EAST END
Fly: Glad you liked it, Review again!
CATgrl: Thanks for your support, this is dedicated to you! Unless you don't like it in which case never mind...ay-hem...
A/N: Awwww! No more reviews then the above? Ah well...I'm in a good mood. For now...spookyspookyspooky
Oh and General Lee Twisted: THERE IS NO POSSIBLE SLASH HERE SO STOP ASKING!!!!!!!!
Chapter 2: Butting Heads
The tattered cloak only reached the small of his back. It was dark red and the hood had a serpentine point slithering behind him in the wind. His outfit was black but for the chest plate that was grey with a bandoleer across his chest crossed by a satchel strap. He removed a flute from his belt as he landed on the rooftop and put it to his lips. "Attack dogs...my, the criminal element really branch out," he muttered.
He lunged off the rooftop and spread the tattered cloak, gliding on the wind current to land on the roof of the decrepit building. He placed the flute to his lips, looking down at the splicer size-increased hounds below.
The silence of the flute affected the dogs. They all simultaneously slumped to one side and Dusk scrambled down the side of the building, his fingers adhering to the wall through his black gloves as he descended the side of the building on his fingertips.
He pulled a small black cylinder from his belt pouches and pointed it. The red laser sliced through the glass like a hot knife through butter. He touched the glass and adhered his fingers to it. He slipped in and laid the glass on the dusty floor of the storage facilities office.
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Across the road a figure sauntered down the sidewalk unperturbed, skipping over a long black strand. She paused and looked up at the Adult Movie store...the three floors above were home to the Butchers. A gang of hacksaw loving nutcases that had, two days ago, murdered two police officers.
"Trés bonne" purred Alley Cat. She performed a stunning leap upwards to shove her talons into the brickwork of the floor above the dim sign of three red X's. She spat on the sign and scaled the building. She paused at the window and slid onto the sill. Her pupils turned into slit feline ones. Jamie could see through the dark shadows like they weren't there. "Here's kitty!" she grinned and lunged through the glass.
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Nick crawled along the ceiling and removed a small bat shape from his bandoleer of pouches. He flicked it into the crate marked explosives below him. The men below were totally oblivious to his presence. He tossed another bat into the back of a terminal and flipped himself silently onto a catwalk. "HEY YOU!"
Nick spun and mentally slapped himself in the head. The man at the other end of the catwalk scrambled up the last few steps of the ladder and aimed his machine gun. The sharp S-shape blade sliced through the air, the only sign of movement from Dusk was a minor flick of the wrist. It knocked the gun away.
"INTRUDER!" screamed the man. "INTRU---"
The shadows leapt from Dusk's hands and wrapped around the man's throat flinging him aside as Nick sprinted towards the ladder, forgoing the steps and sliding down on the vertical poles. He swung a heel into the neck of the man nearest him.
"I wish I could stay," he whispered. "But I'm in a rush!"
He pointed a hand at two gunmen as they spun to fire at him; their shadows lurched up at them and dragged them to their knees. "Don't tangle with the supernatural." He gripped his cloak and pulled it up over himself, twisting into a 2D spiral of green and black that twisted out of existence...seconds later the bats exploded...
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Nick stepped out of the distortion in the air and looked around. The flames had taken the building. "Well, well. Dusk, THE Dusk in this little corner of Gotham" a voice said. "Well, this is a nice turn of events..."
Dusk spun and looked at the Commissioner. She was standing before him looking very annoyed. Her pistol was aimed at his chest and she didn't look like she was willing to listen to elaborate stories or watch him shadow stride away.
"Ah" he said. "Commissioner".
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Landing in the shower of glass Jamie leapt straight up into a forwards flip over the body of an unfortunate Butcher who got a hook kick in the gut. She ducked under a slash and used her weave to wire a kick into his gut. He flipped over onto the table.
"Now boys, be gentle it's my first time and I just don't know what to do...guide me through it" she meowed as she adjusted her leather corset and snapped her hips to one side, the tattered black trail whipping behind her feet. She adjusted her helmet and slid into a fighting stance.
"Let's see sugar," cackled one Butcher, reaching for her cleavage. She caught his hand and smiled. She touched the bands of leather that held the open cat suit zippers closed a little.
"Happy to oblige" she whispered breathlessly. She kicked into his side still holding his arm then snaked her leg around the trapped limb to kick his face several times. "Will that do you?"
He staggered back and charged. She spun under his arms and swept his legs from under him. She caught his collar and belt buckle as he fell down towards her and flipped him over. Jamie rose and cracked her whip; catching one man by the neck she slugged him into the body of another idiot who got too close with his hacksaw.
"This is fun, now I see the attraction!" she grinned. She leaned right back as a female Butcher slashed at her with a small divers knife. Jamie was flexed right over, touching the ground with her spine bent incredibly. "Limber aren't I?"
She flipped her legs up into a handstand and kicked the knife away as she did. She lashed her heels out into the Butcher woman's eyes. Her heels were blunt and thick so they gave the woman two large bruises and a hell of a reason to scream.
Jamie snapped her whip at a man and his belt buckled popped open, he stumbled and fell. She looked at the last three in the room and coiled her whip back around her waist. "Okay, three for me!" she grinned. She pulled the fans from her leg holsters and snapped them out. The Butchers brandished machetes and hatchets, unaware of what the deadly ornate weapons were capable of.
They charged...the fans hissed and slashed through the air as Jamie performed springs and flips without the use of her hands to slash and swipe expertly. She snapped her fans closed again and batted the criminals aside. She spun them in her hands and slipped them back into the holsters before sashaying over to the canisters of laughing gas. She frowned and pulled the label (a crown on a peacock feather) off the crate. "Laughing Gas? Curiouser and curiouser" she murmured. Sighing she wrenched the valves off.
"What the hell are you doing!?" one of the Butchers exclaimed.
"Giving you a reason to move, the East End is my turf, spread the word...cross me and it's bad luck!" she snapped. She walked over to a light switch and pulled the cover off using a fan for leverage.
The Butchers rushed out of the old cinema through the back exit.
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"So what brings YOU here? Isn't Riverside your epicentre anymore?" the commissioner asked. "And what made you think you could get away with murdering anyone, criminals or not here?"
"I play a different game to your Batman or your officers" he shrugged. "The city needs something a little more drastic if you want to clean it up."
"We're doing fine thanks," the Commissioner said.
The pair swung their heads to the doors of the cinema as a shape appeared back flipping out. "You might want to hit the dirt," the back flipping woman shouted as she somersaulted down an open sewer grate and disappeared.
The pair followed her flips and stared at the grate after she'd vanished...then the cinema had exploded in a ball of flame. "What a woman" gasped Dusk with intense excitement. He leapt backwards and spun himself into a spiral of darkness that vanished.
Barbara Gordon stared at the blazing inferno. "2 cats in three months...record or what?"
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"That was...wow!" Jamie giggled as she hopped up and down on the spot in her apartment, making sure the blinds were pulled. She slipped out of her costume and sauntered into the shower letting the water run over her slightly aching body. "I beat the Butchers! One of the most savage damn gangs in Gotham!"
She stepped out of the shower and pulled on her robe, humming as she sauntered into her tiny room. "I need to tell someone" she sighed hopping onto her bed with Mist. "But I really can't...can I?" she sighed.
Jamie lay back. "As if my relationships with men could get worse..."
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Madison screamed and scuttled from her booth, her meticulously done hair was now filled with spiders. "What happened?" Jamie asked flatly.
"Someone put spiders in Madison's hat" Adrian sighed. Jamie sipped her tea with a sly look in her eyes, the green orbs darting shiftily from side to side.
"Who'd do something like that to sweet Maddy?" mused Jamie.
"Possibly you" sniffed Adrian swivelling to face her. She was dressed in a tight black turtleneck and pair of tight red leather trousers.
"Nice one detective" grinned Jamie swirling the tea in her cup. "So...anything planned for this evening? I'm hitting the town cruising for guys!"
"I have...stuff...to look after" Adrian smiled. "Mind if I rain check..."
Jamie narrowed her eyes at him. "You look flushed Adrian...what's wrong?"
"Nothing" Adrian swallowed, nervous in comparison to his cynical normalities. He swivelled back to his desk and continued to sketch the shape. "There's some investor coming over today and he used to...pick on me in school."
"Reeeeeee-alllllly?" pondered Jamie aloud. "Well...anyway..."
"O-total-M-absolute-G!" someone exclaimed. It was Courtney Collins, another artist, she was holding a newspaper. "The Catwoman's back! She blew up a cinema last night! Apparently the commissioner caught a glimpse of her. They figured she was a Catwoman by the fact slashes on the Butcher Gang Members she beat up were similar to Catwoman's!"
A crowd had gathered. Spellbound, recalling the terrorism of a few months back from the woman in PVC and leathers with a whip and claws. No one wanted a rerun of that little escapade. "How do they know it was Catwoman?" sighed someone, Carl Atkins from the Press Liaison asked.
"Commissioner Gordon was there...apparently, she was apprehending a dangerous vigilante called Dusk, when the Catwoman appeared, blowing a building up and vanishing into the sewers."
Jamie smiled to herself...so Dusk was the name of the guy in the hood...
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"Catwoman" mused Nick as he and Dave sat in their limo, speeding towards their meeting with Paxton Powers. "Cat---woman...what an intriguing turn of events."
"Brothers got a crush," cooed Dave.
"If you want me to show you the uses for a spade...I will."
Dave raised his hands in defeat and returned to the computer game set in the car. "You know, the press is starting to...what's the word? Imply? That you mightn't be interested in women..."
Nick's eyebrows vanished into his bangs. "Sorry?"
"No solid relationships...girls usually get the grand tour of the penthouse then head home...you know...as in...not seeing you again...face it...you're a bit of a ho."
Nick glared at his brother. "I'm not, I just can't share both sides of myself with a girlfriend, keep it short and no one gets hurt...it's best for everyone."
"Not really" Dave said quietly. "But believe what you want."
Nick pressed the corner of his forehead to the cold glass and stared out the window as the rain came down on Gotham from an iron-grey sky. He closed his eyes...
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"Really?" Max smiled over her cup of coffee. "You seriously did that!"
"Madison is a pain in the ass" Jamie sighed flipping her hair back. "She deserved the arachnids in the hat...why? Was it immoral?"
"Just different" Max said, as she looked her friend over the cup of coffee. Jamie had her hair gelled into strips, she looked like on of Charlie's angels or something. "You used to a voice confrontation and go for the cynical barb."
"Things—people- change" whispered Jamie. "I let my one true love's killers get away... it had an affect, I'm making amends by being...stronger."
"What about Boyfriends? The big B?"
"No" Jamie said. "I've pretty much been a celibate...all I need is a habit, a wimble and a mother superior and I'm set for life. Though I'm getting back in there lately."
"Do you remember when we met in London?" asked Max.
"Yeah, you were a tourist and I was a 10 year old giving tours of Daddy's museum"
"You called me a Yankee-doodle-dandy"
"You called me a crumpet eating limey," sighed Jamie. "And then we went out for tea and biscuits...you seemed offended by the crumpets. Why was that?"
"You'll never know" Max said narrowing her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry all my friend's baled but they all had things. Blade's gotten a modelling contract, Nelson's doing football 24-7 to train up for his scholarship and Terry...Terry lost someone close to him early this year...he's not been the same."
"I get it" nodded Jamie. "Hey, let's go clubbing..."
"Can't, work" Max sighed. "I'm helping a friend's boss set up his computers."
"Big job?"
"Really big computer" sighed Max.
It's strangeJamie thought as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. I'm able to do all these things by instinct...it's like I'm remembering a past I've never had
She opened the door of her apartment and smiled as she found Lenny trying to pull his fist out of her jar. "Oh dear, you seem to have mistaken that for my money pot...I keep my glue in there actually. Extra strength"
"I'll sue you!" warned Lenny.
"Read the cover of the tin pal," sighed Jamie. It clearly stated "Cash Savings of Jamie Carter – Hands off". "You'll need that for evidence, but if you remove it your claim will go down the tubes...but if you don't you get nabbed for theft...choices, choices". She snapped a picture with her small camera. "And now I have it on screen, with the writing crystal clear...thanks Lenny"
Lenny snarled and growled before stalking out of the room. Jamie shut the door, seconds later there was a knock. Jamie opened it with a smile. Mist mewled at her, held out from the body of Mr Crivitz. Who was looking very, very annoyed.
"Your cat-"
"Is adorable I know" she said taking the cat into her arms.
"No! Your cat-"
"Is white? State the obvious much?"
"Listen you---"
A hand snagged his collar and pulled him to her face. Her dark blue eyes bore into his mind. "Look pal, what kind of whine has a problem with every little thing I do? When you find yourself a life then tell me so I can throw a party because when you DO find a life I will not have to put up with this harassment anymore. Because this is the sign of a truly pathetic individual."
He opened his mouth to speak but she shut the door in his face and placed Mist down. "So, I feel like a rooftop run tonight" she said. "You stay here and take my messages ...damn, I forgot, I don't get any!"
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"Mr Wayne, speaking with you and your partner Mr Powers was...better then just speaking with him" smiled Nick shaking the old man's hand.
"No trouble Mr St. Peter"
"Between you and me" whispered Nick. "Paxton's a bit too stupid for this game."
He glanced at the boy in the heavy brown jacket who was walking towards them. "Plus, Mr McGinnis added something interesting to the meeting with the occasional stifled laugh at Paxton...I see that they don't like each other."
"Perceptive" nodded Terry. "I don't. Neither does he. But that's for our own private reason's".
"I wasn't prying Mr McGinnis," sighed Nick. "Be careful you don't accuse me again. If you get on my bad side...well it's not a nice place to be, bad weather and all."
Terry shifted; the glint in Mr St. Peter's eye was disturbing.
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The motorbike roared through the streets, black metal and green plating, a racing bike that made for a quick getaway. It was easy to store and Stride back too. He sighed and rested on the bars for a moment...then he saw it...the feline shape flipping through the night sky.
He smiled and put the bike against a wall, it vanished. Then he leapt upwards, grabbing a windowsill and vaulting backwards off the wall there, onto the roof of a building.
====================
"The Goddess Bast" recited Jamie. "Goddess of Love and Fertility...oh and we can't forget Sex...she was also Sekhmet the goddess of war in an alternative side and was both cat and lioness. She used her powers to save Ra when—was he trapped in the underworld or dead?" she shrugged. "The symbol on Mist's collar was the symbol of Isis, the wings...but the stone was the stone of Bast. Isis was the goddess of women and the first queen of Egypt. She put her husband back together and was mother to Horus...I think that's her biggest achievements."
She stopped and looked into the alley, he senses could pick-up a lot more, opening a world she'd never known...she heard the muffled squeak below...her eyes pierced the dark and she hissed as she saw the woman surrounded by three thugs. Oh joy, men demonstrating their superiority on someone that is approximately one eighth the total of their combined body mass
Jamie flipped off the roof and landed in a crouch and rose seductively. "Hey boys, don't mind me, I'm just here to crack a can of whupass out."
"Get her," the first said. The other two rushed at her. She ducked low and kicked the ankle of the first, slipping his legs off to one side and forcing him to land on his side. She spun a kick over the falling man's head and cracked his friend in the side of the face. Her whip cracked out and dragged him to his knees before her; she placed a foot on his upper chest and pressed him back.
"You're just not getting me" she sighed. She snapped her leg across his face a few times in a series of slaps that left him unconscious. His friend rose. Alley Cat swung a large closed fan into the side of his head and he went down.
"Don't move!" warned the leader as he grabbed the small woman in the blue jacket and cap. "Or I slit her throat! I swear it".
"Gutsy" purred Alley Cat. She touched the small mesh patches on her gloves palms as a hippopotamus of memory shoved its way to the surface. She raised her palm and blew. The smoke was pink, purple, blue and navy, sparkling as it touched his face and curled up his nostrils.
"Oh my" he breathed...and collapsed to his knees sprouting love poems. "My divine muse, guide me! Show me the way to your heart so I may confess my love for---"
She kicked him across the face and he fell unconscious. "He was about to say thee," she muttered. "I did us both a favour."
Jamie cast a look at the woman...and shot upwards, latching her claws into the brickwork and climbing upwards...disappearing. The woman stared, then hurried out of the alley, clutching her purse to her chest.
====================
"She used a spell, a love spell, on that thug" mused Nick. "Interesting...I didn't think those ancient love-smoke spells have been seen since the pyramids were a new-fangled invention".
Dave sighed. "It's been an hour of the Cat. Can we please get away from it?"
"I need to know if she's like the recent Catwoman a psycho-sexual nut job with homicidal tendencies and serious love for vinyl...or the less recent Catwoman with a love for larceny and the occasional good deed."
"You have a thing for evil women. Remember Miss Let's-throw-explosives- around Solitaire? You and her...relationship counselling all the way."
"Solitaire was refined and skilled."
"She was a snob" sniffed Dave. "And don't forget to sleep, you have the day free... and the art opening tonight...sometimes I wish you'd get a PA...almost as much as I wish you'd get a girlfriend..."
"Keep out of it St. David" warned Nick. "I'm getting my rest, like you want."
"And here is our art department Mr Monday" the head of art, Mr Keith led the tall tanned investor through the art department. Adrian groaned.
"Skip Monday...I hate him! He ruined my life in school..." he groaned. "Called me point-Dexter and specs and...you get the idea! He even stole my girlfriend". Leaning against his desk Jamie patted him on the back of the neck.
"How would you like me to shatter that mean old skips ego?"
Adrian's head poked up. "You can do that?"
"Trust me" she smiled. "Feminine wiles"
And weird love smoke if needs beher mind added. She rose and walked out in front of Skip Monday, who was dressed in a white suit and shirt. His store bought tan and blonde hair was irritating. "Hi" she said, with a small wave and sashayed past, brushing her chest of his arm as she slid past into her cubicle.
"Who was she?" Skip asked.
"Bianca-Jamelia Carter" shrugged Mr Keith. "An artist."
"Ms Carter" Skip said leaning on her cubicle. "Would you like to join me for a gallery opening tonight? It's very high end..."
Jamie turned and smiled. "Really?" her blouse had opened a few buttons more. "That sounds really nice. I'm always impressed by a man with a limo, even if they say its compensation".
Skip frowned as she rose and went to her drawers, bending down to pick out a file from the bottom drawer. His eyes bulged and he swallowed. "I'll meet you at your hotel whenever" she said.
"8:00" he squeaked. She moved her lips in a kind of barely-existent kiss as he walked away. Jamie cast a sly glance at Adrian who stared at her strangely.
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Jamie filled the atomizer and then the Compaq with the mixtures. She smiled at Lewis who was fawning over her in the lab of the cosmetics plant. Which was a building behind the arts and accounts building. "Thanks Lewis" she whispered and blew him a kiss so he could continue to fantasize until the love smoke fell off...she just didn't have the time to "wile" him.
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Clad in a white and silver dress with sharp heels and her costume in a handbag (hidden under a raincoat) Jamie stepped out of the limo with Skip who was flashing bleached teeth left and right.
Her dress was longer on the left side with a few silver (sort-of-) frills. The straps are silver too and there's a small diamond shaped hole on the chest. She has her hair down, drifting just on her shoulder level.
She successfully fended off the groping from Skip in the elevator and entered the party with him. "Oh look it's Darby Chaser, the famous model," Jamie said. "I think you should talk to her, she seems to be trying to get your attention."
Darby Chaser (6ft buxom blonde with unnatural cheekbones) was waving frantically like a lunatic from the other side of the room. Subtle darlingsniffed Jamie as Skip ran over to the woman.
Slowly Jamie made her way into a less crowded part of the exhibition. Paintings hung in the totally white room with three sculptures (one of glass, one of scrap metal and wire and another of clay) in the centre.
Nick paused, he heard someone enter the room, but the footsteps became barely existent after that. He turned and walked over to the large wire sculpture, a female figure in silver and white visible. "Evidently this artist was trying to shape something," he said.
"I don't know art," sighed the woman. "That's assuming your talking to me and not some imaginary friend—in which case discard my last statement."
"I was talking to you," he said, trying to catch a glimpse of her through the wire shapes. "I believe it's meant to be a wire model of the human digestive system"
"Lovely" smiled Jamie. She moved on to the large clay structure, keeping it between them. "Woman in abandoned repose? What is with these artists? I mean...Yah!"
For a second Nick could see a set of green eyes and blonde-brown hair. "Do you like art?"
"I love art, but I'm not that chuffed about this. They're so...it's all about the name, not the art itself. It's superficial, no depth just a shallow look for attention. The colours are to get attention not to relay the artists feelings and the sculptures are all about creating twisted shapes not about creating an image with feeling."
"You're one for passionate arguments on art I see" nodded Nick. "Might I ask the ladies name? Or would that be out of line?"
"I'm someone" she replied in a sighing voice. "But everyone calls me nobody".
Nick quickened his pace as she reached the glass-crystal shape and a blurred shape became visible. "This is nice," she said.
"I agree"
"You won't get anywhere near me like that" she said. "I hate yes-men"
"I was agreeing and I meant it"
"Sincerity? From a man? Hmmmm" Nick turned to his right, as she appeared, a flute of champagne in her hand. "Well, that's a surprise of course..."
"St. Nicholas St. Peter"
"St. John, St. David, St. Paul"
"Are you mocking my name?" he said, his lips quirking into a smile.
"I thought we were playing a game" she smiled. "List the saints or something... well it's an interesting name."
"And you are?"
Jamie took his offered hand and shook. "Extremely unimpressed by the artwork"
"Parents didn't like you much, did they?"
Jamie raised her glass in a small salute. "La'chiem Mr St. Peter"
"Skol" he replied as he raised his glass.
"Nostrovia" she shrugged
"Banzai"
"Good one---Rinka"
"Ditto--- Slanta"
"We may never get to drink at this rate" shrugged Jamie. "As they say back home, cheers and bottoms up". She slugged her drink back swiftly and gracefully. With a shrug Nick drank his own down deeply.
"I see my date coming this way, apparently looking for me" sighed Jamie.
"I'll let you go to him then" Nick said. She snared his arm with hers.
"You'll do no such thing. Balcony. Now".
The cool moonlight flowed down on the balcony, bathing it in a supernatural glow that felt familiar to Jamie. "Why are you dating Skip Monday of all people?" Nick asked at last. "I had to deal with him once before, a feat I shall not repeat."
"I'm actually getting even with him for hurting a friends feelings when they were in school together" Jamie said as she removed her perfume. "This makes bottle tan and hair bleach less stable in their pigmentation."
"I can guess...giant oompa-loompa" smirked Nick. "What a dark side you have"
"It's a gift" shrugged Jamie. "But I amn't ready to get him just yet. Bloody git needs to stop trying to grope me so---once he's hammered I'll spray him."
Nick looked at the entrance to the exhibition, Skip had just appeared. "And your chance has arisen. Have fun". He turned to leave but she hooked the back of his collar and swiftly pulled him back.
"Oh Mr St. Peter you're hilarious" she laughed abruptly, patting his chest once. She smiled at Skip. "Skippy! How wonderful to see you. Mr St. Peter was just discussing the art with me."
"I like it" Skip said dimly. With a sigh Jamie sprayed the atomizer over her shoulder, filling the air with a sweet scent. Skip gave a chuckle. "Keeping yourself pretty for me".
"Yes, actually we need to talk" Jamie said. "Wait here Mr St. Peter." She led Skip to an alcove and blew the smoke off her palm. "Skip, you want to go after Darby and make sure to get yourself in as many pictures as possible."
"But I love you" he sighed dreamily.
"No you don't, go," she instructed. He walked away and she returned to Nick's side. "Sorry, had to get him to chase Chaser. He was a pain in the neck."
"I understand, but why spend the evening with me?"
"Never said I would, but you seem like an intelligent guy, I figure that once the full moon goes down you'll revert to a macho slob so I'll enjoy this conversation while it lasts."
He smirked and nodded. The bullets tore through the air. "All right folks!" one of the two men shouted. "Empty all your valuables into the bag!"
"Oh joy a robbery," muttered Nick. "I'll try and call the police...you should hide..."
"Yes being a woman there is nothing I can contribute" Jamie said mechanically. In a blur she was immersed in the crowd. Nick raised an eyebrow and darted off, stepping in behind a plant and disappearing in his spiral of shadow.
Jamie dug her slightly lengthened nails into the gaps in the brickwork and edged across to the locked balcony with the broken parapet. She pulled her purse around and dragged her costume out. "It's so easy to carry around" she muttered. She hurriedly unzipped the back of her dress.
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The two thugs wore biker helmets, their third and forth members came from the elevators. "Come on lady! The necklace"
The pale euro snob removed her diamond necklace and with trembling hands gave it to the man. A whip cracked through the air and dragged the thug to the ground.
"Wouldn't you rather have a nice oversized-novelty-cheque?" purred the cat. All eyes locked on her and there was a sharp intake of breath from everyone in the room. She blinked. They blinked. "It wasn't that bad was it?"
Alley Cat propelled herself upwards and flipped over him, grabbing the slack of her whip and wrenching on it, flinging him over. "To quote a certain, blue eyed, white haired genius...meow" she pivoted and kicked the grounded thief across the face.
There was a crash as someone came through the window, tackling the nearest thug to the ground and landing a sledgehammer punch to the back of his head. The thief went limp and stayed down. The remaining two looked at each other and raised their weapons.
Dusk looked at Catwoman his short, tattered red cloak flowing behind him. She gave a small nod...and spun flinging a small, delicate blue fan. It sliced a wound in the arm of the first man. Dusk hurled a small knife with a blade shaped like a batwing at the other; it stabbed through his wrist and left him in a writhing pile on the ground.
"Impressive, Alley Cat...and you are?" Jamie purred as she flipped at the man she's slashed and jack-knife slashed down on him, her claws raked down his chest and she slammed her head into his face for closure.
"I could say the same, Dusk, the pleasure is indeed mine" whispered Dusk. There was a ping and the elevator doors opened. Alley Cat and Dusk darted in opposite directions. Dusk whirled into a spiral of shadow and vanished as Alley Cat back flipped out the window and off the roof.
The whip cracked out of her hand and snared a radio antennae she swivelled on the fulcrum and landed on her foes and one hand. "Go Me-ow" she purred.
"Impressive exit" Dusk whispered. She spun and bared her claws with a hiss.
"Let me guess" she purred. "Here to try your mettle. The East End is my territory Dusky, back off or I'll make you my kitties litter!"
Dusk smirked. "Don't make me hurt you"
"You'd have to catch me first" she smirked...and back flipped. She dropped off the edge of the building onto a slanted roof. She skidded down followed closely by Dusk. Jamie giggled and vaulted upwards an incredible height landing on the moving arm demonstrating a knife slicing. She used it to catapult onto another roof and pulled out her fans. She sprinted off the roof a second later, spinning mid leap as Dusk followed, batting him twice across the face with her closed fans.
They landed; Dusk touched his cowled face, blood seeping through the material. "Not bad"
He spun and slammed a fist into the side of her head, she swept with the strike and whirled a leg sideways off the ground and angled it into his neck. He kicked up into her stomach and grabbed her leg.
"Nice leg" he said.
"Thanks. I have two" she whirled, using the held leg as leverage and cracked him in the side of the head. She swiped low and tore a gash in his hip. He roared and grabbed her by the head, slamming their foreheads together sending her staggering back. She leapt and snared her thighs around his midriff, squeezing tightly.
"Do you have a crush on me?" he wheezed.
"Oh, yeah" she smiled. "Big crush"
"Oh honey," he gasped. "I love you too". He clapped his hands into the sides of her head and stunned her. He hurled her off his body and somersaulted towards her, she rolled in time to avoid his feet stamping down at him.
He turned and received five swift high-heeled kicks to the face followed up with a swift jab. Jamie grabbed Nick's mask as he slammed her in the gut and they pulled apart...each holding the others mask.
"YOU!" they chorused.
The spotlights swept the rooftop as Jamie rushed at Nick and blew a cloud of blue into his face. "Me" she said. He staggered back, fighting the spell. She grabbed a handful of his black hair and kissed him angrily, backing him towards the end of the roof.
Her lips glowed blue and sent the indigo shooting into body, he staggered back, and she shoved him off the roof and picked up her mask. "Have to run" she said breathlessly as she flipped a lock of hair out of her eyes and leapt off the roof before the spotlight could catch her.
Nick dangled on a drainpipe, pulling his hood up he sighed. "Well that went well."
TBC:
Jamie goes on Good Morning Gotham to speak about the East End Education centre but winds up on Blind Date! She gets a date...with Nick? She has to get help at Temple.com from the New ORACLE! Who is it? Guess! Because Inque is in Gotham and gunning for a priceless Aztec calendar. Alley Cat AWAY!
Fly: Glad you liked it, Review again!
CATgrl: Thanks for your support, this is dedicated to you! Unless you don't like it in which case never mind...ay-hem...
A/N: Awwww! No more reviews then the above? Ah well...I'm in a good mood. For now...spookyspookyspooky
Oh and General Lee Twisted: THERE IS NO POSSIBLE SLASH HERE SO STOP ASKING!!!!!!!!
Chapter 2: Butting Heads
The tattered cloak only reached the small of his back. It was dark red and the hood had a serpentine point slithering behind him in the wind. His outfit was black but for the chest plate that was grey with a bandoleer across his chest crossed by a satchel strap. He removed a flute from his belt as he landed on the rooftop and put it to his lips. "Attack dogs...my, the criminal element really branch out," he muttered.
He lunged off the rooftop and spread the tattered cloak, gliding on the wind current to land on the roof of the decrepit building. He placed the flute to his lips, looking down at the splicer size-increased hounds below.
The silence of the flute affected the dogs. They all simultaneously slumped to one side and Dusk scrambled down the side of the building, his fingers adhering to the wall through his black gloves as he descended the side of the building on his fingertips.
He pulled a small black cylinder from his belt pouches and pointed it. The red laser sliced through the glass like a hot knife through butter. He touched the glass and adhered his fingers to it. He slipped in and laid the glass on the dusty floor of the storage facilities office.
============================
Across the road a figure sauntered down the sidewalk unperturbed, skipping over a long black strand. She paused and looked up at the Adult Movie store...the three floors above were home to the Butchers. A gang of hacksaw loving nutcases that had, two days ago, murdered two police officers.
"Trés bonne" purred Alley Cat. She performed a stunning leap upwards to shove her talons into the brickwork of the floor above the dim sign of three red X's. She spat on the sign and scaled the building. She paused at the window and slid onto the sill. Her pupils turned into slit feline ones. Jamie could see through the dark shadows like they weren't there. "Here's kitty!" she grinned and lunged through the glass.
====================
Nick crawled along the ceiling and removed a small bat shape from his bandoleer of pouches. He flicked it into the crate marked explosives below him. The men below were totally oblivious to his presence. He tossed another bat into the back of a terminal and flipped himself silently onto a catwalk. "HEY YOU!"
Nick spun and mentally slapped himself in the head. The man at the other end of the catwalk scrambled up the last few steps of the ladder and aimed his machine gun. The sharp S-shape blade sliced through the air, the only sign of movement from Dusk was a minor flick of the wrist. It knocked the gun away.
"INTRUDER!" screamed the man. "INTRU---"
The shadows leapt from Dusk's hands and wrapped around the man's throat flinging him aside as Nick sprinted towards the ladder, forgoing the steps and sliding down on the vertical poles. He swung a heel into the neck of the man nearest him.
"I wish I could stay," he whispered. "But I'm in a rush!"
He pointed a hand at two gunmen as they spun to fire at him; their shadows lurched up at them and dragged them to their knees. "Don't tangle with the supernatural." He gripped his cloak and pulled it up over himself, twisting into a 2D spiral of green and black that twisted out of existence...seconds later the bats exploded...
============================
Nick stepped out of the distortion in the air and looked around. The flames had taken the building. "Well, well. Dusk, THE Dusk in this little corner of Gotham" a voice said. "Well, this is a nice turn of events..."
Dusk spun and looked at the Commissioner. She was standing before him looking very annoyed. Her pistol was aimed at his chest and she didn't look like she was willing to listen to elaborate stories or watch him shadow stride away.
"Ah" he said. "Commissioner".
============================
Landing in the shower of glass Jamie leapt straight up into a forwards flip over the body of an unfortunate Butcher who got a hook kick in the gut. She ducked under a slash and used her weave to wire a kick into his gut. He flipped over onto the table.
"Now boys, be gentle it's my first time and I just don't know what to do...guide me through it" she meowed as she adjusted her leather corset and snapped her hips to one side, the tattered black trail whipping behind her feet. She adjusted her helmet and slid into a fighting stance.
"Let's see sugar," cackled one Butcher, reaching for her cleavage. She caught his hand and smiled. She touched the bands of leather that held the open cat suit zippers closed a little.
"Happy to oblige" she whispered breathlessly. She kicked into his side still holding his arm then snaked her leg around the trapped limb to kick his face several times. "Will that do you?"
He staggered back and charged. She spun under his arms and swept his legs from under him. She caught his collar and belt buckle as he fell down towards her and flipped him over. Jamie rose and cracked her whip; catching one man by the neck she slugged him into the body of another idiot who got too close with his hacksaw.
"This is fun, now I see the attraction!" she grinned. She leaned right back as a female Butcher slashed at her with a small divers knife. Jamie was flexed right over, touching the ground with her spine bent incredibly. "Limber aren't I?"
She flipped her legs up into a handstand and kicked the knife away as she did. She lashed her heels out into the Butcher woman's eyes. Her heels were blunt and thick so they gave the woman two large bruises and a hell of a reason to scream.
Jamie snapped her whip at a man and his belt buckled popped open, he stumbled and fell. She looked at the last three in the room and coiled her whip back around her waist. "Okay, three for me!" she grinned. She pulled the fans from her leg holsters and snapped them out. The Butchers brandished machetes and hatchets, unaware of what the deadly ornate weapons were capable of.
They charged...the fans hissed and slashed through the air as Jamie performed springs and flips without the use of her hands to slash and swipe expertly. She snapped her fans closed again and batted the criminals aside. She spun them in her hands and slipped them back into the holsters before sashaying over to the canisters of laughing gas. She frowned and pulled the label (a crown on a peacock feather) off the crate. "Laughing Gas? Curiouser and curiouser" she murmured. Sighing she wrenched the valves off.
"What the hell are you doing!?" one of the Butchers exclaimed.
"Giving you a reason to move, the East End is my turf, spread the word...cross me and it's bad luck!" she snapped. She walked over to a light switch and pulled the cover off using a fan for leverage.
The Butchers rushed out of the old cinema through the back exit.
============================
"So what brings YOU here? Isn't Riverside your epicentre anymore?" the commissioner asked. "And what made you think you could get away with murdering anyone, criminals or not here?"
"I play a different game to your Batman or your officers" he shrugged. "The city needs something a little more drastic if you want to clean it up."
"We're doing fine thanks," the Commissioner said.
The pair swung their heads to the doors of the cinema as a shape appeared back flipping out. "You might want to hit the dirt," the back flipping woman shouted as she somersaulted down an open sewer grate and disappeared.
The pair followed her flips and stared at the grate after she'd vanished...then the cinema had exploded in a ball of flame. "What a woman" gasped Dusk with intense excitement. He leapt backwards and spun himself into a spiral of darkness that vanished.
Barbara Gordon stared at the blazing inferno. "2 cats in three months...record or what?"
================================
"That was...wow!" Jamie giggled as she hopped up and down on the spot in her apartment, making sure the blinds were pulled. She slipped out of her costume and sauntered into the shower letting the water run over her slightly aching body. "I beat the Butchers! One of the most savage damn gangs in Gotham!"
She stepped out of the shower and pulled on her robe, humming as she sauntered into her tiny room. "I need to tell someone" she sighed hopping onto her bed with Mist. "But I really can't...can I?" she sighed.
Jamie lay back. "As if my relationships with men could get worse..."
============================
Madison screamed and scuttled from her booth, her meticulously done hair was now filled with spiders. "What happened?" Jamie asked flatly.
"Someone put spiders in Madison's hat" Adrian sighed. Jamie sipped her tea with a sly look in her eyes, the green orbs darting shiftily from side to side.
"Who'd do something like that to sweet Maddy?" mused Jamie.
"Possibly you" sniffed Adrian swivelling to face her. She was dressed in a tight black turtleneck and pair of tight red leather trousers.
"Nice one detective" grinned Jamie swirling the tea in her cup. "So...anything planned for this evening? I'm hitting the town cruising for guys!"
"I have...stuff...to look after" Adrian smiled. "Mind if I rain check..."
Jamie narrowed her eyes at him. "You look flushed Adrian...what's wrong?"
"Nothing" Adrian swallowed, nervous in comparison to his cynical normalities. He swivelled back to his desk and continued to sketch the shape. "There's some investor coming over today and he used to...pick on me in school."
"Reeeeeee-alllllly?" pondered Jamie aloud. "Well...anyway..."
"O-total-M-absolute-G!" someone exclaimed. It was Courtney Collins, another artist, she was holding a newspaper. "The Catwoman's back! She blew up a cinema last night! Apparently the commissioner caught a glimpse of her. They figured she was a Catwoman by the fact slashes on the Butcher Gang Members she beat up were similar to Catwoman's!"
A crowd had gathered. Spellbound, recalling the terrorism of a few months back from the woman in PVC and leathers with a whip and claws. No one wanted a rerun of that little escapade. "How do they know it was Catwoman?" sighed someone, Carl Atkins from the Press Liaison asked.
"Commissioner Gordon was there...apparently, she was apprehending a dangerous vigilante called Dusk, when the Catwoman appeared, blowing a building up and vanishing into the sewers."
Jamie smiled to herself...so Dusk was the name of the guy in the hood...
========================
"Catwoman" mused Nick as he and Dave sat in their limo, speeding towards their meeting with Paxton Powers. "Cat---woman...what an intriguing turn of events."
"Brothers got a crush," cooed Dave.
"If you want me to show you the uses for a spade...I will."
Dave raised his hands in defeat and returned to the computer game set in the car. "You know, the press is starting to...what's the word? Imply? That you mightn't be interested in women..."
Nick's eyebrows vanished into his bangs. "Sorry?"
"No solid relationships...girls usually get the grand tour of the penthouse then head home...you know...as in...not seeing you again...face it...you're a bit of a ho."
Nick glared at his brother. "I'm not, I just can't share both sides of myself with a girlfriend, keep it short and no one gets hurt...it's best for everyone."
"Not really" Dave said quietly. "But believe what you want."
Nick pressed the corner of his forehead to the cold glass and stared out the window as the rain came down on Gotham from an iron-grey sky. He closed his eyes...
========================
"Really?" Max smiled over her cup of coffee. "You seriously did that!"
"Madison is a pain in the ass" Jamie sighed flipping her hair back. "She deserved the arachnids in the hat...why? Was it immoral?"
"Just different" Max said, as she looked her friend over the cup of coffee. Jamie had her hair gelled into strips, she looked like on of Charlie's angels or something. "You used to a voice confrontation and go for the cynical barb."
"Things—people- change" whispered Jamie. "I let my one true love's killers get away... it had an affect, I'm making amends by being...stronger."
"What about Boyfriends? The big B?"
"No" Jamie said. "I've pretty much been a celibate...all I need is a habit, a wimble and a mother superior and I'm set for life. Though I'm getting back in there lately."
"Do you remember when we met in London?" asked Max.
"Yeah, you were a tourist and I was a 10 year old giving tours of Daddy's museum"
"You called me a Yankee-doodle-dandy"
"You called me a crumpet eating limey," sighed Jamie. "And then we went out for tea and biscuits...you seemed offended by the crumpets. Why was that?"
"You'll never know" Max said narrowing her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry all my friend's baled but they all had things. Blade's gotten a modelling contract, Nelson's doing football 24-7 to train up for his scholarship and Terry...Terry lost someone close to him early this year...he's not been the same."
"I get it" nodded Jamie. "Hey, let's go clubbing..."
"Can't, work" Max sighed. "I'm helping a friend's boss set up his computers."
"Big job?"
"Really big computer" sighed Max.
It's strangeJamie thought as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. I'm able to do all these things by instinct...it's like I'm remembering a past I've never had
She opened the door of her apartment and smiled as she found Lenny trying to pull his fist out of her jar. "Oh dear, you seem to have mistaken that for my money pot...I keep my glue in there actually. Extra strength"
"I'll sue you!" warned Lenny.
"Read the cover of the tin pal," sighed Jamie. It clearly stated "Cash Savings of Jamie Carter – Hands off". "You'll need that for evidence, but if you remove it your claim will go down the tubes...but if you don't you get nabbed for theft...choices, choices". She snapped a picture with her small camera. "And now I have it on screen, with the writing crystal clear...thanks Lenny"
Lenny snarled and growled before stalking out of the room. Jamie shut the door, seconds later there was a knock. Jamie opened it with a smile. Mist mewled at her, held out from the body of Mr Crivitz. Who was looking very, very annoyed.
"Your cat-"
"Is adorable I know" she said taking the cat into her arms.
"No! Your cat-"
"Is white? State the obvious much?"
"Listen you---"
A hand snagged his collar and pulled him to her face. Her dark blue eyes bore into his mind. "Look pal, what kind of whine has a problem with every little thing I do? When you find yourself a life then tell me so I can throw a party because when you DO find a life I will not have to put up with this harassment anymore. Because this is the sign of a truly pathetic individual."
He opened his mouth to speak but she shut the door in his face and placed Mist down. "So, I feel like a rooftop run tonight" she said. "You stay here and take my messages ...damn, I forgot, I don't get any!"
============================
"Mr Wayne, speaking with you and your partner Mr Powers was...better then just speaking with him" smiled Nick shaking the old man's hand.
"No trouble Mr St. Peter"
"Between you and me" whispered Nick. "Paxton's a bit too stupid for this game."
He glanced at the boy in the heavy brown jacket who was walking towards them. "Plus, Mr McGinnis added something interesting to the meeting with the occasional stifled laugh at Paxton...I see that they don't like each other."
"Perceptive" nodded Terry. "I don't. Neither does he. But that's for our own private reason's".
"I wasn't prying Mr McGinnis," sighed Nick. "Be careful you don't accuse me again. If you get on my bad side...well it's not a nice place to be, bad weather and all."
Terry shifted; the glint in Mr St. Peter's eye was disturbing.
========================
The motorbike roared through the streets, black metal and green plating, a racing bike that made for a quick getaway. It was easy to store and Stride back too. He sighed and rested on the bars for a moment...then he saw it...the feline shape flipping through the night sky.
He smiled and put the bike against a wall, it vanished. Then he leapt upwards, grabbing a windowsill and vaulting backwards off the wall there, onto the roof of a building.
====================
"The Goddess Bast" recited Jamie. "Goddess of Love and Fertility...oh and we can't forget Sex...she was also Sekhmet the goddess of war in an alternative side and was both cat and lioness. She used her powers to save Ra when—was he trapped in the underworld or dead?" she shrugged. "The symbol on Mist's collar was the symbol of Isis, the wings...but the stone was the stone of Bast. Isis was the goddess of women and the first queen of Egypt. She put her husband back together and was mother to Horus...I think that's her biggest achievements."
She stopped and looked into the alley, he senses could pick-up a lot more, opening a world she'd never known...she heard the muffled squeak below...her eyes pierced the dark and she hissed as she saw the woman surrounded by three thugs. Oh joy, men demonstrating their superiority on someone that is approximately one eighth the total of their combined body mass
Jamie flipped off the roof and landed in a crouch and rose seductively. "Hey boys, don't mind me, I'm just here to crack a can of whupass out."
"Get her," the first said. The other two rushed at her. She ducked low and kicked the ankle of the first, slipping his legs off to one side and forcing him to land on his side. She spun a kick over the falling man's head and cracked his friend in the side of the face. Her whip cracked out and dragged him to his knees before her; she placed a foot on his upper chest and pressed him back.
"You're just not getting me" she sighed. She snapped her leg across his face a few times in a series of slaps that left him unconscious. His friend rose. Alley Cat swung a large closed fan into the side of his head and he went down.
"Don't move!" warned the leader as he grabbed the small woman in the blue jacket and cap. "Or I slit her throat! I swear it".
"Gutsy" purred Alley Cat. She touched the small mesh patches on her gloves palms as a hippopotamus of memory shoved its way to the surface. She raised her palm and blew. The smoke was pink, purple, blue and navy, sparkling as it touched his face and curled up his nostrils.
"Oh my" he breathed...and collapsed to his knees sprouting love poems. "My divine muse, guide me! Show me the way to your heart so I may confess my love for---"
She kicked him across the face and he fell unconscious. "He was about to say thee," she muttered. "I did us both a favour."
Jamie cast a look at the woman...and shot upwards, latching her claws into the brickwork and climbing upwards...disappearing. The woman stared, then hurried out of the alley, clutching her purse to her chest.
====================
"She used a spell, a love spell, on that thug" mused Nick. "Interesting...I didn't think those ancient love-smoke spells have been seen since the pyramids were a new-fangled invention".
Dave sighed. "It's been an hour of the Cat. Can we please get away from it?"
"I need to know if she's like the recent Catwoman a psycho-sexual nut job with homicidal tendencies and serious love for vinyl...or the less recent Catwoman with a love for larceny and the occasional good deed."
"You have a thing for evil women. Remember Miss Let's-throw-explosives- around Solitaire? You and her...relationship counselling all the way."
"Solitaire was refined and skilled."
"She was a snob" sniffed Dave. "And don't forget to sleep, you have the day free... and the art opening tonight...sometimes I wish you'd get a PA...almost as much as I wish you'd get a girlfriend..."
"Keep out of it St. David" warned Nick. "I'm getting my rest, like you want."
"And here is our art department Mr Monday" the head of art, Mr Keith led the tall tanned investor through the art department. Adrian groaned.
"Skip Monday...I hate him! He ruined my life in school..." he groaned. "Called me point-Dexter and specs and...you get the idea! He even stole my girlfriend". Leaning against his desk Jamie patted him on the back of the neck.
"How would you like me to shatter that mean old skips ego?"
Adrian's head poked up. "You can do that?"
"Trust me" she smiled. "Feminine wiles"
And weird love smoke if needs beher mind added. She rose and walked out in front of Skip Monday, who was dressed in a white suit and shirt. His store bought tan and blonde hair was irritating. "Hi" she said, with a small wave and sashayed past, brushing her chest of his arm as she slid past into her cubicle.
"Who was she?" Skip asked.
"Bianca-Jamelia Carter" shrugged Mr Keith. "An artist."
"Ms Carter" Skip said leaning on her cubicle. "Would you like to join me for a gallery opening tonight? It's very high end..."
Jamie turned and smiled. "Really?" her blouse had opened a few buttons more. "That sounds really nice. I'm always impressed by a man with a limo, even if they say its compensation".
Skip frowned as she rose and went to her drawers, bending down to pick out a file from the bottom drawer. His eyes bulged and he swallowed. "I'll meet you at your hotel whenever" she said.
"8:00" he squeaked. She moved her lips in a kind of barely-existent kiss as he walked away. Jamie cast a sly glance at Adrian who stared at her strangely.
=====================================
Jamie filled the atomizer and then the Compaq with the mixtures. She smiled at Lewis who was fawning over her in the lab of the cosmetics plant. Which was a building behind the arts and accounts building. "Thanks Lewis" she whispered and blew him a kiss so he could continue to fantasize until the love smoke fell off...she just didn't have the time to "wile" him.
====================================
Clad in a white and silver dress with sharp heels and her costume in a handbag (hidden under a raincoat) Jamie stepped out of the limo with Skip who was flashing bleached teeth left and right.
Her dress was longer on the left side with a few silver (sort-of-) frills. The straps are silver too and there's a small diamond shaped hole on the chest. She has her hair down, drifting just on her shoulder level.
She successfully fended off the groping from Skip in the elevator and entered the party with him. "Oh look it's Darby Chaser, the famous model," Jamie said. "I think you should talk to her, she seems to be trying to get your attention."
Darby Chaser (6ft buxom blonde with unnatural cheekbones) was waving frantically like a lunatic from the other side of the room. Subtle darlingsniffed Jamie as Skip ran over to the woman.
Slowly Jamie made her way into a less crowded part of the exhibition. Paintings hung in the totally white room with three sculptures (one of glass, one of scrap metal and wire and another of clay) in the centre.
Nick paused, he heard someone enter the room, but the footsteps became barely existent after that. He turned and walked over to the large wire sculpture, a female figure in silver and white visible. "Evidently this artist was trying to shape something," he said.
"I don't know art," sighed the woman. "That's assuming your talking to me and not some imaginary friend—in which case discard my last statement."
"I was talking to you," he said, trying to catch a glimpse of her through the wire shapes. "I believe it's meant to be a wire model of the human digestive system"
"Lovely" smiled Jamie. She moved on to the large clay structure, keeping it between them. "Woman in abandoned repose? What is with these artists? I mean...Yah!"
For a second Nick could see a set of green eyes and blonde-brown hair. "Do you like art?"
"I love art, but I'm not that chuffed about this. They're so...it's all about the name, not the art itself. It's superficial, no depth just a shallow look for attention. The colours are to get attention not to relay the artists feelings and the sculptures are all about creating twisted shapes not about creating an image with feeling."
"You're one for passionate arguments on art I see" nodded Nick. "Might I ask the ladies name? Or would that be out of line?"
"I'm someone" she replied in a sighing voice. "But everyone calls me nobody".
Nick quickened his pace as she reached the glass-crystal shape and a blurred shape became visible. "This is nice," she said.
"I agree"
"You won't get anywhere near me like that" she said. "I hate yes-men"
"I was agreeing and I meant it"
"Sincerity? From a man? Hmmmm" Nick turned to his right, as she appeared, a flute of champagne in her hand. "Well, that's a surprise of course..."
"St. Nicholas St. Peter"
"St. John, St. David, St. Paul"
"Are you mocking my name?" he said, his lips quirking into a smile.
"I thought we were playing a game" she smiled. "List the saints or something... well it's an interesting name."
"And you are?"
Jamie took his offered hand and shook. "Extremely unimpressed by the artwork"
"Parents didn't like you much, did they?"
Jamie raised her glass in a small salute. "La'chiem Mr St. Peter"
"Skol" he replied as he raised his glass.
"Nostrovia" she shrugged
"Banzai"
"Good one---Rinka"
"Ditto--- Slanta"
"We may never get to drink at this rate" shrugged Jamie. "As they say back home, cheers and bottoms up". She slugged her drink back swiftly and gracefully. With a shrug Nick drank his own down deeply.
"I see my date coming this way, apparently looking for me" sighed Jamie.
"I'll let you go to him then" Nick said. She snared his arm with hers.
"You'll do no such thing. Balcony. Now".
The cool moonlight flowed down on the balcony, bathing it in a supernatural glow that felt familiar to Jamie. "Why are you dating Skip Monday of all people?" Nick asked at last. "I had to deal with him once before, a feat I shall not repeat."
"I'm actually getting even with him for hurting a friends feelings when they were in school together" Jamie said as she removed her perfume. "This makes bottle tan and hair bleach less stable in their pigmentation."
"I can guess...giant oompa-loompa" smirked Nick. "What a dark side you have"
"It's a gift" shrugged Jamie. "But I amn't ready to get him just yet. Bloody git needs to stop trying to grope me so---once he's hammered I'll spray him."
Nick looked at the entrance to the exhibition, Skip had just appeared. "And your chance has arisen. Have fun". He turned to leave but she hooked the back of his collar and swiftly pulled him back.
"Oh Mr St. Peter you're hilarious" she laughed abruptly, patting his chest once. She smiled at Skip. "Skippy! How wonderful to see you. Mr St. Peter was just discussing the art with me."
"I like it" Skip said dimly. With a sigh Jamie sprayed the atomizer over her shoulder, filling the air with a sweet scent. Skip gave a chuckle. "Keeping yourself pretty for me".
"Yes, actually we need to talk" Jamie said. "Wait here Mr St. Peter." She led Skip to an alcove and blew the smoke off her palm. "Skip, you want to go after Darby and make sure to get yourself in as many pictures as possible."
"But I love you" he sighed dreamily.
"No you don't, go," she instructed. He walked away and she returned to Nick's side. "Sorry, had to get him to chase Chaser. He was a pain in the neck."
"I understand, but why spend the evening with me?"
"Never said I would, but you seem like an intelligent guy, I figure that once the full moon goes down you'll revert to a macho slob so I'll enjoy this conversation while it lasts."
He smirked and nodded. The bullets tore through the air. "All right folks!" one of the two men shouted. "Empty all your valuables into the bag!"
"Oh joy a robbery," muttered Nick. "I'll try and call the police...you should hide..."
"Yes being a woman there is nothing I can contribute" Jamie said mechanically. In a blur she was immersed in the crowd. Nick raised an eyebrow and darted off, stepping in behind a plant and disappearing in his spiral of shadow.
Jamie dug her slightly lengthened nails into the gaps in the brickwork and edged across to the locked balcony with the broken parapet. She pulled her purse around and dragged her costume out. "It's so easy to carry around" she muttered. She hurriedly unzipped the back of her dress.
=====================
The two thugs wore biker helmets, their third and forth members came from the elevators. "Come on lady! The necklace"
The pale euro snob removed her diamond necklace and with trembling hands gave it to the man. A whip cracked through the air and dragged the thug to the ground.
"Wouldn't you rather have a nice oversized-novelty-cheque?" purred the cat. All eyes locked on her and there was a sharp intake of breath from everyone in the room. She blinked. They blinked. "It wasn't that bad was it?"
Alley Cat propelled herself upwards and flipped over him, grabbing the slack of her whip and wrenching on it, flinging him over. "To quote a certain, blue eyed, white haired genius...meow" she pivoted and kicked the grounded thief across the face.
There was a crash as someone came through the window, tackling the nearest thug to the ground and landing a sledgehammer punch to the back of his head. The thief went limp and stayed down. The remaining two looked at each other and raised their weapons.
Dusk looked at Catwoman his short, tattered red cloak flowing behind him. She gave a small nod...and spun flinging a small, delicate blue fan. It sliced a wound in the arm of the first man. Dusk hurled a small knife with a blade shaped like a batwing at the other; it stabbed through his wrist and left him in a writhing pile on the ground.
"Impressive, Alley Cat...and you are?" Jamie purred as she flipped at the man she's slashed and jack-knife slashed down on him, her claws raked down his chest and she slammed her head into his face for closure.
"I could say the same, Dusk, the pleasure is indeed mine" whispered Dusk. There was a ping and the elevator doors opened. Alley Cat and Dusk darted in opposite directions. Dusk whirled into a spiral of shadow and vanished as Alley Cat back flipped out the window and off the roof.
The whip cracked out of her hand and snared a radio antennae she swivelled on the fulcrum and landed on her foes and one hand. "Go Me-ow" she purred.
"Impressive exit" Dusk whispered. She spun and bared her claws with a hiss.
"Let me guess" she purred. "Here to try your mettle. The East End is my territory Dusky, back off or I'll make you my kitties litter!"
Dusk smirked. "Don't make me hurt you"
"You'd have to catch me first" she smirked...and back flipped. She dropped off the edge of the building onto a slanted roof. She skidded down followed closely by Dusk. Jamie giggled and vaulted upwards an incredible height landing on the moving arm demonstrating a knife slicing. She used it to catapult onto another roof and pulled out her fans. She sprinted off the roof a second later, spinning mid leap as Dusk followed, batting him twice across the face with her closed fans.
They landed; Dusk touched his cowled face, blood seeping through the material. "Not bad"
He spun and slammed a fist into the side of her head, she swept with the strike and whirled a leg sideways off the ground and angled it into his neck. He kicked up into her stomach and grabbed her leg.
"Nice leg" he said.
"Thanks. I have two" she whirled, using the held leg as leverage and cracked him in the side of the head. She swiped low and tore a gash in his hip. He roared and grabbed her by the head, slamming their foreheads together sending her staggering back. She leapt and snared her thighs around his midriff, squeezing tightly.
"Do you have a crush on me?" he wheezed.
"Oh, yeah" she smiled. "Big crush"
"Oh honey," he gasped. "I love you too". He clapped his hands into the sides of her head and stunned her. He hurled her off his body and somersaulted towards her, she rolled in time to avoid his feet stamping down at him.
He turned and received five swift high-heeled kicks to the face followed up with a swift jab. Jamie grabbed Nick's mask as he slammed her in the gut and they pulled apart...each holding the others mask.
"YOU!" they chorused.
The spotlights swept the rooftop as Jamie rushed at Nick and blew a cloud of blue into his face. "Me" she said. He staggered back, fighting the spell. She grabbed a handful of his black hair and kissed him angrily, backing him towards the end of the roof.
Her lips glowed blue and sent the indigo shooting into body, he staggered back, and she shoved him off the roof and picked up her mask. "Have to run" she said breathlessly as she flipped a lock of hair out of her eyes and leapt off the roof before the spotlight could catch her.
Nick dangled on a drainpipe, pulling his hood up he sighed. "Well that went well."
TBC:
Jamie goes on Good Morning Gotham to speak about the East End Education centre but winds up on Blind Date! She gets a date...with Nick? She has to get help at Temple.com from the New ORACLE! Who is it? Guess! Because Inque is in Gotham and gunning for a priceless Aztec calendar. Alley Cat AWAY!