AN: Welcome back to the past. Some passages of this chapter are partially based on the Batman: Year One storyline.
Flashback Chapter 2 Bat Meet Cat
Selina Kyle lounged on her sofa, watching the breakfast news reports on TV. It always paid to be aware of the world around them. After all, you never knew when the local museums or art galleries would be getting new treasures ripe for a good heist. Her friend Holly sat curled on the floor next to her.
"Breaking news. In Gotham, the mysterious Bat-Man has been sighted. Commissioner Loeb has given orders for the SWAT team to contain him." The footage cut to a burning warehouse. "Our press helicopter is now broadcasting live."
Holly sat up. "Selina, that's near here," she said. "Can we go see?"
"'S too early," Selina muttered. "Darn cat, always wanting fed. I'd put him out, if he weren't so cute."
"Se-li-na," Holly whined. "Please?"
"Never should have taken in a Siamese," she continued. "Too noisy. And it's not even light out yet."
"It's winter, Selina, it's always dark. Please?"
"And cold." She eyed the pleading girl for a few more seconds. "Fine. C'mon."
When they got there, a small crowd was already starting to form. The SWAT team were standing by, waiting for the flames to die down. Leaning against one of the cars, the papers' favourite 'hero' cop Lieutenant James Gordon was having a nasty scrape on the side of his head looked at. He was grumbling something about "he saved that homeless guy" and "overkill".
The SWAT team went into the now smouldering, but relatively safe, building, rifles at the ready. For a moment, there was silence, broken only by footsteps, the crackle of Gordon's radio, and the low murmuring of the watching crowd. Then there was a loud 'thud!' reverberating through the rubble.
"Team One down! Team One down!" the radio squawked. "He's not dead! Repeat, he's not dead! Team One trapped!"
The crowd fell silent, as the ruins erupted in gunfire and screams. Anyone who could cause the SWAT boys so much trouble was a force to be reckoned with; their notoriety had peaked two months ago, when the quelling of a riot in Robinson Park had not left even the statues standing. So for one man to give them so much grief…Selina's heart filled with admiration, though she had not met or even seen him yet. The radio filled the air with increasingly frightened swearing. The frustration sounded so much more satisfying than the sweetest opera. Even Gordon looked faintly amused. Then, a pair of black-gloved hands could be seen throwing a cat out an opening. The cat landed gracefully on a van, and jumped straight at Selina. She caught it, calming it and stroking its silky black fur. The sun was just starting to cut through the gloom, highlighting the ruffled fur and sleek tail.
A gravelly, angry voice growled, partly over the radio, partly from the wreck of a building. "You! You're the one who tried to shoot the cat!" One of the members of the SWAT team came out, thrown through the wall- literally through it. Then the sky darkened once more.
Selina looked up, the scared cat in her arms digging claws into her coat. The sunlight was being blocked, not by a cloud, but by a flock- swarm? - of bats. She shrieked and ducked, pulling Holly down with her. She wasn't the only one. The watching crowd became a panicking horde.
And through the chaos, Selina could see a single figure, moving urgently but without fear. A man in dark grey and black; a man with pointed ears atop a cowl concealing his face; a man with a wing-like cape.
A man she wanted to know more of.
A man who was a bat.
Selina lay on her side, idly stroking the black cat rescued from the warehouse. Holly had already started calling her Felina. Sweet, but really not clever!
Her butt ached as if a two-inch needle had been stuck in it; which it had. The entire crowd had been inoculated as treatment for their bat bites. Felina had waited outside the hospital, then followed her home. Her other cats seemed to be leaving, either scared off by Felina, or creeped out by the bat smells. A pity, but well. That's just cats.
Selina was thinking hard, her eyes resting on a bullwhip on her dresser. She'd picked it up the previous week while casing a joint. There'd been screams coming from an apartment. She'd looked in. An S&M callgirl had been getting beaten up by her client with the whip, the handle smashing across her face and leaving a bloody streak along her cheek, before curling round so the end flicked against her barely-clad legs. She'd recognised the client, a dirty Gotham cop. She'd slipped through the window.
She'd heard him saying nasty, taunting things to the poor girl, that she was just another piece of skirt to be taught respect. She'd lost it, taking him down using brutal moves learned on the streets, tempered with the grace of a life-long gymnast and roof-runner. She'd given the girl a roll of bills from her last theft (she didn't need it as much as the callgirl) and left, taking the whip with her.
Now, she wondered if she'd done enough. Her mind reeled at the thought. Though three days had passed since then, she kept replaying it, haunted slightly by Gordon's words, placing responsibility for a rescued hobo at Batman's feet. Breaking down each action, she saw how it might have gone without her being there. Might have ended with another dead hooker. Another cop getting away scot-free. At least word on the street said Batman was standing up to the corruption. Gotham needed more like him. But she didn't have his skills. Hers were different…
"Holly! Where's the cheapest place to get grey velvet?"
She pulled the hood over her head and face, once again admiring the sleek costume she and Holly had made. The form-fitting velvet bodysuit accentuated her curves like nothing else. Padding on the hood gave her ears, a rolled up length of the velvet a tail, sharpened bits of metal added fake 'nails' on her gloves, mimicking claws. She really looked like her namesake.
She was the best cat burglar in Gotham, maybe America, maybe even the world. She was putting her skills to good use. Over the last week she'd stolen the Mayor's landscape collection, and Commissioner Loeb's pop memorabilia. Hard to find fence for that…Now she was after the jewels of Carmine Falcone, the Roman. Gotham's biggest mobster.
She got close to the mansion in short order, surprising the first two guards. But four more came out with handguns and assault rifles, and then the Roman himself. She used her whip to disarm the first two guards, attracting the wrong sort of attention. A bullet grazed her fingers as she flipped back, making her drop her weapon. She moved with all her speed and agility, but it wasn't enough. There were too many guns and not enough room to manoeuvre.
"Freeze, little kitty," one of the remaining thugs leered, before toppling forward. The others followed his example in collapsing a domino chain of thugs, metallic shards visible above their collars. Falcone charged Selina in a rage, giving her no time to think. Whatever had brought down the thugs wouldn't protect her from the kitchen knife he'd clearly just grabbed as he rushed out. Her claws raked across his face, as he followed his hired muscle into the dirt. Selina looked at him, then glanced up.
A dark shadow on the rooftop. Pointed ears. Wings. The Bat?
"Be careful, Catwoman," his voice rang out, gravelly yet strangely tender, almost…amused? "Thievery gets you jail time."
As she watched him glide away, Selina knew truly. This man, this bat, this creature of the night, was one with whom she was now completely, irrevocably in love. And he hadn't looked at her twice.
But she was a woman and a cat, if no less a creature of the night. As a woman, she'd never let him go. As a cat, she'd never let him know.
And as a creature of the night, she'd stalk her prey 'til the dawn, each and every night.
AN2: Okay, so there we go. Hopefully you enjoyed it. If so, why not leave me a review? In fact, why not leave a review whatever you thought of it? Any questions about the content or anything else, feel free to ask in a review or PM. To my long-term readers, next week we will be returning to Gotham in the present over in Family Ties. See you there.
Thanks for reading everyone.
Katara