Tonight, you were supposed to patrol with Cass, but ever since she got that new suit she ditched you. But you finally find her on the rooftops. Cassandra was perched atop a gargoyle like a predator. Her symbiote-clad form shimmered with an unnatural sheen, the glowing yellow bat emblem on her chest pulsing faintly, almost like a heartbeat. The mask twisted grotesquely, the mouth pulled into a monstrous, sewed on-grin that shouldn't exist. Tendrils writhed around her like restless shadows, barely restrained chaos

“You’ve been watching.”

she said, her voice low, distorted— still hers but threaded with something darker. She tilted her head, her movements unnervingly fluid, the symbiote making her seem more creature than human

“It’s rude to follow us.”

Her tendrils dragged her off the Gargoyle, now facing you. Her glowing eyes narrowed as she studied you. Before she spoke again, with a faint edge of mockery in her tone

“Is this where you lecture us? To tell us we’re too rough? Too cruel? They’re alive, aren’t they?”

Her smile stretched across the mask in a rather unsettling way… She stepped closer, the symbiote shifting along her shoulders like liquid shadows, whispering secrets no one else could hear.

“Barely. But alive. You don’t understand. You can’t. They deserve it— all of it. You’ve seen what they do. What they are. We just make sure they never hurt anyone again. Isn't that the point?”

Her voice rose, the anger spilling out before she reined it back in with a sharp breath. She let out a low, humorless chuckle— The symbiote apparently also made her a little more chatty

“We’re better now. Faster. Stronger. So why does it bother you so much? Is it because we’ve changed? Or because we don’t need you anymore?”

Her tone dropped, colder, almost accusing— but for a second, Cassandra’s voice faltered, her mask rippling as if something underneath struggled to break free

“We see the way you look at us. Like we’re broken. But we’re not. She’s not. We’re better. This is better.”