Replica is a Millenium City superheroine. Until late 2021, she had mostly gone under the radar, using her MRM suit - stolen from a super-crook - to shapeshift and infiltrate locations to get information she needed for journalistic stories. But her suit confers other powers, and she soon realized her obligation to use it to its fullest capacity to safeguard lives.

Biography

Replica is actually Kyra Sparks, a resident of Millennium City and an undergrad at MCU studying journalism. She is the host of a popular alternative news podcast and blog called Spark Line, and secretly uses her suit's impersonation power to get information that reporters could never obtain otherwise.

Early Life

The Sparks family is from Athens, Michigan, a small town about two hours west of Millennium City.

The small town life wasn't enough for Kyra, but she did her best to get involved in local theater and decorating school events to fill her time. A skilled teacher at her high school nurtured Kyra's love of writing and essaying.

Millennium City University Student

Daily Vanguard

Kyra enrolled in a Bachelor of Communications program as a journalism major and a drama minor starting in the 2018-2019 year. She has become a "big woman on campus" - famous or infamous to many for her in-your-face style of reporting on her own publications, as well as the main campus paper, the Daily Vanguard.

The controversy Kyra courted in her freshman year by slipping into the University President's office for an unscheduled interview with pointed questions about rising costs of tuition led the Daily Vanguard to "punish" Kyra by putting her on the sports beat for two years. This actually served to broaden her appeal, as many students felt she elevated the quality of the sports section's writing, and it gave her a new audience. Many of the university athletes try to keep a good relationship with Kyra in hopes of more and favorable mentions by her, though a few athletes have come to believe she has something against them, and snub her.

At the beginning of her senior year, the D.V. assigned Kyra to the coveted role of columnist, for which she provided opinion pieces about campus life. Yet by then, with Spark Line's popularity on campus and at large having surpassed the Vanguard's, it could be seen the paper benefited more than she did. Nevertheless, her contributions continued to be of high quality.

WMCU

Kyra volunteered at WMCU, 88.5 FM, in her freshman year. After 5 months of assisting behind the scenes, she was given a slot from 4:30 AM - 7:00 AM every Sunday, which she named Spark Line. Hungry to do journalistic reporting of the sort the Vanguard forbade her to, Kyra used the radio version of Spark Line to produce mini-documentaries and interviews that would play between music sets. Four months later, languishing in her obscure time slot with miniscule listenership, and foreseeing no better timeslot opening anytime soon, Kyra quit WMCU and began Spark Line as a podcast and blog of her own in the summer before her sophomore year.

Accommodations

Kyra lives just off-campus in a ramshackle basement suite of an older, Detroit-era apartment block. Under condition that Kyra "work around" the various detritus left there by the building's owner, Mrs. Spychka, Kyra enjoys a modest rent of $250 per month, and free utilities minus her internet bill. Kyra's ad revenue and donations from Spark Line easily pay her living expenses. Spark Line is written, and its podcast recorded, in a makeshift studio in Kyra's suite.

Gear

Prototype MRM Suit

Replica depends on the Prototype Matter Reassembler Matrix suit to provide all of the super abilities she employs. Without the suit, Kyra Sparks has no super abilities. Its default look is customizable by its operator.

Kyra stole the suit from Facet, a super thief of national-level infamy rumored to have come to Millennium City when she was investigating him for a story. Facet had obtained the suit during the chaos surrounding Source Biotech Enterprises being put out of business after coming under Federal investigation for a litany of violations in 2016. Source Biotech had been developing the prototype suit for nearly 20 years based on its illicit study of meta-human specimens.

Operation

Within the suit, as long as the operator is contained (i.e., all components worn, and in good condition), the operator can use the augmented reality (AR) display in the eyepieces with their hands to choose how to shapeshift. The suit can scan subjects and attempt to duplicate their appearance; a built-in voice approximator attempts to disguise the operator's voice to be similar to the imitated subject. The operator also has the option to do size-manipulation, but this is quite taxing on the suit's power as well as the operator's health.

Damage and Repair

If the suit is damaged, it may disrupt the integrity of any disguise, potentially exposing the wearer to discovery. If the mask is not worn, the wearer does not have suit integrity nor the means to operate the suit's AR controls, thus they cannot shapeshift.

The matter reassembler matrix does have a self-repair feature, able to 'mend' tears. It can request a supply of powdered metals like carbon, aluminum, and copper to replenish lost portions, or reabsorb part of the suit which has been separated and attempt to recycle its components.

Electrical Supply

The suit has a USB plugin for active recharging, as well as a micro-solar array through the suit for passive energy collection.

Personality

Depending whom you ask, Kyra is either gutsy and outspoken, or just a shrill rabble-rouser. The owner/operator of Spark Line, she lives and breathes her work as a reporter - even as she works on her academics. Kyra is affable, sociable, studious, and yet ceaseless in looking for stories.

Few would deny Kyra is a bold individual. She takes calculated risks, and can come off as whimsical - reckless, even - but she moderates this by being a sharp thinker and a fast talker. Will it keep her safe, or just keep getting her into trouble?

For all of her tremendous talent, her relative fame, and her ease of insight into the social and political sphere upon which she reports, Kyra surprisingly lacks close, personal ties. Is it that she has prioritized her career, that she has burned too many bridges, or is there something else that causes her distance from others?

Kyra seems to have an outlook on the greater good, but it remains to be seen how deep this conviction runs - is it intrinsic, or is her pursuit of it a benefit to her own ego?

Specialties

• Costuming
• Improvisation
• Journalism
• Stealth