Birth Name: Mina Galanos
Alter Ego: The Chameleon
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Country of Operation: Canada
Archetype: Supernatural
Allegiance: Splinter
Appearance: Mina has a slender figure and stands at 5'5" tall. Her natural eye colour is green. Her natural hair colour is mouse brown, but she dyes it green to match her eyes. Her uniform is a green cloak that drapes over her head, being a functional representation of a green screen.
Powers/Skills: Like chameleons, Mina can change colours to camouflage with her surroundings. She has layers of colour pigments in her skin that can activate to change her colouring into a variety of patterns, which she can control at will. This extends to her uniform as well; her uniform senses the pigment activity and changes in accordance. This does not work with regular clothes. Although her camouflaging isn't exact, different parts of her body can change colour and pattern to match the general colour of the background, which is usually good enough if she doesn't draw attention to herself.
Mina's chameleon blood makes it easy for her to learn languages. She uses English in her operations in Canada, but is also fluent at speaking the animal language. She can learn the meaning of any animal's sounds, and can imitate these sounds to talk to them in return. Thanks to this power, she has made many animal friends who help her spy and bring her information.
Unfortunately, her aptitude at language takes away from her ability to read behaviour. Only with practice has she managed to grasp using day-to-day facial expressions and reading basic emotions and gestures. She is prone to misinterpreting anything deeper than a false smile and anything more subtle than a furrowed brow.
Equipment/Resources: When Mina is operating, she wears a green cloak that changes colour in response to the pigments in her skin. She also works alongside a number of animals. She is unable to be in touch with them at all times, but they gather to meet every day in the same secret spot to share information, and she often runs into them anyways when they are working nearby.
Biography: Mina was born and raised in a lakeside town in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Born in their house with the help of a special doctor, Mina's skin was changing colour, although barely noticeable, from the moment she was born. Throughout her childhood, she went to a private laboratory to learn to control her powers and be studied by scientists. She was quickly given the nickname "The Chameleon". Living in the relative wilderness of the mountains, she realized that she could talk to animals, and befriended the deer colony that lived in the forest. She grew up a confused child, constantly being told by the scientists to never reveal her abilities, and wondering why the lives of the other children seemed so different from hers and so similar to each others.
Her parents never spoke much of their past, but in the lab she heard talk of an African legend of Bantu mythology. When God created man, he sent a chameleon to tell man of eternal life. However, upset by the actions of the humans, God sent a lizard to tell man that he would die. Left to roam the earth as a failure, the chameleon tried to integrate with the human population through... let's just say, other ways, before giving up and colonizing as its own species. She was likely a descendant of this chameleon.
She tried to use camouflage to get information, but the scientists were always on the same page as her. She did manage to learn about the pigments in her skin, and gained an interest in Biology. She also learned that her mother had the same camouflaging abilities as her, both her parents used to work for a spy agency in Spain, and her parents had to escape to Canada. Mina got used to the scientists' secretiveness and distance, but never felt that friendly a relationship with any of them.
After high school, Mina went to university and got a Master's degree in Biology. Before she could pursue a PhD, her lab was recruited into the Champions to study the powers of the superheroes involved. Curious about the lab's plans, she asked if she could help in any way. The principal investigator, Dr. Paules, said yes. He told her about the Champion's goal of worldwide justice and said they could use a spy, and that he would put in a good word for her. Mina hardly knew what he meant and how she could help, but she readily agreed.
At age 26, she was recruited into the Champions and tasked to spy on criminals and evil organizations. She was given a cloak by the lab, a product of years of studying her, that could respond to and emulate her skin's colour changes. It was during her time as a Champion that she realized her talent of learning languages, picking up the language of wherever they sent her with relative ease. She also discovered the severity of her inability to read emotions, which hadn't been so much of a disadvantage before. She focused her energy solely on relaying information the way she had received it, letting others do all the interpreting.
Mina was present at the Nagoya event. She witnessed, mostly in fearful camouflage, the chaos that ensued as everything went wrong. But it wasn't the nationwide chaos that triggered her distrust. She couldn't believe the internal conflict that occurred among the Champions, along with the humiliation of being associated with them and fear for her own safety. Her distrust in the Champions was amplified by the bashing from the press. She jumped at the opportunity to leave the Champions and start an independent superhero team.
Special Notes: People often misjudge Mina to be stupid and shallow because she may respond inappropriately to social situations, which has caused Mina to lose confidence in her ability to read people. Because of this, she prefers to play the role of a tube, connecting people with source information without it being changed or biased by misinterpretation. However, provided the facts, Mina can prove to be insightful, observant, and creative.
