Fear Kitty Kitty Kitty [Catwoman]

With his posture held just so, hanging in the doorframe loosely he took in her attire. A more casual look for her than he’s used to, but when they would see each other it was under more…professional circumstance. Dr. Crane was far from looking professional at the moment, this bruised and cut body showing that he had either lost, or been taught quite a lesson in his last fight. Miss Kyle in other words, looked in far better shape than he.

Of course not every bruise and scratch could be chalked up to the fight he had with The Penguin and his thugs. The thought of what Edward and he had done not too long ago still lingered in his mind. Several wounds from that night were still present, he was sure. That also wasn’t taking in account the several old scars that were littered across his chest. Most of the severe damage was laid across his upper back in the form of raised scars, as if he had been lashed or whipped many years ago. On the front of his chest mostly displayed small round scars that could be occasionally seen on his abs or upper chest. Only one distinct scar stood out among the others on his rib cage, where The Joker had stabbed him.

Miss Kyle didn’t seem anymore pleased to see him than he was to see her. It was a stale mated search into one another’s eyes at the door frame. Her comment didn’t seem to phase him at all, as he was use to that kind of reaction. As she mentioned Edward the doctor only turned his chin slightly, silently telling her to look for herself behind him. It was obvious that Edward wasn’t living there. When her eyes wavered down his frame he shifted slightly in the door. Unfortunate that she had momentarily lost eye contact with him. He didn’t expect her to be able to hold it for very long.

It wasn’t until she pulled out a type of lip applicant that his head turned with a slight curiosity. Finally he brought his hands down and stepped to the side. “Edward is not here…” He spoke dryly, letting his hands fall from the frame and to his sides. Nothing more needed to be said aside from that. One hand wrapped around the door knob while the other welcomed her inside. Edward would have let her in, and for that reason alone he was going to allow her the same courtesy he would have.

Or perhaps there was another reason…

Shaking the thought from his mind, he tried to push his obsessions to the side. Dr. Crane waited for her to enter into his newly built lab. Most of the furniture had been removed and lab tables scattered about the room. The air in the apartment was better than it normally was but it had a rather sterile smell to it, like one you would find at a hospital. “Welcome..” A dark invitation in his voice to the place where nightmares crawled along the walls. She was lucky tonight…The containment and dark room were actually empty. The only real part of the apartment that he hadn’t completely changed was the bedroom, and even there he didn’t rest. It was far more likely for him to rest his eyes at a lab table if sleep did call for him, yet he avoided it at all cost. “What brings you here Miss Kyle..?” He asked while pulling his hand around the knob of the door to his towel and fixing it a bit tighter. He would have to leave her in the lab to get dressed. If she was intelligent she wouldn’t touch anything, and if she was wise…she wouldn’t lift anything from him.

Dr. Crane kept a close watch on her as she walked to the nearest bar stool at the kitchen counter. He didn’t move very far from the door but instead just turned to face her to show her was listening to whatever answer she had for him. It was quite odd showing up at his place uninvited, though she would never receive an invitation to begin with. He was a recluse, and the place around him spoke wonders of why that was. The only reason that would really be in question was why was he at Edward’s place?

Edward certainly kept odd company. Her friend? Dr. Crane almost smiled at the thought, not because he found it amusing but for a much more sinister reason. When her eyes locked with his own he finally became intrigued with her presence. One of the things that attracted him to Edward in the first place was his ability to hold his stare without faltering. Dr. Crane’s iced over stare as enough to send most scurrying away, or averting their eyes when their mind filled with the worst possible scenario. He stepped forward toward her on the stool his piercing stare going into her, like he would simply walk through her if he willed it so.

Isn’t that what friends do? He could have laughed at the statement. Dr. Crane didn’t have friends. Though Edward and himself had certainly developed some kind of….Interaction. The thought was quickly pushed from his mind and focused back on the feline at hand. He had ignored the statement about their surroundings. He considered it an improvement from the waste of space before, but he was given permission to do whatever he wanted with the place and he took full liberty….Full Liberty. Most of the rooms had been changed entirely, except the bedroom which remained untouched.

He stopped abruptly in front of her as she spoke again but he had no response for her. Edward’s clothing was just circumstantial. They were nearly the same size so his clothing fit, but it would become worn quickly on Dr. Crane. His bed hadn’t been used since the last night he was here, it was a wonder they had made it there at all considering the damage that was done to the apartment. He wasn’t one for sleep. When sleep did come to him it was usually at the mercy of a lab table, buried in his work.

Standing in front of her idly he stared at her in silence. Her hands pushed forward and her shoulders rolled like a good felines would, but all was caught from the peripheral, as he never took his eyes from hers. Miss Kyle’s tone had changed, finally down to business? He soaked the silence in the room for a few moments before he finally broke it with a sigh. “What brings me here is that I live here….Isn’t that what I am supposed to do?” He mused back to her using her previous words against her. Without letting another moment pass his left hand shot to the counter beside her and the doctor leaned forward to whisper. “Excuse me Miss Kyle…While I change into some of Edward’s ‘fancy’ attire.”

Dr. Crane pulled back immediately afterward; a cheap scare but they did it just fine for him. Without another word her turned and headed for the bedroom to change. He turned on his heels and went straight into the closet to grab some of Edward’s clothes. He found a black pin stripe suit and took the liberty of wearing that with a white button up shirt underneath. Luckily Edward had some, because he was not going to be wearing the green that littered the closet. Quickly Dr. Crane slipped the slacks on and buckled a slick belt around it. When he was finally ready he came back out into the living room to meet her at the bar counter near the kitchen.

The doctor paused only briefly in front of her, not having much to say. He wasn’t a very good entertainer as he despised most people. Giving only a passing glance to her he moved into the kitchen and began fumbling with something at the fridge. If she wanted something out of him, she was going to have to do a lot better than what she had tried so far. Although they hadn’t talked much in the past he was still well aware of her ways and how she operated.

Dr. Crane had been fumbling with something at the fridgerator until she spoke. The insult barely phased him at all, he had heard worse from others. She had only said it in spite because he had frightened her or done something she didn’t like. This kind of behavior wasn’t uncommon around him, they actually were long gone much sooner than this. “I am a doctor Miss Kyle, I keep adequate hygiene. As for my hair, it doesn’t get in the way of my work. Your expressive concerns for my health are noted but better saved for Edward and not myself.” He spoke softly from within the confines of the fridge door.

When he finally turned with a saucer of cream in his hand she was already to the door and walking out. Running already? She lasted longer than most, but he understood if the atmosphere was just too much for her. He set the bowl down roughly on the counter as she walked out. The cream in the bowl sloshed back and forth with the push and nearly spilt off the sides. This is why he didn’t perform these kinds of gestures….

His first logical thoughts were to just let her go; she was of no use to him. She didn’t even come looking for him, instead she had become disappointed with the fact that he inhabited her ‘friends’ home. It wouldn’t have been difficult to just let her leave and forget that this event ever happened….But something crept in slowly from the back of his mind. His obsession nipped and whispered to him about the question he had asked himself earlier. Letting her go wasn’t an option.

Quickly, he turned and grabbed something from an upper cabinet on the left hand side. It was where he kept everything of this type for quick access. After he nabbed what he needed, Dr. Crane briskly walked to the exit of the apartment. For a moment it seemed as if he was following her, but about a third of the way down, just before the elevators doors, he made a sharp turn toward a maintenance room. Carefully he placed the key inside the lock and opened the door with ease. He had only been here for a short time, but in that time he had acquired all the knowledge about the building he needed to maneuver in it as he wished.

Stepping inside he wasted no time moving to the elevator maintenance controls. Miss Kyle had already made her way into the elevator and was on her way down to the first floor. Since they were on the tenth already it would have taken some time for her to reach the bottom. Dr. Crane opened the first box which controlled the movement of the elevator and stopped it immediately. The movement was followed by disabling any calls she could have made from the elevator. He heard the elevator screech and come to a halt, being so close to the shaft to begin with. Now it was time to put his plan into motion.

Dr. Crane turned to the shelf in the room that was littered with several tools and supplies to fix the elevator shaft. His hand scanned over them with his eyes until he came across a bolt cutter. Satisfied with the tool he wrapped his fingers around it and moved to the electric box that controlled the lighting in the shaft. With one solid movement he slammed the bolt cutter into the box and sparks came flying from it. The lights in the elevator shaft would have gone out…with the occasional blink from the now faulty wiring. Bolt cutter in hand, he turned his attention to a vent in the room that led straight to the elevator shaft.

With little effort he made his way into it and crawled the short distance to the long shaft. Several bumps and bangs could be heard in the shaft from Dr. Crane making his way in with the cutters in hand, but he wasn’t trying to be quiet. When he finally got out he came to a large opening, the doctor slid carefully onto the ledge. It was dark for a moment and then light flashed within the shaft. He got a quick look at where the main cable was, and snapped it with the bolt cutter. The force from the snap caused him to wobble backward but he caught himself on the wall. A monstrous crack emitted from the elevator as it crashed into the wall, now tilted at a heavy degree.

Taking advantage of each time he had light the doctor made his way down the shaft, first by jumping to the cable and then jumping down to each floor step. Once he was close enough he finally pulled his mask from the back of his pants rim and flipped on the green light, indicating that the fans and the voice masker were both working. With his last jump he landed hard on the top of the elevator. It shifted beneath his feet and made the cable above it whine with an unstable screech. Using the flicker of the light The Scarecrow timed it just perfectly to kick in the roof to the top of the elevator fire escape. Just as is flickered off and then on again his figure was gone from the frame.

“Fear Kitty Kitty Kitty…” The mask cracked out from the darkness he had crawled into.

The Scarecrow was waiting patiently and silently in the dark. The only thing that could be heard in the shaft was the occasional ambience of the elevator wailing at its injuries and the occasional florescence hum of the flickering lights. Through his deep breaths into the filter the soft gear like noises of his fans could be heard, but possibly only audible by him. He had moved to get better sight of her but remain as far into the shadow as it would embrace him, and embrace him it did. He caught a glimpse of her as a light flickered, she had moved into the corner of the elevator on the far side.

One of the few downsides to wearing his mask was that he was near sighted. Dr. Crane often wore glasses when he was walking around or when he was driving. He would take them off to read or when he was directly in front of someone, simply because he didn’t need them to see that close. His prescription was very low to begin with. His line of vision passed ten feet was only slightly out of focus. All he was missing was minor details to someone’s facial features or have difficulty reading a distant sign. When he wore the mask he didn’t wear his glasses underneath for several different reasons. Although The Scarecrow was good at avoiding heavy blows or taking them very well, others did get a good shot in every once and a while. If they were to hit his face it could smash his glasses and lead to further disaster on the battle field. It was just a risk that was better left not taken.

As a result, with the flickering lights he could only see her silhouette every few moments when it flashed. Anything in her facial feature he would have missed completely due to their distance. One sense however, was not impaired in this situation. A sniffle and a short cry echoed out from the fire escape he had kicked in from the top of the elevator. For a long moment he stared into the hole that sometimes flashed with her image. Was Miss Kyle really crying? Despite the fact that she very well might have been The Scarecrow stood like stone in the darkness. His expression showed nothing, no sympathy, no compassion for her plight, it was debated that there was a heartbeat anywhere in there.

His demeanor on the outside matched his thoughts on the inside to a certain extent. He was more curious to the fact that she was crying in the first place. The Scarecrow had never taken Miss Kyle as a weak woman, even though he had only brief passing’s with her. While he was practicing legally he had just seen too many of her type to not be curious about it. She always seemed like she could handle anything, and how she took on the Gotham and its Night, it was ‘interesting’ to say the least. Regardless his mind still turned and rolled over with his obsession in the for front of his mind. He had to know…

But he wasn’t stupid. He had seen her in action before and getting too close to her would have been a mistake without the proper tools. Thankfully, he did have to proper tools, and if anyone should be afraid right now it was her. Another loud metallic whine came from the elevator shaft, indicating that if they were going to do something it should probably be soon. Slowly The Scarecrow stepped out of the darkness the wrapped around him and into the flickering lights range. The darkness that held him reluctantly let go as he passed and then crawled onto his knees up to the escape itself. For a moment he just peered in at her, but the shadow casted from himself took the entire elevator with each blink. Carefully he did a front flip in and held the top on the escape so he could gently land on his feet in front of her. There was quite a distance between them as he gazed at the terrified face of Catwoman herself. What a beautiful display, and all because of a little faulty machining?

Sliding his hand into his pocket he pulled a string out of it and then let his fingers rest inside. “Let’s make a deal Miss Kyle” The masked distorted and cracked out. He took a slow step toward her as he spoke, the light flashing every now and then to show that he was advancing toward her. “Tell me your fears…” The distortion lowered as he came close enough to her to almost touch her. “And I’ll consider not making you live through them.”

The Scarecrow stood still as she came forward, like he was attached to a post in a field. She did look quite beautiful this way. It was always incredible to seem and impossible to describe when one showed their true selves through fear. It was a perfect display of her terror and he felt no need to bring out the object he had originally been thinking about in his pocket. The string that would have eventually led to her nightmares, he left alone.

Naturally he asked who she was talking about, though he already knew who it was. It was the entire reason she had come here, only to find terror in its place. He wanted to draw it out of her regardless. Sometime it was better to ask the questions you already knew the answer to draw out even more information on the subject at hand. He used this trick as a psychiatrist a lot, and it moved quickly into the rest of his work as well. He wanted to see her sadness. Sadness was a commonly used primary that he associated with the base primary fear, she wasn’t sad simply – she was scared and it was all the more satisfying.

The Scarecrow let her fall to her knees. He made no move to catch her, no move to help her in any way shape or form. He had no reason to, and it was quite where she belonged. After all where did people belong to a God? At their feet. It was only more fitting as she was sobbing on her way down as if she expected him to do something to show her mercy. There was no mercy for her, no remorse, empathy or compassion for her cause. These things were foreign to him. Throughout Gotham he was known for the void of emotionlessness that he enveloped.

Yet he extended a hand slowly to cup under her chin. His back declined slightly in this motion because he was quite a bit taller than her, but he made sure to keep at least an arm’s length away. With her chin in hand he lifted it so her eyes could meet the darkness of his own mask. There would be no admission that he hadn’t expected her to weep so. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen it before from female patients. This had happened many times in the past but to expect it from Catwoman was another story. Though her efforts were meaningless and her play was laughable he did hold her on a considerable level of intelligence. For this reason only he tolerated her in the past, as he was tolerating her now.

“Pathetic” A single word was spoken through the distortion of the mask. “Look what your mask has brought you.” He continued in cryptic phrases only his mind would truly understand. The world was so incredibly clear to him, and every action of hers was broken down to a basic science in his mind. There was only one drive that brought her to her knees before him. Carefully his hand turned on her chin and he brought the other to her arm to encourage her to stand. “You will only find fear here..” He warned her one last time. Yes, he had pursed her in the effort of knowing her deepest fears, once the question was asked he simply couldn’t stop pursuing it until it was saited within him.

He and Edward were alike in this manner, except Edward’s question s were usually meaningless to him….Well…Not all of them. The Scarecrow wasn’t going to tell her anything about Edward or anything that had happened there. He wasn’t going to tell her where he thought he had gone or what he was doing. Not only had Edward not told him, himself, but he wouldn’t have told her even if he had. She was lucky in this aspect that she had successfully turned his attention. For the moment, his hunger was saited, but the danger was not far from his hand.

The Scarecrow was extremely aware that the elevator was unstable. He knew that they only had a little while before it decided to drop completely. The fall would be rough if it did collapse, bouncing back and forth between the two walls. It would be a spectacle and attract attention from not only all over the apartment, but someone would surely call the police. Even the possibility of Batman showing up was in his mind, especially when Catwoman was involved. Though he had never personally seen her with him, rumors fly in the underworld.

There was no fear in his eyes of any of this happening however. If the elevator were to collapse it wouldn’t hurt him. He would simply crash to the bottom and crawl out of the rubble, maybe injured but oblivion would not come for him. Catwoman had expressed that she was very much alive and wanted to stay that way, and he wasn’t going to let her go. If he was he would have let her go after she left the apartment, but Dr. Crane always had an exterior motive in mind. Something sinister still awaited her and right now the only way to go was back up. Exactly how he wanted.

It was awkward holding her in his arms like this. She was leaning to him like she needed him or wanted him. Dr. Crane had never felt wanted or needed and he never really wanted to start. The truth was a far better light to stand in, the fact that the need for affection or attention didn’t exist in the first place added strongly to this. She was frightened, frightened that she was going to die and she was clinging to him because of it. Did she really believe that he would save her for that purpose alone? To just save her? He was no batman…He was not her hero…He was not her savior….He was not her Batman.

The thought that she may have wanted him was laughable. It simply wasn’t true, it was impossible. But the thought of Edward crossed his mind just then. That had been the same hadn’t it? A false proclamation of feeling just absorbed in two nights? Whatever they had between them that caused them to gravitate around each other in such a way that they couldn’t stop? No, it couldn’t have been the same. He would think on that later and figure out exactly what that was..it…was something. After all…he had confessed….

Miss Kyle began to sob in his arms and his mind snapped to the situation at hand. No, she didn’t want to sink into oblivion today and not like this. Slowly he bent down and brought his finger to her lips. He hushed her softly to try and stop her sobbing before he suddenly threw her over his shoulder. It wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be, she was as light as a feather. It wasn’t as wonder anymore that he had seen her fly about the city before, she weighed practically nothing. With her over his shoulder he climbed out of the elevator. It creaked underneath his fingers and made loud noises that vibrated off the walls. It was time to get out of the shaft.

He climbed up the hanging cable that he had cut, using the elevator wall as leverage. Once he got to the top he slid up with her in hand to the open doors at the tenth floor. As soon as he placed his foot onto the step out the elevator had collapsed and fallen down the rest of the shaft. It ripped the cable from his hands and thankfully he let go right away, catching himself on the door frame. Carrying her still, he walked the short distance to his apartment door and stopped with her. He set her down against the door and cupped her chin, inspecting those sobbing eyes a lot more carefully. “You really should have stayed, I had something for you..” He spoke softly as he ran this thumb across the line of her jaw.