Adventures of Cassandra Cain, Ch. 15

Deep beneath Gotham, the shadowy giant known as Bane was visitted by one of the dozen emissaries he had deployed as eyes and ears around Gotham. These were uncertain times on every front with the Batman being vanished, a major up and coming player in the drug trade taken down, Bruce Wayne indicted for murder, and now he was receiving word that his hired assassin Hellhound had just been executed after a duel with Selina Kyle by...Bruce Wayne? It would only take him an hour to verify that Bruce was still very much still incarcerated if he so desired, but he knew there was no need.

Hellhound had been executed by Hush, the man he knew from his own network to be Thomas Elliot. Things were beginning to crystallize for Bane. Bruce didn't kill his lover, Thomas did and allowed himself to be seen so as to frame Bruce. The man truly had no limits, and he respected that. He knew from the same network about Thomas' surgical alterations, very little happened on any front that he didn't know about.

What Bane did not respect was Thomas sending his messages at Bane's expense. KGBeast and Hellhound were his men, and while he now understood that he had intruded inadvertently upon Thomas' vendetta, he simply could not afford to not respond. This was an unfortunate development, Thomas was a very dangerous opponent and had just declared himself an obstacle. Bane had a reputation for removing obstacles.

Bane's philosophy about such things was very simple. Most problems in life are not complicated, people only perceive them as complicated because they disrespect themselves with petty concerns such as the worldly pursuits of base individuals held up as friends, or wants for trivial things borne of poorly conceived notions of value. Most problems are very simple to solve when viewed for what they are, stripped of fluff and garbage and held aloft under the garish light of brutal intellectual honesty. Bane was dealing with a hunter of men, an intellectually accomplished and morally vacuous person with a driving obsession with the Wayne family that overrode his every sense of reason to such an extent that he was willing to destroy anyone and anything that stood in his way.

Simply put, Bane was dealing with a brilliant sociopathic serial killer. To kill him, he would need a master of the craft. Deathstroke was too much and came with his own set of problems that he would not tolerate. Likewise, to bring in Lady Shiva would be tantamount to an admission of weakness and he would sooner kill the man himself or be killed than go that route. The answer stood before him in stark relief. He needed to ultimately bring in Cassandra, Hush was standing in the way. He would recruit Merlyn, her original instructor, to put sense in the child's head and deal with the man. He knew Merlyn alone might have problems, so he'd contract assistance as well. If Merlyn was not up to the task, he'd deal with the problem himself.

***

Selina was up in arms. She had sworn every which way that Bruce shot Hellhound, the man she had known in her childhood as Kai. Quickly this was put to bed though with a visit to him in prison with Barbara. Bruce was very much still under guard, although he seemed more cagey than normal. She supposed that was just a byproduct of life behind bars, but it could also be something more. She could never be sure with him.

She'd heard rumors in her circle that Thomas Elliot, also known as Hush, had surgically alterred his face to look like Bruce. This had to be the case, it was the only explanation for everything that had happened. She apologized profusely for ever believing he could have done that.

She would be less than thrilled with anything for a while. Her performance at the studio would reflect her dour mood, everyone knew she was beating herself up for believing Bruce had gone back on his one rule. This was what Hush wanted, and Richard was quick to point that out to her. He wanted them to question themselves, to fall apart before he came for them.

***

Another week passed. Cassandra was growing weary of the shut in life again. Tien was a good man, among the best she'd known. She could learn from him forever, but she had obligations. She'd been doing more than learning spirituality from the master, she'd been figuring out how to get back on her feet too.

Her writing had come a long way in the two weeks she'd spent in the temple. He was a ruthless critic, every day he made her spend an hour in the morning and an hour before bed practicing her name, the three jewels of Buddhism, and the Four Noble Truths. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha translates to Enlightenment, Compassion, Community. The four noble truths are 'Life is suffering, because it is temporary. The truth of the cause of suffering is craving, thirst, and frustration. The truth of the end of suffering can be found through simplicity and effort. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering is found through effort and simplicity in pursuit of the eight-fold path.' At least that was what she had to practice writing.

Her frustration and suffering, in her mind, was keeping her t's and f's straight. Then there was the time she accidentally wrote 'the truth of the cause of stuttering...' and she thought he was going to have a nose bleed. It was boring tedium, but she was proud of what she was managing.

Tien wasn't blind to the fact she was beginning to feel wanderlust, and that she was going to have to leave soon whether he liked it or not. He had her cleaning, taught her the various incenses of the temple and how to use a mortar and pestle for preparing them. He also trained her in the traditional means of preparing tea. By the end of the second week he had her preparing and putting out the sacred incenses and serving tea after the daily meditations. Between her education in the underlying metaphysics of karma and the rest of this, he had done a good job keeping her time occupied. He knew it still wasn't enough, she was a woman of action not letters.

He supposed, with all this in mind, that it was time to pass along something from his own childhood before she moved on back to her life. His family going back generations had been rice farmers, he had been the first in a long time to dedicate fully to the teachings of Lord Buddha. Part of his family's traditions lay in martial discipline and devotion to Bagua Zhang. He hadn't practiced much in recent days, but he remembered the moves quite well.

His family were of the conservative mindset, and he intended to pass along his lessons in similar fashion to how they had been imparted to him. This meant privately, and every night he took her into the courtyard and walked her through the traditional postures and subtle gestures of his martial art. It was strange to her. She'd shown him one of the forms she knew and relied on when he saw her confusion and he confirmed that it looked like some form of Muay Chaiya, a low crouching style of boxing from somewhere in Thailand that was indeed quite different in every regard from Bagua.

In Cassandra's experience, formidable for her age as it was, she was used to drawing power from her hips or her feet depending on what she was doing. She could deal grievous damage with her elbows and fingers, her knees could devastate as well. In Bagua, she was having to learn a different way of deriving power. Bagua Zhang means Eight Trigrams Palm, and its motions were comparatively gentle and subtle next to anything she was proficient with. Ninjutsu and most muay boran techniques involve sudden violence and shattering blows, but Bagua systems are smooth and involve flowing movements that often string attacks and movements together in an almost dancing manner. To help her with developing the gentleness necessary for his system, he started giving her private instruction in Qi Gong as well.

He found that, like anyone from the League of Assassins, she was more than conditioned physically enough for the task and that saved the years traditionally involved. Her muscle memory and reflexes were likewise astonishing, his only problem was her want to fall back on the other martial arts in practical application. This was fine, he reckoned. Like the other lessons, this was merely a key for her to do with as she pleased.

***

The Bat family would have peace for a time, albeit a stressful peace. This would shatter with a black arrow in the sign of the studio. Attached to it was a scroll that said,"Can Cass come out to play?" They all know it to mean that Merlyn had come calling. None of them knew where she was, much less how to get in touch with her.

Merlyn suspected as such, but his first job was dealing with Hush. To aid in this, he had the help of Thomas Blake, aka Catman. His skillset as a martial artist was sufficiently impressive that Merlyn grudgingly accepted working with the man even though he personally thought the man a closet jiggolo.

Blake on the other hand was uncomfortable from the beginning. Merlyn made him more than a little nervous, his level of professionalism aside, the man struck him as having something of a fetish for the hunt. Or perhaps he just relished the killing, he really couldn't tell but he'd never encountered anyone who had such a single minded drive to put an arrow in someone.

Trying to strike a conversation with him, Blake asked Merlyn,"So, why do you think the big man wants us working together so bad?"

Arthur, aka Merlyn, replied,"Probably because Tiger isn't available. He likely hopes your skillset is comparable enough to be of psychological use if not practical."

Blake isn't stupid, he knows an underhanded insult when he hears one and drops it.

Merlyn privately looked forward to seeing how far his old pupil had come in person. He was actually proud of her achievements, in a way. While he was disappointed that she hadn't become the fullfledged assassin he'd trained her to be, it was no small consolation to him that she was the League's biggest thorn at this point. He truly did hope to figure out a way to bring her back into their fold, but if not he would be merciful and put her down painlessly as he could manage.

***

Cassandra enjoyed the soreness from training in a new style of martial art. It was the feeling of honing muscles in ways she wasn't accustomed to. She didn't particularly care for this style though, she couldn't feel the practicality though of course that could just be a byproduct of being prejudiced towards certain tactics. She would absorb the movements, and do as he advised. Meditate on them, and incorporate them into her regimen.

The core of the Bagua system as taught it involved a technique called the swimming body. It supposedly evolved from rice farmers who had to defend their lands while fighting in water and mud, often unable to properly lift their feet. To manage, they had to learn to move with their ever flowing environment and the result was a highly mobile and defensive standup system of combat. The circular steps and movements were evolved from Taoist philosophy, according to Tien. The idea was the harnessing of centripetal force for anything from grappling and jointlocks to staying behind a slower opponent, both of which were ideas that appealed to her.

No sooner had she learned the movements of these two systems than it was time to go. She knew this when a black arrow sailed into the temple with a letter attached to it stating if she didn't show herself, an arrow would appear each day in an asian woman until she did. Merlyn had come for her, apparently KGBeast and Hellhound had been dealt with. She couldn't leave Merlyn to her friends, he was dangerous for even Bruce or Oliver to handle.

Tien nodded when Cassandra told him her decision, knowing this was how it was supposed to be. Her hand was forced, he would explain to her in parting to practice her movements as daily as possible to make them a part of her and meditate on their underlying principles. She would come to understand them thereby, perhaps it wasn't meant for him to guide her further than this.

Parting was a deliberate affair. He sent her on her way with a cup of tea, insistant that she depart with a pleasant memory rather than one of being forced from another home. It made all the difference, he claimed. She supposed he wasn't wrong.

Thomas Elliot was annoyed. He'd just dispatched by his own hand two assassins for messing with his project and now he had two more to deal with. He knew who one of them was, Arthur King. The other one seemed like some nobody with a cat fetish, at least that was his reckoning. What is it with assassins and pet fetishes? The last one he killed had a dog fetish, and here they send someone with a fixation on kittens.

Merlyn was nobody to joke with, he knew. The man had a proven track record and solid reputation. Anyone who'd not heard of him was likely better off not knowing, he'd killed across three continents that he was aware of. Cassandra must be very naughty indeed to have people with this kind of pull upset with her.

The next day Cassandra showed up at the studio. She'd spent the night before prowling, thinking about how she was going to approach her friends. It'd been right at three weeks that she spent in the temple. She couldn't yet truly return, she needed to deal with the League and whomever it was that was stalking her.

Everyone was shocked at the way she just strolled in out of the blue, much the way she left. After a moment of hugs and grateful relief, Barbara hauled off and slapped her. Cassandra had halfway expected it so took it in her usual silent way.

"Where the hell have you been?! You pull some disappearing act with no letter, no sign, nothing and now you just come back like it was yesterday!" cries Barbara, literally streaming tears of relief over her friend's well being.

Cassandra doesn't say anything at first, but after a long moment she whispers,"...Sorry. James was trouble in, and...sorry." She just looks down at that.

Barbara understood, Cassandra was worried about her dad. She figured that was only half of it after Selina's reasoning, but she understood not wanting to own up to that. She honestly preferred that she didn't.

Richard was there as well, but he didn't say anything meaningful since Barbara had it well in hand. Kate reasoned the same.

Selina however,"Glad you're alright, hope you've got some idea how to take it to these creeps."

"Merlyn. Was teacher, back when..." Cassandra stops there, mentally stretching to figure out how to explain.

Selina and Richard saucer eye at this little bit, Richard filling in for her,"Back when you were a kid, before you ran away."

Cassandra nods slowly, thankful for the assist.

Selina folds her arms, commenting in a thoughtful tone,"Explains a little bit. I might have run away from that too."

Barbara and Richard look at each other, nodding their agreement with the sentiment as Kate speaks up,"So...this isn't a friendly house call coming to check up on you, are we going to have to look forward to any other teachers from your childhood?"

Cassandra just shakes her head, explaining,"Tiger Bronze isn't League anymore. Been trying to find mother, dad stays out of way." She was nervous over having upset her friends and was feeling the spotlight pressure.

Richard nods, knowing about her dad from Bruce,"David. Glad I never met him."

Cassandra doesn't respond to that. Kate is visibly feeling out of her depth, the names being bantered about from her childhood. She thought she'd had impressive training herself, her dad having pulled strings for her to go through the best schooling the military had to offer.

She'd cross dressed her way through the special forces regimen with her dad's help. He'd pulled rank and called in favors to have an extra man present in first the Ranger School to give her a taste, then the Army Diving School when the SEALs came through. When she managed to pass these, legitimately albeit barely, he was persuaded to see to it that she have a shot at the SEAL program herself. It wasn't hard to bluff her way through as she had so little body fat by that point that she genuinely looked like a young man, her father only had to threaten them with regular appearance inspections via trumped up recent allegations over unusually lax uniform standards.

There had been close calls, but when she squeaked through successfully he was persuaded to allow her to go forward with her dream of following in the Batman's footsteps. She only had to recover from a shin fracture from the distance running before they properly began. He couldn't hold that against anyone who'd passed the physically grueling Dive School twice, even if it had nothing to do with her shin. With all that in consideration, Kate Kane still felt like there was a reason she paled in combat next to the half asian dyslexic girl.

Breaking up the tension, Richard grins and says,"I'm wondering what you've been up to this whole time. Care for a spar?"

Cassandra raises her brows at him, then shrugs as if to say 'why not?' She wanted to try out the form that Tien had gifted her with anyway, and it was better to try it in safety than in a real fight.

Stepping over to the ring, the two hop up in and move to their respective corners. The flying Grayson goes through a series of stretches to limber himself up, knowing in the back of his mind that Cassie at half speed was still a dangerous person. Cassandra on the other hand just shook out her limbs, rolling her neck and shoulders as she had full confidence in herself and her abilities.

"Did I mention I've been learning those wai kru dances?" offers Dick, lowering into his fighting stance. He was a japanese jiu jitsu fighter first, his preferred system patterned after Bruce's.

Cassandra just shakes her head, she wouldn't have known about that but she offered a belated smile of approval as she lowered into a crouch. Her elbows at her sides, fists raised as she seats herself there she is in her muay chaiya fighting stance. She plots to herself beginning from here, then as the fight progressed she would flow into bagua after finding his new measure.

Dick shuffles forward defensively to open, Cassandra staying crouched but stepping forward with her lead foot. She starts the fight with a canopener maneuver, spinning a leg around to sweep forcing him back.

He knows how she operates, that wasn't even an introduction. He'd take the offer though, bouncing immediately back at her with a stomp at her face that is promptly caught.

Cassandra arrests his foot by the toe and heel, twisting to bring him falling on his side. He'd expected that would happen, it being one of her favorite tactics. He rolls with it, coming to his feet with a low kick as he expected her to be on his heels. She wasn't though.

Instead, Cassandra had begun to flow into her bagua circle pacing, hands weaving in a similarly circular pattern that parted dramatically from hand wrap motions typical to thai fighting styles. Richard closed on her to throw a punch and instead of being blocked or caught, she brushed it aside and moved past to pat him on the back where he'd been rabbit punched earlier.

"What style is that?" Dick asked in a curious tone laced with thinly hidden frustration.

"Bagua zhang." Replies Cassandra in a more plain manner.

He replies by trying to bring his heel around at her and she simply turns this against him as well. He notes grudgingly that she hasn't slowed down at all as she goes low beneath his leg, sliding in with her arms wide like wings as she sweeps beneath him and raises her entire body to forcefully offbalance him and send him flat on his back as she twists with her arm snaking to press her palm against his chest thereby directing his descent.

Richard exhales then complains,"Oof...I'm not totally sure what you just did but, that system works."

Cass reaches down to offer him a hand to his feet,"Had to try it to know that."

Looking out, she saw that she had guests who'd observed that match. A few had come in to get a workout and instead had a show, but by their smiles they were not annoyed by the distraction. The Queen's Heart's instructor was back, and things were getting back the way they should be.

Cassandra had only to deal with her old teacher and Elliot to see to it they stayed that way.

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