Carla Lee

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**Carla Lee** is the missing mother of Celeste Lee who vanished ten years prior to the series beginning. After Celeste turns up and the Strikers attack Hillcrest High, Carla mysteriously reappears. However, this unsuspecting woman harbours a secret from her daughter and friends.

## Backstory

### Abduction

Her husband unknown, the 34-year-old single mother Carla Lee lived an ordinary and peaceful life with her young 8-year-old daughter, Celeste. She and Celeste enjoyed playing the piano whenever she would come home from her sessions, often times Carla would bribe her with ice cream.

Halfway through their practice one day, Celeste sensed a ringing sound. Then, a strange bright light encompasses the living room. Terrified, Carla instinctively embraces Celeste in her arms to shield her from danger. The light continues to intensify with brightness as the panicked mother clutches Celeste tightly, intent on protecting her despite her fears. Carla and Celeste instantly vanish without a trace after the incident. The local authorities have been mobilized to locate the mother and daughter ever since. The police even questioned Erick Raymundo, Carla's alleged boyfriend, about the disappearance of the single mother and her daughter. As the investigation went on, the Lee's residence was left vacant for ten years until the Wilson family moved in.

## Bio

### Discovered in a Stasis Pod

Following a missing persons report about a Disc Jockey turning up dead in the desert, Deputies Regan and Kelly search the area. After finding the Jockey's remains they discover an opening in the ground leading to an otherworldly structure of some kind leading to a strange alien pod filled with green glowing liquid.

Inside the tank they find a woman. It is Carla, dormant and nude floating within a vat of the stasis pod's contents. Getting a closer look, Carla abruptly opens her eyes inside the pod, spooking Kelly as the Strikers, whom they mistook for statues attack and butcher the two men on the spot. Through unknown means, Carla was somehow released from her pod, evaded the Strikers, and found some clothes for herself to cover up.

### Reunited with Celeste

After Hunter, Celeste, and their friends Jay Anne , Cole, and Paul survive a Striker attack and gain new alien abilities, they're questioned by a pair of DHS agents investigating the incidents surrounding the group. After denying any eyewitness testimony and ushering the agents away, the door to the house knocks again seconds later. At the front door, a lone middle-aged woman appears before Hunter with a blank expression. She at first believes to have the wrong address until she mentions Celeste, the latter of whom instantly recognizes as her missing mother!

Overjoyed to have reunited with her beloved daughter, Carla embraces Celeste lovingly. The two ask each other what happened during their abduction. Much like Celeste, Carla initially appears to have some measure of amnesia - only able to remember the incident vividly before it all went dark. The only thing she was able to recall was their last session on the piano. Carla was just as frightened as Celeste but protected her daughter nonetheless. After asking what she experienced during her capture, Carla was relieved to be informed that Hunter took care of Celeste after dropping into his pool. Grateful to have her daughter in good hands, Carla gently befriends Hunter, who immediately blushes (possibly flustered by her aged beauty). Just as Celeste informs her of the alien ship and the Striker attack, Carla holds her head as she's abrubtly overcome with dizziness -- especially after Hunter asks how she arrived to their house. Carla decides to get some rest before continuing their reunion as Hunter and Celeste head off for school.

### Attacked in her own home

After making herself some coffee to clear her thoughts, Carla spends the day recovering and relaxing in the Wilson home temporarily until she and Celeste figure out where to live next. Being gone for ten years leaves her more unnerved than before. Carla suddenly gasps as she hears a strange noise coming from the interior of the house. Drawn in by the noise, Carla ventures further into the basement as she turns on the light. Walking down the staircase, Carla investigates the source of the noise until it grows louder followed by an attack from an unseen presence.

Carla manages to contact Hunter via his smartphone to notify Celeste into getting home immediately. Arriving at Hunter's place where she left her, Celeste discovers Carla, lying on the basement floor in a puddle of strange fluids. Being cradled in Celeste's arms, Carla moans that her attackers are outside. From above, a wave of three Striker's crash through the Wilson house roof to attack the women. Showing that she's all but defenseless, Celeste uses her alien telekinesis to fight back. Carla urges Celeste to be careful during the fight and quickly becomes targeted by the horrific aliens.

Determined to protect her, Celeste grapples one Striker head-on before expelling one from the house and the other to get shot by a flurry of blades. Seeing as their opportunity to escape, Celeste summons her ship. For good luck, Celeste kisses her mother's brow as their levitated into the base of her spacecraft.

### "Mother's" True Nature Revealed

Carla, still weakened by the attack, is unable to move much as Celeste brings her aboard using her ship's tractor beam. Carla is set down near the Bio-Rejuvination Pods as Celeste hurriedly makes preparations.. Just as Celeste has her back turned, Carla then sneaks up on her and in a flash, Celeste finds herself stripped half naked and imprisoned in the Bio-Rejuvination pod! In a twist, her attacker is none other than her own mother Carla! As it happens, Carla looks to be the leader of her own army of Strikers who've been aboard her ship this whole time. Carla mockingly thanks Celeste for the unknowing affection and compassion before stating how they'll take her vessel for their masters.

### Attack on the Hilcrest High field

With Celeste imprisoned aboard her own ship, Carla begins to hatch a plan by sending one of her own Strikers to impersonate Celeste in order to attack Hunter and his friends at Hillcrest High. The plan works halfway until the Striker's been forced to calm down and revert to Celeste after Hunter stands up it. Once the DHS agents show up asking questions, Celeste's ship arrives with a slew of Strikers. Carla, showing she's in cahoots with the monsters (and in a scantily revealing outfit resembling a one-piece swimsuit), orders her monsters to kill the agents until Celeste recovers and intervenes. This results in Carla blasting Celeste with a nonlethal shot from behind. Carla looms over her stating that while she has no desire to kill Celeste, she is left with no other choice. This is when Hunter rushes in to defend Celeste, with Carla mocking his chivalry and attempts to eliminate him. However, Carla is clutched by Celeste and flown up in the sky leaving Hunter and the rest to fend off the Strikers who by now are just toying with them. In the air, Carla is clutched tight by her waist and left breast by Celeste and struggles furiously to break off. High above the fray below, Carla urges Celeste to stop resisting and join her side if she wants her friends to live. Celeste refuses to falter no matter what.

### Defeat and Exposure

Carla struggles more in Celeste's grip, stating that her friends will die for refusing. Left with no other choice, Celeste grabs Carla by her head and a blinding light stuns and incapacitates Carla. The combined energy from both mother and daughter surge brightly as well as disintegrates most of the Strikers in the area. Falling to the ground unconscious, Carla remains motionless and exhausted in front of Celeste.

Lamenting that there was no other way and hoping to find a way to reform her, Celeste recolis in horror as "Carla's" face deteriorates into that of an unknown alien monster-- meaning that she was never Celeste's mother at all! Just as Celeste ponders where her real mother is, the imposter eerily declares that their fight is far from over and shall return in full force. After watching the remaining Strikers and the fake Carla get picked up and blown up in Celeste's ship, the latter decides to stay in Hillcrest as her home.

The whereabouts of the real Carla Lee are left ambiguous.

## Powers and Abilities

The alien who impersonated Celeste's beloved mother Carla had a number of inhuman abilities.

**Shapeshifting**: Similar to the Skrulls from the Marvel comics, this alien could impersonate Carla's very image to an exact degree. She could change her shape and appearance into the identy she perceives such as that of the absent Carla, an attractive middle-aged woman. Once defeated, she reverted back into her hideous alien form.

**Mimicry** : Along with shapeshifting, this pseudo-Carla could copy her voice, mannerisms, emotions and fragmented memories with complete accuracy -- appearing as the lost yet loving mother that went missing with Celeste.

**Energy Blast**: As an alien, she could use powerful energy beams to stun or momentarily subdue her enemies, used twice on Celeste.

**Flight/Levitation**: She could defy gravity with this ability such how she descended from Celeste's ship unharmed with her horde of Strikers.

**Creature Control**: Through charisma or unknown means, she held a sway over the enemy Strikers that can attack on her command alone.

## Trivia

* With the series either closed or on hiatus, it's unclear on what the fate is for the real Carla Lee.
* The real Carla Lee played piano with Celeste

## Gallery

Carla on Homecoming #4 Cover B by Khary RandolphCarla on Homecoming #3 Cover A by Emilio Laiso.