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The first time Gem ever properly interacted with The Scarlet Pearl was on a scouting mission.
Gem had been called in after X had overheard of a bombing threat from the police. As the resident disguise expert it was her job to go in and see what she could find and if any one else needed to be called in. Though luckily it was okay, the threat didn’t seem credible and the police were already making strides in figuring out who sent it. So Gem snuck out the back door一still disguised as a janitor一ready to make her leave.
“Hello there,” a voice suddenly sounded from the front of the alley that Gem had just turned into.
Standing before her was the tall, cloaked, figure of The Scarlet Pearl. According to the heroes own safety listings of the villains Scarlet Pearl stands as one of the most dangerous. According to what Gem has heard she’s largely violent and, similar to Grian and Jimmy, she’s a watcher, which leads to her having more inclination towards game-ifying the destruction of someone’s life.
Not that Gem didn’t at least somewhat understand.
If she didn’t have Impulse and Skizz to keep her in check she probably would’ve gone off the deep end and do similar acts of violence. But she had the help she needed, and was a hero to try and get others that same help.
“Well I’m sure you’re only out here to do your job, would you be interested in joining me for a game?” Scarlet Pearl asked.
Gem knew she had a game motif but void, did she have to be this spot on?
“No thanks, I’m actually about to leave due to a family emergency,” Gem lied easily.
“You don’t even have a moment?” Pearl whined, “It’s not a long game, just a short and simple thing.”
“Nope, not even a moment!” Gem denied, beginning to move past the villain, “so much so that I don’t even have time for this right now, so I must be going.”
Of course she didn’t get far before there was a scythe blade in her face. If she hadn’t actually been on a job this would be bad, but luckily she had the foresight to wear another outfit under her janitor getup.
She also was luckily with her pick, because Grian could be very physically agile when he needed to be, and his blades一which were gifted to her after Grian’s retirement alongside Scar’s bow一were great for concealed carry.
It only took a few quick movements and a little more than a moment for her to have moved out of the way and pulled the blades free.
The Scarlet Pearl definitely appeared shocked by this development.
“Are those Grian’s swords?” She asked with a furrowed brow.
Gem froze for a split second herself.
She’d forgotten that Scarlet pearl knew Grian’s identity.
“Maybe,” Gem shrugged nonchalantly. She wasn’t actually going to tell Scarlet Pearl anything, Grian had made it clear that he wants to move away from the superhero business with Scar. She definitely wasn’t going to be the one to drag him back in.
“Where is he!?” She cried.
Gem only shrugged. She could see the rage form on the Scarlet Pearl’s face, and only a moment after she could feel annoyance boiling in her gut. She was pretty confident it was from Scarlet Pearl’s ability but honestly she might just be that annoying.
Scarlet Pearl quickly swung her scythe down but Gem easily parried with the blades. Gem wasn’t sure how long Grian had trained and used his blades to be this skilled, but god, she was almost jealous.
If she didn’t have the ability that she did, then she probably would be jealous.
Scarlet Pearl and Gem continued to trade blows, and Gem could feel the annoyance turn into anger as Scarlet Pearl’s ability took root. Gem knew the full effects of Scarlet Pearl’s ability from the migraines to the lingering rage leading to lashing out. Gem was very careful to try not to let the artificial anger get to her, and instead concentrated on maintaining even breathing as they fought.
Which seemed to be a great strategy, given that she could see as Scarlet Pearl got more frustrated, feel as a new wave of anger crashed into her, now more clearly originating from an outside source.
Scarlet Pearl couldn’t take advantage of Gem’s artificial anger, but Gem could take advantage of Scarlet Pearl’s very real anger and frustration.
And take advantage she did. Keeping her movement careful and practiced and fast, while Scarlet Pearl became sloppy tripping up and struggling to keep up, which in turn frustrated her more.
It wasn’t long before Gem felt a new artificial emotion, this time from her own powers. As a giddy joy began overriding the anger at seeing someone struggle so much at her hand. It was because of this feeling tha Gem tended to avoid her cuteguy outfit. It was easily addictive. She was possibly the only hero who could truly understand what drove Grian, and likely by proxy, Scarlet Pearl as far as to kill people. Even if accidently in Grian’s case.
It only took a few more good hits and one barely avoided stab to the Scarlet Pearl before she leaped away, wings forming from her back and propelling her away from Gem.
“You’re quite interesting aren’t you?” Scarlet Pearl asked, “You clearly have information on Grian and you managed to almost completely negate my powers!”
“Yeah, so what? Are you about to run away?” Gem goated, “very cowardly.”
She could see Scarlet pearl’s scowl deepen.
“I am retreating for now, but I definitely wish to play an actual proper game with you soon,” Scarlet Pearl responded, “I think you’d be a fun opponent!”
And with that declaration The Scarlet Pearl took off with another few flaps of her dark wings.
Just great. Gem really did not want to catch the attention of one of the most insane villains! She was just doing retcon! This was terrible!!
Gem sighed, put the blades away, and walked to her car. At least once she got home she could complain to Impulse and Skizz. They might have some ideas on what to do.
In truth, Gem really didn’t know what was happening at the moment. She just received an urgent call for backup from Impulse. The only question she asked was what outfit would be best. They said Mumbo’s so here she was, in the middle of a random battle dressed in a slightly modified suit with a couple of stun guns, smoke bombs, and similarly bizarre weapons, and an artificial underlying urge to create something technical.
Mumbo was probably the person she hated dressing as the most. The gadgets were useful, sure, but when it came to battles, Mumbo was rarely focused on the task at hand. Causing Gem to have a harder time focusing as well. That’s not even mentioning how impractical his suit was.
And before she knew it, throwing random bombs and shooting somewhat haphazardly ended in her cornered in an alleyway by the Scarlet Pearl AGAIN!
Truely, the worst outfit she could be stuck in.
She pulls out something random and hopefully useful, fully prepared to toss it the second Scarlet Pearl lunges.
“I have some questions,” Scarlet Pearl suddenly said, “You’ve caught my interest so I want to know more about you before I decide what I want to do with you.”
She was also beginning to quite dislike the Scarlet Pearl.
“I’m sorry? I’m not interested in letting a serial killer have information about me,” Gem said.
“It’s nothing bad! Like why are you a hero?” Scarlet Pearl asked.
“Why would you want to know that?” Gem asked, taking this time to actually gauge what she had on her at this point in the battle.
“Well maybe I was thinking about switching sides and I wanted to know what the reason for switching would be,” Scarlet Pearl claimed.
7 smoke bombs, a canister of tear gas一she wasn’t actually sure where that one came from, she didn’t remember Mumbo ever working with chemicals too much一, weird mechanized water balloons, a stun gun, a normal gun, a weird fine net system, and a drone.
“Then wouldn’t you ask for what benefits exist for being a hero?” Gem pointed out.
Scarlet Pearl let out something between a groan and a sigh. “Well you would’ve just gone on a spiel about helping people!” She cried.
“No I probably would’ve said the free pizza,” Gem shrugged. Reaching for one of the “water balloons”.
“Fine! Why are you always in different costumes?” She continued to question, clearly getting more agitated.
Funnily enough, Gem didn’t even think Scarlet Pearl was using her ability this time. Which was lucky, Gem feels like she might have a harder time resisting it at the moment.
“What does it matter,” Gem responded.
“Well, is it your ability!?” The Scarlet Pearl was definitely getting angry.
“Maybe,” Gem grinned.
“You-!” Scarlet Pearl began but Gem didn’t let her finish, throwing a “water balloon” to her feet and watching as it burst almost violently, cascading the liquid and soaking the villain.
Gem took advantage of the moment, sprinting towards the opening that the Scarlet Pearl was blocking, ignoring the way she also became quickly soaked.
She almost thought she could make it, but only a few steps past Scarlet Pearl and she felt a grip on her arm before she was thrown back to the wall of the alley. Gem gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.
“Fine then!” Scarlet Pearl growled, “What I really want to know is where Grian is!”
Gem grunted as she tried to find her breath.
“Like I’d say anything about that,” Gem got out between gasps.
Scarlet Pearl approached and Gem could feel more then see as her scythe was moved to lay by Gem’s neck.
“What did you do to my brother?” Scarlet Pearl asked.
“Nothing! Grian retired!” Gem said, “He wants nothing more to do with our world or you villains.”
Gem could see something violent flash in Scarlet Pearl’s eyes as she flinched at the statement. A growl resounding from her throat. Gem’s almost sure she’s about to swing, to一in the best and unlikely scenario一gravely injure Gem, or more likely to kill her.
But then the scythe moves from Gem’s side.
“I have a game I’d like to play with you,” Scarlet Pearl says as Gem picks herself up from the dirty alleyway floor.
“No,” Gem says firmly. She knows how watcher games usually play out.
“C’mon! It’ll be fun,” Scarlet Pearl urges, in a strange shift from the threatening glare she sent as she said it.
“I know how your games end. No I will not be a part of one,” And so before Scarlet Pearl could get angry, or violent again Gem threw down one of the smoke bombs and ran from the alley.
The battle had apparently ended by this point and her teammates were just about to look for her as she showed up.
She decided that yeah no, she really doesn’t like the Scarlet Pearl.
After all of her recent interactions with the Scarlet Pearl, Gem had quite a bit of reason to be suspicious when she saw the other woman wandering alleys in the middle of the night.
Gem was just doing a light bit of recon on the area since there’s been quite a few reports of the Necromancer in the area, so while Scarlet Pearl’s appearance isn’t unexpected, it is still concerning.
Gem only took a moment weighing her options, but it wasn’t a hard decision. At the end of the day Scarlet pearl was very dangerous, letting her go was completely off the table, but attempting to follow was dangerous, especially since Gem wasn’t wearing anything that could give her any kind of discretion bonus. Plus there was little else happening in the area so it was both decidedly safer and more entertaining to approach the Scarlet Pearl directly.
It was definitely good that Gem remembered to bring a mask and was wearing her Cuteguy stuff under her bulkier clothes.
“What are you doing?” Gem asked, not bothering with any lead up and startling the Scarlet Pearl. As fun as a bit of extra flare could be, it wasn’t necessarily Gem’s style, and again she was dealing with a very dangerous villain.
Plus watching the Scarlet Pearl squirm was enough fun.
“Well I can ask you the same! What are you doing in these parts, startling a poor villain!” Scarlet Pearl responded.
“I was just on a walk,” Gem lied easily, carefully reaching for Grian’s blades just in case.
“Well what a coincidence! I was doing the same!” Scarlet Pearl cheered.
“In your full costume?” Gem pushed, “Honestly I think you might be prowling for a victim.”
“What! No I don’t do that sort of thing in this part of town,” Scarlet Pearl claimed, Gem just raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “Plus because of my terrible brothers my identity is compromised, so why would I go out without the costume!”
Which, while the latter was true, it still was a very bizarre reason. She could still wear her normal clothes and run around in back alleys. It’s not like one of the deadliest villains had to worry about being mugged.
“Right…” Gem drawled sceptically.
“Either way!” Scarlet Pearl spoke before Gem had the opportunity to press any further, “Would you like to play a game?”
“No,” Gem said curtly. She was not going to agree to a watcher game.
“Oh c’mon! I planned multiple so you can choose what you want to play!” Scarlet Pearl said, “Please I worked really hard in planning and I think you’d quite like them!”
“Don’t all your ‘games’ end in someone dying,” Gem said, as far as they’d learned from Scarlet Pearl’s history she always referred to her murders as games, and again there was the watcher aspect.
“What! Who would ever tell you something like that? I would never,” Scarlet Pearl spoke in a manor that almost came off as sarcastic.
“Your brothers told me,” Gem stated.
The Scarlet Pearl sent her a glare in response, “well they are traitors. And unless you’re going to actually tell me where Grian is then I don’t want to hear a word about them from you,” Scarlet Pearl threatened.
Gem had to take a moment to consider if she was going to rise to the challenge, but decided against it. She wasn’t really in the mood for a battle.
Gem just shrugged, “So will anyone die as a result of any of these games?”
“Well…” It was the Scarlet Pearl’s turn to draw out her words before she sighed and confessed, “yeah a few of them.”
“Alright then,” Gem responded, “I’ll play a game of your as long as you can swear that it will bring no harm, physical or mental, or anyone including myself, and of course no one dies.”
Scarlet Pearl pouted at her, “Why’d you have to get so specific?” She whined.
“You’re like the fae,” Gem said, “if I’m not specific you’ll probably take advantage of any loophole I allow you.”
Scarlet Pearl huffs, “Fine,” She relents, “But next time we meet, you’ll have to agree to play my new game!”
“As long as it remains within my roles,” Gem agreed.
“It will,” Scarlet Pearl responded determinedly, “I’ll speak with you soon!” She said before taking off back down the alley in the direction she came from.
Gem did her best to keep an eye on the villain, just in case, but the other was fast and once she passed the point of the area Gem was supposed to be looking around in, the hero chose to just let her go.
Hopefully she could use the game to distract the other, or if she was really lucky, to arrest her. Though Gem didn’t think the prisons for super powered individuals were prepared yet, it would still be satisfying though, just to know that it’s possible.
Gem doesn’t usually patrol. Sure, she can and on occasions like that night, she does, however she has made her distaste for it very clear. Simply there’s better things to do and her powers don’t really hold up well for this kind of thing, she has to use Mumbo or Scar’s outfits just to be able to get any high ground and she doesn’t have to foresight to pick an outfit especially made for whatever battle may occur.
Luckily X is nice enough and lets her get away with no patrols as long as she keeps up with intel gathering. Unfortunately this also means that she’s the first up when someone is out of commission.
Which led to nights like that one, where she was unfortunately patrolling. This time because Bdubs had an unfortunate run in with Zombie and the nameless villain that has left him bedridden with a migraine.
At this rate Gem will be the one to finally put Zombie away. The effects of her powers are the most common cause for Gem to be forced into patrolling.
So here she was, in her Hotguy armor lazily running around the city and occasionally using the grappling arrows to get to roofs. There didn’t seem to really be any problems except a few scufles that she had to break up. Which was dumb. She wasn’t the police! But at this rate her patrol was starting to feel pointless. It was nearly 3:00 am by that point and most people had gone in so the streets were quiet. No signs of villains anywhere.
“There you are!”
Or at least there was no sign of any villains until none other than the Scarlet Pearl showed up to make Gem’s night even worse.
“Why are you here?” Gem groaned, turning to face the alley that the Scarlet Pearl was emerging from.
“Well I wanted to speak with you!” Scarlet Pearl explained enthusiastically, only barely stepping out into the light of the street lamp, “I have finally come up with an idea for the perfect game!”
Gem just sent her an unimpressed look, “really?”
Scarlet Pearl, not deterred, nodded enthusiastically, “Well more like the perfect reward to a rather interesting game.”
“Fine,” Gem sighs out, “what is it?”
The Scarlet Pearl gestures for Gem to get close.
Gem’s insulted by the Scarlet Pearl’s belief in her intelligence.
Gem gives her no more than a glare. Not moving any closer.
The Scarlet Pearl pouts before continuing, “It’s a guessing game,” She says a bit quieter, maybe trying to get Gem to lean in. Again she underestimates Gem. “It’s easy, we just go down the list of those in each other’s groups and guess what the other’s relationship is with them!”
That was way too simple. There's no way a watcher, especially one like Scarlet Pearl, has designed a game that simple without any danger. There must be a catch. And Gem is almost positive that it’s in “reward” the Scarlet Pearl mentioned.
“And the reward?” Gem prompted.
Scarlet Pearl’s grin widened, “Whoever gets the most correct can do whatever they want to strengthen or worsen our relationship, and the other can’t resist!”
Gem furrowed her brows. That was so broad that there’s no guaranteeing what the other is planning, but Gem’s almost positive that Scarlet Pearl is going to use this to try to kill Gem or maybe extract information from her or drag her into another game.
However this also seems easy enough to cheat at, and sure she can give word of mouth that she “won’t resist” but if the moment that will mean nothing.
And if the Scarlet Pearl truly is devoted to upholding her own rules then Gem can just arrest her! That’d be it! No more violent watcher with emotional manipulation running around! Depending on how soon this will take place Gem might even be able to guarantee a power proof cell is prepared.
And all she has to do is cheat a bit.
It was perfect.
“Sure,” Gem agreed after that moment of silence, “I’ll play your game, but I will need prep time ya know.”
“Oh of course!” Scarlet Pearl easily gave into Gem’s demand. Perfect. “It wouldn’t be fair if I’ve had time to stew on your relationships and you’ve had none to think of mine!”
“Of course, because this needs to be even, right?” Gem says and the Scarlet Pearl nods again.
“How about we meet up just after sunset in three days, on top of the building that overlooks the bay on the edge of town!” The Scarlet Pearl suggests excitedly.
“Which building?” Gem asks. The Bay was large, there were a lot of buildings around it.
“The art museum,” Scarlet Pearl answered easily.
Gem gave a short nod, “yeah sure that works.”
The Scarlet Pearl then cheered and clapped a few times, “Great! We’ll meet for the game then! Be prepared! MAke sure to think over everything!” The Scarlet Pearl said excitedly.
“Yeah sure, I will,” Gem responded, grinning a bit herself.
The others will be so happy once she finally rids the city of this woman.
The game had been going well, as far as Gem was concerned. They met up just as planned and the Scarlet Pearl was quick to start the game, pulling out a notepad and two markers so that they could each keep tally.
Gem was also able to successfully cheat as well. Because no she definitely wasn’t friends with Void, he was her boss, why would she ever be friends with her boss??
That was the day she learned that the Scarlet Pearl was quite gullible.
By the halfway point of the game Pearl was only barely in the lead, though Gem planned to take the second half of the game completely. She was only lagging behind to ensure that Scarlet Pearl wouldn’t get suspicious.
“How about erm, the no named guy?” Scarlet Pearl asked, “what do you think my relationship with him is?”
“Something of friends, not like best friends or anything but pretty close,” Gem answered easily.
“Wow, you’re very good at this! You’ve barely gotten any wrong!” The Scarlet Pearl cheered, marking another tally for Gem.
“Thank you!” Gem responded in kind, “I’m quite good with peo-”
Gem wasn’t too sure about spilling how she figured out so much, but before she could even say anymore she was cut off by a loud explosion from her right that shook the building they were sitting on and sent shockwaves throughout the city. Gem couldn’t say what the building had been, she was never one to pay attention to such details, but it didn’t truly matter anymore as flame ravaged whatever it had been.
The woman at her side, unfortunately, didn't seem as surprised as she’d been hoping. Gem shouldn’t have been surprised, this was such an obvious distraction which she had fallen into without a thought. She was normally better than this.
“You scheming demon!” Gem growled.
At this Scarlet Pearl had the audacity to look surprised, much more surprised then how she looked at the building going up in flames, “What! I wasn’t a part of that! I just wanted to play a game!” She frantically defended as Gem pushed herself up.
“Yeah right,” Gem scoffed, “Last time I trust a villain with something like this.”
“Excuse me!” Scarlet Pearl called, “I didn’t do anything!”
Gem didn’t bother listening to her. Because gods! How could she have been dumb enough to fall for such an obvious trap!? Of course the Scarlet Pearl would never just give herself up!
So Gem ran and quickly made her way to the explosion. She was lucky that this was during her normal patrol hours, because she actually came dressed in one of Scar’s old costumes and had a quiver that was filled to the brim with arrows.
It only took a minute to get but in her heightened state of stress that minute felt both like it was only a second and like it was a small eternity.
She couldn’t say she was too surprised at what she found.
The first thing she noticed on the scene was Necromancer violently attacking Jimmy, which wasn’t a surprise, the Necromancer got way more violent after the raid, and he frequently targeted Jimmy and Tango for whatever reason.
Then she saw The Clock Keeper flying around haphazardly while Skizz kept directing light right into her eyes. Some part of Gem hoped she’d go temporarily blind so that they had some use for the cell that had been prepared, but unfortunately they had many reasons to suspect that The Clock Keeper had advanced eyes.
Just next to Skizz was Impulse whose focus was upon the nameless villain who was trying to shoot both Impulse and Skizz with the ray gun he’d unexpectedly acquired some months ago. Though Impulse seemed to be doing a good job at holding him back.
Finally Gem saw Doc within the wreckage of the building, she couldn’t see what he was doing through the smoke but he was moving around far too freely to be trapped in there. Gem considered that he might be trapped by the flames, but also feared that he may be using them for cover.
She quickly notched an arrow, prepared to give Doc a warning shot if he wasn’t stuck. Unfortunately just as she prepared to release a large blade appeared within her vision.
“Look, I still maintain that I had no part in this, but those are still my teammates, and whatever it is they’re doing I am helping,” The Scarlet Pearl stated.
“Right,” Gem groaned, “And I’m that stupid.”
Gem wasn’t in a great situation. She could really only use her Hotguy outfit for long range because Scar wasn’t very agile, and though decently physically strong his vex abilities were the main advantage he had in a close up battle.
Gem of course still had her own training in combat but she hadn’t really kept up with it since she gained her powers. But until she could get away or figure something else out then it was all she had.
So dropping her arrow and in a quick, sweeping motion, Gem swung herself around and nailed the Scarlet Pearl in the face with the center of her bow before promptly ducking to avoid any swings from the scythe. Though pearl stumbled back she kept her scythe mostly steady.
Gem tried to think of something before the Scarlet Pearl could do anything more. She had her arrows, her best case might be to simply stab the Scarlet Pearl with a regular arrow but that didn’t feel like enough. However, the only other options were her teaser arrows and explosive arrows, both of which are reserved for not people because they can easily be deadly, and as much as Gem despised villains and the Scarlet Pearl in particular, she didn’t think she could bring herself to knowingly kill one of them.
Gem quickly reached down for the arrow she had dropped, only to feel the blade pressed against her back followed by a foot coming down on her hand.
“I don’t want to hurt you too badly, so I recommend you don’t move,” the Scarlet Pearl threatened.
Gods! There had to be some other way out of this! Gem tried to think of anything she could do.
But it seemed luck was finally on her side, “Well it’s a good thing I don’t have those kinds of reservations!” a very familiar voice boomed from her right, Gem looked up in time to watch Scarlet Pearl get hit in the face pretty hard, and before she could even react beyond a wince, her scythe was pulled from her grasp and thrown to the sidewalk behind Gem.
Gem watched while she pushed herself to stand as Skizz then shoved the Scarlet Pearl farther from Gem and just as the Scarlet Pearl opened her eyes he directed an intense beam of light right into them, causing the Scarlet Pearl to yelp and trip back over her own feet.
“Hunter!” Skizz called to her, “Doc’s building something in there, can you break it!?”
“Of course!” Gem responded, quickly pulling a teaser arrow from her quiver and noching it.
In the few minutes they’d been fighting, Doc had built up his machine enough that it was within Gem’s light of sight, making targeting the arrow that much easier.
After only a short intake and release of breath she let the arrow fly. And as difficult as using her Hotguy outfit was she couldn’t argue that Scar was an insane marksman. In all her time since he’d given her the outfit she’d never missed a target, and until his retirement she’s fairly confident that Scar was the same.
It wasn’t a surprise when another large explosion sounded, followed by a slew of very German and very unfriendly words, and a large plume of smoke that overtook the street.
Gem wondered what Doc had been making to create that much smoke
“Is everyone okay!” Skizz called, startling Gem. She hadn’t realized that he’d moved to stand next to her.
“Jimmy’s died again but otherwise we’re fine!” Impulse called in response.
Gem looked back to see if maybe she could get away with arresting the Scarlet Pearl, only to just catch as The Clock Keeper swung down unsteadily and picked up her fellow villain before flying off.
The Clock Keeper was always too fast for an arrow to properly hit, and whatever injuries she had sustained didn’t slow her down enough.
By the time the smoke had cleared five villains were gone and Jimmy was starting to come back.
Gem couldn’t help but groan at her failure.
Gem would’ve been happy to never hear from that witch again, especially after how the other night went.
She also would like to not be patrolling again so soon but after a very violent attack from the Necromancer Tango was left out of commission leaving her to take over his position.
Also leading to another run in with the Scarlet pearl.
Gem was simply minding her own business, jumping from roof to roof in her Cuteguy outfit and unfortunately she suddenly heard the clanking of someone running out the fire escape.
Of course as a hero she had to stop and prepare for a fight, this could be anything from just rowdy kids she’d have the misfortune of lecturing to a villain.
And unfortunately it was not only the latter but the one villain she very much did not want to see, and upon coming face to face with that strange crescent moon shaped mask Gem simply turned around and tried to continue to the next building.
“Wait!” the witch called, and when Gem kept walking she followed up with, “hang on! I need to talk to you!”
Gem continued to ignore her. She would not let this strange woman get one over on her again. Lul her into what was truely the strangest sense of security and trick her. Not again.
Of course, the woman ended up just grabbing her wrist, so of course Gem pulled out one of her blades and attempted to stab the other. She wasn’t exactly trying for anywhere vital but she needed to make it clear that she didn’t take kindly to betrayal.
“What the hell!” The Scarlet Pearl called out as Gem swung her blade.
Gem tried to force the other to step back or ya know get stabbed but the other woman refused to let go of her wrist and after a few more stabbing attempts, managed to lean down and grab her other wrist, gripping it tightly to try to hold it steady so that she couldn’t keep stabbing.
So of course there was only one logical thing to do in this situation.
“I swear if you try to kick me,” The Scarlet Pearl growled out.
“I won’t if you let me go,” Gem responded easily, she might still kick the other if she does let go.
“I’ll let you go if you hear what I have to say,” The Scarlet Pearl counted.
Gods she was being relentless! And deeply annoying.
“You have a minute,” Gem responded. She’d rather get away from this woman sooner than have to keep fighting her, and hey, she can still kick her once she’s down talking.
“Okay, Okay!” The Scarlet Pearl huffed, “One I didn’t know about the attack, I swear on that” Gem just gave her an unbelieving look, “And two, you still agreed to play my game, and based on our final count I won.”
That left Gem aghast. She was still worried about the game!? The distraction!?
“What does that have to do with anything?” Gem asked.
“You agreed to the rules of the game,” Pearl stated firmly, “and you don’t seem too keen on continuing, meaning I win, and I still deserve my prize.”
“Hang on! Excuse you! As far as I care, you forfeited as soon as you used it as a distraction!” Gem argued.
“I didn’t!” The Scarlet Pearl yelled, “And even then I know you cheated so I still get the win if we’re counting things that affected the game.”
How!?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gem huffed, though her voice caught and pitched weirdly, too caught off guard. The other wasn’t supposed to find that out.
“You’re more than just ‘vague acquaintance’ with 0-100,” The Scarlet Pearl claims.
Maybe she really was some kind of witch or demon.
“How do you know that!” Gem cried out in response.
“I’m not saying, but now that you’ve confirmed it,” The demon grinned, “I think it’s time I cash in on my prize!”
Seriously! Was that just a guess! And Gem gullibly confirmed it. Why was she still being so trusting of this woman!?
“I declare that I want my prize to be a kiss!” The Scarlet Pearl yelled, and well, Gem blue screened.
“A kiss?” She mumbled confused. The other’s grin seemed to widen.
After this Gem knew she needed to go home and get her shit together because this was insane! She shouldn’t even be indulging this villain much less believing her lies.
Despite her grips and internal complaints, Gem simply nodded as permission.
The villain gave minimal hesitation, easily leaning in.
The kiss was little more than a peck, a simple brush against her lips.
Somehow Gem thought that maybe she’d be willing to play more games, or go along with more of the other’s lies if it meant another kiss.
Gods she really really, needed to get her shit together! What would Grian and Jimmy think about her doing this with their evil sister!?
“Thank you, Hunter,” The Scarlet Pearl grinned, “I hope you haven’t been turned off from playing more of my games.”
Before Gem could say much more than others turned and ran off into the night.
And Gods, she was fucked!
She even forgot to kick the other!
Pearl was rather pleased returning to their current base of operations in some abandoned hotel. She didn’t get exactly what she wanted out of the Hunter but the kiss was just as good as information on Grian.
“Well you seem happy,” Cleo observed as she pushed through the entrance, “I assume your most recent game went well.”
“Oh it went amazingly!” Pearl cheered. The others didn’t actually know about her current thing with the Hunter, Scott would probably go insane, or at least more insane than how he’s been since they had to move.
Speaking of which she could hear Scott from his new lab just down the hall. She could see him from the open door as he tore apart some gross body, grunting as he ripped out some of the organs in a rather violent manner.
“You think you’ve got a game that could get him to calm down?” Cleo asked, also looking towards the door.
“He’ll get over it,” Pearl huffed, “I would’ve warned him, ya know, Jimmy and Grian both play dirty.”
“I don’t think it’s the ‘betrayal’ that’s got him like this,” Cleo sighed. Pearl just shrugged.
“Thanks for the info on 0-100 by the way,” Pearl said, switching the subject.
“Sure thing, but I don’t get how knowing he’s friends with Hunter will help you,” Cleo responded.
Pearl shrugged, “It was a strange game.”
“But you got what you wanted from it?” Cleo asked.
“Of course!” Pearl grinned, “and if I play my card right I think I can get some more, pretty amazing things from it.”
Cleo just nodded at her, clearly confused but not caring enough to press harder.
Pearl wondered. People can switch sides rather easily, as Grian so kindly demonstrated, she wondered if she could get the Hunter to do the same.