On our way back to the steel mill we were in good spirits, feeling that things were finally going our way. Harley and I were discussing possible baby names, Harley seemed convinced she was having a boy but I pointed out she couldn't possibly know.
"Ya know whatever it is i'm gonna name it startin' with a J."
"Okay, whatever floats your boat, but what are you gonna do for a surname? Does Joker even have one?"
"I guess we'll have to stick with mine, though it doesn't matter. We're hardly gonna be sending the kid off to the Gotham Academy!"
"Maybe you should, Parent's evening would be entertaining." I grinned, whilst trying to mentally picture Harley and Joker turning up to talk to their kid's teacher. She laughed with me, seeming happier than i'd ever seen her. Unfortunately the happiness wasn't to last.
We were making our way through the steel mill when it happened, so close to Joker's office we could practically hear him bossing some brainless minions around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement and realised we were being followed, I called out to Harley to warn her but it was too late, they attacked us. Several women, heavily tattooed and brandishing swords leaped at us, if I didn't know any better i'd say they looked like ninjas. We started to fight ferociously but my knife was nothing against their swords and soon I was covered in bleeding gashes. One was about to stab Harley from behind and I threw myself at the attacker whilst screaming at Harley to run. We didn't stand a chance against them and we needed to get the cure to Joker. I managed to kill the one I was straddling with a quick slice to the throat and soon was back in the fray.
"Harley go. Now!" I shouted dodging yet another blade and catching the wrist to twist my attacker's arm backwards until she dropped the sword, which I promptly snatched up and ran through her.
"I'm not leavin' you Curly!" I felt a blade nick my cheek and whirled around to block a blow from the sword's owner.
"You have to get the cure to Joker! I'll be fine. Just RUN!" I screamed at her before savagely beheading my adversary. She looked conflicted but then clearly came to her senses as she realised I was right, she started to sprint for the door and a couple of the ninjas chased after her. I cut them off before they reached her by swinging the sword I was holding with all my strength at their legs. One came clean off and I felt the sword embed itself in the bone of a second leg, bringing the owner, screaming in agony, down onto the second advancer. I then positioned myself with my back to the door and continued to fight them off, there were too many of them and I doubted I could win this but I had to buy Harley as much time as possible. As several advanced on me simultaneously I kicked a nearby wooden crate at them to distract them momentarily before landing a series of brutal sword blows, I never thought I would be so glad I had included sword fighting amongst the skills i'd learnt in the past year. Despite my previous doubts the onslaught seemed to be thinning,and I grinned as I quickly dispatched of the penultimate attacker and whipped my sword up to pause just in front of the final one's throat.
"Who sent you?" I demanded breathlessly.
"I will never talk to scum such as you." she spat.
"Scum? How dare you..." I was about to continue onto a an extremely long rant about manners being especially important when your enemy had a sword against your neck, but I was interrupted by my legs being kicked out from under me by someone standing behind me.
I attempted to roll away but I was too slow and felt a sword pierce my stomach, it was a shallow wound and too far to the side to cause any major injury but that didn't make the pain any less. I screamed at the feeling of cold metal biting into my flesh and tears sprang up, unbidden, in my eyes. I looked into the face standing over me and saw this one was different to the other ninjas, she was clothed entirely in leather, wore her hair down and exuded an air of authority; this was their leader. She caressed my bleeding cheek with her boot, still keeping a hand on the blade planted into my stomach.
"It was very noble of you give your own life in order to help Quinzel get away." she said in a heavily accented voice. "Such a shame that your sacrifice was for nothing" she lifted up her other hand which I saw was holding the dark blue liquid that made up the cure.
My heart dropped and all I could manage was a weak "no". She laughed cruelly.
"Don't worry so much, your friend is alive, just a little tied up right now." as relieved as I was to hear that Harley was okay, I knew she wouldn't be for long unless I could get that cure back. I tried desperately to snatch the cure back from her tauntingly, outstretched hand but she pulled it back out of reach quickly.
"Oh I don't think so." she twisted the blade in my stomach and I screamed, the tears were now pouring down my cheeks,mixing with my blood. "That is mine, as are you. I find it to be useful to keep hostages around as insurance and as you are well liked by many of the criminal scum here, you will be perfect for the job." she pulled the sword out and relief washed over my body like a tidal wave. She signalled to two of the new ninjas who had entered the room whilst I was on the ground and they picked me up by my shredded arms, the woman surveyed the room which was full of the dead and unconscious bodies of the ninjas I had disposed of previously. "You are strong, reckless, but strong. If you joined us we could teach you the self preservation required to make you a truly undefeatable warrior." she addressed me.
"I'll never join you" I spat venomously.
"your mistake." she shrugged and walked away, the two holding me proceeded to drag me after her but she turned to them and held up her hand. "No. I will do this alone, take her to the theatre and wait for my arrival."
The journey to the theatre was long and arduous, I tripped several times, my senses dulled by blood loss. When we reached the theatre they shoved me into a disheveled basement level dressing room. I fell to the floor and landed hard, letting out a hiss pain as I did so. I looked down at my injuries and realised that I wouldn't be good for anything unless I strapped up my stomach. I looked around for something that would act as a bandage, my eyes fell onto a raggedy looking scarf that seemed as if it would do the job. I slowly lifted my dress over my head wincing as did so from my assorted wounds. I then ran the scarf under some water from the sink in the corner and started to wrap it tightly around my stomach. When I was done I used some tissues to make an attempt at cleaning up some of the deeper cuts, but it was to little effect without some proper first aid equipment. I gave up and pulled my dress back over my head, I looked in the mirror and saw that what little covering the dress had given me originally was even less now due to the various holes and tears it had sustained over the course of the night. I then started to look for some way to make my escape, the door was firmly locked and even if I had the equipment to pick it, which I didn't, I suspected it was being guarded by some of those ninjas. I spotted a security camera in the corner and realised I had to find a way to break it if I hoped to get out. I made a big song and dance of trying to knock the door down to no avail, and then in a fake fit of rage started to throw things, one of which just happened to hit the camera, knocking it down. I smiled and waited a while in case they came to check up on me, whilst I waited I continued to look for a way out. There was a small window high up on one of the walls and I pulled a chair up to look out of it, seeing it reached street level I internally celebrated my luck. When I was sure that I was in the clear and they weren't going to check in on me I lifted one of the chairs in the room and smashed it against the window, it was reinforced glass and was going to take a while to smash. After about ten collisions the chair I was using splintered at the force and I realised I would have to find something else, one of the pipes on the wall was coming off and after a few attempts I was able to tear it away. Before I could make it back to the window though I was thrown to the ground as an explosion went off in a nearby building, luckily for me the explosion had cracked the window and weakened it for me. I started to hack away at the glass with the pipe, I could feel the strain the exertion was putting on my damaged body every move was agony but I had to keep going. Finally the pipe went straight through and I started to clear a big enough hole through the shattered glass for me to fit through, I felt another explosion go off and decided it was time to hurry up. It wasn't a perfect hole, there were still several pieces of glass sticking out from the edges at odd angles but it would have to do. I stood on the one remaining chair and pulled myself up and through the hole, wriggling through on front, causing much complaint by the way of sharp pain from my tender stomach. Several pieces of glass snagged on my skin as I pulled myself through and when I stood up I had multiple jagged trails of blood running down my legs and tattered dress.
I breathed in the night sky, glad to be out and free. Except it wasn't quiet in Arkham City anymore, The sky was full of helicopters and fire. Explosions going off in buildings like fireworks. I heard the voices of some Tyger guards heading my way and quickly pulled myself up a fire escape to hide in the darkness, one of the blackgate thugs across the street wasn't so quick and they shot him on sight. One of them reported the kill over a radio and I heard the voice of Hugo Strange replying and telling him to continue on towards the checkpoint. I didn't know what the checkpoint was until I heard one of them say to another "Hopefully the missiles will have taken the plant lady out but just in case, these flame throwers should do the business." They were going for Ivy, I had to warn her but I would never get there in time at ground level. I made my decision quickly and started to scale the fire escape, reaching the roof in no time at all, I got my bearings and located the nearest building within jumping distance going in the right direction. Luckily for me all the buildings in this part of the city were very close together, making it easy to navigate by jumping from roof to roof. It felt like I was flying, but I didn't have time to enjoy it, I had to warn Ivy.