Harley and Ivy: Chapter 8
As Ivy woke, the first sight to greet her was Harley's face a mere few inches away from her. Sometime in the night they both had turned towards each other on the flower bed and Ivy was so close to Harley she could feel the heat of Harley's body.
"I was right about one thing. The sight of Harley first thing in the morning is something I could really get used to." Ivy thought to herself with a grin.
Being oh so careful, Ivy reached out a hand and rested it on Harley's hip and slowly started to caress her waist back and forth.
Harley still asleep began to smile. Ivy was so close, it would only take slight effort to bring her lips to Harley's and kiss her.
Even asleep Harley's breathing became deeper and faster. "Oh Red." She finally breathed out.
"YES." Ivy thought triumphantly. "It wasn't just one time at Arkham, Harley does dream about me."
Ivy was just about to wake Harley and help her with her 'education' when she noticed the pleased smile on Harley's face disappear to be replaced with one of stark terror. Harley's breathing which had deepened with desire was now starting to come in quick fearful gasps.
"No! Please Mr. J. I'll do anything just don't hurt Red. NO. NO." Harley finally gave a ragged scream and sat bolt upright on the flowerbed.
Gasping and shaking Harley wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth a few times.
"Harley! What's wrong?" Ivy said as she quickly let up beside her and wrapped her arms around the smaller woman.
"Nightmare." Harley replied and swallowed several times before she could continue. "You and I were in this dark dank room, you were telling me how beautiful I was and started to kiss me and the Joker burst in. He tied us up back to back and hung us from the ceiling. Mr. J. came around in front of me and showed me a large sharp knife and then walked around to your side. I heard you scream and Mr. J. say, 'just like skinning a hyena.' He then crossed back to my side and he was covered in blood and grinning at me. He then said, 'your turn now Harley gal and do try not to get your blood on me like that plant bitch did.' That was when I woke up."
"It was just a dream Harley. It means nothing." Ivy said as she tried to hug the woman even closer.
"No." Harley yelled and leapt out of Ivy's arms. "We have to get out of here Red. Mr. J. will find this place easily enough. We have to go somewhere to hide out he won't think to look for."
Ivy frowned and lay back down on the flower bed and looked over at the distraught Harley. "Don't be silly Harley. Not even the Batman found this place. He captured me while I was trying to steal some rare plant toxins. This place is safe enough."
"Ivy! Come on. It's an abandoned exotic plant store. How hard do you really think it would be for the Bats or Mr. J. to figure out where you would hide?"
Ivy frowned but then replied. "Gotham is filled with these places. The rich and elite always want fancy plants to lighten up their dreary homes but the air here is so polluted the plants don't live long and the stores end up closing. What makes you think Batman or the Joker would come directly to this one?"
"So they try them all. Sooner or later they will find this one."
"You don't even know that the Joker has escaped from Arkham yet." Ivy pointed out.
Harley paused in her nervous pacing. "That is true. What I wouldn't give to see a news broadcast so I could at least panic properly if Mr. J. was out and about."
Ivy stretched on the flowerbed and raised herself up on one elbow. "Oh really? Well now I can help with that." Waving a hand she caused some of the ivy hanging on a back wall to slowly part revealing a television set. Searching in the thick moss of the flowerbed for a second she pulled out a remote and clicked the TV on.
"So what will you give me?" Ivy purred at Harley.
Harley sat down at the edge of the flowerbed and watching the television like a hawk didn't respond.
Ivy after a moment frowned and just turned up the volume on the TV.
"Good morning Gotham City. This is Gotham Morning Alive, bringing you all the news and entertainment so you can start your day. As we reported earlier this morning, we have a Arkham alert. Yes inmates from Arkham have escaped once again and citizens of Gotham are warned to take the normal precautions. Katie?" The man on the TV said and turned to a typical TV newscaster like female sitting on a couch beside him.
"Thank you Matt." The woman smiled at her male counterpart and then turned to look seriously into the camera. "It is reported that sometime yesterday the two dangerous female inmates known as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy escaped from Arkham. It is reported that the renowned doctor Charles Krantz and a nurse named Rachel Cratchet were killed as well."
"Wow. The nurse's name really was Cratchet. Weird." Ivy muttered to herself.
"So Quinn and Ivy killed them?" The man named Matt asked Katie.
"Actually the police report that a guard at Arkham says no. The guard named Johnny Redstone says the nurse killed Doctor Krantz because she was being paid by another famous inmate of Arkham, namely The Joker. Family members of nurse Cratchet vehemently deny the accusations."
Harley glanced over her shoulder at Ivy. "Johnny is an Indian? He didn't look like it."
Ivy shrugged. "Family name. No telling how many generations he is removed."
On the television, the two hosts continued to try and look deeply serious as they continued.
"And the nurse's death?" Matt prompted.
"The guard says Poison Ivy is responsible but that she claimed it was in self defense as the nurse tried to kill her and Quinn. Gotham police are investigating." Katie replied.
"See Harley? They mentioned the Joker only in passing. He must still be safely locked up." Ivy said and leaned forward to wrap her arms around Harley's shoulders.
Harley and Ivy could see someone hand the man on TV known as Matt a piece of paper.
"This just in. Arkham has announced that The Joker has also escaped from Arkham early this morning. Two guards were found dead with the Joker's trademark smile on their faces. The names of the guards are being withheld until their family members are contacted. We here at Gotham Morning Alive will stay up to date on this and we'll let our viewers have more information when it becomes available. Till then Gothamites remember the usual rules for things like this. Avoid contact with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and the Joker at all costs and notify the police if you see them…"
Ivy shut the TV off as she felt Harley stiffen beneath her hug.
"He's out." Was the only thing Harley said for a moment. She then turned to look fearfully at Ivy. "Do you think one of the guards killed was Johnny?"
Ivy felt like giving a careless shrug but resisted. "No. For one thing after the day Johnny had yesterday, you know even Arkham would have sent him home once they found him in the Infirmary. And secondly, you heard them say the guards had the Joker's grin on them. That means they were killed by Joker Venom. Johnny would have been immune to it. He was given the cure for it yesterday, remember?"
Harley relaxed slightly. "Yeah that's true. It takes at least three days before the cure wears off and you can be re-poisoned with Joker Venom so Johnny must be okay." Harley leapt out of Ivy's embrace and began to pace nervously.
"I know Mr. J. He'll go to his secret hideout first. The one where Bud and Lou…Where Bud and Lou used to be. He'll see his destroyed painting. Oh god Red. He loved that painting of him. He captured a famous portrait painter that was doing an exhibition in Gotham at the time to paint it for him. He tortured her horribly until she got the painting exactly the way he wanted it to be. He'll be royally pissed when he sees what I did to it." Harley said wringing her hands in apprehension.
"What did he do with the artist after she finished the painting?" Ivy asked curiously.
Seeing the color drain from Harley's face didn't speak well for the artist's survival after she finished.
"He sent her to the Gotham Art Museum." Harley replied tensely.
"He released her?"
"No, he sent her back to the museum in gallon paint cans. It took twenty-three of them for all of her body." Harley replied and rushed over to check the hidden door to the hideout. "What time is it Ivy?"
Ivy watched the nearly panic stricken woman nervously checking and rechecking the lock on the hidden door and then staring up at the overhead skylight. "It's nearly ten thirty. Why?"
Harley turned to look at Ivy and her eyes grew even wider in panic. "If the Joker escaped early then he has already had time to make it back to his hideout, find the destroyed painting and maybe trace us here. You were exhausted last night Ivy and I didn't know where the hideout was so I couldn't take precautions on obscuring our trail. I probably left a trail a mile wide that the Joker could follow!"
"Harley! You are becoming a basket case! Calm down! We're safe here. The Joker won't find us here." Ivy said as she got up from the flower bed to try and take Harley into her arms to calm the frantic woman down. A loud explosion from the other side of the hidden door side tracked her though and she raced to the door and opened a peephole to peer out.
"It's him isn't it!" Harley whispered hoarsely as she raced to her side.
"I don't know." Ivy replied. All she could see through the peephole was bright and lurid flames. The front part of the abandon store was on fire.
"Come out; come out where ever you are." An ominously familiar voice sing-songed through a megaphone, it was followed by maniacal laughter. "I've always preferred my vegetables to be deep fried." The Joker's voice added.
Harley clutched Ivy's arm tightly. "Tell me you have another way out of here Red!"
Ivy nodded. "Of course. I'm not so inexperienced as to not have an escape route." She walked over to the flower bed that served both of them as a comfortable bed the night before and feeling around on the low circular wall she pressed a hidden switch. The whole circular flower bed slid across the floor revealing a stairwell leading down.
Harley walked over and taking a sniff she looked in question at Ivy.
"Yeah it leads to the sewers." Ivy admitted.
The fire in front of the store was starting to cause the wall to smoke as the bags of fertilizer on the other side caught fire.
Harley raced over to the black bags containing what was left of the Joker's money she had stolen, grabbing them up she then ran back to the sewer escape hole.
"Any port hole in a storm." Harley said and leapt into the hole.
Ivy frowned for a moment and pausing only to grab the lab coat she had taken off earlier that night and shrugging into it she then followed Harley down. She couldn't make up her mind if Harley was so desperate to escape from the Joker she went first or she went first in case some of the Joker's henchmen had found the secret sewer escape route to try and protect Ivy."
Harley and Ivy came up from the sewers several blocks away. They had met no one in the dank sewer system and once again Harley insisted she go up first. Looking back in the direction of the now destroyed abandoned plant store, Ivy and Harley could see black plumes of smoke and hear fire engine sirens. The Joker of course would have been long gone before the first emergency vehicle arrived.
"That Clown bastard destroyed my plants!" Ivy growled.
Harley sadly nodded her head. "He'll keep destroying too. Plants, animals, buildings, and people, anything to cause me pain and bring me one step closer to be destroyed.
Ivy turned to look at Harley and saw her staring intently at her. "Red? Why don't you leave me? I'll be all right and once the Joker knows you are no longer with me, he'll leave you alone. I'll give you the location of the warehouse I'm having the Penguin deliver the equipment to and you can join me in two days when the portal generator is ready and escape with me… Or escape without me if I'm not there."
Ivy grabbed a hold of Harley's arms before she could run off. "I am not leaving you to fend for yourself Harley! We are in this together!" Ivy smiled slightly at her. "Besides, I don't know how to put the equipment you are having delivered together to build this 'portal generator'. Only you know how to hook it up." Ivy was hoping to get a smile out of Harley. Instead Harley only nodded her head after a moment. "We better find somewhere else to hide then." She said as she turned away.