Nayeli Constant

Aztek

Nayeli Constant

## Biography

### Background

The feathered God of Light Quetzalcoatl was destined to fight an ancient evil known as “the Anti-Sun” or Tezcatlipoca, a being that not only is capable of immense physical destruction but of mental corruption. The God of Light forged his own mask of immense power to bestow upon a great warrior to help him defeat the Anti-Sun.

This mask was first gifted to a man only known as Adam, a warrior of the world Mammord. Adam used the mask to battle the Anti-Sun, and ended up giving his life in the battle, saving Mammord. However, his sacrifice allowed the beings of Mammord to trap Tezcatlipoca within a 5th dimensional prison. But, the Mask of Quetzalcoatl had disappeared from the battle sight.

The Mask of Quetzalcoatl had been taken by the God of Light, and had been dropped at the sight of a church in Tenochtitlan, where his followers were praying to the God in the 16th Century. Those that witnessed the Mask’s sudden appearance became devout followers of the God, and forever were known as the Brotherhood of Q. For generations, the Brotherhood of Q passed the Mask through fearless warriors within their brotherhood - each one becoming the new *Teyaochiuani Okichtli* (rough english translation - Warrior Man).

In May of 1520, the Brotherhood of Q fled in secret when Vandal Savage led Spanish conquistadors onto the city, during the Massacre in the Great Temple. It is believed Vandal was searching for the Mask to use for his own purposes. One of the leaders of the Brotherhood took the Mask of Quetzalcoatl with them.

The Brotherhood made their way through North America, eventually settling near the West Coast. They settled with the Chinookan natives of the land, and although they faced lingual barriers, their brotherhood grew stronger. They adopted Chinookan beliefs of the Guardian spirits and came to believe in Quetzalcoatl’s manifestation among serpents.

Descendants of the Brotherhood and bearers of the Mask would eventually move from the territory, settling all across the infant United States and infiltrating positions of power. They continued to pass down the Mask and created more and more Warrior Men.

Eventually, with World War Two on the horizon, the Brotherhood felt it was best to keep the Warrior title a secret, opting to train members’ sons from birth to eventually take the helm when they reached age 27 - although they would keep them in the dark to do so. Shortly after the end of World War Two, the current Warrior - Emilio Falconer - was sent to Vanity City, Oregon as the Brotherhood felt a strong intrinsic pull, believing Tezcatlipoca to be drawing near.

Upon arriving in the city, Emilio fell in love with Piper Rodman. Emilio chose to desert his post and quit responding to the Brotherhood’s orders and stayed with his now pregnant girlfriend. Emilio’s second in command was sent to retrieve the Mask and kill Emilio.

He was successful, but was also forced to kill Piper, and the baby that was to be born. Upon returning to Vanity City, the Brotherhood scolded the second-in-command. To replace the childhood, the Brotherhood’s elders assembled in an annual ceremony of immense concentrations. The ceremony took a great physical and mental toll, but on the 27th year, a being of pure thought, a tulpa emerged as a result. This was Uno.

Uno was programmed with the memories of Curtis Falconer. As Curt Falconer understood his childhood, he was born to a wealthy Latin American family. Both of his parents died due to illness caused by a nearby improper waste disposal facility. He was raised in foster care and later adopted by the Falconer family, where he was able to acquire a scholarship to medical school, becoming a doctor in Vanity City, Oregon. He began working in a burn unit.

However, he was constantly treating victims with cultic symbols branded on them. Seeing the symbols would cause him to hallucinate and occasionally lose consciousness. Curt and his girlfriend Joy Page began researching the symbols and discovered a connection to the fathered God of Light Quetzalcoatl - enter the Brotherhood.

After attending several of their meetings, Joy became freaked out and sought to investigate on her own. Curt, however, was drinking the Kool-Aid, finally feeling complete for the first time in his life, and seeking to become the latest *Teyaochiuani Okichtli*.

He was ordered to shed any trace of Falconer, and did so by staging a car bombing at his burn unit, faking his death, and gravely injuring Joy Page. It was then the Brotherhood revealed he was actually a tulpa.

As Uno prepared to be coronated with the Mask of Quetzalcoatl, Joy Page stormed into the chamber. Appealing to the last remnants of Falconer within the tulpa, she stole the Mask, sending it jetting through the church and into the sky in search of another worthy host.

### Early Life

Rewinding a bit - Nayeli Constant was born in Austin, Texas, on December 27th, 1983 to Winona and Pat Constant. Winona and Pat were loving parents who encouraged their daughter to drink from the world’s cup and take each and every opportunity that came to her. Like many children, some of her first memories were of the mass trauma of Adrian Veidt’s attacks. Her mother was a nurse and her father a firefighter, so she saw firsthand the effects of an attack and this planted the seed of her desire to help people.

Nayeli was a smart girl, flying through high school and college at the top of her class. She graduated college and became a software engineer. Her talents were eventually recognized by Michael Holt’s startup TerrifiTech and he recruited her to the development team in Austin.

Nayeli was a workaholic, often staying late. One night, which happened to be the night before her 27th birthday, she found herself up late, ignoring calls from her friends. As the clock hit midnight, through the window crashed the Mask of Quetzalcoatl. Even stranger was when the Mask started speaking to her, telling her a long history. But worst was that Nayeli couldn’t understand the language it spoke in.

Spooked, Nayeli did the only thing she could think to do, she called her dad who rushed over. Surprisingly, he was able to pick out a few words, as he was a descendant of aztec people and recalled his grandparents still occasionally speaking those words. The two took off to her grandma, who was in a nursing home, and showed her the helmet. She translated what she could, filling in most of the gaps - describing how Nayeli had been chosen as the newest “Warrior Man” to fight a battle against the Anti-Sun. Nayeli was properly confused.

Back in her office, and with a little bit of mustered bravery, she put on the helmet, and it began to speak her language. She was quickly flooded with the memories of every previous *Teyaochiuani Okichtli* and became fluent in Nahuatl. She spent the next few weeks staying late, secretly upgrading the helmet with her own specs and building herself a suit of armor to assist in the matter.

Under the command of the helmet, she took to the streets at night, but found few followers of the Anti-Sun present. The helmet insisted it was being pulled to Vanity City to fight against his corrupted followers. And so, Nayeli made the hard choice to quit her dream job and move across the country to Vanity City to fight in a battle she really had no stake in. In Vanity City, the helmet compelled her to team up with its resident hero, the Ray, as his manipulation of light made him an ideal candidate to combat Tezcatlipoca. Nayeli hesitantly explained all of this to the Ray who simply asked; “who are you?” Stuck at a loss for words (and having not even thought about a codename or secret identity) she said: “Aztek, the Ultimate Warrior.”

### Aztek

Ray and Aztek became Vanity City’s resident superheroes. They often came into conflict with the Children of Liberty - with the two foiling an attempt on Ray’s boyfriend’s life, and also fighting their own super-soldier team; the Force of July. This very public victory gained them the attention of the Justice League. She and the Ray were both nominated to join the Justice League in 2010.

Nayeli struggled to fit in with the group, often hanging around with her best friend Lucien. Around other Leaguers and on missions, she got nervous and became regarded as a strong silent type. In her off time, Nayeli befriended the locals of Vanity City, getting her a little network of reliables, including Doctor Wallace Moseley. Her friendship with Wallace soon turned to romance, with Nayeli revealing her double life to him shortly after the two began dating. Nayeli also came into conflict with the Brotherhood of Q’s strike team, led by the reprogrammed Tulpa under the alias of Piper - seeking to take back the Mask from Nayeli.

One of Nayeli’s greatest achievements was her work with the Ray in dismantling the Children of Liberty. They tried to strike back against the heroes with a new super-soldier parading as a hero called Agent Liberty, however the two heroes managed to expose Agent Liberty’s involvement with the hate group and then proceeded to have a very public battle.

Following the Justice League’s shutdown, Lex Luthor liked her public image so much he tried to recruit her to the Conglomerate. As Nayeli thought about it on a dinner date with Wallace, she looked down to find him on bended knee with a ring in his hand. Her engagement solidified her choice to turn down Luthor’s offer. With the shutdown, Nayeli also thought it was time to take a step back from Aztek.

She made the mistake of leaving the Mask in her apartment while on her honeymoon, and when she returned, she found the apartment ran through and the Mask was missing. She quickly called Lucien who called in a couple of favors and they scoured Vanity City, busting Brotherhood of Q known safehouses and even squashing a sect of the Children of Liberty - but her helmet was nowhere to be found.

Nayeli was worried sick about the power falling into the wrong hands and desecrating her good name. When the Justice League returned from shutdown, Nayeli was forced to remain on leave, as she didn’t have her helmet. She felt irresponsible and foolish. Her guilt increased after the OMAC Crisis when she was unable to intervene - feeling as if she could’ve saved lives.

Shortly after, Goldstar approached her and handed her the Mask, revealing that she had been whisked across space with a ragtag group of other heroes and one of them was the person who had stolen the mask - someone who was supposed to be Nayeli - and they had fought the Anti-Sun on this mission and defeated it, although the Aztek imposter had given his life in the fight. This drove a wedge between her and Wallace, as Nayeli wished that she had been in the fight, which upset Wallace as he accused Nayeli of having a death wish and glorifying being a martyr. In a fit of rage, Nayeli took off on patrol, during which her anger got the better of her and she incinerated a cop car after catching a police officer harassing teenagers.

She returned to the Justice League with a public image that wasn’t doing too hot, and with her and Wallace in a trial separation. With the League’s new ARGUS backing, they introduced her to the Power Company, a new PR company for superheroes. Through working with this agency and scheduling a couple of tactical late night appearances - Nayeli exonerated herself in the court of public opinion. Then, she came back to Wallace to repair their marriage.

## Trivia

* Lucien Gates and Chandi Gupta were the Man and Maid of Honor at her wedding.
* Her friends on the Justice League are the Ray, Maya, and Freedom Beast.
* She is close with Skyrocket on the Power Company, and has promised to vouch for her for League membership.

## Notes

* Ray and Aztek being the heroes of Vanity City is a nod to *Justice League of America* #20 (2018).
* Joy Page and Wallace Moseley were characters in Aztek: the Ultimate Man, Joy Page was the male Aztek's love interest.
* Curt Falconer was the alias Aztek took up in the comics after the villain Piper died.
* In the original plans for Earth 76, Nayeli was going to be Aztek's sidekick Azteka and a member of the Titans, to eventually inherit the helm when Aztek died either in the OMAC Crisis or fighting Mageddon. This was eventually scrapped, and Nayeli became the only Aztek.
* Elements of the Aztek story are not dissimilar to the film *the Empty Man.*