Amara Aquilla - Phase 1
This page is about the Phase 1 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Amara Aquilla (disambiguation).
| Amara Aquilla - Replaced in Phase 2 | |
|---|---|
 Portrayed by Amber Heard | |
| Codename: | Magma |
| Affiliations: | Xavier Institute - Graduate student; X-Corps |
| Birthdate: | June 4, 1988 |
| Journal: | Amara Aquilla |
| Player: | |
Brought up in a mysterious city in the jungles of Brazil, Amara had adjusted to life in the real world until Genosha, and has returned to Nova Roma. She was lost in the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Contents
Details
Real Name: Alison Crestmere
Codename: Caldera (trainee name)
Aliases: Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla, Mutate 606
First Appearance: August 14, 2006
Place of Birth: London.
Citizenship: British
Relatives: Father: Lucius Antonius Aquilla; Mother: (deceased); birth parents: Daniel and Marie Crestmere
Education: Received GED from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, attending Empire State University.
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation: College student.
Team Affiliation: X-Corps
Biography
Childhood
Amara's story begins (as far as she knows) in Nova Roma, a small town hidden in the rain forest of Brazil. Contrary to comic canon, the citizens didn't believe they were from the Roman Republic, and they lived fairly modern lives: running water, electricity, Levi's, etc.; they did not have access to television, radio, or internet, although they were allowed books. The secret city was created by Selene as an experiment to determine what would happen when you mind-wiped hundreds of people and replaced their real memories with false ones. This is the environment in which Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla, the only daughter of Senator Lucius Antonius Aquilla, grew up.
As a teenager, Amara lost her mother when a group of Selene's zealous, and brain-damaged, followers began sacrificing women to their "goddess." Due to this loss, Amara developed a rather close, loving bond with her father. She was a voracious learner and read every single thing she could get her hands on. Through books, she learned about the world outside Nova Roma and gained some fluency in other languages. Originally an English speaker, Amara also knows some Latin, Portugese, Spanish, and an obscure Brazilian Indian dialect.
With the mysterious disappearance of Selene, her cult disintegrated into a confused mass of deranged fanatics, desperate to find a way to get her back. This eventually culminated in the planned sacrifice of all the city's young females, in the hopes that their goddess would return.
Worlds On Fire
Amara was abducted, brought to the pit of molten lava and ceremoniously thrown in. However, the incident triggered the girl's mutant powers, and she rose from the pit in her molten form. She destroyed the caves, killing the worst of the cultists and injuring several dozen other cultists and innocent girls. As personal survival instincts kicked in, she created a crack in the earth and pushed herself to safety using a spout of molten lava.
Fortunately for Amara, members of X-Force had infiltrated Nova Roma, acting on information provided by Dr. Stephen Strange regarding the Selene cult. Upon realising what was planned for the city's young girls and aware the job was too big for them, Remy LeBeau called in Storm, who arrived with several other members of the X-Men in time to rescue Amara and many of the girls. Some, however, were killed in the volcanic eruption caused by Amara's powers, and it was with this knowledge that Amara decided to accept the offer to go to Xavier's School.
A Whole New World
Amara since then has settled into mansion life, learning about her powers and catching up on a proper American high school education. She received a measure of closure when she witnessed the burying of Selene in the bottom of the bay with Amanda Sefton, and has since then tried to put what happened in Nova Roman behind her. She was able to complete GED within two years of leaving Nova Roma, and has since gone on to attend Empire State University, starting September 2008. While she very much respects the X-Men and the work that they do, she has chosen not to get involved in the team or the younger training teams. She spent the past summer visiting her father in Nova Roma, and while she enjoyed spending time with him, she missed New York a lot.
Returning to Mansion Life
After the events of Day Zero, which Amara spent trying to help her classmates through, she decided that it was time to return to mansion life and do more than just be a normal college student. Re-immersing herself into mansion life, she caught up with old friends and made new ones, particularly her new roommate Lil Crawley. She also decided to join the X-Men as a trainee, determined to find a way to use her powers to help people despite their destructiveness.
Reclaiming her Powers
Ever since her manifestation, Amara had worked hard to learn to control her powers, as well as keeping a lid on her emotions so they didn't set off her powers accidentally. Through a series of X-Men missions she came to realise that perhaps this wasn't entirely the best way to deal with things, especially after a moment of panic during what was supposed to be a straightforward mission. Thanks to David Haller and Suzanne Chan she was able to calm down enough before she made the situation worse.
Things came to a head when she spent a few days with Julian's telekinesis. She was more than relieved to be free of her powers, though a discussion with Crystal Amaquelin started her thinking that perhaps her powers weren't the curse she'd always thought they were. Her new emotional freedom led to a rather explosive encounter with Manuel de la Rocha, as he goaded her quite purposefully into losing her temper. While Amara was quite ashamed of her reaction, it has led to two new friendships for her - one with Lex, a new resident to the mansion who has his own guilt over his use of his powers, and Tabitha, with whom she has bonded with over a mutual frustration over Manuel.
In August, Amara received an invitation to visit her home before college started up again, an invitation that was extended to other mansion residents. Unbeknownst to her, the Nova Romans planned to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of Selene's cult, and those who accompanied her witnessed the celebration along with her. Finally, Amara has been able to let go of the guilt she'd been carrying for three years, knowing that her manifestation had helped her people be finally free of Selene and her influence.
Moving On
Now back in America and feeling more confident about herself and her powers, she began horse-riding lessons with Manuel, and developed a friendship with Bishop. She also became more involved with the mutant group HeliX, attending a co-hosted Day Zero memorial with Bishop, which quickly turned into something of a riot. Despite this, Amara would continue to be involved with the group, enjoying a new outlet for her passion for mutant issues. At the same time, she began working as Adrienne Frost's personal assistant. She also became more confident in the field with her powers, joining the X-Men as they chased down a group of criminal mutants who had escaped detention.
Everything Changes
2010 brought many challenges - her friendships with both Manuel and Bishop developed and grew more complicated, the latter ending when Bishop attempted to make a move on her, one which she rebuffed. There was something of an ugly fight between them about her insistence on keeping a hold on her Nova Roman ways, and when Manuel attempted to get her to calm down, she badly burned him with a power flare. Manuel agreed to help her refine her control on her powers, until he abruptly left the mansion with his sister a few weeks later. Continuing her trend of slowly building up friendships with various people, she came to be friends with Angelo Espinosa and John Allerdyce, which would eventually lead to her being interested in the work Elpis did, as well as Daniel, one of Vanessa's alts.
Homeward Bound
In April, one of Amara's worst nightmares surfaced - the bonds keeping Selene from influencing anyone from her watery prison had weakened, and when the witch demanded her release in return for the student she'd hijacked, a plan was made to double-cross her, and end her influence for good. Which worked, but would go on to have an unexpected consequence. With Selene now dead, her effect on Amara and the residents of Nova Roma began to fade - memories began to surface of their lives before she established the city, Enlisting Amanda's help, Amara sought to verify whether the dreams she were having were memories resurfacing, or something else.
Amanda was able to track down Amara's birth parents - Daniel and Marie Crestmere, of London, England. The two women travelled over to London so Amara could reunite with them, and try to sort out the tattered mess of her past. Unfortunately, as Amara was finally starting to convince them she truly was their daughter, she also revealed she was a mutant. Daniel, a politician with an anti-mutant bias, immediately closed up, forcing a distraught Amara to leave the property. Amara fled home to Nova Roma, only to discover am agitated population confused by the lives they were now remembering.
Deciding to remain in Nova Roma, Amara did what she could to put everyone's minds at rest, explaining the full story to them. While happy to hear of Selene's demise, the population was divided over where to go now. Many of them chose to return to their old lives, wanting to reunite with families and friends they hadn't seen in years. Others wanted a fresh start away from Nova Roma, and some didn't want to leave at all. Overwhelmed, Amara ended up contacting Angelo, asking for his help in relocating some of the other mutants in Nova Roma, and in getting into contact with other groups who could help with the relocation. He agreed, and the process began.
While Amara had planned to drop out of college to remain in Nova Roma for good, her father refused to let her. Her life, he said, was in America, not in Nova Roma, and she needed to return to it. America was her future, not Brazil. Somewhat upset, Amara returned to America, returning to college and acquiring a new roommate, the newly graduated Yvette Petrovic.
I Want to Be in America
Since her return, Amara has began to grow used to the fact that her future now lay in America, rather than Nova Roma. Her attitude in regards to assimilating into American culture relaxed somewhat, and she began to think about what she did want to do with her life. With that in mind, she took a step back from the X-Men, as well as quitting her job with 64 Square and starting to work for Elpis. It was also during this time that she and John Allerdyce began taking an interest in each other, finally starting to officially date in February 2011.
Amara was still restless, however, and began thinking outside of the mansion. She quit the X-Men entirely and moved into District X with another Xavier's alumnus, Callie Betto. She was also elected president of the Empire State University HeliX chapter, and became responsible for running programs such as the Big Brother/Big Sister project for young mutants.
She still visited the mansion, although it was not such a good thing when she was caught up in the attack by Nightmare and his men. Trapped in a nightmare of Selene, Amara and Jubilation Lee were successful in pulling themselves and Meggan Szardos from the dream and escape, ultimately freeing Xavier from the Box. Together, Jubilee and Amara used their previous X-Men experience to distract and then battle with two of the invaders, before Nightmare himself was defeated.
In August 2011, she attended Yvette's nineteenth birthday party at Silver's, and ended up spending most of the time high when Toad [[Mortimer Toynbee's Electric Funkedelic Boogaloo | released a new form Kick into the room], and in October 2011 she managed to avoid a spell accidentally cast a mansion Halloween party.
2012
The year was relatively quiet until April, when Amara, along with the New Mutants and other Xavier's associates, was kidnapped by the Genoshan Government during a rally at the Genoshan Embassy. Once in Genosha she was converted into Mutate 606, with Magistrate Braddock acting as her handler. She was eventually defeated and converted back to her regular self, sans hair.
Following this traumatizing experience, Amara withdrew, not wanting to talk about or deal with what had happened. In July, she was recruited to help rescue a kidnapped young mutant and her brother, and not long after she left for Nova Roma for a brief time. Upon her return she joined the newly formed X-Corps, however, half-buried memories of Genosha clashed with the mental manipulations of Selene and she was unable to settle. She left for Nova Roma again, and this time did not return. She remains there until such a time she feels ready to return - or someone comes to get her.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 129 lbs
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Blonde, with a somewhat annoying tendency to curl. One of her favorite possessions is her hair straightener.
Other Features: Single ear piercing in each ear.
Powers
Geokinesis: Amara is able to psionically control the movements of the teutonic plates that make up the Earth's crust. The area she is able to manipulate is very small - about the radius of a few city blocks - and is able to create both small and large earthquakes in that area.
Pyrokinesis: Amara is also able to create flames and throw around blasts of fire that do not contain any molten rock. She hasn't exactly tested how hot she can go, but her current record is about 850 degrees Fahrenheit.
Magma Manipulation: Her signature power. A twofold power, she can both call up magma from below the Earth's crust to create various sized spontaneous volcanoes and lava flows, and also create magma using a combination of nearby rocks and her pyrokinetic powers. She has learnt how to channel the molten rock into blasts of magma, telekinetically hurling the molten rock at her target.
Magma Form: When Amara uses either her pyrokinetic or magma manipulation powers, she manifests what she calls her 'Magma Form'. Surrounded by intensely bright and hot light, she is shielded from any external sources of heat or light and is not damaged by either her own light or external sources. While Amara is not affected by the heat of this form, her clothes are, and thus if she shifts into this form when not in the specialised suit she used for training, her clothes have a tendency to burn up very quickly. Yeah, she's had some embarrassing moments with that. While she typically can not use her pyrokinetic or magma manipulation powers without manifesting this form, she has practiced enough to create a very small amount of flame without it appearing - the biggest flame she is capable of would start a small campfire. She also does not seem to need to breathe while in this form, as any oxygen near her is eaten up by the flames before it gets into her lungs.
Gaia Connection: Amara has a very strong connection to the Earth, and will start to feel sick if she spends much time at certain altitudes - while buildings with several stories do not bother her, send her up in the air in a plane or flying by other means? Yeah, she doesn't do well. She can also get a general 'feel' for the earth in a small area - typically the same area she can influence with her geokinetic powers - and can sense various 'gaps' in them - tunnels, caves, subways, etc, and can tell the difference between a man made cavity or a natural fissure.
Control Issues: Amara's control of her powers is very strongly linked to her powers. While she has learnt a modicrum of control, any serious loss of temper or other serious emotion can upset the balance, and trigger her powers. She works very hard to keep both her emotions and powers under control.
As a side effect of her powers, Amara's core temperature tends to run a little higher than the average persons, and thus is very warm to touch. Summer tends to be a little easier on her since she is used to the heat, but oh god winter. She might be able to keep herself warm, but wind, rain and snow tend to knock her around a fair bit. Particularly snow. She is so not fond.
Equipment
None.
External Links
Phase 1
Trivia
- Amara loathes the dark.
- Her favorite movie is the Wizard of Oz, her favorite book is the Odyssey, her favorite TV show is Supernatural and her favorite color is silver-blue.
Plots
2006
2009
2010
2011
Mortimer Toynbee's Electric Funkedelic Boogaloo
What Goes Around, Comes Around
2012
Meta
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Formerly played by Holly, picked up by Nat in November 2008 until March 2014.
