So sorry it's taken so long, I forgot I hadn't posted this yet…
Anyway, hope you like the chapter. (Hope you're all still there…) please enjoy, and please review!
Chapter 7: Catwoman
As she frantically rode Tim's bike back to the Manor Amanda firmly told herself that the night was not completely fruitless. She forced herself to acknowledge that finding another empty clown-house meant that there was one less empty clown-house to find. She forced herself to believe that somehow she was getting closer to avenging her mother. Plus, she'd discovered that Two-Face was after her, for whatever reason. That had to account for something.
Regardless of what she told herself, however, she still felt like she'd gotten nowhere. She made it back to the mansion and hurriedly stashed Tim's bike. She'd pushed it too far, stayed in the city too long. Unless they'd been suddenly delayed Batman and Robin would have returned almost five minutes before. She just hoped that no-one had felt the need to check in on her, if they looked too closely they'd be sure to discover that it was a pile of pillows under the blankets and the cats on her bed, rather than her. She was counting on Bruce's hatred of the cats to keep him away.
Brimming with barely-contained anger and frustration, Amanda quickly scaled the vines growing on the outside of the house and slipped through the window to her bedroom. She skulked across the room and had just removed her boots when she heard someone walk down the hallway. She froze when the footsteps stopped in front of her door. She quickly but silently tucked the boots under her bed as she heard Dick's voice from the hallway say wearily, "Bruce?"
Amanda quickly and quietly crawled into bed, forcing the cats who had claimed it to make room for her.
"Is she asleep?" Bruce asked quietly from beyond the door.
"Soundly." Dick said, "She went to bed hours ago."
"You should be in bed too." Bruce grumbled, "Don't you have to leave early in the morning?" Amanda frowned, Dick was leaving? Then she remembered him saying something about heading back to Blüdhaven for the day to work, promising to be back by nightfall. "Go to bed." Bruce growled to Dick.
There was a pause and Amanda froze, hoping they'd go away. Fearing that Bruce would actually open the door and find her half out of bed, wearing suspiciously Catwoman-like clothes and obviously not asleep. And then Bruce began to turn the knob. She hardly dared to breathe for fear that he could hear that she was awake.
Then she kicked herself, realising that if he could hear her, not breathing was a dead giveaway that something was up. So she made a small moaning noise and rolled over, pulling the blankets over her so that her body and most of her head was completely covered. Then she breathed deeply and evenly and willed herself to sleep.
The door opened and Bruce looked in on her. She could practically feel him staring. Then he shut the door again and she heard his footsteps retreat. And then she heard Dick walk back to his own room. Amanda opened her eyes slightly and glared through her lashes at the door. She waited for what felt like an eternity before crawling out of bed again and silently getting changed, stashing her Catwoman costume and slipping back into bed wearing her pyjamas.
That was way too close.
Knowing that Bruce suspected something was daunting, but Amanda refused to be put off her quest. The next night she snuck out again and resumed her search, more determined than ever, but more conscious of the time.
She was tracing down another lead on yet another possible hideout of Joker's when, once again, she found herself cornered by a group of Two-Face's thugs. They were armed, one of them slapped a metal bar against the palm of his hand in a threatening manner. "Who do we have here…" he growled, "The Boss wants a word with you, Miss Kitty. You're coming with us."
"Sorry, Honey." Catwoman purred, "But if he wants to ask me out he's going to have to come here and do it himself."
The thug's face twisted into a snarl and another man pointed his gun at her. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." He said firmly.
"Why is it you always feel the need to ask that?" Catwoman replied, calmly leaning against the wall. "You know what my answer will be." Before he had time to react, she leapt at another one of the goons, knocking him out in one swift movement before leaping at another man.
She heard a shot go off, and someone groaned to her left as another man shouted, belatedly: "Don't shoot!" She guessed that meant Two-Face needed her alive so he could kill her himself. The thugs refrained from drawing their firearms, which put them at an even greater disadvantage, seeing as their guns were their primary weapons. Amanda held nothing back. She channelled her rage through every hit as she blurred through their pack, and all too soon it was over.
Catwoman turned back to look at her work, noting the bodies scattered throughout the alley, several writhing in pain but most still and unconscious. There were a lot of them, she hardly would have thought there was so many while she was fighting. And then she noticed several still forms lying further up the alley.
She hadn't knocked them out. She certainly hadn't stayed in one place, but her fighting had not ranged that far up the alley. Suspicion sprang forth in her mind, and her already super-tuned senses became even more alert. Someone else was out there.
Nightwing watched from the shadows as Catwoman looked back to briefly survey her handiwork before turning around and dashing off. He silently followed her.
Soon enough, Catwoman was confronted again. The thug fixed his gun on her from behind and ordered, "Freeze, right there!"
Catwoman turned around and gave him a sweet but sly smile. "Oh, come off it. We both know you're not going to shoot me. You're boss wants me alive, doesn't he?"
Nightwing clenched his teeth, Jeez, Amanda. You can't bluff your way through everything!
"Boss want's you alive: he didn't say nothin' about puttin' holes through your legs."
Catwoman's smile didn't falter. "Well that's not very nice." Before she'd even finished speaking her whip had flicked out and caught him in the wrist. He yelled and dropped the gun. But before she could attack him another thug had leapt at her from behind. She turned to face him and fought him off. He held his own, but Nightwing could see Catwoman had it sorted. His eye was drawn to two more goons sneaking through the shadows further up the alley. They remained hidden as Catwoman fought their comrade, and they trained their weapons on Amanda.
Wraithlike, Nightwing slipped through the shadows and leapt at them, quickly knocking them unconscious and then retreating to his hiding place to continue watching over Amanda.
She was gone.
The two thug's she'd encountered lay unconscious on the ground, but she'd already moved on. Nightwing quickly took to the rooftops and followed the path Amanda had been taking, hoping to catch up with her before she took a different direction. He hadn't gone far when a voice behind him spoke:
"I thought you were supposed to be sneakier than that."
He whirled around to find Catwoman behind him, calmly leaning against a rooftop wall, half-hidden by the shadows. "And I thought you were supposed to be stealthier than that." He walked towards her, raising and eyebrow, "I mean, seriously, three confrontations in two nights by the same gang of thugs? That's just careless."
"Why are you following me?" she snapped.
"Because." He said calmly, "It would be mutually beneficial."
She glared at him, "How?"
"You've got less chance of being killed by sneaky thugs like them, and I don't have to stay back worrying that you'll get yourself killed by sneaky thugs like them." He motioned to the men he'd knocked out.
Catwoman continued to glare at him, "I have it sorted." She growled, "You don't need to get involved."
"I already am involved." He replied calmly, "So I might as well stick around."
"I don't need any help." She snapped.
"Well, I think I'll give you a hand anyway. Or, more specifically, a ride. You'll have heaps more time to work if you didn't have to ride Tim's bike all the way into Gotham and back."
Catwoman huffed, "Yeah, you might as well just tell Batman everything while you're at it."
"I don't need to," Nightwing replied calmly, "he's standing right behind you."
"What!?" Amanda exclaimed and whipped around. There was no-one there. She faced Nightwing again, and his cheeky grin almost made her feel normal for a second. "I hate you." She grumbled. His grin just widened. "You can't tell Batman." She said seriously.
Nightwing became serious. "I'm not going to blab on you, you can trust me."
"You should just leave me alone." Amanda mumbled, "If he finds out I don't want you getting in trouble for 'aiding and abetting' or whatever."
"Why would I get in trouble?" Nightwing asked calmly.
"Because Batman won't agree with what I'm doing."
"And that is…?"
"Looking for Joker." She growled.
"The cops and Batman are all looking for Joker," Dick said rationally, "why's that so bad?" He was pretty sure he knew what the answer was, but he needed to hear it from her.
"Because they'll only lock him up again." Amanda replied, then growled with steely determination: "I am going to kill him."
Nightwing nodded.
"You'd better not try and stop me." Catwoman growled.
"We'll deal with that if when we find Joker." Nightwing replied, "But for now, I'll sleep better knowing that you're not out getting yourself killed."
