Anuradha Dewan
Character Name: Anuradha DewanCode name: Catalyst
Alias: Anura Gold
Age: 37
Physical Description (then): Woman of Indian descent, way below average in height and weight due to malnourishment. The scars and still healing bruises make it hard to tell her exact age. She prefers wide clothes that hide her thin body and signs of mistreatment. Black hair reaches her shoulders, but it is clear she pays little attention to it, as ends are split and it flies around widely. Anura usually keeps her distance from others if there is space and tenses if that is not possible.
Physical Description (now): Half a foot taller and a whole lot better than when she was found, Anura fits the image of a soldier well. Lean upper body and strong legs easily carry gear that she wasn't able to lift two years ago. Her hair sees regular care and has a healthy shine to it, even when braided to keep it out of her face. While in the best shape of her life, Anura still struggles with her self-image and avoids eye contact.
Personality: Scarred by her experience, she is overcautious around new people especially when outnumbered. Despite that she will force herself to connect to people that could help her, knowing how much of her life was already wasted. In one on one interactions Anura does her best to learn and share what she knows, without revealing the painful details of her past. She speaks in a submissive way, rarely questioning others or raising her own opinions. This also makes it unlikely for her to reject invitations and suggestions, unless they truly make her uncomfortable.
Motivation: She needs to find her path and place in the world and a way to use her powers for good. Joining the Devil's Brigade is hopefully a step in the right direction. Despite joining a military unity and being drilled to obey commands on the field, Anura is content knowing she had made this choice. After seeing how her body had flourished, she wishes to explore her powers more, but is held back by her cautiousness.
Powers:
Energy absorption: Anura can convert excessive energy (anything that would hurt her) she is exposed to into a general form of bio energy that is easily consumed by mutant powers to prolong or empower their effects. Part of the energy is spent to drive the change. The bio energy radiates soft yellow-gold light and can be seen coursing under her skin while she is holding it.
The effect is a field enveloping her body, covering her uniform but not loose clothes or equipment.
So far she was able to absorb: Electricity, Heat (Fire and Laser), Sonic attacks
Energy transfer: Once she has converted the energy, Anura can pass it on to another mutant via touch. They have to actively use it to enhance their own powers in order for transfer to happen - she cannot overload them on purpose. This is the main outlet for the energy.
Self-enhancement: While training, Anura's body used the energy she had absorbed to fuel its growth. The processes was involuntary and seems to have reached its end. Occasionally she hand spent the energy to recover from exhaustion, but not consistently.
Other uses of this aspect potentially exist, but she still wasn't able to do anything consciously with the power.
Weaknesses:
Cold: As cold is absence of energy, her powers are useless against it.
Kinetic energy: Projectiles and physical attacks can not be absorbed by her ability.
Overload: If she takes too much energy into herself with no outlet, it starts damaging her body.
Hobbies: Yoga, running
Likes: Being alone, having choices, sour food
Dislikes:<b> Losing control, celebrity culture, loud music
<b>Nonmutant abilities: She inadvertently learned a lot about workings of a criminal enterprise, including basic phrases from a dozen of languages spoken across Asia.
Challenges:<b> Having been secluded from the world for two decades with only bits and pieces reaching her (often without context), Anura struggles with keeping up with the current situation and events.
<b>History: Taken as a teenager when her powers had awakened, Anura lived her best years in servitude to a superpowered criminal - Visionary. Her ability was used to power him, expanding his reign. Anura was abused on every turn. While docked in London for some of his dealings, the yacht was raided, Visionary captured, and Anura freed. After being debriefed by MI6, she was given a choice - try to live on her own, or join a special unit that could use her abilities.
During her mandatory training with the he Devil's Brigade, Anura transformed. More literally than figuratively. Over a year and a half her body went from being a malnourished husk to a set of lean muscles that could compete with most of non-powered soldiers. It still made that time grueling, as she was aware of how much was expected from her. The growth spurt, which resulted in several clumsiness caused accidents didn't help her self-esteem. But she made it through, proving herself capable and is about to embark on her first real mission.
Security access level 4 required, or involvement in operation Blackout
Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Incident report: Visionary was a precog with moderate abilities. He operated in South east Asia, based out of <REDACTED>. It is unclear how he became aware of Miss Dewan, but she was captured two weeks after displaying he abilities for the first time. Kidnapped from her home town of <REDACTED>, her parents <REDACTED> and <REDACTED> were subsequently killed while investigating her disappearance.
She was drugged and abused until she agreed to collaborate. Her days were spend being electrocuted and the power she generated was fed to Visionary, increasing the range and accuracy of his predictions.
This allowed him to grow his operation to a sprawling empire of human trafficking, drug dealing and weapons smuggling. Despite being aware of the increased threat, no law enforcement agency was able to deal a significant setback, due to the warnings Visionary received and shared. The successful busts turned out to be either misdirections or punishment to underlings that fell out of his favor.
Finally, through effort of several probability manipulating mutants and spell casters, a group was vailed from Visionary and he was captured in London on <REDACTED>. Him and his lieutenants are serving life sentences in <REDACTED>. After screening Miss Dewan was found to be forced into her role and questioned instead of incarcerated. Due to her daily proximity to Visionary, she was able to share details of the operations allowing for future actions <REDACTED> and <REDACTED> against the group.
Security access level 3 required, or access to medical files
Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Medical evaluation: Traces of several addictive substances (<REDACTED>) were found during initial examination. Subject has gone through withdrawal under observation and doesn't seem to be in danger of repeated addiction. She is malnourished and needs to be slowly introduced to a regular and adequate diet. Psychical trauma is the biggest obstacle. Subject suffers from PTSD. We will proceed with Psychological counseling and light medication.
Update: Subject's body displays remarkable ability to develop despite the late age. She is in 90th percentile on standardized tests. Observations suggested she would have been in 99th if she had went through this phase when the powers manifested.
Update: Catalyst was cleared in physical and psychological evaluations for active duty. Models predict 10% probability of relapses during actions. Constant monitoring and check-ups after each deployment are recommended.