Catwoman tilted her head.
"You'd be walking straight into his jaws!"
Batman stepped forward and stared down at her. His voice was low, but it carried a weight dragged from deep in his chest.
"Yongye fights dirty. He's ruthless and vicious. Black Widow, Talia, Helen Cho, Lois—which of them isn't brilliant? They all fell into his hands. What makes you think you'd fare any better?"
Catwoman's lashes fluttered.
Batman went on, speaking faster than usual. A deeper anxiety had worn away some of his customary composure and hard edge:
"He even dared to do that to Talia right in front of me... There's nothing he won't do. If you go looking for him, you might as well wash yourself up and deliver yourself to his door."
The moment he said it, he regretted it.
He knew this little cat too well. Call her what you liked, but curiosity was a cat's strongest instinct.
The more he held her back and warned her it was dangerous, the more she wanted to try. The more he said "don't go," the more she wanted to prove she could handle it.
Sure enough.
Catwoman's eyes lit up in the night wind like two green gemstones catching fire. She leaned forward, pulling the Chain taut until it scraped against the lamppost with a shrill metallic screech.
"I don't believe he could ever tame me!"
Her voice rang with open challenge, rising at the end like a cat baring its teeth after someone stepped on its tail.
Refusing to be controlled was a little cat's second instinct.
Batman's jaw tightened beneath his cowl. He crouched and gripped the clasp of the Alloy Chain again, unconsciously squeezing harder until his knuckles went pale against the metal.
"Yongye isn't one of Gotham's gang bosses, or one of those