Ember (Miranda Mendes)
Contents
Appearance
Miranda is tall and shapely, with striking red hair that changes to a glowing orange color when she reaches higher temperatures with her powers. Her eyes are unusual, orange with black schlera. Her hero uniform is a blue unitard with dark leggings made from a sturdy, heat resistant material that provides limited protection. She also wears boots and gloves that help her limit and control her powers.
Background
Early in their marriage, Jose and Aldana Mendes were desperate for money. They were a young couple, with Aldana barely out of high school and Jose struggling to balance a job and college. Despite assurances from Jose's family that they could always return home to live with them if things got too rough, they worried and wanted to make it on their own. They both started participating clinical trials to supplement their meager income.
Before too long, they were approached by a group called the Dynamic Research Institute. This group, while a bit shady, also paid better and had less restrictions. Unfortunately, the deal was much too good to be true. DRI started becoming a bit pushy, invasive and threatening. When they learned that Aldana was pregnant, they made an offer that the couple couldn't refuse. In return for allowing them to test an experimental series of genetic augmentations meant to promote health would not only make sure their child was free of any serious or deadly complications but they would also cover for the expenses related to the child's birth. Despite their misgivings, they agreed and became one of ten families that participated in the groups experiments.
Unknown to any of the families, DRI's experiments were actually designed to create superhumans by altering them before birth. When Miranda was born, she had intense orange eyes and bright red hair! The 'subjects' of the experiments quickly learned that the other children were showing odd physical traits as well. DRI did their best to placate with promises, threats and money, but one of the families ended up alerting the authorities, which caused DRI to go underground and abandon their subjects and caused a lot of trouble for those involved.
The Mendes family escaped relatively unscathed but quickly found themselves moving to avoid closer scrutiny or the judgement of their peers. They chose Millennium City as they felt it would be the best place to raise a daughter with physical mutations. Of course, the physical mutation was the least of their worries. Early on, Miranda's powers to generate heat and fire was a serious problem for the young girl. It made her dangerous, unpredictable and left her feeling isolated at times. Her parents, loaded down with hush money from DRI, did what they could to help but were often frustrated with their daughter, who they quickly found was quite clumsy and not especially bright.
Personality
Miranda is cheerful, bubbly and very, very silly. She often comes off as a bit of a dunce and is terminally klutzy, known for breaking or burning things, often at the same time. She has an annoying habit of just nodding along with what people say, even when she doesn't actually know what they mean and can be somewhat frustrating to talk to thanks to a very short attention span.
She loves having friends and holds very tight to the friends she has, loving them unconditionally. She doesn't like people to be mad at her and can become very upset when she thinks someone doesn't like her. The early manifestation of her powers left her with an intense fear of being alone and unwanted.
Powers
Weaknesses
Abilities
Friends, Allies and Aquaintances
-Charity Corren, Lina Garren, Gabby, Lionfish
Nemeses
Trivia
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| Heroes: American Witch • Doll • General Freedom • Nightfang • Surova Grimwish Dobergirl • Violet Mask • Mercy • Lorekeeper • Impsblood • Midas • Greymist Wanderer Zee the Zombie • Ada Clover • Whitecloak • Ember • Tartolmec • Ultima King • Crash Fist • Bom-Pom • Aqualung | ||
| Villains: MetaCorp • Death Watch Beetle • Mindleech • Magpie Family • Other Villains • Cerulean Steel | ||
| Places & Things: PsyKiss • The Bracen Institute • The Forever Night | ||
| Groups: New Vigil (Leader) • Protectors of the World (Member) • Frontiersmen (Member) • Gen Prime (Leader) | ||
