Kayla Tarington (Eccentriaverse)

Kayla Reece Tarington / Semaphry II is a character in the Volkonir franchise of Dozerfleet Comics. Once a petty street criminal, she rose to prominence as an office assistant for Dr. Hanom - as well as later becoming Prince Volkonir's sidekick alongside Carlos Modi. She eventually replaced Silnya Semaphry as the Crystal Swan Knight of Cortascius, and became engaged to Volkonir. She was chosen by King Morlikus to train with the reforged Knights of Cortascius as its defenders - while the Gwirdons headed back to Cortascius. Morlikus found her instrumental in keeping the Gwirdons at bay, as he sought to rescue the trinkets that used to be the planets' citizens - and rebuild his kingdom.

Kayla is also the daughter of Army Lieutenant Aaron Richard Tarington, and his wife Karlita Anna Tarington. She is the mother of the deceased Lucy Tarington. She is an enemy of the Gwirdons, King Gwirmalesh, various monsters Gwirmalesh created, Diabloq, Terrence Hoshijo, and Marzwhatti the Lirquinwur.

Powers

 * Basic knowledge of EccentriaCore: While not on the level of Volkonir, Kayla has a large amount of knowledge about the EccentriaCore of Cortascius that enables all Cortascians to be anything beyond human. As such, she is capable of using what she does know to her advantage.


 * Improved strength: Her strength magnifies considerably in the Crystal Swan armor.


 * Cortascian Knight Speed: Wearing the Crystal Swan armor magnifies how fast she can run, making her able to keep up with a train in moments of distress. However, going this fast quickly drains her Knight form, requiring her to have a recharge period.  When she combines the Crystal Swan with other Knight powers, she can briefly approach supersonic speed.  Her civilian form is able to move at average speeds for someone of her height, weight, and age.


 * Enhanced agility and endurance: Kayla is pretty tough to take down, even without her armor. However, the EccentriaCore-powered armor significantly increases how much punishment she can take - and dodge.


 * Glide summon: As Semaphry, she is able to summon a glider out of her back that lets her leap into the air almost as high as Meerkat - and then sustain her gliding for a short time before landing. She can leap forward for longer than any other knight, and can seem to practically fly at enemies with much more ease.  She needs equipment enhancements, however, for sustained flight - including carrying passengers.

Skills

 * Locksmith training: Kayla has some skill at picking locks. She had to learn how to steal and squat in order to survive after losing her family.


 * Knight training: Kayla has gained some combat experience and training, having been taught by Volkonir.

Weaknesses
Her armor's ties to the EccentriaCore make it similar to a battery-powered device, in an almost mystical way. This means that she is vulnerable to draining too quickly and requiring a recharge period. While the armor can take a lot of abuse - and can extend its charged period if mode-enhanced or combined with other Knight powers - wearing it for days on end will eventually force it to power down. There is also a limit to how much punishment she can take - though it is a considerably high amount. Without her armor, she has the same vulnerabilities as a normal human woman.

Kayla can also become distracted if reminded too much of her past - particularly regarding Lucy. Cortascians' exposure to EccentriaCore and its magic have altered their physiology from that of normal humans. Therefore, she risks injury to herself if she remains too long utilizing a Cortascian Knight power that has not been reconfigured to work with regular human physiology.

This is made all too clear when Volkonir lets her borrow the Golden Lion mogriffer in order to approach Silnya Semaphry's pit without triggering the defenses Gwirmalesh put around it. While Volkonir transports Silnya to the Pool of Healing - and then back to Yellowstone - Kayla transports back to Bozeman to stop Diabloq from attacking ordinary citizens and cops. She finds wearing the Golden Lion armor to be incredibly painful, as it slowly rejects her. However, she is able to hold her own long enough for Volkonir himself to return and reclaim the Golden Lion for himself. She activates Muflaze to help throw off Diabloq and buy the Knights some time; but she realizes she needs to reconfigure the Crystal Swan with Volkonir's help to keep it from rejecting her the same way the Golden Lion did.

As the Red Serpent and Silver Ferret armors are added to the team, these too are reconfigured for non-Cortascian physiology. Kayla may wear any of these armors without consequence. However, the Golden Lion remains compatible with Volkonir alone.

Percolation-specific issues
See also: Percolation (event)

If Kayla arrives in the Dromedeverse via the Percolation Wave, the XomiaFaeCore will act as a substitute EccentriaCore. If in the Gerosha Crossover Gaming Universe, the Marlquaan will act as a substitute. However, universes that don't have a planetary core or other meta power source that the Crystal Swan can bond to will attempt to channel her EccentriaCore bond across the divide between two universes.

This means she will take a lot longer to recharge between sessions in the armor - and will drain her power much faster. As such, it is not recommended to have her visiting parallel universes within the Dozerfleet Megaverse; as she is considerably weaker in timelines that aren't her own. Other Cortascian Knights would have similar concerns.

It is assumed that in the Marvel Gaming Fanfic Universe, the Power Cosmic would somehow bond to her and keep her power alive. However, this would leave her vulnerable to being controlled by Galactus.

Accessories

 * Crystal Swan Knight Armor and Mogriffer: The mogriffer can be summoned from inside of Kayla at will, and transmogrifies her into Semaphry by making the armor grow around her.


 * Muflaze: This bow / machine gun fires energy beam bullets and arrows that can have varying levels of impact from stun to kill. The bow part of it is a strong, translucent material.  This allows her to make aerial sweeps and incapacitate multiple enemies at once.  Muflaze is strong enough to also be used as a bo staff for a limited number of bojutsu-like attacks.


 * Daggers: Semaphry has twin daggers as backup weapons, for situations in which it is more important to kill enemies than merely subdue them. These are reserved for especially vicious fights where Muflaze alone is not enough.


 * HanomCorp vehicles: Dr. Hanom has provided Kayla with a variety of vehicles to assist her, Carlos, and Volkonir in their missions to thwart Gwirmalesh's goons.

Early life
Kayla was born on May 6th of 1992 to 1st. Lt. of the Army Aaron Tarington and to his wife, Karlita. Aaron was at-the-time transferring to a National Guard station after the Gulf War ended, though he needed to be treated for Gulf War Syndrome. It was not until five years later, however, that Karlita would reveal to young Kayla - behind Aaron's back - that Karlita was 1/64th Cortascian. Elsewhere, a nine-year-old Lenny Drae became obsessed with learning about Cortascian history after learning that his new uncle was also a Cortascian living in hiding on Earth. Karlita informed Kayla of the history of Cortascius - including how it was founded, and what became of it. She mentioned it had ties to both early Ireland and the Coptic Egyptians of the First Century Church. However, Cortascius went a very different way a short time after the planet was founded and human civilization came in contact with the EccentriaCore of the planet.

Kayla soon took on an interest in learning about all things Cortascian, leading to a greater history in space travel and archeology that would drive her future career interests. She grew up entertained by stories of the evil King Gwirmalesh, and the brave King Morlikus that ultimately failed to stop Gwirmalesh. Even more intriguing to her were stories about the Knights of Cortascius: Prince Volkonir, Silnya Semaphry, Horzhed Crimazol, and Reelo Rumastik. Karlita finally opened up to Aaron - and showed him some Cortascian relics as proof - after he grew suspicious about Kayla's desire to learn about Cortascius by working for HanomCorp. Aaron tried to be supportive, though he questioned why exactly Kayla would prefer involvement with HanomCorp preferable to any typical dream job aspiration that most girls would have. Karlita encouraged Kayla to cling to her faith ever-stronger, and to never give up - no matter what.

Gwirdons attack Texas
Things took a devastating turn for Kayla shortly after she turned 12 in 2004. Aaron was deployed on duty in the War in Iraq. He and his platoon discovered a hidden Cortascian portal and found themselves stranded on Cortascius. He was simply reported as missing in action, and the Taringtons feared the worst. Karlita began suffering great pain when eating her dinners. The doctor discovered the source of it was stomach cancer. She reinforced in Kayla the message to never give up - even if it meant having to live on the streets. Karlita began receiving treatments for the cancer - but was informed that they likely would not be successful.

It was not long before Kayla's 16th birthday in 2008 that Gwirmalesh sent Gwirdon Treaders to Texas to begin hunting for Cortascians and sympathizers that were in hiding - in the hopes of being able to take them hostage and use them as bait to capture Volkonir with. A quick search by the monster Scanikrite revealed that Kayla's Facebook profile mentioned Cortascian interests. She was abducted from her home by Treaders - whom she'd heard of, but was not yet skilled at fighting. She and a few other hostages were taken to an abandoned publishing house to be kept until Volkonir could be lured into a trap. By this time, the young Fred Hanom had taken control of his father's company's R&D department. He supplied Volkonir with some early vehicles and transporters to fight back with, promising more if Volkonir came to work for him in the future.

Kayla decided that they needed to help Volkonir, and was able to wiggle herself free of her restraints just long enough to free another teen who was skilled at picking locks - Jennifer Yanzel. This was after the hostages had been missing a whole day. Jen begged Kayla to also study the art of lock-picking, and Kayla promised to consider learning. The girls got free of their restraints, only for Gwirdon Leader Lumkatin and some Treaders to catch them trying to escape. Kayla encouraged the fleeing prisoners to adopt a "Let's Roll!" mentality and fight back. This was able to buy Volkonir enough time to save the lives of everyone - except Jen. She was able to catch only a glimpse of of Golden Lion Knight before she kept running - unaware that he had seen her and was instantly attracted to her. Volkonir almost called out to her after noticing her bravery; but decided at the time that it would be better for him to get a job with HanomCorp and adopt the alias of "Vinny Mason" so he could establish a cover for himself.

Juvenile record
Kayla's escape from the Treaders had some fallout she didn't anticipate. Her school attendance was suffering, due to her having to hold down a part-time job to support Karlita while Karlita received cancer treatments. Being abducted by the Treaders led to her missing one too many days of school, and she was issued a warning by a judge that she'd get jail time if she skipped school one more time. The judge showed no sympathy at all over the fact that Kayla was abducted.

The Treaders tried one more time to capture Kayla as she was on her way to school one day. However, she was among the survivors when the Treaders overturned the school bus. Her quick thinking allowed the handful of surviving students to survive the bus attack with enough fight left in them to resist their would-be captors. She began running, knowing the Treaders were pursuing her. She used her knowledge of the layout of town to trip up the Treaders and expose them. She was able to get most of the Treaders pursuing her either captured or killed. However, she was arrested for truancy - and sentenced to 10 days in jail.

After the first day, she was sent to solitary out of fear that her comments about Cortascius and Gwirdon Treaders would get her attacked for "crazy talk." She was encouraged to not continue speaking about what she had witnessed, lest it lead to fear and panic at the federal level. She agreed to not speak about Cortascian matters unless spoken to about them first.

Life on the streets
A month after Kayla was released from jail, she was informed by Karlita that they were moving to Wyoming. Karlita was fed up with the politics in Texas, and outraged that they would put Kayla in jail for being a victim of alien abduction. After some research, Karlita learns of a certain Lenny Drae - who claimed to be part-Cortascian - who was unexpectedly sent to prison. She warns Kayla that they have to be careful about sharing their Cortascian heritage with the world, as the Gwirdons have inside connections in the US government attempting a "Cortascian Holocaust." She reasons that moving the family to Wyoming will give them some more privacy.

Kayla learned lock-picking skills from another high school student named Fred Reddin; but quit associating with him after Fred started committing burglaries. Fred was eventually caught by police during one of his excursions, and he name-dropped Kayla as an associate out of revenge for her having deserted him. Based on her previous jail record, police arrested Kayla and held her for two days for questioning regarding Fred's activities. After finding no further evidence that she was involved in any activity, she was released. However, she was turned down for a job as a locksmith, due to her prior arrest record. Kayla is forced to find work at a convenience store. She decides to save up her money, fearing the worst could happen. Her predictions prove true when, shortly after graduating from high school, she is informed that the store is going out of business. The owner was unable to meet Obamacare mandates for too many years in a row. A week after being fired, Kayla learns that Karlita's cancer has returned. The cancer comes back with a vengeance, and Karlita dies within a month. She once again lectures Kayla on not giving up - but warns her that life on the streets will be tough.

The totality of Karlita's life insurance and other savings proves to be just enough to pay for her funeral - and to allow Kayla to sell the house and have money for food and clothes for a year or so. She attempts to find another job, but is turned down time and again due to her criminal history. Kayla meets Fred Hanom of HanomCorp at a job fair, and he very nearly hires her right then. However, the HanomCorp booth at the job fair is then attacked by Gwirdon Treaders. Kayla flees the scene at Fred's request, as he tells her not to give up, and that he'd come looking for her one day. She is optimistic that HanomCorp is interested in her and her background with Cortascian history; yet frustrated that she will have to wait even longer to find her true calling.

Kayla starts to become adept to life as a homeless woman. However, she dreads having to look over her shoulder constantly, unable to trust the others who are homeless.

Becoming a mother
As winter was nearing when Kayla was age 19, she had made very few friends. One of those few was a homeless drunk named Jeff Hartigan. Jeff wanted to take Kayla to a party - in the hopes the two of them could find a house to crash at. She grew uneasy that there were so many youth at the party with no adult supervisors - and that alcohol was being served. She attempted to flee, but was spotted fleeing the scene by a drunken wannabe gang member named John Robuck. John stalked Kayla through the streets and caught up with her in an alleyway. She put up as good a fight as she could muster, but the madman was able to overpower her. After subduing her, he brutally raped her. He attempted to taunt her with the knives he was going to kill her with, as she spat in his face and defied him. However, police sirens scared him away before he could finish her off.

She was treated at a hospital for her injuries - eating up a lot of her emergency survival money. John, however, was waiting for her right outside the hospital. This time, she used the cityscape around her to her advantage. She tricked him at one point into leaping at her as she dodged out of his way, and he lost his footing. He fell off a balcony, breaking his neck. She'd gained the upperhand on him the entire time in that fight, assuring her that she had overcome her demon.

Kayla discovered two months later that she was pregnant. At age 20, she gave birth to her daughter Lucy. However, her money was almost completely gone after she finished paying the hospital bill for giving birth. She had to resort at one point to breaking into vacation cabins in order to care for herself and her new daughter.