Maya Anne Morales-Torres

21

ENBY She/They

Bisexual

Single

Gifted

Determined at Alpha-Level for the feats she has displayed. Considered a "low risk" however, due to her lack of ranged abilities.

Rebel Army

At 5'9" Maya might not seem like an overly impressive human specimen. But to acknowledge what is revealed beneath a fully-clothed ensemble provides a different perspective. Maya is a cut a formidable figure of visibly proper and balanced proportions. She has no distinguishing markings, and is absent any tattoos. No scars have persisted upon her body, as her Gifted abilities make it difficult to leave lasting damage.

It's a mindset forged in the fires youthful competition twisted by betrayal and abuse.

Maya is a natural performer, who lives and breaths what she puts her mind and her heart into. Nothing less than 100% is acceptable in her eyes when it comes to effort; if she's invested in a practice or action, she leaves it out for the world to see with expression of face, body, and vocals. She's someone that won't hold back in showing or saying how she feels in any situation or circumstance and is unlikely to mince words, chosing to go straight to the point, and cares little for people that beat around the bush. As a competitor through and through, Maya is one who is always looking to sharpen her skillset; if she fails at something on the first attempt, she comes back with more energy the second time around.

In the years that have intervened since her capture by the Hunters, this attitude has become the backdrop for a myriad of jaded outlooks and frustrated behaviors.

Her faith in other people took a sharp nosedive when her family unit turned her over to The Republic. Resentment and frustration followed. Guided by a memory of betrayal Maya is openly distrustful of others as a rule of thumb. While she has no qualms over speaking her truths, she's not in the game of making friends. Working on their own self is Maya's way in her current age. Her actions are fueled by anger; her words are laced with a touch of disdain. Even the mindset of personal improvement is mired: rather than growth for growth's sake, Maya persues betterment while looking over her shoulder; the need to be prepared for the inevitable blindsiding is ever present in her personal training, seeking the strength to overcome the next person that tries to do her wrong.

Supherhuman Condotioning. Maya possesses an innate physical condition that surpasses even the most elite athletes and combat personel. Feats of Strength, Speed, Endurance, Durability, and Athleticism outstrip any and all ungifted humans. Her body is uniquely adjusted to handle the strains that such feats would place upon it, having, among other traits, a denser skeletal structure, better adapted vitals, and a resilient system of muscles, ligaments and tendons.

• Strength. Benchmarks place Maya in the range of being able to cleanly lift between 10 and 20 tons. Executing strikes capable of breaking through the steel hulls of naval vessels is standard.
• Speed. Parameters allow for bursts clocking in 6 seconds for 100m comfortably, with a sustained 3 minute mile time. Optimized physiology allows the safe commencement and termination of such feats; she can accelerate and stop with proportional efficiency to any normal human with no ill side effects. Speed overall seems a byproduct of having the strength to propel herself on foot. Her working or fighting speed measures to roughly twice that of a peak 'normal' human.
• Durability & Resilience. Maya can prove difficult to take down if not approached properly. She has a high tolerance for pain, coupled with a toughness that allows her to shrug off most blunt force assaults and small weapons. However she is more susceptible to piercing blows, especially at high velocities; armor piercing bullets are the best suited as they can penetrate her skin and bone in center mass as to damage her vitals. Bladed melee weaponry can be effective in the hands of other Gifted or someone with similar enhancement through other means. Lower level Gifted abilities may struggle against her, though such effects as electrokinesis can effectively bypass her physical resistance and cause both bodily harm at high outputs or simply paralysis at lower outputs.
• Adrenaline FactorMaya's strength, speed, and endurance is subject to enhancement and growth under certain circumstances; excitement, fear, anger, and other intense emotions bring out a modest buff in these trait.
• Training. She is capable of developing these traits through appropriate training, though her gains are only minutely better than a nongifted's; to assist in this, she has an enhanced recovery, allowing her to come back from the fatigue and muscular stress more quickly and efficiently. Her ability to train, however, is limited, as one with her tier of strength requires specialized equipment in order to adequately challenge her physiology.
• Sensory & Reflexes. Maya's five standard senses and Reflexes scale adequately for her to function within the parameters of her speed.
• Limited Healing. For a body optimized for performance, rebounding and recovering from injuries is of vital importance. Maya's body can recover from most injuries and illnesses in approximately half the time it would take for others.

Combat. During her time being researched by The Republic, Maya was put through rigorous combat trials to assess the limits of her powers. This aided in the development of her fighting instincts. Though lacking in formal training, she makes up for the detriment somewhat with sheer will and tenacity. More of a brawler, her maneuvers draw from a range of stylistic approaches; she's about as likely to grapple and wrestle as she is to throw punches and kicks, and will even still just as soon toss someone across a room. She makes for a somewhat unpredictable combatant.

Maya's early life was spent living in foster care. Who her parents are remains unknown to her, though she surmises that they were simply a couple of Gifteds who were ultimately hunted down after they left her in the care of others. For the most part, her upbringing was standard and amicable up until her powers became apparent. The family she lived with was loving and supportive of her throughout her youth, treating her as though she were their own flesh and blood. She enjoyed spending time with her 'adoptive' siblings, a small assortment of other foster kids and the biological child of their parents.

At age 15, Maya's inhuman abilities began to manifest in ways not seen in her before. While she had always seemed abnormally energetic a uncommonly athletic even at a young age, she had never demonstrated much more than what might have been regarded as a textbook prodigy. But as high school began, flares of greater power showed, and they did in more harmful and distructive ways.

The first came during a softball practice; she was pitching, and threw the ball with enough velocity that it broke her catcher's glove hand. While the incident was reported as a fluke, Maya was suspended from pitching. Word of the event spread like wildfire through the school; Maya became the recipient of unwanted attention.

The second incident happened just as the buzz from the first had died down. It happened as Maya was training in the school weight room. She had loaded up the leg press, and begun her set. Pushing with more force than she realized, she launched the footplate and weights up and clear off of the machine. Damages to the school weightroom estimated into the tens of thousands of dollars, and several other students incurred injuries from either debris or the machine pieces and weights.

Aftet this, there was no doubt left in anyone's mind: Maya Morales-Torres was 'one of them.'

Fearing the backlash that would come their way, and more importantly for the safety of the other youth in their household, Maya's foster parents immediately called for Hunters to retreive Kaiya. The extradition was a surprise and shock to the then teenager. She did as best as she could to resist capture, damaging the house severely in the process. She ultimately failed, and was equipped with a power-supressing collar that rendered her helpless. She would be quickly placed into a detention facility, where she stayed for a year.

At age 16, she was moved to a research base. A room uniquely tooled to mitigate the effectiveness of her powers had been constructed. She was put through rigorous testing procedures, of practical and surgical natures.

Forced to display her abilities, she was thrown into hand-to-hand combat trials against drone bodies to measure her strength and agility; she would be pitted against both firing squads and other gifted to assess the limits of her durability. On the operating table, she was routinely put under for examination and 'sampling.' What little talk she overheard suggested they were using the results of their tests to develop better technology, weapons, and armor for the Hunters' crusades. The idea that parts of herself would be used to round up or kill other Gifted both frightened and disgusted her.

She went on to spend the three years that followed cycling through different detention camps. At age eighteen she was forced into acting as an enforcer, briefly having her suppressor deactivated to putdown would-be revolts, and then reactivated once the rebels had submitted. However, over time she grew increasingly difficult to work with, and began to resist and buck efforts to control her. By 20, she was 'permanently' left in her suppressed state and housed in a camp where she had once been dispatched to quell an uprising.

Benjamin and Marissa Tull are the couple that raised Maya until they found out she was a Gifted. They've since been relocated by The Republic in a sort of Witness Protection effort.

Really wants to get her hands on more advanced Hunter weapons to compliment her power.

Alaine Star Barrows

blackstar

january 18th; 25 years old

female

straight/heterosexual

single

gifted

beta (moderate threat)

loner/rebel army

Alaine stands at an average height of 5'6 and weighs something around 165 lbs. She's on the curvier side but tends to stay in shape for the most part, partially because she rarely has time to sit around idle. Her eyes are a pale grey-blue that can appear darker or lighter in different settings, with light brown/dark blonde hair that falls somewhere past her shoulders and is often pulled back in a half-up, half-down style. She has fair skin with a fair smattering of little scars from various incidents, both from her childhood and more recent years, none of which are overly prominent. She has a beauty mark just outside of her left eye, and a few random, dark freckles across her body. Generally she wears dull colors and simple clothes -- jeans, t-shirts, flannels, old jackets, worn cowboy boots. She loves a nice comfy sweater, but hasn't had the luxury of finding a nice snuggly one in a couple of years. She doesn't bother with makeup or jewelry, aside from a single, stainless steel ring full of miniscule scratches and scuffs and a friendship bracelet made for her by her sisters, which is usually tucked into a pocket rather than worn.

Alaine is overall a kind, friendly, hardworking individual. She's naturally quiet and more of a loner, but in a group she does her best to make everyone feel comfortable and keep things running smoothly, if it's needed -- otherwise she tends to fade into the background and observe. Despite these quiet tendencies, she's more than capable of sticking up for herself. She's earned a reputation in certain circles as being tough, independent, and a bit of a vigilante, never one to back down from a fight when someone's honor or safety is on the line. She's fiercely loyal but has a hard time making good friends because she's had her loyalty taken advantage of before, and blames herself for several incidents that led her to believe she was better off on her own. Even though she tells herself that often, she still feels very lonely at times and wouldn't mind someone to be close to.

She has a tendency to be protective over people she likes, or those that remind her of her younger siblings. Although she's patient in many ways she also has no fondness for arrogance, cruelty, and people who don't use their heads, and she's been known to keep a grudge (most significantly her grudge against the Hunter who killed her family).

✔ animals, flying, chocolate, stars, polaroid photos, the country
✘ crowds, alcohol, hot weather, constantly hiding, tomatoes, being restrained

flight;; What it says on the tin. Alaine is capable of levitation and propulsion, but only in regards to her own body; she can't make anyone or anything else fly. She doesn't require room to "take off" or come in for a landing, as she can hover/levitate and take flight from any position (although it's easiest to do from a standing position). She's not sure how fast she's capable of going while flying; her father, whom she inherited her flying ability from, was able to break the sound barrier. The fastest Alaine herself has ever been conscious of flying was a little over 550 mph.
Her ability can be hampered by confined spaces and restraints -- she can't fly through walls (unless she's moving with enough speed/force to break one) or break heavy chains. If she's in a room, her flight is limited to the open space in the room and any entrances/exits available. Think of it like running; she can only get as fast and go as far as the space she's in allows. How high she's able to go depends on whether or not she has some kind of breathing apparatus or oxygen for the higher levels of atmosphere, as she still needs to breath oxygen to live.

dark energy blades;; The ability to manifest "blades" made of some kind of dark energy is an ability Alaine only discovered in recent years, when she was 20 years old. She believes this power was influenced by her mother's genes, as her mother was a telekinetic occasionally known to produce and throw small energy blasts. With concentration, Alaine is able to create two "blades" of energy around her hands and lower arms that, so far, can reach two feet from the center of her palm. They appear as triangular fields of dark energy that have a negative appearance and create an inverted/negative effect on her hands, arms, and anything that goes within the field of the blade. When used to cut or stab, these energy blades act much like a Star Wars lightsaber -- when interacting with organic matter they can cause heavy burns and tend to cauterize wounds, sealing in the damage so that the victim is more likely to bleed and burn internally than bleed out. She has been able to sever limbs thus far, as well as cut through many non-living materials (metal, wood, etc.).
Alaine is unaware of the full potential and limits of this power, having only been able to use it intermittently during the past five years. The strength and endurance of these energy blades depends on her mental state, as far as she can tell. While she can manifest them without a strong emotional feeling, they seem to last longer and become stronger when backed with a high level of emotion and/or adrenaline -- rage and desperation, most significantly. How easily she's able to cut through things is determined by similar means. She's not able to penetrate every obstacle, and depending on the thickness or material of an object it might take several strikes to cut through if she's able to damage it at all. So far, various metals have proved the least effected by her energy blades and take the most effort to damage. If Alaine is tired or unfocused enough, she can't effectively manifest or maintain her blades.


enhancements;; Both Alaine's parents possessed an amount of physical enhancements which she inherited, though on a much smaller level. She's slightly stronger and faster than a normal human, with slightly more enhanced senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste), and a slightly faster rate of healing. She can still be killed by fatal injuries and can still be easily beaten by a stronger or more skilled opponent in a fight; she can't see through walls or hear things a mile away. If anything, her enhancements simply grant her a mild edge over normal humans.
She does have a more receptive mind when it comes to the telepathic or psychic abilities of others. Her mother taught her from a young age how to open or block her mind to psychic advances, and she often has a mental wall up that renders casual mind-reading unsuccessful (not so much more focused/powerful efforts to access her mind). She lacks the ability to initiate telepathic connections herself, although she's easy to maintain a mental connection with when she's not blocking it. Thanks to her mother's teaching, she's generally aware of when someone is trying to access her mind.

Alaine was born the oldest of six children to a humble family in Alabama, in the USA. Her parents were both Gifted, but they'd settled far enough in a rural area that they were largely out of the public eye. They chose to homeschool their six children to further protect them from unwanted discrimination and reporting, which overall worked out well until Alaine was about seventeen. Several of her siblings had begun manifesting powers while others were too young or seemed to simply carry the Gifted genes and not show any powers, and even in their rural surroundings it was hard to keep a Gifted family of eight from being noticed.

When Alaine was seventeen the government came knocking on the Barrows' door, demanding they turn themselves in for monitoring and observation in a controlled facility. Her parents, Roger and Laverne Barrows, refused to cooperate and attempted to fend off government-sent Hunters while allowing their children to escape.

They were unsuccessful.

Alaine, tasked with getting her siblings to safety, was forced to watch her parents be killed before her own attempts at protecting her young siblings were foiled, and the six Barrows children were brought under government supervision. Separated and "monitored" for three years, all but Alaine resisted to the point of death... or at least so she was told. Although enduring torturous experimentation herself, upon hearing her siblings were dead she flew into a rage, displaying a level of power previously unavailable to her. Finding herself able to manifest unstable energy blades in her extreme anger and pain, Alaine successfully broke free of her restraints, killing and injuring anyone who stood in her way. Her attempts to locate her siblings within the facility where she was housed proved fruitless, and she's since come to believe they really are dead.

Since her escape, she's been roaming on her own and traveling from one place to another, rarely staying for more than a few months and always in hiding. There was a year after her escape where she sought out and broke into government facilities in search of her siblings, but now she tends to avoid conflict where possible and focuses on helping other Gifted she comes in contact with. She's heard of the Rebel Army but isn't sure what to make of it, hesitant to join without being certain of their goals and motives.

While she doesn't actively seek them out, she's always on the watch for the Gifted Hunter that murdered her parents and had herself and her siblings captured. She's vowed to kill them if she ever finds them again.

Parents; Roger & Laverne Barrows - deceased. Siblings; Brook, Grace, Ezra, Eli, Joy - assumed deceased. Used to have family pets, not sure where they are now or if they're still alive.

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