Rose at Play, Copycat in Flight [Copycat]

[Ravager]

This wasn’t a good idea.

That was the primary thought running through Rose Wilson’s mind as she stole silently through the base, her feet –bare except for the training bandages that wrapped over and around her ankles – soundless on the cool floor. The N.O.W.H.E.R.E. facility was fundamentally dull so far as decorations went: plain metal floors, walls and ceilings with only the occasional cryptic sign of where any one place was relative to the rest of the dullness that filled the place. It was, naturally, there to stop intruders knowing which were the vital locations, but it was equally efficient in making sure most of the personnel took about a week to work out where everything was.

She’d memorised it in a day. Rose had wanted to know all her exits as soon as possible. And that meant the hard ones as well as the easy ones and, naturally, the fun ones. If she ever got really bored, running the gauntlet of traps that supposedly blocked some of them would probably be good exercise if nothing else. It wouldn’t stop her, of course, and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. was surprisingly cute for a secret international super-spy organisation if it thought it would, but it might keep her on her toes for a bit. Disintegrator rays were pesky things. So far though, the bosses had followed through on their deal and made sure Rose was anything but bored. So, that wasn’t exactly why she was doing this.

This, as she’d thought, not being a good idea.

It was the base’s night cycle, but the patrols were still everywhere - not that any saw her – and something else she’d memorised had been the camera fields and how to get past them too. What it did mean was that a bunch of personnel were currently all tucked up, nice and snug in their little beds, dreaming their dreams of… well, it was probably a toss-up between her, dissecting some cute little meta-teenager and their mommy. That last case was probably a nightmare, ‘cause that Templar guy nearly creeped Rose out, which took effort. He didn’t scare her, but he was still enough to make her want to jam a sword under those pince-nez of his just for kicks and giggles.

And among those cheery little sleepers, there was one who Rose just knew would be all tired out. A certain Copycat, who’d been a really, truly bad girl today – and it was to her teammate’s room that she was headed.

This was not a good idea.

This was a damn great idea.

See, her and Gem had agreed to meet up in the gym to work on the truly, truly sorry excuse for combat skills her teammate had – ok, she was 4 foot nothing in heels, but that didn’t mean she had to be so blasted useless at it and Rose was actually on the verge of taking how pathetic she was personally… And Copycat. Never. Showed. She’d waited, waited, waited, kicked the hell out of some goons for fun, waited… And she’d stormed off to find that precious Gem had gone shopping. At which point, Rose had set her heart on painful retribution, with blood and tears. Lots of tears. And the fact that Gem hadn’t realised this just showed that the girl was too soft anyway. That's the other reason she'd chosen this stunt - it'd prove her point once and for all.

Dressed in black tank top and skin-tight leggings, Rose had scorned her swords for this. Instead, she just had her feet wrapped, hadn’t even bothered tying her hair back… It wasn’t going to be much of a fight after all. And here she was. Silent as a wraith, she nudged the door open, the white-haired woman gliding inside until her single eye fell upon the form sleeping on the single bed that sat in the centre of the room.

She paused. Nothing. Gemmy was all asleep still and looked to be staying that way.

Carefully, Rose slid closer, closer… closer.

Then she was next to the bed. Gem lay flat on her back, eyes closed – frankly, if Rose didn’t know what the girl was capable of, she’d almost be expecting her to have a thumb stuck firmly in her mouth.

Ravager watched a moment longer, smiling sardonically, then brought one leg up until it nearly touched her head in a standing split, showing off her flexibility and strength for an invisible audience.

“Hey Gem,” She breathed out, “Got a present for you.”

Then, whether the other moved or not, Rose’s foot was coming down in a blurred arc that would bury her heel hard in Copycat’s belly.

Wakey, wakey. Hope you can still breathe.

[Copycat]

Gem had also known something wasn't a good idea.

She knew, for instance, that she was really, really freaking useless when it came to fighting. Her performance in the Culling had basically shown that for all of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to see, given even her efforts to cave someone's skull in with a rock took several attempts. Her strength was absolutely not up there in the slightest, and she didn't exactly have any fighting skills beyond a few self defense classes and the time she'd opted to try Karate out of boredom. It hadn't lasted beyond that initial session, frankly; Gem tended to get really rather distracted and absent minded, and the very methodical and careful manner in which her instructor had worked just hadn't gelled very well; Not with a girl who was basically diagnosed as having a short attention span. Not, of course, that it was the case here.

Gem knew she should have been training with Rose. She just didn't want to, after a point.

As far as she was concerned, to some degree she had made it through the Culling on her own merit. Granted, some of the others had done a fair piece of the work - especially when it came to the hoards of them she'd seen, scrabbling and pulling and ripping down the strongest foes - but it was her attitude and her willingness to basically put herself first that had seen her as the last alive. It was egotistical and it was dangerous even thinking that way, making out that she was the top reason she had won, but.. Hell, Gem was basically an average school student with little to no experience in antagonism before the Culling, save for flushing some other girl's coat down the john when she was younger; Don't even ask about that one. But still, as far as she was concerned, she had every right to be a little egotistical about 'her victory'. Hell, some of the superiors at N.O.W.H.E.R.E. at least seemed mildly impressed she'd managed it.

Either that or they were just buttering her up.

She didn't much care. It was praise regardless, more than she'd ever get living in that spider-filled noisy hellhole back in Los Angeles; Gem shifted awkwardly in her sleep at the notion of thinking about her parents, but soon relaxed as it shifted. So she had blown Rose Wilson off; Probably not the best of ideas, given the girl was almost a full foot taller than her and built like Gina Carano's slightly slimmer cousin, but she was willing to risk it. She'd lost everything when NOWHERE had opted to kidnap her without even presenting her with the opportunity to take her things; She'd almost gone nuts during the Culling being stuck in clothes that weren't hers - some kind of crummy combat uniform had been slapped on her - so she'd taken the opportunity to go shopping. Truthfully, it hadn't even been a case of blowing Rose off, at first; She'd headed out with more than enough time to get back for the training session, after all. More than enough.

And then Gem's incredibly OCD-ish nature when it came to colours had struck. Three hours of trying to compare the shorts she was looking at to the swatches she tended to carry, so she could find the perfect tone. Naturally, by the time she was done, time had really, really crept on to the point where she should have been back. And it was then that she'd basically said 'screw it'. Those were, naturally, words she would never, ever say to Rose Wilson's face, but still, Gem could think them. Eventually, she'd returned to the facility and successfully avoided Wilson. Successfully. Right? She hoped. The evening had then been spent with Gem's usual, equally OCD-ish act of shearing off every item of clothing's labels. Slowly, insistently and dutifully, until she'd had enough, and finally gone to bed. The pile of clothes still needing to be tagged sat there, nail scissors and a pair of tweezers on top of them. Gem herself was beneath a thin and obviously sleep-disturbed set of sheets - in red, of course.

She wasn't exactly a heavy sleeper, but the fact that she was out like a light was plainly evident, her chest rising and falling in rhythm with the slight sighs she emitted. As such, she didn't hear a single word Rose had to say, and was only awoken when Rose's heel hit her in the stomach like the time Gem had seen an eighteen wheeler hit one of her friends, back home; She.. Hell, she couldn't even describe the pain, although that faded quickly enough - What alarmed Gem the most as she jerked awake, limbs seemingly attempting to seize the air around her, was the fact that she couldn't breathe. Not at all. Barely managing to roll from her bed, away from her attacker, Gem coughed and wheezed on all fours, struggling to take air in. It was difficult enough to keep her limbs holding her up, but even as she struggled, she managed to sneak a glare at Rose.

Eventually, she propped herself up on her bedside, staring incredulously at Rose; "What.. What is wrong with you?" she demanded "First the pettanko stuff and now this? I know I blew you off and all, but.. What the Hell?"

[Ravager]

It turned out that Copycat was a deep sleeper.

Which just made it suck to be her right now, Rose thought idly as her foot slammed into the girl’s belly hard enough that she jerked to life around it, limbs twitching and gasping for air as she tried to breathe past the heel that had just slammed into her diaphragm. It wasn’t terribly encouraging for the ‘training’ part of her agenda that she was apparently dealing with hopeless material, though it did suggest that the ‘blood and tears’ side would be disappointingly easy to get. Mostly this was for Gem’s own good though. The next person sneaking in here probably would be trying to kill her, not to just beat her for a while. If she looked at it that way, Rose was practically a humanitarian, which made her smirk to herself.

She knew she was many things, including honourable in her own special ways, but the one thing she definitely wasn’t if she’d ever been anything close to it was a humanitarian. This? This probably didn’t even break the top ten reasons why not.

With the casual ease of ridiculously long practice, Rose didn’t even stumble as Gem rolled away. The white haired girl might as well have flowed back into position she now held atop the bed, from where she could sneer down at her partner from a commanding height. In a real fight, this would be stupid. Her footing, sure as it was, wasn’t secure and a real opponent could take full advantage of that. Copycat, powers or not, didn’t have the skill – or the breath right now – to try that. She couldn’t be safer if she’d been standing on solid rock. The white haired woman just kept her footing without worry as she watched her partner struggle for breath, twitching and jerking as if she was dying.

Which she wasn’t. Not that Rose couldn’t have killed her with that kick, if she’d wanted to do it, but she’d never wanted that. Kill her partner? Eh, even if – and that was a big ‘if’ – she wanted to do it and Rose didn’t just kill kids for kicks then she’d get another one who would be just as bad. Nobody in this place was up to her standards and that was that.

So, she lazily watched the younger girl pull herself back together enough to cling on to the edge of the bed and drag herself up enough to reply. The glare might as well have washed off her for all the good it did, and Rose just smirked down in a thoroughly predatory fashion. “What’s wrong with me?” She mused, right before her foot flicked out in a kick aimed squarely at the girl’s jaw. “Pet-tan-ko.” Her tone was mocking. “I know how much you love our training sessions, so I thought I’d give you an extra-special one all to yourself.” Rose jumped down from the bed, grinning.

“You ought to be thanking me. How the Hell you made field agent while keeping your door unlocked at night, I’ll never know. Now, get up and fight back or else.” Her grin was ugly. “Trust me, you don’t want to pick ‘or else’.”

[Copycat]

Gem continued to scowl at the older girl as she recovered from that first kick, knowing she was going to have one Hell of a bruise come morning; She didn't know what Rose was thinking, but she knew that it was definitely a regrettable idea to not come back and immediately apologise profusely to her; Not that apologising would earn Gem any brownie points with Rose, but it possibly could've spared her this. As it was, she was still struggling to breathe even as she hung onto the side of her bed, still glaring at the older girl; She hadn't much minded Rose before this - the girl was a hardass, sure, but she'd played this game so much longer than she had, so Gem supposed there was some kind of entitlement there; It didn't excuse this, of course, but it wasn't like Gem was about to say anything to her face. Irony struck, of course, as Gem narrowly avoided a kick to her face, red hair shifting in a blur as she leant to one side; She barely registered what Rose had said other than knowing it was basically repeating what Gem had already said.

Her pulse stuck up in the stratosphere already from desperately pumping blood oxygen around her body in the wake of that kick from the gut - and definitely not helped by dodging Rose so suddenly. As such, she was still breathing a little heavily, and her skin was paler than usual. "Yeah, what's wrong with you," she retorted angrily, shuffling a pace or so away from Rose so there was at least a meter between the two of them; Naturally, Rose would be able to close that distance in less than a second - and Gem was convinced the other girl's legs were longer than a meter anyway - but it at least gave her something of a split second to try, say, using her abilities or something along those lines if she really had to. Not that Rose struck her as a particularly vulnerable sort, and given some of the things Gem had heard about her, it likely wasn't wise to put the older girl in a position where she would be manipulated, but at the same time, Gem wasn't just going to sit there and let herself get kicked in the teeth.

"Call me that again," Gem replied tersely when it came to being called a pettanko. She clearly bristled, even though she knew Rose wouldn't be flustered in the slightest by it; It was always the same - Even before she'd vaguely started developing, she'd been called 'tiny' or 'short-stuff', and that aggravated her, too. This was just the extension of that, and whilst she knew retaliating against someone who was quite easily her physical better was probably incredibly stupid, she didn't entirely care.

Rose did, of course, know how to push Gem's buttons, and the older girl's size and strength meant Gem didn't usually dare try anything. But she had been woken up in the middle of the night in the most aggravating and painful way; Sure, it was her fault, but she was still angry. "Hey, imagine my joy," she grumbled, her hand moving to where she'd been kicked, which was already sore; "This is low even by your standards. You could've waited till morning and kicked the crap out of me." She continued to glare, tensing slightly despite the sting in her lower body, as Rose stepped down from the bed, grinning like the cat that had caught the canary - or the robin, in this case, given Gem's hair colour. "Well, you know, most people are classy enough to leave me the Hell alone at night - Culling winner and all," she stated.

Definitely not a bright idea to keep on shooting her mouth off, but Gem wasn't bad at it, really, and it was the easiest thing to do in the face of her physical superior. Challenged, Gem grimaced at the ugly grin the other girl had - definitely schoolyard bully material - but tensed; It would probably be utterly, utterly predictable to Rose, but Gem leapt at her, trying to tackle the older girl as she attempted to use her power to distract her; Would it work? God only knows, but Gem wasn't going to back down from this.

[Ravager]

Setting aside the fact that Rose’s ass was awesome and infinitely sexier than Copycat’s, naturally, it was a measure of how little Ravager rated this fight that Gem had even been able to dodge that kick. It had been lazy, slow and not exactly hard – by Rose’s impressive standards at least, which still meant it was well above any effort her partner had yet to display. The comebacks weren’t terribly impressive either, she thought. In the meantime, Gem was already looking half-dead, and Rose was in no hurry here, not when the other girl’s idea of escaping was to scurry back about a meter. Even if she wasn’t still within the range of Rose’s long and thoroughly deadly legs, she was well within range of a quick jump to close the distance.

And she just ignored the ‘what was wrong with you’ this time around. Pathetic.

Rose cocked her head to one side curiously, the movement inspired by the tone in Gem’s voice as much as anything, regarding the younger girl with that single eye, obviously and clearly unintimidated by the way Copycat bristled at her. The redhead might as well have been a cat herself, hackles up and tail out, and it brought a sardonic little sneer to the older of the two’s full lips. “If you insist,” she replied, her tone still mocking. “Pet-tan-ko.” Rose snickered, mostly to herself. “You know, if you don’t want to be called that, you should really stop showing people how much it bothers you, Gemmy. Just like all the rest of it.”

Watching her partner rub at the spot where she’d have a nice bruise come morning, Rose was clearly not terribly sorry about it all. “It is the morning,” she pointed out nonchalantly. “And what makes you think this is ‘instead of’ and not ‘as well as’, Gem-chan? Maybe I’ll be seeing you bright and early in the training room to see if this has improved your skills at all. Glad to see you’ve resigned yourself to how this is going to go though, partner. I don’t like being stood up. But, if you waste my time, I’ll waste yours – if you do it again, you won’t wake up to me attacking you. You’ll just wake up in the infirmary.” From most people, that was a dubious threat. From Rose, both of them knew it was a promise she was more than capable of backing up.

“Also? Hate to break it to you, Princess, but winning this place’s little beauty contest means nothing – you were up against a bunch of half-starved, half-dead metas, most of which hadn’t used their powers aggressively before in their lives. Try going up against the Titans, then we’ll talk.” She laughed. “And I’d have thought you’d got it by now – I never cared about being classy.”

Seriously? Seriously. Rose actually sighed and rolled her eye as Copycat lunged at her. She could feel the girl trying to use her power, but between being just woken up, tired and half out of breath as well as distracted, it didn’t have a prayer of working even if Rose had just stood there and let the redhead try and tackle her. Which, naturally, she didn’t. Instead, as her partner rushed at her like some berserker, Rose simply pivoted smoothly on her right foot, spinning contemptuously out of Copycat’s way. As the girl rushed past her, Rose continued her spin, pivoting on her left foot now as her right leg snapped around in the intention of scything Gem’s out from under her.

Her expression might as well have screamed ‘was that the best you’ve got?’.

Apparently, that lesson hadn’t been beaten home well enough yet. And Rose literally wasn’t going to let the other girl back up again until she learnt it to her satisfaction.

[Copycat]

In the future, Gem noted, she was going to lock the door. At the very least. Barricading it seemed like an increasingly good idea. Setting some manner of Home Alone-style trap so Rose would get smacked in the fact with a piece of rebar was increasingly appealing, also. But regardless, she was definitely starting to get the point of what Rose was saying, and in the future, the door would definitely be locked. That way, the white-haired psycho in front of her with her wouldn't be able to level that line at her.

No, Gem supposed; She'd just crawl in through the air vent and then attack Gem and go on to say she should be guarding the air vents or something equally ridiculous. Gem imagined that Rose could have an answer to everything Gem might try to do in terms of bettering herself, which was perhaps the point; When Rose didn't have anything to say, then she supposed the other woman would be satisfied. The only thing was, Gem couldn't imagine Rose would ever - ever - be satisfied with any kind of progress Gem made. It wasn't like Gem was ever going to get taller, it wasn't like she could get stronger like her, and Gem was generally more inclined to let her abilities do the work for her. It was a sound strategy, but it didn't do much for her physically. Which.. Well, Rose was demonstrating the problems with that approach now, wasn't she?

Even though she knew it was going to do absolutely nothing, she still bristled when Rose pulled out the 'P' word again; She didn't even know where the eyepatched girl had pulled that one from - she had heard the term before, given she'd browsed TV Tropes for several hours a pop on numerous occasions in her time - but Rose didn't entirely seem the sort to do that. She grimaced as she'd set herself up to be called that damn word again, and merely muttered "How the Hell does someone like you know what that term means anyway? You're like.. Totally above the crowd that uses it." And Gem meant that. Hell, she even took Rose's suggestion to heart, and resolved to not give anything away the next time Rose let the word loose; Of course, she figured that would be easier as an idea than in practice, but she could at least try.

And naturally, she expected that Rose would beat her ass if she didn't. She didn't entirely grasp what 'all the rest of it' meant, but she was hardly going to ask.

She simply stared, not having much to say, when Rose laid down the concept that just because she'd kicked Gem in the stomach hard enough to give her a hernia, didn't mean they weren't training later on today; Gem didn't much mind being called 'Gem-Chan', if she was entirely honest, but she didn't like the way Rose explained these things to her. After all, it wasn't like she'd actually 'wasted Rose's time' - actually being in the training session would be wasting her time, given Rose more often than not commented on what a waste of skin Gem was. "Why not just put me there anyway?" she grumbled with regards to the infirmary, though she knew she was seriously tempting fate there, given Rose would absolutely do it; "Save us both the time-wasting," she muttered with aggravation. She knew Rose really would if she wanted to, but Gem had to figure just lying in a hospital bed was better than this.

"Oh, right. The Titans," she sneered, "That utterly awesome bunch of dudebros who were so cool you just had to leave them, the glare of their brilliance when you were around them was that blinding," Gem offered mockingly. Whilst she was scared of Rose, easily - and actually respected and even liked her, dependant upon the situation - she didn't understand why the older girl talked about them with any kind of respect, given she'd left them. They had to be worthless, right? "Also - what's with all the nicknames?" she queried, definitely biding her time as she figured out what to do, but the lack of a consistent nickname from the other girl was just weird.

Unfortunately, what Gem had bided her time for wasn't worth it in the slightest, and she just about managed to avoid faceplanting into the carpet when Rose effortlessly dodged and tripped her. She knew this was just going to go on and on if she just stayed on her hands and knees, so Gem tried to lash out with a kick aimed for Rose's stomach, before rolling to a crouch and then standing properly - for the first time since Rose had entered the room. Almost farcically, Gem put up her dukes, bringing her arms up in front of her face like she was expecting Rose to start boxing.

This had been one of the basics she'd been taught before Rose had even arrived here. God only knew how useful it would be.

[Ravager]

She must have been feeling mellow for a moment, because Rose’s initial response to the querying wasn’t to punch Copycat again, but to eye the girl for a moment. “Look.” She said after a moment. “This isn’t free advice, but we’ll just say it’s covered by the beating. Don’t be who other people want you to be. Don’t be who you want you to be.” She snorted. “This sounds so clichéd. But you want to know what I worked out? Be yourself, or you’re just setting yourself up for a whole load of pain, misery and hypocrisy. Hell, you’ll probably get it anyway, but don’t try to be someone you’re not. It won’t work.” Rose’s gaze turned a little distant. “Trust me – I tried. Didn’t work. And here I am.”

A bit random, really, not the sort of thing she usually said, but it wasn’t that personal, nothing she couldn’t have worked out herself. And, while it didn’t really answer the question, Rose thought it was a better answer anyway. Not that she cared, obviously, but Gem was her partner – even if she was a little psycho. If she was… not happy, but content, Rose’s life would be easier. And that was enough for her, she guessed.

“Can’t,” Rose said, with every appearance of disappointment on her face, though only she knew if it was real or not. “We’ve got a job tomorrow and you might come in handy. Hard to do that if you’re stuck in the infirmary with broken… everything.” She snickered.

Really, for a girl in the midst of a beatdown that they both knew was far from even close to the worst that Rose could dole out, it seemed remarkably dumb for the one on the receiving end to mouth off in the knowledge that annoying her tormenter was just going to get herself more pain. Between that and the fact that Rose also knew that Gem knew nothing about her ex-teammates… Well, she didn’t care two pins what the other meta said. She didn’t have a clue. None of them did. And it said volumes about how well they knew each other that Rose understood Gem’s thinking there and how little the reverse was true.

“I left them for my own reasons,” Rose said with a nonchalant little shrug that still set finely-honed muscles shifting in her shoulders and upper arms. “It’s got nothing to do with them and, right now, nothing to do with you. But they’ve got training. They’re experienced and powerful and they’re a…” She hesitated briefly. “… A team. Not a collection of psychos, mercs and true believers like this place. Do I think you can take ‘em? Sure. Until you do… You’re just another rookie with a big power and bigger mouth. It’s just the way things are.”

And what her short partner did next did actually surprise Rose. The bigger girl had hopped back a step to avoid the kick, though she was pretty sure that she could have just taken it without flinching. Either way really worked and it had been beaten into her far too hard that she should never let anyone hit her if she could avoid it, even someone like Copycat who was too weak to hurt her. Or so she thought. But that had just been to get some space for the redhead who, in a clumsy and half-baked approximation of how Rose herself might have done it, rolled back to her feet so that she was actually standing. Then, comically, she put her arms up in a boxing stance. As if she expected them to box. Rose quirked an eyebrow up at this, her lips curling back into a sneer that screamed her contempt for Gem’s fighting skills.

Really? Boxing? Was the girl seriously expecting this to turn into a fair fight just because she’d managed to stand?

God, Gem had a lot to learn.

Like how most people didn’t fight fair. Heh, it wasn’t even like Rose had broken out anything interesting so far in this fight – she’d got moves that, if she were to pull them on Gem, the younger meta would probably just stare with her jaw dropping. Bonus of a metahuman super-soldier’s physique, she could literally do things that would be totally impossible otherwise. It was great.

For now though, she just stuck to the basics. Taking a single long step forward, she launched a looping punch towards Copycat’s face. It was just a feint, but not in the standard way. A nice easy obvious punch, one that she’d need both hands to block… and which would leave her totally out of position for Rose’s other fist that was about to hammer into her gut. The one that was more or less hidden by the twist of the Ravager’s body to provide power to the punch to the head. It was followed up with a devastating side kick aimed to the chest, backed by enough power that Rose was sure that Gem couldn’t block it.

Boxing? Hah. Copycat wasn’t getting anywhere with that! “Looks like I am wasting my time.”

[Copycat]

Gem was actively surprised that Rose was lecturing her on being who she wanted to be; Not that she was going to accuse the older girl of being hypocritical or whatever, but it was just surprising, given she hadn't really thought Rose Wilson really had that much depth to her. It was a bad assumption, to be sure, but beyond the mystery of exactly why the other girl wore an eyepatch - and assuming it was to cover up an injury, it wasn't particularly something Gem wanted to go digging into, and she imagined Rose wouldn't let her dig into; She imagined so many broken limbs before she'd get anything, there. But again, she'd never really assumed Rose to be someone deep - she was a mercenary, and that was that, as far as Gem was concerned. But there seemed to be some manner of personal experience in what Rose had to say, as if either she had foolishly gone along with what people expected of her and she now regretted it, or she had seen enough people do it that she could actively comment on it.

Gem knew, after all, that Rose had been with the Titans at one point, so maybe she was commenting on that; She couldn't be sure. But rather than just disregard what she was saying because it was Rose and she'd just had the crap kicked out of her by the same woman now dispensing this advice, Gem supposed she should take it to heart; "So you're saying that... If I'm getting angry about you calling me a pettanko or whatever, then I need to go with what my gut tells me rather than doing what I think is expected of me?" she queried warily, not wanting to get a boot in the gut for getting what Rose had said wrong, although she wasn't entirely certain that there was a wrong interpretation to it; More that Gem had to be happy with where she was and what she was doing.

And Gem wasn't entirely happy with the pettanko thing.. So maybe Rose expected her to do something about it?

"Well, colour me glad that you can't beat me black and blue on a technicality, I guess," she stated when Rose said she 'might' come in handy; She partly took it to mean that Rose didn't particularly want to beat on her and that, in the future, she should actually turn up when she was expected to, but she knew for a fact that Rose would never actually state that out loud. By contrast, her shooting her mouth off about the Titans should've earned her more of a beating, but again, Rose seemed to hold off - likely because she knew Gem's perspective, which was that she didn't really hold the Titans in any kind of light or really find them worthy of anything resembling respect; And Rose's presence here only justified that opinion, to Gem. She could be entirely wrong, but Rose had opted to be here, and not amongst that group of teen heroes, which said a lot. When Rose finally answered, Gem got a slight, tiny bit of an ego-boost from the other's words; "You seriously think I could take 'em?" she asked, surprised.

Hell, she knew she had a way to go and she kinda needed some attitude adjustment, but.. Wow. Again, more words she hadn't expected from Rose. Naturally, she didn't really question which of the three groups she fell into that the other woman mentioned when it came to N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'s membership, since she had a good enough idea, but she got the point. And she didn't push that button again, given Rose had stated it was plainly none of her business; Again, push a button too hard and she would end up in the infirmary. Because really, she was getting it bad enough now - Gem was vaguely satisfied that she'd even managed to get to her feet in a fight with Rose, given she remembered one of her first encounters with the older girl and she hadn't even managed that - but it was clear that she still had, again, a long, long way to go. Although Rose's sneer at the sight of her stance was enough to infuriate Gem, probably making her slightly sloppier than she already was.

A grunt emerged as she took the first blow using her forearms, blocking it from reaching her face, and then the breath was knocked from her again when Rose's other fist came out of nowhere and hammered into her gut, quickly followed by a kick she couldn't block either; Soon enough, Gem was on her knees again, although she'd gotten her breath back quicker than before. "I could've told you that. Like I'd ever be a match for you," she muttered in a slightly flippant and yet annoyed tone. Deciding for one last attempt at actually getting a hit or at least something in, Gem tried to hit Rose's mind as hard as she could with her power, and then launched herself into another attempt at a tackle toward the girl.

Her stomach and chest basically pleaded with her to give up, but she was damned if she was just coming out of this empty-handed...

TAG: Rose

[Ravager]

Watching Gem, waiting to see what the girl made of what she’d said to her, Rose found herself feeling… rather more thoughtful than she was prone to be. Curious even, though a smile wormed its way across her face at the thought of what curiosity did to cats wormed its way into her mind. But then Rose’s humour did tend to the mean, cruel and dark sides. Not that she had any actual intention of killing Gem, partly because she’d just have to break in another Culling survivor and that didn’t interest her at all, but mostly because she didn’t kill people for kicks or just because they annoyed her. Would she kill Copycat? In a heartbeat, if it was necessary, but there was a long way to go before it was. And Rose liked having the company, in a weird way.

She’d rather have her other eye ripped out than admit it though.

At that point, Gem piped up with an answer that was more a question, and Rose snorted.

“Did I stutter or something?” She demanded. “I don’t care what you go with. And I’m definitely telling you to get a thicker skin about it – either that or buy some implants for all I care – because it makes you way too easy to provoke and it’s going to get you killed faster than that” She snapped her fingers, disdainfully. “What I’m telling you is that worrying about what the rest of the world thinks? Trying to be someone you’re not? They’re both great ways to twist yourself up in knots. If you’re smart, you won’t bother.” It seemed pretty clear to her. Maybe she’d knocked the redhead into a concussion…

But the white haired girl snickered again at the comment that came next. “Hah, no. I can beat you black and blue all I liked, just so long as you can keep walking and messing with people’s heads. But you’re already at such a total disadvantage next to me, being flat as a board and generally looking like a kid, so I’d just hate to kill your chances any further.” But she quirked an eyebrow up at the other girl when she questioned her comment. “If you repeat this to anyone, I’ll shred your wardrobe,” Rose warned, “But yeah. I do. In a straight fight? No, but you’ve got a sneaky power and, if you played it right, I bet you could take any of them down. That doesn’t mean you can underestimate them. The only reasons I’m here and not there is because they don’t have the info I need and because they’re too goody-goody two-shoes to do what’s necessary. But there’s plenty of people who thought that made them weak and got proven wrong. If you’re just looking to be another mark on their win-loss table, don’t waste my time first.”

In some ways, Rose had to admire Copycat’s determination to keep going, even if it was basically showing as a lemming like tendency to throw herself right back into the blender. It was getting her nowhere at all and Rose was getting seriously bored here. Hence the somewhat harsher nature of the blows she drove home, expecting the girl to take a hint and stay down. But she didn’t. Instead she went to tackle her, while her power stabbed at Rose’s thoughts again.

Again, distracted, tired and beaten as she was, Copycat’s power wasn’t exactly up to its best right at that moment. Even so, Rose took a moment to throw it off, meaning that she wasn’t in any real position to defend herself at that moment. But, in the final analysis, it didn’t make a single bit of difference.

Gem’s body slammed into Rose’s midriff. But Copycat was all of 4’11” and scrawny with it. Rose was nearly a full foot taller and with a body like a panther’s, all lean muscle and deadly curves. Even without being able to move, even setting aside the taller girl’s freakish strength, there was precious little chance of the redhead ever making her stumble. And she didn’t, Rose holding her ground as if barely noticing the impact, absorbing the blow with ease. Her abs flexed, her legs tensed slightly, but that was all, Slade’s daughter otherwise shrugging off the attack with barely a glint of amusement in her single, icily-cold eye.

Which then narrowed in the second before she treated Copycat to a thunderous backhand to the face, for once not bothering holding back any further than the absolute bare minimum needed to ensure that she didn’t shatter the tiny redhead’s jaw. Or her skull. And once she had the other girl down again, Rose slammed one foot down on her chest, pinning her in place before she could possibly move.

“I’m getting bored.” She told Gem, pointedly grinding her heel down a little. “So let’s consider this tonight’s lesson – know when you’re beaten and quit while you’re ahead.” Rose’s foot pressed down a fraction more. “Mouth off and I’ll crack a rib. You don’t need all of ‘em for missions, after all.”

TAG: Copycat

[Copycat]

Gem more than understood what the older girl was getting at; Her tongue poked out with a complimentary faux-retching noise at the very notion of getting implants, and then Gem supposed the answer had to be clear; She was basically going to have to man up, and pretty badly. She totally got what Rose was yammering about, after all - it was basically a case of 'if someone's doing something you don't like, do something about it', and when it came to Rose branding her a 'pettanko'? No chance she was getting implants. She didn't need two huge bags of saline hanging off her body to make her feel vaguely decent about herself, and chances were, even if she did go and get the NOWHERE bunch to pay for implants to keep her happy, Rose would probably start remarking on that; But.. Hell no. Gem had spent that much time scoffing at Pamela Anderson and other 'enhanced' people - she lived in LA, for god's sake - that it'd be absolutely hypocritical of her to even consider it. So, manning up was the only alternative, it would seem. Gem's lips curled with distaste, but.. Well, she knew Rose was absolutely right.

All she had to do was just stop getting so angry whenever Rose said that damned word. But she understood - she just had to not get so worked up. She would question whether or not that was 'trying to be something she didn't want to be', but.. Well, she didn't want to be on the receiving end of a kick in the teeth from Wilson. However, given what the white-haired girl had already said, Gem merely looked slightly bemused when Rose - after telling her that she could beat her just to the point where she could still move - promptly reeled off another list of insults; "I'm eighteen. I gotta couple more years to fill out," she remarked simply and matter-of-factly, making it clear she was actually getting the point of what Rose was putting across.

She entirely got the point about the Titans, however, and despite her prodding and button pressing, it was plainly clear that Rose knew what she was talking about when it came to them; And Gem had something of a better insight into why the older girl wasn't with the group any more - she pondered what she might want, and exactly what intel that NOWHERE could get that the Titans - associated with the Justice League and whatever - couldn't dig up for her. Perhaps it was just that they were a little too goody-goody for Rose. Still, she got the point, although it was entirely ridiculous to Gem to think that she, of all people, could ever hope to take them on. As Rose had told her, though, she was sneaky. And that could count for a lot, supposedly. Her resilience - despite her whining, was picking up too.

Although her body totally just screamed at her to stay down once Rose had gotten that punch-kick combo in on her.

Gem refused, however, and launched herself into that tackle whilst her powers reached out to tap Rose's brain, hoping she.. Could.. At least.. Knock her on her ass? Gem's thought process slowly realised, as she performed the tackle and came into contact with Rose, that.. Well, Rose wasn't going anywhere. Basically clutching at the older girl's midriff, Gem looked up. She hadn't moved an inch. Hadn't even grunted. Didn't even show a sign of exertion. "Oh c'mon... That's not fair," Gem complained, shortly before she was on the receiving end of a glare that would make her crap herself if she knew Rose couldn't go too far with her retaliation. So she tried to roll with the blow she knew was coming; She'd been on the receiving end of one of these before, and she was started to understand why the people training her emphasised the bennies of 'going limp'. It meant you didn't break your own neck by trying to resist. Before she knew it, Gem was on her back again.

And there was definitely no way out of this one; Her head was stilling spinning, for instance, and there was just.. That weight on her chest.

Wincing and trying to get her bearings again, she simply stared, almost expressionless, up at Rose; It felt a little hypocritical of the girl to even come in here, beat her up, challenge her to fight back and now say this, but Gem was well aware that Rose could follow through with her promises to break a rib or two if she wished, and she was even more aware that NOWHERE could patch her up sufficiently to go out in the field even if Rose had done so. Gem didn't really feel like having anything broken, of course, so she said and did absolutely nothing. She simply nodded up at Rose, giving her a soundless thumbs up to make it clear she had gotten the message. Messages. Whatever.