Member
TBD
Name: Cassidy Hendricks
Alias: TBD
Age: 14
Alignment: Morally Good
Loyalty: Independent
Appearance: Standing at an unimpressive 5' 3" and weighing only 108 lbs, Cassidy doesn't stand out much in terms of stature though her body type is that of a young athlete by having very little fat and notable definition to her muscles despite her slim frame. Her skin is naturally light olive in tone and tans easily, her eyes are a deep shade of brown, and her hair is long, has bangs, and is colored with an almost identical shade of brown as her eyes. She often keeps her hair down but isn't adverse to styling it when the opportunity arises. Her choice in clothing varies quite often, especially determined by what is readily available, but her favorite colors to wear are red and she prefers to wear clothes that are comfortable to be active in. Her expressions are very emotive and easy to read, giving her an almost animated appearance whenever her emotions run high. Presently Cassidy has no uniform for cape activities, not even having any means to mask her identity should the need arise.
History: Born in Chicago to parents of mixed races, Cassidy had a rocky start early in life. The Hendricks family was poor and Cassidy was the youngest of four children in a family where only her father provided income. It didn't help that she and her siblings were in a hard spot in terms of race, as they were "too white" to be accepted by the majorly black community they lived in and "too black" to blend in while in other environments. In spite of this she managed to make a circle of friends at the local public school. In fact, Cassidy carved a niche out for herself early on as an athlete. She participated in many sports programs including basketball and softball, but where she shined the brightest was cross-country running.
By the time she was in junior high it was already figured that she would be able to go to college on sports scholarships, something that her older siblings were unlikely to achieve. Only her oldest brother Johnathan seemed to have the prospect of college, on a football scholarship. Due to the kids of the family growing older and needing less supervision, Cassidy's mother was able to land a job and with both parents working the Hendricks family was doing better than ever. Cassidy was in middle school, her two older sisters were in highschool, and her brother had just started his freshman year in college when Cassidy had her trigger event.
Cassidy and her siblings had always walked home together after school, even after Johnathan had moved out. On one unfortunate day, September 23rd of 2003 to be precise, two rival gangs initiated a gunfight across the road the girls were using to head home. The battle was sudden and in spite of their best efforts they did not get away in time. All three girls were struck by stray bullets from the crossfire, with Cassidy's sisters dying almost instantly. She lay on the ground for several minutes, crying and bleeding as bullets continued to whiz past her overhead andthe two gangs continued waging their battle against each other. In a traumatic moment of desperation Cassidy's only wish was for the shooting to stop. And so it did. The local news didn't report this but the gangsters all stopped what they were doing, as if they had been frozen in time. This lasted over a minute, which at that point was enough time for police to arrive.
The death toll from that incident was six. Cassidy had been shot in the leg by a 9mm round, forcing her out of her sports for the next two seasons. Her parents had become distant and depressed, their marriage slowly falling apart as their grief clouded their judgement. Even Johnathan was emotionally destroyed blaming himself for the tragedy by assuming he failed his family for leaving, prompting him to drop out of college and return to Chicago. Cassidy herself was shaken quite heavily, losing her interest in sports and avoiding her friends from school. The Hendricks family was falling apart after several months of grief and pain had done its damage. Damage none of them would ever fully recover from.
But there was a silver lining. It took Cassidy several months after the event, about the time she had her leg cast removed, to realize that she had changed. She was now a parahuman. Exploring her new power served as a coping mechanism, just like her running had become. As she experimented with what she could do the only person she confided this secret to was her brother, whom vowed silence on the subject. He was the one who gave her the idea to keep her power a secret, as it may draw attention in a not-so-good way. Over the next year they were able to figure out her limits and possibilities though there was little application Cassidy could find for this power. She briefly entertained the idea of becoming a Ward but scrapped the idea when she ultimately decided that she wanted to be a professional athlete.
She was confident going into her freshman year at highschool and her life had finally gotten back on track. The family was recovering by now, with her parents solving their marital problems and Johnathan also taking up a job while Cassidy got passing grades and continued playing sports. But somewhere along the way someone had figured out her secret. The police from the day of the shooting had written in their reports that something strange had happened and detailed how the shooters were all frozen in place when they arrived. Someone had gotten a hold of this information, someone with malicious intent and connections with a goal of rounding up parahumans. One day after school, much like on the day Cassidy suffered her trigger event, she was walking home alone when she was attacked. Her power couldn't save her when she was knocked unconscious before she could even realize what happened.
Cassidy was bound, gagged, and thrown into the back of a van. As she was taken away the operation didn't end there. Though Cassidy presently has no knowledge of this, the Russian Mafia that abducted her also had her family killed. They staged another gang shootout outside their home, personally ensuring that her parents and brother were dead before leaving a body double of Cassidy herself at the scene. As far as Chicago's police are concerned, the entire Hendricks family is now dead. But the real Cassidy had found herself in a human trafficking scheme. Or rather, a cape trafficking scheme. Having been placed in a containment box that prevented her from using her powers and thrown in the back of a truck, she was shipped off on the long road to San Francisco were she would then be taken back to Russia to be auctioned off like cattle.
Along this road contained a stop in Denver, Colorado where she and the rest of the parahumans in the truck would be moved to another delivery truck at a warehouse on the western outskirts of the city...
Personality
Motivations: In short-term goals, Cassidy just wants to survive the cruel world of capes. But her ultimate goal is to become an Olympic athlete, regardless of whether or not that would be allowed.
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Likes:
- Sports
- Running
- Shopping
- Pop Music
- Hip-Hop Music
- Scary Movies
- Cold Sandwiches
Dislikes:
- Guns
- Video Games
- Rednecks/Hillbillies
- Smugness
- Racist People
- Old Music
- Top Ramen
Derangement: Aside from the trigger event itself, Cassidy's personality has not been affected by her power and therefore she has no derangement.
Parahumanism
Skills: Having been conditioned to become an athlete, especially a runner, Cassidy is quite nimble and quick on her feet as well as being no slouch in upper-body strength. Though she can sprint very fast for her age and size, it is her stamina that is her greatest physical quality as she can run for miles and miles without tiring out. Cassidy was never the brightest bulb in the box but she has always been quick to understand people and situations. She also has no shortage of "street smarts" to make up for her lack of academic achievements.
Classification: Master, Stranger
Details: Cassidy has the power to completely stop the perception of time of all humans within a variable distance from her. The distance is determined upon activation and works as a radius from Cassidy, affecting all humans inside the range regardless of if she has a line of sight or not. Those affected are not actually frozen in time but instead have their perception of it frozen. This allows bodily functions or movements to continue while those affected stop moving as if they actually were frozen. Any momentum they had would naturally be carried over but they would no longer be capable of continuing whatever motion they were in until their perception returns. If the affected was standing still when they had their perception frozen they would not realize any time had passed at all once it returned, unless there were environmental cues that would indicate something happened without them noticing. Those with their perception frozen can still be interacted with during this state, such as injuring them or moving them.
Any sensations they feel would all catch up to them in one wave upon their perception of time flowing again, such as being touched or pain itself. Those who are affected are often left feeling confused when the duration expires due to a sort of "jetlag" from having their perception altered. People only realize they had "blacked out" if they had some visual indicator to show that time had passed, such as looking at a clock. While Cassidy sets a range upon activation she cannot make any exceptions to those within it, meaning everyone within her set range becomes affected. If someone were outside her range and then to enter after she used her power they would be unaffected. Likewise if someone were in her range and then they were carried out of the initial range (via momentum or external interference) they would still have their perception of time frozen until the duration expired. The only shortcut for those with their perception frozen is for Cassidy to end the duration prematurely, which she may do in order to use her ability again. She can activate this ability very quickly, allowing her to get out of dangerous situations with other people.
Limitations: This power relies on a sort of internal pool of "time" that Cassidy has and every time she uses her ability it subtracts from this pool. Presently her internal pool is approximately 3600 seconds, or one hour. The amount of "time" used is double that which is affected by her victims, being represented in the formula of y=2xs (y being how much "time" is spent, x being how many people are affected, s being how many seconds they are affected). If she were to expend the entirety of this on one person they would have their perception of time halted for thirty minutes. If she were to freeze two people for ten seconds, it would cost 40 seconds of her "time." If she were to freeze forty people for ten seconds, it would cost her 800 seconds of her "time."
However the rate at which this pool regenerates is disproportionate to how much it expends. It takes five seconds to regenerate one second of "time", meaning it would take five hours to regenerate this pool from empty to full. The regeneration only occurs when her power isn't activated, meaning she will not be recovering "time" while there are still people with their perceptions frozen. This is all very technical but Cassidy herself has a vague understanding of these limits due to testing. She must use math and guesswork to stay on top of how much "time" she has available as well as how much she will be expending. This leaves room for error on her part in estimating what she can do, though usually she is very accurate. Only when there are a number of unforeseen things, like affecting extra people she was unaware of, do problems occur in her "time" management.
Equipment: Presently Cassidy is only equipped with the clothes on her back and the shoes on her feet.