An Extremely Bad Idea (Duela)

[Catwoman]

While certain members of Gotham’s nightlife might have butlers, minions or drugged slaves around to relieve them of the necessity, Selina felt that she had rather more of a common touch. She liked to do her shopping herself. Well, or for Holly to do it, but they were sharing a flat for the moment so they shared the responsibility for certain things. Shopping was one of them, one that Selina liked to appropriate for herself. For one thing, it let her make sure that Holly was not being thrifty – it was a good habit to form, she supposed, but an unnecessary one when she was perfectly capable of buying any food either of them wanted. More importantly, it also let her keep an eye on her ‘turf’, the East End that she regarded as her own.

To a degree, Holly and her little kids’ network kept her informed about the goings-on there. But there was no substitute for the personal touch and Selina was just as interested in seeing it with her own eyes. She could pick up so much just by seeing how the working girls were acting or by listening to the chatting customers in the stores. True, she did not have to buy there, but that was her supporting the local shops and that was important too. While she was not about to buy from certain shops, as they were too expensive, there was a lot to be said for doing her part to keep the economy running in her part of town.

That did not mean she was about to turn philanthropist in quite the same way as darling Bruce and his attempts to solve Gotham’s problems with a mixture of throwing money at them and throwing his fists at them. No. Selina had far more style than that. She did her bit for the community in many, many ways though and, aside from the need to know what was going on, she liked to remind herself of how much better things were since she had started helping.

Oh, so she liked to preen a little. She had earned it.

She had earned it many times over, which is why the current situation was frankly a tiny bit embarrassing.

Selina sighed, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the dumpster with her hands resting on the edge, before looking back to the thug with the gun again. Her shopping bags rested by the side, mostly knocked over by the idiot, the food scattered across the ground. But the dark-haired woman was certainly looking more unimpressed than scared, to his confusion. It was why the attempted robbery hadn’t progressed terribly far, because the big man was… well, basically not used to victims who looked like they were bored instead of terrified. Particularly those which he had managed to drag into an alleyway, with no real chance for help. In the East End, few people were willing to interfere, to take another’s problem upon themselves. As for the cops? Hah, don’t make her laugh.

Of course, dressed in tight jeans and an aquamarine blouse, Selina looked like just another woman, if a stunning beautiful one. That was why he had picked her.

But – to be honest – he had already lost. All she was doing now was killing time, waiting for a distraction, then he was going to see why it was a monumentally unwise idea to mug Selina Kyle.

TAG: Duela

[Duela Dent]

Despite her hesitance in returning to Gotham, Duela had settled in quite well, all things considered, and wasn't especially keen on going back to San Francisco in a hurry. If she was being perfectly frank, things seemed to be slightly in disarray over there, especially if brats like that new Robin were allowed to just walk on in and try to take charge in the most annoying and aggressive of ways; People like that, Duela really didn't have time for, if she was being honest. It was hardly surprising really, given what she'd been through as of late, that she didn't particularly enjoy someone who was supposed to be an ally essentially throwing his weight around and trying to prove he was better than Red Robin; And despite the fact he'd given - or attempted to give - Cassie a run for her money, Duela didn't think a ten year old - or however old he was - was ever going to measure up to the kind of role Red Robin had generated.

That was maaaaaaybe her being a little bit selfish and liking Red Robin a bit because of his history with Steph, but he did also have the best rep since the first Robin - now Nightwing, from what Duela understood. That Damian had also indulged in a friendly bout of victim-blaming when it came to her and her scars hadn't helped the new Robin's prospects in her eyes; If he was trying to follow what she knew Batman's ideas were, at times, then the kid at least needed to understand that Batman - again, from Duela's experience - wasn't an inherently horrible or egotistical person. Authoritive, intimidating, sure. But nasty to people - those who didn't deserve it? She'd never had to take anything she didn't deserve off of Batman - even the time he'd hung her off a roof was more making sure she knew how things operated in Gotham annnnnnnd.. From what she could tell, making sure she wasn't another Harley Quinn or whatever.

Butttttttt - haha, 'butt' - Duela was - as ever, right - getting well off the beaten path her. She'd arranged to meet her most favouritest Bat-Person later on, Steph apparently having College - was it college, or university? - classes to attend, much to Duela's surprise; She didn't know how the Bat-Family managed such things, given she'd slept until about two in the afternoon the first time she'd gone out on a nighttime patrol, although part of her mused that Steph didn't entirely have a grasp on it either, given the grumbling and rushed waffle-gobbling they'd had this morning. It was cute, even if Duela hadn't decided how best to approach the fact that she was very much head over heels for the blonde, yet. But, again - getting off the beaten path - Duela had spent the day alone. Looking to maybe surprise her new favouritest blonde bud with a handmade pizza (secret skills, Duela has them), she'd looked into some of Gotham's deli's and the like, looking for decent places that did meat and spices and stuff.

Said place just so happened to be in the East End, which had that bit of a rep to it, but it was watched over by Catwoman - thoughts of whom Duela pushed aside with embarrassment - but generally, it had been a successful shopping trip. Toting a bag filled with ingredients, the scar-faced girl was about to catch a cab home after taking a shortcut

Said shortcut turned out to have a guy threatening an unusually-bored-looking pretty woman in it. Duela couldn't quite figure that one out, but before she could really let her brain act, her Mary Janes were already hitting the cobbles as she broke into a run toward the thug with a gun, a loud yell of "HEY!!" escaping her disfigured lips that suddenly brought said gun to bear on her, instead.

Oh, poop...

[Catwoman]

The thug, Selina knew, wasn’t a martial artist. Alright, that was obvious, because he was a thug in Gotham and the chances of any of those knowing martial arts was almost non-existent. Not all that many Rogues did either, and she had not needed to look at this one long enough to recognise that he wasn’t the type to put on white jammies and bow to anyone. No, it was obvious. It was all the more obvious because he had put himself in such a bad position or, more to the point, he had let her put herself in such an excellent position. If he’d had any idea just what she was planning to do to him with those magnificent legs he was gawking at… well, it just went to show why Batman kept winning, if this was the calibre of his opposition.

Selina Kyle had killer legs, in every sense of the word. And oh did she know it.

She just needed that distraction and it was getting to the stage when she was thinking of providing her own. The fool was certainly eyeing her breasts enough, so she could just undo a button or two on her blouse, let him catch an eyeful and work with that. It would require moving her hands, but she was currently short on other weapons besides her wit and her body and even she was not going to be able to convince a drunk idiot of this magnitude to just let her go. Well, perhaps she could, but Selina was not fool enough to try. He was twitchy, his finger on the trigger, and all it would take was one mistake and she would have a bullet in her. Admittedly, his aim was looking a little doubtful, but all he needed at this point was to be lucky once.

She let her leisurely grin widen a touch. Are you feeling lucky, punk? It was a terrible little joke, but it passed the time.

A shout came from the other end of the alley and she heard the familiar sound of Mary Janes on the concrete, running towards them. But Selina didn’t turn, didn’t take her focus off the gunman because, while she had her distraction, it was not in a form that she liked. Ideally, she had been hoping for one of the Batboys or perhaps a dealer – someone she wouldn’t have to protect and wouldn’t feel terribly guilty over if they were shot. A girl, apparently a civilian girl, was something else and Selina’s mama cat instincts kicked in instantly.

”Don’t.” She hissed dangerously, all boredom suddenly gone from her posture. But he ignored her, the arc of his gun tracing its way towards the stranger who’d been either brave or stupid enough to interfere. And Selina could all too easily imagine that finger tightening. It might even be an accident, reflex because guns made people stupid and they fired before they saw what they were shooting at. Oh, that wouldn’t wash with the cops who would undoubtedly send him to a nice, cushy prison cell where he would get three good meals a day and all mod cons.

But the girl would still be dead.

Her fingers tightened on the edge of the dumpster, gripping it as hard as she could. And, before he could finish turning to face the girl, Selina brought her legs off the ground, her weight supported entirely by the dumpster behind her and her braced arms. And then she wrapped them around the arm he was using to hold the gun, literally pinning the forearm between her calves and stopping him from completing his movement.

He turned his head to look at her, eyes wide in dull cow-like incomprehension as he met Selina’s amused gaze and her wicked little smirk.

”Oops?” She offered in a cruelly mischievous tone.

Then her smirk tightened, widened and showing no sign of effort despite the force she was exerting. Selina spun her hips down and to the side hard, her legs following, twisting so that her right calf was pushing his upper forearm to the left and her left was pushing the lower part to the right. On the surface of it, his arm was big, bigger than her legs by far. But she knew what she was doing and he hadn’t had any time to prepare. So, with that vicious twist, using nothing more than leverage and the strength of her legs and momentum, Selina snapped his forearm in two with a crack that echoed in the narrow alley. And she wasn’t done. Gritting her teeth now with effort, the dark haired beauty twisted her hips still further, throwing her full body weight behind that spin.

This time it was his elbow that gave way, dislocating with a dull pop as it moved in a way that nature definitely hadn’t intended. Then she let go and dropped her legs to the floor as he fell to his knees.

By that point, he had dropped the gun. He was screaming too, clutching at the arm that she had ruined with deceptive ease. Selina paused a moment, letting the agony settle in as she towered over him.

”If I ever catch you in my part of town again,” She warned him in a thoroughly matter-of-fact way, ”I’ll do that to your knees and you will be threatening people from a wheelchair.” She paused. ”For the record, I was going to go easy on you, because I hate hurting the mentally challenged. But you pointed a gun at a girl. So this is all on you, Chuckles.” With that, Selina calmly slammed a knee into his chin and watched him drop to the floor, totally out. She kicked the gun away and left him for the cops to find.

Only then did she turn to her ‘rescuer’, taking in the green hair and pale skin with a raised eyebrow but no comment at all. The scars were noted too, but Selina made no comment. Instead, she walked over with a smile on her own lips, hand extended. ”Thanks for the distraction, kid. I was getting tired of waiting for something to catch his attention. I’m Selina Kyle.”

TAG: Duela

[Duela Dent]

Even as Duela ran, she got the slightly odd feeling that she was really little more than a distraction for the other woman; Working with Steph over the course of a few nights, there'd been a few cute 'behind you!' moments where'd they'd helped one another out - although Duela was convinced that the blonde hadn't needed it. Here, she was really rather convinced that all she was needed for was a distraction, which was... Well, put it bluntly, it was a little disappointing. Having gotten back into the swing of things lately with working with Steph and playing around with the Gotham nightlife - she was seriously awesome with her old cane - it was a little bit weird to feel like she wasn't entirely needed. Buuuuuuuut, more importantly, there was also the case of that big ol' gun being aimed at her head, and not seeking to increase the amount of scarring covering her face, Duela dropped into a bit of a slide.

No, really; 'a bit' was probably the best overall description of it. Unlike those really cool moments in action movies where the hero went into a forward slide effortlessly - probably shooting a bunch of baddies in the process - Duela, naturally, caught the sole of her shoe on one of the cobbles and rolled head over heels; Fortunately, she managed to brace herself with a pale hand just in time to see what was pretty much one of the most awesome things she'd ever seen outside of her time with Steph; Seriously. They'd had the whole killer-legs joke-thing going on, the two of them, but that was nothing compared to.. How did that even work? Duela couldn't comprehend the kind of physical dexterity that move would require, but it was pretty amazing, frankly. And then the pretty woman went and topped that by twisting her body and snapping the guy's arm not once, but twice. Two different spots, and she made it look utterly effortless.

As much as she wanted to wince, Duela was slack-jawed with how impressed she was, looking like the adult version of a kid utterly entranced by say, a fireworks show or whatever. Seriously. Duela wasn't big on violence or whatever, but she was always seriously, seriously impressed when someone could do something like that. Okay, so... Strike another notch on her 'people she fangirled over' list, because this lady was awesome; Super-awesome. Maybe even better was the face that she didn't have those awkward-but-pleasant squiggly-stomach-sensations that she'd pretty much constantly around Steph. Thinking about that, briefly, Duela really needed some other terms to describe those sensations, because as it was, it sounded like something genuinely unsavoury.

But.. Yeah. Duela was stunned, right now. She'd seen plenty of impressive women doing amazing stuff, but more often than not it was a meta, like Cassie or Raven or someone along those lines; With no disrespect at all to those girls, somehow Duela was more impressed when the person in question was just a human, like her. She continued to watch, utterly astonished by how... How badass this woman was, looming over the poor hapless thug and giving him a surprisingly calm lecture - one note of which made Duela feel slightly stupid for interfering, but simultaneously not bad at all for apparently being partly responsible for his now-ruined arm. Why should she? She hadn't asked him to try mugging a woman and then bring his weapon to bear on a girl, had she? In Gotham, that kind of thing was.. Well, Duela didn't want to say 'asking for it', but.. Eh, let's be honest - it totally was.

You didn't tend to make it long in Gotham's criminal underworld without at least one serious injury, Duela had observed. Finally, however, with Idiot McThug out of commission with another impressive blow, Duela resisted a round of applause before she began to started gathering up the other woman's scattered groceries. A glance up found Duela noting the raised eyebrow - god knows what the woman thought she was with the hair and the scars - before Duela shyly returned to organising the grocery bags. However, when she was approached - the pretty older woman clearly not having bad intentions, Duela's own smile was small - not with the intent of being rude, of course - before she looked slightly bemused as she was told the other woman's name; "Um. Duela. Dent. Duela Dent," she said shyly, shaking the offered hand with a relatively loose grip; As much as she was certain that this woman was a pretty darn decent person overall, she had just seen her break a man's arm - twice, if she wasn't mistaken.

"Um. Yeah - Dent. That, ah.. I'm not related to the guy with the binary obsession, honestly. So please don't break my arm too," she laughed slightly, before asking "So.. Wait. Where do I know your name from?" she asked Selina, one eye narrowed slightly. Oh, wait. Oh no. Oh God.

She'd pretended to be this woman's daughter once. She was sure of it. Kill me, Duela mentally pleaded to anyone who could hear her thoughts;

Kill me now.

Tag: Selina