….::::Tessa's POV::::….
It was a one of those classic Gotham winter nights; a sheet of pure white covered the cityscape, the soft sound of the late night traffic and the occasional blare of a police siren. All in all, it was a calm night when I heard a soft knocking noise on the other side of my bedroom door. I slowly lifted myself up out of bed, out of my train of thought and made my way to my door. On the other side of the door, was my brother, trying so very hard not to yawn.
"Ben, what's wrong"? I spoke softly. He looked around nervously, down at his feet, then his eyes returned to mine.
"Did you need any help tonight" He questions me quickly. I shake my head slowly. Realising then that I wasn't going to let up, he sighed.
"I had another nightmare" he signed. I smiled down at him gently, took his hand like I used to when we were younger and led him back into his room. I gestured for him to get into bed and pulled his blankets up to his neck and tucked him in. I grabbed his desk chair and pulled it over to his bed. I sat down and gently pushed his unruly dirty blonde hair from his eyes.
"There, nothing bad is going to happen, I promise" I whispered. I kissed his forehead and started to get up when I felt a tug on my sleeve. I turned to look at his dark blue eyes. His eyes pleaded for something, something that I haven't seen in a long time. He slowly sat up right and looked me in the eyes.
"Can you please sing to me Tessa?" He signed. He stared at me with his dark ocean blue eyes, pulling off his award winning puppy dog eyes yet again. I quietly sighed, leaned back in the chair and began to sing no louder than a whisper.
"I see the moon, the moon sees me Over the mountain, over the sea, I hear the lark, the lark hears me Over the mountains, over the sea
shining through the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.
singing from the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love,
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love."
As I came to the ending of the lullaby, I noticed that Ben's eyes were closed and the doona cover was slowly rising and falling with the slow intakes of air, hinting that he had fallen asleep. I smiled down at him, remembering what our family was like before mom went on her rampage, just after she got counselling. We were a happy family, until dad was killed, and mom lost it. She was taken to a mental asylum shortly after being convicted 'mentally insane'. That was the last that we had heard from her until two years later when we were contacted by the director of the institute, who informed us of her passing. All she left was an envelope, nothing else, saying that we were to open it on Ben's thirteenth birthday. It's like she half knew that if she wrote a similar thing for my birthday on the envelope, I wouldn't open it. Maybe she was starting to go sane after all, who knows…
I lifted myself out of the old wooden desk chair, walked to my room and shut the door. I looked at the clock and smiled, Night Job time and I loved every second of it.
~20 minutes later~
Okay, so maybe not every second of the job, but good comes with the bad. Right? I kept telling myself that as I dodged yet another punch to the face by some unknown shady henchmen. I had to admit, this guy may have had some training, not like the usual guys who are just hired because they look big and intimidating. I ducked to avoid another punch and spun on my left foot, with my right leg tripping the man, causing him to fall on his back. I readied my fist for a final knock-out punch when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. Someone pulled my hair! I thought.I couldn't believe it, so I sharply turned and punched the culprit in the face. He fell to the ground with a satisfying thud, and I turned my attention to the guy that was on the ground, but was gone from sight. I sighed in frustration, how could I have let him get away! How did I not realise that he had friends as well, I really am off my game. I slowly made my way past the unconscious henchmen and inside the boatyard warehouse. I was quite annoyed at myself at the fact that I completely missed the henchmen outside. I made my way to a shadowed area behind massive wooden crates and looked towards two more henchmen.
"Mikey" one henchmen addressed the other. "Boss said to switch, I'm here to relieve you, He said to go in and collect your payment".
"Alright then, see ya soon alright" 'Mikey' said.
I giggled to myself. Either these guys don't know how to be quiet, or this is obviously a trap for people like me. Oh well, only one way to find out!
҉ Arya's POV ҉
Life is great! Don't you agree? I mean maybe you have never felt like this before. You know that feeling you get, when you have something special, like a piece of jewellery or a clothing item. Well that's how I feel when I put on the suit, not just any suit, the suit. The red and black outfit that none other than the Harley Quinn wore. Well it's not exactly the same as hers; I've made a few adjustments. Like it's not a full body suit any more, it is a lose skirt that sits on my hips and stops mid-thigh with a white belt around its top, the top is divided into two down the middle, one side red the other black just like my skirt except the colours are switched around. Anyway the top is strapless and has the Harley three diamond symbol on my left breast in red. The sleeves are long gloves that stop under my armpits where a trim of whit is situated, but the gloves doesn't cover my fingers just go into a point at my middle finger where a loop is situated so the gloves don't fall off. My boots are all black and go to my knee, they are high heels and the actual heel bits are red, at the tips of my boots are little trims of white. Around my neck I wear a white chocker, and my hair is in two high pigtails with one black ribbon in one, and a red one in the other and too top off the outfit I have a simple black mask, no white makeup on or anything, just a mask. This new and improved outfit is to fit in with the new and improved Haley Quinn, me, the new Jokers side kick, and just for kicks I even changed my name a bit too Harlequin.
Anyway, so I am so in the moment right now, admiring myself in the oversized mirror situated in the middle of the warehouse. I look amazing, I smile, I then start to spin around the room and start laughing in the process.
"Harlie, what the hell do you think you are doing?!" I hear from behind me. Uh oh, I think this is going to be bad.
"Umm, twirling around?" I reply, but my voice is really high pitched due to the fact that I am so scared at the moment.
"Ugh, what have I told about staying focused!" the Joker said a bit more softly.
You see, this Joker is not the original Joker. No, he died awhile back. But this guy was implanted with some kind of chip to make him think and feel like the original Joker. But when the chip was removed, he had already gone insane and now he believes he is the Joker, only new and improved. He is one of my best friends, and as a bonus he doesn't hurt me like the original Joker did to the original Harley Quinn.
"Sorry, puddin'!" I say, well I still like to keep up appearances don't I.
I start giggling again as I continue spinning.
"Tick tock, tick tock, when is my little spy coming to the party?" Joker says, just as he spoke a big muscly man walks through the big steel door. I pause from what I am doing and run up next to the Joker. Joker makes a weird face, as he tries to remember who this person is.
"He is one of the guys you're hiring to guard the place, remember?" I whisper into his ear, the whole time my eyes are still on this guy. "Mikey, I think his name is".
"Oh, yes you, you're the one from outside aren't you? Yes I remember, what are you doing in here anyway?"
'Mikey' all of a sudden turns rather pale at the sight of the Joker, I don't think he thought he would meet the most crazy villain in all of Gotham.
"Errmm, well, I was wondering whether… you know…. I'm gonna get paid for this right?" Stuttered 'Mikey'.
Uh oh, this guy is gonna be in for it now, I think with a slight smirk on my face.
…:::Tessa's POV:::…
I quietly snuck around until I heard a noise coming from over the other side of the wall of wooden crates. I made my way up the side of the wooden wall and listened closely with my head peeking out from the shadows.
"Tick tock, tick tock, when is my little spy coming to the party, Oh, yes you, you're the one from outside aren't you? Yes I remember, what are you doing in here anyway?" The Joker asked impatiently. So that's who I'll be working for, explains the whole note on the back of a playing card I found earlier.
"Errmm, well, I was wondering whether… you know…. I'm gonna get paid for this right?" Stuttered 'Mikey'. So the Joker is the so called Boss, It's all making sense now. The Joker slowly walked up to 'Mikey' and grabbed the collar of his shirt. He looked him up and down and, without a care in the world, tossed him aside.
"Harlie!" He yelled. "I want you to keep lookout for the new kid, I'm going to be in my office dealing with big people stuff, Bring the kid in when they turn up" and with that, he stalked off out of the room. I slowly made my way down the front of the wooden crates and into the moon light of the warehouse. I cautiously stepped over 'Mikey' who by the looks of it, was knocked out cold from when the Joker had threw him, when I saw a girl step out from the shadows. She had her hair in two blonde bouncy pigtails, she wore a skirt which was red on one side, and black on the other, her shirt was a mid-drift with long sleeves. The shirt was half black and red too but the colours were on the opposite side to the skirt. She wore a black mask, with two ribbons in her hair, and a white chocker around her neck. And finally her high heeled boots went to her knees and each boot was blackwith the tips trimmed white. So that's the new Harlequin, Interesting. She looked at me straight in the eyes then looked down to my feet then back up to my eyes again. She smirked at me and I swear that I saw a familiar mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Yay, a girl" She cried. "I swear if you were a boy I would have freaked!" I smiled and gave her an agreeing wink.
҉ Arya's POV ҉
A girl, another girl! Is all I can think about, bouncing up and down where I am standing. As soon as I had seen her I was ecstatic, after our little exchange I had grabbed her hand and dragged her to the back of the warehouse where a little office is situated. I burst in with her, not knocking, the Joker had nearly fallen out of his chair and I swear he was going to yell at me till he laid eyes on the new girl.
"Ah, I see our company has arrived" Joker said mischievously.
I turned to the girl and saw she had a worried look on her face.
I told her this, "Don't worry, he's not gonna hurt ya, I'm Harlequin by the way"
The girl turned to me and smiled thankfully for my attempt at reassuring her.
"I'm Shewolf" she signed with her hands.
Oh my god, she signs, this is gonna be brilliant we are going to be the best of friends. You see I learnt how to sign because my Aunt was a mute, she was my favourite Aunt and she passed away before I could try communicating with her. So you can believe my enthusiasm.
She just nodded and her grin just got bigger.
"Well I see you too ladies are getting along, good because you two have to do something very important for me" says the sinister voice that is all too familiar to me.