Even BFFs Have it Hard | -[Batgirl]-

[Cassandra Cain]

The Black Bat traveled in the shadows to ensure that she was not detected sooner than she wished to reveal herself. She had been following a known criminal that had been rumoured to be trafficking girls out of Gotham often times kidnapped girls that had run away from their homes hoping for a better situation. Empty promises often heaped upon the girls having them follow along as easily as flies all over garbage.

She had been in Gotham for several weeks now having purposely avoiding her friends and family until she could get her bearings back. Cassandra was not necessarily anti-social, it was more often that she would rather avoid awkward situations. It was difficult to fully express herself with words often falling back on old habits of a few words at a time making her sound almost abrupt and short with the people she talked with. She did care for them and knew that waiting would cause more of a rift with those she called friends and family. Of course, she did not have very many friends most not quite understanding her and why she did what she did.

There were a few people that it was impossible to hide from and she was not necessarily hiding. She had purposely kept herself busy out on patrols as late as she could and even resorted to studying on whatever free time she might have. There was also the several hours of conditioning her body and training constantly all to make sure her head is in the game. Exhaustion was no excuse not to be out on patrol, or for her anyways. Of course, Barbara always been concerned for her health when she was younger managed to distract her with things little girls should do.

Cassandra tilted her head slightly as another man joined into the mix standing next to a truck that was to transport the kidnapped girls onto a freighter. They could not leave Gotham, she would make sure of it. There was one more that was supposed to meet them if her intel was accurate. She could never know with so much false information out there to drown what would be useful data. Tedious to have to shift through it, but it kept her mind as sharp as her body.

Another vehicle drove up to where the others stood talking amongst themselves, looked a bit like a boss man with his fancy car and sausage fingers adorned with jewel encrusted rings. Gaudy and a little disgusting as she noted and recognised the man's face. The big bushy eyebrows and the thick lips that held a cigar between those sausage fingers before putting it between his lips the very image of the man make her crinkle her nose in disgust. She had made a vow that she would never kill again, but she was not opposed to pain, and it seemed that the man's bulbous nose needed to be punched.

They started to mobilise and she knew that if she waited any longer she would lose her opportunity to foul up this shipment. The Black Bat had flipped off of her perch and took out the thug closest to her as she practically landed on his head with her combat boots bringing him down face first to ensure that he stayed down in a snooze. It happened so fast that the man did not even have the opportunity to scream out and quickly enough she slipped into the shadows intent on taking out the other men before the truck even started moving.

[Batgirl]

God, she missed Cass sometimes.

Standing on the roof of one of Gotham’s skyscrapers, Steph sighed and turned away from the view. Moments like this, she couldn’t help but miss the girl she’d thought of as her best friend. It made sense, she’d been thinking about chasing and that’d been a game the two of them had played back in the day… well, night… so often. The last time that she’d seen Cass properly, even, they’d played it before the final time they’d teamed up for a fight. That had been something else, though she supposed the last time properly had been the day after, seeing Cass at the airport, about to board her flight. Telling her not to look for her.

She’d kept her promise. But it hurt.

Well, she couldn’t stand around here all night. Steph interlaced her fingers and stretched them out until they clicked with a grin that would make anyone who actually knew her wary instantly. Shipments to disrupt, mob bosses’ lives to ruin, thugs’ nights to… End? Hmm, sounded a bit more final than she meant. Thugs to send to jail? That’d do. It wasn’t as snappy as she’d like but she figured that she could deal with that seeing as nobody but her would ever, ever know. Unless some craaaaazy telepath or whatever decided to go through her head (more fool them, hahahaha!) and went through ‘Stephie’s Random Patrol Memories’ as opposed to useful stuff like Batman’s secret identity. Which was totally Bruce Wayne, random stupid telepath person who would be looking through this in the future.

See? Wasn’t Steph helpful!

A brief check in with her personal Oracle equivalent reassured the blonde that the pick-up point hadn’t changed as well as exactly where she needed to go. Then she was off, swinging between buildings, resisting the urge to let out a war cry as she did so. It was hard, because there was something about it that was… indescribably cool. It always had been, even when she was just a kid in a home-made costume doing her best to fight crime with used batarangs, whatever stuff she could buy or scrounge and just a whole bunch of enthusiasm and a can-do, go-getter attitude to make up for the total lack of formal training.

Hey, it mostly worked out for her. Give or take one or two little things.

Tiny little things. Like starting a gang war that… Oh yeah, not a good time to go to the Black Mask place. Steph cut that line of thought dead in its tracks. The other good reason being that she was there.

Alighting on the roof, she got out her binoculars and took a look down. What she saw definitely wasn’t what she was expecting. There was a big truck waiting, sure, and the requisite fancy-schmancy car for the boss-man. There were also the usual bunch of thugs. Except that, instead of chatting, shooting the breeze, whatever these twits did when they weren’t standing around looking threatening, it looked like somebody had kicked the thug-hive. One of them was down and the rest had spotted him and were scanning the shadows for… someone. Steph crinkled her nose and stared down. But not for long. Actually, whoever’d dropped that thug had done her a favour. They were all panicky, confused and, basically, ready for a dose of the ol’ Batgirl charm.

Without any further ado, Steph leapt down behind the nearest thug and cleared her throat pointedly. Actually the sequence of events went more like this. Steph leapt down from her perch. She landed beside the thug in a showy one handed handstand and kicked him squarely in the kneecap, a combination of the reinforced boots that defined her calves and the impressive power packed into her toned legs resulting in a nasty cracking sound that, to Steph, spelled s-u-r-g-e-r-y in his near future. She rolled back onto her hands fully and, as she flipped neatly to her feet, caught him in the chin on his way down with both boots. That cracked too and she dusted her hands off, with a bright laugh.

Cass, wherever she was, deserved a big ‘thank you’ for that one.

Turning to face the rest, Steph’s hands were suddenly holding batarangs, three sticking out between her fingers in each hand, their sharp edges perfect for use as tiny blades in close if she didn’t throw them. “Hey guys,” She offered, quirking her head to one side confidently with her best I'm-Batgirl-and-I'm-about-to-kick-your-asses grin on full display. “So, who wants to dance with lil’ ol’ me?”

TAG: Black Bat

[Cassandra Cain]

Being in Gotham, Cass knew that sooner or later she would run into her family. She watched Steph dispatch the nearest thug hearing the crunch of the number that she had just did on the man's knee while getting into position for her next attack. Batgirl had already begun to distract the rest as she pulled out a few batarangs and it even managed to bring a white toothed grin that almost looked a bit sinister.

The two thugs tried to figure out which one would attack Steph first while the thick lipped one that was wearing a jewelry store had roared for the both of them to attack her at the same time. That was a mistake as he took a few steps backwards to try to use them as a distraction. Cass stalked in the shadows and as the two thugs finally decided to dispatch Steph together.

Suddenly, strong slender arms grabbed the cigar toting boss putting him into a hold as he struggled much like a beached whale. Ugly grunting noises escaping as his fat fingered hands tried to pry Cass off of him trying to ignore the blurring as the air was being cut off so he would pass out. Before she could strengthen her grip, he had smashed her up against the wall. Being ready for it as a possible attack, she had pulled her head forward so only her back connected the brick wall. A rush of air escaped, but the grip never lessened as if punishing the one that dared defy when he was supposed to sleep.

There was no love for the 'mastermind' who was kidnapping girls to sell off. How poetic that two women crime fighters were taking them down. Dark eyes looked in Steph's direction to make sure she was doing fine, but never hesitated with her opponent as he finally fell backwards and she rolled him down to the cold ground before binding him to leave him for the authorities. It was quite awhile since she had seen or heard from Steph. It was mainly her fault for the communication ties to be cut. Like anyone, there came a time when they needed time to themselves to 'discover' oneself. She knew that her family did not appreciate it and some even thought she was sent off as punishment.

She did everything by the book. Most thought her cold and a bit stuck up, but Cass was actually more emotional than anyone could ever imagine. She was just better at bottling it up and hiding it away feeling that it was one of her biggest weaknesses. Steph was one of those that had managed to look past all of that and care for her, believing in her despite all of Cass' walls. The Batgirl mantle was given to her as she was informed that Steph needed it much more than she did. It was true, and through it all, another persona was given to her instead unique and all her own. Funny how life manages to flip someone on their ear just to make other pieces of their life to fall so unquestionably into place.

Once she had secured the morbidly obese mob boss and ensured that Steph was doing okay, Cass made for the truck to rescue the kidnapped girls. There might still be a chance that Steph did not know it was her helping and was wary to ensure that there were no others that might have been missed.

[Batgirl]

Not being an idiot, stupid, dumb or blonde - oh wait, she was blonde, but none of the others – Steph had spotted that there were three guys left standing out of the five total. One of them was the one who’d already been taken down before she got there, so she couldn’t count that one really, but adding another four creeps to Batgirl’s tally of Creeps Removed From Gotham’s Streets (CRFGS) wasn’t a bad thing. Plus, given the amount of bling the guy at the back was sporting, with all the rings and stuff, he had to be somebody important. Or, ok, he thought he was which wasn’t the same thing really, but still, nobody who wasn’t somebody wore that much stuff. She didn’t own that much stuff. In some ways, the fighter in her could see that punching someone with all those rings on your fingers would be a really pricey way of having a set of knuckledusters. Real pricey. But one look at the whale wearing them had told her that he wasn’t a fighter.

As if the way he was cowering behind the two thugs wasn’t enough of a giveaway.

It was funny really. Steph was tiny next to him, shorter and infinitely slimmer. She was alone and he had two guys even bigger than he was standing between her and him. And he was the one backing away. Was it the way she’d demolished the slab of lard on the ground beside her? Was it the costume she wore? Was it the Bat on her chest? Was it a combination of all those things and the bright grin that quirked her lips upwards as she watched the three men, clearly and obviously unafraid despite being apparently at a disadvantage in every way. Instead, if anything, Steph was the one obviously confident of winning.

It took them a moment to sort things out. But, after that, the two thugs charged her at once. Steph threw herself backwards, even as she hurled batarangs their way and, with that, the battle was on!

So, what the fight between Batgirl on the one hand and the two thugs boiled down to was this. Which was the ‘stronger’ number? Two or one? The thugs had the numerical advantage, they were bigger and stronger and not limited by the Bat-family codes that meant that Steph had to watch where she hit them, to make sure she didn’t hit any areas that might result in dangerous injuries. Potentially lethal ones, basically. So, to somebody who didn’t know better, two was the bigger number. But it was also one of the reasons they were losing. See, just having more fighters in a fight didn’t mean you won, as Steph was showing using her smaller size and greater training to full advantage. She ducked and twirled and flipped, dodging around the thugs so that more than once a bunch meant for Batgirl’s smirking features instead collided with the other thug’s face. It didn’t help that she was continually chattering away at the same time.

Clearly, they hadn’t a clue how to fight as a team and Steph had no objection to that. She ducked under a punch, grabbing at his wrist and twisting it, before driving her other hand into the now-over-extended elbow even as she threw a hard kick in the general direction of the other thug, forcing him to keep his distance. That joint promptly bent in a way it wasn’t supposed to, and Batgirl promptly wrenched it up high, using that momentum to knee him in the ribs at the same time. He stumbled and, before he could get back upright, Steph had done an exquisite sideways cartwheel that conveniently slammed her boots into his face one-two. She came back to her feet as he slumped to the ground and pirouetted to face Thug #2 who clearly didn’t fancy his chances.

“Insert witty quippage here,” Steph deadpanned, producing her staff and extending it to its full length, spinning it in a showy way totally calculated to hide what her other hand was doing. The thug fell for it too, which just went to prove that this was a low end gig. No way anyone with experience would’ve failed to notice that she was grabbing a batarang from her pouch. Even he didn’t manage to miss it when she hurled it at him and it promptly detonated into a mass of goop.

“Sorry, my man,” Was Steph’s comment, delivered minus any sympathy that was detectable by… well, anyone. “But you’re kinda boring me.” Now talking more to herself than anyone else, she glanced around. “Let’s go see ‘bout a tango with your boss-man…”

Which was actually hard. No blowhard whales doing their best imitation of a jewellery shop anywhere in sight and Steph pouted, collapsing her staff and putting her hands on her hips. “Seriously?” She demanded of the heavens, “The fat one got away? He looked like he’d have a heart attack if he even tried to run. Ok, so he’d have to have a heart for that but…” Pausing in her rambling, Batgirl glanced down and frowned. There he was. Out cold and, even more suspiciously, secured in a way that basically screamed Bat-training. Huh. Double huh even.

What was going on here?

Well, there was but one way to find out. Readying another batarang and praying to anything that would listen that this wasn’t Damian, Steph slowly slid around the back of the truck, where she could hear motion.

Her eyes went wide.

“Cass?”

TAG: Black Bat

[Cassandra Cain]

Cass kept track of the scuffle and would have jumped in the moment Steph might have faltered, but her friend was able to handled her own, and the thugs were not paid to think. She heard Batgirl's banter and could almost feel herself wanting to chuckle because of it. Instead, the Black Bat wasted no more time to open the back of the truck to find several girls unkempt, with tear trails on their dirt caked cheeks. Her lips were pursed in anger as she saw the sorry state of the kidnapped women and started to cut the ties of the girls. The psychological damage may be irreparable, but they were found at least.

She tensed as she heard her name, but she continued to cut the girls loose. "I am here to help." The masked woman stated, then she asked, "Is anyone hurt?" Dark eyes met Stephanie as she drew closer armed with batarang and a rather sheepish smile played across her lips.

"Hello Batgirl." Cass said softly glad to finally be able to see her face, but wondering what sort of greeting she was about to get. There were still several girls that were hysterical while others looked drugged up and groggy.

There was quite a bit to catch up on, and the state that Cass left their friendship due to neglect, but there were no real bad blood when she left and asked Steph not to find her. Being in Hong Kong was different and gave her several new perspectives on life. She was definitely alone, but it gave her a lot of time to think. When she met Tim and he left that new costume for her. Well she would never admit that she wanted to cry and hug him close. Instead, she left as fast as a bat out of hell, taking the new costume with her.

Despite those new changes, there was still her past that she had to constantly deal with and several people she had still avoided meeting only because she was not sure how they would react, or how she would. She figured easing into an old routine might give her some confidence to rebuild those ties that she had left behind. "Call it in and then some ice cream?" She finally managed to say as she drew closer to Batgirl with the question that only Stephanie could hear knowing that the authorities would be able to take care of the rescued girls.

[Batgirl]

Well, it wasn’t Damian.

It definitely wasn’t Damian because nothing about Bruce’s midget kid had ever sent anything like that thrill of glee up her spine, nor had just seeing him ever brought on anything like the bright, delighted grin that currently pulled at her lips. Even with the circumstances of this unlooked for reunion, there was something about this girl that made Steph happy. Happy in a way that she definitely wasn’t sure was appropriate for Batgirl to show when people were looking. Flying squirrel hugging the other girl might be what she wanted to do, but even she wasn’t going to do that yet.

Emphasis on the ‘yet’.

She settled for taking those few steps, putting one foot in front of another until she’d closed the distance. And then Steph wrapped her arms around her friend in a quick, fierce hug or tried to, hoping that Cass and her amazing ability to just read what you were going to do before you did it.

”I’ve missed you,” She hissed into her friend’s ear. ”It’s good to see you again!”

Stepping back, she finally had the chance to look Cass over. She hadn’t changed much from what she could see.

It was actually something of a revelation for Steph to be able to tell anything about what Cass felt in costume – or even to tell that it was Cass, though she didn’t think she’d be able to forget that grin anytime soon. Or the way she moved even, because Cass might look like she’d weigh around a hundred pounds soaking wet, she moved like she could break you with her pinky. And that was if she was holding back. Her jaw could attest to that, with the whole ‘hairline fracture’ thing from back in the day. And the rest of her too, admittedly with less fractures and more bruises. Lots and lots of bruises. She’d always have seen that, but she was so used to Cass wearing a costume that covered everything. Just everything, from eyes to mouth to… everything. True, she’d been the same back in the day, everything hidden under the Spoiler’s hood and lenses and cape.

Maybe it was appropriate that they’d both traded those roles in for something else, for suits that actually let them see each other’s faces to a point. Steph’s cowl let everyone see her baby-blues, Cass still had the whole ‘inhuman’ thing going on with her whited-out eyes. But the weird thing? Other than the change from the Batgirl cowl with its stitches and patches to a domino mask, her suit hadn’t changed that much. Nothing like as much as Steph’s, which was totally different, but the whole effect was totally, unmistakeably, obviously Cass. It was just Cass. She couldn’t have mistaken her for anyone else.

Quirking an eyebrow up, aware that Cass didn’t need to see it to know what she was thinking and doing, Steph pondered the idea. Call it in then ice cream? Well, ice cream was good, but she had a better idea. The blonde shrugged and patted the other girl on the shoulder before wandering a little way away and tapping her communicator. “Proxy, mind getting some of Gotham’s finest to do a pickup at my location?”

She snuck a glance back at Cass. ”Hey Cass?”

Steph’s grin was innocent to the point of mischievousness. ”Tag. You’re it – bye!”

She waved even as she fired her grappling gun and shot up towards the nearest rooftop. Then she was running, the wind in her hair, the concrete under her boots and the intoxicating rush of air under her as she leapt from one roof to another.

TAG: Black Bat

[Cassandra Cain]

At first, Cass was a bit skeptical that the unexpected reunion would turn awkward and tense. She had never been a woman of many words and even though she could speak in full sentences now, it never felt comfortable to her. Without realizing it, the Black Bat had tensed as if bracing herself against a potential barrage of questions or acid remarks, but there was a large grin that encouraged her to give a sheepish one in return.

There was no animosity in the steps, no sense of harm or danger and as Steph embraced her, Cass returned the hug. “Likewise.” She whispered back and truly meant it. They were silent for a moment, taking in the changes, the differences in the costume that was once hers and finally, Cassandra said, “You look great, Batgirl. I would have…” She stopped knowing that whatever she would have said would just have fallen short and awkwardly she ended with, “I am glad to be back.”

She would not look like it, but if Cass was not thinking of diminishing and preventing criminal activity and murders, more than likely she was thinking of food. Glorious sustenance that fueled her monstrous metabolism, all of the fine food especially home cooking did tend to mold her palate.

Cass observed Steph as she called in for a pickup/clean up and then caught Batgirl’s gaze. “Yeah?” She replied when the cowled heroine called her name in question.

The Black Bat chuckled as Steph set her particular game in motion and felt a well of emotion bubbling from chest to throat. She had no idea how much she missed her friend until this moment. There was many opportunities to yell and scream and throw a tantrum, but instead they were about to play a game of tag as if they had never been separated.

As Steph waved good-bye, Cass shot her own grappling gun and swung towards the adjacent rooftop to head her off. She flung herself upwards and as the line released and grew lax, she flipped onto the rooftop to push herself forward like a human cannon ball before she set to running playfully after her missed friend.

TAG: Batgirl

[Batgirl]

Steph cocked her head to one side, eyeing the slightly sheepish grin that played over her best friend’s face for a moment. Hmm. Guess she hadn’t expected to just be happily taken back. Which also made Steph guess her friend hadn’t known her as well as the weird body-reading thing would make her think. Because there wasn’t any way that Steph wouldn’t be overjoyed to see her, no way at all. It just wasn’t in her to be mad at Cass, or so she thought, not at her best friend. Not at the girl who’d given her the big opportunity she was currently using. And hopefully not abusing.

Nah. From previous experience, if Cass thought she wasn’t a good enough Batgirl, there’d be less hugging and more broken bones. A lot more. Steph tried valiantly not to shiver at the scary thought of a mad Cassandra Cain after her.

The hug was better.

Steph enjoyed it for a moment, then valued the silence too as they look each other over.

Then a softer smile appeared as she was told she looked great. Steph did a little spin, brushing her cape back so that her friend could get the full effect. ”Yeah, O did a great job on this one. Even kept the eggplant, you know how much that means to me. But you look great, Cass. Love the new mask – it’s way better than the old one – and you know it’s great to have you back. We need to team up sometime. Oh, and can we go back to the old training routine? I know I’m better, but there’s still stuff you can teach me, plus it was way too much fun.” She paused. ”Ok, not so much the vomiting.”

And then they were running.

Now here’s one of the differences between old!Steph and new!Steph being played out for anyone watching. Old!Steph would have been so busy gloating over getting one up on Cass in any way that she’d have run right into the other girl, been tagged right back again and spent the rest of the night chasing the cape Cass was playfully waving just in front of her. So to speak. See, Cass was smart enough that she wasn’t running after Steph, but going to cut her off. It was the obvious ‘right’ move, getting between Steph, make her slow down and grab her. And, last time the two had run with each other on the rooftop roadways of Gotham, Steph would have fallen for it hook, line and wasted rest of night.

Now, though, she was smarter. She watched Cass as she ran, keeping track of where the grapple was headed. Then, the second she saw it was going to be between her and where she was currently going, Steph switched direction at the next chance and headed off at an angle with a brief, jaunty wave of her hand as she sped back up again and tried really hard to think of ways to lose her friend again. Y’know, just for long enough to declare herself the winner.

Nope, no ideas right now. Great job, brain. With that, she flipped over a gap between buildings with a nimble ease before pausing to grin back at Cass. ”Hey, Cass? Remember back when I couldn’t jump that far? Guess you’ve only got yourself to blame if you can’t catch me.” And then, with a whirl of her cape, she was running again, looking for somewhere a bit… messy to try and lose Cass for a bit.

TAG: Black Bat

[Cassandra Cain]

There was a time when she had punched Steph several times as a way of communication especially when the quirky girl tried to stop her or make sense. Strangely enough it did form a rather odd little bond that seemed to ‘work’. There were still things like being proud of someone, or missing them that she could not quite say into words without feeling embarrassed and then rushing off before the emotions could be dissected. They were cast from two different molds, but because of their differences there was something that they could make sense of each other.

She was usually the type to dislike talkers, garrulous people especially that would often drive her up the wall enough to consider punching them out and causing them to pass out for a bit of peace and quiet. The technique was used a few times on Stephanie in the past, but now less of that had happened as the time apart had allowed her to appreciate those that were no longer there when she was in Hong Kong. It was easier to ostracize her when Cass was at her worse to come back a lot more emotionally stable and stronger. When she had thought she lost her adopted father there was no words to actually describe the train wreck that was her mind, but she followed protocol to the very letter. It was how she survived and dealt with the loss.

Steph chattered away like the old times, like she had never left, to pick up the ties that were once severed but willing to be tied off and continued on as if there weren’t those days and nights without her. That was appreciated and not taken for granted knowing that she would eventually have to face the rest of the bat family as they dealt with her aloofness while arriving in Gotham without the fanfare and formal announcements. “Sure, I’m still settling in, but I’m game.” She answered slowly and a lot more quietly.

It seemed that the time away had managed to change Steph. She radiated a lot more confidence, and know how that made Cass smile and even feel a little bit bad that she missed a lot of her friend’s training. Was there even laughter as Batgirl seemed to have figured out a way to avoid being caught too easily? The challenge was acceptable and there were a few seconds where Stephanie threw out a taunt that would have had Cass jump and flip and land right behind her, but Batgirl managed to whirl and dodge and head off in a different direction. “You have improved!” The Black Bat called out, and again she was running until she disappeared again to head Steph off using the few moments that she would lose to stop and look back to have her friend run right into her.

TAG: Batgirl