Twist

Zoë Schmidt, also known as Twist, was a German supernorm and previous vigilante who is now a part of Rayon aka Euroforce, a cross-European counter-terrorism operation based in Paris.

### **History**

Zoë was born in Munich in 1991, but moved across the country several times with her family, her father being a long-distance lorry-driver, but finally they seemed to settle in Berlin where her mother became a radar technician in the Luftwaffe where she operated radar for the Air Force presence at Berlin Tegel Airport.

When her older brother Aleks joined the air force as a pilot, Zoë was more interested in her yo-yo championships; while her parents weren't sure about her choice of career as a 'professional yoyo champion', her positive attitude and love for the sport made sure her parents nevertheless supported her; her brother, however saw her dream as silly and the two seemed to grow apart.

When she was 15 she was part of a young yo-yo troupe the Sterne-Drehen (Lit. Twist-Stars) at the Messe Berlin Expo Centre and on the day of her troupe's show the centre was attacked by an terrorist cell, believed to be politically motivated by the hosting of a Palestinian history exhibit set to go ahead shortly after Sterne-Drehen's show. The event was raided by an armed group of what was actually later revealed to be members of the ultranationalist NPD, though the party denied the gunmen were actually tied to the violence and acted of their own accord. It was later revealed that the gunman were part of Das Ursprüngliche Verhältnis, (then still known as "Das Vaterland Ehrenwache") a highly militant neo-Nazi operation who were a division of the elusive Ehrenwache Zentral and who were financially supported by parties like the NPD.

During the event Zoë used her yoyos to disable three of the six gunman whilst security shot dead the remaining three.

The troupe, in shell-shock disbanded shortly after despite Zoë's up-beat and energetic speech about terrorism being made to make others fear; the troupe never returned to the public eye and many of her friends believed she wasn't taking the attack seriously; this led to a rift between her and her best friends, twins Erika and Ingrid Weiss, whose Jewish heritage made them think they were targeted personally.

After many months in a slump she became adamant that she would somehow help people in some way, and carried on practicing more intensely than ever. She took up ballet and acrobatics at school and one day used these skills to track down one of her teachers at school who she began discovering was a secret member of the NPD, and found herself becoming more and more involved in disrupting resources to the group by targeting individuals and dressing in a home-made costume.

When she anonymously tipped off the police, the group seemed to have the political and legal standing to wiggle free of terrorism charges, but nevertheless she continued to bring down Das Ursprüngliche Verhältni who were growing in number and attacks not just across Germany, but Europe.

In 2008 her brother Aleks went missing after an Afghan air force base was attacked while he was stationed there, his body was never officially found and later that year they had an empty casket funeral; Zoe, however believed her brother was somehow still alive as it was curious only his body was missing.

To honour her brother Zoë studied to be an a ground technician for the Luftwaffe, though she retained herself as a vigilante every now and then, seemed to have lost track of her fight against the NPD and Verhältni, instead focused on petty criminals in Berlin.

During her time as an aircraft maintenance technician she developed a better costume and specialised yo-yos that were both extremely durable and would amplify the spin of her movements into prolonged kinetic transfer thanks to internal flywheels; this gave her yo-yo's unusually potent strikes, becoming quite proficient at taking down both unarmed and armed opponents.

By the end of 2008 she found out about Rayon, then still known as The Ray Project, and agreed to form a secret pact with Prisme and other vigilantes across Europe.

Many years later in 2015, Volt and Twist stopped an Imperia Dominus and Verhältni cooperative cell from destroying the Berlin Jewish Museum, and along with them, more the Bundestag recognised Rayon as a counter-terror operation and it worked with the German government in a positive manner.

in 2017 Volt reported to Rayon that he fought a German cyborg that may have been Aleks and VALER helped to try and locate him, but to no avail.

### **Personality**

Despite everything Zoë was, is and continues to be an extremely positive and energetic individual, her attitude has allowed her to accomplish many personal feats of skill, strength and intelligence in a short period of time. Volt described her as "kinda like a German Pinky Pie" having an easily-excitable and racing mind and a love of partying and revels. She has demonstrated multiple times that, despite her hyperactive traits, can multitask in a manner that is almost superhuman, but not quite.

### **Powers and Abilities**

#### **Powers**

While Twist doesn't have any "superhuman powers", thanks to years of training in various fields of sports and activities that require high hand-eye coordination and reflexes, combined with her natural ability to multitask to a high-degree, she has honed her unique fighting skills to paramount levels of expertise and finesse.

* **Peak Reflexes and Reactions:** Her time practicing sports like rugby and football, ballet and aerobics and constantly practicing her yo-yoing skills has allowed her mind to react swiftly to attacks and counter them with remarkable skill.
* **Peak Agility:** She has trained herself intensely to have achieved peak-athlete equilibrium, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination well above than most Olympic-level athletes
* **Peak Endurance:** She has also preformed exercise longer than a lot of professional athletes.
* **Peak Multitasking:** Something more of a gift that she has expanded upon with her training, her ability to multitask is considered almost above-peak and is thought to be linked to her hyperactive personality. This has allowed her to wield two yo-yos simultaneously during active combat.

#### **Abilities**

***Yo-Fu Expert*:** Twist's predominant skill is that of the use of her yo-yo skills as a fighting system, while seen by her enemies as little more than a gimmick, Zoë uses her playful image to achieve an advantage of underestimation; combining several kung-fu styles and training in the use of weapons such as the meteor hammer to preform unusual, unpredictable and powerful strikes, lunges and grappling movements translated to her yo-yos producing a unique and highly affective style of combat.

***Kung Fu Expert:*** Even without her weapon she is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, demonstrating the ability to handle herself extremely well against multiple skilled fighters.

***Ballet Expert:*** She is skilled at the highly technical form of dance which has aided her in developing her own form of fighting style and increasing her physical abilities, fluid movement patterns and footwork during combat.

**Aerobic Gymnastics:** She practiced various gymnastics styles enabling her to preform complex feats of manoeuvrability, balance and flexibility.

* ***Parkour Expert:*** She has become skilled in finding her way across urban landscapes with ease using acrobatic manoeuvres.

***Mechanical Maintenance:*** She is skilled at fixing and maintaining complicated mechanical hardware, from her yo-yos to complex aircraft and other vehicles.

* **Budding Inventor:** While nowhere near the genius invention capabilities of savants such as Gyzmo and Teddy, her study of mechanics has allowed her to create unique forms of microtechnology within her yo-yos to amplify the kinetic activity of her weapons into more powerful strikes.

### **Weapons and Equipment**

**Yo-yos:**  She has used various types of yo-yo throughout her training, from basic wooden designs to her current mechanically-enhanced yo-yos.

* **First Yo-yo:** her first official yo-yo was a small, yellow plastic model she got from for Christmas when she was 5, she has had it ever since and despite the string snapping and being scratched and dented, today keeps it as a souvenir and reminder of her passion as part of a painting in a frame on her apartment wall.
* **Second Yo-yo:** A pink yoyo she purchased when she was 10 when she began to want to practice professionally. The yo-yo was thought to be hidden by her brother and she never found it again.
* **Third Yo-yo:** A yoyo brought for her birthday by Aleks after he threw away her second yo-yo and her parents ordered him to apologise; it was grey and had a sparkling, holographic sticker on either side, however she admitted it never had the same feel as the pink one.
* **L&R:** Two purplish-pink wooden yo-yos which she purchased at 11 so that she could practice duel-wielding yo-yos. She had the letters L on the left one and R on the right, presumably meaning "Links und Rechts". She joined Sterne-Drehen with these where they were impressed with her feats of multitasking.
* **Professional Yo-yos:** Heavy, and expensive pink and black yo-yos made from aluminium in-lined with stainless steel rims, gifted to her by her and her troupe members by their instructor after they passed their professional try-outs. She used these to fight off the terrorist gunmen at the expo and later would modify them with stronger string and rim coverings making them heavier and more durable. She later coated them and the strings with a heat-proof spray
* **Eany und Meany:** Her current scratch-built yoyos that feature tiny but durable kinetic flywheels to amplify strikes beyond any standard yo-yo, the strings are metallic and near impossible to cut.

**Gloves:** Three-fingered gloves she uses to protect her fingers and skin from the rapid and constant movement of her yoyo strings. The palms are also slightly magnetic as well as possessing a magnetic, metal knuckle-blister on the reverse that increases her punches or allows her to attach each yo-yo to as augmented strikes.

**Impact-resistant Jacket:** Developed with the aid of Rayon, her current costume is composed of non-newton material that hardens upon impact yet retains it's flexibility.

**Specialised Magnetic Belt:** Used to hold her yo-yos so that they are easily detached and re-attached before and after battle.

**Combat Goggles:** Extremely tough eye protection just in case she makes a mistake or her eyes are otherwise attacked.

**Emergency Yo-yo:** A basic but heavy oak yo-yo she hides in her back pocket for emergencies.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Not possessing actual superpowers of her own has meant she has had to train particularly hard to combat enemies, although she has done so considerably well.

She can be extremely hyperactive and not everyone can endure her fast-talking and babbling for long periods, this has led some people to believe she dosn't take things seriously when she truly does.