2013-12-11 - Bird Fly Free

Rumors have been making the rounds of Gotham that a new vigilante is in the city. Perhaps, more to the point, one has seemingly returned. Eggplant purple suit, witty remarks.. for those who knew her, it sounds very much like Spoiler. Stephanie Brown hasn't been staying with her mother however. Not yet. That is what makes finding her a bit more tricky. At least when not staking out associates of her criminal father.

Tonight, perched atop a warehouse in the docks, the purple cloaked figure watches a group of men as they unload a delivery truck. "... so Arthur Brown.. what have you gotten into this time.."

For Batgirl, this is a personal matter. She's not heard of Stephanie contacting the BIrds, or the rest of the Bat-Family. So for now, she deals with things as she always does. On her instincts. In this case, she's lucky in the early hours. Barbara is not monitoring her, Bruce is dealing wtih 'family' matters, and the commlink is quiet. So she will not have any interference.

Looping through the air on a grapple in the warehouse district.. She catches sight of that familiar purple.

Spoiler was doing a really good job of hiding. Even Batgirl would notice that. Much better than her previous time in Gotham. And then she moves. There's... skill there. Some ability. She's been active and practicing. Working out. There's confidence. Far more than she had before. And then she swoops down, landing on that truck with near catlike grace. Perched there she drops a couple smoke bombs into the now alarmed group of thugs. She flips off the edge of the truck and commences a more than capable beatdown on them in a methodic manner. There are, however, a dozen guys. And soon she'll likely be out numbered.



Stephanie had always been good, a natural. But she had never had that focus. Never had, to Cassandra, that drive that would push her to find her limits, and to defeat them. NOw.. NOw she was seeing Stephanie moving like the darkness itself, bolting in. And Cassandra would be there to back her up. Leaping soundlessly through the air, Batgirl went to launch an array of a half dozen Batarangs through the air to try and pick off any of the thugs with weapons.

Spoiler noticed the weapons entering the fray. Intersting. They found her already. it really isn't much of a shock. This being the most Big Brothered city in America. Batman has it monitored. Oracle monitors it. A mouse can't sneeze without being caught. She was actually surprised she hadn't been picked up for almost five days though. Either she was getting better or they never expected her to come back and didn't bother looking for her. Or they just didn't care.

But no.. those batarangs suggest otherwise don't they?

The blonde smashed the jaw of a thug, taking him down as she spun low to trip and drop the next. Leaping onto him she bashed him twice just as.. "..Batgirl. Just like old times hmm?"

You better not pout, you better not cry, you better not shout I'm telling you why.. Batman is beating you down! Slinging through, Batgirl was careful wtih the men. Perhaps a bit moreso than she usually was, taking a bit more focus and attention as she fought alongside her friend, a surge of confused emotions going through her mind as the two engaged back to back.



Giving a man facing her a hard chop on the neck and a quick shove in the solar plexus to send him collapsing down to the ground, giving an expressive nod over at Spoiler. "Yes. Old times." Words were hard. Always hard.

Spoiler ducks a blow that would have previously stuck her jaw or temple. "Not good enough, buster." She retaliates with a kidney blow and drops the man. Batgirl more swiftly dispatches seven of the men, Spoiler gets five. Two years ago, it wouldhave been ten to two. Or even eleven to one. Things have changed.



As the smoke clears, Spoiler looks into the delivery truck. "... c'mon Arthur.. all you get into now is stealing TV's?" Disgusted the vigilante casts half a glance at Batgirl as she helps ziptie the thug's wrists behind their backs and then gets out her grapple. Pulling herself back up to her original perch in the shadows. There she waits on Batgirl and places a call to GCPD on one of those one time use cellphones that can be bought at the store. Reporting the crime, she tosses the cellphone back down toward the truck. Won't be usingit again. She's learning. She hasn't got the network of Batman or Oracle but she knows she can be tracked by the easiest of methods these days. Even the NSA is in on the action now.

<p class="MsoNormal">Spoiler is better. Some from age, some from experience. But most from focus. Batgirl watches over at her friend, analysing her every move, her every motion, her every blow. As the men are tied up and deposited for the GCPD, she follows along after Stephanie, going to vanish along after her now. As the two withdraw, she tapped the side of her mask, an indication that her commlink was off. She was off the network now, though much of the actual mechanics were beyond her grasp.

<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, as the two were alone in the shadows, Cassandra went to say two things, each with a different meaning and focus. "Better." And then a question. "Why back?"

<p class="MsoNormal">Spoiler perches there for a moment as Batgirl informs her they're off the record as it were. As the compliment comes in. The question. ".. In all the time we trained together. Until Batman told you to stop. In all the time I tried to convince him to train me. To let me show I was able to do this.. job.." she looks to Batgirl then out toward the smog and fog covered skyline of Gotham. ".. I've never once been told by any of you I've done anything better than I did before." She doesn't look back to Cass. "I'm going to school. Transferred to Gotham U." That's why she's back. "And I'm not giving up the mask and cape. Not for Him. You. Anyone." She glances toward Batgirl. "It's part of who I am. Even while in therapy and rehab in Metropolis. All I could think of was when I could help again. I'm not stopping. Black Mask couldn't beat me. No one else is going to either." Her voice is tight. Emotional. But stubbornly determined. Just like Steph.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stubborn. That had always been Stephanie's defining quality. To keep going at something and to get it done. It might not be done the best way. It might not be done the most effective way. But she would keep on going at it. From Batgirl, there was a.. Her mask hid all. Her own grasp of emotions was almost nonexistant. But Stephanie might almost swear, perhpas, that Cassandra had let out a small cry then. And Batgirl's fingers rose up then, and then went over to trace at the symbol on her chest then. And then over at Stephanie's as shelooked up over at her friend, her eyes flickering behind the solid irises of her costume. "Will make them." WIll make them let Stephanie do it. "But on one.." One condition.

<p class="MsoNormal">Spoiler turns to look at Cassandra. "... you'll make them?" She sounds rather incredulous. Inspite of the sirens in the distance that signal GCPD will be here in a few minutes, she lifts her mask. Stephanie looks at her friend. ".. no one can make Batman 'do' anything. We all know that. The man's more than arrogant. It's "His" city after all." She shrugs and frowns, "... and what do you mean a condition?" She always did seem to understand Cass better than most of the others. Then again for a year or so she spent more time trying to be Batgirl's Shadow than anyhting else.

<p class="MsoNormal">Cassandra Cain smiles a bit over behind her mask then. The gesture is there, the almost relaxing of her posture then as she went on, "Costume stupid." She went on for a moment, "Get new one." That was her condition. Then.. A thought went over to her, in her mind over unbidden then, falling along the process over of her own words. She went to then take out the communicator from her ear, handing it over.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stephanie looks puzzled. "..stupid.. hey... I liked this costume.." She shrugs, "I even got a better fabric for it. It's rip-stop!" In a lifestyle where bullets are normal.. that'll go so far in protecting her won't it? She then rolls her eyes. "Oh sure... sure... I'll just run to Heroes-r-Us and buy a new costume off the shelf, right? 'Cause as a starving college student I have so much money.. guess I'll have to rob my criminal father or something.." she mumbles then blinks as the comm is handed over. "...wait... what?"

<p class="MsoNormal">Sometimes Cassandra's brain worked in mysterious ways. Sometimes it struck right to the heart and nerve of things. NOw, if Stephanie were to be one with the Bats.. Then she would.. "Become Bat." She would have to become one of the Bats. And in such a way that it would not be something the rest of them could possibly deny.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stephanie looks over, her mask still pulled up. She frowns, "Yeah.. that .. not only can't happen, it'll never happen. You know as well as I that Batman doesn't even like me nevermind the notion of giving me 'blessing' to become a Bat. He already fired me from being Robin. I'm not going to go through that again. I'm not going to jump through his hoops just to earn tollerance. Approval.. that'll never happen."

<p class="MsoNormal">Another light shift, hinting at a veiled smile behind the mask then as she shook her head, "Changed." She tries to think of a way to get such a complex series of things across, and finally decides on one word. "Father." And she then shakes her head once more over then."And not need his." She went on softly, "Need Barbara's. And Alfred's." Against those two no Batman in existence could stand. Then.. Then she gently went to take off her own mask.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Ooookay... Dear Diary. Tonight I kicked some of my dad's thugs. Right in the butt. Got 'em locked up too. And then Cassandra showed up. Well in the middle of it she did. And she's now being all..cryptic. 'Cause, like.. she was NEVER cryptic before, right?

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">"Cassandra...If you think I should change and update my costume I will. I'll save and buy a Kevlar vest from Gotham Shoot'em Up Dead and Army Surplus or something.. but I don't see what handing me your comm and trying to get Barbara and Alfred behind any of this will accomplish. He's still going to disapprove of me."

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">If she could indulge in the gesture Cassandra would have rolled her eyes then, with her mask off then. Her posture was there, but the gesture was quite not. She went over to poke at Spoiler's chest then, the Batgirl mask over in Spoiler's hand. "Become. Bat." How could Stephanie not get such a simple thing? "Become.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stephanie blinks. She dumbly holds the Batgirl mask and looks to Cassandra. "Wait you... wait /what/? No no. I can't do that. He'd KILL me! He wouldn't accept me EVER. No no no. No! that's just.. that.."

<p class="MsoNormal">Dear Diary... Cassandra's going crazy. Maybe her own father or mother are finally getting to her but this.. yeah.. she just told me to become.. Batgirl. CRAZY.

<p class="MsoNormal">".. that's just not going to work. Spoiler is my own. I can upgrade. I WILL upgrade.." trying to find any way to justify otherwise. So much for the confidence, right?

<p class="MsoNormal">What would she do then? TO convince Stephanie of the sanity of her plan. "Make them." Make them accept you. Make it your's.

<p class="MsoNormal">Then glancing over at Stephanie, and she said a word. Her voice the softest likely that Stephanie had ever heard. "Have faith." Cassandra had it in her. That Stephanie was damned stubborn enough to do it. To train. To make them accept her. To take it and define it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stephanie held the mask in her had. She looks down at it, then back up at Cassandra. "...but.. what will you do?" the voice soft. "Where will you go? Who will you become?" She feels like she's killed a friend almost. It's a vulnerable moment and one shehates. She swore she'd never be vulnerable again. Never be weak. Not anymore. Not after Black Mask. And yet. here she is.. feeling like her old self.

<p class="MsoNormal">Cassandra Cain just glanced over at Stephanie for a few moments blankly. "Don't be drama queen. Staying here." If she could, she might have added a 'duh' over at the end of that sentence. Silly Stephanie. Why would she be going anywhere/ Gotham was her home. She helpedprotect it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Stephanie blinks. "Drama? This is what we do and /HE/ is the king of angst and you call me a drama queen?" She considers and sighs. "Alright. You're right. I guess I am. It's been a while. I'm still on edge about being out here. This.." She gestures to the mask. "It's not mine. It's yours. Barbara's." She pauses but holds the mask close. "But if you're sure this is what you want. I'll make it mine. And I'll show Barbara I'm worthy of following her example. Not Batman's."

<p class="MsoNormal">Cassandra Cain nods over at Stephanie. Taking a breath. "Get her blessing." That would probably be the hardest part of things. Knowing that it was what Barbara had poured over her soul into. But that was also probably what would make her the proudest. That her legacy was giving an inspiration to others. And that they were following after her. Not after Batman's.

<p class="MsoNormal">The sirens get close the red and blue splashing off the warehouse walls. Pulling her mask down, she tucks the Batgirl mask away and nods, "... I will." Or die trying at least! She looks to Cass and spontaneously leans over to hug the girl. "Thank you. You've always tried to help me. Even when I didn't know what you were helping me with." She smiles behind her mask. "It's time to retire Spoiler."

<p class="MsoNormal">Cassandra Cain smiles a bit, and returns the hug. Hugs were hard. But they were treasured. Treasured and tucked away and memorialized. This was one of them. "Big girl now." And that means she wouldn't have to nerve pinch her whenever there was something dangerous goingon and leave her on a rooftop!