Chapter 5: the truth

I'm not sure when I fell asleep. But the next thing I know I'm waking up and the villains are talking amongst themselves. Nightshade was sitting quietly in a chair reading a book. I silently stand up, grab my bag, and begin walking through the maze of plants, trying to find a place I can be alone. After a while I find a little alcove that seems secluded from the rest of the greenhouse. I sit in the center of it and begin thinking. I sighed thinking about everything that happened. Then I grabbed my bag and pulled out my laptop. I haven't hacked in a while, but I figured I'd be fine.

I located the Bat-cave computer and downloaded an old file that had my name on it before logging out of Batman's computer and wiping all traces that I hacked in. then I opened the new file I had just downloaded. It only had one document for me to open. I open it and see a sheet about me.

Name: Hayley Quinn, Hayley Q.

Age: 15

Home: Wayne Manor, Gotham, NJ

Mother: Harley Quinn

Father: The Joker

Species: Meta-Human

Powers: Sirens voice, Super speed, Bio-kinesis

Notes: Hayley has grown into a trouble-maker, she blew up a part of her school and showed no regret as she fully admitted she did it on purpose.

The picture attached to the page was a picture of me the day I exploded the chemistry lab. I stare at the page in shock, I didn't notice the person coming up behind me until she said. "The others are looking for you, you know." I jump and turn to face Nightshade.

"How did you know where I was?" I ask her

"You used to come here when you needed to calm down. The plants that surround this little alcove were all gifts to you for various birthdays and Christmas', you and I use to meditate together here." She explained calmly.

"Oh." I say looking back at the laptop in my hand.

"What are you looking at?" I hand her the laptop.

"I'm going to go find the super villains. Don't touch the Minecraft." I walk away as she begins reading the page. I find the villains quickly. They were running around the main area searching under plants and tables and looking panicked. "Hey!" I call, and they freeze turning to look at me. "What's up?"

"Where were you?" Salina asked worried.

"Hacking Batman's computer to try to find confirmation on what I heard earlier." I shrug and look around the room. I look at Riddler and saw he had been looking under a tiny flower pot. "I don't think I'd be able to fit under there, Riddler." He blushed a bit in embarrassment

"What did you see?" Poison Ivey asked ignoring my comment to Riddler.

"How do you even know I found anything?" I ask tilting my head.

"You look shocked. Like you saw something you didn't expect." She said.

"Oh…" I say. "Well…"

"She did find something." Nightshade said coming in with my laptop. I go over and take it from her hands. I then go sit on the couch and open Minecraft to finish building a statue I had been working on for a few days now.

"What did she find?" I hear Salina ask.

"She found a file about her. She…" I set my laptop down and stand up turning to face them.

"I found that I have been lied to pretty much all my life." I say angrily before taking a deep breath. "It doesn't matter." I tell myself turning back to my building.

"She found out her last name, parents and powers." Nightshade said. I finish the statue and log out, opening the page again, setting the computer on the table and standing up.

"Read this. I'm going to go back to that alcove area." I get up and walk away. An hour later I am gently singing to the plants around me when I hear them call my name and I walk out of the alcove stopping my singing as I go. "What?" I ask Salina and instead of answering she hugged me tightly, so tightly I can't breathe. "Okay…I have one question."

"Yes Hayley?" she asked not letting go.

"Can I please breathe?" she let go, her eyes widening.

"I'm so sorry!" I took a deep breath.

"I'm good." I say before looking around, everyone is looking at me. "What?"

"It seems the shock of learning the truth of your heritage has unlocked your previously blocked bio-kinetic abilities." Riddler said.

"What?" I ask again, this time wondering what the heck that meant.

"Your hair is changing colors." Nightshade said simply, handing me a mirror. I look at it and see that she is right, my hair is changing colors, green, silver, gold, black, red, white, back to green.

"Huh…" I say looking at it in shock. "It seems that my hair is showing my emotions."

"What do you mean by that?" Salina asked confused.

"For as long as I can remember I have associated different colors with different emotions, green is upset, silver is confusion, gold is truth, black is happiness, red is anger, white is sadness. Right now, I'm feeling all these emotions at once, so my hair is showing those colors." I say. "I'm upset that I've been lied to most my life, confused as to why I was lied to, happy I know the truth, angry at Bruce and Batman, and sad that I can't meet my parents right now." I explain. "Does that make sense?"

"Yes, don't worry it makes perfect sense." Two-face said.

I sigh. "Can I go for a run? I need to cool down…and go yell at Bruce." I say admitting what I wanted to do so there's no confusion later.

"Sure, go ahead. But take Nightshade with you. We don't want to lose you again." Poison Ivy said looking worried.

"Okay." I say before looking at Nightshade. "Meet me at the gates of Wayne manor. Bruce is likely to be home in…" I pause looking at Salina. "What time is it?"

"Three-thirty in the afternoon." Salina told me.

"Thanks." I say before turning back to Nightshade. "Bruce is likely to be home in an hour. The problem is getting past Alfred, the butler, but I figure we can just go through my window." I shrug before turning to the, now vine free, door. "I'll see you there." I rush out and begin running through the city looking for Bruce's car. I find it at one of the many Wayne Tec. buildings in Gotham. Then I run to the gates of Wayne manor, happy to see that Nightshade is already here.

"Hey." She said looking at the vines curling up the wall around the manor.

"Hey." I say before walking up to the actual gate and climbing over it. "Come on." I say seeing Nightshade asking the vines something. A minute later they reach out and pull her gently over the wall. Once she's over I gesture for her to follow me and go to the spot just under my balcony. There's a big tree that grows next to my balcony that is perfect for climbing up and down. We quickly climb through the window and I look around. "Alfred's been in here recently, probably to dust things."

"You've been worrying Bruce, you know." I hear from the bed and turn to see Barbra Gordan. I roll my eyes, me and Barbra have never really gotten along with each other but for some reason Bruce thinks we're best friends.

"Get off my bed, Barbra." I say before turning to my desk and walking over. "I'm getting some things while we're here." I tell Nightshade as I open a drawer. There's a bunch of sketchbooks and some pens. I suddenly rush and get my bookbag I use for long trips, stuffing my sketchbooks in the mane pocket before opening the next drawer. In there is a small box of inventions of mine that never worked. That's useless to me so I just leave it there. "Why are you here Barbra?" I ask as I open the next drawer, it's full of information I gathered on Batman for a research report. I put that in the bag and turn to see Barbra still sitting on my bed watching me curiously.

"I'm staying here in case you come back. Like I said Bruce is worried about you." I roll my eyes when she says this.

"Sure, he is." I say sarcastically.

"He is! You've been gone for, like, a month. And now you come back to get some things and what? Run away again?" she asked angrily.

"Actually…she came to yell at Bruce." Nightshade said.

"And then there's that! You come in with this stranger! And what reason could you possibly have for yelling at Bruce? He's done nothing to you!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, nothing but lie to me for years and years." I say getting angry at Barbra's mini-rant. "And this isn't a stranger! I have run away before, that's no secret. But what right do you have, to rant at me about something you have no clue about. So, I suggest you shut up, and get off my bed before I decide to throw you out of my room." Barbra suddenly tensed and got off my bed, her eyes looking kind of blank. She tried to speak but couldn't move her mouth. "What just happened?" I ask Nightshade

"I think you just accidently used your sirens voice on her. Try snapping your fingers. That should remove the effects." She said. I snap my fingers, instantly Barbra's eyes focused and she opened her mouth to yell at me, until we hear a car pulling into the drive. I go and see that Bruce is home.

"Bruce is back." I say before turning to Barbra. "See you around. Come on Nightshade." We walk out of my room and head into the foyer. "I am not very happy right now Bruce." I say causing Dick, Bruce, and Alfred to jump at my sudden appearance. Nightshade is on my right with her arms crossed. "Care to take a guess as to why?" I ask him.

"Hayley! You came back." Dick said.

"A temporary appearance I assure you Richard." I say shooting him a quick glair. "Over the last month I have been searching for answers about my past." I lie, and Bruce tensed. "You know…I found no record of a kidnapping performed by Harley Quinn or The Joker, so I hacked into the Bat cave's computer and found a file with my name on it. You know what that file said Bruce?" I walk forward into the room. Nightshade stayed by my side.

"What?" he asked playing ignorant.

"It had a lot of information to digest. First it told me my last name, it also had my birth parents' names in there. Second, I found out that I'm a meta-human. Stop right there Barbra." I say as I turn to face the now frozen in place Barbra Gordan. "Wow…I did not expect that to work. Anyway…I also found out that you have been lying to me for years."

"Hayley, I was going to tell—" he began

"If you say, you were going to tell me when I was older or ready I will attack you." I say angrily before taking a deep breath. "I'm leaving now." I say heading for the door. Bruce stepped in front of me.

"I can't let you leave Hayley." He said calmly. I sigh.

"What part of our conversation told you that I was asking for permission?" I ask

"I'll stop you." He said confidently.

"Why do you think I won't just order Barbra to attack you while me and Nightshade here escape?" I say looking at Barbra who was just standing there like a zombie.

"You wouldn't do that. You're a good kid Hayley." He said as if talking to someone who was hypnotized.

"Attack Bruce, Barbra. I think it will eventually wear off." I say. "But I don't know. I'm still new to this." Me and Nightshade walk out listening to the sounds of Bruce fighting off Barbra. "That was…" I trail off trying to find the words to describe what just happened.

"Awesome." Nightshade said excitedly. "You looked totally intimidating Hayley!"

"That was kind of fun." I admit hesitantly.

"I can't wait to tell mom!" she said as we head out of the gates.

"Uh…" I say pulling out small bits of metal and other things. "I don't know about that. I literally just discovered I could use my sirens voice. I need to know more about my powers before sharing things like that with your mom…or anyone else."

"I understand. So where do we go now?" she asked looking over at me. I look at her slightly confused. "I mean, it's not like we need to go to school or back to the greenhouse. So…what do you want to do?"

"Well…I need some supplies from a store down the street, then we can go do something I guess." I say shrugging. We walk to Nightshade's motorcycle and I grin. "Wanna race?" I ask

"No because I know I'll lose." She said.

"Alright. Let's go. I'll run ahead." I say grinning.

"Meet me at the movie theater on main street when you're done. I'm going to pick up a few friends. They're going to be really surprised to see you." She said before driving away.

I rush to the hardware store and walk in. "Hey James. What's up?" James is a twenty-year-old guy with blond hair and silver eyes. He's a fun guy who has a rather unhealthy Joker-based obsession his older brother accidently being killed by Batman. Ever since then he had been slowly drifting towards the darker side of life.

"Hayley! You haven't been in here in a while."

"Sorry, I've been busy. Got anything good?" I ask, and he shows me to the back, where I'm aloud to take supplies for my inventions. "Nice." I say spotting a few pretty-looking colored crystals and other things. I grab a few things. "I'll take these please James." I say holding the things I selected.

"Alright." He said as I pull out some of the money I had. "You don't have to pay for these things Hayley. You donated enough money for me to start this place. As far as I'm concerned you own half of it." I set the money on the counter anyway.

"When has that ever stopped me from paying you?" I ask smiling as he bagged my things.

"Never…but it's still unnecessary." He said handing me the bag. "See you later Hayley.

"Bye." I say as I walk out I rush to the greenhouse drop of my stuff and put a note on Riddler's back before rushing through the streets to the theater. I slow down as I approach it. I walk up to where Nightshade is talking to two other people.

"I'm sure you will be totally surprised when you see her!" Nightshade said excitedly.

"Who is the she you have us waiting for?" one of the two boys growled in annoyance

"She's right behind you." Nightshade said looking at me. They turn to stare at me.

"Uh…Hi." I say awkwardly.

"Hayley?" they ask in shock.

"I have memory problems and don't know who you are, but yes I am Hayley. Do I know you from school?" I ask hesitantly.

"Hayley, these are the other villain kids. Eric Nigma, and Keith Jones. They're basically your cousins." Nightshade said smiling at me.

"Oh…what are we going to do? This theater never plays anything interesting. Bruce sometimes forces me to come here with him and Richard." I explain to Nightshade.

"Well…we could go to the mall." Eric said. "I hear that teenagers do that sometimes"

"They've got a good arcade there." Me and Keith said at the same time before turning to each other. "You're a gamer?" we asked. "Yeah." We responded.

"Guys, that arcade has been closed for nearly three years now." Nightshade said rolling her eyes.

"So?" I ask shrugging. "I go there all the time. The games still work. I actually lived there for a while once."

"You lived in the arcade?" Eric asked me, raising an eyebrow. "When?"

"About the middle of last year. I ran away after getting grounded for doing something fun." I say shrugging.

"Was this fun thing legal?" Nightshade asked looking bored.

"Nope. I exploded the chemistry lab in a subtle attempt of maiming one of my bullies." I say as we began walking towards the mall. A shadow passed over us and I tensed. "Get into the alleyway. We've got company." We ducked into an alley and Batman jumped in front of the exit, we turned to face him. "Did it were off already?" I ask him, and he tensed.

"Did what were off?" he asked.

"You know what I found when I hacked your computer?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "I found your secret."

"Hayley, these people aren't good for you." He said as if I had been brainwashed and he was trying to help me.

"We are going to the mall, Batty B." I say looking bored.

"I can't let you go with them Hayley." He says.

"Oh, my goodness! We are going to the mall Bruce! It's a normal teenager thing to do! It's not like we're going to break people out of Arkham! We are just doing typical Teenager things! Now leave me alone and stay out of my way." I say, and he moved to the side. "Let's go guys." I say angrily, and we walk out of the alleyway and resume our walk to the mall. We got there, and I see Barbra and Richard waiting at the entrance. "Go away you two." I say pushing past them.

"No." Richard said angrily.

"Leave now, or I will break your legs." I say turning to glare at them.

"We aren't leaving without you Hayley." Barbra said determined.

"Then I guess you live at the mall now, because there is no way I'll go with you." I say turning around and walking into the mall.

"They're following us." Keith said.

"Let them. We're just hanging out at the mall, it's not like they can beat us up for that." I say as we head into the empty arcade.

"Beat us up?" Nightshade asked.

"Richard is bird boy and Barbra is Brat Girl. Bruce is the big bad Batman we met earlier." I say rolling my eyes as I head over to one of the motorcycle racing games.

"How do you know that?" Richard said finally coming in.

"I'm not an idiot Richard. Aside from the fact that I hacked the Batcave computer multiple times, I also noticed all the injuries you got from fighting. The second one could have meant one of two things, the first is you two had joined a fight club, which probably would have made you two slightly cooler, or the more realistic conclusion, you are Bat Brains sidekicks." I say as I win my race. The other villain kids wondered over to different games and began playing as I started another race.

"You know you're wasting money, right?" Barbra said rolling her eyes. "We shouldn't even be here. This is trespassing, and that's illegal."

"I've been coming here since it closed down. And I'm not worried about wasting money for two reasons…" I say winning my second race.

"What reasons?" Barbra asked.

"Well first…" I held up her wallet. "It's not my money." She snatched her wallet from me. "And second…I have the key to all the games." I say rolling my eyes at her glare as I inserted the last of her money and started another race.

"Give me my money back." She said as I caused one of the other bikes to crash. "That's cheating." She protested.

"Can't give you money," another bike crash. "just spent the last of it. Also, so what?" I ask her.

"Cheating is wrong." She said

"So is your high-pitched voice constantly talking." I mutter under my breath. "but I don't see you shutting up." She hit me in the arm just as I won my race. "You almost made me lose, Barbie!" she punched me again this time in the jaw.

"Don't call me that." Sha said angrily.

"Whatever you say Brat Girl." I say and dodge as she goes to punch me again. I catch her arm and twist it behind her. "Stop punching me." I say as I release her. She fell onto the ground as I unmount the fake bike. "If you punch me again I won't go easy on you." I tell her as I walk up to one of the, still full, claw machines. I insert some of the coins from behind the counter and begin trying to grab one of the stuffed animals inside, a purple Unicorn that I don't even know why I want it. I suddenly tense and move my head to the side, a fist had just gone through the glass. I turn and face Richard as he pulls his arm out of the machine. I shrug and reach in to grab a few of the stuffed toys in the machine.

"Don't threaten us." He said from behind me.

"You should know by now, Richard…" the others gather around us as I spin around and punch his nose, hearing a satisfying crunch. "I don't threaten." I gather the stuffed animals I had grabbed and walked behind the counter. I stuff the animals into a bag and grab a few lava lamps and a nice looking decorative dagger that I don't know why it was an option for a prize. "You guys done?" I ask the others and they nod. "Great, let's go. Before they recover." I say, and we leave, each of the others grabbing something they want. We head back to the greenhouse, dropping Keith and Eric off at their places as we went. "We're back." I call, and Poison Ivy comes out.

"The others went home, finally." She said.

"What day is it?" I ask. "I've been knocked out or asleep a lot this month."

"It's Wednesday." She said.

"Oh…I'm going to school tomorrow." I say. "I wonder what Jonny told the teachers…"

"Who's Jonny?" Nightshade asked

"One of my three bullies…but I think I scared them into working for me." I say before looking around. "Do I still have to sleep on the couch? I had a crick in my neck this morning, it lasted a full five minutes before my super-healing kicked in." I say.

"You can sleep in the alcove." Ivy said. "It is your alcove after all. I went out and got you a bed to sleep on."

"Thanks!" I say as I head to the alcove. Nightshade followed me. I sit on the simple matrass on the ground and look around at the plants. "I'm just not ready." I say to one of the plants that seems to be looking at me.

"Not ready for what?" Nightshade asks confused. I look over at her.

"I was talking to the plant. But, I mean I'm not ready…to call your mom what I called her in my dreams/memories." I say shrugging. "I mean I found out yesterday that I've been lied to basically my entire life. That my mom and dad are in a mental asylum for criminally insane people! And I have never really been one to react nicely to people who lied to me. Also, I really want to meet my parents." I sigh. "I'm gonna meditate. Maybe that will help my emotions."

"Maybe. I think you should know that your hair looks like a weird rainbow right now." Nightshade said laughing a bit as I sit cross-legged on the matrass.

"Haha." I say sarcastically before closing my eyes and focusing on my breathing. I spend an hour meditating before going to bed.