Catherine Newmeyer

Catherine Newmeyer is an orange-band Beta who goes by the moniker of Copycat. She is a graduate of Maillardet's, where she now teaches gymnastics and hand-to-hand combat.
==Biography==
===Early life===
When Catherine's parents saw how perfectly and instantly she was able to mimic others' movements, they signed her up for a wide range of physical classes, including gymnastics and karate. Her father thought it was hilarious to have a black belt for a daughter — until Catherine was placed in a position where she had to defend herself.quipquipquip: "This bit lightly touches on a part of Cat's history that I didn't go too far into in Gunsmoke..."
When she was seven, a friend's father crossed a line with her. Catherine became frightened and fought him off, breaking his arm in the process. It was his word against hers, and Catherine's parents — fearing that he would push for a strike on her permanent record — sent her to Maillardet's Academy so that she could learn how to "control herself".
===At the Academy===
Catherine attended Maillardet's from the age of seven. She struggled to fit in initially, traumatised by the experience that had brought her there and blaming herself for it. She quickly caught the eye of John Wright, who saw how much she enjoyed combat classes and went out of his way to give her extra training and attention. It took a while for him to win her trust, but over time he became a mentor to her, and more of a paternal figure than her biological father had ever been.Gunsmoke
Catherine achieved solid marks at the Academy, including straight As in acting, and graduated with a high end-of-year ranking.
===After graduation===
After Catherine's graduation, John offers to provide her with recommendations and references, even inviting her to stay on at the Academy as an instructor. Catherine declines, determined to make her way in the world on her own merits, rather than worrying forever after that she had succeeded only on the strength of the Commander's reputation.
Finding a job is a struggle, however. The public teams pass her over in favor of her Alpha-ranked classmates, and her status as a Maillardet's graduate works against her among baseliners, who prefer to avoid hiring posters. Her first two jobs end before she hit ninety days of employment, and she eventually winds up as a bouncer at Monster Fever, a strip club themed around Delta- and Gamma-level posters with so-called sexy deformities.
When one of the strippers, Vee, goes missing, Catherine is worried. She tries to raise her concerns with the club's owner, Mr. Walker, after he offers her a ride home. In the car, he shows his true colours, and Catherine, distressed by his predatory behavior and by the strangely alien thought that she wants to be there with him, attacks Walker and crashes the car.
Afterwards, Catherine is approached by Vee, who is in fact an undercover Cape Collector who had been surveilling Walker, long suspected by the Valkyrie squad as being a purple-band mind-controlling rapist known as the Social Butterfly. Vee, along with her sqaud leader Estefania Santini-Galán, invites Catherine to join the Valkyries; Catherine accepts.
===Academy instructor===
According to Cat, she returned to Maillardet's as an instructor because her "former best friend" accepted the job offer for her.Grinder She teaches combat classes, with capoeira, aerial silks and ribbon dancing as electives.
==Physical appearance==
Catherine's hair is naturally thick and blonde, and she wears it cut short, bleached and dyed a violent pink. Her arms are covered in brightly-colored tattoos, such as a cupcake eating a smaller cupcake while riding a pink lawn flamingo.Origins, Issue #5, p. 227 She is extremely physically fit and muscular.
Cat has always gravitated towards cute clothes and accessories, but she reached her late teens and early twenties she didn't think she could pull them off, worrying that they would look "silly" with her muscular physique. Fortunately, she found friends like Vee and Stef, who have helped her become more confident and comfortable in herself. She favours anything bright, colourful or cute: her goal is "to give misogynists Lisa Frank-inspired technicolor nightmares".quipquipquip: What would Cat wear?
==Powers and abilities==
Catherine is an orange-band Beta with the ability to replicate any movement she sees, provided it falls within her physical limitations — of which there are few, thanks to her extensive training. She cannot simply absorb a skill forever, but through practise and repetition she is able to memorize it. As a result, she is one of the most skilled martial artists in the world.Origins, Issue #4, p. 167
==Relationships==
===Parents===
Her parents had only flown her back home three times over the course of her education, but her mother still felt entitled to the kind of mother-daughter relationship she saw in the movies. She called every month, attempting to needle her way back into her business with everything from guilt trips— we sacrificed so much to send you to that school!-- to unsubtle hints about how much her father wanted to make sure everything was ‘okay’ between them— Daddy wants me to remind you that you’re always welcome to come home, honey. You’ll always be our little girl.
===Jasper James===
===John Wright===
===Vee Kim===
==Trivia==
*She only took up teaching because ribbon-dancing wasn’t working out for her as a professional career.quipquipquip: "How do they stop bad guy Posters from attacking the school?"
*If Catherine were at Hogwarts, she'd be a Gryffindor.quipquipquip: "Hogwarts houses"
==Appearances==
*Origins
*Grinder
*Gunsmoke (POV character)
*Target Practice
==References==
Category:Characters
Category:Orange-bands
Category:Betas
Category:Gunsmoke characters
Category:Target Practice characters