2507/Batwoman and Flamebird reunite

Batwoman and Flamebird reunite
Date of Scene:	18 July 2020
Location:	R. H. Kane Building - Kingston
Synopsis:	Batwoman and Flamebird, the real dynamic duo, are a team once more.
Cast of Characters:	Bette Kane, Kate Kane

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Bette Kane has posed:
It had been three years since Bette quit being Hawkfire, Batwoman's sidekick. The youngest cousin of their generation in the Kane family with Bruce, Kate, Beth and Bette. Somehow, this family has a heroic streak. Usually that landed them in the military, but this generation the fight for peace turned inward in Gotham, lead by Batman at first.

To say that Bette was ever any good at being Hawkfire was debatable. What she lacked in skill she made up for in determination. What she lacked in experience she made up for in spirit. Eventually, though, she turned her attentions to West Point and her studies instead.

But as her university degree progressed, the itch to fight once more return though this time less of an itch and more of a fire, a spark within her. The desire to make a difference. It started in the court yards of West Point when she saw fellow students being hazed and bullied as 'part of the tradition'. She wouldn't stand for it. So she began a new secret career as Flamebird and began traveling between West Point, NYC, Starling City and of course Gotham.

Now that her degree is complete and she has graduated, the military stationed her in Gotham. She finds herself once again.. home. Now it has been years since she has walked in to the secret headquarters of Batwoman, a place she's not even sure Batman knows about.. nah, who is she kidding, of course he'd know. She has always looked up to her older cousin, even more so when she was accepted in to her secret world. There is a hesitant, but hopeful start of a smile on her face as she drops her backpack of gear off in the corner and strides in...

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate is found in the training area, which is so often the case with her - now and back when they first started training together. Her uniform is on its stand, she's instead opted for a grey tank-top that bears the letters 'USMA' across the chest and a pair of loose athletic shorts. Her feet are bare, and her hands are bandaged tightly. Her red hair is cropped shorter than when they last saw one another, more reminiscent of a buzzcut that the more Avant Garde styles she was sporting.

"The prodigal ... hah! ... Kane returns! Hah!"

Her words are interrupted and punctuated by cries of exertion as she brings the side of her flat palm down against the neck and shoulder of the training dummy. A small light blinks red, indicating sufficient concussive force to cause a potentially debilitating injury. She lifts her knee, driving it into the dummy's 'ribs' from one side with another shout of exertion.

"How's the Point?"

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette's smile blossoms seeing her cousin training. Bette has always been naturally athletic and fit, but she was useless at fighting until Kate got to her. Now, after four years at West Point and the training regimes Kate put her through, she has become a force to be reckoned with. Lately that reckoning has come in the form of explosives, her most recent almost disaster in Starling City where she broke up a slave trading depot only to be cornered by its leader wielding a grenade launcher. Thankfully, she had made a friend in the Green Arrow and he could call for his aid.

She ties up her hair and takes off her shoes, entering the training area and doing some stretches. "Hey cous. Misogynistic as always," she says and says, "I like your hair." While Bette ends up on the front of Sports magazine, she doesn't think she could pull off the short hair style. May be she could with a bit of courage. "This place has barely changed at all."

Her stretches consist of some contortionist level leg and torso bending as well as some yoga like stretches. She is on great shape despite a month ago having had a bit of ceiling fall on her. "I suppose my dad would call it character building, but I'm relieved to have my degree done."

Kate Kane has posed:
"Yeah?" Kate asks, lifting a hand to run her fingers across her shorn, sweaty scalp, "If I'm honest, I got tired of brushing it. The single, shaved side may be the official hairdo of my people but it's a nightmare to maintain. You should give it a shot, they can't drum you out for looking gay. Not anymore, at least."

She leaves the dummy be for now, picking up a towel and wrapping it about her neck. She strides towards Bette, smiling as she gives her a quick once over. A glance from head to toe.

"I'll spare you the hug. I'm all sweaty. I hope you've been keeping busy," she chides in a joking way, "Leaving me holding the bag here without my faithful sidekick to help me out. I'm gonna have to hit up an orphanage soon."

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette can't help but laugh at the cheap shots Kate gives at Bruce's expense. "Well. I mean, is that what you want? Do you actually want me to join you again. I really enjoyed it last time -- until the thing happened anyway. But, I'm much better now. I've been tracking an assassin here in Gotham, he's really set up shop and I think I'm the only one on his trail."

She gets up and offers her hand to her cousin instead of the hug. The hugs can wait for a random gala and photo op. "I'd be happy to tell you all about." She goes over to a punching bag and starts to practice her kicks against it, doing gentle light touches for now, just getting her body moving. It doesn't take her long to escalate from 'kick boxer' level to Bat-level with kicks transitioning in to flips or floor rolls. It's a great way to work up a sweat and excellent practice for when things go wrong in the field, which they seem to do a lot for her.

"He's started doing very careful hits to help some sort of cartel of investors take over criminal enterprises here in Gotham. Their fingers are in everything from greek antiquities, human trafficking, guns. Heck, everything but street drugs so far."

Kate Kane has posed:
"Do you actually want to join me again?" Kate asks, turning the question back on Bette with a crooked eyebrow, "You're not stumbling around trying to Tai Bo mobsters to death anymore. You've been to the Point, I've trained you. You mightn't admit it, but I can tell you've picked up some other moves from other places, too. I wonder if there's anything more I can teach you that you don't already know."

She moves towards a small bar fridge set into the wall. The door is nudged open with a foot and she pulls a water bottle out from it, squeezing the chilled contents into her open mouth before spitting them out into the sink. Another, more modest mouthful is taken and swallowed. She lets out a satisfied sigh.

Bette Kane has posed:
"You'll always have things to teach me, that's not really.. the point." She furrows her eyebrows and starts to pepper the bag with fests and elbows, moving her body to the left and right of it, a knee here and there too. She's quicker than she used to be. "It's.. something the Arrow said to me." Now she's name dropping, greeat.

"That we can't do this all on our own, we need each others backs. He has his Arrow Cave.. oof, what a terrible name. Batman has his cohort of Robins. There's also the Birds... I kinda drift amongst them, not really fitting in anywhere but fitting in everywhere."

Her punches start landing harder as she focuses for a moment, the blows becoming more realistic than practice. "I'd be a fool to not work with the only person I've never kept a secret from," she says and it's true, Bruce might be their cousin too but she's never shared as much with him as she has with Kate.

"If you want a partner, or backup.. that is. You're the best Kate," she says without any sprinkles on top, she's not trying to suck up. "I know I don't fit the bat-idiom but you know I am as stubborn as the rest of us Kane's."

Kate Kane has posed:
"Did he say that before or after he fired a big green boxing glove at someone?" Kate asks, unable to keep herself from grinning when she does. She keeps close tabs on all the costumed hero sorts, and though she'll never admit it she likes the Robin Hood flair of Starling City's resident hero.

"You think that's what we need? A group. Like Batman and his kids? I've gotta admit, I don't think I'm ever going to be one of his people. I never drank the Kool Aid to quite the same degree that the Robins did ... "

She clicks her tongue thoughtfully, drumming fingers on the water bottle and leaning back against the cool stainless-steel girder that supports the rooftop.

"You know you're always welcome to work with me here. Though I've got to admit, I was thinking of moving the command post outside of the city. Every time the insurance company does their mandatory compliance testing, I feel like they're going to wander in here or connect the dots when they look at the blueprints."

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette smirks at that glove reference and shakes her head. "No. Actually have you met him? he's a very cool guy. I don't mean as in shades cool, as in very relaxed.. almost easy going, soft spoken. Either he bottles his stress up real good or he's just found a zen in what he does." There's a small shrug of a shoulder.

She stops boxing the bag and approaches the dummy. A swift kick to torso and neck earns a red indicator on both. She bounces on her feet a little like a boxer, then stops herself, "Stop it Bette, this isn't a sport, this isn't a game, don't give away a rhythm."

She resets her mind and begins practicing strikes on the dummy. Some are a bit sloppy, slipping off the intended spot and not earning a good enough power rating, but plenty land true without her hurting herself. She keeps moving, sometimes a free hand skips a strike and instead touches where her bird-a-rangs would be on her belt.

"Where would you *hnn* move to.. the old mansion *hnn* and pull a Batman?" The idea amuses her somewhat but she doubts the old Kane mansion has a gigantic cave underneath it ready made for a superhero lair. "I don't know about a group, but certainly.. working together again. *hnn* It was good and I'm just the right level of stupid to get myself in too *hnn* deep," she says as she delivers a quick series of blows to the solarplexes of the dummy and then draws out a hidden bird-a-rang from a carefully concealed pocket in her sweat pants and flings it over to a target. It lands on the outer edge and she huffs at her bad aim, "Damnit."

Kate Kane has posed:
"Well, the mansion isn't going anywhere. Nobody's living there. My dad doesn't want it, and the deed's in my name now. Why not use it? At least nobody is going to be sniffing around out there. Plus, it'll give you somewhere to sleep that isn't my couch when you're in town."

Kate is clearly considering it, though the mention of 'pulling a Batman' causes her to frown slightly. She polishes off the remnants of the water in short order, putting it back under the faucet to refill it and then redepositing it in the refrigerator to cool down.

"I'm not sure it has a cave underneath it, though."

Bette Kane has posed:
Memories of that place come back in to her mind. Being the youngest cousin, she was usually excluded from the 'older kids' games, so it was always a bit of a bore going there. Her dad loved visiting his brother Jacob though so the whole family had to go and she had to 'be on her best behaviour'. For her that usually meant sneaking back in to the house and exploring all the rooms that were meant to be locked. She learnt to pick those old style door locks at a young age. It wasn't hard but it also wasn't allowed and that made it extra fun.

"It could be a useful place to crash. I try to avoid limping back to base if I've been hurt in a fight. The military may not be able to kick me out for a Lesbian hairstyle," she winks at her cousin, "but it would sure throw the book at me for being a vigilante."

"It's probably a good idea, just to make it easier for people to hunt down where we disappear to at the end of a night." More than once she had to stay out all night and day shaking a tail as Hawkfire. Some bad guys are really persistent when they get a bee in their bonnet about vigilantes. It never works out well for them.

Kate Kane has posed:
"I'll talk to the lawyer," Kate says with a groan, as though the prospect doesn't entice her in the slightest, "I'll see what we need to do in order to move in there. If you're free later in the week we should go and take a look around, see what we can use and what we need to change."

There's a sigh and then she lifts her hand, rubbing sweat away from her forehead with the back of her wrist.

"So, spoken to any of the other Bats lately? I met a ... ninja or something. Using sais. Down at Dixon Docks. Thought she might be a new hire, but she didn't seem young enough to be the kind that usually falls in with him. Which means he's going to be pissed off when he finds out about her."

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette rests a hand on the forehead of the dummy and leans for a moment as she contemplates. "Sure, I'm sure I can get some time off to do that. It's a family thing after all." Her new job is pretty easy if she's being completely honest. That's what happens when your family name is Kane and you're a nationally recognised Tennis champion.

"Ah yeah I've caught up with them for lunch a couple of times. The assortment of side kicks." She used to be one, takes one to know one. "They're doing well. I can't keep track of all the different code names they're using and I try not to pry in to who they are outside of the Bat-life."

It's an understandable problem. You pry, you find the truth. Once that itch sets in nothing really stops you from getting to the bottom of it - and then you're stuck with the truth, something you now have to keep secret. Sometimes it's just better not to look at all.

"Oh, here's something - Alfred's niece is in town. Jenny? J... Julia. Yes, Julia. I haven't met her yet, but Bruce is throwing a thing, a mayoral blahdiblah at the Wayne mansion. We're family, so we're invited. You'd probably be able to meet here there. I assume she's going any way."

Kate Kane has posed:
"A mayoral blahdiblah?" Kate asks, cocking an eyebrow at her cousin, "My blahdiblah dress is at the cleaners. Can I wear my whatsimacallit frock instead?"

The mention of Alfred's niece prompts a surprised look from the redhead, though.

"Really? A niece? I figured he just sprang fully formed from a Kazuo Ishiguro novel. Never imagined him having a family, for whatever reason."

But then she shrugs her shoulders: "Sure, sounds good. It'll be nice to meet up with them all again, I guess. Maybe I can get a lecture about how 'guns are not our way'."

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette snortchuckles a touch and says, "I mean, those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. He could have spawned fully formed and then found a mate." She pokes her tongue in to her cheek and walks over to the target, wriggling the bird-a-rang free from its embedding and says, "I get why he's so hung up on guns. It's the not killing that really matters. Guns are just tools, right tool for the job." She has a lot more familiarity with fire arms post-West Point than before. She's not afraid of them now and has gotten especially good at disassembling them as part of combat.

"But I bet a whatsimacallit frock'll suffice. Expecting it to be appropriately 'I use powertools' Lesbian though cous. I'd be disappointed if you didn't hit on at least one cute reporter or mayoral aid." She's gotten better at a little bit of sass as she's gotten older too it seems. "Officially as a member of the Army Recruitment Corp I am not allowed to endorse a political candidate publicly, but I think this guy is probably a good choice for Gotham."

Kate Kane has posed:
"Ah," Kate sighs, planting the back of her hand against her forehead and leaning back in mock distress," The things I do to maintain my secret identity. I don't at all enjoy watching some young high society beat columnist squirm and question her staunch Episcopalian upbringing. Don't enjoy it at all."

"Lincoln March? Yeah, probably. If Bruce gives him a thumbs-up, then I imagine he's been vetted to Hell and back. Must be a good choice. I'll make sure to drop a generous donation and make the family look good."

"I'll wear my tux if you wear your dress uniform and give all the busboys confused feelings."

Bette Kane has posed:
Bette lifts an eyebrow and grins, "Deal." She has been wearing it a lot lately, as she's been in a few ad campaigns, on posters, now on the offical website. Lots of PR required for this job. She doesn't mind, actually she rather likes it. It also helps to have a more famous public persona than her vigilante one. Flamebird is all but unheard of but Bette Kane is a spoken name in certain circles.

"Also it's the best time to steal a hug off of Bruce, when there's cameras around and he can't run away." She snickers conspiratorially, though truthfully she wouldn't want to force one on him. For one, he's bigger and older and scarier than her, and for two that's just not how she rolls.

"Soooo, can I tell you all about this assassin?"

Kate Kane has posed:
Kate runs the towel over her head, leaving what little of her hair remains a damp mess once she's done. Satisfied, she throws the towel over the computer chair and then flops down into it bodily. The computer is activated with a keystroke, and a series of alerts pulled from various online news subscriptions begin to scroll past.

"You not only can," Kate begins, "You must. Tell me all about them."