Imani was born and raised in Dallas, TX, the daughter of a school teacher and a state politician. She spent a lot of time around her grandmother and grandfather. They were both very active in the civil rights movement in Texas, and had even made the trek to DC to watch Dr. Martin Luther King, JR give his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. Imani hung on every word as they spoke of the struggles they faced back then, and it was no surprise that these stories played a great part in shaping her attitudes toward issues of injustice. She followed in their footsteps as she got older, though instead of taking to the streets to march, she took to the internet. She joined a hacktivist group called Daemon Spawn during her junior year of high school, where she adopted the handle “NaughtyThoths.” She was an active member of the organization until 2012. Daemon Spawn's mission was to expose corporate greed and misconduct. Their common tactic was to compromise the network security of these corporations, lift incriminating evidence, and then leak it to media outlets. Members of the group commonly took on monikers that nodded to creatures of myth associated with knowledge keeping – NaughtyThoths (Thoths, referring to Thoth, instead of thoughts) and Odintchano (Odin and 'Oh didn't you know') for example.
In the summer of 2012, Daemon Spawn turned its attention toward the Heinlein Aerospace facility in Frontera, TX. They believed the company was blatantly taking advantage of poorly enforced environmental regulations in the state. Repeated attempts were made to dig up some kind of dirt, to find anything incriminating to leak to the media. Eventually, it was decided that someone needed to get into the facility and access the systems that way. It was risky, but two volunteers stepped forward: Imani and another Daemon Spawn member named CoyoTease. They arranged to join a tour of the facility, and the plan was for CoyoTease to make a scene while Imani slipped off to complete their mission. Not only did the plan fail, but it failed in a completely unexpected manner...
Technicians at Heinlein were working on a revolutionary new method of dimensional travel as part of a contract with UNTIL. The day that Imani and her co-conspirator arrived for their tour was the day they were set to conduct their very first test. A containment failure caused a release in unstable dimensional particles. They flooded the facility, breached its walls, and soon enveloped the entire bordertown of Frontera. It all happened so quickly that there wasn't time to issue an evacuation: within 10 minutes, the town of Frontera was simply gone. When officials finally made it on scene, Imani was the only person left. Scientists from the Goodman Institute were brought in to examine why she survived when no one else had.
The rest of 2012 went by in a surreal blur. Goodman's brightest were stumped, and eventually came to the conclusion that there must have been something in Imani's DNA that had allowed her to survive the accident. They assigned Dr. Stan Gladwell to her case to determine the full ramifications of her exposure, and what it could do to her in the long run. She went into litigation with Heinlein's legal team, where she was faced with a difficult choice. If she chose to press on with charges, they would expose what the fact that she was a member of a notorious hacktivist group. This would ruin her father's political chances at a House Representative run in the next election cycle, and likely put an end to his career in the state of Texas as well. She would be turned over to the FBI, and be made to reveal the identities of other members of Daemon Spawn, whether by forcing testimony from her or gaining that information when they seized and searched her equipment. If she chose to settle and sign a non-disclosure agreement, they would agree to not disclose the true nature as to why she was there to start with. Unnerved by the fact she didn't know what was happening to her, fearful of exposing Daemon Spawn, and not wanting to bring scandal and shame on her family, she agreed to the terms.
While all of this was going on, strange things kept happening to her. These events culminated into Imani actually running into herself coming in a door she was about to walk out of. A panicked call to Dr. Gladwell led to even more tests. In the fall of 2013, the scientist and his team determined that the unstable particles that she had been exposed to had altered her molecules. What was happening in the times where she randomly appeared places and when she was seeing multiples of herself was that her molecules were vibrating in such a manner that she was entering the fourth dimension. Gladwell termed it as entering a 'state of tetradimensional existence' that allowed her to essentially ignore common rules of the third dimension. There were many talks about the possibilities of her newfound abilities that, quite frankly, left her with a migraine and her head spinning. But what she did get out of all of that was that she had powers. And now new possibilities were coming to mind. Thanks to the NDA, she had basically laid her identity as NaughtyThoths to rest. And while she had no intention of poking the bear and going after Heinlein, she could continue her mission in a new way. She could do this, while helping people in need at the same time.
A few months and many consultations with Dr. Gladwell later, two new identities were formed: Tesseract and ANONsi. The skills that had led to her recruitment into Daemon Spawn now helped her bring criminals to justice when the judicial system failed. ANONsi has become a name dreaded by those trying to navigate the loopholes in the justice system to avoid conviction, coming forward with condemning evidence that has led to the indictments of several corrupt politicians and underhanded CEOs in Texas. Tesseract, on the other hand, is taking a bit longer to really become a household name. She recently made national headlines when she was caught on camera evacuating bank robbery hostages. The Goodman Institute, specifically Gladwell's team, contacted her shortly after, asking if she would be willing to move to Millennium City, where the bulk of their work was being done in a high tech facility. It would allow them to monitor her power progression, and advise her as she grows fully into them. She agreed, and headed up to Michigan, where she currently resides.
Little did Imani know that her heroic actions during the bank robbery had not only caught the attention of Dr Gladwell's team, it had also come to the attention of
Sparrowhawk of the
Protectors of the World. Ever with a mind to expanding the capabilities of the world renowned team, the leader of the Protectors sought to bring in Imani's unique chronokinetic abilities and her computer related skillset. Imani accept the invitation, and it's been a wild ride ever since. While Dr Gladwell had always stated that the potential of her powers was vast, she had no idea just how much she could do. Since joining the group, she's learned she can do far more than what she originally believed she could, even finding unique applications for many of her abilities. She doesn't always see eye to eye with some of her teammate, especially where right versus law is concerned, but for the most part she gets along with them all. Thanks to joining the team, she's made some friends as well -
Captain Adamant and
Imp. There are times where she seriously wonders whether or not she'll be allowed to stay on with the group. She's not got the experience that others in the group do. And if the others knew about her background, they might not be okay with her being there. For that reason, she figures she'll give it all that she's got and enjoy the experience while she can.
