A Cat Returns For More

"You made it in here after all."

The person in the room spoke up first.

It was a female's voice, a voice that Mathison recognized instantly.

'Catwoman!! What is she doing here?' Mathison thought

"I didn't think that you would also be here, Catwoman. Are you working for Kid?"

Mathison quicked hid any trace of his surprised expression from his face and replaced it with a confident, cold face; Barbara's confident, cold face.

"I don't work for – Cut the crap, Kid! I know it's you!" Selina was not having it.

Mathison mentally frowned. Why didn't she fall for it this time? She definitely wasn't watching from afar again.

"Are you going wondering how I can see through you? It's a no-brainer if you think from my perspective. The only person who would find and unlock the secrets of this place, other than its owner, would be a thief that specializes in infiltration."

"No matter who you disguised yourself as, as long as you opened the secret door alone, you must be Kaito Kid."

Speaking of which, Selina realized that she was talking to a girl, "Why, Kid, aren't you supposed to be a gentleman. You obsessed with females in quite a ~perverted~ way."

Mathison thought that this way of thinking was flawed. For instance, the actual Barbara could easily find this place and access it. Even Gordon might be able to do it though it is unlikely that he would go into and obviously secret room of Daggets on the off chance that Kid might've also found it.

In any case, it wasn't as if Mathison was trying to hide from Catwoman specifically, he was trying to be sneaky as he always is. After all, it was unlikely that the GCPD would find anything unusual here.

"So, beautiful Miss Kyle, did someone hire you to snap the Cat's Eye Emerald again this time?"

With the gig being up, Mathison instantly changed into the costume of Kaito Kid.

'I still can't tell how he does that,' Selina thought staring at him intently, trying to see how Kid does his magic trick of swift changing.

Not only is Selina as flexible as a cat, but her eyes are also almost as bright as a cat's. She could see far more clearly in the dark, allowing her to maneuver easily and much more comfortably at night.

However, even with her amazing eyesight, still couldn't how Kid managed to turn into another person with a pull and a flip of his clothes.

"Yes, the Cat's Eye Emerald is already in my pocket, you wouldn't want to snatch a cat's eye, would you?" Selina said with a slight grin.

"Miss Kyle, I think you need to-how did you put it- 'cut the crap'. I can see right through your charade. The man who hired you is Daggett, wasn't it? He wants you to stop me from stealing the jewel, am I right?"

The moment Mathison saw Selina, he figured out why Daggett wasn't here. It wasn't that he didn't care about his gems at all; it was that he had Catwoman as a secret weapon.

There were only a few famous thieves in Gotham. The strongest ones had already been caught by a certain bat and gone into retirement in Arkham, and none of the rest were really as good as Selina. Kaito Kid had been making a big name for himself lately, but he was still a newcomer at the end of the day, the kind who avoids killing. And in a city like Gotham, he wouldn't even rank (Mathison often wondered who decides these rankings) as the new criminal star of the year.

Unfortunately, what Daggett didn't know was that Kaito Kid had already tussled Catwoman.

There was no way Selina would tell Daggett about this because she dreamed of getting the "Clean Slate" so she couldn't let Daggett doubt her abilities.

Though, Mathison still questioned his logic of having a thief guard a gem. Could he have just hired some mercenaries?

*BANG*

Instead of responding to Kid, Selina decided to let the firearm in her hand do the talking.

"Dear Miss Kyle, don't you think you are overreacting just a tad? I haven't even touched your eyes yet."

Mathison easily dodged this attack with a smooth dash of his body for he had long since been on guard.

"You seem to forget that cats like to hold grudges. Last time, you stole Adam's Star, which caused me to almost get shot by my employer's men indiscriminately. It seems only fair to have you go through that too. My current employer also wants me to kill you in addition to protecting the gem, so the only thing stopping me from pulling this trigger is..."

*BANG*

She fired another shot and Mathison retreated outside the dark door, using the corner of the corridor and the chamber as cover.

"Dear Miss Kyle, the sound of gunfire will soon attract the police and I'm afraid the GCPD will have a two for one deal on wanted criminals."

Mathison said as he pulled out his poker gun and listened to Selina's breathing to determine her stance and location.

"Do you think there's only one secret door in this room? The mechanism of the secret door is tied together with the door to the collection room, when the secret door opens, those two doors into the corridor will automatically lock. It will still take quite some time for the police to get in. When the police come, you'll be nothing more than a corpse by then."

"You you think that's enough time to pump me full of holes, right?"

"Haha, you're right. For some reason, though, I really don't want to kill you."

"Humm, has my charm persuaded you? Or was it my stunningly good looks?"

"Wow, even under these circumstances, you're still making jokes. You seem to really get the flair of being a thief."

Selina didn't know what Kid is up to, with numerous cops banging on the door outside, and the only exit guarded by herself. He would be shot dead the moment he appears. The small opening of the door would make even a blind man a sharpshooter.

The only way out was to force his way into the secret room, otherwise, there were only two outcomes: to be killed by Selina or to be taken away by the police.

Mathison was also going through this same thought process though he gave himself a third option.

'I only got one shot...'

Mathison had a crazy idea, an absolutely insane idea but it was still possible.

'Not a big deal, I've got this. I've got this.'

Taking a deep breath, Mathison's narrowed his eyes and strained his ears, listening to Selina's breathing.

For a few seconds, there was total silence, punctuated only by the distant sound of police banging.

Suddenly, Mathison bolted from the hidden door into the room.

*BANG**BANG*

Mathison and Selina had fired at the same time! However, that was the only similarity between the two shots.

Though Selina had used a regular gun, Kaito had used a gun that was literally out of this world.

The gun he used was of a unique design and shot... playing cards?

But these weren't any ordinary playing cards, no, these playing cards were strong and unbelievably sharp. Mathison had, of course, made them using the info he got from the system.

Selina had been waiting for him and naturally pulled the trigger, the instant she saw Kid. Mathison on the other hand had pinpointed Selina's position and was ready as well.

When the two guns were fired, Selina's bullet zoomed across the room and hit Mathison's hat as he ducked down. Mathison's "bullet" also spat across the room at a similar speed and lodged itself into the wall right behind Selina.

A strand of hair floated down from Selina's head and she froze in place, dumbfounded, unable to believe what she had just seen!

Kaito Kid had a gun!

The card(?) that had deployed out of Kid's gun(?) had whizzed across the room, and embedded itself deeply into the wall behind her. It had even chopped off a piece of her hair as it passed her!

Taking advantage of Selina's momentary confusion, Mathison quickly closed the distance between them.

Selina immediately recovered from her shock but it was too late. Mathison reached out grabbed her by the wrist and twisted it a bit. Selina reflexively dropped the gun because of the pressure.

She wasn't done yet! Selina contorted her body to kick him while still holding on to his arm. Mathison ducked under her foot and had to do a little twist of his own so that Catwoman's momentum wouldn't send him to the ground.

He immediately pulled himself from Catwoman's grasp as she brought back down her leg and had to balance herself so SHE didn't end up on the floor.

If the split second that she needed to balance herself, Catwoman crouched low and lunged for her fallen firearm. Her first priority was arming herself again.

However, mid-lunged Kid got to the gun first and put his foot over it. He then pointed his gun at Catwoman's head who was lying face down on the ground.

"Looks I've won yet again, Miss Kyle." Mathison declared triumphantly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Mathison warned Catwoman. He had seen Catwoman straighten her leg out a bit, a tell-tale sign that she planned to sweep his legs out from under him.

"Severely, doubt you can move your leg faster than I can lodge a card into your skull."

"You wouldn't" Selina challenged.

"Are you willing to bet your life on that, Miss Kyle? You're a lot more daring than I originally thought."

At these words, Selina glanced at the earlier card that had buried itself halfway through the wall and relaxed her foot.

"Fine, you win, so what are you going to do with me?" Selina said helplessly getting up from her position slowly and raising her arms.

She is a thief, not a hero. She would not risk her life to protect some gem.

She had accepted Daggett's offer and promised to protect the jewel, but she isn't willing to put her life on the line to do so, not even for the "Clean Slate". In fact, risking her life would go against why she wanted the program in the first place.

"Good choice, Miss Kyle."

It was a relief for Mathison too, something like bullet poker cards belongs to the world of fantasy. If he hadn't practiced them in a brief simulation before, he wouldn't have dared to use them and backed out.

Also, the more pressing matter was that he had no more cards left. The gun he was pointing at Catwoman was empty. He only had that one special card with him. If Catwoman was to get her gun again it would've been game over.

'Well, it all worked out' Mathison thought, 'Now what to do about her...'