Melissa Valentine

"We all know I'm the one they're here to see."

- Melissa Valentine

Melissa Valentine is an experienced pilot with a habit of hogging the limelight in the ZUB series.

Appearance
Short, slim, pale and flat-chested, Melissa emphasises her fragile figure with dark and ornate dresses that usually feature a tight bodice and billowing skirts. Her hair is jet back and falls down her back in gentle waves. Her eyes are hidden behind a pair of dark glasses that she never removes in public sight. She accessories with dark scarves and long silver jewelery. She sports a trio of tattoos on her abdomen, one hiding a nasty appendix scar, which she keeps hidden from sight and quietly regrets.

Personality
Very much the team's showboat, Melissa takes every chance she can get to promote herself and her piloting skills. In her mind, she is a natural media presence, and far more interesting than the rest of her team and most other Zoid competitors. She strongly resents the outcome of the battle royale that determined her position in the team, and feels that she should be in charge (and getting the spotlight) instead of Christina. Despite this and her usual aversion to what she calls “cookie cutter blondes” she is strongly attracted to her kind and gentle team leader.

Background
The daughter of a prominent general in the Helic military, Melissa's mother passed away when she was young. His position kept him both busy and constantly on the move, and as such Melissa grew up frequently without long-term friends or parental attention. She took to acting out to be noticed by her father, which only resulted in him clamming up more. This soon came to a head shortly out her graduation, where the two erupted in a ferocious argument that ended with her turning her back and storming out.

Determined to make it on her own and garner the attention she felt she rightly deserved, she turned to the lucrative and high-profile world of Zoid battling. She worked her way up through the competition in the ZBC, before purchasing one of a limited Brastle Tiger run and migrating to the the ZUB.

Melissa was thrust into the opening battle royale with fourteen other newcomers, knocking down three other Zoids over the course of the battle. She made it to the final two, facing only Christina McCade. The two squared off, striking each other with their main weapons all but simultaneously. However Melissa's Brastle Tiger failed mere seconds before Christina's Genosaurer. As such, she was ruled to have lost the match, and when Reed Dowling assembled the team, Christina was placed in charge ahead of her.

Combat Style
Melissa likes to take the front of any formation, barraging the enemy with the Brastle Tiger's considerable firepower and relying on its heavy armour to keep her safe in the little time taken to knock down most opponents. Christina usually assigns her to fire support at the back of the teams which she constantly baulks again. Melissa is more likely to break formation and run off on her own than anyone else in the team leaving the others to try and reign her in or rush ahead to keep up.