Riya dashti

**Riya Dashti**, also known as **Blindstrike,** is a transfer student at the Academy for Future Leadership. **Jake Armstrong**'s unrequited crush, who becomes a friend of both him, **Ricardo Perez** and **Nathan Park**. Moonlights as Blindstrike, a ninja who helps **Dr. Racine Cleo (Dr. C)** with her plans to prevent **Jonathan Rook** from gaining total control of Charter City. She is voiced by Nazneen Contractor.

## Personality

Riya enjoys skateboarding, zombie movies and bashing on normal "boring" things, like dances and field trips. When Jake asked her to the dance, she said she was initially gonna say no, but agreed to it the next day. But when Jake sent Ricardo to pick her up and buy him some time she ended up spending the evening talking and laughing about zombie movies with Ricardo when Jake couldn't make it.

She seems to tend to keep things to herself, as was evident when she tried, but ultimately failed, to talk to Ricardo, when he said he was busy dealing with his own things she said: "And this is why I don't open up to people..."

As Blindstrike, she's extremely agile and strong and must have a sharp wit about her, as she's seen to be able to handle all three of The Flex Fighters on a regular basis. Calm and quiet, Blindstrike never says a word to her enemies. She prefers to work alone both on and off the battlefield, only accepting help either begrudgingly, or in emergencies.

## History

Riya lost her parents, Rook Unlimited scientists Aadarsh and Isha Dashti, when the plane transporting the couple and Dr. C to the Pearl Islands unexpectedly crashed. Eventually, Riya figured out that Rook orchestrated the crash, but Dr. C still survived. To avenge her parents, Riya volunteered to help Dr. C overthrow Rook. Dr. C trained her to become Blindstrike, giving her self-defense lessons, and Flexarium armor designed by Aadarsh and Isha. Blindstrike and the Flex Fighters started out as enemies, until Dr. C also recruited the Flex Fighters to help them defeat Rook. This partnership resulted in Riya and Jake developing a mutual respect.

## Abilities

Blindstrike doesn't seem to have any superpowers, but rather a super-powered suit with large amounts of Flexarium swords and weapons. Topped with her agility and quick thinking, she's nearly unstoppable.

Blindstrike's armor is made of an extremely resistant material and equipped with Flexarium tools what can combine to form different weapons and tools

* Hidden swords: blades in her gauntlets
* Hidden blades in feet
* Hidden talons in feet
* Detachable Escrima sticks - can be combined into a full-sized Bo staff, which has a retractable hook on top, presumably for climbing
* Hacking plug in right gauntlet
* Grappling hook in both gauntlets
* Knockout gas
* Shurikens
* Axes
* Climbing claws: Retractile claws in her shoes (two in the front, one in the heel), help her to maintain stability in unstable soil.
* Flexarium Spray: Used like a glue and seal with high resistance. She uses it in "Endgame" to fix her mask and in "Masters of Order" to seal a air duct.
* Small bombs: Powerful, focused, able to stick to any surface and have in-built timers which allow her to get out of their small blast range.

## Trivia

* Riya's Hindu first name translates to, "graceful", which aptly describes athletic feats she performs both as herself, and as Blindstrike.
* Riya has claimed partial credit for turning Jake and his friends into the Flex Fighters, when one mission exposed her to the Hyper-Flexarium chemical agent, then she accidentally spread it to her botany classmates, including the trio.
* Starting with "The Breakout", Blindstrike takes **Malcolm Kane**'s spot in the intro (with Dr. C taking Rook's spot until the season two finale).
* After "The Breakout", Blindstrike caught **The Freak Sisters** robbing a bank, and one ending also had her catch **Smokestack** at the disco.
* Riya seems to consider Leadership Class her least favorite subject, judging from when she confessed to Jake that she sent a holographic Riya to attend it in her place.
* Blindstrike's action figure doesn't come with instructions on how to remove her mask, likely to help hide her face from kids who haven't yet finished season one.