Maximum: Catwoman #4

The winds of perdition swirled around the heart of Gotham or was that his own heart? It was a wide divide that he didn’t know how to control the past. He wanted to watch it all burn down. He wasn’t really sadistic was he? Police sirens were all around but he felt like his life had done a one-eighty. Dent didn’t live anymore. Harvey… two sides of the coin – chance? That’s it! Two-Face!








Selina had put herself in rough spots before, but running with The Batman was crazy! And she wasn’t crazy was she? She put her hands in her hair as she tried to put her life into focus, but walking that fine line between legitimacy scared her unlike flying from the highest buildings. It wasn’t that crazy…

Maggie put her hand on Selina’s shoulder as seemed to wake Selina up and out of her day dreaming. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I am okay.” Selina replied as she stood and walked to the kitchen. She had realized that Maggie was dressed and carrying a backpack. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Look, Sel, I am really grateful for everything you’ve done for me, but I need to get out.” Selina blinked her eyes a couple times in shock.

“Bullshit, Maggie, not after all the crap I’ve had to do.”

“I might just a kid to you, Selina, but I know what I am doing. I’ve lived off the streets for a long time just like you did… just like you told you did.”

Selina felt herself starting to tear up a bit because she saw so much of herself in this girl. “I know, but I was hoping that we could be like…”

“Sisters?” Maggie laughed out a little. “I don’t need a guardian angel, Selina. Goodbye.” And with that Maggie was gone. Selina just stood there for a moment in shock that didn’t seem to ebb away, because it was like being slugged in the gut.

“Guardian angel, give a break.” She repeated the phrase that bugged her the most. Selina had decided to let her go. If she were going to discover the world like she did then she would need to make her own mistakes. It was anger that was mostly speaking, but she knew that there were people on the streets that could cry a thousand tears to fill an ocean. Selina sat down on the couch as she rubbed her eyes and sighed. She felt like she had failed all over again.




Commissioner Gordon had organized the police into a well-organized army, but the cost of it had been taking a toll on his home life. Gordon loved his family more than anything, but he and his wife had grown farther and farther apart to the point that they were sleeping in separate bedrooms. He tried not to let it affect him on his job but his thoughts always seemed to calculate the costs that his job was costing him. Gordon’s life great from the outside, but anyone knew what was going on knew that it was churning inside him like a cancer. Gordon put the file that he had brought with him and put it on the desk of Mayor Gianaotto. He was one of the few public officials that he had any faith in… for now though.

“What do we know?” Gianaotto looked at the file and then looked up at Gordon as he picked up his coffee.

Gordon shook his head. “Not much, I guess Dent knew how to disappear.”

“Christ’s sake, Jim this is going to be a media circus. I was the one that sponsored him for the DA’s post!” The Mayor growled at Gordon, but it was more at the situation. “What about that Batman guy?”

Gordon sighed as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and shrugged. “He comes and goes as he wishes, your Honour… Not exactly reliable.”

“But, I thought that the two of you were working together?”

“He’s a vigilante, John. Yeah sure I have asked for his help before, but I can’t base my operations off one man that hides behind symbols.”

“Yeah true and if he goes whacko you can kiss my ass goodbye.”

“We’ll get him, John. Dent doesn’t know all my tricks.” Gordon tried to reassure the mayor.

“You sure about that, Jim? I mean you hated his guts until he started to go for the high profile creeps.”

Gordon nodded. “We had a working relationship, John. Listen I need to go, but I’ll get back to you when I know something, okay?”

“Okay, Jim.” Gordon walked out of the mayor’s office and back to the streets where the hunt was still on.





Harvey looked at Gotham Harbours and signed as he still felt the bandages on his face. They stuck to his face because of the dried blood that had caked on his scars. The skin had been burned away by the battery acid in the courtroom. One of Maroni’s goons had seen to it that he was maimed for the rest of his life, but he was going to take it to Maroni. He pulled away the bandages as it caused him great pain as the bandages ripped away from the scarred tissue on his left side of his face. He had one face now… he had decided that Two-Face was his name. He would make sure that the people of Gotham would pay for his pain and anguish… No More Hiding!!!




Batman had seen the birth of the Joker and now it seemed that Harvey Dent was one of the ones that he was going to have to battle. Dent had taken the stance of trying to clean up the city of Gotham, and it had been a brief friendship between he and the district attorney. As Batman, he was had been on the streets in his war on crime for a little less than a year. He landed outside of Selina Kyle’s apartment and he tapped on the window, but there was no answer. He picked the lock with the lock pick that he carried in his utility belt and he snuck inside of the apartment. It was full of second hand furniture but neatly kept. He suddenly saw a shadow swinging something at his head, but he was able to do a back flip and get out of the way of the attack. It was Selina Kyle swinging one of the cat statues that she had heisted but had decided to keep. Selina turned on the light and saw The Batman ready for another attack. She had become incensed as she looked at him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Looking for you, you’re a hard woman to track down!” He replied to her.

“I don’t need a parent!!” She said still very angry.

“No, you don’t, but you agreed to work with me to find Dent.”

“Find him, yes. Being stalked by you, no!” She looked at him.

He responded to her not phased by her anger. “Get dressed we’re going out.”

“After this is over with you, you can go to hell.” She looked at him and then she went to her closet and grabbed her suit and was behind the wall divider as she stripped down naked, which her silhouette showed the perfect lines of her body off in shadow. Batman watched for a moment as his mind wandered, but he refocused to the task at hand. She came out and had much of her cleavage showing as she zipped her suit up and grabbed her night vision goggles and watched him. “Let’s go.”

They opened her window and both secured their lines as they swung off into the night. It was time to find their prey and end this.




Alexander Knox was busily typing a story so that he could meet deadline but then he picked up his ringing phone. “Knox.”

“Mr. Knox, I know where to find Harvey Dent.” It was a voice that he didn’t recognize right off the bat. The voice seemed familiar but he couldn’t place it.

“All the cops in Gotham are looking for him… and you know where he is?” He sounded skeptical.

“Let’s just say that Dent was in deep with Maroni and I, heh, A lot deeper than most people know.”

“Who are you?” He grabbed a pad of paper because he was starting to believe this person somewhat.

“People who stand to gain a lot if Dent is out of the picture for good.” The voice chuckled darkly. “You can quote me as Mr. Jay if you wish.”

“Uh huh and what else?” Knox raised an eyebrow as he tried to figure out who the other person on the other end was.

“It’s all in the cards, Mr. Knox.” The line went dead after that last statement. Knox realized what the voice was alluding to as he wrote down ‘Stacked Deck’ on his pad of paper and got up and grabbed his hat and coat and headed to go to the nightclub with a bad reputation. Booze, poker and women… all wrapped neatly in the cigar smoke that made the atmosphere where the hoods did their dirty dealings. Knox was known as being an advocate for the ‘little guy’ so he was able to get away with a lot more than a private dick or a cop.

Knox walked into the club and looked around as he saw Vito tapping a guy’s drink and he saw the old wiley Italian waving him over. “Knoxy, what’cha doing down in these parts I thought Gordon gave you the heave-ho?”

“Yeah well, you know when you gotta write a column and all…” Knox shrugged and sat down. “Checking a lead on a story from a call I got.”

“Yeah?” Vito wiped the bar down.

“Yeah, said that he knew where I could find someone.” Knox shrugged and looked at Vito.
“Well, I ain’t a stool pigeon, Knoxy so you’re going to need to be a little more open with me, you know?”

“Okay it’s Havey Dent. The whole town is looking for him, and I got a call from someone that calls himself Mr. Jay saying that he’s knows he’s going to be coming in here.”

“Dent eh?” Vito looked at him. “I heard he went nutsy and flew the coop.”

“Who told you that though?” Knox motioned to the beer that Vito slide to him.

“No one told me, I just heard it.” Just then Vito was interrupted by a figure in a dark coat and white fedora. The entire club seemed to look at him as he kept his head down and out of the light so no one could see him yet.

“Chance it’s why we’re all here tonight.” The dark husky voice from the dark man filled the room as he looked around from the shadows. The figure took off his fedora as it was the half normal face of Harvey Dent and half scarred, burned and disfigured side of a monstrosity. He took out the silver coin that had a good heads and a bad heads and he looked at everyone in the club. “Half of you will live tonight and half of you will die tonight. It’s all about chance ladies and gentlemen.”

Knox took the chance to slip to the backroom where the craps, roulette and high stakes poker tables were. He took the cell phone out of his coat and hit the speed dial number to Commissioner Gordon’s cell. When Gordon answered. “Jim, Dent is at the Stacked…..” It was all he was able to get out when the cell phone was grabbed from his hand.

Two-Face spoke into the phone. “Wrong number.” He closed the phone and threw it to the ground as it smashed into a billion pieces. “I thought a weasel like you would be here.”

“Listen, Harvey, I don’t want no trouble you know?”

“I go by Two-Face now, Alex.” He had a dark smile on his good side of his face. “Tell you what, Knoxy, if I get a good head’s you live… bad head’s and well that’s not so good news.” He took the coin in the palm of his hand and suddenly flipped it before Knox could say anything and it landed on the back of his hand and he flipped it over and looked at the results. “God’s good to you tonight, Mr. Knox… doesn’t mean I can’t beat the shit out of you though.” He landed a kick to Knox’s face as he landed against the wall in a heap and collapsed down unconscious. “So much for tonight’s deadline, eh?” He walked out of the backroom as Two-Face’s henchmen had gathered everyone in the main ballroom. It was time to dispense justice.





Gordon looked at Harvey Bullock as he closed his cell phone. “Knox just called. Harvey is at the Stacked Deck.”

“I thought you told that rat to stay away from there.” Bullock put a toothpick back in his mouth.

“I guess he doesn’t listen like you.” Gordon didn’t wait for Bullock’s response as he went to get his hat and coat and he rushed out to gather the cops and the swat team. He didn’t have time to put the bat signal up, but he if he was the best detective in town… he knew that the Bat would be there as well.

All of Gotham’s finest gathered in the cars and the swat team was ready. “Short and sweet, boys and ladies.” He nodded to Renee Montoya. “Dent’s at the stacked deck. We don’t know what he’s capable of so we’re going to do this boy the book. No one fires anything until you hear from me, got that?” The crowd assembled all seemed to nod in unison. It was a good group he had but he still knew that there were some rats on the force he still needed to ferret out. “Let’s go.”






Two-Face stomped from one side of the ballroom to the other. “Where is he?!” He looked at Knox who had come to and he sat down with her others.

“The cops are coming, Dent.” Knox said in an exasperated tone.

“It’s Two-Face now!!” He held the gun to Knox’s head. “Not Gordon! The Bat!”

Suddenly two figures dropped down from roof and one of them landed a kick to the back of Two-Face’s head as he was dropped like a sack of potatoes. It was Batman and Catwoman as they landed near each other.

Knox shook his head at Catwoman. “Great looks like we’ve got the dynamic duo to save the day.”

Catwoman snapped her cat-o-nine tails and she looked at Knox. “Nice to see you again, lover boy.” She quipped because she knew that Knox hated her because she had misled him. Two-Face got to his feet as he aimed his gun at Catwoman but the gun was knocked from his hand before he could fire it by Batman’s batarang. Catwoman did a couple of sommersaults and landed a double kick to two of Two-Face’s goons before they could regroup and attack. Batman landed a few moves of his own and took out the rest of them and he looked at Two-Face seemed to be screaming in fury as he looked for something to attack them with. He got behind a pool table and saw a gun that had been kicked over there and he picked it up and took Knox in his grasp as he put the gun to the reporter’s head. “Okay, Chippy, I am tired of this, I am going to blow his head off!!” Without thinking about the possibilities she grabbed her whip and snapped it fast as it the tip of it landed on Two-Face’s hand and it ripped a wound open on his gun hand and Two-Face growled out in pain. Catwoman pointed to Knox. “Grab him!” Batman fired a grapple line and he grabbed Knox in his arms and he flew up into the night.

Two-Face had been able to reach the veranda doors, but Catwoman kicked him through the doors, and the shards from the glass cut him into ribbons as blood started to cover his face. “What the hell did I ever do to you, Cat-bitch!!” Two-Face growled at her.

Catwoman nearly recoiled as this was the man that she had worshipped as her lover. “Eye for an eye… Justice!” She looked him directly in the eyes and she did not look away from his monstrosity. “How many people have you killed?!”

“Enough to get TWO life sentences!” He shook his head, as he was getting weak from the loss of blood. “Since when did you care about that? Last time I checked you were a crook like me.”

“No, Harvey, I am nothing like you. I haven’t killed, maimed or raped anyone.” She shook her head. “Why did you do it? It didn’t have to be this way…”

“What way was it going to be, Kitten?” Two-Face looked at her. He used the name that was his pet name for her. It was a named that she loved so much.

“Nothing like this.” She replied. “You raped a girl that I was close to and now she’s on the streets like I was.”

Two-Face suddenly felt a pang of guilt in his soul, “Selina?”

“No!! Catwoman!!” She saw the Gotham PD starting to gather and they had made their way into the club. She gathered herself and picked him up and was going to push off the edge of the building, but she suddenly felt a hand grab hers. She looked at Batman. “NO!!”

“You’re not a killer, Catwoman!”

“He is though!” She looked at him and saw Two-Face crumpled to the ground. She knew it wasn’t going to be an argument that she was going to win. She just lassoed a flagpole and flung herself up and out of sight. Batman watched her leave and he fired a grapple line and took Dent down to the ambulances that had been called to care for the injured. He laid Dent down on the gurney and looked at Gordon who shook his head. “I guess she’s gone?”

Batman nodded. “I don’t think she can handle being around the situation that she cannot control.” He looked away. “Make sure he’s taken care of… I don’t think he knows who or what he was.”

“I’ll leave that the professionals.” And there was no response as he looked around and he had disappeared like he always did. “Let’s get this wrapped up people.” He pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He patted the tail of the ambulance that housed Dent and it took off for the hospital. Gordon didn’t know he would seem either one of them again, but he knew it would be when things were crazy again… It seemed to be the natural course of things.



Selina was smoothing out her suit and she looked over at her porch and she saw Batman looking at her from the window. She sighed and she went over and opened it to let him in. “I thought I told you to go to hell.”

“I thought we made a good team.”

“I am not a hero, Bats.” She looked at him and went back to putting her suit away. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“I wanted to thank you. I think that we’ll be able to get Harvey the help that he needs.”

“Good for him.” She sounded as if she could truly care less. He knew that she did care though, because she had been his former lover.

“Why are you so angry?”

“Remember that girl I told you about?” She looked at him with a deadpan seriousness.

“Maggie?”

“She’s dead now. The cops found her last night when I got back. There was a message on my answering machine. This is because of him, Batman.” She shook her head at him. “That’s why I say what I say.”

Batman didn’t seem stirred by those revelations, but he knew at her core she was angry, sad and confused. It was something he had experienced by the death of his own parents. “I am sorry.”

“Are you really?” Selina looked at him in disbelief. “Does your sense of justice really over ride your apology…. Or is it a genuine apology?”

“You don’t know me well enough to judge me.” He turned to leave her apartment.
“You’re right. I have no idea who you are, but if you are serious then I accept your apology.” She looked at him. “Now please leave me alone.”

“Fine. I am sorry for your losses.” He looked back. “Maybe we can help each other again, someday.”

“I doubt it.” Selina looked at him. “If that does happen though, maybe you will be less of a jerk.” She saw him jump from her porch and shrugged. “Then again I have been wrong before.” She stood on her porch for a minute and tried to put her life into focus, but it was hard. It wasn’t easy for her, but she had chosen this life…. And whatever came she would face it.