María Isabel Carvallo

### Occupation

Informant (formerly)Editor and writer (formerly)Militia commander (formerly)Prisoner of War

## Physical description

### Eye color

Brown

María Isabel Menzendorf (*nee Carvallo)* is the wife of José Alejandro Menzendorf, former Military Governor of the Southern Alps. She once held the position of Militia Commander of the Mount Buller Garrison during the Battle of Mount Buller in 2020.

## Biography

María was born in Montevideo to a working-class family. Her life was rather uneventful until her mother and father divorced. Mother and daughter moved to Colonia del Sacramento. She soon learnt that her mother’s happiness was paramount, and didn’t held the divorce against her. The only time she ever saw her father again was the day they left. On the TV. The man was apprehended alongside others in the political turmoil that gave the government of the country to the Metahumans. María knew then they had to leave, and convinced her mother to pack her things. However, she stayed.

She took a flight to Chile, where she met José only months before the collapse of the government there. She didn’t think a lot about him at first, but after she also fled across the sea to Australia, María fell in love with a bereaving José who had to bury his parents days before.

Although she didn’t serve in the military like José or aided the wounded like his sister Astrid, she felt fulfilled in her refugee status, teaching children English and Maths. After marrying and having their first child, María decided to dedicate herself to something different, ending up as a human Rights campaigner for about a year, until it became apparent nobody really cared beyond that Island. After their second child and a short depression, María re-invented as a book editor.

Instead of being the traditional Latin wife that stays home caring for the children, María struggles each day with her husband’s personality, asserting her own position as a hobby which he seems to enjoy as well. Still working as an editor from their home, she specializes in political essays and books throughout Australia, and sometimes helps his husband read and dissect political speeches by other prominent members of the Alliance. Her firm, “C&B”, is well respected and often assists campaigners and writers throughout the territory.

## Recent Developments

It's recently trancended that María served as an informant for early Reich authorities in Uruguay before heading to Australia. She might have been instrumental in the assassination of José Alejandro Menzendorf's parents.

After the fall of Melbourne was announced, María, in charge of her household at the time her husband was in Canberra's Husk, learnt her elder son, Federico, had been called for service for the counter-offensive on Melbourne, led by Mejor-General Kurt Harman. The offensive was an unmitigated failure, and her son was captured. Short after, her second son, Santiago, was equally drafted for the defense of the mountain fortress.

During the Battle of Mount Buller, María took command of the eastern wing of the mountain range, while Harman defended the western half. Her force was mostly comprised of remnants of the prior battles nearby, but she managed, in the hours leading to the offensive against Buller, to wrestle command of some units from Harman.

The two commanders agreed not to mingle on each other's operations and to coordinate as little as possible in their respective sides of defence to avoid conflicts. During the battle, Santiago Menzendorf went missing after a radioactive blaze unleashed by Red Star. María made used of her hidden Metahuman ability to keep an eye on Harman. However, it became apparent too late that something was being planned, and while her attention was focused on the battle propper, Harman turned on the Buller population that had remained in the mountain, using chemical weapons to kill as many as five thousand civilians.

In her surprise, María unleashed her swarm of rats and disrupted Harman's troops inside the mountain, allowing her own two daughters, Dolores and Estefanía, to flee out of the mountain along with several survivors. Hours later Harman was found dead in an airpad on the mountain's eastern side, and the mountain fell to Yuan forces, María being captured and interrogated.

After exhausting any information useful to them, mostly concerning the fleeing of conscripts to the north to pursue a continued defense, the Yuan handed María over to the South American Reich.

Tranferred to South American territory aboard the I.M.S. Todadler, María was briefly hosted by Freyja von Ehremburg, then taken to Germania for interrogation as Prisoner 944. The interrogation was carried out by Obergruppenführerin Steiner, during which she learnt Federico had been released in a prisoner exchange after intense torture under Viktoria von Eisenfaust's command. Later on she would personally meet Viktoria and be offered to join the Reich upon the discovery of her Musopathy, something she refused.

María was briefly sent to Colonia Cabred for forced labour, later being sent for isolation in the Amazonian Rainforest.

## Metahumanity.

María is a Musopath, able to sense the basic instincts of rats. Knowing if they are close by and what they are generally doing. Equally, she can induce their behavior, inputting in their minds simple orders like reproducing, swarming, migrating, eating or starving. With time this ability has become more natural to her, and is able to manipulate in this rather passive way tens of thousands of rats within a ten kilometer radius.

Nevertheless, this ability has obviously been affected after repeated torture and isolation. Her powers are barely able to get past a two to three kilometer contantion radius in the Amazon rainforest, and the number of minds she can influence may have been compromised as well.

María can also jump into the minds of nearby rats to collect their visual, tactile, olfactive and auditive memories. This allows her, combining it with Musopathy, to use various rats or even one as spies. This ability could have been affected by her recent experiences, though this is unknown as it must be done on close proximity.

María can focus enough on a limited (although still large) number of rats to gain absolute control of them. The orders she can give are no longer mere inducements towards a general objective, they will follow specific orders. As such, María is potentially able to build living structures, move the rats in complicated patters and have them do complicated and delicate tasks. She calls this ability “Flautismo a-la-Hamelin” (Hamelin-style Pied-piping). This ability may have been severely crippled by her recent experiences.