Death's a Joke.

It had been weeks since Ace was last seen; maybe a month or so since the infamous cards and hundreds of killings followed around Gotham like a steady heart beat. Of course, as always with Ace, there was reason behind her disappearance – she had been working on her ‘project’.

Ace scrunched her nose as the toxic liquid filled her mouth; her control had begun to slip. As if she was a robot, free from any emotion she brought the alcohol to her lips for the continuous time that night. With a sigh that seemed to shake her whole body she flickered through radio signals until settling on a faint one, the wooden finished radio crackled out music from another time, a time when the world seem paved with gold and criminals were feared, their power was endless – a time that was fading right in front of her.

The sound of heels chipping the street slightly seemed to be the only noise as a female walked down the street, her arms tightly wrapped around a brown paper parcel, a piece of string keeping it from falling apart. This was ‘Nyx-Ivy’ as she called herself, previously known as Jenny.

“Evening, whatcha got there?” Hissed the Joker with a wide-set smile, the smell of the gasoline he had recently poured and lit clung to his body like a demanding child.

“You’re the J-Joker…I-It’s a parcel, now go away I have to deliver it. Don’t you know who I am? I’m Nyx-Ivy, I’ll soon be notorious, I’ve already killed and I’m not afraid to do so again” Mumbled Nyx-Ivy back trying to put her defences up against the man she had grown to be terrified of, she backed away before getting angry as the Joker was crying with laughter.

“Oh that is priceless Nxyie! Everyone knows you’re just Ace’s servant, hmm? She sends you to do all the petty crimes, stealing, getting parcels, killing one or two people who know too much. Y’see Ace needs you to runs errands such as buying her new clothes and getting her clothes…and I have started to learn that Ace doesn’t have ‘hideouts’ she doesn’t own a home or base instead she sleeps wherever she finds space and then disappears – never to return. So with that in mind it makes sense she’d get someone to do her basic stuff while she can sleep and plot,” Cackled the Joker, is eyes wide and his tongue licking the yellow-stained teeth in his mouth.

Nxy-Ivy could feel the tears begin to swell up in her eyes, she instantly cursed herself, she had killed several people and yet she was so easily broken. She took two steps backwards before turning to begin a sprint, the parcel in hand but a single bullet stopped the killer. The Joker casually walked over and removed the parcel from her lifeless grip, he gave her a smirk before placing a Joker card in her hand but he also picked her up and propped her against the wall, a sign of respect…it had been a while since he had met another criminal worthy of that title of villain other than Ace.

Ace awoke in a puddle of spilt alcohol, her own vomit and blood from cuts caused by broken glass bottles. Her fingers entwined her hair and tugged as she let out a low growl in pain as her head screamed in agony in the form of a pulsating headache.

“Where the bloody hell is Nyx and that parcel?” Ace whispered to herself in a hoarse tone as she covered her eyes with her hair to protect them from the glaring sunlight.