@hoodred: THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER.
something about his words. not a lie. it's -- what had barbara called it? sarcasm. saying something, but meaning the opposite. cassandra isn't sure she sees the difference. red hood is harder to read than most, with his mask completely obscuring his face. but his shoulders are tense. ready for a fight. not with her -- not this time, at least. with the cultists stalking them through the gotham sewers.
she thinks of telling this story to stephanie, later. thinks of how steph would laugh in disbelief, and then interrogate her for every detail. she'd see it as an adventure, then, through steph's eyes, and not -- this.
cassandra had interfered first. barbara had told her no masked criminals, not yet. she'd been following a different target, a minor drug lord. found out he'd been taking orders from the red hood.
so she had been watching him when the cultists came. they weren't skilled fighters -- no one is, not the way that she is -- but they had some kind of ...magic? something strange. it had confused cass, disoriented her.
and now they're running. being hunted through gotham's sewers by those strange hooded figures. at least it lowers the chance that any civilians will be hurt. cass chances a glance up at her momentary ally, her own face still obscured by the batgirl mask. in her mind's eye, she is remembering the way he fought off the cultists, before their escape. something about the way he moved --
"you fight... like batman," she says, blunt. the only interruption in their mutual silence since his comment earlier. but how could that be? what would batman want with a killer, a criminal? "why?"