2013.06.11 - Bad Kitty... No Diamond!

Catwoman has been a non-entity for a while. She hasn't been seen or heard from for the better part of a month as either the cat burglar or as Selina, the woman good at going off the grid when she feels the need to do so. But being off the grid eventually leads to boredom which is why the thief is where she is now.

Hired by someone who had the means to contact her via underworld methods, Selina has been tasked with the fun of helping someone get in one last parting shot at his former Don, her employer a former Mafia-member-turned-stoolie who is about to be put into Witness Protection. Currently, she is working a lock with a set of picks, trying to gain entry into the large mansion the diamond she is suppose to steal without accidentally setting off alarms or somehow gaining the attention of the guards and their dogs as they circle the expansive grounds.

Three cities away, a warehouse is burning. Or it was burning. The Flash was on the scene and used his patented vortex and super speed, managed to contain the inferno with no loss of life and minimal property damage in a halfway between Richmond and Virgina Beach.

Flash finishes dousing the blaze, and looks around, making sure one last time that no one got left behind and that EMT's were making an appearance.

KRACK-BOOOM! he breaks the sound barrier as he heads north, intending on getting back to 'work' at the Gotham PD, but as he races northwards through Richmond and passing through Washington in the twinkling of an eye, leaving the afterimage of his running, a red blur across the city streets.

It never fails to amuse Catwoman when she discovers that owners of multimillion dollar houses and of priceless belongings will go through insane measures to try to protect aforementioned homes and possessions and never bother to think to upgrade their locks. This one is entirely too easy to open and soon the tumblers are shifted into place and the window is pulled towards her without so much as a squeak from a hinge to announce her success.

"How nice," Sel mouths to herself as she steps in but not before taking a small spray bottle out of a pouch. It's contents are sprayed into the air, the liquid droplets aiding in finding where thin strings of red cross the room. Yup. The Don has been cautious enough to have state-of-the-art alarms installed but whoever put them in did a sloppy job and those lasers are easy to maneuver around, over and even under.

Her prize is displayed in a case in the middle of the room, that being where her careful footfall leads her. And hopefully no one knows she is here.

As Flash passes through a Maryland's suburb, he intervenes in a gang shooting in progress. It doesn't take him long, but it's a bit of a detour for him, as he makes sure he tracks down every bullet as well as he gathers the gangsters into a circle.

Their guns are disassembled at their feet, their shoelaces are all tied together and the sounds of a squad car trail after the Red Gold Blur as he makes his way further along the coast line.

In an eye-blink he's in downtown Philadelphia. He nabs a few Philly's from a place that leaves a few sandwiches out for cops in South Philly, and horks them on the go. He even takes the time to make sure the litter gets into the proper receptacle as he continues to race north.

The case itself is elaborate, a study of beauty in glass and brass fixtures, an object that lends a slight Old World charm to go with the dark wood fixtures and the earth tones of paint and carpeting. It is almost a shame to ruin such a lovely thing but at least glass is easy and cheap to replace.

The same can not be said about the diamond within it.

Her claws extend and then are used as inconventional glass cutters, the tips more than sharp enough to rend the brittle barrier without breaking the fragile pane. "There we go," is whispered softly between clenched teeth and Sel reaches in, her hand curling about the gemstone.

In Philadelphia, Flash takes out a couple of seconds to talk to the little girl who's cat he rescued from a tree. There's a quick smile to the camera's for people to take cellphone pics and then he's gone again.

Then he's tearing up the highway, bound for Gotham. He reaches South Gotham, stops by his own apartment, checks his messages, his email and grabs a snack at his own kitchen before racing back out the door, heading north.

Ill-gotten gain in hand, Catwoman turns around and begins to pick her way back towards the window she came in through moments before although this time she doesn't get through the maze of near-invisible light as cleanly as before and her right foot cuts through one of those beams in mid-step. The mansion immediately becomes a blur of activity when the alarm sounds and the lights come up, it spurring her into action.

A metal barrier starts to slide down over the open window but Selina's just fast enough to leap under it, the gap almost too small to get through. Then it's a mad dash for the perimeter fence that she'll hopefully be able to scale in a quick fashion so she can get get away before the guards and their canine co-workers can get to where she is now.

Barry's pager, hacked to allow him into the police and security frequencies of the local security forces, realizes something's underway in the vicinity of North Gotham. He's there in under a second.

Barry is almost there in the same amount of time it took the dispatcher to notice the distress call. This is going to be one home invasion that didn't turn out as planned!

Things haven't gone as Catwoman has planned for quite some time, if one were to ask and she were to be brutally honest. It has to do with her not being on the ball thanks to having spent time off here and there. She's good, yes. One of the best. But even those at the top of the crop needs to keep in practice otherwise... they just get sloppy.

The fence is deftly climbed and then hopped down off but Catwoman doesn't stay put. She instead takes off at a run, the burglar moving just about as fast as she can. Unbeknownst to her, she's heading right in the direction a certain dispatched hero is about to arrive from. The diamond is still clutched tightly in her hand, too large to put into any of the pouches that hangs from her belt.

Flash arrives on the scene and takes it all in, the sprinting jewel thief, the jewel itself dangling from her clutching grasp, the alarms sounding on the premises. They have mere moments before the audible sirens are running.

Flash runs up to Selina and then slips beside her, grabbing the diamond and setting it to vibrate out of her grasp and just like that... Zoooop, he's behind her tossing the huge diamond up in the air on his palm. "Now, Now, Catwoman, this looks like it belongs to someone else..." he says.

Nothing throws a criminal off of their game like an ambush. Especially an ambush that is utterly, one hundred percent unexpected. Catwoman is shocked beyond measure and it shows in how she just gawks at The Flash, her eyes wide and mouth held slightly agape. "Wh.. at?" The shock soon becomes annoyance but she refuses to give him /that/ kind of pleasure, what the hero is allowed to see instead is her more playful, seductive side.

A few steps bring the leather-clad woman closer to him while a naughty grin forms, her eyes held to his from behind her goggle's lenses. "It really isn't what it looks like," she explains while reaching up to try and run a finger down The Flash's cheek. "It was taken from a bad man. He deserves to lose it."

Before Selina can get that close, the finger comes up. "Don't try it Catwoman, I know your MO. I try and keep up." He zooms the diamond back to it's starting spot and is back in less than time than it takes to describe it.

"I'll tell you what, Miss. I'll forget the "Breaking and Entering" charges if you'll forget the illegal search and seizure." He shakes his head. "If...?"

And just like that the roles shift and Catwoman goes from attempting to play the seductress to becoming a displeased kitty instead. So great is her annoyance that she grits her teeth, the grounding of which might be heard since it's fairly quiet this time of night, but whatever impulse she might have to snarkily respond is quelled when he speaks further. "Someone failed Hero 101," she says with a sigh, her shoulders slouching slightly in defeat. "The good guy is not supposed to negotiate with the villain." The tone in which she says that is level despite her wanting to let her voice reflect her mood.

When Flash comes up short she pauses and stares, a brow now arched. "If... what? What are you trying to get at...?"

lash crosses his arms over his chest. "Please, Catwoman, I believe you about the guy being a bad man, so I need you to tell me everything you know about him. It's sort of becoming my neighborhood. Spill and walk, clam up and you'll be spending a little time in the pokey. I'm in a hurry and arresting you would cut into my next engagement. So what do you say." He just stands there.

He's starting to think about food again. "Hold that..." he holds up his finger to Selina and vanishes for a moment, returning with two fully laden hotdogs from this little vendor down in Hoboken, and back again, noshing on one. "I mean, I should completely chew and all that... Whattyasay?" he asks, finishing the first hot dog.

Oh sure. Ask for the one thing she really doesn't know. Why not ask her to recite all the presidents, from current to first, backwards and all that instead. "I really don't know that much about him..." she starts to say only to then blink when a breeze kicks up and then again when the fast one leaves and returns. "Didn't even bring me one?" With how deadpanned that is asked, it's hard to tell if she's joking or seriously offended by how Flash didn't think to bring her back something to eat.

Huffing, Sel crosses her arms under her chest, her right hip cocked slightly to that side. "As I was sayin, I don't know much about him. Just that he is a Don who has put a hit on someone for turning pigeon on them."

Flash brought two for a reason, naturally and is there, offering her a hot dog. "All right. Scoot. I'm needed in Brooklyn." He checking his phone and the tweets. "Gotta get a provider upgrade too."

If or when she accepts the dog, He's gone, tearing his way straight across the Hudson. To live in the city and not have to deal with the bridges must be nice!

In Brooklyn he stops some guys trying to throw a woman into a van and then onto a townhouse fire. He's been putting out a lot of these lately.

The hot dog is accepted although there is no real appetite for it. The strange encounter with Flash and another failed attempt at thievery has her stomach in knots. Thankfully there's a little stray cat wandering up, looking like it could stand a good meal or ten. "Here you are," she whispers while crouching down, petting the fearless kitten. The hot dog is pulled from the bun and whatever is on it shaken off before it's broken up into little pieces. The kitten tucks into supper with a fierce hunger, the way the little one eats getting her to smile. "Alright. Time for me to go home. I'll come back tomorrow and see if you're around."

Promise given, she darts off, wanting to get back to her place.