Catwoman #34

Issue Details

Synopsis

REMORE LIFE With some time off from business, Catwoman decides to try to drag her friend Alice Tesla out of her workshop and into the real world. Alice is resistant, claiming that all she needs to be happy is in her home and by herself. She happens to like her own company, and challenges Selina to admit that she does not like her own company. Changing the subject, Alice suggests that after the Race of Thieves, Catwoman could benefit from a safehouse. Selina muses that she already has several safehouses, but humors her friend, just to see where she's going with it. Alice points out a property that used to be a murder museum, and Selina suggests that they go and check it out together - in person.   Alice packs herself a bag of things, and complains with every step she is forced to take out of her workshop, requiring Catwoman to drag her and warn her to shut up. Upon their arrival, they learn that the museum was also a wax museum. But not long after stepping inside, the windows suddenly slam shut, and they realize they are trapped. Alice is unsurprised, and explains that she brought them here with an ulterior motive. In the video game she had been playing, she met a man she felt a kinship with, but he turned out to be a hacker who raked her files. He now knows her deepest secrets, and she needs to find and destroy the data he stole. He happens to live in the building. Catwoman suspects Alice is hiding more than just that, though.   Alice spots a wax sculpture that resembles her own avatar in her online game, and is lured toward it. When she touches it, she is caught in another trap, locked within a glass cage that Catwoman cannot break. Behind the glass, Alice's opponent, Cyberius, appears. He explains that he has created a device that converts avatars into 3D life-sized models using AI coding. He has prepared a competition for her. If she can beat him in a coding challenge, he will give her the information she came to retrieve. Despite Catwoman's warnings, Alice agrees to the challenge.   The pair begin working, and assembling their avatars. Catwoman would think it was cute, if it wasn't so dangerous. As far as she is concerned, this is a date - and she's the chaperone. As they begin to pit their avatars in battle with one another, Catwoman decides to show them both that low-tech can beat high-tech any day. She breaks into a writing panel and uses the crawl space the power lines are run through to make her way through the building to their source in the control room. She hopes that if she smashes the control panel, it will kill the battle and destroy Tesla's stolen data too. Unfortunately, it does nothing to end the battle, and so she hurries back to stop it manually. Fortunately, Alice is already beating Cyberius soundly.   Catwoman wraps her whip around Cyberius, and drags him to the ground, causing Alice to worry for him - though she won't admit it. Grumpily, Catwoman punches him out, declaring the date over and throwing Alice over her shoulder.   As they approach the workshop, they see that the intruder alert has been set off. One of Cyberius' creations has broken into the place. He had lured her out of the workshop in order to sweep her shop for more data. After destroying and dissecting it, she determines that Catwoman's apartment was also broken into. Fortunately, Alice stole all of Cyberius' data while they were fighting. Grumpily, Selina warns Alice to ask next time she wants backup.   Meanwhile, Cyberius has decided to combine his creation with Alice's for an unbeatable combination in an army of artificial intelligence.