Cat's Paw
Back in Metropolis, a slim female figure dressed in a black mini-dress, and black high heels, casually walked into the Metropolis Museum of Antiquities, her lengthy, curled blonde hair draped down her back. She carried only a common digital camera, and a bright gold purse.
The woman examined a few of the average antiquities, like a pretty, well built Queen Anne chair, an antique secretarial desk, and a replica painting of American Gothic. She snapped pictures of all of the antiques that she was interested in. No one paid her any mind, figuring that she was just an ordinary tourist, but this visitor was far from ordinary.
Sometimes, her camera shots drifted upwards and away from the objects in front of her. After spending a few more minutes admiring other antiquities, the lady noted the Egyptian God exhibit that had recently been on loan to the museum. "How pretty." She said aloud, as a museum curator approached her position. "Excuse me, sir." She cooed. "What can you tell me about this exhibit?"
"I'm far from an expert on Egyptian Artifacts, Miss, but I can tell you what I know." The polite, African American man replied. "This exhibit is on loan from Cairo. We only have it available for viewing this week, due to the high security costs." He informed her. "Oh? How fortunate it is for me that I've come to Metropolis at this time." She smiled brightly.
"The artifacts are quite valuable, then?" The tall beauty's big green eyes sparkled as she spoke. "Yes. The administrators won't even tell me what their value is." The man confided. "Well, I am impressed." She said playfully. "We are allowed to take pictures, aren't we?"
"Yes. I haven't heard about any unusual regulations." The man said casually. "I'm not really up on my Egyptian history." She continued. "Perhaps you can tell me the statues' names?" She asked innocently. The young man grinned proudly. "I sure can, Miss."
He stood alongside the multilevel display. "This one is Thoth, the hawk headed god…" he began. "Oh wait! I simply must get a picture of them all." She extended her digital camera's range to take in the entire exhibit, including the alarm system controls at the display's rear.
The young man flashed a bright smile as he continued, demonstrating for her camera each of the three-foot high mostly golden statues' names. "This is Anubis, the jackal headed God of the Underworld. At his sides are two golden jackal dogs." She continued to run the digital camera. "Oh, are the statues made of pure gold?" Her electric green eyes widened.
"Yes, Miss. Every one of them." He boasted. "Wow!" She flashed a bright toothy smile. "Next, is Horus the falcon headed god, Khnum, the ram's head god, and Set, the tapir headed God of Chaos, complete with the golden ankh." The curator continued. "The human looking gods were Amun Ra, the blue one, Osiris, and Maat, the Goddess of Justice."
"Very impressive and well crafted." The woman praised. "The final three are Hathor, the lioness headed goddess of love, Isis, the falcon headed goddess, and Bastet the cat headed goddess." The man concluded his presentation. "Cat headed?" The woman parroted. "She looks kind of mean to me." The man shook his head. "No, actually, cats were revered by the Egyptians as gods."
The blonde nodded. "My cat's name is Isis." She smirked. "What did you think of my presentation, Miss?" He fished for a compliment. "It was purrfect." She grinned thinly. "Thank you very much, sir." He cheerfully asked if she needed any other information.
"No, you've been quite helpful." The blonde glanced over at a tall, white and silver obelisk. "By the way, what's the significance of the obelisk at the center of the display? Is it an alarm or something?"
"No, Miss." The man walked away a short distance, and swiped an electronic key card through the reader at the edge of the glass display case. Immediately, the door opened, and he proceeded to straighten the obelisk out. It had tilted away from the statue shelves. The woman acted uninterested in the curator's attempt to clean up the display.
He stepped back out into the museum, the door closed and locked behind him. "The obelisk was thought to have magical properties by the ancient Egyptians. Really, it was just a sound form of measurement for the stone carvers to use that helped to design the Pyramids at Giza, and all subsequent pyramids." He informed her. The young woman thanked him for his help, and placed the camera back into her purse. She quickly glanced at some more displays before leaving.
Once out in the street, the tall, shapely blonde pulled a whistle out of her purse, and blew through it. The whistle was silent to the human ear, but commanded the attention of dogs and cats. In moments, a gray and black Siamese cat bolted from an alleyway behind the museum.
"C'mon Isis." She addressed the cat. "We have some work to do before tonight's prowl." The blonde placed the cat on her bare shoulder as her heels click clacked along the sidewalk. Not far from the museum, the Metropolis tourist was being shadowed. A dark figure leaned against a rooftop air conditioning unit. He glanced at the blonde and her pet through miniature binoculars.
His wristwatch Com link beeped. "Batman, are you sure that Selena's here?" A younger male voice said as the Batman tapped his bat ear communications receiver. "Yeah, Nightwing. I'm looking right at her." Bruce responded. "I Thought that she was giving up her nightlife of crime." The young crime fighter replied. "Maybe giving up on Gotham crime, obviously she's expanding her territory." Bruce added.
"In typical feline fashion, Selena is marking her turf." Batman snickered. "She's casing the Metropolis Museum of Antiquities." Nightwing scowled. "Because of the Egyptian Cat Goddess statue?" Bruce nodded, while never taking his eyes off of the Catwoman. "Exactly, Nightwing." Batman confirmed.
"I know you kind of like her, Batman, but Catwoman's not too swift." Nightwing criticized. "Hasn't she heard of the Metropolis Blur? Or the Supergirl? They'll never let her get away with it." Batman had already gone over every conceivable angle on Selena's whereabouts. "It's possible that the Catwoman's burglary scheme would escape the Blur or the Supergirl's attention." Batman analyzed.
"Besides, Selena's our problem, right?" Nightwing remarked cynically. "Yes. That's about the size of it." Bruce commented. "Its amazing that Catwoman never truly gets caught or captured for long." Nightwing grumbled. Dick knew that Bruce had let Selena off the hook a number of times, not that he blamed him.
She was very attractive, and single as far as they knew. Dick saw Bruce and Selena as two sides of a coin, with only the law separating them. Suddenly, a number of gunshots were heard nearby.
Lois Lane seemed always to be drawn to trouble. The eager young reporter had been told to get out of the office by her boss and mentor, Perry White. "Reporters go to the stories, the stories don't come to reporters." He often said, gently reminding the journalists that he employed about their Daily Planet mission statement. Today, Lois had wandered towards the Metropolis Police Department's 8th district.
The Eighth District was widely known for numerous violent attacks, anything from armed robbery, sexual assaults, gang banging activity, to common purse snatching and domestic disturbances. Lois was certain that a story would simply jump right out at her. As usual, her instincts were right. A number of gunshots pierced the relative calm of the sunny, Metropolis afternoon.
"Uh Oh!" Lois exclaimed aloud. I hope Clark or Kara are nearby, she silently mused. Gunshots in the middle of the day were actually rare, considering the questionable neighborhood that Lois was now walking through. She guessed that it was likely gang activity, seeing as how the darling Metropolis school children had just been let out of classes for the day. Lois considered cynically.
Quickly, Lois's cell phone was in hand. She had 911 speed dialed on the phone, her nimble fingers ready to go as soon as she could pinpoint the location of the shooting. Gang shootings, though horrible in general, didn't really warrant the attention of The Blur or Supergirl, as Metropolis's heroes were commonly known. MPD ought to be able to handle that much, Lois reasoned.
Lois turned a corner, heading in the direction of the nearest Metropolis public school. She saw nothing of any interest going on. A couple of teens were making out on a bus stop bench, a few more were loitering on a front porch, and smoking something illegal. Lois could pick up the aroma from where she stood.
A couple of kids were arguing and shoving each other across from the school. All in all, the scene seemed fairly typical for an average school day in this rough neighborhood. Lois was puzzled. So where had the gunshots come from? She wondered, carefully surveying the area again. Nothing.
Tires squealed from somewhere behind her. That got the attention of the loitering teens, as they quickly put out their illicit smoking material. Like frightened animals, the kids instinctively dove behind the porch. The couple making out had opted to run away from the noise, towards a different street.
Lois moved to the slight protection of an old brick building, peering around the dilapidated structure's well worn edge. She faced sound of the squealing tires, and readied her cell phone. A slick looking black car, the style of which she'd never seen before, whipped around a street corner, hugging the road as the vehicle sped in her direction. To her surprise, the unusual car screeched to a halt directly in front of her.
Lois was momentarily paralyzed, resembling the proverbial deer in the headlights. The slick car's gull wing door zipped open, and an eerie blue and red light spilled out of it. "Get in!" A deep, throaty voice hollered at her. Lois gulped, somehow finding the strength to speak. "Uh, no thanks. I'll take a cab." She quipped.
"Miss Lane, in a few seconds, several black SUVs will tear down this road, and turn you into Swiss cheese!" The gruff voice snapped with a huge degree of urgency. It was then that Lois noticed the man wore a black costume, with a mask over the top of his face, with a pair of bat ears atop his head.
"You're the Batman?" Lois gasped. Today was indeed her lucky day. "No! I'm Green Arrow!" The Batman remarked sarcastically. The SUVs then came spinning along behind the Batman and his odd shaped car. Lois heard some more gunshots ring out, and she dove for the open door, landing completely upside down, as her knees hit the roof of the extremely low profile car. "Ouch! Crap!" She bellowed.
Instantly, the car's gull wing closed, and the Batman hit the accelerator. The jolt sent Lois flipping forward, one of her heels clipping the Batman's right earpiece. The punch of speed then rammed her backwards, plastering her against the seat back, her chin hitting the car seat bottom. "Son of a...!" She exclaimed, unable to change positions due to the G Forces that held her in place.
Lois swore that she heard the bullets clanking off the back window of the car. In moments, Batman had lost his pursuers. Lois finally was able to take a breath. "The Batman?" She croaked. "We've established that, Miss Lane." He growled. "How do you know who I am?" She tried to focus her questioning. The car began to slow enough for Lois to move. She attempted to shift positions, reorienting herself in the seat.
"I read the papers." Batman grumbled. As Lois turned to face him, she was met with a wet spray. The spray instantly caused her eyesight to grow blurry, and before Lois could complain, she slid back against the seat, and was out cold. The Batman had sprayed a mild sleep agent into her nostrils.
He took her back to the Daily Planet underground parking lot. The Batmobile, in stealth mode, cruised silently through the garage. Batman parked in a dark corner of the area, and checked Lois's eyes. Her pupils were dilated. She would be out for at least an hour, but what to do with her? He wondered. "Alfred?" Bruce Wayne spoke into the car's console. How fast can you get to downtown Metropolis?"