Zora Schwarzer was 6 years old when the Soltan Star Empire invaded Earth. Zora's parents and Zora attempted to flee the invasion in Berlin in their car, hoping to hide in the Black Forest in Germany, but instead the car was violently destroyed by a Soltan attack craft, causing the car to explode, tossing young Zora into the forest's tree line, thankfully with Zora only receiving minor wounds.  Her parents dead, Zora ran into the woods where she hid from the 'evil' aliens, and the rest of civilization, for the next few years.

In her time in the forest, she learned to forage for food and savagely fight the forest's animals and predators to stay alive. She came across dozens of homes in the forest and usually stole what was accessible to her, never once being caught. 

 

When Zora was 12, she was about ready to give up her forest life, after not seeing the aliens for many years. She was still very cautious of other people since they all seemed to 'shoot at anything first and ask questions later'.  To that effect, Zora decided to 'give herself up' to an old elderly man who had a horse (Clydesdale, usually used for plowing a small farming field the old man had), of which she'd figured he'd be of little danger to her.

 

This proved wrong.

 

Slowly, she went up to the large Clydesdale to pet it before she was to go to the old man at his log cabin. The horse seemed to like her (mostly because she had several sweet candies she'd made in the woods and gave to the horse to eat).  The old man however didn't like that. He yelled at Zora telling her she'd never get his 'treasure' and actually used a slingshot against her, knocking her out with only one rock.

 

When Zora awoke, she was bound to a chair in the log cabin, tied up as if the old man thought she'd be super strong or the such.  The old man was making soup by the fireplace when, without turning around, asked her in German who she thought she was trying to sneak in there and steal his treasures. As the old man finished his query, he immediately began coughing and wheezing severely. 

 

The old man was definitely gravely ill; he didn't sound well at all.

 

Zora told him her tale, all the way back to the alien invasion and what she'd been doing up to then, and that now, she was ready to 'go home' but needed someone to help her get there without trying to kill her in the process.

 

The old man cackled and coughed (spitting up blood this time). Struggling to stand, the old man told Zora that she was 'daft' for wanting to return to civilization and that nature and the forest were all she needed to survive with. Zora agreed, but also stated she was a girl who also needed human companionship and love, like her parents gave her once.

 

The old man paused.

 

After several minutes of silence, the old man (still coughing and wheezing, even worse than before), asked Zora quite the question:

 

"If you had the tools to stay in the forest and be its new "Ranger", would you stay on and help protect what exists here?"

 

Zora quizzically scrunched her face at his question, trying to understand what the old man was on about, thus looking for a clarification by asking, "What tools could ever exist that would make anyone want to stay and live in the forest forever? They'd have to be some pretty "magical" tools!". to which the old man wheeled around and came upon Zora with incredible speed, holding a knife to her throat and demanding "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY MAGIC TREASURE? HOW?!? WHO TOLD YOU?? ANSWER ME!!".

 

Zora was speechless and half expecting to die right then and there. Luckily, she remembered, in her sleeve, she'd created, herself, a small bladder of knockout gas she'd fashioned from a particular mushroom growing in the forest.  She wiggled her arms enough that the bladder fell into her hands and then she kicked the chair (and herself) onto its back, pushing off of the old man while also tossing the bladder of knockout gas at him.

 

The old man was knocked out instantly.

 

Zora was still tied to a chair on her back, but not for much longer.

 

Using a sharpened wooden blade Zora made hidden up her other sleeve, she cut herself loose. She then tied the old man up to the same chair just in time for him to come back to consciousness.

 

The old man cackled a throaty laugh, again, followed by coughing, wheezing and spitting up blood. Zora noted, at this rate, the old man was not going to make it through the night.

 

Zora told him she had no interest in his treasures and only wanted him to help bring her back to the right people (that wouldn't shoot her) in civilization so she could go back to her old life before the aliens. The old man, for the first time, seemed sober with expression and thought.

 

"You're not here for my treasures?", he asked. "NO.", Zora said. "I don't even know what they are or care for whatever they're possible worth is. I just want to go HOME, get it, old man?".  Again, the old man asked the same question:

 

"If you had the tools to stay in the forest and be its new "Ranger", would you stay on and help protect what exists here?"

 

To which Zora sighed. In trying to figure out what madness this old man had in him, she figured, since he asked twice about the same thing, it must be important to him. So, with reservation and an expectation of this getting her nowhere fast, she said, "Sure. The forest has been my life for years, but I can't survive without the right weapons, tools and means of living. It's too hard, and as it is, I'm amazed myself that I'm still alive after all these years, so sure, yes, the right tools would help. NOW, are you going to help me?"

 

The old man cackled and basically started coughing uncomfortably, to which Zora attempted to help him, for a few moments successfully. The old man looked at her and said, "It's time then. It's time for you to do protect the treasures of Ullr and the gods. It's time to pass on my duties...and my treasures.  The map to the treasure is under my bed. The horse's name if Stella. Any money I got is in an old cigar box under the floorboard. Untie me and let me be. I'll go off and be with my wife now. You'll get no more problems from me from here on. I need you to be either the the guardian of the treasures or be the Ranger the treasures were meant to be used by. Be either one. It's your call now. Just do me a favor, will you? Help keep this beautiful forest from being taken over by civilization as best you can, okay? Man's done enough damage to this planet. Try to help stem the death of this forest before its time."

 

Zora agreed and carefully untied the old man, taking the old man's slingshot and bag of rocks to ensure he wasn't going to attack here with them again. The old man or ever looking back, without conflict, shuffled out the door, put his hat on, tucked in his shirt and walked into the forest, never to be seen alive again.

 

Zora found the map the old man talked about, drawn on a tree bark. It was hard to follow and read, but after about an hour's worth of wandering around with it on the map's supposed path in the forest, she found the map's destination - a cave. Once in the cave, she saw old Nordic hieroglyphics (she'd seen when she was little in a museum), along with a section of rock wall that seemed to have fallen down and in to a large cavernous void.  In there, using some bioluminescence bladders she'd created to partially light her way, she came across a sight unseen to her ever before.

 

It was a grand domed cavern adorned in rotted wood, metal and gold. The ornate symbols and metalwork reminded her of the Norse museum her folks took her to days before the invasion. In the center overhead dome a glowing orb hung emitting a faint golden light unto everything in the space. Inlaid in the circular walls of the domed chamber were relics; lots of relics...and some empty voids were it seemed, at one time, help other relics. Of the few she saw left, she saw a ring, a cloak, a rusted sword, a quiver without arrows and an archery bow, all basked in the golden glow from the hanging orb in ceiling of the domed room. Zora did see a spot that had an outline of what she believed was supposedly some time of wooden mask, but said mask was not there...but seemed to have ben taken from its spot not too long ago, since she saw disturbances in the dust at the base of the mask's location.

 

Zora went to touch the archery bow to feel its ornate engraved carving it had in it. It almost seemed new... but she could feel it - this thing was thousands of years old. The same could be said for each of the other items.

 

When Zora touched the sword, however, it literally crumbled into hundreds of rusted fragments at her touch. Surprised at the fragility of this, she stopped touching things. Instead, she decided this room felt too strange for her and attempted to leave the way she came in.

 

Zora was stopped at the hole by a field of shimmering translucent golden light, acting like a force field to her, blocking her from leaving.

 

Try as she might to exit, Zora couldn't. She was trapped.

 

Unsure what else to do, Zora went through every inch of the room to find another way out. There was no other way out.

 

After spending a few minutes pondering and contemplating a way out (a mental discipline she used in hunting and escaping from places she'd get stuck in), Zora realized the gold glow of the suspended ball from the domed ceiling seemed to be the key to this golden translucent barrier. Using her forest-honed skills, she climbed the inside of the domed ceiling curved surface, using knives and several rutted timbers as hand and footholds to ascend. Zora almost fell several times, to which, if she had fallen , the fall most likely would have killed her. Try as she might, she was unable to ascent the last 1/3 of the way to the suspended golden ball; it was impossible to grip anything at that point to get there. That's when she remembered she still had the old man's slingshot and bag of rocks.

 

Climbing back to a point that she could rest herself across a massive wooden bean about 1/2 way up to the ceiling, Zora used the slingshot and rocks to try and knock down what seemed to be a precariously hanging orb (after looking how the orb was suspended, it seemed to literally be hanging by a thread). After several shot attempts, she finally hit the glowing orb, causing it to fall to the floor and explode into a fiery  ball.

 

The golden hue that seemed to permeate the chamber was gone, now replaced by a glowing (and growing) fire in the center of the chamber's room. Zora descended rapidly and ran to the exit she was previously blocked from going through. It was now clear; no more golden barrier.

 

Just as Zora was half way through the exit, she realized that whatever was left in that chamber was most likely about to burn to ash. Knowing she was putting herself at risk, she went back in and collected up the ring, the quiver, the bow and the cloak. She ignored the sword's fragments and its alcove location (which was on the other side of the room anyway, last seeing it as a shattered pile of rust). She then threw on the cloak in hopes of deflecting even some of the intense heat she was now feeling from the growing, churning (almost seeming alive) flames. Amazingly, with the cloak on, she didn't feel the heat on her back; it was like the cloak was protecting her from all the intense heat and flames. Regardless, she bolted to the exit with the treasures and exited the cave...just in time for a fireball to explode straight out of the cave, where it continued to burn while Zora ran back to the old man's cabin.

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Back at the old man's cabin, Zora noticed the old man hadn't returned (she thought he'd actually would have come back) and as such, started making herself at home, cooking up some food and feeding the horse. Over the next few hours, Zora tinkered with these new 'treasures' trying to decipher their importance, other than being old things from an old civilization. She was amazed, however, that the bow, the quiver and the cloak hadn't disintegrated with age like the sword did. As such, she touched the quiver again, expecting now that she was focused on it, expected it to become more brittle at her touch. Instead, if felt thick and brand new. It even had the smell of freshly crafted leather to it. She checked each of these new treasures and noticed the same thing - they all looked brand new now.  Zora decided to wait a bit longer for the old man to come back, expecting him to explain these things.

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Zora instead woke up the next morning in the same chair she fell asleep in. After getting some breakfast (berries and roots) and feeding the horse, she went out and tried to track down the old man. Taking the archery bow, cloak and quiver with her, she left the ring under the floorboard in the cigar box the old man had mentioned earlier, not wanting to haul such a gaudy, large (wouldn't even fit on any of her fingers) ring around with her.

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For about a half hour, Zora followed his tracks to what seemed to be an older, run down and dilapidated log cabin. There, she saw a grave near the cabin...and the old man's dead body lying next to it. He seemed to have come to his dead's wife's grave and died there, supposedly the previous day. Zora checked him to ensure he was dead. After affirming that, she spent the next few hours burying him in a grave next to her. A separate, already engraved gravestone with his name on it was already leaning against the rotted remains of the old house. Zora planted the pre-made headstone at the head of the old man's grave. Side by side, in death, the old man and his wife were finally together again.

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Zora went back to the other cabin but along the way decided to use the bow and arrows to try and take down a deer or elk for dinner. Not knowing how to use the weapon, she fumbled several times just trying to notch the arrow. Eventually she was able to shoot a couple shots off. To her, it seemed like every shot she did seemed to 'veer' itself a bit closer to the target before it hit. She also noticed something else: the quiver's arrow count never dropped. 20 arrows. Take one out and use it with the bow, and the quiver again had 20 arrows. This was highly unusual to her, seeing as she'd never shot a bow and arrow before in her life up to then . Was this what 'real' archery was in civilization? She liked that idea 100%!  Eventually, she came across a deer and shot at it, noticing the arrow changed course slightly, correcting itself and then hitting the deer perfectly.

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The arrows actually 'aimed' themselves in flight. To add to that, her quiver was back to 20 arrows again.

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Zora went to the dead deer and dragged it back to the old man's cabin, gutted it and made quite the veal dinner for herself that night.

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The next few days, Zora spent time going through the old man's things. She discovered he was a 'treasure hunter' in the 20th century and that his journal's (mostly hard to read) went over hundreds of things he'd been searching for and/or found, with the "Bow of Ullr" being his last treasure he'd been searching for. He'd mentioned he'd found the same chamber Zora did and that he caused the orb to rock back and forth (throwing rocks at it), making it sway enough to leave a quick opening in the exit hole for him to escape from. He'd escaped empty handed that day with no treasures, but after that, he said he changed his mind about treasures. His time in the forest was like a new world for him and as such, gave up on civilization that day and decided to become a hermit and work the land himself and live in the forest. His final entries related to his wife who wandered into the forest to commit suicide and instead fell in love and married him. She died years later from a hunter who was shooting wildly at a deer one day. The old man mentioned he cut the hunter pretty good, but didn't kill him. Others came into the woods looking for the old man after that, but after scaring them with wild animal sounds, they all took off scared.  He buried his wife shortly thereafter and from that point on, there were no more journal entries.

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Zora looked in the old man's cigar box. It had old photos, documents and a roll of German Marks (over $10,000 worth) as well as several other gold items, most likely other 'treasures' he'd discovered and kept over time. There was also poetry written on scraps pieces of paper; poems he'd written for his wife. Zora didn't understand half the words or context, but what she could read she thought was beautiful.

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Finally, Zora decided she still needed to 'move on' and find a way back to civilization, even it she just showed up alongside a road and simply asked for help, to which, she thought, may not be such a bad idea at this rate. As such, she packed up all she figured she needed, mounted the large Clydesdale horse, Stella, and after more than a day's ride, exited the thickness that was the Black Forest...right next to an high traffic Autobahn Highway.

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Zora, wearing a cloak/cape with a large bow and overloaded bags of stuff, all sitting on a huge Clydesdale on the side of the Autobahn, with cars zipping by at over 100 mph at times, eventually caused an accident. When the police arrived at the accident site and saw Zora on the Clydesdale looking like she'd been living in the forest forever, the local police brought her and the horse in. After a few hours of discussion and introductions, and people making calls on their 'smartphones', Zora quickly experienced something she learned to hate soon after - it was called 'the media'. 

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Dozens of reporters and bloggers converged on the local police precinct to learn about this 'Nature Girl' who'd lived in the Black Forest most of her life. As the media people started pestering her, Zora started punching them in their faces, snarling at them to get back. This, of course, only made the media frenzy worse. The police had to use four officers to subdue Zora and put her in a jail cell. There, she wasn't a very happy camper. After this experience, Zora surely did NOT like civilization at all. The first chance she had to break free and run away, she would.

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Hours later, after several exhausting attempts to free herself, an old man named Damon Kaufmann came to visit Zora. He sat down on a stool in front of her cell patiently waiting for her to calm down to talk. They both waited over an hour for this to occur, with Zora finally calming down enough ask what what he wanted. Damon then pulled out a folder of papers and pictures and told her about who she really was.

 

Zora Schwarzer. Damon's god-daughter.

 

Damon told her about her life before the invasion, her parents, their lives before the invasion, her parents work at Division 8, a secret spy division of (then) West Germany and that her parents and he were very close. After the invasion, Damon was told about the discovery of Zora's parents' bodies, but no sign of Zora, believing she'd been disintegrated by the Soltans instead. Mourning after Zora's parents, giving them a proper funeral and even a grave (and marker) for Zora next to the parent's graves. He'd believed that Zora was dead and as such, had been elated to know she was alive. As such, he'd hoped to learn about what had happened to her over those lost years.

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Over the next few hours they both discussed in detail about their life experiences, including Zora's encounter with the old man and his 'treasures'.  When Damon went to use the restroom, he also went to see the 'treasures' (all in storage at the police station) she was talking about. He immediately realized what they all were and how legendary each item was. Damon knew their value and could have taken them right there and used them for his current superhero team to use, however, to him, these weren't his to take; they were his god-daughters. What kind of a man would steal from his god-daughter after realizing she wasn't dead all these years and had suffered living in the forest all that time when she didn't have to? Only a man without a conscious, he determined.

 

As such, Damon decided not to tell Zora of the value of these 'treasures'; instead, he needed to find what 'she' (Zora) wanted in life, not what he wanted for her...although he was VERY good at influencing and merging the two.

 

After a few more days of discussion and getting to know each other even better, Damon asked Zora what she wanted hereon. Zora, obviously struggling with her decision (since she seriously enjoyed Damon's friendship) told Damon that her first instinct was to go back home to the Black Forest...but that she'd like to have the option to return to civilization once in a while, specifically to talk to Damon...and maybe taste ice cream once again. Damon told Zora he was going to have Zora taken back to the Black Forest where she could show them the location of the treasures, and, if she chose to do so, could go back to living in the woods...but not before Damon was going to show Zora a properly introduced tour of today's world and civilization before he sent her back home.

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Over the next few days, Damon took Zora (now cleaned up and given proper clothing) on a grand tour of Germany. He took her to museums, restaurants, the park and of course to a zoo, where she'd get to see even more animals than ever seen in the forest. She was reintroduced to ice cream and the hundreds of delectable new foods in supermarkets and stores everywhere. The simple things such as showers, toilets and bubble baths were highlights to re-experience. As such Zora was thoroughly impressed with 'this' point of view of civilization, but she also was upset about what else she saw and heard about; the crime, the murders, the homeless (whom she considered lazy gatherers) and the evil forces Damon told her about, such as the murderous Exterminators and the ex-East German radicals called "Condor Legion".

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For their second leg of their agreement, Damon, who was in a wheelchair, mentioned he'd not be able to accompany her to the Black Forest due to his age, health and legs, however, he did send the Teutonic Knight with her to escort her and be 'Damon's eyes and ears' through video feeds.

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The next few days were Zora showing the Teutonic Knight everything in her life in the forest. The Teutonic Knight quickly learned he was 'not' good at roughing it in the wilderness, which made Zora laugh more than she should have. Zora eventually showed the Teutonic Knight the cave, but once there, it became clear that nothing was left but charred wood and puddles of what was once ornate metal objects. Everything in the chamber was destroyed...except for was seemed to be the sword Zora found and broke there. A fiery outline/charred silhouette remained around what seemed like the shape of a 'whole' sword, rather than the fragments of the sword. Unless the sword magically  'rebuilt' itself and was taken from that same spot after the fire, it seemed strange that these markings would evidence anything different. It seemed likely that the sword 'reformed' and that someone had taken it after the fire.  To this day, that mystery by them has yet to be solved.

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Finally, it was time for Teutonic Knight to return back to Berlin.  Zora was told that if she chose to do so, she could contact them at any time using the newly installed solar-charging communications station the Teutonic Knight placed in the log cabin and, in turn, it would provide Zora and Damon the means to contact one another via the Teutonic Tower's comms system. As such, the Teutonic Knight left, leaving Zora and Stella alone in the Black Forest in the old man's cabin. Zora had her treasures back, but without anyone there to share them with, Zora seemed empty. Zora was alone.

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Alone...again.

 

By herself.

 

With no ice cream.

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It didn't take two days before Zora contacted then again and wanted to spend time with Damon.

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With that, Damon introduced her to his band of superheroes known as the Teutonic League.  Zora was amazed. While there with them, she tested her agility, fighting and skills against them in a training room, besting a couple of the team members...while also getting beat by a few others. Using her new treasures, she quickly showed them all what they could do. Damon was blown away at the capabilities of these 'treasures' and had them studied to find out their ancient past, legendary status and most notably their magical capabilities.

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In time, Zora trained using her new treasures and their newly identified capabilities. She was amazing with them, and as such became quite the combatant in her own right. During this same time they got a call; it seems the Exterminators had abducted another super-powered person and were threatening to dissect and kill them for daring to be born. Zora joined the Teutonic League on the mission. Thanks to her, the abducted super-powered being was saved. As such, Zora was asked to join the Teutonic League, to which she replied yes, but with caveats.

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Zora wanted to live in the Black Forest. Using her ring, she was able to teleport to the Teutonic Tower (although, being given quite a headache for 'porting over the distance) as needed...so long as there was a bottle of aspirin available upon her arrival.

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Zora also wanted to wear her own camouflaged costume and not one of the 'colorful' yellow, red and a black ones since....she hated those costumes. 

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Zora also wanted to have the team support any and all means of protecting the Black Forest from human development and incursion beyond that of normal, natural development (i.e., no malls, massive highways, commercial/industrial buildings, power lines or 'gentrification' of older, ancient villages in and about the Black Forest.

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With that all in agreeance, "Rangerin" as she now called herself, joined the Teutonic League.

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Today, Rangerin is still an active member of the team. She is still ill-suited for most of society (she rarely bathes, gets into people's personal spaces, 'smells' them, slaps/hits people that annoy or bother her and is highly sexual (bi-sexual). She enjoys being in the forest and is extremely happy surrounded by her forest critters she has about her (and controls and communicates through her ring on occasion). She is aggressive and has an in-your-face attitude. She despises politics and hates ignorant and lazy people, at times beating on them to accentuate their faults (yes, she's been sued a few times).

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Rangerin spends about 80% of her time in the Black Forest, fighting off human predators and developers all while maintaining a balance in nature there. She enjoys fighting beside her teammates and any excuse to be with them is good enough for her. Although they don't see things the same way, Damon and Zora had became a bit closer, that is, until his recent death. She mourned for weeks as a result, considering him 'like a father she wished she'd had'. Zora is better now, and sees her teammates as her new family

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Also, as a side note, Zora enjoys her sexuality and when she wants it, she gets it wherever, whenever, much to the surprise and chagrin of her teammates and most of modern society.

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