Unstoppable
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Contents
Appearance
Alicia Crane is easily recognizable as a metahuman, standing nearly half a foot above most girls her age, and sporting a build that most teens could not even dream of achieving. She always carries a firm and confident stance, and an unshakable expression of blank, calm neutrality on her face. Her hair is yellow and short, with a bit of orange and red near the tips of certain sections. Despite looking relatively unkempt, it manages to fall in such a way that keeps it looking mostly-presentable.
Her pupils are black, and her irises are a glowing white. If one looks closely when she is using her powers, they may notice that her eyes glow brightly when she is drawing more energy from her abilities.
When on-duty, she wears a sleeveless set of tights, blue with a large white stripe going down on the front and back, tapering off onto her left leg in a smooth bolt-like pattern. Should one look closely at the material of the suit, they may realize that it has some layered patterning here and there, which may betray the fact that it is a bit more than just a simple set of tights.
During her rare off-duty time, she can usually be found wearing a simple set of jeans and a hoodie, or a heavier, function-over-fashion jacket in the colder months of the year. Regardless of what she is wearing, however, she will always have, without exception, her limiter equipment on her, which takes the form of two golden bracers and a belt, the three of which glow a bright red in certain places. Depending on how much power she is putting out that has to be limited, the lights may brighten or dim in a manner similar to her eyes.
Personality
Out of all the different terms that could be used to describe Alicia, "Stonefaced", "Unfeeling", and "Robotic" all seem to be the most popular.
Alicia does not seem to react to most things with any sort of emotional response, instead maintaining the same unchanging and stern expression. She seems to be, for all intents and purposes, devoid of any sort of personality in any way whatsoever. She responds to emotional topics with stern practicality, delivers cold and rational philosophy without hesitation, and even manages to hold her neutral demeanor in the middle of a fight.
To those that dig a little deeper, however, a much more different person surfaces. Underneath the cold exterior is someone who is afraid. Afraid of the world, afraid of others, and perhaps surprisingly, afraid of herself. Alicia's powers and her control over them are deeply tied to her emotions, so she bottles them up as best she can in order to maintain complete control at all times. If something unexpected does manage to push past her hard exterior, a brief loss of control may manifest itself as the nearby breaking of delicate material, such as ceramics or glass. She is constantly afraid that she may hurt someone or herself, as she is unaware of the full extent of her abilities, and has already observed that she is exceptionally powerful.
History
Early Life
Alicia was born to a loving mother and father in Millennium City's Mercy Hospital. It was unknown what made the two decide to bring a child into the world, considering that they barely had enough money to scrape by on their own. Perhaps it was to make up for their mistakes by raising someone who would be greater than they were. Perhaps it was in a desperate move for happiness and normality. Perhaps it was even a mistake.
Whatever the reason, the two soon found themselves the heads of a small family, and named their child Alicia. The two had a small apartment in West Side that they shared, and this became the place that Alicia spent her early life. She did not have all the fancy toys and games that other kids had, so instead, as soon as she was able to walk on her own, her parents began taking her to play outside. They took walks together, played games together, and if they happened to come across a bit of extra money, as rare as such events were, they ate lunch outside as well.
She did not have the distance between herself and her parents that material items and distractions tend to create in other children, and as a result, she felt a strong sense of family that, depending on who you ask, is quite a rare thing in this world. To her parents, things finally seemed to be looking up; their daughter brought them more happiness than they could have ever expected or dreamed, their familial bond granted them more confidence, and Alicia's father even managed to get a full-time job. Things could not have been better.
On their way home from an evening outing, the family was pulled into an Alleyway by a set of West Side gang members, who demanded their possessions. When it became clear that literally all they had were the clothes on their backs, the demands of the gang changed. They wanted Alicia and her mother.
Alicia's father tried his best to protect his family, but was shot by several gang-members that panicked as soon as he made a move. A single stray bullet shot from one of the gang member's guns glanced off of the wall of the thin alleyway, and claimed Alicia's mother shortly afterwards. At the age of six, Alicia had lost both of her parents.
Saddened, confused, and enraged all at the same time, Alicia's dormant powers activated explosively. As she opened herself up to her sudden shock and emotions, she let out a torrent of energy in all directions, partially destroying the nearby buildings, and cutting the thugs into ribbons. After coming to her senses once more and realizing what she had done, she turned, running as fast as she could as far away from the alley as she could reach, eventually collapsing in the streets from exhaustion.
She awoke in a holding cell, a set of binds made for metahuman children around her wrists. The events of the previous night came off as some sort of awful dream. Where was she? Where were her parents? She wanted to go home. She needed to go home. As her fear mounted, her powers flared up again, pushing the door outwards and throwing it against the back wall. She stepped out and ran through the halls of the complex that contained her, her energy tossing guards to the side like dolls as her fear continued to drive her. But before she could reach the exit, however, she found herself blocked by a well-groomed man in a suit and strange, circular glasses.
There was something off about him. She had never seen him before in her short life, yet there was some aura about him that made her feel as if she had known him for a long time. From the looks of things, he had just finished disposing of a group of guards, and in a much more brutal manner than Alicia's simple defensive tossing. Nevertheless, he was very gentle, kind, and patient to her. He explained that her parents would never be seeing her again, and then after comforting her, offered to take her with him.
To this day, Alicia is not sure why, but she agreed.
The Stretch of Darkness
Things seemed, for a time, better. She could not remember how the man had taken her to where she was, or exactly where they were hiding in the first place. All that she knew was that she was safe, and although there was something about this man that she could not quite place, he seemed to have only the best in mind for her. He was able to provide her with all sorts of things that her parents could not. Games, toys, things that she never even knew existed. What was a previously sparse bedroom soon became adorned with colorful objects and soft animals.
It became her refuge of sorts, from Him and His lessons. He taught her, hardened her, instructed her in the use of her abilities, which he seemed to know quite a lot about. He encouraged her to open up to the emotions that she was trying to keep hidden from him, in particular her sadness and anger towards the loss of her parents. Through his subtle manipulation, it slowly became a driving force for her, and all that she could focus on was honing her abilities and developing her power in order to bring down her anger on whoever was responsible. She even eventually disregarded all of the simple, peaceful toys in her room, and barely noticed when they had been discarded.
Years went by, and she grew more blind by the day. Her mysterious benefactor had begun steering her with her irrational anger, directing it towards whatever suited his purposes. She no longer cared that her attackers had paid with their lives in that alleyway many years ago, and the Man fed her feelings with smooth words and phony shared anger. The problem was no longer the gang members that had targeted her and her family, it was all normal humans, those lowly, groveling members of society that were not special, without a single supergene in their body. It was they, without purpose or power, unable to lift a finger to defend their own, easily and mercilessly struck down by those with even an iota of additional power than they, who were to blame. Lack of power breeds weakness. Weakness breeds fear. Fear breeds violence against those who are better. The Man had a war to wage with those who were unfit for the world, and Alicia was going to fight with him.
A Forceful Redemption
As Alicia matured and the plan continued, something about it began to bother her. Perhaps the anger had finally washed away, or maybe she was finally beginning to think straight without putting her emotions in the way. Regardless of what it was, she began having second thoughts about the Man's plan, and had a harder and harder time fulfilling his orders. Everything reached its climax when an attack on San Francisco was thwarted by a group of heroes, and the offshore yacht that the two observed from was raided by the exact same group. Unable to concentrate, Alicia was captured by the hero All-Star and taken into custody, even though the Man had escaped.
Having neither reason nor want to resist, she cooperated and told the overseers of the UNTIL bunker that she was transferred to her side of the story. As a result, they gave her a simple ultimatum. Cooperate, or Stronghold. Feeling guilty and responsible for her former actions and manipulations, she chose the former almost without hesitation.
It would be some time before UNTIL even thought about letting her out into the world again. She remained inside of her designated holding bunker, viewed through a force-field window and re-enforced by several feet of metal on all-sides, along with power-dampening equipment. In many ways, it simply was Stronghold, only with the promise of eventually getting out. She cooperated, UNTIL did their tests, some argued vehemently against her release while others dug in their heels and attempted to keep their promise, and through it all, she remained cold and emotionless, determined not to let her feelings cloud her judgment ever again.
UNTIL assisted her in this pursuit, teaching her meditative techniques, and using emotional control and carefully-constructed martial-arts regimens in order to control and focus her abilities. Even so, all of this was not enough to assuage the fear that once released, she would simply do whatever it is she wanted, this time with greater power than before.
As a result, a special set of limiter equipment was constructed for her, designed to remotely regulate her power output in order to adjust the extent of her abilities for various threats, each of which would be chosen by UNTIL. Originally, Alicia did not appreciate the idea of being used as a simple weapon for the organization and its forces, but after considering the things that she had already done, and a bit of honeyed words regarding Heroism from the overseers, she eventually reluctantly consented to the measure, and had the belt and gauntlets strapped on for what she hoped would not be the rest of her life.
Reborn as a reluctant hero, Alicia Crane stepped out into the world determined to at least atone for her actions, even if she would not be forgiven. From the very first day that she took to the skies, papers from around the country began touting a single defining descriptor that once painted her as a menace, but now made her a hero: Unstoppable.
Powers and Abilities
As part of her cooperation with UNTIL, Alicia is frequently subjected to various tests and examinations overseen by UNTIL scientists. Usually these tests are administered in order to track her progress, but are occasionally geared towards the study of her abilities, the source and substance of which are of great debate.
Energy Projection
Although exactly what sort of energy Alicia projects is unknown, it has proven to be highly versatile, capable of charging devices and strengthening metahumans with a variety of absorption abilities. What is clear, however, is that this energy is a manifestation of her Will, and varies in intensity depending on how focused and driven she is at any given time. Due to this, these abilities are also deeply tied to her emotions. Any emotions that effect her focus and drive have an effect on her powers, ranging from increased accuracy to erratic discharging. Strangely, large surges of energy have shown to be capable of injuring her, and could theoretically cause lacerations or other damages that would be considered life-threatening.
Minor Telekinetics
Alicia has shown to have a few minor telekinetic abilities that are also tied in with her Will. At the moment, these abilities seem to only vary in intensity, and are practically useless, as she is incapable of properly controlling or directing them. When summoning a large amount of her Will, she may cause fragile objects nearby to break, or larger objects within her general area to levitate to some extent. Momentary bursts of intense emotions such as embarrassment or anger usually cause nearby objects to crumple or shatter.
Flight
Current tests point to Alicia's ability to fly as being a more focused form of her Telekinetic abilities, through the reason why she would be able to control herself to such a degree but not other objects remains a mystery. Currently, UNTIL scientists believe that it is because she thinks of flying in a different way than the Telekinetic abilities that have been shown, which, when coupled with the fact that she does not actively train her Telekinetics, may prove to be a self-constructed barrier.
Super Strength
Another manifestation of Alicia's Will, which seemingly varies to the same degree as her Energy Projection abilities in accordance to her current concentration and drive. Seeing as exactly how focused she can be is untested, her upper limits are not truly known. On average, however, she seems to have a mid to high-tier level of strength, capable of lifting heavy machinery such as tanks or trailers.
Invulnerability
Despite being extremely durable, it has been confirmed that Alicia is still capable of feeling pain, even though she would rather not try to show it. The amount of damage that she can take before getting up again is, perhaps unsurprisingly, tied into her Will as well. The greater her drive, the more damage she can take before she goes down.
