The streets are not as they seem. Winding ever on until one brick wall stops you in your tracks.

One. Brick. Wall.

That's all I have, spare the clothes on my back for they are hardly in any shape for anyone to call them clothes. Little rags brought together buy a simple stolen needle and thread. People usually think because I steal I could have everything, but I steal to survive, I steal objects that last only a few seconds or hours at most. Things such as cloth, thread, food or tissues. I wouldn't yet dare steal anything from a shop yet, being only 7 and very inexperienced. I refrained from walking anywhere near a shop in fact, in case someone spots me and takes me back to another orphanage that is too full and too crowded to have another mouth to feed. So here I stay, upon the dirty winding maze of streets. The cold stone floor that serves as my bed is neither comfortable nor clean. Sheets are hard to come by and I can never raise myself enough money to purchase a blanket, no one wants to hire an under-aged, underfed, almost under-everything homeless child.

The weather had become hot and the days dragged on and on. I preoccupied myself with the thoughts of winter, the pale flecks of snow sticking in my hair, winter was easy to cope with, I could steal more cloth and bundle myself up but in summer, there are only so many items of clothing you could remove before losing all of your dignity. As the day stretched in and slowly transferred the sun elsewhere giving me the moon to praise for its lack of heat radiation. It's pale white light allowing me to move in the dark, do anything no matter how unforgiving. The night and I were the closest friends. Yin and yang, each-others halves. The night is my only friend.

I sat, still, quiet, alone. I thought, eccentric, insane, alone. I wanted all the world could give anyone, all it could give someone. Even someone as unwanted, unloved as I. Someone as alone as I. Glancing up at the sky, grey clouds smothering the burning, prying sun. The flashes of forked lightning and deep rolling voice of the thunder calmed me. A storm was coming but to hide would be rash, no other being lets us riff-raff in, so I sit alone, careless about the upcoming storm. Soft pitter-patter of rain cooled my skin as it hit me, rhythm-less and cold but even as the rain became heavier and heavier, pounding against my chest, forcing my eyes closed, I refused to move. By the time the rain had let up I was drenched, but I was not cold nor shivering, did I feel peaceful and calm? It would appear so.

When the sun decided to poke its head out again I still hadn't moved. The bustle of moving people and cars had begun again, ruining my peace. Families passed me, whispering quietly and pointing towards me muttering things like 'don't go near that child' or 'she's dangerous'. They weren't hurtful comments but they made my hunger for love and friendship deepen.

I stayed lying down for what seemed to be hours, letting the sun dry my clothes. Suddenly loud music erupted from a black-window-tinted car that was bursting the speed limit just for fun. A few men jumped out, swaying dangerously with drinks in their hands. The tall bloke tripped and dropped his bottle on the floor, causing the sound of shattering glass to fill my ears. The other man stood laughing hysterically at his friend, until he had laughed so hard that he threw up all over his colleague's unconscious body.

The sight of these two seriously drunk men repulsed me. Temptation filled every part of my body as the renaming man fell to the floor, drunk, covered with vomit and unconscious.

'Steal the car' the voice inside me head urged. One part of me wanted I steal the shiny Toyota but the other wanted be to back away slowly and run. I ran, but not away, I ran towards the car.

s I jumped into the shiny black Toyota my heart stopped for a few brief seconds. I didn't know how to drive let alone start a car but looking down I noticed the dull grey engine start/stop button. I pressed it a few times but the car did not start. I tried pushing down the peddle on the right then pushing it. The car didn't start. I tried again but with the left peddle, the engine roared to life. I turned off the music, which somehow had still been playing. I used the little I did know about cars to push the gearstick into drive. The car rolled forward steadily. I seized up, 'what am I to do?' i asked myself quietly. I wrapped my fingers tightly around the steering wheel and slowly put my foot down on the right peddle to try it out. The car gathered speed. I panicked and stomped my foot down, the car lurched forward the engine screaming in my ears.

"I don't want to die like this" I hissed, grabbing the wheel and reefing it to the left, missing my brick wall home by literally inches. After that it seemed easier. No doubt that whomever looked in my direction would think some lunatic was driving the car not a seven year old homeless child.

I got the hang of driving after a few hours. I drove as far as I could through cities until the tank was completely empty. I got out of the car and left it by the side of the road. I walked and walked for hours until I reached a sign.

"Welcome to Gotham"

I trudged on, my bare feet aching and bleeding. My throat dry with thirst, my lips cracked and my skin dry and itching. It had been a few days since I last ate and my stomach was wrenching and tying itself in knots.

I walked through the city, collecting glares and disgusted muttering as I shuffled on. The heat waves rolling off cars and buildings. My head was pounding, a thousand screams bursting my ear drums. White noise. The heat was almost unbearable and the white noise grew even louder and my vision was blurry. The last thing I saw before collapsing under a tree in the middle of the park was a flash of red hair and green leaves.

I awoke, my ears ringingq and my head pounding. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dimmed lighting of the room. My nostrils flared and the smell of earth and herbs filled my nose. I was underground, but I specifically remember fainting under a tree in a park.

"So, the zombie wakes." A voice announced. I looked to my left, standing awkwardly was a woman, not much older than 20 with flaming red hair. Her clothes -or what she believed to be- were dark and light green leaves barely covering her private areas and her midriff. I held in the waves of questions threatening to burst out of my mouth. 'Where am I' seemed too cliché and she looked to be the kind of person that would just reply with 'your underground' or some scientific name that I didn't know the meaning of. So I thought out my words differently.

"Why am I here?"

She looked at me oddly. I guess she wasn't used to non-cliché followers.

"You fainted. Half dead when I found you." She said her words with a slight mocking tone. As if it was my fault I was half dead when found.

"Where's your family?" I thought hard and long, I couldn't just say 'I don't know' she'll think I'm only lost.

"If I even knew who they were I would ask where." I said, my voice firm. Her eyes softened a little. "I'm an orphan. Well kind of... I was cast out when I was really young, I have been living on the streets ever since."

"How old are you?" She asked.

"The only thing I had when I was abandoned was a birth certificate... Don't know where that went though... And a hospital band baring my name and birthdate." I sighed. "I'm eleven." The woman looked at me with pity in her eyes.

"So, what's your name?" She asked.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." For a moment a challenging look played in her eyes but she flashed me a smile.

"Ivy's the name, and poison's my game" she said brightly.

"Mine's Rye Croft. So your name's Poison Ivy I'm guessing?"

"Yep! Rye? Sounds different, I certainly never heard it before." Ivy said.

"Indeed it is" I said.

"So what's it been like to live alone on the streets?"

"Hard, I guess. I don't know what to compare it to." I said breathlessly

"I see." Ivy nodded sadly.

"Not to seem rude but, when is it I am able to leave?" I asked.

"You know, you sound like your 21 not 11." Ivy chuckled. "As soon as you're healthy. If you want you can live here but I'm not taking care of you full time, I have a business to run."

"I'll see when I'm better whether or not to stay." Ivy nodded.

It was as if Mother Nature shoved frozen ice cubes down my shirt. The sun was hiding shyly behind a cloud and I was huddled in a corner waiting for Ivy to come back. It had been three days since I had last seen her. I wasn't worried because she was an adult and could take care of herself but I didn't want to lose someone so kind to me when I had just got her.

I sighed and decided to go for a walk around the city for the first time.

The city was cold but filled with people. I walked around until I passed a shop with heaps of TV's in the window.

"Poison Ivy has been captured and taken back to Arkham Asylum were she will remain for a very, very long time."

I stared in horror at the screens. So that is why Ivy hadn't come home!

"I've got to help her!" I whispered to myself.

I looked around at the people who had also gathered around the window.

"Good riddance!" An old woman huffed. How. Dare. She!

I glared at her wickedly. She had a silver necklace that hung oddly around her neck. She was fiddling with it when it broke.

"Oh goodness me! My favourite necklace." She gasped trying to fix the clasp.

"You should put it away so you don't lose it." Her husband (I'm guessing) told her. She nodded and placed it in her pocket.

About three centimetres of necklace hung out of the pocket, just waiting for that grand moment when a superior (yes superior, because you never notice us stealing!) gives the precious item a new home.

I walked gingerly up to the old woman.

"Your jumper is lovely! I love the vibrancy of the colours!" I said with fake enthusiasm and happiness. The woman's jumper was positively hideous!

"Why thank you child." She said in her frail voice.

"Pardon me Ma'am." I said politely to the lady beside her. "May I get through?"

Geez! This fake politeness is actually killing me! I groaned in my brain.

"What lovely manners you have child!" She complimented. As if I didn't know that already!

She moved aside and I slowly slipped past the frail old woman taking her precious necklace with me.

I spent days plotting out my plan to rescue Ivy. I stole several maps from the news stand out the front of the park and highlighted my path of destruction. I would train myself to fight somehow, you can't mess with the people from Arkham and you defiantly cannot go in there unprepared. I sold the necklace for $75 dollars and went and bought myself a pair of closed shoes and a red shirt and black pants that actually fit me. I threw my other clothes in the bin at the park entrance.

I pillaged Ivy's supply cupboard taking a torch, rope, matches, wire and some greenish liquid in a vile labelled "restorer". I placed the items near the bag pack I had bought before rummaging through Ivy's drawer.

An hour after the sun set I set out for Arkham Asylum.

"Get ready Ivy, I'm busting you out"