Darkstar

**Laynia Petrovna,** is the daughter of a nuclear physicist who was accidentally irradiated during an experiment involving Darkforce. When the mother died during childbirth, Laynia’s father was told that she and her twin brother had died as well. The infants actually survived the radiation as a result of their mother being one of the High Evolutionary's first test subjects when she was a infant. They were then taken into custody by the state and, when their superhuman abilities first manifested in adolescence, were turned over to Professor Piotr Phobos who had been studying the theories of Gifted individuals for most of his life. After being given the codename **Darkstar** because of her ability to manipulate the extra dimensional energy known as the Darkforce, Petrovna studied at the academy alongside her brother Nikolai, codenamed Vanguard, and trained to become a government agent.

When the Terrigen Mist was released into the ecosystem, Laynia's power evolved and she was discovered to be one of the High Evolutionary's Artificial Inhumans. The facility in which she had been training for most of her life was then attacked by Max's Brotherhood, who saw to recruit her. However they were stopped by the Avengers who were also searching for the new transformed individuals. With the program she was apart of now in shambles she agreed to become a member of the Avengers.

## Powers and Abilities

**Darkforce Manipulation:** Darkstar has the ability to tap into and manipulate an intense-black form of extradimensional energy called the Darkforce. This energy, which appears to be related to the extradimensional black gas-like substance manipulated by Shroud and Cloak, possesses mass and form (whereas Cloak’s and Shroud’s does not). It may be that it is the same substance and that Darkstar simply knows how to manipulate it to greater effect then the other two. Her power seems analogous to that of Blackout.

* ***Darkforce Constructs:*** Darkstar could project the Darkforce into simple mentally controlled forms such as pincers, rings, columns, spheres, and so on. She could form objects with a maximum density of 175 pounds per cubic inch, and resistance to concussive forces of up to 320 pounds per square inch (500 pounds of TNT at 20 feet). She can form objects with a maximum volume of approximately 750 cubic feet, sufficient to encompass ten human beings comfortably. These objects are solid and well defined while she consciously wills them to be. If she rendered unconscious, they dissipate. Darkstar can also project a beam of solid force, capable of impacting an object with sufficient power to rupture 3-inch solid hard carbon steel or tip over an average, loaded railroad boxcar (15 tons).

* ***Darkforce Teleportation:*** Darkstar could also employ the Darkforce to teleport herself and up to three others. She did this, in a manner similar to that of Cloak, by entering into the Darkforce’s dimension of origin, traversing a distance (which may or may not be the linear correspondent distance in this dimension) and reemerging in Earth’s space. She has so far been able to travel a maximum distance of about .85 miles (4,480 feet) in this way. Because journeys through the darkforce dimension are so disorienting (crossing through the inter dimensional portal disorients her sense of direction, and the light of the Earth dimension blinds her for several seconds upon reemergence) teleportation is a rather risky proposition. It also takes her several seconds to create a portal into the Darkforce dimension, preventing Darkstar from teleporting out of the way of such high-velocity danger as a bullet.

* ***Darkforce Flight:*** Darkstar could utilize the attractive force of the Darkforce dimension to fly. By generating a invisible, intangible portal into the dimension in the contour of her body, she balanced its attractive force upon her against that of Earth’s gravity without passing through the portal. In order to increase its counterbalance with gravity and wind resistance, she had to angle the portal more steeply as she accelerates so that the attractive force did not leave her center of gravity (and her moment of inertia) behind as it draws her along. She could fly at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, the maximum velocity at which she is still able to breath. She could not support the weight of anyone other than herself while in flight.