Saguara

Player: @HNBC
Origin:	Science
Archetype:	Dominator
Security Level:	41
Personal Data
Real Name:	Cassandra Delavega
Known Aliases:	Cassie, Saggy, Cactus Cass, Prickles
Species:	Human Mutate
Age:	27
Height:	5'5"
Weight:	165 lbs
Eye Color:	Golden-Brown
Hair Color:	Dark Greenish Brown
Biographical Data
Nationality:	Hispanic
Occupation:	Botanist (formerly)
Place of Birth:	Tuscon, AZ
Base of Operations:	Paragon City, PI
Marital Status:	Single
Known Relatives:	'
Known Powers
Contaminant/Disease Immunity, Thorn Protrusion/Generation/Projection, Plant Manipulation, Enhanced Durability/Strength/Regeneration, Self-Sustenance vis Sunlight, Water Absorption, Toxin Adaptation/Creation, Vine Generation
Known Abilities
Hand-to-Hand Combat Experience, Gymnastics Training, Botany
Equipment
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Personality

Saguara is fiercely intelligent, with a stoic, brooding disposition. Once compassionate and driven by scientific curiosity, her traumatic transformation hardened her heart. She now holds a deep mistrust of corporate entities, viewing humanity’s reckless development as a direct threat to the natural world. She is often solitary, preferring the quiet of nature to the company of others, and has a dark sense of humor, often making thorny puns. Despite her animosity, she maintains a soft spot for those who appreciate and respect nature and will sometimes spare those who show genuine compassion for the environment.

History

Cassandra "Cassie" Delavega was born and raised in a small town in Arizona, to a close-knit Hispanic family who had lived in the desert for generations. Her parents, Juan and Rosa Delavega, instilled in her a deep respect for the land. Her father was a landscaper, while her mother worked as a teacher, both teaching Cassie the importance of nurturing and preserving their environment. Juan would take her on hikes through the desert, showing her the resilience of native plants and wildlife, and Rosa encouraged her to read about botany and ecology. These experiences sparked a lifelong passion for nature in Cassie, particularly the unique and resilient beauty of the desert.

Cassie was especially close to her younger sister, Sofia, a free-spirited artist who often used desert landscapes as inspiration in her work. The sisters shared an inseparable bond, often exploring the local flora together. Sofia would sketch various cactus species while Cassie took notes and studied them up close, dreaming of ways to help the plants thrive even in harsh conditions. Sofia’s art and Cassie’s research became intertwined, with Sofia occasionally using her sister's notes to add authenticity to her pieces, while Cassie used Sofia's art to visualize her own scientific ideas.

Despite her family’s warmth, Cassie had always been somewhat reserved, struggling to make friends outside her family. In school, she was often teased for her quiet nature and intense focus on her studies, earning her the nickname "Cactus Cassie." She embraced it, however, using it as motivation to prove herself to those who doubted her. Driven and determined, Cassie eventually earned a scholarship to a top university, where she pursued degrees in botany and environmental science.

During her university years, Cassie found camaraderie with a few like-minded friends who shared her passion for environmental activism. One friend, Isabel "Izzy" Santos, became her confidante and closest friend outside of her family. Izzy was a fiery environmental law student who shared Cassie’s passion for conservation, and they often organized protests and petitions together to protect local wildlife habitats. They even briefly dated, though they eventually decided they were better as friends. Izzy often referred to Cassie as “prickly but loyal” – a phrase that would stick with Cassie for years.

After university, Cassie returned to Arizona, where she took on a research position at a prominent environmental science lab. She specialized in desert ecosystems, dedicating her work to studying and preserving arid environments. Her primary goal was to develop drought-resistant plants that could survive extreme climate changes, hoping her research would benefit not only Arizona but other regions facing desertification. Despite her promising career, Cassie often felt underappreciated in her field. Many of her colleagues dismissed her ideas as unrealistic, especially when she proposed gene-splicing techniques to combine resilient cactus traits with other plants. Only one person in her lab seemed to truly believe in her – her lab assistant and mentee, Mateo Cruz, a young, ambitious intern eager to learn from her.

As Cassie’s research progressed, she faced increasing pressure from a corporate sponsor funding the lab, BioFuture Industries, a subsidiary of Crey, who wanted immediate, profitable results. The head of the company, Warren Voss, saw Cassie’s work as a potential goldmine and pushed her to speed up her experiments, ignoring her concerns about the risks. Cassie’s clashes with Voss grew intense, as she felt he was corrupting her vision for the sake of profit. She suspected he had cut corners, ordering cheaper and potentially unstable chemicals to save costs, but she didn’t have enough proof to confront him directly.

One evening, when Cassie stayed late at the lab to conduct a pivotal experiment in her gene-splicing research, she noticed a strange odor in the air. Before she could react, an explosion tore through the lab. The blast killed several of her colleagues, including Mateo, and left her critically injured. She later discovered that someone had sabotaged her equipment, and the unstable chemicals she'd been forced to use combined with her serum, causing her body to absorb the cactus DNA she had been working with.

When she finally awoke from the incident, she found herself transformed. Her skin was green and rough, her body covered in spikes and thorn-like protrusions, and she felt a strange connection to plant life. Horrified and desperate, she sought out her surviving coworkers for help, only to be shunned and discredited. Even Izzy, now working for a law firm, initially didn’t believe Cassie’s claims of sabotage and urged her to “accept what happened and move on,” thinking Cassie’s suspicions were born out of grief.

Heartbroken by the betrayal and with nowhere to turn, Cassie fled into the natural world, finding solace among the plants she had once studied. Embracing her new form, she adopted the moniker "Saguara" after the resilient saguaro cactus, a symbol of endurance in the harsh desert landscape. She began using her powers to take vengeance on both BioFuture Industries and Crey, targeting those she held responsible for the lab explosion, starting with Warren Voss and the higher-ups at the company.

Saguara’s motivation stems from her desire to protect nature and punish those she sees as a threat to it. She views her transformation as a symbolic merging with the nature itself, and she now acts as a fierce guardian of the ecosystem, seeing herself as a voice for the voiceless land. Her attacks are often directed at corporations and industrial facilities that encroach upon or harm natural areas, and she has even developed a network of radical environmentalists who view her as a hero.

Despite her hardened heart, Saguara still has moments of vulnerability, especially when she remembers her family. She sometimes wishes she could visit her old home. She feels torn between her vendetta and the part of her that longs to reconnect with her family, but she fears they would not understand her transformation – or worse, they would reject her like everyone else did.

Cassie still occasionally sends Izzy anonymous letters, subtly suggesting that her suspicions about BioFuture Industries might be worth revisiting. Although Izzy remains unaware of Cassie’s true identity as Saguara, she has started to quietly investigate her friend’s claims, leading her down a dangerous path that may bring her closer to Saguara’s new world.

Powers

• Contaminant/Disease Immunity: Saguara is able to resist certain illnesses and toxins, rarely getting sick from germs.
• Self-Sustenance via Sunlight: Similar to plants, Saguara can absorb sunlight to replenish her energy and heal faster. In direct sunlight, her physical strength and resilience increase significantly, allowing her to overpower opponents and sustain longer battles. She also does not need to eat or sleep through absorbed sunlight.
• Toxin Adaptation/Generation: Saguara can generate a variety of toxins with different effects, such as hallucinations, paralysis, or lethargy. She can control the potency and type of toxin depending on her goal, whether it’s to incapacitate or merely disorient her foes.
• Thorned Vine Generation: Saguara can summon long, spiny vines that she can control with great precision. She uses these to ensnare her enemies, pin them to walls, or pull herself to high places. The thorns on the vines can also inflict poison on contact, making them more dangerous to handle
• Spine Projectiles: She can launch her cactus spines as projectiles, each one coated with toxins that cause paralysis or a slow, painful reaction similar to that of a cactus sting. The toxins vary in potency and effect, depending on her intent.
• Cactus Physiology: Saguara’s body is partly composed of cactus-like skin and tissues, with small, prickly spines covering her arms, shoulders, and back. Her skin is tough and waxy, able to withstand harsh climates and even some physical attacks.
• Plant Manipulation/Generation: Saguara can control and grow variousd flora. She can create vine-like extensions from her body or cause nearby plants to grow into obstacles or weapons.
• Regeneration: Like a cactus, Saguara can heal from minor injuries relatively quickly. Her regenerative abilities are heightened when she’s exposed to sunlight.
• Dehydration Resistance: She can survive in arid conditions with minimal water and draw water from plants or soil around her.

Weaknesses & Limitations

• Extreme Cold: Saguara’s physiology is ill-suited for cold temperatures, which make her brittle and susceptible to injury. Prolonged exposure to cold can render her paralyzed.
• Photosynthetic Dependency: Although she can heal in sunlight, long periods of darkness significantly drain Saguara’s energy. If she’s deprived of sunlight for too long, she becomes weak, disoriented, and may eventually go into a hibernation-like state to conserve energy.
• Overhydration Risk: While she needs some water to survive, too much can harm her, making her heavy, bloated, and sluggish. If she absorbs too much water, her regenerative abilities slow down, and she becomes vulnerable to physical attacks due to the weight of the water within her body.
• Allergy to Pollutants: Pollutants in the soil or air, like chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or heavy metals, weaken her powers and cause her pain, as her cactus physiology is extremely sensitive to unnatural toxins. Pollutants also diminish her chlorokinetic abilities, making it harder for her to regenerate or control plants.
• Intense Fire Vulnerability: Saguara is particularly flammable due to her plant-based physiology and dry, cactus-like skin. Flames spread quickly over her body, making her extra cautious around fire-wielding opponents or fiery environments.
• Fragrance Sensitivity: She’s extremely sensitive to strong, artificial fragrances, finding them offensive and unnatural. This sensitivity extends to perfumes, cleaning products, and even some synthetic fabrics, which can trigger sneezing fits or make her visibly uncomfortable. Natural desert scents, like sagebrush or mesquite, however, are pleasing to her.

Affiliations

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Opinions

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Trivia

• Saguara dislikes physical contact and avoids being too close to others, both for practical reasons (her spines are sharp) and because she’s somewhat aloof. If someone does try to touch her without permission, she reflexively flinches or even "prickles up" by making her spines more prominent as a defense mechanism.

• She has a tendency to hold grudges against anyone she catches polluting or harming nature. If she sees someone litter, waste water, or damage a plant, she might silently vow to “teach them a lesson,” leading to minor acts of eco-themed sabotage (like wrapping their car in vines or filling it with cactus needles).

• When stressed or exhausted, she finds a sunny spot, stands very still, and closes her eyes to “recharge” through photosynthesis. Others may see this as her version of meditation, and she often ignores anyone who interrupts her during these sessions.

• Saguara has a distinctly dry, sarcastic sense of humor, often making pointed remarks or responding to others with biting wit. Her humor is as sharp as her spines, and she’ll often make puns about plants, water, or the desert when talking to her enemies. She particularly enjoys the irony of telling people they “need to grow a spine.”

• Saguara despises people who can’t take care of plants, and she’s quick to judge anyone with a history of “killing” houseplants. If someone tells her they have trouble keeping plants alive, she might sneer, saying, “You’d never survive in my world,” and offer unsolicited (but sharp) advice on plant care.

• Every so often, Saguara takes what she calls a "Hydration Holiday" where she overindulges in water. She’ll find a place rich in groundwater like a grotto and spend a few days “soaking” to restore her vitality. During these times, she becomes unusually mellow and almost friendly, as though she’s savoring a rare luxury. Her body also swells up slightly, which also makes her somewhat lethargic.

• Saguara’s smile is unsettlingly sharp, with slightly pointed teeth that mirror her prickly nature. She might flash this smile as a warning, knowing it often has an intimidating effect. When amused or angry, she tends to show this smile even more, just to keep others on edge.

• Saguara has a habit of sighing loudly whenever something annoys her, with a sharp, almost thorny exhale. She tends to do this whenever people fail to understand her perspective or underestimate her powers. It’s her subtle way of expressing disappointment with “less resilient beings.”

• Saguara is uncomfortable around luxury items and prefers rugged, natural materials. When visiting well-decorated places, she sits stiffly on couches and refuses to touch silk or velvet, muttering about “unnatural softness.” She might even take a seat on the floor if it means avoiding overly fancy decor.

• Her ideal voice claim would be Stephanie Beatriz with her deadpan, fierce portrayal of Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and her voice roles as Mirabel in Encanto and as Vaggie in Hazbin Hotel, Stephanie adds a tough, defiant edge to Saguara, making her sound both dangerous and deeply motivated.

• Instead of traditional bathing, Saguara sometimes prefers to "cleanse" herself by rolling in fine sand or desert dust. She believes it helps protect her skin and absorbs unwanted moisture, making her feel more connected to her desert origins.

• Her laugh is surprisingly loud and has a “spiky” tone to it, sounding almost like a dry cackle. She’ll laugh at her own jokes or at her opponents’ mistakes, and her laughter tends to linger long enough to make others uncomfortable, often echoing with a sharp edge.

• Saguara loves spicy and bitter foods and sees bland flavors as a personal affront. She has a penchant for cactus-based dishes like nopales and prickly pear, and she always adds hot peppers or something sharp-tasting to her meals. Anyone who tries to serve her “plain” food risks getting a thorny scowl.