The Count meets with the Penguin

Dracula didn’t have long to wait before he was led upstairs to the office of the iceberg lounge, a large room built opulently with a fireplace on one side surrounded by rich leather seating, fine wooden furnishings and an overhead painting of what appeared to be a noble and wealthy looking couple with a short and stout child standing between them. Against the other wall was a large heavy wooden desk where Oswald Cobblepot sat behind. His two secretaries going over details silently with the man as he looked down from his vantage through the dark panelled windows that oversaw his club.

Every bit of the room gave the appearance of wealth and success, mixed with the sensibility of a business owner who busily overlooked his stock and resources. Already he could tell a difference between this ‘Penguin’ and the Riddler.

“So, you’re the one that’s calling himself Dracula eh?” Chuckled the short, overweight man, turning around to face the vampire count and flicking ash off the tip of his cigarette pipe. “Normally I’d have thrown out a loon like you out of me club, just like any of those other straight-jacket wearing tosses’ from Arkham, but then you went and thrown Bane across the room… That’s not easy.” Replied the Penguin in his thick Cockney accent.

Offered a seat at the desk and surrounded by four men from behind who with some anxiouty, had their hands close to their side pistols. Dracula smirked at the show of protection the Penguin hired for himself. “It disappoints me that no matter what century I find myself, the manners of the common rabble become more and more brash, as if they never knew how to behave towards a count.” Answered Dracula, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back into the silk and leather chair he sat in. “YOU on the other hand I see have exquisite taste, but the manners still...”

“Excuse me for not bowing in my own castle, your highness, so what brings the ol’ bloodsucker to MY end of the city? You lookin for fun? Booze? A couple o tight birds to keep you company for the night? Be sure not to give’m any bite marks on the neck, I prefer me merchandise to not be missin a pint o blood in em.”

Hearing the Penguin’s crew chuckle at their boss’s jab at the man sitting across the desk, Dracula gave the two women standing at either side of the Penguin a quick look, it gave the undead king a smirk to see them give the count an appraising look before Dracula returned his attention to the small man behind the desk. “I am in need of a new sanctuary, I was originally seated with the Enigma gentleman until he lost his wits, and his home.”

Laughing out loud and slapping his gloved hand against the desk, Penguin nearly lost his cigarette pipe laughing out loud. “You went and bunked with that green blowhard?! I thought you were crazy, but I didn’t take you for a twat!” With the rest of his crew now laughing out loud, the Penguin finally calmed himself down. “All fur coat and no trousers that one, I can’t stand him for a minute.”

“I will agree, his ego did take up the entire room, there was hardly any room at all for anything else.” Answered the Count, observing the four men still surrounding him, now lax after the bout of hysterics. “But he did well to provide me food and shelter… And information.”

“Oh? What kind?”

“That you weren’t a fool, that you owned more than a third of the underground criminal element in the city, and that you only bring in the best to your establishments, whether it be your stock, staff OR your guests… By the way, forgive my inquiry but WHY call yourself the Penguin of all things?!”

Smiling in a new light now and lighting a new cigarette to his pipe, the Penguin leaned back. “Penguins are funny birds they is, by the way they waddle and squawk about, you’d never think they’d be top oh the food chain where they’s from… Until you trip in the icy waters, then they’re swimming circles around ya like sharks.”

Leaning back in his own chair with a toothy smile of his own, Dracula began to like the little man smirking back at him.

“A lot of two-timers and would-be upstarts learned that lesson after I fitted them with concrete boots for an evening swim, so whatcha want ol Count?”

“I intent to live here… So, to speak.”

“Well I’m not a hotel, and talk is cheap, so unless you got something worth my attention, me boys will show you the backdoor with a slug in the back oh your head.”

Slowly getting up from his seat, Dracula moved to the front of the desk, his smirk never leaving his fanged lips even after he heard the armed men behind him pull out their firearms and aim at his back. Reaching back to the inside of his coat, Dracula pulled free what appeared to be a small golden monument, etched in Arabic and crowned with the crescent moon at its plinth. “When the Turks invaded my lands… And I reclaimed them, they left many treasures behind, my coffers are full of the gold and wealth of kingdoms who made the folly of attempting to claim mine. Have we a deal?”

Picking the heavy golden object off his desk and examining it more closely with his monocle, the Penguin looked back at the well-dressed young man standing before him and made a slight gesture with his hand. Instantly Dracula could hear the men behind him put their weapons away. “Boys give our guest the VIP suite.”

Smiling more broadly and giving the Penguin a curtseyed bow, Dracula left the office room with the guards in tow. Taking a puff of his cigarette pipe, Candy leaned in close so only her employer could hear her. “I thought you didn’t like crazies’ baby, why let THAT one in?”

“Oy, all sixes and sevens that one.” Scoffed Tracy, yet her attention was still on the Count after he left, and the alluring glint in his ruby eyes.

“Girls… Take a GOOD look at this and tell me if it says, ‘made in China’.” Handing the statue over to Candy, the woman nearly yelped when she felt its weight in her hands. “He may be a kook, but THAT thing is real gold… Keep an eye on’him.”