Mirage

Real Name: Nikki Black
Super Hero/Villain/Renegade/etc Name: Mirage
Title: Punk, Metal-head, Tough-guy
Alignment: Renegade
Age: 20
Gender: Woman
Race: Caucasian
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue/Grey
Height: 5'8
Weight: 160

Costume Description/Image: Black messy layers of hair come down to frame Nikki Black's face, a heavy fringe at her forehead. Her eyes, a piercing blue-grey, are framed with thick black eyeliner complimented by her cherry-red lips. An old looking, frayed leather jacket forms to her body stopping just short of her waist. Underneath a white tank-top can be seen, the neckline revealing the top of her chest and a small silver locket. A neon-yellow belt holds up a pair of skin-tight skinny jeans, black of course, ripped and rough all along the thighs as though made to be so. Under closer inspection a gun can be seen holstered on her hip, hiding behind her leather jacket. A pair of yellow chucks are tied loosely to her feet, the tongue flipping toward her toes. Her tough look contrasts a curvy and feminine body, riddled with bruises and scars.

Personality: The very cynical Nikki Black is often misinterpreted as misanthropic. Her love of people is often overshadowed by her fear of them, and she will go out of her way to avoid making close personal relationships. She enjoys the company of other people, but tends to avoid direct conversation, prefering to sit on the sidelines and make snarky comments. She isn't a do gooder, and refrains from helping those in need unless it benefits her, the very few friends she makes, or is of emotional significance to her. Rationality is her clear method of approaching tasks, almost to a fault.

History: Nikki grew up in the small town of Vargas, Massachusetts. The most exciting thing about the town was the paper factory, where most of the residents called work. As an only child, she found comfort in the full attention and love of her parents, and the children of her neighborhood. She grew up unaware of the harsh realities of the world, and wanted little more out of life than living in Vargas and working at the factory, until it happened. She was 15 years old, getting ready for the first day of high school when her parents started getting sick. After a while, it seemed everyone was getting sick - her friends, their parents, even some of the pets were getting sick! It all started with a cough. After a day or two, hallucinations. Then a fever. Bedridden, crying out in agony, puking blood and eyes burning and swollen. They died. Everyone died. Nikki spent hours crying and begging her parents to wake up, cursing god for not making her sick too. After spending hours sobbing, helicopters could be heard overhead, and before she knew it men were kicking down the door and ripping her away from her parents, from everything she loved.

HomeTech, a corporation which manufactures home technologies including computers, home security cameras, and alarms, is secretly working as a biological weapons lab, and using Vargas as a means to test their lastest virus, Mirage, meant to cause mass hallucinations and systematically shut down the human body one organ at a time, as a means to have enough time to gather information from the host, and later kill them. Only Nikki survived the outbreak.

Through testing in the labs deep under Boston, HomeTech determined that Nikki's body somehow accepted the virus, and mutated her to become a non-contageous host. After exposing her to several forms of the virus, and hours of study, the scientists of HomeTech accepted her as an anomaly and were ordered from the higher-ups to destroy the body. Demitri Korwinski, the primary scientist and director of the Mirage division, became infatuated, almost obsessed with Nikki, and would not accept her death. He led her through the labs, disguising her as a scientist, and released her into the streets of Boston, telling her to run far far away. He was not aware of the real effect the virus had on her body, and mind.

Throughout the years, Nikki has been tormented, trying to control her mutation and has sworn to take down HomeTech, and every creation they have made since her abduction. She has been living in her truck, moving from place to place stealing what she can to survive and taking her anger out on the thugs of the streets, training and looking for opportunities to get her revenge.

Powers: The virus has mutated her body and mind, allowing her to make those within a 20 foot radius hallucinate anything she chooses through a mild form of telepathy. Because of her lack of understanding of the mutation, she can only cause a single person to hallucinate at a time, must be within twenty feet of them, and must be able to see them. Use of this ability longer than 5 minutes at a time will cause her to experience the side effects of the virus herself, including fever, bleeding of the eyes, and eventually the shut down of her organs. She can use the power limitlessly if done in increments smaller than 5 minutes with breaks in between use.

Power Grid: (You have 22 points to spend on your Power Grid unless you can fly, in which case you have 20. Each stat can start at 6, not 7. 7 must be earned.)
STR: 3
SPD: 2
END: 2
INT: 4
EP: 6
FS: 5

Power Grid colours: Black and Yellow

Character Image/Description:

Roleplay Sample: Nikki's heart was beating in her ears, as it always did when she hunted. "You're Mirage now, you aren't afraid" she told herself, slinking through the back alleys of New York City. She was looking for something, anything that would let her train, ready herself for the day HomeTech would crumble beneath her feet. A bottle smashes up ahead. "Showtime" she whispers to herself, a smile creeping onto her face. The darkness clears and a man, wearing tattered clothes and who can only be described as greasy appears, holding a broken bottle to another man's throat. "Give me your wallet! Now!" the man yells, the bottle thusted out aggressively. Mirage steps forward into plain sight, "Hey Scumbag!" she called in her rough voice, "Come get some real money," she says as she pulls a wad of twenties from her pocket and tosses it on the ground at her feet. Her eyes lock onto him, and become veinous. He runs toward her, throwing himself to the ground to collect the money. It slips through his fingers, almost like it was coated in wet rubber. He can't pick it up, and as he tries again it disappears. Mirage bursts into laughter, and doubles over, mocking him with throaty chortles. "You Punk!" he yells lunging forward, thrusting a fist toward her face. She quickly deflects it with the back of her hand, and delivers a swift kick to his crotch. He doubles over onto the ground, coughing and writhing in pain. He looks up to see the same woman leaning over him. Mist pours in from nowhere, and before he can think everything is so thick in fog that he cannot see anything. He feels a hand in his pocket, taking all the money he had stolen, "Thanks for the good time," the rough voice whispers, and all of a sudden, the mist is gone. The woman is gone. His money is gone. A chuckle can be heard walking away into the darkness.

Super excited to get started when I can!