It had been ten days since the clown quartet was banished from the Joker's entire collective. Ten days in which they've slept in a freezing warehouse with only a burning barrel for heat. Ten days of drinking melted snow or cupping water from leaking faucets in alleys. Ten days and no food other than what Ivy could create. Being winter, it was a challenge for her. She could keep them alive, but couldn't fully quench their hunger.
In these ten days the quartet has learned quite a lot. First they learned that they had absolutely no one that they could turn to for help. They were fortunate that the Penguin was putting his neck on the line so they didn't have to sleep out in the snow. This was a winter with record breaking lows. They would die outside.
Secondly, our clowns have learned that you just can't break into an ATM machine. No. Matter. How. Hard. You. Beat. It. Maybe a professional safe cracker could, but they weren't in that profession. So that kind of easy money they had to forget about.
Instead, our clowns had to learn different ways to make money. They relied on Ivy's pheromone concoction in the first days. But it really didn't sit well with Jester that she had to kiss other men for it to work. So she stopped using her power. Without it all they had was Ace's street smarts and criminal background to run hustles. Hustles that he and Jester pulled off without the girls.
They learned that Jester was every bit the poker player that his brother was. It was just this natural instinct that had no other explanation. But the other card players quickly learned that they couldn't beat him. Therefore, they stopped letting him play. Even when it was only for chump change.
So then the quartet had to learn a little something from the playbook of Harleen Quinzel. And that was a lesson on how pawnshops fuck you. They pay you such a small percentage of what the item is actually worth. So little that only a desperate person, or a junkie would take it. But they were starting to get pretty desperate. So first they sold off all their jewelry. After that Jester sold the gun J had given him. He hadn't wanted to do it, but what choice did he actually have? In the end only two valuable items remained within the quartet, Ace's gun and Harley's wedding ring.
Their days are mostly spent gathering things to burn in the barrel at night. Plastic was no good. Plus it wasn't good to have to breathe it in. So they would look for things that burned slowly. Like limbs and twigs, or anything else that wouldn't kill them of carbon monoxide in their sleep.
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The rumble of an empty stomach awoke Jester from his not so deep sleep. He was unable to decipher if it was his own stomach or that of the others. He raises his head and can see Ace on watch near the window. A chill shoots down the back of Jester's body. He glances over his shoulder to see Harley next to his back. She felt colder than she should have. Jester rolls over to face her. As he does he notices the color of her lips. They weren't red, they were purple.
"Harley," he says her name and runs his hand across her skin. She doesn't stir. "Harley, honey, wake up," he says and shakes her. The only response he gets is a faint moan. "Shit," Jester quickly climbs out of the middle of Harley and Ivy.
"Whats going on?" Ivy wakes up asking.
"Ace, I need your coat!" Jester shouts as he briskly starts rubbing his palms over Harley's skin. "She's hypothermic."
Ace approaches with his coat in hand. Jester takes it and throws it across Harley.
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