Cassandra Cain

"....."

Information
Background= ''Cassandra Cain is the daughter of none other than the Lady Shiva, top fighter in the DC universe, and David Cain. David Cain is one of the most accomplished assassins in the world and able to do things that are normally attributed to only people on the level of the Batman. Shiva is still worshiped as a goddess for her fighting skills, and to date only one person has -ever- beaten her without assistance or enhancements in combat.''

''David Cain was inspired by a conversation he had one day with a noted neuro-sociologist by the name of Lewis Friedman. Friedman suggested that the mind's ability to learn languages was not limited to vocalization. Specifically, that a child brought up knowing only body language would create a person who could read the body like normal people hear words. Cain was fascinated with the idea, but his first attempts were utter failures. He sought out superior genetic stock. Lady Shiva appreciated the plan as well, and the two bore a child hidden away from the world.''

''Cassandra was raised in a bunker, in the arts of combat from the day she was born. She was never allowed to interact with anyone but her father unless it was training, and never heard a word of language until her own language was fully set in her brain: body language. Her life was devoted to combat, and she was randomly ambushed and shot at any given moment to keep her mind focused on her surroundings. There was never a word of kindness, but the pair had a relationship of sorts and there is no way that Cain could have hidden his pride in his daughter from her abilities.''

''When Cassandra was eight years old, David Cain put her in a dress and pigtails and sent her to kill her first target. She had never killed anyone, and did not really understand, but her lifelong programming took over and she tore out the mob boss' throat with a single swipe. Then, standing over him and reading his body language, she watched him die in a way that no human has ever experienced and was horrified by what he told her, what she had done. She fled and spent years on the run; ironically, her father who had trained her in stealth had done such a stupendous job that even he could not find her.''

Cassandra spent the next nine years homeless as a wandering drifter.
 * -|Likes & Dislikes=

Likes
''Chocolate. MMA fights. Daytime drama television. Assam tea.''

Dislikes
Talkative people. ''Above average appetite for a girl of her age. Wears black lipstick. Able to ignore the shock of bullet penetration. Illiterate and nearly mute.''
 * -|Notes=

The Sheet
Powers= Move Reading | Champion | ''Much like her namesake, Cassandra is able to read the future in her own way. Cassandra's brain has been rewired in a very unique fashion by her upbringing. To her, body language is her primary tongue and she reads people the way normal people hear words. She can predict what a person is going to do before they start to do it, allowing her to react to a move before it's even begun to happen. This allows her to bypass defenses perfectly and to avoid incoming strikes without visible effort, and makes her -seem- to be much faster than human.''

''Cassandra's combat form is unique - to her it is pure instinct, not art. She uses her ability to "read" the opponent, by spotting subtle clues in muscle tone, concentration, energies, etc. which allow her to determine what her target is going to do before they even know it themselves. She has proven to be to overmatch the great grandmasters on the planet (such as the Batman), and can replicate intricate martial arts techniques after seeing them once - for instance, if they are used against her. Although she seems superhuman against thugs, she can be held at bay by a world-class grandmasters like Green Arrow II or Lady Shiva, her mother. ''

''Cassandra can identify shapeshifters by their body language and ignores all forms of disguise, including truly talented performers and sees true illusion as faked instantly by the lack of subtle body language events. She is virtually a telepath with her ability to read mannerisms and facial cues. Her combat style relies mostly upon her ability to read someone in a fight and respond before they begin to move, and she can almost see into someone's 'soul' when focusing upon them. Most of the time when you are speaking, she is not hearing your words but instead seeing the movements of your body anyway. It is her primary language after all.''

Martial Arts | Champion | ''Cassandra has arguably the most prestigious training of any martial artist in the DC universe. As a child, Cassandra received nonstop training by her father David Cain, one of the world's prime assassins, along with several other members of the League of Assassins including Bronze Tiger, Merlyn the Archer, and a selection of others of similar caliber. Cassandra is one of the best martial artists on the planet, falling into the ranks of Lady Shiva, Richard Dragon and Batman. With the ability to anticipate someone's moves, she is able to counter them often before they begin to make them.''
 * -|Skills=

''Cassandra is one of the world's true martial arts geniuses, and has in some cases been able to instinctively grasp more of a person's combat style than even they know, outstripping her opponent's knowledge by leaps of intuition and a comprehensive grasp of martial arts as a whole. Adapting to a combat style that she is unfamiliar with is second nature, and she can copy moves others make like a sponge. When faced by an opponent with a discernible style, she will be able to identify all the possible moves that person could make in seconds and will be completely unbeatable until new types of attack are introduced to the fight.''

With her ability to read a person's intentions and thoughts, she has the ability to penetrate biologically controlled force fields such as a green lantern's ring aura, or Kon-El's telekinetic shield.

Bullet Dodging | Champion | ''Cassandra can casually dodge bullets by moving faster than someone can aim a gun, and dodging their shot before they pull the trigger. She can literally dance in and out of pistol fire, catch multiple thrown blades in midair, and evade sniper shots from behind. This is mostly by anticipating and dodging the shot and aim of someone, but she can evade even highly trained marksmen with her ability to anticipate and react to gunfire. Shooting at her is basically wasting ammo.''

Weapons Master | Superior | ''Cassandra is highly skilled with both ranged and melee weapons from her training, having been mentored by her father and the League of Assassins members including Merlyn the Archer for ranged weaponry. She is able to disassemble, clean and reassemble nearly any hand-held weapon in existence blindfolded and use them all well, though she has a preference toward thrown weaponry. She is near world class and is familiar with most martial arts weapons. However, she prefers to primarily fight unarmed, so weapons specialists can usually overmatch her in that category. She has been known to pick up new weapon skills like drinking water though, and masters new weapons in minutes. Not years, minutes.''

Acrobat | Superior | ''Cassandra is a high caliber acrobat, able to move at speeds on par with Batman, and to react faster than he can thanks to her ability to anticipate moves, and has better hand-eye coordination. She is not on the level of Nightwing, but is among the most agile members of the Bat-Family when it comes to acrobatics and evasion.''

First Aid | Advanced | ''Cassandra is skilled in basic first aid, and has an innate if untrained awareness of physiology and how the human body works from her ability to read moves, and knows how to hit someone to maximize damage. Also she has some ability related to her knowledge of pressure points and acupuncture to help someone who is injured.''

Stealth | Superior | ''Cassandra is an immensely capable infiltrator and is among the most stealthy members of the Bat-Family. She is able to move silently, anticipate the patrol patterns of guards to avoid them, move fast enough to avoid cameras, and look for minute signs of electronic monitoring equipment or sensors. However, she is not formally skilled in the bypassing of electronic sensors or computers, and thus if she is not aware of an electronic security system or it is not something she can otherwise avoid, she cannot bypass it. Cassandra has been known to walk into a room packed with police in full costume, wander around for ten minutes at the crime scene, and take flash photography pictures without being seen by anyone.''

Lie Detector | Superior | ''Cassandra is nearly impossible to lie to, if you have anything like body language. She is able to detect truth or falsehood far better than any mechanical or trained lie detector because, primarily, she isn't listening to your words anyway; she's getting -most- of the information you're trying to convey through your body language, and only robotic or alien types are likely to be able to fool her on that front.''

Body Control | Superior | ''Cassandra has shown the ability to control her own body's unconscious and conscious functions on a nearly superhuman level. This ability allows her to perform many acts attributed to martial artists of lore. This includes but is not limited to: complete control over adrenaline levels, blocking pain well enough to fool anyone but a telepath, failing to show a reflexive muscle response, speeding healing from injuries to some degree, and stopping her own heart. She can hold her breath for amazingly long periods of time when required by slowing her metabolism.''

Falling Leaf | Superior | ''Cassandra is an amazing hand with pressure points, having picked up the skill from some of the most ruthless teachers alive today. Cassandra is also one of the three people in the world who are able to use Falling Leaf, a pressure point technique which causes instant unconsciousness in those struck by her. She has been able to use this even on adversaries that do not have nerves, and has performed feats such as breaking bones so they can not heal and stopping and then restarting a person's heart with a strike. Falling Leaf tends to cause a small fracture in the jaw if used in a hurry.''

None | Resource Level | Details.
 * -|Resources=

Borderline Metahuman | ''Cassandra's abilities have been honed and pushed to the degree that she is essentially a peak fitness human that can perform metahuman level feats. Thanks to her training, she has been measured at being nearly five times faster than a normal peak human, and nearly three times as strong as one. She is NOT THAT FAST OR STRONG. This is due to a rewiring of how her brain operates and using people's movements against them better than should be possible. In essence, she uses her body more efficiently than others do and it shows in the final product.''
 * -|Pros=

Non Existent | ''Cassandra was conceived by two people without allowing anyone in the world to know about the act and raised in a sealed bunker. There is literally no record of her existence in the world, anywhere until her arrival in Gotham during No Man's Land. As such, researching her can be incredibly difficult, as well as finding out of her background and abilities beyond someone who has firsthand experience with her.''

Move Reading | ''Cassandra is heavily over-reliant on her ability to read moves in a fight. If she is fighting someone who can overcome that ability, her ability to fight at all will be crippled. If she cannot see an opponent at least occasionally, or they lack body language, she will be unable to read their motions and unable to respond in any useful fashion. If they have cybernetic implants which guide their movements, this will also ruin her ability to respond to an attack properly. If her move reading ability is disrupted or useless in a fight, she will become immensely unsure of herself and her own capabilities, and hesitant in combat.''
 * -|Cons=

Illiterate | ''Cassandra cannot read or write, and thus is functionally illiterate. She also has difficulty with basic math at times as well, and has only a basic education in things beyond fighting. She can't even tell separate letters of the alphabet apart though she is trying to learn. Mostly she doesn't see that the skill has any value, and it happens to be extremely difficult for her to learn when she is motivated to do so. She has very advanced dyslexia, which makes learning even harder.''

Non-Verbal | ''Cassandra is non-verbal, with a minimal ability to speak, only able to get out very short sentences of a very simplistic nature with a massive degree of effort. Working with others, or performing investigations, this can be crippling to her ability to cooperate with others as she cannot pass along information or get her point across, or even ask questions of someone she is interrogating.''

Arrogant | ''Cassandra is hugely arrogant and sure of herself to the point of ridiculousness. She can come across in her posturing and body language as a prima donna at times. She loves to show off her skills even when unnecessary, such as dancing between bullets or being showy in hand to hand fights, and can be taken advantage of. While she may have reason to feel superior to others, it does come across poorly.''

Relationships
Personal= David Cain | Father | ''David Cain was the primary figure in Cassandra's young life. He taught her everything he knows, but not everything SHE knows. Having brought in the best instructors in the league of assassins, which includes some of the best in their fields of all time, she picked up a bit more.''

''David was not a very warm and loving father. He never let Cassandra touch him or held her in any way. Their relationship had love, but it was not gentle. Body language and smiles were their hugs and rewards. David Cain is still a major influence on Cassandra and always will be.''

Lady Shiva | Mother | ''Sandra Wu-San or Lady Shiva was not a direct part of young Cassandra's life. She watches over the development of their little project and someday hopes that Cassandra will reach out to her, but otherwise keeps her hands off. If Cassandra is to become worthy, she will do it regardless of her mother's influence. It's in her genes. Lady Shiva does want to meet her daughter someday though. After all, she was destined to be The One Who Is All.''

Merlyn the Archer | Teacher | ''Merlyn trained Cassandra with her ranged weaponry, and she shows some of the quirks of his teaching in her movements. Green Arrow and his students may potentially spot those quirks in time. Merlyn himself is considered to be a great man, and he knows Cassandra by sight.''

Bronze Tiger | Teacher | ''Bronze Tiger was Cassandra's primary hand to hand instructor as a child. He is one of the few people in the world to ever defeat Richard Dragon in a fight even WITH enhancements, and as a member of the League of Assassins he was well suited to bringing up the potential ultimate weapon. Since that time, he has stepped down from the league, but his whereabouts are unknown.''

'''Again, nothing to speak of yet. This may change.'''
 * -|Allies=

David Cain | Father | ''Cain believes that his daughter should be an assassin. He will go to any lengths to make this happen. And his abilities are nearly without limit themselves, so those lengths may well be frightening to behold.''
 * -|Enemies=

Media
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Logs
First Player= Log | Summary

Log | Summary


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