The Iceberg Lounge ch2
Jocylnn had her feet up on the leather seat and leaned up against the window. The four of them crammed into a purple convertible; Hench-clowns driving or in the passengers seat, The Joker and Jocylnn in the back. Jocylnn had tuned into her music trying to block out any negative thoughts that may enter. The Joker eased back and put his feet up on the head of the seat in front of him arms behind his head. He took a sideways glance at Jocylnn
"So… Do ya know how to kill a blonde?"
She sighed and took out her ear-buds. "How?"
He smirked and delivered the punch-line. "You put a scratch-and-sniff sticker at the bottom of a pool!" He had a satisfied smile that could put the Cheshire cat to shame.
Jocylnn returned the smile wryly as she ran her fingers through her hair "Oh? Well what do you do if you a blonde throws a grenade at you?"
The Joker paused "I'm not sure I like the direction you're taking this…"
"Pull the pin and throw it back." They both relaxed and sniggered a little.
"Here you may want to clean up, we're going somewhere with class" The Joker handed her a rag, she took it and glanced at the rear-view mirror. She had White clown make-up on, a pink puppy nose, whiskers, and a black spot around her left eye.
"Oh you're a scream" She mopped up the make-up with a sarcastic tone to her voice.
When she heard no witty reply she looked quickly.
He was looking at her Mp3 "hmmm… Christian Screamo huh? Like death gospel I guess"
Jocylnn snatched it back "I guess"
"Wow, touchy much?" Silence "So, not that I care, but what does this…" He pulled the necklace from his vest "…have to do with your sister… from what I hear she's long gone"
Jocylnns face paled and her eyes stayed on the locket as it swayed right to left. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Kind of a weird question to ask me…"
"Can you?"
"Sure…"
"Well so can I! Gimme the locket and we'll talk" She crossed her arms and looked out the window.
"Hey now wait a minute-"
"We're here boss" The car pulled up behind a fairly large building.
The Joker put back the necklace into his vest pocket "I'll just hold onto this then"
The two of them walked into a very sleek club. It was built around an Ice habitat for seals and penguins. They were seated at a table built up like ice cubes; the napkin holder was two opposing penguins with a blue tint to the glass. A waiter appeared and asked in monotone, "May I take your order?"
"Well no, but I'd like an order of Shrimp, garlic sticks and to drink… hmmm" The waiter rolled his eyes like he had heard that one before while The Joker looked over the wines list, "You know what? Just pick something from 1964, that must've been a good year right Jocy?" Jocylnn looked up and the waiter watched confused as to why her she was accompanied by, well, The Joker.
"I wouldn't know, but heck, why not?"
"Atta girl!" The Joker handed the menu to the waiter and grinned.
"And, you er- miss?"
Jocylnn reviewed the menu then replied "Yeah, I'll have Dr. Pepper and a hamburger, well done and emphasis on the no-cheese."
"Of coarse then, we'll be-"
"Oh and Jacque, we'd like to speak to the owner, know what I mean?" The Joker waved at the balcony, Jocylnn squinted and saw a pudgy man in a tux and top hat. The man disappeared from sight waddling slowly to the back of the veranda.
Their food arrived about the same time Penguin did carrying his trusty umbrella. "I see time off from Arkham has… served you well" He frowned as he looked over at Jocylnn "You brought her?!"
"Well yeah…" The Joker followed Penguins gaze to a smug Jocylnn waving her fingers at the both of them.
"Hiya Pengy! Miss me?" She crossed her arms and grinned. "I had to investigate his lil' club a couple times awhile back, landed him some time in the slammer, one time he was dealing with a mafia from Hong-Kong and in the process of-"
"Yes, well anyway" Penguin snapped his fingers and a tall buff security guard brought over a brief case and a cigar. "I have the information you'll need to get in" He lit the cigar in his fat sausages and inhaled.
"Still into cigars huh? I would've thought you had learned your lesson by now, especially after the fiasco with Scagart." Jocylnn pursed her lips trying to conceal her delight of exploiting his dirty little secrets. "Didn't Batman catch you that time?"
Penguin exhaled a cloud of smoke in her direction "Joker I really wish you would keep your women under control."
"Care to repeat that comment slime ball?!" Jocylnn rose to her feet, her nails clawed the table.
Penguin looked over at the security guard and he reached for the case again, taking this as a hint The Joker quickly grasped Jocylnns arm "Jocylnn, sit down" She rubbed her wrists a little.
Jocylnn gritted her teeth and reluctantly took a seat again.
"See? That wasn't so bad" Penguin adjusted his eye glass and hat. "Just takes a little practice."
"Easy for you to say, I have a minor in butt-kicking not butt-kissing" Jocylnn pouted quietly, but loud enough for Penguin to hear.
"How did you two crazy kids meet again?"
Jocylnn started to answer something along the lines of "The S.O.B. practically hit me over the head with a club!" But the Joker quickly intercepted with "I needed someone with a background who knew something about the object of interest"
"Well as entertaining as this is, we really must be going" He stood The Penguin rose as well.
"Wait, now you both know there's no such thing as free lunch…"
"Yoink!" Jocylnn nabbed the brief case "How 'bout we take the case and I fly you the bird!" As she did so she kicked over the table for good measure I've always wanted to do that! The rest of the guests got up quickly and headed in all directions. Joker and Jocylnn headed for the exit in the flurry of chaos while Penguin shouted angry commands to his security team.
A couple gunshots went off, "I knew I'd like you!" The Joker laughed loudly which turned a couple heads while another group of lackeys approached them.
"Shut up! Shut up!" She grabbed his arm and hauled him to a back door.
The Joker pulled out a small grenade and held it up for everyone to see. "Let's not lose our heads!" Suddenly and not surprisingly everyone stopped moving. "Lovely place Ozzie, but it's a tad too fishy for my taste" He hooted at this and continued out the door. He noted to the side at Jocylnn "Oh, and it was chlorophorm"
The drive home was pretty quiet for the first ten minutes until…
"You owe me"
Jocylnn, who had managed to compress her entire body into the right back seat of the car, raised her eyebrow. "Is that so? I guess I'll file that with the theory of evolution and the world is flat concepts"
The Joker scowled and his tone of voice changed to 'Don't be a jerk' tone "I'm not kidding," gee, that's a first "if it wasn't for me-"
"I wouldn't be in this mess now would I?" clearly not intimidated.
"Stop interrupting me! Besides that was the most fun you ever had"
"How would you know? If you knew-"
"It was written all over your face!" His face sort of broke into its natural insane giddiness. "You're not that complicated sweetie!" Jocylnn threw in her music again "Don't ignore me, you just know I'm right"
Despite her best efforts to ignore his words through lip-syncing she knew that they were probably true. "Alright fine, what do you want me to say?"
The Joker pulled out the locket one more time, it's a trap, and he smiled with satisfaction.
"You're absolutely obsessed with me aren't you?" Joclynn returned his smile as his crumbled for just a split second.
"Well yeah just like the rest of my victims" He winked.
Jocylnn froze, not from disgust, but she could've sworn he looked like… Then it was gone.
The Joker was taken a back by her reaction despite its short effect "You flinched"
"W-well… I… my sister and I were walking home in this blizzard from school one day" Jocylnn braced her self for the impact; this wasn't an easy story to tell. "My brothers older friend, drove up and asked if we wanted a ride, so naturally being the naïve thirteen-year-old I was, I dragged my frozen self and my sisters into the van. Two of his buddies however were hiding in the back and as we sat down they knocked us out. Not really sure how, but I woke up in a dingy old warehouse. My brother had belonged to some sort of demonic cult and we were human sacrifices. Luckily, someone called the police about 'strange going ons' and I was saved." Jocylnn removed her gloves and which revealed ugly, deep, scars in the shape of satanic symbols. "my sister wasn't so fortunate" Her gaze returned to the window.
The rest of the trip would've been quiet except she could hear The Jokers light smirks and hysterics.