The Light in Darkness

Chapter 11: Curiosity Lured the Cat

-Catwoman-

After seeing the live broadcast, I rushed back to my apartment to suit up. I knew that Batman needed my assistance, especially in saving those children. He may not admit it, but he did look miserable and in pain on that screen. Which worried me. I knew that Bat-Family would be busy trying to regain control of Gotham due to Batman's absence, so that left me to figure out where Scarecrow was hiding out. I knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Crane's intelligent and most likely overlooked every angle to secure his hideout from being discovered, but Batman found a way past those angles. I don't know if it either was intentional or not for Crane's plan to be discovered, but it was still a way I can find them. The only question now was, where do I start?

"Crane has connections in Gotham's underworld, and he would need a connection with someone who has access or possesses the ability to hack into Gotham's broadcasting stations." I thought, "I should head over to one of the radio towers and contact Nightwing to meet me there. Have him hook up some techno gadget to the radio tower and have him contact Oracle to see if someone had hacked into the system and if there is indeed evidence of a hack, have her triangulate the hacking location. If there is no evidence of a hack, have her retrieve all the names of people who have access to the towers and possess the abilities to hack into Gotham's Public Broadcasting System."

I nod in agreement to my plan and head over to the apartment window with a black cell in hand. I see a nearby radio station just under a mile from here and open up my phone. I dial a familiar number on my phone and after two rings, a familiar male voice answers. "Catwoman? What do you want?" Nightwing groans. "Nice to hear from you as well, listen I need your help, I have a lead on where we can start our search for Batman." I reply while playing with my nails. "You do? What is it that you need?" Nightwing asks curious. "Meet me by the radio tower near the GCPD, and bring a infiltration gadget to help get Oracle involved with this, we are going to need her help with this as well." I explain. "Got it, I'll meet you there in a few minutes." Nightwing replies before hanging up. I close my phone and quickly tuck it away in one of my boots before taking off into the night. "Don't worry Batman, we're coming." I sigh as I ran towards the nearby radio tower.

-Batman-

I slowly feel myself come back from the depths of sleep, and groan to the familiar feeling of pain radiate from my rib cage. I attempt to sit up or move my arms, but I could feel that I was restrained by chains. Groggily, I open my dazed eyes and look around. Through my blurry vision, I see that my arms are chained up to the ceiling and the rest of my body was strapped to a transport gurney. I feel a cold breeze past by as I'm in deep thought and shiver as I realize that my top layer of armor and cape had been removed to reveal my upper body. I turn my head to look at my gunshot wound Gabriel inflicted upon me and see, that someone had patched it up. I take note that my lower armor and my mask was still on, which made me feel grateful when I notice the camera in front of me. The camera at the moment was off and it looked like I wasn't the only person it was aiming at. Curious if any of the children are in here with me, I turn my head to the left and see no one then I turn to the right to also see no one else. "Where is everyone?" I whisper.

My question is quickly answered when the door to my cell is opened. Under the lone light, I squint my blurry eyes into the darkness of the room to see a familiar tall figure enter. It looked to be Scarecrow, and he was carrying someone in his arms. It looked to be a girl, and she seemed to be unconscious. I watch silently, as Crane carries the child over to an examination table. As I attempt to adjust myself silently to get a better look of the girl, I accidently make the chains rattle to my sudden movement and give away my position to Crane. "You're awake." Scarecrow smiles sinisterly. I watch him set down the unknown girl on the table and walk towards me with more interest towards me infesting in his cruel eyes. "What did you do to her? Where are the others?!" I demand angered. "Shh, there's no need to yell. Besides, she's fine. I just finished testing on her." Scarecrow smiles, "And may I say, she revealed some interesting things."