Disclaimer: Sadly, none of these characters are mine. Rather (and perhaps
thankfully), they are from the imaginations of (as well as the property of)
the brilliant minds of the people who bring to life the DC Comic Universe.
Arkham Asylum, Gotham City
"Come give me a kiss, Dr. Bradley. I promise you, all you'll feel is pleasure. And then nothing. But a pleasurable nothing." Poison Ivy said seductively to Dr. Helena Bradley.
"Missing Harleen Quinzel, Pamela?" Helena asked politely, a wry smile upon her face. "Or do we just want to try and break out again? I honestly think that turning Earth back into the Garden of Eden is a futile effort."
"You're rude, for a psychiatrist, Dr. Bradley. Didn't your parents teach you any manners." Ivy pouted as she played with the vines of a rare South American plant. The two women were in a room in Arkham Asylum that had virtually been converted into a green house. Pamela Lillian Isley, also known as Poison Ivy, was sprawled rather seductively on a bed of rose petals. Helena Bradley, the newest addition to Arkham's rapidly depleting number of psychiatrists, was seated on a wrought iron chair that was nailed firmly to the ground. It was the room in which Poison Ivy and Dr. Helena Bradley had been meeting together everyday for the past month since Helena had started her new job at the asylum.
"Not when dealing with hormonally imbalanced psychopaths, Miss Isley."
"Pity," she replied, "considering that your mother was one." Ivy smiled as she shot a look of thorns at Helena. The twenty-six-year-old flared up inside but kept her emotions in check. Violent rage would do her no good in here, sadly.
"My mother was not a hormonally imbalanced psychopath."
"Let me see...She had the hots for, and followed by an affair with, the Batman. There's your hormones. She stole, plundered, and might have even killed. There's your psychopath. And she fell off of a roof to her death, didn't she? I'd say that was imbalanced."
"I think you're just jealous," Helena countered, mildly aware that she was going off-topic. "I think you hated my mother because she had gained the Batman's affections and you hadn't. I think we need to discuss what your need is to bring up my mother nearly twenty-four years after you two last met."
"I don't want to discuss anything regarding Catwoman," Poison Ivy said, spitting out the word 'Catwoman' as though it were a vile word.
"All evidence points to the contrary," Helena pointed out as she tucked a strand of her shiny obsidian black hair behind her ear. Her drop earrings glittered in the sunlight and caught Ivy's eye.
"Pretty," Poison Ivy remarked, off-handedly.
"I thought you had no use of material possessions," Helena asked.
"I don't. It was your mother who had the use of those."
"Again with my mother. I really think we need to pursue this line of your life, Pamela." Helena prodded once more.
"I actually think we're done for the day, little kitty," Pamela countered.
"I'll see you again tomorrow, Pamela. And I have full intention of going on with the topic of Catwoman when we do."
"Then maybe I won't come."
"You have no choice besides death, Miss Isley."
"So be it then."
Helena shook her head and sighed, knowing full well that, in the past week or so, this had been a common threat of Poison Ivy's. She stood up and, straightening out her georgette shirt and cashmere sweater, left the room, motioning for the two guards to take Poison Ivy back to her own cell.
As Helena walked back to her office, her stiletto heels clicking and clacking on the linoleum floors of Arkham's corridors, her mind flashed back to just a couple of months ago. When all of this mess had begun, all of the mess which had caused Helena to pack her bags and leave sunny, peaceful Coast City for the darker, more Gothic Gotham.
Helena had just returned from finishing up her PhD in Criminal Psychology in London, and had moved back to Coast City to be once more with her parents, former private eye Slam Bradley, and her mother, former thief and now sparkling socialite Selina Kyle-Bradley, while she figured out what next to do with her life. Having grown up in London, spending only the winters and summers with her parents, Helena didn't know much about their lives before Coast City, of who they had been, or where they had come from. She just had a happy little picture of her tough-talking, as yet young- looking and ultra-debonair father, and her cat and diamonds obsessed mother. This image had shattered when she moved back.
One night, her first week in Coast City, Selina had a visitor who, it had seemed to Helena, was very intimate with the charming sophisticate. He had introduced himself to Helena, who had answered the door of her parent's over-sized, plush California mansion, as and old friend named Stewart Kern. Helena had summoned her maid, a woman named Allana who had traveled with Helena all the way back from England, to summon Selina into the formal living room. Allana went to do so while Helena showed him the way. After leaving him in the sage, vanilla, and caramel colored room, Helena had taken her leave of him, leaving her mother to do her socializing.
The incident was forgotten after a few days, when all had resumed living their lives of luxury and contentment. Selina and Slam were busy with their social lives, and Helena was trying to find a position somewhere so that she could move on with her life. Then, suddenly, one day Selina announced that she would be going to Gotham City for an important social benefit. Helena and Slam had both insisted that one of them, if not both, join her on this trip as they were, by blood, Gothamites. Selina had politely refused and had left one sunny, ultra-Californian Thursday morning.
It was two days later, on Saturday night, that the news had reached them. The national news was reporting the death of Catwoman. Slam was stunned and shocked, knowing full well what this meant. The news didn't matter so much to Helena until her father sat her down and explained to her who Catwoman truly was. Helena was at first stunned, shocked, and disbelieving. But she didn't know Selina well enough to truly be able to say, "But that was definitely not in her character."
Slam knew Selina though. He knew her almost as well as the caped crusader known as the Batman knew her. But he, too, was in disbelief over Selina's sudden re-emergence in the mantle of the cat. He realized, then, that he shouldn't have been. Catwoman had always been a core part of Selina, so much so that Selina herself had once confessed that she didn't know where Catwoman began and Selina Kyle ended, because one had lost herself so much in the other. But realizing that one day Selina would have put on the mask and suit anyway didn't help getting over her death (her murder?) any easier. It made it all the more harder because he realized that, no matter what; he would have never been able to stop Selina from doing what she wanted.
Slam, overwrought by Selina's death, lost himself in misery and grief. Helena, although she mourned, had the inner workings of her mind churning faster than the speed of the Flash. There was more to Selina's death here, Helena instinctively knew, and since her father was too overwrought, and perhaps too old, to deal with this mystery, she knew all too well that she wasn't. Helena knew that she had to solve the mystery surrounding her mother's death, and along with that, find out who her mother had truly been.
Set with resolve, Helena set out to learn all about Gotham City. She read up on all of her history, the stories concerning No Man's Land, which had been like Gotham's exile from civilization; the stories of Batman, Nightwing, Robin, and the others who protected Gotham City from the thundering psychopaths that seemed to be born in that city day after day. She also learned of Arkham Asylum, where the most criminally insane and psychologically damaged were kept. The Asylum, that was her key to starting to unravel the whole mystery. That was the key to making a move to Gotham City. And so, Helena sent in her resume and was given a position within a week. Helena left Coast City, and her father Slam (who was now in the care of her half-brother Sammy) after two weeks, and moved into a trendy but tiny apartment on Gotham's Upper East Side. Looking into the history of the apartment, she had noticed that this very apartment had been lived in by a woman named Comrade Kitanya Menya Tatania Kirenski Alisov, an alias of Selina's, as Helena had learned from the extensive files of Catwoman that her father had kept in his library. It seemed to be the perfect place to start a life in Gotham, as well as her hunt for Selina's killer.
Helena started her job at Arkham on her third day in Gotham, after getting perfectly settled into her apartment. She quickly bought herself a car (a sleek Maserati), a set of designer work clothes, and a membership at the nearest gym before beginning work.
On her first day, she had gone through all of the files that Arkham had to offer in an attempt to see if her mother had any connections within Arkham Asylum. Anyone who had been an ally, or anyone who had been an enemy. The first names to pop up had been Two-Face, the Penguin, and Poison Ivy. But Two-Face had reformed years ago, and the Penguin had been assassinated by (it was suspected) a man named Lex Luthor. In any case, Helena had taken Poison Ivy as her first lead, learning as she had that Ivy and Catwoman had had years of rivalry and hatred between the two of them.
Opening the door to her office, and taking a seat in her plush leather chair, Helena thought back to that first fateful meeting of hers with Dr. Pamela Isley, and how chilling it had been...
Writer's Note: Hey all, this is my first attempt at a DCU-related fan fic, so all feedback is appreciated and asked for, whether they're positive of flamers! Thanks a lot, all!
Arkham Asylum, Gotham City
"Come give me a kiss, Dr. Bradley. I promise you, all you'll feel is pleasure. And then nothing. But a pleasurable nothing." Poison Ivy said seductively to Dr. Helena Bradley.
"Missing Harleen Quinzel, Pamela?" Helena asked politely, a wry smile upon her face. "Or do we just want to try and break out again? I honestly think that turning Earth back into the Garden of Eden is a futile effort."
"You're rude, for a psychiatrist, Dr. Bradley. Didn't your parents teach you any manners." Ivy pouted as she played with the vines of a rare South American plant. The two women were in a room in Arkham Asylum that had virtually been converted into a green house. Pamela Lillian Isley, also known as Poison Ivy, was sprawled rather seductively on a bed of rose petals. Helena Bradley, the newest addition to Arkham's rapidly depleting number of psychiatrists, was seated on a wrought iron chair that was nailed firmly to the ground. It was the room in which Poison Ivy and Dr. Helena Bradley had been meeting together everyday for the past month since Helena had started her new job at the asylum.
"Not when dealing with hormonally imbalanced psychopaths, Miss Isley."
"Pity," she replied, "considering that your mother was one." Ivy smiled as she shot a look of thorns at Helena. The twenty-six-year-old flared up inside but kept her emotions in check. Violent rage would do her no good in here, sadly.
"My mother was not a hormonally imbalanced psychopath."
"Let me see...She had the hots for, and followed by an affair with, the Batman. There's your hormones. She stole, plundered, and might have even killed. There's your psychopath. And she fell off of a roof to her death, didn't she? I'd say that was imbalanced."
"I think you're just jealous," Helena countered, mildly aware that she was going off-topic. "I think you hated my mother because she had gained the Batman's affections and you hadn't. I think we need to discuss what your need is to bring up my mother nearly twenty-four years after you two last met."
"I don't want to discuss anything regarding Catwoman," Poison Ivy said, spitting out the word 'Catwoman' as though it were a vile word.
"All evidence points to the contrary," Helena pointed out as she tucked a strand of her shiny obsidian black hair behind her ear. Her drop earrings glittered in the sunlight and caught Ivy's eye.
"Pretty," Poison Ivy remarked, off-handedly.
"I thought you had no use of material possessions," Helena asked.
"I don't. It was your mother who had the use of those."
"Again with my mother. I really think we need to pursue this line of your life, Pamela." Helena prodded once more.
"I actually think we're done for the day, little kitty," Pamela countered.
"I'll see you again tomorrow, Pamela. And I have full intention of going on with the topic of Catwoman when we do."
"Then maybe I won't come."
"You have no choice besides death, Miss Isley."
"So be it then."
Helena shook her head and sighed, knowing full well that, in the past week or so, this had been a common threat of Poison Ivy's. She stood up and, straightening out her georgette shirt and cashmere sweater, left the room, motioning for the two guards to take Poison Ivy back to her own cell.
As Helena walked back to her office, her stiletto heels clicking and clacking on the linoleum floors of Arkham's corridors, her mind flashed back to just a couple of months ago. When all of this mess had begun, all of the mess which had caused Helena to pack her bags and leave sunny, peaceful Coast City for the darker, more Gothic Gotham.
Helena had just returned from finishing up her PhD in Criminal Psychology in London, and had moved back to Coast City to be once more with her parents, former private eye Slam Bradley, and her mother, former thief and now sparkling socialite Selina Kyle-Bradley, while she figured out what next to do with her life. Having grown up in London, spending only the winters and summers with her parents, Helena didn't know much about their lives before Coast City, of who they had been, or where they had come from. She just had a happy little picture of her tough-talking, as yet young- looking and ultra-debonair father, and her cat and diamonds obsessed mother. This image had shattered when she moved back.
One night, her first week in Coast City, Selina had a visitor who, it had seemed to Helena, was very intimate with the charming sophisticate. He had introduced himself to Helena, who had answered the door of her parent's over-sized, plush California mansion, as and old friend named Stewart Kern. Helena had summoned her maid, a woman named Allana who had traveled with Helena all the way back from England, to summon Selina into the formal living room. Allana went to do so while Helena showed him the way. After leaving him in the sage, vanilla, and caramel colored room, Helena had taken her leave of him, leaving her mother to do her socializing.
The incident was forgotten after a few days, when all had resumed living their lives of luxury and contentment. Selina and Slam were busy with their social lives, and Helena was trying to find a position somewhere so that she could move on with her life. Then, suddenly, one day Selina announced that she would be going to Gotham City for an important social benefit. Helena and Slam had both insisted that one of them, if not both, join her on this trip as they were, by blood, Gothamites. Selina had politely refused and had left one sunny, ultra-Californian Thursday morning.
It was two days later, on Saturday night, that the news had reached them. The national news was reporting the death of Catwoman. Slam was stunned and shocked, knowing full well what this meant. The news didn't matter so much to Helena until her father sat her down and explained to her who Catwoman truly was. Helena was at first stunned, shocked, and disbelieving. But she didn't know Selina well enough to truly be able to say, "But that was definitely not in her character."
Slam knew Selina though. He knew her almost as well as the caped crusader known as the Batman knew her. But he, too, was in disbelief over Selina's sudden re-emergence in the mantle of the cat. He realized, then, that he shouldn't have been. Catwoman had always been a core part of Selina, so much so that Selina herself had once confessed that she didn't know where Catwoman began and Selina Kyle ended, because one had lost herself so much in the other. But realizing that one day Selina would have put on the mask and suit anyway didn't help getting over her death (her murder?) any easier. It made it all the more harder because he realized that, no matter what; he would have never been able to stop Selina from doing what she wanted.
Slam, overwrought by Selina's death, lost himself in misery and grief. Helena, although she mourned, had the inner workings of her mind churning faster than the speed of the Flash. There was more to Selina's death here, Helena instinctively knew, and since her father was too overwrought, and perhaps too old, to deal with this mystery, she knew all too well that she wasn't. Helena knew that she had to solve the mystery surrounding her mother's death, and along with that, find out who her mother had truly been.
Set with resolve, Helena set out to learn all about Gotham City. She read up on all of her history, the stories concerning No Man's Land, which had been like Gotham's exile from civilization; the stories of Batman, Nightwing, Robin, and the others who protected Gotham City from the thundering psychopaths that seemed to be born in that city day after day. She also learned of Arkham Asylum, where the most criminally insane and psychologically damaged were kept. The Asylum, that was her key to starting to unravel the whole mystery. That was the key to making a move to Gotham City. And so, Helena sent in her resume and was given a position within a week. Helena left Coast City, and her father Slam (who was now in the care of her half-brother Sammy) after two weeks, and moved into a trendy but tiny apartment on Gotham's Upper East Side. Looking into the history of the apartment, she had noticed that this very apartment had been lived in by a woman named Comrade Kitanya Menya Tatania Kirenski Alisov, an alias of Selina's, as Helena had learned from the extensive files of Catwoman that her father had kept in his library. It seemed to be the perfect place to start a life in Gotham, as well as her hunt for Selina's killer.
Helena started her job at Arkham on her third day in Gotham, after getting perfectly settled into her apartment. She quickly bought herself a car (a sleek Maserati), a set of designer work clothes, and a membership at the nearest gym before beginning work.
On her first day, she had gone through all of the files that Arkham had to offer in an attempt to see if her mother had any connections within Arkham Asylum. Anyone who had been an ally, or anyone who had been an enemy. The first names to pop up had been Two-Face, the Penguin, and Poison Ivy. But Two-Face had reformed years ago, and the Penguin had been assassinated by (it was suspected) a man named Lex Luthor. In any case, Helena had taken Poison Ivy as her first lead, learning as she had that Ivy and Catwoman had had years of rivalry and hatred between the two of them.
Opening the door to her office, and taking a seat in her plush leather chair, Helena thought back to that first fateful meeting of hers with Dr. Pamela Isley, and how chilling it had been...
Writer's Note: Hey all, this is my first attempt at a DCU-related fan fic, so all feedback is appreciated and asked for, whether they're positive of flamers! Thanks a lot, all!