Paradox

TheZones Roleplay (TZRP. Persistent-Freeform roleplay)

Late to the party because timezones / sleeping, but I'm in, of course.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

One of Rakhana's main rules when fighting was to always confirm if an attack had landed, provided it didn't threaten her life or any tactical advantage to do so. Thus, the young woman waited with bated breath as the plasma rounds struck the barricade and burned through towards her opponent. Yet, frustratingly, he appeared to use the same heat-diverting technique as he had done in his initial defence to partially mitigate her first bullet, and the second was deflected by some sort of... well, she supposed she would call it a shield, though it was unlike anything she'd ever seen. The effect was quite futuristic, and she was left pondering, for a split second, whether the man before her was utilising an ability, or some sort of advanced technology. If it were the latter, it would potentially make a worthy trophy to be scavenged off of the man's corpse, provided whatever powered it was still intact once Rakhana had finished with him.

The third bullet she had unleashed did not find its mark either, instead speeding uselessly past her target as he propelled himself backwards with haste. The movement threw her blue-haired opponent out of her sight; yet it took next to no time for him to resurface moments later, raising the strange sword and slicing effortlessly through the stainless steel of the guard rail on the overpass. This seemed to be only part of his attack, however, and the weapon seemed to be a precursor to a sudden onslaught of arctic wind, demonstrating the ability of her target to seamlessly meld his elemental powers together. It came as no great surprise, but it was useful information to store in the tactical part of her brain, the part that was constantly trying to play three steps ahead, as if this were nothing more than a deadly game of chess.

The sub-zero wind, cold enough to potentially snap-freeze any normal individual, cut through the air with a startling speed, making the wintry New York air feel like a summer's breeze in comparison... and yet, it went almost completely unnoticed by the young Russian. Several hundred degrees below freezing might have been an impressive feat against some other opponent, but Rakhana's outer defence burned at several thousand degrees - even a prolonged burst of this wind would not chill her to the degree that Leo might have hoped, and the layer of ice produced upon everything else in the surrounding area stopped abruptly in a perfect sphere around the woman, melting in an instant as it made contact with the scorching defence.

As the frozen blast came into contact with the boundaries of her superheated plasma defence, it acted like a weather phenomenon in miniature; the cold front of the man's attack would collide with the warm front emanating from Rakhana's aura, and the turbulence created by the heated air trying to rise through the falling cold air caused miniature streaks of lightning to arc around the plasma shield. This would cause no harm to the young Russian, of course, with the electrically conductive capabilities of the plasma aura, but the sight was marvellous nonetheless. It reminded her of a shadowy figure from her not-so-distant past, a man in white who commanded lightning like other men commanded armies. The inevitable connection in her mind linked the element to precision and power.

But now was not the time to dwell on the past, so she dismissed the image from her mind as soon as it surfaced, and instead turned her attention back to the elevated ground that currently harboured her opponent. The amount of cover it provided for Leo put Rakhana at a minor but distinct disadvantage, so for the moment, she would shift her tactics from attempting killshots. Better to destroy the advantage first. Taking a deep breath, she sent a relentless onslaught of heat towards the bridge - not the part that Leo currently stood upon, as he might have expected, but instead towards the supports that held it up in the air. With the concentrated, prolonged blast of heat-generated plasma, the concrete and steel would begin to melt and disintegrate before her very eyes, threatening to bring the whole bridge down, and Leo with it, if he was not smart enough to move first.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

As the heat rushed towards Rakhana's opponent, the man used his obviously well-honed evasion skills once more, this time to jump above both the wave of scorching heat and the Rakhana copies littering the bridge and leaving buckled steel from a small post and a chain-link fence in the wake of his escape. Both were further weakened and distorted by the blast of heat, the links in the fence completely obliterated and the frame brittle and scorched, reduced close to nothing by the time the wave of heat had passed. Of course, the blue-haired man would have been well clear by that point, but if he chanced to look back at any point, it would be a reminder of her pure destructive capabilities.

Leo did not look to be landing with grace and poise either, and collided against the floor with all the strength behind his muscles and his weapon swing, the concrete beneath his feet practically shuddering at the forceful landing. Moments later, a chunk of the overpass was hurtling towards Rakhana, and her natural instinct was to drop to one knee to stabilise herself as she shifted the energy output around her from heat to kinetic, using a powerful blast of force to deflect the hunk of concrete out and away from her. Flecks of rubble splintered off as the boulder-like mass bounced to her left, only coming to a stop once it collided with the side of a building. This was turning out to be a more destructive meeting than Rakhana had previously anticipated, though in her Hyde-state she was less concerned with that than she might have otherwise been. At the moment, her only concern was to ensure that the Fifth Apocalypse never saw the light of day again.

Shifting her aura back to heat again the moment Leo's attack was successfully deflected, the young Russian noted him sprinting towards her, once again trying to close the gap. The man was fast, but Rakhana was definitely faster - with the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she could easily outrun a speeding supercar, let alone this man whose top speed seemed to be well within a highway speed limit. She could lead him on a merry chase throughout New York, likely tiring him without even breaking a sweat. But she was tired of running, and tired of hiding from men who thought the world, and all the people in it, were theirs to ruin and destroy.

As Leo moved within a hundred feet of her (ninety-four feet, by the time he had reached the railing, to be precise), Rakhana forced the thermochemical energy constantly produced through her body through the foot and opposing knee in contact with the floor, throwing herself to the side as she once again utilised a layer of heat energy to leave an echo in her place and mask her movement. The movement only placed her a couple of feet to the right, just enough to throw him off balance with the heat echo and, hopefully, leave him open to an attack. Raising the unsheathed Shiva and aiming it at the opponent above her, she fired three rounds of plasma in quick succession towards her opponent's upper torso; even partially obscured by the rail behind which he sought shelter, the cover-penetrating plasma round would still pose a threat to Leo, albeit slightly mitigated by having to burn through the defence first. Between her cloaked movement, the decreased distance between them and the unnatural speed of the rounds, it would be rather difficult for him to evade this particular attack.

But Rakhana was prepared for even that eventuality, and the aura around her shifted once more, this time into a stratified, dual-energy cocoon. It started at her skin, pulsing outwards with a powerful kinetic force that then converted itself into a second layer of incandescent, scorching plasma. The heat and the kinetic shield beneath, the armoured superfluid atop her skin, and her surgically enhanced muscles that were coiled, tensed, and ready to deflect any attack that came her way. She had laid defence after defence, transforming herself into a near-indestructible bastion, ready to explode with her raw, overwhelming strength the moment her opponent got within range.

(Note: Edited with opponent's agreement to clear up some discrepancies on distance.)

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

Edit - Posted in wrong section, sorry about that! -_-

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

The glowing round of plasma sped through the air towards her opponent, but just as Rakhana had suspected, it was not only earth and fire at his disposal, as he seemingly used an intense gust of air to knock himself out of the path of the bullet in a movement very similar to her own thermochemical projection. The use of pure force to change one's trajectory in midair (along with her own honed gymnastic abilities) was something she utilized constantly in difficult fights like these, and she felt a brief flash of irritation in realising that she was not the only one in this particular fight who was able to competently use that manoeuvre. Perhaps we are more evenly matched than I thought... she mused, with a brief scowl.

As Leo plummeted towards the floor in his impressive display of dodging, Rakhana's nervous system kicked into gear, sending more bioelectric signals to the catheter at the base of her spinal column and activating yet another of her injections. She felt the slightest shift in her skin as it started to produce a different kind of sweat entirely. This new compound was toxic, and its effects ranged from exposed and tissue irritation at low levels, and debilitating to fatal at high enough exposure. The heat surrounding the young Russian would cause the colourless, odourless substance to transform into a gaseous state that could hang in the air, lurking ominously in the same position long after she had moved.

During the brief moments in which her opponent had landed behind one of his manufactured stone spires to retrieve his sword and rearrange those strange crystal spheres of his, Rakhana had coiled and tensed her muscles, accelerating the coolant that constantly ran through her system to abnormal levels as she sprang into movement once more. Each step propelled her backwards and diagonally in an unpredictable fashion as with her previous actions, however this time, something strange was left in the wake of each slight direction change - perfect silhouettes of the young woman, charred and blackened, mimicking the exact position of her body during each twist and turn.

So fast was her movement that, by the time Leo had emerged from behind his cover, Rakhana had put another one hundred feet and five copies between the pair of them. Each silhouette had been created by a layer of her armoured skin injection being peeled from her body (and then replenished) by the accelerated cooling function pulsing through her system, and every single copy was filled with a pocket of the toxic sweat gas - now exposed to the air and subsequently entirely reactive, to the point of explosive if triggered by a sharp, jarring kinetic shock. In short, Rakhana had just created five life-size land mines between herself and the aggressive man aiming to rush her.

And the land mines weren't even the biggest thing Leo would have to worry about. With all but one of her injections currently running through the system, the outward signs of her Hyde complex had begun to surface. All throughout her body, the blood in Rakhana's vessel had begun to flouresce, glowing visibly through the skin, bringing a complete change in her psyche and a huge boost to her aura's heat output with it. The plasma surrounding her radiated with an even brighter intensity, now emitting over eight thousand degrees Celsius, and Rakhana unleashed a wave of this searing heat towards her approaching enemy. If he managed to make it past the land mines and once again dodge her invisible, scorching wave attack - unlikely, but possible, she thought - he would have to come face to face with a woman whom he couldn't even get within melee reach of without being able to withstand a heat so extreme it could melt almost any ordinary alloy within seconds.

Let's play, pretty boy. she thought, a sardonic smirk tugging at the very edges of her mouth as her personality shifted to match the aggressive and amoral version aligned with her Hyde-self. You can fight all you want, but in the end... you will scream as you burn.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

Though the man before her had tried to stutter out some clarification to his words, they fell on deaf ears with Rakhana. Not literally; she was still perfectly able to catch the gist of the rambling (subsequently cut off during her quick manoeuvre), but no matter how sincere the man sounded, trust was too valuable a currency to spend so early in this encounter. Truth be told, even those she trusted most in her life were only given partial access to her trust, compartmentalised as it was.

As her opponent raised his weapon to meet the wave of heat, he seemed to glow with a bright orange light, and took no more damage than perhaps a mild sunburn, by the looks of the slight flush on his neck. Not an ordinary man, then... she thought, allowing a slight frown to mar her face. She had suspected he was no simple bystander, coincidentally following her to the otherwise deserted bridge, but it was always easier to confirm these things. And to note that he had some form of resistance to heat was a useful piece of information as well... though that had only been a warning shot. If she needed to push herself to her limit - or gods forbid, push herself into the mental no-man's land that was the Hyde complex - she suspected that he might not find himself so well protected.

At the movement of Leo's arm and release of his blade, the near-invisible aura of heat surrounding Rakhana turned somewhat translucent as the intense heat started to generate a cloud of plasma, boosting its protective properties even further. As she spotted the spikes erupting from the earth at the point that it struck, she bounded backwards again, maintaining the safe distance between herself and the concrete spires and keeping her gun at the ready. Each move backwards to maintain the distances included a movement left or right, as she saw fit in that split-second, resulting in an unpredictable zig-zag pattern that would preclude any further attacks, but she didn't bother to try to camouflage her movements this time - better to save the full amount of her strength for the aura cocooning her.

In her mind, the reaction of the elementalist (which is what he seemed to be, with his command of both fire and earth - it would be wise for Rakhana to assume he could wield other devastating powers until proven otherwise) cemented his guilt. This man was either the Fifth Apocalypse, or some sort of associate, and although she had been kept ignorant of the details of his crimes, Interpol did not assign these kind of contracts to individuals unless they were criminals of the most vile kind, the worst specimens that mankind had to offer. And she was sure that, if his crimes were revealed to her later, that she would only wish she'd made this death slower and more painful than it had been.

The man responsible for all the carnage launched herself into the air, high above the carnage of her previous attacks. But the young Russian was ready for him, and as he clapped his hands like thunder, the lightning that arced towards Rakhana would be directed harmlessly around and away from her body by the plasma aura, which could deflect most energy based attacks but was especially proficient in stopping electricity-based offensives due to its natural Faraday cage-like properties. At the same time, the aim of her unsheathed Shiva, still extended in front of her despite all her previous evasions, was trained on him, and as he travelled up towards the crossbeams, she pulled the trigger, sending a round of pure plasma speeding directly towards the centre of his torso.

No more watered-down warning shots - this one was playing to kill, it seemed, and so would she. The superheated "bullet" moved far faster than the speeds achieved by regular ammunition, and burned at several thousand degrees Celsius, at the same intense level as her plasma aura. It would almost certainly be lethal - if not an immediate killshot - if it connected in the manner she anticipated. It would also be incredibly difficult to dodge, given that he was airborne - Rakhana knew from personal experience how difficult it could be to change your position when you were flying through the air.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

Though Rakhana waited for her quarry in near perfect stillness, her mind was buzzing with thought; not about the Fifth Apocalypse, whom she had next to no information regarding, but upon the absurdity of the entire situation she had found herself in. What on earth were her superiors thinking? Sending one member of a team on a solo mission, with next to no information about the target other than the fact that they were extremely dangerous... it was a suicide mission. Or, it would have been, had Rakhana not been much more able to take care of herself than the average agent, despite all appearances to the contrary.

Her musings on the dwindling competence of the once-revered international policing agency were cut short, however, as her eagle-like eyes spotted a figure approaching from the Manhattan side of the bridge. Her eyes locked on to him, adjusting her firearm aim ever so slightly as he moved closer, so it was trained squarely on his torso, waiting to do maximum damage at a moment's notice should it be required. She could have dismissed his unusual hair as nothing more than a particularly individualistic personality, but given his physique, armour, and the weapon upon his back, Rakhana knew that the man was no misguided civilian. He was some sort of soldier, here for some unknown purpose, and she had not lived this long in her danger-fraught life without exercising extreme caution in all things.

As soon as the man drew the blade - a reasonable size for any well-built man, so it would have constituted a heavy weapon for a normal person of Rakhana's slight stature - the young Russian simply narrowed her eyes slightly, every single, painstakingly altered muscle in her body coiling and tensing in preparation to move at a moment's notice. She would take the unsheathed weapon as a direct threat, even if it was wielded in direct answer to her own unholstered gun. The argument could be made that America was notorious for its general stance on firearms, and a young woman wielding a gun (presumably as a means of defence on a dark winter's night) was not a particularly unusual scenario.

"Hey you! Come over here little girl! You shouldn't be out here all by yourself! Besides, I have a couple of questions I'd like you to answer for me!"

Only Rakhana's impressive command of her reactions and facial features prevented her jaw from dropping slightly at the stranger's address. She was aware that he was in fact not much older than her, and she was in no real danger just because of their physical difference - but to the untrained eye, this was a very large and imposing man addressing a solitary young girl with some of the creepiest approaching lines known to man. Honestly... she thought to herself with some disdain, "Come here little girl?" "You shouldn't be out here all by yourself?" He might as well have offered to show me where the hidden stash of ice cream was in the nearest alley... He was not the first man to underestimate her based on her size, and he would not be the last.

She wouldn't let him approach any further than that, however - Rakhana answered his dialogue with a simple, sharp movement, utilising the tension in her muscles to launch herself back in the blink of an eye. At the same time, a layer of the heat that cocooned her peeled off of her body, leaving a momentary heat echo in her place, and her movement through the air was briefly concealed through a heat haze distortion of the air - the illusion being that she disappeared and reappeared with a little more distance between the pair, the movement path angled so that she landed about twenty feet back, and five feet to the left of her original position.

"Don't come any closer."

Her voice was simple, her tone cold. The inflections of her words were clipped and precise, with a very similar accent heard in the British and European areas of the world, the only hint of her origins being a very slight Russian accent underlying the words. And as she spoke the words, she sent with them a wave of blistering heat towards her opponent - not necessarily immediately lethal, but enough to cause serious third-degree burns over a large swathe of his skin, especially those parts trapped beneath armour. she could have burned it hotter, but for the moment she intended it more as a severe warning, to emphasise the seriousness of her words. A second pulse of heat continued to cocoon Rakhana, enveloping her in a heat aura burning at several thousand degrees, enough to melt most ordinary metals. He would most likely never have the speed or reflexes to get close to her, but she would not take any chances on that front.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

One could not be sure whether it was due to the frigid wind whistling through the air, or the preternatural sense of foreboding that lingered heavily around the Williamsburg Bridge, but the giant metallic structure that stretched over New York's East River was unusually deserted on this late December afternoon. It was just before the time when the sky would begin to darken with winter's lengthy nights; there were but a few souls who were intrepid enough to brave the chill and explore the city, to see what adventures could befall them as dusk began to fall.

One person in particular would be likely to catch a passerby's eye as she walked steadily across the bridge; a young looking girl, seeming to be late in her teenage years at the very most, but with steel-grey eyes that hinted that she was either far older, or had seen far too much within her limited lifespan. Long, dark hair fell in slight waves around her face, contrasting starkly with her fair, cool skin. And if one were to look closely, focusing on the area of her throat just above her collarbone, they would be able to see a silvery line of scar tissue stretching across her delicate-looking neck.

Her figure was petite, barely reaching five foot tall, and slender in stature. Her clothing, whilst not scant by any stretch of the imagination, was not particularly bulky nor suited for winter. In fact, beyond a long-sleeved (but lightweight in appearance) top, combat trousers, and heavy black motorcycle boots, she wore no other layers to shield her from the seasonal weather. And yet, the young woman was seemingly unconcerned with the plummeting temperatures, striding purposefully along without so much as a shiver as the air around her seemed to pulsate with invisible heat.

As she walked, her mind methodically reviewed the information she had already been given, scant as it was. Interpol had a target, most details unknown, but codenamed the Fifth Apocalypse. Who this person was, or why he was a target... these were details that either her department didn't know, or just didn't see fit to tell her. It was yet another one of those "you'll know them when you see them, now go!" type of missions. She sighed deeply - Interpol were not making sense lately. They wouldn't even allow her partner to accompany her on the trip, claiming he was urgently needed on a job elsewhere. Rakhana has every faith in her ability to get the job done, but she always felt better when she had Jack Miles watching her back.

Moving without pause, at a steady but measured pace, it was only a matter of time before the young woman reached the end of the walkway on the bridge. Turning to face the bridge before pausing for a moment, she withdrew a gun (a modified, sawn-off M1 Garand) from a holster strapped to her right leg - her left sported the same holster with an identical gun, but this one she kept sheathed for now. Extending her right arm to hold the gun straight in front of her, she sent some wordless, motionless commands through her neural system to the injection system embedded in her lower spine. Though these commands produced no outwardly visible changes, she felt a difference almost immediately; time seemed to slow before her eyes as her adrenaline spiked to inhuman levels from the first command, the activation of her controlled adrenaline rush. The second command caused her skin to produce a microscopic layer of transparent, heat-reactive superfluid which provided a layer of armour all over her body, without restricting her movement or altering the skin beneath at all.

And, with her weapon drawn, her attention focused, and her defenses up, Rakhana Vakarian was ready for the next fight. All the young Interpol agent had to do now was to wait for the Fifth Apocalypse to arrive.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

Rakhana Vakarian:

Part I: Vital Statistics

Name: Rakhana Vakarian
Gender: Female
DOB: 21st January
Age: Twenty-four
Height: 5'0" / 152.5cm
Weight: 125lbs / 57kgs
Blood type: O negative
Race: Human (metahuman)
Nationality: Russian
Languages spoken: Russian (mother tongue), English (near-native accent), French (fluent but accented).

Part II: Appearance

Build: Naturally very slender with a gymnast-like stature, but extensive strength training provides a wiry strength, with visible muscle definition (most noticeable on legs and arms) and a larger muscle mass than other gymnasts of her height. Measures at 33in (bust) / 25in (waist) / 34in (hips).

Facial structure: Oval shaped with high cheekbones and a small nose of celestial shape. Bow shaped lips of a pinkish-beige colour.

Hair: Dark brown, reaching to the bottom of the collarbones. Naturally wavy, cut in layers with a side fringe.

Eyes: A cold, steel grey colour, almond shaped and slightly larger than usual, with thick, dark lashes.

Skin: Fair, cool skin tone.

Clothing: Typical garments (all black) are a lightweight, long-sleeved top, and durable and loose fitting combat trousers comprised of Kevlar-strengthened denim, the bottoms of which are tucked into leather motorcycle boots with steel buckles and toe caps. Other garments that are worn are based on motorcyclist safety: a plain black leather jacket, thick gloves and a full-face black helmet with a silver lightning decal. All garments are treated with a proprietary substance designed to provide the clothing with a very high heat resistance, to avoid the fabrics and materials melting or disintegrating in high-heat situations.

Notable features: A white scar running horizontally across the neck. Very faint white scars along the back, a result of flagellation. A permanent catheter is located at the base of the spine (the entrance point to the storage of the subdermal injection system), small and inconspicuous enough that it is unnoticeable when clothed.

Part III: Combat

Abilities:

Gymnastic expertise - almost seventeen years of extensive training has provided a high level of proficiency in gymnastics and acrobatics, with natural coordination, flexibility, balance and agility being enhanced to the maximum capacity of the human body. In addition, extensive talent in performing aerial maneuvers allows for the ability to correct and re-orient in mid-air, or to rotate the body to recover from any falls, throws or knockbacks dealt.

Hypermetabolism - the acceleration of the metabolism to a superhuman rate. This provides extraordinary speed (base speed, without injections, rivals the top speed and acceleration of a Tesla Model S), strength (enough to easily lift five times her body weight, without injections) and rates of healing, at the cost of requiring a massive energy and nutritional intake (~5-6x that of a normal human when at rest, and greater when active) as well as increased heat production (see below - thermochemical projection). Due to the hypermetabolism, certain substances - alcohol, caffeine, pharmaceutical and recreational drugs - have little to no effect.

Eurythermal membranes - membranes grown naturally in the body, lining every muscle, nerve and bodily cavity. The membranes are produced by splicing the genes of eurythermal bacteria into the genome. The membranes produce an enzyme that gradually builds up temperature resistance to a level far beyond a normal human - up to 5500 degrees Celsius (same as maximum heat output, see below) and applies to external and invasive heat sources, as well as her own internally generated heat.

Thermochemical projection - the thermochemical energy produced by the hypermetabolism can be projected beyond the body in several ways, and utilized in both thermal and kinetic forms. Originally the only method available to vent excess heat produced by the hypermetabolism, it has since been harnessed and refined to provide an adaptable and effective attack/defence mechanism. Examples include kinetic barriers/force attacks, or pure waves of searing heat - up to 5500 degrees Celsius at absolute maximum heat generation. The energy output is able to be projected from any part of the body, in any shape (including energy constructs) or size of energy wave towards an opponent - however, larger energy projections or those that travel further lose energy at the rate of approximately -100 degrees Celsius per square foot, decay starting from 10sqft. Maximum level of heat generation allows for the generation of plasma, and as such provides the ability to generate electromagnetic fields such as would be seen in solar winds, or to generate electricity-based attacks and defences. Lastly (and crucially), thermochemical projection can also be utilised in movement, by concentrating the force and pushing it through a specific area of the body to produce a propulsion effect.

Heat aura - a subsection of the thermal projection; a heat aura can be generated at will by pushing the heat through the skin and surrounding the body with a field of heat energy that acts in offensive, defensive and evasive capacities. The heat aura pulses outwards - able to sustain maximum heat output extending up to ten feet from the central point, and losing energy at a constant rate until dissipating completely at twenty feet - discouraging close physial proximity and weakening or distorting some incoming attacks. Most ordinary projectiles and weapons can be melted or disintegrated with an adequate energy output, and if allowed to reach a level akin to generating plasma and electromagnetic fields, the aura can also become a corporeal field of ionised plasma, able to disrupt most energy based attacks. Plasma level auras, in particular, can create an effect akin to a Faraday cage, harmlessly diverting electromagnetic energy away from the user.

Mirage effect - the heat aura also be peeled off the body to leave "heat echoes" of the user in their wake that can be used as decoys, to fool an onlooker. At the same point, the heat haze left behind creates a cloaking effect, giving off a brief illusion of invisibility.

Subdermal injection system - a network of microscopic artificial vessels running under the skin and culminating in the spinal catheter grafted directly into the skeletal and nervous systems at the lower lumbar region of the spine. The energy needed to power the injection system is provided by bioelectrical impulses, and the injections and subdermal system are controlled completely via neural commands - these are switched on and off at will, with no timer system. The system is encased in eurythermal membrane to shield it from the consequences of the hypermetabolic heat generation, and it is also fully shielded from outside electromagnetic interference.

Injection converter - to circumvent the original need for the injections to be introduced from an external source, a mechanism has been grafted onto the area around the spinal catheter of the subdermal injection system. Its purpose is to draw energy and chemicals from the body to self-generate the injections, then distributing them through the subdermal system. This injection converter requires the user to intake certain energy and vitamin/mineral dense supplements, but once a supply is built up, the converter is able to store a month’s worth of injections before more supplements are required.

Cooling injection - specifically made to combat the excessive thermogenesis resulting from hypermetabolism (and subsequently avoid having to constantly project thermochemical energy). It is constantly being injected into the system at regular intervals; however, it can be suppressed with adequate concentration. It can also be accelerated to provide a rapid drop in body temperature, if required.

Controlled adrenaline rush injection - stimulates the body’s adrenal system to produce large amounts of adrenaline and noradrenaline which greatly enhances the senses and numbs pain, as well as providing a boost to strength (enough force and pressure to rival a water jet cutter) and speed (at top output, matching the speed of the famed Japanese bullet train) and greatly enhancing the neurological impulses. It also allows her a certain degree of control over her already altered visual cortex, allowing her to redistribute the information channels of her pentachromic sight (see below) into processing input at a faster speed, further heightening her sense of sight. Prolonged usage leads to paranoia, anxiety, hallucinations and general mental instability.

Armoured skin/decoy injection - causes the skin to produce a biological, heat-reactive superfluid that adds an extra layer of durability without hardening the skin or restricting movement. This superfluid layer can absorb and mitigate a great deal of incoming force, to the point where a regular bullet would not even piece the layer, for example - the force would not be completely negated by the injection on its own, however, and would leave a nasty bruise if not combined with other kinetic defences such as the heat aura or the muscular enhancement. The armour layer can also be rapidly cooled with an intense rush of cooling injection, leaving it to separate from the skin layer and peel away from the body completely - the result is a blackened husk, almost a perfect 3D silhouette of the moment of cooling. The decoy can also be combined with the explosive toxic gas effect (see below) to become an explosive stature, the perfect lure for any opponent.

Hyper regeneration injection - greatly quickens the rate at which healing occurs, to the point at which moderate to major wounds (including broken bones) are healed within minutes, and critical wounds within the course of a fight. Over a longer period, whole chunks of tissue and even parts of the neural system can be regenerated.

Toxic gas cloud - causes the sweat produced to turn to a toxic substance, which can be transformed into a gaseous state if the body is producing enough heat. Comparable to the toxicity of chlorine gas - irritating at small doses, debilitating at medium ones, severe or even fatal at high doses or prolonged exposure - the toxic cloud is colourless and odourless, though it does produce a very slight shimmer in the air, similar to heat haze. It does not cling to the user once produced, meaning it must constantly be generated and trail behind a moving producer - however, this does allow for pockets of toxic gas to be left as potential traps for unwitting victims. The gas is also incredibly reactive when in the open air, and after a few moments, becomes explosive - the effect is not fatal but can easily act as a concussive blast, and can be detonated by a jarring kinetic shock such as Rakhana's thermochemical projection.

Hyde complex - a side effect of the subdermal injection system that can occur when too many injections are used at once, the Hyde complex provides a massive boost of strength (quadrupling from her base strength output) and heat output (about 1.5x her usual output, maximum 8250 degrees Celsius) and blood that is toxic to others. This all comes at the cost of a complete shift in personality, making the user more aggressive, increasing bloodlust and putting an amoral spin on their thoughts. The Hyde complex also allows for usually defensive injections to be utilised in an offensive way - for example, a rapid drop initiated by the cooling injection under the Hyde complex can cause Rakhana to exude a chill that cuts to the bone, sucking the heat out of the immediate area. It also interferes with the heat aura, transforming it into a cocoon of plasma that surrounds the user. A visible indication of this side effect is the fluorescing of the blood due to the cocktail of unstable compounds within the body, making the blood vessels visible even through the skin.

Muscular enhancement - all skeletal muscles have been painstakingly altered with surgery, creating partially synthetic muscles where the muscle fibres have been interwoven with carbon nanotube fibres (allotrope carbon-40, strongest known substance to man, lighter than Kevlar) to greatly enhance their durability and help cope with strength demands. These fibres are also able to coil into a spring-like state with elastic potential energy stored within them, bestowing the ability to cushion or deflect certain kinetic attacks, equal to at least the same force and pressure of the adrenaline-fuelled injection state.

Pentachromic ocular enhancement - eyes have been surgically altered to produce tetrachromacy, and later pentachromacy i.e. adding extra information channels. This gives a total of five channels; the first three are the standard RGB channels that all humans possess, the fourth extends into the ultraviolet range, and the fifth into the infrared range.

Weapons/items:

Red Shivas - gifted from “the stranger”, the Red Shivas are two identical 5.56mm M1 Garand rifles, made of modified materials and cut down to long barrel pistols. Haptic touch technology on the grip of the guns automatically pulls heat from the wielder to generate superheated rounds of plasma that glow with heat, designed to move twice as fast as "regular" ammunition (due to non-Maxwellian distribution of the plasma rounds) and to melt or burn through armour, cover and other similar defences without resistance. This method of generating ammo ensures that the guns are provided with unlimited ammo and have no need to reload, as well as limiting the amount of people able to wield the weapons due to their ability to drain a large amount of heat from the wielder very quickly. However, the real power of the rounds is that they can be manipulated to a point after leaving the barrel of the gun, with the ability to detonate them mid-flight to create a buckshot style round, or to concentrate the heat to a point in order to boost their armour piercing abilities even further.

Customised NR-40 combat knife. The blade is composed of grade five titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V), with a Kevlar-reinforced carbon-fibre grip overlaid with Nomex. When not in use, it is usually sheathed and tucked into her right boot.

Black Aprilia RSV4 R APRC motorbike, which is her main mode of transport.

Part IV: Backstory

First born, bastard daughter of Ilya Nikolayevich Krushchev and Svetlana Leonidovna Makarova, Rakhana was spurned as a mark of shame from the moment she was born outside of wedlock. Her first few years of life were those spent in the desolate cellar of their house in Saratov, cooped up inside like an unwanted pet instead of a child as her parents lived their lives, even getting married during her second year, without revealing to the outside world that they had even produced a daughter.

But, of course, no secret stays hidden forever… especially not living, breathing secrets. And those who tend to be good at ferreting out secrets also tend to be those not overly worried about morality and legality. Thus, a deal was brokered between the Krushchev couple and the ringmaster of a travelling circus; they would sell their unwanted daughter, as well as conceive another child to be handed over, in return for the ringmaster’s silence. Both children would be taken away. The young couple would never again be burdened, and the ringmaster would gain two children whom he could put to work as he saw fit. These were the conditions that led to the conception of Rakhana’s younger sister Irikah, and her introduction to the world of performance at the tender age of seven.

Rakhana’s young age and small stature due to poor nourishment made her the ideal candidate for acrobatic training, and soon she was a core member of the troupe, her natural aptitude for gymnastics showing in the performances she gave. They also trained her in classical ballet, to add a graceful dance aspect to her routines.

Rakhana grew quickly from quiet child to reserved adolescent. Her entire life was to practice, to perform, and to look after Irikah; as such, she had no time for anything or anyone else, and the only interpersonal bond she formed was a nigh-indestructible one with the baby she raised while being nothing more than a child herself. Nine years passed in this fashion, until the night the siblings were taken.

The group responsible for the kidnapping remain elusive to Rakhana even to this day. All she knows about them is their reasons… their theories that, given the right person, superhuman qualities could be produced through intense physical and mental torture.

For just under two years, Rakhana and Irikah were kept in a concrete cell with absolutely no furniture and subjected to methods of torture such as sleep and sensory deprivation, separation, starvation, waterboarding, flagellation, stress positions and oxygen deprivation. But their most horrific torture was to force Rakhana to watch her baby sister burned alive before they slit her throat, allowing her to lose a substantial amount of blood and pass out in shock before they patched her up, ready to move on to future experiments.

But they didn’t expect that, when their guinea pig woke up, she would be their only success story.

Her basal metabolism rate was magnified to a superhuman extent, to the point where her speed and strength far surpassed that of any of her guards. Breaking through ropes, ripping doors off their hinges and breaking the bones of anyone who dared to get in her way, Rakhana managed to escape the experimental facility and travel across the country, finally collapsing near the village of Oymyakon, Russia… the only thing keeping her alive in the frozen, subarctic climate being her excessive thermogenesis as a result of her newfound hypermetabolism.

Upon awakening, Rakhana found herself being cared for by a stranger, a man who never introduced himself by name. Despite her first instinct being to run, regarding everyone as a potential threat, the hypermetabolism had subjected Rakhana to an accelerated form of starvation and a dangerous fever. It left her too weak to even stand, let alone escape… and thus she stayed. Though her mistrust still lingered visibly, she allowed him to care for her as she painfully adjusted to her abilities, even going so far as to allow alteration of her genome, splicing it with that of a bacterium usually found living in the Pompeii worm. These bacteria would meld and become membranes within her body that would produce enzymes to provide and enhance her thermal resistance, though the stranger did warn that this would not protect straight away, but would need time to build up the level of resistance she would need to survive, perhaps even years.

When it came time for her to leave, she grudgingly accepted that she would not be able to survive without certain technologies and contacts. Upon the parting advice of the stranger, she presented herself at the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. There, she adopted the surname of Vakarian and identified herself as a metahuman, though she kept the details of how she acquired her abilities private. As she worked, she made professional contacts that would eventually allow her to be implanted with a subdermal system that would administer the coolant needed to regulate her body temperature whilst she built up the level of enzymes needed to maintain her preternatural heat resistance. It was an unforeseen (yet fortunate) circumstance that the cooling injection would accelerate the growth of the eurythermal membranes, and relatively quickly, Rakhana found herself no longer relying solely on the coolant to keep herself at a safe and comfortable temperature.

At present, Rakhana works mostly behind the scenes at Interpol, her young age and even younger appearance making her unsuitable for work in the public eye. A tiny frame, pale skin scrubbed clean of makeup, thick, dark hair framing her face and long, dark lashes give her almost a doll-like appearance. Only her eyes betray her accelerated maturity; grey as steel, and just as cold… looking decades older than they should.

Paradox vs Xavier Bloodbayne

Venue now up as agreed! I'll also post my sheet for easy reference, but Rakhana remains the same as she was in the tournament.

(And hopefully her driver uses her brain this time... >_>)