Harley wandered down the stairs looking for everyone. After the hot relaxing bath Sasami had retrieved another of Tenchi's clean long shirts for Harley to wear. Instead of dressing in the bathhouse area, Harley had went to the bathroom to dress. Harley wanted to fix her hair back in her typical pigtails and surprise Ivy; she remembered how much Ivy seemed to like her with that hairstyle. It wasn't that Harley was afraid she was losing Ivy's interest... It was more she was afraid that Ivy was bedying enthralled with Ryoko's beauty and charms.
"I mean it wouldn't be hard to do. I'm just your normal plain common blond. Ryoko has that magnificent mane of blue spiky hair and she used to be a space pirate too. How can a gal be expected to compete with that?" Harley muttered to herself as she headed down the stairs to the living room area.
Harley could see as she reached the bottom stair that Catwoman was draped in one of Ayeka's over long kimonos. Even though it must have happened when she was in the bathroom she could just mentally hear Sasami suggesting to her sister that Catwoman couldn't be expected to put her still wet costume back on and to loan one of her fancy royal dresses for her to wear.
Harley admired Catwoman for a moment. The light blue kimono trimmed with green looked good on her. The colors bringing out her rich black hair and beautiful eyes and since the kimono was lacking the elaborate undergarments that Ayeka always wore, it showed off her cleavage and allowed one long leg to peek out as Catwoman reclined on the couch. Catwoman was sitting on the couch talking to Washu, who was now back in her little girl form and Mihoshi. Sitting on the back of the couch next to Delilah was Ryo-ohki. Harley couldn't be sure but from here it sounded like they were discussing cats and cat genetics.
"Big surprise there." Harley thought to herself with a grin. Looking around Harley tried to figure out where Ivy had gotten to. Hearing a very uncharacteristic feminine giggle from above, Harley glanced up to see Ryoko sitting on a cross beam near the ceiling and a twisting vine dying from a nearby window had Ivy sitting on it. Ivy appeared to be wearing a costume made of leaves and Harley knowing Ivy's way with plants decided it probably was. It covered all the parts of Ivy that needed to be covered but was still highly provocative. Ivy appeared to be hanging on Ryoko's every word and as Harley watched she once again giggled at something Ryoko had said.
"Ivy ... giggles?"Harley thought to herself in shock. "I've never heard Ivy giggle. Laugh maybe once or twice but never giggle." Harley could feel her heart sinking in her chest. She was losing Ivy to Ryoko and Harley knew there was no way she could compete. Turning she quietly entered the kitchen to keep Ivy from noticing she had seen her infatuation with Ryoko so she missed hearing the next part of Ryoko and Ivy's conversation.
"So..." Ryoko said. "You and Harley?"
Ivy nodded her head. "I've always desired her but figured she was too attached to Joker to ever notice me. It was a great surprise to find Harley has been interested in me too." Ivy searched the space pirate's face for a reaction. "That doesn't bother you does it? Two women interested in each other?"
Ryoko rolled her eyes. "Kid I've been from one end of space to the other. All that matters is finding the one you can love beyond all others and then doing whatever it takes to make it work." Ryoko's eyes grew soft. "That is why I'm still on this backwater planet. I found my Tenchi and I'll never give up till he realizes I'm the one for him."
"What of the others?" Ivy asked. "From what Harley told me they are all waiting for him to choose them too." Sure it was a bit insensitive but Ivy was never one to waste words.
Ryoko shrugged. "They'll never be able to convince my Tenchi and besides..." Ryoko shrugged her shoulders. "I've already suggested to Ayeka that I would be willing to share Tenchi as long as I could have him too."
Ivy blinked at her. Ryoko grin grew a little wicked. "You should have seen Ayeka's face when I suggested that. She turned literally purple with anger!" Ryoko imitated Ayeka's slightly high voice. "Lord Tenchi is not one of those loose moral men that would ever lower themselves to having a harem!" Ryoko broke off with a laugh. "Pompous idiot." She said referring to Ayeka. "Doesn't she realize that her own father has two wives? How would it be so different for Tenchi to have two or more wives?"
"Ayeka's father has two wives?" Ivy asked in surprise.
"Yeah it's a Jurai kind of thing. Royals especially are expected and even encouraged to have two or more wives. The women do most of the strategic planning of the household and government while the men are expected to just look commandingly." Ryoko said dismissively.
Harley sneaking into the kitchen could hear Ayeka talking to her sister Sasami as Sasami prepared lunch.
"Sasami I can't believe you suggested such a thing." Ayeka's high voice could be heard.
"Sister it is obvious how much Harley and Ivy are into each other. Ivy even explained to us how she shared her blood with Harley to save her." Sasami replied as if talking to a slow child as she chopped some vegetables.
"No doubt Ivy is only hanging around Harley because they were both criminals. Those types attract each other. I mean who else would have someone like Harley? A woman with a dark checkered past. " Ayeka said cruelly. She was still not convinced that Harley hadn't come back to this world to try and steal her Tenchi from her and she was unconsciously projecting her dislike of Ryoko onto Harley as well since Ryoko was also an ex-criminal.
Harley quietly slipped back out of the kitchen door before she could be seen. She knew Ayeka didn't really like her that much but was that what she really thought of her? That she was just a second choice of Ivy's because she was convenient?
Looking back up at the beam Ivy and Ryoko was sitting on; she could see the two women were leaning closer to one another as they talked in whispers.
"Am I just a second choice? Damaged goods that Ivy allows to hang around her till she finds something better?" Harley thought to herself, her low self esteem dragging her down. Moving with the silence and skills that only someone who had to tip toe around a homicidal maniac like the Joker for years could master, Harley slipped out through the front door without anyone noticing.
Running as hard as she could Harley found herself back at the dock over the lake where she had entered this world so recently. Sitting down with her legs dangling over the edge she stared at her reflection in the water.
Harley silently stared at herself for a while before finally asking out loud. "Am I so worthless? Everyone leaves me sooner or later. My mother... My sister... Mr. J. Now even Ivy? Am I not good for anything to anyone?" Harley sobbed and watched as a few of her tears fell to distort her reflection on the water.
As the circles of distortions on the water calmed, Harley felt a tendril of fear run down her back. In the reflection of her over her shoulder was the face of the Joker.
"Harley gal, I've always thought to myself that you would make a perfect corpse." The Joker's chilling voice drifted on the wind to her.
"Either I've finally jumped the tracks completely and lost it like the head shrinkers in Arkham always said I would or... Mr. J. is really behind me." Harley thought in terror. "Please let it be that I've gone totally crackers." Harley added to herself as she started to ever so slowly turn her head to look behind her.
"Shit." Harley thought a moment later as she could see that the Joker was indeed standing just a few feet away from her on the dock. A scant few yards farther down the dock towards Tenchi's house she could see one of the huge rotund henchmen that the Joker had recently hired. They were two of them, brothers that always traveled together, the Pain Brothers. Joker's name for them was Punch and Judy. Looking past the Joker towards the other end of the dock she could see the other brother was slowly lowering himself from a black hole over the lake down a rope tied to the end of the dock. The Joker and two of his henchmen had followed her, Ivy and Catwoman from their dimension to Tenchi's world.
Harley slowly drew herself up and turned to face the Joker. Her movements were as slow and controlled as if she faced a King Cobra snake. In Harley's mind she was fervently wishing it was just a deadly snake she was facing than the three she was now. She didn't know Punch and Judy personally but she knew them by reputation. They liked to hurt women. Hurt them badly. Their particular expertise in abusing and mutilating women was one of the reasons that the Joker hired them. He found it sadistically amusing how the brothers always left their victims twisted into gruesome but to the Joker, artistic ways.
"Um, hi Mr. J." Harley managed to finally say as she faced the Joker head on.
"Is that all you have to say for yourself Harley gal? I come all this way to find you and return you to where you belong and I find you wearing that boy's shirt... Again I might add and all you can say is." The Joker raised his voice in an imitation of Harley's voice. "Hi Mr. J."
Harley wetted her dry lips nervously. One of the brothers, whether it was Punch or Judy Harley couldn't tell was blocking her exit towards Tenchi's house and the other one was blocking her exit to the black hole that would lead her back to Gotham and Joker was within striking distance of her. Her continued good health was not looking too good.
"Um, you are looking good Mr. J.?" Harley stated nervously as she tried to move back away from him a little more but found her heels were hanging over the edge of the dock.
The Joker smiled wide which Harley knew meant someone was going to die real soon and she had no illusions on which that someone was going to be.
"Well Harley if I look so good why don't you give your Puddin a great big hug?" The Joker asked opening his arms wide.
Harley's eyes shot to his glove covered hands. Sure enough both hands had one of his high voltage joy buzzers on them. Harley glanced over her shoulder at the lake behind her and mentally gauged the distance to the shore.
"I would love to Mr. J. but..." Harley started as she bent her legs at her knees and sprang backwards toward the lake. "Cajun styled Harley isn't my idea of fun." She finished as she twisted in midair to cleanly dive into the lake and began swimming towards the distant shore.
Harley while in college used to swim all the time and she had been really quite good at it. Not good enough to get into the Olympics maybe but she was a strong swimmer. Harley could only hope she was good enough to be able to get out of the water before the Joker could place his joy buzzers into the water and electrify the entire lake.
Nearing the edge of the shore she risked a quick look back over her shoulder. One of the Pain Brothers was racing along the dock to meet her as she got out of the water and the Joker was awkwardly lowering himself on the dock to try and reach down to touch the water. The level of the lake water was substantially lower than the dock causing him to strain. As Harley's hands hit the edge of the shore and she sprang forward into a handstand drawing herself free from the lake she could hear a sizzle as Joker's joy buzzers sent high voltage current running through the water. Dying out of her handstand/forward flip Harley found herself face to face with one of the Pain Brothers. The massively muscle bound man tried to close his arms into a bear hug to crush Harley but Harley reacted first with a swift kick to his groin. As the man with a grunt leaned forward Harley placed her hands on his shoulders and sprang boldly over him and literally ran down his back.
"I said it once and I'll say it again..." Harley thought to herself. "Ivy's blood is a wonderful thing." Harley knew without Ivy's enhanced strength or reflexes the blood flowing through her gave to her, she would have already been dead. Reaching a fork in the path Harley paused for just a moment. One way lead back towards Tenchi's house where Ivy and the rest were at and the other path lead up the mountain towards Tenchi's grandfather's shrine. She could find help at the house but she knew how Joker thought. He would use the bulk of the Pain Brothers to keep the others busy while he would go after Ivy himself.
The icy fear at not what only the Joker might do to Ivy but what one of those sadistic brothers might do if they got their hands on little Sasami helped Harley to make up her mind. With a look back to make sure all three were still following her, Harley raced up the mountain in the shrine's direction.
The two Pain Brothers lumbered after Harley while the Joker brought up the rear casually humming a tune. As Harley's foot hit the first of the many steps leading up to the shrine he burst into song and Harley could easily hear him.
She'll be dying round the mountainWhen she dies(Hoot, hoot!)She'll be dying round the mountainWhen she dies(hoot, hoot!)She'll be dying round the mountain,She'll be dying round the mountain,She'll be dying round the mountainWhen she dies(hoot, hoot!)She'll be divided into six white boxesWhen she dies(Whoa my back!)She'll be divided into six white boxesWhen she dies(Whoa my back!)She'll be divided into six white boxes,She'll be divided into six white boxes,She'll be divided into six white boxesWhen she dies(Whoa my back! hoot, hoot!)Oh, they'll all go out to cry over herWhen she dies(poor babe!)Oh, they'll all go out to cry over herWhen she dies(poor babe!)Oh, they'll all go out to cry over her,they'll all go out to cry over her,they'll all go out to cry over herWhen she dies(poor babe!Whoa my back! hoot, hoot!)She'll have red rosesWhen she dies(Scratch, scratch)She'll have red rosesWhen she dies(Scratch, scratch)She'll have red roses,She'll have red roses,She'll have red rosesWhen she dies(Scratch, scratch, Poor babe!Whoa my back! Hoot, hoot!)She will have to sleep with the fishesWhen she dies(they'll eat her toes!)She will have to sleep with the fishesWhen she dies(They'll eat her toes!)She will have to sleep with the fishes,She'll have to sleep with fishes,She will have to sleep with fishesWhen she dies(They'll eat her toes!Scratch, scratch, Poor babe!)
Reaching the top step, Harley turned to shout back down at the Joker. "You know your singing sucks as bad as your jokes!"
She ducked as a flying Joker card nearly cut her as it whizzed by.
Looking left and right Harley tried to decide which way to run. She knew the way left lead to the Shrine proper but she didn't know where the right path leads off to. She could try to play hide and seek inside the shrine as she waited for someone to miss her and for help to arrive but she doubted anyone would notice for a long time that she was gone and she didn't want the Pain Brothers to trash Tenchi's grandfather's shrine.
With a shrug Harley took a deep breath and started running towards the right.
Washu was enjoying having an intelligent conversation with the woman named Selina Kyle. It wasn't that her fellow residents at Tenchi's were idiots. They were all bright women in their own right.
"Well I suppose even Mihoshi has her days." Washu thought to herself. No it was that Selina or as she preferred to be called Catwoman was really quite observant and intelligent.
"Did you have any problems with negative regenerative genes crossing Ryo-ohki's rabbit D.N.A. with cat D.N.A.?" Selina asked.
"No, you might expect I would but the masu in the mix helped to reduce that problem. I could show you my lab if you would like?" Washu offered.
"You never offer to show me your lab." Mihoshi complained.
"I have trouble keeping you out of my lab Mihoshi!" Washu growled at her.
As Catwoman, Mihoshi and Washu started for the door that lead to her lab, the plant vine coming through the window lowered Ivy down. "I'm a bit of a scientist too. I would love to see your lab if I may?" Washu nodded her head and lead them all to her lab door. Sasami and Ayeka came out of the kitchen almost at the same time and joined them as well.
As the door to the lab materialized inside Washu's lab and the group entered the first sight to meet them was a strange looking cabbit dangling from what looked like a clock.
Washu frowned at the object. "Why is the alarm for the dimensional alert been activated?"
"You said you picked up Ivy, Catwoman and Harley's entrance earlier." Ayeka reminded her.
"That's true but I reset the alarm after it went off."
Harley breath came in pants as she dodged among the rocks she found herself in. Several long and fairly deep cuts from thrown Joker cards bleed freely leaving a trail the Pain Brothers and Joker were following. Even with Ivy's blood flowing in her veins Harley knew she was almost at her end. One long cut on her leg by a particularly well thrown card by the Joker had injured her enough for one of the Pain Brothers to get his hands on her, if only briefly.
He had thrown her hard against a rocky outcropping and Harley knew from the trouble she had breathing that he had managed to severely injure her ribs with that toss. The white shirt she was wearing of Tenchi's was torn in several places and stained with her blood where Joker's cards had scored hits. The only thing keeping Harley running was the look in the Pain Brother's eyes when they looked at her sweat soaked shirt sticking to her curves. She had a good idea what would happen if they got their hands on her and she would rather die first.
Having managed to get out of their sight for a moment Harley pulled back into a depression in the rocks and nearly cried out when she felt the surface behind her give way and she fell into a tunnel kind of thing. Looking up from the ground she could see what she had thought was a solid rock wall had a iron gate over it and it being unlocked it had swung open when she had leaned on it. Harley not wanting to be trapped in a cave or cavern started to climb back to her feet and get out before she could be trapped. Nearing the entrance she did cry out when the Joker's face suddenly appeared at the metal gate.
"Boo!" The Joker shouted and then laughed as Harley turned tail and raced back down the dark tunnel.
Washu's hands flew over the keyboard of her holo-computer.
"There is an active portal to your world over the lake where you three came in." She said over her shoulder to Ivy and Catwoman.
"Um, where is Harley?" Sasami's called out.
Washu turned and stared at the group at her back. Sure enough Harley wasn't among them.
"Maybe she went back to Gotham and ditched us?" Catwoman offered.
"She wouldn't do that. Harley is terrified of the Joker now and she wouldn't go back to where he is." Ivy said and then her eyes grew large. "If Harley didn't somehow manage to open that portal back to our world..."
Washu turned back to her keyboard and her fingers flew across it. "I don't pick up the Joker's energy signature anywhere around here but I can't find Harley's either."
"Maybe the Joker came through the portal and has already dragged Harley back?" Catwoman offered.
Washu studied her floating monitor. "That does not make sense. He would have closed the portal by now if he had done that." Washu snapped her fingers and again beeping noises were heard as she typed. Everyone looking over her shoulder could see blue lines tracing something on the monitor a moment later.
"There are no active traces but the energy signal leaves a kind of ghost effect. Here in blue we can see Harley's energy signature." Another key press and suddenly a bright red line covered over Harley's line. "This is the Joker's signature energy." Washu said grimly. Both trails led towards the cave Ryoko had been trapped in for many centuries till Tenchi had accidentally freed her.
"Of course. Ryoko's cave is shielded from scans. That is why it took so long for Kagato to find her." Washu muttered.
"Are you saying that the Joker has Harley trapped in some kind of cave?" Ivy asked.
"Yes. The energy signatures go into Ryoko's cave but they don't come out. He has Harley trapped inside there."
Harley dodged and ducked around the small cavern she found herself in. Luckily for her the entrance to the tunnels had been so small that the Pain Brothers with all their bulk couldn't get in but that hadn't stopped the Joker from coming in.
Harley dodged left as Joker threw a playing card to whiz past her but found that the Joker had been prepared for that move when he suddenly threw some brightly colored party streamers at her. The streamers that just looked like harmless lengths of brightly colored paper wrapped around Harley's body as soon as they touched. Within seconds Harley found herself bundled up tightly like some kind of colorful mummy.
The Joker admired his handy work. "What to do with you, what to do with you?" He muttered as he walked around the tied up Harley.
"Should I take you outside so the boys can have fun opening an early Christmas package?" He asked and watched as Harley shuddered.
"Or should I just seal you up in this cave? Leave you forever locked inside here to show my displeasure at you running away from me?" The Joker leaned close to Harley and caressed the side of her face. Harley with a look of revulsion pulled away as much as she could.
The Joker snapped his fingers. "I know what I can do! I'll send the boys down to that fool boy's house and have them bring everyone up here so you can see them... Oh not alive of course. Just what the boys leave after they have had their 'fun' time."
Harley's eyes widened in true terror. "No, please Mr. J. I'll do whatever you want just leave the others out of it! There must be something you want me to do?" Harley begged.
"Why yes Harley gal, there is something I want you to do. I want you to die." The Joker's smile ever present smile grew more evil looking. "I want to see you die in pain and agony so deep your soul cracks." The Joker shrugged. "That's not too much to ask is it?" He asked and started laughing.
The ever silent Pain Brothers standing at the entrance to the cave glanced at each other as the Joker's laughter reached them and they wished they could see what he was doing to the cute petite blond.