Difference between revisions of "Katerra"

Katerra Personal informations Name Kathleen Delcourt Current alias Katerra Surname(s) Katerra / Kat Identity status Public Date of Birth - Nationality France Affilitation(s) The Cruciform Sword - UNTIL Sidekick(s) - Enemy(ies) Lady Superlucha, Dr. Fang Reputation Regional (USA) - National (France) Base Field Operations field Millennium City, Vibora Bay Activity -2011: Cruciform Sword officer, Detroit Emergency Special Units as search and rescue team leader (HSEM), SLP volonteer UNITY member. -2012: Cruciform Sword officer, Millennium City's Municipal Library employee, UNTIL Office of Superhuman Resources agent. -2013: Cruciform Sword officer, UNTIL Office of Superhuman Resources agent. Hero/Villain Type High powered brick - First Aid care Alignment Neutral Good Powers Immense superhuman strength High durability Healing factor Enhanced senses Limited use of elemental magic Level 40 Characteristics Origine Modified Human Height 6"6 / 198 cm Weight Fluctuating, over 700 lbs/300 kg Body type Heavy and massive musclebound figure Eyes Green Hair Dark with red streaks Attributes physical attributes Constitution Resistance Stamina Strength Speed Fighting Armour Weapons Animalism Accuracy mental attributes Enrg manip. Intuition Sorcery Knowledge Objets Bravery Mind Manip. Charisma Intelligence Composure Publication Creator @Vylma FwineBoxEn

Appearance

Kathleen Delcourt is 6'6 tall, her skin varies from fair to lightly tanned, has green feline like eyes (vertical pupils) and dark with red streaks long hair. Heavily built, her sheer muscle mass is exceptional even by bricks standards, and shows an extremely high level of definition when she flexes. She surprisingly keeps a curvaceous figure, which can be partially explained by the fact that unlike bodybuilders she isn't following any special low fat diet, though said curves tend to fade and merge with the rest of her musclebound figure during intense physical efforts. Overall she looks mostly human with cat ears and a tail, and speaks with a slight but noticeable French accent. She is even heavier than she looks due to her high molecular density.

Short Biography and Personality

Having some feline traits does not bother her so much, but her bulky stature makes her sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable. So despite her imposing physique she doesn't look always very confident, she can be quite emotional too. Very empathetic, maybe too much, she has a high sensitivity to others pain. Conflict isn't in her nature and she will avoid it when possible. She developed a particular sense of humor, often dry joker which combined with the fact that English is not her mother tongue makes sometimes people wonder what she really meant. As a real fashion victim she spends a lot of time and money purchasing new clothes and outfits.

Kathleen had a hard time accepting her new body and abilities, building a thick border between Kathleen and Katerra. Thanks to her former job as a rescuer allowing her to use these abilities for positive purposes and the support of her closest friends she eventually became more comfortable and quited referring herself as her "new self" in opposition to her "former self". More at peace with her personal identity she resigned from Detroit HSEM and found a job at Millennium City's public library as an assistant curator in the Detroit historical archives department. Unfortunately due to her time consuming commitment to both UNTIL and the Cruciform Sword she had to eventually resign from her job at the library.

Her UNTIL career started like, many other heroes, through the Liaison Program. After a year as a UNITY volunteer she decided to bring her commitement with UNTIL to a higher level and applied to become a full fledged professional agent. However lacking a military background and a career in the police she was unable to join the regular field forces. Her only option left was to look for a more administrative job and she eventually found a position at the Office of Superhuman Resources.

Interview

Oh here we go, can you introduce yourself to our readers?
All right; I'm officially known as Katerra, this the handle I use when dealing with Primus and UNTIL. Bad guys also use that name, for everyone else that's just Kat. I'm working for an organization named The Cruciform Sword operating under UNTIL's authority, and I also have a part time job at MC's municipal library.

Oh, so I can call you Kat?
Sure.

Good, good now we're almost intimate, Kat, can you tell me what does Katerra mean?
It's a totally unoriginal handle really, a friend back in France found it. It's basically two words put together and a bad pun: Kat because Kathleen is my name and the similarity with "cat", "erra" because it makes the whole sound like " panthera" Rrrr wild stuff. But I tend to be everything except wild. *she chuckles*

So you said you come from France right? Well that's a rhetorical question, I noticed your accent, faint but there.
And probably noticed my poor English grammar as well!

I've seen worse really. So, why leaving France for the US?
I left France mainly for personal reasons and I'm afraid I'm not eager to share all them here, sorry guys. Let's say that staying in France would have compromised some personal opportunities and that I needed a fresh start.

And I'm afraid I have to ask a bit more, what do you mean by fresh start, some skeletons in the closet?
My whole family! *she laughs softly* No, haven't killed or harmed anyone, and no criminal record back in France. It's just... after I got my powers, my body changed a lot, life was really different, the way people looked at me changed, I made a few enemies... etc.

Super powers yes, how did it happen?
Another embarrassing question. *she coughs* Let's say I made some wrong choices and took unwise decisions. It happens when you're still young and naive. Yous should always read the small characters at the bottom of a contract before signing.

You make it sound like a mistake, how is that a mistake? My, look at those arms they're at least twice the size of my thighs put together! How much horse power in those? And I should probably avoid to mention some interesting curves, for courtesy's sake... darn, too late.
So here we are. Yes, super strength is the kind of power that everybody find to be cool and all. But it didn't came alone, you mentioned the arms, among other things, for the slender girl I was before that's a pretty big change it really alters the image you have of your own body. It has been rather disturbing for a while, add the tail and the ears and the full picture becomes even more difficult to handle. At first my only thoughts were "how do I get rid of that?" and "how can I hide it?", and the answer is the same for both: you can't.

The result isn't so bad I tell you, I'm sure many guys dig the big strong girl thing.
Surprisingly... yes. But I can't say that the attention I get due to these traits in particular is the kind of attention I really appreciate in general. And some are grossed out... It depends really.

Well you got enough muscle and strength to put the most pushy ones back in their place.
I truly prefer to resort to other means when it is possible. Muscles, super strength, sure, but it doesn't mean you have to use them in every situations or that you enjoy fighting. I'm not the confrontational type, especially if violence is involved.

But heroes have to resort to violence sometimes.
I know but that doesn't mean it is easy and that we all like it. As you said sometimes we don't have choice, and some of us have a harder time to deal with that fact. You know I've been working a few months with HSEM (Homeland Security & Emergency Management) as a rescuer, and it helped me a lot to accept myself and my new abilities. I had to make peace with my powers and what I had become, and using my strength for something else than destroy things or punching people, even if they're "bad guys", was a necessary step on my way to acceptance. Oh and I take that opportunity to say hello to my former teammates, they're doing an amazing job, their only super power is that strong heart beating deep in their chest and that's all they need to get it done, that's a lesson to us the "supers".

All right let's conclude on something more conventional, what are your hobbies?
Books! Well that's an easy guess since I told you I'm working at MC's municipal library. So... Patrick Modiano, Le Clézio, Romain Gary, Fernando Pessoa, Isaac Asimov, John Le Carré... I'm slowly discovering American writers, I mean the contemporaneous ones because we also learn Steinbeck, Dos Passos and Edgar Allan Poe in France. I know more about French novels and writers since it is what I was studying at the university back in there, I was a student in "Lettres modernes". And I got my job here in MC for that reason, I know French authors, that and because the city, Detroit, has some historical archives from its foundation by the French. Other than that, on a less cerebral level... I can spend indecent amounts of time trying new outfits.

Ooook, well last question, are you single?
No, absolutely not. I've had a few love affairs since my arrival here in Millennium City, and that last one is very deep and I think it is the kind that lasts. And no, I won't tell his name here. *chuckles*

PRIMUS Registration notes about her abilities and powers

Katerra wearing her light combat gear

Katerra responding to an Elderworms incursion in MC

These informations are not of public knowledge, they are part of Katerra's PRIMUS registration files

The subject is a modified human through genetic engineering and nano-tech cellular alteration. Her human original genome has been enhanced with diverse feline genes, mostly from domestic cat but we also identified some panther, puma, lynx and tiger sequences. In addition, her cellular structure and metabolism has been greatly altered by a still unknown bio nano-tech agent, her cellular density is much higher than normal, providing the subject a high kinetic and physical damage resilience. Her cellular structure has been completely reorganized: unique and extremely effective muscle fiber architecture, improved energy consumption for higher efficiency, her metabolism seems capable to generate its own power source to some extent in addition of enhanced breathing and cardiovascular systems, in fact most of her physiological mechanisms seem to be enhanced. The combination of the genetic and bio nano-tech factors resulted in an incredible increase of her potential strength. The subject is able to lift our heaviest training weights with ease, ranking her at least as a Titanic class super strong metahuman. The upper limit of her strength is still unknown, the subject refused to proceed for more in depth tests, but we can safely assert that Katerra is easily among our database's strongest heroes in terms of raw physical strength. Her complex physiology is still evolving and lately showed some accelerated regenerative capabilities and we can't predict what other modifications could occur with time. Besides these superhuman abilities the subject showed some minor other qualities inherited from her feline genes such as low light vision and heightened senses of hearing and balance.

Katerra wears a strange artifact, a circlet magical in nature, we believe she uses it as a focusing item. We still lack informations on that matter but it may very likely enhance some of her physical and mental traits, like raising her already impressive physical strength to an absolutely outstanding level, or allowing her to shift to her newly observed elemental form. Her relationship with Jarvan De'Lequintor seem to have had an effect on her abilities. Katerra's very essence recently showed an alteration, very similar to Jarvan's essence in nature who is known to be a half blood water elemental. Our theory is that Katerra uses her circlet as an amplificator to enhance her control over that new elemental part of her essence. The powers and abilities of that alternate form are very different from what we knew about her until now and will be discussed on a new specific filepage: Blue Katerra.

Update: After more in depth observations the circlet proved to be a less mysterious item than we thought, actually it doesn't directly raises her power level its mechanism can be simply explained. It merely consists of a mind affecting device specially designed for Katerra's personal mental pattern, the psi waves it sends through her brain lower most of her mental blocks, inhibitions and reservations regarding the use of her abilities and dampens all negative thoughts she may have concerning her body image. Katerra's performance proved to be highly depending on her mental state and affects, this device drops most of these obstacles and thus brings her closer to her true potential, this explains the significant jump in efficiency we notice when she uses it. She doesn't seem to be aware of that, and we really don't feel the need to tell her more about it since it works as intended.

Bio-environmental Suit: ERT (Emergency Response Team) Specials

ERT Specials armor MKI

White ERT Specials armor MKII in action

Katerra is using a special armour for missions or emergencies in hazardous environments, the basis of the suit is a flexible, yet durable, moisture wicking fabric at the skin layer. This fabric is weaved with several sensors which monitor the vitals of the wearer. Above this layer is an interweave mesh of lead fibers. The fibers allow for breathability and are sealed to prevent lead toxicity, while still providing protection from radioactive materials. The suit is also line with heaters, for extreme cold settings. The outer layer consists of Dangerous Minds Inc’s specially designed armor plating. This plating is divided into sections, providing flexibility at the joints. The suit is protected from conventional arms fire and blade weapons.

Add-ons:

• Gloves: Contain sensors on the fingertips that tie into the suit. These sensors are able to monitor the vitals of individuals through direct contact.

• Visor/Glasses: Provides the wearer with the capability to see in various lighting conditions (Night vision, Infrared). Also provides x-ray vision intended to survey individuals for broken bones and internal injuries. This item also displays any read-outs from the suit’s sensors as well as monitors the brain activity of the wearer.
  
  

Classified UNTIL Commented Ratings

Katerra's powers origin: UNTIL's research files

Since Katerra signed with UNTIL as her supergroup's liaison, our research team has had the occasion to study her powers more in depth than PRIMUS. We have made several discoveries regarding her physiology and metabolism. Considering its sensetivity, this information will be only accessible through the highest UNTIL clearance levels. Here is our full report. (ooc: that means that nothing of this can come to your toon's knowledge without my consent)

Novatech labs

Initial study: The observation of her metabolism and physiological behavior during physical exhurtion showed an extremely complex cellular, and even molecular, activity. Katerra claims she had been exposed to an experimental substance during an infiltration mission in to a highly advanced biotech lab, and while held captive at that institution by Dr. De Lys. While we believe her statements, the extreme complexity of her biology and physiology makes highly unlikely the possibility of any human scientist or research team on Earth were behind these modifications. We still have only a very vague idea of the entire of these changes. Though undoubtedly organic, her body seems to be the product of a very advanced and unknown nanotechnology. The best, and probably very inaccurate, way we found to describe it is: unleashed but yet controlled perpetual nano cancer. We used "cancer" because her cells replicate and die at an extraordinary rate, their structure doesn't exactly match what is expected of a normal human cell, and, if there weren't "something" we hope to still discover permanently controlling this cancer, the subject would probably die due to unchecked growth and mutation of these cells. We defined it as "unleashed", because no cancer can alter a human body so drastically and so quickly and "nano" because this is obviously the product of nanotechnology. The alterations we observed occur well beyond the cellular level, starting at a molecular, even atomic scale. The whole phenomenon is not an accident. We strongly believe it has been engineered. However, its nature is still beyond our comprehension. We recommend the deployment of an investigation team in order to gather intelligence regarding that substance Katerra got exposed to. The lab she mentioned must be still holding key information, without which any further progress in our research will be impossible.

Novatech labs investigations: Katerra's memories proved to be accurate enough for us to locate and identify the facility she visited years ago, under the control of Dr. De Lys. We found a highly secured lab belonging to a firm specializing in nano and bio technologies, named Novatech. The lab's equipment impressed our ground investigation team. Cutting edge best describes how the whole facility looks to us. However as impressive the overall setting was, the possibility that a team of human scientists could develop a bio technology so far out of our scientific knowledge's bounds seems still very unlikely. The search of their database quickly confirmed that fact. The study of all these data revealed a project that gave the research team pause, even in the face of such an advanced facility.

That project, named "Xeno-X", started with the discovery of an alien artifact in an unreported crash site. A Novatech team extracted the artifact from the wreckage of a vessel belonging to a still unlisted alien species. Protected by a nearly impervious, crash resistant canister, Novatech managed to open the container back in their lab, in a sterile and secured containment chamber. What they found inside looked cells of an unknown type in culture. These cells started to divide and multiply at an extraordinary rate right after opening. Concerned by what they might have triggered, the team decided to put the cells in cryo stasis.

They never succeeded in isolating a sample from the whole in order to study it safely. Each time the same uncontrollable pattern repeated itself. The stabilization of the samples turned out to be impossible. Consequently they had to resign themselves to restrict their observations to the cryogenized cell mass. Due to these limitations, their bio scientific division made very little progress. Everything remained beyond their comprehension.

At the same time a second team was probably following a better lead: digging through the ship's logs and archives. The deciphering the alien language was still at an early state when the facility was shut down wish nothing relevant found to that point. We believe that resuming from where the Novatech team left should prove to be worthwhile. We recommend dispatching a team to the crash site and dig out any clue that may help us to determine the nature of this artifact.

Xeno-X crash site: The Novatech archives provided us with the site’s exact location. Finding it did not pose any difficulty. Our first observation is that the site is ancient, hidden for a millennium at the very least. Its location likely prevented its discovery; far away from populated areas, the depth into the earth the object sank in the crash, and the over growth. The fallen object proved to be the first of its kind we had ever encountered, obviously a space ship but without any traces of synthetic or artificial material. The whole vessel is completely organic and, even more astounding, still partially "alive." The ship (or creature) seemed in a coma like state or, more probably, in state of "brain death;" Its main functions disabled and forever inoperative.

We found no traces of a crew, and later discoveries confirmed it never actually had one. We found no real deck, no crew quarters, no control panels, no real rooms or cabins. Instead we discovered what seemed to be interconnected neural nodes, completely unresponsive but still functioning at a very basic level. However, it has been impossible to determine if these nodes were organs of the ship, or individual entities. The vessel’s engine and mean of propulsion remain a mystery. We found no remains or even traces of a power source, and what looked like the cargo bay was empty.

We had hoped for databases, logs and such, but found nothing of the kind. In fact, our best chance for answers lies in the neural nodes. Novatech believed that the answer was stored in those and had begun using a team of psionics to dig through the ship’s memory. They made little progress, however, but felt it showed promise as an approach. We should able to get much better results with our own specialists.

Psionic team's discoveries: We've put Project Mind Game on the case, but we didn't give them all the details. The matter is sensitive and we believe we must keep research teams separated and unaware of the others discoveries. Only a selected few within the Office of Superhuman Resources and above will get access to the full picture. For everyone else, Project Mind Game included (except its commander, Major Henrik Bronk), their work is only for archaeological and general alien knowledge, and absolutely unrelated to any newly found material, individuals, or potential threat. Here follows Captain Fujibayashi's conclusions:

Digging through the neural nodes was a first for my team and provided an unprecedented experience. As you suspected these nodes actually contained an impressive amount of data, though "thoughts" would be more appropriate. Unfortunately the majority of these thoughts were indecipherable due to their alien nature and the inability for a human mind to process them. However, we gathered an important amount of imprinted feelings and mental images. It was like reading an illustrated book written in an unknown language. What we found was unsettling: anger, war, deep despair, destruction and worlds in ruins. We are now convinced that this ship was meant to war and carrying weapons of mass destruction. Many images and feelings were associated with these weapons, mostly devastated landscape and cities, entire planets even. I can tell with certainty that these alien's homeword was one of them. Whatever was in this ship's cargo bay might have been responsible for the fall of their civilization.

An understanding of the action of that weapon remains still unclear. We could only have a very rough idea of its purpose and nature. Like all the rest of the ship, it was a product of bio-engineering; almost alive, probably not sentient, but with some very basic and primitive instincts, with perhaps an alien equivalent of a biological operating system. That weapon is very adaptable and flexible, providing a wide array of possibilities, most of them focused on destruction. The destruction of the alien homeworld seems related to an individual carrying the weapon within his body, but not the way you'd wear an explosive belt around your waist. That individual had become the weapon itself, apparently through a complex merging process. However, we can't tell if it is more like a symbiotic relationship or an actual and complete merging. Ultimately, we were unable to determine the ship's goal or destination. Was it to take that weapon away from their homeworld for safety reasons, or was it part of retaliation measures with the plan to unleash it on an enemy world? On that matter, we can only speculate and be thankful we found an empty ship.

Final conclusions: This is the transcript of the final meeting discussing Katerra's case, all the participants names have been redacted for confidentiality reasons.

Friends and connections

(wip, is undergoing serious revision to reflect better Katerra's current and active connections)

Jarvan De'Lequintor

From right to left: Apotropaic(back), Katerra, James Brawler, Green Steel

Katerra and Chinook

Katerra and MC's most popular Hero: CCC

• Soulburn, Katerra and Soulburn met as teammates in the Cruciform Sword. As one of the longest active member Soulburn is a pillar of the organization and has completed countless operations in Katerra's company, friendship and mutual respect rose from it. Soulbrun is obviously a demon but her former personality got altered by the ritual that summoned her on Earth, she is now registered with UNTIL and under their surveillance.
• Apotropaic, leader of the Cruciform Sword, one of the first friends Katerra made at her arrival in Millennium City. They quickly developed relations beyond strict professional relationship. Despite the fact he is still her boss she mostly thinks of him as an old friend and probably as a brother as well.
• Jarvan De'Lequintor, Katerra's lover, they met each other when Jaravan joined the Cruciform Sword. After a few months he decided to leave the organization for founding his own group but they kept a close relationship and still live together.
• James Brawler, Ex-coworker in the Cruciform Sword, ex-boyfriend. Separated now but they keep a cordial relationship.

We can also mention a few other friends and acquaintances (feel free to add your character in this list if you think he/she belongs to it): Jumping Jack Blue, Red, Green Steel, Divael, Chinook, Bronx, Albert Kinsley, Kan Del Len, Lana, The White Demon, Asuya Yuuki, Shinrae, Dominick, Liberty's Shield, Beshemoth, Thundrax, Real Soviet Damage, Anarchy, Fraulein Panzer, Elapidae, Chocolate Chip Chelsea, Feral, Persephone, Myriad, Lady Athena, Canadian Fist, Moonlighter, Wyvern, Paul Hardev, SoulStar, Andromeda, BlazeWing.

Public Opinion

(free section, have fun posting your toons' opinions on Kat)

"Kat is weally awesome! She is so stwong and vewy fwiendly. I always feel safer when I see her." - Chocolate Chip Chelsea

"She's interesting. Cute even. One of the few that I don't have to worry about hurting... also one of the few that I'd love to cut a little loose on. All in all, good people." - Persephone

"I see her as a good friend. And a very honorable sort. I care and respect for this woman, and am always more than willing to help her!" - Lady Athena

"She's an interesting person. We've spoken a bit, but unfortunately, I've never seen her in action. Still, I'd hate to be on the wrong side of her fist." - Feral

"Kat is one of my best friends and trusted allies. I can always count on her in a mission and out. I hope I am lucky enough to work with her more often. She's a cool cat." - Stitch

"Do I even need to add anymore to what has been said about this fine lady? Decent person in an indecent world is frankly what we need right about now. Keep doin' whatcha do Kat. Haven't nuthin' wrong yet in my eyes." - SoulStar

Tropes

Because sometimes it describes a character better than a wall of text.

Appearance related tropes:

• CatGirl / Little Bit Beastly - Another obvious trait, though her main human features remain strong as well.
• Amazonian Beauty / Statuesque Stunner - Some dislike women like her for that very reason, on the other hand some totally love them for the same reason. For the latter catergory, she has enough brawn to fulfil the most unreasonable expectations.
• Muscles Are Meaningful - Hard to miss and hard to misinterpret.
• Hulking Out / Growing Muscles Sequence - Yes despite her already massive base level, she can push it even further. Silly but funny.
• The Big Girl - She is a class 2 big girl.
• Boobs of Steel / Most common super power - If you take comic books as a reference you might as well go all the way...

Powers and combat related tropes:

• Super Strength - Character's main power. Obviously, completely and shamelessly OP but... see next trope.
• As Strong As She Needs To Be / Drama Preserving Handicap - These are my superpowers as Katerra's player. They are essential in order to keep her compatible with more plots that her true power level would allow at first glance and maintain enjoyable interactions with her for everyone. I tried to keep the most arbitrary mechanisms as discrete and elegant as possible and all these power limiting tricks I use have an IC explanation. Most of them are related to her personality and work with the Willfully Weak trope mentioned in the subsection below.
• Super Toughness - A prerequisite for super strength if you don't want to break your bones when punching tanks.
• Healing Factor - Super tough but not fully invulnerable, she can bleed and get injured if you use special ammo or blades, elemental and unconventional type of damage... but she heals fast.
• Lightning Bruiser - not really lightning fast, but faster and more agile than her build suggests. Thank you feline genes.
• Reckless Pacifist / Destructive Savior - Being a pacifist in a violent world is not an easy task, when fighting is inevitable and your main super power is super strength, collateral damage is sometimes to be expect even when you strongly believe in Thou Shalt Not Kill.
• Combat Medic - Fortunately super strength and super toughness combined to elemental healing can also help her to fix some of the said collateral damage by herself on the battle field.
• Power Limiter - From an OOC persperctive the circlet is obviously one of the many power limiting tricks I have under my sleeve but from an IC perspective it is quite the contrary. Katerra's real power limiter is herself through her personnality, insecurities and strong ethics. The circlet drops all these mental and ethical barriers and works like an anti-power limiter.
• Godzilla Threshold - From UNTIL's perspective it's the point of no return. If there is no other alternative, if the only choice left is between a potential and a certain disaster of epic proportions then the former option becomes a valid course of action and they will urge her to activate her circlet despite the extreme reluctance they usually show regarding its use.
• Tranquil Fury / Unstoppable Rage The two edges of the weapon she merged with. When it takes over her natural personality, generally because she used her circlet, either of them is to occur. Highly conflicts with her personality tropes mentioned below.

Personality related tropes:

• Cultured Badass - Comic book heroin chest and crazy muscles, yes... but it doesn't mean that she can't enjoy subtlety.
• Muscle Angst / Cursed with Awesome - Some might think that having The Incredible Hulk's huge muscles and strength is cool, she doesn't.
• The Messiah - She tries really hard to get well along with everyone, you had an argument with her? She'll give you a second, a third, a fourth chance to make peace... Even Dr Destroyer will receive forgiveness if he promises to be good. She may even sometimes Turn the other cheek but don't expect her to repeat that too often though.
• Rousseau Was Right - Evilness isn't written in genes, or so she believes.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome - She can feel useless if she's unable to help and is prone to blame herself.
• Good Is Not Dumb - She has a hard time proving that point in a world with so many threats and villains who can't be brought back to reason with words alone. Many will perceive her as an old fashioned idealist or more inaccurately a Stupid Good.
• Willfully Weak - Because she consciouly choose to, because it also works on an unconscious level and finally because UNTIL asks her to. Hurting people is bad even the evil ones, collateral damage is bad... She is so used to keep her strength under control that she has to make a conscious effort of will in order to simply stop doing it and most of the time it is still not enough to fully unleash her potential. Don't entirely believe what she says about herself, even if she thinks that she is not lying, it's almost always an understatement or inaccurate.