8.
~ Catwoman hung upside-down from a large support beam over the lobby. She ignored the rush of blood to her brain as she watched Penguin's employees counting money and bricks of drugs. She pulled on her support line and managed to right herself back up with ease.
"What now?" she hissed into the listing device. Her info red goggles no doubt telling Ivy and Fish she was inside.
"The Bat should be here soon." Ivy said.
"How will he even know I'm here?" Catwoman asked. "I didn't set off any alarms."
"We've already taken care of that." Ivy told her.
"How?" Catwoman demanded.
There was silence on the other end of the line.
Catwoman gripped tightly to the cord holding her suspended in the air. No one noticed she was there yet. Sooner or later, someone would to look up and she would either have to drop the canister of Ivy's deadly plant gas, or flee.
'Can't fight and cant escape.' she told herself. Wherever she went, Ivy would find her and use that strange mind control gas to make her commit suicide. Or worse, the plant gas that would turn her into a shrub. She had to think of a plan.
Catwoman pulled herself up to a support beam and stayed out of sight. The shadows her only protection.
~ 'Too easy.' Batman thought as a local dealer went down without a fight. He wasn't the usual type to sell drugs in the Narrows. He was an older man who looked like he had been living on the streets too long.
"Who's your boss?" Batman asked as soon as the dealer hit the pavement and didn't get back up again.
The old man rolled over, whimpering and showed Batman a mouth full of rotted teeth.
"Don't know." he said miserably. There was no fight in him at all. "He's at the Old Gotham Prime."
Batman looked over the man. Normally, the dealers employed teenagers to sell their product. Not an old timer like this guy. It was strange and he felt a narrow blade of suspicion ripple down his spine.
The old man, homeless by the look of him, fell back on the pavement and refused to move. He made no attempt at all to escape, only cower.
Batman was quick to leave poor soul. Old Gotham Prime was a disused bank not far from here. He could easily climb up to one of the buildings close by and take it from the roof. With swift movements, he shot a grappling hook up the side of the building and let it pull his entire body weight to the top. The sensation of shooting to the top of the building was liberating, and he reached the roof in seconds. His feet landing lightly on the ledge and never losing balance.
~ Barney lay trembling on the sidewalk. That asshole in the black motorcycle helmet had scared him at first. But he stuck to the plan. Told the menace what he wanted to know. Or at least what the girl had said.
"Very good, Barney." came a soothing voice from the shadows.
Barney turned and saw the elegant form of Fish Moony emerge from an abandoned shop.
"I told him." Barney whimpered. "I told him Old Gotham Prime."
"I heard." Fish said. Her voice was kind and benevolent. "I'm very proud of you."
"You have my money? Like you said?" Barney asked hopefully. Once he had money, he could go back home to his wife and son. His boy was only three years old. Still plenty of time to make it all up to him. All the years of drinking and gambling could be made right. He hadn't seen his young son or his wife in over thirty years now. He missed them.
"Of course." Fish said sweetly.
At first, Barney thought she was spraying him with musk. Something to make him smell nice for when his wife took him back. Indeed, it did smell very nice at first, but then his throat started to close up and he started having trouble breathing. It felt like something was expanding, growing wild in his throat and he started hacking to free it.
To his own surprise, he realized something was shooting out of his mouth. He bit down to it, but that only made things worse. The plant oozing out a foul sour tasting liquid that burned his mouth. He felt pressure from his nose and his eyes next. Something was bursting to come out of him. His head hurt, worse than any hangover he had ever had.
He whimpered slightly and tried to breath in. But the plant had a hold on him and stole all his breath. The last thing he saw was Fish smiling sweetly at him before his eye balls burst.
~ Catwoam saw him right away. Nothing could hide that form she remembered so well from the rooftops all those months ago.
The menace, the freak, the bat. It didn't matter what they called him, he was trouble and he would only get her killed.
She hugged the wall and watched him move silently across the support beams of the bank.
'He honestly thinks he's helping.' Catwoman thought with a half gleeful delight. 'The fool.'
It occurred to her that she could warn him. Maybe she could signal to him someway and they could escape together. She could tell him all about Ivy and Fish.
'No.' she reminded herself. Ivy would find her. Ivy knew all her connections. All her hiding places. Besides, what was to stop Ivy and Fish from using that plant spray on her? Or even all of Gotham? This one freak show in a helmet couldn't stop them. Fish and Ivy had more connections. Once Penguin was taken out, it was game over.
She watched as the freak kept to the shadows and didn't even notice her. His interests were totally absorbed on the workings below.
~ Batman knew something was wrong. There was no guards on the roof level. A strange little garden growing out of the shingles, but no guards. Why would there be such a large cash of weapons and drugs and no guards to protect it from the roof?
He searched for all means of escape and found just the large metal door that was heavily protected by armed men.
This was what he had been looking for. Such a find had to lead back to Penguin and the Red Triangle Gang. There was enough evidence here to put them away for life. And yet, it bothered him that it just fell into his lap like this. Why wasn't it better protected? Why wasn't it a better kept secret?
'It's a trap.' he thought to himself.
He cringed and hid in the shadows deeper. His night vision scanning every hidden part of the bank.
'Leave now. Report it to Gordon.' he thought to himself.
He didn't like that idea.
'Can I even trust Gordon? Harold had his name in connection with Penguin. How do I know Gordon isn't going to cover this up?'
Batman made up his mind that he would settle this once and for all. This was his find, his take down.
With an easy toss, he shot a boomerang like deceive to the doors. The older doors were metal and sealed tightly shut with the electronic magnate he tossed at it. Now no one could get in or out except through the roof.
The guards barely noticed and didn't have time to react before Batman shot out the lights.
~ 'Do it now.' Catwoman told herself. Her hands gripped tightly to the canister. She couldn't make herself do it. Couldn't bring herself to throw it into the lobby and kill the people there.
"Selina!" Ivy cackled from the radio line. "He's in. Now!"
Catwoman gripped the canister tighter and instead watched the show of the menace tackling security.
It was impressive to watch. The freak moved quickly and fought with a certain abandonment. When he was hit, it was like he didn't even feel it. She had to admire how the freak wasn't afraid to draw blood. Even though his opponents had guns, the freak fought them hand to hand and still beat them.
To her shock, she watched the freak put the last of Penguin's men in a sleeper hold and let him drop.
The workers in the paper suits had fled to a corner in all the confusion. All of them huddled away from the freak who was breathing had from the fight.
~ "Selina!" Ivy shouted into the mic.
"Don't tell me your cat is off the leash." Fish said angrily.
"She's not responding." Ivy told her.
Fish drove her fancy car around the block towards Gotham Prime.
"You disappoint me Ivy." Fish said. "That girl had one job. Now, I have to do the work for both of you."
~ Batman focused all his energy on his environment. The workers were in the corner. Their hands on their head. Afraid he was here to kill them. There was something else here to. Something he couldn't shake. He had been set up. He knew it. He could feel he was being watched by someone else. Someone who wasn't afraid of him.
"Come out." he demanded sharply. "What is it you want?"
Like a well practiced magic trick, a black line fell from the rafters and a slight, athletic figure gracefully slipped down with ease. Her feet touching the floor on tiptoe like a well practiced dancer.
Batman didn't need to look past the gas mask to know who she was. He knew that body anywhere.
He watched in horror as Selina held up a smoke bomb like a shield.
"Know what this is?" she asked. Her trembling voice muffled by the gas mask.
Batman said nothing.
"It's not smoke, I can promise you." she teased.
Batman said nothing.
"It will kill everyone here, and won't even leave a body behind. That helmet won't save you. I'm not even sure this gas mask can save me." she said.
"Why are you doing this?" Batman demanded.
"I'm not doing this. Believe it or not, I'm not the enemy." Selina said. "I want your protection from the psycho bitch that made this."
"How do I know you don't work for Penguin?" Batman asked.
"Because Penguin can't create a weapon like this. If you protect me, I can show you who did. They want to kill you." she said quickly.
Batman looked her over. Her grasp on the smoke bomb reminded him of a cat playing with a mouse.
"I don't believe you." he said. "You're a criminal."
"Yes, I am. But I'm not the one setting a trap for you." she said. "You have no idea what they can do. What kind of weapons she can make. She could kill everyone in the city if she's not stopped."
"She?" Batman asked.
"Yes. Get me out of here and I can take you to her. I'm dead if you don't. I was ordered to kill you, and unless we leave now, they will come to finish the job." she told him. Her voice was firm and in control.
Batman could see Selina's eyes through the gas mask. He wanted to believe her. Wanted to trust her.
Suddenly, the darkness of the bank was flooded with light. A bright light shone through the windows and Batman saw Selina's eyes widen.
"Run!" she shouted and tried to climb up the rope she used to come down.
Batman knew she wouldn't make it in time. Whatever was coming, whatever was behind the light, he knew there wasn't much time left.
He raced to her, his arm starching out to grab her and his free hand going to the belt for a secondary grappling hook. With a noise like a gun shot, he fired at a rafter and immediately felt his body pull up just as he grabbed hold of Selina.
She cried out in shock at losing her footing and her arms went instinctively round his neck as they left the ground behind them.
Batman barely had time to land on the support beam before the doors to the bank blew open.
I got a comment about the plot that Selina could actually flee from Ivy now that she wasn't under the drugs anymore. And what was keeping her with Ivy and Fish. I agree that it might seem odd and my only answer would be Selina is afraid of Ivy or Fish coming to get her. I guess she's afraid of what those drugs can make her do.