2014-08-14 - Everything I've Got

Gotham City. Just minutes ago, Cassandra got a tip that a target she's been hunting actively had been spotted in this area heading for an fancy asian restaurant with prices far too high for anyone of her non-existent income. Running along the rooftops, she is scanning the street below for her target as she leaps from building to building, wearing sweats and carrying nothing in the way of bat-weaponry.

Below, in the street, a figure in asian silks strides purposefully along the sidewalk. Japanese features that match the pictures Cassandra has studied so hopefully; she skids to a stop on the rooftop, watching a moment to see if it is really her.

The woman turns to head into a building, seemingly unaware of her secret stalker following her. The building she enters is on the west end of Gotham's chinatown district. The building is one that, if Cassandra had been a reader, she could have known as being a building that Oracle had picked up traffic about being possibly a meeting place for the League of Assassins. But what Cassandra can tell is that she was able to see the woman's face briefly before she heads into the building, and that face does look like Sandra Wu-San. Better known to the best fighters in the world as Lady Shiva.

Cassandra's heart quickens. She cocks her hand back, taking the one thing she brought with her, a needle dart, and it arcs forward flinging the tiny missile at Shiva's form far below. She doesn't wait, after the dart has left her hand she stands in full view, waiting patiently. If it's not her, she'll get hit. If it is...she'll see Cassandra waiting.

The needle dart sails at the chinese woman, then a the last moment her hand whips out and catches it between two fingers. She looks up in Cassandra's direction, smiles a bit, then heads into the building. But not before taking the dart and putting it into the doorframe. An invitation if ever there was one.

Cassandra Cain curses to herself. She didn't expect to have to work for this, and as she leaps down from the roof, she lands in a crouch. Heading to the entrance, she pushes the door open and enters the restaurant looking around for her target and instead getting the maitre'd. At which point she puts on her best respectable look and asks for a table. Underdressed and broke.

Shiva is nowhere to be found. The maitre'd isn't so much a maitre'd as he is a short chinese man in a white suit. He looks at Cassandra, then says something in chinese, immediately following with the translation in broken English, saying, "You go through that elevator." motioning with a hand with a mixture of disdain and snootiness somehow. The elevator seems to be behind two asian men in black suits with sunglasses.

There are other people in the room eating meals. Some are out of towners. They don't pay much attention. A few do look in Cassandra's direction though. They're exclusively asian, except for a couple at a table who seem to be more middle eastern from their look.

Cassandra moves past the man, then pauses. She doesn't really understand the chinese man's body language, but she's starting to get a hang of tone of voice. She just looks him in the eyes for a few seconds, narrowing her eyes quietly. Then she turns on a heel and walks past the entire room, striding toward the elevator with her head held high.

Cassandra might still not have her bodyreading skill back, but the tension in the room from those who were asian was palpable. As if they thought something ... violent... was going to be happening soon. The westerners in the restaurant - the seemed totally oblivious. And those two middle eastern people, a large bald, powerful looking man and an attractive female (though it was hard to see her since she seemed to be mostly in shadows), seemed calm.

Cassandra enters the elevator, which goes up about 5 floors and the doors open ... into what appears to be a traditional 'wu kwan' - the Chinese equivalent of a dojo. And there's a table all set up with tea with Sandra Wu-San kneeling at it. "Well, don't be rude.... come and sit down." she says. "I've been expecting you. To be honest I expected you much sooner."

The teenaged girl removes her boots at the door. She keeps Sandra Wu-San in her vision the entire time, knowing that this too is actually a politeness in society. You do not forget that your host is a warrior. Stepping forward, she lowers herself carefully to her knees keeping her face smiling even though she's having to tone down her heartbeat to keep it from hammering in her chest. "Thank you," is all she says, for now.

Shiva offers the tea, with methodical correctness in how she holds the cup, turns it, puts it down again. Then pours the tea in a certain way. Then does the same for your cup. In the same exact hand motions, the same exact turn of the cup. "So..." she starts.

"A normal question would be why are you here? I'm assuming Batman has not sent you. Which means you came here on your own accord, or your father's. Which would it be?"

Cassandra Cain accepts the tea quietly, drinking when it is her time to do so. She is perfect in this, her hands similar in many ways to her host's. "My...own," she admits, though she is still tense. Sips, sets the cup down again with a gentle click. "You were...difficult..to find." Her voice betrays her impatience, it being something that she's still learning to control.

Shiva, on the other hand, seems quite at ease. "Then I suppose you have many questions. As you said, I'm difficult to find unless I want to be found. And most people who I let find me don't survive the encounter unless I want them to. I'm sure you have questions. But before I answer any of yours, I'm going to ask you one. You must answer truthfully and completely. The consequences otherwise would be... unpleasant." She sips her tea.

"You were trained by one of the few gaijin who I actually found to have a good hold of what it means to be a warrior, almost peerless skill in concept though without honor. And fled him to serve under another man with a good hold on what it means to have honor and almost peerless skill, but who can't ever bring himself to do the one thing which would make himself a true warrior. I've fought both of them and I know both of them from those encounters. My question is why did you leave your father to serve under Batman? I'd ask him myself, but David Cain is nearly as difficult to find as I am."

Cassandra frowns at the conversation and even more at the question. She places her hands into her lap and sits up straight, letting her eyes rise to meet Shiva's own and she says, "I killed a man," realizing how ridiculous that might sound to this woman. But true. "I was...seven. I...think." Her shoulders twitch slightly at a remembered motion.

Shiva smiles a bit when Cassandra says 'I killed a man' She sips her tea again, then asks, "Just one?" and holds up one finger.

Cassandra Cain rises to her feet at that, ending the conversation. "You knew...father," she says, politely. A bit of honest curiosity in her question; she's not one to lie, even in this kind of situation. It isn't a question though, she believes the woman. "Did...not expect...to have..time to...talk."

Shiva nods. "Intimately." Taking another sip of her tea. Then adds, "You expected me to kill you quickly?" She says, "I know how you are able to read body language. It's something David told me that intrigued me. When you killed that man. Tell me.... what was it like? Reading death, that I mean."

She pauses a moment, then says, "Never mind. Too difficult a question for you. I'll ask something simpler. I know what you know of your father. What do you know of your mother?"

Cassandra Cain frowns again, as if not expecting the question or the comments. She says, "You...know," when she mentions the body reading. Something almost hopeful in her words there, but she shakes her head, not wanting to relive it again. "I watched...him die. Terror. Then...nothing." She shakes her head again, eyes looking down finally.

Cassandra adds, however, "Father...never let me...ask..about mother."

Shiva ceases to go further about the 'mother' comment. "You know, I met your father shortly after my sister died. I honestly never realized how much she had kept me back. I had come there to kill him. Just petty revenge. He was with the League of Assassins, and I killed the 10 of your father's most skilled associates with fervor and ease. Ones who knew how to fight. But not David Cain. In the end, I wound up realizing your father hadnt taken from me. He had freed me. Gave me my life. My purpose."

She pauses, then says, "Whereas with you, it's as if you kill a single man, and you want to die. That's why you're with Batman. Silly atonement because of a death wish."

Shiva then peers at Cassandra intently. "There's something missing in you though now. Something in your eyes." She puts down the tea and stands up. "Fight me."

Shiva looks at Cassandra. "I understand how you think. You saw a man die, as he saw it. And understanding the true nature of what you did, you realized you must pay the same price. Karma. THAT I understand. I will give give you that. Fight me and let karma be done." she says, motioning at Cassandra.

Something about Cassandra's stance suggests that there's something more to this than her wishing to die. She says, "I will...explain," and then steps in on Lady Shiva with her right swinging at the woman's jaw. Target is the brain, to slam it against Shiva's skull, and she goes straight for it with a right cross.

The first punch is dodged without even the slightest visible effort, and Cassandra speeds up. Faster, desperately trying for just one hit on this woman. A left, her body blurring behind her as she moves her stance to allow maximum possible power at the exact instant of potential impact, and pulling that motion when she realizes it hasn't connected. Cassandra takes one more, a straight right going for that perfect, impervious smile with her black hair flying behind her as she moves.

Shiva seems to easily evade the first punch with a minimum of movement. Then the second strike at Shiva's smiling face being blocked with one hand.

So this must be what it's like to be on the receiving end of an utterly one-sided fight. Must be what Stephanie feels like in any spar she's had with Cassandra.

Shiva then brings her own arm up to lock Cassandra's arm in place, her other hand going up into an open handed strike to the chest, then lets go of the arm just in time for a backhanded strike to the side of Cassandra's jaw.

Shiva doesn't press her advantage though. She stops after her second strike, frowning.

Cassandra Cain falls back a step when her chest is struck, and the hit to her jaw spins her on her feet. She comes around quickly with a sudden change of momentum, throwing her right hand to the floor and pivoting around her center; a capoeira kick that changes halfway through into a RIGHT kick. Hugely advanced, terrifyingly hard to learn and a sacrelige to the style it came from. And still too slow.

Shiva catches the foot and pushes back, taking a moment to sweep Cassandra's other leg, all without getting hit. For almost anyone else on the planet, save for a handful of people, it would be enough to make a challenge or win a fight.

Unfortunately, Shiva is one of those handful of people for whom it doesnt make a difference.

Cassandra goes down flat on her back from the sweep, followed by Shiva's fist coming down at her head.... and hitting the ground next to Cassandra's ear. It was a miss on purpose, very clearly. The floorboards were broken from the strike, but it could have just as easily been Cassandra's head.

Shiva says, "With the first strike, I thought that perhaps being with Batman had simply made you weak. Now I see though. You've lost your gift." She straightens up, waiting for Cassandra to get up or respond to her statement that sounds more like an accusation.

Cassandra Cain lost. Flat-out lost. I don't lose. I came here knowing I'd lose. Didn't believe it, still. I lost.

Takes her a moment to get up, turning her head to recognize the hit, and pushes herself up into a sitting position. She rubs the back of her head, realizing that Shiva was actually quite gentle with her, and talks. "I...need...a favor. You...see...moves before...they...happen. I want to...AGAIN."

Lady Shiva looks down at Cassandra, shaking her head with disappointment. "How far you've fallen. But I can see that it's not lost. It's just suppressed. Whatever changed the marvellou way David trained your brain to think? It's still there. I can see the potential." She crosses her arms. "I can give you back what you lost. But not for free. You will have to do something for me in exchange. Something your new master would most certainly not approve of."

Cassandra Cain sits into lotus easily, her legs folding. "You'll help me?" she asks, her voice allowing it to come out easily for once. "Not my...master," she suggests, uncertain if she'll be believed. She has her own definitions of who and what people are.

Cassandra Cain thinks, why are all the people who can help me completely insane? She isn't stupid enough to say it though.

Shiva pauses. "I will give you back your gift of reading people's bodies. I will do so without even removing what minor conveniences you've gained in trade." She leans forward. "On the condition that, in one year's time, you come back here and give me a worthy fight. A death fight. Karma demands it. Do you accept these terms?"

Cassandra Cain looks up to Shiva for a moment. "Use my...killing skills..." and she trails off, thinking. I'll never take another life, she vows inside. So I'll pretend to go all out and die. I don't have to do this, I can still study Batman's methods. I can be good enou..

She can't even finish that thought. It's too anathema to the way she feels. The thought she finishes is this one: Mediocre for a lifetime. Or PERFECT for a year.

Well, girl?

Cassandra Cain says, "I'm ready."