April Hernandez
April Ramirez (born April Hernandez) is an on-the-scene reporter for the Paragon News Network. She first appears in Issue #16 of the Guardians of the Dawn Spotlight series. She is also the "civilian guise" of Omega Shift.
Character History
April Hernandez was born and raised just outside of Boston. The daughter of Cuban exiles living under political asylum, April suddenly found herself orphaned as a teenager when the Rikti invaded. She stayed with friends of the family until she turned eighteen, where she managed to get a scholarship to attend Boston College as a journalism major.
Unfortunately the death of her family still weighed on her, and she ended up spending more time getting drunk than in studying. Still, she managed to get an internship at WBZ-TV and was intrigued by the on-air reporting.
It was during one of her drinking binges that she was abducted by the patchwork monsters known as the Vahzilok and brought to Peregene Island just outside of Paragon City in Rhode Island. When she awoke, she found herself strapped to a strange machine. She was told by a man in a medical tunic that they had to wait until the alcohol was out of her bloodstream before they could proceed with the process of encoding her memories into her blood and then draining it until she died. Although she begged for mercy and promised that she would not tell anyone what she knew, she was still subjected to the machine and was killed.
Omega Shift
(See also Omega Shift.)
April's essence was assimilated into the "Genetic Template Database" along with all of the other victims of the Omega-Genesis Program. It would later be assimilated into nineteen genetic subjects, of which only one survived the process. That one survivor was May Shift, otherwise known as Omega Shift.
When May discovered April's particular template, she found April's life to be full of wasted opportunities. She thought it wasn't right that someone with so much potential and given so many opportunities was essenitally throwing it away, even before her abduction and murder. May decided that even though she couldn't save April's life, she would save her "essence".
Thanks to the Vanguard, April was given a new lease on life through May. Her "return" allowed her to continue her education and eventually secure a position with the Paragon News Network, where she eventually became an on-air reporter.
It should also be noted that as long as May Shift is using April's form, she really is, for all intents and purposes, April Hernandez. She remembers everything April did, she knows all of April's friends, she knows her favorite food, her favorite perfume, how she wears her hair, and can tell you everything about April's family before they died. Even surviving relatives cannot tell the difference.
Hero No More
At some point after the events in "Guardians of the Dawn AFTERMATH", Omega Shift retreated from her hero life into April's life and stayed there.
Paragon News Network
April began working at PNN as an intern for afternoon anchor Robin Steed. She learned a lot from Robin, who tended to keep her focus on reporting the news than engaging in idle gossip. She began working field reporting under the assistance of veteran on-the-street (and former traffic) reporter Matt Myers and found it was where she could really develop her niche.
While Matt handles on-the-street interviews, April focuses her attention on crimes and criminal activity. She has developed a friendly rapport with most police detectives and they are willing to help her with interviews whenever possible.
Relationships in PNN
April is considered eager and friendly at work.
Rona Cosell - When she was first introduced by Robin, Rona considered April to be, in her own words, "an intern to an intern". Rona has also "interrupted" April's on-air reporting in the past, considering crime reports to be "too boring".
Robin Steed - April considers Robin to be like an older sister. Likewise, Robin is eager to give April every opportunity to shine.
Sally Carson-Ramirez - Has little interaction with April, and would rather focus her attention to dethroning Rona.
Matt Myers - Matt considers April to be the perfect reporter to cover the city police beat, allowing him to spend his time doing the man-on-the-street interviews.
Faith Nottingham - Considers April to be somewhat bland and boring. She thinks April should have a make-over (preferably through Carson).
Garry Becker - Garry has tried to date April on numerous occasions. She does everything she can to stay away from him.
Post-AFTERMATH
After her "retirement" as Omega Shift, April's life began in earnest. She spent more time with the community and with the workplace. She met Andre Ramirez, an architect for Paragon City, through a neighborhood party, and the two quickly fell in love.
April and Andre were married in 2014.
