Hey, guys. I'm back. Listen, I might have to put the story on a bit of a hiatus after Halloween. I have to finish the sixth chapter, and with my current timetable, that can only happen around either Thanksgiving or the start of December. But don't worry, for Halloween, you guys are in for a big treat in the form of an extra long chapter.
Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing this far. It gives me great joy that everyone is enjoying these stories so much.
By the way, since I have never seen a full map of the Asylum in either the comics or the animated series, I'm using what I remember from the Arkham Asylum game to map out the setting. Same thing for Gotham city with the Arkham City map. So, if I get anything wrong, I'm sorry.
Anyway, enough about me. Read on, my fellow viewers! The story awaits!
Becky awoke to find herself back in the foggy forest of her dreams. Right back where I started, she thought, annoyed by the circular nature of her dreams. Every night, save her first, started her right back here, and every night she was confronted by the same mysterious figure masquerading in her costume.
She started walking, although she had no idea which direction she was going or where she was supposed to be headed.
As she wandered, she wondered where her doppelganger was going to pop up this time. Each time she dreamed the costume seemed to appear farther away from where she started. It was frustrating, but she supposed dreams weren't supposed to make sense, anyway.
She was just about to stop and go in another direction when she stumbled upon the costume in front of her.
"Well, about time I found you!" Becky exclaimed, her hands on her hips. "Now, what exactly do you want?"
The costume was silent, floating in front of her as if it was being blown by a soft breeze.
"Follow….me…." it seemed to whisper.
"What on earth are you, anyway?" she asked, reaching out her hand to touch it.
But just as she was about to touch it, the dreams shattered to pieces.
"DANG IT!" she shouted, startling the guard who was just about to wake her up.
"Oh, you're awake," he replied, surprised. Usually, except for Scarecrow some days, the inmates were usually still asleep by the time he got to them.
"Well, gee, how did you guess that?" she replied sarcastically, angrily rising to her feet. She was so close! If she was just a bit quicker, she could have caught that imposter in her costume. "Here," she snapped, thrusting her arms out in front of her. "Let's just get this over with."
When Becky finally arrived at the Dr. Leland's office, her nerves were fried. Her thoughts kept going in circles and she could barely focus on what the psychiatrist was saying.
"Ms. Albright? Dr. Leland asked, hoping to get her attention. She could tell by her posture and her clenched fists that the woman was stressed, and she needed for her patient to focus.
"What?" Becky snapped, startling the doctor, whose hand instinctively lowered to the security button beneath her desk. She never really had to use it all that often, but with the patients in maximum security, there was no telling what might happen on a day-to-day basis.
"I was just asking if you would like to sit down and have some tea," Leland said calmly, nudging a hot cup of chamomile tea towards her.
Becky's blinked, lowering her eyes. "Oh. Thank you." She sat down slowly, putting the warm cup of tea to her lips. "Sorry about the outburst."
"I understand. I can see that you are very stressed this morning. Would you care to share what is troubling you?"
She sighed, her finger lightly skimming the rim of the cup. "I don't know. I've just been rather stressed. To be honest, I've been having some troubling dreams lately."
Dr. Leland let out a sigh of contemplation. "And what exactly is troubling you in these dreams?"
Becky looked down, then around at the clock and back again to the ground, not meeting the therapist's eyes. She had no idea what her dreams meant or why she was having them. Every time seemed to be in a different situation and each time she met her doppelganger was in a foggy forest. But that was the only thing each of her dreams shared. Everything else was a jumbled mess. " I don't know," she said after a few minutes of silence, her arms crossed.
A small frown appeared on Dr. Leland's face. "Becky, I can't help you with your dreams if you don't tell me what they are about?"
The criminal just growled with frustration at the doctor. "That's the problem. I don't know. All that I know is that every night I see a figure wearing my costume floating in front of me, and every time I try to lift the mask to discover its identity, I'm instantly awoken. It's very frustrating." She rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I feel like it's taunting me."
"Hmm," Dr. Leland muttered, writing the dream down in her notes. "I see." Taking another note from her clipboard, she wrote something down before unclipping it and handing it to Becky.
Becky looked at the note, one eyebrow raised. "What's this?" she asked, trying to read the scrawled handwriting.
"I don't normally do this, but this note is permission for you to be escorted to the Botanical Garden in Arkham East. I believe that may help to relieve some of the stress that has been building up over the past few nights. Give this to the guards once this session ends."
Becky looked down at the note, and started to smile. "Thanks, doc. I didn't really think that you would do this for me."
"Your welcome, Becky," she replied. "Consider it a reward for good behavior." She glanced at the clock. "Now then, I believe our session is over."
Becky nodded, slowly rising from her seat. "Thank you for the pass," she said as the guards opened the door for her and lead her out.
The wintery air was cold and nippy by the time Becky was outside. She shivered, her light jumpsuit not made for the biting cold of the outside. The guards led her along by her handcuffs, tugging her along as she tried to keep up. She could tell by the way they moved and their posture that they were anxious to get her to her destination.
It's funny that I've got two tall, muscular men escorting me and they're the ones that are anxious, she thought, silently chuckling at the irony. It's as if they think I'm going to break out and kill them at any second.
As they came to a terminal, the guard in front of her flashed his credentials. After a few brief moments, the steel door slid open and the three were marched through to the other side.
After another terminal, they had finally arrived at the east end of the island. Becky glanced over at the towering statue in front of her.
Man, what an eyesore, she thought, looking at the statue with disgust. It's just praying to be targeting.
Behind the statue was the records office as well as the main offices of the administrators and the warden. The place, like much of Arkham, looked run down, the walls crawling with climbing ivy and the cement cracked in many places. It had definitely seen better days.
Soon, they came upon another building, this one much larger and much more modern than the old office buildings. It looked like a giant greenhouse, with glass windows all around to let the sunlight in. While she couldn't see much inside thanks to the opaque windows, she knew there were probably tons of plants in there. Becky had a feeling that this was the garden.
The two guards slowly opened the doors and were assaulted by a wave of pollen. They coughed, before suddenly starting to relax, their grip on Becky's chain loosening, allowing the woman to easily tug her chains away from them.
She looked at them and the dazed, lazy expressions in their eyes. "That's odd," she muttered to herself, waving a hand in front of their faces. They didn't respond, only continuing to stare off with a wide smile on their faces.
"Don't bother, Becky. They're in too much bliss to even notice you."
Becky turned around, and saw Poison Ivy lounging among the plants, her form almost indistinguishable from the lush plant life surrounding her.
"I'm actually surprised you're here. Not many people come out to the garden anymore. A shame, really," she mused.
"I'm actually more surprised that you're here. I doubt the doctors gave you permission to be here," Becky replied, a small smirk on her face.
Ivy giggled. "Maybe. But when you're beautiful and have the power to release pheromones to make men obey you're every whim, you can pretty much go anywhere you want."
"Heh, lucky you," she replied, taking a step towards the woman, only to wince at the sound of the chains rattling against the floor. "Um, is there a way you can get these things off of me? They make such an awful racket."
"Sure," Ivy said, shrugging nonchalantly. With a flick of her wrist, a vine twisted up from one of the old trees and worked its way to Becky's shackles, unlocking them, causing them to fall off and onto the floor with a clatter.
"Thanks," Becky said, rubbing the circulation back into her wrists, the red marks showing where the shackles had dug into her skin. "So, yeah, how have you been doing, Ivy?"
"As fine as I can be in the middle of winter," she said, stretching out her limbs to a more relaxed position. "But enough about me, what about you? I heard through the grapevine that you and Dr. Strawman got together."
"What?! H-How on earth do you know about that?" She screeched, her face blushing red before her hand curled into a fist. Riddler. She knew it. "I swear, if it was the Riddler…!"
Ivy laughed, her hand covering her mouth to quiet her giggles. "Not quite. I've suspected as much for a while. Although if that's the case, I can see why he's been so agitated lately. It must be killing him not to tell. But I found out from the newsfeed of you clinging to his body the night of the Scarebeast attack."
"Oh," Becky replied, her face red with embarrassment. Not that she was embarrassed for hugging him, far from it, but she had not known it had been taped. As far as she had known, there were no helicopters in the area during the attack, and any newscasters down below wouldn't have caught it due to the massive fog of fear gas. "How many people know?"
"So far? Just Harley, Riddler, and me. Most of the others don't bother watching the news unless it features them as the star of the show."
"Hmm, interesting," muttered Becky, before deciding to change the subject. "So, Dr. Leland sent me here so that I could relax. Is there any kind of flower to help with that?"
Ivy smiled. It was so rare to find someone that was willing to talk with her about her precious babies. "Of course. Come right this way," she said, leading Becky deeper into the garden. Along the way, Becky couldn't help but start to admire all the color around her. After three days of seeing nothing but the same white, grey, black, and sometimes orange, it was nice to see the vibrant blues, greens, and reds of the flowers around her.
As they found a seat between some jasmine and honeysuckle, Ivy was happy to tell her all about the plants surrounding her and their therapeutic effects.
This lasted about two hours before Becky decided to interrupt her. "Um, Ivy…"
Ivy stopped midsentence, "Yes, what is it?" she replied snippily, not liking to be interrupted in the middle of telling her the wonders the aloe plant did for the skin.
"As much as I like hearing about plants, I have to get back. The others will start to wonder if I had tried to escape," Becky said, trying to find an excuse to go without hurting Ivy's feelings. She could tell that the ex-botanist was very passionate about her work, but if she had to hear about the properties of jasmine and aloe one more time, there was going to blood, or, in Ivy's case, sap.
Ivy frowned. "If you must," she sighed, disappointed. Then, she remembered something. "Oh, before you go, Crane asked me to give you this."
Becky held out her hand as Ivy dropped a small sheet of paper wrapped around a small vial into her hand. She unwrapped the paper from the vial, staring with confusion at the bright green powder at the bottom. "What's this, Ivy?"
Ivy grinned. "Oh, just a little something for you and Johnny. Have fun tonight."
Becky blanched, her face reddening as she shoved it towards Ivy like it was a loaded bomb. "Ivy!"
The plant woman laughed as Becky glared at her. With a huff, she unrolled the piece of paper.
It only said four words, written in bright red crayon:
Breakout Tonight. Be Ready. –JC
