Born to Roger and Laverne Barrows one January, Alaine was the couple's first child and quickly followed by five more in the next eight years. Roger was a pastor and worked in several different states throughout her childhood, so she and her siblings were homeschooled to help with frequent moves. Originally returning to the state she was born in, Alabama, when she was sixteen, Alaine and her family lived humble but happy lives.

But she was directionless. Two of her younger sisters went off to college, got engaged. One of her younger brothers joined the National Guard with plans to eventually become a cop, and the other brother and youngest sister already knew what they wanted to do with their lives. But her? No clue. She had options but none of them seemed quite right. She felt as if she was perpetually waiting for... something.

It was hard, watching her parents be proud of all her other siblings while she sat there collecting dust, no clue what to do with her life. She'd always been decent at art so her parents suggested she get a degree for it, if nothing else; trying to appease them, she found an art school based in California and headed west.

She didn't like being on the opposite side of the country from her family, nor did she like the crowded city or having to share a room again. It didn't help that her roommate and suitemate were a toxic pair that made her sole semester at the school a nightmare.

Without telling her parents, Alaine dropped out before her second semester. Once again directionless, she stayed at a hotel for a week while trying to figure out what to do and applying to jobs, desperate to make the trip across the country and all the money spent worth something.

Stressed and depressed after a week of dead ends, she tried to give herself a break by traveling to a smaller town and getting some fresh air out in the surrounding nature.

Instead, she was hit by a falling star.



Alaine still doesn't fully understand what happened. One minute she was out in the hills, watching the stars -- the next there was a dazzling light tumbling out of the sky and headed straight for her. When she woke up she didn't know how much time had passed. Her phone was fried so she had no way of contacting anyone as she hauled herself out of the small crater she found herself in. Unfamiliar energy crackled through her veins, pulsing in her nerve endings and buzzing in her head.

When she made it back to the town she was staying in she didn't know what was happening to her. Her body didn't feel like her own, she was disoriented. It was early in the morning, the sun just barely rising, and the first person she ran into was a kind old gentleman who noticed was something was wrong and stopped to try and help her.

She killed him.

It wasn't intentional. She'd been trying to explain what had happened when he touched her arm; the feeling was foreign, a jolt that caused a surge of unfamiliar energy through her body. Alaine saw stars -- literally. Behind her eyes she caught a glimpse of the cosmos, incomprehensible dark matter and glittering star-worlds. It only lasted a second and when she blinked, the old man was falling back on the pavement, a smoldering gash in his chest as dark light flickered around her hands.

Horrified and terrified, she tried to help the innocent man but it was too late. She knew she shouldn't have but she ran anyway, shaken as she struggled to comprehend what had happened to her, how her feet kept missing steps and instead of falling she floated.

She managed to catch a ride to the nearest city from a stranger who she was careful to keep her hands off of, and when they left her she took to the task of surviving. Overcome with guilt and horror, Alaine did her best to scrape by for a few weeks; many times she considered going to the authorities or to a hospital, but she was scared she'd kill someone else. So instead she dedicated herself to controlling the new, strange energy coursing through her veins and slowly but surely she began to learn. Only when she felt sure she wouldn't accidentally murder the next person she touched did Alaine venture back among the public to purchase a phone with what little money she still had available; she needed to make contact with her family, which was the first step to finding some sort of normalcy in her new reality.

But, like the star that had fallen right into her, her newfound abilities couldn't be ignored. And, like all things, they needed practice in order to be controlled.

Alaine isn't proud of that period of her life -- it was a two-and-a-half-year stretch of shady work, struggling with powers she wasn't sure anyone should have, stumbling along the line of wrong and right that made up vigilantism. It came from the right place, the want to do good with whatever had happened to her... but it was tainted with the knowledge that she'd killed someone, that she could kill. Throwing herself into situations where she was being threatened or protecting someone else who was in danger meant emotions were high and decisions couldn't be reversed.

The old man wasn't the only person she killed during that period. They weren't all intentional... but there were a few she didn't try to keep herself from hurting.

She was spiraling deeper and deeper into the mess of vigilantism and the web of lies she was spinning all around herself, between the diner where she'd gotten work during the day and her family back home who still didn't know what had happened to her out in the hills. Little by little she was losing herself and venturing into dangerous territory, which she recognized -- as a last-ditch effort, she packed up her bags and left town, traveling to a new town further west.

Denying herself vigilante work and any use of her powers seemed to be detrimental to her health however, slowly but surely driving her insane with the buildup of cosmic energy that had no outlet. She would've inevitably imploded if not for John.

She didn't know his last name, but he was an older man who'd been keeping track of the strange goings-on in the city she left. He'd pieced together that a new, superpowered individual had emerged and tracked her down, hoping to help; he seemed more knowledgeable about heroes than he should've been, for someone seemingly without powers himself, but he was able to help her get a new, normal job while simultaneously helping her learn more about her abilities and ways she could use them for the good of society.

Because she was still struggling internally with the guilt of what she'd done, intentionally or not, Alaine latched onto John's help and encouragement, eventually getting herself to the level of a functioning hero. John helped her pick out a name and even managed to procure her a customized suit from somewhere, and that was when he told her he'd gotten her an interview with SDN. He promised her they didn't have to know about the past two and a half years and said he'd keep her secrets as long as she needed him to, if she would in turn promise to use her cosmic-granted powers for good for as long as she was able.

It was a promise Alaine was happy -- relieved, really, to make.

Alaine is overall a kind and hardworking individual. She's naturally quiet and more of a loner, but in a group she does her best to make everyone feel comfortable and keep things running smoothly, if it's needed -- otherwise she tends to fade into the background and observe. Despite these quiet tendencies, she's more than capable of sticking up for herself. She's earned a reputation in certain circles as being tough, independent, and a bit of a vigilante, never one to back down from a fight when someone's honor or safety is on the line. She's fiercely loyal but has a hard time making good friends because she's had her loyalty taken advantage of before, and blames herself for several incidents that led her to believe she was better off on her own. Even though she tells herself that often, she still feels very lonely at times and wouldn't mind someone to be close to.

She has a tendency to be protective over people she likes, or those that remind her of her younger siblings. Although she's patient in many ways she also has no fondness for arrogance, cruelty, and people who don't use their heads, and she's been known to keep a grudge. Although she's incredibly resilient (and values that trait in others), she also tends to keep her problems under wraps and handle them herself, believing they're her responsibility and not wanting to bother anyone else. "Responsibility" was hammered into her from a young age and, despite going through a period of uncertainty about what her responsibilities were with her powers, she feels the weight of expectations (from herself and others) heavily.

More than anything Alaine considers herself a guard dog. Always putting others first, working tirelessly, and knowing when to be gentle makes her a good friend - being keenly observant, tough-skinned, and unafraid to attack makes her a dangerous protector.

Appearance: Alaine's suit is a charcoal black color, and she has a version with white detailing and a version with dark black. She prefers the black-on-black one, as she feels it makes her less visible. The suit has a half-cowl that goes up her neck and halfway up the back of her head, effectively hiding the portion of her hair that's dyed red and leaving the rest visible; it hides the midsection of her face and her eyes, though she has a detachable mask that covers the lower half of her face. She prefers it, as she's desperate to keep her anonymity (both for the sake of her family and the risk of being traced back to her less-than-reputable first years as a "hero"), but John suggested she looked more like a good guy without it.

Powers:
↳ flight: Alaine can fly surprisingly high and has discovered she can survive low levels of oxygen for extended periods of time, but she's not able to exist in space or stay in the upper atmosphere for more than ten minutes without suffocating or freezing. She is able to fly slow enough to hover as well as fast enough to outpace a commercial jet (around 400-500mph) but she hasn't attempted to go faster and is unsure of her max flight speed. Flying at high speeds or altitudes for extended periods of time will gradually wear her out and she'll need to rest afterwards (think of it like running a marathon). Flying uses energy either way, and her ability to remain in the air can fluctuate with exercise; for example, when she first discovered she could fly she couldn't stay in the air for more than an hour. Over time and practice she's built up a flying endurance. If she were to fall out of practice she would have to get back into it before being able to fly to higher altitudes or for prolonged amounts of time.

↳ cosmic/dark energy blades: Alaine is able to manifest a mysterious kind of dark/cosmic energy, and it takes the form of visually-crackling/flickering "blade" shapes that protrude out from her hands/fists with a hard-to-describe, inverted kind of light. These blades are at minimum four inches long and the longest Alaine has ever been able to extend them was around three and a half feet. When slicing into things they have a similar effect to lightsabers, able to melt/burn through most materials (though thicker/denser materials will take longer to melt and require more energy; generally Alaine tries to avoid this as it can wear her out quickly, leave her or others vulnerable, and in her early days she got stuck on more than one occasion). Touching organic material with these blades can cause burning (mild to severe) and instant cauterization of wounds. The blades can be maintained apart from her body but only briefly (around 10-40 seconds) and thus can be used as projectiles, though the effectiveness varies (read: non-lethal; more of an energy blast that acts like a punch). Oftentimes when the blade/energy pulse is separate from her body she can't control its intensity, and she hasn't practiced this skill much. Most usually she goes for close combat over ranged, unless she has some other weapon on hand. Like flying, she has to keep up her endurance with the blades in order to maintain them for longer amounts of time, extend them further, or make them stronger. *


↳ other: She has an overall enhanced physiology, putting her speed, strength, endurance, and healing at an above average rate. While she can't carry a whole commercial jet or hold a breaking bridge together, she can lift a car to help someone out from underneath or knock a normal human out with a solid punch. She can run slightly faster than the average human being, but most of her speed seems to be related to flight. Endurance-wise, she has a natural above average endurance (after gaining powers) and it can be trained to last longer. Her healing won't instantly heal a wound but it will help her recover at an increased speed, effectively cutting most recovery times in half (depending on the severity of the injury). On the whole, she's still vulnerable to normal weapons/injuries; guns/bullets, knives, broken bones, hard hits, electrical shocks, poison, etc., are all able to hurt and incapacitate her.

Crimes (If Villain): n/a (none that anyone can prove)

Appearance: He generally keeps the costume on, he's most comfortable in it.

Powers: Fenom has all the powers of Phenomaman, and can fly along with possessing incredible physical strength and endurance. He doesn’t need to breathe, and can even go to space without much issue. He can lift and throw cars without issue, and can take ungodly amounts of beating.

Crimes (If Villain): While it would be appropriate to call his debut a 'rampage' it really only amounted to (relative to what could have happened) minor property damage and unliscensed vigilantism. He wants to be a hero, but doesn't quite have the spark, let alone the horsepower in his head.

Appearance: Vector’s Phoenix Program suit is built for function over flair—sleek, matte black with subtle graphite-grey paneling that breaks up his silhouette in low light. Thin, pale lines trace the seams of the suit, marking the invisible “vectors” he moves along when compressing space. The fabric is lightweight and flexible, reinforced at the joints to handle sudden, unnatural shifts in position. His mask is minimal and angular, concealing his identity while leaving his lower face visible for communication with civilians and teammates. A compact utility harness rests against his lower back, securing his karambit blade and essential gear without restricting movement. When Vector appears in the field, there’s no flash or spectacle—just the quiet, unsettling certainty that the distance between danger and safety has already been erased.

Powers: Vector possesses an anomalous ability to compress the distance between two points along a straight line, effectively “shortening” space itself. Rather than moving at superhuman speed, the space in front of him simply yields, allowing him to appear at his destination in an instant. To observers, this looks like blindingly fast movement; to Vector, it feels like stepping through a softened gap in reality. He can use this ability for rapid repositioning, surface-to-surface movement, and precise extractions, even bringing others with him safely. In combat, he exploits the sudden collapse of distance to strike from blind spots with surgical efficiency. Vector does not understand how or why this power works—only that space itself seems willing to move aside when he focuses on where he needs to be.

Crimes (If Villain): Arthur was a professional thief.

Appearance: He dawns a dark grey hoodie over a mainly black and white typical super hero suit, topped off with a paper plate mask with a poorly drawn smiley face on it. He usually keeps the hood up and wears some lightweight, black and white boots to match the suit. (It also seems to give him a bit of a good confidence boost, but doesn't really stop him from being a little nervous and cowardly.)

Powers: Looks to be basic shadow manipulation with a shadow pardner to boot! He can usually be seen talking to it, they seem to be pretty close. The shadows can be used as easy leg trappers, tendrils, or even small weapons/tools. It's pretty limited depending on how much shadow he has to work with. Although, none of that seems to help his nerves.

He usually uses his powers at a range, only going up close if the other person does it first in a fight.