Chapter Text
The night they met was a relatively peaceful night, which, for New York, was odd in itself. Cars zoomed by on the streets below, and the lights illuminated the rather dark sky above them. The moon was full on that particular night and the sky was clear aside from a few stray puffs of cloud. The weather wasn’t too bad, either, and suited tonight’s festivities.
A shadow slipped out from the window, a bag gripped tightly in their hand as they crouched in the shadows that surrounded them. A thief was at work on this almost perfect night.
She was careful not to leave any evidence, but of course, she was only sixteen.
-A note from Dr. Arleen Stephens; Julianne’s psychiatrist:
One may ask why such a young girl would be doing something like this. Well, the answer is simple: she was bored, or at least, that’s what she confessed to me several times. To put it simply; it was a problem she had. One could argue that the girl was a kleptomaniac but… it wasn’t quite that simple. She did enjoy stealing things and generally enjoyed the rush she got off of committing a crime, but—as time went by—it became obvious that she just enjoyed stirring up as much chaos as she could.
Julianne Richards got her start as a criminal when she was only sixteen. She began as a simple thief and climbed her way up the ladder in the criminal underworld by committing more heinous acts, thus making others fear her. But by daytime, she was an innocent young woman.
The girl, however, was far from innocent. She ended up doing awful things in her criminal career, but in the terms of that night, she had taken thousands of dollars’ worth in jewelry. When compared to her future in crime, this would be considered nothing. However, that same night, she lost every single piece of jewelry she had stolen. This night would mark a change in Julianne Richards’ behavior.
-Another note from Dr. Arleen Stephens:
Many attribute this change in behavior to the introduction of a vigilante into her life. I agree with this belief. The only problem, though, is that it cannot be proven. Julianne had never admitted to whether or not she did most of the things she did because of Edward Blake, but, I do believe that he had something to do with the violent turn she had taken in the severities of her crimes. She went from a relatively harmless thief to one of the US’ most wanted criminals. I must admit, I was shocked when I heard the news that she was behind those bombings. She never spoke about having the knowledge to do something like that, she never seemed to want to talk about random violent urges. Which led me to believe that, like most young women, she was looking for attention from the only person who had dared to tell her no.
I might not have mentioned this, it simply slipped my mind, but Julianne’s parents had spoiled her, she was never told no as a child. I confronted her parents before; they had explained to me that when their daughter had done wrong there was no punishment. The worst she had ever gotten was a scolding. I always kind of assumed that this was the case. So when a masked hero comes in to tell her that she can’t do something—in the roughest way possible, might I add--she’d up her game to make this person return. And of course, later on in his career, Mr. Blake had gone on to bigger things. One example being during the 50’s when he worked for the government itself. Hence why she decided to be put on their radar. And she was determined to do this by any means necessary.
Another figure had made its’ way to the rooftop, this is where Edward Blake—The Comedian—would come into the picture.
Julianne was still stalking around on the rooftop, unaware of the new presence, or at least, she was unaware until he opened his mouth.
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“Now what the hell is a pretty thing like you doin’ up here?” Julianne, startled, stood and looked around. She had never been caught before and she wasn’t quite sure what to do. She caught sight of the man sitting on the ledge of the rooftop.
“Who the fuck are you?” She spat. He simply chuckled at this, even though he found no amusement in her rudeness—in fact, it only angered him.
“Wow, kid, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” He taunted, not bothering to get up. She found herself unable to answer the man, yet, she made a rather stereotypical move; she rolled her eyes.
She analyzed him thoroughly. He was young, but he was definitely older than her. He was—at least—in his early to mid-twenties. Julianne felt threatened by his presence, though she wasn’t sure why. Hell, he didn’t even seem like he wanted to hurt her, and if he did, then he was extremely good at hiding it.
He sat there with a playful expression on his face.
“Look, let’s make a deal, you hand me the jewels… we forget that this ever happened…” He watched as Julianne walked up to him. The moon revealed a young woman to him. Her figure was wrapped in a tight leather cat-suit that hugged her in the right places—to him. He couldn’t help but stare for a few moments before searching for the words he had lost.
“and maybe in a few years you can call me and we could-” He couldn’t finish. Julianne, at that point, had heard enough. She had wasted enough time, but now she had to get out of there. Her fist collided with his cheek hard enough to almost throw him off of the roof. She had run off before he could sit back up.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Eddie to catch up to the fleeing thief. His large hand had gripped onto her upper arm quickly, and in a bruising manner, then he pulled. She collapsed to the ground behind him and the jewels had fallen out of her hand. He moved in order to grab them, but Julianne had other plans.
“What is wrong with you? I’m a girl you can’t do that!” She had hollered, hoping to catch him off guard, which she did, but not in the way she had hoped.
“Really? You’re pulling that card on me? Okay, here; so what-oof” Her leg had come up, only to hit him in the stomach. She got up and scrambled for the bag that was laying limply on the concrete a few feet away from her. Eddie was recovering quickly, and she knew that if she kept this up they’d be there all night.
Anger was boiling quickly within Eddie. He couldn’t understand why he was going so easy on her. Maybe it was because she was right and that she was a girl and that he really couldn’t do that, but Eddie despised the mere thought of going soft for that reason. But that didn’t matter, because he would soon find it easy to take this anger out on others… but they wouldn’t be her.
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-A note on Edward Blake:
Edward Blake, or “The Comedian,” had an obvious soft spot for Julianne Richards. Even as her acts became more violent and—in my opinion—needy. I’ve heard rumors about the two having a relationship, and if it had happened I wouldn’t have been surprised. I had asked Dr. Stephens about this, and she had told me that she believed the two were enamored with each other.
-An exert from Dr. Stephen’s journal:
Julianne has definitely fallen for the man who put her in prison in the first place. From the sounds of it, there might have been something going on that she hasn’t let me in on yet. When other medical staff examine the many victims of Mr. Blake I see what he’s capable of, and often I find myself wondering why he brings in Ms. Richards with no more than a bruise or two, maybe even the occasional scratch on her arm from the concrete. She’s never needed extreme medical attention like the others have, which leads me to believe that she and him have found some sort of balance within each other. And worst of all, she has figured out that the more things she does, the more he will come to stop her. I have reason to believe that this is no more than a rouse to get his attention, and it must stop.
And in the note I provided earlier, it’s been proven that Julianne hurt all of those people to get the attention of The Comedian; her just-as-chaotic counterpart. It would be easy to see why the two became as fond of each other as they did. After a while, it became clear to even me that she was acting like a lovesick teen, but in her own sick way.
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She was already running, and he was ready to fight once more. Eddie’s hand grasped at her wrist, wrapping around the skin tight leather of her glove in a grip that would give a boa constrictor a run for its money. He pulled her back once more, but this time she was smart enough to throw her bag full of treasures over the building ledge and onto the streets below.
She fell back onto him; the force of the collision was enough to knock them both over onto the concrete. Anger bubbled beneath the surface of her skin and sunk deep into her muscles. She began to think irrationally, and she decided to attack.
She turned around in his lap, forced him onto his back, and let her fists fly.
Leather came into contact with skin over and over. She moved extremely fast and put all her weight into each hit. The first thing she bloodied was his nose, then she bruised his cheeks, split his lip open. She became absolutely ruthless for no reason other than she lost what she had stolen. In her eyes it was his fault; so she took it out on him.
All he could do was lay there in shock. It all had happened so quick. He had her wrist, he pulled and next thing he knew she was on him beating the absolute piss out of him. He didn’t see the gems get thrown off of the roof. This time it was his turn to get angry.
Just as her fist was coming down for another hit, his hand had lunged upward to grab at it. There was a struggle at first, but eventually he had grabbed ahold of both her arms. He then threw her off of him. She hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her.
Eddie stood and wiped the blood from his swelling face onto his glove. He inspected how much was on the glove for a moment before returning his attention to the girl laying on the ground before him. He was extremely tempted to beat her just as badly as she did to him, but refrained from doing so.
She began to rise, pushing herself up on her forearms before putting her weight on her palms. She was still wheezing and gasping for air.
“My fucking things.” She panted before shifting her gaze upward.
“You made me lose my things.” She blamed. Eddie rolled his eyes at her. She got to her feet and began to walk towards him, this did not threaten him though. Instead he simply moved away from her and grabbed her hand again.
“Sorry sweetheart, normally I don’t break out the cuffs until the fifth date but… you’re leaving me with no choice.” He said with a slightly humorous tone, yet there were traces of a darker and angrier emotion within his words. However, this did not deter Julianne. Just as he got the first cuff on her right wrist, she whirled around and elbowed him in the stomach. That was when she escaped.
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Edward Blake claimed to have let her go on that first night because she had given him “too much trouble” and that “there were more things to be done than sit there all night and fight with a petty thief.” But the funny thing about that is… if he wanted to he could have knocked her out. He had done it to guys bigger than him and twice his age, and all of them were thieves. Many believe that he purposefully let her go, and that they didn’t actually fight. Although, there were some people—like close friends—saw the damage that Ms. Richards had dealt and could confirm that he had actually fought her.
But did he let her go to save himself the trouble, or did he hope to see her again?