STEEL THY HEART: CHAPTER THREE
A/N: Catwoman in this series is taken from the Jim Balent series. I know that she looks different now, but since this is an Alternate Universes story, I am playing a little…
Using the sophisticated teleportation device created in Star Labs for the Watchtower, Superman materialized instantly inside Metropolis Gemological Museum. He saw the dark haired woman put the gem in her pocket and, before she could flee the scene, grabbed her arm.
"Hey!" she cried. He took the gem out of her pocket. While he still held onto her, Man of Steel went to the glass structure the emerald had rested in.
Spying another gem which resembled it, the Kryptonian focused his microscopic vision on the case. "A copy," he pronounced, staring back at the woman. "You villains, always the same. Did you think I wouldn't know?"
She continued not saying anything as the Man of Tomorrow got a better look at her. The only thing he saw clearly was the bottom of her face. It was heart shaped, and had perfect, plump lips which were colored with a deep shade of lipstick. The purple outfit she wore left nothing to the imagination. Her hourglass curves were proudly displayed, as was her ample cleavage. Flat, perfectly toned abs and muscular arms were part of the attractive package, but would one expect less from the legendary Catwoman?
Superman said to her, "Come on. We've got a date with the pol—"
"What's going on in here?" a voice asked, his accent slightly from northern Louisiana territory. It was followed by a portly, olive skinned security guard in the traditional grey uniform for guards in museums in Metropolis.
The guards brows shot up as his dark eyes widened. He had never before seen Superman on his watch. The older man usually got the more boring assignments, so there was no reason for Man of Steel to stop any thefts from the museum. Beyond the red and blue suited superhero, the Catwoman (or so he'd read in a copy of the Daily Planet once,) was being taken in tow. The guard whipped out a pair of 'cuffs, but Superman waved them away with his free hand.
"Those won't work on this type of burglar," he said. "I have to restrain her." Looking around the museum, Superman saw a metal grate in the floor. He grabbed a tiny piece of the metal and, using his heat vision, bent the metal around her struggling frame.
"Call the cops," he ordered the astonished guard. The security guard sprang into action, calling on his cell.
XXXXXXXXXX
Presently, the Man of Steel watched as Trina Davis, the new inspector of the Metropolis Crime Division, carefully took evidence from the scene. The forty year old cop dusted for prints and told her staff to gather what evidence they could, although she knew that since Catwoman always wore gloves, it was a waste of time. Inspector Davis was an African American woman who stepped in from time to time when the regular inspector, Maggie Sawyer, went out of town. Maggie had gone to a lecture on enhancement of police procedures and would not be back for two weeks. During that time, her pupil, Katrina Davis, usually substituted.
Trina was a no-nonsense, deadly serious woman who took crime solving very seriously, just as she took everything in life. She had circles under her deep eyes set in a deep brown face, the result from examining burglary reports over many sleepless nights. Her bags were carefully concealed by artfully arranged makeup. Her hair was in a short afro which suited her square jaw very well. A tall, lean non-descript figure completed the rest of her body.
"Well," she told Superman in a crisp voice, "It appears we don't have a lot to go on, but at least we have you and the security guard who placed her at the scene of the crime."
A uniformed cop came into the room with the guard presently, holding up a video tape. "Lieutenant," the cop said. "This tape has her breaking and entering. It shows her making off—" his eyes danced on the Man of Steel before he continued. "—or at least trying to make off with the emerald."
Superman was in deep thought. The Lieutenant picked up his cue and dismissed the cop, saying, "All right, take the guard down to the station." To the guard, she said, "We need to get your statement." The guard nodded eagerly, over the moon that finally he had had a little bit of excitement during his four years on his museum assignment.
"Something?" she asked the Man of Steel as she caught his thoughtful look.
"I don't know," Superman said, "it all seems too convenient somehow."
"Explain," the Lieutenant ordered.
"From everything I've seen and read, Catwoman is one of the best of the best. Why would she leave a tape nailing her as the one who stole the gem? Why also would she so blatantly leave a copy where she would know I'd pick up on it? Not only that, but when she does steal, she steals big! Why take only an emerald reputed to be worth only about fifty thousand dollars when there is at least fifty million dollars worth of gems in this museum?" he asked.
"Who knows? Maybe she needed it for some other purpose," the Lieutenant suggested, her tone indicating that she was more than pleased with nailing the cat burglar with the crime. "Maybe she just got sloppy. It happens with age sometimes. The point is: I'm sure that once we review the tape, she will get ten to twenty for this repeat offense."
The Man of Steel used his superior vision to search each room in the small museum. After about a moment, he turned to the Lieutenant.
"It just doesn't smack of her, Lieutenant," he commented. "For instance, I just did a room to room search. If she had broken in, there would have been some kind of evidence of it: a door ajar; an air vent grille being tampered with. My vision would have picked up on it. Nothing has been disturbed. Not only that, but she usually has a cat with her, to scout out the area and evade the lasers, but my hearing isn't picking up any cats in the vicinity."
Lieutenant Davis rolled her eyes, saying, "Look. I know that you regard this as your city and all and you think you know every criminal's background, but let me say this: I came from Gotham originally. You don't deal with these types of crooks on a daily basis. The Catwoman is more crafty than you might believe. So why don't you go back to your mother ship and let us get on with our investigation, hmm?"
Superman didn't react to the woman's rude dismissal. He was quite used to the police not always being on friendly terms with him, or with any of the Justice League on many occasions. He knew he wouldn't get any answers to his questions until he did a more thorough investigation after the Lieutenant and her coworkers had gone and he compared some findings with the database in the Watchtower.
The Kryptonian let his mind drift back to the nubile, muscular human work of art that had been led away from the museum. If she did commit this crime but the gem had not been what she was really after, he wondered what her real goal had been. A stray thought captured his imagination as he also wondered about the color of her eyes underneath her mask. He had not gotten a good look at them, but he figured they were a very exotic hue. He realized that he wanted very much to find out about them, and beyond that, solve the inconsistencies that existed.
When the Lieutenant and her fellow cops left with the handcuffed cat burglar minutes later, the Man of Steel surveyed the crime scene once more. He checked the glass case itself, but everything looked normal. Too normal, in fact. He recalled that the Batman's computer files in the Justice League's Watchtower showed that Catwoman preferred using her nails to cut glass to steal objects after disabling the alarm system. The glass was still in tact with no abrasions marring it.
"How did she manage to get the gem from the case in the first place?" Superman asked no one in particular. When the next security guard came into the room, the Man of Steel motioned him over.
"Superman," the guard inquired, "what are you doing here?"
"Long story," the Man of Tomorrow told the guard. "I need a favor. Could you deactivate the alarm system on this case in front of us? I need to touch it."
"Well…" the guard mused, "that's an odd request, but I'll see what I can do." He walked out of the room, then came back in presently.
"Alarm's off for that section," he told Superman. The Man of Tomorrow nodded, running his hand along the top. As he continued touching the glass, the superhero felt something. He put his hand up to his nose and sniffed. Giving nothing away, Superman gave his thanks.
"Anything for you, Big Blue," the guard said. "But what's this all about?"
"Going through phases," the Man of Steel replied cryptically. He left the museum and the confused security guard, flying in the night sky.