Blanche

''"You?" Blanche seethed with something like rage. "You're there reason I'm dressed like this?!" Blanche produced a pair of kunai from...somewhere. Dark Energy radiated off of them. "If you can help us out of this, I'll promise to kill you as quickly as painlessly as I feel like."'' – Blanche, after meeting Leon underwater (it’s complicated).

Blanch is a space ninja from Far Out, former Cosmic Crusader, and long-time best friend of Stella. After her adventures as a Crusader, she became the captain of the Blackbody Stealth Forces, and was sent to recover an AWOL Stella, before being engulfed in Awesome Land nonsense.

Appearance
Blanche is slightly shorter than average, which helps in her stealthy career choice. She has gray-silver hair kept tightly bound in streamers and blue eyes. Her ninja clothes are subdued shades of blue and white. She carries kunai and shuriken in pouches.

Personality
Blanche is quite serious about her job as a ninja, consistently unimpressed with the shenanigans that go on in Awesome Land. She does have a more relaxed side and isn’t all business all the time, but she struggles to suffer fools.

Early Life
Blanche was born to parents Allen and Frieda in Space Land, living only a few doors down from Stella. She manifested the ability to control Dark Energy at a young age, coinciding with Stella’s abilities. Seeing the level of crime and corruption around them, Blanche suggested they put their powers to use. However, criminals caught tended to stay caught so they eventually ran out of villains to beat on a took to the stars.

Crusaders
While searching for work on Lunar Land, she and Stella met Samuel Anarr AKA Moon Blade, with whom they shared a common interest. He joined up with them in their justice crusade across the cosmos. He and Blanche hit it off and developed a relationship that lasted many years. Alaizable Roman (Starburst) and Daar Lorra (Pulsar) were eventually recruited and Blanche adopted the codename Dark Matter.

Her greatest adventure with the Crusaders came during their long campaign against the Far Out Research and Development (FORD) organization. FORD hatched a series of schemes to control the Cosmic Energies and put them to nefarious purposes, but the Crusaders foiled them at every turn. After one such adventure, they became aware that FORD was attempting to artificially create a being capable of harnessing all four Cosmic Energies. They raided a FORD compound and accidentally released Gaar Noble (who later became Nebula) and witness the release of Cixer Star.

The Crusaders plus Gaar pursued Cixer to the far reaches of Far Out and engaged in an Ultimate Battle of Ultimate Destiny wherein they defeated him and thereby saved Far Out from certain doom. The good press they got from this only slightly outweighed everything they had messed up previously, but it certainly got their name known.

Blackbody Brigade
Blanche and Daar Lorra’s distaste for one another only deepened over the years, culminating in Lorra’s apparent seduction of Moon Blade, which, while not the only cause, was the final straw that broke the Crusaders. Blanche and Stella returned home and enlisted in the Ninja Corps. Blanche was sorted into the Stealth Forces due to her abilities and quickly rose in the ranks to become a Squad Leader, getting her assignments from the Black Hand, who answered directly to the Clan Elders.

Her contact with Stella waned gradually, as their assignments became more and more disconnected until one day, Stella just vanished. Shortly thereafter, Stella was branded a traitor and Blanche given the assignment to hunt her down. Confused by Stella’s actions, and possibly viewing it as another friend betraying her, Blanche accepted the assignment – also not wanting anyone else to hurt her friend.

Awesome Land!: A Rebooted Story
Blanche tracked Stella to the planet Earth and to the nation of Awesome Land. After being defeated in her initial attempts to take her down, Blanche was eventually roped into the quest for the Scrolls of Science, reasoning that she didn’t want to get killed on this backwater planet. While there, she mostly hung back but contributed significantly to retrieving the Special Land Scroll – while dressed as a sexy pirate (although thanks to temporary Reality Flash abilities, that never happened).

Powers and Abilities
Like all space ninjas, Blanche is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and close quarters combat. Her swordsmanship is excellent, but inferior to Stella’s. She is also a master of parkour and free-running. Her primary ability is her manipulation of energy derived from the Dark Force, one of the four Cosmic Energies. She can use it to teleport a limited distance and disappear into shadows. She has yet to demonstrate a weaponization of the Dark Force.

She is much more powerful in space, able to teleport much greater distances.