Author's Note: This is also posted over on AO3 with cover art and title graphics for each chapter if anyone is interested. It can be found under the name PinkRabbitPro
Chasing Fog
Prologue
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
– Carl Sandburg
Alfred Pennyworth had never been prone to panic.
But as he pulled up to a warehouse in the poorest section of Gotham, he felt his heart slam into overdrive and his palms start to sweat. Dim reflections of fire could be seen flickering through the high windows of the long abandoned building in front of him. It wasn't much, obviously still small and controllable, but if the flames grew and got out of control...
A shudder slid through him and he let his gaze swing right then left. Ramshackle warehouses full of old wood and chest high weeds bounded on one side, while abandoned tenements housed equally abandoned souls on the other. Transients in needs of a temporary cover and the truly poverty stricken—singles and families alike—had taken up illegal residence to carve out slightly safer, more stable lives than they might face elsewhere.
If the fires spread, it would be a conflagration with a high human cost.
He glanced down at the phone in hand with its cryptic text giving this address. It expressly told him not to enter, but it didn't tell him not to call for help.
He dialed 911, then had to fight with the dispatcher who insisted he was out in the county and it wasn't the city's problem. More like the city would just as soon be rid of the eyesore, and if a few people died, well, they were mostly poor and criminals anyway.
It took the threat that Bruce Wayne wasn't likely to be happy with the scandal that would occur and might well take all his lovely money and leave town to light a fire under them.
So to say.
That done, he stumbled from the Lexus, staring with great trepidation, well aware there was nothing more he could do. He was still standing there when a late model sedan pulled up, and a striking blonde shot out.
"Bruce!" she called out and would have run toward the fire if he hadn't intercepted her.
"It's too dangerous," he warned her as he caught her shoulders and held her back.
"I saw what happened on the news...Dick...Jim...he'll be—"
"Eliza, you can't go in there," Alfred insisted. "He's got Joker cornered."
"Oh god...Bruce...he'll kill him."
"I believe that's his plan," Alfred admitted.
"He won't survive that..."
()()()()()()()()
Fists pounded, bashing into flesh and bone until everything was broken and bloody. Even when he knew he should stop, that he'd won and it was over, he hit again and again. It wasn't until his own body was failing that he realized that enough time had passed that it should have all ended in conflagration. He dropped the body, barely aware of the wet thud it made as it hit.
He looked up, his thought processes reduced to the feral by agony, alcohol, and exhaustion until he was barely even human.
Breathing hard, he staggered to his feet, everything else feet forgotten as his eyes fell on the slender figure on the opposite end of the room. She was focused on pulling apart the explosives he'd set. She yanked the last timer free of a brick of plastique and was about to crush it when he let out a low, inhuman growl.
"Catwoman."
Tension rippled through Cat Kyle's slender frame and she looked up. "Batman." She ducked her head in acknowledgment and tossed the brick of plastic explosive one direction, the primer and timing module the other. Without the primer, the explosives would only smolder if the fire flickering around the edges of the room reached them. Full lips curled into a disgusted snarl as she glared. "If you want to commit suicide, at least have the decency to take giggles there—" she nodded to indicate the Joker's prone figure "—and go jump off a bridge instead of taking a quarter of the city with you."
Another enraged growl escaped his lips, but he ignored her comment to demand, "Were you working for him?" It almost made sense. She'd be the perfect one to play nice, then deliver the enemy's head on a plate. And god knew she'd played nice and the enemy had gotten plenty of heads...Jim, Barbara...Dick...had been served up like...
He couldn't finish the thought as images of blood and gore flashed in his head.
She flinched as though struck and shook her head. "No—"
"So how did you find us here then?" he demanded, not believing her, not when she was what she was. She was a liar from the start, and if she'd been working for Joker, it made everything make sense and absolved him of so many sins. That she sounded so appalled at the idea was just one more acting job. Not even a very good one in his opinion.
"Dr. Harleen Quinzel...Harley Quinn...my shrink tried to kill me earlier tonight. She thought I was working for you." She tracked him carefully, pivoting as he circled her, his body language that of a predator on the hunt.
"And I think you're working for him," he accused, putting extra emphasis on the last word.
She backed up a step, stomach knotting with fear at the deadly serious note in his voice. "No."
He laughed, a dark and bitter sound. "Lying bitch." What business did she have being alive when other, better people were food for worms? No more time for words.
He leapt.
Even with some idea that he wasn't stable, she didn't expect the sudden attack and barely dodged his swinging fists. She darted sideways and felt the breeze as he hurtled past her, but he reversed and spun back around, quickly lashing out again.
Even beat to hell and pure human, he was a better fighter than she was.
This time a glancing blow caught her cheek and whipped her head around hard enough she nearly went down. A boot to the ribs sent her flying and she used her momentum to roll to her feet, then kicked off again to bound high into the rafters.
He roared in fury, but couldn't easily follow, buying her a moment or two to catch her breath and try to plan.
She'd smelled the alcohol on his breath and seen the madness in his eyes. She wasn't his enemy, but that didn't matter now. Nightwing and Jim Gordon dead, Batgirl maybe dying, he'd lost too much, too quickly. He was a badly wounded animal and the whole world was his enemy.
She'd been there and knew too well how insane a body could get.
Her gaze swung to touch on the Joker where he lay unmoving and bloody, probably dead. Batman had clearly taken some revenge, but it wasn't enough to salve the pain. No quarter would be given to anyone he perceived as on the other side.
She thought about running. It was her nature. She was thief, not a hero. But if she ran and he put the explosives back together to finish destroying Joker's lair...
No, she couldn't live with that.
Then he grabbed something from his belt and hurled it her way.
Knowing his bag of tricks, she leapt away. The flashbang went off behind her, but it knocked her forward, left her ears ringing and forced her off the high ground.
Just like he wanted.
Cat hit the floor and stumbled. She recovered quickly, but not before he caught up with her and slammed a fist into her body. Half blind and deaf, she reacted on instinct, spinning back to deliver a solid fist to the face. She followed with a right cross that drove him to his knees, buying her time to dart away. Unfortunately, he was back up faster than she'd hoped and hurtling after her, wild rage in his eyes.
She mostly dodged the next pass, but he tore her goggles free, ripped her hood and left deep scratches at her temple that streamed blood. She bounded away again and on landing, pivoted back to face a man who looked more like a creature out of a nightmare than a cloaked protector of the city. "You're better than this," she panted her voice rougher than she wanted it to be as she tried to reach him. "Hell, I'm better than this."
He snorted, lips twisted into an angry mockery of a smile and he spat a single word. "Whore."
A flinch shook her and green eyes reflected hurt before the emotion was hidden behind high emotional walls. "Okay than," she exhaled, her tone flattening out as she fought not to lose her own temper. That was the last thing they needed. "We're gonna go for the bloodletting option."
"It's always been a bloodletting in this city—"
"No." One hand held out in a calming motion, she carefully backed away. "It doesn't have to be." She glanced over her shoulder toward the tenement where people sat unsuspecting. "There are people in those buildings...families—"
"Did even one of them try to help Dick when he was bleeding out?" He saw no reason to hide names now.
"If those bombs go off, they'll burn," she reminded him desperately.
His chin dropped and his eyes slid closed.
For just a moment, she thought she'd finally gotten through to him.
Then he whispered, "We're all going to burn anyway."
His voice was so soft it took her an extra moment to parse the words and by the time she did, it was almost too late. He'd leapt and was nearly on her. Inhumanly fast reflexes almost saved her. She kicked off, bounding high, but he expected the maneuver this time and a hand shot out. He grabbed her ankle and yanked.
Cat hit the floor hard. Teeth gritted, she rolled to a crouch, intending to leap again.
A solid right connected with her jaw before she had a chance, rocking her head to one side. She was still trying to regain her balance when another meaty fist slammed into her temple. This time she flew, hit hard and lay unmoving.
He staggered forward, cape and cowl torn, gauntlets shredded, knuckles broken and bleeding. As he stood over her, she rolled onto her back and stared up, not as bloody as he was, but bloody enough. With a pained groan, she stared up at him. "So I have to die too?" she croaked.
Lips curled into a snarl, he dropped to one knee and grabbed the front of her costume. He cocked his fist back. She was just like the rest of the scum of the earth, maybe worse given how cheaply she'd sold herself, and for that, she needed to pay.
"You're supposed to be a hero," she whispered, her breathing wet and strained, tears in her eyes. "Batman, the caped crusader, defender of the night."
He glanced back at the body a short distance away, white face and green hair lost in a wave of crimson blood. "I'm just one more killer now."
The sadness in her eyes only deepened in intensity. "I'd hoped..." she began and shook her head.
"Thieves don't get to hope," he snarled and swung with all his strength.
This time she didn't just dodge, she fought back. Her hand snapped up and she caught his fist in an inhumanly strong grip. For a brief moment they were almost nose to nose, then she squeezed and the sound of bone cracking echoed. In the next instant, she pushed upright and slammed her free hand into his sternum to send him flying. He'd made the mistake of forgetting that while she wasn't Superman, she wasn't exactly the girl next door either. Moving slower than normal, but moving, she pushed to her feet. "I didn't want this..." she exhaled as she settled herself.
Focused on the fight ahead, she never noticed the small figure that slipped in through the loading doors, or the flames reflected in wide eyes.
()()()()()()()()
"God, Alfred, we have to do something," Eliza Danvers insisted, trembling a little harder with every sound that echoed from the warehouse. "It sounds like—"
"I know," he admitted. "But Master Bruce would never forgive me if I allowed you to come to harm. You and Alex mean—"
"Alex!" Eliza suddenly exploded into motion, rushing back to the car as she remembered her daughter sleeping in the back.
The driver's side rear door was open and the back seat was empty.
"Oh God, how could I—"
"No," Alfred insisted as he caught her by the arms, though for the first time there was doubt in his eyes. "You can't help her by rushing in and getting hurt."
"You think I give a damn when my daughter could be in danger?" She looked back toward the warehouse where the flames were licking ever higher and raw sounds of combat could be heard. And with Alex's fascination with Batman and combat...
Eliza shuddered in raw horror. "She'll go after him..." she whispered.
For the first time in a very long time, Alfred panicked.
()()()()()()()()
Catwoman dodged another swing, darting sideways in an effort to get around Batman's broad frame.
He sidestepped, easily blocking her.
Green eyes flashing, she leapt sideways to avoid his swing, and kicked off the nearest wall, then ping ponged between walls, gaining momentum until she was in position to come back around and slam into his upper back.
He grunted a furious curse and stumbled.
She struck again as he started to fall, then swept his feet out from under him, deliberately toppling the big man. He went down hard, but got a foot up to slam a boot into her thigh hard enough to leave a waffle pattern pressed into her flesh.
She staggered backward, arms pinwheeling to regain her balance, giving him enough time to regain his feet. With the fire getting worse and her own body on the verge of failing, she couldn't do this much longer. She had to end it quickly. No more trying to reach him.
Fists up, he staggered forward.
She attacked in a brutal flurry of punches and kicks that knocked him back, then took him down.
She fell back a step, hoping to see some measure of sanity in his eyes. As his chin tipped up and he glared, she didn't. Catwoman braced herself. This was going to get ugly. She was about to unleash every bit of hell she could summon when a scream cut through the night.
"NO!" A slight figure ran from the shadows.
It was so sudden, Cat froze, but Batman reacted on pure instinct. He rolled to a crouch and his fist cocked back, too far gone to see past the instinct to strike out at anything that moved.
And Cat moved, grabbing the girl and spinning to shield her even as she heard the child scream.
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM!"
Then teeth dug into her forearm, probably hard enough to draw blood and tennis shoe clad feet began hammering into her instep. Someone had taught her a trick or two because that move was straight out of a dozen self defense guides.
Cat barely felt it. She was too busy bracing against the expected impact of his fists crashing into her body.
When several beats passed and it didn't happen, she risked a look over her shoulder.
Batman was standing no more than a foot or two away, his hands dangling at his sides, staring at the girl pummeling Cat in an effort to get free.
"Alex?" he asked uncertainly.
For the first time since arriving she saw a man in his eyes instead of a rabid animal. The girl in her arms bit down harder and started hammering at any body parts she could reach, but Cat couldn't take her eyes away from Batman, hopeful, but nowhere near ready to trust.
His hand rose and he would have reached out to the girl, but Cat snarled a soft warning sound, unable to forget what he'd been only moments before.
"I won't..." he whispered and trailed off as he did a slow pivot, looking around himself with an expression of horror. He staggered and looked like a man still caught between a nightmare and waking, as though he wasn't quite sure what was real and what wasn't. "I-I—"
"ALEX!" A woman's yell interrupted anything else he might have said.
Batman's head snapped up and his stance shifted, no longer predatory, nor confused, but taking on the broad, protective stance that was his norm. "Eliza, stay back!" he called back. "She's safe!"
"Really?" a high pitched drawl cut through the air.
Hero and thief both spun toward the sound.
Joker.
Still alive if only just barely. So bloody that green hair and white skin were hardly visible for all the crimson, he wavered on his feet as he proudly held up the reassembled explosive he had put together from what Cat had tossed aside.
They'd made the mistake of presuming he was dead and losing track of him in the excitement.
Never a wise move.
He peered at Batman and giggled. "Had a bad day, have you?" Another giggle. "I told you you were just one bad day away from being me."
The caped crusader glanced over at Catwoman. "Get her out of here," he ordered with a sharp head jerk.
She didn't argue, just grabbed the kid, teeth and all, and ran.
Something small and vaguely toylike appeared on her planned exit route. Experience told her it was trouble. She leapt high, caught a rafter one handed, and swung up, bounded off another rafter and ran along a ledge. The girl's squirming threatened to throw her balance, but she muscled on and dove through an open window frame, grateful the glass was long gone. She hit the slanted roof on the outside and skidded several yards before she hit enough of a ledge to get stopped.
Somewhere nearby she heard a man's voice, "Eliza, please. We don't know—"
"I heard him, Alfred. He said Alex is safe."
"Here," Catwoman called down as she ran along a ledge, then bounded to the ground near the pair. She yanked her bloodied forearm free and shoved the girl at the woman who grabbed hold with desperate strength. "Your problem now," she growled. "Get back from here...bomb inside," she added between hard pants. She spun back, intending to return for the fight or whatever it might be.
"Wait," the elderly man said sharply enough that she spun back. "What about Batman?"
"He's alive, but so's Joker. And Joker has a bomb." She straightened and made a shooing gesture. "Now get back."
Sirens could be heard in the distance.
"Guide the firetrucks in...it's easy to get lost around here." She pointed at the tenements. "And warn the people in those buildings...if that warehouse goes up..." She shook her head and a hard shudder slid through her, then she was leaping high, almost flying as she returned to the fray through the windows she'd used to escape.
"Alfred?" Eliza spun toward Bruce's butler, her tone asking a dozen questions at once.
"For the moment, we do as she said," he decided out loud after no more than a moment's thought. Whatever side the thief was playing for, the warehouse was burning and the tenements were firetraps full of people. She wasn't wrong about that, so it had to take precedence.
"No," Alex broke in. "She attacked Bruce. She was trying to kill him," the girl insisted. "I saw." She tried to pull away, but her mother held on tight. "We have to go after her and help him."
Despite the temptation to do exactly that, Eliza shook her head. Bruce knew what he was doing and there were too many innocent lives on the line—not the least of them her daughter's. "No," she said turning back toward the sound of sirens, and tracking the lights in the distance. Well aware of Alex's headstrong tendency to ignore orders, she kept a firm grip on her as she made a decision. "We need to make sure people are safe." She shoved Alex into her car, keeping a firm hand clamped on her arm. "I'll make sure the rescue vehicles get here," she said as she climbed in. "You start warning people."
Alfred nodded, grateful she'd opted to move herself and her daughter away from the possible disaster, though he flinched as he heard Alex insist, "But, Mom, he's too old to..." He was rather relieved when the rest of whatever the girl said faded into engine sounds and the night.
He paused for a moment to consider the best way to get things moving, then finally leaned into the Lexus, armed the alarm, locked up and used a rock to smash the driver's side window.
God bless Master Bruce and his tendency to tinker because the resulting alarm was deafening. It was only moments before he saw signs of movement in the nearest of the condemned buildings and heard angry shouts.
Now he just had to explain the situation without being beaten senseless.
()()()()()()()()
Slipping back into the warehouse on silent feet, Cat stuck to the shadows as she stared down at the scene below.
Batman stood braced, but visibly wavered on his feet. If he had to move fast, she seriously doubted he could. Joker, meanwhile, was even worse off. Barely standing, unable to hold the explosives up, he'd let them drop low in front of his as he toyed with the primer. Really, the only thing that was the same was the mad, taunting smile and the crazed giggle. God, she hated gigglers.
She wondered if she just waited long enough if they might both just fall over unconscious...or dead. At that precise moment, she was fairly okay with either option. Villains and heroes were too damn much alike for her comfort. Still, with her luck, they'd manage to set things off on the way down.
She shifted enough to get a look at the timer. Five seconds. Not much time. She could probably leap down, and get the primer free before Joker could do anything, but if she bet wrong...
Her hand just barely brushed her abdomen and she found herself unusually indecisive, even afraid. She was still debating when the car alarm went off outside, the din enough to make her want to cover extra sensitive ears.
Down below, Joker looked up and grinned. "Oooh, that symphony calls for a percussion section." He held up the explosive as he thumbed the button the timer. "Boom," he said happily.
No more time to debate.
She leapt.
She heard the Joker's appalled complaint as he saw her. "No fair!"
She'd barely landed when she grabbed Batman's arm, hauled him across her shoulders and leapt again.
It would have to be heroic enough.
She hit a rafter, bounded again, adrenaline adding to her strength and speed as she carried the nearly unconscious hero along for the ride. She reached the window and risked a quick glance back. She saw Joker scream as the explosion began.
She had the impression he simply evaporated in the millisecond before she leapt again.
She hit corrugated steel and bounded high and far, hit cracked and weedy cement and ran. Then finally, no longer feeling heat on her back, she spun back. Burning debris started falling on all sides—bits of the roof, and by the look of it maybe bits of Joker too.
She lowered her human burden to the cement, her own body suddenly trembling violently as the adrenaline rush began to fade, leaving her jittery and weak.
The elderly man from before rushed up. He was talking, but her hearing was blown from being so close to the explosion, leaving everything sounding like she was listening to the adults from a Peanuts cartoon while under water. He dropped down next to Batman, visibly worrying over the hero, who seemed to be at least mildly responsive.
Then a car pulled up and the pretty blonde tumbled out, her eyes scared. She was talking too, but Cat couldn't hear her any more than she could the man. She knew the deafness was probably just a brief effect from the blast, that it would probably fade with time, but it was disconcerting all the same.
Then the girl, older than Cat had initially realized, climbed out. She didn't say a word, just glared. Cat barely resisted the urge to offer a wicked grin just to tweak the little brat. Most people said thank you to someone who'd saved their life. Not this one.
She smirked, then winced as the movement pulled painfully at bruised and split flesh.
The woman and what appeared to be the family butler were pulling at Batman's limp frame, clearly trying to get him up and into the back seat of the car ahead of the fire engines headed their way, but the big man was much too heavy for the two and too far gone to offer any help.
Cat couldn't have said why, but she stepped over, and wordlessly hauled him up and all but tossed him in across the back seat. When she turned back, it was to find them all staring at her like some kind of freak.
Well, of course they were. She was a freak, she reminded herself. She had no place in their world and never had. She started to run, but the man caught her arm and pulled her back around. His mouth was moving, but with her hearing gone, she had no idea what he was saying.
He nodded to indicate the incoming caravan of vehicles.
Led by several police cars.
Cat yanked her arm back and shook her head, startled by the feeling of betrayal. Even now they wanted to lock her up?
He tried to grab her arm again and this time she sprang backwards, landing a good ten feet away.
He held up his hands and was shaking his head and saying something, but she had no idea what. Shaking her head, she spun and fled, bounding away into the night, every bit as skittish as her namesake.
()()()()()()()()
"Why did she run?" Eliza Danvers questioned Alfred as she stared after the shadowy thief.
He shook his head, genuinely nonplussed. "I don't know. I was trying to get her to wait so a paramedic could take a look, but..." He shrugged, then turned back toward the car. "Master Bruce?"
"The worst damage is his hands — they're in bad shape—but otherwise, I think it's mostly superficial." She watched rescue vehicles pull up, and men and women pile out to focus on the fire and any injuries. "We need to get him out of here...before someone sees that costume."
Alfred nodded. "Get in with him. I'll drive."
Eliza nodded, then glanced over in time to see Alex start to climb out of the passenger's seat. "In...now...seatbelt," she ordered sharply.
For once the girl simply did as told.
Eliza hurried to squeeze into the minimal space alongside the man in the back.
He blinked and stared at her as though he was afraid he'd lost his mind. "You're here," he exhaled. "How?"
"Doesn't matter," she whispered. "I'm not leaving again." She felt the sedan rumble to life.
He shuddered, turned his face into her body and wept.
()()()()()()()()
Cat watched the fire crews from a safe distance, a tenement rooftop close enough that she could see, but far enough that she could run if something went wrong. They were managing to slow the conflagration, but there would be no stopping it. Too much fuel, too much heat, and too little water pressure meant it would all burn. The only question was the human loss.
She was relieved to see people flooding out of the building and moving away. Public services might not be much help, but the forgotten poor were aiding each other, sometimes even carrying their fellows as they fled the advancing fire.
Crouched there, alone and utterly forgotten, she watched the flames advance. They would move until they hit the big freeway, she realized. That would be the firebreak that would keep it from the nice parts of town. She looked back at the fire crews, noting their plan and realizing they were already counting on it going that way.
Soon she would have no choice but to flee or burn. Her hand just barely brushed her still flat stomach and she tipped her gaze skyward just as a long streak of fire blazed across the sky, seeming to burn longer than a normal falling star.
She took it as a sign. "I wish I may, I wish I might," Cat exhaled, settling her hand more firmly against her abdomen, her decision made. This baby was magic from here forward. It would be hers alone with a wish on a falling star for a father. "Keep us both safe tonight."
And she flitted away into the night...
()()()()()()()()