Author's note: Characters maybe a little OC, but I'm trying to make them seem a little more real. There will be cussing, sexual innuendo and situations in the future; you are forewarned. Any mention of the Catitat is copyrighted to chris dee at: /u/22266/chrisdee (I dont' know how to do the link thing, heh).
..ooOoo..
Chapter 1
"Cause you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no…
You wrong when it's right
It's black and it's white
We fight, we break up
We kiss, we make up" Katy Perry "Hot N Cold"
It began like all the others, but it was so unlike their numerous other encounters that he should have noticed right away. He didn't.
One minute he was silently crouched in the shadow of a gargoyle, watching the Joker cackle and circle around his handful of hostages, murder in his eyes. Then he heard the familiar click of heels and suddenly she was behind him, a small hand brushing his shoulder.
"Hey tall, dark and handsome," she teased weakly, but her voice lacked the 'come hither' sexual lace it was usually overflowing with.
He shrugged off her touch, not even bothering to spare her a glance.
"Not now Selina," he growled out, his voice as unforgiving as stone.
Emerald eyes flickered in the spaces between her mask and her red mouth dipped down.
"Bats, listen," she began again, her voice almost desperate.
"Later Catwoman," the Batman barked, and then took his chance to enter the fray, shooting off his fancy bat thing and diving off the roof swinging in an arc.
Selina Kyle moved forward to peer over the roof's edge as her once lover careened into the Joker, snatching the large gun from the maniac's unstable hands.
Harley on cue snuck from the shadows, a bazooka precariously balanced on her thin shoulder as she skipped to find a place to kneel. Selina closed her eyes briefly, quelled a sickening sourness that was rising from her stomach and unhinged her whip from her hip. With a casual flick the weapon snapped lethally across the rooftops and caught a kitty corner street light. Selina jerked her wrist back minutely and the whip curled back to wrap around the pole. One quick tug to assure her of its security and she followed her lover's suite, taking a flying leap off of the roof and soaring to the earth below.
Upon reaching the pole Selina let herself curl around it and slid down as if it was an oversized stripper pole. Harley knelt feet away, pink tongue stuck out in concentration as she jerked the bazooka left and right, trying to follow Batman's erratic movements as he took out the goons.
"Harley," Selina warned aloud and the little jester jerked in surprise.
"Cats?" the woman's heavy Jersey accent could have once been beautiful if it had been refined, but now it was only raised goose bumps along Selina's forearms in a 'nails down a chalkboard' feeling.
Selina weighed her options as Harley continued on, "You here to get a piece of the Bat? Shoulda called Pam, we'd a had a blast! Get it?!" Harley chortled shrugging the shoulder that carried the bazooka, "Blast!"
"You make me sick you idiot," Selina said her voice somewhere between scathing and pitying. The jester's crystal blue eyes flickered with anger for a moment, a sign of the intelligent woman behind the mask, and then only innocent confusion remained.
"Huh?"
Selina twisted to her left minutely and then swinging herself to the right, sent a well aimed, stiletto heeled kick to Harley's face. The point of her boot caught Harely under the chin and propelled the red and black clad woman up into the air and back, the bazooka falling to the ground with a loud crack.
As the Joker laughed maniacally in the background, running from Batman with surprising agility and barely concealed fear in his quick footsteps, one of his goons slid along the grimy pavement reaching for the large weapon at Selina's foot.
His face was horribly misshapen; face purple with bruises and nose broken painfully from Batman's powerful uppercut. Broken fingers reached shakingly towards the weapon and Selina's eyes hardened in anger.
"Not today, Charlie," the cat hissed softly and swiftly grabbing the gun, delivered a hard blow to the lackey's Neanderthal sized head. With the bazooka clutched tightly in one hand, Catwoman daintily stepped over fallen and groaning bodies, kicking some in the side and out of her way for good measure. She stopped, looking up to see Bruce throttling the Joker whose face was turning an odd shade of lavender under his powder white complexion.
"Watch it Bruce," Selina said under her breath, and in the next moment the Joker had pinched the flower on his lapel and sent its contents into the Batman's eyes.
Bruce coughed and dropped the villain, clawing at his eyes.
Selina shook her head and then made her way to the circle of hostages, all gagged with hands tied to their feet. Catwoman knelt beside a woman with overly large bangs that partially hid her watery brown eyes; Selina decided to name her Bad Bangs. Catwoman tenderly reached out and brushed the woman's chestnut hair out of her eyes, but the woman squealed behind her gag in terror, wide eyes on the bazooka still within the villainess' hand.
Selina set down the gun quickly, "I mean you no harm," she soothed, but the woman still shook like a leaf as Selina moved to the ties around her appendages.
Sighing in tired irritation, Selina studied the plastic ties quickly, appraising and then clenching her fists quickly flicked out her fingers sending the sharp blades at the end of her fingertips out.
"Looks like the claws are comin' out," the vinyl, black clad cat sighed, "This will be over shortly hon," Catwoman assured the shaking, pale woman and then reached for the ties.
BAM
Selina saw stars and she began to swiftly fall, slumping to the side in a boneless heap, pain bursting from her temple in a firework-like display.
"Now now Kitty-Cat, can't have you doing that!" he rhymed as if channeling the Riddler. "What did you do to my poor Harlequin?" he mused aloud, looking at his loyal sidekick's fallen form. The petite blonde's loud snores met his ears and he curled his mouth in distaste as he shot a hateful glare from her to the curvaceous woman at his feet.
Pulling his foot back, the Joker sent a rib cracking kick to Selina's fallen form.
"Now why would you go and do a thing like that, Selina ol' gal?" he asked aloud, bending over her form and planting a hard slap across her cheek.
"Wakey wakey, why oh why would you be helping the Bat, hm?" he toned again.
"Uh," Selina groaned sickly, blinking large eyes up at the multiple Jokers that stood over her. Did he just call her ol'gal? Bastard. Crazy, batshit, motherfucking clown…Isis, her head hurt.
"One's too many, much less three of you," she bemoaned, raising an arm to clutch at her throbbing head.
She paused minutely at the sharp pain that lanced through her at the action, but nevertheless tenderly grazed her head with her fingers, careful of the claws.
"You're helping the Bat, old girl, the ENEMY!" Joker growled angrily, stooping to be right up in her face.
"Jack, you need to get a breath mint," Selina informed him, her lips crinkling in distaste. She looked away from the eye watering smell and caught a flicker of moment, glancing back at the Joker, she smiled.
The clown's face fell into a visage of confusion just as a powerful arm wrapped around his neck and another wrenching the joker's arm back painfully between the two.
Selina took a deep breath and staggered to her feet, swaying, she fought to turn herself in the direction of the hostages once again, fighting the sickness in her stomach.
Oh great a concussion AND a cracked rib, ontop of everything else, the cat hissed mentally.
"Catwoman?" Batman asked brusquely, and for a moment her heart melted, because he asked. Because maybe he still cared.
Then the Joker threw his head back trying to break Bruce's nose and the dark knight jerked his head away from his inquired glance at her.
"Bruce," she whispered quietly, but it seemed as if no one heard her.
Stumbling to the hostages, Selina weaved to them as best she could and once again dropped to her knees in front of Bad Bangs.
This time the woman didn't quake with fear, only studied her with questioning eyes, as did her fellow hostages.
"One moment my dearies," Selina slurred, forgetting these were fleshy people, not sweet, furry felines.
She placed a quick hand to her temple to still her rolling vision and then once again set to work on the woman's ties.
After freeing the woman's legs and hands, Selina reached and tenderly untied the gag from the woman's mouth.
Bad Bang's spat and gagged for a moment before placing a shaky hand to her heart.
"You saved me," the woman whispered, shocked and brown eyes as big as small worlds looked imploringly at Selina.
"Don't think anything of it," the Catwoman huffed almost angrily and then began her work on the next hostage, a man with a nice salt and pepper beard, Meow.
"But…you're Cat…you're Catwoman. You're not supposed to be a good-guy…er, girl,"
"Well it's just you're lucky day then, isn't it?" Selina slurred again, and blinked rapidly trying to focus as she cut away the man's foot bindings.
"Thank you," the woman whispered, emotion making her voice thick as she reached out hesitantly to touch Selina.
Selina jerked to glare down at the hand that had brushed her shoulder and with her eyes followed the small hand up to the woman it was attached to.
"You're welcome," Catwoman said breathlessly, feeling her heart wrench painfully.
So this is what it was like…to be a hero.
"You're hurt," the woman worried, and her pale fingers stretched to point out the blood trickling from under Selina's cowl.
"So I am," the Catwoman stated grimly, but continued on her task until all hostages were free, rubbing their wrists and looking at her with wide, confused eyes.
The hostages moved about hugging themselves and each other, but then once again turned to her with wondering eyes, expectant of something.
"Sheep," Selina huffed under her breath.
She staggered once again back to her feet and like a fleet of lemmings the hostages followed, mimicking her movements and moving forward as she did.
"Well?" she asked irritably and was rewarded with six blank faces.
"Run you fools! The Joker got you once, he can do it again!" Catwoman snapped and all of their eyes went very wide before they began to break away and scurry like mice.
Selina fought another wave of sickness watching them go; watching people who were suddenly precious, infinitely so, flee to safety. Her emerald eyes flickered to watch as Batman pummeled the Joker's already swollen face. Laughing out loud sharply, Selina swayed dangerously on her feet.
Then arms were around her, but not the ones she expected, wanted.
Bad Bangs was hugging Selina's midsection with pathetic fervor and the pressure on her queasy stomach was very uncomfortable to say the least.
"Thank you Catwoman," the woman whispered and then stepped back. Selina blinked dazedly up. Bast, when the woman had been on the ground all tied up she had seemed so small, so frail, now Catwoman was the small one.
"Don't thank me; if you keep standing around here you're bound to get caught again. Go little mouse, shoo shoo," Selina's lips curled into a smile as she waved the woman off. As soon as the woman's heels stopped clicking within hearing range Selina licked her dry lips and tasted the copper tang of blood mixing with her scarlet lipstick.
"Lovely," she sighed and turned to carefully creep back home, one hand cradling her side.
Moments later she felt herself falling to the side and she quickly stumbled to a wall, falling against it. Sirens screeched and flashing lights had her mechanically turning, watching as the men in blue arrived. Ah, and there was Handsome, holding high the hog tied clown prince.
Slowly Batman set the Joker on the asphalt at the request of the good officers and spoke in gravely tones to them. Closing her eyes Selina savored the moment, the sound of his voice; she hadn't heard it in so long, while shutting out the wails of the sirens and the blinding lights.
Home, her heart whispered and blindly she once again turned to stumble back home.
..ooOoo..
"Thanks for all your help, Batman." Office O'Brien said, half sincere, half out of routine. Batman nodded silently and took in the scene around him, accented by the neon red and blue lights shining through the velvet night of Gotham.
His electric blue eyes, hidden behind his cowl caught on the plastic ties littering the ground in a small circle. The hostages…Selina.
He had forgotten her after Joker had tried to smash his face again...and she had looked a little worse for wear. Stepping back from the authorities he glanced around, trying to find any trace of the Cat, but she as always proved to be just as elusive as he when she didn't want to be found.
But he knew where she lived and with that thought Bruce turned himself in the direction of her penthouse.
"Master Bruce?" Alfred's voice crackled from inside the ear of his cowl.
Moving into the shadows and away from prying ears and eyes Batman responded, "Yes Alfred?"
"I trust everyone has been saved?" the Englishman asked dryly.
It took him a moment to answer, but his lips twitched in amusement, "Yes, Alfred."
"Well sir, I just thought I would remind you that you have a meeting with Lucius Fox and the board at five a.m. tomorrow."
"Thank you Alfred, I'll be home soon," Batman answered and then made his way to his car, the Cat forgotten.
..ooOoo..
Selina pushed open the sliding glass door with one hand, moaning and bitching the whole way.
Pulling herself up to the four story window of her penthouse on her whip with a cracked rib was a bitch. Isis she hurt.
Moaning more and louder for good measure, Selina pushed the door close behind her and stumbled to her inviting black, circular bed.
She tugged on her cowl and let it fall back between her shoulders as she shook her midnight black hair free. Surely it was a rat's nest, oh what was a girl to do?
Collapsing on her bed, Selina looked up at the dark violet ceiling, breathing heavily.
The bed dipped under five felines jumping on to inspect their subdued mistress.
"Mrow," one toned and Selena's large green eyes flickered to her left to see her beloved Isis nestled against her armpit.
"Oh but Mummy smells," she laughed tiredly.
"Meow," Bast called from between her feet, but Selina didn't have the strength to sit up and reward her precious with a glance.
The low rumbling purr of Shakespeare to her right had Selina closing her eyes, and she suddenly felt so very, very tired.
She thought of the ink black cat to her left, the calico between her legs, the tabby to her right and then Antony and Cleopatra who were currently making their way to cuddle and curve about her head.
Selina opened emerald eyes once more and stared at nothing, eyes shining in the darkness.
"Bruce," she whispered to the darkness.
But no shadows took shape, and she smiled brokenly. Softly, she began to laugh and Selina laughed and laughed as never before until her loud shrills turned into sobs. The volume decreasing, Selina's sobbing became quiet and the tears leaked out of her eyes, rivers of red flowing down the right side of her face and staining her hair crimson.
..ooOoo..
Author's note: PLEASE REVIEW!!