Darq

Darq, real name unknown, was a neohuman assassin and former wife of Volt, she was a member of the Nightstalkers, being their second-in-command.

### **History**

Very little is known of Darq's history before she joined the Nightstalkers other than that she was likely originally from Florida and is of part-Seminole decent; at some point she became an assassin for an organisation she called SHADO, a highly secretive collection of organised crime bosses who supposedly controlled a vast majority of companies across the world. While working for SHADO Darq saw something or was made to do something that caused her to have a change of heart and in the process save the life of Pentra as Lady Blue intervened who was herself working on behalf of the Tengu Society to bring down the organisation; while she dosn't elaborate, nor does she explain what Pentra and Blue's connection to SHADO if any, actually was, she claims that it was something that she and the two dealt with and *"shouldn't come back"* claiming to have essentially disabled the organisation for now.

Many believe that SHADO, or at least a few of it's members were themselves a cult who were linked to, or a distinct part of Dawnshadow who had the goal of transforming themselves into immortals by pulling mysterious entities from The Sideways.

For a while she lived in a small town in South Carolina with Pentra while she and Riku discussed the idea of forming an assassin organisation as a separate entity from The Guild that Blue's family worked for with the main job of ensuring that SHADO never regained power, apparently even without Dawnshadow's influence being a major threat to the Aoi family, Tengu and to the future of The Guild. As such Riku and The Nighstalkers were more associated with The Tengu Society's older incarnation before the Aoi revived it as part of the Guild.

When Darq met Volt he was stationed in Miami while on temporary leave from MI6, but whilst secretly working for Clay with a mission to kill one of his rivals, Sylvia at Club Blue. It turned out that this rival was part of Theo's shadow labs but under the protection of Darq and the two fought; but when Volt started to become distracted, Darq became fascinated with why she had issues seeing into his mind and what exactly was troubling him. When Riku came to stop the fight she announced that she had done some research on who Theo was, but by the time they had decided to kill Sylvia she had detonated a bomb and several undercover ASC officers opened fire.

A battle ensued in the club for Sylvia but the woman took her own life before anyone could reach her.

Aoi asked Volt to work as a doorman for a few weeks and become part of The Guild as Drath suggested before his mission to capture Catalyst

In the mean time Volt accompanied Darq on some side-missions using her powers to sneak Volt out of his hotel and the two rapidly fall for eachother, much to the jealousy of Haku who had not long returned from a mission in China, and who he did not approve of as part of the Nightstalkers.

As predicted MI6 and Homeland Security sent assassins in to deal with Volt, only to be quickly dealt with with the stark message to leave him and his family alone or else; however Volt and Agent Stuart came to a deal; he would be free of MI6 and Homeland's influence if he did one last mission; kill the White Rabbit when they finally tracked him down once again.

Darq fell in love with Volt and rather suddenly Darq asked for his hand in marriage and Volt accepted, then continued to work as a doorman for Club Blue until he got the mission to kill his target, and she and Volt would both go one to hunt the White Rabbit and fight Clay, though capturing Anri was no easy feat, however during this time Volt rescued Anri unknowingly, and fell in love with him.

At some point Darq claimed to be pregnant with Volt's children, twins who she foresaw end the world, and was suspicious of why he had not yet killed Anri, and in a state of hysteria, overpowered by The Destroyer, Darq vanished forever, leaving a note that suggests she may have taken her own life before the children developed.

### **Appearance**

Darq was a tall, well-built woman of grace, with strong facial features, she had long, black hair and deep brown, near-black irises that would often turn utterly white when using her powers, although it was apparent that this ability was linked to her sensory system and could control it independently, always often seen with pale eyes. Despite her being of at least half-Native American decent, her skin was fairly pale, perhaps due to the use of her powers and nocturnal work. She often wore all-black, though her attire would differ slightly depending on mission, usually wore knee-high combat boots and minimalistic stealth-gear. She is known for wearing a black quarter-length suede coat in cooler weather and climates.

### **Personality**

Darq was a kind-yet-sad woman on the surface and a somewhat serious woman in a number of ways, rarely having the time or care to interact with people in a friendly manner and in no way considered herself a "hero", just an agent of the shadows doing a job; an assassin-born; she did however have a few close friends who she protected furiously but even to them she would rarely fully open up only being light-hearted briefly; and with good reason.

Darq had a distinct second personality that she called The Destroyer; which she learned to conjure by will; already suffering from mental issues, and possibly trauma from uncertain childhood incidents, this personality supposedly developed during her past when she was learning to kill, and to shield herself from emotional damage and activities during missions that required her to concentrate; during this personality she would become highly passionate and aggressive; less detail-orientated and more about pleasure fulfilment, claiming to enjoy hunting and the kill; at times she often feared that she may hurt her friends, but The Destroyer usually only manifests during extreme stress or intensive battles. It is noted that her eyes also turned a much brighter almost glowing white when The Destroyer was in charge, as opposed to the dull light grey of her usual manifestation of her powers.

Darq was known to suffer nightmares and preferred to sleep in the day.

### **Powers and Abilities**

Darq is a neohuman who had a wide-range of superhuman abilities under her belt as well as numerous skills that made her the perfect assassin.

#### **Powers**

**Shadowmerging:** Darq's primary neohuman ability allows her to merge with and control shadow, this ability supposedly connected her with a shadowy realm that may have been The Sideways, so much so that she claimed to be able to "feel things" when she connected with shadows; though she explained that her connection to the shadows was slight, and that nothing could get in, knew something was lurking between her and her power over the shadows.

* **Umbrakinesis:** She could use the negative energy from The Sideways to give material form to existing shadow, allowing her to stretch, alter and solidify any shadow she is within or is a part of, usually forming tendrils of darkness to ensnare or block opponents, though these took concentration to sustain and manipulate properly.
* **Umbraportation:** She could teleport through any shadow, at night this functioned as standard teleportation though it required a solid surface that she could '"melt" into. She could also drag people through any shadows she chooses but the process can be highly unusual for others, acting like a form of sensory deprivation and has used this ability to disorientate others during battle. Pentra often felt sick while Volt recalled seeing "space sharks", but Darq had no idea what he was talking about.
* **Umbralocation**: She was distinctly aware of shadows in her vicinity and how they fall, claiming to be able to use it as a proxy to whoever or whatever lurks in that shadow, including to sense the environment, texture and shape of whatever the shadow falls upon.
* **Umbraflage:** She is difficult to properly distinguish within even the slightest shadow and able to move around almost unseen unless she wills herself to be seen again.

**Enhanced Senses:** She could detect and interpret various sensory information to a much sharper degree than most normal Humans.

* **Enhanced Vison:** She could see in almost total darkness through a combination of enhanced ocular abilities and a general adaption to darkness likely derived from her shadow abilities.
* **Enhanced Hearing:** She has demonstrated that she can hear to a much sharper degree than normal humans and can process this information in more concise ways, enabling her to hear and accurately pinpoint sounds and even compensate for wind and filter other sounds.
* **Enhanced Touch:** She supposedly felt the heartbeat of a nervous informant through a metal railing at a bar, enabling her to deduct that he was lying and has felt vibrations through the earth and walls of people's movements.

**Enhanced Neurokinetics:** Her neurons fire faster than most normal humans giving her an edge in physical combat and movement.

* **Enhanced Reflexes and Agility:** She has reacted superhumanly quickly during combat, though not quite fast enough to dodge bullets, certainly quick enough to reflect them with her swords and has hand-eye coordination fast enough to fight multiple enemies at once.
* **Enhanced Balance:** She has an intensely still sense of equilibrium and is immune to vertigo and dizziness, often running on the tops of walls, even power lines and cables with superhuman swiftness and finesse.

**Telempathy:** She also has powerful psionic gifts that manifest through a fused form of telepathy and empathy.

* **Mind Reading:** She can connect with and read the emotional wavelengths of minds, this is directly translated into something understandable by Darq, be it words or images, allowing her to gain information subtly.
* **Projection:** As well as detecting telempathic frequencies, she can "speak" to others by projecting thoughts as emotion to convey "feelings" to people. Although this stops short of *actually* swaying emotions, it *does* enable her to make others trust her more, or calm people, often she used this to aid her team mates in navigation. In particular she could use this to project images on emotional wavelengths, making people "remember" things Darq does. She had such a bond with her teammates that she could hold entire "emotional conversations" that are translated by her target's minds as words and images.
* **Empathy:** She can detect the pure emotions of others, this is often used to pinpoint target locations, assess their true emotional states and aid her in discerning lies.
* **Ballistic Telempathy:** A rarely-used and dangerous power that fills the minds of an individuals or group with a "bomb" of mental and emotional fuzz and pain. This ability requires extreme effort and concentration, often draining her mentally for a while and uses it only as a last resort.
* **Presentimental Dreaming:** She has, on a number of occasions, supposedly received random emotional information from the future through her dreams that her telempathy translated as visions and images; the ultimate realisation of this ability allowed her to connect with the possible future created when she fell pregnant with Volt's twins and foresaw them aligning with dark forces, in particular her own malevolent personality The Destroyer and eventually laying waste to the Earth. She was especially wary of her daughter, who she referred to as "Calisto" and claimed she would be able to warp reality to her whim. This led Darq to end her own life before the children could develop.

**"The Destroyer":** Although not technically a superpower, the second-personality's effect on Darq was enough to enhance the use of her fighting prowess and powers, particularly her shadowmerging and telempathy, making them wilder and a lot more potent, increasing their range and strength; although this took a toll on her body and mind. Darq feared the more The Destroyer took over the more she would lose herself to it.

It was suggested by Volt that The Destroyer may have been a very real entity akin to Taranis via Volt's connection to the 6th dimension, Darq may have been indivertibly possessed by or somehow channelling a possible Ghk or similar entity.

#### **Abilities**

***Expert Assassin*:** Even without the use of her neonics she is a highly skilled killer, being both stealthy and efficient, preferring to get the job done quickly and efficiently if it can be helped as to not rouse her second personality who seems to enjoy playing with her targets.

***Hand-to-hand Combatant:*** Darq is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, trained in various martial arts forms, demonstrating the ability to handle herself extremely well against multiple skilled fighters.

**Bojutsu:** She was very skilled in the use of fighting sticks, clubs and staves to fight.

***Kenjutsu Mistress:*** She is highly skilled in Japanese bladed fighting styles taught to her by Riku Aoi over the years and has undergone intensive training to become one of the best swordswoman in the world at the time.

***Arnis Expert:*** She has become an expert at the use of close-range knife-fighting skills.

***Firearms Expert:*** While not as skilled as the likes of some gunners such as Pentra and Cerice, and preferring quiet methods of assassination, has at times been known to use pistols and shotguns when she has been required to.

### **Weapons and Equipment**

She has used various types of weaponry during her assassination career.

**Shi no Tsubasa:** Her signature weapon gifted to her by Lady Blue, Shi no Tsubasa was a shortstaff that was composed of two, hidden assassin blades composed of black steel when pulled apart. The weapon was extremely durable and the sharpest a blade could be. The weapon often sat on her back and she could use both it's staff and bladed form with unparalleled skill, but only unsheathed it when she had intent to kill.

**Chatte:** A small knife, supposedly from one of her Seminole relatives a very long time ago made from a deer antler and steel. "Chatte" is Seminole for "red". She kept it in a brown pouch on the back of her belt.

**Twin Pistols:** Old Daisy Powerline 340 BB Spring Repeater Pistols gifted to her by Pentra, though she only uses them during more direct missions that do not require stealth.

**Shotgun:** A stockless tactical shotgun used only on less-covert missions.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Darq suffered from bipolar personality disorder that manifested as "The Destroyer" a lustful 'demonic' side of her she hated, though she kept it under control for a good majority of the time, often feared that she would turn against her friends. This in turn made her often depressed and unknown to others was known to self-harm.