Esperanza Cruz (Earth-Prime)

"Aliens put something in my head. And now they won't shut up."

- Headline of Spooner's alien encounter

Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz is a abductee of aliens and a Legend.

Kidnapped by Aliens
In 2000, Esperanza was kidnapped by unknown aliens and was able to escape. However, an alien communicator was allegedly placed in her head and she gained the power to hear aliens. When she escaped, she no longer finds her mother and presumed she was dead during the kidnapping.

When Esperanza returned to Earth, she was taken care by foster parents. Since she was 13 years old, she has been bowling as her foster father brought her to league nights. As a result, Esperanza considered bowling very important to her as it made her feel like she belonged somewhere.

"Yeah, after my abduction, I started wearing tinfoil hats. It blocked any alien signals I could pick up."

- Spooner to the Legends

Later, Esperanza went to live off the grid in Texas and went by "Spooner". She also protected herself putting tinfoil on her hat to prevent aliens from finding her.

Lending a Hand
In 2020, Spooner detected two trespassers in her lair. She then used a stun gun and knocked the two unconscious. Later, she tied them on a table, assuming them as aliens searching for her. During the process, she sharpened her knives and overheard Behrad's communication with the Waverider and removed his comms. However, the comms were able to contact the Waverider and reveal their location. The ship then arrived at Spooner's lair and she shot it with her Energy Guns. Ava Sharpe then convinced her to go with them in search for Sara Lance. She was skeptical and refused, only to be shot with her own stun gun and abducted to the Waverider.

She then woke up in the med bay and was greeted by Ava and Behrad, who were unarmed and told Spooner that they would not hurt her. As they discuss Spooner's abilities, she agreed to help and was aided by John Constantine. With the help of the Book of the Law, John was able to boost Spooner's alien communicator and astral project her to Sara's location. However, Spooner was unable to hold for a long time and Ava stepped in, sending a message to Sara and confirm her safety. John was then quickly dying as the energy passes through him and Zari used the Totem to stop his suicidal actions.

Hours later, Behrad ran a test on Spooner's brain and found no anomalies in her brain, with Gideon proposing a dissection of her brain. As Behrad disagrees, Spooner suddenly heard alien shrieking and brought him the bridge, only to find aliens floating in the Temporal Zone and scattered through time. Ava then smiled and told Nate that the scatter proves Sara's safety as she would be the only one capable for such mess.

Powers
"This thing in my head is like an antenna. If I send a signal to your friend, the aliens who put it there could find me."

- Spooner on her powers


 * Connection to Aliens: Spooner was kidnapped by aliens at a young age and developed a connection to them, allowing her to be able to hear them at a long distance. However, the ability is two-sided and allows aliens to locate her whereabouts.
 * Empathy: When Spooner approaches aliens, she is able to sense their emotions and feelings.
 * Multilingual: Spooner's powers developed after joining the Legends, allowing her to speak different aliens' languages.
 * Telepathy: Spooner was able to create a connection with Fernando, a mute magic user, allowing her to understand his thoughts and talk to him telepathically. Spooner was then able to create a link between Fernando and Constantine through singing the Legends' lullaby.

Abilities
"Tables may have turned, but I ain't going down without a fight."
 * Marksmanship: Spooner was able to shoot both Behrad and Mick with a stun gun easily. She is also proficient at using Energy Guns and was able to shoot through the Waverider.

- Spooner to the Legends


 * Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Spooner was thinking to fight Behrad and Ava, with the latter saying that was not their intention.
 * High-level Intellect: Spooner was proven to be intelligent, with her strategies being effective against aliens.
 * Technology: Spooner was able to set up technology in her lair and detect trespassers.

Current Equipment

 * Tranq Gun: Spooner was shown to use tranq gun as a non-lethal weapon on trespassers.
 * Knives: Spooner uses knives as torturing weapons.
 * Energy Guns: Spooner possesses multiple Energy Guns, one nicknamed "pequeña amiga" and one that is able to shoot through the shield of the Waverider, with the setting from one to "middle finger"

Former Equipment

 * Rail Gun: Spooner used a rail gun until she was convinced to stop using it.

Trivia

 * The character description for Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz is the following: "Tough and self-sufficient, Spooner Cruz lives off the grid, devising ingenious tech for the detection of—and defense against—space aliens. And while some might call her paranoid, she calls it being prepared.' A survivor of a childhood alien encounter, Spooner now believes she has the ability to communicate telepathically with aliens—making her the perfect recruit for Waverider captains Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe and the Legends who, in season six, will be hunting down extraterrestrials who have been displaced throughout history."'
 * Spooner is catholic.