Name: Anita Haines
Status: Villain, code name Vertigo
Height: 5’7”
Hair: Blonde
Build: Average and toned
Eyes: Green
First Appearance: Angel in Shadow, Angel Haven series, Book 4
Anita was and introverted child, with no friends. Her mother ran off with another man when she was seven. Her father blamed her, saying it was her fault because she wasn’t good enough to keep her mother around. Anita would hide in closets where her father couldn’t find her. If he couldn’t find her, he couldn’t beat her.
As she grew up, she began filling out and her father started staring at her more. When she turned fifteen, she could hear a voice in her head. She realized it was her father’s. She was hearing his thoughts and those thoughts were ugly. When he came after her, she tried to stop him and a heavy book flew across the room, hitting him in the head and knocking him out.
Anita smiled. Things were about to get much better at her house. She lifted her father with telekinesis and put him in his chair. When he woke up, he couldn’t move or speak. Anita told him how things were going to change. He would do everything she said, because if he didn’t, she’d have no problem ending his life.
From that day forward, everything she wanted, she got from her father. There were days she would humiliate him, just for fun. It wasn’t just her home life she changed. She got what she wanted at school too. Teachers who told her she was too weak for things or said her work wasn’t good enough ended up in terrible accidents or dead.
In her senior year, a new male student caught her eye. Before she could talk to him, one of the popular girls made her move and he asked her out. Anita was not about to be denied the only boy she liked. Using her telepathy, she mind controlled him to take her home. There, she coerced him into having sex with her and took pictures with his phone. She sent them to the girl he liked and the teachers, effectively ruining his life.
While in high school, she discovered a love for science, specifically genetics. Experimentation in biology was her favorite and she studies hard to excel in science and math. After high school, she went to college, continuing her studies in science and math. She was offered a job at HelixCorp before she graduated.
She took her job responsibilities very seriously. Anyone who got in her way, she’d “suggest” they go find another line of work. She worked hard and soon was the youngest person ever promoted to lead researcher. She and her team worked with young psionics, trying to help them control their powers.
Anita was asked to come to a private meeting in the boardroom. She went, wondering what was going on. There were certain experiments they wanted her to do and wanted to know if she’d be willing. They didn’t know she was willing to do anything. There was a formula they had in mind that would expand a psionics’ power. All she had to do was perfect it and test it. She jumped at the chance. It was what she’d wanted all her life; to be recognized as smart and resourceful, not weak or good enough.
She and her assistant worked on the compound day and night. Sometimes the kids got better. Most times they got worse. Soon, she was noticing less and less test subjects. She discovered her assistant had been helping them escape. Just before word came down she was going to be fired, ULTRA offered her a place on one of their premier teams. She turned in her notice before she was let go and went to ULTRA.
She was assigned to the Gravediggers team. Their telepath had taken a bad hit and it would be sometime before she was well enough to return to field work. That was when she met Jack McClennan. She thought he was the perfect man for her. She worked closely with him and fell in love with him. She just knew he felt the same, even though he denied it time and time again.
When another woman got transferred to their team, Anita was livid. She took her place at Jack’s side. Once again, Anita was pushed aside for another woman. Like before, she would take revenge on this upstart who thought she could take Jack from her. Before she could do anything, George Fenmore contacted her.
He told her of the hidden council and how they planned to get rid of Jack for poking his nose in where it didn’t belong. They wanted Anita on board to help with the plan. She agreed, vowing to destroy Jack and everyone he loved.
When the council was broken, Anita escaped and was picked up by a shadow agency called The Company. She does anything they want her to, giving them her complete loyalty for saving her from crawling back to HelixCorp.