Riddle me this...

Chapter two

Nigma had been planning his next criminal activity for nearly a week now. He had needed something to distract him from his anger, the anger that had been sparked by the Iceberg Lounge. He needed to prove to Penguin that he wasn't some goon that he could exclude from his bar, Edward Nigma was one of the most intelligent people in Gotham but if he had to get his hands dirty then so be it.

"Echo, Query." He demanded his two associates' attention. They looked at him with renewed interest.

"Yes boss?" Echo answered.

"I need you two to sneak into the Iceberg Lounge and place these," he handed them timed smoke grenades, "in the main bar. I also need you to scope out the roof."

He discussed his plan with the two women and they hastily nodded before getting to work.

"Good." Ed spoke aloud to himself.

-

Nina was once again on the stage, her make-up was dark, threatening. If she were to be an animal, she would be a wolf, her temper short, her fuse slowly burning away, she was a ticking time bomb.

She had woken up this morning to the pleasant sounds of Porcelain, Oswald's new play thing, moaning. Nina felt her blood boil and it took nearly all her energy to not go bursting into Oswald's room and beat the pair of them. She knew what would happen if she did though. That protection policy didn't apply when you weren't fucking the boss.

Oswald had swung Nina's bedroom door open without a knock later that day and had requested that Porcelain join her on stage that evening, he had heard her singing to his precious birds and wanted to see if she would be comfortable on the stage. Nina had accepted with a smile and Oswald had reminded her that although he had Porcelain for show, nothing would compare to his love for her. Nina was slowly realising the emotional abuse for what it was and it brought pain into her heart. The stage was her domain and no way was this baby doll taking her spotlight.

Porcelain had been a pain to work with. She was all sex and practically no talent. It had taken Nina a while to come up with some songs that the pair could learn together but in the end she thought it might be best to go with some show tunes, songs from Chicago or Cabaret. These were fail safe options, they were crowd pleasers and pretty much the only lyrics Porcelain could retain.

Nina had secretly agreed with some of the other women in the band that for their finale they had something special planned, something for when Porcelain became bored of working.

The evening began as any other did, it didn't matter what day of the week it was, the club was always busy. You wanted an opportunity helping a mafia boss steal some money from another mafia boss then you came to the right place. You wanted a place to go where you wouldn't be judged, where they had special rooms just for you? The Iceberg Lounge had what you wanted. The décor was elegant, simple, expensive and lured you in, the stage was at the end of the room, the red curtain pulled back at either side to reveal a variety of acts, from singing, to smooth Jazz music to short plays. Oswald had something for everyone and everyone had something for him.

When the curtain opened this evening Nina had centre stage with Porcelain. Nina had her back to Porcelain, her bare leg poised, peeking through the slit in her long black dress. Porcelain had one hand up, pointing at the sky, her head looking up towards, well Nina didn't know.

The trumpet sounded, the start of the song, as the girls burst into action, dancing around the stage to the instrumental at the beginning. Porcelain kept adding her own 'sexy' moves to entice the patrons that were sitting in the front row but kept falling out of time with the rest of the choreography. Nina supposed Oswald could see this as endearing. She, on the other hand, could feel her fuse shortening.