Metaspace

Backstory
Miriam Mendel was always brilliant - in college by 15, with three degrees by 18, through medical school by 21, through her residency by 25 and with an impressive collection of degrees collected along the way. MS in Physics, BS in Engineering, BS in Biology, PhD in dimensional mechanics, MD with a focus in abnormal biology...

That wasn't all there was to her, however. Since she was 20, she had also been the superheroine Metaspace, a force for good in Pittsburgh alongside her steadfast partner, Redline.

[Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Kidnapping, Non-Graphic Description of Mutilation] ...at least, for a few years. Two years ago, Metaspace vanished for several weeks before reemerging in a highly-publicized battle with Redline, in which she alleged that he had kidnapped and used her during those weeks. Her claims were backed up by the damage to her arms during her captivity, bad enough to require double amputation.

Metaspace defeated Redline, who was convicted and sent to a maximum security prison, where he's remained ever since. However, his influence over her remains - having worked together for three years, she found reminders of him all throughout Pittsburgh, and found it difficult to recover from her trauma.

She spent a year recovering from her trauma and, during that time, created cybernetic arms not just to replace her own but also integrated the devices she used as Metaspace into them, rebuilt her HUD goggles into cybernetic eyes, implanted devices previously part of her costume into her back, and has plans for more... all to prevent herself from ever being helpless again.

Fortunately, she may have escaped him once and for all - after finishing her residency, Dr. Mendel received a job offer from Vanderburg University, in Starlight City. States away from her home and Redline, can she find a place to finally heal from his betrayal?

Present
Miriam is currently employed by Vanderburg University in two posts - as a tenure-track professor of physics, and as the college's resident doctor specializing in abnormal medicine. She worked with the administration to create a schedule which would allow her to serve in both posts without neglecting either, although she is less available than some other staff members. Unknown to the college, she also arranged the schedule to allow her as much availability as a heroine as she could.

Miriam has found a steadfast friend in her colleague Nimue le Fay, with whom she is spotted often enough that students speculate constantly about their relationship.

She sees a therapist employed by the DMO to serve heroes and qualified to know classified information - such as her identity - on a weekly basis.

Nadya Romanova recently commissioned her to design and install several cybernetic implants, promising to pay obscene amounts of money for her to do so, and she has begun looking for a nicer place to live than her current cozy apartment in anticipation of this.

Trivia
Prior to giving herself cybernetic implants, Miriam's eyes were brown. However, she created her eyes in blue, which is her favorite color.

Miriam plays several instruments and is a decent singer, but her preferred art forms are sculpture - using fine wire to produce small but elaborate pieces - and poetry.

Since childhood, Miriam has suffered from selective mutism in particularly stressful situations. She learned sign language to help get around this, but often must resort to using a text-to-speech application on her phone or simple pen and paper to communicate as few understand ASL.

She was invited to join the New Champions some time after beginning to operate in Starlight City, having interacted with several of their members. She has taken it upon herself, as the only medical doctor on the team, to look after their health.

The Herobook account she set up for Metaspace is used almost exclusively for its secure messaging service, although she'll answer polite questions posted on her profile.

Summary
Metaspace's primary abilities come from her cybernetic implants, which allow her to bend dimensional barriers and access subspace. She uses these abilities for teleportation, to open long-range tunnels through subspace, and to afflict others by applying dimensional barriers to them in unhealthy ways. In addition to these, she can produce a much wider range of effects if given time to construct an invention to do so. Beyond this, she's extraordinarily brilliant and keeps herself in excellent physical shape, the combination allowing her to perform well, if not as well as specialists, in many fields.

In short: Miriam is a teleporting cyborg with a side-specialty in being a skill monkey, and can enhance her versatility if given time to construct Inventions. Her most iconic powers are her Dimensional Blade and her Subspace Door, and her most iconic traits are her brilliance and the trauma she suffers from.

Strengths

Personal Miriam's greatest strengths are her remarkable mind and incredible willpower. Beating her down is impossible - breaking her spirit is impossible. She's suffered incredible trauma and, while damaged, remains unbroken.

Additionally, she has a tremendous capacity for compassion - she became a doctor to help people and a hero for the same reason, and anyone under her care can expect her to do anything in her power to help them.

Finally, she has the rare skill of being able to admit her mistakes and work to fix them

Mechanical Miriam has a remarkable amount of versatility. She has a wide range of effects at her disposal, able to target any defense and strike at any distance.

Additionally, her teleportation grants her excellent long-distance mobility, and her Eureka! and Mind Over Body powers give her Luck to spend on herself.

Weaknesses

Personal Miriam's greatest weakness is her inability to trust others or allow herself to be vulnerable. She finds it difficult to work with others and coordinate with them, and has panic attacks in vulnerable situations.

Additionally, when she doesn't feel in control of a situation, she retreats into one of three modes - strict professionalism, flirting, or cruelty - which allow her to feel more in control. She's aware that her tendency towards being abrasive is a flaw, but finds it difficult to do otherwise.

Mechanical Outside of her teleportation and portals, Miriam's non-combat utility leaves something to be desired. She's a decent skill monkey and her physical abilities are well above human normal, but she lacks powerful utility powers like Move Object and true Healing.