Zoya Sobchak

Name
Her first name is pronounced zo-Ya.

If it were up to her, she'd choose the Russian (pronounced roughly MERTSANIE, mir-SAN-yeh but spelled in roman characters "mercanie") but this probably would not go over very well with the English-speaking (and French-speaking, given that she lives in Canada) press. The word comes from "glimmer" (as in a star).

Physical Description
Zoya has long black hair that she often wears in a ponytail. Her eyes are naturally brown, but she often wears colored contacts of blue, green, or even more exotic colors. She is 167 cm tall and of average build. She speaks with a noticeable accent.

Her red and crimson costume is made of a durable, yet flexible, material. The crimson top covers her arms and has a high collar, similar to a mock turtleneck, is crimson. The bottom portion is black and completely covers her legs. She wears leather gloves and boots that come up below her knee. Zoya also wears a leather belt to hold miscellaneous items (cell phone, Palm device, pocket knife, etc.). Her head is bare except for a simple crimson mask. In cold or rainy weather, she adds a long hooded cloak. The cloak is white with red lining and black fur trim and also has interior pockets.

Teleportation
The Alien Light granted Zoya the ability to teleport herself and others. With her limited knowledge of quantum physics, she thinks her teleportation seems to be based upon a macro-application of quantum tunneling. At the subatomic level, matter exists as a waveform with an indeterminate location. Zoya is able to manipulate the waveform of very large objects so that they seem to teleport from one place to another.

She has to be touching an object to teleport it and can only teleport whole objects. Depending on how closely two or more objects are connected, she may have difficulty separating them. For instance, teleporting a gun out of someone's hand is easier than teleporting someone out of their clothes. It both these cases, it would be easier to teleport the person plus the gun and clothes. When teleporting another object, Zoya can, but is not required to, teleport with it.

Those teleported by Zoya suffer severe motion sickness. Symptoms include nausea, disorientation, dizziness, and a loss of coordination and equilibrium. Effects last from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the person's constitution. Those who are used to teleporting may only suffer mild effects, if any at all. She, herself, has enough experience with teleporting to avoid this effect, plus controlling the teleport reduces the effect in the same way many people get motion sickness in a moving car unless they are driving. However, when she stretches the limits of her ability, she too can succumb to this effect. If she tries to teleport where she cannot see or further than a hundred metres (or so), it is likely that she will not be able to stand after teleporting. It works in an emergency, but not much else.

There seems to be an inverse relationship between mass and distance of her teleport. She can teleport a 10 kilogram object 100 metres or a 100 kilogram object 10 metres. She has to be touching any object she wishes to teleport. She has greater ability teleporting herself - treat her own mass at around 10 kilograms to determine how far she can teleport herself. She can push her ability beyond these limits, but is subject to exhaustion and motion sickness.

Two solid objects cannot exist in the same space. If an object is teleported to an occupied space, the object is instead teleported to the nearest empty space (any direction). This effect protects Zoya from accidentally teleporting into a solid object but prevents this use as an attack (such as teleporting a knife into someone's back).

Teleportation does not add rotation or velocity to an object. Zoya could not, for example, teleport people and have them land on their head. She cannot face someone and then teleport behind them so that she faces their back. When teleporting from moving vehicle, for example, Zoya maintains the same velocity - making such maneuvers as dangerous as jumping from a moving vehicle.

Zoya's teleportation works at a conscious and subconscious level. Her primary defense is short-range teleportation - a few metres even or a few centimetres - to avoid being hit. This requires that she be able to sense the incoming attack, but does not require any conscious thought on her part (the reflex to teleport is orders of magnitude faster than her physical reflexes). She often has to suppress her natural tendency to teleport when startled. Zoya's subconscious manipulation of probability waveforms also gives her an uncanny luck, but nothing she can consciously control.

She has a very limited ability to detect unseen attacks from very short range (due to the physical object affecting the quantum waveform that she uses to teleport). This may give her enough forewarning to avoid being killed outright from a surprise melee attack, but not enough to avoid serious injury.

The teleport ratings listed above are used as a targeting mechanism - does she teleport arrive where it was supposed to arrive - and to determine distance and mass limits. Treat the motion-sickness effect as a Superb rating, modified by experience.

Background
She was born in Russia (then part of the USSR) in 1980. She witnessed first hand the fall of the Soviet Union and though she was young girl at the time, she recognized the historical significance. The transition away from communism and Soviet rule was harsh and many of the liberties they expected are still vague promises. In 1992, she left her chaotic homeland to live with an uncle who had defected to Canada (he got into his fishing boat and never came back) back in the 70's. Her family thought it was the best way to secure her a strong western education and a bright future.

Zoya's uncle Alexei is a stubborn, stalwart man; he has never once regretted coming to Canada. He married a French-Canadian by the name of Dominique and have a very warm, loving relationship, even if both of them tend to drink too much. They never had any children and they dote on Zoya as their own. She loves them, but misses her parents and older brother, who is helping run the family fishery. The last time she visited Russia was after graduating from high school in 1998, during the summer break before starting college.

Zoya is a very good student and excelled at math and science. She entered college with plans of becoming a chemist or biologist, perhaps taking her studies back to Russia and applying it to her family's fishery. For the first year before the Alien Light, Zoya lived in the university dorms yet went back to northern British Columbia, where Alexei lives, one weekend per month.

The Alien Light has thrown a wrench into her plans. When she first discovered her powers, she got the notion to go back to Russia and help root out the corruption and crime that has held back true democracy. She confided with her uncle and step-aunt, who convinced her to stay in school. They reasoned that there was no guarantee the aliens would not return and take back their gift; it would be better to continue her studies, get her degree, then decide if she wanted to go back. She reluctantly agreed, but now views Vancouver as a training ground for her eventual return to Russia.

To this end, she takes her personal training and improvement very seriously. For the past year, she has been working out, taking karate, and studying criminology. She is becoming more interested in forensics, especially the chemistry aspects, and may change her major. She lessened her class load (she his now on a five-year plan) to give her more free time to develop her powers and fight crime. She moved to a downtown apartment and now commutes to campus.

Zoya is very conscious of the potential abuses of her powers, having seen first-hand the gross injustices and evils committed within Russia by those who held power. She despises corruption of police and politicians even more than civilian criminals. Internally, she struggles between the ideals of western judicial system (innocent until proven guilty, inalienable rights of the accused, etc.), her native culture, and the extraordinary measures required when superpowers are involved.

When dealing with the public, she tries to keep a low profile and avoids contact with the media (hence the low Q-Rating). She wants to keep her private-life private and is adamant about protecting her foster parents from whatever dangers or headaches her activities may bring. Back in Russia, gangsters and politicians are known to blackmail and threaten the family of those they wish to control.

Fudge Traits
Attributes
Strength Fair
Intelligence Great
Willpower Good
Agility Good
Toughness Good
Luck Superb
Presence Fair
Q-Rating Mediocre

Skills
Russian (native) Great
English Fair
French Mediocre
Science (Bio-chemistry) Great
History (European) Good
Criminology (Forensics) Good
Athletics (Gymnastics) Fair
Music (piano) Fair
Hand-to-hand Combat Good
Ranged Combat Mediocre
Evade Great

Powers
Teleport Self Great
Teleport Others Good

Gifts
* Dual Citizenship (Russian/Canadian)

Faults
* Secret identity
* Family loyalty (tied to secret identity)
* Distinctive accent (which makes the secret identity all that much harder)
* Accidentally teleports when startled (primarily from things she cannot sense)