Quartier général
Scarlet a simplement donné à Chroma un clin d'œil, reniflant inaudiblement sous son masque à ses mots. -- Bien sûr, répondit-elle simplement, lui permettant de décider s'il pensait qu'elle était d'accord ou sarcastique.
Elle s'est amusée à sourire alors qu'il continuait, honçant une fois de plus pour montrer son accord. Elle était vraiment contente de travailler avec Chroma. Il n'avait aucun problème avec des conversations, ce qui lui convenait parfaitement. Elle a en quelque sorte souhaité pouvoir en dire plus, peut-être trouver une sorte d'équipement en réponse aux choses qu'il a dites. Elle ne semblait pas trop déranger le garçon, du moins, ce qui le rendait facile à vivre.
Quelques minutes après qu'il soit parti, Scarlet s'est mis en route pour commencer sa patrouille.
En patrouille
Scarlet s'est laissée tomber derrière Chroma alors qu'ils marchaient, principalement pour rendre leur patrouille de deux hommes un peu plus efficace. Elle n'a rien fait d'autre que de laisser la population la voir. La présence de deux pupilles suffit à faire en sorte qu'il n'y ait rien d'illégal. Dans leur ligne de vue, au moins. Il masqua le visage exagérément scanné son environnement, son regard s'arrêtant sur la personne occasionnellement louche à des fins d'intimidation. Ce qui était vraiment toutes les patrouilles étaient. Un spectacle pour amener la population à réfléchir à deux fois avant de faire quelque chose qu'elle regretterait.
Une alarme lointaine a fait sortir Scarlet de ses pensées. Elle a roulé autour pour tracer la direction, tout en se déplaçant pour rattraper Chroma.
"Alarme. Je vais vérifier," dit-elle, au cas où il ne l'aurait pas encore entendu. Un moment plus tard, elle s'accroupit pour sauter, se poussant d'en bas avec son pouvoir, l'envoyant bondir assez haut en l'air pour atterrir sur la lèvre d'un petit magasin. Avec un petit début de course cette fois-ci, elle l'a fait à nouveau, tout en poussant plus horizontalement pour lui donner une distance supplémentaire. Cela l'a envoyée dans le bâtiment suivant, chapeau rouge battant derrière elle. Alors qu'elle s'approchait du sol du toit, elle poussa contre elle-même pour décélérer, atterrissant aussi doucement que si elle avait sauté normalement.
Elle adorait le sentiment -- ce n'était pas tout à fait volant, mais c'était proche. Et un jour, elle savait qu'elle aurait assez de contrôle sur son pouvoir de voler. En raison de la mécanique de ses capacités, il était incroyablement difficile de rester équilibrée dans l'air en poussant constamment sur elle-même d'en bas; c'était un travail délicat qui a pris sa pleine concentration, mais même alors elle ne pouvait rester en place que pendant quelques secondes. Donc voler n'allait pas encore se produire pour elle. Mais elle continuerait à s'entraîner.
Plusieurs sauts super-alimentés plus tard, elle avait des yeux sur la source de l'alarme : une banque relativement petite. Peut-être une fausse alerte. Sinon, c'était probablement un vol, mais elle ne pouvait pas en être sûre. Elle a étudié la région un peu plus longtemps, pour attendre Chroma. Elle a touché son oreillette pour communiquer avec lui. "C'est une alarme bancaire. S'il y a quelqu'un qui vole l'endroit, ils sont déjà à l'intérieur. Tout ce que je vois, ce sont des civils dans le hall."
Scarlet s'est préparée à sauter de l'immeuble pour rencontrer Chroma, craquant ses doigts avec son pouce délibérément, un à la fois. D'abord une main gantée, puis l'autre. C'était une habitude qu'elle avait ramassée pour faire face à l'anticipation. Elle pouvait se concentrer sur le sentiment quelque peu douloureux et soulageant, ainsi que sur le son satisfaisant. Il a gardé les papillons loin.
Avec des lèvres serrées, ses yeux étaient fermés sur la banque.
Real name:
Phoebe Foster
(Not known to the public)
Gender:
Female
Appearance:


Phoebe is somewhat petite -- not overly so, but she's definitely physically smaller than average in all aspects -- and would be described by most as 'cute' and 'pretty' rather than 'sexy.' Her nose and upper cheeks are lightly covered with freckles and small, scratch-like scars, the latter of which can also be seen on her eyelids when she closes her eyes.
Those scars continue down the right side of her body -- a few, harder to notice ones on her small shoulder, and light burn scars mixed in with the scratches further down her forearm and the side of her hand. The burns are very well healed, leaving her skin relatively un-disfigured, with only a pink colouration. She has more noticeable burn scars down the right side of her torso, concentrated around her upper hip. These have also been well taken care of, leaving no blisters and only a discolouration.
Due to her active lifestyle, she is in excellent shape, with her body being lightly toned.
Hero/Villain name:
Scarlet
Affiliation:
Member of the Wards
Biography:
Phoebe was the second child of a happy couple of paramedics. While she was born in Rochester, Minnesota, she never was never able to truly consider any place to be 'home' due to her parent's adventure-seeking nature. It seemed like the family of four moved at least once every two years, something that took a toll on the more reserved and quiet Phoebe. For the young girl, making friends was already a difficult task, one she began to decide wasn't worth it, seeing as by the time she'd made any she'd have to leave them.
While her older sister was more outgoing, she also felt the same way, leading to the two becoming each other's closest friend. For Phoebe, her sister made life bearable.
When Pheobe was 11, her family was living in New York, and were all at Times Square for New Year's Eve. Pheobe, feeling overwhelmed by all the people, got separated from her family, and, of course, began to panic. It only took a minute for her sister to appear through the crowd, though, immediately hugging and comforting the immensely relieved younger girl.
The moment the two broke their hug, a loud series of explosions overpowered and quieted the crowd's excited chatter -- which was replaced in a short moment by screaming and yelling. Whipping around, the sister's saw a greasy man in ragged clothes, wearing no mask, revealing the strange mix of emotions on his face that overwhelmed him. With both hands, he tossed small, metal spheres into the air, scattering them into the crowd. Before they had reached the peak of their arc, the man was taken down by another cape, Phoebe losing sight of the two as they went to the ground.
And then the spheres fell, but Pheobe didn't notice. The quiet, delicate girl only noticed the expression on her sister's face -- her sister, who was loud-mouthed, confident, and always smiling. Her sister, who now looked terribly panicked, eyes towards the sky, towards the spheres. Before Phoebe could process anything, her sister had turned and tackled her to the ground, shielding her as the spheres exploded, a deafening chain of explosions. Phoebe felt heat, and she thought her face and right side of her body were being torn apart. A second of that pain, coupled with the concussive blasts, was easily enough to knock her unconscious.
That was the last time she saw her sister, who had been laying on top of her and holding her tightly to save her life. Pheobe drifted in and out of consciousness for a time, before fully coming to in a hospital room, both of her parents, their faces red and tear stained, next to her.
She soon learned of her sister's death and took it as poorly as one would expect. Thinking back, Phoebe doesn't remember any moment when was she wasn't crying in the following days, the whole situation catching up to her and hitting her hard -- memories of the incident, the fact that she'd never be able to see her sister again, how her parents must feel, and the ugly scars her injuries had left her with.
Thankfully for the family, they supported each other well, and beyond all being a little more reserved, they made it through. With time and reconstructive surgery, Phoebe's scars were minimized, though she still despised them and hid them as best she could by wearing long-sleeved shirts and developing a habit of hiding her right hand in various ways -- after all, they marred her, and reminded her of her sister's passing. Not to mention she really didn't want anyone ever inquiring about them, lest she break down in tears in front of them. She was already shy and awkward without having to deal with something like that. The family soon decided to move one last time, to Chicago, due to Phoebe's mother having family there.
Phoebe herself discovered her power only several months later, having been too withdrawn from everything to find it out sooner. The shock at the discovery gave way to excitement when she realized she was a parahuman -- the first real happiness she had experienced since her sister's death. She began to open up as much as her natural disposition allowed her to, and took a great interest in cape culture. Dreams of being a hero began to fill her head, and she loved them. Behind a mask, even a meek girl like her could command respect and admiration. Even a girl like her could stand up against those who do wrong.
Even a girl like her could put fear into others to deter them from ever pulling what the man in Times Square had.
So Phoebe began trying to convince her parents to allow her to become a Ward. Of course, they were very hesitant -- it had been the source of the biggest arguments they've ever had, with Phoebe's mother giving her blessing and her father being against it. The dangers and the potential of losing their second daughter were at the forefront of the heated discussions. It didn't take long for both of them to be mostly completely convinced, though. They had never seen their youngest daughter so motivated, even from before the incident. She wasn't even 13 and was exercising daily, joining every sports team her school offered (at the expense of showing the scars on her arm due to the uniforms, to her parents shock, though this only helped convince them that she really wanted this) and devouring anything she could find on parahumans.
Several months of keeping this up and Phoebe finally found herself in the Ward system, to her immense satisfaction. From there, she chose her hero name, 'Scarlet,' as she wanted to use red in her costume and also wanted to -- solely for herself -- acknowledge her scars and prove to herself that she was able to keep them from bothering her, and as a reminder for why her reasons for being a hero.
Now 16 years old, she's done well enough to make a name for herself and distinguish herself among the young capes of Chicago as one of the one's that are best to avoid crossing.
Personality:
Phoebe has gained much confidence since she joined the Wards, but her naturally timid nature still shows through at times. She's composed and not very animated, with the most that can usually be gotten out of her being nothing more than a barely-there smile or frown. Additionally, she purposefully tries to give off a slightly haughty, 'don't-talk-to-me' kind of aura in public, to dissuade anyone from coming up to her, due to how uncomfortable and awkward she feels when speaking with others. As such, when interacting with others, she tries to keep it short and polite, not really wanting to make enemies but believing that coming off as something of a hard-ass to be best for everyone -- they don't have to deal with her awkwardness, and she doesn't have to feel uneasy. Beneath that crafted exterior, she's a kind, quiet girl who wishes to make friends, but has pretty much entirely forgotten how to.
When it comes to cape business, she's much more put together, easily being able to direct and interact with others to get a job done. Her self-assuredness in her capabilities, her strong desire to stop villainous capes, and her absolute, stubborn refusal to lose or fail drive her to excel, though she sometimes struggles with going too far, especially during the more mentally taxing jobs, having injured targets within an inch of their lives on a few occasions -- a side effect of her trigger event. It's not so much a temper as it is a primal fear that takes her over, compelling her to make sure whatever she's up against will never be able to harm her or anyone she cares for.
Her biggest issue (which she doesn't truly see as an issue, or at least tries hard to convince herself that it isn't) is that since the discovery of her power, she's lived nearly exclusively to make villains hurt. Saving people is a wonderful side effect of doing so, and is the reason she can justify her mentality, but the grim satisfaction of beating on a criminal before taking them in to be jailed, ruining any chances of them ever having a normal, decent life is what gets her out of bed every day. It's a dark way to live, and certainly weighs on her soul, but she does it out of a perceived necessity. It motivates her more than anything else, pushes her to get stronger and stronger, to do her job better, and in the process indirectly protect even more people. So, for the sake of the good and innocent, she embraces and makes use of the admittedly twisted feelings.
Residence:
Lives in the PRT building
Parental status:
Both alive
Costume:
A red-and-black paintball mask with a black-tinted visor, a black dress shirt with a plain red tie, black dress pants, black sneakers, and small red gloves (which hide her scarred hand to prevent any chance of someone using that info to find out her real identity, and also allowing her to use her power to augment her punches). Over this, she wears a red, hooded cape that reaches down to her knees, and underneath it all, she wears a skintight black suit fitted with pieces of light kevlar armor that cover her vitals and don't hinder her movement.
The overall edge of her costume was a conscious decision on Phoebe's part, as she wishes to intimidate more than her small stature would allow her to normally.




Power:
Phoebe's power is one of spatial distortion, and allows her to control the momentum of all inorganic matter within her range, with restrictions based on her own physical weight and strength -- anything that she could bring to a complete stop with her own physical power, she can stop within the field, while something like a bullet could only have its trajectory adjusted to make it miss, and a giant boulder being dropped on her would be completely unaffected. The upside is that she doesn't actually exert any energy while doing this, meaning she can essentially put all her weight and strength into redirecting momentum without ever getting tired and while doing it at range.
Additionally, she can use it to give herself a sort of burst of pseudo-super strength -- by manipulating the clothes she wears and the weapons she wields, she can strike out harder and quicker than any normal person, move around at impressive, sudden speeds, or even jump higher. The longer time she has to build up, the more powerful a specific action is -- though she must take care, as a human hand isn't built to withstand punching someone's face at 100 mph, for example.
Weaknesses would be anybody that fights without the use of any inorganic weapons/attacks, such as Changers, and those like Strikers that rely on getting close to their target anyway, as both make the defensive aspect of her ability useless.
Power range:
Consistent power strength within the 3-metre radius of her sphere-of-influence
Power safeguards:
N/A
PRT ranking:
Mover: 3
Brute: 6
Weapons:
A simple, black training sword held in a small loop tied to the left side of her waist, and four heavy metallic spheres, each slightly smaller than a tennis ball and held in separate leather pouches that sit next to each other on the right of her waist.