AN: Author's notes and shout outs to reviews at end of chap!
Inside the depths of Arkham Asylum...Night time, after hours...
A woman's slow and gentle deep humming floats around the echoing cells of the asylum, twisting up to the upper levels.
Poison Ivy combed her lush soft red hair as a guard locked up the prisons for the night shift.
When his footsteps faded away, she smiled and brought a potted flower down from her shelf in her square cell.
Holding it up to the light bulb, she blew upon it and it sprouted, growing and growing, until it unwind-ed into long tentacles that moved at her command.
Breathing adoringly to them, she said luschiously, "Get mommy out, my babies."
Scott pounded his head against his cell wall, he could hear some strange loud noises in the cell over, but he didn't care. It was his fifth day in Arkham Asylum, and no one would let him out, or even pay attention to him.
He could kill Emma, he really could.
He was surprised when her voice called out, "Thinking about me?"
The blonde girl stood in his cell, swinging the keys on a finger.
Standing up, he ran at her and jammed her against the wall, his arm thrusting and his hand around the front of her neck.
"You...you-..." He trembled, not loosening his grip on her neck.
She suggested, "Came back for you? I wasn't serious, Scott, can't you take a prank? I wouldn't leave you here, you're my friend."
"You really should have taken classes at Xavier's, on telepathic ethics, you can't just come to a city and play around with everyone's minds! You sure have a funny way of treating your friends."
Shrugging flirtatiously, Emma grinned, rolling her eyes, "So I got a little jealous... There's a very intimate surveillance tape of you and that clown in these cells..."
Scott's face drained, and he let her go.
Skimming the dark rough stubble on his face, she giggled, "I like you unshaven."
He slapped her hand and growled, "Get me out of here."
Huffing, she said, "That's what I came here to do."
She lead him out into the sunlight, and he blinked in it, taking the outside in.
He looked at the black steel sign that read ARKHAM ASYLUM in thin linear letters at the gate.
Rubbing his head, he said, "What a nightmare. I can't believe how long Harley had to stay in there. It's a wonder she didn't come out of it insane!"
Emma lectured, "Once insane, always insane. She just has a good way of hiding it now and then."
After Scott bathed, he joined Barbara and Dick out in the common room, they had ordered burgers and were watching a presidential debate on TV.
A hyper blur came speeding at Scott, and Harley was on him in an instant, hugging him tightly.
She squealed, "Puddin'! You're back! I was gettin' so worried and lonely on my ownsome. I missed ya so much baby."
Her blonde pigtails swung around as she smooched him before he could get a word in.
"Wowie! That's scratchy. It tickles." She drew back from him and crinkled her nose, rubbing her cheek against his still prickly jaw.
Apologetically he said, "I'll shave as soon as I eat. I'm so hungry I could eat two of you."
Dick watched disgustedly as Harley fed Scott a burger, and talked in her high-pitched, coquettish voice.
"Babs how come you don't have a boyfriend?" He asked his friend. Barbara shrugged, "I don't know, too busy, I can't even think of anything besides school and work right now! My dad would start patrolling me if he knew I had a boyfriend!"
Palming his short black hair back, Dick sighed, "Right, Commissioner Gordon...I bet he was a real treat around your dates in high school."
Barbara laughed, "I didn't really date in high school either. Yeah, daddy would have locked my chastity belt and thrown away the key if any boys came around."
The concept of a chastity belt on Babs and where that was made Dick blush and he tried not to think that way of his friend. He gulped, "You have a chastity belt?"
She looked over at him wryly, "I was just exaggerating to illustrate the point."
Dick sipped his coca cola loudly through a straw, turning back to the TV.
Just then, Selina slunk in, wearing all black sweats, her dark hair cropped as short as a boy's, loosely styled, or rather, not at all styled.
It looked great with her large, lampy, cat eyes.
Choking on a mouthful of coke, Dick called out, "Looking good, Selina! Nice hair cut."
She merely shot him a silencing glare with the attitude of a cat, and slammed her dorm room door shut.
Shaking her head, Babs chuckled at her friend and his humiliated face.
After a tiring day of school and then an extra side job at the wood shop to earn some extra money, Scott came back to Gotham Golden Hall Dormitories, hands chalked with saw dust and book bag heavy on his muscled shoulder. He had had to work harder to catch up on the few days he had missed out on in school, no thanks to Emma.
He took his key card out, a clear card with a gold metal tip and flashed it to the glass doors of the magnificent dark dorms.
Scott was lucky and hard working enough to attend Gotham University with a full-ride scholarship. His good marks, good behavior, and extracurricular activities really paid off. That's what he reminded himself of when others called him a straight edge.
Sliding inside his dark and cool, air-conditioned room, he dropped his bag on the floor and stretched, before dropping onto his bed.
A startled, "MMPH!" and yelp had him jumping right back up and hitting the lights.
Nursing a sore hand, Harley looked up resentfully with her large blue eyes, dressed in only a short silk red nightie with a black lacey upper cut.
"Ow, ya big doofus, ya fell on me!" She shook her hand and pouted then crossed her arms dramatically, hunching her shoulders up. Her blonde hair bounced up a little.
Scott sat on the bed and grabbed her shoulders, "Aw I'm sorry Harley! I didn't see you there."
He grabbed her hand and petted it apologetically.
She smiled and crawled forward, "No problem Puddin'! I was gonna surprise you in the dark, then I fell asleep. What took ya so long?"
"Had a lot to do today, and worked a bit after school. How was your day?" He looked down at her nightie, as if noticing it for the first time and marveled. He slid his hand down her rib cage, feeling the silky fabric.
"And since when did you own something like this?" Scott asked, genuinely surprised.
Harley leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, "Oh I didn't wanna show this to you yet until I knew our relationship was more serious. Now I know. I was a little apprehensive actually, every time I wore this for Mistah J, he ended up throwing me out or kicking me out. I mean that literally. Do ya like it?"
"I don't know what sort of sicko would want to hit a girl wearing this!"
He proceeded to take her down with him and she requested, "Scotty, can we go shoppin' tomorrow?"
He said in between kisses, "Anything for you."
As Scott waited for Harley to get ready the next day, Emma sauntered into his room, while he rearranged his shelves.
She asked coyly, "What are you doing today?" Scott answered, "Taking Harley shopping downtown."
Snorting a little, Emma rolled her eyes, "Oh her? She's just going to end up hurting you you know."
Scott asked, "What makes you say that?" Leaning back in Scott's chair, Emma declared, "She's obsessed with that Joker guy, she has a notorious track record for always going back to him, no matter how he treats her. It's a classic abusive manipulative relationship."
Stiffening, Scott replied, "We already dealt with that on our own, between us, you don't need to be so concerned Emma."
Despite Emma's warnings, Scott could not help but feel the contagious chipper glee of the girl holding his hand and skipping down the polished granite sidewalk in Gotham's shopping district.
They passed by shining windows that held plain white mannequins with serious and modern monochromatic business suits for men and women.
Harleen pressed her palms and nose against another store window, cooing at a pair of red and white pumps. Her lipstick made a bright red circle on the glass, and Scott laughed, taking a picture of the stain with his phone.
Several minutes later, the couple came out of the store, Scott swinging a shopping bag in his hand for Harley, and she clasped his hand again as they walked down the sidewalk.
A honk halted them, and a woman yelled out, "Harley! It's your old gal Ivy!"
Scott looked over and caught his breath, at the woman from his dorm room poster. She had thick voluminous red hair under a scarf she had tied over her head, and a pale pink blouse on. Her jade green eyes were seductive and dreamy, with a mature element to them.
She drove a sleek pink gangster convertible car, its license plate read ROSEBUD.
Waving ecstatically, Harley bounded over to the car and eagerly said, "Ivy?! When did ya get out?"
The redhead plant mistress shushed Harleen, "Shh, no one knows yet. Who's the male?"
Harley dangled herself at Scott's side and gushed, "This is Scott! My new beau. Ya like?"
Ivy looked him up and down, "Pretty to look at, but does he treat you nice?"
Scott crossed his heart, "I wouldn't be a man if I didn't. Harley's precious cargo to me."
Contemptuously, Ivy muttered, "Call a girl cargo..." But she looked pleased and approvingly at Scott, giving him a playful and flirtatious stare that made him blush.
The blonde reassured Poison Ivy, "Oh, he's good to me, Ivy, better than any fella I ever knew!"
Ivy looked him over again, and said in her slightly southern drawl, "Best keep it that way...You never know what they're after 'til later. He's quite a fine example of the human specimen. Ripe and gorgeous."
She leaned against the car door and draped her hand down it, "Why don't ya kids hop in and come by my place for some dandelion tea?"
AN: Hey guys sorry for the late update! I was kinda running out of fuel and inspiration to drive this story towards the latter chapters. I am beginning to get that ole muse inspiration again, so hopefully I can pick this back up to pace soon! This chapter wasn't much but I will include more development on Batman and Nightwing next.
TheWritingGirl23- Thank you so much for your valuable and honest feedback! It really helps to have your reviews! I agree with what you said, I had all these threads of ideas like you said before, however in my own hurry i did try to rush all these events and didn't really think to go over them in more detail. I apologize for the writing, I was just losing fuel for this story, but I'm slowly getting back into being interested enough to have the drive for it. I did notice the jumping back and forth erratically and that was my own sloppiness/lack of motivation. I'll try to keep these points in mind! As for the fight being one-sided, thanks for bringing up the realistic statistics, I guess in my mind I supposed that mutantshuman, but in hand to hand to hand combat, Dick and Scott would be a fairer match than I might have depicted. There will be more interactions though! Thanks once again for reviewing and keeping me on my toes!
: Thanks for calling my story interesting and reading! I appreciate your review. I like your avatar btw :)