Recess Time (Open)

[harley]

Players: Harley Quinn
Location(s): Playground
Plot Summary: Not sure yet, but probably crazy

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Harley's voice was excited as she sounded as though she were speaking to an infant. In her hands, however, was the spotted brown fur that could only belong to a hyena. Dragging Bud to the slide, Harley proceeded to push the massive beast up the ladder to the top, before pushing him down the slide. The look on Bud's face could only be described as pure horror as the animal slid down the plastic ramp, his companion watching from afar. Lous was not coming any closer, lest his mommy grab him too.

"Wasn't that fun?" Shaking her head up and down as if to answer for the hyena, Harley took that as a satisfied answer to the question. Skipping away from the slide, Harley plopped her rear end down on the swing, pushing away from the ground with her shoes.

She was in the middle of a playground...conveniently attached to the elementary school...during daytime. As Harley swung higher and higher, laughing the entire time, kids huddled at the windows and watched. Terrified teachers attempted to gather them away from the breakable glass, though the kids clearly had the adults outnumbered.

"Weeee!" Screaming in excitement as she swung like a pendulum, Harley let her bare legs move freely with the back and forth motion. Wearing shorts and a slightly tight shirt, Harley might have been noticed as a very attractive woman, with a body to kill...literally. However, it was the white-face makeup, black eye mask and red and black jester's hood that made the woman truly stand out, and not in good ways.

[Batman]

Batman didn't go out during the day.

The vigilante that had become Damian Al Ghul's role model and father figure had several rules about his profession as a vigilante. One of the main ones was that he didn't fight crime in Gotham City during the day. Crimes in broad daylight were uncommon in Gotham anyway. Many of the villains that still held onto their identities tended to do villainous deeds during the night. That was when they were able to wreak the most havoc and that was when they attracted Batman. Believe it or not most villains really did want to attract Batman. Just so they could have a shot at killing him. During the day Gotham City was as normal as ever with the occassional bank robbery or attempted murder. Those were easy enough to stop with Gotham's other vigilantes.

Yet a crime in broad daylight at the hands of Joker and his girlfriend Harley were downright rare. All of Joker's escapades were designed to wreak maximum havoc and the night was the best time to cause trouble. Harley? She was a wild card. She was always out to have fun and impress The Joker. She didn't have any rules nor did she have an ulterior motive. That was Damian's opinion anyway. So while he was scanning over case files and he intercepted a call from the police reporting that Harley was causing trouble he wasn't surprised. When he tapped into the phone call to listen to what type of trouble he had to admit that he found it amusing. She needed to be stopped but the visual of hyenas frolicking in a playground to appeal to Damian in some fashion.

The thought of leaving the situation be did cross Damian's mind. It was solely out of respect for Dick and his "rules". Then he remembered that Dick was sleeping. It was the first time the man had been in bed for longer than an hour for more than a week. Dick was sleeping and there was a crazed woman in the playground. It was an easy enough task for Robin. He knew that Dick trusted Damian enough to take a nap without ordering Alfred to keep a strict eye on him. Yet he still couldn't bite the bait. He knew he could stop Harley and he wanted to send Joker a message about allowing his cronies to cause trouble in the city. He punched a button on the bat-computer that simulated a call claiming that a police officer was handling the situation.

Damian then suited up and headed to the bat-mobile.

-----

The Bat-Mobile flew through the air and soon came to a stop high above the playground. When Damian glanced down he saw the image he had imagined in his head. Harley on the swing while her hyenas frolicked through the park. It was only then that the idea of having animal control nearby to handle the animals occured to him. Damian arrogantly shook that thought aside. These creatures needed to be put down permanently. He had a feeling that they had taken enough human lives. If Dick had a problem with Damian killing murderous animals than he was softer than Damian had expected. He had come to realize that there was a certain courage to not murdering someone who had caused so much pain in one's life but if it counted for animals then Damian just didn't want to be Robin anymore!

As he hovered over the playground in Stealth Mode the bat-mobile ejected Damian. He began to fall the short distance towards the ground and soon the 5'0 eleven year old landed on the ground in the middle of the playground. "Is this how you spend your days? Taunting and terrifying children?" Damian said immediately as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Well I'm a child. Would you like to take a swing at me?"

[harley]

Bud and Lou heard it first, the sound of a vehicle. They immediately began 'laughing' as they drew Harley's attention to the craft, which was clearly taken from Batman's personal collection. Black lips grinned as she drew the attention of the dark knight himself, Gotham's proclaimed 'savior'. Impressive actually, Joker would commend her for bringing the Bat out during daylight hours.

As the hero began to show himself, Harley's grin slowly to fade as she watched the vigilante reveal himself to be a child. Laughing, Harley fell back off her swing, hitting the dirt hard. It wasn't her fault after all, the sight was hysterical as tears began to form in Harley's eyes. Wiping them before her make-up ran, Harley righted herself up onto her feet and walked over to the boy.

"Aren't ya adorable!" She squealed, throwing her arms out and rushing in, hugging the boy. He actually looked like Robin, except ten years younger. "Swing ya? Birdy, I'll swing with ya. In fact, I'm adopting ya, right now. Take ya home and Joker will be so thrilled, you'll be our son." Pulling away, Harley examined the boy as she took a couple steps back, hand to her chin. "Loving the red, but we need to do something about the 'R', it just doesn't scream clown child. Don't worry, I have a great tailor."

From behind her, the laughing hyenas came up on each side of her, standing at her heels. Eyeballing the kid, Bud and Lou waited for the command to attack, or just play, one never knew with Harley Quinn.

[Batman]

Damian was starting to wonder what Harley was doing here. The obvious answers were that she was planning to wreak havoc and take human lives. However her casual dress made Damian hesitate ever so slightly. She didn’t deserve a reprieve but Damian was starting to wonder if he had started a fight just for the stake of starting one. It was something Dick had been accusing him of. Yet at the same time he was certain that his mentor would have waited until Harley let one of her hyenas tear a child’s throat out. Damian was a proactive vigilante and he was willing to end a problem before it started. Yet at the same time he still wondered if Harley was truly up to anything bad. The Joker wasn’t here. He was reportedly on the other side of town. So as Harley rushed towards him Damian reached for his blade and as he grasped the handle he strongly considered skewering her right there and then.

Yet instead of pulling out her big hammer or using one of her snazzy acrobatic movies she initiated a tight hug. Damian gasped for air and let go of his sword handle in the process. It wasn’t like he could slash her with the weapon while she was hugging him. Not only was it physically difficult but it also felt wrong. There was also the fact that Damian couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged him. Or even if he had been hugged. Even if it was by a psychotic clown lady. “I’m not adorable.” He growled. It was ironic that the people who called Damian adorable were the ones he wanted to harm the most yet he never actually did. “You do that again and you won’t have arms to hug me with me!” Red tinted Damian’s cheeks as he stepped back several feet and unsheathed his blade.

It couldn’t exactly cut through flesh (though it hurt like hell if you were hit with it) but Harley didn’t need to know that. “Why would I want to get adopted by The Joker anyway?” His eyes narrowed as he considered another question. “Your boyfriend doesn’t have a good track record with Robins either.” Damian felt no sympathy for Jason Todd. The man had gotten himself killed due to needless compassion and stupidity. Yet he still harbored hatred for The Joker and his actions. They were in excusable.

[harley]

From behind her, Bud and Lou 'laughed' as they so often did, watching Harley's newest pet victim. They were tired of being dragged around and forced to do ridiculous things, and now it seemed Harley had her eye on a replacement. Or that's what they thought at least. Walking up to their 'mommy', they sat at either side of her, watching the child in front of her. If it were up to them, they would have pounced the bat already and been done with the kid, but Harley hadn't given them the order yet.

"Oh hunny-bunny, don't be so closed off and distant. We'll be a close family, ya gonna like it, ya just watch." The woman who was drawn to abusive men like the Joker knew nothing of real family closeness, but no one dared to tell her that. In her mind, she knew exactly what love was, despite the many times that Ivy had pleaded with her to get away from Joker. Shaking the thoughts out of her mind, she smiled down at the boy before her, just the right age. Old enough to appreciate what she was going to do for him.

"Ya can have ya own bedroom, ya won't need to share with Mr. J's henchmen. And ya can have ya own hyena, or any other pet ya might want. Mr. J has that huge shark tank he once used when he captured the B-Man, ya could have one of the sharks. Oh, oh!" Now Harley was getting excited. Clapping her hands together, she did a back flip and stood on her hands, looking at Damien upside-down. "We'll take ya to the circus, and the carnival whenever it's in town. Teach ya how to walk on your hands like this and do back flips, your friends will be so amazed."

Smiling to him, the black lipstick left it an eerie smile, against the white-cream of her face. Cartwheeling herself off her hands and back onto her feet, Harley immediately threw her hands up in the air at her perfect landing, as though she were preforming for the gymnastic committee once again. "I'm guessing that the B-Man doesn't know ya came out here and took his toys, right? That's the best part son, ya can come with me and Mr. J whenever ya want, we won't make ya sit at home and miss the fun."

[Batman]

Damian stepped backwards and held his hands up in a useless attempt to protect himself from what he perceived to be an attack from Harley. Yet instead all she did was flip backwards and land on her hands. Damian couldn’t narrow his eyes anymore. He was practically squinting now. It was becoming rapidly clear to him that she wasn’t intimidated by him. If only he could grow an extra foot and age an extra ten years. He was growing tired of villains and criminals not treating him like a force to be reckoned with. At first it had allowed him to use it as an element of surprise but now it was just getting old. He didn’t want this to be his defining trope anymore. He wanted to be known for other things. Yet when it came down to it Damian was still a child which resulted in him making a childish statement.

“I can already do that. I’ve been able to cartwheel and flip before I could walk.” People said you had to learn to walk before you ran. Damian didn’t believe that. You could do whatever you wanted as long as you put in the proper dedication and focus into your work. Damian wasn’t the type of person to allow anyone to say “no” to him. Yet Harley’s statement did remind him of something. Dick had been in the circus once. He had been in the circus until he was roughly Damian’s age and Damian remembered him regaling him with tales of his adventures. Damian wondered how Dick would handle a situation like this. Then again he doubted that Harley would treat his mentor the same way. It was all about age and height. Dick wasn’t exactly the tallest person around but he had a certain presence. Damian seemed to lack that and he needed to have it if he didn’t want to be treated like a joke.

“I don’t want to come with you and I don’t need Batman’s permission to do anything!” Damian snarled that sentence out with his teeth clenched. That was it for him. Harley had to go down. He reached into his cape and in a blink of an eye hurled three bat-a-rangs at the hyena to her left, and then two bat-a-rangs to the hyena to her right. Then he was charging at her with all the fury of a kindergartner having a tantrum on a school playground.

[harley]

The kid had spunk, Harley liked spunk. With the right make-up, he'd fit right in to the family, he was clearly the one. Lowering her arms back to her sides, Harley eyed the boy up and down. Yes, he was physically capable of many things, that was helpful for someone with his future. "A future with me kid, ya get ya own henchmen even. Trust me, ya have no idea what ya missing out on with ya own set of henchmen." Using her hands as emphasis during her speech, Harley nodded along with herself, as if to agree with her own opinions.

It wasn't until the kid got violent that Harley's entire demeanor changed. She just wanted to swing in the playground, take her pets for a walk and enjoy the good weather. She wasn't harming anyone, and he was going to attack her babies? Harley wouldn't stand for it. As Bud rolled away to safety, Harley could hear the distinct sounds of pain from Lou as one of the batarangs suck into his skin. "Ever wonder what it's like to upset a mother bear?"

Blue eyes narrowed in anger as Harley reached for her big pistol. Pulling it from behind her, she raised it to the boy as black lips slowly began to widen in a cynical grin. "I was only looking to swing with my babies today, everything that happens beginning now, it's on your shoulders."

Arching the weapon away from Damien, Harley pulled the trigger as the large explosive bullet cut through the air and hit the corner of the school. The explosion blew away steel and brick, kicking up a thick layer of dust and debris. Compromising the structure's corner, Harley watched as the walls began to crumple under the weight of the building. "What matters more to ya kid? Getting a few good shots at me, or saving the innocent children that are about to be buried in their own school?"

[Batman]

There was only black and white in Damian’s world. If you were a criminal you were put away for your crimes or put down; permanently. Even if Harley Quinn was just running around minding her own business she was a woman still wanted for many crimes and had done great harm against the people of Gotham City. The corruption in Gotham City was so thick that it could easily pass for that of a small country. Damian wasn’t about to let anyone have a break. Yet at the same time he had to admit he felt more than a little apprehensive to continue this fight. Harley hadn’t been doing anything wrong and while she had a criminal record she hadn’t been doing anything outright violent. Damian was starting to suspect that he had kicked the hornet’s nest. The moment one of the hyenas began to squeal in pain Harley’s attitude completely changed. Damian wasn’t surprised but he was slightly intimidated.

As Harley raised her weapon Damian was already moving. Instead of jumping away from the gun the gun he jumped towards it. He reached into his utility belt and pulled out a bat-a-rang. Just as Harley spun around Damian let the projectile fly. Unfortunately he hadn’t predicted that she would alter her line of fire. The bat-a-rang spun past her and sliced right through the chain of the bicycle swing before embedding itself in the ground. Damian came to a stop right in front of her as the bullet buried itself into the side of the building. His eyes widened and he took a step backwards as the school started to groan under its weight. Damian realized that this situation was about to take a turn for the worst and that it was his fault. Yet he wasn’t about to give up. He could take care of both Harley and the building of children.

“That was unnecessary…and foolish.” He snarled. He raised his hand and aimed a palm strike at her throat before swinging around for a vicious roundhouse kick to her jaw. Unfortunately the second blow left him slightly off balance due to his height. “Is that what you do now? Hurt children?” He echoed his earlier question angrily as he went for his sword yet again.