catwoman returns - redeux

[Catwoman]

chapter 12

"you son of a bitch!" chip screamed in batman's face.

"now hang on a minute, chip," commisoner gordon tried to interrupt, but it was no use. "you could have saved her and you didn't do a damn thing! you just let her die!" batman stood silently, taking in chip's verbal assault as commisioner gordon, two police men, and, from a distance, selina kyle looked on.

"its just like with my father. you let copplepot kill him, now you let this bitch kill my fiancee," chip roared. though she was standing well away from them, selina could hear this. "copplepot?" she thought. "what the hell? why would he say that? he knows the truth." her train of thought derailed when she saw chip lunge for batman. the two policemen held him back. "take off that mask, you bastard! let me see your face!" he screamed as he was pulled away by the officers. gordon watched as chip tried in vain to kick his way loose as he was tugged away. he sighed.

"sad, sad case. any idea who it was?" "yes. i've fought her before." gordon was taken aback. "you have? who the hell is it? we've never had any russians do anything like this as long as i've been on the force." "i'll explain later," batman said, turning away. gordon watched as batman limped noticably towards the batmobile. he retracted the batmobile's armor shields and opened the canopy before sagging into the driver's seat with a groan. then he fired the car and drove away. once he was out of sight, selina too got into her car and headed home.

once back in the batcave, batman climbed from the batmobile. he took two steps and went to his knees with a howl that echoed through the cave. he gasped heavily for breath as he pulled his cowl off. sweat ran from his drenched hair like the rain that had been falling over gotham city. he tried to pull himself up, using the batmobile as a brace, but it was no use. he fell over onto his back. he lay there for a moment, staring upward, laboring for air.

bruce was just about out when he heard the door to the batcave from wayne manor open. he crawled around the front of the batmobile and looked up to see selina bound towards him. "oh bruce!" she cried, kneeling in front of him as he collapsed into her arms. he tried to speak but his breathing was so heavy and so labored that he couldn't make a sound.

twenty minutes later and after a great deal of effort by both, they were in bruce's bedroom. he lay on the bed, stripped to his underwear. his breathing, though not yet to a normal level, was easier and quieter. selina sat beside him on the bed, applying ice packs to his chest, stomach, and right arm, which had taken the brunt of the impact with the steel pipe. his armor had protected his wrist from the bullet the woman had fired to break his grip, but both feared it might have been broken in the fall, and neither was sure what his injuries might have been internally.

selina looked bruce's body over. she sighed. "bruce we have to take you to the hospital." "no, i'll be fine," he replied weakly. "well what if you're bleeding internally? lets go. we'll tell them you fell down the stairs or something." "selina, trust me. i'm fine." selina looked into his eyes. despite his pain, she could tell by looking into them that he sure of himself, and she knew that despite his stubborness, he wouldn't have hesitated to seek treatment if he thought he was in danger. she sighed again. "okay, i'll be right back."

she returned moments later, having removed her dress and now in a grey t-shirt and a pair of lounge pants. she was startled to see bruce sitting up right. "no! lay back down!" she cried, running over to him. he waved her off with his hand. "i'm okay." he stood up, and though he was uneasy on his feet, he maintained enough balance to convince selina. "okay. get back on the bed," she said. he did so, but as he was sitting down, he took her by the hand. selina sat down beside him.

"selina, that woman, she's about as dangerous as anyone i've ever fought. i managed to take her down on my own when we first met, but i can't do it this time. dick can't help me either. no one can. so i want you to leave gotham city. it isn't going to be safe here. i'm going to do everything i can, but i won't be able to stop her alone and i'm afraid gotham city is going to pay because of it. so leave. please."

selina studied him for a moment. she smiled. "you won't have to do it alone. i'm going to help you." bruce shook his head. "no, selina, you can't do that." she said nothing, instead staring at him. he looked back at her. he knew it was no use trying to discourage her. the last two years had taken so much of a toll on him that he couldn't afford to. he took her hand and pulled her close to him.

[PJ]

Well, I finally got around to reading this. I tend to give most fan fiction a wide berth, because to put it frankly, most of it is crap.

This however, is most certainly not crap. In fact it doesn't read like fan fiction at all. It's very well written and you've really gotten into the mindset of Selina Kyle. It's great to read a Gotham tale written from a woman's perspective, by a woman.

I feel as if I'm reading a proper sequel to Batman Returns, one that really could exist in the Burton Batman universe. In that way it reminds me a lot of Craig Shaw Gardener's Batman and Batman Returns novelisations and his 'Batman Murders' book.

Well done. I'm utterly enthralled and can't wait for the next chapter. About the only thing I don't like is Dick Grayson. He really is a punk, please tell me he'lll have some redemption later on.

[Catwoman]

lol. yes dick has redemption later on...just not the kind anyone is expecting.

and ty for the comments 

[PJ]

So when's the next chapter? I'm all impatient now.

[Catwoman]

as everyone that's been reading will tell you, my answer to that question is always:

when its written.

[PJ]

  I'm all a quiver with anticipation  

*wonders whether he should post the script for his fan film.

[Catwoman]

chapter 13

"ladies and gentleman, fuzzy is hurting today. really, i am." this was how fuzzy freeman began his monday morning show. maggie burton would be buried that afternoon.

"i can't imagine what chip is feeling right now. losing his bride to be is one thing. but to lose her and his unborn child...i, i just don't have the words to sum up how sad that makes me." freeman paused for a moment. "and with that, lets open up the phones." one after another, gotham city's residents called on, offering their condolences to chip shreck and expressing their disgust towards batman for not saving her he had the chance.

after about an hour of calls, fuzzy made his feelings on the batman known. "i dunno what its going to take for this city to wake up and smell reality. how we lost our minds in the first place and entrusted our city to some wacko dressed in a bat costume is beyond me. its time for common sense to prevail and for us as citizens to take back our town, and its time for this son of a bitch to be locked into a loony bin...AFTER he's been paraded through the streets of gotham without his little mask."

as the public again lambasted him, alas as his alter ego (though a couple of callers had theorized that he was somehow involved, a notion quickly dismissed even by a card-carrying bruce wayne haters club member like fuzzy), bruce stood on the balcony outside his bedroom window. the air, while dry for once, had quite a chill to it, but bruce was unfazed as the cool nipped at his bare chest.

"there's nothing you could have done," he told himself aloud.

in his heart, he knew it was so. the russian men would have no doubt massacred the other women, selina included, had he made any effort at saving maggie. one life or twenty? and that was assuming maggie survived what was an all-but-hopeless situation. still, even without listening to fuzzy freeman's show or reading the paper or watching the early morning talk shows, he knew what everyone was thinking. it was his fault that the princess of gotham was dead.

it was somewhat familiar territory for him, as in the immediate aftermath of the ice princess's murder at the hands of the penguin, he had been fingered as the killer. the difference was he could prove himself innocent with facts in that case. in this situation it was all about opinions, and regaining the public's favor was a daunting, if not impossible task.

he exhaled deeply and walked back inside just as the clouds began to spit a mist onto the wayne manor.

that evening, he was back in costume, on the rooftop of the gotham pd. as promised, he briefed commisioner gordon on the female russian terrorist. "her real name is olga alexandrov. she's a child of communist russia," he began. "shortly after the fall of the soviet union, a she and a handful of other communist militants banded together to create an organization known as the red claw." "i see," said commisioner gordon, amazed not only to be getting a history lesson on a foreign terrorist group from batman of all people but also that it was direly relevant to his own city.

"in 1993, after a failed attempt to bomb buckingham palace, the group's leader was shot dead by his own followers. alexandrov seized control of the organization and took the name red claw as her own. from then on they operated under a code rather than a name, which is why they are so obscure. there's no telling how many random acts of terrorism and murder they've committed since there's no real way to attribute it to them."

"you said you'd fought her before," gordon interrupted. "when? how? what? where? why? i swear this is the god-damndest thing i've ever faced." "in 1994 i was in tokyo providing secret security for a group of executives of us-based corporations, including bruce wayne and wayne enterprises from here in gotham, who were meeting with japanese officials about business agreements when i caught wind of a plot by red claw to bomb the tower in which the meetings were being held. i managed to thwart the plot without even the japanese authorities finding out about it, and afterwards i assumed her to have been killed in our encounter."

batman paused for a moment. "obviously i was wrong." "with all due respect, old friend," gordon said, "i don't think this is the time to be lamenting something from the then. we need to be talking about the now. can you stop her?" "i...i'm not sure." gordon's expression turned to one of horror at hearing the doubt in the voice of the dark knight. "i need to find out what her plan is before i can start planning my offense or defense, whatever the situation calls for. the murder thursday was obviously part of a larger plot. i've just got to try to figure out what it is and stop it before anyone else gets killed."

"and what do you want me and my men to be doing while you're playing detective?" gordon asked. "the usual," batman replied. "keep an eye out for anything suspicious and do their jobs should anything come up." "what about this red claw woman?" "leave her to me," batman said, drawing out his grappling gun. "yeah, leave it to you," gordon said as batman fired it and swooped out of sight. "i'm getting too damn old for this stuff!" he called out to his out-of-sight comrade.

he looked out into the gotham city skyline for a moment. "what a town," he said, rolling his eyes as he walked back inside.

[The Joker]

Some very well written chapters for sure.

The fan fic is definately getting more and more interesting as this goes on. And it's interesting to see Batman in circumstances where he is reluctantly aware that he does indeed need help in his mission now. Especially in contrast to his mindset in Batman Forever where he was still very capable, "I can stop you.".

But this takes place years after that episode. And this Batman is obviously more weathered starting to realize his limits. It's all very well done. And having characters and references to past events is just icing on the cake.

[Catwoman]

 

[Catwoman]

"y'know," dick continued, as suavely as selina had seen a man as youthful as him, "if you're not doing anything tonight -" "i am," she interrupted. "well how about this weekend?" "busy." "next week? "taken." "how about new years?" "if you'll leave right now and not bother me again, its a date." "you got it, babes," dick said with a wink. selina faked a smile, then gagged as dick limped out.

"what a punk!"

lol. i loved this part. i was just rereading it.