Portrait of Black Swan by David Meadows
Black Swan
Biographical Details
- Full Name
- Diana Just
- Born
- 8 September 2324 (Adjusting for time travel, her physiological age equates to a date of birth in 1961.)
- Died
- Unknown.
- Relatives
- Unknown.
- Occupation
- Former officer of the 24th century Special Police; former post-graduate teaching assistant in her civilian identity; current occupation unknown.
- Associates
- Former member of Strikeforce.
Description
Dark skinned human female. Black Swan has the physique of a trained athlete and works hard to keep this.
Height 5'11" (180cm). Weight 145lbs (66kg).
Black Swan wears a one-piece, skin-tight black costume with a flowing white cloak.
History
Diana was born at a fateful moment in the history of the Earth. At regular intervals, the solar system passes through a region of energy flux caused by an alignment of cosmic strings. The only normal effect of these alignments is a change in the properties of black holes. Diana was born at the exact instant of maximum flux of a major alignment. On the vast majority of people this would have no effect, but Diana was inexplicably born with several energy related superhuman attributes that slowly emerged over the course of her childhood.
Diana was a bright child, interested in art and ballet and a child chess champion. At university she studied astronomy and astrophysics. When her powers seemed to make her an obvious candidate for the Special Police programme, she reluctantly enlisted. To her surprise, she found within herself a capacity for violence in the course of her duties. Troubled by this, she was not in a happy state of mind when she volunteered for a special mission that would take her back through time to 1987 with the team that would become known as Strikeforce.
By some twist of fate, the villain that Strikeforce fought in the past was an extra-dimensional invader calling himself the Warscout from Dimension W. The Warscout had come through to our universe during a cosmic alignment in the 16th century and was now making use of the next alignment, four hundred years on, to signal his people to follow. Strikeforce stopped his scheme, leaving him stranded on Earth until the next alignment (which would be the date of Black Swan's birth in another four hundred years).
Black Swan was resposible for the death of an innocent man in the battle with the Warscout, caused by her carelessness and an over-enthusiasm to engage the Warscout brought about by her suspicion that the villain was linked with her own origin. Faced with hostility from her team-mates over this death, she reacted defensively by keeping secret her suspicions of her link to the Warscout.
Strikeforce found that they had been betrayed by their superiors, who had no means of returning them to the 24th century. They adjusted to the situation and had false identities created by their Computer so they could integrate themselves into their new century. Diana enrolled in a post-grad position at UCLA, in the city that Strikeforce had made their home base.
After a few more weeks and more missions with Strikeforce, Black Swan was kidnapped by the Warscout. He had deduced the nature and origin of her power and sought to use her to artificially create the conditions he required to bridge the dimensions. One of his secret bases was actually the Antarctic Geothermal Research Project, and he took Black Swan there so he would have a sufficient power source for his experiments. His manipulation of the Earth's energy fields alerted Strikeforce, who located the Warscout before his preparations were complete. A huge explosion destroyed the South Pole facility but the Warscout escaped with Black Swan still a captive. With little time available while the right conditions persisted, he had to hastily conceive a backup plan. When Strikeforce next caught up with him in a secret bunker in Oregon, he was preparing to explode a nuclear device literally under Black Swan. Strikeforce rescued their team-mate and safely deactivated the bomb, but the Warscout escaped once again.
As a result of the trauma, Black Swan lost the ability to use her powers. She left the team and her assumed identity in Los Angeles, with the intention of travelling the United States and Europe. Strikeforce lost contact with her for many months.
Psychological Profile
Diana was an abrasive individual, easily alienating her team-mates. Few people got on well with her. She did not see this side of her own personality and would have been surprised and hurt if confronted with it. She was carelessly violent and hurt or endangered several people without conscious intent.
Skills and Abilities
All of Black Swan's powers derive from the cosmic forces that affected her birth. Her abilities are linked to the control of mass and energy.
Black Swan can mentally manipulate gravitons in order to fly. She can travel through the air at a top speed of 200kph. Flying at this speed takes no more effort than walking, allowing her to fly for extended periods without tiring. She can carry no more weight while flying than her normal human strength would allow her to lift (the weight of one other person).
Black Swan's skin and muscle tissue is denser than normal. Although this does not make her significantly heavier than a normal woman of her build, it greatly increases her resistance to physical injury. Although she is not entirely impervious to bullet impacts, she feels little more than bruising from them. She also has some immunity to energy-based attacks, for example laser beams are reflected harmlessly away from her.
Her main attack form is a beam of "dark light", actually a force she projects that neutralises energy in her targets. In effect she drains energy from the target (though this energy is not then transferred to Black Swan). This can range in intensity from producing fatigue in a human, to draining heat from a person or object, to actually disintegrating an item. Potentially, a single blast can crumble a small car to dust. She has control over the intensity in order produce the desired level of effect. She has to aim this attack by physically pointing, and her maximum accurate range of this attack is a little over 40 metres.
Black Swan can make use of minute, naturally occuring singularities to teleport from place to place. She has total control over her teleports as long as she knows the destination well. Teleporting blind could be dangerous. Her maximum range is under sixty metres and significantly less if she carries any extra mass. The process is physically very draining and she rarely uses this ability.
Equipment
Black Swan wears a standard issue 24th-century police communicator bracelet on her wrist.