A Cat's Pride

As soon as Mathison's body had stepped through the hidden door and entered the chamber; the door had closed automatically, a mechanism was activated and the two doors into the corridor were automatically unlocked.

Gordon was about to have his men blast open the lock when the door had suddenly opened by itself.

"Stand on guard everyone! I heard a gunshot from inside. Kaito Kid has likely met someone and they are currently fighting. The enemies are armed, so be careful not to get hurt."

Mathison's gun didn't use gunpowder but rather a mechanism to fire cards so Gordon didn't hear his sound.

After alarming his team, Gordon took the lead, maintaining the low ready gun position as he moved forward.

Bit by bit, he moved forward, and by the time he reached the dark door, he met with the team from the other collection room. Neither of them spotted Kid on the way.

"What going on?!"

"Shouldn't he be here?"

"Has Kid disappeared out of thin air?"

The officers were baffled by this.

"Don't be stupid," Aaron said dismissively" There must be some kind of hidden door or something around here. Fan out and look for any mechanism that could trigger it."

Meanwhile...

"Well, well, well, Kid. The police are already here. It will only take a few minutes before they find out about this place. What do you plan on doing then?"

"What do you mean? I'm already tying you up. All that's left to do is leave." Mathison hummed and tied her last knot.

He valuated his handiwork carefully for a few moments and was quite pleased. He thought that even an escape master would have trouble getting out of this rope.

"I mean, you could have done without tying me up, couldn't you? I don't see what you gain by leaving me here."

"True, true. But I don't see a reason to take you with me either," Mathison reasoned, "Aw, man. You put a hole right through my hat. You know, this would normally put you on my naughty list. Your defense isn't looking too hot right now..."

Mathison had turned around and began fussing with his hat, which had gotten shot off earlier at the start of the fight.

Catwoman's eye twitched at the teasing. "I know a secret passageway out of the room. Going through the cops would be suicide."

As she spoke, she saw Kid pick up his hat and crumpled it into his hands. After holding it for a moment, he unclasped his hand in a theatrical fashion and his hat sprung back, fulled out to its full shape and no longer with a bullet hole.

Catwoman was confused. She knew the trick that Kid had done. He had a second hat prepared in advance that was folded in a specific way and kept that way with a paper clip or something; when he crumpled the bulleted hat he swapped that with the folded one and unclasped his hands. With whatever that was keeping it folded gone, the hat instantly sprung out, making it seem that he had mended the hat.

She was confused with why he did it in such a way in the first place. She was the only audience member after all.

"Look, Mr's Kyle, I have your eye. It's quite beautiful. One might say it's as green as an emerald."

Mathison quickly searched around the chamber after fixing his appearance and promptly found his target.

"I'm afraid that I'm all tied up at work, so I can't personally commend you on your discovery. Why don't you cut me loose and I'll give you a round of applause."

"I don't think so, I feel that the feisty pirate kitten might scratch if I get too close."

"It would be a therapeutic scratch, you'd feel the effects immediately. Side effects may include bleeding but it is guaranteed to take your mind off life and put things into perspective."

"I doubt I would enjoy this prescription."

"A lot of people are into being scratched, you just might not know it yet."

"A gentleman's thief like myself would never be into that."

"This is the same thief who came in here dressed as a woman?"

"Touché."

Mathison was surprised. It wasn't often that someone could keep up with him in a battle of wits. Still wouldn't make him untie her, but he did think more favorable towards her.

That being said the police were right outside so he had to finish up fast.

There were other treasures in this secret chamber but Mathison didn't have time to check them all. From a quick scan, Mathison saw that in addition to the Cat's Eye Emerald, there was a lot of hard currency stored here, mostly gold, some antique relics, and a few miscellaneous gems.

'I don't see anything that would warrant another visit,' Mathison thought 'If I see anything on the news, I would just send another letter. I can't take anything other than the Cat's Eye tonight after all.'

"This emerald doesn't really match the necklace, though," Mathison said, turning back to Catwoman as he carefully removed the two, "It's a pity, by combining these two masterpieces, neither of them was allowed to shine."

"Careful there, you almost sounded like you knew what you were talking about."

"I'll have you know that I know quite a lot about jewelry. I could buy the perfect wedding gift if I wanted to.'

"Speaking of gifts, didn't you say that you would give the person who found you first, ' a gift of a lifetime '? I clearly found you first, so what do I win? You didn't forget did you?"

Mathison totally forgot but he didn't let it show on his face.

"Are you sure, what about your pride as a thief?" Mathison tried to deflect.

Selina shrugged or at least she did a shrug-like movement. It was hard to tell when she was restricted by ropes.

For the entire time, she had been trying to undo the ropes. She was considered an expert on escaping ropes but even she admitted it would take her a while to break through the knot that Kid had tied.

With being stuck for the foreseeable future, she had resigned herself to keeping Kid's attention on her till she broke through.

Catwoman was willing to admit that Kid was as good as a thief as she was. Despite what she said earlier, she wouldn't waste time on petty grudges. If she encountered Kid in the future she would just avoid him.

What about Gotham's number one thief spot? She didn't care about it. She didn't even want to be a thief anymore, let alone number one.

Serena had just barely remembered Mathison's declaration from earlier. She didn't want whatever stupid gift he had planned for a screaming fangirl. She just wanted him to untie her before the police arrive and arrest her.

"If you're sure about this then…" Mathison picked up on her body language

"Unfortunately, I didn't think anyone would actually be able to spot me so I don't have anything on me but this Cat's Eye Emerald and I can't give that to you. The rest of the stuff here is Mr.Daggett's so I can't give that away..."

"Oh! I know!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

Suddenly, he leaned towards Catwoman...