# Brenda App for Cape and Cowl #

[shes_intense]

PLAYER
NAME: Zippy
AGE: 24
JOURNAL: sparklemagpie
IM: glassfishgirl or calamityzippy on AIM
E-MAIL: glassfishnet@hotmail.com
RETURNING: I currently play 3 other characters, M'stra (martianmonster), Carmen Sandiego (bitchisaghost) and Joseph Wilson (make_contact)

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Brenda Del Vecchio // Anger Girl!
FANDOM: DC Comics - Blue Beetle
CHRONOLOGY: She was original pulled from around issue 34 of her canon, then was updated to the end of Blue Beetle proper, before the backups in Booster Gold.

BACKGROUND:
Brenda grew up in a world where there have always been superheroes. Superman, Batman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter - even though none of these figures were directly a part of her life they were entirely a part of the myth and magic of her childhood, as well as a realtiy about the greater world she lived in. Superheroes only became a truly personally important force in Brenda's life however when one of her very best friends became one.

Brenda has been best of friends with Paco and Jaime since they were all in kindergarten. Her mother died when she was around 11 or 12 and afterward an unstable home life with her abusive father left her desiring a sense of control over her life. As dad grew more and more violent and unpredictable Brenda responded by applying herself to outside interests with abandon, pouring herself into her schoolwork in particular.

Her life became increasingly chaotic and changed utterly when Jaime became attached to the Scarab - a peice of sentient alien technology that the trio found at a construction lot near their homes in El Paso, Texas. The Scarab attached itself to Jaime's spine and he donned the armour of the Blue Beetle which acted of it's own accord to pull Jaime into acting as a team with the JLA... after which her disappeared for over a year.

On top of her being devestated by his loss, when the police questioned her about Jaime's dissappearance Brenda's father concluded that she MUST have done something wrong and not be giving up needed information. Unstable and drunk he waited until the police were gone then beat her so severely that she had to be hospitalized. Shortly after he died in a DUI orchestrated by Brenda's maternal aunt, Amparo, who was secretly the crime boss 'La Dama'.

Not knowing her Aunt's secret identity Brenda moved in with her and was just getting used to an entirely new life when Jaime returned. She quickly got wrapped up in his adventures as the Blue Beetle which resulted in her finding out about how her father had really died and what her Tia Amparo actually did for a living... Distraught and hurt she managed to forgive Jaime and Paco for keeping the secret from her (they had found out much earlier and resolved to hold their tongues in order to try to let her have a happy life with Amparo) but she could not reconcile with her Aunt's way of life so easily.

She moved in with Jaime's family - the Reyes' - for a time and remained with them, caught right in the thick of it as Jaime's final plans took shape against the evil aliens known as the Reach, the creators of the Scarab technology and orchestrators of an epic Xanatos gambit to try to invade earth. She reconnected briefly with her Aunt Amparo when she called her for help during the invasion but did not completely reconcile with her, despite that Amparo pointedly told her that she was like her own daughter and that that would be true wether or not Brenda ever forgave her.

Despite being mostly unarmed, and barely trained, Brenda tenaciously went toe to toe with Reach invaders durring the first wave of the invasion, and charged through the downtown battlefield carrying Jaime's little sister Milagro after Mrs. Reyes put her in Brenda's arms and told her to get the girl to safety. Durring their charge for cover Paco was shot by one of the Reach soldiers and having ducked his fire with Milagro, Brenda leapt up and tackled the alien (strong, armed, and twice her size) from behind, clawing his face until he bodily threw her off. After witnessing what he thought for a moment was her death Paco - who was miraculously alright - took out their attacker and then took a precious second aside in the midst of the chaos and kissed her.

When everything died down - the Reach defeated and Jaime home safe - Paco and Brenda promptly denied their kiss ever happened ('heat of the moment right?') but it continued to hang over them as Jaime's post-Reach life propelled him into local-politics and disputes about border security. Brenda continued staying with the Reyes family, missing her aunt but reluctant still to forgive her way of life and associate with her again.

After Brenda and Paco spent a night in a hostage situation together with the new Dr. Polaris's daughter Paco spoke first on feeling that their connection during the Reach battle had not been a mistake. Although cautious and with sarcasm Brenda agreed to the modest proposal of a date with him. Shortly later they attended the year end formal at Paco and Jaime's school together, only to have it implode into chaos with the arrival of other 'Blue Beetle's from other planets - possessors of scarab technologies that considered themseleves rebels from the Reach but were no better in their own way.

Jaime defeated them, but nearly at the cost of his own life, and Brenda is still waiting, with Paco and everyone else, so see if Jaime is going to be alright.


PERSONALITY:
Brenda is for the most part a usual teenage girl, but one who applies herself to her problems and those of others with loyalty and focus that belies her age and lack of experience.

Brenda is extremely dedicated (Paco would call her obsessed) about her academics in particular, giving more thought to her future college choices than most 16 year olds. She channels those skills into research and organization on an epic scale when it comes to her friend Jaime's 'career' as the third Blue Beetle. She is also relatively skilled when it comes to hand to hand combat, having taken some martial arts and knowing the basics of how to defend herself or disable someone else.

She is vegetarian (has said that she prefers not to eat anything 'that has a face') and she tends to deflect difficult topics of conversation with denial, humour, or changes of subject if she can. Sassiness, well-channeled anger, and sarcasm are a vital part of how she copes with her life day to day.

At one point she had a well hidden crush on her friend Jaime, but that seems to have gone by the wayside as her life circumstances have changed. After the conflict with the Reach in El Paso she and Paco have began skirting around a mutual attraction that took some time and patience to be realized. The fear of a bad breakup dissolving or otherwise mutilating a decade plus of three sided friendship between them and Jaime weighs on both their minds, but the bond of the sort of adventure they've been through together (all three of them) is strong as always.


CLASS: Hero for sure.
SUPERHERO NAME: Anger Girl
ALTER EGO: Brenda Del Vecchio, not angry, just intense.
POWER: Brenda is straight up badass normal in her home universe so her powers are non-canon. She initially had a Psionic Brain Drain power which is outlined in this post but upon canon update it was traded out for a new set of powers.

When Brenda punches someone, closed fist and bare knuckled, her strike doubles as an electroshock weapon. The touchpoints of her index and ring fingers operate like the contact points of a tazer, causing neuromuscular spasms and incapacitating most normal people. However, with Brenda, the harder she hits the more explosive and dangerous her strike gets. She does have to apply some focus and intent to fire off the electric charge, so for the most part she could not hit anyone hard enough to shock them to death unless their system were already compromised somehow.

In conjunction with this Brenda can also conduct electrical energy in massive amounts. She could take hold of your friendly neighbourhood power line and ground it without significantly injuring herself. It would be painful and she would be worn out afterward, but she would be decidedly not dead.

Once outside electricity has entered her body she can - with concentration - direct it's flow somewhat, being able to focus a charge from one hand into the other hand for an explosive taser punch that goes beyond the limits of her normal capacity, or to electrify water that she is standing in or something similar.

Obviously how much damage she really does to someone else in instances where she'd cranked her powers to deadly levels will be mitigated between players on a case by case basis to avoid godmodding damage.


COMMUNITY POST SAMPLE:
[This video post seems a bit accidental - Brenda is a bit too close to the lens - but after a second she sits back]

Oh, I got it already. Jeez, this thing is worse than an I phone for features.

Right... so I'm so not enthused with this getting transported places thing. The last time this happened I got assaulted by baby ewoks, and had to hotwire a PLANET to get home so, seriously, if I can just NOT have to do any of that I would be so so grateful.

I'm also really hoping I'm not ALONE here so let's see if we can start this easy.

Calling all Blue Beetles, this is Anger Girl looking for a pickup?


THIRD PERSON:Brenda slogged into her bedroom, feet dragging as she closed the door behind her and took a look around. The place was neat as a pin, but it was hard to be anything else when she had so little to her name just yet. Sadly it wasn't a unique state given how many times she'd had to move in the last two years. No space she lived in had fully felt her own since she had moved out of her childhood home to her Aunt Amparo's place.

Her day today had been long. She's walked around most of the city nearest her apartment, resume dropping and wearing nice clothes for the task. Which meant her feet were KILLING her, damnable nice interview shoes!

Toeing off her neat black heels she padded over to the bed, wiggling her bare toes with every step and flopped down on it, considering a shower, a snack or getting some sleep and weighing each in order of her desire for it. Finally deciding on a snack first she reached up and unbuttoned her blouse, grabbing her comm and it's hands free earpeice off the bedside table as she worked her clothes off. She hooked the earbud over her ear and dialed up Jaime's number.

"Hey Blue amigo, how goes to good fight?" She greeted him with a grin even though he couldn't see her, digging a comfy t-shirt out of her lone laundry basket and slipping it over her head.

Blue amigo? Isn't that an interesting name...

Brenda stopped cold in the midst of unbuttoning her skirt.

"...Jaime?"

Close but no cigar darling.

Brenda's hand snapped up to her ear, pressing the earpeice in tighter as she ran back to the bedside table to get the main comm unit.

No, she had the right number, so who...?

"Where's Jaime? WHO IS THIS?!"

Good questions, but the answers are none of your business honey. You tell the rest of the Titan's their little friend is in good hands, hmm?

And with a click the connection went dead.

Brenda choked down a frustrated scream, tearing the headset out and throwing it against the wall, taking a few seconds to fume before rushing back to the laundry basket, swapping skirt and pantyhose for jeans and socks in 20 seconds flat.

She stuffed her wallet into her back pocket, tugging on her dogtags to make sure they were secure, then grabbed the 'purse' that contained her jumpsuit uniform. If Brenda didn't solve this Anger Girl was damn well going to.

She put the comm up to her ear, dialing for the Titan's channels as she rushed out the door.

"Guys it's me, we've got a problem! I need a pick up!"