No Place in My Heart for a Criminal Like You

I had never been anywhere near the Wayne Enterprises building before and I’m kind of surprised I’ve never noticed it before. I mean, the huge ‘W’ on the front of the building is really hard to miss, but somehow I had managed to be oblivious towards it. We followed the ‘W’ all the way to the building, until eventually we were parked outside of it. It was only just getting dark outside and I think the building was closing soon, seeing as a lot of people were exiting the building and heading towards their cars.

I was still very vague on the main objective as The Joker spoke only briefly on what we were supposed to be doing. Basically, everyone in the van had to enter the building, guns at the ready, while The Joker planted bombs around the building. That’s all I really knew, just the same as his henchmen. Me and the henchmen were given radios so that we were able to reach The Joker while he was gone in case of emergencies. He was carrying the explosives in a large duffel bag.

When the coast was clear at the entrance, Joker questioned, “Ready?” In return, everyone grunted or merely nodded their head. Soon after, we all exited the van and ran towards the building, guns in hand. Unfortunately, I only had a small hand gun. I was still yet to have more lessons involving guns. Nevertheless, I continued with the task.

As soon as we entered the building, The Joker shot his shotgun in the air making a vast amount of loud screams erupt all over the lobby. He said nothing as he casually walked further into the lobby holding the gun at his side. I was bewildered at how calm he was, while me and his henchmen frantically aimed our guns at various people. Mostly the security guards; even though, by the looks of it, they weren’t carrying guns. None of which that I could see anyway. This made things a little easier for everyone. Now that the people inside of the building realised they were being held a gun point, they instantly stopped screaming and stood still, paralysed.

The Joker stood in the middle of the room for a moment or two, just glancing around at all of the innocent bystanders, who now had their hands raised in the air. Once he observed the scene long enough, he walked over to me, still not saying a single word.

“Okay, all I want you to do is stay here and hold everyone hostage. Make sure no-one leaves this building or calls the cops. Got that?” He whispered into my ear, huskily. I replied with a confident nod. He turned his head away from me and pointed his gun at one of his men. “Uh…you!” He yelled, obviously not knowing or remembering his name. Nonetheless, the goon turned around to face him. “You come with me. And take her with you,” The Joker ordered and then started towards the hallway grabbing an unwilling female on the way. She whimpered slightly as he tightened an arm around her neck, holding her hostage. Both him, the goon and their hostages walked out of the lobby leaving me in complete charge.

Damn. I was left to handle the lobby situation by myself. I think this was another kind of test. Assuming that The Joker was testing my abilities to be able to work on my own. Thinking that this was the case, I attempted to maintain my confident and controlling persona in front of all the hostages.

“Okay! Everyone on the floor with your hands on your head!” I screamed at all the hostages. They obliged soon after. I circled the lobby aiming at anyone who dared to move. Although they were all clearly terrified, confusion was also evident in their expressions. None of them had a clue on what was going on and what The Joker was aiming to do. However, none of them had dared to question him or me. I could see that they were desperate to know, but the fear was too overwhelming for them to even open their mouth.

A few minutes passed by. Then another few. Then another. And then another. Still there was no sign of The Joker or his goon returning. I was slowly beginning to lose my patience. The boredom of just walking in circles in the lobby was beginning to become unbearable. The task I was given was way too easy for me.

“J, where are you? Come on! I’m bored!” I exclaimed down the two-way radio. There was no answer. And that’s when I began to panic. “J?” Still no answer. “J?!” I stared at one of the masked goons confused and worried. He simply stared back and shrugged his shoulders, just as confused as I was. I sighed heavily, slightly irritated. I walked over to a woman who was lying on the floor, her son right next to her. I grabbed the kid up by his arm and placed the gun to his temple. The mother let out a helpless scream as she tried reaching for her son. “You’re attracting attention, shut up!” I screamed at her angrily. She whimpered a little more quietly as tears began to run down her face. I’ve never been big on children, so I wasn’t effected anyway shape or form by this act of affection. I know he was an easy target, but right now I couldn’t be bothered with any messing around. I just wanted to find The Joker to know if he was safe.

Ignoring her whimpers, I directed the little boy, who was no older than 8, towards the direction in which The Joker went.

“J?” I called once more into the radio as I entered the elevator.

“WHAT?!” I heard him bellow through the speaker.

“Jesus Christ! Where are you?! What’s taking you so long?!”

“I told you what I’m doing!”

“What floor are you on?!”

“Uh…eight. Why?” Straight after I pressed the number eight button in the elevator to take me up to that floor. “Harley?” I ignored him, just like he ignored me earlier on. As the elevator smoothly went up, I began stroking the little boy’s soft, blonde hair with my gloved hand. He snivelled at this little predicament he was in, but he did nothing because he could do nothing. “Harley?!” The Joker shouted louder this time. I smiled, seeing that I was now irritating him and continued to stroke the kids hair. I began hushing the little kid as he started crying louder.

Eventually the elevator pinged and the doors began to slide open. Cautiously, I left the elevator with the boy in front of me, making it clear that I had a gun pointed to his temple. Fortunately, the hallway was empty at the moment. Nonetheless, I still walked slowly and quietly down the hallway, making sure not to attract any attention.

I heard a few shrieks and screams coming from down the hall and then at least five people ran from my left to the right. They ran so fast they failed to notice me. I assumed that they were running away from The Joker, so I hurried my pace towards the direction in which the group were running from.

Sure enough, as I turned the corner I noticed The Joker taping a explosive to the wall. His goon still had hold of one of the hostages as she struggled and he examined the surroundings, looking out for any trouble. The other hostage was knocked out on the floor.

“What are you doing here?” The goon asked as he stared at me through his mask. Once The Joker had finished to tape the explosive to the wall he turned around to see who the goon was talking to.

“Hey, I told you to stay down there!” He exclaimed as he walked over to me, gripping my arm in a vice like grip.

“Well, I wanted to help you,” I explained as I tore my arm away from him. “Everyone was worried when you weren’t answering on your radio.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I can look after myself,” he growled agitated.

“Fine. I’m sorry that I cared!”

He glared at me angrily as he debated what to do with me. Soon after, he viciously grabbed my face and pulled me towards him, the poor boy getting wedged between us. The Joker opened his mouth to begin lecturing me, but someone cut him off.

“What are you doing here, Joker?” I heard a low raspy voice ask from my left. Simultaneously, mine and The Joker’s head turned slowly to see who it was.

The Joker let his hands slide from my face before saying, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the caped crusader back to save the day in Gotham once again.”

I couldn’t help but let out a little squeal on first sight of Batman. This was my first meeting with him since I had become Harley Quinn, after all.

“Harley?” Batman asked as he stared at me quizzically.

“Hey, cutie!”

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?! I’m helping out my puddin’,” I explained, walking over to The Joker so that I was stood in front of him. I snuggled into him as he snaked an arm around my front, making sure that it was clearly evident that we were a pair.

Even though it looked as if Batman showed no emotions, the silence was enough to tell that he was shocked at this gesture of affection. “Harely, you don’t have to do this.”

I simply laughed at this. Everyone seemed to think that, but they were very wrong. For so long, I had been trying to fight back at The Joker’s orders and now that I finally given into his desires, I couldn’t get out. “Well, maybe I don’t have to do this. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” I stated smugly.

“What?”

“You see, the sugar coating on this sweetheart is so saccharine-thick that it obscures whatever bitter truth lies beneath. The truth is that she is just like me now. She is mine,” The Joker clarified as he let me go and started towards Batman. The goon followed by his side for back up. “I’m surprised you didn’t know. Haven’t you heard about the now infamous, Harley Quinn? The once innocent, loyal and ethical doctor, Harleen Quinzell, hmm? She’s so much more fun now and she’s been a great help to me.”

As The Joker continued to talk to Batman, I failed to notice the once knocked out hostage standing up from off the floor. Slowly she sneaked up behind me and then wrapped her arm around my neck. Instantly, in shock, I let go of the little boy I was holding hostage. Scared, he ran off and hid behind Batman. Once again, my strength was being underestimated. Quickly, I punched her from behind and while she was dazed, I flipped her over me, so that she was now lying on her back.

The Joker and his goon turned around bewildered at what was going on and while they weren’t looking, Batman took this as his chance to strike. He punched The Joker in his jaw and knocked him to the floor. I was too occupied with the hostage to stay focused on his fight, but I did notice that he had a quick recovery and was back on his feet in no time. While he fought the bat, I fought the girl who stupidly thought she was stronger than me. The fight was soon interrupted when I heard some shouts coming from down the hall. I looked behind me and noticed a few police officers running down the hallway.

“J! Cops!” I screamed. As if on queue, The Joker landed one final punch, making Batman stumble backwards and then took of running down the hall. I stood up from off of the girl and started to follow him, until I was unexpectedly grabbed by Batman. “Hey! Get off me!” I screamed as I punched him in the face. I managed to loosen his grip slightly, but before I had a chance to escape I felt something pressed into my back. I let out a loud shaky screech when I felt thousands of volts of electricity zapping through my body from a stun gun. I collapsed to the floor in pain, jolting every now and then. When I recovered slightly, I called out, “Help me, J!” He turned around before he turned the corner. For a moment, he considered whether or not he should try and save me and then he continued on running away. I must admit, I was shocked and hurt. “You coward! Loser!” I screamed at him, hoping that he heard, while I was attempting to struggle out of the grips of all the cops. There was no use. There was way too many of them for me.

Feeling saddened, I let them fasten the cuffs around my wrists without a fight. I still couldn’t believe that The Joker had made no attempt to save me at all and I wasn’t sure if this was still part of the test. If it was, I had no clue with what I was supposed to do. Not long ago, he had just said I was his. And now he had callously left me behind to defend for myself, seeing that I was obviously in dire need of his help. I fought back the tears that were threatening to fall and tried to think optimistically. The Joker wouldn’t just leave me here, right? Surely, he’d come back for me. He’d have to. I was pretty sure that he’d find a way to save me…somehow.