Diana wasn't quite sure what to make of Poison Ivy.
From all of the stories she had heard from Batman, she had expected a woman on the brink of total insanity. Sure, her moods felt unpredictable at times, but that came with the territory of working in a high stress situation with a stranger.
She had slept easily in Ivy's home. It was filled with vines and ferns, reminding Diana of her home on Themyscira. It was even raining softly when she woke up again. Checking the watch she kept under her armor she found it was about nine at night. It was dark out, but some of Ivy's plants were under growing lights that still dimly illuminated the room.
It wasn't exactly the lair she had assumed it would be. The living area looked almost normal, with a sofa and a small tv and coffee table. Walls of plants and gardening supplies kept the room full, but not uncomfortably cramped, and rain pattered on the large skylight above her head. Feeling a little restless at the quaintness of the villainess' home, Diana stood and began to examine the plants surrounding her.
There were some that she recognized, but most were completely foreign to her. Knowing the woman was famous for her poisons, she refrained from touching anything. Diana found her way into the kitchen and was once again surprised at how normal it was. There was a fridge, a sink, a stove… it was just a normal kitchen.
As she re-entered the living room, she felt as if something had changed. It appeared as if the plant life had perked up. Some of the flowers had opened slightly and entire bushes seemed to stand taller than moments before.
Before she could even wonder at this, Ivy entered the room. The redhead's eyes were trained on the couch, but when she realized Diana wasn't there, she looked about the room, finally finding the Amazon before the kitchen.
"Are you hungry? Feel free to take whatever you want from the fridge." Ivy offered.
"I'm well, thank you." Diana moved to meet her at the center of the room. "When would you like to leave?"
"As soon as I have a shower." The woman stretched and popped her shoulders, rolling them slightly as she spoke. "You can take one as well once I'm done."
Diana was surprised at how casual Ivy was speaking now. The woman's lover was in danger. She had been so worried only hours before. "We should hurry, shouldn't we? I'll contact the league and have them send my invisible jet out to us right away."
"Diana, whoever took Harley isn't expecting this to be a very fast game. We have some time to gather ourselves. Plan our next move."
"And that move is a shower?"
"No, our next move is to get to Germany. The shower is the 'gathering' part."
Seemingly done with their debate, Ivy turned on her heel and retreated into the back room. Despite how nonchalant she had been, the redhead took a fast shower and all but bullied Diana into the bathroom while the air was still hot and thick with moisture.
The Amazon was wary of some of the products Ivy had, which all seemed to be home made, but they admittedly smelled delightful and felt amazing against her skin. Diana hated to admit it, but she wasn't always the best at self-care. She had just returned to the League from a weeklong search and rescue mission in the Philippines after a volcano erupted when she received the letter about Harley and hadn't given rest a second thought since.
When she stepped out of the shower, she found her armor missing.
After drying off a little and wrapping a towel around her waist, she went looking for Ivy, who had to have been the one to take it. She found the woman tending to her plants on the balcony.
"Ivy, what have you done with my armor?" Diana demanded, growing impatient with so many setbacks.
Ivy let out an annoyed huff and turned, but paused, her eyebrows lifting a little in surprise. It was then that Diana remembered the world outside Themyscira did not approve of bare breasts. She tried crossing her arms to cover herself for the woman's comfort, but it was apparently not needed.
Once the surprise wore off, Ivy didn't seem to mind, meeting her eyes easily. "It was disgusting. I took the liberty of washing it and placing it on the bed. You must have completely missed it. Regardless, I'm ready to be off. Get dressed and we can get going."
Diana felt as if she had been dismissed, so after a moment she turned back to the bedroom to retrieve her armor. When she was dressing, she noticed her armor smelled fresh. Not like flowers or plants or the earthy scent that was faintly present under the foliage of the apartment, but fresh like the first time she had put it on. The fresh smell of Themysciran fabrics nearly brought a tear to her eye.
Once she was finished with this mission, she decided to plan a visit home. She had been gone far too long. She heard the familiar sounds of her invisible jet coming to a halt above the building and left to collect Ivy.
"What did you do to my armor?" Diana asked. When the redhead tilted her head a little, she clarified. "It smells like new."
"Oh, that. I've been toying with creating eco-friendly cleaning products to fund my side research. What I used on your armor will be hitting the market some time next year. It's supposed to destroy odor causing bacteria and leave no after scents." Ivy then let out a small laugh. "Brought my middleman to tears when it saved his unbearably smelly cowboy boots."
"It works well." Diana hadn't known the eco-terrorist had been dabbling in socially acceptable uses for her experiments. It made her feel a little easier in the green woman's presence. "Come, our ride is here."
Ivy grabs a small backpack from the sofa and the two head up to the jet, Diana using her gift of flight and the redhead using some of her vines. Once they were settled into the jet, the vines retreat and the two took off towards Germany.
"Do you know exactly where in Munich Sal and his wife went?" Diana asked over her shoulder.
"They went to see the maypole at the Viktualienmarkt first. I bet that's where our next clue will be." Ivy answered.
The flight was going to be a long one, and Diana prepared herself for ten hours of silent airtime given how their previous flights had gone. But then the woman surprised her.
"How did you come to know Harley?" Ivy asked.
"I happened to meet her while she was still apart of Amanda Waller's squadron."
"Her 'suicide squad', you mean?" The redhead's voice is bitter and hateful. Diana couldn't blame her. What Waller had done was twisted and inhumane.
"Yes. I was fighting a man that called himself Sorrow, a man whose face could kill with a single look. She looked right at his face and didn't even flinch. I came to respect her then, but we became friends during later encounters."
"I remember her telling me about that." Ivy hummed. "She said it was a face only a mother could love. Well, a mother and some bold Coney Island subway rats."
"I wouldn't know. I never looked at him." Diana admitted. "Harley Quinn is really something else."
Ivy lets out a soft sigh. "Yes, she truly is."
Diana nearly speaks before she thinks, but something still didn't make sense to her. Steeling herself, she asked her question, "How did you two become involved? You're so different from her, it's remarkable that you two get along in the first place."
She could practically feel green eyes glaring holes in the back of her head. "It's remarkable that you would get along with Harley, given that rod you have up your ass."
Diana felt her temper flare at that, but she did just ask a bit of an inflammatory question to a stranger. Still didn't help her control her own tone. "Forgive me if I've offended you. I was merely curious."
They sat in silence for a long while after that, but eventually the tension in the air faded over time. Diana was kicking herself internally, but she refused to spend the next ten hours in complete silence. She remembered how quickly Ivy had forgiven her before and took a chance.
"You said you've been working on eco friendly cleaning products? Is that a lucrative business?"
She could feel the pressure in the cockpit return to normal. "Depends on the business I work with. I just make the products, it's the business that markets and sells it for profit. I've made a tidy sum on some and haven't seen a dime on others."
This was a conversation Diana was sure they could carry safely. She asked the woman what made certain cleaning products ecofriendly, and how businesses contact her in the first place. The Amazon had a small amount of knowledge on business practices due to her title as Royal Ambassador to Themyscira, but she mostly listened to Ivy explain her part of the practice, occasionally throwing out a question here or there.
Their conversation barely lasted an hour though before they were both obviously tired of the subject. Diana set her jet to autopilot and let out a sigh.
"We could have slept on the way here instead of at your apartment."
"Diana, you were practically asleep on your feet. Besides, I don't sleep well on long flights." Ivy scoffed. "Tell me, how did an Amazonian warrior come into possession of an invisible jet?"
"Back in World War II a jet crashed landed on Themyscira. The pilot managed to fix it again and a magical blessing turned it invisible. The jet was given to me upon his death during the war."
Ivy was quiet for a moment. "Well, that doesn't add up. I thought you came to the US ten or so years ago?"
"I went back to Themyscira after the war." Diana took a long breath. "I… needed some time back home. I saw many atrocities back then."
"Were you good friends with the pilot?"
Diana hesitated before answering. "Yes. His name was Steve Trevor. He told me of the wars in the outside world, and I accompanied him back to help."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." Once again, the redhead surprised her. Her voice was gentle and understanding, and she didn't press any further.
"There isn't anything to forgive," Diana echoed Ivy's words from before. "You didn't know, and it wasn't a bad question to ask."
The flight to Munich was pleasant enough from there. They chatted back and forth about politics and business, steering fully clear from the former working relationship they had as enemies. Of course, ten hours was a long time to fill, so conversation lulled here and there, but it was never from boredom or annoyance.
Diana was sure Batman would be loathed to learn that Ivy was actually an enjoyable person to hold a conversation with- so long as she wasn't upset or angry.
They arrived in Munich at around two in the afternoon and landed the jet in a tree that Ivy grew to hold it up and out of the way of civilians. Luckily for Diana, the redhead thought ahead and had packed a few outfits that fit the Amazon well enough to hide her armor. After Ivy hid the color of her skin, they went out into the marketplace, which was teeming with people.
"This is a functioning marketplace, but it's also a tourist hotspot." Ivy explained as she tried to keep up with Diana's single-minded strides through the crowd.
Diana looked back to say something, but a group of men suddenly cut between them and Ivy vanished from her view. When the group passed, she could see the redhead was getting frustrated. Seeing an easy solution, Diana reached back and looped their arms together.
Ivy seemed startled, so she explained, "I'd rather not loose you in the crowd."
The woman nodded, and they made their way to the Maypole. They searched around it, but saw no letter or note or anything, and with so many people around they were getting shouldered and pushed around no matter where they moved.
"I'm not seeing anything." Diana had to raise her voice to Ivy could hear her. She looked to the redhead and was surprised to see Ivy looking incredibly uncomfortable. "Ivy?"
"Sorry," the woman shook her head. "not a fan of crowds."
Diana immediately felt horrible for not noticing sooner. She searched for a clearing in the crowd, and when she couldn't find one, she opted for the fastest option of reprieve. Gathering Ivy in her arms quickly, she jumped up and flew away from the crowd, startling the people surrounding them. Ivy held onto her tightly and shouted something about giving people warnings before picking them up, but Diana was suddenly more interested in the masked man on the roof of a nearby building, looking right at them and teasing her with a letter.
"We've found our guy." Diana warned Ivy as she followed the man, who had jumped down into an alley.
Unfortunately, he was gone by the time they arrived, but the letter was waiting for them.
910 acres of displaced beauty. Find the tower and ask for a drink.
Diana was just about fed up with these vague, impossible to solve hints.
"I know where this is." Ivy said as she took the letter.
"Of course, you do." The Amazon rubbed her brow. "I'm beginning to believe this game isn't really about Harley or me. She's just the bait that got you to play."
"I'm beginning to think that too." The redhead looked uncomfortable as she put the letter in her bag. "The English Garden is 910 acres. It's the biggest city park in all of Germany, and its probably talking about the Chinese tower, a massive pagoda. I've always wanted to go there. But if this is all about me, why am I the 'partner' in this game? How are you involved in any of this?"
"Ivy, I'm worried." Diana admitted, turning to Ivy and looking into her pretty green eyes. "Whoever this is knows intimate details about you and your friends. Do you have any idea who might be behind this?"
"I don't exactly have many personal enemies, and certainly none of them would know about… certain things."
Diana shook her head and offered her arms. "We'll reach the park faster in the air. Sorry for sweeping you off your feet earlier."
Ivy accepted her help, wrapping her arms around Diana's neck. "I know you were just trying to help, but a little warning would be nice next time."
Taking up the woman carefully, they flew up high in order to spot the park and keep out of sight of most civilians. They found the park quickly and landed in a wooded area near the Pagoda. Diana hated to say it, but she was already feeling tired. She hadn't eaten anything all day and was more than a little excited to see a little snack shack at the tower.
"The letter mentions asking for a drink," She began. "Mind if we get something to eat as well?"
"Of course not. We should have eaten before we left." Ivy spoke, but she seemed a little distracted.
She was looking around the gardens, watching the breeze move through the treetops and seemingly lost in her thoughts. Diana was surprised she even responded at all. "Why don't you find us a place to sit. I'll get us both something."
She smiled as Ivy only nodded in return, completely captivated by their surroundings. Diana had been gone for only ten minutes, ordering them both simple sandwiches and water bottles, returning to find Ivy half consumed by a large bush.
"I assumed this was a covert mission?" She teased.
"This place is wonderful," Ivy's voice is wistful. "So healthy and happy… I wish all the world could see how amazing this place is."
"Remind me to one day take you to Themyscira. If this place is so wonderful, my homeland will completely stop your heart."
Ivy accepted the water and sandwich she was offered. Before Diana could even take her first bite, something light hit her head. She reached her hand back and pulled a paper airplane from her hair. She looked back, trying to see who might have thrown it, but there were no suspicious persons in sight.
Unfolding the paper, she found their next hint.
500 years is a long time, but not for the mighty oak. Come, breach my maidenhood
Diana immediately looked to Ivy.
"Looks like we're following Sal's vacation route. Our next stop is Bialowieża Forest. In Poland."