The other Harlequin

Jack- In-The-Box ch1

Commissioner Gordon stood in front of the operating room, waiting for word from the surgeon. He looked out the grim, stormy, window and watched lightening flash across the sky. The thudded hard against the glass windows. He paced thoughtfully across the floor.

My best detective is in the O.R. and the maniac who shot her is still out there… But something doesn't make sense… If the Joker shot her… Why would he drive her to the Hospital?

Three weeks previous

Jocylnn Fae Cuer was finishing unpacking her boxes into her new desk and filing cabinet. It'll be nice to relax a little, Jocylnn smirked, Sure Gotham won't be no picnic… but it'll be better than the Black case. She rubbed her wrists hidden behind long fingerless gloves.

"So you're the newbie huh?" Jocylnn turned to the two figures in the doorway. "Wow a desk and everything" The fat one whistled. "You must be a big shot"

Jocylnn sniggered "You must be Harvey Bullock…" She nodded towards the darker skinned woman "… and Rameirez, right?" She extended her hand to shake, neither took it.

"Sorry, not to be unfriendly, but we don't shake hands… cause… well…"Bullock hesitated.

"With someone we don't know will last." Rameirez spoke up.

"Oh I get it, heh heh." Jocylnn leaned against the wall casually. "Well don't worry I'm not gonna die without a fight, I've worked too hard for that."

"Right… well anyway we got a special mission for newbie!" Bullock grinned" Welcome to Gotham!"

That night…

Jocylnn sat in her squad car drawing various critters on a note pad. Her Mp3 playing Skillet loud enough to block out the police scanner. She was bored out of her skull,

I've worked on some of the most serious cases in the world, studied the most effective fighting styles and a licensed alchemist and for what? Waiting for some druggie to stumble out of the bar and dump him in the drunk tank.

She put her feet up on the steering wheel and stared out the window.

"Special mission for you!" She mimicked as Bullock had said. "Newbie mission, pfft"

She sighed as she played with her strawberry blonde hair, in desperation for something to happen. It did.

Someone had just jumped over her car and ran across the hood of her car laughing manically followed by a big black thing. Jocylnn cussed and jumped out of the car and followed them both just barely stumbling out of her squad-car.

"Stop him! I have someone else to catch" Batman swooped over her and fled to another building. Jocylnn rolled her greenish-blue eyes and followed The Clown Prince of Psychotics into the dark alleyway. For anyone else this would be extremely stupid to try, but this wasn't her first time chasing down a psychopath. She quickly dispersed the vivid and bloody memory that entered her conscious state. She stepped into the dank alley listening for footsteps other than her own, step, step, step. Everything there reeked of rats; broken glass was strewn about on the pavement, or what was left of it. She watched the steam and smoke mix with the night air.

At first it seemed like it was in her head, but she quickly decided it was real when she located the source of the sound. A macabre tune filled the alley; it was like something from a demented Jack-in-the-box. She drew her gun, it wouldn't help much. Jocylnn had a no-kill policy.

"Excuse me miss, does this rag smell like Chlorophorm to you?" A hand clasped around her mouth holding a rag that, in fact did smell like Chlorophorm, trying to hold her breath she fought back which held little affect and collapsed. Her vision got blurry and then quickly faded to black.

Jocylnn woke in a small cot, recalling had happened the night before. She sat up quickly and tried to get out of bed.

THUMP! Followed by "oof!" Jocylnn had more-or-less gotten out of the bed. She looked at her ankles which had happened to be cuffed. She smirked, how dumb does he think I am? As she reached down to remove the cuffs, but then a violent shock ran through her body.

"Naughty, naughty!" She looked up instinctively. "Awwww! Did oo fawl outta bed dis mornin'?" The Joker laughed, he apparently thought this was funny, somehow Jocylnn didn't see the humor. Sensing this The Joker frowned at her "whatsa matter? Cat got your tongue? You get it right?"

"Yeah, Dog of the Military, I know… somehow it just didn't take" She touched her fingers to her face then withdrew them, white face paint, figures. The Joker seemed slightly amused by this. "So when do the cuffs come off?"

"Who says they will?"

"Well I just assumed, how much fun could I be if I'm in Hand-er, ankle cuffs?"

"You'd be surprised…" He leaned his shoulder to the door frame. He smirked as she reached for the shock collar that he'd placed around her neck.

"So tell me, what are you looking for this time? Money? Information?"

The Joker walked towards her and kneeled in front her "who says I want anything?" He smiled wryly "You know, if you keep assuming this stuff people might think your, well, annoying" He grinned.

Jocylnn did a quick salute" thanks, doll you're a lifesaver"

"Well as a matter o'fact I have a client see… she seemed to think you could help me find the item-of-interest" He pulled a picture out of his waist coat pocket. Jocylnn took it and held it up in the light. It was a small gem, kind of reddish; she squinted and finally realized what it was.

"Yeah right, wild zontars couldn't make me get that for even the President himself!" She tossed the picture to the side.

"Zontars?..." He looked a little confused but then regained his composure and continued. "Well, Lust said you might say that-"

"Lust!?"

"That's the one! She and some lard-butt showed up and-"

"Gluttony! Wait their suppose to be dead-"

Another shock vibrated thought her body, her eye sight went hazy and she smelt her hair start to smolder. "The other thing that's real irritating is when people interrupt other people in mid-thought. As I was saying, they said you might say that so they gave me this." He pulled out a small heart shaped locket. Jocylnns eyes widened, she reached out to touch it but The Joker pulled back out of her reach. "Tsk tsk, mustn't touch… hmm I wonder what's inside…"

"NO! Please don't… its blood and if it spills out I'll never see my sister again!"

The Joker looked at her curiously, and scoffed" What! I'm sorry but I believe you've gone a bit batty! You should see someone about these hallucinations" His Shoulders shook, he barely could keep it together as he said his last few words. Quickly he collapsed into uncontrollable laughter.

Jocylnn seized the opportunity and kicked the shock-collar control out of hand and broke the ankle cuffs, naturally they were fake-gag cuffs. She jumped to her feet and crashed through the door. From what she could tell they were in an old theater, late 60's comedy club. On a table to her right were two hench-clowns going through her things previously in her squad-car. She did a running jump, something from an old action-movie she saw, slid across the table and grabbed her purse. Immediately the hench-clowns chased after her, the door was about a foot in front of her.

A hand reached out and grabbed her collar; instinctively she swung behind her and hit the goon square in the jaw. "First rule in hand-to-hand combat bub, do not block with face!" The other one brought out a pocket knife; Jocylnn turned on her heels and kicked it out of his hand another reach from behind her and an arm around her neck. Jocylnn bit hard he fell backwards and swore a blue-streak. She picked up a wooden plank from the broken up floor; her adrenaline was pumping now, unfortunately there was a distinctive click behind.

"Hmmmm… kids these days, always bringing sticks to gun fights" Her pistol in the hands on this sick-puppy was now two centimeters from her skull. "I was shocked to see her out of bullets Detective."

Jocylnn raised her hands in surrender "Yeah, I never load it. It just makes me look cool"

"Well that's stupid!" He smirked and suppressed another spasmodic laugh. "I mean your suppose to protect the public right?"

"Yeah all of it" There was a silence between them. "Alright, where are they keeping the philosophers stone?"

"I figured you'd come around kiddo!" The Joker lowered the gun and put his arm around her non-chalauntly. "Right this way"

Mean while back at G.C.P.D….

"Still nothing from Jocylnn?" Gordon was staring out the window of his office.

"I'm sorry sir, I know how much this meant to you" Rameirez replied. "No, we can't find her anywhere" She shifted her weight nervously from leg to leg.

Gordon watched a shadow cross the buildings on the other side of the street. "Thank you, but now I'd like a minute to think this over"

Rameirez, understanding what he meant, left the room with out another word. Gordon crossed over to a chair at his desk.

"Why do these things happen? How is it that no matter what good we try to push into this world we end up suffering for it?" Gordon put his face in his hands and sighed.

"This isn't your fault Gordon" Batman stood next to the freshly opened window. "I'm sure where ever Cuer is she is alive; did you read up on her background?"

"Of course, I have a feeling you found something" Gordon rubbed his temple and looked up with a sort of weight in his eyes.

"Yes, you know she worked as an Alchemist in Amestria at the end of the war there, well there are some records about a being called a homunculus, I believe I ran into one the other night." Gordon stared blankly at The Dark Knight "He could change his shape into anything, he left a few marks unfortunately… but he wouldn't kill me."

"So what do you think this means?"

"Well… I think he was using the Joker to get something, I don't know what, but if we don't find out soon…"

Gordon stood up grudgingly "Then what I do?" his voice quivered "You're not giving me enough information" Anger boiled under his words " There is a life out there hanging by a thread at the most and we don't even know what we're looking for!" His fist hit his desk. "God, I've been on this force for more years than I'd like to have been. Where do we go from here?" Desperation slowly consumed his fury "What are we looking for?"

"Hope" Gordon looked up but he was gone.

…

Jocylnn looked up from the blue prints shoved in front of her. "The Gotham City Safe? That's like the biggest, baddest holding station known to man!" She threw up her hands in frustration "The security there is a hundred times worse than Alcatraz! We might as well try brain surgery on a Jellyfish" She pushed the papers off to the side.

"Well lucky for you, I got a guy" He passed a business card over to Jocylnn. She groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Do we have to?"

"See you're the kind of person I'd love to just… throw over the side of a bridge like a sack of kittens" The Joker grinned and turned to his goons "Saddle up boys, We're taking a trip to the Iceberg Lounge!"