The SECRET Training: Young Justice Seasons 1 & 2
****So here's the next episode. I had someone PM me about how I came up with Shadowcat. Well, I have a lot of Catwoman material, including Batman Returns, Catwoman movie and watching the old Batman tv series. Along with Batman: The Animated Series and the tv series, Birds of Prey. I wanted Shadowcat to be different but similar. To be a normal girl whose parents are Batman and Catwoman. And she's not a confident cat. I hope I have that portrayed right. ****
Episode 5: Schooled
August 3rd
While the training began at Mount Justice…
Shadowcat made her way down the hall, sweat dripping off of her as she stood before her mother's old room. After putting in 3 hours on the balance beams, she was ready for some quiet reading. Sighing, she opened the double doors.
Roy, Dick and Wally helped her clear out the furniture so she could turn some of her mother's items into a museum or sorts. Wally helped her out the best, with his super speed, he cleared out her master bed and dressers in 10 seconds. She didn't sell the items but they were in a storage garage on the property. Near one window was a portrait of her mom and on the nightstand below it, her mother's urn. The rest of the room had marble pillars with various items on top of them, covered in clear glass that was vacuum-sealed.
Her mother's urn was a true work of art. Made of silver-colored marble, her face was the urn, carved in beauty. It was just small enough for her Catwoman mask to fit over it, which it did. It was a reminder of who she was and what she strove to be.
Stephanie sat in the plush saucer chair and picked up her mother's journal. She had spent the last six months combing through her mother's writing, to get a since of her mother's frame of mind. It helped with the hole within her heart and she felt closer to her. She turned to where she bookmarked her spot. She got comfortable and started to read the next entry.
July 4th-5 months and 6 six days pregnant
I'm having one of my hormonal mood swings and cravings. I am sitting here with a gallon of butter pecan ice cream mixed with crunchy peanut butter. I was thinking about why I haven't called him yet.
Everything in me says I should. But I don't know if Joker is behind bars yet. I have to trust that he will be soon if he's not. I don't know if I'll be a good mother. I have been a free spirit for some time now. While leaving Gotham was the right thing to do, I don't know if I should keep her. I know it's a girl. The doctors told me it's a boy. Stupid machines.
I do not know thing: my thieving days are over. My child, my baby is worth that vow. And I will do my best to hold true to it…
I just need a name for her. I guess if my cat senses are wrong, I could name him Bruce, after her dad. I know it's a girl. Maybe Abigail…
Stephanie placed her marker back in and closed the book. She closed her eyes. It was true. Her mother did her best to keep her vow. But the cat within Catwoman would not be totally denied. Once a year, Catwoman struck and it was always the best item at the time of the theft.
The rest of the time, Selina Kyle was a business woman. A mom. A devoted humanitarian for all cats in the world. And Stephanie developed her love for cats at an early age, thanks to her mom. The cat sanctuary was still on her property, and every cat her mother saved was still there. Safe and protected from the evil people who wanted to use them for their own twisted pleasures.
She was more than the daughter of Catwoman. She was Shadowcat, Catwoman's protégé and the last of the Catwoman line. But unlike the others, she was the first meta. Her mother was the 1st Catwoman to bear a child with the same gifts bestowed upon her by Isis, the Egyptian Mau that was the messenger of the Goddess. With an extra ability that was all hers.
To be a cat.
Large or small, Stephanie could do it. Domestic cats, she had full control over. Larger ones, not so much. So she rarely tried. Now, with only Isis as her guide, she had a long way to go before she could ever take her mother's place as Catwoman.
But she was also part Bat. The Dark Knight of Gotham City was her dad. What a pair her parents were. She had read about her dad. About who he was. So yeah, she knew Bruce Wayne was her dad. Dick didn't say who but it didn't take long for a nerdy historian like herself to figure it out. Her parents were on opposite sides of the law, and yet her mother was hardly ever arrested, and spent even less time in jail.
That was the one thing that struck her as odd. She wanted to ask Batman about it. Did he have feelings for her? Was that why he warned her to leave Gotham?
The only way to know the answer was to join the team and show herself to the world.
But as long as Deathstroke was after the chip, which she no longer had, she could not endanger the team.
Nor her dad.
Shadowcat's senses needed some work, for if she noticed the vase with the fake flowers in it, she would have seen the smallest of blinking lights. She would have known that someone was watching her.
Far away, in the state of Indiana, at the Motel 12, Slade Wilson grinned at the young girl closed the book she was reading and closed her eyes. He watched her get up and leave the book on the chair and leave the room.
It was a matter of time now.
He wanted his chip back.
And the only way to get it was to kill Shadowcat.
***So now it looks like Deathstroke will make his move. But when and how? I'm not sure yet. I'm writing Homefront now. ***