Natalia Augustine had a normal childhood. She was born on November 8, 1988 to a hardworking couple in Princeton, New Jersey. Victor Augustine, her father, was a butcher, and her mother, Angela, was a grocery store clerk. Natalia, or Tallie, and her brother Michael were given almost everything they wanted, despite the fact that the family couldn't afford a lot. Trendy shoes or the newest mp3 player? Sure, even if it meant that Victor or Angela did without for the month. It was never a question that the two children would go to college — their parents were determined that Tallie and Mike would have better than a blue-collar life.
Tallie was a bright girl who made the most of the opportunities that life (and her parents) presented to her. She took after-school classes in gymnastics, martial arts, and fencing at the university, taught by Princeton athletes needing to earn tuition money. She worked hard in her honors classes and extra-curricular activities, and was ultimately her school's valedictorian, despite being one of the working class kids, rather than a professor's child. Still, even as an athlete, cheerleader, and honors student, she wasn't popular — there was something about her go-getter attitude that made her seem a little Machiavellian and not someone to trust. She was never caught cheating, but it was often implied that she just wasn't smart enough to earn the grades she got.
The hard work paid off - she was accepted to NYU with a full scholarship for her academics and gymnastics prowess. She accepted, eager to get out of New Jersey and into a "real city," and away from the children she'd grown up with but was never close to for all those years. Tallie opted to major in Biology, with the plans to be a veterinarian one day. Her father was thrilled, but made sure she take a class on how to use a gun before she left for college. Of course, she was only seventeen before she left, so she didn't have a permit to carry, but that didn't stop her father from teaching her.
College life and life in New York City in general was good for Tallie — no longer stigmatized by her blue-collar upbringing, she found a group of friends that were more like her — hardworking, eager, and not born with the proverbial silver spoons in their mouths. It was here that Tallie began to notice some strange things happening. The long hours studying paired with longer hours enjoying the newfound freedom of college life left Tallie and all of her friends perpetually tired and reliant on the ubiquitous coffee shops in the city. Some days, however, Tallie would notice a slight tingle upon touching a friend's hand or brushing against their arm— and a split second later, she would feel better; enough to be noticeable. She would notice that whatever friend it was had not shared the moment of renewed vitality — if anything, they seemed a touch more tired, more fatigued. She thought it was strange, but noticed more and more — the more tired she was, the more likely it was to happen, and she ultimately filed it away as the product of an overtired and overworked mind and an overactive imagination.
After a few months of college, Tallie's 18th birthday approached, and her family insisted on coming to visit her, to take her out to a Broadway show. Her birthday fell on November 8, 2006. Tallie was in Brooklyn, waking up after a date with Jeff — the two had been nurturing a mutual crush, and Jeff had insisted on taking her out so that he could be the first to tell her Happy Birthday at midnight. They then went to his apartment in Brooklyn, which made Tallie nervous, as she knew her family would be in town the following day. She received a phone call from her mother in the morning and she agreed to meet them at 5 pm. for a pre-theatre dinner. Mike and her parents agreed to spend the day in Midtown, shopping and sight seeing. Unfortunately, it was three hours after talking to her mother for the last time that the bomb destroyed the city, and ended the lives of the three people who mattered most to her in the world.
With the city in ruins, most of the NYU students of course fled the city for their hometowns. Tallie returned home to take care of her family's meager estate. The sales from their estate barely covered for the debt they'd incurred while trying to raise their two children in a manner aobve their means. Tallie didn't intend to return to NYC, but it was the place she felt most at home — and she wanted to see if any of her friends had survived. So she returned to the ruin of a city, with nothing but a duffelbag of clothes, a photo album, and her father's Glock.
Once back, she reunited with Jeff, who still had his Brooklyn apartment. She took a job as a courier, riding a mountain bike around a town where the roads were hazardous at best. Soon, she began to notice the same strange happenings — shaking hands with someone might give her a boost of energy when she felt like she could go no further… but she seemed to be taking more than the little bits that the other person never noticed missing — once or twice, a stranger would stagger a moment after she brushed his arm, or another might stop as if to catch his breath, suddenly winded.
Tallie realized this was not in her mind, and now she knew why it was happening, as the word Evolved has been introduced to the public after the bomb. She had known it all along, but had been in denial since the bomb and the loss of her parents. Still, being a scientist at heart, she began to focus on using the skills more deliberately, testing them in the scientific method, keeping notebooks of her findings — her conclusion? She could steal energy or vitality from someone, but she wasn't sure to what extent. The only problem — she couldn't always control it. She found that she could focus on it, and do it at will, but sometimes it was accidental.
One night with Jeff, in a moment that should have been only been pleasure, she found herself invigorated, revitalized — and Jeff passed out in her bed — it was only a moment's faint, but it was enough to terrify both of them. Tallie told him of her discoveries. When he understood —before she did — the possibilities of her new ability, he threw her out of his apartment, leaving her alone in a dark and dangerous city.
Tallie, now confronted with the reality that she was, in fact, an Evolved, chose not to register. This decision was based on both fear and determination — fear of what the government would do with her, and the determination to learn to control and hide her ability.
Today, Tallie is still a courier and lives in the backroom of a deli, as the owner of which took pity on the tiny little blonde he suspected was living on the street. She makes enough to keep herself fed and clothed. She is willing to do jobs that are less than legal for a bit more money — the businesses she works for know this, and from time to time she finds herself on a job that might be a bit dangerous — luckily no one suspects the cute blonde girl on the mountain bike of carrying laundered money or drugs, do they?
