Cassandra Cain (New Earth)

"I've been avoiding you. It's ...your background. The assassin training and all that. It's just...my childhood's so normal. I mean, Batman and Nightwing had some rough stuff to deal with growing up, but...but you--you were raised to be that guy down there, and you turned yourself into one of us. That's ... pretty intimidating...."

- Timothy Drake {{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Batgirl.jpg
 * RealName               = Cassandra Cain
 * CurrentAlias           = Batgirl; 'One Who is All'
 * Aliases                = Kasumi, various mundane persona
 * Identity               = Secret
 * Affiliation            = Titans East; League of Assassins; Batman Family; Justice League Elite; Young Justice
 * Relatives              = David Cain (father); Lady Shiva (mother); Carolyn (aunt, deceased); Annalea (sibling, deceased); 'The Mad Dog' (sibling)
 * Universe               = New Earth
 * BaseOfOperations       = Gotham City; Blüdhaven; Tibet; New York City


 * Gender                 = Female
 * Height                 = 5'5"
 * Weight                 = 110 lbs (50 kg)
 * Eyes                   = Green
 * Hair                   = Black
 * UnusualFeatures        = Cassandra is not very talkative.


 * Citizenship            = Not Registered
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             = Crimefighter, Master Assassin
 * Education              = No formal education, Home Schooling, various private tutors


 * Origin                 = David Cain raised Cassandra to be an assassin, but she uses her talents to fight crime as Batgirl.
 * PlaceOfBirth           = League of Assassins (exact base is unknown)
 * Creators               = Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott (Costume design by Alex Maleev)
 * First                  = (As Cassandra Cain) Batman #567 (July, 1999); (As Batgirl) Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120

The daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva), Cassandra Cain was conceived and trained from birth with the intention of creating the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul. After many unsuccessful attempts to train children from birth in martial arts to make them inculcate it like a native language (the most successful being The Mad Dog), David Cain, then a member of Ra's League of Assassins, decided the right genes were necessary to create this "One Who Is All". With Ra's go ahead Cain searched for the perfect mother for this child, finding her in the Wu-San sisters of Detroit, who practiced martial arts with each other nearly every moment of their childhood in a type of sister's language. Cain sympathized with the younger sister, Sandra, when he noticed that she held back out of love for Carolyn. To "help" Sandra reach her full potential, Cain murdered Carolyn, then lured Sandra into an ambush by the League of Assassins, where he defeated her. Cain spared Sandra from death on the condition that she bear his child, and leave her for him to raise. Awed by the potential heights she could reach in her physical talents now that Carolyn was gone, Sandra agreed to Cain's bargain in order that she might go on to become the unstoppable force of nature known as Lady Shiva: creator and destroyer. Shiva's hope for her child was that she might one day grow to be the one force that could stop her reign of destruction.
 * HistoryText            = ===Birth===

Childhood
Trained by her father to be the ultimate weapon, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.



When she was 8 years old, Cain decided his experiment had progressed far enough for him to test Cassandra's abilities in the real world, and took her to a hit; the target being Faizul, a 'book man' in Macau. At the time Cassandra had no idea what she was doing and believed it was only a game (an interpretation in keeping with her own reaction to what happened, and matching the interpretation of Alfred Pennyworth, an expert on children who saw a tape of events). After striking a deathblow, she "read" the target as he died, and saw death as he saw it. ""Terror and then... nothing"."

- Cassandra Cain

In addition to scarring her emotionally, she realized murder, like Cain's profession, is wrong, and she ran away from her father.

Batgirl
After spending the next ten years homeless, beating herself up mentally over what she'd done, Cassandra came to be one of Oracle's agents in the No Man's Land of Gotham. After proving herself by saving Commissioner Gordon's life, she was given the Batgirl costume with the approval of both Batman and Oracle. She became Barbara's ward and in a sense, the Batman's adoptive daughter.

Batman eventually learned about Cassandra's past when Cain transmitted a video he had made of the murder to the Batcave, but Batman nevertheless continued to accept Cassandra after she took several bullets to save the life of a hired assassin, proving her devotion to protecting human life, in fact whenever questioned of it he stubbornly insists that she did not kill the man.

After an incident with the Joker, where-apon Cassandra frees him then apprehends him again, Batman and Babara deduce that Cassandra has a death wish due to her murdering that man.

In 2000, Cassandra became the first Batgirl to get her own ongoing self-titled comic book series (the Barbara Gordon Batgirl having been featured in a couple of one-shot releases). A telepath "rewired" her brain to think with words and understand English (although speaking properly took longer, and she still could not read or write) at the cost of her ability to predict and read people. This left her unable to defend herself in a fight, as that part of her style relied completely on her ability to read moves, not the "strategies, patterns, and tricks" employed by Batman and most other martial artists. Fearing that she would meet a fate similar to former Robin Jason Todd, Batman refused to let Cassandra wear the Batgirl costume and patrol the city until she could learn adequate defensive skills, which he estimated would take at least a year of work. She soon discovered that assassin Lady Shiva could read people like she used to be able to, and (during an encounter with her) asked her to reteach her. Lady Shiva accepted, on the condition that in a year they would have a duel to the death. Knowing that she would never kill again and would most assuredly lose, but preferring to be "perfect for a year" rather than "mediocre for a lifetime", Cassandra accepted and Lady Shiva retaught her in a night.

Batman regards Cassandra very highly. During War Games, he relied heavily on her to help control the violence of the gang war in Gotham City.

Following War Games, Batgirl moved to Blüdhaven with Tim Drake (the third Robin) at Batman's suggestion and with his financial support (Nightwing had been injured during the crisis, and the Gotham City Police Department had declared all costumed heroes illegal). There, Deathstroke took on a contract from the Penguin to kill Batgirl and decided to let his daughter Rose (the current Ravager) do the job instead. Cassandra beat Rose by critically wounding her and giving Deathstroke no choice but to get her medical attention.

Cassandra also went undercover in the Justice League Elite masquerading as an assassin named Kasumi. She revealed herself to Coldcast to tell him that he was not a bad person, right before he was accused of murder.

At a time when other girls her age were feeling crushes and celebrating 'Sweet Sixteens', Cassandra was wandering the backstreets of the world, eventually arriving in the best hiding place on Earth, Gotham City.



Oracle (Barbara Gordon) recognized the enigmatic girl's unique abilities and recruited the girl to be one of her eyes and ears in No Man's Land, gathering information on the streets on the city's various criminals. Cassandra fought alongside Batman and his compatriots, aiding their efforts to restore order to Gotham City.

Batman, being a former student of Cain's and aware of his methods, recognized the connection between the girl and the assassin. After she helped save Commissioner James Gordon's life from an assassination attempt, Batman awarded her the costume and title of the new Batgirl, which he had just taken from the Huntress. Cassandra moved into the Watchtower with Barbara Gordon, who has become her guardian and friend.

While helping Batman rescue a young girl from the mob, Cass ran into a man that would literally change her life. A psi, the man did not understand her thoughts and rearranged her mind so she could speak English. This had a negative effect on her skills, robbing Cassandra of her ability to "read" opponents.

Cassandra found herself unable to fight efficiently due to her head being filled with thoughts and ideas. Batman decided that Cassandra needed to train harder without her gift. He gave her a CD collection of his different fighting styles and asked her to learn them all. She did and kept trying to defeat Batman in combat in order to regain the Batgirl costume.

Secretly however she was still fighting crime without her costume, using face paint to hide her identity. While doing so, she also asked Lady Shiva to help her with her abilities. Shiva agreed but only if they would battle in a year. Over the next few nights, Cassandra trained vigorously until she had her abilities back and still had the ability to speak. After showing Batman her abilities were back, Batman allowed her to continue as Batgirl. Shiva eventually challenged her. The two fought fiercely, and Shiva had to use a deadly blow to win, and soon revived Cassandra, impressed with her.

However, most recently, Shiva revealed that she was Cassandra's mother, and that her unique ability had been passed down through her family. The two engaged in a final battle, with Shiva seeking to fulfill a 'death wish.'

One Year Later
Cassandra has gained control over the League of Assassins. She recently encountered a shocked Robin (Tim Drake) and nearly killed him in battle. She also fought with Supergirl, during which time both combatants discovered that Supergirl possessed a bio-defense mechansim enabling her to generate Sunstone crystal from her body. Supergirl stabbed Batgirl through the shoulder with one of these crystal spikes. At this time, Batgirl also fell under the sway of Deathstroke who drugged her and used her as a tool in his revitalized Titans East team. Robin provided Cassandra with the antidote and she left the team and fought against Deathstroke.

Allies

 * Batman (Bruce Wayne)
 * Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
 * Robin (Tim Drake)
 * Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
 * Justice League Elite

Peak Human Conditioning: Through continuous intense training Cassandra represents the greatest fighting weapon ever conceived. Her strength, stamina, speed and agility exceed that of any human, non-meta, fighter thus far.
 * Powers                 =
 * Abilities              =

Martial Arts Master: Due to her life long training Cassandra has a master level knowledge of all fighting arts known and unknown and continues to learn with every new opponant she faces. She and her father (David Cain) have also invented their own styles and techniques such as the 'Falling Leaf' technique. Her defensive abilities consist primarily of evasive moving due to her ability to read her opponants she has not needed to form advanced defensive techniques. However this has been rectified due to Batman's training.

Master Assassin: Cassandra is schooled in all known and unknown assassin techniques such as pressure points, killing techniques and stealth to name a few.

Body Reading Ability: Advanced ability to read body language enabling her to anticipate what a person is thinking. Similar to Lady Shiva's ability. However it has limitations due to familiarity with opponant's physiology and her capicity to translate data. It enables her to identify disguised/transformed persons, identify what they are thinking through their body movements.

Bat Deciple: Trained under the Batman Cassandra has undergone the same training and teachings as the past Robins, Nightwing and Oracle


 * Strength               = Trained as the ultimate weapon Cassandra possesses above average strength, stamina and agility for a girl of her age. She is resistant to most toxins, venoms and poisons.


 * Weaknesses             = She is vulnerable to mental suggestions through foreign narcotics, particularly psychotropics. She also can't read.


 * Equipment              = Batgirl costume with utility belt containing various equipment.  Interestingly enough, Cassandra avoids using tools unless she absolutely needs to.
 * Transportation         = Batcycles
 * Weapons                = Batarangs, capsules, small explosives.


 * Notes                  =
 * The Batgirl profile at DC Comics gives Cassandra's eye color as brown. Given as Green in the DC Comics Encyclopedia.


 * Trivia                 =
 * Cassandra has scars across her back from bullet wounds made by her father during her childhood training.
 * In her comic series she tended to keep a rose around.
 * Tends towards facepaints for face concealment.
 * Above average appetite for a girl her size, high metabolism.
 * High levels of serotonin.
 * She possessed a death wish due to guilt over killing. Resulted in nightmares and self destructive behaviour (seemingly solved after second encounter with Lady Shiva)
 * Resentment towards father similar to abused children.
 * First word was "Stop". (Day 130, NML Gotham)
 * Sees Batman as a father figure in David Cain's absence, an attatchment that is not one-sided.
 * Able to ignore the shock of bullet penetration
 * Her favorite ice cream is chocolate.
 * Her favorite tea is Assam.
 * She does not like talkative people.
 * Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to Cassandra Cain's capability of 'seeing' her opponents' next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak.


 * CustomSection1         = Recommended Reading
 * CustomText1            =
 * "No Man's Land" Batman Crossover
 * Batgirl: Death Wish


 * CustomSection2         = Related Articles
 * CustomText2            =
 * No Man's Land
 * Lady Shiva
 * David Cain

}}
 * Links                  =
 * Batgirl at DC Comics