Scarlet Hannigan-Cross aka Ambush

[MarloCross]

Name: Scarlet Caycee Hannigan-Cross (real last name Cross)
Code-name: Ambush. Formerly, Solace
Date of Birth: April 1st, 1998

Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 95 lbs
Hair Color: Strawberry Blonde
Eye Color: Black with White Pupils
Place of Origin: Manchester New Hampshire / Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality/Race:Irish/American
Classification/Origin of Powers: Mutant

Status: Student
Former Villain

Personality Profile:
Scarlet is a strange young girl. The constant alterations of her memories have left her unable to interact with other people in a pro-social way. She keeps many at a distance, rarely making physical contact with anyone if she can help it. Her lack of social grace is made more awkward by her awareness of the problem and a desire to fix it by asking way too many questions.

Having been deprived of a good family for her entire life, Scarlet's interaction with the students of Cobalt Hill has prompted her to explore the ideas of friendship and family. So far, she has begun to gravitate to certain personalities within the Academy. With each new friendship, with every new space to be made in her heart, Scarlet Hannigan becomes more the girl and less the monster that the villain Insaniac made to keep her hostage.

Physical Description:
Scarlet is a petite, slender young girl, making her contrast to her older brother Marlo a stark one indeed. Her hair is a messy mop of reddish-blonde hair, cut in the 'pixie' style. Her stature makes her appear younger than she really was by about 5 years or so.

Scarlet's wardrobe consists of cloths fitting into one category: These Are Too Big For You

Hoodies and her canvas jacket are her favorite, covering her from head to toe, often wearing sunglasses; a sort of affectatious hold over from her days as a criminal. This is not just a style choice, but tactical as well as her abilities will show later...

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Powers

Tactile Telekinesis
The Cross family line has a genetic predilection toward mutations involving kinetics. Scarlet's variant of her bloodline is the ability to manipulate flexible matter, like wire, rope, chain, cloth and paper through touch. The more flexible the material, the easier she can manipulate it. The more of a substance there is, the more difficult it is to control and shape. She can easily manipulate 500 lbs of material with no effort, her absolute maximum being just shy of a half ton!
Example: Scarlet tries to lift her brother with her chains. Her chains weight 100 lbs and Marlo weights 210. That's well under her maximum lit. Something like big rig truck without a trailer would be extremely difficult to lift as, combined with her chains, might exceed her limitation...

As the points of contact that Scarlet wishes to control increases, so too does the difficulty to manipulate their motion. Mechanical parts require time to dig through and trace. Each piece needing it's own concentration to shift in just the right way. A similar issue is found in liquids like water. Water, despite being flexible, is harder to control. Though she cannot shape the water, she can push water around her skin or propel herself through it is submerged. This level of concentration is exhausting to Scarlet, as she is essentially pushing each molecule around her.

The Voidspace
Scarlet has the ability to spontaneously create, travel to and from her own personal pocket dimension. The space itself is a 30 ft by 30 ft cube. Inside it, only one living thing can ever exist: Scarlet. To anyone else, it feels like the naked void of space, hence the name. The justification for this particular adaptation has been agreed on by those who observed Scarlet to be a manifestation of trauma: A place where she can be safe and alone.

To enter the Voidspace, Scarlet must remain unobserved for at least 5 seconds while she 'steps sideways' into the void. This action locks her in that 30 ft point in space, and if there are walls, the space is limited to smaller, as she cannot move past it. She must wait until there are no observers and collapse the voidspace. Objects remaining in her voidspace count against her telekinetic carrying capacity, lending to the notion that this is a psychic power-mutated by emotional trauma-that manipulates an unknown quantum variable.

Drawbacks & Weaknesses: 
Power Limits: 

Perception Negation
Visual line of sight through regular sight or cameras can prevent Scarlet from slipping into her voidspace, or stepping sideways as she calls it. If a person can see her, the waveform of the voidspace collapses. Scarlet must be unobserved to reopen it and gain access. Cameras, like surveillance systems and home video, can be useful against her as well, provided that someone is actually watching the camera at the time. The higher the brain function, the less access Scarlet has. Animals with a higher cognitive ability can also disrupt this power.

Weight Limitation
Scarlet, with the help of a sturdy TK controlled appendage, can lift up to 976lbs at current recorded maximum. After this, her body reacts violently and shuts down. This can result in anything as minor as a nose bleed to seizures and coma. This maximum however us lessened by the mass resting in her voidspace. For every pound of matter, it costs her 2 lbs of carrying capacity outside the void itself.

Solitude
Scarlet's voidspace is treated, with regards to it's affect on the human physiology, as empty space. Scarlet is the only exception known this far, as all others freeze or asphyxiate. Particularly strong individuals can last a bit longer but, eventually, everyone succumbs to this negative space. It is widely accepted that it is a manifestation of her isolation and abandonment issues.

Background [TRIGGER WARNING: ADULT THEMES]

Scarlet's life is one of pain, abuse, trauma and redemption.

Born to Wendell and Gayle Cross on April 1st 1998 at 3:33 pm, Scarlet had a family for all of one week before she was taken away. Her father's life as a mob 'henchman' caught up to the new family of four as Edwin Resnick, aka Insaniac, took the child and altered their memories. It was an expensive undertaking, one that put the memory psychic out of commission for a week.

“Worth ever second.” he would say.

With the Cross family believing little Scarlet was stillborn-although Gayle's subsequent depression would suggest she was subconsciously fighting the erasure- Resnick used the connections available to him via his employer, Fausto Rossetti, to place the child in foster care, carefully guiding her path through the system in such a way to ensure the child would harbor nothing but hate for all others.

He sought to create a monster.

He created Solace.

Although she suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of foster brothers and neglectful families just looking for the extra money, it was Phillip and Delores Bakerson of New Market, New Hampshire that did the most damage. And it was Resnick's own hand that sent her there, having already sampled the dark memories lurking in Phillip's mind.

On the third night, at the age of 9, the abuse began for Scarlet that would alter her and her powers forever. Devout Christians, racial purists and human supremacists behind closed doors, the Bakerson's saw Scarlet as a gift from God. As Delores had been crippled in an accident years before, Phil had taken his marital needs out on a young, defenseless girl. Scarlet tried to report the brutal rape and beating at the hands of a man she was told to trust, but bribes had already changed hands. She would endure this torment most every night until the age of 13, when her powers manifested.

In the only recorded case of Scarlet's powers working on living organic matter, Scarlet shattered Phil's left arm as he touched her. It was quick, brutal and instant, literally breaking every bone from his clavicle to the tips of his fingers. When the police arrived, Phillip Bakerson needed to be cut from the blanket wrapped around his head-reports indicate that the fibers of the blanket had stiffened, making it tougher. Phil ultimately survived but Scarlet was never found, having discovered her voidspace under her bed. The reports found their way to Rossetti, who sent Insaniac to retrieve the child. After a long search, Resnick returned with the now empowered Scarlet and began her training as a hired killer.

With her abilities honed toward violence, Insaniac sought to perfect the process he'd failed to implement with her older brother Marlo years before. Through careful manipulation of memory and conditioning responses, Scarlet was molded into a weapon. Eddie Resnick decided on a derivative of Solitude as he name: Solace.

Thankfully, a botched attempt to kill her estranged brother was thwarted by a resident of Cobalt Hill with the power to nullify abilities. The effect jettisoned Scarlet's favorite weapon, her 100 lbs industrial shipping chain, from her voidspace. Catching her jacket, they pinned her to the ground, allowing for her capture. Scarlet is still petrified of Kayla to this day.

Having been released from the Maze and given unrestricted freedom in the school, Scarlet seeks to reclaim her life from those that took it from her. Reconnecting with her family, she struggles to form lasting bonds. She hates being touched, save for her mother and a certain childlike technopath that sees the little girl where others may see the monster.


Projected Power Growth & Development:
Scarlet is exploring her powers in nonviolent ways. Her overall carrying capacity with no doubt increase as well as her ability to manipulate fine objects and detail.

Her void, sadly will not get better or more useful. It is trauma that she will carry with her for the rest of her life.

Skills:
Scarlet is a natural singer, a trait inherited from her mother's side
Origami


Criminal Record:
Having turned in states evidence against the Villain known as Faust (widely believed to be Fausto Rossetti) Scarlet pled no contest to the following crimes as part of a plea bargain to keep her in Cobalt Hill and out of a Supermax facility for mutants:

8 counts of 2nd Degree Murder
6 counts of 1st Degree Murder
25 counts of Assault and Manslaughter
5 counts of Armed Robbery with the Use of Mutant or Meta-human Abilities
19 counts of Breaking and Entering

Quirks and Extras:
Scarlet does not like to be touched or crowded. Having understood how her perceptions were altered, Scarlet tends to over explain herself and ramble.

She has begun a sickeningly adorable courtship with JJ aka Tron.