Cat-Tales by Chris Dee - Dark Knight Stories that tell the real story behind the DC Comics fiction

<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#FFFFFF" link="#B164FF" vlink="#B164FF" alink="#B164FF" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0" bottommargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <p> <img border="0" src="images/dark-knight-stories-july-20-2012.jpg" width="630" height="100" alt="dark knight stories"></p> <h1>Dark Knight Stories by <a rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/106540262932566550968">Chris Dee</a></h1> <blockquote> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Batman was uncertain what to make of this new development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He was unsure exactly when Selina had stopped stealing, but he was aware that Catwoman continued to prowl the neighborhoods she considered her territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>The one time he’d asked what that prowling consisted of, he was treated to a Discovery Channel summary of cat behavior in the wild:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>How little time a leopard or jaguar spends hunting, compared to the constant surveying of their territory to note who else has passed through and what is going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He didn’t press the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>She was Catwoman, it’s what he loved about her, and Catwoman prowled the night.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">When he first noticed her that night—that once-familiar movement, darkly purple and so enticingly round and graceful, on a distant roof—he merely watched for a moment, a pleasant tickle tugging the corner of his lip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>This was the first time they had run into each other this way since their personal circumstances changed so radically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>Bruce reflected on that for a moment, calculating the square footage of the city and the relative size of “her territories” and his patrol routes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>It wasn’t really surprising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>In a way, he was surprised they hadn’t crossed paths before now… then he thought no more about it.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Until an hour later when he saw her again—or thought he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He realized at once that was too much of a coincidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He must have imagined it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>She was still on his mind from the earlier sighting, causing him to glimpse a pattern of color and movement where it didn’t exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">When it happened a third time, he refused to dismiss it so easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He was Batman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He trusted his senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span><i>This</i> is what he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He was Batman, he patrolled his city, and the very act of patrolling meant being aware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He trusted his observations and he trusted his instincts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“Lenses engage,” he barked, focusing his attention on the spot where he thought he saw movement—where he <i>had</i> seen dark, purple, round cat-movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>He scrutinized the spot as the lenses clicked into place, gazing with superhuman concentration as if the cowl systems required his will to function.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>“Infrared engage…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>magnify… magnify more.”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">He waited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Waited.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Waited.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">Then he saw it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>Her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">With lightning speed, he fired a line and swung into intercept position.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“What do you think you’re doing?” he began before his boots hit the rooftop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>It was unlikely she heard more than the last word, but he didn’t care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>She’d know the tone well enough, and the question was obvious under the circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>But she didn’t answer fast enough so he repeated, “I <i>said</i> what do you think you’re doing?”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">She looked amused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>Impossible woman.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“Busted, eh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>Well, the junior bats never noticed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>But then you were always better.”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“Catwo— Selina,” he wondered why his voice sounded so tired suddenly, “What in god’s name are you doing?”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">She looked at him a long moment, an unfathomable look in her eye.</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“I would have thought…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>—it was obvious. Something she’d said often over the years when it <i>had </i>been obvious. Why else would someone be opening Tiffany’s safe at three in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>How many times had he heard it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>“I would have thought it was obvious, Stud.”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">“…it was obvious, Bruce.”</font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">That was then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span>This was now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana" size="2">More in Cat-Tales #36: <a href="ct/36-wfredcape-00.htm">World's Finest: Red Cape, Big City</a></font></p> </blockquote> <p><a href="files/CT_Main.htm">Cat-Tales</a> is a series of Dark Knight stories set in the real Gotham City, where the Dark Knight stories told in comic books are understood to be <i>the exaggerations, distortions, and lies of a sensationalist tabloid called The Gotham Post, otherwise known as DC Comics.</i></p> <p><i>Cat-Tales tells the truth behind that fiction, revealing characters that are more complex and fully-human than anyone thought possible.  Heart-stopping romance, side-splitting humor, and poignantly understated tragedy, it’s all here: the man inside the Bat, the woman within the Cat, the life between the panels, the truth behind the masks.</i> </p> <p><a href="files/reviews.htm">Reviews</a> of these Dark Knight Stories.   </p> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="files/CT_Main.htm">Cat-Tales</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="files/spinoffs.htm">Spinoffs</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="http://fanart.catwoman-cattales.com/">Catwoman Art Gallery</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"> </td> <td align="center" width="14%"> </td> <td align="center" width="14%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="about.htm">About</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="contact.htm">Contact Us</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="privacy.htm">Privacy Policy</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="disclaimer.htm">Disclaimer</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="sitemap.htm">Sitemap</a></font></td> <td align="center" width="14%"><font face="Verdana" size="1"> <a href="files/help1.htm">Help</a></font></td> </tr> </table> </body>