Natasha Ivanova

> It could have been me, but it was her and I lost her. I can never forgive myself, don't you understand? I can't help the people I love the most, and they can only know half of who I am, so I-I'm completely on my own, and now I don't even know what the right thing is anymore! I don't now what I'm supposed to do, but I just know... I can't lose one more friend.
>
> ―**Natasha Ivanova**

**Natasha Ivanova** (Наташа Иванова) or better known as Sherry or simply code **RK002** (ゼロツー, ***Zero Tsū***) is one of the main characters of Cyberpunk Neon Genesis. She was a local street artist from Neo-Tokyo, a Moscow-born mercenary, and a Russian soldier and spy in the **Death Butterfly Program** before joining the **Automata Mech Defense Corps** and pilot the Genista unit alongside her younger sister, Anna. She constantly keeps her team on their toes and values her own creative independence from her above all else, saying she doesn't need permission to be who she is. Sherry is always thinking of new projects and refuses to commit to her art. However, who is hiding behind this facade? Far from her entire career as a street artist, Sherry hides her life as one of the most feared and skilled mercenaries in the city, a samurai with a dark past trained by **The Order**, an assassin who will fight for justice in the streets at night.

Despite her complicated past and life, Sherry used to be a pretty nice and friendly girl with her friends. She is creative and likes to keep her humor up even in the worst situations. She is often described as clumsy and reckless because of this, she is also described as lazy, but this is far from revealing her true potential as a person. At the beginning of the story we are introduced to Sherry with a sassy personality and at the same time loving and caring towards her friends and family. Unfortunately, after failing to save her sister Anna from her death, her guilt caused her to attempt to distance herself and isolate herself from others.

Sherry is an intelligent but highly awkward and emotionally vulnerable girl. Due to the trauma of losing her sister and best friend, Ryan, as well as growing up without a mother in her life, Sherry attempts to mask her feelings by putting up fronts and walls to appear more confident and put together than she actually is. Sherry tends to bottle up her emotions and releases them when she's playing drums leading to her being particularly angry and distant during the year after the seraphim impact event. She also appears to use hugs when she is unable to clearly express her thoughts or emotions.

## Appearance

Sherry is a light-skinned young woman with a slender, athletic figure. She has a green Japanese-style tattoo of a dragon around her right arm to her shoulder and upper back. Her hair is strawberry red with a mid-length cut, part of it is sometimes tied into a low ponytail to the right of her. Naturally, she has reddish eyes with a bright hue at the bottom and usually has a soft facial expression with a smile. Her eyes are slanted and she has red markings on her canthi that resemble the shape of an eyeliner.

Sherry's face is shaped like a diamond, with long scars spread across her face. She has sharp teeth with defined fangs, with the upper part sharp and protruding than the rest of the teeth. Her lips are slightly reddish, her tongue has a piercing in the middle, and double piercings in her left ear with gold earrings.

Among her clothes she sometimes wears white sports shirts, her most common outfit is usually bandages on her wrists, black sports shoes to move quickly, black sports pants, short sleeveless and tight shirt that reveals the entire abdomen (black alike) , with a black winter jacket with thick fur and black tactical compression gloves, as it seems to have small claws that it covers with these. She occasionally wears a dark mask. Sherry has scars hidden in her bandages, as well as battered knuckles. Said bandage can expand to her arms, abdomen and bust.

In her Ghostrunner suit, Sherry wears an outfit consisting of a dark suit of armor made of heat-resistant hybrid fabric and with an interface system implanted in her body, with dark colors and chrome, her suit consists of biomechanical armor with line patterns with red lights and a visor like a helmet that projects the figure of red eyes on its screen. Sherry occasionally wears dark headphones or her coat over her suit, however, she usually only wears her Ghostrunner suit, which is made of a tightly bonded hard membrane synthetic microfiber, similar to the netrunner suit, which prevents the body temperature skyrockets and overheats her neuralware and cybernetic components. This protects Sherry's body from combustion from an extreme energy charge. This suit also allows her to safely release energy blasts.

In her Automata pilot suit, she wears a bodysuit that fits her figure. Unlike other characters, her plugsuit is red, stylized with elegant layers and details with an 02 symbol printed on the plugsuit.

## Background

Sherry is based on many characters from novels and current action movies. Sherry is an energetic, proud and enterprising girl with a brave and resolute character. Although she normally shows a stubborn and feisty attitude, in some moments she exhibits a kinder, more sensitive and caring side. Her abrupt and impulsive ways often arouse other people's antipathy, since they do not fully understand her real intentions. Unlike fellow pilots, she is extremely proud to be a pilot and engages in missions with great enthusiasm, but despite her apparently strong, aggressive and competitive character, Sherry suffers from the same sense of alienation as her companions.

During its early stages of development in 2020 and 2021, she was originally the co-protagonist of the story. She was designed as a sixteen-year-old teenager who was quite intelligent and talented in the art world. She was eventually given the name "Sherry" due to her taste for sweets and cherries, in addition to its pink and reddish color palette. Also, in her development stage it was assumed that she was actually single and would be one of Robin's platonic love. For 2022, LuvrksnKoi decided to modify the sketches and drafts of Sherry as a character, and she became a Neo-Tokyo idol, a rapper of the musical group among several characters. Originally it was thought from the first starting point that Sherry was not from Neo-Tokyo but rather from a foreign country, in fact, it was canon that she was actually Korean. It wasn't until after her nationality changed from Korean to Russian that she took on deeper development within the series.

Despite her colorful and cheerful origins as a Neo-Tokyo idol, LuvrksnKoi changed the atmosphere of the story for 2022, making the plot darker, more violent, and more introspective. Sherry's story reflected the changes: although she had been presented in an essentially positive role, her character became increasingly dramatic and introverted. By then the concept of the Automata and Seraphim was unknown and there was still a vague idea of the story, which was originally about the stories of Robin as a new mercenary from Neo-Tokyo.

At the end of 2022, all this lore was finally modified, and we took several inspirations for the development of Sherry. For example, her story and her name was based on Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, who appears in Marvel comics and films. The character is a highly skilled spy and assassin. At the same time, Sherry has a bit of the essence of Gwen Stacy from the universe of Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movies. Analyzing her character, we also find similarities with Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, only that Sherry has a much softer and less aggressive personality. In addition to this, its code is a reference to Detroit: Become Human, the RK code refers to RK900, an android model produced by CyberLife. The RK900 is an upgrade on the prototype RK800 "Connor" model. Compared to its predecessor, the RK900 is faster, stronger, more resilient, and equipped with new features and the latest technologies, while the RK800's flaws were rectified. This little reference was added within Sherry's code because she would initially have the same personality as Connor.

Sherry is bisexual and an LGBTQIA+ supporter, having a poster that reads *"Protect Trans Kids"* above her bedroom door. Sherry also made multiple allusions to a ballet or dance training past, such as her grace and fighting style, wearing ballet shoes, questioning Robin's ability to move like a dancer, her preference to often walk on her tip toes. In addition she appears to have been a gymnast as her father wears the shirt of her school's gymnastic's team in the past as well as her swinging routines often involving banned gymnastics moves.

Based on concept art, Sherry also knows how to use a skateboard and like sports. It is clear that she used to practice these sports as a child during her childhood in Neo-Tokyo.

Sherry is one of the few characters to demonstrate her sexual orientation so openly, as well as demonstrate her support for the community and other minorities throughout the **Cyberpunk Neon Genesis** series. Her graffiti in the city often demonstrates support for the LGBTQIA+ community and members of the Underground gang. She can easily be mistaken as an anarchist because of her chaotic behavior, but the truth is that Sherry only has good intentions in trying to help the people she considers her family and friends. Originally, one of her nicknames given to her by Ryan was "Sharky", a nickname alluding to her shark-like sharp teeth. Another allusion to this nickname is in the art of her past, where she was drawn as a girl wearing shark pajamas.

The relationship between Sherry and Ryan was quite close and friendly, they both acted like siblings. Both young people met some time before all the conflicts, and since then they became quite close. In the initial project, Sherry was described as "a determined girl" who adapts to the situation she finds herself in, is passionate about video games and "aspires to become a model and artist", but this idea was discarded just a few months later. However, although it is not directly written, it is believed that Sherry learned to play drums because of her friend Ryan. Ryan tried to convince her to join the band, but Sherry refused because she was too shy to show her art to the public. Instead, she preferred the streets and became an anonymous street artist at night. It was on the streets that Sherry met the rest of her friends like Judy and Murphy, who formed a team of mercenaries.

However, despite her apparent shyness, Sherry has a fairly powerful voice that stars in some of Ryan's songs such as **Playground**, **Self Love** and **Electrical**. Songs that became quite popular in punk culture and within the **Underground** gang. The new group of mercenaries composed of Sherry, Judy, Murphy, Ryan and Jackie for a time dedicated themselves to theft from corporations and some low-profile underground work, with Sherry as their apparent leader.

It is currently debated whether Sherry is a hero or simply an antihero. Initially during its development it was thought that she would be a hero within her universe, LuvrksnKoi wanted to be inspired by her favorite superhero, Spider-Man, and therefore gave her abilities inspired by several of the characters in this universe, such as energy discharges or venom blasts like Miles Morales, but we soon realized that her methods were questionable and we leaned more towards the possibility that she would actually be an antihero.

Also, in her first appearances, Sherry has a high synchronization rate and displays exceptional skill as an Automata pilot. She is also very aggressive and confident in battle, which works for her and against her as the story progresses. After being defeated in battle by Seraphim Adam, her self-confidence (and consequently her synchronization rate and effectiveness as a pilot) begins to decline. Her ostentatious competitiveness originates from her childhood experiences, marked by the death of her mother. Sherry faced her loss by immersing herself in pride, becoming unwilling to any kind of help or advice and adopting strength and self-affirmation as her only raison d'être. Tormented "by the fear of not being necessary", she pilots Unit Genista only to satisfy her intimate desire for acceptance, longing to be considered "an elite pilot who will protect people". She also wants to be recognized by others through her role as a pilot and has been described as a perfectionist. Her excessive self-confidence leads her to clash with her sister, gradually losing self-confidence and becoming psychologically and physically compromised.

Overwhelmed by the fear of being alone and losing her family and friends, the young woman shows that she has a great and morbid need for the Genista, even more than her colleague Robin has. In a scene from the story, she excoriates the Genista unit as a "worthless piece of junk" after her sister death, but immediately admits "I'm the junk".

Like in Evangelion, Robin has been compared to the Superego, Akira to the Ego and Sherry to the Id, the three intrapsychic instances proposed by Sigmund Freud's second topic, since the Id is the instinctual part of a human being. The three have also been compared to the three stages of the human soul postulated by the Jewish Kabbalah: Sherry to Nephesh, source of animal vitality, Akira to Ru'ah, the soul, fruit of the raising of man from his purely biological aspect, and Robin to Neshamah, the spirit, fruit of the connection between man and God. LuvrksnKoi also described Sherry and the other characters in the story as "stereotypical characters", with no particular individual or aesthetic characteristics; Sherry, in particular, has been described as a "typical sci-fi anime character". Some details to consider, for example, are the difference in color of the pilot suits between Sherry and her sister. Sherry's costume is red and has been associated with Ama-no-Uzume, a Shinto deity linked to dance and sensuality, as well as the color red, typical of the lining of some kimonos. While her younger sister wears a white suit as a symbol of altruism. White is associated with purity and innocence. It is the color of light without a mixture of other colors, which evokes a feeling of cleanliness and clarity. In many traditions, white is used in clothing and decorations to represent purity or innocence.

## Personality

Natasha was born on the mother base in Moscow in late 52,060 along with her twin sister, Anna. Mother Base was the base of operations for the Red Wings, a mercenary unit originally composed of members of the Ava and soviet government, and later expanded to include thousands of personnel from various backgrounds. The Mother Base contained seven sections, each relating to a specific function. The following sections were: Medical, Base Development, Command, Intel, Support, Research and development, and Combat Unit. Each had their own strut and could each have 3 additional struts added to them to increase the total amount of staff that could work in that category, for a total of 28 struts, that were connected by long roads. Following her and her younger sister's birth, both girls would be placed under the care of surrogate mother Yelena Ivanov, a Soviet scientist and member of the Death Butterfly program, who would be assigned to a covert mission to Japan to extract CyberCore files. To make her façade more plausible, Yelena would pose as a married family woman. After that, the woman would be sent to Neo-Tokyo along with her adopted daughters, who would be raised by the fake family until they returned to Russia a few years later.

In her school in Japan and her first years of life, Natasha was a girl who was quite shy and introverted to communicate with the rest of the children, and she had problems speaking and writing Japanese, so she did not socialize much with the rest of the children and she rarely talked to people other than her sister. Despite the language barrier, there, Natasha stood out as a very intelligent young woman, capable of solving problems quickly, having a deep understanding, a charming sense of humor and enormous creativity. Gifted with the arts, she expressed herself by leaving stickers wherever she could and with small, innocent graffiti. She could be considered an exceptional student, she was brilliant and always created new projects that, although they were still in their infancy, had a promising future. By then Natasha only spoke Russian and English, but she was soon learning Japanese as her classes progressed.

Natasha was an intelligent, talented and passionate young girl. She shows interest and talent in hip-hop and graffiti cultures, constantly stamping her art around Neo-Tokyo as a form of self-expression. She was an easy-going and friendly kid, hoping to make friends with her humor. Though popular among her friends at Moscow, Natasha found herself having a hard time fitting in with the students at Neo-Tokyo whom made fun of or largely ignored her. She also has a habit of making jokes whenever she is in awkward situations as a tension breaker of sorts.

When Natasha was first introduced, her potential is recognized by a lot of people around her but herself; Natasha was full of self-doubt in her new, unfamiliar environment, believing herself undeserving of her place at Neo-Tokyo. In her free time she used to practice ballet and gymnastics at school, but she was often avoided by the rest of the children given the prejudices against Russians at that time. Natasha, however, managed to meet Akira during this period of time and the two formed a fairly close friendly bond, although at first Natasha was socially awkward and nervous. Natasha slowly developed her personality during her time in Japan, with her being one of the most notable students due to her high grades and at the same time her intentional attempts to fail her subjects in order to return to Russia because not feeling adapted in Japan.

Considered by the **NTPD** as an adult to be a criminal and impulsive maniac from Pacifica, according to officers Natasha lives to wreak havoc without worrying about the consequences. With an arsenal of deadly weapons, she unleashes the loudest blasts and brightest explosions to leave a trail of chaos and panic in her wake. Natasha hates her boredom and cheerfully brings her own chaotic brand of pandemonium wherever she wants her to go. While most look at Natasha and see only a crazy woman wielding an array of dangerous weapons, some remember her as a relatively innocent child, a person who tinkers with big ideas and never quite fits together. That sweet girl in a wild card, infamous for her wanton acts of destruction.

Natasha not only had a fascination for engineering and science, but also art, and while she displayed these skills, she also displayed an artistic ability that she was more oriented towards. Everyone can remember her as a very curious student, sometimes seen as silly and lazy, characteristics that were nothing more than a mask that only hid her mastermind. Akira was one of her best friends throughout her childhood, which caused her to develop a deep admiration and sympathy for him even after they were separated once she and her sister returned to Russia. This connection was never lost, because as Natasha describes, she was the one with whom she had her first kiss during one of the city's festivals.

As she grew up, Natasha's personality was rumored to be dangerous, cold and playful. Her pranks got better and sometimes she was stopped and punished for it. Pranks on her tutors, accidents in class and vandalism. It is later seen that Natasha is a very rebellious, passionate, fierce-tempered, self-confident, cocky, assertive and carefree girl who hated following the rules set by her caregivers. She was very frank and honest and, unlike the other young people, she did not care about her superiors and had no respect for them. Despite having an outgoing and sarcastic personality, Natasha eventually submitted to the rules of her world to try to fit in.

After joining **The Order** after escaping Russia, she became determined to tell the truth about the corruption and oppression of multiple entities that held a position of power in the world. Natasha always harbored hatred for the world around her; Neo-Tokyo, Japan, security agencies, megacorporations and mainly **N.E.X.U.S.** Her street art soon became an extension of her feelings for the public to hear, however, none of it made her feel better. She made it her goal to provoke rebellion in people so that they would not be blind and fight against the oppressors as she believed. Natasha focused most of her anger on the CyberCore Corporation and N.E.X.U.S. The last corporation became an obsession for her, so much so that her clan criticized her for her determination. To Natasha, N.E.X.U.S represented corporate colonialism at its worst, as the Megacorps consumed the earth and took over people's lives, she feared that her society would lose its freedom just as humanity did.

Natasha lacked empathy for most people, if she needed to kill to prove her point, she would do it without hesitation. Often called a terrorist and anarchist, she never deviated from her goal of rebellion. Natasha believed that dying as a legend would provoke rebellion in others, and taking control meant doing whatever it took to take down the Megacorps. His view of her life was quite cynical.

As she had been a prized military asset of N.E.X.U.S and she was sent to fight on the front lines for so long with other child soldiers that she did not take into account the lives of others or her own, as they would all become a statistic when they died. anyway. When people around her died, she barely flinched because, to her, it was a fact of life that everyone died. Natasha always kept people at a distance with mocking humor, nihilism and emotional detachment, which is a mask she uses to hide the trauma of her past. Despite her mocking and daring nature, sometimes even condescending towards conflicts and the people who actively participate in them, she internally worries about the well-being of everyone and is someone curious with the fear of failing her loved ones, which makes her generates conflict with itself. She always tries to do the right thing from her perspective and the authorities look at her askance, as they seem unsure whether she is a useful weapon or a fairly intelligent criminal.

Having been experimented with Nuclaxine-A9 noticeably affected Natasha's thinking and perception of herself; she had deep insecurities about not being normal anymore and about having lost her family. Although she hates when other people bring up the fact that she is not normal and when they call her an experiment, she can be very self-deprecating about it and even calls herself one. This problem intensified when she developed a hatred towards mirrors, as she was seen smashing a mirror in frustration following the death of her sister, Anna. Emotionally unstable, Natasha had problems with alcohol and smoking for a long time thanks to all of her mixed emotions.

Natasha is an incorrigible individual with clear goals and a relentless determination to achieve them. She's not the type to beat around the bush: she's bold and direct, she's not afraid to do whatever it takes to avenge her family. She is also brave; She has faced the Seraphim on multiple occasions, even though they could break her like a toothpick. She is also completely willing to sacrifice herself to save others (mainly Akira or a member of her group). The darker and more violent nature within her comes from her past, and the abuse they inflicted on her trying to make her tough. But, despite her seemingly eccentric behavior, Natasha is still very intelligent, as she was able to quickly break down the psychological profiles of her squadmates.

Natasha has a great hatred towards corporations, this hatred began after they murdered her mother and then her sister, also due to the damage they did to Akira. She believes that all corporate people are equal and are therefore capable of committing unethical acts by seeing normal people as nothing, making them all enemies in her eyes. When it comes to dealing with corporations, Natasha is completely ruthless and shows no mercy, being able to kidnap them, take them hostage or even murder them in cold blood, as she demonstrated in the case of Mitzy Heywood. Finally, with the death of her sister, Natasha breaks down into laughter and tears, showing how fractured her mind had become. However, behind her smiles hides a very depressed, broken and melancholic woman.

On the one hand, her determination to provoke rebellion in people can cause her to act in ways that others may consider extremist or even dangerous. This can cause conflict and tension with other people, and can lead to problems with authorities or other people who do not agree with their actions. Additionally, her lack of empathy for most people can make it difficult for her to relate to others, as she may seem cold or uninterested in their feelings or needs. This can affect her ability to work in a team or make friends, and can make her feel isolated or alone, which she covers up with her bubbly and active personality.

Despite being emotionally closed off, Natasha truly loves Akira deeply and cares for him, being somewhat protective, and from time to time she expresses appreciation towards the others on her team and shows a high sense of loyalty. Natasha also has a rather dark sense of humor, finding amusement in her victims' pain and making jokes about her attacks on different corporations in a mocking and mischievous manner. Many of her enemies forget that behind that innocent and childish exterior lies a finely polished instrument of war.

The entirety of Natasha's character was hard to distinguish based on how she tricked and lied to people for a living as a russian spy. She was capable of convincingly portraying friendly and flirtatious, timid, vulnerable, and scared. For the most part, she was a level-headed, strong-willed, and independent woman. Natasha normally maintained a controlled, almost emotionless person to keep whatever she was thinking a secret unless she was around people she absolutely trusts. Though a very serious agent, Natasha was by no means stuffy and has a sarcastic sense of humor, which mostly surfaces when she was with Akira or Yuri, both of whom she was comfortable around.

Despite her harsh and traumatic upbringing, Natasha retained a kind, caring and compassionate side of her, with Anna before her death expressing surprise at how she was able to keep her heart after all she had been through. For years, she harbored deep resentment and guilt towards herself due to the damage she had caused during her time in the Death Butterfly Program, and spend most of her life attempting to make up for her actions. It is after Anna's death that her life falls apart and she feels like she can't go on anymore. Natasha feels broken down and has a mental breakdown on multiple occasions, this causes her personality to become more withdrawn and closed, stopping making jokes and spending her days in the plantation hospital until she recovers from her encounter with the seraphim Adam. Even after Teru's death, Natasha appears emotionally destroyed and unstable, so much so that the program's psychologists decide to evaluate her and determine that she suffers from post-traumatic disorder after waking up from a coma and decide that it is too dangerous for her to pilot again. At first Natasha appears scared at the idea of getting back into an automata, and she exclaims that she no longer wants to pilot anymore, and she even vomits when she sees the remains of the Genista unit.

## Biography

### Early life

During times of repression, the soviet government, like that of Ava, was characterized by excessive military surveillance in search of saboteurs or opponents, to the point that it repressed with excessive imprisonments and executions. It is estimated that the number of victims is around two million citizens. It was during this time that the Americans brought the black butterfly program to the Soviet Union. Ava created the test subject cloning program together, and from this secret Soviet-American program the **Snake twin sisters** were born. Using the latest in genetic cloning technology and a mixture of human DNA altered with Nuclaxine-A9, they created the first girl at **N.E.X.U.S** laboratories in Moscow through an amniotic tank with an artificial placenta. This success was the result of multiple attempts and the project only came to fruition after dozens of failures. Of the eight embryos created, six were intentionally aborted to promote stronger growth in the remaining two. Both sisters were nicknamed under the code names “Venom Snake” and “Liquid Snake”, as the “Snake Twins” (A reference to **Metal Gear**). Anna was almost an exact double of Natasha in terms of appearance, and the only distinguishable feature of her was her eyes and hair of a lighter shade.

Natasha Ivanova was born on April 1 at the end of 52,060 on Mother Base, Moscow, in Russia. Genetic modifications were made with the second girl, who was the youngest, called Anna Ivanova. Due to their respective genetic expressions, the twins had a genetic difference of 0.43%, a difference small enough to fool almost all DNA identification procedures, exempting those that use precise scans. The goal of both nations was to turn these girls into elite assassins and mass produce them for their neo-military armies. Both girls would later be placed under the care of surrogate mother Yelena Ivanov, a Soviet scientist and member of the Death Butterfly program, who would be assigned to a covert mission to Japan to extract files from CyberCore. To make her facade more plausible to her, Yelena would pose as a married family woman. After that, the woman would be sent to Neo-Tokyo along with her adopted daughters, who would be raised by the fake family until they returned to Russia a few years later.

Once in Neo-Tokyo, the identity of the mother and the girls were changed. Yelena changed her name to Maiko and entered the new country as a normal citizen undercover, soon working as a scientist for CyberCore Research Facilities. However, the girls' training did not stop there, Natasha and Anna endured education and indoctrination in the world of espionage and soon the older sister was considered one of the best students in the program. Shino Suzuki was another of the members who was in charge of these girls and was another infiltrator of the program, who previously worked for CyberCore but betrayed them and joined N.E.X.U.S. She constantly stole data from the corporation and gave it to N.E.X.U.S or SovietCorp Industries.

Natasha spent years being educated apart from others and underwent even more painful experiments in testing chambers while attending part-time school, grew up in a Neo-Tokyo Development Center, and was educated at a part-time school where she met to Akira, the family spent three years of their lives living a double life until Yelena married Yasuo Suzuki and they both took care of the girls for a long time, however, after Yelena's mission was completed and she was discovered by CyberCore, one night, when the woman returned home, informed Natasha that their mission had come to an end and that they must leave immediately. Natasha did not want to leave the life they led, knowing the future that awaited them, but she had no choice. Yelena was forced to murder her husband and take the girls to escape back to Russia as she had been instructed. After a chase, the family would escape to the Soviet Union on a jet.

In Russia, Natasha was raised in the Special Operations Training Center, where she would endure an education and indoctrination in the world of espionage. When soldiers tried to take her younger sister, Natasha came to Anna's defense and held the soldiers at gunpoint while Anna clung to her. When Natasha threatened to shoot the guards, Yelena tried to calm her down. The girl expressed her rejection of returning to the program and receiving indoctrination, saying that her sister was too young for that. When Yelena took the gun from her, she told Natasha that she and Anna would be fine and that they should take care of each other. However, at her signal, Natasha and Anna were sedated and placed on a plane headed to Moscow.

The girls were sent to the Red Wings Training Center in Moscow, where Natasha would fight soldiers who touched her younger sister and she was constantly stabbed and beaten. According to Natasha's stories, she was tortured and locked up multiple times, separated from her sister, and she saw multiple children from the program die, murdered by Soviet soldiers. She was subjected to psychological conditioning and physical training, while she surpassed her marksmanship skills. During one of her training exercises, she was forced to execute an innocent man.

Natasha spent most of her days serving in training, until one day Yelena stopped agreeing with the cruelty with which the girls were treated and tried to interfere. This caused Ava to order her murder, so the woman was hunted down and killed by the Soviet armed forces in front of the girls. Later, Natasha and Anna, traumatized twelve years old, were sent by the squad of child soldiers to Central America, to Costa Rica, for two years, where they would infiltrate and murder a group of nomads, steal data from a corporation, and incriminate CyberCore. After that, they would be sent back to the second Mother Base in Belarus with the Russian Intelligence Agency. Some time later, Natasha would be sent to Alaska in the New United States to deliver the stolen data to the Central American corporation, handing it over to the American government.

The child soldiers did other missions during the War of Separation, led by the Snake sisters. Later, at the age of fourteen, Natasha would go to Europe with her group of child soldiers and commit terrorist attacks and data theft against the United Kingdom, France and Spain. The little terrorist received the name Venom Snake along with her younger sister, second in command of the terrorist children's squad. By then, the Ivanova sisters witnessed how the child soldiers would be murdered by the Soviets themselves, considering them useless. Natasha deactivated the security of the mother base to escape with her sister and free the child soldiers, but Anna would be shot on the spot while both girls ran. Natasha stopped to rescue her sister, but the gunshots in the distance would not allow her to do so. The girl is forced to continue running and running without looking back, wounded in the leg by a soldier's shot until the scene finally ends.

### Adulthood

> *- I tell people my sister moved out west. I wish that were true.*
>
>

Time passed and Natasha was lost from the radius of the Soviet Union, she was reported missing and her sister, who survived the attack, was brainwashed and made to believe that her sister was dead. Natasha escaped to Japan like a sleeper agent, believing her sister was also dead, she ended up on the streets and was taken in by The Order. Once in Japan after escaping Russia, she changed her name to "Sherry" and a Korean identity to better fit into society. Natasha looked further afield and discovered a dynamic city brimming with energy and potential; the Pacifica district. It was a hotbed of pure innovation, a melting pot of distant cultures, immigrants united by a single desire to be pioneers in the future. She was not alone in possessing that spirit. Natasha befriended feisty orphans, curious runaways, and anyone whose thirst for excitement was as contagious as smallpox. Each had unique talents: from climbing to sculpting, from painting to planning. In The Order, Natasha was trained as a mercenary and lived for a long time in a Dojo, where she learned the art of using the katana.

However, it was her time as a street girl that she met her best friends today. One cold night in Neo-Tokyo she was found by Ryan Monroe in the streets doing graffiti. This caught the young man's attention and although at first their relationship was one of distrust, they both began to share themselves and become closer. Natasha often went to Ryan's apartment, to hit the streets together and make street art in the Neo-Tokyo and Pacifica subways. They both became each other's apprentices. Natasha taught Ryan about street art, and soon Ryan taught her about music and how to play the drums. Soon Natasha became his roommate, and she met Jackie in this way and then met Judy and Murphy.

Judy became something of Natasha's trusted ripperdoc. She has gotten to know Natasha well over the next six months in her career as a mercenary, coming to terms with fixing several of her injuries and adding new implants as one of her most constant clients. The friendship between Judy and Natasha appears to be intimate, as Jud has previously trained in boxing with the girl and attended several of her emergency surgeries. Jud later explains that Natasha was one of the first people to train her and that he managed to knock her out with one punch. There is no one who knows Natasha better than this ripperdoc, who has assembled and disassembled her body on more than one occasion.

As time passed Natasha became more outgoing and developed a carefree personality. Now, even though she had blocked out much of her past, there were things that were still parts of her, such as, she still had her Soviet ushanka and certain artifacts that she had created during his childhood. Ryan and Jackie also encouraged her to join their band, but she refused due to her shyness and decided to enter the CyberCore Academy some time later. Natasha dedicated herself to studies and street art part-time. She hung out with her friends and often had mercenary assignments. It was throughout her career that she discovered the abilities that Nuclaxine-A9 had given her or at least she learned to master them. As the story tells, Natasha was on her way to CyberCore Academy one day when a N.E.X.U.S attack towards the Neo-Tokyo Crossway occurred. Natasha at first hesitated to intervene, but there were people trapped on the bridge.

This caused her to react and take action to save a girl who was trapped in the rubble. When she arrived at the scene she discovered that it was an energy explosion from some Nuclilium containers that had been sabotaged. Natasha saved the girl and put her on the other side of the bridge, but she didn't leave it at that and headed to the CyberCore cargo convoy to stop the explosion. She fought the gang that was attacking the convoy and unknowingly, when she was thrown against a Nucliulium energy cell, her powers activated and the Nuclaxine in her body reacted, further destabilizing the energy and causing a final explosion that would blow up the bridge in pieces.

Fortunately, Natasha survived the explosion and, although she was buried in debris in the water, she managed to get out of there by the time Trauma Care arrived. On the way to the Neo-Tokyo hospital, the paramedics realized the abnormalities that Natasha's body presented. Such as, for example, a regeneration to her recently made wounds. Confused, they called the CyberCore authorities and they took Ivanova's case. As soon as she was awake, she was given medical news of her mutation, and she was put into testing because she was the first living architect to be found with Nuclaxine-A9 inside her body.

### Career as Ghostrunner

> *- Before I was the Ghostrunner I made mistakes... and a lot of enemies.*
>
>

Four years later, Natasha is seen chasing criminals transporting a truck full of plutonium (dangerous radioactive chemicals) through the city. Contrary to what many believe, **Ghostrunner** was not a name Natasha gave herself, but rather a name given to her by the CyberCore Corporation due to her abilities to move at astonishing speeds and disappear in front of security cameras. Observing the potential asset her powers could become, CyberCore took Natasha and began to train her in espionage again so that she could go on missions to take down threats that proved too difficult for conventional operations. But of course, all of this was secret. They also developed the Ghostrunner Suit for her to harness her abilities as well as electrical conductors and venom shocks into her wrists. Trained to become an elite and ruthless stealth agent tasked with infiltrating and eliminating criminal organizations, terrorist cells and other threats, Natasha decided to seek revenge against **N.E.X.U.S** and has since investigated the corporation's movements within Japan, soon discovering that the corporation was planning something with Nuclaxine-A9. Soon she also dedicated herself to fighting gangs and other criminal groups following the will of CyberCore. Natasha thought that if she maybe cleaned the city of criminals, she could repay all the damage she caused during the War of Separation.

It was not until the events of the Mitzy Heywood case that Natasha finally met Akira once again after so many years, and to her bad luck, as a police officer, since Akira had been assigned to investigate the Mitzy case. Two days into the case search, agent Akira was investigating the private medical records of all known victims when he was removed from the case as he was deemed psychologically unfit to handle it by his superiors. He disappeared shortly after receiving an anonymous call at 2:40 am, presumably from the murderess he was studying. Police traced the call, coming from a gas station between a pair of power plants located in Pacifica. The detective was believed to be the Ghostrunner's eleventh victim after communicating with her.

The idea of a cold, ironic, witty and intellectually restless detective like Akira missing brought unrest to the units of each security department and an increase in tensions in the city. No trace of him was found until 24 hours later, when he reported being attacked by gang members at the abandoned N-06 power plant and rescued by the Ghostrunner, who treated his wounds and helped him during that period of time in her apartment. Once there, theories began to form in Akira's head after an intense conversation with the assassin, and she revealed her identity to him.

It was thanks to this that he obtained a memory chip with evidence for the investigation. Although Akira had been suspended from the case, he was once again able to prove himself capable of solving it, claiming that Ghostrunner was leaving little pieces to show him the way to Mitzy's whereabouts, and he just needed to figure it out. In a matter of a few hours he was able to solve the codes in each message, analyze the clues from the scene and manage to find the coordinates of Mitzy Heywood's body, on the outskirts of Neo-Tokyo. The police found the barrel containing the young woman's body the next day. She was identified through fingerprints and the case was exposed as one of the most brutal. Some time later, the bodies of the other eight girls were found thanks to Natasha's help in interrogation.

For CyberCore, Natasha was a very useful tool against **N.E.X.U.S**, but they still couldn't find the corporation's real targets when everything was happening. Despite this, Natasha continued independent research on her while the corporation sent her on more spy missions. During the day, the woman works as a scientist at the Research Center, since she has a degree in biophysics and a doctor in biochemistry. However, this did not mean that she had left street art aside, as she continued to escape from time to time during work hours with Ryan to do graffiti and play drums with the band. Also, since her first meeting with Akira after so long, he couldn't stop thinking about him and worrying that he was okay. And it seems that both of them connected in an impressive way, since it was the same case with Akira who decided to leave the police station to visit her and see how she was doing since their last meeting. Since then Akira constantly visited Natasha at her work in the mornings, either to have an excuse to talk to her or just to see her. Eventually, both young people began to go out together since Akira invited her to the first date at a cafe.

Both architects begin dating, meanwhile, Akira continues working on his police career, but begins to have doubts about his role as a security agent. As he gets to know Natasha better he begins to wonder if he is really making a difference in fighting crime or if he is just following orders. The situation worsens when Akira's psychiatrist, Ayaka Tanaka, expresses concern about Akira's mixed feelings for the girl, who is considered a dangerous person by the **NTPD**, and eventually the head of the security department discovers that Akira has been romantically involved with Natasha and asks him to stop seeing her immediately, but he disobeys. Natasha occasionally takes Akira out on dates to do street art, and eventually introduces him to her mercenary friends. On other occasions she lets him into her work to watch her work in the CyberCore Research Center laboratories. Akira was slowly introduced to Natasha's background and the world of gangs, prompting him to eventually leave the police force behind. Of course, he wasn't always welcome, since everyone close to Natasha doubted whether they could trust a police officer, but they realized that Akira was a good guy anyway and someone they could trust.

Although at first Natasha's friends did not approve of the relationship with the security agent, for obvious reasons of distrusting a police officer, Akira shows initiative to meet them and leave his role as a police officer aside, joining street boxing training with Judy and Ryan. Natasha and Akira's love relationship is good, although Akira sometimes scolds her for leaving stickers and graffiti on private properties. Although Natasha wants to clear her name, it is true that she does not avoid committing some illegal acts for which Akira scolds her, although these actions are innocent, they can range from leaving stickers and graffiti in private areas to stealing from corporations.

At some point in Natasha's story, she begins to be wanted again by N.E.X.U.S as she draws the attention of corporates for her investigations and attacks on them. Soon N.E.X.U.S manages to find her identity and find her, so they send the prowler to look for her. The prowler found Natasha one cold night as she was heading to her home taking the subway, he attacked her and captured her after a chase. She was beaten by N.E.X.U.S executives and interrogated, but seeing her as someone useless and who refused to give information, the corporation finally decided to launch a powerful virus at her. Natasha managed to survive the attack, but her cyberware was damaged beyond its basic function, leaving her in a coma but aware of her surroundings.

After failing to fix her, they decided to pawn her off to a ripperdoc from Little China for one last attempt to fix her cyberware. When this failed, they canceled Natasha and left her with the technician as payment. The ripperdoc eventually contacted his fixer, and sold Natasha to the Black Souls for use in black market ND production. The Black Souls scavengers decided it would be a good idea to extract Natasha's heart pump to sell her for a high price, but fortunately for her, Ryan and the mercenary team were able to locate her with the help of CyberCore and save her from her worst fate. The team entered the abandoned power plant and killed all the gang members and took Natasha to the hospital, where she would receive medical attention to fix her cyberware.

### Leaving Neo-Tokyo

> *- You got no friends more than me. Where you gonna go?
> - I've lived a lot of lives before I met you, Ryan. You shouldn't have gone to all this trouble.*
>
>

After the past events and her recovery, Natasha decided it was a better idea to leave Neo-Tokyo and abandon her job. With all the stench in the city and afraid that her past would haunt her, Natasha decided to get away from the others, including Akira, and move to the outskirts of Neo-Tokyo, she left the country and moved to Oslo, Norway. She changed her identity again and went by the name "Nora Pedersen" and although she kept in touch with her friends, she soon moved to the suburbs in a mobile home she bought. Once in her new home, Natasha watched phone security footage of the police department chief and her S.W.A.T. entering a train station where she had left her suit and tracker, and then the scene ends with the armed forces team finding the room empty with an explosive. Making it clear that the Neo-Tokyo forces had discovered her true identity and her past as a terrorist but that they would not find her again. Despite all this, Natasha was really depressed about leaving her past life, because she had really grown attached to her friends and had fallen deeply in love with Agent Akira. But she decided to ignore her feelings and spend months in Norway starting her new life as a mercenary, living totally isolated and alone.

On April 14 of that same year Natasha took a trip to the Louvre Museum in Paris, France and during a special party she made an imitation of the Mona Lisa, replaced it with the original and stole the painting. The reasons are unknown, most claim that it was done for the money that the Human Era painting meant, but then Natasha claims that she only did these simple thefts to earn a living, while she had as a cover that she was a science teacher in Oslo, Norway. However, the cover-up did not last long for her, as Agent Akira managed to find her again and locate her for his next mission: The theft of a briefcase in Rome, Italy, during a high society party at St Peter's Basilica. It is estimated that the briefcase carried twenty million credits and that it was kept at the back of the Basilica in a guarded and monitored room. Natasha disabled all eighty-seven cameras and security points at the party, and managed to get through the military-grade door using nanite facial mimicry technology, stealing the identity of one of the party guests. Agent Akira took the identity of one of the guests at the party and, dressed in a suit, managed to approach Natasha and dance with her while pointing a gun at her, threatening to arrest her at the criminal party and revealing that he was assigned the mission to capture her or at least take her out of the country so that the Court of Justice could imprison her. Natasha was surprised by his sudden appearance. After a few minutes of conversation, Akira asked her if what happened between them was also a hoax, but Natasha only responded with a laugh that she wasn't that insensitive and that she wouldn't lie like that.

Akira entered the secret room with the briefcase, full of money and gold. He met Natasha at the scene and after a silence he told her that he was under arrest, to which Natasha challenged him to try to arrest her, starting an intense fight between the two inside the security room when suddenly an armed S.W.A.T team entered pointing at the woman, revealing that the briefcase was a false decoy for Natasha to fall. Natasha is offended by Akira's betrayal and insults him in Russian. After being forcibly restrained, Natasha does not object to being arrested and is taken back to Neo-Tokyo to be tried by the Court of Justice for her crimes. Still offended by Akira's betrayal, she refuses to speak and testify during the trial.

Natasha Ivanova was accused of grand theft, espionage, theft of corporate data banks, murder of approximately more than six hundred people, terrorism and other crimes. That same year, the judge sentenced her to death for all of her crimes. She spent five months in prison before they finally decided on her sentence, which was execution. News that took Akira by surprise, because he did not know that this would be the sentence she would receive. Natasha, on the other hand, accepted her condemnation and decided not to oppose it. However, things would not stay that way. After reflecting on his actions, Akira decides to contact Natasha's squad and seek their help. Akira decides that he can't just let her die like this, so he soon reunites with the group and together they make a plan to get Natasha out of prison.

### Prison Breakout

Akira got a helicopter for the squad. Flying to the Badlands on the outskirts of Neo-Tokyo, Akira used a Ghostrunner action figure to smuggle a ear-com to Natasha inside the prison, allowing her to follow his directions to escape while Murphy and Jackie hacked into the security systems to open the main doors. A riot broke out, making it harder for Natasha to escape, so Akira jumped out of the helicopter and assisted her by fighting off the Japanese Armed Forces.

Natasha began to destroy the doors with her hands using her super strength until eventually reaching the exit, where the helicopter was located and where a mass shootout with the neomilitaries took place, other guards began to shoot at the helicopter, forcing Judy to evade bullets. Judy started to leave when a guard started shooting at her, so Ryan fired a rocket with his missile launcher at the guard, blowing up part of the prison. The large explosion caused an avalanche, causing the prisoners to cower in fear as Natasha sprang into action, climbing fences and jumping from riot shields. The prisoners and guards began running back to the prison as Akira yelled for Judy to get them out. Akira held on to a rope hanging from the helicopter as Natasha continued her way to the upper level. Several guards ran inside, as the avalanche began to consume the prison. Finally, Akira grabbed Natasha and Judy maneuvered the helicopter away as the prison was completely engulfed by the avalanche, successfully escaping from the place. Natasha thanked everyone for bringing her out of prison, but she didn't understand why Akira had changed his mind about her, even so, she thanked him and forgave him for his betrayal.

The squad later landed beyond the wastelands, on a mountain of snow and ice, near a Biotechnica protein farm. Natasha had ripped off the tracker that had been implanted in her in prison and again thanked everyone for freeing her from it. Natasha apologized to the group for lying to them about her identity and past, but none of them seemed to mind and they were happy to have saved her. After having escaped from prison and faced with Akira's betrayal of the security forces to officially join the mercenary squad, the couple decided to escape and change their identities once again. Using advanced nanite spy technology based on abandoned N.E.X.U.S research, they were allowed to take on the appearance of other people and replicate their facial expressions and speech patterns. Akira and Natasha received assistance from Judy, who gave them new identifications under the names "Murasaki Ren" and "Elin Sørensen" and thus went undercover for a time until the events of the great corporate war II. During this time the couple made a living doing professional espionage and theft while they were the most wanted by security agencies.

### Confronting Her Past

>
> *- At some point we all have to choose between what the world wants you to be and who you are. I made my choose... I'm done running.*
>
>

Months and years had passed since the Ghostrunner had disappeared from the radar of N.E.X.U.S and CyberCore, as well as Agent Akira and the other members of the group after their escape to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in Latin America. Natasha and Akira's life was good, they didn't lack anything, they lived in a luxurious apartment and worked as spies and mercenaries full-time on missions in different countries along with the group. Occasionally the group left the country and bought other apartments in other countries, where they could move for months to be safe from any criminal intelligence agent. All these years Natasha was conspiring with her lover who became an undercover FBI agent, to steal treasures and valuable pieces of art from the Human Era. The loving couple got the name the **"Bishop"** along with their pawns, their teammates Ryan, Jackie, Judy and Murphy. For the next ten years Natasha posed as a science teacher and criminal, carrying out robberies and being falsely arrested by Akira, only to eventually escape together too late for the agents to discover that everything was planned. It is estimated that the couple carried out around thirty robberies throughout Europe, attacking museums and sanctuaries in Rome, Valencia, Moscow, Paris, among others.

With the years passing under the radar, Yuri Ivanova was born and raised in San José, Costa Rica, until the age of ten, when tragedy finally struck in 52,340 at the end of March. The mutagenic drug identified as Nuclaxine-A9 began to spread at the end of March 52,340 in the city of Neo-Tokyo, after a biological attack by N.E.X.U.S when tensions between both corporations finally erupted after so many years of silence.

Of course the team didn't pay attention to this the first time, thinking it was just another typical corporate conflict that wouldn't affect them anyway. However, it was bigger than it looked. How this attack happened is a mystery, since it is reported that the substance was transferred to a bioreactor by Russian spies and then they blew it up. The meltdown and explosions ruptured the reactor core and destroyed CyberCore's underground structure. This was immediately followed by an open-air reactor core fire that lasted up to three days, during which pollutants were released and deposited into the air in other parts of the city and country. In response to the initial accident, a 10-kilometer exclusion zone was created 36 hours after the accident, from which some 49,000 people, mainly from Neo-Tokyo, were evacuated. The exclusion zone was later increased to a 30 kilometer radius, from which an additional 68,000 people were evacuated.

After the reactor explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two more, a massive emergency operation began to put out the fire, stabilize the reactor, and clean up the ejected material. During the immediate emergency response, 237 workers were hospitalized, of which 134 had symptoms of Nuclaxine-A9 poisoning. Among those hospitalized, 28 died within three weeks. The infection was first identified in an outbreak in the city during festivals. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing it to spread to other areas of Asia. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of national concern on March 25 and a pandemic on March 30. As of April 10, the pandemic had caused more than 676 million cases and 6.88 million confirmed deaths.

One morning while checking the mail in her apartment, she noticed that a black briefcase arrived at her home from Barcelona, Spain. Thinking it was a special delivery, she left it in her car without opening it and decided to go to work. That night, Natasha was returning from her job undercover as a science teacher at a university in Costa Rica, she was six months pregnant, when suddenly her vehicle was hit by an explosive, which almost made her fall off the ground. bridge crashing. Realizing that Prowler was approaching her, who Natasha believed had been sent again by N.E.X.U.S after so many years, she opened fire on her attacker, causing a brutal fight between the two. Eventually Natasha realized that Prowler was not here for her, but for the briefcase in her car. Confused by this, Natasha took the black briefcase and to escape from him, she decided to jump from the bridge into the water, thus saving herself from Prowler's attack. Fortunately, despite the strong fight and the impact of the bridge falling, Natasha's pregnancy was not affected. After getting out of the water and walking home, she opened the briefcase and revealed to Akira that she was attacked by Prowler and they had to leave before he knew their location and found them.

The briefcase had a red blister with an old photo: a photo of Natasha and Anna in the Soviet Union with other child soldiers. The sender of the package was anonymous, but the only thing they knew was that it was sent from one of the safe houses in Barcelona, Spain, and they knew that they had little time and had to act quickly, now for the safety of their son and future daughter. Akira contacted his mother after years and decided to reunite with her. Alt accepted and sent a private jet to Costa Rica to move them to a neo-military base in Oslo, Norway, since they could not travel to Neo-Tokyo due to the terrible situation that was occurring there.

Once reunited, Akira explained the situation to Alt, seeking her help, and Alt also informed him of the situation in Neo-Tokyo. Alt looked impressed to meet Yuri, who at first acted shy to her. Eventually Alt proposed to the family and their companions to stay at the base to receive protection, and in exchange they could investigate the situation of the origin of Nuclaxine-A9. Natasha looked uneasy at this but she accepted anyway for the sake of her family, knowing that they would be safer in the neomilitary base than in any spy safe house. Anyway, Natasha decides to travel to Barcelona, in Spain, to her safe house where her package had been sent. She assumed that whoever had sent the package had the answers to what was happening in Japan and the rest of Asia. She especially knew that it was someone from the Death Butterfly program, because of the photos of her sister and her. Arriving in Barcelona, Natasha headed to her safehouse, retrieved her stashed gun, and went to stealthily enter the apartment, but Anna Ivanova revealed she was aware of her presence. As they talked to each other, Natasha went inside, searching for Anna, until they were finally reunited, both aiming guns at each other.

Having the same training, the sisters were able to disarm and take each other's gun, leading to a fierce and brutal brawl, as they fought throughout the apartment, smashing each other into walls, doors, and cupboards. When they both began to choke each other with a window curtain, Natasha saw that Anna would not desist, nor win, so she decided to call a truce, which Anna agreed to, and they stopped fighting. Natasha, impressed that her sister was still alive, asked what the red powder sent to her home in Costa Rica was. Anna explained that the vials have the ability to immunize the brain's neuropathways, curing any form of chemical subjugation a person may have been exposed to, in short, avoid Ava's mind control.

Natasha expressed disinterest in helping her, but Anna revealed that she had no one else to turn to and hoped she had gotten Japanese forces to destroy the program. Natasha was shocked and incredulous to know that the Death Butterfly program was still active. Anna looks confused and reveals that she was on a mission in Barcelona, tasked with murdering a deserter from the program who had the briefcase with her. She reveals that she murdered the woman, but in the act she was freed from Ava's mind control by the chemist and the deserter, before she died, told her to free the others.

Natasha breaks down crying saying that she thought she was dead, and apologizes for abandoning her all these years. Anna realizes at that moment that Natasha is pregnant, and surprised, she asks about the father of her daughter. However, before continuing talking, the two sisters were then attacked by the agents of the program, forcing them to escape from the apartment, which was made difficult with assassins at every turn as they tried to reach Anna's motorbike. Reaching the rooftops, they were pursued by a agent of the Death Butterfly program, who Natasha attempted to save when they jumped on a moving pillar, only to drop her when she was attacked. Natasha also fell, and when she went to check on the other woman, she witnessed her uncontrollably kill herself, to Natasha's horror. They got to the Anna's motorbike, when an armored car driven by the Prowler crashed into the scene and began chasing after them. Another agent on a motorbike came after them and knocked them off their vehicle, so Anna stole a car for them, which Natasha drove. Unable to get away and coming under heavy fire, Anna decided to deal with the agent herself, but they were still being chased by Prowler. Using an explosive arrow, Prowler fired it at the car, sending it to topple over and crash into a subway station.

Finally the sisters manage to escape and hide from the Prowler at the train station, and a confused Natasha finally realizes that the whole situation is getting out of her hands. Heading to a store, Natasha asked more about the Death Butterfly program, but Anna didn't know much, due to all the agents are forced into being sedated. Natasha revealed that she believed Anna was dead and she felt guilty for having stopped looking for her. Anna told her everything was fine and told her more about the vials with the chemical and her time in the assassin program, where she was forced to kill without independence. Natasha tells her about her life in Ne-Tokyo and then Costa Rica, and with nowhere to go, Anna invited Natasha to help her take down the Death Butterfly program together. Determined to do this together, the sisters take a stolen car and take a trip back to Oslo, Norway, on the train, to meet up with the rest of the people at the base and Akira.

With most cities lost and refugee camps built for survivors, a December 52,345 WHO study estimated excess deaths from the pandemic during 52,347 and 52,349, and again concluded that 14.8 million early deaths occurred. excessively, reaffirming and detailing its previous estimates from May and updating itself, addressing criticism. These numbers do not include measures such as years of potential life lost and may make the pandemic the leading cause of death. During this period of time more neo-military men and women were recruited to serve in CyberCore's security division.

With the rebirth of the new bioengineered Robin Myers, the Phoenix program was also born, a series of New United Nations projects designed to create new generations of physically, genetically, technologically and mentally superior human "super soldiers" as a special fighting force within the army. The **PHOENIX** program first emerged as a brilliant plan to turn ordinary human soldiers into powerfully augmented special operations commandos. Initially, the separate testing programs were Alt's various attempts to create the perfect humans to patrol the colonies, protect the civilian and government populations.

In 52,354, officially recognized as a war between the New United States of America and the State of Japan, the Corporate War broke out with the essential participation of the competing corporations N.E.X.U.S and CyberCore. According to the investigations of Agent Myers in his espionage mission, he found a Biotechnica corporation that was selling Nuclaxine-A9 to the NUSA within unqualified experiments, since Ava had created her own Squad with genetically altered soldiers to attack CyberCore in last.

Biotechnica continued to sell these psychoactives to NUSA, and in desperation, in a move to cover itself, Biotechnica hired N.E.X.U.S's military services against CyberCore, and reached a mutually beneficial agreement, providing troops in exchange for exclusive biological weapons. Starting the corporate war. It was revealed that Biotechnica was after Myers, seeking to eliminate him from the map as he studied the bioweapon case. By then, security divisions bombed the city and a network error caused the Architects' routine quarantine procedure to fail, resulting in at least 143 billion deaths on their core worlds. The Architects quarantined their core worlds and brought Nuclaxine-A9 to isolated disease research facilities, to research and develop a cure amid previous failed attempts.

The corporate war doubled the death toll, as did the largest refugee crisis around the world. Shortly before February 12, a message to the Alt Nation was broadcast on Neo-Tokyo channels informing them of their decision to launch a "special military operation" in eastern NUSA since, in their words, "Japan cannot feel safe in the face of the American threat." Immediately after the attack, the American government announced the introduction of martial law and the N.E.X.U.S invasion violated the Charter of the New United Nations, constituting a crime of aggression under international criminal law; The crime of aggression can be prosecuted under universal jurisdiction. On February 20, CyberCore sued Biotechnica before the Court of Justice and the Public Safety Commission.

The Japanese attack on the American Biotechnica base began military hostilities between the New United States and Japan. The "Pacific War", as it is known, led to a brutal confrontation between both countries whose cost in lives amounted to millions of people, both civilians and neo-military during the pandemic. As time went by, the demonstrations in M-W intensified, and people demanded to be able to see their families in these difficult times. By the end of May, the Pacific War had heated up.

In the summer of that same year, CyberCore had taken over a Biotechnica office in Los Angeles. In response, N.E.X.U.S organized a riot at CyberCore's Italian offices. They used the distraction to access the building's system and fill it with a short-lived toxin. Everyone inside died.

The attacks on Chicago turned into open warfare when air and orbital support was requested. The battle ended when local nomads, who had contracts in the still-rebuilding city, used covert teams to demolish both CyberCore and N.E.X.U.S offices. During this time, N.E.X.U.S released a bioplague that killed thousands in the city of Busan, the city was evacuated by the Korean government and then quarantined by the CyberCore security division.

During all this time of War and after the birth of Haru Ivanova, Anna explained that although she initially worked for Ava Squad, she was no longer loyal to the organization and decided to help Natasha's Squad take them down, so they made a plan to infiltrate the base and try to destroy Ava's central base. Deducing that they would need more people to bring down Ava's government, Anna had the idea of freeing the other members of the Special Operations Academy in Russia to help them. So she got a jet to head there and search for them with the vials of red powder. The mission was a success and the two sisters infiltrated the mother base, destroying the communication networks and freeing the agents from mind control with the chemical. After that, the mother base in Moscow and other regions of the Soviet Union became isolated from CyberCore, and the agents joined forces to help defeat the N.E.X.U.S army, another part, however, decided to live a normal life and get their lives back after spending years under Ava's mind control.

### Destruction of the N.E.X.U.S Armed forces

Despite Natasha and Anna's attempts to free multiple agents of the program, Ava continued to expand her group of soldiers to the point that it was impossible to recover all the women and men under her mind control. Still, over the next few years CyberCore found a way to resist, slowly destroying the Death Butterfly program and freeing several agents from mind control. It was not easy, as it required several spy missions and infiltrations, but they did it. At the end of 52,361, in Washington D.C, Capitol of the New United States, the CyberCore ship guided by CyberCore traveled through the Pacific Ocean and crossed European lands until arriving in Washington on July 7, days after the country's Fourth of July celebration. An attack west of the city had been carried out to distract the American armed forces, launching their missiles at the Capitol as a distraction. Gunshots and explosions filled the streets when the squad finally arrived. The attack had been planned for months, a Russian warplane backed by Russian agents released from the program covered up the squad, Robin carried in his backpack a small nuclear bomb that had to be detonated in the N.E.X.U.S tower to put an end to Ava's government.

After Murphy accessed the security door and helped the others enter the building, Ryan would open fire on all the security guards and place the small nuclear bomb inside the elevator. However, Ava arrives at the tower and stops the fight by connecting to the subspace of N.E.X.U.S. Seeking to become more powerful, she begins to force the netrunners present to obey her or die. Murphy and Jackie suffer a profound disconnection and are seriously injured, even going into convulsions when they are trapped in the subspace of N.E.X.U.S. Ava sadistically taunts the crew when she attacks them with her arm cannon, but her attack is blocked by Alt who suddenly takes control of the place to defend everyone. Alt possesses the bodies of the automated robot soldiers and begins shooting towards Ava protecting the squad. Once with everyone outside on the ship, Alt blocked the exits of the building, trapping Ava inside it.

Finally the explosion consumed the building to Ava's surprise and destroyed part of Washington D.C, reducing the place to nothing more than ashes and dust. The collapse of the N.E.X.U.S troops and the theft of the Biotechnica databank brought an apparent end to the war when the militarized megacorporation of NUSA withdrew its armies from the Neo-Tokyo corporate headquarters.

### Back on the Run

> *- It's funny. My whole life, I didn't think I had any family.*
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In 52,380, just a couple of years after the fall of the Ava squadron and the penalties before the Ava government, the world was recovering from the Pacific War after so many years. Natasha recovered her life in Neo-Tokyo because Alt removed the sanctions from her sentence, leaving her free under the terms that she would serve to the country to recover all the damage she did in the past. The Ivanova family moved from Costa Rica to Neo-Tokyo after a long time, rebuilding their lives on the outskirts of the city with a nice house and a couple of pieces of land. Yuri and his younger sister grew up in Japan after the events of the war, and everything seemed to be going in the right direction after so many sacrifices. Natasha took a part-time job as a science teacher, using it as cover as a secret agent for CyberCore's security forces. Her husband, Akira, dedicated himself to the study of geology in his spare time and to the family farm, although he continued working as an undercover security agent. The years were peaceful as they passed and a period of peace finally arrived. Her son, Yuri Ivanova, grew up and dedicated himself to science and engineering, soon becoming executive director of CyberCore's Security branch.

A period of time later, Aaren Ivanova was born and became the youngest among the three brothers of Russian descent, Aaren was a shy child and although sweet, he had difficulty speaking Japanese and could barely handle part of the Russian language. Despite this, he was a bright and unique child. Natasha's life of thievery was left behind after this, and her younger sister, Anna, finally dedicated herself to serving as CyberCore's secret agent at her side.

### First Impact

Despite these brief periods of peace and the calm that the trials brought to the Ava government, CyberCore was only able to destroy Ava's military and destroy the Death Butterfly program completely, but without further ado, not capture the responsible despite the penalties of the New United Nations. Soon this peace would be broken when the Russian government would once again work alongside Ava and skin the last biological weapon: the Seraphims. These giant monsters usually appear as humanoid figure and angelic appearance. The first of these creatures attacked Neo-Tokyo on the morning of July 28. The city experienced an 8.1 magnitude earthquake before the appearance of the creature, the first seraphim to attack the nation called EVE. The creature emerged from Neo-Tokyo Bay and attacked the city's Bay Crossway. Eve burrowed her way to the Neo-Tokyo nuclilium power plant in Japan, where she caused the plant to collapse from underneath, killing Dr. Misako and several other workers, and causing the entire area to be evacuated because of explosion leaking from the plant. Due to the earthquake there was a leak in the power plant while Dr. Misako's team was still inside. Without much time to get out, Yuri is forced to close the door and leave them to die.

Following the partial collapse of the bridge, CyberCore's military and air force joined forces in an attempt to kill the creature while they evacuate the city. Their weapons proved completely ineffective against the machine, which advanced directly through Neo-Tokyo and attacked neighboring cities. In the span of six days, tens of thousands of people died in the conflict as the creature gained ground. With no other options, the military finally resorted to using missiles to destroy it. That day the sky turned red and crosses appeared in the landscape announcing the arrival of the seraphim. The city turned into rubble and many homes were destroyed. That tragic day Natasha was leaving the university finishing teaching, when suddenly the earthquake shook the city and she had to drive quickly to look for Aaren from school and get him to safety.

Ryan was killed that same day the seraphim arrived from the sky, and this meant a deep trauma for Natasha. According to the story, Ryan was crushed to death and eaten by a seraph while he was trying to protect Aaren from the creatures when Natasha arrived to take them out of the city. Jackie was paralyzed by the scene and in shock, but was pulled by Trauma Care teams to be taken out of the city in time.

The devastation caused by the creature, initially thought to be an anomaly, was visited four months later in Hong Kong, when a second Seraphim emerged from the ocean from America and traveled to the shores of Asia, this mecha was called ADAM. A third attack occurred six months later in Hiroshima and was then followed by a fourth attack in Yokohama, called CAIN and ABEL. Realizing that these attacks were not going to stop, CyberCore took drastic measures to find a way to effectively combat these biomechanical weapons.

Since then, the war between machines began and many of these mechanical creatures began to attack cities in Japan and allied countries. These machines caused significant devastation in the city of Neo-Tokyo. They then went on a rampage that lasted six days, destroying several cities as Korean and Japanese armies attempted to kill him. Despite the use of troops, tanks, artillery and aircraft, the combined forces of the two armies failed to kill the huge creature. The seraphim have since been produced in large factories, and they connect with other smaller robots to attack.

Numerous seraphim attacked various cities throughout the Pacific Rim and were met with stiff resistance from the angels of the Automata Mech Defense Corps. Over the next five years, seraphims slowly adapted to the Automatas' strength. Natasha was one of the first to qualify to enter the pilot program along with her younger sister, at least during the second year of the program she fully functioned as a pilot alongside Anna and ended up being assigned to the Genista automated unit. Genista was leading Evtaria Alpha with six hundred and eighty in her kill count in the seraphim test simulator.

Natasha was one of the most outstanding pilots along with her sister, until her sister's death finally occurred on October 20 at the end of the year. Facing seraph Adam once again, Natasha was fighting outside the plantation of the city to defend Neo-Tokyo alone, but her automata has sunk into the water and Adam was bombarding her. Anna stops responding to the neural connection since she was knocked unconscious by the impact and the Genista unit was led alone by her older sister. Natasha then places herself inside the Unit to protect it from Adam's forces. With the Genista Unit submerged in the ocean and bombarded with depth charges, Natasha declares that she does not want to die and, in a moment of clarity, regains her own identity, confronts and defeats the first seraph, and then faces the controlled Automata in dough by Adam. During the battle, she successfully disables all ten opponents; However, Genista's energy is depleted and she is impaled by Adam's spear on the spot. The seraphim proceeded to eviscerate and dismember the Genista unit, thus causing Natasha's body to actually suffer the wounds inflicted to the machine.

Everyone observes the scene through the screens of their automatons and hears Natasha's screams when her automata is pierced through the head with Adam's spear. The Strelitzia unit is the first to arrive at the battle zone to encounter the horrific scene of Natasha being gutted by Adam. The rest of the squad members fight the seraph while Teru and Shinobu try to find the Natasha's body amid the rubble of her mecha. After being rescued from the rubble, Natasha was taken to the plantation medical center and was emergency hospitalized. Unfortunately, her sister did not suffer the same fate as her, because when they found her it was too late and she did not survive on the way to the hospital.

After receiving an emergency operation in the operating room, Natasha fell into a coma for almost five months until she recovered and even after waking up, a long path awaited her to get better. Since her connection to the Genista was very strong, she suffered the same physical damage as the machine and she had to receive several operations to replenish her biocomponents. Natasha was in a wheelchair for two years under the care of Toffy and Judy. She was considered a mentally and physically disabled agent, and Alt briefly considered removing her from the program so she could rest, but Natasha refused her and even begged her to let her stay. Despite the great trauma of losing her younger sister, Natasha refused to retire because she felt that doing so would mean leaving her sister's death in vain.

A traumatized Natasha spent her years of physical and mental recovery while her squadron continued fighting the seraphim, and every time she tried to pilot she simply couldn't do it because something went wrong with her. She had simply lost the ability to connect since she suffered that neurological damage. Natasha decided to take advantage of her potential as a scientist and joined the scientific branch of the Automata Mech program, but she still had her relapses and felt bad about everything that had happened. After Anna's death, Natasha isolated herself and put her joking personality aside. Something changed inside her from that day on, but it didn't mean it would be the end of the world after all. At some point, Natasha was able to improve emotionally and become captain of several assault teams of female soldiers, as well as being responsible for thoroughly studying in the field of biology the structures of the seraphim, as well as all their levels, from the atoms. and molecules to cells, organisms and environment. Finally, almost ten years after all the events, we see in the final scene Natasha painting a mural with all those who have died in the war: The mural of the fallen.

Ultimately, Natasha shows concern for **Robin** and tries to help him find the truth behind his creation.

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

Natasha Ivanova was one of the most talented spies and lethal assassins in the world. She was said by her instructor to be the best student in the Death Butterfly Program, never failing a single test. Both the **KGB** and **N.E.X.U.S** considered her as one of their most dangerous operatives. Natasha was highly skilled in martial arts, armed combat, espionage, infiltration, disguise, manipulation, evasion, hacking, and assassination. Her extraordinary skill-set made her a core member of the special forces in CyberCore. She also displayed impressive endurance and durability, being able to withstand being shot in the shoulder by someone, being hit and flung away, being launched into a car by a powerful kick, falling from a building and hitting several metal structures on the way down, and taking many blows from several agents, all of which failed to render her so much as unconscious.

* ***Master Martial Artist:*** Natasha was an extremely skilled and formidable hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist, having trained from a young age in the Soviet Union and N.E.X.U.S in her later life as a top operative, making her one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet. During her time in the Death Butterfly Program, she was seen using her martial arts to defeat a grown man by swinging his head into the corner of a desk, proving how formidable she was even when she was young. She was extremely skilled in the field of martial arts, having mastered arts such as sambo, hapkido, Lucha libre-style wrestling, krav maga, multiple styles of kung fu, wing chun, taekwondo, and kali with her katanas.
* ***Master Marksman:*** Natasha was an extremely skilled marksman specialized in sharpshooting. She had been trained from a young age in the art of sharpshooting, as she was seen practicing on targets, making several headshots in quick succession.
* ***Master Spy:*** Natasha was a dangerous secret agent highly skilled in espionage, stealth, disguise, infiltration, and demolitions. Her talents and years of experience have enabled her to reach a high ranking as a special agent of N.E.X.U.S. Natasha is well versed in internal destabilization and was soon deemed a threat to global security because of this. In addition, she was an expert in the field of seduction, often resorted to seducing men to obtain her goals while working undercover.
* ***Master Assassin:*** Natasha was notorious in the art of assassination, considered to be one of the most dangerous assassins in the world. She was known to have killed many people during her time serving the KGB and N.E.X.U.S. During her time in the Soviet Union, Ivanova was trained to kill without remorse and was seen demonstrating her sharpshooting skills on a live captive, showing no emotion as she killed him.
* ***Gifted Intellect:*** Natasha intellect seemingly put her on par with Robin Myers or Alt. She possessed the ability to quickly process multiple information streams like threat assessments and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations. Natasha also possessed a vast knowledge of anatomy, displayed by her often using joint locks and hitting enemies in the weakest parts of their bodies; for example the crotch, stomach, armpits, and the head. Her prodigious skill from her years of training also allows her to predict her opponents' plans of attack as well. With an IQ of 190, Natasha knows how to speak several languages, from English, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Norwegian, French, German and ten more that have not been revealed.
* ***Expert Tactician:*** Natasha was a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander, being able to lead the agents and even N.E.X.U.S on one occasion. Natasha was able to trick the police chief and Akira with their entire S.W.A.T. team thinking that they had tracked her down to a train station in Osaka using the tracker on her suit, but she already knew and deliberately left them there in order to lure them to the wrong place and thus buying herself more time to go to her hiding place before escaping to Norway.

## Equipment

 **Nano mask (formerly)** | N.E.X.U.S advanced spy technology based on abandoned research. Combining it with a behavioral imprint allows the user to take on the appearance of another person and replicate their facial expressions and speech patterns. An experienced agent equipped with a nano mask is virtually indistinguishable from the person she is imitating and is capable of erasing even the most sophisticated security scans

## JOLT

Jolt (ジョルト) is Natasha's elemental core companion. She is a snake of electrical energy capable of carrying out attacks of various types and performing defensive movements. Jolt is a purple snake with glowing eyes, usually manifested in his attacks as a large snake made of elemental energy. She generally stays inside Natasha's elemental core, but comes out when attacking.

### Behavior

Jolt is are very sensitive and temperamental, which causes her to constantly charge as she quickly change moods.

## Etymology

The name "Natasha" is derived from the Russian name Наташа (Natasha), which is a diminutive form of Natalia. Natalia, in turn, is derived from the Latin word "natalis," meaning "of or relating to birth". The name Natasha has Slavic origins and is commonly associated with Russia and Eastern Europe. It became popularized in the English-speaking world through literature and media, particularly through the character Natasha Rostova in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace".

Natasha's nickname is 002 because of her code. In Japanese (ゼロツー, Zero Tsū) is the katakanization of the English numbers of the she code. Her codename can also be read as "oni" from some of the number readings of her real name "Code: 002" (pronounced zero-zero-ni): "o" from "0" which can be written as " ○" in kanji and ni of 2 (二に, ni).

## Trivia

* Special thanks to **Miroko Gother** for doing the cover for Natasha Ivanova's biography from Cyberpunk Neon Genesis!
* Natasha's call avatar is a katana.
* Natasha's favorite Pokémon is Inteleon. Inteleon may also be based on the character James Bond, a British spy created by British author Ian Fleming for a series of novels, which were then followed up by other authors after Fleming's death and adapted into several movies, 007 being Bond's code number. Its Water typing may further tie into Inteleon's spy and James Bond origins, as Ian Fleming was once a lieutenant in the British Royal Navy during World War II and drew inspiration for James Bond from his time as the initializer and leader of the Royal Navy's intelligence units. Inteleon, being a reptilian spy, may have also been somewhat based on Solid and/or Naked/Venom Snake from Konami's Metal Gear series, lizards and snakes both belonging to the order Squamata.
* Natasha is voiced by Yui Ishikawa. Like her voice actress, her specialties are classical ballet, jazz dance, and tap dance.
* Natasha's room is white and dark tones, usually clean and with a huge display case facing the city. Her penthouse is the largest in the series of rooms within the neo-military plantation.
* Natasha's favorite drink is Coca-Cola Cherry.
* Natasha knows how to play the piano, which she demonstrates by playing **Nocturno Op55N1** with Robin.
* Natasha's favorite snack is pockys.
* Natasha is ambidextrous and has been shown to use her left hand as well as her right on different occasions.
* She practices skateboarding and other sports such as boxing. Natasha's favorite sports are kendo and boxing, as well as other martial arts with origins in kenjutsu, ninjutsu or swordsmanship, the important martial art of the samurai.
* Natasha's favorite colors are red and purple.
* Natasha's favorite tea is cherry tea.
* Natasha's favorite season is autumn.
* Natasha's favorite flowers are cherry blossoms, the same emblematic flower for the samurai.
* In her story life, Natasha contemplates a mantra during her training in the japanese assassin fraternity, **The Order**. This mantra is likely a reference to mantras from the Heart Sutra, a popular sacred text in many schools of Mahayana Buddhism, including Japanese Zen schools, which were the standard religion for samurai. In this similar context, realizing one's heart is empty is equivalent to achieving nirvana (perfect happiness and stillness), the ultimate goal of Buddhism. This refers to the fact that Natasha has achieved or is in search of nirvana through pain.
* At some point along her path in the japanese assassin fraternity, Natasha gained the alias "The Hallow Lotus" as she is considered a beauty that emerges from a cloak of darkness, with a core devoid of emotion if necessary.
* Natasha has scars on her body and face because she was attacked in the Death Butterfly program while trying to defend her sister Anna. In Natasha's past life story, the story of two girls who were separated by the Soviet military is told. However, Natasha, with a warrior heart, threatened to hurt anyone who tried to hurt her sister and then the day came, the day when someone dared to hurt Anna. Natasha jumped into the fight and almost died, but her little sister was saved and those scars were left in her place.