You Ought to Smile More

The room was dark to say the least. After The Riddler shot Happy and turned the camera off, he left the room and I haven’t seen him since. I don’t know how long that’s been, but a few men came in and cleaned Happy up, and I'm still attached to this stupid chair.

Two days might have passed, maybe, but I'm not sure. A man has come in 2 times to feed me bread and water. I think my stomach has begun to eat itself…

I don’t know how long I can keep this up. The Joker better hurry up and come find me before anything else happens like what happened to Happy.

My ears prickled when I heard footsteps heading toward the door. Maybe that guy came back to give me more food… Or maybe not. The door swung open and a light flashed on over head. I blinked and squinted trying to see who was in the room with me.

“How are you feeling?” I knew right away it was The Riddler from the sound of his voice. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I glared at the man in the green suit.

“Now, now, that’s not a face a pretty little girl like you should be making,” he tsked and took a step closer to me. I tried not to flinch, but it happened anyway. I’m more scared of him than I am of The Joker.

“What? Cat got your tongue, or are you trying to give me the cold shoulder?” he growled the last part and crouched down so that he was eye level with me and the chair. When I didn’t answer, he brought his hand back and slapped me across the face. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out.

“I don’t like being ignored… But I think you’ll come to find out that The Joker and I aren’t that different. We were partners in the past; we know quite a bit about each other in fact. You’ll get adjusted to staying with me.” I turned away from him and tried to ignore him.

The Riddler made another noise before grabbing a hand full of my hair and forcing me to look at him. He looked over my face examining it.

“What does The Joker like so much about you?” he wondered out loud and gripped my hair tighter, pulling a few strands out. I winced, but held back all the whimpers building in my throat. He was being too rough and I was hungry…

“Maybe he’s having a case of lust for you. That would explain quite a lot actually… I can't even remember the last time that man got laid,” he kept talking to himself. I struggled against the wrist restraints, trying to pull them loose or slip my hands through them.

The Riddler smirked and released my hair. I let out a sigh of relief, but that ended quickly when he punched me busting my bottom lip open. Blood pooled in my mouth and I spit it out on the ground near his shoe.

“Like I said, you’ll become adjusted to staying with me. But hopefully that won’t be too long. It shouldn’t take Joker more than a day to find this place. He has the fucking Batman working with him after all. Just had to go and ruin all the fun,” he mumbled on his way out.

The Joker is working with The Batman?! When did this happen? I have a really bad feeling about all this.

~*~

The Joker replayed the tape over in his head again. He had to be missing something. Surely, The Riddler would want him to come get Caprice so they could duke it out or something. Why would he make it so hard to find them?

He growled and balled up another piece of paper. For the past hour, he’s been trying to draw up anything that could help, a sign on the wall, familiar voices, but there wasn’t anything.

There was a knock on the door that pulled him away from his thoughts.

“Boss?” Doc called from the other side.

“Come in.” Doc opened the door and closed it behind him.

“What is it?” The Joker asked once Doc was sitting down in a chair in front of his desk.

“Sneezy’s been keeping track of The Batman like you told him to do and it looks like he’s finally on the move. Sneezy saw him crossing Ave 12 and Main St from a traffic light a few minutes ago,” Doc filled him in. The Joker smiled widely and folded his hands together.

“Tell Sneezy to keep tracking him. I’ll call you as soon as I’m on the highway. It’s time we find out where Caprice is,” The Joker said standing up. Doc left the room before him to tell Sneezy what to do.

The Joker loaded up his weapons quickly and double checked to make sure he had everything he needed before jogging down the stairs and outside to his truck.

He needed to hurry and make sure he didn’t lose track of The Batman. He called Doc as soon as he was driving and followed the directions he was given. The Batman was heading to a neighborhood that the Joker knew all too well.

“What the hell?” he mumbled as he turned his truck off and got out. The Batman’s batpod was parked in the alley close by and The Batman was standing near it. The Joker walked over to him with a smile and his hands in his pockets.

“Have you seen this place before?” Batman asked in a deep voice. The Joker looked at the older house and nodded. It was an old base that The Riddler and he shared when they were working together a few years ago. Why didn’t he think about this sooner?!

“Yeah, once or twice. Caprice is here?” he asked giggling and stepping towards the house.

“Yeah, I slowed down the video and there were brief flashes of this picture in between scenes that didn’t last for a full second.” The Joker didn’t really care how he figured it out, he was more concerned with getting Caprice out.

“Joker, one more thing.” The Joker stopped walking and turned back to face his enemy turned ally.

“As soon as this is over, I’m going to start coming after you again. This is a limited time truce until we get Caprice back into safety.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way!” The Joker laughed hysterically and walked up to the house. The Batman was hot on his heels. Soon Caprice would be away from The Riddler and he would be behind bars.