Melding Minds for Mayhem:
Catwoman in Control

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Story © Steve Zink

The following story contains characters owned by DC Comics/Warner Bros. It is written as a fanfic parody story not intended to affect any use of actual story lines in published books. The story is purely for fun, with no profit to be made by the author.

Prologue:

Late April, 1984 - Northern Virginia

The desire of President Ronald Reagan to both build up in strength and greatly modernize the US military after the drawdowns instigated by his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, was bringing forth great leaps in technology along with renewed moral and pride within the services themselves. This buildup would eventually lead to the fall of Communism, since the Soviet government could in no way afford to try and keep up, let alone surpass what the US was doing. Stealth technology and computer breakthroughs were making the Air Force and the Navy particularly well equipped to handle potential war situations. As would be seen nearly twenty years later, however, it was this concentration on possibly fighting big enemies in large-scale warfare scenarios that would hamper the needed change to handling small scale battles against barely there enemies.

Northrop, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas, working on what at the time were ultra secret stealth projects for the Defense Advance Research Project Agency, were by no means the only contractors involved in black projects. Making use of ultra miniaturized computer systems and breakthroughs in brain function research and quantum physics, an otherwise nondescript company in Pentagon City called Electro-Comp was making great strides in a project so black that only one specialist in the Central Intelligence Agency's Operations Directorate and two of his immediate aides knew what they were assembling. The location in the office complex across the street from Crystal City and just south of the Pentagon put the company deep in the heart of a complex devoted entirely to the needs of the Defense Department. The fact that Electro-Comp was working for the CIA instead of the DoD was hidden very well by the fact that besides the ultra black CIA project, the small company was also working on systems integration computers for Naval Air Systems Command, next door in Crystal City.

What Electo-Comp developed for the CIA was a device whose function would become nearly useless at the same time all the big war planning by the military proved to be pointless with the fall of the Soviet Union. What the CIA wanted and got, just in time to never get used, was a device that would allow an interrogator to get any bit of information he or she needed from a captured spy. The deepest held secrets, which not even sodium pentothal could evince, would be up for grabs. Electro-Comp had perfected a mind merging device.

The interrogator would slip two wire brackets over his or her ears which had thin wires attached, leading to a single cable going down their back and plugging into a unit not much bigger than a tape or CD player. The front face of the unit had a small window through which would project a beam that would connect the mind of the target with that of the unit's wearer. There were but two small buttons on the top of the device, one to activate the process and one to revert.

Yes, revert is the correct word. For the interrogator didn't just have a mental link with the target person, he or she ceased to exist as a separate entity. Their being would merge into that of the target, with their mind in complete control. The target's mind would be totally open to the new occupant of their body, allowing whatever was known by the spy to be gained by the interrogator. The merging unit was designed to transfer with the interrogator, and would appear on the target in the same way it had been worn by the interrogator. That way, when the need for merging was completed, the joining could be undone by the completely controlled body of the target pressing the revert button.

One side effect of the process that none of its developers had anticipated was discovered by accident when one of the female engineers used the device during the test period to merge with one of her male compatriots. Shortly after merging with him, a stray thought in her mind bemoaned the fact that she was no longer in her own ultra feminine, blonde haired body but in a black haired, muscular male one. She was even more surprised than the observers that the big male body she was within suddenly morphed into a perfect copy of her original, much smaller body, now with much too large male clothes draped over the small frame with the exception of the shirt, straining to remain buttoned with large breasts pushing out. As soon as she hit the revert button, her true body reappeared with her inside it and her target becoming male once again. He had complete knowledge of what he had experienced while transforming under the control of the female mind in his body. However, a question he asked after the process was never answered by any further tests - how could the mass of his muscular body alter into a much smaller form?

While never answered, this nuance of the process became a given during further tests. Eventually it became known that the initiator could predetermine exactly what he or she wished to look like upon activating the merger, based upon aspects of either body. Using one of the really muscular guys as a target, who had red hair, one of the absolutely tiny
women in the group who had prematurely grey hair merged with him. The resulting female form she adopted looked like Artemis, a red haired Amazon friend of Wonder Woman, tall and very well built. Apparently she had been able to utilize the mass of his body to build a much larger version of her own, not just in actual size but also in details such as the huge breasts she'd given herself. It was a good thing she was a woman very satisfied with her normally small stature; one thing nobody on the test team had thought of was the possibility that an interrogator may become so enthused with the new body they occupied that they would refuse to revert.

Another unforeseen effect of the device was discovered by accident, also. During one melding of two male engineers who happened to be rivals for the affections of the same waitress at the Hooters down the street, the initiator of the meld read all that was available in the mind of his target about said waitress. He casually gave a mental order for his target to forget everything he knew about the woman. It was a big surprise when at lunch the next day the target engineer was asked if he wanted to make a visit to his favorite Hooters waitress. His reply of, "Who?" immediately put a halt to any plans for lunch. All aspects of the meld from the day before were discussed in private with the initiator, and the casual thought control as opposed to mere reading became clear. Very tightly controlled tests in the following
couple of days confirmed that the initiator of the meld could not only erase memories, but induce totally new memories and mental traits into the target.

Unfortunately, it was just as the merging device had become completely proven and ready to pass on to the CIA that its raison d'être disappeared. When the Berlin Wall fell and nearly every single Communist government in the western world followed, the CIA found itself with no need for it. Had the DDO specialist known at the time that there were still spies within both the CIA and FBI, he wouldn't have scuttled the mind merger project. As it was, Electro-Comp turned over the one unit it had made for the CIA, along with all the spare parts, all the related test equipment and the many years worth of test files.

It didn't take long for the DDO officer to take note of the mention in the test files of the mental control properties of the melding device. A stroke of inspiration came to him. In what were supposedly just individual visits to Langley for each of the Electro-Comp employees to be briefed and debriefed by the CIA, every single one was targeted by their DDO contact making what would turn out to be the CIA's only use of the new device. Inside the mind of each employee, he deleted all  memories of work on the device and implanted the memory of a quick and rather bland visit to CIA HQ. They went back to Pentagon City with knowledge only of a lost contract to supply encryption programs for the CIA, and a full concentration on their Navy projects.

Electro-Comp eventually moved from Pentagon City out to San Jose,  California to be closer to the nexus of computer development, finally becoming a company known to other people, or at least those in the computer industry. They lasted for three years before being bought out by a bigger development firm, with all the original memory swiped mind merger engineers going here, there and everywhere within their new employer's realm.

When it became known in the early 90s that the intended purpose of the mind merging device would seemingly never be needed anymore, the DDO officer made a momentous decision. To make sure those that followed him in his position in new administrations wouldn't misuse the awesome abilities of the device, he met with each of his two aides who knew of its development; as each left the office a short time later, they no longer had any knowledge of the mind meld system. With no records other than those handed over by Electro-Comp, the secret was now solely in his head. It would be a project that he expected would die with him.

It would seem that this degree of secrecy would have caused the DDO man to destroy the device. However, something in his pride wouldn't let him do so. The device and its related hardware and files Electro-Comp developed were sealed into an unmarked crate. If the CIA couldn't use the device, there was no way he wanted anybody else to get their hands on it and put it to use, possibly against those for whom it had been developed. Since CIA didn't have much in the way of a facility for storing old crates in the basement of their building, the crate was added to a collection of records boxes stored deep underground in the government's nuclear escape facilities in West Virginia.

* * * * * *

The Present - Gotham City

With its goal of putting the US Government's records completely in electronic form, something predicted as much as two decades before but never happening, WayneTech had been given access to all the various facilities in which paper records were stored. New scanning processes they had developed were the key to the government giving this private corporation permission to finally digitize its records. As part of the process, even the deep storage facilities in the no longer needed West Virginia location were opened up. The large majority of the records kept there were scanned in place; no way could Wayne Industries even think of hauling back to Gotham City the millions of cubic feet of records in storage that hadn't been accessed in decades. However, there were a number of boxes which had no identification on them, and these were trucked to Gotham City so that they could be determined to be safe before opening. It was known that the government had stored not only records, but also results of biological research at Fort Detrick in the facility. Each would be run through a system that would sniff for chemical traits, then X-rayed for visual verification.

It was during one such inspection that the small crate sealed by the CIA came into view. When no paper records were noted in the box, chemically or visually, it was shunted to a small group of boxes set aside for checking later. As it happened, the WayneTech scientist who happened to be on duty that afternoon was Dr. Francine Langstrom, a middle aged but still quite good looking woman with shoulder length blonde hair. Since the scans had shown nothing more than a vague image of few small electronic components, she set it off to the side while opening up a few more interesting boxes. Nothing of any worth was found in any of them, and since it was getting too close to the end of that Friday's work day to open any more, she logged it out in the records to take the small crate home to her own lab to check out later that evening or into the weekend if needed.

Dr. Langstrom had come to work for Bruce Wayne a few years previously. Her husband, Kirk Langstrom, was better known as Man-Bat. She herself had once been a victim of her husband's chemical research and become a She-Bat. Once she'd been cured of that affliction, her own scientific background and ability brought her to WayneTech. It didn't hurt that the owner of WayneTech just happened to be the hero who'd saved her from a life as a She-Bat - Batman. In his non-costumed identity, Bruce Wayne had made the proposal to the company board on the 'recommendation of Batman', and she was hired to work in the labs shortly thereafter. Bruce Wayne had not just her well being in mind in hiring her, however; being the wife of Man-Bat put him into closer contact with Batman, keeping his own transformations in more controlled form.

After dinner that evening, while Kirk proceeded to his own small lab to do some more work on his particular bat malady, Francine went to her den to check the box she'd brought home from work. It turned out to be a matter of boxes within the box, which partially explained the unclear image seen on the scanner back at WayneTech. The problem was further explained when she took a closer look at the outer box itself after removing the inner ones. There was a thin metallic lining throughout its interior, and as if that alone would not be enough to foil X-ray scanners, the cushioning peanuts seemed to have a strangely different consistency than the usual styrofoam. Interesting as this was, it was hardly the emphasis of Francine's efforts, though.

The first box she opened of those removed from the outer shell held all the CD-ROMs upon which Electro-Comp had placed the development and test records. Francine set these aside for the time being as she had no idea what their significance could be, and opened the box with all the spare parts. These piqued her interest and wonder. It was with now even greater anticipation that she opened the last box, containing the single assembled mind meld device. There was no hint of what she was holding in her hands, other than the fact that it vaguely resembled a CD player. The puzzling bit was that there were no earplugs or any sign of speakers on the wire moldings at the end of the cable not connected to the small box.

Since the exposure to the device she'd had by now had given no clue as to its purpose, Francine reached for the box of CDs and placed the front one in her computer. Even though a tiny voice in her mind said to expect music files when she opened up the D drive, she was pleased to find the opening description of the mind merging device. Without bothering to study all the accompanying test data and system specifics, she proceeded to go far enough into the discs to have a working knowledge of the device, along with a basic knowledge of what the CIA had intended to use it for. She toyed with the idea of testing it on Kirk, but thought better of the idea of entering a male body. She hadn't gone far enough into the record files to read about the body modifications, which was probably a good thing for Kirk, anyway.

So it became a matter of testing it on another female. Francine gave this some thought. She didn't want to just idly enter any other woman's mind; she wanted to make her trial run something which could prove beneficial. The first person Francine considered merging with in an effort to find out the whys and wherefores of her activities was Joker's volatile henchwoman Harley Quinn. It would have been relatively easy if Harley was in Arkham like she tended to be a lot lately but, as it was, both she and Joker were on the loose at the moment. Poison Ivy would be interesting if for no other reason than she too had been a research scientist prior to her change from the demure Pamela Isley to the ravishing Ivy. But Francine couldn't think of any hidden secrets the plant lady might have that would make the effort worthwhile.

Then her process of elimination led Francine to picture in her mind a woman whose activities were so convoluted that no one could ever be certain just what she would do next - Catwoman. The Feline Felon sometimes seemed to have a crush on Batman, and sometimes seemed to be doing her best to make him look like a fool. Her crimes never had any connection to the endangerment of human life, yet she seemed to have no inhibitions about demeaning another human being's self image. It would be fascinating to get into Selina Kyle's mind and find out just what it was that drove the woman to do what she did. The problem was, how could Francine get close enough to Catwoman to be within the ten foot range of the device?

Francine knew the villainess did most of her work at night, but was in  no way prepared to go out looking for her that evening. She spent the rest of the night thinking through what she could do to prepare herself the next day for a possible contact Saturday night. When Kirk joined her in their bedroom a few hours later, she grinned almost wickedly when he told her that he'd be going cross-county to Los Angeles early the next morning for a three-day trip. She made a good effort at sounding displeased that she was being left behind. In truth, she was more than glad that she would be all on her own to enact the mission she'd devised to get close to Catwoman.

Shortly after Kirk left for Gotham International Airport, Francine got set for her daytime preparations. Her first priority was to try and narrow down the possible locations in which Catwoman might appear that night. Web searches on the computer gave her listings of events or displays in Gotham City which had any cat interests, and analysis of these narrowed it down to those which would be not only the most valuable but also the most daring, to fit the usual crime profile of her target. Then, with one in which the least amount of damage could occur was decided upon, she started making phone calls to various 24-hour bars and diners that she knew were haunts of some of Gotham's smalltime criminals. Using her best sexy voice, she left brief word at each that Catwoman would be hitting the Gotham City Natural History Museum's Egyptian Golden Cats display later that evening, and didn't want anybody interfering with her caper. She was sure at least of few of them would get in touch with Catwoman to ask why they hadn't been
told about this before, thereby making sure Selina would wonder herself  what was going down at the Museum.

The next step was a bit more complicated. Francine had to drive into the seedier parts of the downtown area shortly after noon and do some selective shopping at a number of fetish clothing stores. She didn't want to be acquiring any more than one item at any one location, to make sure no questions could be raised about the combination of clothing being assembled. The next to last stop proved to be in a much finer part of the city, where Francine stopped to pick up a nearly waist length black wig.

Her final stop was to make a visit to the Natural History Museum. She hated to think that what she was doing was casing the place, but that is precisely what Francine had to do. Without any experience in breaking and entering, she had to use her strong sense of reason to figure out the best possible way to get in later that night. Presuming she could find a way in, it looked like an ultrasound jammer would take out the alarm system. The way in was discovered when she made a visit to the ladies room. There was a window at head level which had bars on a swinging gate covering it. After she made sure nobody else was in the restroom, she fished her utility tool out of her purse and proceeded to unscrew all the bolts save one on each of the two hinges.

Mission accomplished, it was late afternoon when Francine was able to finally head back to her house, the back seat of her car and its trunk packed with boxes of various sizes.

After all the boxes had been brought into her bedroom, Francine opened up one of them and took it's occupants to the sewing machine she had next to the washer-dryer in the utility room. First she took the black leather gloves and cut two small, curved triangle shaped pieces from one of them. The upper face and head covering black leather cowl she'd picked up then had one of these pieces sewn into place above and behind where each of her ears would be inside of it. Then the eye holes were enlarged and reshaped to the catlike shape of the original she was copying. With the mask and ears of the cowl finished to her satisfaction, Francine took it back to her bedroom and then retrieved the belt and whip from their respective boxes.

These she took to Kirk's workshop to arrange the hook and clip placement, then proceeded to her lab. Tentatively, she hooked the belt around her hips over the light blue dress she was wearing, then clipped the small clasp on the whip's grip to one of the D-rings on the left side of the belt. The small black box of the device was hooked to the right side, and didn't seem very much out of place. They both seemed perfect, so the belt was removed and taken back to the bedroom with the two attachments still in place, the rest of the device in her other hand.

Now it was time to see if all the preparations had been worth it. Francine slipped off her shoes, then unzipped her dress and pulled it off, along with the slip. She left her panties and pantyhose on, but removed her bra. Then she sat down at her dressing table and pulled her blonde hair up and over her head, covering it with a wig cap. The very long black wig, which was almost straight but slightly wavy, was pulled down over her head and straightened out. The special wig brush she'd bought untangled the few snarls which developed while putting it on, with the result of Francine looking into the mirror and seeing a raven haired woman where she normally saw a blonde. If she were to put her makeup to good use, she could have changed her look completely, but she figured that wasn't going to be necessary.

She reached into the box holding the most expensive item she'd obtained, then cut all the tags off. The shiny, black leather body suit seemed to ooze around her legs as she pulled it over them, actually fitting tightly enough that the leather was reshaping her calves and then thighs to fill the shape of the suit. Francine then slipped her arms into the sleeves, in the process pulling the torso up over her chest. Her unfettered breasts filled the molded cups of the catsuit very well, giving her the most erotic feeling as her nipples were excited. She ignored that as best she could as she reached behind her back to pull up the zipper, pulling her waist in and then molding her chest into its leather shape. One quick peek in the mirror told her she was well on the way.

The knee high black stiletto heeled boots were drawn over her feet and then laced up over her calves. While Francine had no problem with heels, she had to wonder how anyone could do any kind of jumping, running and other activities in them. Well, at least she wouldn't have to worry about that. She pulled the belt back on over her now molded black hips, and after making sure the box was still in place on the right side, placed the plug of the cord into its side. She lifted the hair off the back of her neck to place the two wire brackets over her ears, then let the wig fall back down again over the cable running down her back. With the cable tucked into the top of the belt, it proved nearly impossible to see.

The cowl with its added cat ears was then pulled down over her now black domed head. After lining up her eyes within the specially shaped holes, Francine reached up and behind her head to pull the zipper down, drawing all the hair into the resulting slot formed at the bottom. The mask and cowl pulled in close to her face, and completely covered her ears, hiding the brackets of the device. With the neck of the cowl tucked in to the top of the catsuit, Francine was nearly completely enclosed in shiny black leather. Once the hard to find opera length black leather gloves with built in metal claws were pulled up onto her arms, she had no flesh showing other than her lower face and the cat
shaped areas around her eyes.

On a whim, Francine got out a tube of cherry red lipstick and did her lips. 'Much better,' she thought, then decided to go just a bit further. She used her black eye liner to enhance the shape of her eyes, added a deep blue eye shadow to her lids, and finally used some black mascara to change her dark blonde lashes to lustrous black. There was no way possible for her to see herself in the image she saw in her mirror now. 'I'm a totally new person now,' she mused as she stood to check herself out in the vertical mirror next to her door. She was so close to being perfect it was uncanny. Only a close inspection in bright daylight would let anyone think this was not who she appeared to be. For what she intended to do in the dark of night which had already fallen, Francine had done just what she'd hoped. For no longer was she the scientist named Francine Langstrom...she was now the feline felon called Catwoman.

What better way to get Selina Kyle to come out and find her, than to pretend she was Catwoman and make like she was going to commit a crime that only the Feline Felon could do?

* * * * *
Part 2

Francine's phone calls made earlier in the day were even more effective than she'd imagined. No less than five of her underworld informers called Selina Kyle on the special line kept open just for them. When each asked her why they hadn't been consulted about the heist that evening, her curiosity grew in expanding steps. What the hell was going on?

This brought about a change in Selina's plans for that night.Originally she'd intended to work on setting up yet another trap to try and snare the little Bat Bitch who'd been getting under her skin every time the Terrific Trio caught her in the process of doing her dirty work. It was bad enough back when it had been just the Dynamic Duo, but ever since Batgirl had joined Batman and Robin in their crime fighting it seemed that the heroine's feminine intuition had locked right into Catwoman's own line of thinking. Selina had been planning on a devious little setup that would get Batgirl out of her hair, but now it looked like that would have to be put off.

The long, soaking bubble bath she took that afternoon both gave Selina a chance to get her mind off Batgirl and let her think about what was going down in a few hours. Was Batman trying to lure her into a trap by getting her to go to the Museum? Not his style. What, then? Could Batgirl be working on her own to set up a trap for Catwoman, as opposed to the other way around? This thought brought a very catty grin. The Cheshire Cat would have been proud. By the time her skin was super clean and soft as silk, Selina had come to the conclusion that something very strange was happening, and that she would have to be very careful when she went to the Natural History Museum.

After toweling herself dry and then using her blow dryer to take care of her waist length jet black mane, Selina reached into her undies drawer. At first she was set to grab some white panties with pink roses, but then pushed them aside to grab something more appropriate. She then pulled on her black panties. No sense having any color clashes, she mused while grinning. Nothing else in there would be needed, and the drawer was closed.

At almost the same time that another pair of eyes had been lined and shadowed, she used her makeup to change her face from the rather plain and almost demure Selina to the most definitely deadly and sinful looking one seen through the eye holes and exposed lower face of her Catwoman mask. This done, she reached for her brush and proceeded to
give many long and careful strokes to her silky hair. Then she walked over to her closet and opened up the hidden back panel.

The costume she pulled out had been put together in a manner not much different from the way in which Francine had spent the better part of the day getting her own. The big difference was that for Selina, pulling on the catsuit and the rest of the outfit was second nature. She'd been doing so for the past few years, ever since giving up on the light grey lycra spandex that had been her costume since shortly after taking on her second life. Because it was something she wore almost regularly, the black leather was drawn over her curvy, lithe and well developed body easily and quickly. Her own boots were easier to put on than the copies Francine had found; while Francine had to lace hers up from the insteps to nearly her knees, Selina's boots had hidden zippers on the inner calves which allowed the laces to stay tied at all times.

Her true Catwoman mask and cowl was then pulled down over her head, and zipped tight quite similar to the way in which the copy was done. She spread out her hair at the back of the cowl at its base, then tucked the bottom of the cowl into the neck of her catsuit. Selina had done this often enough that her eyes were nearly perfectly arranged in the mask without having to shift it around at all. The belt which had a few less clips and D-rings on it than the copy went around her upper hips well below her tiny waist, and canted slightly to the left. Finally, she pulled her fingertips into the claws of her gloves, flexing them as she her gloves up over her already leather sheathed arms.

No checks were really necessary, but Selina was a woman after all, and posed in front of her own vertical mirror to make sure she was set. Catwoman made another Cheshire Cat grin, then slapped her whip into place on her belt. It was now dark outside, and time for Catwoman to see what was going on at the Museum. As usual, she opened up the bedroom window which faced the alleyway, then scampered up the fire escape to make her way across town on the rooftops. No need for her car tonight, it was only six blocks to the Natural History Museum.

* * * * *

While one Catwoman was ambling along Gotham's rooftops doing just what the other had dreaded in her own heels, the other Catwoman had driven her own car from the house outside town back to a spot not far from where it had been earlier in the day. To avoid drawing attention in her costume, cowl and mask, Francine had put a floor length brown coat over the costume then put a large brimmed tan hat over her head. The dark and the brim did a pretty good job of hiding the mask, but the faux Catwoman still cringed every time she came to a stop in traffic. Luckily for her, nobody gave her a second notice. She also made damn sure to stay under the speed limits and avoid yellow lights; it
wouldn't do for a traffic cop to find Catwoman behind the wheel of her car.

A parking spot was found a block behind the Natural History Museum,  with only dimly lit streets between it and the building. Before opening the door she switched off the interior light. It took only seconds for Catwoman to shed her coat and hat, and when she stepped out into the black of the night, it became obvious to her why her costume was a shiny jet black. Without reflecting what few lights there were directly, the black blended right in, giving near perfect visual stealth. The one thing she hadn't thought of due to the carpeting in her house and doormat outside her garage door was the lack of audio stealth provided by the clacking of her heel tips on the sidewalk. She did her best to more or less tiptoe, more than a bit difficult in the high heels of her boots, which did cut back on the clacking a bit.

When Francine got to the window of the ladies room, she unhooked the small black bag she'd added to her belt. After a quick look to all sides to make sure she was unobserved, she clipped wires to the security system ringing the window to bridge them. She was tempted to do just what Catwoman would do and use the claws of her gloves to make a hole in the glass, but instead did it the quick and more clean way. The diamond glass cutter etched a cut around the periphery, then a small suction cup was attached. She then tapped the glass a few times while holding on to the suction cup. The plate of glass came away very nicely, and after she'd set the panel aside with a black cloth covering it, Francine got out her utility tool once again. The last of the bolts in each hinge were unscrewed, and then the entire gate was tilted and worked back from the restraining bolt and out through the window. A long black string was then tied to it, with the other end tossed in through the open window.

Francine looked closely at the window then while putting her tools back into the bag and clipping it to her belt. Without a ladder, she had to find some way to get up and through it. Then yet another Cheshire Cat grin formed on a different Catwoman's lips. She unhooked the whip from her left hip and tied the tip to the upper hinge inside the window. Her whip then became a rope with which to scale the distance between ground level and the window. She planted one boot on the side of the building, then walked a few steps up and slid first one then the other leg through the window. She slid off the window sill into the restroom using her still attached whip for stabilization, and made sure to come down on her toes, not her heels. Again she wondered how or why Catwoman had such high heels on her boots.

After she pulled the gate back up and jury rigged it into position to make the window look almost normal from the outside, save for the missing glass which should go unnoticed except on very close inspection, Francine turned and looked at her dim reflection in the mirror on the wall over the sinks. It was definitely Catwoman whom she saw there, so she put on a sly grin to look even more the part. Ironically, this was her first ever case of breaking and entering. However, dressed the way she was, it was Catwoman who'd already committed her first crime of the evening. The show had now started. But it was time for the real show to start, and she hoped the real Catwoman would be making an appearance to take part.

If anyone would have been on hand to observe, which Francine had verified would not likely happen earlier that afternoon, they'd have seen Catwoman make her way out of the ladies room very slowly and carefully. Francine was way too intelligent to assume anything, and made her way just if she was trying to avoid all contact. She lifted her masked face skyward ever so briefly while mouthing a thank you for the carpeted aisles of the museum; her heels were silent once again.The steps leading up two floors to the Egyptian exhibit were not carpeted, but it was easy enough to just hit each step with the toes of each boot.

When Francine came upon the still brightly lit exhibit, she looked around quickly for any sign of movement; she had hoped that Catwoman would be on hand already to see what was going on. To do much more would involve Francine in a much more costly criminal activity than breaking and entering. However, with no sign of the real kitty yet, the false Catwoman decided that all would be for naught if she didn't go through with her plans. So, just as had been done in many past criminal endeavors, Francine as Catwoman used the claws on her gloves to etch a big circle on one of the side panes of glass surrounding the golden cats.

Before the etching could continue to the point where Francine would actually open up the developing hole, she heard a soft yet fierce voice from behind. "Well, if it isn't Catwoman herself going for the golden kitties. And here I thought I was Catwoman. But if I'm Catwoman, who might you be?"

Fearing that a well accustomed whip would soon be snapping in her direction, Francine took her right hand down from the glass and slowly edged it toward the activate button on top of the box attached to the belt on her right hip. She had to know that Selina was in range before punching that button; but that range was way too similar to the range of Catwoman's whip. She turned her head as Selina was finishing her spiel, and noted that they were about fifteen feet apart. So, as she rose from her crouch and turned to face Selina, Francine answered by saying in a voice trying to emulate that just heard, "My name is Selina Kyle, and I am Catwoman." She took a few steps to get closer, all the
while with a clawed fingertip poised on the activate button, then in hopes of confusing Selina long enough to forestall the whip, continued, "I'm the true Catwoman, so who the hell are you?"

Selina was in the process of readying her whip, just about to come back with some retort, when a white beam of light shot from the right hip of her twin and hit her just above her eyes on her masked forehead, nearly blinding her. At almost the same moment, the bright light blinked out, along with the image of her twin. Then, as if someone else was inside her mind beside herself, she seemed to hear a thought that said, "Say good night, Selina."

With that, Catwoman lowered her whip and put it back into place on her left hip. Just to be sure, she then reached to her right side; yes, the device was there, just as it had been before. "Hah! Now I really am Catwoman," she said almost giddily. She was already searching through what were now her own memories to find that she had come in via the trash compactor before coming upon the scene at the golden cats. She decided to leave her car for the time being and go back out through the compactor; she found while walking back in that direction that she was moving in a fluid grace that belied the heels on her boots. It was readily apparent that Selina Kyle was a very fit woman with a well
coordinated body. To confirm this, as soon as she was out of the compactor she ran and then leapt for the ladder to the roof.

Yet another Cheshire Cat grin formed as Catwoman realized just how easily her body moved in her heels. Francine now had all the answers to her earlier questions about the heels on Catwoman's boots. She now knew that Selina had gone from simple and very utile flat heeled boots to ones with tall and elegantly shaped stiletto heels because they both made her look that much sexier and acted as a very good distraction for the usually male cops and assorted heroes who came upon her during crimes. The fact that she had such a fantastic body with a dancer's grace made wearing them in nearly any situation almost as easy as the flat heels.

It was just as Catwoman was getting set to leap the gap to the third rooftop that a thought suddenly came to her. She realized that if she was going to go back to Selina's place, she'd need her car to get away from there after changing back. She reversed herself and headed back to the museum. Again she was almost astonished at how easily her body took to the ladder and went down; as long as she didn't think directly about what needed to be done, body memory took care of it easily. The more she thought about that, the more Francine started to think that her own body's agility and grace would never match the one she was in.

Since it was such a short drive back to the complex in which Selina's condo was located, Catwoman decided to leave off the coat and hat when she got back to the car. As long as she avoided doing anything to attract cops, the dark would be her ally. But interestingly, as she was thinking about how much easier it would be to make the trip in normal clothes instead of the costume, the costume she was wearing vanished. It was replaced instantly by what she had been thinking would be normal clothes - normal, that is, to the body and mind of Selina Kyle. Worried for just a moment, she reached to her right side and felt relief that the box was still there, now attached to the belt on her new outfit. Francine smiled when she saw the tight black satin blouse and micro miniskirt she now wore, along with some strapped sandals which seemed to have even higher heels than the costume boots. As she pulled out of the parking spot, she noticed that her body's adaptability and fluidity made driving in the heels seem so much easier than she'd ever felt before. After less than a ten minute drive she found herself parking next to what she knew was her other car, the one used by Catwoman whenever she was going far enough that walking was out of the question.

Seemingly in the back of her mind, Selina was aware of Francine now in control of her actions. She had no control over the way in which her usurper was accessing every little nuance of her personality and all the memories on hand from many years as Gotham's fearsome feline felon. She watched as her body easily made its way back to her condo. She tried to wonder what was going on, but it very hard to do.

Francine was enjoying every moment, now that she had been not only in Catwoman's own costume and her risque clothes, but in Catwoman's body.

Already she had many answers to the questions which had led her to pick Selina as her first mind merging subject, but figured that going 'home' and staying there a few hours would give her time to completely understand all there was to know about Selina Kyle. That would also give the folks at the museum plenty of opportunity to discover the apparent work of Catwoman at their Egyptian exhibit and her supposed entry at the ladies room. It would fit her plans perfectly to have the attempted crime credited to what was now herself. By the time she would be finished, only Selina would be in the body to face the consequences.

With practiced ease, Catwoman made her way back into Selina's home, now looking almost like a hooker returning after a night of tricks. Of course, Francine knew exactly why she looked like that now, since her newly acquired memories told her just what kind of life Selina had led prior to becoming the feline felon. There was no point in looking around the condo, since she already knew all there was to know about every square inch. Francine got a whim and to check her theory, imagined herself in costume again. Instantly she was back in head to toe black.

She felt herself acting just as Selina would as she then got out of costume using body memory. For just a moment, the device was set aside. Even with total knowledge of her current body's belongings, Francine still whistled when she saw the collection of dresses, slacks, skirts and shorts in the closet. Leaving these alone, she reached into the dresser for a black nightie to match the panties she was already wearing, then drew the costume belt with the device attached back around her hips. Then, Francine spent the next couple of hours just wandering around the large and opulent condo in a pair of black highheeled mules. All the time she was delving deeper and deeper into the mind of Selina Kyle.

When she felt she had learned everything she needed to know about Selina's motives, memories and other mental nuances, Francine made preparations for the reversal back into her own body. She wanted to make sure Selina wouldn't be right on her tail as she left, so she sat down in one of the chairs which had widely spaced arms. Testing, she placed her right arm on top of the arm and reached with her thumb for the deactivate button on the box. It was a stretch, but she felt she could do it when the time came. Then she got up again and went to Selina's drawer full of sexual toys. She picked out a so far unused set of ankle cuffs that she knew had been intended for restraining Batgirl and a pair of hand cuffs. The clips connecting the chains between both sets were disconnected, then the chains were wrapped around each arm and leg of the chair.

Francine already knew that self bondage was not unfamiliar to Selina, and found it very simple to place her legs tight up against the chair legs so that she could wrap each of the cuffs around a respective ankle. As soon as each was locked in place, she used her right hand to set her left wrist in the cuff on that chair arm and lock it shut. Then came the fun part. Using body memory, she placed her right wrist into the last cuff and wiggled it until the arcs fell into a closed position. She leaned over and used her right boob to click the cuff closed. Again a wicked grin formed on Selina's lips, and Francine sat there for just a moment, savoring the actual feeling of being in bondage, not just the memories of it she'd acquired.

Moments later, Francine felt satisfied and reached with her right thumb. It was even more of a stretch than her test had determined, but after a few stabs she hit the deactivate button. In less time than the blink of an eye, she suddenly found herself back in her head to toe black latex faux Catwoman costume standing a few feet away from the bound Selina. It didn't take long at all for Selina to realize what had happened and who had done it to her, now that she was alone in her head and could recall all that had occured, and she started squirming in her  chair. She looked up at her near twin and nearly screamed, "You've stolen my identity and all I hold dear! Just wait until I get my hands on you-" She cut herself off before mentioning Francine's name. No sense letting her twin know just how much she had also acquired during the merger.

"Well, Selina, I don't think you're going to be able to do that any time soon. I intend to be back at home and out of this costume long before you can get out of that bondage. Then you'll be back to being the only Catwoman. Now that I know just why you do the things you do, I'm sure the procedures they go through at Arkham will have a more substantial affect on you. Do have fun now."

For the second time that night, Catwoman went out the window facing the alleyway. This time though, instead of going up the fire escape to the roof, she went down to ground level. After a quick look around to make sure she was alone, Francine carefully made her way back to her car.

This time both the hat and coat were put back on. Francine gave consideration to pulling off the cowl and possibly the wig also, but decided that it should be safe enough to make the trip in full costume, just as a few hours before. No problems arose during the drive, and it was with great relief that she pulled into her garage at its end. No way could anybody see Catwoman entering her house, and in no time she had gotten out of her newly acquired black latex and hopped into the shower for a quick rinse to get the sweat she'd developed while wearing it off. It was nearly 4 in the morning by the time Francine climbed into bed, her mission a success as she perceived it.
 

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