This city could bring out the worst in you.

A permanent gloom seemed to hover over its contents. Draped in a veil of misery and lost hope, the East End was just as Selina had always remembered.

Pitiful. Forgotten. A shell of its former self.

At one time, the East End was thriving with life. Flourishing with greenery tipped with colorful floral arrangements courtesy of Mother Nature herself. Booming with families that wanted the city life, but wanted to stay out of the city center. A concrete suburb fit for a husband, wife, and their 2.5 children.

Of course, that was a great time before Selina Kyle was welcomed into this cruel world. This is the East End she’d always known.

Barrelling traffic of older model cars, trucks that spout pollution. Trash littering the sidewalks and sewer grates. Couples arguing at the tops of their lungs at 3am. An occasional--though admittedly, more often than Selina liked to admit--ring of gunfire that made all the lights go off. No one ever saw anything. No one ever heard anything.

Everyone in Gotham had their own story of misery to tell, their own woes to dwell over. The Cat was no different. Born into poverty and rendered homeless by the deaths of her parents, the streets were all she knew.

This life was all she knew.

Her notoriety as Catwoman allowed her to gain an advantage many others didn’t have in this district. While seen to outsiders as a criminal who should be locked up for life, the East End dwellers favored their unsung hero. Not one superhero cared about the progress of the crime-infested city. It seemed that they never had their own calls for justice answered. Even Batman’s appearance in the area was rare, though he was known to show up from time to time--especially if it involved a break in one of the cases he were attempting to solve. Other than that, the vigilante would much rather do without lurking around in the very area his parents were murdered.

The irony did not escape Catwoman. A beacon for justice and yet…

These people had none at all, if any. Many were simply too poor to move to better parts of the city. Selina witnessed their struggles firsthand. Lack of nutrition, lack of healthcare. Girls deciding to take matters into their own hands and make bank using the world’s oldest profession.

She didn’t like that.

And so, Catwoman was on her own crusade. Her misdeeds were fueled by the desire to make every family whole again. Thievery, heists, and burglaries were only the start. Now she aimed to secure the rackets that ran out of her home burough. Gangs liked to headquarter themselves in the East End because of scarce police activity. There were plenty of warehouses and old factories to work out of. Selina intended to break up quite a few of them, while starting her own. In her criminal underworld, women were queens. Not pawns, not tools of trade, and certainly not worth discarding when the men figured they were no longer useful.

Still, she’d have to go about this step-by-step. Any miscalculation could land her in deep waters--if not dead. The crime families were not child’s play, but neither was she. And she would help this part of the city any way she could.

With or without the Bat and his righteous brood.

Selina held binoculars to her eyes, scouting an old mill that some thugs seemed to make their new home. It was rumored that a new racket was moving in and she didn’t like the sound of it. Sex trade was disgusting--the victims were always unwilling participants, kidnapped and forced into a life of which they gained no profit or control over their own beings. Catwoman intended to stop it in its tracks. A hefty task to complete on her own, she knew she needed some muscle. Barging in without a plan wouldn’t be smart.

She lowered the equipment from her eyes, biting her lip. She’d need to get a better view to scout activity, to find a weakness in their setup. If anything, this was only a branch of a group of much stronger foes. If Catwoman weren’t careful, she could put the lives of dozens of girls in danger.

Quietly, she slips into the night. Silently, she hopes for a miracle to drop at her feet.