Endless Legacy Ch. 48 (DC Comics)

A/N: Misunderstandings. Misunderstandings everywhere.

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“Just tell us what you did with the doctor, Ivy!”

“A lady never kisses and tells, Huntress!”

“Damnit Harley, you’re better than this!”

“Hey now, Big Bird, I’m not the one who came into your home and made a mess of things!”

A mess is right, Ivy has to admit, even as she blocks another set of crossbow bolts from Huntress with a wave of her hand and the creation of another wall of plant life. They’d barely made it back to their place before they were set upon by the Birds of Prey. Harley had literally just turned on the TV so that they could sit down and actually count the money they’d gotten from Black Mask in peace, when Huntress and Black Canary had come barging in.

The one upside to that was that the briefcase hadn’t been opened, and was still sitting somewhat innocuously on the floor between the coffee table and the couch. But on the other hand, the Birds of Prey weren’t playing around, and at this point, they might have to get serious if they wanted to avoid having their payday ruined by the female vigilantes and their tomfoolery.

Frankly, Ivy herself would have gotten serious already by now, and probably started off that way… if it wasn’t for Harley. The clown-themed woman was batshit crazy to the point of teaming up with heroes and villains alike whenever it struck her fancy, and as a result, she had… history with the Birds of Prey that Ivy didn’t. She’d never been a full-fledged member or anything like that, on account of the unpredictability and impulsiveness, but they still tried to treat her with the kid gloves when they could, and that meant responding in kind.

Unfortunately for Ivy, Harley was her best friend. And friendship meant compromising. It meant she had to play nice with Harley’s other friends, even if she knew Harley would pick her every time. Still… things were getting dangerous. Harley, for all her quirkiness, at least had the good sense to stay away from the couch and table and briefcase with a million dollars in it. Huntress and Black Canary on the other hand…

With a huff, Ivy pushes forward and a plant thrusts towards Huntress in such a way that the acrobatic vigilante has to dodge AWAY from the coffee table and couch, rather than towards it. Meanwhile, Harley is harrying Canary on the other side of the room, keeping that super sonic voice of hers away from the briefcase as well. But all it would take was one momentary lapse of concentration, or one single misstep, and one of those blasted Canary Cries might wind up blowing up the center of the lair anyways.

Gritting her teeth, Ivy pushes Huntress back and also reaches out towards Canary, holding back a little less as she lets some of her darlings explode out of the ground. As the two vigilantes curse at being stymied, Harley looks at Ivy with wide soulful eyes and a mighty pout.

“Hey! I was playing with birdie! You’ve got your own opponent, Ivy!”

Huffing, Ivy crosses her arms under her chest and rolls her eyes.

“This isn’t a game, Harley. They’re not going to let up. We need to think about getting serious.”

Harley blinks at that, but before she can tell Ivy whether or not she’s willing to let her finally take the damn training wheels off and go ham, something else happens. A gas cannister suddenly rolls up against Ivy and Harley’s feet, before pretty much exploding. The thing is… it doesn’t come from the Birds of Prey. Or at least, it doesn’t come from Black Canary and Huntress.

As the gas gets in both their lungs, causing Ivy and Harley to break into coughing fits and stumble away from one another, all Ivy sees is a flash of black before she’s suddenly on her back with a razor sharp batarang pressed against her jugular. Eyes widening and pupils shrinking to pinpricks, the plant controlling metahuman stares up into a cowl she hasn’t seen in a long time.

“Stay. Down.”

As the original Batgirl growls down at her, Ivy doesn’t dare move. Meanwhile, Harley is quick to recover from the gas cannister as well thanks to her constitution, but she freezes the moment she sees the situation they’re in. Though it’s still a toss up whether that’s because Ivy is in danger of losing her head, or because of who she’s currently being threatened by.

“R-Red? You’re… walking?”

Ivy licks her lips at that. She knew minor details at best about what had happened to the original Batgirl. She knew, for instance, that something had left her paralyzed, and that she’d become Oracle, a prominent networking specialist in the Superhero Community.

That in and of itself was more than most people knew, but Ivy also knew that Harley knew more. There were rumors that it had been the Joker himself who ended the original Batgirl’s career as a vigilante, though Ivy had never been sure about that, mostly because… the Joker didn’t tend to leave people alive. He hadn’t left Batman’s second Robin alive, that was for sure.

Still, she’d never pushed Harley on the details. She knew better. But now… well, she’s kind of regretting it, because Batgirl is back, red hair and all, and she looks PISSED.

“I’m only going to ask once. Where is Luke Maximillian?”

This was a Batgirl trained in the old school style by Batman himself. Before the Justice League, before, some might say, he’d gone soft. Ivy didn’t think she would kill, necessarily, but the implicit threat sends a shiver up and down her spine all the same. And really, who gives a fuck about Black Mask? The biggest concern is that the blasted do-gooders might take the money with them when they left if Ivy and Harley gave up the truth. But… well, maybe they could-

“-hat’s right! Look, I know they’re villains, and I know they’ve done bad things in the past. I’m not trying to whitewash them or anyways like that. But they didn’t do anything too untoward to me. As soon as we were far enough away, they let me go and Poison Ivy’s lipstick wore off about five minutes later.”

Everyone on both sides goes still as the voice of the very man the Birds of Prey were here to rescue suddenly sounds out among them. Batgirl’s eyes slowly move away from Ivy as her head turns to the forgotten television, but Ivy doesn’t try to take advantage of her distraction. Instead, she's far too busy craning her head as best she can as well, ignoring the batarang at her neck entirely at this point in order to also stare at the television screen.

There, on the TV Harley had just managed to turn on before they were first attacked by Huntress and Black Canary… is the man of the hour himself. Luke Maximillian. He’s standing there speaking to a reporter of all things, looking happy as can be and literally no worse for wear than before.

“You should understand how lucky you were, Mister Maximillian. Harley Quinn is the infamous paramour of the Joker himself, and Poison Ivy is a notable man-hater who has killed dozens with her kiss alone. It’s rather hard to believe they just… let you go.”

Luke shrugs in response, still smiling.

“Well first of all, it’s Doctor Maximillian, thank you. Sorry, but I didn’t go to medical school for nothing.”

“Ah yes, of course. Apologies, Doctor.”

“Apology accepted. Second… look, like I said, I’m not out to whitewash a pair of villains. They did in fact rob and terrorize a whole restaurant of people tonight before absconding with me, and that’s bad in and of itself. And we cannot forget their previous crimes.”

The doctor pauses for a moment before smiling wider.

“That said… Harley Quinn is as much a victim of the Joker as anyone else, if not more so. And all I can say is that neither she nor Poison Ivy did me a single ounce of harm. They used me to make their escape, sure… but then they let me go. So… at least as far as I’m concerned, no harm, no foul.”

“Well… you heard it here first folks! It would seem that in spite of the harrowing experience he went through tonight, one of Gotham City’s newest residents has a spine of steel and the chiseled physique to match! Perhaps that jawline of his is why Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy chose to spare Dr. Maximillian! Who can really say!”

…

What. The. Fuck.

As the news report ends, silence reigns for a moment longer before Batgirl suddenly pulls off of Ivy, somewhat awkwardly.

“You… just let him go? Why wouldn’t you just tell us that? What was the point of all this if you just let him go?!”

Batgirl sounds unbelievably frustrated. Huntress and Canary look absolutely poleaxed. Ivy, meanwhile, thinks fast. First, she catches Harley’s eye and cuts off any response from the other woman with a minute shake of her head. Then, sitting up and rubbing her neck, Ivy smirks.

“Like I told your friends… a lady doesn’t kiss and tell. Besides, if we had tried to tell you the truth, would you have believed us? Or would you have kept demanding the ‘real answer’?”

Ivy lets the accusation hang in the air for a moment as the Birds of Prey all exchange glances. Then, she lets her smirk grow a bit wider.

“Besides, Harley needed the exercise, lest all of that ice cream go to her thighs.”

“H-Hey!”

With that, the situation is defused. Not that all is forgiven or anything like that, she’s still Poison Ivy and they’re still do-gooders and vigilantes. But they’re so awkward about the ‘misunderstanding’ that Ivy and Harley are able to get them to go away and leave them alone just by turning over the ill-gotten goods from The Ocelot. A paltry sum in comparison to… well.

As soon as the Birds of Prey are gone, Ivy saunters over to the untouched couch, coffee table, and briefcase. A quick check through the senses of her darlings confirms that nobody but her and Harley is left in the area before she picks up the briefcase, sets it on the table, and flicks it open.

Inside… appears to be one million dollars. Checking it over for a moment, she confirms that it seems to be all there, and all very real. That’s good… but it does beg the question…

“What’s Black Mask playin’ at, exactly?!”

Harley took the words right out of Ivy’s mouth. Huffing, the plant controller pulls out her phone.

“Let’s find out, shall we?”

What follows… is an undeniably strange interaction with one of Black Mask’s goons. Ivy isn’t so stupid that she mentions the bounty or any of that by name. But frankly, she also doesn’t get far enough in doing so before she’s basically shut down. By a henchman of all things. But from the sound of it… Black Mask is turtling up.

Whatever happened, it’s causing the crime lord to shut down half of his operations and pull back to the center of his power where he can focus on holding onto what he has. He’s ending all attempts at expansion… which in and of itself means certain death for him and his organization. It’s not enough to just fortify and hold onto what you have in a place like Gotham City. You have to constantly be pushing for more, or you’re liable to be seen as easy prey.

Coming out of the other end of the phone call, Ivy looks at Harley and Harley looks at Ivy.

“Luthor?”

“Luthor.”

It was the only explanation. Lex Luthor had done something, or more likely, he’d sent someone into Gotham who could actually tango with some of the worst the city had to offer. Ivy’s eyes narrow as she thinks back to their interactions with Luke Maximillian, both in The Ocelot and in the warehouse when they’d passed him off to Black Mask.

The conclusion she comes to chills her to her core. Luke Maximillian… was immune to her toxins. Either that or at least extremely resistance. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, because he was doing what he was told anyways, but he hadn’t reacted to her kiss quite in the way she was used to. He’d been just a bit too robotic. Too mechanical.

It was almost like… well no. It was exactly as though he was someone pretending to be under her influence, rather than someone actually under her influence.

“Fuck.”

Harley gives her a curious look, only for her eyes to widen as Ivy describes what she’s just figured out about the damn doctor.

“Wha- but he was behind us in the Crawler the entire time! He could have attacked at any point!”

That was a good point. Ivy rubs her hands on her face and then shakes her head.

“He didn’t want to. He basically presented himself to us on a silver platter back at The Ocelot. He knew we were there for him. He knew we would take him to Black Mask. He knew Black Mask wanted him.”

It all made sense now that Ivy was laying it all out. They were basically little more than patsies, in the end. They were Luke Maximillian’s chauffers to his rendezvous with Black Mask. And whatever he’d done to the crime lord, whatever he’d said to him… had caused Black Mask to completely turtle up and basically roll over and show his belly.

It leaves Ivy’s mouth inexplicably dry just thinking about it. But… it also kind of pisses her off a little bit.

“We were stooges, Harls. Played as fools.”

Harley hums, pressing a finger to her chin and tilting her head to the side for a moment… before looking to the briefcase.

“Well… we DID get a million smackeroos out of it. Black Mask didn’t want the money back, right?”

She hadn’t asked, but if he did, she’s sure he would have demanded it. So no, Ivy doubted they were going to have to worry about anyone coming for their million. Still… ugh. Lex Luthor wasn’t the kind of man even someone like Ivy wanted to tangle with. But at the same time, she utterly despised being tricked.

“What do ya wanna do, Ivy?”

Ivy frowns, appreciating that Harley was willing to back her up on this. Obviously, Harley didn’t care about someone pulling one over on her, especially when she came out the other side with this kind of payday. But while the money was good… it wasn’t necessarily about the money for Ivy. Still… did she really want to risk getting on Lex Luthor’s bad side?

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A/N: Did Barbara actually go and get the dye out of her hair before suiting up to reinforce Huntress and Canary? Yes. Yes she did. So extra.