N.B. You may find it useful to read Born in a Watery Grave either before, during, or after reading this.
Name: Lorena (Rena) Marquez (previously Mark Foster)
Codename: AquaGirl
Age: Chronologically 34, Physically/Legally 17
Height: 5'8" (previously 5'4")
Stats: 36B-26-36 (previously 36" waist)
Powers:
Underwater survival to 1,000ft / 300m depth.
Seamless transition between underwater respiration (gills) and land respiration (lungs)
Accurate aural ranging (i.e. can determine exactly what direction a sound's coming from).
High visual acuity (i.e. can see great detail - think of it like a 12MP camera compared to a 8MP camera).
Quick-drying hair (OK, it's a minor power, but very useful for an amphibious character!)
Reduced vulnerability (very tough skin, stab-proof but not bullet-proof)
Strength: 3
Agility: 3 (land), 4 (underwater)
Underwater swimming: 20 knots (23mph/37kph) continuous, bursts of up to 30 knots (35mph/56kph)
Endurance: 5
IQ: 130(ish)
Willpower: 3
Skills / Computers: 4
Skills / Mathematics: 3
Skills / Social interaction: 0 (but will improve with training)
Talents: Computer geek (build / repair / programming), piano/keyboard (intermediate), Sci-Fi geek
Note on Powers: What's listed is the basic set that comes 'with the package'. Over time she will discover she also has a form of Marine ESP - i.e. can sense what nearby aquatic creatures can sense, and 'project' vague instructions to them (e.g. gather near me, flee, head in this direction, attack the strange black object in front of me). As her base powerset is derived from aquatic organisms, she may realise this, and may be able to pick up additional powers from aquatic organisms in the future - but probably only if creatures with that ability are nearby. I don't want this to turn into "New powers as the plot demands."
And since you're probably wondering who the heck "Domesday" are: they've appeared out of nowhere and demanded a huge ransom from the government, which (unsurprisingly) failed to materialise. Hence the boat attack - which you should have gathered was very professionally done, so probably cost a fair amount to stage. They have no known agenda or philosophy (unless they're trying to set up a government-level protection scheme - which of course major governments wouldn't subscribe to but some dodgy regimes may think it's worth it), but it's likely they're linked to an unspecified major crime syndicate (which should allow plenty of room for other authors to play with them and link them to other evil organisations).
‘Red top’ is a UK colloquialism for the tabloid press (in increasing order of sensationalism and decreasing order of real news content: The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Star, The Daily Sport - all of which, coincidentally enough, have red-backed mastheads)
PostScript: If you've read Free Spirit 3, you may notice a reference to the opening event. In case you're wondering, Lynceus had access to the text while it was being written. And what a lot of text - I make it 11,500 words (excluding the header block and the separators - which are a combination of two ASCII-arts, which I believe are public domain.
Post PostScript: While writing this, I decided to have a little fun. At least a dozen different films, Radio 4 shows and TV programmes are either name-dropped or alluded to in the text, plus at least four other name-drops/allusions. See how many you can find...
Comments
Behind the scenes...
Righteo, there's been a lot of debate over the story itself, here's some information from behind the scenes.
Domesday. Research what happened in the UK in 1086. That should give you fertile grounds for speculation on why they chose that name. They have access to vast amounts of finance, and military grade hardware. So evidently they have very high level links within the criminal underworld.
Why the ferry? Numerous factors. If they'd chosen the Chunnel, that would have disrupted services for weeks upon end - possibly more if they'd damaged the tunnel lining. It's probably fairly difficult to smuggle explosives onto planes. I assume the hull and doors of a Ro-Ro ferry are quite tough, and would probably require a significant amount of explosives to breach. So the powers that be probably thought ferry traffic would be safe, as customs would probably notice if a car rolled on with a suspiciously high load.
But Domesday didn't play by the book. There were three blast sites, and when investigation teams eventually start looking at the ferry, they'll discover that shaped charges were applied from the outside. So definitely not your average fertiliser bomb then.
-oOo-
The T shirt incident. I figured that having had only one (male) human owner before, it wouldn't have known much about female clothing before Terra turned up (remember: Jade always wears the same ring-provided bodysuit). Given the fact Jade's ring can tap into police communications and school records, it's a fair bet it's got internet access. So naturally the 'net will be where it turns to when asked to build a 'library' of clothing suitable for a 17 year old.
Since ring bearers can will custom clothing, even those unfamiliar with female attire should be able to will colour / slogan changes to 'template' clothing.
-oOo-
Relocation to Chicago: since someone brought this up in the main thread, let me explain it again here. Mark was not transgendered. He was not a crossdresser. He had never dated. He had very little experience of women. He's just been transformed into a younger girl and has acquired as yet undefined superpowers. Given there are other superheroes around - including ones assisting in the ferry rescue - would it have been fair to abandon the new girl back in the UK, and let her figure out for herself how to live as a female? She looks nothing like her former self, her DNA has been completely rewritten, so although she could probably get back into her old flat, (a) none of her old clothes fit, (b) any photo IDs are now useless, (c) she's completely clueless about being female so probably wouldn't have the confidence to go female clothes shopping, let alone know which styles work and which don't, and (d) don't you think the authorities would get a little suspicious?
-oOo-
Most of the metahumans we've met so far are based in the Las Vegas area. But what's the sense in placing someone with water-based powers in the middle of the desert? Doris and Lena have built an apartment inside a warehouse, so there's room for expansion; Chicago's on the shores of a bloomin' great big expanse of freshwater; and Doris has also had her physical appearance traded in for a younger model of the opposite sex. As Mark was involved in computing, the rest of the warehouse (which is currently used by Doris when experimenting with her growth) has plenty of room for an additional bedroom to be constructed adjacent to the apartment and stacks of room left over for building several computers at the same time.
-oOo-
Timeline: I deliberately didn't use exact dates, so as to fit easily around other stories. But I imagine the ferry sinks on Saturday, Sunday and Monday are spent on the Starcruiser, and Tuesday is the Chicago Experience.
The next episode will take us through to the end of the week with training, settling in, and her public debut.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
1086
The Book and division of the spoils, or the Bastard's act of genocide in Northumbria? "Hoc est wasta"....
Domesday
I was personally thinking of the book: a survey of who owned what, so they could be taxed on it.
The outfit had plenty of money to stage the stunt and they demanded a heck of a lot of money, so it's fairly evident that money and the distribution of wealth is something that concerns them. I personally thought of them as being connected to major crime syndicates, possibly even to LexCorp, and toyed with the idea of this being a showpiece stunt to try and run an international protection racket.
Meanwhile, if anyone's reading this, how are you doing with finding the half buried Sci-Fi references within the story? There's over a dozen, plus a handful of other references which UK readers in particular should be able to 'get'.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!