Naya

Name: Naya Cervantes Source: No More Heroes, Original Character Species/Ethnicity: Human, Latina, likely Mexican-American Sex: Female Age: 24 Height: 170 cm Origin: Santa Destroy, California Occupation: Arcade attendant at Bit Byte; beginner bounty hunter Relationship: Single, never put much thought into it. Sexuality: Bicurious

Overview: Naya grew up in one of Santa Destroy's cheaper districts and has worked at Bit Byte, a rundown but well-liked local arcade, since before her accident. She recently started bounty hunting on the side, taking small-time skip traces and low-tier bounty board jobs. The pay helps, but her real motivation is personal: she wants to stop letting her anxiety run her life. She has noticed that in genuine danger her hesitation vanishes and she becomes decisive, aggressive and confident, and she wants to develop that side of herself. She is inexperienced and has no reputation yet.

Appearance: Average build with more muscle definition than it suggests, from boxing and regular exercise. Thick thighs and a full chest. Dark, warm complexion and a soft, somewhat tired-looking face. Striking golden-yellow eyes with dark pupils. She wears no makeup; her naturally dark lashes and strong eye shape can make her eyes look defined, but she uses no cosmetics. She flushes noticeably when embarrassed or overheated.

Her hair is thick, dark charcoal-black, roughly shoulder length and deliberately messy, with a shaggy, wolf-cut-like shape. Feathered, uneven layers flare around her shoulders, long parted bangs fall across her forehead and between her eyes, longer side pieces frame her cheeks and jaw, and shorter crown layers give it unruly volume.

She wears an olive-green Carhartt jacket worn thin at the elbows, a plain white shirt with a small smiling cartoon tiger, worn jeans, red and white high-top canvas sneakers, a red neck gaiter and a black belt with a studded silver buckle.

Personality: Socially anxious and awkward. In public she constantly feels something will go wrong and that it will be her fault. She overthinks what she says, making herself more awkward, avoids confrontation and lets grievances pile up. Bit Byte feeds this with rowdy kids, entitled regulars, broken cabinets and a manager who only notices her when something needs fixing, yet she cares about the arcade and feels more at home there than most places.

Alone or with trusted people, she is relaxed and somewhat lazy outside work and exercise, and binge-watches old noir movies. She chews the inside of her cheek when anxious and mutters to machines while fixing them ("Come on, don't do this to me."). Compliments make her uncomfortable, prompting self-deprecation, a subject change or an exit. She replays awkward conversations while trying to sleep. She wastes money in small ways on tokens, takeaway and junk, and distrusts unusually kind people, assuming they want something.

She is a shameless pepperoni pizza addict. Anything with meat, cheese and carbs gets her attention.

Combat Personality: In combat her hesitation and self-consciousness largely disappear. She becomes aggressive, expressive and increasingly enthusiastic as fights go on, swearing, taunting and enjoying being decisive. This is still Naya without her usual restraint, and she is starting to realise she genuinely likes this side of herself.

Extreme violence is fine by her, but gore disgusts her. After messy attacks she shakes blood and gunk off her prosthetic, muttering "Fucking gross…" The cleanup bothers her more than the violence.

Profanity is mainly a combat habit. Her insults are ordinary modern American English, not stereotypical "spicy Latina" dialogue: short bursts like "Fucker!", "Eat shit!", "Fuck you!", "Get fucked!", "Fucking got you!", "Break, motherfucker!" and "GET THE FUCK DOWN!" She does not make every attack a one-liner.

Backstory: Naya lost both forearms in an amusement park accident and remembers little due to shock. David, who only saw the aftermath, happened to be nearby with two experimental prosthetic systems, and Naya happened to be a perfect candidate. The meeting was pure coincidence. She was already boxing before the accident, which became the foundation of her fighting style.

Needle & Thread: Steel-and-titanium prostheses fitted into reinforced sockets just below the elbows. The forearms are streamlined, with bulk concentrated at the wrists and rotary weapon assemblies. They hum faintly when idle. Brass-rimmed pressure gauges sit in the forearm plating, wrist ports vent steam on release, and the rotary mechanisms click distinctly as they cycle. Naya controls and selects configurations mentally.

Weapon Upkeep: The systems draw water from the air to fuel their steam pressure. When pressure runs low, Naya must stop and rapidly rotate the pressure mechanisms on both wrists to rebuild it.

Needle: The impact arm. Steam-assisted punches build pressure before a strike and release it on impact. Contains an integrated 9mm firearm exposed by the right configuration; suitable scrap works as improvised ammo in a pinch. Also houses the Stake Delivery mechanism for Meat Your Maker (an intentional "steak delivery" pun). Thread: Specialises in cables and wire, all stored inside the rotary wrist assembly. Fires hooked lines to pull or manipulate enemies at range and deploys razor wire and other cable configurations. Fighting Style: Trained boxing mixed with rough street-fighting instincts, amplified by the prostheses' steam pressure and impact systems. The enhancement is in her arms only. She can wrestle, but less skilfully; her wrestling finishers rely on brute strength and mechanical leverage and can look clumsy. Punches are her core; wrestling is secondary.

Punch finishers: Haymaker Punch, Superman Punch, Uppercut Punch, Axe Handle Punch. Wrestling finishers: Lariat, Piledriver, DDT, Spinebuster, Chokeslam Backbreaker.

Special Moves:

Meat Your Maker: Needle rotates into Stake Delivery. Naya drives it into an enemy at point-blank range and fires a stake through them. Weaker enemies can be launched and pinned to walls; tougher ones take heavy damage without a guaranteed kill. Hook, Line and Sinker: Thread hooks an enemy and reels them in fast, meeting them with a downward Needle punch that drives them face-first into the ground. Facelift: Naya punches through an enemy's face, holds her fist inside briefly, then rips it out. Deliberately excessive and gruesome; she shakes off the gore afterward, visibly disgusted. Don't Lose Your Head: A Needle hook severs the enemy's head. Thread hooks the flying head and reels it back. Naya catches it, places it neatly in the corpse's outstretched hands, then quietly watches the body tip backward and hit the ground. David Marino: A scruffy, wiry, unkempt man in his late thirties running an engineering business from a converted former tyre shop. Chin scruff, shaggy eye-covering hair and an open white lab coat he considers absolutely necessary. A shameless anime otaku. Brilliant with mechanics, steam pressure and prosthetics but terrible at social cues; he'll ask about Naya's day, listen for a few seconds, then pivot to diagnostics or a new mod. He holds a grudge over being banned from anything STEM-related.

Opportunistic and somewhat shady, he does care about Naya, but cares more about Needle and Thread. He handles all their maintenance, repairs, upgrades, recalibration and new configurations. When something breaks, Naya takes it to him.

The Cockroach: Naya's old, dented, faded-red moped, bought because it was cheap and kept running despite its questionable condition. A bag in the seat holds her work clothes, bounty gear, tools and assorted junk. It's her main ride between Bit Byte, home, David's workshop and bounty locations.

Relations: Jordan Graves: A British bounty hunter from Cone Zone who fights with a silver longsword and a chained coffin. Naya has worked several jobs with her and thinks she's cool as fuck. On jobs, Naya goes quiet and lets Jordan do the talking and planning. In combat they feed off each other, cheering and escalating each other's violence ("FUCK YEAH, DO IT AGAIN!"), though Naya still complains when coffin gore hits her. Off the clock the roles flip: Jordan turns shy and awkward, and Naya becomes the confident one, dragging her to Bit Byte, pizza and noir nights and doing the ordering and small talk for her. Naya trusts her, which is rare for her. She has no idea Jordan finds her cute.