Joker's Hideout(s)

[Elmira of Elkwood]

"Are... are the others going to be okay?" Rosie asked, breathing as... normally as she could. She had tried not to breathe too much while in the gas, but the air down here wasn't exactly the best to inhale either.  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

"Of course they'll be okay," Joker said, in as comforting a tone as possible as he led her down the rather smelly passage, "There's a Bat in there. They may be a group of sourpusses with absolutely no sense of humor, but they all tend to have this thing about saving people. Even their enemies. They'll be alright."  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Rosie looked up at Joker, but seemed to accept his reply. She walked down the passage as normally as she could, but it didn't take long before little details began to catch the little girl's attention.

The fact that her pajamas didn't exactly protect against the cold, damp air that filled the passage. The smell... all the little sharp objects she had to walk around in her bare feet... how cold the ground was beginning to feel against her feet.

She sighed a little, then hugged her doll tighter against her. Hiding the bottom part of her face against the doll's hair.

Echoing soon came from the staircase. Some sort of shouting and things being knocked about.  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

Joker looked back, and then picked up Rosie, setting her back on his shoulders again. "Time to get a little distance between us and HIM..." he said, more to himself than anyone else. They passed one tunnel, and as they reached the second tunnel on the right about three minutes later, he said as he turned into it, "Second start on the right, straight on 'til morning..."  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Rosie smiled a bit, feeling a little better as Joker carried her.

Inside the hideout, however, someone was NOT feeling a bit better. Being able to move freely and quickly in her mist form, Gossamer had searched the entire house within seconds. She had found the downed employees, the girl, the dead bodies, the bat, Joker's room, Rosie's room... clearly they had been here only moments ago.

But they weren't there. Her little girl was gone again. Frustrated, enraged, scared... a very quick and sudden burst of emotions filled the woman. She solidified herself inside Rosie's room. She had only a moment to try and calm herself when she felt the gas begin to sink in. She shouted in frustration and sent a strong blast of magic towards the door. The gas was blown out of the room, through the next few, and was forced out of whatever crack and hole there was to escape the force of air.

The act caused Gossamer to aim another blast at a wall. Then another... destroying the wall this time. Then she screamed again. Destroyed another wall. And kept going until there was pretty much no room left that didn't have a new large opening.

Rosie was here. She was JUST here... And... and she had been so worried about her, and it looked like she was being well taken care of. Now she was confused. And angry. Dead bodies and a torture room.. was he really doing that sort of thing in a room not far from the child's? And... and she was just seconds to late! And... and.... god her head hurt. And sick... So sick. Damn gas....  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

Eventually, after a few more minutes, the pair came across a ladder that reached a manhole cover. "Here we are! I need to put you down, Rosie, so I can go up and open the way to freedom." As he said this, he took her from his shoulders and looked her in the face. "Ready?"  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

"Ready." Rosie replied, nodding to him as he sat her down on the ground.

Unbeknownst to them... they were directly under the alley where Vice and the other Rosie were standing. Rosie should have been able to sense her duplicate ... had the other little girl not been genetically altered. As such... she had no clue that anyone was above them to warn Joker about.  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

Joker nodded. "Good girl." He then turned and climbed up the ladder, lifting the manhole cover off with more ease than someone of his build should have been able to manage.

He looked out and spotted Vice and the evil Rosie, saying as he saw them, "What the..."  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Vice and Rosie both turned towards Joker as he slid the heavy cover away from his escape. "What the..." Vice said almost in unison with Joker.

Rosie looked back up at Vice and beamed. "Told 'ja." she exclaimed. "Pay up."

"I don't have twenty dollars to give you right now." Vice grunted, looking down at her.

"I thought we agreed one hundred if I led you right to him." she pouted.

"We'll talk later. Right now I need to deal with this little problem." Vice said, turning his focus to, and keeping it on, the Joker.  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

As much as the clown didn't like it, he couldn't very well leave his Rosie in a sewer. "Come on up, dear," he called down, shifting the lid off entirely as he finished climbing out. As he stood up, he then shifted his to Vice, and kept it there.  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

Vice kept his attention on Joker, and let it flicker away from him only whenever another small figure with red hair popped up out of the man hole. And he groaned slightly.

"Aaaaaaannnnnd.... that makes two hundred and fifty." the little girl said, beaming up at him.

"And I said we'll talk later." Vice muttered down to the girl.


Jokers Rosie, on the other hand, was stunned. She stared at the little duplicate across from her, wondering how on earth she couldn't sense her... and why she still couldn't sense her. And then of course, there was...

"Vice?" she asked, her tone a mix of surprise and confusion.


"Huh...still can't get over that you all know who I am." Vice replied, giving her a small smile, but a rather overly cautious eye on the clown  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

"Huh, so YOU'RE Vice..." Joker mused out loud, nodding with a smile that was creeping back from the initial shock of seeing people standing there. "Interesting... I don't suppose you'll be letting us just walk by, then, right?"  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

"Afraid not." Vice replied with a small shrug. "You see, you haven't been able to track down at all. Been looking for weeks upon weeks for you and Rosie. Mostly Rosie." Vice said, glancing down at the other little girl. "So... now that we've crossed paths... I really can't just let you 'walk on by', as you put it. Not both of you anyway."  

[Comic_Book_Joker]

"Figured as much," Joker said, shrugging also, "Shame, really. You look like the kind of guy I'd get along with. Or at least not try to kill simply out of hand, which is really about the same thing, as far as I'm concerned." He looked down at his own Rosie, and to the little girl next to Vice, and added, "Really, though, we both have one, why not leave it at that?"  

[Elmira of Elkwood]

”Now where's the fun in that?” the little girl next to Vice scoffed. And she was quickly silenced with a hand covering her mouth and a small glare from the older man.

”Well normally I'd be all for that. Way too much of a hassle to fight about something like this.” Vice replied, looking back to Joker. ”But... with what all Goss has been through within the last month or so. With what all you two have put her through... I can't just leave it at that.” he said, then looked down at the Rosie standing next to Joker. ”She's been worried about you. Too much for me to just let you walk on by.”