{Chapter 22 : On the Prowl }
A patrol car cruised through a traffic light as Bruce sat curled on the steps of a fire-escape; copper gold eyes staring glumly out of the side-alley. He had the whole territory to himself as drops of unannounced rain began to pour down, dampening his fur. It had been a long night traveling on foot and climbing fences to reach the high perches to shelter underneath.
He slammed his eyes and allowed the rain to wash away his pain. Memories of being human flashed into the depths of his mind as he began to shut out everything around him and focus on the great man he used to be before Vedette spilled her potion down his throat.
{Flashback}
The ice was melting on the frozen lake as Bruce circled his mentor Ducard; both swords were poised to strike. His flaming hazel stared at his tall instructor as they appeared as two dark figures trapped in the frozen landscape.
"I sense the anger inside your bones, Bruce." Ducard said in a steady voice. "You have hardened yourself to the victories of life because of the guilt that you strongly carry deep within yourself."
Bruce curled his lips into a scowl. "Anger is my strength." His hand gripped the handle of the sword as he prepared to strike. Ducard counter-attacked and struck at Bruce; deflecting the blade using his three silver scalloped-gauntlet.
"Impressive." Ducard responded as he skid left, his breath streaming into the frosty air, hand feinting his sword. "You are improving with your training."
Bruce kept his expression neutral, his thin wavy lips were formed into a straight line, jaw tightened displaying the indents of his knife-cut cheek bones. He stepped sideways on the ice, his booted foot landing on a small patch that cracked as the pressure of his weight pushed down, water started to bubble underneath.
Ducard noticed the small patch and smirked. "A true warrior must always be aware of his surroundings."
Bruce responded by striking his blade but Ducard blocked it with his own gauntlet. He slipped right then flew in with a short thrust as his mentor's arm flipped down into a backhand movement, scallops catching the sword.
"You still think your parents death was your fault?" Ducard questioned. "You were just a boy at the time." He rotated his arm, wrenching Bruce's sword from his grasp and throwing it across the ice. "I know the truth. It was your father's will - or the lack thereof."
Bruce felt his blood boiling. His nostrils flared as he became enraged and attacked, swinging his elbows in a reckless manner. Ducard parried the sword and both of them interlocked in their scallops. Their noses were inches apart as Bruce exhaled in rage.
"Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act. To save you and your mother."
"The man had a gun!" Bruce bellowed.
"Would that stop you?"
Bruce looked away from a moment . "I had training." He yelled, remembering the hardships of spending his nights on the freighter and being beaten to a pulp by the ship-hands.
"Training is nothing." Ducard growled pushing him down. "Will is everything."
Bruce reeled himself off the ice. "My father was a good man. He was not a coward."
"Even great men in this world become cowards once they stare in the face of death. Your father trusted his city, it's logic and he thought he could understand his attacker with his empathy of humanity and simply give him what he wanted."
Bruce was considering this as his breath became slow.
"Your father did not understand the forces of decay that strike down every foundation of a city, making everything chaotic, destructive, sinful. Beyond saving."
"Beyond saving?" Bruce offered. "Is that what you believe in?"
Ducard breathed in the air and took a moment to admire the landscape. "The world is meant to be seen for its purity, splendor and serenity. These are the qualities that we hold dear in the mountains. Everything that surrounds us is important because it has a purpose. The important thing that you must ask yourself is whether you believe it?"
Bruce lifted his gaze up at Ducard. "Gotham can be saved." He answered.
{End of Flashback}
Bruce bashed opened his eyes to the stench of wet cat. "Great," he grumbled feeling soaked to the bone. His sand paper tongue started to lick his front paw while his stomach rumbled to the emptiness that filled his drenched furry shell.
A scent entered the alleyway as he became entranced with a fresh smell of female. He narrowed his glare down at the slender creature walking into the alleyway. She was a stranger to his territory. Bruce sprang down from his perch, landing on all fours as water from the puddle splashed into the air. His eyes peered at the female as she drew closer.
At first both of them locked eyes.
He hissed, arching his back and showing needle point teeth but it did not seem to phase her. His ears flattened showing hostility as she crept closer to him, allowing the glow from the streetlight to reflect off her reddish-brown short hair fur. She pushed her nose against his as a common greeting of social friendliness.
Bruce backed away, uncertain of her motives until an urge was beginning to take over his body. He gazed into her bright green eyes and felt enticed by her feline beauty.
"No," he thought. "I can't slip into the functions and desires of a real cat." He swallowed a knot in his throat as his paws began to tingle. "Mind your surroundings." He rephrased. "Think of Selina..." His mind was drifting into feline thoughts as she laid on her stomach and stretched out her body.
He looked down at the puddle next to him and quickly swiped his paw into the murky water and splashed into his face. "Better," he felt relieved until his eyes noticed a gash on her side. She was wounded, his assumption was a cat-fight but the crimson marks in her fur didn't appear to be inflicted by claws. It looked like a switchblade or surgical tools to be exact.
The female gave him a piercing not amused glare and took off through the back of the alleyway.
Bruce stubbornly returned a glare and turned his back. "Females," he breathed out of in frustration. A distant cry for freedom entered the airways as he slowly responded to the faint meows across the street. A ram shackled apartment with broken windows and gutted walls caught his eyes.
He steadied his breath and focused on the objective of his mission. The words of Ras al Ghul filtered through his mind. "Will is everything." Bruce lifted his paw and retracted the sharp claws feeling his blood quiver.
Without any hesitation he sprinted across the street, avoiding incoming traffic as his timing of reaction measured the direction of the cars before impact. He leapt onto the sidewalk and headed down the narrow space that lead to a backdoor that was opened just enough for him to squeeze his twelve pound body through.
Unknown to Bruce, from the rooftop of the building opposite, a masked sentry stood watching the door closely through a pair of binoculars. Upon spotting the small dark creature making its way into the building, the sentry reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone - dialing his employer.
"Its me boss. I just spotted a black Bombay heading into the area... Yeah, I'm sure..." The sentry became pale as he listened to his employer's harrowing threat. "Look boss, I wouldn't-" He swallowed as the line disconnected.
Vedette Countess was a woman of planning and decisive action towards every initial goal she had undertaken in her past towards cleansing the filth of humanity. She'd faced down assassins, thieves, corrupt politicians, members of parliament, royalty, and most recently a man dressed as a winged rodent - and yet she had managed to plan and bring about their downfall to make way towards her goals of death and rebirth. Nothing could have prepared her for such a primitive and hampering ordeal as the one she was now facing.
With a shriek of rage, a bottle of wine struck the tall glass mirror hanging on the wall of her penthouse apartment, spilling hundreds of shards and the dark liquid along the wall and floor. The seething woman stood barefoot and barelegged in a black long-sleeved hooded sweater that tied from the waist, and black panties. Her green eyes were bloodshot and furious with dark circles forming beneath them due to her sleepless nights. Long brown hair hung loose down her back. Her skin had become pale and her hands were clenched into tight fists; her nails dug into the flesh of her palms hard enough for a trickle of blood to flow through.
How could this have happened to her? How could she have been so careless? So inconsiderate of the potential consequences of allowing herself to give into her desires? What had she been thinking?
She swallowed a lump in her throat while she silently trembled under a tumultuous of emotions slowly overpowering her. Shock, anger, panic, fear, and now she felt crestfallen. What could she do? How would this affect her mission? She wiped the blood off the sides of her sweater as she took in the sight of her penthouse apartment that was once a luxurious masterpiece of cleanliness and decoration but now reduced to a messy devastation caused by her spark of rage.
She was ignorant to the sound of her apartment door opening until she heard a dreadful familiar voice chime.
"Sweetness, I'm home! I think we- Hmm... I see you redecorated while I was gone. I LOVE IT! HAHAHA."
Vedette spun around and glared at the Joker with accusing eyes. "YOU!"
Joker raised his eyebrows. "You were expecting maybe Two-Face?" He took in her disheveled appearance. "Because right now you're looking half-way decent." He continued laughing, sparking Vedette to shriek and pick up a vase and throw in his direction in a mad fit.
Joker dodged the vase, as it shattered behind him, and continued laughing as he sauntered over to the distraught woman. "Aw, let's not get testy, my sweet. Now I can see that you're under a great deal of stress right no-"
"STRESS?! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" She roared.
Joker put on an exaggerated look of remorse. "Ta ta ta ta, now there there." He coldly caressed her cheek, his thumb running over the messy mascara beneath her eyes she'd neglected to clean for over a day now; it left a black smear around her eyes. "Let's not forget dearest, all the dominoes are beginning to fall under the Batcard. Everything is still on track. We're nearing the endgame"
The panic and fury briefly diminished from Vedette's eyes; the Joker's words seeming to pull her out of her state of anger and self-pity, and back towards the important matters at hand. She felt a small wave of relief not just towards the knowledge that her plans were continuing to fall into place, but that Joker seemed convinced the reason for her temper was due to her stress towards the operation.
"He mustn't know..." The thought ran through her mind repeatedly as she gazed into his dark eyes filled with demented amusement that still captivated her. Swallowing a lump of unease, Vedette voiced her approval. "Then its time to move forward as planned. With the Batman out of the way, its time to be rid of those who would carry his burdens."
Joker pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek as a gesture of thought. "Gordon and kitty." A snake-like grin spread across his face. "When do you want em'?"
An anxious look came over Vedette as her British accent voiced. "Soon. The sooner we are rid of these remaining pests, the quicker we can be done with this city."
"What about the Bat?"
"He is no longer of any concern to us!" She snapped irritably. Joker looked unconvinced; Vedette shrugged at him. "His human body is taken from him and as time passes so will the remainder of his old existence! What could he possibly do in the subsequent time?"
Joker shook his head. "You forget - I know the Bat; and if there is anything I've learned through our old tangos, its that he'll never quit. Ever." A rare serious look formed on Joker's painted face before it turned whimsical. "Not until he's dead that is." He snickered.
Vedette smirked weakly, feeling her stomach churning with hunger. "Well I did promise you a new pet. And it would present opportunity to lure the feline to us if her beloved cat went missing." Vedette felt that if her body wasn't betraying her right now, she would've given the matter more thought but her priority right now was to send Joker on his way to leave her to her privacy.
"Very well. See it done."
"Way ahead of you, sweetness." He took in her disheveled appearance, her shapely bare legs and licked his lips. "Now then, what can we do to put a smile on that face?" He rasped, advancing on Vedette with a lustful look in his eyes. Vedette backed up to the coach as she so often did when finding herself on the receiving end of that stare. Under ordinary circumstances she would have been enticed, but right now she felt only unease.
Joker stood in front of her now, Vedette stood firm feigning normalcy. Before he could bring his lips to hers, and before she could shove him off, the Joker's phone buzzed in his coat. Vedette felt incredibly relieved. Joker smirked as he pulled out his phone and answered.
"Yelloooo?" He chimed. Vedette swallowed, shifting her gaze over her trashed apartment tentatively while Joker continued his conversation. "You're sure? Toombs, if I go down there and if turns out you're blowing smoke the only thing you'll be good for is puppy chow." With that, Joker hung up and faced Vedette with a huge grin.
"What news?" She asked.
"Like I said, sweetness - I know the Bat." He laughed enthusiastically before his face sobered and he brushed a strand of hair from Vedette's pale face. "Rain-check?"
Vedette smiled teasingly. "We'll see, depending on how this endeavor of yours fares."
"You know I love it when you play hard to get." He cackled as he turned and made his way to the door. Vedette felt her relief increase with each step he took. Joker paused at the door then turned and gave her a provocative once-over. "That look suits you by the way. Don't freshen up - I wouldn't dream of it." He grinned.
Vedette scoffed. "Time is short, Clown Prince. See to the end of your longtime foe. I will do the same for Gotham's Finest." She said dismissively.
Taking the hint, Joker sucked his teeth loudly and gestured to the room. "This room could use a little a red, you know." He giggled as he finally turned and closed the door.
Vedette sighed, running a hand through her brown hair while the other fell to her stomach, rumbling with hunger. "A shower could wait." She decided as she made her way towards what remained of her kitchen.
The black Bombay crawled down a dark hallway of the building smelling a horrid stench of dried blood and decay. He stopped at a door; using his full weight, he pushed against it and burst through only to see a six ft. bronze cage filled with frail and distressed cats. Some of them carried multiple unhealed wounds, hair loss and were grossly underweight. Their movements reeked of confusion and grogginess.
A short thin man with reddish hair and glasses reached his neck. "Look you wants to join the tea party." A chilling high-pitched voice spoke over him.
Bruce drew up his claws and slashed in a defensive stance. "Don't touch me," he hissed.
"Curious little, cat aren't you blackie," the man said with a fiendish sneer as he finally clutched Bruce by the fur and lifted him off the ground. "Don't worry. Soon you will won't remember what its like to be a cat in my Wonderland." He placed the black cat on the table and grasped a power drill.
Bruce squirmed and bit his teeth into his aggressor's hands - drawing blood. He escaped from the stranger's grasp and jumped off the table - landing next to a pile of plastic covered mortified cats.
Repelled by the sicking inhumane sight, he backed into the shadows - fur grazing another cage. Impulsively he turned his head and stared at the tortured creature imprisoned behind the bars. On top of its head were two drilling holes with wires attached to the huge gash in the cat's neck.
"This can't be," Bruce bellowed, allowing his front claws to dig into the groves of the cement floor as his harvest moon eyes lifted to meet the cold lifeless stare of the psychopath advancing closer with the power drill. His fingers held an eight-inch nail that seemed to be stained by feline blood.
"They called me a fool at the university. A deranged monster that held an obsession with a storybook fantasy." He bent his knees. "All I wanted was to be with my lovely Alice."
The Bombay cocked his head in puzzlement as the immature character crouched down a few inches.
"Alice loves kittens." He continued. "She has a little white kitten named Snowdrop and a black kitten like you named Kitty that are by her side when she ponders into a mirror's reflection and enters "Through the Looking Glass." He formed his thin pasty lips into a grin. "There she meets the Hatter and we shared a wonderland of stories together."
Bruce was getting a clear notion of the man's debased mind. Obsessive-compulsion with a childhood fairy tale that made him identify more with children than adults in society. He recalled reading a report from the Arkham files about an inmate named Jervis Tetch that kidnapped children and dressed them like the storybook characters from Alice and Wonderland.
"Alice and I became the best of friends in Wonderland." Tetch boasted, looking at his captured victims that he treated as test subjects for his neutron experiments in controlling the mind with his technology. "Her kittens seemed to know where she is located. They will show me the way."
Bruce rolled his eyes. "The Mad Hatter," he thought. "He's falling into a delusional state and calling himself his favorite character."
A woman's voice captured his attention in a closed room. Keys hung on a hook on the surface of the door.
"So he's found another playmate?" Bruce thought. "Alice or the Queen of Hearts?"
He lifted his head and gazed at the high point shelf next to the door. Quickly, with his new found agility, he jumped onto the ledge and began to climb to the top where he could attack his opponent. His black fur made him become invisible to Tetch's sight as the man searched for the cat.
"Playing hide and seek are we, kitten?" Tetch chuckled.
Bruce lowered his body and positioned himself into a pouncing stance. He eyed his opponent's backside - a point of weakness for sharp claws to dig into bare flesh. His tail swayed in a clock like manner, his pupils widened capturing all the detail from the light of the room.
Gaining momentum, he jumped off the edge, using his hind legs to push off and latch his claw into Tetch's back. He listened to the man howl from the stinging inflictions.
"Get off me!" A bone chilling hand reached for the cat but Bruce jumped off and headed to the doorway. He swiped the keys off the hook and caught them with his teeth. He pushed his head into the door and entered the dark room to find a female captive bound to a chair.
Bruce stalked closer to the attractive reporter that he'd seen on Gotham Tonight. Mike Engels partner the lovely Vicki Vale. She was dressed in a blue and white dress similar to that of the character Alice.
Viki looked up with a horrified look in her forest green eyes as tears streamed down her flawless cheeks. Her long blonde hair was tied into a bow while her hands were bound with rope. "Where did you come from?" she asked, staring at the cat holding a set of keys in his mouth. "Did you come to rescue me, kitty?"
Bruce stared at Vicki almost expressing a gaze of humanity with his copper cold eyes. He acted fast and dropped the keys in her lap and bolted out of the room to liberate the rest of Tetch's captives.
Jervis Tetch was standing in the doorway with a hardened look and a plastic bag in his hand. "I will teach you to mess with the Hatter, you ungrateful fleabag." He reached down as Bruce arched his back and slashed his claws with a growl, releasing an icy gaze.
Bruce charged at his face and scratched the sides marking up his boney cheeks.
"Leave that cat alone," Vale screamed as she kicked the short-man in the chin, and watched him tumble to the ground. Then she grabbed the Jervis by the wrists and bound them with the rope that he used on her.
"It's not fair," Tetch screamed in a high pitched wail.
Vicki straightened her spine and looked down at Bruce. "We make a good team." She crouched down and patted his head. "I think you probably want your friends to be free." She arose and unlocked the cage, releasing the trapped felines as they raced over Tetch and headed out the exit.
Bruce gave her a quick nod and retreated into the shadows as she reached for her mobile phone on the self and dialed 911. Muttering a few words. "I guess heroes do come in all shapes and sizes."
Bruce made his way into the alley last, standing with a heroic posture as he watched the rest of the cats race off into the night, liberated of their insane captor. His enhanced hearing suddenly picked up the sound of rapid footsteps encroaching on him from his side. He pounced forward and narrowly dodged a gruff tackle from a masked thug trying to grab him.
Hissing, Bruce jumped onto a trashcan and used his momentum to leap back off towards his assailant and wrap himself around his head, clawing at his mask. The thug screamed and cursed, trying to wrench the cat off of him as he felt its claws threatening to sink into his eye-sockets.
Bruce was unprepared to be suddenly grabbed from behind by a snare pole wrapping around his neck. He wheezed and choked in surprise as an all too familiar laugh accompanied his pain. "Well lookey what we found here! Hahaha. Bats is that you?"
Joker held the cat at arms-length with the snare-pole, his dark eyes scrutinizing the screeching animal with a mocking look of consternation. Only when the cat's eyes landed on him and a very familiar glare formed on its face with narrowed eyes did the Joker erupt into a fit of uncontrolled laughter. "HAHAHAAHA! I know that look. It really is you isn't it!" He continued laughing, holding his chest in a dramatic fashion while his thug pulled himself up to his feet.
"I told you it was him boss." Toombs pulled his clown mask off his face, rubbing the scratch beneath his eye where the cat managed to inflict him.
"Good thing it was Toombs. I would have offed you for cock-blocking me alone..." Joker looked considerate. "On second thought..."
Toombs paled, his breathing became short.
Joker looked at him blankly then just laughed. "Got ya! Hahaha."
Toombs sighed with relief until he and Joker could hear police sirens not too far away. Joker rose to his feet. "Don't just stand there. Bring the van around fast before I change my mind."
The thug nodded briskly. "R-Right away boss." He scrambled out of the alley while Joker stood high and stared down at his captive.
Bruce felt incensed but mostly angry with himself for falling into this well organized trap. As if sensing the cat's dismay, Joker felt the need to run with it. "Wondering how I found you, Batsy? You forgot I know you - better than you think. I had my goons keeping an eye out on all the fun around the city. You and I are a lot more alike than you care to admit, Bats. In the end, we can't deny what we are." He grinned sadistically.
"I'M NOTHING LIKE YOU!" Bruce roared, but his strangled voice came out raspy and barely discernible in his continued transformation.
Joker looked up as a van pulled up at the end of the alley. "Time to go to your new home, Brucie. Haha. Don't worry, we're going to have lots of fun." Giggling maniacally, Joker pulled Bruce into the van with the snare pole and into a prepared cage. The GCPD squad cars began to pull up to the front of the building while in the alley, Joker climbed into the passenger seat and the van took off into the street.