When She Smiles [OPEN]

[icharliei]

It could be heard down the street. The pounding of music that ran down the road. Not that anyone could hear it, the street was bare. Just trees and road, except for a red light that shone from afar. When you got to the end of the road just outside Gotham City, their is a cave. Well six months ago it was just a cave, but now it was the entrance to Duela's lair. That is where the music came from, where the light emulated and where life that went down the road ended. Light flicked out of the cave in a red beam but inside is the door guarded by clowns. They stood guard, guns in their hands and did not dare move. They knew who was behind the door, and when they heard a groan and something hitting the floor, they knew they could not react. It would make her mad.

Red, purple and green disco lights shone over the walls in the dimmed room. Her large stereo was playing some fun disco music as she laid on the bed. Her feet swung in the air as she laid on her front, leading up a purple set of silk pajamas on her skin and to her face. A face that anyone would remember. A thick layer of make-up settled on her face, making her pale white with a tin of blue. Her lips coated with bright red lip stick and her wild red hair tied in pig tails. Duela was nearly ready for bed, but had to finish her homework. She bit her lip as she thought about the chem equation. Though passed the paint covered walls and wardrobe was the body at the door. Laying on the ground, it loosk as if his neck was broken. Blood dripped from his mouth as a knife sat in his forehead and stab wounds was revealed on his chest. This clown interrupted Duela without knocking but she had no choice.

"Ahh!". She got the answer and giggling to herself wickedly she wrote down the formula. She was finished. It wasn't just the answer to the homework, but to her plan. She was so tired of her usual attack plans, but she wanted something fresh. Something that might really get the attention of Joker. It involved a few gas tanks, poison gas and a jet. Why not rocket gas tanks and not only blow up some of the greatest buildings in Gotham, but send out a poison gas to kill the civilians. Just something to pass the weekend. Standing, Duela was so excited she ran on the spot for a second but then looked to the dead body. Her expression changed. She was not happy anymore.

Her carpet was dirty now......

A pissed off teen then smashed her hand onto the stop button and turned to the door. Carpet had to come later, but first she had to find out what the message was. Not that she was regretting killing him, but Juggles would know what the message was. "JUGGLES!!!!". Gripping onto the back of the dead clowns shirt, she groaned as she dragged him across the carpet and to the door. Juggles was supposed to be their now, this was just silly. But he wasn't. Standing up, she then went to kick the door open but then it was knocked down for her. Smashing through the door was Juggles, him yelling as he flew passed Duela and smashed through the stereo system.

"Juggles! You broke my stereo". She growled towards her side-kick but then realized that he must have been attacked. So turning, she looked into the lounge room to witness someone. Was it a vigilante? Was it a villain? It was someone trying to piss of this clown-girl. So pulling out her lipstick tube she then pulled off the cap and put her finger onto the button, ready to fire. Was this person for real? "Breaking into someone's home and hurting their pretty little henchy? That's bad manners".

[saxman59]

Roman couldn't believe the unprofessionalism of these guards. Standing all together in a group around the door, with weapons at their sides, uncocked, and beginning to show the first signs of weariness. If these men were in HIS outfit, he wuld have killed them all on the spot. Not that he wouldn't right now, but it comforted him to say it.

Raising the silenced rifle, he put the first bullet through the head of the guard on the outside gave Roman a sort of sick pleasure. Something about the sight of brains on the side of a wall got his heart going. The beauty of it was that the other thugs didn't even notice anyhting was amiss until the dead guard began to slide down the wall. Now they were distracted. Were these people even trained?

Roman dispatched guards two and three in the same manner. Now the guards were getting fanatical. One managed to raise his gun and get off one shot. Just one. Firing more rounds is harder than on might think when one's head has been spontaneously disconnected from one's neck. Roman grimaced, anticipating whoever was behind the door to come out guns-a-blazing, but whoever it was didn't seem to notice. Probably because of all that loud music.

Roman killed nearly all the other guards, except one, who managed to shoulder his way into the room that so recently he had been protecting. Discarding his rifle, Roman pulled the .50 calibre Desert Eagle from his shoulder holster, cocked it, and proceeded to make his way to the door. It was time to see for himself if the rumors were true; that some female who looked an awful lot like the Joker had been intruding on Black Mask's turf.

His hate of clowns aside (stemming from a bad childhood memory), Roman didn't like ANYONE intruding on his turf. ESPECIALLY on who tried to hide his face behind a lot of white make-up.

Checking his overly-large handgun again, Roman strolled into the room behind the door...

[icharliei]

The black mask looked towards her, gun at the ready and wasting no time. Duela at first held the lip stick gun towards him and was ready to fire. He angry facd on, he smile disapaited and finding it rude they broke into her home. And without an invitation. How dare they? She had been here for no time at all and by the dead bodies sitting on the lounge room floor, he wasn't here for a tea party. But he was no vigilante, at least none that she had ever seen. And as a former-titan she knew most. He was bad, dead bad and blood thirst like her. Maybe she shouldn't kill this guy, maybe they could make a pairing.

Lowering her lip stick, she smiled at the man and stuck it in her pocket. A smile spread across her face again as she lent down and ripped out the blade from the clown's head she had killed before. His brains were dripping off the blade as she looked at it and she smiled widely. Teath showing she then swung the blade in her hand. ''Sorry, if I had know you were coming I would have baked a cake''. She then stabbed the knife into the wall, holding it their. She heard Juggles awakening. At least he could handel recruiting more clowns, maybe some with some skill this time.

''So I suspect your here searching for little ol' me right? Well let me introduce myself. I am Duela Dent, and if my guesses are correct you are Black Mask? Can I get you anything?''. Sending a hard clap, her cooks and servants came out. They were scared, having have heard the commotion but then turned on the lights for the bar. An arrangement of drinks were there, and she smiled towards him. He first thought, wonder what was behind the mask. Second thought, maybe tonight was going to be better then she thought.

[saxman59]

Not many people saw Roman with his Mask off. The only times he ever took it off was to eat or torture someone. He decided to try and intimidate this girl by showing his true face.

Reaching up slowly and deliberatly, he pried the mask off his face. Underneath the carved exterior was a face that sent most people in hysterics. Covering his face were scars that would have put the Joker's to shame. Every sigle square inch of his face was covered with long, deep red and purple scars, courtesy of Batman. But the most frightening thing were his eyes. The acidic chemical that had scarred his face had turned the whites, pupils, and irisis of his eyes had turned a deep red. He normally wore lenses that reverted them back to their icy blue, but had decided against it today. He liked it when people saw his face and red eyes. People often screamed about seeing the face of the devil.

Watching for a reaction in the girl's eyes, he sipped a large tumbler of scotch. "I don't like cake. Almost as much as I don't like clowns." Roman was using this tactic to try and intimidate and infuriate her. Hopefully she would let slip some sort of information.

"What you can do for me is tell me why in the seven hells are you invading my turf? I'm the boss of this city, and I don't like people invading. So I give you an ultimatem. Get the hell out, or I make you."

Roman hoped that his tactic was working...

[icharliei]

Trying to be dark, mysterious and scary. Little did this guy know that they were three of Duela's favourite qualities in a man. His shady charm and anger towards her did not ward her off, but she was appealed by it. And then he reached up and took off the mask. As it was taken off of his face, Duela couldn't explain it. Scars, gashes and those eyes. Red eyes like her lips. In a way she envied him, but mostly she wanted him. A common person would have seen it and ran away hiding under their beds clutching their knees and suffering week long trauma. But Duela couldn't take the smile off of her face as she moved closer to get a better look.

"Where have you been all my life?". She said with a giggle as she moved over to the bar as he took a sip of a drink. He then expressed his dislike for clowns and she looked around at the dead bodies as she drank a shot of vodka. "Don't worry, I have noticed. So what does that mean hunky, that you don't like me". A smile spread across her face as she shot again and then stood up and walked over to a fosit on the wall. Blood was splattered over the white but she didn't care, she ran the warm water and reached for a cloth. If he could take off his mask, then so could she. So she ran the cloth over her face, and the makeup was coming off easily. She scrubbed as the green cloth became white with red smudges. Turning to him, she revealed herself.

Slightly tanner skin, a nicer smile and looked normal, not white and not looking crazy. Though some spots remained, but she returned to her drinks. She wondered what he was thinking. If she would make an efficient ally or that he should kill her as soon as possible? He expressed this about turf. What he had to realize is that it was the twenty-first century. Things didn't work that way no more. "No, please". She then rose and walked around him, running a hand across his back as she made a circle and stopped in front of him. She smiled down at him sexily. She was using her seduction, and just hoped it would work. "You know, I could be far more usable then you think. I am dangerous - I am lethal - and I will kill anyone. So what I was thinking was that we could start... a pairing". She said and then had another drink, pacing around him slowly and seductively.

[saxman59]

]Roman hadn't had a lover until his last one mysteriously fell out of a window moments after signing her life insurance policy. Most curious.

However, Roman knew how to play with emotions. Slumping dejectedly, Roman spoke in the most pitiful voice he could muster. It wasn't easy. "What woman could ever love me? Who could love the Devil himself? The Devil know's no love?" Technically speaking, Roman couldn't cry. The acid had dissolved his tear ducts. But that didn't stop him from making a damn good act.

Cracking his fingers, he looked on to see the clown girl's reaction. He hadn't felt love in a long time, but there was a strange attraction he felt towards her. She certainly wasn't an ugly girl. Indeed, she was a very pretty girl without her makeup on. Perhaps that was what got him; the white contrasting the black cruelty of the mask HE wore.

Still putting on the charade of pitiful shame, he played his cards. "I'm sorry about your guards," he said, not feeling the slightest bit guilty. "I've just been alone for so long. Perhaps it is the time to get more allies. It could be so much better than working alone." True, it could be better than working alone; but then again, it may not. "But first, you'll have to prove yourself," stated Roman, an evil smile crossing his face. "How would you like to help me spring the Joker?