"So after all that, he was just some broke loser. What a waste of effort."
On the rooftop of yet another jewelry store, Catwoman idly rummaged through Jack's wallet. But no matter how many times she checked, all she found were a few coins totaling less than a dollar.
As the eldest son of the Hanma family, Jack had been born in prison and raised on the streets, without any proper education to speak of. Even so, his natural talent was undeniably terrifying.
After spending some time with the doctor who had originally used him to test drugs, he had taught himself a considerable amount, especially in chemistry, where his knowledge had reached an astonishing level.
To put it in perspective, his expertise in that field might already have approached Scarecrow's.
For precisely that reason, his IQ was actually frighteningly high, and a little arithmetic was naturally child's play for him.
So, by his calculations, he had spent every last cent of the wages Zuo Ci had paid him in advance. The few extra coins were excess change given to him by cashiers who couldn't do their sums.
In other words, Catwoman had really miscalculated this time. Had she come just a little earlier, she might have gotten a slightly better haul.
"Oh well, broke is broke. At least I accomplished what I came for.
I wonder if this'll cheer Poison Ivy up a little."
Pocketing the coins, Catwoman tossed the empty wallet away.
She hadn't stolen from Jack today for money, nor had it been a spur-of-the-moment decision. She had done it to avenge Poison Ivy.
Poison Ivy was one of the few close girlfriends she could truly confide in here in Gotham. If someone bullied her, Catwoman certainly couldn't just ignore it.
Though, to be honest, she hadn't initially planned to get back at Zuo Ci and Jack. Mainly because Poison Ivy had brought this suffering entirely upon herself.
It was like the way she was always joining those idiotic environmental groups to wreak havoc and then getting arrested. When Poison Ivy was the one in the wrong, Catwoman didn't really want to get involved. She more or less deserved it, after all, and intervening would be hard to justify to Bats.
But...
Even now, the thought of Poison Ivy's bright red face, practically blooming like a flower, made Catwoman want to laugh. The real kicker was that the paint wouldn't wash off.
Poison Ivy might have brought it upon herself, but Zuo Ci and his crew had gone a little too far this time. That was why Catwoman had ultimately decided to retaliate.
And her original target had actually been Zuo Ci. But she had discovered that the guy was a total shut-in who hardly ever went outside, leaving her no opportunity to strike. So she had set her sights on the big guy beside him instead.
Unfortunately, the big guy was penniless too, so stealing from him hadn't served as much of a punishment.
"Time to go. With all that snow last night, today's haul should be..."
"Yee-ha!"
Just as Catwoman got up to leave, a shout rang out, sounding exactly like the Bungee Zombie's entrance in Plants vs. Zombies.
She turned to look and saw a weirdo in a mage's robe dropping out of the sky and hurtling straight toward her!
"Not good!"
She didn't know who this guy was, but her instincts screamed danger. Her nimble body instantly sprang high into the air like a cat, dodging his charge.
The whole sequence flowed effortlessly, as light as a breeze, as though no one in the world could ever catch her.
Then she went tumbling off the roof.
"Hell yeah! It worked!"
Hiding around a nearby street corner, Zuo Ci watched the footage on his remote controller and cheered in satisfaction.
The system had gained a few minor features after its upgrade. One of them let him track the whereabouts of goods he had sold. Since Jack's wallet had also come from Zuo Ci, finding Catwoman had been easy.
Catwoman wasn't particularly strong, but she was so agile that catching her was difficult. So Zuo Ci had fallen back on his old routine: disguise the drone, then release a highly concentrated anesthetic once it got close. Catwoman had fallen for it without a hitch.
"All right, Jack, take her away.
Oh, right, remember to give her some physical hypnosis too. I'm worried she'll play dumb to trick us. Go easy, though. Don't kill her."
Watching Zuo Ci's methods, Jack inexplicably felt that he was a little like Izou Motobe.
Ah, that was not a particularly pleasant memory.
"Have I been captured?"
A short while later, inside another abandoned factory, Catwoman groggily woke up, rubbing her head, which felt as though someone had struck it with a hammer.
Once her mind cleared, she discovered that she hadn't merely been captured. She had been locked inside a rather cramped iron cage.
"What on earth happened?"
Rubbing her throbbing head, Catwoman recalled her final memories before losing consciousness, but still couldn't figure out what had happened.
The moment that strange guy had approached, she had passed out. It made absolutely no sense, even less than Bats did.
"Forget it. Getting out comes first.
Hmph, what an idiot. Does he really think an iron cage like this can hold me?"
As the finest thief in all of Gotham, and possibly the entire world, Catwoman wasn't just a master of stealing. Her related skills, such as lockpicking and swindling, were also second to none.
How could a clumsy iron cage like this possibly hold... huh?
After carefully examining every side, Catwoman was dumbfounded.
Wait, where was the lock? Where had the cage's lock gone?
"Hahaha! Surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you? Having fun?"
Seeing Catwoman's bewildered expression, Zuo Ci couldn't help laughing from his hiding place in the corner.
While she was unconscious, Jack had woven this cage directly out of steel rebar. There was no exit at all. The only way out was to break it apart by force.
And as it happened, an agility-based hero like Catwoman couldn't break it open no matter how hard she tried.
"You..."
At the sight of Zuo Ci's unrestrained grin, Catwoman's gaze sharpened. She had originally thought he was just a freak with a few tricks up his sleeve. She hadn't expected him to be this formidable.
"Okay, okay, you win. I give up. I'll return the money I stole from the big guy."
Realizing there was no way out, Catwoman simply stopped struggling.
From her earlier conversation with Poison Ivy, she had gotten a rough idea of Zuo Ci's personality. She knew he responded to a soft approach, not a hard one.
So she yielded outright. She had only stolen a few lousy coins anyway. Returning them was no big deal.
"Sure. Since you're being so cooperative, I won't make things difficult for you.
Just hand over the eighteen months of wages I paid Jack in advance. That comes to two hundred thousand dollars."
Zuo Ci held out his hand with a wicked grin, while Catwoman stared in disbelief.
Wait, what the hell was he talking about? I only stole a few coins! Even with the wallet included, it wasn't worth two dollars, and he wants two hundred thousand?!
"How could I possibly have stolen that much?!"
"Oh, so you're denying it? Jack, tell us. Exactly how much did she steal from you?"
Looking at Zuo Ci's eminently punchable face, Jack fell silent and turned his head away as though he hadn't heard.
"See! You stole so much money in one go that you've made him depressed! Shouldn't you pay another eight hundred thousand or a million for his therapy and medical bills?"
"..."
At that moment, Catwoman suddenly understood why Poison Ivy had been so miserable. Wasn't this guy a little too shameless?
"Two hundred thousand is a bit much. I don't have that kind of money. Whatever am I going to do~?"
Though she hated Zuo Ci's shameless behavior, Catwoman knew she had to bow her head when someone else held all the cards. So she deliberately lay down, showing off her lovely curves while putting on a affected display of distress.
She was going to seduce Zuo Ci. Once he opened the cage, she would definitely be able to escape!
"No money, huh? Easy~"
But to her surprise, Zuo Ci didn't even give her a second glance. Instead, he pulled a spray can straight out of his pocket.
"Ta-da! Meme Pollution Spray!
Since you don't want to pay me back, you can take your punishment instead. This is the Meme Pollution Spray. Once I use it, your perception will be completely rewritten.
From now on, no jewel will ever look like a jewel to you again. It'll look like a lump of shit, smell like a lump of shit, and feel like a lump of shit.
And actual shit will look sparkling and crystal clear to you. It'll even give off the rich, elegant fragrance of gemstones.
Well? Pretty neat stuff, right~?
Heeheehee~"
Before you continue