5. Rise
the Bloom of Union
Patience had no time for decency as she searched for a place to change. She just dodged into the nearest ally and pulled the costume from out of her bag. She did it much faster than normal people were able to. Her high-heeled boots, tight leather pants, holster, and diamond clawed gloves; In a single moment she went from being uncertain, ditsy Patience Phillips to a confident, corporeal Catwoman. She pounced and clawed her way up a nearby brick wall. Screams and gunshots ripped through the night. Unlike the other innocent bystanders who rushed for safety, she sprinted towards them. She leapt from the opposite building she was standing on and dived into an opened window.
She landed in a crouch sliding a bit with her padded gloves and high heals.
Normally Catwoman was more of a burglar who thieved out of sport, but she couldn't just stand by and watch people die when she had the skills that could save them.
The fire was several floors above her. All she needed to do was find the hostages and get them out of here. And perhaps knock some terrorist heads together in the process.
Bruce ran towards his Mercedes. He had an extra suit in his vehicle just for these situations. It wasn't as durable as his preferred armor back at his home, but it would suffice in taking care of these thugs.
He pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A thick screen of smoke billowed from the muffler instantly, shielding him from the views of other's while he transformed from playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, to steadfast, phantasmal Batman. The smoke billowed away and he stood like a knight in daunting armor.
In the back of his head he worried about Patience. He forced himself to calm though, she wasn't in any danger; she was safe and away. Using the grappling gun from his belt, he aimed it at an undamaged gargoyle and pressed the button. He was launched into the air the next minute. He flexed his fists and a current of electricity shot through his gloves, animating his cape into wings so he could soar freely through the air. He maneuvered them to angle near one of the darkened windows on the second floor above the one with all the shooting and jumped inside without a sound. It was pitch-black up here. The power must've been cut when the creeps began firing. Despite the dark though, he knew exactly where he was. The time he'd spent as a member of the League of Shadows as well as his new life of Batman had given him training that would match a ninja.
He leaned over the side of the stairway and heard shouts from thugs and cries from victims.
"FACE DOWN PEOPLE! NOBODY MOVE!"
Sirens sounded and police officers gathered outside the building. Batman recognized Gordon's voice in a microphone.
"We've got you surrounded. Come out of the building with your hands up."
A thug broke a window and fired a range of warning shots at the officers. "Over my dead body assholes!"
More thugs followed his example and there was chaos as police began firing as well. Victims screamed and one of them went down when a bullet pierced him. Batman acted then he jumped from his perched from the rafters just as something the size of a woman did the same. He grabbed one of the gunmen by his weapon and slammed the thing back into stomach with force that probably broke a few bones. He turned the thing on another and slammed it into his face, knocking him cold. The woman beside him was taking others out with fighting that looked more like acrobatics than martial arts. Her gestures seemed a lot more feline as she seemed to scratch and claw at her opponents rather than throw straight punches like Batman did. She also seemed to favor using her legs to fight with more than her arms.
He caught a glance at her from the side. Her mask covered the whole top of her head and had animalistic ears just as his did, though hers was rounder and seemed to be made of leather, instead of the hard foreign material his was crafted from. He caught one good look at her and knew who she was from the pictures he'd seen on magazines, newspapers, and television.
So Catwoman had come to Gotham.
The way she contorted her body would put a circus performer to shame. He didn't have time to watch her, though. At that moment a group of the thugs gripped hostages of their own. They shouted to Batman and the broad to get the hell back or they'd blow some heads off.
Batman paused and watched as they backed through the doors. He saw the fire glow from above them. One of the gunmen looked around as if searching for something.
"Hey where'd the other one go?"
Batman's eyes swiveled to the sides. Catwoman seemed to have disappeared right in the shadows. There was a moment of silence while the gangsters waited, as if expecting her to emerge out of nowhere. The silence stretched. Then a high-heeled leather boot shot out from nowhere and slammed right into the face of a man. Her kick allowed freedom for his victim and he toppled to the side, falling into two more. Batman saw his chance and leapt at one of the men. He tossed him into another of the thugs and was able to release the other hostages. The fire raged, spreading to the lower lengths where they were now.
The hostages cowered as the criminals were being handled. Catwoman turned to them, a slight trace of annoyance in her voice cause from their inactivity. "RUN! GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!"
Seeing their chance, they dodged the men and ran towards the exit, coughing and evading walls of fire. The two vigilantes occupied the terrorists while they ran for safety. Cop cries could be heard as the people reached safety at the bottom of the building.
Catwoman kneed a man in the back of the head and Batman through his opponent at a wall which knocked him clean out. He looked up when he heard the floor beginning to give out under the pressure of the fire. He turned toward the unconscious men.
"Help me get these people out of here." He told the woman who'd aided him.
If her mask hadn't been covering most of her face, he would've caught her eye raise in appall. "You want to help the people who were trying to kill you?"
He ignored her question. "The building's giving out. We don't have much time."
"These criminals would kill us." She snapped at him.
"Criminals or not, they're still human beings. Either way, we're not leaving them here."
She hesitated, looking from one motionless body to the next. She seemed to give in. "How many can you take?"
He lifted a body onto his shoulders and grabbed another one. "We won't be carrying them down. The police are right outside. I'll lower them over the edge."
"I guess I'll help." She shrugged, grabbing a body as well and following him over to a broken window. Batman secured twine around the belt of one and lowered him down with his grappling gun. The police were ready with medical aid and handcuffs below. One after another they lowered them down. Batman counted sixteen men. He knew there had been more though. When the fire spread some must've fled for their lives. He turned to see the flames had grown even more deadly. He looked to make sure they'd gotten everyone. When all checked out he turned back to Catwoman.
"Here!" he said holding out his arm and pointing his gun out the window to fly them both out.
She shook her hand proudly, unwinding a whip from her belt. "Thanks but I've got my own." She snapped it at a pole that jutted out from the building and prepared to launch herself from the crumbling inferno.
Batman leapt onto the ledge and pointed his gun at an opposite building.
BANG!
"Ugh!" He doubled over when he felt the metal sinking in to his hip.
"Batman!" Catwoman cried as he lost his balance and fell from the window. He could feel the wind bite at his face as the ground came up to meet him. Bystanders screamed as they saw a large dark body fall from the broken window. He tried to maneuver his grappling gun back to the building but the blow from the pistol had struck a vulnerable part in his armor that he'd overlooked. The pain was too much to handle. He couldn't move to even save his life, only fall.
Hands caught him under the arm and he heard the twang of his grappling gun dig into stone. He received a whiplash that left him breathless as the ground fell away from him. He saw the police cars and officers whip by underneath. An arm had him around the back yet seemed to be struggling to keep him from falling out of reach. He felt them slow as they neared a building roof.
Batman was infinitely grateful to be out of the air. The moment he felt solid ground though, he fell over and crouched to the ground in pain.
"Lie down." The woman said. He did so with reluctance, allowing the masked heroin to look at the wound.
"Catwoman? What are you doing in Gotham?"
"Don't speak." She said studying the wound. "You've lost too much blood. We need to get you to a hospital."
He shook his head. "No! No hospital."
She glared at him. "You're dying. There's no other choice."
"I don't have a choice." He growled. There was absolutely no way he would permit himself to be admitted to a hospital.
"Well then what should I do?" She snapped angrily. Batman was beginning to loose consciousness. He clawed at the dark walls that threatened to close in around him and kept himself afloat. It was less than useless.
"Anywhere but a doctor." He said before loosing to the darkness.
Catwoman wanted to hiss when she saw him pass out on her. She searched the rooftop, looking for a way out. It was then that she caught sight of a gorgeous black cat, sitting across on a chimney. His eyes were full of wisdom and his head bobbed in welcome. Catwoman saw the way he held himself and was reminded of Midnight. Could it possibly be a messenger?
"Did Midnight send you?"
The cat only looked at her and to any other person it didn't look like he'd done anything else. But Catwoman knew those small gestures of the tale, the movements of his eyes, the twitch of the nose; all constructed of a language that only cats could sense… and catwomen.
Catwoman hauled the Dark Knight up with his arm slung over her shoulder for support. "We need someplace safe."
The cat turned, flicking its tale back and forth and Catwoman took that as a sign to follow.
Dre stared at the TV, mouth hanging open with awe. The news station had been at the sight of the terrorist shooting right after the police had shown up. They'd announced the building had recently been infiltrated by Gothatm's Dark Knight himself. Dre became far more interested by that. Anything that had to do with Batman was certainly going to be good. Then the television announced that another masked vigilante had run into the building. At first Dre assumed that it must've been yet another one of the many copycats that wished to be recruited by Batman. But the reporter had said other wise, claiming that the body looked far too slender to have been another of those inexperienced amateurs who used armor and guns.
"This is Summer Gleeson with the evening report. I am right outside the Hotel Casta Miro were the neighboring building has been overrun by gangster shooters. We are uncertain which mob gang is inside at this time though suspicions say that it could be the old Vertellies gang. And we've just hear that Batman may be inside as well—OH MY GOD! Did you catch that? Another figure seems to have just entered into the old building by leaping off another into one of the windows." The tape played back to study more from the blurred image for what it could have possibly been. "We are unsure what exactly it could have been at the moment but suspiscons say that it could have been another of the strange vigilantes like the Batman. We are standing by…"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The reporter ducked just as the terrorists opened fire on the police officers below and the camera swiveled around making the imaging distorted. People screamed as they too lowered to the ground and ran for cover. Then the shooting stopped suddenly. The reporter got up and looked back into the building, yet still maintaining a crouched position so she wouldn't be caught off guard again and accidentally be hit.
"It seems that the shooting has stopped for a moment and we are now witnessing what may be a confrontation with the Dark Knight." The camera turned to focuses on the building floor where the gunshots could be heard more distinctly yet now was turned to whoever was attacking them from inside. The fire spread quickly to the floor they were on. The bangs stopped abruptly and Dre held his breath for what seemed like a minute. He breathed with relief when he saw men and women coming out of the building, apparently hostages that the mob had caught as leverage against the police. They were choking and coughing as they stumbled out into the fresh air. Ambulance paramedics rushed to assist them with oxygen.
They waited only a few more minutes before something large was caught being lowered down to the police below.
"Now it appears that a body is being lowered to the ground from one of the top windows. Police have identified him as one of the gangster members though unsure of his true identity at the moment." The camera closed in on the person who was working the pulley as he lowered another body from the building. The shadows hid him perfectly and all Dre could make out was a small outline of his black gloves.
"That's him!" He said excitedly to his mother. "That's Batman. It's definitely Batman!"
"You can't see anything." Mrs. Parker argued. "How can you even tell?"
"I know it's him." Dre insisted. "He's like a ninja! Or a wraith."
More bodies were lowered to the ground. Time stretched and no one else came out.
"It appears that all the gangsters have been apprehended at last. Now all that's left is—OH NO!" The reporter screamed, as did several other people on screen when a caped body came plummeting out of the open window
Dre and his mother gasped at the sight. Then out of the same window another body dived out, aiming for the fallen Dark Knight. She grabbed him just as he came feet away from making a mess of the pavement and aimed what looked like a gun at a nearby building. A long metal hook came out and tossed the two back into the air. The picture jerked around as the cameraman attempted to capture the image on screen. Unfortunately when they turned around, the two paladins were gone from sight, and no one knew where they disappeared to.
Dre was so excited about seeing the masked hero on screen that he sprung a back hand spring from the couch.
"Did you see that, mom? Those guys thought they were so tough with their guns, but Batman swooped in at they weren't so dangerous anymore."
His mother was more concerned about the woman who'd dive out to save him. "Who was that woman with him?"
"I'll bet it was another masked hero striving to make Gotham a better place. Things got way better when Batman showed up, but now that there's two of them, every thug and scumbag in this town'll be running scared." He did a back flip on the rug. "This is great. No'll dare mess with them now."
Joker stared at the screen, hunger growing in his eyes. Now that he was more than certain of the guardian's guise, it wouldn't be difficult to find her again. With that in mind, he was now more than eager to get the game rolling.
"Yo Boss."
Joker rolled his eyes when one of his men interrupted. He never did bother remembering anyone's name. There wasn't much of a point in this sort of career. "Yeah?"
"Me and the boys were just wondering, what exactly you were planning?"
"Well first off," he announced getting to his feet. "We need some supplies."
"Like what?"
The clown pulled out a crumpled piece of paper he'd been working on for four months. It had been through all kinds of stuff by now; old coffee rings and dirt stained it in several areas. It was ripped and burned, crumpled up and the writing was so poorly written that it was a miracle if anyone could be able to distinguish a few words.
Joker squinted at it and read off what it said. "Letsee… first thing we'll need is some gas. Both in the car and in some barrels."
"How much?"
"Probably fifty barrels… actually ya know what—lets make that eighty barrels. We'll just go ahead and rob a gas station for that. And then we'll need uh… some dynamite. The good kind okay… not that cheap crap we used last time. Did you notice it was kind of choppy last time?" The men looked at one another in confusion. Joker couldn't remember if they had been part of his last gang or not. "See it didn't go off right. It should have gone boom ba boom boom. But instead it went off as one big explosion. See I like to savor it. Just to ya know get that good fireworks feel to it all. Have you ever noticed that?"
They exchanged glances again.
"Whatever. Look it doesn't matter." He turned back to the list. "Um oh yeah… we'll need some gun power, clocks, knives—lots of knives okay. I like to stay well prepared. And if you could get sort of a variety—you know short knives, hunting knives, kitchen knives, butter knives, letter openers, corkscrews, nail clippers with filers, and maybe throw in a vegetable peeler or two, that should be good. And lets see… what else… rope, pad locks, video camera and a… chicken."
"Chicken? For what?"
Joker looked up. "Dinner. Of course."
"Okay, we'll make sure to get all that. Anything else?"
"Uh… yeah. We'll also need some catnip."
"Why on earth?"
Joker didn't get annoyed very often, but when he did, it was never a good thing. The other two men seemed to step away from the guy who'd asked the question, as if saying, "I'm not with him." Well that's good, cause then he'd have to kill all of them. Joker leaned into the man who'd asked the question, straitening his tie intently. "Listen… Frank, is it?"
"Roger."
"Roger right! Of course. Listen, Roger, you've never really worked with someone like me before, have you?" The man shook his head. "No… right that's what I thought. You see the thing with me, is that I like to stay happy. I'm just a naturally happy guy, you know. I mean look at my face." Joker gestured mostly to his scars that now fashioned him a permanent grin. "You wanna know why I'm always happy? Well I had this friend—Frank was his name. We use to get into all kinds of trouble together. We were pals—best pals, kay? And one day we decided to rob a bank together. We were just kids back then, mind you. I was in the back, getting the goods and Frank was in the front, minding the register. Well we got a little jumpy when we heard the cop cars coming. So Frank, he takes a hostage and backs out the side door, leaving me as live bait for the coppers. Well they caught me real fast and threw me in a tank with this guy who liked to play a just little too rough. He used to wear a big grin on his face every night he fell asleep. During this time I wasn't very happy. So when I finally got out of the can, I met my pal again and he sees me and he says.
"What's the matter?"
"See he didn't know what I'd been through, but I knew what he'd gone through. Him and his little hostage had a great time together. In't that ironic? Him and that hostage became great friends while I was in the tank earning a new friend as well. But he was happy to see me again so he asked.
"What's the matter? Aren't you happy to see me?"
"The thing was, I was happy to see him. So I say, "I am happy to see you." And just to show him how happy I really was, I put a whole new smile on for him. After that, he was happy to see me too. Now me and Frank are always smiling together." Joker frowned when he saw the look on Roger's face now.
"But you know something Roger? Why aren't you happy?"
Joker pulled out a knife and put two new smiles on his face. He fell away from the clown, just as lifeless as Frank now was.
Joker straitened, as if he'd done no more that adjust some books on a shelf. "Now… if they'll be no more questions…"
The two men filed out without a single word to him. Good, they knew better to ask questions now.
Hundreds of miles a way, a woman looked into the eyes of her cat.
Ophelia sighed. "So it's happened has it?"
Midnight looked at her with old knowing eyes. Over the hundreds and hundreds of catwomen she had given birth to, it came in contact with this sort of reincarnation at least several times before.
Ophelia leaned back in her chair sipping her tea as the new moon rose above the city. "I never suspected this to follow with her. She'll need more guidance than I thought."
Midnight probed her, a question glittering clear in her amber eyes.
Ophelia nodded, understanding perfectly. "You're right. The Dark knight should be warned as well. If only Patience hadn't decided to move so suddenly." Midnight twitched her nose and her tail curved in a graceful arch behind her. Ophelia stood to stare at the dark, moonless sky. "There is still time to warn him. The moon is not yet full. Heaven help Gotham when it is."
OHMYGOSH! It's been forever since I updated. Sorry to make you wait so long but I got a little in to some other stories I'm writing at the moment. Hopefully it won't take me two months to update again.
Thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews and comments. They really make my day. Please tell me what you think of the new chapter.