<div class="floatleft">(http://i604.photobucket.com/albums/tt122/DeviantMunster/SoldierGirl.jpg?t=1271407308)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Veronica Valentine (Previously known as Valeriya Khripunov and Victoria Maxwell)<br/><strong>Gender:</strong>Female<br/><strong>Class:</strong>Hunter (Task Force Valkyrie)<br/><strong>Occupation:</strong>Veteran, Working for Project Twilight<br/><strong>Biography:</strong>Veronica Valentine – or Valeriya Khripunov as she was known then – grew up part of a wealthy family, one that certainly cared about their new daughter. Her father was heavily involved in the politics of Russia at the time of her birth, and towards the beginnings of World War II would end up as a Brigade Commissar. She was born in 1921, young and naïve to the closing troubles that would plague her future. While there was a sense of tension after the end of the first World War, things seemed generally peaceful for her and her family, at least until her 14th birthday.<br/><br/>Psychics weren’t well known around that time, and certainly anything beyond such a thing like Mages and Vampires were utterly beyond comprehension, which naturally caused worry for her father when the incident occurred. Being filled with the blush of youth, many young men tried to court the young daughter of the established and rich family, yet one particular boy, Nicholai, got a little too close. Noticing the disturbing force he used to push his very own daughter into a corner, Christoph Khripunov approached with a determined gleam in his eyes, only to suddenly stumbles back in surprise when the boy’s clothing suddenly caught on fire, causing him to run around screaming before several people at the party managed to put him out. He didn’t discuss the incident with his daughter until much later, but he soon realized his pure princess had powers that simply defied his own comprehension. Naturally, he banned her from using those abilities in public ever again, which she just as naturally disobeyed.<br/><br/>When World War II finally hit and every major country in the war seemingly was at each other’s throats, Veronica was all too eager to join the Women’s Corps that had been formed, eager to not only server her Motherland, but also to follow in her father’s footsteps. She wanted to prove herself, and with her increasing ability with pyrokinesis, she truly felt invincible. She quickly found herself enlisted and soon was carted off to Veshnyaki as one of the 300 women to train as snipers. Her mother obviously protested to their errant daughter’s decisions, yet her father simply couldn’t refuse her, and despite the desire to protect his little girl, she was –very- determined to become something more than a stay home mother.<br/><br/>Fast forward a couple of years and she’d reached the rank of Captain in record time. Her abilities, which she used on more than one occasion, quickly were discovered by some of the more secretive organizations of the Red Army, and soon she found herself leading a group of Spetsnaz soldiers on covert ops missions, destroying key installations in the German armies. Yet the main reason they allowed not only someone so young, despite how skillful she was, and a woman on top of that to lead one of their most elite units was the very fact that she could use pyrokinesis. Rumors of Nazi war machines, zombies, and Black Magic weren’t totally unfounded, which to Veronica’s horror she quickly found out.<br/><br/>The Nazi empire didn’t merely stand for a monstrous entity of destruction; it also stood for opportunity. The in depth occult studies conducted by the SS and various other organizations allowed Mages, Vampires, and other infernal creatures to gain a foothold in a quickly expanding empire which would give them considerable leverage in latter human government… so long as they showed results. Mages with their dark magic and undying armies and Vampires with their dark promise of immortality were definite focuses of the entire battle plan of the SS, yet some wanted something more for themselves, something that didn’t come with inherent weaknesses to sunlight or the enthrallment of their mind; thus did they discover Blood-Bathing.<br/><br/>Veronica Valentine’s own use of this dark ritual came when she and her group of trained Spetsnaz infiltrated one of the Concentration Camps. Not only did it act as a cover by being worthless as a strategic point, it also provided an unfortunately large amount of bodies to be used for the darker rituals performed by some of the German Nazis. With some information being leaked to the Russians concerning powerful relics the Nazi’s had managed to gain hold. Valentine was placed in charge of the mission. What they discovered within the labyrinth of halls underneath the camp was beyond describing: blood, guts, pieces of human bodies and creatures from the very Abyss littered the halls of this dungeon. The soldiers themselves were barely human, and their powers were greater than anything they’d seen or fought off before. It was only Veronica’s psionic abilities that managed to get them through the bullet resistant creatures and men within the compound, and soon they’d managed to secure the relics and artifacts they’d come for, though at a great cost of their own men.<br/><br/>As the saying goes, power corrupts. As they prepared the newfound cargo for transport and eventual extraction, the ritual for supposed immortality caught poor Valentine’s attention. Over the course of the way back, that small curiosity had grown until she couldn’t help but study and look into the tablets describing the ritual. Despite her better judgment, she copied and lifted a few of the artifacts before delivering them, something she is both guilty and thankful for.<br/><br/>The war would eventually come to an end, and with it the beginning of a second and less bloody one. With many governmental shifts in the Motherland, it was no surprise that her father had ended up a political prisoner and eventually killed. She and her mother managed to make it out of Russia unscathed with much of their personal belongings, though it had left a very bitter taste in the still young girl’s mouth.<br/><br/>America: land of opportunity and freedom. The perfect place to start a new life, or so the new Victoria Maxwell thought. Her Blood-Bathing rituals had been an utter success, yet the death of innocents never had felt right with her. While the first few attempts failed, she managed to eventually get the process down where she hadn’t needed to kill the victims, though capturing and sedating them had made her feel very wrong. Nevertheless, the power and agelessness was much to addicting to ignore.<br/><br/>Bringing the remnants of her broken family with her, namely the items of worth they’d gathered over the years, she started a new life in New York City, taking odd jobs here and there. Unfortunately the excitement of battle still called to her, as did the considerably amount of pay. When the war in Vietnam came around, she was one of the first to jump into it. Yet, naturally, the American view on women in combat roles resulted in her using an alias to enter the military, posing as a simple male marine. Obviously incredibly difficult to accomplish, she nevertheless managed with some guile and trickery, as well as the occasional bribe when someone “noticed” something different about the new guy.<br/><br/>Her powers hadn’t truly been used for years, and her new, almost indestructible body only added to the excitement of war. Yet what she was truly after, what she was truly interested in finding were the same supernatural creatures she’d encountered during the second World War, monsters she could righteously send back to the Abyss; and she certainly found them. Joining the 173rd Airborne Brigade landed her right in the middle of the conflict, yet there were creatures of mass and might among the two opposing Vietnamese sides, giant wolves and half-men that could tear people to pieces. She and the squad she was part off were nearly annihilated in one of the attacks, her “cocky” attitude regarding her new body nearly costing her her life had it not been for a well placed grenade by a now deceased Private Jackson. The horrors of war there, from the death of innocent children and eldery to the frightening shapeshifting creatures that seemed to flow right through the foliage, scarred her for life, but also gave her a renewed sense of purpose. Fighting monsters, fighting for something other than herself or her country made her feel utterly exirillated. While these things were much more powerful than the creatures she’d faced in World War II, the thick jungles allowed her to easily find material to burn, turning deserted villages and thick foliage into a burning crescendo of flames that annihilated anything caught within the firestorm.<br/><br/>But, as some say, the past is in the past, and to tell the story of such an activate individual, especially one that has lived for so long would take an indescribable amount of time. Thus, fast forwarding to the present, Staff Sergeant Veronica Valentine was stationed in Iraq, though her rank was mostly gained on the field. She served in the 172nd Infantry Brigade, providing both support and taking part in the larger scale attacks in the beginnings of the war. While she was met with some disapproval for being a woman, her commendations and battle successes quickly established her as an excellent marine and leader. While she did her best to keep her abilities hidden, occasionally she did use them, and certain United States organizations became interested, namely Task Force Valkyrie.<br/><br/>It wasn’t until the Bush administration had already been sent off and the Obama administration firmly established that she was approached by the group. Naturally she was frightened at the prospect of someone finding about her odd rituals, but to her surprise it concerned her “psychic” abilities. With a little prodding, she eventually was discharged from Iraq, soon being indoctrinated into the secret organization that supposedly combated evil.<br/>