AMBER HUNT

BIOGRAPHY

At seventeen years old, Amber Hunt was the queen of Parkmoore High School in Los Angeles, California. She was rich, popular and beautiful. She was also spoiled, conceited and manipulative. Once, for fun, Amber convinced two best friends to punch each other unconscious by making each of them think they had a chance with her. [Angels of Destruction #1] Her self-centered world view was completely unprepared for an Ultra battle interrupting her biology class, even if the battle WAS all about her. An Ultra team called the Exiles fought against the mercenary Supreme Soviet for possession of Amber. The Soviet attempted to kidnap Amber, but the Exiles managed to snag her first and escape. [Exiles (Malibu series) #1]

At Stronghold, the Exiles' island headquarters, Amber met Dr. Rachel Deming and learned the truth about her situation. Amber was infected with a mysterious and possibly alien pathogen called the Theta Virus. Left untreated, the Theta Virus caused cellular deterioration and ultimately death within a very short period of time. However, in her research of the virus, Deming had discovered a means of messenger-RNA re-sequencing that not only saved the lives of the infected, it also caused them to manifest Ultra powers in 99% of cases. Unfortunately, a businessman named Malcolm Kort got ahold of Deming's process and was using Theta "potentials" as test subjects and indentured servants. The Exiles were young potentials assembled by Deming to fight back against Kort's exploitation.

Amber didn't believe Deming at first, but the facts were hard to argue with when her own hand burst into flames during the discussion. Deming told Amber with absolutely zero bedside manner that she would be dead in under 48 hours if she didn't agree to undergo the Theta procedure. When the shock wore off, Amber found Dr. Deming and asked for the procedure, but by then Deming didn't have time for her. Another Theta potential was kidnapped by Kort's men and Deming insisted on leading the Exiles in the field to recover him. Dr. Deming promised Amber she would be back in time to run the procedure, but Amber was less than thrilled at having her life-saving treatment delayed indefinitely. [Exiles (Malibu series) #1-2] Amber even tried to convince Deming's teenage assistant, Heather Faraday, to run the genetics equipment while the doctor was gone, but Heather just told her to be patient. [Exiles (Malibu series) #3]

With Heather distracted by Trax's flirting, Amber was left alone in Stronghold. Fearing what would happen if Dr. Deming did not return in time like she promised, Amber resolved to turn the genetic recombinant sequencer on herself. Hoping the procedure was mostly automatic, Amber set the controls as best she knew how and climbed into the m-RNA re-sequencer tank, foolishly risking her life in order to save it. By the time Heather and Trax returned from outside, the sequence was unstoppable and out of control. Amber's initial pyrotechnic abilities were producing enormous amounts of infrared radiation. Trax and Heather were soon forced to flee the operating room due to the heat, leaving Amber to her fate.

And then fate kicked it up a notch. The Entity on the Moon was the techno-organic "black box" of an alien ship that crashed over 50,000 years ago. Seeking to return home but damaged beyond repair, the Entity had spent millennia sending waves of energy to Earth, called Jumpstarts, to forcibly evolve the human race. By accelerating humanity's progress, the Entity intended to one day bring humanity to the Moon where they could save it. In Amber, the Entity sent down a Jumpstart Effect at the exact moment her Theta gifts were activating, increasing her power a thousandfold. As the infrared burst exploded out of Stronghold, the concussive wave created a tsunami of water one hundred feet high to greet Dr. Deming and the Exiles returning to base. Heather and Trax were incinerated by Amber's initial energy pulse. Mustang was killed instantly when his neck snapped. Deadeye was ground face first into the rocks and later died from his injuries. Catapult was comatose for the rest of his short life. And Doctor Deming was left hospitalized for months. The team she was meant to join was decimated, as Amber Hunt flew screaming out of Stronghold like a vast, predatory bird of prey, hopelessly insane from the experience. [Exiles (Malibu series) #4]

Through Amber, the Entity had a connection to Earth stronger than it ever had before. The possessed girl came to rest in the skies over Los Angeles, where she continued to bleed off electromagnetic and psychic energy. As her power output shifted up the spectrum from infrared to red to orange, Amber also broadcast a signal from the Entity compelling people all over the world to reach for the moon. This "moon madness" was more than just a curiosity -- Amber's unstoppable energy output continued to increase in scale as it moved up the spectrum towards ultraviolet and the threat of a radiation discharge perilous enough to wipe out all life on Earth.

The burning girl in the skies of Los Angeles attracted the attention of most of the major Ultras in the States. Recognizing the Entity and its location for the first time, a confederation of heroes including Prime, Hardcase, Choice, Prototype, Mantra, the Strangers and the Solution followed the signal to the moon. Their quest made contact with the Entity, who in turn made contact with its home on the Godwheel. The Ultra heroes learned from the Entity, but Amber did not. As the Entity's shared connection to the Godwheel proved too much for her mind to handle, Amber was cast down to Earth somewhere in the Great White North. Maddened even further by the experience, Amber abandoned her humanity and was adopted into a pack of wolves, unable to consciously comprehend everything she had seen. [Break-Thru #1-2]

Amber remained feral in the wilderness until Black September, when the Infinity Gems from Earth-616 crossed over into the Ultraverse and became a sentient entity called Nemesis. At the moment of Nemesis' defeat by the Black Knight's sword, the Infinity Gems tried to flee. Absorbing the sentient Ego Gem into themselves, four of the Gems fled into the Ultraverse as evil entities in their own right. The Time Gem and Reality Gem rejected the evil humanoid forms of their "brothers," casting down to Earth. However, time and reality itself were left unraveling by their actions. Nemesis' body breaking down was causing "reality waves" to erupt across creation, changing the universe into new configurations with each wave. The cumulative effect threatened to destroy all of reality.

The Reality Gem sought out Amber Hunt as a host to help it locate the missing Time Gem. It restored her mind and explained the danger to reality. Amber and the Reality Gem located a settlement in Los Angeles that the Time Gem protected from the reality shifts occurring outside its bubble of time. Even that bubble would not last forever, though, and so Amber confronted King Warstrike and his daughter Jamie, who was in possession of the Time Gem. Jamie was convinced to turn over the gem and Amber took the two gems back through time to the moment of Nemesis' destruction.

The Reality Gem instructed Amber on how to use her powers to absorb the Nemesis reality waves and re-channel them as primal energy. It warned Amber that the first reality wave had passed, meaning her reality had already changed from what it originally was. As she once again became a conduit for alien energies, Amber Hunt maintained control over the power rushing through her, despite the pain. She unleashed the energies again at the proper moment, letting Nemesis expire harmlessly and scattering the Infinity Gems away from Earth. However, the exertion, combined with separation from the Reality Gem, once again left Amber feral and she fell to Earth as a wild angel. Back in the wilderness with no mind to speak of, no one knew Amber Hunt had saved all of creation, not even her. [Black September Infinity]

Amber's isolation was again interrupted when Aladdin, the covert government agency focused on Ultras, sent their agent Shuriken to retrieve her. Shuriken was followed by 'Strike, a freelance Ultra mercenary whose precognitive visions of New York on fire led him to Amber as well. As 'Strike tried to kill Amber before the catastrophe she apparently would initiate came to pass, and Shuriken tried to defend and capture Amber, the injured wild child erupted in a blast of primal energy. At that moment, through the fragile wall of dimensions tattered by Black September, a struggle between the mutant criminals Reaper and Siena Blaze led the similarly-powerful Blaze to unleash a similarly-powerful blast. The symmetry somehow swept up all the participants, casting them through the red wilds between dimensions.

The mutants and Ultras found themselves on Gameworld, one of the habitats of the Godwheel in the Ultraverse, along with Cain Marko, the Juggernaut. Marko had previously been trapped between dimensions and was inadvertently swept up in the wake of energetic chaos caused by these exiles from the storm. As the motley crew sought food and shelter in the wilderness, the beautiful but fragile Amber Hunt found a gentle protector in the Juggernaut, who looked after his fallen angel. Escape from the Godwheel came when Reaper made a deal with the Tradesmen, who supercharged his scythe to act as a conduit for the energies of Amber and Siena, sending them all to Ultra-Earth. [All New Exiles Infinity]

Tragically, however, their arrival came with the conflagration 'Strike predicted. The Exiles materialized in New York City, near Central Park, just as a third of the city was devastated by mysterious forces. The locals would soon redub the disaster area "Ground Zero." The Exiles' sudden appearance at the moment of destruction portrayed them as the cause of the massacre, and they were immediately targeted by the military and national guard. Forced to remain together for self-preservation, they retreated to one of the penthouses 'Strike kept in his civilian identity as Brandon Tark. [All New Exiles #1]

It wasn't long before Siena Blaze and her half of the team realized they weren't even on the right Earth and the spiteful Blaze chose to take out her frustrations on Amber. When the X-Men arrived via Gateway looking for the missing Juggernaut, however, the Exiles stood together as a group. It became clear that the Exiles of Earth-616 would not be returning home easily, as a monstrous creature emerged from the red vortex between worlds. The still-feral Amber growlingly identified it as the "Firewalker," somehow created by her and the Exiles in their passage between realities and uniquely reactive to them. The X-Men returned home empty-handed, for the Firewalker made any passage from the Ultraverse to the Marvelverse impossible for the Exiles. [All New Exiles vs. X-Men #0]

Amber's sanity slowly returned to her under Cain's attentions. His affection made her feel secure for the first time in months, as she mentally crawled from the wreckage done to her psyche by outside forces. When the Exiles were assaulted by a hunter named Hellblade, who blamed them for Ground Zero, Amber's mind fully returned to her, somehow purging her insanity with a repeated release of her internal energies. She drove off Shuriken's violent ex, Qune, and helped convince Hellblade of the Exiles' innocence, prompting him to join the group. [All New Exiles #2-3]

Unfortunately, the return of her mind wasn't as joyful as Amber assumed. With her coherence finally came the guilt over causing the death of the original Exiles, and so many others caught up during the Entity's "moon madness" she helped cause. Amber also became aware of the Entity's alien machine code, still connected to her mind since the Jumpstart, still whispering to her. As a glimpse into the future, it told her of a mighty bird of prey, composed of fire, that would come for her. Amber feared once again being used against her will to cause the death of innocents. [Phoenix Resurrection #0]

The Entity's prophecy soon came to pass as the main wreckage of its lost ship reached out from the Bermuda Triangle and opened a breach into the Marvelverse. Aided by the dimensional instability of Black September, the vessel targeted the Phoenix Force and pulled it through into the Ultraverse as a living power source to free itself from the Earth. Like a fish caught on a hook, the Phoenix broke free of the siphoning beam, but it was driven insane by the pain the vessel caused it. Seeking a new host within which it could recuperate and strike back at its oppressor, the Phoenix soon targeted Amber Hunt. Amber sensed the Phoenix's approach and hoped to contain and control the Phoenix Force when it came for her. She knocked out Juggernaut as he tried to stop her, and submitted to the power of the Phoenix. [Phoenix Resurrection: Genesis] With Amber's connection to the Entity, the Phoenix once again came under the influence of the great ship. While Amber mentally probed the ship through their link to find its location and intentions, it sought out its "pilot" program, embodied in the first Ultras, Rex Mundi and his Alternate. Using Amber's body, the Ship/Phoenix assaulted the nanotech-based Ultras aligned against the Phoenix, sampling their enhancements in order to track Mundi. Once successful, the Phoenix abandoned Amber Hunt's body to seek out the pilots. Amber used the information she gleaned from the merger to guide the united mutants, Ultras and combatants to the Bermuda Triangle. In the end, the ship was virtually destroyed and the Phoenix was sent home through a breach created by the Ultra named Gate and charged by Amber, who retained Phoenix-enhanced power levels even after the bird returned to the Marvelverse. [Phoenix Resurrection: Revelations]

While paying her respects to the Exiles, Amber found their tomb had been broken open. Tracing the alien bodysnatcher, Amber teamed up with Ultraforce's Ghoul, last survivor of the Exiles besides her. They discovered the alien was an advance scout for the Progeny, a race who were fatally susceptible to the Theta Virus carried by all original Exiles. Ultraforce and the new Exiles joined forces to eliminate the scout and stop his experimentation on the bodies of the Exiles, living and dead. [All New Exiles #4]

As the Exiles retreated to an isolated mountain cabin owned by 'Strike in upstate New York, Amber and Cain became positively domestic, cooking breakfast and laughing together despite the stress of being on the run. Their time together was short-lived, as the Tradesmen returned to force Reaper to honor the bargain they struck on the Godwheel allowing the Exiles to return home. Reaper bluffed the Tradesmen into accepting the death of one of the Exiles as compensation, then used the residual dimensional energy in his scythe to transport Juggernaut home, making it appear as if he was disintegrated. The Exiles were spared by the Tradesmen, but Amber had lost the man she cared for the most.

Amber tried her best to persevere amongst the Exiles in Cain's absence, becoming strong and independent. Still, she had a lot to learn about her powers. Triggered and amplified by multiple parties, Amber's control over energy was greater than it seemed. One day while practicing her fighting skills against semi-autonomous hard light holograms created by her powers, Amber accidentally created a truly independent hologram. The creature called Sixx, apparently drawn up from the darker side of Amber's psyche, was willful enough to break their connection and flee. Like the Firewalker before him, Sixx showed Amber's powers had depths untapped and limits that no one truly understood. [All New Exiles #5]

On another occasion, Amber and the Exiles were attacked by an alien probe, nicknamed "Maxis", sent to Earth to copy powers from Ultras so that their bio-templates could be replicated back home in defense of its people. In urgent need of Ultras and with its translators down, Maxis fought the Exiles and copied all their powers before they drove it into retreat to repair itself. At the time, neither Maxis nor the Exiles were aware that Ground Zero and the destruction of Maxis's homeworld Ozama both originated from the same source. [All New Exiles #8]

Eventually, the Exiles returned to Ground Zero, hoping to find some evidence that their arrival wasn't responsible for the devastation. Unfortunately, their recon was interrupted by a horde of heroes and mercenaries who descended on Ground Zero to catch the "villains" at the scene of the crime. Amber and the Exiles were already fighting for their lives when Maxis resurfaced as well. Empowered by new host bodies, Maxis continued hunting for new Ultras, and considered those it had already probed (like the Exiles) to be disposable. Even with their allies Siren and Ripfire, Amber and the Exiles fell before Maxis's combined powers. [All New Exiles #11]

As Ultraforce arrived on the scene as reinforcements, Amber attempted to turn the full power of the Phoenix on Maxis. Reasoning that its absorption protocol temporarily weakened Ultra targets in the past, Maxis attempted a second probe of Amber Hunt solely for the purpose of neutralizing her attack. This created an unexpected energy feedback loop between the two. Instead of merely copying Amber's power, Maxis absorbed the Phoenix energy and used it to permanently stabilize its humanoid shape, without the need for a host body to form around. Amber was left with only her own Theta Virus-given pyrokinetic abilities. Eventually, the combined power of all the heroes present brought Maxis down, only to face a new threat: the arrival of the Tulkan Empire, the "Flying Death" responsible for the devastation of Maxis's homeworld. [Ultraforce (2nd series) #12]

In the conflict that followed, Amber was forced to adjust to her depleted power levels. The Tulkan alien elite were driven off Earth, but only after they delivered a warning that their genocidal world assaults were deemed necessary to eliminate an even greater threat: the Demonseed, which was now on Earth. It was revealed that the Demonseed's arrival through a breach from Ozama was what really caused the destruction at Ground Zero, clearing the Exiles. [Ultraverse Unlimited #2] With their mutant members returning home, 'Strike crippled and Shuriken still on the run from Aladdin, the Exiles effectively disbanded. In the commotion following the Tulkan invasion, Amber and Hellblade were recruited into Ultraforce by Prototype as a form of amnesty after the Exiles' name was cleared. They accepted in part due to their loyalty to Shuriken, since Ultraforce's liaison with Aladdin might net them information on the status of her captured son, Hayes. Left without a home or an enemy, Maxis was also invited into Ultraforce. Amber was furious at this decision after Maxis violated her and stole her powers, and tried to force the construct into returning them. Maxis's explanation that the power transfer was irreversible was unacceptable to Amber. [Ultraforce (2nd series) #13]

Amber and Ultraforce were quickly drafted into battle with the Demonseed, who resurfaced in the rubble of Ground Zero. The creature's nanotech abilities could transmit through any uniform surface, making a flyer like Amber one of the few opponents out of his immediate reach. She was forced to work alongside Maxis as Hardcase concocted a plan to exile the Demonseed back to Limbo. Although several allies were lost, Amber and Ultraforce succeeded in ridding their world of the Demonseed, and Ultraforce remained together to defend Earth for years to come. [Ultraforce (2nd series) #14-15]

In one future, the Progeny returned for a full-scale invasion of Earth. Amber had evolved in the meantime, merging completely with the Entity's machine consciousness to become a near-emotionless fiery goddess. Although she seemingly served Glorianna Mundi and the human resistance, Rose Autumn uncovered that the Entity had been feeding intelligence to the Progeny for some time. Amber coldly defended her actions by claiming mankind was not unique in the universe, and all species must eventually come to extinction. She expected a better, more-evolved race would rise from the ashes of humanity.

In another future, where the Progeny never came to Earth, Amber never became the creature merged with the Entity. She made a life for herself with her former Ultraforce teammate Iron Clad, and they had a daughter together named Ironica. Although happy together in this idyllic future, even decades later Amber still held a grudge against Maxis for stealing her Phoenix-based powers and refused to socialize with him.