Cathleen Bate

Cathleen Bate (キャスリーン・ベイト), also known as Star and Stripe (スターアンドストライプ), was the No. 1 Pro Hero of the United States of America.

Appearance
Cathleen Bate was a tall woman with a well-muscled build. She had elegant facial features, narrow eyes, and long flowing blonde hair with eight distinct tufts swept backward and fashioned in a similar manner to the ones All Might possessed in his empowered form.

Her hero costume was a high-collared skin-tight bodysuit with shoulder pads, boots and gauntlets. Fitting to her home country and hero name, the upper torso was decorated in stripes, and her gauntlets and collar are studded with metal stars. Completing the outfit was a long, striped cape that resembles of the U.S. flag.

As a young girl, Cathleen had long brown hair, which was dyed blonde later on. She also wore glasses.

Personality
Cathleen was very brash, choosing to immediately head out to Japan to aid the fight against All For One despite the United Nations not finalizing a decision on international hero aid.

She also appeared to be somewhat ignorant on villains outside her jurisdiction, not knowing if the villain appearing before her was All For One or not.

She had a profound admiration for All Might, due to him saving her and her family years ago when he was studying abroad. She considered his two hair tufts to be a symbol of heroism and had her own hair styled in a similar manner with eight tufts, to symbolize her dedication of being a hero. Cathleen also admired his incredible strength, to the point where she always applied super strength to herself using her Quirk.

Cathleen was also shown to have an intense desire to protect others and seek justice, to the point where she was willing to ruin her own reputation and career for the sake of others. This was best seen when she all but demands the use of the Tiamat missiles to destroy Tomura Shigaraki despite the potential international fall out it could cause. Even when told she'd lose her hero license, she didn't care as she could see how much of a threat Tomura was and that it's worth the risk.

From her desire to protect and admiration for All Might, Cathleen was extremely kind and selfless, willing to risk her life to save Japan from Tomura and All For One, going as far as to use the last of her strength to use her Quirk to destroy "Tomura" from within. However, Cathleen was shown to disregard the rules, making her reckless, with Timothy Agpar adding that her defiance for the rules is what made their nation shine the brightest.

In the past, Cathleen had a more insecure side while she was training to become a hero, as she lamented over her Quirk not being able to empower her to match or surpass All Might's strength, believing that this was because she was a girl. Her feelings were reinvigorated however after she was encouraged by her teammates, saying that she doesn't have to try to be like All Might because she's great and strong enough as she is.

Because of this, she was also friendly and sisterly towards her squadron, referring to them as "brothers" and "bros". They are shown to reciprocate this closeness since the pilots in her squad referred to her by the nickname "Star". They also assured Cathleen that she could always rely on them in times of need, further demonstrating their great bond.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Cathleen was the No. 1 Hero in the United States, and regarded by All For One as "The strongest woman around." He also noted that she could easily shrug off cheap tricks and petty tactics. All For One even admitted that he'd planned to steal One For All before confronting Cathleen, demonstrating how much of a threat All For One acknowledged her as. Even more, her might was shown able to compete single-handedly against Tomura, while at 98% full power of wielding All For One. Notably, she was able to fly across the Pacific to Japan while standing on top of the plane she was riding, showing she had exceptional balance and endurance.

Enhanced Durability: Even without New Order's protection, Cathleen still possessed impressive durability. She was able to withstand the explosion of the Tiamat missiles from a distance without her strength enhancement rule.

Former Quirk
New Order: Cathleen's Quirk allowed her to set a rule onto her surroundings, allowing her to manipulate and bestow new properties onto herself and the world around her. In order to activate her Quirk, she had to first make physical contact with the target and speak its name, then explain the rule she wished to impose. She could only impose two rules at any given time.

She could give herself additional abilities, as well as manipulate the condition of her opponent's body. While there seemed to be no limit to how much she was able to impede someone, even to the point of killing them, there was a limit on how much she could increase one's power, so she could not give herself infinite strength.

She could even use her power on incorporeal things, like the air and laser beams, which she was able to shape into constructs, even very powerful gigantic ones. However, she could not arbitrarily affect a target she hadn't touched through clever wording; for example, after touching the air, she wasn't able to make it so that a person who touches the air around them will die.

In order for her Quirk to function, the target of her order must possess a subconscious link to the identity that Cathleen perceives the target to possess.

There are three known scenarios that render New Order ineffective:
 * 1) New Order may be consciously nullified if her target has a fluid sense of individuality. This target may choose to superimpose one of its multiple identities into the field of Bate's conscious awareness thus, nullifying the impact of her Quirk.
 * 2) New Order may be inadvertently nullified if a target does not understand itself to have an individuated sense of identity. Without a subconscious link to an individual sense of being, the target begins to question its own sense of being resulting in a state of subconscious flux (aka identity crisis). This scenario enabled Tomura Shigaraki to escape physical death.
 * 3) New Order may not be imposed on inanimate objects which, in an ordinary scenario, have no conscious sense of individuated identity. One might argue that inanimate objects are inexorable from a unity consciousness woven throughout the fabric of all physicality. If rules imposed by New Order could influence inanimate objects without a sense of identity, theoretically, the Quirk would become all-powerful.

Note that a user of New Order may impose an identity they possess upon the Quirk. The will of a former user may convey with the Quirk's transfer to a new user. The Quirk can influence physical and non-physical realities.


 * Superhuman Physical Prowess: Using one of the two rules that she can impose, Cathleen usually kept herself in a constant state of enhanced physical ability. Strength, speed, agility, reflexes, etc.; which, while not at All Might's level, are all still considered to be impressively high. In more desperate situations however, Cathleen would disengage her constantly activated rule of enhanced physical ability. This allowed her to perform Ultimate Moves with two rules of New Order, but subsequently made her weaker and more vulnerable.

Ultimate Moves

 * Fist Bump to the Earth.png Fist Bump to the Earth (フィスト・バンプ・トゥ・ジ・アース): Cathleen solidifies the air into the shape of her body, but a thousand times larger. The giant air version of Cathleen is invisible and mimics the real one's movements.
 * Keraunos (ケラウノス): After creating the giant air construct of herself, Cathleen has the air fighter team fire lasers at it, which she collects and makes into a sword for her giant self.
 * State-of-the-Art Hypersonic Intercontinental Cruise Punch (パンチ): Cathleen grabs the Tiamat missiles with her giant air self and uses New Order to command the missiles to change trajectory, allowing her to swing them around and a unleash a giant air punch that releases a supermassive explosion.

Equipment
Fighter Squadron: Cathleen had a number of X-66 fighter jets at her disposal which are piloted by her close allies. The jets are able to record data during mid-air battles and analyze bio-signatures and Quirks.

Tiamat (ティアマト): Cathleen had been given special authority that allowed her to call on a series of state-of-the-art hypersonic intercontinental cruise missiles from the U.S. military.

Chapter Appearances

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Trivia

 * Cathleen's hero name, Star and Stripe, was based on a nickname for the flag of the United States of America ("Stars and Stripes"), after which her costume was designed.
 * It was also the name of a DC Comics stepfather & stepdaughter hero duo, and.
 * Cathleen shared her birthday with Inko Midoriya, Wolfram, and Christopher Skyline.
 * Fittingly, as America's No. 1 Hero, Cathleen's birthday was on, similarly to fellow American hero Captain Celebrity.
 * Cathleen's favorite thing were gummies.

Quotes

 * (To Tomura Shigaraki and All For One) "As long as people stand up to save each other... someone will inherit that will of heroism. And make no mistake... they will strike you down."

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Cathleen Bate