Mayday

Dossier[Out of character knowledge]

Personal Information:

Code Name: Mayday

Secret ID: Comtesse Melody Angelique Veronique DuMaurier Harper di Castro

Player: Phaedra Whitlock

Group(s) Affiliations: Former member of Vanguard (based in New Orleans), and in Colonial Bay the Lilypad Coalition (Frog Net), Genesis Knights, and Protectors

Concept/Occupation: Mentalist/Gadgeteer
 

Physical Description:

Age: 16 originally, now 20
Sex: Female
Height/Weight: 5'4"/Athletic
Skin/Hair: Freckled/Auburn
Distinguishing Features: Small tattoo of psi symbol on left hip.
Appearance (Hero): Green sleeveless costume edged in white, long green gloves and high boots also in green, folded down to show black interior.

Appearance (Secret ID): Pretty young thing with vibrant auburn hair and green eyes, rarely still. A scattering of freckles across her nose, graceful poise of one taught how to walk properly tempered with the desire to GET where shes going. Likes green, likes miniskirts, minidresses and going out, doing things. Always always carries a rather heavy (big) reinforced bag that contains basic mechanic tools (each in its holster)(including a small welder), whatever paperback she is reading currently or tech magazine in one end in a zip pouch, a zip pouch in the other end for basic necessities (makeup: green, bronze or gold nail polish, lipstick, eyeshadow, mascara and lots of hairties), roll of duct tape, extra wiring, bits and pieces from some project or other, cellphone (in holster) and batteries and misc. Spare t-shirt and shorts rolled up tight. Gloves. Chocolate bars and bubblegum. Small first aid kit. Ammunition and butterfly knife (one real, one a movie prop). etc.

Outward Attitude: Positive, energetic, mature for her age. With powers come responsibilities to do good, or at least do Right.

Ambitions/Goals: Her ambition is fairly simple, to justify her existence and do the best she can with what she has, which happens to be psionics. She does get distracted, but the basic intent is there.
Routine Activities: Patrol, study and play.
Friends/Family: American Valor and Gigawatt. Night Warden eventually forgave her for besting him in a hacking duel, but not enough to teach her any of HIS tricks. Her only remaining family is her paternal grandfather who resides in the wine region of France.
Enemies (and why): Psiona and P.S.I., Bora, Mentalla and Le Son. Genocide.
Physical Problems: -
Psychological Quirks & Problems: Deep deep fear of Pantera. Vanguard often used Eurostar members in simulated training exercises, and every time Pantera was used, she gutted Mayday in one blow, before Melody could react. At first she just tried harder. Eventually she developed an aversion to fighting Pantera at all. Loves tinkering with things and taking them apart to see how they work.

Financial Status: Okay. She receives an allowance monthly from her grandfather.

Languages: French (native), English, Portugeuse...

Disadvantages: -

Reputation: French heroine

Origin/History:

Born May 12, 1982, Melody grew up in the wine country of France with her elderly grandparents on their vineyard estate. Her parents died in a car accident when she was 4 and she barely remembers them, but carries their wedding picture and rings as her only link to them.

A good if energetic child, she was sent to excellent boarding schools where her natural curiousity of anything and everything lead her to learn useful skills such as lockpicking, in order to get into the Dean's files, the Library after hours, all sorts of interesting places. She found she was a natural with anything mechanical, engines and electronics alike and during her summers explored those interests in full.

At age 14 she found herself with unusual talents, and true to form quietly explored them in private, developing facility with psionic Numina. On a trip to Washington D.C. to visit a friend there she and her friend were needed when a series of inexplicable robberies began occurring. Along with a few other Heroes rounded up by the government to handle it, they staked out a likely target and waited. C.L.O.W.N. showed up and after a wild battle C.L.O.W.N. started teleporting out. Mayday's friend caught one of them before he could teleport out, and was taken with him. They landed in a submarine and were as surprised to see her as she was to find none of her teammates had been able to follow. C.L.O.W.N. dropped her off on the shore unharmed and left to try again another day.

After that, Melody decided to stay in the U.S. a bit longer. Her friend lived in New Orleans and Melody returned to Louisiana with her, arriving shortly after the city was held hostage in an opaque black dome for over a day. Her friend needed to sort out her personal life for awhile, so Melody applied to join the Vanguard team of government backed Heroes on her own, and wasaccepted in.

Vanguard, based in Monastary, a high tech structure in the bayous, with an integrated AI named Otis, had been in the city for a year or so before Mayday's arrival, and had developed a long running conflict with Impact, a vicious telekinetic who was eventually KIA. The first leader of Vanguard, Night Warden, was also KIA while fighting his personal nemesis, Nightshade, alone. Vanguard's membership expanded dramatically, leading to the formation of three teams, Day watch for the usual threats to city, nation and planet, Night Watch for the more Dark Champions-esque threats, and Twilight for the mystically inclined. American Valor (gorgeous brick super-Patriot, star of movies and the obvious spokesman for Vanguard) took control of Day, and Vanguard overall. Death Watch (a martial artist former mercenary) became the acknowledged leader of night, and Eclipse (the reincarnation of an ancient egyptian moon deity) of Twilight.

American Valor drew the attention of a nearly-as-beautiful-as-he villainess known as Psiona. Psiona staged a coup in P.S.I and with a genetic sample from American Valor oversaw the development of Project M (AV-1M series of shapeshifting powerhouses with A.V.s mutagenic structure), as well as ninja robots, some of whom were designed to look like members of Vanguard.

After Vanguard disappeared, presumed dead in the explosion, American Valor moved on to government work and she returned to France to be with her grandmother before she passed away, then returned to the United States and a military covert operation in Canada. A military installation had gone silent and the U.S. Govt called in what heroes were available to check it out, with a second team to follow once assembled if it was required.

It was. The team flying north on an experimental, nuclear powered military cargo plane, was shot down miles from the installation by an unseen force. Mayday and Cannonball managed to climb up against the G-forces and level the plane out enough to survive the crash that followed. Both pilots were killed by the crash if not before, and Mayday began to take charge of the motley assortment of paranormals. The team began revising their plan, approaching by air under their own power. The only entrance was atop the facility, which sported a helicopter landing pad and a huge satellite dish. The team was attacked by most of Eurostar on the roof, and it went downhill from there. Mayday and another mentalist, Mistress Death, combined attacks, what Mistress Death didnt drop Mayday would. Between them they managed to clear the opposition enough to escape with those comrades still moving. Mistress Death went down at the last second and was left behind.

It wasn't long however before Bora arrived with Le Son, White Flame, Pantera and Durak to examine the crash site. Pantera and Durok were captured, Pantera locked in a locker unconscious and Durak chained in the hold. Bloodbath, a psycho normal armed with his weight in guns and blades, wandered down to the hold while the others were busy and opened fire with his uzi point blank on the chained Durak. Bullets caroomed everywhere and opened a gash in the nuclear reactor core. The reactor went critical, engulfing Durak, Bloodbath and Pantera instantly.

Cannonball, Mayday and the flying armored brick/projector (Alienator, Forcebolt, Superluminal, or Solar Flare, I forget) were caught up in a bubble that protected them somehow from the initial destruction, but the radiation triggered Cannonball's growth/density power unstoppably, straining the bubble's limits as he continued to expand far past his normal limits. The projector rewired his gauntlets for double knockback and managed, barely, to knock him out of the bubble. Cannonball nearly took Mayday with him, knocking her flying. The projector caught her in time and the surviving pair were contacted by the alien force that was protecting them from immediate death. Its brother was held in the facilities storage battery, and the alien force was unable to approach without being drawn in as well. Eurostar was using the stored power of the captured alien energy force to increase Mentalla's mental ability to godlike levels. The second team arrived shortly, and the two rendezvoused with them, briefing them on the operation so far. The new group, Morning Star, Palisade, Zeus..., returned to the installation, where they found Mistress Death, long annoyed with the demeaning remarks of the male members of the team and never altruistic at the best of times, had accepted an offer to join Eurostar. The two teams joined battle, and Mistress Death turned on Eurostar. She and Mayday linked together, took on Mentalla directly while the rest fought the remaining members of Eurostar. The operation succeeded in most objectives, but was deemed a failure by the military.

*     *     *

Mayday departed for Europe in time to be with her grandmother in her last three weeks of life, then was invited into a European group that was forming of national heroes, operating together under NATO jurisdiction. She elected not to however, and was called on to act as bodyguards for a treaty signing of Prime Ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Berlin. The remnants of Eurostar assaulted the building, and in the confusion Mayday's Prime Minister lost it and ran away from her protection. Before she could move to protect him, White Flame burned him to the ground.

Later on in Atlanta, she was attending a trade show when VIPER launched an attack at a construction site across the street where Ankylosaur had been hiding out. She and a number of heroes appearing out of nowhere went after VIPER, defending Ankylosaur who ran off during the fight.

* * *

Her life returning to normal, Melody's duties to her ailing remaining family began to put pressure on her to be ready to take over the family businesses and social responsibilities. Bowing to her grandfather's wishes she selected a university in Colonial Bay, a medium-sized city of about a half-million people nestled snugly on the western bank of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, on the east coast of the USA. With her grandfather's poor health in mind she took on a crushing workload with a triple major in business, agriculture and for herself, engineering, trying to cram as much in as fast as possible. The sooner she could take over his duties the better for his heart, she thought.

Arriving just before New Years she quickly encountered the heroic population and made friends. When villains arose she stepped in, never having promised not to. Shortly she joined the Lilypad Coalition, a group of independents who agreed that it would be wise to have a means of communication in case of crisis. Chester, the Fabulous Frogman, funded the program and not long after the Genesis Knights began forming around Vibracobra. Unfortunately there was some question as to Vibracobra's preferred and rather dark methods of crime fighting, and so Melody and Chester joined the Knights in order to keep an eye on VC.

When the Protectors, the local premiere hero team, opened up for tryouts Melody and Jim Devlin (once human become demonic psionic) applied and were accepted. Soon after, Jim and Melody were married in a midnight ceremony one summer night. Jim was called away to a demonic hell dimension where he had long served as a truthseer, and Melody returned to her studies and patrols and friendships. Time passed and when Jim went overdue she set out in search of him with as yet no success.

Significant Accomplishments:

Team’s plane shot down by Quasar, repaired it after assisting defense of the craft against assault. Designed defense of Vanguard base against a P.S.I. assault about to hit (two hours notice, only one there) and an ungodly good hacker trying to break in at same time (defeated hacker, got captured by an android masquerading as one of her teammates (sighs)). Surviving the explosion of the P.S.I. base she was held at thanks to A.V. (in hospital for 4 months) and warning off her teammates so that they too survived the explosion. Later taking command of a strike team investigating a military installation gone silent in Canada after 2/3rds of the team were wiped out (successfully completing mission too). Defended diplomatic conference in Paris against Eurostar attack (unfortunately the French diplomat ignored her instructions to stay put and was disemboweled). Helped halt VIPER attack on another conference in Atlanta.

Mayday is a creation of Phaedra Whitlock. Hero Games, Eurostar, Bora, Durak, White Flame, Le Sone, Mentalla, the Whip, Pantera, .P.S.I., Omen, Soulfire and other characters found in Hero Games supplements (subsequently used in adventures by my GMs), are products of Hero Games, which like me retains all copyrights and trademarks to their creations, as do my friends, the creators of the characters serving as Mayday's teammates. Psiona, Impact, Project M, Otis, Monastary, etc are the creations of John Keene to my knowledge, the GM who ran the Vanguard/P.S.I plotline. The Fabulous Frogman, Vibracobra, Jim Devlin (Twist) and other Champions MUSH characters are the creation of the persons who played them.

Note, the photos are NOT of the player, only an idea of the character's possible appearance.