Biophase

    Odessa Cordozo was born to a pair of loving parents, and an eager older brother in 1990. Family life was pretty standard and average, her mother being a stay-at-home mother, and her father going off to work long days in construction. They were a Christian family of the Roman Catholic sort, but hardly ever went to church or read bibles. Luckily, the Cordozo family was neither rich nor poor; staying right in the middle class.

    Unfortunately, like in every individual's life, there was a downturn at some point in the young woman's life. Always the sweet and shy sort of personality, this got her both made fun of by her peers, and even bullied in some instances. It was never anything too terribly bad, and Odessa was always able to move on by the end of the day. That is, until her eyes started glowing red at random intervals when she turned eleven--signifying that she was a mutant. This only caused her to get picked on more; a couple of children even going so far as to touch her with bibles to see if she cried out in pain or sizzled at the book's touch. Children started talking about how she was a freak, touched by the Devil Himself, or generally an evil person (thanks to the color of her eye glow).

    Shortly after her eyes started glowing, the children that picked on her seemed to be sick and weak occasionally, but on a consistent enough basis to seem strange and more than coincidental. One girl developed asthma even though she was physically active, a boy broke his hip by standing up from a desk, and another even developed cancer. All of the symptoms seemed very different, perhaps just bad luck that so many children within the same school were getting ill in various ways--and even though health and building inspections were performed, nothing conclusive was ever found.

    A few weeks before her eighteenth birthday, Odessa finally found out what was causing her peers to decline in health. In an act of cruelty, a group of five boys decided to see if they could see her glowing eyes through a sack. Pushed around, hair pulled, they finally slipped the bag on to her head...and instead of being hurt or sad, Odessa seethed. It was the first time she had ever gotten truly angry, she was tired of getting treated like a freak. The shy girl had finally reached her breaking point.

    One of the boys collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest. Another one bent over, gasping for air. A third pawed at his eyes in confusion. The fourth started coughing, out of control, and the fifth starting to scream in pain. Anger gave away to confusion, and not one to let an opportunity to escape slip by, Odessa ran all the way home and hid in her room for the rest of the evening.

    It gave her time to think and piece everything together. Everyone that she wanted to stop bullying her did, because they weren't healthy enough to continue. All at once, five healthy boys suddenly became very unhealthy, and in her presence. She was the cause of all of the suffering. It was at that point that her eyes, the source of a lot of grief over the past few years, dimmed.

    Odessa didn't go to school the next day; she didn't need to. It had been called off, because of deaths on the campus, and others were harmed. A boy had a heart attack and died within moments, another had his lungs collapse. A third went blind, and a fourth got a slew of various infections of the cold/flu variety. The fifth developed paralysis from the hips down...and all five boys were within ten feet of each other when they were found. Another investigation was underway, and more thorough than ever before. Later that night, Odessa quietly said goodbye to her family while they were asleep, and slipped out of the house unnoticed.

    The next years were a blur of moving one place to another, doing simple jobs for a couple of dollars or a place for food and board. During this time, she tried to keep her emotions in check, to make sure she didn't accidentally harm someone...although her anger never flared anywhere close to the point that it had back then. When she had the chance, she sent back letters to her family to say that she was doing okay, and had plans to go to America. There was a place called Paragon City that she could go to that was a gleaming bastion for a mutant like her, so she saved up every bit of money that she could to buy a plane ticket. At twenty, she finally had enough saved up, and with a little bit of immigration help, was able to go over to the United States.

    There was definitely some culture shock when she came to the country, but she adjusted quickly enough. She started doing what she had done before, taking various jobs to get money, and finally managed to get her own place in a hovel of an apartment. Feeling as if it were finally safe to practice her powers, she began to see what the range of her abilities were; practicing in her spare time. While difficult to control, at first, she quickly adapted. She made herself tougher, stronger, and faster at times...other times she deliberately hurt herself, and healed herself with success. She even went so far as to let herself get sick, by lowering her own immune system. It was through this practice that she also discovered that she could actually fly.

    Years passed, and the more they did, the more better of a grasp she had on her powers. She even got in contact with her family again, talking with them on a consistent basis. She learned that once again, nothing conclusive was ever found about the boys she accidentally harmed and killed--although murder was always something that was considered to have happened. Through this revelation, Odessa began to loathe herself; thinking she wasn't worth anything at all.

    Only with the events of Galaxy City did Odessa begin to consider becoming a hero. When the attack started, she had been coming home from a late-night shift from her now more permanent job, working at a supermarket. When people began to get hurt, she did what she could to heal them, or caused some attacking Shivans to degenerate to the point that they couldn't do anything. The event tested her abilities...and the tests came back with startling results: she could actually do a lot of help, and even the harm she could cause could be helpful. It was a period of many sleepless days, and she actually collapsed once from exhaustion. When it all finally ended, she had done more than her share of good. She wasn't a mainline hero by any means, but she did save lives.

    It caused her to start thinking about what to do next with her life. She was filled with confidence at the control she displayed with her abilities, so she could help out a lot of people, both heroes and citizens alike. It took about two months to finally brave up and make the decision that she was going to be a hero--and another month setting up for it. Near the end of December 2011, Odessa Cordozo finally took up a new name; Biophase.

    When watching her from afar, Odessa might seem like a rather depressing individual. She always seems to have a smile on her face, and is generally cheerful, but it always seems forced somehow. The woman is obviously a nice person, and is more than happy to help the nicer individuals that she meets. At the same time, she seems rather shy and generally lacks confidence in her abilities. Some of that does change when the costume is donned, however. Her mindset seems to change from 'I can't' to 'I have to,' which causes her to put forth a lot more effort than she would normally. While her shy nature remains, she is still very brave and resilient--attempting to stand up to most intimidating things, even if she feels like it is something that cannot be done.

    However, deep down, she completely loathes herself--and that is where the bruises and cuts come from on her person. It is nothing physically inflicted, but actually a manifestation of her powers. Her negative thinking about herself contorts her bioresonance so that it feeds back into her body, and damages some of her cells to the point of causing her skin to split slightly, or become discolored with bruises.

    Odessa has the very potent ability to manipulate organic life around her being, and it does not matter if it is her own body or another person's. There are a very wide range of effects that she can make a person go through, and they can both be good or bad. Applied properly, an individual's body can become a little bit stronger, faster, or tougher...or the opposite effect could happen. Luckily, due to her nature, Biophase typically goes more with the former--only using the latter to modify 'enemy' life so that it is easier to subdue and thus take in. This ability is called 'bioresonance.'

    Bioresonance does allow her to heal her allies by speeding up the natural healing process. Through the same ability, she can also determine what is wrong with a person at any given time, physically, such as seeing if they have internal bleeding, are suffering from a dramatic illness, or so on. This can also be used to determine a cause of death without having to perform a full-on autopsy.

    Although her abilities are powerful, they do come with a glaring weakness. As previously stated, she can manipulate organic life only. This means that if she were to fight against something primarily robotic, for example, she might just be screwed. The best she could possibly do is alter herself to fight it off, but that typically only works with weaker enemies. When it comes to someone with regenerative capabilities, negative altering does take a lot of work, but it is doable. It just takes more effort, the stronger the individual's regeneration is.

    One strange thing about her abilities is that they can be influenced by strong emotions. This is both a blessing and a curse, as she could negatively affect a loved one if she gets angry enough, or make them a living tank if she feels protective enough over the individual.

  Polydeuces Grey - Poly is the worst best friend--or maybe the best worst friend. Poly is flirty and friendly where Odessa is shy and reclusive. Regardless, Odessa holds a lot of respect for the woman, and listens to just about everything she says (for better or worse); almost looking up to the woman from a little sister standpoint.

"Words words words praise singing here." - Name

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