The tension was nearly palpable during the ride back in the batmobile. The silent treatment. Great, just fantastic. Dick knew just from the atmosphere just how royally screwed he was. All because he couldn't get that damned thief, this was the third time that the thief managed to elude his grasp and Dick couldn't help but wonder how the thief was so prepared throughout all of their encounters. The way the thief moved it reminded the sidekick of water, the fluid movements yet completely unyielding, not to mention the fact that the thief is a dirty cheat. The distinct throbbing in his shoulder was a testament to that along with the lack of a utility belt around his waist. The thief must have been trained for sometime by someone before committing the sting of crimes spanning from Metropolis to Gotham. Yet the connections to the perpetrator were non existent almost as if no one was there at all. The only plausible lead would have been CatWoman if she didn't disappear right after her confrontation with Batman. He was left leadless and was gaining a migraine if he kept thinking about how his thoughts just went full circle. Dick let out a groan and rubbed a hand over his eyes muttering to himself.
"How do you catch someone who doesn't exist?"
"With the right bait."
Dick froze for a minute realizing that he just asked his question out loud and to the only occupant in the car. Before he could ask what kind of bait is need for someone who just enjoys the thrill, (mostly because that was the only thing that the thief always alludes to when they fight), Batman pulled into the Batcave. Alfred per usual awaiting the masked crusaders return with a first aid kit in hand.
The cool, dark cave was illuminated by the supercomputer that was sitting on a platform right in front of a waterfall. When Batman exited the batmobile he pulled off his crowell, scowl firmly in place as he crossed the threshold to get to the massive computer.
As Alfred was tending to Dick, Bruce was using the trackers in side of Robin's utility belt to figure out just where it went, and for it to lead them to the elusive thief who was working with (more likely for) CatWoman. As Bruce went through all of the tracers there was a weak signal at the abandoned appartments and it was moving.
"Alfred stay here and tend to Dick, I need to check on the utility belt that was stolen." Batman then, replaced his crowell and turned to the batmobile and disappeared without so much as another word into the dark, leaving Dick to the mercy of Alfred.
Charlie let out a frustrated sigh at the information that she gathered from Wayne Enterprises. Typing away at the computer and trying to control the urge to chuck it out of the window astronomy project be damned. 'You would think that with the word Aerospace in the title of one of the branches of Wayne Enterprises that they would have some information on a solar system. ANY solar system! What am I going to do with rocket ship plans? Present these and say 'I'm building a rocket ship to the moon!' because that will go over well... I'm so going to fail this project..'
"Kitten you do know that Aerospace is rockets and space crafts right? So basically, you just did all of that planning and scheming for absolutely no pay off."
Charlie turned her head to glare mutinously at her legal guardian, as if her procrastinating on the semester final was all Selina's fault.
Selina the picture of feline grace pushed off of the door frame to come up behind her increasingly agitated ward. Placing a placating hand on the younger thief Selina looked over Charlie's shoulder to see how far she got in her essay about how Copernicus was right and everyone else in that time should just do the universe a favor and jump off a damned cliff to discover the only law of gravity. That would have been the most important scientific breakthrough for the time that and a toothbrush, and that was only the first page.
Selina let out a sigh as Charlie continued to write, debating with herself (not for the first time, mind you) whether or not she should stop her ward from writing anything else that would get her sent to the principal.
"Charlie, I know you're upset about the no payoff thing, but you shouldn't take your frustrations out on your poor teacher. I don't want the principal calling and telling me that your essay was … not up to par."
Charlie turned around in her chair to assess Selina, her soul piercing emerald gaze settled on her mentor as her mind supplied the younger thief with delectable witt to change the course of the conversation. Then with a blinding smile that Charlie directed towards her favorite mentor, Charlie turned back to her computer and brought up the guidlines and "rules" for this particular project.
Just to prove her point.
"The rules here state that the essay must be at least five thousand words in the American Psychological Association (APA) format and must have to do with what we covered in class. Now I vaguely remember our lovely, charismatic teacher talking about Copernicus and how much he loved him. Further more he did not specify what kind of essay he was expecting thus a fine piece of persuasive/ satirical material is in fact allowed and I will not change it because it is due in three hours and I'm sleep deprived. So there!"
The only sound emitting from the room with both thieves was the sound of Charlie's hash breaths as she finished her rant. The determined maniacal glint in her eyes made Selina hesitate before sighing and accepting the fact that her ward was going to go to the principal's office tomorrow and Selina was going to get the phone call that her ward was causing a disturbance. Charlie was already banned from Chemistry for causing a 'completely accidental' explosion.
"Fine Kitten, I'll clear my morning schedule for that talk with the principal that may or may not happen. But if I do get a call, you'll be grounded for the rest of the school year. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Crystal." Charlie's eyes went from maniacal to mischievous in the span of a few seconds. And Selina couldn't help but think about how Charlie's mood swings were giving her a headache and how much Harley owed her.
"Good. Finish up and then get a nap. Remember, next sunday is Mother's Day, I expect your entire schedule free for our activities."
Charlie just gave a noncommittal grunt and turned back to her essay with renewed vigor to actually make it seem like she put thought into her essay instead of BSing it to the extreme.
The alley was a typical Gotham alley. The trash that was littering all around the ammonis dark figure of the Batman and the decaying old food leftovers that even scavengers won't eat. The darkness a familiar coat to the enigmatic superhero. The elusive vigilante contemplating the whereabouts of the elusive thief that had ties to Catwoman, so it wouldn't be a far fetch to think that the thief had ties to other criminals as well. Immediately ruling out the more destructive villains such as Joker, Poison Ivy, Bane and so on. Considering all the thief tended to do was incapacitated Robin and steal unique valuables then disappear before he could find the thief who was becoming increasingly frustrating to deal with.
The dark hero was struck with an epiphany about the thief. The thief was making all of the police go around in circles with leaving no evidence that there was a crime if the jewels weren't missing. He suddenly felt like the Cyclops from Homer's Odyssey by saying "Nobody blinded me." The thief was using tactics to get the public off of them by placing the attention on their failure to successfully capture the thief. Which just furthered Catwomans involvement with the thief, both think too similarly for the unknown thief to not be Catwoman's rising prodigy.
As the tracker on Batman's utility belt blinked, briefly glowing a soft red before going black again, he came across a starved, beaten, skittish mutt. The masked hero glanced at the tracking device then back to the abused animal before disabling the tracker. As he walked away from the decrypted alley his mind already forming plans to capture the supposed "Nobody". And also debating whether the prodigy thief would make a valuable asset to the team or if the thief would sell them out.
When Batman got to the batmobile his mind already working out how persuade the thief into working with the side of good along with how to catch the illusory thief.
'Worst comes to pass there is always Dr. Fate.'
With that last thought The Dark Knight sped through the dark damning city that was Gotham and back to the Batcave.
As Charlie watched the rising sun from the top of her and Selina's apartment building, the vibrant and vivacious rays alternating between deep reds and purples to zesty oranges and pinks. Astronomy project finished and probably one of her best works, but that just could be the sleep depravity talking, the blonde found that she couldn't sleep and not just because the sun was pouring through a crack in her curtains. The thief found that her mind was wandering to the little robin that she encountered the other night.
'Well at least he's getting faster at ducking, if nothing else.'
As Charlie's emerald green eyes surveyed the rising sun her mind lost to the ages. She realized how risky going out and thieving is going to be for her as her mind pondered and plotted all possibilities with an analytical edge.
Her consensus.
She.
Was.
Screwed.
As the full weight of her exploits hit her, Charlie couldn't help but feel proud of her accomplishments. I mean who steals from Wayne tech. and Star Labs without getting caught!
'Oh crap. Who steals from Wayne Tech and Star Labs who could be considered even remotely sane?! Not me it seems.'
While Charlie was having her mental war game, she failed to notice the looming figure of her favorite guardian.
"Charlie…. why are you watching the sun rise when you should be sleeping?" Selina's voice jolted the prodigal thief out of her thoughts. In her hand was a cup of freshly brewed coffee that she knew her ward would want during her class.
"The real question is Selina is why aren't you?" The blonde turned her head to give her caretaker a half smile half smirk, before turning her attention back to the sun rise.
Selina's calculating eyes stared at her ward before gracefully walking towards the distracted blonde. Selina lowered herself to sit next to her slightly psychotic partner in crime and leaned back against the rough brick wall, that had no protection to avoid people jumping off of it, and quietly sipped her coffee. Eyes of a predator watching the younger with growing interest, when Charlie was quiet she was either ungodly angry or thinking about the Bat's sidekick, either way it would prove to an interesting few minutes.
The sound of the rest of Gotham waking up to start their usual boring routines was actually one of Charlie's favorite sounds the groggy drivers almost crashing into random pedestrians who were paying more attention to their phones than their surroundings. It was a damned miracle that the normal unsuspecting citizens didn't die from their own stupidity. The fact that they could go about their business without a care in the world unless it directly involved them was… a sort of comfort to the younger thief. The fact that she in theory commit a mass murder and in a few years no one except those involved with it would care. Gotham a place where bad things happen and it's just considered the typical norm.
"Hey Selina, how come Bats never actually takes you to jail?" Charlie broke the peaceful silence with her direct question.
Selina sipped her coffee obviously in no hurry to answer her ward, as soon as the hot liquid was downed. Selina licked her lips drawing out her answer and building the suspense and curiosity that was practically bubbling from her prodigy.
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to kitten. But try to use your imagination I'm sure you'll figure it out." Selina paused and cast Charlie a sultry smirk and watched with great amusement as her ward couldn't decide whether to turn white as a ghost or a sickly green. Selina watched as Charlie struggled for a moment then stood up, stretched and turned addressing her partner as she walked towards the stairs. "Don't stay up here too long kitten, you have school soon and I meant it when I told you to get sleep don't make me come up here again…. Oh and if you think too much on the little bird he just might catch you instead. You know, food for thought."
With that Selina disappeared down the stairs and into the apartment building. Charlie stared at the sun rise for a few more minutes before jumping down to the fire escape to her window. Charlie sighed as she layed on her cot and closed her eyes willing her over active mind to quieten. The sun rising a new dawn and time seems to have reset like what happens with every other day. Charlie closed her eyes and welcomed oblivion.
The trudge to Gotham Academy should have been an easy one considering all one had to do was board a train and wait two stops before disembarking on a riveting adventure through an academic jungle filled with the 'best' professors in their field and so on. The sheer amount of hypocrisy never ceased to straight up dazzle the up and coming thief.
Charlie sighed and straightened out her mandatory uniform with a resigned sigh, as she was surrounded by wanna be thugs who had nothing better to do than harass an unsuspecting school girl who had a can of mace being palmed in her hand finger on the lever to release pepper spray concoction.
'Morons unaware of the consequences to their actions.'
Charlie continued to ignore the pig headed glorified apes, as she continued to palm her pepper spray. Soon the exit for Gotham Academy came up Charlie slipped past the arguing group of testosterone driven primates to get to the closing doors of the train. Just as the doors closed and the squabbling males noticed the lack of prey and looked up to see Charlie giving them a sarcastic smile and a little finger wave as they were carted off to the trains next destination.
Charlie sighed as she checked her wrist watch and realized that she only had ten minutes to get to her Astronomy class. So Charlie did the next logical thing.
She ran like hell and ran straight into traffic nearly causing several accidents just to get to class on time. As the gates to Gotham Academy came into view the rapidly sprinting blonde didn't notice an equally rapidly sprinting 'Golden Boy' coming up behind her. Before Charlie could even change course she was slammed into the ground as a brick wall slammed into her from behind just as she passed the threshold of Gotham Academy.
The wind successfully knocked out of her lungs as her eyes glossed over but no tears escaped the renegade thief. As the pair ended up tumbling down onto the cement, Charlie's vision cleared a bit as she stared into clear blue eyes of the resident 'Golden Boy' himself. Charlie stared at the surprisingly heavy form of Richard Grayson in mild shock. Before mentally shaking her head and trying to wiggle her wrist free from being crushed.
"You know if you really wanted to talk to me sunshine you could have just asked. Instead of you know, tackling me to the ground." Charlie still staring into the oddly pretty blue eyes, 'No, no bad Charlie the feminine blue eyes yes that works.'
"Anyways I need to get up and head to class that I'm going to be late to thanks to you. So do me a huge favor and move!" Charlie then began to squirm and thrash under Richard trying to get him off of her.
"You can't seriously blame me for running into you. I tried to stop it was an honest mistake I swear. And can you stop moving it makes it harder for me to get off of you, not to mention I'm also about to be late." Richard was apparently just as annoyed as Charlie was so when Charlie stopped moving and stared defiantly up at Richard the clash between emerald and blue. An irritated scowl that was across the blonde's face matched the irritated glare that was on Richards.
"God is this why you stay at the mathletes club? Your astounding lack of social decorum should be a crime, now I'll one last time. Get. Off."
The stare off continued before Richard moved off of the blonde. As he extended his hand to the girl who pushed herself up to a sitting position. Charlie stared at the hand almost as if it would bite her if she took it.
She brushed the hand off and stood on her own as she gave him one last look before turning towards the Astronomy building. When she noticed foot steps following her, glancing down at her watch she noticed that their little …. rendezvous…. took up more time then she had. So then began the mad dash to the classroom if she was lucky the teacher could be on a binge again.
As Charlie ran she noticed the steps behind her again keeping pace before a voice called out to her and Charlie couldn't stop the groan that threatened to slip through.
"So what class are you heading to? I'm on my way to Astronomy, I don't think I noticed you in that class."
'Just ignore it… it will go away eventually.' Charlie's salvation was just through the wooden door at this point she couldn't have cared less about being late if she tried.
As Charlie and her shadow entered through the wooden door they both took notice of the prominent lack of a teacher. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as she turned to one of the nameless students.
"The teacher didn't call role did he?"
"Nope you still have about four minutes until class starts."
When the teacher returned and called role the day proceeded with almost tear jerking dullness that was the norm if Charlie didn't feel eyes watching her every move during that class. 'Why can't he creep on someone else.' Then the worst class of all came, Biology.
As Charlie was napping while seemingly deep in thought about the lecture the Professor was droning on about she didn't notice that the class was dismissed. As Charlie was about to escape through the crowd of students the teacher called her back along with Richard Grayson.
'Oh god… kill me now...'
Charlie sighed as she and Richard stood in front of the instructor's desk. Not sparing the golden boy a passing glance. Placing a sickly sweet smile on her face she locked eyes with the teacher, while fighting the sudden feeling of dread building up in her chest.
"Miss Kyle it has come to my attention that you're falling behind on some of the material and as a precaution I have conversed with Mr. Grayson here to help get you back up to speed on the subject matter. If you fall behind in this class it is difficult to get that grade back up. So I'm assigning you a study partner to help motivate you."
Just like that Charlie's world started to crumble down around her. Charlie cast a scorching glare to the boy standing not even a foot away from her.
"I can assure you Professor that this is entirely unnes-"
"-This is definitely necessary I will do my very best to help out a fellow student who needs motivation."
Charlie stopped and stared mouth agape with shock as the feeling of dread finally seeped in.
The ignorant instructor just smiled at Richard and then turned to Charlie. "I trust that you two will be able to work together without incident."
Charlie gave a tight lipped smile and just nodded her head, wanting this conversation to be done with. With a nod from the teacher both students were released from their captivity for the rest of the day. Charlie always one for taking the initiative left Richard to go to her locker then promptly ditched the golden boy to go home and plan, scheme and plot her next heist.
The darkness that seemed to surround the elusive thief was lifting the more Batman thought about it. With the trap to catch the thief set something that would be impossible for the thief to pass up. The new exhibit in Gotham Museum that is showcasing the Heart Diamond, with some of the best security systems to pose as a challenge that the slippery seemed unable to resist. with both him and Robin on the look out for the thief.
"Batman what do you mean that the thief could be useful on the team? I really don't think that she is much of a team player."
Robin stared at his mentor whose face was turned towards the security console. Monitoring the museum for any unusual occurrences, the thief may have been able to distract Robin by using some of Selina's tactics but facing against Batman. Well, that was another matter entirely.
"Robin, the thief seems to have ties to a lot of criminals, not only that but if this is the same thief that stole cutting edge technology from Star Labs she already has more enemies then she can cope with. If we can persuade her to help the Justice League and give her examples she has the potential to be a valuable asset to the team. Or a powerful adversary should she continue down the path Catwomans laying out for her."
"I still don't trust her though she seems to manipulative. Its unsettling how well she seems to know my movements."
Batman listened as Robin explained how the thief seemed evaluate the fight faster than Robin. As Robin continued with his explanation Batman noticed one of the security camera's went dark then the rest switched off simultaneously. Batman left the control room to find the thief, his guess the back up generators the only way to give the thief more time would be to off set one of the fans turning it so that the generators would destroy themselves.
The resounding explosion caused Batman to scowl and Robin to jump at the loud noise.
"The thief already made it to the generators. We need to split up all you need to do is hold her off and cut off all possible exits."
"Understood."
With that both vigilantes went thief hunting.
No One who was done with the back up generators snuck back to the vault where the Heart Diamond would be. As she approached the vault she couldn't stop and feel as if someone was watching her. Before she could react a syringe found itself embedded in her neck, as she turned her head to see her capture she noticed the mask crowell of Batman. Her feeling impending doom dissolved into nothingness as her vision darkened and she slumped against the masked vigilante.
Batman gazed down at his 'package' and couldn't stop the feeling that they just kicked the hornets nest, and quietly wondered how upset Selina was going to be. Batman sighed and contacted Robin.
"We got the thief time to take her to the batcave."
"Alright."
Batman placed the thief in the passenger seat with Robin as they drove through the dark Gotham night.
AN: Hey guys I just wanted to thank all of those who gave me reviews and feedback, as well as those who liked/followed this story. Gosh it gives me butterflies just thinking about it. any ways for those who haven't noticed I'm constantly re-editing my work as I'm not perfect and some things need to be mentioned in this chapter for the story to progress and so on and so forth. But anyways if you have comments or questions feel free to ask I'm always up for answering questions. ^_^