Description:The first thing that most people notice about Gale is not her height, her age, her clothes, or her face.  It's the pair of gray, silver, and white wings that sprout from her back.  Gale's height would measure 5 feet 4 inches, and her wings tower an extra foot above that when folded.  They arch gracefully so that the tips of the primary feathers land near her ankles; it is easy to see why some people might mistake her appearance for "angelic".  She had dark curved claws on her hands, but people tend to ignore those in favor of the big show-stopper.

Prior to the nuclear bomb in Columbia, she had mostly non-angelic features.  Brown hair, green eyes.  Post-Columbia, her hair turned bright blue, and she had scars burned into her skin from the dark patches of her T2M uniform.  She often wore clothes that covered up all the scars to minimize other people's discomfort.

Post-Chrysalis, Gale is the picture of confidence.  She seems to shine even brighter than she did before, reveling in her re-discovered powers.  Her scars have been healed, replaced by a dappled pattern to her skin.  Her usual tan glow was replaced by a much lighter skin tone, and the light spots trace their way from the edges of her face down her entire body.  They stay small near her face and extremities, but become very large on her torso.  Her hair lightened to a sky-blue color with streaks of white, and her eyes finally changed from the previously verdant green to the color of a stormy rain cloud.  These days she wears much less clothing, showing off her new features with no shame.

Background/History:
Stacey "Stace" Wilderschmidt was born on July 21st, 1982 as a very healthy Caucasian girl with green eyes and a tuft of brown hair.  Her childhood was unremarkable: she grew up in San Francisco, and learned to love surfing and shopping.  Celebrity magazines were a guilty pleasure.  Her family was the stereotypical American family: Dad worked too hard in a big company, Mom stayed at home, and her little brother Jimmy, well, he did what little brothers do best.  From all accounts, her life was positively normal.

That was until she erupted on April 11, 1998.  That was the night of the senior prom.  Stace was only 16 and had been invited by her crush.  It was the crowning moment of her high school life; Corey could have had any girl in the school, but he had chosen her.  However, prom night revealed that Corey had only asked her as a joke, and about half the school (the popular half) had been in on it.  He chose to reveal this in the middle of the dance, while he had Stace out on the dance floor in the middle of a throng of people.  In her pain and embarrassment, Stace wanted nothing more than to run away.  She tried to push through the crowd, but they pressed closer to prevent her escape.  She erupted while she was running away.  Her fingernails became claws to help her pull her way through the crowd, and once outside, she grew wings so that she could fly away before anyone could catch her.

Novas were still new in 1998, and the next morning, someone had tipped off the media enough that they caught up with her.  Hiding wasn't an option, because the wings and claws seemed permanent.  Some people even mistook her silver, gray, and white wings for those of an angel.  Her family (mainly her father) didn't like all the attention, and so Stace asked Jimmy to help her come up with an alias, so she wouldn't have to use her real name.  Jimmy loved the idea of having a superhero for a sister.  Together, they came up with the name Gale.  She agreed to continue on as a Nova with this other name, so that her family would be safe from paparazzi or other dangers.

Several groups wanted to make use of this new Nova in San Fran, and as quickly as possible.  Gale managed to dodge most of the scarier offers (such as being in the military) by claiming she would still be a minor, even after her birthday in July.  However, she did like the offer of Dr. Henri Mazarin and Dr. Farah Rashoud.  They were doing a study on the limits of nova powers and what could eventually cause them.  To a 16-year-old girl whose plans of a normal life had been tossed out the window, this seemed like a much safer place to start figuring out what being a nova really meant.

Gale's time at the study showed her that she was much weaker compared with other novas.  Compared to Steve Debow, Antaeus, and Caestus Pax (before he took on that name), her powers were tame at best.  Speculation from the scientists suggested that perhaps this stunt in power growth was either due to her young age, or her negative reactions to being a nova immediately after her eruption.  She stayed with the study until it changed into Project: Utopia, and even though she was asked to be part of the first Team Tomorrow, she wasn't comfortable enough with herself to say yes.

Instead, Gale devoted her time to finishing her high school degree, and then attempting a college degree.  She started out studying zoology at University of California--Davis, a plan that she had before she erupted, since she wanted to study dolphins and whales.  After her eruption, she focused instead on birds, in an effort to understand herself.  She managed the first two years fine, despite the stares and jokes.  After two years, her college savings ran out.  So she had to find work.  She spent one summer being a flight instructor for hang gliders.  This seemed like a good idea at first, because she could be up in the air and tutoring the customer.  However, accidents occurred more frequently due to pilots being distracted by watching the winged girl next to them.  During her senior year, she was approached by a representative for Victoria's Secret.  Their big show always had the models wearing wings, and now that Gale had been out in the public for a little while, the marketing department thought it would be great to get a model who actually had wings.  Of course, the gimmick would only work once (Gale wasn't even as pretty as normal models), but it still brought in a nice paycheck for Gale and she was able to finish her degree at the age of 20.

Over this time, Gale finally began to accept what being a nova entailed, and was no longer scared of what people expected of her.  She would either correct their expectations, or meet them.  She may not have been as famous as other novas, but she didn't want to be.  5 years later, she was very sure that choosing to not join Team Tomorrow at 16 was the best choice she could have made for herself.

Unfortunately for Gale, academia doesn't allow you to specialize until you get to graduate school.  Since she wanted to study birds in particular, she had to apply to a graduate program.  Luckily, UC-Davis offered such a degree. However, it became clear after she was accepted as a graduate student that some people in the university didn't like her presence.  There were angry notes, passive-aggressive letters to the editor, and eggs on her apartment door. Gale figured these were all just little things, and whoever was doing this was probably someone she had never even met.  But then one day, she came back to her office to find a dead bird on her desk.  A dead bird whose wings and toes had been cut off.  The implication was clear to Gale that someone in her own department didn't want her there, to the point of maiming an innocent animal.

So Gale politely resigned from her graduate school, noting exactly who seemed to be relieved or even pleased by the prospect.  Then she immediately applied to Team Tomorrow.  Project: Utopia had always made her feel accepted, even when she couldn't accept herself, and now that Gale was more confident and sure of herself, she felt now she could make a difference by being on the team.

She picked up a lot of useful skills from being on Team Tomorrow, but more importantly, she gained a family.  Her teammates accepted her unconditionally, which made a huge difference to her.  She survived a nuclear bomb, terrorist attacks, and getting shot by religious fanatics.  Any of those events might have brought her low, if her friends hadn't been there to hold her up.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

--Emily Dickinson