Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since the last story post! My muse went on vacation for a bit, obviously! I wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to be shutting down my personal webpages, and my diary on Diaryland. I want to concentrate more on writing and less on that stuff! However, anyone who wants to reach me can do so still by my email.
Also too, I know this story will not be accurate to true Batman comics...the inspiration came when I was going through my comic books and came across the Catwoman mini-series "Her Sister's Keeper". Also too, don't sue me, DC comics! You won't get very much if you do, and I get no royalties from using your goodies, so let it be known that these characters are your property and I'm simply helping to get them some publicity...yeah, that's it!! Enough with the chatter, on with the story! Enjoy.
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It'd been months since anyone had heard from the Batman. Gotham City was enjoying an unusually extended lull in its crime rate. Thanks to the efforts of the Batman, nearly all of the underworld's greatest criminals were in police custody. The Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler...even the bit players like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn were taking extended vacations in Arkham Asylum. Those who weren't had smartly chosen to lay low outside the city limits for a while, and the Batman's reputation kept any new talent from choosing Gotham City as their new home. For now, the streets were safe, and the people went blissfully about their normal schedules. There was one person, however, who was not enjoying the crime-free time in Gotham. Selena Kyle stalked the length of her apartment in frustration. "Damn him," she scowled aloud to one of the many cats weaving their way around her feet. As if in response to her anger, the tiny kitten let out a howl of agreement to her plight.
"Damn him," Selena complained again, flopping down on her sofa for good measure. Trust the Batman to find a way to take all the fun out of being Catwoman. It had been all in fun, mostly...Selena had never been in the crime business for the same reasons the other Gotham goons were. Oh, sure, she'd started out doing it for the money. It seemed like a sweet deal at first. Rob a few precious things from the rich, and never have to spend another night working on a street corner for her dinner. She even took a cue from the caped crusader and bought herself a costume to conceal her true identity, except she added her own twist by making her "cat-burglar" outfit that of a giant cat. It was laughably easy, especially with the self-defense training she'd received and her own natural agility. But all that was before her run-in with the Batman. Remembering their first meeting still sent chills up Selena's spine. She could see why he struck such fear in the hearts of Gotham's underworld.
A normal man should have looked ridiculous dressed as a giant bat, stalking down crime where the police couldn't handle it. It wasn't ridiculous on the Batman; he'd taken her breath the first time she saw him in person. He was tall, clearing six feet easily, and his gray and black costume made him seem a part of the shadows of the nighttime buildings. The outfit fit the man like a glove, molding to his muscled chest and arms, the cape billowing in the night breeze behind him. He had the regal bearing of a king in the way he moved and walked. Beneath the mask, he had to be good-looking...Selena could tell by the fullness of his mouth below the hood of the costume, and with those grayish-blue eyes that looked so intently at everything.
When he turned those devastating eyes on her, she could have sworn he could see past the costume, past the soft flesh of her body straight into her heart, and for a moment she felt the quickening of fear in the pit of her stomach and the tiniest spark of heat in her loins. She would have sworn he was immune to such reactions himself...if she not seen the slight widening of his eyes when he found out she was a woman. Their next run-in sealed the way she judged the Batman for the rest of their lives. Selena's former pimp, Stan, had taken it upon himself to kidnap her younger sister in a desperate attempt to lure Selena back to kill her.
She'd gone back to confront him to save her sister, and in the ensuing struggle Selena managed to kill the pimp but not before he shoved her little sister over the side of a two-story catwalk. Selena had been helpless to do anything but watch her sister fall down, down, down...and straight into the arms of the Batman, who'd been waiting silently below to catch her. The fact that he'd let her get her revenge on Stan and still saved her sister proved to Selena that something was there between them. And so the attraction had begun. Always a game of cat-and-mouse when they met, she began to focus less and less on the money she was stealing for and more on her chances of running into the Batman. Sometimes she'd throw him for a loop, showing up to help him take down a dangerous criminal, then slipping away before he could thank or confront her.
Other times, she'd steal someone blind and purposely dawdle for long enough to see him. She'd disappear for months at a time, silently watching the goings-on of Gotham until her money supply ran out and it was time to get more, and each encounter with the costumed hero proved to be more intense than the last. On several occasions, she'd baffled the Batman by throwing herself into his arms, forcing him to put his gloved hands around her slender curves to keep them from toppling off a building top while she sealed her mouth to his for an incredible kiss. She'd let him sample the sweetness of her mouth and body for a few moments, relishing in the sensual mating of tongues and lips. He kissed like he fought-hard, passionate, and dominating, and sometimes the sexual tension between them made Selena see stars beneath her costume.
After their brief interlude, she'd slip away if she could, leaving the Batman breathless, aroused, and alone. There'd been a few times where he'd used her passionate embraces to snap a pair of cuffs about her wrists and haul her in for justice. There'd also been times where she'd used them to her advantage, catching him off-guard with a well-timed punch or slamming him with the butt of her whip to disorient him long enough to escape. It was a double-edged sword, the game they'd been playing, and yet neither of them could stop themselves from coming back to the blade time and time again, regardless of the cuts. There'd been a span of time when the mantle of the Bat had been passed to another, and the Batman Selena knew had disappeared.
She'd known it the moment she'd locked lips with the new Batman, and he'd stood there, cold, unrelenting, deadened. She later learned her Batman had suffered a broken back at the hands of the bastard called Bane, and was away recuperating. She avoided the new hero like the plague, and was relieved when the original caped crusader returned to reclaim his city. But now their meetings had stopped again, due to the lack of crime in Gotham, and it was driving Selena crazy. She'd tried everything to draw the man out. She'd tried stealing from the rich again, but the police were the only ones called out on those occasions, and she'd ending up hocking the jewelry and donating the money to a "Save the Tigers" foundation.
Then she lifted an artifact from the Gotham Museum of Art, a rare Ming Vase on showcase temporarily. It didn't even get so much as a Bat-Signal in the sky, and she got so pissed off she broke back into the Museum of Art and returned the vase just for spite. So now here she was, in her apartment like a tiger in a cage, wondering what it would take to draw out the Batman from his solitude.
"Heh," she snorted, leaning her head back against the cushions and absently stroking one of the cats that had climbed in her lap. "Nothing short of a natural disaster could bring him out into Gotham, now that he's on bloody vacation. A disaster or a bomb threat..." Selena's eyes snapped open with an idea, and she bolted upright from her reclining position, sending the feline in her lap sailing to the floor. She ignored the injured glare she got from the cat as she began to smile. "A bomb threat," Selena murmured, a slow smile spreading across her face. She had her idea, now it was time to see if she could build a snare to snag a Bat. Heading to her writing desk, she sat down and began to plan.
It was nearly ten-thirty at night when he arrived. The instant Selena saw the sleek black car pull into the warehouse district, she got butterflies in her stomach. She'd almost been afraid the plan wouldn't work. She'd sent a note to Commissioner Gordon under the guise of another one of Gotham's top criminals, threatening to bomb the city if Batman didn't come alone to the warehouse she'd chosen. Now all she had to do was wait. Peering out the small warehouse window, she could see him exit the car, his gaze taking in the warehouse from all angles. From the alias she'd used in the note, no doubt he'd be expecting henchmen to come from all directions.
When they didn't, his eyes narrowed and he started for the only entrance to the building. Selena slunk back against the overhead beam, flattening her body to hide along its girth. Her Catwoman outfit blended with the shadows, camouflaging her from his sight. She let him pass beneath her, watching out of the corner of the eye as he scanned the place for enemy attack. He was cautious, never leaving one side of himself open to attack for more than a few moments. Selena crawled along the beam slowly, until she was close enough to make her move. Pressing the button on the small detonator she had strapped to her whip, Selena set of a chain of small explosions back towards the entrance of the warehouse. In the split second that it took the Batman to whirl around to see the source of the bombs, she leapt from the rafters and onto his back, knocking him to the floor.
It took him a moment to get enough leverage to throw her from his body, giving Selena enough time yank the medicine injector from inside the cuff of her glove. Pressing the muzzle of the gun-like device to the Batman's neck, she pulled the trigger and watched the needle shoot straight through his cowl and into his neck, pumping him full of the drug it contained. He managed to fling her from his body, a move she didn't expect, and she went sailing through the air to crash into a stack of wooden crates. The wind knocked out of her, Selena could only lay there and pant while the Batman got to his feet and came her way. "You?" He rasped, scowling when he saw her.
"What in the hell are you doing here, Selena?" The tranquilizing drugs were starting to take their effect on him, for his words were becoming slurred slightly. When he came close enough, Selena lashed out with a scissor leg-lock, latching on to the Batman's left leg. Normally, his agility was a match for her own, but with the potion in his bloodstream, it was enough to send him crashing to the ground heavily. He was starting to slip under when she crawled over to him, his eyes confused and cloudy.
