"Where am I? What is this place? Who are these people? I want....to go home!"
-Raquel Teixeira
Name: Raquel Teixeira
Nickname: "The girl who can communicate with animals", "The Amazon"
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Place in Time: 2011
Relatives: Alexandra Teixeira (mother), father unknown
Powers:
Animal Mimicry: Raquel has the ability to mimic animals, such as a Cheetah's speed and vision, a chameleon's ability to blend, the senses of a wolf, etc. Many of these abilities were self-taught, learning from real-life animals. This mimicry ability even benefits her by communicating with other animals, learn to speak their language, which can even have her "command" animals to do things, such as attack others.
Personality: In Brazil, Raquel is quite intelligent and friendly. She likes to communicate with people, and even animals. In other places, however, she is really silent and reserved, since she doesn't know them, nor speak their language. She does have difficulty speaking English, since all her mother spoke in front of her was Portuguese. After Raquel's first encounter with poachers from another country, Raquel doesn't trust foreigners, and, in fact, dislikes them.
Appearance: Raquel stands 5 feet and 6 inches tall, weighing 120 lbs. She has a light brown complexion, with grayish-green eyes. Her hair is dark brown with brownish red highlights. The length of her hair being slightly below her chest area. She has a slender figure with a slight six pack. She likes to show her legs, so she wears shorts, since there never is a day in Brazil when it's cold.
History: Raquel was born in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, by an Afro-Brazilian zoologist (ethologist) mother, and an unknown father. Alexandra had a secret relationship with Raquel's father, and she would ask her his name, but he would never reveal it to her. He later disappeared after Raquel's birth, and was never heard from again. Alexandra presumed that he was dead.
As a child, Raquel was practically raised in the Amazon Jungle talking to animals, an ability by her mother. Raquel used to have a pet Cheetah named Sol that she communicated with more than she did with anyone else.
At the tender age if 10, a group of poachers from Germany arrived in Brazil, who people believed were just travelers. While they were in the Amazon forest, Raquel was also there with her pet. While the poachers shot and killed Sol instantly, they also believed her of being an animal, so they decided to shoot at her. That was the day when she first discovered her ability of mimicking animals by running as fast as her pet, and jumping on trees like a monkey, struggling to evade herself from the violent and heartless poachers. Luckily, she escaped from them, but she felt sad of Sol's death. Furious, she decided not to trust anyone outside of her country.
At age 17, Raquel was known to foreigners as a "legend" being named as "the girl who could communicate with animals". Foreigners, specifically hunters, thought of this as an opportunity for her to attract animals so they can kill them and sell their fur. Foreigners were on a "wild goose chase" for her all around Brazil, until one from the United States had finally found her, and even shot a tranquilizer gun at her.
Waking up, she realized that she was held captive in another country unlike her own-The United States. Nearly escaping captivity, she ventured around this city of New York, finding any clues to take her back to her hometown. Her first encounter was a man named Travis, who was forced to another mission, and, therefore, abandoned her. Her second encounter was a man close to her age: Michael, another evolved human like Raquel, who assisted on helping her back to Brazil, but he couldn't help alone.
Her trip and entrance to Pinehearst started out horribly, but once the CEO, Arthur Petrelli, gave them the opportunity to join his team of evolved humans, Raquel and Michael agreed. Her first mission was to find information on Mohinder Suresh, whom she had barely known about, so her presence served no purpose.
After Arthur's death, Raquel assumed that her motive was thwarted, or canceled from then on, but her relationship with Michael had developed more to the point that she wasn't so homesick. Since Michael was the leader, from then on, Raquel assisted him throughout missions. The first one was invading the school, finding out information as to who killed the late CEO of Pinehearst. During that time, Michael's abilities were beginning to evolve, which worried Raquel because of his power beginning to turn to greed. The next mission was at Miami, where Michael, Raquel, and other Pinehearst members, were to search for Amahon Nakan. However, their mission had to wait as they struggled to save people after people from a team of natural disasters.
Her relationship with Michael progressed romantically, and they were soulmates for quite some time, until Raquel soon discovered his instant infidelity.
This caused her to run away from Pinehearst, which was being invaded at the time as well by Chinese soldiers. Stuck with no path to turn to, a human male had arrived to the scene, making her hitch a ride with him to his family town in Georgia. While Michael remained in charge of Pinehearst, before it later disbanded, Raquel stayed in Georgia with Darry Floodhouse until a wedding invitation from the engaged couple Emmett Baehrens and Gabriel Gray (Sylar), caused Raquel and Darry to reunite with Michael at the wedding in bitter terms. That same day, however, Raquel discovered that Darry was only using her as a revenge plot against Michael for having an affair with Amber, his former girlfriend. She also discovered that Raquel was going to be used by Darry as a sexual toy to share with people when the opportunity was right. Something that his former girlfriend was used for. In retaliation, Raquel brutally assaulted Darry inside of the church, and possibly killing him. After the assault, Raquel exited the church in a bloody dress, on her own once again.