Name: Xena Hailey Rose
"Pronounced Zen-Uh. I will never understand why people struggle with this."
Alias: Metallic Angel/ Angel
"I... have no idea what you're talking about. If you mean nicknames my friends call me Xen."
Secret identity: Metallic Angel has been Xena's secret identity for a while now. What started out as a way for her to be famous, while still having the opportunity to lead a normal life, has turned into a double identity. Most people know Xena as the bartender with a pretty face... and a bad attitude. No one would suspect she's the winged hero in the sky when duty calls.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Age: 23.
"Let's play a game. You guess, and I'll punch you if you're wrong."
Personality: A girl of tact, Xena has perfected the art of manipulation. She is not afraid to put up an act to get what she wants, and she will go to great lengths to achieve her goals. As a sort of self-defense mechanism, she has developed a great deal of wit to accompany her sarcastic tendencies. Most people would describe her as just plain mean, mainly because she is only outwardly kind to those she deems worthy. She is insanely honest, and this makes her come off as rather rude. Xena knows how to be very charming, when she wants to be. She's calculating and, above all, Xena knows how to appear. She knows who she needs to be in each situation, and will change to fit the role. As a child of neglect, Xena truly desires attention. She will go to great lengths to get it, whether it be negative or positive attention. However, she also wants to be loved, or rather to be significant to someone. This makes her very easily manipulated, because if someone shows her even the slightest bit of affection she will become unreasonably loyal to them. She is extremely brave, likely a result of her fending for herself most of her life. Also for this reason, Xena has grown to be rather selfish. She's been taught by the world that if she doesn't look out for herself, no one will. Independent and determined, Xena believes that if she puts the work in she can get whatever her heart desires.
"I take pride in being a closed book."
Appearance: Standing only 5'4'' and weighing a measly 108 lbs, Xena has always been a girl with a smaller build. Her bright blue eyes and freckled nose give her an innocent look, but don't allow this to fool you, she's much more than a pretty face. Her blonde hair is naturally curly, and is usually tied up. She has a few tiny scars here and there, from injuries she hardly remembers. When Xena was twenty she got a
tattoo of birds across her back, because she remembered her mother having a similar tattoo. No one ever sees this tattoo, however, because Xena never wears clothing that shows her back. This is due to the ugly scars all over her back, caused by her ability. Xena never goes anywhere without her makeup done, and she often prefers lipstick to lip gloss. Her style is changing, depending on her mood. On Monday she could wear a magenta dress with black boots, but on Tuesday she could wear jeans and a leather jacket. She does, however, always accessorize.
. While she does normally wear her hair up, when she is in her super suit she keeps it down. Early prototypes of her suit included a purely black spandex body suit. As she continued to help with petty crimes she started getting recognition around the communities she helped. Eventually the media coined the term 'Metallic Angel' and the name stuck. At this time she decided to trade in her cheap spandex for something much more fitting to her title. She tried a lot of different things, from jumpsuits to a silk white dress. Recently, she designed a suit that she thinks she'll keep around for the long run.
An armored two-peice suit, and a
winged mask to match. Xena hates to admit it, but the slightly 'skimpy' get up is easy to move around in, and she thinks it makes her like a comic book superhero.
"I think I'm pretty, don't you?"
Superpower: Ferrokinetic Wing Manifestation
Overview - Basically, the ability to create wings made of metal. Xena can use them for flight, as well as shields and offensive weapons. She has ugly scars all over her back where the wings tuck themselves beneath the skin. They can be felt through the skin, but Xena will tell anyone who touches her that what they're feeling are only her bones, no matter how anatomically incorrect this excuse is. Because the wings tuck beneath her skin, the cells on her back do regenerate at an exhilarated pace. However, she does not really possess a healing factor, because this only works when she is tucking her wings back inside her body. Her wingspan from tip to tip is 7.5 feet, and her wings are just as tall as she is.
Limitations - Xena can fly for as long as she can physically handle it. Just like running, the continuous movement will eventually tire her out and she will need to take a rest. Her wings are made of very durable metal, though there is no telling what kind. It is very possible that the metal does not exist on earth, but Xena has no way of proving this. The metal can be bent, which causes her a great deal pain, but it takes a lot of weight before this happens. Heat does make the metal less tough. Her wings can also be broken, but this again requires a good amount of brute force. If her wings are broken, they must heal like a bone would.
Weaknesses - Because her wings are made of metal, heat does affect her in very painful ways. If they get too hot while she has them out then her skin burns at the base of the wings, and she can't tuck her wings back inside of her until they have cooled down. If her back gets too hot while they are inside of her she gets burned internally, which is very painful for her. This ability doesn't do much for her when her wings are not out, so she can be killed just as easily as any mortal. Also, because her wings are a part of her she feels everything that happens to them, just not as much as she would if they were made of flesh. Meaning, she does have a stronger pain threshold for them, but can still feel the pain when they are hurt. Lastly, Xena is insecure of the scars on her back, and this insecurity can affect her day to day life in negative ways.
Reason To Join:
Fame, really. Xena enjoys being recognized for her good doing, even if no one really knows it's her. Some extra cash never hurt anyone, either. As a bartender, Xena will take money wherever she can get it- provided she won't be giving up any of her own morals in the process. Not to mention it has always been a dream of hers to meet people with abilities like her.
"Eh, you've got me. But my reason to join is just as good as any."
Bio:
"Like anyone's ever had a 'perfect' life."
Xena was the first child born to Margaret and Jameson Rose, with a baby boy following her only two years later. She was a happy child, though she never developed a strong bond with either of her parents. Her father was a well known doctor, and so he always seemed to be working, and her mother couldn't be bothered with the children she brought into this world. Often times, Margaret was only seen in public with her children when she went to the store, in hopes of appearing like a good mother.
From the day she was born her parents knew she was different, because she was born with her wings. The doctors immediately took x-rays of her, discovering alarming amounts of metal tucked beneath her skin. Her father went to great lengths to keep this from getting out to the public. Luckily, the doctor who took the x-rays just so happened to be Jameson's best friend, and Xena's godfather. The x-rays were destroyed, and it was agreed that Xena would only ever receive treatment from the two of them. The last thing Jameson wanted was for the world to find out his daughter was born with an extremely abnormal mutation.
She was only seven when her parents were caught in a house fire and killed. Her brother's body was never recovered, but he had also disappeared, and so there was rumor that he had set the fire to kill his awful family. Whether this was true or not didn't matter, either way Xena was all alone. She was sent to live with her godfather, who was somehow even more busy than her father had been.
For a time she thought of running away. She never got the nerve to leave, however, simply because she knew she probably wouldn't make it very far. She had no money, and she had heard the horrible tales of what happens to little girls when they're alone in the world. So instead of running away, she began to act out. She got very good at stealing very quickly. When she was ten she met a boy, Harold, and they became partner's in crime for a while.
Harold had knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, because his parents put him in Karate classes. In exchange for fighting lessons, Xena taught him how to sew and steal. By the time she was thirteen she was very skilled in the art, and was able to defend herself- which was good, for a girl coming into age.
The two also bonded over their fascination with superheros. Harold admired them because they saved people, but Xena was only interested in people with super abilities because she always thought she might fit in better with people like them. Even her parents treated her differently when they were alive, as if she was a constant danger to them. As if her mutation made her a hazard.
Sadly, Harold and his family moved away before Xena turned fouteen, and her best friend in the world was gone. She had no way of contacting him, because she wasn't allowed to use the home phone for extended periods of time. This sent her into a stage of depression, having again lost the only person in her life that she cared about at the time. She became reckless- which eventually led to her being arrested. She got into big trouble for that, and her godfather had her start going to therapy.
She learned how to act as if everything was all right with her. She spent the rest of her teenage years perfecting how to appear, and moved out of her godfather's shortly after she turned eighteen. She had a rough patch when she initially moved out, but found a job as a waitress for a local bar. Of course she couldn't work behind the bar at that age, but she could deliver food to people (though when she turned 21 she did become a bartender at said bar).
When she turned nineteen Xena really started to become interested in her ability. Prior to this, she had never been brave enough to experiment. She had always thought there was something wrong with her, so she spent most of her life trying to suppress her urge to spread her wings. In the safe walls of her tiny apartment, Xena released her wings for the first time in years. And it felt good.
It took her a few months to work up the nerve, but Xena eventually began to learn how to fly. She started this out in the middle of nowhere at first, large fields where no one ever really visited. Probably for the best, because early stages of the learning process included a lot of crash landings. As she got better, however, she started to think about superheros more and more.
Inevitably, Xena tried her own hand at the whole saving people thing. She started in a cheap black bodysuit and a Halloween mask from Party City, helping to stop petty crimes. She stopped thieves and tied them up for the police, she stopped robberies in alleys, helped get cats out of trees. On several occasions photos were taken of her, and the media started to call her the 'Metallic Angel.' As she grew more popular she took to assisting in more dangerous crimes.
Upon finding the ad for the Friendly Neighborhood Superheroes, Xena wasted no time applying. She really couldn't wait to join a group of people just like her. Well, maybe not just like her, but you get the point.