Black Mask

Gotham's nights were when the gangs were most active.

Poison Ivy Pamela's car raced through Gotham. Following the messages brought to her by the plants, she quickly tracked down the man.

Poison Ivy's power came from a part of The Green.

The Green was an elemental force in this universe, equal to The Red and The Black.

It was similar to the Phoenix Force and Elf Power in the Marvel Universe.

In short, The Green was connected to every form of plant life.

At the same time, The Green granted all plants vitality.

Poison Ivy could control plants because she possessed this power.

To some extent, it even made her immortal.

And beyond that, she could control nearly every plant in Gotham.

So for Poison Ivy, finding someone in Gotham was incredibly easy.

"Little Jimmy, where do you think you're going?"

To avoid getting too bloody in front of Kara, Harley Quinn had Poison Ivy Pamela wrap the man up, then knock him out in one blow.

They dragged him straight to a warehouse and only then woke him up.

Jimmy was a burly white man, tall and imposing.

But now that Poison Ivy had tied him up, he looked like he was trembling with fear.

"Harley Quinn!"

Harley Quinn held a baseball bat she'd gotten from who knew where, waving it over his head.

But she was only trying to scare him.

After all, Kara was right there, and Harley was doing her best to restrain her sadistic urges.

"What do you want?"

Jimmy asked, trying to sound tough.

But everyone could see he was terrified. Cold sweat poured down his face, and his whole body trembled.

"Talk! Who sent you to grab me? Or I'll smash your balls!"

Harley Quinn pressed the baseball bat against his crotch.

All it would take was a little pressure, and his manhood would be crushed.

She'd hit Jimmy right where it hurt. He blurted out, "I can't tell you. He'll kill me."

"I'll kill you too!"

Harley finally couldn't hold back and erupted.

"You're only afraid of him? You're not afraid of me?"

Harley Quinn was furious that someone wasn't afraid of her!

"No, no..."

Jimmy was terrified now, and all his resistance crumbled.

After all, loyalty was a rare thing among Gotham's gangs.

All there was here was betrayal, over and over again.

That was why Penguin emphasized loyalty, even though he didn't believe in it himself...

But a group without loyalty was terrifying.

Harley Quinn nodded with satisfaction and raised her head proudly. "Tell me. Who sent you?"

"Black Mask. Roman Sionis."

Roman Sionis had been born into the wealthy Sionis family, though that was in the past.

As a child, Roman had been Bruce Wayne's classmate.

But when he grew up, he murdered his parents and inherited their billions.

That was when everything began to go wrong.

Roman Sionis had a violent temper and ran his business like a gangster. He was better suited to the gang life than to running a company.

So the company he'd inherited soon faced bankruptcy.

At that point, Wayne Enterprises stepped in and bought the company to bail it out, leaving Roman with nothing.

Roman blamed Bruce Wayne for his misfortune.

Then he returned to the line of work he truly belonged in: the gangs.

He went to the cemetery, dug up his parents' coffins, and used the ebony wood from them to carve a black skull mask that represented rage.

That was Black Mask.

Harley Quinn immediately remembered their history. They'd had a feud before, but back then Joker had been her protector, and Roman hadn't dared touch Harley Quinn.

But things were different now. He thought Harley Quinn had gone solo, so he wanted revenge.

Harley Quinn's eyes darted around. "Get some sleep, Little Jimmy."

"No..."

Jimmy hadn't even finished speaking before she knocked him out.

In truth, if Kara hadn't been there, Harley would have shot him dead.

"Come on. Let's go find Roman."

Harley Quinn's face was murderous.

"Wait, are we just leaving him here?"

Kara had never encountered anything like this before and felt a little sorry for him.

"Don't worry. He won't die."

Harley dragged her away.

The three of them got into the car. Kara felt uneasy. She couldn't let this go on.

"I want to go home and sleep. I have school tomorrow!"

Kara spoke up, coming up with a good excuse.

"Oh, Kara, the fun's only just beginning."

Harley Quinn immediately looked crestfallen. "Do you want them to kill me?"

She started guilt-tripping Kara. After thinking it over, she decided Kara wasn't involved enough, which was why she found all this "boring."

Hmm, when they interrogated Black Mask later, she'd let Kara handle it!

"But didn't we come out here to make money?"

Kara asked.

"How can we make money if we don't find them?"

Harley said, "They've made a lot of money that doesn't belong to them. We're doing this for Gotham!"

Kara was completely taken in.

"That's right. We're doing it for Gotham!"

Poison Ivy Pamela chimed in. "They don't care about the environment or the plants. They need to be taught a lesson."

When both "adults" put it that way, Kara had no choice but to go along.

She was like a sponge, eagerly soaking up knowledge about this world.

Whether it was good or bad was for her to figure out.

They drove all the way to the Upper East Side.

With Black Mask's rise, the entire Upper East Side had become his territory.

And finding Black Mask was simple.

They just had to let him know they were there.

So they went out onto the street, got out of the car, and started looking for people wandering around.

In America, outside of city centers, hardly anyone was out at night.

And if you did run into someone late at night, you had to stay on your guard, because you could be attacked at any moment.

Put simply, all of America was one big game of Werewolf: when night fell, you had to close your eyes.

Even in places like Los Angeles and Metropolis, it was the same.

And Gotham was even worse.

Gotham was crawling with gangs. At night, ordinary people couldn't walk the streets alone.

Otherwise... just look at what happened to the Wayne Couple.

Even the richest people in Gotham could be shot dead, let alone ordinary people.

Things had only gotten a little better after Batman became a vigilante.

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Pamela randomly beat up people on the street, then told them, "Go tell Black Mask that his Queen is here!"

It worked.

Black Mask soon arrived with his underlings, a group of thugs known as the Masked Society.

They all wore different kinds of masks, but none of them dared wear a black one.

Only their boss, Black Mask, was allowed to wear that.

Black Mask's mask was grotesque and terrifying, as if it radiated fear.

"Harley Quinn, you actually came to me!"