Heroes

Kate Shreeve kept the world at a comfortable distance, separated from the noise of Windmill City by her headphones. She enjoyed observing other people, but she had little interest in getting involved in their lives. After high school Kate followed in her parents' footsteps: enrolling at the University of Windmill City, even interning in their acoustics lab there.

Barely a week into her first semester, a mysterious explosion destroyed the lab and killed her parents; Kate survived, despite being trapped in the test chamber while it was active. In the aftermath, as Kate moved in with relatives and attempted to rebuild her life, she found that the experiment had given her amazing abilities. She could visualize and even manipulate acoustic energy in the air around her, as well as gaining heightened strength and reflexes.

She decided she could no longer keep the world at arm's length, not when her powers might protect others from the tragedy she had experienced. Taking a job as a freelance journalist, both to help pay her bills and as an excuse to go where she was needed, "The Cricket" became Windmill City's newest protector.

First Response promo: Shreeve's early months as the vigilante Cricket were a constant learning process. When she wasn't interfering in the affairs of violent criminals, she was sneaking into UWC's science department after hours to upgrade her costume and equipment. She had several close calls that were only averted thanks to advice from a strange voice, broadcasting at extremely low frequencies and seemingly directed at her. Eventually, Cricket tracked it to its source and met Echelon: an information broker who kept an eye on Earth's superhumans and was looking to form a specialized emergency response team...

Renegade promo: Framed and arrested as a result of the villainous Python's hypnosis, Shreeve was left stranded on the wrong side of the law. Her mentor Echelon was among the few who knew the truth, and the information broker sent a team of willing heroes to help Shreeve escape and go on the run. Now Cricket is determined to clear her name and bring Python to justice, even if it means going undercover as a criminal.

Wasteland Ronin promo: Shreeve was helping to catalog the mysteries of the Continuance Wanderer when the timeship stranded her group in the Final Wasteland, a desert of horrors that other time travelers had described in hushed tones. She soon learned why, listening to the endless echoes of monsters that churned beneath the earth. On the plus side, she didn't have to protect her secret identity; the monsters didn't care.