Feral (Ashley Caradyne)

''"Rawr, bitch." - Feral. ''

Early Life - The Parents
Smoke, secret identity of Mark Caradyne, was a notorious metahuman burglar who gave trouble to a variety of superheroes but was never really evil or bad to begin with--he was just hyperactive and loved challenges. He broke into museums, galleries and any well-guarded place he could find just to see if he could. If he ever stole anything (Like he did with the Mona Lisa once), he only did so to stir up a fuss and then return the stolen item in a theatrical way for his own amusement. On occasion, he was known to actually help out heroes and then vanish before they could get a hold of him.

Things changed when he was finally arrested by co-operating heroes and sent to jail. Mark made an attempt to escape but stumbled onto the scene of the murder of a cop and interfered to protect his partner, Homicides Officer Cynthia Milos--just to wind up arrested again.

By that time he was already interested in the young officer and while she recovered from a gunshot in the hospital, managed to send her flowers and an apology card for failing to save her partner. Irritated at him at first, Cynthia visited him in prison to tell him to 'sod off'. Ironically though, she returned to him to make a deal with him: If he would help her arrest an elusive and possibly metahuman murderer, she could get his time reduced a little. He agreed immediately and Cynthia was surprised at his eagerness.

They worked together for a short time, Cynthia refusing to trust him completely but Mark kept following her orders and helping her track down the murderer, whom they now knew as Arthur Kurshwaid, a superhuman acrobat. After he nearly killed Cynthia just to be thwarted by Mark, she succeeded in arresting him and leading him to prison. On account of his good behavior and help, Mark was granted a parole and Sophia took it on herself to be his parole officer. Eventually he confessed to have fallen in love with her 'awesomeness' and proposed to her. Surprisingly, she accepted.

Marrying such a childish and excitable man gave Cynthia a new meaning of 'raising a husband' but she enjoyed his humor, his frankness and his apparent naivety, as well as the fact that he stopped trying to infiltrate any place he saw. Mark began to work as a security technician, using his knowledge and skills to create advanced security technology. They had two children, a daughter named Ashley and a younger son, Raymond.

Daddy's Little Girl
Ashley was the apple of her father's eye and beyond doubts his favorite to the point of being a little spoiled. She had a fairly normal childhood--as normal as it could get with a super-powered, hyperactive father who did technological experiments in the basement and a little brother that she waged war with day after day.

Her father hoped that neither of his children would develop metahuman powers and be able to live a normal life, but Ashley always had a special fondness for cats, even as a baby. From her infancy she would always be imitating cat sounds and sometimes even their behavior. It took a little time, but her father noticed that it wasn't just imitating; he caught her purring when she fell asleep on his shoulder one evening and her nails grew abnormally fast and were actually sharp.

The 'cat came out of the bag' when she was in first grade; angry at another child who picked on her, she tried to shout at him and instead produced a rather loud roar. She went mute out of shock for a day and her father took her to a doctor friend of his who examined her throat.

They found out that her throat structure resembled that of a big cat's, which explained the roaring and purring. Puzzled, her father tried to keep it a secret from Cynthia but eventually had to come clean when Ashley spontaneously turned into a cat when her brother frightened her with a plastic spider.

Now certain that they had a metahuman on their hands, Ashley's parents began to tutor her and help her control her transformations. By the time she was 17, Ashley was in full control of her transformations, from the smallest house-cat to the biggest feline that ever lived, a prehistoric American Mega-Lion.

Ashley did not plan to follow a hero career. She just wanted a normal life and treated her power as just part of her personality and for fun. She saw on the news the appearance of two mysterious superheroes, Abaddon and Uriel, when the outbreak of B.O.W.s occurred in the city, but remained out of the matter.

The Rise of Feral - Nightwatch
Soon afterwards Ashley noticed her father was looking troubled but he kept assuring them that everything was fine. Unfortunately, one evening he failed to return home and Ashley discovered a recorded message he had made, explaining that a ring of terrorists had deduced his identity and were blackmailing him into helping them bomb the building of an international convention taking place in Miami. He urged Ashley to contact the police about it and save the people involved at the cost of his own life.

Ashley would have nothing of it. While she alerted the police to a terrorist threat, she set out to find and rescue her father on her own. Using her cat-like senses and the information on her father's computer, she managed to find where the terrorists had their haven and where they kept her father. Unfortunately, she was detected and in an ensuing battle, thrown off the side of the tall building.

As luck would have it, Abaddon was swinging from building to building right below and she quite literally fell right onto him. After a brief misunderstanding caused by his overly flirty nature, Abaddon rather forced her to accept his help and together they rescued Ashley's father and rounded up the terrorists, preventing the disaster. Initially she was put off by his attitude and his flirty behavior, but after fighting alongside him, she started to feel that maybe fighting crime wasn't so bad.

She contemplated the issue over a few weeks. Eventually she made up her mind and donning a costume modified from her father's old Smoke costumes, she adopted the alias Feral and 'dropped in' on Abaddon and Uriel as they stopped an armed robbery in a bank. She introduced herself and invited herself into their team, coining the name that they would eventually hold for good: Nightwatch.

Uriel wasn't too happy at first, feeling his brother accepted her because he wanted to date her, but eventually Ashley proved her worth as a partner--especially after she blatantly rebuffed Ryan's advances and beat his ego down a little.

They worked together in patrolling Miami and took down a large drug ring run by the Los Cráneos Rojos gang. Ashley personally brought down their leader, Esteban Floren, who had threatened to kill her mother, because she was investigating a murder he had committed. Eventually they were joined by Samedi's Envoy, a youth of New Orleans who had accepted the mantle of the Voodoo god's avatar in the physical plane.

Ashley came to care about Ryan as a close friend, but kept their relationship strictly professional and friendly, despite his regular flirting. When his heart condition worsened, they accepted the help of Dr. Evan Kelly, a doctor and metahuman owning a clinic in Miami--and also, a close family friend of the Rivvens. He offered to help with Ryan's medical problem and allowed Nightwatch to use the clinic as a base, offering them support and advice as a senior and doctor. Under his care, Ryan got better and they 'recruited' another member, The Weatherman.

The Big Leagues
By the first year and a half of their existence as a team, Nightwatch swelled to include Troll, Razorspark, Belladonna and the alien Glitch, whom they rescued from the FBI. Ashley's confidence grew and she expanded her power to the ability to assume hybrid forms of cats and humans. She continued to have a good working relationship with Ryan, playing into his sarcastic banter and jokes, but keeping out of a relationship with him. She might enjoy the heroic career, but she didn’t want to get emotionally involved.

The Nightwatch became better known to the elder generation of superheroes, not always favorably because of their cheekiness, young age and methods--particularly due to their leader, Abaddon. His occasional brutality was frowned upon and Ashley worked with Gabe in an attempt to curb his aggression, often quarreling with him and exchanging blows.

The return of criminal master-mind and serial killer Russell Richards from his imprisonment in Alaska brought dramatic changes in the team; Ryan finally confessed to the fact that Russell was his maternal grandfather and they were all being targeted because of it. Russell had maintained control over his old group, The Syndicate, now counting new 'students' in its ranks, including foes like Tauro, Cottonmouth and Drama Queen, as well as older enemies of Nightwatch, Rosencrantz and his brother Guildenstern.

This abrupt crisis caused Ashley to panic a little, as she was unprepared for this extent of carnage that Russell was spreading or the ferocity of the fighting between him and Ryan. In the midst of the incidents, Ashley crossed paths with Faith, an assassin after Ryan's head and nearly got killed, had it not been for Ryan's intervention. The incident made Ashley both appreciate and fear Ryan's sense of loyalty as he nearly brutalized Faith, threatening to dismember her if she ever involved one of his associates in their personal feud.

However, with Russell back on the loose, killing and dominating his way up the criminal food-chain and focusing on Miami, the Nightwatch found themselves under pressure to stop him. Unfortunately, their lack of experience and Abaddon's personal crisis and fear, caused them to fail in stopping him. During a large face off with the Syndicate, they came to a painful stalemate in which Abaddon was badly hurt by Russell and Uriel was also injured trying to protect him. Ashley dragged Ryan out of the fray and to safety while injured herself, under cover from Gabriel. The team was shaken and doubted their skills after the incident. To make things worse, Ryan was left in a bad psychological state and considered quitting.

A Change of Heart
Before they could properly recover from the debilitating blow to their team, Ryan was targeted and kidnapped by an alien parasite, XSTNC. With very little information on the nature of this predator, the Nightwatch had to use all their resources to track him down, but to no avail. They eventually learned from the Green Lanterns that XSTNC was a mental parasite that took over other sentient creatures, using them as puppets to infiltrate and destroy entire worlds--and the worst part was that once the parasite had taken root, it was almost impossible to tell the difference, as even the host was unaware of being used and believed to be perfectly normal. Thus the parasite built up dependence between the host and itself, meaning any attempt to remove it from the host would result in their death.

Ashley was crushed to hear the news and nearly broke down, had it not been for Gabriel's promise that they would find and save him before that happened.

Gabriel stepped up as the leader but was forced to turn to his father, Archangel, for assistance. The elder hero put aside his grudge with his illegitimate son and with an advanced, specialized tracking system that located increased mental activity managed a hotspot, having already correctly deduced the psychic powers of the alien.

They reached the alien's hideout the moment that it's mental warfare with Ryan's psyche was peaking: The alien had invaded Ryan's subconscious, trying to uproot him entirely from his body, when it encountered The Beast, the deepest and most primal aspect of Ryan's subconscious, which proceeded to crush the alien right as Gabriel decapitated it's body in a furious attempt to save his brother.

They managed to save him, barely alive and badly broken, taking him to Dr. Kelly's clinic for treatment. He underwent physical and mental healing in an attempt to save him from permanent damage and clear the last remains of the alien from him. He was comatose for approximately three weeks, during which Gabriel was called upon to fill in as Nightwatch's leader.

The incident had a profound effect on the team. They realized that there were threats out there that they could not handle by themselves, as much as they had tried to stay away from the 'big leagues'. They came to terms with the fact that they were going to need help and each was given a choice to resign from the team if they felt it was too much for them. Ashley considered the idea for a while but eventually chose to remain with the team, as did everyone else.

The same question caused her to realize that it was pointless to deny that she had developed feelings for Ryan and after he woke up from his coma and regained use of himself, she was the first to greet him on his return to action and out of nowhere, kissed him, initiating their turbulent relationship.

The Cat In The Girl
Ashley is very much a girl after her mother's heart: She is brazen, unafraid and the kind of kicking-ass-and-taking-names girl that doesn't tolerate nonsense. Even so, she still has enough class and femininity to keep herself from becoming a complete renegade. Her attitude and confidence hide a minor insecurity where her feelings are concerned and her relation to others.

Her good nature and boldness make her likeable and her modesty about her powers and career as a superhero has made her something of a model of behavior in the team. Although as bad-tempered as Abaddon she has a much better control of her anger and instead of lashing out like he does, she bottles it up, letting it explode when it reaches 'critical mass', leading to half of the many fights she has with Ryan.

Ashley serves as something of a referee within the team, diffusing differences and arguments and giving mature advice to her younger associates. She doesn't hesitate to physically get involved and separate anyone quarreling--much like she did when Troy and Ryan were at each other's throats. She managed to send both of them to a proverbial corner to cool off, just by shouting at them.

Ashley has a spontaneous and shameless sense of humor that she got from being around her father a lot. She laughs a little too easily, especially with Ryan's witty comments and sometimes is considered 'a bit too happy-go-lucky' when in fact she's anything but that. She also has shown to have a bit of a bloodstreak as she is a highly unforgiving hero who doesn't let villains off with a simple defeat. The more they get on her bad side, the worse for wear they are when she's done with them.

For a time Ashley was worried she might've been bi-polar but after some time in a therapy session, was assured that she was merely an unpredictable personality, something she believes is affected by her connection to cats. She still isn't sure whether her ability is mere metahuman power or whether there is something more mystical behind it, but she prefers to not think about it.

Ashley is very fond of animals and especially cats. She doesn't actually own any cat as a pet but she feeds and cares for a number of feral cats that live in her neighborhood. She gets upset whenever she sees an animal hurt or mistreated.

Relationships
Ashley is good friends with the Nightwatch members but her closest friend is likely Izzy, with whom she was classmates through much of high-school. She admits that isn't very easy with forming bonds because she is insecure about her feelings.

Around the time she joined Nightwatch had been through two painful break-ups and didn't feel like another relationship would help her, so she kept herself at an emotional distance from the rest, especially Ryan who was constantly flirting her.

She has a good relationship with her family, even though she constantly argues and fights with her younger brother.

Despite her efforts to remain at a distance, Ashley eventually became close to Ryan and after he was kidnapped and nearly killed by XSTNC, she realized that losing him would've crushed her. She came to terms with her feelings for him and taking the initiative, she began a relationship with him. Even though they argue and fight a lot, they are very close, understand each other and are positively shameless in their shows of affection.

Allies
Abbadon (Ryan Gaven)

Uriel (Gabriel Rivven)

Samedi's Envoy (Demos Savoy)

Troll (Troy Svetrowski)

The Weatherman (Jibran Haytham)

Razorspark (Jin Young)

Belladona (Izzy Marinou)

Glitch

Dr. Evan Kelly

Abby Strandford

Archangel (Michael Rivven)

Smoke (Mark Caradyne)

Powers
Feline Transformation


 * Ashley has the ability to transform into any feline species (and breed, apparently) that has ever lived on the planet, from a common housecat to a prehistoric saber-tooth cat and even known hybrids such as the liger. Her transformation abilities more recently have come to include being able to merge her human form with that of felines, creating a hybrid form of man-cat. Ashley can fully control the coat color and patterns of her transformations, but is limited to naturally-appearing colors. The changes take only fractions of a second to happen and settle allowing her to alter her size and combat method at will. She can change from a small species to something large very easily. She is a little limited on how long she can stay in a form; her rule of thumb is, 'the bigger the cat, the more it burns', meaning for larger cat species, Ashley needs more stamina to maintain it than a smaller species. On average, she can maintain a medium-sized form (like a snow leopard or human-housecat hybrid form) for about three to four hours.

Animal Mimicry/Cat Mimicry


 * Ashley is able to mimic the abilities of felines whose forms she assumes. She apparently has an intuitive understanding of cats and knows what kind of cat will be useful in a given situation. Her speed and strength depend on the cat species she is in at the time, but while in man-cat forms, her strength, speed and senses are greatly augmented. There is an unforeseen side-effect to her mimicry though, that has become the source of quite a bit of embarrassment: Like most cats she has a very high sense of pursuit (or she's just plain playful), thus when she's relaxed it's actually possible for her to get completely distracted and chase down vermin or even a laser dot. She's also extremely curious.

Enhanced Senses


 * Even in human form, Ashley retains some basic augmentation of her senses, able to ear sounds normally beyond human hearing and has a keener sense of smell. Her sense of smell has saved the team more than once, as she was able to sense the presence of arsenic gas in the air and get them all out of its range in time. In cat and cat-hybrid forms this is greatly enhanced and she also has the advantage of feline night-vision, allowing her to see clearly in minimal light.

Superhuman Speed


 * She is faster than most humans and moves with the grace and agility of a cat. She is more of a short-sprinter than a distance runner, like most cats. In cheetah or cheetah hybrid form she can hit speeds of about 120 km/k (75 mph) over short distances in explosive bursts, accelerating from 0 to 100 kmh (60 mph) in less than 3 seconds.

Superhuman Reflexes


 * Ashley literally has the sharp reflexes of a cat, able to dodge a bullet fired almost point blank and able to dodge and more importantly parry blows even before she actually sees them coming. Her reflexes in a wildcat-human hybrid form allowed her to evenly match with and knock out Cottonmouth without being bitten.

Superhuman Agility


 * In the form of any cat and cat-hybrids, Ashley has the advantage of natural cat-like agility and swiftness.

Superhuman Strength


 * In human form Ashley has the strength of a woman her size and build that exercises regularly and is able to at least press and lift her own weight. When she assumes any cat form her strength will be equal to that of the cat; even assuming the medium-sized form of a leopard, Ashley has enough strength in one paw to crush a normal human's skull in one slap and enough of a jaw-force to take someone's face off in one bite. Assuming the form of the now extinct gigantic American Lion (Panthera leo atrox) she has been able to knock down and completely incapacitate Tauro, who is much larger, breaking one of his horns in the process. In human-hybrid forms, her strength will be relatively greater. She has been able to lift about one ton of weight and break a modestly armored door off its hinges with one punch.

Equilibrium Sense


 * Ashley has a great degree of equilibrium and balance, allowing her to maintain high speed of movement and agility on limited footing. Like cats, she can also correct her stance, turning in midair to land on her feet, although this doesn't necessarily mean she'll absolutely survive a fall.

Increased durability


 * Like cats, Ashley is able to absorb some shock from her feet and hands, allowing her to survive falling from heights that would otherwise severely hurt her. According to her, she can drop from a height of 15 m (49 feet) on her feet and walk away sore but uninjured. She walked away from a fight with Tauro with three cracked ribs and a fractured arm but did not seem to suffer very much until she got treatment.

Abilities
Peak Athlete Conditioning


 * Although she actually is big-boned and heavier than a normal girl her size, Ashley is an accomplished athlete of considerable natural acrobatic skills. In high-school was a champion of gymnastics and has maintained her skill through daily practicing.

Stealth


 * As the daughter of one of the world's most elusive burglars, Ashley was taught by her father how to be extremely stealthy. Her affinity with cats has increased her stealth to the point where it's hard for even trained heroes to notice her unless she wants to. Her ability to turn into a common housecat allows her to hide in plain sight.

Expert Combatant


 * Ashley began learning martial arts when she was a child because her mother wanted her to be able to defend herself and her father took it on himself to teach her boxing. She has also mastered Kung Fu and has a brown belt in Karate. Augmented by her cat-like reflexes and agility, Ashley is a formidable opponent and in a human-hybrid form, extremely dangerous. On multiple occasions she has equaled Ryan in both spars and actual fights, has defeated (and humiliated) Bishop White and Deathwish and even assisted Gabriel in fending off Faith.

Feline Empathy


 * Ashley is fond of animals but has a special connection with felines. Cats of all species tend to gravitate towards her and trust her seemingly immediately (including wary feral and wild species), sensing a connection between her and their kind. This has allowed Ashley to tend to injured and sick cats without trouble, befriend and care for them, forming strong bonds. She even appears to have a form of communication with them as she often talks to cats and they respond in a variety of ways. She regularly cares for a throng of feral and alley cats that live in her neighborhood, having named all of them. When she became trapped under the debris of a building during a hurricane that struck Miami, a pack of cats gathered over where she was trapped and started such a ruckus that her teammates deduced she had to be buried under there and rescued her in time.

Bi-lingual


 * Besides English, Ashley speaks fluent Spanish, since her mother is part-Cuban and maintains a strong connection to her heritage. One might argue that Ashley also 'speaks' cat-language.

Seduction


 * Although she considers herself a 'plus size gal', Ashley has a body that heterosexual men tend to mostly dream about. Her apparent shamelessness and cat-like, clingy and playful behavior allows her to captivate the minds of many men in order to extract information or distract them. She successfully double-teams with Belladonna on this matter. Once she distracted Dreadnought by exposing her breasts. She nearly distracted Ryan and Gabriel too.

Strength Level
Under normal circumstances, Ashley has the strength of a woman her size that exercises regularly, but her ability to transform into any species of cat she chooses and even hybrids allows her to exceed human limitations and her speed, agility and predatory prowess make her a strong opponent. She has shown greatest degree of strength while in a panthera leo atrox hybrid form.

Weaknesses
Ashley is vulnerable to all human weaknesses and shortcomings.  

Miscellaneous
Most of the training and equipment she has received comes from her father's old equipment, but it is so advanced it is still considered cutting edge.

Equipment
Costume


 * Ashley's skintight costume is a revised (and re-sized) version of her father's original costume and retains most of its characteristics. She wears fingerless gloves and flat, shock-absorption and anatomical boots that let her toes out in the open, which adapt to cat-like leg-structures when she transforms into a hybrid. The costume is elastic to adapt to her changes of size and designed to allow maximum flexibility while giving some protection. The mask sticks to her face using specialized glue to hide her features when she is in human form.

Transportation
Feet, roof-prowling and the speed of a cheetah if she needs to get somewhere REALLY fast.

Weapons
Claws


 * Ashley's claws as any big-cat or cat-human hybrid are sufficiently strong enough to tear deep wounds in the flesh of humans and those with normal body durability. In her biggest human-hybrid form, she was able to cut through wood and thin metal.

Fangs & Jaws


 * In the forms of large cats and human-cat hybrids, Ashley has powerful biting forces that can break bones in one bite.

Trivia

 * She writes articles and reviews for movies, video-games and books and is planning several novels of her own.
 * Her cat-forms are actually affected by catnip.
 * Her chest size, according to her, is a CC cup.
 * She's allergic to bee stings.
 * She has mentioned that she wants to do her Creative Writing MA in East Anglia.
 * Absolutely hates being called 'Pussy Cat'.
 * Her favorite movie is "The Incredibles".
 * Despite being in a relationship with Ryan at present, Ashley is bisexual.

Recommended Reading
Ashley Caradyne/Feral: The Cat And I

Feral: Hunter by Night

Nightwatch: The Long Road

Nightwatch: One Path

Nightwatch: Sins of Our Fathers

Abaddon & Feral: Bloody Valentine

Abaddon: Nightmare Day

Nightwatch: One of Our Own

Feral: Covenant

Feral: Fools for Love

Feral: Back In the Wild

Nightwatch: Hellraiser

Nightwatch: Price of Pa

Ashley Caradyne/Feral: Diaries of an Alleycat

Ashley Caradyne/Feral: Nine Lives

Ryan Gaven/Abaddon: Amor Vincit Hominis