Huntress

Aliases: None
Date of Birth: April 27, 1929
Place of Birth: Gotham City, New Jersey
Age: 18
Known family: Franco Bertinelli (father, deceased), Maria Panessa (mother, deceased), Santo Cassamento (biological father, deceased), Pino Bertinelli (brother, deceased), Tomasso Asaro (uncle), Salvatore Asaro (cousin), Bertinelli Family


Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 149 lbs.
Legal Status: Adult
Affiliation: Hero
Occupation: Student
Powers: None. Completely human.
Abilities:
Unarmed Combat: Helena is an above average athlete and is an exceptional hand to hand combatant possessing the skills to defeat large groups of men. Helena was trained at an early age age by her cousin and she spent many years getting into intentional fights just to prove and test her mettle. She is also an expert in many forms of weaponry, including some firearms.

Weapons Master: Huntress generally relies on a crossbow for ranged attacks and her own fighting ability for closer fighting. Whether they're dual mounted mini-crossbows or one large crossbow is up to her as she has proficiency to use both. She has also been shown to keep knives on her body and was taught the art of throwing them from her cousin Salvatore Asaro.

Stick Fighting: Although she prefers to use her martial arts and hand-to-hand combat when it comes to close quarters there has been many occasions where Huntress has used a Battle-Staff to taken on multiple enemies.

Criminology: Huntress grew up in a criminal environment and later spent a few years surrounded by gangs and criminals.

Multilingualism: She can speak both English and Italian fluently.

Weapons: Crossbows, knives, battle-staff, handguns

What's hidden behind the mask:

Personality: Huntress is a very complicated person, especially for her age. She is a very smart woman with an eye for detail. Very little gets past her, so you had better be prepared to BS your way through something if she catches you at a bad moment. As expected with her heritage and upbringing, she has the stereotypical Italian temper. She is also very stubborn and unlikely to take no for an answer. If people are likely to deny her what she wants, Helena will simply circumvent that obstacle and make her own way to her objective, whether it be legal or not.

Despite having been raised in essentially the lap of luxury, albeit a Mafia lap, Helena is not a spoiled brat. She is not the type that, when upset by something, will go running off to complain to others in charge or whine until everything goes her way. Instead, she takes matters into her own hands and is prepared to fight tooth and nail for what is hers. Her word is her bond, and she is actually a very honorable sort of person to an extent. Helena also has the potential to be caring, though that trait shows more often as a general sort of protectiveness that she extends to those she feels needs it. That in itself is a gift that she rarely gives out, since she doesn't quite know who she can trust at the moment.

History: Maria Bertinelli, the wife of Franco Bertinelli of the Mafia family in Gotham City, was the subject of frequent beatings from her husband, though he was careful never to hit her in the face. Maria began an affair with a man named Santo Cassamento and eventually became pregnant by him. Knowing the unborn child wasn't his, Franco continued to beat his wife throughout her pregnancy. When Maria gave birth to this child of her illicit union, she chose the name Helena Rosa. During the first eight years of Helena's life, she lived in the household of a Mafioso without ever being aware of the criminal dealing which took place there.

When Helena was eight years old, a sniper attacked during dinner and shot Franco, Maria and Pino Bertinelli, sparing Helena. The hit came from Stefano Mandragora who wished for no vendettas against him. Helena's biological father passed the order along with a modification that "the sister" be spared. Santo was referring to Maria, but the gunman, Artie Cade, confused Maria with Helena and so Helena was spared, though she was not supposed to be.

Helena was placed under the care of her Uncle Tomasso's nephew, Salvatore Asaro. She was taken back to the old country, Sicily, where she would be kept safe and where the family was still strong. When arriving, she was terrified. Helena remained there for a number of years. Watching her cousin and uncle train and practice with weapons and hand-to-hand combat. However, the nightmares stayed with her. One night, her cousin showed her that only she could stop the nightmare by putting an end to those who murdered her family: blood cries for blood. When taken into the barn, she asked her cousin to teach her how, picking up a crossbow on the wall. She trained until the age of fifteen when she was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland to protect her from the Italian authorities who were cracking down on the Mafia. When reading and seeing what was happening, she realized that everything she had been told was a lie about the Mafia. She realized that the Mafia was a force of corruption and evil for a hundred years, and it had been headed by her own family in Gotham City. 

Returning from Switzerland, Helena plotted her vengeance. She went to her old house in Sicily (which had since been abandoned as a result of her uncle and cousin being arrested), and took a crossbow and a number of items for her crusade. Enrolling at the university in Palermo, she learned all about the Mafia. Armed with both knowledge and weaponry, Helena has now returned to Gotham City, hoping to enact revenge on both the people that put a hit out on her family, and the man who pulled the trigger himself.

Other: Surprisingly enough, Helena is a devout Catholic.