2012-06-11 Surprise Visit

The seasons are steadily changing, rapidly pushing towards the time of year where Gotham is almost too hot even after the sun goes down, making tonight particularly nasty as it's raining on top of that fact. For Catwoman she is particularly rueful, wishing she could have stayed home or, at the very least, had something cooler to wear for times like this. But 'work' mandates that she be out, miserable. The task she has set before her is the casing of a building - one of Gotham's premiere jewelry stores - keeping a careful eye on things like the guards' schedules and other important details, the location being one an employer wants her to hit in two nights' time.
The heat is just another factor to the mobile darkness that is Gotham's protector. Well up above the city streets, perched upon the lip of a building, the Batman stares down over his city with a cold precision. A focus born of years of dedication and practice, a knowledge of every street and alleyway. The cowl is bent forward so that the rain splattering upon the solid material doesn't cast any affect upon his vision and the black cape hangs down like a drape across his shoulders.
As coincidence would have it, or perhaps fate, the Bat is watching the same store-front. Though it is for very different reasons, no doubt, it doesn't change the fortuitious position it puts him in..
Movement.
Not much, a shift of a shadow, but it's enough. His head turns enough to take in this new stimulation a moment before stepping forward from his perch to decend into the nights sky.. Both arms extend out and the cape catches the pressure of his decent and slow him enough that he can easily absorb the rest of the fall with a bent knee pressed against the rooftop where he lands.
"..." Silence really is deafening, when it comes to Batman.
She's been here awhile already so doesn't stay still for much longer, only several minutes passing before she turns around to leave. Unaware as to anyone else being present, she starts to unwinde the coiled length of braided leather while she looks around, her eyes narrowed as if something has finally dawned on her.
"Ah... enjoying the show," she calls out. The cat burglar is standing partially behind an air conditioning duct, keeping her from being viewed fully for the most part just as it blocks her line of sight from all but a few angles. It's strange. Usually she'd be joined by him by now, the Bat possessing what appears to be an uncanny sense for when she's up to no good, but with him not here, or so she thinks, it has her pausing. What is going on?
Batman bathes himself in the shadow cast off from an adjacent building across the roof upon which they both stand. The rise up from his crouch does nothing to unblur his outline, the nature of his cape as funcational in stealth as it is for slowing his decent, by keeping his body shape from fully being viewed within a dark exterior.
Usually he would press this small bit of surprise like a panic button. Press upon the individual with the considerable weight of his symbolic intimidation... But this is not a usual individual or a usual night.
Batman steps out from the shadow he'd been standing in, rolling his shoulder just enough to bring the edge of his cape down over it and dragging it back behind him as he walks.
"Selina." One word. Almost dispassionate.. but every bit as gruff.
No, Selina isn't surprised. She's rather pleased to see him, to be honest, and she's quick to let him know by approaching him. "Well, hello," she half-purrs, her voice dropped to a husky whisper. "I was wondering if I was going to see you tonight." A hand is lifted and rested upon his arm if allowed, the nails that cap each glove-finger allowed to play over it lightly if she is.
"What kept you?"
The whip is still held in her right hand and the leather is snaked out towards one of Batman's feet, a subtle action that he most likely will notice thanks to how very little escapes his notice.
"Are you wanting to play?"
Nor is Batman surprised to see her lack of surprise, or her quick advances. Aside from a glance at the arm where she lays those close, he doesn't seem inclined to stop her. If anything, it puts her in a better position to disarm, if he has too.. Which is obviously the problem with dealing with the Bat. When does his guard actually come down?
"I was busy."
Simple, pointed, and barely above a whisper. "Casing the jewelry Store?" It didn't take much deduction to figure out what brought the world's premiere thief so close to the jewelry store.
No answer to her second question, besides the unshaking stare.
"You know me too well. Of course I was." If this was any other hero she was talking to Catwoman would try to play coy and lie about what it was that brought her here but no. It'd be futile to do so with him although it'd further along their little game of cat-and-mouse if she were to do so. Cracking a smile, she turns around, looking for the life of her like she's about to leave.
A light sigh causes her shoulders to raise and lower slightly once she's facing the other direction, her brow knitting.
"And now we're at the part where you tell me you will stop me and yadda yadda, how about I come and work for you and the rest of your little clan of bats and birds. Let me spare you the breath it'll take to say all that and give you my answer now. Thank you, but no."
"You know me too well."
Batman replys without skipping a beat or stepping away like he'll follow her if she actually does make for the exit. "I /will/ stop you." That was just a statement of fact, at least as far as he's concerned. Cat and mouse is one thing, but he'll not turn a blind eye because of it.
He doesn't bother asking the questions he would usually press on any other criminal. Because she's not intimidated by him and he wont press her nearly as hard as he will others. At least not until she gives him a reason to do so. It's a game.
He knows it as well as she does.
"Why?" asked as he finally moves, a shadow step towards the Cat-thief that barely jostles his cape from it's drape over his shoulders. The rain patters quietly around them, adding to the sounds of Gotham at night. Sirens, horns, and the constant crackle of thunder in the distance.
This is usually fun, the banter as much as a part of the roles they've assumed with each other as everything else but Selina's not in the mood for it. The rain's hampering the enjoyment and it has her feeling kind of off, not exactly herself. Lifting her chin, she looks up, letting the rain bead up on the lenses of her goggles and cool what of her face is exposed by her hood, that a respite from the heat she'll find herself grateful once she can look back on this exchange.
"I don't do the good girl thing well, Bruce. And you know as much as I do that we'd both miss this." Yes, he'd have her aligned with him but what exactly would it result in? Looking at him from over a shoulder, Selina waits, wondering what he'll do now.
Another document in his growing catalog of 'allies'. Batman keeps his friends at arms length as much as, if not more than, most of his enemies. His mouth doesn't move from that perpetual scowl, an expression that is as much part of the costume as is the cowl. Perhaps it's a bit deeper with the discomfort provided by the warm weather and beating rain, but these are elements that he choses not to let cast any effect upon him.
"We both know that's not true." At first it seems that he'll stop there. The short sentences punctuated by narrowed eyes, but she's got a way of opening him up to more conversation than most. "You do this for the thrill of the conquest, not the prizes you aquire. There will never be any end to it. You could get that same sensation on this side of the line too, Selina."
Batman's talkative mood gives her reason to pause, whatever desire she had to leave quelled for a moment. She's willing to hear him out but her patience is not what it normally would be, the thief rocking from foot to foot by the end which might lend an impression that she's a child seeking to go somewhere in a hurry while being made to endure a lecture from a parent. "I could, could I? How would that happen?"
Selina is genuniely curious as to what Bruce has in mind. What use would she be to him, a man who fights crime? The question almost gets voiced but she remains quiet despite her desire to know, Bruce allowed to speak without interruption.
Batman can turn just about anything into a boon given any amount of time to think about it, but this is something he's given more than a share of thought. Selina was as much a friend as anyone, as close to him as only a handful could boast. And he knew eventually he wouldn't be able to keep letting her go, when he actually caught her...
Whatever took her out of the equation as a /threat/. But was she one? Really? He stared at her as if that was very much a possibility.
"You know the criminals of this city almost as well as I do. You know where they sleep, where they eat. You can get into their hideouts unnoticed and take information that would help bring their organizations down for good.." It's rare that the cowl speaks this much, but it remains quiet even if the growl has subsided. "You could 'help'. The only difference between what you do now and what you could do, is legality." Which is a fine line, since 'officially' the GCPD have him marked as a criminal as well.
"Oh please. What you do is seen as being as illegal as what I do is. Maybe even more so since you're the voilent one out of us two." Selina knows how to fight but she does so only if cornered, that being something from her feline-aligned side. But Batman? Sure, he does what he does to fight crime but there are many who question his methods.
"Look. This really is a miserable place for a discussion," she points out, still looking at the Bat from over her shoulder. "And it's really doing nothing to make me see your point..."
A black gloved hand is raised and wiped over her goggles, trying to rid them of the moisture that's obscurring her vision. "I would like to continue this. Again. But at the moment all I can think of doing is going home to feed my cat and soak in a nice hot bath."
"What I do is necessary." Batman counters without the need to raise his voice when stressing a point. He's got the foundations of confidence and the weight of 'true' believe behind every word. "When it nolonger is, we can continue a discussion on the legality of my 'job'." But he knows how futile the conversation was before they ever started it. It always ends the same.
And that'll never stop him from continuing to try.
"I'll be watching that jewelry store, Selina. Don't make me come after you..." It's not even a 'veiled' threat. It's a pointed promise. And one hes' made dozens, if not hundreds, of times before.
His departure is as quiet as his landing and marked with the a sudden emptiness behind her. He's not gone. He's somewhere nearby, perhaps kneeling on a ledge watching her, still listening.. Every vigilante.
Always ready.
Batman's watched as he leaves, Catwoman's goggles aiding in that thanks to the night vision she had added to them.
"I'm counting on it."
Selina doesn't wait to make sure he isn't following her, the siren's song of that aforementioned bath calling her home. The long way is taken, done so to give herself time to think, dwell on what was said. By the time her patio's breached and her penthouse home entered she's feeling a bit more clear-headed. Her cat comes up to her and twines itself about her legs, a 'welcome home' as much as it is a 'feed me'.
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