Must Love Hyenas

16: A Rare Bird

A team of thugs armed with shotguns approached the museum ahead of the rest of the gang. The wooden doors disintegrated in flashes of fire, artificial thunder and flying metal projectiles.  Fist sized holes opened up across their surfaces until nothing was left but jagged splinters around the edges of the doorframe.

The goons led the way inside with Joker and Harley following. Gunfire was already erupting from Penguin's defending forces, but more of Joker's gang was arriving every minute and pouring into the building.

The museum collection had become strange after Penguin had taken it over. He'd kept the bones and artifacts on display, remnants of life vanished long ago, adding next to them the weapons and armaments Penguin sold on the black market to eliminate life in the current age. Because every brass framed display case held some form of gun or explosive, there was no danger of running out of needed hardware for the battle.

Penguin's people were overconfident in their defenses and amassed weaponry, but Joker had been gathering smaller gangs for some time, increasing the number of bodies he could throw at them. In very short order, the tide of battle turned as Joker's people were able to lay down a nearly continuous hail of bullets while advancing. Anyone trying to run away was immediately killed, and those who stayed in cover were shot by the continuous tide of Joker's forces when they reached the besieged thugs.

Joker and Harley made their way through the museum, walking past walls covered in bullet holes and across floors littered with spent shell casings and the bodies of the dead.

***

A shotgun blast put down the last of Penguin's thugs in the room. Joker and Harley ignored the carnage of the battle and examined the dozens of display cases lining the walls. Pillars supported a dome ceiling over a second level balcony ringing the room with more of the display cases. Unlike everywhere else in the museum, the glass panels of the rectangular cases were extra thick and reinforced, and rather than holding weapons or artifacts, the display cases in the cavernous room contained people. Some were alive, a few were skeletons, but many were in between.

"I prefer a fun house to a house of horrors." Joker mused. "I wonder why they're here."

"Looks like they're prisoners," Harley guessed. "Do you think they'd want to fight the guy who put them in there?"

"Break out the guns!" Joker shouted with a smile. "Break out the prisoners!"

***

Oswald Cobblepot, better known in criminal circles as the Penguin, collapsed to the floor, his top hat falling off and skidding across the polished floor of the Iceberg Lounge.

Attached to the museum, the Iceberg Lounge restaurant had become a front for the illegal weapon trades Penguin conducted. Tables were draped in white silk to resemble icebergs, and all the glasses were frosted in a continuation of the theme. The massive dome over the Lounge provided a view of the stars at night on the rare occasions when the nearly perpetual cloud cover of Gotham abated.

Penguin tried to raise an umbrella and point it toward the Joker, but Harley stepped forward and kicked it out of his hands, causing the crime boss to shriek in terror and attempt to crawl away. Two goons blocked his escape.

"Going somewhere?" Joker asked. He plopped himself down at one of the tables, leaning his elbows on the top while resting his chin in his gloved hands. "I seem to have forgotten my reservation. Harley, would you be a dear and invite the owner to my table to discuss things?"

"Sure thing, Mr. J," Harley agreed. She smiled sweetly at the goons near Penguin. "Boss wants to see him."

She nodded toward the table, and the goons responded by grabbing Penguin by the arms and lifting the short and plump man from the floor. They dragged him over to the table and dropped him roughly in the chair opposite Joker.

"So glad you could join me," Joker told him. "You've established quite a little nest here in Gotham. You've got soldiers, well...you had soldiers, but you still have the weapons and ammunition I need. Instead of selling it like you did, I'll be using it to take the city. Unfortunately for you, you're going to be out of business, so I don't think I need you anymore."

Joker reached into his jacket and produced a gun from an inside pocket. Harley stepped up behind Joker, wrapping her arms around him and crossing them over his chest. She kissed his neck and whispered in his ear.

"He's always wanted wealth and prestige, wouldn't it be funny if he could see it but never have it?" Harley asked.

Joker's already abnormally wide grin grew as he started laughing.

"Bring him," Joker ordered his goons.

Strong hands clamped around Penguin and dragged him behind Joker and Harley as they led the way out of the attached restaurant and back into the museum. Going straight to the storage room in the far end of the expansive building, Joker stood next to one of the previously occupied display cases.

"Don't worry; the smell of decay shouldn't bother you too much," Joker told Penguin as the former crime boss was tossed inside. Joker pushed the button to close the glass window and seal Penguin inside. "I wouldn't want to you be bored, so I'll arrange to have a television put down here in order for you to see everything that goes on outside in the world. Consider it a thank you gift for all the tools you've placed in my more than capable hands. After all, I want my bird in a gilded cage to sing happily for me."

Joker and his people walked away while Penguin shouted and slammed his fists against the reinforced glass in the same manner as the many people he'd locked away had done, and he was granted an equal lack of result.

A cold smile crossed Joker's face as he closed the double doors, watching the Penguin to the last moment and listening to his screaming frustration.

"Sweet music, my little bird," Joker chuckled. "Keep it up."

The doors closed with an echoing thud.