Ember de la Cruz

Ember de la Cruz, also known as Blowtorch is a High-Level Syndicate Member by the American Syndicate of Heroes. She is also a Legacy Hero and the former sidekick to Blue Phoenix, also known as Aurora de la Cruz, her mother.

Appearance
Ember de la Cruz is a young Filipino-Cuban woman. She has short black hair that lies just above the shoulders and dark brown eyes with tan skin. For a hero, she is on the short side, but is very fit and powerful regardless of her pre-existing powers.

In her Blowtorch Uniform, she dresses in a two-piece suit. The top part is blue with a light blue accent. It functions like a crop-top with long sleeves, a high neckline, and gloves attached to the end of the suit. The bottom half is also blue with a red belt. The boots are also built into the pants, creating a sleek, seamless design.

Given Ember's fire powers, her suit is inflammable just as she is.

Personality
In her current state, Ember is rather tense and high-strung. Her work stresses her out and she often takes this out on those around her. Deep down she is truly a kind and sweet person, but those traits often make her appear weak in the eyes of the ASH.

For this reason, she often puts on a face to appear more "serious" and together. She has few friends, all of which she rarely sees, and feels isolated by those she works with. This results in a feeling of loneliness that comes out as rage.

When she is forced to form a team of High-Level Syndicate Members, she is angered when she isn't selected as the leader, though she has the most experience having been a hero since she was young. She was also given great frustration when her teammate continuously flirted with her inspite of her rejection.

Childhood and Life as Blue Bird
Ember de la Cruz is the only daughter of Aurora de la Cruz, high-level syndicate hero Blue Phoenix. Because her mother was publicly a hero, meaning she had no secret identity, Ember's life was never simple.

Aurora pressured Ember to succeed both academically and with her powers passed down from her mother. Having the same powers, Ember was always expected to become a hero and when she was deemed old enough by both Aurora and ASH served as Aurora's Assisted Hero, or sidekick "Blue Bird".

As Blue Bird, nicknamed "Birdie" by the public, Ember worked in the shadow of her mother's success.

A.S.H. Academy of Gifted Supers
Like many teenage super heroes, Ember was apart of one of the many A.S.H. run schools, in fact the highest ranked in the country. Ember, however, greatly disliked her experience in the school, finding many of its students elitists or exclusive. Ember was a legacy hero, like many of the high-class students of A.G.S., but her mother was one of the few women of color serving as a high-ranking Syndicate Member, and that left Ember excluded from this group.

The only kids who Ember felt she could relate to were scholarship students or recruited students who resented Ember for her status as a legacy hero.

Becoming an Engineer Tech
As she became an adult, Ember broke away from the life as a hero and instead chose to study how to become an Engineer Tech like her deceased father. Aurora didn't support this choice, believing it to be a waste of her talents and powers.

Regardless, Ember joined an ASH technical school, moving to the East Coast to be away from Aurora. She successfully passed the course with flying colors and was accepted as an Engineer Tech by the ASH. She began her work working at an HQ as an entry level, waiting to be assigned as the Engineer Tech of an ASH Team.

Meeting Raphael and Becoming Blowtorch
Within her first year, she was asked to work on an ASH Aircraft as the engineer. The assignment was to maintain the ship as it passed from the New York HQ on the East Coast to the Los Angeles HQ on the West Coast. Her mother, who was now an Administrator, was leading the transfer as many confiscated Villain Tech was aboard the ship. While working on maintenance, she runs into a friendly intern, Ralph Filbert. Their exchange quickly becomes flirty as she takes an interest in him.

The first night of the trip, she goes to Ralph's quarters with a bottle of wine she'd snatched from one of the officers and asks him to join her for a drink. As the two drink together, they open up about the pressure of appeasing their parents and their standards. Before the night ends, the two share a kiss but their exchange is cut short when alarms begin to glare.

Following the alarms the two discover the ship is being invaded and robbed, and the high class officers are M.I.A.. While trying to protect the cargo, Ember is forced to reveal her powers and identity as Ember de la Cruz, Blue Bird. Ralph is surprised and has a few questions, but treats her the same as before which she appreciates.

They discover that the Silver Suit, a precious piece of cargo belonging to former Insurgent villain The Silver Bandit, has been stolen by the ring leader of the thieves. The two must leave the aircraft to save the cargo, Ember flying as Ralph used a pod belonging to the ship, as they finally retrieve the cargo, Ember gives it to Ralph's pod, as Ember is intensely hot as she flies and nearly burns the suit.

Now having the suit, Ralph apologizes and admits that he hates to betray her like this, but he doesn't have a choice. Ralph reveals himself as Raphael Silver, son of The Silver Bandit. He'd come onto the ship to steal the suit but things went wrong. To keep Ember from pursuing him, he opens the doors of the cargo bay on the aircraft, releasing boxes from several hundred feet in the air onto the towns below. Ember is forced to stop the cargo from hurting those below and brings the aircraft back to the nearest HQ to re-staff the ship. After explaining what had happened, Ember is rewarded for protecting the majority of the cargo in spite of the multiple thieves aboard the ship and is offered a position as a high-level syndicate hero. Feeling she has no choice, Ember accepts and becomes Blowtorch.