Arkham Prologue

[b]We bring to you a fanfic canon to the forum based upon the game [i]Batman: Arkham City[/i]. Due to the length and expanse of this time in this particular game, let along the often separated nature of all Interferences involved, Gregzilla, Sorin, The Doctor, and Mr. Z have all decided to simply write this in a chapter format, with Adri filling in for Sorin. Also, due to both his rather lengthy and frequent absence and the character's importance to the plot of this game, we are assuming that the Joker returned to his home universe of the Arkhamverse and played out the intervening months, albeit Enlightened by his experiences to some degree (though, obviously, no more sane than before his departure).

This first chapter will be written by Gregzilla, Adri, and The Doctor. With no further adieu, we give "Ashes of Arkham".

[center]Prologue: Stealing Beauty[/center][/b]

Death.

The man carried his brother out of the barren wasteland, both only clothed in black cloth over their shoulders wrapped around their bottom halves, tears running down the living man's face, staining his black beard. Ravens flew away from them, off into the distance behind him, possibly disgusted with his act.

A dirty hand reached to the side of the frame, pulling the painting of "Cain & Abel: The Duality of Man" aside like a door inward to reveal a safe. The hand belonged to a man in a gray prison jumpsuit, the words "ARKHAM CITY" printed on the back, and the entire left side burned to blackness, a full-head mask on with the same effect and a white other side.

"Look what I found!" the inmate called to his allies.

"Don't touch it, man!" another similarly clothed inmate warned. "He'll kill you!"

Four more were close behind them here in the Gotham City District Attorney's office, two masked, another bald but for a black mow hawk, and the last with a full head of black hair. The near-bald one asked the full-haired one. "How long 'til the boss gets here?" He moved toward the masked ones in front.

"He'll be here," the one with full hair grunted back.

One of the other masked ones had to ask a question. "Riley says he saw the Bat. Is he here, too?"

"In [i]Arkham[/i] City?" the one with full hair asked. "Why would he come here? You guys just need to chill the hell out."

A crash of glass surprised them, made them all group together, fists up, ready to fight. "It's Batman!" one called.

"Sorry to disappoint you, boys." The woman sauntered in on black heels. She wore a black, form-fitted latex suit, including over her hands and feet. There was a zipper up most of the way up her front, but it stopped about half to three quarters of the way up intentionally, leaving some of her exposed, but nothing explicit, just enough to tease. The whole collar of the back came up to her neck, with a black hood over her head with cat ears on top over her head, just showing a bit of her black hair over her forehead. Playful green eyes glinted as she grinned slightly, thumbing the whip on her right hip. "It's just little ol' me."

Professional thief Selina Kyle, more commonly known by her alias of "Catwoman", flexed her fingers a bit, some metallic claws coming from the fingertips. This was going to be easy.

"This'll be easy!" one said with a grin, coming forward with a punch.

She jumped, rolling over him with a somersault before putting her feet on his shoulders. Jumping into the air, she slammed down again on another who was going to attack, stunning him. She backflipped away from two coming to her sides, then dropped to her back, kicking out in two directions as a semi-split that countered their blows. She twisted, turning the kick into one that hit another before she came up to her feet once more.

By then, the first one was up again, trying to kick at her. She took care of that handily, stomping on his leg before wrapping an arm around his waist, punching him in the gut, then the face, sending him sprawling, unconscious this time.

"This is gonna hurt, freak!" another of them shouted, but she was not done.

Drawing her whip, she cracked it against one of them, stunning him. Not wasting a moment as the others closed in, she cracked it again and again, the whiplashes actually knocking out one of the two who had been previously hit. The whip came out again, grabbing the other one around the legs and tripping him with a yank before she jumped out of range of some others, stomping hard on his head to force him to unconsciousness. She then stopped as two came in at her sides, rolling on the ground on her back as she split her feet, the whip out as she tripped them both up. Jumping back to her feet, she landed on top of one of them, her knees at his waist, and put a hand on his shoulder, slashing across his face with her claws before he, too, was knocked unconscious.

[i]Bang![/i] The one with a mohawk was still awake, as were one masked one and the one with hair, the punch to the back of her head actually making her stagger a bit. She wasn't perfect, after all. She turned, however, two punches taking the masked one before a spinning elbow took Mohawk in the jaw, her other arm blocking the one with hair before another punch took him in the cheek. She kicked the masked one again, grabbing his arm as it came up, and putting her leg behind it. [i]Snap![/i] She heard the arm break, and dropped him, kicking off of his body and whipping Mohawk again, stunning him.

What commenced next was an extremely rapid succession of blows, one after another after another! Clawed hand after clawed hand battered his midsection until she finally elbowed him in the jaw once more, dropping his unresponsive body.

"Bolt!" The word was familiar, but odd given the circumstances. A blast of white fire hit the last one straight in the chest, stunning him once more.

Selina then grabbed her opponent, the other side of his suit singed now, and forced him to the ground, her knee on one of his arms... [i]Snap![/i] Another broken arm, another downed opponent. Only then did she look to the direction of her helper. "And who might you be?" she asked the shadows.

The stranger walked out then, white flames dispersing from her hands. While that was a strange sight, what was even stranger were the cat ears and the tail this young woman had, neither of which looked like it was part of a disguise. They looked natural, blending in with her long blonde hair, even the tail adjusting nicely at the back of her dark blue clothes. She had a rapier at her hip, for close range attack should the need come for it. With all the opponents down, there was no need.

"The name's Jessica Mireu," the girl introduced herself matter-of-factly, as if the scene she had just walked into wasn't too much of a big deal. It's been two, almost three months since the incident with her evil alternate. Since then, the catgirl had been going from world to world, mostly training with the rapier that she took from the Mirror Jessica upon defeating her. She had been looking for a new world to practice in, and when she saw how dark this one seemed, she decided to go check it out.

Of course, with her amnesia, she had no idea where here was, or who the woman in the latex catsuit was. Really, seeing the woman like this reminded her too much of the M. Jessica incident, when she saw Azumi that way. It didn't help matters when she saw where her zipper stopped, even though it looked like it could actually close up some more. She tried not to think on that, however, and instead went on to ask, "And who are you? Also, where am I?"

Selina tilted her head to the side, looking over the newcomer. Hm... looked like one of Garfield Lyons' tricks, albeit without the jetpack and the flamethrower. And the ears and the tail.... she grinned. "You know, I probably should have expected someone like you eventually. Call me Catwoman. As for where we are... well, we're in Harvey's old office. Two-Face?" She was confused as that didn't really register recognition.

"I'll explain once we get out of here. Arkham City's not exactly the greatest, even if it is better than the other half of Gotham. That is to say more boring." A sigh of contentment as she looked over at the safe. "Maybe I'll teach you a thing or two if you can catch up, Catgirl," she said, grinning back at her before sauntering slowly over toward the safe, swinging her hips. "Now that they're all taken care of, it's time to get what I came for out of that safe." She walked over, and leaned in, beginning to quickly, expertly, turn the combination lock, back, forth, using ear alone, letting Jessica come after her if she so wanted.