Chapter 4! Hope you're all liking the story so far! I don't own anything but the plot of course.
Catwoman finally gained consciousness after seemingly being out for hours. She woke up in a dark room, worn down and torn up like it had been purposely destroyed by someone in some sort of temper tantrum or just worn down from the times. There was wallpaper coming off of the walls to show old wood behind it. Also there were sketches of faces on the walls and pictures of a man's face covering certain areas like a child's puzzle, inserting certain facial parts into the corresponding numbers. There was a stuffed animal with bandages wrapped around it's face only showing it's right eye towards the front of the room.
"Where am I.." Catwoman said weakly and hoarsely.
She slowly opened her eyes more and shielded them quickly when she saw the bright light above her. She then looked to the right, her eyes still covered, and saw a crib with another stuffed animal in it, with presumably bleach or some sort of chemical laid on it in a drinking position. Then she looked to her left and saw a bloody operation table with used tools, but they weren't fresh. The blood was dried and the tools worn down. They had been used long before. She tried to move her right arm but couldn't. She looked down and noticed it was bandaged up and remembered what had happened. She had broken her arm to get out of the cell and...
"TOMMY!" Catwoman suddenly yelled. "Where did he go?! I knew I shouldn't have let him out! Damn it. Bruce is going to kill me!"
Suddenly a man walked into the room, he wore a brown, high collard jacket that stretched down to his knees and kept it together with a big brown belt around the waist of the jacket. He had a sort of military type outfit on under it and big steel toed boots on. Also his face, completely covered in bandages. You could only see his eyes and the outline of his lips. In the holsters of his military outfit she noticed twin pistols and two biker gloves. Catwoman stared in fear. Until he spoke in a familiar voice.
"Well. Nice to see what kind of trust you have for me seeing as I fixed up your arm." The man said.
"Oh..sorry Tommy, I just-" Catwoman tried to apologize but was cut off.
"Save it. How's your arm?" Tommy asked.
"It's still hurting a little depending on how I move it." Catwoman answered.
"Good. Only a little. As bad as it was broken I'm surprised you can move it at all. Just stay still for a little while longer."
Catwoman almost agreed until she remembered that she needed to see Bruce before he did something to get himself killed. She didn't know how long she was locked up below Wayne tower or how long she was out. Anything could've happened.
"No!" Catwoman said sitting up. "I have to see Bruce!"
"Relax. He's still solving Riddlers puzzles. But it sounds like he's almost done. I'd say 10 or so left according to The Riddler."
"No Bruce is too smart, he'll solve them and go fight Edward before I heal." Catwoman fired back.
"Answer this question." Tommy said reaching for the back of his head. "You want to see Bruce so bad, but it to really save him? Or talk to him about his feelings for you?"
Catwoman was stumped for a moment. It was honestly to talk to him about his feelings for her. Nobody had ever loved her, why would Bruce? But she also had a sneaking suspicion Edward was up to something.
"Honestly both.." She answered.
"Hmph. Give your arm a few more minutes and I'll give you this special medicine I made that will reduce the pain you'll feel by 80%. It will feel as good as new as long as you don't do a lot of extra moving, one slip up and those bones will snap right in half again." Tommy said in kind of a rude way.
"Thank you Tommy.." Catwoman said after a few moments of silence.
"Don't mention it. Really." Tommy said this while turning around to a semi broken mirror behind him and undoing the bandages. As he slowly unwrapped them Catwoman watched him eager to see what lied behind those bandages. When he was done he went and grabbed a syringe, presumably the medicine he talked about, and turned around and Catwoman saw a man who looked to be about the same age as Bruce but maybe a few years younger, possibly due to him altering his appearance with surgeries. He had smooth red hair and his eyebrows were shaped as if he had a mean look on his face, also a little stubble. Not too bad looking, shame a guy like this turned out to be a villain.
"So, the Bruce Wayne look isn't in style anymore?" Catwoman tried to joke.
Tommy didn't laugh or smile.
"While you were knocked out, I took the opportunity to take off that face and dye my hair back. Wouldn't help me anymore to bear resemblance to him, now hold out your arm." Tommy said.
Catwoman didn't hesitate and weakly held out her arm. She flinched as he inserted the needle into her vein and could feel the medicine course through her body as he pushed the button at the end of the syringe. Almost instantly her arm got stronger and didn't hurt much when she moved it.
"What is that? My arm feels almost perfect." Catwoman asked.
"Just a little something I made to use against Bru-, Batman if he broke any of my bones. The liquid acts as glue when it reaches the broken bone and helps keep it fastened together so you don't have to wait for the cast to lock your bones. But like most glue, it has to dry. Any rough movements will cause the bones to break again." Tommy said removing Catwoman's cast. He took the cast and threw it in the trash.
Catwoman stared at him. And after a while. Spoke.
"Tommy. Why did you help me?" She asked.
"Because you called me your friend..and that's what friends are for right?" He said still looking at the wall.
"Yeah..that's what friends are for." Catwoman said getting off of the operating table. "But, where are we?" She asked.
"We're in my old hideout I used when I was in Arkham city. The bridge here is usually guarded, but all of the cops are either patrolling the islands or at the GCPD. And before you say anything, the military vehicle I used to get here is parked outside." He threw Catwoman the keys as he said this and turned around to clean the syringe needle. "Go see him. He needs you. I just got back from cutting through the TYGER guards shield guarding the hole in the Arkham City wall I used to escape. Drive through it. There's a bridge that will take you directly to Miagani Island and-"
Catwoman cut Tommy off with a hug from behind. Tommy's eyes widened and he stared at the mirror in front of him, his arms at his sides.
"Thank you so much Tommy. You really are a good friend.." Catwoman said with tears escaping her eyes.
She hurried out the door and got into the military vehicle. It wouldn't start at first, but when it did, she backed out of the alley and sped through the abandoned streets of what was once a prison. Full of criminals of every sort. Now abandoned with no one in it but a Catwoman and Tommy.
Back at Hush's hideout Tommy still stared at the mirror. He hadn't been hugged like that since his mother the night the 'accident' happened, he thought about that night and his mom, how she grew up poor and was still mostly poor until she met his father who passed on what riches he had to her. She did nothing less than to give Tommy what she could help him be as high class as possible. All of these thoughts running through his head, he grew sad and angry the more he thought about it until he heard a voice. Tommy looked up at the mirror to see his mom standing there. Looking at him with a calm straight face.
"Tommy." She said.
"What...what do you want...?" Tommy's voice was shaking. He was fighting back the tears.
"I love you." she said calmly.
In one quick motion he headbutted the glass as hard as he could. The blood ran down his face at an alarming rate. They mixed in with his tears. The tears and blood hit the ground causing a mixed dark red colored pool to form at his feet. He looked up at the shattered glass and his mother was gone. Tommy fell to his knees, covered his eyes and screamed as loud as his lungs would allow him.
Mean while Catwoman was driving on the semi repaired highway, it still had its rough spots, but it was stable enough to take her to the industrial district. It would be her first time over here, she usually avoided it while Arkham city was still operational. It had joker guards all over the place, any attempt to enter would be suicide, although she always wondered what goodies awaited there. She didn't have time to look though, she knew what her mission was. As she slowly drove through the industrial district she saw destroyed buildings and dried blood all over. Protocol 10 really did its business. It was really terrifying. The rain, the dark, and not to mention it's been revamped into a theme park when joker ran the place, now everything is old, worn down and rusted.
Finally she reached the hole Tommy told her about and she didn't know how he did it but he did cut a large hole in the wall.
"This could've taken hours..more reason to hurry!" Catwoman didn't think twice and sped through the hole in the wall and into Miagani Island. Catwoman approached a four way intersection and was about to turn left towards the orphanage, which was conveniently close to the end of the bridge she took, about 400 ft away, until she noticed a drone at the end of the street.
"Damn it Bruce. You could've taken some of these things out. If they see me in this thing I'm as good as dead." Catwoman said.
Catwoman exited the Militia vehicle and took to the rooftops. Every pounce hurt a little as her arm was still healing. But nothing to cause the bone to break again. The rooftops were a pretty safe place to be, so she just walked along them, never taking her eyes off of the orphanage. Meanwhile Batman was busy himself.
Batman commanded the robot to destroy the sentry gun and then pick up the trophy and set it on the electrified portion of the floor, the plopped down and easily destroyed the robot.
"Too easy Nigma." Batman said. "Alfred I solved The Riddlers last puzzle. I'm going to end this."
"Great Master Bruce, I can't wait for that arrogant maniac to finally see he's beaten again."
Batman cut off his communications and jumped into the batmobile and sped through the streets. Catwoman was just landing on the roof of the orphanage when she noticed batman riding up fast. She ducked and watched him, hoping she wasn't noticed. Suddenly he stopped.
"What is he doing?" She asked, irritated.
In the car Batman was speaking to Alfred.
"Um Master Bruce, about the sixth victim that was chained up, I did my research and it appears he also went missing by a park." Alfred said in his usual worried tone.
"Did you figure out what the parks had in common?" Batman asked.
"I did indeed sir. They all hosted an event called The Circus Of Strange, weird name, anyway it was held at each time you marked down these people went missing. It was all ran by a rather suspicious and weird man by the name of Lazlo Valentin."
"Check and see if he's ever been to Gotham or has any properties and I can use what I find there to track him down." Batman said angrily.
"We're in luck sir. It appears he has a shop called The Pretty Dolls Parlor. The circus tour ended just as this week started actually sir. It says he works this shop while not on tour. He may still be there."
"If he is Alfred. He's done. Tonight."
"I know sir." Alfred said confidently.
Batman turned around and sped away just as fast as he had shown up. And Catwoman was very annoyed.
"What the hell was that about? What else could he possibly have to do tonight?" She said angrily. "Well, I suppose I'll just lay here until he gets back, he still needs to beat Eddie right?"
In a matter of minutes, Catwoman was fast asleep on the roof of the orphanage, exhausted from the events of tonight.
Batman reached the Pretty Dolls Parlor and stared at it. He had driven past it while chasing a militia vehicle but didn't pay it any mind. Unbeknownst to him that a murderer has been here. Kidnapping and murdering people. Labeling them as failures. Had he just checked it out, maybe those people wouldn't have died. But he knew one thing. He didn't save those six unfortunate souls, but he will save so many more by stopping him.
Batman opened the door to the parlor and was immediately met with faint opera music. Someone was in here. And they were going to be stopped. Now.