3.
~ "I want to go home." Selina told Fish and Ivy.
"You will." Fish promised while Ivy stood by and said nothing.
Selina noticed that Ivy looked taller than normal and realized she was in very high heels. The effect on her already long body was unsettling. Especially the way she was glaring at her. It was like Ivy hated her for some reason.
"I want to leave now!" Selina barked. "How did I even get here?"
"With this." Ivy said and tossed a tiny spray can at Selina. She quickly caught it felt it was empty.
"What is it?" she asked.
"My very own invention. I'll admit that the research for it came from another source." Ivy said. "I used a plant based pheromone to make you more manageable. It also has the effect of erasing your memory. You walked willing out of your little apartment and into my car like you were strolling through the park. No one suspected a thing."
"Ivy, people are going to miss me if I just vanish. I work at the DA's office. Harvey Dent keeps asking me out. If I disappear, he will wonder what happened."
"It's nothing another shot of that won't cure." Ivy said with a sadistic smirk. "I can make you say anything to anyone with it. I can make you quit your job, burn your apartment to the ground or even walk right out that window and land on the rocks below. No one would find your body for weeks. It would be such a mess by then."
Her old friend's words were cold and calculated. Selina felt afraid and knew that Ivy could indeed do such a thing. Ivy could kill her and sleep very well at night.
"Ivy, please." Selina said. "It doesn't have to be like this."
"I'm afraid it does." Fish said.
Selina looked at the woman with the eye patch. She was older, well groomed and wore expensive and well tailored clothing.
"You see, a few years ago, I found myself banished from my beloved home city of Gotham. I was thrown to the wolves and left to be eaten alive in many ways. And yet, I returned and was leading the pack." she purred.
"Yeah, you seem like a real dog to me." Selina said hatefully.
Ivy glanced at Fish and Fish only smiled.
"I met young Ivy here on my return and recognized her raw, untapped talent. Since then, she has worked for me. She's been my eyes and ears around Gotham and she's helped me to make certain people's lives very… uncomfortable." Fish explained.
"None of this involves me." Selina said and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Correction." Fish said in a deadly serious tone. "It does involve you."
Fish had changed so drastically, Selina was forced to pay attention. Everything Selina had learned in life said the Fish Moony was a woman of power. A dangerous person to be around.
"You see, a lot of my dealings have been corrupted by a number variables." Fish said in that cold, evil tone. "All of them I've traced back to one person. Some nut job dressed in black who's been chasing away my drug trade and causing my income to be less reliable."
"I know who you're talking about." Selina said. "He's just a freak in a mask."
"He must go down." Fish said venomously.
"So take him down. He's a man, he's not bullet proof." Selina said. "You don't need me."
"No one knows who he is or where he came from." Ivy explained. "Normally we would hurt him by attacking his loved ones."
"The freak, as you call him, is like smoke." Fish said. Her well manicured nails looking like claws in the moonlight. "He comes and he goes as he pleases and we have no way to find him. How can we hurt a man we can't even find?"
"That sounds like a you problem." Selina said.
Fish glared at her.
"I've brought you here to draw him out, Selina. Ivy says that you can break into anything. I want you to break into something for me."
"When I break into a place, I don't get caught." Selina said. She neglected to mention that last time.
"Oh, you'll get caught this time, dear." Fish said sweetly. "But not by the inept goons of the GCPD."
"I won't help you." Selina told them.
"Ivy?" Fish said.
Before Selina could turn away, Ivy had sprayed her in the face with something and her whole world was spinning.
The dark room with it's peeling paint and broken plaster was suddenly bright and cheerful. The sun was shinning outside and she felt like the light was dancing.
"Selina," Ivy was saying. Her voice like a lovely song now.
Selina looked at her old friend and saw plants growing out of her jacket. Flowers were blooming out of her red hair. Ivy looked like she was being consumed by plant life.
"Selina, step out of the window." Ivy told her in a sugary sweet voice.
Without a second thought, Selina turned around and faced the open window.
"The river, the rocks." Selina said weakly.
"There's nothing to be afraid of." Ivy said. "It's just a garden outside. Take a look and you'll see."
Selina looked and Ivy was right. There was a beautiful lush garden right outside the window. She took a few steps towards it and stood at the threshold.
"It's so pretty." Selina said. She could smell flowers and freshly cut grass. She could hear birds singing.
"Go out into the garden, Selina." Ivy said encouragingly.
Selina nodded and took a step onto the ground. Her foot stepping out into nothingness.
The loss of her footing made everything painfully real. Her heart raced as she slipped off the edge of the window and fell. Her cat like reflexes catching hold of the ledge before she plunged to her death.
The garden around her was transforming. Being swallowed up by the filthy Gotham River and the sunshine was being replace by the brightness of the moon.
"Ivy!" Selina screamed in terror as her fingers started to slip.
She was trying to catch hold of something, anything to put her feet on. She was going to fall from this window and die.
"Ivy, please help me!" Selina cried out in terror.
Ivy appeared at the large window. Her long red hair flowing freely in the breeze. It must have been a side effect of the drug, because Selina could still see flowering plants in her hair. Her skin almost covered in winding green leaves.
"What's the matter?" Ivy asked in a baby like voice. "Does kitty want to come back inside and play nice?"
"Ivy!" Selina cried out. "Please, I'm going to fall!"
"You're going to do as Fish tells you." Ivy spat. Her skin turning the color of moonlight and the plants around her withering and dying.
"Yes!" Selina cried. Her grip on the window ledge faltering. "Yes, I'll help you."
"No tricks." Ivy ordered.
"No, I promise." Selina whimpered. Tears were streaking down her face.
She was about to slip again when Ivy grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her off the ledge and safely back inside.
"My wasn't that dramatic." Fish Moony said with an impressed little grin. Selina was breathing hard. She had been moments away from death and the effect felt like razor blazes were in her blood.
"Now, Cat." Fish said. "Are you willing to play nice?"
"Whatever you need." Selina gulped. "But then I want to be left alone."
"I hope that's how it will end up." Fish said. "But I can't make you any promises."
~ Penguin had always enjoyed the spoils of war. The club that had once belonged to Fish was his favorite prize of them all. True, attendance was nonexistent these days, but that hardly mattered. What mattered to Penguin was that he was the lord of all he saw. Here he was king and best of all, he had taken it from Fish all those years ago.
Very few performance acts were available and willing to put on a show for the dark, dimly lit club in the bad part of Gotham. They were all too afraid of the pale skinned man with the hawk like nose and odd way of walking.
Just now, a magician was on stage, failing to impress. He was too nervous and kept missing the mark.
Penguin ate his cold dinner in the shadows and said nothing. His mind was already troubled with the news that Fish Moony might have come back to Gotham. Impossible, she hadn't been heard from in years now. Why lay low for so long and then come back? What was she planning?
"Sir?" came a timid barkeep.
Penguin eyed the peon from the shadows and remind silent.
"Sir, Gordon is here to see you." the peon said and bowed away.
Penguin, only nodded and the bartender escorted his old friend Gordon to the head table.
"Boy this place is doing great." Gordon said cheerfully. "You're having to turn people away at the doors."
Penguin didn't like the joke. He didn't like Gordon either.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers loudly. The magician on stage looked scared, gathered all his things and fled. The other peons at the bar understood they were being dismissed while Gordon was here.
"What is it you want, Gordon?" Penguin asked. "You only come here when you want something. Information, a favor. Information about favors." Penguin teased. "You're a terrible detective. Having me do all the work for you. Maybe the GCPD should hire me."
"You'd fail the physical with that bum leg of yours." Gordon said quickly.
Penguin frowned.
"Be quick, Jim. I have other fish to fry." he said.
"Fish. Since you brought her up." Gordon said with a smug smile. "I have reason to believe Fish Moony is back in town. Have you heard anything about it?"
"Not a peep." Penguin said with a sarcastic smile.
"She might be in the company of this young woman." Gordon said placing a picture on Penguin's table next to his cold dinner.
The photo was of a lovely red headed young woman. She looked like a model for Vogue and not someone who was associated with a has been like Fish.
"Who is she?" Penguin asked.
"Her name is Ivy Pepper." Gordon said. "She's the daughter of the late Mario Pepper."
"Oh, yes. Terrible shame about that misunderstanding." Penguin said with a chortle.
"We think she's an associate of Fish Moony." Gordon said. "Ivy was one of the many street kids who escaped the mayors purge a few years ago. She's been missing from her old haunts for over a year now. Any idea why she's hanging out with your old boss?"
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time Fish has taken a young, innocent girl and groomed her for sinister purposes." Penguin said lazily. "It's possible this poor little bird is being manipulated by Fish. If it goes south, Gordon, don't think the old harpy won't cut her loose and leave her bleeding."
"Why is Fish back in Gotham?" Gordon asked.
"I've no idea." Penguin said with a grin. "She's old news isn't she?"
Gordon leaned back in his chair.
"This is a curtsey, Penguin." he said before standing up. "Fish is back. You might want to grow eyes in the back of your head."
"I already have." Penguin laughed as Gordon left him to his cold dinner in his empty club.