Arkham City

Wonder City

12:57 A.M.

With impatience and desperation eating away at her in both mind and body, Selina Kyle's eyes finally snapped open.

Having exhausted almost every method to free herself of her living bonds, the cat burglar surveyed her surroundings for just a moment longer before putting her last idea into motion.

Privy to the sensitivity to touch that Ivy's mutated plants possessed from previous escape attempts, she slowly but deliberately twirled her wrists around the serpentine vine keeping her strung up above the ground.

Ignoring the burning ache in her forearms from the elevation, she nevertheless managed to wrap her dexterous fingers around the shaft of the plant.

Now with a firmer grip, she delivered an experimental pull to hopefully begin the second phase of her plan.

As predicted, this sent the vegetation into a coiling frenzy.

Reacting violently, the vine started to shoot back up into the ceiling taking Selina with it.

With only seconds in her time window, she brought both legs back behind her and then swung them forwards to build momentum.

Alternating to and fro one more time, she lifted up her hips to send both legs now arcing through the air and now above her shoulders.

Ensnaring the vine with her thighs in an athletic blur, she manipulated both ankles around at the vine's serpentine shaft to reveal a sharpened heel on her booted stiletto.

Gritting her teeth together in concentration, she manipulated the contingency blade around the vegetation just at the right ankle before-

Snip! Just barely managing to slice through the vine with her heel, Selina only had time to utter a victorious cry before gravity finished the job.

The brunette only had a few seconds to brace herself before the ground rushed up to meet her.

"Oomph!" Landing hard on her left shoulder, she instinctively bit back some choice words as the now sliced remnants of the vine fell down right next to her.

Groaning still as the impact reverberated through every inch of her womanly curve, she painfully clutched her now bruised, possibly dislocated shoulder before rolling over on her stomach.

"I am so getting you back for this, Pamela," she growled under her breath, crawling on all fours until she regained at least some of her bearings.

Gingerly retreating into the dilapidated streets, she found even the ground reacting with hostility towards her, forcing the cat burglar to drag what was left of her battered body back up on two feet.

Still fighting previous battle wounds, she limped over to a nearby street corner.

Resting against the archaic designs of the store exterior, Selina was just about to examine her affected shoulder in more detail when the distinct sound of footsteps from within the vine-covered passageway pricked her trained ears.

Frantically staggering around an overgrown horse carriage, she crouched down against the remnants of a store just as the vines retracted back over the entrance.

Sliding down against the metallic surface, she calmed her breathing as the footsteps drew nearer.

Through her periphery, she observed the figure's caped shadow stretching down the street menacingly.

Chancing a quick glare between the rusted wheels, she caught the figure's somewhat familiar metallic boots stomping down the pavement.

Kyle held her breath as the figure took a few more wary steps towards her, before finally stalking away towards another corner of the avenue.

Peeking her head from out of her makeshift cover, she glared at the now vacant street one last time before slinking away.

Stumbling into a darker corner, she was immediately hit by a strong, pungent odor far more distinctive than Ivy's usual mutated crop.

It was a smell that Selina Kyle knew all too well.

Before she could labor too much on those thoughts, the master thief nearly tripped over something on the ground.

An initial glance had her convinced it was just another one of Pamela's gargantuan roots, but a second, more curious glimpse suggested otherwise.

It was a human leg, albeit a very deformed one with what looked like mushrooms growing out of the rotten flesh.

The owner fared little better, with his entire torso almost completely decomposed into a mossy bed for fledgling vines to curl up against and visible green liquid seeping out of his lifeless eyes.

Steeling her expression, Selina forced her eyes away only for her vision to be filled with another former inmate morbidly displayed in a kneeling position.

Though his face was perpetually frozen in the euphoric state that her pheromones had lulled him into, it was obvious from his now mangled corpse that the end of his life was anything but pleasant.

Selina could barely put into words the sheer horror her eyes were experiencing right now, as even that couldn't properly do justice to Pamela Isley's sinister and depraved 'experiments.'

A vibrant row of flowers had literally grown out of the right side of another inmate's head, with a TYGER guard, only identifiable by his tattered black uniform, rendered to literal skin and bones underneath a a giant plant resembling an apparently sleeping Venus flytrap.

Trudging ahead through the twisted human garden, she stoically stepped over an inmate who was nearly one with the earth before reaching the end of the dark passageway.

Slumped against the wall in front of her like a forgotten toy, the last inmate was much bigger in size than all the others, yet at the same time all the more unsettling.

His entire frame was very misshapen, with one side much larger than the other.

Every single limb was of a completely different proportion than the other, with large and visible bulging bumps protruding from the fleshy mass that used to be his chest cavity.

Taking a knee in front of him, she observed the same emerald veins covering him from head to toe.

Of all the inmates she had used, this one, Selina noticed, probably came the closest to matching her image of success.

It somewhat resembled the monstrous physique associated with a Venom user, with a noticeable increase in muscle mass and more elongated facial features.

But that was just on the surface.

Judging by his tortured expression, she could only imagine what this transformation had done to its insides, if there were any left at this point.

"Oh Pamela, what have you done this time?" she breathed out, lingering on him a moment longer before deciding to search for a more discreet exit to this nightmare.

Getting up, Selina turned around only to come face-to-face with Robin.

Before she could react, he seized her by the throat with only one gloved hand.

Clawing desperately at his wrist, the cat burglar desperately tried to twist away but his grip was deathly tight.

Lifting her off the ground with ease, the enthralled vigilante forcibly slammed her against the wall, right next to another decomposing inmate.

His emerald eyes glowering menacingly, the Boy Wonder seethed through his hooded expression, "You're not supposed to be here."


It had been five minutes since Batman had explained the current situation to Harley Quinn, and in those five minutes the jester had remained unusually quiet.

His weary yet always observant eyes narrowed. Too quiet.

"Well?" he growled expectantly, watching the former psychiatrist's every movement as she finally leaned forward in her chair.

The stubborn and somewhat subdued mask that had dominated her normally animated face began to crack as she pursed both lips together.

Staring up at his irritable scowl, a flicker of contemplation briefly crossed her features before finally….

"I want a lawyer," she spoke simply.

"Do not play games with me, Quinn," he told her through gritted teeth, his patience already grown thin.

"Or what?" she replied, looking up at him with a taunting smirk. "Ya gonna beat me like ya used to do to Mister J? Huh, B Man?"

"I'm not leaving until I get answers," he retorted coolly.

"Well, too bad," she mocked, sticking her tongue out at him mockingly before reclining into the seat. "Case you haven't caught on yet, I don't snitch on my friends."

"In a matter of hours, your 'friend' intends to destroy whatever's left of Arkham City, and then unleash her wrath on Gotham. You may think that she cares about you, but I suspect her plants won't share the same sentiment. And if I can't stop her in time, everything, and everyone, in her path will be decimated by sunrise. Regardless of what you think of me or anyone else here, you don't owe Ivy anything," he pointed out.

"Maybe, maybe not. But I sure as hell don't owe you anything, Bats," she shot back, the same hateful fire as before burning in her eyes.

Continuing with the same venom in her voice, she sneered at him, "You killed the only person I ever loved, remember? So, far as I'm concerned, the whole stinkin' city can just burn."

"With you still in it," Batman pointed out, eliciting only a dismissive scoff from the blonde woman.

"You think I care, Bat-brain?" she suddenly snapped, glaring angrily into his emotionless cowl.

Batman started to retort, but observing her seething expression, remained silent as she somewhat calmed down.

Speaking in a much more composed yet pained voice, she bitterly told him, "Ever since I met Mister J in the asylum, you have done nothing but make my life miserable. Now, I accept that my puddin' wasn't exactly perfect to someone like you, but guess what B Man? He was perfect for me. And you took him away from me."

"What happened at the Monarch Theatre that night happened by his own hand, Harley. Only the Joker was responsible for his-"

"Liar!" she yelled, cutting him off. "You killed him! You killed my..my…"

Faltering back into the chair, Quinn visibly fought back tears as the Dark Knight took a step forwards into the light.

"He made a choice, Harley," the detective said stoically.

Glowering up at him angrily, it was apparent all over her face that she was struggling for something- anything to counter his claim.

Yet, as the seconds went by, she could do nothing but pout in her chair.

Sensing her hesitance, Batman pressed on, "You used to be a psychiatrist once, Quinn. You helped people whom no one else in your field would even dare look at through a glass barrier. Even after all that the Joker put you through, I still believe that somewhere buried underneath all his lies and deceit, that same person exists. And now that he's gone, you can be that person again. You can help yourself, by first telling me exactly what you know about Ivy's plan."

Whether intentional or not, his words finally seemed to break through to the twisted psyche of Harley Quinn.

Looking up at him, a glimmer of what seemed like regret sparked in her blue eyes.

But alas, it was fleeting.

A second later, she burst into laughter, her entire restrained torso rocking back and forth as her cacophonous cackle bounced off the room walls.

Still giggling loudly, she playfully cocked her head to the side. "Sorry to disappoint Bats, but Dr. Harleen Quinzel can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message."

Maintaining his irritable glare even as her incessant laughter continued on and on, he was about to say something else when she finally came down from her cackling fit.

"You know what's really funny, Bat-brain?" she asked him smilingly.

He said nothing, only crossing his arms.

"You think you're so smart, coming up here and trying to make me forget about how you killed J. But guess what, B Man? While you were busy yapping your mouth at me this whole time, you seemed to have forgotten about your little lady friend," she taunted him knowingly.

"What are you talking about, Quinn?"

"Oh you know…" Grinning from corner to corner, she once again played the innocent, almost naive act before finally revealing, "Selina Kyle."

"Catwoman is in Gotham, far away from Arkham City and whatever Ivy's got planned," he told her through skeptical eyes.

Harley Quinn's lips curled into a knowing grin. "Wanna bet?"


CRACK!

The store window immediately exploded into a hailstorm of glass as Selina Kyle was thrown out of it.

Flailing through the air wildly, she had barely enough time to brace herself before the ground rose up to greet her.

Landing hard on her belly, she immediately let out a pained yelp as glass shards rained down all around her.

"I'm really starting to hate that kid," she thought to herself irritably, sorely clutching her bruised jaw until the feeling finally returned to the rest of her writhing form.

Forcing herself up on all fours, Selina began crawling on her elbows and knees with the glassy remnants of the window painfully poking at her belly.

The darkness from the archaic store the hooded vigilante had thrown her out of was also beginning to follow her out into the streets, along with thorny vines slithering around the jagged edges onto the nearby pavement.

Lifting her head up, she started towards a rusted metal pipe laid out in the middle of the street.

Wincing heavily as her battered legs struggled to support her more ambitious upper half, Selina nonetheless dug down deep and forced herself towards it.

Reaching out with a desperate hand, she was just fingertips away from grasping the handle when suddenly….

"Uggghhh…" The toe of Robin's boot emphatically buried itself within her exposed midsection, causing her to grunt out in pain before crumpling to the ground.

Glaring down at the brunette with enough venom to make even a rattlesnake flinch, the enthralled Boy Wonder took a step back to prepare another punt kick.

Lying facedown on the dirt floor, Selina mentally braced herself for another kick only to hear the distinct sound of metal rolling across the ground.

Kicking the metal pipe out of her reach, he then returned his disdainful ire back on the still prone woman.

Towering above her, he roughly grabbed her by the hair and forcibly began dragging her up to inflict more punishment.

Rearing back with his other fist, he started to say something only to instead yell out in pain as Selina plunged the jagged glass shard directly into the exposed patch of skin right behind his armored shin.

Leaving the makeshift shiv in his leg, Kyle fell back to the ground as Robin dropped down to a knee.

As his face distorted into a pained grimace, she frantically scrambled up to her feet.

Returning back to the same horse carriage as before, Selina reached down underneath the described vehicle, desperately roaming around the space before she found exactly what she was looking for.

Gripping the shard firmly in one hand, Robin bit down on a brief yelp before yanking the blade out of his flesh.

Tossing the now bloody fragment aside, he reached into his utility belt, and with an expert flick of his wrist, brandished his bo staff.

Rising back up albeit with a slight limp, he narrowed his eyes as his opponent now wielded a long horse whip in one hand.

Giving her new weapon an experimental crack into the air before resting her determined eyes back on him, Selina cracked her neck eagerly.

"Ready for round two, Boy Wonder?" she smirked, sporting a bloody mouth and now an equalizer of her own.

Snarling, he answered her by charging forward.


Author's Note: Well, I know this sounds like a broken record now but apologies again for the delay. College (as it usually does) got in the way of me finishing this chapter like I had originally promised last Fall. Again, this start/stop schedule isn't fair to you the reader, and for that I apologize deeply. I will, however, do my best to get this chapter done by this month.

In the meantime, feedback/reviews would very much be appreciated. Positive or negative, I would definitely like to hear any feedback/critique of my work thus far (Hint: For me at least, reader feedback is an excellent motivator). Besides that, I hope you all are having a great start to the New Year, and thanks so much for reading! :)