El Gato

Maria is the only daughter of Colombian drug-lord Hector Villagatos and his wife. Before Maria was born, an old wise woman told her mother the gods of old had chosen the child as an instrument of justice. Hector Villagatos doted on his daughter, but she soon came to understand the kind of business he was in.
When Maria was a teenager, her father’s enemies killed her mother in an attempt to get at him. They would have killed her, too, except the wise woman’s prediction came true: Maria became the gods’ instrument of vengeance when the shadow of a wild cat came upon her. She doesn’t remember that first transformation, only waking up covered in blood in an alley in Bogotá.
Maria fled Colombia and found her way to the United States. Along the way, she encountered the wise woman and learned to control her transformations, to unleash the beast at her command. Archer found her in Freedom City, working whatever jobs she could find and using her powers in The West End and Greenbank neighborhoods. He convinced “El Gato” (as the locals called her) to join his team.
Originally certain she was under a terrible curse, Maria has learned to draw strength from her feral nature, going from a confused girl to a confident young woman. Kismet has been a mentor and role model of sorts for her, and she looks up to Archer like a confident older brother. Maria is quite fond of Paul (Bruiser) and Doug (Network) but Nightrage raises her hackles a bit. She empathizes with Rick, however, since she understands what it’s like to feel like a monster.
To El Gato, the real monsters in the world are people like her father, who has spearheaded an expansion of the drug trade in Freedom City. Hector Villagatos wants his daughter back at his side, but Maria wants nothing to do with him. Still, Hector won’t allow anyone, even his own blood, to get in the way of business.
El Gato is well known and popular in the city’s Hispanic community. For the most part, Maria keeps control over her animalistic side, but she has still cut up more than a few thugs and lowlifes and the Freedom City police consider her an armed and dangerous criminal (like the rest of FORCE Ops).

Year of Death

1993

Circumstances of Death

The Terminus Invasion