In earlier days, when FF INC was just starting out, Shadow Lady was once  a solo defender of justice...

CMQ 05-00

PROLOGUE:

“Okay everybody, freeze!” the gangster yelled at the top of his lungs.

The bank patrons and employees stood in shock as the gang of ski-masked bandits ran into the bank.  The gang of five, dressed in black tight fitting outfits swept into the small branch like a tidal wave.  The bank manager looked over to the armed security guard anticipating help, as the gangsters did not seem to be armed but the guard made no move to stop the criminals.  “Down on the floor now!” the leader yelled at the four customers who complied.  One of the gang moved the two account reps from behind their desks and motioned them to lie on the floor with the customers.  The other three ran to the teller counter.

“Okay, put the money in the sack!” the only female member of the group yelled at the blonde teller.  The blonde bristled and nodded nervously as she reached into the drawer with one hand and cautiously slid her other towards the silent alarm.

“No way honey!” the female bandit screamed as she waved what looked like a garage door opener in front of the startled teller and pointed it at her and fired a pencil thin beam.

“No I-“ the teller started to say when she found she could no longer speak or move!  Standing there, in her pink blouse and knee high black skirt, reaching for the silent alarm button but not able to stretch her fingers like some frozen mannequin.  The impact point on her chest was the size of a half-dollar, like the targeting sight on a laser sharpshooter’s weapon.

“Hey, get over here!” the girl bandit screamed at one of the other gang members, who ran behind the counter and waved another of those garage-door openers at the other tellers who held their hands up in fright over what some thought was a weapon.  The black suited man walked right up to the teller in pink, who didn’t seem to register his presence.  She made no movement at all, to step out of the way or otherwise as the female bandit kept her weapon emitting the pink beam trained on the teller’s chest.  The gangster reached into the teller’s drawer and took the bills and even touched the teller to turn her sideways away from the drawer.  She stood stock still, her mouth still agape and hands positioned as they were reaching in the drawer.

The other gangsters, except the one who was at the door and apparantly training one of the gadgets on the guard, pointed to the vault and ordered the bank manager to open the door.  As they looted the vault they burst out and dashed out of the bank past the door guard who still made no motion as if he didn’t even notice them.  “You’ll make sure no one follows us, right Sammy!” the door goon yelled as he motioned with one hand for the female bandit at the counter to depart.  She looked back at the frozen teller and shut off her gizmo, turned and ran for the exit, closely followed by the door goon.

“Call the police!” the bank manager yelled to one of the tellers.  “And tell them our guard was in on it!”

THREE HOURS LATER:

“And you say the guard has denied the fact that he was an accomplice?” Shadow Lady asked the police officer.  She had her hands on her hips and spoke in an unconvinced manner.

“That’s his story,” Officer Maxwell replied.  She was about six inches shorter than Shadow Lady and had her auburn hair tied in an elaborate braid under her police cap.  “He claims he saw everything but didn’t stop them because he couldn’t move a muscle.  It was just like his body wouldn’t respond.”

“Sounds pretty lame as far as alibis go,” Shadow Lady crossed her arms, squeezing her impressive bosom tight under her revealing halter top.

“Well we would have thought the same thing, but when we interviewed one of the bank tellers she reported the same thing,” the policewoman explained.  “She said the female suspect of the group used some sort of raybeam to totally freeze her up.  She said she couldn’t move and was like a mannequin when they raided her cash drawer.  It sounds kinda far-fetched to me.  I figure it’s more like she was scared stiff by the holdup than anything else.  But just because she insisted, we decided to notify someone more involved in stuff like that, FF INC.”

“They contacted me in the hope that I might be of help, officer.  May I speak to the teller?” Dee asked.  “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“She’s right over there,” Officer Maxwell led Shadow Lady over to the teller who was seated on one of the bank’s plush lounge chairs.

“Oh you’re that new heroine, Shadow Lady!” the teller brightened as she saw the scantily clad heroine approach.  “I keep telling them what happened and nobody believes me!”

“Please tell me exactly what happened,” Dee started.

“W-well, when those robbers broke into the branch I was completely startled.  The customer in front of me dropped to the floor and I think I took a step backwards.  When that woman in the mask ordered me to give her all the money in my drawer I remembered my training and tried to activate the silent alarm under the counter.  That’s when she aimed that garage door thing at me and froze me stiff!   I couldn’t even blink!  It was like my entire body was frozen solid, I couldn’t do anything to stop them from taking the money!”  the woman recited.

“I see…and this device?” Shadow Lady asked.

“I swear it looked just like a garage door opener but it shot this beam which hit me right here,” the teller pointed at her pink blouse just below the cleavage line.  “It just stiffened me up instantly!”

“Alright, I’ll look into this,” Shadow Lady reassured the bank employee.  “Officer Maxwell, I think you can release the bank guard from custody too.  He’s probably completely innocent.”

“You believe her story?” the officer said with a raised eyebrow.  “You haven’t even heard from the guard yet!”

“Believe it or not, I’ve heard weirder things,” Shadow Lady said evenly.  “I will be in touch when we’ve discovered something.”  The heroine began striding out of the bank.

When Shadow Lady reached the street she spoke into her wrist communicator.  “Shadow Lady to FF INC…This is Shadow Lady… I’m going to look into this bank robbery ring out here and get back to you.”

“Roger,” Transparency Girl’s voice came in.  “Let me and Cosmic Girl know if you need any help.  We can be down the coast in an hour.”

“Okay, Shadow Lady out.” Dee closed the communication link.  She aimed her right wrist at a nearby building and shot her climbing line out.  She tested the line’s anchor and activated the retract mode which carried her up and into the sky.

After a few hours of swinging around the city, Dee rested on one of the apartment roofs.  She had found no leads on the mysterious paralyzing bandits.  She was even beginning to doubt there was such a gadget when she heard sirens wailing.  Switching her wrist communicator over to the police band she heard the frantic sounds of officers requesting assistance.  “Third and Stone!  That’s just a couple of blocks from here!” Shadow Lady sprung into action and covered the distance by rooftop.  She arrived in time to hear the befuddled arriving officers trying to understand how the gang of robbers had gotten away from four officers who had arrived on the activation of a silent alarm.  They pointed down Third Street and described a grey van as the getaway vehicle.  “They’re heading for the tunnel!  I might be able to catch them if I’m lucky!”  She knew if she cut across the financial district there was a chance she could intercept the robbers.

 Straining her muscles she swung into action, springing off of flagpoles with her natural gymnastic ability and relying on her skyline to carry her past startled onlookers peering at her mostly unclothed body from office building windows.  “If only traffic is with me…” she hoped as she alighted on a commercial building and scanned the approaching traffic with her ultra-sophisticated tech-vision glasses which doubled as a mask to hide her identity.  “Oh no, it’s almost at the tunnel!” she lamented as the van sped towards safety.  She hatched a desperate plan in seconds, removing the homing beacon in her belt buckle and attaching it to her taser projectile launcher.  Disengaging the taser line, she aimed at the retreating vehicle and shot the homing beacon attached to the taser dart.  She held her breath as the scanner in her mask registered an impact on the rear bumper.  It held!”  As the van sped into the tunnel Shadow Lady grinned to herself.  “Oh no, you’re not getting away that easy!” she said as the sun began to set slowly behind her.

An hour later, assisted with the tracking mini-computer link built into her glasses, Shadow Lady set foot on the roof of a rather derelict-looking building in one of the more seedy areas of town.  “Not exactly staying at the hotel Ritz…” she looked around for movement and spotted none in the early evening darkness.  Cautiously opening the rooftop stairway door, she began to descend into the darkness.  “I should probably call in the FF INC heroines but this is my town,” she thought as she used her infra-red night vision to look for any culprits.  “It’s not like I can’t handle a bunch of hoodlums…”

She walked slowly through the dark abandoned floor, barren, with little more than scattered trash and dilapidated furnishings.  The table had a map of the city and diagrams sketched hastily on scraps of paper with bank layouts and escape routes.  The recently robbed banks were circled in red on the map.  “Guess this confirms I’m in the right place,” Shadow Lady thought as she flipped through the plans.  There was something else on the table, a strange gadget, looking much like the garage door opener described by the bank teller.  She was so engrossed she almost didn’t hear a creaking sound behind her!  She turned around and found herself face to face with three of the robbers!  Another sudden thought crossed her mind.  Wha? I can’t move a muscle!  I’m completely paralyzed!

“I told you I thought I heard something up here!” a voice from behind Shadow Lady spoke.  “Let it be said that my fears were warranted!” the voice belonged to a man who was walking towards Dee.

Unable to turn her head the slightest she was forced to wait until the man came into her field of vision.  What have they done to me? She tried to move but her legs felt like they were cemented to the floor, her arms like a posed mannequin’s just inside of her line of sight.  I can’t even activate my taser in self defense!  The man from behind stepped in front of her.  Dee could see that he was a fairly average looking, thirty-something man with sandy brown hair and dressed in a loose fitting shirt.  He held one of those garage door openers at her and it was emitting a constant pink glowing beam directed right at her chest!  That must be what is keeping me so utterly motionless!  The story is true!  These robbers have some sort of paralyzing device which can turn a person into a virtual statue!  His raybeam was trained on her body at all times, rendering her completely helpless.  Dee could feel it’s tingling impact point move from her back to her shoulders to her chest as the man walked around her.

“Well, well…look what I’ve caught!” the man said as he admired the immobile Shadow Lady almost as if she were some artistic statue created by a sculptor.  He took off Dee’s visor and looked into her wide open eyes. Dee’s face was like a sculpted mask, unable to blink or register anything other than the surprise she had experienced when captured by the paralyzing beam.
Her mouth was open slightly in an impossible attempt to speak.  Looking at the display on the inside of her visor he saw a blinking dot. “Get over here and search her for a homing device!”

“Oh I am going to enjoy this boss!” said a goon with broad shoulders and no neck.  His unruly curled hair made him resemble one of the Stooges on steroids.  He stepped next to the the ‘boss’, careful not to interrupt the beam now being trained on Shadow Lady’s midsection.  Rubbing his hands together he made a motion to remove Shadow Lady’s top when the female gangster clattered upstairs.

“Hey Vinnie look what I found on the van! Whoa!” she said, startled by the frozen heroine amongst her fellow thieves.  Seeing that the heroine was utterly helpless under the paralyzer beam, the female hoodlum stepped forward and handed a small blinking device to the man addressed as ‘Vinnie’.

Taking the small device in his free hand, the Vinnie looked at the homing beacon, then at the display on the visor he had liberated from the helpless heroine.  “That’s it!  Get rid of it!” he barked.

“Where?” the lady thief asked.

“Somewhere far from here!” the boss screamed.  “Before any of her friends come searching for her! Freak, go with her!”

The lady goon and one of the male ones took off in a rumble of descending footsteps.  A few seconds later the sound of the van peeling away could be heard.  “Bring the table over here!” the ringleader ordered as the remaining two henchmen dragged the heavy table over so that it faced the paralyzed Shadow Lady.  “Now let’s see…” the boss slowly placed his paralyzer on the table, it’s emittor beam still firing its stiffening energy at Shadow Lady’s body.  As he slowly lowered the device to the table, Dee could feel the tingling impact point of the beam move down from between her breasts, down her taut stomach line, past her navel and down her abdomen until it rested on her crotch!  The tingling sensation was so intense!  It was penetrating her with its energy like a stiffened phallus!  Oh my! she gasped or at least attempted to as she could not speak or budge at all.  It was the most erotic sensation she had ever experienced and she was helpless to stop it!

“HAH!” the boss laughed.  “It’s just the right height!” he gloated.  “Well boys it looks like we have won this round!  I think I’ll keep her around as a trophy to my brilliance until I figure out what to do with her!”  He looked at Dee’s stilled form and removed the wrist blaster from her outstretched arm.  “Just in case!  Not that you could use it anyway, eh babe!” he tossed it carelessly onto the table.  “You and your fancy superheroes think you have this city all to yourself, but you’re nothing now!  Nothing but a pretty statue!” he poked her breast.

No!  Dee screamed in her ecstasy.  I-if only I could move…

“Come on we have some plans to make now that the Shadow Lady is out of the way!  Just think about it Shadow Lady, your carelessness has left this city wide open!  And you can call just call me the Paralyzer!” the boss and the two goons left Shadow Lady standing there, a mannequin in appearance if not fact, in her motionless glory.

TWO DAYS LATER:

“Whoo hoo!” the gangsters burst into their hideout with wads of cash dropping out of their filled bags.  They trooped up the rickety stairs to the top level and plopped the sacks of money to the ground.  Shadow Lady, still a living statue under the paralyzer beam, remained as motionless as the day she had been since her capture.  The pink raybeam continued to pulsate onto her crotch to Dee’s horror and delight.

“We are unstoppable!” Dan cheered as he cracked open a beer and downed it sloppily.  He slapped hands with Freak, who threw a handfull of currency into the air.

“And no cops or no super bitches to stop us!” Stan wagged his finger in front of Shadow Lady’s frozen face.  “Take that hot bod!” he poked and leered at Dee’s cleavage.  “Ya know I always wanted to see those tits of yours…” Stan began to peel away Shadow Lady’s halter top, revealing the erect nipple on her left breast.  “Oh yeah, baby’s stiff!” he hooted as Dan and Freak came over to watch.

Freak placed his cold hands on Dee’s exposed breast.  If she wasn’t already frozen up she would have stiffened.  “Shee’s got a hot ass too,” he slurred as he drew back Shadow Lady’s cape and rubbed her derriere with vigor.

Dan pushed Freak away.  “Hey I want some of this action too!” he stroked Dee’s curly black hair and was prepared to bare her other breast.  Freak and Stan stepped back, and in their drunkeness didn’t realize they had jostled the table.  The paralyzer beam shifted off Dee’s pussy and onto her bare thigh.  “I bet her pussy ain’t all frozen tight!” he guessed.

“Only one way to find out!” drunken Stan began unzipping his pants.

OhmigoshOmigoshOmigosh, she thought breathlessly as she felt the stimulating paralyzing ray move off her private feminine spot.  She could barely think while the paralyzer ray was trained on her vagina.  It was such an intense feeling all she could do was experience pleasure and hope she didn’t explode from the erotic feelings she was experiencing but was unable to enact due to her motionless state.  If only I could move a muscle!  But I don’t even have the ability to do that!  Even my wrist blaster is gone!  How can I escape?

“Hey!  Stop that!” the female goon chastised them.

“Aw Sandy we’re just trying to have some fun!” Stan moaned.

“Get out of here!  Go on!” she railed like a hellcat.  They knew better than to challenge her and retreated downstairs for a night on the town to satisfy their urges.

“Those idiots would probably ruin everything if they carried on, now wouldn’t they?” Sandy straightened the paralyzer beam so that it returned to its centering on Shadow Lady’s crotch.

Dee was suddenly overwhelmed with eroticism as the throbbing beam pulsed on her privates.

“My poor Vinnie is planning a real big heist and he won’t pay me any attention…” Sandy purred as she walked slowly around Shadow Lady’s rigid figure.  “You really are quite the looker, aren’t you…” her tone was almost teasing as she fingered the bare shoulder of Shadow Lady.  “My, my…Freak was right about your ass…” she slid her fingers under Shadow Lady’s costume gave the heroine a wedgie.  “Hah!” Sandy stroked Dee’s almost-bare bottom as she continued.  “You know I never had any dolls to play with when I was little… I was so disadvantaged from all the other little girls.  Maybe that’s why I’m hanging out with the wrong side…Not that my Vinnie hasn’t taken care of me real good but a girl needs attention, you know what I mean?” she asked to the unresponsive heroine with a playful caress to the breasts.

“I’m sure you do,” Sandy unclasped Shadow Lady’s hologram amulet and let the cape attached fall to the floor.  “Nice legs honey…” Sandy had an unobstructed view of Shadow Lady’s posterior and slipped her fingers under Dee’s hair.  “Now where…ah!” she said with glee as she unclasped the halter and let it fall in front of Dee’s paralyzed chest.  “Now them’s a pair of hooters!” Sandy stepped forward to get a look at Dee’s uncovered breasts.  She licked her lips and fingered the erect nipple closest to her.  “I never realized how stiff this gizmo makes people!”  Her hand moved down Shadow Lady’s side and to the stiff statued heroine’s waistline.  Sandy then stood behind her motionless doll and brought her hands up on Dee’s shoulders.  Leaning against her trophy, Sandy pressed her body against Dee and whispered in the heroine’s ear.  “I can’t think of a better way to pass the time until my dear Vinnie is free, can you?  No?  Poor dear, so utterly lonely here all by yourself and no attention…” she stroked Dee’s frozen arms up and down repeatedly.  “So stiff…” she reached in front of Dee and grasped both breasts, molding them as best she could in their stiffened state with her eager fingers.  “So hot…” she stroked down to Dee’s waist and began to slowly peel off the rest of the heroine’s costume.  “Soooo….” Her voice stopped as Dee realized the tingling sensation was gone.  She could move again!

“Wha? She was startled at her sudden ability to move again and glanced down.  Sandy’s hand was covering Dee’s crotch, interrupting the paralyzing beam and freezing the girl goon in her tracks!  “I don’t believe this!” Dee said as she moved her arms down gingerly from the position they had been frozen in for almost three days.  She looked at the table in front of her.  Her wrist blaster was still there but so was the paralyzer and it’s beam was still aimed right at her.  Gingerly trying to extricate herself from the frozen woman’s embrace Dee suddenly thought that this was the most ridiculous predicament she had ever been in.  One false move, budge Sandy out of the beam and I paralyze myself again.  Here I am, topless, practically naked and wrapped in the arms of a frozen crook who was getting off on my body!  Fortunately Sandy’s other arm was trying to pull Dee’s panty off so she had an escape route from her foe once she plucked her costume out of Sandy’s frozen grasp.  Careful…careful…she undid her costume from the frozen fingers and  ever so slowly began to slide out of Sandy’s frozen grasp.  Eventually after agonizing minutes, she was free!  Sandy remained, groping an invisible lover, in her frozen pose.  Dee composed herself, put her costume back on and was reunited with her wrist blaster.  “Okay, payback time!”

Dee crept downstairs as she adjusted the clasp on her cape.  She could hear some drunken voices.  Looks like the brew crew is back…She crouched down and pulled her cape around to blend into the shadows better.  Dee adjusted the holo amulet on her neckline and waited.  Freak came into view followed by Dan and Stan.  She leapt out of the shadows and unleashed a wicked kick to the groin.  Freak went down in a heap and was followed closely by Dan with a punch to the face and Stan with a taser bolt to the chest.  Dee was tempted to turn up the voltage on the floundering Stan after the abuse she had taken from him but thought better of it.  There’s still one more target…the Paralyzer!

Shadow Lady walked down the dark corridor of the lower level and saw a light from under a closed door.  She peeked inside and saw a man dressed in a greyish blue jumpsuit sitting at a work table and lamp.  A pile of paralyzer gadgets sat on the table next to him, looks like he’s been a busy boy.  Too bad I tasered one of the goons already, there’s not enough voltage left to be effective at this range…I’ll have to work on increasing the battery capacity one day…maybe add that laser sight/beam too…

“Paralyzer!” Dee shouted in her best heroic voice.

The Paralyzer spun around on his chair, hand already on one of his paralying beam devices.  “Who’s there?! Shadow Lady!?  But how?” he said as he fired his beam.  It passed harmlessly through Shadow Lady’s navel.  “How?  A hologram!” he spun around to see another Shadow Lady behind him and fired again. Ineffectively, the beam passed through the faux-heroine’s chest.

“Am I here or am I there?” Shadow Lady taunted.  It sounded like she was everywhere at once.  Suddenly Paralyzer found himself surrounded by a dozen Shadow Ladies!

“You can’t all be fake!  I’ll get one of you!” he spun wildly, shooting his paralyzing beam in a circle.  None of the Shadow Ladies stiffened up!

“No…that’s not possible!  You can’t resist my paralyzing ray!  I’ll turn you into a living statue for all eternity!” he screamed as he continued to shoot at the various images of Shadow Lady dancing around him.

“Not here…not there…where???” Dee’s voice echoed.  “Am I behind you?  Or in front of you?”

“You’re trying to confuse me!” Paralyzer yelled as he threw off his work goggles and panted with glaring eyes at the images around him.

“Paralyzer!” Dee yelled as she decked the villain in the face with a powerful punch.  The Paralyzer fell to the ground in a thud.

“Darn, he would have a glass jaw…” Dee nudged the villain with her boot and satisfied he was out cold went to her wrist communicator to call the police.  She looked at the tabletop covered with paralyzer devices.  “It’s a shame these couldn’t be used for more constructive purposes…”

EPILOGUE – THREE MONTHS LATER:

“How’s it coming along?” Sue asked.

“Hm-what?  Oh Sue!” Deidre looked up from the pile of circuits and wires she had scattered across the hallway of the living corridor level.  “It’s coming along just fine, in fact I think it will exceed my expectations!”

“You’re not working in the lab though?” Susan inquired.  “I would think you would want the tests done in a controlled enviornment.”

“Preliminary tests were great, what I’m testing now is distance and there’s no corridor in the building that’s both long enough and unobstructed except down here.  See the goldfish bowl down there?” Dee pointed down the long hallway to the end table with the small aquarium.  “Effective range was only a couple of yards in the early trials, but the modifications I made in the lab should have increased the beam to well over fifty.”

“Sounds good” Sue said, leaning over Dee’s shoulder to observe the delicate procedures being enacted.

“Not only that but the theories I had on increasing the duration have been proven true.  The effect can be set for mere seconds to hours at a time.” She said adjusting the device with a delicate fine-control tool.  There were muffled sounds of raised voices coming from one of the living quarters but Dee paid them no mind.  “I also took the time to upgrade your computer security and enhanced the building with motion detectors and infra-red scanners.”

“I see.  That’s pretty impressive work.  Aren’t you glad you decided to join up with us?” Sue smiled.

“Well I certainly don’t mind the toys to play with!” Dee smiled back as she held up the projector and aimed it down the hallway.  “In fact there’s a little project I thought we could install this on.  I call it the RT project…”

“Tell me more,” Sue said as she leaned over to see through the viewfinder Dee was aiming with. Neither of the two heroines was paying much attention to the sounds of commotion in one of the living quarters.

“Okay, well first the test…” Dee aimed and pressed the button.  She didn’t notice the door to one of the living quarters slide open violently.

“OHHH! That’s the last time I let you borrow one of my miniskirts you irresponsible hothead!” Cosmic Girl screamed at the top of her lungs as she chased the flying Flamestar out of their shared quarters.

“I didn’t know it wasn’t able to survive my flameup!” Flamestar protested as she turned down the hall for the elevator opposite of Sue and Deidre.

“When I get my hands on-“ Darlene screamed as she suddenly stopped in her tracks.  She had stepped righ into the paralyzing beam Deidre was testing down the hall and was now rigid as a statue!

“Turn it off!” Sue ordered when she realized Cosmic Girl had stepped into the path of the paralyzing ray.

Dee fumbled with the controls and shut off the beam, but the damage was done.  Cosmic Girl was now frozen stiff!  “Oh no!  I didn’t mean to…”

“Whoa! What happened to Darlene?” Angelica asked as she had doubled back when she realized Cosmic Girl had stopped pursuit.  She looked at the paralyzed woman, stiffened up in the act of running after her and clad only in her pink bra and panties.  “And can you keep her like that until she cools off?”  She landed next to the paralyzed Darlene and nudged her.  “Yeesh, she’s already frozen!”

“Don’t kid about something like this!” Sue said sternly.  “How long will she be like this?”

“Well, I haven’t exactly finished calculations but I would imagine she’ll be stuck like this for a few hours at the very least,” Dee said sheepishly.

Sue shook her head.  “You two are going to have to get separated you know.  I’m tired of the shenanigans you two have been getting into.”

“Is it my fault she’s a horrible roommate?” Angie defended but Sue shushed her. “Ah, well.  Wanna share the apartment Dee?”

“Sure!” Dee packed up the stasis beam projector.  “Let’s get Darlene back to the medlab first though.  I want to run some tests on her while she’s in suspended animation.”  She carefully tipped the rigid body of Cosmic Girl sideways and held Darlene’s shoulders while Sue and Angie each grabbed a hold of one of Darlene’s stiffened legs.  The three heroines toted off their frozen friend.

“You know I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!” Dee laughed.
 
 
 
 
 

TO BE CONTINUED IN FURTHER FF INC ADVENTURES!

Proceed straight to “Captured” for the ‘current’ adventures of FF INC!

Authors Note: Well this was an idea brewing in my head for a while. A flashback story! Where did FF INC get the Stasis beam technology from?  How did the members found the team (well one of them joins in this one anyway) way back when?  This hints at some of the origins of the team which may be further explained in a future (or is that past?) storyline.  It also gave me an excuse to use Shadow Lady as a solo heroine to show how capable she could be on her own. The Paralyzer is introduced in this story but the character will be quite different in the current ongoing timeline when next she (!) appears.