Chapter 6: a trip to Arkham Asylum

I wake up early and stretch. I stand up and look around, quickly getting ready for school. Checking my watch, I see that it's only five in the morning. I shrug and look at the plants around me. I calmly begin singing to them. After a while I hear Nightshade enter and look at her. "Hey Shade!" I say happily

"It's time to go to school." She said rolling her eyes a bit.

"Alright." I say standing up and grabbing my backpack. We walk out of the greenhouse and I look around. "See you later." I say preparing to rush off.

"Not so fast." Nightshade said. I turn to look at her.

"What?" I ask.

"Mom wants me to drop you off at school today. You get to rush there every other day. It's only today." She said calmly.

"Fine…can I have a motorcycle?" I ask her.

"I don't know. By the way…" she said as we climbed on her bike. "Mom and the others are throwing you a welcome home party tonight. Act surprised. I just told you because you tend to attack me when I keep secrets from you."

After a quick ride to school I get off the bike. "See you later, Nightshade." I turn and walk up to the doors of the school. Jonny and the other two immediately walk up to me. I glare slightly, and they look down, I smirk at them. "What'd you tell the teachers?" I ask them as we walk. The other kids avoid us in the halls.

"We told them you were sick. Barbra Gordan did your homework for you." Jonny said as they lead me to my first class.

"Great. Barbie doll decided to 'help' me." I say sarcastically. I enter the classroom and sit down. Classes were all boring until my last class, phycology when the teacher announced that we were taking a fieldtrip to Arkham Asylum. I rose my hand.

"Yes Hayley?" he asked.

"I don't have a parent's permission as far as I'm aware." I say

"Don't worry, Mr. Wayne already gave you permission. He said it might help you with some attitude problems you've been having recently." I roll my eyes a bit.

"I haven't had attitude problems, sir. Bruce just doesn't like the fact that I've been digging into my past, trying to find out who my birth parents are." I say calmly. "When is the trip?" I ask.

"Today after school. You will be pared with a classmate and give an assessment of what you think is wrong with the patient, or patients you will be psychoanalyzing today. I will pare you up now and we'll head out to the bus." He said as he began paring the students up. I sat back and waited for my partner to be called. "Barbra, you're with Richard, your patient will be Scarecrow." They both groaned. "Hayley you're with Jonny you have two patients…at Mr. Wayne's request your patients will be, Harley Quinn and the Joker."

My eyes widen as Jonny hesitantly walks up to me, we gather our stuff to head out. Once we're on the bus I pull out my phone and text Nightshade fieldtrip to Arkham. See you after. Then spent the rest of the ride chatting with Jonny about what I missed while I was 'sick'. The entire trip to Arkham was uneventful. We pulled up and piled out of the bus and I begin feeling nervous as I stare at the tall, intimidating building in front of me. Once we turned in anything metal and signed a document, just the usual piece of paper saying that any injuries we get are not the asylums fault, we are led into the building. We are split up and led to our 'patients'. As we walk up to the room we are supposed to interview them in my hands begin shaking.

I take a deep breath as one of the two guards opened the door. "Be careful with The Joker. The last person who tried talking to him ended up like him. You have five minutes." The guard on the right said shuddering. I nod a bit as I walk into the room. It's a plane room with bare grey walls and a metal table with four chairs in the center of it. The people chained to the table was what make me so scared.

They are both very pale. The boy has green hair and matching eyes. He's grinning insanely at us as we walk in. The girl is also grinning insanely, but her hair is blonde with half of its ends pink and the other half blue, her eyes are bright blue. And she's mainly staring at the boy.

I clear my throat as we sit down. "Hi. This is Jonny. Me and him will be pretending to be professional Phycologists. So…uh…Jonny ask them a question."

"W-why me?" he asked me.

"Because if you don't I will break your nose." I say, and the Joker laughs. Me and Jonny tense and look at him.

"I like you." The Joker said to me. "You remind me a bit of myself when I was younger. What's your name?"

"Uh…Jonny ask a question quickly! I don't wanna tell them my name yet!" I whisper sounding slightly panicked.

"Why not?" Harley Quinn asks sitting forward and looking at me.

"Jonny if you don't ask a question right now I will snap your wrist and break your nose." I say.

"Uh…How did you two, meet?" he asked randomly and I facepalm.

"I was his phycologist!" Harley said happily.

"I meant something from the list of questions in your hand moron!" I say angrily.

"Uh…okay. Um…what is your favorite color?" I pause a moment and snatch the list. Once I confirm that it really is on the list I slam my head into the table.

"Who the heck wrote these questions? A two-year-old?" I ask annoyed

"My favorite color is explosion." Joker said bored. "Now what's your name kid?" he asked me again. I sit up straight and look at him.

"I don't want to tell you." I say looking at the list.

"Come on kiddo! It's just a name." Harley said, and I glance up at them and sigh before looking at the clock.

"We only have one-minute left." Jonny said. "Why not just tell them?"

"Time up." I hear the guard say from the door and I get up.

"Come on Jonny." I say, and he runs to catch up to me.

Once we reclaim our stuff and climb into the bus I filled out our worksheet. Bruce is there when we arrive. I sigh and go sit on the stairs. After a minute Bruce walked up to me. "It's time to go home Hayley." He said to me.

"So, go. I'm waiting for my cousin." I say pulling out my phone and texting Nightshade to come get me quickly. "Leave me alone Bruce. Before I decide to reveal your little secret to the world." I say hacking into the Batcave's computer again. "I just have to hit send and it's on its way to the biggest news companies in the state." Bruce turned away sighing.

"I had hoped that seeing your parents would make you see sense." He said in his I'm disappointed in you, voice.

"Leave now." I say watching him tense and walk over to his car. I hear a motorcycle and turn to see Nightshade. "Hey." I say climbing onto the back of the bike.

"How was the fieldtrip?" she asked revving the engine and driving off.

"Great." I say sarcastically. "It's not every day you have to psychoanalyze your parents in a mental hospital for criminally insane people."

"What?" she asked surprised.

"I met my parents." I sigh as we pull up to a warehouse. "I thought we were going to the greenhouse." I say confused as Nightshade shuts off the bike.

"The greenhouse is technically not your home. It's not a welcome home party if it's not at your home, now is it?" Nightshade says as we walk up to the door.

I slightly recognize the front of it. It's a blur but I think I remember living here. Then Batman came… "This is where I was kidnapped by Batman." I say widening my eyes a bit.

"Yeah…it is. But it's also your home." She said as she opened the door to reveal a bunch of boxes of unused wares and toys. We walk to the middle of the warehouse and the villains suddenly jump out and yell 'SURPRISE!' I tense and jump up to the rafters pulling myself up and crouching down to look at them. "Get back down here please, Hayley."

"Um…I don't even know why I jumped up here to begin with." I say before standing and climbing up to the next rafter. I then backflipped down to the group from about twenty feet up. "I do know that I remember my mom teaching me how to do a backflip though." I say grinning. I look around at the villains. "Hey guys!"

"Welcome home Hayley!" they all said

"Thanks!" I look up at the rafters. "Hey! There's something up there!" I say jumping up to get a closer look. I walk up to the thing and feel something spray me in the face. Once I'm done coughing I look to see Batman. My eyes widen, and I jump down. Once I'm next to Two-Face I roll to the side and pull a dagger out from under the couch, crouching low ready for a fight.

"What's wrong Hayley?" I slowly climb back up and see that nobodies there. I look around and begin searching the warehouse. Then I look out the windows. I even check the roof. I found no sign of Batman, so I jump down and look around at the villains.

"Either Batman's here or I'm having severe PTSD. I'm not sure which one." I say shaking a bit.

"You saw Batman? Are you sure?" Scarecrow asked.

"Weren't you in Arkham earlier today?" I ask.

"I escaped weeks ago. That's a decoy." He said

"Oh…well I'm pretty sure it was Batman…there was only one thing different…his eyes were red and glowing. I went up there and something sprayed me in the face. When I looked up to see what it was I saw Batman instead." I say, and Scarecrow winced.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I set a trap up there years ago in case Batman came. Nothing severe, just some low-level fear toxin. It brings out your worst memories and makes you relive them. You must have found it and got sprayed by it. Your worst memory being the day Batman kidnapped you. I forgot it was up there."

"Oh." I say putting the dagger back under the couch.

"How did you know that was under there?" Nightshade asked.

"I don't know. When I jumped down here I was running on pure instincts." I say sitting down. "Well…that was scary and I kinda want a piece of that cake now." I gesture at the rather lopsided cake sitting on a table a few feet away.

"We haven't even had dinner yet Hayley." Nightshade laughed.

"So?" I ask confused

"Good point." She said going over to stand by her mom. "Can we take Hayley's suggestion and eat the cake?" she asked.

"It is Hayley's party. She decides what goes first." Ivy said shrugging a bit.

"Cake." I say happily. "Why are there presents on the other table?"

"Those are to make up for twelve years of birthdays and Christmas' we missed." Riddler said. "They're yours."

"Oh. Ok!" I say happily as I go up and grab a piece of cake. The party was fun from then, I got a lot of gifts like jewelry, weapons, books, clothes and the keys to the warehouse. I open my last gift and see a set of keys. "Key's?" I ask Nightshade confused.

"You said you wanted one, so while you were at school I went and stole one, gave it a quick paint job and now it's yours." She said, and I begin to understand.

"Where is it?" I ask her curiously. She walked out and came back a few minutes later pushing in a Harley Davidson motorcycle. It's painted black with red lighting running down its side. I grin as soon as I see it. "That is mine?" I ask not believing it.

"That was the point of me stealing it for you Hayley." She said smiling.

"Awesome!" I say walking up to the bike and looking at it. Then another question came to me. "Why did I get the keys to the warehouse though?" I ask looking over at Poison Ivy.

"So, you can live here if you want. You'll always be welcome at the greenhouse, but this is your house. Besides, you always got tired of being at the greenhouse after a few days. This way, you have somewhere to go." She said, and I grin.

"Wow…this has been a very long day…who wants pizza?" I ask suddenly, and everyone laughed. Once I got the ok I rush out and get ten pizzas. "I don't know what you people like, so I got two Hawaiian, two peperoni's, and the rest are triple meat." Everyone dug in, then they began to head home. Once it was me, Ivy, and Nightshade I see a shadow go past the window. I look at Ivy. "Do you know more about my sirens voice? It wears off rather quickly when I just order someone to do something."

"It's more powerful when you sing. When you sing it lasts for as long as you want it to." She explained, and I nod.

"You can come in now." I say and Batman, Robin, Bat Girl, the Flash and Wonder Woman came in. "You people aren't as good at sneaking as you think you are." I say sitting down in a chair completely relaxed. "You know it's considered rude to sneak up on a person Aqua Man."

"How did you know I was here?" he asked walking over to the others.

"Same way I knew the others were here." I say shrugging. "The thing I don't know is why you're here." I lean forward and look at Aqua Man. "So, tell me, fish boy…why are you here?"

"Batman said you had been kidnapped and need help." Wonder Woman said, and I look at her.

"So, he gathered the entire justice league? The other two are on the roof, I'm not in danger." I say. "Except for the fact that Batsy keeps following me around."

"But they are villains." Aqua Man said confused as he gestures at Poison Ivy and Nightshade.

"So?" I ask tilting my head. "We were having a welcome home party, it's not like I was planning to break into Arkham!" I say angrily. "I don't need help. If I needed help I would get help. I could easily escape if I needed to. Yes, I was technically kidnapped by one of them. But that wouldn't have happened if Batman hadn't kidnapped me in the first place." I stand. "Now get out of my warehouse and leave me alone before I decide to do something you will regret."

"Are you threatening us?" Flash asked.

"She doesn't threaten." Bat Girl said backing up a little. She looked over at me. "We're trying to help you Hayley." She took a step towards me. "You're not safe here. We just want to help."

"Help? He kidnapped me when I was four!" I exclaim gesturing at Batman. "You don't get to pretend that we're friends. I don't need or want your help, Brat Girl. If I did I would have gone with you at the mall! You need to get that through your thick skull!" I grab one of the throwing knives out of the pile of gifts. I sit back down examining my reflection in it. I glance at her. "Before I put this through it instead." I look back at the knife

"Look at yourself Hayley!" Robin exclaimed

"I am." I say watching my hair change colors. It's just changing shades of red right now. I focus a bit and my hair goes back to its normal black color, I sigh as my eyes began turning various shades of red instead. "I really need to get control of this whole Bio-kinesis thing."

"You're threatening people's lives Hayley!" he yelled. I look up at him, bored.

"What's your point?" I ask him.

"It's not a good thing!" he yelled.

I grab the blade of the knife, as if preparing to throw it. "I know. I just…can't bring myself to care. I would prefer not to kill you or Brat Girl over there. But you're starting to really get on my nerves. Now why don't you all just leave?" I say, and they tense and walk out. "Those people are getting very annoying." I say glaring at my reflection in the knife.

"I don't know if you noticed Hayley…but you were channeling your father when you were threatening them." Nightshade said.

"What?" I asked. "I didn't threaten anyone." I say confused.

"You told Bat girl that you would put that knife through her skull." Ivy said confused.

"I know." I say watching as my eyes go back to their original Acid Green color. "But it's like Brat girl said to Flash…I don't make threats." I say shrugging.

"You were being serious about killing her?" Nightshade asked.

"Well I would prefer not to…but yeah. I would throw this through her head." I say honestly. They were silent for a few minutes before walking up to me and hugging me tightly. After a few minutes I set the knife down and they released me. "What was that for?" I ask confused looking over at Ivy.

"You're becoming a lot like your old self." Ivy explained.

"What do you mean?" I ask confused

"When you were little you use to sit on your father's lap and plan different ways to kill his victims, then you would go out to play with Nightshade. One day, while you were playing, a bully came up and began picking on Nightshade. She started crying after he shoved her to the ground and you got angry…you began yelling at him about all the very creative ways you would use his remains after you were done killing him..." Ivy started before trailing off and letting Nightshade continue.

"When his mother came up to us to see what was going on you calmly explained what he did to me and continued to say that you would paint your dad a picture using his blood next time he did that. They got out of there rather quickly after that." Nightshade finished the story tilting her head as if thinking before looking at me. "Are you staying here tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah. I need some time alone. See you tomorrow?" I ask her. "I need to get my stuff from your greenhouse anyway." I shrug.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Hayley." Nightshade says, and I sigh a bit and look at my hands. An hour after they left I had just put my Taylor Swift cd on when the Justice League plus Bat-girl and Robin enter again.

"What do you want?" I snap at them. "I'm getting sick of you people entering my home without permission. Isn't it illegal to enter someone's home without permission anyway?"

"You can talk to us without fear Hayley. The villains left." Wonder Woman said. To give her credit she does sound like she's trying to help me.

"Batsy really has you convinced that I'm here without my consent, doesn't he?" I ask rolling my eyes. "I'm grateful that you seem to care so much Wondy…but I'm not being held here. I could leave at any time. I choose to stay here." I say turning the music up a bit.

"B-but why?" Robin asked surprised.

"Why do you think Bird Brain?" I snap. "You're supposed mentor lied to me all my life!" I stand and look at each of them. "Like I said before I am not in any danger and I can leave when I want to. I choose to stay because no matter what you say Bruce this is still my home. Now…if you would kindly leave my home that would be appreciated." I say as I reach over and turn the music up a bit. "Or else." I add casually. They left, Bruce sighing as if that would make me change my mind about going with them. After a little while longer I turned off the music and went to bed.