“School, really?” Felicia whined. “Also, Felicity Harmon? Couldn’t you have come up with something better?”

“It was the first thing that came up in my head,” Selina said. “Besides the name Zhao suggested was Francesca Featherbottom and while it was hilarious, I didn’t want you to be bullied on your first day of school.”

“But I don’t want to go to school,” Felicia cried. “It’s boring and lame.”

“C’mon Kitten,” Selina said. “It’s for your future.”

“How will geography and maths help me live here?”

“It’ll help you get out of here,” Selina said.

“But I love it here,” Felicia said. “You love it here too. Why do you want me to leave if you…?”

“The alley is small,” Selina said. “Don’t you want to see the world?”

“I…” Felicia paused. Yeah, she wanted to see places like Metropolis and New York. She also wanted to see Italy (Selina sometimes made Italian food which Felicia loved) but Felicia figured she’d steal her way to Italy. “I do but…”

“You’re not going to steal your way around the world,” Selina said with hands at her side.

“How do you know I thought about that?”

“I raised you,” Selina said.

Felicia sighed. “But I don’t want to go to school,” Felicia said.

Selina placed a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t regret much from my childhood…”

“Yeah, but you didn’t go to school and you regret it,” Felicia said. “I’ve heard that sob story from every drunk person in town.”

“No.” Selina laughed. “School sucks. I’d have been bored out of my mind if I went to school, no. The thing about being raised around a group of thieves is that nobody values you but rather the things you steal. They’d stab you in the back if they found out you had something that sold for more than what they had. I never really had friends. If you’re not going to focus on your classes at least stay there for the friends you’ll make.”

Felicia let out a defeated sigh. “Ugh, fine. I’ll go to school but only because you forced me to.”

Selina smiled. “That’s great. I paid Zhao a fortune for this.”

Selina got up from her seat. “I swear, Kitten. You won’t regret any of this.”

…

“So uh, I have this party over at my place…”

“I think we should go for a drive with me. Y’know just me and you.”

“Y-you’re really cute and I-I want to…”

After the teacher introduced Felicia, the first thing she noticed was that every boy had their eyes on her.

The second thing that happened was that during lunch hours the same boys started asking her out on dates. She turned them down before they even showed up. She made friends with some of the girls at school but she made the horrible mistake of giving one of them her number because during Geography class loud beeping could be heard from her pockets.

“Felicity please put your phone on silent,” Ms. Martin said.

Her phone kept blazing with notifications and she even got a call.

“Felicity if I hear more noise coming from your phone, I am going to take it.”

The phone beeped.

Ms. Martin took her phone away from her. Luckily it was just something Zhao gave her (to appear normal he said) but it still felt kind of embarrassing being laughed at by everybody.

I swear Kitten, you won’t regret it.

Felicia laughed to herself. Well, Selina I sure am regretting it now.

…

Selina’s fingers ran through Falcone’s books. Her room was a dense mess of the Falcone accounts books she stole, all scattered about and half opened. She was looking for records from 28 years ago. Records that proved he had a trip to Italy. She turned the dust-heavy, weathered pages looking for answers but finding none.

Selina let out an exasperated sigh. Most, if not all of her time stealing was looking for these damn books. Scouring through their offices and warehouses and filling her damn bag with these books rather than the money she saw scattered about.

But she needed answers. Maggy and Selina were born two years of each other and neither of them knew their mothers. They were raised by some drunk asshole named Gabe who told them their mother was from Italy who took her to Gotham and left them here, leaving them alone with Gabe when Selina was four and Maggie was just two. From then, Selina vowed to find answers and the answers she searched for lead her to Carmine Falcone.

Selina let out a frustrated scream. The answers she was looking for weren’t in these books. She stacked them away in her shelf in an inconspicuous location. Felicia was a curious kitten and she didn’t want her finding anything linking Selina to the Falconies.

It was when she was putting the books away that one of them dropped to the floor. One of the cats started sniffing at it, Selina gently pushed him away and saw something that caught her interest.

White and Family Laundry $10 000

It was money being transferred to the laundry and Selina knew a thing or two about money laundering to know that the Falconies weren’t transferring 10 Gs to a random laundry company out of the kindness of their hearts.

She skimmed through each of the account books, looking at any money transfers to White and Family. She calculated about 10 million dollars being laundered to the laundromat from various other Falcone subsidiaries.

It was around the late afternoon when Felicia came back home.

“You won’t regret it, Kitten,” she said in a mocking voice. “It’s an opportunity to make friends.”

Despite the mocking tone Selina couldn’t help but smile. “Is that anyway to talk to your sister?”

“Yes, especially when she talks you into making bad decisions!” Felicia said. “Where are you, anyway?”

“I’m in my room,” Selina said. “I’ll be out in a bit.”

It when she was making the pasta that Selina noticed Felicia was staring at her, hands on her cheek.

“What’s up?” Selina asked.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” Felicia said. “What happened to you?”

Selina smiled. “Oh, it’s nothing big. I just got some good news today.”

She placed the steaming bowl of pasta on the dinner table. “I’ll be a little busy with work tomorrow. Hope you don’t mind.”

…

During her breaks, rather than spending time with her classmates, Felicia decided to try and decipher the co-ordinates on that card the man gave her. It was going through it that she realised the co-ordinates written on the card were only 75% co-ordinates. The rest of the number written on it was a day and the time of the meeting. Thankfully, Felicia managed to decipher the code in a nick of time because the meeting was quite literally tonight.

Waiting anxiously for her classes to be over, Felicia’s eyes darted around the classroom to make it go by faster. That was when she noticed Peter Parker, his face on the desk. He was fast asleep.

She only knew a few things about Peter Parker. He was smart, super smart but not as smart as the teachers wanting him to be because the teachers gave him smack for getting 80% in his tests. People said he worked a ton of part time jobs, some people say they saw him delivering pizzas once, others say they saw him as a waiter in a restaurant. Peter always slept in class and didn’t really talk to anyone. He used to be friends with Bruce Wayne’s adopted son Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon but after the Joker incidents last year, Grayson left Gotham and Gordon was hospitalised after the Joker suddenly attacked her, after that Peter Parker didn’t have much in terms of a social life.

But Felicia didn’t care about that. Just this morning she saw him holding something in his hands which he then put in his locker. Something that looked expensive.

And she wanted it.

…

Jack Gold had a bad night last night. Thing about Gold was that he might have been in charge of the laundering scheme of the Falcone’s and being in that line of business, he’d seen a lot of shit and hurt a lot of people but the thing about Gold, the one big thing about Gold was that he had never been hurt in his life. That all changed when some sexy lady in leather scratched him across the face and he spilled the location of the 10 mil like a plastic glass with a hole in it.

Now, they’re two more things you need to know about Jack Gold. Gold loved extreme sports, sky diving, motor cross, you name it. Mention an extreme sport and you can be sure Jack Gold did it. Only sport he never did was bungee jumping. He never trusted the rope, he was scared it could snap at any moment and in his line of work, trust wasn’t something you could easily give and all it would take was one ambitious asshole tampering with the rope and he would be falling to his death. The other thing you need to know about Jack Gold was that he had never run into the Batman. He’d heard the stories, seen the men who had run into him but never seen the man himself. A fact which surprised Gold because being a man in his line of work, he’d have expected to run into him one way or another.

That all was about to change as tonight, Jack Gold found himself dangling on a rope, swinging above Gotham River with the Batman standing above him atop the Gotham Bridge as the cars rushed behind him making his cape billow in the wind.

“I know about the money, Gold,” Batman said. “Now talk.”

Jack grinned. “Or what?”

Jack felt a sickening sense of vertigo as the rope slackened and the river seemed a lot nearer than it should be.

“Okay, okay I’ll talk,” Jack cried. “Pull me up.”

“After I get answers.”

“The money is in the warehouse,” Jack said. “The one by Theatre Avenue. Boys over at the laundromat take it over there. I think we have over 10 million stacked.”

“Which warehouse?”

“You’re just going to have to find out your…”

Batman wasn’t having that. He lowered the rope down.

“Okay, okay,” Jack screamed. “The one next to the old mall. Y’know… the… the…”

“I know,” Batman said. Jack saw him tap something into his gauntlet.

“Though I think you’re already late,” Jack said. Batman knelt to lower the rope but Jack quickly shouted. “Don’t! Don’t! I’ll spill! Please I hate this river, dear god.”

“What do you mean I’m too late?”

“Some lady dressed up as a cat asked me the questions just last night,” Jack said. “Scratched my face too.” Jack moved his hands over to his face. “You… you see the scars.” Batman noticed three scratch marks running across his cheek. “She didn’t say what she was doing but…”

“Gordon bring your men over to the Gotham Bridge,” Batman said into his gauntlet. “I have something for you.”

“Hey uh… you going to bring me up?”

Batman tied the rope around the side of the bridge. “The rope will keep you hoisted up here until the police arrive.”

“Can’t you like… tie me up on top or something?”

“No.”

“What if I decide to cut the rope or something?” Jack said. “Won’t I die?”

“I don’t think you’re that stupid.”

“So, you’re just going to leave me here?” Jack asked.

Jack got his answer as he saw the Batmobile storming past the traffic that zoomed through the bridge.

…

The waterfall to the Batcave split apart reveal an entrance to a driveway. The Batmobile drove through the entrance, water splashing atop its black surface as it parked in the centre of the Batcave. Alfred was waiting for him. Bruce got out of the Batmobile.

“Tea, sir?” Alfred offered holding a saucer with a teacup on top.

“I went to the warehouse but by the time I got there, there was already a ‘cleaning’ crew,” Bruce said, removing his cowl.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“I did some digging around and apparently a few of the security guards at the warehouse all ran into this ‘Catwoman’,” Bruce said. “They said Catwoman took them all out before burning all the money in the warehouse. She never took anything besides the account books which is odd for a cat burglar.”

“Maybe she’s looking for something specific,” Alfred suggested.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Bruce said. “Most of the books that are missing are from around 26-28 years ago, we can assume she was born around that time but what exactly is she looking for?”

“What is Mr. Dent looking for? Or Cobblepot?” Alfred said. “You never know with these types, Master Bruce.”

“That’s true,” Batman said. “But there’s something different about her. She’s resigned herself from being the Cat Thief she was in her early days and is now targeting the Falconies specifically. It’s an interesting turn of events,” Bruce said. “The Falconies upped their security in their other warehouses and I’m pretty sure that’s what she wanted. She’s trying to get to the big man himself.”

“Isn’t that what you want, sir?”

“For a different reason,” Bruce said. “Falcone activity fizzled out 5 years ago after the Long Halloween and suddenly they’re making a comeback. What’s more, new crime bosses are popping up all over Gotham, most of them from New York. There’s a new crime wave spreading and threatening to destroy this city. The only way I can find out what’s happening is through Carmine and I don’t have any leads.”

There was a silence before Alfred popped in with a suggestion.

“Both you and this Catwoman character seem to be looking for the same thing,” Alfred said. “How about you both work together?”

“No.”

“Master Bruce…”

“She’s a criminal, Alfred,” Bruce said. “I can’t trust her.”

“And I’m not telling you to trust her,” Alfred said. “But you both want Mr. Falcone, do you not? You both seek answers from him and the only way for you to get those answers is if you both work for them. Besides, you can’t find these answers alone.”

A pause.

“Think about it, Master Bruce,” Alfred said. “Besides it’s about time you started talking to a woman again. You’ve been cooped up in this house with me and Master Todd for a while now and I don’t imagine that’s good for your mental wellbeing.”

…

Peter Parker was tired, very tired. But he figured three part time jobs, a great responsibility and 3 hours of sleep did that to a person and that wasn’t mentioning the Batman sized elephant in the room that was his training with Bruce Wayne.

And speaking of said elephant in the room, he felt his phone buzz and an unknown number dialling while he was waiting in line at the cafeteria.

Peter sighed; he was so close to the front of the line. He left his spot in the line and found a quiet corner in the cafeteria.

“Hello,” Peter said.

“The Golden Egg is going to be in the Gotham Museum tonight before being displayed tomorrow,” Bruce said. “A cat burglary ring I’ve had my sights on for a while has that as their next target. I want you and Jason to head over there and make sure the egg doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Peter mumbled.

“Get serious,” Bruce said.

“Did you mention Jason?” Peter asked. “I’m going to be working with him? The annoying kid?”

“Yes,” Bruce said. “I’ll be busy with my own mission tonight and if I take him, he’ll get in the way.”

“Basically, you want me to babysit him?”

“No,” Bruce said. “I want you to teach him discipline.”

“You know I don’t know the first thing about teaching anyone,” Peter said.

“Jason rushes into situations,” Bruce said. “He’s reckless and I want you to…”

“Babysit him.”

“No,” Bruce said, irritation in his voice. “I want you to…”

“Babysit him.”

Bruce sighed. “The egg will be transported to Gotham Museum tonight and will be on display tomorrow. I’ll inform security of your arrival. Be at the museum by 10 PM.”

“That’s past curfew,” Peter said. “Aunt May will kill me.”

“That’s not my problem,” Bruce said. “Goodbye.”

Bruce hung up. Peter sighed. Another night spent being out late and not getting enough sleep. What made it worse was the fact that he’d be spending the night with Jason Todd. The most annoying kid on the planet. The rest of his day would be spent in class with Mr. Singh who did not like it when Peter slept in class and the rest of his afternoon would be spent delivering pizzas. The only bright spot in his day was Barbara. Peter’s heart fluttered at the thought of her. She’d been recovering at a steady pace. She wasn’t able to walk yet but physically she’s been doing fine. Her physical aptitudes were off the charts and the doctor said there was no doubt she’d be heading back home soon.

That was why Peter, saving up as much money as he could to buy her a necklace she wanted. A gold one with a leaflike design in the centre. He bought it early this morning and placed it in his locker, hoping to keep it safe.

The rest of the day passed by in the blur. To nobody’s surprise, Mr. Singh slapped his desk with a notebook causing the class to chuckle and Peter miss some much-needed beauty sleep. After school, he figured he’d pay a much-needed visit to Barbara and give her the gift.

He was surprised to see the new student Felicity standing in front of his locker. She looked confused and kind of lost. She recognised Peter and walked over to him.

“You’re Peter Parker, right?” Felicity asked. “The guy who always sleeps in class?”

“That’s not all there is to me, you know?” Peter said with a chuckle. “What are you doing in front of my locker?”

Felicity was pretty gorgeous. With platinum blonde hair, green eyes and delicate features, standing in front of a girl like her made Peter feel nervous. Peter figured that’s why his spider sense was buzzing faintly.

“You’re pretty direct, aren’t you?” Felicia said.

“Oh, sorry I…”

“It’s cool,” Felicity said. “You look like you need 4 cups of coffee to function.”

Peter chuckled. “Tell me about it.”

“As for the locker thing,” Felicity said. “I’m new here and all the numbers on the lockers are confusing. I didn’t know where I was until you came here.”

“Oh uh… just tell me your locker number and I’ll show you where it is,” Peter said.

Felicity told him her locker number and Peter guided her to the locker. He opened his locker and buried underneath his mess of textbooks was a black box with the necklace underneath. Peter thought it felt lighter than usual but that was probably because he was being paranoid about it. He had no time to waste though, his job was just in a few hours and his boss was a pain in the ass about him being on time.

Peter found an empty alleyway outside school and climbed up the walls. Bag on his back he swung across Gotham, navigating through the buildings until he found himself at the Thomas and Martha Wayne Hospital. He landed on the rooftop, taking out the black box before webbing his bag on the wall. He removed his spider-suit and webbed it on the wall too. He was about to walk out into the hospital before realising he wasn’t wearing pants. He quickly put on his pants and made his way through the pristine hallways into Barbara’s room.

Her room was littered with multicoloured dumbbells and weights. She was on her wheelchair back turned to Peter, moving a 20 KG weight side to side. She had headphones on her head. Peter could hear the music playing through it. Peter walked over to her, trying his best not to trip over the weights laying around and tapped her on the shoulder.

Barbara turned, face drenched with sweat and flashed him a smile.

“Hey handsome,” she said, taking out her headphones and kissing him on the cheek. Her clothes had sweat stains on them.

“Let me change and we’ll talk in a bit.”

After changing into more comfortable clothes Barbara rolled out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her neck.

“We haven’t talked in a while,” Barbara said. “I missed you.”

Peter smiled. “I missed you too.”

Peter moved the weights out of the way as Barbara moved her wheelchair through the room.

“How’ve you been?” she asked. “How’s school?”

“School’s fine,” Peter said. “We have this new girl in class, Felicity Hardly I think’s her name. Dick would’ve liked her, she’s hot.”

Barbara stared at him, hands on her sides.

“Not as hot as you,” Peter said quickly. “You’re way hotter than she is. Like way hotter.”

“Good,” Barbara said, giggling. “You’re so cute when you get flustered.”

Peter chuckled weakly.

“How’s everything with you?” Peter asked. “How’s the recovery going?”

“It’s going good,” Barbara said. “The doctors here are amazing and the physiotherapy is on a whole other level.”

“I can see you’re out here exercising,” Peter said.

“Oh yes,” Barbara said. “Just my upper body though. Can’t wait to get those legs of mine moving. You should exercise too, it’s good for you.”

“Barbara I can lift a truck,” Peter said. “Weights like these are like lifting a fly. I mean look at this.”

Peter picked up one of the 20 KG plates lying around and held it in the air with one hand. “I don’t even feel anything.”

“Show off,” Barbara said with a grin.

Peter placed the weight down. “I don’t have much time. I have a job.”

“You just got here,” Barbara said.

“I know, I know,” Peter said. “But the rent won’t pay itself. But before I leave I… uh… I got you something.”

Peter shuffled around his pockets. Barbara gasped. “Are you proposing?”

Peter was taken aback. “No, no! I’m not! Unless you want to but… like… the time and…”

Peter noticed her grin and shook his head. “Never mind.” Peter took out a black box. “I got a necklace for you over at Martin’s. Now I don’t know what you like but I thought it’d look nice on you and…”

“I want you to have it.”

Barbara had a big smile on her face. “That’s so sweet. Thank you.”

Peter placed the box in her hand. Barbara looked giddy as she took it out of his hands. Peter stared at her expectingly as she opened the box. Heartbeat rising and rising, thoughts racing through his mind. What if she didn’t like it? What if she threw it away? I spent five weeks of paycheques on that, dear lord please let it be worth it.

Barbara opened it and Peter’s heart sunk into his chest when he saw the sour expression on her face.

“Peter, it’s empty.”

…

Tonight was the night. Necklace glinting in the dull lights of Gotham City Felicia made her way to the co-ordinates on the card. She was so glad Selina was out for the night as she wouldn’t have to waste her time coming up with a lie to explain why she was out tonight. The building was derelict, empty and when she entered, the building was a mess of broken bottles and scraps of paper. Standing around a bin of fire were half a dozen kids her age all chuckling and making jokes. When she entered, they all stared at her, bodies tensed. One of the boys, the biggest one amidst the guys came walking toward her with a stony expression on his face.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

Felicia just flashed the card in front of his face and walked past him. Seeing the cards, the other kids went back to whatever they were doing, unfortunately, the big guy wasn’t having it. She felt a tight grip around her arm.

“I asked a question,” the big guy asked.

A girl with short hair stringy hair intervened. She grabbed the big guy’s arm.

“Tiny, relax,” the girl said. “She’s one of us.”

“I don’t like the look of her.”

The girl smiled. “You don’t like the look of anybody. Now let go.”

Felicia pulled away from Tiny’s strong grip. Tiny was momentarily taken aback before shrugging and going back to the fire.

“I’m sorry about Tiny,” the girl said. “He has a huge chip on his shoulder.”

“Well tell Tiny I don’t like being touched,” Felicia said, rubbing her wrist. “Especially if I didn’t ask to be.”

“Noted,” the girl said. She reached out a hand. “I’m Holly, by the way.”

Felicia didn’t accept the offer. “Felicity.”

“I take it you got an offer from the Syndicate too?”

Felicia raised an eyebrow. “The Syndicate? Necklace is mine, by the way.”

Holly moved her hand down from Felicia’s back, grinning. “You’re a sharp one, aren’t you?”

She turned to Tiny who had a big grin on his face as he reached inside his pockets. His expression was replaced by one of confusion as he shuffled through his pockets. He turned to Felicia who waved the watch he was trying to steal in front of him.

“What Syndicate?”

Holly looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t know about the Cat Syndicate? I mean their symbol is on that card. What other reason did you come here for?”

“The guy who gave me the card was interesting,” Felicia said. “He wasn’t like the rest of the guys I steal from.”

Holly paused. “Huh. You’re a weird one, aren’t you?”

After a brief introduction to the rest of the group, Holly asked Felicia a very peculiar question.

“You have cats, Felicity?”

Felicia turned to Holly.

“I noticed cat hairs on your shirt,” Holly said. “When I was trying to…”

“What’s it to you?” Felicia asked.

“I love cats,” Holly said. “How many of them do you have?”

“I have a lot of them at home,” Felicia said. “Though they’re not really mine, they’re my…”

Felicia shut up before she gave too much away. Holly picked up on something immediately.

“You’re one of those types, huh?” Holly asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve been around the streets long enough to know when someone’s tight lipped about something,” Holly said. “Most of the kids I introduced you to over here are probably not even using their real names. I’m sure you aren’t either.”

Felicia chuckled. “Like you’re using yours.”

Holly smiled. “Oh, I am. I’m Holly through and through. I have nothing to hide. My mum’s a prostitute and I never knew my dad. The scar on my belly is from when some asshole tried to stab me after I stole from him when I was 13. I can even show it to you if you want.”

“And you call me the weird one,” Felicia said.

Holly shrugged. “The way I see it, the more you have to hide, the more vulnerable you are when someone finds out. Just look at Batman. I’m sure the world would explode if someone found out who was behind the mask.”

“That’s a very simple way of looking at things,” Felicia said.

“I’m a very simple person.”

The kids started getting bored. There was murmuring among them about wanting to leave.

“You think you’re going to stick around?” Holly asked.

Felicia shrugged. “I stuck around for this long. What’s a few more hours?”

There was a quite between them for a while before Felicia spoke up.

“The cats…” Felicia started. Holly turned to face her. “The cats, they’re not mine. They’re my sister’s. Well, she’s not really my sister but she’s kinda like a sister to me.”

“She sounds sweet,” Holly said. “How many do you have?”

“A bunch,” Felicia said with a grin. “So many cats that I lost track of all their names and faces. They wander around the street so much but they always come to our house for lunch and dinner.”

“Sounds nice,” Holly said. “I’d like to visit someday, Felici…”

“Felicia,” Felicia said. “The name’s Felicia.”

Holly smiled. “Felicity was kind of a mouthful anyway.”

“Don’t go around telling anyone my real name, though,” Felicia said.

“I won’t.”

“This sucks,” said one of the boys. “I’m getting outta here.”

“You can count me in,” said a girl,

4 of the kids were just about to leave when a voice echoed through the empty building.

“Sorry,” the voice muttered. “Sorry for the delay.”

Everybody looked around the building, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. Holly was the first one to notice it was coming from upstairs and pointed up at a man wearing a black suit, descending down the stairs. Felicia noticed the man as the one who gave her the card.

“Sorry I’m late,” the man said. “I just have the flair for the dramatic.”

Questions started ringing in the air. Questions like who are you? What do you want? Where’s the Cat? Where’s the rest of the syndicate? The man just waved his white gloved hands to quell the rest of the murmuring.

“I’ll answer all of your questions later,” the man said. “Just know that I’m here to give you your mission so please, may I have some quite.”

The murmuring stopped and the man nodded. “Very well. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the Golden Egg. An expensive 12-kilogram egg made of gold studded with the finest jewellery. I’m also sure you guys heard its going to be put on display tomorrow morning.” The kids muttered in agreement. “I want you guys to steal it before it goes out for display.”

“But that’s tomorrow,” Tiny said.

“I think my instructions were pretty clear,” the man said. “I will be assessing you from a distance. I hope you don’t disappoint.” When he said those last five words, the man trained his eyes directly at Felicia.

“Why the hell should we listen to you?” said one of the girls.

“Yeah,” Tiny said. “We want orders from the Cat himself, not some bozo like you.”

There was discontent mumbling, people were shouting at the man, someone even threw a half-empty wrapper at his face. The man just chuckled.

“Why’re you laughing?” Tiny asked.

“Because,” the man said, wiping the sauce off his cheek. “If you guys want to talk to the Cat himself…”

“He’s standing right in front of you.”

…

She stepped into the office, her only trail being the unconscious groaning bodies behind her. She stepped into the dark musty office, standing in front of the dusty desk. She ran her hands through the desk, at the pencil holder stuffed with pens, at the books laying on the table. She picked up one of the framed photos and threw it at the man in the cowl who stood by the door.

Batman raised his spiked gauntlet and the photo bounced off it and cracked on the floor. “I’m not here to fight,” he said calmly but Catwoman wasn’t having it. She picked up the chair and threw it at him. Batman rolled forward. Catwoman tied escaping through the windows using his grappling hook but she felt something wrap around her waist and pull her back. The grappling hook clattered on the floor. Catwoman tried reaching for it but a shrill noise invaded her ears causing her to clutch her head. She ignored the noise and tried reaching for the grappling hook but Batman picked it up and crushed it under his knee. He tapped something on his gauntlet and the ear-piercing sound stopped which was good because Catwoman was starting to get a headache. He picked up one of those bat-shaped boomerangs of his and placed it back in his belt.

“I’m not here to fight,” Batman said. “I’m not here to turn you in either.”

As if to prove his point, he opened the window. “You can go if you want and I won’t stop you but I promise if you do, you’ll be losing out.”

Catwoman’s head still felt foggy because of that boomerang of his but she managed to catch what he was saying.

“What do you want?” she asked, getting up despite how groggy her head felt.

“Falcone,” Batman said. “For a while he was more content with smaller jobs. Now…”

Catwoman walked towards the window. “I don’t care about that.”

“We’re still looking for Falcone,” Batman said. “With my resources the search will be much easier.”

They both heard the feint shout of thugs and guns loading at the same time.

Catwoman had to admit the offer sounded tempting but maybe that was her groggy head speaking. The footsteps were getting louder.

“I’ll think about it,” Catwoman said, crouching on the edge of the building ready to jump.

“I’ll be at the top of the Gotham Railways building tomorrow night at 6 PM if you’re interested,” Batman said. “I won’t be there for long.”

“It’s a date,” Catwoman said.

Catwoman leapt out of the warehouse as the thugs burst into the office, surrounding Batman in a ring of guns. Batman just cracked his knuckles.

To be continued…