During the next days, Black Seven started - for some reason - to get more rough on those rogues who didn't make any or slow progress at his training sessions. Nygma was the first one to feel the anger Black Seven has developed - something very uncommon for him.
Riddler wasn't a man of strength and he wasn't that skilled in direct fights, just like Jervis. And although he did make progress, it wasn't fast enough to Black. Edward isn't used to all those things Jay wants him and everyone to do, all those - to him - weird moves, he easily hurt himself, Firefly and a view others weren't better.
So yesterday Eddie slipped of exhaustion and fell, poor guy almost broke his leg. I wanted to help him up but right before that, Black Seven just pushed me aside, glared down at Nygma with his emerald green eyes and grabbed his face with one hand. I still remember his creepy smile and his words that reminded us not to be weak.
Black Seven almost broke Riddler's upper jaw simply by his tight grip and Edward's scream...I was tempted to rip Jay's arms off. But I started to realize how clever his training was - he kept us busy twenty-four-seven with all that training sessions so everyone was exhausted most of the time - except for himself. 'That mean bastard!'
Right now, Nygma was still with us all but I could see that he was pushed way over his limits, even Deadshot had a view problems handling the things Black Seven wanted from us. I myself was - thanks to my plants - okay so far. But it'd only be a matter of time until that would change.
"Is it just me or has Black Seven changed?" I whispered to Scarecrow but didn't receive an answer. His eyes just stared up at Jay who had another way of making everyone look over his dangerousness. He was playing with our minds.
From the beginning of the third day on he started to tell us his story over and over again, how he became who he was now. And he didn't stop mentioning Batman and Joker in every other sentence. Thanks to spending time with Harley, I looked through his plan pretty fast.
One day, Black Seven brought a little boy with him, to this day I'm not entirely sure if his actions were on purpose or not. Nevertheless, he waited for the boy to make a mistake and soon as he interrupted Jay's sentence, he punched the boy in the face with his weird gloves. But not just once.
There was blood all over his face as he stood up and looked at his gloves, then at the boy's body. "See what Joker made a' me?" His voice was so sad I really couldn't tell if he just played that part but he had everyone's attention at this point. "And how could that happen?" Black Seven always asked questions, so we had to think, then gave an answer for us. "Because Batman let him live!"
Jay took our hate and utter sadness about different things and focused our negative emotions on Batman and Joker in a way even I thought was wrong. But frankly, nobody saw through that. King Shark, Clayface, Killer Croc. All of them hung on every word he spoke and started to believe everything he said. This twisted reality - which actually wasn't one - made it hard to tell truth from lie, something that gave Black Seven power over every single villain here.
Nobody hated Joker as much as I did. For all the things he's done to Harley, all the beating she took from him just to see him smile. Even now I shivered at this. But...something about Black Seven's hate for Joker as well as Batman just didn't seem right. I couldn't point my finger on it but it was like there was more behind Jay's desire to kill those two men. My instincts never failed me and now they were almost slapping me with obviousness.
"...so tomorrow's da big day!"
I blinked at the cheering people and totally missed Black Seven's words. Still, I trusted him with this whole operation which he named 'The Laughing Bat'. Maybe my mind was just making things up because I haven't slept in, like, days.
"Let's get the bat!" Black Seven yelled with a serious face and raised his right fist in an ankle that reminded me of another person who was good at manipulating people. But the terrifying part was that everyone in the room did the same - I only joined in because I didn't want Black Seven to get mad at me.
That gesture was never mentioned by Jay before, he never showed it to us and what grid my gears was that he got all the rogues so hypnotized by his words that they just mimicked his moves. It's really creepy because nobody except for me gives this whole thing a second thought.
Not even Edward seemed upset about how Jay handled him, it's like he already forgot about this weird reaction of Black Seven and I needed to talk to both of them about it. Well, maybe I'll talk to Nygma first before I'm going to speak about this to Jay.
Luckily, Black Seven gave us the night off and everyone started to leave the room already so I quickly looked around, trying to find Eddie and saw him next to Scarecrow and Jervis. 'At least I don't have to talk to Killer Moth. That guy freaks me out.'
"Hey, Edward, can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked him and waited for a response but didn't receive one. He just kept talking to Tetch as if he didn't hear me while I side eyed Black Seven who watched me with a friendly face and blue eyes. 'What the hell is on your mind?' Instead of giving him any sign of a reaction, I just turned away after a final look at Riddler before I left.
As much as I hated it, I had to talk to Joker about Black Seven. They clearly had some strange relationship which resulted in total hate I have yet to figure out. They used to be friends, just like Black Seven and Batman which didn't make it any easier for me to look behind Jay's true reason for killing his former friends. And if he turns against his friends at some point...did that mean Harley was in danger, too? I shrug that thought off. 'No, he likes her, he wouldn't do that.'
♦♦
"Hello? Joker? It's Ivy, can we talk?" After nobody responded to my question, I opened the unlocked front door of Joker's hideout in Amusement Mile, only to find it being completely empty - no henchmen, no Joker, just a lot of guns and fuzz.
'Weird.' I slowly made my way through the rooms, trying to find any evidence for Joker's current location, maybe he kept track in some books. 'Yeah, sure.' As if he wrote down what he'd be up to do, he was no writer, he's just deciding things out of his current mood.
Somehow, I came across his and Harley's bedroom and just couldn't resist to take a look at how crazy it might look - only to be actually surprised. There were stuffed animals, which I thought belonged to Harley, and one pretty big clown on the bed, a view pictures and photos on the wall over it. A smile grew on my face and I walked over to the bed. 'That was clearly Harley's idea, I bet Joker almost fainted in shock when he first saw that.'
I knew he broke up with her which I was so happy about, but I found it...a little sweet that he kept all those things. 'What?' My eyes noticed a framed picture of Harley on what I thought was his nightstand. That was, in a way, kind of sweet. But maybe Harley just put it there herself, Joker wouldn't do that, I was sure about it.
Something about the big stuffed clown drew my attention to it and I picked it up. His giant, creepy grin sent goosebumps down my back and I quickly threw it against the bed as it suddenly started laughing. "Holy shit!"
It kept laughing but as it fell down, I saw that its back was ripped open and the white cotton from inside fell out. "Damn." I didn't want Joker to notice that someone had been here so I walked over to it and tried to ignore the loud, high pitched laughter.
'Just don't touch other people's stuff once in a while.' Picking up the random cotton, I stuffed it back into the clown when my hand suddenly noticed something unusual inside it. It felt like a map and I grabbed it, trying to push the thought of a possible trap aside.
I pulled the thing out and my eyes widened in surprise as I realized I was holding a book in my hand. 'Why would he hide that thing inside a colwn?' Something inside me wanted to put it back because I didn't really care about it but I stopped myself. 'That thing doesn't even have a title.' Sighing, I opened it at some page and wondered about the weird writing - until I read through the first lines.
'Mother.Of.God!' That wasn't some book one buys in a store, there wer sentences Joker wrote himself! My heart started beating faster in excitement. 'I freaking found Joker's diary!'