Chapter 261 - My OC Stash #61 - The Villain Wrangler by lil'hawkeye3 (DCU)

-Thanks to me sleep apnea, I found this wholesome fic about an OC taking his job of making kids wishes come true real seriously! Pretty much we get to see the softer and humane side of the Villains in the DCU~

Sypnosis: When a sick child asks to meet a villain (instead of a celebrity or superhero like with most wishes), someone's got to have the guts to track these wanted individuals down. It's not as easy as one would think. And what's there to worry about: they're all big softies anyways... right?

Rated: T

Words: 40K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/12304924/1/The-Villain-Wrangler (lil'hawkeye3)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1+3 (exceptional)

Aye, mortals! So this fic comes from a prompt on tumblr from a few months ago, but I was just recently convinced to write about. If you want to see it, just Google "The Villain Wrangler" and it'll come up. All of the main ideas behind this comes from the wonderful people who contributed to that post, I just put my own spin on it to weave everything together. Oh, and any character you recognize (i.e. DC characters) aren't mine. Hope you enjoy it!

Danny Johnson stared blankly at the screen in front of him. Earlier, his reaction had been due to shock, but that had faded away by this point. Sadly, that didn't mean the contents of the email displayed on his laptop were any different.

5 year old girl… Melody Waters…. Wants to show Poison Ivy her succulent garden… terminal cancer… a few months…

It wasn't the fact that the girl had cancer or how young she was, but more the fact that her 'World of Wishes' wish revolved around a notorious- and wanted- villainess in Gotham that surprised Danny. This job wasn't new to him, but he'd never heard of anything like this happening before.

"Kids are strange," he muttered, rubbing his palm against his forehead. How was he going to give this child what she wanted the most?

His search began online, scouring enthusiast forums and potentially illegal sites alike to find any word of where one might come across the green woman. He ignored any stories that reminded him of her criminal actions; none of that mattered after the point he learned of the wish he was sent to fulfill.

That was how he found himself seated in Gotham Park every night near the botanic enclosure for a week in the hopes of catching Ivy. The first three nights had passed without events, the fourth night Danny could've sworn a figure was watching him from the trees, and the last two had seen drunk individuals stumble along the paved walkways. He was hoping this final night would grant him the opportunity he had been waiting for; if not, he would search for another idea.

The feeling of something wrapping around his ankle snapped him out of his thoughts to leave him meeting the emerald gaze of the person he was looking for. Poison Ivy raised an eyebrow in question as she sat on the other end of his bench, watching his with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"You're quite persistent," she hummed, pursing her lips and reaching one hand towards his face. "Kept me from visiting my babies for several days, you naught b-" She was cut off as Danny grabbed her wrist and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Ivy, but I need to ask you something and I'm racing against a deadline," he said, tensing himself for an altercation.

"Make that two now." Her warning was clear, and yet it didn't faze him the slightest. He reached into the pocket of his trenchcoat and pulled out a folded packet of papers all revolving around wisher Melody Waters: her past and current picture, her wish statement, details on her sickness, and a drawing she had made of Poison Ivy. Danny handed them all over to the woman, who took them questioningly.

"My name is Danny Johnson and I work for the 'World of Wishes' foundation. Last week, a terminally ill 5 year-old girl named Melody asked to meet you so she could show you the small garden of succulents she has been caring for in her hospital room. She adores you." He smiled as he saw Ivy ruffle through the papers confirming what he said. "I'm here to ask if you'd come in to see her at Gotham Central."

He watched as she glanced between him and the papers she held several times before chuckling humorlessly. "I'll give you points for effort, Mister Johnson, but your time is up." Even with the vines now wrapping around both his legs and his chest, Danny found her theatrics slightly ridiculous. "Why are you really here? Was it the Commissioner or the Bat?"

He knew he shouldn't, but Danny couldn't keep his annoyance down. "Look, Ivy, the only damn reason I am here is because a dying little girl's biggest wish is to show you her own plants. I don't care what the hell you do the other 364 days this year, but that other day is going to be spent in Melody's hospital room in the next week!"

The two sat in silence for several minutes following his outburst. Danny wasn't really sure what to expect, but seeing as the vines constricting his movement has stopped creeping upwards, he felt optimistic. In an attempt to not be rude by staring, Danny turned his sights on their surroundings until she spoke.

"Well, I must make sure those poor darlings are being cared for correctly," Ivy finally answered, flicking her wrist to remove Danny's natural constraints. "I'll be there; won't tell you when- can't take too many risks."

"Understandable."

"You'd best be on your way then, Mister Johnson. Not all of the night life in Gotham is as nice as I am." With that, Ivy rose from the bench and began to walk away down the flower-lined path, stopping every so often to lean down and stroke the blooming plants.

Danny let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in before shaking his head and wandering off towards his apartment.

The first day passed with Danny working from home, going through his usually task of writing to celebrities and corporations on the behalf of other children and their wishes. It was nice to pretend that he hadn't had a chat with an infamous temptress the previous night.

The universe didn't seem to share the same sentiment. He had only been out of the room for 10 minutes to take a shower- 15 at most- before walking in with a towel wrapped around his waist to find Poison Ivy seated on his couch, aimlessly flipping through TV channels with his remote.

Danny opened his mouth to say something and wasn't proud with what actually came out. "What the hell?!" His face flushed in embarrassment as she coolly glanced over.

"What channel number is National Geographic?"

Danny blinked several times as he processed her question. "Uh… try 615...ish," he replied lamely, before shaking his head several times to clear it. "No- wait- what are you doing here?!"

Ivy stared ahead at the television as it showed scenes of some foreign rainforest. "Needed a way to contact you. Brought you a burner with my number in it."

"That's… thoughtful."

She finally looked over at him and smiled. "Of course. And, I'll be giving you a five-minutes heads up before I arrive."

"Thanks…"

Ivy ignored him as she stood and began to make her way towards his door. "You're leaving out the front?" He asked, surprised.

The redhead looked at him incredulously. "You're 19 stories up; did you think I came in through your window?" With a parting wink and smile, Ivy walked out of the apartment and shut the door behind her, leaving an exasperated Danny behind.

"Johnson!" Danny looked up from the burner phone Ivy gave him and sighed as he saw his boss stalking towards him, arms crossed. She glared at him over the top of her glasses. "What do you think you're playing at?" Her heels clicked menacingly against the floor as she stopped in front of him.

He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not sure what you mean." No, he knew exactly what she meant, and the twitch of her eyebrow confirmed what was coming.

"Telling a sick child that she'd get to meet Poison Ivy?! I don't pay you to make up this crap. You honestly think some evil plant bitch would show up-"

Her eyes grew wide as a vine wrapped around her mouth, effectively cutting of her rant. Danny did his best to keep a professional face and not laugh, but a few snickers managed to sneak out at the sight of goosebumps appearing on her upper arms after Ivy ran her hands on them.

"Danny, you didn't say there would be any weeds here…" she murmured, brushing a strand of the woman's brown hair out of her face. Danny could see her trembling and decided it would probably be best to stop it before something bad happened.

"Ivy, I think Melody's ready to see you…" He said, gesturing behind him towards the girl's hospital room in an attempt to redirect her attention. Thankfully, it worked. Ivy sighed reluctantly before removing her hold on his boss and moving to stand beside him, ignoring the woman as she half-walked, half-ran back down the hall. "Alright, rules: no attacking anyone, no offering to kill anyone, and no killing her garden." The redhead looked offended that he would even ask that, but didn't comment. "I guess we can go in, then."

The light that came into Melody's eyes when she looked up from her crayon drawing to see Poison Ivy walk through her door would stay with him forever. She squealed and wiggled to sit up further, smiling so brightly it was almost blinding. It was amusing to see her joy contrasted by the fear on the faces of her parents and the doctors in the room.

"They told me you weren't gonna come!" She said happily as Ivy took her tiny hand in hers. "But I knew you would!"

Danny could tell the smile on Ivy's face was real. "I just had to come see my little flower." She sat down on her bed and asked to see Melody's drawings, prompting a flurry of conversation from the girl.

"Um… excuse me, mister," Melody's mother said, speaking softly to not interrupt her daughter's focus. Danny looked down at her curiously; she had tears welling up in her eyes. "I haven't seen her this lively in so long. Whatever you did to find her," she glanced over her shoulder towards the villainess, "thank you."

That was the moment Danny knew he would continue to do whatever it took to fulfill any child's wish, no matter what.

So the next day, when he received a request from a child wanting to meet Captain Cold, he did what anyone would do: pour himself a strong drink and start searching online for the rogue's favorite bar.

Chapter 2

Danny might've been cringing internally as the man's head was slammed against the ground, but he managed to smirk outwardly and raise his glass towards the winner of the match. The rough crowd roared its approval at the win, especially those who had bet on the victor. From his spot seated at the bar, he could see several unhappy fellows being led from the building by some menacing men; he didn't want to dwell on that. After all, he didn't want to call any attention to himself on his third night here- the rogue he was looking for had yet to arrive.

Hayden Paine, nine, aggressive osteosarcoma originating from right leg, wants to meet Captain Cold because 'freeze rays are awesome.'

It had taken a lot of digging- and a few bribes to some teenagers hanging out on the streets in Central City- before he first located the bar that doubled as an underground fight club. Cold had been seen there at least three times before, and that was good enough for Danny. He hoped his trip to the city wouldn't be a waste, although the journey wasn't too much of a hassle; the boy who had requested to see Cold was currently in the neighboring Keystone City.

Danny looked up from his drink to see the man himself enter the pub, taking a seat at the far end of the bar. He tried to ignore the nervous lurch his stomach gave. "Gimme the usual," he heard the rogue say to the bartender, who gave the same sharp nod to him as he did to everyone else. Once the server turned away, Danny grabbed his file and approached Cold. The light glinted off of Cold's dark glasses as he tilted his head slightly to look at him.

"Captain Cold," he began, grimacing at his lame entrance, "my name is Danny Johnson and I'm from 'World of Wishes.' The other day, a boy with aggressive bone cancer named Hayden requested to meet you-"

Although Danny hadn't been sure what to expect, he sure didn't think the rogue would laugh in his face. Something inside Danny snapped, and he saw red as he lashed out and grabbed Cold by the collar of his jacket, pulling him forward so that their eyes were at the same level.

"Look, jackass, for some reason, all this kids wants more than anything is to see you and your frickin' freeze gun, so I'd appreciate it if you'd SHUT your GODDAMNED MOUTH and listen to me for your fan's sake!"

The room was silent.

Danny panted angrily as he came down from his rant, only now noticing that he had drawn everyone's attention onto the two of them. He was pretty sure if Cold had laser vision, he'd be fried by now.

"Rogues do not harm women or children. You are neither."

The rogue firmly removed Danny's hand from his jacket and stood up, snatching the file from him. As a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder and began forcefully guiding him towards the door, Danny was sure this would be his last night in existence.

His walk of dread halted after the two had walked several blocks, heading towards a more run-down section of Central City. Cold roughly shoved him into a dark alley, and Danny winced as his infamous freeze gun was drawn and leveled at him. However, the sound of it firing and him being able to move afterwards didn't add up. He looked up to see Cold had spun around and frozen a pair of thugs who, he inferenced, had been following them for not-so-pleasant reasons.

Cold grunted. "Had to lead them somewhere unseen. Besides, I've got a reputation to keep that you almost destroyed back there." Danny was sure he was being glared at now. "So what the hell did you want?" Danny wordlessly held out Hayden's file in response, exhaling in relief when Cold took it and began to flip through the pages. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"You think any normal person would go through the struggle to find you for some prank?"

"I don't hang around 'normal people.'"

Danny huffed, but admitted the man had a point. "It's not a joke. I take my job seriously; the happiness of these kids means a lot to me." He shrugged. "You might enjoy it too- Poison Ivy did." He shook his head to refocus himself. "Point is, this kid idolizes you and wants to meet you. What would you lose from visiting him?"

"Ask yourself that when the cops show up. Or worse, that damned speedster."

He'd thought of this one already. "Then visit him during the nighttime, outside of regular hours." Neither said anything for several minutes, but Danny was patient. Not to lie, he was also mentally praying to every deity he could think of for Cold to say yes.

The rogue turned away, and began to walk out of the alley. "Midnight, tomorrow; side door of Keystone Medical. You're not there, your loss." Cold turned the corner and disappeared, file still in hand.

Danny considered it a success.

It was 11:55pm when Captain Cold had the back entrance to Keystone's main hospital opened for him.

"I wasn't about to let you break the lock on a hospital's door," Danny chuckled as the man walked into the building. His eyes went directly to the suspicious sack the criminal was carrying, but decided against asking about it. "This way- he's on the fourth floor. I told his nurse to have him awake about ten minutes ago."

Cold didn't really care- he was just glad that there was no music playing in the elevator as they rode it up. "Come on, then."

Danny held out an arm to stop him. "First: ground rules." Cold sighed in annoyance. "No attacking or using weapons on people, no swearing, no hypothermia. Got it?" He took his silence to be affirmative. "Good." Danny glanced into the bright room. "Hey, Hayden." The two men entered the room, the boy's attention already on them.

Hayden gasped in delight. "You really came!" He cried excitedly, rolling his wheelchair over to rest in front of his 'hero.' "You're the best! Like ice is so cool and then you went and made a freeze-ray-gun that's better than Mr. Freeze's and it's okay that you steal stuff because you're actually nice and don't hurt a bunch of people and you have cool glasses too can I try them on?" Danny tried to stifle a laugh at the bemused look on Cold's face as the boy delightedly rambled.

"Don't go telling everyone that," he said gruffly, contrasting his action of taking off his goggles and bending down to put them on Hayden. Danny decided the two would be fine and moved outside to keep watch from the hallway.

It was a good thing he did. Several minutes later, a red blur came bursting from the stairwell and skidding to a halt in front of the hospital room, a delayed breeze brushing against Danny's skin as he recognized the arrivee to be none other than the Flash.

Oh no. Nobody was going to get involved in his 'World of Wishes' child's meeting. He quickly but quietly shut the door, cutting of both of their view's of the room. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The Flash gaped at him, but Danny didn't budge. "Are you crazy?! Captain Cold's in there with a child! You have to let me in to-"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "To what? Save him? I think you're forgetting, the Rogues don't harm women or children. Try again."

The speedster's eyes narrowed slightly. "Cold is a criminal, and I need to take him in-"

"Cold is not doing anything illegal, and is in fact fulfilling a child's wish right now. You can continue your… disagreement with him some other time."

The superhero apparently had enough, for he blurted out an apology before speeding around Danny, opening the door, and running into the room. Hayden, who had been laughing in amazement after a display of Captain Cold's gun on a water bottle next to his bed, quieted as the two turned to face their uninvited guest. Cold subtly inched his way to stand in front of the boy.

"Flash."

"Cold."

"Why is the Flash here? I like Captain Cold better, that's why I asked for him," Hayden muttered in confusion. His comment drew an astonished and slightly hurt look from the Flash.

"Alright, Mister… Flash," Danny said coolly. "A word outside, it you please." His gaze gave no room for discussion, and the hero found himself complying with the request, albeit reluctantly. Once the door was shut again, Danny rounded on him. "As far as I'm concerned, the only one causing a problem here is you. I'm only going to ask you one more time: leave."

The Flash had never heard so much venom in a civilian's voice when aimed at him, and had especially never seen one standing up for a villain. He couldn't help but admit the other man was right though; Cold wasn't doing anything wrong that he could tell. With one last look at Danny, he sped out of the hospital.

Chapter 3

"Alright, you have got to stop breaking into my apartment!" Danny huffed in frustration as he entered the room to find Ivy once again lounging on his couch, leaning back against its arm. She cracked one eye open to look at him.

"You didn't mention you were leaving town," she countered.

Danny sighed, not even wanting to bother with starting an argument. He dropped his bags beside the door and headed towards the kitchen, keen on eating after his flight. He nodded a hello to the blonde sitting on his counter as he fetched a glass from the cabinet and poured himself some water from the faucet. He turned back around, raising the cup to his lips, and then finally process what he had already seen.

There was a blonde woman sitting on his counter.

Danny set his glass down before he dropped it in shock.

The woman must've read his read his reaction and found it hilarious, because she began to laugh. "Nice to meet yah, mistah! Name's Harley; maybe yah've heard of me?" She smiled excitedly.

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. His stare turned into a glare as he stalked out of the room to confront the eco-terrorist relaxing in his living room. "Excuse me, but who let you bring your friend in here?!"

She didn't bother to open her eyes. "I did."

"It's not your apartment!"

"You never told me not to."

"Oh- why don't you go- eat a plant!"

"Gladly. I'm a vegetarian."

"Then- eat fried chicken!"

Gasp. "I would NEVER!"

Danny crossed his arms and huffed in joint annoyance and anger, determined to look anywhere but at Ivy. His gaze ended up settling on Harley curiously. She was wearing gray sweatpants with a black and red bra showing from under her open brown bomber jacket.

"What?" Her eyebrow raised challengingly. "It's cold out."

Danny just nodded mutely. Harley took his silence as agreement and widely smiled.

"Ivy was tellin' me all about the kid she got to visit, so we stopped by after we saw that little girly." Danny mentally groaned; he knew this wouldn't be the last time he heard about that. "Say, do you know if there are any kiddies who've got a good appreciation for jokes?"

"Um… Ms. Quinn…"

She waved her hand nonchalantly. "Quinzel."

"-what?'

The blonde laughed. "It's "Ms. Quinzel;" well, it's actually "Dr. Quinzel," but tomato, tomahto!"

"Right…" Danny blinked a few times before he remembered what he had been saying. "Dr. Quinzel, I haven't received any requests for you yet, but if I do I'll- goddamnit!" He swore as his phone interrupted him this time. He turned away from the villainess and answered the call in a clipped tone. "Yes?"

"This is all your fault, Johnson; I am going to make you regret ever finding that plant woman, now I've got some girl asking about a clown lady-"

Danny couldn't help himself from snickering as he glanced at Harley in amus.e.m.e.nt. "Don't worry, I can reach her easily. Just text me the info." It satisfied him that he could hang up on her for once. "Harley, some powerful being must really like you because your wish was just granted."

Harley jumped off the counter with an excited cheer and cartwheeled out of the kitchen. "Ivy! I got a bite-sized fan, too!"

Ivy reluctantly opened her eyes to view her hyperactive friend. "Congratulations." She winced as Harley squealed and jumped on top of her, giving her a hug.

"I can't wait!"

Danny sighed. "I can," he muttered.

A note to the guest individual who tried to call me out about Ivy being "canonialy [sic] very much not a vegetarian." Ivy is a bioterrorist. She would never eat meat, especially due to how much harm meat production causes the environment. Ivy does not like large-scale agriculture's impact because of the damage and suffering to plants it causes. And, she was seen to eat a salad with beet juice in BTAS... which is the category this story is in. Thank you!