Post by Desert Flower on Jan 12, 2016 12:12:41 GMT -8
MARIA MESA
Real Name: Maria Mesa
Alias: Desert Flower
Identity: Secret (Tho she is not famous)
Age: 28
Species: Human
Physical Appearance: Maria is 70 inches (178cm) tall, 145 pounds (66kg) and has a very muscular, lean athletic build. She has long jet black hair, brown skin and deep, blue eyes. She is heavily tattooed on one arm and her back and a few ones on her legs. She has a few long scars on her torso and across her back. She is very attractive and sultry.
Personality:
Maria has a very outgoing, fun personality. She loves to have fun especially at bars and pubs. She is boisterous, loud and “in your face”. She gets along with about anyone and likes to see the humour in most situations.
Although Maria is very feminine in appearance, she grew up in a military household with two older brothers and tends to get along very well with both men and women. But her interests tend to be things more socially seen as “masculine” interests. She has a great interests in guns, cars, martial arts and sports. That being said, when the mood hits her she can wear the numbers off her credit cards when she gets the shopping bug.
She loves greasy cheeseburgers, bloody steaks and double cheese pizzas. And although she doesn’t smoke, she will once in a great while smoke a cigar in celebration. She loves going to the cinema and admires superheroes greatly.
Maria is very patriotic but very connected to the big, global picture and understands nationalism can only take you so far.
Due to her rich mother’s instance, Maria knows the basic tenets of high society, manners and protocols and can fit in almost anywhere, although she loathes having to do so.
She loves telling jokes, playing pool, surfing and poker.
Occasionally, when Maria lets herself get close to someone, she has a much more tender and sensitive side and is a secret romantic. The little things mean a lot to her, much more than big gestures.
Her idea date is an intimate night in, ordering a delivery pizza and cuddling on the sofa watching BluRays.
Maria is gay and often refers to herself as a “super lesbian”.  Her romantic "conquests" are legendary in both number and intensity.
Powers: None
Abilities: 
Maria is a former Lt. in the US Marines and served in the Marine Raider Regiment detachment.
Elite Military Hand-to-hand combat training
Elite Small Arms Training
Advanced Long Arms Training Including Sniper Training
Advanced Small Ordinance training
Advanced Military Strategy and Tactics Knowledge
Elite Survival Skills
Black Belt in Kempo Karate and Jujitsu
Expert High Speed and Off Road Driver
Licensed Pilot
Decent Computer Skills but not a hacker
Semi-Pro Surfer
Above Average IQ
Highly Educated - BS Mechanical Engineering
Fluently Speaks - English, Spanish, Japanese
Conversationally Speaks Arabic, Farsi
Weapons/Equipment:
Maria is a gun fanatic and is almost always armed. She owns dozens of pistols, rifles, shotguns and sniper rifles. But when she it out on a typical patrol she carries the following.
Two especially constructed Glock 43’s that have elongated barrels with special rifling that marks each shot with different ballistic marks. They also increase the weapon’s accuracy by nearly 100% at longer distances.
One chrome plated Tech-9
Military grade ultra-thin body armour.
At least one dagger
At least one shock grenade
Maria’s normal clothing when she knows she will be fighting is a black ribbed tank-top, black leather trousers and a long leather trench coat as well as well different configurations of body armour.
However, as stated above, even when she is casually dressed she almost always has a weapon on her person somewhere.
Maria also owns a very tricked out ’69 Camaro and a 2015 Land Rover 4x4 SUV
History:
Maria was born on June 21st in 1987 at Pearl Harbour Naval Base in Hawaii to two very proud parents, Colonel Jose and Felicia Mesa. She was their first and only daughter after two sons.
Her father, Colonel Mesa, is a lifelong, career US Marines officer born of modest means. Her mother, Felicia (Worthing) Mesa, is a woman of quite substantial means born into “old west coast” money.
Due to Maria’s father being in the military, she never spent too much time in one place as a child as her father was often deployed to various posts mostly in Asia and the US West Coast.
From the start Maria’s brothers were very protective of their little sister but they also taught her how to take care of herself. She grew to love and depend on them greatly.
By the time Maria started school it was clear she was gifted both intellectually and physically.
While stationed in Japan, Maria gained both her black belt in Kempo and Jujitsu at the age of twelve. When stationed back Hawaii, Maria picked up surfing and excelled at it greatly. She briefly considered joining the pro tour.
At her mother’s instance, Maria also focused on school and was able to graduate high school at the age of 16 (skipping two grades). From high school, Maria got an appointment to the US Naval academy and graduated Sum Cum Laud with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. From there she entered the US Marines Special Forces (Raider Regiment) as an AH-64 Apache Gunner and eventually a pilot.
As both her brothers and her father were also Marines, Maria grew up very proud of her country and heritage.
Her mother, Felicia, also insisted that as Maria was both a US Military Officer and heir to the Worthing family fortune, Maria must understand the nuisances and protocols of high society. Thus, Maria was educated in the ways of the very, well to do. In turn when Maria turned 21 years old she could access a trust fund her mother established for her worth 250 million dollars.
For the first 22 years of her life, Maria lived an idealistic existence. She had a great career, wonderful family and want for nothing. Then everything went to hell.
In the fall after her 21st birthday, Maria got a call from her father. She was informed that both of her brothers had been killed in action two weeks apart by mercenaries somewhere in Iraq or Iran. Unknown to her father at the time, Maria was secretly in a relationship with a female officer in her eldest brother’s detachment, who was also killed.
Despite her pleads and requests for more information, Maria was unable to get any specifics concerning the deaths of her brothers and lover. Eventually, after help with both her father’s and mother’s influence, Maria was able to determine the general region where their deaths occurred.
Oddly all three deaths were classified Top Secret but tagged with nomenclature that was usually reserved for interactions with the military and superheroes. Unfortunately Maria was unable to unearth any more information and it soon became apparent there was some type of government cover up.
Frustrated at the government’s refusal to reveal more information, Maria cashed in all her vacation and emergency leave and headed towards the Middle East to run down the true cause of the deaths.
Eventually she was able to bribe enough local officials to uncover part of the story. Both of her brothers’ detachments were tasked with orders to take out a single target. A woman then known as only "Code Name K" hiding out on the Iraq / Iran border.
By this time Maria had learned enough Arabic and Farsi to set out on her own to hunt down this "Code Name K" woman. Hiring a small group of local mercenaries, Maria broke into a US Military base in Turkey and stole a Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) and headed towards the location where her brothers where taken out.
It took weeks in the desert but Maria finally found Code Name K but sadly the woman easily killed her entire crew and captured Maria. It was only then that Maria discovered Code Name K's true nature and code name, The Scarlet Viper. Despite using all her ability, Maria was unable to defeat Viper and fell in an epic battle of fists and gunfire.
For the next three months, Katrina held Maria in her secret hideout. Maria endured daily torture and abuse at Viper’s hands. For the most part, Maria was held outdoors tied down to a wooden platform and kept near death the entire time. It was only due to a freak rainstorm at night that weakened Maria’s rope bindings that finally enabled her to escape.
Using her survival skills, Maria made her way back to safety two months later. However due to her long unauthorised absence and theft of military property, Maria was jailed and court-martialled when she recovered physically. However, as she was one of the only people to ever have direct intelligence on the identification of the Scarlet Viper (at that time) and lived to tell the tale, she struck a plea deal with the military and agreed to a dishonourable discharge.
The next few years  for Maria was incredibly hard. She fell into a deep depression due to disappointing her parents, failing her brothers and severe PTSD from her time with Viper. She drank heavily and nearly gave up on life.
Hurting greatly she was unable to stay in one place for too long. She soon found herself in Gotham drunk and living off the streets unable to cope with what had happened. That was when fate stepped in again.
Maria decided she had had enough and decided it was time to end her own life. On her way to a bridge over Gotham’s largest river crossing one gloomy night, Maria heard a few screams coming out of an alleyway. Looking down the alley, Maria saw a costumed vigilante taking out a whole group of thugs.
The vigilante was wearing all black with a huge red bat on her chest that matched her fiery red hair. As she watched the woman, who she later discovered was Batwoman, she observed that she was using obvious military martial arts techniques to take out the baddies.
Not sure way she did it, Maria assisted Batwoman and they soon made short work of the thugs. Impressed by Maria’s work, Batwoman thanked Maria. Sensing there was more going on, Batwoman was able to get Maria to open up about what she planned on doing.
Maria’s tale was so close to Batwoman’s own story, she decided to talk Maria down and encourage her to take up the fight to clear the streets of criminals. Feeling that she could still do some good for her country, Maria took Batwoman’s words to heart and turned her life around.
Maria soon took up the code name Desert Flower in honour of her ex-lover who had died in the Iraqi desert at the hands of the Scarlet Viper.
Vowing to do good and honour her ex-lover and family, Maria secretly started patrolling the streets in Gotham, LA and San Francisco.
The years that followed were rough as she learned the harsh ways of the street and dealt with her lingering PTSD. But with each encounter she became better and with Batwoman’s tutelage, Maria soon became a force to be reckoned with.
Currently Maria splits her time between Gotham and the greater LA/San Diego area. She was sworn to eventually track down the Scarlet Viper but is currently living each day as they come.
With her family now back in her corner and her substantial financial assets, Maria is seeking to make up lost time.
Weaknesses: Maria is a normal human and is susceptible to all things normal humans are. Maria can have a bad temper and can be easily drawn in fight if someone insults her. Recovering from severe PTSD.
Other Information:
Maria comes from substantial means and is very wealthy. She doesn’t have to work and spends her time working out, training and researching.
She has a personal connection with Batwoman.
She owns houses/apartments in San Francisco, Hawaii, San Diego and Gotham.
Maria is open to joining a vigilante group as long is its not fulltime.
Although she uses guns, she doesn’t shoot to kill unless her life is in danger or someone else is in immediate mortal danger. She prefers hand-to-hand combat
RP Sample:
Maria, grinning from ear-to-ear, roared down the nearly empty streets of Gotham at 80 miles per hour. Her shiny black, '69 Camaro's deep, throaty exhaust shook nearby windows as she revved by. Quickly hitting the clutch and changing gears, she left rubber on the pavement as she jumped into forth gear. Now approaching 100 miles per hour, Maria focused a bit more. She had to time the next intersection just right less she crash into someone when the traffic signal changed.
Just as she feared, the traffic signal changed to red, but at 100 mph she could not possibly stop in time. Instead she gunned it and the massive, Detroit made engine screamed as the Camaro lurched forward even faster.
She was three quarters the way through the intersection when she noticed another car, a damn minivan no less, pulling forward perpendicular to her. Slamming on both the clutch and brakes and turning the steering wheel slightly, the Camaro slid sideways and curved around the minivan. As she sped by, Maria gave the finger to the driver of the other vehicle as she squealed by. His expression was priceless and Maria laughed to herself.
Releasing the clutch and brakes, Maria punched the accelerator again and was soon tearing back down the street hell bent on pissing off as many people as possible.
Stomach beginning to growl in hunger, Maria decided to pull into her local drive-in burger joint when she noticed three men, kicking the hell out of some, poor homeless woman.
Changing direction she sped over to the thugs stopping abruptly when she reached them. Killing the ignition she hopped out of the car. Unfastening the holsters she had under each arm, Maria pulled out her set of matching, specially modified Glocks.
Grinning as the approached the men, swaggering with enthusiasm she announced, "Time to go to work girls!"