SHI

BIOGRAPHY

Half-American and half-Chinese, Elena was born in Wayport City to a chef from China who had moved to the city in hopes of opening up his own restaurant and a young policewoman who was making a bit of a name for herself in the local community. The two of them met when she stopped at his restaurant on the way home from a long day of work, and the two hit it off rather quickly. A few years later, they were married, and Elena was born. Even at a very young age, it didn't take anyone very long to figure out that Elena had inherited her mother's sense of justice, and, as such, very few people who knew her were surprised when, just after becoming a teen, she expressed interest in following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a police officer herself. Thus her path in life was set. [break][break]

Initially, her father was disappointed that she didn't want to become a chef like him, but once he got over that brief disappointment, both of her parents gladly supported her endeavors. At first, some openly wondered why she would choose something so much more mundane, as opposed to becoming a superhero. Admittedly, she hadn't given that idea much thought. However, once her power, which was rather unremarkable for combat but potentially very useful for her intended like, manifested itself for the first time, she took that as a sign to continue her pursuit of following in her mother's footsteps and become an officer of the law. The way she saw it, she could let the heroes deal with the super-powerful villains and focus on the small fry that don't require insane superpowers to deal with.[break][break]

Thus, throughout her teen years, she physically trained her body to be in the best shape it could be. Her mother taught her some basic martial arts that came in handy for her throughout her own career, while also offering her whatever general tips and tricks she was legally allowed to give to someone who wasn't actually a part of the force yet. The years of training paid off, as she passed her police academy training with flying colors, and reached her goal of becoming an officer at the age of 22. Over the years that followed, she did quite well for herself, as her ability to detect lies came in very useful when it came to questioning witnesses and possible suspects. Five years later, she earned herself a promotion, and became a detective. Today, two years after becoming a detective, she's still going strong. [break][break]

Only time will tell what fate has in store for the good detective, but as it stands, she's quite content with life at this moment. Even if things tend to get a little hectic what with all of the supervillain attacks and whatnot.[break][break]

CHARACTER POWERS

✰ LIE DETECTION  [break]
Lie Detection. [break][break]

A simple but effective power in which, when directly speaking to one or more individual, Elena is able to tell when any of them says something that directly contradicts what the person in question knows to be the truth; i.e., when they lie. This manifests itself as a strong vibration in the back of her neck; while not painful in any way, it is still very strong and impossible for her to not notice. Annoyingly, it does little to differentiate between a small, harmless white lie and a malicious, ill-intentioned lie. Unless it's an especially extreme one, however, it won't be triggered by exaggerations. It can also be avoided with half-truths or things that are "technically true".[break][break]

Much to Elena's chagrin, her power is constantly active, and cannot be turned on or off at will. That said, it would be overwhelming if it went off whenever anyone in a room happens to tell a lie within her earshot; especially if the room is incredibly crowded. As such, as something of a safety measure, it will only activate when she's directly speaking to someone. If someone says something to another person near her, but has spoken directly to her within the last ten minutes or so, it will also trigger. As such, it's possible for it to activate when talking to multiple people, though there's a limit to what she can handle, and she tends to bow out of conversations with more than five people.[break][break]

X - As one can probably imagine, this power isn't very useful in combat, but is great for interrogating suspects. Unfortunately, as game-breaking as it might seem, it does have its limits. First and foremost, just because she knows that someone is lying doesn't mean she'll automatically learn the context of the lie; i.e., the reason they lied, or what the truth actually is. She needs to fill those blanks on her own. Additionally, it's based entirely on the perception of those she is speaking with, rather than what is the actual truth. In other words, if they genuinely believe that what they say is the truth, even if it blatantly isn't, it won't trigger. This often comes up with culprits who are either delusional or were intentionally fed wrong information from a higher-up. Either way, it can be a pain.[break][break]

↣ TRUTH INDUCEMENT [break]
Truth Inducement. [break][break]

A simple sub-power with great potential, but is unfortunately too restrictive for Elena to regularly rely on. Through an extremely specific form of telepathy, she can actively force someone to truthfully answer a single question, no matter how much they would otherwise try to hide the truth. A powerful ability, to say the least, but not without its fair share of drawbacks.[break][break]

X - First and foremost, this ability will only activate in the first place if the person that Elena is speaking to has triggered her lie detection ability within the last ten minutes. Additionally, the question that she asks must be directly related to whatever the person in question lied about, meaning she can't just ask them anything at random.[break][break]

X - Another major limit is that it can only be used once on a single person. Once it is used, that person can never be affected by it again, meaning Elena has to be extremely careful about when/how she uses it.[break][break]

X - Last but not least, using it even once has a tremendous physical and mental toll on Elena herself. This usually takes the form of an intense headache. Attempting it to use it more than once in a single day is especially risky, as it can result in minor brain damage and negatively impact her short-term memory. The one saving grace is that this damage isn't permanent, and she'll usually recover within few days. Either way, it's still bad enough that Elena generally prefers to save this sub-power purely as a last resort.[break][break]

MISC.

⍟ QUOTE/CATCHPHRASE:[break][break]

"Honestly, if you're gonna lie to my face, you should at least make it a good one." [break][break]


✽ MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING [break][break]

Although she doesn't necessarily adhere to one particular style of martial arts, Elena has been taught techniques of various different styles and shaped them into a personalized fighting style. It primarily focuses on grappling holds and takedowns, used primarily for catching and arresting criminals, though she also knows some quick punching and kicking techniques for whenever she ends up in a prolonged fight. All in all, it's a simple-but-effective method of fighting that allows her to hold her own in a world full of super-powerful individuals. [break][break]

✽ POLICE WEAPON TRAINING [break][break]

As part of her training, Elena has learned how to efficiently use various police-related weapons, including (but not limited to) multiple styles of firearms, batons, tasers, and riot shields. She usually only keeps a concealed pistol and a folding baton on her, only using anything heavier when dealing with an especially powerful villain (which is something she tries to avoid anyway).[break]