Name: Valentina Sorabella
Alias: Rosso the Crimson
Occupation: Con artist, forger, thief; Assassin
Height: 5'9''
Weight: 134 lbs
Age: 19
Hair: Scarlet
Eyes: Emerald
Base: Madripoor City, Madripoor
Identity: Secret
Distinguishing marks: Handcuff bruises on left wrist; A brand burned into flesh over the left breast
Background An unremarkable birth to one of Madripoor's many escorts, Valentina lived a bastard until her mother died while she was only five years. After about a month, when the kindness of the woman's former employers wore off, Valentina was shipped off to a Hightown resort where it was said her father lived as a career criminal going by the name "Sorabella." She was taken in willingly by the charming snake, a new piece to be used in his many cons and kills—or as a gift to pay off his debts.
He was not a loving man and Valentina suffered much at his hands, but she also learned the tricks of each of his trades. So when Sorabella left on a three-day job and didn't return for two weeks, she didn't mourn. She simply cleared the savings from his hotel room safe and began life anew, by herself, at the age of 14. But Sorabella's savings wouldn't hold out forever, so Valentina continued taking white collar and assassination jobs, improving her crafts with the hope that the international stage would see her talents reach the next level—and to pay for her expensive tastes.
Abilities Valentina is not known to possess any metahuman characteristics, physical or otherwise. She has, however, developed a number of gifts throughout her life in Madripoor. In addition to standard martial combat training, she has paid for a private ballet instructor, gymnastics coach, archery, marksmanship and throwing, classical weapons (with much less focus, for practical purposes), and a strength & conditioning coach. Through a strict training regimen and diet afforded by the late Sorabella's lifestyle (and his savings, post-mortem) she has developed considerable strength for a woman of her size and build. However, she excels particularly in matters of agility and speed, functioning at the vert peak of human capability in forms that take advantage of her lithe, athletic frame and seemingly limitless stamina.
A high-level acrobat and gymnast, Valentina combines this with an intimate familiarity in variable environments. The resulting freestyle parkour enables her to traverse even crowded cities and landscapes with ease. There's no shortage of practise in Madripoor's cities or forests, and in Madripoor she is most at ease. Having explored much of the island, she might appear to have the entire country mapped perfectly in her mind: every nook and cranny of the large and smaller cities, ins and outs of various establishments, even many of the forest areas.
Con Artist - Tricks of the Trade The nature of the con artist is to be able to function in a variety of settings so that, no matter the target and objective, one can gain the confidence of the necessary marks (often under an assumed disguise/identity) and make off with the prize with as little trouble as possible. In addition to mastering the art of disguise, this requires a great deal of quick-thinking improvization and basic to high-level understanding of psychology. Valentina is proficient in both.
A skilled forger, she dabbles in chemical compositions, art history, material and techniques, and graphanalysis. However she does not sell her own works, and instead relies on a fence - an acceptable cost for increased security.
Assassination - Weapons Expert While she does not have photographic reflexes, Valentina is a quick study in both unarmed and (especially) armed combat. She boasts impressive marksmanship when using handguns, rifles, and throwing blades. And because her job often calls for it she specializes in improvised weapons. Also dabbles in swordplay, should the occasion call for it.
Multilingual Time in the multi-cultural isle among criminal contacts of many different backgrounds has imparted on her a deep understanding of the same languages of these contacts, including Malay, English, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic. The early exposure and increased neuroplasticity of her young brain means they come as second nature to the autodidactic assassin.
Beautiful Liar - Art of Deception Possibly the result of latent neurosis or psychosis as a result of her upbringing, when Valentina assumes an identity she doesn't "just pretend" to be a person. She becomes deeply engrossed, to the point a scan would reveal activation and engagement of entirely different neural pathways in her brain depending on her active role at the time.
As a result of greatly increased empathetic bonding, she appears to firmly believe in the constructed histories behind these identities, genuinely feeling their emotions, in much the same way as an author might their created characters, or a method actor is engrossed in character for a role—dialled up several levels. For any given identity, the same stimulus could trigger an entirely different - even polar opposite - instinctive response, depending on her frame of mind. (E.g. Lana the bartender may be legitimately terrified of bees, and her brain would show this, but Heather the university student is genuinely fascinated, also reflected by her brain.) This has helped her avoid trouble when she was alleged of crimes and put on trial for matching descriptions of suspects, able to throw off lie detectors, [brain] scanning technology and even the most powerful psionic abilities.
Tools of the Trade Although she didn't acquire his full fortune, her father's stolen money, as well as some implements remaining at the time of his disappearance, has allowed Valentina a fairly healthy start in affording equipment to strike out on her own. Much of the equipment she purchases are parts of guises specific to a particular job. However she owns a number of basic implements that, while not necessarily constant companions, have seen many more uses and thus could be considered more-or-less standard. These include:
TAC-338 Chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum with a medium heavy, 27″ barrel, the TAC-338 functions sufficiently well as both anti-personnel and anti-material rifle. It can penetrate better-than-standard military body armour at ranges up to 1,090 yards and has a maximum effective range of about 1,910 yards under standard use. Valentina's rifle is fully customized for maximum comfort and utility in her own hands, though features variable customizable parts for use under various conditions, including a 10x magnifying scope and suppressor to handle the loud report.
Desert Eagle Mk XIX (2) It has been said that in modern combat a pistol is little more than a paperweight; an additional clip is infinitely more valuable than a pistol; to say nothing of two pistols and their additional ammunition. To the contrary, Valentina believes that in the right hands, a pistol or two makes for a charming performance piece in the symphony of execution. She carries two fluted-barrel Deagles, each a crimson red with black accents. Her first pair was destroyed by Grimmwald . A matching replica pair were commissioned and created by Ananke .
Armor-plated jacket Kevlar vest Lockpicking kits Pocket knife/multi-tool. Bladed throwing cards Throwing knives Grappling hook Tannerite Thermite A series of electric proximity mines in the shape of disks. Each measures only about 2.5 inches in diameter and is about a half-centimeter thick. Remotely activated, internal logic programming auto-adapts to atmospheric conditions and react to a series of changes including:
Built-in motion detector (range: 2m) Tactile stimulus Active image capture and re-display technology creates an illusory transparency (or "optical camouflage") of whatever surface they stick to, making them almost completely inconspicuous within the human visible spectrum. To ensure she is not caught in one of her own traps, in the event Valentina venture within 4 meters of an active mine, it sends a signal to a corresponding sensor in her belt, alerting her to the proximity so that she may halt her course or deactivate the mine.
These may also be set to activate immediately, for use in active combat situations, or on a timer. While painful, they are designed to stun or incapacitate and are unlikely to kill unless one has an extreme susceptibility, such as with a heart condition.
-A pair of black fingerless gloves with nanite components that allow the user to customize their appearance and, to some degree, their composition. A built-in trigger allows the wearer to engage the nanites within, causing them to cover the whole hand and harden or provide protection. Can be used for fortification purposes, or to form claws that the user can use to cleave through materials up to and including low-grade steel. These were destroyed and replaced by a superior pair.
Her belt now holds additional storage compartments used for containing various chemicals, such as toxins or antidotes, in various cartridges. These are quickly and easily affixed to Valentina's gauntlets for simple dispensing through claws or the minatory symbol on the palm.
"Second Skin" Armored Suit Commissioned to aid in dealing with ever-increasing levels of threats, the Second Skin is a lightweight but durable suit of armor designed to offer greater protection than Valentina's armored jacket, while offering greater mobility and stamina retention. The Second Skin offers full body protection and its multi-layered design allows for easy retrofitting in case further modifications must be made.
A black bodysuit containing health and bio-status sensors comprises the underlayer. These sensors are non-networked, meaning no signals travel to or from it to be intercepted. This does mean that in a somatic event there is no certain way to know in real-time what she is dealing with, but data stored within allow Valentina (or someone else) to review her body's status over the course of an encounter. In addition to basic insulation from temperatures and electric shock, an integrated smartlink system also connects the underlayer to an auto-injector – a small medical injection unit built into Valentina's suit and linked to her bio-monitor. When certain conditions are met, or an instruction is received from the wearer, the auto-injector dispenses a medication, drug, or other chemical directly into the wearer’s bloodstream. Currently loaded with a synthetic Eristian plasma received from Xiandra , which dramatically increases the body's ability to heal for a matter of hours (auxiliary physical effects include a mild sense of euphoria, heightened sensory awareness, and a massive adrenaline spike). Overlaying the others is a layer of synthetic imitation spider silk combined with micro-ballistic meshing and coated in a non-Newtonian fluid to disperse incoming forces. Functionally bulletproof to most conventional arms fire, the Second Skin provides a degree of protection against the strikes of even metahuman foes. Additional resistances include flames, heat and cold, most forms of slashing damage, explosions, as well as certain degrees of radiation and chemicals.
Cobra's Kiss Bracers Cobra's Kiss Built from scratch from a design inspired by Noah Noble's gauntlets and incorporating prior elements of Valentina's arsenal, these wrist-mounted bracers are connected directly to her gloves. The principal component is aetherium secured directly from the False Bay and refined with the help of Franklin Park , AKA "Hardware." The original nanite gloves did not hold up to testing and were destroyed. In time Hardware was able to incorporate the aetherium into improved nanotech capable of surmounting typical vulnerabilities to heat, electromagnetism, and other forces acting upon them. This keeps the gloves lightweight while also allowing them to store additional energy, in effect serving as their own "secondary" power source and allowing them to perform more functions over a longer period of time.
Stored within each of the bracers themselves is an aetherium "gem" connected to a set of nodes in the gloves, which acts as the main battery and conduit. This allows Valentina to send an electrical charge through the gloves, while an insulating in-layer protects the Scarlet Shadowrunner from harm.
Amperage varies based on a proportional control system in conjunction with a sensory array and feedback mechanism, they may be set to create a shock ranging anywhere from .001 amps to 1 amp, offering a mild shock or complete electrocution [ranges based primarily on human and human-metagenic targets]. As implements they may also be used to charge or disrupt electronic devices.
Auxiliary functions (additions by loadout):
Cobra's Kiss - Spit Spit: In addition to close-quarters combat the bracers may be fitted with a portable launcher, allowing it to fire long-range projectiles – most commonly nodes of silver and copper (chosen for their high conductivity), which embed themselves in targets and administer shock at the predetermined level until the nodes have expended all stored energy. A recent upgrade also allows the gauntlets to store and project acid from a compartment within.Lash: An attachable grappling hook for use in the event her primary should fail or be severed. The cable itself is comprised of a carbon fiber cable for light weight and durability, as well as electric conductivity. WARNING: Cable fires with enough force to puncture skin, bone, and even standard body armor. May be fitted with variable heads including expanding mechanical broadheads to make more difficult their removal (but may be mechanically disengaged at will).
Drawing further inspiration from her one-time partner, the Scarlet Shadowrunner has implemented further modifications enabling her to more easily contend with a higher caliber of foe. More specifically, an inbuilt cimponent used to trigger directed localised shockwaves. Much lighter of weight thanks to the lack of a need for an external battery source, qualities inherent in the component materials allow them to double as shock absorbers, removing the need for those as well while protecting Valentina from the hypersonic energy projections of the gauntlets.
Pressure-sensitive triggers enable effortless use when Valentina's knuckles make contact with a target, while secondary triggers allow her to project shockwaves a short distance forward. (Effective range: up to 10 feet before dispersal begins to diminish power.)
These may be operated independently of, or in conjunction with, other functions of the gauntlets.
The Tools of Armageddon While scavenging the fallen sanctuary of Satar and his Brahma Brotherhood, Black House , Valentina happened upon some of the remaining armaments left behind following the destruction wrought by the heroine Arquitenens. Much of it dilapidated and in need of maintenance, she was nonetheless able to make use of some of it.
Chlorine Trifluoride Grenades (CIF3 Grenades): CIF3 Grenades are, essentially, incendiary grenades that upon detonation, break open superheated shards that release chlorine trifluoride; the most vigorous fluorinating agent in the world. Fluorinating agents rip other molecules apart to replace their hydrogen atoms with fluorine. The fruit of which is an extremely violent, exothermic reaction in the form of fluorine fire. It is even more dangerous than fluorine gas which in itself, is a statement that speaks volumes. It is an even better oxidizer than oxygen. And oxidizers are compounds that seize electrons from other chemicals in a reaction, and they are what render combustion possible. Chlorine trifluoride's excellence in this endeavor is so extraordinary that it can burn things that are generally believed to be nonflammable, such as bricks, concrete, asbestos, and things that have already been burned.Cyanogen Chloride Grenades (NCCI Grenades): The NCCI Grenades, when detonated, release a cloud of cyanogen chloride, an extremely volatile and toxic asphyxiating blood agent that interferes with the body's ability to use oxygen. Prized by the Brotherhood due to its ability to penetrate the filters in gas masks, cyanogen chloride attacks organ systems most sensitive to low oxygen levels, such as the central nervous system, the cardiovascular system, and the pulmonary system. Additionally, the gas is extremely corrosive and inspires a host of symptoms including paralysis, convulsions, nausea, confusion, vomiting, edema, loss of consciousness etc.Plasma Shotgun: The last of their remaining Maverick weapons, the Plasma Shotgun is a semi-automatic weapon with a fire rate of 174 RPM. It fires miniature but very lethal cluster rounds of superconducting projectiles. Because of its propellant-form, the Plasma Shotgun possesses a longer range than any shotgun forged by modern technology. Featuring a two-stage trigger system that allows for either quick-fire capacitors or a charge-and-release form of shooting which ionizes the projectiles, the rounds, upon contact with the target, fragment and arcs of electricity between the fragments flash-converts the air into plasma. The combined heat, kinetic force, and electrical charge come together to make possible immense trauma to those unfortunate enough to be targeted.
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