[video] It's how she says hello

[volving]

[ Cass is still not sure how she feels about being so far away from home, and the people she knows. True, she'd just moved to Bludhaven back home, but at least she could go visit easily, and call Babs if she needed help. Here, she is on her own.

Well, for now.

She decides to greet her new teammates with a video. She doesn't look like she could be much older than 17 or 18 at the most, and while she has the cowl of her new uniform pushed back so her face is visible, it seems to be all black, and there's the top of a potentially familiar logo on her chest. When she speaks, her voice is soft and her words are slow and deliberate. ]

Hello. I'm Batg--. [ a beat, and she squares her shoulders slightly ] I am Batman.

[ Most likely no one expected to learn that Batman was a small asian teenage girl. ]

Where can I find the... training room?

Comments

[wallsofjericho]

[ He has yet to meet a Gotham hero who didn't qualify for as a badass, and he thinks he's up to half a dozen now. He is counting this Bat as a Gothamite. As to the passing of titles, Joey knows they're on the third Robin. A second Batman does not seem like a stretch. ]

No.

[ His hands freeze momentarily on the sign for person, long enough for Joe to mentally weigh how much he should say about someone else. It should be all right, and it might lead to her explaining more about herself. He shakes his head and tries a different answer than originally intended. ]

Nightwing's a friend of mine. He's the only Nightwing, as far as I know.

[ Joe doesn't trust the earplugs entirely yet. He first uses the signs for night and wing, but later spells out the name for clarity. There's no nightwing sign, so who knows what the translation would come up with. ]

[volving]

[ "Nightwing" is a quick way to put Cass at ease, if they're really friends - and Joe's body says he's not lying. She isn't as close to Dick as she was to, say, Steph, but she likes him quite a lot. She brightens visibly, a wide smile spreading on her face. ]

I know him! At home, I know him!

[wallsofjericho]

[ Her reaction is better than he'd expected. It's what he'd hoped for. She seemed genuinely happy to hear the name - that's standard. Everybody likes Dick Grayson. ]

I met him before I joined the Teen Titans.

[ He sees no reason to obscure facts like that. He's talking with a cowl-less Batman. The rules no longer apply (but hes still not saying much about people who aren't present. ]

He's a great person to know. One of my best friends. [ He gently steers the tangent back to a previous topic. ] I can beat him, if I don't handicap myself.

[volving]

[ And that last bit, THAT gets her eyes flashing with the possibility of a better-than-usual challenge. She can beat Dick. That's not in question. She can beat this man, too, that isn't either.

But she gets a better challenge from her friends that Batman taught than a lot of others, and if he can beat Dick, he can give her a little bit longer to work, and she has to rein herself in just a little bit more. ]

Don't with me, either. Or beating you would be too easy.

[wallsofjericho]

[ The handicap is obviously whether or not he uses his mutant power. When he does, Jericho against the rest of the Teen Titans is considered a fair distribution of teammates.

He knows that flash. That's the look of someone who understands that they've been presented with a challenge and who not only accepts it but relishes it. His own eyes probably looked the same way. It's not about wanting to prove her wrong, necessarily, but challenges are what force a person to grow and improve. They also let him indulge his pride: this is something he has trained at.

It also wouldn't hurt to keep himself sharp. Despite her being young, he doesn't think someone who has the gall to call herself Batman and who knows Dick could possibly be a bad sparring partner. He, too, expects a challenge. ]

We'll reassess after round one. I don't want beating you to be too easy.

[ Trash talk isn't his bag, but he'll play along if it keeps her animated. ]

[volving]

[ Talk at all isn't really her bag, but it's fun enough sometimes. And if she's gonna talk, she WILL trash talk. Even for tag.

Just ask Steph.

She smiles. With people having powers, that's a level of combat she's not actually that used to, considering how Bruce kept her away from metahuman baddies, usually. Hopefully it'll provide a challenge. ]

Good.

I can't wait.

[wallsofjericho]

[ He smiles back, but it's because of her relative excitement and engagement. Joe has noticed that she's fairly reticent, but he's not sure what to make of it. He is, after all, slightly suspicious that anything as perfect as the telepathic ear plugs isn't real. He's used to translations being ever so slightly imperfect. It's the nature of it. ]

We only have to wait as long as it takes you to find the training room.

[ He's not rushing her - he looks lazy about it, really. If Joe was impatient, he'd be looking for it himself. There's an undercurrent of curiosity, though, about this new Bat. He knows of... two? Batgirls. And a Batwoman, but he doesn't think any of them are this girl. ]

[volving]

[ See, now it's a challenge to find the training room, not just a desire to know where it is so she can punch things.

She narrows her eyes a little.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. ]

Race you?

[wallsofjericho]

[ Just long enough of a video to make it clear that he's already running down a hallway. ]