Strength 7c

Agility 8b

Intellect * 4d

Willpower 7x

Hand Size: Edge:

3 (17) 1

Powers:

Probability Field: a unique power, this ability works for Natasha in two distinct forms. The first form this power manifests in is a blanket of bad luck that will randomly affect people with such, per luck control, though only one person will be cursed with this fate at a time. This is an intensity 15 power, and the random target of this power is allowed a Willpower check against this intensity to resist.

* Danger Sense: while her probability field is in its expanded state, Natasha has the benefit of a danger sense, a sense which she wields at intensity 15. This makes her totally immune to ambushes, allows her to dodge as if her agility score were 15, and she can declare an action in any exchange when somebody tries to use an ambush or other surprise attack upon her.

The second form her probability field manifests in is a tight field of energy, extending one inch from her body. When her field is active in this state, people in Natasha's immediate area are no longer subject to random bouts of bad luck, and she loses her danger sense. However, she instead gains the benefit of these superhuman abilities:

* Chaos Combat: the quirky nature of Natasha's probability field tends to throw a damper on folks that are attempting to hurt her - a lot. In other words, any opponent attacking Natasha while her field is compressed suffers from a one level increase in the ordinary difficulty from such an action. This is one of the few examples of her probability warping powers that Natasha actually likes.

* Force Field: wound tight around her body, Natasha's probability field acts as a barrier versus damage. A significant barrier, in fact, as it operates at intensity 10 (raising Natasha's total defense against physical and energy attacks to 17). Of course, the field limits her manual dexterity some, and she must pass a challenging difficulty Agility action to grab hold of anything while this force field is on.

Equipment:

Mag Cannons: having no attack powers, per se, Natasha relies upon her twin pistols to solve her more troublesome problems. These two magnetron-accelerator enhanced slug-throwers fire 9mm ultraferrite bullets at incredible velocities, bullets that act as a +5 armor piercing attack (treat defense as if it were 4 points less), +6 if Natasha fires an entire clip off at once (the mag cannons are auto-fire capable).

Targeter Goggles: this specialized piece of combat headgear is essentially a pair of night vision goggles (providing intensity 5 infravision), retrofitted with a computerized heads-up display. This computer targeter system grants Natasha a +2 bonus when firing on opponents with her mag guns, and even prevents her from hitting undesired targets if her opponent is ensconced within a crowd.

Titanium Blades: Natasha's secondary weapons, these finely crafted blades are, in her hands, +3 edged weapons. Sure, she prefers to enter a fight guns a' blazing, but if stealth (or a lack of ammo) prevents such an option, she's fully capable of using these blades to lethal effect - and if she's mad enough, she won't mind the resulting mess...

Vibro-Blade: swiped from a villain she encountered some time back, Natasha will occasionally use this blade instead of her ordinary titanium knives - it's much deadlier, after all. A nifty high-tech device, this blade vibrates at a super-sonic frequency, allowing it to inflict +5 damage in melee, and it can cut through items of up to m.s. 16 (the blade is itself of m.s. 14). *

Hindrances:

Unlucky: whenever her probability field isn't compressed (most of the time), Natasha suffers from this particularly dreadful hindrance. Namely, whenever a Narrator draw is made on her 'behalf', the Narrator must in fact draw two cards, and choose the one that will adversely affect her the most. This bad luck also spreads to others, and any cards Natasha draws to affect others will utilize the same principle...

Skills:

Acrobatics: Natasha is highly acrobatic, being able to swing from ropes, tumble, and take a fall like the best of 'em. In fact, when dodging and attempting to reduce falling damage, Natasha acts as if the inherently difficulty were one level lower.

Brawling: Natasha fights dirty - real dirty. If unarmed, she can render an opponent comatose if she reduces him or her to zero health or cards. This fighting form isn't very heroic, but it gets people out of her way, so Natasha doesn't mind.

Contingent Attack: a tried and true combatant, Natasha is very good with guns - any guns. In fact, within a given exchange, she can divide her total action score between two gun attacks, the last of which will occur as a contingent action.

First Aid: after hooking up with a gang of vigilante super-humans, Natasha learned rather quickly how necessary it is for somebody to patch folks up after a brawl. She can restore a lost card of Health to anyone if she can use this skill on them within one exchange of them losing it. *

Knives: in addition to her down and dirty fighting skills, Natasha can competently use a knife against another in battle. Any knife-fighting action she attempts should be made as if the difficulty were one difficulty level lower than normal.

Marksmanship: Natasha is one with the gun, so to speak. Whether she uses a standard slug-thrower, her usual mag-cannons, or any other advanced energy weapon, she makes her attacks at one difficulty level lower than usual.

Calling:

Uncontrolled Power: while she can condense her probability field into a sort of force field, Natasha nonetheless can't control her luck-altering abilities, which has pretty much put a complete damper on her personal life. She manages a career, of course, but isn't doing what she'd really like to... all thanks to her accursed powers.

Costume:

Natasha prefers to wear functional gear when on the job. This often consists of a black skinsuit with the appropriate utility belts and holsters. She will often have her hair pulled back in a severe ponytail, or tucked up into a bun and under a black hood.

Image:

Natasha is your classic Russian Ice Queen. She got most of her looks from her mother, but is built a bit sturdier. She excels in athletics, and is an avid gymnast despite her well-developed bust. This has tightened her physique, giving her the sculpted musculature and grace of a cat.

Personality (in the words of Bil):

Natasha is a bitch. She's a good looking woman who likes the attention of a man, but can't let anyone get too close to her because they'll most likely have a piano fall on them within a week of meeting her. This has given her a really cynical view on life, and she's started to vent through her job as a position as a Black Op.

She's found the rush of the hunt and danger of her missions to be almost addictive and appears to only be in a decent mood when in the middle of a gun-fight.

Real Name: Natasha Huston
Occupation: operative of the Direct Action Americans
Legal Status: American citizen with a probable criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: Natasha is a Direct Action American, and a member of an unnamed vigilante squad

Height: 5' 9"
Hair: blonde
Eyes: icy blue
Weight: 150 lbs (she's rather muscular and (according to Bil) stacked
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: when her powers are active, Natasha is surrounded by a gray aura of light, but other than that, none.

Story:

While visiting her father's laboratory, Natasha inadvertently tripped over a random cable laying about, and disrupted one of her father's experiments. This wouldn't usually be such a big thing, mind you, but while in a laboratory where a man is performing experiments involving the piercing of the dimensions themselves, well, bad things can happen. And they did.

The portal her father had opened up with his equipment failed... spectacularly. In it's explosion, energy from the space-time rift was thrown about the room and, since Natasha is essentially a bad luck magnet, most of it struck her. This forever altered her, magnifying her normal bad luck into a superhuman presence about her at all times, a presence that would forever disrupt her life.

Despite the fact that she was forever jinxed, Natasha continued on with her life, faltering through high school, though she eventually met a young man in her Champaign-Urbana, IL, self-defense class that seemed to understand her, and make her happy. He was Joseph Freighten, and he'd started his very own private detective agency: Closed-Case Investigations.

The two worked together for a while, and almost got married, but Natasha broke off the engagement after her inherent bad luck almost killed Joseph during a string of near-fatal accidents. It was during one of these terrible events that Natasha first manifested her ability to control her probability field, in that her field protected her from a spray of bullets that were meant for Joseph.

She started to work alone, trying to find her niche, and drew the attention of a very shadowy organization, known as the Direct Action Americans to its operatives. She has been working for them as a Black Op ever since, using her skills as a markswoman and her inherent bad luck to foul up the plans of her targets. And she's rather good at it, too...

Of course, after a job to infiltrate Ariel-Shijitzu Systems went bad, Natasha had to hide out for a time, and while doing so, she literally tripped over a small but growing group of ascendant human vigilantes. After dealing with various members of the G.I. Joe team and the psychotic Plantmaster, she joined their team in order to do more good; they seemed luckier than most, after all.

Natasha generally keeps her distance from these folks, at least on an emotional level, for fear of getting them horribly killed somehow. But she functions well with them even if they completely lack tactical ability or even common sense, since the unnamed group seems to do rather well in trashing threats to freedom. Heck, Natasha has even helped to save the world once or twice!

* Note: when she began play, Natasha only had an Intellect score of 3 and lacked a skill in First Aid; these are advancements purchased with response bonuses. On the other hand, her vibro-blade is something she 'confiscated' from a villain quite a while back, so unless she purchases it properly, it is always subject to the dictates of Plot Device... which may or may not add to the fun.