Scarlet Starlight | By : DarthMeow504 Category: zMisplaced Stories [ADMIN use only] > Spiderman Views: 35790 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3 |
Disclaimer: This is a work of non-profit fanfiction. The Marvel Universe, the DC Universe, the Image Universe, and all characters and elements thereof are copyright their respective companies. Additional disclaimers within. |
[Author's Note: Wonder Woman and related characters are copyright DC. Batman characters are also copyright DC. Thundercats characters and story elements are copyright Rankin-Bass.]
Chapter 7: Cat Burglary
Felicia was bored. Jessica and Carol were somewhere in southern California, taking care of some business and spending quality time with their friends in the spin-off group of former X-Men that had formed during the Superhuman Civil War, so they weren't available for fun. Peter and MJ / Sonja, or "Red" as Felicia had begun calling the combined pair, were spending some much-needed alone time getting their relationship back on track, taking basically a second honeymoon to celebrate and kickstart their newly-resumed life together. No one, not even Felicia --no, especially not Felicia-- had been allowed to know where Thor had sent them on their vacation, so she couldn't pop in on them even if she tried. Jessica had confirmed that Peter was still officially an Avenger, and in fact she'd gotten him an Initiative license so that he and Sonja could patrol New York together with the full authorization of law behind them, so Felicia knew she'd be seeing them again soon. But for now it was just her and Tigra remaining of their play-group, and that had led to Felicia's current state of bored and restless.
And with felines, especially ones like Felicia and Tigra, boredom led to mischief, and mischief led to trouble.
It had started with them talking about, and then attempting to, bring their teammate Barbara Gordon into the sexual side of their friendship. The former Batgirl turned Hellcat was wise to feline ways, and knew well that the best way to dissuade a cat from something they wanted was to distract them with something else. Thus, the subject came up of expanding their little feline-themed group of heroines, and they then became engrossed in the process of going through files looking for good candidates. Unfortunately the pickings seemed rather slim, there weren't a whole lot of feline themed superhumans to begin with and once you subtracted the villains and the ones they already had as members the numbers got fewer still. After close to an hour of searching, the best they could come up with as prospects were two rather unlikely candidates. One was the new White Tiger, but she was already working with Colleen and Misty's "Heroes for Hire" group and was pretty much happy there. She wasn't even sure about sticking to the White Tiger identity, and certainly wasn't attached to the gimmick of felinity enough to want to join a group based around it. That left Selina Kyle, the cat burglar turned part time vigilante from Barbara's hometown of Gotham City known as the Catwoman. At first Felicia was resistant, saying the cat burglar gone good thing was her shtick, but Barbara was insistent that she was unique enough to bring something different to the group and assured her and Tigra both that she was very good at what she did. When they remained skeptical, Barbara laid out the plan for getting the Catwoman's attention, and then showed them pictures of the woman in costume.
Perhaps it was the woman's clear sex appeal, perhaps it was the prospect of playing a dangerous game to lure her into a meeting, most likely it was both. But regardless, as skeptical as they both were that it would work out they agreed to do it if for no other reason than simply to have something interesting to do.
-----
Many miles away from the feline trio's starting point or their destination, a dangerous game of a different sort was being played in the nation's capital by a strawberry blonde woman with the look and build of a female wrestler. Unfortunately, as tough as she looked she was quite a bit tougher still in action, and people ran in panic from her as she threw cars, did mass property damage, and in general went on a rampage. There were no fatalities known as yet, and the injury toll was minimal as she seemed to be seeking to draw attention to herself by smashing things up and seeking to frighten people rather than directly hurt them, but with the kind of damage she was doing and the force being unleashed, it was only a matter of time before something bad happened. She'd proven to be impervious to the small arms fire that police and SWAT units had brought to bear, and soon after engagement they too were forced to flee from the rampaging powerhouse of a woman that called herself Titania.
She made sure everyone knew who she was, too, shouting out her name and a challenge to an enemy, calling her out to meet her in battle.
"SHE-HULK! Come and FIGHT ME, you COWARD!" and variations on that theme, especially whenever a camera was on her. In other words, not only did she look like a wrestler, she acted like one as well. If there weren't real lives at risk and real property damage being done, it could pass as a promotional spot for an upcoming pay-per-view.
Unfortunately it was all too real, and the She-Hulk was nowhere in sight to meet her challenge. However, there were others in the area who could respond, and regardless of Titania's preferences they were ready and willing to put an end to her threats in the place of the absent green heroine. It might not be the fight she wanted, but a fight Titania was certainly going to get.
-----
The plan seemed simple enough. Go to Gotham, wait for nightfall, and steal an artifact called the Black Bast from the local museum. Selina was known to have a particular fondness for that unique piece, which was a spectacular sitting cat statuette carved from pure black onyx and adorned with emerald eyes and gold trim pieces and inlays and a "collar" of gold with numerous small semiprecious stones inset around a large central amethyst. It was believed to originate in ancient Egypt, though it's precise history wasn't fully known. It was, however, more than valuable enough to be considered a priceless museum piece, and it was also literally priceless as it was too famous and unique to be able to sell. Only a certain sort of collector would have a desire for such a thing and the means to acquire it, making it almost impossible to monetize. That didn't matter to Selina Kyle, the Catwoman. Her relationship to the piece dated back years, almost to the very beginnings of her career as a thief. Over those years, she'd stolen it countless times, only for it to find it's way back where it came from sooner or later. Often, she had arranged to see it returned or even physically returned it herself, so that she might be able to steal it again. When she was new, she'd wished so long and so hard for it, and had worked so hard to get it, that when she finally did she felt the emptiness of a conquest completed. Thus, she'd started the little game she still played, stealing it, keeping it for a while, and then giving it back to do it all over again.
Someone else stealing "her" Bast statue would certainly get her attention.
-----
Mary McPherran, the superhuman criminal known as Titania, was getting seriously pissed off. She'd been at this for seemed like an hour, and that green bitch hadn't shown up yet. She'd wrecked at least a dozen cars and a good couple blocks, and chased off some cops who thought shooting at her was somehow a good idea, but still no She-Hulk. She was sure the word was out, hell she'd shouted into enough news cameras by now. Maybe she thought if she just left her alone, she'd wear herself out smashing cars and buildings and go home? Ha, she'd show her different real quick. If she wouldn't come out to being called out, maybe a stronger threat would do the job.
Spotting one of those news crews, she headed towards one. They acted like newsies always did, cowering away but not up and running, and keeping the cameras rolling until the last minute. She swore, one of the job qualifications must be having a deathwish. Still, it worked for what she wanted to do. She got within speaking distance, and stpped, holding up her hands in a non-threatening way.
"Hey, relax, I ain't gonna hurt ya. You want an interview, I'll give ya one." One you'll never forget, she thought...
And sure enough, the dumb bitch took the bait. Skinny little pretty thing, like all the cheerleader types that had made her life hell growing up. She wanted to break her in half and spit in her twitching little model face on the ground. She wasn't a cold-blood killer, though, but that wishful thought of what she could do to a bitch like her made the next part, of acting like she'd do it, easier.
She grabbed the pretty little thing as soon as she got close, and pulled her into the camera shot, and shouted. "HEY, She-Bitch! You had BETTER show up now or I'm gonna break this pretty little barbie doll twat like the toothpick she is! You hear me?! Make it quick, I'm runnin' outta patience! Show up and fight me or else the news cunt gets it!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Let her go, she's done nothing to you."
Mary spun at the sound of the new voice, hoping against hope it was that green bitch finally come to get what she deserved. Instead, she saw someone entirely new to her. Black and silver outfit, kinda like a Xena dress with silver armor pieces, and a little short sword on her side. Black hair, blue eyes, really really pretty, and big too, bitch clearly worked out and was probably tall as her too. What got her though was the silver tiara, which just made her laugh. Who the hell did this chick think she is?
"Who the hell are you, lady? You look like a cross between Xena and Sailor fuckin' Moon."
The woman didn't seem affected by her harsh words, responding calmly. "Perhaps that's appropriate, as both are based on me to some degree. I am Diana."
Mary blinked. "Diana? The hell kinda name is that? Are ya here to fight me or are ya inviting me out for coffee?"
The woman remained infuriatingly calm, and gave a slight smile. "I can, if you like. You haven't hurt anyone yet, your crimes are still minor. Let the woman go, and we can go talk about what's bothering you."
Mary was incredulous. What the hell was this chick's deal? Still, she tossed the news twat back into her little crew, knocking down some of them and making Mary grin. She faced down with the new bitch on the scene, and took a fighting stance. "Talk? What, is this Oprah? Don't waste my time. I'm itchin' for a fight, so give me one or get outta my way."
The Xena wannabe neither attacked ner nor took off, annoying Mary that much more as she just stood there all calm and arrogant. Hell, back to threatening the newsies. Maybe that would get her some results.
This time they responded in appropriate fear, cowering and trying in vain to pull back but she had them pinned between her and their van. One of them said something about that being "the Wonder Woman" and that she was in trouble. She told him that she didn't care if she was the Wonder Bread delivery man, and raised her fist to smash his stupid little fat face in, but she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"It doesn't have to be this way, sister, le--UHNNN!"
Mary spun with a full force punch that connected satisfyingly with the jaw of the annoying woman, and though her head didn't go squish she still flew like a home run smash, actually going through the wall of a storefront with a satisfying sound of impact and the dust and debris of destruction. Man, she loved this gig some days. The fact that she'd gone through a wall instead of going smush proved she was a super of some sort, but she still didn't know who the hell she was. That had been happening a lot lately, new supers showing up out of the damned woodwork. The crowds and the media all acted as if they knew exactly who they were, but Mary had never seen them before. It was confusing. Still, this one can't have been as good as the news nerd hoped, and she turned back to finish the job of smashing his face when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"That will be enough of that."
Titania growled, and spun with another punch, intent on finishing her this time. It wouldn't be that easy a second time, as Diana was ready for her and not playing nice anymore. She caught her fist, and spun her into an over the shoulder throw with strength that clearly rivaled her own. It was her turn to careen through walls and fall amid the dust and debris of destruction.
Diana, the Wonder Woman floated up from the ground, prepared to go and investigate to see if the madwoman was down for the count or not. She doubted it, given the force of that punch, and she wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. She could throw a punch, but beyond that had displayed little skill. It was almost depressing, how a woman with her obvious physical gifts could so neglect her training. Didn't these people have any pride in themselves?
She was proven correct when the self-professed "Titania" burst through the wall she'd been propelled through with a roar of rage and some vague threat or another that she was too angry to articulate clearly. She ran at her in a blind bull rush, and Diana took her ready stance, face set and grim as she waited for the proper moment to move and strike.
With precise, split second timing and perfect accuracy, her blade sang from it's sheath and sliced the air in a flashing arc, intercepting the woman at the perfect point of apex and traveling through it's arc as the woman stumbled to a halt on the other side of her. Diana calmly wiped the blade clean as it slid back into it's sheath, and turned to face her enemy who was only now processing what had happened.
"The hell...?" she said, trying to hold her outfit together along the horizontal slice line she had inflicted. "First you ask me out, then you try to strip me? You wanna see my tits that bad, 'sister', you haveta ask nice. Otherwise, yer wastin' your time, you can't cut me. I'm too tough for your little pig-sticker."
Diana sighed, as this woman depressingly displayed that she lacked the mind or the personality to match her admittedly impressive body, and simply pointed out to her. "Look again... I can and did cut you, and the only reason it wasn't deeper is that I pulled my strike to slide across your belly instead of biting deeply and spilling your bowels onto the ground. Call it a warning."
Titania blinked, and looked down as she pulled her arm away, indeed coated in blood. She wasn't bleeding badly, but she was bleeding. Bitch had cut her! She'd really cut her! It had been so long since anything had, and it gave her a thrill of fear run up her spine. Maybe she could do exactly what she said. As far as she knew it was her skin that was impregnable, not her insides, and she'd cut straight through her skin. Most heroes wouldn't carry through on a threat like that, but most of them didn't carry swords either. Xena didn't hold back about cutting her enemies to bloody ribbons, maybe this chick didn't either. It wasn't worth taking the chance to get close to her again.
There were other ways she could attack though, and stay out of the range of that short little blade. She ripped a service mailbox out of the ground, good heavy steel a good several hundred pounds worth, but it was like cardboard to her and she could throw it as easily as she had the cars earlier. It would make an excellent projectile. She looked forward to seeing the smirk wiped off the woman's pretty face as the heavy blue bolted steel struck her, and she even thought of a witty line as she reared back to throw.
"Special delivery, bitch!"
It never reached it's target. In fact, she wasn't even able to finish her throwing motion before it was ripped from her hands to bounce and skid to a halt behind her. She looked at it in shock, and saw a huge silver arrow the size of a javelin punched straight through the heavy steel as if it were paper mache. Turning back, she saw her foe stood a few inches above the ground, floating there still in shooting pose, a gleaming silver bow in her hands that seemed to have come from nowhere. To her dismay, she found herself staring down the point of another one of those silver arrows, the woman's eyes narrowed in deadly aim down the gleaming shaft.
Mary wasn't the sharpest hammer in the box, but she wasn't stupid. If that arrow had punched through heavy steel, and the sword that went with the set had cut her so easily, she had no confidence that arrow couldn't punch through her head or chest just as easily. She'd already warned her about a kill strike, and Mary wasn't going to take the chance. Getting knocked around was one thing, getting cut to chunks or speared through wasn't her idea of a good time at all. Still, she tried to look brave.
"You're bluffing! Heroes don't kill." She hoped like hell she was right.
Diana didn't waver. "You're right, I won't kill you. I don't have to. The Arrows of Artemis never miss, and I can very easily pin your arm to the wall and come up on you and hamstring you before you can pull yourself free. You won't die, but you also won't be going anywhere for the year or more of surgery and physical therapy it takes to fully recover from an injury like that. You can't escape to rampage again when you can't walk."
"Ha! You don't scare me!" she shouted out as she grabbed and ripped a lamppost from the street and brandished it like a weapon. This time it was she that was bluffing, though, as she threw it at the woman with all her strength and then turned to run. To hell with this, she was getting the hell out of there. She only hoped that the thrown lamppost would buy her enough time to get away.
Diana sighed, and allowed the Moonshield she had manifested on her left arm, the gift of Athena on her right vambrace, to return to whence it had been summoned from to knock away the thrown streetlight. As she summed the Moonbow once more from her right --the gift of Artemis herself-- she lined up her shot as the woman's figure retreated into the distance. She hated to shoot in the back, but this was no longer a fight, it was a hunt. And the virgin Goddess of Hunt who had gifted her bow knew well how to shoot down fleeing prey. She could do this, pin her down without killing her. Her timing and aim need be perfect, but she had no doubt in her abilities.
Instead, she growled in frustration as she was interrupted by a priority call on her JLA communicator. Gods damn it!
She allowed her bow to fade back into moonmist and answered the call instead of shooting her down. The woman was badly spooked, with luck she wouldn't make more trouble anytime soon. Still, it had bothered her that she didn't know who she was, nor had the villainess recognized her. It had been like that a lot ever since the Second Crisis, where her world, or parts of it at least, had been merged with this one in a last-ditch effort to save it after they'd stopped Alexander Luthor's mad plan to make a perfect world by merging together Earths from across the multiverse, picking the parts he wanted to keep and cruelly discarding the rest. Untold billions had died or been rendered nonexistant before they'd stopped him. Her world had taken so much damage in the chaos and war that had been unleashed, it seemed like there wasn't much left to save. And when they finally stopped Luthor's mad machine, yet another Earth had already been summoned, ready for yet another process of selective merging. Once the safeguards that protected the process faded, the two planets in close proximity would tear one another apart. One of them had to go.
In the end, it was her world that was chosen to end. It was so damaged, barely more than an unstable patchwork of bits and pieces from numerous similar realities... there was no choice but to salvage all they could by merging it with the pristine Earth that was in the second partition of the process. Like so many others, it was there simply to have things that Alexander wanted torn from it, fused onto their world and then discarded like all the rest, but that hadn't happened yet when they stopped him. It was whole and undamaged, and it was the best hope of survival for all those who had survived the war to that point. So, like an ark of salvation, they took refuge on it and said goodbye to the planet they had known all their lives.
Since then, life had gotten significantly more confusing for everyone involved. They had been integrated into their new world's history to at least some degree, so to the average person they had always been there and places like Gotham and Metropolis and Keystone and Star had always been on the maps they knew. But those who had fought in the Crisis still had their old memories, and the rest of the superhuman population seemed to be less effected by the imposition of the new history as well. Thus, neither world's superhumans were truly known to one another, and they'd had to learn about one another as they went. Worse, some of their own histories had been altered, some a result of the machinations of Luthor seeking and finding the "best" versions of heroes and villains he wanted, others a result of being woven into this world and universe's timeline and basic structure. None of them could be sure what their old memories had fully been nor what had been changed from what was before the Crisis had begun. It had been that way in the first Crisis as well, with heroes and villains changed wholesale to go along with the new timeline on the new Earth that had emerged when all was said and done. They had some records of what was in each case, but they were incomplete and more importantly, they hadn't lived those memories anymore. In some ways it was the worst of both worlds, what with being modified to some degree and yet not enough to be truly at home on this new world. A full integration would have been crueler to the people they'd been, but it would be easier to deal with now. Instead, they were an awkward fusion of both.
This remembrance and contemplation of the recent past had taken but moments as the thoughts and memories raced through her mind, but it was long enough to annoy Hawkman, the voice on the other end of the communicator as he repeated himself.
"Diana, are you there? Respond!"
She sighed. "Diana here. What's the situation?"
"We have multiple sightings of the Cheetah in your area. I'm en route, been on her trail but unable to catch up with her. Hopefully between the two of us we can track her down."
Diana confirmed and closed the channel. The Cheetah... well at least that was something familiar.
-----
Gotham City was supposedly "terra nullius" to other heroes, a no-man's-land declared by the area's legally recognized "urban defender" who had demanded non-interference by outsiders inside his jurisdiction. The Gotham Urban Defender, or GUD program, predated the Superhuman Registration Act and it's attendant programs by nearly a decade, having been adopted by the city council at the insistence of it's Police Commissioner and provided powers legally similar to those of a Sheriff. He could make legal arrests, conduct investigations, use necessary force, and even deputize others to act beneath him, and he could claim legal jurisdiction to keep outside heroes out. Which would quite the problem if they planned to ask permission, or to get caught. Felicia and Barbara planned to do nothing of the sort.
The plan was rather simple, actually. Tigra would check out a stealth Quinjet, drop them into position, and Felicia would pull off the robbery while Barbara kept watch and handled the security systems. Afterwards, Tigra would extract them and they'd fly the hell out of there. Then, Barbara would arrange for Selina to be informed of the whereabouts of her favorite onyx goodie, and the rest would take care of itself. It was virtually foolproof.
It had gone without a hitch, too, right until the point that HE had shown up.
-----
It had taken the rest of the day and into the night to finally catch up with the Cheetah. Or, at least, the evening, as Titania's attack had taken place in the late afternoon, but it had still been daylight at the time. The sun was long gone and the moon ruled the darkened sky some hours later, when they finally engaged their quarry. Merely trying to chase her down had proven impossible, she was too fast and was long gone from a place by the time they got there in her wake. With a little detective work, though, they'd figured out what she was after and were able to find it before she was.
That had brought them to the Smithsonian, where an artifact called the "Sword of Oracles" was on display. There was no telling why the Cheetah wanted it, and it was quite the bizarre artifact. Recovered from a dig in Egypt, the thing consisted of a hollowed and taxidermied lion's paw gripping a disc in it's claws of some form of red and black marble-like material that depicted a snake figure, with a dagger with a slit-pupiled eye gem embedded in the hilt stabbed through the disc and into a chunk of black stone. A priceless artifact to be sure and certainly a unique if deeply bizarre art piece, but the practical use of such a thing eluded Diana. She could sense no magic in it, nor did it seem functional as an actual weapon. Magic could at times be hidden, though, and sometimes things could have functions in spells without being enchanted in and of themselves. One thing was certain, Cheetah was an archeologist in her mortal identity of Barbara Minerva, and so it was entirely likely that she knew far more about the object than Diana did. Given how dangerous she was, whatever use she had for it was something Diana would just as soon see never come to fruition.
And so, Diana was posted inside while Hawkman was hidden and standing by in the rafters, waiting to swoop down on Minerva when she showed up. From interviewing the people who had encountered the Cheetah, she didn't know where the item was as she was searching places and interrogating people about it, but it was only a matter of time before she found it here and they would be ready for her.
It was nearly midnight, the moon high in the sky and the museum long closed when their quarry finally presented herself. Suddenly, and without warning the woman blurred up to the display case in a golden streak, and simply shattered the glass. She ran almost like the Flash, Diana realized with a gasp, that had never been one of her powers before despite her namesake. She looked different, too, long spotted blonde hair and facial markings, and a leotard outfit with leather boots and a red circular insignia on her chest with a roaring cat's head in black. She just didn't look like the Minerva Cheetah that Diana knew, though the woman's form had fluctuated before. When she'd first begun fighting her, she barely had any feline aspects at all, simply enhanced abilities and a spotted costume, and later a fully catwoman form complete with spots, fur, claws, a tail, and an attitude to match the set. This seemed like somewhere between the two, less extreme cat features but not fully human either. Diana didn't get it, but she could sort out the details later. For now, it was only important they stop her.
Diana moved from her hidden position to behind her, between her and the exit, floating along the ground in order to make no sound and making sure the air conditioning was blowing against her and not at her back. As she got into position, and summoned her bow, the Cheetah put her left hand into the hollowed lion's paw, and gripped the dagger's hilt in her right hand and pulled it free. This shocked Diana, Minerva was an archeologist, how could she destroy an artifact that way??? It had been dug from the desert that way, surely it was meant to be as it was? Regardless, the Cheetah only seemed to want the dagger and lion's paw, not the rest of it, and Diana had no intention of letting her get away with either.
She had not yet noticed Diana, concerned with some strange action involving putting the dagger to her forehead and staring through it into the moon, perhaps she was examining it somehow? Maybe the gemstone in the center was a map to something else? Again, she could sort the details later. It was time to put this to an end.
"There are serious consequences for destroying art, Cheetah. Put it back how it was and surrender, and we'll see about reducing your charges if you haven't done too much damage."
The Cheetah whirled with a gasp, then took a defensive stance, brandishing the dagger and clawed paw. "Stand aside... I mean to leave this place, don't make me harm you."
Diana was stunned. Diana and the Cheetah had been enemies for years, and now not only did she look different she was acting as if she didn't recognize her at all. Had whatever happened to her that changed her appearance affected her memory as well, or could this somehow be a different Cheetah entirely? Another mystery to be sorted out after they'd apprehended her.
"You know I can't do that... put back what you've stolen and surrender. Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be." That's it, Diana thought, keep her talking. Hawkman would surely be in position any moment now and they could make this easy.
Sure enough, she saw the shadow of his wings, swooping down in a perfect dive, swift and silent. With her attention locked on Diana, she'd never see it coming.
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