New bit, with a bit of editing help from AndrewJTalon - - - The message on her phone was a major cause for concern to Steph. The first line was bad enough. The second just made things worse. The third was the bit that made the whole thing break down. "Joker escaped. Tell no one. Need you to go after him out of town with C." Steph adjusted her hat lower on her head and wondered why she wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but then she glanced down at the phone, then at the two... she was trying to be as charitable as she could be, but frankly the words 'least stable' slipped their way into her consciousness and refused to budge. Jason and Damian’s relationship had improved a lot, and in some bizarre sort of way the move out of Wayne manor and working together during the BFF incident the two boys... men? Had really bonded. Mostly over their shared love of mocking others and occasional homicidal urges. They had also somehow managed to keep each other on an even keel, but the Joker was one of those things that tended to provoke extreme reactions out of anyone. Especially from the two members of the family who had the least resistance to the idea of killing. "Um... I'm going to have to cancel the tutoring session, Damian." Steph said slowly. Jason piped up, "But you're not going home, though, right? Your hot mom's gonna be all alone for a while?" "No hitting on my mother, Jay." Steph grumbled. "She's not even that hot." "Pfft. Your hot genes had to come from somewhere, Stephie-poo." Jason sing-songed, before suddenly singing out in a surprisingly good baritone, "Stephie's mom has got it going on..." "Ew! Stop that." Steph frowned. Damian sniffed dismissively, "This newfound obsession of yours for older women, Tim's ex, included is making me question the effectiveness of the therapy you are receiving at Quinn's hands." "Oh, please. Boy-Robins being into older women hasn't been news since Dicky started panting after Big O. Come to think of it, Cass is older than Tim," He paused significantly then glanced over his shoulder at Damian, "Then there's you..." Damian blushed and kicked the back of the driver's seat, "Silence your prattling tongue!" "Make note, tiny bro, the hotness that is Mrs. Brown is what dear, sweet Stephie-poo here is going to grow into in a couple decades time. So you've got that to look forward to." Jason winked and laughed. Damian sputtered and blushed harder, earning him a glare from Steph, "Don't you start lusting after my mom too!" "I am not lusting after your--" Damian finally caught himself and pointed at her phone, "Message from Oracle?" She frowned. "How did--?" "Your phone is on vibrate, but you have it set to pulse differently depending on who calls." Damian replied with a tiny bit of smugness. "Your ring tone for me is a 1-4-3 pulse pattern for instance. For Oracle's you simply have it pulsing S-O-S in morse code." Jason called out over his shoulder, "All those remedial Encyclopedia Brown lessons are really paying off." Damian stared at Jason, "That is some sort of pop-culture reference again, isn't it, Todd?" "Yeah," Steph chuckled. "One that's out of date even for a guy his age." Jason made a dismissive noise and turned his attention back to the road, "Hey, you try being dead then hanging out with assassins for years. You'd need to catch up a little too. If it weren't for that book Bruce had--" "One which I recall you were to lend me after you were done!" Damian replied sharply. "But you are distracting us. What did Oracle want?" "And you are using it to change the topic." Steph replied airily, trying desperately to change the topic herself, but Damian's glare was unrelenting. She sighed, "I've got an out of town mission," Steph said, not lying exactly, "It's pretty urgent. If you guys can just let me off at the edge of Robinson Park, I can get to Batcave Centr--" Jason gave a yelp as a red car came barrelling out of a corner and cut the limo off right before they hit the mostly abandoned streets surrounding Robinson Park. "LEARN TO DRI-- aw crap." The car in front of them suddenly hit its brakes forcing Jason to do the same. "Oh, someone's ASKING for it!" Jason snarled as the limo slammed to a stop. His fingers hovered over the touchscreen embedded in the dash as he fought the urge to convert the limo into combat mode and just spray the offending vehicle with automatic weapons fire. Well... rubber bullets and mini-missiles, but STILL. Steph said sharply, "Jason! No heavy weapons unless they start shooting first! You know the rules." Jason grumbled and lowered his hand, satisfying himself by shoving his hand into his coat to pull out one a large hand cannon, obviously a Bat-gun that bore a strong superficial resemblance to a black Desert Eagle. Damian stared at the stopped car in front of them. "Be wary. This could be my mother seeking to annoy us once more." He said grimly, reaching into his own coat for a knife. There was a long moment of tense silence as all three occupants of the car stared at the stopped car in front of them. It was flamingly red, with some sort of European sports car, but none of them could specifically identify the model. Steph was the first to recognize it from behind, "Um... guys? That's the civilian mode for Tim's Redbird." "Why would Drake be trying to stop us?" Damian snarled, not relinquishing his grip on his knife. The top folded down and the woman in the driver's side suddenly stood up on the seat cushion, one foot up on seat's headrest. She wore a plain white blouse, that Steph realized belatedly was actually a man's shirt tucked into a pair of tight, black jeans and her shoes were actually big stompy boots that seemed to be two sizes too large for her. Her fists at her hips as she grinned down at the limo. "Cass?!" Steph blurted out as she opened the limo door and stepped out. Her straw hat was still on her head. Although she hadn't planned on it, having the boys pick her up for the belated tutoring session had ended up with her wearing a purple chain knit cardigan with a pair of white capri pants and a pair of sensible flats. Cute and somewhat trendy as an outfit, but definitely not something apropo for a roadtrip to chase down the Joker. Steph stared. "What are you doing driving? Babs told you you weren't allowed to anymore after the last series of Batmobile incidents!" Cass's grin turned into a pout as she crossed her arms across her chest. "They were able to rebuild most of it." She huffed. "Do I want to know what the Batmobile incidents were?" Damian asked, stepping out of the car as well. "I know I do." Jason added, sticking his head out of the driver side window. Cass pointed at Steph, then down to the passenger seat and inclined her head. "Does Tim know you have his car?!" Steph asked sharply. Cass shrugged. "He knows. Gave me keys. We go. Come on." She paused then added with a nod, "Nice hat." Steph sighed, "I'm going to need--" "Broke into your apartment. Packed overnight bag." "DOES EVERYONE BREAK INTO MY ROOM?!" Steph roared. Damian frowned as Cass smirked and added, "Tim used to do it too." This just caused Damian's scowl to deepen. Jason added, "I haven't. But if it gives me a convenient way to meet up with your mom--" Steph, face burning ran from the limo to the Redbird. She pointed sharply at the passenger seat. "You get shotgun. I'll drive." Cass pouted more, "But--!" "Eighty seven moving violations." Steph said firmly. "In under five minutes." Cass drooped and then stepped to one side, dropping neatly into the passenger seat. Damian called after Steph. "Where are you going?" "Um..." Steph glanced at Cass who simply shrugged. Finally Steph responded as the Redbird pulled away from the curb. "Road trip!" She called back. - - -
Inquiring minds wvnts to know ... updates AndrewJTalon . CH_258a .GothamSuburbs -_ Stephanie&Damian, Housekeeping, Phone, Mother, Mrs.Brown, JasonDriver, Tutoring, Oracle Scriviner . CH_259a .Limo -_ Steph&Oracle, Jason&Damian, Snarks&Snares, RedBird, Cass, BatmobileIncidents, Breakages, 87Violations
@kclcmdr Your second link for chapter 259a has a mistake; it should be 87Violations, not 78Violations.
With Damian as his proclaimed sidekick and potential babe bait("Aww you're looking after your little brother, how cute"). Will also involve many attempts whilst driving the limo to break out into familair 90's/early 00's songs but failing as Damian lacks the popculture background.
Somehow, I can almost picture Jason stunting / drifting the limo and generally driving in such a way as to make even Damian terrified. (think "could teach Shepard some new tricks"-level of traumatizing driving skills)
Looks like someone missed the Fact that Cassie is not aloud to drive. Do to 87 traffic Violations in under 5 minutes. Joker drives better then her. Anyhting Jason does would be safer the Cassie's driving.
Oh no I didn't miss that. Difference is that Jason is fully capable of driving properly. He just does this intentionally to spook Damian. I also remember that the first time Jason 'borrowed' the Tumbler, it was remotely driven by Alfred.
On that note, what's the deal with Cass's Driving? Is she Just That bad, or does it look worse than it actually is because she's reading the other drivers and responding to cues other people can't read? Like how in Redrangerpower's 'Amorously Minded', Peter Parker/Spiderman's driving is perfectly safe due to his spider sense (in terms of Collisions and crashes; fear induced heart attacks not so much)...But of course, nobody watching him knows that, so they think he just Drives Like Crazy... Same deal here, or is Cass just Really, Really Bad at it?
She can read the people's body language and their action/reaction.. But how can she read a Car/Truck/Bus's inanimated body language? Kinda hard to read the body language of the driver if the vehicle windows are kinda tinted or there is too many vehicles around. And she will see only the head, hands, arms and upper body of the driver if her vehicle is on the same level as the other driver... Probably kinda difficult to read a Bus Driver, Truck Drive or a tall SUV.... Maybe Cass ; since she can't sense what the 'body language' of the vehicle is and those of their respective drivers in a timely fashion... is a tad too aggressive with her driving skills???
kclcmdr pretty much has it how I figured on it. Cass,while possessed of great reflexes and reaction time doesn't have any of the cues she's expecting to react to. So she ends up NOT reacting to things that are obvious to normal drivers and keeps trying to react to body language that isn't there. Add to that she tends to drive rather aggressively and has trouble with operating vehicle controls because they're so removed from her physical responses and it's a formula for disaster. She does a lot better on motorcycles, since she can treat it more as an extension of her own body and she's pretty much free to ignore other drivers and drive around them. She also does fine while piloting, because there's no one else in the air to worry about. But for street driving... she's just simply not good at it.
And now, before the next one shot, I present to you some pics I had commissioned from our good friend, Phil Cho: "The lamp did not expect fanart." "The Arkham guards and their sense of humor..." "I'm kind of worried I may be getting used to this sort of thing..."
Is it wrong that I find an inanimate object like a lamp attractive? EDIT: That is so going to get quoted out of context, isn't it?
