Author's note: Trigger warning, like the previous character, this character contains scenes of torture. Please skip if this makes you uncomfortable.
Special thanks to Princesspopular6417 for helping me come up with this chapter's title.
Please enjoy.
Chapter 6
I Will Survive
Lois tossed and turned on the rotten mattress as she tried to find the right way to get comfortable. Her cuts and bruises were still irritated from yesterday. The sudden rattle of the door handle fully awoke her. She shot up as the door opened as Joker came in with a large bucket of ice water.
"What's that for?" she finally asked with a cracking voice.
Joker smiled and bent down to the petrified woman. "I just want to see how long you could survive in cold water." He then grabbed the back of her head and forced her face into the bucket.
The ice froze Lois' face enough to draw the color from her cheeks. She struggled to free herself as the air in her lungs ran thin. Joker just grinned as bubbles quickly surfaced while his victim tried to suck absent air into her lungs. After five minutes, just as she was close to drowning, Joker released her, and Lois whipped her head out for air. Color slowly came back to her cheeks with every breath.
"Hmm, impressive. I must say, you lasted longer than I expected," he congratulated her. Lois didn't hear what he had said, she was too busy breathing. "Now that you're done with your warm-up, we can begin the real fun."
"Please don't beat me again," Lois tearfully pled.
"Beat you? I won't beat you, after all, there's more than one way to break an egg," he remarked.
"Wha-what are you going to-o d-do to me?" Lois stuttered in fear.
"Now, Ms. Lane, do you really want me to ruin the surprise for you? Hmm? Now, get up times a ticking." Lois slowly stood up. "Now, let's go," Joker commanded more forcefully, but Lois didn't dare move. "Come on Lois. Don't you want some fun?"
"No!" she shouted before she could cover her mouth with her hand.
He glared at her. Lois didn't dare make a noise as the psychopath swung his arm up. Joker grabbed her ear and twisted it like a parent would to a disobedient child, she screamed in pain.
"Don't ever speak like that to me again!" he yelled, "Understand?"
Lois whimpered in agreement.
He released her and then spoke in a calm voice, "Now then, Lois, I'll make you a promise. If you can behave and finish all my tests today, I'll give you a present."
"What is it?" she warily asked.
"Oh, you'll see," he grinned cruelly. "Now let's have some fun."
He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her down a hallway to a new large room. As they passed one of the rooms, Lois thought she heard a bubbling noise, which made her nervous, something her captor noticed.
"Don't worry, what's behind those doors isn't for you... yet."
After some more walking, they arrived at a large room filled with many contraptions that were made to break the spirit of even the toughest person. In the room was a large roulette wheel that had some forms of torture written down. Joker dragged Lois to it and handed her over to two of his goons as he spun the wheel.
"Now let's see what you'll be doing first?" He giddily asked, a hint of his cruel nature only hinted at with his actions. The wheel stopped at the slot that read "Shock Quiz". "Oh goody, one of my favorites."
He walked over to an electric chair, with the goons carrying Lois over against her protestations. Joker strapped her in the chair and lowered the helmet onto her head, before making his way to a comically large power switch.
"Now, Lois, this is simple. I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Every time you get one wrong, I pull the switch. Understand?" Before Lois could answer Joker spoke again (he continued). "Good. let's begin." He took out a set of white cards from his inner jacket pocket. "Question one: Who was the man to discover Elephants?"
Lois had no idea who it was.
"Oh, I'm sorry times up." He pulled the switch and Lois screamed in agony as non-lethal bolts of electricity shot through her body. After seven seconds Joker turned it off. "Question two: Name the three greatest villains of all time."
"You, Lex…" she answered before being shocked again.
"Incorrect. I'm the only villain in the top three." Joker said as he turned off the electricity.
"Question three: Who is the biggest slut in all of Gotham?" Joker asked.
"Lana Lang," she pettily sneered, gritting her teeth for the shock.
Joker almost pulled the switch when an idea came to him. "You're absolutely correct."
Much to Lois' surprise, she was sure that the answer would be either Harley Quinn or Poison Ivy, given they were the women that Joker hated most of all.
Joker beamed. "Although you can't blame every man for wanting to get in her knickers…" he paused, "…, especially Clark."
Her left eye twitched in response.
For the next hour, Joker asked near-impossible questions and gave his potential Harley replacement a nasty shock when she couldn't answer them, but every so often asked a question that would make Lois answer Lana Lang then he would say something about Lana and Clark being an item, knowing it would add fuel to the ever-growing fire of hatred in her.
Once he was done with the questions, he unstrapped Lois and brought her back to the wheel, with the two goons holding her in place. Joker spun the wheel again, this time it landed on the slot that read laughing den. He grinned as he took Lois to a door. Opening the door revealed a smaller lightless room that housed three hyenas, one female, and the other two male.
"I thought you only had two?" she asked in an uneasy tone.
"I did, unfortunately, Lou and Bud are Harley's now," Joker bitterly explained before continuing in a calmer voice. "These are Whoopi, Cheech, and Jim." The three hyenas looked at their master, laughing as they did so. "Now I want you to get acquainted with them."
"WHAT!" Lois shouted.
Joker pushed her into the room and locked the door. "I think four hours will do. Make sure she doesn't escape." He told his two goons.
"Yes, boss," one responded
The Clown Prince left the factory to take a walk in the shadows of Gotham where he was less likely to be spotted by Superman.
In the small room, Lois shuddered in the corner not daring to blink in case the hyenas attacked her. Their eyes glowed bright yellow in the dark, menacingly glimmering as they studied her. As she watched them she began to notice their personalities.
Whoopi was the leader of the pack. She was the largest and most aggressive, often putting the other two in their place. Cheech was the middle hyena of the pack. He seemed to be a fighter given he had serval scars on his shoulders and face. Jim was the smallest of the three. He often had his tongue sticking out on the right side of his mouth and seemed to never stop laughing.
Lois whimpered as the three spotted hyenas came closer to her, baring their sharp teeth. "Nice hyenas," she tried as Whoopi came just inches away from her.
Suddenly Cheech lunged toward Lois. The helpless human shut her eyes, but before Cheech had even reached her throat, Whoopi grabbed him by the jaw and the two hyenas began to fight. Jim watched them, laughing whilst doing so.
Harley in red and black civilian clothes walked her hyenas around the park. Passersby gave worried looks as the hyenas sniffed the ground. Just then a man recognized her.
"Hey, I know you?" a tall skinny man with glasses called out. "Your Joker's ex-girlfriend."
"Oh yeah," Harley said in a sorrowful tone.
Bud and Lou snarled at the man.
"Are your pets ok?"
"Oh, they're just hungry," she said coldly. "I would start running if I was you." The man turned and ran away as fast as he could. Bud and Lou stopped snarling and gave their mistress a sympathetic look. "Thanks, boys, mummy's lucky to have you." Harley bent down and hugged her hyenas.
Bud and Lou lovingly licked her face.
"Ok, ok," she laughed.
The three returned to their walk with the hyenas pulling to get to a nearby lamppost to do their business, knowing that their mistress's girlfriend won't like them doing it on any form of plant life.
Back at the factory, Lois had been locked in the room with the Whoopi, Cheech, and Jim for six hours, however, the hyenas hadn't been able to attack her since they kept fighting amongst themselves. Joker finally returned and unlocked the door. Once it was opened Lois rushed out and he locked the door behind her before the hyenas could escape.
"Sorry I lost track of time," he said smugly.
"Please tell me we're done."
"Not yet, there's still one more test."
The two goons brought Lois back to the wheel. Joker spun it again, this time it landed on 'Obstacle Course of Death'. Lois' eyes widened in horror as she was lead to a large obstacle court made up of several razor-sharp devices.
"You have three minutes," Joker said. "Fail and you'll die."
"I'll never survive!"
He laughed, "Well, we'll never know if you try."
Knowing that she had no choice in the matter, Lois entered the death court as Joker hang up a pistol in the air.
"On your mark. Get set. GO!" Joker said as he fired the starter gun.
Lois ran as fast as she could until she reached the first obstacle which was a large whirling wheel with eleven sharp swords in its twelve slots. She looked nervously as she tried to time her jump through. After waiting a while she finally vaulted over the wheel with one of the swords nearly catching her leg. Once on the other side, she ran until she came to the next obstacle. She had to cross a very narrow bridge that had three pendulum blades with a pool of red-bellied piranhas below who had been starved by Joker to make them extra vicious. Lois gulped and slowly made her way across the thin bridge as the piranhas eyed her. Joker looked at his stopwatch, she had only two minutes left. Just then a third goon came into the room with a box in his hands.
"Do you have it?" Joker asked him.
"Kind of, I couldn't get the one you wanted but I found something similar."
Joker gave him a neutral expression opened the box and looked at the gift. To the goon's surprise, Joker didn't get angry, instead, he smiled.
"Oh, this is even better," he gleefully murmured. "Now let's see how my new Harley is coming along."
Lois was halfway across the bridge when she saw Joker. He showed her the stopwatch reminding her that she was running short on time. She quickly, but carefully, crossed the bridge but nearly got cut by the blade. Lois ran the last leg of the court and arrived at the final obstacle. There was a large row of metal spikes that shot out of the ground if stepped on the wrong spot. She gulped, knowing she would have to rush this obstacle especially now that there were only thirty seconds left.
"Lana would have been done by now," Joker mocked her.
That was the motivation Lois needed. She closed her eyes and ran as fast as she possibly could, nearly getting pierced by the spikes several times. With half a second left Lois just managed to finish the obstacle course. She gasped for air once she stopped. Her legs could barely hold her up as every muscle ached.
Joker clapped slowly as he approached her. Lois turned to look at him.
"Congratulations Lois, you did it. Now, here's my present to you." Joker said as he handed her someone clothing.
She was shocked by the black and red outfit. In her hands was a pair of dual-color shorts with three diamond symbols on the front of the red fabric. There was a revealing bikini top of the same pattern that dawned a black diamond and a red star on opposing color sides. The final item in the pile was a pair of heels, of either color.
"I was going to get you a jesters costume but I think this will fit your personality better," Joker said in a calm voice.
Lois didn't want to say anything, although she had to admit the new outfit would make a nice Halloween costume. She hated the idea of wearing something this revealing for someone like Joker, though.
"Now, I'll be generous this one time, Lois, but when I next see you I expect you to be in that outfit and only that one," he sternly enforced. He then leaned in close until his face was just inches away from hers. "Understand?" Lois nodded and whimpered a timid yes. "Good," Joker said. He lead her back to her room and pushed her in. "Night Lois."
"Night Joker," Lois responded. Once the door closed, she began to change.
Outside Joker approached a room with only a wooden chair and desk. He sat down and began to plot his next form of torture for his new Harley. He knew he would have to bring out the big guns, metaphorically, if he was going to break her for good. He couldn't risk her leaving him as the original Harley did. He realized the reason why Harley had been able to escape him was that there was still some kindness in the former psychiatrist. She was a rogue at heart and wouldn't hesitate to cause trouble for Batman or any other hero for that matter, but she still had her morals.
This time Joker would make sure that his new girlfriend would be just as twisted and evil as him.
Author's note: Lois' new outfit is based on Harley Quinn's from the 2019 show of the same name.
Also, can anyone spot the reference to the three new hyenas' names?
