“What in the—where are we now?!” Scarecrow shouted in irritation. He and his men were teleported in a dark vacant cave. Moments before they could discover where they were, an unknown power took them by surprise and brought them to another place that rather appeared spooky and gloomy. The corrupt doctor though didn’t mind the unsettling atmosphere.
“It appears we are...in a random cave.” Steiss replied.
“A creepy cave, that is!!” one of his thugs replied fearfully. “This place is giving me the creeps!”
“You really think this place is more scary than Gotham, Zach? This cave is nothing compared to our city.” Zsasz scoffed.
“What was that black cloud?! That thing just teleported us here out of nowhere!!” another thug shouted.
The moment he mentioned the black cloud, a loud thunderous noise was heard in the distance within the cave. It startled all of the men including Scarecrow. They all held their submachine guns in their arms and aimed at whatever caused the noise. Seeing no visible source of the noise, they slowly drew closer toward the other entrance that led to the other side of cave. Moments later, several small stones fell beside them which forced them to fire several shots toward the ceiling.
“Who’s up there?!” Zsasz shouted, pointing his gun in the air.
“Are you here, Batman?! Show yourself!” a thug demanded.
There was dead silence for about several minutes. The silence made them nervous. They lowered their weapons and decided to move on in the cave. They wandered in the cave for about half an hour while having no idea as to where they were heading. The thugs couldn’t believe all the events that just transpired in their lives. First, they were planning with their crime boss to take over Gotham with a doomsday device, the Dark Knight showed up and fought them, the device malfunctioned as a result of Scarecrow’s rash action, the portal sucked them in a strange world that appeared to be a cartoony wild imagination, and then got teleported by an unknown source that randomly took them in a strange cave. All of these things completely overwhelmed their minds as they could not comprehend why these things were happening to them. Why them?
“Gentlemen, I’m afraid we’re lost.” Scarecrow spoke. “I have no clue what just took us here in this cartoony area, but I assure you all that once we take care of Batman, we will find a way out of this ridiculous and meaningless fantasy and finish where we started in Gotham!” All the criminals cheered in response to his encouraging speech.
Suddenly, a deep, dark, wicked laugh echoed throughout the whole cave that it shook it. All the hearty cheers were cut short by the abrupt, devilish laughter. Scarecrow and his men pulled their guns toward the source of the laugh; however, as soon as they laid their eyes on it, their eyes widen in surprise. A black misty pillar twirled furiously before them and revealed a large red horn, green eyes surrounded by purple flames, and a wicked smile. The pillar shrunk in size of a stallion and morphed to a dark grey male unicorn with the same horn and smile displaying fangs but this time adorned in his kingly scarlet apparel and with amour plates on his legs, having a waving dark hair, and green eyes turning to normal white eyes with red iris and black pupils.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” the dark lord evilly laughed.
“WHO ARE YOU?!?” some of his men screamed in terror.
“You may address me as...KING SOMBRA!!” the evil tyrant introduced. Zsasz however laughed hysterically at Sombra since he had a distaste for cartoons.
“Are you guys that scared of a cartoon? Haha! It’s just a lousy animated character! I’ll take him out in an instant!” he replied before aiming his gun at Sombra and shooting him in the chest. To his shock, the bullets had no affect on him whatsoever. Sombra then shot a pair of green eyes to Zsasz’s eyes within seconds; Zsasz stumbled on the ground as he fought against the green eyes although unsuccessfully. Then he stopped struggling, looked around with a frantic look on his face which had green eyes and started to scream in horror. The thugs were confused about what was going on.
“Yo, Zsasz, relax! What’s wrong?!” Steiss shouted.
“GET AWAY FROM ME! BATMAN IS GONNA GET ME!! NOO!!” Zsasz screamed. He was beating the air, rolling on the ground, and covered his face. Scarecrow looked upon Sombra with a mixture of amazement, impression, and fear. Sombra inhaled the air and exhaled it out while licking his teeth.
“I smell fear in here! Wouldn’t you agree with me...Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow?” Sombra asked with a smirk. Scarecrow widened his eyes in shock.
“How do you know me?!” Scarecrow demanded.
“I’ve watched you for so long. Your agony, your trials, your unique phobias, your life, your crimes...EVERYTHIIINNNNGG.” Sombra whispered menacingly as he encircled him with a devious smile. Intimidated, Scarecrow sprayed the fear toxin on Sombra in a vain attempt to turn the tables; however, the wicked unicorn hungrily inhaled the toxin and licked his chops as if he ate a satisfying meal for dinner which shocked the criminal psychologist even more. “Mmmm, your fear toxin tastes...DELICIOUS!” Sombra exclaimed.
“Get ready to fire on that guy!” Steiss commanded his fellow thugs. But the moment they raised their weapons on the king of shadows, Sombra shot forth his bonds of dark magic on the rest of them, chaining them to a wall. They struggled to free themselves but in vain.
“Why so violent, dear humans? I’m not here to destroy you, but to simply get acquainted with one another. Hmm?” Sombra said.
“What do you want from us?” Scarecrow asked.
“Why I’m soooo glad you asked, my dear doctor.” spoke Sombra. “You see, we are not so different from one another. You seek to spread fear and terror on your enemies. So do I. You desire to seek revenge on those who thwarted your schemes, yessssss?” he hissed, smirking.
“Well, of course I do. All that I have done was, by definition, my life’s work. But why should we be of any interest to you?” Scarecrow asked, raising an eyebrow that spoke suspicion.
“(Chuckle) Why? Because you possess a unique potential that would even put my own adversaries to permanent defeat and destruction. As you have witnessed with your own gifted eyes, I am the master of fears; the king of shadows, and bringer of terror!! I. AM. FEAR!!” his deep demonic voice bellowed, shaking the entire ground. He then drew closer to Scarecrow in shadow form. “Dr. Crane, I’ve seen how effective your hallucinogens were when they infected all the people of your city Gotham; I’ve also seen the very medium that defeated you and your master’s schemes entirely—THE BATMAN.” Sombra said.
“You know him?! How were you even inhabiting our world?!” Scarecrow asked.
“I have the power to travel through worlds and dimensions; I spread fear and honor to all those whom I wish to harm and terrorize. Ohhhh, my poor little Scarecrow, you have lost the power of scaring the crows of pathetic morality. You have a large field of corn and wheat, ready to be harvested. Your job was to cast fear to the crows that sought to take food from the crops that shouldn’t belong to them. Instead, they realized you lost your touch. Your failure to be an exceptional feared legend allowed them to take what they wanted. You ultimately failed to scare that one former crow of vengeful fear who later turned to be a bat of righteous fear.” Sombra condescendingly lectured.
“But all hope is not lost, doctor. I give a simple choice to you; a proposal, to be exact. Join me in my retake of the Crystal Empire and the destruction of everypony who will get in my wayyyyy...” he menacingly uttered. “When that is accomplished, I will rule both the Crystal Empire AND Equestria!”
“Wha-what’s in it for me? For u-us? Will you help us destroy Batman then?” Scarecrow asked, stuttering.
“Why, of course I will help...” Sombra replied. “With your scientific expertise and your fear toxin at my disposal, I will be able to increase my power and seize what is rightfully mine! In return, I will give you all the desires of your heart...even Gotham itself as your domain. So, it’s either you join me in my conquest...SERVING ME...or you can go back to the inglorious period of being second rate to Batman. Which will it beeeee?” he whispered.
Scarecrow didn’t know what to think at first. This strange being who suddenly or out of nowhere knew almost everything about him, called him out on his failure, and revealed himself as a dark lord of tyranny and fear was standing before him offering him a chance of redemption where he can properly get revenge on the Dark Knight and take over Gotham. He thought the offer over and looked to his men for their reaction. Not surprisingly, some were fearful while others were beyond confused.
Some of their looks signified disbelief and distrust at Sombra’s offer. He could tell that some of his thugs didn’t trust Sombra and certainly didn’t want their boss to accept him. But once he meditated on how Batman humiliated him and nearly ruined his plans, he made his final decision.
“I accept your proposal...King Sombra.” Scarecrow asked. His thugs gave mixed shouts of shock and protest in response. King Sombra, however, darkly chuckled in satisfaction.
“I knew you would see reason, my friend.” Sombra evilly smiled all the way to his cheeks.