I before E except after C

[l33t_winged_bat]

The process is frustrating. Especially to someone like Barbara who is not a natural teacher. A couple of times during this whole process, she's been tempted to call in Helena for backup.

"Okay, Cassandra." She stops and sighs. "Do you remember the rule of spelling regarding EI or IE?"

Comments

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

Cassandra has the look of someone who's not entirely interested in her studies. Her cheek rests on her fist and she glances out a nearby window with half-closed eyes, probably imagining new, violent ways to stop muggers. Only today the imaginary muggers look a lot like characters from Sesame Street.

"Umm... EI after... constants," she mutters.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"It rhymes," she hints. Then, she really looks at Cassandra. "This, isn't helping is it? Sitting."

She tries to dismiss the slightly bitter thought that most of what she does now is "sit," because it's not all that helpful.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

Cass turns from the window and gives Babs a blank look that seems to convey I can't even spell, much less rhyme. "No." She stretches her neck and shoulders. After all, it's only been two hours of words and grammar and other things that aren't training or fighting crime.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"time to get up and do something then." She thinks on it. "What's 'fun,' for you? Sadly, I don't know what that is and I should."

Bad former Batgirl. No cookie.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

"Training," she states simply before hopping to her feet almost joyously, as if she finally finished a great ordeal.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Training?" How can she make this work? Her training was always very text-based, except for the gymnastics...and well, her incentive for training there was personal. Brainac 5 did give there this computer before his leap home with the LEGION however, and it did have some VR programs for training.

She punches up a list of possible sparring partners. "Okay, Cassandra. The computer will start the program once you're on the blue mat and you put the goggles on. Any preferences who you work against first?"

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She wrinkles up her nose slightly as she holds the goggles in her hand. She's never really understood technology, and these things look like they'd be more useful for swimming than fighting. She finally slides them on and steps onto the mat. A glance back at Babs and a shrug indicates that she really doesn't care. With two hours of pent-up energy to work out, she feels like she could take Darkseid.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

She asked for it; more or less.

"Invisible Kid."

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

The world melts away in a series of ones and zeros into the streets of Dakota City. It's daylight. The ambient sounds of the city are around her. The street she's on has no pedestrians and cars are close-by, but not visible to her. Neither is her opponent, who swings at the back of her head with a vicious punch.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

It connects, sending her stumbling forward. She spins around, throwing a kick that connects with nothing but empty space. Babs said her opponent was named Invisible Kid, right? She's not really sure what 'invisible' means, but she doesn't see or hear anything. Whoever this guy is, he must be really fast and really quiet. She pivots in place, trying to get a glimpse of who she's fighting.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

It means, "no sound, no visuals, no heat, no obvious queues coming from the future superspy's body." He cannot control air pressure however and it shifts slightly to Batgirl's right.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

The slight shift in the air might go unnoticed if she was fighting any other opponent, but given that she has no other tells to go on, she quickly spins to her right, throwing a strong roundhouse kick toward her invisible opponent.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Which seems to work until another sense of pressure comes towards her other foot in a sweep.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She jumps over it and throws another quick strike in the direction of the sweep, though the movement isn't as graceful or instinctual as normal. The trick is trying to learn not to rely on her eyes, something she's done for a very, very long time.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile she's taking notes. she knew Cassandra was a very visual learner, which likely meant her verbal learning curve was steep based on most learning theories. The fight was a show of motion based learning, which it was obvious she was good at but...no it needed to be visual and moving to keep the student's focus. Like movies or...Got it!

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

While Barbara thinks, the facsimile continues to strike out at the student. This time it's a feint to the face and a jab at the stomach - but he may be in a little too close.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She's committed to countering the blow to the face before she realizes that the invisible fighter is going for her stomach. The blow grazes her as she steps to the side, countering with an elbow toward where she figures his face would be if he was about average height.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Which knocks him flat. She can see the dust swirls on the ground pick up...

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

She's undeterred. "Elongated Man!"

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Ralph is generally superstrong and supertough, but the scenario compensates for that a little. Batgirl may find herself surprised to be on the Watchtower on the Moon - with zero gravity!

A redhead in purple stretches his arms out to the sides of her.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

Elongated Man? Never heard of him. And he doesn't sound too tough, either.

She's genuinely surprised--and just a bit dismayed--when an attempt to charge her opponent results in her pushing off the ground spiraling through the air over his head. She knocks into the wall of the Watchtower and remains motionless, a rare state for the agile fighter, for a second as she attempts to determine a way to successfully navigate the room without gravity.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

She should learn about him. Second longest stint in the JLA after Martian Manhunter, worked with the Batman before there was even a Robin, and his wife...Well, there are rumors about her being a force of nature.

Ralph is a decent fighter, but he's more of a thinker and this scenario isn't going to do that as much justice. Still, the rubbery man puts an arm on either side of Cassandra blocking her off from the left and right.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She should probably learn about a lot of things.

Cass is the opposite, but she occasionally has moments of brilliance in the heat of battle. She can't conventionally utilize her speed, since whenever she tries to run she simply careens into the air, and she has no control in mid-air when she pushes off the walls. So instead, she grabs hold of one of Elongated Man's arms and begins to climb it as one would a rope, quickly working her way down the limb toward his body.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

The real Ralph would probably do something else. This Ralph tries to entangle her buy making his body into rubbery steps.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She's not exactly sure how to hurt a guy who can mold his body like that, but she figures the tried and true strategies will work: she pushes herself off of his arm and attempts a flying kick at the stairs.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Zero G's create a weird effect. She bounces straight into the air off her kicks!

But now the Elongated Man's feet are wound together from the sudden shock of her movement. Maybe if other parts of him were twisted up too...

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She floats aimlessly for a few seconds before bumping into the wall once again. She watches the tangled Elongated Man, and the image of tying her shoelaces comes to mind. A quick push launches her off the wall toward Ralph's right arm, which she attempts to grab and bend into a huge loop.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Duck, dodge weave. Duck dodge weave and weave again. The man in purple almost takes up the full room, but he can no longer move to get her easily - and his head has not stretched along with him.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

His cumbersome size works to her advantage, and she's reasonably sure that he won't be able to swat her away. She leaps for his head, hoping that even though it might be rubber, pummeling it will still hurt.

[nation-extras.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does and the Ductile Dectective is not immune to surprise head shots while he's focusing on other things, like trying to confine the Bat to a smaller area.

It lands true next opponent...

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Hawk and Dove..."

She's smiling.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

By the time the afternoon of combat is over, Cassandra has dealt with:

Invisible Kid
Elongated Man
Hawk
Dove

...Which Barbara frequently told her was "wave one." Next was:

Captain Cold
Elasti-Girl
Ibn al Xu'ffasch

Which was "wave two." Wave three?

Ice
El Diablo
Gear

All the scenarios were very truncated, but had enough movement to slow the girl down and make her think. Right now, she wheels over and hands Cassandra some more lemonade.

"Do you remember who you fought first in all that?" She's smirking.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

Cass eagerly takes the lemonade and practically inhales it. The empty glass is handed back to Babs in the hopes of another refill. She looks exhausted: every muscle is relaxed, her hair sticks up wildly, and her black tank top drips with sweat.

She gives Babs a tired look, as if to say I just beat up half the heroes in the world and you want to give me a pop quiz? Still, she knows that Babs is equally tenacious when it comes to this 'learning' and 'knowledge' thing, so she thinks a minute before crudely pointing to her eyes, and then to her ears. "Could not see... hear," she mutters.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Invisible Kid...Followed by?"

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

This gets an even more irritated glance, but she continues, stretching her arms and legs out for a second. "Um... Long Man." Or something like that.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Elongated Man." She refills the glass and waits for her pupil's ire to go down a little. "I before E."

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

Once again, the liquid disappears nearly instantaneously. The drink seems to calm her down a little bit, though it's still apparent that she'd almost rather go ten more rounds than deal with wordplay.

She wracks her brain for the answer, since maybe getting it right will get Babs to leave her alone. "Not after... c," she says finally, remembering the dumb little jingle that Babs had tried to drill into her.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Like Captain Cold, Elasti-Girl, and Ibn." Barbara is close to gleeful, but trying hard to not let that crack through - much.

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

It bleeds through enough for Cass to tell, which in turn makes her feel kind of warm and fuzzy. She might even give Babs a small, weak smile. Just don't tell anyone.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Except in some weird cases, when they are followed by a 'g.'"

Of course not.

"It's not you, Cassandra - except when you're being stubborn. It's me."

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She shifts and lies down on the couch, resting her head against one of the pillows. "Just so... hard," she mutters, letting out a sigh. Grammar is way harder than beating people up.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Being in this family is." It's never easy. Dick can barely convince her to take a day off because no matter what something is happening somewhere. "For me, the reading was easy. The beating people up was hard."

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She responds with a weary nod and her eyelids sag a bit. For her, fighting is totally instinctual, whereas reading likely never will be.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

Poor kid. David Cain, Lady Shiva and now this alien world. As tired and young as she is...she looks small. She knows better and he head is insistant on that point, but...She throws an oversized towel closer to her. With Cassandra's size and the heat outside it makes for a perfect blanket.

"Sleep. I'll wake you when it's time."

[borderline-bat.livejournal.com]

She clutches the towel and pulls it over her body with lazy, imprecise motions. She responds to Babs with a mostly incomprehensible noise before drifting off to sleep.