Heresiarch
Posts: 5
(6/10/04 6:23 pm)
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Leilani "Pauahi" Ke'ekikolani: Origins
It was the end of the summer vacation season for the tour groups at the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and Museum in 1984. The college students whom worked for the Park were all preparing to return to school within the next week or so. The tours had become rather routine for the tour guides, especially for Leilani Ke'ekikolani... Leilani was a senior at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and had been a guide since her sophomore year in highschool.
The tour had gone as normal for Leilani, until one middle-aged caucasian gentleman with a camera decided to deviate from the tour and headed towards the Pu'u 'O'o vent on Kilauea. There had been random eruptions from the vent for the last year and a half, and the area wasn't considered safe. The man, whom was very opinionated and much stronger than the Hawai'ian, pushed Leilani back as he tried to get a photograph... Only to have her stumble back towards the vent. A rumble in the ground as Leilani regained her footing gave her just enough time to shout at the man and her tour to run before the vent erupted under her feet. The sight of their tour guide becoming engulfed in a four-hundred meter tall fountain of magma was more than enough motivation for the tour to flee. Everyone but Leilani managed to escape intact, although the pushy gentleman did suffer burns to the bottoms of his feet due to the intense heat around him.
The heat was intense, the pain too great to even scream out. Leilani could feel her hair and clothing incinerate, her body begin to melt, her consciousness fading. Becoming one with the lava, her genetic structure suddenly reacted, fusing with the molten earth and flowing against the stream. For two days she was one with the magma, until a small fissure opened in the Pauahi crater. Very little magma would bubble up from that fissure, and all of it would reform into the young Hawai'ian.
It took her most of the rest of the day to even muster the strength to stand. Gradually, she made her way to the Museum on the other side of the volcano. There she found that the park had been closed except for neccessary personnel and the police. Her direct manager was being interviewed by a detective when Leilani approached, causing the woman to faint on the spot. Police attempted to take Leilani into custody for trespass, only to find that she both could not be touched due to the intense heat of her still-cooling body, and that she was the victim of whose demise they were investigating.
It would be later determined that Leilani had been a latent mutant, and that the contact with the lava had triggered her mutation. The man that had pushed her into the Pu'u 'O'o vent had been charged with aggrivated manslaughter, but due to her re-emergence, had the charge commuted to assault.
Unsure on what to do about this new development, Leilani continued on with school, graduating with a split degree in Geology and Law. She found herself unable to get a job in either field, however, as there was a large enough segment of the population that was afraid of her due to her mutation. She eventually found work as a waitress at a luau, fading into the background for several years.
Even though she was a mutant, it wasn't until she came across a mugging on the streets of Hilo that her actual powers manifested. The pair of muggers were obviously not from the area, and the woman at gunpoint was deathly afraid. Leilani hid behind a tree to watch, until the words "Make sure to leave no witnesses" were spoken by one of the muggers. The one with the gun cocked the hammer and was about to take aim on the now crying woman when Leilani burst out screaming at them. The gunman turned and fired at her, the bullet striking her in the chest. While it stung, the only thing the young woman's mind actually thought about was that she had to stop this here and now. Molten earth seeped from her pores, hardening into an armor plating over her body. Fire burst from her hands, and she charged the gunman, tackling him to the ground and knocking him unconscious before turning to the other. Standing there, stupefied, he didn't have a chance to avoid the firey double punch that would cause him to lose both eyebrows and years of freedom.
Leilani waited for the police to arrive, her armor gradually fading away as she spoke to the victim. This woman, a historian, is actually the one that put the moniker of 'Pauahi' to Leilani... The combination of where she emerged, her heritage as a relative of the Princess Bernice Pauahi, and the fact that the first two people she arrested were "pau ahi" (burned) made the name stick, and Leilani would keep this name as her heroic title.
Leilani became rather focused on ridding the islands of crime, and the influx of people to the islands made it a steady business. She was forced to leave her job at the luau, but found that doors previously closed to her opened up to Pauahi. Her landlord let her stay for free after she stopped a gang from kidnapping his twin daughters. The bank manager approved a very large loan with a rediculously low interest rate after a bank robbery was thwarted by Pauahi, allowing her to keep crimefighting and still eat and pay the bills. Appreciative pilots let her dead-head on island-hoppers so she could track down criminals on the other islands. Crime rates dropped in areas she was known to patrol, and this news made Leilani very happy.
It wasn't meant to be forever, though. Her brother Keli'i, a year her junior, had gotten a very lucrative job with the Portal Corporation in Paragon City right out of college. Because of their mother's concerns, he would call every day to tell their mother how he was doing. In March, though, those calls stopped. Fearing for his safety, Leilani's mother begged her to go to Paragon and find Keli'i. Despite never having been to the mainland, Leilani agreed to head east and find her sibling.
It's been very difficult for Leilani to adjust to life in Paragon. It's cold, for one. Another reason is the lack of surfing. And the fact that the criminals are supers as well. But, here in Paragon, she's not alone...
"Hana hou!" |
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