MarvelousMadman
Mutant in Training
Karina LeBeau
Assumed name (name she goes by until real one discovered in the game): Karina DuBuois
Age: 23
Species: Mutant
Sexual and Romantic Orientation: Let your mind run wild, honey....and while you're preoccupied with that I just got your wallet.
But seriously, not interested. Mom always said no boy would be enough for me. Still...some days...I wonder.
Parents: Gerald and Celeste Tremaine. A.K.A.
Gambit (Remy LeBeau) & Black Cat (Felicia Hardy)
Hero/Villain: Which one's more fun and let's me steal stuff??
Hero/Villain name: Voodoo Tiger
Physical description: Karina stands at 5'9" and around 120 pounds. Due to her parentage, she has very distinct red eyes. Since they are so distinct, she often wears either green or blue contacts to conceal them. She also got her father's darker brown locks, often coming down to the middle of her back. Thanks to training from both her mother and father, but mostly due to her own stubbornness, she has the toned, hardened body of a gymnast.
Personality: Aside from the obvious (see Bio below) Karina is extremely stubborn and is not afraid to get in someone's face when challenged...but she's no fool. Her mother and father taught her to always assess a situation like a job: if it's too well guarded or they know you're coming, always find a different method of approach. She very rarely ever asks for help, because she doesn't know if it will be dependable. Her mother and father have always taught her to deal with problems on her own and never rely on anyone for anything you can't get yourself. She is not above being manipulative or flirty: in fact, she often does it to finish a job or one-up a competitor. Once she learns your weakness, she'll follow that thread all the way to the center of the maze of your being...and then break you. Because of this, you can imagine, she doesn't have many friends; only allies and collaborators...with certain exceptions (see weaknesses).
Because of the lifetime of playing someone else, Karina is well versed in the methods spiritual masquerade; she can present an acceptable demeanor to make nearly anyone like her, and she knows which aspects of her personality to show to others to gain the greatest effect. Rarely....RARELY does she ever reveal her true self or speak of anything of substance. To further distinguish Karina exponentially from her alter ego, she often speaks in either a Spanish or French accent with a lighter tone to her voice...while the Tiger takes on the deeper, throaty vicious tone of her real voice. (Think of Jennifer Hale's representation of the Black Cat from the Spider-man 90's cartoon).
Karina is often quite playful in her approach to most people, but she can be serious in seconds. Treat her like a mamba: you don't screw with her, she won't screw with you. She does indeed take note of those who treat her respectfully and honor their promises...just don't expect more than that.
Despite all this, however, there are things that will enact a reaction from Karina regardless: because of her mother's past she abhors and detests the 'macho' idiots and nothing raises her ire more than scum that view women as objects or rapists. She's utterly humiliated the former and nearly beaten the latter to within inches of their lives. Oh....and she's got a special place on her boot heel for those who hold anti-mutant sentiment or seek to oppress or persecute mutants in any way.
Taking a job as a jeweler in San Besitos, Karina often dresses very exquisitely: usually Italian design...she doesn't really need the money, but the store makes for a good cover for her to find her next mark....and the hours allow her plenty of time to conduct her research for her 'true goal.' For those times when she's not at work or out and about the town, she usually just enjoys a good set of black or blue jeans and a simple t-shirt.
Powers:
Enhanced reflexes: After years of training and time on the streets purloining all she can, Karina has learned to anticipate even the most nimble of warriors and traps. She has even shown the grace of being able to step off a pressure plate trigger after starting to walk upon it without setting it off. Her agility is also quite extraordinary...and she has found herself asking several times whether her mother was also a mutant or was a carrier for the mutant gene.
Luck probability fluctuation: Like her mother, Karina can often cause others to experience the worst of luck if they get too close to her...and the more she closes herself off to others, the stronger it gets. Guns can misfire or jam normally. They can explode or send the bullet back into the skull of someone who is holding it if she turns cold.
Kinetic energy manipulation: Like her father, Karina has the ability to turn potential energy of an object into kinetic energy that can then explode. She can control this to the point that she can touch the lock of a safe and blow the pins, but leave the safe door itself intact. The explosion of kinetic energy can be charged the longer she touches the item; creating a larger release of energy. Currently there has been no evidence that this can be used on living flesh (I.e.: turning someone or parts of someone into a walking bomb) however, one has to wonder what effects her bad luck powers would have if raised to their highest levels.
Abilities
Expert gymnast
Expert martial artist: Karina has trained herself to be ready for any opponent; often preferring hand-to-hand methods for quick take downs to get in and out fast. If she has to really brawl, however, she is proficient in staff and whip combat. When she was sent away to New York, she also received some training from Matt Murdock.
Master thief: King of Thieves and the onetime Queenpin of Crime for parents. What'd you think she'd major in; aeronautics??
Likes:
• What's in your pocket??
• Are you sure? Check.
• Sorry; mine now. Toodles!
• Chuck Norris movies
• Also chile rellenos...and JAMBALAYA.
Dislikes:
• Cops
• The rich who view themselves above everyone else.
• Symbiotes
• ROGUE
• Norman Osborn
• Michael Bay
• Rapists or the mysogynistic
Strengths:
• Expert at stealth combat: in the dark she's practically untouchable.
• Plans often go wrong. When they do, she's quick to adapt amd compensate. Like her mom, she always lands on her feet...literally and figuratively.
• Master escape artist.
• Many contacts in the criminal underworld. She usually knows what's going on before most.
• When she's not moody she's ALWAYS the person you want at a party...alcohol or no.
• Able to speak English, French and Spanish
• While she's no rocket scientist, she does have a strong mind for chemistry and basic physics in use for cracking safes and building explosives, acids, and poisons.
• Well trained tongue. She can be one of the most charming people you'll ever meet.
Weaknesses
• Despite her hardy spirit and quick reflexes, she's still mortal
• Without her suit to provide the upgrades, she doesn't have enhanced strength.
• Karina is a daredevil; say it can't be done or she can't do it, she won't stop 'til she proves you wrong.
• She's not a certified genius, so computer systems without access keys or passwords take longer to hack if she doesn't have her gear.
• Given her past, Karina is a hardcore loner, and trust....true trust....comes hard for her. As of now the only people she trusts implicitly are Matt Murdock and Cindy Moon. As long as they don't screw her over she honors her partnerships though.
• Spider-man, Carnage, Doc Ock...Rogue...if you're wise these are all topics from which you want to stay AWAY with Karina, as she is often in tunnel vision and won't listen to others on the issue because of such a visceral reaction.
• Despite the fact she has no problem with death, Karina is not comfortable with firearms.[/Tab]
Suit: Karina found a new prototype of her mother's catsuit and had it modified to her specifications. The suit is insulated...both for waterproofing and against electrical attacks. Micro servos in the joints provide an added boost of power, allowing her to lift around two tons at maximum workload. Kevlar weaving in the torso provides protection against bullets or shotgun blasts, while leather pads on the interior at the thighs and forearms provide resistance against blunt strikes. The suit has retractable claws at the ten fingers with additional spikes that extend from the boot tips. These are made of an adamantium alloy and can be used for both climbing and sticking to walls as well as combat. In order to match her new persona, she's gone with a dark purple coloration with black streaks to make tiger stripes. The fur on her collar and the edges of her boots and gloves is also a dark violet.
Utility belt: Around her waist, Karina has a black utility belt to carry all her items necessary for thievery. In addition to bags placed in small vacuumed packs for hauling loot, she also has a container for grappling lines for traversing the city skies, various marble sized bombs that contain either knockout gas, flashbang like explosions, strong adhesives for holding her prey in place, and sonic grenades for distracting her enemies. She can alter any of these to have an additional fragmentation effect if she touches it to activate its kinetic energy. One specific container holds a series of lockpicks, a portable decryption device, a small canister of liquid nitrogen for locks, and a signal scrambler for intercepting or blocking communications in her general area. In addition she holds a small sound proof container for the use of trick 'snake-eyes' dice modified to have cat's eyes appearance. These she uses the same way her father used his cards as projecticle incindiary weapons.
Whips: Around her waist rests two silvery coils that look like other belts, but these are some of Karina's most dangerous weapons. The whips are made from carbonadium, with a length of seven feet each. The handles are adamantium, at six inches long. The whips themselves can rend flesh from bone, and can be further electrified by a small button on the handle.
Whipstaff: If things get too hairy and Karina has no choice but to go close quarters, she can press a button in the handles of her whips to cause electromagnets in them to cause the tails to stiffen to straight rods that shrink down to three feet each. She can then attach the handles together at the bases to create a solid fighting bo staff like her father's, or she can choose to keep just one end as a staff and use the other as a whip.
Mask: While her mother's mask was of simple design, through the works of the Tinkerer and her own modifications Karina has created a small, scratchproof and smudgeproof film lifted from the lab of Reed Richards to work as a lens. This allows Karina to peer into the infrared spectrum as well as provide night-vision if her natural low light sighting isn't enough. (Essentially the Ultimate version mask without the damn horn extensions on the top that make her look like she has cat ears)
Collapsable bo-staff: While her suit isn't always accessible in her civies, Karina holds a small metal rod that looks to be the shaft of a flashlight. When a small button is depressed it extends into a bo-staff of six feet. She usually carries this somewhere on her person or in her purse.
I know what you're thinking. Everyone thinks the same thing.
How the hell did Gambit and the Black Cat get together to have a kid??
It's your typical story: Girl meets boy. Girl attacks boy. Boy and girl grow close and then fall in love. Boy breaks up with girl, then girl goes on crime spree. Boy then meets up with girl years later, and boy punches the girl in the face. Girl gets sent to prison an-
What?? Oh nonono! This isn't a story about my father and mother: this is about my mother and Spider-man.
Yeah. We have to hit that little chestnut before we can get to the rest.
See, once upon a time Spider-man and my mom were closer than most. Spidey helped train and recondition her to be a good little girlscout while my mom helped twist that little responsibility stick up his keister so it wasn't quite as tight as normal and let him actually live a little. It was good, but it was kinda like most Jerry Springer couples: you knew they weren't right for each other. Spidey did his thing and mom did her own. Fast forward a couple of years where they had just gotten back off on the on-again off-again cycle. Mom sees Spidey swinging by and goes to flirt and tease, like she always does to mess with his head. He'll probably have something clever to say right?
Wrong. Try a hard left cross that knocks one of her teeth out, webbing her up and calling the cops on her...and this was someone she considered to be a FRIEND. How would you feel??
Well Mom went dark. I mean real dark. The kind of dark you expect to see in Kristen Stewart's heart since she has no emotion. Seriously, she straight up beat the crap out of her competition after she got out of the Raft, stole or bought back all the treasures she took from others after the cops auctioned them off, set fire to the houses of those who held something of her's....burnt her former socialite friends to a crisp, used an unstable Electro to nearly wipe out the city, and eventually establish herself as the new Kingpin of crime in New York.
Yep. That's my mom: Queen of the overreaction.
Now suppose after all that, after doing what you think gets you your life back and gives you the opportunity to destroy and kill the one person who set you on this path...after a huge knockdown, dragout battle with them...you come to learn all that you had done to lay the foundation upon whuch you built your new life...was a lie?
Yeah. Turns out that the person she thought had betrayed her and ripped out her heart and left her for the cops like a common thug....wasn't really that person: it was Doctor Octopus.
Wait, hear me out. I know how this sounds but it's a hundred percent legit!
At one point, Ock discovers his body is dying from the radiation that gave him his power to control those mechanical arms of his...so he develops this plan to trap Spider-man with this device...a device which switches their spirits in a move right out of a bad Freaky Friday remake. For a time, Spidey was considered dead: slain by Octavius, who decides to take up his rival's mantle...to become SUPERIOR to Spider man in every way.
Yeah. THAT guy.
THAT'S the real douchebag that started ALL this.
But hey, easy to understand. I mean, you believe all this first telling, right??
Finally knowing the truth....it BROKE my mother...like no joke she couldn't function. At all. Seeing this, her rivals went into strike a coup, but found themselves too late as Mom just flat vanished. When your world has been so rocked that you don't know which way is up, you'll look for something...anything....that provides consistency to help you regain your bearings....and for my mom, consistency was jacking all she could from a bunch of socialite snobs or conglomerates. She went all the way down the Eastern Seaboard until she ran into Candice Williams in New Orleans, the one ESU friend she had that actually showed her compassion when she was in the Raft. She was working for a humanitarian organization that was trying to help out the homeless refugees that were lost in the shuffle of the return from Katrina. Candice said that a number of her regulars hadn't been seen in awhile...and that number was growing daily. Because she knew who my mom was and that she'd served once before as a private investigator, she asked her to help her track down the missing people.
For whatever reason that my mom still says she doesn't know to this day, she said yes. It didn't take too long...maybe a day or two...until Mom was able to get a lead that the missing vagabonds were holed up in a warehouse in the harbor. That's where she first met my dad.
And promptly punched him right across the jaw.
Which THEN led to a firefight from the goons at said warehouse. Thankfully Dad wasn't working alone, and the rest of his small team was able to come in and clean up the riff raff. Turns out Dad was there because a majority of the folks for whom Mom had been looking were in fact mutants themselves. She didn't like it, but Mom had to agree there was strong strategy in partnering up. And during that run....well, Mom said it herself: The Black Cat lived again. Not the crazy take-over-all-of-Manhattan's-criminal-underworld Black Cat...but the one she always wanted to be when she partnered with Spidey. And even though she didn't like Dad at first, Mom would be the first to tell you she saw definite chemistry in their ability to work together. Things just clicked in areas where her previous partnerships would have fallen apart. Needless to say they found the mutants. Hell, they even saved all of New Orleans essentially by taking down the crazy ringleader who was rounding them up for experimentation - what was her name? She was sort of an archenemy of Mom's back during her time in New York. Shrill? Skrie? Scry??? I dunno; it'll come to me; I just remember Mom saying this woman was nearly a hundred and eighty degrees from sane.
Anywho, after they did the hero thing Mom started to come around to admitting Dad was slightly more tolerable than most of the people with which she's worked, and even agreed to go out on a date with him: stealing a priceless piece of artwork from some rich debutante who probably horded it someplace that never saw the light of day....they were probably doing the painting a favor. They started drawing a bit closer (since they both came from pretty destructive and fragile relationships in the first place they already had something in common) and nine months after their one month anniversary: boom. Enter Karina.
Since Mom was easier to blend into the world, she took the role of breadwinner by founding Lady Luck Investigations while Dad helped raise me. He says the first time I stole was when I was five with a pretty expensive fountain pen from one of my mom's clients, but I know I had a small toy pterodactyl back before then that neither I nor Mom could remember how we got it.
Officially we changed our name to Tremaine so no one could trace us. Private school was a joke, but I kept in line as best I could. After I came home with a black eye in second grade both Mom and Dad said it was time for me to learn to fight: Dad said because no one should lay a finger on his Little Treasure and Mom so that what happened to her would never happen to me. My powers manifested when I was fourteen. By then I had already begun engaging in my own small nocturnal excursions and was doing jobs boosting cars: expensive ones too. Let's just say they had to put in a couple of new walls after I left with the car.
Well Mom was pissed....Dad slightly less so, like he knew this was going to happen. Typical 'Tremaine' style I threw back their own arguments with one of my own: how I knew their monthly 'business trips' where I'd go stay the night with my best friend Naomi were the kind where the term 'networking' had to be redefined to disrupting security instead of making connections. After hours of arguing I finally talked my parents into joining in on the real family business on their next heist. Everything went smoothly for about two years until we took one job up in Baton Rouge. Escape was botched and I got shot in the leg at the calf. After that, Mom said no more. Ever. For any of us. I even watched as she hung up and closed up her costume. Dad still insisted I train in the use of my powers though.
This next part...I'll be honest, it still stings...so I'll just go over the main points before moving on.
As you can imagine, soon as I healed up, I was right back to thievery again. Wasn't able to do it as much...maybe once every two months....but I did it where my Mom didn't suspect. Didn't take me long to figure out how to keep my cashflow untraceable, and I just used the money when I needed it. Everything was fine until I turned eighteen. Then SHE showed up. Rogue; my dad's former girlfriend. After she and he talked for awhile he and my mother spoke. I can still remember the sound of the muffled yells through the doors as they went at it. For hours. Things went quiet after that for about a week.
Then my Dad just left. I got to find out right after I came back from midterms expecting Mom to whip up one of her red velvet brownie trays...instead I learn my family just imploded. It was difficult, but I got through it. Even got a scholarship to LSU for my efforts at high school. Mom and I lean heavily on each other for two solid years.
Then Mom tells me she's sending me away to finish my degree in New York with Matt Murdock, upending my whole life and everything I put down there in Louisiana because she says she has to go to keep me safe. I spoke my mind on the matter, move on.
So let me paint you a picture: imagine you're part of the worst family implosion since the Hogans. You haven't seen your parents in at least two years; the other half almost four. You're far removed from the only home you've ever known and all the friends and stability that you could once count on are thousands of miles to the south while you're stuck in a university that doesn't seem to want anything to do with you but take your money. And in spite of that all, you still claw yourself up the mountain to the day you actually get your degree...only the one person that could and SHOULD be there to support you is late. Time goes on as the ceremony moves forward. One by one the students get up to accept their degrees like ants grabbing a single crumb of sugar to take it back to their individual nests. Now it's your turn. You stand and take the paper, smile for the photo, look around at the faces in the audience to see if you can spot him, then you walk back to your seat; frustration building as you feel betrayed and let down yet again by someone you care about, thinking only one thing.
Where the hell are you??
Now as you say your congrats after the ceremony ends to your fellow classmates in an attempt to put on a good face that one solitary soul comes forward, having missed everything...and at the very sight of him, you feel this rage and anger in your heart at having someone else make you feel this way again. And you stalk straight toward them; staring at their eyes....or in his case, the lenses of his glasses since he's blind, and you feel all this volatility of disrespect, missed opportunity and rage boil inside you like a rising volcano as you go to confront him.
And then he tells you why he was late: he learned your parents had been killed. Murdered in cold blood.
What would you do? How would you react?
Would you listen to the words of the only person you feel you can still call family and let the law handle the matters before them: to let your last relative and semi mentor attend to the matters of investigation and closure while you allow yourself time to grieve...to come to grips with the fact that you will never again see the two most important people throughout your entire life....the people who first taught you how the world works and gave you security against its wiles and threats when you weren't old or mature enough to defend yourself against them....on this earth? Could you???
Or do you believe the internal voice in your heart that screams screw time and mourning. The one that tells you the only closure you'll get is the kind you have to take for yourself? Do you walk the darker path, knowing where it may lead...to settle the matter of unavenged, unanswered blood split on YOUR family tree??
You know damn well what I did.
After fleeing back to New Orleans I found one of my mom's suits; a new prototype she'd been making I guess for when she was going to go out again. I took it and everything else that was necessary and went on my own investigation; one that's led me all the way here to San Besitos. I don't know what awaits me there, but I do know this. I WILL find the people who killed my parents.
And when I do, they'll beg Lucifer to take what's left of them to the Inferno when I'm done. And they will forever lament their mistake.
You Don't. Screw. With Voodoo.
Theme: Metallica: All Nightmare Long
Assumed name (name she goes by until real one discovered in the game): Karina DuBuois
Age: 23
Species: Mutant
Sexual and Romantic Orientation: Let your mind run wild, honey....and while you're preoccupied with that I just got your wallet.
But seriously, not interested. Mom always said no boy would be enough for me. Still...some days...I wonder.
Parents: Gerald and Celeste Tremaine. A.K.A.
Gambit (Remy LeBeau) & Black Cat (Felicia Hardy)
Hero/Villain: Which one's more fun and let's me steal stuff??
Hero/Villain name: Voodoo Tiger
Physical description: Karina stands at 5'9" and around 120 pounds. Due to her parentage, she has very distinct red eyes. Since they are so distinct, she often wears either green or blue contacts to conceal them. She also got her father's darker brown locks, often coming down to the middle of her back. Thanks to training from both her mother and father, but mostly due to her own stubbornness, she has the toned, hardened body of a gymnast.
Personality: Aside from the obvious (see Bio below) Karina is extremely stubborn and is not afraid to get in someone's face when challenged...but she's no fool. Her mother and father taught her to always assess a situation like a job: if it's too well guarded or they know you're coming, always find a different method of approach. She very rarely ever asks for help, because she doesn't know if it will be dependable. Her mother and father have always taught her to deal with problems on her own and never rely on anyone for anything you can't get yourself. She is not above being manipulative or flirty: in fact, she often does it to finish a job or one-up a competitor. Once she learns your weakness, she'll follow that thread all the way to the center of the maze of your being...and then break you. Because of this, you can imagine, she doesn't have many friends; only allies and collaborators...with certain exceptions (see weaknesses).
Because of the lifetime of playing someone else, Karina is well versed in the methods spiritual masquerade; she can present an acceptable demeanor to make nearly anyone like her, and she knows which aspects of her personality to show to others to gain the greatest effect. Rarely....RARELY does she ever reveal her true self or speak of anything of substance. To further distinguish Karina exponentially from her alter ego, she often speaks in either a Spanish or French accent with a lighter tone to her voice...while the Tiger takes on the deeper, throaty vicious tone of her real voice. (Think of Jennifer Hale's representation of the Black Cat from the Spider-man 90's cartoon).
Karina is often quite playful in her approach to most people, but she can be serious in seconds. Treat her like a mamba: you don't screw with her, she won't screw with you. She does indeed take note of those who treat her respectfully and honor their promises...just don't expect more than that.
Despite all this, however, there are things that will enact a reaction from Karina regardless: because of her mother's past she abhors and detests the 'macho' idiots and nothing raises her ire more than scum that view women as objects or rapists. She's utterly humiliated the former and nearly beaten the latter to within inches of their lives. Oh....and she's got a special place on her boot heel for those who hold anti-mutant sentiment or seek to oppress or persecute mutants in any way.
Taking a job as a jeweler in San Besitos, Karina often dresses very exquisitely: usually Italian design...she doesn't really need the money, but the store makes for a good cover for her to find her next mark....and the hours allow her plenty of time to conduct her research for her 'true goal.' For those times when she's not at work or out and about the town, she usually just enjoys a good set of black or blue jeans and a simple t-shirt.
Powers:
Enhanced reflexes: After years of training and time on the streets purloining all she can, Karina has learned to anticipate even the most nimble of warriors and traps. She has even shown the grace of being able to step off a pressure plate trigger after starting to walk upon it without setting it off. Her agility is also quite extraordinary...and she has found herself asking several times whether her mother was also a mutant or was a carrier for the mutant gene.
Luck probability fluctuation: Like her mother, Karina can often cause others to experience the worst of luck if they get too close to her...and the more she closes herself off to others, the stronger it gets. Guns can misfire or jam normally. They can explode or send the bullet back into the skull of someone who is holding it if she turns cold.
Kinetic energy manipulation: Like her father, Karina has the ability to turn potential energy of an object into kinetic energy that can then explode. She can control this to the point that she can touch the lock of a safe and blow the pins, but leave the safe door itself intact. The explosion of kinetic energy can be charged the longer she touches the item; creating a larger release of energy. Currently there has been no evidence that this can be used on living flesh (I.e.: turning someone or parts of someone into a walking bomb) however, one has to wonder what effects her bad luck powers would have if raised to their highest levels.
Abilities
Expert gymnast
Expert martial artist: Karina has trained herself to be ready for any opponent; often preferring hand-to-hand methods for quick take downs to get in and out fast. If she has to really brawl, however, she is proficient in staff and whip combat. When she was sent away to New York, she also received some training from Matt Murdock.
Master thief: King of Thieves and the onetime Queenpin of Crime for parents. What'd you think she'd major in; aeronautics??
Likes:
• What's in your pocket??
• Are you sure? Check.
• Sorry; mine now. Toodles!
• Chuck Norris movies
• Also chile rellenos...and JAMBALAYA.
Dislikes:
• Cops
• The rich who view themselves above everyone else.
• Symbiotes
• ROGUE
• Norman Osborn
• Michael Bay
• Rapists or the mysogynistic
Strengths:
• Expert at stealth combat: in the dark she's practically untouchable.
• Plans often go wrong. When they do, she's quick to adapt amd compensate. Like her mom, she always lands on her feet...literally and figuratively.
• Master escape artist.
• Many contacts in the criminal underworld. She usually knows what's going on before most.
• When she's not moody she's ALWAYS the person you want at a party...alcohol or no.
• Able to speak English, French and Spanish
• While she's no rocket scientist, she does have a strong mind for chemistry and basic physics in use for cracking safes and building explosives, acids, and poisons.
• Well trained tongue. She can be one of the most charming people you'll ever meet.
Weaknesses
• Despite her hardy spirit and quick reflexes, she's still mortal
• Without her suit to provide the upgrades, she doesn't have enhanced strength.
• Karina is a daredevil; say it can't be done or she can't do it, she won't stop 'til she proves you wrong.
• She's not a certified genius, so computer systems without access keys or passwords take longer to hack if she doesn't have her gear.
• Given her past, Karina is a hardcore loner, and trust....true trust....comes hard for her. As of now the only people she trusts implicitly are Matt Murdock and Cindy Moon. As long as they don't screw her over she honors her partnerships though.
• Spider-man, Carnage, Doc Ock...Rogue...if you're wise these are all topics from which you want to stay AWAY with Karina, as she is often in tunnel vision and won't listen to others on the issue because of such a visceral reaction.
• Despite the fact she has no problem with death, Karina is not comfortable with firearms.[/Tab]
Suit: Karina found a new prototype of her mother's catsuit and had it modified to her specifications. The suit is insulated...both for waterproofing and against electrical attacks. Micro servos in the joints provide an added boost of power, allowing her to lift around two tons at maximum workload. Kevlar weaving in the torso provides protection against bullets or shotgun blasts, while leather pads on the interior at the thighs and forearms provide resistance against blunt strikes. The suit has retractable claws at the ten fingers with additional spikes that extend from the boot tips. These are made of an adamantium alloy and can be used for both climbing and sticking to walls as well as combat. In order to match her new persona, she's gone with a dark purple coloration with black streaks to make tiger stripes. The fur on her collar and the edges of her boots and gloves is also a dark violet.
Utility belt: Around her waist, Karina has a black utility belt to carry all her items necessary for thievery. In addition to bags placed in small vacuumed packs for hauling loot, she also has a container for grappling lines for traversing the city skies, various marble sized bombs that contain either knockout gas, flashbang like explosions, strong adhesives for holding her prey in place, and sonic grenades for distracting her enemies. She can alter any of these to have an additional fragmentation effect if she touches it to activate its kinetic energy. One specific container holds a series of lockpicks, a portable decryption device, a small canister of liquid nitrogen for locks, and a signal scrambler for intercepting or blocking communications in her general area. In addition she holds a small sound proof container for the use of trick 'snake-eyes' dice modified to have cat's eyes appearance. These she uses the same way her father used his cards as projecticle incindiary weapons.
Whips: Around her waist rests two silvery coils that look like other belts, but these are some of Karina's most dangerous weapons. The whips are made from carbonadium, with a length of seven feet each. The handles are adamantium, at six inches long. The whips themselves can rend flesh from bone, and can be further electrified by a small button on the handle.
Whipstaff: If things get too hairy and Karina has no choice but to go close quarters, she can press a button in the handles of her whips to cause electromagnets in them to cause the tails to stiffen to straight rods that shrink down to three feet each. She can then attach the handles together at the bases to create a solid fighting bo staff like her father's, or she can choose to keep just one end as a staff and use the other as a whip.
Mask: While her mother's mask was of simple design, through the works of the Tinkerer and her own modifications Karina has created a small, scratchproof and smudgeproof film lifted from the lab of Reed Richards to work as a lens. This allows Karina to peer into the infrared spectrum as well as provide night-vision if her natural low light sighting isn't enough. (Essentially the Ultimate version mask without the damn horn extensions on the top that make her look like she has cat ears)
Collapsable bo-staff: While her suit isn't always accessible in her civies, Karina holds a small metal rod that looks to be the shaft of a flashlight. When a small button is depressed it extends into a bo-staff of six feet. She usually carries this somewhere on her person or in her purse.
I know what you're thinking. Everyone thinks the same thing.
How the hell did Gambit and the Black Cat get together to have a kid??
It's your typical story: Girl meets boy. Girl attacks boy. Boy and girl grow close and then fall in love. Boy breaks up with girl, then girl goes on crime spree. Boy then meets up with girl years later, and boy punches the girl in the face. Girl gets sent to prison an-
What?? Oh nonono! This isn't a story about my father and mother: this is about my mother and Spider-man.
Yeah. We have to hit that little chestnut before we can get to the rest.
See, once upon a time Spider-man and my mom were closer than most. Spidey helped train and recondition her to be a good little girlscout while my mom helped twist that little responsibility stick up his keister so it wasn't quite as tight as normal and let him actually live a little. It was good, but it was kinda like most Jerry Springer couples: you knew they weren't right for each other. Spidey did his thing and mom did her own. Fast forward a couple of years where they had just gotten back off on the on-again off-again cycle. Mom sees Spidey swinging by and goes to flirt and tease, like she always does to mess with his head. He'll probably have something clever to say right?
Wrong. Try a hard left cross that knocks one of her teeth out, webbing her up and calling the cops on her...and this was someone she considered to be a FRIEND. How would you feel??
Well Mom went dark. I mean real dark. The kind of dark you expect to see in Kristen Stewart's heart since she has no emotion. Seriously, she straight up beat the crap out of her competition after she got out of the Raft, stole or bought back all the treasures she took from others after the cops auctioned them off, set fire to the houses of those who held something of her's....burnt her former socialite friends to a crisp, used an unstable Electro to nearly wipe out the city, and eventually establish herself as the new Kingpin of crime in New York.
Yep. That's my mom: Queen of the overreaction.
Now suppose after all that, after doing what you think gets you your life back and gives you the opportunity to destroy and kill the one person who set you on this path...after a huge knockdown, dragout battle with them...you come to learn all that you had done to lay the foundation upon whuch you built your new life...was a lie?
Yeah. Turns out that the person she thought had betrayed her and ripped out her heart and left her for the cops like a common thug....wasn't really that person: it was Doctor Octopus.
Wait, hear me out. I know how this sounds but it's a hundred percent legit!
At one point, Ock discovers his body is dying from the radiation that gave him his power to control those mechanical arms of his...so he develops this plan to trap Spider-man with this device...a device which switches their spirits in a move right out of a bad Freaky Friday remake. For a time, Spidey was considered dead: slain by Octavius, who decides to take up his rival's mantle...to become SUPERIOR to Spider man in every way.
Yeah. THAT guy.
THAT'S the real douchebag that started ALL this.
But hey, easy to understand. I mean, you believe all this first telling, right??
Finally knowing the truth....it BROKE my mother...like no joke she couldn't function. At all. Seeing this, her rivals went into strike a coup, but found themselves too late as Mom just flat vanished. When your world has been so rocked that you don't know which way is up, you'll look for something...anything....that provides consistency to help you regain your bearings....and for my mom, consistency was jacking all she could from a bunch of socialite snobs or conglomerates. She went all the way down the Eastern Seaboard until she ran into Candice Williams in New Orleans, the one ESU friend she had that actually showed her compassion when she was in the Raft. She was working for a humanitarian organization that was trying to help out the homeless refugees that were lost in the shuffle of the return from Katrina. Candice said that a number of her regulars hadn't been seen in awhile...and that number was growing daily. Because she knew who my mom was and that she'd served once before as a private investigator, she asked her to help her track down the missing people.
For whatever reason that my mom still says she doesn't know to this day, she said yes. It didn't take too long...maybe a day or two...until Mom was able to get a lead that the missing vagabonds were holed up in a warehouse in the harbor. That's where she first met my dad.
And promptly punched him right across the jaw.
Which THEN led to a firefight from the goons at said warehouse. Thankfully Dad wasn't working alone, and the rest of his small team was able to come in and clean up the riff raff. Turns out Dad was there because a majority of the folks for whom Mom had been looking were in fact mutants themselves. She didn't like it, but Mom had to agree there was strong strategy in partnering up. And during that run....well, Mom said it herself: The Black Cat lived again. Not the crazy take-over-all-of-Manhattan's-criminal-underworld Black Cat...but the one she always wanted to be when she partnered with Spidey. And even though she didn't like Dad at first, Mom would be the first to tell you she saw definite chemistry in their ability to work together. Things just clicked in areas where her previous partnerships would have fallen apart. Needless to say they found the mutants. Hell, they even saved all of New Orleans essentially by taking down the crazy ringleader who was rounding them up for experimentation - what was her name? She was sort of an archenemy of Mom's back during her time in New York. Shrill? Skrie? Scry??? I dunno; it'll come to me; I just remember Mom saying this woman was nearly a hundred and eighty degrees from sane.
Anywho, after they did the hero thing Mom started to come around to admitting Dad was slightly more tolerable than most of the people with which she's worked, and even agreed to go out on a date with him: stealing a priceless piece of artwork from some rich debutante who probably horded it someplace that never saw the light of day....they were probably doing the painting a favor. They started drawing a bit closer (since they both came from pretty destructive and fragile relationships in the first place they already had something in common) and nine months after their one month anniversary: boom. Enter Karina.
Since Mom was easier to blend into the world, she took the role of breadwinner by founding Lady Luck Investigations while Dad helped raise me. He says the first time I stole was when I was five with a pretty expensive fountain pen from one of my mom's clients, but I know I had a small toy pterodactyl back before then that neither I nor Mom could remember how we got it.
Officially we changed our name to Tremaine so no one could trace us. Private school was a joke, but I kept in line as best I could. After I came home with a black eye in second grade both Mom and Dad said it was time for me to learn to fight: Dad said because no one should lay a finger on his Little Treasure and Mom so that what happened to her would never happen to me. My powers manifested when I was fourteen. By then I had already begun engaging in my own small nocturnal excursions and was doing jobs boosting cars: expensive ones too. Let's just say they had to put in a couple of new walls after I left with the car.
Well Mom was pissed....Dad slightly less so, like he knew this was going to happen. Typical 'Tremaine' style I threw back their own arguments with one of my own: how I knew their monthly 'business trips' where I'd go stay the night with my best friend Naomi were the kind where the term 'networking' had to be redefined to disrupting security instead of making connections. After hours of arguing I finally talked my parents into joining in on the real family business on their next heist. Everything went smoothly for about two years until we took one job up in Baton Rouge. Escape was botched and I got shot in the leg at the calf. After that, Mom said no more. Ever. For any of us. I even watched as she hung up and closed up her costume. Dad still insisted I train in the use of my powers though.
This next part...I'll be honest, it still stings...so I'll just go over the main points before moving on.
As you can imagine, soon as I healed up, I was right back to thievery again. Wasn't able to do it as much...maybe once every two months....but I did it where my Mom didn't suspect. Didn't take me long to figure out how to keep my cashflow untraceable, and I just used the money when I needed it. Everything was fine until I turned eighteen. Then SHE showed up. Rogue; my dad's former girlfriend. After she and he talked for awhile he and my mother spoke. I can still remember the sound of the muffled yells through the doors as they went at it. For hours. Things went quiet after that for about a week.
Then my Dad just left. I got to find out right after I came back from midterms expecting Mom to whip up one of her red velvet brownie trays...instead I learn my family just imploded. It was difficult, but I got through it. Even got a scholarship to LSU for my efforts at high school. Mom and I lean heavily on each other for two solid years.
Then Mom tells me she's sending me away to finish my degree in New York with Matt Murdock, upending my whole life and everything I put down there in Louisiana because she says she has to go to keep me safe. I spoke my mind on the matter, move on.
So let me paint you a picture: imagine you're part of the worst family implosion since the Hogans. You haven't seen your parents in at least two years; the other half almost four. You're far removed from the only home you've ever known and all the friends and stability that you could once count on are thousands of miles to the south while you're stuck in a university that doesn't seem to want anything to do with you but take your money. And in spite of that all, you still claw yourself up the mountain to the day you actually get your degree...only the one person that could and SHOULD be there to support you is late. Time goes on as the ceremony moves forward. One by one the students get up to accept their degrees like ants grabbing a single crumb of sugar to take it back to their individual nests. Now it's your turn. You stand and take the paper, smile for the photo, look around at the faces in the audience to see if you can spot him, then you walk back to your seat; frustration building as you feel betrayed and let down yet again by someone you care about, thinking only one thing.
Where the hell are you??
Now as you say your congrats after the ceremony ends to your fellow classmates in an attempt to put on a good face that one solitary soul comes forward, having missed everything...and at the very sight of him, you feel this rage and anger in your heart at having someone else make you feel this way again. And you stalk straight toward them; staring at their eyes....or in his case, the lenses of his glasses since he's blind, and you feel all this volatility of disrespect, missed opportunity and rage boil inside you like a rising volcano as you go to confront him.
And then he tells you why he was late: he learned your parents had been killed. Murdered in cold blood.
What would you do? How would you react?
Would you listen to the words of the only person you feel you can still call family and let the law handle the matters before them: to let your last relative and semi mentor attend to the matters of investigation and closure while you allow yourself time to grieve...to come to grips with the fact that you will never again see the two most important people throughout your entire life....the people who first taught you how the world works and gave you security against its wiles and threats when you weren't old or mature enough to defend yourself against them....on this earth? Could you???
Or do you believe the internal voice in your heart that screams screw time and mourning. The one that tells you the only closure you'll get is the kind you have to take for yourself? Do you walk the darker path, knowing where it may lead...to settle the matter of unavenged, unanswered blood split on YOUR family tree??
You know damn well what I did.
After fleeing back to New Orleans I found one of my mom's suits; a new prototype she'd been making I guess for when she was going to go out again. I took it and everything else that was necessary and went on my own investigation; one that's led me all the way here to San Besitos. I don't know what awaits me there, but I do know this. I WILL find the people who killed my parents.
And when I do, they'll beg Lucifer to take what's left of them to the Inferno when I'm done. And they will forever lament their mistake.
You Don't. Screw. With Voodoo.
Theme: Metallica: All Nightmare Long
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