Dr. Rhea Adler

Real Name: Dr. Rhea Adler
Alias: N/A
Identity: Public
Age: 42
Species: Human

Physical Appearance: A tall, lean woman in her very early forties, Doctor Adler comes across as a very no-nonsense, by the books sort of woman, every aspect of her person being in just the right place and meticulous to an extreme. Her wine-red hair is kept short and professional, almost as pointed, angular, and symmetrical as the rest of her appearance. Light amber eyes are hidden away by thin glasses, though Rhea's intense, stern look is exemplified by them, always with a deep expression of focus evident upon her features.

Personality:

Cold, calculating, and professional to a fault, Rhea is not looking to play nice and make friends, and her usual demeanor makes this painfully obvious. Work is her life and her life revolves around work, leading her to spend nights and even weeks without taking proper care of herself when on the fast track to proving a hypothesis or completing a new project. She doesn't exactly find pleasure in the company of others and speaks very little in terms of friendly conversation, finding that wasting time on pleasant frivolities is simply wasting valuable research, though she will go on and on about her progress if you lead her through with the right questions. One best hope they understand her high-tech jargon, however, as Adler feels no need to dumb her language down for anyone, and that others should step up to her level if they're looking to talk with her.

Despite her introverted nature and seeming dislike of people in general, Rhea's core belief is founded upon the perfection that is the human race. In her studies of these supposed 'neo-human' anomalies over the years, she has come to the scientific conclusion that these beings are simply that, anomalies, blips of mutated illness among the population that needs to either be cured, eradicated, or controlled before a full epidemic rears its ugly head. As far as Adler is concerned, neo-humans have no place in this world, and does not see them as the next evolution of mankind, as some of her contemporaries have theorized. They are not people, they are not the future, they are monsters, plain and simple. In the midst of her research, while designing ways to control the neo-human population and effectively creating new monsters for the American government to have as their own style of bio-weapon, as she is being paid for, Rhea is obsessed with finding some sort of chemical or genetic link that connects these creatures and sparks them as neos, so she may find a way to cut that link and preserve the human race as it is. She holds very strongly to her chosen convictions, and is always convinced that what she is doing is the correct path, and will not be convinced otherwise, regardless of what call to empathy is thrown her direction.

Powers: Base Human - N/A

Abilities:

SCIENCE!: Doctor Adler is a brilliant scientist, with a PhD in bioengineering. She is well-versed in animal, plant, and human biology, and in her research and practice can break them down to their core parts in order to put them together in new and terrifying forms. Her past studies also included a masters degree in theoretical metaphysics, which has led to interest and further research regarding Vagrants, and how they are slipping into this version of earth.

Unflappable: Rhea has a will and stomach of solid steel, unfazed by the often disgusting work that she does for the sake of garnering knowledge or advancing her career. She can cut through a still-screaming heart and have all manner of juices spurting in her face, and yet the doctor barely will bat an eye.  

Weapons/Equipment: N/A

History:

Even as a young girl growing up in Connecticut, Rhea Adler was always curious how the world worked, finding no more joy than to break something apart, tinker with the pieces to figure out how they worked and fit together, and ultimately redesign it into a better, more effective form. Thus was the beauty and perfection of humanity - ever curious and desperate to understand all that was before them, to delve deeper and deeper into the world of the unknown, to make the planet work that much better in their name, smoothing out the flaws and wrinkles that threatened to bring forth a messy end. From a young age, this was Rhea's point of view, that the world was hers to pull apart and examine, and her family encouraged her analytical nature every step of the way. Her early life was of little consequence, suffering no trauma or life-altering tragedy, though she was always a little odd compared to her peers. Rhea was smart, and she knew it, and learned quickly that others her age, and even most adults, were intellectually beneath her. As a result, she gained a reputation as a bit of a snob and a bookworm, preferring to isolate herself from people in general and focusing solely on her studies. However, she was never lonesome in her youth, as solitude was the only way to success, and Rhea had a future to concern herself with. Distracting herself with such frivolities like friends or social gatherings was only a means of stepping in her own way.

Her methodology paid off in the end, and Rhea was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she primarily studied bioengineering and theoretical metaphysics. During the course of her years in university, she eventually was accepted into a prestigious internship at the Echo Institute of Research and Development in Denver, Colorado to further hone her skills and sharpen her knowledge. Her mentor, Dr. Arthur Powers, seemed to take a bit of a shine to the promising young mind now under his tutelage, her cold, analytical demeanor and stoic nature in the lab making her the perfect candidate to assist with one of his more controversial projects - the creation of a designer neo-human fetus. These genetic and transformed anomalies that had been cropping up in the shadows across the country were less wide-spread, or at least less known during Rhea's college days, but they were already becoming a point of contention in mass media as they grew in number. These human-shaped creatures with strange, unexplained abilities...some believed them to be the next evolution of mankind, and if that were true, then no doubt that would mean the eventual extinction of the human race as it stood. Dr. Powers' theorized that an army of these beings created in a laboratory setting and raised as soldiers to stand against this impending genetic threat would be the key in insuring the human race's survival.

By the end of Rhea's internship and independent study under Dr. Powers, his experimentation would prove to be fruitful - a healthy neo-human child had been successfully gestated from cells in a test tube into a fully formed infant. However, it seemed her mentor was acting rather strangely after the birth of this creature, a bit too protective of its well being, well beyond just that of a mad scientist and his potentially deadly creation. It was as if he was falling in love with this thing as if it were his own child. Rhea found this distasteful, to say the least. It was a just a neo-human, a Frankenstein's monster one at that, and she voiced her concerns several times regarding this preferential, nurturing treatment, citing that it was interfering with the experiment as a whole. These inquiries were often handwaved away and more often she was sent to busy herself with some chart or another as Powers fussed over the creature. Eventually, however, the lab was broken into, the designer neo-human was stolen, and Arthur Powers was gone without a trace. Many suspected foul play or sabotage, but Rhea had her own suspicions, which she opted to keep to herself. After all, such knowledge of certain truths might prove to be very useful later on in her career...

Upon finishing her schooling and receiving her PhD, Rhea returned to Echo Labs for full-time work. With her knowledge of Dr. Powers' previous works, and her own brilliant designs and theories, she worked hard for years with a division of the facility called the Chimera Project,  specializing in the breaking down of captured neo-human prisoners to their bare essentials and using their DNA, blood, and tissue samples to graft onto human test subjects to recreate and duplicate their powers. The experimentation has been stated to be the next step in super soldier enhancement technology. Dr. Adler is now the lead scientist in the project, and, much as her mentor before her, has been cooking up a a little side project of her own, known to small circles as the Echidna Serum - a specialized, gene-altering liquid that infuses the subject with neo-human DNA, soaking the powers of multiple neos into one subject that can be used multiple times on numerous specimens. If successful, the armies of powered monsters created by human hands would be enough to take out the threat of neo-human takeover once and for all.

Until recently, no lab animal has yet survived the first clinical trial. However, with the addition of sample DNA from the recently captured Wade Wilson, codenamed Operation: Lazarus by Adler's team due to his hyper-fast ability to heal, the Echidna Serum finally saw its first successful trial. But the celebration would need to be short-lived and hurried to the next step, as the neo-human and vagrant threat was looming ever more menacingly overhead. Time was not on Adler's side, with the facility's government backers breathing down her neck for real results, and human testing would need to begin immediately.
            

Weaknesses:

Civilian: Adler is a base human with no special powers or combat training. She may be hyper intelligent with a frighteningly deadly mind, but she does not know how to fight or defend herself short of swinging a scalpel at an attacker or running away from the danger.

Schizoid Personality Disorder: By her very nature, Rhea does not like people, even those of the human race that she vehemently claims to be defending, and has a complete disinterest in forming social relationships of any kind. She's cold and apathetic, and as such, is a difficult woman to empathize with or even take a liking to. Most of her associates greatly dislike her or find her unnerving to be around, and only follow her lead due to her knowledge and experience, or at least for a paycheck. As a result, she has very few allies that would defend or protect her if she was in need of it.

Brink of Extinction: Adler's greatest fear and ultimate driving force is the complete and utter extinction of the human race by way of the neo-human menace rising up and wiping out what's left of humanity. As far as she is concerned, neos are monsters, not people, and seeing them as anything but is dangerous thinking. The addition of interdimensional vagrants appearing out of these unexplained portals have only added to this fear, pushing Rhea to inhumane lengths to contain the neo-human population before they overtake the planet entirely.

Other Information: Rhea will be undergoing a major change during the course of the RP that will change her status from human scientist to neo-human supervillain. This app will reflect those changes when the event finally comes to pass in thread.

OOC Information
OOC Name: Cali
Face Claim: Charlize Theron