catwoman returns - redeux

[Catwoman]

i'm not redoing the story. i'm redoing the topic. lol. lets try to stay on topic, kiddies. 

[Catwoman]

catwoman returns


rated: r
violence
language
sex
drugs




chapter 1

"rise and shine, gotham city."

the dreary dawn of the coming morning light was still tucked away in the darkness as fuzzy freeman, gotham's most famous talk radio host, opened his show. already, though, much of the city was awake, up and about, going about their pre-dawn routine as a light drizzle gently brushed across the city.

"its a beautiful day," the equally loved and loathed freeman said in his trademark sarcasm. "the rain is coming down, down, down. ironically thats the same direction wayne enterprises stock is heading this morning. in other news, chip "the second coming" schreck is taking the day off after spending last night saving a baby, pulling a cat from a sewer, turning the gotham river into champagne in preperation for saturday night's masquerade ball, and generally sweeping the streets with bruce "that apple is STILL falling" wayne. i tell you, wayne isn't the only one dealing with ol' chip. if he keeps this up, batman might be the next gotham icon put out of business by maxie junior."

and so it was.

two years had passed since batman had saved gotham city from mr. freeze and poison ivy, and the scope of the city had changed. no longer was bruce wayne the city's favorite playboy. the hearts of gotham had been swayed by the resurgence of schreck's, the company founded by chip's grandfather, nostrodamus schreck iv, and brought into prominence by his father, maximillian charles "max" schreck, sr. after max's death, which to gotham's citizens the full story was still and perhaps forever unknown, the company had plunged into oblivion. then, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, schreck's had miraculously reappeared during the summer of 1998 with maximillion charles schreck, jr., known as chip, at the helm. now, a little over a year later, it topped all gotham city corporations in stock and earnings and seemed certain to drive many, wayne enterprises included, out of business entirely.

the shift in loyalty was one of the largest recurring headlines in the city. bruce wayne, for his part, publicly lamented that the good his company had done for the less fortunate and gotham as a whole had been completely forgotten. the media and many citizens brushed it off as jealousy. wayne enterprises still had its supporters, however. several who had been beneficiaries of bruce's generosity and gotham's purists, many of whom had supported thomas wayne 35 years earlier, right up to his murder in 1964, still showed their support.

chip's supporters, however, had the loudest voices, fuzzy freeman included. he ripped into bruce constantly in a daily diatribe entitled "chip and the chump." newspaper editors, cartoonists, politicians, and some of gotham's elite also vocally threw their support behind chip. at 29 years of age, he seemed to give gotham a breath of fresh air, while also making bruce, at 43, an old man and old news.

the divide seemed clear: the upstanding, progressive class of gotham were ferverent backers of chip, while the quieter, simple people stood behind bruce. and on this dark and damp morning, in a small little cottage house right on the outskirts of the town, one of his strongest supporters was just awaking.

it took selina kyle a little bit of effort to get out of bed these days. seven years had healed some of the physical and mental injuries she incurred during her time as catwoman but not all, and age hadn't helped matters any. her back seemed to give her the most trouble, hurting so badly some days that she had to literally crawl on the floor to a chair across the room from her bed and painfully straighten up. once vertical, she would do a number of stretches and exercises in order to get herself going. generally, these allowed her mostly pain-free days, though not always. the human body was not built to absorb four searing pieces of lead.

"ugh!" selina moaned as she stood upright. she gingerly twisted to one side, then to the other. she repeated this process until finally her back muscles were relaxed. feeling fairly well on this morning, selina gently limped into the bathroom and started her shower. as the water heated up, she allowed her nightgown to slip to the floor. then she turned and faced the mirror.

though still quite attractive, even at age 41, she had changed since the winter of 1992. perhaps most notable was her hair. her once vibrant blonde curls were now a longer, straighter light brown. selina had also gained weight. though not fat by any means, her skinny figure was nothing but a memory. one thing that had not changed was her skin. fair, almost snow-white, but blemished along her stomach by three dark discolorations and another one up at her left collarbone. she studied them for a moment and then clenched her eyes and her teeth in a moment of recollection. once freed of it, she turned and climbed into the shower.

once her shower was over, selina stepped out, wrapped herself in a towel, and walked into her living room. she opened her front door and reached down to grab the morning edition of the gotham times. the rain had soaked her small front lawn, but the paper was kept nice and dry by a plastic wrapper. she pulled it open and withdrew the times, hoping to see good news. she did not.

"shreck's dominance continues, wayne's downfall imminent?"

"damnit," selina said as she read the headline. during her time as max schreck's secretary, she had spent much time near chip, who was 12 years younger than her. the age difference had not deterred him, as he had often hit on her, trying to score a date. selina, wary of the schreck family and dating the boss's son in general, always declined. eventually chip turned against her. on more than one occasion she had seen the seemingly sweet and innocent young man's dark side, and at times it seemed almost as dark and deadly as his father's. his constant ridicule and scorn of her had led her to resent him, though not nearly on the level she had resented max. she hoped like hell for the company for which she once served as top secretary to fail, only to daily be disappointed by more news of the shrecks' increasing power. still, she continued to pray for a turnaround by wayne enterprises, forcing the schreck family out of business all together. she knew all about bruce. she knew his heart well. she had seen the good he had done in gotham city. she had experienced it first hand. in her heart, she knew that the city's longterm wellbeing was best served if bruce wayne was at the top of the heap.

and on top of all that, she was still in love with him.

[Catwoman]

chapter 2

while selina was heading out the door to work her decent paying job in a bookstore in the small, quiet district of gotham where batman (or anyone else of importance) rarely traveled, the rain picked up. driving conditions were treacherous, and though selina always took her commute slowly and cautiously, especially in poor weather she still had to dodge a number of spun-out vehicles who's drivers had not done the same.

the rain countinued to pour down, seeming content to drench gotham city completely rather than move along. rain fell against the high rise buildings lining gotham's skyline, it fell against selina's little cottage in the outskirts, and a few miles in the opposite direction of gotham city, it fell onto the magnificantly morbid mansion known as wayne manor.

as it pelted his bedroom window, bruce wayne lay in his bed, staring upward.

just as age had done a number on selina, the same could be said for bruce. many men of 43 were active, in the prime of their lives. many of them were bruce's old school mates. they invited him to participate in charity polo matches and other athletic activities. bruce, though, always had to decline. the beating his body had taken as batman had wiped him out almost completely. he always answered the call for help when batman was needed, only to collapse to the ground in the batcave once his work was done.

thus, it wasn't that he didn't care that chip was driving wayne enterprises into oblivion. he simply lacked the strength to fight that battle ontop of his nightly fight against crime.

"hey bruce," he heard a voice call out. he turned his head to the right, where young dick grayson's was poked through the doorway. "you gonna get up or you just gonna lay there all day?" "leave me alone, dick," he replied. "bruce you can't just sleep your life away." "this isn't my life, not anymore," bruce retorted. he painfully sat up. then, equally as painfully, he stood up and walked over to the window. as bruce stared into the rain clouds above gotham city, dick studied his mentor's back. "my god," he said, studying the scars, many of them quite unsightly, that covered it.

bruce turned in a rage. "get the hell out of here, you nosey little bastard!" he screamed. "but i-" "NOW!"

as dick swiftly shut the door and limped just as swiftly down the hall, bruce sank back onto his bed and groaned. "how much longer can i keep this up?" he asked himself. it was a question he had asked himself many times lately. it was becoming increasingly clear that he would have to give up one of his dual lives and live the rest of his days solely centered in one. there was a time when bruce was certain that if it came to that, he would fake his own death and live on solely as the batman, but now he wasn't so sure. he longed to be happy. he longed for a family.

he longed for selina kyle.

in order to start a family, and perhaps search for selina, he would have to give up being batman. crime might have been taking a little bit of a break, but there was always a chance for it to rise again. if bruce wasn't there to stop it, someone needed to be. it wasn't going to be dick. his days as robin had ended when he shattered his right leg in a motorcycle accident. he had already started on bruce's desired path, looking to begin a family, and as bruce was out nightly fighting the criminals of gotham, dick was partying uptown with any number of girls on each arm. and it wasn't going to be barbara. she had left gotham city and returned to england shortly after alfred's death a year and a half earlier, leaving the batgirl costume behind. anyone else taking up the mantle of batman would mean revealing his secret identity to an outsider, possibly breaching the solemn security which had aided him in keeping it a secret for nearly 15 years.

without a suitable replacement, bruce had all but resigned himself to a life as batman and nothing but batman. when duty called, he dutifully stepped up, took the blows, and finished the job. once that job was done, however, the physical and emotional agony that gripped him literally brought him to his knees. he no longer had alfred to lean on and help him through these dark days. dick was on his way out of wayne manor. bruce felt very alone, even more so than when his parents had been murdered. at least alfred had been there for him then. now there was no one.

bruce closed his eyes and silently wept.

[Catwoman]

chapter 3

"well here he comes now, the darling of gotham city, ladies and gentlemen, CHIP SHRECK!"

the crowd assembled outside the gotham ballroom cheered wildly as chip and his fiancee, maggie burton, stepped out of their limo and onto the red carpet on the gotham ballroom. the gala that everyone and their sister (except for bruce wayne and selina kyle of course) were attending was a political fundraiser, but it had all the glitz and glamour of a movie premiere. ronald pierce, a lifelong friend of chip's who was seeking gotham's mayoral seat, was the benecifiary of all this. as with everything else in the city, though, chip schreck was the star of the show.

"mr. shreck! mr. shreck!" one of the reporters called out. "when might we see one of these fundraisers for you and your political aspirations?" "well first off," chip said with a sly grin, "mr. shreck was my father. i'm just plain ol' chip!" he gave a wink that made every female in the crowd sigh and every one of their companions roll their eyes. "secondly, i HAVE no political aspirations. i simply want to run my family's company and that's all there is to it." he looked at maggie, then at her stomach. she was both very pretty and very pregnant.

"well, not ALL there is, but you get the idea."

the crowd laughed good naturedly, but the next question was anything but good natured. "chip, why don't you tell bruce wayne what you think of him, right here, right now, once and for all?" "well, i think everyone knows there isn't a lot of love lost between our families. my grandfather and bruce's father didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. the wayne family has always had that stubborn nature about them, and ultimately i think it caused the city a lot of problems. the city's loyalty to that family hasn't been rewarded. i've reached out to bruce, trying to bury the hatchet, but he gave me that cold shoulder. thats fine though. i've got a lot better things to worry about, and i'm sure he does too, like what sports car to run into a tree or which bedroom to pass out drunk in."

there was a time when such remarks about bruce wayne were considered blasphemous. now the entire crowd roared in laughter. the media and gotham's higher ups were quite a fickle bunch.

finally, one reporter noted maggie's tummy. "so, when is maximillian the iii due?" "don't be so sure it isn't maxINE," maggie said with a smile. a daughter would have been the first female decendent of the shreck family since long before they immigrated to the united states from eastern europe. "well folks, lets get the party started!" chip declared, leading the crowd into the ball room for much wining and dining, not to mention wheeling and dealing.

as the gala went on, bruce wayne decided to take a drive. night rides in anything but the batmobile were rare if not all but nonexistent, but bruce needed to clear his mind. his beeper, which was linked to the batcave computers, would alert him if need for batman arose. driving through the residential district of gotham, he scanned the nice, quaint houses. "i would trade wayne manor for one of those," he thought to himself. bruce longed for the quiet, simple life. though he'd mostly stayed out of the public eye since alfred's death and his very public breakup with julie madison, his name was always there. he couldn't pick up a paper or watch the news without seeing a slam against him.

imagining himself in the front yard of one of the houses, tossing a baseball back and forth with a son while the smell of cookies that a wife and daugher were baking filling the air, bruce smiled for the first time in what seemed like years.

as he drove along, out of the inner city, he noticed a small cottage. the porch light and a light inside were burning. bruce decided that if he was going to become a simple folk, it might be a good start to see how the simple folk lived. he was going to introduce himself. he parked his ferrari behind a small chevrolet compact in the driveway, got out, and walked up to the porch. hesitating at first, not sure how he would greet the occupant, he finally rang the doorbell.

selina kyle opened the door.

[Catwoman]

chapter 4

"bruce, i am so, so, so sorry!" selina said, mortified. "its okay," he replied, rather annoyed. "i'm used to doors slamming shut in my face."

as bruce sat on selina's sofa, pressing the towel to his bloodied nose, selina nervously paced back and forth. finally she stop and faced him. "i...i...i just didn't expect...to see...YOU...HERE!" "ditto," bruce said without looking at her. she dropped to her knees in front of him. "it was an accident! i swear!" bruce took the towel from his face and looked at her. "selina."

"yes?"

"no, just, selina...you're here. in gotham...how long?" "well i came back about four years ag-" "FOUR YEARS? how did you stay hidden from me?" "i stayed hidden from everyone. used an alias, you know, all that good stuff." "oh, is that the reason for this?" bruce asked, motioning at her dark brown hair. "well, yes, it is," she replied with a sheepish giggle. he studied it for a moment before declaring "i don't like it." selina burst into laughter. "well gee, tell me how you really feel!" bruce allowed himself a light chuckle.

they were both so stunned to see each other that such simple topics as selina's "brunette from a bottle" were all they talked about . nevermind that they hadn't seen each other in seven years...and that they had longed for one another's company for just as long.

within a few days, all the inevitable questions had been answered. as bruce (and selina) wished, her hair regained it's natural blonde, curly appearance, though through artificial means. she had quit her job at the bookstore, though her now-former co-workers were so stunned to see bruce wayne standing before them that they barely noticed her goodbyes. and selina returned to bruce's mansion for the first time since she and bruce embraced on his couch only to be interrupted by the news of the ice princess's kidnapping. this time, it wasn't for dinner and a movie or a one-night-stand.

she was officially wayne manor's new resident.

"it's so different," selina said to herself as she toured her new home. it's physical appearance had changed little since she had last been here. it was the atmosphere within wayne manor that had changed. despite its immense size, she recalled the strange feeling of warmth and coziness when there with bruce and alfred. now, it seemed large, cold, and empty, though it was anything but. after alfred's death, rather than one butler handling all the chores with his warm british charm, a group of italian maids did it quckly, though effeciently, and usually without a single word.

in addition, though he didn't plan to be living there much longer, dick still called wayne manor home, and on any given night he was likely to be in the company of friends or a girl (or five). his playboy antics annoyed bruce, who had led a similar lifestyle as a front to protect his identity, but dick was too busy showing off his "crib" to notice his mentor's complaints. when selina introduced herself to dick as he walked past her, he gave her little more than a "what's up?" before continuing on his way. a girl was waiting for him at the gates outside. "charming kid," she said, rolling her eyes.

"you have no idea," she heard bruce say behind her, startling her slightly. "is that the acrobat kid you took in after his parents got killed?" "yes, but don't say that near him. he's 'all grown up,' as he's so fond of telling me." the chagrin in bruce's voice told selina that dick was probably going to be off of bruce's coat-tails soon.

she decided to ease bruce's temper. "wow, it's been so long since i've seen this place, and yet, it seems so familiar!" she said in spite of her earlier comment. bruce nodded. "if i listen hard enough its like alfred is here, talking to me," she continued with a slight laugh. bruce just looked at her for a moment. "you hear it too, huh?" he said gruffly before turning and walking away. "damnit, damnit, damnit," selina said once he disappeared down the stairs. she felt two inches tall. her attempt to maybe help bruce's disposition had only made it worse.

she sighed and continued her personal, self-led tour.

[johnnygobbs]

DISAPPOINTED! 

When I saw the thread, I thought you were presenting a new story.   

[Catwoman]

blah.

[Catwoman]

what's that mean? you don't like this one?

[johnnygobbs]

what's that mean? you don't like this one?

Of course I do.  But the more fanfic the better!  Especially from you.   

[Catwoman]

chapter 5

"chip! chip my boy! welcome, welcome!"

chip schreck's arrival at the latest (and yet another) banquet was, as usual, announced warmly and loudly. as he and maggie stepped from their limo and entered the ballroom, gotham's assembled rich and powerful erupted into applause. some of them even pumped their fists and whistled. among the crowd, there was no doubt: this was schreck territory.

"good evening and let the party begin!" chip declared.

"hey chip!" called a reporter fortunate enough to gain one of the precious few press credentials for this event. "word on the street is that wayne enterprises is handing it in this week. any thoughts?" chip opened his mouth to speak but maggie interrupted him. "we're here to have a great, fun-filled evening and raise some money for some very worthy causes, not to rehash ill feelings and open up old wounds." chip looked at her as she spoke, turned to the crowd, and shrugged. "she said it, folks, and i'm not about to defy her. unlike the rest of you, i have to go home with her tonight and i'm not to crazy about the idea of spending the night on the couch!"

of course, everyone laughed. maggie was becoming a bit of a media darling herself, through her charitable works. her pregnancy had gained attention as well, mainly among gossip reporters and tabloid writers, but it was the images of her accosting her husband-to-be after his remarks about bruce wayne before the ronald pierce benefit that had gained her the most notoriety. as a relative newcomer to gotham city, she had no quarrel with bruce and had obviously thought chip's remarks to be in very poor taste. chip, for his part, had not apologized publicly and of course had not reached out to bruce himself, but some wondered if his quip about a night on the couch was not in fact experience, very recent experience at that, doing the talking.

in any case, the eyes of all onlookers were on the gotham's crown prince and his future princess as they made their way to the head table. one head, though, turned to the door. then another. then another. whispers, gasps, and gawks filled the crowd. finally the wave of surprise reached chip and maggie. they turned and looked to the door.

bruce wayne and selina kyle stood arm-in-arm.

the entire crowd looked upon them, first curiously, then increduously. "what the hell is wayne doing here?" one asked. "no idea. who's that fat broad?" another replied. bruce and selina could obviously hear the crass remarks but kept a straight face as they waited for someone to show them to the table that always seemed to be reserved for bruce but had rarely been filled in the last several months.

of all people to do so, it was chip schreck.

"bruce! bruce wayne, how are you doing? its been a long time!" he declared amiably, walking up towards them with open arms. "indeed it has, chip," bruce replied. chip nodded, seeming to study bruce for a moment. then he looked at selina. "and who is this young lady?" he asked with a smile. "you don't recognize me, do you?" she said. chip put his hand to his chin. "hmmm. you look familiar, but i'm having a time trying to place you." "don't worry about it," she said, as she and bruce began to walk to their table. chip studied her as she walked. he pictured the face he had just seen in his own mind for a moment. his eyes widened.

"selina! selina kyle!"

the painfully reminiscent fashion in which she heard her name called took selina aback for a moment. she turned to face him. "yes, chip?" he walked towards her and took her hand in his, clutching it like an he was greeting an old friend he hadn't seen in decades. ""its been so, so long! i haven't seen you...hmmm...i don't think i've seen you since just before my father was murdered." his choice of words brought sighs of sympathy from the crowd, as was customary for mentions of max in chip's presence, especially those by chip himself. selina, however, could barely hide her anger as her blood reached boiling temperature.

"yes chip, it has been a long time," she said coldly. she then jerked her hand from his as the crowd gasped. "just not long enough."

realizing they were the center of attention, absolutely the last place he or selina wanted to be, bruce played the role of pacifist. "selina, lets sit and have a glass of wine or two and then we'll hit the craps table." the moderate volume of his voice made it obvious to her that he was speaking more to the rest of the crowd than to her, trying to deflect the attention from them so they could get on with their night.

she looked at him remorsefully, as if telling him through her eyes and her expression "i'm sorry." bruce nodded in acknowledgement. they took their seats, and the rest of the night went without incident.