Barbara is pissed. Part of it's at Mel because she burned the bodies before a thorough examination could be made, but the vast majority of it as at the chair.
It's been years since she felt truly handicapped, but by the time she got word that anything had been found and managed to get her chair down the street it was already over and the bodies burned.
She's self-aware enough to know that it's not Mel that's the problem, so she manages to suppress it. Most of it. Her voice is only slightly clipped, "You found the bodies?"
"Robin might also give you a run for your money, and the truth is that if you're good he's probably closer to your level anyway." Because no one around here even comes close to Cassandra's level.
Barbara doesn't know about super powers.
"I do have to say," Barbara purses her lips, "That I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of making the roof our safe haven." She pats the arm of her chair for emphasis.
Mel doesn't exactly keep her powers a secret, but she sees no reason to advertise her freakiness. So she shrugs. "I wanna know how good either of them are," she says.
"That's the idea. Anything you have difficulty with, they're gonna have the same problem. Roof's the only place with no bloodstains. Now there's power, maybe we can get an elevator going. Or hell, I can crayy you inna pinch. Or maybe Toph can just earthbend you up.
Barbara frowns, "You're making what may be an unwarranted assumption. There's no bloodstains on the roof, but that may be because everyone stayed off them because it was suicide to be up there. How do we know these things don't fly, for instance?"
She holds up a hand, "Not that I'm disagreeing with you. The roof is probably the place to start off. We don't have enough information, and at least from up there we'll have decent line of sight so we'll have some warning when they come."
This girl sounds like she's got some good ideas, but she's still young. If she makes the sort of beginner mistakes that anyone new to leadership makes we could all wind up dead.
"What are you going to do with the babies?" Barbara's eyes are dead serious with a hint of evaluation. "I mean, you can't take them out when you fight."
The slight huddling-in is noted. Barbara sighs, "This is just not the sort of situation I work best in." She's used to being able to give orders and have them followed. Somehow she doubts that will be the case here.
It takes a moment, considering how much she can reveal. And I just got through talking about trust. I guess it starts with me, huh?
"I used to be a fighter. Back before I got shot the last time and ended up in the chair here. I was pretty good too. Maybe as good at my peak as Robin is now, maybe just a tad better. Anyway, got shot, ended up in the chair, spent some time feeling sorry for myself."
She shakes off the old memories, "Decided I could still be useful and set about making that true. So I started coordinating other groups, handling operations for groups of all sizes. Got good at evaluating threats and assigning the right people to deal with them."
"I can fight about as well as anyone can with dead weight for legs, but that's not saying much. Old me? She would have been an asset here. New me? Doesn't have enough information or resources to do more than spin the mental gears aimlessly."
While she's listening, Mel sets about cleaning up her babies, who are beginning to get full, and tired. It's a skill, handling two babies on your own, but she's practiced.
"So that's why you want to know what we've got to work with," she says after a while.
"Well, we've got two benders - four if you count the kids, which don't.
"The blind kid you'll see around, the one that doesn't move like she's blind - she's an earthbender. I've got her working on getting up the concrete, partly to give her something to bend, partly 'cause I want some rutting soil incase someone turns up with seeds.
"I... we also need an engineering crew. My brother's an inventor, but he's not got a lot to work with. He may be able to get an elevator going, but I want a fence around the roof first.
"We need to take another headcount it sounds like. And an organized account of skills and equipment. I just don't know what we're working with here."
She sighs, "Sokka's got some engineering training, Robin's good with technical stuff. I've got diagrams for dozens of useful things memorized, but I can't get around well enough to do the sort of engineering we need here."
"I think," Barbara shakes her head, "The elevators is a bad idea. There are at least three things we need more than an elevator that would take the same parts. And I'd hold off on a fence until we're sure it would do any good."
At the last she just sort of snorts, "Yeah, because there's all sorts of difficult planning decisions to make. Like should we stockpile the food in green packages, or the food in red packages."
Barbara considers this and nods, "Fence may be a good idea then. Especially if we end up having to spend time up there and Toph has to come with us." She rubs at her temples, "I'm not sure that living on the roof itself is going to be feasible long-term, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it."
"Well," she smiles, "Seems like a handy sort to have around."
It's been years since she felt truly handicapped, but by the time she got word that anything had been found and managed to get her chair down the street it was already over and the bodies burned.
She's self-aware enough to know that it's not Mel that's the problem, so she manages to suppress it. Most of it. Her voice is only slightly clipped, "You found the bodies?"
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Barbara doesn't know about super powers.
"I do have to say," Barbara purses her lips, "That I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of making the roof our safe haven." She pats the arm of her chair for emphasis.
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"That's the idea. Anything you have difficulty with, they're gonna have the same problem. Roof's the only place with no bloodstains. Now there's power, maybe we can get an elevator going. Or hell, I can crayy you inna pinch. Or maybe Toph can just earthbend you up.
"We'll get you up there."
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She holds up a hand, "Not that I'm disagreeing with you. The roof is probably the place to start off. We don't have enough information, and at least from up there we'll have decent line of sight so we'll have some warning when they come."
This girl sounds like she's got some good ideas, but she's still young. If she makes the sort of beginner mistakes that anyone new to leadership makes we could all wind up dead.
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"We'll know when we're
fighting the rutting things," Mel says. "Only so much preparation you can do fore we know the enemy."
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"Their father and uncle are both long-range fighters," she says, and it's only a little lie. "Least, at the moment they are."
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Mel lifts her head, a little more proudly now.
"What's your history?"
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"I used to be a fighter. Back before I got shot the last time and ended up in the chair here. I was pretty good too. Maybe as good at my peak as Robin is now, maybe just a tad better. Anyway, got shot, ended up in the chair, spent some time feeling sorry for myself."
She shakes off the old memories, "Decided I could still be useful and set about making that true. So I started coordinating other groups, handling operations for groups of all sizes. Got good at evaluating threats and assigning the right people to deal with them."
"I can fight about as well as anyone can with dead weight for legs, but that's not saying much. Old me? She would have been an asset here. New me? Doesn't have enough information or resources to do more than spin the mental gears aimlessly."
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"So that's why you want to know what we've got to work with," she says after a while.
"Well, we've got two benders - four if you count the kids, which
don't.
"The blind kid you'll see around, the one that doesn't move like she's blind - she's an earthbender. I've got her working on getting up the concrete, partly to give her something to bend, partly 'cause I want some rutting soil incase someone turns up with seeds.
"I... we also need an engineering crew. My brother's an inventor, but he's not got a lot to work with. He may be able to get an elevator going, but I want a fence around the roof first.
"We need planners, though."
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She sighs, "Sokka's got some engineering training, Robin's good with technical stuff. I've got diagrams for dozens of useful things memorized, but I can't get around well enough to do the sort of engineering we need here."
"I think," Barbara shakes her head, "The elevators is a bad idea. There are at least three things we need more than an elevator that would take the same parts. And I'd hold off on a fence until we're sure it would do any good."
At the last she just sort of snorts, "Yeah, because there's all sorts of difficult planning decisions to make. Like should we stockpile the food in green packages, or the food in red packages."
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"Sokka's the brother I was talking about." That last is said at least with a smile.
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"Well," she smiles, "Seems like a handy sort to have around."
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