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Post by Gemini on Aug 18, 2012 15:51:45 GMT -5
The clouds covering the night sky helped to spread an inky blackness over the buildings of San Francisco, perfect conditions for what Gemini had in mind. Turning around, she walked over to the other side of the roof, eyes continuously searching the sky for any sign of her prey, a long black cape billowing behind her as she moved. The tower she was standing on the roof of was on an axis between the city centre and Titan’s Tower which meant that the new teen titan who the media were starting to call ‘Wonder Girl’ would hopefully fly by here on her way into or out of the Tower. All Gemini had to do was wait.
Standing up on the ledge and looking down the sheer drop to the street below, she repressed a bored yawn, and flexed the unfamiliar muscled limbs of her body. This was a particularly handsome form; although she’d assumed a number of shapes that were hideous beyond belief, Gemini particularly enjoyed being able to mould her substance into beautiful human forms. Running her fingers over the stolen face, Gemini had to admit that Red Robin was quite handsome, so much so that she was tempted to approach him once she’d assumed Wonder Girl’s identity and… But she was getting ahead of herself; there was still the real titan to get rid of.
Her altered blue eyes continued to scan the night sky until she spotted what she was looking for, a woman flying above the lights of the city. Raising a hand towards the rapidly passing figure, she waved and called out to Wonder Girl, her voice a precise copy of Red Robin’s mimicked from a news clip that happened to catch him speak. “Hey over here!”
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Post by Cassandra Sandsmark on Aug 19, 2012 5:02:29 GMT -5
As far as Cassie was concerned, this was topsy-turvy land.
Back home, she had gone to a good deal of trouble to try and keep her and the ‘Wonder Girl’ identity the media kept going on about separate, so that the cops and Interpol didn’t catch on. And so far, she felt she had done a fairly good job of it, if she did say so herself. That meant keeping a low profile when she had the Armour on, naturally, but also not hanging around the same places in both identities if she could avoid it. She didn’t see them as two identities, as that implied she was closer to schizophrenia than she was comfortable contemplating, particularly given the issues she already had with the occasional blackouts. But it was best everyone else did.
Anyway, back home, all six hours or so away, she had spent most of her time as Cassie, in civilian gear. Here, on the other hand, she was equally anxious to avoid anyone noticing Cassandra Sandsmark, who had no reason at all to be hanging around the Titans Tower, going into that building or leaving it or, if she could avoid it, being seen anywhere near it. That meant, as this evening, if she was going anywhere, she did it in her armour. It also helped if she flew at night, when she could hide in the clouds and the darkness. Cassie sometimes liked a fight and didn’t like wasting her time. That didn’t mean she was just going to make it easy for every bad guy and cop this side of the Pacific to find her.
So, tonight, she thought as she stood on the roof of the Tower, she was going home for a bit. Back to Los Angeles and Hollywood, back to the house filled with her collection of artefacts and other such bits and pieces, back to the remnants of her old life. It was just for a while, but she needed some things and, if she was staying at the Tower, she wanted some of her more personal things there, to make it a bit more like home. She’d stay a night or two there, then box some up and carry them back to San Francisco in broad daylight, just detouring over the ocean to avoid being spotted. Simple.
A moment later she was airborne, slicing through the air as she began her trip. The lights of the city passed below her as she headed towards the centre before turning south. There was no way she could do this trip over the sea without getting lost – no, she’d use the city lights as a guide.
But, about halfway there, Cassie’s enhanced hearing caught a familiar voice coming from a rooftop, and, when she looked, a familiar figure was waving at her. She briefly considered just ignoring him. But no, he’d probably just follow her. So, rolling her eyes slightly, she veered downwards to land on the rooftop, quickly folding her arms over her chest. "Red. What’s this about? I thought you were out of town anyway…”
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Post by Gemini on Aug 20, 2012 12:23:10 GMT -5
‘Red Robin’ smiled grimly as Wonder Girl approached, (because he always looked grim in all of the clips Gemini had watched him in) and nodded coldly in greeting as she settled down on the rooftop. “I was but Cyborg called me back here, he said he was having a problem with you.” Gemini kept her expression blank, but irritation rolled off her copied form in waves, as if Robin had been interrupted while doing something important and blamed Wonder Girl for the interruption. This was just the first part of her plan: First she would plant a seed of doubt in this new Teen Titan’s mind that the team didn’t want her and were suspicious of her powers and motives and then knock her out when her back was turned. Then, after shipping her off to a criminal prison in Russia which could contain a metahuman hero, Gemini would take her place and start spreading the same poison to the other Teen Titans. Wonder Girl would think Red Robin had betrayed her and the Titans would fall apart, leaving her free to finally kill Beast Boy. It was a perfect, beautiful plan, her best yet.
But Gemini also needed data, not from a computer, but from Wonder Girl herself. She had already heard enough her speak enough syllables to accurately mimic Wonder Girl’s voice and now that she was close enough she could see small details like freckles and the exact shade of her eyes which didn’t show up on distance photographs, gradually refining her mental image of Wonder Girl to match the real person in front of her. Now that she had the physical aspects memorised, the just as important mannerisms and movements came next. If everything went as planned she might spend weeks or even months disguised as Wonder Girl and if she walked differently or acted strangely her team-mates might notice; looking like someone was only the tip of the iceberg, she had to act like them too to properly pull off an impersonation. So for the moment she would observe while they talked, get a feeling for who Wonder Girl was and how she moved and then once she had everything she needed she would strike.
But she should focus on her portrayal of Red Robin for the moment. This was the most dangerous part of her plan; she knew little about who she was imitating and didn’t want to get caught out before she could take down Wonder Girl. The quicker she made Wonder Girl angry and less able to think the better. “The truth is I’m starting to have doubts about having you on the team Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Raven and I have talked about you before and we’re just not sure you make the cut.” Shoulders squared, Gemini watched Wonder Girl carefully, hoping that her performance was good enough.
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Post by Cassandra Sandsmark on Aug 22, 2012 4:11:39 GMT -5
This wasn’t right.
Cassie was suspicious from the moment her feet touched the rooftop. Red Robin seemed grimmer than before, and the way he began telling her about how somebody she hadn’t actually met (as far as she knew at least) and certainly hadn’t had a problem with didn’t help.
Something about this whole set up still did not sit right with Cassie, but as the last words from Red Robin’s little speech fell into the silence between them, she was far too busy bristling with rage to really consider why this wasn’t the way it should be. Far too busy. No. Oh no, he did not get to do this. First, he drops into her life, turns it upside down, drags her back with him to join his newly made up ‘Teen Titans’ group on the grounds that there was strength in numbers, telling her she needed to be part of a team, telling her it was for her own safety and so on and so on, and now he was telling her that… what? She wasn’t good enough? So now, because she didn’t ‘make the cut’, he was just going to try and throw her back despite all that talk about safety in numbers?
And then, the fact that he had called her Wonder Girl again, despite the number of times she had told him not to – that was just the icing on an impressively awful cake.
In fact, if she had not already been in costume, there was every chance that her war bracelets would be showing right now regardless. Instead, Cassie just settled for tightening her hands into fists hard enough that her knuckles were white. Even if she’d wanted to go, and there was every chance she might have, that did not give him the right to talk about her behind her back, particularly with two more super clowns that she hadn’t met, and then decide to kick her off. Oh, right, and telling her on a rooftop with every impression he just meant for her to go then and there, when they just happened to meet. She’d genuinely thought he was better than that, which just made Cassie angrier.
Taking a deep breath, the blonde glared at him. "I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, Red, and hope that’s just your sense of humour finally hitting puberty. Because otherwise, if you’ve gone behind my back and made decisions about my future without talking to me? We are going to have a problem. And that would be bad.” Her eyes narrowed. "And, one. More. Time. Don’t call me Wonder Girl. I’ve got a name, I know you know it – use it.”
Fists on hips, she waited to see how this was going to go.
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Post by Gemini on Aug 25, 2012 5:06:00 GMT -5
“This isn’t a joke” crossing her arms she stared sternly at Wonder Girl. “The decision hasn’t been taken yet; this is just a head’s up to let you know what’s happening and if you’d like to ready an appeal.” Although it sounded like Wonder Girl still had a chance, Gemini made sure to inject a faint tone of dubiousness as she spoke about appealing, implying the decision was actually final. Judging by the angry look on the girl's face, Gemini was willing to bet that Wonder Girl would take this rejection for what it was and turn her back on the rest of the Titans, precisely what she intended.
Although Robin’s face remained outwardly impassive, Gemini was cursing up a storm inwardly: She had absolutely no idea what Wonder Girl’s real name was, taking a random guess would be stupid, so instead she would just have to stop using names entirely. “Look, I’m sorry.” She looked down at the floor as if she hadn’t wanted things to go this way, an apologetic look on what was visible of her copy of Red Robin’s face beneath the mask. “I know you’ve only just come back to the team and you had a place with us” Gemini was starting to guess, and needed to firm up the lie with something concrete before returning to the abstract. The team needed an excuse to get rid of Wonder Girl, an excuse that although partly believable was also completely see through and Gemini had just the thing. “It’s just we’ve been hearing chatter from villain groups that points to us becoming a target and if we have someone on the team who we can’t rely on, you can see why you’re too much of a risk for us” 'and we just really don't want you around' she mentally added, wishing she could let an evil grin surface on Red Robin's face.
Perhaps the real Red Robin would not twist the knife quite so much and be more sympathetic, Gemini was enjoying this too much. Her borrowed eyes were hard and unsympathetic as they met Wonder Girl’s; the team always came first, surely this blonde heroinette knew that.
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Post by Cassandra Sandsmark on Sept 2, 2012 15:45:31 GMT -5
There was an annoying stereotype, one which made Cassie even more likely to want to bang people’s heads together to make her point than usual. It was pretty simple and equally pretty insulting for all that it was really obviously wrong. As in, demonstrably, objectively false. And that was why she objected to it, particularly when it was applied by somebody who was demonstrably, objectively dumber than she was. It was that blondes were stupid. Particularly gorgeous blondes who looked like Cassandra Sandsmark, who had had more than once in her life to remind guys she was talking about that her eyes were up here thanks very much. It might someday give her a brief advantage in a fight if she was fighting a total perv, but she was getting sidetracked. She didn’t like it.
This was particularly true because, despite her enjoyment of her newfound physical ability for bashing heads together and tendency to jump right in without any precautions, Cassie was intelligent. She was actually really clever, to the point of brilliance when it suited, and being judged an idiot because she had a particular hair colour grated a lot. The same was true when people treated her like a kid, when she hadn’t been naïve in years.
So, while she was angry, hence the narrowed eyes and various other indications of general fury. Her fists were still clenched, but as Red Robin went on, increasingly, it wasn’t because she was angry he was kicking her out. It was because he was lying to her, lying to her badly just to add insult to injury, and he expected her to just… take this ridiculous rubbish as Gospel just because it was coming from Red Robin. She thought he was smarter than that. She thought he knew that she was smarter than that. So, the still-growing fury gathering its force behind her crystal-blue eyes was all at how seriously she was being underestimated.
Did he really think he could just tell her the total opposite of everything he’d said since they met and she would just fall into line?
Filled with the sudden, vicious rage of the Silent Armour, Cassie felt it crawling over her skin slightly, the golden metal creeping further over her body in response to its ‘owner’s’ anger.
"Liar,” she hissed, jabbing an armoured finger at his chest hard enough that she was sure it’d hurt even through the costume he wore. "I thought you knew me better than that, Red. Because, if you thought you could fool me that easily, you don’t know me at all.” If his eyes were cool and disconnected under his mask, Cassie’s were hot and emotional and filled with righteous indignation. "So, are you going to tell just why you’re suddenly all hot and bothered to get me off the team, Red? Or are you just going to keep telling me the opposite of what you said when you dragged me here in the first place and expect me to buy into it? Whatever, just stop wasting my time.”
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Post by Gemini on Sept 4, 2012 15:55:18 GMT -5
It was difficult keeping the malicious amusement out of Red Robin’s eyes as she watched Wonder Girl get angrier and angrier; it was moments like this that Gemini loved being able to shape herself into the likeness other people and mess with other people’s lives, sometimes being a villain was just so fulfilling. Outwardly Red Robin’s expression didn’t change as Wonder Girl pressed a finger into ‘his’ chest although Gemini fought the urge to clobber her over the head and grunted slightly, as she was sure that kind of pressure would cause a normal human pain.
Of course Gemini could still feel the finger pressing into her chest, but there was no sensation of pain and it was a mark of her skill in assuming human shapes that the ‘skin’ under Wonder Girl’s finger didn’t squish under the pressure. It was bad news that Red Robin had been telling Wonder Girl the opposite of what she had said, and the blonde heroine thinking ‘Red Robin’ was a liar was also not good, but hopefully with some quick thinking she could still twist things the way she wanted.
Taking a step back from the finger in his chest, Gemini shot Wonder Girl a reproving look and smoothed down the rumpled costume. “I’m not lying, in fact you’ve just shown part of the problem; the others aren’t happy with your temper. We just can’t afford to have someone as volatile as you on the team, I’m sorry. The Titans will help you get resettled wherever you want to go of course. I’m sorry.”
Her copied voice was full of finality as she made a gesture to show there was nothing more to say, the irritation of having a finger poked into her chest creeping through slightly into her mannerisms, but she didn’t think it was something that was out of character for Red Robin. Gemini was really going to enjoy putting a dent in Wonder Girl’s skull; all the other girl had to do was turn her back, and she could strike.
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Post by Cassandra Sandsmark on Sept 5, 2012 14:47:13 GMT -5
Cassie derived a little black pleasure from the wince that flickered across his face as well as the grunt of pain that derived from her jabbing her finger into his chest – by no means as strongly as she could, but hard enough to deliberately hurt.
It certainly helped when he told her he wasn’t lying, that her temper was one of the reasons she was getting thrown out and that they couldn’t ‘afford’ to have someone as ‘volatile’ as her on his precious team. But he was still underestimating her, she just knew it.
While what was coming out of Red Robin’s mouth said ‘I’m not lying’, Cassie was fairly confident that was in fact what he was doing. Admittedly, she hadn’t seen him in a day or so, but she was still more than smart enough to know that things like this didn’t come out of nowhere and there’d been no hints at all. Something was really wrong about this whole set up, not least the fact that, since she’d told him to call her by her real name, he hadn’t called her anything. Which was weird, because that last ‘I’m sorry’ was basically crying out to have her name attached to it. He’d done it before, so she knew he wasn’t shy about using it and, even through the black anger that was basically crying out for breaking out the Armour and splattering his double-crossing scummy self across the rooftop, Cassie knew something else was going on. He wasn’t even sorry about it, given he kept meeting her eyes, and she’d been sure he’d at least have the decency to look a little sorrier about chucking her to the wolves.
Not that she was worried about her ability to take care of herself, but that really wasn’t the point here.
The point was something was going on here, or so she thought, and if being chucked out onto the street made her angry, then being tricked into it was going to make her furious.
"Hmm. No.” She gave him a smile that was nearly sweet, that might have been sweet, if it weren’t for the belligerent stance her body was set in, hands that could wring his neck like the chicken’s he resembled clenched into fists at her sides again. "If that’s how it is, fine – I want to hear this from the rest of the team. To my face. If they actually want me gone, and this isn’t just you being pathetic, I’ll grab my stuff and head back to DC tonight seeing as you want me gone so bad. If not, hey, we’ll see how much damage that costume of yours can take. And didn’t I tell you to call me Steph already? I don’t remember you being so shy last time.” There, that ought to cover it. If he was trying this solo, he wouldn’t want her facing the rest of the team. And if he wasn’t him, the two lies she’d stuck in there ought to work.
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Post by Gemini on Sept 12, 2012 5:16:39 GMT -5
Gemini was already starting to feel impatient about Wonder Girl refusing to swallow the lies she was feeding her, and that impatience led to her not properly thinking through her next little speech. “Look Steph, it’s not just me, if you want we can go back to the Tower, I’ll assemble the others and we can talk things through, I’m sorry but I don’t think it’ll change things.” Doing her best to look contrite, Gemini hoped that Wonder Girl was now convinced; heroes seemed the type to have group talks about their feelings and it would be safer if Wonder Girl was led to think she could vent her anger on the whole group instead of taking things out on ‘Red Robin’. Wonder Girl might think she’d have a chance to talk to the other Titans, but not if Gemini had anything to do with it. She was confident she could handle whatever Wonder Girl threw at her, but she would prefer to be able to take her out without giving her a chance to fight back.
If her impatience hadn’t made her forget her training, Gemini might have been suspicious about being given a name; it was a classic trap for shapeshifters, one which Gemini had avoided before but she was too occupied enjoying twisting the metaphorical knife in Wonder Girl’s back and so accepted Steph as Wonder Girl’s real name. The hand which ‘Red Robin’ had casually put behind ‘his’ back started to swell until it was the size of a dustbin lid, as Gemini waited for a good moment to attack. She was really going to enjoy this.
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Post by Cassandra Sandsmark on Sept 16, 2012 6:58:47 GMT -5
And there it was.
Cassie barely listened to anything that came in that last speech, just looking for that one word that would prove her right. At this point, her mind had narrowed to two options. Either he looked at her like she’d lost it and asked why she was telling him to call her ‘Steph’ when her name was Cassie in which case he was the real Red Robin and she was headed back to LA by herself or he didn’t pick up on it in which case this was a set up and she was completely free to punch whoever this was into orbit and drag his pretentious, pretending butt back to the Tower to find out who he was really.
Seriously, whatever was going on here, Red Robin had just missed not one but two golden opportunities to rub in just how well he knew everything about her life and she knew nothing about his. He also had not only accepted her wrong name but believed it, when she knew he knew she knew… etc etc that he knew her real name. He used it without even hesitating too, so something was up. Honestly, as to what, she didn’t have a clue. Was this Red Robin being mindcontrolled? Some sort of alien clone thing? Shapeshifter? Hallucination? Nah, a hallucination would’ve known that. Whatever it was, well…
It didn’t matter anyway.
Her reaction was still pretty much going to be the same. She was now ready, willing and able to start a fight.
Managing a smile based purely on how she knew she was now in control of things, using that to keep herself from just punching his face in now, Cassie thought that the wobbliness of the smile and whatever anger she couldn’t hide would be easily explained by whatever this imposter thought she ought to be thinking. If she hadn’t pulled off her trick though, chances were she’d be falling for this rubbish right now. Something told her they wouldn’t have been going to the tower either…
Regardless, she managed a nod at last. "Yeah, sure. Ok. Truce until then?”
The blonde offered him a hand.
Presuming he took it, fake-Red Robin would find his hand caught in a vice grip which Cassie fully intended to use to tug him hard towards her… where her other fist would be heading directly for his chin as she suddenly grinned evilly.
"Gotcha, fake. You picked the wrong girl to try and fool.”
She was going to enjoy this.
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