Post by Doctor Cyber on Jun 18, 2012 12:46:56 GMT -5
Real name: Cassandra Cain
Alter Ego: Batgirl, Black Bat
Status
Occupation: Crime-fighter; Master Assassin
Martial Status: Single
Legal Status: Not Registered
Group Affiliation(s): Titans East; League of Assassins; Batman Family; Justice League Elite; Young Justice
Origin
Place of Birth: League of Assassins (location unknown)
Known Relatives: David Cain (father), Lady Shiva (mother), Carolyn (aunt, deceased), Annalea (sister, deceased), The Mad Dog (brother, deceased)
History
The daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva), Cassandra Cain was conceived and trained from birth with the intention of creating the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul. After many unsuccessful attempts to train children from birth in martial arts to make them inculcate it like a native language (the most successful being The Mad Dog), David Cain, then a member of al Ghul's League of Assassins, decided the right genes were necessary to create this "One Who Is All".
With al Ghul's go ahead Cain searched for the perfect mother for this child, finding her in the Wu-San sisters of Detroit, who practiced martial arts with each other nearly every moment of their childhood in a type of sister's language. Cain sympathized with the younger sister, Sandra, when he noticed that she held back out of love for Carolyn. To "help" Sandra reach her full potential, Cain murdered Carolyn, then lured Sandra into an ambush by the League of Assassins, where he defeated her.
Cain spared Sandra from death on the condition that she bear his child, and leave her for him to raise. Awed by the potential heights she could reach in her physical talents now that Carolyn was gone, Sandra agreed to Cain's bargain in order that she might go on to become the unstoppable force of nature known as Lady Shiva: creator and destroyer. Shiva's hope for her child was that she might one day grow to be the one force that could stop her reign of destruction.
Trained by her father to be the ultimate weapon, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This ability lives up to her namesake; Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to her capability of 'seeing' her opponents' next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.
When she was 8 years old, Cain decided his experiment had progressed far enough for him to test Cassandra's abilities in the real world, and took her to a hit; the target being a 'book man' in Macau. At the time Cassandra had no idea what she was doing and believed it was only a game (an interpretation in keeping with her own reaction to what happened, and matching the interpretation of Alfred Pennyworth, an expert on children who saw a tape of events). After striking a deathblow, she "read" the target as he died, and saw death as he saw it. "Terror and then... nothing". In addition to scarring her emotionally, she realized murder, like Cain's profession, is wrong, and she ran away from her father.
After spending the next ten years homeless, beating herself up mentally over what she'd done, Cassandra came to be one of Oracle's agents in the No Man's Land of Gotham. Oracle (Barbara Gordon) recognized the enigmatic girl's unique abilities and recruited the girl to be one of her eyes and ears in No Man's Land, gathering information on the streets on the city's various criminals.
At one point, David Cain came to Gotham, too - he had been paid a very large sum by Two-Face to kill Jim Gordon, who had become one of the main gang lords in the ruins of Gotham as he was the head of much of the former police force. Cassandra spotted him, and rushed in front of Gordon to put herself between Cain and his target. Recognizing her, Cain froze and couldn't pull the trigger; then fled. When he later came back to finish the job, Cassandra again opposed him, speaking her first word ever ("stop") - which Oracle had been teaching her. Cain was deeply moved at having found his daughter, but she violently opposed his attempt to get at the Gordons and he had to break contact as Gordon's men started shooting. Both the teenager and Cain would have died that night if it weren't for the Batman. He tethered a de-cel line around Cain's legs while he held his daughter's arms, though while suspended from the building this way, Cassandra forced her way free in an attempt to fall to her death... or her freedom.
In the end, Batman caught her and figured out who she was and why it was that she couldn't speak (he had been himself taught by Cain more than a decade before). He attempted to persuade Cassandra to stay out of things, to leave Cain to him. He, however, made the mistake of revealing to her that Two-Face was the one that hired her father in the first place. Once he left, Cassandra put on a mask and set out on a mission to stop Two-Face. She snuck right into his lair, robbed him of his trusty coin, and held his life in her hands with her fingers around his throat. In the end, she let him live, but stole Harvey's silver dollar so that he was left a blubbering mess. She then went to find Cain, breaking up a fight between him and the Batman to let them know what she'd done. Cain was happy to see she was alive, but she didn't even want her near him. She went with Batman instead, leaving her adoptive father heartbroken and with no juice for a fight.
Cassandra fought alongside Batman and his compatriots, aiding their efforts to restore order to Gotham City. After she helped save Commissioner James Gordon's life from an assassination attempt, Batman awarded her the costume and title of the new Batgirl, which he had just taken from the Huntress. Cassandra moved into the Watchtower with Barbara Gordon, who has become her guardian and friend.
Once it was obvious the nearly mute girl could go toe-to-toe with a killing machine like Cain or psychopaths like Two-Face, Batman took a strong interest in her training and mental integrity, and Gotham needed every fighter to help bring back the nearly collapsed civilization.
As Robin III (Tim Drake) was steadily growing into a crimefighter of his own right and away from the shadow of the bat, like Dick Grayson before him, Batgirl became Batman's sidekick. Although on the surface he seemed to use her pretty much as an attack dog and train her as intensively as he did for the previous Robins, it was a paternal role Cassandra could understand - and they actually connected emotionally to a strong degree, although Cassandra didn't speak and the Batman stayed outwardly a cold authoritarian. Cain and the Batman clashed viciously over Cassandra - despite the inhuman treatment, Cain genuinely loved his daughter and wanted her back home. Obviously the Batman, who understood Cassandra's childhood trauma better than anyone else, wouldn't let him go anywhere near her - and for a time even lived in denial, refusing to believe she had ever killed.
Distraught over the loss of his child, Cain started drinking and watching old training movies of him and Cassandra, even going as far as to break into a federal building to recover them after they had been taken away by the Batman. He ran into Cassandra on his way out with the reels, but when he pleaded it was the only thing he had to remind him of her she numbly let him go.
At first, Cassandra was reticent toward Oracle's lessons - she wanted to please her by learning, but didn't like words and thought she would be perfectly well by knowing about ten words such as "yes", "no" and "what". But she came to change when she attempted to rescue a good Samaritan, John Robinson. The man had stopped an attempted rape by a crime boss' son, and was in retaliation captured and severely beaten. Batgirl assaulted the prison and managed to free him, but too late - he was too severely wounded and internally bleeding. He gave her a letter for his wife, and Batgirl was so moved when she saw the woman reading her husband's last words she decided she would learn to write. To this day, she is not yet able to read or write on her own, though.
At one point, Batgirl found a hunted man in Gotham - an ordinary guy called Jeffers, who had been granted telepathic powers during a medical experiment and was now hunted by his handlers, who wanted to recoup their investment. As he couldn't find any word in her mind, he instinctively reconfigured her mindscape to put the language centers in the right place. Suddenly, Cassandra could think with words - but she lost her fluency in violence, her newfound ability taking the place of her body-reading ability and ruining her defensive skills. She wanted Jeffers to make her back as she was, without words, but the telepath was too inexperienced to undo the complex manipulation.
The Batman started training her back up - but since she couldn't rely on her unique, instinctive style anymore she pretty much had to be retrained from the ground up, which would take years. Batgirl felt desperate and useless, and couldn't bear the thought of staying that way for at least a year. She then ran into Lady Shiva, quite possibly the greatest living martial artist. Although in her weakened state she couldn't even touch Shiva, to Shiva's disappointment, she fled from the hospital as soon as she became conscious again and ran to Shiva, asking her to train her back into body reading. Shiva accepted - on the condition they would meet one year after for a death match. While Cassandra knew she would die (even if she could beat Shiva, she wouldn't kill her, leaving only one way out of the honour duel), she preferred to be perfect for a year than mediocre for ten and accepted. She also saw in that duel the opportunity to basically commit suicide, thus making the ultimate atonement for her perceived nature as a killer.
Shiva taught Cassandra the needed skills in mere days instead of years, making her martially whole again. Cassandra ran back to the Batman to demonstrate him she was no longer vulnerable, and he gave her back the Batgirl costume.
During the next year, Batgirl acted as a full-time crimefighter and adventurer, alone or along with the Batman. Oracle has taught her to speak and understand English, count and use a computer with a GUI (although the reading and writing lessons are not progressing too fast), etc. She has had to leave Oracle's quarters, though, for a "batcave" of her own, which the Batman set up - her face had been filmed by the government, and she risked compromising Oracle's secret identity by staying with her. Oracle later organized a raid, guiding Batgirl to destroy the physical evidence in a Federal center while she destroyed the computer files.
At the end of the year, Batgirl's death duel against Shiva didn't go at all as expected. Well, except for the first part - she couldn't even touch Shiva, who killed her with but one atemi. Batgirl then came back from the dead. Shiva had undone her own killing blow with another extremely precise strike, restarting her heart and restoring the huge hole she had blow in the kid's chi. She also served her restorative tea. Shiva had won the duel to the death - Batgirl had, technically, been slain - and, incomprehensible as ever, started to lightly discuss Batgirl's death wish in confronting her - she just knew.
Then, as they discussed Batgirl's immense guilt over having killed one man, she showed her where they were - a Thuggee temple dedicated to Lady Shiva's worship, as the incarnation of Death on Earth. She showed her the piled photos of some of the men she had met in combat and killed, as well as the corpse of a few Thuggee she had killed on her way in. When Batgirl, fully restored by Shiva's touch and tea, had little choice but to attack her in face of the mounting provocation, she fought fiercely - but as an equal to Batgirl, not at her usual level.
When she caught her gaze Batgirl understood - Shiva had a death wish too. She had been looking for death all along during those fights, and had now decided to die at Batgirl's hand. Batgirl denied her the wish, reaffirming she was not a killer, and then collapsed due to a serious concussion along with the unconscious body of Shiva. Batgirl took roughly one week to recover.
Near the end of her recovery, she started to strike an unlikely friendship with Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler - marking the first time she ever had a friend her age. However, Stephanie ran into personal difficulties involving Robin, and had to move away
Following War Games, Batgirl moved to Blüdhaven with Tim Drake (the third Robin) at Batman's suggestion and with his financial support (Nightwing had been injured during the crisis, and the Gotham City Police Department had declared all costumed heroes illegal). There, Deathstroke took on a contract from the Penguin to kill Batgirl and decided to let his daughter Rose (the current Ravager) do the job instead. Cassandra beat Rose by critically wounding her and giving Deathstroke no choice but to get her medical attention.
Cassandra also went undercover in the Justice League Elite masquerading as an assassin named Kasumi. She revealed herself to Coldcast to tell him that he was not a bad person, right before he was accused of murder.
Cassandra gathered evidence that indicated that Shiva could have been her mother, and sought out Shiva to confirm this. After being proclaimed by Nyssa al Ghul as the "One Who Is All", the students of the League of Assassins split their allegiances, half following Shiva and the others Cassandra. In the ensuing confrontation, Cassandra was mortally wounded by her "adoptive brother", The Mad Dog while heroically saving one of the students under her leadership. Shiva revived Cassandra in the Lazarus Pit, then answered Cassandra's questions on her parentage. When Cassandra asked Shiva if she had killed more people since their last battle and Shiva said that she had, Cassandra asked if she would ever stop. Shiva responded "It's why I had you," and Cassandra agreed to fight her to the death once more.
In an evenly matched battle, Cassandra managed to break Shiva's neck, paralyzing her. She appeared ready to place Shiva in the Lazarus Pit, but Shiva pleaded with her not to do so. In response, Cassandra impaled Shiva on a hook hanging over the pit, apparently killing her. Cassandra then abandoned the identity of Batgirl and returned to her life as a wanderer.
Cassandra wandered for an unspecified amount of time, and then took on the role of a villain by becoming the head of the League of Assassins. She has used her position as head of the League to draw in Tim Drake, the third Robin, as an ally. She began killing former students of her father, David Cain whom she deemed unworthy and used Robin to free David and reunite with him. She then urged Robin to kill David, and join her in leading the assassins, but when Robin refused, she shot her father herself. She and Tim then eventually engaged in a final battle where she maintained the upper hand. The fight came to an abrupt end, however, when an explosive device detonated, leading Cassandra and Robin to flee in different directions. Robin returned to find David missing, and all the ninjas' necks snapped.
As of recently, and much deliberation of personal matter, Cassandra decided it was time to become Batgirl again. Rigorously training, even harder she did for the Assassin's, Cassandra made sure she was ready to aid Batman again. She, however, had to tell her old group, the League of Assassin's, of her departure. Although they persisted for her stay, Cassandra commended she needed to aid the Dark Knight, but promised to keep in 'some' touch. Now coming back as Batgirl, Cassandra has much more responsibility on her hands, and an image to repair as she comes back to Gotham in full stride.
She is hired by an unknown figure (later revealed to be the super villain Dark Angel) to kill Supergirl, and attempts to do so by kidnapping Supergirl's friend, Captain Boomerang. Supergirl arrives at the League's Tibetan headquarters to confront Cassandra, previously unaware of the kidnapping. Cassandra, in her Batgirl identity, attacks Supergirl, wielding twin swords that emit red sun energy, which is harmful to Kryptonians. Just as Cassandra prepares to deliver the killing blow, Kara mysteriously extrudes crystals from her body which wound Cassandra. The true victor of the fight is debatable: While Cassandra was ultimately subdued, she maintained the upper hand from the beginning of the fight, only to be stopped by what was possibly an involuntary defensive response on Kara's part. What happened to Cassandra following this particular story was not explained. Cassandra also reappears in Robin, having done some business with Dodge, a wanna-be superhero with teleportation powers, who was injured and put into a coma when he interfered on one of Robin's cases. Having awoken, Dodge seeks revenge against Robin and is approached by Cassandra to steal a drug which gives humans metahuman strength for her, in exchange for money. After Dodge leaves, Cassandra and a mysterious ally (possibly Deathstroke), make plans to use the package Dodge delivered, to create an army. Whether this takes place before or after her battle with Supergirl or the Titans East storyline is unknown. Cassandra makes another appearance, when she murders the corrupt businessman who has been producing the meta-drug and who Robin was unfortunately unable to take down legally. From a distant rooftop, Cassandra quietly tells him "you're welcome Tim."
Cassandra is also on the roster of Titans East and is once again Batgirl. Cassandra remained in the role of a villain, under the command of Titans East's leader, Deathstroke. It is revealed in that she is being drugged by Deathstroke. After a rematch with the Ravager, Robin injects a counter serum (prepared in case Deathstroke regains control of his daughter again) to Cassandra. She apparently regains control over herself, with a desire of revenge by killing Deathstroke for violating her like Ravager and Terra before her. Whether she will or can accomplish this remains to be seen. Cassandra is allied with the Teen Titans (to which Miss Martian comments that she is more in control of herself now), and faces Slade, Match, and other former Titans East teammates, before being subdued by Risk. Soon after Cyborg, Raven and Duela Dent summon former Titans Nightwing, Donna Troy, Beast Boy and Flash (Bart Allen), who joins in against Slade's team. Batgirl attempts to kill Deathstroke, but is stopped and knocked unconscious by Nightwing, who demands that Slade face the courts. Soon after the battle is over, Batgirl, disappeared without a word.
Characteristics
Age: 19
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 110lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Appearance: At first, Cassandra only ever dressed in black - and pretty deep black at that. When she offered a lipstick to Barbara as a small gift, she naturally chose black - and although Barbara gave it back to her as she wouldn't use it, Cassandra seems to occasionally use it. She does not wear any accessory or jewelry, and tended to go for tight black jeans, tight black tank tops and black running shoes. She has since relaxed a bit and occasionally for lighter colors.
In combat, Batgirl moves in a weird way - too fast, too strong, yet too stilted. She also seems too small and *way* too thin in relation with what she does, and her brusque moves are unnatural and stylized, like in some Japanese theater styles. This strangeness is lost on most opponents, however, who will see Batgirl mostly as a black blur. Outside of combat she has proved to be able to be moving remarkably gracefully, notably when she dances.
Her body is also peculiar - although she still looks very attractive, it seems every gram of fat (except in her breasts) has been replaced by compact, well defined muscles a la Bruce Lee - her abs are particularly impressive. She also has a significant number of almost entirely healed scars all over - although you have to look closely to see them, the number of bullet wounds is disquieting.
Due to her small size and slim waist, the utility belt she wears seems way too big for her, with the individual pouches silently flapping whenever she does acrobatics.
Personality: Batgirl can now speak and understand speech, but this isn't natural to her. Her grammar is mostly correct, but she prefers very short sentences ("Explain" , "Be careful", "This way") or simple gestures and nods if she can avoid speaking. If she has to say something more complex, she usually hesitates while trying to find her words and goes for the simplest, shortest, most common words. She tends to touch peoples she likes to express her trust, instead of using words - unfailingly leaving the Batman very embarrassed when she briefly strokes his face to tell him she cares for him.
Much like the Batman, Batgirl is deeply haunted by her childhood trauma - she didn't lose her parents under terrible circumstances (she didn't even really realize she must have had parents before Barbara Gordon mentioned it), but she murdered a man while she was but a little kid. She desperately wants to atone for this, and the Batman's example showed her it could be done by saving as many lives she can. Her obsessive drive in this regard matches Batman's own, and he's the only one to understand how bad the girl's inner demons are and how they can ever be put to rest. For a long time, her desire to atone was so strong it gave her a death wish - she had no doubt Shiva would kill her, and that was the perfect way to accomplish that wish.
Oracle is pretty much Batgirl's surrogate mother. Their relationship is a bit awkward - Cass is not very verbal, and has trouble understanding many aspects of normal life, while Barbara wasn't excepting to have a 17 years old to raise and worries a lot about her, wanting to give her a chance at a normal life instead of letting her become solely a creature of the night. Barb, being a responsible and sensible woman, has trouble understanding how obsessive the new Batgirl really is - but her own past allow her to understand a part of her drive to dress as a bat and hit the streets.
Batgirl also considers Batman a bit like her new father - they understand each other's mental state on an instinctual level, and he's steadily giving her the discipline and sense of purpose she needs to be sane. Bruce knows exactly how a confused, traumatized kid lost in the world can gain control again and force things to make sense - and they both fluently speak violencese. They also share comparable, regular nightmares and nocturnal flashbacks. For the longest time, Batman was in denial she was a killer, and convinced himself Cain had faked the videos ; likewise Cassandra practically worshiped him.
Batgirl still let herself be largely defined by her fighting skill - she obsessively trains despite already being perfect, and obsessively refuses to lose a fight or not to be the best (at one point, she even very lamely sucker-punched Shiva so she wouldn't have to admit she had actually lost the fight). Due to her previous education, she feels horrible, alone and unloved whenever she is anything less than a perfect combat machine. She also dearly wants to please by being a good little soldier.
Batgirl's version of seeking justice is mostly centered on preventing deaths and protecting innocents - not catching criminals like the Batman, or making a difference like Nightwing. At first, she thought she wanted to be just like the Batman - but after apprehending a man who had killed somebody she had befriended, she realized she didn't feel any better. Not only does she atone a tiny bit with every life saved, but she also wholly refuses her killer instincts - going as far as to charge into gunfire and being badly wounded by several bullets to shield some crook who was about to be killed by friendly fire. She also reacts with obvious, silent sadness whenever she happens on a recent corpse or a dying person. When for a minute she thought she had killed the Shadow Thief, she was in tears and crying for help.
With the exception of Oracle and the Batman, Batgirl is a loner - she prefers to keep her own company. She has very little in common with the vast majority of humanity, does not like to talk and justifiably feels too different from everybody else. She also usually comes across as very aloof and superior. When she likes somebody she smiles a lot, say a few things and touch the person from time to time, but will inevitably vanish back in the night once her task is done - she has a mission. Oracle occasionally had troubles stopping her being Batgirl 24/7 and dragging her outside to enjoy the sun and just live like normal peoples. Cassandra has relaxed a bit since her fight with Shiva, though.
Powers
Known Powers: None
Known Abilities:
Strength Level: While not peak human, she is very strong for her size; capable of lifting over 250lbs
Weaknesses:
Misc (optional)
Equipment:
Bat Costume: This adds a layer of protection against all types of weapons. It also is a nice protection against flames. It increases her ability to hide and allows her to see in the dark. It also contains a communication link.
Utility Belt: Although seemingly unremarkable in appearance, the utility belt remains as one of the most important tools in fighting crime. Composed of a leather strap and a solid steel buckle, the utility belt houses ten cylinder cartridges, which vertically clip onto the outside of the belt. The buckle itself contains a miniature camera and two-way radio. A secondary compartment behind the length of the belt houses a supply of collapsible batarangs.
Each of the ten cylinders contains various tools integral to war on crime. The following list is a sample of some of the items that can regularly be found in the utility belt, but does not represent the complete definitive arsenal of the equipment.
Sample RP Post
Alter Ego: Batgirl, Black Bat
Status
Occupation: Crime-fighter; Master Assassin
Martial Status: Single
Legal Status: Not Registered
Group Affiliation(s): Titans East; League of Assassins; Batman Family; Justice League Elite; Young Justice
Origin
Place of Birth: League of Assassins (location unknown)
Known Relatives: David Cain (father), Lady Shiva (mother), Carolyn (aunt, deceased), Annalea (sister, deceased), The Mad Dog (brother, deceased)
History
The daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva), Cassandra Cain was conceived and trained from birth with the intention of creating the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul. After many unsuccessful attempts to train children from birth in martial arts to make them inculcate it like a native language (the most successful being The Mad Dog), David Cain, then a member of al Ghul's League of Assassins, decided the right genes were necessary to create this "One Who Is All".
With al Ghul's go ahead Cain searched for the perfect mother for this child, finding her in the Wu-San sisters of Detroit, who practiced martial arts with each other nearly every moment of their childhood in a type of sister's language. Cain sympathized with the younger sister, Sandra, when he noticed that she held back out of love for Carolyn. To "help" Sandra reach her full potential, Cain murdered Carolyn, then lured Sandra into an ambush by the League of Assassins, where he defeated her.
Cain spared Sandra from death on the condition that she bear his child, and leave her for him to raise. Awed by the potential heights she could reach in her physical talents now that Carolyn was gone, Sandra agreed to Cain's bargain in order that she might go on to become the unstoppable force of nature known as Lady Shiva: creator and destroyer. Shiva's hope for her child was that she might one day grow to be the one force that could stop her reign of destruction.
Trained by her father to be the ultimate weapon, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This ability lives up to her namesake; Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to her capability of 'seeing' her opponents' next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.
When she was 8 years old, Cain decided his experiment had progressed far enough for him to test Cassandra's abilities in the real world, and took her to a hit; the target being a 'book man' in Macau. At the time Cassandra had no idea what she was doing and believed it was only a game (an interpretation in keeping with her own reaction to what happened, and matching the interpretation of Alfred Pennyworth, an expert on children who saw a tape of events). After striking a deathblow, she "read" the target as he died, and saw death as he saw it. "Terror and then... nothing". In addition to scarring her emotionally, she realized murder, like Cain's profession, is wrong, and she ran away from her father.
After spending the next ten years homeless, beating herself up mentally over what she'd done, Cassandra came to be one of Oracle's agents in the No Man's Land of Gotham. Oracle (Barbara Gordon) recognized the enigmatic girl's unique abilities and recruited the girl to be one of her eyes and ears in No Man's Land, gathering information on the streets on the city's various criminals.
At one point, David Cain came to Gotham, too - he had been paid a very large sum by Two-Face to kill Jim Gordon, who had become one of the main gang lords in the ruins of Gotham as he was the head of much of the former police force. Cassandra spotted him, and rushed in front of Gordon to put herself between Cain and his target. Recognizing her, Cain froze and couldn't pull the trigger; then fled. When he later came back to finish the job, Cassandra again opposed him, speaking her first word ever ("stop") - which Oracle had been teaching her. Cain was deeply moved at having found his daughter, but she violently opposed his attempt to get at the Gordons and he had to break contact as Gordon's men started shooting. Both the teenager and Cain would have died that night if it weren't for the Batman. He tethered a de-cel line around Cain's legs while he held his daughter's arms, though while suspended from the building this way, Cassandra forced her way free in an attempt to fall to her death... or her freedom.
In the end, Batman caught her and figured out who she was and why it was that she couldn't speak (he had been himself taught by Cain more than a decade before). He attempted to persuade Cassandra to stay out of things, to leave Cain to him. He, however, made the mistake of revealing to her that Two-Face was the one that hired her father in the first place. Once he left, Cassandra put on a mask and set out on a mission to stop Two-Face. She snuck right into his lair, robbed him of his trusty coin, and held his life in her hands with her fingers around his throat. In the end, she let him live, but stole Harvey's silver dollar so that he was left a blubbering mess. She then went to find Cain, breaking up a fight between him and the Batman to let them know what she'd done. Cain was happy to see she was alive, but she didn't even want her near him. She went with Batman instead, leaving her adoptive father heartbroken and with no juice for a fight.
Cassandra fought alongside Batman and his compatriots, aiding their efforts to restore order to Gotham City. After she helped save Commissioner James Gordon's life from an assassination attempt, Batman awarded her the costume and title of the new Batgirl, which he had just taken from the Huntress. Cassandra moved into the Watchtower with Barbara Gordon, who has become her guardian and friend.
Once it was obvious the nearly mute girl could go toe-to-toe with a killing machine like Cain or psychopaths like Two-Face, Batman took a strong interest in her training and mental integrity, and Gotham needed every fighter to help bring back the nearly collapsed civilization.
As Robin III (Tim Drake) was steadily growing into a crimefighter of his own right and away from the shadow of the bat, like Dick Grayson before him, Batgirl became Batman's sidekick. Although on the surface he seemed to use her pretty much as an attack dog and train her as intensively as he did for the previous Robins, it was a paternal role Cassandra could understand - and they actually connected emotionally to a strong degree, although Cassandra didn't speak and the Batman stayed outwardly a cold authoritarian. Cain and the Batman clashed viciously over Cassandra - despite the inhuman treatment, Cain genuinely loved his daughter and wanted her back home. Obviously the Batman, who understood Cassandra's childhood trauma better than anyone else, wouldn't let him go anywhere near her - and for a time even lived in denial, refusing to believe she had ever killed.
Distraught over the loss of his child, Cain started drinking and watching old training movies of him and Cassandra, even going as far as to break into a federal building to recover them after they had been taken away by the Batman. He ran into Cassandra on his way out with the reels, but when he pleaded it was the only thing he had to remind him of her she numbly let him go.
At first, Cassandra was reticent toward Oracle's lessons - she wanted to please her by learning, but didn't like words and thought she would be perfectly well by knowing about ten words such as "yes", "no" and "what". But she came to change when she attempted to rescue a good Samaritan, John Robinson. The man had stopped an attempted rape by a crime boss' son, and was in retaliation captured and severely beaten. Batgirl assaulted the prison and managed to free him, but too late - he was too severely wounded and internally bleeding. He gave her a letter for his wife, and Batgirl was so moved when she saw the woman reading her husband's last words she decided she would learn to write. To this day, she is not yet able to read or write on her own, though.
At one point, Batgirl found a hunted man in Gotham - an ordinary guy called Jeffers, who had been granted telepathic powers during a medical experiment and was now hunted by his handlers, who wanted to recoup their investment. As he couldn't find any word in her mind, he instinctively reconfigured her mindscape to put the language centers in the right place. Suddenly, Cassandra could think with words - but she lost her fluency in violence, her newfound ability taking the place of her body-reading ability and ruining her defensive skills. She wanted Jeffers to make her back as she was, without words, but the telepath was too inexperienced to undo the complex manipulation.
The Batman started training her back up - but since she couldn't rely on her unique, instinctive style anymore she pretty much had to be retrained from the ground up, which would take years. Batgirl felt desperate and useless, and couldn't bear the thought of staying that way for at least a year. She then ran into Lady Shiva, quite possibly the greatest living martial artist. Although in her weakened state she couldn't even touch Shiva, to Shiva's disappointment, she fled from the hospital as soon as she became conscious again and ran to Shiva, asking her to train her back into body reading. Shiva accepted - on the condition they would meet one year after for a death match. While Cassandra knew she would die (even if she could beat Shiva, she wouldn't kill her, leaving only one way out of the honour duel), she preferred to be perfect for a year than mediocre for ten and accepted. She also saw in that duel the opportunity to basically commit suicide, thus making the ultimate atonement for her perceived nature as a killer.
Shiva taught Cassandra the needed skills in mere days instead of years, making her martially whole again. Cassandra ran back to the Batman to demonstrate him she was no longer vulnerable, and he gave her back the Batgirl costume.
During the next year, Batgirl acted as a full-time crimefighter and adventurer, alone or along with the Batman. Oracle has taught her to speak and understand English, count and use a computer with a GUI (although the reading and writing lessons are not progressing too fast), etc. She has had to leave Oracle's quarters, though, for a "batcave" of her own, which the Batman set up - her face had been filmed by the government, and she risked compromising Oracle's secret identity by staying with her. Oracle later organized a raid, guiding Batgirl to destroy the physical evidence in a Federal center while she destroyed the computer files.
At the end of the year, Batgirl's death duel against Shiva didn't go at all as expected. Well, except for the first part - she couldn't even touch Shiva, who killed her with but one atemi. Batgirl then came back from the dead. Shiva had undone her own killing blow with another extremely precise strike, restarting her heart and restoring the huge hole she had blow in the kid's chi. She also served her restorative tea. Shiva had won the duel to the death - Batgirl had, technically, been slain - and, incomprehensible as ever, started to lightly discuss Batgirl's death wish in confronting her - she just knew.
Then, as they discussed Batgirl's immense guilt over having killed one man, she showed her where they were - a Thuggee temple dedicated to Lady Shiva's worship, as the incarnation of Death on Earth. She showed her the piled photos of some of the men she had met in combat and killed, as well as the corpse of a few Thuggee she had killed on her way in. When Batgirl, fully restored by Shiva's touch and tea, had little choice but to attack her in face of the mounting provocation, she fought fiercely - but as an equal to Batgirl, not at her usual level.
When she caught her gaze Batgirl understood - Shiva had a death wish too. She had been looking for death all along during those fights, and had now decided to die at Batgirl's hand. Batgirl denied her the wish, reaffirming she was not a killer, and then collapsed due to a serious concussion along with the unconscious body of Shiva. Batgirl took roughly one week to recover.
Near the end of her recovery, she started to strike an unlikely friendship with Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler - marking the first time she ever had a friend her age. However, Stephanie ran into personal difficulties involving Robin, and had to move away
Following War Games, Batgirl moved to Blüdhaven with Tim Drake (the third Robin) at Batman's suggestion and with his financial support (Nightwing had been injured during the crisis, and the Gotham City Police Department had declared all costumed heroes illegal). There, Deathstroke took on a contract from the Penguin to kill Batgirl and decided to let his daughter Rose (the current Ravager) do the job instead. Cassandra beat Rose by critically wounding her and giving Deathstroke no choice but to get her medical attention.
Cassandra also went undercover in the Justice League Elite masquerading as an assassin named Kasumi. She revealed herself to Coldcast to tell him that he was not a bad person, right before he was accused of murder.
Cassandra gathered evidence that indicated that Shiva could have been her mother, and sought out Shiva to confirm this. After being proclaimed by Nyssa al Ghul as the "One Who Is All", the students of the League of Assassins split their allegiances, half following Shiva and the others Cassandra. In the ensuing confrontation, Cassandra was mortally wounded by her "adoptive brother", The Mad Dog while heroically saving one of the students under her leadership. Shiva revived Cassandra in the Lazarus Pit, then answered Cassandra's questions on her parentage. When Cassandra asked Shiva if she had killed more people since their last battle and Shiva said that she had, Cassandra asked if she would ever stop. Shiva responded "It's why I had you," and Cassandra agreed to fight her to the death once more.
In an evenly matched battle, Cassandra managed to break Shiva's neck, paralyzing her. She appeared ready to place Shiva in the Lazarus Pit, but Shiva pleaded with her not to do so. In response, Cassandra impaled Shiva on a hook hanging over the pit, apparently killing her. Cassandra then abandoned the identity of Batgirl and returned to her life as a wanderer.
Cassandra wandered for an unspecified amount of time, and then took on the role of a villain by becoming the head of the League of Assassins. She has used her position as head of the League to draw in Tim Drake, the third Robin, as an ally. She began killing former students of her father, David Cain whom she deemed unworthy and used Robin to free David and reunite with him. She then urged Robin to kill David, and join her in leading the assassins, but when Robin refused, she shot her father herself. She and Tim then eventually engaged in a final battle where she maintained the upper hand. The fight came to an abrupt end, however, when an explosive device detonated, leading Cassandra and Robin to flee in different directions. Robin returned to find David missing, and all the ninjas' necks snapped.
As of recently, and much deliberation of personal matter, Cassandra decided it was time to become Batgirl again. Rigorously training, even harder she did for the Assassin's, Cassandra made sure she was ready to aid Batman again. She, however, had to tell her old group, the League of Assassin's, of her departure. Although they persisted for her stay, Cassandra commended she needed to aid the Dark Knight, but promised to keep in 'some' touch. Now coming back as Batgirl, Cassandra has much more responsibility on her hands, and an image to repair as she comes back to Gotham in full stride.
She is hired by an unknown figure (later revealed to be the super villain Dark Angel) to kill Supergirl, and attempts to do so by kidnapping Supergirl's friend, Captain Boomerang. Supergirl arrives at the League's Tibetan headquarters to confront Cassandra, previously unaware of the kidnapping. Cassandra, in her Batgirl identity, attacks Supergirl, wielding twin swords that emit red sun energy, which is harmful to Kryptonians. Just as Cassandra prepares to deliver the killing blow, Kara mysteriously extrudes crystals from her body which wound Cassandra. The true victor of the fight is debatable: While Cassandra was ultimately subdued, she maintained the upper hand from the beginning of the fight, only to be stopped by what was possibly an involuntary defensive response on Kara's part. What happened to Cassandra following this particular story was not explained. Cassandra also reappears in Robin, having done some business with Dodge, a wanna-be superhero with teleportation powers, who was injured and put into a coma when he interfered on one of Robin's cases. Having awoken, Dodge seeks revenge against Robin and is approached by Cassandra to steal a drug which gives humans metahuman strength for her, in exchange for money. After Dodge leaves, Cassandra and a mysterious ally (possibly Deathstroke), make plans to use the package Dodge delivered, to create an army. Whether this takes place before or after her battle with Supergirl or the Titans East storyline is unknown. Cassandra makes another appearance, when she murders the corrupt businessman who has been producing the meta-drug and who Robin was unfortunately unable to take down legally. From a distant rooftop, Cassandra quietly tells him "you're welcome Tim."
Cassandra is also on the roster of Titans East and is once again Batgirl. Cassandra remained in the role of a villain, under the command of Titans East's leader, Deathstroke. It is revealed in that she is being drugged by Deathstroke. After a rematch with the Ravager, Robin injects a counter serum (prepared in case Deathstroke regains control of his daughter again) to Cassandra. She apparently regains control over herself, with a desire of revenge by killing Deathstroke for violating her like Ravager and Terra before her. Whether she will or can accomplish this remains to be seen. Cassandra is allied with the Teen Titans (to which Miss Martian comments that she is more in control of herself now), and faces Slade, Match, and other former Titans East teammates, before being subdued by Risk. Soon after Cyborg, Raven and Duela Dent summon former Titans Nightwing, Donna Troy, Beast Boy and Flash (Bart Allen), who joins in against Slade's team. Batgirl attempts to kill Deathstroke, but is stopped and knocked unconscious by Nightwing, who demands that Slade face the courts. Soon after the battle is over, Batgirl, disappeared without a word.
Characteristics
Age: 19
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 110lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Appearance: At first, Cassandra only ever dressed in black - and pretty deep black at that. When she offered a lipstick to Barbara as a small gift, she naturally chose black - and although Barbara gave it back to her as she wouldn't use it, Cassandra seems to occasionally use it. She does not wear any accessory or jewelry, and tended to go for tight black jeans, tight black tank tops and black running shoes. She has since relaxed a bit and occasionally for lighter colors.
In combat, Batgirl moves in a weird way - too fast, too strong, yet too stilted. She also seems too small and *way* too thin in relation with what she does, and her brusque moves are unnatural and stylized, like in some Japanese theater styles. This strangeness is lost on most opponents, however, who will see Batgirl mostly as a black blur. Outside of combat she has proved to be able to be moving remarkably gracefully, notably when she dances.
Her body is also peculiar - although she still looks very attractive, it seems every gram of fat (except in her breasts) has been replaced by compact, well defined muscles a la Bruce Lee - her abs are particularly impressive. She also has a significant number of almost entirely healed scars all over - although you have to look closely to see them, the number of bullet wounds is disquieting.
Due to her small size and slim waist, the utility belt she wears seems way too big for her, with the individual pouches silently flapping whenever she does acrobatics.
Personality: Batgirl can now speak and understand speech, but this isn't natural to her. Her grammar is mostly correct, but she prefers very short sentences ("Explain" , "Be careful", "This way") or simple gestures and nods if she can avoid speaking. If she has to say something more complex, she usually hesitates while trying to find her words and goes for the simplest, shortest, most common words. She tends to touch peoples she likes to express her trust, instead of using words - unfailingly leaving the Batman very embarrassed when she briefly strokes his face to tell him she cares for him.
Much like the Batman, Batgirl is deeply haunted by her childhood trauma - she didn't lose her parents under terrible circumstances (she didn't even really realize she must have had parents before Barbara Gordon mentioned it), but she murdered a man while she was but a little kid. She desperately wants to atone for this, and the Batman's example showed her it could be done by saving as many lives she can. Her obsessive drive in this regard matches Batman's own, and he's the only one to understand how bad the girl's inner demons are and how they can ever be put to rest. For a long time, her desire to atone was so strong it gave her a death wish - she had no doubt Shiva would kill her, and that was the perfect way to accomplish that wish.
Oracle is pretty much Batgirl's surrogate mother. Their relationship is a bit awkward - Cass is not very verbal, and has trouble understanding many aspects of normal life, while Barbara wasn't excepting to have a 17 years old to raise and worries a lot about her, wanting to give her a chance at a normal life instead of letting her become solely a creature of the night. Barb, being a responsible and sensible woman, has trouble understanding how obsessive the new Batgirl really is - but her own past allow her to understand a part of her drive to dress as a bat and hit the streets.
Batgirl also considers Batman a bit like her new father - they understand each other's mental state on an instinctual level, and he's steadily giving her the discipline and sense of purpose she needs to be sane. Bruce knows exactly how a confused, traumatized kid lost in the world can gain control again and force things to make sense - and they both fluently speak violencese. They also share comparable, regular nightmares and nocturnal flashbacks. For the longest time, Batman was in denial she was a killer, and convinced himself Cain had faked the videos ; likewise Cassandra practically worshiped him.
Batgirl still let herself be largely defined by her fighting skill - she obsessively trains despite already being perfect, and obsessively refuses to lose a fight or not to be the best (at one point, she even very lamely sucker-punched Shiva so she wouldn't have to admit she had actually lost the fight). Due to her previous education, she feels horrible, alone and unloved whenever she is anything less than a perfect combat machine. She also dearly wants to please by being a good little soldier.
Batgirl's version of seeking justice is mostly centered on preventing deaths and protecting innocents - not catching criminals like the Batman, or making a difference like Nightwing. At first, she thought she wanted to be just like the Batman - but after apprehending a man who had killed somebody she had befriended, she realized she didn't feel any better. Not only does she atone a tiny bit with every life saved, but she also wholly refuses her killer instincts - going as far as to charge into gunfire and being badly wounded by several bullets to shield some crook who was about to be killed by friendly fire. She also reacts with obvious, silent sadness whenever she happens on a recent corpse or a dying person. When for a minute she thought she had killed the Shadow Thief, she was in tears and crying for help.
With the exception of Oracle and the Batman, Batgirl is a loner - she prefers to keep her own company. She has very little in common with the vast majority of humanity, does not like to talk and justifiably feels too different from everybody else. She also usually comes across as very aloof and superior. When she likes somebody she smiles a lot, say a few things and touch the person from time to time, but will inevitably vanish back in the night once her task is done - she has a mission. Oracle occasionally had troubles stopping her being Batgirl 24/7 and dragging her outside to enjoy the sun and just live like normal peoples. Cassandra has relaxed a bit since her fight with Shiva, though.
- Childish: While Cassandra is by no means a brat, her life and emotional development effectively halted at age eight. While she's done a great deal of growing up lately under her adopted family's care, she retains a few odd mannerisms, a blind enthusiasm to what she sees as the most noble task she could possess, and an acute shyness around people she doesn't know, especially in large groups.
- Compassionate: Cassandra is a genuinly kind person when she's not trying to cave your skull in, and wishes for the happiness and safety of her friends, family, and people in general, which was itself a major factor in her taking the mantle of Batgirl, even if her guilt played a part. Whenever possible, she will do whatever she can to help someone, whether they need someone to keep them from getting shot, or just need someone to tell their problems to whom they know won't go blabbing it around.
- Cunning: What Cassandra lacks in 'book smarts', she more than makes up for with a nigh supernatural ability to work out the best way through a situation on little more than instinct and intuition, rather than simply knowing everything about everything.
- Heroic: To Cassandra the protection and preservation of innocent life is one of the most important things in the world, and she will often go to great and rather ridiculous lengths to save a life in danger, with little thought of the danger involved, feeling that the mission she received when she joined the Batman's family to be the only way to make up for her past sins in some fashion. While admirable in its way, it does get her into trouble from time to time, throwing her up against someone out of her league, or into a situation she's not fully equipped to handle, and has gotten her into trouble of a more personal nature in the past for disobeying Batman's rules. For the most part she can resist the urge to do this impulsively, and control herself when more is at stake than just her own life along with the victim's, but if one of her friends is in danger, caution pretty much goes out the window.
- Honest: Her obligation to lie on many occasions is something that has always bothered Cassandra in some fashion. Though she fully understands and agrees that it is necessary, she simply doesn't like speaking untruths. Among trusted friends and loved ones, it is incredibly rare for her to lie to them about anything, the closest she usually ever comes being a somewhat clumsy attempt to dodge the subject. This gets to the point at times, when the term 'honest to a fault' can apply to her, since she usually doesn't think to spare someone's feelings on smaller matters. If you ask her what she thinks of your hair after you shave it all off save for two pigtails, she will /tell/ you what she thinks. She won't be /mean/ about it, but...
- Loyal: Cassandra's loyalty to the Batman, the Oracle, and their collected family is nigh unshakable. In her mind they saved her from a useless life of hiding amongst filth while wallowing in her guilt, and gave her a purpose and, more importantly, a home. She would do just about anything for her new family if they asked, assuming it isn't violently against her moral code.
- Naive: While she's no stranger to the darker elements of life in the world, her view on everything is mostly black and white, rather than shades of gray as it is most of the time. Villains, to her, are usually little more than vile filth that needs cleaning up in a manner that is preferably violent in nature, and her adopted family is trustworthy in every single respect, and could never do any wrong of their own free will. This can make her seem rather innocent at times, which is likely why her relationship with her father so confuses her, and why she can't quite let go of her guilt.
- Obsessive: To Batgirl, the patrol and protection of life is the only job she really can do and /should/ do with her life, the relative triviality's of 'normal life' taking a complete back-seat to her duties. She honestly has no idea what she would do if her mantle were to be taken away from her, and lives with a constant nagging worry that she might displease or outright fail her comrades badly enough that the Batman would do just that.
- Protective: Her family is everything to her, her gratitude to them absolutely immeasurable, and she would do anything in her power, up to and including risking and giving her life to keep them from serious harm.
- Responsible: Cassandra's entire life has been either a brutal training session of one form or another, or a struggle merely to stay alive in the back alleys of Gotham. She is not, as a result, one who has learned to enjoy simply lounging about and procrastinating on doing what needs to be done. Joining the Bat-family has heaped a great deal of duties and responsibilities upon her, and she is all too willing to fulfill them all. Not to say, however, that she doesn't enjoy a bit of peace and calm on the rare occasions when life allows it.
- Secretive: Like the vast majority of the people in her life, she has found herself with a great many secrets that must be kept at all costs, lest she or her family come to harm. This is a bit hard on her, but not for the same reasons it might be on the others, as she herself doesn't have much of a 'normal life' with which this could interfere... but it does require her to lie a lot more often than she's comfortable with. She's not particularly happy that distorting and outright evading the truth is something she's getting a knack for.
- Silent: Cassandra grew up without ever hearing a single spoken word for the first eight or nine years of her life, her training as such that the part of her brain that is usually occupied with thinking and communicating was replaced with an almost animal-like wordless intuition. This was put to an abrupt stop however, when a grateful metahuman unwittingly removed the block, and gave her the ability to think and speak like a normal person, though this led to a great deal of trouble. Even with her newfound ability, however, the language of the body is the first one she ever learned, and english is something she struggles with, though she's improved greatly recently. Regardless, it's unlikely that she'll ever truly be comfortable speaking out loud about everything that comes to mind, and more often than not she will simply attempt to use simple gestures to communicate whenever possible, and is usually the least vocal in any group of conversation.
Powers
Known Powers: None
Known Abilities:
- Assassin Knowledge: Cassandra spent her waking hours training to be the perfect killer since she could walk under her father's watch, and though her understanding of the world in general has suffered for it, her understanding of other warriors, specifically those who's profession is to kill, is actually somewhat disconcerting, as she will often find herself more comfortable in such a person's presence than she will around your average citizen... even if she does consider that person to be an enemy... who may or may not be trying to kill her at any given time.
- Athlete: Since she could walk, Cassandra has been trained up to the peak up human capability, and her athletic prowess reflects this. She is easily Olympic caliber, and indeed could likely out-perform many gold medalists in that regard. While she's not quite up to, say, Catwoman's level, she still leaves most athletes in the dust. Although, in the Bat-family, this is practically a job requirement.
- Body Reading: At the cost of her ability to speak (and when that was regained, a fight with the ungodly deadly Lady Shiva) Cassandra was given the extraordinary ability to read people's body language to the point where she can not only tell the general mood, disposition of a person and even tell whether they're lying depending on how good they are at hiding themselves, but she can almost always tell what an opponent is going to do before they do it through mere skill and intuition. This ability leads most who fight her to think she is some kind of meta-human, which is of course not at all true. She doesn't read their minds, so much as she reads their intentions through their body-language on a level that only her father, Lady Shiva, and, to a lesser extent, Batman can manage. However this ability only lends itself so far as that she can tell what her opponent is going to do. Whether she's fast enough or skilled enough compared to her opponent that she can actually -avoid- the attack she sees coming is another matter entirely. Luckily for her, there aren't many who can match her physical abilities, and two of the people who can aren't particularly inclined to kill her.
- Escape Artist: While not quite at Batman's level, she has learned many of the tricks to escaping a great many of the objects with which you could be bound with skill that rivals most professionals, though not blatantly exceeding the,, be it simply slipping out of hand-cuffs, escaping a straight-jacket or even rope or chain bindings, and picking various kinds of locks with the aid of a few small tools hidden in her gloves.
- Infiltration: With the aid of some handy tools from her utility belt and several lessons in the fine art of violating the privacy of others from the Bat himself, Batgirl has become highly skilled at slipping past even the most impressive security systems, once making it as far as the entrance to the Batcave itself before her presence was detected, and breaking the lock of most doors, using automated key-code breaking devices when the old fashioned way doesn't cut it.
- Intimidation: Let's face it, no matter how pretty you may be, if you wear -that- mask and use the particular dry scratchy voice she uses when in full-on Batgirl mode, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who isn't at least a little creeped out by you. Batman has taught her the importance of intimidation in their fight against crime, and she's taken in to heart quite readily, having developed a heartless, haunted persona, even adopting a way of moving, of -standing- that just seems... unnatural, giving her the general affect of a murderous possessed mannequin. Add to that some lessons in the finely-honed art of scaring the living hell out of people by way of dangling them off of high places and... well, you get the idea.
- Martial Arts: Cassandra received lessons from one of the greatest hand-to-hand fighters alive - her father, who had briefly trained Batman himself - since the day she could walk straight, and it shows. Her fighting prowess is almost unmatched, putting her among the most deadly hand-to-hand combatants alive along with Batman, Lady Shiva, and her own father, Cain. Combined with her impressive athletic prowess, and you have someone no street thug - and many hardened villains, for that matter - couldn't hope to defeat - let alone kill - with anything other than luck. However she's used to opponents made of normal bone and meat parts, since that's all she was trained to fight, and thus far that's mostly all she's fought. Metahumans tend to be a ways out of what she expects from an opponent, which puts her at something of a disadvantage. No amount of skill in reading body language tells you that someone going to spit fire at you, after all. All the same, most humans would be better off seeking more wholesome lines of work than cross her path.
- Ranged Combat: Among her various fighting talents is a great skill in hurling objects, specifically batarangs, with great accuracy and velocity at opponents, to the point where she can disarm them or even knock them out with one throw, and have it come back to her, retrieving the weapon before it even hits the ground.
- Stealth: If you want to hang out with Batman's crowd, you have to be able to move silently and unseen, and Cassandra's no exception. Even before falling under Batman and the Oracle's collective wing, her father taught her well in the nuances of stealth, even making something of a game out of staying unseen until you could surprise and attack an opponent... or sensing if someone else is trying to get the drop on her. Her time with Batman and his adopted family has only strengthened this ability, and you'd be hard pressed to see her coming if she doesn't want you to. This allows her to gleefully pull the time-honored trick of completely disappearing the second someone so much as glances away from you. She never gets tired of that.
- Survival (Urban): Cassandra spent the better part of her life, starting at age nine or so, living in the back alleys of Gotham City. Alone. As such, you can imagine that growing up in such an unbelievably harsh environment, surrounded by some of the worst Gotham has to offer without any serious injuries to show for it, has left her with pretty much any skill she'd conceivably need to survive without any kind of aid in pretty much any city - outside of the morally abhorrent.
- Weapons: Thanks to her father's training more than Batman's, Cassandra is well versed in the art of fighting with many different kinds of weapon with great skill. Unfortunately, as with the martial-arts training she's had to soften, very few of those abilities can be applied to a battle in which the user would really rather not kill their opponent. That and the fact that she honestly prefers using her fists and legs in a fight leads to this skill collecting dust, however should the need ever arise she will likely be able to use any hand-to-hand weapon adeptly, and can more easily anticipate the movements of a weapon-wielding enemy as a result.
Strength Level: While not peak human, she is very strong for her size; capable of lifting over 250lbs
Weaknesses:
- Human: Being only human, protected by mere gadgets, Cassandra is still vulnerable and susceptible to all forms of assault that can drastically harm a human. Normal items and weaponry such as knives, poisonous gases, or flash bombs or projectile weapons can prove to be a challenge to Batgirl every now and then. Cassandra also tires after continued exertion.
- Illiterate: Cassandra was brought up without anything resembling an education in the english language, her first language being one of the body. Therefore, although she was given the ability to speak, reading was completely alien to her. This is arguably her greatest limitation, and Batman has sought to rectify this by assigning Sparrow as her reading tutor. She has improved, but only to the extent that she has memorized the alphabet and can put simple sentences together with little problems. Sasha's untimely demise has slowed her progress significantly, not taking into account the grief she feels for her friend's death, but she presses on regardless. She currently has trouble reading anything more complicated than a children's book, and the subtleties and puzzles built with words such the Riddler uses are completely beyond her.
- Speaking: For the longest time Cassandra was almost completely unable to speak, and although she's overcome this and improved significantly over the past years, she is still mostly stuck with giving short halting phrases, and isn't always completely sure of the correct word to use at any given time, so it can be kind of a pain to speak with her at times, since there aren't many people fluent in body language, especially if you happen to be impatient or don't know her that well.
- Guilt: Even if she does a good job suppressing it lately, Batgirl hasn't been able to completely free herself of the immense guilt brought upon her from the murder she committed some ten years ago. She is prone to nightmares, and the memory of it keeps her from fighting to her full potential, for fear that she may take another life completely by accident. It is one of the driving forces of her zeal for the Batman's crusade, and her desire to redeem herself for what she feels was an irredeemable act sometimes leads her to be overly reckless in her attempts to preserve life in Gotham.
- Enemies: Cassandra has made a number of enemies during her relatively short time as Batgirl, most of them merely from her association with Batman. However none aim at her quite as personally as Lady Shiva, who generally isn't someone you want out for your head. Even so, Cassandra was surprised to find herself somewhat saddened by the news of her demise. Regardless, Batgirl has enough on her plate with Batman's collected rogue's gallery, and the countless delinquents she thrashes on a nightly basis.
- Secret Identity: Cassandra has a fairly major secret to keep, that of her secret identity as Batgirl, and the hidden identities of most of the people in her life. She has a lesser chance than most of being discovered, however if an enemy who was inclined to use the information ever found out about her, the affects would be devastating, especially now that she is one of Bruce Wayne's wards, and the connection isn't too hard to make.
- Seeking Justice: Because of her murder at a young age, she tries everything she can to bring justice and save innocent lives. She will put herself in harms way, even mortal harms way, in order to save lives.
Misc (optional)
Equipment:
Bat Costume: This adds a layer of protection against all types of weapons. It also is a nice protection against flames. It increases her ability to hide and allows her to see in the dark. It also contains a communication link.
Utility Belt: Although seemingly unremarkable in appearance, the utility belt remains as one of the most important tools in fighting crime. Composed of a leather strap and a solid steel buckle, the utility belt houses ten cylinder cartridges, which vertically clip onto the outside of the belt. The buckle itself contains a miniature camera and two-way radio. A secondary compartment behind the length of the belt houses a supply of collapsible batarangs.
Each of the ten cylinders contains various tools integral to war on crime. The following list is a sample of some of the items that can regularly be found in the utility belt, but does not represent the complete definitive arsenal of the equipment.
- Infrad-red flashlight
- Smoke capsules
- Forensic analysis kit
- First aid kit
- Lockpicking tools
- Tear gas pellets
- Micro-processor power source
- Micro-recorder (updated regularly)
- Batline spool + grappling gun
- Miniature Laser torch
- Bat-shaped handcuffs
- Various incendiary capsules (including plastique and thermite)
- Rebreather and gas mask
Sample RP Post
Codeword: