MAJOR DEEJ UNIVERSE

Mary Ortega is the daughter of a veteran Los Angeles Police Deaprtment (LAPD) Specials Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Commanding Officer (CO), Lieutenant Joe Ortega.  At age 13, Mary joined the local Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program and the LAPD Cadet programs (for the LAPD Cadet Program, she went to the LAPD Headquarters Building (Randal Simmons Headquarters Cadet Post). Mary quickly learned everything about being a pilot and a police officer all the while exceeding in her studies and physical fitness.

 

By age 16, Mary performed her first solo flight in a single-engine propeller airplane, earning her a Student Pilot rating, quickly followed by a Student Helicopter Pilot license. 

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After High School, Mary joined the LAPD and started working towards her dream job of earning her Tactical Flight Officer (TFO) wings.  in order to do that, Mary had to apply for the position of Command Pilot (a minimum of 5 years with the Department with at least three years in patrol and a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Private pilot’s license with an additional 100 hours of Pilot in Command time). After she was selected, she complete six months of intense helicopter training. While in training, Mary obtained a commercial rotorcraft rating from the FAA. Once given their final check ride from the LAPD's Air Support Division (ASD) Chief Pilot, Mary was presented with her Command Pilot "Wings" from the Commanding Officer of the LAPD Air Support Division (ASD).

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During this same time, Mary also joined the California Air National Guard and was certified to fly the new V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the Guard. Every month, she spent a weekend maintaining her certification as a V-22 Osprey pilot, and spent two weeks every summer doing exercises with the military reserves, usually performing cargo and ferrying operations for the reserve units, but very little action.

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In her regular job withe the LAPD, Mary continued working on her requirements for the position of Tactical Flight Officer (TFO), requiring a minimum of 5 years with the Department with at least three years in patrol. After being selected once again, Mary was assigned to the ASD on a 30-day loan. During the loan, Mary’s skill level and suitability as a TFO were evaluated. Once Mary proved an outstanding ability to handle the stress involved in managing pursuits, a complex radio package, perimeters of suspects involved in felony crimes and locating hard to find addresses, Mary was requested to return to the division for a 4- month probationary period. After that, Mary was given a final check ride from the Chief Tactical Flight Officer and finally presented her Tactical Flight Officer Wings" from the Commanding Officer of Air support Division. It wasn't two weeks later, during her Air National Guard 2-week mandatory service period flying V-22s, that everything came crashing down around Mary.

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The V-22, in its early years, was found to be very unstable, with multiple accidents and deaths occurring during its first few years of service.  It was a finicky plane to control and fly and as such, required an incredible amount of focused piloting to do so.  Mary had proven herself to be the best pilot of the V-22s in the Air National Guard, however, with her now a proficiency evaluator for other V-22 pilots, she quickly discovered that not all V-22 pilots were as good as her.  On one mission sortie, hauling 20 Army Reservists to their exercise mission 'Landing Zone' (LZ), Mary, as Lieutenant Ortega, was required to do a check-pilot proficiency on her co-pilot, Lieutenant Ralph Rogers. Rogers was a nervous person, and as such, Mary wondered how the hell he'd ever gotten his V-22 wings.  During their vertical descent, Rogers didn't compensate for the thrust change and from 300 feet, drove the nose of the V-22 straight into the side of a rocky hill, destroying the V-22, killing five Army Reservists, injuring 15 others, and permanently blinding Lieutenant Mary Ortega, with Rogers running from the crash site completely uninjured...and never heard from again.

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After weeks of surgeries and medical consultations, it was deduced that Mary's eyes were permanently lost. The doctors could not repair them due the the extensive shrapnel and electrical flaring that destroyed her eyes and the area around her ocular sockets in her skull. Up to this point, Mary was riding a wave of personal success, bringing in a total of over $170,000 a year for the LAPD and Nation Guard jobs. She was even expecting her fiancee to 'pop the question' after the 2-week Reserves period.  But now, as far as she was concerned, her life was over.  Although all of her family was there every second for her (they were a very close and loving family), her fiancee' faded from his hospital visits, eventually leaving her an "I'm sorry, I can't do this with you" letter, stating their 'future' plans were no longer going to happen.  Mary was devastated.

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At one point, an entourage from Zenith Labs showed up, asking Mary if she'd be willing to get 'new eyes'.  When asked how and what the price would be, they said they had high-tech ocular implants that, although not approved by the existing medical professionals in the world, worked remarkably well in all their 'animal' test subjects, and that, if Mary chose to, would allow Zenith Labs to 'field test' these eyes through Mary, for which she could work off the cost of the surgery by working on several assignments and tests with her new eyes.  The lead scientist also stated that, with the field testing results, they expected to gain American Medical Association (AMA) support that would lead to Mary being able to be reinstated at an LAPD TFO once again.

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Mary knew it was too good to be true, but also knew that there was little to no choice for her if she was every to fly again. She knew that the LAPD ASD would never allow any technological ocular implants to be allowed for their pilots, nor would the Air National Guard, the FAA or for that matter, any licensed aviation organization, so long as they 'knew' of her implants. In desperation, she agreed to Zenith Labs offer.

 

After a month or surgeries and rehabilitation, Mary was able to see again, this time through high-tech eyes. She was now able to see objects miles away and with incredible acuity.  As part of their 'rewiring' her eyes to her brain, she was received a remarkable spatial awareness, increasing her intuition of her surroundings unlike ever before. All was going great...until she got the bill...and Zenith's payment plan.

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Zenith Labs charged her $5 million to perform the surgery and services, and in order to 'pay' them, she was to work with several other 'patients' that were also paying off their plans.  When she met a couple of these 'other patients', she realized they were gang members that were now technologically and/or biologically changed to now have super-powers.  Her first assignment with them: 'Retrieve 200 lbs. of Uranium (U-235) from the Lawrence Livermore Labs and return them to Zenith', with the caveat of 'no living witnesses allowed'.  Mary immediately knew she'd made the worst decision in her life; she was now being forced to perform crimes to pay off her illegal operations for new high-tech eyes; crimes that most likely would require killing innocents.  When Mary asked what would happen if she didn't agree, the lead scientist simply stated, "Then we explode the miniature bombs in your eye sockets and kill all of your family and friends. Simple.". If Mary wasn't devastated before, she was completely mental now.

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While Mary was being briefed for her mission, she caught an angled, reflected view of a console that seemed to be viewing what was being seen through Mary's eyes.  Using her new telescopic vision, she was rapidly able to peer long enough at the reflection to see the microwave video receiver frequency number.  As part of the briefing, they gave her an earwig with a unique communications frequency band, which she again saw in the control room's angled reflection.  Armed with the knowledge, Mary devised a plan.

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On the nearly 5 hour drive to the Lawrence Livermore Labs in a white panel van, the 5-man and woman team of Zenith-powered crooks and Mary, took short naps along the way. After about 3 hours, Mary demanded they pull over to a rest-stop so she could take care of her 'monthly female issue', to which the drive immediately got off the highway and pulled in behind an old rest stop's restroom.  Mary got out, under watchful eyes, also knowing Zenith Labs was seeing everything she was seeing.  She went to the convenience store to get 'feminine products', and in so doing, grabbed a truck driver's cell phone from his pocket.  Skilled in cellphone use without having to look at the phone or screens, she texted her father her situation, gave him her ocular video and radio audio frequencies, told him to quietly evacuate all family and friends to a safe place and to set up a meta Code-1 (super powered) ambush at LLL, which she hoped her dad would figure out was Lawrence Livermore Labs.  She did all this while innocently going thorough the motions in the restroom of dealing with her 'monthly condition' and returned to the van with the cell phone, hoping they'd track her.  While in the van, she slipped the phone into one of the thugs baggy pants pockets, hoping that if discovered, it would take notice of her.

 

It didn't take 2 minutes from the rest stop when Mary's phone she stole rang.  It was the trucker, asking 'where are you, sumbitch? You get back here with my property, here?!', for which the driver of the van, without asking questions, shot the thug (that Mary had implanted the phone on) dead, veering off the road and telling the rest in the back of the van to toss the dead guy's body (and the cell phone) out the back quickly. They did, and seconds later, the dead thug blew up in a fiery display. The van's driver yelled to those in the back, "See? That's what happens if you don't follow Zenith's rules!".  The rest of the ride was deathly quiet.

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When they finally arrived at the Lawrence Livermore Labs hours later, the 'Uranium Heist Crew' as they now called themselves were not only met by the city and state police, but SWAT (led by her dad) and the superhero group, The Protectors, The Uranium Heist Crew was taken down in seconds, but the ocular bomb (and whatever bombs where in the rest of the crew) were most likely about to go off.  Mary yelled at the Protectors leader, Protechtor, and said "Protechtor, I'm undercover with the LAPD! Jam all electronic and microwave frequencies NOW!!", to which Protechtor said, 'Relax, Ms. Ortega, it's was done the second before we activated the ambush'.  Mary collapsed in relief over what she'd heard, and seconds later, her father arrived at her side to comfort her.  In the end, the frequencies were traced back to the 'rogue' Zenith Lab in Wiltshire Hills, California (as stated by the CEO of Zenith Labs), where, when the police arrived, found all the scientist brutally murdered and their lab engulfed in flames. The nightmare was over...only for a new nightmare to come - the fallout of what Mary had done.

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After transporting the 'Uranium Heist Crew' to a frequency-free prison building, by way of a frequency-free jury-rigged armored police van, the micro-bombs were removed from each of the crew and any technological frequency operated devices were changed to different, unrelated frequencies or shut down altogether.  The rest of the Uranium Heist Crew was sentenced to 10 years in prison for their actions.  The situation with Mary Ortega, however, was sincerely complex, legally and morally.

 

 In what took over a year of legal wrangling with lawyers, district attorneys, the FBI and even congressional involvement (in regards to Mary's new 'altered human' state), Mary was judged to serve a one year with time served for her incarceration during the trial period.  On the negative side, Mary was required, as per the World Super-Powered Registration Act (WSRA), to be 'released' from the LAPD and the California Air National Guard, and to forfeit all her properly-obtained FAA flying licences.  Mary was free, but had everything once again taken from her.

 

Mary was allowed to keep her new tech eyes, however, the federal government was allowed to retain the transmitter frequency (as was Mary) so as to ensure that Mary wasn't doing anything illegal...in other words, they'd spy on her through her own eyes at their leisure.  Aside from the serious breach of privacy this created, it was practically asserting that Mary 'couldn't be trusted'.  After all she'd done to make something of herself, she now felt like lab rat in a maze.

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While attending her 30th job interview, a man code-named "Major Order" interviewed her for a new type of law enforcement; super-powered.  He explained that he and other 'fellow' WRSA-deprived American citizens were being formed into a new National Police Force designed to take on arresting super-powered villains and non-registrants.  As such, she'd be allowed to fly again, in more ways than one. 

 

Mary demanded verification of this organization, being tricked once by Zenith Labs. As such Major Order took her to South Dakota and the new Peacekeepers HQ, where she met with the Department of Justice, Congressmen and the other Peacekeepers.  After showing and stating what the Peacekeepers were about, Mary agreed to join...but only under a couple of conditions.

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As part of her 'employment' with the Peacekeepers, she demanded that her ocular frequencies be changed (again) and this time, the FBI nor anyone else be allowed access to the frequencies but her to afford her the privacy she deserved. She also demanded that her flight certifications be reinstated and all FAA licenses she'd EARNED would be authorized for her to once again use and certify at a rate no different than any other pilot. Lastly, she demanded her own helicopter or airplane or 'whatever it is you all fly around in'.  As such, all the interested parties agreed and as such, Mary Ortega joined the Peacekeepers under the new code-name "Skywatch".

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Today, Skywatch leads the Peacekeeper Police Division (PPD) team. She has her own flight suit and jet-powered wing pack. She is considered to be a great leader and an outstanding pilot.  In her space time, she helps with the Civil Air Patrol and the LAPD Cadet Programs.

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