portal behind you, shutting off the last link to your old life.
You ruffle a hand through your long thick sapphire blue ringlets before drawing out your enchanted sketchpad from the ever present black and sapphire messenger bag hooked on your shoulder. It was a gift from your mother (she was a fae witch and your father was a Greek artist) and it never ran out of pages. You usually had a bunch of pages filled with almost finished works for quick summoning.
You take out the enchanted pen that came with the sketchpad and finish up a few elegantly drawn men with ease. The men grow in size as they quickly rise from the paper with a few dark blue sparks. They swiftly line up and gaze at you in obedience, awaiting your orders. You could will them to do what you want telepathically, and you do when you're in battle, but you like to talk to your creations. It gives them a bit more life. If you don't order them to do something, they do have their own minds, but if you're incapacitated, the tend to get a little 'murdery' and 'seek-and-destroy' everything and everyone around you no matter which side they're on. You don't really mind, but it's a bitch to clean up...
You've made around a dozen or so of the slightly papery looking men. They look real, but if you look closely, you can see (and feel) what type of material you had made them from. (But don't let their semi-fragile appearance fool you, your creations are extremely hard to destroy. They're hard to cut, burn, and crush, but when they are, they could mend themselves back together.) There were even little men sized cut outs of where they were on the page in your sketchbook. You had another dozen on the page so you didn't bother ripping it out. You put the sketchbook back into your bag and smile up at the tall paper men infront of you. (You were rather short and petite for the age of 25. Around 5'2 if you will...) Their eyes brighten and they smile back. You giggle and spread out your arms to point out all of the unpacked boxes and unmoved furniture. "Alright gentlemen! Here's what ya gotta do; unpack these boxes and put my stuff in the proper places and move the furniture into a lovely arrangement. Capisce?" All of the men nod and eagerly start on their given tasks.
You sigh in contentment before you take your phone out of your pocket to check on your animals. Yes animals, you used to have a menagerie full of actual trained animals and ones that you had created (not that anyone else knew that. Everyone else thought that you had bought them from the fae or mad scientists). You had recently bought a zoo from a gentleman called Mr.Bruce Wayne a few weeks prior to your move and you wanted to make sure that they were all right. You loved each and every one of your creations and animals.
You called one of your oldest creations, Sebastian. He actually picked the name out himself. His origin story wasn't a very good one however.
-
A few years ago, (when you were 16 to be exact) you were feeling rather lonely. Your father had just passed away and your mother went back to the faery realm to serve her queen. (She was second in the line for the throne of the unseelie court) You were grieving when you decided that you were never going to be alone again. So, you went out and killed some poor sod and desecrated his body. You removed the hair, flesh, blood, bones, brain, eyes, organs, and guts and had put them into separate piles.
And then you had started to paint.
His outline was made with flesh, bones, and blood, his head had the dark hair sprinkled about and ontop of the brain and skull, and the organs and guts were put in the general area of the body except for the heart.
Now, the heart held most of the body's weaknesses and that's how your father had died. A heart attack. So you took the heart and placed it inside of a small and specially made, enchanted titanium chest. You have that chest locked up tight where no one can ever find nor get to it. (In a cave on Mars.) The last thing to add to your gory masterpiece were the eyes. The man you had killed had dull brown eyes and you hated them. So, you took off your large golden earrings, your father's last gift to you on your 16th birthday, and placed them into the skull's sockets.
The ground shook and the pavement that you were kneeling on cracked. Sapphire lightning crackled as it ripped itself from you to go through and around the creation of flesh and bone. The amount of power that you were giving this bloody creation took almost everything you had.
But you did it.
You had jolted when something picked you up from your crumpled heap and held you close. You had opened your violet eyes to look into pure gold. "Hello Mistress, thank you for creating me. And please, call me Sebastian." You had never felt so much joy in your life. Finally, you were never going to be alone ever again.
From that point on, Sebastian acted as your butler, bodyguard, handyman, adviser, conscience, and your dearest friend. He is a handsome fellow if you do say so yourself. He has silky midnight black hair that has a slight curl to it and the most beautiful molten gold eyes. (If you looked closely, you could see the gold swirling in circles around his pupal sluggishly like you had actually melted down your earrings and poured them into his eyes.) His dark eyebrows were thick and arching, his nose is aristocratic and his body is strong and elegant. He has fine, chiseled features and his skin was a pleasant cream color. (A nice contrast to your olive tone.) He's graceful in everything that he does, and he was very tall too, about 7'3.
He wasn't like your other creations. For one, he wasn't made out of paint, paper, brick, sand, glass, or even stone. He was mostly made up of the things that make up a normal human being. But, there were differences. One of them being was that he was much stronger and more durable than normal people. He was also faster, smarter, and has more agility. He has super healing and knew every different fighting style known to man. (You didn't give him that, he just read thousands of books and taught himself.) Which brings to mind that he is the most sentient out of all of your creations. He does have his own brain after all.
But he does have his weaknesses, as few as they are. Since he has no heart, he sometimes can't feel anything towards others. For some reason that doesn't pertain to you. Why, he hugs you when you're feeling down, and laughs at your jokes. (The good ones at least...) It's like whenever he isn't completely alone with you, he becomes stone cold to anyone who tries to come too close for his liking. You don't really mind though. It's nice to have someone who hates everyone in the world but likes you and you alone.
But if someone were to find his heart and destroy it, then Sebastian would cease to exist. And that's why it's on Mars, far away from harm.
-
As always, he picked up on the first ring. "Yes Mistress?"
You huff and place your free hand on your hip. "Sebastian! How many times have I told you to call me Alex? You're my dearest friend and if you wont call me by my name then who will?"
You could practically hear the smirk stretch across his pretty face as he spoke. "Well Mistress, if I would do that then how can I stoke your ego? No matter how many times you protest I know you like it when I call you Mistress. Now, I know you called to check up on your beasts, and yes they are doing fine. One of the dragons had tried to eat one of the saber tooth tigers, but I handled it... I may need a new suit however."
You smile and sigh in exasperation. "Oh Sebastian. What am I going to do with you?"
"Tell me that my job is done so that I can order a new suit would be a good course of action." He quipped back.
That made you laugh. Trying to speak through your giggles, you manage to answer. "Alright, fine. If everyone is in their proper spots and the stone workers that I had assigned to you are working in their proper sectors, then yes. You have finished your task magnificently. As always. Now, go order you a new suit and come to our new home. I'll be waiting."
"Of course Mistress. I should be over in a few hours. If you want my company sooner, you'll have to send me one or your portals, in say, about forty five minutes. Farewell." And with that, he hung up.
You chuckled and put your phone back in your pocket. Well, you might as well help your paper men by putting up some of your personal items.
When forty five minutes passed, Sebastian sends you a text saying that he's waiting in an abandoned corridor at Wayne Enterprises. You reply by immediately creating a portal that shows you Sebastian in said hallway. He quickly steps through and you close it after he's safely on the other side. You grin up at him. "Welcome to our new manor Sebastian! I know you don't need a tour since you were the one who found the place, but it's the thought that counts."
He smirks and gives you a smooth bow. "Thank you Mistress. Now, I believe you had mentioned yesterday that you wanted to 'meet' everyone?"
You straighten up and clap your hands together once before pointing to Sebastian. "Yes! I did! Where would I be without you Sebby?"
He gives you a gentle smile and places a gloved hand on your shoulder. "Probably just fine, Mistress."
You scoff and flap your hand at him. "No way! I'd be helpless without you here. Utterly helpless." You give a firm nod to bring your point across.
He pats you on the head before withdrawing and straightening back up to his full height. "Whatever you say Mistress."
You grumble and fix your vibrant hair. "That's right. So, let's stop running our mouths and put our costumes on, it's almost sundown!"
You grab Sebastian's large gloved hand and drag him to the elevator. You press the down button and walk into the elevator when the doors open immediately. You take out a set of keys from your bag and use one of them to unlock a panel that has an eye recognition scanner and a hand scanner. After scanning both, the floor B3 lights up. When you two reach the wanted floor, you both step out and you tug your stoic butler after you past your vast collection of guns, missiles, cars, knives, swords, three helicopters, various bombs, and other equipment until you got to your costume display cases. (You were a pretty good marksman but Sebastian was the one that liked using the knives and swords.) You finally let go of his hand to get his costume down to shove it into his face and then get yours.
Your costume was pretty simple. It was a dark blue leather jacket with matching leather pants. You wore black knee high boots and a plain black mask that covered your whole face and was made out of kevlar and had bight blue streaks going down from the slits for your eyes. The streaks got thinner that farther it went down all the way to your chin. The leather jacket and the pants were padded with kevlar too. You also wore black finger less gloves. In order to hide your naturally sapphire blue hair, you use expensive but easily removable spray on black hair dye.
Sebastian's costume was quite like your's except for the color scheme. His pants and jacket (which was more like a trench coat) were black while his military grade boots and mask were a dark blue and the streaks were black. He wore dark blue whole gloves. He didn't do anything to his hair since it wasn't glaringly unique like yours. His persona was named Ink.
Once you two were all suited up, you opened up a portal infront of the entrance to Scarecrow's lair. You step through and turn to look at Sebastian as he comes to a stop beside you. "So this is the place?"
Sebastian nods. "Of course Madam Mage." You always stressed the point about using your code names while out in the field. You don't know who may be listening.
You shrug. "Alrighty then, here we go. Time to greet the neighbors!" You hold out a hand to your bodyguard. "Ink, the blueprints if you will."
Without a word, he hands the rolled up blueprints to Scarecrow's lair to you. You give it a quick glance and open up a portal to go right to the villain's lab. You both go through it and hide within the shadows. You both saw Scarecrow mixing something dark green and pouring it into a yellow viscous fluid which caused it to turn into a sickly green gas. He then started the process of sucking all of the gas from the glass dome that it was in and transferring it into individual separate vials.
"Impressive chemistry there Scarecrow." The villain jumps violently and whips around to the sight of you and Sebastian stepping out of the shadows behind him.
He backs up and grabs for something on the table behind him. "W-who are you? How did y-you two get in here?" Without waiting for an answer, he tries to spray something into both of your faces, but you just open up a small portal right infront of the gun and make it go forward and close around the handle, thus causing the gas and the front of the gun to go tumbling into the Atlantic. Not that Scarecrow knows that, nor does he seem to care because he's now cowering on the floor with a bruise darkening across his sharp cheekbones because Sebastian doesn't like it when you get threatened.
He was currently looming over the cowering villain. "Attack my Madam again, and you'll be dead within a second." Seb coldly drawls as he nonchalantly kicks away the useless gun handle.
Scarecrow nods quickly. "Y-yes, yes of course. I wouldn't dream of it! Just p-please, don't hurt me!"
You walk forward as you click your tongue mockingly at him. "Aw, honey, we're not here to hurt you. We're just here to say hi!" You gently brush the man's dark hair away from his bright blue eyes. "I like your eyes. They're pretty."
He just stares up at you dumbly as you stand back up and take a few steps away, bringing Sebastian with you. You open up a portal to your next location with a wave of your and look over your shoulder to the villain that was still on the floor. "There's a new pair of antiheroes in town. I am the Painted Mage and this is Ink. It was a pleasure to meet you Scaredy Crow!" And with that, the two of you stepped through the portal and it closed immediately after the two of you were through it.
Something similar happened each time you and Sebastian appeared unannounced inside of a villain's secret lair. Poison Ivy tried to feed the two of you to her giant man eating plants, but you just tossed each plant that she sent towards you through a portal to the inside of a volcano. After you explained that you meant no harm and introduced yourselves, you summoned a portal to reach through and take out some special poisonous plants that you got from the faery realm to give to the sobbing Ivy. Shocked and awed, she squealed at having some new 'babies' to play with and hugged you. She waved to you as you left.
Killer Croc tried to eat you, but Sebastian punched his sharp teeth in before he could take a bite out of you. After you introduced yourselves again, you apologized and patted a sulking Croc on the head before you left with Seb.
Bane tried to give you and Sebastian some of his venom but you politely declined and introduced yourselves then left soon after.
Catwoman was pleasant to talk to, but then she tried to steal the silver ring that you were wearing. Sebastian snatched her wrist up before she could accomplish it though. To make up for the nearly broken wrist, you created a portal to the Queen of England's treasury and took a beautiful ruby necklace to give to the pouting pussy cat. The gleeful kitty was practically purring by the time that the two of you left.
The only lairs that Sebastian wasn't able to find were the Caped Crusader's and the Cackling Clowns's. Not wanting to give Harley Quinn any credit, you commented that Joker and Batman were the craftiest in the city.
The two of you decided to take a break ontop of a random skyscraper to try and figure out where their lairs were.
But for once, someone else snuck up on the two of you. Almost.
You and Sebastian were seated on the edge of the roof with your laptop on Seb's lap. He was looking at an air view of the city's layout, and you were eating a slice of pizza and occasionally feeding bites to your oldest creation. (Sebastian didn't have to eat, but he could. It also helped him gain his energy and heal faster.) You were about to feed him another piece when Sebastian froze before whipping around and lunging for something behind you.
You just blinked at the laptop that was suddenly in your lap before casually putting it down and placing the half eaten pizza slice back into the pizza box that was next to you and stood up as well. You turned around to see Sebastian gritting his teeth as he held a black clothed figure in a headlock as the figure repeatedly punched him in the side, trying to get him let go.
Wait, was that Batman? What luck!
You walked up to the struggling men and stood infront of them. You quickly slid Sebastian's mask into place while fixing your own before leaning over slightly to look Batman in the eye, you smiled (not that he could see it) and held out your hand. "Well, hello! I didn't see you there, but it seems that you've agitated my partner. Ink, you can let him go."
Reluctantly, Sebastian releases the disgruntled Bat and straightens his disheveled leather trench coat with a huff. Batman grunts and stands up straight. He glares at Sebastian who coldly stares back before looking back to you and ignoring your held out hand. Ouch. "Who are you and what do you want? Villains all over the city are riled up and talking about a masked couple using portals and greeting them right in the middle of their secret lairs."
You laugh and let your hand fall. "That's exactly what we're doing! We're saying 'hi'. We would have greeted you and Joker, but you both are too good at hiding your tracks. Bravo, by the way for being able to keep my Ink from figuring out where you lived. Yet at least." Batman narrowed his eyes at you for that last comment. You smile before gasping and waving your hands around rapidly. "Oh! I almost forgot!" You got the feeling that Bats was raising his eyebrows. You grabbed Sebastian's arm and tugged him over to you and curtsied (while using Seb's coat like a skirt). "I am the Painted Mage and this is my partner, Ink. We're antiheroes. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr.Tall-Dark-and-Grumpy."
Batman just glowered at you and Seb without saying a word. You roll your eyes and calmly lean against Sebastian's chest behind you. "If you were wondering, we play for both sides. If they appeal to our better interests of course." Silence. "Look, I'm sure that you have better things to do, so me and my partner are just gonna go-" You start to wave your hand to summon a portal, but Batman steps forward and reaches for your hand to stop you, but Sebastian smacks his hand away from yours.
Batman scowls at Seb but steps back anyway. "Why are you here? I've never seen the two of you before."
You rub circles into Sebastian's side to calm him down and toss a smirk over to Batman. (Not that he could see it.) "We moved here because I was bored with the last place we came from. No one needed any help. And if they did, they were always too scared of the heroes to step a toe out of line! But Gotham, oh Gotham..." You giggle a little evilly. "This city has a bunch of problems!" You throw your hands out wide as if to show him the amount, causing Sebastian to lean back a little to avoid getting smacked in the face.
You feel as if Batman's raising an eyebrow right now. You decide to up the ante. You take a step forward and point at the vigilante's face, causing him to tense up. "Even you! I've read up on you mister and I know that even you need some help. Sure, you find someway to get out of whatever mess that you're in, but you've almost gotten killed dozens of tines! How abou-"
You got interrupted by a large explosion and wild cackling. All three of you whip your heads over to the City Hall. It was in flames. That's when you hear the screechy sound of an intercom turning on. "HA HA HA HA! Heya Bats, didya miss me? No? Well that's TOO BAD!" You almost feel giddy. You'll be able to see the infamous Batman and Joker interact in person! "Oh, I'm sure that you've seen the City Hall by now, (such a lovely bonfire, perfect for roasting marshmallows,) and if you don't want the same to happen to Gotham's School for the Disabled, then come to warehouse 18 for a little play date! You have thirty minutes or BOOM! Disabled burnt marshmallows. See ya soon Batsy!" With a click, the intercom shut off.
You hear Batman growl under his breath as he starts to ready his cape for takeoff. Then you get a great idea. "Hey! Do you want a shortcut? We're going to the same place anyway." As you say this, you twirl your fingers to summon a portal a half a block away from the warehouse. Through it, you all can see Joker's goons getting everything ready.
Batman looks at it uncertainly. "How do I know that you're not working for the Joker already?"
You roll your eyes and grab Sebastian's hand as you start to walk through the portal. "Because I already told you I haven't even met him yet! But I'm about to!" And you're through. You glance back to see Batman hesitate before tensing up and jumping through the slowly closing portal. You giggle and clap your hands. "Now that's the spirit! Let's go find Joker!"
Before you can prance off, Batman holds up a hand. "Wait. Are you good with bombs?"
You snort and cross your arms. "Absolutely. I know every kind."
Batman nods in approval. "Good. I'll need you to disable the bombs while I find Joker."
Your eyes light up in indignation. "Now wait just a second! I want to meet the Joker too!"
"You'll probably only make things worse." He says as he gives you a deadpan look. Then he looks at the quietly standing Sebastian behind you. "He can serve as a distraction."
Seb links his hands behind him and doesn't move. "I will not be leaving Madam Mage in a potentially dangerous situation alone to fend for herself."
You spin around to hug Sebastian around the waist and coo up at him. "Aww! You're so sweet! But if we want to make a good impression, I guess we can comply just this once. Besides, I'll be done disabling the bomb for the disabled in less than three minutes. And we even came here early which means they might not even be guarding the bomb yet!"
Sebastian takes his hands from behind his back and rests them on your sides. "But Madam-"
You shush him with a finger. "Listen. I'll be fine. Okay?" Sebastian doesn't get a chance to respond before you create a portal to a random room inside of the warehouse and jump through it. "Great! See you later! I'll portal you." And then you're gone.
Sebastian huffs and stands up straight in resignation. Batman looks over to where you disappeared from then over to Seb. "She does this often, doesn't she?"
The navy blue masked man gives him a drawl look that screams, 'What do you think?' before turning around and sprinting for the loitering thugs in the distance. Batman notes on just how abnormally fast the man is running before taking out his grappling hook and shooting it through a window on the second floor.
-
You turn away from the portal that was showing you Batsy and Seb and head toward the rather large detonation device to the right of you. (You can make sure that people on the other side of the portal can't see through it or the portal at all, serving as a one-way window. It's some of the only Fae magic that you inherited from your mother.) Why would the Joker need such a large detonator? Perhaps this was just a decoy, but it was definitely rigged to something, so you decided to disarm it anyway.
Right as you quickly take off the paneling for the wiring and get to work, you hear slow footsteps approach you. You pause what you're doing and speak up. "Take another step forward and your head will end up in space."
The footsteps stop and go sideways. Your jaw drops slightly in disbelief. "Seriously-!?" You turn around as you say this and you come face to purple vest with none other than the Joker himself.
He smirks at you and leans in closer. Oh my, he's even more handsome up close... "My, my, what an impressive threat! I'm actually somewhat eager to find out how you would do that. Although, some of the other villain in the city have been ranting about a slippery little portal maker and her lackey. Would that happen to be you?" He looked a bit gleeful at meeting you so soon.
You smirk right on back and lay on the charm whilst one of your hands reaches behind you to continue to disarm the detonator. "Why, yes, yes I am. I am called the Painted Mage and my absent partner is Ink. We're antiheroes, and it's a pleasure to finally meet the most successfully dangerous man in Gotham."
Joker looks delighted and leans in close enough that you're noses are almost touching. "Such a flatterer! And what brings a feisty minx such as yourself to my humble abode with none other than Batsy?"
Is it just you or is it getting hot in here? "Well, we were actually looking for you in the first place when Batman came out of nowhere and then you blew up the City Hall. Nice explosives by the way. I really liked how you got the roof to fly off before making it explode too, it was pretty spectacular!"
The Joker looked like he was preening at this point. But then he seemed to catch sight of what your hand was doing and chuckled darkly while quickly reaching out to snatch your hand up to give it a kiss. "Thank you dear, I try my best. But it seems as if the Bat has gotten you to play his tune first. A woman like you should have better taste in music. And I have such a lovely tune for you to dance to too." His voice got darker and more serious at the end there.
You liked it. "I don't dance alone."
Joker cackled and pressed a few buttons on the detonator, causing an automated voice to start counting down from ten. "Then let's dance baby!"
Slightly alarmed but intrigued, you quickly create a portal to where Sebastian was and shove both you and the Joker through it, causing you to slam into Sebastian and keep on going through to yet another portal that led to the roof of a building a few blocks away from the exploding warehouse. You could see Batman gliding away from the burning building in the distance. Well, at least he was okay.
Sebastian gets up from the large heap the three of you had landed in and reaches down to pick you up from under a still giggling Joker. He sets you down and checks you for any injuries. You sniff and dust off your jacket. "Not to worry Ink, I'm quite alright."
You then turn to see Joker jump up from where he was to face you. "Hoo wee, now that was exhilarating! You have to come over for tea sometime! But for now-" Batman then zooms up from nowhere and tackles the Joker off of the roof. "-I must be going!" You blink rapidly and walk over to the edge of the roof and look down to see Batman and Joker sparring in the street.
You stare for a bit longer before side-eyeing Sebastian who was watching the show with you. "Well I do believe it's time to go, don't you think so Inky?"
Sebastian sighs and keeps on looking down at the two men on the street. "If I say yes, will you stop giving me those infernal nicknames?"
You giggle and lean into him as you create a horizontal portal just past the edge of the roof that leads back to the manor. "Absolutely not!" You titter before you grab both of Seb's hands to hop down and into the portal.
-
The Joker smiles as he takes one last glance at you as you and Sebastian fall through the portal and disappear.
He absolutely must see you again.
[TBC...]