Black Cat (Black Cat Chronicles, Book 1)

17. Saving Poison Ivy

"Where's Ivy working, again?" I asked. We had already reached the business district, despite having to stop a few times because of Selina's injury. Selina had held up well, throwing away the soiled bandages in a dumpster and having me wrap her wound up again and that was basically the end of it.

"STAR Labs, bio-something or other," Harley responded.

"Biogenetics? That's like top of the building," I said, looking up at the building in front of us. The STAR Labs facility was a series of buildings, each dealing with a different branch of science.

"How do ya know that?" Harley asked, tilting her head a bit to the side, reminding me of Cas (the angel, not my cat).

"School field trip. It was actually a lot of fun," I told her. "Anyways, they have security cameras at nearly every corner. It's hard to determine where a blind spot would be, or if they even have any. Times like this I wish I had a portable computer so I could hack into shit. Okay, focusing. Listen, I don't think splitting up is a good idea at all, but it may be our only plan."

"Kid, what're you even saying?" Selina asked, definitely not keeping up with my rambling. By the look on Harley's face, she wasn't able to keep up with it either. I took a deep breath before expanding on my train of thought for them.

"Okay, so if Ivy had been discovered, chances are they're not keeping her in her lab. I say we split up, which is a terrible idea by the way, but it looks like our only choice, and search throughout the building. Catwoman can take the lower level because of her injury, Harley can take the middle of the building, and I'll check the top floors. Each building has twelve to sixteen floors, and judging off the looks of this one it's probably around fourteen here. Cat and Harley, you guys each take four and I'll take five floors," I explained, giving no room for argument. Admittedly, it was reckless on my part. Taking that much area with no backup nor clear escape routes was bound to end in disaster if I got caught, but at that point I really didn't care. My mind was trying to focus on a million things at once, leaving strategic decisions at the back.

"Okay, if you think you'll be fine. I'll come up and help you when I'm done with my floors," Harley said, nodding. "Now we just need to get in."

"How about we go through there?" Selina spoke up, pointing to a maintenance door a little distance away from the building.

"They've got maintenance tunnels? Cool," I muttered, already making my way over there. I tried the handle, discovering that it was locked, and dropped to be eye level with the lock. I took a bobby pin from my jacket's inner pocket and quickly bit off the little rubber ends of it before going to pick the lock. I poked around a bit, waiting to hear the telltale click of the door unlocking for us, but it was taking a lot longer than expected. "You know, they sure do make this look easier in the movies."

"Do you even know how to pick a lock?" Selina asked. I didn't look at her, but I could tell that she probably had a brow arched.

"Yes, I do," I replied before adding in a mumble, "in theory." We were there for a few more minutes before I finally heard the click of the door unlocking. "And that, ladies, is how you pick a lock."

"Took you a while to figure it out, though," Selina replied, already walking into the room.

"Like you could do any better," I scoffed.

"I can. My record's thirty seconds," Selina said with a small shrug. Harley and I had followed her in, closing the door behind us and locking it to make sure we didn't raise any suspicions.

"Wait, then why'd you let me just fuck around with the lock?" I asked, rushing slightly to cut her off before she went further into the tunnel.

"Learning experience," Selina shrugged, continuing on her way. I looked over at Harley in disbelief, but she just shrugged it off and walked past me as well. The only sound was our footsteps bouncing off the concrete walls surrounding us, emergency lights dimly illuminating the tunnel. There was just a dim yellow hue casting over our already battle-worn bodies, making us appear more ragged than we already were. The silence only served as a fitting background, reminding me of the end of a horror movie. The survivors, the heroes, finally going back to tell the world of the horrors that they had just seen. Or to never talk about them again. I had a feeling that we wouldn't speak of tonight after everything was done with, and it wasn't like I could talk to my friends about what I saw. 'Oh, hey guys, so I saw my dead mom, turns out she's still alive and the deaths were staged. I also forgot to mention that I kinda dress up in spandex and go out as Black Cat. Surprise!' Yeah, right. Everyone would freak out and Gabe would go all mom mode and forbid me from ever putting on the suit again.