Quickstep

Tara grew up in a low income household with her sibling, Brook. Dad tried his best, and Mom... did not.  And then Dad died, and, well, Mom got worse.  Dad did leave behind a few good things though.  A few momentos, and some advice.  "If things aren't working out, make them work for you."

Turns out there is a lot of legal bullshit behind 'making things work for you' when you're 18, and the person you're trying to get out of a shitty parental situation with you is 14.  Tara even applied for (and got accepted) to a law school, largely to better understand all the previously mentioned legal bullshit.  She didn't immediately let on why she decided to study law in particular, and it was really hard, too. Not the studies.  I mean, it wasn't easy, but more the fact that she had to work more or less full-time alongside it, meaning there was less watching out for Brook, because university is really expensive and, well, there wasn't really any parental assistance happening there.

She didn't wait to graduate before starting the battle. And it wasn't nearly as difficult as Tara expected. There was really more fighting against the legal system than fighting her mother. Sure, she argued against it - at first.  But the perceived betrayal gave way to the realization that her children realized first - she really didn't care that much about them. Legal custody was taken from their mother, and Tara more or less saved her sibling from a crappy household.

I mean, it wasn't great.  Low income, still, and Tara was away a lot, for schooling and work, but there was the promise that once she graduated and passed the bar exam, money would be a bit easier, and she'd have a lot more free time.

The bar exam was interrupted by superpowered terrorism.  It started with clouds, and then the man next to him getting hit in the head by a golf-ball sized chunk of hail.  Inside.  Tara couldn't hear what was happening over the storm, but it seemed like a ransom situation? And it certainly wasn't easy with the headache she was developing.  What was happening? Could she do something about it?  All she needed was a moment to think --

Everything slowed to a crawl.  The hail was punishing.  The man next to her was bleeding from the head.  Still alive, but that was easily a concussion.  It was foggy, but she could make out the Nova perpetrator's shadow at the top of the room. What was he doing? It didn't matter. He was hurting people! The hail was moving so slowly, she could easily avoid it. He was looking away, seemingly for ages.  She wouldn't let him hurt anybody else.  She ran towards him, and he very slowly turned his head towards her.  It wasn't until her fist was inches away from his face did he realize what was happening.

And then everything went normal speed again.  The man had trouble taking a mach-speed punch to the face, and fell instantly unconscious.  The weather quickly began dissipating.  Between time speeding up and slowing down and the chaos, it was uncertain how long the whole situation lasted.  Faster than it had meant to, certainly.

Tara did take the bar exam again, but her plan on going into law was being reconsidered.  It just seemed like a waste to go through all that law school and not pass the bar.

These days she largely acts as a face for the Utopia Project.  She doesn't exclusively work for them, but they have a lot of good work for her, and she feels good about what they do.  Her personal work involves using that law degree to help people get out of shitty situations like she's familiar with, and she does so pro-bono. (Aeon Foundation pays real well, that combined with the pay she recieves for assistance with law enforcement means she can afford to).  Quickstep is her heroing moniker.

But now that she can, like, actually afford to have some free time, her number one priority is her sibling.  Who, know that they've got superpowers too, can come along if they feel up to it.  Maybe they'll find their calling along the way.

Tara has a habit of being around when Novas first display their powers.  She chalks it up to the Aeon Foundation's real good intel.