Darksyte
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
[[Image: Darksyte over Mercy Island, by @Maemir Firehand | |
| Darksyte, commission by @Maemir Firehand | |
| Darksyte | |
| Player: User:Pandark | |
| Origin: | Mutation |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Stalker |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jessica Marie Wendell, nee Berkeley |
| Known Aliases: | DJ, Dark, JD, Deadeyes |
| Species: | Metahuman |
| Age: | 21 |
| Height: | 5'11" |
| Weight: | 180 |
| Eye Color: | Black, grey irises, white pupils |
| Hair Color: | Black, blue, and white (four horns, two large in front, two small in back [not shown]) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Praetorian by birth, American by immigration (refugee/Resistance veteran) |
| Occupation: | Hero, Artist |
| Place of Birth: | Imperial City, Praetoria City, Praetoria |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Known Relatives: | John Berkeley (father), Karen Berkeley nee Theiss (mother, deceased), Andrew Wendell (husband), John Wendell (son) |
| Known Powers | |
| Entropic field manipulation, healing, minor telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, flight, minor- to mid-grade psychic, medium | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Hand-to-hand melee combat, some firearms experience, demolitions experience/training, plumbing and other minor contract work, artistic metalwork, paint- and pen/pencil-medium art | |
| Equipment | |
| Mask, lightweight armor, occasionally wears metal tri-bonded steel alloy gloves, P.E.D.R.A. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Sometimes, the truest display of power is the ability to walk away from it.
Contents |
History
Jessica was born at 11:30 in the morning on January 13th, 16AU (1981 in Primal reckoning) at Cole Memorial Hospital in northern Imperial City. The daughter of John and Karen Berkeley, she was the only one of eight attempts to survive to term. From an early age, she showed signs of sharing her mother's growing psychic talents. Unfortunately, both also shared a great deal of anxiety from her mother's repeated, unexplained miscarriages, particularly as a young Jessica usually happened to be there when they began, and would try to help her mother until her father could come home from his work at Precinct 7.
When Jessica turned nine, a mutation in the "Seer gene" manifested in the form of an internally-generated entropic field that seeped through her skin--particularly her hands--and caused her once-steel-blue eyes to gradually become a flat black, which resulted in extreme photosensitivity. After several tests, it was shown that containment was the only real course of treatment, and she was given tri-bonded steel alloy gloves and a programmable visor to try to continue to live a normal life--with an obvious course toward Powers Division, when she came of age to serve the Emperor.
Quietly, she was also added to a watch list, maintained at Mother Mercy Psychiatric Hospital; The Emperor had plans for the girl, when informed of her abilities and potential.
Leaving Home
At 12 years old, the pressure of coping with several failed pregnancies had mounted to critical levels, and Jessica's mother had been practicing with her psychic abilities to take her mind off the pain. This had the effect of refining them to such a level that, when it finally became too much, Mother Mercy was only too happy to bring her in for treatment and eventual induction into the Seer Network. It was also believed that, within four years, Jessica would also be ready for induction. John, honored by the offer of assistance and proud to see the possibility for his only daughter to advance to service so quickly, agreed.
Jessica wasn't too sure about it, but resigned herself to that fate.
Three years later, an agent from the Resistance came into her family's apartment while her father was at work. Though armed, he was not threatening, and while she found it unusually hard to read him, she knew that what he had to say was important. The man introduced himself as "Wrench", and told her that he had been sent to warn her about the Emperor's plans for her...plans that included turning her into the first fully-offensive Seer in a detachment, using her entropic abilities as a double-threat. There were other connections that were not entirely obvious, at the time, but the plans were there, and they planned to move quickly--perhaps even before the year was over. A folder was produced, providing some evidence of the plans...enough to convince Jessica that her feelings of unease may not have simply been nerves or grief. Wrench then gave her a choice: she could stay where she was, and try to decide her fate on her own, or she could join the Resistance and come under their protection--and that of whoever it was that shielded them. She chose to act on her own and, with a single nod, he left.
A year later, she told her father she was not going to enter the Seer Network. A heated argument ensued; it would be the last contact John Berkeley would have with his daughter for another four years; that night, she left with only the clothes on her back, to join the Resistance.
The Resistance
Leaving everything behind had been a shock, but nothing quite as shocking as figuring out just how deep the proverbial rabbit hole went. Giselle, a member of the Carnival of Light, worked with her to try to finesse her psychic abilities, though ultimately Jessica preferred to sit quietly on them, keeping an active psi-blocker chip on at all times, and using a masking chip when she couldn't. In the meantime, an energetic Metahuman by the name of Bounce taught her how to harness the entropic field to minimize the damage she could do at a touch, making her clothes and equipment last longer. Though imperfect, she was a quick learner, but the effort also drew them closer, with Bounce becoming something like a surrogate mother figure. She was a quick study in other areas, too, though of all the forms of combat she preferred to fight with her own hands. Her natural proclivity to blend into the shadows and her attention to detail made her an excellent choice for intelligence work, and her fearless disposition lent well to her demolitions and counter-demolitions training. She was proud of her work with the Resistance, particularly her affiliation with the Wardens, who she felt had the greater chance of affecting the changes that needed to come to Praetoria without needless conflict.
Then, at 19, she met Aaron Walker. And everything changed.
The two had previously only had intermittent contact, but after her squad had been reassigned to Underground Neutropolis, they began to speak more often, becoming fairly good friends in a short amount of time. Though she thought he took some risks too many, she understood that everything he did was for the best--something entirely in line with the rest of the Resistance--only his way, only data got hurt. When Neuron eventually caught Aaron and held him on charges of aiding and abetting the Resistance, she dropped everything to save him, blinded by emotions--and jumping readily into the trap. Aaron died in her arms, but his final program allowed her to escape undetected. She carried the slip of paper he held in his hand when he died, bearing a single name.
Coming to Primal Earth
Dr. Steve Sheridan was both familiar, and unlike any doctor she had met. While his association with the Longbow "terrorist group" made her wary, she could read his intentions and his methods--both of which made her more comfortable working with him. The Dark Watcher, on the other hand, was nearly unreadable, but also quite forward. When he promised the Vanguard would bring bottled water after the destruction of the Enriche factory, she waited until the first shipments arrived before she agreed. She swore that, if she were to go to Primal Earth, she would personally ensure the shipments kept coming--even if it meant running them over herself.
She got the chance to test her words more quickly than she had expected.
After the destruction of the Enriche factory, she and the notorious Calvin Scott were equally high on Praetoria's watch lists. It was ultimately decided that not only would she be safer, but her services would be better utilized in preparing Primal Earth for an invasion by Emperor Cole. With only a small bag containing a few paltry posessions and some rations, she said goodbye to the surviving friends she had made, then walked through the rift portal, to emerge in a warehouse in Talos Island.
The transition was uncomfortable, the biting cold of a New England winter a stark contrast to the near-tropical conditions she had been accustomed to in Praetoria. A Portal Corp. representative was waiting for her, as well as an official from Immigration and Vanguard. Paperwork completed and signed, she took her freshly-minted Hero license and tried to find somewhere to get out of the cold. A passing Hero requested assistance with looking into some plot devised by something called a "Rikti", and looking to do something, she agreed. On the successful completion of the mission, they invited her to join their group of Heroes, offering her a room at the dorms if she did so. This began her relationship with the Teen Phalanx, during which time she met--and eventually married--her current husband, Andrew Wendell.
While initially hesitant to stay with a group of heroes quite so young, she decided that, if nothing else, she could try to brace them for what was coming by being there to assist with training when the Emperor finally made his move. At least, that was the idea, and for a while things went...slowly, but with seeming progression in that regard. Her hopes grew with every new Praetorian refugee the group took on (even Loyalists were welcome; as far as she was concerned, once they escaped, they were all on the same team and history didn't matter), and she was able to arrange a few small sorties into Praetoria to try to destabilize the Praetors enough to disrupt their plans.
Then, when the Emperor did finally make his move, she discovered how woefully unprepared they were to face the threat...and how woefully unprepared and incapable she was of training them alone. How many other Heroes in the group were probably better placed to deal with both the threat and the training, who had already heard everything she had to offer. What was worse, her mutation was shifting again. She watched carefully, becoming more guarded and isolated lest it grow beyond her control.
When that settled, she decided it was too much of a risk to continue with the Teen Phalanx. Some quiet networking with affiliates of the Teen Phalanx revealed a group that she believed was more than suited to both continuing her mission and giving her a safe place to "channel her abilities." After settling affairs with the Teen Phalanx, she moved on to join High Risk, Incorporated, serving as their Communications Officer.
Collateral Damage, Underground Again, Hyperion Force
A desk job was hardly exciting, but it gave her something to do, particularly while the heat was on for many Praetorians in the city. When the Department of Homeland Security began asking Hero groups for the names of their Praetorian members, HRI refused in the interest of protecting their refugee associates. As a result, the group was forcibly shut down, and Darksyte was without a job again--safe, but without a job. Finding work was more difficult, as she was now pregnant and unable to do anything in the field. She found desk work, then won a defamation settlement from Crey which helped to pay the bills until John was born. Never being overly spendy, she budgeted tightly to save everything she could in the event of another blow to their fortunes. While on maternity leave, she focused more on her art, and began to sell some pieces from her private collection. Word of mouth got her some small commercial commissions, as well--signs and the like--and she was able to leave her desk job to focus on that while taking care of her son.
Andrew, now an officer with the PPD, found himself with more and more time to take care of the baby, allowing Jessica to go back into the field and pick up on where she left off...which was depressingly more than she had hoped. More importantly, she was hearing increasingly concerning reports coming from the newest refugees from Praetoria. While she was effective on her own, she missed the organizational structure of a group and--HRI having gone dark--went browsing through City Hall's registration lists to try to find a group aligned to her goals. That, and an overheard conversation on a lunch break led her to Hyperion Force.
