Express
| Express | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | /u/Enalea |
| Civilian name | Isadora Edythe Willoughby |
| Alignment | Villain |
| Affiliation | House of Mirrors (Devilfish) |
| PRT Classification | Blaster, Mover, |
| Born |
June 22, 2003 Devilfish |
| Status | Noncanon |
Pretty much nothing is publicly known about Express, but there have been rumors of absurdly sticky green goo randomly appearing around Devilfish, as well as how it would disappear into nothing after a while. She did make an appearance at a casino heist, and did her best to make sure bystanders and the like at the scene knew to call her Express so she didn't get saddled with some other lame name.
Character Sheet
Appearance
Isadora is, in a word, petite, standing at just under five-foot-two. She is rather slender, and has long legs, comparatively, considering her height. Her skin is pale and freckled, her eyes green, and her hair long, red, and curly. She usually wears her hair tied up out of the way in a long, fluffy ponytail for most situations.
Her old costume was undeniably cheaply made, but she put some obvious effort into it. It consists of a black hoodie, a pair of dark jeans, black boots, a dark gray scarf, and a pair of large, mirrored goggles. Paint the same shade of green as her beams and goo has been used to apply downward-pointing chevrons to the hoodie’s sleeves from shoulder to wrist, and to the legs of her pants from hip to ankle. A large X of the same color graces the hoodie’s back. In addition, she ties up her hair in a bun, which she hides beneath her hood. She intends to obtain or make a better costume once she has the funds necessary to do so.
Her updated costume consists of a set of black motorcycle leathers, sized to fit her and the stab vest she wears hidden under the jacket, as well as a pair of black boots and a black motorcycle helmet. On the sleeves of the jacket, and the legs of her pants, are chevrons of the same green as her beams and goo, and on the back is a large X of the same color. This is more or less just like what was on her old costume, but much more cleanly applied, giving the costume a more professional appearance. On each of her helmet's temples are a trio of green lines that sweep backwards, like racing stripes except zig-zagged.
Mentality
In her civilian guise, Isadora is a quiet girl, especially since her failure at her track meet. She has undiagnosed depression, and has intrusive feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing, in addition to a strong fear of failure and being terrified of disappointing others. She desperately craves approval and affection, to an extent that she sees as pathetic, which fuels her self-loathing.
She has, in the past, given into sadistic urges in order to bleed off stress, doing things like pulling the limbs off of bugs or burning ants with a magnifying glass. She didn’t, however, turn those urges on other people, too afraid of others seeing her as anything other than a nice girl.
When in costume as Express, she tries her best to escape all that. She projects an aura of confidence and playfulness, and has a desperate desire to become the mask. She’s shied away from the idea of joining the local Wards, mostly because doing so would just give her more people to fail. Thus, she’s trying to remain independent.
Equipment and Resources
- Cell phone
- Laptop
- Shelter (parents’ home)
Wealth Level: 6, following casino heist
- Costume
- Taser (bright green; almost matches her powers!)
- Stun Gun
- Telescoping baton
- Pocket knife
- Burner phone
- Zip-ties
Skills and Specializations
Has the level of education expected of one who has completed their Junior year of high school.
Has good running ability and notably above-average stamina, as befits someone who spent several years doing high school-level track.
Is pretty good with spatial reasoning, such as making mental maps of where she’s been in an unfamiliar location and using them to retrace her steps or otherwise navigate. As a consequence, rarely gets lost. This skill has been mildly boosted by her power, though she has not yet noticed.
Is reasonably skilled at navigating conversation with others, especially with figuring out what someone wants to hear in order to get them to leave her alone.
Is knowledgeable of the layout of her hometown, Devilfish, and the surroundings.
Is decent at skating, and is getting better with practicing with her power.
Power
Trigger type: Single Natural, can Second Trigger
Express's power expresses (heh) itself as wrist-wide green beam that emerges from the palm of either of her hands. This beam doesn't curve, but it does, at random intervals, turn sharply, in a way that isn't fully under her control, but tends to result in the beam striking its intended target from above or behind, making cover less effective against it. The beam is fast and can alter its trajectory mid-shot, making it a continuous beam that can track after a target that evades it, or strike a wider area with a single "shot".
When the beam strikes its target, it does so with the force of a strong-ish punch; not enough to break bones, outside of extreme circumstances, but enough to bruise someone or crack glass. When it hits, it becomes apparent that the beam is not a laser or anything like that, but instead is more of a stream of green goo that splashes over and coats everything in the vicinity of the impact. The goo, to everyone and everything except Express and things she is wearing/carrying, is very sticky, and stepping in a patch of it can, at best, make the person stepping in it lose their shoe in their efforts to escape; at worse, it adheres them in place, unable to move from the spot without taking whatever they're stuck to with them. The goo adheres to itself very strongly, and a Brute stuck to a road is more likely to tear up the chunk of concrete or asphalt they're stuck to than they are to rip the goo apart.
For Express, however, the goo can function as a pathway that she can "skate" along the top of at high speeds, though with enough control and maneuverability to stop or turn on a dime. In addition, any goo surface she is in contact with counts as "down" for her, so if she coats a wall, or even a ceiling, with it, she can move along it just fine, with no fear of falling.
The goo only lasts for a little over an hour after it is applied, after which point it rapidly dissolves into nothing over the course of 34 to 53 seconds. It is not water soluble, and if it comes into contact with open wounds or mucous membranes it is a mild irritant.
In addition, Express has a minor power-granted improvement to grace and reflexes, though nothing outside human norms, as well as a mild resistance to G-forces, which is helpful when making tight turns at high speeds.
Backstory
Isadora tensed, ready to run when the signal was given. She might not be the best runner on her school’s track team, but she absolutely needed to win this race, or, at least, not lose. Her coach had informed her that, given her performance as of late, if she didn’t do sufficiently well here, she wouldn’t be on the team much longer. It, it wasn’t fair, she needed to be on the team in order to qualify for that scholarship next year! Without it her parents wouldn’t be able to afford to send her to college, and she couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing them like that.
Suddenly, the starting gun was fired, and she and the other girls were off.
The first half of the race went well enough, but then Isadora felt herself begin to flag. Girl after girl started to pass her, and she felt the icy grip of panic start to grasp her heart. She tried to dig deep within herself for some reserve of energy that would allow for a burst of speed, something to keep her from falling behind. But as her legs started to feel like lead, and another girl passed her, she felt the beginnings of despai-
When she came to, mere moments later, she had fallen to the ground. Pain burned in her arms, legs, and cheek from where she’d scraped them in her tumble. The finish line was in front of her, so very close… as were all the other runners, who had passed it.
She’d failed.