Mariko Shinon

## Appearance

### Distinguishing Features

Mariko shares many similarities with her cousin, Alyssa Aspen, but those are overshadowed by the bioengineering changes she has.

Starting with the wings, which are bigger than the average Mentali wings. She also unfolds secondary wings and tail fins, granting her extra mobility airbone and a better flight control. To finish her flight pack, her hollow bones are reinforced with carbon fiber to keep lightweight and strong. This, and her tail is also longer and thicker, different from the cat-like tails from the other Mentali.

Another big change is the melanistic black fur for this Nega Mentali. Cut short but still grants her the biomimetic abilities to disguise herself, copy someone else's appearance or stay invisible in the dark. The fur still covers her entire body, like the another Mentali. This fur also makes her secondary wings and tail fins to be hidden easily.

Her eyes are much more like the cat eyes and the iris is ruby red, giving a rather intimidating look in whoever she stares. However, it's not confirmed if her eyes coloration was made on purpose or was a consequence while changing her DNA during the bioengineering.

Finishing the description of her physiognomy, Mariko's legs are digitigrade shaped, granting her efficiency while running normally or in four. Her build is one of an athlete, with well developed muscles which show how strong she really is, aiming to be the strongest of her kind.

One detail which is seen when she is wearing only her crop top without anything else covering it, is that her back has scars of claw scratch deep on her skin. It is unknown if it was her who has done to herself or if was someone else.

### Outfit

It's not rare to see Mariko not wearing anything more than a black crop top and shorts. Because of the biomimetic properties of her fur, ruffle it to look like someone else does not affect her clothes, and wear something as neutral as possible is a workaround for this issue. But when not pretending to be someone else, she wears casual clothes with a space for her wings and tail, but always with her black sports bra and black shorts underneath. A very frequent outfit is the aforementioned one with a jacket and cargo pants. It makes her look like a mercenary.

## Personality

Mariko is a cold, serious individual. Shes does not have any problem even in kill, to achieve her goal. But she is not an uncontrolled wild animal, thirsty for blood. Mariko can be a big winged pussycat with enough efforts and, despite having difficulty to socialize, enjoy some moments with another people. She may look antisocial, but the truth is that she only doesn't know how to properly socialize with other people. Because of this, she may sound a little rude while talking, even if not on purpose.

She may come to a situation when she belittles people in disciplinary actions. Other than that, she never judges someone directly.

### Behavior

Mariko's behavior is a mix of formality and wildness. She is perfectly able to behave like a human all the time naturally. But she also uses her wild instincts to run on four and fight using her claws, with several movements resembling how lions attack. She would roar at you if she had this ability.

## Bioengineered

For being an artificial Mentali ever since the test tube, Mariko went through extensive organic augmentation. Here are some of the features:

* **Bones:** Her body was organically modified to grow and regenerate bones made of carbon fiber, being stronger than the regular bones made of collagen and calcium and also being very light. The larger bones are also hollow, working as extra oxygen pockets for longer flights or floating in the water;
* **Muscle Density:** Genetically modified to have naturally a higher muscle density, resulting in more rigid muscles when stiffed or flexed. This does not affect muscle flexibility when not strained, not affecting agility. It provides extra physical strength to peform tasks;
* **Bigger Wings:** Genetically modified to develop larger wings. In pair with higher muscle density, Mariko's wings can generate more lift despite her muscular and heavy profile;
* **Secondary Wings:** A feature unique to Mariko, as no other Mentali seem to have them. Her secondary wings are smaller than her primary wings and are located at the hip level while her primary wings are located near the shoulder level. The secondary wings work as flight stabilizers and can be retracted much like the primary wings as well for easily hidden underneath a shirt;
* **Longer tail/Tail Fins:** Mariko developed a much longer tail than the other Mentali, being beyond five feet long and covered in fur, just like the rest of her body. The tip of the tail also has fins, with similar purpose to the wings at the back of a plane, providing a stable flight and control;
* **Adaptive respiratory system:** Mariko was organically modified to work with equal efficiency both in aerobic and anaerobic conditions;
* **Fast regeneration/Immunity:** Mariko's cells are renewed at a faster rate than the Mentali, granting her a longer lifespan, higher resistance to most illnesses and faster regeneration rate, able to heal wounds faster, but not ridiculously fast like a particular metal-infused bicentennial anti-hero.

## Genetic defects

* **Photosensitivity:** Mariko's eyes are more sensitive to changes in light intensity and can harm her vision, often requiring eye drops or a similar substance to protect her eyes from intense light;
* **High metabolism:** Mariko requires a lot of food, more than what is normal for regular Mentali. This reduces her resistance in inhospitable places and is very often to see her eating meat supported meals. She cannot keep a vegetarian diet for long;
* **Hormonal imbalance:** Mariko's body does not produce enough estrogen to balance for testosterone levels, resulting in higher muscle mass, deep voice and loss of sexual desire but not enough to affect fertility.

## Special Skills

* **7 feet tall bird:** Mariko trained herself to be a perfect flyer. Her wings are curiously bigger than any other Mentali (see Mariko Shinon#Distinguishing Features), but this grants her bigger mobility airbone and on the ground;
* **Mastery of Assault:** For assault and strike operations, Mariko knows very well what she's doing, and her assault training allows her to accomplish her goal efficiently;
* **Mastery of Stealth:** Mariko may be a little heavy but her training in Stealth Operations allows her to be very soft on her feet and almost act like a ninja.
* **Mastery of Combat:** Mariko has Melee and Ranged combat training, either to use her bare hands, a weapon or firearms.

## Special Abilities

### Psychic/Psionic Abilities

Mentali have the ability to learn up to 7 psychic powers.

* **Air Gale/Rocket Rush:** Due to her mastery of flight, Mariko can use of a maneuver that allows her a quick take off and speed, not being enough to reach the speed of sound, that is only possible through terminal velocity, an external impulse or slingshot, because the acceleration is not enough.
* **"Nerazim" Invisibility:** In pair with her biomimetic fur, she can bend the light around her and stay invisible while moving and even attacking.
* **Blink Dash:** Mariko uses of her psychic powers to accelerate in any direction for a few meters in a quick dash that allows her to dodge a single attack or enchance her leap range. Cannot be used to increase her speed, because the dash loses all its momentum after performed.
* **Bolts:** While those are not electric attacks, the red bolts are discharges coming from black orbs when she builds up energy. Those are faster than the regular magic orbs for the Mentali, due to have evolved this ability to use the energy effectively instead of throw the orb at someone or somewhere.
* **Advanced Telekinesis:** Another of her psionic abilities which is not part of the main seven psychic abilities. Mariko is capable of telekinetic movements. Can be used to move objects and smash them, as well for stopping enemies and throwing them away. She also uses it for more instant stops when flying and reduce her falling speed for more soft landings.

### Physical Abilities

* **Biomimetic fur:** Mariko can ruffle her fur up to copy someone's appearance or blend in the darkness and become practically invisible.
* **Sonic Orientation / Echolocation:** Mariko can use of aerial or sound shockwaves for Echolocation. This really comes handy, when she's blindfolded or with limited vision, but oftenly reveals her position, if the intention was stealth.
* **Hollow Bones:** This allows her to be lighter and have extra quantities of oxygen for long flight.
* **Fire resistant:** It may also be possible for her to breathe fire, and she is very resistant to heat.
* **Light when she needs to be, yet strong:** Due to her feline descent, Mariko can run at up to 60mph without a Rocket Rush (even though she prefers flying), and leap incredible heights. She can lift up to the same amount of weight that trained people can. Her wings can lift up to 200 lbs., and allow her to fly at up to 200 mph without a Rocket Rush.

## Weaknesses

* **Light Arts:** Mariko is extremely sensitive to light arts. Usually, Light Arts Attacks hurt her more than ordinary ones, and a burst of Super Light is deadly for her.
* **Electricity:** Because her real thing is flying, get paralyzed by Electric-based attacks is pretty bad.
* **Sonic Boom:** Mariko never goes over the speed of sound, because she has no way to do it on her own, and because she uses the Sound for Echolocation. If she hears one, will be stunned for some time.

## Notes

1. ↑ Sarah's Burning Bright may as well knock Mariko out instantly in a battle.