Dette

Dette is an earnest person. She tries really, really hard, but never seems to measure up, and beats herself up over it for a long time before eventually getting bitter. She wants to do the right thing and is extremely loyal to people who have helped her in any way. She enjoys being neat and is a little preppy, but in a nice way. She wishes she was more extraordinary and hates that the powers the goverment gave her are so boring and "invisible."

Setting

Just a disclaimer: this whole section is unnecessarily long, but I got excited typing this all out. Feel free to skip this, if you want.

In this story, the government has found a way to give special superhuman abilities to children. They do this by genetically modifying them at a young age with altered animal genes. They started a federal organization: the Metagenome Agency (also known as the Hero Program or the Super Service). The agency takes the best and the brightest applicants from around the country, gives them powers, and trains them to be heroes. It's entirely voluntary to apply and join, but once you're genetically modified, you can't leave, and your parents can't get you back. Parents are willing to let their kids apply for a variety of reasons, but the most common ones are optimism (they'll change the world!), prestige (their kids will be famous and so will they), and money (the government gives families a pretty sizable "allowance" for essentially giving up their kids). They are allowed holiday visits, though.

Kids apply at around age 7, and go through lots of testing (mental, physical, etc). Around 200 kids are chosen to begin school/training at age 8. They pick more children than they technically need to foster competitiveness and also just in case something happens to one of them. At age 11, 25 kids per location are chosen to actually get powers. The extra ones are sent home, and legal rights return to the parents. The chosen kids get powers in January and spent about a year recovering (genetic rewiring is a long and painful process, although they're so drugged up none of them remember it). From then on, they go through training for how to use their powers until they're an adult. Then, they're assigned to a hero agency around the country and given assignments with a lot of supervison.

Backstory

Dette was chosen for the program at age 8. She was extremely smart, and when the program was mentioned to her by her parents she begged to put an application in. She met Scylla, another trainee (although not by that name or pronouns), on the first day and immediately became best friends. They celebrated together when they were both picked to get powers. She said goodbye to them before the process, both kids excited to see what powers the other got.

She got the abilities of a grizzly bear. She was stronger, faster, and had better reflexes, and her fingernails grew into black claws. This was the only obvious change that happened, though. She was disappointed, since most heroes were very obvious and flashy, and she was an optimistic and outgoing personality. They told her she was well suited for undercover work, though, and she could feel that she was stronger and faster, so she was excited to meet Scylla again and see what they got. However, when she asked, she was told that when they'd gone home, their parents had committed treason and tried to steal them away, and in the ensuing fight, Scylla was killed. Dette cried for weeks.

She didn't get over it, but she felt she had a duty to the program and to Scylla's memory to be the best hero she could be. She threw herself into training. In Scylla, she'd found the closest friend she'd ever have, and that was thanks to the hero program. She came to think of it as a 2nd family.

Current Events

After graduating, Dette went to work doing mostly undercover things in SF, CA. They were assigned to a mission with another hero named Attor (snake genes). Their job was to take down Epsilon, a gang trying to stop the hero program. She recognized Attor from school, and was really excited to see a familiar face, but he didn't really want to be there, and she felt left out even when they were working together. They got a tip about a break in, and when they got there, they saw Carmine (a man who'd illegally gotten genetically modified as a kid to have wings)and Scylla. Dette didn't recognize Scylla at first, but when she did she was completely shocked that her childhood best friend was still alive. However, she soon realized that Scylla hated the Metagenome Agency, and was part of Epsilon, and so Dette knew she had to stop them.

Later, a kid nearby had been selected to join the program- Whittaker Anderson, an almost 8 year old. His parents threw him a gala party to celebrate him being chosen. Dette and Attor were supposed to go and be encouraging role models to Whittaker. However, the gala went extremely badly, and Scylla and Carmine kidnapped the kid. Dette and Attor tried to stop them (Dette tried, and Attor had a sexuality crisis in the bathroom because Carmine flirted with him), but they got away.

Dette and Attor kept trying to get him back and stop Scylla, Carmine, and the rest of Epsilon. Scylla and Carmine always seemed to be one step ahead, though, and the heroes tried and failed over and over.

Scylla and Dette started to have a little bit of a thing going on. They have feelings for each other, but they're on opposite sides, so there's a lot of complications with that obviously. Dette firmly believes that the hero program is the best thing that ever happened to her and is doing a lot of good, and Scylla tries to convince her that it's bad. After Attor switched sides (finally realized he was gay and liked Carmine), Dette was convinced everyone else manipulated her the whole time, and is now firmly against them, trying to hunt them all down and bring them to "justice" at whatever cost.

Aesthetic