Alex showed up at the gardens early to scope the place out, so far nothing looked out of place on the outside but considering that he knew next to nothing about the place that wasn't much to go on. It was after working hours so he'd changed into civvies pulling the hood of his jacket up to partially conceal his face, not that he needed to, the place was deserted at this hour.
His assessment of the exterior complete he walked over to a side door and drew his Beretta. After making sure the weapon was loaded Alex pushed the door open as quietly as possible and walked inside, keeping the pistol at the alert as he made his way through the building. Although he assumed that whoever contacted him wanted to meet in good faith there was always the possibility that this was a trap.
The interior of the building was poorly lit and overflowing with plant life, vines hung from the ceiling and moss completely covered the floor giving Alex the sense of being lost in a jungle. It was also eerily quiet inside, he couldn't hear anything except his own soft footsteps as he wandered through the foliage and he got the creeping sensation that he was being watched. Alex had half a mind to turn and run out of the building but he reminded myself why he was here.
As Alex made his way further in he began to see slight movements out of the corners of his eye but whenever he turned to investigate nothing would be there. Soon he found myself in what he assumed to be the center of the building as he came out into a clearing. Alex didn't like the feeling of being so exposed so he turned to make his way back when all of a sudden he felt something wrap around his ankle and yank him into the air. Startled by the action Alex blindly fired in the direction that the vine was holding him up from but was rewarded with a faint chuckling from the tree line.
"Alright asshole, if your gonna kill me at least give me a fair fight." He challenged to whoever was hiding. Out of all the possible ways He'd imagined dying, hanging upside down from a vine was not one of them. Then one of the most beautiful women Alex had ever seen stepped out of the treeline and into the clearing. She had red hair and he could make out swirling green patterns on her pale skin. He'd read about this woman's description in the files General Anderson had given him and a name was brought to mind. Pamela Isley, otherwise known as Poison Ivy, and Alex was caught in her trap. Fuck.
"Relax Westbrook, just having some fun is all." She said as she waved her arm and suddenly the vine holding Alex up let go of his leg and dumped him unceremoniously on the ground.
Alex quickly dusted himself off and got to his feet, leveling his pistol with the villain. He'd never encountered a meta human before but had heard stories of the power they wield, hopefully a bullet would be enough to bring her down if she got violent.
"The hell do you want with me?" Alex asked, staring down the sight of his gun. If she was intimidated by this she was doing a very good job of hiding it and that made him all the more nervous.
"Lower your weapon and I'll tell you." She replied with a wink and smile.
"How do I know you won't attack me?" Alex asked, lowering his weapon slightly.
"You don't, but trust me when I say that if I wanted you dead you'd already be six feet under." A fair point, she could have easily killed him while he was dangling from that vine. he'd already been around her for at least a few minutes and wasn't dead yet so Alex decided he might as well hear her out. To give both of them peace of mind he flicked his wrist while releasing the magazine from his pistol, causing it to land at Ivy's feet. Alex really hoped that she didn't know much about firearms because although his weapon no longer had its source of ammunition it still had a round loaded into the chamber ready to fire if he chose to do so.
Thankfully she didn't seem to notice, or didn't care, either way she relaxed as Alex lowered his pistol.
"Alright, let's hear what you've got to say."
"Simply put I want Harley away from the Joker as much as you do. I've tried for years to get her to leave him on her own but she never listens and keeps getting herself hurt as a result. She's the only real friend I have in the world and I don't want her to end up dead. You being here gives me a unique opportunity to finally get her away from all of this. I know about your mission and the orders that you have, but if you can kill Joker and free Harley from his influence I'll gladly help you do so, even if I have to give myself over to you..."
Wow, that is not what Alex was expecting at all. All the reports he'd read on Poison Ivy said that she was a very vain and prideful woman, but here she is, willing to sacrifice her own freedom to help her friend. It was…admirable, and that definitely got her some respect from Alex but while that was all well and good she hadn't exactly told him about how they'd go about doing this.
"I didn't realize she meant that much to you. You looked after her all these years?"
"Yeah, she can be a handful sometimes but there's…I don't know, a goodness about her that for whatever reason draws me to her. She means the world to me and it breaks my heart every time she goes back to that monster." She replied, her eyes cast sadly downwards.
"I know what you mean, believe me." Was Alex really making a connection with Poison Ivy? He must be going crazy if he could relate to the likes of her. Still he couldn't doubt the sincerity with which she spoke about wanting to help Harley. Maybe Poison Ivy wasn't as evil as everyone thought, and seeing this shred of humanity from a woman who claimed to despise the human race really had an impact on him. If she of all people could act this selflessly perhaps there was a chance Harley could be redeemed as well...
...
"Sergeant I'm about to have you committed to Arkham myself." After agreeing to let Ivy help with his mission Alex had brought her back to the apartment and contacted General Anderson, who was currently glaring at him through the TV screen, believing he'd want to hear whatever intel she had to give on the Joker's whereabouts.
"Sir I know Ivy's done a lot of things in the past but you gotta trust me on this one, she's willing to help us in exchange for sparing Harley Quinn." Alex replied to try and reason with his Commanding Officer.
"That's not the point Sergeant. I've told you time and again not to involve others in this but so far, you've included all the Bats and now Poison Ivy of all people. Do the words National Security mean anything to you?"
"Yes, but to be fair you did send me here on my own Sir, can you really blame me for seeking outside help?"
"We'll talk about your choices of outside help in private, for now we might as well listen to what miss Isley has to say."
"Go ahead Ivy." Alex gestured towards the screen. Ivy cleared her throat and faced the screen, eyes looked with the General.
"Right, Joker keeps his hideouts surprisingly well hidden and I don't actually know where he's staying, however I can get you someone who does. Other than Harley that insane clown only trusts one other person with his plans and that's his Lieutenant, Jonny Frost. Get him and you'll get Joker." She informed him.
"I'm assuming you know where he is?" The General questioned.
"He frequents the Iceberg Lounge in the evening, usually leaves around midnight through one of the side alleys. You can ambush and capture him there."
"What do you think Sir?" Alex asked, hoping the General would agree with Ivy's plan.
"Hmm, if what she's saying is good this could be the break we need. Capture this Frost and get that intel Sergeant, use whatever means necessary. Once you've learned what he's hiding I'll arrange for a pick up."
"And what about me? Will you accept my help?" Ivy asked, the desperation evident in her voice.
"We haven't seen much activity from you in recent years and your willingness to help is admirable, even if it's for your own reasons. If you aid Sergeant Westbrook in his missions I'll consider allowing you to reintegrate into society, under our supervision. However, if you betray our trust I will bring down the full force of the Marine Corps on you. Are we in agreement?"
"Yes, I'll help out in any way I can so long as you get Harley away from the Joker."
And just like that Alex had another addition to his team. Barbara would most likely hate the idea of working alongside Poison Ivy, but Alex had seen stranger things in his career. However unexpected this was Ivy's life was his responsibility now, just as Barbara's is and it's now his job to make sure they make it back in one piece on top of his original mission. If Ivy pulls through for them then she had a very real chance of starting over, and regardless of her past deeds Alex would make sure she gets that chance. But in the event that he failed at keeping her alive at least she'd die making up for her past sins.
...
"So, how exactly did you and Harley meet?" Alex and Ivy were staking out the lounge in the Challenger as they waited for Frost to emerge.
"We met on accident actually, we were both robbing a building at the same time when the police came by. We helped each other get away and we've been friends ever since." Ivy remembered the event fondly, Harley distracting the Police with an improvised gas grenade.
"Ha, that's funny. You know when we were kids I could've never seen her doing such a thing, course I never expected her to go bad in the first place."
"But you've forgiven her right? I mean you wouldn't agree to help me with this if you hadn't."
"I don't know if forgiven is the right word, but we'll see won't we. For the longest time I just wanted to kill her, I'd stay up at night thinking of how I'd do it and I got very creative with it to. Great thing about the military is they teach you a lot of ways to hurt and kill people."
"I'd imagine so, exactly how many people have you killed?"
"Well five in Afghan, Riddler and his goons, Two-face's goons, clowns, some Russians…I'd say about a couple dozen." Alex answered casually. He didn't like killing but it comes with being a Marine in a combat MOS you know? The first time he killed someone it hadn't hit him what he'd done until after the fact, he got so caught up in the moment that he didn't see the enemy as a person, just as a target. As terrible as that sounded it was better than freezing in the middle of combat and getting killed. Besides ISIS members are just assholes anyways. However, it wasn't lost on him that he's growing numb to the act with each pull of the trigger. Huh, maybe he should be in Arkham?
"Hey, you should get going it's about time." Ivy told him and looking at the clock on the dash showed he had around five minutes until Frost would be leaving. Alex got out of the car and retrieved a shotgun from the trunk before heading into the alley to await his target.
Alex was crouching behind a dumpster loading the shotgun with rubber slugs while Ivy waited in the car. Thing about rubber rounds is that they produce no recoil and it sounds like a Nerf gun when you fire it, even without a suppressor, making it a perfect choice for this. Alex glanced again at his watch and saw that it was now past midnight and Frost should be walking out any second now. Sure enough about a minute later he could hear footsteps walking through the alley. Once Alex was sure it was him he waited until Frost passed about ten feet in front of him before aiming the shotgun.
Pfft
"Agh!" The slug had hit him dead center of his back and he collapsed to the ground in pain. Alex quickly cycled a new shell into the chamber and made his way over to him before using the butt of the gun to knock him out, breaking his nose with a sickening crack in the process. After slinging the shotgun, Alex reached down and picked up Frost and drug him back to the car before restraining and stuffing him in the truck.
"You get him already?"
"Course I did. Let's get back to my place so we can have some fun with this asshole." Alex said with a smirk before driving off into the city. Lord knows he felt bad for this guy, Alex had a lot of pent up anger he needed to let out and Frost had just been volunteered to act as his punching bag.
…Mission Complete…