Alyssa Woods
Currently being reworked a bit at a time.Origin: Born to the mad scientist Doc Malice with Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy by all rights Alyssa shouldn't have made it to her first birthday. With her father's help though she's survived and over the last year gained a series of cybernetic implants and a high tech super suit powered by a miniaturized cold fusion reactor. This let her walk, talk and function with independence for the first time in her life. When the capes came and finally put her father away finding a daughter was a surprise. They had the state enroll her in the School for the Unusually Gifted shortly after. Recently she's abandoned her flesh and bone almost entirely repurposing a number of materials raw materials and pieces of her own armor to transform herself into a complex cyborg.
Appearance: Since turning herself into a complex cyborg Alyssa has looked like an almost idealized version of herself. She's still small only standing at about 5'1'' but her hidden emaciated, atrophied frame has been replaced with a lean athletic appearance. A full healthy face has replaced her sunken, gaunt features. For the most part she's indistinguishable from a normal person without the proper enhanced senses. An almost excessive level of detail has been paid to her design in an attempt to make her look as normal as possible, likely an attempt to avoid frightening others or making them uneasy. Underneath the synthetic skin and life like eyes are white silicon rubber muscles, black cross-hatched bones and an array of wiring and tubing to keep her body functional. She wears a simple charm bracelet on her left wrist and in quiet moments she can often be seen running her thumb across a simple phoenix charm in quiet contemplation.
Personality: With only the Internet and a mad scientist for company it's a miracle Alyssa is as well adjusted as she is. She's sometimes bitter about her dad being taken away but she doesn't hold it against anyone. She understands why it had to happen. The negative reactions she's gotten from some people convinced she's just Malice Jr. have actually caused her to focus on being what she sees as a decent person partly out of spite, partly because she never really made the best villain to begin with even if she'll never admit it if asked.
In spite of her efforts she can still be a hard person to like in some instances. She defaults to a friendly sort of lazy confidence when meeting new people but hit the right buttons and she's quick to anger and just as quick to forgive. She seems to care for others and their safety and happiness above her own and will lash out quickly if she thinks she sees someone else being unfairly treated or targeted. This occasionally prickly attitude coupled with a well of self-confidence in a few select areas has a tendency to get her into trouble more often than she'd care to admit.
The Sinister Syndicate
Overview: The motley collection of villains and anti-villains that collectively raised Alyssa. The unfortunately named Sinister Syndicate has operated in some capacity mostly across the US with headquarters in LA for the past two decades. Currently it's five members strong after one of its founding members was jailed. Evidence has been recently surfacing that the collective might not be as harmonious as they like to let the world believe and an internal power struggle of some kind is taking place.
Doc Malice: Erik Woods. Also Alyssa's Father. He's had unfortunate brushes with the law and heroes dating back to his expulsion from Grad School testing a psychotropic substance designed to increase brain function that came with small side of megalomania. Since then he's branched out into an assortment of fringe sciences. For all his faults and frequent absenteeism he's been fiercely dedicated to his daughter's growth and survival. He's actually an accomplished painter and sculptor and has several pieces in art museums across the country under a pseudonym. The Grav Cannon may not have launched the apple far from the tree. Currently imprisoned.
Captain Carnage: Danielle Baker, Castleman Security Solutions pet project. When it became clear that Castleman was going to try to claim ownership of the process that gave her regenerative powers and peak human abilities she blasted her way out of a secure facility and cut a bloody swathe across several small nations as a Soldier of Fortune. She's mostly settled down as muscle for the group. She taught Alyssa how to defend herself once she could walk. Ever since signing on with the Syndicate Carnage has restricted her methods to mostly to non lethal takedowns.
Spectre: He claims to be a former world class thief that ate an unfortunate bullet after a double cross. Supposedly Doc Malice decided that Ghostbusters may as well have been a documentary and captured his angry spirit before restoring a body for him. Spectre serves as the teams retrieval specialist and infiltration expert with an assortment of ghostly powers including intangibility and possession. He also considers himself a connoisseur of the finer things in life. He's also got a really impressive vinyl collection.
Cinder: A woman who was incinerated in an apartment fire Cinder survived when a latent mutation activated melding her with the remnants of the fire. She has control over smoke, ash, and embers and can transform herself into those substances. Known to be something of an activist vigilante villain Cinder's primarily made a name for herself independent of the group by lashing out at people who profit off the exploitation of all society's most vulnerable members. It's a bit of an open secret that the bulk of her ill gotten gains from group heists go to various charities and organizations after they've been laundered. She seems to prefer shelters and immigrant advocacy networks though nothing's ever been conclusively proven.
Psyche: Johnny Nguyen is a surprisingly low key, powerful, and varied psychic with a strange moral code. He has no problem breaking the law, stealing, or dominating others to get what he wants but he's a technical pacifist utterly refusing to harm someone or use a temporary minion to harm anyone. Against all odds being able to command others to like him has not left him a raging narcissist and he's actually careful to only use his powers 'on the job' in an attempt to stay at least a little bit grounded. He's a bit of an amateur chef and quietly owns a few restaurants in the LA area under a false name.
M.A.R.I.A. (Medical Assistance Robot with Integrated Assassination protocols): M.A.R.I.A. was originally a complicated and adaptive virtual intelligence designed to care for Alyssa when no one else could and see to her needs. Years of tinkering and her own adaptive core made her more and more life like but it wasn't until Malice decided to introduce Killbot programming into the mix after a close call that M.A.R.I.A. woke up. The logic bomb that went off as she tried to reconcile her care orders with her kill orders created a feedback loop that dramatically boosted her intelligence and gifted her self awareness. M.A.R.I.A.'s reconciled her dual nature by allowing herself to initiate sometimes horrifying violence but never to intentionally kill. She's probably Alyssa's closest friend from her previous life.
Old Appearance: Alyssa is small for her age and very thin, the SMA having taken a toll on her body even if she's survived far past what anyone could expect from her. Her skin is pale since she's had very little sun over the years, and her eyes look a bit sunken in a face that's still filling out. Alyssa ' blond hair is kept short and pretty easy to manage. Out of the suit she's shy of five feet tall and even in it she's only about 5'1''. At the base of her neck behind the armor is an easy to access implant that governs the cybernetics inside her body and makes sure that she keeps breathing.
The suit itself is obviously sturdy made out of an alloy Malice developed himself with a dark gray nearly black and white color scheme. Located in the chest piece underneath a reinforced and shielded interior is the miniaturized cold fusion reactor that powers the suit. A venting system is designed into the hands and shoulders of the suit as well. In the shoulders two angled jets can be engaged to allow for flight once they're extended and in the hands concentrated bursts of radiation that hit with projectile force can be blasted out for self defense. Last is a visor overlay that's been installed at the sides of her head and with a thought she can extend it over her eyes giving her a wealth of new visual information.