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Last Night on the Town
“You’ve been busy the last few weeks,” Batman said from behind him as he stood up and turned to see him and Robin standing there. “Break ins all over Europe, Canada and the West Coast.” He had to smirk behind his mask at how much it was going to piss Selena off that Batman had fallen for her in the padded suit pulling the robberies for him while he used a suit with different padding to start rumors she was in Mexico and Texas.. “Though I would like to know how long Catwoman has known you?”
“Not long at all we met in Texas for the first time,” he lied before turning his head toward Robin. “Don’t you have anything to say pretty bird?” He knew she hated the nick name but it should draw her into the conversation. The fact Bruce was being chatty meant that he was fishing for information so Robin was meant to only observe.
“What are you doing back in Gotham the rumor is your retiring?” Robin said and he caught the brief flash of irritation from Bruce. Which meant that she’d been instructed to let him take the lead since this was the first time Batman had met Stray.
“I was just visiting a fence you know the one runs a nightclub here in town,” he said easily. He saw Batman’s eyes narrow at his casual tone about doing business with the penguin. “I needed to sell the trinkets I got on my little spree as quickly as possible so I can take a nice long vacation until your bosses psychotic ex stops digging into my past.” He almost wished he’d gone with a mouth revealing cowl so they could see his smirk. “I’m a very private cat so the attention bothers me, especially when it comes form the daughter of the demon.”
He heard it then the click over the bat radio that meant whoever Bruce had called for back up was nearly there. So he wasn’t taking any chances of him getting away and he was glad that Bruce had never figured out the real reason he stole Robin’s belt. He was really hoping for Nightwing and not Batgirl. He was pretty sure she might ruin the game with her ability to read body language. “Anyway time for me to go I have a ride out of the city to catch,” he said and saw Batman tense. “Given the rate he goes through side pieces there will probably be another Robin by the time I come back pretty bird so take my advice and retire your not good enough to go solo.”
It worked just like he expected it to she leapt forward angrily getting into Batman’s line of sight so when he darted to the left and lept off the building he got a good head start. He felt bad for using her insecurity but he couldn’t risk being caught now. He’d worked too hard to set things up so he could come back to the city letting them know Tim Drake was alive without giving away definitive proof of being Stray. He fought down his annoyance when he heard Batman calling for Nightwing and Batgirl to change direction to cut him off.
That meant it was time for the contingency plan he hadn’t wanted to use but he couldn’t risk Batgirl getting near enough to see him. So he changed his direction and began dropping small flashbang charges from his belt. He knew they would only buy him at most three or four seconds lead time but it would be enough as he zeroed in on the building he’d prepared in case this was necessary.
He dove through the window and then immediately began zig zagging through the piled debris that he’d carefully arranged to slow down any pursuers while allowing him to quickly get from the top floor to the street quickly by jumping through the holes in the floor. He was on the bottom floor around the time he heard Batman yelling for Nightwing and Batgirl to cover the front and back of the building so he wouldn’t escape.
He ignored it and headed to the small wall where the sewer access was. It was sealed with a very expensive electronic lock that he quickly punched the code into it and then descended until he hit ended up in an underground electrical tunnel. He hit the switch at the bottom that fused the access point shut and headed off down the quickest route to where he could get back up top without being caught. He hated Gotham’s sewer and electrical works you never knew who or what you might run into down in the depths but it was the only way without getting drawn into a fight. He was pretty sure he could escape from any of them except possibly Batgirl one on one but no way he could do all four even if he played dirty.
Still now that he was safely away and listening to the Bruce ordering Stephanie to swap with Batgirl so she could assist him in flushing out Stray. He found himself smiling that had been a lot of fun and even having to burn one of his escape set ups would be worth it in the long run. He knew that Oracle would track the money the Penguin wired him for the stolen goods and it would show that Stray was somewhere in the Caribbean in the next few weeks before the trail would go cold as the money were transferred in ways even she couldn’t track.
The End