Catgirl: Young Justice BOOK 1 (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 17

TW: SUBSTANCE ABUSE

|Gotham City
|July 11 2010, 09:36

"Katherine...", Robin sighed, standing with his back to the alley he was 'guarding'.

Really he was blocking it, so the civilians passing by wouldn't see a half naked Catgirl staring back at them.

"You can't be in public right now.", he continued, "People are scared enough Catgirl is back, if they know it's you under the cowl again they'll panic."

"Please.", Katherine scoffed from somewhere in the dark alley, "I've been walking around in public since January, if someone were to see me they would've by now."

"Still, I don't want to risk it-"

"Which is why I'm in the alley; nobody in their right mind goes near alleys here.", Katherine explained.

Robin shook his head, "It's 9am."

"Please, it's Gotham! There's a criminal in every alley.", she stated, laughing, "This one too."

Robin sighed at her, keeping his eyes on everyone passing by. Even him standing in the street at this time was causing some unwanted attention. Usually he and Batman only showed their faces during the day when there was danger. The public knew that.

"We can't stay in public." He warned, "It's dangerous. The GCPD-."

"I can assure you we're the most dangerous things in this area right now.", she chuckled, her voice now coming from somewhere above him.

Robin cautiously turned around to watch her again. He caught her trying to escape him via one of the alleys fire escapes.

"Katherine, don't!" He jumped up, yanking her back down. "Stay hidden. You want to explore, the zeta tube is right there."

Katherine glanced at the old phone box they'd come out of, unamused, "I'm not stupid. I know if I step in there you'll take me back to Mount Justice. I already told you I don't want to go back there."

"But why?!", Robin whined, "You're just going to get me in even more trouble- you've never even been there before! Why won't you go back?!"

Katherine didn't answer his question. Instead she asked another, "If you're so scared of what Batman's going to do why don't you go back? Alone. You can't make me come with you; he took away your mentor privileges when you claimed to force me into Cadmus."

Robin clenched his jaw. He did that to protect her, but was starting to realise Batman added it to her contract for a reason:

Katherine often forgot just how thin the ice was around her; one wrong move and she'd drown.

Robin held his ground. "I might not be your mentor anymore, but I am still in charge-"

"Hah, please!" Katherine looked down at him, "You don't even have control over yourself." She put her hand to his cheek, staring straight into his masked eyes, "Or is he not watching us, right now? Are you really that blind to how he- everyone in The Justice League treats kids like us?"

Robin turned away from her. He reluctantly gave in, "Fine.." It was the complete opposite of what was asked, but, "You don't need to stay at Mount Justice. It's not a prison."

Katherine wrapped her arms around him from behind, smiling, "That's up for debate, but you're getting the right idea." She let him go and headed back to the zeta teleporter.

Before she got the wrong idea, Robin reminded, "You're still bound by contract. Batman said you were to be at Mount Justice, so you have to come back- even if it's just for team stuff."