Claudia the Cheetah

== History ==
=== Life Before G.U.N. ===
Claudia was born and raised in Mazuri as a single daughter, where she lived a relatively tame and simple life despite the area's rural and sometimes downright harsh habitat. While her life wasn't extravagant she never had a real want for anything and never went hungry, generally being quite satisfied with her life. Unfortunately at the tender age of 10 Claudia's village was caught in the midst of a vicious natural disaster, nearly bringing the village to ruins. During the havoc Claudias parents went missing, and were unfortunately never found.
In the wake of the disaster the remains of the village were assaulted by bandits, aiming to take advantage of the chaos to loot and pillage. But after losing so much many of the villagers were unwilling to suffer any longer and fought back against the bandits, a young Claudia being among the mayhem and doing whatever she could to assist. Just as it seemed that the bandits were going to overrun the village, assistance came in the form of G.U.N. military and relief aid, among those deployed being one Wolfe the Hunter. The bandits were swiftly dealt with, and it was during the aftermath of the battle that Claudia and Wolfe met. Claudia desperately insisted that Wolfe search for her parents and find them, but the canine bluntly replied that if they were not already found, they were likely dead. Horrified and angry, Claudia responded in the only way she knew how; she bit Wolfes hand, digging her fangs in as deep as she could.
The feral attack did little to actually phase or injure Wolfe, but Claudias determination and willingness to fight left an impression on the G.U.N. agent. After briefly checking and making sure that Claudia had no other family within the village, Wolfe abruptly picked her up and took her with him back to G.U.N. While Claudia screamed and protested, Wolfe immediately silenced her with another blunt statement; if she could withstand his training and become a G.U.N. Agent like him, Wolfe would allow her to use his resources to search for her parents. The young cheetah immediately agreed to his offer.
=== Joining Team Hunter ===
=== Deserting G.U.N. ===
== History in Additional Fanon ==
== Personality ==
Claudia often gives off the impression of being a calm and level-headed person, similar in some sense to her leader Wolfe. But in contrast to Wolfes cold professionalism Claudia is much more casual and genuinely relaxed, often coming off as downright playful. In spite of this Claudia is still a professional just like Wolfe and Valdez, and thus will go to whatever lengths are necessary to complete the job they are paid for, no matter how underhanded or brutal they might be. Claudia is intensely loyal towards Wolfe, and while she isn't above teasing, joking, or generally playing around, when it's important Claudia will follow Wolfes strategies and instructions to the letter and without exception.
Claudia is playful and slightly flirtatious, even towards her enemies and targets, and takes a certain amount of pleasure in flustering or embarrassing others. As far as she's concerned her profession as a mercenary is just that, and makes it clear that her actions while on the job are nothing personal. This extends both ways, as she doesn't hold any particular grudges against enemies that stand against her. Despite her own playfulness and tendency for teasing, Claudia is quite prideful about her own combat abilities and experience; the mere insinuation that Claudia lacks the experience or capability of her teammates will result in a much more terse and aggressive cheetah, whereas further taunting or provocation will send her into a genuine rage.
But beneath her relaxed and affable demeanor, Claudia's general playfulness has a much more sinister facet when the matter of combat becomes involved. Unlike Wolfe, Claudia is much more open about her enjoyment of a good fight and an opportunity to show off her combat prowess, and when flirtations fail to distract Claudia is more than happy to take the opportunity for a good fight. This is in fact part of the reason she went into the mercenary business with Wolfe and Valdez after abandoning G.U.N.; while the financial gain is a benefit, she finds more enjoyment in being able to put her combat ability to frequent and much less restrained use.
Claudia has a rather dark sense of humor, often making light of the more amoral and destructive aspects of her profession and even suggesting the use methods Wolfe typically avoids, such as hostages or torture, purely in jest. Despite her dark humor and lust for battle Claudia has a softer, friendlier side she shows to her teammates and people she's taken an interest in, and is even adverse to excessive or unnecessary cruelty towards those who can't defend themselves, finding the idea of inflicting pain just for the sake of it "stupid".
== Abilities ==
Claudia, as a cheetah and the speed specialist of Team Hunter, is an incredibly fast and highly-trained combatant. At the forefront of her capabilities is Claudia's speed, which is great enough to rival that of Shadow the Hedgehog, Statyx the Hedgehog, and other individuals gifted with super speed. Like these similarly gifted individuals Claudia also has full control over her super speed, capable of near-instant acceleration and coming to an immediate stop without any effort. In tandem with her advanced maneuver and combat training under Wolfe Claudia is capable of maneuvering crowded or otherwise averse terrain with incredible ease even in the midst of combat.
In terms of combat Claudia relies heavily on three components; her super speed, her advanced combat training and experience, and her custom-made weapons called "Solid Energy Projectors". These weapons are mounted on the back of each of her forearms and generate energy that's projected through the line on the front of the equipment and given both shape and solid mass. Claudia can freely control the shape and properties of the projected energy, from long-range "beam whips" used to lash and bind the enemy or improve her maneuverability to just outright launching it as a projectile. However, Claudia's favored use of this equipment is to form three "laser claws" from each weapon, this being her signature method of attack. These claws are exceptionally sharp and dangerous, capable of slicing clean through thick chunks of steel without effort or resistance. Combined with her super speed Claudia can use these claws to shred multiple targets to pieces in mere seconds.
While Claudia highly favors her Solid Energy Projectors, she is nonetheless highly effective in direct unarmed combat both with and without her super speed. As fitting someone who was trained by and fought alongside Wolfe, Claudia is also highly proficient in ambush tactics, using surprise attacks, diversions, and other underhanded methods to get the advantage over her opponents. This even extends so far as using her feminine wiles to lower her targets guard or simply distract them. In such a situation, Claudias favored methods are playing herself off as an innocent and/or injured bystander to divert their attention, or more directly flirting with her target to fluster them.
== Weaknesses ==
While Claudia is a highly effective and trained combatant gifted with super speed, Claudia lacks raw power behind her attacks; lacking the natural weapons of a hedgehog or the elemental prowess of Blaze, Claudia is not as capable in incorporating her super speed into straightforward unarmed attacks, at most capable of transferring her speed into impact force through kicks. As a result this cheetah is often forced to heavily rely on her Solid Energy Projectors in order to deal the brunt of her damage, and taking out these weapons greatly reduces her combat effectiveness.
While Claudia's pragmatism also often works in her favor, her favored tactics of flirtation and deception aren't nearly so effective on experienced or well-reserved characters, leaving them not nearly as reliable as she would like to believe against opponents within her league. While far from being naive or inexperienced, as the youngest member of Team Hunter she also has the least practical experience in both combat and strategizing, having only the near-decade she and Team Hunter spent as mercenaries. Thus Claudia is more easily caught off-guard by unusual combat methods and out of the box tactics, and on her own Claudia can also be overwhelmed with superior speed or power, forcing her on the defensive or even into full-on retreat.
== Appearance ==
Claudia is a female Mobian cheetah, with golden yellow fur covered in black spots paired with an underbelly the color of light tan. Her tail, the end of which is tipped with three black rings of fur, is long enough to reach her feet. Her triangular ears poke out from her long black hair, which reaches down to her waist in the back while bangs form on the front. Much like her fellow feline Blaze, Claudia has angular eyes with rounded edges, accentuated by a pair of eyelashes each. Unlike Blaze however Claudia's eyes are not a pure yellow, but rather more of a reddish-orange color. Her muzzle is a light tan and furred with a somewhat triangular nose, marked with a black stripe under each eye moving down her cheeks. Claudia's body is lithe and while she lacks noticeable or emphasized curves she could still be described as physically attractive.
Claudia's outfit consists of a black sports bra with tight knee-length shorts of the same color, accentuated by a dark grey belt. She wears black combat boots that reach just below her knee and have dark grey soles. While her gloves are simple black, the cuffs aren't rolled up and thus reach up her forearm just short of her elbow. On the back of each forearm Claudia wears her primary weapons, Solid Energy Projectors. These weapons are hemispherical in their dimensions and vaguely teardrop in shape, the larger rounded ends resting just above the back of her hands and the smaller, tapered ends resting just short of her elbows. Running horizontally along the rounded side of these weapons is a single sky blue line, with a rounded portion at each end and in the middle. It is from these lines that the solid energy is controlled and projected.
== Relationships ==
=== Wolfe the Hunter ===
=== Valdez Vulture ===
=== Statyx the Hedgehog ===
=== Shadow the Hedgehog ===
=== Rouge the Bat ===
=== Dr. Eggman ===
Category:Owner:Kagimizu/Characters
Category:Females
Category:Cheetahs
Category:Villains
Category:Mobians
Category:Owner:Kagimizu
Category:Characters