Pamela Isley
"Dinah, nice to meet you I'm.....Pamela." Pam introduces herself, but gets the distinct impression the others are far more interesting to this Dinah the way she looks around and talks to them. Even looks to focus on the statuesque boy who sits alone for a time until an Asian girl arrives and sits next to him. Something which prompts Dinah to standup, Pamela can't help but notice. Just as she can't help but notice the Asian girl offers the boy seaweed as a kind of snack. She'd heard from her mother that seaweed was one of the many kinds of plants that were edible to humans(at least some kinds) but hadn't had a chance to try it. She would like to, though. In case the other girl were to actually eat a piece in all that was going on, Pamela whispers very quietly to herself "Blessed be this green bounty."
The boy who had the odd reaction to the cookies and other sweets. Pam can sense something very different about him besides his appearance. The newspapers and radio had told of strange-looking beings popping up lately, so Pam assumes this boy must be one of them. The other boy who talks to him seems a normal, jovial kind of guy that makes Pam smile just from his tone and manner.
Hearing Dinah's unimpressed comment on 'future leaders' snaps Pam out of her silent observation of the others. She kind of retreats in on herself, unsure. She certainly never thought of herself as a 'leader' type for all she'd heard of what that entailed. Her father never seemed to have a high opinion of todays leaders whenever the subject came up on their home radio; especially the guy he always called Mr. President very derisively every time.
She seems...not very groovy as Mom would say Pam thinks of Dinah perhaps unfairly, but she thinks it nonetheless. The girl pretends like she didn't hear Dinah and sits in her chair fiddling with a loose strand of her hair, eyes forward and waiting for this assembly to begin or someone else to try and talk to her.
Harley Quinn
Featuring Camleen as Batman
A Month Ago…
“Puddin! Puddin’ I’m right here! I’m…..I’m…” The young girl calls out into the factory while clawing at the hand and arm holding her by the ruffled collar of her costume. “Leggo of me ya creep!” She yells at the man in goggles as her nails fail to puncture the heavy leather and kevlar of his costume. Overhead, the cackles of a madman and the grunts of his pursuer steadily get quieter and quieter...and the girl slowly loses her fight as she looks up and around. “Mistah J? You’re….you’re comin’ back right?”
“I’m afraid he’s not coming back, dear.” The old man in goggles says to her without looking away “Your...Puddin’ as you call him, doesn’t seem to share the same sentiment for you.”
“No...no that can’t be true...no he’s just...putting that Bat freak on ice...then he’ll come back for me.” Harley rationalizes looking up out of the nearest window. Gotham City was awash in moonlight. If the man known as Doctor Mid-Nite been able to truly see, he’d see tears forming at the corner of her eyes by the moonlight. All he could see with his infrared vision was a young girl in a costume that was too thin to keep out the cold.
“Poor girl.” Doctor Mid-Nite sighs and shakes his head. “That...deranged young man...has truly done something terrible to you if you think he’ll evade that other young man only to risk capture by me.”
Harley is about to say something, but overhead there’s the sound of someone swinging through an open window. Her eyes go wide, look up “Puddin!”
“No, I’m afraid that’s the other one.” Doctor Mid-Nite says looking up and seeing through the darkness in a way she can’t. “Batman, was it?”
For 3 months he has been tracking down the twisted duo of criminals, the clowns. The Joker and his lieutenant Harley Quinn. An unwitting lieutenant, but one nonetheless. Joker seems to be a master manipulator, making other people feel they have far more power than they do. While it serves him, of course. And once that usefulness ebbs, they are cut loose. At least that’s how he sees things.
While one of them has gotten clean away… again… the other isn’t as resourceful. For now he allowed the Joker to get some distance, knowing there was a slim chance of actually catching him tonight. But that’s okay, he knows where the Joker is hanging his hat. He’ll wait for the moment. And so he circles around, moving as silent as the shadows he calls home. From building to building he bounds, his form moving like liquid black in this darkness. He moves back to the warehouse the Joker had first fled from, and he crouches low on a thick windowsill. His eyes narrow behind his mask as he stares down at the only two left here. Quinn and… Doctor Mid-Nite… there were rumors the Society was working outside of Gotham… maybe this confirms that rumor.
And he doesn’t like it.
Harley looks in his direction thinking she’ll see her savior. Her ‘puddin’. He drops down from the windowsill, landing in a low crouch near some old crates. His form remains obscured amongst the dark of the warehouse. Mid-Nite calls out to him, and he waits a few moments. Just in front of Harley there is a soft metallic clacking sound. The sound of handcuffs that were tossed from the shadows. His voice comes forth in a low, gravelly tone.. almost seeming to come from different areas around them. “Put those on, Quinn. You and your boss are done here.”
“Afraid this is the end of the line, Miss Quinn.” Mid-Nite says setting the girl down on her feet. She looks at the cuffs and into the darkness.
“W-whaddya mean...done?” She asks clutching at her ruffle collar. She shakes her head and falls to her knees “No...no...I can’t go back into the system!” She pleads with the darkness “You don’t know what they do to kids like me!”
He seems to just materialize from the shadows, his form still concealed under his cape. A scowl upon his lips, his white blank eyes staring at Harley. He stops about 10 feet from them both, his cape swaying forward slightly as he does so. From Harley he slowly looks to Mid-Nite.. one of the so called Justice Society. A bunch of people with aspirations of a better world, all of whom have probably never seen the underbelly of society. Or been exposed to children starving on the streets, as he sees almost every night here in Gotham.
And his costume sucks.
“You made bad choices, girl.” He speaks once more in that same low tone, there almost seeming to be an edge of anger to it. His eyes slowly draw back to Quinn as he continues. “And now you’re going to face the consequences of those choices. Now put those on. You don’t want me to do it for you. I promise.” With that last word he narrows his eyes at her.
“Now listen here, kid.” Mid-Nite steps in front of the shadowy vigilante. His goggled eyes don’t look directly into the whites of Batman’s but still at him. “No need to get rough with the girl. She is, in my medical estimation, not in possession of her full faculties.” He looks back at her, then to him again. “Rest assured, I’ll take her from here. You do..whatever it is you have to do.”
As soon as Mid-Nite starts to move, Batman is reaching into one of the pouches at his waist under the cape. He half expects the other man to do something dumb, to try and fight for the criminal. To try and stop him physically.
His eyes now narrow towards Mid-Nite and he takes a few bold steps closer to him as his voice comes forth. “She doesn’t have her full faculties. So I’m taking her to Arkham to rot for what she and the other one has been doing. THAT is what I have to do, Mid-Nite.” Now it’s Batman that’s ready to throw a punch, to take down Mid-Nite for stepping between him and his goal. To try and stop him from doing what he has to.
But… he relents. If Mid-Nite were anyone else, they would be on the ground with a broken arm at this point. While he doesn’t like it, he knows the Doctor’s reputation… and the company he keeps. A quick glance in Harley’s direction… and then… “Fine.”
A small step back is taken as he continues, looking to Mid-Nite. “You keep her out of Gotham City, you keep her off the streets.” He glances again towards Harley “I’ll be watching her. I’ll always know where she is and what she’s doing. Step out of line, and she’s going down. Same as you.” He looks back towards Mid-Nite as he now turns, and he starts to move away in a smooth motion, his cape now flowing in rhythm to his stride. “You and your Justice Society club or whatever you are… get out of my city.”
Mid-Nite nods at Batman “Understood.”
Harley had been beside herself with confusion at what was going on this whole time, looking at either Mid-Nite or Batman or the cuffs on the ground. “What’s gonna happen to me?” She asks Mid-Nite, the one that seems to be, at least for the moment, advocating for her.
“You are going to leave that ridiculous hat, and the hammer, and come with me.” Mid-Nite tells her while kicking the cuffs back at Batman.
“Why?” She asks watching the cuffs slide over but refraining from looking up at Batman.
“Because, Miss Quinn, you….youngsters…” He says in a forced manner as he admits to himself he is an old man under the costume “..you need to learn that not only is there justice to be had outside the structures society has built, but also healing and redemption.” He reaches out and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, beckoning her to follow him as he starts to walk away slowly out of the warehouse. Harley looks at the hammer on the floor, and the Harlequin hat that had fallen from her head in the melee from before, and walks after Doctor Mid-Nite. The only sound in the night is the small jingle of the bells on her shoes.
Present Day
Behind the curtain, an argument is being had in whispers while the others chat.
"Just go out there, Harley." says the voice of Doctor Mid-Nite.
"What if I mess it up Doc?" Harley asks.
"Even if you do, first impressions can be mended." Doctor Mid-Nite assures her. "Just go out there, and be yourself."
"Um...less your usual self." says a third voice.
"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" Harley asks indignantly.
"Don't mind that Harley. Just go out there, and let yourself out."
"Okay." Harley takes a breath and steps toward the curtain. "Here. I. Go."
The curtain parts suddenly in a lull in the conversations going on. Harley comes tumbling out between them. She rolls on the smooth stage floor until coming to sit at the edge with her legs crossed and arms out to catch herself before falling off. At five feet tall she is easily the shortest of them all, but even with Gwynn's eyes and ears, also the strangest-looking of the kids with her stark white skin that almost blends with the white button-up shirt she wears. She also wears a black and red plaid skirt, red and white sneakers, black lipstick and her blonde hair done up in pigtails with red ribbons.
"Hiya everybody! Harley Quinn, nice to meetcha!" She says to everyone in general with arms out. Her Jersey accent is very thick, and keen eyes would see the girl has tattooes on her forearms: The right has a red spade, club, diamond and heart all in a ring; the left has the same in black. "Welcome....to Argo Academy!" She hops down to the floor and keeps beaming at everyone "
Mi casa es su casa!" She exclaims. Outwardly, she's smiling like she doesn't care she looks like a maniac. Inwardly, she's lucid enough to realize but doesn't know what to do but go with it and hope she didn't just freak people out.