Chapter Text
“Honestly what has he ever done for me,” you sneered.
You go for a swing at her chest but not quick enough, for Poison Ivy clocks you right across the face instead, leaving a lovingly bruised lip.
Lying on the floor, Ivy's vines start to twist around your ankle as she picks you back up. The blood begins to rush to your head as Ivy holds you upside down. Flicking a bright red curl back into place, she responds, “Dear, I have absolutely no idea why you ever tried being with him. You deserve so much better than a weed killer like him.”
You try to look up at her, cocking your head from the upside-down angle she hung you from.
“Sometimes I hate how much you're right Ivy,” you say, in a voice much like something you’d hear from a high school sleepover.
You weren’t exactly a hero, but you weren’t the Joker either. Vigilante was a better word to describe the grey area you tried to stay in. So, your relationship to Ivy was about equal to that grey-ish area, you wouldn’t exactly snitch if you saw her steal, but you couldn’t let her go murder someone. As all friendships should be. She had gone a little past your line in the sand that night, so begrudgingly you had to deal with her... while spilling about your breakup. Who said both couldn't be done at once?
As discreetly as you could, you toyed with the knife strapped to your thigh. Just managing to pull it loose before a tight flower of hers grabbed at your wrist.
“Now you gotta be quicker than that,” she said cheekily. After binding your hands behind your back she finally put you back down.
“Until next time dear, and please don't lower your pretty self for undeserving men like Batman,” she said, blowing you a sweet kiss.
“Really beefed that one ,” you thought, “Batman's going to be so pissed when he finds out she got away. Besides he's just been a prick to me lately anyway. She was probably going to just break out of prison again if we put her back in.” It happened every other time you tried putting her in there, why even try to do it at this point?
Poison Ivy may be a Gotham outlaw with a body count definitely over 100 but she is a great help with relationship problems apparently. If you would even call yours and Batman's on-and-off thing a “relationship”.
Being Gotham's justice and living shadow always seems to put the light in the sky first before you. You can't even remember the last time he gave you even a look of praise. You’ve grown so used to being disappointed at this point it feels like second nature.
The Batman and his helpless sidekick. just by his side for show.
Of course, the situation you just fucked yourself over with definitely does not help your case. Nonetheless, you just wished he actually trusted you.
You felt like an idiot sitting there, angrily untangling yourself from the vines. Eventually, you got free and took the mask off your costume; which is much like taking contacts out after a long day.
Putting your hood up, you slipped onto the empty street. You'd have to tell him eventually… But you're sure he can wait five more minutes to let you have this time to yourself. Definitely not procrastinating.
It’s amazing how foggy Gotham is once you realize it. Every alleyway, every corner, whisked in fog. The dark doesn’t help the eeriness, and combined with the constant sirens of Gotham it wasn’t hard to be frightened of walking alone at night. but you grew up in these streets. Every crack and corner was yours and you knew it with your eyes closed.
You watched as the dead fallen leaves crunched under your feet as you walked. Gotham always had something dead.
Even with that thought entering your mind, walking alone at night always puts you at ease. No distractions, no Batman, and no need to think. Besides the flickering lamps there was rarely any activity near the edge of the city- Not according to Gotham standards anyway, Which was gunpoint burglary and supervillain showdowns. But at the edge, it was mostly light robbing- so not too bad.
You started to close your eyes a bit when your internal radar suddenly went up. Hairs on the back of your neck stood up as human instincts went into first gear. You examined the streets ahead of you, now noticing that your feet somehow brought you to the mayor's residence. It wasn’t hard to notice because of the big rich mansion staring right at you. Like a rich privileged fork in the road.
You kept looking around; trying to see what your body was telling you. Until you eyes finally set on a man in a tree just 30 yards ahead of you.
Despite nights like this being your entire life, your stomach still dropped. The nature human in you always won here and you don't know if you hate that fact or not.
From what you could see, a mask covered their entire face. Despite this, a glint from the streetlight reflected off of what you coud only assume were binoculars or glasses.
Your feet froze in place while they just stared ahead. That's good though, you tried to reason with yourself. That means they haven't seen you yet. You could work with this.
You pulled the hood to your coat tighter over your face instead of your mask. The mask was too much of a show to be stalking this creep.
You instinctively reached for the burner phone in your pocket to call the Bat...but stopped.
“Why would I need him? I can handle something like this on your own damn it,” you thought.
You may have whiffed it with Ivy but you weren't going to just ignore a creep in a tree.
Your feet finally shuffled behind some brush to hide and not ruin the whole steak out here.
He shifted a bit in the trees, now putting the assumed binoculars away. You watched closely as he made his way out and to the house. He was creepily graceful with his movements. Like a fucked ballerina. If you hadn’t noticed him before you certainly wouldn’t have heard him then.
“I'll just observe for now. I don't actually have anything to catch this guy on yet.” You silently decided to yourself. You'd follow him until you saw something illegal, then you could catch the guy like the cool vigilante you were. That's the plan for now. The solid, unwhiffable plan.
Caught up in thought you realized just then he somehow just made it up to the roof. and you saw him just slip through some roof window.
Now that's definitely not legal. Damn.
But also for you to also break into this rich guy's house wasn't exactly a great idea either- you'd wait back on the rooftop and then catch him when he came back out. Probably stealing or something. Nbd.
For just that moment you were actually relieved to be teamed up with Batman because that also meant access to all his stupid bat-shaped gadgets, including grappling hooks. Battling hooks of you will.
Using one of these is actually a lot harder than it seems, but eventually, you caught onto something high and whipped onto the roof. You could see the carefully extracted glass from the window; whatever this creep was doing he wanted to be as quiet as possible.
It’s Halloween and it's likely there’s barely anyone else in the house. So this is probably just a break-in as you suspected.
That's easy, you can handle that. You’ve handled break-ins all the time. Besides, the guy definitely didn't even notice you followed him so to catch him off guard would make this even easier.
Your ears perked up from hearing the creak of floorboards coming back down the hall. That's definitely the guy. Scrambling slightly, you decide to hide behind a chimney to get that extra element of surprise on him.
Easy.
This was starting to become a little fun, just like how it used to feel.
The costume has felt a little too heavy on your shoulders recently, like the threat of all of Gotham hanging over your head. So to have an easy win like this is refreshing.
You peek a bit over the chimney side, the masked man is making his way back up through the glass now sitting with his back to you on the roof. You watched him for a moment, his clothes were mostly green, save for the purple question mark socks that peaked out from under his pants.
Silently, you crept around the corner, cuffs, and rope in hand.
He reached up and you stopped- dead in your tracks- as he pulled the mask off. A small, hopefully insignificant thought ran across your mind. Subconsciously wringing the rope, you realize that for a break-in, it's a bit odd that he didn't come back out with anything.
Taking a quiet step closer you notice the darker-looking stains on his boots and coat. Red. There's red along his fresh footsteps on the roof.
Shit.
You can't seem to catch a break, can you? You reach into your pocket yet again, the burner phone feeling hot against your thigh. Now, you'd actually have to call him.
The easy catch seems to be causing you a lot more trouble than you signed up for. It had been long enough from your pause that the blonde hair in front of you seemed to notice the presence behind him. Hand still clutching the phone, he quickly turned around and pulled you out from under your feet catching you off guard. You slipped, falling hard on your back and hitting your head on something behind you. You felt all the air from your lungs quickly run and ditch you.
Stars circled around your head as he moved over you. You were too distracted by how fast this all happened to see the cloth in his right hand. You tried to kick and scream but felt useless as the cloth covered your mouth and nose. Chloroform fills your lungs, and quickly you felt heavy under his grasp. Your limbs betrayed you as they went numb.
His glasses hung off his nose slightly, framing a look of the madman hanging over you. Black started around your eyes- his unsettling smile was the last thing you saw before completely knocking out.