It's finally here! This chapter took quite a while, but I'm going to focus on this story more. I cannot promise that it will receive frequent updates, but I can promise that I'll work on chapters again. I know you guys have waited so long and I won't do that again. From now on, I will focus on this story and hold it to the same regard as my original works.
Now, as a special note, I did take some inspiration from the comics and I did include mentions to the Arkham family, Black Mask, Arnold Wekser and others. This chapter also has the return of a character who hasn't appeared for quite a while. I'm not going to say who it is, but I'm sure it'll be easy for you to figure out. This chapter does also have some familiar faces, which I hope you guys like.
As always, if you guys have any comments or suggestions then please let me know. And although this chapter wasn't edited by JakeBlock, I hope he's fine wherever he is and can forgive me for taking so long. If not, then I understand because a lot of people have lost faith in this story and moved on. That is fair, but to those of you who have stuck around... thank you. I don't deserve you guys. I really don't, but I'm glad you've stuck around.
Now, I won't waste anymore time, please enjoy chapter 9 of "Rise of Harley Quinn Jr."
-TheEpicWriter12
Harleen pushed up her glasses as she walked down the hall, a folder in her arms. The folder contained information about Barbara Gordon, Harleen's most challenging patient. She was being rather difficult. Harleen had a few sessions with Miss Gordon and every session ended with her yelling, accusing Harleen of something. She kept on referring to an incident with this "Harley Quinn" girl. It was very strange, and her patient believed it one hundred percent. It's no wonder how she escaped prison and ended up in Arkham Asylum because Barbara is no doubt crazy, even if she didn't want to admit it.
Rants about what was real or not seemed to be a staple all over the asylum from the doctors and orderlies, down to the inmates. She was either mentioning people that didn't exist, or saying how she was sorry about everything. About what exactly was something that Harleen still couldn't figure out. There was some sort of inner trauma, a buried memory perhaps, that was probably the key. Harleen just needed to figure out how to get her patient to open up. Which was easier said than done. However, Harleen had confidence she would figure out how to cure her. It would just take time, and she could wait on that. If she could wait years to become a psychiatrist, then she could wait on Barbara to open up.
What she couldn't wait on… Was that temper. She had to do her best to take care of that or there would never be any progress on her patient. It was for this reason, why she was talking to the warden of Arkham Asylum; Mr. Jack White. Although he also went by the name of Mr. J. Harleen was confident he would know what to do. Afterall, he told Harleen to take care of Miss Gordon, so he should know exactly what to do.
Harleen entered a door to her right, at the end of the hall. The room inside was nice. Nice wallpaper covered the walls with paintings everywhere. A desk made of mahogany wood was towards the back, complete with a leather chair that reclined. There was a man sitting in the chair. He leaned back in a way that was not only comfortable, but relaxing. He seemed to be completely calm, already looking at paperwork. Most likely, this paperwork came from another patient.
"Sir," Harleen said, doing her best to get his attention.
He looked up at her immediately. "Yes, Dr. Quinzel?"
Harleen cleared her throat. "I wanted to talk to you about a recent patient of ours,"
"Barbara Joan Gordon?" Mr. White asked, correctly guessing who she was talking about. It didn't surprise Harleen in the slightest, Mr. White was very knowledgeable in the patients. Sometimes, he knew them better than the actual doctors treating them.
Mr. White was a man in his late thirties, very young for the warden of Arkham Asylum, and had a bit of a long chin. His hair was also slicked back and he wore glasses, very similar to the kind that Harleen Quinzel wore herself. However, his prescription, at least from what she heard, was extremely different.
Harleen nodded her head and put the folder, containing Barbara's information, on Mr. White's desk. "Yes, I wanted to go over the treatment plan. There is an unfortunate issue that I wanted to discuss."
"I am aware," Mr. White said, opening the folder. "She has been quite aggressive towards the orderlies, guards, nurses, and of course, doctors. I've debated personally about keeping her isolated, but she hasn't been physical to anyone. At least, not yet." He then handed the folder back to her.
"You've heard?" Harleen asked. That was a stupid question. Of course, he knew. How could he not? Not only had he specifically asked for Harleen to take care of Miss Gordon, but he knew the patients pretty well.
Mr. White smiled. "The walls in this asylum are very dense and word travels around quite quickly." He then pushed up his glasses. "So, how have the sessions between you and Miss Gordon been going? Is she open about herself, or very closed?"
"Extremely closed," Harleen answered almost immediately. She hated having to say that, but it was the truth. And worse, the patient wasn't showing any improvement. It felt like she was getting a lot worse, rather than better.
"Hmm, I see. She is a very challenging patient. Curing her won't be easy, but it's imperative." Mr. White said.
That was the cold truth, it was extremely hard. "I agree," Harleen then sighed. "I've considered giving her some more Antipsychotics and Benzodiazepines to calm her down, but I'm not sure if it would be wise to up the dose. If I do that, then it could have disastrous results."
"I understand," He then got up from his chair and walked over to Harleen. "In any case, I know you can handle this. You're one of our finest doctors in this facility. There is a reason that I assigned you to this particular case."
"But I'm only a couple of years out of college, sir." Harleen argued.
Mr. White's smile grew bigger. "Yes, but you're very smart. How about a joke? That always calms down my nerves." Harleen didn't answer. Regardless, he started to tell it anyway. "There were these two guys in an asylum, just like this one, and they've been planning a way to escape. But its hard since their cells are right over a chasm of sorts. But one night, they finally see their chance, the moonlight is everywhere in their cells. Best of all, it creates the perfect path out of their cells."
"What happened next?" Harleen asked. She hated to admit it, but she was interested in how this story was going to go.
"I'm getting to that… First guy runs across the moonlight just fine, but the second guy is scared. So, the first guy is like 'hey, I've got a flashlight, you can just run across.' but the second guy doesn't believe him. He's like 'do you really think I'm that stupid, you'll just turn it off when I'm halfway across' Mr. White smile. "Well, I might have missed a thing or two but the joke is more or less like that." He then started to chuckle a little bit. "Get it?"
Harleen smiled and then started to chuckle as well. It started off as normal laughter and then it became something else. She was laughing so hard now, for a joke that was darkly comedic. And it was a joke that was completely inappropriate in the workplace.
After a little bit, Harleen stopped laughing. "Did that help you with your nerves?" Mr. White asked her.
"Yes, I must admit that it did. You've got a knack for comedy." She told him.
"Thank you, guess I can be a bit of a joker at times." He then walked back over to his desk and sat down. "I'm glad my little joke was able to humor you. Sorry if I didn't say it correctly, but I did my best."
"That's fine, it really helped my nerves. But I've got work to do. It's best if I get back to it if I'm to cure Miss Gordon."
Mr. White's smile grew bigger. "Good," For some reason, Harleen had a lot more confidence than she did previously. She felt like she could take on the world. Well, maybe not the world, at the very least she had the confidence to cure Barbara Gordon. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but what in life really was?
So, Harleen left Mr. White's office with new ideas flooding through her mind. She could do this.
"Checkmate!" Somebody yelled across the lobby. This was soon followed by some light conversation. Barbara wasn't paying attention to it. She knew that several 'patients' were playing checkers, chess, and other games. However, she didn't care, Barbara was too busy thinking on a couch, wondering about how she could escape this personal hell.
She rested one of her arms under her chin, an elbow at the end of the couch. Bruce was dead, her father's condition was unknown, Tim was brainwashed, and she was stuck in this imaginary world with no way out. It was a reality created by Scarecrow, designed to break her psyche. She knew that at the very least and obviously there were some supercriminals from her own reality here too. Harleen was the only one she had interacted with, but she had seen Poison Ivy as a nurse, as well as Arnold Wesker aka the Ventriloquist.
What was the point to all this? Why did Scarecrow make people like this appear in this reality that didn't exist? The point was obviously to make her go crazy, but she figured he would use people she was more familiar with. Sure, she knew Poison Ivy, but Barbara hasn't seen the Ventriloquist in years. To her knowledge, he had actually gotten cured a long time ago and settled down with a wife and kids somewhere in Metropolis. So, why wasn't Scarecrow using more people that Barbara had fought, or trying to twist the reality by including people that were dead. Why wasn't Bruce here? Wouldn't he be an easy decision to include?
"Hello," A female voice said. Barbara was relieved it wasn't Harleen, but there was something familiar about the voice. She had heard it before. But when she looked up at who the voice belonged to, it certainly wasn't somebody that Barbara knew. So, she either thought it was somebody else. Or, possibly, this was a person she hasn't interacted with in quite a long time.
"Who are you?" She asked. The woman had dark brown, possibly black, hair and was older than her by a bit. If Barbara had to guess, she was probably in her early thirties. Maybe thirty-two, or thirty-three? But without a definitive answer she didn't know.
"Me?" The girl asked, pointing at herself. She then sighed. "Name's Penelope, but my friends call me Penny. In highschool, I was also called Pen." She finished, chuckling a tad.
"I see," Barbara wasn't too interested in what she was called in highschool. Barbara was more interested in who she was. "Have we met?" She asked Penny.
"In this hellhole, everybody knows each other." Penny responded in a very bored tone. It was interesting that Penny referred to this place as a 'hellhole'.
From what Barbara has noticed, a majority of the inmates didn't like this place. They acted like normal people trapped in this place of which there is presumably no escape. The doctors felt like the crazy ones, but that was probably Scarecrow's intention.
"So, what's your story? Why are you here?" Penny asked.
Barbara was taken back by that question. She wasn't sure why she was here herself. However, the heroine did know what she was supposed to believe, which she didn't. But what should she tell Penny? Should she be honest? Or should Barbara tell a lie? If Bruce was in this situation then he would come up with a lie, using his infamous Matches Malone persona. But, she wasn't Bruce. And it was apparent that Barbara was herself, she couldn't pretend to be somebody she wasn't. There was no way she would get away with that.
"I'm in here for assault. It was an accident." Barbara said slowly.
A smile spread across Penny's lips. "In here, nobody believes accidents. If you say it's an accident," She then leaned closer, whispering the rest of what she said into Barbara's ear. At the same time, she was looking over Barbara's shoulder, presumably seeing if anybody was watching them talk. "Then terrible things happen to you." She began again. "Of course, I'm referring to the doctors. They well… don't treat us well. Sometimes it's a genuine case of madmen running the madhouse. I've dealt with a few of them in particular."
"You have?" Barbara asked. "Which ones?"
"I can't really say, but I never trust the young ones. I most certainly don't trust the warden." Penny said.
It was very interesting that she would mention not trusting the warden in particular, but it wasn't all that surprising. Back in her own actual reality, wardens were very fishy when they worked at Arkham Asylum. They would be in charge of everybody, yet go above the law. The head doctors were guilty of this too. These leaders at Arkham Asylum would enact their own idea of justice. The entire Arkham family was especially guilty of this. It began with the ones who founded the asylum way back in the sixties and continued until the present day with Jeremiah Arkham. It took everybody years to discover his true colors. Nobody knew he was the second Black Mask the entire time, years after the death of Roman Sionis. And then, a new Arkham building was made, which would ultimately lead to Bruce's death and Tim Drake's downfall. Just thinking about it made Barbara want to tear up inside.
"Who is the warden?" She asked. Was it another Arkham, possibly Jeremiah? He did become Black Mask, so it would make sense that Scarecrow had him in this false world. However, that felt too easy. It didn't seem like something that Scarecrow would try to do.
"I'm not sure to tell you the truth. Nobody has seen him before. But he stays in his office. It's rumored that knows everything that goes on in the asylum, stuff that even the doctors and orderlies aren't aware of."
"I see, but how does he know what's going on?" Barbara asked. She had a pretty good theory as to who it might be.
Penny scratched her chin. "I don't know, but I've heard that you really shouldn't act up in this place. If you do, well the consequences won't be very light. I can assure you of that."
"Is there any way to find out who it is?" Barbara asked. She felt like now would be the time for a little detective work, to do a little bit of digging. It was important to find out the identity of this warden, as he could very easily be one pulling all the strings. From what she heard, people like the Mad Hatter and Scarecrow liked to appear in the false realities, or nightmares, they created. So, all she had to do was find Scarecrow and get out.
"Not normally," A devious smile then appeared across Penny's face, replacing her normal one. "But I might have a way that could work, Miss…"
"Barbara Gordon," The heroine said, assuming that Penny wanted to know her name.
"Barbara?" the girl repeated. From the way she said her name, Penny also felt like the two of them had met before. However, that was impossible to know, unless one of them came forward and said that they had. "Interesting name," Penny continued. "But kind of common. Anyway, I could very easily find a way in the warden's office. That's not difficult."
"How are you going to get in?" Barbara asked.
"I'll-" Penny began.
"What's going on?" One of the staff members asked. Both of the girls looked in the direction of the staff member faster than a speeding bullet. It was Poison Ivy, or rather it was Pamela Isley, dressed in a lab coat. Apart from that, everything else about her was the same.
For whatever Poison Ivy, liked to be called Dr. Isley. That made sense, but what didn't was how she was one of the doctors here. Wasn't Poison Ivy something like a Biologist? Why did Scarecrow think it was a good idea to make her a doctor in this false reality? Sure, it made Barbara feel more like a resident of Arkham Asylum, but it also made no sense.
Another thing was that Poison Ivy retained her love of plants. Barbara had seen her talking to a couple of them before. So, why was it actually a good idea? Barbara didn't care, it would just make escaping this reality easier. And then Barbara could get the Justice League to help her take down Joker and Harley. They would know what to do. If they didn't then there were so many other teams, almost an endless supply of them from Metropolis to Keystone.
Penny smiled. "Nothing," She then grabbed Barbara by her side and pulled her closer. Because of natural instinct from her training, Barbara wanted to counter Penny. But thankfully she didn't. That would just make her look crazy, which would only further help Scarecrow with his intended goal. Penny started talking again. "I was just talking to my new friend here."
Poison Ivy looked at Barbara and then back at Penny. "Your friend? She doesn't look very happy."
Penny's smile grew bigger. "Not to offend you or anything, but nobody looks happy in this place. It doesn't exactly spark the ability to smile if you know what I mean."
"You have no trouble smiling." Poison Ivy said, a smirk appearing across her face.
"Well, I guess I've gotten used to my new home. But for others, it takes a bit, doc. You gotta let them get used to their surroundings." Penny explained. Barbara wasn't sure how much she believed that. She wasn't going to let herself get used to the asylum, she's been here quite enough to last a lifetime.
Poison Ivy didn't look like she bought that. "Uh, huh, it's approaching mealtime. So, I'd suggest you wrap up your conversation."
"I understand, and so does my friend." Penny replied. With those final words, Poison Ivy walked away from them and Barbara pulled away from Penny.
Penny got up from the couch. "I personally think the food in this place is garbage, but there's nothing I can really do about that."
She started walking away, but Barbara wasn't done yet. There was still something she needed to ask her. "You never told me how we're going to get in."
Penny looked at her. "I'll show you." She then gestured for Barbara to show her. Seeing no other option, plus they had to go to the dining hall, she followed the girl. Barbara wasn't entirely sure if she trusted her, but if she wanted to get out of this place, she might need her help. Once she did get out, Joker and Harley would be in for a rude awakening. She could guarantee them that.