—LEGEND OF THE BATMAN—
CAT AND MOUSE
When night falls upon the city, Gotham wakes, springing loudest, unpredictably loud. Not many places are left to the quiet and restful of its citizens. Night was when life returned to Gotham's soul. The markets buzzed with movement, stores opened, theatres in full play and work was plenty, especially in the Red Light Districts that ever really came out under the silver moon.
In the more, richer parts of town however, it came out in another way…a more private way. There was a party at Bruce Wayne's lavish penthouse in the city. Though he had a perfectly beautiful and spacious manor outside the city limits, but often he would deny the public eye viewership of the old mausoleum.
More than a hundred quests were in attendance, from successful businessmen to state senators. From the balcony he watches them interact. Not simply for his amusement but more an interest in their behaviour.
Soon he got bored and turned around to look through the massive plane over his peaceful home. Soon he would be dragged off onto the middle of the ballroom by a band of beautiful young women.
They would take turns dancing with him, laugh at his jokes or what they assumed were jokes. Soon they'll relegate tales from their own lives and struggles, which he found as interesting as the bible. They seemed like good girls the lot of them…but he knew what they wanted, their ambitions were text-book.
When Gotham's favourite son finally got free of the groping hands that sought him, he made his way to the wine cabinet past the gallery. In that dark room rarely visited, were an assortment of old and new artworks and artefacts.
He'd seen many of these, a white kabuki mask from Japan, Egyptian and Persian Death masks and ancient Macedonian weapons, items of intrinsic value. Yet, they were of no real value to him. These were just things he'd bought to keep the façade going.
Bruce stopped short however when he came face to face with an intruder, rummaging through his safe. Slender, female, about three or four inches shorter than he was, yet what he found her in was far more peculiar. A jet black form-fitting cat-suit and boots, where she then turned around, meeting his gaze for only a moment had revealed to him a mask with pointed ears, a little more opened than that of the Batman's.
This woman, smiled coyly at him with dark crimson lips. She then raised a small sack of what he believed were the contents of his safe. He moved to swiftly stop her but she was quicker than he anticipated, throwing what seemed to be knives from her fingers, like claws.
With his own quick reflexes, he dodged most of them, but one managed to pin his sleeves to the wall behind. After struggling to free himself, he found her pressed against his chest. From here he could see her better though still hiding behind yellow lensed goggles. She looked like a cat. Leaning in, she lightly grazed her lips upon his, teasingly before retreating back where she saw fit to torment him with his own custom made watch she had just taken.
He watched her take one final souvenir from his vault. It was his mother's pearl necklace that she placed in the sack. He watched as she mockingly bowed and disappeared out of an open window.
Was he going to let that be it?
No. Bruce broke free and went into his wine cabin where he opened a secret compartment behind a shelf of Domaine de la Romane-Corti La Tache wine bottles. There now stood the armour that protected his daylight shadow—his bodyguard.
Meanwhile, on the rooftops of Gotham City's tallest and luxurious buildings, the cat burglar swished from building to building, nothing slowed her down. She had on a small back pack that was big enough to carry the items she'd stolen yet small and held close enough to her body that she was not hindered.
Soon however, she came to a stop. A figure now stood in her way—a figure, draped in a black cape, horns atop his head and bright white eyes. At first she was frightened…more surprised at his appearance, then a playfully devious smile returned to her face and before the Batman could take another step, she flung herself off the building.
The Batman ran to the edge where he saw the cat burglar free falling. He soon launched down to get her.
There they were, swooping down like balls, allowing gravity to dictate their…the Cat produced a whip from her back pack and was able to hook it onto a gargoyle on the opposite building. She would be safe. As for the Batman—his cape had acted like a parachute, slowing his descent and a grappling gun, shot above sent him flying straight to the audacious cat-woman.
She started climbing the apartment building, she was fast, very fast; skipping a few floors here and there had cut down time and created some distance between the two.
Now back on a roof, their chase resumed as soon as she had her bearings, she ran. Again, she leapt between buildings, seamlessly, like it was reflex that she knew she'd make it and it didn't slow her down even for a second.
The Batman followed closely behind her, matching her in the chase, allowing little to get in the way they were both quite agile and skilful in evading obstacles.
About ten more blocks, they had begun ascending onto higher rooftops. About to reach her end, she angel-dived off the edge once more, this time she landed on an over-pass walkway across the busy traffic. Once Batman caught up to her, she blew him a kiss, another tease as she then sprang off again, onto a passing double-decker tour bus.
On the bus, the Cat found herself in the company of some foreigners who began snapping pictures of her. She even posed for some of them. One could never look too good in a photo that stays forever, she thought.
Far sooner than she had anticipated however, the Batman landed on the opposite side of the bus. To her own dismay, annoyance and a pang of jealousy, the more tourists started taking his picture instead, exploding in flashes of light larger than they had for her.
The Batman took a few steps towards her, she moved, jumping off the bus and onto a truck that had just turned left. But the Batman was already in pursuit, opting to take the top of the buildings instead of just tailing behind her again.
The truck got to a bridge, her opportunity to escape was coming up while his to catch her was slipping. The Batman launched himself at her. The Cat saw this and again leapt off the truck, now travelling on a bridge over the railroad. She landed with a roll on the ten-thirty train to Star City.
The man in black set down on top of the carriage before hers. They both then decided not to continue the chase. No, the Cat decided she wanted a little tiff.
They met with an open barrage of punches and kicks that showed she was not an amateur in hand to hand combat. The Batman noticed her skills in jiu-jitsu, most intriguing. While she was heavily skilled, the Bat was far from helpless but found he was more on the receiving end of their fight, blocking back her deceptively powerful strikes. Yet, her asset was not in her strength but her speed and agile movements, even with the train moving speedily on the tracks.
Her form-fitting attire gave her somewhat of an edge against him. In honesty, he could swear he saw her smirking as they fought and he slowly began to realise he was finding her quite interesting. It would be his undoing as he drew her closer, trying to incapacitate her and she managed to turn the tide, again only grazing her opponent's lips, catching him off guard. She then kicked off of his chest with both feet.
Staggering back a pace, Batman regained his footing fairly quick. It was then when he saw the tunnel up ahead. He threw a batarang attached to a metallic cord and snaked it around the cat thief's ankle. He pulled her down off her feet and dove don himself just as they passed through the dark cavernous tunnel.
Once they emerged on the other side, the Batman looked up, shocked to find his device now trapped on the train's gears instead of an ankle. Next thing he knew he was kicked across the face from the left. The Cat-thief leapt from the carriage and onto solid ground once again.
And also, again, Batman was hot on her trail.
They were now on someone's property—a large mansion somewhere in Upper-Eastside Gotham. He chased through a series of greenhouses, making sure not to lose her escaping silhouette amongst the dim light.
Batman sees the front door only slightly ajar as the Cat's shadow shrinks through it. But, when he follows, he finds himself surrounded by a group of five surprised gangsters. With knives, crowbars and knuckle-busters, a fight quickly ensues but only briefly as he soon dispatched them…with relative ease. They were big and tough, definitely looked like Maroni's men, valued strength and size than anything else.
He hears a clap coming from ahead. On the mansion's second level roof, leaning against the gargoyle that protected the eastern face of the house, the Cat-woman eyed him, both quite impressed and almost certainly piqued. She grinned at him, like a Cheshire cat, mischievous and unpredictable. She then took a playful, taunting bow and disappeared yet again.
But the Batman was not giving up that easily. He ran around the manor, about halfway to the front, grappled his way to the top, disturbing a couple of bats nesting below the statue monsters.
He could see her, a small, dark figure running toward the closed gates. He jumped, as high as he could and then let himself glide over the fence where he intercepted the woman who bumped face first into his armoured chest. As she looked up she saw bats flying around him like they worshipped him or something.
To many, this image alone was enough to frighten them away… But the Catwoman merely stood up and they looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Each still had their masks on so she removed her goggles, revealing a pair of emerald irises. But the Batman did not move. She reached up to try the same and remove his cowl, but he snatcher her hands before she could.
His glare began to intensify. Accepting defeat, knowing full well what the Batman wanted, she reached into her back pack and retrieved the sack full of Bruce Wayne's priceless trinkets…and more than seventy grands worth of hard cash. She handed him the bag and he did take it, but looked like he was still waiting for something… She sighed and from a hidden pocket on her bag, she handed him a necklace of white pearls.
Still looking sternly, he made to walk away but was held back by the Cat who tip-toed, intent on kissing his lips. This time, it was he who denied her and pushed her away. Slightly hurt she lowered her head… only to have it raised again where the Batman finally locked their lips together.
Passionately they kissed, for a few moments before they broke apart, out of breath, but satisfied nonetheless.
Their moment of bliss was cut short however, as police sirens were heard growing louder. For the cat burglar, she did not want the feds to corner her new friend and pushed him away to try and tell him he needed to escape. He held her closer still, a smile appearing on his veiled face as he placed something in her hands. One last kiss and then he took the sack of stolen goods and vanished into the night.
She was beaming now, and felt rather stupid, blushing like a school girl receiving her first kiss. But then as she moved to save herself from the upcoming police, she found her left hand bound to the bars of the gate. The Batman had cuffed her. She cursed to herself for her stupidity and as the cars appeared from a glaring blur of headlights, she gritted her teeth as she had a glimpse of the Batman on a nearby roof, running away from the scene. That was when she remembered whatever it was the Batman gave to her.
At first she had hoped he had allowed her to keep the necklace…but now she saw he had given the key to her own cuffs.
As she looked at the key she found herself now perfectly surrounded by uniformed servicemen. She gave them a chaste smile and hid the key in her suit and allowed them to arrest her.
For the Batman—he returned to his own prison, high atop the cityscape of Gotham's wealthy one percenters. A different suit, a different mask, but one that people knew only as Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy. He stared longingly out of the large sky screen. He was saddened even more as he saw the police vehicles speeding across below him.
The Catwoman was in one of those cars, he presumed.
Soon he felt a tugging on his arm, a beautiful young woman with dark raven hair, enticing green eyes and full ruby lips, sought his attention on the dancefloor. She said her name was Selina Kyle and even promised him a rather eventful evening in her presence. Reluctantly, the wealthy young bachelor allowed himself the distraction, giving the window one last look before embracing to an extent his evening of "rich-boy shenanigans" as Alfred calls it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
If you haven't already guessed, this chapter was heavily inspired by that Batman New Adventures segment called 'Chase Me', which featured Catwoman. The muted sounds with only that jazzy saxophone music playing…they don't make DC animation like that anymore, which is a pity. I'd like to see them explore Superman and Wonder Woman's romance in an artistic short film like this—they don't give this pairing enough love I think. Even with Batman and Catwoman, I feel they haven't explored that enough if at all these past few animated films.
That's actually why I quite liked The Dark Knight Rises. The romance of Batman and Catwoman actually had a conclusion with that last scene of a café in Florence. Really, that's all one needs.
Also, guys, I'm having a lot of blanks with my Wonder Woman fic. I once had a clear vision for her but now it's become blurred. I have a lot of action sequences and even iconic ones but nothing to tie them together into a functioning narrative. I guess I left it off for too long. I could really use some help here, grazie.