Gotham Arc #14.
The spider-sense hum dropped from urgent to ambient. Jake's clarity returned: Batman was gone, but someone else was still nearby.
He spun at the footsteps behind him, webs firing instinctively from both wrists.
"Hey, hey!"
Selina dodged, hands shooting up in surrender.
"I just want to talk." Her voice was level, non-threatening. "No tricks. No fighting."
The hum persisted -- warning, not alarm. His fingers twitched over his web-shooters anyway.
Selina stood ten feet away, torn webbing still clinging to her legs in ragged strips. Her posture was open, vulnerable. The whip coiled at her hip remained untouched, her hands spread wide.
"You really did it," she said quietly. Something in her voice -- respect? Fear? Both? "You fought Batman and walked away."
Jake stared at her. His mind was still on that rooftop. On Batman's silhouette disappearing into shadows. On the certainty that this wasn't over.
"I wasn't doing it to impress you," Jake said, voice flat.
Selina tilted her head, studying him with new eyes. "Still, you forced him to retreat. Do you understand how rare that is?"
"Flattery won't get you the ring back." Jake's fingers closed around the golden band protectively. "Nothing will."
"That thing has brought me nothing but misery," Selina said, voice hollow. "I'm not trying to get it back. I need something else."
Jake lowered his hands. "Good luck finding it."
He turned to leave.
"Wait." Something like a plea crept into her voice.
He paused mid-step.
"Don't you want to know who it belongs to?" she asked. "What the Roman Ring means?"
Jake's thumb traced the ring's smooth curve. Did knowing the owner matter? He had the ring. The system should accept it.
"T. Finder..."
Selina was watching. His jaw tightened. The interface was his secret, and here he was about to summon it in front of her.
"You have to know who'll be coming for it, and why, to keep surviving." Selina took a step closer. "Or... you can leave Gotham while you still can."
Jake's jaw clenched, Batman's warning echoing in his memory. Being told where he could and couldn't go -- that scraped against everything he was becoming.
But beneath her words lay an unspoken ask. She wasn't just offering information -- she was looking for a solution. Someone to take the problem off her hands permanently.
"I won't help you," Jake cut her off before she could ask. "Not for information. And definitely not for a way out of Gotham."
The regret hit before she even responded.
Something flickered across her face: the beginning of a plea, quickly suppressed. Her mouth opened, closed. Whatever she'd been about to say, she swallowed it.
"Fine." She turned, jaw set, eyes hardening behind the goggles.
He didn't owe her anything. The ring was his. That's all that mattered.
She looked toward the bright lights of Hillside, swallowed hard, and wiped at something beneath her goggles. Her shoulders dropped. Whatever her plan was -- she would have to go on without the ring.
She coiled, ready to spring--
"Wait." The word came out rougher than he intended.
Damn it. He'd been too proud too soon.
The interface blazed in his vision, red text cutting through his certainty.
🕷️
[Totem collected!]
Category: Unknown
Reward: Unknown
Essence unknown: Totem irredeemable!
🕸️
He'd invoked the system. The interface had responded, but not how he'd expected.
Unknown essence. Of course. The system needed identity, not just possession.
What criteria? The owners name? Looks? Traits?
Didn't matter what. The Roman Ring was still a mystery. One Selina could solve, if he swallowed his pride.
Another second and she'd have been gone. The ring useless in his hand.
He'd wanted to leave before the guilt settled. Now the system had trapped him.
"I'll help you," Jake said. Each word cost him something.
She looked at him -- puzzled -- eyes widening behind the goggles.
"What's with the change of heart?" The suspicion in her voice was understandable.
Self-interest disguised as morality? Morality disguised as self-interest? He could argue either.
Easier to say nothing.
"But this time," Jake went on, "I need to know I can trust you."
Selina's gaze dropped to the rooftop. Something passed across her face -- memory, maybe. Or guilt.
Her eyes flicked to his hand -- to the ring. Whatever calculation was running behind those goggles, he couldn't read it.
The wind picked up, carrying exhaust fumes and distant sirens. His shoulders still ached from the flash-bang.
She swallowed hard. Her jaw worked, like words were stuck there, before she finally spoke.
"Carmine Falcone," she said, voice heavy. "The Roman Ring belongs to him. It's a symbol of power. Whoever has it controls Gotham's underworld."
Jake's eyes widened. The interface flickered in his vision, text reshaping.
🕷️
[Totem collected!]
Category: Rare
Reward: +72h to your Time Bank
Redeem totem to receive reward? (Y/N)
🕸️
Rare. Seventy-two hours. Three full days bought with a single name.
She hadn't lied. But why volunteer it? She'd just given him every reason to walk away.
He searched her eyes behind the goggles. Desperate. Genuine. Waiting.
Selina Kyle didn't beg. She negotiated, manipulated, took.
So what was this? He couldn't see the angle.
One explanation remained, and it made his chest tight.
Did she actually want to be trusted?
She swallowed hard. He watched her face for tells, for the mask to slip back into place.
She held his gaze. Didn't look away. Didn't deflect.
Something in him shifted. A choice made.
"I trust you," Jake said, mouth suddenly dry. He didn't -- not really.
His guard stayed up. Every instinct still tracked her movements. But he'd said the words. Hoped they would mean something.
"Now tell me why you were headed for Hillside," Jake said. "Walking into Falcone's backyard while he's hunting for you is either stupid, or desperate."
She hesitated, choosing her words carefully.
"The night I raided Carmine Heights, I left something behind," she said. "Something I can't leave Gotham without."
"You were hoping to trade the ring for it."
"Only as a contingency." Her voice caught. "I didn't think I'd find anyone who could actually help."
"Stupid it is," Jake said. "That plan had about a dozen ways to get you killed."
Selina's hand twitched toward her whip, instinctively -- forgetting what he could do. "So you won't--"
"But I understand." His voice softened.
Her desperation reminded him of Harley hunting for her mallet. Of Riddler's expression when he took his cane. Of Penguin's umbrella.
Whatever she'd left behind -- that was her totem. Her reason to risk everything.
A question sat heavy in his chest. What would he do when they got to it?
A siren wailed somewhere in the Narrows. They both tensed, listening until it faded.
"You stole from someone as powerful as Falcone. Someone must have sent you," Jake deduced. "Who?"
Her chest heaved, shoulders pulling back. Jake sensed the fear.
"Someone worse -- more dangerous," she managed to answer, a shiver for every word. "Never gave me his name."
Possibly a rival. Maroni? Not Penguin -- him and Falcone were allied.
Maybe how he looked could help.
"Description?"
Her chin raised, gaze unfocused, memory searching.
"He wore a black, hooded ninja suit, face masked and a thin green sash around his waist," she replied.
Jake's stomach dropped. He knew that uniform. League of Shadows. Ra's al Ghul's assassins.
No wonder she was terrified.
The assassin must have double-crossed her when she'd gone to collect. Typical.
He gazed at her with newfound respect. Surviving a target on her back from an assassin -- she lived up to her reputation.
Vintage Catwoman.
"Your plan better be good," Jake said.
"You'll help me?" Her voice rose slightly. "Actually help?"
"Of course," Jake said.
But even as the words left him, his spider-sense hummed faintly, persistent. Remembering.
She was still Selina Kyle. Still Catwoman. Still unpredictable.
That's why he had to do this, for himself.
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