Still alive

[femme_du_chat]

It is what Selina has to believe. She's slept less than four hours over the last forty-eight and she hasn't found Holly. She's found lots of old abandoned buildings, more than a few things rigged to explode, eviscerate and even in one case to defenstrate people messing with them but no Holly

Comments

[jla_extras]

None of the data has changed.

Abbot, Jason
Allister, Devin
Banks, Phillip
Brulin, Marcus
Devin, Steven...

But all the leads seem to come up with nothing.

...Jennings, Kiesha
Kaitos, Sagi
Kendall, Raymond
Lexington, Roman
Limmuns, Carl...

There has to be a clue in this list somewhere.

...Richmond, Karl
Saphie, Victoria
Sinclair, Kyle
Tiberous, Jim
Torrence, Marshall...

She simply has to find it.

[femme_du_chat]

Damn it.

She'd checked the Romans, the obvious refrences to Rome. In these names it has panned out nothing. Completely nothing. She doesn't need to look at the list anymore to repeat all of the names on it. Checked all the buildings he's owned, the ones the company owned...

Wait.

Kyle?

Kyle Sinclair?

Her last name and... Huh. Maybe... There could be something there.

[jla_extras]

Could be. Seems Mr. Sinclair is the owner of a weekend house that used to belong to Sionis family.

Its located less than an hour outside of Gotham.

[femme_du_chat]

Oh God.

Why didn't she see this before?

On the motorcycle the speed she's pouring on is dangerous. In her current condition, she's very, very lucky that she gets there in once piece.

It is much less than an hour later when she gets there.

[jla_extras]

Nice neighborhood, this one. Plenty of open for each home. Plenty of privacy for each home owner.

The house seemed quiet, but looks can be deceiving.

It was guarded by a top-notch security system.

[femme_du_chat]

Of course it is.

Usually Catwoman doesn't operate in the daylight hours but right now, she doesn't care. In fact, she was tempted to say the hell with secrecy and just bust down the doors with the bike. That would likely cause more problems than it would solve.

So, she tackles the security systems one at a time, doing her best to disarm without notifications.

[jla_extras]

It seems to take forever, but one by one, each security measure is countered or carefully avoided.

Eventually, she's in.

[femme_du_chat]

Taking a breath in and letting it back out, she continues to make her way into the estate. She listens for any noises and looks for any signs of recent activity or struggles.

Especially struggles.

[jla_extras]

On the surface, things initially look like just another dead end.

Until she reaches the kitchen.

There's a bloody rag in the sink, and all sorts of recently clean cutlery in the dishrack.

[femme_du_chat]

It causes a sinking sensation in her stomach to see it. And it also makes her all the more urgent in her searching. She has to be careful as she doesn't know who might be here. Her claws are itching to slice into Black Mask but she'd much rather find Holly.

She continues her search of the ground floor.

[jla_extras]

Again, nothing seems unusual on the surface. But there are quite a few weapons stashed all over the place.

But no idea where he could be keeping Holly, until she arrives at a door. Which has six different high security locks on it.

[femme_du_chat]

This she can handle. This is what she does.

Carefully, tamping down any sort of urge to rush, Catwoman works on the locks on the door. She has no idea how much time she does or does not have but she can't afford to rush this. Not with so much on the line.

Still, when she starts, her hands are shaking ever so slightly.

[jla_extras]

There are no traps, no alarms.

With time and skill, each lock gives way until her path is clear.

The door opens up to reveal a stairway that heads into the basement. The smell coming up from that area isn't particularly pleasant.

[femme_du_chat]

The stairway is taken less carefully than it should be but she can't hold herself back any longer. She has to know if this is just another dead end.

[holly_gonightly]

It's dark as she descends the stairs.

But it's not a dead end.

Because tied to a chair in the middle of the room is Holly.

She's bruised and bloody, but she lifts her head as Selina enters.

[femme_du_chat]

A choked sound escapes from Selina as she rushes to Holly. She's not a medical professional by any means but she does her best to check her over quickly as she starts to untie her.

"Holly... Oh God."