Gemstone

GEMSTONE[/div]



Real Name: Kayley Smith(formerly Kyle Smith)



Alias: Gemstone



Identity: Secret



Age: 17



Species: Neo (human altered with alien DNA)






Physical Appearance: Formerly, a 5'8 teenage boy with a thin frame and short dark brown hair and eyes named Kyle. That all changed after the alien device changed him from a normal human boy to a superpowered girl. Now as "Kayley", she resembles what could best be described as her old self and the device's owner having a daughter together. Reduced down to 5'4, she sports slender, shapely body perfectly suited for the dexterity and agility its now-extinct race was known for boasting toned curves and a firm c-sized bust. Her now-auburn hair is kept in a short, straight bob cut framing a lovely face with a pair of expressive green eyes.




Thanks to her sister, Lucy, Kayley often dresses very fashionably, with form-fitting tops, pleated or jean skirts, nylons and boots, which she'll top with a leather jacket and scarf when it's cold outside.




As Gemstone, Kayley dons a highly durable gray full-bodysuit that looks like it is a mix of carbon-fiber and leathers, though is notably flexible and fits her figure without problems or restraint. On the center of the bust and on the backs of her purple-colored gloves are blue diamond-shaped gems embedded into the costume that help her channel and focus her power better. Over this she wears a purple utility belt, knee-high boots and short-sleeved open jacket, and a pair of sunglasses over her eyes.




Personality: With strangers, Kayley is a bit shy due to growing up being bullied before her life was turned upside-down. As a result she is rather quiet and chooses her words with caution to avoid embarrassment and will need to get comfortable before she really opens up.



When one had gotten to know her, it's clear that Kayley is a huge geek when it comes to comics and anime, which she absolutely loves and can quote from on a dime and quickly get embarrassed if she realizes she's ranting too much on it. She is so into her hobby she will often be drawing her own as she has for as long as she can remember wanted to become an artist and get into the field someday. She takes her art seriously, hoping at least one of her creations will see life one day in the comic industry.



Gemstone is still trying to cope with and adapt to her new female form, and thus still feels quite awkward about it. While she'll turn red at seeing herself in a state of immodesty due to not being fully used to her new body that it still sometimes feels like seeing a stranger in a mirror, she has over time noticed she is growing less and less freaked out by it and feeling more and more routine doing feminine things. This has made her worried she will lose some part of her own identity along the way, if her mind is changing to becoming a girl on the inside as well to match her body. Despite this, she is still attracted to pretty girls and will get shy around them, and is just now getting used to being treated as one.





Powers: Gemstone's abilities come from the inherent powers of the alien race responsible for the device that changed her dubbed "Gemmites". Gemstone is able to form and manipulate highly ionized gas in the air which we know of as plasma energy from her body. This manifests as a flame-like blue aura that forms around her, her energy being mostly concussive by nature though stronger attacks can leave burns on the target as well. When the aura manifests she is able to use it to form a variety of attacks, such as:



-Plasma Bolt: Gemstone's weakest but easiest to use attack. By emitting and channelling ionized gas energies from herself, Gemstone points and fires small bolts of energy at her opponents from her fingertip. Due to the low use of energy needed and quick recharge she can fire them rapidly up about the rate of a semi-automatic gun, sporting the potency of a strong taser shock.



-Plasma Orb: A much stronger variety of the plasma bolt. Gemstone takes about a second or more to create compressed, softball-sized orbs of plasma energy which are suspended over her hand until she releases it at a target by a "throwing" motion with her arms. The orbs are unstable and will explode in a burst of crackling blue plasma energy at about the diameter of a hand grenade explosion once they impact with something.



-Plasma Bomb: A stronger version of the plasma orb. It requires both hands and a minimum of three seconds or more depending on size(the largest she can manage being about that of a beachball) before performing a flinging motion with both hands(for obvious reasons it is much easier to do in the air where Gemstone will have freer range of movement for "throwing" it). The explosion is larger and more powerful, capable of demolishing drywall. Due to its more complex nature Gemstone is not as skilled with this ability and does not rely on it often.



-Plasma Beam: Similar to the plasma bomb, Gemstone charges up her plasma energy into a joined formation of her hands before thrusting them forward and releasing a beam of energy, capable of sending a person flying at a weaker setting or blasting through a wall at its strongest.



-Plasma Cutter: Gemstone's most powerful and deadliest ability. Channeling her energy and forming it into crescent-shaped "plasma blades", Gemstone then uses a flinging motion of her arm to send them rocketing at her target. The super-hot energy blades can cut through almost anything, making it a potentially lethal ability. Fortunately, Gemstone lacks the skill, let alone the knowledge of this ability and thus cannot use it at will until she has been sufficiently trained to do so, as well as having learned of it.



-Flight: By having ionized plasma aura she creates around herself lift her and riding it, Gemstone can levitate and propel herself about in the air, granting her the ability to fly.



-Alien Biology: Gemstone's physiology also somewhat differs from normal humans, in that due to her enhanced durability and speed she has a higher metabolism and thus would not deal with weight gain so easily and recovers from poisons and illnesses at about double the rate of a normal human. Due to this, Gemstone has a larger appetite then normal people of her size and age, and thus can tire out easily if she's not had a decent meal before a real fight.







Abilities:

-Artist: Gemstone is a skilled artist who is aspiring to make comic books of her own one day. To make extra money she takes commissions.



-Martial Arts: Gemstone has grown in skill with martial arts and hand-to-hand combat due to being trained by her sister, a former vigilante who operated in New York for several years.



-Geek Trivia: Being a huge fan of anime, comics, video games, and the like, Gemstone is well-versed in trivia from them, as well as has a sense of genre-savviness to recognize a situation similar to how it plays out in comics and movies and how to respond accordingly.





Weapons/Equipment:



-Costume: Gemstone's costume which she found herself in after the change is a flexible yet durable suit from the race that the device belonged to. It is resistant to standard gunfire and abrasion, giving her added protection. It sports diamond-shaped gems on the bust and backs of her gloves that help her focus and channel her power more effectively.



-Utility Belt & Cargo Jacket: Gemstone wears a utility belt and jacket over her costume, allowing her to carry various small objects when necessary.




History: Before there was Gemstone, there was Kyle Smith, an average teenage boy who had grown up in Chicago being a longtime comic fan who had read his grandfather's old Justice Guild comics countless times, Kyle was always collecting any news reports and whatnot that he could, both from admiring them, to escapism and inspiration for his own comics and art he had hoped to write and successfully publish one day, especially as being a scrawny comic geek made him very few friends outside the internet and his relationship with his sister grew rather distant when she went to college.



By his first year of high school, Kyle had paid particular attention to a female vigilante that had established herself in Chicago going after its crime ring, collecting any reports he could and incorporating them into his art, which he grew increasingly into at the cost of social interaction which, paired with the bullying people like himself tended to receive, made him grow shy and reclusive of people and gaining a bit of envy for the heroes that seemed to be unanimously loved by everyone who wasn't some evil-doer out to conquer the world or some city or country in comics; so he drew, and drew. Several comic ideas, footnotes and the like that fueled his wish he could have been like them. Little did he realize by next year, fate was going to twist that wish in the most poetic and mocking way imaginable.



By the time third year of high school had begun, major changes occurred in Kyle's life that swiftly began to turn it into the upside-down state it has currently become. One night when he'd had the house to himself Kyle was unexpectedly visited by the police, who informed him that his parents, had died in a car accident on their way home from a business trip. His sister Lucy had been informed as well and came over to be given custody of her brother due to being the nearest adult relative listed in the will, making her qualified to do so and averting any custody battles or need to change schools, but he'd have no way of knowing what the twisted muse of fate in store for him next...



Like something out of a bizarre sci-fi story, the next event in Kyle's life even now looking back feels as if fate itself did indeed choose him for some practical joke because of the choices he'd made. While accompanying Lucy at a beachside where she sought "inspiration" to get ahead of the game for spring and summer lines which gave the chance for cityscape art for her new job in a fashion business, Kyle found an odd blue metallic egg-like device on the beaches that had been partially buried in the sand like some tempting forbidden fruit just begging to be taken. Its odd markings and design made it look like a toy of some kind. Letting his curiosity get the better of him Kyle took it back home with him to pawn off on Ebay as a toy or prop... if only he could figure out for certain what it was first, as he did not want it to risk a blown-up customer.



That evening Lucy had gone out to get dinner, Kyle fiddled with the object, trying to determine if it matched Reach tech or anything that had been found on Earth before but no matches came up, even on Google. Tracing along its markings they suddenly lit up and the device hovered from his hand and into the air, letting out a small red pointer beam that circled the room before settling on Kyle as he got up from his chair.



Panicking, the teen tried to run but the beam never strayed, and seconds later the top of the device slid open, and a holographic image of a young woman, maybe 20-ish appeared above it. She said something in odd, synthesized gibberish and suddenly vanished, the beam intensifying on Kyle before the device glowed brighter and brighter before suddenly exploding in a brilliant flash of light, engulfing him completely before he could reach the door or take cover. Kyle's body tingled all over, and he noticed himself beginning to disintegrate! Like he were suddenly a sand sculture! Terrified he staggered towards a mirror, bits and flakes of him rapidly blowing away and circulating around until he became a humanoid silhouette of light before his shape began to alter, his consciousness somehow still there but watching frozen in place as if his... or an entirely new body in its place, were being constructed from scratch. Skeletal, circulatory system, muscle, and all else before it became very evident that what was being made was not what was there before, and as the light finally faded and upon drawing in his first breath Kyle collapsed to the floor on his knees. As he did, the boy noticed his hair was longer and fuller, his voice higher and more airy, and his body felt strange all over and wearing different clothes as he looked at his hands and saw he was now wearing purple gloves. Glancing up at the mirror again, Kyle discovered to his shock and horror he was no longer a scrawny, brown-haired, brown-eyed teenage boy, but an attractive, auburn-haired, green-eyed teenage girl bearing some resemblance to the woman who'd appeared earlier. His clothes had been replaced with some sort of uniform of some kind, like something out a sci-fi show that fit the curvy body he now wore perfectly. Staring in shock, he pinched himself, yelping in pain and noticing his tenor-to-baritone had changed into a distinctly female soprano; the girl in the mirror doing the same. Patting her new face, tugging her long hair, and feeling up the rest of her body it became very apparent how real it all was. Lucy arrived home only moments later to the sound of a girl screaming upstairs.



Needless to say, for all she'd seen and heard about, Lucy was not prepared to come home to find a hysterical teenage girl in a strange costume surrounded by a strange blue energy aura claiming to be her brother. The girl rambled, pleaded, referenced stories from their childhood, and attempted to show her an object that looked rather burned out and crumbled apart into ash to further explain her crazy story of how she was in fact Kyle, before breaking down crying and unsure how else to prove herself. It took a second, but Lucy then put her arms around the girl, who immediately latched onto her as tight as possible sobbing into her chest, the strange aura around her subsiding as she slowly began to calm down.



After her brother-turned-sister had calmed down enough to hold a conversation with, Lucy got a full explanation of what had happened and the new girl realized the odd powers she'd gained with the transformation when she made the aura reappear and suddenly hovered off the ground a few seconds. Slightly less impressive was when she zapped her alarm clock when she accidentally fired a bolt of energy at it as it went off startling her as it was meant to signify her sister's return home. Realizing what this may lead to, Lucy decided it was time for an important talk and once she got her new "sister" down from hovering in the air, she lead her to her room.



Removing an old trunk from under her bed and opening it, Lucy revealed a hero costume within and admitting the female vigilante Kyle may have heard about from time to time was none other than her, having lost her college roommate when she was at a party to a gang of traffickers and decided to don a costume and get a heap of martial arts training over the last couple years to find and punish the ones responsible when no one bothered to do so, along with any other crimes she happened upon during patrol when she was off from work. She'd used the money she'd stolen from the criminal payloads to finance her alter-ego's needs, when the accident that had taken their parents and taking custody of her brother had convinced her into early retirement from such a life, choosing to put her family first if she was to keep her brother. Her point had been to show how the call was a choice, whether you made it completely or in response to your life being turned upside-down with new powers and such.



Kyle meanwhile was still shook up, both by his, now her new look and strange powers that she gained, and her sudden larger appetite that prompted her to eat more than usual of the chinese food Lucy had brought home suggested a rise in metabolism even for someone her age. With little options for answers, they decided the only option that might lead to some answers and if there was a way to undo it was to contact a geneticist Lucy had rescued who owed her a favor.



The visit and a few tests(and a promise of complete confidentiality) led to the hypothetical theory that the device was some alien artifact that given the form Kyle was remade into, preserved the data of its user and remade Kyle's biomass at a cellular level into a mix of human and the device's owner and granted the powers and above-average durability and reflexes and metabolism that must have been natural for said owner, suggesting that she was now a hybrid of human and alien, though its age or state may have affected its efficiency. Few conclusions could be made other than that it was evident that due to being changed at the most base level, the transformation was entirely permanent. All this news was too much, and the new girl needed a day to process it all. Spending the night in her room, and looking herself over with small tests of her powers, Kyle had to, albeit reluctantly, accept all of this and make the most of it. She'd dreamed of powers and being a hero but now being given the former and the option of the latter, she no longer felt so sure, especially with such a drastic body change to go with it! She knew nothing of how to use these powers and even less how to be a girl!



Things only got weirder when people from other worlds, people with extraordinary powers, both good and evil alike, which caused further hysteria in the world...



It was then Lucy offered to help teach her what she knew from her own career, and to try and adjust with her new body... in exchange for a few favors; namely to not grow obsessed like she nearly had, and to model in some outfits for her job as the looks her new sister had were not something she let go to waste. Kyle promised one and reluctantly agreed to the other when she decided there really was nothing left to lose and little sense in letting her powers go to waste if she could master them, and was responded to with the next order of business; a new name, which another contact of Lucy's she'd made in her finished hero career was able to take care of.



Within the following week, "Kayley Smith" was enrolled into her High School as well as having begun learning how to fight from her sister and to use her powers responsibly as to not fall to the side of evil. Using the uniform she found herself in when she transformed as her costume, and at Lucy's idea of a few extra accessories like a belt, coat, and shades, Gemstone was truely born. Her new life was just beginning... whether she wanted it or not!







Weaknesses:

Due to her superhuman metabolism, Gemstone has a viking's appetite when hunger strikes, especially if she's had "one of those days" to the point she had to use her abilities a lot. Coupled with the needs of a growing teenager, it goes without saying that buffet places best beware.



Gemstone is still vulnerable to a lot of the same things that can kill a human, like fatal injuries. While she is able to recover from being poisoned or injured faster than normal people, she is not invulnerable to them at all and not getting necessary treatment still makes them every bit as potentially fatal.



To being a superhero and to being a girl. Needless to say Gemstone is inexperienced in both. She knows she's green and would like to learn how to be better at being the former as to not put her powers to waste and is only just starting to accept living as the latter as well as trying to get used to her body, wearing bras, certain double-standards she didn't deal with before, and people's reactions to her being a bit of a bombshell.



Even with the whole gender-switch, Gemstone is still a teen and dealing with all the fun things like getting nervous around people she's attracted to and being conscious of how she looks and how she's acting around others out of a desire to "fit in" wherever she may be. There's also the whole "secret identity" thing going on that needs to be kept which adds only more stress when there's stuff like school and homework and stopping what crimes she can in the mix. Because of these issues and the change that has occurred in her life, she fears for her own sense of self-identity yet at the same time fears failing to make something of herself with her new abilities.







Other Information: None



OOC Information

OOC Name: Shady

Face Claim: Camren Bicondova