Une fille à peine quatorze marchait seule le long d'un couloir de cavernes pierreuses. L'air était humide et frais et le bruit d'eau goutte à goutte et d'éclaboussure douce résonnait en allers et retours jusqu'à ce que l'on ne puisse pas identifier son origine. Elle a passé plusieurs prises de vue de la caverne principale, et même si la plupart étaient sombres et calmes, un ou deux avaient des lumières et des voix vagues ou d'autres bruits venant d'eux, ajoutant au bruit réverbérant. Les cordons d'alimentation épais manquaient de ces passages pour rejoindre le mess qui traversait le couloir principal, fournissant de l'énergie à l'ensemble du système des grottes.
Le sentier des cavernes s'est rétréci jusqu'à ce qu'il se termine dans une crevasse verticale que la jeune fille pouvait à peine traverser. Les bords usés de la crevasse ont montré à quelle fréquence ce chemin a vu le trafic, bien qu'il ne semblait pas que beaucoup pouvaient s'adapter à travers, et l'espace au-delà était noir comme tangage. Elle a dû franchir la lèvre de la crevasse avec une jambe, et tourner son corps mince latéralement pour glisser à travers.
Dès qu'elle a passé la crevasse, de douces orbes brillantes se sont allumées, révélant une chambre vaguement ronde de l'autre côté. Les orbes étaient des ampoules placées dans les murs, et leur lumière se reflétait d'une piscine morte encore au centre de la chambre. Les cordons d'alimentation du couloir principal à l'extérieur se sont poursuivis ici, la plupart se sont ramifiés et ont couru le long des murs pour alimenter les lumières, et quelques machines vagues qui se trouvaient dans la chambre, mais un cordon en caoutchouc particulièrement épais a couru directement au centre et a disparu dans la piscine. La fille a suivi ce cordon jusqu'à la piscine et a tiré une grosse boule de verre de sa poche. Elle tendit la main et la laissa tomber dans la piscine. Il y avait une éclaboussure, et elle la regardait couler rapidement hors de la vue dans l'obscurité.
Il y avait un moment de silence alors que les ondulations dans la piscine rebondissaient des bords, mais on voyait alors quelque chose se lever rapidement de l'obscurité sous l'eau. En quelques secondes, il a percé la surface, une main grise et bleue écailleuse, tenant l'orbe de verre. Une tête et des épaules suivirent la main, nageant au bord de la piscine et mettant la sphère de verre vers le bas sur le sol en pierre.
La chose des profondeurs de la piscine a craché une grande quantité d'eau forme sa bouche et a ensuite parlé d'une voix profonde. "Caracal. J'espère qu'il n'y a pas eu de problème, et vous m'avez seulement dérangé de me dire que vous êtes sur le point de partir. »
-- Oui, parla la jeune fille, le regardant en bas, tandis qu'il traînait de l'eau dans la piscine. « Comme d'habitude, il n'y avait pas de fin aux bénévoles pour une tâche, mais j'ai désherbé les faibles et ne choisi que les meilleurs. Ils ont leur cible et sont en train de passer en revue les cartes et les schémas maintenant. Ils ont faim de se prouver à vous, mais vous savez que j'ai des doutes à ce sujet. »
"Ils s'en sortiront bien," il l'a coupée en travers d'elle. "Je n'ai aucun doute. Vous avez votre équipe prête aussi?"
"C'est vrai."
"Excellent, j'espère que votre timing sera impeccable."
- C'est pas vrai.
La tour des Titans était calme ce matin. Le soleil venait briller à travers les nombreuses fenêtres, jetant de longues ombres dans des pièces dont les lumières étaient encore éteintes. La pièce principale n'a qu'un occupant, qui s'est assis à un terminal informatique, ses lunettes autour de son cou, et son manteau drapé sur sa chaise. Il avait devant lui un bol de céréales sucrées et de lait pendant qu'il étudiait les mots à l'écran, et une boîte de boisson énergisante était à proximité pour le garder éveillé. En fait, ce n'était pas son petit déjeuner préféré, mais personne n'avait fait d'épicerie, et les plats n'avaient pas encore été faits depuis hier.
Mais ceux-ci devraient attendre plus tard, comme l'un de ses programmes informatiques de contrôle des nouvelles a trouvé un blip à propos d'un événement sur un scanner de police. Il a pris une dernière gorgée de sa boîte alors qu'il se levait et s'emparait de sa cape. Une alarme clignotante et bourdonnante jouait déjà, alertant tous les membres des Titans de s'assembler dans le garage.
Le petit frère marcha rapidement, jetant son manteau sur lui et le brisant en place.
Name: William "Billy" Bishop
Alias: Little Brother/Bro
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 120
Build: Lithe. Not without muscle, but he's obviously built to move quickly.
Appearance: Brown hair and hazel eyes set in a handsome, if somewhat battered face. His nose is slightly skewed to the left, and he has a few scars visibly in evidence. On a more temporary basis his face is often bruised. The rest of his body looks worse, but it's not like he shows it off. The only other marks visible while he's fully clothed are a series of scars on his left arm that move in an odd spiral down his arm.
Apparel/Costume: In the normal world, Billy dresses like your average teenager. Jeans, rebellious T-Shirt, stylish shoes, the works.
His costume at work is slightly more functional. The main part of his costume is a bodysuit he found at the Tower, he doesn't actually know what it's made out of(he doesn't know it, but it's an early version of Nightwing's suit). He has hardened armor on his elbows and knees as well as his knuckles, to protect him when striking his opponents.
His face is covered by a pair of modified ski goggles, the really expensive ones with the built in heads up display. The programming has been altered to provide local area mapping in both rural and urban environments.
He carries a utility knife on the front of his belt, and a collapsible staff that rests horizontally across the back of his waist. Also on his belt is a spool of carbon fiber wire, used for combat and as a tool for various situations, and one of Robin's old grappling guns.
His body suit is covered in a gray hooded cloak, which is fastened with snaps that can be easily released so he can open up his cloak and use it as a makeshift parachute to slow his falls.
Powers and Abilities: No actual powers. He has, however, trained his body well with vigorous exercise and rigorous physical conditioning.
Skills: Some would think that he's so scarred because he's bad at what he does. Well, it could be pointed out to them that most of those scars are old, and his time of ineptitude turned into experience. Each scar is a mistake that he's learned from.
Little Brother never had any formal training of any kind. He practiced sparring with his older brother, and he's had loads of practice to polish off his skill through four years of crime fighting. His fighting style was forged through his first instinct of flight over fight, and he tends to dodge and avoid damage through superior agility and mobility. That doesn't mean he hasn't learned to hit hard, though.
He's also well practiced in parkour, and is exceptional at climbing in general. He's had no particular training in stealth, but over the years he's gotten better at sneaking.
Personality: Of the two, Billy was always the more... cautious brother. The whole crime fighting thing was certainly no idea of his. But he was a devoted brother, and Mark Bishop was quite serious about it so he went along. Billy spent the first year in something like constant terror, always trying to convince his brother to turn back and go home. As time went on, he got used to it. Though he was still of the general opinion that vigilantism was retarded, he became a loyal sidekick, just to avoid letting his brother down.
Since Mark's death he's become a lot more serious, and indeed a lot more violent. His grief manifested itself in anger, directed mostly towards the criminal element, but still partially towards himself. He's always made mistakes, but now he's harsh and self abusive about them. Any moment where he was too weak, he'll work himself into the ground to make himself stronger.
History: Billy Bishop's parents died when he was eleven, robbed and shot in our nation's beautiful capitol. He was left to be taken care of by his older brother Mark, who was an engineering student at Virginia Tech. Within a year, Mark revealed his brilliant(ly crazy) plan to make DC a safer place. Billy went along with it, because he was twelve and his brother obviously knew what he was doing, right?
The two were hilariously bad at it, at least at first. But they persisted, they persevered and their skills were developed through harsh losses and the confidence they gained from their few victories.
Mark designed their suits and gear himself, and as they gained notoriety their equipment got better, and so did their skills.
In their third year of this insanity they were actually an established and mildly respected team. Mark's name, Big Brother, spoke of a force that saw you when you did wrong. It also inspired some paranoia, but they were largely considered a good thing in the city.
One day they were trailing a lead that they believed to be some kind of mob connection. They had in mind to shut down this branch of the organization, but things went sour and the pair was spotted and captured.
They were beaten, laughed at, and obviously of no use and therefore not to be kept around. In a feat of daring(and possible stupidity, but touching nonetheless) Big Brother managed to free Little Brother, and sent him on his way. Billy escaped, with the vague idea that Mark would be behind him. He wasn't. A few days later, Billy was called to a morgue to identify Mark's body. It had been found in the Potomac.