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Magic Show	By : Isabelle_Jennings Category: DC Verse Comics > Catwoman Views: 5161 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: this story is non-profit, I don't own Catwoman or any DC Comics characters

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CRAZY BEAUTIFUL
BOOK 1: MAGIC SHOW
PART 1: UNLUCKY IN LOVE
Summary: It's been eight months since Hailey Quinn (better known as The Harlequin) broke up with Ivy. She'd thought they'd be forever, but Ivy just hadn't been able to stay faithful and Hailey couldn't forgive her for it. She left the city and burned their place down behind her. Now she's back in town and feeling more broken inside than ever after another bad turn at love in Keystone City. She's not really looking to fall in love again, but when she happens upon a captivating thief known as Catwoman, she can't help herself, she's hooked...
Name changes for this story:

Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel = The Harlequin / Hailey Quinn

Poison Ivy / Pamela Isley = Ivy / Vivian Isley
Note about violence, the way Hailey looks at the world, and so on in the story: Don't take it too seriously, k? She makes some very logical points I think, but obviously often takes them to unreasonable extremes. As a writer, I guess I just like to walk on the dark side sometimes, play devil's advocate, or whatever you want to call it.
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---HAILEY---
Gotham-Metropolis, a city born of two cities that grew together through constant expansion into one sprawling mass of human civilization--the biggest city on Earth. By the ocean, on what was still called just Metropolis Bay, Dr. Hailey Quinn and her fiance, a woman who just liked to be called Ivy, lived together. They'd met years ago when Ivy had just been Vivian Isley, college student/stop-at-nothing environmental activist, and Hailey had been a young visiting professor, only a year older (her a child-prodigy, having graduated college herself at twelve years old, valedictorian). They'd been partners in crime--partners in Ivy's crusade to save the world's pant life--ever since.
The wedding though, was off; the partnership, over.
"So that's it then..." Ivy spoke softly, a few tears falling from her eyes as she reached up and touched Hailey's cheek with her fingers. Hailey met her eyes and did not wipe away her tears as her instincts still screamed at her to do.
"Leave." Hailey told her. "Now." She spoke coldly, turning and walking over to look out the window of the house that she and Ivy had shared, looking out over the water of the bay.
"For whatever it's worth: I'll always be in love with you, Hailey... Always." Ivy told her.
Hailey didn't turn around until she heard the door close and then she whirled around and threw a glass sculpture of two dolphins at the door. From there she proceeded to tear into everything around her, demolishing everything in the room regardless of value or sentiment. She just saw red, and the fury wouldn't leave her until it burned itself out. Because the truth was, as much as her pride meant she couldn't say it out loud, she would always, always be in love with Ivy too, and it just... It just, well, that had to be just about the most blatantly unfair and downright cruel thing in the world, didn't it?
An hour later as the sun was setting, her wrath was spent and she found herself sitting on the floor against a wall in the shadows just crying, not able to stop or think. She just hurt. Why had she done it? Why? Why couldn't they just be happy together?
She ended up finally getting up and going to bed in their room--her room--falling into a dreamless sleep.
The morning came and when her eyes opened, she felt like years had gone by since yesterday, but she knew they hadn't. She spent the morning taking all the plants out of the house and setting them in front of the house. It was a warm day with a soft breeze coming in off the ocean--idyllic, really. She called a moving service and waited. An hour later they arrived and she told them to take the plants to the address she knew Ivy would be at, and warned the movers in no uncertain terms not to let them come to harm for anything (she knew that if they did, Ivy might very well kill these men for it, especially with the state she had to be in about now).
Once they were gone, she cobbled together a quick incendiary device and flipped the switch, walking away. She was a block away when the house went up in a fireball. She smiled a cold smile and went shopping, buying a new set of clothes and burning everything she'd had on in a trash bin in an alley.
Ivy would have hated her forever if she'd burned the plants too. Hailey knew that. And even though, honestly, she'd been a little tempted to do it out of spite, she knew she couldn't bring herself to do that--to have Ivy really hate her (because Ivy really might have never forgiven her if she'd done that). It just... It hadn't worked out, that's all.
She hadn't been enough for her.
She hadn't been able to make Ivy love her. Not how she wanted; not in the end. Simple as that. Now it was done. Burned.
She'd just make a new life, be a new person.
She felt like nothing really mattered to her anymore. Her heart felt cold.
So... if nothing really mattered, why not just... have some fun?
---HAILEY---
[eight months later]
She was in Sylvan Scofield's bed, holding her down by the wrists, soft fabric that seemed alive caressing their skin such completely sensual ways. Her newest lover offered no resistance; her eyes spoke that she was eager and wanted to be dominated--wanted someone to be in charge of her. At least, that's what she was like now anyway, what she was usually like in bed if you didn't know what things to say and do to set her off. Hailey smiled and claimed her lips in a suitably predatory kiss, coming down over her and then moving to kiss her neck, letting go of Sylvan's wrists and feeling her lover's arms wrap around her back. "Oh yes, oh Hailey yes..." Sylvan breathed as Hailey slipped her fingers inside her and started to play the body below her like a fine instrument, she a skilled and gifted musician of the highest order. And that wasn't bragging... or, if it was, it was also simply a fact. As smart as she was, as fast as she learned things, anything really, it usually took her very little time at all to figure out just exactly how to please any woman at all in the ways she most wanted, most needed. It was probably her favorite activity in the whole world, actually; despite how easily it came to her... Perhaps even a little bit because it was so easy--so easy she didn't even have to really think about it--and, at the same time, she really couldn't explain, even to herself, exactly how it worked; what it was in a woman's eyes, in the ways she moved that told her these things so eloquently. And, of course, it felt amazing... to be with another person like this. There was no way to put a value on it. It always left her feeling a sense of wonder, in fact, because it was the one thing in the world that, at the end of the day, she could never really comprehend completely; the one thing that still left her awed--what she saw spoken silently on another woman's face, in her eyes, and felt in her touch when love was involved between them.
And it had been a blast, the last eight months... well, mostly... She'd spent most of it in the Gems (another mash-up city--it used to be Central and Keystone Cities, nicknamed the Gem Cities, but, over time, people have just started calling it Gem City, or the Gems), carrying on a rocky but very engaging and rewarding love affair with Lisa Snart (better known as The Golden Glider). Things had ended badly between them. And that was a long story, but sufficed to say, Lisa blamed Hailey for her brother's death... which, really, was mostly fair. Even if Hailey hadn't been the one who'd killed him herself, she'd basically goaded him into getting himself killed for what had been, truthfully, just her being petty and cold. True, she hadn't meant for him to die, hadn't thought he would, not really, but, well, she hadn't been exactly sad about it either, and Lisa could tell.
The break-up had hurt, and had been hard on both of them... It had taken Hailey weeks to get it through her head that Lisa really wasn't going to forgive her and to finally give up and leave (taking a truly spectacular bag of stolen party treats with her; which didn't make up for the loss of Lisa by any stretch, but was definitely a lot better than having nothing but more heartbreak and memories of love she couldn't have again to show for it). After a little aimless wondering, she'd ended up back here, in Gotham-Metro City, where she and Ivy had lived. She hadn't tried to find Ivy again though, as much as a part of her wanted to. Because she had her pride, because she knew her and Ivy were probably about as over as her and Lisa were now, and because she couldn't imagine Ivy wasn't with someone else (probably more than one someone else, knowing her) and she really, really, really, really, -REALLY- hadn't wanted to see that right then (or ever, honestly). She'd started up a therapist's practice to occupy herself with something that was usually at least nominally interesting (sometimes genuinely rewarding, in fact), and done the crime thing after hours--nothing really big--mostly just political statements and murdering people (only the ones who were just asking a good murdering though). For the most part, she went after corporate types, or the mob, or domestic abuse cases. And it was, she had to admit, mostly out of nostalgia--mostly so she could still feel some sort of connection to the women she'd once been in love with. The corporate types because of Ivy, because her ideals about saving the world were still in her and Hailey just couldn't fault the logic of it. The mob stuff because of Rose; the domestic cases too. Rose, Ivy's sister, had been the first time she'd fallen hopelessly in love. Ivy had been the second (she'd only found Ivy because she'd been looking for Rose after Rose had left her one night without even a note for an explanation). And Lisa... Lisa might have started to be the third...
But, even as she held Sylvan in her arms and kissed her gently as her new lover came down from her climax, Hailey knew she wasn't going to fall for this one; that Sylvan wouldn't be the fourth woman to conquer her heart. She could tell that easily because, when Hailey looked her in the eyes, Sylvan too easily looked away. She was too timid that way... Hailey just couldn't see it--that spark, that bravery that would let a woman really own her own life. Because a woman would need a lot of that, would need to be much more intense, more driven and... maybe a little out of her mind too, in just the right ways, to really handle her in the long term. Because, since Ivy, well, she knew herself, knew her profession well enough to know that she'd been losing it more and more. She'd been so... utterly convinced that Ivy and her would be forever. She should have known better though; she'd been convinced of that with Rose too, and look how that had turned out? They were sisters! Like, really, take a clue Hailey! She really must have been stupid or something... It hadn't wrecked her any less though, for her own stupidity. She'd been more careful with her heart with Lisa, or tried to be at least, with not nearly as much success as she'd set out intending... A lot of the time, she didn't even try to stem the damage of it all. She was trying for Sylvan of course--trying to be a better person with her, trying to be a good lover to her... Mostly she was succeeding in playing her part, except for this one thing... It was just too tempting--too much of a thrill--to see, to feel, what was inside this woman... To have it crash over her... To just have her mind blown to dust and sparkles and loose herself for a while...
Sylvan wouldn't meet her eyes and so Hailey clasped her head and moved it a little roughly center before her. "Look at me. Look..." She told her coldly; though, inside, Hailey only felt heat--perhaps even need...
Hesitantly, but obediently, Sylvan opened her eyes. "Hailey, please..." She pleaded meekly.
"Please what?" Hailey asked, a cold but curious smile coming over her lips. "Don't you like me anymore?"
"You... You, that's not.... huhhhh!" Sylvan gasped as Hailey ground her thigh into her sex in a way she knew would melt her. Sylvan's body arched, her head lulled back, her mouth parting in a way that drove Hailey a little wild, and made her want to kiss her, which she did, owningly.
"You do like me, don't you?" Hailey asked softly into her lover's ear.
Sylvan didn't answer right away, but she started to struggle and soon, Hailey found herself on her back, the silken fabric that surrounded them in the elegant bed they lay in holding Hailey down like tempered steal, Sylvan over her, a wild look in her eyes. "Shut up. Just shut up... You know I hate it when you do this to me..." She complained. "You just won't stop, will you?" And she kissed her, hard.
Hailey smiled to herself and did as told, shutting up and letting her lover have her way. Sylvan was all wild edges and instinct now, grasping and needful. She repressed this side of her, but Hailey had found the ways to trigger it, to get her to show this side of herself. It was like a fever took hold of her, and Sylvan couldn't stop toughing, taking, trying to get closer, trying to burn herself away in the heat of what was between them. No, Hailey didn't speak, she just met Sylvan's desire with her own and lost herself right with her, letting a burning sort of lustful oblivion take her. They'd do this until Sylvan eventually passed out from it, Hailey knew. Sylvan was a strong woman, and something more than human somehow (out of respect for her privacy, Hailey hadn't pried for details on that point), but Hailey was a lot stronger, had a lot more endurance because of Ivy's formula. So Sylvan could go at her as fiercely as she wanted and it wouldn't matter, it would just feel good. Feel exciting, and so exquisitely primal and thoughtless...
Sylvan was a very beautiful lover, but Hailey knew, in the morning, she still wouldn't be able to hold her gaze; she'd still be meek and pliant, still wouldn't open up to her, let her in--not like Hailey wanted. There was just something... closed off there, inside her. Like a wall.
Oh, with enough time and patience, Hailey thought she'd surely be able to get passed her defenses or get her to lower her guard more, but... she knew there were only two ways to do that. One would be to pretend to be someone she wasn't, someone kind and overly solicitous and cloyingly sweet probably, and the other... It was something she very much hoped she would never do, never even consider, no matter how far she let herself fall. No, to have something real with Sylvan, she would have to really earn her trust; really be... well, something she couldn't be--just didn't have it in her to be. So, the sad fact was, they just weren't right for each other. Not in any sweeping romantic sense at any rate. She couldn't touch that place inside Sylvan that her lover really needed. There would always be something missing. And even with how brilliant she was, she couldn't put a name to what that was, that missing thing. She'd had it before though, with Rose, and with Ivy, and, yeah, with Lisa too, much as it made her kind of hate herself to admit it because it really had been all her fault that she'd messed it up so badly with her when she'd known that that could have been it, that Lisa could have been it for her--her happily ever after... So she knew what it was, and she knew she'd only be fooling herself if she tried to find it with the woman who's bed she was in.
Still, for what it was, what she and Sylvan had was beautiful, and she... She hoped that when things had run their course for them, that they could still be friends. That Sylvan would find someone who was right for her. But, as pointless and illogical as it was, knowing herself, she had to realize that the whole 'friends' thing, it probably wasn't going to happen...
And maybe it was wrong of her to even be here, but she didn't have anyone else in her life right now; no one at all, even a friend (well, she had one, but he didn't live close by), and, after what had happened with Lisa, she simply didn't want to be alone--she felt she needed, or at least wanted very badly, someone to be with--even if she wasn't in danger of falling hopelessly in love again... Maybe even -because- she wasn't...
Some time later found Hailey, her body humming with very pleasant feelings of satisfaction, gazing down at a sleeping lover, idly running a hand through her hair. "You really are so beautiful..." She spoke softly to the sleeping woman, and she meant it, because Sylvan -was- beautiful, inside and out--very much so. It was a crime that no one else seemed to know that but her, not even Sylvan herself, not really. But then, that was common, wasn't it? Most people didn't see what was best in themselves nearly as easily as they saw the worst. Hailey considered herself different than the norm in that way, in that... well, she had never really had the knack for judging herself. Was she a good person, a bad one, something between, or something else? Was that even a real question? She knew she was beautiful, knew she liked herself quite well, or had until recently. Now though, she was finding it hard to tell even that. Did she like herself anymore? She honestly wasn't sure she even had an opinion about that now, or if she did, if it was still a positive one, and the uncertainly bothered her.
If it were anyone else, she'd say the best guess would be that she was avoiding her own feelings, her own self, to cope. And maybe that was the answer, trite and depressingly mundane as that seemed. She certainly couldn't come up with another theory at least, at least not one that seemed more likely. But neither could she find evidence within herself to support that most likely of psychological diagnosis either. Other than that... perhaps she'd simply became numb somehow, or broken in some way she couldn't quantify... or maybe she could quantify it and she just didn't want to--that was probably it, actually. The reasons were really very obvious, if you thought about it honestly after all...
"So, honesty is overrated sometimes..." She told her sleeping lover softly, touching her hair and forehead fondly as she got up and turned away, getting out of bed and going to get dressed. She cast an occasional contemplative glance at Sylvan as she did, and when she was ready, she looked at herself in the mirror and she wasn't Hailey Quinn anymore, she was The Harlequin. She smiled in a way that sent a thrill of anticipation through her and walked forward, through the mirror and into another world that looked as though it were made of glass or polished crystal.
One of those party favors she'd taken from Gem City was the technology Evan McCulloch (better known as The Mirror Master) used to enter this other-dimensional world, having killed him one night after he'd said something she really hadn't been able to forgive. While she'd been there, she'd made friends with James Jesse, The Trickster, and they'd collaborated on improving his flying shoes, which had left her with the design schematics too (he was that one friend she had that didn't live close by; he'd stayed in the Gems when she'd left, and, as of now, he was in Faucet City, pulling con after con with a new boyfriend who was pure trouble, but, apparently, just delicious to look at and especially to fuck). She'd also 'appropriated' the Weather Wizard's control rod too, after he'd tried to sell everyone else out to Grodd for a payoff and she and Lisa's brother, Leonard Snart (Captain Cold), had put him in the hospital for it. She had Len's cold gun too; had taken it after his unfortunate (for her) death. She'd considered leaving it for Lisa as a small way of saying sorry, but she hadn't done that. True, she'd been to blame, and the death of a beloved brother was no small thing to forgive, but even so, she still mostly believed that Lisa should have forgiven her--they'd been in love after all. So... that was her small bit of revenge. The real treasure though, was what she'd gotten from Abra Kadabra, the time traveler from the future whose technology was so advanced it looked like magic to the present day world. That, she'd wanted just because she couldn't resist the idea of it--the mystery, the wonder, the challenge of it. She'd befriended him, used her skills as a therapist to kind of get in his head, tell him what he wanted to hear. It hadn't been hard, really--he was such a lonely sort--which wasn't a surprise, because he wasn't really an easy person to like. She didn't really like him either; or she kind of had at first, but then he'd raped Jesse... So of course that was when she'd tortured and killed him with his own technology; which he hadn't really thought she'd be able to understand, but, of course, she had been. She'd figured out how to use it with a good deal more skill than he could, in fact (it wasn't as though he'd invented anything, he'd just used what was commonly available in his time and stolen a restricted time travel app to come back here and make trouble). She hadn't told anyone but Jesse, even Lisa, that she'd done it; to the others he'd just disappeared, gone back home or whatever, and since he didn't actually have any friends, in this time at least (sad as that was), no one looked for him, or even seemed to miss him. No one but Jesse knew what she had. She hadn't really used it for anything big yet, mostly because she just didn't feel like it--mostly because she was still getting over what happened with Lisa. Not that she was under any illusions that she'd actually ever really get over it. If past experience was any indication, she never would, she'd just manage to get to a place where she could live with it better, and then go looking for another woman to break her heart again... or, hopefully, not break her heart--that's what kept her going, really. That, if she kept trying, she'd get there eventually--find the one for her. When that happened though? When she met someone new and stopped feeling like she wanted to just hide away from the world? Then, oh then she was going to make some noise--and the world was -going- to listen; it wouldn't have a choice!
Still and all, for all the 'magic' of the future-technology, the mirror tech was really interesting too. The mirror world was beautiful, truly. She'd spent days in here once, just walking around and sightseeing, having packed a few things to tide her over. It was like one big crystal palace. She walked along in no hurry until she found herself at her destination: A mirror in the master bedroom of Cecily Carter's palatial up-town penthouse. She walked through, easy as a regular person would step from one room to another, and saw her there, laying in her bed, asleep, curled up contentedly between two prostitutes (one male, one female).
She felt herself grow cold inside looking at the scene. She was here because this woman and her two brothers, Jenson and Michael Carter, owned a furniture business, passed down from their now deceased father and mother, that was responsible for clear-cutting acres of forestland to make their obviously un-needed products. She'd already paid a visit to Jenson, as a matter of fact, and Michael was next on her list... but, seeing the scene before her, she found herself even more eager. She'd known Cecily Carter paid for prostitutes, so had Jenson in fact (though, in his case, he'd had a steady lover recently, so hadn't done so for the past few months), it had come up when she'd looked into the finances of the company, but seeing it in person was a lot different than seeing sums on a page.
Then she thought of what to do and she smiled, delighted by her own ingenuity and sense of fun once again. "Let's play a game, won't we?" She asked the room softly, touching each of them lightly on the forehead and using her future-tech to put them in a sort of sleep-lock that they couldn't wake from without her releasing them from it. She then went about grabbing dear Cecily by the hair and unceremoniously pulling her out of bed, then tying her up and hanging her from a hook in the ceiling. She considered the scene a second, then decided to gag her too. She wasn't really in the mood to hear... well, whatever Cecily Carter had to say. It was blatantly evident that she deserved what was coming, after all. A mass tree murder and a Jane?--she deserved this and then some.
The scene set, she snapped her fingers to release her audience of sleeping beauties from her spell. She then clapped her hands loudly. "Wake up and be happy, prospective new friends of mine." She told them.
The two prostitutes blinked the dreams from their eyes and sat up, looking around in half-awake confusion. Hailey laughed just a little. "Aw, cute." She told them, getting out a knife.
The woman's eyes caught hers and widened a little, widened further when her gaze traveled over to poor doomed Cecily Carter and the knife in Hailey's hand. "Shit..." The woman swore softly. "Jason... I think we're... in a lot of trouble somehow." She spoke to the man in bed with her.
Jason turned and looked where she was looking. "What the..." He backed up in bed a little and got quiet. "What do you want?" He asked, his face suddenly growing closed and weary in that way someone gets of being weary when they've lived on the streets and had to do a lot of things they'd really rather not have had to do in order to stay alive and provide something in any way approaching a life for themselves.
"Her. Dead. She really does deserve it. Do you disagree?" She asked.
Jason remained quiet, watching her with a calculating look. He wanted to say something, but wasn't.
"I wouldn't know." The woman answered for him.
"Honesty. See? I knew I was going to like you. Tell me your name?" She asked hopefully.
"Holly... Robinson." She replied.
"Well, Holly and Jason--I'm The Harlequin, and I'm pleased to meat you both. So, now that we know each other a little better, would you like to play a game with me? If one of you wins, you'll be rich?" She offered.
"And the one that loses?" Jason asked, voice still weary and cold.
"A consolation prize, you mean?" Hailey asked delightedly. "Hm, well, how about I just let the one who loses riffle though Cecily's jewelry box or something--sound fair?"
"So... You're not going to, you know, kill us?" Holly questioned.
"Hmm." Hailey considered playfully. "Probably not. But let's check, just to be sure. Do you knowing own or direct a business or corporation that's significantly environmentally or ethically irresponsible? Abuse your lovers? Beat children? Do you murder plants for no good reason? Involved in human trafficking? A protection racket? Kick puppies or other animals?" She seriously doubted these two would qualify for any of that.
"No." Jason spoke.
"Um, me either?" Holly replied uncertainly.
"Oh good. Then no. No killing you by me. Want to hear more about the you becoming rich game?" Hailey asked.
"Yes." Holly replied impulsively.
Hailey smiled, liking Holly even more. "Ambitious. Good for you. Alright, so here's the deal: Dear despicable Cecily Carter and her two equally despicable brothers have been, well, despicable! So I was planning on doing everyone but them a favor and murdering them all dead. Cecily, for instance is going to be killed with this knife right here. The only question is: Who's going to be her killer? It was going to be me of course, but if it turns out to be one of you, I promise, everything that's hers is yours. Her money, this penthouse, her company, even her brothers' shares of the company--everything she and her two low-life brothers has in fact: Yours. On one further condition: You'll have to close that company down, donate all of it's forest land holdings to conservation groups, and trash any and all logging equipment it owns. Sell even one chainsaw, I come back and kill you with it. Understand?"
"So, you're an eco-terrorist then." Jason spoke.
"It's one of my hobbies, yeah." Hailey replied, annoyed by his tone. "Though I prefer the term 'passionate revolutionary', or 'tree-hugger'--I always liked 'tree-hugging'. Have you ever hugged a tree Jason?"
"Slept in one a few times." He replied.
"Well, there you go then. Insert overly precious, slightly condescending monkey joke here. We're practically family." Hailey tossed the knife in the air and caught it absently. "Annnnywaaay... So how 'bout it? Who wants to get to the stabbing part? Any takers?"
Hailey could already tell Jason wasn't about to take her up on it. The look on his face told her that he held her in contempt, but valued his own life too much to say so and risk her anger. She didn't hold that against him though, even though it was slightly irksome that he apparently didn't think much of passionate revolutionary tree-huggers. Some people could really be thick, you know? Holly on the other hand... Holly was looking at Cecily thoughtfully. She then looked to Jason. He gave her a look that said clearly 'don't do it, you'll regret it if you do'. She then looked into Hailey's eyes and nodded. "She's dead anyway; and it's not like global-warming's actually fake or something. And I... you know, I really hate doing this; being... Being a whore. Don't you?" She told Jason. "I'm doing it." She decided, moving forward a little nervously and stepping onto the floor from the bed.
Hailey smiled. "Somehow, I thought it was going to be you." She handed her the knife, hilt out.
Holly took it and walked over to Cecily. She looked into Cecily's terrified eyes. "I'm sorry about this; you were nice to me." She told the doomed woman, stabbing her in the chest.
Her hand dropped from the knife after a beat and she stepped back, eyes wide as the life faded from Cecily Carter's face. A few tears fell down Holly's cheeks, and Hailey went over to her and wrapped her up in her arms from behind in a gentle embrace. "There, there. The first one can be like that. I cried too, if it helps--I still do sometimes. You were very brave." She told her. "And you won. You're rich." She confirmed to her, coming around in front of her and unhooking the dead body from the ceiling, carelessly tossing it through the mirror. She smiled to Holly. "You okay?" She asked thoughtfully, noticing that Jason was beating a stealthy yet hasty retreat, having snatched the jewelry box on the way out. She laughed. "Not so principled after all then, was he?" She smiled. "Good for him." She complemented.
"Huh?" Holly turned around and saw that Jason was gone. "Shit... You... You don't think he'd tell anyone what I did, do you?" She asked.
"Mm, kinda doubt it. If he does, I'll protect you and kick his butt off to some remote tropical island where no one'll ever find him or something, so don't worry about it. After all, we're friends now, you know, or something. If you wanna be, I mean." She told her off-handedly, ruffling her hair a little.
"We... We could be more than friends... if you want?" Holly told her a little apprehensively, approaching her in a hesitantly seductive way, touching her cheek. "I'm apparently rich now.... I could... I could even afford to take you out on a real date?" She offered kind of shyly.
Hailey considered that a moment. Holly's offer, and her interest, were obviously genuine, but she could also tell that she was looking for comfort and security more than anything. She might also still be a little nervous for her life too, Hailey supposed. She also suspected she was probably kind of Holly's type: A risk-taker, decisive, charismatic, mysterious, exciting, even dangerous, and probably bad for her. All of which Hailey could easily understand, but Holly just wasn't what she herself was looking for in a love interest, and she certainly didn't have any interest in being bad for anyone in that way. Oh Holly was interesting and attractive, someone she'd enjoy spending time with as a friend she thought, but, for a perspective romantic interest? So not going to happen.
Hailey took Holly's hand in both of hers and smiled. "Trust me, you don't really want that; I'm a hand-full and a-half, believe me. Besides, I'm taken at the moment." She let her hand go and touched her face in a fond caress. "I am newly arrived back in town though; I could definitely do with a friend?"
Holly smiled, still seeming kind of nervous. "Yeah, me too I guess..." She told her, letting Hailey give her a hug. "It was probably a dumb idea anyway. Fuck, I really just killed someone..." She told, starting to cry in Hailey's arms a little.
"Don't be sad." Hailey moved back and looked her in the eyes. "It probably doesn't even matter nearly as much as people think it does. From what I can tell, life is like a game really, in some ways at least. And I'm sure it's not like killing someone means they stop existing or anything. I think... they just go on and live another life somewhere else, or something of the kind. Besides, the fact is: To be alive is to kill, one way or another. Plants, animals, humans, aliens, whatever... Even just turning left or right down a street's usually a life or death decision, if you look far enough off into the future at the consequences. The truth is, we're all mass murderers, even if we don't acknowledge it. We can't help it. So, try to look on the bright side... You're normal." She told her softly, kissing her forehead fondly. "And anyway, you also saved the life of a lot of plant-life today too. Trees are every bit as important as humans, I've seen proof of that. Empirically speaking, you're more a hero than a criminal, Holly. To me at least."
"...Um, thanks, I guess..." Holly replied, backing away and turning her back to Hailey, looking at the bed she'd just been in and folding her arms in front of her. Hailey could very easily tell Holly didn't really believe what she'd told her about being a hero of course, but was just humoring her, and maybe herself, but Hailey couldn't really blame her for it either. After all, she'd seen the proof, Ivy had shown it to her very vividly. The Green--the living community of all the Earth's plant life. Beautiful, vast, hard to comprehend, even for her, but definitely just as alive and worthy of respect and continued life as the human population of the planet. All Holly had was her word on it, and it was reasonable enough for her to doubt it without seeing the proof herself. Not that there weren't a great deal of widely acknowledged practical reasons why protecting the Earth's eco-system was of very great importance of course; though, by her words before, Holly probably understood that at least. "So, how does this work then? Me taking her place?"
Hailey was about to reply, when she heard something and went still. It had been very faint, hardly noticeable, even to someone with her enhanced senses, but definitely there, definitely here, in the apartment with them. And it wasn't Jason; he was gone and Hailey seriously doubted he'd come back, or be able to sneak around so softly. She activated her future-tech sensors app and saw there was indeed someone there.
"What's...?" Holly turned to her and Hailey put two fingers to her lips.
"Oh, sorry, lost in thought there for a moment." She came up close to Holly then and whispered very softly into her ear. "There's someone else here and I'm going to find out who. Don't be scared, okay new gal-pal o'mine?"
She looked into Holly's eyes then and Holly nodded that she understood, and Hailey used her tech go slightly out of phase with reality (making her invisible and completely undetectable to most people), then moved quickly through the penthouse.
In the main living area, Hailey slowed down to a stop and just watched as a woman in black bent down in front of a display of cat statuary and figurines and began to quickly disable the alarm system protecting them. Hailey started to smile as she recognized who it must be by the cat ears and tale on her gear: Catwoman! What a curiously interesting coincidence! Though it was hardly surprising, she supposed; she'd never bothered to become an expert on such things, but she knew from her research that the collection over there was ensured for three hundred thousand dollars, and, of course, the cat theme was an easy match...
She could just let Catwoman go about her business of course, it was really none of hers after all, but where was the fun in that?
"Hi there. Is it just me, or is this a surprisingly busy penthouse for this time of night?" She introduced herself, stepping back into phase with reality.
Catwoman turned immediately, claws extending from her fingers to answer the possible threat.
"And who are you supposed to be? Why are you here?" Catwoman asked softly, gracefully getting to her feet when she saw no aggressive action from Hailey.
"I go by The Harlequin. But... you can just call me Hailey if you want to...?" She offered, fascinated with Catwoman's eyes and how it was they seemed to glow with intelligence and life as they swept over her appraisingly. She was very intrigued all of the sudden. "As for why I'm here, just good timing on my part apparently. I came here to commit a murder, you came here to commit a theft. Would it be too forward if I asked you to go out dancing with me later?" She asked playfully. "I just made a new friend in the other room, we could make it a girl's night out?"
Catwoman smiled daringly. "Sorry; not interested." She replied, moving around to get closer to the balcony window she'd came in from.
"No? That's too bad, kitty..." Hailey answered back as, predictably, Catwoman moved, swift and silent as her namesake, to jump out the window into the night. She smiled. "...because I definitely am now..." She spoke to the empty room, looking out into the empty night, the scent of the night air coming in from the still open patio door.
She decided then and there that Catwoman was someone she definitely -had- to get to know better. Just something about that look in her eyes when their eyes had met... She just -had- to know more about her...
Holly chose that moment to come in the room from the bedroom. "Is... everything okay?" She asked.
"Hmm? Oh, of course." She spoke absently, turning to meet Holly's eyes. She touched the center of Holly's forehead with her index finger. "There. Just say my name and you'll look and sound just like Cecily Carter. I've even included access to all my research on her and her brothers. You now know their bank account numbers, pass codes, general family history, all that sort of nonsense. Just think of what you want to know, and if it's in the database, the information will come to you. Say my name again and you're back to you again, easy as you please."
"Really?" Holly asked in wonder.
"Well, I'm not making things up just to mess with your head if that's what you're asking." Hailey told her playfully, all of the sudden in a very good mood for some reason--probably having everything to do with her encounter a minute or two ago.
"Harlequin." Holly spoke softly and was changed, looking down at herself in wonder. She went over to a nearby mirror to look at herself as Cecily Carter. "...Out of this fucking world..." She spoke.
"My number's in your cell phone now. Call me. We'll have fun. Go dancing. Kill a few of your old Johns and Janes or something if you want. I could put them all in Playboy rabbit outfits and we could play Elmer Fudd with the shot guns and the hats." Hailey offered as she walked back to the bedroom. "I'm going to go bludgeon the last brother to death with a lamp now because he kicks his dog; you can come with if you want?" She put forward, a little of a dare in her voice. "No pressure of course, I understand if you wouldn't want to."
"No, yeah, I... You go ahead..." Holly answered quietly, going in to sit on the bed. "I think I..." She smiled to her. "I'll call you later, okay Hailey?"
Oh, that's right, Hailey considered, she would have heard her use her real name if she'd been listing to her talk with Catwoman. And the door hadn't been closed, so of course she would have heard. Oh well, no big deal; she would have told Holly that anyway--they were friends now after all. "Okay." She agreed simply, turning to leave; going out through the mirror the way she came.
She was going to make Michael Carter's bloody death quicker than he deserved (if there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was someone who was mean to dogs--she'd had one growing up after all and he'd been her best friend back then). After that, she was going to head back to her apartment to do some more research... Her subject this time? Why, a certain captivating thief who'd caught her eye, of course...
Somehow, Hailey just knew, the new kitty in her life was going to be good for her. She just has a sense about it.
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(to be continued)
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