Zip

Basic Info:

Full Name: Zip Amplloy

Nickname: Zips (occassionally Runn3r calls her by this name, not often)

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bi-Asexual (Bisexual + Asexual)

Species: Human Cyborg (Empowered)

Power Type: Golden Lighning

Main Bio:

Zip Amplloy is a cyborg mercenary infused with powerful and electrifying abilities. She's fast, energetic, scrappy and very much a quick thinker, although at times she's not the brightest (ironically). Her hyper enthusiastic nature carries over to her main driving force; an extreme lust for adrenaline rushes, with a lot of the other perks such as the bountiful rewards coming to her naturally as a result of her line of work. Zip does seem to have a slight ego to herself (she often nicknames others ‘jolts’ when not directly addressing them, she sometimes interrupts to talk, etc.), but she understands her place when someone with authority speaks. At least…most of the time she does…(Octo Flare Captain and her have a bit of a complicated dynamic). She's also surprisingly a great friend, as backed up by her one true best friend Runn3r!

Zip wields her body as a weapon, quite literally. Her cybernetics are designed to augment and enhance her physical and elemental prowess, and are built with a lightweight (note: lightweight for metal standards, they're still quite heavy) yet durable refurbished Auruminium alloy, allowing her to move with incredible speed! Fitted to her left arm is an adaptor system that allows her to swap out what she has fitted on the arm based on the occassion, but she mainly uses one of two compatible attachments: a second hand that mirrors her right mechanical hand, or her personalised “Zip Line”, a mechanical combination between a grappling hook, whip and a flail. The Zip Line is made from a different Auruminium alloy, one combined with a copper-like metal to give it much stronger conductivity. Even without the use of this, she still has plenty to offer in terms of punches, electrical powers and the like. Although one flaw is that she uses A LOT of energy, and thus she has an electric energy crystal installed into the cybernetics around the base of her neck (she keeps it hidden under her scarf generally).

Lore:

Zip came from a respectable and reasonably long line of mercenaries and bounty hunters, somewhat socially outcast into their own primary settlement, Rupture City, a reclaimed Aurum base turned settlement deep in the desert-canyon region of Breaker Valley. She and her brother were born into the midst of the conflict, but ultimately learned to adapt to the chaos of the area just as much as they did the harsher environment. One thing to note growing up was Zip’s unusually high resonance (resonance being the ease of which someone can “resonate” with an element and gain that power), meaning she was able to resonate and obain her powers much earlier than others usually would. She gained access to her powers at only the age of 8, and was destined for a bright future! 

However, during training at this age, she overexerted herself by a significant amount. Her younger body wasn’t prepared for such amounts of effort, and she lost control of her electricity. Following a few minutes of her own panic making the situation harder and harder to control, and causing her more and more strain, her body couldn't take the prolonged stress and experienced what's known by electricity wielders as a “Short Circuit”. A Short Circuit is a dangerous self inflicted occurrence that can happen to electric wielders, in which their own electricity gets so out of control that it can damage internal organs and nerves. It's very frequently fatal, particularly at younger ages and the cases it isn’t are usually extremely severe, namely paralysis. Zip was incredibly lucky, being able to be treated quickly and narrowly surviving, though she completely lost consciousness and her legs, right hand and lower left arm all being subject to paralysis, not to mention damage to specific vital organs. She was also rendered comatose by the event, and wouldn't reawaken for 3 long years. At the time, it was unknown if she would ever wake up. 

Over those three years, her body was able to recover a little, at least externally. However, it was unclear what the true extent of damage to her lungs and heart were, and even if she could awaken like this she probably wouldn't survive into adulthood. However, a solution was ultimately proposed to her parents: Zip was to be granted cybernetics and mechanical replacements throughout her entire body. It was a complicated plan, one they initially rejected from the extremity, until it was gradually toned down into something more paletable. The only parts of Zip's body that would appear different on the outside would be in her legs, lower neck and arms, and most of what else was needed was all complicated internal surgery to support the cybernetics and implement support systems for her organs. Her cybernetics was also designed to account for her still growing up, and to mitigate the risks of any further electrical body shock (which would have a 99% chance to kill her without protection). Most of the parts were designed to only require maintenance once every 12-15 years if kept well, though the most routinely utilised parts would need more consistent maintenance, something that became more apparent later. 

Once proposed and approved, Zip's cybernetic parts were designed by Shade's mother, Tekira Eclipse, and surgically installed with her oversight. During several of Zip's first few days being conscious again and learning to use her body, Shade's family took her in to monitor her physical performance, to ensure nothing went wrong and that she was able to learn to use her metallic body. This was Shade and Zip's first meeting, and while Shade was sceptical of her temporary guest at first, once Zip's energetic personality returned to her, she grew to like her as company in the short time they got to know each other. Even at the point of saying goodbye, Zip was hoping they'd encounter each other again someday, something that would come to pass eventually.

Despite her reconstructed body, she felt weak at first, and especially felt scarred by her previous experience. She sat out on a large majority of her family's hunts, though still tagging along to observe. Even just seeing them go at their strong foes got her extremely excited, and she still never gave up her dedication to them, even while she was temporarily on the sidelines. This contributed to her rising adrenline lust, just wanting to be alongside them. It would be a few more years before she would get her chance to truly prove herself, but she slowly grew accustomed to the use of her powers in her new body.

Her life would change once more several years later when an Aurum invasion began once more, striking at Rupture City for the first time in a while. Despite how clear it was that it was under control, Zip was deeply inspired by everyone fighting with determination she'd barely seen before and stepped out to prove herself. With her deep understanding of the electrical power from her parents, and just her base enhancements, she struck like a bolt of lighting, blasting through large chunks of the encroaching machines by herself. And when the dust settled, it took a second for her to understand just how much of a difference she had made. That was until she was overwhelmed by praise from the others of her community and from her family who had witnessed her moves firsthand! Grappling with the fact that she had soared to new heights and had proven herself capable, she began to chart new aspirations…

From that point forwards, Zip's goal was to become a sort of local hero by joining her family's lineage as a reliable mercenary and bounty hunter. She kept up her training and settled into her role come her late teens, developing her signature look and personality! With her excitable attitude, incredible commitment, family’s support and an electrifying number of puns, she rapidly rose into that notable figure she'd always wished to be. She also met up with an aspiring mechanic and technological expert from Luminia, called Runn3r. Zip and Runn3r got along super well, with Zip serving as a comforting (if sometimes annoying) friend and client, while Runn3r was the first person she'd met to truly demonstrate a good understanding of her internal workings and optimise them further whenever she had a fault and needed repairs. With Runn3r's help, Zip upgraded her left arm into the adaptive system, capable of supporting her new arm-mounted grappling hook/harpoon/whip/flail hybrid! The two developed a close (PLATONIC) bond, and she'd even convinced Runn3r to see some fighting action himself sometimes! (Stories for another day, perhaps)

After developing numerous bonds, she'd eventually come to reunite with Shade, who'd been sort of unaware of the girl's transformation from a frail newly cyborg girl to a capable, battle-hardened, half-machine lady. Though they'd both found common ground in becoming friends with Runn3r, and ultimately when Shade found herself pulled into assembling as many allies as she could for an mysterious yet important mission, she found herself calling upon Zip's help (she's fine to not be paid for this).