10.
~ "Over here." Selina guided them to the house. "Be careful, Fish lets dogs out."
No sooner had she said it, than Batman heard the low growling rumble of a pack of attack dogs coming to them.
Selina quickly ducked behind the car, but he was quicker. Another useful invention was the bear mace he kept in a small canister. A little went a long way with attack dogs. In seconds they were whimpering and retreating from the intruders.
"I hate dogs." Selina sighed.
~ Inside the house, Batman expected more traps, but it stood oddly empty.
"How long were you kept here?" he demanded. His insects telling him to stay in the shadows of the house until it was safe.
"A few days." she said. "It's hard to remember exactly. They took me to Arkham first. Ivy had me tied to a hospital gurney to prove I could escape the place. Kind of a test to prove my skill sin breaking into and out of a place. Then she sprayed me with her little Simon Says mind drug and made me walk out a window. I almost fell into Gotham River."
Batman didn't miss the casual indifference in her voice. It was the well practiced wall of 'I don't give a shit' that Selina threw up whenever she was hurt or angry.
"Tell me about the effects of the mind control drug." he said. She seemed much more willing to explain things to him with his identity hidden.
"It's a hallucinogen." Selina explained. "It's hard to describe unless you take it. I saw a bunch of freaky stuff when she dosed me. There's also memory loss." He followed her into a large green house that must be Ivy's lab.
"How long did it last?" he asked.
"I don't know." Selina said.
She pulled free Ivy's laptop and handed it to him.
"I think most of her notes are on here." she said helpfully.
"We have to burn the house down." he said. "No one can follow her research."
"You sure know how to have a good time." Selina said with an almost flirtatious smile. "Look, I've helped you, so after we set the fire, you drop me off in Gotham City Square and we never cross paths again."
"Unless you're lying about being kidnapped." Batman accused. "Why would they want you in the first place?"
"They needed someone to break into Old Gotham Prime." Selina said. Her feeling obviously hurt he still didn't believe her. "I was perfect because I have the skills and I'm expendable to Fish and Ivy."
"And they wanted to take down Gotham Prime because?" Batman asked.
"To hurt Penguin and to draw you out." Selina snapped. "You're one man show is making life very difficult for people in the Narrows."
Batman studied her face for a long time. It was strange how honest she was with him when she thought he was someone else.
~ Gordon had to take a moment to piece together everything he was seeing. Old Gotham Prime was half blown to hell. Fish Moony's friend Iy Pepper lay practically hogtied next to a high end weapon normally used during SWAT raids. Fish was nowhere to be found and there was enough drugs, money and guns to have the DEA shut down all of the Narrows.
"Looks like Christmas." Harvey Dent said happily. "Someone just made my year."
"Yeah, because someone did all the work for you." Gordon said bitterly.
"Ivy Pamela Pepper." Dent said and pointed to the red head girl the paramedics were checking out. She was handcuffed and unable to hurt anyone, but the look on her face was pure evil.
"I know all about her." Gordon said. He still recalled when Ivy was a scared little girl. The day Bullock shot and killed her father.
"Well, fill me in because I don't see how a girl who's on the deans list at Gotham University is here in the Narrows. How was she working for Fish and where the hell is Fish anyway?" Bullock demanded.
"Those are all good questions." Gordon said thoughtfully. "She's being taken downtown, why not ask her there?"
The whole of the Narrows was being flushed out now. Federal agents were arriving with the large drug find. In just a few hours, this place would turn into an occupied country.
~ "I thought you said we had to destroy everything." Selina reminded him.
Batman was collecting the canisters from of Ivy's lab. All of them looking innocent enough, but he knew from the display earlier that evening, they were all deadly.
"I need to study these." he told her.
"What about falling into the hands of the wrong person?" she asked.
"I don't intend to kill people with them. If Ivy vaccinated herself against the gas that killed Fish, I need to find out how." he said.
"You can do that?" Selina asked. "One man army?"
"Something like that." he said.
"After this I'm done, okay? I don't like being here." Selina told him and picked up a small box with a bio hazard warning on the label.
"Wait!" Batman shouted. He had been looking for just such a trap. His helmet sealed against any airborne contaminates. Selina wasn't so prepared. He had told her not to touch anything, but he should have known she wouldn't listen.
A green puff of smoke hit her right in the face. A booby trap set by Ivy in case her lab was discovered.
She screamed and fell backwards, Batman catching her before she hit the floor.
~ Ivy Pepper sat in the dark interrogation room waiting to be interviewed. Behind the two way mirror, Dent and Gordon watched her sitting in silence.
"She certainly doesn't look like a criminal." Dent said for the hundredth time.
"Look, your case has already been made for you. Wrapped in a bow. It's a good arrest and our pictures will be in the papers." Gordon said.
"Right." Dent sighed. "Just hard to picture a girl like that working for Fish."
"We've suspected her for some time. No evidence until now." Gordon said.
"Did we ever find Fish Moony?" Dent asked.
"Nothing." Gordon said. "It's like she vanished."
"Maybe she can tell us." Dent said.
Gordon watched Ivy as Dent went into interview her. He was uneasy with how this evening had played out so far. He suspected the masked man was behind it. The Freak Show, the Menace, the Bat. It was going to be a long night.
He had been so lost in his thoughts about the freak and his possible involvement in tonights events, he almost missed Ivy standing up and kissing Harvey Dent on the lips.
"I know you can help me." Ivy said in a sweet girlie voice. Gordon's hand went to the holster of his gun. It was just a kiss, but it made him uneasy.
"Help you." Dent said. his voice slightly confused.
"You can help me." Ivy said encouragingly. "Make them understand Fish had me as a hostage. She made me work for her."
"I can help you." Dent said after a few seconds.
"I know you want to help me." Ivy said in a more forceful tone. "Make them understand."
~ "I'm okay!" Selina said through gasping breath. Batman pulled her hands away from her face and saw her normally fair skin was slightly burned from the chemical.
"I'm alright." she said. There was no evidence of plants growing from her mouth or eyes. He looked over her face more carefully to make sure the smoke hadn't hurt her eyes.
"Let me up!" Selina demanded. "I'm fine."
Batman realized the two off them must look like the cover of a very strange romance novel just now. She was in his arms after her fall, the black helmet, both of them breathing hard from the excitement. No wonder Selina wanted to be let go.
She pushed him away and managed to right herself.
"I'll take you to the hospital." he told her.
She shook her head.
"No, no doctors. You can take me to Gotham City Square like you promised, Freak." she told him.
It didn't take long for him to collect all he needed and leave.
"I thought you were burning down the house." Selina questioned when he started his car remotely. She had helped him pack the truck, already stocked with weapons galore, with Ivy's mixture and laptop.
"I am." Batman said.
With the same remote, Batman activated the RPG inside the hood. It popped out neatly from it's hidden position and targeted the old house.
"What the hell?" Selina gasped and stepped away.
"Not bad for an economy car." Batman told her.
The twin missiles fired and hit the house with a very satisfying explosion. The fire that resulted would successfully destroy the house in a matter of minutes.
"Gotham City Square?" Batman said.
Selina, still in shock from the display of weaponry in the car only nodded.
"Yeah." she said at last.
"I think you need to go to a hospital. We don't know what that was that sprayed you." he said.
"I thought that's what you were going to investigate." Selina said dryly. Batman recognized the all to syndical wit coming back to her. "Ivy's drugs were all fast acting. If it was something bad, it would have killed me by now."
"We don't know that." Batman said as they both got back into the car.
Selina gave him a hard look.
"Just drop me of at the City Square. Okay, freak?" she said hatefully.
~ Selina didn't look at the masked man on the ride back into the city. His entire body, head to toe was covered in some kind of body armor. The kind of thing she had only seen in science fiction movies. There was nothing about him she would ever be able to place. Not even his voice.
Gotham City Square was the hub of all tourists and traffic in Gotham. It was historic and full of bright lights and people at all hours of the day and night. The freak slowed to a stop and she was quick to part company with him without even a good bye.
She caught the reflection of the black car in one of the shop windows as she went inside. Part of her was glad to be rid of him, but mostly, she was thankful the nightmare was over.
She cleaned up in the bathroom of a small Chinese restaurant and noticed her skin looked slightly burned from the booby tray in Ivy's lab. It looked like she had been in the sun for too long.
'Maybe it was a dud.' she thought looking over her normally fair skin. 'Could have been a lot worse.'
She was about to leave the restaurant when she spotted the large TV in the dinning room. A news bulletin about a large drug bust in the Narrows and Ivy was being taken away in handcuffs. Gordon and Dent made a brief on camera interview and there was an eerie video of the old bank. Holes blown in the walls, rain falling over the broken facade. It looked like it belonged to the nightmares of a madman. Not a real place at all.
"Can I borrow your phone?" Selina asked the hostess. The lady behind the counter nodded and handed her an old fashioned rotary.
'Stupid Hipsters.' Selina thought as she painstakingly dialed a phone number she knew by heart.
He picked up on the second ring.
"Bruce?" she said with a shaky breath. She was glad just to hear his voice again. His 'Hello' was so casual and normal.
"Selina?" he said back. Worry written plainly in his tone. "Where are you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I just… I had a rough night. Can I see you?" she asked pitifully.
"Sure, I just need to get my car. Where are you?"
"At a restaurant in Gotham City Square." she said. Her mood feeling lighter at the prospect of Bruce agreeing to come.
In all the world, there was nothing she wanted more than the comfort of a friend.