Amazon Pokemon

April 15, 2018:

Cassie, Bart, and Diana have a talk inside the Themysciran Arts Center in Manhattan NY! Some pokemon were caught at some point too!

Themysciran Arts Center - NYC

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

It is a busy Sunday afternoon in the Arts Center for the people of Themyscira. Since opening at the first of the year, the Center has been serving the community day in and day out with a lot of positive results and feedback. The idea was to give everyone a fun and enjoyable environment where they might immerse themselves into the 'mysterious' culture of the island of Paradise-as it is often so affectionately referred to.

People of all ages, families and otherwise, come to enjoy the Center's offerings. The combat classes are obviously the most popular thing and are almost always drawing a crowd of onlookers who aren't even signed up to participate. Its not an every day thing for one to get to watch immortal gladiators teach their ways to those willing/brave enough to sign-up and in the past 3 months there have been a lot of students who've advanced high in the teachings.

As of right now, there are two Amazons teaching an afternoon class. Adrastea and Diplonea, fully armored and donning ornate equipment/weapons. They're teaching a class of fifteen students this afternoon while a gaggle of onlookers are off to the sides all recording the show with their phones while talking quietly with each other over the sounds of the weapons clashing and the fighters sparring.

Diana is in attendance today and she's been speaking with a lot of the visitors. Right now though? She's off to the side with a Rep from a local News outlet, casually speaking to one another. Diana is wearing a white dress with long sleeves and a skirt that goes down just past her knees, white shoes to match. Her black hair is tied back in a braid that falls down between her shoulders, her eyes are on the sparring as well, not participating in it today, but she has offered guideance here and there when asked by the eager students.

One of the Arts Centers regulars just so happens to be Cassie Sandsmark; though she does so adorn in her Wonder Girl (tm) ensamble, along with her combat equipment of sword, shield and shortbow. Though it isn't always training to fight, she's shown a great amount of interest in studying the culture, artifacts and the light and other times she just studies for school here. No offense to the Titan's Tower as she does love hanging around there, but a location like this makes her feel at home too.

When suddenly it occured to her; why not share some of that? This time she's managed to convince Impulse to come along to watch her spar today-

Unfortunately it seems that Diplonea caught on to the fact that Cassie intended to try to show off and thusly Wonder Girl gets spectacularly outgrappled for several minutes on end before she's temprarily dismissed with a mild scolding. You know, the 'see me after class' deal. So, red-faced and embarrassed, Wonder Girl makes her way to the sidelines with Impulse.

Impulse hadn't put up as much of a fuss as he might have normally when asked along. Truthfully the distraction's a welcome one, although in truth he can't say that he isn't at least a little curious about what the Arts Center might have, not to mention about the mysterious Themyscira. Max would be proud of him. Or just tell him it was about time.

While he hadn't missed too much of Wonder Girl's spar, she should well have expected him to take a second or two to have a look around because of how great he is at standing still otherwise. In fact he'd hardly missed any of his fellow Titan's performance, even if it was a bit of a dismal finish.

"It…wasn't so bad," he says, fishing for positive things to say, but there's not much he can say to ease the sting from Wonder Girl's lesson end and he knows it.

Diana is continuing to hold a small conversation with the News Rep up until she sees Cassie get dismissed from the spar. A lot of people who're watching are actually clapping for her when she leaves though, so that would likely be a pretty decent morale boost in and of itself!

It only takes a few moments though before Diana has made her way over to where Cassie is now with her friend, she'd excused herself from the conversation with the other person to go and seek out the youngest member of the Themysciran people.

Impulse gets a smile from Diana, as well as a light nod, before her blue eyes move over to that of the training fighter in Wonder Girl. "You were doing great, Cassie." She tells her, her huskied Greek-accented voice calm and caring in tone. "You have come a very very long way in a short amount of time." Words of encouragement, even if Cassie knows that her Amazonian teacher may soon lecture her for what reasons the Teacher saw-fit to dismiss her from the fighting.

Diana then extends her hand toward Impulse. "I am eager to meet friends of Cassie." She tells him, showing a warm smile toward him. "I am Diana." She offers the introduction.

The applaus isn't missed by Wonder Girl, which does give her mixed feelings in the fact that the spars result had a far greater impact on her mentally than physically. It's.. Genius in a way, but it won't be until she gets over her sulking that she'll realize she wants to learn more. That said, a weak smile is given to Impulse as she half-jokes, "You saw that after all, huh? W- well, you know, there's a saying about that. Uh.. Something like.."

She really stretches out the filler words until she can BS some wise saying to save face, only to (thankfully) be interrupted by Wonder Woman. Her stance straightens and a smile flashes across her otherwise still-embarrassed features following Di's words that, frankly, is the spark needed to raise her morale. "Thank you very much!"

Finally she folds her hands in front of her, the excitement building up once Wonder Woman introduces herself to Impulse to an extent that might suggest she's far too invested in it. She can't help it!

Oh, Wonder Girl can tell that he's waiting to hear the rest of that, and not with any suspicion that she might not even know what she's trying to quote. The look Impulse gives her is an expectant one, but thankfully for her, he drops it in favor of introductions as he notices Diana heading over with greetings and nothing but praise for his friend. Well, that works too! He definitely sees the effect it has on Cas'.

"Nice to meet you. Impulse," he says as he shakes her hand enthusiastically, after a brief moment of wondering if they were dropping formalities and secret IDs or if Diana already knew who he was- he's not sure who all knows what when it comes to the Justice League or anyone in Max's contacts, although he wouldn't be surprised. But then that's just further incentive to stick to his training so that if Max hears about this meeting later, he won't have anything to grill Bart on.

It is highly likely that the Justice League has a lot of information the Titans, but Diana isn't one to break someone's cover if they're not the one to initiate it, as that is just bad Super Hero Manners. So she smiles to Impulse, nods once to him and finishes the handshake (her grip is commendable, to say the least).

Diana's blue eyes sweep back over to Cassie then and she gives her a more even stare, likely trying to register Cassie's demeanor after the spar. "Have you been enjoying your lessons then?" She has to ask, its been awhile after all. Diana had first offered the invitation to come here and train with the Amazons back before the turn of the year, however unlike the other citizens who are getting trained here, Cassie has an open invitation to go to Themyscira itself to get training at the source, when the time is right…

The Princess' eyes travel from Cassie, to Impulse. "They are doing archery later today, are the two of you sticking around for that? It is always a crowd pleaser, especially the mounted archery." And yes, there are a few horses on-site which ride about in the courtyard behind the Center's main building.

Cassie isn't difficult to read; she's a pretty expressive individual but if one had to break down the details she's most certainly pleased about being in Diana's presence, certainly worried about the lecture she's going to get later, and disappointed in herself. It's not obvious that she's comparing her behavior to Tim, who she sincerely wants to match up with as a leader. But he'd never have done what she did and after the fact? That's what really stings.

But for the question, she blurts out, wanting to speak positively, "Absolutely! I.. I've really learned so much, ah, maybe more about myself than the actual lesson today in particular.. Which might be part of the lesson? Anyway I feel so at home here, that's what makes it so great!"

The fact that Impulse was waiting for Cassie wasn't lost on her. She really had her butt saved there. As for the archery, she happily (if unintentionally) answers for Bart, "We absolutely are going to."

"Uh, yeah, sure!" Impulse adds with a nod at Diana, smiling crookedly at Cassie's eagerness. Well, at least she's in better spirits. He'd kind of feel bad if she'd gone through the trouble to bring him here and then not enjoyed it herself. "It'll be neat to see when you're not being aimed at for a change." He says this in such honesty and with a smile but then he does mean it. Just what kind of training does Max Mercury put him through?

"Are you learning archery too, Cass?"

Having these classes open to the public (sometimes, not always) so that a crowd could observe and participate from the sidelines WAS part of the training. Having a large amount of people watch you fight, let alone record you for Youtube-and-the-like made the combatants perform differently and the Amazons were well aware of that. It made holes in one's defense show much more clearly when they felt the need to 'showboat' for an audience. Some of the Students were naturally better at tuning the audience out than others, but it was a challenge, to be sure.

"Good to hear." Diana says to them both when its said they intend to stay for the Archery outside. Another soft smile is shown to Cassie then as well as a light dipping chin nod toward the younger Wonder Girl. "I do not think you were excused from the spar for much beyond being a bit distracted by the audience. So do not fret."

The sword fighting was continuing, two students versus one Amazon, the clangs of blade and steel were echoing through the room.

Diana looks between the two of them, Impulse and Cassie. "I am glad you've brought a friend today, more are always welcome."

… Youtube. Wait, that means that Spoiler is going to see that performance, doesn't it? While it doesn't click in Cassie's mind at the moment, she will absolutely be horrified later, but that is another story. The young heroine smirks to Impulse with her hands on her hips, "Oh I'm learning all sorts of things, I'm not the best at it, but I'm a pretty good archer. Better than handling the sword, anyway." As much as she enjoys using the shield, she has a bit of a rough time getting comfortable with a blade. As for having arrows fired at him, "… That doesn't sound like much of a challenge for you."

Wonder Woman's assessment does make her smile faulter; in fact she almost cringes at how dead-on she is- She didn't think Wonder Woman was even paying attention considering she was doing something else. But at the same time that just makes her all the more admirable in Cassie's eyes. That said, an embarrassed chuckle follows, "I'll do my best… A- Anyway yes! Impulse and I we go *way* back! We teamed up back in the day, things kind of trailed off for a few years but obviously now we're back together and I think it's been great!" … "Speaking of friends, does anyone from the League come here with you sometimes?"

At least Impulse hadn't thought to use his cellphone for anything more than track down a few Pokemon lingering in the area. He shifts a bit on his feet, that tell-tale sign probably typical of restless speedsters, but there's so far been no wayward breezes that might indicate a quick departure and return on his part in favor of poking around in the interim of conversation. Someone give him a cookie!

Glancing back at Cassie, he blinks before nodding a bit as he obviously is trying to picture her making use of the aforementioned weapons. "Cool, can I see?" Her try archery. "-oh, and I guess not, but it's just one of the things Max throws at me when I'm practicing dodging by vibrating through stuff."

"Glad I came along," he says in response to Diana, his amber gaze tracking over towards the sounds of the curent spar in progress. Hearing Cassie touch upon their past a bit, he looks back and nods. "Yup. I'm glad Red Robin decided to pull us all back into it." With Cassie's question to Wonder Woman, Bart directs his attention towards her again.

Diana gives a series of quick light nods to Cassie's rundown of her own training assessment up to this point. "Do not hesitate to come to me for instructions that are separate from these open classes. You are a member of our people, Cassie." Diana leaned closer then and spoke softly. "That means you get special treatment." And she flashes a grin before straightening up again. But its true, Cassie was deemed an Amazon by that of Queen Hippolyta herself and her training was ordered to be as extensive as any full fledged sister to the Island.

Another light nod is shown then. "Some do. Green Lantern has been here… I believe that the Flash came by once, but who could tell?" She glanced to Impulse and gave him a grin, because hey… speedster humor!

Diana then motioned to the side so that the two of them would follow her toward a table where Cassie could set down some of her gear and exchange it for some water, since these workouts were kind of dehydrating after all!

"I am glad that you guys are back together then." She says to the both of them. "The Titans offer a great service to the youth of not just this country, but the world. Seeing people your ages, performing heroic tasks and doing good things? It… inspires such in others. Or so I hope." She shows another faint smile then before looking back to the Sparring as it was being wrapped up by the two Teachers conducting the match today. They're now speaking to the audience while the other fighters step back to th sidelines.

It isn't immediately evident but Cassie is immensely proud of Bart at the moment. Not to say that she brought him here expecting to mess things up, she's fully aware how quickly his attention can divert so, yes, she's inspired to do something special once this is all said and done. As for his question, she's about to answer 'yes' until she gets a better understanding of how his training actually went which brings her slight discomfort. "Nnnnot today." she decides.

Her attention shifts back to Diana and her words, which she takes casually until the softer words are processed. One could almost see her brain explode (figuratively) right then and there as her heartbeat near instantly raises into overdrive and she finds herself momentarily at a loss for words and instead responds with a somewhat dumb grin.

She wordlessly follows along to seat herself, and she's in a state that can barely process Diana's thoughts on the Titans' work. "I am too," she finally responds as she gives Bart an appreciative smile. "And I also hope to inspire others as you've inspired me, Diana. Though I.. Have a ways to go before I can reach your level. But thank you so much for giving me this chance. For everything."

On the other hand it's the familiar sound of sparring wrapping up that sends her crashing back down to reality- It isn't going to be much longer before she's called to. She drums her fingertips on the table as she gently grits her teeth. "Uh, well. I guess that's my queue. Let's grab a quick bite when I get back, Bart?" a pause. She'll have to get back to Diana later about her offer.

END

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