Chapter One:

The Hunt

When most people would cringe, run in fear, scream, she was mesmerized.

He was so… twisted, so evil—practically psychotic.

And she was… so innocent, so nice—partially psychotic?

She'd always found him so attractive.

It wasn't just that he was villainous; it wasn't just that he was a notorious criminal.

Maybe it was how conniving he was, how clever, how cunning.

Maybe she didn't know what it was. But her heart beat quicker as these words floated across her TV screen

—Joker escapes from Blackgate—Joker at-large in the Diamond District—Extreme Danger—Stay in your homes—

She couldn't believe it. He was out. He was free. He was somewhere in the Diamond District. The crazy thought donned on her—she could find him, she could see him. She wondered for a few moments why Joker would have escaped now. But to her, it didn't matter why, and before she saw the flashing words,

—Death of Harley Quinn leads Joker to all new level of terror—

she'd grabbed her backpack and jacket and was out the door headed for the Diamond District.

Life seemed to be going on as usual in the rest of Gotham despite the commotion on the other side of the bridge. The city was swimming with a mix of thugs, dapper businessmen, and innocent civilians, so she always kept a weapon with her. Today she'd grabbed her baseball bat. It was painted red and white like a candy cane from her Halloween costume a few years earlier.

She ducked down the tunnel into the underground right as a menacing group of thugs began hooting at her. It's not that she was afraid of them—she been jumped before and successfully fended off her attackers—but right now she didn't have time for delays. She had no idea how long it'd take the GCPD to lockdown the Diamond District and she had to get there before they declared martial law or called Batman or whatever the hell they did in situations like these.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the train to the Diamond District arrived on time at the platform. She jumped onto the ghost train, devoid of passengers except for four teenage thugs who were certainly no threat. Her heart had been beating fast ever since she saw the newscast, but as the train sped through the dark underground tunnel, she could feel herself getting more and more excited. She could feel a tickling, tingling sensation between her legs as the train carried her closer and closer to the Joker. His image swam through her mind. His dominating height, his sharp green eyes, his crazy green hair. She imagined his strong arms around her, and the sweet, twisted things he'd whisper in her ear. The possibility of not finding him didn't even cross her mind.

She felt a surge of butterflies as the train came to a metallic stop at her desired station. She was just about to leap off the train when she felt someone grab her wrist aggressively—it was one of the teenage thugs.

"Hey, miss," he said with an evil grin that flashed missing teeth. "You hear J's looking for a new squeeze?"

"Get off me," she snapped and shook her arm free from him.

"We ain't jokin', sweetheart. We work for Joker and he's lookin' for—"

"You don't work for Joker," she laughed. "I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night," and she turned to leave the train but one of them caught her backpack and yanked her back amongst them. They were all smiling viciously and she could guess what was on their filthy minds. But before they knew what happened, she'd clocked one of them across the face with her bat; it made a dry cracking sound in the close quarters of the train. He roared in pain and held his bloodied face in his hands. Before the other three could react, she jabbed at the one who'd spoken to her first and heard the disgusting clack of his few remaining teeth falling out.

"You little bitch," he said as his mouth filled with blood and a few teeth fell into his open hand.

"What'd you call me?" she asked as she cracked the bat across his face a second time; she could tell he was down for the count.

"We're gonna rape you with that bat!" and another one lunged towards her.

But she'd timed it perfectly, and she dove out the train door right as it was closing, leaving the thugs, one of which was bleeding very badly, another knocked out, locked in the subway train. The three conscious thugs gave her incensed looks of hatred, one even flipped her off, and she could only imagine what they were saying as the sounds of the station silenced their rude curses. She waved goodbye and blew a kiss as the train gathered speed to continue its' route.

She turned with a peppy bounce and made her way down the tunnel to the stairs that would lead her back up to street level. It was eerily quiet and strangely vacant in the subway station. She glanced down at her bat as she walked; it was colored with new streaks of red from the thugs. That's what you get for messing with me, she said to herself happily as she popped up onto ground level.

A cool breeze hit her straight away, but besides a police car in flames, there seemed to be no other activity on the block. Damn, she thought, where could he be? But then she looked up and saw the state of Gotham Royal Hotel. It'd been trashed; broken windows dotted its' stately façade, the words HA HA HA were spray-painted in bright green upon carpets that hung out the windows, and flames raged on the entire 10th floor. Joker had to be in there somewhere.

But did he have to choose this spot as his base of operations? A few years ago she'd worked at the Royal and hated it. The place was like a vast maze of hidden passage ways, secret rooms, and high levels of corruption. She remembered one day she'd walked into a room where a rather large drug deal was going down; another day she'd walked in on her boss and a hooker. She'd vowed never to go back—yet here she was.

But right as she stepped forward to cross the street, a strong hand arrested her.

The hand swung her around to face two enormous men.

"Whatcha you doin', miss?"

And they really were enormous. Each of them at least 6 foot 7 inches and about 300 pounds of muscle, dressed in black. One could have mistaken them for regular security, maybe a special type of police, but each wore a mask upon his face. A clown mask. One of the masks grinned with a long, pointy nose, the other scowled and was painted red and white—these really were Joker's men. Her heart skipped three or four beats. Perhaps they could get her to him, but there was no way she could trust them. She willed herself to remain calm and act smart.

"Well you guys are big," is all she said.

"Yeah you better believe it," the first one chuckled and nudged the second one.

The second one shook his head at his friend. "Would you be serious?"

"I am being serious!" The first one exclaimed.

"Umm, excuse me, if I could just scoot past…" she said, but the second one pushed her back onto the sidewalk.

"Not so fast, miss. Don't be scared."

"I'm not scared," she said defiantly but raised her bat.

The first one gave an impressed whistle. "Ooh she's got some fight. And a bat. What you gonna do with that, miss? Hit me?" he chuckled and stepped toward her.

She grasped the weapon tighter.

"Would you stop it?" The second one said.

"What's wrong? We can have some fun, can't we?"

"J said don't touch 'em, idiot. You wanna cross J?"

"Well we could—"

"You can't have any," the second said firmly and menacingly. "Stick to business. Is she blonde? I can't tell in this dim lighting…"

"Oh yeah, she's blonde," the first one moved toward her. She could discern a thirsty gaze even beneath his mask. He grabbed her arm. "Looks like his type," he said as he surveyed her hips and butt and even spun her around so quick she couldn't stop him. "And my type."

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as she wrested herself from his grip. "Sizing me up like I'm some sort of—type, or whatever you said."

The first one laughed. "Hmph. Looks like she hasn't heard!"

The second one shook his head. "You're in the wrong place at the wrong time, miss. You ain't gonna like what's comin' next."

"I dunno," the first one said, "she looks like she could be kinky."

"What haven't I heard?" she asked, brandishing the bat.

"Calm down, calm down."

"I'm perfectly calm," she said and backed away as the first one reached for her bat. She didn't trust this first thug. He was aggressive, deviant. The other just wanted to get the job done—whatever that was.

"If you're calm then give us your bat," said the second one.

"Tell me what I haven't heard first, then we'll talk."

"Why ruin the fun?" The first one asked. "Hey, we don't have to take her to J. We can just—"

"Harley Quinn's dead. Joker's lookin' for a new girl," the second one said.

"Man, you ruined it!"

It took a few seconds for the news to sink in. Her body went numb and she felt a warm, tingling sensation between her legs. "Looking… for a new… Harley Quinn…" she said dreamily.

The first thug laughed as he saw her excited astonishment. "Told ya she was kinky. She's a little slut. J wouldn't mind if we had some."

The second one probably rolled his eyes but she couldn't quite tell because of the mask. "Would you stop it?"

"Stop what?"

"Making all these rapey comments. No one wants to hang out with a fucking rapist, man."

"What! Screw you man. It's a persona. A personality for the job—hello! We're thugs! We gotta intimidate."

She snorted with laughter.

"What's so funny?" the first one demanded, angry that his partner had called him out in front of her.

"Oh… just the fact that you think you can intimidate anyone."

The first one scowled under his mask while the other chuckled.

"I'll show you something better to do with your mouth, miss."

But the second one arrested his steps before he could come any closer. "Don't. Be. Rapey."

"This bitch deserves it," the first snarled back.

"Deserves it? Man, my niece was raped—that shit ain't funny. Now grab her and let's move."

"With pleasure," and before she knew it, the first thug had disarmed her and had painfully twisted her arms behind her back like a prisoner.

"OW! What the hell are you doing?" she exclaimed as she struggled in pain.

He yanked her body against his and put her hands on his crotch; she could feel his hard cock through his pants. He groped her ass.

"Ew! What the fuck!"

"Don't complain, miss," said the second thug as they made their way across the street and into the Gotham Royal Hotel. "If it was up to my friend here you'd be in a much more uncomfortable position."

"Damn right. I don't like mouthy bitches—but maybe J does."

"Maybe." The second one replied. "But I'm thinkin' he's choosin' off looks alone."

"Then we may have a winner," the first thug said as he surveyed her jealously. "Hey—wait a second, Mr. Anti-rape. J's pickin' one of these girls tonight—and I bet she ain't gonna come willingly."

"That's his business," the second one snarled. "I'm just following orders."

"I'll come willingly," she gasped as the thug held her a lot harder than he needed to, now rubbing her hands up and down on his crotch. "I came here to find Joker. I want to fuck him. Now please—"

The two thugs burst out laughing but the first still didn't unhand her.

"You want to fuck him? Damn—you sure this isn't Harley herself?"

"She's a spitting image for damn sure. Maybe just as kinky too."

"Must be. Is it the makeup that gets you hot, miss?"

They both laughed as they got into an elevator inhabited only by a corpse and tons of $100 dollar bills.

"Partly," she admitted. "It's certainly mysterious not knowing his true face. But no…it's the power…" and the elevator gave an upward lurch to match the butterflies in her stomach. "That and I'm sure he has a massive cock."

The thugs gave each other looks and the second one shrugged as the first unhanded her reluctantly, seeing that she really would come willingly.

"You know J ain't too nice to his girls," the second one said.

"What, no nicer than you all are?" she retorted as she rubbed her aching wrists and tried not to think about the first one's hard cock. "You're friend here wanted to rape me."

"That's ain't past tense, Miss Bitch," the first one replied menacingly. "If J doesn't pick you, you're in trouble."

"Fuck you," she retorted.

"Oh, fuck me?" he asked her. He turned to his buddy, "Fuck me, she says."

"That's what she said."

He turned back to her. "Don't tempt me, miss. Don't tempt me."

The elevator gave a cheerful ding when they'd arrived at the 35th floor. She recognized where they were instantly as the first thug pushed her towards the grand ballroom. Four big thugs stood guarding the huge doors. She eyed them apprehensively.

"Soo… you're taking me to Joker, I presume?" She asked hopefully.

The two thugs she'd came with burst out laughing.

"Haha, hell no. Put her with the others," the first commanded the other four.

"What! Where are you going? I want to see Joker!" She insisted as one of thugs started pulling her towards the ballroom by the torso.

"Sorry, miss. He's busy. He's got mayhem to cause, people to kill—"

"Batman to deal with," added the first thug.

"Whoa, whoa, man, shut up—that idiot ain't here."

"It's only a matter of time, man."

"Don't say that! You know what happens every time he shows up!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get beaten to a pulp and sent back to Blackgate."

"Then shut the hell up!"

"Man, I'm just bein' a realist."

"First you're a rapist, now you're a realist?"

And their voices drowned away as the doors to the ballroom closed with a heavy finality.

She stomped her foot on the ground angrily and clenched her fists in a tiny tantrum. She cursed silently to herself. "Let me outta here!" She banged on the door until it hurt her fist to keep going. She let out a resigned sigh and crossed her arms.

When she turned around to survey the room, she saw 12 or 13 other blondes huddled together in the middle of the room. They'd been so silent she hadn't even noticed them. Half the girls had red eyes from crying. They all looked terrified.

"Umm, hi," she said awkwardly.

They were silent and eyed her apprehensively.

One burst into tears and another one tried to comfort her.

"It's going to be okay," one said.

"N-no its not!" the other one bawled. "That horrible, ugly villain is going to r-r-rape us! And then k-k-kill us!"

Not if I can help it, she thought. I can't have this competition getting in my way… "It's alright, ladies," she said to the group. "I used to work here and I think I can find a way out."

"Really? No way! You can?" They shouted in unison, their pitiful demeanors brightening up a bit.

"Just give me a second to remember," she told them as she surveyed the room. The only door out of the place was the one guarded by thugs, so escaping out that way wasn't an option. She looked around at the walls and spotted a wide air vent she knew she could fit through. "There!" she exclaimed. "If someone can give me a boost I'll go get help," she lied, not intending to get help at all. Once she made it out of here she was heading straight for Joker.

"I'll help you," one of the stronger looking girls said.

They hurried over to the vent and the girl grunted as she climbed onto her shoulders.

She impressed herself as she tore the vent cover off the wall and climbed in. "Alright! I'll be back in a bit!" she said.

"Okay!" the naïve girls shouted back, looking hopeful.

The vent was just big enough for her to crouch in and she made her way quickly down the dark passageway. After a few minutes she saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel. She peered through the bars of the vent to see where she'd ended up. All she saw was a red carpet, a giant stuffed grizzly bear with a TV on its head, and more $100 dollar bills. She knew she'd have to climb out of the vent before she could find out exactly where she was. After a few kicks she managed to remove the covering and climb out of the small space.

A quick glance told her she was in the West Wing of the hotel. She listened closely for any sound of Joker's men but the coast seemed clear. Now to find Joker, she thought, as she climbed out of the vent. If I was a villain where would I be? she asked herself. "The Penthouse," she began to say out loud, but two strong hands covered her mouth and held her still, muffling her screams.

"Quiet," a dark voice ordered. "I'm not here to hurt you."

She looked down and saw the hands that held her were covered in a thick, black, armored material. She saw the shadow on the wall; it was tall, menacing. Two pointy ears stuck up from the top of its head. Batman.

"I need to get you to safety. I'll take my hand off your mouth if you promise to keep quiet."

She nodded enthusiastically to let him know he could trust her. He released her and she whipped around to get a good look at the Batman. He was even taller than she'd expected. She could tell an attractive man was hidden beneath the mask. Sparkling blue eyes shone through the eye slits. His mouth betrayed a serious grimace.

"What?" she asked indignantly as he eyed her with an angry expression.

"Nothing," he retorted quickly. "You just look like someone I used to know."

She was sure he was talking about Harley Quinn so she said so.

Batman grimaced and looked away.

"What happened to her?"

"She was murdered," Batman said darkly.

"By who?" she asked, very interested.

"I'm not sure yet," he said and changed the subject. "Let's go. I'll take you to Captain Gordon," and he hoisted her over his shoulder before she could protest.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Batman! Wait!" she kicked and struggled, trying to get loose, but his grip was even firmer than the thug's had been. Her wiggling was no use. "He's got more girls in the ballroom," she blurted out.

That got his attention and he dropped her quickly.

"Where?"

"Just through there," she pointed to the vent she'd just escaped from. "It'll lead you straight to them. Joker's gathering girls or—"

"I know what he's doing," he said gruffly. "Stay here," he ordered. "I'll be back with the rest of the girls," and he disappeared through the vent before she had time to lie to him too.

She most certainly was not going to wait until he came back. She clapped her hands together girlishly as she bounced around the corner to the elevator. She pressed the up button and hid around the corner until she saw the elevator was empty. She jumped in and selected floor 60. "Joker here I come!" she screamed as the elevator lurched upwards. She could hardly contain her excitement. Her stomach felt like it was going to burst from all the butterflies.

Floor 55.

Floor 56.

Floor 57.

"Oh fuck," she cursed. The elevator was stopping at floor 58. She hadn't planned for this. She had no weapons, nothing.

The door dinged open happily. To her dismay she was face to face with the thugs who'd first picked her up.

"Well what do we have here?" asked the first one. His hand still clenched her bat. "Someone's been a bad girl and ain't where she's 'sposed to be."

"Thanks for keeping my bat for me. Kindly give it back," she said to cover her disappointment.

"Oh , I'll give it to ya, alright. But it ain't gonna be the way you want."
"That's it, man. I'm asking for a new partner the first chance I get."

"Come on, Jacobs," the first one argued. "We've been over this—it's just my persona."

"And why don't I believe you, Ted? Tell me right now you wouldn't rape this girl if you had the chance."

Ted was silent.

"See, I told ya."

She tried to press the door close button quietly but Jacobs stuck his hand in the door before it could close all the way. "Not so fast, miss. We gotta take you back down to the ballroom."

"Oh, come on!" she argued. "Just take me to him!"

"If you wanna be J's girl you better start obeying orders, Miss Bitch," Ted snapped. "J don't like to say things twice."

The two thugs climbed into the elevator with her.

She gave them a disgruntled look and crossed her arms.

Just as the door was about to close a voice called Jacobs' name. It was another thug. "Jacobs, J wants to see you."

"What is it?" Jacobs asked.

"How should I know?" the other thug retorted. "Just get your ass outta that elevator and come with me."

"Take me!" she said and grabbed Jacobs' arm.

But Ted grabbed her around the waist and held her in the elevator.

Jacobs rolled his eyes and stepped out. "No funny business, Ted."

"Yeah, sure, definitely," Ted replied unconvincingly.

She watched jealously as the two thugs walked down the hall to meet Joker. The door slowly closed, leaving her alone with creepy Ted.

She turned to him. "Give me my bat."

"No."

"Give me my bat!"

"No."

"Take me to Joker!"

"No!"

"Take me there!"

"NO!" he yelled. "Goddamn you're an annoying bitch."

They spent the rest of the elevator ride in silence.

She was growing to hate the happy ding of the elevator and she winced as the door opened back up to the 35th floor. She almost hoped Batman would be waiting around the corner to kick the crap out of this damned thug but the floor was vacant as they exited the elevator. He led her down the hallway and back around to the entrance to the ballroom. The same four thugs were standing in their same four places as they walked up.

"Hey, ain't we seen this bitch before?" one of them said as they approached.

"Yeah, dumbass. She escaped on your watch."

"What?" he exclaimed.

"Ain't no way she could have escaped," another one said.

"Well she obviously fucking did because she's right fucking here," Ted retorted.

Two thugs pushed open the doors to the ballroom, revealing a room devoid of imprisoned blondes.

"What the fuck," another said.

"They're all gone!"

"I-impossible!"

"You fucking dumbasses!" Ted exclaimed. "J's gonna have your heads for this."

"This ain't our fucking fault, man. It has to be the Bat or somethin'."

"Yeah, it was," she said.

They all turned to her.

"What'd you say?" Ted asked.

She was silent.

"Speak up, bitch! A second ago I couldn't get you to shut up!"

She shrugged. "Yeah I escaped through that vent," she pointed to the far wall, "and then I ran into him on the other side and told him the girls were in here and yeah."

"So it's your fuckin' fault," roared one of the four thugs.

"No," Ted retorted. "It's your fuckin' fault for not watchin' the goddamn prisoners!"

"Well what do we do now?" One of them asked Ted.

"Well first of all there sure as hell ain't no 'we' in this situation. You idiots go look for the Bat," he pointed to three of them. "You go tell Joker what's going on," he said to the odd one out. "I'll stay here with this bitch since you all can't guard for shit."

"Whoo-hoo," she said sarcastically.

The other thugs obeyed Ted's orders and disappeared in opposite directions.

After a few moments of silence she said, "Can I have my bat now?"

"If I give it to you will you be a good girl?"

She nodded, loathing his tone.

"And you promise to shut the hell up?"

She nodded and gave him a dazzling smile.

"Fine then," and he handed the striped bat over to her.

"Oh thank you," she said happily. "Now I can do this."

And she hit him over the head with it as hard as she could.

"AAGH!" he roared as his mask flew off and blood ran down the left side of his face. "I'M GONNA FUCKIN' KILL YOU, BITCH!"

He lunged towards her.

She ducked and slammed the bat into his ribs.

He roared in pain but mostly in fury.

She went to avoid his next blow but fucked up and his fist hit her across the face really fucking hard, knocking her to the ground and the bat out of her hands. He kicked her in the stomach and she couldn't scream for the loss of air. She wheezed.

"That was a big mistake, slut," he said in a dark voice.

She'd have to agree. She really regretted this last minute of her life; she'd thought she could take him. She couldn't see what he was doing but she figured it out when she heard the sound of his zipper. He flipped her over and punched her in the face again. He'd hit her in the mouth and she could taste her own blood. He shoved his mouth against hers anyway, forcing his tongue into her mouth. She bit it.

"YOU THUCKING THLUT!" he exclaimed as his mouth filled with blood. He dropped the bat and punched her in the face again. Her body went limp. One more punch and she'd knew she'd pass out. She still didn't regret biting him though.

The thug saw she was almost done and dropped his pants to his ankles and crawled on top of her, pulling up her skirt and trying to push her panties to the side.

She struggled with what strength she had left but he had a lot more than she did. He pinned her hands above her head and ripped off her shirt with the other.

"Let's see how you like gettin' bit, huh?" and he sunk his teeth into her right breast.

She screamed in pain but managed to knee him in the groin. She tried to crawl away and reach for the bat but he grabbed her legs and pulled her back towards him.

This was it, he was about to put it in her and there was nothing she could do.

But then the door to the ballroom burst open with a loud creak and two figures walked in. She couldn't see who it was; her head was spinning with all the blows she'd taken, not to mention her breast throbbed in pain.

The thug straightened up quick when he was who it was. His face betrayed a look of horror. He pulled his pants up as fast as he could, as if he could cover up what was happening.

The two figures moved closer, one in front of the other. It looked like the first one was wearing a purple suit. He was the one who spoke first. "Now what is going on here?" he snarled.

Ted faltered and stammered for a few moments before he could formulate a sentence. "This bitch hit me with the bat and then a struggle ensued and I had to hit her a few times and—"

"How many times have I told you?" the menacing voice hissed. Ted shrunk away from the towering figure. "How many times have I ordered you NOT TO RAPE! YOU KNOW HOW I HATE THAT! THESE WOMEN BELONG TO ME!"

Ted cowered away like a wounded dog. "Well, sir, it wasn't rape 'cus I never actually got it in."

There was a moment of silence where the man in charge just stared at Ted. He turned to the other figure. "Jacobs, what does this look like to you?" he pointed to her limp body on the floor.

"It looks like attempted rape, sir," he answered.

"Jacobs, come on, man, you know I'm—"

"A fucking rapist," Joker finished for him. He took his revolver out of his belt and cocked it.

"Boss, please, don't," Ted begged, holding up his hands in surrender.

The tall man laughed a heartless laugh sprinkled with pure glee. "I'm sure that's what this girl said too, isn't it, Ted?"

"Boss, please, give me another chance."

But the revolver went off and the thug's heavy body collapsed to the ground.

She let out a whimper.

"It's alright, my sweet," the tall man knelt down next to her.

Now she could see it was him. In all his evil glory. The Joker.

He wiped some of the blood from her mouth with his gloved hand. The purple leather was soft and cool on her throbbing wound. He straightened her clothing for her, protecting her modesty. She grabbed his arm and squeezed it, never wanting to let go. "Don't worry, darling. You're safe now," and he gave her a wide, wicked smile. "See, I've killed him," and he gestured to Ted's lifeless body.

"It's… not that…" she whispered. "I wanted to be the one to kill him."

Joker burst out laughing. "Oh, I like her," he said to Jacobs. "Get her to the car," he ordered.

Jacobs stepped forward and picked her up. She didn't let go of Joker's arm.

"Not to worry, my sweet," he hissed. "You're coming to my place," and he gently made her release her grip and caressed her face once more. For a few moments she looked into his eyes and he into hers. There was something there, each of them thought. And then the green-haired, purple-clad villain disappeared from sight, the smell of his cologne lingering after him. She closed her eyes to Jacobs' rhythmic strides, the image of that beautiful villain swimming before her, and fell out of consciousness.