The vast majority of her childhood was spent travelling around, first for her mother's job and then - once Maria was honorably discharged - for her father's. The closest thing she had to any "friends" were her three younger brothers and all four siblings were perfectly happy with their pampered, nomadic lifestyle. Then, in 2004, her mother accepted a full-time position as a logistics manager at a Boston company and life as the family was accustomed to changed drastically.
Prior to this move the kids had never: lived in a single home for more than two years, attended a regular school, or spent more than five consecutive days in the U.S. The abrupt changes madde for an uncomfortable period of culture shock and resentment for all four kids. Martine was the quickest to adjust, stepping up to set an example for her younger brothers by throwing herself into high school extracurriculars and American culture headfirst.
Always an overachiever, Martine did well enough in high school to gain acceptance to Stanford university where she pursued a degree in bioengineering & physics. She graduated with honors and returned to Boston, taking a year from her studies before enrolling as a doctoral candidate in Harvard's biophysics graduate program. Upon receiving her doctorate, she took a high-paying but soul-sucking R&D job at a pharmaceuticals company before quitting to join a fledgling AI startup. She remained in that position until the snappening of 2018 when, like everyone else she knew, Martine found herself in San Francisco with little explanation.
True to form, however, she rolled with it and adjusted to the strange "move" as well as she'd done with every other upheaval in her life. She is currently employed at a medical research think tank and living in the Bernal Heights neighborhood. Recently, her alterego, Monica Rambeau, has awakened and sent Martine's life into another whirlwind.
1990: born in germany
1993: mathieu is born
1994: fam moved to okinawa
1995: marcus is born
1996: maria is discharged
1999: fam moved to france
2000: fam moved to barcelona
2000: michael is born
2003: maria accepts boston job
2007: accepted into stanford
2011: graduates + moves back to boston
2012: grad school @ harvard
2017: completes doctorate
2018: snapped to san fran
2020: monica wakes up
• appearance alteration Monica can use her facility over light to modulate her energy and modify her appearance, and outwardly take the form of other people. • flight • superhuman speed Monica is capable of moving and reacting at superhuman speeds ranging from the speed of sound to lightspeed while in her energy form. • intangibility She can phase through solid matter and certain energy fields depending on their wavelengths. • invisibility she is often inherently invisible in most of her forms but can make herself visible to the naked eye. • immortality Monica is a being of pure energy which makes her functionally immortal. She doesn't age beyond her prime. • energy duplication When she encounters a new or unfamiliar energy, Monica can often duplicate it given enough time for analysis. • energy absorption capable of absorbing energy given her own energy form is of the right type and at the right wavelength. • energy blasts can control both the type and quantity of energy she wishes to transmit, and can also divert energy (hard light for example) for use as force beams with the equivalent of 300 tons of TNT of explosive force.