A/N: I noticed I don't update quite as fast as I normally do. Forgiveness in order but the longer I write "Watchman", the harder the ideas come. However, this little swerve in the road chapter might amuse you. Its Gar actually having a little fun but also letting him be "him" in a sense. Plus since it's gonna be "three days" until Scarecrow needs to show, I didn't want to miss out on what Gar might be doing in his downtime.... that and a certain Cat makes an appearance.

The Watchman III

---

Car horns... Never thought there could be so many in one area, even in the evening, but you just can't seem to escape them all. An orchestra of car alarms, police sirens forming the chorus far below this ledge. Highlighted by a red-colored sky, sun setting below the skyline, lights from the skyscrapers filling the void created by the retreating sun, Gar stares placidly below. How many people ride those taxis without care? How many pedestrians look at the storefronts without regret? Do they know just how fragile this world really is? How fragile their lives really are?

How fragile his own really is?

"'oly piss in'a jar, Watchy t'at was a'mazin!"

"Why didn't you do that against Desade? You could've killed him if you pulled that off"

"That's why. If I did it back in Jump, I would've killed him. Then I'd really be fucked."

"Wha? How do ya fig'a t'at one?"

"If I would've killed them while on a League assignment, they could've had me arrested for murder. Plus, the others were around... Its really complicated right now."

"The League part makes sense. But you said you tried to toughen up around them before you left. Why would you care then?"

"Because Desade's gang isn't like Croc, Damon. I don't think they'll care if they die. Desade never gave up before, Baptist looks insane, and I'm not even going near Desade's daughter.."

"Plus ol'Rave not b'far away, aye?"

"Yeah. If she knew I finally killed someone, it might send her over the edge. Broken up or not I still owe it to her not to betray that promise."

"Even if you're not in the League anymore?"

That last statement raises a good point. Now outside of the League's ranks, does that mean he could kill? Or would that only make the League pursue him as a criminal just like the people he's sworn to defeat?

Growling now, shaking his head "Why the hell does everything have to be so morally fucking complicated?!"

Weren't things so much easier when it was just "there's the bad guy, we're the good guys, lets beat the fuck out of him?" Sigh. Things were easier, weren't they?

Derisive snort, roll of the eyes, grin on his face. "Yeah but this has to be better than being the jokester again, being Mr. Nice Guy. Least this job comes with perks."

Sitting back on the concrete, looking up at the tall buildings, Gar can't help but exhale in the cool, Atlantic breeze. If this were Jump City, the sweet smell of Chinese food and ocean salt would be forming in the air around his body. An incredible blend of man-made delicacy and nature-made necessity that assaults the senses from the Westerly winds. Ah, but Gotham City has its own pleasures too. Closing his eyes, bringing everything into his senses, Gar reaches out to bring Gotham to him. Three buildings down, beneath a red/white overhang, a local pizzeria is in full swing for the evening rush. Cheese, tomato, garlic, dough... all wrapped together in an enviable mesh of heat, yeast, vegetable, and dairy, cut thick enough to fill Cyborg yet good enough to make even Batman smile. Scratch that, how about make Raven smile?

Opening his eyes, the smile once present returns to a frown at the sight of the red sky above. Gotham's red sky always looked like an expansive, endless sea of blood.. No, Jump City at night isn't perfect, but the twilight sunset always did form such a beautiful mixture of purple and blue. Deep blue. Raven...

"Could I be regretting it? Just a little?"

No reply from the depths of the ruby-red sky, nor from the black figure standing behind Gar in the shadows...

---

"You know, I don't even know how you convinced me to do this." Garfield admits, both with a trace of irritation and an equally noticeable hint of humor. Its one thing to be coaxed into doing something you're not used to, its another considering who the target is.

"I'd like to say my..."

"You say "purrrfect" personality, you die." Gar points out with a grin. Some gimmicks, no matter how old..

Feigning hurt, Catwoman holds a hand to her leather-clad chest "Now that's not a nice way to treat a woman."

Looking down at the building below, Watchman's eyebrow raises in disbelief "Tell me this is the behavior of a woman?"

Glancing down towards the level in question, Selena Kyle smiles beneath the mask "Someone has to be the cute one of the two of us."

Shaking his head, Gar reminds "You're right. Its a burden, I know, but its something I live with everyday."

Standing on the ledge, back to the towering building behind her, Kyle jokes "Jealousy doesn't suit you, Mr. Watchman. Now keep up if you can."

Hopping off the ledge, Catwoman bounds towards the street, whip snapping from her side and latching onto a window ledge across the street. Swinging in an acrobat's style, she finds herself perched on the window's ledge on all four's. Looking back towards the building, she looks perplexed until she looks up a floor above her. Gar, cat-like smile of his own, looks down with a grin.

"Show off."

---

At the top of the building, following a series of perfectly timed leaps from ledge to ledge, the pair find themselves at the window of the top executive's office. Not much to speak over minus a simple desk, couple of table displays, and some artwork. But, to those foolish enough to know, the office of Bruce Wayne pales in comparison to the void that is the Bat-Cave..

"How do you plan on getting in?" Gar asks, noticing the lack of windows to sneak his way in. The sooner they enter, the better. With all the sea breeze, the coat seems more like a flag in the wind than an instrument of personal warmth. Catwoman, however, doesn't face that problem.

Snapping a pair of claws out of her hands, she winks at Gar for a second before starting to cut a hole for the two of them.

"Must be out of my mind." Gar jokes to himself, watching her cut a gap large enough to squeeze though. "Helping a criminal break into Batman's own office like this.. He finds out we did this.."

"Then he'll have to live with it. A girl's gotta remind her man what happens when he starts playing with children."

"You wouldn't happen to mean Batgirl, would you?" Watchman suggests, quirked eyebrow and a wry grin.

"The redhead with the empty head? How did you know that?" The sarcasm alone in that comment is enough to wipe the smile off of his face.

"Point taken."

"Besides," Kyle suggests, returning to a normal state of humor again. "I would've thought you'd enjoy this little payback for what the League's been making you do."

Glass nearly cut, Gar finds himself asking "And how would you know about that?"

"Please.. You think we don't hear these things?" Seriously, men can be so dense. "Most of the underworld knows about the Watchmen. We even heard about how you told the League to shove it when they told you no killing. Very nice by the way."

POP, out comes the glass.

"What's the point of fighting criminals if you can't keep the dangerous ones from hurting others?"

About to enter the hole, covered eyes look back at Gar, smile on her black lips, Kyle asks "Does that make me one of the dangerous ones?"

For the first time in long while, Gar doesn't just find himself speechless.. but speechless from a woman catching him off-guard. Not even Raven or Jinx could..

---

"He's going to kill us and you know it."

Gar's words might be right. Judging from the scratch marks, spray paint, as well as a few other unflattering reminders across the room, the place might pass for a grunge pit.. Or a really expensive version of Gar's room after the first night with the Beast. Yeah, wasn't THAT fun explaining that one to the Titans?

"Who us?" Catwoman suggests playfully, pointing to the camera. She may have a point. Hard to prove who broke in when there's a cat-styled piece of cardboard over the camera.

"Using Friskies is a dead giveaway you know." Gar reminds, pointing at the camera through folded arms.

"He'll get over it, he always does."

"Bat just can't resist the cat, can he?" Gar suggests.

Striking a pose, hand on her hip, devious smile on her lips, Kyle asks "Not just bats, babe, but all of the birds too."

"Yeah, problem is the cat often ends up eating the bird." Gar reminds, turning away from her and moving towards the window.

"You're absolutely no fun, you know that? Looks like all those Rorschach jokes about you were true after all."

Dead stop, back to the villainess. Shoulders tense, body moving slightly from deeply silent inhale and exhales.. "Rorschach jokes? Is that what your kind does behind my back?"

"My kind? You make it sound like all of us hang out together. But yeah, some of them do."

"You know, Catwoman, if I really was becoming that man, I doubt I'd be here right now helping you play some little prank on Bruce Wayne." A hint of warning in that tone.

"That supposed to scare me? You didn't have to come along, Watchman.."

Turning back to her, Gar reminds through narrow eyes and a cold stare "If I was becoming Rorschach, I'd probably break your paws right now.. Followed by throwing you out of that window."

For the first time in their short partnership, Selena Kyle feels a small rush of fear of this man in front of her. Sure there was something intense about him from the start but nothing of this caliber.

"But if you really want to see my kind of fun, lets wrap up this little payback bullshit and have some real fun."

Fear giving way to intrigue, Catwoman retracts her claws after a brief stareoff. Maybe its the green eyes, so very similar to a cat's.. Or the ironically feline-shaped smile on his face.. But something suggests in her odd mind that maybe, just maybe, Watchman could have a funny side afterall.

---

"Help! Someone! He just took my purse!"

Screeching across the crime-infested East End, a woman shouts in vain as a burly man clad in dark clothes runs into the darkness. In his hands is an unusually colored beige bag, obviously the source of the woman's futile cries. Another statistic in the ever-growing statistic that is thefts in Gotham City.

"Another easy payday..."

However, as the man finds himself out of range of the woman, he sees something interesting in front of him. Arranged within the confines of a money clip, a fistful of dollars, Benjamins it seems, lies on a stair step not more than ten feet away from him.

"Oh yeah, today's definitely my lucky day."

Casually strolling up to the money clip, he reaches down to pick up the money.. Only for it to pull away.

"Wha? Hey, what the hell's going on here?"

Scrambling, he tries over and over again to snag the money but repeatedly runs afoul of the retreating dollar bills. With each foot it retreats, he notices it getting closer and closer to an alleyway not far from his position.

"Oh, I see, someone's fucking around with me. Fucking kids think they're gonna pull one over on me! I'll teach these shits a lesson in manners!"

Ignoring the money, for now of course, the thief runs past the bills and around the corner of the alley.

"Ok, you little shitheads, come out and take your beatings like men! You think its funny playing around like that? C'mon, I got two jokes to laugh at right here!" Emphasizing his fists as "the jokes", he shouts about the alley, looking for the source of the escaping dollar bills.

"Uh oh... looks like the mouse walked right into its cage. What a shame." Catwoman coos, stepping out of the darkness and facing the man in question.

"Hey, who you callin' a rat?"

"Definitely not too bright, are you? Sorry rodent, no cheese here.."

Obviously the thief isn't aware of who he's about to fuck with. Smashing his fist into his palm horizontally from his chest, he growls in anger, threatening "Kitty, I'm about to beat your head into catnip! Hope your owner doesn't mind the mess.."

As the distance between the two's closed, however, the thief stops at the sight of a black shadow falling from the rooftop. Stretched out, looking like a horrifyingly iconic figure, his anger turns to terror at the sight. Landing next to Catwoman, still shrouded in shade, all the man can see are green radiance from what appear to be eyes.

"B.b.?" the thief shrieks, not understanding one bit of the situation. How could this be happening? All he wanted was..

"Batman?" The chillingly haunting voice, coupled with the hint of death forthcoming, raises what little hair the man has left straight up. "No, not a Bat. Watchman!"

Stepping back now, hands raised, pleading. "Watchman? You can't be! You're supposed to be..."

Also taking a step forward, Gar's body now comes into the street lights. Although its only his face visible enough to make out details, its more than enough to scare the thief into a whole new level of terror.

"Supposed to be WHAT?" The increase in volume despite the lack of facial response sends sweat pouring down the man's neck. "Dead?" One finger snaps a claw in extension. "Vanished?" Two.. "In Jump City?" Three. "With the Justice League?" Four.. "A GOOD GUY?!" The final finger on his left hand snaps open with a claw piercing out.

Now his own turn to retreat, the thief tries to make his escape before a leather whip snaps out through the night, wrapping around his legs and bringing him to a painful thud on the asphalt below.

"Now now, we can't have our little mouse scurrying away." Eyes narrowed herself, Catwoman points out "This kitty's out of catnip!"

That's when the begging begins. Just like every other convict and criminal, thief and burglar... Each one that finds themselves at the end of their cowardly course through existence. Watchman looms tall over the man, green eyes contrasting the red sky above in a twisted dichotomy. The tranquilly of a supposedly blood-like sky seems horribly out of place next to the fire that is the supposedly serene emerald eyes of the Watchman.

As Catwoman watches, a strange mixture of caution and curiosity, Watchman crouches down next to the thief.

"Cats hate mice. Hate them for being ignorant, being blind. Rats can't think two steps ahead. Cats plot, scheme, enjoy a hunt. Mouse doesn't deserve to live."

"What... c'mon, don't kill me!"

Gar taps a clawed finger on the man's forehead, digging the nail slightly into the skin. "Mouse wants a cookie, right? How about some milk? ." Digging the claw deeper, blood starts to seep out from the wound. "Milk makes the bones strong."

Eyes opening as Gar releases the finger from his forehead, the thief immediately regrets it as the sight before him isn't Garfield's human face. You might even say its not even in the same species. Roaring into his face from a distance no greater than three inches, the man finds himself face to mouth with a large, black panther. Fangs jutting from the top of gums, surrounded by razor-sharp teeth, saliva dripping onto his face. Before this moment, the thief didn't realize that fear can cause both the front door and the back door to release at the same time.

Feeling the whip release from his feet, the burglar finds his bearings and quickly scrambles away from the sight, screaming into the night as he rounds the corner. Walking over to a grinning Catwoman, Gar circles around her once before returning to human form.

"Milk makes the bones strong, huh?"

Licking his right fang, Gar replies "Yeah but not strong enough to keep a cat from biting through."

"You have a very evil sense of humor, Watchman."

A grin for a grin is in order and Watchman doesn't disappoint. "Scaring criminals to the point of shitting and pissing themselves is evil? I thought that's what cats normally did to mice before they ate them?"

"Not all of us are that cruel." Taking a couple of steps away towards the exit, Kyle suddenly stops "But I must admit, you do make a very attractive cat." Turning back to see his reaction, she's surprised by the sight. All that's visible in the alleyway is emptiness and darkness.

Surprised at first, she finds herself nearly laughing at the irony. "Well, seems you're good at being a being a bat too, aren't you Watchman?"

---

A/N2: Meow! Hah! I knew you kiddies would like that! People like to smile, even when Gar's making people shit themselves! Still though, I imagine that Watchman and Catwoman MIGHT make an interesting partnership (not that kinda way either) in that both don't mind stepping outside of the "rules" to set good, and bad, guys straight. That and having the ahimal thing between them gives them a good anchor. Gar's just too damn popular with villains, I can't describe it. Then again though, what might be "good guy" to one person might actually be "terrorist" to another.. and "bad guy" to someone might actually be "misunderstood" to someone else?

Trivia:
- Fistful of Dollars... GREAT series.. Clint Eastwood is still the man, no matter how old he gets.
- Yes, references to Bruce and Batgirl... I still don't get that, really
- Yes, I know, Rorschach didn't throw Comedian out of the window.. but Gar probably would do that.
- "Give a mouse a cookie...", who remembers THAT old story?
- The thief with the "you're supposed to be..", in retrospect, can also be a reference to "Titans GO!" with the scene with Robin.
- "Purrrfect".. Campy Batman, yes, but still funny.

Rhetorical:
Bet your ass didn't see the Batman-style vanishing act at the end, did you?