MAJOR DEEJ UNIVERSE

Opal is a young Guatemalan woman who came to the United States with her parents when she was little. Her parents worked hard in New Mexico to make a living, with the entire family eventually becoming US citizens prior to Opal's 12th birthday.

 

When Opal was a young teenager, her mother noticed Opal had a fever of over 105 degrees.  Opal was taken to the hospital where her temperature continued to climb while her skin began to darken and vein up.  Just as they were about to place her in a cooling tub to bring down her temperature, her skin changed to a black and orange armored rocky surface.  Unable to understand what was happening, the doctors called the police.  Opal shot out of the hospital, leaving behind gouged footprints in the hospital's floor tiles and asphalt parking lot. Within an hour she was found under a overpass and surrounded by dozens of police cars and armed cops.  When she demanded to leave her alone, a large mallet-like weapon grew from her right hand. The police shot at her, but the bullets instead bounced off her armored body.  Unsure how to proceed, they brought in her mother and sister and tried to calm Opal.  Not only did the mother and sister calm Opal down, but Opal reverted back to her normal fleshy skin and body, none the worse for wear.

 

After several hours at the police station, a hateful lawyer wanted to arrest her for originally being illegal immigrants and also for not 'registering' her powers.  Opal had to prove her family's citizenship (her family never told her of their illegal travel into the U.S.) and that she didn't even start she had powers until she was at the hospital.  The police chief shooed the lawyer from the interrogation room and started having a normal one-on-one conversation with Opal, asking her about school, boys and what she wanted to do with her life.  Eventually, Opal mentioned she wanted to be a detective like her father was before they left Guatemala and carry on the family business.  The police chief, Captain Rick Rowland, told Opal that he was going to drop all charges (or lack thereof) against her and help her with her family's illegal immigrant issue as well as having to register her powers, so long as she'd spend some hours after school each day working with his squad's detectives as an 'apprentice'.  Opal was overjoyed at the options presented to her and did as Captain Rowland requested.

 

Captain Rowland signed Opal up for super-powered registration, stating that he would be her 'monitoring authority' and 'trainer'.  The registration committee was impressed with the Captain's stellar police and community record and thus granted Opal a waiver for Rowland to complete Opal's mandated on-site training, so long as Captain Rowland taught her all the same registration academics, laws and responsibilities at their location (which of course he did).

 

Over the next few years, Opal kept her powers a secret from all but Captain Rowland, his assistance, Lieutenant Dave Medeiros and her family.  She usually went out into the remote parts of the desert of New Mexico and practiced using her powers when no one was around. She also spent all her spare waking days working hard at learning how to be a detective.  After Opal graduated high school, she was offered a spot at the police academy with a full scholarship paid for by Captain Rowland's precinct. Officially, Opal knew that being a registered superhuman prevented her from attending the academy, but, according to Captain Rowland, he 'worked out the details' to allow her to go to the academy.

 

Opal's life was going great...that is, until her first month at the academy.

 

At the police academy, Opal was off to a great start, gaining excellent scores in her academics and field training, especially at the gun range (Captain Rowland used to take Opal out to the gun range to teach her to shoot as well).  As with all schools, there was always an ignorant bully looking to make themselves look better by stepping on others.  One such bully was a Caucasian female student by the name of Samantha Parsons.  Samantha enjoyed bullying those shorter than her...or non-Caucasian, for that matter.  Samantha also liked 'sleeping' her way to the top and using her body to get ahead, vice becoming a better police officer through the training and excellence.  As such, Samantha and Opal didn't get along well and after several verbal altercations, Samantha decided she needed to 'remove' Opal from 'her' academy.

 

In a cruel prank, Samantha shot a video of Opal in the shower naked and edited Opal's recorded voice bits to make it sound like Opal was berating the academy and its staff all to a music sound track.  It was posted on the academy's forums and on the Ya!Go! video share site, getting millions of internet hits in mere hours.  Within two hours, Opal was expelled from the academy for the video.  Nothing was ever done to investigate who recorded the video or uncover the plot created by Samantha...that is, all except Opal.

​

Moving back home, in shame, with her parents not talking to her, Opal started using her detective training she got from Captain Rowland to get to the bottom of her expulsion.  After two weeks of surveillance, evidence collection and gathering facts and data, Opal requested an audience with the academy's commandant and presented her evidence.  After several other academy staff officers corroborated Opal's evidence, a formal inquiry was formed.  In less than a week, the inquiry authorized the investigation of Samantha and several other academy staff officers for their heinous acts.  In the end, Samantha was expelled from the academy, followed up with a jail sentence and $700, 000 fine for her actions.  The other academy staff officers that had relations with Samantha was forced into retirement with a permanent mark on their service records, disallowing them their full pensions.  Opal was authorized to return to the academy, but instead she insisted on being assigned as a rookie back to her hometown's police station, back with Captain Rowland's team.  Opal was granted her request and was transferred the next day.

 

After her first year at her hometown police station, Opal proved her worth by being one of the best police officers on the force. Even Opal's parents were happy about Opal being cleared of wrongdoing at the academy and were ecstatic that she was back home, living in an apartment only a few miles from the family home. Her folks did buy a larger home, but kept most of the money for Opal's other siblings to use for college.

 

Not long after Opal was promoted to sergeant, Opal was assigned to the detective department, where she received her first assignment as a detective 3rd class - the first murder in the town in over 10 years; the murder of Captain Rowland.  She considered Captain Rowland to be the best mentor she could ever have and swore she'd find his murderer if it took her the rest of her life.

 

Days turned into weeks.  Weeks turned into months. Finally after four months of intense investigations, a witness was found for the murder.  The witness was a local alcoholic bum (that Opal knew a bit about already).  The bum demanded money for his testimony and a bus ticket out of the state for fear of his life.  The new captain of the police force, Medeiros, dragged his feet with Opal's request, citing precedence and the meaningless word of a bum.  Agitated over the delays, Opal took money out of her own account and bought a bus ticket to Texas for the bum. 

She went to give him what he asked for, bringing a digital recorder with her to copy his testimony, when she found the bum being beaten to death by two guys in their late 20s...and Captain Medeiros.  She used her cell phone's video to record the beating and turned on the digital voice recorder to record.  Placing the recorder in her pocket and positioning her cell phone to visually record all that was happening from a nearby fence post, Opal swung into action and attacked the thugs attacking the bum.  The bum was already badly beaten but alive.  Captain Medeiros mentioned something about 'two birds with one stone', broke out his handgun...and shot Opal point blank.

 

Or at least Medeiros thought he did.

​

Opal changed fast enough into her mutated rocky state to deflect the bullets Medeiros had fired at her. Medeiros and his thugs continued to shoot at Opal while retreating to the Captain's police car.  As Opal rounded the police car, Medeiros pulled out an illegal and unauthorized sonic blasters from the trunk of his car.  He fired it at Opal, causing chunks of Opal's armored skin to shatter and dissipate on the ground as crystalline dust.  Opal kept trying to reform new layers of armor, all the while feeling exceptional pain from the weapon.  With seconds of life left in her, Opal grew her mallet and swung it at Medeiros' weapon, smacking it out into the river.  With her last bit of strength, Opal punched Medeiros into unconsciousness.  before she passed out, she called out the code for officer down on the police radio.  She passed out staring at the other two thugs driving away in their cars...which Opal memorized their license plates as the vehicles drove off and Opal lost consciousness.

 

Days later, Opal awoke in the hospital.  She was covered in bandages from head to toe.  She was alive.

 

When she passed out, she'd reverted back to her normal body, however, the wounds she'd received carried over to her human body, allowing open wounds to bleed out.  The doctors patched her up and saved her life.  She was told a day later that her recording of what transpired proved Medeiros was Captain Rowland's murderer.  Medeiros signed a confession stating that he could no longer stand Rowland catering to a 'freak' in their police ranks.  As such, Rowland was ready to report Medeiros for his remarks when Medeiros killed Rowland.  Mederios had intended to kill Opal with his sonic rifle he'd stolen from a GUARD warehouse down the road after he'd made sure he wasn't going to be found culpable in anything about Rowland's murder first. 

 

Opal received a commendation for her efforts.  Medeiros was convicted on murder 1, two counts of attempted murder and several other felony convictions, garnering him 75 years in a federal penitentiary.  Sadly though, news got out about Opal being a mutant and about her powers. 

 

Due to the Registration Act's rules (which Captain Rowland broke by allowing Opal to go to the Police Academy in the first place), she was no longer allowed to work with the 'normal' police officers and was forced to resign from the force.  The day she was packing her things, a strangely-dressed man calling himself Doctor Warder offered Opal a chance to use her skills to become a superhero with his new Midwest super-group calling themselves the "American Patrol".

 

Days later, Opal became a member of the American Patrol.

 

She has since moved to New Mexico's capitol, Santa Fe, only a half hour's drive to her parent's family home.  There, she started her own private detective business to help with cold cases as well as deal with a new wave of powerful, villainous characters that have since started showing up in New Mexico over the last year.

 

Today, Opal is living in her own apartment with her new boyfriend, working contracted cold cases with the Santa Fe Police Department (as a consultant) and fighting alongside her new super-powered teammates in the American Patrol.

​