Name: Halina Koziol
Nickname/Alias: Formely 'The Gravity Gal', changed to 'Gravitas' sometime in the 80s.
Age: 97, Although physically she is in her late 20s.
Gender: Female
Appearance:
Halina regularly wears her hair back in a bun as it is rather long and would only serve as a nuisance if she did not tie it back when out in the 'wastes'. She displays some light muscle, but this is highly deceptive as to her true strength. She has some light freckles that go from her cheek, over her nose and to her other cheek. They are hardly noticeable though and you would only really be able to see them if you were talking to her face to face. She still as the identification number that she was given within the concentration camp on her right forearm. She stands at 5 foot 9.
Location: California(may change, keep an eye out)
Settlement:
Profession: Villain/Hero/Soldier/Housewife
Skills:
-Military training with firearms
-Able to cook
-Has picked locks in her past but is rather rusty and hasn't done it in years
Powers:
Halina essentially has increased aspects of the human body. She can lift more than a trained athlete, run faster than an olympiad and take more hits than Mike Tyson on steroids. Her other power is gravity manipulation within objects including herself within 6 feet of her. She uses this in order to fly short distances along with stop any ranged threats that she is expecting. Along with this, she of course has a much slower aging rate than the average human.
Weaknesses:
While Halina does have enhanced durability, this is basically restricted to cuts and blunt objects. If a bullet directly hits her brain or her heart she will die like any other human. Along with this, anything she sends upwards using her gravity requires her concentration to keep it up. Therefore if she breaks concentration on it it will fall.
Weapons:
-Model 1887 Shotgun
-M1911 Pistol
-KA-BAR Knife
Armor/Clothing:
Halina's clothing changes depending on the weather. The staples of her clothing are the shirts she wears, her boots and her trousers. Depending on the weather, Halina can be seen wearing one or two shirts. The first shirt is decorated with a flowery pattern which, in the winter, is overlayed by her second blue shirt which is slightly shorter. Her trousers were originally black but have since been slightly lightened by washing and through dirt. Her boots are an ordinary brown and lace up the front. Her jacket is a light green with a fur collar. She also wears fingerless gloves depending on the weather. She constantly wears a small gold locket around her neck with a picture of herself, her former husband and her former child in it.
Equipment and Supplies:
Halina carries a large bottle of water on her at all times and always has at least one can of food in her satchel when travelling.
Personality:
Halina is a feisty woman with a knack for putting her money where her mouth is when it comes to fights. In her past, she was known to be cocky and arrogant, but during her lifetime events have changed and shaped her into someone who prefers to see others being praised for succeeding rather than being praised herself. She is rather shy in front of large crowds and can be hard to get to know if you don't approach her in the right way. When she meets a rather young person, her motherly instincts seem to kick in and she tries to care for them and protect them in any way she can. Even if the person is more than capable of protecting themselves. She is rather cautious and serious around people she doesn't know since the apocalypse. She identifies most people as a threat and as a result can be quite hard to get to know.
History:
Halina was born in Poznań, Poland in 1921. Her father was a clockmaker while her mother worked in a bakery. Her childhood was average, her family earned enough to send her to school with financial help from her grandparents. In fact, the only abnormal thing about her childhood was that she was an only child, something practically unheard of in those days. Nevertheless, Halina performed adequately in school and began studying under her mother to become a baker like her after leaving school. Unfortunately, the advent of war stalled her tutoring as World War 2 started and with it, The Wehrmachts holocaust of Poland. Halana and her family were 'lucky' enough to be selected for Germinisation. Essentially, Halina and her family were forced to learn German and Germanys history and its culture.
This went on for a year until Halina had enough. She had dreams of murdering Nazi's and escaping Poland with her family. She thought she was mentally ill, she had never thought of killing anyone before the war, but it seems the mental strain was getting too much for her. Eventually she snapped one day. She bludgeoned a Wehrmacht soldier to death using an old rusty pipe. She thought she had gotten away with it as the event took place on a rather isolated and quiet path, but she was caught dumping the body into a ditch. Yet again 'luck' smiled upon her as she was not killed on the spot and was instead sent to a concentration camp. Luck can be a sick bastard sometimes. She was separated from her family and forced to break rocks in the hot sun with little food to keep her going.
The worst was yet to come though. It seemed that both a highly regarded Nazi scientist and the kommandant of the camp she was imprisoned in both took a liking to her. Her darkest fears came to life as she was escorted from the crowded sleeping quarters and into the Nazi barracks to meet with the kommandant. To put it blunt, the kommandant attempted to rape Halina. Halina was quick to her wit though, before the kommandant could get the last button of her shirt down her arm lashed out and gripped the kommandant's knife on his belt. She stabbed him in the throat and left him drowning to death in his own blood. She would have been killed on the spot if it were not for the scientist. He demanded she be kept alive and that he had wanted her for his sick experiments. She was taken to a different facility in Berlin to be experimented on. Before her experimentation started, however, she was treated practically like a queen. She was kept in a hotel room, guarded by Wehrmacht soldiers at all times and was fed until she was fit and healthy once more. When she was, however, she was taken to the facility to be experimented on. It started with small physical tests, but quickly grew into experimentation of a different sort.
She was forced to watch other experiments of what would happen to her. People being cut into, having bones and vital organs replaced only to die soon after. Her experiment was slightly different though. The Nazi's had found a small amount of a special type of liquid while mining in Poland. Halina was cut into and her blood was replaced with the liquid which soon began replicating itself and flowing throughout her body. She began to feel stronger than ever with the liquid flowing through her, but she didn't let on to her supervisors, she had to plan an escape and one that was surefire to succeed. While she waited, numerous other experiments were being done to her. Many of which she still bears the scars of on her back, legs and arms to this day. While being experimented on, she began taking mental notes of guard routes and delivery schedules. She made her plan and executed it to perfection. She hid underneath one of the delivery vans when no one was looking and gripped tightly to the bottom of the van. She slid past the guards watch and made it out of Berlin and into France.
As it turns out, while Halina was disconnected from society in the camps, France was occupied by Germany. She was quickly spotted hiding in an alley by a member of the French resistance and was brought to one of their secret meetings where she was given a new set of clothes and was taught basic French by a soldier of Polish descent who had been wounded while escaping Germany and was residing with the resistance until he could travel back to America. Halina slowly fell in love with the soldier, named Frank as they bonded through his teachings of French to her. It also helped that their birthday was only a day off from each others and that they were born in the same year, 1921. They both discovered their powers during their first kiss. The table next to them began to slowly float upwards and the book that, Frank was holding began to slowly burn away at his fingertips. Before they had even noticed what was going on, the owner of the cafe they were being harboured in had walked in to see this and had been shouting obscenities in French about how he couldn't believe his eyes.
They began to experiment with their powers and hone them. They were like nothing they had ever seen. As it turns out, the liquid Halina's blood had been replaced with had given her some control over gravity along with an enhanced body, while Frank seemed to have just been born with his powers. It also turned out that Frank had much greater strength than even Halina, being able to pick up practically anything he set his eyes on. They made a decision to use their powers to help the resistance when disaster struck. The Wehrmacht had found the cafe that Halina and Frank had been harboured in, and in turn found the resistance headquarters within the area. The soldiers marched in and were prepared to line up and shoot both Frank and Halina when Halina done something no soldier could have expected. She sent an uppercut to the jaw of a soldier so strong that it sent him in an arc through the air and broke his jaw. What ensued was a battle between what little weaponry the resistance had and an oncoming slew of Nazi soldiers. Halina and Frank used their powers as best they could, but they were soon overwhelmed.
Halina would have been happy to die with Frank, but he wouldn't allow it. He picked her up against her will and tossed her as far he could, knowing full well that she could withstand the damage. She landed on the edge of France, to the bewilderment of the British soldiers that had set up camp there. She was crying with anger, shouting about how much of a bastard Frank was and how he had gotten himself killed. She told the British soldiers of the situation in French and they assured her that she was now safe and that she would be sent to Britain to be safe. She was sent on the next boat back. She went into a state of depression after that, drinking constantly to the disappointment of her host family and hardly ever leaving her room unless it was to talk about how great, Frank was. She began to grow more and more hateful of her life and everyone around her. Constantly asking herself why god would allow all of these horrible events to happen to her. She stayed in this depression until the end of the war, where she finally came out and started acting like her old self. She burst down in tears while talking to the mother of the host family, apologizing for her rude behaviour and thanking them for teaching her English and giving her a place to stay. The mother was only more than happy to have helped and even helped Halina get a place of her own in Edinburgh, a town over from where she was currently staying. She also reconnected with her parents, currently living in America after being relocated during the war.
Halina's thoughts drifted back to her ones about how god had smited her while working at a local factory. She grew more and more evil as time went on, eventually moving to America and meeting up with her parents while giving herself the identity of 'The Gravity Gal' a supervillain with control over gravity. Her crimes were mainly limited to thievery and robbery though, she couldn't ever bring herself to kill another human. Admittedly, the name 'Gravity Gal' isn't particularly evil or threatening, but Halina puts this down to too many cowboy novels in her youth. She encountered her first nemesis, 'Heatwave' while doing a bank robbery. He thwarted her and carried her off to prison by the ankle. She promptly escaped with the help of a toilet that she repeatedly threw at the wall upon arrival at the prison, but she couldn't stop thinking of Heatwave. Every time she committed a crime he'd appear to grab her by the ankle and take her off to prison. She began to have an unhealthy obsession with the man, soon obsessing over him to the point where she'd commit crimes just to be caught by him.
Her obsession paid off one night when she managed to wiggle herself from his grasp and seduce him down onto a rooftop. She removed his mask to reveal none other than a slightly aged, Frank with a newly added scar tracing down from his forehead to just beneath his eye. She broke down crying after that, confusing Frank to no end. She removed her mask and he was equally emotional. He held her tightly and the two began telling each other about what happened since the cafe. It turns out, British troops arrived on scene just as Frank had thrown Halina and had wiped out the Nazis before they could put the final bullet in him. They did, of course, give him the scar across his eye though after a soldier Frank had thought he'd killed rose up and sliced him across the eye. He also discovered he had the power of flight after meeting with other heroes who had emerged during and after World War 2 who had taught him to hone his powers. Halina was far too happy to see him to continue her act. She kept apologizing for the criminal acts she had done and just wanted to love and be loved by Frank again. Frank, knowing the repercussions of a hero being caught with a villain, set a place and time to meet Halina again, on the same rooftop. They met every Wednesday after that, on the same rooftop in their costumes. To tell the truth, neither of them knew why they didn't just meet in the town wearing regular clothes, both of them were too scared to suggest it.
The press quickly caught wind though after one caught sight of Frank's bright red cape floating off the side of the rooftop. He made his way up the building and quickly snapped a picture of the two embracing in a kiss before running off, unnoticed by the two lovers. Their picture was in the papers within the week. The controversy was too much and public opinion of 'Heatwave' began to plummet. Frank knew what they had to do. They had to organize a press conference to clear up the facts about 'Gravity Gal' and her sudden stop in crime. It was the first time Halina had to talk in front of a crowd so big. She stuttered and hesitated quite often throughout her 'speech' but it seemed to have helped with her story. The press wrote her up as a completely reformed person who seemed to harmless to hurt anyone, with one paper citing the fact that she had killed not a single person during her crime wave. She was sentenced to community service and helped build and repair housing using her powers. She was also stationed at various nurseries and schools to help children. By this point, she was already helping Heatwave clean up the streets and was appearing to these nurseries and schools in her new, refined hero costume. Designed by 'Icicle' a female hero that Helina had met through Frank and had quickly hit off with. Icicle and Helina had so much in common it was unbelievable. They became best friends almost immediately. Her 'help' at the nurseries and schools mostly consisted of a slapdash speech about how they shouldn't do crime after which she talked to each child individually as they got on with their work. It was on these days that she realised how much she loved children. They delighted in seeing her enter the room and were sad to see her go. She truly felt good in her life for once.
It was during the mid-50s that Frank finally agreed with Helina that they were financially stable enough to consider having children. They tried day and night to conceive, but nothing seemed to be working. Distraught and confused, they visited their doctor. The doctor, another hero by the name of 'The Purple Phantasm' had done extensive research on the biology and physiology of various heroes, Heatwave being one of them. He ran a few more tests and revealed some shocking news. Frank hadn't actually received his powers from birth and had, in fact, received them from a high exposure to a radiation mine that was near his house as a child. With his powers came the very sad news that most of his sperm died upon their creation. There was around a 2 in 800 chance that Helina and Frank would ever have a child. What followed was a short depression followed by determination. Helina was more in love with Frank than ever before and was determined to have a child. Of course, being a man like Frank was, he didn't object in the least. It took around a year of hard..ehm...work before Helina was pregnant. They were both elated and what followed was a slew of journalists and whatnot eager to get a story from them. After all, a villain turned hero getting pregnant after marrying a former war vet turned hero was a story for the ages. Soon 'Gravity Gal' and 'Heatwave' became household names throughout the country. Papers waited in anticipation of the child and whether or not it would be a boy or a girl and just what its powers would be, if any. Halina became essentially a housewife during her pregnancy, and she enjoyed it. After all, fighting with a baby inside you is about as stupid as fighting with jam for hands. Her mother would often come and teach her 'how to be a housewife' to put it bluntly. Everything about it, Halina loved, cooking, cleaning, knitting, you name it and she liked doing it. Her parents began visiting more often as the pregnancy went into its later stages and Halina was practically forced to relax.
The 25th of March 1956 was the saddest day of Halina's life. It was the day Halina gave birth. The baby, however, was small and had major breathing problems. Frank of course called, Phantasm who done more tests of Frank and a few on the baby, named Sophia. He told the couple with great sadness that no baby they ever conceived could live more than a day, the combination of radiation and Halina's strange blood was too great, it would always lead to complications that would end in the babies death. Halina and Frank spent the day with Sophia, getting a picture taken of the three that resides in a locket on her neck. Both Helina and Frank fell into depression after the event. The press would hardly ever leave them alone and Frank had given Phantasm, who Frank had bonded with enough to call his best friend through the years, the permission to tell the presses about what had happened. Halina grieved and the nation grieved with her.
The couple came out of their depression around 1964, when the USS Maddox was fired upon by Vietnamese forces and the Vietnam war escalated. Both Halina and Frank enlisted for the army, with the government making an exception for Halina to join the front lines in recognition of her service to the country and her abilities. Halina became an icon in America for women, pictures of her taken by war photographers showed her engaging in combat alongside men which in turn, inspired various women throughout the country. Upon returning from Vietnam, Halina actually got into modelling clothes before returning to heroing, gaining yet more status in the eye of the press.
There was one factor that both Frank and Phantasm, known by his first name, Gomez to the couple had noticed about Helina that she had not noticed herself. She hadn't aged since Frank had met her for that first time during the war. While Frank was getting on in his life now, turning 47 and getting some grey in his hair, Halina was still as young and fit as ever. Gomez in his usual fashion, ran tests. He discovered a hidden genome within Halina that prevented her from aging. Like any other girl, she was elated at this thought, but she was only thinking about the short term affects of something like that. Both she and Frank went about heroing for a year or so before they both noticed a huge problem with Frank's health. He began coughing up blood and was seriously unable to do his nightly hero duties by 1971. Yet again, Gomez and his magical stethoscope done his favourite thing and ran tests on Frank. His suspicions were confirmed for the worst. Frank had cancer on just about every part of his body, it was only his enhanced strength and durability that had kept him alive that long. Gomez gave him the estimate that he'd die in two years. He died in one.
Helina cried nonstop for about 2 weeks. She moved back in with her parents for comfort but they could do little to soothe the pain she was feeling. She continued her depression into the early 80s. Her parents were far too old to fully care for themselves by that point and so, instead of returning to her hero duties, Helina began to become a full time carer for her parents. She prepared herselves for their deaths, it was easier that way. They died in the early 80s. Helina sold her old house, took everything worth note from her parents house and sold it as well. She moved into a highrise apartment room built for one and pondered upon what she should do with her life. She and Icicle, known by, Sarah to Helina decided on her future. She would go back to heroing under a different name. 'Gravity Gal' was too 50s, too retro, they came up with the name 'Gravitas', a bit more appropriate for the time frame. Sarah, who had practically turned into the sassiest old woman you would ever meet, designed Helina's new costume. A lot less skimpy and fun than her previous two and a lot more practical and sleek. In fact, it seemed that Sarah was sassy enough to warrant her own daytime chat show. Her reputation as a superhero preceded her and she often got old heroes and villains who had reformed their ways on to talk about the news and whatnot. Sarah and Helina had practically written a script of what they were going to say on the show in order for Helina to seem as cool and edgy as possible and they had both memorized it to a T. Helina appeared alongside Gomez, and his former nemesis, Rolling Ball, or Louise to the public nowadays. Sarah asked the first question to Helina, one that was sure to establish her as a cool hero that the youth of the time could relate to and think was one of the 'punks'. And what did Helina do? She stuttered. Her voice came out as some form of high pitch morse code. She had never appeared on TV before and it was obviously making her nervous. Her voice was much higher than usual and she sounded like a train going along tracks. Suffice to say she had screwed up in her quest to seem edgy. Louise surprisingly helped her though by changing the subject before she could embarrass herself more.
Helina was a hot topic in the presses and talkshows. She expected to be called a fool and to be largely made fun of. But it seemed that it was only the minority of media that actually mocked her. Most of the media took a better approach to her, referencing her speech back in the late 40s and talking about how "America's old heroes could still kick some ass!", ignorant to the fact that Helina was Polish. She came back with a boom, fighting throughout the 80s until 2015. When the end of the world began.
A new villain, unlike any the world had ever seen appeared and threatened a regime not seen since The Second World War upon Earth under the rule of himself and some alien overlords. He vastly underestimated their intellect. They executed him as soon as they returned and after encountering resistance from many superheroes from across the globe, decided that humanity was not worth the effort. They engineered a virus to kill off the vast majority of humans and even quite a few superhumans. Helina was not one of them. She began travelling all over America after the 'apocalypse' eventually settling down in California.
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