Sofia Mantega-Barret

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On the table, Sofia is the employee psychotherapist for Snow Valley; under, she is their profiler and general field agent. In her spare time she consults for court cases and insults your taste in just about everything.

Details

Character Journal: x_viento

Real Name: Sofia Raquel Mantega-Barret

Codename: None

Aliases: Paloma Flores

First Appearance: June 13, 2006

Date of Birth: December 9, 1978

Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., raised in Venezuela

Citizenship: dual; U.S.A. and Venezuela

Relatives: Miranda Mantega (mother, deceased); Walter Barret (father); Paolo Mantega (uncle); unnamed aunt, various unnamed cousins.

Education: Bachelor of Arts

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Consult and expert witness. Psychoanalyst for Snow Valley, unofficial profiler and field agent. Former FBI field agent/profiler.

Team Affiliation: X-Force

Biography

Childhood

Stationed in Venezuela, Walter Barret found himself in a rather passionate relationship with one of the native girls, Miranda Mantega. It was all too soon that he was called to return to the States, but he promised to return as soon as possible. It's a mystery as to whether or not he had any intention of keeping his word, if circumstances or ego got in the way, but whatever the case, Miranda found herself on a plane to America in the late fall of '78, after hearing no word, determined to find him. Months passed and, with no luck, she sorrowfully decided to return home with her infant daughter Sofia, born an American.

Fifteen years later, Sofia and her mother live with her many cousins and uncle Paolo; there is no lack of people coming and going, and it is obvious to everyone that Paolo is making ends meet with more than a little bit of shady business. It ends up being a drug bust that is the crucial moment, where Miranda is mistaken for a hostile and killed; while drugs are no problem for him and he loved his sister very much, Paolo is a strong Catholic man and will not have a mutant in his household.

Sofia is shipped off to America where she meets her father. She wants desperately for a family again but is met instead with little more than cold disinterest and stern instructions that she will not make him look a fool; the next year in a ploy for attention from anybody other than her father's serving man, Derek, she will destroy one of her father's business buildings with her mutation. Walter is livid and nearly leaves her to rot in a cell, before demonstrating his one moment of fatherly love, bailing her out of jail and erasing the crime. He informs her that this moment of kindness will not come free, however; she will be transferred to a new school immediately where she would earn top marks and honors and get herself accepted to the best universities.

University and the FBI

Six years pass; Sofia has earned a BA in psychology and been accepted to join the FBI with her dual citizenship in America and Venezuela and fluency in three languages (English, Spanish and Russian). At the end of her second year, she apprentices in the area of forensic psychology and gains her first meeting with Andrei duBois.

Andrei is a rare serial killer; he's smart enough to pull his killings off, but even smarter in that he knows not to have such dramatic things such as 'calling cards'. A good looking man in his early thirties, Andrei is a lawyer by day, who chooses confident, successful and attractive woman, his equals, as his victims. He dates them, and if they reject him for being too overbearing, too egotistical, he murders them in revenge. There have been many cases that have linked to Andrei, but nothing substantial, or enough to tie him directly.

Sofia gets to watch Andrei, learn from him, during her stint as an apprentice; watching her mentor work with him through the mirrored glass. She even manages to convince her superior to give her a little time with him, and actually finds herself gaining the upper hand, before the lawyers are brought in and they lose him once again. It is this moment – her natural skill, bold moves and cold composure – that find Sofia being accepted as a "profiler" in the summer of '02.

Four years later. Sofia is an accomplished profiler with the FBI when Andrei returns. This time, he creates a murder to lure Sofia in, where they are reunited and replay the exact incident that occurred previously. Except this time, Sofia doesn't have a mentor to pull her back, and when she reverts back to a rookie persona of herself, what she thought she should have been to succeed with him last time, and she finds herself falling directly into his trap as his next victim.

It's only through suitably dramatic last minute thinking that Sofia manages to turn his torture against him and just escapes with her life. The Bureau has no mercy, however, and informs her that if she does not gracefully retire, they will be forcing her to leave much more messily.

All of this leads us to today, where Sofia has spent a small handful of months essentially living on planes and in hotels, wandering aimlessly in an attempt to find normalcy. It is Emma Frost, a contact of Walter's, who offers her a place at Snow Valley.

X-Force

Sofia's entrance as X-Force's resident psychologist creates rather more upheaval than intended, as the team reacts against her overly professional approach. Over time, however, she begins to make rapports, forming a friendship with Nathan and slowly becoming part of the team as the result of a deal she cuts with Remy - she'll go on missions and Remy will ensure every team member sees her couch. Fighting alongside the others means she begins to form connections - and the Christmas lockdown in the brownstone means she develops actual affections for them. Small hints of Sofia's troubled family history also help. She also helps Haller during his literal split, using her psychological training.

This connection is tested when a job goes wrong and Sofia is shot, with only Mark to get her out. The incident brings out her protective streak - when Illyana is hurt rescuing Amanda in Louisiana, Sofia reacts immediately and with deadly force. The incident rattles her, however, and she becomes more reclusive than before.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5' 9"

Weight: 160 lbs.

Eyes: Light brown

Hair: Brown, curly

Other Features: Surgically altered scars on her thighs.

Powers

Pneumokinetic.

Sofia’s mutation concentrates on not so much ‘the wind’, but air itself. This allows her what she refers to as ‘TK for those of us not fond of brain hemorrhages’. While obviously she can not affect matter on a molecular scale, and she neither has extended her abilities to, say, bend metal, she can move things around quite easily, including herself, and create a considerable amount of damage with the creation of small – and sometimes not so small – hurricanes. On the more creative side, Sofia is capable of carrying sound to her, allowing her to hear, for example, distant conversations, disrupting the equilibrium of others with a quick blast in the ear and is even capable of stealing the oxygen right out of their lungs. The possibilities for her mutation are somewhat endless. She has seamlessly incorporated her mutation into her very lifestyle, whether it be the fluidity of her movements, her lack of closing doors by touch or simply the gentle breeze that seems to constantly follow her, windows opened or closed.

Sofia is very comfortable and even proud of her mutation, but doesn’t feel the need to push the limits of it either; it’s merely a part of who she is and in no way defines her.

Equipment

None. Well, really fantastic shoes at all times.

Trivia

• Sofia majored in psychology and minored in studio art.

• Her childhood dog was a doberman named after the Velociraptor.

• Sofia speaks English, Spanish and Russian fluently and has a basic, working knowledge of Mandarin, Japanese and German. She can not speak any of the middle Eastern languages, however, as her father did not believe they would ever be worth learning.

• Because English was not her first language and she was forced to learn it so quickly, Sofia often confuses her idioms.

Plots

2006

Worlds On Fire

Operation: Flesh Mechanic

Operation: Xorn

2007

Operation: Tower of Babble

40 Days (in the Desert)

Operation: Cruel Country

Remix

Five Against One

Operation: Broken Ground

Voodoo Child

New Orleans Is Sinking

Operation: Melittology

2008

Operation: Shaboom

Operation: Take A Bow

Operation: London Calling

Bedlam

Meta

Player: Aisy

E-mail:

AIM: giddymuch

Player Icon Base: Leonor Varela

Meta Trivia

Give me time.