Sabine Verhagen was a plain looking girl with a thick, featureless body and a shock of red hair which never looked tidy. She was one of six ugly children and her parents were considered serial pests in the town of Groningen, always complaining about something and trying to scrounge money out of the government. Sabine went to school like the rest of her siblings but no one expected her to stay very long. It seemed that the Verhagen brood came and went every year, always sitting at the back of the school room with no one daring to sit next to them. It didn't matter if they were girls or boys, all of the Verhagen children had the same reaction.

So perhaps it wasn't such a strange thing that Sabine went missing for 48 hours without anyone notifying the local police. The school just assumed she had drifted away like all the other Verhagens, and her parents were too concerned about where they would be getting money for beer and cigarettes. When the alarm was raised it came from one of her teachers: a new young man from Amsterdam. It took him another 24 hours before the police would begin a search and even then the parents weren't overly concerned.

They found Sabine sitting in a store room at the school. She'd been there for three days, but it looked like she had been there much longer. She sat with her head bowed and her arms hanging to either side. She was larger and in the half-light of the storage room she looked almost like a statue of herself. The police moved in and tried to move her, and they realised she was solid as a rock. The sympathetic teacher went to her as the police retreated. He called to her, stroking her stone-like head. Large chunks of rock came away in his hands as Sabine's rock-hair fell to the side.

The parents came and dismissed the statue. They assured the police that it wasn't their daughter. Later the same day they were back demanding that the statue be sold off to raise money for the family. In memory of the girl, they said. They didn't even use her name.

It was 1964 and the Netherlands didn't really have much experience with uberhumans. The teacher from Amsterdam thought that she may be an uber and out of sheer desperation paid the family some money for the 'statue'. He had her taken away to his small apartment where she continued to sit for three more days.

Sabine doesn't remember anything of those early days. She was eight years old and was used to being ignored. When she found herself in the teacher's apartment, and supposedly in his care, she brightened a little. The teacher was puzzled. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to help, but there was no way a single young man like himself could possibly look after an eight year old girl. What would people think? With a heavy heart he contacted the local children's services and Sabine was taken to a foster care facility. Her family refused to claim her and soon disappeared from Groningen altogether.

Sabine spent the next fifteen years in the care of the State, most of which she spent silently staring into a corner. Even after she came of age the facility kept her, not knowing what else to do with her. Throughout her 'incarceration' Sabine had been listening and trying to learn as much as she could. She never expected to be anything so she surprised herself when she suddenly decided one day it was time to leave Groningen. She was twenty three years old and had no experience beyond the walls of the facility. She found her way to Amsterdam, something inside her telling her that was where she would find the teacher.

She was assaulted by the red light district, her eyes were unable to take everything in at once. Compared with her secluded world inside the faciluty the utter freedom and sensuality of Amsterdam nearly sent her back into a comatose state. She had no one she knew and had no money, but her obvious uberhuman appearance drew plenty of attention. She was approached by a man called 'Porky' who flattered her and bought her a sizeable dinner. He told her that she was beautiful and that she had come to Amsterdam to fulfill her dreams, not the dreams of other people. She felt the magic of his words unlock her long-hidden dreams.

She smiled.

Possibly for the first time in her life.

Porky set her up working as a bouncer at one of his clubs and she spent most of her nights standing still and looking imposing. Occasionally tourists would ask to get their photographs taken with her, and it was this part of her life which had a great impact on what happened next. She enjoyed being the centre of attention, of being an attraction even amidst the sordid magic of Amsterdam's red light district. People would come back night after night to see her. They never talked with her, apart from a few shy words, but their eyes were always on her.

One night she was photographed with a film star. She recognised him from a magazine. The flash of the cameras and the high pitched laugh of the celebrity made her bold for a moment. She asked him if he needed a bodyguard. He looked her up and down, unsure about whether she was serious or not (or perhaps judging the effect such a bodyguard would have on his career). Sabine waited. It seemed like an eternity.

But then he said yes. Sabine walked away with him, joining his entourage and leaving the Netherlands the following week.

Once she made it to Hollywood things transformed for her. It was as if she had shed her self-doubt and troubled history as they crossed the Atlantic. Once in Los Angeles she became a celebrity, quickly moving from her first employer to a bigger and more famous one. She passed from one to another for several years, always in demand, always on someone's lips.

She soon found out that there was more money on offer in the darker parts of Hollywood. Naturally she shifted towards where the money was and soon found herself employed not just as a bodyguard, but also as a silent enforcer. Her reputation grew, especially during the late 1980s and early 1990s where the name Enforcer sent shivers down the spines of all areas of the film industry. Sabine allowed herself to become comfortable with the reputation so she was completely surprised when some hard-done-by film producer paid the mercenary duo Black and White to take her out of the picture (as they say).

While she was unharmed and the duo were easily beaten, Sabine was terribly shaken. No one had actually ever come after her before. Before she could revisit her earlier doubts, Sabine was hired by Arctic Fox. The charismatic villain coaxed Sabine into some serious super villainy, first by robbing a string of banks in Beverly Hills and then by breaking into the supposedly secret headquarters of Black and White where Sabine was allowed to 'work out her issues'. Suffice to say that Black and White shortly relocated to Las Vegas and haven't returned to Hollywood ever since.

Sabine enjoyed the support she received from Arctic Fox and the pair teamed up several more times before Sabine officially joined the fledgling First Strike team. She has remained with the team and functions as the literal and metaphorical rock at the centre of the team.

Avast is a social outcast who has made the best of a bad situation. She has accepted her gigantic rock form and doesn't really wish to revert back to her plain, formless human body. She is inquisitive and enjoys watching other people act and react to new situations. She can't really shake the 'observer' role she took on when she first went into foster care, although she has managed to really cut loose on the dance scene with the help of Sukoshi and Nepatiabet.

Sabine has cultivated a many-faceted career in the celebrity world and the super villain one. She is larger than life and makes friends easily when she tries, although most of the time she seems to become inert and simply lounge around as a statue.

"Stop."

Avast means 'Stop' in Dutch and Sabine's entire physiology seems to have modified itself along that idea. She is immovable, weighs a ton and seems to be virtually invulnerable to all physical and energy attacks. She even regenerates and is impervious to disease and poison. She is incredibly strong and able to bench press 800 tons, which puts her amongst the very strongest known ubers. Her reflexes are nothing special, however, and sometimes she finds it difficult to land blows against opponents. When this happens she generally just starts causing property damage to draw the heroes closer.

Like all members of First Strike she wears a communicator which has a standard channel and a encrypted one.

Ever since she was young Sabine has lost her human detail. Her skin is now entirely composed of an organic stone which is a bluish-grey. Her eyes are visible as well as a thin nose and wide slit for a mouth. Her hair has long since fallen out as well as any other fine feature such as fingernails, toes and ears. She has four thick fingers on each hand.

During her career she has experimented with costumes but has never felt fully comfortable except when she is naked. At times she wears tailored suits, while at other times she wears a skirt or toga, but generally she just comes as she is - a blue stone woman standing over two metres tall and weighing in excess of 1100kg.